ABUSE TRACKER

NEW ZEALAND
NZ Catholic

Tuesday Jul, 2013

by MICHAEL OTTO

WELLINGTON — Media publicity around state and federal inquiries into child abuse in Australia have prompted several adults to contact the Catholic Church’s National Office for Professional Standards in New Zealand.

Professional standards office national director Bill Kilgallon told NZ Catholic that a number of people currently living in Australia, who grew up in New Zealand, “have felt able to come forward and tell their story”.

These people are aged between 40 and 60 years and the abuse happened during their childhoods in New Zealand, he said.

Mr Kilgallon, who, in the 1990s, led independent inquiries into allegations of abuse in residential care provided by a local authority in the United Kingdom, is encouraged that these people have come forward.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Daily Review

The Jerry Sandusky case and another involving the Rev. Charles Englehardt in Philadelphia exposed not only the crimes they committed against children, but the inadequacies in state laws meant to detect and deter that conduct.

Last week the state House Children and Youth Committee approved a package of six bills that should help to better protect children. For example, the bills would broaden the definition of abuse to allow earlier intervention by authorities and minimize harm to children, expand requirements to report abuse, require background checks for more people who work with children, and so on.

The bills are derived from recommendations by legislative commission that was created following the Sandusky arrest and prosecution.

Even though the bills merit adoption, they are not comprehensive. They do not address another key issue that was exposed by the Sandusky case. Even though several state agencies had some information about Mr. Sandusky’s conduct, that they did not act under the authority that they had under existing law.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tri County Record

On Thursday, June 20,the House of Representatives voted to approve Rep. David Maloney’s (R-Berks) child protection legislation, moving it to the Senate for further consideration.

As a member of the House Children and Youth Committee, Maloney developed House Bill 434 from concerns he has had for years about the different legal standard between teachers and other professionals in the requirements to alert police to potential child abuse. The recent Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal has highlighted the need for such legislation.

“This bill would apply the same standards for reporting suspected child abuse to school employees as those that exist for other employees of other workplaces,” Maloney said. “So, when a school employee suspects another school employee of abusing a student, the standard for substantiating abuse, the reporting requirements and procedures, and the investigative response is the same as it is elsewhere.”

Coincidentally, the Task Force on Child Protection the General Assembly created last year to review Pennsylvania’s child protection laws has recommended just such a law to prevent the lack of reporting abuse that occurred at Penn State University when Sandusky was an assistant football coach there. To date, the House has passed and sent to the Senate more than a dozen pieces of legislation based on the task force’s recommendations.

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COLORADO
Gazette

By Lance Benzel Published: July 1, 2013

The father of a former altar boy who says a Colorado Springs priest molested him questioned his son’s veracity in court Monday, calling him “untruthful” and telling a jury: “I don’t always believe him.”

The father’s frank and potentially damaging assessment of the now 18-year-old accuser’s credibilty came as attorneys for the Rev. Charles Robert “Bob” Manning, 78, began their defense in a case pitting one man’s word against the other’s.

Manning, who retired from St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Colorado Springs in the wake of the allegations against him, has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault on a child, which his attorneys have dismissed as fabrications by the former altar server.

Whether the father’s testimony helped shape the jury’s thinking may soon be clear: Deliberations are expected to begin Tuesday or Wednesday.

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VATIKAN
Zeit

Nach der Festnahme des Geistlichen Scarano wegen Korruptionsverdachts haben der Direktor des Geldinstituts, Paolo Cipriani, und sein Vize ihren Rücktritt eingereicht.

Die skandalumwitterte Vatikanbank kommt nicht zur Ruhe: Im Zuge von Korruptionsermittlungen haben zwei Chefs der Vatikanbank ihre Posten geräumt. Der Direktor der Vatikanbank, Paolo Cipriani, und dessen Stellvertreter Massimo Tulli sind von ihren Ämtern zurückgetreten. Der Verwaltungsrat und die Kardinalskommission an der Spitze der Bank hätten die Entscheidung akzeptiert, teilte der Vatikan mit. Der deutsche Präsident der Vatikanbank, Ernst von Freyberg, werde die Aufgaben zunächst übergangsweise mitübernehmen.

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OSTERREICH
Die Presse

1324 Personen haben sich bisher bei der Klasnic-Kommission der katholischen Kirche gemeldet.

1324 Personen haben sich nach neuestem Stand von Montag an die durch Kardinal Christoph Schönborn eingerichtete Opferschutz-Kommission gewendet. Dies erfuhr DiePresse.com am Montag. 1150 wurden als Opfer von (sexueller) Gewalt, begangen durch Priester, Ordensleute oder Laienmitarbeiter der katholischen Kirche anerkannt. Sie erhielten oder erhalten Entschädigungszahlungen.

In 22 Fällen entschied die hochrangig besetzte Kommission unter der Führung der früheren steirischen Landeshauptfrau Waltraud Klasnic negativ. Damit sind derzeit noch 152 Fälle offen – unter ihnen auch einige besonders schwierige.

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AUSTRALIEN
Kipa/Apic

Newcastle, 1.7.13 (Kipa) Der australische Bischof William Wright hat sich für das Versagen seiner Diözese Maitland-Newcastle in einigen Fällen sexuellen Missbrauchs an Kindern “bedingungslos” entschuldigt.

“Ich gestehe, dass bei der Anzeige von Fällen die Kirchenbehörden manchmal versagt haben, die missbrauchten Kindern und ihren Familien effektiv zu unterstützen oder auch sicherzustellen, dass in Zukunft andere Kinder vor Missbrauch von diesen Tätern geschützt werden”, zitieren australische Medien aus der Aussage des katholischen Bischofs vor einem Untersuchungsausschuss. Wright erklärte demnach, er habe seine Bistumsmitarbeiter zur “vollen Zusammenarbeit” mit dem Gremium angewiesen.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By Nicole Winfield | ASSOCIATED PRESS JULY 02, 2013

ROME — The director of the embattled Vatican bank and his deputy resigned Monday, the latest heads to roll in a broadening finance scandal that has landed one Vatican monsignor in prison and added urgency to Pope Francis’s reform efforts.

The Vatican said Paolo Cipriani and his deputy, Massimo Tulli, stepped down ‘‘in the best interest of the institute and the Holy See.’’ The speed with which they resigned, however, indicated the decision was not entirely theirs.

Cipriani, along with the bank’s then-president, was placed under investigation by Rome prosecutors in 2010 for alleged violations of Italy’s antimoney laundering rules after financial police seized $30 million from a Vatican account at a Rome bank. Neither has been charged and the money was eventually ordered released.

But the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, has remained in the news amid fresh concerns it has been used as an offshore tax haven.

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VATICAN CITY
Bloomberg Businessweek

By Alessandra Migliaccio
July 02, 2013

The director and deputy director of the Vatican bank resigned yesterday as a series of investigations lead to a renewal of the Church’s financial structures.

Paolo Cipriani and his deputy Massimo Tulli stepped down “in the best interest of the institute and the Holy See,” the Vatican said in a statement late yesterday. Ernst von Freyberg, the bank’s president appointed last February, will take over as interim director general and a new position of chief risk officer will be created. “It is clear today that we need new leadership to increase the pace of this transformation process,” von Freyberg said in the statement.

The resignations come three days after senior Vatican cleric Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was arrested by Italian authorities along with an Italian secret service agent and a financial broker as part of a corruption investigation. The three are accused of plotting to bring 20 million euros ($26 million) into Italy from Switzerland in a private jet, according Rome prosecutor Nello Rossi. Scarano has denied the accusations.

The Vatican bank, known as the Institute for the Works of Religion, or IOR, is increasingly in the spotlight of investigations as Pope Francis works to bring it in line with international standards. Last week, the pope named a commission to oversee the operations of the Vatican bank after Moneyval, the Council of Europe’s monitoring body for money laundering and terrorism financing, called for independent supervision of the bank.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

By Francoise Kadri (AFP)

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis’s bid to take the scandal-dogged Vatican bank in hand has stepped up a gear, experts said Tuesday, with the ousting of top management from the institution following the launch of a special papal probe.

Officially, Paolo Cipriani and Massimo Tulli, director and deputy director of the bank, handed in their resignations on Monday “in the best interest of the institute and the Holy See”.

The bank’s president, Ernst von Freyberg, put their decision down to a need for “new leadership to increase the pace” of bringing the institution “in line with international standards against money laundering.”

Religious and judicial specialists on Tuesday said the Vatican had forcibly shed two long-serving chiefs who survived the unceremonious eviction in May 2012 of the former head, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, purportedly for poor management but amid reports of money-laundering.

Their expulsion was deemed opportune by the Vatican, according to Fiorenza Sarzanini in the Corriere della Sera daily, because Cipriani and Tulli are of interest in an inquiry launched by Rome prosecutors in 2010 into money-laundering.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (UK)

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 06:30 EST, 2 July 2013

The director of the embattled Vatican bank and his deputy have resigned over a financial scandal which has already landed one monsignor in prison.

Paolo Cipriani and his deputy, Massimo Tulli, stepped down ‘in the best interest of the institute and the Holy See’, The Vatican has said.

The speed with which they resigned, however, indicated that the decision was not entirely theirs.
But the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, has remained under the watchful eye of prosecutors amid fresh concerns it has been used as an offshore tax haven.

It was the latest turmoil to hit the IOR, which has long been the source of scandal for the Holy See.
Last year, the bank’s board ousted its then-president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, for incompetence and erratic behavior.

Yesterday’s resignations and nominations of interim administrators represented a final overthrow of the bank’s old guard management and coincided with its efforts to comply with international regulations to fight money-laundering and terror financing.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTOP

M.L. JOHNSON
Associated Press

MILWAUKEE (AP) — As more victims of clergy sex abuse came forward, then-Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan oversaw a plan to pay some abusers to leave the priesthood after writing to Vatican officials with increasing frustration and concern, warning them about the potential for scandal if they did not defrock problem priests, according to documents released Monday.

Dolan’s correspondence with Vatican officials and priests accused of sexual abuse was included in about 6,000 pages of documents the Archdiocese of Milwaukee released Monday as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court with clergy sex abuse victims suing it for fraud. Victims say the archdiocese transferred problem priests to new churches without warning parishioners and covered up priests’ crimes for decades. …

Peter Isely, Midwest director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he would ask the U.S. attorney’s office in Milwaukee to look into the possibility of bankruptcy fraud. However, Marquette University law professor Ralph Anzivino, a bankruptcy specialist, said no criminal charges could be filed unless the bankruptcy judge determined the transfer amounts to fraud.

The documents also show that Dolan repeatedly wrote to Vatican officials, pleading with them to dismiss priests accused of abuse but often was left waiting for years for a response. One of those cases involved John C. Wagner, who was accused of making advances to students at the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan when he was in campus ministry in the 1980s. Dolan’s predecessor, Archbishop Rembert Weakland, tried in the 1990s to get Wagner to voluntarily leave the priesthood but Wagner refused.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wisconsin Public Radio

[with audio]

By CHUCK QUIRMBACH

The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee released thousands of documents related to decades of clergy members sexually abusing children today.

Critics say the items show a pattern of cowardice among the clerics.

The documents have been released as part of the bankruptcy case involving the Milwaukee archdiocese. Attorneys for abuse victims note the documents include a letter from former Milwaukee archbishop and now New York cardinal Tim Dolan, asking the Vatican for permission to move $57 million into a cemetery fund, and away from any potential victims’ claims. Other letters deal with efforts to conceal details about abusive priests.

Victims lawyer Jeffery Anderson calls it cowardice:

Anderson: “Cowardice among the clerics at the time … contrasted to the courage of the survivors, who at great risk disclosed the secret, shared it, and demanded exposure and closure.”

Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests says Archbishop Dolan’s efforts to move the money into the cemetery fund amounts to fraud.

