ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
euronews

The scandal plagued Vatican Bank has published the first annual report from its newly formed financial watchdog agency revealing that it had detected six possible attempts to use the Holy See to launder money last year.

As part of efforts to increase transparency it said it is now screening account-holders.

It also plans to beef up regulations and has enlisted an international agency to certify the bank’s compliance with anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing measures.

The Autorità Informazione Finanziaria issued a 10-page report, that contained little detail on any supervisory operations.

However the agency’s director Rene Bruelhart told reporters he had proof it is committed to doing a good job: “In 2012 we had six suspicious transaction reports, in comparison to 2011 when we had one suspicious transaction report, so this is a clear sign that the reporting system is starting to work.”

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, May 22 – The Vatican Bank was involved in one of the six transactions flagged by the Holy See’s financial watchdog last year, the director of the Financial Information Authority (AIF) said Wednesday . Commenting on an annual report, Rene’ Bruelhart did not specify on the contents of the transaction, beyond that it was not tied to terrorism. The Holy See has been trying without success to join the ‘white list’ of states that meet international standards on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism. In a report last July, the Council of Europe’s Moneyval department said that the Holy See had made progress on financial transparency, but added that more reforms were needed.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Good Jesuit, Bad Jesuit

Jesuit officials in Chicago will pay $19.6 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by six men who claim theyDonald McGuire, formerly of Oak Lawn, is serving a 25-year prison term after being convicted in Chicago in 2008 of federal charges that he brought a minor across state lines to engage in sex. He also was convicted in 2006 of molesting two boys in Wisconsin during the 1960s. were molested by a former priest and onetime spiritual advisor to Mother Teresa, an attorney for the plaintiffs said Monday.

“The amount of the settlement is reflective of the magnitude of misconduct by the top Jesuit officials,” said Jeff Anderson, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 22, 2013

Six men who were sexually violated as kids by a widely-known Jesuit priest, who worked in the Bay Area for five years, have reached a settlement totaling nearly $20 million.

[BishopAccountability.org]

We applaud their courage and strength.

The predator is Fr. Donald McGuire, now serving a 25 year prison sentence. From 1976 until 1981, he worked at the University of San Francisco and conducted freshman seminars, directed student retreats, and did counseling.

[BishopAccountability.org]

These six brave men have, despite their horrific pain, struggled to expose corruption by some of the top Jesuits in the US. More truth about awful church crimes and cover ups is being revealed and for that, Catholics should be grateful.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

AIF director, René Brülhart, has presented the figures relating to the body’s anti-money laundering efforts

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

During the course of 2012, particularly in the last few months of that year, the AIF (Financial Information authority), the Vatican’s financial watchdog set up by Benedict XVI and led by President Attilio Nicora, has flagged 6 suspicious activities in the Vatican or in the Holy See’s bodies, against last year’s one suspicious activity. The Vatican Bank, (IOR) was found to be implicated in some suspicious transactions.

Two information requests were sent to domestic authorities and two reports to the Promoter of Justice, that is, the Vatican City State’s judicial authority. Last year, an information request was sent to foreign authorities and three were received by foreign authorities.

598 declared cross-border cash transactions of over ten thousand Euros were made throughout the course of 2012: 598 transfers were made to the Vatican and 1782 were made form the Vatican. This means 2.380 people entered or left the Vatican, declaring they had over ten thousand Euros in cash or bonds with them.

This is according to the first Financial Information Authority’s Annual Report for 2012, presented in the Vatican newsroom this morning by the director of the AIF, René Brülhart. He said: “The statistics and trends from 2012 are encouraging and indicates that the system is consistently improving.”

Brülhart said the AIF has initiated the systematic screening and analysis of Cash Transaction Reports submitted by the obliged entities. “In our efforts to tackle actively any potential abuse of the financial system, we initiated a close and constructive interaction with the Secretariat of State, the Gendarmerie, the Promoter of Justice and the institutions under our oversight in order to improve awareness and safety and ensure a coordinated internal cooperation in AML/CFT matters” to prevent and counter money-laundering and the financing of terrorism.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

A former priest awaiting trial on historic child sex abuse charges does not have the right to anonymity, a judge held today.

William Carney, aged 62, is charged with 34 counts of indecent assault of eight boys and two girls, at locations in Dublin and north east Leinster from 1969 until 1989.

Today at Cloverhill District Court, Judge Grainne Malone lifted an earlier gag order prohibiting the news media from naming the 62-year-old who currently has no fixed address.

Her ruling came following submissions from lawyers for RTE, The Irish Times, the Irish Independent and the Irish Daily Mail’s publishers Associated Newspapers.

The case was adjourned for two weeks.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 22, 2013

Victims blast church “star chamber”
Group seeks end to secret abuse panel
SNAP: “Newark Catholic board should resign”
And replacements’ names should be made public
Parishioners should be able to vote on them, victims say

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging members of a Newark Catholic church abuse panel to resign and speak out against their archbishop’s handling of clergy sex abuse cases. They also want the names of current and future board members to be made public and parishioners to have a voice in picking new board members.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are urging Catholics who belong to the Newark archdiocesan “review board” to “step down, speak out and become part of the solution, not part of the problem.” They have sent a letter today to the board members, via Newark Archbishop John Myers, who personally appointed each of them, and other archdiocesan staff.

“These are likely well-intentioned people whose qualifications and reputations are being used by Archbishop Myers to justify reckless, callous and possibly illegal moves that protect predator priests and endanger vulnerable kids,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP’s outreach director. “For their own sakes, and the safety of Newark area families, they should step aside and join with victims, witnesses and whistleblowers who are working to expose corruption in the church.”

SNAP says that the case of Fr. Michael Fugee and other predator priests show that “there is something dreadfully wrong with how (Myers) handles abuse cases.”

Every Catholic diocese in the US is required to have a “review board” which purportedly “advises” each bishop about clergy sex abuse reports. In most dioceses, their names are public. But Myers refuses to identify who they are in Newark.

“Keeping board members’ identities secret deters abuse victims from reporting clergy sex crimes,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP’s outreach director. “Why would I walk into a room of people to disclose horrific childhood trauma to people who might include my boss, my ex-husband, my next door neighbor or five defense lawyers? That’s just crazy.”

In dioceses in California, Iowa and elsewhere, SNAP says, review board members have quit in frustration or concern because their views were not heeded or information was withheld from them.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY ABOTT DUROCHER ON MAY 21, 2013

Statement by SNAP leader Abott Durocher of Kansas City 314-616-5054, Hiabott@yahoo.com

These two new civil lawsuits are believed to be the sixth and seventh civil lawsuit involving Fr. Shawn F. Ratigan. Ratigan’s crimes led to the first-ever criminal prosecution of Bishop Robert Finn, the first US Catholic bishop found guilty of failing to report suspected child sex crimes to law enforcement.

The suits are believed to be among only a handful to use a little-known and rarely-used 2007 Missouri state law that makes it illegal to take pictures of people with their underwear showing without their consent (regardless of t heir age). That’s because while Ratigan took many photos that were child porn, he took many more that were illegal, hurtful and inappropriate but that didn’t technically meet the legal definition of child porn.

In both cases, families were hurt and betrayed and deserve justice. We in SNAP urge every single family that was hurt by Ratigan, in any way to come forward and get help. Even though Ratigan is in prison and Bishop Finn has been prosecuted, it’s possible that there are other Catholic employees who helped conceal Ratigan’s crimes who might still be prosecuted.

So it’s important that people with information about clergy sex crimes call police. It’s also important to remember that Ratigan kept on hurting kids even when he was allegedly being monitored by church employees. We see this again and again across the country: suspected and suspended sex offender clerics supposedly being “supervised” by fellow clerics. It’s a cheap but ineffective response.

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MICHIGAN
CBS Detroit

TROY (WWJ) – Some local parishioners are upset about a Catholic solicitation in honor of a priest who is currently being investigated by the FBI for allegedly stealing money from a Troy church.

Saint Thomas More Parish is trying to raise about $300,000 to help support church activities – that’s nothing new. But this year, the church says it wants the money to be raised in honor of Father Edward Belczak, who was suspended by the Archdiocese of Detroit in January amid accusations that he mishandled at least $429,000 in church money over the past six years.

In a mailed solicitation letter to parishioners, the church says a donation to this year’s Catholic Services Appeal (CSA) is “the best tribute you could give to Fr. Belczak’s ministry.”

The letter goes on to say that not giving to the fund will only hurt the church in the long run. It also says that those who do not respond to the plea will continued to be contacted about the issue.

“Choosing not to contribute to CSA will harm only St. Thomas More parish and our own programs; it will not ‘send a message’ of frustration or disappointment to the Archbishop,” the letter reads.

Click here to read the letter (.pdf format)

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

WEDNESDAY MAY 22, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER

The lawyer representing the Rev. Michael Fugee, the Catholic priest accused of violating a judicial order never to work with children, vigorously defended his client this morning, insisting that he will be acquitted because he “acted in good faith” when he heard confessions of minors at parishes throughout New Jersey.

Fugee’s 2003 conviction on aggravated criminal sexual contact, based on allegations that emerged while he was assistant pastor at the Church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Wyckoff, was overturned on appeal. He later was admitted to a pre-trial probation program.

Michael D’Alessio, who was Fugee’s lawyer when he signed the 2007 agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office barring him from working with kids, did not deny that the priest heard children’s confessions, which prosecutors outlined in seven criminal charges on Monday.

But he said Fugee, who was released on bail from the Bergen County Jail Tuesday night, never was “unsupervised” with children, a point he argued is a crucial element of the agreement.

“Father Fugee is not guilty of this offense,” D’Alessio said in an interview with The Record. “He did not under any circumstances violate a memorandum of understanding. He was very aware of it. He was aware of what he could do and not do.”

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IRELAND
RTE News

A former priest who faces 34 charges of child sex abuse has no right to anonymity in court proceedings, a District Court judge has ruled.

Bill Carney, 62, is accused of the indecent assault of eight boys and two girls between 1969 and 1989.
A court order was granted prohibiting the publication of his name.

That order was lifted today at the District Court in Cloverhill after an application by lawyers for RTÉ and a number of newspapers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Staffordshire Newsletter

THE RECENT lifting of reporting restrictions on a series of trials for sexual abuse, child prostitution and trafficking in Telford have highlighted the vulnerability of young people in a number of ways for which church members, neighbours and schools should be alert, writes the Rt Reverend Geoff Annas.

“Children are vulnerable to all sorts of sexual and mental abuse,” said the Bishop of Stafford and chair of the Diocese of Lichfield’s safeguarding team.

“I spent eight years as a social worker and never came across the degree of manipulation and abuse that this and other recent cases have highlighted. It is truly horrific and we continue to pray for survivors in all our communities.”

The police investigation into abuse and trafficking in Telford is at the heart of a Channel 4 documentary that will be shown tomorrow night (23).

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By FIONA HENDERSON May 22, 2013

FORMER Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns has been excused from giving evidence to the Victorian government inquiry into institutionalised sexual abuse.

