ABUSE TRACKER

GENEVA
Expatica

A UN anti-torture watchdog on Monday began a two-day grilling of the Vatican over its efforts to stamp out child sex abuse by priests.

The hearing is the Vatican’s first since 2002, when it signed up to an international convention banning torture as well as cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

Victim support groups insist that the rape and molestation of children by the clergy and lay personnel falls under the terms of the convention.

They are hoping that the Vatican will face similarly-scathing criticism as it did in January when it came before a UN children’s rights watchdog.

That panel condemned the Vatican for failing to do enough to stamp out abuse and for allowing systematic cover-ups around the glove, despite pledges to adopt a zero-tolerance approach.

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GENEVA
National Catholic Register

by Edward Pentin Monday, May 05, 2014 2:55 PM Comments (1)

The Holy See was grilled by the U.N. committee on torture today and, as expected, it came in for some harsh and extrinsic criticism for the Church’s handling of clerical sex abuse cases.

In the two-hour hearing in Geneva, the Committee Against Torture launched a barrage of questions to the Vatican delegation, asking about past policy decisions, the juridical distinction between the Holy See and Vatican City, and information on specific cases, according to Reuters.

But many of the questions went beyond the boundaries of the U.N. Convention against Torture. The Holy See also signed up to the Convention on grounds that it would apply only to the territory of Vatican City, not the wider Church.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the U.N. in Geneva, said while the Holy See can be a moral force, the “agent of justice” for crimes committed by Catholics was the local state where the crime was committed. “It should be stressed, particularly in light of much confusion, that the Holy See has no jurisdiction … over every member of the Catholic Church,” he said in opening remarks.

But as this committee is heavily influenced by NGOs ideologically opposed to the Church’s teaching, this important caveat was brushed aside by some members of the panel. The committee’s chief rapporteur, Felice Gaer of the United States, told the Vatican delegation that its position “seems to reflect an intention for a significant portion of the actions and omissions of Holy See officials be excluded from consideration by this committee, and this troubles us.”

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By David Harris | dharris5@mlive.com
on May 05, 2014

GRAND BLANC, MI – The attorney representing the priest under investigation of allegations he inappropriately touched the hands and legs of two students says people should not “rush to judgment” based on past cases.

Ken Coughlin, the priest at Holy Family Catholic School in Grand Blanc, is on administrative leave until the investigation is complete, according to a weekend statement from the Diocese of Lansing.

According to a letter from the school written by Father Jonathan Perrotta posted on the schools website, the alleged incident happened last week at a school assembly. Perrotta will serve as temporary administrator while the investigation is completed, the letter said.

There will be a meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, May 5 for parishioners, according to the letter.

Attorney Frank J. Manley is representing Coughlin.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes & Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Background: In January 2014, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child did not buy the religious logic of the Holy See’s delegation, headed by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s UN ambassador in Geneva, who insisted that “The Holy See country is confined exclusively on the tiny Vatican City State” and therefore the Holy See was not responsible for the horrendous clergy sexual abuses in Catholic churches worldwide. In February 2014, the UN condemned the Vatican for its crimes against children, read more here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2014/02/un-condemns-vatican-for-crimes-against.html

May 5-6 – The United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) in Geneva for 2 days is now interrogating the Vatican a.k.a. Holy See for its criminal records of thousands of bestial pedophile priests who sexually abused in the most inhuman and degrading torture hundreds of thousands of Catholic children worldwide.

For the second time, the Vatican is at the UN – to defend its holy religious record on child sexual torture – and again it claims — that when it signed the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) in 2002 – its legal jurisdiction (responsibility) is limited only to its tiny country of the Vatican City State of 800 people inhabiting an area less than half a square-kilometer in size.

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ILLINOIS
My Suburban Life

Published: Monday, May 5, 2014

By ED MCMENAMIN – emcmenamin@shawmedia.com

Thousands of pages of documents released April 30 by a Chicago law firm detail decades of sexual abuse by DuPage County priests and the protection they allegedly received from the Diocese of Joliet.

The files of 16 priests accused of abuse, long held confidential by the diocese, were obtained and released by Jeff Anderson and Associates to coincide with five new lawsuits filed by the firm against four offenders.

The documents show a pattern of secrecy from Joliet diocese bishops, who regularly failed to remove or report priests accused of child sexual abuse, instead moving them to new parishes where they would often repeat the behavior.

The suits brought by the firm seek an unspecified settlement for damages suffered by victims in the ’60s, ’70s and early ’80s. They also seek a court order that “[stops] practices that imperil children and requires them to come clean and publicly disclose files of all [priests accused of abuse],” Anderson said Thursday.

The recently released files are a portion of 34 sought by the firm, he said.

Diocese spokesman Ed Flavin said that, in accordance with common business practice, the diocese does not release confidential files of employees, and the 16 files turned over to the firm were done so under court order.

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UNITED STATES
American Prospect

By Kathryn Joyce

I. The Calling

In November 2012, Bob Jones University, the longtime flagship institution of fundamentalism, announced it had hired GRACE (short for Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), an independent group of evangelical lawyers, pastors, and psychologists, to investigate the university’s handling of sexual-abuse and -harassment reports. Bob Jones officials said they were taking the step after watching the pedophilia scandal unfold at Pennsylvania State University the previous year. They vowed to ask forgiveness of any students they may have “underserved.”

In truth, the origins of the investigation were closer to home. In 2011, an abuse scandal from years before had become national news with a 20/20 report. Tina Anderson, a 15-year-old who lived in New Hampshire, was raped and impregnated in 1997 by one of her church’s deacons, then in his late thirties, while she was a babysitter for his family. When Anderson and her mother told their pastor, Bob Jones graduate Chuck Phelps, what had happened, Phelps had Anderson stand before the congregation while he read a confession of her pregnancy. She was then sent to a family in Colorado until the baby was born and given up for adoption. Anderson’s rapist, a registered sex offender, was made to confess as well—but to adultery, not rape—and he remained at the church for years. Phelps, who’d gone on to be president of the fundamentalist Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Wisconsin, maintained close ties to Bob Jones, serving on its board of trustees as well as on its missionary and youth-camp boards.

Students and alumni had already begun to agitate online against the school’s lack of academic and student freedom, as well as its response to reports of sexual abuse. Anderson’s story highlighted what these critics—dismissed by the school as disaffected “detractors”—saw as a pattern in how Bob Jones stigmatized students who reported rape or sexual assault. A senior named Christopher Peterman started a Facebook group and website called Do Right BJU, which aimed to remove Phelps from the board and called for a range of reforms; he organized the first campus protest in the university’s history to raise awareness of sexual abuse. Phelps resigned from the board of trustees in December 2011, just days before the rally. But then a few months later, on the eve of graduating, Peterman was expelled for watching Glee, among other violations.

The story continued to grow. Peterman and alumni groups active on Facebook began to hear from more and more students who claimed they had been poorly treated when they reported sexual abuse to school staff. Over the following months, alumni pressured the university to update its policies and investigate the school’s handling of abuse reports. They urged the university to hire GRACE, which had investigated allegations of sex abuse in two Christian missionary groups. To almost everyone’s surprise, seven months after the 20/20 report aired, Bob Jones announced that it had listened.

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GENEVA
Center for Constitutional Rights

Torture Committee Inquiry Follows Scathing Rebuke by Committee on Rights of the Child

press@ccrjustice.org

May 5, 2014, Geneva – Today, the Vatican was summoned to appear before the United Nations Committee Against Torture to report on its record in preventing, punishing and redressing torture, which necessarily included its record addressing widespread sexual violence within the Catholic Church. Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and their attorneys from the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) were in attendance. In April, CCR, representing SNAP, filed a report with the Committee documenting the long-term harms suffered by survivors of sexual violence by Catholic clergy, and filed a supplemental report thereafter focusing primarily on Latin America. This is the second time in four months that top Catholic officials have been called before the U.N. to account for the Vatican’s human rights record on addressing the ongoing worldwide crisis of sexual violence and cover-ups within the Catholic Church.

“Rape is torture under international law, and for the Vatican to minimize the profound harm caused to so many and claim otherwise is both wrong and cruel. When the Vatican voluntarily ratifies a treaty, it must meet its obligations under that treaty,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Attorney Katherine Gallagher. “For too long, the Vatican has been able to deny and deflect attention from its role in enabling, perpetuating, and covering-up these serious crimes around the globe, but those days of impunity are clearly numbered.”

The Vatican ratified the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in June 2002. This is the first time it has had its compliance with its treaty obligations reviewed by the UN Committee Against Torture. The Vatican was summoned before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in January 2014 to report on its compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which obliges it to protect children from sexual violence and safeguard their well-being and dignity. It was the first time the Holy See had been called to account for its actions on these issues before an international body. In February 2014, the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed “grave concern that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed…has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and impunity for the perpetrators,” and that “[t]he Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the Church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests.”

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GENEVA
Wall Street Journal

By Liam Moloney

ROME—The Holy See aimed Monday to limit its responsibility to the tiny Vatican City State for the global clerical scandal as its officials come under questioning by a new United Nations panel—this time one on torture.

Vatican officials said they regretted the abuses of the past, but that measures that the Catholic Church has put in place in recent years show a drop in cases of abuses of minors, an area that has been of particular embarrassment to it and caused many faithful to leave.

Documentation “shows a stabilization or decline in cases of pedophilia…measures put in place in the past 10 years by the Holy See and local [Catholic] churches has shown a positive decline,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the U.N., told members of the panel on the Convention against Torture at a session in Geneva.

The U.N. committee is listening to the Holy See representatives Monday and Tuesday as part of monitoring the implementation of the treaty against torture. The Holy See ratified the 1984 convention in 2002.

Monday’s panel questioning focused on determining whether the Vatican’s history of child abuse by priests constitutes a violation of the Convention against Torture.

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GENEVA
Telegraph (UK)

Vatican claims ‘progress’ on child sex abuse at UN Committee against Torture hearing

Vatican officials tell United Nations Committee against Torture they have made progress stamping out paedophilia in Catholic Church

By Nick Squires 05 May 2014

The Catholic Church has seen a decline in cases of paedophilia after turning a corner in its efforts to tackle sex abuse of children by priests, the Vatican said on Monday.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the UN Committee against Torture the Church had made significant progress in the last decade in stamping out the problem.

“There has been a stabilisation, even a decline in cases of paedophilia in the Church,” he said. “That shows that measures taken in the last 10 years by the Holy See and local churches are bringing about a positive result.”

The claims came as Vatican officials were hauled in front of the United Nations Committee against Torture in Geneva for the first time since the Holy See signed the UN’s convention against torture in 2002. Just four months earlier the Vatican was castigated for its handling of sex abuse scandals by the UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child.

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GENEVA
Prensa Latina (Cuba)

Rome, May 5 (Prensa Latina) The Vatican presented today a report to the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) to clarify accusations against priests for abuse of minors.

Silvano Tomasi, representative of the Holy See before the said Committee in Geneva, started the first of two days of analysis of an Initial Periodic Report about the attitude of the Catholic Church in addressing reports of cases of religious leaders involved in such abuses.

The presentation of the document, quoted by Vatican Radio, refers to several legal clarifications about dozens of cases of sexual abuse of minors, discussed last January before the UN Committee on Rights of the Child.

It says that the State of Vatican City is a subdivision of the Holy See and highlights difficulties of the former to exercise its jurisdiction to investigate cases outside that territory, without violating other nations’ sovereignty.

The State of Vatican City, created officially in 1929, ratified CAT in 2002 and, according to the report submitted by Tomasi, it looks for the broadest cooperation in the global fight against violence and torture.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Register

BY JOSEPHINE MCKENNA, RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
May 5, 2014

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican could face a wave of new sexual abuse claims dating back decades if a United Nations inquiry finds that the Roman Catholic Church has violated an international treaty against torture and inhuman treatment.

