ABUSE TRACKER

ILLINOIS/KANSAS
State Journal-Register

By Chris Dettro
Staff Writer
Posted Feb. 20, 2014

A Springfield monsignor who has served several churches in the local Catholic diocese has been named the next bishop of the Wichita, Kan., diocese.

According to a news release from the Springfield diocese, Msgr. Carl Kemme was named by Pope Francis to be the 11th bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wichita. The appointment was announced Thursday in Washington, D.C., by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano.

Kemme, 53, is vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Catholic Diocese of Springfield. He served as the diocese’s administrator between the terms of former Bishop George Lucas and current Bishop Thomas John Paprocki. …

A spokesman for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called Kemme’s promotion “disturbing.”

Barbara Dorris, outreach director of the St. Louis-based organization, said the Springfield diocesan staff “made a number of worrisome decisions” with Kemme in charge or as second-in-command.
Dorris said the diocese temporarily allowed the Rev. Robert “Bud” DeGrand to resign from his posts rather than suspending him after he was accused of molesting children. It also allowed the Rev. Thomas Donovan to remain a priest in Alton after he was found by Springfield police wearing an orange jumpsuit and a leather bondage-type mask, SNAP said.

Dorris said SNAP ‘is not optimistic that he (Kemme) will take real steps to reform long-standing, deeply rooted patterns of irresponsible, self-serving behavior by bishops in this ongoing crisis.”
It urged him to post the names of all credibly accused child-molesting clerics on his diocesan website.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

February 20

BY MATT CAMPBELL
The Kansas City Star

A former pastor at a Kansas City church pleaded guilty Thursday to child molestation and sexual misconduct with a child.

George L. Spencer, 59, agreed to sentences totaling seven years for groping and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl in February 2012.

Spencer was an associate pastor at Greater Works CME Church in south Kansas City. He took the girl to his office in the church while her mother and grandmother were attending Bible study upstairs.

The girl said Spencer groped her and made her take off her shirt and bra, according to court documents. He put his hands down her pants, sodomized her with his finger and exposed his genitals, the documents said. Spencer told the girl that he could get in a lot of trouble for his actions.

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MISSOURI
Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted: February 21, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — A former Kansas City church pastor pleaded guilty to child molestation and sexual misconduct involving a 13-year-old girl.

Fifty-nine-year-old George L. Spencer on Thursday was sentenced to a total of seven years in prison for groping and sodomizing the girl in February 2012.

Spencer was an associate pastor at Greater Works CME Church in south Kansas City. Court documents indicate he committed the crimes in his office while the girl’s mother and grandmother were attending Bible study at the church.

The Kansas City Star reports (http://bit.ly/1bRskOz ) the church’s pastor told Spencer the next day to turn in his keys and not return.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Feb 20, 2014

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a statement late Wednesday criticizing an MPR News story on clergy accused of sexual abuse.

The MPR News story published Wednesday said the archdiocese has not disclosed a complete list of clergy accused of child sexual abuse. The story cited police reports, court records and the archdiocese’s internal files.

In its statement, the archdiocese said that it remains committed to disclosing “substantiated” claims of abuse. “The 28 clergy members identified by MPR have not been publicly disclosed by the archdiocese because they do not, to date, constitute substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor,” the statement said. The archdiocese said that improperly identifying individuals “is irresponsible and does not serve victims, safety of children or the public good.”

The archdiocese has been working with Kinsale Management Consulting, a private firm, to review its clergy personnel files.

“With the engagement of the Kinsale team, the archdiocese continues to work on fulfilling the public promises we have made to create safe environments for children, care for victims, facilitate a healing process for our local church in order to restore trust with the Catholic faithful, and restore trust with clergy who are serving honorably,” the archdiocese’s statement said. “In the event any of the claims against 28 of the clergy members identified by MPR are substantiated, they will be disclosed on our website according to our policy.”

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Brian Lambert

The Archdiocese seems to think it knows what the problem is … At MPR, Madeleine Baran writes: “The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a statement late Wednesday criticizing an MPR News story on clergy accused of sexual abuse. The MPR News story published Wednesday said the archdiocese has not disclosed a complete list of clergy accused of child sexual abuse. The story cited police reports, court records and the archdiocese’s internal files. In its statement, the archdiocese said that it remains committed to disclosing ‘substantiated’ claims of abuse. ‘The 28 clergy members identified by MPR have not been publicly disclosed by the archdiocese because they do not, to date, constitute substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor,’ the statement said. The archdiocese said that improperly identifying individuals ‘is irresponsible and does not serve victims, safety of children or the public good.’ ” Which are clearly the archdiocese’s primary concerns.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date :Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Source: Jim Accurso

Consistent with the paramount goal of protecting children, the archdiocese has committed to the public disclosure of clergy members against whom claims of sexual abuse of a minor have been found to be substantiated.

The archdiocese has been clear and consistent in defining “credible” and “substantiated” claims of sexual abuse of a minor. Following the report made to appropriate law enforcement, the first step in our internal evaluation is to determine whether the claim is credible. A credible claim is one that is not manifestly false or frivolous. In other words, it is not blatantly false. Separate from our internal evaluation process, any claim whether credible or not, is immediately reported to police.

If the archdiocese determines that a credible claim exists, the archdiocese opens an investigation to determine whether a claim is substantiated. A substantiated claim is one for which sufficient evidence exists to establish reasonable grounds to believe that the alleged abuse occurred.

Following an initial disclosure of 30 clergy members in December 2013, the archdiocese publicly disclosed an additional 9 priests on February 17, 2014, following a comprehensive file review by Kinsale, an experienced outside national firm. Kinsale’s file review is ongoing and we will continue to make prudent and ongoing disclosures as we proceed forward.

In a February 19, 2014 on-line article, MPR states that the public disclosures made by the archdiocese are, to date, incomplete. In support of its position, MPR identifies a total of 28 clergy members who have not been publicly disclosed by the archdiocese and against whom MPR claims that it has “found allegations of child sexual abuse and other sexual improprieties.”

This statement is wrong and misleading. The 28 clergy members identified by MPR have not been publicly disclosed by the archdiocese because they do not, to date, constitute substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor. For context:

* The archdiocese has, to date, publicly disclosed 43 clergy members (39 of them having substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor). MPR incorrectly claims that an additional 28 clergy members should have been disclosed.

* At least 16 of the 28 clergy members identified by MPR were the subject of false, meritless or unsubstantiated accusations against them. And those accusations made known to the archdiocese after 2004 have been properly filed with Ramsey County District Court.

In addition to those individuals already disclosed to the Court, over 10 of the clergy identified by MPR are not from our archdiocese and the allegations against them concern alleged conduct that occurred outside of this archdiocese. In these cases, the accused clergy members are subject to the authority of other orders and dioceses and, consistent with the policy that we have previously announced to the public, the archdiocese does not have sufficient information or even jurisdiction to determine whether those foreign claims are credible or have been substantiated. As MPR correctly observes, several of these individuals have already been publicly disclosed by their respective dioceses and orders.

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MONTANA
ABA Journal

Posted Feb 18, 2014
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The U.S. Justice Department sees likely gender bias in a failure by the Missoula, Mont., County Attorney’s office to prosecute nonstranger rapes.

In a letter to Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg, the Justice Department says its investigation found that his office declined to prosecute “nearly every case” involving nonstranger assaults on adult women who were intoxicated, or on adult women with a mental or physical diability. Mother Jones and the Missoulian have stories, while this press release summarizes the findings.

There are “strong indications” that the charging decisions in such cases are influenced by gender bias and gender stereotyping, the letter says.

“Women consistently told us that deputy county attorneys treated them with indifference or disrespect, and frequently made statements to women victims, advocates and the public diminishing the seriousness of sexual violence and minimizing the culpability of those who commit it,” the letter said.

In one instance, a prosecutor told the mother of a 5-year-old sexual assault victim that “boys will be boys.” The adolescent perpetrator was sentenced to only two years of community service. In another case, a deputy county attorney quoted religious passages to a woman who reported a sexual assault, leading her to believe that the prosecutor judged her negatively for making the report. In yet another case, one woman says a county attorney told her, “All you want is revenge,” as they discussed the office’s decision not to prosecute her alleged assailant.

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MONTANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, February 21, 2014

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 )

The Missoula county attorney’s office has failed to prosecute “nearly every case” of non-stranger rapes.

[ABA Journal]

The US Justice Department reported that gender bias and stereotypes are the likely reason prosecutors failed to press charges, even in cases where they had a confession. Women in the county repeatedly told the Justice Department that they were treated with “indifference and disrespect”, they were told “boys will be boys” or had the bible quoted to them.

This level of ignorance and backwards thinking is appalling. The prosecutor’s office might as well have said “the victim was asking for it”. We are disappointed that the Missoula county attorney’s office seems to be stuck in the Middle Ages. We hope the Justice Department letter will knock some sense into Missoula officials and that victims and witnesses will not be discouraged to keep doing the right thing and working for justice.

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VATIKAN
General-Anzeiger

[Summary: Gerhard Mueller is regarded my many as doctrinal watchdog at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and is considered to be a hardliner. Another view of Mueller, who will become Cardinal tomorrow, is of a man with a liberal spirit. As a simple priest Mueller regularly visited the slums in Peru’s capital of Lima and became friends with Gustavo Gutierrez. a founder of liberation theology.]

Von Julius Müller-Meiningen

ROM. Wenn Papst Franziskus am Samstag Gerhard Ludwig Müller zusammen mit 18 weiteren Bischöfen in den Kardinalsstand erhebt, dann prallen auch zwei Gedankenschulen aufeinander.

In der einen gilt der 66 Jahre alte Theologe als liberaler Geist, der lange als Seelsorger in den Armenvierteln Lateinamerikas unterwegs war. Dieses Bild haben viele im Vatikan von Müller. In der anderen ist Müller ein konservativer Hardliner, der als Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation die katholische Doktrin gegen ihre angeblichen Feinde verteidigt. Auch gegen den Papst.

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CHILE
Katholisch

[Summary: A victim of abuse in the Catholic Church has filed a complaint claiming Santiago Archbishop Richardo Ezzati for obstructing investigations into abuse]

Wenige Tage vor der Kardinalserhebung ist gegen den chilenischen Erzbischof Ricardo Ezzati Strafanzeige in Zusammenhang mit Pädophiliefällen erstattet worden. Laut lokalen Medienberichten wirft ein Missbrauchsopfer eines katholischen Geistlichen dem heutigen Erzbischof von Santiago de Chile vor, Ermittlungen zu sexuellen Übergriffen in einer Salesianer-Einrichtung in den 1980er Jahren behindert zu haben.

Ezzati war den Berichten zufolge damals als Inspektor für die Kontrolle der Einrichtung Salesiano de Valdivia zuständig. Ezzati hatte zuletzt erklärt, er habe von den Missbrauchsfällen keine Kenntnis gehabt. Ein Anwalt des Klagestellers erklärte gegenüber chilenischen Medien, sein Mandant hoffe, dass durch Ermittlungen gegen Ezzati die Hintergründe der Fälle aufgeklärt würden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

KÖLN –
Die deutschen Bischöfe wollen auf ihrer Frühjahrsvollversammlung Mitte März in Münster ein leidiges Thema abräumen. Nach der 2013 gescheiterten Zusammenarbeit mit dem Hannoverschen Kriminologen Christian Pfeiffer, der den sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen durch Geistliche systematisch aufarbeiten sollte, steht dem Vernehmen nach die Entscheidung über ein Nachfolgeprojekt an.

Richten die Bischöfe dabei vornehmlich den Blick auf die Vergangenheit, um daraus Schlüsse für bessere Vorbeugung ziehen zu können, weitet das Erzbistum Köln schon jetzt die Perspektive – zeitlich und inhaltlich. Drei Kongresse in Köln sind dem Schutz Erwachsener gewidmet, die sich in Obhut der Kirche befinden, ob in Krankenhäusern, Seniorenheimen Einrichtungen der Behindertenhilfe.

