ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
OpEd News

By Rob Kall

I interviewed Matthew Fox on February 13th. This is part one of a two part interview. Here’s a link to the audio podcast.

Thanks to Don Caldarazzo for doing the transcript.

I met Matthew Fox about nine years ago when we were both speakers at the first Mythic Journeys conference an amazing event bringing together writers, mythologists, psychologists, poets. At the time, I was running the Storycon Conference on the art science and application of story, which I’d founded two years earlier, and which ran for six years.

Matthew Fox was first stopped from teaching Liberation Theology by Cardinal Ratzinger, then defrocked. He has since lived an extraordinary life. But he also brings a unique point of view on Pope Benedict, the next pope the college of cardinals will choose and today’s Catholic Church.

Rob Kall: And welcome to the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show, WNJC 1360 AM out of Washington Township, New Jersey, reaching metro Philly and South Jersey. My guest tonight is Matthew Fox. Now, Matthew Fox has an interesting story, and I’m going to ask him to tell us a little bit about it. I invited you on, Matthew, and welcome to the show.

Matthew Fox: Thank you. Good to be here.

Rob Kall: I invited you on because you know a lot about the Pope, Ratzinger, from a different perspective than many. Can you explain that?

Matthew Fox: Yes. First of all, I wrote a major book on him a year ago, and I’ve been translating the German and Italian, called The Popes War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church, and How It Can Be Saved. I was involved for twelve years in a battle with Ratzinger, and you have to understand: he has pursued and hounded Theologians for the last thirty-some years. I was just one of a hundred and five [105] that he silenced and expelled or hounded in some way. In fact, I list the 105 (they’re from all over the world) in my book, at the end.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

MARIE O’HALLORAN and MICHAEL O’REGAN

Survivors of the Magdalene laundries want a compensation system that is simple, effective, non-adversarial, non litigious and compassionate, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has told the Dáil.

He said the women were very strong about not wanting a repetition of the adversarial redress board system that operated for victims of child clerical sex abuse.

And he said the Government could consider the issue of the Summer Hill home in Wexford in due course.

Mr Kenny also told Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams the Minister for Justice was looking at the question of the Bethany Homes. They were not laundries but dealt with health and welfare in respect of young women and their children.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

The Taoiseach has said the Government will consider including the women who worked at Summerhill in Co Wexford under a new redress scheme for the women of the Magdalene laundries.

Summerhill was designated as a training centre and was not included in the report into the Magdalene laundries carried out by former Senator Martin McAleese.

Enda Kenny said the Government wanted to ensure that the compensation scheme was administered in the simplest, and most effective way possible.

And he said the Cabinet would consider including Summerhill in Wexford under the scheme.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

IRISH TIMES REPORTERS

The Government is to consider extending the scope of the Magdalene redress scheme to include former residents of Bethany House.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil today that Minister for Justice Alan Shatter was “looking at the question” of payments for survivors of the Protestant-run home for unmarried mothers.

“Not being adversarial, not being a gravy train for those who might assume so from a legalistic point of view — that’s a very strong wish and a very strong desire expressed by the women who were in the Magdalene laundries, and that’s what we want to try to achieve here,” Mr Kenny said.

Survivors can register with the Department of Justice from today to ensure they are included in the compensation scheme. People can contact the department at 01- 476 8649 . They can also write to:

Magdalen Laundry Fund
c/o Department of Justice and Equality
Montague Court
Montague Street
Dublin 2
info@idcmagdalen.ie

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

20 February 2013

It is good that Enda Kenny has made a full apology to the victims of the Magdalene Laundries, as well as financial compensation, and it is good that he took his time to do so and wasn’t rushed into it by angry pundits. The reality is that such an apology can have legal implications for the Government and we would not be happy as citizens, and taxpayers, if the Taoiseach had given some blind apology last week that left the State wide open to all sorts of compensation and liability.

Let us have some perspective here. These were mainly religious, not state, institutions, and yet it is our broke State that has to pick up the tab – yet again. Only a quarter of the laundry survivors were in state care. Most of the laundry survivors were there for less than a year, and the McAleese report found no evidence of sexual or physical abuse. Financial compensation has yet to be decided, but some have been calling for payments of up to €100,000, at which rate the bill could run into hundreds of millions.

Of course there was hardship, but this was the atmosphere of the time, as the Taoiseach himself said. And it is simply ahistorical to condemn the standards of another time by the much improved standards of the present. We may as well condemn the families who put these people into these institutions. Or indeed the families who didn’t – and whose children suffered more so as a consequence.

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Christian Post

By Michael Gryboski , Christian Post Reporter

February 20, 2013

A rumor swirling around online claims that Pope Benedict XVI is stepping down because of legal action being taken against him over his alleged involvement in the Roman Catholic Church’s priest sex abuse scandal.

Addicting Info, a left-wing website devoted to debunking right-wing ideas, posted a story last Thursday claiming that there was an arrest warrant from an unknown European country.

“…the Pope, whose given name is Joseph Ratzinger, has a meeting with the Italian President, Giorgio Napolitano on February 23 to beg for immunity against prosecution for allegations of child sex crimes,” wrote Shannon Barber of Addicting Info.

“Apparently, this hastily arranged meeting, and likely the resignation as well, are the result of a supposed note received by the Vatican from an undisclosed European government that stated that there are plans to issue a warrant for the Pope’s arrest.” …

According to a Reuters story posted Sunday on The Huffington Post, the Pope is presently not named in any court case pertaining to the international sex abuse scandal. Further, in the past the Pope was named as a defendant in cases.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

By Jessica Elgot Posted: 20/02/2013

The Cardinal heralded as the man who could be the first black Pope has said sex abuse could not happen in Africa, on the same scale as Europe, because of tough anti-homosexuality laws.

Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson caused outrage among former victims of sexual abuse by priests for linking progressive attitudes to homosexuality and child abuse.

Survivors of abuse by priests say they “fear for the safety of kids in Turkson’s diocese if he denies there are predatory priests there”.

Cardinal Turkson is currently the second favourite to be the next pontiff, and had been championed by progressives who have urged the Vatican to elect the first African pope.

Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan is currently favourite to succeed Benedict XVI.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Feb. 20, 2013

Rome —
John Allen is offering a profile each day of one of the most frequently touted papabili, or men who could be pope. The old saying in Rome is that he who enters a conclave as pope exits as a cardinal, meaning there’s no guarantee one of these men actually will be chosen. They are, however, the leading names drawing buzz in Rome these days, ensuring they will be in the spotlight as the conclave draws near. The profiles of these men also suggest the issues and the qualities other cardinals see as desirable heading into the election.

As veteran Vatican writer Andrea Tornielli reminds readers today in La Stampa, one way to judge how serious a papal candidate may be is by how much whispering, rumor and character assassination that person generates. By that standard alone, one probably ought to take Cardinal Marc Ouellet seriously indeed.

The 68-year-old Ouellet, a native of Quebec who currently heads the Vatican’s all-important Congregation for Bishops, has long been considered a formidable contender to take over the church’s top job. He’s got the brains, the languages and the life experience to satisfy the conventional wisdom about what it takes to be pope.

As recent days have shown, he’s also got the baggage any public figure accumulates over a long and controversial career.

Profiles in the Canadian press have been mixed — Toronto’s Globe and Mail on Saturday was typical, asking, “Can the Cardinal who couldn’t save his Quebec church save the Vatican?”

The gist was that Ouellet’s tenure as archbishop of Quebec from 2002 to 2010 was rocky, and there’s little indication he turned around the steep decline in faith and practice in Francophone Canada. (One profile pointed out that even some of his siblings are no longer practicing.)

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UNITED STATES
Digital Journal

[UN report]

By Greta McClain
Feb 20, 2013

The United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) issued a scathing report, accusing the United States of failing to properly deal with “sexual abuse committed by clerics and leading members of certain faith-based organizations.”

Although the report was issued by UNCRC on January 25th of this year, it has received very little attention.

The report is based on a five year review of protocols used by various United States federal, state and local government agencies. It looks at a variety of issues, including investigations into reports of sexual assault by members of the clergy, particularly those involving the Roman Catholic Church. The UN report also looked at evidence provided by the British National Secular Society (NSS), a non-profit organization that promotes a separation of religion and state and believes in religious freedom and human rights for people of all faiths.

The UNCRC report notes there has been a “lack of progress” by U.S. law enforcement agencies to centralize data involving the sale of children, child prostitution and pornography, as well as a lack of research and evidence-based policy and program analysis about the root cause of such crimes. It also praises the U.S. for new initiatives and laws such as the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008, which is aimed at increasing resources for regional computer forensic labs and increasing the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute child predators.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 20, 2013

A former Catholic youth minister has made some startling admissions in a long investigative television news report. He’s Matthew Feeney who worked at the Church of St. Joseph’s in St. Cloud before running a talent agency and being charged with child sex crimes.

It is hard to take the word of a child predator at face value when he claims that he suddenly stopped abusing kids. We don’t believe that Feeney magically stopped violating boys in the early 90’s, and we think it’s dangerous for police and prosecutors to believe him as well.

We are grateful to the advocate who recorded Feeney admitting that his actions since he was convicted of abusing kids in 1992. It is clear that Feeney is a danger to children, and for the sake of kids, we hope that this admission will push law enforcement officials to aggressively reach out to potential victims and witnesses in every area where Feeney has been.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

WHAT:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will:
–Disclose a new lawsuit being filed against an accused predator priest, the Vatican, two Louisiana dioceses and two bishops,
–Urge victims, witnesses, and whistleblowers to call police, and
–Beg Louisiana Catholic officials to “aggressively seek out” other victims.

WHEN:
Wednesday, February 20 at 2:00 pm

WHERE:
Outside the chancery (aka archdiocesan headquarters) 7887 Walmsley Ave (corner of Fern) in New Orleans

WHO:
The victim’s attorney and a clergy sex abuse who is the outreach director for the international support group SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHY:
A clergy sex abuse lawsuit is being filed against a Catholic priest who attended a New Orleans seminary and mostly worked in the Lake Charles diocese. The alleged victim was abused between 1985-88 at Our Lady Queen of Heaven parish in Lake Charles and in 1992 at St. Eugene’s parish in Grand Chenier.