The Centre for Constitutional Rights, on behalf of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said May 5 that victims may look at fresh litigation since torture was not bound by the statute of limitations in many of the 155 countries that have endorsed or ratified the UN Convention against Torture, including the United States.

“For too long, sexual violence and acts of rape by the Catholic Church have been minimized,” said Katherine Gallagher, senior staff attorney at the New York-based CCR, after the UN panel that enforces the torture convention held hearings in Geneva.

“To recognize these acts of torture could assist greatly in the statute of limitations problems that some people have faced. In the U.S., you don’t have a statute of limitations on torture.”

Earlier, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s ambassador to UN agencies in Geneva, sought to limit the Holy See’s legal responsibility for the clerical sex abuse scandal, just three months after the Vatican was severely criticized by another UN panel for failing to protect children at risk.

The Vatican ratified the UN Convention against Torture in 2002.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republican

By Ron Chimelis | rchimelis@repub.com
on May 05, 2014

A friend tells me that what this country needs are “30,000 nuns with rulers.”

He believed society is weakened when an accepted moral compass, which may not be specific and need not be limited to one religious viewpoint, disappears entirely. He fears that is happening in America, where views and actions based purely on morality are often derided as naive, outdated or impractical.

Rev. James Scahill might not have had the physical clout of 30,000 nuns with rulers, but to many observers both in and out of the Catholic Church, announcement of his retirement provoked feelings that one distinctly moral individual was leaving the scene.

Not everyone agreed with the methods of Rev. Scahill, who attracted national attention for his outspoken criticism of the way the Catholic Church handled sex abuse allegations among its clergy. People I highly respect told me that even such a well-intentioned public stance risked making every priest a freelancer, able to pursue his own agenda at the cost of a consistent and necessary doctrine.

It’s a fair concern. What he offered, though, was something desperateIy needed at the time – the truth.

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INDIA
Times of India

KOCHI: Parish priest Raju Kokkan who was taken into custody from Tamil Nadu on charges of raping a minor girl was remanded in judicial custody on Monday.

Police brought the accused by road to Thrissur on Monday by 5 am and later produced him at the Irinjalakuda court around 10 am. The court remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days and he was later taken to Viyyur sub-jail.

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GENEVA
Los Angeles Times

By Tom Kington
May 5, 2014

Reporting from Rome—

The United Nations on Monday linked the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests to torture, stepping up its criticism of the Holy See and, according to one activist group, potentially opening the way to a new wave of lawsuits.

Members of a U.N. committee on torture questioned Vatican officials for two hours about the church’s handling of abuse cases, with one member claiming a “climate of impunity” existed within the Vatican.

The hearing marked the Vatican’s first appearance before the committee after it signed in 2002 an international convention banning torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

One legal expert said the hearing might spark further prosecutions of priests.

“The committee has stated that rape is torture, based on the physical and mental harm it can do, and that may push courts to consider abuse by priests as torture,” said Pam Spees, a lawyer with the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights.

“Torture comes with universal jurisdiction,” she said. “States which have signed up to the U.N. convention are obliged to follow up, and there is no statute of limitations and acquiescence in torture is very serious.”

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, May 05, 2014

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

A top Vatican official is deliberately misleading Catholic citizens and a United Nations panel about current clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

[Reuters]

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi claims there has been a decline in the number of cases of clergy sexual violence. But there is no such evidence. Children always have, and likely always will, only be able to report their trauma decades later. So this notion – that the rate of abuse is declining – is at best unknowable and at worst a self-serving spin.

Tomasi also says “The damage has been done.” This contention is part of a long, carefully-crafted church public relations effort to pretend that this crisis is over and that only “clean up” remains. That is as wrong as wrong can be.

We strongly suspect that, across the globe, hundreds or thousands of child molesting clerics are still raping, sodomizing and assaulting boys and girls today.

Consider the case of Fr. Joseph Jiang of St. Louis, Missouri. In 2012, he was arrested for molesting a girl. He escaped prosecution because of a legal technicality. But a civil lawsuit contends that he admitted his guilt to the girl’s parents and left them a $20,000 check. That suit also says that Jiang’s boss, Archbishop Robert Carlson, asked the parents to turn the check over to him. Instead, they gave it to police.

Instead of putting Jiang in a remote treatment center, Carlson let him live just six minutes away from his old parish. And in April of this year, Jiang was arrested again, this time for molesting a boy.

Clerics continue to assault kids and bishops continue with their cover ups.

Tomasi makes two other absurd claims.

He says “the Holy See has no jurisdiction … over every member of the Catholic Church.” No one, of course, disputes this. The Vatican does, however, have power over Catholic employees across the globe, as evidenced by the fact that it defrocks controversial theologians and predator priests. Top church officials, however, refuse to use their power to punish complicit bishops.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations will lead a delegation in Geneva Tuesday at a second meeting of the UN Committee on the Convention against Torture (CAT) to which the Holy See acceded in 2002. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi led the Holy See’s delegation in a meeting of the Committee Monday to present a report on the implementation of CAT in Vatican City State – a periodic commitment for each of the Convention’s 155 signatory states.

In remarks to the Committee Monday, Archbishop Tomasi reiterated the Holy See’s conviction that the Convention against Torture is “a valid and suitable instrument for fighting against acts that constitute a serious offence against the dignity of the human person” and that “the teaching of the Catholic Church clearly articulates its opposition to acts of violence and torture.”

The Holy See’s report outlined “significant steps and improvements” made to Vatican City State legislation in compliance with the Convention and which further reinforce the Holy See’s commitment to respecting CAT.

The report mentions in particular, the promulgation of Pope Francis’ July 11, 2013 Apostolic Letter “On the Jurisdiction of Judicial Authorities of Vatican City State in Criminal Matters” which incorporates portions of CAT “practically verbatim” and makes specific reference to the “Crime of Torture” (art. 3, Law N. VIII). Other amendments described in that Letter regard the specific nature of crimes committed within or outside the territory of the State, jurisdiction, extradition and terms of sentencing.

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GENEVA
Catholic Register

BY CINDY WOODEN, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
May 5, 2014

VATICAN CITY – Appearing before a UN committee monitoring adherence to an international treaty designed to fight torture, Vatican officials repeatedly were asked about efforts to investigate allegations of clerical sexual abuse, punish offenders and co-operate with civil authorities in prosecuting the perpetrators.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See representative to UN agencies in Geneva, led the Vatican delegation at the May 5-6 hearing of the Committee Against Torture, which monitors the implementation of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment.
The cases of clerical sexual abuse of children are a reality which the Catholic Church wishes never happened, he said, but, “human nature being what it is, they did happen.” What is most important now, he said, is that “there has been in several documentable areas a stabilization and even a decline in cases” of abuse of minors.

“Measures undertaken in the last 10 years on the part both of the Holy See and local churches are bringing about a positive result.”

In his opening remarks to the committee, Tomasi told members that the Holy See, which signed the treaty, has no direct legal and juridical jurisdiction outside Vatican City State. While it hopes to exercise moral influence over all Catholics, “persons who live in a particular country are under the jurisdiction of the legitimate authorities of that country and are thus subject to the domestic law and the consequences contained therein.”

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UNITED STATES
NewsBusters

By Matthew Balan | May 5, 2014

John Heilprin of the Associated Press played up how the Catholic Church supposedly “sought to limit its responsibility for the global priest sex abuse scandal” in front of a United Nations committee on torture. Heilprin repeatedly underlined how the Holy See underwent a “grilling” by the UN panel for allegedly violating an “international treaty against torture and inhuman treatment” in its handling of the scandal.

However, the correspondent glossed over the committee’s ideologically-tinged slam of the Church’s longstanding stance against abortion, which it labeled “psychological torture.” By contrast, Reuters’ Philip Pullella and Stephanie Nebehay mentioned this attack near the end of their Monday report on the meeting:

Church groups defended the Catholic Church’s efforts to stem abuse and criticised committee members who said the Church’s opposition to abortion had harmed women.

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MICHIGAN
WNEM

Posted By Wesley Goheen, Web Managing Editor

GRAND BLANC, MI (WNEM) –
A Genesee County priest is being investigated after allegations of inappropriate touching were made against him.

The allegation was made against Father Ken Coughlin and it involves two students who claim Coughlin touched them on their legs and hands.

Father Coughlin is assigned to the Holy Family parish in Grand Blanc. Coughlin denies the allegations.

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GENEVA
CBS News

GENEVA – A U.N. committee compared the Vatican’s handling of the global priest sex abuse scandal with torture Monday, raising the possibility that its failure to investigate clergy and their superiors could have broader legal implications.

But the Vatican’s top envoy in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, claimed that the Holy See was getting its house in order after a decade-long effort to deal with a global priest sex abuse scandal.

“There has been, in several documentable areas, stabilization and even a decline of cases in pedophilia,” he told a committee of experts in charge of the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which the Vatican ratified in 2002.

At the Holy See’s first appearance before the committee, experts mainly peppered the Vatican with tough questions to be answered Tuesday. For instance, they asked why the report on its implementation of the treaty was almost a decade late, and why the Vatican believes its responsibility for protecting against torture only applies within tiny Vatican City, a nation of less than 1,000 inhabitants.

“I wonder if you could tell us how you insure that the criminal prohibition against torture in Vatican City covers all individuals for whom the Holy See has jurisdiction,” asked committee member Felice Gaer.

Experts said a finding by the committee that the systematic abuse amounted to torture could have drastic legal implications for the church as it continues to battle civil litigation around the world resulting from the decades-long scandal that saw tens of thousands of children raped and molested by priests.

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UNITED STATES
Pilgrim’s Road Trip

May 5, 2014 By Michelle Van Loon

Even when the truth comes out about a spiritual leader’s secret life, the kinds of lawyered-up semi-confessions that they and their team use to respond to their victims, congregants and the general public seem to be missing a key element: true regret. Leaders like Doug Phillips or Bill Gothard engineer almost-apologies. As I’ve followed these cases over the last year or so, it strikes me that those apologies are loaded with exit-clause “buts” as a way to leave wiggle room for their defense if they know they’re going to end up in court. Others like C.J. Mahaney or Mark Driscoll have exhibited long-standing patterns of denial, deflection and repeated attempts from their current positions of power to diminish or destroy their accusers.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, led the way a few years ago in giving a voice to the voiceless by creating a place for those who experienced sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Church. But the internet’s redemptive side is best shown via the online connections at various ministry-specific websites that have been used to bring overlong-delayed justice to those who’ve experienced abuse at the hands of a pastor, church leader or teacher. Bloggers like Warren Throckmorton, Wenatchee the Hatchet, and sites such as The Wartburg Watch or Recovering Grace have served a prophetic role in exposing the sin of toxic leaders. Some of their guests may veer into bitter territory, their words particularly difficult to hear. But hear them we must if these hurting people are to be able to move toward healing, and the rest of us in the body of Christ are to move toward true maturity. What these leaders have done in the darkness has been brought to the glaring light of a computer screen. Though the method is modern, the message in the exposure is as old as Genesis: getting caught in your sin is meant to be a means of restoration and grace for these leaders.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | May. 5, 2014

The Vatican chief of doctrine has accused U.S. women religious leaders of not abiding by a reform agenda the Vatican imposed on their leadership organization following a doctrinal assessment of the group.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told the leadership group they were ignoring procedures for choosing speakers for their annual conferences and questioned if their programs were promoting heresy.