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VATICAN CITY
IBN Live

Associated Press

Vatican City: No glitzy gold, no rich velvet, no regal fur. Pope Francis’ pared down papal wardrobe of sensible black shoes and a white cassock so thin you can see his black trousers through it is a perfect fit for his call for simplicity and humility among his clergy.

The pope’s personal style – which earned him Esquire magazine’s “Best Dressed Man of 2013” award – and his broader message of sobriety will be put to the test Saturday when he inducts 19 prelates into the College of Cardinals, placing the three-cornered red silk biretta on the heads of the new “princes of the church.”

For the festive occasion, cardinals are traditionally outfitted in scarlet from head to toe, from the silk skull cap to bright red socks, with a white lace embroidered surplice known as a rochet worn over the red cassock and underneath the mozzetta, or shoulder cape.

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NEW JERSEY
Talking Points Memo

TOM KLUDT – FEBRUARY 20, 2014

A spokesman for the Newark Archdiocese said on Thursday he had no interest in comparing the lavish house being built by his archbishop to the modest one lived in by the pope.

But he gets the criticism some have lodged at the archbishop’s house.

“Yes, I understand what people are saying,” Jim Goodness, the director of communications for the Newark Archdiocese, told TPM by phone on Thursday.

But Goodness refused to say if he thought a planned $500,000 expansion to a retirement home for Newark Archbishop John J. Myers contradicts the message of Pope Francis, who lives in a modest residence and has urged priests to steer clear of luxurious lifestyles.

“I’m not going to answer that question,” Goodness said. “I’m not taking any side on that at all.”

The renovations to the home, which Myers currently uses as a weekend residence, have come under a bit of scrutiny. The 3,000-square-foot expansion will include an indoor exercise pool, three fireplaces and an elevator to be enjoyed by Myers in his future retirement.

Goodness went to great pains to make clear that much of the funding for the addition will come from the sale of other properties owned by the archdiocese. Any leftover money from the sale of those properties “will be returned to the diocese for use in ministry,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
KENW (New Mexico)

By RENA GARRETT

Pope Benedict made history when he announced his resignation, becoming the first pope to step down voluntarily in 600 years. In his wake, he left a bitterly divided Vatican mired in scandals. Is Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis, taming the forces that helped destroy Benedict’s papacy? Is he succeeding in lifting the church out of crisis? Nearly a year in the making, this special two-hour FRONTLINE goes inside the Vatican — one of the world’s most revered and mysterious institutions — to unravel the remarkable series of events that led to the resignation that shook the world. Through interviews with those at the very heart of what happened — cardinals, priests, convicted criminals, police, prosecutors and whistle-blowers — FRONTLINE gives a first-hand account of the final days of Benedict’s papacy and the current battle to set the church on a new path under Francis.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Feb. 21, 2014 Faith and Justice

I spent so much time in the last couple of weeks talking to reporters about the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI that I did not have a chance to put my thoughts in writing.

Whenever a reporter asks me about Benedict, I first acknowledge that I have some history with him. One of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s last actions as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was to tell the Jesuit superior general that I needed to be replaced as editor of America magazine, so I cannot claim to be an indifferent observer. Perhaps this is another reason I did not meet my deadline. This was a painful period in my life, so I warn reporters (and readers) that my own experience can bias my views.

The temptation with any pope, even Francis, is to see them as black or white, all bad or all good. Nothing is that simple, especially human beings.

There is much to praise in the papacy of Pope Benedict. If for no other reason, he will be remembered for centuries as the pope who was not afraid to resign when he felt it was best for the church. Such humility, courage and trust in the Spirit are not easy virtues when everyone around you is telling you that you are indispensable.

The resignation caused former supporters to turn on him and former critics to praise him. John L. Allen Jr. reports in The Boston Globe that Antonio Socci, a high-profile Italian conservative, has floated the question of whether Benedict’s resignation was actually valid under church law. This kind of talk is very dangerous and could lead to schism, but they will get no support from Benedict for such nonsense. Likewise, those who feared Benedict would try to run things from behind the scenes have been proved paranoid.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 22, 2014

A CONFIDENTIAL Vatican inquiry that criticised an alleged victim of child sex abuse was conducted by three senior serving Australian priests, two of whom now say the man may have been motivated by money.

As revealed yesterday by The Australian, the three clerics were appointed by Cardinal George Pell after the alleged victim spent more than a decade lobbying church leaders to consider his case.

Their decree, which Cardinal Pell personally forwarded to the Vatican last month, describes the man as an “exaggerator” with

“a detailed dossier of these remembered events clogging his computer”.

“The credibility and reliability” of a second alleged victim was also questioned in the decree, despite the similarity of the two men’s descriptions of abuse by the same Vincentian priest at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, NSW, during the 1970s. The alleged victims’ claims ultimately were not upheld.

The decree’s authors are Kevin Matthews, judicial vicar of the Archdiocese of Adelaide, Adrian Farrelly, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, and Anthony Kerin, episcopal vicar of the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

A Catholic education director says his staff had the knowledge to deal with sexual abuse claims against a Queensland teacher, but did not apply it.

A royal commission in Brisbane has heard two Catholic education officers and the principal of a Queensland school learned of abuse claims against a teacher in 2007, but failed to act.

That teacher, Gerard Byrnes, was eventually jailed in 2010 after pleading guilty to 44 child sex charges involving 13 young girls.

Byrnes was allowed to continue working at the school after the first complaints surfaced, and went on to abuse other pupils.

Catholic education director John Borserio gave evidence on Friday to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Brad Ryan

A director of Catholic Education has admitted a systemic failure of child safety policies allowed a paedophile teacher to abuse students at a Queensland school over a two-year period.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is sitting in Brisbane this week to hear evidence about how teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes continued to molest students at a Catholic school in Toowoomba for more than a year after the allegations were first made.

Byrnes, the school’s child protection contact, molested 13 female students aged between nine and 10 at the school in 2007 and 2008.

Toowoomba’s director of Catholic Education, John Borserio, agreed on Friday with the assertion by counsel assisting Gail Furness that child safety policies in place at the time completely failed.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

A Catholic Education boss has told the child abuse Royal Commission that the wholesale systemic failure of child protection policies led to students being exposed to a paedophile teacher. John Borserio says those policies have been improved but without advice from experts outside the Catholic system.

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: A Catholic Education boss has admitted that a wholesale systemic failure of child protection policies led to young girls being taught by a paedophile teacher.

John Borserio was the director of the Toowoomba Catholic Education Office when Gerard Byrnes sexually abused 13 girls in 2007 and 2008. Mr Borserio still holds that position.

He’s told the child abuse Royal Commission that he takes responsibility for failing to protect the students. He insists policies have since improved but without advice from experts outside the Catholic system.

Stephanie Smail reports.

STEPHANIE SMAIL: John Borserio had been the director of the Toowoomba Catholic Education Office for five years when Gerard Byrnes was arrested.

Today the Royal Commission heard the child protection policies Mr Borserio presided over failed in 2007 and 2008.

He acknowledged a complaint about Byrnes touching a student in 2007 wasn’t adequately investigated and other students were exposed to harm as a result.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Royal commission hearings into child sex abuse at St Ann’s special school to go ahead despite Catholic Church concern over timing

BY GINNY STEIN
February 21, 2014

The royal commission has rejected Catholic Church concerns about the timing of hearings into sex abuse in an Adelaide special needs school.

Next month the commission will look into how authorities responded to the abuse at St Ann’s school in the early 1990s.

Parents of the victims hope they will finally get answers about the paedophile bus driver who preyed on up to 30 children, most of whom could not speak.

Earlier this year, lawyers for the church’s insurers wrote to the commission, arguing that hearings could influence compensation settlements.

“If the commission’s investigation occurs before the hearing of the Civil Actions, the plaintiffs in the Civil Actions could have the benefit of seeing the School Entities’ statements, documents and evidence, and being able to plan their litigation strategy accordingly,” the church said in a letter.

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VATICAN CITY
John Thavis

Pope Francis this morning opened a two-day discussion of cardinals on the family, saying the church’s pastoral response to modern problems must be marked by intelligence, courage and love.

Here’s the key quote from the pope’s talk to about 150 cardinals gathered at the Vatican:

Our reflections must keep before us the beauty of the family and marriage, the greatness of this human reality which is so simple and yet so rich, consisting of joys and hopes, of struggles and sufferings, as is the whole of life. We will seek to deepen the theology of the family and discern the pastoral practices which our present situation requires.

May we do so thoughtfully and without falling into “casuistry”, because this would inevitably diminish the quality of our work. Today, the family is looked down upon and mistreated. We are called to acknowledge how beautiful, true and good it is to start a family, to be a family today; and how indispensable the family is for the life of the world and for the future of humanity. We are called to make known God’s magnificent plan for the family and to help spouses joyfully experience this plan in their lives, as we accompany them amidst so many difficulties, including with a pastoral approach that is intelligent, courageous and full of love.

That last phrase about a courageous and compassionate pastoral policy was added extemporaneously by the pope.

Briefing reporters afterward, the Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said that in referring to “casuistry,” the pope meant that the cardinals should not “fragment” their discussion by focusing on particular situations over a more general vision.

Lombardi also summarized some key points made by German Cardinal Walter Kasper, who delivered a two-hour-long address to introduce the themes of the discussion. Kasper spoke about the need to connect God’s design for the family in the order of creation to the reality of the family today. On one hand, the church has to be able to transmit the joy and the positive values of the family to society, and in this sense the family should be a privileged means of evangelizing, he said.

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SOUTH AFRICA
News 24

Abbi Smith

21 February 2014

What a sad day for the Roman Catholic Church when a priest of Pretoria was arrested after an accusation of alleged misconduct.

Yes, a priest is a symbol of Christianity, but so is the cross and so is the church. What a pity though that no one looks beyond what is symbolic to what is human and real. This priest is a man, as was Jesus of Nazareth, as is the Chancellor to the Archbishop, Fr. Mphiwe.

They are living human beings just like you and I. This man, the priest has been alleged to have made an indecent suggestion to a 17 year old young man. Not a “child”, as the emotive language of the accusers tends to describe him.

Do you happen to know the accused man? Do you happen to know that this slightly built Father has dedicated his life to God, his church and flock? Have you ever lost someone at three in the morning with your priest standing beside you in hospital, serving last rites to you loved one?
Have you ever heard this man pray?

Do you happen to know the accuser who, with the encouragement of Fr. Mphiwe, (News24: 2014-02-17) lodged his complaint with the South African Police? Have you happened to notice how politics infiltrate every aspect of human life?

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 20, 2014

Yesterday’s big settlement announcement raised a question for me: What about the wives?

One of the perpetrators who was a part of the settlement, Michael Nocita, has now been sued by four different women for sexual abuse. He was removed from ministry and laicized. The Archdiocese has paid out big money to his victims.

It’s also been reported that he is married.

Anton Smario, a former brother who admitted that he was often nude in front of young girls in the Native Alaskan villages where he taught religion classes, remained married after he was exposed in lawsuits and admitted his actions.

Thomas Hodgman—the man who admitted to abusing me and at least two other girls—is married with children. He also still hangs out on busses with girls (albeit not minor girls. This time).

I can’t help but wonder: What do the wives think? Do they not take their husband’s crimes seriously because the victims were girls?

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UNITED STATES
PBS – Frontline

[preview video]

FRONTLINE Presents
Secrets of the Vatican
Tuesday, February 25, 2014, at 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings)

A year ago, after receiving a confidential dossier on troubles in the Catholic Church, Benedict XVI became the first Pope in nearly 600 years to resign.

In Secrets of the Vatican, FRONTLINE exposes the threats and scandals that rocked Benedict’s papacy: a far-reaching clergy sex abuse crisis; money laundering and corruption at the Vatican Bank; and Vatileaks—the release of internal documents revealing cronyism, power struggles, and allegations of blackmail within the Holy See.

