ABUSE TRACKER

GENEVA/VATICAN CITY
Reuters

* Says Church put reputation before protection of children
* Seeks financial compensation for Ireland’s Magdalene scandal
* Vatican expected to respond later on Wednesday (Adds reaction of victims, Vatican official, more from document)

By Stephanie Nebehay and Philip Pullella

GENEVA/VATICAN CITY, Feb 5 (Reuters) – The United Nations demanded that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities, in an unprecedented and scathing report on Wednesday.

Church officials had imposed a “code of silence” on clerics, to prevent them reporting attacks to police, and moved abusers from parish to parish “in an attempt to cover-up such crimes,” the U.N.’s Child Rights watchdog said.

The Holy See now needed to hand over an archive of evidence about the abuse of tens of thousands of children, and take measures to prevent a repeat of cases such as Ireland’s Magdalene laundries scandal, where girls were forced to work in church-run institutions, it added. …

The Vatican was expected to issue a statement on the report later on Wednesday.

“It’s a wake-up call …,” said Barbara Blaine of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “For the safety of children, we hope every head of state on the planet reads this and acts on it.”

Pope Francis has called sexual abuse of children “the shame of the Church” and has vowed to continue procedures put in place by his predecessor Benedict XVI.

The U.N. said a commission the pontiff created in December should invite outside experts and victims to participate in an investigation of abusers “as well as the conduct of the Catholic hierarchy in dealing with them.”

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GENEVA
Newser

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff
Posted Feb 5, 2014

(NEWSER) – The United Nations is hammering the Vatican for what a panel calls a failure to fully address sex abuse in the Catholic Church. “The Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests,” the Committee on the Rights of the Child says, per the New York Times. The Vatican “has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.”

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GENEVA
Wall Street Journal

U.N. Panel Criticizes Vatican Over Child Abuse Scandals

By LIAM MOLONEY
Feb. 5, 2014

ROME—A United Nations panel Wednesday praised the Vatican’s commitment to change practices that resulted in clergy being able to sexually abuse children. It rejected, however, the Holy See’s main argument in its own defense: that it has limited jurisdiction to tackle such exploitation.

The rejection is a blow to the Catholic Church’s attempts to deal with a number of abuse scandals that have driven away many of the faithful.

The Geneva-based Committee on the Rights of the Child, which ensures that signatories implement the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, said, in very strong terms, that Vatican policies, such as not reporting sexual abuse cases to local law enforcement agencies or transferring suspected perpetrators of sexual abuse to other parishes or abroad to avoid confronting the problem, lead to tens of thousands of children world-wide being molested. …

One of the Vatican’s main arguments as to why it hasn’t reported abuses to local authorities is that the convention applies only to the Vatican City State—the world’s smallest country and nestled in the center of Rome. The Vatican’s view is that abuses conducted by the clergy fall under the jurisdiction of the country where these were alleged to have been committed.

On Wednesday, however, the U.N. committee totally rejected this argument.

“While being fully conscious that bishops and major superiors of religious institutes do not act as representatives or delegates of the Roman Pontiff, the Committee nevertheless notes that subordinates in Catholic religious orders are bound by obedience to the Pope” under cannon law, it wrote.

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GENEVA
Irish Times

The United Nations demanded today that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities, in an unprecedented and scathing report.

The UN watchdog for children’s rights said the Holy See should also hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

The watchdog’s exceptionally blunt paper – the most far-reaching critique of the Church hierarchy by the world body – followed its public grilling of Vatican officials last month. …

A commission created by Pope Francis in December should investigate all cases of child sexual abuse “as well as the conduct of the Catholic hierarchy in dealing with them,” the report said.

Abusers had been moved from parish to parish or other countries “in an attempt to cover-up such crimes,” it said.

“Due to a code of silence imposed on all members of the clergy under penalty of excommunication, cases of child sexual abuse have hardly ever been reported to the law enforcement authorities in the countries where such crimes occurred,” the UN body said.

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GENEVA
RTE News (Ireland)

A UN watchdog has called for an investigation of the Magdalene laundries so that those responsible for abusing children could be prosecuted and to allow “full compensation be paid to the victims and their families”.

The UN committee on the Rights of the Child said the Catholic Church had not yet taken measures to prevent a repeat of cases such as the Magdalene scandal, where girls were arbitrarily placed in conditions of forced labour.

In an unprecedented and scathing report, the UN also demanded the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities.

The committee said the Holy See should also hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

The watchdog’s exceptionally blunt paper, the most far-reaching critique of the Church hierarchy by the world body, followed its public grilling of Vatican officials last month.

“The Committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” the report said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Wed, 05 Feb 2014

UN children’s body slates Vatican over child abuse

A United Nations committee has issued a scathing report accusing the Vatican of putting the reputation and interests of the Holy See above the interests of children who had been sexually abused by priests.

The report from the UN committee on the Rights of the Child again repeats the demand for the Vatican to hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

The United Nations has also demanded the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities, in an unprecedented and scathing report.

The committee’s report, published today, said: “The Committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” the report said.

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GENEVA
Telegraph (UK)

UN has demanded that the Vatican ‘immediately remove’ all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to police, in an unprecedented and scathing report

By Nick Squires, Rome 05 Feb 2014

The Catholic Church continues to harbour paedophile priests and should immediately turn them over to the authorities, the United Nations said in scathing report on the Vatican’s decades-long failure to tackle the scandal of predatory clergy.

In a damning critique of the Holy See’s attempts to shield abusive clergy from prosecution, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said that tens of thousands of children had been sexually exploited by priests and nuns in the past and that victims continue to be abused.

The committee of independent experts said it was “gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed…and has adopted policies and practises which have led to the continuation of the abuse by, and the impunity of, the perpetrators.”

Abusive priests in many countries had simply been moved from one diocese to another, allowing “many priests to remain in contact with children and to continue to abuse them.”

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GENEVA
Rappler

BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
POSTED ON 02/05/2014

GENEVA, Switzerland – The Vatican must remove all child sexual abusers from their posts and turn them over to the police, the United Nations children’s rights watchdog said Wednesday, February 5.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the Holy See to “immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers from assignment and refer the matter to the relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution purposes.”

In a hard-hitting report, the committee said that the Roman Catholic Church was still failing to do enough to live up to its stated commitment to stamp out child abuse by priests and lay employees, including in schools.

It underlined its “deepest concern about child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic churches who operate under the authority of the Holy See, with clerics having been involved in the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide.”

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GENEVA
ITV (UK)

A scathing United Nations report has demanded the Vatican “immediatedly remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and hand them to the authorities.

In its most far-reaching criticism of the Church hierarchy to date, the UN watchdog for children’s rights said it is “gravely concerned” the Holy See “has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed”.

It accused the Vatican of adopting “policies and practices” which led to abuse continuing and ensured “the impunity of the perpetrators”.

The UN body said the Church must hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, can be held accountable.

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GENEVA
United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child

1. The Committee considered the second periodic report of the Holy See (CRC/C/VAT/2) at its 1852nd meeting (see CRC/C/SR.1852), held on 16 January 2013, and adopted, at its 1875th meeting, held on 31 January 2014, the following concluding observations.

I. Introduction

2. The Committee welcomes the submission of the second periodic report of the Holy See (CRC/C/VAT/2) and the written replies to its list of issues (CRC/C/VAT/Q/2/Add.1). The Committee however regrets that the second periodic report was submitted with a considerable delay, which prevented the Committee from reviewing the implementation of the Convention by the Holy See for 14 years.

3. The Committee welcomes the open and constructive dialogue with the multisectoral delegation of the Holy See, as well as the positive commitments made by its delegation during the interactive dialogue in numerous areas. In particular, the Committee notes as positive the willingness expressed by the delegation of the Holy See to change attitudes and practices and looks forward to the adoption of prompt and firm measures for the concrete implementation of its commitments.

4. The Committee reminds the Holy See that the present concluding observations should be read in conjunction with the concluding observations on the Holy See’s initial report under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC/OPAC/VAT/CO/1) as well as those on the initial report under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (CRC/C/OPSC/VAT/CO/1), adopted on 31 January 2014

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims push for more predator priest files
And they react to action by United Nations panel
SNAP testified about Chicago abuse case in Geneva
Group wants Cardinal George to release more records
“Opening the Fr. McCormack files is crucial,” victims say

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will push Chicago Catholic officials to

–release more records about predator priests, and
–ask a court to disclose files about Chicago’s most notorious child molesting cleric, Fr. Daniel McCormack.

They will also respond to a historic, just-released United Nations panel’s report on how the Vatican is dealing with clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

WHEN
Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 1:00 pm

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Chicago archdiocese chancery office, 835 N Rush, St, in Chicago

WHO
Four-five adults who belong to a self-help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Some were molested as kids; others are concerned Catholics. One, SNAP’s founder, has made two trips to Geneva in connection with the UN process and testified before the panel.

WHY
1) At 5:00 a.m. central time Wednesday, the Geneva-based United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child will issue a much-awaited report on whether Vatican officials are complying with a treaty on children’s rights. ( It will likely be posted here: http://ccrjustice.org/ and herehttp://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRCIndex.aspx )

[SNAP]

US members of SNAP, including Chicago’s Barbara Blaine, testified before the UN panel and were in Geneva last month when Vatican officials did the same. SNAP also submitted a lengthy report

Both verbally and in writing, SNAP cited the troubling 2006 case of Chicago’s Fr. Daniel McCormack as one of many examples showing that Catholic officials still endanger kids, protect predators and hide information about known and suspected child sex crimes from police and prosecutors.

SNAP also cited a 2012 Chicago Tribune report about 32 proven, admitted or credibly accused US predator priests who have been sent or have gone overseas, sometimes to evade law enforcement.

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GENEVA
NEWS.com.au

Vatican must turn child abusers over to police, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child says

THE Vatican must remove all child sexual abusers from their posts and turn them over to the police, the United Nations children’s rights watchdog has said.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the Holy See to “immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers from assignment and refer the matter to the relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution purposes”.

In a hard-hitting report, the committee said that the Roman Catholic Church was still failing to do enough to live up to its stated commitment to stamp out child abuse by priests and lay employees, including in schools.

It underlined its “deepest concern about child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic churches who operate under the authority of the Holy See, with clerics having been involved in the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide”.

“The Committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” it added.

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GENEVA
Voice of America

VOA News
February 05, 2014

A United Nations human rights committee has made an unprecedented demand that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy accused of child abuse and turn them over to civil authorities.

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child on Wednesday called on the Holy See to acknowledge sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children and hand over its archives on the subject, adding that “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

The watchdog’s exceptionally blunt paper – the most far-reaching critique of the Church hierarchy by the world body – followed its public grilling of Vatican officials last month.

“The Committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” the report said.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014

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

A UN panel has issued a report on how the Vatican handles clergy sexual abuse and cover up. The AP calls the report “devastating.” Reuters calls it “scathing.” We call it “on target.”

It’s a wakeup call, not to Catholic officials (who’ve known about and concealed abuse for decades and still do) but for secular officials, especially those in law enforcement, who can and should investigate Catholic abuses and cover ups and prosecute the church supervisors who are still protecting predators and endangering children.

For the safety of children, we hope every head of state on the planet reads this and acts on it.

The UN panel found that “child sexual abuse have hardly ever been reported (by Catholic officials) to the law enforcement authorities.” And the panel rightly emphasized the need for effective prevention programs.

