ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Christian Post

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
January 17, 2014

Documents released by the Associated Press suggest that from 2011 to 2012 Pope Benedict worked to defrock nearly 400 priests on claims that the men molested children – news that comes in the aftermath of the U.N.’s harsh critique of the Catholic Church’s handling of the global sex abuse scandal on Thursday.

The reports also demonstrate a shift in the Church’s approach towards handling sex abuse cases, which historically were dealt with by switching the parish where the priest served, rather than involving local law enforcement or Vatican tribunals.

But in 2001, former Pope Benedict, then a cardinal, mandated that accused priests be put on trial in church tribunals, with a maximum penalty of being defrocked.

In 2005, the Vatican began reporting numbers of defrocked priests and authorized Church trials against 21 accused clerics. Since 2005, the numbers began to increase to between 300-400 cases a year in 2007 and 2008.

In 2010, following a wave of media coverage of sex abuse scandals in Europe, 527 cases were reported, though the Vatican did not report how many priests had been defrocked. In 2011 and 2012, however, 260 and 124 priests were defrocked respectively.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (UK)

Revealed: Pope Benedict XVI defrocked 400 priests for sexually molesting children in just two years

By WILLS ROBINSON
PUBLISHED: 18:07 EST, 17 January 2014

Pope Benedict XVI removed nearly 400 priests in two years for molesting children, it has been revealed.

The shocking statistics for 2011-12 represent the first time the Vatican has revealed how many priests who have been defrocked.

Prior to that, the Catholic Church only revealed the number of alleged sexual abuse cases it had received.

The revelations come after centuries of tradition which saw the Vatican dealing with cases internally, without the involvement of police.

The document was prepared from data the Vatican had been collecting to help the Holy See defend itself before a UN committee in Geneva, Switzerland, this week.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s UN ambassador in Geneva, referred to just one of the damning statistics during eight hours of criticism and questioning from the UN human rights committee.

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VATICAN CITY
Digital Journal

By Andrew Dyer
Jan 17, 2014

A newly revealed report revealed that Pope Benedict XVI defrocked 400 priests for molestation in two years of of his Papacy.

Statistics show that the number of priests defrocked in 2011 and 2012 spiked from the 171 priests removed in 2008 and 2009. According to CBC News, numbers of defrocked priests before 2008 are unavailable as the Vatican only made public the number of alleged reports of sexual abuse it had received and the number of trials it had authorized to move forward. The report was composed of data the Vatican had been collecting intended to help the Catholic Church to defend itself before a United Nations committee.

In 2008, the report stated that 68 priests were defrocked with 191 abuse cases reported. The number of defrocked priests rose in 2009 to 103 out of 223 cases reported. 2010 saw 527 abuse cases reported however no numbers of defrocked priests have been made available to the public. 260 priests were removed from their positions in 2011 with 404 cases reported to the Vatican and 419 priests had lesser penalties passed down to them for crimes involving abuse. 2012 saw 124 priests defrocked and 418 cases reported.

Pope Benedict’s actions are far removed from the Vatican’s tendency to move priests accused of sexual abuse from parish to parish rather than see them brought to trial. This has often led to victims accusing the Catholic Church of being autonomous and putting their procedures ahead of law enforcement.

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VATICAN CITY
The Stir

by Maressa Brown

Documents uncovered this week by the Associated Press are shedding light on just how many priests were defrocked by Pope Benedict XVI over the past two years for sexually molesting children. And the number is horrifyingly high. Back in 2008 and 2009 — when the Vatican first offered specifics on this — 171 priests were removed, but in 2011 and 2012, the stats show a scary spike to 400 priests defrocked.

While it isn’t exactly clear why the numbers went up so much over the last two years, it’s possible that more cases were being reported as the unnerving phenomenon became more widely covered in the news media. In other words, a lot more priests were probably guilty of these unthinkable acts before 2011, but they’ve only recently been reported and punished. Crazy.

Doesn’t sound like there should be any question about how legit these stats are. The AP explains that the numbers were compiled from the Vatican’s own annual reports about the activities of its various offices, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles sex abuse cases. The reason: To help the Holy See defend itself in front of a U.N. committee this week in Geneva.

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GENEVA
RH Reality Check

by Erin Matson, Editor at Large, RH Reality Check
January 17, 2014

Thursday, representatives from the Vatican went before a United Nations panel to discuss the way the Catholic Church has handled, and covered up, numerous instances of sexual abuse by priests worldwide.

The public record from this hearing, the first time representatives from the Holy See had been subjected to public questioning of this nature, offers little consolation to those who had been waiting for Pope Francis to offer meaningful reforms that might help him live up to his “Person of the Year” designation. Instead, we were given additional reasons to believe that the all-male hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church must not be entrusted to come up with a program that will resolve and redress sexual crimes within its flock. Further, we were given additional reasons to question the Vatican’s role in the international law community.

First, the hearing came a bit overdue. The Vatican ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. After an initial report in 1994, the Holy See did not submit a progress report to the international body until 2012. It’s shocking that those reports and Thursday’s hearing took so long; those 18 years were filled with revelations of sex abuse by priests, associated cover-ups by Vatican officials, and international cries for accountability.

To those who think Pope Francis, the alleged reformer, has it covered, a closer examination of the facts suggests otherwise: It wasn’t until last year that the criminal code was updated to specify sexual violence against children as a crime. Further, a new commission established by the pope to address the crisis of child molestation by priests lacks judicial authority and instead focuses on providing care to victims of abuse—quite a sick idea, given that internal supervision mechanisms from the Vatican have no track record of providing appropriate care, much less justice, for the victims of abuse by Catholic priests.

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VATICAN CITY
MSNBC

By Trymaine Lee

As the Vatican was being blistered by a U.N. committee this week for its decades-long mishandling and cover up of a global sex abuse scandal involving priests and children, new disclosures show the extraordinary steps that Pope Benedict XVI took to get rid of problem priests.

In just two years, Benedict defrocked nearly 400 priests, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press, which first reported the story on Friday. The number of priests defrocked by Benedict in 2011 and 2012 reflected a dramatic spike over the 171 priests removed in 2008 and 2009, according to the AP.

The newly uncovered statistics come from data from annual reports compiled by the Vatican to help the Holy See defend itself before a U.N. committee this week in Geneva.

While Benedict has been seen as remote, dogmatic, and lacking the charisma of both his predecessor, John Paul II, and his successor, Pope Francis, he was aggressive in pushing the Holy See to address the scourge of child molestation within the Church.

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NEW YORK/VERMONT
Albany Times Union

By Brendan J. Lyons

The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese, which was ordered by a Vermont judge to turn over nearly 40 years worth of sexual abuse records to a victim who filed a lawsuit, has filed an unusual petition asking a federal appeals court to strike down the ruling and dismiss the case.

The diocese argues that U.S. District Court Judge William K. Sessions III made errors and ignored U.S. Supreme Court decisions when he ruled last year that the Albany diocese can be sued in Vermont by a New York man who was taken across state lines and raped by Gary Mercure, a priest serving up to 20 years in prison for raping Albany-area altar boys.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an order this week that will put the Vermont case on hold while the panel considers the diocese’s petition, which is known as a writ of mandamus. The petition seeks appellate intervention and challenges whether Sessions improperly ruled that the diocese’s limited business ties to Vermont were enough to establish jurisdiction in a state. The diocese said the lawsuit was filed in that state because the statute of limitations time-barred any claim being filed in New York.

In the petition, the diocese notes that Sessions “has ordered the production of thousands of documents spanning decades—most notably, all allegations of sexual abuse of minors, and the details of all investigations resulting from such allegations, dating back to 1975. This will require the collection and review of files on thousands of employees maintained in hundreds of locations, at great effort and expense, and calls for the disclosure of highly sensitive private information relating to employees who are not parties to this lawsuit.”

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VATIKAAN
NCR (Nederland)

[Summary: Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 and 2012 defrocked nearly 400 priests because they had molested children, according to a document obtained by the Associated Press.]

Paus Benedictus XVI heeft in 2011 en 2012 bijna vierhonderd priesters uit hun ambt gezet, omdat ze zich hadden vergrepen aan kinderen. Dat blijkt uit een document dat in handen is gekomen van AP.
Het is voor het eerst dat details bekend zijn gemaakt over het aantal priesters dat door het Vaticaan is ontslagen. Voorheen liet de Heilige Stoel alleen weten over hoeveel gevallen van seksueel misbruik zij was ingelicht.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Jan. 17, 2014 NCR Today

In spite of an earlier Vatican statement denying an Associated Press story that almost 400 priests had been defrocked for the sexual abuse of minors during 2011/2012, a bishop with knowledge of the statistics says the AP story was correct.

The Vatican spokesman also confirmed the AP story in response to an NCR inquiry.

Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, who served for 10 years as the Vatican’s top sex abuse prosecutor and who represented the Vatican during a Jan. 16 hearing of the U.N.’s Committee of the Rights of the Child, told NCR that in 2011 and 2012, 384 priests were either voluntarily dismissed from the clerical state or had laicization imposed as a penalty in cases related to sexual abuse.

Scicluna spoke to NCR Jan. 17 by phone.

Based on information provided in the published volume “Activity of the Holy See,” according to Scicluna, there were 135 priests in 2011 who voluntarily requested dismissal from the clerical state and 125 for whom laicization was imposed as a penalty.

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

(CNN) The Vatican acknowledged on Friday that close to 400 priests left the priesthood in 2011 and 2012 because of accusations that they had sexually abused children.

That acknowledgment followed a report by the Associated Press that nearly 400 priests had been defrocked during those two years. The Vatican initially disputed that report.

Bishop Charles Scicluna, formerly the Vatican’s top prosecutor of sexually abusive clergy, said 384 priests left the priesthood – either voluntarily or not – in 2011 and 2012, the last two years of Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy.

In 2011, 125 priests were dismissed from ministry by the Vatican because of accusations they had sexually abused children, Scicluna told CNN on Friday, citing the “Activity of the Holy See,” a kind of Vatican yearbook. The same year, 135 priests were “dispensed,” meaning they voluntarily resigned, Scicluna said.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Chicago News Conference Tuesday, January 21

Documents to be Released Tuesday on 30 Archdiocese of Chicago
Priests Accused of Sexually Abusing Children

Sexual abuse survivors and their attorneys will share and discuss the documents
turned over January 15, 2014 by the Archdiocese as part of a 2006 mediation agreement

What: At a news conference on Tuesday, 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.
• Reveal secret Archdiocesan communications detailing the Archdiocese’s efforts to conceal abuse and protect itself at the expense of innocent children.
• 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 specializing in sexual abuse litigation who work together on behalf of sexual abuse survivors in Illinois helping them achieve justice and healing. Patrick J. Wall, former priest and monk who is now a consultant and advocate for sexual abuse survivors.

Notes:
• All documents will be available online Tuesday morning prior to the press event at www.abusedinchicago.com and www.andersonadvocates.com.
• Press packets will be available at the press conference Tuesday.

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office: 651.927.7872 Mobile: 612.817.8665
Contact Marc Pearlman: Office: 312.261.4550 Mobile: 773.368.0142

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SCOTLAND
The Tablet (UK)

17 January 2014 14:51 by Brian Morton

The new Bishop of Dunkeld says that not to forgive Cardinal Keith O’Brien would be “gravely wrong” but that the disgraced archbishop needs to make reparation for the harm he has done.

Speaking after his installation at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Dundee, last week, Bishop Stephen Robson acknowledged that “hypocrisy” was the greatest criticism facing the Church in Scotland.

Cardinal O’Brien, who resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct made by priests, had been an outspoken opponent of gay marriage.

Bishop Robson worked with Cardinal O’Brien for 35 years.

“Never once in all that time did I experience anything of the behaviour he was accused of. That is why his downfall came as such a shock to me and to so many. The Cardinal was much loved in the archdiocese. I was a bishop only a few months when this sad narrative began to unravel. The cardinal admitted behaviour unbecoming in a man of God and I do not believe forgiveness of him is at question.”

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

BishopAccountability.org submitted this letter and report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to assist in the CRC’s historic review of the Holy See’s compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In our submissions, we discuss the Holy See’s knowledge and management of cases of clergy sexual abuse worldwide, its continued refusal to require reporting to civil authorities, and Pope Francis’s problematic choice to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

On January 16, 2014, in Geneva, Switzerland, Committee members closely questioned Bishop Charles Scicluna, formerly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the UN. The Committee focused on the Holy See’s replies to the CRC’s July 2013 List of Issues.

