ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
ABC – Religion and Ethics

Scott Stephens et al.
ABC RELIGION AND ETHICS 13 MAR 2014

There are indications the so-called “Francis effect” may be more of a media-driven epiphenomenon.

But what happens when the media can no longer sustain their “progressive” narrative about the pope?

The papacy is, to be sure, an office particularly susceptible to projection, to a sort of idolatrous fixation that cannot help but reflect back to us our own hopes and personal agendas.

Every pope has to navigate that perilously fine line between the apostolic – which demands not just prominence but publicity, a winsome embodiment of the Christian faith that must prove attractive, even beautiful – and the deferential – or, to use the more properly Christian term, the kenotic, the self-emptying refusal to arrogate to himself either adoration or fetishisation, and the corresponding preparedness to embrace the offense that must necessarily follow from bearing courageous witness to Jesus Christ.

In his important essay, “The Primacy of the Pope and the Unity of the People of God,” then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger stressed the inherently martyrological dimension of the papacy, that the “vicariate of Christ is a vicariate of obedience and of the Cross; thus it is suited to the measure of man, and at the same time surpasses him as much as being a Christian does in the first place.” It is for this reason, insists Ratzinger, that

“the man most suited to become pope is the one who, from the perspective of the human choice of candidates, would be considered the least qualified in terms of the ideals of political shrewdness and executive power. The more a man resembles the Lord and thus (objectively) recommends himself as a candidate, the less human reason considers him capable of governing, because reason cannot fathom humiliation or the Cross.”

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Carmel Ross | 13 March 2014

Commission this week have focused on the efforts of John Ellis to have his experience of sexual abuse as a teenage boy, perpetrated by a Catholic priest, acknowledged and adequately addressed by the Church. The Royal Commission hearing has heard a litany of factors involving legal issues and the internal workings of the Archdiocese of Sydney that must have had a profound impact on Ellis. His courage to continue to fight for justice is admirable.

The finding by the High Court that Australian law as it stands does not allow an individual to sue the Catholic Church is an untenable situation if our nation believes justice for individuals is important. The law will always have its limits, but the Ellis defence implies that no single part of the organisation to which the perpetrator Fr Duggan belonged — which conferred upon him the status and duty of a priest and to which he was bound by vows to obey and serve — is able to be held accountable in law for his illegal and immoral behaviour.

The complexity of the Church as an organisation often defies understanding, even by many who have spent their lives in religious vows or on the Church payroll. Canon Law provides mechanisms for separation into smaller organisations such as parishes and dioceses, and often these establish a civil legal identity by incorporating as an association or company. Yet all remain part of the Church. This legal separation of so many entities within the Church sometimes allows issues of justice and accountability to fall through the cracks.

Laws relating to incorporated bodies strive to protect the interests of those bodies, but may not pay much attention to the achievement of justice. Certainly the legal representatives acting on behalf of the Archdiocese of Sydney appear to have conducted themselves during the court process as if their sole purpose was to avoid any prospect of the Church being held accountable for the abuse suffered by Ellis.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Donald W. Meyers / Yakima Herald-Republic
dmeyers@yakimaherald.com

YAKIMA, Wash. — Bishop Emeritus Carlos Sevilla testified Wednesday under questioning in federal court that he once described what happened between a deacon and a Zillah teen in 1999 as “sexual assault.”

The questioning came from Bryan Smith, who is representing the teen, known as John Doe, in a $3 million civil lawsuit against the Diocese of Yakima for allegedly failing to properly check Deacon Aaron Ramirez’s background before accepting him as a candidate for the priesthood. The lawsuit also alleges church officials failed to supervise him while he was in the diocese.

Smith asked Sevilla in court about a phone call with Ramirez in Wenatchee after the 1999 incident in a trailer at Zillah’s Resurrection Catholic Church.

In the call, Sevilla — who had been made aware of the situation while vacationing in California — asked Ramirez what happened.

“He described it as mutual masturbation,” Sevilla said of Ramirez.

Smith then confronted Sevilla: “You described it as sexual assault.”

Sevilla repeated Ramirez’s description of the incident.

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IRELAND
RTE News

By Joe Little, Religious and Social Affairs Correspondent

This day last year, the Argentinean Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected the first non-European Pontiff in 1,300 years.

Since then the 77-year-old has frequently broken with precedent, most notably by choosing to live in a Vatican guest-house instead of the Apostolic Palace overlooking Saint Peter’s Square.

Gestures like paying his own hotel bill and using a saloon car have set the tone of his Pontificate, but what else is new about Pope Francis’s first 12 months?

From the word go, he was “Francis The Informal”. …

Children and Families

To confront the most damaging scandal to erode the Church in modern times, Francis is setting up a Commission on Child Abuse. Last month the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child criticised Church cover-ups of clerical child sexual abuse. But in an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Serra, Francis hit back saying no institution had done more to root out paedophilia.

Mr Vallely says it’s an area where the new Pope will have to do something. “Otherwise the honeymoon will be over because that’s the area where the secular world is most disgusted with the Catholic Church.”

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

A SENIOR Catholic official had to be released from a vow of secrecy before he could freely give evidence to the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Monsignor Brian Rayner was chancellor and vicar-general in the Archdiocese of Sydney when John Ellis sought redress for abuse he suffered when he was an altar boy at Bass Hill, in Sydney, between 1974 and 1979.

Monsignor Rayner told counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, that he had gone to the papal nuncio to be released from a vow of secrecy he took when he held the chancellor’s position in Sydney.

The nuncio, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Pope’s diplomat in Australia, is based in Canberra.

Monsignor Rayner said the nuncio advised him to give “whatever evidence was required by the royal commission”. Had he not spoken to the nuncio, he would have been in a dilemma as to what would be appropriate to reveal and “perhaps what should be kept private”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

Around 1:30 p.m., the jury in the Father Andrew McCormick sex abuse case sent a note to the judge saying they were hopelessly deadlocked.

Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright told the jury to give it one more try, but nothing changed. Shortly after 4 p.m., the judge dismissed the jury after four and a half days of fruitless deliberations.

The day began with the court stenographer reading back more than an hour of testimony from the alleged victim. Meanwhile, the alleged victim sat in the second row of the courtroom, listening to his description of the alleged attack by “Father Andy.” Soon, the alleged victim and his mother were sobbing and bowing their heads, while they went through a box of tissues.

No juror, however, was seen glancing their way. The judge followed the reading of the testimony by re-reading her instructions to the jury about how to deal with the victim’s testimony. If you believe his testimony, the judge had instructed the jury, that alone was sufficient evidence to convict the priest.

Apparently, at least one juror didn’t believe the victim. The jury told the judge they did not want to talk to the lawyers in the case, and they left without speaking to reporters. Judge Bright asked Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp if the district attorney’s office wanted to retry the case.

“Yes, Your Honor,” Kemp said. The judge promptly issued a new trial date of April 28.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

[with video]

JOSEPH A. SLOBODZIAN, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, March 12, 2014

A Philadelphia judge Wednesday declared a mistrial in the sexual-assault case against the Rev. Andrew McCormick after a tired, despondent-looking jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked.

Common Pleas Court Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright’s late-afternoon ruling came an hour after she urged the jury of nine women and three men to try once more to resolve their differences and reach a unanimous verdict.

“Nothing has changed since your last charge,” read the forewoman’s note to the judge. “We are still deadlocked. Discussions have ceased.”

After the jurors were dismissed, Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp told Bright she would retry the 57-year-old Catholic priest on charges he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997 in the priest’s rectory bedroom at St. John Cantius church in Bridesburg.

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TEXAS
Christian Post

by Barry Bowen

$600,000 in donations were stolen recently from the safe at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. The Houston Chronicle and Fox 26 report the theft included $200,000 in cash along with check and credit card donations given during the Saturday and Sunday services.

Details are scarce as the police conduct an investigation.

Commissary, the Christian songwriter, tweeted, “Can’t tell you how many times I saw people poke fun at Joel Osteen’s theft situation today on social media.” He also asked the question, “When is theft ever funny?”

Here are a couple of questions that come to my mind:

1. Who had access to the safe?
2. Was an alarm system disabled or never turned on?
3. Are there any signs of forced entry?
4. Did security cameras pick up anyone when the church offices were closed?

Embezzlement of church and ministry funds is a serious matter. According to a report in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Christian leaders will embezzle an estimated $39 billion in 2014.

This theft was most likely committed by a church employee, usher or deacon that helped collect the offering, or by someone that cased the church for weeks to determine where the money was kept and how to evade security.

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PUERTO RICO
am

Primero, la Iglesia Católica de Puerto Rico anunció que le quitaba los hábitos a seis curas acusados de abusos sexuales en la ciudad de Arecibo. Luego fiscales revelaron que al menos otros 11 sacerdotes estaban siendo investigados por el mismo delito.

Ahora las autoridades estadounidenses admiten que ellas también están investigando denuncias de abusos por parte de curas en esta isla devotamente católica y muchos puertorriqueños están conmocionados por versiones de que uno de los clérigos más queridos de este territorio estadounidense estaría involucrado en abusos.

Los puertorriqueños casi no habían sido salpicados por los relatos de abusos sexuales en la Iglesia Católica y muchos llegaron a pensar que estaban inmunes. Pero Barbara Dorris, directora de la Red de Sobrevivientes de Abusos Sexuales de Sacerdotes, con sede en Estados Unidos, dice que las nuevas denuncias hacen pensar que el problema es mucho más grave de lo que se supuso inicialmente.

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UNITED STATES
The Zalkin Law Firm

Treatment for Prolonged Depression and Justice in Court Are Both Needed by Victims of Childhood Abuse

By Devin Storey, Esq.

In an article published on Allvoices.com, the author discussed a report by researchers at the University of Toronto that was published in January in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. The article, entitled “New study reveals childhood abuse prolongs depression recovery” examined the study’s findings that adults who were subjected to physical, sexual or emotional abuse as children, faced a far longer road to recovery from depression than those who were not abused. The study followed 1,128 depressed adults for up to 12 years and determined that adults who survived abusive childhoods experienced an average delay of nine months in bringing their depression into remission when compared to those who were not abused as children.

Over years of representing survivors of childhood sexual abuse, many clients of The Zalkin Law Firm have experienced depression and periods of crisis. And, while childhood abuse may result in physiological changes that prolong recovery, other studies show that professional intervention can be effective in aiding those suffering from depression to recover more quickly than those who remain un-treated by mental health professionals. As childhood sex abuse attorneys, we have seen first-hand the benefit our clients have experienced as a result of timely treatment by mental health practitioners, and that healing can occur when a motivated survivor of abuse secures treatment from a qualified mental health professional.

For those who have not endured depression, it is difficult to fully comprehend how debilitating this condition can be. Depression can rob a person of the motivation to seek help for their condition thereby extending the period of depression and exacerbating the person’s suffering. Any delay in the recovery time of a person suffering from depression can be catastrophic, and the average delay of nine months experienced by survivors of childhood abuse and trauma can seem like a lifetime.

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OHIO
Fox 19

By Amy Wagner

(FOX19) –
FOX19 Investigates has learned a Tri-State principal, who’s still on the job, received notice from the state her license could be revoked.

Mary Blum, who goes by Catie, is the principal at Saint John the Baptist Catholic School in Colerain Township. A letter sent to Blum from the Ohio Board of Education says:

“On or about March 7, 2012, you yelled at Student 1, who you knew was autistic and suffering from anxiety. As a result of your actions, that child was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment.”

FOX19 investigative reporter Amy Wagner went to Saint John the Baptist today, where Blum told us she couldn’t comment on the case and referred us to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A mistrial was declared this afternoon in the case of a Philadelphia priest charged with sexually assaulting a ten-year-old altar boy in 1997.

The jury reported today that it was deadlocked — that all discussions among jurors had ceased.
And although the panel was ordered by the court to keep trying, the jury was back a short time later to report that nothing had changed.

And with that, the case was over. Prosecutor Kristen Kemp told the court the case will be retried.

The judge has imposed a gag order, so the attorneys, defendant Father Andrew McCormick, the alleged victim, and all other witnesses in the case are prohibited from commenting.