The New Orleans archdiocese and the Lake Charles diocese (along with the prelates who head each of them), and the Vatican are named as defendants in the 40 page civil suit filed in US district court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The priest, Fr. Mark A. Broussard, was arrested last April by the Calcasieu Parish sheriff’s office. He was indicted on two counts of aggravated sexual battery, two counts of oral sexual battery, two counts of aggravated rape, and one count of sexual battery. He is charged and indicted in both Calcacieu and Cameron parishes. (St. Eugene is in Cameron Parish.)

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UNITED KINGDOM
Ekklesia

Cardinal Peter Turkson may have badly damaged his prospects of becoming pope by suggesting that child sexual abuse is not a major problem in churches in Africa because homosexuality is looked on negatively. The remark is not only offensive but also reveals a dangerous ignorance that may undermine attempts to protect children.

Since Pope Benedict XVI, now frail and in poor health, announced his resignation, there has been much media speculation about who would become the next pope. Peter Turkson, who comes from Ghana, has been widely named as a possible candidate. But his remarks during an interview with Christiane Amanpour of CNN may have lessened his chances.

When she asked about the possibility of the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal spreading to Africa, he said it would unlikely to be in the same proportion as it has in Europe. “African traditional systems kind of protect or have protected its population against this tendency,” he claimed. “Because in several communities, in several cultures in Africa homosexuality or for that matter any affair between two sexes of the same kind are not countenanced in our society.”

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VATICAN CITY
Worldcrunch

Vatican Reporter Reveals Exclusive Details On Benedict XVI’s Failing Health

Signs of decline began to appear two years ago, leading the Pope’s doctor to insist on limited air travel. Portrait of an old and weak man, who may have had little choice but resignation.

By Marco Tosatti
LA STAMPA/Worldcrunch

VATICAN CITY- There’s a lot of talk of intrigue and scandals since Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation. Anything is possible, of course. But in the last few days I’ve looked back on the information I’d collected over the last few months and years on the state of the Pope’s health, gathered from those who are close to him. I had vowed to keep all the details confidential, to not reveal anything while Benedict still held his position.

His resignation announcement has freed me of these promises, and in examining my notes, a portrait appears of a man with a progressive deterioration of health and energy; a state that fully justifies the difficult decision that Benedict has taken.

A note from two years ago reads:

“The pope isn’t able to sleep at night and he refuses to take any sedatives. Because of this, he often appears tired. And those who love him insist that in the afternoons, no appointments or meetings can be organized before 5 pm, so that he is able to rest a little, especially during trips.

But, his appointments pile up quickly after lunch, at 3:30 and so on. His personal physician, Dr. Patrizio Polisca says that he can go on, if he keeps calm and manages it well, especially if he keeps his blood pressure under control. The blood pressure, at the moment, is the main problem because it was having strong fluctuations. Dr. Polisca said most of all be careful of the airplanes. He insists that he spends as little time as possible on planes, because that’s where the risks come from.”

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, February 20 – A senior Vatican figure said on Wednesday that Pope Benedict XVI has the power to change rules followed for the selection of his successor, and explained why the conclave of cardinals is likely to commence mid-March, but could begin days earlier. ”The Holy Father is the only one who can intervene in the legislation regarding the conclave,” said Ambrogio Piazzoni, deputy prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library, in a briefing at the Vatican press room on the history of Vatican conclaves. ”If Pope Benedict (XVI) were to decide on new rules at 19:59 on February 28, those would be the ones to be followed for the new conclave,” Piazzoni explained.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

Pope Benedict is considering changes to Catholic Church rules which may speed up the process to select his successor, the Vatican says.

A spokesman said the Pope may issue a decree in the next few days regarding the conclave, the gathering of cardinals to choose the next pontiff.

Pope Benedict announced last week that he would resign on 28 February.

Under current rules the conclave should not start before 15 March, but there has been pressure to bring it forward.

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UNITED STATES
Tuscaloosa News

The Associated Press

Published: Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Popular pressure is mounting in the U.S. and Italy to keep California Cardinal Roger Mahony away from the conclave to elect the next pope because of his role shielding sexually abusive priests.

Amid the movement, a Vatican historian says there is no precedent for a cardinal staying home from a conclave because of personal scandal. Conclaves always bring out the worst in cardinals’ dirty laundry and this time is no different – except that the revelations of Mahony’s sins are so fresh and ordinary Catholics seem to want to have a greater say in who is fit to choose the next pope.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Benedict XVI is to issue a document motu proprio allowing cardinals to start the election process before the fifteen day waiting period stipulated by Vatican law, if they wish to

ANDREA TORNIELLI
Vatican City

Benedict XVI’s final act as Pope will be to publish a brief motu proprio allowing cardinals to bring the date of the Conclave forward. This will be the second modification Ratzinger will be making to his predecessor’s Constitution Universi Dominici gregis.

In recent days, some of the cardinals said they wished to bring the date of the Conclave forward. The Constitution states the Conclave should take place between fifteen to twenty days after the papacy become vacant due to the death or resignation of a Pope: “I furthermore decree that, from the moment when the Apostolic See is lawfully vacant, the Cardinal electors who are present must wait fifteen full days for those who are absent; the College of Cardinals is also granted the faculty to defer, for serious reasons, the beginning of the election for a few days more. But when a maximum of twenty days have elapsed from the beginning of the vacancy of the See, all the Cardinal electors present are obliged to proceed to the election,” Wojtyla’s Universi Dominici gregis reads.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[UN report]

Posted by Barbara Blaine on February 20, 2013

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child is chiding the U.S. for “failing to fully pursue cases of child sex abuse in religious groups,” according to news accounts.

The committee is right. In a number of western democracies (such as Ireland and Australia), courageous political leaders have launched governmental investigation into heinous clergy sex crimes and cover-ups on a regional or national scale. But little if anything of comparable significance has happened in the US.

There hasn’t been a single legislative hearing – at the state or national level – into this horrific and on-going scandal, much less any real meaningful legislative reform. (The exceptions are California, Delaware and Hawaii where civil “windows” have been adopted, giving more victims a chance to expose more child molesting clerics and complicit church officials in court).

Simply put, there has been – and still is – a far too cozy relationship in the U.S. between some governmental and law enforcement officials and some church figures.

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UNITED STATES
Minnesota SNAP

By Vinnie Nauheimer

Suppose you had a guaranteed lifetime job, long flowing red robes, more bling than you could wear, servants, secretaries (handsome ones at that), hundreds of millions of people believing that you are the spiritual descendants of the apostles and were an intermediary between them and God! Would you give that up to become more Christ like? Not a chance! Therein lies the cardinal lack of motivation to elect anyone other than a clone to fill Benedict’s Prada shoes.

Baptized in the River of Denial, delusional, self-absorbed, uttering snippets to the press about the pressing issues of the poor and third world countries, the cardinals gather, feast sumptuously and strategize about who will be the next Vicar of Christ on Earth and what they will wear for the new pope’s, if not their own, inauguration. It’s the Vatican’s version of America’s Red Carpet Club. Yet, these same men, the cardinals, are the first to condemn the evils of materialism while totally oblivious to the fact that they are the polar opposites of their founder.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 20 February 2013 (VIS) – The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., responding to journalists’ questions, commented that the Holy Father is considering the publication of a Motu Proprio in the coming days, obviously before the beginning of the Sede Vacante, to clarify a few particular points regarding the Apostolic Constitution on the conclave that have arisen over the last years.

“I don’t know if he will deem it necessary or appropriate,” he added, “to elucidate the question of the opening date of the conclave. We will have to see if and when a document is published. It seems to me, for example, the clarification of some details in order to be in complete agreement with another document regarding the conclave, that is, the Ordo Rituum Conclavis. In any case, the question depends on the Pope’s judgement and if this document comes about it will be made known through the proper channels.”

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NEDERLAND
KLOKK

De controverse rond kardinaal Roger Mahony en zijn deelname aan het conclaaf in maart 2013 in Rome, waar een nieuwe paus moet verkozen worden, bereikte eindelijk het Vaticaan. Minstens één kardinaal heeft al het standpunt ingenomen dat Mahony beter zou thuisblijven.

Mahony, die van 1985 tot 2011 aan het hoofd stond van het grootste aartsbisdom in de US, werd ervan beschuldigd seksueel misbruik gepleegd door priesters systematisch te verhullen, en werd recent opzij gezet door de huidige Aartsbisschop Jose Gomez.

Gomez kondigde aan dat Mahony niet langer “administratieve of publieke taken” mocht vervullen, nadat een rechtbank besloten had om 14.000 pagina’s interne kerkdocumenten vrij te geven waaruit duidelijk was af te leiden dat Mahony en anderen actief geprobeerd hebben priesters voor vervolging te beschutten.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Feb. 20, 2013

ROME – Bishop Charles Scicluna of Malta served for ten years as the Vatican’s top prosecutor on child sex abuse cases, and is today seen as a global leader for a “zero tolerance” stance. In an interview today in the Italian paper La Repubblica, Scicluna commented on the furor surrounding Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and his looming participation in the papal election, saying that Mahony made mistakes and will have to “decide in conscience” whether to take part.

Scicluna also commented on the case of the late Mexican Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, asserting that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was the lone official of the Roman Curia who kept his distance from Maciel as the facts of his misconduct became known in 2004.

An NCR translation of the interview appears below. It was conducted by Paolo Rodari, the Vatican writer for La Repubblica.

Monsignor Scicluna, who is Mahony?

A very humble cardinal who wasn’t successful in stemming the cases of pedophilia in his diocese in a way that would have been correct.

Did you ever meet him?

Several times, in private meetings in my office, both in the years when Joseph Ratzinger was prefect and with William Joseph Levada. He came to ask help and advice about how he should act.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A Catholic priest laicised by the Vatican after a child abuse case says he suspects the church paid the alleged victim in return for evidence against him.

John Gerard Nestor was a priest in the Wollongong Diocese in NSW when he was charged with the indecent assault of a 15-year-old altar boy in 1991.

He was convicted and sentenced to 16 months in jail in Wollongong Local Court on February 18, 1997.

But in October of that year, he won an appeal against the conviction, serving no time behind bars.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Jamie Manson | Feb. 19, 2013

With all due to respect to John Allen’s “papabile profile” of Ghanian Cardinal Peter Turkson, those who have commented on his piece are right to raise the concern that Allen does not highlight Turkson’s disturbing beliefs about homosexuality.

Last year, the National Catholic Register reported on Turkson’s response to a speech that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s offered to 54 African nations at the African Union Summit. Ki-moon asked government leaders to honor the U.N.’s Universal Declaration by protecting women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination and by decriminalizing gays and lesbians.