Using the most direct and confrontational language since the Vatican began to rein in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious two years ago, Müller told leaders of the conference that starting in August, they must have their annual conference programs approved by a Vatican-appointed overseer before the conference agendas and speakers are finalized.

Müller also told the women religious that their choice of conference speakers and the printed material they make available to their membership cause him to question if LCWR has “the ability truly to sentire cum Ecclesia (feel with the church).”

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GENEVA
The Guardian (UK)

John Hooper in Rome
theguardian.com, Monday 5 May 2014

The Vatican has been given another hostile interrogation by a United Nations committee over its record on clerical sex abuse.

One member after another of the committee against torture brushed aside the Holy See’s argument that its obligation to enforce the UN convention against torture stopped at the boundaries of the world’s smallest country, the Vatican city state. Instead, they demanded the pope’s representative give answers to a long list of questions about the treatment of sex abuse claims against clergy throughout the world.

The Holy See, which long predates the city state, is a sovereign entity without territory. It is as the Holy See that the Catholic leadership maintains diplomatic relations and signs treaties such as the convention against torture.

But Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s UN ambassador in Geneva, told the committee: “The Holy See intends to focus exclusively on Vatican city state.”

The American expert on the committee, Felice Gaer, made plain her disagreement. She said the Holy See had to “show us that, as a party to the convention, you have a system in place to prohibit torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment when it is acquiesced to by anyone under the effective control of the officials of the Holy See and the institutions that operate in the Vatican city state”.

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GENEVA
eNews Park Forest

Geneva—(ENEWSPF)—May 5, 2014. Today, the Vatican was summoned to appear before the United Nations Committee Against Torture to report on its record in preventing, punishing and redressing torture, which necessarily included its record addressing widespread sexual violence within the Catholic Church. Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and their attorneys from the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) were in attendance. In April, CCR, representing SNAP, filed a report with the Committee documenting the long-term harms suffered by survivors of sexual violence by Catholic clergy, and filed a supplemental report thereafter focusing primarily on Latin America. This is the second time in four months that top Catholic officials have been called before the U.N. to account for the Vatican’s human rights record on addressing the ongoing worldwide crisis of sexual violence and cover-ups within the Catholic Church.

“Rape is torture under international law, and for the Vatican to minimize the profound harm caused to so many and claim otherwise is both wrong and cruel. When the Vatican voluntarily ratifies a treaty, it must meet its obligations under that treaty,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Attorney Katherine Gallagher. “For too long, the Vatican has been able to deny and deflect attention from its role in enabling, perpetuating, and covering-up these serious crimes around the globe, but those days of impunity are clearly numbered.”

The Vatican ratified the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in June 2002. This is the first time it has had its compliance with its treaty obligations reviewed by the UN Committee Against Torture. The Vatican was summoned before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in January 2014 to report on its compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which obliges it to protect children from sexual violence and safeguard their well-being and dignity. It was the first time the Holy See had been called to account for its actions on these issues before an international body. In February 2014, the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed “grave concern that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed…has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and impunity for the perpetrators,” and that “[t]he Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the Church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests.”

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JAMAICA
The Gleaner

Published: Monday | May 5, 2014

Michael Abrahams
Online Columnist

One of the best-known Bible verses is Luke 18:16: “But Jesus called unto him, and said, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forgive them not: for of such is the kingdom of God’.”

But, for some reason, the Vatican, the ‘head office’ of the largest and most powerful Christian denomination, appears to have seriously misinterpreted that verse.

Child sex abuse scandals far too frequently rear their ugly heads in the Catholic Church. These incidents are by no means confined to that organisation, as child molesters can be found in probably all professions and vocations, but the hierarchy of this church has a nasty habit of protecting perpetrators and enablers, placing the interests of the church above those of the victims and their families.

Before becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger played a role in systematically covering up child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests. In 2001, while at the Vatican, he issued an edict to Catholic bishops all over the world recommending that rather than reporting sexual abuse to legal authorities, victims, perpetrators and witnesses be encouraged not to talk about the alleged incidents, with victims also being threatened with excommunication if they dared repeat the allegations.

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ESPANA
El Norte del Castilla

[Summary: The Salamanca court on April 30 received a complaint about alleged sexual abuse by a priest from 1982 to 1992. The victims, who was then 10, has not dared to reveal the abuse until now. The victim said he was abused as a child at the Church of San Julian de Salamanca and he added he was not the only victim. The Salamanca diocese said to prevent possible scandal to the faithful, the priest will not be allowed to exercise priestly ministry while the situation is clarified. The priest identified as ILS 73 has denied the alleged abuse.]

Los juzgados de Salamanca recibieron el pasado 30 de abril una denuncia por unos supuestos abusos sexuales a un menor cometidos entre los años 1982 y 1992, y que la víctima, que por aquel entonces tenía 10 años, no se ha atrevido a desvelar hasta ahora. Según publica la edición digital del diario ‘Publico’. Según este diario, Javier Paz Ledesma denuncia ante los juzgados que un sacerdote abusó de él cuando era menor de edad en la iglesia de San Julián de Salamanca, y asegura que no fue el único en padecer estos abusos. El sacerdote acusado está en situación de jubilación canónica y no tiene encomendado ningún oficio eclesiástico, según ha comunicado el Obispado de Salamanca, que añade que para prevenir el posible escándalo de los fieles, de forma cautelar, mientras se esclarecen los hechos, el sacerdote afectado se abstendrá de ejercer en público el ministerio sacerdotal.

Según el diario digital, el sacerdote, I. L. S. de 73 años, niega la veracidad de estas acusaciones y asegura no haber recibido ninguna notificación de los juzgados. «Es un caso de falso testimonio», denuncia. «No me ha llegado nada de los juzgados de Salamanca, pero sabía que andaba con alguna cosa de estas», reconoce el sacerdote a ‘Público’ y asegura que «parece ser que quiere dinero».

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PENNSYLVANIA
WESA

By JESS LASKY

The criminal statute of limitations in Pennsylvania for children who have been sexually abused is currently until the victim reaches 50 years of age, but legislation in the House and Senate would change that.

“Too many abusers are still in public and around children because of the statute of limitations,” said State Senator Rob Telplitz (D-Dauphin), sponsor of SB 1350. “And too many victims languish and have had to stand by helpless as other children are put at risk.”

One in four girls and one in six boys is sexually abused by 18, but only 10 percent of those abused will report the abuse, according to Telplitz. He believes that this can change by eliminating one factor discouraging victims.

The legislation is not retroactive. So any abuse committed before the bill becomes law is still under the current statute of limitations. There would be no age limit to prosecute if the abuse occurs after the measure is enacted.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, May 5, 2014

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

Nowhere are kids more at risk of sexual violence than in the developing world. That’s why it’s so immoral when predator priests are sent there from the developed world by callous Catholic supervisors.

Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity went from Scranton Pennsylvania, where he assaulted several kids, to Paraguay (where he’s now second-in-command of a diocese).

Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul raped a Minnesota girl, Megan Peterson, just a few years ago. He returned to India and until recently, oversaw a group of schools there, even though his bishop knew he was a fugitive from justice. He’s being extradited now.)

Fr. Nicholas Aguilar Rivera, one of California’s most notorious and prolific predators, went from Los Angeles to Mexico.

Fr. William Christensen, who sexually assaulted boys in a St. Louis boarding school, was sent to Bangladesh, where he’s accused of molesting dozens more.

There are hundreds of such examples – predators from Belgium, England and Canada being sent to India, Uganda and the Philippines.

(And while Italy isn’t a developing nation, Rome is the literal and figurative power center of Catholicism, where millions of devout families – many with teenaged daughters -pass through every year. So it’s incredibly irresponsible for the U.S. Marianists to send Fr. Charles Miller to work there, after Miller molested at least one U.S. teenager. He’s still on the job today.)

So the bottom line is kids are being endangered, predators are being moved, and bishops are being callous, doing little or nothing to safeguard the vulnerable. That’s reckless and wrong.

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UNITED STATES
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | May 5, 2014

In a world where the pope fields questions from reporters on his airplane, it’s easy to overlook the significance of a press conference held by a mere cardinal, but the one Seàn O’Malley held Saturday was a landmark. For the first time, a Roman hierarch served notice that church leaders would be held accountable for covering up cases of sex abuse.

By way of discussing the progress of the first meeting of Pope Francis’ special commission on child abuse, O’Malley, the commission’s de facto head, put it this way:

Our concern is to make sure that there are clear and effective protocols to deal with situations where superiors of the church have not fulfilled their obligations to protect children. There are, theoretically I guess, canons that could apply here but obviously they have not been sufficient.

In other words, what we can expect from the commission is a formal process for disciplining bishops who don’t follow proper procedures for handling reported cases of sex abuse. And what will those procedures be?

Asked to comment on a recent statement from the Italian bishops conference that bishops are not under a legal obligation to report accusations to civil authorities, O’Malley replied, “Obviously, accountability should not be dependent upon legal obligations in the country when we have a moral obligation.”

In other words, the fact that legal obligations vary from country to country will not affect the standard of accountability recommended by the commission. It can be expected to put forward norms for handling abuse cases that set a floor under what bishops will be required to do.

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GENEVA
The New York Times

By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE
MAY 5, 2014

GENEVA — The Vatican faced sharp questioning by a United Nations panel on Monday about its response to the sexual abuse of children by priests and whether it was consistent with the church’s obligations under an international treaty against torture.

Appearing before a United Nations panel for the second time this year, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s representative in Geneva, immediately found himself at odds with members of the Committee Against Torture over the Holy See’s view that it is responsible for applying the treaty only to the few hundred inhabitants of the Vatican City state.

That position was countered in February by a United Nations child rights committee, which accused the Roman Catholic Church of putting its reputation and interests ahead of those of children and said the Holy See was also responsible, as the supreme power of the church, for ensuring implementation through individuals and institutions placed under its authority.

The Committee Against Torture had never encountered an attempt by a state party to the treaty to limit its application to only “a subdivision” of itself, the panel’s vice chairwoman, Felice D. Gaer, said.

The church’s limited interpretation of its obligations left “important gaps” in the coverage of the treaty — known formally as the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment — and was not consistent with its purpose, she said.

“The purpose of the convention is not being implemented in full,” she said.

Pope Francis announced the formation of a commission in December to advise on sexual abuse. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, briefing journalists at the weekend, said the panel would issue clear and effective protocols that would hold accountable senior clerics and officials who did not report suspected abuse.

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GENEVA
Techsonia

A Vatican delegation reappeared before a UN committee in Geneva over its record in dealing with child sex abuse by priests.

Vatican’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva Archbishop Silvano Tomasi stressed that the Vatican responsibility of implementing the U.N. treaty against torture applies within the walls of the Vatican City only. He added that the Holy See has no jurisdiction over every member of the Catholic Church and his power to prosecute abusive priests does not extend beyond the Vatican City. Tomasi said the state authorities are duty-bound to protect and take legal action against persons under their jurisdiction, if necessary.

In January of this year, a U.N. committee that watch over a vital treaty on children’s rights, accused the Holy See of protecting its own interests over the victims by allowing priests to rape and molested thousands of children by means of its own policies and code of silence. The committee likewise declined a similar argument made by the Vatican trying to limit its responsibility.

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GENEVA
Thomson Reuters Foundation

* Committee asks dozens of questions of Vatican delegation
* Victims groups say Vatican splitting hairs with responses
* Catholic supporters say Church is now a model for others

By Philip Pullella and Stephanie Nebehay

VATICAN CITY/GENEVA, May 5 (Reuters) – A U.N. committee on torture grilled the Vatican on the Catholic Church’s child sexual abuse crisis on Monday, urging a permanent investigation system to end a “climate of impunity” prevailing for decades.