See PDFs of our letter and report, or see our web versions below. See also the response to the Holy See Replies filed December 2013 by the Center for Constitutional Rights and SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests); the Holy See’s 2011 report to the CRC; and CCR/SNAP’s February 2013 alternative report. Click here to see all related documents on file with the CRC.

Letter to the CRC from BishopAccountability.org
• Detailed information on abuse cases brought to the attention of the Holy See
• Command and control structures
• Current leadership of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
• The record of Pope Francis in Buenos Aires and in Rome

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Jan. 17, 2014

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

This is a decades-late drop in bucket. Defrocking predator priests is less about safeguarding kids. It’s more about church damage control.

[New York Daily News]

Yesterday in Geneva, Catholic officials claimed to be essentially powerless over pedophile priests. Today, Catholic officials are saying how many they’ve defrocked.

Here’s the number Catholics should remember: zero. That’s how many Catholic supervisors have been punished, worldwide, for enabling and hiding horrific clergy sex crimes. The Pope must start defrocking clerics who cover up sex crimes, not just clerics who commit them. Until that happens, little will change.

So why the alleged increase in defrocked pedophile priests? It’s likely because more victims across the globe are gaining the strength and courage to come forward and are reporting to (and pressuring) church officials because archaic, predator-friendly secular laws prevent most victims from seeking justice in court. And it’s likely because more bishops are convincing Vatican officials that defrocking predators is a smart public relations and legal defense strategy. Cutting all ties with the most egregious serial sex offender clerics helps convince Catholics that progress is being made.

But it’s irresponsible for Catholic officials to recruit, educate, ordain, train, transfer and protect predator priests, then defrock them when they’re caught and the heat gets too intense. Catholic officials should help make sure child molesting clerics are criminally prosecuted. If that can’t happen, then Catholic officials should house them in remote, secure treatment centers. And Catholic officials should lobby for, not against, reforming outdated, secular laws that enable many who commit and conceal child sex crimes to escape punishment.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

By Barbara Blaine, President of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

Since 1988, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has been working to help survivors of clergy sex abuse heal one another and to protect children and vulnerable adults from continuing sexual violence. We have formed a vast network of mutual support among survivors, exposed this global crisis to the public, and repeatedly confronted perpetrators and their protectors, demanding that the Catholic church stop enabling – and start helping to end – this widespread and systemic violence. When we realized we needed to take our work global, we reached out to human rights attorneys at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)–a partnership that has brought us all the way to the United Nations in Geneva yesterday to witness the Vatican being called to account for the crisis by an international body for the first time.

In 2011, CCR and SNAP joined together to file a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC), requesting that the ICC prosecutor investigate the Vatican for crimes against humanity and hold accountable high-level Vatican officials, including Pope Benedict, in their supervisory and direct roles. Along with the complaint, we submitted more than 20,000 pages of supporting materials, including reports, policy papers, and evidence of the crimes. In addition to the obvious impact that an ICC investigation would have on efforts to obtain justice and accountability, by framing the sexual violence scandal as an international human rights issue and taking it directly to the tribunal that has handled some of the most horrific human rights abuses in recent history, we made an important statement about the extent of the clergy sex abuse crisis, the gravity of the harm of rape and sexual violence, the depth of the wounds it has left, and where responsibility lies. This is not a problem of a few bad priests, it is not a problem of the past, and it is not a problem confined to the United States. It is a global culture of violence that is concealed and enabled by those at the highest levels of an entity that purports to be a sovereign state.

In the wake of worldwide media coverage of the filing, SNAP heard from thousands of survivors in more than 70 countries, and, in April, we held our first international conference, in Dublin, which drew survivors from twelve countries and five continents. Shortly after our ICC filing, Amnesty International released a report affirming that physical and sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Ireland included “acts that amounted to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.” Though the ICC prosecutor has indicated that the office will not pursue an investigation at this time while leaving open the possibility of doing so in the future, the filing has sparked a worldwide movement urging international human rights bodies to provide accountability–which ultimately led us to the United Nations.

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GENEVA
WBUR

[with audio]

By Deborah Becker January 17, 2014

BOSTON — Vatican officials faced intense questioning Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland, when a United Nations committee demanded answers about the church’s handling of the clergy sex abuse scandal.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, representing the Vatican, said the church is committed to protecting children.

“The Holy See and local church structures in all parts of the world are committed to holding inviolable the dignity and entire person of every child: body, mind and spirit,” Tomasi said.

Helen McGonigle, a Connecticut attorney and clergy abuse survivor, joined WBUR’s Morning Edition to talk about her experience in Geneva, where she says she wanted to witness the first public questioning of Vatican officials about clergy abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

[Update: In spite of an earlier Vatican statement denying an Associated Press story that almost 400 priests had been defrocked for the sexual abuse of minors during 2011/2012, a bishop with knowledge of the statistics says the AP story was correct.]

John L. Allen Jr. | Jan. 17, 2014 NCR Today

In response to a story by The Associated Press asserting that Pope Benedict XVI defrocked nearly 400 priests during 2011-2012 for the sexual abuse of minors, the Vatican released a statement Friday saying that the number in the AP story refers to the number of new cases opened during that span rather than the outcome of those cases.

The following is the full text of the statement from Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, in an NCR translation from Italian.

“Information diffused this evening by the Associated Press appears to be based on an incorrect reading of data published in the volume ‘Activity of the Holy See 2011,’ where there’s a reference to the activity of the disciplinary office of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (p.466).”

“That volume speaks about the 612 new cases opened in 2012, which come from the entire world, including 418 cases involving abuse of minors.”

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph (UK)

Nearly 400 priests were defrocked by the Vatican over just two years for molesting children, according to a leaked document.

The statistics for 2011-12 show a dramatic increase over the 171 priests removed in 2008 and 2009, when the Vatican first provided details on the number of priests who have been defrocked. Prior to that, it had only publicly revealed the number of alleged cases of sexual abuse it had received.

The document was obtained by The Associated Press and was prepared from data the Vatican had been collecting to help the Holy See defend itself before a U.N. committee this week in Geneva.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva, referred to just one of the statistics in the course of eight hours of oftentimes pointed criticism and questioning from the U.N. human rights committee.

The statistics were compiled from the Vatican’s own annual reports about the activities of its various offices, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles sex abuse cases.

Although public, the annual reports are not readily available or sold outside Rome and are usually found in Vatican offices or Catholic university libraries.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

DAVID MURPHY

With their case completed, Crown prosecutors expect that Father Eric Dejaeger will take the stand in his own defence when his trial at the Nunavut Court of Justice building in Iqaluit resumes Monday, Jan. 20.

The Catholic priest is accused of sex crimes against Inuit children alleged to have occurred through the late 1970s and early 1980s in Igloolik.

“I’m only guessing what they’ll do. But as far as I know, they’re going to start calling evidence,” said Crown prosecutor Doug Curliss, adding he had been informed by defence lawyer Malcolm Kempt that Dejaeger would appear as a witness.

“The defence lawyer has told us he will. But that was what he told us back in December,” Curliss said.

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VATICAN CITY
WCF Courier

By NICOLE WINFIELD and JOHN HEILPRIN

A document obtained by The Associated Press on Friday shows Pope Benedict XVI defrocked nearly 400 priests over just two years for sexually molesting children.

The statistics for 2011 and 2012 show a dramatic increase over the 171 priests removed in 2008 and 2009, when the Vatican first provided details on the number of priests who have been defrocked. Prior to that, it had only publicly revealed the number of alleged cases of sexual abuse it had received and the number of trials it had authorized.

While it’s not clear why the numbers spiked in 2011, it could be because 2010 saw a new explosion in the number of cases reported in the media in Europe and beyond.

The document was prepared from data the Vatican had been collecting and was compiled to help the Holy See defend itself before a U.N. committee this week in Geneva.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva, referred to just one of the statistics in the course of eight hours of oftentimes pointed criticism and questioning from the U.N. human rights committee.

The statistics were compiled from the Vatican’s own annual reports about the activities of its various offices, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles sex abuse cases. Although public, the annual reports are not readily available or sold outside Rome and are usually found in Vatican offices or Catholic university libraries.

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MISSOURI
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A priest of the Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus ordained in 1974, Lehmkuhl worked as a high school teacher before earning a law degree in 1983 and establishing a legal aid center at St. Louis University. In 1995 he was caught ordering a child pornography video; investigators found him to be in posession of seven other such videos. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in May 1996 to one year in prison. Lehmkuhl returned to the Jesuit Community at St. Louis University, working as a hospital chaplain and eventually resuming his legal aid work. He died in March 9, 2012.

Ordained: 1974
Died:March 2012

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CALIFORNIA
National Catholic Reporter

Catholic News Service | Jan. 17, 2014

STOCKTON, CALIF. The decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection was difficult for the diocese of Stockton but will allow it to “compensate as fairly as possible” victims of abuse, “including those who have not yet come forward or had their day in court,” said Bishop Stephen Blaire.

Bankruptcy protection, filed Wednesday, also will “provide a way for us to continue the ministry and support we provide to the parishes, the poor and the communities located within our diocese,” he said in a statement Monday.

“After months of careful consideration and prayer,” Blaire said, it became clear to him it was the right course of action. “This decision was reached through consultation with experts in finance and law, as well as with priests, parishioners and many others in the community our diocese serves,” he added.

In the past 20 years, the Stockton diocese has paid more than $14 million in legal settlements for victims of clergy sexual abuse and the total amount of payments, including funds from insurers and others, amounts to $32 million.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

Updated: Friday, January 17 2014
By: WJAC Web Staff

EBENSBURG, Pa. — The Cambria County District Attorney announced Friday that the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office would be taking over the investigation into the alleged sexual abuse of students at a Cambria County high school.

District Attorney Kelly Callihan said the Attorney General’s Office, headed by Attorney General Kathleen Kane, accepted jurisdiction of the investigation of sex assault cases involving Brother Stephen Baker at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown.

Baker worked in several capacities, including with injured athletes, at Bishop McCort from 1992-2001. More than 80 former students, mostly men, have come forward accusing Baker of sexual abuse.

Baker committed suicide at a monastery in Blair County almost a year ago at age 62. He was a Franciscan friar of the Third Order Regular.

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CANADA
Ottawa Sun

KINGSTON – A local priest was convicted Friday of sexual assault involving a teenage boy 10 years ago.

Before a packed courtroom, Superior Court Justice Timothy Ray ruled Rene Paul Emile Labelle, 64, guilty of sexual assault, sexual exploitation and invitation to sexual exploitation, following four days of testimony.

Labelle had pleaded not guilty on all counts and, testified in his own defence on Wednesday, denying the allegations.

Labelle, who is now retired, surrendered his parish in the Brewers Mills area just prior to his arrest in January 2012, withdrawing as well from service as a priest-chaplain at Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School under the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board system.

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ILLINOIS
SW News Herald

By DERMOT CONNOLLY • Friday, January 17, 2014

A two-page letter from Cardinal Francis George entitled “Accountability and Transparency” regarding the archdiocese’s policy regarding priests accused or convicted of child sexual abuse in recent decades was included in Sunday bulletins at parishes across the archdiocese last weekend.

Representatives of groups such as SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) who saw the letter maintain that the cardinal is still withholding information, but according to many local pastors, the letter elicited little reaction from parishioners.

“I haven’t gotten any feedback. People have talked about it, but not in a negative way,” said the Rev. John Noga, pastor of St. Daniel the Prophet Church, 5330 S. Nashville Ave., Chicago.

“I guess people see it as somewhat old news. People are aware that the archdiocese has put in place safeguards to prevent abuse from happening in the future,” said Noga.

“Quite honestly, more people seem to be concerned with the announcement (made last week) that six Catholic elementary schools will have to close this year,” said the Rev. Michael J. Furlan, pastor of St. Germaine Church, 9735 S. Kolin Ave., Oak Lawn.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

There’s a wealth of outstanding commentary yesterday and today about the Vatican’s grilling by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. One way that you can keep abreast of the commentary is by visiting Kathy Shaw’s marvelous Abuse Tracker site sponsored by Bishop Accountability. Among the good articles I’ve read up to now:

Kris Ward, National Survivor Advocates Coalition, who responds to the claim of Bishop Charles Scicluna that the Vatican is “getting it” about child abuse:

Not only is “getting it” not an accomplishment, it’s not an “ah hah” moment, it’s not even Christianity.
Getting the rape and sodomy of children is basic humanity.
Raping and sodomizing children is criminal.
Luring children into situations where you can rape and sodomized them is criminal.
This is not a complex theological argument.

