ABUSE TRACKER

CHICAGO (IL)
Comcast SportsNet

In a historic move Tuesday, the Chicago Archdiocese released its own internal documents on 30 priests accused of sexual abuse. Survivors say this is proof a cover-up at the highest levels took place for decades.

Survivors of priest sex abuse insist the release of 6,000 pages of secret documents from the Chicago Archdiocese prove a cover-up took place for decades.

“These files what they mean to me is truth,” said survivor Joe Iaccono.

The secret files show those in charge — Cardinals Cody, Bernardin and George — were informed of allegations dating back to the 1960s.

One of the 30 priests is Father Robert Mayer. More than 10 years before Mayer ended up in prison for abuse, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was aware a parish youth director compared Mayer to “Charles Manson.”

Politicians are mentioned in the documents as well. Underage drinking parties in Mayer’s room at St Stephens rectory were brought to the attention of the Des Plaines Police Department. Documents show that then Cook County State’s Attorney Rich Daley called the Archdiocese to say the “police captain is not held in high esteem.” No charges were filed.

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CHICAGO (IL)
The New Age (South Africa)

Victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Chicago area are vowing to keep pushing for information on how the Chicago Archdiocese handled allegations.

They’re encouraging other victims to come forward, and asking that Cardinal Francis George fire those involved in shielding priests.

Documents involving 30 priests were posted online Tuesday by victims’ attorneys. The documents showed how top officials tried to contain the scandal, including by moving accused priests around while hiding histories.

Attorneys say they’ll push for files on another 35 priests.

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CHICAGO (IL)
DFW Catholic

[the documents via BishopAccountability.org]

[the documents via Jeff Anderson & Associates]

Chicago, Ill., Jan 22, 2014 / 12:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Responding to the release of documents about Chicago priests accused of abusing minors over the past 50 years, Cardinal Francis George has apologized to victims and reaffirmed that no accused priests are presently serving in ministry.

“We realize the information included in these documents is upsetting. It is painful to read. It is not the Church we know or the Church we want to be,” Chicago archbishop Cardinal George said Jan. 21. “The archdiocese sincerely apologizes for the hurt and suffering of the victims and their families as a result of this abuse.”

The cardinal said the archdiocese hopes that the documents’ release and the work of its Office for the Protection of Children and Youth can help abuse victims heal.

The documents – which were released as a condition of a 2005 legal settlement – concern 30 Archdiocese of Chicago priests.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Matthew Vella

The Roman Pontiff will not be showing any leniency towards priests guilty of paedophilia, the Maltese bishop Charles Scicluna has told the Reuters news agency.

Scicluna, the Vatican’s former sex crimes prosecutor, said the number of clerics defrocked by the Vatican was likely to have fallen to about 100 in 2013 from about 125 in 2012.

“I have met with Francis and he has expressed great determination to continue on the line of his predecessors,” Scicluna said, having served in the Vatican for 17 years.

“His gospel of mercy is very important but it is not cheap mercy. It has to respect the truth and the demands of justice.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

Editorial

Years ago, some victims of clergy abuse in the Archdiocese of Chicago began an effort to uncover the truth and hold the abusers responsible for their actions.

At the time, it seemed a fool’s errand, doomed to go nowhere in the face of an institution determined to dig in and protect its image.

Nevertheless, that effort broke the silence. Over the years much of the horrifying story has come out, and on Tuesday, as part of a negotiated deal, lawyers for some of the abuse victims released thousands of pages of once-private church documents that cast further light on the full extent to which the archdiocese failed to protect children.

Although redacted, the pages tell the story of an institution that quietly returned known abusers to ministries where they could resume their predatory behavior, hid information about their backgrounds and misled the public about the depth of the problem. Assurances to families that abusers would have no further contact with children proved to be untrue, as the offending priests were reassigned elsewhere. Details of allegations were not immediately reported to law enforcement authorities, although the church said it followed the law as it existed at the time and that all cases eventually were reported.

On Tuesday, the archdiocese admitted it “made some decisions decades ago that are now difficult to justify” and said it’s committed to reaching out to victims and protecting all children. Legal settlements have been reached in some cases.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Wall Street Journal

By MARK PETERS CONNECT
Jan. 21, 2014

CHICAGO—Thousands of pages of internal documents from one of the nation’s largest Catholic archdioceses lay out how the church protected some priests for decades and didn’t remove them even as evidence of sexual abuse grew.

The release Tuesday of memos, letters and reports from the Chicago Archdiocese by lawyers for abuse victims provide new details on the global sex-abuse scandal that has plagued the Roman Catholic Church.

As part of a court mediation process with victims, the archdiocese agreed to turn over documents related to 30 priests who faced substantiated allegations of sexual offenses against children. The archdiocese has said it would make available information on 35 more priests, but hasn’t provided a timeline for the release.

Archdiocese officials said last week the nearly eight-year mediation process has resulted in victims being paid about $100 million in compensation. The archdiocese said in a statement that its leaders made some decisions decades ago that are now difficult to justify. But they added the response followed the law at the time, while highlighting current efforts to protect children and help victims.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WGN

[with video]

by Julie Unruh
Reporter

Thousands of documents detailing Catholic priests in Chicago took advantage of the children were finally released to the public Tuesday.

But what did Cardinal Francis George know? And could he have done more?

Daniel McCormack was once a rising star. With time, however, his luster began to tarnish as his tendency to prey on young men was coming to light. Dozens of victims came forward and some cases are still in court today.

What the cardinal knew about them came up in a previously unpublished 2008 deposition. In it, lawyer Jeff Anderson grills the cardinal saying:

“It was the Review Board that recommended he be removed from ministry October 15th, was it not?”

Cardinal George: ‘They gave me that advice, yes. I wish that I had followed it with all my heart.”

Lawyer: “You didn’t follow it?”

Cardinal George: “I didn’t because I thought that they had not finished the case’s investigation. They hadn’t considered all the evidence.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Guardian (UK)

Karen McVeigh in New York
theguardian.com, Tuesday 21 January 2014

Thousands of pages of previously secret documents relating to the abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests in the archdiocese of Chicago was published on Tuesday, detailing the faltering response of senior clerics who routinely swept allegations under the carpet despite clear evidence of wrongdoing.

Some 6,000 documents, released as part of a settlement with victims, shed a light on how allegations against priests were acknowledged within the church leadership, but were kept secret as those accused of abuses were shuttled from one parish to another.

Many of the documents describe how church leaders, including the late cardinals John Cody and Joseph Bernardin , would approve the reassignments.

One document, from the vicar for priests in April 1990, warned a church leader not to mention “rumours that have been circulating for the last 10 years” concerning Mark Holihan, a pastor, and “especially to say nothing at all” about an allegation by a cook at the church that she had witnessed him in bed with a young boy.

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TEXAS
The Monitor

Dan Santella | The Monitor

MISSION — A deacon at San Cristobal de Magallanes parish in Mission who is accused of molesting an altar boy over the course of two years was “immediately” removed as a minister when allegations surfaced in 2012, according to the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville.

Ronaldo Mitchell Chavez, who was arrested Friday and had posted bond by Monday morning, was employed as a principal at South Texas Educational Technologies Inc., whose superintendent said in a statement that Chavez was immediately suspended upon his arrest, according to KRGV-TV.

Brenda Riojas, a spokeswoman for the Brownsville Diocese, said in a statement that Chavez’s “faculties to minister as a deacon in the diocese were removed immediately in October 2012 when an allegation was reported to the parish priest and brought to the attention of the diocese.”

Approximately six alleged incidents of abuse happened at the suspect’s residence in Mission, said Cpl. Manuel Casas, Mission police spokesman.

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CANADA
Sun News

TONY SPEARS | QMI AGENCY

OTTAWA – An Ottawa priest took advantage of his saint-like reputation to perpetrate a five-year, $130,000 fraud on his church, a courtroom heard Tuesday.

Peter Napier believes LeClair — a popular ex-priest who pleaded guilty Monday to fraud and theft charges – deserves 18 months jail for exploiting the church’s lax accounting practices and its trusting congregation between 2006 and 2011.

But Matthew Webber argued LeClair, 56, should be given an 18 to 24-month conditional sentence — essentially house arrest.

“His remorse is complete and across the board,” said Webber, characterizing LeClair’s very public downfall as “ruin and humiliation.”

Webber said LeClair was vulnerable to the seduction of gambling in part because of underlying anxiety and depression problems, for which he took medication.

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MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

Timothy Murray of Novi, a non-practicing Catholic priest and onetime pastor of St. Edith parish in Livonia, is to find out Thursday how long he will spend in federal prison for possessing and distributing child pornography.

Murray pleaded guilty to one count of possession and one count of distribution of child pornography in July and has been awaiting sentencing at home on bond.

Murray was removed from his post at St. Edith in 2004, after the Archdiocese of Detroit received an allegation that he had molested a 13-year-old boy in the 1980s. Murray admitted to the molestation, according to court files, but was never prosecuted because of the statute of limitations.

Murray’s sentencing will come days after news that the Vatican laicized — or dismissed from the priesthood — nearly 400 men in two years for sexual abuse accusations.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Post

Church’s Film With Sex Offender a ‘Perfect, Tragic Picture’ of What’s Wrong in Its Response to Sex Abuse, Says Billy Graham’s Grandson

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
January 21, 2014

The grandson of American evangelist Billy Graham and executive director of GRACE, a Christian sex abuse victim ministry, blasted a church video featuring a convicted sex offender apologizing for her crimes.

Boz Tchividjian appeared on Janet Mefford’s radio show last week to speak out against the film, which he alleged paints a “perfect, tragic picture” of what is wrong in the Church’s response to sex abuse.

“Why? Why make a video and post this? My guess would be that the [Deeper Life Fellowship] wants to show ‘Look how Christ can transform somebody else.’ But what ends up coming up after the video is that there are four or five things that I have seen over and over again in responses to offenders by the church,” said Tchividjian.

Tchividjian told The Christian Post on Tuesday that by creating the film, while this might not have been the church’s intention, it was once again bypassing “the incredible needs of victims.”

“Often times [churches] simply ignore them. Or, often times their focus is so fixated on the offender that they lose contact with the one who has been hurt the most in all of this and that’s the child,” he said.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

Editorial

“The files speak for themselves. What the documents demonstrate to us is that all the cardinals, including George, were complicit.” — Jeffrey Anderson, attorney for victims of clergy sex abuse.

Those harsh words are backed up by the release of 6,000 pages detailing the actions and inactions of leaders in the Archdiocese of Chicago when confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct by priests.

On Tuesday, in accordance with a court settlement, the archdiocese released its case files on 30 of 65 priests with substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct. The accusations against those priests surfaced under the leadership of Cardinals John Cody, Joseph Bernardin and Francis George.

The priests’ names have been public for years. The depravity and scope of the abuse, in Chicago and elsewhere, is no longer in question.

Yet the files are still shocking, individually and in their totality. In black and white — accessible with the click of a computer mouse — they recount tale after tale of faith betrayed, first by a cleric and then by the church.

Catholics who came forward to report unspeakable abuse at the hands of their parish priests were met with disbelief and denial from church leaders. That resistance continued even as allegations mounted.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Business Insider

[the documents via BishopAccountability.org]

[the documents via Jeff Anderson & Associates]

MARY WISNIEWSKI

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Chicago Archdiocese had a practice of moving priests accused of sexual abuse to new parishes, where they committed more abuse against children, according to documents released on Tuesday by lawyers representing the victims.

The latest in a series of such abuse disclosures by Midwest church officials, the documents provided to lawyers by the nation’s third-largest Archdiocese concern 30 former priests accused of abusing minors during the last half century.