In a two-hour hearing in Geneva, the Committee Against Torture launched a barrage of questions to the Vatican delegation, asking about past policy decisions, the juridical distinction between the Holy See and Vatican City, and information on specific cases.

The Vatican, which will issue its formal answers on Tuesday, said the Church has been “doing its own house cleaning” for 10 years, was determined to protect children and that measures put in place have led to a decline in cases of sexual abuse of children by priests.

George Tugushi, a committee member from Georgia, said a recently formed international commission advising Pope Francis on how to deal with sexual abuse, was a very positive step but not enough.

“The commission may need help to ensure all cases are reported properly and begin to change the climate of impunity but it cannot be considered in our opinion as a substitute for a functioning investigation system,” he told the Vatican delegation headed by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By David Harris | dharris5@mlive.com
on May 05, 2014

GRAND BLANC, MI – Holy Family Catholic School priest Ken Coughlin has been placed on administrative leave as officials investigate claims of inappropriate touching of the hands and legs of two students, according to a statement released by the Diocese of Lansing.

Coughlin has denied that anything inappropriate happened, according to the diocese statement.

Grand Blanc Police Lt. Chris Rhind said the claims are being investigated by police but declined further comment.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 5 May 2014 (VIS) – Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, head of the the Holy See delegation before the United Nations in Geneva, presented his initial periodical report to the Committee on the Convention against Torture (CAT), which is currently holding its 52nd session.

In his comprehensive report, the prelate remarks that “the Holy See acceded to the Convention against Torture (CAT) on 22 June 2002. It did so with the very clear and direct intention that this Convention applied to Vatican City State (VCS). In its capacity as the sovereign of Vatican City State, the Holy See provided an important ‘Interpretative Declaration’ that shows its approach to the CAT”.

“In the first place, the Interpretative Declaration lauds the Convention as a worthy instrument for the defence against acts of torture when it says: ‘The Holy See considers the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment a valid and suitable instrument for fighting against acts that constitute a serious offence against the dignity of the human person’. In this sense indeed, the Holy See wished to express the harmony of its own principles and vision of the human person with those ideals and practices set forth in the Convention against Torture”.

“The Interpretative Declaration insists that ‘The Holy See, in becoming a party to the Convention on behalf of the Vatican City State, undertakes to apply it insofar as it is compatible, in practice, with the peculiar nature of that State’. As such, in regard to the application of the Convention and any examination, questions or criticisms, or implementation thereof, the Holy See intends to focus exclusively on Vatican City State, respecting the international sovereignty of this State and the legitimate and specific authority of the Convention and of the Committee competent to examine State reports”.

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GENEVA
The Daily Beast

The Vatican’s ambassador to the United Nations did his best to help the Catholic Church shirk responsibility for sexual abuse by its clergy. On Monday, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi spoke before the UN, claiming that the Vatican is only responsible for enforcing the standards of the UN Convention Against Torture within Vatican City, not the globe. He did admit that there was a difference between “the line of legal and moral responsibility,” but reasoned that the church should not be held responsible by the UN. If the UN does find that the sexual abuse by clergymen amounts to torture, the Vatican could face many, many more lawsuits, as there is no statute of limitations on torture cases.

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GENEVA
BBC News

The Vatican has told the United Nations that the Holy See’s powers to prosecute abusive priests do not extend beyond the tiny Vatican City state.

“The Holy See has no jurisdiction over every member of the Catholic Church,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said.

The archbishop, who is the papal envoy to the UN, was speaking in Geneva to the UN Committee against Torture.

Victims of clerical sex abuse argue that the Catholic Church has failed to protect children and shielded abusers.

They also argue that rape and molestation of children come under the terms of the UN Convention against Torture.

It is the second time this year that the Vatican is being scrutinised by the United Nations over its record in dealing with child sex abuse by priests.

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GENEVA
Expatica

A UN anti-torture watchdog on Monday began a two-day grilling of the Vatican over its efforts to stamp out child sex abuse by priests.

The hearing is the Vatican’s first since 2002, when it signed up to an international convention banning torture as well as cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

Victim support groups insist that the rape and molestation of children by the clergy and lay personnel falls under the terms of the convention.

They are hoping that the Vatican will face similarly-scathing criticism as it did in January when it came before a UN children’s rights watchdog.

That panel condemned the Vatican for failing to do enough to stamp out abuse and for allowing systematic cover-ups around the glove, despite pledges to adopt a zero-tolerance approach.

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GENEVA
Sun Herald

BY JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press
May 5, 2014

GENEVA — In its second grilling at the United Nations this year, the Vatican on Monday sought to limit its responsibility for the global priest sex abuse scandal by undercutting arguments it has violated an international treaty against torture and inhuman treatment.

The Vatican delegation’s appearance in Geneva is the first time that the committee that oversees the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which the Vatican ratified in 2002, has hauled the Holy See before its members.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva, lost no time asserting that its responsibility for enforcing the U.N. treaty against torture only applies within the confines of the tiny Vatican City, which has fewer than 1,000 inhabitants in an area less than half a square-kilometer in size, making it the smallest country in the world.

“The Holy See intends to focus exclusively on Vatican City state,” he told the committee. “State authorities are obligated to protect and when necessary to prosecute persons under their jurisdiction.”

Committee member Felice Gaer’s first question was to ask why the Vatican’s first report to the committee — the subject of the hearing this week — came nine years late. Gaer, an American human rights expert, then took aim at the church’s “alleged distinction” in its treaty responsibilities between Vatican City and the Holy See.

The differentiation, she said, “would create important gaps in the coverage” of the treaty and is a “troubling” bit of legalese.

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ROME
National Review

By Kathryn Jean Lopez

May 5, 2014

Rome — On Friday, my friend Ashley E. McGuire defended the Holy See Friday before a United Nations committee on torture on behalf of Catholic Voices USA (a group I help found). In an interview for National Review Online, we talk a bit about what’s going on here.

KJL: What was it like testifying on behalf of the Holy See?

MCGUIRE: I would use the same word that I used in my opening remarks to the committee: “surreal.” It is always an honor to stand up and defend the Church, but it was surreal to have to pack my bag and leave my world behind to fly thousands of miles to sit in a small room and tell a panel of men and women that no, the Church is not a house of torture. That should be obvious, but groups that hate the Church and everything that she stands for are trying to use this committee, just as they did the Committee on the Rights of the Child, to bully the Holy See.

KJL: Why bother defending the Holy See? Can’t it take care of itself? Isn’t God supposed to be on its side? Isn’t Pope Francis a superhero?

MCGUIRE: Catholics so often fall into the trap of thinking that it is only the job of someone with a collar to defend the Church. If the Second Vatican Council, which Pope Francis just affirmed by canonizing together the two men most emblematic of the reforms the Council brought, has taught us anything, it’s that the laity has a role to play as well. We see this in America, where the Department of Health and Human Services abortion-drug mandate has forced lay people to step up to the plate. And now we are seeing it in the international arena. We know that the truth will prevail in the end. But that does not give lay Catholics license to sit back and watch the Church struggle against a culture that is increasingly intolerant of her views.

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GENEVA
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, on Monday presented the Initial Periodic Report of the Holy See to the U.N.’s Committee on the Convention against Torture. The Holy See ratified the treaty in 2002.

We publish Archbishop Tomasi’s remarks below:

Mr. Chairperson, Members of the Committee,
Allow me, first of all, to extend cordial greetings to all the members of the Committee on the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In the presentation of the Initial Report of the Holy See, I wish to introduce the members of our Delegation present for this interactive dialogue. With me this morning are Monsignor Christophe El-Kassis and Professor Vincenzo Buonomo, of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, and Monsignor Richard Gyhra, Secretary of the Holy See Mission.

The Holy See acceded to the Convention against Torture (CAT) on June 22, 2002. It did so with the very clear and direct intention that this Convention applied to Vatican City State (VCS). In its capacity as the sovereign of Vatican City State, the Holy See provided an important “Interpretative Declaration” that shows its approach to the CAT. Such Declaration underlines the motives for accession to the Convention and expresses the moral support given to it, namely the defense of the human person as already indicated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

For the Holy See, the Interpretative Declaration provides a necessary hermeneutic to understand the motives for acceding to the Convention and also for considering the implementation of the Convention by the legal order of Vatican City State which is the very exercise we are engaging in at this moment in the consideration of the Initial Report of the Holy See to the CAT.

In this sense, my Delegation deems it worthwhile to reiterate several of the more salient points of the Interpretative Declaration so as to properly frame the consideration and discussions of the Initial Report of the Holy See.

In the first place, the Interpretative Declaration lauds the Convention as a worthy instrument for the defense against acts of torture when it says: “The Holy See considers the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment a valid and suitable instrument for fighting against acts that constitute a serious offence against the dignity of the human person.” In this sense indeed, the Holy See wished to express the harmony of its own principles and vision of the human person with those ideals and practices set forth in the Convention against Torture.

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GENEVA
Yahoo! News

By Jonathan Fowler

Geneva (AFP) – A UN anti-torture watchdog on Monday began a two-day grilling of the Vatican over its efforts to stamp out child sex abuse by priests.

The hearing is the Vatican’s first since 2002, when it signed up to an international convention banning torture as well as cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

Victim support groups insist that the rape and molestation of children by the clergy and lay personnel falls under the terms of the convention.

They are hoping that the Vatican will face similarly-scathing criticism as it did in January when it came before a UN children’s rights watchdog.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

EOIN BLACKWELL AAP MAY 05, 2014

THE conviction of a Christian Brother who confessed to abusing “unknown” children prevented other men from coming forward to report he abused them, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has also heard bringing sexual assault allegations 40 years after they happened was considered an extraordinary thing in the 1990s.

Brother Dick was convicted and sentenced to three-and-a-half years jail in 1994 after he confessed to 10 counts of unlawfully and indecently assaulting five “unknown” boys under the age of 14.

The commission heard double jeopardy laws prevented other men who were abused as children by the Christian Brother from coming forward because it was not known if they were among the five he had been convicted of abusing.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Jade Macmillan

The Christian Brothers who ran children’s homes in Western Australia in the 1940s, 50s and 60s did not consider the abuse of students a crime, a royal commission has heard.

Brother Anthony Shanahan, a former province leader of the Christian Brothers in WA, today gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Perth.

The inquiry is examining alleged sexual and physical abuse in four homes run by the Brothers in Perth, Tardun and Bindoon between 1947 and 1968.

Brother Shanahan told the hearing the mindset at the time meant abuse was not thought of “first and foremost” as a crime, but as a moral fault or failing.

“I think they saw it as something that was abhorrent, harmful – although I don’t think they understood it as harmful in the way we would now, in terms of consequences for the victim, but something that was abhorrent and harmful and that was the way they dealt with it,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By STEPHEN RYAN May 5, 2014

A VICTIM of paedophile priest Denis McAlinden said she was subjected to a ‘‘very cold’’ and ‘‘insensitive’’ interview by Father Brian Lucas, documents released by a special commission of inquiry stated.

The victim was molested by McAlinden and later disclosed the offending to Father Alan Hart while Bishop Leo Clark was also informed, the statement said.

Father Hart asked the victim if she wanted to go to the police, but she wrote that she didn’t want McAlinden to go to jail.

She said she wanted him supervised by the church and removed from having any contact with children.

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INDIA
NDTV

Written by Sneha Mary Koshy | Updated: May 05, 2014

Thrissur: A 44-year-old Catholic priest, who allegedly raped a 9-year-old girl in Thrissur, Kerala, has been arrested from Nagarcoil in Tamil Nadu. He had been on the run since April 25, after the girl’s family registered a police complaint claiming the priest had sexually assaulted the girl several times in April.