Barbara Dorris, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, asks what on earth Pope Francis imagined he was communicating when he chose to concelebrate Mass with Cardinal Roger Mahony on the very day of the UN hearing:

Pope Francis just rubbed salt into the wounds of LA clergy sex abuse victims and Catholics.
Maybe more than any of his predecessors, Pope Francis is keenly aware that images and gestures matter. So why did he concelebrate mass and privately meet with America’s least deserving and most polarizing retired Catholic official – Cardinal Roger Mahony, on whose watch hundreds of children were raped, sodomized, fondled and assaulted by hundreds of priests, nuns, brothers, seminarians and other Catholic employees, many of whom were deliberately and repeatedly moved and protected by Mahony and his top aides?

Anthea Butler, Religion Dispatches: after noting that Pope Francis may have made a “misstep” in concelebrating Mass with Mahony, Anthea notes, as I did yesterday, the weakness of the Vatican argument that it has no control over the actions of bishops and dioceses around the world:

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CANADA
Sun News

12:16 pm, January 17th, 2014

QMI AGENCY

KINGSTON, Ont. — A local priest was convicted Friday of sexual assault involving a teenage boy 10 years ago.

Before a packed courtroom, Superior Court Justice Timothy Ray ruled Rene Paul Emile Labelle, 64, guilty of sexual assault, sexual exploitation and invitation to sexual touching, following four days of testimony.

Labelle had pleaded not guilty on all counts and testified in his own defence on Wednesday, denying the allegations.

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RUSSIA/ISRAEL
Interfax

Moscow, January 17, Interfax – St. Petersburg priest Gleb Grozovsky, who has been accused of pedophilia and who is currently in Israel, could be deported to Russia, sources familiar with the situation told Interfax.

“Israel has said unofficially it was ready to deport the fugitive priest without resorting to the extradition procedure,” a source told.

According to the source, the reason for Grozovsky’s deportation will most likely be lack of legal grounds for his further stay in Israel.

The Orthodox priest accused of sexually assaulting minors is counting on getting Israeli citizenship in order to avoid being extradited to Russia, another source said.

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GENEVA
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Jan. 17, 2014 All Things Catholic

Geneva was the setting for a riveting bit of theater Thursday as two Vatican heavyweights sat before a panel of independent experts who compose the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of the Child to field tough questions about the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic church for more than a decade.

The U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted in 1989, and the committee has held regular hearings since 1991 to monitor implementation in the 193 counties that have ratified it. In that sense, there was nothing exceptional about Thursday’s session, since the Holy See is just one more signatory nation. Yet the fact that this was the first time senior Vatican personnel have appeared in full public view (the session was webcast around the world) to talk about the abuse scandals in a venue where they couldn’t set the tone or control the conversation made it undeniably fascinating.

Heading into the event, anyone familiar with the Vatican’s history of occasionally tone-deaf commentary on the abuse crisis had to be holding their breath. If nothing else, Thursday seemed to demonstrate that they’ve learned something.

Rome dispatched two figures well suited to engage criticism: Italian Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, a career diplomat who represents the Vatican to the U.N. in Geneva, and Maltese Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s former top prosecutor on abuse cases who is widely seen as a leading voice for reform. (It was Scicluna who provided the day’s sound bite by insisting that the Vatican now “gets it.”)

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GENF
News@ORF

Mitglieder des UNO-Kinderrechtskomitees (CRC) haben den Vatikan wegen mangelnder Transparenz im Umgang mit dem sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern durch katholische Geistliche scharf kritisiert. Am Donnerstag stellte sich der Vatikan erstmals den Fragen des CRC in Genf. Dabei ging es u. a. um die unzähligen Missbrauchsskandale in der Kirche und Maßnahmen, um Kinder besser zu schützen.

Der Kirchenstaat weigere sich nach wie vor, die von der UNO geforderten genauen Angaben zum Umfang des Skandals und zu den Tätern zu machen, bemängelte das CRC. Die Expertin Sara de Jesus Oviedo Fierro verlangte, dass der Vatikan mehr Informationen über die getroffenen Maßnahmen zur Prävention von Kindesmissbrauch herausgebe. „Welche Änderungen beim Verhaltenskodex wurden getroffen, um sexuellen Missbrauch zu verhindern? Welche Strafen wurden gegen Priester verhängt, deren Verhalten unangemessen war?“, fragte Oviedo Fierro.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Augsburger Allgemeine

[Summary: Actor Michael Lerchenberg has spoken out for the first time about how he was sexually abused while a student at a Catholic boarding school in Augsburg.]

Der Schauspieler Michael Lerchenberg spricht zu ersten Mal öffentlich darüber, dass er als Schüler in einem katholischen Augsburger Internat sexuellen Übergriffen ausgesetzt war. Von Rüdiger Heinze

Michael Lerchenberg, der bayerische Schauspieler, Regisseur und Intendant, hat gegenüber unserer Zeitung erstmals öffentlich seine Erlebnisse im ehemaligen Internat des Augsburger Gymnasiums St. Stephan geschildert – und damit jene Vorwürfe und Anklagen erweitert, die vor einem dreiviertel Jahr der Komponist Wilfried Hiller in unserer Zeitung erstmals geäußert hatte: sexuelle Übergriffe, psychische Erniedrigungen sowie schwere Züchtigungen….

Michael Lerchenberg klagt an: Sexuelle Übergriffe im Internat – weiter lesen auf Augsburger-Allgemeine: http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/bayern/Michael-Lerchenberg-klagt-an-Sexuelle-Uebergriffe-im-Internat-id28460082.html

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DEUTCHLAND
Augsburger Allgemeine

[Summary: Wilfried Hiller, Munich-based composer, has said that he was sexually abused by two Benedictine fathers from St. Stephen boarding school in the mid-1950s.]

In einem Interview unserer Zeitung spricht Wilfried Hiller erstmals öffentlich von mehrfachem sexuellen Missbrauch sowie von schwerer körperlicher Züchtigung Mitte der fünfziger Jahre, als er Schüler der Institution war. Erst heute, nahezu 60 Jahre nach den Vorfällen, könne er offen darüber sprechen, weil er sie – auch künstlerisch – verarbeitet habe. Die Namen der beiden bereits verstorbenen Beschuldigten sind unserer Redaktion bekannt.

Mit den Vorwürfen Hillers konfrontiert, erklärte der Abt von St. Stephan, Theodor Hausmann: „Wir werden uns dem stellen. Das sind wir Wilfried Hiller, dem Gymnasium und dem Kloster schuldig.“ Im Falle des von Hiller wegen schwerer körperlicher Züchtigung beschuldigten ehemaligen Seminardirektors habe er, Abt Theodor, bereits in der Vergangenheit zweimal Vorwürfe der schweren Züchtigung sowie körperlicher Grenzüberschreitung entgegennehmen müssen. In einem Fall sei aufgrund der Glaubwürdigkeit der Darstellung sowie als Zeichen des Respekts vor dem Opfer eine freiwillige Entschädigungssumme von 5000 Euro nach den Richtlinien der Bischofskonferenz geflossen. Eine Wiedergutmachung könne dies freilich nicht darstellen.
…
Komponist: Ich wurde im Internat St. Stephan missbraucht – weiter lesen auf Augsburger-Allgemeine: http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/augsburg/Komponist-Ich-wurde-im-Internat-St-Stephan-missbraucht-id24740526.html

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UNITED STATES
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | Jan 17, 2014

“The Holy See gets it,” said Msgr. Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s former sex crimes prosecutor, in testimony yesterday before the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva. I’m not so sure.

In the Middle Ages, it would have been a big step forward for church officials to allow that clergy are subject to the criminal laws of the countries in which they reside. By the standards of today, it was an evasion for Scicluna to testify that civil courts are responsible for handling crimes by priests. When a priest is shown to be an abuser of children, the Church assumes the responsibility of taking him out of circulation, and if defrocking is required, that’s in the Vatican’s own hands. These ecclesiastical processes are themselves critical to protecting children.

So also is disciplining bishops who cover up abuse cases. And that’s what the Vatican has never yet admitted by word or deed.

After his testimony, Scicluna was questioned on that score by Vatican Insider’s Gerard O’Connell:

Q. The Committee raised many tough questions in today’s session. You were asked: given the ‘zero tolerance’ policy why were there efforts to ‘cover up’ and obscure cases of the abuse of minors by clergy?

A. I think that ‘cover-up’, meaning the obstruction of justice, has to be addressed by the domestic laws of the countries where it happens. It is not the policy of the Holy See. And to the extent that it is a crime in the sovereign territories of the different countries it should be prosecuted, irrespective of whoever is guilty of the crime of the obstruction of justice.

…
Q. What about the accountability of bishops? I mean what happens to bishops who fail to protect children, or cover up? Failure here has been one of the problems highlighted by many victims and their organizations.

A. Bishops are accountable to God and to their local churches, and I think it has to be very clear under this policy of the Holy See that child protection is an integral part of pastoral stewardship.

And bishops aren’t also accountable to Rome? Given the Vatican’s readiness to punish them for doctrinal, fiscal, and indeed personal sexual misbehavior, the answer is obvious.

Meanwhile, in Vatican City Pope Francis was celebrating Mass with retired Los Angeles archbishop Cardinal Roger Mahony, second to non, not even Bernard Law, in the covering up of abuse scandals. Yes, the pope did use his homily to address the issue of the day: “But are we ashamed? So many scandals that I do not want to mention them individually, but we all know about them…But are we really all ashamed of those scandals, of those defeats of priests, bishops, laity?”

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

McKinsey, Promontory, Ernst & Young, KPMG. From the Vatican the race is on to sign up the most prestigious and expensive consulting companies in the world. At what price is not known

by Sandro Magister

ROME, January 17, 2014 – It may be “poor and for the poor,” the Church dreamed of by Pope Francis. Meanwhile, however, the Vatican is becoming the cash cow of the most exclusive and expensive firms in the world of management and financial systems.

The latest one signed up is the legendary McKinsey & Company, with the task of coming up with “an integrated plan for making the organization of the Holy See’s means of communication more functional, effective, and modern.” Enough to sow panic in the ranks, which at the Vatican recently have not diminished but expanded, in a crescendo of confusion.

To Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the press office and the official spokesman, has been added a “senior communications adviser” in the person of the American journalist Greg Burke, a member of Opus Dei, with an office in the secretariat of state.

Not to mention the two press agents that the president of the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), Ernst von Freyberg, brought to Rome last spring from his native Germany, Max Hohenberg and Markus Wieser, both of Communications & Network Consulting.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Eckiger Tisch

[Summary: The church court verdict against Peter Riedel, a former Jesuit and youth work director at Canisius College, was not for the 100 cases of sexual abuse attributed to him but because of one single cases during his time as a parish priest in the Hildesheim diocese.]

Gegen Peter Riedel, den ehemaligen Jesuiten und Leiter der Jugend­arbeit am Canisius-Kolleg von 1971 bis 1982 wurde nach Presseberichten durch das sog. „Kirchengericht“ des Erzbistums Berlin ein Urteil gefällt – aber nicht wegen des vielfachen Missbrauch von Jungen in dieser Zeit – Schätzungen gehen von über 100 Fällen aus, gemeldet haben sich ab 2010 etwa 60 Betroffene – sondern wegen eines einzelnen Falles aus seiner Zeit als Gemeindepfarrer im Bistum Hildesheim. Dorthin wurde Riedel 1982 „entsorgt“, nachdem Jugend­liche in einem Brief an den Orden auf ihre Not aufmerksam gemacht hatten.

Im Bistum Hildesheim betreute Riedel nacheinander Gemeinden in Göttingen, Hildesheim und Hannover. Nach erneuten Missbrauchs­vorwürfen auch dort verließ er den Jesitenorden und wurde schließlich 2004 in Ehren pensioniert.

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GENF
DRadio Wissen

Der Vatikan weigert sich immer noch, der UNO genaue Angaben zu Kindesmissbrauchsfällen zu machen.

Das hat das Komitee für die Rechte des Kindes bei einer ersten öffentlichen Anhörung zu dem Thema erklärt. Dabei warfen UNO-Mitglieder dem Vatikan vor, er wage es immer noch nicht, sexuellen Missbrauch durch Geistliche der katholischen Kirche vollständig und öffentlich aufzuklären.

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OSTERREICH
Steirmark.ORF

[Summary: A dispute between Admont Abbey, two priests and a former pupil goes on. The pupil wanted to sue for damages from abuse but had failed in court but his appeal has been upheld.]

Der Rechtsstreit zwischen dem Stift Admont, zwei Patres und einem ehemaligen Zögling geht weiter. Der Zögling wollte wegen Missbrauchs auf Schadenersatz klagen, war jedoch damit gescheitert. Jetzt wurde seiner Berufung stattgegeben.