According to the National Catholic Register:

Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said some of the sanctions imposed on homosexuals in Africa are an “exaggeration,” but argued that the “intensity of the reaction is probably commensurate with tradition.”

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Leaders can show real empathy, especially in front of cameras. Ireland’s Prime Minister seemed genuinely sad today about the young women and children abused in prison laundries run mainly by nuns. Pope Benedict seemed similarly sad in his brief meetings with a few survivors of priest child sexual abuse. President Obama also seemed sad for the children raped at Penn State. But sad sighs are not enough for leaders. They must be linked to effective and adequate efforts (1) to obtain justice for innocent victims, (2) to assure the accountability of wrongdoers, including aiders and abettors, and (3) to minimize recurrences. Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard skipped the sighs and just went straight to an exemplary fully funded and staffed national royal commission.

On that score, PM Gillard gets an A+, PM Kenny passes so far, the Pope fails and, at best, the jury may still be out on the President. As noted today by SNAP Wisconsin’s usually well informed Peter Isely, the much respected UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, the leading voice internationally for protecting children, has indicated that President Obama’s Justice Department (DOJ) and the U.S. Congress recently got poor grades on protecting children from sexual abuse in religious settings, especially in the U.S. Catholic Church. SNAP also reported that its efforts to get the DOJ to act goes back a decade. Very disappointing and disturbing, to say the least.

If no one is held to account, the violation of children will just continue. Tens of thousands of innocent children have been raped in religious organizations in the USA alone. Vatican conference experts last year estimated that over 100,000 children so far have been abused by Catholic priests in the USA alone. Where have our political and religious leaders been? Where are they now? No U.S. Cardinal or Bishop has been locked up to date for child endangerment. Will that ever change, Mr. President?

In the midst of a close Italian election campaign ending this weekend, the Pope suddenly announced his resignation that apparently had been in the works for several months at least. The Pope also plans to meet after the election, but before his resignation is finalized, with a senior Italian governmental official. Italian media have recently focused more on the Pope’s resignation than on the Italian elections. Knowledgable observers have indicated this has already given the Pope’s favored candidate, Prime Minister Monti, a needed boost. Just a coincidence? We should know better within ten days whether a carefully timed papal immunity deal is under consideration. …

We all have a moral obligation to protect children and signing a petition is a simple, yet potentially effective, way towards meeting that obligation. Please take a minute and sign it at:

[Click here for the petition.]

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CONNECTICUT
The New York Times

By N. R. KLEINFIELD

Published: February 19, 2013

From the time he joined the priesthood three decades ago, he seemed destined to become a star. As a confidant to two bishops and then as the erudite and clubbable pastor of two churches, Msgr. Kevin Wallin was a towering figure in the Roman Catholic Church in southwestern Connecticut.

Parishioners felt buoyed by his homilies. They hungrily signed up for his far-flung spiritual pilgrimages, flocked to church fund-raisers to catch his melodious voice interpreting show tunes. He attended opera with a man who would become a cardinal and he himself appeared bound for a bishop’s miter.

But then about two years ago troubling questions began to be whispered. He acted odd. He was thinner. He walked stooped over. He was absent. Was he sick? Or dying? And then the spicy talk about suspicious men trooping in and out of the rectory.

Finally, last month’s revelation. The priest was locked up, charged with dealing crystal methamphetamine.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
Herald News

By Brian Fraga
Herald News Staff Reporter

The speculation in Rome this week has Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the current archbishop of Boston and former bishop of the Diocese of Fall River, as a possible leading candidate to be the next pope.

O’Malley’s profile as a reformer on clergy sex abuse and his reputation as a humble Franciscan Friar uninterested in the Vatican’s political intrigues appear to be generating conversations that he could be an ideal replacement for Pope Benedict XVI, who will retire Feb. 28, veteran Vatican journalist John L. Allen Jr. wrote Tuesday in the National Catholic Reporter.

At least six Italian newspapers have recently mentioned O’Malley’s name in handicapping the field of potential new popes. The Italian Journalistic Agency credited O’Malley with “restoring credibility to the church” after the “escape” to Rome by his disgraced predecessor in Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law.

O’Malley, 68, who headed the Fall River Diocese from 1992 to 2002, has brushed off speculation that he could be a “papabile” — Italian for men who could be pope — and added that he was not interested in the papacy during a press conference last week in Boston.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

By
Matt Stout / Boston Herald

Vatican watchers buzzing over next month’s expected papal conclave say Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley’s name could emerge after the church’s famed white smoke clears, a long-considered pontiff impossibility experts now believe could be reality as concerns over an American pope subside and the Hub archbishop’s star rises.

The chatter about O’Malley kicked into widespread debate yesterday after John L. Allen Jr., a highly respected Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, wrote in a blog post that the cardinal’s name has been making the rounds in the Italian press, both in praise of his handling of the clergy sex-abuse scandal and his growing profile as a “prominent” non-European papal contender.

It’s made the notion of an American pope — long considered implausible given the country’s superpower status — now “thinkable,” said Allen, who pointed to Pope Benedict XVI’s Feb. 28 send-off as the real test of traction when gathering cardinals begin hashing out their favorites.

“For every major crisis that seems to pop up as a front-burner issue, Cardinal Sean brings some real gifts,” said Ernest Collamati, chairman of philosophy and religious studies at Regis College. …

O’Malley’s work amid the clergy sex abuse scandal is perhaps his biggest draw, after he addressed crises in Fall River, Palm Beach, Fla., and Boston, where many lauded him in the wake of Cardinal Bernard Law’s mishandling of abuse claims. O’Malley then gained further renown on the international stage when he was tabbed to address the scandal’s explosion in Ireland.

“If one wanted to make a statement in regards to sexual abuse, he would be the ideal candidate,” said Francis Fiorenza, chairman of Catholic theological studies at Harvard University.

But O’Malley’s work also hasn’t come without criticism, including from victims advocate, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which chastised the Hub prelate for what they called the slow and “incomplete” release of names of accused priests.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

The following is an edited version of Enda Kenny’s speech in the Dáil last night.

The Magdalene laundries have cast a long shadow over Irish life . . . over our sense of who we are.

It’s just two weeks since we received this report, the first-ever detailed report into the State’s involvement in the Magdalene laundries.

It shines a bright and necessary light . . . on a dark chapter of Ireland’s history.

The Government was adamant that these ageing and elderly women would get the compassion and the recognition that, until now, has been so abjectly denied.

I was determined the Dáil would take the necessary time to reflect on its findings. I believe that was the best way to formulate a strategy…. that would help us make amends for the State’s role in the hurt of these extraordinary women.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

The president of the Law Reform Commission, Mr Justice John Quirke, will make recommendations within three months on supports the State can offer women who were in the Magdalene laundries and in the training centre on Dublin’s Stanhope Street, the Taoiseach has announced.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said last night that when it came to funding such assistance for the women, there was a role “for the religious orders which ran these laundries, to make a fair contribution, along with the taxpayer”.

He said: “These laundries were private businesses, run by those orders, which benefited from the unpaid labour of the women committed to them. The past does not belong to the State alone.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Harry McGee

Analysis Enda Kenny’s Dáil speech on the Magdalene laundries report lasted over 15 minutes last night but much of the focus was on a passage that lasted a little over 40 seconds and the extraordinary final moments when the Taoiseach, choked with emotion, found it difficult to complete the sentence.

After failing so abysmally a fortnight ago with an apology that was received as mealy-mouthed and qualified, there was a political imperative for Kenny to deliver a much fuller apology to the women who spent time in those bleak, loveless institutions while at the same time ensuring he was not paving the way for another so-called lawyerfest.

And that he did with a speech so different in tone and sentiment from two weeks ago it was hard to fathom it had come from the same person.

It included that 40-second passage where a full State and Government apology was issued.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

‘I, as Taoiseach, on behalf of the State, the Government and our citizens, deeply regret and apologise unreservedly to all those women for the hurt that was done to them’

Miriam Lord

The Dáil was charged with strong emotion as Kenny made his apology

It was dark when the Magdalene women left Leinster House. They joined hands and formed a line across the width of the granite plinth.

“Come into the light!” shouted the photographers.

And these elderly women began to walk, and as they walked towards that light they quickened their pace and some began to cheer. All smiling – but through tears, for some.

“See ya, ladies. Night, night. Safe home now,” shouted a friendly young policeman.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

MARIE O’HALLORAN and MICHAEL O’REGAN

Women who spent time in the residential laundry in Stanhope Street in Dublin will now be included in the fund established by the Government to assist the Magdalene women.

All survivors in the included laundries can contact the Department of Justice from today to register their interest in being considered for benefits or supports from the fund, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said.

“We are determined that the money in question will be solely for the benefit of the women, not for the legal profession or others.”

An initial €250,000 from the fund will be given to the Step by Step Centre for Irish Survivors of Industrial Schools and Laundries to be established in Britain. During the Dáil debate in which Taoiseach Enda Kenny, in an emotional address, apologised to the women who spent time in the laundries, the Minister outlined how the fund would operate.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

The emotional apology offered by Taoiseach Enda Kenny to women who experienced a “rigid and uncompromising regime of physically demanding work and prayer” within Magdalene laundries went far beyond what was expected. The decision to include all women in a compensation scheme was generous and compassionate. But it was an acknowledgment that so-called penitents were not to blame for their situation and that the core moral failing lay with the State that represented the most important advance.

Two weeks ago Mr Kenny was sharply criticised – even by those who had specifically excluded Magdalenes from access to previous redress schemes – for not offering a State apology. Yesterday, he made amends. So did Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin who apologised, in turn, for not acting on their behalf while in government.

In his meetings with groups of Magdalene women, the Taoiseach gained personal knowledge of just how dreadful their experiences had been. That was reflected in an impressive Dáil speech. He made no attempt to justify the “terrible and inflexible times” that existed in the “cruel and pitiless Ireland of moral subservience” that existed during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. But he promised that surviving women would be treated in a compassionate and non-adversarial way. Recommendations on a redress scheme will be made by Judge John Quirke within three months.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

[with audio]

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The Magdalene survivors had shed these tears many times before, but this time they were not alone — a nation, and a Taoiseach, was weeping with them.