Of course, the quickest way to prevent child sexual violence by Catholic clerics is for Pope Francis to publicly remove all offenders from ministry and harshly punish their colleagues and supervisors who enabled their crimes. But like his predecessors, he has refused to take even tiny steps in this direction.

Bishops in developed nations will claim that they’re better than their colleagues in the developing world. That’s disingenuous. In developed nations, bishops have been forced – by brave victims, investigative journalists, determined police and skilled prosecutors – to address this crisis earlier than bishops in other nations. And instead of dealing with it honestly and compassionately, they’ve largely just learned to work harder and smarter to conceal it.

This report gives hope to the hundreds of thousands of deeply wounded and still suffering clergy sex abuse victims across the world. Now it’s up to secular officials to follow the UN’s lead and step in to safeguard the vulnerable because Catholic officials are either incapable or unwilling to do so.

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GENEVA
The News (Poland)

The United Nations has accused the Vatican of systematically allowing priests to rape thousands of children, in an unprecidented report released on Wednesday.

The report by the UN watchdog for children’s rights also demands that the Holy See “immediately removes” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers.

The report says the Vatican should also hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable, Reuters reports.

The damning report follows the Vatican’s refusal to extradite Polish archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who is wanted by both Domincan Republic and Poland’s police forces following accusations he sexually abused children on the carribean island.

The Vatican says it is investigating the allegations against Wesolowski, who was the Holy See’s representative in the Domican Republic. The UN report says that it fears the Vatican has not come to terms with the widespread accusations of child sex abuse by clergy.

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GENEVA
Deutsche Welle

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child criticized the Vatican harshly in a report on Wednesday. The scathing review demanded the immediate removal of all known or suspected child abusers within the Church’s hierarchy.

It also called for the Holy See to disclose information on past abusers and those who helped them avoid prosecution.

The UN committee’s recommendations are non-binding and there is no enforcement mechanism.

“The committee is gravely concerned that the [Vatican] has not acknowledge the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases ofchild sexual abuse and to protect children,” the UN committee said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference, the committee’s chairperson, Kirsten Sandberg, said current policies had “led to the continuation” of abuse. She added that the Church had put the protection of perpetrators “above the children’s best interests.”

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source AAP

Queensland police were aware of allegations boys held in state care were being flown to Sydney to be abused by a millionaire and a chef in the mid 1970s, a former assistant police commissioner says.

Retired assistant commissioner David Jefferies has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he received information a Queensland millionaire, known as JA, flew boys to Sydney to be abused as part of a pedophile ring.

“This JA was certainly known as a millionaire and had, I believe, a construction business, and we certainly had received information about children actually going to his home,” Mr Jefferies said.

“We were aware that boys in state care and from some institutions had in fact been flown to Sydney.”

Mr Jefferies said he had a hazy recollection a chef was involved in the allegations, but could not speak to whether the man lived in the Sydney suburb of Paddington.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The child abuse royal commission has been told about a paedophile ring that operated in Queensland in the 1970s and that boys from the Salvation Army’s Alkira home were likely victims. A retired Queensland police officer has given evidence that a wealthy businessman was involved with three other alleged paedophiles who groomed and abused boys in the same neighbourhood as the Salvation Army’s Alkira boys home. The inquiry has also heard that that boys were flown to Sydney where they were sexually exploited by a ‘top chef’ in the city.

Transcript

ELEANOR HALL: Now to the Royal Commission into child abuse which has been hearing evidence about a paedophile ring that operated in Queensland in the 1970s.

A retired Queensland police officer told the commission that a wealthy businessman was involved with three other alleged paedophiles who groomed and abused boys and that the likely victims were boys from the Salvation Army homes in Indooroopilly.

The former assistant police commissioner also told the inquiry that some boys were flown to Sydney where they were sexually exploited by a person he described as a “top chef” in that city.

Emily Bourke has been monitoring the hearing and joins us now.

Emily, tell us a little more about this Queensland police witness and how he came to know about the boys who were in the Salvation Army’s care?

EMILY BOURKE: David Jefferies is a former assistant police commissioner in Queensland and in 1974/75 he was in what was known as the Juvenile Aid Bureau, which looked after young offenders and children who were in need of protection.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 05, 2014

QUEENSLAND police were aware of allegations boys held in state care were being flown to Sydney to be abused by a millionaire and a chef in the mid 1970s, a former assistant police commissioner says.

But while police and the state government believed a pedophile network was allegedly abusing boys in Brisbane during 1975, including at least one boy from a Salvation Army home, vulnerable children continued to be placed in the home, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.

David Jefferies, a former assistant commissioner of Queensland Police, said he had investigated a number of alleged pedophiles said to be “grooming and offending against various boys”, possibly including those from the Indooroopilly home.

He said he had received information a Queensland millionaire, known as JA, flew boys to Sydney to be abused as part of a pedophile ring.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Tuesday 4 February 2014

Queensland police were aware of allegations boys held in state care were being flown to Sydney to be abused by a millionaire and a chef in the mid-1970s, a former assistant police commissioner says.

Retired assistant commissioner David Jefferies told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse that he received information a Queensland millionaire, known as JA, flew boys to Sydney to be abused as part of a paedophile ring.

“This JA was certainly known as a millionaire and had, I believe, a construction business, and we certainly had received information about children actually going to his home,” Jefferies said.

“We were aware that boys in state care and from some institutions had in fact been flown to Sydney.”

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GENEVA
Aljazeera

The UN has rejected the Vatican’s argument that it can not implement a children’s rights convention beyond its walls, saying the church has “placed the reputation of the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s interests.”

The Vatican was denounced on Wednesday by a UN human rights committee for adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children, and that these practices also allowed the abuse to continue once detected.

There was not, the committee said, adequate provision to ensure cases like Ireland’s Magdalene laundries scandal, where girls were arbitrarily placed in conditions of forced labour could not be repeated.

Offenders are moved around to new churches or locations, in order to protect them, while putting more children at risk of abuse, the report said while also condemning the “code of silence” imposed on child victims and the fact that those exposed almost always avoided prosecution.

“The Committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” the report said.

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GENEVA
BBC News

The UN has denounced the Vatican for “systematically” adopting policies allowing priests to sexually abuse thousands of children.

The UN watchdog for children’s rights said the Holy See must “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers.

It heavily criticised the Vatican’s attitudes towards homosexuality, contraception and abortion.

The Vatican has set up a commission to fight child abuse in the Church.

It is expected to issue a statement on the report later on Wednesday.

The committee’s recommendations are non-binding and there is no enforcement mechanism.

‘Offenders’ mobility’

In its report, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) said the Holy See should open its files on members of the clergy who “concealed their crimes” so that they can be held accountable.

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GENEVA
Newstalk (Ireland)

The United Nations is criticising The Vatican for adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest children. The UN Committee of the Rights of the Child is also demanding all archives be handed over so any culprits can be held to account.

The report was produced following the public questioning of Vatican officials last month.

The month-long investigation examined cases of clerics who have been “involved in the abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide”.

The Committee has said it is “gravely concerned” that the Vatican has not acknowledged the “extent of crimes committed” regarding historical child abuse.

It said their investigation had shown the Holy See has adopted policies which has led to the continuation of abuse.

Kirsten Sandberg, Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, said “It is a horrible thing that has been kept silent…the abuse has been going on and on”.

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GENEVA
Sydney Morning Herald

The Vatican must remove all child sexual abusers from their posts and turn them over to the police, the United Nations children’s rights watchdog said on Wednesday.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the Holy See to “immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers from assignment and refer the matter to the relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution purposes”.

In a hard-hitting report, the committee said that the Roman Catholic Church was still failing to do enough to live up to its stated commitment to stamp out child abuse by priests and lay employees, including in schools.

It underlined its “deepest concern about child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic churches who operate under the authority of the Holy See, with clerics having been involved in the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide”.

“The Committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” it added.

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GENEVA
NBC News

BY ALEXANDER SMITH

The United Nations heavily criticized the Vatican on Wednesday for what it said was a “systematic” adoption of policies allowing priests to rape and sexually abuse tens of thousands of children.

The devastating report published by the U.N. Committee on the Rights of a Child said the Vatican must “immediately remove” all known or suspected child abusers within the clergy, The Associated Press reported.

The U.N. report also denounced the Holy See for its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception, and abortion

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GENEVA
The Journal (Ireland)

THE UNITED NATIONS demanded today that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities, in an unprecedented and scathing report.

The UN watchdog for children’s rights said the Holy See should also hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

The watchdog’s exceptionally blunt paper – the most far-reaching critique of the Church hierarchy by the world body – followed its public grilling of Vatican officials last month.

“The Committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” the report said.

The Vatican was expected to issue a statement on the report later today.

The UN committee on the Rights of the Child said the Catholic Church had not yet taken measures to prevent a repeat of cases such as Ireland’s Magdalene laundries scandal, where girls were arbitrarily placed in conditions of forced labour.

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GENEVA
The New York Times

By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE
FEB. 5, 2014

GENEVA — A United Nations panel sharply criticized the Vatican on Wednesday for putting the reputation and interests of the Holy See above the interests of children who had been sexually abused by priests, effectively allowing priests to continue abuse and escape prosecution.

In a series of hard-hitting observations, the Committee on the Rights of the Child said that “the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.”

The panel expressed particular concern that “in dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse, the Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests.”

The criticism came in the concluding observations of a U.N. panel that examined the Vatican’s compliance with the Convention of the Rights of the Child in a hearing last month attended by senior Vatican officials, including Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, who was the Vatican’s chief prosecutor of sexual abuse until 2012.

The panel noted the Holy See’s commitment to upholding the “inviolable” dignity of children but pointed out that it had moved priests well-known as child abusers to different parishes in an attempt to hide their crimes, allowing them and to remain in contact with children and to continue their abuse. In doing so, the Vatican “still places children in many countries at high risk of sexual abuse, as dozens of child sexual offenders are reported to be still in contact with children,” it said.

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.

NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
New Hampshire Union Leader

MANCHESTER — Catholic clerics were surprised — but not shocked — to learn Monday that the diocese’s former top-ranking priest agreed to plead guilty to charges of stealing from the diocese, Catholic Medical Center and the estate of a fellow priest.

“The whole thing is tragic,” one diocesan priest said of the Rev. Monsignor Edward J. Arsenault III. The priest spoke on condition his name not be published.

“There was money taken from Catholic Medical Center and from the estate of Monsignor (John) Molan … His life is ruined,” the priest added.

The priest said he didn’t think the charges would affect other Catholic clerics in the Diocese of Manchester, which includes all of New Hampshire.

“I think most people will not think worse of their own parish priest,” he said.

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ALABAMA
WHNT

February 4, 2014, by Josh Voight

MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (WHNT) – Highland Park Baptist Church children’s minister Jeff Eddie has been charged with multiple sexual abuse crimes.

Eddie is charged with two counts of child pornography, 31 counts of second-degree sodomy, and three counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12.

Muscle Shoals Police Chief Robert Evans confirmed to WHNT News 19 Tuesday that Eddie has been arrested.

Eddie was picked up by Muscle Shoals Police Sunday and held for questioning until Tuesday when the charges were announced.

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News (US)

VATICAN CITY February 5, 2014 (AP)
By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

A U.N. human rights committee denounced the Vatican on Wednesday for adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, and urged it to open its files on the pedophiles and the churchmen who concealed their crimes.

In a devastating report, the U.N. committee also severely criticized the Holy See for its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception and abortion and said it should review its policies to ensure children’s rights and their access to health care are guaranteed.