Der bisherige Hauptstreitpunkt drehte sich darum, dass die Beteiligten unterschiedlicher Meinung darüber sind, wer für den Missbrauch des Mannes in den 1960er Jahren zur Verantwortung zu ziehen ist. Denn dass der heute 59-Jährige tatsächlich gewalttätig behandelt worden war, anerkannte die Klasnic-Kommission bereits im Jänner 2013 und sprach dem Opfer 25.000 Euro und 100 Therapiestunden zu.

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SCHWEIZ
Kipa

[Summary: The state must compel actions by the church to help victims of sexual abuse, according to Jacque Nuoffer, a psychologist who heads a new victim support group.]

Von Josef Bossart / Kipa

Zürich, 16.1.14 (Kipa) Damit die Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs durch Kirchenleute endlich zu ihrem Recht kommen, muss der Staat die Kirche zum Handeln zwingen. Dies betont im Kipa-Interview Jacques Nuoffer, Psychologe und Präsident des Westschweizer Vereins Sapec, der Missbrauchsopfer unterstützt. – Nuoffer, in jungen Jahren selber Missbrauchsopfer, ist von der Schweizer Bischofskonferenz (SBK) im Dezember zum Mitglied des SBK-Fachgremiums «Sexuelle Übergriffe in der Pastoral» ernannt worden.

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NEW ZEALAND
3 News

By Thomas Mead
Online Reporter

A decision over whether former Catholic Brother Bernard McGrath will be extradited to Australia to face historical sex abuse charges has been delayed yet again.

McGrath, 65, is wanted in Australia on 252 charges against boys and young adults. It is alleged he raped, abused and molested his victims over several decades while working for the church in New South Whales.

In the Christchurch District Court this morning, Judge Jane Farish ruled the decision should be considered by the Minister of Justice.

Judge Farish had ruled in favour of extradition in June last year, but a High Court appeal went in McGrath’s favour and she was ordered to reconsider.

McGrath has been released on bail while the Minister considers the case.

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NEW ZEALAND
ABC News (Australia)

New Zealand’s justice minister will decide whether former Catholic brother Bernard Kevin McGrath will be extradited to Australia to face 252 charges of child sexual abuse.

In the Christchurch District Court today, Judge Jane Farish said she would refer the matter to Judith Collins because of “compelling and extraordinary circumstances”.

The full reasons for her decision will be made available on Monday.

In April last year, Judge Farish ruled McGrath, 66, could be extradited, but on appeal, the High Court ruled the judge should further consider whether to refer the case to the justice minister.

New South Wales police allege McGrath abused 35 boys during the late 1970s and mid-80s.

Further details about McGrath’s alleged offending and his image remain suppressed.

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NEW ZEALAND
NEWS.com.au

NEW Zealand Justice Minister Judith Collins will decide if a former Catholic brother will be sent to Australia to face hundreds of child sex charges.

Bernard Kevin McGrath, 65, faces 252 child sex charges in Australia, and the Australian government is seeking to extradite him.

Judge Jane Farish had agreed to his extradition, but after an appeal to the High Court she was ordered to consider whether the case should be reviewed by Ms Collins.

In her reserved decision on Friday she said the extradition request would go to the minister for consideration.

McGrath is on bail.

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NEW ZELAND
TVNZ

A former Catholic brother facing child more than 250 sex charges will have his case heard by the Justice Minister to decide whether he will be extradited to Australia.

The Australian government is seeking to extradite Bernard Kevin McGrath, 66, to face 252 child sex charges.

Judge Jane Farish said in the Christchurch District Court today that the matter was to be referred to Judith Collins due to “compelling and extraordinary circumstances”.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

By Brendan Manning
Friday Jan 17, 2014

A decision whether to extradite a former Catholic brother facing sex charges in Australia has been referred to the Minister of Justice.

Australia has been trying to extradite Bernard Kevin McGrath, 66, from New Zealand to face 252 child sex abuse charges.

Early last year Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish ruled McGrath should stand trial across the Tasman.

However, her decision was appealed to the High Court at Christchurch, which then referred the case back to Judge Farish, ruling that she needed to again look at whether the case should be referred to the Minister of Justice for a final decision on McGrath’s extradition.

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NEW ZEALAND
Radio Australia

NZ justice minister to rule on extradition of Bernard Kevin McGrath to face child sex abuse charges

New Zealand’s justice minister will decide whether former Catholic brother Bernard Kevin McGrath will be extradited to Australia to face 252 charges of child sexual abuse.

In the Christchurch District Court today, Judge Jane Farish said she would refer the matter to Judith Collins because of “compelling and extraordinary circumstances”.

The full reasons for her decision will be made available on Monday.

In April last year, Judge Farish ruled McGrath, 66, could be extradited, but on appeal, the High Court ruled the judge should further consider whether to refer the case to the justice minister.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

EDITORIAL

“The Holy See gets it,” Msgr. Charles Scicluna, declared before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child at a meeting in Geneva, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Link to the full news story:

[Los Angeles Times]

“Getting it” is not an accomplishment.

Getting rid of it is.

Not only is “getting it” not an accomplishment, it’s not an “ah hah” moment, it’s not even Christianity.

Getting the rape and sodomy of children is basic humanity.

Raping and sodomizing children is criminal.

Luring children into situations where you can rape and sodomized them is criminal.

This is not a complex theological argument.

Getting it is when Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, MO packs a moving van after being removed from his office.

Getting it is extraditing a Polish archbishop to Poland to answer Polish authorities’ questions about being a sexually abusive priest/archbishop — one who is being investigated in the Dominican Republic and Poland. Getting it is not saying you will deal with the matter with your own courts.

Getting it is releasing the documents. They are the place where the truth lives.

Removing Finn, extraditing Weslowski, releasing the truth doesn’t take commissions, papal or otherwise.

They take a Pope.

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CALIFORNIA
The Record

By The Record
January 16, 2014

STOCKTON — Tim Lennon, regional director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, came Thursday to Stockton with a three-pronged message.

He used the bankruptcy filing of the Catholic Diocese of Stockton to deliver it. Standing in front of the diocese office, he said:

“I will do anything to bring awareness to the issues of child sexual abuse. Victims ought to step forward. They need to know they are not alone.”

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GENEVA
International Business Times

By LYDIA SMITH | January 17, 2014

The Vatican has been heavily criticised at a UN hearing in Geneva for covering up sexual abuse against children and failing to protect them from paedophile priests.

It was denounced for its handling of the worldwide priest sex abuse scandal, which the UN said “was not very transparent”.

Kirsten Sandberg, the chairwoman of the committee, said: “The view of committee is that the best way to prevent abuses is to reveal old ones – openness instead of sweeping offences under the carpet.

“It seems to date your procedures are not very transparent.”

Since headlines emerged exposing the alleged sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, the Vatican has insisted it is not responsible. It claimed the abusers were not employees of the Vatican, but members of the broader Catholic Church over which it has limited control.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JAMIE WALKER THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 18, 2014

“LEGALISTIC and cumbersome” processes in the Anglican Church allow pedophile priests to escape punishment if they retire or hand in their licence to practice, the national child sex abuse inquiry is set to report. The royal commission’s counsel assisting, Simeon Beckett, has served notice of explosive findings that the NSW Anglican diocese of Grafton’s handling of compensation claims by abused residents of a children’s home compounded their hurt rather than eased it.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

ANNETTE BLACKWELL AAP JANUARY 17, 2014

THE questioning of the Catholic Church by the UN child rights watchdog has been hailed as historic by an Australian abuse victims’ support organisation.

Nicky Davis, the spokeswoman for the Australian branch of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s spotlight on the Vatican could be seen as vindication for those who had suffered abuse.

“Survivors should feel vindicated that for once their experience has not been ignored, for once they have not been abandoned, and finally this abusive institution has been revealed, without all the usual smoke and mirrors, in its true colours,” Ms Davis said.

On Thursday in Geneva the UN committee grilled a delegation from the Holy See for six hours on the Church’s lack of transparency and its failures to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Ipswich Advertiser

A TOOWOOMBA school will be the focus of the first public meeting held outside of Sydney by the Royal Commission Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The purpose of the hearing will be to inquire into the response by the Catholic Education Office, of the Diocese of Toowoomba in Queensland, to allegations of child sexual abuse at St Saviour’s Primary School.

Held from February 17, the public hearing – the sixth since the Royal Commission was established – is scheduled to run for two weeks.

Royal Commission CEO, Ms Janette Dines, says the scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

The response by the principal and other members of staff at St Saviour’s Primary School in Toowoomba, Queensland, to allegations of child sexual abuse made against a teacher at the primary school in September 2007.

The response by officers of the Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Toowoomba, to information supplied by the primary school Principal at St Saviour’s Primary School regarding the allegations of child sexual abuse received in September 2007.

The adequacy and implementation of systems, policies and procedures of the Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Toowoomba, and St Saviour’s Primary School for the prevention, detection, investigation and reporting of allegations of child sexual abuse since 2007.

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GENEVA
New York Times – The Lede

By JENNIFER PRESTON

The Vatican’s former top sex crimes prosecutor told a United Nations committee on Thursday that “the Holy See gets it” when he was sharply questioned about the Roman Catholic Church’s slow response to handling cases involving clergy members’ sexual abuse of children.

In the toughest public questioning of Vatican officials on the abuse scandal to date, members of the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of the Child, meeting in Geneva, grilled top Vatican officials about why priests with a history of abuse were moved around to different parishes, and in one case to the Vatican, instead of being aggressively investigated.

The United Nations meeting came a day after the Archdiocese of Chicago turned over thousands of pages of documents to lawyers for sexual abuse victims, as part of a legal settlement. The documents, including personnel files, are expected to identify 30 former clergy members accused of abusing children, and the church officials who helped protect the accused priests. Those people are expected to be publicly identified next week.

“I want to offer apologies to all victims affected by these sins and crimes,” Bishop Francis Kane said during a news conference as described in this video report from Chicago’s WGN.

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GENEVA
Irish Independent

MICHAEL DAY – 17 JANUARY 2014

The United Nations has lambasted the Vatican for failing to protect children from paedophile priests.

As the Holy See basks in the favourable PR provided by Pope Francis, yesterday’s inquisition by investigators in Geneva reminded the world of the global scandal that rocked the Catholic Church, and the questions it has yet to answer.

The UN committee’s main human rights investigator, Sara Oviedo, pressed the Vatican on the frequency with which abusive priests have been moved to different areas rather than turned over to police. Given the church’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy, she asked, why were there “efforts to cover up and obscure these types of cases”?

Panel member Hiranthi Wijemanne asked Vatican representatives: “Why is there no mandatory reporting to a country’s judicial authorities when crimes occur? Taking actions against perpetrators is part of justice.”

COVER-UPS

Monsignor Charles Scicluna the Vatican’s former chief sex crimes prosecutor, denied the Holy See encouraged cover-ups: “Our guideline has always been that domestic law of the countries where the churches operate needs to be followed.”

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GENEVA
Key 103 (UK)

The Vatican has been quizzed for the first time over its handling of the global priest sex abuse scandal.

At a UN hearing in Geneva, officials were asked a series of questions about why they would not release data and how they planned to prevent future abuse.

Kirsten Sandberg, chairwoman of the 18-strong committee, told the Vatican delegation: “The view of committee is that the best way to prevent abuses is to reveal old ones – openness instead of sweeping offences under the carpet.

“It seems to date your procedures are not very transparent.”

The Vatican has long insisted it is not responsible for abusive priests, claiming they are not employees of the Vatican but members of the broader Catholic Church which it exercises limited control over. …

A member of the committee asked about the Church’s practice of moving priests suspected of abuse.

The Archbishop replied: “It is a no-go simply to move people from one diocese to another.”

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GENEVA
Wall Street Journal

U.N. Panel Grills Vatican on Sex-Abuse Cases

By LIAM MOLONEY
Jan. 16, 2014

ROME—Vatican officials told a United Nations panel Thursday that Roman Catholic Church leaders need to do more to grapple with cases of sex abuse by clergy but reiterated that the church has limited jurisdiction in tackling the problem.

In one of the church’s most public grillings for its handling of sex- abuse scandals around the world, Vatican officials faced hours of tough questions in Geneva from a committee on its implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which calls for signatories to take measures to protect children. The Holy See signed on to the convention in 1990.

“The Holy See gets it—I don’t want to say, finally—that certain things have to be done differently,” said Bishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s sexual-crime prosecutor for 10 years until 2012. “It isn’t the policy of the Holy See to cover up.”