From award-winning director Antony Thomas, this special, 90-minute FRONTLINE presentation tells the epic, inside story of the collapse of the Benedict Papacy—and illuminates the extraordinary challenges facing Pope Francis as he tries to reform the powerful Vatican bureaucracy, root out corruption, and chart a new course for the troubled Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion followers.

Using undercover footage and interviews with Vatican insiders, as well as abuse victims, whistleblowers, and journalists, Secrets of the Vatican shows the deep sexual hypocrisy within the Catholic Church and the long legacy of clergy sexual abuse of children.

Drawing on firsthand accounts, the film shows how for years the Vatican supported the head of the powerful Legionaries of Christ order, Marcial Maciel, despite accusations he’d been sexually abusing boys and misappropriating money. Secrets of the Vatican also tells the story of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, where clergy sex abuse victims have accused the Church of covering up abusive priests and trying to shield millions of dollars from mounting legal claims. The archdiocese has filed for bankruptcy, but hundreds of victims are still seeking compensation.

Secrets of the Vatican also examines what is described as a “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture within the Vatican when it comes to priests’ sexual orientation and finds that some priests are embarking on illicit relationships despite vows of celibacy.

“Unless you spend some time inside this kind of culture, it’s very hard to believe that it could be like this,” journalist Robert Mickens tells FRONTLINE.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Lilly Fowler lfowler@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82211

I tweeted Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s update earlier but thought I’d elaborate on the topic a bit more here.

A couple days ago, Dolan released a curious letter noting that his name might be in the press again — and not in a good way.

“You know how I always try to alert you to any potentially negative publicity about the Church, or about me. Well, there could be some,” he wrote.

“My home archdiocese of St. Louis just complied with a court order to release the documents regarding cases there of sexual abuse of minors…

Anyway, since I was an auxiliary bishop in St. Louis for a year (2001-02), and vicar for priests for nine of those twelve months, I would anticipate that my name will again be highlighted in the press. I sure have nothing to hide…”

The reason it’s a bit peculiar Dolan should warn of bad publicity is because as the Post-Dispatch’s reporting has highlighted, the files he refers to are under court seal, available only to the judge and lawyers involved. And the trial date for the case that spurred the release of the files has been pushed back — to July.

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CHILE
Terra

[Summary: The Santiago archbishop has confirmed that priest Fernando Karadima is the priest who appears in a photograph made last December that shows him in the inner chapel of the house of the Servants of Jesus. Juan Carolos Cruz, one of the men who denounced the priest for abuse, made public the photographs and said he was officiating at Mass after the Vatican forbid him to so.]

El Arzobispado de Santiago confirmó que es el sacerdote Fernando Karadima quien aparece en una imagen captada en diciembre pasado en la capilla interior, de la casa de las Siervas de Jesús.

“La foto efectivamente corresponde al sacerdote Karadima y fue obtenida por un visitante al interior de la residencia”, manifestó el organismo católico.

Cabe señalar que Juan Carlos Cruz, uno de los que denunció al religioso, dio a conocer imágenes de éste y afirmó que se encontraba oficiando una misa, pese a que se le prohibió hacerlo luego que el Vaticano, a través de Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, lo declarara culpable por el delito de abuso de menores.

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CHILE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, February 20, 2014

Statement by Juan Carlos Cruz or SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 1+ 312 420 4301· jccruz1@aol.com )

A serial predator priest who has been ordered to live “a life of prayer and penance” is still saying mass in public, clearly violating restrictions put on him by his Catholic supervisors.

We are saddened but not shocked. Only under public pressure do bishops finally take some action against child molesting clerics. And when public attention subsides, it’s “back to business as usual.”

In other institutions – government, business, non-profits – there would now be harsh punishments – both for the predator priest, Fr. Fernando Karadima, and – more importantly – for his supervisors. But we doubt that will happen here. Even the most egregious child molesting clerics in the Catholic Church often get light penalties and continue to break the rules and do as they please, without fear of further sanction. And when their bishops are caught ignoring the very rules they put down, no higher church authority ever disciplines those bishops.

This is yet another reminder that real justice can best be sought through secular courts, not through church processes. We strongly urge anyone who has seen, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups to contact police and prosecutors, not priests and bishops.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
These Stone Walls

BY FR. GORDON J. MACRAE FEBRUARY 19, 2014

For Catholic priests, merely being accused is now evidence of guilt. A closer look at the prosecution of Fr Gordon MacRae opens a window onto a grave injustice.

Editor’s Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part guest post by Ryan A. MacDonald.

“Those aware of the facts of this case find it hard to imagine that any court today would ignore the perversion of justice it represents.” (Dorothy Rabinowitz, The Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2013)

The above quote says it all. I wrote for These Stone Walls two weeks ago to announce a new federal appeal filed in the Father Gordon MacRae case. I mentioned my hope to write in more detail about the perversion of justice cited by Dorothy Rabinowitz in “The Trials of Father MacRae,” her third major article on the MacRae case in The Wall Street Journal.

The details of how such injustice is perpetrated are especially important in cases like Father MacRae’s because there was no evidence of guilt – not one scintilla of evidence – presented to the jury in his 1994 trial. I recently wrote “Justice and a Priest’s Right of Defense in the Diocese of Manchester,” an article with photographs of the exact location where the charges against this priest were claimed to have occurred. If you read it, you can judge for yourself whether those charges were even plausible.

The sexual assaults for which Father Gordon MacRae has served two decades in prison were to have taken place five times in as many weeks, all in the light of day in one of the busiest places in downtown Keene, New Hampshire. Yet no one saw anything. No one heard anything. Accuser Thomas Grover – almost age 16 when he says it happened, and age 26 when he first accused the priest – testified that he returned from week to week after each assault because he repressed the memory of it all while having a weekly “out- of- body experience.”

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Sydney commencing Monday 10 March 2014 into the response of the Catholic Church to:

(a) the complaint of child sexual abuse made by John Ellis under Towards Healing
(b) the review of the Towards Healing process in relation to John Ellis’ complaint
(c) the civil action commenced by John Ellis in relation to his complaint.

The hearing will also examine the experience of John Ellis in relation to:

(a) the Towards Healing process
(b) the review of the Towards Healing process in relation to his complaint
(c) the civil action commenced by him in relation to his complaint.

Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines said this hearing will be the second case study examining the application of Towards Healing.

“This hearing will focus on the experiences of Mr Ellis whose claim of child sexual abuse, against a priest within the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, was dealt with through the Towards Healing process and in civil litigation.

“This hearing will be an opportunity for the Royal Commission to examine the response of the Catholic Church to Mr Ellis’ claim, including the application of Towards Healing and the circumstances in which the Catholic Church raised what is commonly referred to as the ‘Ellis defence’,” Ms Dines said.

Any person or institution who believes that they have a direct and substantial interest in the Scope and Purpose of the public hearing is invited to lodge a written application for leave to appear at the public hearing by Wednesday 26 February 2014.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse

A public hearing will commence in Adelaide on 17 March 2014 into the responses into the responses by the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide and the South Australia Police to allegations of child sexual abuse at St Ann’s Special School.

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

* The circumstances in which Brian Perkins gained his position of employment at St Ann’s Special School;
* The monitoring, supervision and oversight of Brian Perkins’s activities as an employee and as a volunteer at St Ann’s Special School;
* The response of the principal and the board of St Ann’s Special School to allegations of child sexual abuse by Brian Perkins including communication with the parents of the children said to have been sexually abused;
* The response, including internal review(s), to allegations of child sexual abuse by Brian Perkins at St Ann’s Special School, by the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide (including the Catholic Education Office);
* The experience of the parents of those alleged to have been sexually abused by Brian Perkins at St Ann’s Special School;
* The circumstances around, and the basis for the payment of monies by the Catholic Education Office, Archdiocese of Adelaide to the parents of those alleged to have been sexually abused;
* The nature of the investigation by the South Australia Police (“SAPOL”) into the allegations of child sexual abuse by Brian Perkins at St Ann’s Special School, including the circumstances in which Brian Perkins was able to leave the State of South Australia in or about 1993 and steps taken by SAPOL to have him return to South Australia; and
* The nature and extent of communications of the investigation and other related matters by SAPOL with the parents of those alleged to have been sexually abused.
The venue for the hearing will be Roma Mitchell Commonwealth Law Court Building, 3 Angas Street, Adelaide.

Ms Dines said, “The Royal Commission has a national focus and in the first half of 2014 there will also be public hearings in NSW, Western Australia and the ACT.”

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The second public hearing into The Salvation Army by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will commence in Sydney on Monday, 24 March 2014.

The public hearing will inquire into the handling by The Salvation Army (Eastern Territory) of claims of child sexual abuse between 1993 and 2014. The hearing – the tenth since the Royal Commission was established – is scheduled to run for up to two weeks. Royal Commission CEO, Ms Janette Dines, says the scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

* The policies, practices and procedures of The Salvation Army (Eastern Territory), between 1993 and 2014, for responding to claims of child sexual abuse at children’s homes it operated.
* The application and adequacy of these policies, practices and procedures between 1993 and 2014.
* The experience of people who made complaints to The Salvation Army (Eastern Territory) between 1993 and 2014.
* The policies, practices and procedures between 1990 and 2014 concerning the disciplining of officers of The Salvation Army (Eastern Territory) who were the subject of allegations of child sexual abuse.

Anyone who made a claim or complaint about child sexual abuse to The Salvation Army (Eastern Territory) between 1993 and 2014 is encouraged to come forward.

“Every experience will help to inform the Royal Commission as to how The Salvation Army handled claims and complaints during this period and the effectiveness of the policies and procedures they had in place.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 21, 2014

Marty Silk

A culture of protecting the church existed in a diocese where a Catholic teacher raped and molested 13 girls, an inquiry has heard.

Teachers were repeatedly told not to compromise the bishop, but the culture of protection wasn’t sinister, a former principal told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane on Friday.

Two Catholic Education Office staff and the principal of a Toowoomba school learned of abuse claims against a teacher in 2007, but failed to act.

That teacher, Gerard Byrnes, was eventually jailed in 2010 after pleading guilty to 44 child sex charges involving 13 young girls.

Byrnes was allowed to continue working at the school after the first complaints surfaced, and went on to abuse other pupils.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Advertiser

An MP has stepped in to help former residents of a Catholic boys home who claim they were physically and sexually abused.

Justine Greening is also to ask the police about a potential link between the home and Jimmy Savile, which has been demonstrated.

Police have been investigating the claims, concerning St Francis Boys Home in Shefford, for more than 12 months.

It is the third time they have investigated the home.

Paperwork for the first two investigations, in 1998 and 2003, originally went missing but were subsequently found.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: RANDY FURST , Star Tribune Updated: February 20, 2014

A jury needed only two hours to convict ex-director of Salvation Army program of abusing a client living at homeless shelter.

The former director of a chemical treatment program for the Salvation Army’s Harbor Light homeless shelter was convicted Thursday of criminal sexual abuse of a client.

A jury of five men and one woman concluded that Amy Horsfield, 39, had engaged in sexual acts with Anthony Bishop, a sex offender who was living at the shelter in Minneapolis and attending the chemical dependency treatment program.

Horsfield put her hands to her face as Hennepin County District Judge Mark Wernick read the jury’s verdict.

He ordered Horsfield held in custody until her sentencing March 19.

Horsfield did not take the stand in her own defense, and the jurors deliberated for just two hours. Her attorney, Robert Paule, while aggressively cross-­examining prosecution witnesses, never called any defense witnesses.

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CANADA
Lethbridge Herald

Caroline Zentner
lethbridge herald
czentner@lethbridgeherald.com

As a school student Shelagh Rogers learned the English and the French were the founders of Canada.

