ABUSE TRACKER

GENEVA
Prensa Latina

United Nations, Apr 28 (Prensa Latina) Next month the United Nations Committee against Torture will review the Vatican for the first time, in public sessions that will include talks with delegations with the Holy See and civil society, said today the United Nations from its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

According to the committee, created by the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1984 and open to signing, ratification and joining, the review will take place on May 5th and 6th and conclusions will be issued 17 days later.

The Holy See is one of the 155 States that signed the Convention, which came into effect in 1987, and therefore must be subjected to regular probes on its situation, said in a press release the Committee, made up of 10 independent experts.

Along with the Vatican, countries like Guinea, Cyprus, Lithuania, Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Thailand and Uruguay will be reviewed.

The review will take place three months after that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) urged the Holy See to implement more actions to fight child abuse carried out by the clergy, as well as removal and denunciation of perpetrators.

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

Brooklyn’s new District Attorney Kenneth Thompson has given a Satmar hasid who threw bleach in the face of anti-child-sex-abuse activist Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg a non-prison sentence. This does not bode well for justice in Brooklyn and it should enrage anyone concerned with democracy and the need for equal justice for all.

Brooklyn’s new District Attorney Kenneth Thompson has given Meilich Schnitzler, a Satmar hasid who threw bleach in the face of anti-child-sex-abuse activist Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, a non-prison sentence. This does not bode well for justice in Brooklyn and it should enrage anyone concerned with democracy and the need for equal justice for all.

Put simply, people need to be able to safely walk the streets without fearing attack from opponents who don’t like the legal causes people advocate for.

And people need to know that if someone violates the law and physically attacks them, that assailant will be prosecuted to the fullest extent the law allows.

That did not happen after Taj Patterson, a gay black college student left a party in the early morning of December first and tried to walk home to Fort Greene, Brooklyn. According to Patterson and several eyewitnesses, Patterson was attacked by a mob of about 20 hasidim, most wearing what appeared to be Shomrim patches on their jackets. He was severely beaten and was left blind in one eye.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

April 29, 2014

Former Catholic priest James Patrick Jennings knew when the schoolboys he abused would be alone and in which dormitory they slept.

Jennings, 81, indecently assaulted three boys while a priest at Bendigo’s St Vincent’s College in the 1960s.

One of his victims, who was abused over a number of years, said Jennings had deprived him of his adolescence and made him feel guilty his whole life.

“He left me feeling exploited, humiliated and with lost self-esteem,” he said in a statement read to the Victorian County Court on Tuesday.

Prosecutor Susan Borg said Jennings learnt his victims’ class timetables to find out when they’d be alone.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A former resident of a Christian Brothers school in Western Australia has described living in constant terror at the institution where “violence was a way of life”.

John Hennessey is the first of a number of victims to give evidence at the Perth hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He was a child migrant from the UK and told the hearing he was excited to come to Australia as an 11-year-old boy, considering it an adventure.

Mr Hennessey, who was a resident at the Bindoon Farm School north of Perth, broke down during his evidence today as he recounted the moment he realised “something was amiss”.

He was sexually and physically abused from age 11 until he was 16, when he left the school.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

AMANDA BANKS AND COLLEEN EGAN The West Australian
April 29, 2014

Witnesses at the first Perth royal commission public hearing into child sex abuse yesterday described feeling devalued, angry and betrayed after reliving their experiences only to have the State Government almost halve maximum pay-outs under the compensation scheme for abuse in care.

Child migrant Oliver Cosgrove, who told the hearing into four WA Christian Brothers’ homes of his physical and sexual abuse at Clontarf and Castledare, said the application process under the WA Redress compensation scheme had been “onerous”.

He said the Liberal-National State Government’s decision to reduce the maximum payout under the scheme from $80,000 to $45,000 was “disgraceful and reprehensible”.

“I found that the Redress WA process did not provide justice,” Mr Cosgrove told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. “It provided an apology with a number on it,” he said.

John Wells, who was also abused at Castledare and Clontarf with his twin brother, told the hearing he was not interested in receiving apologies, which were nothing more than an attempt to clear consciences.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

EMILY MOULTON PERTHNOW APRIL 29, 2014

ENTERING a Brother’s room was like entering a lion’s den.

Boys who were “chosen” would often start crying even before they stepped in, acutely aware of what would happen next.

For VG, a young Maltese boy who was sent to Australia in the 1960s to further his education following the death of his father, there was nothing he remembered fearing more in his first few weeks at St Mary’s Agricultural School in Tardun.

“When a brother chose a boy to take to a room, the boy would often start crying,” the man, whose name is suppressed, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses of Child Sex Abuse today.

“At first I thought that the boys were being punished for something that they had done. After that I would often hear the boys say things like ‘No sir, please no sir’.

After about 12 months at Tardun, VG’s worst fears came true.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

NICOLAS PERPITCH THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 29, 2014

FORMER child migrant John Hennessey was groomed into a “sexual pet’’ by a group of clergymen during five years of abuse at a West Australian Christian ­orphanage.

Mr Hennessey yesterday gave evidence to the royal commission into child abuse, where he described in graphic detail the repeated beatings and rapes he suffered between the ages of 11 and 16 after arriving from England in 1947.

He explained that Brother ­Superior Paul Keaney’s grooming programmed him to become used to the “most distorted, twisted patterns of sexual and social conduct” and left him to live a life of pain, confusion and loneliness ever since.

Mr Hennessy accused the state government and police of being in “collusive relations” with the church.

“I was simply exploited and abused by criminals who could relax in the knowledge that the state government and church were my legal guardians and would never bother to meet their responsibilities,” he said.

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MINNESOTA
News 8000

Author: Leah Linscheid, llinscheid@wkbt.com
Published On: Apr 28 2014

WINONA, Minn. (WKBT) –
A local organization is addressing a growing national concern for sexually abused children.

People often consider their churches or congregations a part of their family, and one of the places they feel most safe and welcome. Unfortunately, that can include sexual predators. According to national studies, 93 percent of sexual offenders consider themselves religious, and 20 percent of congregations have at least one convicted sex offender among their ranks. Those and other statistics have spurred the National Child Protection Center into action.

The center, based in Winona, has brought in faith communities from all corners of the country this week for a course on sexual assault, called Chaplains for Children. It’s the first program of its kind, and it’s addressing a problem that experts say is bigger than people realize.

“We increasingly realized in the child protection community how often sex offenders are engaged in religious activities,” said Victor Vieth, executive director for the center. “Research says sex offenders prey on the gullibity, they prey on the belief that this could never happen in our congregation. They consciously seek out congregations that never talk about child abuse, and don’t have good child protection policies.”

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AUSTRALIA
Pro Bono Australia

Posted: Tuesday, April 29, 2014

The Chair of the Catholic Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council, Barry O’Keefe AM QC, died in Sydney last week.

O’Keefe, a former Commissioner of NSW’s Independent Commission against Corruption and former Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, died peacefully at St Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst on April 24.

A statement from the Council said O’Keefe was appointed inaugural Chair of the Truth Justice and Healing Council in late 2012 and for the past 18 months had worked tirelessly to chart a path for reform within the Catholic Church as it deals with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The CEO of the TJHC, Francis Sullivan, said the passing of Barry O’Keefe was a great loss and he will be missed by his loving family and many friends.

“Barry’s formidable intellect, his unflagging courage and commitment, and his profound compassion for the survivors of child sexual abuse within the Church have been the driving force behind the work of the Council since it was established,” Sullivan said.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

April 29, 2014

Aleisha Orr
Reporter, WA Today

Men who were victims of sexual abuse as children while in the care of the Christian Brothers have told a public hearing in Perth that they not only had to go through the trauma of abuse but also the “traumatic” process of trying to receive compensation.

On Tuesday, a man known to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse as ‘VV’ described sexual and physical abuse he experienced at Bindoon Farm School.

He said he “could not stop trembling” after the first time he was raped by one of the brothers, two weeks after arriving at Bindoon Farm School in 1954 at nine years of age.

VV said the abuse by brothers, priests and other boys continued until he left Bindoon in 1961 but he could not move on from what happened to him.

“People say you can get on with it, lift yourself above it. I tried to do this and I thought I was being successful but always… always in your mind there is the belief that you don’t deserve anything good,” he told the hearing.

VV said that he did not take part in a class action that many others took against the Catholic Church over the abuse because at the time he “just didn’t want to be involved”.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

April 29, 2014

Aleisha Orr
Reporter, WA Today

An overwhelming sense of loss has come through in the evidence given by witnesses at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Nine of 11 men sexually abused as children while in the care of Christian Brothers in Western Australian institutions are set to speak as part of public hearings in Perth.

“I lost my country, I lost my language, I lost my culture, I lost my family and I lost any chance of a decent career,” Raphael Ellul told the commission at the second day of hearings.

Mr Ellul was a child migrant from Malta who was sent to Australia to “obtain a better future”, which he described as “rubbish”.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, April 28 – A three-day meeting of the Council of Cardinals steering wide-ranging reforms to the Rome Curia, began Monday with Pope Francis, the Vatican press office said. Pope Francis has taken part in much of the work, coordinated by Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, leaving only for public commitments including general audiences and meetings with international figures, the press office said. The council of eight cardinals, which has been informally dubbed the C8, has been closely studying changes to governance of the Catholic Church as well as possible reforms to the constitution of the Vatican City State, known as Pastor Bonus, instituted in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

Jim Madalinsky

HOLLIDAYSBURG, BLAIR COUNTY – An attorney for the alleged victims of Brother Stephen Baker is asking what the hold up is?

On Friday the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese announced it was suspending mediation efforts for the sex abuse settlements, citing the ongoing investigation by the State Attorney General’s office.

Dr. Robert Hoatson is the co-founder of the group “Road to Recovery.” He represents some of Brother Baker’s alleged victims in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. Dr. Hoatson is calling out the diocese for pulling out negotiations that had been scheduled for weeks. Representatives from the diocese’s in Youngstown, OH and Detroit, MI had planned to meet with a mediator Friday in Philadelphia also. Now Dr. Hoatson is saying the dioceses is causing even more harm to the victims.

“It says to the victims that they’re once again siding with Brother Baker. Just like the people at Bishop McCort who sided with Baker, and the Franciscan fryers that sided with Baker, and the administrations that sided with Brother Baker,” Dr. Hoatson says.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Reporter

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: April 27, 2014

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pennsylvania — A lawyer representing 33 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse in central Pennsylvania is urging the Roman Catholic church not to pull out of planned mediation.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said Sunday the withdrawal will re-traumatize his clients and prevent them from healing. Talks had been scheduled to take place this week in Philadelphia.

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown said Friday that it’s suspending settlement talks until state authorities finish their investigation of Brother Stephen Baker.

The Franciscan friar worked at Johnstown’s Bishop McCort High School from 1992 to 2001. He committed suicide last year after being linked to abuse claims in Ohio.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

Updated: Monday, April 28 2014

By: Maria Miller

ALTOONA, Pa. — It’s a story 6 News first reported on Friday: Negotiations set to begin between the church and alleged victims of a former trainer at Bishop McCort Catholic High School have been postponed.

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown , only commenting through a statement, said it wouldn’t be right to start civil matters before a criminal investigation by the attorney general’s office is complete.

The decision is not sitting well with alleged victims and their attorneys. Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents 33 of Brother Stephen Baker’s alleged victims, said his clients are being revictimized by the diocese’ decision. He said they were willing and ready to mediate this week, but are now left with no choice but to file suit.

“Why on the eve of the mediations would they all of a sudden say, ‘oh we’ve changed our minds, we’re not going to proceed?'” said Garabedian.

In a statement, the diocese said “It would be inappropriate for (them) to proceed with the civil matters while the attorney general’s investigation is active.”

Garabedian is all for that investigation but said the diocese shouldn’t have used it as an excuse when it’s known about it for at least three months.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott
kmellott@tribdem.com

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Friday’s announcement by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown that it is suspending settlement talks with alleged victims of the late Brother Stephen Baker has generated a firestorm of controversy, with one victims’ advocate calling the news outrageous.

Robert Hoatson, founder and president of Road to Recovery Inc., protested outside diocesan headquarters in Hollidaysburg.

Late Friday afternoon, Tony DeGol, the diocese secretary of communications, sent an emailed statement that the diocese was temporarily suspending negotiations to reach settlements with the mostly men who claim they were sexually molested by Baker, a Franciscan friar.