On sex abuse, “the committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by, and the impunity of, the perpetrators,” the report said.

It called for the sex abuse commission that Pope Francis announced in December to conduct an independent investigation of all cases of priestly abuse and the way the Catholic hierarchy has responded over time, and urged the Holy See establish clear rules for the mandatory reporting of abuse to police.

The committee issued its recommendations after subjecting the Holy See to a daylong interrogation last month on its implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, the main international treaty ensuring children’s rights. During that session, the committee’s independent experts grilled the Holy See on its protection of children, working from reports prepared by victims groups and human rights organizations.

The committee’s recommendations are non-binding and there is no enforcement mechanism. Rather, the U.N. asked the Vatican to implement the recommendations and report back by 2017. The Vatican was 14 years late submitting its most recent report.

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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.

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GENEVA
Reuters

BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY
GENEVA Wed Feb 5, 2014

(Reuters) – The United Nations demanded on Wednesday that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers and turn them over to civil authorities, in an unprecedented and scathing report.

The U.N. watchdog for children’s rights said the Holy See should also hand over its archives on sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable.

The watchdog’s exceptionally blunt paper – the most far-reaching critique of the Church hierarchy by the world body – followed its public grilling of Vatican officials last month.

“The Committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” the report said.

The Vatican was expected to issue a statement on the report later on Wednesday.

The U.N. committee on the Rights of the Child said the Catholic Church had not yet taken measures to prevent a repeat of cases such as Ireland’s Magdalene laundries scandal, where girls were arbitrarily placed in conditions of forced labor.

It called for an internal investigation of the laundries and similar institutions so that those who were responsible could be prosecuted and that “full compensation be paid to the victims and their families”.

A commission created by Pope Francis in December should investigate all cases of child sexual abuse “as well as the conduct of the Catholic hierarchy in dealing with them,” the report said.

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ALABAMA
Shoals Insider

H. Wayne Nix-Staff Writer • Tue, Feb 04, 2014
MUSCLE SHOALS, AL (WAFF) –

A Muscle Shoals children’s minister has been charged with multiple charges including sex abuse and sodomy.

Muscle Shoals Police Chief Robert Evans confirmed Tuesday night Jeffrey Dale Eddie has been charged with two counts of child pornography, 31 counts of second-degree sodomy and three counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12.

Eddie is the children’s minister at Highland Park Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals. The pastor of the church declined to comment about the case, but said their number one priority is protecting the children and helping them move forward.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

THE Salvation Army reacted with disbelief and suspected people were money grabbing when they began receiving complaints about abuse in their homes for children.

Major Marina Randall, who with her husband Major Clifford Randall blew the whistle on extreme abuse by two Salvation Army managers at a Queensland home for boys, said there was a naivety in 1999 about the handling of abuse allegations.

She was giving evidence at a royal commission hearing into how the Salvation Army Eastern Territory responded to allegations of child abuse at two homes in Queensland and two in NSW.

Mrs Randall and her husband were house parents at Alkira Home for Boys in Indooroopilly in Queensland from 1973 to 1975.

At the time, the young couple were shocked at what they saw – a regime under Captain Lawrence Wilson and then Captain John McIver in which children were brutalised.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 05, 2014

SALVATION Army officers believed child victims of sex abuse were “money-grabbing” when they started to come forward during the late 1990s to describe their treatment in boys’ homes run by the Christian organisation.

Giving evidence yesterday to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Salvation Army major Marina Randall described the reaction to such allegations among other senior officers in 1999.

“There was this feeling that was expressed more by a sigh or a look or maybe even a side word or two that these complaints couldn’t have been real and that they were just attempts at money-grabbing,” she said. The commission is investigating the widespread physical and sexual abuse of children at four Salvation Army-run institutions in Queensland and NSW between 1957 and 1975.

Ms Randall and her husband worked at one of these homes, Indooroopilly in Brisbane, during the early ’70s and did report mistreatment by some of the staff, the commission heard.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Tuesday 4 February 2014

The Salvation Army reacted with disbelief and suspected people were money-grabbing when they began receiving complaints about abuse in their homes for children, the royal commission into child abuse heard on Tuesday.

Major Marina Randall, who with her husband Major Clifford Randall blew the whistle on extreme abuse by two Salvation Army managers at a Queensland home for boys, said there was a naivety in 1999 about the handling of abuse allegations.

She was giving evidence at a hearing into how the Salvation Army Eastern Territory responded to allegations of child abuse at two homes in Queensland and two in NSW.

Randall and her husband were house parents at Alkira Home for Boys in Indooroopilly in Queensland from 1973 to 1975.

The then young couple were shocked at what they witnessed – a regime under Captain Lawrence Wilson and then Captain John McIver in which children were brutalised.

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AUSTRALIA
Goulburn Post

By LOUISE THROWER Feb. 5, 2014

A FORMER resident of the Gill Memorial Boys Home has alleged that it was not only Salvation Army officers that sexually abused residents.

Using the pseudonym, GH, a 52-year-old Canberra man told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he was sexually assaulted by a boy as a seven or eight-yearold at the Home.

It allegedly happened in the locker room as both were getting changed after band practise.

“The older boy (who was tall and skinny and three or four years older than me) cornered me…in between two lockers where there was plenty of privacy,” GH said.

“All of a sudden he started hugging me and said: ‘I am not going to hurt you, just going to have cuddles.’”

“At first I did not think there was anything wrong with the hugs, but all of a sudden I did not know what was going on and I knew that what he was doing was not normal.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON
66 Brooks Drive
Braintree, Massachusetts 02184
TEL: (617) 746-5775 FAX: (617) 782-9416

Contact: Harry Pierre
617-391-9635

Archdiocese of Boston Places Rev. Joseph F. Byrne on Administrative Leave of Absence
(Braintree, Mass.) February 4, 2014 – The Archdiocese of Boston today announced that it has placed Rev. Joseph F. Byrne on an administrative leave of absence as a result of receiving an allegation of sexual abuse of a child. Fr. Byrne is a retired Senior Priest. The allegation concerns conduct alleged to have occurred in the early-1970s and was recently reported to the Archdiocese.

The Archdiocese immediately notified law enforcement of the allegation and has initiated a preliminary investigation into the complaint. Fr. Byrne will remain on administrative leave without any public ministry pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation. The decision to place Fr. Byrne on administrative leave represents the Archdiocese’s commitment to the welfare of all parties and does not represent a determination of Fr. Byrne’s guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation. The Archdiocese will work to resolve this case as expeditiously as possible and in a manner that is fair to all parties.

Fr. Byrne was the subject of a previous allegation made in 2012 relating to conduct alleged to have occurred in the 1970s. After a complete investigation into the initial allegations and an evaluation of those claims by the Archdiocesan Review Board, the allegations were found to be unsubstantiated and no criminal charges were filed.

Through its Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach, the Archdiocese continues to make counseling and other services available to survivors, their families and parishes impacted by clergy sexual abuse and by allegations of abuse by members of the clergy. Cardinal Seán encourages any person in need of pastoral assistance or support to contact the Archdiocese’s Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach by calling 617-746-5985.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 02/04/2014

A Ramsey County judge has given the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis an extension on its deadline to disclose the names of priests accused of child sexual abuse since 2004.

District Judge John Van de North had previously set Wednesday as the deadline.

The decision was filed in the case of John Doe 1, who claims he was sexually abused by former priest Thomas Adamson in 1976 and 1977 while Adamson served at St. Thomas Aquinas parish in St. Paul Park. The plaintiff was a teenage altar boy.

As part of that case, Van de North ordered the archdiocese, as well as the Diocese of Winona, to release names of “credibly accused” priests from a 2004 study. Those were disclosed in December.

He gave the archdiocese and diocese until Wednesday to release names of priests accused after that study was done.

But the defendants have since argued that they have not had enough opportunity to argue their positions on the matter.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Aljazeera

[with video]

Laurence Lee

Sitting opposite me in a hotel room in the town where she was brought up, Katie Walmsley quietly described her childhood. Her parents were splitting up, a priest suggested to her dad that the best place for her would be a children’s home for girls. The nuns would keep her safe and well.

“I held on to my daddy’s trousers,” at the door of the big, imposing building, she said. The nuns pulled her in, and within ten minutes she was sitting with her sister in a bath mixed with jeyes fluid (a toxic industrial detergent people normally use nowadays to get congealed fat out of drains).

Head partly shaved to look like a boy. The terror in the eyes of her sister. These things have been seared into her consciousness.

Katie will give evidence to Britain’s biggest ever inquiry into systematic abuse next week. She will tell the inquiry what she told us here; that the congealed pig fat – slops, she called it – was scooped up in a tablespoon by the nun when she vomited it up and she was forced to eat it again.

That the nuns made her clean the excrement from toilet bowls with her bare hands, and pick bits off the walls with her fingernails.

That she was punished for wetting the bed in fear, and grew up believing bed wetting had led to her parents’ separation.

That she was told she didn’t deserve a doll for Christmas because she had been bad.

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By John Fitzgerald

Mark Sommerhauser at the St. Cloud Daily Times attended a press conference Monday where sex-abuse victims and their lawyers said St. John’s Abbey and the Diocese of St. Cloud aren’t doing enough to protect victims. The abbey, which shares the campus with St. John’s Preparatory School, houses 14 “credibly accused” sex-abuse offenders. “They disputed recent claims by St. Cloud Bishop Donald Kettler and St. John’s Abbott John Klassen, including their recent assertion that they’ve disclosed all known names of clergy members with credible accusations of abuse,” Sommerhauser wrote. They also said there should be public scrutiny of safety plans for alleged offenders. Peggy LaDue, the executive director of the Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center, said she’d like to review the experts and sources used to develop those plans. For its part, the abbey released a statement saying it is confident it has named everyone with credible accusations of abusing minors and that its safety plans are effective.

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AUSTRALIA
Goulburn post

By LOUISE THROWER Feb. 5, 2014

MARK Stiles was almost lost for words when asked this week the effect that years of alleged sexual abuse by Salvation Army officers had on his life.

“Where do I begin?” he told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

“Mistrust. Everyday not knowing whether I said or did the right things,” he said before breaking down.

“Fear, anger, I suffer severe hypertension and I’m on drugs to control that.”

In a statement to the Commission, Mr Stiles said the Salvation Army had taken away his ability to interact with the community, “stolen my foundational life skills and caused me to panic almost every day for over 40 years.”

Mr Stiles, a Canberra electronics technician was one of two former Gill Memorial Boys Home residents who gave evidence to the Commission on Wednesday. The Salvation Army operated the home on top of Auburn St from 1936 to 1980.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 4

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Tomorrow, at 6:00 a.m. Eastern time, a United Nations panel in Geneva is expected to release a formal report on whether Vatican officials are complying with a treaty on children’s rights.

It will likely be posted here:

And here: http://ccrjustice.org/ and here http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRCIndex.aspx

No matter what the panel does, this has already been a historic and helpful process for wounded victims and vulnerable kids.

We’re grateful to the panel for fulfilling their mission of making the children of the world safe from violence.

We are grateful for their calling the Vatican to give an accounting and hope this added scrutiny will deter church officials – and others in other institutions – from protecting those who commit and conceal heinous violent crimes against kids in the future.

We hope – and believe – it also will give hope to victims of child abuse all over the world and that the crimes they suffered will no longer go unnoticed. For decades victims of clergy abuse felt helpless. With the UN questioning of Vatican officials victims feel that when they find the courage to come forward that they will be heard and justice is possible.