Inquiry chairman Georgie Crozier said an independent neuropsychological assessment of Bishop Mulkearns had been undertaken by Dr Nathaniel Popp.

Bishop Mulkearns suffered a stroke several years ago, but it was revealed during an April 29 inquiry hearing at Parliament House he could still conduct Mass.

However, Ms Crozier said the recent testing showed Bishop Mulkearns could not provide reliable evidence from his time as Ballarat bishop.

Instead, she said the committee had several documents made available to it instead.

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DEUTSCHLAND
dradio

Die Bundesregierung hat bislang 30 Millionen Euro an ehemalige Heimkinder ausgezahlt. Das geht aus einem Zwischenbericht über die Empfehlungen des Runden Tisches zur Heimerziehung hervor, der heute dem Kabinett vorlag. Die Betroffenen waren in der Nachkriegszeit zu Tausenden in Heimen betreut worden, die von Kirchen und anderen Trägern betrieben wurden. Viele von ihnen mussten beispielsweise in Waschküchen arbeiten oder Torf stechen, wurden geschlagen und drangsaliert. Der Hilfsfonds ist mit einem Finanzvolumen von 120 Millionen Euro ausgestattet, die vom Bund, den westdeutschen Bundesländern sowie der katholischen und evangelischen Kirche jeweils zu einem Drittel getragen wird.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Focus

Der Hilfsfonds für Opfer der Heimerziehung hat bis Ende März rund 30 Millionen Euro ausbezahlt – 25 Millionen für ehemalige Heimkinder im Westen und 5 Millionen für Betroffene aus Ostdeutschland.

Dies geht aus dem Zwischenbericht über die Umsetzungen der Empfehlungen eines Runden Tisches zur Heimerziehung hervor, der am Mittwoch dem Bundeskabinett vorlag.

Der Hilfsfonds wird mit Geldern des Staates, der Kirchen und anderer Organisationen gespeist. Der Opferfonds für die Betroffenen im Westen hat Anfang 2012 seine Arbeit aufgenommen. Für ehemalige Heimbewohner in der DDR gibt es den Fonds seit Juli 2012.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

[with audio]

CHICAGO (CBS) – The lawyer for six men who accused a prominent Jesuit priest of sexually abusing them as children, said the approximately $3 million settlement for each victim is a small measure of justice in the case.

WBBM Newsradio’s Regine Schlesinger reports attorney Jeff Anderson said the $19.6 million settlement in the case of defrocked and imprisoned Jesuit priest Donald McGuire finally holds his superiors to account for covering up his crimes “for decades of concealment, and choices made by top officials to protect themselves and their reputation, at the peril of these then young kids; now young men.”

Lawyers who worked out the settlement said, for 40 years, the Jesuits moved McGuire around the globe, in order to protect him and their reputations, at the risk of all the boys he went on to rape.

“The Jesuits chose to protect him,” Anderson said. He described the coverup as “a long and sordid history of concealment.”

Anderson said Jesuit officials started receiving reports in 1964 that McGuire was sexually abusing boys he took with him on retreats around the world.

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UNITED STATES
Why I Am Catholic

May 21, 2013 By Frank Weathers

You may recall the recent goings on in the Archdiocese of Newark related to the scandal of sexual abuse of minors. Well, a number of priests and religious have banded together to form a posse of sorts, and they call their little band of brethren the Catholic Whistleblowers. Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times shares the story up about them.

They call themselves Catholic Whistleblowers, a newly formed cadre of priests and nuns who say the Roman Catholic Church is still protecting sexual predators.

Although they know they could face repercussions, they have banded together to push the new pope to clean house and the American bishops to enforce the zero-tolerance policies they adopted more than a decade ago.

The group began organizing quietly nine months ago without the knowledge of their superiors or their peers, and plan to make their campaign public this week. Most in the steering group of 12 have blown the whistle on abusers in the past, and three are canon lawyers who once handled abuse cases on the church’s behalf. Four say they were sexually abused as children. …

I don’t really know if the actions taken by Archbishop Myers tripped the switch on these folks deciding to band together. The impetus to do something had probably been building for a while. But if it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so be it.

Back when Fr. Michael Fugee resigned his priesthood, I explained that everyone loses when these tragic events occur. And the damages are exacerbated when they are covered up.

Guess what? As of yesterday, the leadership failures in the Archdiocese of Newark have resulted in the arrest of Fr. Fugee for violation of the protection orders he promised to abide by a few years ago, and was allowed to ignore.

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SCOTLAND
STV

Two nuns accused of physically abusing pupils at a residential school in the 1970s have been cleared.

Anne Kenny and Agnes Reville were both acquitted after a trial at Paisley Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

They had been accused of assaulting eight girls at Dalbeath Approved School in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, during the 1970s.

The trial had previously heard from former pupils who claimed the nuns had attacked them and placed them in a “punishment room” at the facility.

Kenny, 79, was known as Mother Rosaria at the time she was working at the school while 77-year-old Reville was identified as Mother Martin.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

Two nuns have been cleared of assaulting girls in their care at an approved school in Renfrewshire.

Anne Kenny, 79, known as Mother Rosaria, and Agnes Reville, 77, known as Mother Martin, had been accused of hitting pupils at Dalbeth Approved School in Bishopton in the 1970s.

Their trial at Paisley Sheriff Court heard claims that pupils were held in a cupboard and hit with a carpet beater.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Crawley News

By Dave Comeau

A FORMER priest has been jailed for ten years for historic sexual abuse at an Ifield children’s home.
Gordon Rideout abused boys and girls as young as five at Ifield Hall, a Barnardo’s children’s home which has since been demolished.

It was during his time as assistant curate at St Mary’s Church in Southgate between 1962 and 1965 that he would visit the home and carry out the abuse.

Rideout, 74, from Polegate, East Sussex, was found guilty on Monday of 34 indecent assaults and two attempted rapes after a six-week trial at Lewes Crown Court. He was acquitted of one charge of indecent assault.

All of the crimes, apart from four indecent assaults on girls at an army base in Hampshire, were committed at the home.

Nigel Pilkington, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Gordon Rideout was in a position of trust, which he systemically abused, indecently assaulting the vulnerable youngsters that he met over a number of years.

“He was able to wander through Ifield Hall and the gardens, even visiting children when they were sick and alone in bed.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

BY KEVIN DOUGHERTY, GAZETTE QUEBEC BUREAU CHIEF

QUEBEC — Justice Minister Bertrand St-Arnaud says he is sensitive to the arguments of victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests and others in a position of authority that call for an end to time limits on civil lawsuits.

But St-Arnaud said Bill 22, set for adoption by the Quebec National Assembly this week, is nevertheless a “giant step forward” because it would extend Quebec’s statute of limitations on civil suits against criminals to 30 years in cases of sexual abuse and 10 years for other crimes.

At present, a crime victim must file suit within three years after a crime is committed or from the time the victim becomes aware of the impact of the crime. Arsenault said it may take years for victims to realize there is a link between their destructive behaviour and past abuse.

Bill 22’s changes mean cases dating back 27 years, that could not go to court, now may be heard.

Bill 22 is about increasing compensation under Quebec’s Crime Victims Compensation Act.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Frank Weathers has nailed it.

Lying Apologists, take note. Take 19.6 million notes.

The best line:

Meanwhile, the bridge of trust, so important for evangelizing, and which had been built so strongly, and maintained so carefully, was willfully neglected, and allowed to fall into disrepair. All because someone decided that it was more important to protect the reputation of the Church as an institution, than it was to maintain the actual health of the Body of Christ.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Why I Am Catholic

May 21, 2013 By Frank Weathers

As you might guess, this turns out badly.

It’s timely that I posted something earlier about the sexual abuse scandals, whistleblowers, and how lying about them for Jesus has damaged the Church. And when I say Church, I mean the present, and future, faithful. Not the buildings, or the hierarchy. I mean the full Body of Christ in the world.

Manya Brachear of the Chicago Tribune has the scoop on how the headline above came to be from a story that hit the wires just a little while ago.

Internal church records released Tuesday show that Chicago Jesuits consciously concealed the crimes of convicted sex offender Donald McGuire for more than 40 years as the prominent Roman Catholic priest continued to sexually abuse dozens of children around the globe.

One letter written in 1970 by the Rev. John H. Reinke, then president of Loyola Academy in Wilmette, described McGuire’s presence at the school as “positively destructive and corrosive.” Instead of insisting he be removed from ministry or sent to treatment, he suggested a transfer to Loyola University.

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NEW JERSEY
The Jewish Voice

After years of denying the allegations against him, a notorious Lakewood child molester has finally fessed up to his accused crimes.

Yeshiva teacher Yosef Kolko—- who is the nephew of notorious pedophile Rabbi Yehuda Kolko—- pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a young boy during summer camp six years ago.

When a religious council of Orthodox Jews refused to take legal action against the man, the victim’s family turned to the Office of the Ocean County Prosecutor for justice.

As a result of seeking prosecution outside the confines of the Orthodox world, the victim’s entire family was ostracized by residents of their NJ community. Likewise, several community members took it a step further hoping on board a “terror campaign” to bully the family into dropping charges against the teacher by distributed flyers throughout the town which proclaimed the boy’s father had made a “mockery” of the Tanakh by committing the “terrible deed” of using a secular jurisdiction.

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WISCONSIN
Sheboygan Daily

Posted on Wednesday, May 22, 2013

by SheboyganDaily.com Staff

SHEBOYGAN – A Sheboygan priest will head to New York on Wednesday to call for more transparency in child sex abuse cases.

Rev. Jim Connell of St. Clement’s Church has formed a national whistleblowers group to make sure Catholic Church leaders follow through with that crackdown on abuse.

“As we continue down the road of trying to get the truth out so there really can be an understanding of the crisis, of all that has taken place, and the truth then being a road to justice and hopefully healing,” said Connell in an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio on Tuesday.

The organization is urging church insiders to report suspected sex abuse immediately and hold the church’s hierarchy responsible when it comes to removing priests.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

BY ABBOTT KOLOFF, REBECCA D. O’BRIEN AND JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD

The man who prosecutors said was the victim of a former Wyckoff priest put the blame squarely on church officials Tuesday for allowing the cleric to continue in ministry, promoting him to prestigious positions, and failing to stop him from working with children in violation of an agreement with law enforcement.

He said the arrest of the priest, the Rev. Michael Fugee, for failing to abide by that agreement “put some finality” to a saga that alienated him from the Catholic Church. And he was critical of the Archdiocese of Newark for allowing Fugee to continue in ministry despite his confession to groping him when he was 13.

“He should have been removed from the priesthood,” said the man, now 27, who lives in North Jersey and asked that his identity not be revealed. “I am happy he seems to be getting what he deserves, after 14 years. But there are mixed feelings, because he never should have had the opportunity to be around children.”

His statements came hours after Fugee appeared in Superior Court in Hackensack, wearing shackles and an orange jumpsuit, after being charged with seven counts of violating an agreement that barred him from working with children. As word of Fugee’s activities in parishes in Bergen County and elsewhere emerged, so did anger among parishioners on Tuesday.