Baker taught at Bishop McCort from 1992 to about 2001, however he was a frequent visitor for the school until about 2005 or 2006, according to sources who worked there.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Milton J. Valencia | GLOBE STAFF APRIL 29, 2014

John T. McNeil, an assistant US attorney who prosecuted several corrupt politicians and police officers, has been named the top assistant to the US attorney for Massachusetts, Carmen M. Ortiz. McNeil takes over as first assistant US attorney, succeeding Jack Pirozzolo, who served in that role for more than four years and recently left for the private sector. McNeil has served with Ortiz as deputy chief of the criminal division, acting chief of the major crimes unit, and counsel to the US attorney. …

McNeil also initiated the first federal investigation of clergy sexual abuse and reached the first criminal settlement in the United States with a Roman Catholic diocese, the Archdiocese of Boston.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

Editorial

For years he was known as Rev. Msgr. Edward J. Arsenault III, the highest-ranking priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester. He will probably be called other things in prison.

Arsenault was sentenced last Wednesday to 4 to 20 years in New Hampshire State Prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Diocese, Catholic Medical Center in Manchester and the estate of the late Msgr. John Molan. He was ordered to repay $300,000 to his victims.

Arsenault stole by deception and trickery, skills he exhibited publicly for many years during his decade as a senior official in the Diocese of Manchester. During the priest sex abuse scandal, Arsenault was the Diocesan Spin Doctor. As the official spokesman, he misled the flock, the families and the media with masterfully crafted messages of misdirection and misinformation.

In that time of great pain and turmoil, he had the option of helping the victims. He did not have to be complicit in the bishop’s campaign to protect himself and the institution by hiding the truth, denying the great evil that had been committed, and dodging responsibility. But Arsenault worked with vigor and enthusiasm to deny justice to the sexually abused. He willfully sinned against the innocent.

So it was doubly insulting to see his attorney portray his service during that time as a factor to be weighed in his favor. “During the tumultuous years that the church sex abuse scandal was going on, Mr. Arsenault was the person who held the diocese together,” attorney Cathy Green said. Still he spins and deceives.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

April 29, 2014

Aleisha Orr
Reporter, WA Today

Brother Albert McGregor had not spoken a word about the sexual abuse he suffered as a child as a resident at Castledare Junior Orphanage and later at St Vincent’s Orphanage in Clontarf.

He figured his experience had not been a common one for children in the care of Christian Brothers in Western Australia.

It was not until he was an adult and three other men who had also grown up in WA Christian Brother-run institutions confided in him about sexual abuse, did he realise that it may have been a “widespread problem”.

Mr McGregor told his story to the first Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse public hearings being conducted in Perth.

On Monday the hearing heard the story of the man who was born in England and taken to a place called Nazareth House in Aberdeen in 1941 as a two month old.

His maternal grandmother ordered he be taken there as he had been born out of wedlock and was therefore “an embarrassment”.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

EMILY MOULTON AND AAP PERTHNOW APRIL 29, 2014

THEY called him “Killer Moore”, the Christian brother whose “liberal” use of a leather strap sparked fear in almost every child at Bindoon Farm School.

Such was his reputation that Clifford Walsh “feared him” more than any other brother at the institution even though he was also brutally raped by a number of the others.

Mr Walsh was just nine when he received his first beating by Brother Moore, his second day at Bindoon.

He learnt very quickly the ferocity of his wrath. And his supposed crime? Being unable to carry a heavy crow bar for three miles.

Mr Walsh is the fifth person to give evidence at the first public hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sex Abuse in Perth.

The commission is investigating how the Christian Brothers and successive WA governments responded to allegations of abuse at four homes at Bindoon, Contarf, Tardun and Castledare.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Tuesday 29 April 2014

A 10-year-old boy was told by a priest to make himself less attractive so as not to be a target for sexual abuse, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has also heard that Christian Brothers pimped boys out to a visiting photographer at St Joseph’s Farm and Trade School, Bindoon, in the late 1950s.

A witness known as VV on Tuesday told the commission in Perth that a Christian Brother who raped him suddenly announced he needed to confess his sins.

“Then Brother Parker came back and said I needed to see Father Gerard. Father Gerard sat me down and told me what we were doing was very wrong, and that I should make myself less attractive,” VV said.

“I should stop leading Brother Parker on, because it was a sin. He told me it was my fault, all the while he sat there sucking a cigar, blaming a child for being assaulted.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Rebecca Trigger and Courtney Bembridge

A man has described being “consumed by guilt and shame” as a result of savage abuse he suffered at church-run institutions north-east of Perth.

The man, known only as VV, was giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sex Abuse in Perth on Tuesday.

“When I look back on my life I’m consumed by guilt and shame and a sense of betrayal, denial and abandonment,” he said.

“I have an overwhelming sense of helplessness, hopelessness and my inability to change my past and of complete desperation, knowing that my future would always be tainted by the past.

“I’m tired and weary from always wearing a mask, of portraying a false sense to the outside world, of bearing this guilt and shame regarding my past while living a nightmare of inner turmoil every single day of my life”.

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MALTA/AUSTRALIA
Malta Today

Matthew Vella 29 April 2014

Echoes of the violent world of child migrants, amongst them Maltese emigrants, entrusted to the Christian Brothers back in the 1960s are reverberating inside Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The evidence makes for harrowing reading, as a survey of the Australian press shows.

A child migrant identified as ‘VG’ who says he had been raised “in a loving and close family in Malta”, told the commission that reporting violent sexual assaults to priests in confessions only led to more brutal beatings and punishment at the Christian Brothers’ home of St Mary’s Agricultural School in Tardun, a small town in Western Australia.

VG was reported to have revealed “painful details of repeated assaults, neglect and cruelty” during the second day of the commission’s public hearing into the experiences of boys at four Christian Brothers orphanages.

VG was testifying with his wife at his side for support.

After the death of his father, he was told he would be going on an “adventure” when he was sent to Western Australia.

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MARYLAND/MASSACHUSETTS
Road to Recovery

MEDIA RELEASE
APRIL 27-28, 2014

Rabbi Stanley Levitt, a dangerous pedophile, is living and worshiping in Baltimore, MD
Massachusetts school settled with men who were sexually abused by Rabbi Stanley Levitt

What: A press conference announcing the settlement of a sexual abuse case against a dangerous pedophile, Rabbi Stanley Levitt, who is living in Baltimore, MD and worshiping at a Baltimore synagogue.

When: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Where: On the sidewalk in front of the synagogue housing the Ohel Yakov Congregation, 3200 Glen Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21215.

Who: Michael Brecher, a Baltimore-area resident who is a sexual abuse victim of Rabbi Stanley Levitt; Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Mr. Brecher’s advocate who is President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey; other supporters, and friends.

Why: Michael Brecher was a young boy attending the Maimonides School in Brookline, MA in the 1970s when he encountered Rabbi Stanley Levitt, who sexually abused him and other boys. In December, 2013, the Maimonides School found Michael Brecher and others credible and paid a settlement of six figures to Mr. Brecher. Rabbi Stanley Levitt, the abuser, pled guilty in August, 2012, of sexually assaulting several young boys at a Boston area hospital, his Brighton, MA, home, and Jewish ritual locations. Levitt, who is 68 years old, now lives in the Baltimore area and continues to pose a risk to children. He has been welcomed to worship with the Ohel Yakov Congregation where many children attend with their families.

Michael Brecher will discuss the settlement he received in December, 2013, the details of his sexual abuse by Rabbi Stanley Levitt in Massachusetts, and the danger Mr. Brecher believes Rabbi Levitt continues to pose in the Baltimore, MD, area.

Contacts: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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NETHERLANDS
I Am Expat

29 April 2014, by Alexandra Gowling

Confidence in churches, both Protestant and Catholic, has reached a nadir in the Netherlands, with numbers of Dutch churchgoers halving since 1970. The greatest drop is among Roman Catholics.

This is according to a new report by the Social and Cultural Planning Bureau on the appeal of Christian churches, participating in religious gatherings and the attitude of the Dutch to religious doctrines and the Christian faith tradition.

Fifty years ago, over a third of the Dutch population considered their minister or priest their major point of contact for problems. Now, this applies to only 10 per cent.

Instead, people are increasingly likely to see churches merely as a kind of public utility, used only when needed, such as for weddings or a funerals.

Decreasing faith in church

The decrease in faith in Christian churches has been steady since 1970. Then, more than 60 per cent of the population belonged to a religious community.

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CANADA
CBC News

A former Bathurst priest has again failed to turn up in court after a warrant for his arrest was issued earlier this year.

Charles Picot was expected to answer to three charges of gross indecency and indecent assault.

He’s been convicted twice before of similar charges, and acquitted on another.

A lawyer speaking on behalf of Picot said the former priest — now in his late 60s — is living in Montreal and battling cancer.

Picot was unable to make the trip and his lawyer said they need time to review the file.

But victim advocate Conrad Brideau said the wait is only going to make things more difficult for the alleged victim.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, April 28, 2014

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

Fr. Robert R. Osborne has passed away. We are grateful he can’t hurt another child ever again. We sympathize with Osborne’s family and for the Catholic parishioners who felt close to him, but we hope his passing will help his victims find healing.

Fr. Osborne was one of eight St. Louis Marianists who have been accused of sexually abusing children. One of them (Brother John Woulfe) was sued in the past few weeks.

Fr. Osborne stepped down as the head of Vianney after he was sued for abuse, claiming the law suit would distract him from his job.

According to a 2006 lawsuit, Fr. Osborne used “his position to gain the trust” of a teenaged student, “coercing him to drink alcoholic beverages, making sexual comments to him, (trying) to observe and photograph him when he was undressed, hugging and kissing him, and making other overt and covert sexual contact with him.” At least one other accuser later came forward to police.

Even after a civil suit was settled, Fr. Osborne was not put in a remote and secure treatment facility, nor did he have his priestly faculties removed until several years later. Even after the settlement, Catholic officials let him say mass at a Kirkwood parish until SNAP exposed and criticized this reckless move.

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NEW YORK
Capital New York

By Ryan Hutchins Apr. 28, 2014

The Archdiocese of New York took a major step last week toward consolidating its dense network of 376 parishes, entering the final stages of planning for what is likely to result in the most significant sweep of parish closings seen here in recent memory.

Early last week, an advisory board that has been working for months with outside consultants to find ways to streamline the centuries-old archdiocese quietly sent its preliminary recommendations to local working groups—known as clusters—for review. It is the first time a broad consolidation plan such as this has been handled this way.

Among the locations being considered for closure by the committee, which is scheduled to issue its final blueprint to archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan in June, are the Church of St. John the Baptist and the Church of the Holy Innocents in Midtown Manhattan, according to internal documents obtained by Capital New York. Both would be consolidated into nearby St. Francis of Assisi on West 31st Street, which could take a new name.

St. John the Baptist, also on West 31st Street, is directly across from of Pennsylvania Station and a well known parish. It is run by the religious order of the Capuchin Franciscans and is home to the Saint Padre Pio Shrine, which attracts devotees to the 20th century saint. Holy Innocents on West 37th Street, the oldest building in the Fashion Center, was once known as the “actor’s church.” Playwright Eugene O’Neill was baptized there in 1888. Some Masses are still celebrated there in Latin.

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MISSOURI
Belleville News-Democrat

The Associated Press
April 28, 2014

KIRKWOOD, MO. — A Marianist priest who was removed as president of an all-boys Catholic school in Kirkwood after a pair of sex abuse complaints has died at 81.

The Marianist Province of the United States confirmed on Monday that the Rev. Robert Osborne died Sunday in Cupertino, Calif., at a health care facility for members of the Roman Catholic order. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch first reported Osborne’s death. No cause of death was released.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Michael D. Sorkin msorkin@post-dispatch.com 314-340-83470

The Rev. Robert Osborne, former president of the all-boys St. John Vianney High School in Kirkwood, has died. The school removed him from office in 2006, after he was accused of sexually abusing students.

He was 81 and died Sunday (April 27, 2014) in Cupertino, Calif., at a health care facility for senior members of The Society of Mary (Marianists.) The cause of death was not immediately released. His death was confirmed by the Marianist Province of the United States.