Isely: “He should be under federal investigation. We’ll be emailing a letter today to the federal prosecutor of the Eastern District [of Wisconsin], asking him to investigate this fraudulent transfer and conveyance.”

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RICHMOND (VA)
WRIC

[with video]

RICHMOND, VA – After resigning amid multiple felony charges in Texas, Geronimo Aguilar, the founding pastor of The Richmond Outreach Center, will receive six months severance from the Richmond-based church and will continue to live in the church’s parsonage.

The ROC Board made the announcement Tuesday, saying Aguilar would receive six months of severance pay and would be allowed to reside in the parsonage with his family for six months.

Aguilar, known as “Pastor G,” and three other pastors’ resignations were accepted by the ROC’s board of directors last week, according to a release on the church’s website.

Aguilar is facing multiple felony charges in Texas in two alleged cases of child sex abuse.

Also resigning is executive pastor Jason Helmlinger, who is facing a misdemeanor charge of threatening a former ROC pastor who spoke to 8News about the allegations against Aguilar. Two others also resigned Wednesday: Pastor G’s brother Matthew Aguilar and Pastor Andrew Delgado, neither of whom are facing any charges.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Michael P. Mayko
Updated 1:02 am, Tuesday, July 2, 2013

HARTFORD — Two dozen Haitian boys will each receive $500,000 in a settlement on their claims of sexual abuse at the hands of Douglas Perlitz while enrolled in Project Pierre Toussaint, a residential trade school in Cap-Haitien.

“This settlement will be a life-changing event for them,” said Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer who headed the legal team representing the boys. “It will allow them to feed themselves and their families, buy clothes, sleep with a roof over their heads and obtain medical treatment.”

Garabedian said arrangements have been made to provide financial counseling, but the money will be distributed immediately in a lump sum.

The payments are part of a $12 million settlement reached Friday with Fairfield University; the Rev. Paul Carrier, a former university chaplain and officer of the Haiti Fund, the now defunct fund-raising arm of Project Pierre Toussaint; the Society of Jesus of New England, the Jesuit order to which Carrier belonged; the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, American Association, USA, of which Carrier was Magistral chaplain; and Hope Carter, a member of the board of directors of the Haiti Fund, a New Canaan philanthropist and Malta member.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

July 2, 2013

Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age.

The Catholic Church in Melbourne put the lives of clergy sexual abuse victims at risk, including telling one suicidal victim to ring back in four days, according to evidence to the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled abuse.

Another victim who was told his statement to Melbourne Response independent commissioner Peter O’Callaghan, QC, was completely confidential then found it used by the church to try to discredit the victim during the trial of his civil damages claim.

Many clients have been significantly further damaged as a result of going through a church process.

The evidence of law firm Lewis Holdway, which has represented 200 victims over 17 years, was one of 10 submissions published under parliamentary privilege on the inquiry’s website late on Monday.
Lewis Holdway says another life put at risk was a child in real danger from a paedophile priest, whose mother was told she had to wait until she got a letter from Mr O’Callaghan.
Advertisement

It says some parishes – including Ballarat, Healesville and Doveton – that had a succession of paedophile priests need special support that they have not received, and asks the inquiry to investigate claims that a paedophile ring of priests may have operated in some parishes.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
New York Magazine

By Margaret Hartmann

When Cardinal Timothy Dolan was archbishop of Milwaukee from 2002 to 2009, he was either trying to get abusive priests away from children as quickly as possible, attempting to protect the church from a growing sex abuse scandal, or some combination of the two. On Monday, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee released 6,000 pages of documents as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court with victims of sexual abuse, who are suing the archdiocese for fraud. The documents offer new details on payments Dolan offered to departing pedophile priests, and reveal that Dolan moved nearly $57 million into a cemetery trust to help protect the funds “from any legal claim or liability.” What the documents say about how Dolan handled the scandal he inherited is still open to interpretation.

Dolan certainly doesn’t come out looking great, but did repeatedly urge the Vatican to defrock priests who sexually abused children, only to be met with years of silence in some instances. The Wall Street Journal reports that in one case, Dolan’s bosses wanted to suspend an admitted sex offender for just ten years, but he pushed for him to be defrocked, arguing that if word ever got out, “our credibility would be seriously damaged.” The Vatican barred the priest from ministry indefinitely.

Dolan also approved payments of up to $20,000 for some alleged abusers who agreed to leave quietly. Critics call this a payoff, but the church claims the money was necessary to help the priests transition into secular life. Dolan defended the practice again in a blog post on Monday, writing, “like it or not, bishops do have a canon law obligation to provide basic support like health care and room and board for their priests until they have finally moved on.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
New York Daily News

[John O’Brien]

[John O’Brien]

[John O’Brien]

[timeline]

[the documents – Jeff Anderson & Associates]

[the documents – Milwaukee archdiocese]

The Vatican took a month to give then-Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan the go-ahead in 2007 to move $57 million into a trust in anticipation of an avalanche of sexual abuse lawsuits against the Milwaukee Archdiocese. But it took six years for Dolan to get the Vatican to defrock an out-of-control priest who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a teen boy.

BY STEPHEN REX BROWN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
TUESDAY, JULY 2, 2013

When then-Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan sounded the alarm on abusive priests, the Roman Catholic Church dragged its feet — but when Dolan needed to protect tens of millions of dollars, the church acted without hesitation, bombshell documents revealed Monday.

The Vatican took only a month to give Dolan the go-ahead in 2007 to move $57 million into a trust in anticipation of an avalanche of sexual abuse lawsuits against the Milwaukee Archdiocese, which Dolan ran from 2002 to 2009.

But it took six years for Dolan to get the Vatican to defrock an out-of-control priest who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old boy.

The stunning revelations were contained in 6,000 pages of documents released Monday by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee as part of its bankruptcy proceeding.

In 2003, Dolan — now the cardinal in New York and arguably the face of the Catholic Church in America — wrote Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who would go on to become Pope Benedict XVI, notifying him of the Rev. John O’Brien’s criminal conviction.

“After only a few visits they began to hug each other at the end of their time together,” Dolan wrote of O’Brien and the teen victim. “Shortly thereafter, in the basement of the church building, Father O’Brien and the boy had explicit sexual contact.”

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WISCONSIN
Duluth News Tribune

[Oswald Krusing]

[timeline]

Thousands of documents released by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on Monday include a long-ago report of an accused priest granted a temporary assignment in Washburn only to reoffend in his new location, a lawyer reviewing the files told the News Tribune and Superior Telegram.

By: Staff report, Duluth News Tribune and Associated Press

Thousands of documents released by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on Monday include a long-ago report of an accused priest granted a temporary assignment in Washburn only to reoffend in his new location, a lawyer reviewing the files told the News Tribune and Superior Telegram.

“If he is willing to come to Superior to work for a time until he has readjusted himself to the life of a diocesan priest, I shall be happy to receive him,” Bishop William O’Connor of the Diocese of Superior wrote to Milwaukee Archbishop Moses Kiley about the Rev. Oswald Krusing in November 1942.

Mike Finnegan, a lawyer with Jeff Anderson and Associates in Minneapolis, said the letters between O’Connor and Kiley suggest the obfuscation used by bishops when writing about abuse.

“In English, it’s saying that they need to keep him away from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for some time period,” he said. “We know (there was) one person that contacted the archdiocese in 1996 who reported being abused by Krusing in Superior in the 1940s. They moved him up there on another group of unsuspecting parishioners and kids, where he abused a child after he was up there for a very short amount of time.”

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CALIFORNIA
Sacramento Bee

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, Jul. 2, 2013

Speaking publicly for the first time since his arrest in 2011 on suspicion of child molestation, the Rev. Uriel Ojeda testified Monday that he thought it would all be kept confidential when he spoke to church officials and a private investigator about the misconduct accusations that had been lodged against him.

Ojeda testified in a Sacramento Superior Court hearing to determine if prosecutors can use in trial the statements he allegedly made to the secretary for Bishop Jaime Soto and a private investigator for the law firm that represents the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento.

“It never crossed my mind,” Ojeda, 33, testified when asked if his comments to the Rev. Tim Nondorf, formerly on Soto’s administrative staff, and Joseph Sheehan, the investigator for the law firm of Sweeney & Greene, might be turned over to police.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Catholic Herald (UK)

By MARYANGELA LAYMAN ROMAN on Tuesday, 2 July 2013

An American archbishop has said that he decided to release almost 7,000 pages of documents related to clerical abuse in the hope of bringing healing to the victims and their families.

Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee made the comments in an email entitled “Love One Another”, a communiqué to priests and others involved in ministry in his archdiocese. He sent the message six days before the archdiocese posted the documents on its website, Archmil.org, yesterday.

“My hope in voluntarily making these documents public is that they will aid abuse survivors, families and others in understanding the past, reviewing the present and allowing the church in southeastern Wisconsin to continue moving forward”, he wrote.

Among the documents released are depositions of retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, Milwaukee Auxiliary Bishop Richard Sklba and Cardinal Timothy Dolan taken in Chapter 11 proceedings. Cardinal Dolan, now New York’s archbishop, headed the Milwaukee archdiocese from 2002 to 2009.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
NBC News

By Brendan O’Brien and Geoffrey Davidian, Reuters

Roman Catholic Church officials in Milwaukee vigorously shielded pedophile priests and protected church funds from lawsuits during a decades-long sex abuse scandal, according to hundreds of newly released documents.

The documents include letters and deposition testimony from Cardinal and Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan who, during his time as archbishop of Milwaukee from 2002 to 2009, appealed to Vatican on numerous occasions to help address the ongoing fallout from the scandal.

The 6,000 pages of documents related to eight decades of abuse cases showed in great detail the Milwaukee archdiocese regularly reassigned priests who were accused of sexual molestation to new parishes and Dolan himself asking the Vatican permission to transfer $57 million to a trust fund to protect it against court action.

In 2011, the Milwaukee archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing the financial drain of settling sexual-abuse claims and acknowledging missteps by the church in dealing with pedophile priests.

The judge overseeing the archdiocese’s bankruptcy ordered the documents to be released.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
KPLR

[with video]

(KTVI) – Thousand of documents have been released by the Milwaukee Archdiocese detailing their response to decades of allegations of priest sex abuse.

St. Louis native, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, was Archbishop their from 2002 to 2009. But some church critics are now calling Dolan a criminal. They say he conspired with the Vatican to transfer $57 million from Archdiocese coffers to a new and also pay priest accused of sexual misconduct to leave the church.

Read documents released by the Milwaukee Archdiocese

Cardinal Dolan responded to some of these accusations in a statement released by the Archdiocese of New York saying:

“The accusations that priest were paid off and the he established the fund to shield church assets from lawsuits are ‘discredited attacks.’”

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

AAP

Pornographic homosexual magazines and videos were found in the presbytery of a Hunter Valley Catholic priest later convicted of sexually assaulting a boy, a police whistleblower has told a special NSW commission of inquiry.

Detective chief inspector Peter Fox says a member of the Branxton Lochinvar parish told him he came across the material when he helped Fr James Fletcher move items from Branxton to Lochinvar in early 2003.

In the course of investigating child sexual abuse allegations against Fr Fletcher, Det Insp Fox asked him later that year about the magazines and videos.

“He said they belonged to a priest who had previously lived in the presbytery,” Det Insp Fox told the commission on Tuesday.

“Pornography is not illegal but it’s highly unusual that a member of the clergy have this type of material.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Dolan’s defense of fraudulent transfer in Milwaukee Bankruptcy is “Malarkey”

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee)
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

A letter that surfaced today in the Milwaukee Federal Bankruptcy Court proves that Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York transferred millions of dollars into a bogus Trust to prevent assets of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee from being accessed by survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

In a written response Dolan claims that he was forced to set up the Trust by Wisconsin state law. In a favorite word of Cardinal Dolan: “Malarkey”.

No such ridiculous requirement is found in Wisconsin law.