“These were not mistakes,” said attorney Marc Pearlman, who represents the victims of child sexual abuse by clergy. “These were decisions made at the very highest level.”

Pearlman said the files, which amounted to thousands of pages of documents, showed a pattern of repeated abuse with the Archdiocese working to keep the allegations secret and transfers of abusers to new parishes.

Fourteen of the men are deceased – the rest are out of ministry. Lawyers also released documents on Tuesday regarding two additional priests – one of them, Daniel McCormack, who had been in ministry in Chicago until 2006.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Beaumont Enterprise

CHICAGO (AP) — The stories of two men who allege abuse by Archdiocese of Chicago priests help explain how the clergy preyed on children undetected.

In both cases, the boys had parents who worked for the archdiocese and feared if they told anyone what was going on their parents would lose their jobs.

At a news conference Tuesday, one of those victims stood next to the parents of the other while their attorneys discussed the release of documents showing how the archdiocese handled allegations of abuse.

Angel Santiago believes his dad was fired after Santiago stopped going to see the priest who abused him.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

President Obama will finally meet Pope Francis on March 27, over a year after Francis’ unexpected election. “The president looks forward to discussing with Pope Francis their shared commitment to fighting poverty and growing inequality,” the White House indicated. Surprisingly, Francis has already met with Russia’s leader, with whom Obama currently has tensions over Syria and US wiretapping, among other matters.

As to the overall importance of poverty and inequality, the world’s richest 85 people control the same amount of wealth as half the world’s population, as recently reported by the anti-poverty charity Oxfam. That means the world’s poorest 3.55 billion people must live on what the richest 85 possess.

Given (1) their similar advocacy for the poor, (2) the key role of family planning on alleviating poverty, and (3) their differences on contraception morality matters, Obama and Francis have much to discuss. This is especially the case since they both seemingly have ties to, and influence over, some of the 85 billionaire plutocrats who at times seem to dominate internationally through their targeted contributions both political and religious organizations. First, President Obama and Pope Francis must establish mutual trust, which has apparently been adversely impacted by Vatican political support for US conservatives and by US bishops’ continuing unaccountablity for mismanaging predatory priests, as well as Obama’s disagreements with US bishops on contraception, gay marriage and other matters.

Significantly, since over 100,000 US children, including some from Chicago where in the late ’80′s Obama worked among the “sheep” at eight poorer Catholic parishes, are estimated so far to have been sexually abused by Catholic priests, the subject of curtailing priest abuse will likely be on the agenda. Also included among the 100,000 US abuse survivors are some from the Minneapolis Archdiocese, where Fr. Kevin McDonough had been Vicar General for some years. His brother, Obama’s Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, in 2012 specifically referred to Kevin publicly before a group of US bishops as follows: “… I’m thankful for the counsel and wisdom of my older brothers—Bill, who was a priest, and Kevin, who is a priest.”

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

DAVID MURPHY
Updated 4:23 p.m., Jan. 21

No. Never. Not true. It didn’t happen.

Eric Dejaeger stuck to his guns while on the witness stand Jan. 21, saying over and over, for the benefit of his lawyer, that he did not commit repeated sexual offences against dozens of complainants who have testified against him.

Dejaeger, a former Oblate priest who faced 80 charges during a trial that began in November 2013 — most of them sexual offences against children in Igloolik — has pleaded guilty to eight.

After a five-week break, the judge-only trial before Justice Robert Kilpatrick resumed this week at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit with defence lawyer Malcolm Kempt presenting his case.

Kempt began Jan. 21 by taking evidence from the man at the centre of this emotional trial: Dejaeger.

Wearing a prison-issued blue sweat suit, his large grey beard stretching to his chest, the 66-year-old walked to the stand with ease, put his hand on the Bible, stood upright, stated his name, and when asked to swear to tell the truth, promptly said “I do.”

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WISCONSIN
Fox 6

CHICAGO (WITI) — Thousands of pages of records were released on Tuesday, January 21st — detailing years of sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Chicago — and four of the priests named in the documents have Wisconsin ties.

Six thousand pages of documents were released on Tuesday naming 30 priests — four with Wisconsin ties.

Records show two of those priests sexually abused minors while staying in Wisconsin.

Another often brought boys to his Wisconsin cottage, and the fourth lived in Twin Lakes as recently as 2005.

“Time and time again, each of the Cardinals and officials made conscious choices to keep that knowledge a secret within the circle of the Cardinal or the officials or the bishops and only there,” Lawyer for the victims, Jeffrey Anderson said during a press conference in Chicago on Tuesday.

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CHICAGO (IL)
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jan. 21, 2014

More than 6,000 pages detailing past allegations, reports and procedures related to clergy sexual abuse in the Chicago archdiocese became public Tuesday morning, part of a 2008 settlement between the archdiocese and alleged victims.

The documents pertain to 30 archdiocesan priests credibly accused of sexually abusing children. Of the 30, four have been removed from the priesthood and four have been criminally convicted. Only Joseph L. Fitzharris was both convicted and laicized. Fourteen of the priests are deceased. According to the archdiocese, 95 percent of the cases predate 1988.

“Today no priest with even one substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor serves in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago,” the archdiocese said in a statement made ahead of the release.

Describing the documents as “upsetting” and “painful to read,” the archdiocese apologized to victims and said the image the files portray “is not the Church we know or the Church we want to be.” The pages include decisions church officials made decades ago “that are now difficult to justify” but were based upon “the prevailing knowledge at the time,” noting that understanding of sexual abuse has evolved since then.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

via BishopAccountability.org:
Rev. Norbert Maday
Rev. Vincent McCaffrey
Rev. Donald Ulatowski
Rev. Raymond Skriba

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Records released Tuesday that document years of sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Chicago — and the actions and inactions of church officials over the years — include at least four sex abusers with ties to Wisconsin.

The St. Paul, Minn., law firm of Jeffrey Anderson made public 6,000 pages of documents involving 30 priests after eight years of negotiations with church officials over how they were to be released. They include records on:

■ The Rev. Norbert Maday, 75 and now defrocked, who was sentenced in July 1994 to 20 years in prison on three counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of victim intimidation related to the assaults of two boys in Oshkosh in 1986. He threatened to kill one of the boy’s older brother if they reported the abuse, and they did not come forward until 1992, according to news accounts.

Maday continued to be held as a sexually violent person under Wisconsin’s so-called Chapter 980 law. He was scheduled for release last August, but it was not immediately clear Tuesday whether that occurred.

Chicago Cardinal Francis George took extraordinary efforts to gain Maday’s release, according to the records, telling him in a letter in 2000, “It would be a great fulfillment of the millennium spirit to see your captive heart set free.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times – Voices

By Sue Ontiveros

I was an infant when baptized a Roman Catholic. Went to Catholic grammar school, was married in the church, sent my only child to Catholic grammar school (and three of his four years of high school), was extremely active in my parish (particularly when it came to fund-raising) and went to mass faithfully almost every week (contributing generously), until the current cardinal got so ugly over gay marriage in Illinois. It was only in late 2012 that I stopped attending mass because I did not want to give any money to that mean-spirited effort.

Why am I telling you all this? So you realize that I am not and never was someone who is out to “get” the church, as critics of the sexual abuse tragedy and what we saw as the mishandling by the Archdiocese of Chicago often have been labeled. I loved the church and participating in it. But I could not be silent on the abuse of children and what I always felt was a massive effort to hide the problem.

And now, after reading through the documents, it makes me sick to see I was right, but I had no idea how widespread the archdiocese’s efforts to hide the problem and protect the abusing priests rather than the children was.

While many Catholics (among them Catholic priests) appreciated that I would write candidly about the situation, others (particularly those within the hierarchy of the archdiocese) took great issue with what I was writing. Why do you have to stir up old wounds, I would hear repeatedly. There was enough of a backlash that I stopped being a lector at my parish, something I found very fulfilling, because I did not want my outspoken columns to cause a problem there.

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CANADA
GlobalPost

The Canadian Press

IQALUIT, Nunavut – A former priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of Inuit children in a remote Arctic community has denied all charges against him.

Eric Dejaeger is testifying in his own defence in a courtroom in Iqaluit, Nunavut.

With the exception of eight counts he pleaded guilty to as the trial began, Dejaeger says he committed none of the horrific assaults he’s accused of from his time in Igloolik.

That’s where he was posted as an Oblate missionary between 1978 and 1982.

Dejaeger is questioning the memories of the long line of Crown witnesses who testified against him.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WGN

Victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests within the Archdiocese of Chicago responded on Tuesday to the release of thousands of documents that show problematic priests were moved to different parishes, and church officials didn’t tell police about the accusations.

Several victims and sexual abuse attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman talked about the documents at a news conference at the Allerton Hotel.

SEE THE ARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGO DOCUMENTS HERE

They said the release was in the works for nine years, but more still needs to be done.

They said the Archdiocese performed systematic abuses and cover-ups.

“Time and time again, each of the cardinals and top officials made conscience choices to keep that knowledge secret within the circle of the cardinal or bishops or the officials and only there. And as a result of that, hundreds and hundreds of children and families were in peril by those conscience choices,” said Anderson.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

[Robert Mayer via BishopAccountabilty.org]

By Charles Keeshan

Despite numerous complaints of inappropriate conduct toward children by a former priest at an Arlington Heights parish, officials in the Archdiocese of Chicago chose to move him to other suburban parishes — where other abuse claims arose — and keep secret the reasons for his transfer, according to church documents made public today.

Details regarding the allegations against former priest Robert Mayer, the former associate pastor at St. Edna Catholic Church in the 1980s, were among the hundreds of pages of archdiocese documents released Tuesday detailing the investigations into child molestation accusations against more than 30 priests and church officials’ reactions to them.

Cardinal Francis George said in a letter sent to parishes last week that the archdiocese agreed to turn over the records in an attempt to help the victims heal. “I apologize to all those who have been harmed by these crimes and this scandal,” George wrote.

The archdiocese said all of the files released today occurred before 1996, most were in the 1980s and that eventually all 30 of the cases were reported to authorities.

Among the most troubling cases is that of Mayer who, according to the documents, was assigned to St. Edna in June 1981 after previously serving at the Church of St. Mary Lake Forest parish where, according to later reports, he molested several boys, some of them on dozens of occasions.

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WISCONSIN
Fox 11

[Robert Maday via BishopAccountabilty.org]

The case of a former Chicago priest convicted of sexual assault in Winnebago County is one of 30 covered in documents released Tuesday related to abuse cases in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Norbert Maday was convicted in 1994 for assaulting boys at a retreat center. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and served 13 years before being paroled.

Among the documents release was a 2002 letter from Chicago’s Cardinal George, saying that the church was trying “A number of avenues to see if your sentence might be reduced or parole be given early. So far, we have not had any success, but we’ll keep trying and I personally hope that you will not lose hope.”

Wisconsin prosecutors eventually got Maday committed as a sexual violent person. He was released from state custody in August. Maday continues to appeal the case.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

Lawyer: George, other cardinals ‘complicit’ in deceiving public about priest sex abuse

By Manya Brachear Pashman, Christy Gutowski and Todd Lighty
Tribune reporters
January 21, 2014

A lawyer for victims of priest sex abuse charged Tuesday that Cardinal Francis George and his predecessors were “complicit” in deceiving the public, parishioners and law enforcement about child-molesting priests in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Jeffrey Anderson, a nationally known victims-rights lawyer, said conscious choices were made by the archdiocese’s top leadership to protect priests.

Anderson’s comments came at an emotional news conference attended by two victims of Chicago archdiocesan priests during which the attorney formally released more than 6,000 pages of church documents detailing child abuse accusations against some 30 priests. He represented the victims in cases against the 30 priests, and the documents were released as part of a court settlement.