In February, 2006, the Rev. Osborne temporarily stepped down as president of Vianney after a lawsuit accused him of having “sexually, physically and emotionally abused” a student. When another accusation followed, the school removed him permanently.

The Rev. Osborne consistently denied the accusations. A criminal investigation by the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office ended with no criminal charges.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

AMANDA BANKS LEGAL AFFAIRS EDITOR The West Australian
April 29, 2014

A former resident of the Christian Brothers’ Bindoon orphanage yesterday exposed harrowing details of his exploitation by the home’s brothers, telling the first Perth hearing of a royal commission of his years of being groomed as a sex “pet” and sadistically beaten.

John Hennessey, the first witness at the hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, described being repeatedly and mercilessly raped, forced into child labour and beaten so brutally that he once believed he would die.

At times breaking down, and prompting some in the packed public gallery to weep uncontrollably, Mr Hennessey said he had been subjected to the “most distorted, twisted patterns of sexual” behaviour by criminals who were safe in the knowledge that his legal guardian – the State Government – would never bother meeting its responsibilities.

Mr Hennessey, placed at the home in 1947 as a child migrant and remaining there for five years, said his abuse was clear evidence that the State Government and other institutions, such as police, had been in collusion with the Catholic Church.

He is one of 11 former residents of four WA Christian Brothers’ homes – Bindoon, Clontarf, Castledare and Tardun – who will give evidence to the royal commission over two weeks.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY OREN YANIV
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, April 28, 2014

A Hasidic Brooklyn man scored a no-jail plea deal Monday for dousing bleach on an anti sex abuse activist – an agreement that earned prosecutors a stinging rebuke from the victim.

Meilech Schnitzler, 38, will get five years of probation for felony assault after admitting he threw a cup of Clorox on Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg in December 2012.

The acid attack came amid fury in the Satmar sect over the conviction of a prominent counselor for molesting a teen, and days after Rosenberg accused the defendant’s dad of being a pedophile.

The 64-year-old victim is a polarizing figure in the Jewish community who campaigned against former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes and for the election of DA Kenneth Thompson.

He strongly blasted the plea deal as he walked out of Brooklyn Supreme Court.

“We changed the DA but we didn’t change any behavior in the DA’s office,” he lamented. “The guy walks free … where is our protection?”

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Carlton E. Whitten was ordained a priest of the California Province of the Society of Jesus in 1961. He was a teacher at numerous Jesuit high schools in California and Arizona, and he served in parishes. During his “semi-retirement” years he worked in parishes as a fill-in priest throughout the Western U.S., while based at the Bellarmine Preparatory School Jesuit residence in San Jose, California. While temporarily assigned to a parish in White Salmon, Washington, in December 2007, Whitten was accused of inappropriately touching a 17-year-old boy. The incident was said to have occurred recently. Prior to that the parish pastor, for whom Whitten was filling-in, confronted Whitten for allegedly viewing adult pornography on his computer. Whitten left the parish and returned to California. He has since been living at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos.

Ordained: 1961

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MICHIGAN
The Detroit News

Robert Snell
The Detroit News

Detroit — An indicted Catholic priest wore his clerical collar to court and clutched what appeared to be a photo of the Pope on Monday while being arraigned on charges he helped steal $700,000 from St. Thomas More Church in Troy.

The Rev. Edward Belczak, 69, of Troy was freed on $10,000 unsecured bond after U.S. Magistrate Judge Mona Majzoub entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Belczak was arraigned six days after federal prosecutors unsealed a five-count indictment that charged the priest and parish administrator Janice Verschuren, 67, of Bloomfield Hills, with stealing the money from the church and Archdiocese of Detroit between 2004 and 2012.

The stolen money allegedly included most of a $350,000 gift to the church from the family of a dead parishioner and cash donated by churchgoers during special Mother’s Day and Father’s Day collections, prosecutors said. The priest spent some of the money on a condominium in Palm Beach, Fla., according to the indictment.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Rome, April 28 – Former Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone strongly denied Monday Italian media reports claiming that the prelate will move into an “opulent” flat measuring as much as 700 square meters in the Vatican while Pope Francis makes do with humbler lodgings. “In recent days some media outlets have spoken malevolently about the apartment where I will live in the Vatican and, to worsen the public humiliation, their ‘informant’ has doubled the square meters,” Bertone said in a letter to two diocesan newspapers. “It has been said, among other things, that the pope was furious with me for so much opulence. The size of ‘my’ apartment has even been compared to the presumed restricted nature of the residence of the pope,” he added in the letter to the diocesan weeklies of Genoa and Vercelli. Since his election last year, in a move criticised by some conservative Catholics, Francis has decided not to move into the vast papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors, choosing instead to remain in a suite in the Santa Marta guesthouse used by cardinals during the papal Conclave.

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AUSTRALIA
Border Mail

By FIONA HENDERSON April 27, 2014

REGIONAL victims are urged to share their stories with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission’s chief executive officer, Janette Dines, said regional and remote communities were the focus of a national public awareness campaign launched on Saturday.

“A recent telephone survey found that there is a high level of awareness of the royal commission in regional communities across Australia,” Ms Dines said.

“Despite this, many people are still unsure about what the royal commission can look into.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Apr. 28, 2014

Through six hours of testimony, Fr. Kevin McDonough did a little bit of everything. He corrected perceived inaccuracies, provided spellings of names, asked for clarifications and questions of his own, exchanged barbs with attorney Jeff Anderson, and even offered a compliment or two.

But more than anything, he steadfastly defended the decisions he made and his record on clergy sexual abuse during his almost 17 years as vicar general and six years as the delegate for safe environments of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese.

“During the period — and I know it personally only really from ’87, I believe that we got better and better at [protecting children] all the time. … I think this diocese was a real leader and worked very hard to — to protect children,” McDonough said.

The at-times-contentious deposition, taken April 16, related to the case of John Doe 1, the same litigation that brought Archbishop John Nienstedt for deposing 14 days earlier. Like Nienstedt’s testimony, both Anderson and the archdiocese published the full transcript on their websites.

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UNITED STATES
Yale Books Unbound

Michael Coogan—

On April 27, ornately robed clerics will celebrate the canonization of two recent popes, John XXIII and John Paul II. In the modern Roman Catholic Church until the last few decades, canonization­—declaring someone a saint—was rare and occurred only after a protracted process. Successive steps lead to canonization: first, one is declared “Servant of God,” then “Venerable,” then “Blessed,” and finally “Saint.” From the beginning of the fourteenth century to the mid-twentieth, only two popes were canonized and another three were declared “Blessed.” Not so any more: since the papacy of John Paul II a flurry of canonizations has been underway, not just for ordinary individuals deemed holy, but also for modern popes.

GWB LB DIGITAL 12:35 Statements with Pope John Paul II.
Pope John Paul II

Remarkably, all of the popes since the mid-twentieth century, except of course for those still alive, are on the path to canonization: Pius XII (1939–1958, declared Servant of God in 1990 and Venerable in 2009), John XXIII (1958–1963, declared Servant of God in 1965, Venerable in 1999, and Blessed in 2000), Paul VI (1963–1978, declared Servant of God in 1993 and Venerable in 2012), John Paul I (1978, declared Servant of God in 2003), and John Paul II (1978–2005, declared Servant of God in 2005, Venerable in 2009, and Blessed in 2011). Why this sudden, almost automatic rush to sainthood for recent popes?

Part of the answer lies in nineteenth-century realpolitik. For more than a thousand years, the pope was not just the spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Church, but also a monarch, the ruler of the Papal States in the central Italian peninsula. As sovereigns of this territory, popes engaged in diplomacy and war to maintain and expand their control. In the nineteenth century, however, the papal domain was virtually eliminated by the unification of Italy under Garibaldi and his successors, culminating with the capture of Rome by Italian forces in September 1870. All that was left of papal territory was tiny Vatican City. Only a few months before, when the fall of Rome was already inevitable, the First Vatican Council, at Pope Pius IX’s prompting, declared the doctrine of papal infallibility. If the popes could not be political sovereigns, it seems, they could at least have absolute spiritual authority, especially, as the official wording has it, when they say they are speaking infallibly on an issue of faith or morals.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Simon Jenkins
theguardian.com, Monday 28 April 2014

Two new saints were declared at the weekend. Amid euphoric scenes in Vatican Square, Pope Francis defied his modernisation drive by canonising two of his recent predecessors. The world’s press indulged the occasion as one of universal joy. Even if they did regard it as barking mad, they thought it bad form to rain on someone else’s parade.

Of all Catholic rituals, sanctification drips with medieval nonsense. A prospective saint is nominated, investigated by a committee and, if displaying “heroic virtues”, is tested for a miracle. Since a miracle is an act of God answering a prayer, it must be medically “inexplicable”, putting some pressure on the doctors concerned. Only martyrs do not need miracles for saintliness.

This leads to beatification, followed by canonisation if a second miracle is “scientifically proven” within five years of the candidate’s death. Apparently the potency of saintly intercession wanes after a period. These rules can be waived if the candidate is a huge celebrity, like Mother Teresa. The committee was clearly keen on John XXIII and John Paul II, even if it seemed a trade union stitch-up for popes to move so briskly from office to sanctity. It is an echo of Britain’s House of Lords.

At such times I can sympathise with intelligent Catholics. Loyal to their tribe, they wrestle with virgin birth, papal infallibility, transubstantiation and much nonsense about sex. They explain away the rituals of the church as clothing God’s relationship with humans in familiar metaphors and ceremonies; some punitive, some heart-warming, like sainthood. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints – which oversees the canonisation process – should be seen as merely conducting a Vatican X Factor.

I am less indulgent. There is a notorious potency to the narratives of religious faith, throughout history a means by which elites have ruled the lives of the gullible. At a time when more death and destruction is being perpetrated in the name of religion than for many decades past, sensible people should guard against nonsense in its name, however ostensibly harmless.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

SECOND IN SERIES BY KATHY KANE

A few years ago when I encountered a breach in the Safety Environment Program, it gave me an opportunity to learn about our archdiocese’s child protection system. A few archdiocesan employees and a kind regional Vicar led me through the process. The most valuable lesson I learned from the experience was concerning the role of the pastor in child protection at the parish level. He is the ultimate decision maker concerning the safety of the children in the school, PREP, CYO, youth groups, altar servers and any other situations, activities or events involving children. Of course on a parish level there are many people involved — such as school principals, Religious Education Directors and many other. But the pastor has the absolute authority. This could not have been made clearer by all involved and even led to discussions on how this might not necessarily be a good thing in some situations.

I also attended the Mandatory Reporting sessions which were required of all volunteers in the Archdiocese. At the session I learned about Pa. law and the reporting process. I was instructed that I was free to make a report of suspected abuse myself, or could report the suspected abuse to the institution. There was a lot of discussion concerning the reporting chain and the institution. In the Archdiocesan written information concerning mandatory reporting, the title of pastor is listed first. For anyone unfamiliar with mandatory reporting and the responsibility of the head of the institution, the upcoming trial of PSU president Graham Spanier is a good example.

So I first learned about the importance of the role of pastor as the decision maker concerning many child safety issues from Archdiocesan employees and then learned about the role of head of the institutions (pastor) under Pa. Mandatory Reporting law.

It was shocking to say the least, when news broke that Father John P. Paul was left as pastor of a parish for a full year while being criminally and internally investigated for allegations of child sex abuse. I don’t care if it was a janitor, a food service worker, a teacher or volunteer who is being investigated, that person should be temporarily removed while the investigation unfolds. A pastor in charge of the safety of hundreds of children should absolutely be removed.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

APRIL 28, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

In this case, a portrait says a thousand words. Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop emeritus of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, visited St. Charles Borromeo Seminary on April 2 for the official unveiling of his official portrait. He celebrated Mass preceding a dinner reception at the Seminary.

What this portrait says to the laity is that seminarians were taught a lesson in revisionist history. Despite a tradition of portraits, Cardinal Rigali’s legacy in Philadelphia in regard to the child sex abuse scandal is nothing to be commemorated.

“In Philadelphia, a Changing of the Guard in the Shadow of Scandal,” by Katharine Q. Seelye, The New York Times, July 19, 2011

Excerpt: After Cardinal Rigali said there were no priests in active ministry who had been accused of abuse, he reversed field and suspended 21 of them in one day, prompting criticism that he should have alerted prosecutors sooner.