Still, Vatican officials added that the church has little legal basis to punish clergy and other church members for sexual abuse. “[Priests] are citizens of their own states and fall under the jurisdiction of their own country,” said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi at the session that was broadcast live on the Internet.

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GINEBRA
El National

[The Vatican at the UN today dodged providing detailed information on issues relating to sexual abuse of minors by clergy in a rhetorical exercise in which it attempts to demonstrate determination to prevent new offenses.]

El Vaticano esquivó hoy en la ONU ofrecer información detallada sobre aspectos relacionados con los casos de abuso sexual de menores por parte de miembros del clero, en un ejercicio retórico mediante el cual intentó demostrar su determinación de prevenir nuevos delitos de este tipo.

“Todo este problema de abusos contra menores es una herida que daña a la Iglesia y a la comunidad de la fe”, reconoció monseñor Silvano Tomasi, representante de la Santa Sede ante Naciones Unidas en Ginebra, en la primera comparecencia internacional de altos miembros de la jerarquía católica sobre casos de pederastia.

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GINEBRA
El Pais (Espana)

[“The Vatican still does not take responsibility for sexual abuse”]

El sabor que deja la comparecencia de la Santa Sede ante Naciones Unidas es agridulce para las víctimas de abusos sexuales por parte de religiosos. Los afectados celebran el carácter histórico de la cita, en la que por primera vez el Vaticano fue cuestionado por un organismo internacional sobre los casos de pederastia en el seno de la Iglesia, pero critican las respuestas “ambiguas y evasivas” del representante de Roma en Ginebra, monseñor Silvano Tomasi. El Vaticano ha reconocido este jueves que “hay abusadores entre los miembros del clero”, pero “sigue sin asumir su responsabilidad como institución, que es la gran cuenta pendiente con las víctimas”, dice al teléfono el exsacerdote mexicano Alberto Athié una vez terminada la comparecencia.

Desde primera hora de la mañana, miembros de organizaciones de víctimas de abusos de todo el mundo trataron de caldear el ambiente con una protesta a las puertas de la sede del Comité de los Derechos del Niño de la ONU en Ginebra, pero la policía impidió cualquier tipo de manifestación. “Sacamos pancartas con algunas fotos de víctimas, pero la protesta no duró más de cinco minutos. Solo pedimos justicia y que se detenga el encubrimiento de los casos de pederastia”, explica Fátima Moneta, miembro de la organización mexicana Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir.

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GINEBRA
Pagina 12 (Argentina)

El representante del Vaticano ante las Naciones Unidas se presentó en el comité de la ONU sobre los Derechos del Niño y admitió que “no hay justificación” por los casos de abusos sexuales contra niños y adolescentes. Las autoridades de la comisión exigieron que la iglesia católica sea más transparente respecto a los casos que involucran a sus clérigos y que se impongan castigos justos.

“Se encuentran abusadores entre los miembros de las profesiones más respetadas del mundo y, más lamentablemente, incluso entre miembros del clero y otro personal de la iglesia”, dijo monseñor Silvano Tomasi en Ginebra. El representante vaticano en la ONU expuso ante el comité de la ONU sobre los Derechos del Niño, constituyendo la primera vez que la jerarquía de la iglesia católica participa en un debate público referido a los abusos sexuales contra menores cometidos por sacerdotes en todo el mundo.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

************** “Oh what a tangled web we weave, **************
*************** When first we practise to deceive!” *************

Sir Walter Scott’s apt words clearly applied today. The Vatican vainly sought, seemingly inconsistently in Geneva and Rome, to preserve Pope Francis’ fragile credibility on curtailing priest child abuse. As a religious emperor primarily, and not some mere “pastoral parish priest creation” of his PR handlers, Francis’ credibility here is critical. It is an essential prerequisite for Francis’ establishing credibility on all other key Vatican challenges.

To date, a surprisingly docile media have often been slow to realize that Pope Francis’ tunes on critical issues like child abuse, women’s equality, contraception, divorced Catholics and gay marriage remain quite similar to his failed predecessors’, even if the new pope’s public relations’ tone differs.

As the Francis’ honeymoon period winds down, the fundamental question for Catholics arises ever sharply— how “good” can the new pope really be, if he would shelter child predators and their complicit bishops much like his shameful predecessors did? How Good is a Shepherd who does not effectively protect the youngest lambs among the sheep, especially when Jesus clearly mandated the need to ptotect children?

Francis’ subordinates in Geneva today often desperately evaded UN representatives’ questions, even trying to divert some blame to the Irish government and to downplay the current Vatican protection being afforded to an alleged child abusing Polish Archbishop who, under Pope Francis, fled prosecutors’ clutches in the Dominican Republic last August.

At the same time, Francis met today in Rome with Los Angeles’ Cardinal Mahony, the USA’s most unaccountable hierarch for priest abuse cover-ups. According to Mahony’s own blog, Francis’ principal concern today was not the abuse scandal. Rather, Francis’ main focus apparently was on US Latinos, a group that had long viewed Mahony as “the Man”. Meanwhile, Mahony’s former Diocese of Stockton yesterday filed for bankruptcy, after paying $3.75 million less than a year ago to a single abuse survivor, seemingly to avoid Mahony’s having to testify.

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MEXICO
Solar News (Philippines)

Mexico City, Mexico (Reuters) – Mexican Catholics welcomed questioning of the Vatican by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on Thursday, Jan. 16 (Friday, Jan. 17, in the Philippines), hoping it will spur greater accountability and prosecutions of priests found to have committed acts of abuse.

Representatives from the Holy See are being publicly questioned for the first time by an international panel at the Palais Wilson in Geneva over the child abuse scandal which severely damaged the standing of the Roman Catholic Church around the world. The UN panel will assess the Church’s adherence to the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty guaranteeing a full range of human rights for children, which the Holy See has signed.

The local “Catholics for the Right to Decide” organization in Mexico City, a group of faithful who are pushing for justice within the church, said the questioning is a historic moment for the Vatican.

“In my opinion, today’s hearing is very important in the history of the Catholic Church. It’s about the accountability of the Vatican regarding the crimes of pedophilia. In this respect, we also hope that it will be important the report on the rights of the child because they seem to have been very thorough in their questioning. However, we regret that the Holy See continues to have ambiguous answers,” said organization official, Aide Garcia.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

Post by ANTHEA BUTLER

In his ongoing PR mission to rehabilitate the Catholic Church’s image, Pope Francis may have taken a misstep. Today the Pope concelebrated mass with Cardinal Roger Mahony (who cheerfully blogged about it here) on the same day that the United Nations Committee on Convention of the Rights of the Child heard over eight hours of testimony from the Vatican on the ongoing sexual abuse scandal.

Interestingly enough, in the homily from that concelebrated mass, Pope Francis commented, “Scandals in the Church happen because there is no living relationship between God and His word. Thus, corrupt priests, instead of giving the bread of life, give a poisoned meal to the people of god.” No kidding.

For years the Cardinal’s malfeasance handed the people in my former parish of St. Agatha’s in West Los Angeles a poisoned meal, when young girls were molested there during the 1970s. Mahony, who swept much of the Los Angeles abuse scandal under the rug for his own agenda, is exactly the kind of cleric Pope Francis berated in his homily today.

And yet, as Cardinal Mahony reported in his blog, when he talked privately with the pontiff after the Mass, the topic of scandal did not come up—even though Mahony presided over the largest payout to abuse survivors in the Unites States, (660 million, plus a 10 million dollar civil suit). “Most of our conversation focused on the plight of migrants, immigrants, and refugees around the world,” Mahony says.

The same morning of the mass, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi and Vatican representatives were being grilled in Geneva on releasing records relating to sexual abuse around the world. Specific instances on which the commission repeatedly hammered the Vatican representatives included children missing from the Magdalene laundry scandal in Ireland, the issue of corporal punishment of children, and the excommunication of a nine-year-old girl for having an abortion because she was pregnant by her stepfather.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes&Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Updated January 16, 2014

Today, the Vatican slyly spat at the UN’s face as the well-staged Vatican delegation led by Italian Archbishop Tomasi preached deceitfully “on the Holy See’s commitment to protecting children” when the historical facts are already established that John Paul II for 27 years did nothing to protect children, Cardinal RATzinger and Cardinal Bernard Law and Cardinal Mahony, name it, the whole Vatican princely Merlin hooligans did nothing to protect children from bestial JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army in the latter half of the 20th century,

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GENEVA
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

The Holy See appeared to emerge with a clean bill of health from a hearing of the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child in Geneva yesterday.

The 5½-hour session ended with a deal of mutual back slapping as one UN delegate expressed satisfaction about a “positive dialogue”, while another said that the Vatican’s presentation indicated that “new steps” were being taken, steps which represented a “new era, a new dawn for the Holy See”.

The Holy See was not on trial yesterday. Rather the Vatican, like all other countries which have signed up to the 1989 Convention for the Rights of the Child, had been asked to report on just how it implements that Convention.

Obviously, in the case of the Vatican, this meant turning a potentially uncomfortable spotlight on the Catholic Church’s clerical sex abuse crisis.

High moral character

That the spotlight never actually became uncomfortable was a tribute both to the skill of the Vatican delegation and to the UN Committee’s modus operandi.

For example, the 18 independent experts – “persons of high moral character” – who make up the Committee were much too busy asking, not always relevant, questions to ever get answers.

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GENEVA
Kansas City Star

January 16
BY JOHN ZAROCOSTAS
McClatchy Foreign Staff

GENEVA — Senior Vatican officials came under a barrage of critical questions by an independent United Nations panel Thursday over the Roman Catholic Church’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse by members of the clergy in many countries.

It was the first time representatives of the Holy See had been asked in an international forum to provide testimony about the hundreds of cases that have been documented globally, including in the United States, Ireland, Australia, Mexico, and Spain.

The U.N. had jurisdiction to compel the Vatican to respond because the Vatican is one of 193 countries that have signed the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Holy See, which became a signatory in 1990, submitted an implementation report in 1994, but did not submit a progress report until 2012 — following mounting pressure from advocacy groups in the face of sexual abuse cases.

Monsignor Silvano Tomasi, who headed the Vatican delegation, argued that the church isn’t alone in harboring child abusers. “Abusers are found among members of the world’s most respected professions, most regrettably, including members of the clergy and other church personnel,” he said. But he also acknoweldged that abuse by priests was “particularly serious, since these persons are in positions of great trust.”

“Such crimes can never be justified, ” he said

But Tomasi provided no figures on how many cases of sexual abuse the church was aware of and how many times it had referred clergy to national authorities for prosecution — two key questions that members of the Committee on the Rights of the Child posed.

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GENEVA
Deutsche Welle

The Vatican on Thursday faced a grilling by a UN panel over its failure to implement a UN child protection convention and its handling of sex abuse scandals. DW spoke to John Allen from the National Catholic Reporter.

Envoys of the Holy See appeared for the first time before a UN committee to answer questions about child sex abuse cases in the Catholic Church on Thursday (16.01.2014). The hearing took place as part of a broader UN probe on the implementation of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, which the Holy See ratified in 1990. But it has refused to provide regular progress reports.

But the Vatican’s representatives made it clear that the Vatican is taking the handling of the sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church seriously. However, they reiterated that the Vatican’s options are limited, as it only has jurisdiction in Vatican City State.

DW: The Vatican still insists that its limited jurisdiction means it cannot sanction pedophile priests and bishops around the world. How does that chime in with its recent efforts to reform?

John Allen: It’s a double-edged sword for the Vatican. On the one hand, they want to argue that they’ve adopted tough new policies and are trying to promote reforms, which certainly sounds like the have responsibility for what happens in the Church around the world, on the other hand they want to, both for theological reasons and for practical legal reasons, keep themselves at arm’s length from taking direct responsibility for the conduct of priests on the ground.

In a sense, you could say they want it both ways: they want to take credit for tough new policies, but they don’t want to take responsibility for when those policies break down.

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IRELAND
PRI

[with audio]

“There is no excuse for any form of violence or exploitation of children,” said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi.

He’s the Vatican observer to UN and in an historic move, he testified on Thursday on behalf of the Vatican before the UN’s Committee of the Right of the Child in Geneva.

“Such crimes can never be justified, whether committed in the home, in schools, in community and sports programs, in religious organizations and structures,” said the archbishop.

Colm O’Gorman has been waiting more than 20-years to hear those words. He’s a survivor of childhood sex abuse by his local parish priest.

“It’s another moment hopefully towards the eventual ending of the Vatican’s impunity, for not just its failure to address the crimes of its priests, but the creation of a system to cover up those crimes,” said O’Gorman.