Not until she was an adult did she learn the truth about the residential school system. And she’s learned more since she became an honorary witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“Reconciliation is an abstract concept but I think what we’re really talking about is partnership and relationship. We actually had that when Europeans first came to North America,” said Rogers, host of CBC Radio One’s “The Next Chapter” during her keynote speech at the South Western Alberta Teachers’ Convention Thursday morning at the University of Lethbridge.

That initial relationship fell apart and the residential school system affected thousands of aboriginal people directly and indirectly.

“The residential school era changed the shape of this country and not in a good way. I was 46 years old when I first heard the term ‘residential school.’ In my history books it never came up. I knew that there were schools on reserves and sometimes kids had to be moved away because the schools didn’t go all the way to Grade 12. But it was so much more than that,” she said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Ham & High

Friday, February 14, 2014

A Catholic friar has been accused of possessing more than 5,000 indecent images of children.

Friar Timothy Gardner, 41, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday where he faced 11 charges relating to 5,005 images.

Some were graded as level five – the most extreme content.

Gardner is based at St Dominic’s Priory in Southampton Road, Gospel Oak, and has taught philosophy and religious education at Maria Fidelis Catholic School, in Phoenix Road, Somers Town.

He will next appear at Southwark Crown Court on February 24.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

13 February 2014 by Christopher Lamb

The Catholic Education Service’s former Religious Education Adviser has appeared in court charged with possessing more than 5,000 indecent images of children.

Fr Tim Gardner, 41, a Dominican, had taught Philosophy and Religious Education at Maria Fidelis Convent School, Camden in North London. He appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday to confirm his name at a brief hearing.

He is facing eleven allegations of possessing 5,005 images, some of which are graded at level five denoting the most extreme content and one of which shows bestiality.

Fr Tim’s case was referred to Southwark Crown Court where there will be a preliminary hearing on 24 February.

The priest’s lawyer did not indicate how the defendant would plead to the charges.

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UNITED KINGDOM
tes

Started by: StephenExley 15-2-2014

A teacher and former religious education adviser to the Catholic Education Service (CES) has been charged with possessing more than 5,000 indecent images of children.

Father Tim Gardner, who also used to teach philosophy and RE at a North London convent school, appeared before Westminster Magistrates’ Court this week. He faces a total of 11 charges.

In his former role at the CES, Gardner was involved in lobbying the government about the importance of RE in schools.

Gardner, who used to teach at Maria Fidelis Convent School in Camden, also served as a governor at the independent Catholic girls school Rye St Antony in Oxford, The Tablet Catholic newspaper reported.

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IRELAND
Church Times

by Gregg Ryan, Ireland Correspondent
Posted: 21 Feb 2014

THE former head of the Roman Catholic Church’schild-safeguarding body in Ireland, Ian Elliott, has accused someelements in the Church of cutting funding to the National Board forthe Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland(NBSCCCI), to hinder further investigations.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

CONCERN that a public hearing into an Adelaide special school where disabled children were sexually abused could prejudice civil proceedings is no reason to postpone the hearing, the royal commission into child sex abuse has said.

At a directions hearing in Sydney on Friday, the Catholic Church insurer expressed concerns about the “potential effect on civil matters” of the timing of the commission’s hearing into child sexual abuse at St Ann’s Special School in Adelaide in the late 1970s and early ’80s.

The commission has scheduled a hearing for March 17 in Adelaide.

In a letter to the commission, Catholic Church Insurance Limited (CCI) said it wished to state “unambiguously that it had no objection” to the commission’s review of the St Ann’s matters.

The letter sent on behalf of CCI by Kate Harrison of law firm Gilbert and Tobin, said it anticipated the commission’s investigations would potentially traverse a number of the same issues of fact.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
am (Mexico)

[Summary: Joaquin Aguilar, member of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, was one of 17 victims of sexual abuse who was compensated by the Los Angeles archdiocese. He said the damage is recognized and the victims never lied.]

NATALIA VITELA / Publicada el 20/02/2014

Joaquín Aguilar, miembro de la Red de Supervivientes de Personas que sufrieron abusos por Sacerdotes (Snap, por sus siglas en inglés), celebró que la Iglesia Católica de Los Ángeles, California, indemnice a 17 víctimas del sacerdote pederasta de origen mexicano, Nicolás Aguilar Rivera.

“Se está reconociendo un daño y que nunca hemos mentido. Con esto se sigue comprobando quién era Nicolás Aguilar y quiénes han sido los delincuentes que lo protegieron, como Norberto Rivera (Arzobispo Primado de México) y Roger Mahony (cardenal estadounidense)”.

Sin embargo, lamentó que Nicolás Aguilar Rivera no esté encarcelado y que no estén detrás de todos los curas pederastas.

“Lamentablemente Nicolás sigue libre, no hay procedimiento por el cual el señor esté siendo perseguido en este momento”, indicó.

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AUSTRALIA
Noosa News

Jessica Grewall 21st Feb 2014

THE royal commission is calling on anyone who complained of sexual abuse while under the care of the Salvation Army in the past 20 years, to come forward.

A second hearing into the handling of abuse claims by the Salvation Army’s Eastern Territory, which takes in NSW and Queensland, will begin in Sydney on March 24.

The hearing, the 10th since the royal commission was established, will look at the treatment of children who complained of abuse at the army’s homes from 1993 until now.

Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines said the hearing would give the panel a better understanding of how the Salvation Army handled complaints and effectiveness of the policies it had in place.

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — In a letter issued just before he went to Rome this week, Timothy Cardinal Dolan warned that his name could be connected with some bad publicity regarding his home archdiocese of St. Louis.

Dolan said in a letter issued Tuesday that he tries to alert parishioners about “any potentially negative publicity about the Church, or about me,” and “there could be some.

“My home archdiocese of St. Louis just complied with a court order to release the documents regarding cases there of sexual abuse of minors. (Cardinal Egan already did that here a decade ago, sharing all of the information we had on abusive priests with proper district attorneys, something we continue to do today,)” Dolan wrote.

Dolan served as an auxiliary bishop in St. Louis for a year in 2001 and 2002, and as a vicar for priests for nine of those 12 months. Thus, he wrote: “I would anticipate that my name will again be highlighted in the press. I sure have nothing to hide, and am very much at peace with law enforcements officials reviewing the files. In fact, we already released all the documentation to them a dozen years ago!”

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MINNESOTA
LawFuel

A Minnesota lawyer has attacked the Catholic Church over their list of accused abusers provided by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released the names of nine priests Monday, saying none are now in the active ministry, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

Three are dead, and the others have been removed from ministry.

Jeff Anderson, a lawyer in St. Paul told the newspaper five of the priests are targets of lawsuits he has filed, and he knew about the other three. He accused the archdiocese of claiming to be transparent while providing information only under pressure.

“Until they are forced to make a full disclosure, the peril remains,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 20, 2014

Marty Silk

The Catholic Church has accused two of its former officers of colluding and lying to shift the blame about a pedophilia scandal.

The knives were out on the fourth day of a hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane.

Principal Terence Hayes was first told of allegations against pedophile teacher Gerard Byrnes in September 2007.

Mr Hayes told Catholic education officers, Christopher Fry and Ian Hunter, that Byrnes had allegedly touched a girl and made her feel uncomfortable, had a girl sit on his lap in class, gave children lollies and kissed a girl on the cheek.

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ALABAMA
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

An Alabama children’s minister charged with multiple sex crimes remains in jail after his lawyer withdrew a motion for reduced bond and waived a preliminary hearing on Feb. 18.

Attorney Billy Underwood had filed a motion on behalf of Jeff Eddie, longtime associate pastor for children and church administration at Highland Park Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, Ala., asking for his bond of $1.03 million to be reduced from $30,000 per count to $5,000 per count.

After conferring with prosecutors at a Tuesday morning hearing in Colbert County district court, however, Underwood advised his client to waive the preliminary hearing and allow the case to proceed to a grand jury in March.

“We didn’t want to inflame the public with what would come out from the preliminary hearing,” Underwood told the Times Daily in Florence, Ala. “And if the bond was lowered enough that he could get out, there might be more charges filed against him and he would be back in jail. So, nothing would be gained by reducing the bond today.”

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WASHINGTON
KIMA

[with video]

By Ada Chong Published: Feb 20, 2014

YAKIMA, Wash. — The Diocese of Yakima is settling two lawsuits involving sexual abuse of children. Two victims claimed they were abused by staff members when they were kids.

One settlement will pay Michelle Duerre $40,000. The second will pay an unnamed victim $75,000. Both will be covered by insurance.

There are currently two other pending lawsuits against the Diocese of Yakima. Both are also alleged sexual abuse cases.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By: Tom Olsen, Duluth News Tribune

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis may have significantly underreported its list of priests “credibly accused” of child sexual abuse, Minnesota Public Radio News reported this week, prompting questions about the completeness of other lists, including one released by the Diocese of Duluth.

Verne Wagner, the northern Minnesota director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he was not surprised by MPR’s investigation, which found that the archdiocese has dealt with abuse accusations against at least 70 priests since the 1950s, more than twice the official count.

In Duluth, the diocese has listed 22 priests that have been considered “credibly accused.” Following the report on the Twin Cities archdiocese, Wagner says he has a hard time believing the Duluth list is complete.

“I’m looking at this saying, ‘Hey, what about here in Duluth?’ “ Wagner said. “I’ve had victims call me up and tell me they were abused by priests who were not on that list.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Catherine Clifford

A 60-year-old former Catholic priest, facing multiple child sex abuse charges dating back four decades, has re-appeared at Armidale Local Court.

The defrocked member of the clergy, who can’t be named for legal reasons, is currently charged with 137 historic child sexual assault offences.

It’s alleged the offences were committed in the 1970s and 1980s against three girls and six boys at unspecified locations in Armidale, Moree, Narrabri and Inverell.

On Wednesday, at Armidale Local Court, Magistrate Karen Stafford expressed her frustration at delays occurring in the case, especially the fact that a plea is yet to be entered.

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POLAND
InSerbia

KRAKÓW, Poland – Police in the southern Polish city of Kraków have arrested a 36-year-old priest wanted on sexual abuse charges in the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic.

Priest Wojciech Gil, 36, is accused of sexually abusing at least seven children, all of whom are boys. The crimes are alleged to have taken place in the small, hilly town of Juncalito, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of the capital, Santo Domingo.

Gil, known as ‘Padre Gil,’ or ‘Father Gil,’ led a Catholic parish in the town of 1,300 for almost eight years.

He is expected to be officially charged with the crimes next week in Kraków. The charges he is facing include abuse of minors, sexual abuse of minors and possession of child pornography. Regarding the last charge, Dominican authorities said they found over 87,000 pictures and videos of child pornography on Gil’s computer that he used at the small chapel he headed.

In addition, authorities in Poland disclosed that the priest is accused of sexually abusing two Polish children in 2006 before he relocated to the Dominican Republic.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Feb. 21, 2014

A RECENT Vatican decree that used character assassination of alleged victims to dismiss a case against a former Hunter Catholic priest proved the Church’s attitude to child sexual abuse had not changed, a child protection officer said.

‘‘How wrong can they get it?’’ said former Maitland-Newcastle diocese child protection officer Helen Keevers after a decree, issued in December, examined allegations about a former Hunter priest by ‘‘testing the reliability and credibility’’ of two men who made complaints.

The decree, by Cardinal Levada of the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and issued after a process overseen by Cardinal George Pell, showed canon law ‘‘comes from the point of protecting the ‘good name’ of the priest, with absolutely no regard for assessing the risk to children’’, Ms Keevers said.

‘‘This is a very significant document and a key document for the Royal Commission [into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse]. I think there’s no better example available to demonstrate the modern Church can’t deal with these matters fairly.

‘‘They use evidence and twist it to say [the priest] is innocent, when it could just as easily be seen as evidence of his guilt,’’ Ms Keevers said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

FEBRUARY 21, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

One month before an Archdiocesan Mass for victims of clergy sexual abuse, Archbishop Chaput is expected to announce the permanent removal of two more priests.This information comes via several reliable sources. Victims of the removed priests are routinely notified by the Archdiocese prior to these announcements.