The documents show that abusive priests were quietly transferred from parish to parish and that church leaders failed to alert police about allegations of child molestation.

The files, Anderson said, show the archdiocese’s actions were not mistakes but something more sinister.

“The files speak for themselves,” he said. “What the documents demonstrate to us is that all the cardinals, including George, were complicit.”

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CANADA
CBC News

Former Catholic priest Eric Dejaeger spoke in his own defence January 21 at his trial in Iqaluit.

His appearance marked the first time he has addressed the court.

Dejaeger faces dozens of charges related to the alleged sexual abuse of Inuit children.

He has pleaded guilty to eight of the charges.

Dejaeger told the court he wanted “to take responsibility for his actions,” relating to those eight charges.

Defence lawyer Malcolm Kempt lead the former oblate priest to discuss his eight guilty pleas, one by one.

According to Dejaeger, the eight incidents of sexual abuse took place in his bedroom at the mission and involved only young boys.

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CHICAGO (IL)
USA Today

John Bacon, USA TODAY 2:43 p.m. EST January 21, 2014

A paper trail of sexual misconduct involving 30 priests and the Archdiocese of Chicago’s slow and clumsy handling of the cases is revealed in thousands of pages of documents released online Tuesday.

Most of the misconduct took place decades ago — and most of the Roman Catholic priests involved were never criminally prosecuted. Victims’ lawyers, who released the documents, had pressed for public access to the records to show that the archdiocese concealed abuse for decades, including moving priests to new parishes where they molested again.

Lawyer Chris Hurley, whose firm represents more than a dozen people pressing abuse suits against the archdiocese, said accusations against the priests were well known before the documents’ release.

“What the archdiocese had not let us know about is how much they knew all along,” Hurley said.

Meeting schedules, accusatory letters from parishioners and discussions of their claims are included in the release. The documents describe how past archbishops, including Cardinal John Cody and Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, often approved the reassignments.

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WALTHAM (MA)
BishopAccountability.org

Easy-to-download files.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas C. Fox | Jan. 21, 2014 NCR Today

For the first time in the decades-long church sex abuse scandal, senior Vatican officials last week appeared before an independent outside body charged with holding it responsible for protecting children.

They took a grilling in Geneva by the U.N.’s Committee on the Rights of the Child for the Vatican’s alleged failure to abide by terms of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Vatican has long insisted it isn’t responsible for abusive priests because they aren’t employees of the Vatican, and they repeated the excuse last Thursday.

“Priests are not functionaries of the Vatican,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva, told the committee. “Priests are citizens of their own states, and they fall under the jurisdiction of their own country.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
The New York Times

By MICHAEL PAULSON
JAN. 21, 2014

Thousands of documents detailing the Archdiocese of Chicago’s often halting response to sexual abuse allegations against 30 priests were posted online Tuesday after eight years of negotiations between victim advocates and Roman Catholic Church officials.

Most of the abuse was alleged to have taken place years ago, about half of the accused priests are dead and many of the victims have already been given financial settlements from the archdiocese. But the victims have pressed for publication of the files, arguing that the documents will provide an important form of reckoning, chronicling what church officials did, and did not do, when they learned of accusations that priests had molested minors.

“There can’t be safety in the future unless practices that were so dangerous in the past are fully known,” said Jeff Anderson, a lawyer representing many of the victims. “It really is a painful and sorrowful and frankly ugly portrait of what has been, but from that, there is hope that it will not be repeated, and to that end it brings comfort to survivors.”

The documents are certain to place an uncomfortable spotlight on Cardinal Francis E. George, the archbishop of Chicago, who is one of the leading intellectuals in the American church hierarchy and who was president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2007 to 2010, when many dioceses were grappling with the abuse crisis. Although the abuse took place before Cardinal George became archbishop, many of the victims first came forward after his arrival; some of the files concern cases in which Cardinal George’s response has been questioned, including that of the Rev. Joseph R. Bennett, whose disciplinary proceeding the cardinal briefly delayed, and the Rev. Norbert J. Maday, whose prison sentence the cardinal sought to reduce.

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CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

[with video]

By Mary Ann Ahern | Tuesday, Jan 21, 2014

Thousands of previously-secret documents released Tuesday by the Archdiocese of Chicago reveal in graphic detail how priests accused of sexual abuse were transferred from parish to parish and how concern for the priests’ reputations took precedence over their victims.

The more than 6,000 pages of letters and internal memos from the 1980s and 1990s also detail the reluctance of church leadership and law enforcement officials to investigate the allegations.

The released documents are part of an eight-year-long negotiated settlement between attorney Jeffrey Anderson and the Archdiocese. The files concern 30 Chicago Archdiocesan priests with the abuse dating back more than 20 years ago. Of the 30 priests, fourteen are dead.

While the abuse crisis has long been reported, the files give the first ever look behind the scenes at how the Archdiocese handled the crisis. There are letters from both Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and Cardinal Francis George to the accused priests, memos on internal church meetings, legal documents, letters from the priests themselves, as well as information as to exactly when church leaders learned of the first allegations.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WREX

CHICAGO (AP) – A man who says he was abused by a Catholic priest as a young teen says he hopes that the Archdiocese of Chicago’s release of documents detailing more claims will help others.

Angel Santiago spoke Tuesday at a news conference. Victims’ attorneys posted documents online Tuesday, about a week after receiving them from the archdiocese as part of legal settlements.

Santiago says he was abused in the early 1980s by a priest at a Chicago parish. He says he never told anyone because his father was a church custodian and thought his dad would lose his job.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Johannes Gutenberg Universitat

[Summary: Professor Matthias Pulte is working with the German bishops on a new study of causes of sexual abuse of children by clergy.]

In diesem Jahr startet ein Forschungsprojekt, das den Missbrauchsskandal in der katholischen Kirche aufarbeiten soll. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Matthias Pulte von der Katholisch-Theologischen Fakultät der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (JGU) gehört zu dem Beraterkreis, der sich mit der Auswahl der beteiligten Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler befasst. Dabei ist dem Kirchenrechtler vor allem eines wichtig: “Wir müssen Strukturen schaffen, die verhindern, dass so etwas jemals wieder vorkommt.”

Sein Büro ist eher unscheinbar, die Einrichtung beinahe schon karg. Abgesehen von den Gesetzestexten in den Regalen ist auf den ersten Blick nicht viel zu entdecken. Eine Kerze schmückt den kleinen Besprechungstisch. (Foto: Stefan F. Sämmer)”Soll ich sie anzünden?”, fragt Univ.-Prof. Matthias Pulte. Das Streichholz hat er schnell zur Hand, der Docht des Teelichts fängt Feuer, ein Hauch Wärme breitet sich aus.

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KANADA
BRF

[Summary: Missionary priest Eric Dejaeger, was defrocked in 2011.]

Der flämische Missionar Eric Dejaeger, der in Kanada wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Minderjährigen vor Gericht steht, ist kein Priester mehr. Der Papst hat bereits 2011 die Laisierung verfügt, nachdem der Vatikan die Akte erhalten hatte.

Der flämische Missionar Eric Dejaeger, der in Kanada wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Minderjährigen vor Gericht steht, ist kein Priester mehr. Papst Benedikt XVI. hat ihm bereits 2011 den Priesterstand aberkannt, nachdem der Vatikan die Akte über Dejaeger erhalten hatte.

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Worthy Adversry

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 21, 2014

I have spent all morning going through the documents recently released by the Archdiocese of Chicago (before you applaud any proposed Archdiocese “transparency,” remember that the documents were only released because the court ordered Cardinal George to turn them over).

Cardinal George has spent a lot of time during the past week trying to minimize the documents’ importance and impact. It is now painfully apparent why: George personally covered up for abusive priests.

Case in point: Joseph Bennett

From the summary timeline:
The Cardinal’s deposition and the file also suggest that the Archdiocese:
May have withheld evidence from the Review Board;
Had more concerns about Bennett’s canonical rights than child safety;
Gave misleading information to other bishops about Bennett;
Claimed that a victim’s accurate memory of freckles and other markings on Bennett’s body were not enough evidence to remove Bennett from ministry;
Told parishioners to “question accusers;”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago

January 21, 2014

The documents made public by Jeffrey Anderson relate to 30 Archdiocesan priests accused of abusing minors at various times during the last half century. All of the documents relate to cases that date back many years, in some cases, decades. Ninety-five percent of these cases occurred prior to 1988. Today no priest with even one substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor serves in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The Archdiocese acknowledges that its leaders made some decisions decades ago that are now difficult to justify. They made those decisions in accordance with the prevailing knowledge at the time. In the past 40 years, society has evolved in dealing with matters related to abuse. Our understanding of and response to domestic violence, sexual harassment, date rape, and clerical sexual abuse have undergone significant change and so has the Archdiocese of Chicago. While we complied with the reporting laws in place at the time, the Church and its leaders have acknowledged repeatedly that they wished they had done more and done it sooner, but now are working hard to regain trust, to reach out to victims and their families, and to make certain that all children and youth are protected.

We realize the information included in these documents is upsetting. It is painful to read. It is not the Church we know or the Church we want to be. The Archdiocese sincerely apologizes for the hurt and suffering of the victims and their families as a result of this abuse. Our hope is through this release of documents and the work we are doing through our Office for the Protection of Children and Youth we can help further promote healing among all those affected by these crimes.

The Archdiocese of Chicago is in full compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, adopted by the U.S. Bishops in Dallas in June 2002. We refer all reports of sexual abuse immediately to civil authorities. The Archdiocese’s independent Review Board examines the findings of all investigations and makes recommendations to the archbishop regarding fitness for ministry and safety of children.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

January 21, 2014 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Priest sex abuse files – thousands of pages of information collected by the Archdiocese of Chicago on 30 Chicago priests – are now public.

Key documents | Priest Documents

The documents provide the broadest look yet into the details of what the archdiocese knew and did – or didn’t do – about the scandal. More than 6,000 pages of documents were released to the attorneys last week, and they made the documents public on Tuesday.

Victim attorneys say the documents show that the archdiocese concealed the abuse for decades and operated “in denial.”

“A portrait of misplaced priorities. A portrait of misplaced loyalty,” attorney Jeff Anderson said. “The documents tell a tale that has been longstanding, going back from the 50s and demonstrating through at least 2006 conscious choices. Those choices were made by the top official.”

The Chicago Archdiocese released a statement that read, in part: “The Archdiocese acknowledges that its leaders made some decisions decades ago that are now difficult to justify. They made those decisions in accordance with the prevailing knowledge at the time . . . While we complied with the reporting laws in place at the time, the Church and its leaders have acknowledged repeatedly that they wished they had done more and done it sooner, but now are working hard to regain trust, to reach out to victims and their families, and to make certain that all children and youth are protected.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
WBUR

The Chicago Archdiocese has turned over 6,000 pages of church documents to the lawyers of victims of clergy sex abuse. The victims’ attorneys have released the documents online, including complaints and personnel files on 30 priests, 14 of whom are now dead.

Rev. Thomas Doyle is a canon lawyer who has been an expert witness on behalf of clergy sex abuse victims. He joins Here & Now’s Robin Young to discuss the contents of the documents.

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CHICAGO (IL)
San Antonio Express-News

CHICAGO (AP) — Attorneys for victims alleging sex abuse by priests say documents released by the Archdiocese of Chicago are a step forward but fall short of what attorneys wanted.

Jeff Anderson is an attorney representing victims. At a news conference Tuesday, he said documents detailing abuse allegations show church officials hid abuse. Anderson says the documents reflect “misplaced priorities” on the part of the nation’s third-largest archdiocese.

Attorneys posted documents online Tuesday, about a week after receiving them from the archdiocese as part of legal settlements. The documents are for 30 of 65 priests for whom the archdiocese says it has credible allegations.