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RHODE ISLAND
Turn to 10

By Cierra Putman

BURRILLVILLE, R.I. –
A woman said Wednesday she was infuriated when she learned a priest went off on a tirade against her son in the middle of class.

Dawn Joly’s 15-year-old son Skyler accuses the Rev. Roman Manchester of Our Lady of Good Help in Burrillville of going berserk during his religion class Monday night.

According to Skyler, the priest cursed at him, told him to “rot in hell” and threw out another obscenity at the entire class.

The family said Manchester admitted to using the language, saying it was a tactic to get the children to go to church more often.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Donald W. Meyers / Yakima Herald-Republic
dmeyers@yakimaherald.com

YAKIMA, Wash. — A former bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Yakima is expected to testify this afternoon in a sexual-assault lawsuit filed against the diocese.

Bishop Emeritus Carlos Sevilla, who presided over the diocese at the time a man says he was raped by a deacon, is on the witness list for the third day of the non-jury trial in U.S. District Court.

The man, identified on court records as John Doe, alleges that Deacon Aaron Ramirez plied him with alcohol and repeatedly raped him in a trailer at a Zillah church parish in 1999. Doe was 17 at the time.

In his suit, Doe says the diocese, under Sevilla, failed to perform an adequate check of Ramirez background in Mexico before admitting him as a candidate for the priesthood in the diocese. Doe’s suit also charges that the diocese failed to properly supervise Ramirez while he was working the diocese.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Pottstown Mercury

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a Roman Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting an altar boy.

The ruling Wednesday came after jurors said they were deadlocked. They’ve been deliberating since last week.

The 26-year-old accuser testified he was sexually assaulted in a rectory bedroom by the Rev. Andrew McCormick in 1997.

McCormick denies the allegations. He has been suspended from the church since 2011 over complaints about his behavior around children.

The case involves McCormick’s time at a Polish parish in northeast Philadelphia. A small but loyal group of parishioners has attended the trial to support him.

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PENNSYLVANIA
StateCollege.com

by Jennifer Miller on March 12, 2014

UPDATE 4:30 PM
David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, issued a statement regarding Dottie Sandusky’s comments.

“We hope more rational relatives of Sandusky will persuade Mrs. Sandusky to stop making public statements that will not help her husband and will only further hurt others.

“Mrs. Sandusky apparently believes she’s right and everyone else is wrong – dozens of victims, police, prosecutors, judges, journalists and current and former Penn State officials. We feel sorry for her. But we feel even sorrier for the young men who are in pain because they were sexually assaulted by Jerry Sandusky and who must feel more pain today because of Mrs. Sandusky’s insensitive statements.

“Claiming that suffering child sex abuse victims are motivated by money is like saying adult rape victims ‘asked for it.’ Both are outdated, self-serving myths that only deepen already deep wounds of crime victims.”

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Child Abuse Blog

Pope Francis Must Finally Root Out Child Abuse

by Mary Dispenza

Finally. Finally. Finally, a strong important voice in the world, the United Nations, speaks out on behalf of the rights of children and condemns the Vatican and the bishops for crimes of violence, rape and sexual abuse against children by transferring pedophile priests from parish to parish, withholding documents for prosecution and perpetuating an institutional culture of secrecy and shame.

What’s truly shameful is that the Catholic Church was not itself that strong and important voice, protecting “the least of these.” It’s shameful that in spite of Pope Francis’ refreshing compassion toward the poor and downtrodden, to datehe has not addressed the issue fully. Pope Francis is caught up in the shame and like most of his brother bishops, seems unwilling to say, “Enough is enough — not ever again in our church will one of these little children be harmed.”

The media have said the church is suffering from a “code of secrecy.” Kirsten Sandberg, the chairwoman of the United Nations, put it this way: “We think it is a horrible thing that is being kept silent both by the Holy See itself and in local parishes.”

As a survivor of rape and violence at the hands of a priest when I was a young girl, I understand that secrecy.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Huffington Post

Keith Porteous Wood

Ahead of the first anniversary of his papacy, it’s a good time to review the Pope’s handling of the child abuse crisis, which so plagued the papacy of his predecessor.

Few would dispute that clerical child abuse was the most pressing issue, given that his predecessor’s lamentable performance on this was widely thought to be the main reason that a papal election took place.

The nearest to anything positive in the whole year is the Holy See’s announcement, during the examination of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (surely no coincidence) of the establishment of a Commission on clerical child abuse. A sceptical New York Times editorial announced this as “long overdue”. Associated Press concluded it had been “hastily put together”, an analysis reinforced by the absence of any more detail three months later.

In a wide-ranging interview in the Corriere della Sera on 5 March 2014, the Pope said the following on clerical child abuse:

“Abuse cases are horrific because they leave the deepest wounds. Benedict XVI has been very courageous and opened a path. The [Catholic] Church has moved very far along this path. Possibly more than most. Statistics on the phenomenon of child abuse are astonishing, but they also show clearly that the great majority of abuse takes place within the family and amongst neighbours. The Catholic Church is probably the only public institution that has acted with transparency and a sense of responsibility. No-one else has done more. And yet the [Catholic] Church is the only institution to have been attacked.”

This short passage is remarkable for its aloofness, its shameless attempt to downplay the seriousness of the abuse by drawing invalid comparisons, its solely positive portrayal of the Church’s role, its failure to acknowledge the worldwide clerical child rape on an industrial scale for decades, and probably centuries. His comments are hardly a display of the transparency demanded by the UNCRC.

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ITALY
Gazzetta del Sud

Rome, March 12 – Fully 87% of Italians surveyed said they approve of the work of Pope Francis, according to an opinion poll released on Wednesday, the eve of celebrations marking the first anniversary of the pontiff’s election. The survey by the private Eurispes institute found support for Francis has given a new impetus to the Catholic Church with 87.1% saying they approve of his work, compared with 4.5% who said they were skeptical and 8.4% undecided. Those findings are only the latest evidence of the worldwide interest and even support for Francis who, since his election on March 13, 2013 has captured the imagination of billions of people with his simple, folksy style, happy smile, and his willingness to speak out on concrete issues of poverty, social justice and human rights. The much-photographed pontiff has been recorded washing the feet of juvenile convicts, including young men, women, Muslims and Catholics; and embracing a man with a deformed face who braved the crowds that throng St. Peter’s Square these days to see the former archbishop of Buenos Aires.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(Vatican Radio) Thursday marks the first anniversary of the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina as Pope Francis. He was the first ever Pope from Latin America or as he himself jokingly remarked coming almost from “the end of the world.” The new Pope was also the first Jesuit Pope and the first to take the name of Francis. Over the past year, Pope Francis has won fans far and wide thanks to his human warmth and his obvious empathy with the poor and marginalized and he was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2013.

One of the world’s best-known commentators and authors on the Papacy and Vatican affairs is John Allen who works for the Boston Globe newspaper. So what is his take on this first year with Pope Francis? Susy Hodges spoke to him to find out.

Asked what he believes is the most significant aspect of Pope Francis’ first year in office, Allen says he believes “the most significant point is that he’s accomplished far more than most of us could have reasonably expected … both in terms of style and in terms of sustenance.” “He’s invigorated the Church at the grass roots level” but as Allen goes on to point out, Pope Francis has also notched up some more concrete achievements. He says these include the Pope’s “deep structural reforms such as his most recent decision to create a new Secretariat for the Economy in the Vatican to impose fiscal discipline.”

But could there be too many unrealistic expectations surrounding Pope Francis and what reforms he is planning? Allen agrees that in some quarters there are “over-heated” and unrealistic expectations, especially concerning doctrinal issues. “If there is an expectation that Pope Francis will radically change the doctrine of the Catholic Church, it is destined to be disappointed.”

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UNITED STATES
C21 Media

Broadcasters in Australia, Portugal and Poland have picked up investigative documentary Secrets of the Vatican from US distributor PBS International.

SBS (Australia), TVI (Portugal) and TVN (Poland) have all signed up for the 90-minute doc, which exposes the threats and scandals that rocked Benedict’s papacy and the challenges facing Pope Francis as he tries to reform the powerful Vatican bureaucracy.

The show, from director, writer and producer Antony Thomas, aired on US pubcaster PBS’s Frontline documentary strand last month.

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GERMANY
Reuters

BY ALEXANDRA HUDSON
BERLIN Wed Mar 12, 2014

(Reuters) – Germany’s Catholic bishops elected Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx their new leader on Wednesday, picking a close associate of Pope Francis already working on Vatican reform to also guide them at home.

Marx’s election in Germany, one of the richest and most influential national churches in the 1.2-billion-strong Roman Catholic world, enhanced his status among the men the pope has called on to help him revitalize the Catholic Church.

Known in Germany as a spokesman for social and economic justice, he gave his 2008 book on a just world economy the title “Das Kapital” in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the magnum opus of Karl Marx, the German founder of communism.

Marx is one of the eight cardinals Francis picked last year for a “kitchen cabinet” to advise him on reforming the Vatican and the world church. Last Saturday, the pope also named him head of a new Vatican Council for the Economy.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

JOSEPH A. SLOBODZIAN, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Defense attorney William J. Brennan Jr. told the Philadelphia jury last week they’d have to decide who to believe: The Rev. Andrew McCormick or the man who alleges the Catholic priest sexually assaulted him when he was a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997.

Now in their fourth day of deliberations, the Common Pleas Court jury of nine women and three men has announced that some believe the priest and some the altar boy.

“We are still undecided,” said Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright, reading the missive she said she received at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday from the deadlocked panel.

In an apparent effort to break the logjam – the verdict must be unanimous – the jurors spent 90 minutes Wednesday morning listening to the court stenographer read back the verbatim testimony the 26-year-old accuser gave Feb. 27.

The accuser, sitting in court with his family and other supporters, began quietly crying as he heard his own words again describe how McCormick in December 1997 took him to the priest’s bedroom of the St. John Cantius parish rectory in Bridesburg, undressed him and tried to force him commit a sex act.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the decision by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office not to file charges against St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt; he was accused in December of “inappropriately touching” a young man in 2009:

On December 18, I issued a news release saying the following:

“Archbishop Nienstedt has been the subject of a non-stop crusade orchestrated by ex-Catholics, and Catholics in rebellion against the Church, simply because he stands for everything they are not: he is a loyal son of the Catholic Church.

“Now—out of the blue—comes an unidentified male who claims he was touched on his buttocks in 2009 by the archbishop while posing for a group photo. Nienstedt denies the charge, adding that he has never inappropriately touched anyone. Moreover, he has not been told the identity of his accuser.”

The police identified and interviewed everyone who was in the photograph when the archbishop allegedly touched the boy’s buttocks. No one at the Confirmation ceremony reported seeing anything like this happening. The photo shows Nienstedt standing behind the boy, one step up, meaning that he would have had to bend down to touch the boy’s behind. To top things off, the photo shows Nienstedt with one hand on his crozier and the other on the boy’s left shoulder. The police asked if anyone recalled a touching episode meant as a joke, or saw any touching between people, or remembered if someone was startled during the photo session. The answer to all three was unanimous: No.

What happened to Archbishop Nienstedt was not a mistake. It reflects a deeper problem: We are living in a culture of hate—hatred of all matters Catholic—led by those whose goal it is to take down a bishop. Every bishop is a potential target, but none more than those who are seen as being inimical to the “progressive” agenda.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Mar. 12, 2014

Prosecutors in the Twin Cities have declined to press charges against St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt in relation to allegations of inappropriately touching a boy.

Ramsey County Prosecutor John Choi announced Tuesday evening that an extensive investigation into the claim revealed insufficient evidence to prosecute.

In mid-December, Nienstedt removed himself from public ministry after the archdiocese became aware of the allegation that the archbishop had touched the buttocks of a boy during a post-confirmation group photo session in 2009 at the Cathedral of St. Paul.

The prosecutor’s investigation found none of the other 11 people appearing in the photo had witnessed the archbishop touch the boy’s buttocks or saw anyone react in a startled manner. It added that the boy did not report anything beyond a hand brushing against him and that such touching could happen unintentionally. Without clear sexual intent, the report said, charges could not be filed.