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NEW JERSEY
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | May 22, 2013

Even as Newark molester-priest Michael Fugee was being arrested and arraigned on charges of criminally violating a court order barring him from ministering to minors, his superiors in the archdiocese were once again changing their story. Now they are claiming to have…well, let’s review the bidding.

On April 28, Mark Mueller of the Star-Ledger reported that Fugee had been working with children, in contravention of the 2007 memorandum of understanding signed by both him and the archdiocese of Newark. “But,” Mueller reported, Archbishop John J. Myers’ spokesman Jim Goodness “denied the agreement had been breached, saying the archdiocese has interpreted the document to mean Fugee could work with minors as long as he is under the supervision of priests or lay ministers who have knowledge of his past and of the conditions in the agreement.”

On May 2, after Fugee resigned his ministry amid a media firestorm, Goodness made a U-turn on his denial:

Tonight, the spokesman sought to clarify his statements, saying that while it was “good” Fugee was under supervision, the priest did not seek permission from the archdiocese before participating in youth activities.

“He engaged in activities that the archdiocese was not aware of and that were not approved by us, and we would never have approved them because they are all in conflict with the memorandum of understanding,” Goodness said.

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AUSTRALIA
Geelong Advertiser

Danny Lannen | May 22nd, 2013

SURVIVOR Chris Pianto sensed a welcome diluting of power as he watched Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart face Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry into institutional sexual abuse.

Mr Pianto perceived panic at times in Archbishop Hart’s responses to cross-examination and was pleased to hear parliamentary panel members give him orders rather than requests.

“I was really glad to see that they had that power to do that and that the church actually can be vulnerable,” Mr Pianto said.

“They’re not the most powerful people in the world. They can be put down by a parliamentary inquiry and probably even more seriously by royal commissioners.

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AUSTRALIA
Crikey

JAMES ROSE | MAY 22, 2013

Child sexual abuse is now in the headlines, where it should be, but is it just the Church to blame? An IshMash on three watershed docos that offer answers.

Somewhere in Melbourne today in the back offices of the Catholic Church’s HQ, Archbishop Denis Hart must have his head in his hands. It’s hard to know whether that’s because he truly feels the power of the abuse his organisation has instituted, or because it’s happened on his watch and has become a growing pile of sorry business on his desk. His shaky performance in front of the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into state-wide institutional child abuse this week has ensured the Catholic Church is now under the kind of spotlight that makes people sweat and turn pale. But, it also emphasises the darkness around it.

Three documentaries that have aired in the last 12 months have all worked to flick the switch of the very harsh lights of public investigations here and elsewhere. Two BBC investigations into child sex abuse were recently nominated in the documentary section of the T-for-Television part of the BAFTAs earlier this month. Another, run on Australian TV, had a hand in prompting a Royal Commission into abuses of children here.

The BBC’s “The Shame of the Catholic Church” originally run in Ireland on “This World” on May 5th 2012, was the winner of the BAFTA TV documentary category, awarded earlier this month. Reporter Darragh McIntyre traces the movements of a few notorious paedophiles hiding behind the Church’s walls of trust in devoutly Catholic Donegal and beyond. Reprobates like former priests Eugene Green and Brendan Smith abused both boys and girls, in some cases in the sacristy behind a Virgin Mary statue in a local church.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Robert McCoppin, Chicago Tribune reporter

A church volunteer charged with the sexual abuse of a boy also worked with children at two Barrington schools and additional allegations of abuse are being investigated, officials said Tuesday.

Robert Sobczak, 19, of Hoffman Estates, who was charged this month with the sexual abuse of a minor at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, also worked in a Barrington Park District program called K.E.E.P. that provides before- and after-school services for children at Lines and Grove Avenue elementary schools, officials said.

Park District officials said they only learned of Sobczak’s arrest through media accounts and were never informed by state or local investigators. Sobczak had worked in the K.E.E.P. program since August, officials said, but was terminated this month.

Both church and park district officials said Sobczak passed background checks, and park officials said he was always under the supervision of other staff. School officials said they were not aware of any other allegations of wrongdoing. But an Illinois Department of Children and Family Services spokesman said Tuesday that the agency has received two new claims of abuse involving Sobczak since Thursday and are investigating.

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VIRGINIA
Richmond Times-Dispatch

BY LOUIS LLOVIO Richmond Times-Dispatch

Geronimo Aguilar, senior pastor of the Richmond Outreach Center, was arrested Tuesday afternoon by U.S. marshals for allegedly sexually assaulting two minors in Texas — charges that could land him in prison for decades.

Aguilar, 43, surrendered at his home in Richmond to a U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force at about 4 p.m., authorities said.

He is charged with sexually abusing two females, who are adults now, as children in Texas. Aguilar is due in court this morning and could be released on bond or extradited to Texas.
Aguilar heads the South Richmond church known as The ROC.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

[with video]

Leah Hope

May 21, 2013 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Six men who say they were victims of former Jesuit priest Donald McGuire settle their sex abuse lawsuit for nearly $20 million.

McGuire is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence after being convicted in several sex abuse cases.

“This is an exhortation for truth transparency and accountability,” Jeff Anderson, attorney, said. “It is our call today to action to this pope and to this order and all those like it to become transparent.”

McGuire was tried and convicted for child sex abuse in Wisconsin and is currently serving time in federal prison for molesting an underage boy. He was removed from the priesthood in 2008.
“The size of this settlement points to the horrors and unbelievable damage that these victims endured,” Barbara Blaine, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (S.N.A.P.), said.

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WISCONSIN
Wisconsin Public Radio

By CHUCK QUIRMBACH

A priest from Sheboygan is a founding member of a new group of clergy that’s monitoring sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church.

The pope and other Catholic Church leaders have condemned sexual abuse committed by clergy. But Sheboygan priest James Connell says he and some other clergy members have formed a national whistleblowers group to make sure church leaders follow through with that crackdown on abuse: “As we continue down the road of trying to get the truth out so there really can be an understanding of the crisis, of all that has taken place, and the truth then being a road to justice and hopefully healing.

Connell says the new whistleblowers group has sent a letter to Pope Francis asking him to revoke oaths of secrecy, open files on abuse cases, and remove from office bishops who have obstructed justice. Father Connell says some of the whistleblowers were earlier pushed aside or punished by church leaders, but he says he senses public support for his group.

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CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

An attorney for six men who claim they were abused by a now-defrocked priest says Jesuit officials have agreed to pay $19.6 million to settle his clients’ lawsuit.

Attorney Jeff Anderson announced the settlement Monday. He said the amount reflects the “magnitude of misconduct” by Donald McGuire’s superiors in the Chicago Province for the Society of Jesus.

Church officials have apologized and said they have taken steps to prevent sexual abuse.

“…We are painfully aware that in the past we did not do enough to prevent the abuse of children and vulnerable adults,” said Fr. Timothy Kesicki in a statement. “We made mistakes by thinking that restrictive measures we undertook with regard to Donald McGuire would be effective.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Big Pond News (Australia)

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Internal church records just released show Chicago Jesuits concealed the crimes of convicted sex offender Donald McGuire for more than 40 years as the prominent Roman Catholic priest continued to sexually abuse dozens of children around the globe.

One letter written in 1970 by the Reverend John H Reinke, then president of Loyola Academy in Illinois, described McGuire’s presence at the school as ‘positively destructive and corrosive’.

Instead of insisting he be removed from ministry or sent to treatment, he suggested a transfer to Loyola University.

‘This whole situation has been so muddy and troublesome I just wanted to get it out of my mind from time to time,’ wrote Reinke, who died in 2003.

The documents contributed to a $US19.6 million ($A20.09 million) settlement between the Jesuits and six men from four different states announced on Tuesday.

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WISCONSIN
WITI

PEWAUKEE (WITI) — Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki has confirmed a priest with the Archdiocese will be leaving his pastoral duties, for personal reasons.

Father Sean O’Connell served as a priest at Queen of Apostles parish in Pewaukee.

In a statement, Archbishop Listecki said Father Sean is leaving the ministry due to “failing to exercise good judgement in a relationship he has had with an adult woman.”

Archbishop Listecki said: “Father Sean is rightfully embarrassed, ashamed and remorseful about his behavior, as he should be. Although we know we are imperfect beings and subject to temptation, this behavior is not something I expect from our priests. Father Sean will need to address his actions and he will receive assistance in doing so.”

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 21, 2013

Over the past week, here’s a partial list of states where Catholic officials have said “no comment” about clergy sex abuse lawsuits and allegations: Missouri, New Mexico, New Jersey, and Illinois.

Whatever happened to the much-touted pledges by America’s bishops to be “open and transparent” about clergy sex crimes? (And a related question: why does the Catholic hierarchy spend so much on public relations if their public relations people are just going to say “no comment” time and time again?)

This increasing silence is yet another of the many clear signs that the church hierarchy is moving backwards, not forwards, and is reneging on promises made under the hot glare of parishioner outrage and media attention that began back in 2002.

Perhaps, however, we should be grateful when Catholic bureaucrats say “no comment,” because often, when they DO comment, they rub even more salt into the deep and fresh wounds of victims and Catholics.

In my town, the archdiocese recently announced that Fr. Leroy Valentine has been “permanently removed from active ministry,” some 31 years after the first child sex allegations against him surfaced.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 21, 2013

An admitted predator priest was arrested yesterday at St. Antoninus Catholic parish, 337 S. Orange Ave. in Newark. Archbishop John Myers should explain why he recklessly put Fr. Michael Fugee at that parish, so near to children and within a mile (according to “Google maps”) of at least 11 schools and day care centers, including:

–Sunshine Day Care Center, 286 S. 7th St. (465 ft) (973 623 8400)

–United Community Day Care, 332 S. 8th St. (0.1 mi)

–Community Hills Early Learning, 85 Irvine Turner Blvd. (0.8 mi)

–Mommy’s & Daddy’s Childcare, 279 14th Ave (0.3 mi)

–Buds Hope Academy Daycare Center, 372 S Orange Ave. (0.1 mi) (973 424 0500)

–Harriet Tubman Elementary School (0.3 mi) (973 733 6934)

–Fourteenth Avenue Elementary School, 186 14th Ave.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
on May 21, 2013

It’s a relief to see the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office step in and do what the Catholic Church could not: protect children from a priest who confessed to sexually groping a 13-year-old boy.

The Rev. Michael Fugee, whom Newark Archbishop John J. Myers allowed to take kids on retreats and hear their private confessions, was arrested this week for violating a binding agreement that bars him from working with minors. Fugee is now charged with contempt of a judicial order, a fourth-degree crime that carries a maximum prison term of 18 months.

But remember, he wasn’t the only one who signed off on this agreement and then broke it. The archdiocese did, too. The prosecutor should press forward with this investigation and consider charging Myers with contempt, as well. This, however, would require a finding that Myers knowingly violated the agreement. Has he been questioned? He should be.

So should others in his inner circle. There can be no free pass for the hierarchy here. At the very least, Myers should step down. His behavior has prompted widespread outrage even within the church, because he repeatedly protected Fugee.

