ABUSE TRACKER

SPANIEN
Mallorca

Zum ersten Mal wurde jetzt ein katholischer Priester in Spanien von einem Kirchengericht wegen Kindesmissbrauch seines Amtes enthoben.

Das Urteil aus dem März dieses Jahres wurde jetzt rechtskräftig, nachdem auch der Vatikan in Rom offiziell einer Entlassung des Geistlichen zugestimmt hat. Nach Angaben der mallorquinischen Diözese ist dies der erste Fall dieser Art in ganz Spanien.

Unterdessen wird gegen den Priester auch seitens der Justiz ermittelt. Bereits im März 2011 waren gegen den pädophilen katholischen Priester der Gemeinde Can Picafort Vorwürfe wegen sexuellem Kindesmissbrauchs erhoben worden.

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OSTERREICH
tirol@orf

Beim Aufarbeiten von Missbrauchsfällen in Tiroler Heimen will die Stadt Innsbruck ein Zeichen setzen und zwei Sozialehrenzeichen aberkennen. Das beschloss am Mittwoch der Stadtsenat, nachdem Historiker ein Gutachten präsentiert hatten.

Im Vorjahr wurde das Institut für Zeitgeschichte der Universität Innsbruck beauftragt, eine Studie über die Vorwürfe hinsichtlich Gewalt und Missbrauch durch mittlerweile verstorbene Sozialehrenzeichenträger der Stadt Innsbruck zu erstellen – mehr dazu in Träger von Ehrenzeichen am Prüfstand.

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ROM
Die Welt

In Rom werden angeblich minderjährige Einwanderer zum Sex mit Priestern gezwungen. Stimmten die Vorwürfe, wäre dies ein schwerer Rückschlag für den Papst. Er kämpft gegen Missbrauch. Von Tobias Bayer

Der ehemalige Carabiniere stellt wie immer das Auto in der Via Giolitti in der Nähe des Römer Hauptbahnhofs Termini ab. Er bleibt sitzen und wählt die Jungen aus. Meist sind es Roma, die ihren Körper für 150 bis 500 Euro auf dem Schwulenstrich feilbieten. Sie haben kein Geld, die Familie hilft ihnen nicht. Sie müssen sich verkaufen, um irgendwie über die Runden zu kommen.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 27, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

It is a common enough scenario: members of a group talking behind someone’s back about leaving them out of things. But this is not the reality television show Survivor – it is senior members of NSW Police, and the subject is the whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox.

Chief Inspector Fox was so upset about his exclusion from the group that took over investigating allegations of Catholic paedophile priests in the Hunter region that he went on television and wrote an open letter to NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell claiming a cover-up.

The special commission of inquiry’s first term of reference is to look at why Chief Inspector Fox was asked to stop his investigations and if that was appropriate.

The inquiry has been told that in September 2010 the crime manager at Newcastle local area command, Detective Chief Inspector Brad Tayler, and the officer soon to take over from him, Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey, were told the brief that became known as Strike Force Lantle would be coming to them.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON June 27, 2013

A SENIOR police officer put in charge of Strike Force Lantle has told the Special Commission of Inquiry that he was ‘‘happy to take on the Catholic church’’ and his investigations weren’t deterred by the church’s might.

Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey has spent all morning on Thursday giving evidence to the inquiry, mostly under cross examination by counsel for Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, Mark Cohen.

Mr Cohen asked Mr Humphrey if there was an unwillingness within the Newcastle police command to take on senior members of the Catholic church after they had received a report from journalist Joanne McCarthy which alleged impropriety by senior church members.

‘‘There was certainly no reluctance on my part,’’ Mr Humphrey said. ‘‘I was happy to take on the Catholic Church.’’

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Thu, Jun 27, 2013

A number of religious congregations have told Minister for Justice Alan Shatter that they will be making no contribution to the Magdalene laundries redress scheme which is expected to cost up to €58 million.

The Irish Times understands at least two orders spoke to the Minister this week to say they were not in a position to make any financial contribution, although they would continue to look after former residents in their care.

At a press conference announcing the redress scheme yesterday, Mr Shatter said “there will be great disappointment in Cabinet if they don’t make a contribution”. Survivors and taxpayers would expect such a gesture, he added.

Under the redress scheme, recommended by a commission headed by Mr Justice John Quirke, survivors will receive payments of up to €100,000 and enhanced State pension entitlements in recognition of their time in Magdalene laundries. *

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IRISH TIMES
Joe Humphreys

Thu, Jun 27, 2013

The two main survivors’ groups gave contrasting reactions to the Quirke report, with some former residents warning they may bypass the redress scheme and go to the courts if the compensation package is not improved.

Members of Magdalene Survivors Together said that while the scheme acknowledged loss of earnings, it did not properly address the psychological, physical and emotional abuse experienced in the laundries.

Its director Steven O’Riordan said it believed about €75,000 was a “fair figure” for someone who had spent a year in a laundry, and more than three times the current offer.

The recommendation of €20,500 might compensate for loss of earnings in a year but each person should be entitled to at least double that for psychological and emotional damage, he added.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Thursday, June 27, 2013

After decades of being ignored, survivors of the Magdalene Laundries have finally been offered a compensation scheme by the State for their years of slave labour.

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

Along with a raft of medical and pension entitlements, the scheme prepared by president of the Law Reform Commission Justice John Quirke recommends survivors receive a sliding scale of payments depending on how long they spent in the institution.

The payments will range from €11,500 for women who spent three months or less in a laundry, to a maximum of €100,000 for those who were in a laundry for 10 years or more.

Justice For Magdalenes Research and the Irish Women Survivors Network based in Britain broadly welcomed the proposals, as did Bernadette Fahy who works with and provides support and assistance to a number of Magdalene survivors.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

DEARBHAIL MCDONALD LEGAL EDITOR – 27 JUNE 2013

WOMEN incarcerated in Magdalene Laundries will receive up to €100,000 as part of a redress scheme that could cost the State up to €58m.

Survivors who lived and worked for 10 years or more in the laundries will be entitled to a general payment of €40,000 plus an additional €60,000 for their forced labour.

Women who spent a year in a laundry will be paid €20,500, increasing to €68,500 for those incarcerated for five years. The maximum payment under the planned scheme is €100,000 for women who were in a Magdalene laundry for 10 years or more.

But the scheme has angered some survivors as lump-sum payments for longer term residents will be capped at €50,000, with the remainder released to survivors in tax-free weekly payments until they die.

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IRELAND
Reuters

By Conor Humphries JUNE 27, 2013

The Irish government has agreed to pay up 58 million euros (48.93 million pounds) to hundreds of women forced to work at the Catholic Church’s notorious Magdalene Laundries after a report found that a quarter of them were sent there by the Irish state.

The laundries, depicted in the award-winning film “The Magdalene Sisters“, put 10,000 women and girls as young as nine through uncompromising hardship from the foundation of the Irish state in 1922 until 1996.

Run by Catholic nuns, the laundries have been accused of treating inmates like slaves, imposing a regime of fear and prayer on girls sometimes put in their care for becoming pregnant outside marriage. One in 10 inmates died, the youngest at 15.

Under the compensation scheme, several hundred surviving inmates will receive up to 100,000 euros each, depending on how long they spent in the laundries, with a total cost to the state of between 34.5 million and 58 million euros.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

Daniel Fogarty
AAP

The Catholic Church’s processes for clergy abuse victims were detrimental to police investigations and failed to protect communities from offenders, the former head of Victoria’s Sex Crimes squad says.

The church processes actively and systematically dissuaded victims from reporting crimes to police and failed to make offenders accountable, Glenn Davies, a former Victoria Police detective inspector, said.

The Archdiocese of Melbourne was “inherently protectionist, elitist” and was dismissive of suggestions for change, Mr Davies said in a submission to a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into clergy sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON June 27, 2013

There was never any reluctance by Newcastle investigators to confront senior members of the church hierarchy over child sexual abuse concealment, a senior police officer has told a Special Commission of Inquiry this morning.

Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey denied suggestions from whistleblower Peter Fox’s barrister Mark Cohen that detectives were discouraged from investigating the clergy.

Detective Chief Inspector Humphrey oversaw Strike Force Lantle – the Hunter investigation into sexual abuse concealment – after some of its officers left on sick leave.

Under heavy cross examination on his third day in the stand, the detective chief inspector denied claims the strike force had been abysmally managed by those officers.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

A senior policeman has told a NSW inquiry he has never been sure whistleblower policeman Peter Fox handed over all documents relating to child sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley Catholic Church.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox says he was told by superiors to stop investigating two priests, and claims the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese did not cooperate with police.

In testimony to the special commission of inquiry at Newcastle Supreme Court, Detective Inspector Graham Parker said police were given an official direction at a meeting in December 2010 not to speak to media.

That contradicts earlier evidence from other police that it was an informal order.

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OREGON
OPB

A Utah man filed suit against the Archdiocese of Portland Tuesday, saying he was sexually abused by a Seaside priest during the 1980’s.

43-year-old Scott Little alleges that when he was between the age of 10 and 12, he was sodomized on numerous occasions by Father Maurice Grammond.

Kelly Clark, Little’s lawyer, says “We plan to prove that the Archdiocese of Portland had enough experience with child abuse by the time this man was abused, that for them to put a priest like Father Grammond in ministry, unrestricted with no warnings, essentially amounts to misrepresentation, and if you will fraud.”

The lawsuit seeks more than $12 million in damages. Grammond is now dead, but he had denied any abuse.