As today’s letter shows, the decision to establish the bogus trust was the decision of Cardinal Dolan. Under Federal Bankruptcy law it’s called “Fraudulent Conveyance” or “Transfer” and is illegal and punishable by fines, prison time, or both.

In fact, as the New York Times reported today, Dolan used his favorite word when first confronted with his fraud trust scheme in February of 2011. At the time he told the press that charges that he hid money was “terribly irresponsible, malarkey, and ridiculous and groundless gossip.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Bishop Sklba’s never ending excuses

21 years ago, article shows, treatment experts already discredited archdiocese claims about priest sex offender treatment

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director
CONTACT: 414.336.8575

With today’s devastating document release of thousands of pages of abuse related files, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and especially Bishop Richard Sklba—who was called by former Archbishop Weakland his “go to guy” on all sexual abuse cases—is making the preposterous claim that his actions of leaving and putting pedophile clergy in parishes and schools was done “in the context of the time.” Sklba specifically enjoys offloading his criminal responsibility for being Weakland’s second man to treatment “experts” who “advised” him at the time.

But in an open letter to Weakland in 1992 from the Division IV of the Wisconsin Psychological Association, the committee of state experts that work with sex offenders (read the full 1992 story below) clearly shows this is utterly false.

“Since the early 1970s, there has been a general recognition among psychologists that pedophilia is a treatable mental illness, but that offenders should not be placed in environments where they could continue to abuse children,” the head of the APA group wrote at the time. What Weakland and Sklba were doing was “like giving an alcoholic a job in a bar.”

Exactly.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON July 2, 2013

SERIOUS doubts have been cast over allegations that former Maitland-Newcastle bishop Michael Malone allegedly tipped off a priest that he was being investigated over claims of child sex abuse and told him who the complainant was.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox made the claim before the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle on Tuesday morning, but his recollection of the event has been heavily questioned.

Under examination by counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC, Fox was asked about a complaint he received in 2002 from a victim, known only as AH.

Fox told the inquiry that AH was “very distraught” when she called him. She allegedly told Fox that Bishop Malone had spoken to Father James Fletcher, disclosed AH’s real name to him and told him that she had made a complaint to police about his sexual abuse of her.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON July 2, 2013

Whistleblower Peter Fox considered charging a senior member of the Catholic clergy who forewarned paedophile priest James Fletcher police were investigating a sexual abuse complaint against him, a Special Commission of Inquiry heard this morning.

The inquiry, that is examining whether the Maitland-Newcastle diocese helped or hindered police investigations, heard Bishop Michael Malone met with Fletcher in 2002 and told him a woman had made a complaint against him.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox said the former Bishop gave the priest the victim’s name.

“I was far from satisfied with what he [Bishop Michael Malone] had told me, I was still contemplating whether he had overstepped the mark and committed an offence,” Inspector Fox told the inquiry.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

An inquiry into child sexual abuse in the New South Wales Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church has heard “potential evidence was destroyed” when a paedophile priest was warned about abuse allegations against him.

The second stage of the inquiry is investigating claims by senior New South Wales policeman Peter Fox that the church covered-up allegations of of abuse by two priests, James Fletcher and Dennis McAlinden.

In giving evidence today, Detective Chief Inspector Fox told the court that in 2005 the then Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone told Fletcher that someone had been to police complaining they had been sexually abused by him.

Peter Fox said the victim’s mother was most distraught that Fletcher had been told the name of the complainant.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian July 02, 2013

THE detective at the centre of a state government inquiry into church child abuse has given conflicting evidence under oath about claims that a former Catholic bishop told a pedophile priest he was under police investigation.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry this morning the Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone tipped off the priest, Jim Fletcher, and potential evidence was destroyed as a result.

“It seemed a fully deliberate action by going out and telling Father Fletcher there was an investigation and who the victim was … I did not see why he felt the need to expose those things to Fletcher at the time,” he said.

Detective Fox initially claimed to have recorded his conversation with Bishop Malone in writing within days of the 2002 meeting, a claim which was repeated in his police statement used during Fletcher’s trial.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox 6

[with video]

[Bishop Sklba deposition]

[deposition exhibits]

July 1, 2013, by Jeremy Ross

MILWAUKEE (WITI) — Years ago, FOX6 News showed you the video deposition of Archbishop Rembert Weakland as it relates to clergy sex abuse cases within the Milwaukee Archdiocese. Now, we’re learning more about Weakland’s right-hand man.

The deposition of Bishop Richard Sklba was released on Monday, July 1st. Now retired, Sklba is a Vicar — or higher-ranking clergy member — at times, representing other priests.

Bishop Sklba was a priest for nearly 52 years. He knew much about the laws of church leadership. But when asked about some of the training outside of Scripture, he was at times, less knowledgeable.

In 2011 court documents, Sklba was asked if there was training to detect sexual abuse. His answers were not forthcoming. When asked if there was training for priests to manage their sexual lives so they would not engage in sexual abuse, Sklba found the tone offensive.

Eventually, Sklba admitted it was practice to report abuse to civil authorities only if the victim who reported it was under the age of 18. Further, he said if an adult came to him with a concern, he would suggest they go to civil authorities, adding it was not within his range of experience to do otherwise.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Four years before the Archdiocese of Milwaukee filed for bankruptcy, then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan — now cardinal of New York — sought Vatican approval to move nearly $57 million in cemetery funds off the archdiocese’s books and into a special trust to help protect them “from any legal claim or liability.”

During his tenure in Milwaukee, Dolan also pleaded repeatedly with the Vatican to “laicize,” or defrock, sexually abusive priests, a process that often took years.

One case dragged on for five years, even though the priest was convicted and had sought his own dismissal. At one point a Vatican official told Dolan he could not turn the case over to Pope Benedict XVI without “an admission of guilt and a sincere expression of remorse.”

How Dolan — now considered one of the world’s most influential Catholic prelates — and his predecessors responded to the sexual abuse crisis in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is laid out in thousands of pages of documents made public today as part of the archdiocese’s bankruptcy.

Included in the documents were letters showing that the archdiocese paid abusive priests — usually $20,000 — to accept laicization. Critics have characterized this as a payoff or bonus to abusers. However, the church has described it as a charity payment intended to ease the priest’s transition into secular life.

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NEW YORK
NY1

By: Jon Weinstein

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York says he worked to end a clergy sex abuse scandal and removed abusive priests when he was the leader of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, but critics say thousands of pages of material released by the archdiocese on Monday prove the exact opposite. NY1’s Jon Weinstein filed the following report.

Thousands of pages of depositions, documents and letters have been released, revealing how Cardinal Timothy Dolan handled the fallout from a sexual abuse scandal when he was the top Catholic Church official in Milwaukee.

Before dozens of claims of abuse by priests led the Archdiocese to file for bankruptcy, then-Archbishop Dolan sought permission from the Vatican to move $57 million meant for cemetery care into a newly created trust separate from the archdiocese’s general funds.

In a 2007 letter seeking permission from the Vatican, which he ultimately got, Dolan writes, “By transferring these assets to the Trust, I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.”

“We see very clearly in the letter that the primary concern was with the legal claims that they were facing, and growing number of legal claims by victims of sexual abuse,” said Pam Spees of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
KOTA

[the documents – Jeff Anderson & Associates]

[the documents – Milwaukee archdiocese]

By The Associated Press

MILWAUKEE (AP) – The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has released thousands of pages of documents related to clergy sex abuse as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court between the archdiocese and abuse victims suing it for fraud. Here is a look at what is in the documents:

WHAT’S IN THE DOCUMENTS?

The approximately 6,000 pages of documents released by the Milwaukee archdiocese include personnel files for 42 priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse against them, along with depositions of church leaders including New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the former archbishop of Milwaukee, and other records. The documents show that archdiocese officials struggled to deal with problem priests, sending them to treatment and then reassigning them to new parishes where no one would know their histories, before eventually concluding the best route was to remove them from the priesthood.

WHY DID THE ARCHDIOCESE OF MILWAUKEE DECIDE TO RELEASE THEM?

The archdiocese released the files as part of a deal with victims suing it in federal bankruptcy court for fraud. Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff for Archbishop Jerome Listecki, said the archdiocese had been reluctant to release the files because of privacy concerns for the victims, those reporting crimes, officials handling the cases and others. But he said the archdiocese eventually realized that unless it made the records public, some victims would not agree to a bankruptcy settlement.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
International Business Times

By Treye Green
on July 01 2013

Cardinal Timothy F. Dolan is challenging claims that during his time as archbishop of Milwaukee he moved close to $57 million in church funds to protect the archdioscese from clergy sexual abuse victims who were asking to be compensated.

In a statement released Monday, Dolan — who is now the cardinal archbishop of New York, the preeminent post in the U.S. church — has denied attempting to keep the funds from sexual abuse victims. This follows the release of files by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee which show that he asked the Vatican for permission to move the more than $57 million into a cemetery trust fund reports, the New York Times.

The communications office of the Archdiocese of New York stated Monday:

“Unfortunately, we have already seen how the release of these documents will cause some to raise old and discredited attacks — like priest-abusers having been ‘paid’ to apply for laicization, (like it or not, bishops do have a canon law obligation to provide basic support like health care and room and board for their priests until they have finally moved on) or that establishing a perpetual care fund from money belonging to cemeteries and designated for that purpose — as required by state law and mandated by the archdiocesan finance council — was an attempt to shield it from the bankruptcy proceedings. While certain groups can be counted upon to take certain statements and events out of context, the documents released show plainly that the bishops have been faithful to the promises made over a decade ago: permanent removal from ministry of any priest who abused a minor; complete cooperation with law enforcement officials; and strict, child-safety requirements.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Karen Herzog of the Journal Sentinel July 1, 2013

It took nearly 40 years from the first time Milwaukee priest Daniel Budzynski sexually abused a child until he was finally, firmly told by former Archbishop Timothy Dolan not to wear his collar in public, or present himself as a priest.

Budzynski, who told authorities that he was sexually abused as a child, was linked in 1994 to the sexual abuse of some 50 individuals at 11 different parishes between 1965 and 1994 — many of which he admitted to and described in detail.

When the first allegation from a victim surfaced in August 1973, then-Archbishop William Cousins told Budzynski to take a leave of absence because remaining in the parish could induce publicity that should be avoided.

In 1982, officials sent Budzynski to a residential treatment facility for alcohol abuse and psycho-sexual problems. But once he completed the program, he continued to offend.

His case is detailed in correspondence and internal files released Monday as part of Archdiocesan bankruptcy proceedings. The Budzynski case illustrates the church’s practice of transferring documented predators from parish to parish over decades while the abuse continued and officials worried about the financial liability if victims came forward.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox 6

[with video]

July 1, 2013, by Bryan Polcyn

MILWAUKEE – Father Daniel Budzynski is accused of molesting more than 40 young boys over 31 years, while the Milwaukee Archdiocese shuffled him around to a dozen local parishes. For all those years, the church never told parishioners or the public what it knew.

Timeline of events
Supporting documents
Deposition

Budzynski eventually told some of his victims that he’s sorry. And according a handwritten letter he sent to one victim, he’s asked God to forgive him, too. But when the Fox 6 Investigators called on Monday, Budzynski was in no mood to discuss it.

Bryan Polcyn/FOX 6 Investigators: “Can you explain why you continued to move from parish to parish after all of those years of sexual abuse?”

Daniel Budzynksi/Former Priest: “I tell you I have nothing to say about it.”

According to documents released by the Archdiocese, Budzynski’s molestation began at St. Helen’s parish in 1956. It continued at St. Hedwig’s in 1962. In 1966, Budzynski petitioned the church to become a guidance counselor at St. Paul’s parish, because he was “especially interested in helping boys.”