Despite Cardinal Rigali’s best efforts Tuesday to leave the scandal behind, it has come to define his term.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Inforamtion Service

Vatican City, 28 April 2014 (VIS) – Today at 9 a.m., at the premises of the Institute for the Works of Religion, the Supervisory Commission of Cardinals met in order to draw up guidelines for their action. Furthermore, it was decided that the Supervisory Commission will initially meet thrice yearly, notwithstanding special circumstances necessitating other meetings.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 28 April 2014 (VIS) – The fourth meeting of the Council of Cardinals with the Holy Father began this morning, and will continue during the 29 and 30 April. The Council of Cardinals was instituted by Pope Francis to help him in the governance of the universal Church and to draw up a project for the revision of the apostolic constitution “Pastor Bonus” on the Roman Curia.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Pittsburgh

Trina Orlando

MONONGAHELA (KDKA) – A group of parishioners staged a sit-in Saturday to protest the closure of their church.

St. Anthony Catholic Church in Monongahela’s final Mass was held Saturday at 4 p.m., but a group of more than 35 parishioners refused to leave when it ended.

The decision to close the church was made over a month ago.

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VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

By Barbie Latza Nadeau
The Daily Beast

VATICAN CITY — Around 800,000 people braved stormy skies and dense crowds today in St. Peter’s Square and at piazzas throughout Rome where giant screens were erected to watch Pope Francis create two new saints for the Catholic Church. Many millions more around the world tuned in to watch the grand event, which was broadcast in 3-D for the first time in Vatican history.

The ceremony, mostly in Latin, lasted nearly two hours, but the saint making was done within the first 15 minutes when Pope Francis announced the elevation of Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II to raucous applause in the packed square. …

The popemobile steered clear of a handful of people who opposed the canonization of John Paul II and held up pictures of children abused by priests during his reign, but that was a small pocket of protests in a largely celebratory feel-good Catholic party. The Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests known as ++SNAP++ [[ http://www.snapnetwork.org/ ]] wrote an open letter to victims ahead of the ceremony: “Our hearts ache for each of you who were abused during and after John Paul II’s long tenure as Pope. We know these days are difficult, even painful, for many of you, given the awful suffering so many still experience, suffering that is often made worse as the Catholic hierarchy praises wrongdoers instead of punishing them.”

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THAILAND
UCA News

Fr. Michael Kelly, Bangkok
International
April 28, 2014

This is a time of reform in the Church. Everyone who bothers to look, from average Catholics around the world to the cardinals who elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio to become Pope Francis, knows the Church is in strife and in need of a lot of work to render it an effective means to the end it serves: to proclaim the Gospel and serve God’s people.

First steps are being taken to fix a dysfunctional Vatican. But some of the big-ticket items for the wider Church won’t be fixed as quickly. Many of them are pastoral and require cultural change as much as administrative amendments. And as anyone with experience in changing the culture of an organization will attest, that type of change is the slowest in coming.

It will start in October with an issue that is perhaps the single most undeclared but neuralgic item in the Church’s life; also the one that frequently triggers the departure of otherwise observant Catholics from the Church: divorce and remarriage. …

And unless the issue is addressed in its full context, with full consideration given to what ministry in the Church is there to accomplish, such a change would also run the risk of enhancing something that bedevils the Church today and has contributed substantially to the syndrome of sex abuse.

I speak, of course, of clericalism, that culture of self-interest which promotes and sustains the presumption of superiority among clergy and their practice of protective secrecy. It is something that priests share with all would-be elites, such as professional associations in law and medicine, bureaucrats and the military.

If ordaining married men to priesthood inducts more people into a destructive culture that is the antithesis of anything Jesus hoped for among his followers, the move won’t reform but rather entrench the decadence. This is a constant theme of the present pope when he rails against careerism and narcissism among the clergy and the Church administration in Rome.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

ABC

A former resident of a Christian Brothers school in Western Australia has described living in constant terror at the institution where “violence was a way of life”.

John Hennessey is the first of a number of victims to give evidence at the Perth hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He was a child migrant from the UK and told the hearing he was excited to come to Australia as an 11-year-old boy, considering it an adventure.

Mr Hennessey, who was a resident at the Bindoon Farm School north of Perth, broke down during his evidence today as he recounted the moment he realised “something was amiss”.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

AMANDA BANKS, LEGAL AFFAIRS EDITOR AND AAP The West Australian
April 28, 2014

A former Christian Brothers student has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse his abusers acted with impunity, safe in the knowledge the authorities would do nothing.

Young boys at four WA Christian Brothers homes were repeatedly raped and brutally beaten when they reported the abuse, which often led to perpetrators being removed and simply replaced with another brother who would inflict more sexual assaults.

John Hennessey spoke at first public hearing in Perth of the royal commission, saying the men who abused him during his time at St Joseph’s Farm and Trade School in Bindoon felt safe in doing so.

“I was exploited and abused by criminals (who were) safe in the knowledge that the State Government and church were my legal guardians, and would never bother to meet their responsibilities,“ he said.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By: Donovan Vincent News reporter, Published on Sun Apr 27 2014

The race is on for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission probing abuse in Indian residential schools to comb through mountains of historical government records in search of documents pertaining to this painful chapter in Canada’s history.

For the past four years, the commission has been holding public hearings across the country during which survivors have told riveting personal stories about mistreatment in residential schools.

Those hearings have wrapped up and by June 2015 the commission must write a report that includes recommendations for preventing a similar tragedy in the future.

Kimberly Murray, a lawyer and executive director for the commission, says there’s not enough time left.

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NEDERLAND
NRC

[Summary: In the last 20 years people’s trust in churches has never been so low, according to the social and cultural planning office in a report on religious developments in the Netherlands. Since 2006 the percentage of people who said they have little or no confidence in churches has risen from 45 to 58 percent.]

door Frank Huiskamp

In de afgelopen twintig jaar is het vertrouwen dat mensen in de kerken hebben nog nooit zo laag geweest, schrijft het Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau (SCP) in een rapport (pdf) over de godsdienstige ontwikkelingen in Nederland.

De laatste jaren (vanaf 2006) is het percentage mensen dat zegt “zeer weinig tot helemaal geen vertrouwen” te hebben, gestegen van 45 naar 58 procent. Tussen 1966 en 2006 daalde volgens het SCP bovendien het percentage kerkleden dat meent dat je je aan alle regels van de kerk dient te houden van 51 naar 34 procent.

Het percentage Nederlanders dat lid van een kerk is, slonk sinds 1970 met de helft. Nog sterker gedaald is het percentage mensen dat regelmatig een kerk of “godsdienstelijke samenkomst” bezoekt. Onder alle mensen daalde dat met liefst 71 procent, van 51 naar 15 procent.

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UNITED STATES
Enlightened Catholicism

I swore I wasn’t going to write one more word on the upcoming Canonizations of JPII and John XXIII, but that was not to be. This morning Joshua McElwee posted an article for the NCR in which two very prominent JPII apologists attempt to convince us JPII acted with expediency on clergy sexual abuse. The two men are, American neocon George Weigel and JPII’s papal spokesman Dr Jaoquin Navarro-Valls. Both are closely connected with Opus Dei. This is important because JPII decreed Opus Dei a Personal Prelature of the Papacy. This act essentially took OD beyond the control of any local bishop, gave OD a great deal of freedom to operate, and paid back some debts. (For some reason, ‘Lannister’s always pay their debts’ comes to mind.)

John Paul II derived great deal of benefit from his association with Opus Dei….all the way to and through out his papacy. Now that their ‘pope’ has taken hit after hit in the major news outlets over his handling (mishandling) of the clerical abuse scandal, Opus Dei has brought out their best spinners to defend the soon to be Saint John Paul II.

The following is an excerpt from McElee’s article.

…..Navarro-Valls said Friday that John Paul II was not able to act more quickly in Maciel’s case because the pope was dying while an investigation he ordered was being concluded. As part of that investigation, Navarro-Valls said, John Paul II had sent Charles Scicluna, then an official at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and now an auxiliary bishop in Malta, to collect testimony in places around the world.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

As a footnote to what I posted yesterday (citing Colleen Baker) about how influential Opus Dei folks have leapt to the defense of Pope John Paul II as critical questions have been raised about his abysmal handling of the abuse crisis when it broke wide open under his papal leadership: I want to recommend very highly Betty Clermont’s recent essay on how Opus Dei influence has risen to the very top of the Vatican under the current pope, Francis.

Everything Betty writes is exhaustively researched, and densely packed with valuable citations. A brief teaser excerpt from any of her essays does not by any means do justice to the essay — to all that a reader will find there, when she/he grapples with the essay in its complexity.

So I’m offering the following introductory paragraphs to readers here as an encouragement to all of you to go to the essay itself and read it through — you will not be disappointed if you do so:

Opus Dei, an official institution of the Catholic Church, at the top is a secret society of international bankers, financiers, businessmen and their supporters. Their goal is the same as other plutocrats – unbridled power – except they use the influence of the Catholic Church and its worldwide network of institutions exempt from both taxes and financial reporting requirements to advance rightwing parties and governments.
A year after Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s elevation as head of the Church and his many appointments, the dust has settled. Three cardinals have emerged as the most powerful in this papacy; all have close ties to Opus Dei. Two now control all Vatican finance.

When the history of this perplexing period of Catholic institutional life, in which reform seems to become anti-reform and decentralization becomes more concerted centralization — all attended by Opus-Dei directed media spin and glitzy circuses that divert our attention from the inversion of values* we’re seeing with our own eyes — is written, right at the very center of the text will be the words “Opus Dei.” The influence of that rich, secretive, reactionary, and very powerful movement at the heart of the Catholic church from the papacy of John Paul II right through to today cannot be overestimated.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

At her Enlightened Catholicism site, Colleen Baker points out that the Vatican spin doctors who are now trying to spin Pope John Paul II’s abysmal record vis-a-vis the abuse crisis prior to his canonization (I wrote about this yesterday) are Opus Dei folks: they belong to the powerful, exceptionally wealthy, secretive right-wing Catholic organization that has had increasing influence on the governance of the Catholic church from the papacy of John Paul II forward. Here’s Colleen on this:

This morning Joshua McElwee posted an article for the NCR in which two very prominent JPII apologists attempt to convince us JPII acted with expediency on clergy sexual abuse. The two men are, American neocon George Weigel and JPII’s papal spokesman Dr Jaoquin Navarro-Valls. Both are closely connected with Opus Dei. This is important because JPII decreed Opus Dei a Personal Prelature of the Papacy. This act essentially took OD beyond the control of any local bishop, gave OD a great deal of freedom to operate, and paid back some debts. (For some reason, ‘Lannister’s always pay their debts’ comes to mind.)

John Paul II derived great deal of benefit from his association with Opus Dei….all the way to and through out his papacy. Now that their ‘pope’ has taken hit after hit in the major news outlets over his handling (mishandling) of the clerical abuse scandal, Opus Dei has brought out their best spinners to defend the soon to be Saint John Paul II.

At National Catholic Reporter, Father Tom Doyle vigorously rebuts Weigel’s and Navarro-Valls’s spin, because, as it happens, he was there: he was in the middle of the process by which important information was being transmitted to the Vatican about the abuse situation in the period in which Weigel and Navarro-Valls say the Vatican did not have information and did not understand the situation. Doyle:

George Weigel claimed there was an information gap between the United States and the Holy See in 2002. This is nonsense. There was no gap then, and there was no gap in 1984, when the abuse issue boiled to the surface of public awareness. I was working at the Vatican embassy in 1984 and have firsthand experience of the transmission of information to the Vatican.

The papal nuncio, Laghi, then an archbishop, received a letter in the summer of 1984 from the vicar general of Lafayette, La., telling him that a couple whose little boy had been violated by Gilbert Gauthe was suing Gauthe, the bishop, the diocese, the archbishop of New Orleans, the papal nuncio and the pope. Soon after, the nuncio received the official complaint. From then on, there was a constant flow of information from Lafayette to the nuncio and from another diocese that popped onto center stage for the same reason — Providence, R.I.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

NICOLAS PERPITCH THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 28, 2014

A CHRISTIAN Brother tried to indecently assault a nine-year-old boy who went to him with the revelation that he had been anally raped by a fellow Brother, a royal commission has been told.