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MINNESOTA
Northland’s News Center

June 26, 2013

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) – A man, who claims as a child, he was sexually abused by a priest, has filed suit against the Catholic Diocese of Duluth, under Minnesota’s new Child Victims Act.

Michael DeRoche says he was abused by Father John Nicholson, who has since died.
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He was abused when he attended St. Rose in Proctor between the ages of 9 and 10.
The lawsuit claims the Diocese knew, or should have known, that Nicholson was a danger to children and should have stepped in to protect his victims.

In a written statement the Diocese said, “It deeply regrets any long-lasting and devastating effects of sexual misconduct on the part of the clergy and is committed to assisting victims and preventing future abuse.”

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel June 26, 2013

It’s been 44 years since Father Mel Hermanns sexually abused a boy at St. Lawrence Seminary in Mount Calvary in Fond du Lac County.

It’s been 23 years since a separate case of suspicious conduct “involving physical activities with minor males” was reported.

And 20 years since the Capuchin priest’s order paid for the seminary victim’s counseling, and sent Hermanns to a treatment center known for its programs for sex offenders.

But Hermanns was not removed from ministry until just last fall, and even then there was little public notification.

Hermanns’ name appears on a list of 23 current and former Capuchin friars removed for sexually abusing minors. It was released last week as part of an unprecedented audit commissioned by the Detroit-based Capuchin Province of St. Joseph, which operates parishes and other ministries in Milwaukee, to assess its sexual abuse policies and come to terms with its history.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By: Mark Stodghill, Duluth News Tribune

Fifty-five-year-old Michael DeRoche stood on the steps of the St. Louis County Courthouse holding a photograph of a 9- or 10-year old boy standing obediently straight with his hands tucked to his sides and his heels together.

DeRoche said he was that “little guy” and at the time of the photo he was being sexually abused by a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Duluth.

DeRoche said he wanted to put an adult face on that photo and keep any other children from being victimized by priests by bringing the first civil lawsuit filed in St. Louis County by a person alleging abuse under the Minnesota Child Victim’s Act. A new Minnesota law signed by Gov. Mark Dayton last month eliminates the civil statute of limitations for children who were sexually abused and allows a three-year window for past victims of childhood sexual abuse to file lawsuits against their perpetrator and the institution that may have allowed the abuse.

“I was this little guy that was hurt for over a year by a priest,” DeRoche said of his boyhood photograph before going on to explain why he brought the civil lawsuit. “It’s not to seek a vendetta or vengeance or hurt, but it is to find healing and hope for not only myself and closure, but for all the other kids out there.”

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ROME
The Times (UK)

James Bone Rome

The former Carabinieri police officer pulled up outside a bar known as Twink — slang for a gay youth — next to Rome’s central station. He was driving a Fiat Panda marked “Emergency Blood” so he could easily park.There, he picked up Romanian immigrant “rent-boys”, some underage, for gay encounters with Catholic priests around Rome.

That is the explosive account, according to new details made public yesterday, that a convicted paedophile priest gave to Italian police in a case that threatens to rock the Vatican.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Joe Humphreys

Recommendations of Quirke report, all of which the Government says it accepts and will implement:
Survivors of the Magdalene laundries are to receive ex gratia lump-sum payments where qualification is “not dependent on proof of any hardship, injury or abuse”.

A woman who spent three months or less in the laundries will receive a lump sum of €11,500. For one year spent in the laundries it will be €20,500, and for five years €68,500. The maximum payment is €100,000 for women who were in a laundry for 10 years or more.

Women who are entitled to more than €50,000 through the scheme will receive a €50,000 lump sum, plus an annual payment calculated from the remaining sum, which would be paid weekly.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

The Justice for Magdalene’s Research group said that it broadly welcomes the publication of the Magdalene Commission Report by Mr Justice John Quirke today.

The survivor advocacy group said that the report satisfies many of their questions however, the organisation said they have a number of concerns.

Justice for Magdalenes Research -said today is another important day in the campaign to bring justice to all the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.

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ROME
Legionaries of Christ

Here is a translation of the letter from Pope Francis to Cardinal Velasio De Paolis:
***
To my Venerable Brother Cardinal Velasio De Paolis

In an audience on May 27th, you explained the progress of the ministry of Delegate for the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ which my beloved predecessor, Benedict XVI, entrusted to you on June 16, 2010.

I would like to thank you for having brought me up to speed on what you have done in fulfilling this delicate task. As well, I would like to assure you that I have carefully considered what you presented to me in the report you sent with your letter on May 10th, as well as the content of the prior reports and the material regarding the Apostolic Visitation which took place in 2009 and 2010.

I confirm that your mandate will last until the celebration of the extraordinary Chapter of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, which you will preside, and which will be held at the beginning of the beginning of 2014. The Chapter’s main tasks will be the election of a new Government for the Institute and the approval of the new Constitutions, which you will then take care to send me in order to examine them according to standard procedure. These will be fundamental steps in the path towards the authentic and profound renewal of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ and, indirectly, as well for the activity of the whole Regnum Christi Movement.

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ROMA
ASCA

(ASCA) – Roma, 26 giu – Il Vicariato di Roma esprime ”sconcerto e indignazione” per la diffusione di parte del verbale di denuncia contenente i nomi di sacerdoti accusati dall’ex prete Patrizio Poggi in un servizio del Tg di La7 delle ore 20 di martedi’ 25 giugno. Il Cardinale Vicario, Agostino Vallini – si legge in una nota – esprimendo profonda amarezza per la diffusione di simili notizie calunniose che sparano nel mucchio in maniera generalizzata, manifesta piena fiducia nella magistratura e si dice pienamente convinto che sara’ smantellato il piano calunnioso, dimostrando non veritiere le affermazioni del Poggi, mosso forse da spirito di rivalsa o da risentimento personale. Il Dottor Pignatone, Procuratore capo della Repubblica di Roma – ricostruisce il comunicato – nel telegiornale ha smentito categoricamente che sacerdoti della diocesi di Roma siano indagati per pedofilia sulla base della denunzia dell’ex-prete Patrizio Poggi, dimesso nel 2007 dallo stato clericale per reati di natura sessuale su minori e che ha scontato la condanna nel carcere di Rebibbia.

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ROMA
ANSA

(ANSA) – ROMA, 26 GIU – Il cardinale vicario Agostino Vallini manifesta ”piena fiducia nella magistratura” e si dice ”pienamente convinto che sarà smantellato il piano calunnioso, dimostrando non veritiere le affermazioni” dell’ex prete Patrizio Poggi, che ha accusato nove sacerdoti di parrocchie romane di incontri sessuali con minori. In una nota del Vicariato di Roma si sottolinea che ”i sacerdoti calunniati si riservano ogni azione legale a tutela della loro personale onorabilità”.

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ROME
The Australian

JAMES BONE, ROME From: The Times June 27, 2013

THE Vatican is bracing itself for a rent boy scandal after a convicted pedophile priest apparently sought vengeance by informing on other child abusers in the Roman clergy.

Don Patrizio Poggi, who served a five-year sentence for abusing five 14 and 15-year-old boys at his parish on the outskirts of the Italian capital, has reportedly handed names to police. So far, four people have formally been placed under investigation by Rome magistrates.

The suspects are said to include a monsignor who is currently the secretary of an important bishop. Also being investigated is a former Carabinieri police officer suspected of recruiting under-age boys for the alleged prostitution ring.

The brewing scandal comes just weeks after Pope Francis confirmed the existence of a “gay lobby” in the Vatican to a visiting Latin American church group.

The apparent network inside the supposedly celibate and staunchly anti-homosexual Church is one reason why Pope Francis is working on a thorough house-cleaning of the Roman curia. Vatican watchers believe a far-reaching reshuffle of top posts is imminent. Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, current head of the governorate that runs the Vatican city-state, is tipped to take over from the powerful but divisive Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

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ROME
Adnkronos

Rome, 25 June (AKI) – Prosecutors are probing four high ranking Catholic churchmen over allegations they sexually abused young boys, several Italian media outlets reported on Tuesday.

The probe by Rome prosecutors comes after a former priest, Patrizio Poggi reported to police around 20 allegedly paedophile priests, among them five prelates including an unnamed Monsignor and the private secretary to a bishop.

Poggi also presented to police a young male witness and gave the names of the alleged sexual abuse victims.

The probe spearheaded by prosecutor Maria Monteleone is also investigating a suspected prostitution racket that arranged gay encounters for priests.

After a tip-off from Poggi, police tailed a former soldier and alleged ‘recruiter’ and observed him accompanying a teenage boy inside a Rome church.

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ROME
Catholic Culture

A former Catholic priest who was convicted on sex-abuse charges has reportedly given Italian authorities the names of 20 other priests who were involved in child prostitution.

Patrizio Poggi, who spent 5 years in prison, told police that several prominent clerics, including the secretary to an Italian bishop, were involved in a pedophile ring, Italian news agencies report. Prosecutors in Rome are actively pursuing the case.

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DEDHAM (MA)
The Patriot Ledger

By Lane Lambert
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Jun 26, 2013

DEDHAM —
A controversial, reformist Austrian priest will speak in Dedham as planned July 17. But it won’t be at a Roman Catholic church.

The Rev. Helmut Schuller was originally scheduled to be at 7 p.m. that day at St. Susannah Parish, but Cardinal Sean O’Malley has banned him from speaking on church property, because the Rev. Schuller supports married priests and the ordination of women.

Cardinal O’Malley said Boston Archdiocese property can’t be used for a talk that’s contrary to Vatican doctrine.

That action prompted a swift invitation from the Unitarian Universalist First Church in Dedham, a four-minute drive from St. Susannah.