He later admitted to molesting 17 of them, including an alter boy who says Budzynski “made sure to bless us after every mass,” a reference to regular sexual assaults.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)/ ST. PAUL (MN)
Star Tribune

[the documents – Jeff Anderson & Associates]

[the documents – Milwaukee archdiocese]

Article by: ROSE FRENCH , Star Tribune Updated: July 1, 2013

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee released 6,000 pages of documents related to clergy sex abuse on Monday, including the personnel files of more than three dozen priests and the depositions of church leaders such as New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, former Milwaukee archbishop.

The documents were made public as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court between the archdiocese and the hundreds of victims suing it for fraud — a majority of whom are represented by prominent St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson.

During a news conference held at Anderson’s law offices Monday, he stood in front of the reams of church documents and accused bishops and Vatican leaders of refusing to respond quickly enough in addressing reported abuse. Victims accuse the archdiocese of transferring problem priests to new churches without warning parishioners and covering up priests’ crimes for decades.

“We see a sense of cowardice among the clerics at the top that contrasts with the courage of the [abuse] survivors who … disclosed the secret … and demanded exposure and closure,” Anderson said. “These survivors chose to stand up against them.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTMJ

[with video]

By Steve Chamraz

MILWAUKEE — Details buried in thousands of pages of once-secret church files do not come as a surprise to John Pilmaier.

Rather, they reinforce the things Pilmaier came to believe about the Archdiocese of Milwaukee after he come forward as a victim of sexual abuse.

“For a faith institution to lie to the people they’ve hurt the most is really atrocious,” Pilmaier said in an interview Monday evening. “The documents are, really, as close to the truth as we are ever gonna get.”

Pilmaier was one of nearly 20 boys abused by Father David Hanser. As the documents in Hanser’s file show, it was abuse documented by the Archdiocese over decades.

The file also documents how church leaders continued to let Hanser move from position to position — even after abuse came to light.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
NBC 26

[with video]

By Alex Hagan

Dozens of priests, hundreds of victims. New documents just released by the Milwaukee Archdiocese name more than forty priests accused of molesting minors. It’s all part of a deal between the church and sex abuse victims suing for fraud.

The names of all 45 offending priests including 15 spending time in Fond Du Lac and Sheboygan, now available to anyone on the Diocese’s website.

People in Green Bay say it’s a step forward for the Catholic Church.

“I think the church has been hiding a lot of things and i wish they hadn’t,” says Charlie Hagen of Green Bay.

“Alleviate the mysteriousness that people think surrounds the Catholic church,” says Jaena Manson of Green Bay.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
CBS 58

by Michele McCormack
Story Created: Jul 1, 2013

MILWAUKEE-Online documents show that back in 2007 Dolan asked for and received permission from the Vatican to move 57 million dollars into a trust fund.

The chief of staff for current Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki said the money mentioned was always set aside in a separate fund for cemetery care and moving it to a trust just formalized the that.

Dolan, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the nation’s most prominent Roman Catholic official, has not been accused of transferring problem priests, after taking over control of the Milwaukee church in 2002 at that point many victims had already gone public.

Back in 2003 roughly a year after becoming leader of the Milwaukee church Dolan warned then Cardinal Ratzinger back who would later become pope..

“as victims organize and become more public, the potential for true scandal is very real.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WBAY

[with video]

[the documents – Jeff Anderson & Associates]

[the documents – Milwaukee archdiocese]

By Tony Ullrich

Milwaukee –
The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee released thousands of pages of documents Monday, publicly revealing how it handled sexual abuse allegations.

It released the documents — 40,000 pages spanning several decades — as part of a deal between the archdiocese and sex abuse victims who are suing it for fraud.

The archdiocese admits the items in the documents reveal “terrible things that happened to children” and it was ill-equipped to respond to the offenders and victims and their families.

The documents include depositions of church leaders and priests’ personnel files.

A Minnesota attorney representing some of the 575 sexual abuse survivors held a news conference Monday calling the revelations “shocking and sickening.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wall Street Journal

By Ben Kesling, Jennifer Maloney

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, when head of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, urged the Vatican to defrock priests who sexually abused children, while also placing some $57 million of church funds in a trust that protected them from being tapped by victims through lawsuits, documents released Monday show.

The documents were part of a trove of thousands of pages released under the archdiocese’s 2011 bankruptcy case, including case files on dozens of alleged pedophile priests and depositions of senior church leaders.

In 2008, Vatican authorities recommended the imposition of a 10-year precept, or suspension, on Thomas Trepanier, a self-admitted offender. Then-Archbishop Dolan asked the Vatican to instead defrock the priest.

“If word got out that the Holy See had left the door open for a reconsideration of Father Trepanier’s case in 10 years our credibility would be seriously damaged,” he wrote in a letter to Rome. The Vatican ended up restricting the priest from ministry indefinitely.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
CTV (Canada)

The Associated Press
Published Monday, July 1, 2013

MILWAUKEE — The cardinal of the Archdiocese of New York, in his former job, warned the future Pope Benedict XVI that “the potential for true scandal is very real” over sex abuse claims, according to documents released Monday.

Former Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan — now president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the nation’s most prominent Roman Catholic official — sought to push problem priests out of the priesthood after people began coming forward with abuse claims in the early 2000s.

Dolan wrote to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, in July 2003 asking to dismiss Daniel Budzynski. Abuse allegations against Budzynski stretched back to the 1970s, and Dolan told Ratzinger that “as victims organize and become more public, the potential for true scandal is very real.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Chicago Tribune

Brendan O’Brien and Geoffrey Davidian
Reuters
10:28 p.m. CDT, July 1, 2013

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – Roman Catholic Church officials in Milwaukee vigorously shielded pedophile priests and protected church funds from lawsuits during a decades-long sex abuse scandal, according to hundreds of documents released on Monday.

The documents include letters and deposition testimony from Cardinal and Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan who, during his time as archbishop of Milwaukee from 2002 to 2009, appealed to Vatican on numerous occasions to help address the ongoing fallout from the scandal.

The 6,000 pages of documents related to eight decades of abuse cases showed in great detail the Milwaukee archdiocese regularly reassigned priests who were accused of sexual molestation to new parishes and Dolan himself asking the Vatican permission to transfer $57 million to a trust fund to protect it against court action.

In 2011, the Milwaukee archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing the financial drain of settling sexual-abuse claims and acknowledging missteps by the church in dealing with pedophile priests.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

MARKUS ROHRHOFER, 1. Juli 2013

Am Landesgericht Steyr ist der Strafprozess gegen den ehemaligen Konviktsdirektor des Benediktinerstiftes Kremsmünster gestartet. Die Staatsanwaltschaft erhebt schwere Vorwürfe, Pater A. schweigt – noch

Linz – “Ich sag’ jetzt gar nix dazu” – unmittelbar vor der Verhandlung ist Pater A. gewohnt schweigsam. Behäbig schlurft der 79-jährige Ex-Ordensmann dann – gestützt auf einen Gehstock – in den großen Schwurgerichtssaal des Landesgerichtes Steyr und nimmt vor Richter Wolf-Dieter Graf auf der Anklagebank Platz. Es ist der Auftakt zu einem mit Spannung erwarteten Prozess. Erstmals muss sich seit gestern, Montag, ein hochrangiger Geistlicher im Zusammenhang mit den Missbrauchsfällen in kirchlichen Einrichtungen vor einem weltlichen Strafgericht verantworten.

Vogelfreie Zöglinge

Ruhig und gefasst verfolgt Pater A. die Ausführungen von Staatsanwältin Dagmar Geroldinger. Die Anklage wirft dem mittlerweile laisierten, ehemaligen Konviktsdirektors des Stiftes Kremsmünster Angriffe gegen die körperliche und sexuelle Integrität von 24 seiner ehemaligen Schüler vor. Neben sexuellen Übergriffen soll es Schläge, teils mit einer Ochsenpeitsche, Tritte, “Stereowatschen”, das Ausreißen von Haaren oder das “Vogelfrei-Erklären” gegeben haben. Bei Letzterem seien die Mitschüler dazu ermuntert worden, den Betreffenden zu drangsalieren, ohne Konsequenzen befürchten zu müssen.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)

John Hooper in Rome
The Guardian, Monday 1 July 2013

Sweeping changes at the top of the Vatican’s scandal-ridden bank were announced on Monday night following the arrest of a senior church official in the latest of a string of scandals to have hit the institution.

The bank’s recently appointed president, Ernst von Freyberg, said its two top officials – the director and deputy director – had both resigned. He thanked them for their “personal dedication” but added: “It is clear today that we need new leadership.”

The departures came three days after the arrest of an official in another Vatican financial department, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano. The Italian authorities said he was a suspect in two inquiries involving alleged corruption and money laundering respectively.

Transactions made through Scarano’s accounts at the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) – popularly known as the Vatican bank – are central to both investigations. The IOR, which does not lend money and is thus not technically a bank, was set up in 1942 to handle the deposits mainly of church organisations and individual clerics. But accounts are known to have been opened for outsiders and the IOR has repeatedly been at the heart of financial scandals, often involving alleged money-laundering.

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CALIFORNIA
The Record Searchlight

SACRAMENTO — With jury selection expected to begin mid-month, a suspended Redding priest charged with seven felony counts of child molestation was back today in Sacramento County Superior Court for a pre-trial defense motion to try to block statements he allegedly made to a Sacramento diocese official and a private investigator.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, 33, who was arrested Nov. 30, 2011, is accused of lewd and lascivious acts with a teenage girl over a two-year span — starting when she was 14 — in Sacramento and Shasta counties, according to the criminal complaint.

Ojeda, who is free of jail custody on $70,000 bail, was the assistant pastor at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Redding at the time of his arrest.

The Sacramento Bee reported today that Ojeda took the witness stand and said he thought he believed his statements to church officials were confidential.

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NEW YORK
WPIX

[with video]

by Mary Murphy
Reporter

NEW YORK (PIX11) – Timothy Cardinal Dolan lashed out at critics Monday who claimed he moved nearly $57 million dollars in church money into a trust, when he was Archbishop of Milwaukee, so it wouldn’t be vulnerable to lawsuits filed by Catholics who said they were abused by Milwaukee priests.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee released more than six thousand documents Monday, part of a deal it reached in federal court with lawyers representing 570 people who have lawsuits pending against the Catholic Church there.

Dolan was appointed by the Vatican to clean up the Archdiocese in 2002, after the Church’s sexual abuse crisis among the clergy exploded in the United States, and then, around the world.

SEE THE MILWAUKEE PRIEST SEX ABUSE FILES

One of the documents released Monday was a letter written by then-Archbishop Dolan to the Vatican in 2007, seeking permission to transfer money from a cemetery fund into a trust. In the letter, dated June 4, 2007, Dolan wrote, “By transferring these assets to the trust, I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.” The Vatican approved the transfer, during a time when hundreds of lawsuits were being filed against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011, two years after Timothy Dolan left Milwaukee, appointed in 2009 as Archbishop of New York.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTMJ

[with video]

By Lacey Crisp with Jay Sorgi

MILWAUKEE – As Milwaukee’s Archdiocese releases 6,000-plus pages of documents about abuse by its priests, Catholics and a group which represents abuse victims are sounding off.

“This is a shocking and stunning document, how they have concealed and moved not only predator priests, but all the money,” said Peter Isely of SNAP, or Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

SNAP urges all Catholics to read all 6,000 pages.

“I think every Catholic in this Archdiocese should read this carefully because what it’s going to show is that they’ve been lied to,” said John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director.

Jeffrey Anderson is an attorney who represents most of the 500-plus victims who have filed sex abuse claims against the church.

“In order for the future to be safe, it is there and our view the past has to be known. It has to be disclosed. It has to be exposed,” said Anderson.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WCCO

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (WCCO) — Attorneys said 6,000 pages of secret church documents reveal in detail the Vatican’s role in child sex abuse cases.

St. Paul-based attorney Jeff Anderson said the letters show an elaborate abuse cover-up in Milwaukee from the 1950s through today.

Attorneys said the Catholic Church covered up the actions of priests, preventing parishioners from knowing their history.