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VIRGINIA/TEXAS
WTVR

[with video]

May 21, 2013, by Rob Cardwell

RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) -Richmond Pastor Geronimo Scott Aguilar surrendered without incident to the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force at his home in Richmond, Virginia about 4:00 p.m. local time, according to Fort Worth authorities.

Warrants were issued for Aguilar, known as Pastor G, charging him with aggravated sexual battery of a child under 14 in Tarrant County, Texas on Monday.

Aguilar’s attorney, David Carlson, said Aguilar was previously cleared by Texas investigators when two girls initially made the accusations in late 1990s.

“Seventeen or so years later, these things have resurfaced, for whatever reasons,” attorney David Carlson told CBS 6 reporter Mark Holmberg. “They’ve decided to proceed with an ex parte investigation. By ex parte, they have listened to one side of the story and have not even afforded him the opportunity to have any input.”

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VIRGINIA/TEXAS
WRIC

Richmond, VA— 8News has learned that Texas authorities confirm Geronimo Aguilar is in custody, after surrendering without incident at his home in Richmond Tuesday afternoon. Two warrants had been issued for Aguilar’s arrest earlier in the week.

Corporal Tracey Knight of the Fort Worth Police Department told 8News that Aguilar surrendered without incident to the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force at his Richmond home, at about 4:00 p.m. Tuesday.

The warrants out of Fort Worth, Texas charge Pastor G with aggravated sexual assault of a minor under 14 years old. Corporal Tracey Knight wrote,

“Due to the age of the victims at the time of the offense, this is an “Aggravated” charge. Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child Under 14 is a 1st degree felony in the State of Texas and is punishable by 5-99 years in prison and a fine not to exceed $10,000.”

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VIRGINIA/TEXAS
NBC 12

By Rachel DePompa

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) –
Pastor Geronimo Aguilar from the Richmond Outreach Center surrendered to U.S. Marshals at his Richmond home Tuesday afternoon on child sexual abuse charges.

Texas police charged Aguilar with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of 14 stemming from a complaint made in 2007 by two sisters in Anaheim, California. The women are now in their 20s, but were underage at the time of the alleged incidents. The alleged crimes date back 17 years, according to sources.

Pastor G’s attorney says his client is innocent. Two men inside the ROC refused NBC12 crews attempts to try and talk with Pastor G at the church Tuesday.

The charges are felonies in Texas and could carry five and 99 years in prison as well as up to a $10,000 fine, if Aguilar is convicted.

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UNITED STATES
Jeff Anderson & Associates

JEFFREY R. ANDERSON | 4:04 PM

A powerful new force has emerged in the fight against child sexual abuse and the protection of predator priests in the Catholic Church. This week, as profiled by Laurie Goodstein, in the New York Times, a group of Catholic Whistleblowers composed of nuns and priests have come together to provide an alternative viewpoint from inside the Church hierarchy concerning the state of child protection within the Catholic Church.

Despite assertions to the contrary, the Catholic Church still suffers from poor decision-making and the failure to prioritize children over the priesthood. As one recent example, in New Jersey, Archbishop of Newark John J. Myers permitted Rev. Michael Fugee to remain in ministry where was allowed to access children at parish youth groups. Fugee is now behind bars awaiting a Grand Jury’s determination of whether he violated an agreement with Prosecutors not to have unsupervised contact with children.

While the child protection movement has long been supported by courageous clergy and former clergy members—such as Thomas P. Doyle, Richard Sipe, and Patrick Wall—Catholic Whistleblowers can provide a collaborative insider voice for truth. With the righteous participation of nuns, such as Sisters Sally Butler and Maureen Paul Turlish, and priests, such as the Rev. Ronald Lemmert, Fr. Bambrick, and Msgr. Kenneth E. Lasch, this group is a veritable justice league of Catholic leadership calling for change.

To show they are a serious force for change, the Catholic Whistleblowers have written a letter to Pope Francis to provide guidance on how to reverse course and implement meaningful policy change on the church’s handling of child sexual abuse. The Catholic Whistleblowers call on the Pope to engage in some groundbreaking work: revoke all oaths of secrecy; open abuse files to the public; remove bishops who have obstructing the criminal investigation of child sexual abuse; and create an international dialogue between survivors and church leaders. These steps are monumental and absolutely necessary.

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MISSOURI
San Francisco Chronicle

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two new lawsuits have been filed against a Kansas City priest convicted of taking lewd photographs and the officials who oversaw him.

Plaintiff’s attorney Rebecca Randles says the latest suits bring the total number of cases filed over the Rev. Shawn Ratigan’s conduct to seven. Ratigan pleaded guilty in August to producing child pornography after police learned of hundreds of images of children, most of them clothed, with the focus on their crotch areas.

Ratigan’s case led Bishop Robert Finn to be charged with failing to report suspected abuse because there was a delay in notifying authorities. Finn became the highest-ranking U.S. church official to be convicted of a crime related to the child sexual abuse scandal.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

[JaneDoe127Petition.pdf – via Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests]

[JaneDoe39Petition.pdf – via Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests]

May 21

BY MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

Civil suits accusing a Catholic priest and his superiors of child sexual abuse, child pornography allegations and fraud were filed Tuesday in Jackson County.

The two new actions alleged that Bishop Robert Finn and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph aided and abetted the Rev. Shawn Ratigan as he sexually abused and engaged in “child pornographic offenses” with two young girls while Ratigan was employed as a priest.

Ratigan, who has pleaded guilty in federal court to producing child porn and awaits sentencing, also is named as a defendant in the suits. He has not, however, responded to other civil actions filed against him.

In a prepared statement, the diocese condemned Ratigan’s “immoral and destructive” behavior. With regards to the suit, the statement said the suits contained some factual inaccuracies and statements that were irrelevant to their claims.

Last week the diocese settled a similar case, filed in federal court on behalf of a young northern Missouri girl, for $600,000, the diocese’s largest settlement in a single priest sex abuse case.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Manya Brachear
Tribune reporter
4:13 p.m. CDT, May 21, 2013

Lawyers for six plaintiffs on Tuesday announced a $19.6 million settlement of a lawsuit against the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus involving allegations of sex abuse by now-defrocked Jesuit priest Donald McGuire.

Lawyers said the settlement not only recovers damages for the abuse, but also the efforts to cover it up, mislead authorities and move McGuire from place to place instead of removing him from ministry. Evidence of those efforts came to light in documents extracted during civil litigation in Cook County Circuit Court — documents that Jesuits denied prosecutors when McGuire was on trial in Wisconsin for molesting two students from Loyola Academy in Wilmette during trips near Lake Geneva in the 1960s, lawyers said. He was later convicted.

When the documents surfaced in 2011, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests asked Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to launch a grand jury investigation into the Chicago-based Jesuit province. Instead, lawyers for the six plaintiffs sought punitive damages.

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NEW JERSEY
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | May. 21, 2013

Fr. Michael Fugee, the Newark, N.J., priest at the center of a child protection scandal in the state, was arrested Monday for violating a court agreement not to minister to children.

According to a statement released by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s office, Fugee was charged with seven counts of contempt of a judicial order, all fourth degree crimes, with a maximum prison sentence of 18 months. Bail was set for $25,000; Fugee remained in jail overnight.

His arraignment court hearing was scheduled for Tuesday morning. He has retained his own legal counsel, according to the Newark archdiocese.

The prosecutor’s office said that its investigation revealed seven instances where Fugee heard confessions from children in the past three years, as recently as December. Locations included the Claremont Retreat Center in Mt. Arlington (part of the Metuchen diocese), the Kateri Environmental Center in Wickatunk, and several parishes in Rochelle Park (part of the Newark archdiocese).

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UNITED STATES
Albany Tribune

Bill Donohue

There was a time when we needed a group called Catholic Whistleblowers, but this assembly is a little too late: they missed the boat by a half-century. The homosexual scandal began in the mid-1960s and ended 20 years later. Today, it hardly exists. In 2012, there were six credible allegations made against approximately 40,000 priests. To put it differently, if someone said in 1955 that we must do something about polio, just after the approval of the Salk vaccine, we’d think him nuts.

One might think that a group called Catholic Whistleblowers would blow the whistle on bishops who are shielding molesting priests. But they can’t even name one. The best they can do is mention the arrest of Father Michael Fugee in Newark for violating a judicial order. In the 12 years since his case was thrown out of court—for groping a teenager while wrestling in front of family members—there have been no complaints. No matter, this is all about getting Archbishop John Myers, not Fugee.

Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability is responsible for forming the new group. If she is in earnest, she can begin her whistleblowing exercises by finally naming the 55 predator priests that her entity says Cardinal Timothy Dolan is hiding. She knows the accusations are a lie.

Sr. Maureen Turlish is another member, and she is known for calling allegations made agains t priests in the Philadelphia grand juries as “facts,” even though more than 20 of them are patently untrue. Fr. James Connell, now a hero to victims’ groups, was himself charged with covering up for the worst molester in the history of the Catholic Church in America. Fr. Thomas Doyle believes that Jesus Christ did not found the Catholic Church, and that the Mass is composed of “magic words.” Robert Hoatson, a former priest, picketed the building where the Catholic League is housed wearing a sign, “Cath. Lg. Opposed to Jesus.”

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • May 21, 2013

A new organization has launched:

They call themselves Catholic Whistleblowers, a newly formed cadre of priests and nuns who say the Roman Catholic Church is still protecting sexual predators.

Although they know they could face repercussions, they have banded together to push the new pope to clean house and the American bishops to enforce the zero-tolerance policies they adopted more than a decade ago.

The group began organizing quietly nine months ago without the knowledge of their superiors or their peers, and plan to make their campaign public this week. Most in the steering group of 12 have blown the whistle on abusers in the past, and three are canon lawyers who once handled abuse cases on the church’s behalf. Four say they were sexually abused as children.

Their aim, they say, is to support both victims and fellow whistle-blowers, and identify shortcomings in church policies. They hope to help not just minors, but also adults who fall prey to clergy who exploit their power for sex. They say that their motivation is to make the church better and safer, and to show the world that there are good priests and nuns in the church.

“We’ve dedicated our lives to the church,” the Rev. John Bambrick, a priest in the Diocese of Trenton, said at a meeting of the group last week in New York. “Having sex offenders in ministry is damaging to our ministry.”

I find this incredibly heartening. Can’t tell you the number of conversations I had years ago, at the beginning of the scandal, with good Catholic priests who were disgusted by the cover-ups and the corruption, and who were themselves suffering for the sins of their abusive brother priests and — most notably — the bishops who covered up for them and made excuses. But it was extremely rare that these men would speak out. Extremely. If they had, they might have done some good. But they were afraid, or they were compromised personally, or … something. It’s hard to imagine who would have had more credibility in these matters than priests themselves — and how much good they might have done to restore the laity’s faith in the institutional church, simply by standing up and demanding that the bishops do the right thing.

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

By Scott Dolan sdolan@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

PORTLAND — Two brothers who served as altar boys in the 1970s are suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, claiming diocese officials knew the Rev. James Vallely was sexually abusing them and other young children but failed to act to stop it.