By Shaun Connolly, Political Correspondent

One elderly survivor, shaking with emotion in the Dáil’s public gallery, gripped the hand of the woman next to her as the State’s apology finally came, and the pair sobbed openly with many others as a pulse of relief surged through the chamber.

Once isolated in fear, the survivors were now united in vindication.

The applause that began on the floor for Enda Kenny’s speech soon spiralled out into something far more profound, as the Dáil stood in ovation and acknowledged the hardship and pain inflicted upon generations of women.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Grainne Cunningham– 20 February 2013

JANE and Ellen, 45 years each. Margaret G, 46 years. Mary K, 51 years. Agnes, 66 years.

The list read aloud outside the Dail sounded like a record of prison sentences.

In many ways it was, as Justice for the Magdalenes remembered the women who never left the laundries.

While inside Government buildings, some of the group awaited Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s words, outside among the candles, eyes filled with tears as the names of those who died in the laundries were read aloud.

Except there was not enough time to call out the names of all 1,150 women who entered those high-walled places of hard work and never left, so a few of those who toiled there the longest were called out.

Some, like Margaret G are still there, buried within the confines of Sunday’s Well. Others like Agnes were moved from Hyde Park to Glasnevin Cemetery “to make way for a property development”.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

20 February 2013

A compensation scheme is to be set up to make payments to them based on their unpaid work in the Magdalene Laundries.

The size of the payments will be determined by the recommendations made by Judge John Quirke, the president of the Law Reform Commission.

He will have to examine what to do in the cases of women who have already got compensation being transferred from an industrial school to a Magdalene Laundry.

He will have to give advice on other state supports required by the Magdalene women, such as medical cards, mental health services and counselling services.

And he will also have to come up with a method of ensuring the compensation payments to British and Irish-based Magdalene survivors do not affect their social welfare payments.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

[with audio]

It follows the historic and emotional apologydelivered by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the Dáil last night.

Mr Kenny announced the redress scheme last night as part of the State apology to the Magdalene women.

Mr Justice John Quirke has been appointed by the Government to structure the scheme. He has been given three months to submit a report on how to proceed

Justice Minister Alan Shatter said the Government was determined to ensure the fund would not be used to pay lawyers’ fees, with monies going solely to benefit the women.

He also acknowledged that there were many women who would never hear the apology, nor have access to payments.

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IRELAND
Herald

Claire Murphy– 20 February 2013

THE Department of Justice opens its doors today to the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries to apply for State compensation.

The 800 to 1,000 women are invited to register their details for the so-called ‘ex-gracia’ payment for their enforced time in the workhouses.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has admitted that the State had wronged the residents and payments will be made for their years of unpaid work up until as late as the 1990s.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Michael Brennan Deputy Political Editor– 20 February 2013

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny has pledged that the compensation fund for Magdalene Laundry survivors will not be a “gravy train” for lawyers.

He said that the Magdalene survivors he had spoken to had specifically asked for a process that was “non-legalistic” and “non-adversarial”.

He said he believed it would be possible to deal with the issue compassionately and sensitively.

Previously, a redress board was set up to take evidence from survivors of physical and sexual abuse in industrial schools. The ultimate cost was €1.3bn, with survivors having to reveal what had happened to them in behind-closed- doors sessions, and lawyers getting a substantial share of the proceeds in legal fees.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Welt

Aus den vollmundigen Versprechen des Runden Tisches ist bislang nichts geworden. Die Betroffenen sind empört Von Miriam Hollstein

Seit Monaten streiten Bund und Länder um die Umsetzung des 100-Millionen-Hilfsfonds

Es gibt Tage, da muss sich Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig wie der tragische griechische Held Sisyphos persönlich vorkommen. Tage, an denen der Stein, den der Unabhängige Beauftragte für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs seit gut einem Jahr den politischen Berg hinaufrollt, krachend wieder herunterfällt. Dieser Mittwoch dürfte wieder einmal so ein Tag werden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Focus

Gegen die Teilnahme eines umstrittenen US-Kardinals an der Wahl des nächsten Papstes regt sich in den USA Widerstand. Der frühere Erzbischof von Los Angeles, Kardinal Roger Mahony, soll versucht haben, sexuellen Missbrauch zu vertuschen und beschuldigte Geistliche zu schützen.

Die Organisation „Catholics United“ fordert von Mahony nun in einer Petition, nicht zum Konklave zur Wahl des Nachfolgers von Benedikt XVI. nach Rom zu fahren. Auch mehrere US-Medien äußerten sich kritisch.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

Von Annette Langer

Systematisch soll Kardinal Roger Michael Mahony sexuellen Missbrauch in seiner Diözese verheimlicht haben. Dennoch darf er zum Konklave nach Rom fahren und einen neuen Papst wählen. Ein Skandal, finden progressive Katholiken und fordern einen Reiseverzicht.

Kardinal Mahony darf dabei sein. Er ist einer der 117 Wahlberechtigten, die nach dem Rücktritt von Benedikt XVI. einen neuen Papst wählen dürfen. Er freue sich schon sehr auf das Konklave im März, ließ der emeritierte Erzbischof wissen. Schon bei der Wahl Joseph Ratzingers im Jahr 2005 sei der Heilige Geist fast greifbar gewesen, schreibt er in seinem Blog: “Da gab es keine weltlichen Stimmen oder Einflüsse. Es war unglaublich.”

Doch mit den profanen Stimmen ist das so eine Sache. Man hat sie nicht im Griff. Und sie erheben sich gerade unüberhörbar.

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SPRINGFIELD (IL)
National Catholic Register

by JOAN FRAWLEY DESMOND
02/18/20

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — After Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would resign, a debate quickly ensued about the proper terminology for describing the Pope’s stunning decision: Had he “abdicated,” resigned or “renounced” his office? And what would he be called after he took up his new life of prayer and study?

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., a canon lawyer, has entered the discussion, offering the fruit of his analysis regarding the proper canonical term for the Pope’s decision and the likely title and name he will use after his resignation.

Such matters are not entirely settled because of the singular nature of this landmark decision: “A Pope has not left office alive for almost 600 years,” acknowledged Bishop Paprocki in a statement that offered his “canonical reflections on terminology.”

The remarks were sent to a canon-law listserve, and the bishop subsequently agreed to allow the Register to publish his reflections.

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VATICAN CITY
The Plain Dealer

VATICAN CITY — As of 8 p.m. on Feb. 28, Pope Benedict XVI will no longer be pope and the Vatican will go into “sede vacante” mode — a Latin expression that means that the seat of St. Peter is vacant.

So who’s in charge until a new pope is chosen? The “interregnum” between two popes is governed by ancient rituals and by institutions half forgotten even within the Vatican.

But it is also the only time that the Catholic Church comes close to vaguely resembling a democracy, with the College of Cardinals acting somewhat like a Parliament with limited powers as it prepares to choose the new pontiff in a closed-doors conclave.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAPwisconsin.com

Action Alert: Important Milwaukee Archdiocese Bankruptcy Court Hearing Thursday February 21, 2:30 p.m.

WHERE: Milwaukee Federal Courthouse, 517 E. Wisconsin Avenue

An important hearing will be held in Federal Bankruptcy Court which could significantly determine the outcome of the 570 cases filed by victim/survivors. If you are able, I urge you to attend, along with family members and supporters.

I know it can be difficult to attend these hearings. For two years, lawyers from the archdiocese have done little else but attempt to disqualify, discredit and dismiss every case filed by victims. It makes a significant difference, however, if Judge Kelley sees survivors, our families, and our supporters in attendance. (There will be a sign language interpreter.) Judges and lawyers are human; they need to see the faces of those who are going to be directly affected by their seemingly abstract actions, arguments and decisions. Afterwards, I ask you to stay and join SNAP leaders for remarks to the press on the day’s activities in court and what the decisions and deliberations mean for survivors, the church, and our public mission to achieve institutional accountability, transparency and child safety.

On Thursday, to the best of my understanding, at least three key decisions will be made or at least significantly discussed:

–A motion by attorneys for victim/survivors asking the Bankruptcy Court to decide any insurance liability issues before issuing other decisions, such as claim objections. As you know, the archdiocese has spent two years trying to throw out the cases filed by survivors. Attorneys for victims will be asking the judge to decide the issue of insurance coverage before the archdiocese is allowed to continue dragging survivors through endless objections and possible depositions without having even tried to procure the necessary funding for restitution and relief at the end of this torturous and traumatic legal process.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Cardinal tipped to become first black pope in modern times blames gay priests for abuse scandals facing Catholic church

By Simon Caldwell

The African cardinal widely tipped to be the first black pope in modern history faced a firestorm of criticism last night after he laid the blame for clerical sex abuse crises at the feet of gay priests.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, who comes from Ghana, told an American journalist that similar sex scandals would never convulse churches in Africa because the culture was inimical to homosexuality.

‘African traditional systems kind of protect or have protected its population against this tendency,’ he told Christiane Amanpour of CCN.

‘Because in several communities, in several cultures in Africa homosexuality or for that matter any affair between two sexes of the same kind, are not countenanced in our society,’ he continued.

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CANADA
Mississauga

NEWMARKET — The 91-year-old former top physician in York Region defiantly denied allegations Tuesday that he sexually abused little boys decades ago, while he was a family doctor, United Church elder and Boy Scout volunteer.

“Not guilty,” Dr. Owen Slingerland said four times as allegations of indecent assault on four boys were read out in a Newmarket courtroom.

Supporting himself with a cane, Slingerland spoke in a loud but cracking voice as he denied the charges before Justice Anne Mullin in Superior Court.

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UNITED STATES
Gawker

Taylor Berman

In an interview last week with CNN, Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, considered by many to be the favorite to succeed Pope Benedict XVI (which would make him the first black Pope), created an uproar with his response to Christiane Amanpour’s question about the possibility of the Catholic Church’s sex scandal spreading to Africa. For Turkson, the issue isn’t Church-wide cover ups of the scandal or any other systematic problem; instead, Turkson thinks the abuse occurred because there were too many gay priests in Europe and North America.

“African traditional systems kind of protect or have protected its population against this tendency,” he said. “Because in several communities, in several cultures in Africa homosexuality or for that matter any affair between two sexes of the same kind are not countenanced in our society.”

Right. As CNN dutifully noted in their post about the interview: “According to the American Psychological Association, ‘homosexual men are not more likely to sexually abuse children than heterosexual men are.'”