According to the police, the girl was sexually assaulted by the priest thrice in April, after he promised to give her free robes for the Holy Communion. The priest allegedly also took nude photographs of the child on his mobile phone.

The priest has been relieved of his duties by the Thrissur Arch Diocese.

The police have slapped charges under Section-376 (1) of the Indian Penal Code, Section-66 (a) of the IT Act and Section-4 of the Protection of Infants from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, apart from other provisions in the IPC, all of which are non-bailable clauses.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes & Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

The Catholic tradition of venerating the relic of a saint (in all churches worldwide) will now be accorded to John Paul II wherein Catholics line up to go kneel and kiss his relic encased in a small ornate gold and glass container as the priest holds and wipes it with a fragrant white cloth after each kiss. For John Paul II his relic is his blood that was drawn before he died (this is the first of its kinds, usually it’s a bone or a cloth worn by the saint). Parents will be bringing their children but what will they tell them why they are kissing his blood and what was his accomplishment as a saint – for children – as “the Holy Father”?

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Richard Leo McCaffrey was ordained a Jesuit priest of the New England Province in 1973. While a seminarian he taught school in Glenallen, Alaska and in his native Boston, Massachusetts. After ordination McCaffrey settled into ministry in the diocese of Fairbanks, working in parishes located in Tununak, Nightmute, Toksook Bay, Hooper Bay, Scammon Bay, Bethel, Russian Mission, Marshall, Barrow, Tanana and Fairbanks. He also held a number of prominent Chancery positions, including Chancellor. In 1992 he officially became a member of the Jesuit’s Oregon Province. McCaffrey was removed from ministry in 2005 after accusations emerged that he had sexually abused 10 and 11-year-old girls in Alaskan villages during the late 1970s and early1980s. The abuse was said to have involved at least three girls from three different parts of the state. He was sent to the Jesuit Colomobiere Community in Portland, Oregon, where he died May 7, 2006.

Ordained: May 26, 1973
Died: May 7, 2006

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

BY EOIN BLACKWELL AAP MAY 05, 2014

THE Christian Brothers regarded the physical and sexual abuse of children as abhorrent and a moral failing but not a criminal offence, a royal commission has been told.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has also heard double jeopardy laws prevented other men from coming forward to tell of their abuse at the hands of a Brother Dick, who was sentenced to three and a half years after confessing to abusing five “unknown” children.

Allegations of child sex abuse were not passed on to police because the order did not see them as a criminal matter.

“All I can assume, understand, is that there was a mindset that didn’t see this first and foremost as a crime; that it was something of a moral failing, contributing to the corruption of the child,” Brother Anthony Shanahan, the order’s former provincial leader for WA and SA, said on Monday.

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AUSTRALIA
Press TV (Iran)

The Royal Commission in Australia has begun a public hearing in the city of Perth to hear the stories of some of the victims of alleged child abuse by priests in orphanages.

The abuse allegedly occurred between 1947 and 1968 against boys, as young as seven, who were sent to Australia as child migrants. Witnesses have been recounting their stories in the hearing about the horrific abuse they were subjected to in the orphanages by the priests.

The Royal Commission will examine the four orphanages run by priests, namely the Bindoon Farm School, St Mary’s Agricultural School, St Vincent’s Orphanage Clontarf and Castledare Junior Orphanage. Priests in all the four orphanages have been accused of child sexual abuse.

In 1947, thousands of British child migrants were sent to institutions in Australia, one of Britain’s formal colonies, without the knowledge or consent of their parents.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Statement of the Holy See Press Office following the meeting of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors

Italian translation
Spanish translation

Original text

The members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors held their inaugural meeting May 1-3 at Domus Santa Marta in Vatican City. As was previously announced, the purpose of the meeting was to make recommendations to the Holy Father regarding the Commission’s functions and to propose additional members from different parts of the world. The members who took part in the meeting are Catherine Bonnet, France; Marie Collins, Ireland; Sheila Baroness Hollins, United Kingdom; Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley O.F.M. Cap., United States; Claudio Papale, Italy; Hanna Suchocka, Poland; Humberto Miguel Yáñez, S.J., Argentina; and Hans Zollner, S.J., Germany.

At the end of the meeting, during a Briefing at the Holy See Press Office, the following statement was issued on behalf of the Commission:

“As we begin our service together, we wish to express our heartfelt solidarity with all victims/survivors of sexual abuse as children and vulnerable adults and to share that, from the very beginning of our work, we have adopted the principle that the best interests of a child or vulnerable adult are primary when any decision is made.

During our meetings, each of us have been able to share our thoughts, experiences, and our aspirations for this Pontifical Commission. Responding to our Holy Father’s requests, these discussions focused on the Commission’s nature and purpose and on expanding the membership to include people from other geographical areas and other areas of expertise. Our conversations included many proposals for ways in which the Commission might collaborate with experts from different areas related to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. We also met with some people from the Roman Curia regarding areas for future cooperation, including representatives from the Secretariat of State, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Congregation for the Clergy, the Vatican Press Office, and the Vatican Gendarmerie.

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GENEVA
The Guardian (UK)

Lizzy Davies in Vatican City
The Guardian, Sunday 4 May 2014

The leadership of the Roman Catholic church faces a fresh grilling by UN human rights observers on Monday as a delegation from the Holy See makes its debut appearance before the Committee Against Torture (CAT) in Geneva.

Three months after the Vatican railed against the highly critical findings of a separate UN panel, the simmering tensions between the two bodies risk coming to boiling point again as sexual abuse victims and pro-choice advocates urge discussion of their respective issues, and Catholic groups push back against what they label “the new intolerance”.

Before the hearings on Monday and Tuesday, a Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, issued a sternly worded warning to the UN that it should not give in to pressure from “strongly ideological” NGOs which he said were seeking to force their agenda on to the proceedings.

“The extent to which this is specious and forced is clear to any unbiased observer,” he said, adding that the Vatican hoped for an “objective” dialogue that was “pertinent to the text of the [UN human rights] conventions and their objectives.

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GENEVA
Press TV (Iran)

A United Nations (UN) committee is to begin questioning the Vatican for the second time this year over the global child sex abuse scandal involving priests.

The committee meeting will start in Geneva, Switzerland, later on Monday and will focus its questions on torture and inhuman treatment.

Prior to the meeting, the Center for Constitutional Rights, a nonprofit legal group based in New York, submitted reports on behalf of victims to the committee.

The UN committee is to examine whether the Vatican’s record on child protection breaches the body’s Convention Against Torture and plans to present its final observations and recommendations on May 23.

Katherine Gallagher, a human rights attorney for the group, said that if the UN committee finds that the abuse amounts to torture and inhuman treatment, it could trigger a large number of abuse lawsuits dating back decades since there are no statute of limitations on torture cases.

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GENEVA
TribTown

By JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press
First Posted: May 05, 2014

GENEVA — The Vatican is bracing for its second grilling at the United Nations this year over the global priest sex abuse scandal, this time from the standpoint of torture and inhuman treatment.

A U.N. committee begins meeting Monday in Geneva to examine whether the Vatican’s record on child protection violates the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which it ratified in 2002. The Vatican argues its responsibility for enforcing the U.N. treaty against torture only applies within the confines of the tiny Vatican City, which has fewer than 1,000 inhabitants in an area less than half a square-kilometer in size, making it the smallest country in the world.

But a U.N. committee that monitors a key treaty on children’s rights blasted the Holy See in January, accusing it of systematically placing its own interests over those of victims by enabling priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children through its own policies and code of silence. And that committee rejected a similar argument the Vatican made trying to limit its responsibility.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A child abuse activist and survivor is “positive” the Catholic Church’s body investigating allegations of clerical sexual abuse will be more than just “a talking shop”.

Marie Collins, who sits on the investigative board, was speaking ahead of the Holy See’s testimony in front of the UN’s torture committee into the church’s handling of the sexual abuse crisis.

We are coming from very different perspectives but we all have one aim in mind, the protection of children and . . . I am happy at the moment that the meeting is addressing the issues I hoped it would address.

– MARIE COLLINS

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VATICAN CITY
Newsweek

By John Cornwell
Filed: 5/5/14

When she was 13 years old in 1960, Marie Collins underwent treatment for a bone infection in a Dublin hospital. In the privacy of a ward cubicle, she was raped by the hospital chaplain, Father Paul McGennis. She did not report the priest until 1995, some 35 years later. When she went public, she says, she received only “lies and deceit” from the archdiocese of Dublin. In 1996, the then archbishop of Dublin, Desmond Connell, refused to turn over McGennis’s file (detailing his known offences) to the police. The archbishop apologised for this in 2002. McGennis was sent to jail for multiple acts of abuse in 1997.

Today, Marie Collins is one of four lay women appointed by Pope Francis to an eight-member Vatican commission for the protection of children. The appointments have astonished the Catholic world for they place the women involved in positions of authority usually reserved for Cardinals and high-ranking clerics, demonstrating a dramatic alteration in papal regard for women and their scope for participation in Church governance. But how deep, and how lasting?

After the reforming Second Vatican Council of the mid 1960s, religious women united to improve their status, some even calling for a women’s priesthood. Successive popes outlawed even discussion of ordination for women. John Paul II made it a matter of infallibility that women could never be priests. Even as feminist theology flourished in universities throughout the world, the hierarchies continued to promote an ideal of Catholic womanhood as the embodied virtues of the Virgin Mary – chastity and obedience.

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MICHIGAN
Roman Catholic Diocese of Lansing

An allegation of inappropriate touching has been made against Father Ken Coughlin. The allegation involves touching of two students on their legs and hands. Father Coughlin denies that anything inappropriate happened. Under Michigan law and Diocese of Lansing policy, the Michigan office of Child Protective Services (CPS) has been notified, and an investigation has begun. The school, the parish, and the diocese are fully cooperating with the investigation. Until the investigation has been completed, Father Coughlin will be away from Holy Family parish on administrative leave. Please keep all involved in your prayers.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Times

By Meredith Somers-The Washington Times Sunday, May 4, 2014

The Vatican is bracing for a blistering session this week before the U.N. Committee Against Torture, which is expected to address the Holy See’s handling of its churchwide sexual abuse scandal and its infringement on human rights.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, warned against “ideological pressure” if the U.N. panel veers off topic like its sibling U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child did in a report earlier this year.

“A contributory factor is often the pressure exercised over the Committees and public opinion by [nongovernmental organizations] with a strong ideological character and orientation, to bring the issue of the sexual abuse of minors into the discussion on torture, a matter which relates instead to the Convention on the rights of the child,” Father Lombardi said. “The extent to which this is instrumental and forced is clear to any unbiased observer.”

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child rebuked the Vatican in February for its handling of the sexual abuse scandal and suggested that the Catholic Church update its canon to approve homosexuality, abortion, birth control and premarital sex.

The Vatican is a signatory to the anti-torture and child protection treaties, both of which require periodic reports about efforts to implement policies and promote change.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Mon, May 5, 2014

For the second time in the past five months, the Holy See will this morning find itself “in the dock” at the United Nations in Geneva when it is due to testify before the Committee Against Torture. Last February the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a damning condemnation of the Catholic Church’s handling of its clerical sex abuse crisis, accusing it of being more concerned with protecting its reputation and its abuser priests rather than with protecting children.

With sex abuse victims groups such as US lobby Snap having submitted reports to the Committee Against Torture, the Holy See is bracing itself for more criticism.

While Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi argued last Friday that the convention against torture applied essentially to “criminal legislation, criminal procedure, the prison system and international relations in the legal domain”, Snap said: “Throughout the world, children and vulnerable adults have been and continue to be subjected to widespread and systemic rape and sexual violence by priests and others associated with the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican’s policies and practices enable this violence.