The brothers, Jeffrey and Frederick Conroy, each filed suit last week in Cumberland County Superior Court, accusing Vallely, who is now dead, of abusing them from 1976 through 1979 while they were altar boys at St. Michael’s Parish in South Berwick.

Their attorney, Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, said he has represented nine victims who say they were abused by Vallely from approximately 1958 to 1979.

“The children were approximately 8 to 16 years old at the time of the abuse,” Garabedian said. “The sexual abuse consisted of fondling and rape on multiple occasions for years of multiple children.”

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ILLINOIS
Huffington Post

By Meredith Bennett-Smith

In May of 2002, the Rev. Donald O’Connor was relieved from his parish after the Catholic Diocese of Joliet in Illinois substantiated allegations of sexual abuse that occurred between 1967 and 1970, according to The Chicago Tribune.

Yet years after being removed from his position, O’Connor was still getting money from parishioners who had no idea they were paying an accused pedophile to pray for them, according to a local investigation.

Documents obtained by Chicago ABC affiliate WLS-TV show that mere weeks after O’Connor was barred from the ministry, the disgraced priest was offered a potentially lucrative job performing “mass intentions,” a Catholic tradition that allows parishioners to pay priests for a personal prayer.

The payments were offered by Diocese Chancellor Sister Judith A. Davies in a letter sent on June 20, 2002, a month after O’Connor was officially dismissed, WLS-TV reports. If O’Connor was in need of stipends, he should contact Davies’ secretary, and “a check will be issued every three months,” the letter read, according to the station.

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BEGLIE
VTM

[mit video]

39 slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik hebben zich vandaag verenigd voor een zogenaamde “class action”-zaak tegen de Belgische bisschoppen, de hogere oversten van de Belgische religieuzen en de Heilige stoel. Een “class-action”-zaak is een vordering van een groep mensen tegen de beschuldigden. Om die groepszaak te mogen houden, was er toestemming van de Gentse balie nodig.

De zaak werd ingeleid door het kantoor van advocaten Walter Van Steenbrugge en Christine Mussche. “Het gaat om mensen die vanaf de jaren ’50 misbruikt zijn, soms van hun drie tot 18 jaar, binnen een gezagsrelatie in de kerk. Ze zijn psychisch getekend voor het leven”, laat advocaat Van Steenbrugge weten. Er zijn maar vier mensen uit de anonimiteit getreden, de 35 anderen treden in de rechtszaak op bij volmacht. “In totaal hadden 140 mensen ons kantoor aangezocht maar die hebben door het misbruik geen vertrouwen meer in mensen”, zegt Van Steenbrugge.

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BELGIE
Knack

(Belga) De rechtbank van eerste aanleg in Gent is niet bevoegd om te oordelen over de groepsvordering rond het misbruik in de kerk. Dat hebben de advocaten van de Heilige Stoel vandaag gepleit. “De immuniteit van de Heilige Stoel is niet voor discussie vatbaar. Bovendien kan de burgerlijke rechtbank niet oordelen omdat de strafrechtelijke zaak (rond de Operatie Kelk, nvdr.) nog lopende is.”

Volgens de advocaten geldt de immuniteit van de Heilige Stoel. “Het leed staat buiten kijf, maar de Heilige Stoel draagt geen juridische verantwoordelijkheid. De verdediging identificeert de paus met de Heilige Stoel, maar de Rooms-katholieke kerk heeft geen rechtspersoonlijkheid”, zei advocaat Raf Verstraeten. De verdediging wierp ook de verjaring op, waarbij gesteld werd dat 34 van de 39 eisers een aanvraag hebben ingediend voor financiële compensatie bij het centrum voor arbitrage inzake seksueel misbruik.

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BELGIE
Knack

De rechtbank van eerste aanleg in Gent is niet bevoegd om te oordelen over de groepsvordering rond het misbruik in de kerk. Dat hebben de advocaten van de Heilige Stoel gepleit.

“De immuniteit van de Heilige Stoel is niet voor discussie vatbaar”, stellen de advocaten. “Het leed staat buiten kijf, maar de Heilige Stoel draagt geen juridische verantwoordelijkheid. De verdediging identificeert de paus met de Heilige Stoel, maar de Rooms-katholieke kerk heeft geen rechtspersoonlijkheid”, zei advocaat Raf Verstraeten.

De verdediging wierp ook de verjaring op, waarbij gesteld werd dat 34 van de 39 eisers een aanvraag hebben ingediend voor financiële compensatie bij het centrum voor arbitrage inzake seksueel misbruik.

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BELGIE
De Standaard

In Gent is vandaag voor de rechtbank van eerste aanleg de burgerrechtelijke zaak gestart tegen de Kerk die een groep slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door geestelijken heeft aangespannen. Het gaat niet over de feiten an sich, maar over de doofpotoperatie, het zogenaamde schuldig verzuim door oversten. De slachtoffers eisen een schadevergoeding. Volgens de advocaten van de Heilige Stoel is de rechtbank niet bevoegd.

Volgens advocaat Walter Van Steenbrugge verenigt de groepsvordering tegen de Belgische bisschoppen, de hogere oversten van de Belgische religieuzen en de Heilige Stoel 39 slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik.

Het advocatenkantoor kreeg van de Gentse balie de toestemming om een collectieve vordering of ‘class action’-zaak in te stellen. De bedoeling van de klacht is om de aansprakelijkheid in hoofde van de Heilige Stoel, de Belgische bisschoppen en de hogere oversten te laten vaststellen. De burgerlijke zaak werd in 2011 ingeleid voor de rechtbank van eerste aanleg, maar wed dinsdag pas gepleit.

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BELGIE
De Redactie

Volgens de advocaten van de Heilige Stoel, de top van de katholieke kerk, is de rechtbank van eerste aanleg in Gent niet bevoegd om te oordelen over de groepsvordering rond het misbruik in de kerk. Dat hebben ze vandaag gepleit. Over de zaak, die al dan niet losstaat van Operatie Kelk, zijn er veel vragen. Een uitspraak volgt ten vroegste op 1 oktober.

39 slachtoffers van misbruik hebben de Heilige Stoel in Rome, de Belgische bisschoppen en oversten, en bisschop Vangheluwe gedagvaard, omdat ze pedofiele priesters zouden hebben beschermd. De slachtoffers, die vertegenwoordigd worden door meester Walter Van Steenbrugge, eisen een schadevergoeding. Maar Fernand Keuleneer, de advocaat van de Belgische kerkoversten, denkt niet dat het zo ver zal komen.

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UNITED STATES
Almost Diamonds

The classic picture we have of a child victim of sexual abuse in religious institutions is a boy being abused by a Catholic priest. There are a couple of good reasons for that.

The first is that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has given us a central group of people we can point fingers at for the decades of inaction (or action against victims) in their churches. The victims of Catholic priests have a powerful central authority to deal with, and it’s given them reason to band together and reason for news media to report on their immense struggle to be acknowledged.

The other reason is that, again because the Catholic Church has a central authority, it has made it easier for researchers studying church-facilitated abuse to use the Church as a proxy for religious institutions more generally.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

May 21, 2013

Anna Patty and Harriet Alexander

A coalition of 30 legal, community, health and women’s organisations have complained to the United Nations about planned changes to the NSW victims’ compensation scheme on the grounds they will particularly discriminate against women.

The groups which include Community Legal Centres NSW and Women’s Legal Services have written to the UN special rapporteur on violence against women.

The Community Legal Centres NSW chairperson Anna Cody said the law will not only disadvantage thousands of victims already in the claims system, it will make it even harder for female victims of crime to claim in the future.

The complaint says the government bill runs counter to the UN’s recommendations on reparation for women who have been subjected to violence.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 21, 2013

Two new suits filed against predator priest
He was convicted last year on child porn charges
In new approach, little-known Missouri law is used
It forbids surreptitious underwear pictures of anyone
Support group wants suspended clerics put in treatment centers

WHAT:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will

— announce two new civil lawsuits against the KC Catholic diocese and a jailed priest who pled guilty last August to child pornography, and

— repeat and expand its plea that the bishop put all child molesting KC cleric into treatment centers, instead of letting them live unsupervised among unsuspecting families

WHEN:
TODAY, Tuesday, May 21, at 2:30 p.m.

WHERE:
Outside the Kansas City Catholic diocese headquarters, 20 West 9th (corner of Baltimore) in downtown Kansas City, MO

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 21, 2013

Two brothers are suing a Catholic diocese saying they were molested by a priest who worked at St. Stephen Catholic Church in Winter Springs and other parishes in the Orlando area.

[The Republic]

[BishopAccountability.org]

We applaud these brave brothers for coming forward and seeking justice. Every time clergy sex abuse victims find the courage to speak up, kids become safer and truth becomes revealed.

We hope this step will help these courageous men heal. We are confident it will help Maine Catholics learn more about corruption in their church’s hierarchy.

Though Fr. Vallely may be elderly, it’s important to remember that advanced age doesn’t “cure” a pedophile. In fact, parents are often more apt to trust their children around a slow-moving elderly man, especially one who claims to be “spiritual.”

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MAINE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 21, 2013

Two brothers are suing a Maine Catholic diocese saying they were molested by a priest.

[News Archive.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Vatican Crimes

The St. Louis Archdiocese had what Archbishop Robert Carlson ridiculously called “sad news” about clergy sexual abuse. If he even remotely cared about the abuse committed unto these children he, with the authority placed upon him in his position, would see to it that justice is served when it comes to these criminals, but instead takes the nations for fools since nothing is mentioned about the Catholic order he is called to follow called CRIMENS SOLLICITATIONIS whereby the Vatican protects pedophile priests worldwide.

But the good news is that this cave of criminals known as the CATHOLIC CHURCH can not hide from the just retribution coming their way since they can not run from God’s justice which will soon manifest against them. The truth about the Catholic Church is surfacing, their end is inevitable, and now information about the fact that the Archdiocese of St. Louis is not exempt from the damage of these criminals is being discovered…

On May 1, the archdiocese posted a statement from Carlson on its website saying he had permanently removed the Rev. Leroy Valentine, 71, from ministry. Need we remind them that criminals belong in jail? What good is simply ‘removing’ them from ministry if these criminals could still have access to children?

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UNITED STATES
SNAP Wisconsin

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

As featured in today’s New York Times, Fr. Jim Connell of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and other clergy who have come forward on the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church have launched a national “whistleblowers” website to invite and help others to do the same. The group’s website is http://www.catholicwhistleblowers.org/.

The group sent a letter today to Pope Francis asking him to take necessary steps to restore the church’s credibility, revoke all oaths of secrecy, open the files on abuse cases, remove from office any bishops who obstructed justice and create an international forum for dialogue between survivors and church leaders.

Connell is also a founding member of a pioneering group of clergy and survivors in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee who over the last two years have been working publically and privately together to end clerical sexual abuse in the local church, bring offenders to justice, and insist on full institutional accountability and transparency.