“It also seems unlikely that the Archbishop, if he were so inclined, would pick that moment to sexually touch a random boy openly in front of another clergy member, a deacon, and numerous other confirmands while the confirmands’ family members were preparing to document the moment in photographs,” the report stated.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic News Agency

St. Paul, Minn., Mar 12, 2014 / 12:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul-Minneapolis is happy to resume public ministry, after he recused himself during an investigation which did not end in charges over accusations he inappropriately touched a youth.

“I look forward to returning to public ministry during this Lenten season, especially during Holy Week and the great feast of Easter,” Archbishop Nienstedt said in a March 11 statement.

He had been accused of touching a male minor’s buttocks during a group photo following a May 5, 2009 confirmation.

On Tuesday, the criminal division director of the Ramsey County Attorney, Richard Dusterhoft, wrote that “this case could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and should not be charged.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Herald

Police are investigating an allegation a Plymouth Catholic priest committed a sexual offence.

Father Michael Kirkpatrick, based at the Cathedral of St Mary and St Boniface in Plymouth, was arrested on suspicion of an historic sexual offence, alleged to have taken place before he became a priest.

Bishop Mark O’Toole took to the pulpit at every Mass at the cathedral in Stonehouse of St Mary and St Boniface on Sunday, March 2, to deliver the news.

He told the congregation that Fr Kirkpatrick, a priest based at the Stonehouse cathedral, was under investigation.

Fr Kirkpatrick is a former governor and chaplain at Holy Cross primary school in the city centre.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

03/12/14
Hella Winston
Special Correspondent

‘At the lowest point in my life, the justice system reached over [and did the right thing’,” chasidic abuse whistleblower Sam Kellner told The Jewish Week last Friday morning after his three-year-long and dizzyingly complex case was thrown out.

But before the justice system “did the right thing” for Kellner, it threw one more seemingly bizarre curve his way, as befitting a case that took many such twists and turns.

Before the dismissal of all extortion and perjury charges against Kellner, a lawyer for Baruch Lebovits — the well-connected cantor Kellner helped convict of sexually abusing minors — asked the judge to hold off on dismissing the case. In what legal observers characterized as a highly irregular move, the judge held an hour-long conference in chambers with Lebovits’ attorneys (Nathan Dershowitz and his brother Alan and their co-counsel, Arthur Aidala), Kellner’s lawyers and the prosecutors seeking the dismissal of his case.

Nathan Dershowitz wanted time so that the Lebovits defense team could file a motion seeking to recuse the Brooklyn District Attorney, Kenneth Thompson, from the case and have a special prosecutor appointed. In a letter to Judge Guy J. Mangano, Dershowitz implied that the dismissal was the product of a political deal, erroneously claiming that Kellner’s representatives had met with Thompson, a “courtesy” they say they were denied. (Assistant District Attorney Kevin O’Donnell stated in court that no such meeting had ever taken place and noted that, during his review of the Kellner case, he had met with Lebovits’ counsel.)

The judge declined to grant Lebovits’ lawyers’ request and dismissed the case. In an interview with The Jewish Week, Nathan Dershowitz said they still may seek the appointment of a special prosecutor, a request experts believe will not be granted.

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UNITED STATES
Christianity Today

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra/ FEBRUARY 20, 2014

When Teresa Lea’s parents signed up with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) to become missionaries in Africa in the 1970s, they sent 5-year-old Teresa to boarding schools in Gabon and Ivory Coast. She spent 12 years there, learning how to add, read—and, if she wanted to eat, perform oral sex.

When Lea tried to tell her parents of the abuse, the school authorities told her parents she had an overactive imagination. Disbelieved by her parents, Lea didn’t mention the abuse again until she was an adult. Lea went to therapy, ended her marriage, and changed her career. She slowly began to heal. In the process, she found other adult missionary kids (MKs) doing the same thing, in part by attending the first-ever interdenominational conference for MK abuse survivors.

For too long, the abuse of missionary children was hidden or dismissed as “false memory.” No longer. Rich Darr, who survived physical and emotional abuse at the CMA’s Mamou school in West Africa, said abuse there was rampant in the 1950s through the early 1970s. “Far from being an isolated incident in the CMA, abuse was going on at many of their boarding schools,” Darr said. “As the Mamou Alliance Academy case was coming into the open, we heard many reports of similar abuses from Alliance boarding schools such as Quito Alliance, Sentani, Indonesia; Bongolo School, Gabon; Zamboanga School, Philippines; Dalat, Malaysia; and more.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Markische Allgemeine

[Summary: A Catholic from Potsdam has written to Pope Francis to tell him about his abuse case. Stefan Luttke said he was abused at age 15 by a priest in the Potsdam parish of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.]

In einem Brief an Papst Franziskus hat ein Potsdamer Katholik jetzt seinen Missbrauchsfall bekannt gemacht. Der heute 32-jährige Stefan Lüttke schildert gegenüber der MAZ, wie er im Alter von 15 Jahren von seinem Kaplan M. in der katholischen Potsdamer Pfarrei Sankt Peter und Paul sexuell missbraucht wurde.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, March 12, 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 most important documents in years about the Catholic abuse and cover up crisis have just been disclosed and they are chilling. They reveal how clergy sex crimes have been dealt with in Argentina when Pope Francis was a high ranking – sometimes the highest ranking – Catholic official there.

[BishopAccountability.org]

Compiled and posted by BishopAccountability.org, these records leave us feeling deeply saddened. We believe they will leave Catholics deeply saddened too. The depressing findings don’t shock us. But they leave us saddened nonetheless.

The newly disclosed records show that on the church’s most devastating crisis, Pope Francis is just like the overwhelming majority of his complicit colleagues. That’s painful to say, but crucial to understand and accept, if kids are to be safer in this global monarchy which Francis heads.

Many were shocked days ago when Pope Francis said callous, defensive and unhealthy comments about the crisis. Some have opined that his remarks were some kind of aberration. They’re not. And this new information helps to explain why they’re not.

In short, the records show that in Argentina – as in Belgium, Australia, India, Ireland, Honduras, Poland, and virtually every country where clergy sex crimes have surfaced, the hierarchy – even Pope Francis – behaves in virtually the same horrific way.

It’s nearly identical conduct across the globe—priests molest kids, bishops are told, they either do nothing or move the predators, legal action is rare, and bishops ignore victims, blame others, mount public relations campaigns and use every possible delay and legal trick to continue hiding the truth and protecting the wrongdoers while the top Catholic official—like Bergoglio – keep their hands clean so their clerical career advances and lower level clerics do the concealing and the “cleaning up” (or play “bad cop” to the bishop’s “good cop”).

Bishop Accountability finds that “In the high-profile cases of four child molesters from religious orders or other dioceses – Grassi, Pardo, Picciochi, and Sasso – there is evidence that Bergoglio knowingly or unwittingly slowed victims in their fight to expose and prosecute their assailants. Victims of all four offenders say that they sought the cardinal’s help. None of them received it.”

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UNITED STATES
Get Religion

[with video]

March 12, 2014 By geoconger

Good Episcopalian that I am, I am ready to believe the worst about the Catholic Church.

Perhaps it was my upbringing, the culture in which I was formed, the schools where I was educated, my crowd … but accusations hurled against the Catholic Church of corruption, cruelty, mendacity — of being downright un-American –stick in the back of my mind. “Why not?”

I was also reared in Philadelphia and as a boy worshiped at the altar of the Eagles and Phillies. Longing and loss then were taught to me early on, as was support for the underdog.

Yet as much as I enjoy watching a good thrashing of the Vatican, I also am troubled by unfairness, foul play and sneakiness.

Which brings me to the documentary broadcast by PBS’s Frontline show entitled “Secrets of the Vatican“. This is an extraordinary film. It is beautifully made. I would not hesitate to say that the camera work, the musical scoring, the editing, and the writing are exquisite. Documentary film making does not get any better.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Mar. 12, 2014 NCR Today

A U.S.-based group that operates a clergy sex abuse database has accused Pope Francis of remaining silent on clergy sex abuse during his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The group BishopAccountability.org published Wednesday morning what it has called the first comprehensive analysis of Francis’ abuse track record while he was Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio. The documents span the 15 years (1998-2013) he served as the head of the Buenos Aires church, as well as his time as president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference (2005-2011) and includes information on 42 accused Argentine clerics.

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishiopAccountability.org, said during his first year as pope, Francis has repeatedly attacked corruption in the church’s finances but has “basically ignored” the abuse scandal.

“Does Francis have the will to resolve this catastrophic problem?” Doyle said in a press release, pointing to Francis’ March 5 comments to an Italian newspaper that the church “is the only one to be attacked” despite the prevalence of child sexual abuse in other institutions.

“Studying his record as archbishop will help us better understand his underlying approach,” she said.

The documents’ release comes just one day before the one-year anniversary of the start of Francis’ pontificate. In the last week, critics have begun to raise further questions of his response to clergy sex abuse after the comments he made last week.

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UNITED STATES
Real Screen

Distributor PBS International has sold 90-minute Frontline doc Secrets of the Vatican (pictured) to Australia’s SBS, Poland’s TVN and Portugal’s TVI.

The Quicksilver Media-produced doc, directed by Antony Thomas, uses undercover footage and interviews with Vatican insiders to explore the scandals of Benedict’s papacy, such as the clergy sex abuse crisis, money laundering, Vatican Bank corruption and Vatileaks — the release of documents suggesting cronyism, power struggles, and blackmail allegations within the Holy See.

“Antony Thomas and [executive producer] Eamonn Mathews have created an incredible piece of investigative journalism that brings to light many details about the Vatican of which the public has been largely unaware,” said Tom Koch, VP of PBS International, in a statement. “We expect this title to be in high demand when we bring it to MIPTV.”

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Today, the group Bishop Accountability has just uploaded to its website an important new document examining Pope Francis’s record on abuse cases in Argentina, when he was (as Cardinal Bergoglio) archbishop of Buenos Aires. The news this document summarizes is not promising for those hoping that Francis will proactively address the abuse crisis in the Catholic church now that he is pope.

As an emailed press release about the new document sent out by Anne Barrett Doyle of Bishop Accountability today states,

The new analysis raises sobering questions about the pope’s forthrightness and commitment to child protection. It reveals that then-Cardinal Bergoglio, Argentina’s most powerful Catholic leader, chose not to meet with victims, sided with a convicted child molester, and released no information about sex abuse cases in the Buenos Aires archdiocese. He even said that he had never dealt with an abusive priest.

This new addition to the Bishop Accountability site also includes the first public database of accused Argentine clerics, with exhaustively documented summaries of cases against 42 priests and brothers–a “fraction of the actual number of accused Argentine clerics,” according to researchers cited by Bishop Accountability, which notes that Argentina has the tenth largest Catholic population in the world, but appears to have fewer than half the accused priests of the diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, and a twentieth of the number of accused clerics in the much smaller nation of the Netherlands, the bishops’ conference has enumerated some 800 accused clerics.

The analysis of Bishop Accountability highlights five cases in Argentina in which there are serious questions about Cardinal Bergoglio’s transparency and compassion for victims. As the Bishop Accountability media release states,

Buenos Aires archbishop from 1998 to 2013 and president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference from 2005 to 2011, years when bishops in Europe and North America were issuing apologies, meeting with victims, and disclosing numbers and names of abusive clergy, Cardinal Bergoglio appears to have expressed no public support for victims and, according to his spokesperson at the time, did not meet with them. Yet this was the period when Pope John Paul II ordered all bishops, including Cardinal Bergoglio, to send all abuse cases to the Vatican, and when Pope Benedict met with many victims, beginning with his visit to the U.S. in 2008.

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UNITED STATES
Pew Research Center

BY MICHAEL LIPKA

Thursday marks one year since Pope Francis was elected to the papacy — a year in which the former Argentine archbishop’s tone and approach raised expectations of change in the church’s direction.

There’s little question that, after a year, he’s extremely popular – at least in the United States, where the pope is seen favorably by the vast majority of Catholics and even 60% of non-Catholics. A strong majority of American Catholics (71%) say that Francis represents a major change for the church, and among those, nearly all (68% of U.S. Catholics overall) call him a change for the better.