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UNITED STATES
Press TV (Iran)

[UN report]

The United Nations has accused the United States for failing to pursue cases of child sex abuse among religious leaders and groups.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child released a report this month highlighting widespread sexual abuse committed by clerics and staff of religious institutions in America, along with a lack of measures “to properly investigate cases and prosecute them”.

“The committee is deeply concerned at information of sexual abuse committed by clerics and leading members of certain faith-based organizations and religious institutions on a massive and long-term scale,” the report said.

This comes as the American Catholic Church attempts to tackle an ongoing nationwide scandal over a pattern of covering-up allegations of sexual crimes committed by abusive priests.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

The Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle has admitted the church is “broken” and will hold a series of prayer gatherings to start afresh amid a slew of child sex abuse allegations.

In a statement on Wednesday, diocesan co-ordinator for The Year of Grace, Sister Louise Gannon, said the local community was invited to gather with Newcastle-Maitland Bishop Bill Wright “for prayers of healing and hope” at six different locations in the Hunter region during Lent.

“We recognise with the history of sexual abuse in this diocese, we have a need to pray together and ritualise our need for healing,” Sr Gannon said.

“This is a very significant and public aspect of our brokenness as a church and in the context of … the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry and the Royal Commission we would not have a prayer focused on healing without naming it as such.”

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VATICAN CITY
Malay Mail

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Location:
VATICAN CITY

US cardinal Roger Mahony “made mistakes” and failed to crack down on abuse but will probably attend the conclave to elect a new pope, the Vatican’s former anti-abuse prosecutor said on Wednesday.

“He is a very humble cardinal who did not manage to curtail paedophilia cases in his diocese as would have been right,” Charles Scicluna, who was in the prosecutor’s office between 1995 and 2012, told La Repubblica daily.

Scicluna said that before 2002, when US bishops promised zero tolerance against sexual abuse by priests as a wave of denunciations began to emerge, there were “no clear guidelines, especially on a diocesan level”.

“Everyone did what they could and unfortunately in some cases Mahony made mistakes,” said Scicluna, who is now auxiliary bishop of Malta, adding that he had met Mahony several times since the cardinal had come to him for advice.

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VATICAN CITY
CanIndia

VATICAN CITY

Activists fighting for truth and justice for victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests hold out little hope for progress under the next pope as controversy brews over a US cardinal who covered up for predator clerics.

A Catholic association has asked retired Los Angeles archbishop Roger Mahony to stay away from next month’s conclave after he was stripped of all public duties for mishandling claims against dozens of priests.

Campaigners say the disgraced cardinal’s behaviour is precisely what Pope Benedict XVI has failed to crack down on and point to other “cardinal electors” linked to abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in recent years.

“He should have the good sense to stay well away from Rome,” said Roberto Mirabile, director of the Italian anti-abuse group La Caramella Buona, whose lobbying helped convict a paedophile parish priest near Rome last year.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW, in Rome

If US Cardinal Roger Mahony is unfit to vote in next month’s conclave, what about Irish primate, Cardinal Seán Brady? In the wake of the fierce polemics surrounding Cardinal Mahony, Vatican commentators yesterday suggested that Cardinal Brady might be the next church leader to find his right to vote in conclave contested.

The US group, Catholics United, has been running a campaign calling on Cardinal Mahony not to take part in the conclave. They argue that, given that earlier this month Cardinal Mahony was relieved of all church administrative duties by his successor Archbishop José Gomez because of his mishandling of clerical sex abuse cases, then he should not travel to Rome to vote.

An online petition by Catholics United, bearing 5,000 signatures by last night, reads, “Cardinal Mahony: Stay Home”, adding: “If a cardinal is stripped of public ministry in his diocese, why should he be rewarded with being allowed to vote for the next pope?”

In 2007, the archdiocese of Los Angeles, then administered by Cardinal Mahony, reached a $660 million settlement with 500 victims.

Vatican commentators began to speculate yesterday as to just how many other cardinals might have similar problems in their past. In that context, SKY 24 TV Italia yesterday asked if Cardinal Brady might be next in line because of his 1975 involvement in an internal, canon law hearing, involving children who had been abused by paedophile, Fr Brendan Smyth.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

CONOR KANE

A former priest and school principal was jailed for two years last night for indecently assaulting a pupil over 30 years ago.

Con Desmond (77) with an address at Woodlands, Kilrush Road, Ennis, Co Clare, was convicted last month at Waterford Circuit Court of 13 charges of indecently assaulting a pupil at the St Stephen’s De La Salle National School in Waterford city. He had denied the offences, which occurred between 1977 and 1980 when the victim was aged between eight and 10.

Desmond was principal of the school and the assaults took place in his office. Judge Donagh McDonagh said: “This is an evil man who exploited one of the most innocent who was entrusted to his care.”

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UNITED STATES
SNAP Wisconsin

[UN report]

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

The United Nations leading voice on children’s rights has issued a stinging criticism of US law enforcement and US government agencies for their failure to investigate and prosecute clergy child sex offenders and bring church officials who have covered up these crimes to justice.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued their remarks in a report from Geneva saying they are “deeply concerned” about the lack of action by officials in the US concerning crimes that have taken place on a “massive and long-term scale.”

Although the Committee is concerned about crimes and cover ups taking place in other faith communities across the United States, it is the Catholic Church where the documentation and criminal evidence is overwhelming, incontrovertible and wide spread.

The Committee, of course, is right and the criticism is long overdue.

What other organization could withstand shattering headlines, year after year, in virtually every major prosecution district across the United States concerning the concealment and transfer of child sex offenders by its senior management, often crossing state and international boundaries, and it would result in no federal investigations, not a single hearing on Capitol Hill, and no denunciations from the White House? The United States, after all, even has an official ambassador to the Vatican and recognizes the Holy See as an actual government. What other foreign government has tens of thousands of institutions and employees in the United States and has been exposed for systematically concealing and harboring scores of individuals who have harmed American citizens, particularly our most vulnerable citizens, children, and has never faced prosecution, sanction, or investigation? Isn’t it time for the US ambassador to the Vatican to start advocating on behalf of American children?

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BOSTON (MA)
WBUR

Audio report (above) is WBUR reporter Deborah Becker’s full conversation with John Allen, the National Catholic Reporter’s Vatican correspondent. Text report (below) by WBUR’s Newsroom.

BOSTON — As Catholic cardinals head to Rome next week to say goodbye to Pope Benedict XVI, some Italian commentators are suggesting that Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley could be a candidate for the papacy.

Vatican reporter John Allen, with the National Catholic Reporter, says several Italian news reports mention O’Malley as a possible successor, praising his handling of the church sex abuse scandal despite criticism from victim advocates in Massachusetts.

Last week, O’Malley has made it clear that he is not interested in becoming pope, saying “it’s a very, very challenging position and it’s a very lonely position. It’s a very difficult task.”

“I haven’t lost sleep about it and I have bought a round-trip ticket, so I’m counting on coming home,” O’Malley added.

Allen reported that before now, an American was rarely considered for the position.

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UNITED STATES
NBC Chicago

New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan says Catholics could see a non-European Pope emerge this March when white smoke pours from a Vatican smokestack.

“It’s highly possible,” Dolan said on his New York radio show. “To think that there might be a pope from North America, to think that there might be a pope from Latin America, a pope from Asia, a pope from Africa. I think that’s possible, don’t you.?”

One possibility that Dolan downplayed, however, is speculation over his ascendance.

“I could be the next shortstop of the Yankees too,” he said when asked if he might preside over the Catholic faith after Benedict.

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BOSTON (MA)
NECN

[with video]

(NECN) – It’s time for the Braude Beat, and Broadside host Jim Braude talked about the news that rocked many in Boston’s Catholic community on Tuesday.

The National Catholic Reporter’s Vatican correspondent wrote a blog post saying the Italian press is abuzz about Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley being a contender for pope.

Braude says he doesn’t think Cardinal O’Malley will be the next pope.

“No disrespect intended to Cardinal Sean, it’s just that he’s not – if you look down the list of qualifications … he just doesn’t fit the mold,” Braude says.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Capuchin religious order says priest in charge of Wisconsin high school seminary committed sexual assaults against minors

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

The Capuchin Franciscans, a Roman Catholic religious order, has announced that Fr. Dennis Druggan, the longtime President of St. Lawrence Seminary, a high school boarding school located in Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin and operating in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, has been permanently removed from ministry for reports of sexually assaulting minors.

It’s commendable that the Capuchins appear to have taken decisive action in this case and are public about it. It may be too early to judge, but it is an encouraging sign that former and emerging cases will be treated in a similar manner.

In July of 2012, a victim came forward from Montana saying Druggan had sexually assaulted him as a youngster in the 1980’s. The Capuchins then suspended Druggan from his post at St. Lawrence. Druggan denied the sexual assault(s). Now, a second victim has come forward, presumably also from Montana.

Druggan’s denial of these criminal acts, along with his position as president in charge of St. Lawrence, a boarding school for youngsters where he has had unprecedented access to thousands of minors for years, is cause for obvious concern. Child sexual assault is the most underreported crime in the nation, with an annual reporting rate of only 7 or 8 percent. That means that most victims never report their crime and when they do it takes decades for them to do so.

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IRELAND
Los Angeles Times

By Emily Alpert
February 19, 2013

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny offered an emotional apology Tuesday for government involvement in a harsh system of laundries run by Roman Catholic nuns, where women and girls labored long hours behind locked doors, unpaid and often bewildered about why they were there.

“As a society, for many years we failed you,” Kenny said in a televised official apology Tuesday before the Irish Parliament. “This is a national shame.”

Kenny stopped, his voice breaking, and then concluded, “Let me hope that this day and this debate heralds a new dawn for all those who feared that the dark midnight might never end.”

The apology came two weeks after a report found that the Irish government had been involved in the infamous Magdalen laundries, helping to send girls and women into the workhouses, paying them through government programs and contracts, and bringing runaways back in the hands of police.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Taoiseach has apologised unreservedly on behalf of the State to the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.

Speaking in the Dáil, Enda Kenny apologised to the women for the hurt they endured in the laundries and for any stigma they suffered as a result of the time they spent in the laundries.

He said: “I, as Taoiseach, on behalf of the State, the Government and our citizens deeply regret and apologise unreservedly to all those women for the hurt that was done to them.”

Mr Kenny had been criticised by some survivors for his initial response to the McAleese Report.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Some of the survivors, children and family members were present in the public gallery of the Dáil this afternoon.