Connell and the other clergy in today’s Times story are demonstrating what real leadership looks like by Catholic clergy. By coming forward they have followed the path, difficult, necessary, and ultimately liberating, of the many clerical survivors around the country who preceded them. They have earned the trust and respect of survivors, the public and the church.

The clergy whistle blowers is a hard won beginning of, one can only hope, of how the sexual abuse crisis in the church will be resolved. It certainly cannot be done without clergy like Connell and others. And if clergy and other Catholic leaders finally come forward on this crisis, speak out, demand justice, then the longed for day may come when survivors will no longer need to.

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NEW JERSEY
PhillyBurbs

Associated Press |

A judge has ordered a New Jersey priest held while a grand jury considers whether he violated a legal agreement to stay away from children.

Bail for Michael Fugee (FOO’-gee) remains at $25,000 following his brief court appearance Tuesday in Bergen County, where he’s charged with contempt of a judicial order.

Fugee resigned from the Newark Archdiocese earlier this month after he admitted he worked unsupervised with kids.

Fugee was convicted of aggravated criminal assault in 2003, but the conviction was thrown out on a legal technicality.

Fugee reached a deal with prosecutors that allowed him to return to the ministry if his job didn’t involve parishioners under 18.

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NEW JERSEY
CBS New York

HACKENSACK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – A once-accused pedophile priest in New Jersey is being held on $25,000 bail while a grand jury considers whether he violated a legal agreement to stay away from children.

The Rev. Michael Fugee, 52, traded in his collar for an orange prison jumpsuit, handcuffs and shackles during his brief court appearance in Bergen County on Tuesday morning, 1010 WINS’ Steve Sandberg reported.

He was arrested at St. Antoninus Parish in Newark following an investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.

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UNITED STATES
Newsmax

Tuesday, 21 May 2013
By Courtney Coren

A group of priests and nuns calling themselves Catholic Whistleblowers are pressing Pope Francis and the American bishops to take on those in the church who are still protecting sexual predators.

The group formed quietly about nine months ago and plans to go public with their campaign this week. Of the 12 members in the steering group, some have exposed abusers before, three are canon lawyers who have represented the church in abuse cases in the past, and four say they were sexually abused as children, The New York Times reports.

The whistleblowers say they aim to provide support for victims and others who would come forward as well to expose areas where the church is falling short in dealing with the abuse problem. They also want the world to know that there are good priests and nuns in the church who are fighting against the sex abuse scandal that has plagued the Catholic Church in recent years.

“We’ve dedicated our lives to the church,” said the Rev. John Bambrick at a meeting of the group in New York last week. “Having sex offenders in ministry is damaging to our ministry.”

The whistleblowers have sent a letter to Pope Francis asking that he get involved with helping to heal the victims and restoring the church’s credibility by revoking all oaths of secrecy, opening the files on abuse cases, removing from office any bishops who are obstructing justice, and creating an international forum that would serve as a place where sex abuse victims and church leaders could meet, the Times reported Tuesday.

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MAINE
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 21, 2013

PORTLAND, Maine — Two brothers are suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, saying church officials knew a priest was sexually abusing them and other children but did nothing to stop it.

In complaints filed in Cumberland County Superior Court, Jeffrey and Frederick Conroy say they the late Father James Vallely abused them from approximately 1976 through approximately 1979 when they were altar boys at St. Michael’s Parish in South Berwick.

Frederick Conroy is now 46 and lives in Massachusetts. Jeffrey Conroy is 45 and lives in Texas.

The suits seek unspecified damages on claims including fraudulent concealment, infliction of emotional distress and negligent supervision.

The diocese announced in 2005 that Vallely was among nine dead priests against whom child sexual abuse allegations had been validated.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on May 21, 2013

HACKENSACK — Wearing a bright orange jump suit with the letters “BCJ Prisoner” on the back, the priest at the center of the furor in the archdiocese in Newark made his first court appearance this morning on charges he violated a court sanctioned ban on working with children.

The Rev. Michael Fugee, 52, stood for the brief hearing as Bergen County Assistant Prosecutor Demetra Maurice read the seven counts against him.

Maurice is the prosecutor who reached an agreement with Fugee in 2007.

Bob Hoatson, a former priest in the Newark Archdiocese and head of a New Jersey support group called Road to Recovery, was in the courtroom this morning.

“I’m here to see a 10-year attempt to hold Fugee and the archdiocese accountable after they have been coddling him and moving him from place to place, and then arrogantly proclaiming he’s an innocent man,” Hoatson said. “The review board that returned him to ministry should be disbanded and we need a broom to sweep the archdiocese clean.”

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

TUESDAY MAY 21, 2013
BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

A former Wyckoff associate pastor said nothing during his first appearance in Bergen County Superior Court Tuesday morning, a day after his arrest for disobeying a judicial order that bars him from working with children.

The Rev. Michael Fugee, a former Wyckoff associate pastor who was allowed to continue working as a priest despite confessing to groping a 13-year-old boy, was arrested Monday. He had purposely disobeyed the judicial order that prohibited him from having contact with children, a prosecutor said during the hearing. Fugee had heard confessions from minors and attended a youth retreat on two occasions, the prosecutor said.

Fugee is charged with seven counts of violating the order.

Bail was set at $25,000 and Fugee was remanded to the Bergen County Jail.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

[The Catholic Whistleblowers]

[Letter to Pope Francis]

Michael D’Antonio

Twelve new apostles of truth — they call themselves The Catholic Whistleblowers — are raising their voices against a system of cover-up and denial, calling on Pope Francis to follow a six-point plan for ending the era of scandal caused by priests who have sexually abused children. Nuns and priests alike, the 12 Americans are asking for commonsense efforts including:

* An international advisory board of abuse survivors to facilitate talks between church leaders and victims.
* Revocation of pledges of secrecy to avoid scandal for bishops.
* Full public access to documents relevant to abuse cases.
* Removal of officials who facilitated abuse, obstructed justice or destroyed documents.

These and other policy suggestions form the base of the group’s suggested program for resolving a scandal made worse by bishops who have been “proposing themselves to be seen as the victims” of the claims made by men and women who were sexually abused in childhood by clergy. They add, “For this reason, without a doubt, the Church’s sexual abuse crisis and scandal live on today as strong as ever.”

The whistleblowers include Rev. Thomas Doyle, a former official of the Vatican embassy in Washington who was the first priest to criticize the hierarchy’s response to sexual abuse back in the 1980s. He is joined by five other active priests and two nuns who serve the church in Delaware and New Jersey. Among the group is the Rev. John Bambrick of Trenton, N.J., who was himself abused by a priest at age 15. After making a complaint, Bambrick was assured that the priest who abused him had been barred from working as a priest. He later discovered the man was still in ministry.

In their letter, the members of the group liken themselves to a New Testament beggar who sought healing from Jesus. “The beggar refused to be cast into silence for he knew his healing could only come from the dispenser of the divine mercy,” they write. “Like this poor disfigured beggar we call out to you from the side of the road, we who have been cast off, the apostles telling us to be silent. Please, Pope Francis, do not pass us by.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Anglican Diocese of Chichester

Gordon Trevor Rideout, 74, from Polegate, East Sussex was found guilty at Lewes Crown Court today, Monday 20 May and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

Rideout was found guilty of 36 sexual offences against 16 young girls and boys. His Honour Judge Anthony said the sentencing reflects the 1956 Act but if he were sentencing under the current legislation today it would be higher.

In summing up the Judge said the victims’ evidence was extremely clear and compelling. He went on to say they were routinely not believed and that Gordon Rideout knew that and took advantage. He added: “You used your clergy position to get close. Your sole aim was to abuse, knowing they will not be believed and punished.”

The judge said that Gordon Rideout has led a good life since 1973 but that he showed no guilt for what he did and no remorse.

Rideout will now be required to register as a sex offender for life on his release from prison.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Chichester Observer

THE Bishop of Chichester has spoken out after the latest sentencing of a priest for historic sex offences against children.

Speaking after the sentencing of former priest Gordon Rideout, Dr Martin Warner said: “Our primary concern today is with the people who have had to live for a very long time with the consequences of the shameful abuse they suffered from Gordon Rideout.

“We should pay tribute to those who, at considerable personal and emotional cost, have been able to come forward, to provide evidence, and to substantiate accusations as witnesses in the trial which has led to a guilty verdict. Gordon Rideout has been the cause of immeasurable and destructive suffering over a long period of time.

“He has also betrayed the trust and respect of many who have valued his ministry.

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National Catholic Reporter

Hans Kung | May. 21, 2013

ESSAY

Who could have imagined what has happened in the last weeks?

When I decided, months ago, to resign all of my official duties on the occasion of my 85th birthday, I assumed I would never see fulfilled my dream that — after all the setbacks following the Second Vatican Council — the Catholic church would once again experience the kind of rejuvenation that it did under Pope John XXIII.

Then my theological companion over so many decades, Joseph Ratzinger — both of us are now 85 — suddenly announced his resignation from the papal office effective at the end of February. And on March 19, St. Joseph’s feast day and my birthday, a new pope with the surprising and programmatic name Francis assumed this office.

Has Jorge Mario Bergoglio considered why no pope has dared to choose the name of Francis until now? At any rate, the Argentine was aware that with the name of Francis he was connecting himself with Francis of Assisi, the world-famous 13th-century downshifter who had been the fun-loving, worldly son of a rich textile merchant in Assisi, until at the age of 24, he gave up his family, wealth and career, even giving his splendid clothes back to his father.

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FRANCE
la Croix

À la suite du chapitre général qui s’est tenu du 9 au 29 avril à Saint-Jodard (Loire), le P. Thomas Joachim, prieur général de la communauté Saint-Jean a écrit à tous les frères pour les informer que leur fondateur, le P. Marie-Dominique Philippe (1912-2006) « a parfois posé des gestes contraires à la chasteté » à l’égard de plusieurs femmes adultes qu’il accompagnait.

Pourquoi avez-vous décidé de révéler maintenant, sept ans après sa mort, les zones d’ombre de votre fondateur ?

P. Thomas Joachim : Notre chapitre général, en avril, avait pour objet de faire le point sur la communauté et sur l’héritage que notre fondateur nous a légué : comment nous l’intégrons et comment nous nous positionnons vis-à-vis de lui… Or, depuis que j’ai été élu prieur général en 2010, j’ai eu accès à un certain nombre de témoignages le concernant et j’ai senti que la communauté était mûre pour regarder en face les choses, sans les édulcorer, sans se cacher les zones d’ombre de notre fondateur, tout en reconnaissant aussi tout ce qu’il nous a apporté.

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FRANCE
Fait-Religieux

Le prieur général de la Communauté Saint Jean a écrit à tous les frères – souvent connus sous le nom de « Petits Gris » en raison de la couleur de leur habit monastique – pour les informer de l’existence de témoignages « convergents et crédibles » sur les manquements à la chasteté de leur fondateur, le père Marie-Dominique Philippe (1912-2006), auprès de femmes adultes dont il était l’accompagnateur spirituel. Ces gestes contraires à la chasteté ont été évoqués devant les frères délégués au chapitre général de la congrégation, qui s’est tenu au mois d’avril.