We hope, in a tangible way, it will inspire those who have been sexually violated – in any setting – to step forward to seek justice, expose corruption and protect children.

At the same time, however, we doubt whether Catholic officials will make any real reforms. They seem fixated on internal policies and procedures that are largely public relations maneuvers. Last month in Geneva, they dodged questions by the UN panel and repeated the same tired, ridiculous claim that Vatican officials have little or no control over how this on-going crisis is dealt with across the globe.

[SNAP]

Real reform will come when more secular authorities – local, national and international – find the courage to investigate and pursue those who enable child molesting clerics to assault children and destroy evidence, fabricate alibis, intimidate victims, threaten whistleblowers, discredit witnesses and protect wrongdoers’s reputations instead of children’s safety.

To hasten this real reform, it’s crucial that those who see, suspect or suffer clergy sexual violence and cover ups continue to find the courage to speak up, expose wrongdoers, call police, protect kids and start healing.

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ILLINOIS
Franklin Park Herald-Journal

By: Mark Lawton | mlawton@pioneerlocal.com | @reporterdude

A priest who served at St. Gertrude’s Church in the 1960s was accused multiple times of sexually abusing minors.

According to documents recently released by the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Rev. Raymond Francis Skriba was repeatedly accused of molesting minors, including at least two at St. Gertrude’s of Franklin Park.

Those documents — 208 pages worth just concerning Skriba — were released to the law firm of Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman, who represented more than 50 people against the archdiocese. They may be viewed at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Skriba was ordained in 1957 and assigned as assistant pastor at Queen of the Universe on the South Side of Chicago for five years before being transferred to St. Gertrude’s on July 7, 1962.

According to a 2002 report from the Professional Responsibility Review Board for the Chicago Archdiocese, two women had told the archdiocese that they had been sexually abused by Skriba at St Gertrude’s while kids.

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INDIA
Daily Mail (UK)

The chief priest of one of the holiest Hindu temples, Badrinath shrine, was arrested for molesting and wrongfully confining a 28-year-old pregnant woman inside a hotel at Chhatarpur area, the Delhi Police said on Tuesday.

Besides the Mukhya Rawal (chief priest), his cousin has also been held for his role in the incident.

According to the police, Keshawan Namboodiri, 38, and his cousin Vishnu Prakash, 33, are natives of Kerala.

Namboodiri is believed to have been associated with the temple for the past several years.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, February 4

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

Fr. Joseph Byrne, a Boston area priest, has been suspended. Unfortunately, this is not the first time Fr. Byrne has been removed. Now is not the time for complacency.

Byrne was removed in 2012 after claims of sexual abuse came forward. He was only reinstated in May of last year, apparently after a review board found allegations against him unsubstantiated. His removal again is a perfect example of why the Catholic Church – or any other institution- cannot be responsible for policing itself. Fr. Byrne was also put on probation for theft in 2005.

[CBS Boston]

It’s time the church stop protecting criminals and reputations and start protecting victims.

We hope Fr. Byrne’s suspension will give courage to victims to come forward and report abuse, to secular authorities.

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MARYLAND/NEW HAMPSHIRE
Washington Post

(Update) Priest who headed clergy addiction center is going to jail for fraud

By David Gibson | Religion News Service, Updated: Tuesday, February 4

A priest who headed a leading treatment center for clergy with sexual and addiction problems has agreed to plead guilty to charges of stealing money from his home diocese in New Hampshire and from a Catholic hospital and the estate of a deceased priest.

Monsignor Edward J. Arsenault, who resigned as head of the St. Luke Institute outside Washington, D.C., when the charges were revealed last year, will spend at least four years in a New Hampshire prison under a plea deal with prosecutors announced on Monday (Feb. 3).

For a decade, Arsenault held a number of senior positions in the Diocese of Manchester and was a top aide to former Bishop John McCormack, who came under intense criticism for his role in the clergy sexual abuse scandals.

In 2009, Arsenault took a $170,000-a-year position as CEO of St. Luke’s, a rehab center in Silver Spring, Md., that became known for treating priests who had sexually abused children. The center deals primarily with priests, nuns and brothers who have a range of other issues, such as depression, anxiety and addictive behaviors. St. Luke’s conducted an internal investigation and found no evidence of fraud while Arsenault was there.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service | Feb. 4, 2014

VATICAN CITY
Reports from bishops’ conferences in Germany and Switzerland show a clear divergence between what the church teaches on marriage, sexuality and family life and what Catholics — even those active in parish life — personally believe.

The differences are seen “above all when it comes to pre-marital cohabitation, (the status of the) divorced and remarried, birth control and homosexuality,” said the German bishops’ report, posted Tuesday on their conference website in German, Italian and English. (Read the German bishops’ report here.)

The text is a summary of the official responses from all of Germany’s 27 dioceses and about 20 German Catholic organizations and institutions to a Vatican questionnaire published in preparation for October’s extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family.

The Swiss bishops’ conference published an initial report Wednesday based on 25,000 responses, similar in most cases to those received by the German bishops.

“Most of the baptized have an image of the church that, on the one hand, is family friendly in its attitude, whilst at the same time considering her sexual morality to be unrealistic,” the German survey found.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

Priest placed on leave after allegation surfaces of child sex abuse in the 1970s

By Martin Finucane / Globe Staff / February 4, 2014

The archdiocese of Boston says it’s placing a priest on an administrative leave of absence after receiving an allegation of child sexual abuse.

The conduct by the Rev. Joseph F. Byrne, a retired senior priest, allegedly occurred in the early 1970s. It was only recently reported to the archdiocese, church officials said in a statement.

The archdiocese says it immediately notified law enforcement officials of the allegation. It has also initiated its own preliminary investigation.

Byrne was also the subject of another allegation in 2012, the archdiocese said. That conduct also allegedly occurred in the 1970s, the statement said. That allegation was found to be “unsubstantiated,” the statement said.

Byrne will not be allowed to minister to the public, pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation into the new allegation, the archdiocese said.

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INDIA
The Hindu

The Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee on Tuesday suspended Keshava Namboodiri from the post of ‘rawal’ (chief priest) of the Badrinath shrine after he was held in Delhi on the charge of molesting a woman.

Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee president Ganesh Godiyal said, “the committee has suspended Keshava Namboodiri from the post of chief priest.”

Keshava Namboodiri, from Kerala, was appointed ‘rawal’ in 2009.

“The responsibility now lies on Keshava Namboodiri to prove himself innocent. He will be reinstated if the court declares him innocent. However, he will be removed from the post only if the charges are proved,” Mr. Godiyal said.

V.C. Ishwara Prasad Namboodiri, the Naib-Rawal (deputy chief priest), would be given the responsibilities of the ‘rawal’ till then, he said.

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MINNESOTA
Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
February 4, 2014

It was interesting reading to see the Minneapolis Tribune and MPR’s coverage of the hearing that took place a week ago Friday concerning additional names to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Archdiocese of Winona lists As the Tribune reported:

The judge rejected an archdiocese proposal to first allow the church 30 days to investigate an abuse claim. The archdiocese is not a neutral party for evaluating whether a claim is true or false, Van de North said, noting that it has failed to report cases of abuse in the past.

Likewise, the archdiocese’s criteria for evaluating sexual misconduct can be “fuzzy,” he said. The archdiocese, for example, said it suspended two priests for “boundary issues” — Rev. Joseph Gallatin of the Church of St. Peter in Mendota and Rev. Mark Wehmann of St. Boniface Catholic Church in Minneapolis.

“One person’s boundary violation is another person’s sexual abuse,” said Van de North.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
WMUR

[with video]

By Adam Sexton, News Reporter

CONCORD, N.H. —The former leader of one of the nation’s top clergy treatment centers plans to plead guilty in New Hampshire to stealing at least $4,500 from a hospital, a deceased priest’s estate and the state’s Roman Catholic bishop, prosecutors said Monday.

Msgr. Edward Arsenault held several senior positions in New Hampshire from 1999 to 2009 before becoming president and CEO of Saint Luke Institute in Maryland. He resigned from that job in May when New Hampshire authorities said they were investigating allegations involving an inappropriate adult relationship and misuse of church funds.

The Attorney General’s Office said Monday that Arsenault had waived indictment and will plead guilty to three felony theft charges involving the bishop, the estate of a Manchester priest who died in 2010, and Manchester’s Catholic Medical Center, where Arsenault had done consulting work. Each theft exceeded $1,500.

The plea agreement calls for Arsenault to be sentenced to two consecutive sentences of 4-10 years in prison, with two years suspended from each because of his extensive cooperation. It will be considered by a judge at an April 23 hearing.

Arsenault’s lawyer, Cathy Green, declined to comment. Officials with the diocese and the hospital also declined to comment on the details of the allegations, and prosecutors provided little information other than saying each theft exceeded $1,500 and providing a timeframe for the thefts.

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INDIA
Hindustan Times

The head priest of the Badrinath temple, one of the holiest Hindu shrines, was arrested on Monday for allegedly molesting a 28-year-old pregnant woman under the influence of alcohol in a south-Delhi hotel.

The 38-year-old priest, designated ‘Rawal’ Keshawan Namboodiri, and his cousin Vishnu Prakash were arrested for ‘wrongful confinement and outraging the modesty of a woman’ and were sent to judicial custody for 14 days. Namboodiri has also been suspended by the shrine’s administration.

“The incident was reported from Mehrauli’s Delight hotel around 4:30 pm on Monday, shortly after Namboodiri invited the woman to the hotel for a ceremony,” said a senior police officer. The woman is believed to have known the priest through her father.

The woman initially declined Namboodiri’s offer to meet but relented when he sent his private vehicle to pick her up from her residence. She was then invited to the priest’s room, which had alcohol bottles and cigarette stubs strewn about, she claimed.

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UNITED STATES
A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics

There was been great discussion in Rome, going back over a year, on the 300 page dossier on the antics of the local “gay lobby,” or “homosexual mafia,” in the priesthood there. It is felt by many that this dossier played a decisive role in Pope Benedict’s decision to abdicate.

Of course, this was a great scandal – as was Fr. Dariusz Oka’s unprecedented public analysis of the homosexual network among the Polish clergy. All this seems new to someone like me, who started getting really involved in the Faith about 8 or so years ago. But these kinds of revelations have been going on longer than that, going back over a decade, at least to the original outbreak of the “priest abuse crisis” that rocked the Church in this country in the early 2000s. There is a disturbing amount of data out there. Suffice it to say, sodomite penetration of the priesthood is a near-worldwide phenomenon.

In this vein, I have started reading Likoudis’ Amchurch Comes Out, and it makes for startling, frightening reading. This book was published in 2002, when the “sex abuse crisis” was at its height. But it seems, to me at least, that much of the data contained within has been lost in the creep of time. Before I excerpt a couple bits, here are some bullet points to always keep in mind:

1. Over 1000 priests were found guilty of abusing children, the vast majority of them pubescent boys
2. This scandal has affected every. single. diocese.
3. Homosexual priests staff – or staffed, at least well into the 2000s – some of the most sensitive, influential posts at the USCCB and in some of the most powerful archdioceses. That put their influence far out of proportion to their numbers.
4. Rational people do not upend a Church, or wage a war of oppression, over points of liturgical detail or ecumenical procedure. They wage such wars in order to squash institutional objections to certain kinds of behavior, especially sexual behavior.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014

For more information: Joelle Casteix 949 322 7434, jcasteix@gmail.com,
David Clohessy 314 566 9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Accused pedophile priest has passed away
Cleric unsuccessfully sued a victim for slander
She received more than $1 million in settlement
Yet Catholic officials still kept him in a parish for years

A Napa Catholic priest who was accused of sexually assaulting a child, Msgr. Joseph Alzugaray, has passed away. A church lay panel recommended he be suspended and his victim received a $1+ million settlement, but Santa Rosa Catholic officials still kept him in parish ministry for years.