The lay Catholic group Voice Of The Faithful said Wednesday the Rev. Schuller will speak there as the same time and day, July 17 at 7 p.m.

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VATICAN CITY
Fox News

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis is signaling he will sign off on the reform process of the Legion of Christ religious order, which was disgraced by revelations its founder was a pedophile.

In a letter made public Wednesday, Francis confirmed the order would convene a general assembly in early 2014 to elect new leadership and approve a revised set of constitutions.

He said these would be “fundamental steps in the path towards authentic and profound renewal.”

Then-Pope Benedict XVI took over the Legion in 2010 after a Vatican investigation determined its founder led a double life: The late Rev. Marcial Maciel sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children.

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ROMA
Affar Italiani

Il cardinale vicario di Roma reagisce tuonando al servizio televisivo che ha reso noto il verbale Poggi: “Sconcerto e indignazione in Vicariato… notizie calunniose che sparano nel mucchio”. E poi rinnova vicinanza, stima e affetto ai sacerdoti. Infine, avverte: “È questo il modo di fare informazione? È un modo per screditare la Chiesa e i suoi ministri? Ognuno darà conto a Dio del suo operato”. I prelati pronti alle querele

Mercoledì, 26 giugno 2013 – 15:19:00

Sconcerto e indignazione. Sulla spy story dei preti pedofili e sull’ipotesi che in città ci sia una cupola che gestisce presunti vizi dei prelati, cade come un macigno la reazione del Vicariato.
E’ Agostino Vallini che tuona. E per rispondere a quanto pubblicato dal telegiornale de La 7, si affida ad un comunicato tagliente e chiaro che suona come una scomunica. Scrive il delegato del Papa Francesco: “In merito alla diffusione di parte del verbale di denuncia contenente i nomi di sacerdoti accusati dall’ex prete Patrizio Poggi in un servizio del Tg di La7 delle ore 20 di martedì 25 giugno il Cardinale Vicario Agostino Vallini, esprimendo profonda amarezza per la diffusione di simili notizie calunniose che sparano nel mucchio in maniera generalizzata, manifesta piena fiducia nella magistratura e si dice pienamente convinto che sarà smantellato il piano calunnioso, dimostrando non veritiere le affermazioni del Poggi, mosso forse da spirito di rivalsa o da risentimento personale”.

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ROMA
Il Messaggero

Primi tre indagati dopo le rivelazioni di don Patrizio Poggi

ROMA – Ha descritto ai carabinieri la torbida vita sessuale dei religiosi: minorenni ”offerti” a monsignori e sacerdoti. Perchè, ha spiegato don Patrizio Poggi, «sentivo il dovere di tutelare la Santa chiesa». Eccola la denuncia choc che ha portato la procura di Roma alle porte del Vaticano. Nove nomi di religiosi sui quali il procuratore aggiunto Maria Monteleone sta cercando di fare chiarezza. A garantire «la serietà di Poggi», davanti ai militari, lo scorso 8 marzo, c’era monsignor Luca Lo Russo, consigliere della Santa Sede e, soprattutto, avvocato canonico dell’ex sacerdote nel procedimento per la riabilitazione, dopo la sospensione ”a divinis” per una precedente condanna per violenza su minori. Sono già tre i nomi degli indagati per sfruttamento della prostituzione minorile. E l’altro filone, relativo alla violenza sessuale, è ancora in fase preliminare.

RECLUTATORI
Il primo degli indagati è Giuseppe Buonviso, ex carabiniere, già coinvolto in un giro di prostituzione minorile. Dopo la denuncia di Poggi, i carabinieri lo hanno pedinato: accompagnava un ragazzo in una chiesa. Poi ci sono Giancarlo Aleandri, amministratore ”in nero” della Parrocchia di San Filippo Neri, e Marcello Righettini, direttore di un’agenzia per modelli. Racconta Poggi: «Buonviso frequenta e dimora presso la cappella di San Lauro alla Pisana. E’ un promotore e organizzatore di incontri e attività legate alla prostituzione maschile minorile, attraverso la quale reperisce ragazzi che introduce in Italia e mette a disposizione dei clienti». Poi l’elenco di sacerdoti e degli alti prelati: nove in tutto. «Buonviso – continua Poggi – con Aleandri e Righettini presenta ai clienti i ragazzi. L’ingaggio avviene utilizzando la disperazione e l’assenza di mezzi di sostentamento che caratterizzano la loro condizione sociale».

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

26 JUNE 2013

Survivors of Catholic-run workhouses have threatened to take the Government to the United Nations watchdog on torture over plans to pay some of them as little as 11,500 euro for their detention.

Women detained in Magdalene laundries slammed an offer and criticised the religious orders for not doubling the multimillion compensation package being put forward by the State.

Magdalene Survivors Together warned the Government to go back to the drawing board and take account of the emotional, psychological and physical damage they suffered, as well as loss of earnings for slave labour.

Maureen Sullivan, the youngest known survivor admitted to one of the laundries, claimed the figures “were totted up all wrong”. “They need to go back to the drawing board,” said Ms Sullivan, who ended up sleeping on the streets in England after she left the laundry in New Ross.

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IRELAND
Galway Bay FM

Galway Bay fm newsroom – The Government has unveiled a compensation scheme worth up to 58 million euro for the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.　

The Sisters of Mercy ran the Magdalene laundry at Forster street in the city until it closed in 1984, and in April the religous order announced it was giving the property behind the former Anglo Irish building to Cope Galway on a 99 year lease.

The redress package – which is based on the recommendations of High Court judge Mr Justice John Quirke – provides for counselling services and medical cards for each of the women.

It will be available to around 700 women who were kept in the laundries – with payments ranging from between 11-and-a-half thousand and 100-thousand euro depending on the length of their incarceration.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Disgusted survivors of the Magdalene Laundries have branded the compensation package unveiled by the Government as appalling.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter yesterday detailed a list of payments for the women ranging from e11,500 to e100,000 depending on how long they spent in the hated institutions.

They will also be granted an “enhanced” medical card and will also be given a form of the State contributory pension.

Survivor Maria Gambole broke down in tears as she revealed her “disappointment” at the package.

She said: “This report is disgusting. I’m very disappointed. I am 78 and I can’t go on much longer.

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IRELAND
Times Colonist (Canada)

SHAWN POGATCHNIK / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JUNE 26, 2013

DUBLIN – Ireland will pay several hundred former residents of Catholic-run Magdalene laundries at least 34.5 million euros ($45 million) to compensate them for their years of unpaid labour and public shame, the government announced Wednesday following a decade-long campaign by former residents of the workhouses.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter apologized to the women — an estimated 770 survivors out of more than 10,000 who lived in the dozen facilities from 1922 to 1996 — that it had taken so long for them to receive compensation. The move marked the latest step in a two-decade effort by Ireland to investigate and redress human rights abuses in its Catholic institutions.

Shatter’s decision came four months after a government-commissioned probe found that women consigned to the laundries were broadly branded “fallen” women, a euphemism for prostitutes. The investigation found that few actually were, while most instead were victims of poverty, homelessness and dysfunctional families in a state lacking the facilities to care for them.

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ROM
Oberpfalznetz

Rom. (KNA) Die Staatsanwaltschaft in Rom ermittelt laut italienischen
Medienberichten gegen einen mutmaßlichen Prostitutionsring, der katholischen Priestern Minderjährige zugeführt haben soll. Der Kardinalvikar des Bistums Rom, Agostino Vallini, wies entsprechende Anschuldigungen eines vom Dienst suspendierten Priesters umgehend zurück. Hier würden Informationen verbreitet, die jeder Grundlage entbehrten, heißt es in einer am Mittwoch veröffentlichten Erklärung.

Der italienische Privatsender La7 hatte am Dienstagabend berichtet, ein wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger verurteilter ehemaliger Pfarrer habe der Polizei die Namen von neun Geistlichen genannt, die sich in der Rom regelmäßig mit minderjährigen männlichen Prostituierten getroffen haben sollen.

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ROM
Kleine Zeitung

[Summary: The Rome prosecutor has started investigations against nine priests for an alleged prostitution ring. The investigations are based on statements made by a convicted former Roman priest and allege the ring involved sexual abuse of minors.]

Tue prosecutor in Rome has started investigations against nine priests, for an alleged prostitution ring. The investigations are based on statements of sexual abuse of minors convicted former Roman priest.

Di Staatsanwaltschaft in Rom hat Ermittlungen gegen neun Priester wegen eines mutmaßlichen Prostitutionsrings aufgenommen. Die Ermittlungen basieren auf Aussagen eines wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Minderjährigen verurteilten ehemaligen römischen Pfarrers.

Der römische Pfarrer hatte der Polizei die Namen der in den Ring verwickelten Geistlichen genannt. Diese sollen sich in der italienischen Hauptstadt regelmäßig mit minderjährigen männlichen Prostituierten getroffen haben, berichtete die römische Tageszeitung “Il Messaggero” am Mittwoch. Die Zusammenkünfte sollen nach Aussagen des suspendierten Priesters von einem ehemaligen Polizisten organisiert worden sein.

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ROM
Sueddeutsche

Ein ehemaliger Priester hat die Staatsanwaltschaft in Rom auf den Plan gerufen: Er beschuldigt neun katholische Geistliche, einen Prostituierten-Ring mit der Vermittlung Minderjähriger beauftragt zu haben. Die Glaubwürdigkeit des Ex-Pfarrers leidet jedoch unter der Tatsache, dass er selbst in Haft saß – wegen Pädophilie.