On Monday, the Milwaukee Archdiocese released the personnel files of 42 priests with verified claims of abuse against them — and the depositions from top church officials.

This information has been made public through a deal between the Catholic Church and sex abuse victims.

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ST. PAUL (MN)
Fox 6

July 1, 2013, by Jenna Sachs

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WITI) — On a day when thousands of pages of documents were released, detailing the role of the Milwaukee Archdiocese in sex abuse cases involving clergy, the group largely responsible for the release of information responded: Minnesota lawyers representing hundreds of Milwaukee’s clergy sex abuse victims.

The Minnesota attorneys on Monday, July 1st applauded the courage of clergy sex abuse survivors, people they hope are feeling a sense of relief and hope after the release of these secret documents.

“They have each done something to contribute to the protection of kids in the future,” Jeff Anderson said.

Anderson is the St. Paul attorney who represents many of the victims of sex abuse by priests who served in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Anderson says many of the victims called Monday their day of triumph.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON July 2, 2013

A SENIOR police officer has told an inquiry that paedophile priest Denis McAlinden boasted of beating child sex abuse charges a decade before he was confronted with new ones.

Detective Inspector Mark Watters was the first witness called before the Special Commission of Inquiry’s second stage of hearings in Newcastle yesterday.

Inspector Watters told of his efforts to find the wanted priest and have him extradited back to the Hunter to face charges of sexually abusing children as young as four.

He told the inquiry that in 2005 he located McAlinden in Western Australia through information that had come to him via an employee of the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese.

He was told by Western Australia police that McAlinden had advanced cancer and only had a short time to live.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By BILL WRIGHT July 2, 2013

Bill Wright is Bishop of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese of the Catholic Church. This is an edited transcript of his submission to the Special Commission of Inquiry.

AS Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle I wish to make an unreserved apology on behalf of the diocese to all those who have suffered as a result of acts or omissions by members of this diocese in relation to the matters before this Special Commission of Inquiry.

My apology must begin with an acknowledgment of the wrongs done.

I acknowledge that two men, Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher, now deceased but once priests of the diocese, repeatedly committed acts of sexual abuse of children.

I acknowledge that the children sometimes suffered further hurt when they were not believed because the offender was a priest.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By MARGARET CUNNEEN July 2, 2013

This is an edited transcript of the opening remarks of Commissioner Margaret Cunneen at the second session of the Special Commission of Inquiry into child sex abuse allegations in the Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

TODAY we start on a new and important part of this inquiry.

While the public hearings to date have concentrated on the conduct of police officers, this second limb focuses on the conduct of Church officials of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, including whether they hindered or co-operated with police investigations.

The sexual abuse of children is abhorrent.

It has a devastating and long-lasting effect on victims and their families, and on the community generally.

It should not be tolerated or condoned by any modern society.

It can be very difficult for children to speak out about sexual abuse. When they do, the collective responsibility to take action weighs heavily on all.

Child sexual abuse by a priest involves a gross breach of trust of the highest magnitude. It breaches the trust of the victims and their families in a manner that is reprehensible and may cause irreparable harm.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON July 2, 2013

THE Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese allegedly knew about paedophilia within its ranks as early as 1953.

Yesterday, 60 years later, and with hundreds more children bearing the scars of sexual abuse, a public courtroom heard those claims for the first time, along with an acknowledgment from the Church that such injustice not only happened, but was allowed to perpetuate.

Some in the public gallery openly wept when Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC and counsel assisting, Julia Lonergan SC, read their opening addresses to the packed Newcastle courtroom.

Ms Cunneen, in her opening address, described the sexual abuse of children as “abhorrent”. When it is committed by a priest, it is “a gross breach of trust of the highest magnitude”.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Patrick Simonaitis of the Journal Sentinel July 1, 2013

Leaders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and several victims of sexual abuse by priests responded Monday to the release of thousands of pages of documents relating to years of sexual abuse released by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee earlier today.

“This is a day of validation for hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of victims of child sexual abuse,” said Peter Isely, the Midwest director of SNAP, said at an afternoon news conference outside of the federal courthouse. “Today is mostly a day of sadness and grief, but it has to turn into a day of accountability and responsibility.”

Isely said the group is sending a letter to federal prosecutors to bring fraud charges against former Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan for his role in transferring funds from the Archdiocese into a cemetery trust fund that would be protected against liability in the Archdiocese’s bankruptcy case.

“In order to solve cases of state fraud, these priests committed federal fraud,” Isely said. “It’s long overdue that there is a federal investigation into this Archdiocese and how they have concealed and moved not only predator priests, but all the money also.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
My Fox Philly

[Payments to Priests Accused of Molesting Children – All Documents]

By M.L. JOHNSON
Associated Press

MILWAUKEE (AP) – As more victims of clergy sex abuse came forward, then-Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan developed a plan to pay some abusers to leave the priesthood after writing to Vatican officials with increasing frustration and concern, warning them about the potential for scandal if they did not defrock problem priests, according to documents released Monday.

Dolan’s correspondence with Vatican officials and priests accused of sexual abuse was included in about 6,000 pages of documents the Archdiocese of Milwaukee released Monday as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court with clergy sex abuse victims suing it for fraud. Victims say the archdiocese transferred problem priests to new churches without warning parishioners and covered up priests’ crimes for decades.

The documents have drawn attention in part because of the involvement of Dolan, who is now cardinal of the Archdiocese of New York and the nation’s most prominent Roman Catholic official by virtue of his position as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The records provide new details on his plan to pay some abusers to leave the priesthood and the transfer of nearly $57 million for cemetery care into a trust as the archdiocese prepared to file for bankruptcy.

Victims and their attorneys accused Dolan of bankruptcy fraud, pointing to a June 2007 letter in which he told a Vatican office that moving the money into a trust would provide “an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Catholic News Service

By Maryangela Layman Roman
Catholic News Service

ST. FRANCIS, Wis. (CNS) — In releasing between 6,000 and 7,000 pages of documentation related to clergy sexual abuse in the Milwaukee Archdiocese, Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki hopes that a chapter in the church’s history can be closed and that healing for abuse survivors, their families and the church can continue.

He expressed that hope in “Love One Another,” his June 25 email communique to priests and others involved in ministry in the Milwaukee Archdiocese, sent six days before the archdiocese posted the documents on its website: www.archmil.org. The material was posted July 1.

“My hope in voluntarily making these documents public is that they will aid abuse survivors, families and others in understanding the past, reviewing the present and allowing the church in southeastern Wisconsin to continue moving forward,” he wrote.

In early April, the archbishop announced that approximately 3,000 documents from priest personnel files, files of the bishops and vicar for clergy and other sources in the archdiocese would be made public by July 1 and called this planned release an effort to build “upon our commitment to transparency.”

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

A man who suffered abuse at the hands of disgraced priest James Fletcher has applauded Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle Bill Wright for his heartfelt apology to victims of clergy abuse.

Vacy man Peter Gogarty was at Newcastle Supreme Court yesterday when Bishop Wright delivered his response to the Special Commission of Inquiry Concerning the Investigation of Certain Child Sexual Abuse Allegations in the Hunter Region.

“Hearing this apology was a complete surprise, but I thought it was quite heartfelt and I am grateful to him for doing that,” Mr Gogarty said.

“I thought it was a very positive gesture on the bishop’s behalf. He seems to be a very good, decent man who is genuinely upset by this abuse and I think he is appalled that the church allowed this to happen.

“Full credit to him.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Guardian Express

He Viewed The Victims As A Major Inconvenience

Added by Rebecca Savastio on July 1, 2013.

A portion of the proceeds from this article will be donated to SNAP-the Survivor’s Network of Those Abused by Priests. Please share this article on your social networks.

Breaking news out of Milwaukee today as thousands of pages of documents have been released from the Catholic Archdiocese there. The papers show that Archbishop Timothy Dolan bribed priests to keep them quiet about the child sex abuse scandal, purposely shuttled nearly 57 million dollars out of the Milwaukee Archdiocese before it declared bankruptcy in an attempt to avoid paying settlements to victims, and was far more concerned with accused priests’ well-being and comfort than with the victims themselves. The papers, published on the Archdiocese website as well as on the website of victims’ lawyers, detail depositions, personnel files and court papers in relation to 42 separate child sexual abuse cases.

In preparation of the publication of the documents, Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki of Milwaukee wrote a letter to his congregation, attempting to explain how the church has had to undergo an “arc of understanding” to comprehend the fact that molesting children is a criminal act. In one paragraph, he says “The arc of understanding sexual abuse of a minor progressed from being seen as a moral failing and sin that needed personal resolve and spiritual direction; to a psychological deficiency that required therapy and could be cured; to issues of addiction requiring more extensive therapy and restrictions on ministry; to recognition of the long-term effects of abuse and the need to hold the perpetrator accountable for this criminal activity.”

While most would say that sexual abuse of a minor would automatically be considered a criminal act for which the perpetrator should be held accountable, the church seems to have taken nearly 80 years coming to that conclusion. Owning up to the mistakes, Listecki said, took a long time because the church only realized that having sex with children was wrong when they looked back upon their actions. “Acknowledging our past… includes facing up to mistakes that were made, even if some of those mistakes become apparent only in hindsight” he writes.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
BishopAccountability.org

Statement by Terence McKiernan, President of BishopAccountability.org
July 1, 2013

Thanks to the determination of survivors and Judge Susan V. Kelley’s recent expressed intention to lift her protective order, a significant collection of documents and depositions has been released by Jeffrey Anderson, attorney for many of the survivors, and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The archive is large and will take time to assess, but it will clearly enhance our understanding of the sexual abuse of children by archdiocesan priests, the fraudulent conduct of the archdiocese, and in particular, the role of now-Cardinal Dolan in managing abuse cases and archdiocesan finances.

The documents provide additional evidence that, contrary to Cardinal Dolan’s repeated denials, he concluded settlements with numerous offending priests, paying them bounties if they would agree to request laicization for sexually abusing children. The archive also contains an important 2007 exchange of letters between Dolan and the Vatican on the eve of the bankruptcy filing, in which Dolan asked permission to shelter $56.9 million, envisioning “an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.” The revelations about these actions, and Dolan’s denials, raise the question whether he is fit to lead the USCCB and the Archdiocese of New York. Documents also demonstrate that requests for laicization, which had been handled slowly by Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, continued to be processed at a snail’s pace, and that children continued to be endangered thereby, after Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI.

The archive released today does not include documents on the many religious order priests accused of abusing children in Milwaukee, and the archive offers only a sample of each file that was released. But the archive deepens our knowledge of the atrocious abuse suffered by children in the archdiocese, and sheds a harsh light on the conduct of Cardinal Dolan, Pope Benedict, and others in positions of responsibility.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox 6

July 1, 2013, by Katie DeLong

MILWAUKEE (WITI) — On Monday, July 1st, thousands of pages of documents, detailing the role of the Milwaukee Archdiocese and its officials in sex abuse cases involving clergy, and actions of the Archdiocese as it relates to finances and the Archdiocese’s bankruptcy proceedings were released. One group responding to the release is SNAP — the Survivor’s Network for Those Abused by Priests. SNAP is now calling out former Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan for his role in the transferring of money from the Archdiocese to a trust.

SNAP says on June 4, 2007, then Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee, now Cardinal of New York, sent a letter to the Vatican requesting permission to transfer nearly $57 million dollars from the assets of the archdiocese into a new “autonomous pious foundation” called a “Cemetery Perpetual Care Trust.”

SNAP says, while this was occurring, the Milwaukee Archdiocese was facing a growing number of potential claims for fraud in concealing and transferring known child sex offenders.

SNAP says the documents released on Monday show that Dolan had considered bankruptcy for the archdiocese as early as 2004.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
CBS New York

MILWAUKEE (CBSNewYork/AP) – Former Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan sought and received permission from the Vatican to move $57 million from a cemetery fund into a trust to provide “improved protection” as the archdiocese prepared to file for bankruptcy amid dozens of claims by victims of clergy sex abuse, according to documents made public Monday.