[Press Democrat]

[Treadway & Wigger]

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging Santa Rosa’s Catholic Bishop Robert F. Vasa to “aggressively reach out to others who may have seen, suspected or suffered Msgr. Alzugaray’s crimes.”

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, believe that others may have been molested by Msgr. Alzugaray but “may still be suffering in silence, intimidated by Msgr. Alzugaray’s mean-spirited defamation lawsuit and Bishop Walsh’s complicity and callousness.”

“We are relieved that Msgr. Alzugaray can never hurt another child, but for Santa Rosa’s bishop to do nothing now is irresponsible,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “Catholic officials in Los Angeles found one of his victims credible. One Catholic official in Santa Rosa did not. Justice demands a re-examination of this troubling case.”

“It’ll be tempting and easy for Bishop Vasa to duck and dodge and ‘pass the buck’ here,” said Joelle Casteix, SNAP’s western regional director. “But that’s wrong. Santa Rosa Catholics and citizens deserve to know more about how the Msgr. Alzugaray case was handled by diocesan officials.”

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.

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 4

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A Minnesota judge blocked the release of a deposition and transcript of an accused predator priest named Fr. Gilbert Allen Tarlton (a.k.a Allen Tarlton or Allen Berry).

[KSTP]

We are disappointed by this action. Catholic officials pledge “openness” but continue to practice secrecy. Transparency, not secrecy, protects kids.

For decades, Catholic officials have kept clergy sex abuse and cover up cases hidden. We’ve seen and felt the devastating results of this self-serving pattern. If kids are to be protected, this secrecy must end.

[Pioneer Press]

Our hearts go out to the victims of sexual abuse in Minnesota. We know how difficult and brave it is to come forward and report abuse. We hope no other victims or witnesses will be deterred by this action. And we hope that those courageous individuals who were assaulted by St. Cloud area clerics and are taking legal action will not be discouraged.

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MARYLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014

Ex head of MD center pleads guilty
Catholic priest stole from three sources
He headed facility for sexually troubled clerics
And he himself is accused of “inappropriate relationship”

A Catholic priest who headed the US’ largest facility for child molesting clergy has plead guilty to felony theft and is likely headed to prison.

[New Hampshire Public Radio]

He is Msgr. Edward Arsenault, who has also been a high ranking church official in the Manchester NH diocese. Until May, he had earned $170,000 as head of the St. Luke’s Institute in Suitland, Maryland.

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims questions whether Msgr. Arsenault may have also stolen from St. Luke’s and it notes that Msgr. Arsenault is also accused of an “inappropriate relationship,” according to New Hampshire church officials. In roughly 17 states, any sexual contact between a cleric and a congregant is a crime.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are urging bishops in New Hampshire and Maryland to “aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or misdeeds by Msgr. Arsenault.” They believe that he might still be prosecuted for other crimes “but only if a sincere outreach effort is made, instead of the typical response by Catholic officials, which is doing little or virtually nothing.”

“We hope Catholic officials will be honest about Msgr. Arsenault’s alleged sexual misconduct,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “No matter how old the victim may be, it’s always very hurtful – and often illegal- when a powerful and allegedly celibate priest abuses his position and sexually exploits a parishioner.”

“This is yet another reminder that no institution can police itself and treat its own predators,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP’s outreach director. “It’s inherently problematic and self-serving for Catholic officials to send Catholic offenders to a facility run by Catholic officials.”

Arsenault has not been defrocked, SNAP notes, stressing that he should still be referred to as “Msgr. Arsenault.”

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UNITED STATES
The Nation

Jessica Valenti

I’ve never watched a Woody Allen movie. My parents refused to rent them after he began a “relationship” with Soon-Yi Previn and their explanation stuck with me through adulthood. I was around 13 years old at the time, and always looking to pick a fight—I asked why it mattered since Previn wasn’t his “real” daughter. My parents sat me down and talked about the responsibility adults have to children, and certain boundaries that parents and parental figures must respect.

As I grew older—as I had teachers come on to me as a teen, as I experienced the way grown men get away with sexualizing girls—I understood the significance of what my parents told me. Today, as an adult, I know that when we make excuses for particular, powerful men who hurt women, we make the world more comfortable for all abusers. And that this cultural cognitive dissonance around sexual assault and abuse is building a safety net for perpetrators that we should all be ashamed of.

We know one in five girl children are sexually assaulted. Yet when victims speak out, we ask them why they waited so long to talk. We question why don’t they remember the details better. We suspect that they misunderstood what happened.

We know that abusers are manipulative, often charismatic, and that they hide their crimes well. We know that they target women and children who society will be less likely to believe—low-income women, children of color, the disabled, women who can be discredited as “crazy.” Yet when the caretakers of children who have been abused come forward, we call them “vengeful,” as Allen’s lawyer called Mia Farrow. We accuse them of trying to “alienate” their children from the abusing parent. Or, as one of Allen’s friends did in a shameful article for The Daily Beast—we simply insinuate that the protective parent is just a slut, so how can you believe anything she says anyway? …

I believe, as Roxane Gay does, that people are skeptical of abuse victims because “the truth and pervasiveness of sexual violence around the world is overwhelming. Why would anyone want to face such truth?” I also believe that deep down people know that once we start to believe victims en masse—once we take their pain and experience seriously—that everything will have to change. Recognizing the truth about sexual assault and abuse will mean giving up too many sports and movies and songs and artists. It will mean rethinking institutions and families and power dynamics and the way we interact with each other every day. It will be a lot.

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CANADA
CBC

Over the course of 25 years, Maria Grazia Fillipucci was in an unusual, on-again, off-again, relationship. And despite the depth of her feelings, she was forced to keep the liaison a secret. But now she is speaking out about what she and dozens of other women in Rome have in common: love affairs with priests.

“If you want to be a priest and want to continue a relationship with me you must be honest. I have to decide if I want to continue to be the lover of the priest.”
Maria Grazia Fillipucci

This month, Pope Francis got his picture on the cover of the Rollling Stone. It’s an unusual choice for a magazine that normally features rock stars, people rarely associated with self-control, discretion… or celibacy.

The title of the cover story is called The Times They Are A-Changing. Perhaps not fast enough for some of the women who meet regularly in Rome to discuss their secret affairs, affairs with men unlikely to appear in Rolling Stone.

Our documentary, Unfaithful was produced by freelance journalist Megan Williams.

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INDIA
Business Standard

Press Trust of India

The chief priest Keshavan Namboodiri of the famous Badrinath shrine was arrested for allegedly confining and molesting a woman in a city hotel here and sent today to 14 days of judicial custody by a Delhi court.

According to police, the incident took place yesterday at around 4:30 PM when a 28-year-old woman had gone to meet him at the hotel where he allegedly tried to outrage her modesty.

Besides Namboodiri, one of his associates Vishnu Prasad was arrested from the spot yesterday and were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Shreya Arora Mehta who remanded them to judicial custody till February 18 after the police did not seek their custodial interrogation.

The police also told the court that the two were drunk at the time of arrest.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

[Summary: Arecibo – Three justice department prosecutors are working at full steam to search for victims of sexual abuse by pedophile priests expelled from the Catholic Church. The district attorney said yesterday he is concerned that these perpetrators are near and could cause more harm. District Attorney Wilson Gonzalez Antongiorgi sat down yesterday with El Nuevo Dia and stressed that justice will investigate each reported case of pedophile priests and will criminally prosecute religious leaders. He added that he needs for victims to come forward in confidence and report what happened or what they witnessed. The district attorney emphasized that the Catholic Church handles these cases amid ecclesiastical processes and determines guilty secretly.]

Por Limarys Suárez Torres / lsuarez1@elnuevodia.com

Arecibo – Tres fiscales del Departamento de Justicia trabajan a todo vapor en la búsqueda de víctimas de abuso sexual de sacerdotes pederastas expulsados de la Iglesia Católica y ayer el fiscal de este distrito expresó que le preocupa que estos victimarios estén cerca de menores y consigan a nuevos perjudicados.

Wilson González Antongiorgi, fiscal de distrito de Arecibo, se sentó ayer con El Nuevo Día y subrayó que Justicia investigará cada uno de los casos de sacerdotes pederastas denunciados en este rotativo con la meta de procesar criminalmente a los líderes religiosos. Reiteró que investigarán todos los casos hasta las últimas consecuencias y la clave para Justicia será dar con las víctimas cuyos casos no hayan prescrito.

“Es importante que los ciudadanos sepan que el Departamento de Justicia tiene sumo interés en estos casos, que necesitamos que las víctimas se acerquen a nosotros en confianza y denuncien lo que vivieron. Es importante que las víctimas entiendan que si su caso no ha prescrito buscaremos el procesamiento de estos sacerdotes”, indicó.

González Antongiorgi destacó que como la Iglesia Católica maneja estos casos en medio de procesos eclesiásticos y determina culpabilidad secretamente, actualmente esos sacerdotes pederastas expulsados continúan con un récord criminal limpio y técnicamente pueden estar cerca de menores.

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AUSTRALIA
Ipswich Advertiser

Jessica Grewal 4th Feb 2014 6:00 AM

A MISSING boy, who ran away from a Salvation Army children’s home, fell into the hands of a pedophile ring and likely ended up “at the bottom of Sydney Harbour” the royal commission heard.

In some of the most chilling evidence before the inquiry into abuse at four of the army’s boys homes, Salvation Army Major Cliff Randall recalled a time in the ’70s when a regular runaway from the Indooroopilly home went missing and never returned.

The commission heard he and his wife Marina had been outraged by the treatment of children at the Indooroopilly home and were trying to get management to step in when a boy returned from a long stint away and confided in him.

He said the boy told him that he and a victim who can only be referred to as “HT” had been picked up by unknown men outside the home, taken to a millionaire hardware store owner in Brisbane, given chocolates and drinks and flown to Sydney where they were to have sex with a “top chef” at Paddington.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Brisbane

[with audio]

04 February 2014
by Gabrielle Burke

Some hair-raising evidence has been given at the Royal Commission hearing in Sydney looking at Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

ABC reporter Tom Oriti spoke to Steve Austin about what survivors have reported took place at the Alkira Salvation Army home in Indooroopilly in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A retired Salvation Army major has claimed boys living at a Queensland foster home run by the charity were enticed into a pedophile ring run by a wealthy businessman.

Retired Salvation Army Major Clifford Randall detailed the horrific allegations to a royal commission into the alleged sexual against young boys living in a foster home run by the charity in the 1975.

Mr Randall, who did not name the businessman, said the boys were then sexually abused, before being flown to the home of a top Sydney chef who assaulted them again.

One of the boys allegedly never came back, with one of his friends reportedly claiming he ended up “at the bottom of Sydney Harbour”, according to the Brisbane Times.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

Lewis Blayse championed the case of people abused at Salvation Army homes but has now passed away. Before his death, he gave 7.30 an interview in which he spoke of his hopes for the Royal Commission in to institutional abuse and for the children of the future.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The name of the Salvation Army has long been associated with the ideals of charity and compassion. So many Australians have been appalled by revelations of sexual depravity and extreme cruelty at Salvation Army homes aired at the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse in the past week.