The first hour of evidence about abuse in up to four West Australian institutions run by the Christian Brothers has included allegations of anal rape and brutal beatings.

The Royal Commission into Christian Brothers Institutions in WA has begun public hearings into the Bindoon, Tardun, Clontarf and Castledare institutions run by the Christian Brothers.

The commission will hear evidence from 11 men who were residents at the institutions between 1947 and 1968.

Ahead of the Perth hearings, adult survivors of abuse at Christian Brothers-run residences in Western Australia told of their hopes that a royal commission could bring some justice. Many were sent to Australia from Britain as young boys, part of the Home Children migration scheme in which over 100,000 British children sent to Commonwealth realms including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Monday 28 April 2014

A survivor of severe sexual and physical abuse at a Christian Brothers boys institution in Western Australia says the orphanage was “devoid of love” and run by men who believed the children were born of the devil.

John Hennessey has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse that when he was 12 he was publicly stripped and nearly flogged to death by a Christian Brother while at St Joseph’s Farm and Trade School, Bindoon.

“No one came to my aid,” said a visibly upset Mr Hennessey, the first witness at the 11th case study examined by the commission.

“I am now left with a stutter.”

The man who beat him, Brother Paul Keaney, also repeatedly sexually abused Mr Hennessey.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 28 April 2014

Martin Williams
Senior News Reporter

A PRIEST suspended for alleging a culture of homosexual bullying within the Catholic Church in Scotland is determined to remain in a parish house despite a notice to quit.

Father Matthew Despard, who has been suspended since last November, is refusing to leave the presbytery house of St John Ogilvie in High Blantyre, Lanarkshire, despite having until Thursday to move out.

His solicitor Hugh Neilson has confirmed the priest has been issued with a notice to quit. Some parishioners have said they are willing to blockade the house on Thursday, believing that is when he might be removed.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

SIMON SANTOW: As orphans in England they were promised an adventure and an education in Australia, but instead they were beaten and sexually abused.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is in Perth for the next fortnight to publicly examine four homes run by the Christian Brothers.

The commission will hear the experiences of a number of men and how the Catholic Church responded when presented with the allegations and the evidence.

One victim says the hearing is a crucial part of the healing process but nonetheless, he says, he’ll take his suffering to the grave.

Thomas Oriti reports.

THOMAS ORITI: John Hennessey was 10 years old when he was moved from an orphanage in England to Western Australia.

He arrived on a ship at Fremantle in 1946 and remembers the Christian Brothers separating boys from their sisters.

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MISSISSIPPI
Sun Herald

BY JACK ELLIOTT JR.
Associated Press
April 27, 2014

JACKSON — Beginning July 1, Mississippi mental-health professionals will report if a committed person has children or has visitation with minors. The information goes the Mississippi Department of Human Services, the agency responsible for child-protection issues.

The new law is the third in three years enacted by lawmakers for the protection of children.

Rep. Nick Bain, D-Corinth, said the new law can help prevent children from being left in the care of a mentally ill parent. Bain, the lead sponsor of House Bill 810, describes it as another means of reporting possible child-endangerment situations.

It took a tragedy in Alcorn County to spur action.

Eleven-year-old Andrew Loyd, after whom the new law is named, was killed by his father, Billy Loyd, in their Farmington apartment in 2012. Bain said the killing occurred about three days after Loyd was released from the community mental-health center. Loyd took his own life after killing his son.

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AUSTRALIA
Collie Mail

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has opened in Perth and witnesses have been recounting their stories into horrific abuse.

Counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness told the hearing at the Western Australian Industrial Commission that in the next two weeks 11 men would talk about their experiences.

The evidence relates to residents at Casteldare Junior Orphanage, St Vincent’s Orphanage Clontarf, St Joseph’s Farm school in Bindoon and St Mary’s Agricultural School at Tardun.

The abuse is alleged to have occurred between 1947 and 1968 on boys as young as seven years old who were sent to Australia as child migrants.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

EMILY MOULTON AND AAP APRIL 28, 2014

FOR John Hennessey being robbed of his innocence was not the most unforgivable thing he endured at the hands of the Christian Brothers – it was being robbed of the chance to have children of his own.

For five years he was brutally raped, beaten and emotionally abused by 10 brothers at Bindoon boys home during the 1940s.

Yet it was the after-effects of that abuse that he sees as being the most destructive.

The former Deputy Mayor of Campbeltown Council, who received an OBE for his role following the Granville train disaster, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sex Abuse he was so scarred by his experience at the remote Catholic boys home in WA that he was unable to form any real relationship in his later years.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A lawyer representing 33 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse is urging the Roman Catholic church not to pull out of planned mediation.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said Sunday the withdrawal will re-traumatize his clients and prevent them from healing. Talks had been scheduled to take place this week in Philadelphia.

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown said Friday that it’s suspending settlement talks until state authorities finish their investigation of Brother Stephen Baker.

The Franciscan friar worked at Bishop McCort High School from 1992 to 2001. He committed suicide last year after being linked to abuse claims in Ohio.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 27, 2014

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pennsylvania — A lawyer representing 33 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse in central Pennsylvania is urging the Roman Catholic church not to pull out of planned mediation.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said Sunday the withdrawal will re-traumatize his clients and prevent them from healing. Talks had been scheduled to take place this week in Philadelphia.

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown said Friday that it’s suspending settlement talks until state authorities finish their investigation of Brother Stephen Baker.

The Franciscan friar worked at Johnstown’s Bishop McCort High School from 1992 to 2001. He committed suicide last year after being linked to abuse claims in Ohio.

A church spokesman said Sunday the diocese “intends to resume the settlement efforts” when it’s appropriate.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

AMANDA BANKS LEGAL AFFAIRS EDITOR The West Australian
April 28, 2014

Parents of children attending WA Catholic schools have been assured that safety of their children is of the highest priority and any allegations will be fully investigated as the community braces for a public hearing starting in Perth today that will expose horrific stories of abuse at Christian Brothers’ homes.

Catholic Education Office of WA executive director Tim McDonald has written to parents and carers ahead of the public hearing expressing his support for the “critical work” of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

“Though the incidents being examined are some 50 years ago, I am very conscious that the hurt, suffering and sense of betrayal have not diminished with the passage of time for the victims and their families,” Dr McDonald said in a letter sent on Thursday.

“I remain hopeful that claims of systemic failures by institutions including the Catholic Church in response to child sex abuse are thoroughly examined so that children will be better protected against abuse, perpetrators held to account and that victims are provided with justice.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

April 27, 2014 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Parishioners of a church in Chicago’s Lakeview community are reacting as a new sexual abuse investigation is launched into their pastor, Father Michael O’Connell.

When a south suburban resident claimed to have witnessed lewd acts by O’Connell in the late 90’s, the investigation against him was reopened. And Sunday a self-proclaimed support a group took their message directly to the church.

It was the start of mass at Saint Alphonsus Parish and in front of the church were members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. They told parishioners their Pastor, Father Michael O’Connell was under investigation for alleged sexual abuse and that the church is breaking its own rules by reinstating him.

“This is very reckless and this is against the zero tolerance that the bishops agreed to in 2002,” said Rosemary McHugh.

Mark Basile is a parishioner here and has two children in the school.

“Obviously there safety is my utmost concern, but for groups to come out and kind of villainize Father O’Connell at this point before an investigation is complete I think is unfair,” he said.

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OHIO
U.S. Catholic

By Scott Alessi

In what seems to be a growing trend these days, another employee of a Catholic institution was fired for making a personal choice that conflicts with the moral beliefs of her employers. And this time, the former employee is taking the church to court.

A federal judge has allowed Christa Dias, a former teacher at a school in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, to take the archdiocese to court over her 2010 firing. Dias was let go when she informed the school that she was pregnant, but somehow they knew it didn’t happen in the natural way. According to CBS News:

“The Enquirer reports Dias was initially fired for being single and pregnant but once her employer found out that could violate anti-discrimination laws, both federal and state, she was fired for being artificially inseminated, which is considered ‘gravely immoral’ by the Roman Catholic Church.”

The AP reports that Dias is a non-Catholic computer teacher and had no role in teaching the faith, so she argues that her personal decision of how to have a baby shouldn’t affect her employment. But the archdiocese says that having an employee who doesn’t follow Catholic teaching sets a bad example (though I have no idea how parents or especially students would have any idea how their teacher’s baby was conceived, nor should they).

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

History does not lie. Facts do no lie especially on the most photographed, most videoed, most seen by millions of people – pope John Paul II whose every word and action were recorded by historians and biographers and media TV & Internet the world has invented in the 20th century. So no matter how many Opus Dei Beast PR stunts liars are coming out with defence for their new fake saint John Paul II, his actions for his longest 27 years papacy will always trump over their words.
.
News came out from Chile today, that Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz defended the actions of Pope John Paul II in dealing with cases of child abuse by priests. The cardinal said the pope said clearly there was no place in the church for priests who abused children. (Cooperativa)

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MEXICO
La Jornada

[Summary: Victims of sexual abuse by priests have launched a new battle to demonstrate to the United National Committee Against Torture that priests accused of pedophilia have engaged in cruel and inhumane acts against thousands of victims throughout the world.The Center for Constitutional Rights and the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests has submitted a 123-page report to the UN which discusses abuse of children and cover-ups of abuse in many countries around the world including Brazil, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, Mozambique and Peru. Two cases to be submitted to the UN committee in Geneva on May 5 and 6 includes abuse by Father Marcial Maciel of Mexico and Father Fernando Karadima Farina of Chile, known as The Chilean Marcial Maciel.]

Sanjuana Martínez
Especial para La Jornada
Periódico La Jornada

Domingo 27 de abril de 2014, p. 12

Las víctimas de abusos sexuales de sacerdotes han emprendido una nueva batalla: demostrar ante el Comité contra la Tortura de la Organización de Naciones Unidas que el Vaticano y sus representantes, los sacerdotes acusados de pederastia, han incurrido en actos crueles e inhumanos contra miles de víctimas en el mundo.

El Centro de los Derechos Constitucionales y la Red de Sobrevivientes de Abusos Sexuales de Sacerdotes (CCR y SNAP por sus siglas en inglés) han presentado el reporte Informe paralelo, de 123 páginas, donde incluyen casos paradigmáticos de abusos sexuales de sacerdotes y evidencias de protección y encubrimiento por el Vaticano ocurridos en Brasil, Chile, Honduras, México, Mozambique y Perú.

Dos de los casos clave, que serán presentados los días 5 y 6 de mayo ante el comité en Ginebra, son el del mexicano Marcial Maciel y el del sacerdote Fernando Karadima Fariña, conocido como El Marcial Maciel chileno, acusado de violar a cientos de menores con la protección y encubrimiento de la Santa Sede.

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HOLLIDAYSBURG (PA)
Road to Recovery

PRESS RELEASE

APRIL 27, 2014

Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Mark Bartchak must stop deceptive tactics and get to the negotiating table

What: A press conference announcing the disappointment and frustration of dozens of clergy sexual abuse victims and their advocates toward the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA because of the last minute withdrawal by Bishop Mark L. Bartchak of Altoona-Johnstown from attending mediation to settle dozens of cases of sexual abuse by Br. Stephen Baker, T.O.R.

When: Monday, April 28, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Where: On the sidewalk in front of the headquarters of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, 927 S. Logan Boulevard, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648 – 814-695-5579.

Who: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non – profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including several Johnstown, PA area victims and families. One or two sexual abuse victims of Br. Stephen Baker and their family members may attend as well.

Why: Religious leaders and attorneys representing the Franciscan Third Order Regular Friars of Hollidaysburg, PA; the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio; the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown; and attorneys for victims of sexual abuse were scheduled to meet with a mediator on Thursday and Friday, May 1-2, 2014, in Philadelphia, PA, to begin negotiations to settle dozens of cases of sexual abuse by Br. Stephen Baker, T.O.R., a former member of the faculty and staff of Bishop Mc Cort High School in Johnstown, PA, and a serial sexual abuser of children in Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Through his attorneys, the Bishop of Altoona-Johnstown, Mark L. Bartchak, suddenly and without warning, cancelled his diocese’s participation in the previously-scheduled mediation hearing, thus re-victimizing dozens of survivors of clergy sexual abuse. The press conference will call on Bishop Bartchak to stop his deceptive tactics, treat sexual abuse victims of Br. Stephen Baker and others with dignity, and stop the re-victimizing of survivors of sexual abuse.