Erneut erschüttert ein Pädophilen-Skandal den Vatikan: Nach Berichten verschiedener italienischen Medien soll ein mutmaßlicher Prostitutionsring Jugendliche an katholische Priester vermittelt haben. Erhoben hat die Vorwürfe ein ehemaliger Priester, Patrizio Poggi, der sich im März in einer Polizeiwache in Rom eingefunden und den überraschten Beamten die Namen von neun Geistlichen genannt hatte.

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CALIFORNIA
Santa Barbara Independent

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

After wallowing three years in the horrific minutia of the Roman Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal, writer and reporter Michael D’Antonio has emerged the unlikeliest of all things—a hardened optimist. D’Antonio’s latest book, Mortal Sins, reads like a courtroom thriller, but chronicles the real life tales of a handful of sex abuse victims who decided to take on the most enduring religious and political institution the planet has ever seen, the Catholic Church. “It took great courage for these people to come forward,” D’Antonio said. “In the face of enormous odds, they accomplished the impossible. I think the service they provided is profound.” Speaking of his own religious affiliation, D’Antonio commented, “I’m not a practicing anything, but I’m a big believer in the human spirit.”

D’Antonio will be in Santa Barbara talking about his book next Friday, June 28, at the Faulkner Gallery of the downtown public library. Ray Higgins, a major player in Santa Barbara’s survivor community noticed that D’Antonio was coming to Southern California on a promotional tour and managed to snag him for the occasion. Higgins—whose son was molested by a Franciscan monk while attending St. Anthony’s—will be part of a panel of experts that will include Jeff Anderson, attorney from St. Paul Minnesota who has represented hundreds of victims who have sued the church; Patrick Wall, victims advocate and former Benedictine monk; Tim Hale, S.B. attorney who has represented many victims of clergy sex abuse.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on June 26, 2013

Tell your friends! Events like this don’t come along often.
If you join us: twenty years from now, you’ll look back on meeting a group of people who set out to change the world for the better … and DID!

TODAY
SAN DIEGO, CA Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 7 pm Alliant University, Green Hall, Co-sponsored by IVAT, the Institute on Violence Abuse and Trauma at Alliant University, 10455 Pomerado Road, San Diego

TOMORROW
FULLERTON, CA Thursday, June 27, 2013 at 7 pm Fullerton Public Library – Presented as a part of Gustavo’s Awesome Lecture Series — 353 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton

FRIDAY
SANTA BARBARA, CA Friday, June 28 at 7 pm Falkner Gallery, Santa Barbara Public Library, 40 E. Anapamu, Santa Barbara Co-sponsored by Therapy Trust and SB Voice of the Faithful

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AUSTRIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

US Star Whistle-Blower Clohessy on Sexual Abuse and the Difficulty of Coming to Terms

(This is the English translation of an article that appeared Sunday in the Kurier in Vienna)

He sat on the couch with US talkshow star Oprah Winfrey, he was a guest on Good Morning America, and even the The New York Times Magazine dedicated an extensive reportage to him. This man who has received so much media attention in the United States in recent years is David Clohessy, the spokesman of the NGO SNAP (see Info), which has taken up the cause of victims of sexual abuses in the church. He is the star among the investigators of sexual abuse in the USA.

Yet, a star without airs. Clohessy, 56, has been fighting for years against the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy. As a young boy, he himself was sexually abused by a priest. His brother, as well, was one pastor who allegedly came too close to children. „Clohessy’s calm manner makes him one of the most credible spokesmen for the victims of sexual abuse,” wrote the Drury University Magazine.

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ITALIA
Apocalisse Laica

di Alberto Sofia – 26/06/2013 –
Il Fatto Quotidiano pubblica in anteprima il verbale della denuncia: “incontri” nelle chiese di Roma Nord con ragazzini dell’ Est “reclutati” da un ex carabiniere tra discoteche e centri benessere

Le rivelazioni dell’ ex parroco Patrizio Poggi sui preti pedofili stanno facendo tremare la Santa Sede e la Curia romana.

Dopo che il Messaggero aveva parlato dell’ iscrizione nel registro degli indagati dei quatto sacerdoti con l’ accusa di violenza sessuale aggravata, il Fatto Quotidiano ha pubblicato il verbale della denuncia dello scorso otto marzo, quando Poggi si presentò di fronte agli uffici del Noe per denunciare l’ organizzazione che – secondo quanto ha dichiarato – “recluterebbe minorenni per metterli a disposizione di prelati e parroci romani”.

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ITALIA
Apocalisse Laica

(AGI) – CdV, 26 giu. – “Il dottor Pignatone, procuratore capo della Repubblica di Roma ha smentito categoricamente che sacerdoti della diocesi di Roma siano indagati per pedofilia sulla base della denunzia dell’ex-prete Patrizio Poggi, dimesso nel 2007 dallo stato clericale per reati di natura sessuale su minori e che ha scontato la condanna nel carcere di Rebibbia”. Lo afferma una nota del Vicariato di Roma, che esprime “sconcerto e indignazione”. “Il cardinale vicario Agostino Vallini – si legge – esprime profonda amarezza per la diffusione di simili notizie calunniose che sparano nel mucchio in maniera generalizzata senza distinguere tra chi ha sbagliato, che deve pagare, e chi e’ calunniato. Egli rinnova ai sacerdoti vicinanza, stima e affetto per il loro generoso ministero. Condanna vivamente il fatto che organi di informazione si facciano megafono di notizie delittuose prive di riscontri oggettivi, violando le piu’ elementari norme della deontologia giornalistica e del rispetto della privacy”.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Jun. 26, 2013 NCR Today

In a move that observers describe as a clear signal of a desire for greater transparency and accountability, Pope Francis on Wednesday set up a new commission to investigate the activities of the Vatican bank and to report its findings directly to him.

Among other things, observers say the move indicates that Francis intends to take a personal interest in the bank as opposed to relying on others to make decisions in his name.

The commission is not empowered to govern the bank or to implement any reform measures, but to gather information and relay it to the pope in what’s described as a “timely” fashion.

On background, a source with knowledge of the commission was asked Wednesday if it reflected a stance of “trust but verify” vis-à-vis assurances from the bank’s present leadership about its commitment to reform.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Tom Tuite

First published:
Wed, Jun 26, 2013

A former priest was served with a book of evidence yesterday and has been returned for trial on historic child sex abuse charges.

William Carney, aged 63, who is currently of no fixed abode, is to stand trial on 34 counts of indecent assault of eight boys and two girls, at locations in Dublin and north east Leinster from 1969 until 1989.
The DPP had directed that he must face trial on indictment.

Yesterday at Cloverhill District Court, the State served him with a book of evidence and Judge Grainne Malone then made an order sending Mr Carney forward for trial.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The Bishop of Winchester has apologised to the woman at the heart of an abuse complaint inquiry involving the Anglican Church in Jersey.

The Right Reverend Tim Dakin said he had given a “personal and direct apology” to the woman known as “HG”.

The Dean of Jersey, the Very Rev Bob Key, was temporarily removed from office for allegedly mishandling her complaint about a church warden.

The Church has ordered an inquiry into the handling of the case.

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ITALY
Gazzetta del Sud

Sciacca, June 26 – A former priest was charged Wednesday with committing sexual acts with minors and is expected to appear in court next month. Davide Mordino, 42, the former pastor of the Basilica of Saint Calogero in Sciacca, a town on the southwest coast of Sicily, is under house arrest until his court appearance July 17. Police say the former priest performed sexual acts with four boys, while two others say he tried to assault them as well. Mordino, who left the basilica just before Christmas in 2009, is accused of having induced minors to pose naked for photos.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kritisches-Netzwerk

Wie das Bistum Regensburg mit Menschen in Wirklichkeit umgeht, die Anschuldigungen sexuellen Missbrauchs gegen kirchliche Mitarbeiter erheben

Unter der fast wortgleichen Überschrift verbreitet das Bistum Regensburg auf seiner Homepage seit Januar 2013 falsche Darstellungen und versucht durch Halbwahrheiten und unwahre Behauptungen ausgesuchte Betroffene des sexuellen Missbrauchs bei den Regensburger Domspatzen in der Öffentlichkeit unglaubwürdig zu machen (für Interessierte hier der Link: Bistum Regensburg – Stellungnahme zu den Äußerungen Herrn Alexander Probst).

Zu Beginn des Textes heißt es:

„Jede Beschuldigung gibt das Bistum Regensburg weiter an die Staatsanwaltschaft. Stellt die das Verfahren wegen Verjährung ein, strengen wir kirchenrechtliche Aufarbeitung an. Für den Fall, dass dies nicht möglich ist, weil der Schuldige verstorben ist, hat die Kirche als einzige Institution in Deutschland ein Anerkennungsverfahren eingeführt…“

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DEUTSCHLAND
Evangelische Hochschule

Alarmiert vom Bekanntwerden von Misshandlungs- und Missbrauchsfällen in den 50er und 60er Jahren, hat der Vorstand der Johannes-Diakonie Mosbach eine Aufarbeitung der Vorkommnisse an den beiden Komplexstandorten Mosbach und Schwarzach beauftragt. Das Sozialwissenschaftliche FrauenForschungsInstitut (Soffi) an der EH Freiburg hat das Vorkommen physischer und sexueller Gewalt und den Umgang damit untersucht. Dabei wurden auch die strukturellen Rahmenbedingungen in den Johannes-Anstalten und der Alltag der Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner sowie der Mitarbeitenden rekonstruiert. Der Abschlussbericht dieser historischen Aufarbeitung liegt nun vor.