Many Catholics would like to see changes on specific church teachings, and some family issues (including contraception) will be discussed at an upcoming synod this fall. But they are less certain that those changes will happen, even under Francis.

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UNITED STATES
TBI Vision

by Jesse Whittock March 12, 2014

A trio of broadcasters has acquired PBS Frontline documentary Secrets of the Vatican.

The networks – SBS from Australia, TVN from Poland and TVI from Portugal – have taken local broadcast rights from distributor PBS International.

The 1x90mins doc exposes the threats and scandals such as the clergy sex abuse cases that rocked the Catholic Church during Pope Benedict’s papacy and outlines the myriad of challenges facing the incumbent Pope Francis as he tries to reform Vatican bureaucracy.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

12 MARCH 2014

Pope Francis is a PR dream; a ‘pin-up’ for liberals worldwide. But as his papacy reaches the one-year mark, how much of it is show and how much substance, asks Malachi O’Doherty.

Pope Francis is just the sort of change the Catholic Church needed to save itself. If, in the last days of his own reign, Benedict XVI had pulled together some of the best image manipulators in the world and asked them for a strategy to make the Church lovable again, this is what they would have come up with.

He fits with the occasional fantasy in literature and cinema of a pope who is actually saintly, actually Christian in his humility. Charles Saatchi and Alastair Campbell banging their heads together couldn’t have come up with anything better.

He is a sinner, too, a repentant one. And he’s lovely, with his chubby cheeks and his granda manner. He’s not at all like his predecessor; that reptilian creep with his sharp temper, his impossible ideals and his presumption of royal distance.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 12 March 2014 (VIS) – Tomorrow, 13 March, will be the first anniversary of the election of Pope Francis to the See of St. Peter. These 365 days of his papacy have been characterised as a “time of mercy”, as described by the Pope himself. During these twelve months of intense activity, the Pope “from the end of the earth” who asks us to pray for him, has started out on a new way of working that, with a slow but sure pace, has drawn renewed attention to issues not only of an ecclesiastical nature. The “priest of the world”, as his special secretary Msgr. Alfred Xuereb calls him, “has not wasted a minute! He works tirelessly and, when he feels the need to take a moment’s pause, he closes his eyes and does nothing: he simply sits and prays the Rosary”.

To commemorate this first anniversary, the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., gave an interview with Vatican Radio in which he reflects on this year and its “great impulse to a journeying Church”.

“The most important aspect of this first year is without doubt the great attention, the great attraction of the people – I say the people, meaning not only practising Catholics, but everyone in this world – the great attention for this Pope, for his message. It is something that I think and hope is very deeply rooted in the heart of the people, who have felt touched by a word of love, attention, mercy, closeness, proximity, in which through the man, the Pope, the love of God arrives”.

“The Church truly seems to be a journeying people. This is her most characteristic aspect: a sense of great dynamism. The Pope has given a great impulse and journeys with a Church that seeks God’s will, that seeks her mission in today’s world for the good of all, truly going out to the peripheries, to the ends of the world”, he continues, adding that there are “manifestations of attention, therefore, that come from places, from atypical organs of the press”, that “mean that his message reaches its target”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 13, 2014

THE royal commission will meet privately with victims of child sexual abuse in Ballarat next week, just days before Cardinal George Pell is expected to give public evidence in Sydney.

The decision means the commission will be investigating alleged abuse in the Victorian city where the former Archbishop of Sydney was born and began his career, working alongside a number of pedophile priests.

Cardinal Pell has repeatedly denied any knowledge of these priests’ criminal activities at the time, and said he was mistaken to accompany one serial abuser, Gerald Ridsdale, to court in 1993, where Ridsdale was ultimately convicted of child abuse.

The private meetings with about 10 victims and a wider community forum follow other informal interviews in Ballarat two weeks ago.

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HAWAII
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Six more victims come forward under new law asking
Diocese to release names of accused for public safety

“Window for Victims” closes April 24

WHAT: At a news conference on Wednesday in Honolulu, sexual abuse survivors and their attorneys Mark Gallagher and Jeff Anderson will:

• Discuss the novel use of nuisance claims to inform and protect the public.
• Demand the release of a list of clerics who worked in the Diocese of Honolulu with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors.
• Show how the diocese has created a “public nuisance” by refusing to disclose to the public the names of clerics accused of sexual abuse. A similar lawsuit has forced numerous dioceses in Minnesota to release 43 names of accused clerics, previously unknown to the public.
• Announce six new lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children by clerics in the Diocese of Honolulu.
• Urge other victims of abuse, no matter the perpetrator, to come forward before April 24, 2014 deadline

WHEN: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 12:00PM HST

WHERE: Ala Moana Hotel
Gardenia Room
410 Atkinson Drive
Honolulu (808.955.4811)

WHO: Mark Gallagher, Jeff Anderson and Survivor and Victims Advocate Joelle Casteix.

Notes: Copies of the complaints and additional information will be available at the news conference and posted to our website www.abusedinhawaii.com.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

MEDIA RELEASE

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will be holding a community information forum in Ballarat on Wednesday 19 March 2014.

The Chair of the Royal Commission, Justice Peter McClellan, will address the forum, which follows informal meetings with community groups and service providers in Ballarat two weeks ago.

Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines said the community forum will provide a way for interested individuals and community groups in Ballarat to engage with the Royal Commission.

“We strongly encourage those who have an interest in the Royal Commission to attend and to take the opportunity to learn more about our work.

“These forums are also an important way for us to hear from community groups and service providers supporting survivors of child sexual abuse in regional areas,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 12 March 2014)

Cardinal George Pell’s legal team privately told his office that they had succeeded in defeating a church victim (former altar boy John Ellis) and that this victory (known as the “Ellis Defence”) could successfully block other church victims in the future, according to a document tabled at a public hearing of Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission in March 2014.

This document, written in 2007, was a briefing note written by a legal firm acting for the Sydney Catholic archdiocese. In 2006 and 2007, Mr Ellis had been seeking to sue Cardinal Pell and the trustees of the Sydney archdiocese in the New South Wales Supreme Court for the damage done to Mr Ellis’s life by the action of the Sydney archdiocese in giving an abusive priest (Father Aidan Duggan) easy access to children. The NSW Court of Appeal blocked Mr Ellis from proceeding any further with this action.

In their confidential briefing in 2007, sent privately to Cardinal Pell’s private secretary (Mr Michael Casey), the Sydney archdiocese’s legal firm said that the court’s ruling effectively found that “the church is an unincorporated association which cannot … be sued”.

The court’s decision “marks a conclusive victory for the archdiocese”, they wrote, and “places a number of significant obstacles that will need to be addressed by any claimant seeking to resolve claims litigiously”.

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GERMANY
Deutsche Welle

Munich Archbishop Reinhard Marx has been voted to head the German Bishops Conference. He is one of the most influential figures in the German Catholic Church.

Marx said he saw his nomination Wednesday as a great challenge, adding that he’d have to “pull back in the next few days and collect my thoughts.”

His new role as head of the German Bishops Conference is in addition to his duties as the coordinator of Pope Francis’s newly-established Vatican economic council and participation in the pontiff’s council of cardinals.

At the gathering of the bishops in the German city of Münster, Marx was elected after five rounds of voting.

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PUERTO RICO
Fox News Latino

ARECIBO, PUERTO RICO (AP) – First, the Catholic Church announced it had defrocked six priests accused of sex abuse in the Puerto Rican town of Arecibo. Then, local prosecutors disclosed that at least 11 other priests on the island were under investigation for similar accusations.

Now, as U.S. authorities acknowledge that they, too, are looking into abuse allegations by priests on this devoutly Catholic island, many are reeling from revelations of abuse involving some of the U.S. territory’s most beloved clerics.

Puerto Ricans had largely been spared the lurid accounts of sex abuse involving the Catholic Church, and many had come to believe they were immune. But Barbara Dorris, a director with the U.S.-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the new reports mean it’s likely the problem is much worse than previously imagined.

“In general, these things tend to snowball because victims are afraid to come forward,” Dorris said. “If the priests have been on this island for a while, it probably means that it’s dozens upon dozens of victims out there.”

Puerto Rico Justice Secretary Cesar Miranda said last week that at least four dioceses are being investigated. He also warned he might file charges against church officials suspected of withholding information.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Church would not believe victims of abuse unless priest admitted it royal commission told

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH MARCH 13, 2014

A CATHOLIC Church official would not believe a man had been sexually abused for years by a priest – unless the priest admitted it, the royal commission into child sex abuse heard yesterday.

As part of the church’s bungled handling of the claim by former altar boy John Ellis, the then-Archbishop of Sydney George Pell was told it was Mr Ellis’s word against that of the priest, but the priest had never been questioned.

Father Aidan Duggan, who began his abuse of Mr Ellis at the Christ the King Catholic Church at Sydney’s Bass Hill, had been diagnosed with senile dementia and was in a Randwick nursing home.

John Davoren, who set up the church’s professional standards office in NSW, admitted drafting a letter for Archbishop Pell – now a Cardinal – to be sent to Mr Ellis which said: “I very much regret any hurt that you have experienced but under these circumstances I do not see that there is anything the Archdiocese can do.

“As you are aware, this is not to suggest that you are disbelieved but that it has become a matter of one person’s word against another.”

Mr Davoren agreed with counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, that Father Duggan had never been spoken to and there was no “other”.

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FLORIDA
WPTV

Stephen Budd case update: Lawyer claims ex-Rosarian teacher’s car and computer illegally searched

Chris Stewart
Mar 11, 2014

The lawyer for a former West Palm Beach private school teacher will return to court in May to argue dozens of pieces of evidence related to child pornography charges should be dropped.

Stephan Budd was not in Palm Beach County court Tuesday when his attorney, Jason Weiss, confirmed a hearing date of May 15th.

Weiss is arguing police illegally searched the former Rosarian Academy teacher’s car and computer.

Investigators said they found 19 videos and 40 images of boys and girls under the age of 12 and girls under the age of 18 having sex with adult men.

Budd plead not guilty to 59 counts of child pornography.

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GEORGIA
WTXL

Posted on Mar 11, 2014
by Abbey Maurer

ATLANTA, Ga. (WTXL) – A Georgia Representative is urging fellow legislators to increase justice for abuse victims. Representative Jason Spencer of Woodbine is holding a press conference on Thursday, March 13, 2014, at 1:30 p.m. in the Rotunda of the Georgia State Capitol.

ReP. Spencer is looking for support to enact a statute of limitations reform for child sex abuse victims in next year’s legislative session. In addition, he’s expected to lay out a plan to increase justice for all of Georgia victims of child sexual abuse.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Two more groups want Cardinal uninvited
Controversial prelate to preside at special mass
Concerned Catholics feel that “sends the wrong message”
“It encourages future cover ups & hurts victims,” they say

Two more organizations are urging New York Archbishop Tim Dolan to stop his predecessor from presiding this weekend at a special mass featuring children’s choirs.

This Saturday, retired New York Cardinal Edward Egan is to preside over a children’s choir mass featuring 200 youngsters at St. Ignatius Loyola parish in Manhattan. Long secret church records show that Egan hid clergy sex crimes during his long tenure in the Bridgeport diocese and he is accused of doing the same in the New York archdiocese.

Because of that, leaders of the National Survivor Advocate Coalition and the Bridgeport chapter of Voice of the Faithful want Cardinal Timothy Dolan to oust Egan from the upcoming event. Leaders of a victims group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, made the same request yesterday.

[SNAP]

[New Haven Register]

“This sends the wrong message and hurts already suffering victims and betrayed Catholics,” said Jamie Dance (jamie.dance@sbcglobal.net, 203-801-9532) who heads the Bridgeport chapter of Voice of the Faithful (VOTF). “It encourages future cover ups by saying ‘no matter how much you endanger children you can still be rewarded.”