Frère Thomas Joachim, le prieur général, a appelé tous les frères à un regard vrai et lucide sur eux-mêmes et leur histoire. Les faits reprochés au père Philippe sont graves. Les cas se comptent entre cinq et dix, selon le porte-parole de la communauté. « Le premier pas face aux difficultés, écrit le prieur, citant le pape François, c’est de bien les regarder, en parler, et jamais de les cacher ». Le chapitre général s’est donc engagé à un soin supplémentaire dans le discernement des vocations, à lancer une réflexion sur la gouvernance, et à approfondir l’enjeu de la chasteté.

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FRANCE
Radio Vatican

Le prieur général de la Communauté Saint Jean, parfois plus connus sous le nom de « Petits gris», a informé ses frères de l’existence de témoignages convergents et crédibles sur les manquements à la chasteté de leur fondateur, le Père Marie-Dominique Philippe, auprès de femmes adultes dont il était l’accompagnateur spirituel. Ces gestes contraires à la chasteté ont été évoqués devant l’ensemble des frères délégués au chapître général de la congrégation, tenu au mois d’avril.

Frère Thomas Joachim a écrit à tous les frères pour les appeler à un regard vrai et lucide sur eux-mêmes et leur histoire. Les faits reprochés au Père Philippe sont graves. Les cas se comptent entre cinq et dix, selon le porte-parole de la communauté, le Frère Renaud-Marie. « Le premier pas face aux difficultés – écrit le Prieur, citant le pape François – c’est de bien les regarder, en parler, et jamais de les cacher ». Néanmoins, le Père Thomas Joachim demande à ses frères de faire la part des choses quant à l’attitude à tenir face au fondateur : ne pas réduire un homme à ses fautes, honorer son charisme et son héritage intellectuel, tenir ensemble la vérité et la justice.

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FRANCE
La Vie

JEAN MERCIER
CRÉÉ LE 13/05/2013

Le prieur de la Communauté Saint Jean, le Père Thomas Joachim, a informé ses frères de l’existence de témoignages “convergents et crédibles” sur les manquements à la chasteté du Père Marie-Dominique Philippe auprès de femmes dont il était l’accompagnateur spirituel.

Regarder la vérité, aussi dure soit-elle, en toute lucidité. C’est actuellement le défi des membres de la Communauté Saint Jean, parfois plus connus sous le nom de “Petits gris”, en raison de la couleur de leur habit monastique. Suite au chapitre général de la congrégation, tenu du 9 au 29 avril 2013, le Prieur général, Frère Thomas Joachim, a en effet écrit à tous les frères de la communauté pour les informer d’une révolution copernicienne dans le regard porté sur leur fondateur, le Père Marie-Dominique Philippe (1912-2006).

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FRANCE
Catholic Culture

The Community of St. John has acknowledged that its founder, Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, had improper relations with women under his spiritual direction.

Established by Father Philippe in 1975, the Community of St. John grew rapidly, particularly among traditional-minded Catholics in France. Father Philippe led the group until he suffered a debilitating stroke in 2001. Upon his death in 2006, he was praised by Pope Benedict XVI for a life “entirely given to the Lord and to his brothers.”

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NEW JERSEY
Anglocat on the Prowl

From yesterday’s Newark Star Ledger:

Late in 2007, members of a secretive review board in the Archdiocese of Newark began the task of determining whether the Rev. Michael Fugee had committed sexual abuse by groping the genitals of a 13-year-old boy during two impromptu wrestling matches.

If the allegations were found credible — and if Archbishop John J. Myers concurred — Fugee would be banned from ministry forever in keeping with a landmark zero-tolerance rule adopted by the nation’s bishops in 2002.

The board, composed mainly of lay people appointed by Myers, had at its disposal Fugee’s police confession, documents from his criminal trial and a copy of an agreement he signed with law enforcement pledging he would never again work with children. It also had evidence of Fugee’s entry in a state rehabilitation program, itself an acknowledgment of wrongdoing.

Yet the panel found no sexual abuse occurred, clearing the way for the priest’s eventual return to ministry.

When it subsequently became clear that Fugee was violating the restrictions contained in the agreement, “Myers’ spokesman, Jim Goodness, initially said Fugee’s actions were within the scope of his agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office because he was supervised at all times. Goodness later reversed himself, acknowledging the agreement had been violated but saying Fugee acted alone.”

As for Abp. Myers, “[l]ate last week, he returned from a weeklong trip to Poland, where he celebrated Mass with Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the top Vatican official in charge of policing sex abuse within the church.”

How very nice.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 21, 2013

For immediate release: Monday, May 20

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com)

Fr. Michael Fugee, a Catholic priest of the Newark Archdiocese, has been arrested. He admitted molesting a child, recanted, was tried and convicted. His conviction was overturned on a technicality, and he and his church supervisors promised prosecutors that he would not be around kids. Then, weeks ago, the Newark Star Ledger disclosed that this agreement had been repeatedly and flagrantly violated.

Arresting Fr. Fugee is a ‘no brainer.’ The real issue: will Archbishop Myers be arrested too? We hope so. He’s just as guilty of violating the prosecutor’s deal as Fr. Fugee. We are grateful that Fr. Fugee will, finally, be kept away from kids, even if it’s just for a few hours.

But Archbishop Myers has violated the prosecutor’s agreement too. We urge law enforcement to pursue him too. If kids are to be truly safe, law enforcement must go after those who conceal and enable child sex crimes, not just those who commit child sex crimes.

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey 101.5

By Townsquare News Network May 20, 2013

A former New Jersey priest has been arrested after allegedly working unsupervised with children despite a legal agreement barring him from doing so.

Michael Fugee was arrested Monday on charges of contempt of a judicial order. He is to appear in court Tuesday.

Fugee was convicted of aggravated criminal assault in 2003 after police say he confessed to grabbing a boy’s crotch. The conviction was thrown out and Fugee reached a deal with prosecutors that allowed him to return to the ministry if his job didn’t involve parishioners under 18.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

(STMW) — Jesuit officials in Chicago will pay $19.6 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by six men who claim they were molested by a former priest and onetime spiritual advisor to Mother Teresa, an attorney for the plaintiffs said Monday.

Donald McGuire, formerly of Oak Lawn, is serving a 25-year prison term after being convicted in Chicago in 2008 of federal charges that he brought a minor across state lines to engage in sex. He also was convicted in 2006 of molesting two boys in Wisconsin during the 1960s.

“The amount of the settlement is reflective of the magnitude of misconduct by the top Jesuit officials,” said Jeff Anderson, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The $19.6 million settlement against the Chicago Province for the Society of Jesus was reached in January.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Whistleblowers

We are a network of current and former priests, women religious, brothers, deacons, and laypersons who actively support survivors of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Many of us have reported instances of sexual abuse to civil or church authorities, and we all struggle to expose the cover-up of abuse by church leadership. We are aware of how difficult it is to speak out on this issue, and we support each other in that effort.

1) To other current or former church insiders who have sought to stop abusers, prevent abuse, or support survivors, we offer a network of peers who understand. To those who have been marginalized or have suffered serious consequences because of their brave acts, we provide moral and canonical support.

2) We also provide support for all people in the Catholic Church who wish to speak out about abuse, but are daunted by the repercussions. By advocating for whistleblowers, we aim to create a culture in which honest action is possible.

Contact us at info@catholicwhistleblowers.org.

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CANADA
CBC News

An outspoken Anglican priest is facing fraud charges linked to the finances at his church in Topsail.

Rev. John Dinn had been on leave since January when financial irregularities were uncovered at St. John the Evangelist Church in Conception Bay South.

This past weekend, Archdeacon Sandra Tilley told parishioners that Dinn is now facing criminal charges and will remain on leave pending the outcome of court proceedings

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AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now

MELBOURNE’S top Catholic has admitted he made an ill advised comment when he said it was “better late than never” that the church petitioned Rome to defrock an abusing priest after 18 years.

Asked at a Victorian parliamentary inquiry on Monday why it had taken so long to defrock pedophile priest Desmond Gannon, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart replied it was “better late than never”.

But on Tuesday, Archbishop Hart admitted the comment was ill advised.

“I think it inadequately represents the situation,” he told ABC Radio.

When pressed further, Archbishop Hart replied: “Certainly, on reflection I can say it was an ill advised comment, but my determination at the time had been to try and make quite clear that with the removal from work of Gannon that the opportunity for offending was removed.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Pittsburgh

A western Pennsylvania Catholic priest who was removed from public ministry in 2009 after an allegation of past child sex abuse deemed “credible” by his bishop has now been indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge of possessing child pornography.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WTAE

PITTSBURGH —A Catholic priest who was removed from public ministry after an allegation of past child sex abuse was deemed “credible” by the Pittsburgh diocese has now been indicted on a federal charge of possessing child pornography.

Dzermejko was first put on administrative leave after a diocesan spokesman said there appeared to be “some semblance of truth” to the abuse allegations, and he was eventually removed from public ministry after Bishop David Zubik said the allegations were deemed “credible.” But Dzermejko was never criminally charged with the alleged abuse, which dated back to the 1980s and involved another parish.

Defense attorney John Knorr said prosecutors have provided few details about the new child porn allegations so far. He said that Dzermejko has pleaded not guilty “and we’re expecting that he’ll persist in that.” Records show that the indictment was returned on May 7 and unsealed on Friday, and that Dzermejko is free on $50,000 unsecured bond.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

[annual report]

ALLISON BRAY – 21 MAY 2013

ONLY a fraction of more than 700 abuse allegations against 320 priests have resulted in convictions since 1975, according to the Catholic Church’s independent child protection watchdog.

Ian Elliott, who is stepping down next month as head of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI), said the low conviction rate was a cause for concern.

“The number of convictions from both dioceses and religious orders for serious offences against children is low,” he said in the annual report released yesterday.

Only 26 prosecutions have emerged from 723 allegations against 320 priests since 1975, he said.

“What’s striking is that credible allegations against named priests have had a very low batting average,” he told the Irish Independent. He estimated that only about 8pc of cases result in prosecutions.

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IRELAND
The Journal

[annual report]

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH’S watchdog has confirmed that it received an allegation of abuse last year. The complaint outlined an incident that allegedly took place in 2012.

The notification underlines the need for constant vigilance, good safeguarding practice and prompt action, said CEO of the NBSCCCI Ian Elliot on the publication of the organisation’s annual report.

The Board was notified of two allegations of abuse having taken place since 2000 but the vast majority of the 242 accusations received related to years between 1960 and 1990. Some dated as far back as 1940.

Information about all 242 allegations, concerns and suspicions have been passed to the gardaí/PSNI and, where appropriate, the HSC/HSE. The number of convictions for serious offences remains low, with just 26 prosecutions out of a total of 723 allegations (involving 320 priests).

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Devin McGinley

Former Wyckoff pastor Michael Fugee was arrested and charged Monday with multiple counts of contempt of a court order, after allegedly violating a 2007 agreement with prosecutors to discontinue work with children following accusations of sexual misconduct.