Still after these past 20 years of fighting and advocating for survivors of sexual abuse, this is only the beginning he says.

Colm O’Gorman grew up in Adamstown, a small town in Ireland. He was 14 when he first met Father Sean Fortune, who went on to sexually abuse him for years.

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KNTUCKY
14 News

Posted by Audra Levy

OWENSBORO, KY (WFIE) –
The Owensboro Police Department has wrapped up its investigation of possible inappropriate conduct between a priest and a minor.

OPD says the allegations against Father John Meredith were non-criminal in nature.

While there was possibly a violation of church policy, based upon the information provided; police say no law was violated.

They say the minor involved is now an adult and did not want to be interviewed by police.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

The Catholic Church was slammed at the U.N. on Thursday about how they have historically handled cases of sex abuse by priests, as a committee investigated their adherence to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires all signatories “to take all appropriate measures to keep children from harm.”

Pope Francis has addressed the sexual abuse issue as part of his Vatican reforms with the creation of a commission on abuse, and on Thursday morning he also denounced the problem in a blistering homily that spoke of the scandal and shame of the church.

Vatican Radio reported that he said:

But are we ashamed? So many scandals that I do not want to mention individually, but all of us know…We know where they are! Scandals, some who charged a lot of money…. The shame of the Church!

But are we all ashamed of those scandals, of those failings of priests, bishops, laity? Where was the Word of God in those scandals; where was the Word of God in those men and in those women? They did not have a relationship with God! They had a position in the Church, a position of power, even of comfort. But the Word of God, no! ‘But, I wear a medal,’ ‘I carry the Cross ‘ … Yes, just as those bore the Ark!

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GENEVE
KerkNet (Belgie)

GENEVE (KerkNet) – Het Vaticaan heeft donderdag op een hoorzitting van het Comité voor de Rechten van het Kind in Genève verklaard dat het justitie geen stokken in de wielen steekt in gerechtelijke onderzoeken naar seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen.

Mgr. Silvano Tomasi, de permanente vertegenwoordiger van de Heilige Stoel bij de VN, stelde dat de beschuldiging van slachtofferorganisaties dat de Heilige Stoel het onderzoek tegen schuldige priesters probeert te beïnvloeden elke grond mist.”De Heilige Stoel steunt het recht en de plicht van elk land om te oordelen over misdrijven tegen minderjarigen. De kritiek dat wij proberen tussen te komen in deze dossiers klopt niet. Integendeel, wij willen dat er volledige transparantie komt en dat justitie haar werk voortzet”, aldus de prelaat.

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GENEVE
NRC (Nederland)

[The Vatican today called before a session on the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and asked to explain how it has dealt with sexual abuse by priests.]

Een VN-commissie legde het Vaticaan vandaag het vuur aan de schenen over de manier waarop de katholieke kerk is omgegaan met het seksueel misbruik door priesters. Het is de eerste keer dat het Vaticaan door de VN op deze manier ter verantwoording wordt geroepen sinds het Vaticaan het Verdrag voor de Rechten van het Kind ondertekende in 1990.

De leden van de VN-kinderrechtencommissie beschuldigden in een hoorzitting vandaag het Vaticaan van een gebrek aan transparantie en vroegen om meer openheid van zaken, zo schrijft persbureau Reuters. De voorzitter van de achttien koppen tellende commissie, Kirsten Sandberg:

“In onze visie is de beste manier om misbruik te voorkomen, oude affaires openbaar te maken. Openheid in plaats van zaken onder het tapijt schuiven. Het lijkt erop dat uw procedures niet erg transparant zijn.”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

The United Nation’s Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child held a hearing today on the Holy See’s handling of sexual abuse. Commenting on it is Bill Donohue:

The U.N. Committee that was charged with probing the Holy See’s response to the sexual abuse of minors is composed of 18 “independent experts,” from as many nations. Some of the committee members who profess an interest in the rights of the child, such as Hiranthi Wijemanne of Sri Lanka, say that human rights should not extend to nascent human life; a child in the first trimester, she said in an interview, should not be considered a child.

Many of the “experts” on human rights come from nations that are known for oppression, not liberty. Just this week, the Pew Research Center released a report on religious oppression worldwide. Nations with “experts” on the U.N. panel that earned a “High” rating are Bahrain, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and Tunisia. Even worse are those nations that merited a “Very High” rating: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Malaysia.

Freedom House listed Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Ethiopia as among the most oppressive places on earth. Open Doors listed the same nations as the Pew study (save for Russia) in its top 50 nations known for persecuting Christians.

Female genital mutilation has not stopped in Egypt, a nation where more than 90 percent of women have been subjected to it. This same barbaric practice is going on today in Ethiopia. Ghana, which also has an “expert” on the panel, is now witnessing a spike in female cutting, despite a ban on it.

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MALTA
Vassallo Malta

The Maltese bishop, Charles Scicluna, former prosecutor at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of clergy who sexually abused minors, was part of the Holy See delegation that appeared before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva on January 16.

In this interview by telephone from Geneva, he spoke about the day-long session with the UN body that attracted so much interest internationally. He says it gave the Holy See an opportunity to respond to the Committee’s concerns regarding child abuse, to reaffirm its commitment to protect children and minors throughout the Catholic Church and all its institutions, and explain how it is doing so.

Q. Could you sum up how the meeting went?
A. It was a very interesting dialogue and the Committee had the opportunity to express its concerns and they are concerns that we share. And so I think it has been a very positive dialogue because the Holy See, as sovereign of Vatican City State and as central organ of government of the Catholic Church around the world, shares the high values of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee is very anxious to promote these values and we are on the same page. We had the opportunity, which was I think very important, to express our commitment with the teachings and the guidance of the recent Holy Fathers on the question of the sexual abuse of minors by clergy. And we are also very grateful for the input of the Committee; that input will also help the setting up the working of the Commission for the Protection of Minors announced by the Holy Father at the beginning of December.

Q. The Committee raised many tough questions in today’s session. You were asked: given the ‘zero tolerance’ policy why were there efforts to ‘cover up’ and obscure cases of the abuse of minors by clergy?
A. I think that ‘cover-up’, meaning the obstruction of justice, has to be addressed by the domestic laws of the countries where it happens. It is not the policy of the Holy See. And to the extent that it is a crime in the sovereign territories of the different countries it should be prosecuted, irrespective of whoever is guilty of the crime of the obstruction of justice.

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KENTUCKY
Tristate Homepage

Owensboro police say they will not file charges against Father John Meredith.

Meredith was the pastor at Blessed Mother Catholic Church in Owensboro. Several weeks ago members of the church received a letter from the Bishop saying Meredith had been temporarily suspended for inappropriate conduct with a minor. Police say they have looked into the incident and found the allegations were non-criminal in nature. However, they say the incident may have been a violation of church policy. Investigators also say the minor involved in the case is now an adult and did not wish to be interviewed by police, so the case is closed.

Neither the police nor the Catholic Diocese has said what the incident may have been, when it happened, or who may have been involved.

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KENTUCKY
Messenger-Inquirer

By James Mayse Messenger-Inquirer

The Owensboro Police Department has concluded its investigation of a priest who was suspended for “inappropriate conduct” with a minor, finding that the alleged conduct was not a criminal offense.

The Rev. John Meredith was placed on temporary suspension in December; at the time he was suspended, Meredith was on leave from Blessed Mother Catholic Church.

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GENEVE
De Standaard (Belgie)

Het kinderrechtencomité van de Verenigde Naties heeft vandaag de conclusies gepresenteerd van een onderzoek naar de Rechten van het Kind binnen de kerk. Daarbij zijn vertegenwoordigers van het Vaticaan ook ondervraagd over de manier waarop dossiers van kindermisbruik werden aangepakt. ”Het Vaticaan beseft dat er dingen moeten veranderen.’

Van 13 tot 31 januari is het Comité voor de Rechten van het kind van de Verenigde Naties bijeen in Genève. In het kader daarvan heeft het comité vandaag de conclusies bekendgemaakt van een onderzoek naar de manier waarop de kerk omgaat met die kinderrechten. Een deel van dat onderzoek handelt ook over de verschillende pedofilieschandalen waarmee het Vaticaan in zijn recente verleden te maken kreeg.

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GENEVA
Christian Science Monitor

By Nick Squires, Correspondent / January 16, 2014

ROME
Vatican officials came in for an unprecedented grilling today by a United Nations committee over the Catholic Church’s cover-up of decades of sexual abuse of children by clergy.

But despite familiar defenses from the Holy See concerning its role in child-abuse scandals, victims and their advocates are hopeful that the shame of being questioned in public could propel significant change within the church.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva posed charged, blunt questions to senior Vatican officials today, the first time that they had been called to defend their record on the rape of thousands of children by clergy in front of an international body. The Catholic Church ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 but failed to provide the required progress reports for more than a decade, with victims’ groups accusing the church hierarchy of fostering a culture of secrecy to hide abuse of children by priests, monks, and nuns in countries around the world, from Italy and Ireland to the US and Australia.

“Why is there no mandatory reporting to a country’s judicial authorities when crimes occur?” asked Hiranthi Wijemanne, a member of the committee. “Taking actions against perpetrators is part of justice.”

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GENEVA
The Globe and Mail (Canada)

JOHN HEILPRIN AND NICOLE WINFIELD
Geneva — The Associated Press
Published Thursday, Jan. 16 2014

The dressing down came in the unlikeliest of places, a stuffy United Nations conference room before an obscure human rights committee. After decades of fending off accusations that its policies and culture of secrecy had contributed to the global priest sex abuse scandal, the Vatican was called to account.

UN experts interrogated The Holy See for eight hours on Thursday about the scale of abuse and what it was doing to prevent it, marking the first time the Vatican had been forced to defend its record at length or in public.

It resembled a courtroom cross-examination, only no question was off-limits, dodging the answer wasn’t an option and the proceedings were webcast live.

The Vatican was compelled to appear before the committee as a signatory to the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child, which among other things calls for governments to take all adequate measures to protect children from harm and ensure their interests are placed above all else.

The Holy See was one of the first states to ratify the treaty in 1990, eager to contribute the church’s experience in caring for children in Catholic schools, hospitals, orphanages and refugee centres. The Holy See submitted a first implementation report in 1994, but didn’t provide progress reports for nearly two decades until 2012.

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GEVEVA
ABC News (Australia)

By Europe correspondent Mary Gearin, wires

The Vatican has told a United Nations panel assessing the Holy See’s adherence to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that it wants to be an example of global best practice when it comes to eliminating child sexual abuse by clergy or church personnel.

Vatican delegates at a historic hearing in Geneva also denied allegations of a cover-up, saying the church had set clear guidelines to protect children from predator Roman Catholic priests, whom Pope Francis has called “the shame of the church”.

In what is the first time the Vatican has been questioned publicly over the issue of child sex abuse in the church, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said there was never any justification for any form of violence or exploitation of children.

However, he maintained that the Holy See is only legally responsible for abuse inside Vatican City.

And he told the panel at the end of the daylong session that, “we will take your questions seriously but we are not in a position to answer now”.

Some victims’ advocates have been disappointed by the church’s response to questions by UN child protection experts, chiefly its insistence that it only has jurisdiction over the Holy See and is not responsible for crimes committed by priests worldwide.

Barbara Blaine, the president of the US-based Survivors’ Network Of Those Abused By Priests, said: “We know full well that they have jurisdiction over every bishop in the whole world, and what we want to see is the Vatican punish the bishops who cover up the sex crimes. And we want them to turn over the information they have about crimes to police.”

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GENEVA
CNN

[with video]

(CNN) — A senior Vatican official acknowledged Thursday there is “no excuse” for child sex abuse, as he and others were grilled by a U.N. committee about the Catholic Church’s handling of pedophile priests.

It’s the first time the Vatican has been forced to answer allegations so publicly that it enabled the sexual abuse of children by protecting such priests.

The committee questioned a handful of Vatican officials — including Monsignor Silvano Tomasi, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, and Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s former chief sex-crimes prosecutor — for several hours Thursday in Switzerland.

In his opening remarks, Tomasi said, “There is no excuse for any form of sexual violence or exploitation of children. Such crimes can never be justified, whether committed in the home, in schools, in community and sports programs, in religious organizations and structures. This is the longstanding policy of the Holy See.”

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WORCESTER (MA)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester

January 16, 2014, WORCESTER, MA — Following a complete audit of its financial accounting, the Diocese of Worcester has issued an online Financial Report and online and printed editions of the Annual Report on Financial Activities for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2013.