“Retired Cardinals should have a lot of time to think. We think Cardinal Egan should think about what he can do to end the crisis not add to it,” said Kristine Ward (kristineward@hotmail.com, 937 272 0308), who chairs the National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC). “How about Cardinal Dolan invite Archbishop Diarmuid Martin from Dublin to say this Mass? At least, he’s tried to cast out the snakes of sexual abuse instead of whitewash it. It would be a far better St. Patrick’s Day message for these young people than honoring Egan would. ”

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ARGENTINA
BishopAccountability.org

Group says four victims sought his help but did not receive it
New resource includes database of 42 accused Argentine clerics
Argentine bishops are among the “least transparent” in the church, group says

Hundreds of cases in Pope’s native country are not public, researchers estimate
One week after Pope Francis called the church the only public institution that has been ‘transparent and responsible’ about child sexual abuse, a US-based international research group is posting the first comprehensive analysis of the pope’s track record on abuse during his 15 years as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

The new analysis raises sobering questions about the pope’s forthrightness and commitment to child protection. It reveals that then-Cardinal Bergoglio, Argentina’s most powerful Catholic leader, chose not to meet with victims, sided with a convicted child molester, and released no information about sex abuse cases in the Buenos Aires archdiocese. He even said that he had never dealt with an abusive priest.

The information was posted today on BishopAccountability.org, a large online archive of documents and data pertaining to the global abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. The new feature includes the first public database of accused Argentine clerics, providing detailed summaries and hundreds of source about cases against 42 priests and brothers.

The new resource is provided in both English and Spanish.

Since it was founded in 2003, BishopAccountability.org, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, has maintained a large, authoritative database of publicly accused US priests – now with nearly 4,000 names. With its new Argentina feature, BishopAccountability.org is launching a global database effort, as the popularity of the first non-European Pope increases awareness of the church’s role in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

“We hope our new resource will encourage balanced scrutiny of how Pope Francis supervised abusers and responded to victims in Argentina,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org.

“In the astonishing first year of his pontificate, he repeatedly attacked church officials’ corrupt handling of finances. But he basically ignored their mismanagement of offending priests. And in his remarks about abuse on March 6, he complained that the church was being unfairly attacked. Does Francis have the will to resolve this catastrophic problem? Studying his record as archbishop will help us better understand his underlying approach,” Doyle said.

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ARGENTINA
BishopAccountability.org

Including a Database of Publicly Accused Argentine Clerics

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was archbishop of Buenos Aires from 1998 to 2013 and president of the Argentine bishops’ conference from 2005 to 2011. During these years, as church officials in the US and Europe began addressing the catastrophe of child sexual abuse by clergy – and even as Popes John Paul II and Benedict made public statements – Bergoglio stayed silent about the crisis in Argentina.

He released no documents, no names of accused priests, no tallies of accused priests, no policy for handling abuse, not even an apology to victims.

In his many homilies and statements (archived on the Buenos Aires archdiocesan website), he attacked government corruption, wealth inequities, and human sex trafficking, but he said nothing about sexual violence by priests.

In On Heaven and Earth (first published in Spanish in 2010), a wide-ranging collection of conversations with Argentine rabbi Abraham Skorka, he suggested in fact that the problem did not exist in his archdiocese:

In my diocese it never happened to me, but a bishop called me once by phone to ask me what to do in a situation like this and I told him to take away the priest’s faculties, not to permit him to exercise his priestly ministry again, and to initiate a canonical trial.

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ARGENTINA
BishopAccountability.org

Incluido un banco de datos referidos a los clérigos argentinos denunciados

Jorge Mario Bergoglio fue arzobispo de Buenos Aires desde 1998 hasta 2013, y presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal Argentina, del 2005 al 2011. Durante esos años, mientras los funcionarios de la Iglesia en Estados Unidos y Europa empezaban a darle pelea al cataclismo del abuso sexual de niños por parte del clero – a la vez que los papas Juan Pablo II y Benedicto pronunciaban sobre el asunto – Bergoglio guardó silencio sobre la crisis de abusos en Argentina.

Él no entregó ningún documento; no cedió los nombres ni la cantidad de sacerdotes imputados; no hizo saber las normas sobre cómo afrontar el abuso; ni siquiera les pidió perdón a las víctimas.

En sus numerosas homilías y comunicados (conservados en el sitio web del Arzobispado de Buenos Aires) él arremetió contra la corrupción gubernamental, la desigualdad en la distribución de la riqueza y la trata de personas, pero no dijo nada de la violencia sexual cometida por religiosos.

En Sobre el cielo y la tierra (publicado en español por primera vez en 2010), libro que consiste en una serie de conversaciones sobre diversos temas con el rabino argentino Abraham Skorka, Bergoglio dio a entender que la crisis de abusos sexuales no existía en su diócesis:

“En la diócesis nunca me pasó, pero un obispo me llamó una vez por teléfono para preguntarme qué había que hacer en una situación así y le dije que le quitara las licencias, que no le permitiera ejercer más el sacerdocio, y que iniciara un juicio canónico en el tribunal correspondiente a esa diócesis.”

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CANADA
The News

Published on March 11, 2014

REFOCUS BY GERARD VELDHOVEN

The United Nations and the Vatican went head to head recently regarding the church’s lack of progress regarding its dealings with clergy who have abused children for years. The Vatican’s response was swift and very much on the defence. In an attempt to minimize and swing attention to this intense situation, authorities in the church say the UN is being unfair and is distorting the truth.

Kudos to the Committee for finally dealing with this long-standing issue in demanding action by the Roman Catholic Church to come clean.

Curiously, Pope Francis has so far been silent. Aside from abusive priests, the UN also chided the Vatican’s stance on gay equality and abortion. The Pope has previously made an attempt to gather support from the gay community by saying, “who am I to Judge?” During that same interview he indicated that church doctrine will not change and that has been substantiated by other Vatican leaders. The flowery language from the Pontiff sounds promising and would indeed be a welcome development.

Discrimination remains rampant in spite of the positive changes we witness on a daily basis. The changes we do experience are not initiated by the world’s religions and that remains serious as the fires of intolerance keep burning. How refreshing it would be when those who judge and do not accept people for who they really are see a way to welcome everyone.

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UNITED STATES
Slate

Paul Baumann

What are popes good for? In the quarter-century I’ve been writing about Catholicism, I’ve learned that popes are good for the pope-arazzi and for a bit of exotica on the nightly news. On occasion, of course, they are good for producing reams of copy. Time’s Man of the Year! The cover of Rolling Stone! Ten thousand words of aggrieved vindication—“A Radical Pope’s First Year,” insists the recent tendentious headline—in The New Yorker! Apparently there is something about popes that a mass media otherwise skeptical of religious authority finds almost irresistible—which is why, from time to time, popes have even been good for getting me on television, called upon to comment on this or that papal action or utterance. Modern popes also function as job creators for church historians and for biographers. Wait a week, and we’ll get yet another instant life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio or collection of his table talk. How else would we know that Pope Francis was once a bouncer? Essential training, one presumes, for a guardian of orthodoxy.

On this first anniversary of Bergoglio’s elevation to the throne of Peter, kudos and lamentations keep piling up. To some extent it’s not difficult to understand the allure—after all, there aren’t many celibates or absolute monarchs left, let alone one who can claim the allegiance of a billion people. Still, there is something mismatched about this dalliance between the vicar of Christ and the celebrity-obsessed mass media, and one can’t help but wonder at the secular fascination with the papacy that it signals. In a world of limitless choices and seemingly unresolvable conflicts, here is a man and a creed that preaches the renunciation of worldly things and a promise of otherworldly justice. Is the pope offering merely an escape from the burdens of modern freedom or a real alternative? For many Catholics the question still matters. Churches are not quite as empty as rumor has it.

Whatever people think Pope Francis is offering, he is no magician; he can’t alter the course of secular history or bridge the church’s deepening ideological divisions simply by asserting what in truth are the papacy’s rather anemic powers. In this light, the inordinate attention paid to the papacy, while perhaps good for business, is not good for the church. Why not? Because it encourages the illusion that what ails the church can be cured by one man, especially by a new man. In truth no pope possesses that kind of power, thank God. The very first pope, let us recall, was a man of legendary weakness, denying his Lord three times before the cock crowed. And the most recent pope, Benedict XVI—a man of towering intellect and inspiring, if fusty, piety—retired from the ring, overmastered by palace intrigue within the Vatican. John Paul II, to be sure, was a media superstar and arguably played a historic role in the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet even he could not effectively confront the most critical challenge facing his church, the clergy sexual-abuse scandals.

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF MARCH 12, 2014

One year ago Thursday, a relatively obscure prelate from Argentina made his debut as the new leader of the world’s oldest Christian church, stepping out onto the fabled balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square and joking that his brother cardinals had gone to “the end of the earth” to find a pope.

For an institution legendary for taking itself rather seriously, that flash of humor alone communicated that this wasn’t going to be your grandfather’s kind of pontiff.

By taking the name Francis, the new pope awakened images of St. Francis, the beloved poor man of Assisi. He then knelt to ask the crowd to pray for him before imparting his official blessing, seemingly inaugurating a new era of papal humility.

It was, as we know now, only the beginning.

In the year since, Pope Francis has electrified the world with his taste for the improbable: his spurning of the papal apartment, his resolutely informal personal style, his startling words, such as his instantly immortal “Who am I to judge?” line on gays. He’s popular at the Catholic grass roots and may be the most celebrated pontiff ever in non-Catholic venues, and even some secular circles where criticism of the papacy is much more common than praise.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish

PRICE TAG to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia? $10 million to $15 million?
That’s the figure that Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput mentioned as the cost of hosting the Catholic Church’s World Meeting of Families in 2015, especially if it includes a visit by Pope Francis.

Morally, how can any religious denomination consider spending that kind of money, no matter who the contributors are?

One can understand the financial benefit to the city and to the entire area that hosting such a high-profile international meeting would have.

What mayor or governor would not be interested in figures with seven or eight numbers before the decimal point? After all, that’s to be expected; it’s their job. And if Pope Francis attends – Mon Dieu! Of course, Mayor Nutter and Gov. Corbett are going to Rome with Archbishop Chaput to seal the deal.
But for the church? Morally?

The people of the Archdiocese have had a pretty rough time of it these past 10 years, what with the revelations of two grand-jury reports on the Archdiocese’s conspiracy in enabling and covering up the sexual abuse of so many children, the merging of their parishes and the shuttering of their churches. And then there are the school closings.

Shouldn’t it be a very different story for a church in trouble?

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PENNSYLVANIA
Bucks County Courier Times

By Jo Ciavaglia Staff writer

In November, a 34-year-old woman arranged a “family” meeting to discuss sexual abuse she said she endured as a child because she and her husband were concerned about leaving their newborn daughter alone with some people.

But on Tuesday, the woman admitted under oath that the reason she gave for the meeting was a lie.

The true purpose was to coax a former Morrisville Baptist church pastor into admitting he sexually abused her when she was a child. The woman wore a hidden microphone that recorded the meeting conversation, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.

Portions of the audio recording were played Tuesday during a preliminary hearing for Scott Sechrist, 61, a Bristol Township man accused of sexually assaulting the then-12-year-old. The woman originally reported the alleged crimes to police in 1992, but then recanted.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Wed, Mar 12, 2014

Those who insist that history is about movements not individuals might reflect on the achievements of Christine Buckley.

Her story is history as driven by one person. She was an original, a pioneer in exposing how badly this State “cherished” many of its children, whatever their age, throughout most of the 20th century, up to 1996 when the last Magdalene laundry closed. If a high point of much of her work was then taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s 1999 apology on behalf of the State to all who had been in residential institutions as children, as well as his announcement then of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (Ryan Commission) and the setting up of the Residential Institutions Redress Board, it was not all.

It is no exaggeration to claim that such huge shift in the cultural axis of Ireland, made possible by Christine Buckley, paved the way for the Murphy Commission which investigated the handling of clerical sexual abuse allegations in Dublin and Cloyne dioceses, as well as the McAleese committee which investigated the Magdalene laundries. All were of piece

She was not alone in bringing these about but she was among the very first, the most consistent and most persistent in her determination that such truths should out so that survivors be helped. She ploughed through denial, denunciation and obfuscation to expose the rotten story of what went on in this State’s residential institutions for children.