The cleric has been living at St. Antoninus Parish on South Orange Avenue in Newark.

Fugee, 52, confessed in 2001 to two acts of sexual misconduct with a Wyckoff teenager, once during a visit to the teen’s home and again during an overnight church retreat to Virginia. The confession was later recanted, and a 2003 conviction was overturned on judicial error in 2007.

Prosecutors opted not to retry Fugee, and instead reached an agreement with the priest and the Archdiocese of Newark that Fugee would return to the priesthood under the condition that he refrain from working with minors.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

LEEANN SHELTON Staff Reporter May 20, 2013

Jesuit officials in Chicago will pay $19.6 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by six men who claim they were molested by a former priest and onetime spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa, an attorney for the plaintiffs said Monday.

Donald McGuire, formerly of Oak Lawn, is serving a 25-year prison term after being convicted in Chicago in 2008 of federal charges that he brought a minor across state lines to engage in sex. He also was convicted in 2006 of molesting two boys in Wisconsin during the 1960s.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priestsi

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 20, 2013
For immediate release: Monday, May 20

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com)

Six men who were sexually violated as kids by a widely-known Jesuit priest, Fr. Donald McGuire, have reached a settlement totaling nearly $20 million. We applaud their courage and strength.

These six brave men have, despite their horrific pain, struggled to expose corruption by some of the top Jesuits in the US. More truth about awful church crimes and cover ups is being revealed and for that, Catholics should be grateful.

This isn’t just another settlement. It’s a settlement involving America’s most prominent child molesting cleric (a high profile priest who was Mother Teresa’s confessor) and Catholicism’s most elite religious order (the Jesuits). It’s a settlement that, by its size alone, shows that Catholic officials are terrified of having to testify in open court about their complicity in McGuire’s egregious child sex crimes. And it’s a settlement that should make parents pause before sending their youngsters to Jesuit schools.

I know some of McGuire’s victims. They have been deeply traumatized. But they have put their own misery aside in the effort to protect kids from him and warn parents about him. Because of McGuire’s criminal conviction and this settlement, they have largely succeeded, against long odds. We in SNAP are deeply appreciative of their concern for children and their commitment to justice.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

A former Wyckoff assistant pastor, who had been allowed to continue working as a priest despite confessing to the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old child, was arrested Monday and charged with violating an agreement with law enforcement officials that barred him from working with children.

The Rev. Michael Fugee was arrested at a Newark parish on Monday and was charged with seven counts of violating a judicial order, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said in a statement.

Molinelli said that Fugee, a former associate pastor at St. Elizabeth parish in Wyckoff, allegedly heard confessions from children on at least seven occasions, including twice at a Rochelle Park parish where church authorities had allowed him to live in the rectory.

Fugee heard confessions in February and again in March at Sacred Heart Church in Rochelle Park, Molinelli said. Fugee left that parish earlier this year after The Record inquired about him living there. He also herd confession from minors at Our Lady of Visitation Church in Paramus in December, the prosecutor said.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on May 20, 2013 at 8:12 PM, updated May 20, 2013 at 8:26 PM

NEWARK — A Roman Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Newark was criminally charged today with violating a court-sanctioned agreement that bars him from working with children for life.

The Rev. Michael Fugee, whose attendance at youth retreats and other events involving minors was disclosed in a series of Star-Ledger stories in recent weeks, was arrested by members of the special victims unit of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office at St. Antoninus Parish in Newark, a statement from the prosecutor’s office said.

Fugee, 52, was charged with seven counts of contempt of a judicial order, a fourth-degree crime that carries a maximum prison term of 18 months.

The Bergen County investigators, who launched an investigation after the newspaper alerted them to Fugee’s interactions with kids, found the priest heard confessions from minors at youth retreats along Lake Hopatcong in April 2010 and at the Kateri Environmental Center in Marlboro in September 2010 and again in September 2012.

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NEW JERSEY
CBS New York

NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — A once-accused pedophile priest in New Jersey has been arrested, on charges that he violated a judicial order by having contact with young parish members.

The Rev. Michael Fugee, 52, was arrested at St. Antoninus Parish in Newark following an investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.

Fugee entered into an agreement with the prosecutor’s Office to avoid retrial on the abuse conviction after the groping incident six years ago. The agreement required Fugee never again to have unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Whistleblowers

Catholic Whistleblowers
P.O. Box 279
Livingston, New Jersey 07039

His Holiness Pope Francis
Bishop of Rome
Vatican City State, Europe

April 29, 2013
Feast of St. Catherine of Siena

Your Holiness,

From the convictions of our conscience we wish to make known for the good of the Church, you and the Christian faithful the experience we have lived regarding the ongoing clergy sexual abuse crisis and scandal.

Pope Francis, like the beggar whom the Lord passed by on the street (Lk18:35) but who nonetheless called out for healing, we call out to you. The beggar was shunned by the apostles who attempted to silence him, to hide his hideous disfigurement from the Lord as if he might disfigure the one who created him. The beggar refused to be cast into silence for he knew his healing could only come from the dispenser of the divine mercy. Like this poor disfigured beggar we call out to you from the side of the road, we who have been cast off, the apostles telling us to be silent. Please, Pope Francis, do not pass us by.

From the start, the apostles had the duty to sanctify and heal the faithful in their journey as companions of Christ. In other words, throughout the Church’s history the pope and the other bishops, as successors to Saint Peter and the apostles, are to be spiritual leaders who strengthen all of the faithful in their missionary efforts. The faithful trust that the pope and the other bishops will fulfill that responsibility.

During the past decades this previously embraced level of trust has been severely damaged, although not irreversibly so, by the crisis of clergy sexual abuse of children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults. This damage has grown into a full-blown scandal because of a self-righteous spirit of injustice, and the commitment to secrecy that many bishops and other Church leaders have demonstrated. This behavior has adversely influenced the religious practice of many persons, a scandal that hinders the mission of the Church.

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NEW JERSEY
San Francisco Chronicle

Updated 6:19 pm, Monday, May 20, 2013

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — A former New Jersey priest has been arrested after allegedly working unsupervised with children despite a legal agreement barring him from doing so.

Michael FU’-gee was arrested Monday on charges of contempt of a judicial order. He is to appear in court Tuesday.

Fugee was convicted of aggravated criminal assault in 2003 after police say he confessed to grabbing a boy’s crotch. The conviction was thrown out and Fugee reached a deal with prosecutors that allowed him to return to the ministry if his job didn’t involve parishioners under 18.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: May 20, 2013

They call themselves Catholic Whistleblowers, a newly formed cadre of priests and nuns who say the Roman Catholic Church is still protecting sexual predators.

Several members of the group, which includes priests and nuns, met in Manhattan last week.

Although they know they could face repercussions, they have banded together to push the new pope to clean house and the American bishops to enforce the zero-tolerance policies they adopted more than a decade ago.

The group began organizing quietly nine months ago without the knowledge of their superiors or their peers, and plan to make their campaign public this week. Most in the steering group of 12 have blown the whistle on abusers in the past, and three are canon lawyers who once handled abuse cases on the church’s behalf. Four say they were sexually abused as children.

Their aim, they say, is to support both victims and fellow whistle-blowers, and identify shortcomings in church policies. They hope to help not just minors, but also adults who fall prey to clergy who exploit their power for sex. They say that their motivation is to make the church better and safer, and to show the world that there are good priests and nuns in the church.

“We’ve dedicated our lives to the church,” the Rev. John Bambrick, a priest in the Diocese of Trenton, said at a meeting of the group last week in New York. “Having sex offenders in ministry is damaging to our ministry.” …

Each member has a history of standing up publicly on behalf of abuse victims, but until last year most of them did not know of one another. A Catholic laywoman, Anne Barrett Doyle, who lives in Boston, suggested they should meet. She is the co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a Web site and advocacy group that is building a database of documents on clergy abuse cases, and a co-worker, Suzy Nauman, had been keeping a running list of priests and nuns who had helped expose predators or had spoken out.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Attorneys to announce record $19.6 Million settlement of lawsuit of six sexual abuse victims of prominent former Jesuit Donald McGuire

Survivors and Attorneys to present newly obtained details and photos

What: At a news conference on Tuesday in Chicago prominent clergy abuse attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman will:

• Announce the settlement of a lawsuit against the Jesuit’s Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus involving sexual abuse of six men sexually abused as youth by former Jesuit Donald McGuire.
• Identify top Jesuit officials who endangered children by failing to stop McGuire’s predatory exploitation.
• Produce newly obtained evidence of McGuire’s 40-year pattern of abusing children on several continents as he traveled the world on behalf of the Jesuits.
• Introduce a survivor of abuse by McGuire who will speak publicly about his abuse.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 21 at 1 P.M.

WHERE: Law offices of Kerns, Frost & Pearlman and Jeff Anderson and Associates
Three First National Plaza
70 West Madison, Suite 5350
Chicago, IL

WHO: Attorney Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based, internationally known trial lawyer widely recognized as a pioneer in sexual abuse litigation. Anderson has represented thousands of survivors of sexual abuse by authority figures and clergy. Attorney Marc Pearlman, Chicago-based attorney who has partnered with Jeff Anderson on numerous clergy abuse cases in Illinois. Patrick Wall, former Benedictine monk and priest who has studied Father McGuire since 2002

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ALABAMA
Local 15

UPDATE 4:30 P.M.

The Archdiocese of Mobile issued the following release to Local 15 News.

When we were informed by federal authorities of the accusation against Deacon Robert Nouwen, of possession of child pornography, Archbishop Rodi and Father Jim Cink, Director of the Office of Child Protection, met with Deacon Nouwen. He admitted only to limited and temporary possession of child pornography and was immediately put on administrative leave, meaning he could not exercise any ministry. This was shared with the parish and made public. The Archdiocese of Mobile had no prior knowledge of his misconduct with minors and his background check did not reveal his abuse of minors.

In the ongoing federal investigation he admitted to federal authorities that he had raped two children. In the interest of cooperating fully with the federal investigation, we felt it inappropriate to make any public statements until sentencing was complete. Now that federal authorities have completed their process, the Archdiocese will refer his case to the Vatican and Deacon Nouwen continues to be prohibited from exercising any ministry. Specifically, we will ask for permission to proceed with the laicization of Deacon Nouwen.

The Archdiocese of Mobile has made the commitment not to tolerate sexual abuse of minors and to cooperate with civil authorities. We have acted in keeping these promises by immediately placing Deacon Nouwen on administrative leave and cooperating fully with federal authorities.When we were informed by federal authorities of the accusation against Deacon Robert Nouwen, of possession of child pornography, Archbishop Rodi and Father Jim Cink, Director of the Office of Child Protection, met with Deacon Nouwen. He admitted only to limited and temporary possession of child pornography and was immediately put on administrative leave, meaning he could not exercise any ministry. This was shared with the parish and made public. The Archdiocese of Mobile had no prior knowledge of his misconduct with minors and his background check did not reveal his abuse of minors.

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