One of the priests, Father John P. Paul, had been left in parish ministry at Our Lady of Calvary without notifying parents after a “historical” allegation had been lodged this past year. The archdiocese finally removed him a week after his publicized resignation brought forth more victim information (of course).

The second removal is reported to involve Father James J. Collins who last resided St. Martha Parish in Philadelphia.

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TEXAS
KLTV

By Summer Dashe

TYLER, TX (KLTV) –
A former bishop at the Catholic Diocese of Tyler is the only one in the world, according to a victims of sexual assault group, to respond to an incident surrounding sexual assault by a priest.

We told you first last week about Father Robert Poandl, also known as Father Bob. Just over a week ago, Poandl was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy. Poandl had worked for the Catholic Diocese of Tyler during the mid to late ’90s. He also worked as a parish priest in Pittsburg, Tex. However, the boy who was assaulted was not from East Texas.

The Tyler diocese has been reaching out to any other possible victims ever since they heard about Poandl in 2010.

Now, a national victim’s organization called the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is praising the Tyler Diocese for their assistance. We spoke with both SNAP and the Tyler Diocese and both organizations say this is a big step forward for the church and for victims of sexual assault.

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VIRGINIA
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • February 19, 2014

As you might have seen, The New Republic published a piece alleging sexual assault and a culture of homeschooling-driven Christian patriarchy at Patrick Henry College. I blogged earlier today complaining about how the piece inaccurately and unjustly tarred all homeschoolers with a particular extreme gender ideology. Well, there’s more. This e-mail came in tonight from a reader whose name I’m withholding in case he doesn’t want it public:

Hey Rod, I’m a regular reader of your blog and a PHC Sophmore.

I’ve been exposed to some of the worst of the conservative christian homeschool movement, I’ve seen the some of the abuses and harm that the patriarchy movement can do in the lives of many dear friends of mine. I have seen young women, who have been sexually abused and then told it was their fault. I have no desire to protect or cover up a group or organization which is destroying the lives of women. They do exist.

PHC is not one them.

One of the annoying thing about being a Patrick Henry student is having to see article after article that basically publishes blatant lies. I know these people, and I know people connected to the incidents. Some of the facts reported by the Slate are fabrications, others bits leave out important information, and also seem one sided. The monstrous Dean Corbitt described in the article is almost unrecognizable. She seems like a twisted distortion of the friendly, cheerful woman who is always seems to be willing to help out all the students. One friend of mine, noted after reading the article, that the New Republic article, seems to blast the conservative homeschool movement for it’s traditional gender roles, and then seems to blast Corbitt for being a career woman. Can you really have it both ways?

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VIRGINIA
Leesburg Today

Danielle Nadler
Posted on Feb 20, 2014

The quiet campus of Patrick Henry College has drawn national attention this week after an investigative article by magazine The New Republic detailed allegations that the college administration brushed aside reports of sexual assault from several former students.

The article details the stories of three former female students who say they were sexually assaulted—and another who was sexually harassed—by PHC students and were encouraged, or in some cases out-right told, by deans not to report the incidents to the police.

The article quotes an email from one student who said she was assaulted by a classmate, in the end, “nothing came of it. The school consistently prioritizes keeping its spot-free image (necessary to maintain its far-right, hyper evangelical donor base happy), over the well being of its students.”

Allegations of sexual assault from one former Patrick Henry student quoted in the article, Claire Smith—who said a classmate assaulted her in early May 2010—align with a report filed with the Purcellville Police Department that same week.

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VIRGINIA
Loudoun Times

Officials at Patrick Henry College, the small, deeply-religious Christian school in Purcellville, responded to and repudiated Wednesday a longform report in the New Republic that accused the Patrick Henry administration of “victim-blaming” females in the cases of sexual assault.

The New Republic story, now entitled “Sexual Assault at God’s Harvard” and published online Monday, highlights accounts from several female former students who reported assaults during their time at the school.

“ … other female students who say they reported sexual assault or harassment to the administration also left feeling that school officials blamed them instead of holding the accused male students accountable,” the story, written by Kiera Feldman, notes. “The administration, they say, seemed much more concerned with protecting Patrick Henry’s pristine public image.”

In the school’s response, sent to students, PHC officials stated: “Because you have invested your hearts, minds, and resources in this College, you should know that Patrick Henry College is absolutely committed to the protection and care of our students, male and female equally.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP

The former Bishop of Toowoomba, who sacked a principal and two Catholic education officers over their handling of child sexual abuse, is about to front an inquiry in Brisbane.

William Morris was the bishop of the Queensland diocese in December 2009 when the trio was sacked for their serious errors of judgment.

On Friday he’ll front the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which is looking at how a primary school and Catholic education officials responded to abuse claims involving 13 young girls.

Teacher Gerard Byrnes was jailed for 10 years in 2010 after pleading guilty to 44 child sex charges involving the girls in 2007 and 2008.

The royal commission has already heard from the school’s former principal, Terence Hayes, who admitted his handling of the abuse claims amounted to gross incompetence.

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AUSTRALIA
The Chronicle

TOOWOOMBA’S former Bishop William Morris will this morning front the Royal Commission into child sex abuse.

Morris sacked principal Terence Hayes and two Catholic education officers over their handling of Gerard Byrnes’ sexual abuse of 13 girls in 2007 and 2008.

The school leaders were dismissed in December 2009 for serious errors of judgment.

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PUERTO RICO
Metro

El secretario de Justicia, César Miranda, anunció hoy una investigación por nuevos casos de abuso sexual por parte de sacerdotes, pero esta vez en Mayagüez, que se suman a los de la diócesis de Arecibo, donde seis curas fueron expulsados por abusos sexuales de menores.

Miranda, tras participar esta mañana en la ceremonia de premiación de los valores del año de la Policía en un hotel de la capital, indicó que “caen en la misma categoría que los casos anteriores”, en referencia a los religiosos de Arecibo.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

[Summary: Three priests and a member of a religious institute of the Mayaguez diocese are under investigation by the Vatican after several victims accused them of sexual abuse.]

Tres sacerdotes y un miembro de un instituto religioso pertenecientes a la Diócesis de Mayagüez están bajo investigación de El Vaticano tras ser acusados de abuso sexual por varias víctimas.

Fuentes de El Nuevo Día revelaron que un párroco de la Catedral de Mayagüez Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria fue imputado por actos lascivos, suspendido de sus funciones ministeriales desde el 2011 y desde estonces está bajo investigación de El Vaticano.

¿Es correcto que el padre Héctor Rivera Ramos está suspendido y está siendo investigado por la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe por acusaciones de índole sexual?, preguntó este diario.

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BULGARIA
El Nuevo Dia

[Summary: A biship in the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria has been sacked after a video was shown of him have sex with four women. He was director of the batchkovo monstery, the second largest in Bulgaria.]

Un obispo de la iglesia ortodoxa de Bulgaria ha sido destituido después de que se conociera un video en el que se le veía teniendo sexo con cuatro mujeres.

El obispo era el director del monasterio de Batchkovo, el segundo más grande de Bulgaria.

El Santo Sínodo, la autoridad suprema de la iglesia en el país europeo, halló culpable al alto jerarca de lo que consideró un comportamiento “indigno para su posición”.

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PUERTO RICO
News Times

By DANICA COTO, Associated Press
Updated 5:41 pm, Thursday, February 20, 2014

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s justice secretary said Thursday that he has ordered an investigation into alleged sex abuse allegations involving another one of the island’s Roman Catholic dioceses.

The allegations originate from the Diocese of Mayaguez in Puerto Rico’s western region, and the announcement comes just days after government prosecutors said they were investigating similar allegations against six priests in the Diocese of Arecibo who have been defrocked.

“It’s apparently a much greater problem than previously thought,” Justice Secretary Cesar Miranda told reporters.

The Diocese of Mayaguez said in a statement that it has handled four cases of alleged sex abuse.

The most recent case dates from 2013 and is currently pending before the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles such accusations. The priest accused in that case has been removed from the ministry, the diocese said.

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GEORGIA
Coastal Courier

A Catholic priest, who worked in several Georgia towns, including Pembroke, is going to prison after being found guilty of sexually abusing a boy in Ohio.

Father Robert “Bob” Poandl was recently sentenced to 7½ years by a federal court judge in Cincinnati, Ohio, for taking a 10-year-old boy from Ohio to West Virginal in 1991 and sexually abusing him.

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GEORGIA
Claxton Enterprise

Robert Frank Poandl, 72, of Fairfield, Ohio was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court to 90 months in prison for violation of the Mann Act, a federal law prohibiting interstate transportation of a minor for illicit purposes. Poandl served at St. Christopher’s Catholic Church in Claxton in 2012 as well as in Pembroke and Glennville.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Several prominent media outlets are fairly attacking the latest example of a Newark, NJ Catholic bishop’s excesses, that includes installing an apparently expensive hot tub. Newark is one of the poorest US cities. As stated in a scathing editorial of the National Catholic Reporter (NCR): “Archbishop John Myers’ decision to expand his summer residence … already a model of luxury … is nothing short of an assault on the goodwill and trust of the people of God.”

Myers had been pilloried recently, with justification, for his failures to protect children adequately from an allegedly predatory priest. Myers’ pal, Governor Chris Christie, seemingly supported Myers’ escape from that mess. Christie now has his own “bridge problem” and will likely be unable to join Myers in the hot tub anytime soon.

So what can Catholics do about Myers, and so many other bishops who suffer from that terminal episcopal malady, “bishop unaccountability” ? Complaining in blogs, and even withholding donations, haven’t reformed the hierarchy significantly to date and, in my disappointed but experienced view, likely never will. These half-measures have mainly just led bishops to be more secretive and to hire more publicists and lawyers, wasting even more donations.

For the several reasons I discuss in my advice to President Obama, he must step up with a national commission. See at:

[Christian Catholicism]

The call for President Obama to step up on religious institutional child abuse has also been made by the leading academic legal authority on institutional child sex abuse in the USA, as well as a highly regarded constitutional scholar in the church-state area, Professor Marci Hamilton. Professor Hamilton clerked for US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She has also as a lawyer dealt directly with the Catholic hierarchy on behalf of priest sex abuse survivors. See her article at:

[Verdict]

Historically, major reforms of corruption in the Catholic Church have usually resulted from outside pressure from monarchs or other governmental leaders, or from competing religious forces, or some combination of these pressures. That makes sense, I suppose. Why would an ambitious cleric who slithered up the hierarchical ladder to get his shot at unlimited income and power, without accountability, give it up without a struggle? Once you have it, why give it up unless forced to do so? Bishops, we now know too well, cannot be shamed into reforming.

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YAKIMA (WA)
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Jane Gargas / Yakima Herald-Republic
jgargas@yakimaherald.com

YAKIMA, Wash. — Two lawsuits brought against the Catholic Diocese of Yakima for alleged sexual abuse by clergy members are in the process of being settled.

A settlement agreement has been signed in the case of Michelle Duerre, who said she was sexually abused by three Jesuit priests during the 1970s.

The diocese has agreed to pay her $40,000. She alleged that the Revs. Frank Duffy, John Morse and James Poole abused her when she was between the ages of 8 and 12 and a student at St. Joseph/Marquette Catholic School.

Duerre said that Morse and Duffy abused her at the school and in the church rectory and that Poole abused her at the St. Peter the Apostle retreat house in Cowiche. She filed the suit in Yakima County Superior Court last March.

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AUSTRALIA
Gladstone Observer

The Rockhampton counsellors are encouraging people supporting victims of institutionalised sexual abuse to take part in a free workshop next week.

The one-day workshop, Beyond Survival, will take place on February 25 at The Leichhardt Hotel.