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

The Associated Press

The head of Maine’s Roman Catholics is holding a day of prayer and penance for victims of sexual abuse in the church.

Diocese of Portland Bishop Robert Deeley is having Mass on Wednesday at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland and encouraging clergy members to join in asking for forgiveness.

Deeley says by repenting, he hopes the church can be involved in healing the wounds caused by past scandals and prevent future abuse.

The annual Mass was first held in 2002.

The bishop continues to emphasize the church’s policy of encouraging past victims of sexual abuse to contact the diocese’s Office of Professional Responsibility or police.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Donald W. Meyers / Yakima Herald-Republic
dmeyers@yakimaherald.com

YAKIMA, Wash. — Testimony is expected to resume in U.S. District Court this morning by a man who says he was raped in 1999 by a deacon with the Catholic Diocese of Yakima.

In testimony that began Monday, the man, identified in court as John Doe, said he was 17 years old when Deacon Aaron Ramirez invited him to a Zillah church building to learn how to play the guitar and talk about the Bible, but instead got him drunk and then repeatedly had sex with him.

“He just kept doing it,” a tearful Doe told the court. “It seemed like it was going on for days.”

Doe is suing the diocese for $3.1 million, arguing that the diocese failed to properly check Ramirez’s background before accepting him as a candidate for the priesthood and didn’t properly supervise him.

The diocese says it had no prior warnings that Ramirez had problems with young boys, and that Doe’s accounts of the incident were inconsistent.

Tuesday marked the second day in a nonjury trial before federal Judge Edward Shea that is expected to last into next week.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN MARCH 12, 2014

CATHOLIC Church officials decided it was not possible to establish whether an allegation of child abuse by a priest was true or false because they were unable to ask the priest himself if the alleged abuse took place.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard that Cardinal George Pell was repeatedly briefed on the process of dealing with the claim, brought by former altar boy John Ellis.

Mr Ellis contacted the church in May 2002 to say he had been sexually abused by a Sydney priest over several years during the 1970s. By the time of the complaint, the priest in question, Aidan Duggan, had dementia and was never questioned over the allegations.

In December 2002 the church’s Director of Professional Standards, John Davoren, wrote to the then-Archbishop of Sydney, saying, “It is now clear the facts of this case can never be satisfactorily clarified.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 12, 2014

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

Cardinal George Pell had an “unusual” and close early involvement in handling the complaint by a former altar boy which eventually led to a court decision insulating the Catholic church in Australia against liability in cases of sexual abuse by priests, the child sex abuse Royal Commission has heard.

John Ellis was 13 years old in 1974 when Father Aidan Duggan of Bass Hill parish seduced him into a sexual relationship which continued for 13 years. By the time Mr Ellis recognised the relationship was abusive it was the mid 1990s and he was a husband and father.

As Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Pell was informed of Ellis’s complaint within a month of it being made in 2002. Documents tendered to the Commission reveal that from then on the Cardinal actively participated in a bumbling and insensitive process which defied the church’s own “Towards Healing” protocol. The result was an “absence of justice” for Mr Ellis according to an internal Archdiocesan review.

Cardinal Pell was then and still is a member of the Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference which set up the Towards Healing protocol with the warning that “if we do not follow the process and procedures of this document we will have failed our own criteria.”

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PUERTO RICO
Leader-Herald

March 12, 2014
Associated Press

ARECIBO, Puerto Rico (AP) — First, the Catholic Church announced it had defrocked six priests accused of sex abuse in the Puerto Rican town of Arecibo. Then, local prosecutors disclosed that at least 11 other priests on the island were under investigation for similar accusations.

Now, as U.S. authorities acknowledge that they, too, are looking into abuse allegations by priests on this devoutly Catholic island, many are reeling from revelations of abuse involving some of the U.S. territory’s most beloved clerics.

Puerto Ricans had largely been spared the lurid accounts of sex abuse involving the Catholic Church, and many had come to believe they were immune. But Barbara Dorris, a director with the U.S.-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the new reports mean it’s likely the problem is much worse than previously imagined.

“In general, these things tend to snowball because victims are afraid to come forward,” Dorris said. “If the priests have been on this island for a while, it probably means that it’s dozens upon dozens of victims out there.”

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GlobalPost

Jean MacKenzie
March 12, 2014

It’s official: Pope Francis is a rock star.

Rounding off a remarkable first year this month atop the Catholic Church, the man once called Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio has gone from a relatively obscure Argentine cleric to one of the most recognizable brands on the planet.

In addition to taking his place in the Rolling Stone magazine’s pantheon of pop-culture icons he was named Time’s Person of the Year and now features prominently in Rome’s graffiti as Super Pope, the White-Caped Crusader.

“He brings a spirit of hope,” says Sister Simone Campbell, head of Network, a US Catholic social justice lobbying group. “Hope and change.” …

But that may not be enough to calm the critics.

A recent report by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child took the Vatican to task for its slow and flawed response to the Church’s sex-abuse scandal. Priests have molested thousands of children over decades, their actions covered up by the clergy hierarchy.

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

In other words, the UN sees little change from the early days of the sex abuse scandal, which was exposed by The Boston Globe in 2002.

As the Globe put it: “For decades church leaders kept horrific tales of abuse out of the public eye through an elaborate culture of secrecy, deception, and intimidation. Victims who came forward with abuse claims were ignored or paid off, while accused priests were quietly transferred from parish to parish or sent for brief periods of psychological counseling.”

Despite Francis’ more open attitudes, very little progress has been made in the area of predatory priests, insists Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors’ Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

“The Church only ever did the right thing when it was forced to by external circumstances,” she said in a phone interview. “They cared much more for the reputation of predators than for the welfare of children.”

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MINNESOTA
Faribault County Register

March 11, 2014
Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Archbishop John Nienstedt will not face criminal charges in connection with an allegation that he inappropriately touched a boy during a public photo shoot in 2009, authorities announced Tuesday.

Nienstedt, who had strongly denied the allegation but stepped down from public ministry while police investigated, said Tuesday he will now resume all of his public duties.

“I look forward to returning to public ministry during this Lenten season, especially during Holy Week and the great feast of Easter,” Nienstedt said in a statement. “I continue to offer my prayers for all … who have been harmed by clergy sexual abuse. I once again offer my apology to all who have been affected by these terrible offenses.”

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office said Tuesday’s announcement resolves this specific case against Nienstedt, but other investigations into allegations of child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are ongoing.

Police say there are currently eight other open investigations.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

EDITORIAL: Cardinal George Pell’s change of heart proves Child Sexual Abuse Royal Commission’s worth

THE abuse case brought against the Catholic Church by former altar boy John Ellis was by any measure a travesty of justice.

Mr Ellis was abused as an altar boy by a Benedictine monk, priest Aidan Duggan, on leave from Scotland, in the late 1970s. Mr Ellis was aged between 13 and 17 when the abuse took place.

Mr Ellis asked for compensation from the church as part of its Towards Healing process but the Sydney Archdiocese’s lawyers fought against a cash settlement, arguing the Catholic Church was not a legal entity which could be sued and the church’s priests and officials bore no responsibility for the actions of their brethren.

Mr Ellis’s bid for an acknowledgment of culpability from the church and compensation was dashed in 2007 when the New South Wales Court of Appeal agreed with the Catholic legal team – setting a precedent which continues to be used today. Cardinal George Pell, then archbishop of Sydney, agreed to this defence being run but later disowned it, claiming he was unaware of all aspects of the case.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

An offer of $25,000 to a victim of long-term sex abuse was not enough, the man who heads the Catholic Church’s response office says.

Michael Salmon, the director of the Catholic Church’s Professional Standards Office (PSO) for NSW and the ACT, has told a royal commission that he always thought the Archdiocese of Sydney’s offer to John Ellis was not enough.

Mr Salmon organised the Towards Healing facilitation for Mr Ellis who was abused by Father Aidan Duggan when he was a teenaged altar boy in Bass Hill, from 1974 to 1979.

The royal commission into child sexual abuse is examining the church’s actions during Towards Healing and a court case brought by Mr Ellis.

Mr Salmon said several times on Wednesday he had ‘a firm belief’ Mr Ellis was telling the truth about abuse by Fr Duggan.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Jack Quann
Tuesday 11 March 2014

Tributes are being paid to campaigner Christine Buckley who has died at the age of 67. She passed away in a Dublin hospital early this morning.

She had been battling cancer for a number of years.

Buckley was a former resident of the Goldenbridge Institution. She was conferred with a Doctor in Laws (LL.D) from Trinity College last December.

As one of the first people to go public about her experience of abuse, she campaigned tirelessly for more than 25 years on behalf of other survivors of institutional abuse.

She was a co-founder and director of the Aislinn Centre in Dublin, which provides educational and support services for survivors.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Alison Healy

Politicians and supporters of abuse survivors have been paying tribute to campaigner Christine Buckley following her death this morning.

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said Christine Buckley was a courageous and consistent campaigner for child protection and children’s rights. “As a survivor of institutional abuse, Christine led the charge to lift the veil on Ireland’s dark past and shameful legacy of child abuse,” she said.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said Ms Buckley would have a lasting place in Irish history as someone whose bravery and commitment to justice led to significant and permanent change.

“As Minister for Education, I had the privilege of working closely with Christine and other survivors from Goldenbridge,” he said. “They made a personal impact on me that remains with me to this day. Her unwavering courage and her singular determination to uncover institutional abuse was a catalyst in my decision to establish the Laffoy — Ryan Commission.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Christine Buckley’s husband: ‘She was a warrior against injustice and for people’s rights and dignity’

UPDATED 11 MARCH 2014

Christine Buckley, the courageous campaigner for victims of institutional abuse, has passed away after a long illness.

This morning, her husband said his beloved wife’s proudest achievement was her work with the Aislinn Centre.

Christine campaigned tirelessly on behalf of victims of institutional abuse for more than 25 years.

Donal Buckley told Newstalk’s Pat Kenny that Mrs Buckley helped many people to gain a basic – or in some cases third level – education through the centre, which she co-founded.

“From the people that attended the Aislinn Centre, she could see how so many of them were able to turn their lives around,” Mr Buckley told Pat Kenny.

“Some of them were so grateful for the support she had given them in getting proper homes, for some cases, going onto university education in a couple of cases, and basic literary skills in other cases because people weren’t able to read and write.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

FRANK SHOULDICE – PUBLISHED IN THE IRISH INDEPENDENT ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1996 – PUBLISHED 11 MARCH 2014

Amid general shock and outrage over China’s so-called ‘Dying Rooms’, the focus of shame draws uncomfortably closer to home tomorrow evening when RTE broadcasts ‘Dear Daughter,’ a harrowing documentary about Christine Buckley, for 13 years a ward of the Goldenbridge orphanage in Dublin.

Louis Lentin’s one-hour programme retraces Christine Buckley’s difficult life. Abandoned after just three weeks, she passed from one orphanage to another for four years before entering Goldenbridge.

Her account of systematic humiliation and abuse, of deprivation, beatings and scaldings, suggests that for over a decade this Sisters of Mercy house ran on a form of discipline closer to sadism than charity.

“We got to the stage that it was so horrific we couldn’t believe it was happening,” she says. “It was the only way we could survive.”

Like over 100 other children who went into care there, her own name became taboo on admission. All individuality — including personal clothes and effects — was plucked away.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

BRIAN HUTTON – PUBLISHED 11 MARCH 2014

Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has led a chorus of tributes to institutional abuse campaigner Christine Buckley, who has died aged 67.

Ms Buckley, who co-founded the Aislinn Centre for abuse survivors, died at St Vincent’s Hospital following a long battle with cancer.

She was a woman of courage and dignity who had helped to make Ireland a better place, said Mr Gilmore.

“Christine suffered greatly as a child growing up in the industrial school system in the Ireland of the 1950s,” he said.

“But as an adult she played a pivotal role in shining a light on the abuse suffered by children in the industrial schools and in campaigning on behalf of the many survivors of institutional abuse.”

Ms Buckley featured in the landmark Dear Daughter documentary broadcast on RTE in 1996 which recounted the horror of her time as a child in the Sisters of Mercy-run orphanage in Goldenbridge, Dublin.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Mar 11, 2014 By David Coleman

Tributes have been pouring in for abuse campaigner Christine Buckley.