Dolan’s 2007 letter, which he wrote while serving as archbishop in Milwaukee, and the Vatican’s response were included in thousands of pages of documents the archdiocese released as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court between the archdiocese and clergy sex abuse victims suing it for fraud. Victims say the archdiocese transferred problem priests to new churches without warning parishioners and covered up priests’ crimes for decades.

EXTRA: Read Dolan’s Deposition (pdf) | Documents Released By Milwaukee Archdiocese

“Responding to victim-survivors, taking action against priest-abusers, and working to implement policies to protect children, were some of the most difficult, challenging, and moving events of the 6 ½ years that I served as Archbishop of Milwaukee,” Dolan said in a statement released Monday. “One of the principles that guided me during that time was the need for transparency and openness, which is why I not only welcomed the deposition as a chance to go on-the-record with how we responded to the clergy sexual abuse crisis during my years in Milwaukee, but also encouraged that it be released.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WISN

[Cardinal Dolan deposition]

[deposition exhibits]

MILWAUKEE —Cardinal Timothy Dolan said he found a diocese full of “hurting souls” in Milwaukee as the priest sexual abuse scandal exploded in 2002, the same year Dolan was appointed archbishop of Milwaukee.

Clergy sex abuse documents and depositions from the Milwaukee archdiocese are released as part of its bankruptcy proceedings.

Dolan’s most extensive comments yet on the scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church were revealed Monday in a deposition he gave on Feb. 20, 2013, in New York City, where he is now archbishop. The deposition was part of thousands of pages of documents released in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s bankruptcy case.

Dolan told the attorney taking the deposition that he believed he had an obligation to his people.

“The souls of some people who had been damaged in a nauseating way when they were young people, they were hurting, their parents were hurting, the parishes were hurting,” Dolan said in the deposition.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
The New York Times

Documents on Clergy Offenders
Archdiocese of Milwaukee
Lawyers of the Abused

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: July 1, 2013

Files released by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee on Monday revealed that in 2007, the diocese’s archbishop at the time, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, requested permission from the Vatican to move nearly $57 million into a cemetery trust fund in order to protect the assets from victims of clergy sexual abuse who were demanding compensation.

Cardinal Dolan, now the archbishop of New York, has in the past emphatically denied seeking to shield church funds as archbishop of Milwaukee, and he reiterated in a statement on Monday that these were “old and discredited attacks.”

However, the files released Monday contain a letter he wrote to the Vatican in 2007, in which he explained that by transferring the assets, “I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.”

The Vatican moved swiftly to approve the request, the files show, even though it often took years to remove known abusers from the priesthood.

Abuse victims demanding transparency and accountability have long pressed for the release of the documents, and the victims’ lawyers had asked a judge to compel their release. One day before a judicial hearing in April, the archbishop of Milwaukee, Jerome E. Listecki, announced his intention to release the documents.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
The Guardian (UK)

[Permission to transfer funds]

Associated Press in Milwaukee
guardian.co.uk, Monday 1 July 2013

The cardinal of the archdiocese of New York, in his former job, sought permission from the Vatican to move $57m into a trust for “improved protection” as the Milwaukee archdiocese prepared to file for bankruptcy amid dozens of claims by victims of clergy sex abuse, according to documents made public on Monday.

The Vatican granted the request of former Milwaukee archbishop Timothy Dolan, who is president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the nation’s most prominent Roman Catholic official.

Monday’s release of about 6,000 pages of documents has drawn national attention because of Dolan’s involvement.

His 2007 letter, and the Vatican’s response, were among the documents the archdiocese released as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court between the archdiocese and clergy sex abuse victims suing it for fraud. Victims say the archdiocese transferred problem priests to new churches without warning parishioners and covered up priests’ crimes for decades.

Dolan has not been accused of transferring problem priests, and he took over as archbishop in Milwaukee in mid-2002, after many victims had already come forward. But there have been questions about his response to the crisis.

The victims’ attorneys have accused Dolan of trying to hide the $57m as the Milwaukee archdiocese planned for bankruptcy. The archdiocese denies those allegations.

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DOMINICA
Dominica News

The head of the largest religious organization in Dominica says he will not be intimidated, as investigations of alleged sexual misconduct by a local priest continue.

Recently, allegations surfaced, that 19 years ago, Father Reginald Lafleur sexually abused a young woman, prompting a decision to send him on administrative leave.

However, that move did not go down well with Grandbay parishioners who staged a massive demonstration in support of Fr. Lafleur, their Parish priest, during Sunday mass.

Bishop of Roseau His Lordship Gabriel Malzaire, who, for the first time, has spoken publicly about the matter, has said that the behavior of the parishioners was unfortunate.

“As the Bishop I have rules to follow. Rules that are stated by the church. Rules that are stated by canon law-the laws that govern the church and In cases of allegations of sexual abuse in the church, we are duty bound to respond in a certain way…Unfortunately the reactions were the way it was and things were communicated the way it was communicated but I was only following the rules of the church,” he said during mass on Sunday.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Catholic League

[Cardinal Dolan deposition]

Bill Donohue comments on the deposition by Cardinal Timothy Dolan that was released today regarding his tenure as Archbishop of Milwaukee; the deposition was taken in February:

Under questioning by Jeffrey Anderson, an activist lawyer, Cardinal Dolan gravely disappointed the enemies of the Catholic Church: they were denied their “gotcha” moment. Indeed, pint-sized Anderson didn’t lay a glove on the big guy.

Boring. That is the most accurate word to describe the deposition. Here is a list of the topics that Anderson pursued: the statute of limitations; a public list of accused priests; the process of handling deceased and elderly priests; laicization; false and substantiated allegations; compensation for priests let go from ministry; cemetery funds; parish finances; the scope of an archbishop’s authority; the effect of the scandal on Catholics.

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NEW YORK
Beaumont Enterprise

NEW YORK (AP) — The chancellor of Yeshiva University says he was “wrong” in the way he handled allegations of sexual abuse at the university’s high school decades ago.

In a letter announcing his retirement on Monday, Rabbi Norman Lamm says his response to the allegations was “ill-conceived.” Lamm is stepping down after decades at the university amid an ongoing investigation into accusations of abuse by alumni.

The university says Lamm’s decision to retire was based on an agreement reached with the school three years ago.

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NEW YORK
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York

July 1, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 1, 2013

STATEMENT OF TIMOTHY CARDINAL DOLAN ON THE RELEASE OF HIS DEPOSITION BY THE ARCHDIOCESE OF MILWAUKEE

“I welcome today’s voluntary release of documents by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee that contain information and details related to sexual abuse by clergy, and how the Archdiocese of Milwaukee responded to it. I am especially grateful that my deposition of February 2013, given as part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, is one of the documents being released.

Responding to victim-survivors, taking action against priest-abusers, and working to implement policies to protect children, were some of the most difficult, challenging, and moving events of the 6 ½ years that I served as Archbishop of Milwaukee. One of the principles that guided me during that time was the need for transparency and openness, which is why I not only welcomed the deposition as a chance to go on-the-record with how we responded to the clergy sexual abuse crisis during my years in Milwaukee, but also encouraged that it be released.

Unfortunately, we have already seen how the release of these documents will cause some to raise old and discredited attacks – like priest-abusers having been “paid” to apply for laicization, (like it or not, bishops do have a canon law obligation to provide basic support like health care and room and board for their priests until they have finally moved on) or that establishing a perpetual care fund from money belonging to cemeteries and designated for that purpose – as required by state law and mandated by the archdiocesan finance council – was an attempt to shield it from the bankruptcy proceedings. While certain groups can be counted-upon to take certain statements or events out of context, the documents released show plainly that the bishops have been faithful to the promises made over a decade ago: permanent removal from ministry of any priest who abused a minor; complete cooperation with law enforcement officials; and, strict child-safety requirements. The sexual abuse of minors is a crime and it is a sin. The Church must remain rigorous in our response when an allegation of abuse is received, and ever-vigilant in maintaining our safeguards to do all that we can to see that children are protected. It is my hope that the release of these documents will also help to show how the Catholic Church in the United States has become a leader in dealing with the society-wide scourge of sexual abuse, and help other groups and organizations who are also seeking combat this evil.”

You may read the deposition here.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Sun Herald

[Daniel Budzynski]

By M.L. JOHNSON — Associated Press

MILWAUKEE — Former Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan sought to push problem priests out of the priesthood to avoid further scandal after sex abuse victims began coming forward in the early 2000s.

Many victims in Milwaukee began coming forward in 2002 after news broke about clergy abuse in Boston.

Dolan wrote to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, in July 2003 asking to dismiss Daniel Budzynski.

Abuse allegations against Budzynski stretched to the 1970s, and Dolan told Ratzinger in correspondence made public Monday that “as victims organize and become more public, the potential for true scandal is very real.”

The Vatican removed Budzynski from the priesthood in 2004.

Dolan’s letter is part documents the Milwaukee archdiocese released Monday. Dolan is currently the cardinal of the New York archdiocese.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Jul. 1, 2013

Pages and pages of paperwork documenting clergy sex abuse in the Milwaukee archdiocese were released Monday afternoon, providing insight to priest abuse cases over the years as well as New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s request to move church assets to protect them from a bankruptcy filing before he left Milwaukee in 2009.

Jeff Anderson, a lawyer representing the victims of clergy sex abuse in the archdiocese, said in a press conference Monday that the newly released documents show that decisions were made to move $147 million to a fund for cemetery maintenance and to parishes under Dolan, then archbishop of Milwaukee. Anderson said the Vatican acted with unprecedented speed to approve the transfer of the money.

Anderson said the request to move the money was made in a June 4, 2007, letter to the Vatican and was approved July 18, 2007.

Anderson compared the speed of the money transfer to the years it took to act on abusive priests. Specifically, he said, Fr. John Wagner was accused of abusing 10 minors, and though he admitted some of the misconduct, he remained a priest for more than seven years after the allegations were made.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Dolan 2007 letter to Vatican is “smoking gun” proving he committed federal bankruptcy fraud, victims say

Dolan 2007 letter to Vatican is “smoking gun” proving he committed federal bankruptcy fraud, victims say

New York Cardinal conspired with Vatican while in Milwaukee to transfer nearly $57 million into new corporation for the “protection” of funds “from any legal claim and liability”

Milwaukee Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January 2011 not claiming Dolan’s transferred funds as assets

Survivors asking US attorney to investigate Dolan for criminal charges of “fraudulent conveyance”

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee)
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

Dolan letter to Vatican at this link:

On June 4, 2007, then Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee, now Cardinal of New York, sent a letter to the Vatican requesting permission to transfer nearly $57 million dollars from the assets of the archdiocese into a new “autonomous pious foundation” called a “Cemetery Perpetual Care Trust.”

While this was occurring the Milwaukee Archdiocese was facing a growing number of potential claims for fraud in concealing and transferring known child sex offenders. Dolan had considered bankruptcy for the archdiocese as early as 2004.

According to the letter to Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Prefect of the powerful Congregation of the Clergy in Rome, Dolan said he had already established the Trust on May 4, 2007, after “extensive study and consultation” and was seeking permission from the Vatican to make the transfer.

Dolan then clearly states his intent for creating the Trust: “By transferring these assets to the Trust, they will be protected by any legal claim and liability.”

On July 1, 2007 the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled unanimously that civil cases for fraud against the Milwaukee Archdiocese could proceed.

Two weeks later, on July 18, 2007 Dolan got his approval from Rome and the money, presumably, was then transferred.

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NEW YORK
JTA

By Uriel Heilman
July 1, 2013

Rabbi Norman Lamm, who serves as Yeshiva University’s president, chancellor and head of its rabbinical school, announced his departure on Monday in a letter acknowledging his failure to respond adequately to sexual abuse allegations against two rabbis at Y.U.’s high school for boys in the 1980s. [UPDATE: The school has issued a statement saying that “Rabbi Lamm’s decision to retire is based on an agreement that was reached three years ago” and “his contract expired June 30.”