In his letter, the Most Reverend Robert J. McManus, S.T.D., Bishop of Worcester, wrote that “our financial reports demonstrate that we have been good stewards of the donations we have received either directly or through our parishes.” The online Financial Report showed an operating surplus of $122,418 after expenses totaling $24,750,617 for 2013 compared to a surplus of $109,804 the previous year on expenses totaling $26,037,091. Given the reduction of more than $1.28 million in expenses, the bishop’s letter noted that “the various departments in our central administration exercised tight fiscal controls in order to operate within their budgets.”

Bishop McManus wrote that “two significant areas of ongoing concern” are the need to service outstanding debt, which cost Central Administration $994,797, and Priests’ Retirement Care. Even with a subsidy of $865,000 from Partners in Charity, retirement programs for clergy operated at expenses over revenues by $715,325, down from the previous year’s difference of $1,113,125. The total expenses incurred were 2% lower than the previous year.

The Diocesan Expansion Fund, which provides “a safe and secure resource for parish and diocesan savings while meeting borrowing needs with competitive rates,” ended the year on a positive note at $215,700 after allowing for unrealized losses, down from $492,965 the previous year.

Partners in Charity revenue appearing in the report was raised in the 2012 campaign and was disbursed to 30 agencies, ministries, and programs. They included Catholic Charities, Grant-in-Aid for Catholic School Students, Haitian Apostolate Ministry, Seminarian Education, and Religious Education. In his letter Bishop McManus noted that the 2013 appeal raised $33,526 more than the previous year. “I am grateful for the commitment to our mission by over 17,825 households in our diocese, including 1,608 new households who participated through online giving and the 117 members of the St. Paul Society who donated a minimum of $5,000 each.”

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Bronislaus B. Kush TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
bkush@telegram.com

WORCESTER —The Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester yielded an operating surplus of $122,418 during last fiscal year, the chancery reported on Thursday.

Officials said that the financial numbers for the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31 reflect a trend, over the past several years, in which the local church’s overall financial ledger has come close to being balanced.

“In some of those years, we’ve had slight surpluses, in others slight losses,” said Vice Chancellor of Operations Raymond L Delisle.

The nearly balanced budget resulted from about $1.28 million worth of cuts in expenses across all departments and agencies. Chancery officials applauded the “tight financial controls” that managers have been using to keep costs down.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON JANUARY 16, 2014

Father Daniel L. Flaherty, SJ, 10th Provincial (1973-1979)

2014: Chicago Province, Chicago IL

http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Daniel-Flaherty/52745168

Flaherty had access to all of McGuire’s files as provincial (1973-1979). When he became provincial, concerns about McGuire’s activities in Europe had already been reported, and the priest had also been asked to leave Loyola Academy. Despite this, in 1976, McGuire received permission from Flaherty to teach at the University of San Francisco. Flaherty also lived at Canisius House in Chicago with McGuire after the latter’s 1993 evaluation at St. Luke’s Institute in Suitland MD and his 1993-1994 treatment at St. John Vianney Hospital in Downingtown PA. Flaherty was supposed to be a member of his support team at Canisius House. However, Flaherty testified that he wasn’t aware of the nature of the treatment McGuire had received, and knew nothing about any of the restrictions that had been placed on McGuire’s activities.

[BishopAccountability.org]

Father Richard (Rick) McGurn, SJ, Father Richard Baumann’s Socius (2000-2003)

2014: Barrington, IL

http://bellarminehall.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/BH_1.27.121.pdf

According to McGurn’s deposition, when he became Socius in January of 2000, he reviewed McGuire’s file. The psych evaluation in the file related that McGuire had a sexual behavior disorder, frotteurism. (Frotteurism is a paraphilic interest in rubbing, usually one’s pelvis or erect penis, against a non-consenting person for sexual gratification. It may involve touching any part of the body including the genital area.) McGurn testified that he did not have any concerns about McGuire after reading the file. Despite McGurn’s lack of concern, in early 2000 he advised Baumann not to send a “letter of good standing” from the Jesuits to the Las Vegas Diocese and outlined McGuire’s past history for the provincial. However, McGurn did not follow up on a June, 2000, report that McGuire had obtained legal guardianship of a minor and that he and the boy were living and traveling together, until October or November of 2000, when there was a new report about McGuire and another boy. McGurn’s investigation then consisted of asking McGuire about the allegations. Moreover, McGurn did not attempt to verify McGuire’s answers. As a result, the boy was abused for another 3-4 years.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

Papst: Skandale sind „die Schande der Kirche“

(Vatican Radio) Scandals in the Church happen because there is no living relationship with God and His Word. Thus, corrupt priests, instead of giving the Bread of Life, give a poisoned meal to the holy people of God: that’s what Pope Francis affirmed in his homily Thursday morning during the Mass celebrated in the Santa Marta guesthouse.

Listen to Tracey McClure’s report: RealAudioMP3

Commenting on the day ‘s reading and responsorial Psalm which recount the crushing defeat of the Israelites by the Philistines, the Pope notes that the people of God at that time had forsaken the Lord . It was said that the Word of God was “uncommon” at that time . The old priest Eli was “lukewarm” and his sons “corrupt; they frightened the people and beat them with sticks.” In their battle against the Philistines, the Israelites brought with them the Ark of the Covenant, but as something “magical,” “something external .” And they are defeated : the Ark is taken from them by their enemies. There is no true faith in God, in His real presence in life:

“This passage of Scripture,” the Pope says, “makes us think about what sort of relationship we have with God, with the Word of God: is it a formal relationship? Is it a distant relationship? The Word of God enters into our hearts, changes our hearts. Does it have this power or not? Is it a formal relationship? But the heart is closed to that Word! It leads us to think of the so many defeats of the Church, so many defeats of God’s people simply because they do not hear the Lord, do not seek the Lord, do not allow themselves to be sought by the Lord! And then after a tragedy, the prayer, this one: ‘ But, Lord , what happened ? You have made ​​us the scorn of our neighbors. The scorn and derision of those around us. You have made us the laughing stock (it: favola) among nations! All the nations shake their heads about us. ‘”

And of the scandals in the Church, Pope Francis said:

“But are we ashamed? So many scandals that I do not want to mention individually, but all of us know…We know where they are! Scandals, some who charged a lot of money…. The shame of the Church! But are we all ashamed of those scandals, of those failings of priests, bishops, laity? Where was the Word of God in those scandals; where was the Word of God in those men and in those women? They did not have a relationship with God! They had a position in the Church, a position of power, even of comfort. But the Word of God, no! ‘But, I wear a medal,’ ‘I carry the Cross ‘ … Yes, just as those bore the Ark! Without the living relationship with God and the Word of God! I am reminded of the words of Jesus about those for whom scandals come … And here the scandal hit: bringing decay (it: decadenza) to the people of God, including (it: fino alla) the weakness and corruption of the priests.”

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GENEVA/VATICAN CITY
Catholic Free Press

By Cindy Wooden and Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Testifying before the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, a Vatican representative acknowledged the horror of clerical sexual abuse and insisted the Vatican was serious about protecting children.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican observer to U.N. agencies in Geneva, said the church recognizes abuse of children as both a crime and sin, and the Vatican has been promoting policies that, “when properly applied, will help eliminate the occurrence of child sexual abuse by clergy and other church personnel.”

The archbishop spoke in Geneva Jan. 16 during the committee’s annual session to review reports from states that signed the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Holy See signed the treaty in 1990.

“There is no excuse for any form of violence or exploitation of children,” the archbishop said. “Such crimes can never be justified, whether committed in the home, in schools, in community and sports programs, in religious organizations and structures.”

Pope Francis, in a homily at his early morning Mass the same day, spoke generally about the shame of the “many scandals” perpetrated by members of the church. Those who abuse and exploit others, he said, may wear a holy medal or a cross, but they have no “living relationship with God or with his word.”

Instead of giving others “the bread of life,” he said, they feed them poison.

Archbishop Tomasi told the committee that, in December, Pope Francis approved the establishment of an international commission to promote child protection and prevent abuse. He said Vatican City State recently updated its laws to define and set out penalties for specific crimes against minors, including the sale of children, child prostitution, the military recruitment of children, sexual violence against children and producing or possessing child pornography.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 17, 2014

WHISTLEBLOWER policeman Peter Fox used emails sent in his wife’s name to discuss a confidential criminal investigation with a newspaper reporter after being banned from talking to the journalist himself.

Giving evidence to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry last month, the Detective Chief Inspector said he knew at the time he would not return to the police force and was instead writing a book about his life.

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VATICAN CITY/GENEVA
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) A Holy See delegation has concluded a hearing at the United Nations on implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child, describing it as an “important and fruitful, interactive dialogue” on dealing with child protection.

Maltese Bishop Charles Scicluna, who has long experience of dealing with abuse cases as the former Promoter of Justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told Vatican Radio the Holy See shares the principles of the Convention and is committed to adequately addressing all issues and concerns regarding cases of abuse within the Catholic Church.

Heading the Vatican delegation on Thursday was Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva.

Philippa Hitchen spoke with Bishop Scicluna to find out more about the day’s events in Geneva:

A: It was grueling, in the sense it was a very long session and it was very engaging ….the rapporteur had important concerns to express and we had a very important and fruitful interactive dialogue….I think that we share the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and I think that we put out in a very clear, coherent way to the international community that the Holy See “gets it”, that as a sovereign state that the Holy See is implementing the Convention and that the Holy See, as the central organ of the Catholic Church, is promoting the values of the Convention and that canon law, as an expression of the jurisdiction of the Holy See, is also constantly being revised, as was the case in 2010, so that procedures and substantive issues are addressed adequately.

Q: Among the concerns are the accusations that the Vatican has not released information about some of the abuse cases – how have you responded to that?

It was not within the remit of the Committee to ask for individual cases, even if there is one individual case which is within the remit of the Convention and that is the case of a diplomat who is a citizen of Vatican City State and allegations concerning whom are under investigation and that was addressed openly by the head of the delegation, nuncio Archbishop Tomasi. With other cases, the constant response of the Holy See has been that these are dealt with on a local level and they should be addressed at local level

Q: Victims groups, survivors networks, say this however is not responding to their needs for transparency at the highest level. How do you answer their allegations?

A: I think there are two important elements of this which are transparency and accountability. And I think that transparency and accountability have to start on the local level. Concerning procedures on the level of the Holy See, I think that the parties concerned to every single and individual procedure, have every right to have access to all the information necessary for their defense, for their exercise of rights under the system we operate on.

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VATICAN CITY/GENEVA
Kansas City Star

January 16
BY ALBERT OTTI AND ALVISE ARMELLINI
dpa

GENEVA — Pope Francis on Thursday railed against the scandals that have plagued the Catholic Church in recent years, while United Nations experts grilled Vatican envoys about child sexual abuse by clergy.

“There are many scandals that I do not want to mention individually, but we all know about them,” Francis said while celebrating morning mass in the Santa Marta chapel, according to a transcript supplied by Vatican Radio.

Along with the revelations about pedophile priests, the Catholic Church has been rocked in recent years by allegations of infighting, mismanagement, graft and money laundering.

“The church’s shame! But did we feel shame for those scandals, for those setbacks of priests, bishops, lay people?” asked the pontiff.

In Geneva, a Vatican delegation appeared before the Committee on the Rights of the Child, to face the most intense public questioning to date about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and alleged coverups.

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GENEVA/VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

United Nations child protection experts pushed Vatican delegates today to reveal the scope of the decades-long sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic priests that Pope Francis called “the shame of the Church”.

The delegates, answering questions from an international rights panel for the first time since the scandals broke more than two decades ago, denied allegations of a Vatican cover-up and said it had set clear guidelines to protect children from predator priests.

But members of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, and abuse victims attending the session in Geneva, demanded far more transparency on crimes that have rocked the Church, from the United States to Europe and Australia.

“The best way to prevent abuses is to reveal old ones – openness instead of sweeping offences under the carpet,” Kirsten Sandberg, chairwoman of the 18-strong UN committee, told the Vatican delegation. “It seems to date your procedures are not very transparent.” …

Victims accuse bishops of covering up crimes and switching priests to other parishes to avoid prosecution. Courts have ordered dioceses to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, bankrupting a string of them in the United States. Pope Francis told worshippers at morning Mass in the Vatican today that abuse scandals had “cost us a lot of money, but (paying damages) is only right.” He said bishops, priests and lay people were responsible for this “shame of the Church”.

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GENEVA
The Tablet (United Kingdom)

16 January 2014 by Abigail Frymann

Today was a first in some ways – but not in as many as some would have hoped. It was the first time the Vatican has publicly had to account for its handling of waves of allegations of abuse by priests. Campaigners such as Barbara Blaine the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests hailed it as a huge milestone.