The internet has been awash with messages of praise from grieving web users.

Stay with us for the very latest as the country mourns the loss of an inspirational figure.

An emotional Facebook post put up by Christine Buckley’s son Conor has revealed the Brian O’Driscoll visited his mum before she passed away.

It read: “We all know how good Brian O’Driscoll is on the pitch.

“But the true mark of this legend is what he does for others.

“He dedicates so much time to Temple Street hospital and other charities.

“Last night summed him up for me. He heard my mum was in hospital and he rang her up to cheer her up.

“Four months ago he surprised her and called up to our house to have a cup of tea and a chat. Both these gestures completely transformed my mum’s spirits.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

MELANIE FINN – UPDATED 11 MARCH 2014

Conor Buckley, the son of Christine Buckley, the courageous campaigner for victims of institutional abuse, thanked Brian O’Driscoll for lifting his mother’s spirits during her long-term illness.

Mrs Buckley campaigned tirelessly on behalf of victims of institutional abuse for more than 25 years.

She passed away this morning from cancer.

Earlier this week, her son Conor wrote a poignant Facebook post thanking O’ Driscoll for his kindness to his mother during the late stages of her illness over the last seven months.

“We all know how good Brian O’Driscoll is on the pitch,” he began.

“But the true mark of this legend is what he does for others.

“He dedicates so much time to Temple Street hospital and other charities.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Aine Hegarty

How do you measure someone’s life? Have you given a voice to those who cannot speak?

Have you bravely taken on Church and State and won? Have you been instrumental in getting laws changed and changing the course of history?

Not many people can say yes to those things but Christine Buckley did all of them during her 67 years.

She exposed the horrors that were inflicted on innocent children in Goldenbridge orphanage in Dublin.

Christine herself suffered unimaginable abuse from the age of three when she was sent there by a judge as she was found “wandering” the streets.

The daughter of a 31-year-old married woman and a 20-year-old Nigerian student, she was just three weeks old when she was fostered.

In 1950, her world would never be the same again after she was sent to Goldenbridge where she found herself in the care of the Sisters of Mercy.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2014

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

The jury in the Father Andrew McCormick sex abuse case asked for a read back on the alleged victim’s direct testimony, as well as his cross-examination.

On their third day of deliberations, the jury also asked for a third time to have the judge read the charges against “Father Andy.”

The victim’s testimony amounted to some 100 pages from his hour on the witness stand. Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp volunteered to read the testimony to the jury, but defense attorney William J. Brennan didn’t think that was such a great idea.

“I think we would have an objection on that,” Brennan told Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright.

After a visit to the judge’s chambers, the lawyers agreed to have the court stenographer do the reading beginning tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.

After the court stenographer gets through reading the alleged victim’s testimony, the judge will read the charges against Father Andy. The 57-year-old priest has five charges against him: involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault of a child, and corrupting the morals of a minor.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

David Marr
theguardian.com, Tuesday 11 March 2014

Don’t start ringing the bells. The Catholic church is a long way from letting itself be sued like any other church. It knows it can no longer defend a privilege that has saved hundreds of millions of dollars since the child abuse scandal broke decades ago. But it isn’t planning to open its wallet.

One of the great powers of a royal commission is to embarrass. Cardinal Pell and the bishops can see terrible embarrassment looming as the royal commission into institutional response to child sexual abuse turns its sights on the privileged protection of the Catholic church from the courts.

As the gaunt figure of John Ellis took the stand at the commission this week, Pell and the bishops expressed regret once more for past mistakes and made vague undertakings to do things better now. Pell won sympathetic headlines by disowning the ordeal he put Ellis through: “My own view is that the church in Australia should be able to be sued in cases of this kind.”

Ellis had been abused for years as a boy and young man. He had been willing to settle for $100,000 but Pell called in his Melbourne lawyers and $1.5m was spent on fees to block Ellis and confirm the Catholic church in this country doesn’t exist in law, doesn’t employ its priests, isn’t responsible for their crimes and has successfully locked its assets away from victims.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 11

Statement by Frank Meuers of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )

The allegation against Archbishop John Neinstedt sounds pretty implausible from the start. Still, we believe law enforcement should take virtually every child sex abuse report seriously, especially when the accused is a cleric, and we’re grateful that police apparently did investigate this thoroughly.

Having Neinstedt back on the job won’t make any real difference, because when Bishop Piche was in charge, church officials continued to act secretively, just like Neinstedt and his colleagues have done for years.

Now that this is behind him, he has no reason to evade police questioning about archdiocesan cover ups. And he should insist that his long-time second-in-command, Fr. Kevin McDonough, also sit for questioning by police.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Source: Jim Accurso

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis appreciates today’s announcement by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office that they have declined to file charges against Archbishop Nienstedt. As a result of today’s announcement, the archbishop will now resume all of his public ministry duties.

“I am thankful to the Saint Paul Police for their thorough investigation, as well as to the Ramsey County Attorney’s office for their professional work regarding this matter. I look forward to returning to public ministry during this Lenten season, especially during Holy Week and the great feast of Easter,” Archbishop Nienstedt said. “While I look forward to my return to public ministry, I remain committed to the ongoing work needed to provide safe environments for all children and youth. I continue to offer my prayers for all victims, their families and their communities, as well as to all who have been harmed by clergy sexual abuse. I once again offer my apology to all who have been affected by these terrible offenses.”

If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual abuse in Church ministry, you are urged to call the police or other civil authorities. You are also invited to call the archdiocese’s Director of Advocacy and Victim Assistance at 651-291-4497.

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NEW YORK
Newsday

Updated: March 11, 2014
By BART JONES bart.jones@newsday.com

The Diocese of Rockville Centre, one of the largest employers on Long Island, is eliminating its defined benefit pension plan in favor of a 401(k)-style retirement plan for workers with less than 30 years service, church officials said.

The move, which will subject workers’ plans to fluctuations on Wall Street, affects thousands of teachers, parish workers, Catholic Charities employees and others who work in the diocese. The new 403(b) plan — the equivalent of a 401(k) for nonprofits — takes effect Jan. 1, 2015, said diocesan spokesman Sean Dolan.

“It’s something most companies have already done,” Dolan said. “We think we have done everything we can to try to be more compassionate . . . than many companies.”

He said employees who have worked for 30 years or more for the diocese will be able to fully continue with their defined benefit pension plan, in which the diocese pays them a fixed monthly sum from retirement until death.

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MINNESOTA
WCCO

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Charges will not be filed against Archbishop John Nienstedt in connection with an alleged groping incident involving a boy.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office says St. Paul Police conducted an “extensive investigation” surrounding the allegation that Nienstedt inappropriately touched a boy during a photo session at a confirmation ceremony at the Cathedral of St. Paul on May 5, 2009.

According to the investigation, following the ceremony, the boy told his mother that Nienstedt touched his buttocks. At a later date, the mother told a friend, who happened to be a priest, about the alleged incident. The priest then reported the incident to the Archdiocese and later the police on Dec. 16, 2013.

In a later interview with police, the accuser said that during the photograph session Nienstedt’s hand had moved down his back to his buttocks, and that he thought it was “creepy,” but did not feel violated.

After locating the photograph of the accuser with Nienstedt, police observed that the group is arranged on the stairs and the Archbishop is standing one step higher than the accuser. So, it appeared that Nienstedt would have to bend to reach the boy’s buttocks and any such action would likely be witnessed by others present.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 03/11/2014

Prosecutors declined to file charges against Archbishop John Nienstedt in an incident in which he allegedly touched a child inappropriately on the buttocks, the Ramsey County attorney’s office said Tuesday.

“St. Paul police conducted an extensive investigation surrounding (the) allegation … Based on the investigative file presented by police, the Ramsey County attorney’s office concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Archbishop Nienstedt,” the office said in a news release.

In a declination memo by Richard Dusterhoft, director of the county attorney’s criminal division, the incident was described this way:

A juvenile male was confirmed at the Cathedral of St. Paul on May 5, 2009. He later told his mother that “following the ceremony and while photographs were being taken, Archbishop John Nienstedt touched his buttocks.”

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MINNESOTA
KARE

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office has declined to file charges against Archbishop John Nienstedt in connection to an alleged groping incident.

Police conducted an extensive investigation surrounding an allegation that Nienstedt inappropriately touched a boy during a photo session at a confirmation ceremony at the Cathedral of St. Paul on May 5, 2009.

On Tuesday, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Nienstedt.

In the investigation, the boy told police that Nienstedt moved his hand down his back and to his buttocks. He said that he thought it was “creepy,” but he said he did not feel violated.The boy told police that he was concerned about the attention the incident was receiving and he did not believe it was significant.

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MINNESOTA
Office of the Ramsey County Attorney

NEWS RELEASE

March 12, 2014 Contact: Dennis Gerhardstein, 651 266-3074
(Cell) 651 600-1830

Insufficient evidence to charge Archbishop John Nienstedt in alleged groping incident reported by priest

Saint Paul – The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office today declined to file charges against Archbishop John Nienstedt in connection with a police report filed by a priest on December 16, 2013.

Saint Paul Police conducted an extensive investigation surrounding an allegation that Archbishop Nienstedt inappropriately touched a juvenile male during a photo session at a confirmation ceremony at the Cathedral of Saint Paul on May 5, 2009. Based upon the investigative file presented by police, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Archbishop Nienstedt.

A detailed declination memo written by Assistant Ramsey County Richard Dusterhoft (Criminal Division Director) summarizes the police investigation and articulates the reasons why there is insufficient evidence to proceed with a prosecution in this case. A copy of that declination memo is being provided to the public and is attached to this media release.

Today’s announcement only involves one specific prosecutorial decision by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office and is limited in scope to this investigative file that was presented by police. The broader police investigation of child sex abuse allegations within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis along with other related allegations remains active and ongoing. By their very nature, these investigations are complex and can often take more time than most law enforcement investigations to complete. As ministers of justice, we will allow the facts to lead the way as the law allows and do what justice requires.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Mar 11, 2014

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi has declined to file charges against Archbishop John Nienstedt, who in December was accused of groping a boy several years ago at a public event.

Choi’s office cited “insufficient evidence” of a crime, according to a news release Tuesday.

• News release: From the Ramsey Co. Attorney’s Office

Nienstedt, leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis since 2008, voluntarily stepped aside from public ministry while police investigated the allegation that he touched a boy on the buttocks during a group confirmation photo session in 2009.

The St. Paul Police Department launched its investigation into the allegation in December after an unnamed priest contacted police.

Investigators located a photograph of Nienstedt with the confirmation class, according to a March 11 memo to Choi from Richard Dusterhoft, criminal division director for the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Megan Stewart
Attorneys for Ramsey County have decided not to file charges against Archbishop John Nienstedt in connection to an alleged groping incident that was reported last December.

The decision has led to Nienstedt resuming his public ministry duties after he stepped aside the day after the report was filed, the archdiocese announced Tuesday.

The report, filed Dec. 16, 2013, alleged Nienstedt touched the rear end of a child with his hand in May 2009 while taking a group picture during the child’s confirmation.

The alleged victim, who was a minor at the time, told his mom about the incident after the ceremony, the report said.

The mother later told a priest, who then reported it to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the report said.

When interviewed by police after the report was filed, the victim, who is now a grown man, said while he thought the situation was “creepy,” he did not believe it was significant and was concerned about the attention the incident was receiving.

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MINNESOTA
WJON

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Authorities say Archbishop John Nienstedt will not face criminal charges in an incident in which he was accused of inappropriately touching a boy during a public photo shoot.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office says Tuesday there is insufficient evidence to prosecute Nienstedt.

Nienstedt announced Dec. 17 that he had been accused of touching a boy on the buttocks during a photo following a confirmation ceremony in 2009. He denied the allegation, but stepped down from public ministry while police investigated.

In a statement Tuesday, Nienstedt thanked authorities and said he will now return to public ministry. He says he continues to pray for those harmed by clergy sexual abuse.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: CHAO XIONG , Star Tribune Updated: March 11, 2014

Attorney’s office memo said it ‘seems unlikely’ that Archbishop John Nienstedt would have touched the boy during a 2009 confirmation photo session.