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 21, 2014

CHICAGO — A mother who says her son was abused by a suburban Chicago Catholic priest says the release of documents detailing abuse claims will help old wounds heal.

Kathy Laarveld (LAR’-veld) said at a Tuesday news conference that it’s been a struggle for years. She says her son has to open an “extremely painful scar” but it’s going to heal more quickly with the information going public.

Victim attorney Marc Pearlman says the documents show a systematic coverage of abuse.

Attorneys posted documents online Tuesday, about a week after receiving them from the archdiocese as part of legal settlements. The documents are for 30 of 65 priests for whom the archdiocese says it has credible allegations.

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CANADA
CBC News

A man accused of sex crimes against Inuit children is speaking today in Nunavut’s court.

Eric Dejaeger is a former Roman Catholic priest.

His appearance marks the first time he speaks in his own defence.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

[Rev. Norbert Maday]
[timeline]

BY ART GOLAB Staff Reporter January 21, 2014

In 1994, the Rev. Norbert Maday a former associate pastor at Our Lady of the Ridge Parish in Chicago Ridge, was sentenced 20 years in prison for molesting two teenage boys in separate 1986 parish outings to Oshkosh, Wis.

Maday claimed he was innocent at the trial. Since his conviction, other victims have come forward with allegations dating to the 1970s, and documents show that archdiocese officials often visited Maday, telephoned him or mailed details of the new allegations to him. In response, Maday denied some incidents, disputed various details or said he didn’t know the accusers according to church memos.

In one handwritten letter headed “Greetings all Good in the Name of Jesus,” Maday stated “Regarding the cases you presented, I have a clear conscience since I did nothing immoral nor illegal with regard to those whose names you brought up.”

However in a telephone interview, Maday once “generally admitted to ‘tummy rubbing,’ giving back rubs and ‘grabbing a leg,’ all activities he stated he performed on minor youths at St. Bede,” a church memo recorded.

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CHICAGO (IL)
RT

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has released thousands of documents related to its handling of sex abuse scandals that involved 30 priests and dated back decades.

Although the data covers only about half of the 65 priests with credible allegations against them, more than 6,000 documents were posted online Tuesday as part of a settlement with abuse victims who’ve filed lawsuits against the church.

Church officials stated that most of the abuse described by the documents occurred before 1988, and none after 1996, when Cardinal Francis George became head of the archdiocese. The files depict the behavior under George’s predecessors, however, who often sheltered accused priests from the public, reassigned them to other parishes when new allegations surfaced, and only removed priests from their posts decades after knowing they molested children.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian

Lizzy Davies in Rome
The Guardian, Tuesday 21 January 2014

A Vatican prelate already on trial for an alleged plot to smuggle €20m (£16.5m) into Italy on board a plane faces fresh accusations that he used his accounts at the Vatican bank to launder money.

Prosecutors in the southern Italian city of Salerno said on Tuesday that Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, a 61-year-old former accountant in the Vatican’s asset management division, had been served with an arrest warrant on suspicion of using offshore accounts to funnel millions of euros in fake donations through his accounts at the institution.

Scarano, already under house arrest following his high-profile detention last June, was accused alongside another priest and a notary. Police said on Tuesday they had made seizures of assets and property worth millions of euros. Fifty-two others were reportedly being investigated.

The investigation into money-laundering allegations was already under way when Scarano was arrested last year. At that time, he denied the accusations through his lawyer, Silverio Sica, and, on Tuesday, Sica said his client had merely taken donations from people he thought were wanting to fund a home for the terminally ill.

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CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

The Archdiocese of Chicago on Tuesday released the following statement in response to the release of previously secret documents detailing sexual abuse by priests.

The documents made public by Jeffrey Anderson relate to 30 Archdiocesan priests accused of abusing minors at various times during the last half century. All of the documents relate to cases that date back many years, in some cases, decades. Ninety-five percent of these cases occurred prior to 1988. Today no priest with even one substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor serves in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The Archdiocese acknowledges that its leaders made some decisions decades ago that are now difficult to justify. They made those decisions in accordance with the prevailing knowledge at the time. In the past 40 years, society has evolved in dealing with matters related to abuse. Our understanding of and response to domestic violence, sexual harassment, date rape, and clerical sexual abuse have undergone significant change and so has the Archdiocese of Chicago. While we complied with the reporting laws in place at the time, the Church and its leaders have acknowledged repeatedly that they wished they had done more and done it sooner, but now are working hard to regain trust, to reach out to victims and their families, and to make certain that all children and youth are protected.

We realize the information included in these documents is upsetting. It is painful to read. It is not the Church we know or the Church we want to be. The Archdiocese sincerely apologizes for the hurt and suffering of the victims and their families as a result of this abuse. Our hope is through this release of documents and the work we are doing through our Office for the Protection of Children and Youth we can help further promote healing among all those affected by these crimes.

The Archdiocese of Chicago is in full compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, adopted by the U.S. Bishops in Dallas in June 2002. We refer all reports of sexual abuse immediately to civil authorities. The Archdiocese’s independent Review Board examines the findings of all investigations and makes recommendations to the archbishop regarding fitness for ministry and safety of children.

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CHICAGO (IL)
KERA

By MARK MEMMOTT
Originally published on Tue January 21, 2014

Thousands of pages of what were once secret church documents related to the way the Archdiocese of Chicago dealt with 30 priests who it believes abused children in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s are now online.

They give “an unprecedented and gut-wrenching look at how the Archdiocese of Chicago for years failed to protect children from abusive priests,” writes the Chicago Tribune.

They also “provide new details and insights into how the nation’s third-largest archdiocese quietly shuttled accused priests from parish to parish and failed to notify police of child abuse allegations,” the Tribune adds.

The papers “cover only 30 of the at least 65 clergy for whom the archdiocese says it has substantiated claims of child abuse,” The Associated Press says.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

[Daniel Mark Holihan]
[timeline]

BY KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporter January 21, 2014

Daniel Mark Holihan, 83, was one of 14 priests named in lawsuits the archdiocese settled in 2005 for an undisclosed amount.

Known to students at Our Lady of the Snows as “Happy Hands” Holihan — because of his habit of being suspiciously grabby during horseplay with children — he allegedly started abusing boys in 1968. Though restrictions were placed on him after he was accused of abuse in 1986, Holihan wasn’t removed from public ministry until 2002.

Records released this week show some church officials were conflicted about how to handle his case.

A parent who wrote to Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in 1986 alleged the parish had known of Holihan’s problems for some time by then. The mom said she had previously dismissed the allegations as “idle gossip” but had since heard from friends she trusted whose children she believed were sexually abused.

“I have no hardcore evidence against our pastor,” she wrote the cardinal. “Please get him some help, or get him away from children.”

The rumors included the suggestion that Holihan was taking boys to his cottage, but Holihan denied them and there is no record of police being called.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

[Rev. Robert Mayer]
[timeline]

BY ART GOLAB Staff Reporter January 21, 2014

In 1982, the pastor at St. Edna Church in Arlington Heights complained to the archdiocese that his associate pastor, the Rev. Robert Mayer, gave teenage boys alcohol; that young men were seen in his rectory “at all hours of the day and night;” that Mayer showed pornographic videos and that an incident occurred “concerning the measuring of genitals with a group of teens.”

Nine years later, Mayer was charged with fondling a 14-year-old girl in a church rectory at St. Odilo Parish in Berwyn. He was found guilty and sentenced to three years.

But during that nine-year interval, allegations of inappropriate behavior during a previous assignment in Lake Forest came to light, as well multiple allegations from a later assignment in Des Plaines, yet Mayer continued to be transferred to other churches and was ultimately promoted to pastor.

These facts were generally known, but the documents released Wednesday shed light on how it happened.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

[Vince McCaffrey]
[timeline]

BY KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporter January 21, 2014

Former priest Vince McCaffrey has been a notorious figure since 2002, when hundreds of photos showing boys as young as 6 being beaten, gagged and locked in cages were found hidden under his mattress.

Currently serving a 20-year sentence in Massachusetts for child porn that’s believed to be the longest of its kind ever handed to a priest, the 61-year-old has admitted molesting between 12 and 14 victims between 1976 and 1990, but he is accused of molesting as many as 50 in at least four parishes in Chicago and the suburbs: Our Lady Help of Christians on the West Side, Our Lady of Loretto in Hometown, St. Victor’s in Calumet City and St. Joseph the Worker in Wheeling.

The archdiocese paid out $4 million to settle a suit brought by four of his victims in 2003.

Records released Tuesday show how McCaffrey’s fellow priests and archdiocese officials helped cover up his serial sex abuse for more than a decade, allowing him to keep abusing children for years after they’d first been alerted to his wrongdoing.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

BY FRANCINE KNOWLES Religion Reporter January 21, 2014

On Oct. 23, 1967, then Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal John Cody inquired in a brief memo to a Monsignor Byrne: “What are you planning to do about this Father Kelly?”

Nowhere near enough was done, contends 62-year-old Joseph Iocono, who said he was sexually abused in his preteens by the late Archdiocese of Chicago priest Thomas F. Kelly.

According to documents from the archdiocese, more than a dozen allegations of sexual abuse against minors were made to the church against Kelly. The abuse was alleged to have occurred while he served at three different parishes between 1967 and 1973, including St. John Vianney, St. Catherine of Genoa and St. Therese of the Infant Jesus (Little Flower).

The documents show Kelly was accused of plying minors with alcohol, fondling them, performing oral sex on them and showing them pornography.

“I think that it’s important to see how the church mishandled these situations,” said Iocono, who welcomes the release of the documents and says he was abused in the rectory at St. John Vianney in Northlake. “The priest that abused me was moved … to different parishes and he abused at other parishes.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

Links to documents:
abusedinchicago.com
Archdiocese documents: andersonadvocates.com

BY FRANCINE KNOWLES, KIM JANSSEN aND ART GOLAB Staff Reporters January 21, 2014

The Archdiocese of Chicago took steps to conceal sexual abuse by serial abusers, promoted and moved priests with multiple accusations against them and had victims making the allegations investigated, archdiocese documents released Tuesday reveal.

The documents cover abuse allegations against 30 priests that surfaced under the leadership of Cardinals John Cody, Joseph Bernardin and Francis George.

Conspicuously absent in many of the more than 6,000 pages of documents were any signs that many of the allegations were ever immediately reported to law enforcement authorities for their investigation.

Among the revelations in the documents:

◆ Vincent McCaffrey, who was ultimately sentenced to 20 years for child pornography, had been allowed by Bernardin and Cody to remain in ministry and relocate to other parishes after allegations of abuse. McCaffrey ultimately admitted to molesting more than a dozen victims between 1976 and 1990. He wasn’t defrocked until 2010.

◆ Bernardin agreed to appoint Robert Mayer as pastor of a Berwyn church after multiple allegations of sexual abuse were levied against him. The promotion was supported by the church’s board of vicars. After more allegations surfaced, Bernardin forced him to resign.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

Joseph R. Bennett:
Deceased. Affiliated with Holy Ghost Catholic Church in South Holland; St. John de la Salle, Our Lady of Fatima, St. Christina and St. Agnes in Chicago; and Our Lady of the Ridge in Chicago Ridge. Removed him from Holy Ghost in January 2006.

Robert C. Becker:
Deceased. Was among 11 priests named in a $12.6 million settlement with sexual abuse victims announced by the archdiocese in August 2008.

Coverage: Oct. 3, 2003

Kenneth Brigham:
No information available.

William J. Cloutier:
Affiliated with St. Damien Church in Oak Forest and St. Peter Church in Skokie. Placed on administrative leave in September 1991 while at St. Peter. Was among the current or former priests named in an $8 million settlement with sexual abuse victims announced by the archdiocese in October 2003.