The surviving women held hands tightly and wept as the Taoiseach made his tearful apology.

All those present have acknowledged Mr. Kenny’s speech.

In a statement this evening the group thanked Mr Kenny for his words,

“This was a deeply meaningful experience for people who never thought they would see this day, and the official apology, come to pass. JFM thanks Mr. Kenny on their behalf.”

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CANADA
Daily Brew

By Matthew Coutts | Daily Brew

A new study suggesting religion doesn’t work to deter criminal behaviour is being trumpeted as controversial and provocative. But haven’t most of us already figured this out, already?

The U.S. study suggests that criminals are able to adopt religious messages to support their behaviour through “purposeful distortion or genuine ignorance.”

Many inmates interviewed as part of the study, published in the journal Theoretical Criminology, were able to rationalize and excuse their violent behaviour — one even said he prayed before each crime to “stay cool with Jesus.”

The study’s lead author, Volkan Topalli, told Postmedia News:

People have to understand that presenting religious doctrine to people isn’t enough to change their behaviour. (Faith-based services) have to be systematic and about behaviour change — religion has to be a vehicle, rather than the goal.

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IRELAND
Fine Gael

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny
•February 19th, 2013

I begin today’s debate by thanking Dr Martin McAleese and his team for their excellent work on this report.

I thank equally all the women who met with them to assist in its compilation. I also thank the religious orders who cooperated fully with Dr. McAleese.

Together they have helped provide Ireland with a document of truth.

The Magdalene laundries have cast a long shadow over Irish life over our sense of who we are.

It’s just two weeks since we received this report: the first-ever detailed Report into the State’s involvement in the Magdalene Laundries.

It shines a bright and necessary light on a dark chapter of Ireland’s history.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

By
Matt Stout / Boston Herald

Buzz is growing around Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley as the next possible pope, according to Vatican watchers, who say Boston’s Roman Catholic archbishop has the background, touch and personality to be a major contender to sit in St. Peter’s chair.

John L. Allen Jr., the Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, wrote in a blog post today that O’Malley has generated a “surprising degree of buzz” with the Italian press covering the Vatican, making the once improbable notion of an American being named pope now “thinkable.”

The growing chatter around O’Malley is based, writes Allen, “partly on the strength of his profile as a reformer on the church’s sexual abuse scandals, and partly because of his Capuchin simplicity as a perceived antidote to the Vatican’s reputation for intrigue and power games.”

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UNITED STATES
Newser

By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 19, 2013

(Newser) – Thinking about “pope” as your career goal? Consider the retirement package, which is apparently around $3,340 per month. That’s how much Pope Benedict will get when he abdicates later this month, and while it may seem a bit low for someone who was the leader of the entire Roman Catholic Church, also consider the fact that most if not all of his expenses will be covered by the Vatican after he retires. (He’ll be living there, for one thing.)

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UNITED STATES
Salon

By Mary Elizabeth Williams

As leader of the Catholic Church, a pope wears many hats – and not just the big and pointy kind. He is the bishop of Rome. He is heir to the seat of St. Peter. He is the guy who runs the Pontifex Twitter account. He’s also head of the Holy See. And as such, he gets some interesting perks. Like diplomatic immunity.

When the 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI steps down from his job later this month, he will no longer be a head of state. Perhaps that’s why he’s chosen to stick around Vatican City. As Reuters noted recently, staying at the Vatican – its own distinct sovereign territory – means he’ll be able to enjoy his retirement in the comfort of “legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world.” How convenient!

During Benedict’s reign, a glut of horrific sex abuse cases, some dating back several decades, have shaken up the Catholic Church worldwide. And as they have continued to emerge, the institution has faced an unprecedented set of moral and legal challenges. In 2010, the United States Supreme Court denied the Vatican’s invocation of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 in a lawsuit filed against the Holy See involving allegations of abuse by Father Andrew Ronan of Oregon. Last year, however, in district court, Judge Michael W. Mosman dismissed the case. And just earlier this month, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony was stripped of his official diocese duties after the release of thousands of pages of documents revealing his complicity in shielding sexually abusive priests from justice. Six years ago, the diocese reached a landmark $660 million settlement with victims. Mahony, by the way, is still planning on journeying to Rome later this month to help choose the new pontiff. This is the kind of man who gets to decide who’s pope, folks.

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GERMANY
Deutsche Welle

From the election of the next pope to the morning-after pill, Catholic bishops have much to talk about at their annual conference.

The German Catholic Bishops’ Conference in the western city of Trier will be a mixture of uncertainty, diagnosis and prayers. Following Pope Benedict XVI’s recent announcement of his resignation at the end of the month, the election of a new leader of the church is high on the agenda. Four of the 66 members of the Bishops’ Conference will travel to Rome to elect the new pope: 76 year-old Cardinal Karl Lehmann, Cologne Cardinal Joachim Meisner (79), Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx (59) and Berlin Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki (56). They are members of the papal conclave which elects the pope, and which is made up of cardinals who are under 80.

At the moment, the German bishops are being unusually open about their desires and expectations for Pope Benedict XVI’s successor. They want a much younger pope – who doesn’t have to come from Europe. They are criticizing the Italian system of the Curia. Cardinal Lehmann lamented its “centralism.” He spoke of Benedict XVI’s disappointment and loneliness, pointing to the lack of good people around him. But the bishops who have gathered in Trier are not suggesting any names or even indirectly indicating any preference. That wouldn’t be the done thing.

Sexual abuse

But there is a need to discuss German issues too. The process of dealing with the sexual abuse that took place in church institutions has stalled. The German Bishop’s Conference began working with the criminologist Christian Pfeiffer in 2011. Researchers wanted to draw lessons for the training of priests and church practice by looking at biographies of offenders across the country.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Feb. 19, 2013

Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was been publicly disgraced for his handling of priests accused of sex abuse in the 1980s, has written that his personal Lenten journey involves suffering and “never protesting misunderstandings, and never getting angry because of false accusations.”

Reflecting on the prophet Isaiah’s passage on the suffering servant, Mahony writes that the passage is “important for all of us who are disciples of Jesus Christ since we are called to imitate his words, actions, and life.”

“Part of that journey will always entail suffering from time to time,” wrote Mahony on his personal blog Monday. “But what makes Jesus’ suffering so different, and so important for us, is that he lived out Isaiah’s prophecy fully: ‘…he did not open his mouth…'”

“That means never rationalizing what is happening in our lives, never protesting misunderstandings, and never getting angry because of false accusations,” Mahony continues. “And that is so difficult for us human beings. It is certainly difficult for me on my journey.”

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Alessandro Speciale| Religion News Service

Updated: Tuesday, February 19

VATICAN CITY — The controversy over Cardinal Roger Mahony’s vote in the conclave that will elect a new pope has now reached the Vatican, with at least one cardinal musing aloud that the former archbishop of Los Angeles should consider staying home.

Mahony, who led the nation’s largest archdiocese from 1985 to 2011, has been accused of hiding sexual abuse by priests and was recently sidelined by current Archbishop Jose Gomez.

Gomez announced that Mahony would no longer have any “administrative or public duties” after a court-ordered release of 14,000 pages of internal church records showed Mahony and others actively tried to shield abusive priests from prosecution. Gomez called the records “brutal and painful reading.”

Nonetheless, the 76-year old cardinal remains a bishop” in good standing” and retains the right to vote for the future pope until he reaches age 80. Gomez has since said he supports Mahony’s vote in the conclave.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

An American cardinal accused of covering up sex abuse by priests insisted on Tuesday he would attend next month’s conclave to elect a new Pope, despite a growing campaign among Catholics to have him barred.

By Nick Squires, Rome
9:49PM GMT 19 Feb 2013

Roger Mahony, 76, the former archbishop of Los Angeles, was last month relieved of all his church duties for allegedly trying to conceal abuse cases involving dozens of priests in the US.

He was stripped of those duties by his successor, Archbishop Jose Gomez, who took over from him in 2011.

Catholics on both sides of the Atlantic said it would be wrong for the disgraced cardinal to attend the conclave, the secretive gathering of cardinals inside the Sistine Chapel which will choose a new pontiff sometime in mid-March.

But Cardinal Mahony posted a message on his Twitter account saying he would defy his critics and turn up for the conclave.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 19, 2013

A journalist recently suggested to me that DC Archbishop Donald Wuerl was “less dirty” on abuse than the other US prelates who will attende the papal conclave. “Not so fast,” I replied.

Wuerl, like his colleagues Tim Dolan and Roger Mahony, could be called the “teflon bishop.” Little about his poor record on clergy sex crimes sticks to him.

In a particularly egregious example, in 2010 he let Fr. Walter Salisbury – a priest who had been convicted twice of abusing children – move quietly to Maine and continue working there, without any warning whatsoever. This, in effect, gave Fr. Salisbury new “hunting grounds.”

Wuerl has also refused to take the simple step of posting the names of credibly accused priests on his diocesan website. He has refused in both Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh, his former posting.

On top of this, Wuerl has constantly displayed a general disregard for survivors of abuse. In particular, in 2010 Wuerl honored Cardinal Dario Hoyos, a Vatican official who was infamous for his hurtful claims about abuse victims and who once sent a letter to French bishop Pierre Pican, thanking him for hiding a sexually abusive priest from authorities. Despite knowing that Cardinal Hoyos was a polarizing figure and hurtful to victims, Wuerl honored him anyway.

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IRELAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 19, 2013

I can stomach a lot. But it’s very hard for me to read about the Magdalene Laundries.

When I do, here’s what I think:

–I wasn’t torn from my family
–I had one tormentor, not several or many
–I wasn’t around that tormentor 24/7
–No one blamed me for my plight (some of the girls were put in these cruel institutions for being on a train without a ticket)

I could go on and on, but my point is simple: these defenseless girls – hundreds and hundreds of them – suffered immeasurably and needlessly, both as youngsters and well into adulthood. My heart aches to think of what they endured while church and governmental authorities inflicted or ignored their pain.

Now, thanks to their courage and tenacity, they’ve gotten an apology. I hope it helps. I hope real compensation will follow soon. And I hope – desperately – that some crucial lessons have been learned about secrecy, cruelty and how dangerous it is when secular and religious figures collude.

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IRELAND
YouTube

Video.

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IRELAND
BBC News

The Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach), Enda Kenny, has formally apologised on behalf of the state for its role in the Magdalene laundries.