It will give an overview of the current Royal Commission investigation, and information on understanding and supporting victims of abuse.

Kim said the workshop was important because for many victims, family and friends were the most important support system.

She said it was particularly important for parents who may blame themselves if their child was a victim of abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Indy Bay

by Bill Berkowitz
Thursday Feb 20th, 2014

With so many difficult issues to deal with, Pope Francis has recently been handed a golden opportunity to deal with one of the most vexing of those issues: Child sexual abuse by Catholic priests, and its aiding and abetting and subsequent cover-up by Catholic Church officials.
Pope Francis, Help the Children Sexually Abused by Priests: Open the Vatican Archives

Now that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has delivered its report condemning the Vatican for aiding, abetting & covering up the Church’s sexual abuse scandal, WWPFD (What Will Pope Francis Do)?

Since Pope Francis (formerly Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina) took dominion over the Holy See, there has been much speculation about which direction he might move the Catholic Church; how he was going to modernize and make the Church more accessible to more people.

Liberals have lauded him for his comments about income inequality and his openness and apparent willingness to usher in a new way of going about the business of being Pope. Some conservatives, however, have scorned him for his economic pronouncements, while maintaining that he isn’t focusing enough on such culture war issues as birth control, homosexuality, and abortion.

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UNITED STATES
freeminds.org

An Analysis of the Theocratic Warfare Doctrine of the Jehovah’s Witnesses

Jerry Bergman , Ph.D.
Northwest State College
Archbold , Ohio

Reprinted from:
Cultic Studies Review:
An Internet Journal of Research, News, and Opinion
2002, Vol. 1, No. 2

www.culticstudiesreview.org
AFF
P.O. Box 2265
Bonita Springs , FL 34133
239-514-3081
aff@affcultinfoserve.com

Abstract

This review of the problem of religious justified lying in court focuses on the Jehovah’s Witnesses and their theocratic war doctrine. The history of the development of this doctrine and the problems of lying in society are reviewed. Also discussed are examples of the use of this doctrine in court and a survey of active and former Witnesses designed to determine the awareness level of this doctrine among the average Witness. It is concluded that the longer someone is a Witness, and the higher the attained rank in the Watchtower, the more likely the person is to understand and to use the doctrine.

Introduction

Honesty is a central Western value, and so important that fully 95% of Americans agree with the statement, “a primary goal of schools is to teach honesty and the importance of telling the truth” (Johnson and Immerwhr, 1994, p. 24). Honesty is also critical for the court process to function properly, and one of the most common impediments to determining truth is lying by court witnesses. In Judge Schwelb’s (1989, p. 3) words, “if witnesses lie successfully, the blindfold over the eyes of Justice will not serve its intended benign purpose.” Judge Schwelb stated he has encountered “many hundreds of instances of perjury or deception” in his thirty years as a lawyer (1989, p.3). He found that lying is especially common in domestic cases and if the deception is not exposed, liars can profit from their fabrications.

Cases involving other motivations for lying are more complex, such as when lying defined as a violation of the oath to tell “the whole truth and nothing but the truth” occurs because of deeply held religious convictions. Even lying that is exposed requires evaluating a variety of issues, such as whether so-called white lies, stretching the truth, or exaggerations constitute perjury (Stewart, 1986, p. 84). Lying also normally includes employing words “to obscure communication” so as to “manipulate” others for one’s own advantage (Wolk and Henley 1970 pp. 90-94, 232). The whole truth and nothing but the truth requirement in court was historically designed to avoid the problem of a court witness, for example, claiming that he honestly “didn’t steal” from his employer when in his mind he meant he “didn’t steal” from him yesterday , but to listeners he implied that he never stole because the yesterday remains unsaid. The whole truth is that he has stolen from his employer in the past (Bok, 1978).

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NEW JERSEY
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark

The current news coverage about the construction at the Archbishop’s weekend residence contains a number of misrepresentations. In addition, comments from readers that have appeared along with these news stories also contain numerous errors and mistakes.

To begin with, the Archdiocese has not maintained a residence for the Archbishop in the Llewellyn Park area of West Orange for decades. The last Archbishop to live in that house was Archbishop Boland, who retired in 1974. That house was sold decades ago. It is also important to know that Archbishop Myers’ principal residence has always been the rectory of the Cathedral Basilica, where he lives in community with four other priests. Like Archbishop Myers, both Archbishop Gerety and Cardinal McCarrick used the Cathedral Basilica rectory as their principal residence. Both had also maintained weekend residences as well.

The current weekend residence and future retirement home of Archbishop Myers was purchased in 2002 with funds from the sale of a prior residence at the Jersey Shore that had been donated to the Archdiocese more than 20 years ago. The planned construction is being paid for by donations from individuals specifically given for this purpose, and through the sale of other residential properties that the Archdiocese owns but does not need. The sale of these properties is expected to not only pay for the construction, but also to return funds to the Archdiocese for other ministry uses. No parishioner funds or Archbishop’s Annual Appeal contributions are being used on this project. Similarly, no convents, schools or other Archdiocesan buildings are being sold to provide funding for this project. The Archdiocese does pay real estate taxes on this property.

It is also important to know that in recent years the Archdiocese of Newark, both directly and through subsidies by parishes, has provided some $15 million annually to maintain Catholic schools within the Archdiocese. Under the Lighting the Way strategic plan, the Archdiocese will continue to provide substantial financial support to Catholic elementary schools, and also will devote more resources toward marketing and enrollment services — two areas that many individual schools have not been able to master on their own.

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NEW JERSEY
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Feb. 20, 2014 NCR Today

With backlash building faster than the three-story extension to Archbishop John Myers’ soon-to-be retirement residence, the Newark, N.J., archdiocese responded Tuesday to the criticism.

A statement on the archdiocese’s official blog classified recent news coverage of the construction as containing “a number of misrepresentations.” It clarified that Myers’ principal residence has been the rectory of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, “where he lives in community with four other priests.” It also noted that previous bishops — including Archbishop Peter Leo Gerety and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick — also maintained weekend residences.

As first reported by the Newark Star-Ledger, Myers’ 4,500-square-foot weekend residence is currently undergoing a $500,000 renovation (before furnishings, landscaping and other costs) to add a three-story, 3,000-square-foot wing in preparation of his eventual retirement. Realtors differ on what constitutes a mansion, but typically place the minimum square footage between 6,000 and 8,000.

Blueprints show the expected amenities will include a library, three fireplaces, a gallery for panoramic views of the grounds, a hot tub, and an endless pool (used for swimming laps) — adding to the outdoor pool already on the grounds.

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UNITED STATES
AlterNet

February 20, 2014

Kiera Feldman’s recent New Republic report on the convergence of rape culture and evangelical culture at a private Christian university in Virginia is a deeply troubling story. It’s also a disturbingly familiar one.

In a series of interviews with female survivors of sexual violence at Patrick Henry College, Feldman uncovered an institutional pattern of victim-blaming and impunity for perpetrators that was grounded in the school’s strict adherence to evangelical doctrine, specifically its “gender complementarian” norms and toxic purity culture.

Though generally viewed as a safe haven for young people with an evangelical Christian worldview, Patrick Henry College turned out to be a very dangerous place to be a survivor of sexual assault. It is, in other words, much like everywhere else in this country.

Evangelical Christianity makes visible — through purity pledges and doctrine assigning women the role of man’s “helpmate” — the norms and expectations about female virginity and subservience that so often remain hidden in the secular world. While it may be tempting to draw a red line around Christian fundamentalist views on gender and sexuality to distinguish them from supposedly evolved “secular” culture, there is considerable, uncomfortable overlap between the two.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Eugene Cullen Kennedy | Feb. 20, 2014 Bulletins from the Human Side

The conviction of Philadelphia’s Msgr. William J. Lynn for endangering children by allegedly providing cover for priest pedophiles was recently reversed by a higher court. Lynn, after serving 18 months in jail, is out on bail under house arrest as the district attorney appeals to the state Supreme Court.

The original guilty verdict was, according to The New York Times, “hailed by victims’ rights advocates who have argued for years that senior church officials should be held accountable for concealing evidence and transferring predatory priests to unwary parishes.”

“The revelations of sexual abuse,” the Times noted, “and seeming official indifference have tormented an archdiocese [Philadelphia] that was long known for imperious leaders and an insular camaraderie among its priests.” That defines clericalism, the energy source of clerical culture, that first-class section of the plane from which its members could look back at the everyday Catholics jammed into coach who had to buy their own tickets and pay for the clergy’s, too. That’s how clerical culture understood the phrase, “It is right and just.”

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CHILE
La Tercera

por Angélica Baeza Palavecino – 20/02/2014

Durante esta jornada, una de las víctimas del sacerdote Fernando Karadima, Juan Carlos Cruz, publicó en su cuenta de Twitter una fotografía en donde se puede ver al sacerdote realizando una misa con dos mujeres presentes.

De acuerdo a Cruz, la fotografía fue tomada el día 4 de diciembre de 2013, al interior de la capilla del Convento de las Siervas de Jesús de la Caridad, lugar en donde reside el sacerdote, luego de que el Vaticano ordenara tras comprobar los delitos de abuso sexual, mantener una vida de oración.

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CHILE
El Comercio

[Summary: Chilean priest Fernando Karadima, who was convicted of sexually abusing minors by the Vatican, has officiated at Mass although he was forbidden to do so in public.]

El sacerdote chileno Fernando Karadima, quien fue declarado culpable de abuso sexual a menores por el Vaticano, habría oficiado una misa pese a que se le prohibió realizar actos religiosos en público, denunció una de sus víctimas. “Sigo luchando, pero esto me violenta y me angustia. Es reírse de todos nosotros. Monstruo #Karadima en misa pública”, escribió en su cuenta de Twitter uno de los cinco denunciantes de los abusos que cometió en los años 1980 el influyente clérigo formador de obispos, quien fue investigado y condenado por el Vaticano en 2010.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
California Report

[with audio]

Reporter: Steven Cuevas

The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed this week to pay out $13 million to more than a dozen victims of clergy sex abuse. Attorneys for the victims claim Los Angeles and Mexican church leaders also conspired to shield one notorious pedophile priest from authorities.

Eleven of the 17 cases settled by the L.A. Archdiocese involve former Mexican priest Nicolas Aguilar Rivera. He is believed to have molested more than two dozen children in the late 1980s.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Anthony De Marco says the priest fled to his native Mexico shortly after the abuse came to light.

“He’s been on the most wanted list in the state of Puebla for over 20 years,” said De Marco at a news conference Wednesday in Los Angeles.
–

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CANADA
The Telegram

BarbBarb Sweet
Published on February 20, 2014

Compensation amounts have now been decided in a settlement reached last year for individual victims of abuse that include former residents of the Mount Cashel orphanage.

The settlement includes a $16.5-million cash payment from the Catholic lay order, the Irish Christian Brothers and one of its insurers and affects more than 420 men and women in the U.S. and Canada who say they were molested as children by members of the Christian Brothers.

The new development is that a retired judge has decided how the money will be distributed to the claimants, about two thirds of whom are in the U.S., said lawyer Geoff Budden.

Most of the Mount Cashel claimants involved were residents of the orphanage prior to the early 1960s, when the American branch of the Christian Brothers withdrew from the Torbay Road, St. John’s facility.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Crawley and Horley Observer

A former Crawley priest jailed for abusing children has been banned from preaching for the rest of his life.

Gordon Rideout, 74, who was assistant curate at St Mary’s Church, Southgate, in the 1960s, was jailed in May 2013.

He had been found guilty of 36 sexual offences against 16 young girls and boys and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The Diocese of Chichester has confirmed Rideout had been prohibited for life from exercising any functions of ordained ministry within the Church of England.

Bishop of Chichester Martin Warner said: “A sentence of prohibition for life is the most severe sanction that can be imposed under the clergy discipline measure and is a further indication of the gravity of the offences committed.”