Contacts: Robert M. Hoatson, Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

The day of the four popes, they’re calling it.

We had Vatican II, which told us that the church is the people of God on pilgrimage together to the reign of God. Vatican II called us to recognize the presence of the Spirit among the entire body of the people of God, to decentralize and declericalize our church after the centralization and clericalization that occurred in response first to the Reformation and then the rise of modernity and democracy had smothered the church and turned it into a fusty, creaky museum piece, a travesty of an institution effectively proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ in contemporary culture.

All of that, and in 2014, we find ourselves at the day of the four popes? With two living popes canonizing two of their predecessors and another in the wings to be canonized (please see Jerry Slevin’s valuable commentary on the latter point)? This is what Vatican II was all about?

Popes added to popes added to popes. Popes declaring each other — presto abracadabra! — saints at the drop of a hat, as soon as one of them has taken his last breath.

Because they were popes, for goodness’ sake! And popes are ipso facto holy (unless they happen to be the forgotten pope who died mysteriously after a reign of only 33 days in which he announced plans to reform the Vatican bank and said that God is “even more our mother” than our father — that poor fellow seems totally ignored when the presto abracadabra! of saint-making takes place, doesn’t he?).

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MAINE
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Fr. Jim Michaud was ordained for the Portland, Maine diocese in 1977. He ministered as an assistant in Lewiston, Augusta and Biddeford parishes until 1986, when he assumed the role of pastor at St. Ann’s Indian Island Church in Old Town. Michaud was pastor of St. Joseph’s in Ellsworth when he was removed in April 2002, due to the surfacing of an allegation that he sexually abused a teen boy in the 1970s, beginning when Michaud was a seminarian. In 2007 the bishop stated that the diocese had no proof that Michaud had abused a minor, but that the priest should stay out of public ministry because of “other misconduct”. He continues to be indexed in the Official Catholic Directory through at least 2012 as “Special or Other Diocesan Assignment”.

Ordained: 1977

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes&Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

April 27, 2014

John Paul II and Hitler are allies in crimes against humanity and both are the epitome of narcissistic obsession to be “the Great”.

What a coincidence, again, that John Paul II and Hitler are permanently allied in history on this date, today as he is canonized, April 27, 2014, it’s also United States Holocaust Remembrance Day. The internationally recognized date for Holocaust Remembrance Day corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. It seldom falls exactly on a weekend of April 27 but this year it does – only to coincide with John Paul II’s canonization.

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VATICAN CITY
The Barrie Examiner

Philip Pullella and James Mackenzie, REUTERS
Sunday, April 27, 2014

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis proclaimed his predecessors John XXIII and John Paul II saints in front of more than half a million pilgrims on Sunday, hailing both as courageous men who withstood the tragedies of the 20th century.

Cheers and applause rang out across St Peter’s Square after the historic double papal canonization as many in the crowd fixed their gaze on huge tapestries of the two popes on the facade of the basilica behind Francis.

“We declare and define Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II to be saints and we enrol them among the saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole Church,” Francis said in his formal proclamation in Latin.

Relics of each man – a container of blood from John Paul II and skin from John XXIII – were placed near the altar. …

Groups representing victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests also say he did not do enough to root out a scandal that emerged towards the end of his pontificate and which has hung over the church ever since.

The controversy did nothing to put off the rivers of Catholic faithful.

“I think that they were two great people, each of them had their own particular character, so they deserve what is happening,” said Leonardo Ruino, who came from Argentina.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Josephine Mckenna | Religion News Service, Updated: Sunday, April 27

VATICAN CITY — Popes John Paul II and John XXIII, who presided over enormous changes within the church and across the world, were proclaimed saints on Sunday (April 27) before a crowd of nearly 1 million people in an historic ceremony celebrated by Pope Francis with his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

Around 100 heads of state and government leaders, including the King Juan Carlos of Spain and controversial Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, joined the pilgrims who crammed into St. Peter’s Square under gray and dreary skies. Thirty Jewish leaders were among the official delegations who took part at the Vatican. …

Survivors of clerical sexual abuse have criticized John Paul’s canonization, claiming he did not do enough to clamp down on accused abusers, punish the bishops who protected them or protect minors.

The Survivors Network of Abuse by Priests (SNAP) said John Paul’s sainthood sends a “dangerous signal” for the church. “It’s time for the Vatican to stop honoring those who enabled wrongdoing,” said Barbara Blaine, president of the SNAP, which represents 18,000 victims from around the world.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sudwest Presse

[Summary: Police on Thursday searched the home of a Catholic priest in Lauchheim on suspicion of possession of child pornography. The information was made public Sunday in the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese. A spokesman for the police department confirmed there was an investigation but gave no further details.]

Wegen des Verdachts auf Besitz von kinderpornografischen Schriften hat die Kriminalpolizei Aalen bereits am vergangenen Donnerstag die Wohnung eines katholischen Pfarrers in Lauchheim (Ostalbkreis) durchsucht. Diese Information teilte die Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart am Sonntag der Öffentlichkeit mit. Ein Sprecher der Polizeidirektion Aalen bestätigte, dass es ein entsprechendes Ermittlungsverfahren gebe. Zu Details und zum Zeitplan gab der Beamte keine weitere Auskunft.

Nachdem die Kripo Aalen die Diözese von der Durchsuchung unterrichtet hatte, veranlasste Bischof Gebhard Fürst, dass der in Verdacht geratene Mann bis zur „endgültigen Klärung des Sachverhalts seine Aufgaben als Pfarrer der Seelsorgeeinheit ruhen lässt“. Der Pfarrer, der zugleich stellvertretender Dekan des Dekanats Ostalb ist, habe bereits dieses Wochenende die Gemeinde in Lauchheim verlassen. Der Mann werde nun seelsorglich und psychologisch betreut.

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CHILE
Cooperativa

Cardenal Errázuriz defendió actuación de Juan Pablo II ante casos de pederastia

[Summary: Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz defended the actions of Pope John Paul II in dealing with cases of child abuse by priests. The cardinal said the pope said clearly there was no place in the church for priests who abused children.]

El cardenal Francisco Javier Errázuriz defendió la actuación que tuvo el papa Juan Pablo II -proclamado santo este domingo- frente a los casos de pederastia protagonizados por sacerdotes.

“Fue él el que con toda claridad dijo que no tienen cabida en la Iglesia aquellos sacerdotes que abusan de niños y tomó una orientación muy clara”, aunque “no siempre llegó a condenar a algunas personas que también tenían mucha fama de aparente santidad”, admitió Errázuriz en conversación con el enviado especial de Cooperativa a Roma, Jorge Espinoza Cuéllar.

“Yo creo que a él lo convencieron de que los rumores eran falsos”, agregó Errázuriz, al plantear “la dificultad de poder tener la certeza de que aquí hubo un delito”.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

April 28, 2014

Survivors of physical and sexual abuse in orphanages and children’s homes across Australia will be in Perth to support men giving evidence at a hearing into Christian Brothers-run residences in Western Australia.

The hearing, beginning on Monday at the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission, is the 11th case study by the royal commission examining how Australian institutions responded to child sexual abuse. It is the first hearing in WA.

The evidence from men who were resident at Castledare Junior Orphanage, St Vincent’s Orphanage Clontarf, St Mary’s Agricultural School at Tardun and the notorious Bindoon Farm School/Boys Town, an isolated institution north of Perth, is expected to be some of the most shocking and explosive heard by the commission.

The hearing will run for two weeks.

Thousands of children, some as young as five, were sent to Australia as part of various British child migrant schemes in the 40s and 50s, with many housed at Bindoon which opened in 1938

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NEW YORK
WGRZ

WGRZ Staff, WGRZ 9:06 a.m. EDT April 27, 2014

St. Casmir is a historic church in Buffalo’s Kaisertown neighborhood. In 1976, Pastor Czeslaw Kyrsa was a young seminarian in Niagara Falls. “A group of bishops came to St. Casimir’s,” he recalls.”My pastor then told me it’s a bunch of bishops from Poland.” He happened to speak Polish. “‘We’re going to Buffalo.’ That’s all he said.” Leading the delegation was Cardinal Karol Wojtyla. “With all this anticipation and excitement, right down the steps that I walk down now, every single day, comes Karol Wojtyla, vested for Mass and everything, greeting everybody, saying a few words, and he said, ‘Oh, yeah, I saw you at Niagara Falls yesterday, so he had a very good memory.”

Two years later, that same Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in more than 450 years, and at age 58, the youngest pope in over 150 years. Some who were at the Vatican for his installation sensed the achievements to come even then. “He’s made it, he’s made it,” said Monsignor John Gabalski of St. Stanislaw’s Church in Buffalo. “He’s the people’s man.”

“The people’s man” became the most traveled pope in history. He visited more than 100 countries during his 27 years in office. He was the first pope to visit Cuba, the first modern pope to visit a synagogue. Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone found him to be deeply spiritual. “I had the privilege of being in his private chapel for morning Mass,” he tells us. “I was a priest working in Boston then. Going in there, he was already there, sitting in a chair, with a kneeler in front of him, he wasn’t vested, he wasn’t dressed yet for Mass, he was just there for his morning prayer. And just looking at him, his eyes were closed tightly, and you could hear the slightest whisper of a prayer. You knew that this man was a mystic. You just knew looking at him that he was deeply in contact with God. We were coming in quietly and taking our places and waiting for Mass to start. He wasn’t even aware that we were there. Then, eventually, one of his assistants would, about five minutes before the Mass, would come over and just tap him gently. He wasn’t asleep, he was deep in meditation, tap him, and he’d get ready for mass. A remarkable experience.” …

But some Catholic believe it was too fast, especially in light of the priest sex scandals in the Church. Critics claim he and his top advisors failed to grasp the severity of the abuse problem until late in his papacy. Judith Burns-Quinn of Hamburg heads the WNY chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. She says she’s torn between her admiration of Pope John Paul and the failure of the Church under his watch “I think he was a wonderful man and was a good pope. (But) I think this is very premature and they’re rushing.”

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MISSISSIPPI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, 4/26

For more info: Amy Smith, SNAP leader Texas, 281-748-4050, watchkeepamy@gmail.com
David Clohessy, Executive Director, SNAP, 314-566-9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Survivors urge outside review of Baptist church
State lawmaker implicated in cover-up
Convicted music minister may have molested more kids, group fears
“Awareness training” not enough, group says
Transparency and action keep kids safe, they urge

On the eve of a church “sexual abuse awareness training,” a clergy abuse survivors’ group is asking church officials to take a hard look at their own failures in connection with a clergy sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), are writing to Morrison Heights Baptist Church officials about the church’s handling of abuse allegations against former music minister John Langworthy. In 2013, Langworthy pled guilty to five felony counts of child sexual abuse. He is now a registered sex offender.

[Associated Baptist Press]

Morrison Heights church officials—including attorney and Mississippi Speaker of the House Philip Gunn—have been blasted for keeping allegations against Langworthy secret and hiding behind the “priest-penitent privilege.”

[Associated Baptist Press]

While SNAP would like to support any education program that builds awareness for sexual abuse, they believe such programs are worthless when men and women who may have covered-up abuse are not investigated or punished. http://www.wjtv.com/story/21261586/what-philip-gunn-did-in-child-sex-case

“Morrison Heights has failed its children for decades,” the letter says. “We are asking you to honestly acknowledge that failure and to do something about it. Until then, we cannot be assured that the crimes of the past are not continuing and thriving within your church’s walls.”

“If kids are to be protected, then no one’s conduct should be above scrutiny,” said SNAP’s executive director David Clohessy, “and that includes even prominent people such as senior pastor Greg Belser and church elder and Mississippi Speaker of the House Philip Gunn.”

The safety of children at Morrison Heights and the healing of survivors are the group’s primary concerns.

“Actions speak louder than words,” said Amy Smith, a SNAP leader in Dallas who was instrumental in bringing to light the child sex crimes of former Morrison Heights minister John Langworthy, who is now a registered sex offender. “Morrison Heights cannot whitewash its abysmal conduct in the Langworthy scandal by simply hosting an awareness training.”

In its letter, SNAP asks Morrison Heights officials to allow an outside investigatory organization such as G.R.A.C.E. to fully review church officials’ conduct in connection with the Langworthy matter, including review of the church’s internal records.