“The Committee Against Torture has been clear that rape and sexual violence constitute forms of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

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MICHIGAN
MINBC

by Stephanie Parkinson

GRAND BLANC — A Catholic priest from a Grand Blanc church is facing allegations of inappropriate touching of students.

Father Ken Coughlin from the Church of the Holy Family has been removed from his post while allegations against him are investigated.

According to the Diocese of Lansing, the allegations being made against the pastor are of inappropriate touching of the hands and legs of students. A diocesan official tells NBC25 the allegations involve two students.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A woman who was abused when she was a girl by a Catholic priest, is once again submitting evidence to the United Nations against the Vatican.

Sue Cox from Gaydon in Warwickshire, leads a group called Survivors Voice Europe – representing people who were abused by priests. This week the Vatican is appearing before the UN’s Committee Against Torture to defend its human rights record- as all nations must do which sign up to the UN charter.

Lawyers for Sue Cox’s organisation say the abuse carried out by priests amounts to torture. The Vatican has previously apologised for abuse carried out by priests.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

COLLEEN EGAN The West Australian
May 4, 2014

Amid the gut-wrenching tales of cruelty and sin at this week’s hearings of the royal commission came a ray of sunshine in the lives of two old boys.

Tony Page and Eddie Cogan had not seen each other for 67 years before spotting one another in the public gallery.

Mr Page, 82, and Mr Cogan, 77, were child migrants, shipped from Britain for a supposedly better life and raised in the harsh environs of the Christian Brothers’ orphanage at Tardun.

The two elderly men repeatedly embraced, eyes misting with tears of joy and warmth.

“We’re brothers,” Mr Page said, grinning.

“That’s right,” his old friend said. “Brothers, here we are, after 67 years. As youngsters we were all brothers because we didn’t have anyone else.”

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Senior members of the Christian Brothers in Australia will be in the witness box when a royal commission hearing into child sexual abuse resumes in Perth.

The hearing which started last week is examining how the Catholic religious order handled sex abuse allegations in four of its facilities in Western Australia.

Early last week survivors from four residences – Bindoon, Castledare, Clontarf and Tardun – told of extreme physical and sexual abuse by the Christian Brothers between 1947 and 1968.

The commission has also heard evidence about how civil litigation against the order in the mid-1990s was handled.

Howard Harrison, lawyer for the order, said they had a misplaced prejudice against physical and sexual abuse survivors who pursued them through the courts in the 1990s.

He said they might have had the “ill-informed” attitude that people seeking compensation through the courts were somehow less deserving.

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INDIA
India Today

A Catholic priest has been arrested in Tamil Nadu for allegedly sexually abusing a nine-year-old girl and then clicking her obscene pictures on his phone.

On the run since the last week of April, Raju Kokkan, 44, of the Thrissur Archdiocese was caught by a team of police officials near Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, on Sunday. Nagercoil is 70 km from Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala. “He has been arrested and will be presented in court by Monday evening,” Thrissur district police chief P. Prakash told the news agency IANS.

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INDIA
Kashmir Dispatch

04 May 2014. Written by Thrissur (Kerala): IANS

A Catholic priest was arrested Sunday after a nine-year-old complained of sexual exploitation, police said.

Raju Kokkan, 44, of the Thrissur Archdiocese was on the run since the last week of April. He was nabbed by a team of police officials near Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu Sunday.

Nagercoil is 70 km from Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala.

“He has been arrested and will be presented in court by Monday evening,” Thrissur district police chief P. Prakash told IANS.

The priest went into hiding after the girl’s parents complained to the police here.

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VATICANO
euronews

A Comissão criada pelo Papa Francisco para investigar os abusos sexuais de menores na igreja católica considera “prioritário” o bem-estar das crianças e dos adultos considerados vulneráveis. O grupo vai desenvolver “procedimentos claros” para garantir que os responsáveis por crimes de abuso sexual “responsam pelos seus atos”, independentemente do nível que ocupem no clero.

Terminou este sábado a primeira série de reuniões da comissão especial criada em março e que integra oito elementos, entre eles o cardeal de Boston, Sean O’Malley, e uma irlandesa, Marie Collins, vítima de abusos sexuais por parte de um padre quando era jovem.

As reuniões iniciaram-se na quinta-feira, 1 de maio, prolongaram-se por três dias e decorreram na Casa de Santa Marta, a residência do Papa no Vaticano. No final, Marie Collins referiu ter ficado com “uma perceção muito positiva” do trabalho efetuado inclusive sobre a questão da “responsabilidade” dos autores dos crimes.

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ROME
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Sat, May 3, 2014

Clerical sex abuse campaigner Marie Collins today said that she had a “positive” feeling about the Holy See’s new child protection body, the Pontifical Commission for Minors.

Speaking at a Vatican press conference at the end of three days of meetings in Rome, Ms Collins, who is one of eight people currently serving on the commission, said: “I come away with a very positive feeling from the meetings.

“We are coming from very different perspectives but we all have one aim in mind, the protection of children and part of that is accountability for those who don’t protect children.

“I am happy at the moment that the meeting is addressing the issues I hoped it would address. Obviously we are just starting and you can only achieve a certain amount in two days but I think that what we have achieved in these two days has given us a very good idea of the direction we want to go in, what our initial aims will be.”

The Council for Minors, which contains four women, five lay people and three anglophones, was originally announced last December but it was holding its first meetings this week.

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MEXICO
Proceso

COLUMBA VÉRTIZ DE LA FUENTE
4 DE MAYO DE 2014
REPORTAJE ESPECIAL

[Summary: Luis Urquiza, director of the film Perfect Obedience which was inspired by pedophile Father Marcial Maciel, said the film is of high quality and was filmed in a responsible manner. It was released a few days after the canonization of Pope John Paul II but he said it is a coincidence.]

El director Luis Urquiza habla de su debut fílmico “Obediencia perfecta”, largometraje de ficción inspirado en la personalidad real del padre pederastra Marcial Maciel, y de cómo fue protegido por la jerarquía católica. Con argumento de Ernesto Alcocer (Perversidad) y Urquiza, esta polémica cinta la protagoniza Juan Manuel Bernal (en el papel del cura Ángel de la Cruz), entrevistado también junto a los actores adolescentes Sebastián Aguirre y Alejandro de Hoyos, así como una víctima verdadera de Maciel, José Barba, entre otros.

MÉXICO, D.F. (Proceso).- Por primera vez se filma una película de ficción sobre los abusos sexuales del sacerdote mexicano Marcial Maciel, fundador de la congregación católica Legionarios de Cristo.

A decir de Luis Urquiza, quien con este largometraje debuta como director cinematográfico, no le apostó al escándalo:

“Hicimos un largometraje pensando en un producto de calidad y en el público. Es una cinta fina y no de mal gusto. Rodamos un proyecto con responsabilidad. Que se estrene a unos días de que se haya canonizado a Juan Pablo II es una coincidencia, tampoco se trata de provocar a la Iglesia. No juzgo, yo retomo lo que investigaron los medios.”

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CANADA
Chronicle-Herald

MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE STAFF REPORTER
Published May 4, 2014

A former altar boy now in his 70s is suing the Roman Catholic Church, alleging he was sexually abused by a now-deceased priest.

According to a court document, Emile Joseph Blinn alleges he was abused in the 1950s by the late Father Denis Robichaud when the cleric was the parish priest in the Corberrie, Digby County, area.

Blinn was about 14 when the alleged sex attacks took place, says a notice of action recently filed with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Co-defendants are the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax and the Catholic Diocese of Yarmouth.

Starting in or around 1956, the court document says, “Father Robichaud sexually abused, assaulted and molested the plaintiff.” Blinn’s allegations have not been proved in court.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 2 May 2014)

Terrence Melville Pidoto, aged 69, who has had a long career as a Catholic priest in parishes around Melbourne, was charged in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 1 May 2014 with multiple child-sex offences.

The court conducted a brief administrative procedure during which the prosecutor filed the charges in court.

Terrence Pidoto, who currently resides near Ararat in western Victoria, appeared in court via a video link.

According to court documents, the charges against Pidoto comprise 15 counts of indecent assault, allegedly committed against eight young males.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

A Catholic priest in the Jesuit Order, Father David Rankin (now aged 79), is pleading guilty to historical acts of indecency on young boys in Sydney. The offences occurred in the 1960s when Rankin was a lay teacher before he joined the priesthood.

On 30 April 2014, Father Rankin (full name Gregory David Rankin) appeared in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court for pre-sentence proceedings. He confirmed his guilty plea.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on a later date.

According to court documents, David Rankin was a lay teacher at Northbridge Primary School in northern Sydney when he committed 11 acts of indecency on three boys in the 1960s.

The court documents said Rankin molested one boy after volunteering to tutor the 11-year-old after school in late 1963. The abuse continued at tri-weekly tutoring sessions the following year.

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OREGON
Oregonian

By Brent Hunsberger | itsonlymoneyblog@gmail.com
on May 03, 2014

Time to follow up on recent columns:

Oregon regulators are investigating whether the Archdiocese of Portland violated state law by failing to properly notify employees and volunteers that they could be victims of tax-return fraud.

The Oregon Division of Finance and Corporate Securities has received two complaints from consumers about the Archdiocese, which oversees schools and parishes serving 418,000 Catholics in western Oregon. The complaints allege the Archdiocese failed to properly alert past and present employees and volunteers that their Social Security numbers might be compromised.

Hundreds have reported being victims of tax-return fraud, Archdiocese spokesman Bud Bunce said. All submitted those numbers as part of background checks before they begin working with youth in parishes and schools.

They learned of the crime when they filed their federal tax return, only to have the Internal Revenue Service reject it because one already had been filed using their Social Security number. Beaverton police took 39 reports of identity theft from Jesuit High School alone, department spokesman Mike Rowe said.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

by BRIAN FRAGA 05/02/2014

The Holy See is bracing itself for another hostile United Nations panel that may challenge the Catholic Church’s moral teachings in light of an international treaty that prohibits torture.

On May 5-6, the Holy See will present its initial periodic report to the U.N. Committee on the Convention Against Torture during the committee’s 52nd Session at the Palais Wilson in Geneva, Switzerland.

The committee, which monitors U.N. member states’ implementation of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, will present its “concluding observations” 17 days after the session.

The Holy See signed the anti-torture treaty on behalf of Vatican City State in June 2002. During the U.N. committee’s session, the Holy See delegation will explain how Vatican City State, through legislative changes, has sought to comply with the treaty. The Holy See will also present the Catholic Church’s teachings on the dignity and rights of the human person to further illuminate its opposition to torture and cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment.

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CALIFORNIA
KFBK

The clergy sex abuse panel formed by Pope Francis promises to develop new rules holding church officials accountable for not reporting suspected abuse.

Linda Pieczynski with the reform group “Call to Action” thinks the rules must be retro-active, so past offenders are punished. ‘If we let all those people off the hook then that sends a terrible message to the victims and it doesn’t hold the true perpetrators of the cover-up responsible,’ says Pieczynski.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

Posted by Renee Schiavone (Editor) , May 03, 2014

Editor’s Note: The original version of this story was published May 02, 2014 at 6:40 p.m., but has been updated with additional details in the case.

PALM SPRINGS, Calif— A woman filed a lawsuit in Palm Springs Friday alleging that a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sexually abused and subsequently fathered a child with her while she was 13 and he was serving in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, and church leaders tried to hide what had happened.

Rancho Cucamonga resident Jacqueline Tyler filed the suit against the unnamed defendant — said to be in his 20s at the time of the alleged abuse in July to November 1985 — the Mormon church and the bishop of the church’s Palm Desert ward.