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, February 20, 2014

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 South Carolina man has been charged with sexually assaulting a child.

[The State]

August Byron Kreis III, a former Aryan Nations leader and Christian Identity minister has been charged with sexually assaulting a child under the age of 12 in South Carolina and showing the child pornography.

We are grateful for the mother of the victim for reporting the abuse to law enforcement. And we are glad that law enforcement officials are encouraging anyone else who saw, suspects or suffered sexual assault by Kreis to come forward. It is through the brave actions of whistleblowers, witnesses, law enforcement, prosecutors and victims that our children are kept safe.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014

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 )

We’re disappointed that a Springfield Catholic priest has been promoted to head the Wichita diocese.

Bishop Carl Kemme has been basically the second-in-command and actually ran the diocese for months in between bishop appointments. During those years, diocesan staff made a number of worrisome decisions. Here are two from just the past year.

– They temporarily let an accused child molesting cleric, Fr. Robert “Bud” DeGrand, resign from his posts, instead of suspending him, after delaying for a week after the diocesan abuse panel quietly urged them to oust Fr. DeGrand. They used vague, misleading language – like “misconduct” – to describe alleged child sex crimes, hoping to soften the horror of sexual assaults on children by clergy.

[BishopAccountability.org]

– They put Fr. Thomas Donovan back on the job after he’d been found by police to be wearing an orange jumpsuit and “a leather bondage-type mask with a bar in his mouth” (A church therapist allegedly diagnosed him as having engaged in “non-sexual self-bondage.”)

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. So we are not optimistic that he will take real steps to reform long-standing, deeply rooted patterns of irresponsible, self-serving behavior by bishops in this on-going crisis.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Advocate

By DOUG DINGWALL Feb. 20, 2014

TASMANIA will host a public hearing for the royal commission into child sex abuse within a year.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse confirmed it would visit Tasmania for a public hearing at a time after scheduled hearings are finished in June.

It has scheduled hearings in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT before July.

Greens MP Paul O’Halloran on Wednesday called for the royal commission to schedule a Tasmanian public hearing.

He said it was important for child sex abuse victims to give evidence in public hearings close to their homes, where they had support.

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Katholisches

[Summary: There are enough people willing to raise their index finger against the Catholic Church regarding the pedophilia issue but neither the media nor international institutions are willing to put the facts in overall social context or give complete figures. Certain lawyers in the United States have earned a fortune from pedophile priests and dioceses have been held liable and asked to pay billions of dollars. Anti-Catholic directors, novelists and the UN committee are contributing to “those black legends against the Popish Rome.]

(Rom/Genf) [Bedauerlicherweise irrtümlich wiedergegebene Zahlenangaben, machen ein Update notwendig. Es wurden durch einen Lesefehler viel zu hohe Zahlen von pädophilen Priestern angebenen: siehe Korrekturen im Text und als Nachtrag] Das UNO-Kinderrechtskomitee unternahm einen Frontalangriff gegen die Katholische Kirche und nahm dazu die Aufarbeitung sexueller Mißbrauchsfälle von Minderjährigen durch Kleriker zum Anlaß. Ein Mißbrauch des Mißbrauchs, den sich die UNO-„Experten“ leisteten. Es gibt genügend Leute, die bereitwillig ihren Zeigefinger gegen die Katholische Kirche erheben und durch den Vorwurf der Pädophilie nur zu gerne ihre Kirchenfeindlichkeit gerechtfertigt sehen. Doch weder die Medien noch die internationalen Institutionen sind bereit, die Fakten in den gesamtgesellschaftlichen Kontext zu stellen und die vollständigen Zahlen zu nennen. Eine einseitige selektive Wahrnehmung bestimmt das Bild, als wären Pädophile ausschließlich oder vor allem in der Kirche unterwegs. Naiv, wer denkt, das geschehe ohne Absicht.

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NEW JERSEY
National Catholic Reporter

NCR Editorial Staff | Feb. 20, 2014

Newark, N.J., Archbishop John Myers’ decision to expand his summer residence cum retirement home — already a model of luxury with five bedrooms, three full bathrooms, an elevator, a three-car garage and a large outdoor pool and valued at nearly $800,000 — is nothing short of an assault on the goodwill and trust of the people of God.

The 3,000-square-foot addition, at a minimum cost of $500,000 (it is reported that furnishings, architectural costs and landscaping are not included in that figure), will bring the total area of the residence to 7,400 square feet and the total value to at least $1.3 million.

The addition will house an indoor exercise pool, a hot tub, three fireplaces, a library, another elevator and a “gallery” to provide a panoramic view of the grounds below, according to a report in The Star-Ledger of Newark.

Gasp. Yes, a gasp is appropriate. The arrogance and self-importance required to undertake such a project on one’s own behalf and funded, at least partially, with the proceeds from the sale of other archdiocesan-owned property is breathtaking.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler February 20, 2014

St. Peter’s basilica is enormous. I wonder how many American Catholics assume that, just as the Vatican basilica is larger than their diocesan cathedral, the Vatican bureaucracy must also be much larger than the diocesan staff. Not so. Actually the Vatican is a relatively lean operation. Although they work in spectacular surroundings—you won’t find anything like the Sistine Chapel beside your local chancery—the officials of the Roman Curia do not have large support staffs.

Many years ago, as a young journalist new to the beat, I placed my first call to Rome, hoping to arrange an interview with a cardinal who headed a Vatican congregation. I expected to speak with two or three intermediaries before, just maybe, arranging an actual conversation. I was stunned when the cardinal himself answered the office phone. How many American bishops take unscreened calls?

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Cola Daily

February 19, 2014 By Allen Wallace

A Richland County man faces charges of sexually assaulting a child and sharing pornography with her.

August Byron Kreis III, 59, was arrested Wednesday after a joint investigation by the Richland County, Lexington County and Kershaw County Sheriff’s Departments.

The mother of the alleged victim told investigators that Kreis repeatedly had sexual contact with the

Investigators ask anyone with information about illegal conduct by Kreis to contact Crimestoppers.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
The State

BY CHRIS WINSTON
cwinston@thestate.com
February 19, 2014

RICHLAND COUNTY A 59-year-old man was arrested Wednesday, accused of sexually assaulting a young girl late last year.

August Byron Kreis III is charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor under 12 and disseminating pornography to a child 12 or younger.

Kreis, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, once sought out national attention, appearing on The Jerry Springer Show on an episode called “A Racist Family.” According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, he once headed one of a handful of competing splinter factions of the once-mighty Aryan Nations.

Because of widely publicized comments made after the 9/11 attacks that he and his followers wished to join al-Qaida, Kreis came under the scrutiny of federal law enforcement. During an examination of his financial records to investigate whether he had given material support to al-Qaida, officials discovered unreported income.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
The Raw Story

By David Edwards
Thursday, February 20, 2014

A former leader of the Aryan Nation was charged this week with sexually assaulting a young girl and providing obscene material to her.

WIS-TV reported that authorities in South Carolina arrested 59-year-old August Byron Kreis on Wednesday after the girl’s mother filed a report with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff Leon Lott said that investigators discovered that Kreis shared pornography with the girl and sexually abused her for a three month period from September to November 2013. He was charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor under 12 and disseminating pornography to a child 12 or younger.

More charges were expected in Kershaw and Lexington counties.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, described Kreis as a “hot-tempered, longtime white supremacist and Christian Identity minister.”

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, February 20, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Victims group praises Texas diocese
Twice, it does outreach about predator priest

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is praising a Texas Catholic diocese for twice seeking out others who may have been molested by a priest.

Once in 2010 (under Bishop Alvaro Corrada) and again this month (Bishop Joseph Strickland), officials in the Tyler diocese used parish bulletins and the diocesan website to notify parishioners about Fr. Robert (Bob) Poandl who was found guilty in September 2013 of molesting a boy in West Virginia. Last week, Fr. Poandl was given a seven and a half year prison sentence.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say they’ve long prodded the Catholic hierarchy to use their resources to “aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by priests.” Almost never do church officials respond, SNAP says.

And the group is commending the Tyler diocese for doing so.

“Literally thousands of times over the past 25 years, we have begged Catholic officials to reach out to other victims who may still be struggling in silence, shame and self-blame,” said David Clohessy of SNAP. “And we know that some people who have information that could help police catch predators also stay quiet. All of them – victims, witnesses and whistleblowers – should be urged to speak up.”

“Twice, we asked bishops in eight states where Fr. Bob Poandl worked to reach out to others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Poandl and may still be struggling in silence,” said SNAP’s Judy Jones. “Tyler officials were the only ones to respond positively.”

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Indian Country Today Media Network

Stephanie Woodard
2/20/14

For now, the Catholic Church in South Dakota—along with schools, religious orders and other churches and institutions—appears to be off the hook for sexual abuse that Native Americans say they suffered while attending Church-run boarding schools during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. On February 18, the state legislature’s Senate Judiciary Committee listened to statements for and against Senate Bill 130, which was intended to give their day in court to Native victims who’d had their lawsuits against the Church terminated after legislative action in 2010.

The 45-minute hearing pitted the survivors, all non-lawyers, against Catholic and Lutheran church attorneys. The committee chairman then requested that the victims produce legal documents they hadn’t been forewarned they’d need to show. Finally, the members voted 5-2 to kill the measure, while noting that they opposed sexual abuse of children and “felt for” the victims.

One of the bill’s sponsors, Representative Troy Heinert, Rosebud Sioux, said he will talk to the survivors who came forward and to South Dakota’s House Judiciary Committee to see what options lie ahead. “I truly believe the survivors still have support. We’ve got to keep this issue moving, because a lot of people haven’t received justice.”

This is the second time the South Dakota legislature failed to remedy a 2010 bill that let institutions off the hook for abuse once the victim had turned 40; the first attempt was in 2012. The 2010 law, written by a Catholic Church lawyer, was passed after scores of middle-aged and elderly Native Americans sued the Church and individual perpetrators under the childhood-sexual-abuse statute of limitations in existence at the time.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By LEAH LIBRESCO • February 20, 2014

A student is raped by a classmate, goes to the campus center for help, and is grilled about whether she provoked the rape, told she has to confront her accuser personally in order to be taken seriously, and, ultimately, hounded off of campus, since her post-traumatic stress makes her “unstable.”

You might recognize all the details from The New Republic‘s story about Patrick Henry College’s alleged mishandling of rape cases, but the above incident is drawn from Angie Epifano’s experience at Amherst. Patrick Henry’s Christian ethos informs the tone in which these students were brushed off (you’d be unlikely to hear concerns about purity at a public or secular private school), but the alleged underlying betrayal is more attributable to being a university than a Christian one in particular.

Treating Patrick Henry’s crisis as unique because of its singular status as a private, Christian school (one of only four private colleges in the country that decline federal funds and, thus, aren’t regulated under Title IX) masks a broader problem with administrations’ treatment of students in crisis, one that isn’t limited to sexual assault.

When students at my alma mater discussed the mental health or sexual assault resources, it might have sounded like we were cribbing from the “Never Ever Talk to the Police” lecture by Professor James Duane of the Regent University School of Law that was taking a tour of campuses. You’re talking to someone who’s job is to safeguard the community, not you, if, in their opinion, you present a legal, physical, or reputational risk to the institution.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, Bob Schwiderski of Wayzata ( 952-471-3422, skibrs@q.com ), Frank Meuers of Plymouth ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )

Victims challenge New Ulm bishop
New documents show predator was prolific
Pedophile priest worked in 15 Minnesota towns

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging New Ulm’s Catholic bishop to reach out to victims of an abusive priest who, according to new church records, was especially egregious.

Documents revealed yesterday by Minnesota Public Radio show that a high ranking Twin Cities church official says that Fr. Louis Heitzer, who worked throughout the New Ulm Diocese, “was perhaps the most abusive priest ever to be a part of this archdiocese.”