Oct. 3, 2003

Robert Craig:
Of Lake Villa. Was named in a series of settlements with the archdiocese and a dozen current and former priests, reached since March 2006 and totaling more than $6.65 million.

May 30, 2007

John W. Curran:
Deceased. Affiliated with St. Christina’s Church in Chicago, St. Bede the Venerable in Chicago, Quigley Preparatory in Chicago, St. Catherine of Siena Oak Park, St. Albert the Great in Burbank and St. Joseph’s in Homewood.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

Chicago clergymen named in new archdiocese documents

2006 list of Chicago archdiocese priests accused of sexual misconduct

video

By Manya Brachear Pashman, Christy Gutowski and Todd Lighty
Tribune reporters
January 21, 2014

Thousands of pages of secret church documents released Tuesday as part of a court settlement provide an unprecedented and gut-wrenching look at how the Archdiocese of Chicago for years failed to protect children from abusive priests.

The documents provide new details and insights into how the nation’s third-largest archdiocese quietly shuttled accused priests from parish to parish and failed to notify police of child abuse allegations. The paper trail, going back decades, also portrays painfully slow progress toward reform, accountability and openness.

Most of the 30 clergymen tied to the documents were not prosecuted. They were shielded by Roman Catholic Church officials who thought the men could be cured with counseling or bishops blinded by a belief in second chances and forgiveness.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

{Go directly to the Anderson site to click on to the files.]

Cardinal George’s Knowledge of Abusive Priests:

Brigham, Kenneth
Maday, Norbet
J. Curran, John
Holihan, Daniel M.

Priests Placed Back in Ministry Despite Danger to Minors:

Brigham, Kenneth
O’Brien, William
J. Skriba
Raymond Mayer
Robert E. Curran
John Cloutier
William J. Hagan
James C. Fitzharris
Joseph L. Becker
Robert C. Snieg
Marion J. Holihan
Daniel M. Job
Thomas J. McCormack
Swider, Henry P.

Priests Criminally Convicted for Abuse of Minors:

Maday, Norbet J.
Fitzharris, Joseph L.
McCaffrey, Vincent E.
Mayer, Robert E.

Reasons for Removal of or Restrictions on Predator Priests Other than Abuse of Minors:

Skriba, Raymond
Swade, Thomas J.

Laicized Priests:

Job, Thomas J.
Fitzharris, Joseph L.
Hagan, James C.
Steel, James R.

Abusive Priests whom Cardinal George or Cardinal Bernardin Chose Not to Laicize:

Bennett, Joseph R.
Curran, John
Maday, Norbet J.
O’Brien, William J.
Ruge, Kenneth C.

PRIEST FILES
• Becker, Robert C. Timeline
• Bennett, Joseph R. Timeline
• Brigham, Kenneth. Timeline
• Cloutier, William J. Timeline
• Craig, Robert D. Timeline
• Curran, John Timeline
• Fitzharris, Joseph L. Timeline
• Hagan, James C. Timeline
• Holihan, Daniel M. Timeline
• Job, Thomas J. Timeline
• Kelly, Thomas F. Timeline
• Kissane, Joseph P. Timeline
• Maday, Norbet J. Timeline
• Mayer, Robert E. Timeline
• McCaffrey, Vincent E. Timeline
• O’Brien, William J. Timeline
• Owens, Joseph Timeline
• Pallakunnen, Emmanuel Timeline
• Romano, Russell L. Timeline
• Ruge, Kenneth C. Timeline
• Skriba, Raymond Timeline
• Snieg, Marion J. Timeline
• Steel, James R. Timeline
• Stewart, Victor Timeline
• Strand, Ralph S. Timeline
• Swade, Thomas J. Timeline
• Swider, Henry P. Timeline
• Turlo, Walter J. Timeline
• Ulatowski, Donald F. Timeline
• Weston, Michael Timeline

SELECTED DOCUMENTS OBTAINED THROUGH OTHER MEANS

• Przybylo, Chester J. Timeline
• McCormack, Daniel J. Timeline

DEPOSITIONS
Francis Cardinal George Deposition Bishop Raymond E. Goerdert Deposition

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CHICAGO (IL)
WGN

[with video]

Today, attorneys publicly released the files on 30 Archdiocese of Chicago priests accused of sexually abusing children.

SEE THE ARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGO DOCUMENTS HERE

Last week, the Archdiocese handed over nearly 6,000 pages of documents to victims’ attorneys.

Chicago Archdiocese releases documents related to sex abuse scandalChurch officials say they are concerned for those who suffered, and regret the mistakes made by the Archdiocese.

At a news conference today, sexual abuse survivors and their attorneys will share and discuss the documents.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Sun Herald

The Associated Press
January 21, 2014

For decades, the Archdiocese of Chicago struggled to prevent a sexual abuse scandal from going public. It tried to monitor and manage priests accused of abusing children, forced them to get psychological counseling and moved them from parish to parish.

Lawyers for some of the victims planned Tuesday to release some 6,000 pages of documents detailing the cases of 30 accused priests as part of a legal settlement with the church.

—

Here is a timeline of key events in the decades-long scandal:

— April 25, 1982: Archbishop John Cody dies. He is succeeded by Joseph Bernadin.

— Nov. 15, 1985: The Rev. Robert Friese becomes the first priest from the archdiocese to be convicted of a sex crime in a criminal prosecution. He’s sentenced to four years of probation for molesting a teenage boy.

— Oct. 25, 1991: Cardinal Bernadin sets up the Cardinal’s Commission on Clerical Misconduct to investigate abuse allegations and review existing policies after a succession of public allegations and the indictment of a priest, the Rev. Robert Mayer.

— Dec. 11, 1992: Mayer is convicted of abusing a teenage girl in a church rectory in Berwyn. In February 1993 he becomes the first priest from the archdiocese to be sentenced to prison, receiving a three-year term.

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CHICAGO (IL)
York Daily Record

The Associated Press
UPDATED: 01/21/2014

CHICAGO—The release of 6,000 pages of documents from the Archdiocese of Chicago casts new light on how the church dealt with a mounting sex abuse scandal involving priests. The records were made public Tuesday by lawyers for some victims after a legal settlement. Below are excerpts from the documents regarding some of the archdiocese’s more well-known accused priests:
Rev. Robert E. Mayer

Robert E. Mayer was accused in a 1983 lawsuit of exposing himself to several altar boys from St. Edna’s in Arlington Heights during a lake outing and trying to fondle two boys.

While that litigation was pending, another priest at the church, Rev. John J. Hurley, wrote to the archdiocese to say the mother of one alleged victim felt “the law firm of the Archdiocese is steamrolling over her and her husband.” The mother, he continued, suspected the church’s strategy was to draw out the litigation until the financial strain became too much for the family.

“She feels powerless,” the letter said. “She feels hurt and sad and rejected.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 21, 2014

CHICAGO — Archdiocese of Chicago officials say the nation’s third-largest archdiocese made some decisions decades ago that are “now difficult to justify.”

The comments came Tuesday as documents were released to the public outlining claims of child abuse against clergy members.

Archdiocese officials say they complied with reporting laws at the time, but that church and its leaders have acknowledged repeatedly that they wished they’d done more sooner.

Church officials say they are working to regain trust and reach out to victims and their families.

The documents were turned over to victims’ attorneys and posted online Tuesday. They cover 30 of the at least 65 clergy for whom the archdiocese says it has substantiated claims of child abuse.

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Girls’ Globe

by Marcia Banasko

Last week on January 16th in Geneva, Switzerland, a historic milestone took place as the Holy See went before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The committee was seeking detailed information on the sexual violence against children by Catholic clergy around the world, its cover up within the church and the denial of justice and compensation for victims.

A day earlier I went to a special screening of Silence in the House of God, a HBO documentary which details the first known protests against clergy sexual abuse in the USA. The documentary also exposures other cases of sexual abuse committed by Catholic clergy around the world. After the documentary, the Center for Constitutional Rights hosted a panel discussion with survivors of clergy sexual abuse. It was emotional to hear their stories and inspiring to witness their unbroken spirits and determination to secure justice.

The realities of clergy sexual abuse of women and minors both boys and girls is now more widely known. However, it is still a taboo subject for many and some victims feel as though they have nowhere to turn with little support from their communities due to the status of clergy persons.

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FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

By Susan Jacobson, Orlando Sentinel
January 21, 2014

A jury in Lake County has awarded $12.5 million to a man who, as a child, was sexually abused by a Baptist minister, his attorney announced Monday.

“It’s one of the biggest [monetary awards] in Florida — maybe the most for a single victim,” said the man’s attorney, Ron Weil of Weil Quaranta McGovern of Miami.

The jury agreed unanimously on the award Saturday morning after a six-day trial on the issue of damages. A separate jury in May 2012 held the Florida Baptist Convention liable in the case, saying the organization didn’t adequately investigate Douglas W. Myers, 64, who previously had been accused of inappropriate conduct with children.

“This was a long journey for this child who needlessly suffered because the institutions he trusted failed to protect him,” Weil said in a statement. “In light of the evidence presented, the jury surely understood the devastating impact on this young man.”

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VATICAN CITY
Bloomberg Businessweek

By Andrew Frye and Alessandra Migliaccio January 21, 2014

Italy’s finance police advanced their investigation into alleged money laundering at the Vatican, saying “fake donations” were used to move funds from offshore companies through the Holy See’s bank.

The cash was allegedly deposited into accounts used by Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, a priest and former accountant at the Vatican, who was arrested in June for plotting to cross the Swiss-Italian border with 20 million euros ($27 million), Italian finance police said today. Assets were seized as part of the probe, according to a finance police statement issued in the southern city of Salerno.

The Italian investigation caused a shakeup at the Vatican Bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, and Paolo Cipriani resigned as director in July. Pope Francis, in his first year as pontiff, has sought to tighten oversight of the bank.

“The Vatican has been collaborating with Italian authorities from the very beginning of this investigation and continues to do so,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said by phone. “The Vatican has responded to all the requests for information received from Italy and is waiting for a response to its own information requests.”

The police didn’t enter the bank, Lombardi said.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (UK)

‘Monsignor 500 Euros’ on trial for ‘plotting to smuggle 20million euros (£16.5million) into Italy’ re-arrested for ‘using his Vatican bank accounts to launder money’

By HANNAH ROBERTS

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, the Vatican prelate accused of trying to smuggle 20 million euros into Italy on an airforce jet, is facing fresh legal woes after he was issued with another arrest warrant.

The former bishop of Salerno, nicknamed ‘Monsignor 500 Euros’, after his favourite bank note, is now accused of laundering millions of euros through the Vatican bank by disguising it as charitable donations.

Another priest has been put under house arrest as part of the investigation, and a notary has been suspended.

Until his arrest in June last year Scarano was chief accountant for the Vatican’s property portfolio. He denies charges that he conspired with a former Italian secret service agent and a financial broker in a failed bid to bring the cash from Switzerland to Italy in a military plane, avoiding customs.

Investigators yesterday ordered the seizure of assets, and froze bank accounts with a combined value of six million euros.

Financial police in the southern city of Salerno said that Scarano’s Vatican bank accounts had been used to transfer millions of euros in fictitious donations from offshore companies.

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VATICAN CITY
adnkronos

Vatican City, 21 January (AKI) – A senior Vatican cleric who is on trial for plotting to smuggle 20 million euros from Switzerland to Italy has been re-arrested on fresh money-laundering allegations.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, nicknamed ‘Monsignor 500’ for his habit of flashing large banknotes around was put under house arrest on suspicion of using his Vatican bank accounts to launder money.

Scarano’s Vatican bank accounts had been used to transfer millions of euros in bogus donations from offshore companies, finance police in the southern city of Salerno said in a statement on Tuesday.