Some 10,000 women and girls were made to do unpaid manual labour in laundries run by Roman Catholic nuns in Ireland between 1922 and 1996.

More than a quarter of those who spent time in the laundries had been sent there by the Irish state.

Mr Kenny apologised to all the women affected.

He said their experiences had cast a “long shadow” over Irish life and that it had been “humbling and inspiring” to meet them.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Michael Brennan Deputy Political Editor– 19 February 2013

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny has delivered the first official apology to the women of the Magdalene laundries.

He had come under fire for failing to apolgoise two weeks ago when former Senator Martin McAleese’s 1,000-page report into State involvement in the Magdalene Laundries was published.

But in the Dail, Mr Kenny delivered a clear state apology to the 10,000 women who had been in the country’s ten Magdalene Laundries.

He said there never would have been any need for institutions such as the Magdalen Laundries in a society guided by the principles of compassion and social justice.

And he said that women kept in there were wholly blameless and were only described as “fallen women” due to prejudice.

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IRELAND
Sky News

Ireland’s Prime Minister choked back tears as he issued an apology to thousands of women who were subjected to regimes of hard work and prayer in Catholic-run workhouses.

Enda Kenny, known as the Taoiseach, described the Magdalene laundries as “the nation’s shame” as he said the state accepted its direct involvement.

“Therefore, I, as Taoiseach, on behalf of the State, the government and our citizens deeply regret and apologise unreservedly to all those women for the hurt that was done to them, and for any stigma they suffered, as a result of the time they spent in a Magdalene Laundry,” Mr Kenny said.

During a moving speech, he also outlined plans to compensate the survivors.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

MICHAEL O’REGAN and MARIE O’HALLORAN

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has apologised to the women who spent time in the Magdalene laundries.

In an emotional speech, which was greeted by loud applause, Mr Kenny said: “This is a national shame for which I say again I am deeply sorry and offer my full and heartfelt apologies.”

Opening the Dail debate tonight on the McAleese report, Mr Kenny said the Magdalene laundries were reserved for what was offensively and judgementally called fallen women.

The women, he added, were wholly blameless.

He added: “I, as Taoiseach, on behalf of this State, the Government and our citizens, deeply regret and apologise unreservedly to all those women for the hurt that was done to them, for any stigma they suffered as a result of the time they spent in the Magdalene laundry.”

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IRELAND
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Henry McDonald in Dublin
The Guardian, Tuesday 19 February 2013

The Irish State has finally said sorry to 10,000 women and girls incarcerated in Catholic Church-run laundries where they were treated as virtual slaves.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny was forced into issuing a fulsome apology on Tuesday evening to those held in the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland.

The apology in the Dáil (Irish parliament) came about two weeks after a damning 1,000-plus page report was released detailing the way women and girls were maltreated inside the nun-controlled laundries.

Survivors groups were enfuriated when the Irish premier initially declined a fortnight ago to explicitly apologise for the state’s role in sending women and girls into the Magdalene Laundries, sometimes simply for coming from broken homes or being unmarried mothers.

In a powerful speech to a packed Dáil Eireann, Kenny made some amends for what many view as a major error of judgment on the day the report was released.

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BOSTON (MA)
My Fox Boston

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) — Cardinal Sean O’Malley is reportedly among the names being weighed as Pope Benedict XVI’s successor among Italian journalists.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, the Boston cardinal’s work as a reformer during the church sex abuse scandal is one of the reasons his name has created a buzz in the Italian press.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has also been considered a potential American prospect.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Patriot-Ledger

WCVB-TV
Posted Feb 19, 2013 @ 12:14 PM

VATICAN CITY —

While conventional wisdom has long held that the election of an American to the papacy is unlikely, reporters at the Vatican say there is a growing “buzz” about Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley.

“I can confirm the O’Malley buzz from personal experience. Right now, it’s tough for an American journalist to walk into the Vatican Press Office without fielding questions from colleagues about him,” wrote John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter.

Vatican reporters have said there is no clear choice among the College of Cardinals to succeed Pope Benedict XVI when he resigns at the end of the month.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Ruth Gledhill Religion Correspondent

The Cardinal who is favourite to be the first black Pope has been attacked by abuse survivor groups after he linked clerical sex abuse and homosexuality.

Cardinal Peter Turkson claimed that clerical sexual abuse is unlikely to ravage the Church in Africa because its culture condemns homosexuality.

Cardinal Turkson, from Ghana, who is President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is currently second-favourite after Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan to succeed Benedict XVI as the next Pope.

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BOSTON (MA)
WHDH

BOSTON (WHDH) — A Catholic newspaper reported that buzz is growing for Cardinal Sean O’Malley as a contender to become the next pope.

The National Catholic Reporter cited six Italian newspapers that have mentioned O’Malley as a possible contender.

Pope Benedict is set to step down on Feb. 28. It is the first time in more than 600 years a pope has resigned.

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ROME
Catholic Culture

A prominent Italian cardinal has suggested that Cardinal Roger Mahony, the retired Archbishop of Los Angeles, should voluntarily relinquish his right to participate in the election of the next Pope.

Although he has been barred from representing the Los Angeles archdiocese in public affairs because of his involvement in the sex-abuse scandal, Cardinal Mahony remains an eligible cardinal-elector. “This is a troubling situation,” Cardinal Velasio De Paolis told the Italian daily La Repubblica.

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BOSTON (MA)
NECN

[with video]

(NECN) – Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, Boston’s Roman Catholic Archbishop, is a candidate to become the next pope, according to John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter.

Conventional wisdom suggests that it is unlikely for an American to become Pope, according to Allen, but O’Malley’s work to reform the church’s sexual abuse scandal could make him a strong suitor for the papacy.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has also been reported as a potential successor to Pope Benedict XVI.

The Archdiocese released a statement that they will not comment on the subject.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler ( February 14, 2013 6:11 PM

The mainstream media are suddenly taking a keen interest in Vatican affairs, sending reporters to process the latest unfounded rumors from Rome. Meanwhile self-proclaimed experts on Catholicism are flooding the internet with their own theories. As a result, thousands of inaccurate stories are appearing every day. Once again I encourage readers to treat every new report with caution, and sensational reports with outright skepticism. To separate the wheat from the chaff, keep checking this site.

We cannot correct every misleading story that appears in the media; there are simply too many. But we can, and will, offer occasional bulletins to clear up the most popular misconceptions. For instance:

•The Vatican is not hiding evidence of a medical crisis that prompted the Pope’s resignation. Yes, the Holy Father recently had the battery replaced on his pacemaker, but that is a routine operation. Yes, he stumbled and hurt his head during his trip to Mexico last year. But the injury was not severe, he completed all events on his schedule for that trip, and he has recovered fully. (It would have been sensible for Vatican officials to disclose the accident at the time, but the cult of secrecy runs deep.) Those who see the Pontiff on a regular basis report no signs of physical illness, apart from the ordinary effects of aging in general and arthritis in particular. It’s still possible that the Pope has suffered some new medical setback in recent weeks, but if that is the case, even high-ranking Vatican officials are still in the dark about it. The conspiracy theories, alleging an old illness or injury that has been hidden from the public, are simply wrong.

•Pope Benedict will not directly influence the choice of his successor. The Pope will leave Rome after his resignation, to live for a while at Castel Gandolfo. He probably will not return to Rome until his successor has been elected. He will not participate in the meetings of cardinals prior to the conclave, and he would not be eligible to vote in the conclave in any case, since he is over the age of 80. Certainly everything he says between now and February 28 will be carefully scrutinized for signals about his thoughts on the future of the papacy. But those who know Pope Benedict well agree that he will do his best to avoid influencing the papal election.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler February 19, 2013

With the caveat that we can’t possibly keep up with all of the mistakes being made by reporters in their rush to cover the papal resignation and the coming conclave, here are a few more corrections of errors that have cropped up in multiple reports. Once again I encourage readers to treat every new report with caution, and sensational reports with outright skepticism. To separate the wheat from the chaff, keep checking this site.

•The papal conclave will not be moved forward to a date earlier than March 15. The idea of an earlier conclave may be appealing, since the cardinals have had plenty of warning and time to assemble in Rome. But canon law forbids it. As canonist Edward Peters points out, accommodations can be made when canon law is unclear, but not simply when the law proves inconvenient. The rules for a papal conclave are clear: 14 days must lapse after the Holy See becomes vacant. We know exactly when the vacancy will occur, on February 28. So the conclave cannot meet before mid-March. These rules could be changed, but only by Pope Benedict XVI, who remains, until his resignation, the supreme legislator for canon law.

•And while we’re on the topic of canon law, it is not improper to refer to a Pope’s “resignation.” It is true that ordinarily a “resignation” must be submitted to some higher authority, and for that reason some commentators prefer to use the term “abdication.” But the English translation of the Code of Canon Law refers to “resignation,” and specifically states that a papal resignation does not have to be submitted to, or accepted by, anyone in order to become effective. Of course the English translation of the Code is unofficial, so this debate may remain open.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

February 19, 2013

Editorial

Before we actually find out who is behind door number one on the balcony of the largest Church in Christendom, the jockeying, the political skills and the last minute Pope Benedict activity shouldn’t be overlooked.

One can’t help but be struck by the political skills of the Italian cardinals.

One of them, Cardinal Giandranco Ravasi, is preaching the Lenten Retreat at the Vatican this week. That means he’s commanding the face to face attention of all the Curia cardinals. In addition, as the Lenten retreat preacher his statements will make their way into official and not so official postings on the Internet.

He’s commanding the attention of the Curia Cardinals, one of the larger voting blocs of Cardinal electors, on an unfettered and wide open stage that’s laid out with a day’s worth of time every day through Saturday.

Plenty of time for private rubbing of elbows, plenty of time for jotting a note to introduce him during a luncheon, dinner, reception next week to those whom a kingmaker Cardinal thinks he needs to meet, plenty of time waiting, albeit, begging to be used – complete with the complete texts of what he’s saying – courtesy of the papal print machine.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Evangelisch

Kurz vor dem Treffen des ehemaligen Runden Tisches zum sexuellen Kindesmissbrauch gibt es Streit um die Finanzierung des Hilfsfonds für Missbrauchsopfer.