The complaint alleges that the missionary committed “repeated acts of childhood sexual abuse,” including fondling and sex, at least once a week and “resulted in a child being born” in June 1986.

The defendant then allegedly paid for the pregnant girl to travel to New York, “where he attempted to cause (her) to miscarry by physically abusing her body” and sexually abused her again, according to the complaint.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

Sunday, May 4, 2014

By: Jordan Graham

A Vatican commission led by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley will create new policies to hold bishops and other church authorities accountable for failing to report suspected sexual abuse, a move experts say shows the church is taking the problem of pedophile priests more seriously than in the past.

“That reflects a changing culture at the top,” said the Rev. James Bretzke, a professor of moral theology at Boston College.

Pope Francis created the commission in December to advise him on church sexual abuse, and its eight members met for the first time last week. O’Malley yesterday said current church laws could hold bishops accountable if they failed to protect children but those laws haven’t been enough and new protocols are needed. …

Phil Saviano, a survivor and former head of the New England chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the commission must emphasize punishing church superiors who did not report abuse in the past.

“There seems to be a lot of talk about accountability,” Saviano said. “Certainly that seems to be what a lot of victims are looking for, consequences.”

The Vatican is under increasing pressure to address the abuse, including by the United Nations. Tomorrow, the U.N. Committee against Torture will scrutinize the church’s response.

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VATICAN CITY
The Local

A Vatican panel said Saturday it would develop “best practices” for Catholic parishes to combat paedophile priests, but stopped short of urging mandatory reporting of abuse to police.

“In time, we will propose initiatives to encourage local responsibility around the world and the mutual sharing of ‘best practices’ for the protection of all minors, including programmes for training, education, formation and responses to abuse,” the eight-member panel said in a statement.

“We see ensuring accountability in the Church as especially important, including developing means for effective and transparent protocols and processes,” said the panel, which includes prominent Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley and Irish abuse victim and campaigner Marie Collins.

The Vatican has been more proactive in investigating allegations of abuse and listening to victims in recent years and has promised zero tolerance for abusers.

But it faces a backlog of thousands of cases and has been criticised for failing to do enough to punish predatory priests or the senior clergymen who covered up for them.

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GENEVA
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF

Ahead of what’s likely to be another grilling tomorrow by United Nations officials over child sexual abuse, as well as matters such as abortion and homosexuality, the Vatican’s senior envoy in Geneva is projecting bravado.

“We can take a few knocks, especially for the sake of people’s welfare,” said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, an Italian prelate.

Tomasi spoke to the Globe ahead of an appearance in Geneva Monday before the UN’s Committee against Torture, part of a hearing to monitor implementation of a 1984 antitorture pact signed by 155 nations, among them the Holy See.

It comes on the heels of a similar date in January with the Committee for the Rights of the Child, which ended with a scathing report blasting the Vatican for fostering “impunity” for abusive clergy and pointedly urged that the church change its teachings on matters such as abortion, contraception, and gay marriage.

This time around, Tomasi seems determined to land a few punches, as well as taking them.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes & Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Vatican officials are being investigated by another committee at the United Nations this Monday and Tuesday. Three events will be carried live on the internet. One includes SNAP leaders from different countries and our attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights. The other two are the actual proceedings from the UN headquarters in Geneva. For details please see below!

Greetings from Geneva where, this Monday and Tuesday, the United Nations Committee Against Torture will question the Vatican about its record on child sexual violence. This is the second time this year the Vatican has been called by an international body to account for its handling of the crisis of sexual violence throughout the Catholic Church. CCR will be there again with our clients, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), to attend the proceedings and report back to survivors, advocates, and supporters via livestream. Tune in to our report-back on Tuesday, May 6, at 8:30 pm CET (2:30 pm EST).

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News (Australia)

Roman Catholic bishops should be held accountable if they fail to report suspected sexual abuse or protect children from paedophile priests, a panel advising Pope Francis says.

After holding its first meeting, the new Vatican advisory board says current church laws are out of date.

It says it will develop “clear and effective” rules to deal with the problem.

In a first for the Church, the board – made up of four men and four women – includes a woman who was abused by a priest when she was a child.

Board member Cardinal Sean O’Malley says a person’s rank in the Church should not be cause for special treatment or protection.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Herald

By Ken Potts

A pastor seduces women from his congregation who come to him for counseling. An attorney regularly propositions clients in divorce cases. A priest has a long-term affair with a married woman in his parish. A psychotherapist tries to persuade clients that having sex with him will help in overcoming their sexual problems. A physician is sexually provocative when alone with patients.

There is a phrase often used when such situations are revealed: sexual abuse. And we talk of the people — women, children, men — who have been so abused as “victims.”

“Abuse.” “Victims.” In private, some people struggle with these words. Especially when adults are involved, sooner or later someone will eventually ask, “Why didn’t she (or he) just say no?”

Usually the people who ask this question are fairly good at saying “no” themselves. They are generally secure in their own sense of worth and power. They trust their own judgment. Unfortunately, our own healthy self-worth and assertiveness can blind us to the reality that many people have not been taught these attitudes and skills. Women, especially, are often taught the very opposite in our culture.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

It is turning into a significant fortnight for the Vatican, which included a papal saint making doubleheader and an uneventful minor meeting of the Pope Francis’ overly touted new advisory “Commission on Minors”. In particular, the period included:

(1) Two new “pope saints” and a third in the wings, as described below;

(2) Two tributes, by well regarded Catholic thinkers in a leading lay Catholic publication of top Vatican critic, Fr. Hans Kung, here

[National Catholic Reporter]

(3) Two critiques and a brief history of the priest abuse scandal by Fr. Thomas Doyle, the leading expert and advocate: one critique here

[National Catholic Reporter]

; and the history here

[Crusade Against Clergy Abuse]

while the other critique by Fr. Doyle of the current Vatican failures is set out below;

( 4) The release of the sworn depositions of former Vicar General of the Minneapolis Archdiocese (USA), Fr. Kevin McDonough, here

[Minnesota Public Radio] ; and of his Archbishop Nienstedt here

[Minnesota Public Radio] ;and

(5) Two developments on the Vatican’s “slow walk stonewalling” on holding bishops accountable for protecting children—a “going through the motions” preliminary meeting of the elusive new papal advisory Commission on Minors and a review of Vatican stonewalling at next week’s UN Committee on Torture hearings in Geneva.

As Vatican representatives prepare to testify before a United Nations inquiry into torture , a Vatican official warned that it would be “deceptive” to link torture with the pedophilia scandals that have swept the Catholic church. The Vatican’s chief spokesman, Fr. Lombardi, said Friday, 5/2, that the Convention Against Torture, endorsed by the Vatican in 2002, was one of the most important in the U.N.’s ambit. Lombardi also stressed in a statement the Holy See’s “strong commitment against any form of torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.”

But Lombardi urged the U.N. committee to resist pressure from human rights activists that are intent on including the sexual abuse of minors in a discussion about torture. Tens of thousands of children sexually abused, often brutally by priests, likely see this differently than childless and celibate Jesuits like Fr. Lombardi and Pope Francis.

SNAP, the survivors advocacy group, recently indicated that hundreds of children and adults were still being “sexually violated, tortured and assaulted” by Catholic priests. “Torture and violence can be subtle and manipulative. Or it can be blatant and brutal,” said SNAP President Barbara Blaine. “Either way, it’s horribly destructive to the human spirit, especially when inflicted on the young by the powerful, on the truly devout by the allegedly holy.” She added: “Nothing has succeeded in getting Vatican officials to stop this violence”.

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UNITED STATES
skipshea

Posted on May 4, 2014 by skipshea

The Vatican’s panel on sexual abuse of children said today that they will come out with “clear and effective” protocols to hold bishops and cardinals responsible if they do not report the crimes of sexual abuse to children. They failed to mention what the protocols would be and who exactly they are supposed to report the crime to, civil authorities or Vatican authorities.

Boston’s own Cardinal Sean O’Malley spoke from the Vatican saying “There is so much ignorance around this topic, so much denial.”

Meanwhile, somewhere else but still within the walls of the Vatican, Rev. Federico Lombardi the Vatican spokesman said that sexual abuse of children isn’t the same as torture in regard to the Vatican’s appearance before the U.N.’s Convention against Torture Committee

According to Josephine McKenna’s story in the Religious News Service: “He urged the U.N. committee, which is holding three weeks of hearings in Geneva, to resist pressure from nongovernmental organizations “with a strong ideological character” that are intent on including the sexual abuse of minors in a discussion about torture. “The extent to which this is deceptive and forced is clear to any unbiased observer,” Lombardi said.”

He feels the Vatican is being victimized by victims rights advocates.

Hey Cardinal Sean, I think I found some of that ignorance you were talking about.

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UNITED STATES
Truthout

Saturday, 03 May 2014
By Michael Gallagher, The Contrary Perspective | Op-Ed

Maureen Dowd, in her recent New York Times column (“A Saint, He Ain’t”), was, unfortunately, one of the few commentators on John Paul II’s canonization bold enough to voice a dissent.

I, for one, wholly agree with her misgivings. My only problem is that she should have expressed a few more. As heinous, she rightly notes, as was John Paul’s failure to take action with regard to the clerical sexual abuse scandal and, though she fails to mention it, his wallowing in self-pity when it was no longer possible to ignore it (“That this should fall upon me in my old age!” would have been red meat to a Devil’s Advocate fresh out of Infernal Law School if John Paul hadn’t abolished the office)—there were other significant transgressions as well.

The most serious of these had to do with Latin America and nuclear weapons. North American pundits, including Ms. Dowd, have next to nothing to say about the former and nothing at all about the latter.

To put it simply, John Paul, in his eagerness to gain America’s material support in liberating his native land (Poland got its first fax machines thanks to his good friend Ronald Reagan), had no qualms about selling Latin America down the river. He condemned Liberation Theology, acclaimed at the Latin American bishops’ conference in Puebla, Mexico, as Marxist-inspired and charged God’s Rottweiler (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s not-so-affectionate nickname) to put its proponents in their place. This, ironically enough, while he himself was ignoring Ratzinger’s warnings about two of John Paul’s favorites, the pedophile monk Hans Hermann Groer, whom he made archbishop of Vienna, and the notorious “Fr. Maciel,” the founder of the Legion of Christ and wooer of rich Mexican widows, perhaps the most versatile sexual predator in the history of the Church, which is going some.

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VATICAN CITY
Aljazeera America

May 3, 2014

A Vatican commission said Saturday it would develop “best practices” for Catholic parishes to combat pedophile priests, but stopped short of urging mandatory reporting of abuse to police.

“In time, we will propose initiatives to encourage local responsibility around the world and the mutual sharing of ‘best practices’ for the protection of all minors, including programs for training, education, formation and responses to abuse,” the eight-member Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said in a statement.

“We see ensuring accountability in the Church as especially important, including developing means for effective and transparent protocols and processes,” said the commission, which includes prominent Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley and Irish abuse victim and campaigner Marie Collins.

The Vatican has been more proactive in investigating allegations of abuse and listening to victims in recent years and has promised zero tolerance for abusers.

But it faces a backlog of thousands of cases and has been criticized for failing to do enough to punish predatory priests or the senior clergymen who’ve covered up for them.

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GENEVA
Daily Caller

Scott Greer
Associate Editor

The United Nations Committee Against Torture is calling upon a holy subject to testify and defend themselves against claims of human rights abuse — the Vatican.

The UN torture panel is investigating the Vatican’s alleged role in doing little to prevent regimes that flagrantly abused human rights and practiced torture in countries where the Catholic Church had a prominent place. According to the UN’s report, the Vatican — which is also a nation-state — had a obligation to do everything in its power to prevent the abuses perpetuated by cruel governments and needs to answer for its record during its testimony on Monday.