Police were reported to be impounding real estate and financial assets worth millions of euros as part of a judicial probe of the money-laundering case.

Another priest and a notary who was suspended from his profession were also placed under house arrest in relation to the new case.

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VATICAN CITY
NEWS.com.au

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano accused of using Vatican bank accounts to launder millions of dollars

A VATICAN monsignor already on trial for allegedly plotting to smuggle 20 million euros ($30.8 million) from Switzerland to Italy has been arrested in a separate case for allegedly using his Vatican bank accounts to launder money.

Financial police in the southern Italian city of Salerno said Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, dubbed “Monsignor 500” for his purported favored banknotes, had transferred millions of euros in fictitious donations from offshore companies through his accounts at the Vatican’s Institute for Religious Works.

Police said they seized 6.5 million euros in real estate and bank accounts on Tuesday, including Msgr Scarano’s luxurious Salerno apartment, filled with gilt-framed oil paintings, ceramic vases and other fancy antiques.

A local priest was also placed under house arrest and a notary public was suspended for alleged involvement in the money-laundering plot. Police said in all, 52 people were under investigation.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

Philip Pullella
Reuters

January 21, 2014

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – A former Vatican prelate on trial for an alleged plot to smuggle 20 million euros into Italy was further charged on Tuesday with laundering millions through the Vatican bank, police and his lawyer said.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano and two other people served with arrest warrants were suspected of laundering and making false statements, police said. The others were Father Luigi Noli, a friend of Scarano suspended from his Vatican job last year, and a notary.

Fifty-two other people were being investigated on suspicion of abetting money laundering, police said.

Scarano, 61, is under house arrest in his native Salerno, near Naples, and charged with conspiring to smuggle some 20 million euros from Switzerland with a financier and a former secret services officer for rich shipbuilder friends in Salerno. The money smuggling trial began on December 3 in Rome.

The new charge, which came after a separate, year-long investigation, concerns suspected money laundering through his accounts at the Vatican bank, police said.

A police statement said millions of euros in “false donations” from offshore companies moved through Scarano’s accounts at the Vatican bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR).

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (posted 20 January 2014)

Broken Rites can cite a recent Australian case to demonstrate how the Vatican takes a lenient attitude towards the church’s sexual abuse of children. In 2006 the Vatican “punished” one Australian priest by ordering him “to live a life of prayer and penance and to offer Mass every Friday for his victims”.

This was despite him admitting to numerous “crimes”, Australia’s national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse has been told.

At a public hearing in Sydney on 19 December 2013, the royal commission was told that this person is still listed as a priest of the diocese of Lismore in northern New South Wales.

These revelations came during evidence by the Bishop of Lismore, Geoffrey Jarrett. The bishop was being questioned by the senior barrister assisting the royal commission, Ms Gail Furness.

The priest’s name was suppressed during the royal commission hearing and it has been deleted from the published transcript (on pages 3390 to 3394, dated 19 December 2013, available on the commission’s website).

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The next hearings of the Australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, focusing on four Salvation Army Boys’ Homes (Riverview, Bexley, Box Hill and Alkira), is due to start in a week. In fact there are only 3 more working days left, due to the Australia Day holiday (Australia’s National Day) long week-end. Two of those days will be taken up anyway.

The Wednesday hearing is being held to give the YMCA another chance to argue against the royal commission’s recommendation that it consider firing its CEO, and referring another employee for prosecution for giving misleading evidence to the commission.

The Thursday hearing will revisit the previous “Towards Healing” session on the Catholic Church’s handling of victims complaints. The Catholic Church gets another bite at the cherry on the findings relating to it.

For the past four hearings, or “case studies” as the royal commission calls them, there has been about two weeks given for people to scrutinize the formal submissions to it from the relevant organizations, and interested parties.

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CHICAGO (IL)
The New York Times

By MICHAEL PAULSON
JAN. 21, 2014

Thousands of documents detailing sexual abuse allegations against 30 Chicago-area priests are to be released to the public on Tuesday, after eight years of negotiations between victim advocates and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.

Most of the abuse was alleged to have taken place years ago, about half of the accused priests are dead and many of the victims have already been given financial settlements from the archdiocese. But the victims have pressed for publication of the files, arguing that the documents will provide an important form of reckoning, chronicling what church officials did, and did not do, when they learned of accusations that priests had molested minors.

“Publishing for all to read the actual records of these crimes raises transparency to a new level,” Cardinal Francis E. George said in a letter distributed to parishes this month. “It will be helpful, we pray, for some, but painful for many.”

The archdiocese turned the estimated 6,000 pages of documents over to lawyers for abuse victims last Wednesday; the lawyers said they planned to publish the documents online on Tuesday. An archdiocesan lawyer told reporters last week that 95 percent of the allegations in the files concerned conduct before 1988, and none after 1996; 14 of the 30 accused priests are dead, and none is still serving in ministry. Cardinal George, who has been the archbishop of Chicago since 1997, has said he never met many of the accused priests.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Ulster Herald

UPWARDS on 100 people from the Omagh and Strabane areas are said to have submitted evidence to the most wide-ranging investigation of allegations of institutional child abuse in the UK to date.

This will be the second week of hearings as part of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, which is estimated to cost £19million. Margaret McGuckin from Survivors NI (SAIVA), which is assisting survivors and victims of abuse to tell their story, said that the group has been contacted by dozens of victims from West Tyrone.

Ms McGuckin is campaigning for victims after suffering abuse at a Sisters of Nazareth orphanage in Belfast from the age of three.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Fox News

CHICAGO – Thousands of pages of documents showing how the Archdiocese of Chicago handled the sexual abuse of children by priests will be made public Tuesday, providing the broadest look yet into the details of what the church knew and did — or didn’t do — about the scandal.

The archdiocese, one of the largest and most influential in the U.S., handed over last week more than 6,000 pages of documents to victims’ attorneys, who said they will show the archdiocese concealed abuse for decades, including moving priests to new parishes where they molested again.

The disclosures involving 30 priests were made as part of legal settlements with abuse victims, and are similar to disclosures made in other dioceses in the U.S. in recent years that showed how the Roman Catholic Church shielded priests and failed for many years to report child sex abuse to authorities.

Chicago officials said most of the abuse occurred before 1988 and none after 1996.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Univision

[con video]

La arquidiócesis católica de Chicago revelará este martes uno de sus secretos mejor guardados, la identidad de al menos 30 sacerdotes a quienes se les ha comprobado haber abusado de menores de edad.

No es la primera vez que la arquidiócesis de Chicago se encuentra en el ojo del huracán, aunque en esta ocasión, la organización mundial SNAP, que aboga por las víctimas de abuso sexual a manos de clérigos afirma que no basta con que revelen 30 nombres de curas acusados de este delito sino que debe informar cuál ha sido el paradero de estos curas, reportó Viviana Ávila a Univision.
Opina sobre esta nota en nuestros foros

“Le pedimos especialmente a los católicos que nos ayuden a rastrear a estos sacerdotes, no solamente a los 30 sino a las docenas y docenas que hay aquí y que aunque ya no están en la iglesia, están viviendo y trabajando dentro de la comunidad, poniendo en riesgo a los menores”, afirmó David Clohessy, director de SNAP.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

Two Video Discussions of Pope Benedict’s Defrocking of 400 Priests Who Had Abused Minors: “They’ve Been Kicked into Society with No Repercussions Whatsoever”

Two video interviews discussing the AP report that, in 2011 and 2012 Pope Benedict defrocked some 400 priests who has abused children: in the first, Judy Block-Jones, Midwest Director of SNAP, speaks to Al Jazeera, and in the second, Father Thomas Reese and Joelle Casteix (also of SNAP) speak to Milissa Rehberger of MSNBC:

In the video at the top of the posting, Judy Block-Jones asks, “Where are these [defrocked] priests? . . . If the child predators are still out there roaming the streets, kids are not safe”:

And here’s Joelle Casteix: “Yes, these men were defrocked, but as we just heard, they are out there. We don’t know who these men are, we don’t know what kinds of crimes they committed, we don’t know what countries they’re in, we don’t know anything about them. They’ve been kicked into society with no repercussions whatsoever”:

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CHICAGO (IL)
WGN

On Tuesday, attorneys will publicly release the files on 30 Archdiocese of Chicago priests accused of sexually abusing children.

Last week, the Archdiocese handed over nearly 6,000 pages of documents to victims’ attorneys.

Church officials say they are concerned for those who suffered, and regret the mistakes made by the Archdiocese.

At a news conference Tuesday, sexual abuse survivors and their attorneys will share and discuss the documents.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

BY TOM HENEGHAN, RELIGION EDITOR
PARIS Mon Jan 20, 2014

(Reuters) – An influential aide to Pope Francis criticized the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog on Monday and urged the conservative prelate to be more flexible about reforms being discussed in the Roman Catholic Church.

Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, the head of a “kitchen cabinet” the pope created to draw up reform proposals, said that Archbishop Gerhard Mueller – who has opposed any loosening of Church rules on divorce – was a classic German theology professor who thought too much in rigid black-and-white terms.

“The world isn’t like that, my brother,” Rodriguez said in a German newspaper interview, rhetorically addressing Mueller in a rare public criticism among senior Church figures.

“You should be a bit flexible when you hear other voices, so you don’t just listen and say, ‘here is the wall’,” Rodriguez said in an interview with the daily Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger.

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IRELAND
RH Reality Check

by Karen Smith Rotabi, United Arab Emirates University
January 20, 2014

Philomena, starring Judi Dench and directed by Stephen Frears, received four Oscar nominations last week. The film is based on a true story chronicled in Martin Sixsmith’s 2009 book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search. Captured is a little known piece of adoption history—the forcible removal of Irish children from their unwed mothers and then adoption by U.S. families. This extraordinary story illustrates the grave injustices of the Magdalene Laundries that were operated under the authority of the Catholic Church. Irish girls and women were forced into slave labor, working long hours cleaning in the laundries. The labor took place in hot, crowded, and generally miserable conditions.

The slavery that took place resulted in a recent legal agreement: The Irish government will now pay €58 million (nearly $79 million) to hundreds of the Magdalene Laundry survivors. Many of the survivors were adolescent girls who were sent to work while pregnant—sent to the Catholic sisters for repentance and remediation. The atrocities were such that Ireland’s prime minister, Enda Kenny, made an emotional apology. “Choking back tears,” he said, “This is a national shame, for which I again say, I am deeply sorry and offer my full and heartfelt apologies.” To date, no such apology or financial settlement has yet to be made by the Catholic Church.

As the film adaptation of Philomena documents, the forced labor in the laundries was deemed necessary to pay for room and board as well as other expenses, such as the medical costs of childbirth. Because the documentation was poor and much of it was intentionally destroyed by the guilty nuns—who set fire to some of the records—various facts have been conveniently lost. As a result, the absolute numbers of children sent into illegal adoptions within and from Ireland to the United States and elsewhere is unknown today. However, the evidence is damning, as Magdalene survivors seek justice and document their histories, including their humiliating living conditions. Part of that evidence is being preserved historically while grave markers document the young women who did not survive the harsh treatment of slavery, poor medical care, and heartbreak of forced child removal and adoptions.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Raw Story

By Scott Kaufman
Monday, January 20, 2014

A priest in Lansdale, Pennsylvania was arrested on Friday and charged with indecent assault for allegedly grabbing a man’s genitals at YMCA last December.

According to police, John J. Roebuck, a vicar at Saint Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church, had a short discussion with the victim in the sauna of the North Penn YMCA.

The victim said that after they exited the sauna, the two men both went into the locker room. As he was using a sink, the victim said, he noticed Roebuck standing behind him. As he tried to walk away, Roebuck extended his hand as if to say goodbye.