The full text of his letter, which was sent to students, faculty, alumni and donors, according to a Y.U. spokesman, follows. He addresses the sexual allegations in paragraphs 6-9.

Dear Friends,

When we celebrated the ninetieth birthday of my dear father, zikhrono liverakhah, I cited the Mishnah in Avot 5:21, ben tish’im la-shu-ach. Despite the standard explanation that at ninety years old a person is stooped and decrepit, and there is much truth to that, I offered a more sensitive and profound interpretation. Without going into all of the details, I observed that hishtachavayah, the prostration of the attendee at the Jerusalem Temple, was the final ritual performed at the culmination of the divine service. Through prostration pilgrims stopped to reflect on their heavenly encounter and offered their gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity to serve God through the divine service. At ninety, I suggested, a person stops to reflect on a life well lived, a family raised, professional and personal achievements, spiritual growth, accomplishments, mistakes, successes and failures—and pauses for hishtachavayah, a moment of reflection, gratitude, and appreciation.

While I have yet to reach my father’s age, at this moment of transition in accordance with an agreement reached 3 years ago—as I step down from my positions as Chancellor of Yeshiva University and Rosh Hayeshivah, ending over sixty years of official affiliation with my beloved Yeshiva University as student, faculty member, Rosh Hayeshivah, President, and Chancellor—I use this moment for mishtachavim u-modim—pause, reflection, and expression of gratitude. Before beginning, I want to acknowledge that conditions have caused me to rely on help from my family in writing this letter.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

In a letter announcing his resignation, Yeshiva University’s chancellor, Rabbi Norman Lamm, acknowledged his failure to respond adequately to allegations of sexual abuse against Y.U. rabbis in the 1980s.

Lamm, now 85, became the school’s third president and head of its rabbinic school, the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, in 1976. He stepped down as president in 2003, becoming chancellor, but stayed on as RIETS’s head.

His resignation Monday from his posts at the school were attributed to an agreement reached three years ago and come several months after a report in the Forward newspaper that detailed allegations of abuse dating back to the 1970s and ‘80s against two rabbis at Y.U.’s high school for boys, principal George Finkelstein and Talmud teacher Macy Gordon.

Last December, Lamm acknowledged to the Forward that he knew about some of the allegations but chose to deal with them privately; law enforcement authorities were never informed.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The director and deputy director of the Vatican bank have resigned following the arrest of a senior Italian cleric over corruption and fraud allegations.

Paolo Cipriani and Massimo Tulli offered to step down on Monday “in the best interest of the institute and the Holy See”, the Vatican says.

It comes three days after the arrest of Monsignor Nunzio Scarano.

The 61-year-old and two others are suspected of trying to move 20m euros ($26m; £17m) illegally.

Monsignor Scarano, a priest from southern Italy, worked for years as a senior accountant for a Vatican department known as Apsa (the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See).

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VATICAN CITY
Wall Street Journal

By STACY MEICHTRY And GIADA ZAMPANO

VATICAN CITY—Two top managers at the Vatican bank resigned on Monday, in the latest shake-up at the scandal-plagued institution, the Holy See said.

Paolo Cipriani—managing director of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione, or IOR, as the Vatican bank is known—stepped down along with his deputy, Massimo Tulli.

As the highest-ranking administrators at the bank reporting, Messrs. Cipriani and Tulli spearheaded efforts under former Pope Benedict XVI to clean up the Vatican bank and make it more accountable to outside regulators.

“While we are grateful for what has been achieved, it is clear today that we need new leadership to increase the pace of this transformation process,” Vatican bank Chairman Ernest von Freyberg said.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

Mon Jul 1, 2013

(Adds detail, background)

(Reuters) – The director and deputy director of the Vatican bank resigned on Monday, following the arrest of a senior cleric with close connections to the bank who is accused of plotting to smuggle 20 million euros ($26 million) into Italy from Switzerland.

A statement from the Vatican said Paolo Cipriani and Massimo Tulli had handed in their resignations, three days after the arrest of Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, an accountant in a Vatican department who is the subject of two separate investigations by Italian magistrates.

Ernst von Freyberg, the bank’s president will take over as interim director general and a new position of chief risk officer will also be created to improve compliance with financial regulations.

In the latest of a series of blows to the Vatican’s scandal-plagued bank, Scarano, 61, was arrested on Friday along with Giovanni Zito, a secret services agent, and financial broker Giovanni Carenzio.

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VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

The director and the deputy director of the Vatican Bank have resigned. This comes three days after a Vatican official was arrested in a financial scandal as the pope seeks to clean up the bank.

The Vatican announced on Monday that Paolo Cipriani, director of the Vatican bank, and his deputy, Massimo Tulli, had stepped down “in the best interest of the institute and the Holy See.”

The bank has come under increased scrutiny since Pope Francis assumed the papacy, and has long been of interest to Italian authorities who suspect it is used as a tax haven.

Last week, a Vatican accountant was placed under arrest as part of an investigation by authorities in Rome into the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), as the bank is officially called.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano is suspected of taking part in a plot to smuggle 20 million euros ($26 million) into Italy from Switzerland. He and two other accomplices are thought to have planned to give the money to Scarano’s friends in the shipping industry in the southern city of Salerno. Scarano is being investigated in Salerno on separate charges of money laundering.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston.com

By NICOLE WINFIELD / Associated Press / July 1, 2013

ROME (AP) — The director of the embattled Vatican bank and his deputy resigned Monday following the latest developments in a broadening finance scandal that has already landed one Vatican monsignor in prison and added urgency to Pope Francis’ reform efforts.

The Vatican said in a statement that Paolo Cipriani and his deputy, Massimo Tulli, stepped down ‘‘in the best interest of the institute and the Holy See.’’

Cipriani, along with the bank’s then-president, was placed under investigation by Rome prosecutors in 2010 for alleged violations of Italy’s anti-money-laundering norms after financial police seized 23 million euro ($30 million) from a Vatican account at a Rome bank. Neither has been charged and the money was eventually ordered released.

But the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, has remained under the glare of prosecutors and now Francis amid fresh concerns it has been used as an offshore tax haven.

Last week, a Vatican accountant was arrested as part of Rome prosecutors’ broadening investigation into the IOR. Monsignor Nunzio Scarano is accused of corruption and slander in connection with a plot to smuggle 20 million euro ($26 million) into Italy from Switzerland without reporting it to customs officials.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[the documents – Jeff Anderson & Associates]

[the documents – Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee]

For immediate release: Monday, July 1

Keeping their secrets until the last possible day, Milwaukee’s archbishop finally released long-hidden records about heinous clergy sex crimes and cover ups today. He did so, however, while working hard to “spin” the documents, obscure the truth and deceive parishioners and the public about this on-going scandal.

We beg Catholics everywhere to carefully read these files. Kids are safer when cover ups are unveiled and understood. And the horrific truth is best understood when the actual writings and deeds of Catholic officials are studied, not when they are spun or summarized or sanitized by church public relations experts. We hope that Catholics and citizens will ignore the carefully crafted spin that Listecki continues to put out designed to minimize the inexcusable, recklessness, and callousness of dozens of his colleagues and supervisors.

We hope law enforcement officials will also scour these files. We suspect that there are some current or former Wisconsin Catholic officials who may yet be prosecuted for destroying evidence, intimidating victims, obstructing justice or other violations. The archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations may prevent some (but perhaps not all) of the predators from being pursued. But we hope that police and prosecutors will work very hard to determine if any of those who committed or concealed these horrific crimes might be charged.

We hope that Catholics will look carefully at how their donations are being manipulated to deny justice to victims. We believe the records will show that millions of dollars have been deliberately – and deceptively – shifted in secrecy to funds that will enable selfish Catholic officials to hang on to them.

The records show Milwaukee church officials pretending to be powerless over predators who haven’t yet been defrocked by a callous, slow-moving Vatican bureaucracy. We believe bishops should insist that suspended predator priests live in remote, independent, secure treatment centers while still on the church payroll. Bishops act as if they can do nothing until Rome defrocks a pedophile. But that’s irresponsible. As long as a priest is a priest, his bishop can order him to live in a particular place. That place – for credibly accused child molesting clerics – is in a treatment facility, not in a neighborhood among unsuspecting families.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON July 2, 2013

Senior church officials knew Denis McAlinden abused an 11-year-old girl in 1953 and still allowed the priest to move between Hunter parishes where he continued to sexually abuse children over four decades, a sex abuse inquiry has heard.

The shocking facts were recounted by counsel assisting – Julia Lonergan SC – who told the special commission of inquiry, internal church correspondence showed clergy members had “extensive knowledge dating back to the 1950s of the serious risk to children posed by McAlinden”.

Part two of the inquiry, which began yesterday, will for the next three weeks examine whether church officials hindered police investigations into paedophilia by failing to report offences, discouraging witnesses from coming forward, alerting offenders about possible police action and destroying evidence.

One of the men who knew of the priest’s paedophilia, Monsignor Patrick Cotter, extracted a confession from McAlinden in 1976 after he sexually abused a primary school student in Forster.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee

List of Clergy Offenders

Detailed information on archdiocesan priests with a substantiated case of sexual abuse of a minor including status, assignments, a historical narrative, timeline, and related documents.

Depositions

Seven depositions given by current and past archdiocesan officials and a former priest, related to clergy sexual abuse of minors in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Additional Documents

Miscellaneous resources including: background check procedures from the early 1990’s, notes on the process to release the clergy offender names in 2004 and monitoring logs related to clergy offenders.
Clergy Offender Document Release Communications

Various archdiocesan communications related to the release of documents on July 1, 2013.

A Historical Perspective on Clergy Sexual Abuse of Minors in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee

A review of history shows how thinking has evolved regarding how child sexual abuse cases were handled in society from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, to today, and how the issue of sexual abuse of a minor was handled by law enforcement officials; by therapists and health professionals; and also by Church officials.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee

July 1, 2013

Dr. Monica Applewhite, one of the leading experts on screening, monitoring and policy development for the prevention of sexual abuse, has studied the development of organizational standards of care for prevention and response to child sexual abuse. She reports that, until the mid-1970s, the belief was that child sexual abuse was rare. In the 1980s, professionals began to acknowledge how common child sexual abuse was and that it was a significant problem.

Even after realizing sexual abuse of a minor was more prevalent, including by clergy, it was only in the 1990s that professionals began to recognize the long-term effect of sexual abuse on victims.

From 1985 to 1995, most major religious organizations established policies on sexual misconduct that included codes of ethics, polices on reporting and procedures for responding to sexual abuse by ministers.

On a national level, in June 1992, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (then the National Conference of Catholic Bishops) adopted its five principles to follow in dealing with accusations of sexual abuse, and, the following year, formalized an Ad Hoc committee of the Bishops’ Conference on Sexual Abuse. This Committee continued to produce materials for dioceses to implement as ways of responsibly addressing this issue.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee released thousands of pages of documents Monday detailing for the first time how its bishops and other top leaders responded to the sexual abuse of children by dozens of its priests going back decades.

The documents, including parts of personnel files and depositions of church leaders — among them New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a former Milwaukee archbishop — were made public as part of the Milwaukee archdiocese’s bankruptcy. They were expected to offer an unprecedented look at how what has become a global crisis in the Roman Catholic Church played out in southeastern Wisconsin.

The documents were posted online shortly before 1 p.m. by victims’ attorneys at www.andersonadvocates.com. The Journal Sentinel will repost those in a searchable format shortly at www.jsonline.com.

Archbishop Jerome Listecki warned local Catholics late last week about the disturbing nature of many of the documents, saying “prepare to be shocked.” And the archdiocese on Saturday issued a series of talking points and a Q&A for pastors and lay leaders to use in their parishes.