But as Bishop Charles Scicluna, for ten years the Vatican official in charge of prosecuting abuse cases, and Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s man in Geneva, appeared before the UN committee on Protection on Rights of the Child, some lines were all to familiar.

Archbishop Tomasi said that the Vatican could not be held responsible for the actions of priests in the way that an employer is, because priests aren’t employees as such; thus Vatican City State can’t be held to account for what’s done outside its borders.

There are two problems with this argument – firstly, that the Vatican authorities find it within their powers to discipline priests who question Catholic doctrine on homosexuality or attend the “ordination” services of women. So it then looks baffling that they can’t come down hard on bishops who ignored abuse allegations or covered them up.

Secondly, and most importantly, it suggests that certain men in the Vatican still don’t get it. For many onlookers, especially those who are heartbroken by the abuse crisis, today wasn’t about establishing on whose patch these crimes occurred; it was about searching for evidence of a change of heart, a metanoia: had the church authorities shifted from protecting the institution to protecting their most vulnerable? And had the church authorities finally linked their own inaction, or that of their confreres and predecessors, to the tragedy of the damage suffered by victims?

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GENEVA
Los Angeles Times

By Tom Kington
January 16, 2014

ROME — In their toughest and most public questioning to date about sexual abuse of children by the clergy, senior Vatican officials came under heavy criticism Thursday from a United Nations committee over their handling of such cases and promised that changes were underway.

“The Holy See gets it,” Msgr. Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s former sex crimes prosecutor, told the Committee on the Rights of the Child at a meeting in Geneva.

But Scicluna and a colleague maintained the Vatican’s position that, while it is responsible for responding to abuses committed within the confines of the Vatican state, it is up to local law enforcers to punish abusive priests around the world.

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

That contention does not satisfy the Vatican’s critics, who accuse senior officials in the Roman Catholic Church of actively trying to cover up cases of abuse.

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GENEVA
Irish Examiner

A top Vatican official has told a UN committee that responsibility for the Magdalene Laundries scandal lies solely with the Irish authorities.

Officials from the Holy See are facing questions in Geneva over incidents and allegations of child abuse in the Catholic Church across the world.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi told the committee the Vatican’s view was that the Irish state had taken full responsbility for the abuse scandal at the Magdalene Landries.

“The state is proceeding through the courts to settle the situation,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON JANUARY 16, 2014

In less than a year Pope Francis has changed the image of the Church by preaching tolerance and wading into crowds to embrace the sick. Few doubt his sincerity. But there’s one area in which the Church hasn’t changed in image or substance: Its stance on child sex abuse by the clergy.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child meets this week in Geneva to, among other things, investigate child sex abuse by Catholic clergy. The Vatican is sending representatives and announced it will put together another panel to look into the issue.

But survivors of sex abuse don’t need another commission or for the Vatican to continue in the same plodding, evasive and in some cases criminal manner. For example, the Vatican recently declined to order the release of the names of bishops who transferred and hid pedophile priests over the years, saying it has no legal authority to do so.

Instead, victims need the fresh approach Pope Francis is bringing to other areas of the Church. They need the Vatican representatives to be open and forthright with the UN committee. They need the immediate release of the names of the clergy and employees who abused hundreds of thousands of children. They need the bishops identified who hid and protected pedophile priests, sometimes for decades, by transferring them from parish to parish.

Victims need clerics to lobby for, not against, local laws protecting children from sexual predators. They need the Church to make public every document or scrap of paper concerning a credible accusation of sexual abuse. They need the Church to be completely open and honest on the issue of clergy abuse. They need the Church to change. No matter how sincere, more expressions of regret in Geneva won’t stop pedophile priests today any more than it undoes the abuse of the past.

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GENEVA
The News (Poland)

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi has told a UN committee that the case against Polish archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who faces child sex abuse charges, is being “given the severity it deserves”

Archbishop Tomasi told the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Thursday, that the Vatican announced last week it would not be extraditing Jozef Wesolowski, a former Vatican representative in the Dominican Republic, back to the Caribbean island, or to Poland, to face the charges against him because he was a citizen of the Vatican and will face charges there following an investigation into the case.

“A citizen of Vatican City State has been placed under investigation for alleged sexual crimes committed against children outside the territory of Vatican City State,” Archbishop Tomasi told the committee, adding that the case would be handled “with the severity it deserves.”

Vatican officials faced a grilling in front of the committee, which was hearing annual reports by nations who had signed the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child, the Catholic News Agency reports,

The Vatican signed the convention in 1990 but from 1994 to 2012 presented no annual progress reports on tackling child abuse to the committee, despite numerous investigations of alleged child abuse by clergy, often dating back decades, in the US, Ireland, Germany and elsewhere.

Last year it emerged that Archbishop Wesolowski, the Vatican’s representative in the Dominican Republic, was being investigated by police after children had come forward alleging they had been abused by the priest.

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GENEVA
9 News (Australia)

The Vatican insists it is committed to stamping out sexual abuse by the clergy, as top Church officials were grilled before the UN’s child rights watchdog.

The hearing came as Pope Francis said all Catholics should feel “shame”, in an apparent reference to the scandals that have rocked the Church for more than a decade.

Under the spotlight at the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, the Vatican delegation insisted that it understood what it had to do to root out sexual crimes.

“The Holy See gets it, that certain things have to be done differently,” said Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s former top prosecutor.

“It’s not words, it has to be commitment on the ground, on the level of the local churches,” he told the committee on Thursday.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach CA, western regional director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 949 322 7434, jcasteix@gmail.com )

Pope Francis just rubbed salt into the wounds of LA clergy sex abuse victims and Catholics.

Maybe more than any of his predecessors, Pope Francis is keenly aware that images and gestures matter. So why did he concelebrate mass and privately meet with America’s least deserving and most polarizing retired Catholic official – Cardinal Roger Mahony, on whose watch hundreds of children were raped, sodomized, fondled and assaulted by hundreds of priests, nuns, brothers, seminarians and other Catholic employees, many of whom were deliberately and repeatedly moved and protected by Mahony and his top aides?

Mahony’s years of self-serving secrecy forced Archbishop Jose Gomez to forbid Mahony from doing ‘public ministry’ in the LA archdiocese. How ironic that he’s persona non grata in LA but welcomed in Rome. How ironic that Mahony’s predecessor basically bans him but Catholicism’s head honcho embraces him.

It should go without saying that the pope is the world’s most powerful Catholic. He can meet with anyone he likes. And he can deny anyone the chance to appear with him in public.

Yet he chooses to say mass publicly and meet privately with Mahony.

There are plenty of prelates across the globe who understand immigration issues. Few prelates, however, understand public relations and image-burnishing more than Mahony. And even when he retires, he’s remorseless and fixated on trying to rebuild his well-deserved shattered reputation. It’s sad that Pope Francis is complicit in this selfish and insensitive effort.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicagoist

The Archdiocese of Chicago released over 6,000 pages of documents Wednesday detailing allegations of sexual abuse by priests and publicly showed contrition for their handling of the allegations and concern for the victims and their families.

A statement to the public posted to the Archdiocese’s website regarding the release of the files reads:

The Archdiocese’s concern is for the rights of everyone involved, which both the Archdiocese and claimants acknowledge require careful consideration.

According to the Archdiocese, 95 percent of the abuse allegations occurred before 1998—none after 1996. Thirty priests were named in the documents; all of them are out of the ministry, 14 are deceased.

Notably absent from the documents is Daniel McCormack, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to molesting boys while he was a priest and is the defendant in several ongoing lawsuits. The Archdiocese did report all of the allegations to authorities.

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GENEVA
The Guardian

Lizzy Davies in Rome
theguardian.com, Thursday 16 January 2014

The Vatican has come under intense pressure from a United Nations panel to explain its handling of clerical sex abuse as representatives of the Holy See were questioned on the global scandal for the first time at length and in public.

International experts from the UN’s committee on the rights of the child grilled a delegation from the Holy See, which is regarded as a sovereign state, on Thursday, as victims of sexual abuse by priests flew in to Geneva to watch the highly unusual proceedings.

As the hearing got underway, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s envoy to the UN, made it clear that there was no excuse for violent or exploitative behaviour towards children. “Such crimes can never be justified, whether committed in the home, in schools, in community and sports programs, in religious organisations structures,” he said.

But he kept to the line that the Holy See was distinct from the global Catholic church and had little jurisdiction in countries beyond the Vatican city state. The guidelines already put in place by the Holy See and Catholic churches around the world had, “when properly applied”, presented a way of eliminating the scourge of abuse, he said.

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INDIANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014

Statement by: Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, 636-433-2511, SNAPJudy@gmail.com

It takes a lot of courage to come forward and take action about being sexually abused as a child. So we commend the individual who reported his or her suffering caused by the predatory deeds of Fr. James Seculoff.

[WNDU]

Also, it is extremely rare that a child predator has only one victim.

We urge Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades to visit every parish where Fr. Seculoff worked, and reach out to any other person who may have seen,, suspected or suffered crimes by this priest or cover ups by his supervisors.

The bishop should urge them to call the police, no matter how long ago the abuse or wrongdoing may have happened.. Rhoades should also post this important information about Fr. Seculoff in the diocese newspaper, church bulletins, and on the diocese web site.

Silence is not an option anymore, it only hurts, and by speaking up there is a chance for healing, exposing the truth, and therefore protecting others.

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GENEVA
Aljazeera America

The Vatican came under sharp criticism from a United Nations committee in Geneva on Thursday for its handling of the global priest sex-abuse scandal that has tarnished the reputation of the Roman Catholic Church and drawn accusations that it purposefully hid the rapes of thousands of children by protecting pedophile priests.

The Vatican, now facing its most intense public grilling over the allegations, acknowledged at the hearing that it had been slow to act, but insisted that it was now committed to facing the crisis.

“The Holy See gets it,” Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s former sex-crimes prosecutor, told the committee. “Let’s not say ‘too late’ or not. But there are certain things that need to be done differently.”

The Holy See is recognized by international law as a sovereign entity headed by the Pope.

Scicluna also encouraged prosecutors to take action against anyone who obstructs justice — a suggestion that bishops, who moved priests from diocese to diocese so that they could avoid prosecution, should be held accountable.

Scicluna’s comments came in response to a grilling by the committee over the Holy See’s failure to abide by terms of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty that calls for signatories to take all appropriate measures to keep children from harm.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 16 January 2014)

Father Glenn Humphreys, 60, a member of the Australia-wide Catholic order of Vincentian Fathers, has been charged with child sexual abuse allegedly committed in Western Australia. Father Humphreys has ministered in several states in Australia. Until 2011, he administered the Townsville Cathedral parish in northern Queensland on behalf of the Bishop of Townsville.

On 16 January 2014, the Humphreys case came up for a brief administrative procedure (a committal mention) in the Perth Magistrates Court.

Father Humphreys, who lives at a Vincentian address in Sydney, was not required to be present when his name was mentioned in court. The administrative procedure was handled by the magistrate in consultation with the prosecutor and a defence lawyer.

West Australian detectives have charged Father Humphreys with four counts of unlawful and indecent assault and one charge each of carnal knowledge and attempted carnal knowledge, allegedly committed against a teenage boy in Western Australia between 1983 and 1986, when the boy was aged 15 to 17.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

There will be an examination for discovery for the new Father Dan Miller charges tomorrow (Thursday, 15 January 2014). This is not open to the public.

I will find out next week when the next court date is and let you know.

Please keep the complainant in your prayers tomorrow.

*****
So, here goes. I will start to blog the sex abuse trial of Father Rene Labelle. This is the blog I started on route to Kingston today for day three of the trial. I was using my cell and was unable to get it posted 🙁 I must find a new way of getting blogs done when I am back and forth on the road like this. I was so sure I would be able to do it on my phone. Perhaps something else on the never-ending list of things to learn? Anyway, here is the first block of info. and then I’m off to bed:

1. The trial was scheduled for five days . On day one (Monday 13 Jan.) the judge advised that the days would be shortened – start time daily is 10:30 am (vs original 10 am) and proceedings shall wrap up at 3pm. With one hour for lunch and a short morning break that makes for a very short day. There was agreement that the evidence and witnesses could be dealt despite the condensed work day.

2. Yes, for those who recognised the name, that is Justice Timothy Ray on the bench, the same Justice Ray who was on the bench for the Father Dan Miller sentencing in Pembroke, Ontario.

The Crown attorney is Gerard Laarhuis . Father Labelle’s lawyer is John Ecclestone.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.