While they were doing so, the victim alleges he felt Roebuck’s other hand groping his genitals.

The victim immediately contacted YMCA staff to report the encounter, and a staff member located Roebuck, who had not yet left the building. He was allowed to leave, but at that point police were brought in to investigation the allegations.

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ROME
ANSA

(ANSA) – Rome, January 20 – A centre-right gay advocacy group on Monday said the alleged existence of a gay lobby in the Vatican is less a threat to the church than hypocrisy.

“I would call the lobby of cardinals preaching against gays and their rights and then hitting on Swiss guards a lobby of hypocrites,” said Enrico Oliari, the founder of GayLib, a self-styled LGBT, liberal-democratic and centre-right association dating back to 1997.

This follows an interview that appeared in a Swiss magazine on Sunday in which a former Swiss Guard commander alleged that a gay lobby he says is operating within the Vatican constitutes a security risk to Pope Francis. “I know from personal experience the gay lobby exists,” Elmar Maeder told Swiss weekly Schweiz am Sonntag. “It is made up of people so loyal to one another they’re practically a secret society. When loyalty is in question, it becomes a security risk”.

Maeder, 51, led what is the world’s oldest and smallest army from 2002-2008.

A former Swiss guard told the same magazine he was propositioned by a cardinal and by another high Vatican official while on his tour of duty in the Vatican.

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CANADA
De Morgen (Belgie)

[Summary: Former priest Eric Dejaeger, who is on trial in Canada for 80 acts of pedophilia, has been defrocked. The action by the Vatican was taken as early as 2011 but became known only now.]

Voormalig priester Eric Dejaeger, die in Canada terechtstaat voor 80 feiten van pedofilie, is het priesterschap ontnomen. “Rome heeft hem afgezet als sanctie voor de misdadige feiten die hij gepleegd heeft”, zegt Georges Vervust, overste van de paters Oblaten uit Blanden, de orde waartoe Dejaeger behoort.

De afzetting gebeurde al in 2011, maar raakte pas nu bekend. Dejaeger blijft wel lid van de orde. “Maar slechts als broeder. Rome heeft ons die oplossing voorgesteld en wij hebben dat aanvaard. Wij zijn christenen. Wij laten zelfs zo iemand niet vallen”, klinkt het. Vandaag wordt het monsterproces in Canada hervat.

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CANADA
De Morgen

[Summary: Legal process of Eric Dejaeger was resumed this morning in Iqaluit, Canada. The 66-year-old priest, who was born in Belgium, has to answer to charges of sexual abuse against dozens of Inuit children.]

Het proces van Eric Dejaeger is vanmorgen in het Canadese Iqaluit hervat. De 66-jarige pater, die in België geboren is, moet zich verantwoorden voor tientallen aanklachten wegens seksueel misbruik tegen Inuit-kinderen. Vandaag werden er al enkele aanklachten tegen hem ingetrokken.

Tijdens de eerste vier weken van het proces werden er 41 getuigen van het openbaar ministerie aan het woord gelaten. Maar nu was het de beurt aan de advocaat van de verdediging, Malcolm Kempt, om zijn visie op de feiten te geven.

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ARIZONA
The Arizona Republic

By Michael Clancy
The Republic | azcentral.com

Mon Jan 20, 2014

A Vatican court has recommended that a Phoenix cleric be removed from the priesthood.

The Rev. John Spaulding, a priest in the Diocese of Phoenix for 40 years, has been accused by four people of sexually abusing them decades ago when they were minors.

The judgment was reached by a special tribunal, an independent panel of three priests from across the U.S. who have doctorates in canon law. The panel was convened at the direction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican agency.

The special tribunal found Spaulding guilty of sins against the Sixth Commandment with a minor and recommended that he be dismissed from the clerical state, a process commonly known as “laicization” or defrocking. The commandment, commonly recounted as “You shall not commit adultery,” refers to all sexual sins, according to the Catholic Church.

Spaulding could not be reached by The Arizona Republic for comment.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Times Colonist (Canada)

Tammy Webber / The Associated Press
January 20, 2014

CHICAGO – Thousands of pages of documents showing how the Archdiocese of Chicago handled the sexual abuse of children by priests will be made public Tuesday, providing the broadest look yet into the details of what the church knew and did — or didn’t do — about the scandal.

The archdiocese, one of the largest and most influential in the U.S., handed over last week more than 6,000 pages of documents to victims’ attorneys, who said they will show the archdiocese concealed abuse for decades, including moving priests to new parishes where they molested again.

The disclosures involving 30 priests were made as part of legal settlements with abuse victims, and are similar to disclosures made in other dioceses in the U.S. in recent years that showed how the Roman Catholic Church shielded priests and failed for many years to report child sex abuse to authorities.

Chicago officials said most of the abuse occurred before 1988 and none after 1996.

Debra Brian, a 24-year-old Catholic from Chicago, had not yet seen or heard what was included in the documents, but said Sunday that the church is doing the right thing by acknowledging what occurred.

“Hopefully it will help people come forward,” said Brian.

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OHIO/PHILIPPINES
Beacon Journal

By Colette M. Jenkins
Beacon Journal religion writer

HUDSON: Concern for the Rev. Tom Randall, a Christ Community Chapel pastor who is jailed in the Philippines on charges of child abuse and human trafficking, has shifted from his safety to his health.

“Prison anywhere can be a hostile environment, but the conditions are extremely difficult. He’s locked in a cell with 48 inmates. There’s one toilet and one water spigot. Anything he needs, including food, has to be brought in from the outside,” said the Rev. Joe Coffey, lead pastor at the Hudson-based megachurch. “I found some relief when he texted that God has given him favor with the guards and inmates. Our worry right now is his health. He has some health issues that are being exacerbated in prison and could become life-threatening.”

Coffey said he has spoken to several U.S. government officials and diplomats to petition for Randall’s transfer from jail to a hospital. Randall and Filipino nationals were arrested Jan. 12 in Manila while doing typhoon relief work and missionary work at an orphanage established by World Harvest Ministries. The mission ministry, which was founded in 1990 by Randall and his wife, Karen, is responsible for planting churches and providing a million meals as emergency relief after the typhoon.

A hearing scheduled Friday to determine whether charges would be dropped against Randall was postponed.

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PHILIPPINES
Christian Post

BY NICOLA MENZIE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
January 20, 2014

American pastor and missionary Thomas (Tom) Randall has been imprisoned in Manila, Philippines on allegations that an orphanage he and his wife founded in the country has been operating as a front for human trafficking and that dozens of poor children living at the facility had been suffering sexual abuse for years.

Randall was on a mission trip in the country when state and social welfare authorities apprehended him and two workers on Jan. 12 at the Sankey Samaritan Orphanage in Lucena City, Philippines, reportedly on allegations that he had been negligent regarding alleged abuse and sex trafficking at the facility.

Filipino media reports that Randall was charged with obstruction of justice, while orphanage manager Perfecto “Toto” Luchavez and his son, Mark “Jake” Luchavez, were charged with violating the country’s anti-human trafficking laws. Another worker, who reportedly remains at large, Melvin Garcia, was charged with rape, along with Mark Luchavez. The men also allegedly allowed friends to abuse female victims.

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AUSTRALIA
Christian Today

Royal Commission announces details of public hearing into allegations of sexual abuse at Toowoomba Primary School in 2007

By: Truth Justice and Healing Council
Tuesday, 21 January 2014

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has announced it will examine allegations of child sexual abuse in 2007 at St Saviour’s Primary School in Toowoomba, Queensland.

The public hearing will take place in Brisbane and is scheduled to run for two weeks from 17 February.

The hearing will look into the response by the Catholic Education Office of the Diocese of Toowoomba in Queensland, to the allegations made against a teacher at the primary school in September 2007.

The teacher was sentenced to 10 years jail in 2010 for the rape and molestation of 13 students aged between nine and 10-years-old.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Press TV (Iran)

Thousands of pages of documents showing sexual abuse of children by Chicago priests are set to go public on Tuesday, a report says.

The Archdiocese of Chicago handed over last week more than 6,000 pages of documents to victims’ attorneys, who said they will show the archdiocese concealed abuse for decades.

The attorneys said some priests were even moved to new parishes where they molested again.

The Washington Post reports that the new disclosure will involve 30 priests of the archdiocese, one of the largest and most influential in the US.

The Roman Catholic Church has been under harsh criticism in recent years for its failure to report child sex abuse, which mostly occurred before 1988 and 1996, to authorities.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Online

[with video]

The world is learning that the Catholic Church has not been as immobile against child sexual abuse by priests as previously thought. Last week, the Vatican provided details that Pope Benedict XVI defrocked nearly 400 priests over just two years. All signs indicate more will be defrocked until the Church is cleansed of the threat.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – According to the AP, documents reveal that Pope Benedict defrocked nearly 400 priests in just two years for child molestation. To be defrocked is essentially to be fired, and left to the civil authorities for justice. The Church is unable to actually incarcerate abusers, but can -and does hand them over to civil authorities for trial and justice.

The document came from a file delivered to the U.N., which formed a committee to study the worldwide concern this week in Geneva. Last week, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the U.N. Ambassador to Geneva, took eight hours of questions and criticism from the committee.

The data is public record, but is not widely publicized. The Church typically keeps its internal affairs discreet. However, in cases of child abuse, the Church has recognized an urgent need to develop its practices further and has moved over the past decade or more to aggressively protect children from priests who would molest them.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler January 20, 2014

Some thoughts on the story that AP broke late Friday afternoon, reporting that Pope Benedict had approved the laicization of nearly 400 priests during the last 2 years of his pontificate:

1. This is only the tip of the iceberg—but not in the way you might think. The AP story covers just 2002 and 2003. But Pope Benedict had been working steadily to purge predators from the ranks of the Catholic clergy. We don’t know the total number of priests defrocked during his pontificate, but it’s probably fair to assume that it is in the thousands, not hundreds. As John Allen observed, the world’s mass-media outlets are belatedly realizing that Benedict XVI was a champion of reform, not of the cover-up, on abuse cases. It will be increasingly difficult to continue serving up the accepted narrative, which suggests that the abuse scandal erupted under Benedict, and he tried to keep the lid on. It didn’t, and he didn’t. Insofar as Pope Francis is a reformer in his field, it’s because he’s continued what Benedict started.

2. Allen also argues persuasively that in this case, an embarrassing U-turn by the Vatican press office was probably an innocent mistake. Questioned by reporters about the AP story, Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the press office, first issued a stout denial, and then, an hour later, confirmed that it was true. Working under pressure, Father Lombardi apparently confused two sets of statistics, Allen explains, and he corrected his mistake quickly. Still the fact remains that the Vatican’s chief spokesman was not thoroughly briefed on the issue, which was sure to draw intense media coverage. The McKinsey consultants who are studying the Vatican’s media strategy have plenty of work still to do.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

[with video]

Jay Levine

(CBS) – Attorneys for sexual assault victims of 30 Chicago priests say documents they’ll release Tuesday show a tangled web of deceit by the Archdiocese.

Six thousand pages of investigative reports will be made public as part of an agreement between victims’ attorneys and the Archdiocese.

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine says while the two sides agreed to release the documents, they don’t agree on what they say.

What is the source of the disconnect? Intent.

A mistake is not a cover-up, Cardinal George has said. The victims’ attorneys say there was no mistake, but a conscious effort to protect the archdiocese and its priests.

Outside Holy Name Cathedral Monday, a group representing victims gathered to distribute leaflets urging Catholics to pay attention to the information released on Tuesday.

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VATIKAN
Radio Vatikan

[Summary: The former commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, Elmar Mader, believes in existence of a “gay network” in the Vatican.]