Bundesfamilienministerin Kristina Schröder (CDU) forderte am Dienstag die Länder auf, ihren Anteil von 50 Millionen Euro zur Verfügung zu stellen. Bisher fehlten immer noch die Zusage und das Geld der Länder, sagte sie dem “Wiesbadener Kurier” (Mittwoch). Schröder ließ dabei erkennen, dass sie die Hilfen notfalls auch ohne die Länder starten will.

Der Runde Tisch Kindesmissbrauch, der als Folge der bekannt gewordenen Taten vor allem in der katholischen Kirche zusammengetreten war, hatte am Ende seiner Arbeit im November 2011 einen Fonds in Höhe von 100 Millionen Euro für die Finanzierung von Hilfen empfohlen, den Bund und Länder je zur Hälfte bestücken sollten. Die Bundesregierung hatte ihren Anteil sofort zugesagt, die Auszahlung aber an die Bedingung geknüpft, dass die Länder mitziehen.

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OSTERREICH
Katholische Kirche Osterreich

Verhandlungen über einen außergerichtlichen Vergleich in zwei gerichtsanhängigen Missbrauchsfällen hat die Abtei Wettingen-Mehrerau aufgenommen. Die Vorarlberger Zisterzienserabtei sei daran “sehr interessiert” und habe den beiden Klägern “einen namhaften Betrag angeboten”, teilte Abt Anselm van der Linde am Dienstag in einer Aussendung mit. Ungeachtet dessen habe das Kloster gegen die beiden Zwischenurteile des Landesgerichts Feldkirch berufen. Dieser Schritt sei “trotz der laufenden Verhandlungen über eine außergerichtliche Einigung notwendig, um zu verhindern, dass die beiden Urteile rechtskräftig werden”.

Die Vorgeschichte: In einem Zivilprozess Ende Jänner über zwei Missbrauchs-Fälle in den Jahren 1968 und 1982 hatte das Landesgericht die Frage verneint, ob die damaligen Übergriffe eines Mehrerauer Paters bereits verjährt sind. Laut den beiden betroffenen Männern, heute 58 und 46 Jahre alt, hat sie derselbe Priester mehrmals sexuell missbraucht und vergewaltigt. Ein vom Gericht eingeholtes psychologisches Gutachten besagte, der ältere der beiden Kläger habe sich erst 2010 an den Missbrauchsfall erinnert.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Volksfreund

Sexueller Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche scheint kein Thema zu sein, dass die Menschen der Region in Scharen auf die Straße gehen lässt. Obwohl das „Aktionsbündnis Aufklärung“ anlässlich der Frühjahrsvollversammlung der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz in Trier bundesweit zum Protest aufgerufen hatte, sind nur etwa 30 Demonstranten zu einem Protestmarsch erschienen.

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OSTERREICH
Der Tagesspiegel

Österreich – das Land, in dem Heimkinder brutal missbraucht und misshandelt wurden

von Caroline Fetscher

Missbrauch mit System: In Österreich brechen die ehemaligen Insassen von Kinderheimen ihr Schweigen.

Mädchen, die als Neue zu den Nonnen ins Heim kamen, mussten die ersten Nächte zum Schlafen in einem Kellerraum unter der Kirche verbringen. Zum Eingewöhnen, hieß es. Das war kein falsches Versprechen. Hilde, heute eine Erwachsene, erinnert sich an das Inventar des ungeheizten, unbeleuchteten Kellers bei den „Schwestern vom guten Hirten“: ein Hocker, ein Kübel, ein schimmelnder Strohsack, ein Plastiknapf für Nahrung. „Man hat uns erzählt, wir sind Teufel“, erinnert sich Hilde, die in den 1960er Jahren Heimzögling in Österreich war. Kinder wie Hilde hatten geschiedene oder alleinerziehende Mütter, hatten kranke Eltern oder waren, wie es heute heißt, „verhaltensauffällig“.

Markus’ Mutter gab ihn mit sechs ins Heim. „Weil ich ein schlimmes Kind war“, sagt der Erwachsene. In der Akte des Jungen war zu lesen, dass die Mutter ihn „hasst“; solche Zeilen lasen sich wie ein Freibrief für Misshandler und Missbraucher.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutschland Today

Mainz/Trier (AFP) – Fundamentale Positionen der katholischen Kirche wie der Zölibat und das Priesteramt nur für Männer werden nach einem vom ZDF veröffentlichten Politbarometer Extra von einer großen Mehrheit der Katholiken in Deutschland abgelehnt. Mit ihrer Meinung stehen die Laien damit Andersgläubigen und Nichtgläubigen näher als ihrer Kirchenführung. Die Bischofskonferenz beriet derweil über den ersten eucharistischen Kongress.

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UNITED STATES
The Nation

Frances Kissling

February 19, 2013

“In Benedict, the Catholic Church got the pope it deserved,” writes John Patrick Shanley in The New York Times. Shanley, author of the play Doubt, pulls no punches. Pope Benedict, he correctly charges, is “a protector of priests who abused children. He’d been a member of the Hitler Youth. In addition to this woeful résumé, he had no use for women.”
 
This pope led a multinational corporation mired in financial scandals and unable to fire the most egregious criminals in its midst. There is almost no country he can visit where Catholics have not suffered because of the Church. In Africa, the church’s opposition to birth control and to condoms to prevent AIDS transmission contributes to high rates of maternal death and AIDS. In Mexico, site of one of Benedict’s recent trips, Catholics were still outraged over the case of Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, the ultra-conservative order of priests, who raped young seminarians, fathered several children, abused drugs and misspent church funds. In 1998, eight Mexican priests charged Maciel with sexually abusing them. A year later, the priests were told the case had been shelved by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (who, for the uninitiated, later became Pope Benedict). In the US, the investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, whom the Vatican claimed paid too much attention to poverty and not enough to fighting against abortion, was widely derided by Catholics and others as a further example of the Vatican’s foolishness, and gave rise to a popular “Nuns on the Bus” anti-poverty tour. No wonder he’s tired and his doctors say no more travel.

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UNITED STATES
Publishers Weekly

Michael D’Antonio. St. Martin’s/Dunne, $26.99 (432p) ISBN 978-0-312-59489-3

Pulitzer Prize–winning journo D’Antonio (Atomic Harvest) pens what will be widely regarded as the definitive history of the Catholic Church’s “most severe crisis since the Reformation”: the revelations of endemic sexual abuse of minors by priests in the United States and Europe. Employing his considerable gift for sifting through mountains of facts, the author carves out a coherent and enthralling narrative, and brings the long-running tragedy to life by focusing on the handful of individuals responsible for bravely exposing the pain and horror of the abused children. In 1984, American priest Thomas Doyle learned of a lawsuit brought by parents of a victim, and was deeply troubled by his superiors’ callous nonchalance toward the suit, and more alarmingly, toward the suffering child. (When Doyle asked a monsignor, “What are you doing for the boys?,” he responded, “As far as I know, nothing.”) Along with plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Anderson, Doyle and a few others worked tirelessly to get the church, the media, and the public to pay attention; their persistence eventually paid off.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

[with video]

by Trish Van Pilsum

Matthew Feeney was a prominent talent agent when he was charged with molesting two boys who were his clients. He claims he did nothing wrong, but the FOX 9 Investigators found Feeney’s own words paint a startling picture.

If Feeney’s job was to cast performers in just the right role, one might wonder what role he considered for himself — and what role would best fulfill what he once called his “temptation.”

“I can tell you what my trigger was,” Feeney told a longtime advocate for sexual abuse survivors as he disclosed his attraction to boys between the age of 14 and 15. “I can tell you when I fell off the wagon.”

It’s already known that Feeney’s victims span decades — and possibly the country, but Feeney says he stayed away from teen boys in the years following three child sex abuse convictions in 1992. While he has repeatedly refused to give details about what he’s done in recent years, Feeney did make an admission that some of his actions were “definitely” inappropriate while he was being recorded in secret. …

In the journal, Feeney also writes about going outside and shooting himself, saying, “at least the kids would be safe from me and my temptation.”

Yet, it seems Feeney may have succumbed to that temptation. The journal landed in the hands of police investigators in 1992 after a boy accused Feeney of molesting him in his sleep while he stayed at Feeney’s home in St. Cloud. Feeney was the boy’s youth counselor at St. Joe’s Catholic Church at the time.

In a statement to a detective obtained by the FOX 9 Investigators, Feeney admitted to fondling 10 or a dozen boys in their sleep, mostly while he was serving as a counselor at the Catholic youth camp near Milaca. He said 90 percent of those victims were 14, 15, or 16 years old.

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AUSTRALIA/IRELAND
SBS

[with audio]

Dateline looks at what lessons the Australian child sex abuse inquiry can learn from Ireland’s experience.

With the Royal Commission into child sex abuse at institutions in Australia to begin soon, tonight’s Dateline at 9.30pm on SBS ONE looks at the experience of Ireland, which is the only other country to have held a national inquiry.

Reporter Evan Williams hears some of the very personal and distressing stories of abuse in Catholic institutions, with most victims deeply affected into adulthood.

“I was told I would be healed, I’m not healed. I was told open the scars and open up, I did that, and the scars are festering away because I’d been promised so much, and then just left there,” John Kelly, who spent time in a state-funded and Roman Catholic-run children’s institution, tells Evan.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on February 19, 2013

In yet another example of stunning self-absorption by a Catholic official, Cardinal Roger Mahony blogged today about how “difficult” it is for him to “never rationalize. . . never protest misunderstandings, and never get angry because of false accusations.”

The irony here is that no Catholic official in the US has worked harder or spent more money to rationalize decades of irresponsible actions than Mahony. Even now, in retirement, he repeatedly uses his blog to defend the indefensible and posture as a victim, heaping more pain on the thousands who have been sexually victimized by 280 LA predator priests and several more from his first diocese in Stockton.

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Bloomberg

By Joshua Goodman – Feb 19, 2013

Catholic cardinals impressed by Barack Obama’s rise to power may be encouraged to elect the first black pope, according to a Brazilian theologian once silenced by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became pope.

Leonardo Boff said the chances of an African such as Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana becoming the next pontiff are slim after Pope Benedict XVI named most of the 117 cardinals who will choose his successor in a conclave next month. Still, Obama’s election as U.S. president may open up the Vatican’s old guard to change, easing opposition to contraception and women priests, he said.

“Without a doubt Obama’s presence is going to be felt among the cardinals,” Boff, a former Franciscan friar who studied with Ratzinger at the University of Munich in the 1960s, said in a phone interview. “We already have a black president, so why not a black religious president?”

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