One of survivors of that ordeal was Queensland man Lewis Blayse. He campaigned for decades to have the accused abusers brought to justice and he helped set up the Royal Commission.

Last Friday, Lewis Blayse told the story of his experience in the Salvos’ horrifying homes to 7.30. A few hours later on Friday evening, he died of a heart attack.

His family wanted his last interview to be aired. Conor Duffy reports.

CONOR DUFFY, REPORTER: Like thousands of other abuse victims, Lewis Blayse needed to be alone. Haunted by his childhood, he retreated to an overgrown, isolated house in rural Queensland, but the trauma of his past came with him.

LEWIS BLAYSE: Yeah, I went through a depression for a while, I guess. My wife got sick of it and left eventually. A lot of the best psychiatrists in the country have tried to – if I’m near people for too long, I start getting nauseous because of the tension. Never get rid of it, apparently.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Thomas Oriti

An inquiry into Salvation Army boys homes has been told officers were quickly moved to other states if they were accused of child sexual abuse.

The Alkira Salvation Army Home for Boys at Indooroopilly in Queensland is one of four homes being examined by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Marina Randall and her husband Cliff worked as “house parents” in the home between 1973 and 1975.

Major Randall has recalled arriving at her accommodation in 1973.

“It just looked as if it had been left in a hurry. Things weren’t the way you might normally expect if it had been a relaxed leaving,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Monday 3 February 2014

The Queensland government stopped sending children to a Salvation Army home after a whistleblower told a welfare officer a boy had been brutally beaten by the manager, a child abuse inquiry has been told.

Retired Salvation Army major Clifford Randall said he saw Captain John McIver, the then manager of Alkira, the home for boys at Indooroopilly, dislocate a boy’s shoulder when the boy resisted being hit with a strap between his legs and was thrown against a brick wall.

Randall resumed his evidence at a royal commission into child sexual abuse hearing in Sydney on Tuesday.

He said he reported the incident to a Jan Doyle, a senior social worker with the Department of Children’s Services.

Randall and his wife, Marina, who is also a major in the Salvation Army, were at the Alkira home as houseparents from 1973 to 1975.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP FEBRUARY 04, 2014

THE Salvation Army reacted with disbelief and suspected people were money-grabbing when they began receiving complaints about abuse in their homes for children.

Major Marina Randall, who with her husband Major Clifford Randall blew the whistle on extreme abuse by two Salvation Army managers at a Queensland home for boys, said there was a naivety in 1999 about the handling of abuse allegations.

She was giving evidence at a royal commission hearing into how the Salvation Army Eastern Territory responded to allegations of child abuse at two homes in Queensland and two in NSW.

Mrs Randall and her husband were house parents at Alkira Home for Boys in Indooroopilly in Queensland from 1973 to 1975.

The then young couple were shocked at what they witnessed – a regime under Captain Lawrence Wilson and then Captain John McIver in which children were brutalised.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A priest of the Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus ordained in 1959, Gill spent most of his career at St. Francis Mission on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. In 2003 Gill was one of a number of priests, brothers and nuns accused of abusing children at the mission. His accuser said Gill would fondle and beat boys. Gill was transferred from the mission to a Jesuit community in Wauwatosa, WI in 2003. He died Dec. 9, 2012.

Ordained: 1959
Died: Dec. 9, 2012

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CALIFORNIA
Treadway & Wigger

August 14, 1941 – January 31, 2014
Resided in Napa, CA

Monsignor Joseph Francis Alzugaray, beloved pastor emeritus of St. Apollinaris Catholic Church, died peacefully at his home on Friday, January 31, 2014.

Msgr. Joe was born on August 14, 1941 in Whittier California. He attended St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, CA and was ordained a priest April 29, 1967 for the Diocese of Los Angeles. His first assignments were as associate pastor of Immaculate Conception in Monrovia and then at St. Finbar’s in Burbank. He served as the Director of the Archdiocesan Mission Office for the Propagation of the Faith, Lay Mission-Helpers Assn from 1975-1990.

During this time he travelled extensively to missions around the world. Following that assignment he was the pastor of All Souls parish in Alhambra. His next move was to Northern California and to the Diocese of Santa Rosa. In 1995 he was made the associate pastor of St. James in Petaluma as well as Chaplain to St. Vincent High School. In September of 2001 he was appointed as pastor of St. Apollinaris parish in Napa, continuing in this position until his retirement in October of 2011. Until his recent illness, Msgr. was of service, officiating at most parishes in the Napa vicinity, filling in for weddings, masses, wherever needed.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

[with video]

Created: 02/03/2014

By: Leslie Dyste

A last minute judge’s decision blocked the release of a deposition video and transcript from a priest Monday.

Attorney Jeff Anderson and the victims of clergy sex abuse were set to release details of that deposition in St. Cloud. They accuse several priests in the Diocese of abuse.

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is expected to release another list of accused priests at some point this week.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

VATICAN CITY, February 4, 2014 – The president and secretary general of the Italian episcopal conference may continue to be appointed by the pope. This is what the bishops of Italy themselves want, after Pope Francis asked them last May, in the name of greater collegiality, to review the statutes of the CEI and rethink the ways of appointing the president and secretary.

An extensive consultation of the Italian episcopate was carried out in recent months on this point. And the results were made public at the end of the winter session of the permanent council, the mini-parliament of the CEI made up of roughly thirty members, which was held at the end of January in Rome.

Contrary to what takes place in almost all the episcopal conferences of the world, in Italy the presidency is not elective, but of pontifical appointment. And not without reason. The pope is in fact the bishop of Rome and primate of Italy. And as bishop of Rome – a title that Jorge Mario Bergoglio prefers – he is a member of the CEI, even if he does not actually participate in its activities. And so if he did not have a say in appointing the leaders he would find himself in the paradoxical situation of one who, in spite of having authority superior to that of all the episcopal conferences, as far as his own diocese is concerned would have to submit to decisions and stances taken without his direct participation.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Nashua Telegraph

By JOSEPH G. COTE
Staff Writer

A former high-ranking official for the Roman Catholic Bishop of Manchester will plead guilty to stealing from his employer and a Manchester hospital, according to state law enforcement officials.

Monsignor Edward Arsenault III is scheduled to plead guilty to three counts of theft at hearing in April, according to a release issued Monday by Attorney General Joseph Foster and U.S. Attorney John Kacavas.

Arsenault, who held several senior positions in New Hampshire from 1999-2009, will admit to stealing from the Roman Catholic Bishop in Manchester between Jan. 1, 2005, and March 15, 2013; from Catholic Medical Center in Manchester from Feb. 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010; and from the estate of Monsignor John Molan between June 13, 2010, and Feb. 8, 2012. Each of the counts accuse Arsenault of taking more than $1,500, according to officials.

Arsenault left the diocese in 2009 to become the president and CEO of Saint Luke Institute in Maryland. He resigned from that post in May when New Hampshire officials said they were investigating allegations involving an inappropriate adult relationship and misuse of church funds.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

EDWARD J. ARSENAULT

February 3, 2013

Dear friends,

On June 2, 1991, I was entrusted with representing the Lord Jesus as a priest of the Diocese of Manchester. Although I have sought to do so faithfully and well, I not only failed to do what is right, I also committed crimes in the exercise of my responsibilities as a priest and a collaborator in the work of the Catholic Church in New Hampshire.

I am truly and sincerely sorry for what I did and I apologize to the many who have been harmed by my actions.

First, I have sought forgiveness from God. Thanks to the gifts of grace and the pastoral care of priests, family and friends, I have experienced this forgiveness in a profound and gracious way.

Second, I apologize to the prior and current Bishops of Manchester and to my colleagues in diocesan ministries over many years. Many of these persons have already supported me despite my failings and crimes – true experiences of Christ for me. I was always in their debt for our work together, and now, more so, for their mercy.

Third, I apologize to the priests of New Hampshire. I have failed the bond of our fraternity and I ask your forgiveness. Many priests and religious sisters — from New Hampshire and elsewhere — have reached out in love and support these last several months. This has sustained me in ways that words cannot express.

Fourth, I seek forgiveness from my family and many friends. Their unconditional love and support, and their frequent reminders to me of who I am and of the good that I have done, has helped me to keep perspective during the last year.

Finally, I apologize to the people of New Hampshire, especially the Catholic community, for the harm this has caused them. I broke the law and violated the trust of others. I am prepared to accept the consequences for having done so, to make restitution and to face the penalty for having committed these crimes.

My decision to write to you now is because I have been constrained by the process that has unfolded these last several months. Today certain aspects of what transpired in the past will be made public. I wanted to write to you to express my remorse and sorrow, to ask your forgiveness and to express my resolve to face the consequences of my wrongs with the strength of my convictions.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

By ANNMARIE TIMMINS and JEREMY BLACKMAN
Monitor staff
Monday, February 3, 2014

Monsignor Edward Arsenault, the former public face of the Diocese of Manchester, will plead guilty to charges he stole thousands of dollars from the church, a hospital and a colleague as the church struggled to rebound from a pervasive clergy abuse scandal.

As part of a bargain with the state, Arsenault has agreed to plead guilty this spring to three counts of theft in exchange for a minimum four-year state prison sentence, according to a court document made public yesterday.

The indictments in the case, filed in Rockingham County and Hillsborough County North superior courts, do not indicate how much Arsenault stole – or the manner in which he did so – but do establish that the amount was at least $1,500 for each count, the minimum required for a felony-level offense.

The thefts occurred between Jan. 1, 2005, and March 15, 2013, according to the indictments.

Arsenault is set to plead guilty to all three counts at an April 23 hearing in Manchester. In addition to the prison sentence, he will be ordered to pay full restitution to the victims: the Roman Catholic Bishop of Manchester, Catholic Medical Center in Manchester and the Estate of Reverend Monsignor John Molan, who died in 2010.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

European Court of Human Rights Finds Irish Government Responsible for Abuse of Children in State Schools Run by Catholic Church

William D. Lindsey

In many cultures in which the sexual abuse of children is only now coming to the fore as an issue for public discussion, authority figures repeatedly engage in a game I think of as the Judas game: when Jesus speaks to his disciples of his betrayal at the Last Supper, Judas responds with feigned, insincere shock as he asks, “Is it I, Lord?” Is it I who will betray you?

Authority figures who have had every reason to know that children were being abused, and who did little or nothing to protect children, routinely claim–long after the fact and when their inaction has been exposed–that they just didn’t know anything much at all. Not back then. Not in the old days when we weren’t aware that children could be abused . . . .

We weren’t responsible. It was somebody else’s fault. If we’d only known then what we know now, we might have behaved more admirably . . . .

As the New York Times notes in an editorial on Ireland and child abuse several days ago, the European Court of Human Rights has just rejected the longstanding argument of the Irish government that the government cannot be held responsible for the abuse of children in state schools run by the Catholic church. The court finds the Irish government “responsible for failing to act against inhuman and degrading treatment of citizens that is specifically barred under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.” Though the church runs state schools in Ireland, the government itself is responsible for the well-being of the children in those schools every bit as much as the church is.

The editorial states,

It is particularly telling that the human rights court found the government, based on “a significant rate” of child-abuse prosecutions prior to the 1970s, was familiar with the problem and “had to have been aware of” the need to protect children even as it denied responsibility. Effective state mechanisms for parents to raise alarms should have been enacted well before the Dunderrow school scandal, the court noted. In contrast, the Irish Supreme Court dismissed liability claims in the last decade by saying the primary school system had to be viewed in its “specific context” of Irish history and the Catholic Church’s privileged position in Irish society.