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AUSTRALIA
Radio New Zealand

British child migrants who were sexually abused at Christian Brothers institutions are planning a silent vigil outside hearings for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Perth next week.

Thousands of children were shipped to Australia from Britain from 1947 until 1970, often without the knowledge or consent of their parents.

They were sent to the Bindoon, Castledare, Clontarf and Tardun orphanages in Western Australia, institutions that survivors have described as being more like concentration camps than children’s homes.

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by SNAP leader Miguel Hurtado of the U.K/Spain

(outside the Vatican today in Rome) +44 7787 638245

One Polish Catholic official is a soon-to-be saint. A second one, however, is a fugitive.

When John Paul II celebrations wind down on Monday, we call on Francis to extradite Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski to Polish law enforcement authorities who want to charge him with sexually assaulting kids in the Dominican Republic.

Three months ago, The Tablet reported that “The Holy See said that Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski was a citizen of the Vatican, and that Vatican law did not allow for his extradition.”

This is hypocrisy, plain and simple.

Francis’ top aides claim that they only handle clergy sex crimes that happen on the soil of the tiny Vatican city/state itself. They said this to a United Nations panel in January. They’ll say it again to a similar UN panel next month.

Both can’t be true. The Vatican says

–it will deal with clergy sex crimes that happened in the Caribbean, but

–it can only deal with clergy sex crimes that happened in a tiny portion of Rome.

So Francis should either turn over the fugitive archbishop to secular authorities or reverse his silly claim that he can’t deal with in charge of the church across the globe.

NOTE – ANOTHER UPCOMING SNAP EVENT IN EUROPE

A few SNAP members from several nations will be in Geneva from April 30 through May 7 for a hearing on May 5 and 6 before the United Nations Committee Against Torture, which will consider whether Vatican officials are violating or complying with an international treaty regarding torture.

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MALTA/AUSTRALIA
Times of Malta

Maltese child migrants who were raped, tortured and emotionally abused at four Christian Brother’s homes in Western Australia will be among those giving evidence in an inquiry staring tomorrow, the Herald Sun reported.

The newspaper said that many of those giving evidence were sent to Australia from the UK and Malta after the war for what was supposed to be a better life.

310 Maltese were sent to Australia as child migrants between 1950 and 1965 as part of a scheme promising parents a better future for their children.

It later emerged they were forced to work in institutions and many were not educated. A number of them suffered physical and sexual abuse.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse will be looking specifically into the experiences of former residents sent to Castledare, Clontarf, Bindoon and Tardun orphanages from the late 1940s up until the 1960s.

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AUSTRALIA
The Observer

27th Apr 2014

THE Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is launching a national public awareness campaign today calling for survivors of child sexual abuse to come forward to share their stories.

Royal Commission chief executive officer Janette Dines said that while more than 1400 people had spoken with a Royal Commissioner, there may be many more who were yet to make contact.

“A recent telephone survey found that while there is widespread community awareness of the Royal Commission, many people are still unsure about what the Royal Commission can look into,” Ms Dines said.

“This campaign is designed to encourage all Australians to find out more about the work of the Royal Commission and how survivors can share their story of child sexual abuse.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Centre Daily Times

HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has suspended efforts to resolve claims related to allegations of sexual molestation involving Franciscan friar Stephen Baker.

More than 80 people came forward with allegations against Baker, and more than 40 individuals have filed lawsuits in Cambria and Blair counties, The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown has reported.

Most of the alleged victims are males who attended Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown.

The Tribune-Democrat has reported that Baker has been linked to claims stretching back four decades in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan and Ohio.

The state Attorney General’s Office took over the local case in January.

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UNITED STATES
CBS News

Becky Ianni, director of the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests, says John Paul II did nothing during his time as pope to protect children from abuse

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

As I continue reading about the preparations for tomorrow’s canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, I keep thinking — I’ll be honest — This is leadership? I’m not referring specifically to the two popes as I ask that question.

I’m referring quite specifically to the legacy of the John Paul II era in my church: This is leadership? How can I possibly read the following stories and not ask that question — how can I read these stories and fail to ask what the saint-to-be did to my church as he set into place top pastoral leaders who are offering the church the kind of leadership that is critically dissected (and with very good reason) in the following articles?

1. At Wild Reed, Michael Bayly calls on St. Paul-Minneapolis archbishop John Nienstedt to resign, after Nienstedt’s recent deposition was published and showed him to be either “astoundingly inept” (Michael’s words) in handling abuse cases in his archdiocese, or mystifyingly oblivious. Over and over, Nienstedt testified that he just didn’t know, couldn’t remember, was fuzzy about the details of this or that.

But as Michael points out, all the while that Nienstedt claims he was just not informed about or aware of salient facts wildly important to those concerned about young people who were being or who might be sexually molested by priests under his episcopal charge, there was this going on — he was leading his flock in the following quite specific way:

From the very start of his tenure as archbishop (in fact, even well before he was appointed coadjutor archbishop) John Nienstedt has been obsessed with demonizing consensual sexual relationships between same-sex couples and working to ensure that such relationships are in no way legally acknowledged or recognized. In terms of the latter, he has failed completely. The anti-gay “marriage amendment,” which he tirelessly championed, was defeated and, shortly after, both the Minnesota House and Senate passed marriage equality legislation. Same-sex couples now have the same civil right to marry as opposite-sex couples. During the often contentious marriage amendment “battle,” many Minnesota Catholics opposed Nienstedt’s anti-gay activism. In 2013 they celebrated the victory of marriage equality in the civil sphere.

Here’s the crux of the matter: The time and energy that Nienstedt expended on demonizing gay relationships and attempting to deny such relationships legal recognition in civil law, could and should have been focused instead on creating a local church reflective of gospel values, including confronting and dealing with the many issues relating to clergy sex abuse within the archdiocese; issues, which Nienstedt openly admits in his deposition, he was “out of the loop” about (emphasis in original).

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UNITED STATES
Sun Journal

Marty McIntyre
Columns & Analysis | Sunday, April 27, 2014

I don’t get it.

In 2002, the issue of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church by Catholic priests came to light in America. Much of the abuse had been of children between the ages of 11-14, and had occurred decades earlier.

Worse, the Church knew about many of these allegations and had simply moved the offender to a different parish in a different part of the country. These revelations sparked enormous outrage worldwide, and resulted in well over 3,000 civil lawsuits against the offenders and the Catholic Church.

Beginning in 1991 with the Tailhook Scandal, we learned that sexual assault is a common occurrence in the nation’s military. We learned that an estimated 19,000 sexual assaults occur in the military each year, and that 15 percent of female veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from “military sexual trauma” (the Department of Defense term for the impact of sexual assault that occurred within military service).

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Jade Macmillan

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will begin two weeks of hearings in Western Australia on Monday.

The focus will be on four institutions run by the Christian Brothers: the Bindoon Farm School, St Mary’s Agricultural School, St Vincent’s Orphanage Clontarf and Castledare Junior Orphanage.

John Hennessey, who migrated to Australia as a child, is one of a number of men set to give evidence.

Mr Hennessey was 10 years old when he was taken from his orphanage in Bristol, England, in the mid-1940s and sent to Western Australia.

He says the commission will open old wounds.

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NORTH CAROLINA
The Independent Tribune

Posted: Saturday, April 26, 2014

Staff reports

CONCORD, N.C. — A former Concord youth pastor who spent years overseas after indecent liberties charges were filed against him has been indicted by a grand jury.

Robert Bradley Price was indicted on April 14 on three counts of taking indecent liberties with a child. He has been out on bond since October.

Price is accused of committing sexual acts upon the bodies of two males who were less than 16 years old at the time of the acts, according to arrest warrants. One of the indictments stems from an out-of-county case.

The Cabarrus charges stem from incidents that allegedly occurred in 2009 and 2011 and involve two alleged victims, a Concord police official said in October.

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VATICAN CITY
The Malay Mail

VATICAN CITY, April 27 — Pope John Paul II, who was declared a saint today along with John XXIII, was a charismatic leader who helped topple communism but was criticised for failing to tackle the scourge of child sex abuse by priests.

The first non-Italian pope since the Renaissance, and the first from eastern Europe, Polish Karol Wojtyla was hugely popular, eschewing the pomp that surrounded his predecessors and seeking contact with ordinary people.

During a papacy that lasted nearly 27 years, John Paul II travelled far and wide, often greeted by massive crowds as he championed peace, denounced human rights abuses and deplored the decadence of the modern world.

Some of the most memorable moments of his papacy were his attempted assassination in St Peter’s Square, his call on mobsters to repent and a meeting in which he kissed people with AIDS at the height of the devastating epidemic.

John Paul II also sponsored ultra-conservative Catholic movements like Opus Dei and the Legion of Christ in an effort to counter rising secularism in the West and win new followers, particularly in the developing world. …

Dogged by a rising wave of scandals of paedophile priests, the pope, at the behest of US bishops, approved new measures to punish clergymen committing sexual abuses but only after a long silence.

His refusal to denounce Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ and a serial sexual predator who abused male seminarians and fathered at least three children despite his vows of chastity, drew criticism.

But the Vatican has brushed off the accusations, with spokesman Federico Lombardi saying there was “no personal implication” of the pope in the scandal.

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ROME
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. and Inés San Martin | GLOBE STAFF | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT APRIL 26, 2014

Although the late Pope John Paul II was a revered figure around the world, his elevation as a saint by Pope Francis has drawn fire from critics who charge that the Polish pontiff turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, who’s long been on the front lines of dealing with the fallout from the abuse crisis, believes that a younger John Paul II would have been more vigorous in tackling the problem.

“There were mistakes during his pontificate on this issue, but I don’t think they were made out of malice,” O’Malley told the Globe.

“I like to think that if he had been younger when [the abuse crisis] exploded, he would have come to Boston and dealt with it,” O’Malley said. By the time the scandals erupted, he argued, John Paul II’s “health was deteriorating, and he obviously did not have a full grasp of what was happening in the church.”

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ROME
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF APRIL 27, 2014

ROME — Oct. 11, 1962, brought a beautiful moonlit night to Rome. Pope John XXIII was in an ebullient mood because of that morning’s launch of the Second Vatican Council, a gathering conceived by the pontiff in which bishops from around the world would throw open the windows of the Catholic Church to the modern world.

The first pope of television’s Golden Age, “Good Pope John” had a roly-poly, grandfatherly persona and seemingly inexhaustible cheer that won fans everywhere, though the changes he set in motion also stirred up critics, then and now. That night, the pope looked out over St. Peter’s Square at the vast crowd praying for the council, and made some off-the-cuff remarks that passed into history as his “Sermon on the Moon.”

A son of sharecroppers, he marveled at how a “simple brother” like him had become the father of the Church, which is what “pope” means. He mused that even the moon wanted to be part of the scene that night, and he ended with a line that is burned into Italian national consciousness much as “four score and seven years” is for Americans. …

Advocates for victims of clerical sexual abuse also charge that John Paul II turned a blind eye to the church’s scandals, citing his support for Marcial Maciel Degollado, the now-deceased Mexican priest who founded the Legionaries of Christ and who was later acknowledged to have committed a wide range of abuse and misconduct, and the fact that John Paul welcomed Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law to Rome after he resigned in disgrace in 2002.

Canonizing John Paul “sends precisely the most harmful signal to Catholic employees across the globe — that no matter how much you endanger kids, you’ll be honored by the church,” asserted a statement from the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests, the largest advocacy group in the United States.

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VATICAN CITY
Aljazeera

Aaron D’Souza

“Santo subito!” (“Sainthood now!”) chanted the millions of Catholics mourning at the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005.

When Pope Francis carries out a historic double canonisation of two popes this Sunday – Pope John XIII and Pope John Paul II – Francis will be acting upon the will of millions of Catholics and non-Catholics around the world. It is exciting and, for many, a long time coming.

Given the massive popular devotion to Pope John Paul II, his sanctity and holiness have never been in doubt among Catholics. It is only natural, then, that John Paul II’s successor, Benedict XVI, waived the requirement to wait five years after death before starting the process of Pope John Paul II’s canonisation. The shouts of “Santo subito!” reverberating around Rome at the time of his death were enough to confirm what the faithful wanted.