Prof. Dr. Cornelia Helfferich, Michael Kramer und Beate Massell führten dazu 32 Interviews mit (ehemaligen) Heimbewohnerinnen und Heimbewohnern und weitere zwölf Interviews mit (ehemaligen) Mitarbeitenden. Dabei entstand ein klares Bild der damaligen Verhältnisse, auch wenn nur wenige schriftliche Dokumente zu dieser Aufarbeitung herangezogen werden konnten. Die Interviews zeigen, dass es in den Johannes-Anstalten wie in anderen Einrichtungen ähnlicher Art Gewalt gab.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Vatican City, 26 June 2013 (VIS) – This morning the Secretariat of State issued the following communique:

The Holy Father has appointed a Pontifical Referring Commission to the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) with his Chirograph of 24 June, the day before yesterday.

As can be seen from the text of the Chirograph published today, the opportunity to establish a Referring Committee has arisen from the Holy Father’s desire to learn more about the Institute’s juridical standing and activities in order to allow its better harmonization with the mission of the universal Church and the Apostolic See in the more general context of the reforms that should be carried out by the Institutions that give aid to the Apostolic See.

The Commission’s purpose is to gather information on the Institution’s operations and present the results to the Holy Father.

As specified in the Chirograph, during the course of the Commission’s work, the Institute will continue to operate according to the Chirograph of 1990 that established it, unless otherwise authorized by the Holy Father.

The Commission’s purposes and powers are described in more detail in the Chirograph itself.

The members of the Commission are:
Cardinal Raffaele Farina, S.D.B., president
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, member
Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, coordinator
Msgr. Peter Bryan Wells, secretary
Dr. Mary Ann Glendon, member

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

A commission of inquiry has been set up by Pope Francis to review the activities of the Vatican bank, following recent scandals.

Earlier this month, he named a trusted cleric to oversee the management of the bank, which is known officially as the Institute for Religious Works.

The institution, one of the world’s most secretive banks, has been beset by allegations of money-laundering.

It has 114 employees and $7.1bn (£4.6bn; 5.4bn euros) of assets.

The new commission is tasked with ensuring the bank operates in “harmony” with the mission of the Church.

It is made up of Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard law professor, and four senior clerics: Italian cardinal Raffaele Farina, French cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, Spanish bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru and US cleric Monsignor Peter Bryan Wells.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Examiner

The Pope has set up an inquiry to look into the activities of the troubled Vatican bank amid a new money-laundering investigation and continued questions about the secretive institution.

It was the second time in as many weeks that Francis has intervened to get to the bottom of the problems that have plagued the Institute for Religious Works for decades.

On June 15, he filled a key vacancy in the bank’s governing structure, tapping a trusted friend to be his eyes inside the bank with access to documentation, board meetings and management. …

The Vatican confirmed that Monsignor Nunzio Scarano had been suspended temporarily from his position in one of the Vatican’s key finance offices, the Administration for the Patrimony of the Apostolic See.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY | Wed Jun 26, 2013

(Reuters) – Pope Francis on Wednesday set up a special commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank, his boldest move yet to get to grips with an institution that has embarrassed the Church for decades.

The high-powered, five-member panel, which includes four prelates and a woman Harvard law professor, will report directly to him, bypassing the Vatican bureaucracy that itself has sometimes been tainted by allegations of scandal and corruption.

The Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), as the bank is formally known, has long been tarnished by accusations that it has failed to meet international transparency standards intended to combat money laundering and tax evasion.

The Vatican said the commission, which Francis set up with a personal decree known as a “chirografo,” would enable him “to know better the juridical position and the activities of the Institute to allow an improved harmonisation with the mission of the universal Church”.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Herald

Associated Press

Pope Francis on Wednesday named a commission of inquiry to look into the activities of the troubled Vatican bank amid a new money-laundering investigation and continued questions about the secretive institution.

It was the second time in as many weeks that Francis has intervened to get to the bottom of the problems that have plagued the Institute for Religious Works for decades. On June 15, he filled a key vacancy in the bank’s governing structure, tapping a trusted friend to be his eyes inside the bank with access to documentation, board meetings and management.

On Wednesday, he named a commission to investigate the bank’s legal structure and activities “to allow for a better harmonization with the universal mission of the Apostolic See,” according to the legal document that created it.

He named five people to the commission, including two Americans: Monsignor Peter Wells, a top official in the Vatican secretariat of state, and Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard law professor, former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See and current president of a pontifical academy.

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AUSTRIA
Our Man in Vienna

Herbert Kuhner

The great crimes on this earth are murder and rape. A murderer takes the life of a human being. A rapist violates a human being.

Pedophilia is rape of an infant, a child or a minor. Pedophilia can be effected by either violent means or by seduction. Committing the crime of pedophilia is tantamount to the murder of an infant, a child or a minor.

Pedophilia is rape of an infant, a child or a minor. Pedophilia can be effected by either seduction, intimidation or violent means

The suffering of a murdered victim ceases after he has been killed. A victim of rape is
spiritually killed but continues to live.

Pope John Paul II in his 2005 book Memory and Identity compared the Holocaust to abortion, as did many other men of the cloth. He wrote that both abortion and the murder of six million Jews were the result of humans under the guise of democracy usurping the “law of God.”
– Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, No. 68, May 1, 2008 …

Both Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI oversaw the hush-up and the shuffling around of pedophile priests. Ratzinger, who was Wojtyla’s ideologue, now lays the blame for the cover-up on Wojtyla. Yes, Ratzinger is as innocent as the driven snow!

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NEW YORK
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the New York Times’ reaction to a TV ad calling out the New York City public schools for coddling accused sexual predators:

In today’s New York Times, there is an analysis of former CNN anchor Campbell Brown’s new group, Parents’ Transparency Project, that was established to root out public school employees guilty of sexual misconduct. This is what it says about the ad: “Her case is helped by stark statistics and will appeal to parents who would not want anyone who had been accused of misconduct, no matter how minor, around children. But by blaming unions, and ignoring concerns that the city might impose unnecessarily harsh punishmentson employees, she risks inflaming organized labor, and in turn, the Democratic candidates for mayor.” (My emphasis.)

When it comes to the Catholic Church, the New York Times insists on “zero tolerance,” but not when it comes to the public schools. It wants to go light on “minor” offenses, and is strictly opposed to “unnecessarily harsh punishments.” Furthermore, it is important for officials to bow before the unions, and it is equally critical that nothing be done to undermine the prospects of a Democratic candidate for mayor.

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WISCONSIN
Post-Crescent

A former Catholic priest who sexually assaulted two boys in the 1980s will be released from a state mental health hospital after a judge approved a conditional release plan.

Norbert Maday, 75, was committed to a secure treatment facility in 2012 after he was classified as a sexually violent person. He recently was re-evaluated and Winnebago County Judge Daniel Bissett approved a conditional release plan Tuesday.

Details of the supervised released plan were sealed by the court under an agreement by the attorneys to keep the plan confidential, but it calls for Maday to be released on or before Aug. 2.

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NEW ZEALAND
Queanbeyan Age

By Joelle Dally, in Christchurch June 26, 2013

Convicted paedophile and former Catholic brother Bernard Kevin McGrath has avoided deportation, for now, by appealing against his extradition to Australia to face hundreds of sex-abuse charges.

McGrath, 65, had until Wednesday to either lodge an appeal or voluntarily go back to Australia, where 252 charges have been laid alleging that he raped, molested and abused dozens of young boys at church-run institutions over several years.

The charges relate to 35 complainants between 1977 and 1986.

The Australian government’s application for extradition was granted by Judge Jane Farish in the Christchurch District Court on June 11.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

A priest and a headteacher have both quit their posts after investigators were brought in to probe a primary school’s finances.

Chair of governors Father Tom Connolly and headteacher Paul Jackson have both retired from their positions at St Kentigern’s RC Primary in Fallowfield.

Their resignations came after auditors were asked to review the accounts of the school – which is part-funded by nearby St Kentigern’s Church.

It is understood independent accountants were brought in after concerns were raised over a series of payments made over the last academic year amounting to several hundred pounds.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Citizens Voice

– JEFF HORVATH
Published: June 26, 2013

Open lewdness charges against a Catholic priest from Tunkhannock and one of his parishioners who were found in a stage of undress last month in a Wyalusing public park were dropped Tuesday afternoon.

The Rev. Daniel Joseph Doherty, 49, and Joanne Mirabelli, 47, both of Tunkhannock, appeared before Magisterial District Judge Fred Wheaton in Wysox and were only found guilty of trespassing in a park after the sunset curfew.

Assistant District Attorney Francis Rineer Jr. announced the state would be dropping the charges of open lewdness, being under the influence of an intoxicating beverage, and performing an obscene or indecent act.

The state would, however, be charging the Rev. Doherty and Mirabelli with being in the Wyalusing park after dark.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

STUART RINTOUL From: The Australian June 26, 2013

AN elderly Catholic priest has been committed for trial charged with “the abominable crime of buggery” and indecent assault of a 12-year-old boy in the early 1970s.

The priest, who cannot be named, appeared in the Melbourne magistrates court this morning, accompanied by supporters.

The court heard that the alleged victim had not spoken about the abuse until he learnt that the priest would officiate at his aunt’s funeral, when he told his wife and sister.

But he had been angry about the church for many years, and would swear when he saw references to church abuse saying “I can’t believe people get away with that”.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 26, 2013

Genevieve Gannon
AAP

A man remained silent for almost 40 years until a Victorian priest he says sexually abused him was asked to conduct his aunt’s funeral.