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OHIO
Christian Post

Ohio Pastor Tom Randall Released From Jail in Philippines; Sex Trafficking and Molestation Charges Dropped

By Katherine Weber, Christian Post Reporter
February 3, 2014

Announcements made via social media on Monday indicate Ohio pastor Tom Randall has been released from jail in the Philippines, and his charges of negligence toward sex abuse and human trafficking at his orphanage have reportedly been dropped.

An update on the “Free Tom Randall” Facebook page posted Monday indicates the pastor has been released from jail in the Asian country. “All charges dropped. Tom Randall is free,” reads the text on an image uploaded to the Facebook page.

A later update on the page reads: “Now that he is free, Tom’s next prayer and concern is for the kids from the orphanage who were taken. Many of the boys have been found. However, they don’t know where the girls are. He [and others] are working to find them all, and to make sure they are safe, secure, and cared for. Also, still waiting for word on Toto and Jake. Hopefully they will be cleared soon.”

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UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

Frank Douglas

Yesterday, before the Super Bowl, Lorraine and I watched Basta (Enough in Italian), a documentary by clergy abuse survivor Gary Bergeron. The film chronicles the Don Quixote quest of three clergy sexual abuse survivors—Gary, fellow survivor Bernie McDade, and Gary’s father Eddie Bergeron—to meet John Paul II face to face in search of help in arresting the cancer of clergy sexual abuse of children. Gary, Bernie, and Eddie get the Vatican version of three-card Monte, but never get to see the pope.

However, the three men from New England meet people more important than the pope: fellow survivors of clergy sexual abuse from all over the world. Instead of a meeting with the pope, Gary discovers that success isn’t always defined by achieving a goal. Sometimes it’s defined by the attempt itself. And sometimes, in that attempt, you also find out who you are.

Gary Bergeron brings his marvelous communication skills and marketing talent to Basta.
I give Basta four stars.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Public Radio

[with audio]

By JOSH ROGERS

Things started to go bad for Monsignor Edward Arsenault in May, when he stepped down as President of the St. Luke Institute, a priest treatment center in Maryland.

Arsenault quit the job – and its $170,000 salary — when prosecutors announced an investigation into misuse of church finds and an improper adult relationship.

Prosecutors say between 2005 and March of last year, Edward Arsenault stole thousands of dollars from the Manchester diocese, the Catholic Medical Center and the estate of another priest.

From 1999-2009 Arsenault was Chancellor at the Manchester Diocese, and its public face during the diocese’s clergy sexual abuse settlement with the state.

In the agreement announced by Attorney General Joseph Foster and US Attorney John Kacavas, Arsenault will admit to 3 class A felonies.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

[with video]

Written by
Mark Sommerhauser

Leaders of the Diocese of St. Cloud and St. John’s Abbey haven’t done enough to protect children or other potential victims from clergy who are credibly accused of sex abuse and living in the community, alleged abuse victims and their attorneys said Monday.

Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Michael Bryant, their clients and advocates spoke at a news conference at the Bradshaw & Bryant law offices in Waite Park.

They disputed recent claims by St. Cloud diocesan and St. John’s Abbey officials that they have disclosed all known names of clergy members with credible accusations of abuse.

They also emphasized what they described as the threat posed by such clergy living at St. John’s Abbey and elsewhere in Central Minnesota. Fourteen credibly accused offenders now live at the abbey, Anderson said.

“As long as there’s a monk who is a sex offender that’s on campus at St. John’s, those kids are not going to be safe,” said Patrick Wall, a former St. John’s monk who now works for Anderson.

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MONTANA
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel Feb. 3, 2014

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena, Mont., has agreed to pay $15 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse, and becomes the 11th U.S. diocese to file for bankruptcy protection to deal with its numerous abuse claims and lawsuits.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee was the eighth Catholic diocese to seek Chapter 11 protection when it filed in January 2011.

Helena appears unusual, if not unique, among the bankrupt dioceses in that it hammered out its settlement agreement with victim-survivors before filing on Friday.

According to the diocese, it will pay $15 million to 362 victims and an place an unspecified amount into a future-claims fund. The bulk of that will be funded by insurance. The diocese itself would contribute $2.5 million toward claims, legal fees and other costs.

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ARIZONA
My Fox Phoenix

MESA, Ariz. –
Mesa Police have arrested a 53 year-old Mormon Bishop for allegedly trying to lure a 16 year-old boy on Facebook.

Authorities arrested Michael Wayne Coleman on January 6th when a representative from Educatius International contacted Mesa Police about the concern.

Coleman allegedly made comments about getting a hug and kiss from the student on the social media website.

Educatius International suspended Coleman and seized his computer and cell phone as evidence for the police. Detectives obtained a warrant and found explicit conversations with a 17 year-old male on the internet.

Detectives say that Coleman acknowledge the conversations but did not admit to the sexual conduct, he then requested an attorney.

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ARIZONA
USA Today

[with video]

MESA, Ariz. — Technology made it possible for a man to abuse teenage victims thousands of miles away, but it also left a digital trail that eventually resulted in his arrest, police said.

Michael Wayne Coleman, 53, was arrested Jan. 16 and accused of luring a minor for sexual exploitation after a forensic examination of a laptop computer and cellphone uncovered sexually graphic conversations and an exchange of nude photographs with a 17-year-old student in Brazil, said Detective Steve Berry, a Mesa police spokesman.

Police praised Educatius International, a company that primarily arranges for foreign-exchange students to study in the United States, for seizing a company-issued laptop and cellphone from Coleman immediately after it received a complaint from a 16-year-old student.

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ARIZONA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Feb. 3

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

An ex-Mormon bishop faces child sex abuse charges.

[KPHO]

We are grateful that this company apparently acted responsibly, that law enforcement is involved and that this victim is apparently cooperating with them.

Now, it’s crucial that the church and the firm use their resources to help police by aggressively seeking out anyone who saw, suspected or suffered this clergyman’s crimes. All too often, suspected or known child predators are merely suspended. That’s inadequate. That’s the bare minimum. That’s a smart public relations and legal defense move by employers.

But employers have a civic and moral duty to do more. They shouldn’t passively sit back and wait for subpoenas. They must turn over every shred of paperwork about possible predators. And they must actively reach out to others with information or suspicions about possible wrongdoing.

We hope Mormon officials will disclose every place where this alleged predator worked and will act like caring shepherds, not cold-hearted CEOs, and seek out others who may have been hurt and may be suffering in silence, shame and self-blame.

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GERMANY
Chicago Tribune

* Survey shows wide rejection of rules on sexual morality
* Catholics want looser stance on remarriage after divorce
* Report boost pressure for reform at Vatican synod

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Germany’s Catholic bishops, responding to a worldwide Vatican survey, said on Monday that many Church teachings on sexual morality were either unknown to the faithful there or rejected as unrealistic and heartless.

They said the survey, drawn up for a synod on possible reforms in October, showed most German Catholics disputed Church bans on birth control and premarital or gay sex and criticised rules barring the divorced from remarriage in church.

The results will not be news to many Catholics, especially in affluent Western countries, but the blunt official admission of this wide gap between policy and practice is uncommon and bound to raise pressure on Pope Francis to introduce reforms.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Rev. John J. Gallen was a Jesuit priest of the New York Province, ordained in 1963. Gallen went on to become an internationally known scholar and author who led seminars around the world on Catholic liturgy and worship. In 1993 a man reported to his then-home diocese of Milwaukee that, when he was a 16-year-old altar boy in 1980 at a Toledo OH parish, Gallen sexually abused him. Gallen was at the parish in March 1980 to lead a week-long retreat. His accuser said Gallen touched him inappropriately and kissed him. The man said that Gallen later got his parents to allow him to help the priest with a move from Phoenix to Sacramento and that, during the trip, Gallen forced him into oral sex. Gallen’s accuser said he reported the abuse to two of his parish priests shortly thereafter, but that the priests did not believe him. Gallen sent his accuser letters of apology for his behavior in 1993 and 1994. Gallen could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired. He died April 17, 2011.

Ordained: 1963
Died: April 17, 2011

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Feb. 3

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

The long-time second-in-command of the New Hampshire Catholic diocese, Msgr. Edward Arsenault (he has not been defrocked), is pleading guilty to theft.

[New Hampshire Union Leader]

We are not surprised. But our hearts ache for New Hampshire clergy sex abuse victims and Catholics who have been betrayed and misled, time and time again, by Msgr. Arsenault and his colleagues and supervisors in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases.

Msgr. Arsenault has attacked victims, deceived parishioners and defended the indefensible.

He has repeatedly blamed media and others for the on-going abuse and cover up crisis. It was his wrongdoing that led New Hampshire’s attorney general to investigate the diocese and insist on overseeing its handling of abuse cases for five years.

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UNITED STATES
The Inquiry

By AARON BADY

This is a basic principle: until it is proven otherwise, beyond a reasonable doubt, it’s important to extend the presumption of innocence to Dylan Farrow, and presume that she is not guilty of the crime of lying about what Woody Allen did to her.

If you are saying things like “We can’t really know what happened” and extra-specially pleading on behalf of the extra-special Woody AllenHi, The Daily Beast!, then you are saying that his innocence is more presumptive than hers. You are saying that he is on trial, not her: he deserves judicial safeguards in the court of public opinion, but she does not.

The damnably difficult thing about all of this, of course, is that you can’t presume that both are innocent at the same time. One of them must be saying something that is not true. But “he said, she said” doesn’t resolve to “let’s start by assume she’s lying,” except in a rape culture, and if you are presuming his innocence by presuming her mendacity, you are rape cultured.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic World Report

February 03, 2014

Revealing her own history of abuse in a new book, former rock journalist Dawn Eden reflects on how the Church can improve its pastoral care of victims.
John Burger

The author of the 2006 best-seller The Thrill of the Chaste has revealed, in a new book, something of her past as a victim of childhood sexual abuse.

Dawn Eden, a Catholic convert who grew up Jewish, has woven her story with those of saints who suffered abuse of various kinds. In My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints, Eden offers advice on how victims of abuse can heal through learning some of those stories, through prayer, and through forgiveness.

In an interview with Catholic World Report, Eden offers suggestions on how the Church can reach out more effectively to victims of abuse, whether that abuse took place in the Church or in the victim’s very own home.

CWR: What led you to write this book?

Dawn Eden: I myself am a victim of childhood sexual abuse. For me, when I received the grace of faith in Christ at the age of 31, I was instantly healed of the depression and temptations to suicide that had dogged me since my teens and which I later learned were the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by the abuse. But what I discovered during my first years as a Christian, during which I was a Protestant, was that although I had experienced this dramatic healing from the worst aftereffects of the abuse, I still had other effects to contend with, including anxiety, flashbacks, and hyper-sensitivity. And my thought as a new Christian was that the fact that I had not yet received healing from these effects meant that I wasn’t fully surrendered, that I didn’t have enough faith. So I blamed myself for my own seeming failure to be living completely within the light of the risen Christ.

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ARIZONA
KPHO

Updated: Jan 31, 2014
By Phil Benson
By Breann Bierman

MESA, AZ (CBS5) –
A former bishop with the LDS Church was arrested by Mesa police last week on suspicion of luring a 16-year-old boy for sex, officers said.

The Jan. 16 arrest of Michael Wayne Coleman, 53, stemmed from an investigation that began on Nov. 2.

A representative from Educatius International, a foreign exchange student business, notified police about a complaint the student had filed. The boy alleged Coleman made comments during a Facebook chat about getting a hug and kiss from him, police said.