That same official, Fr. Kevin McDonough, also wrote “I now believe that Fr. Heitzer abused boys every place he went.” The archdiocese hasn’t released any information on Heitzer’s alleged abuse. He died in 1969.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, want Bishop John M. LeVoir to “use his resources to aggressively seek out others who were hurt by this child molesting cleric and who may still be suffering in shame, silence and self-blame.”

“That Fr. Heitzer was a predator is not news. But how prolific he apparently was IS news, at least to the public,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “And because you and your colleagues keep promising ‘openness,’ you should actually practice it, by aggressively seeking out some of those who’ve been hurt by Fr. Heitzer.”

“It’s hard for some to understand this, but many times, victims stay silent unless someone in authority – a prosecutor, a bishop, or even a parent – begs them to step forward and get help,” said Megan Peterson, Twin Cities SNAP leader. “Fr. Heitzer’s victims are likely getting up in age. They were kids in an age when kids were often to be ‘seen, not heard,’ So it’s likely they’re still carrying this horrible burden alone. Catholic officials can and should gently but firmly prod them to break their silence and start healing.”

Over about 25 years of ministry, Fr. Heitzer worked at churches in at least 15 Minnesota towns: Winsted, Fairfax, Franklin, Waconia, Richfield, Heidelberg, Clearwater, Winthrop, Gaylord, Rosen, Marshall, Sleepy Eye, Forest Lake, Birch Coulee, and St. Paul.

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DEUTSCHLAND
HPD

[Summary: The priests at Admont Abbey want the taxpayers to be liable for sexual abuse that happened at their abbey. Victims have reported beatings to unconsciousness and ritual rapes.]

LOEBEN. (pbkg/hpd) Im Missbrauchsskandal von Stift Admont werden die Opfer weiterhin verhöhnt, das Gerichts­verfahren wird weiter zum OGH verschleppt. Die Plattform Betroffener Kirchlicher Gewalt dazu: “Admonter Padres wollen, dass Steuer­zahler­Innen für Miss­handlungen im Stift haften”

Die Vorgeschichte: Jener Betroffene, der den Klageweg beschritten hat, ist gemeinsam mit anderen Ex-Zöglingen vor mehr als 40 Jahren durch die Hölle gegangen: Schläge bis zur Bewusst­losigkeit und rituelle Ver­gewalti­gungen zählten seinen Angaben zufolge zum Alltag, bis heute leidet der Kläger unter den Folgen der schweren, damals zugefügten Verletzungen. Besonders empörend: Beide pädo­kriminellen Padres waren bis 2013 in steirischen Gemeinden in Amt und Würden und hatte also auch mit Kindern und Jugend­lichen Kontakt.

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NEW JERSEY
The New York Times

KEARNY, N.J. — Mater Dei Academy sits shuttered, blue drapes pulled across its windows, atop a hill in this working-class city. From its steps, you can peer across the mist-shrouded expanse of the Meadowlands to the distant spires of Manhattan.

For generations, this blond brick Catholic elementary school tossed a lifeline to the immigrants who, wave upon wave, washed ashore here. The Archdiocese of Newark closed it two years ago. Church officials offered deep regrets; the church’s wallet is thin to the touch these days.

“It was a loved place, that school,” said Dorothy Gawronski, a crossing guard holding a red “Stop” sign. “But the church, I don’t think it’s rich anymore.”

All of which brings me along a winding and narrow road that switches back and forth across the wooded Capoolong Creek to a splendid 8.5-acre spread in the hamlet of Pittstown. This is rural and rather affluent Hunterdon County, 49 miles from Mater Dei.

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KANSAS
KSN

WICHITA, Kansas –Pope Francis has named Msgr. Carl A. Kemme, vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, to be the 11th bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wichita.

The appointment was announced today in Washington, D.C., by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop-elect Kemme, age 53, will succeed now-Archbishop Michael O. Jackels, who in April 2013 was named head of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa.

Bishop-elect Kemme said he was “deeply humbled and honored by the appointment of Pope Francis as the 11th bishop of the Diocese of Wichita.”

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KANSAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 20

Statement by Barbara Dorris of SNAP (314 503 0003)

The new Catholic bishop of Wichita has, for more than a decade, been part of a team of church officials that has made disturbing decisions in clergy sex cases.

Since 2002, Msgr. Carl Kemme of the Springfield, IL diocese has been basically the second-in-command and actually ran the diocese for months in between bishop appointments. During those years, diocesan staff made a number of worrisome decisions. Here are two from just the past year.

– They temporarily let an accused child molesting cleric, Fr. Robert “Bud” DeGrand, resign from his posts, instead of suspending him, after delaying for a week after the diocesan abuse panel quietly urged them to oust Fr. DeGrand. They used vague, misleading language – like “misconduct” – to describe alleged child sex crimes, hoping to soften the horror of sexual assaults on children by clergy.

[BishopAccountability.org]

– They put Fr. Thomas Donovan back on the job after he’d been found by police to be wearing an orange jumpsuit and “a leather bondage-type mask with a bar in his mouth” (A church therapist allegedly diagnosed him as having engaged in “non-sexual self-bondage.”)

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. So we are not optimisitic that he will take real steps to reform long-standing, deeply rooted patterns of irresponsible, self-serving behavior by bishops in this on-going crisis.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 19 February 2014 (VIS) – The Council of the eight cardinals continued its work yesterday afternoon, in a meeting dedicated to the examination of the information presented to the cardinals yesterday and on Monday by the Commission for Reference on the the Organisation of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See (COSEA) and the Commission for Reference on the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), reported Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., director of the Holy See Press Office, in the third of this week’s daily briefings for journalists.

“The cardinals have worked intensively, they have taken a number of questions into consideration, and have formulated proposals to be presented to the Holy Father in various fields, those of economic and administrative structures, which relate to what we refer to as the economic and financial dicasteries, and on the IOR, which is a far more specific theme. It will then be up to the Holy Father to follow or to modify these proposals, but the Council has completed its task. This morning the dates of the next meetings were set: from 28 to 30 April, shortly after the canonisation of John XXIII and John Paul II, and from 1 to 4 July. It is also confirmed that the cardinals have in no way completed their reviews of the different dicasteries of the Holy See.

“This afternoon, the representatives of the Commissions which have reported to the Council of Cardinals – the so-called C8 – will do the same with the Council of Fifteen, or rather the cardinals who oversee the financial statement of the Holy See and the Governorate of Vatican City State. The C8 cardinals will also attend the meeting, to take place in the Sala Bologna of the Apostolic Palace, which is able to accommodate a large group. It will be a very brief presentation, of about fifteen minutes for each Commission, of what has been treated more exhaustively during these days. These presentations will be given by the three members of the COSEA who attended Monday’s meeting, whereas the Commission for Reference on the IOR will be represented by Cardinal Raffaele Farina S.D:B., and the coordinator, Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta de Chinchetru. The C15 will hold its ordinary meetings next Monday and Tuesday, to discuss the matters within its remit. Finally, we can say that this morning and this afternoon’s meetings are for communication, information and co-ordination”.

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WICHITA (KS)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Wichita

Biography
Statement from Bishop-elect Carl A. Kemme
Letter to the Faithful
Statement from Msgr. Robert Hemberger
News conference live stream

For Immediate Release
For more information: Amy Pavlacka, Director of Communications
Phone: (316) 269-3900, ext. 143 / Cell: (316) 295-7001
E-mail: pavlackaa@CatholicDioceseOfWichita.org
Date: February 20, 2014

WICHITA, Kan. – His Holiness, Pope Francis, has named Msgr. Carl A. Kemme, vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, to be the 11th bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, Kansas. The appointment was announced today in Washington, D.C., by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop-elect Kemme, age 53, will succeed now-Archbishop Michael O. Jackels, who in April 2013 was named head of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa.

Bishop-elect Kemme said he was “deeply humbled and honored by the appointment of Pope Francis as the 11th bishop of the Diocese of Wichita.”

“To be a bishop in the church has never been something I have sought or dreamed possible,” he said. “I have accepted this assignment relying solely on God’s grace and mercy to help me fulfill the lofty responsibilities of this office. The confidence our beloved Holy Father has shown in me is a source of humility and peace in knowing that God chooses the weak and sinful to accomplish his great mission in the world.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 20 February 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has: …

— appointed Msgr. Carl Allan Kemme as bishop of Wichita (area 51,955, population 994,000, Catholics 126,800, priests 123, permanent deacons 4, religious 259), U.S.A. The bishop-elect was born in Effingham, Illinois in 1960 and was ordained a priest in 1986. He has served in a number of pastoral roles, including priest of the parish of “St. Mary” in Brussels, “St. Joseph” in Meppen and the “Holy Family Parish” in Decatur, parish administrator of “Our Lady of the Holy Spirit” in Mt. Zion, vicar forane in the Decatur deanery, priest-moderator of the “St. James Parish” in Decatur, priest in the “St. Peter Parish” in Petersburg and the “St. John Vianney Parish” in Sherman, and diocesan administrator. He has served as vicar general and moderator of the Curia since 2010. In 2002 he was named Prelate of Honour of His Holiness.

– appointed Msgr. Peter Baldacchino as auxiliary of the archdiocese of Miami (area 12,836, population 4,369,000, Catholics 874,000, priests 379, permanent deacons 161, religious 399), U.S.A. The bishop-elect was born in Sliema, Malta in 1960 and and was ordained a priest in 1996. He holds a Master of Divinity from Seton Hall University, South Orange, U.S.A., and has served in the following pastoral roles: vicar of the parish of “Our Lady of Mount Carmel” in Ridgewood, chancellor of the “Missio sui iuris” of Turks and Caicos, and priest of the parish of “Our Lady of Divine Providence” on the island of Providenciales. In 2002 he was named Chaplain of His Holiness.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Summary: A victim of priest Marco Mangiacasale, who was defrocked by the Vatican, is suing the Como diocese. The victim’s family is silent but a hearing is scheduled for March.]

La vicenda di don Mauro: causa civile contro la Diocesi

La famiglia della vittima non conferma e rimane in silenzio. L’udienza sarebbe però già stata fissata in marzo. Citati anche il religioso e la parrocchia
Nuova grana per la Chiesa lariana: chiesto il risarcimento del danno per quanto commesso dall’ex parroco di Laglio

Non c’è pace per la Diocesi di Como. Dopo lo scontro interno alla Chiesa lariana successivo alla “dimissione dallo stato clericale” di Marco Mangiacasale voluto da Papa Francesco – vicenda che ha portato il parroco di San Giuliano, don Roberto Pandolfi, a chiedere le dimissioni di monsignor Angelo Riva, vicario episcopale che aveva nuovamente difeso l’ex don definendolo «buon prete» – dal palazzo di giustizia emerge a sorpresa una nuova questione. Nuova in quanto dovrà essere affrontata per la prima volta nell’ormai prossimo marzo, meno nuova per il tema del contendere che riporterà tutti alla storia di don Mauro Stefanoni, ex parroco di Laglio condannato in via definitiva dalla Cassazione a 8 anni di pena per abusi su un minore dell’oratorio.

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ROM
Aktuell

[Summary: Hans Zollner, who head the psychology institute at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, is hoping for a decision from Pope Francis this week about the new sexual abuse commission.]

Der Leiter des Instituts für Psychologie an der päpstlichen Gregoriana-Universität in Rom, Hans Zollner, hofft auf eine Entscheidung von Papst Franziskus über die angekündigte Missbrauchskommission noch in dieser Woche. Bevor das Gremium seine Arbeit aufnehmen könne, müssten noch genaue Aufgabenfelder festgelegt werden, sagte er dem Evangelischen Pressedienst (epd) am Mittwoch in Rom.

Das sei eine “heikle Angelegenheit”. In der Öffentlichkeit war mit einer Einsetzung der Missbrauchskommission noch vor dem Konsistorium gerechnet worden, bei dem Franziskus am Samstag 19 Kirchenvertreter in den Kardinalsrang erheben wird.

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