When the victim’s sister told him she had tracked down the priest to officiate at their aunt’s funeral in 2010, he said he couldn’t go, according to documents tendered in a Melbourne court.

“If he’s going to the funeral, then I can’t go,” the victim told his sister.

He had done odd jobs at the priest’s house as a teenager in the 1970s to earn pocket money, according to a statement he made to police.

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The now-retired Catholic priest, who cannot be named, pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecent assault and one count of buggery of a person under 14 in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 26, 2013

Adam Cooper
Reporter for The Age

A Catholic priest who has pleaded not guilty to charges of molesting a boy in a Melbourne parish house more than 40 years ago has been committed to stand trial.

The priest, 87, who cannot be named, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, where magistrate Ann Collins told him there was sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial.

The priest, who struggled to stand up from his seat before he entered a plea, was bailed to appear at the County Court in June next year for a five-day trial.

He has been charged with two counts of buggery on a child under the age of 14 and two counts of indecent assault.

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ITALIA
IVG

Savona. Francesco Zanardi, portavoce della rete nazionale “L’Abuso” e vittima in passato di un prete pedofilo, scrive a Papa Francesco chiedendo udienza per discutere di una piaga che colpisce la Chiesa.

“Seguo con grande attenzione e speranza la Sua intenzione, emersa in pubbliche dichiarazioni come neoeletto Vescovo di Roma, di voler risolvere quello che è il dramma della pedofilia nel mondo cattolico – scrive Zanardi – Comprendo anche le difficoltà nell’affrontare questa problematica, ma al tempo stesso ritengo esistano delle soluzioni concrete e attuabili. Il problema della pedofilia nella Chiesa è un vicenda grave e dolorosa perché, come Lei sa, sono milioni i minori che quotidianamente vengono affidati alle cure del clero. La pedofilia fa del male principalmente ai bambini, ma anche ai credenti e più in generale alla Chiesa di cui oggi Lei è il massimo rappresentante, minando e incrinando l’essenza stessa dei valori sui quali dichiara di fondarsi”.

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VATICAN CITY
The Globalist

By Massimo Franco | Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Among the many reforms that lie ahead for the Vatican, explains Massimo Franco, a key one is to change its financial diplomacy in a globalized environment. That is a tough task and yet critical for Pope Francis to accomplish.

The Roman Catholic Church sees itself as destined to judge and to take confession from the world.

In the past, its moral leadership was undisputed, at least in theory.

But in the last ten years or so, its image has been shattered by scandals — both sexual and financial.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Catholic Insider

We are very pleased to report that Cardinal O’Malley is banning a dissident Austrian priest from speaking at St. Susanna in Dedham. Here is an excerpt from one of two pieces that appeared in the Boston Globe:

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley is banning a dissident Austrian priest from speaking at a parish in Dedham, prompting a coalition of reform-minded Catholics who invited the priest to move their event to a nearby Unitarian Universalist church. …

BCI commends Cardinal O’Malley for the decision to ban this talk. We also commend the Boston Archdiocese for publicly issuing this policy statement. We have been hoping and praying for a policy like this for many years, and we view it as a very encouraging sign that the Boston Archdiocese is now going to enforce a policy that will not permit any individuals who promote positions contrary to Catholic teachings to speak in Catholic parishes or at church events.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: June 25, 2013

Cardinal Sean O’Malley has barred a prominent Austrian priest from speaking in a Roman Catholic parish in the Archdiocese of Boston because the priest advocates the ordination of women and married men as one solution to the priest shortage. The appearance by the priest, the Rev. Helmut Schüller in Boston on July 17 is part of a cross-country speaking tour sponsored by 10 liberal Catholic groups that are pressing the church for change. The Archdiocese of Boston said that its policy, like the practice in other dioceses, is to prohibit individuals who promote “positions that are contrary to Catholic teachings” from speaking in Catholic parishes and at church events.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Associated Press

BOSTON — Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley has banned an Austrian priest from speaking at a Dedham parish because the priest advocates ordaining woman and making celibacy for priests optional.

A church spokesman tells The Boston Globe that archdiocesan policy doesn’t allow speakers on church property who advocate positions contrary to church doctrine.

The Rev. Helmut Schuller was scheduled to speak at St. Susanna Parish on July 17. His talk has been moved to a nearby Unitarian Universalist church.

Schuller is founder of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, which advocates allowing women and married people to become priests as a way to address a global priest shortage.

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IRELAND
BBC News

The Irish government is to unveil a compensation package for survivors of Magdalene laundries later.

It will be based on recommendations by Mr Justice John Quirke, who was asked by the cabinet to devise eligibility criteria.

The laundries were Catholic-run workhouses where thousands of women and girls had to do unpaid, manual labour.

Mr Justice Quirke was asked for proposals to set up a scheme to compensate women and bring “healing”.

As well as financial compensation, the supports are expected to include help-in-kind for former residents who need it, such as medical cards and other public health supports like mental health and counselling services.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Government will this afternoon unveil a package of financial and other supports for survivors of Magdalene laundries.

It will be based on recommendations of Mr Justice John Quirke who was asked by the cabinet to devise eligibility criteria and other aspects of a non-adversarial scheme.

It’s 20 years since the State’s Magdalene laundries became a source of public controversy. In 1993 the exhumation, transfer and cremation of the remains of 155 former residents of a Magdalene laundry in Dublin by an order of nuns clearing its land for sale sparked public outrage.

Eighty of the women had not been identified because death certificates were missing or never existed in the first place.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

The details of the compensation scheme for the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries will be published today.

It follows a three-month review by former High Court judge, Mr Justice John Quirke, and it is understood the redress fund could be up to €50m.

The redress scheme comes after a report by former Senator Martin McAleese found that the State had a hand in around a quarter of admissions to the laundries, which were workhouses run by four religious orders between 1922 and 1996.

Last February, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny offered an emotional apology to the women involved and promised to compensate them.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By STEPHEN RYAN June 26, 2013

SENIOR police were at the ‘‘end of our tether’’ following a series of leaks to the Newcastle Herald that led Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey to lodge a formal complaint against Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, an inquiry heard on Wednesday morning.

Detective Humphrey said the leaks were interfering with an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse cover-ups within the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese and were putting pressure on investigators.

Detective Humphrey said Detective Fox wanted to run the investigation and ‘‘it got to the stage where he couldn’t be told ‘no’’’.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON June 26, 2013

A senior police officer overseeing a Hunter strike force into sexual abuse concealment has told a Commission of Inquiry, Peter Fox was a zealot who was obsessed with taking part in the investigation.

Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey told the Commission of Inquiry the detective was “beyond driven” in his attempt to be involved in the investigation into concealment of sexual abuse by Hunter priests.

“It just got to the stage where he couldn’t be told no…he continually tried to take control of Lantle,” Detective Chief Inspector Humphrey said this morning.

He said he lodged a formal complaint against Detective Chief Inspector Fox following a series of articles in the Newcastle Herald by journalist Joanne McCarthy.

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KANSAS
WIBW

By: Lindsey Rogers
Updated: Tue 12:18 PM, Jun 25, 2013

GEARY COUNTY, Kan. (WIBW) — A minister accused of sexually abusing young boys in his church’s congregation is expected to enter into a plea agreement with the state, opting not to let his cases be heard by a jury.

Jordan Young, 25, appeared in Geary County District Court Tuesday for a status hearing.

Young is facing child molestation charges in six cases involving separate underage victims.

He has been behind bars since August when the Junction City Police Department launched an investigation into reports of sexual misconduct at Faith Tabernacle Apostolic Church where he’d been serving as the music minister. He is the son of former Faith Tabernacle pastor Edwin Young.

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AUSTRALIA
Border Mail

By Barney Zwartz June 26, 2013

The Catholic Church is still impeding police pursuit and conviction of clergy sex offenders, according to a former head of Victoria Police’s sexual crimes squad.

Former detective inspector Glenn Davies, who now works with victims of clergy sex abuse, says his experience of working with the church is that it is ”protectionist, elitist and dismissive of suggestions for change”.

Mr Davies, who resigned from Victoria Police last year after he admitted briefing journalists about then current investigations, made a submission to the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled clergy sexual abuse. This was posted on the inquiry website late on Tuesday.

Ten submissions were posted, including a defence of Towards Healing by one of its investigators, former police superintendent Paul Murnane, plus a second ”right of reply” by Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The journalist who helped trigger a New South Wales inquiry into sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church hopes it will expose how badly the victims have been treated.

Late yesterday, Fairfax journalist Joanne McCarthy finished giving evidence at the special commission which is underway in Newcastle.

The inquiry is looking at Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox’s claims that the police force and the church tried to cover-up abuse by two priests.

Ms McCarthy’s reporting on clergy abuse in the region has won her a national journalism award and helped trigger the state probe as well as the national Royal Commission.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner, Ken Lay, says he stands by the force’s submission the state’s child sex abuse inquiry.

Victoria Police claimed the Catholic Church had protected child sex offenders and interfered in police investigations.

In a new submission to the inquiry, the state’s most senior Catholic, Archbishop Denis Hart has refuted those allegations.

He says a Victoria Police allegation that the church has not engaged with investigators is misinformed, misleading and factually inaccurate.

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AUSTRALIA
Milton Ulladulla Times

By Catherine Armitage June 26, 2013

The late-night email set out how to wipe email trails and mask mobile calls to keep them secret. But the contact between Peter Fox and Joanne McCarthy was nevertheless exposed.

As relationships go, this one has caused a lot of trouble – for the police, the Catholic Church, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and even the Prime Minister. Now it’s all being laid bare in the Newcastle Supreme Court.