The company immediately suspended Coleman. The company computer and cell phone he had were turned over to detectives.

Authorities obtained a search warrant and detectives began to examine the information.

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UTAH
Courthouse News Service

By LORRAINE BAILEY

(CN) – A Mormon bishop who failed to consult a church-sponsored helpline for a sexually abused teen cannot be held liable, the Utah Supreme Court ruled.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints established a 1-800 number in 1995 exclusively for clergy members to call and get legal and counseling advice if they become aware of possible abuse.

Between the ages of 12 and 15, Kareena MacGregor was regularly sexually touched by a neighbor four years her senior, Matthew.

MacGregor also became sexually involved with Matthew’s brother, Gregory, who was two years older than she was. At age 15, she gave birth to Gregory’s baby at home. The baby died after she put him in a window well.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

By MARK HAYWARD
New Hampshire Union Leader

A priest who had held one of the highest positions in the Diocese of Manchester in the past decade has signaled he will plead guilty to charges of stealing money from the Catholic diocese, Catholic Medical Center and the estate of a fellow priest, state and federal prosecutors said today.

Edward J. Arsenault III has agreed to spend at least four years in New Hampshire State Prison, under terms of a plea bargain that prosecutors disclosed today. A statement by New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph Foster and U.S. Attorney John Kacavas notes Arseanault’s extensive cooperation in the investigation.

During most of the 2000s, Arseanault was the chancellor of the Diocese, an administrative post that made him the right-hand man to former Bishop John McCormack. He was also a board member of CMC.

The job frequently put him in front of cameras during the priest-sex abuse scandals of that decade. In 2009, he left that position to take a $170,000-a-year job at St. Luke Institute, a Maryland-based institution that delivers psychological and spiritual care to priests.

The statement said Arseanault had waived indictments in both Hillsborough County Superior Court-North and Rockingham County Superior Court.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Patch

Posted by Marc Fortier (Editor) , February 03, 2014

A former senior official in the Roman Catholic Church in New Hampshire has agreed to plead guilty to charges that he stole from the Archdiocese.

Attorney General Joseph Foster and U.S. Attorney John Kacavas announced in a press release that three waivers of indictment charging Edward J. Arsenault III with theft by unauthorized taking were filed Monday in the Hillsborough and Rockingham county superior courts.

The waivers state that between Jan. 1, 2005 and March 15, 2013, Arsenault committed the crime of theft by unauthorized taking by knowingly exercising unauthorized control over the property of the Bishop of Manchester. The aggregated amount of the theft exceeded $1,500.

Between Feb. 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010, Arsenault is also alleged to have committed the crime of theft by unauthorized taking by knowingly exercising unauthorized control over the property of the Catholic Medical Center. Again, the aggregated amount of the theft exceeded $1,500.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
WBNS

By HOLLY RAMER
Monday February 3, 2014

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The former leader of one of the nation’s top clergy treatment centers plans to plead guilty to stealing money from the Roman Catholic Bishop in New Hampshire, where he previously worked.

Msgr. Edward Arsenault (AHR’-suh-noh) held several senior positions in New Hampshire from 1999 to 2009 before becoming president and CEO of Saint Luke Institute in Maryland. He resigned from that job in May when New Hampshire authorities said they were investigating allegations involving an inappropriate adult relationship and misuse of church funds.

The attorney general’s office said Monday that Arsenault had waived indictment and will plead guilty to theft from the bishop, the estate of a priest and a hospital where he had done consulting work. Each theft exceeded $1,500.

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MARYLAND
Christian Post

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
February 3, 2014

After a former youth pastor pleaded guilty on Wednesday to having sex with a minor at the Calvary Assembly in Walkersville, Md., the church’s lead pastor John Kenney said the congregation is working hard to rebuild trust with the roughly 80 teenagers who participate in the youth group.

Shaun Michael Ross, 33, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a girl who attended his youth group from April 2008 through April 2010, and sought to win her over through texts, phone calls and gifts.

According to State Attorney Lindell K. Angel, Ross justified his actions to the victim by saying that, as her youth pastor, he was the “safest person to learn about sex from,” reported The Frederick News-Post.

“This was a manipulation that went on and occurred at a time when he was her counselor. This is a very serious offense,” said Angel.

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IRELAND
RH Reality Check

by Kathryn Joyce
February 3, 2014

“We all knew what it meant when a big car arrived,” says Philomena Lee, the namesake character of the Oscar-nominated film Philomena (starring Judi Dench), which tells the tale of an Irish Catholic mother separated from her son by one of Ireland’s infamous 20th century Magdalene Laundries. The laundries were convents-cum-reformatories where unwed pregnant women (or girls caught having sex, or girls who were raped, or girls just thought to be promiscuous), were sent to atone for their sins—usually through hard labor, washing laundry sent in from neighboring villages. They were also de facto adoption agencies, as Catholics from Ireland, but more often the United States, came to adopt the children delivered by pregnant Magdalenes.

What the big car meant, in Philomena’s case, was that an American doctor and his wife had come to adopt her son, Anthony. Like other children born in the convent, Anthony was labeled an orphan, abandoned by his mother, who, though she lived in close proximity to him in the convent, was only allowed to see him an hour a day. Like most other mothers in the laundry, Philomena had to watch as her son was delivered into strangers’ hands, while she remained to work in the convent to pay off her debt for being taken in: four years of labor in lieu of a £100 fee she couldn’t afford. Fifty years later, a modern generation of nuns, wearing friendly cardigans and pouring tea, offered Philomena sympathy, but no information on Anthony’s whereabouts, while residents of the local town whispered that the nuns burned documents to obscure how they’d “sold all those babies to America.”

This is the set-up that sends Philomena, along with world-weary journalist Martin Sixsmith, to America, to search out traces of her son. After they realize early on that he has died—a casualty of the AIDS crisis—the movie’s drama deals with how Philomena faces her grief, her worries that her son had forgotten or resented her, and her pained loyalty to the Catholic Church that oversaw their separation. Philomena, who in the movie and in real life remains a devout Catholic, ceaselessly defended the nuns who imprisoned her and the system they upheld, couching each tentative request for information with assurances that she doesn’t blame the church, and refusing that she was coerced. “I could have never given him a life like this,” she says, reflecting on the comparative opulence of her son’s upper-middle-class life in the United States.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Angela Bonavoglia

Dear Pope Francis:

As this new year unfolds, I’ve decided that, with all due respect, it is time for me to share with you my suggested “To-Do list on Women.” I’ve been deeply moved by your passionate defense of the poor; your willingness to call unbridled capitalism what it is, a spirit-killing machine for those to whom its bounty fails to trickle down; your symbolically and not so symbolically throwing the money changers — in the form of remote, rich, recriminating hierarchs — out of the Church temple. But I have been far less moved by what you have been saying about women. So,without further ado:

1. Please stop talking about the role of women in the church. That conceptualization implicitly allocates the place of a subgroup of human beings to designated corners of the institution. We never talk about expanding the role of men in the church because they are expected to be players in the whole church. The subject is justice, and equality.

2. Recognize women’s God-given moral authority. You’ve argued that the confessional should be a place of mercy not a “torture chamber,” and talked about a woman who had a failed marriage, remarried, had five children, but whose abortion “weighs heavily on her conscience and she sincerely regrets it.” The moral of your story was that the confessor’s job was to show her mercy. But what if she didn’t regret that abortion? What if she said it was the right thing for her to do? What if she knew in her bones that she could not be a mother then? Would you apply to her those heartfelt words that you applied to homosexuals, those words heard round the world: “Who am I to judge?” Abortion can be a difficult decision, we agree, but God obviously trusted women to make that decision: look where She put the embryo. …

8. Hold your brethren accountable. There is no question that the Church is the world’s oldest and largest surviving boys club and that, if women are ever to be equal in this church, you must hold the men accountable. The most urgent area for accountability regards your brother bishops’ complicity in decades of child sexual abuse. You were roundly applauded for suspending a German Bishop for extravagant spending on his opulent residence, including installing a $20,500 bathtub. What about castigating the bishops who were complicit in the rape and sodomizing of children instead of keeping them safe and secure in the arms of holy mother church? And, I must ask: Do you really think that the bishops would have such an easy time turning away the mothers who came asking for justice for the brutal crimes against their offspring if women had been equal players in the church?

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Mercury

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams is still outraged that Monsignor William Lynn is walking free, even if restricted to electronic home monitoring.

Williams still believes the Archdiocese of Philadelphia acted shamefully in its handling of a long, sordid history of sexual abuse of children by predatory priests. It was that policy of shifting problem priests from parish to parish — without alerting parishioners and families to the dangers being placed in their midst — that landed Lynn in prison, convicted of endangering the welfare of children in his duties as secretary of the clergy.

The D.A. is still adamant about protecting victims of sexual abuse and remaining vigilant to the issues that linger in the archdiocese.

He still believes a state appeals court was wrong when it tossed out Lynn’s conviction, backing a claim made from the day Lynn was charged, that he could not have committed under the law because at the time the statute did not apply to him in his role as a supervisor with the archdiocese.

Williams’ zeal in protecting the innocent, and his ardor in seeking justice for victims of child sexual abuse, are admirable.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Una Mullaly

Mon, Feb 3, 2014

I was working late the other night, accompanied by a friend, waiting around to grab some quotes from people, when he asked, “do you ever just make things up?” No, I said, never. Making up what would seem like an unimportant anonymous quote would be the same as making up something a minister told you, which would be the same as giving a false opinion in a film review, or pretending you had a source for something when it was just rumour. It’s all the same. It’s the principle. You just don’t want to go there.

While we were talking about this, I recalled one of the first lecturers the journalist Eddie Holt gave my class in DCU. He was talking about truth. If you lie or are dishonest in journalism, he said, that lie or that remark that wasn’t fully right, or that opinion you feigned, will run away from you, it’ll take on a life of its own and go all sorts of places and possibly turn into something unrecognisable. Inevitably it will come back to bite you in the ass.

Decision time

The truth, on the other hand, is steadfast. You can control it. When you put it out into the world, it comes to heel. Aged 18, and listening to Holt, it was decision time. Are you going to be the kind of journalist who is led by the truth, or the “kinda” truth? If you want to live with yourself, there’s no contest.

Every journalist knows the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night thinking, “I did get their name right, Didn’t I?” or “it was a hundred grand and not a million, wasn’t it?” You’re dealing with quotes and truths and figures and facts and feelings so much that getting everything right can create a low level of anxiety. Honest mistakes can happen, naturally, but it’s a whole different scenario if you’re purposefully misrepresenting something.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 04, 2014

BOYS living in a Salvation Army-run children’s home in Brisbane were flown to Sydney by a millionaire hardware store owner to be sexually abused, with at least one victim who never returned possibly being murdered. Senior officers at the Indooroopilly boys’ home also moved an alleged child-rapist to NSW, “otherwise he would have ended up in jail”, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.

Giving evidence yesterday, retired Salvation Army Major Cliff Randall said he was working at the home in 1975 when boys started disappearing for days at a time and returned noticeably subdued.

Speaking to one such child, “word that we received was that the boys were going to a millionaire who owned a hardware store in Brisbane,” he told the commission. “They were met outside and taken to this place.

“They were given drink and chocolates and everything . . . they were used that day in Brisbane then the next day they were sent down to Sydney.”

Once there, the boys were taken to the upmarket inner-city suburb of Paddington and abused by a “top chef” who owned a restaurant, Mr Randall said, although he did not know the names of any of the men allegedly involved.

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