“The Holy See notes that in times past, cruel practices were commonly used by legitimate governments to maintain law and order, often without protest from the pastors of the church, who themselves adopted in their own tribunals the prescriptions of Roman law concerning torture,” reads the Vatican’s report. “Regrettable as these facts are, the church always taught the duty of clemency and mercy.”

According to Fox News, it is considered standard procedure to call one of the signatories of the committee’s convention before the panel and the Vatican happens to be one of the countries that agreed to its ramifications.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

After the Vatican’s resounding defeat last February when the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child condemned the Vatican for its crimes against children, http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2014/02/un-condemns-vatican-for-crimes-against.html , the Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team has now expanded its base: It’s not only the Vatican Press – whose hypocritical announcements was made by Cardinal O’Malley today – but the mainstream media who are rebuffing the UN loud and clear (see below) . Their messages are uniform: the Vatican is “above the law” because as a “religious church” its practises and teachings are inspired by great Christian scholars and saints. Well, well, now, wait a minute now, those Vatican Pied Pipers mean – you know who – Saint John Paul II the Great? Speaking of the Devil, that JP2 the Great who was canonized last Sunday wrote the most number of books and theological essays that must now be cited by all priests as “the official word of God” in all Vatican Catholic churches worldwide!

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VATICAN CITY
Perth Now

POPE Francis is publicly backing his new economy tsar, who is overhauling the Vatican’s administration amid grumblings from some Holy See bureaucrats about a perceived abrasive and secretive style.

Cardinal Pell, who in one of his last acts as the archbishop of Sydney appeared before a royal commission into child sex abuse in Australia, took over as head of the Vatican’s finances in Rome in March.

Pope Francis on Friday acknowledged Cardinal George Pell’s “tenacity” in calling the imposing Australian the Vatican’s resident “rugby player”.

The pope echoed Pell’s call for a new way of doing business at the Vatican in urging Holy See employees to embrace a “new mentality of evangelical service.”

“The path will not be easy and requires courage and determination,” he told members of Pell’s economy council, made up of cardinals and lay experts.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
MAY 3, 2014

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican commission advising Pope Francis on sexual abuse policy will develop “clear and effective protocols” to protect children from pedophile priests, including procedures to hold church authorities accountable if they neglect to act on cases of abuse, Vatican officials said Saturday.

The commission will advise the pope on adopting policies developed from the existing “best practices” for the protection of minors, which can be used worldwide. Recommendations to the pope will also include ways of better educating the clergy about the issue of child abuse and its devastating consequences.

“The protocols will address everyone,” regardless of their status in the church, “and will provide clear ways of dealing with those who perpetrate the abuse, and those who were negligent in protecting children,” Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston and one of the eight members of the commission, told reporters at a news briefing on Saturday.

Existing canon laws had not adequately or sufficiently addressed this issue, he acknowledged. “Our concern is to make sure that there are clear and effective protocols to deal with situations where people of the church did not fulfill their obligation to protect children,” he said.

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VATISKANSTADT
Radio Vatikan

Wie kann die katholische Weltkirche effektiv weltweit gegen sexuellen Missbrauch vorgehen? Auf diese Frage soll die neue Kinderschutzkommission Antworten geben, die Papst Franziskus Anfang Dezember eingerichtet hat. Das bislang achtköpfige Gremium, das Papst und vatikanischen Einrichtungen Empfehlungen im Bereich des Kinderschutzes geben soll, kam vom 1.-3. Mai im vatikanischen Gästehaus Santa Marta zu seiner ersten Sitzung zusammen. Auch der Papst tauschte sich mit den Mitgliedern aus.

Papst Franziskus teile die Pläne der Kommission, einen besonderen Schwerpunkt auf die Rechenschaftspflicht der katholischen Kirche und Transparenz in ihrem Kampf gegen Missbrauch zu setzen, referierte Kardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley aus Boston auf einer abschließenden Pressekonferenz an diesem Samstag im Vatikan. Im Zentrum der ersten Sitzung der Kommission hätten die zukünftigen Aufgaben der Kommission und neue mögliche Mitglieder gestanden.

„Unsere Diskussionen haben sich zunächst auf die Natur und die Mission der Kommission und auf weitere neue Mitglieder konzentriert, um Menschen aus anderen geographischen Gegenden und aus anderen Fachbereichen einzuschließen. Es wurden viele Vorschläge dazu gemacht, wie unsere Kommission mit Experten aus verschiedenen Bereichen zusammenarbeiten kann, die sich um den Schutz von Kindern und verletzlichen Erwachsenen kümmern.“

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VATIKANSTADT
Tageblatt

“Wir haben uns auf den Grundsatz verständigt, dass das Wohl eines Kindes oder eines verletzlichen Erwachsenen Vorrang hat, wenn eine Entscheidung getroffen werden muss”, erklärte das Gremium am Samstag nach seiner ersten Sitzung.

Die Kommission beklagte die “Ignoranz und Verdrängung”, die in vielen Weltregionen mit Blick auf solche Verbrechen herrschten. Die ganze Welt müsse “auf die tragischen Konsequenzen des sexuellen Missbrauchs” aufmerksam gemacht werden.

Die Expertenkommission war im März von Papst Franziskus eingesetzt worden. Ihr gehören neben Geistlichen wie dem Erzbischof von Boston, Seán Patrick O’Malley, auch Laien an, unter ihnen die Irin Marie Collins, die als Jugendliche von einem Priester sexuell missbraucht wurde.

“Klare Verfahren”

O’Malley erklärte, ein Ziel der Kommission sei es, “klare Verfahren” zum Umgang mit Missbrauchsfällen zu erarbeiten, um sicherzustellen, dass die Schuldigen zur Rechenschaft gezogen werden. Die achtköpfige Expertengruppe soll noch um weitere Mitglieder ergänzt werden.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Pope Francis’ Commission for the Protection of Minors, meeting in the Vatican, May 1-3, expressed solidarity with the victims/survivors of sexual abuse of minors by priests, and promises it will seek accountability for child protection “at all levels in the Church”

GERARD O’CONNELL
ROME

“I’m coming away with a very positive view from the meeting!” That was the verdict of Marie Collins, a married woman who had been sexually abused as a child by a priest in Dublin, Ireland, after participating in the first plenary meeting of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors set up by Pope Francis last December.

She gave her positive verdict on the Commission’s work at a press conference in the Vatican, May 3, sitting beside Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, one of the leading American bishops in the fight against child abuse of minors by clergy, and Fr Hans Zollner, the German Jesuit who organized a major international symposium on this matter at Rome’s Gregorian University three years ago.

Collins revealed that she had met Pope Francis twice in these days, “something I could not have even imagined happening some years ago”. She is the first victim of child abuse that Pope Francis has met since.

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VATICAN CITY
GMA News (Philippines)

By PHILIP PULLELLA, Reuters
May 4, 2014

VATICAN CITY – A commission advising Pope Francis on the sexual abuse crisis will recommend that negligent clerics be held accountable regardless of their rank in the Church, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley said on Saturday.

In many cases of abuse, most of which took place decades ago but surfaced in the past 15 years, bishops seeking to protect the Church’s reputation moved priests from parish to parish instead of defrocking them or handing them over to police.

The commission, made up of four men and four women from eight countries including an Irish woman who was a victim of abuse, met for the first time since its formation in March, holding talks with the pope and Vatican officials.

“We see ensuring accountability in the Church as especially important,” the commission said in a statement.

O’Malley, known as a pioneer for a more open and forceful approach to tackling the scandal since he published a database of Boston clergy accused of sexual abuse of minors online in 2011, said a person’s rank in the Church should not be cause for special treatment or protection.

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VATICAN CITY
Radio New Zealand

An advisory commission set up by the Vatican proposes holding bishops accountable if they fail to report suspected sexual abuse or protect children from paedophile priests.

After its first meeting, the commission said it would develop clear and effective protocols to deal with the problem.

The Catholic Church has been repeatedly accused of failing to respond to sexual abuse scandals. In many cases, bishops moved priests from parish to parish to protect the church’s reputation instead of defrocking them or handing them over to police.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston said on Saturday said a person’s rank in the Church should not be cause for special treatment or protection.

“Our concern is to make sure that there are clear and effective protocols to deal with superiors in the Church who have not fulfilled their obligations to protect children,” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
The West Australian

Vatican City (AFP) – A Vatican panel said Saturday it would develop “best practices” for Catholic parishes to combat paedophile priests, but stopped short of urging mandatory reporting of abuse to police.

“In time, we will propose initiatives to encourage local responsibility around the world and the mutual sharing of ‘best practices’ for the protection of all minors, including programmes for training, education, formation and responses to abuse,” the eight-member panel said in a statement.

“We see ensuring accountability in the Church as especially important, including developing means for effective and transparent protocols and processes,” said the panel, which includes prominent Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley and Irish abuse victim and campaigner Marie Collins.

The Vatican has been more proactive in investigating allegations of abuse and listening to victims in recent years and has promised zero tolerance for abusers.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Saturday May 3, 2014

Statement by: Barbara Dorris ( 314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

In a church with thousands of rules, no new rules are needed to fire officials who enable child sex crimes. Every single catholic prelate on earth has plenty of power, right now, to demote, discipline, denounce, and defrock, clerics who conceal crimes.

With sexual violence and cover ups, catholic officials are obsessively fixed on policies and protocols. But they absolutely ignore the one step that
matters: Actions.

We will believe in the discipline of bad bishops when we see it actually happen.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: David George King was ordained a Jesuit of the Oregon Province in 1949. He spent his career as an educator in Jesuit high schools in Washington state and Oregon. He died in 2002. King was accused in a 2004 lawsuit of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy in the late 1940s in Yakima, WA. The boy was said to have been a student at the high school to which King was assigned. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2006 due to “lack of activity”.

Ordained: 1949
Died: July 31, 2002

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

As part of the plans for the re-organisation of the Roman Curia, the Vatican is deliberating the possibility of creating a centralized coordination structure based on the model of the new Vatican Economy structure

GIACOMO GALEAZZI
VATICAN CITY

A Secretariat of Communications. As part of the plans to reorganise the Curia, the Vatican is looking into the possibility of introducing a central coordination body along the lines of the Vatican structure for the Economy. All communications sections (which are currently split into various Curia offices: press office, Pontifical Council for Social Communications, CTV, Vatican radio, L’Osservatore Romano) would be centralized and grouped into one single entity.

Last Wednesday, Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, spoke at the professional seminar held by the Faculty of Institutional Communications at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross on the theme: “Creative Strategies for Promoting Cultural Change”. In his speech – a summary of which was given by Vatican Radio – he announced an update to the communication of the Holy Father’s message to the world. And so we have yet seen everything: there are still many things we have to learn and see.”

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VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

Member of the Vatican’s sexual abuse advisory board, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, said current church laws could hold bishops accountable if they fail to do their jobs to protect children. But he said those laws had not been sufficient to date and new protocols were needed.

“Obviously our concern is to make sure that there are clear and effective protocols to deal with the situations where superiors of the church have not fulfilled their obligations to protect children,” O’Malley told reporters at the Vatican on Saturday.

That could include an effort toward creating an “open process” that “would hold people accountable for their responsibility to protect children.”

O’Malley said the commission would also address how to advise bishops’ conferences to improve their own guidelines for dealing with cases of abuse. The Italian bishops’ conference said recently they were under no legal obligation to report suspected abuse to police.

In a concluding statement the advisory board said church accountability was “especially important” to the members and that in their founding statutes they would emphasize the “devastating consequences” for victims when suspected abuse is not reported.

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