Fairfax Media journalist McCarthy is being grilled in the witness box at the special inquiry into how police and Catholic Church priests and officials handled allegations of sexual abuse in NSW’s Hunter Region.

The inquiry was set up by the NSW Premier after a whistleblower policeman, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, went on ABC’s Lateline last November, alleging a cover-up. The Prime Minister called a separate royal commission on child sexual abuse days later.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A senior policeman giving evidence at the Special Commission of Inquiry into institutional sexual abuse in the New South Wales Hunter Valley has accused Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox of making outrageous claims.

The Special Commission is looking into Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox’s claims that he was ordered to stop investigating two Maitland-Newcastle priests, Father Denis McAlinden and Father James Fletcher.

Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey was the manager of Strike Force Lantle and Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox’s supervisor.

He has told the inquiry that allegations made by Peter Fox that he was locked out of the investigation into a cover up of child sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church are outrageous.

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OKLAHOMA
KTUL

[with video]

Tulsa, Oklahoma –
A Tulsa pastor has been charged with sexual abuse of a minor after a teenager accused him of having sex with her numerous times over the past year.

According to a police report, the 15-year-old female victim told officers on Thursday that Gregory Hawkins, 54, had been having sex with her and that she was now five months pregnant with his child.

The teen told police she had sex with Hawkins numerous times, including at his home, at a Tulsa hotel, the Zion Plaza Church and at other locations, the report stated.

The victim reported the sexual intercourse began in April of 2012 and continued until January 2013.

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OKLAHOMA
News 9

[with video]

TULSA, Oklahoma – The pastor of a Tulsa church is free on bond following his arrest Monday afternoon on a complaint of sexual assault of a minor child.

Police arrested Gregory Hawkins, 54, after a 15-year-old girl told officers she was about five months pregnant with his child.

Police have been investigating Gregory Hawkins since February. He is the pastor of the Zion Plaza Church and also is the owner of a daycare called the Zion Plaza Child Learning Center.

The girl says he began having sex with her last year when she was 14, and it happened at his daycare, his home, hotel rooms, and even in a parking lot at River Parks.

The girl told police she lived with him at his home for a time, beginning when she was 14, and that’s when the abuse started.

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ILLINOIS
Journal Standard

By Nick Crow
JOURNALSTANDARD.COM

MOUNT MORRIS — A 64-year-old Mount Morris man who has worked as a pastor with Crossroads Community Church for the past decade will be in an Ogle County court Friday for alleged criminal sexual abuse of a minor.

Charles Babler was arrested by deputies Friday in the wake of an investigation of a 2011 incident in which police say he had contact with a person younger than 13.

Babler posted bail and was released from jail Monday.

Most recently, Babler was as an executive/administrative pastor, with most of his responsibilities pertaining to financial and personnel matters, said Glen Williamson, pastor with the Crossroads campus in Freeport. The church has seven campuses in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

“It is our understanding and belief that the charges made against Mister Babler allege misconduct away from church premises and (are) totally unrelated to Crossroads or to Mister Babler’s employment with Crossroads,” he said in a statement Tuesday night.

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OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

By AMANDA BLAND World Staff Writer on Jun 26, 2013

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services is investigating a church-affiliated child-care center after the church’s pastor was arrested on a sex-abuse complaint Monday. DHS has visited the center 13 times since July 2012.

Gregory Ivan Hawkins, 54, was jailed on a complaint of sexual abuse of a minor after detectives located him near the 3600 block of the L.L. Tisdale Parkway. He posted a $50,000 bond and was released at 11:17 p.m. Monday.

Hawkins is accused of maintaining a sexual relationship with a teen between the ages of 14 and 15 since April 2012, his arrest report shows. The girl became pregnant in January, allegedly with Hawkins’ child.

Hawkins is the pastor of Zion Fellowship Ministries and owner of Zion Child Care & Learning Center, both of which are located in the Zion Plaza shopping center at 612 E. 46th St. North, his arrest report shows. The report lists the name of the church as Zion Plaza Church.

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OREGON
Daily Astorian

A Utah man filed suit against the Archdiocese of Portland Tuesday, saying he was sexually abused by a Seaside priest during the 1980’s.

43-year-old Scott Little alleges that when he was between the age of 10 and 12, he was sodomized on numerous occasions by Father Maurice Grammond.

Kelly Clark, Little’s lawyer, says “We plan to prove that the Archdiocese of Portland had enough experience with child abuse by the time this man was abused, that for them to put a priest like Father Grammond in ministry, unrestricted with no warnings, essentially amounts to misrepresentation, and if you will fraud.”

The lawsuit seeks more than $12 million in damages. Grammond is now dead, but he had denied any abuse.

In 2007, the Archdiocese of Portland settled with 23 men who claimed sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

A Victorian priest will stand trial over an historical abuse claim that surfaced when he was asked to officiate at the victim’s aunt’s funeral.

A man remained silent for almost 40 years until a Victorian priest he says sexually abused him was asked to conduct his aunt’s funeral.

When the victim’s sister told him she had tracked down the priest to officiate at their aunt’s funeral in 2010, he said he couldn’t go, according to documents tendered in a Melbourne court.

“If he’s going to the funeral, then I can’t go,” the victim told his sister.

He had done odd jobs at the priest’s house as a teenager in the 1970s to earn pocket money, according to a statement he made to police.

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ARIZONA
The Arizona Republic

By Michael Clancy
The Republic | azcentral.com
Tue Jun 25, 2013

A dozen victims have filed lawsuits in Coconino County Superior Court alleging they were sexually abused by six Arizona priests who worked in the Catholic Diocese of Gallup, N.M., between 1942 and 1977.

The lawsuits, all filed since Jan. 1, claim the abuse took place in parishes in Flagstaff, Winslow, Holbrook and the Verde Valley.

The package of cases is believed to be the largest single group of priest-abuse lawsuits currently active in the United States, according to Terence McKiernan, president of bishopaccountability.org, a website that has documented abuse in the Catholic Church in the United States since 2003.

In addition to the cases filed this year, another active case was filed in 2012, and as many as a dozen other allegations were settled out of court.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP

June 26, 2013

The police whistleblower whose allegations helped trigger an inquiry into alleged child sex abuse by NSW priests has been described as a lying zealot.

Newcastle police crime manager Wayne Humphrey told the inquiry on Wednesday he lodged a formal complaint against Detective Chief inspector Peter Fox in 2011 because he suspected him of leaking confidential information to the media, and he was obliged to complain under police operating guidelines.

Detective Chief Inspector Humphrey said he and another senior officer searched Det Insp Fox’s office when he was away on leave in 2011 because he had been directed by another senior officer to locate a document related to allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

The special commission is examining the way police and Maitland/Newcastle diocese leaders handled child sexual abuse allegations, particularly involving priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.

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CALIFORNIA
Merced Sun-Star

By Marcos Breton — mbreton@sacbee.com

The crowds have left the side of Uriel Ojeda, the former “rock star” priest facing criminal charges that he sexually molested a young girl.

Roughly 18 months ago, more than 200 of his followers had jammed a Sacramento courtroom when seven criminal counts were filed against the Rev. Ojeda for allegedly abusing the 14-year-old daughter of a former parishioner.

Tall, young, handsome, Ojeda had been the focal point of many stories in The Bee before his arrest in November 2011. I had written about him as well because in September 2008, Ojeda had prayed over my father the night before he died.

This was personal. This was the man who was supposed to be the face of a new church moving beyond a national crisis of sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 25/06/2013
Reporter: Susie Smith

The Newcastle inquiry into a coverup of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church has heard evidence that a senior figure within the Church covered up the crimes of a paedophile priest.

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The New South Wales Premier’s Department has tonight ordered an investigation into the shredding of police and Catholic Church documents by a member of the sex crime squad.

Last week Lateline revealed details of a senior police officer shredding records of meetings she’d had with Catholic Church officials who had been assessing child sex abuse cases. The meetings took place over five years.

Meanwhile the New South Wales inquiry into sexual abuse by the clergy in the Hunter Valley has heard today that a former bishop of Newcastle Maitland released key internal Church documents to a victim triggering one of the biggest police investigations into clergy cover up in Australia.

The special commission of inquiry is investigating allegations by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox of cover ups by police and the Church of child sexual abuse. Susie Smith reports from Newcastle.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on June 26, 2013

In his first interview on the scandal that spawned calls for his resignation, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers said he will no longer sign off on agreements that require the church to monitor priests placed on restricted ministry over sexual abuse allegations.

Myers, in a lengthy exchange with the National Catholic Register, responded to the controversy involving the Rev. Michael Fugee, who was criminally charged last month with violating a lifetime ban on ministry to children.

The ban was outlined in a 2007 agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office. Both Fugee and the archdiocese were parties to the agreement.

“We would not enter into a memorandum of understanding that places a burden on the church,” Myers said. “The state has more resources. Our advice would be to tell the priest, ‘Go back for a second trial and clear your name.’”

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COLORADO
KRDO

[with video]

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. –
Emotional testimony in the case of a 78-year-old Colorado Springs priest accused of sexually assaulting a child. Father Charles Manning’s former assistant broke down in tears when asked if she still considered Manning, a friend.

Manning was a pastor at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church. His trial started yesterday.

He used a wheelchair to get into the courtroom and was on an oxygen tank. Manning is accused of sexually assaulting a child who was interested in joining the Catholic Church in 2011.

His former executive assistant said Manning gave the victim private classes, but said she never noticed anything inappropriate about the relationship. During her testimony, she said she still considers Manning her friend, and hugged him as she left the courtroom.