Der ehemalige Kommandant der Päpstlichen Schweizergarde, Elmar Mäder, glaubt an die Existenz eines „Homosexuellen-Netzwerks“ im Vatikan. Das sagte er in der „Schweiz am Sonntag“. Seine Erfahrungen sprächen dafür, so Mäder. Ein Umfeld, in dem mehrheitlich unverheiratete Männer arbeiten, sei „per se ein Anziehungspunkt für Homosexuelle“. Zu Angaben von Ex-Gardisten, sie seien im Vatikan sexuell belästigt worden, sagte Mäder, es würden teilweise „Räubergeschichten“ erzählt, die „offensichtlich jeder tatsächlichen Grundlage entbehren“. Ein namentlich nicht genannter Schweizergardist, der unter Papst Johannes Paul II. mehrere Jahre im Vatikan gedient hatte, hatte in der gleichen Zeitung Mitte Januar erklärt, er sei Objekt der Begierde einer ganzen Reihe von Geistlichen und Würdenträgern geworden.

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VATIKAN
Schweiz am Sonntag

Von Henry Habegger und Beat Kraushaar
Samstag, 18. Januar 2014

Elmar Mäder sieht Sicherheitsproblem im Vatikan.

Er kennt den Vatikan und seine Geheimnisse aus langjähriger eigener Erfahrung: Der 50-jährige Elmar Mäder war zehn Jahre bei der Schweizer Garde tätig. 1998 ernannte ihn Papst Johannes Paul II. zum Vizekommandanten der Päpstlichen Schweizer Garde, der er dann von 2002 bis 2008 als deren Kommandant vorstand.

Der St. Galler war mit seinen über 100 Gardisten für die Sicherheit des Heiligen Vaters zuständig. Damit erhielt er tiefe Einblicke in das Innenleben der römischen Kurie. Zu Aussagen von Ex-Gardisten, sie hätten von Geistlichen sexuelle Avancen erhalten, gibt Mäder gegenüber der «Schweiz am Sonntag» seine Sicht dazu wieder. Seiner Meinung nach würden teilweise «Räubergeschichten» erzählt, die «offensichtlich jeder tatsächlichen Grundlage entbehren».

Aber die Existenz der viel zitierten Schwulen-Lobby im Vatikan dementiert der Ex-Kommandant der Garde nicht, im Gegenteil: «Die Behauptung, es gäbe ein Homosexuellen-Netzwerk, kann ich nicht widerlegen», hält Mäder fest. «Meine Erfahrungen sprechen für die Existenz eines solchen.»

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VATIKAN
Schweiz am Sonntag

Schweizergardist packt aus: «Habe von Kardinälen Sex-Angebote erhalten»

Von Henry Habegger und Beat Kraushaar
Samstag, 11. Januar 2014

Die Vorwürfe rund um das sogenannte Homosexuellen-Netzwerk und die Schweizergarde weiten sich aus. Die sexuellen Belästigungen scheinen grössere Ausmasse zu haben als bisher bekannt.

Medienleute aus aller Welt möchten mit ihm sprechen. Fernsehstationen aus Deutschland und Italien möchten ihn interviewen. Aber der ehemalige Gardist G.* zögert, seine Identität öffentlich zu machen. «Ich muss mir das genau überlegen», sagt der Schweizer. «Ich mache mir Sorgen um meine Familie. Mit dem Vatikan ist nicht zu spassen.» Der Kirchenstaat sei «eine Macht». Und vor dieser Macht fürchtet sich der gläubige Katholik. Auch die Furcht, etwa von Ex-Gardisten als Verräter abgestempelt zu werden, hält ihn davon zurück, öffentlich aufzutreten.

In der «Schweiz am Sonntag» hatte G. erzählt, wie er im Vatikan mit eindeutigen Angeboten belästigt worden war. 15 bis 20 Geistliche bis hinauf zum Bischof und Kardinal hätten ihm sexuell motivierte Avancen gemacht, so der ehemalige Gardist. Mit Alkohol, Einladungen und sexuellen Angeboten sollen sich die Diener Gottes ihm genähert haben. Vorgesetzte, die er informierte, nahmen ihn nicht ernst. Die Doppelmoral, auf die er während seiner Gardezeit stiess, erschütterte und desillusionierte den jungen Mann. Er kehrte dem Vatikan zuletzt enttäuscht den Rücken.

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VATICAN CITY
The Raw Story

By Lizzy Davies, The Guardian
Monday, January 20, 2014

A former commander of the Swiss Guard, the small force of men whose job it is to protect the pope, has said there is “a network of homosexuals” within the Vatican, the latest in a series of claims about gay priests working at the heart of the Roman Catholic church.

Elmar Mäder, who was commandant of the Guard from 2002 until 2008, said that his time at the heart of the Vatican had given him an insight into certain aspects of life there. “I cannot refute the claim that there is a network of homosexuals. My experiences would indicate the existence of such a thing,” he told the Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag.

Famed for their striking uniforms of blue, red and orange, recruits to the Guard swear to protect the pope and his successors with their lives.

Mäder, 50, from the canton of St Gallen, refused to comment on speculation that he had warned guardsmen about the behaviour of certain priests.

Earlier this month, the same newspaper reported the claims of a former, unnamed member of the Guard that he had been the target of more than 20 “unambiguous sexual requests” from clergy while serving in the force.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims beg others to “step forward”
Pedophile priest case heads toward trial
Support group seeks other’s who’ve been hurt
SNAP: “If you saw, suspected or suffered crimes, speak up!”
Group also wants bishop to post predators’ names on church websites
It’s the most important step bishops can take to protect kids now,” SNAP says
Thirty US dioceses have done this; in SC, at least 13 priests are publicly accused

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, child sex abuse victims will
–praise the South Carolina Supreme Court for letting a clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuit move ahead,
–-urge anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes by South Carolina clerics to “come forward, get help, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing” but “report to independent sources of help – like secular authorities – not church officials, and
–prod Charleston’s Catholic bishop to post on his website the names, photos, work histories and current whereabouts of all proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics who live or work (or have lived or worked) in the state.

WHEN
Tuesday, Jan. 21 at 11 a.m.

WHERE
Outside the Charleston Catholic diocese headquarters, 119 Broad St (corner of Broad St and Orange St), in Charleston, SC

WHO
Two victims of sexual assault as children by clerics who belong to an independent international self-help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including a Missouri woman who is the organization’s long time outreach director. (NOTE – the organization helps ANYONE who was violated in ANY institutional setting, not just churches.)

WHY
Earlier this month, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that a child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese could move ahead toward trial. In that case, a mother charges that Fr. James W. McCarthy molested all of three of her children (a boy and three girls) between 1965-1971 at St. William’s parish in Ward SC. The suit alleges that church officials were reckless and fraudulently concealed Fr. McCarthy’s crimes.

Catholic officials, according to the suit, engaged in “secretive and disingenuous conduct “that is “immoral, unethical and oppressive,” having launched “a public relations exercise . . to procure positive publicity without having to compensate all of its abuse victims.” and a “calculated business strategy to protect the (church) from all but minimal accountability for its pedophiles.”

The suit also accuses Catholic officials of unfair and deceptive trade practices. It seeks unspecified and punitive damages, including the providing of minimal therapy in order to “control” victims and get information from them.

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CANADA
Edmonton Journal

BY GORDON KENT, EDMONTON JOURNAL JANUARY 20, 2014

EDMONTON – Edmonton will host the final national event in March for the truth and reconciliation commission dealing with Canada’s residential schools legacy.

The March 27-30 event, open to the public at the Shaw Conference Centre, is expected to attract up to 4,000 people a day to learn about the history of the schools, talk about their experiences and take part in cultural displays.

“It’s almost the start of reconciliation … It’s not the end of it,” commissioner Willie Littlechild told the city’s community services committee Monday.

Alberta had about 25 residential schools, more than any other province. They operated in Canada from the 1870s to 1996, Littlechild said.

There are about 12,000 survivors living in the province, the largest proportion of them in Edmonton, he said.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

BY ANDREW DUFFY, OTTAWA CITIZEN JANUARY 20, 2014

OTTAWA — The Archdiocese of Ottawa has opened the door to Father Joe LeClair’s eventual return to the pulpit.

The charismatic priest, universally known as Father Joe, pleaded guilty in an Ottawa courtroom Monday to fraud and theft charges: he admitted pocketing money from the collection plate and taking other church revenues to feed a runaway gambling addiction.

Archbishop Terrence Prendergast issued a statement after LeClair entered his plea, making it clear the Catholic Church will welcome him back as an active priest once his criminal sentence is served.

A sentencing hearing is to continue Tuesday to determine LeClair’s penalty.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

DAVID MURPHY

At the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit on the afternoon of Jan. 20, Crown prosecutors opposed defence lawyer Malcolm Kempt’s motions for dismissal on seven of the dozens of charges against former priest Eric Dejaeger.

Kempt made 10 “non-suit applications” on the morning of Jan. 20, seeking dismissal of the charges because of a lack of evidence.

Justice Robert Kilpatrick quickly dismissed three of the 80 charges that Dejaeger faced prior to that morning because the witness who made the allegations did not appear in court to testify when the Crown was presenting its case.

Crown prosecutor Doug Curliss told Kilpatrick that for charges to be dismissed, there must be no evidence the alleged crimes could have happened, based on witness testimony.

To that end, in the context of the seven charges, Curliss, after reviewing transcripts of the witness testimony, argued that they still ring true

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NEW MEXICO
KOAT

A former New Mexico Priest and convicted sex offender is back in New Mexico.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Telegraph (UK)

Disgraced Polish Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski was removed from an official photograph after being put under investigation for alleged child abuse in the Dominican Republic

By Nick Squires 4:18PM GMT 20 Jan 2014

It is the sort of practice normally expected of paranoid regimes such as North Korea, Mao’s China or the former Soviet Union, but a disgraced Polish archbishop who is being investigated for child sex abuse has been subjected to a Trotsky-style rubbing out in an official Catholic Church photo.

Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski served as a papal envoy in the Dominican Republic but was recalled to Rome last year amid claims that he sexually abused a number of children in the slums of Santo Domingo, the capital.

He appears to have been “purged” from a photograph of members of the bishops’ conference of the Caribbean country.

In the original picture, he appears smiling in the second row, wearing a dog collar, black vestments and a heavy crucifix.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Chicago News Conference Tuesday, January 21

Sexual abuse survivors and their attorneys will share and discuss the documents turned over January 15, 2014 by the Archdiocese as part several settlement agreements

What: At a news conference tomorrow, January 21, 2014 in Chicago, sexual abuse attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman will:

· Publicly release the files of 30 priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
· Discuss the patterns and practices revealed by these documents and the officials who made the choices to keep the offenders in ministry.
· Introduce several sexual abuse survivors who will respond to the release of the files and share their experiences in fighting to make these files public.

WHEN: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 at 11:00 AM CST

WHERE: The Allerton Hotel – 23rd Floor, Tip Top Tap
701 N. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611

WHO: Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman, lawyers and advocates for the dozens of survivors who demanded and negotiated this release. Patrick J. Wall, former priest now expert and advocate for sexual abuse survivors at Jeff Anderson & Associates. Numerous survivors who have been an integral part of the documents released and who will be available for interviews after press conference.

Notes:

· All documents will be available with summaries, timelines and highlights, online tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM at www.andersonadvocates.com and www.abusedinchicago.com. They will also be available at www.bishopaccountability.org on their homepage.

· Press packets, including photographs and sample documents, will be available at the press conference tomorrow.

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office: 651.227.9990 Mobile: 612.817.8665
Contact Marc Pearlman: Office: 312.261.4550 Mobile: 773.368.0142
Contact Patrick Wall: Office: 651.227.9990 Mobile: 949.307.3935

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