Victims and their attorneys called it a historic moment that would vindicate survivors, many of whom, they said, were “re-victimized” by the actions of church leaders and continue to live in “shame and silence.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox 6

July 1, 2013, by Cary Docter

MILWAUKEE (WITI) – Thousands of pages of secret church documents and depositions were released on Monday, July 1st. They detail the Vatican’s role and the role of Milwaukee churches in priest sex abuse cases.

CLICK HERE to view all of the released documents

What will people find in reading these documents? Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki offered this summary in a blog posted in April.

The incidents of abuse date back 25, 50, even 80 years.

The vast majority of perpetrators were not known to the archdiocese until years after they committed the abuse.

Reports of abuse were often not brought to the archdiocese or civil authorities until decades after they occurred.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Huffington Post

[Cardinal Dolan deposition]

[Cemetery documents]

Michael D’Antonio

Documents released today in Milwaukee show that Catholic church leaders, including then archbishop Timothy Dolan, deliberately transferred $59 million to a trust in order to protect it from the claims of people who had been sexually abused by local priests. In a letter to a Vatican official, Dolan, now cardinal archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York, explains that the move will provide “improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.”

The Dolan letter, sent in 2007, is among 5,000 pages made public as part of a bankruptcy proceeding in which the $59 million trust is a point of contention for hundreds of people who have filed claims of clergy abuse. The files also include correspondence in which Dolan informs the Vatican that proposals to change statutes of limitations on sex abuse claims could adversely affect the Milwaukee archdiocese.

Overall, the picture of Dolan that emerges in the papers is one of an administrator struggling to protect an institution’s assets while defending its reputation. Some documents confirm that payments were made to induce priests who were accused of abuse to leave ministry and give up their faculties. Others show the bishop’s frustration with Vatican officials and their slow-moving response to his requests that men who were credibly accused be dismissed from the priesthood. As years pass and the cases remain unresolved he referenced legislation that would allow for more lawsuits and wrote:

“The more we can demonstrate our seriousness about purifying the priesthood, as the Holy Father has implored us to do, the more we can speak credibly about the adverse effect of such legislation. Our critics challenge us on the fact that known abusers have still not been laicized.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Duluth News Tribune

By M.L. JOHNSON Associated Press

MILWAUKEE
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee released thousands of pages of documents related to clergy sex abuse Monday, including the personnel files of more than three dozen priests and the depositions of church leaders including New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the former archbishop of Milwaukee.

The documents were made public as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court between the archdiocese and victims suing it for fraud. Victims say the archdiocese transferred problem priests to new churches without warning parishioners and covered up priests’ crimes for decades. Many pushed for the documents’ release in the belief that it would be an important part of their healing.

The collection also has drawn interest because of the involvement of Dolan, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the nation’s most prominent Roman Catholic official. Dolan has not been accused of transferring problem priests. He took over as archbishop in mid-2002, after many victims had already come forward. But there have been questions about his response to the crisis, including payments made to abusive priests when they left the church.

The archdiocese has characterized the money, as much as $20,000 in some cases, as a kind of severance pay meant to help priests transition out of the ministry. Similar amounts were made to men leaving the priesthood long before allegations of sexual abuse surfaced in the Catholic church, spokeswoman Julie Wolf said last year, when the payments came to light.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

[includes timelines]

• Adamsky, Raymond J.
• Arimond, James L.
• Bandle, Ronald J.
• Beck, James W.
• Becker, Franklyn W.
• Benham, Michael C.
• Bistricky, Frederick J.
• Budzynski, Daniel A.
• Burns, Peter A.
• Collova, S. Joseph
• Doyle, Andrew P., III
• Effinger, William J.
• Engel, Ronald
• Etzel, George A.
• Farrell, William J.
• Flynt, James M.
• Haen, Edmund H.
• Hanser, David J.
• Herbst, Harold
• Hopf, George S.
• Jablonowski, James N.
• Knighton, Marvin T.
• Knotek, John T.
• Krejci, Michael J.
• Kreuzer, Eugene T.
• Krusing, Oswald G.
• Lanser, Jerome E.
• Lesniewski, Eldred B.
• Massie, Daniel J.
• Murphy, Lawrence G.
• Nichols, Richard W.
• Nuedling, George A.
• O’Brien, John A.
• Peters, Donald
• Schouten, Clarence J.
• Silvestri, Vincent A.
• Trepanier, Thomas A.
• Wagner, Jerome A.
• Wagner, John C.
• Walter, Charles W.
• Widera, Siegfried Francis

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Cardinal Dolan Deposition
Cardinal Dolan Deposition Exhibits

Sklba Deposition
Sklba Deposition Exhibits

Wealkand Deposition
Weakland Deposition Exhibits

Budzynski Deposition

Cusack Deposition
Cusack Deposition Exhibits

Reinke Deposition
Reinke Deposition Exhibits

Zimprich Deposition
Zimprich Deposition Exhibits

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DEDHAM (MA)
Patch

Cardinal O’Malley banned a priest from the Austrian Priests’ Initiative from speaking at St. Susanna in Dedham.

Posted by Tamara Starr (Editor), July 1, 2013

The reason was because Schuller is the founder of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative which allows women and married people to become priests. However, many churchgoers of St. Susanna did not believe that was a good reason for the ban.

One woman wouldn’t give her name, but she said that the decision was completely unreasonable.

“I think it’s bologna how they think they can do whatever they want,” she said.

For Julie, another churchgoer, she said that the ban was not going to stop her from seeing him speak.

“If anything, this only makes it more interesting,” she said.

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UNITED STATES
The Plain Dealer

By Michael O’Malley, The Plain Dealer
on July 01, 2013

In discussions and news stories about child sex abuse at the hands of Catholic priests in the United States, attention often turns to Boston, commonly regarded as the ground zero of a crisis that has touched every diocese in the nation.

In 2002, at the height of the cascading scandal, Boston’s Catholic leader, Cardinal Bernard Law, was forced to resign after acknowledging that 80 of his priests faced charges of abuse.

That admission came under pressure from vigilant newspaper reporters and aggressive lawyers who dug through files, documents and depositions, exposing the archdiocese’s harboring of serial sex abusers and covering up of heinous crimes against children for four decades.

Boston certainly was in the eye of the national media at the time. But all this didn’t start in Catholic New England, as documented in a gripping new book, “Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime and the Era of Catholic Scandal,” by the award-winning journalist Michael D’Antonio.

The book captures the drama, impact and reach of a 30-year-crisis that began before the Boston meltdown and continues today.

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ROME
Gazzetta del Sud

Rome, July 1 – Italian magistrates questioned Msgr Nunzio Scarano Monday in a 20-million-euro corruption plot involving the Holy See’s asset-management agency APSA. Scarano, who was arrested last Friday on suspicion of corruption and fraud, said he was not comfortable in Rome’s Regina Coeli prison and requested house arrest, prosecutors said. Scarano was questioned for about three hours by investigating magistrate Barbara Callari, who will decide the next step in the process. Scarano was arrested along with Giovanni Maria Zito, an agent in Italy’s domestic intelligence agency, and Rome broker Giovanni Carenzio. It’s alleged the trio were involved in a failed attempt to fly 20 million euros of alleged tax-evasion proceeds from Switzerland back to Italy.

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ROME
AFP

ROME — A senior Catholic cleric arrested as part of a sweeping probe of the scandal-plagued Vatican bank rejected accusations of money-laundering and corruption on Monday, Italian media reported.

Nunzio Scarano, 61, who was arrested Friday along with a former Italian spy and a financer for allegedly plotting to smuggle millions of euros into Italy, “strongly reaffirms his morality,” his lawyers were reported as saying.

“He has defended himself and we have requested he be moved to house arrest somewhere where he can celebrate mass,” media quoted lawyers Francesco Caroleo Grimaldi, Silverio Sica and Luca Paternostro as saying, following a three-hour meeting with their client and judge Barbara Callari in Rome.

Scarano “is not well, he is very tried and is not sleeping well,” they said.

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ROME
Reuters

By Philip Pullella
ROME | Mon Jul 1, 2013

(Reuters) – To most people, a book is a book. But to Monsignor Nunizio Scarano, a Vatican official arrested on charges of money smuggling, a “book” was a code word for one million euros in cash, a report by the judge on the case said.

“Encyclopaedia,” and “bookmarks” were among other code words that Scarano, who had close connections to the Vatican bank, used in phone conversations with secret service agent Giovanni Zito and broker Giovanni Carenzio, it said.

The three were arrested on Friday for allegedly attempting to smuggle 20 million euros in cash from Switzerland a year ago for Scarano’s rich shipping industry friends in their home town of Salerno in southern Italy.

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ROME
Daily Mail (UK)

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 11:37 EST, 1 July 2013

A Vatican priest arrested in a £17million smuggling plot has admitted he behaved wrongly but said he was only trying to help out friends.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, dubbed ‘Don 500’ because the 500 euro note is his favourite banknote, was questioned for three hours by Judge Barbara Callari.

His lawyer Silverio Sica said that Scarano is not well in prison and had asked for house arrest to await a decision on his fate, expected in a day or two.

Scarano was arrested on Friday with two others accused of plotting to smuggle 20million euros from a Swiss bank account into Italy by private jet without reporting it to customs.

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ROME
Chicago Tribune

Reuters
July 1, 2013

ROME (Reuters) – Magistrates on Monday questioned Nunzio Scarano, the Vatican prelate detained on suspicion of trying to smuggle tens of millions of euros into Italy, and lawyers asked that he be released into house arrest.

“He explained everything he could. He cooperated in an extremely loyal and honest way. He said he was in good faith and at the disposal of the magistrates whenever they needed,” lawyer Francesco Grimaldi told reporters outside Rome’s Queen of Heaven jail after the three-hour interrogation.

Scarano, who had close connections to the Vatican bank, was arrested on Friday along with Giovanni Zito, a secret services agent, and financial broker Giovanni Carenzio.

They have been accused of plotting to bring 20 million euros ($26.00 million)in cash to Italy from Switzerland for Scarano’s rich shipping industry friends in the southern city of Salerno. Scarano is under a separate investigation there on suspicion of money laundering.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Carol Glatz Catholic News Service | Jul. 1, 2013

VATICAN CITY Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation was “a great example” of what it means to follow one’s conscience through prayer, Pope Francis said during his Sunday Angelus address to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

Following one’s conscience doesn’t mean chasing after one’s own self-interests; it calls for listening to God, understanding his will and carrying out his plan with determination, Pope Francis said.

Pope Benedict provided a “recent marvelous example” of following one’s conscience, Pope Francis said, evidently referring to the retired pope’s decision to leave office.

“Pope Benedict XVI gave us this great example when the Lord led him to understand, in prayer, what was the step he should take,” Pope Francis said. “He followed, with a great sense of discernment and courage, his conscience, that is, the will of God, who spoke to his heart.”

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ROM
Kipa/Apic

Rom, 1.7.13 (Kipa) Die Bischöfe von Basel, Chur und Sankt Gallen haben im Vatikan mit hohen Kurienvertretern über die “Pfarrei-Initiative” gesprochen. Es habe Einigkeit bestanden, “dass die Lehre der Kirche, wie sie vor allem in den Dokumenten des II. Vatikanischen Konzils zusammengefasst ist, die verbindliche Grundlage für die Lösung der entstandenen Fragen bildet”, heisst es in einer anschliessenden, gemeinsamen Pressemitteilung.

Das Treffen, an dem von Seiten des Vatikans die Präfekten der Glaubens- und der Bischofskongregation, Erzbischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller und Kardinal Marc Ouellet teilnahmen, habe in einer brüderlichen Atmosphäre stattgefunden, heisst es von Seiten der Bischöfe Felix Gmür von Basel, Vitus Huonder von Chur und Markus Büchel von Sankt Gallen weiter.

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