Many would admit that the Church, like so many other institutions such as Hollywood and the BBC, just didn’t get the sexual abuse that was going on in the 60s and 70s. Yet while the abuse happened then, the pain continues now. This is something that is recognised by the Church, and shown by the action the Church has taken in the past decade.

However, it must be remembered that John Paul II only became pope in 1978, after most of the abuse happened. It took two decades for the Church really to understand how widespread the problem was. By this time, John Paul II was getting old, debilitated by Parkinson’s disease which would affect the later years of his life. When he did find out he was appalled; it was beyond his understanding. In 2001 he asked Cardinal Ratzinger, who four years later would become Pope Benedict XVI, to deal with the problem in a decisive way.

It is likely that if he were alive today, John Paul II would still be leading the clean-up, since throughout his pontificate he was not afraid of apologising publicly for historic wrongdoings by the Catholic Church.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

At times, Pope Francis is like a riddle—tough to figure out. He appears charming, yet authoritarian; self-confident, yet imprudent; and purposeful, yet unpredictable. His opportunistic apologists fawn over him, while a thirsty 24/7 media world cannot get enough of his free publicity punch. He volunteered at 77 years old to fix a child abuse and financial mess for frightened cardinals concerned about saving their necks. Many Catholics, on the other hand, welcomed him hoping he would grab some cardinals’ necks. He mainly smiled his way through his first year, while keeping his cards close. Now he has been forced to show his hand finally, with three papal saints in the works and two UN Committees on his back.

Criticism continues about whether popes should be declared saints with the canonizations of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. John XXIII apparently steered 2,000+ bishops at the Second Vatican Council away from addressing the child abuse scandal in the 1960′s. John Paul II and Benedict XVI steered them away from the scandal from the 1970′s until last year.

Desperate efforts were made this week by John Paul II’s Opus Dei former spokesman and by the pope’s opportunistic biographer, George Weigel, to air brush over the Polish pope’s extensive knowledge for years of the priest child abuse epidemic. Francis met with Weigel recently and also met with him several months before he was selected to be pope. Coincidence? Perhaps. Again why? These apologists’ efforts were recently blown away by Fr. Thomas Doyle, who had direct knowledge of what the pope knew and when he knew it, as shown here

[National Catholic Reporter]

Now an Italian magazine has predicted the contraception ban author, Paul VI, will be beatified in 2014, paving the way for his sainthood, as reported here

[National Catholic Reporter]

According to the magazine , a miracle in California has been attributed to Paul VI. In a magazine preview, the article said Francis’ Congregation for the Causes of Saints would meet in a week to confirm the miracle attributed to Paul VI. Once the miracle is confirmed, Pope Francis will then likely proclaim Paul VI’s beatification in October at the end of the Synod on the Family, the magazine predicted. So much for the fair consideration of reversing the contraception ban by the 150 childless Synod Bishops.

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VATICAN CITY
The Daily Beast

Barbie Latza Nadeau

VATICAN CITY — This Sunday, Rome, a city of nearly 3 million mostly sane people, will tilt into complete chaos as two dead popes are elevated to sainthood in the presence of two live popes at a lavish ceremony in St. Peter’s square. A fleck of skin, a vial of blood and three miracles will be the central features of the double-barreled canonization ceremony, which is expected to last about two hours and draw as many as a million people to an area with a capacity for 250,000.

The event is the first of its kind. Two popes have never been canonized together, not to mention the odd fact that two popes have never actually been alive together, making the event a sort of quadruple pope-a-palooza. Reigning Pope Francis will preside over the ceremony, and retired Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI is expected to make an appearance as well. Karol Wojtyla from Poland, who was Pope John Paul II from 1978 to 2005, and Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli from Italy, who was Pope John XXIII from 1958 to 1963, will then be bona fide saints, making them easier to pray to, among other things, and, according to Catholic teachings, offering a guarantee that they are both securely in heaven, should anyone have been concerned.

John Paul II is interred in the crypt under St. Peter’s basilica, and John XXIII, whose body is somewhat odd and eerily completely preserved in a glass coffin, is in the upper church in a side apse. After the ceremony, revelers are expected to pray at their tombs. When parsed down into cold hard facts, the half-day event, which will cost the city of Rome around $7 million, may sound a little frivolous, but just ask any of those who have made the trip and they’ll try to convince you that what may seem like a leap of faith is actually part of being a believer. “Sometimes when everyone around you believes in something, it rubs off on you,” Johann Schulz from Germany told The Daily Beast in St. Peter’s Square on Friday. “I think a lot of us who came here for this need to believe in miracles and saints. Otherwise things look pretty grim.” …

Despite the palpable buzz in Rome, not everyone is looking forward to Sunday’s love fest for the two popes. Survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests held their own briefing in Rome on Friday, against a backdrop of the photos of young children who were sexually abused during the time John Paul II was pontiff. “We were abused because John Paul II didn’t act,” Nicky Davis, a spokesperson for the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests known as SNAP told reporters. “We don’t’ believe it is saintly behavior to allow child abuse to continue for 27 years.”

The group, which has 18,000 members from 79 countries, says canonizing John Paul II is like “pouring salt into an open wound.” They say there is ample proof and documentation that John Paul II turned a blind eye to hundreds, if not thousands, of reports of abusive priests, and chose not to act. “We will never know what it was like not being raped,” said Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP, and for that reason alone, John Paul II should not be elevated to sainthood. The group will hold a candlelight vigil ahead of the canonization “for all those who lost their innocence during John Paul II’s reign.”

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ROME
All Voices

A young man was killed in the Italian village of Cevo near Brescia Thursday, when a giant crucifix of Pope John Paul II, fell on top of him.

The huge 98-foot high wooden and concrete cross, built in honor of the late Pope after he visited the Alpine village in 1998, fell on 21-year-old student Marco Gusmini, during a ceremony, crushing him to death. Another man who was injured in the freak accident had to be hospitalized, ITV News reported.
This tragedy comes only days before Sunday’s historic twin canonization of Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXII in St. Peter’s Square and the ceremony is not without its controversy.

While many agree that the late pope was destined for sainthood and think he deserves this noted recognition nine years after his death, some do not agree. Critics say only one pope, St. Anthony of Padua who was graced with sainthood one year after his death centuries ago in 1231—received the honor faster than John Paul II. …

Critics are accusing Pope Francis of rushing the ceremony to distract as well as lift the heavy child sexual abuse cloud shrouding the church. It may also be an attempt to infuse new faith by providing fresh icons for followers.

One such outspoken critic is Barbara Blaine, president of The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, who thinks the late pope’s inaction and slow response to victims of child sexual abuse by priests should prevent him from becoming a candidate for sainthood.

“John Paul II had the opportunity to stop violence and refused to do so,” Blaine reportedly told NBC News in St. Peter’s Square Friday. “He was more interested in the reputation of church officials than in the protection of children.”

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ROME
WPVI

By SARAH BLOOMQUIST

ROME – April 25, 2014 (WPVI) — About 50 Catholics from the Delaware Valley have traveled to Rome as part of a trip organized by the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

It’s the trip of a lifetime to see two popes named saints: Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII. Two living popes will be in attendance for the canonizations – Pope Francis will conduct the mass with Pope Benedict XVI at his side.

“It’s just the thrill of a lifetime to be here, to be present, to feel the energy and the grace of the day. It’s just wonderful,” said Sister Alexa Meany, South Philadelphia. …

However, not everyone is celebrating Pope John Paul’s impending sainthood. Barbara Blaine is president of SNAP- Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

She and others believe Pope John Paul could have done much more to uncover and prevent abuse by priests.

“Covering up and enabling sexual predators is not saintly behavior,” said Blaine

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VATICAN CITY
Newstalk (Ireland)

The double canonisation on Sunday will be presided over by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square of the two men he believes revitalised the Church while giving it purpose and direction.

The current pontiff described John Paul II and John XXIII as “wonderful” and “brave men”, and bent years of tradition by allowing them to be celebrated on the same day.

A candidate for sainthood would normally have to pass a rigorous test which begins at least five years after their death and includes the verification of two miracles.

John Paul II had his canonisation fast-tracked (as he did for Mother Theresa during his pontificate) while John XXIII candidacy was pushed through without having to clear the hurdle of a second confirmed miracle. …

There has been criticism that the swift canonisation of John Paul II ignores criticism that he failed to tackle the growing problem of priest sex abuse, especially in the United States.

The Vatican says an “information gap” between church officials in America and the Vatican was behind the speed of the response, which meant he was not “living the crisis in real time”.

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ROME
WWNO

This Sunday, Pope Francis will elevate two former popes to sainthood: Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II.

While Pope John XXIII is remembered as an icon of the progressive wing of the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II is remembered for upholding orthodoxy and doctrine.

Millions of pilgrims are expected to descend upon Rome for the joint canonization, which occurs just one week after the ceremonies of Holy Week.

NPR’s Senior European Correspondent Sylvia Poggioli joins Here & Now’s Robin Young from Rome to discuss this weekend’s canonization and the disparate legacies of these two popes. …

YOUNG: Well Barbara Blain(ph) of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the group SNAP, she told the Boston Globe that they think it’s sinful for the pope to be made a saint so soon because of the sex abuse scandal. So does the church respond to comments like that?

POGGIOLI: Well, there have been many critics of the canonization of John Paul, as you said about the speed and also for his record on those issues. His defenders say that aides may have kept the information from him. Others believe that John Paul may have believed the charges were a plot and a slander against the church similar to those by communist authorities in Poland, and that may be the reason he simply did not attribute the necessary attention to the sex abuse scandals.

YOUNG: Well, that debate will continue even after this weekend’s ceremonies. Let’s move to Pope John XXIII. He served from 1958 the ’63, an icon of the progressive wing of the church. He launched the reforming Second Vatican Council, opening the church to the modern world. But in this case, Pope Francis waived the required second miracle for his canonization.

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ROME
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Sat, Apr 26, 2014

The mood was festive in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican today as thousands of people from around the world began to gather for tomorrow morning’s canonisation of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II.
There are very many Polish here but also large contingents from South America, particularly from Brazil and Argentina. And this reporter spotted one Irish tricolour but on investigation it was discovered that the owner “had gone for a walk.”

Groups of young people lay out in the sun, many on mats on which they planned to sleep overnight in order to hold their spot in the Square for tomorrow’s events.

Earlier, it was confirmed that retired Pope Benedict XVI will attend the ceremonies, where he will sit with the cardinals and bishops to the left of the sanctuary. …

The US-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) staged a candle-lit vigil on the rooftop of a hotel near the Vatican in protest at the canonisation of Pope John Paul II, which they have described as “irresponsible and hurtful”.

The group said he “must have known” about the multiple sexual abuse allegations against Legionaries of Christ founder Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado.

Instead of disciplining or defrocking Fr Maciel, Pope John Paul II held a “highly publicised special ceremony celebrating the anniversary of Maciel’s ordination.”

Holding candles, signs and childhood photos, the clergy sex abuse victims stood in their rooftop vigil with St Peter’s Basilica in the background. They also read aloud an open letter – in French, German, Spanish and English – to victims, witnesses, and whistleblowers, urging them to keep speaking up and reporting crimes, “even though complicit Catholic officials (including Pope John Paul II) keep getting honored and promoted”.

They called for “every single incident or suspicion of clergy sex crimes and cover ups” to be reported to “secular officials, not church officials” to “boldly but compassionately keep reaching out and offering help to every single person who they know of or fear was sexually assaulted by clergy”.

They also made special reference to the “dozens of victims of the world’s most notorious predator priest – Fr Marcial Maciel – whose extensive crimes and misdeeds were ignored and hidden during Pope John Paul’s long papacy.”

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INDIA
Deccan Herald

The police on Thursday registered a case of rape against a Catholic priest in Ollur, Thrissur district, based on a complaint filed by the parents of a minor girl.

According to the police, Fr Raju Kokkan, parish priest at St Paul’s Church in Thaikattussery, had undressed the 10-year-old girl and photographed her private parts when she visited him in church on April 8, 11 and 24.

The police said the priest abused the girl for the first time when she was at the parish in connection with her holy communion. The priest is learnt to have taken the girl into his room in the parish by promising her new clothes for the event. The girl told her parents about the incident only on Thursday. N K Surendran, Ollur Circle Inspector, told Deccan Herald that the 44-year-old priest has been booked under Section 376 of the IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

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