Also Tuesday, a Catholic Victim’s Assistance coordinator said the victim reported Manning forced him to dance and perform sex acts on him.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Harry McGee

Wed, Jun 26, 2013

The Government has made a provision of at least €25 million to compensate former residents of Magdalene Laundries. It is also understood there is no proposal for a reconciliation forum involving the four religious congregations who ran the 10 laundries concerned and the women who had been resident in them, as was mooted recently

Details of the fund that will be available to an estimated 700 women, many of them elderly, will be disclosed by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter this afternoon after he has briefed groups representing the women.

Sources with knowledge of the process have said that payments will range from €10,000 to about €100,000, related to length of stay of women in the laundries. It is also believed that ongoing health and other such supports for the women will be provided by the State. A report by former High Court judge Mr Justice John Quirke examining the various forms of redress and support to be made available to the women will also be published today. No details have emerged as to the nature of the payments, whether they will be once-off lump sums or paid in stages, which was the initial preferred option of Government.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

June 25, 2013 1:22 pm | Author: Jerry Berger
A St. Louis priest is on trial this week for allegedly molesting a Colorado child. He is Fr. Robert Charles Manning, who reportedly abused the child, gave him booze, pot cigarettes and expensive gifts (including jewelry, watches and a $3,000 car), took him to get his nipples pierced and made him a beneficiary in the cleric’s will. Manning now lives in St. Louis. He worked in the St. Louis Archdiocese, at parishes in Bridgeton, Glencoe and Imperial. Manning went to Colorado Springs a few years ago after St. Louis Bishop Michael Sheridan took over there.

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UNITED STATES
Truthout

Tuesday, 25 June 2013 10:20
By Pam Spees, Center for Constitutional Rights | Op-Ed

Last week, for the first time ever, an international body asked questions about the Vatican’s handling of widespread and systemic rape and sexual violence. Last Wednesday, survivors of rape and sexual violence by Catholic priests met with members of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in Geneva, calling the Vatican to account for its ongoing failure to abide by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a U.N. treaty that the Vatican long ago signed but, like the children it is designed to protect, has systematically neglected.

Wednesday’s historic meeting is the latest sign that a growing global movement is closing in on that day when Vatican officials will be held accountable for their systemic enabling of rape and sexual abuse. In March, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), submitted a report to the UN Committee outlining the myriad ways the Vatican is in perpetual violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Now the CRC has called on the Vatican to report on its implementation, or lack thereof, of its human rights obligations.

The global expansion of this movement is a product of survivors’ efforts to internationalize the search for justice in response to a problem they came to understand as international in scope. As SNAP founder Barbara Blaine observed, “It’s a worldwide problem. We’re a worldwide movement.”

The first big step in the quest for worldwide accountability was the September 2011 complaint that SNAP and CCR submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor setting out the ways in which the magnitude, scale and gravity of the offenses against children amount to crimes against humanity. In April 2012, we submitted additional evidence that had come to light since the first filing.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The cardinals Francis nominated as advisors in April are also looking into some unresolved issues in the Church

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

Although their official meeting will be in October, they are already moving full steam ahead with their work and will use the summer months to prepare thoroughly for their first meeting. The eight cardinals Francis chose as his advisors last 13 April, exactly one month after his election, are currently mulling over ideas and proposals. And they will not just be dealing with Curia reform.

When the Vatican Secretariat of State announced Francis’ decision to set up the advisory group, it specified that it was established “to advise him [the Pope] in the government of the universal Church and to study a plan for revising the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, ‘Pastor Bonus’.” Advising the Pope on the running of the universal Church is certainly no less important than the council’s task of reforming the Curia, but the latter will be the council’s main focus.

Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga is responsible for coordinating the group of eight cardinals he himself is a member of (Giuseppe Bertello, Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, Oswald Gracias, Reinhard Marx, Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, Sean Patrick O’Malley, George Pell, Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga). The council’s secretary is the Bishops of Albano (Italy), Marcello Semeraro. A representative of the Middle Eastern Churches could also join the group at some point in the future. They are all cardinals and therefore work closely with the Pope. At the same time, they also work or worked within the bodies that represent Episcopal Conferences: the need to improve the relationship between the central Church in Rome and the local Churches was a subject which came up prior to the Conclave that elected Francis. During the summer, the council is expected to draw up a document defining the nature and identity of the council.

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WISCONSIN
Fox 11

OSHKOSH – A former priest convicted of sexual assault in Winnebago County – and later deemed to be a sexual predator – will be released from a state treatment facility before Aug. 2.

Norbert Maday spent 13 years in prison on a 1994 sexual assault conviction. Maday served as a priest in the Chicago area, but was convicted of sexual assaulting boys while at a retreat in Winnebago County. Later, the state had him committed as sexual predator.

Judge Daniel Bissett approved the release plan Tuesday, according to online court records.

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WISCONSIN
WBAY

By Emily Matesic

Oshkosh –
A former Catholic priest from Chicago, convicted of sexually assaulting two teenage boys in Oshkosh back in the 1990’s, will be released into the Winnebago County area by the end of the summer.

Norbert Maday served more than a dozen years in prison and several more in a secure facility for sexually violent offenders. Tuesday, a judge approved a release plan for Maday.

Norbert Maday appeared for the hearing via video conference from the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston, Wisconsin, near The Dells, where he’s been housed since being released from prison and classified as a sexually violent person.

Both his attorney, who was in the courtroom, and the special prosecutor, who appeared for the hearing on the phone, agreed to a conditional release supervision plan for the former priest.

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NEW JERSEY
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jun. 25, 2013 NCR Today

The decision to return Fr. Michael Fugee to active but restricted ministry in the Newark, N.J., archdiocese “was appropriate at the time,” says Archbishop John Myers, though he added he would seek to avoid future court agreements appointing the archdiocese into a supervisory role.

“We would not enter into a memorandum of understanding that places a burden on the Church. The state has more resources. Our advice would be to tell the priest, ‘Go back for a second trial and clear your name,’ ” Myers said.

The response came in the Newark archbishop’s first interview since his archdiocese became embroiled in the U.S. Catholic church’s latest clergy sex abuse scandal, which centered on Fugee, who was arrested May 20 for violating a memorandum of understanding restricting him from ministry to children. The order came in lieu of a retrial on charges of sexual assault against a 14-year-old boy dating back to 1999, of which a jury found him guilty in 2003 but an appeals court overturned in 2006 on the basis of judicial error.

Myers spoke Thursday with the National Catholic Register, which published the interview Tuesday.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
The Herald

By Brian Fraga

* Below is the full text of a letter that the late James Porter wrote to Pope Paul VI in 1973 requesting to be laicized. The 19-page letter was provided by attorney Jeff Anderson, who is representing a Minnesota woman in a new lawsuit against the Diocese of Fall River and two other co-defendants. Porter, a notorious predator-priest, allegedly molested the woman several times when she was a 9-year-old girl in the late 1960s.

In the letter, Porter admits to his sexually abusing minors but tells the pope toward the end of the letter that his life was turning around after he started working at a bank. Porter – who was removed from the priesthood in the early 1970s and later married – was convicted in 1993 of molesting 28 kids and he was sentenced to 20 years in state prison. He died of cancer in 2005.

May 17, 1973

Most Holy Father,

I, James Robert Porter, would like to humbly petition Your Eminence for a dispensation to and release from the responsibilities of the priesthood including in this the release from the obligation of celibacy. I am presently living at 1751 Gulden Place, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55109. I have lived at this address since September 1, 1972. Immediately preceding this I had lived at 970 Reaney Ave. St. Paul, Minn, from December, 1971 until Sept. 1, 1972. Previous to this after leaving the priestly life in Nov., 1970 I lived with the Schmitz family in Hastings Minn. just a few miles outside St. Paul. The address of Florence and Leo Schmitz is, 9550 Manning Ave. So., Hastings, Minn. I came to live there at their request. They knew of my situation that I was suspended of my priestly duties by Bishop James L. Connolly of the Fall River Diocese, Mass. and for what reasons. However being the good friends they are of mine and both being wonderful Christians, they in Christian charity request that I live with them until I could find my way clear and assist me back to normal living. I accepted their charitable offer only on the condition that I would remain with them only so long as necessary.

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NEW JERSEY
Washington Post

NJ archbishop wary of entering any new pact with prosecutors to oversee restricted priests

By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, June 25

NEWARK, N.J. — The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Newark is unlikely to enter into any new agreements with civil authorities that require church leaders to supervise priests on restricted duty, the archbishop said.

Rather than oversee a priest who had a case in the legal system, the archdiocese would tell him to “go back for a second trial and clear your name,” Archbishop John J. Myers told the National Catholic Register in an interview released Tuesday.

“The state has more resources,” he added.

Myers has been under fire for how the archdiocese handled the case of the Rev. Michael Fugee, a priest who violated an agreement between the church and the Bergen County prosecutor’s office.

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OREGON
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 25, 2013

PORTLAND, Oregon — A Utah man has filed a $12.25 million lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Portland, alleging he was sexually abused three decades ago by the Rev. Maurice Grammond, Oregon’s most notorious pedophile priest.

Grammond, who died in 2002, molested dozens boys between the 1950s and 1980s, and lawsuits stemming from his behavior cost the archdiocese more than $30 million in settlements by 2007 — the year its bankruptcy proceeding was finalized.

Tuesday’s lawsuit was filed on behalf of a 43-year-old man who was an altar boy at Our Lady of Victory parish in Seaside, Oregon, in the early 1980s.

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