Archbishop John Nienstedt will not be charged in connection with allegations that he touched a boy’s buttocks following a confirmation ceremony in 2009.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office said Tuesday that it won’t charge Nienstedt because there is “insufficient evidence.”

It “seems unlikely” that Nienstedt would choose that moment to “sexually touch a random boy openly in front of another clergy member, a deacon, and numerous other confirmands while the confirmands’ family members were preparing to document the moment in photographs,” read a memo written by Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Richard Dusterhoft, the office’s criminal division director.

“This case was reviewed by an Assistant County Attorney with many years of experience prosecuting child sex abuse cases,” Duesterhoft’s memo read. “It is that attorney’s experienced and considered opinion that based upon the evidence as presented by police this case could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and should not be charged.

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HAWAII
Hawaii News Now

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) –
In just more than a month, a window for child abuse victims to file civil suits will expire. Joining Steve this morning is Joelle Casteix with SNAP: the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and Jeff Anderson, who is an attourney for sex abuse victims.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — March 11, 2014
CONTACT: Jerry Zufelt, Office for Communications, 724-834-4010, Ext. 1445

GREENSBURG — After a series of investigations that began more than three years ago, Father Emil S. Payer, pastor of Seven Dolors Parish, Yukon, in the Diocese of Greensburg has been charged with theft.

Father Payer was arraigned March 11 before District Magistrate Charles D. Moore in Scottdale and charged with theft by deception, theft by unlawful taking, theft by receiving stolen property and theft by misappropriation of entrusted property.

Father Payer, who has been on administrative leave from the parish since Aug. 11, 2011, was released on a non-monetary bond.

The charges stem from an investigation that began when parishioners of Seven Dolors Parish approached officials of the Diocese of Greensburg in early 2011 with concerns about parish finances. As a result of that meeting, the diocese immediately began a review of parish finances with an independent auditing firm. Subsequently, diocesan officials held a meeting on April 6, 2011, with the Parish Pastoral Council and Parish Finance Council of Seven Dolors Parish and informed council members of the review.

At that point, all parish financial activity was placed under the responsibility of Father Kenneth G. Zaccagnini, pastor of St. Barbara Parish, Harrison City, and dean of Deanery 3, while Father Payer continued to handle pastoral duties.

The diocese had the independent auditing firm conduct a comprehensive financial review of parish finances. The review examined every expenditure in two parish accounts, one of which was an unauthorized account established several years earlier contrary to diocesan financial policies and therefore beyond any diocesan reviews. A third account was reviewed for specific activity. The review examined transactions as far back as fiscal year 2005-06 in the unauthorized account and as far back as fiscal year 2008-09 in the other two accounts.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WTAE

GREENSBURG, Pa. —A priest who has been on leave from the Catholic Diocese of Greensburg for nearly three years was arraigned Tuesday on charges related to a suspected theft at his home parish.

The diocese said the Rev. Emil Payer, of Seven Dolors Parish in Yukon, was released on a non-monetary bond after his arraignment by Scottdale District Judge Charles Moore on charges of theft by deception, theft by unlawful taking, theft by receiving stolen property and theft by misappropriation of entrusted property.

The diocese has not said exactly what it believes was taken, or how much.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: John F. Hurley was ordained a priest of the Jesuits’ Oregon Province in 1945. In 1947 he began his life-long career at Gonzaga Preparatory High School in Spokane. He died in 1998. Hurley’s name was included on a 2007 list of priests working in the Spokane diocese who were ” admitted, proven or credibly accused perpetrators of sexual abuse.” Details of accusations against him were not provided.

Ordained: 1945
Died: October 1998

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NEW YORK
New Haven Register

By Ed Stannard, New Haven Register
POSTED: 03/11/14

A retired cardinal accused of covering up sexual abuse by priests will celebrate a Mass with 200 youthful choir members on Saturday.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests would like that not to happen.

Cardinal Edward M. Egan will celebrate at the Pueri Cantores Children’s Choir Festival, held at St. Ignatius of Loyola Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan. According to the church’s bulletin, more than 200 choristers “from the tri-state area” will take part.

Egan has been accused of failing to remove priests accused of sexual abuse when he was bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport from 1988 to 2000. He was appointed archbishop of New York and retired in 2009.

SNAP is calling for Cardinal Timothy Dolan to cancel Egan’s appearance. Egan “continues to enjoy a position of honor and prominence” and “when you essentially honor (him) and ignore wrongdoing you encourage more wrongdoing,” said David Clohessy, SNAP’s national director.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Ken Briggs | Mar. 11, 2014 NCR Today

NCR’s admirable reporting startlingly concludes that roughly two-thirds of U.S. bishops haven’t broadly sought opinions from lay Catholics on family-related issues prior to the Synod on that subject later this year. The Vatican had promoted the idea by preparing a survey for that purpose, but, as NCR found, most didn’t follow through.

Why not if it had Rome’s endorsement?

Reasons vary, of course, but the question might as well be, why should they?

First, the bishops were asked to submit a report that could include survey results but didn’t have to. What would presumably be the advantage of distributing questions on birth control, divorced and remarried Catholics, marriage, etc., either on the Internet, as some did, or in parish settings? More information, certainly, but the information would be numbingly predictable. For decades, reliable polls have charted Catholic views toward the church’s cluster of teachings on sexual ethics. Rejection of those teachings, most starkly against the church’s prohibition of artificial birth control, has become an accepted fact. However well intended, the Vatican’s survey repeats the exercise and produces the same results. Catholics remain just as opposed to artificial contraception and to forbidding non-annulled, remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments as they have been all along as measured by Pew, Gallup and others.

The church survey therefore confirms the obvious. Any bishop who hasn’t been confined to a space capsule for the past 25 years understands this dissent whether or not he admits it. If he is among the few who want change, such findings might bolster his cause. But most don’t. Were I among them, why would I stir up a new round of protest?

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UNITED KINGDOM
Westminster Faith Debates

Tina Beattie

After a year in office, Pope Francis’s popularity shows no sign of waning. A weekly Italian fanzine called Il Mio Papa (‘My Pope’) has just been launched by Silvio Berlusconi’s publishing company, though Francis says he finds such adulation ‘offensive’. His response to a journalist’s question about gays – ‘who am I to judge?’ – has earned him cult status, including his appearance on the cover of LGBT magazine, The Advocate, as their 2013 Man of the Year.

Francis has transformed the style of the papacy, but to discern the substance of his theological vision one must trawl through a wide range of homilies and interviews, off-the-cuff remarks and more considered theological reflections such as his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (‘The Joy of the Gospels’). He speaks of wanting a ‘messy’ Church, a Church which takes risks, which expresses radical solidarity with the poor, and which avoids being ‘obsessed’ with issues such as same-sex marriage, contraception and abortion. He makes clear that his intention is not to change Church teaching, but to offer a pastoral response that is sensitive to the situations in which people find themselves. His experience in Argentina will undoubtedly stand him in good stead when it comes to dealing with the sometimes Machiavellian politics of the Vatican, but however politically astute he might be, it is clear that he is motivated by the conviction that the joy and freedom of Christ are the heart and soul of the Church’s mission, and this finds its most truthful expression in service to the poor. He has condemned the tyranny of the global economic system in language that is reminiscent of liberation theology. …

He has also disappointed many people by his failure to address the ongoing scandal of sex abuse in the Church. With new cases still being regularly reported, he shows little real appreciation of the extent of the problem or the ongoing challenge it poses to the credibility and reputation of the Church.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

By Renatta Signorini

Published: Tuesday, March 11, 2014

A Roman Catholic priest on leave from a Diocese of Greensburg church allegedly stole thousands of dollars from parish coffers, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday morning.

The Rev. Emil Stephen Payer, 69, of Unity is accused of taking about $124,000 from the Church of the Seven Dolors in South Huntingdon during a nearly three-year period while he was in charge of the parish, county detectives said in an affidavit of probable cause.

Payer was arraigned and is free on a signature bond. He turned himself in Tuesday morning.
The diocese announced in April 2011 that the church was being audited after several parishioners raised concerns about several accounts. Payer continued to handle pastoral duties at that point, but duties related to church business were administered by another priest.

Four months later, Payer was placed on leave from the South Huntingdon church and a criminal investigation was launched.

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MONTANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 11, 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 )

Current and former Helena Catholic officials are getting a “free pass” because Helena’s bishop is hiding behind chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

[Montana Standard]

None of them will be forced to testify under oath about their role in hiding clergy sex crimes. So for the sake of justice and healing, we call on them to voluntarily and publicly discuss what they did and didn’t do to protect kids and expose wrongdoers.

Specifically, we call on retired bishops Raymond Hunthausen (the bishop from 1962-1975) and Elden Curtiss (who was bishop from 1976-1993) to voluntarily step up now and disclose how much they knew about and how little they did about child molesting Montana clerics and the current or former church employees who also hid their crimes. It’s the very least they can do, in light of the hundreds of men and women who have been sexually violated over the past few decades by Montana Catholic priests, nuns, bishops, seminarians and brothers.

According to a recent newspaper article, Hunthausen lives in a Helena nursing home and Curtiss is a retired archbishop of Omaha, Nebraska.

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TEXAS
Fox 26

By Kathryn Yglecias, Senior Web Producer –

HOUSTON (FOX 26) –

Houston Police investigators are looking for clues after it appears someone broke into a safe at Lakewood Church and walked away with nearly 6-hundred thousand dollars in donations. Two hundred thousands of it is believed to be cash.

The donations were from services on Saturday March 8th and Sunday March 9th.

The heist wasn’t discovered until 8:30 a.m. Monday morning when an employee of Lakewood Church and an off duty Harris County Sheriff’s Officer working security noticed the break in.

Right now investigators think the heist happened sometime between 2:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon and Monday morning when it was discovered.

The donations were from services PM Saturday March 8th and Sunday March 9th and included donations made by checks and credit cards along with the cash donations.

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TEXAS
Houston Chronicle

By Craig Hlavaty | March 11, 2014 | Updated: March 11, 2014

A grand total of $600,000 in cash and checks – along with written credit card information – was stolen from Houston’s Lakewood Church on Sunday, according to a statement that church leaders emailed to the church’s members on Monday.

Someone allegedly broke into the church’s safe Sunday evening, which was discovered by an employee Monday morning, taking cash, checks and envelopes containing written credit card information with them.

Joel Osteen’s mega church sent the note to members of the church to alert them that funds contributed on March 8 and 9 were taken. Lakewood encouraged those who made contributions to the church on those days to monitor their accounts closely for fraud and to notify their financial institutions if they see anything out of sorts.

The statement reiterated that this was not an electronic data breach, and was only limited to donations made during those services. Further, if a church member put their offering in a drop box, gave online or through other electronic means, they are not affected.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Mar. 11, 2014 NCR Today

What did the Vatican want when it sent a 39-question survey about family issues to the world’s bishops in October? When NCR first reported the release of the document, we quoted a letter from Archbishop (now Cardinal) Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops, that asked the national bishops’ conferences to distribute the questionnaire “immediately as widely as possible to deaneries and parishes so that input from local sources can be received.”

Now, we at NCR assumed that meant getting the question to the people in the pews, you know, the people who live in families, and ask them about contraception, same-sex marriage, cohabitation, marriage preparation and divorce, but we soon discovered that these instructions could and would be interpreted in various ways.

Famously, the bishops of England and Wales almost immediately posted the questionnaire online. The Canadian and U.S. bishops told the media they would follow the “usual process” for soliciting information as “Rome asks for this kind of consultation on a regular basis.”

The “usual process”? A spokeswoman for the U.S. bishops told NCR: “It will be up to each bishop to determine what would be the most useful way of gathering information to provide to Rome.”

So when I asked Michael O’Loughlin to look into how the U.S. bishops had responded to the Vatican’s invitation, I really had no idea what he would find, but I wasn’t too surprised when I read his story. I had thought that we would be reporting on what bishops found when they took these questions to people in their dioceses. You will find that in O’Loughlin’s report, but you’ll also find something missing.

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