ABUSE TRACKER

MONTANA
Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
May 25, 2014

Survivors of sexual abuse have until 4:30 p.m. Aug. 11, 2014 to seek justice against their attackers. The Window that has been limited due to bankruptcy by the diocese is part of a federal court order. Anyone who was sexually abused by an employee of the diocese, or who believes the diocese is liable for their abuse before the Jan. 31 bankruptcy filing,

Those with claims must act within that time.

Abuse of children and the continued silence by the offenders needs to be prevented. If you suffered, saw, or suspected such events, it is important to know that there is help out there.

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GERMANY
Newstalk (Ireland)

Ruairi Casey

Sunday 25 May 2014

A German bishop who spent a total of €31 million on a new residence will be moved of the country by Church leaders.

Frankfurter Neue Presse reports that the College of Bishops in Rome is currently discussing re-assignment of Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who was suspended as bishop of Limburg late last year. Though his future is unclear, it has already been decided that he will no longer work in a German-speaking country.

The paper also understands that he is still resident on the property, paying only some utilities.

Tebartz-van Elst became attained notoriety in Germany after the extent of his spending was made public. Expenses for the building included a €213,000 fish tank, €1.73 million on windows, and €20,000 on light switches.

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WASHINGTON
The Yakima Herald-Republic

Michele J. Charvet
Special to The Yakima Herald-Republic

I used to sled down Franklin Park terraces in winter. Summer was full of swimming, bike riding, and eating Yakima Big Bars. In autumn, I picked up chestnuts that lay lazily on lawns and streets as I walked home from school. Spring held the promise that summer vacation was not far away. But then, one spring, it all changed for me, as it has for too many children across the Earth. Like thieves in the night, Catholic priests touched and poked our bodies in our sexual areas. Agonizing darkness and misplaced self-loathing became our worlds.

Meanwhile, Pope John Paul ll was enamoring the world with his charisma, all the while knowing his clergy was sexually molesting children. He chose to do nothing. He chose his black-clothed clergy. He chose the bishops and cardinals. His choice was not the children.

It’s 2014 — crowds in Saint Peter’s Square are deliriously happy as John Paul II is declared a saint by Pope Francis I.

Visiting my hometown recently, my sister and I drove hastily past our childhood parish, St. Paul Cathedral. “This must be hard for you,” she said. “No,” I replied. “Sometimes, it is just easier not to feel.” We drove on to Calvary Cemetery, where my father was buried in April 1972. He died never knowing why his high school daughter had grown so distant, confused and depressed.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 25, 2014

The Canberra Times
Editorial

While it is self-evident the current government has many issues, the bulk of which seem to be financial, it should be careful not to lose sight of its responsibility to address a much broader range of community concerns than just the budget bottom line.

One of those concerns is the tragic issue of child abuse within a wide range of organisations including the Catholic Church, the Salvation Army and others. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hold a hearing in Canberra 15 days from now, having already conducted public hearings in most other states. While the public hearing will be limited to matters affecting the Marist Brothers, its chief executive officer, Janette Dines, has confirmed to this paper that it has already held 47 private sessions here after receiving more than 500 calls.

Nationally, there have been 12 public hearings and 1600 private sessions (in which the commissioners travel to the complainant if necessary) since the commission was established last May. The telephone hotline has logged about 12,000 calls, or close on 30 a day, since it was established at the beginning of last year.

At this stage, the commission’s mandate is due to expire in December. Unless the government grants an extension, and the funding needed for what is a necessarily costly process, its good works will cease. There is no question this would not be a good outcome. To allow this body to lapse would be to betray the trust already invested in it by many thousands of people in the hope that lasting change may be brought about.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Two complaints have been lodged against the Bishop of Winchester over how he dealt with the Anglican Church in Jersey, the BBC understands.

The Channel Islands split from the Diocese of Winchester in January after relations broke down between Bishop Tim Dakin and Jersey’s Dean, the Very Reverend Robert Key.

It stemmed from a dispute how abuse complaints were handled.

The Diocese of Winchester said it was not aware of any official complaints.

BBC Radio Jersey understands two formal complaints are being investigated by the registrar of the Archbishop of York after they were referred to the York Diocese by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

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NEW YORK
AM New York

By REUTERS May 23, 2014

Four Orthodox Jewish rabbis and one of their sons were indicted on Thursday on charges of kidnapping Jewish men and violently forcing them to grant divorces to their unhappy wives, New Jersey authorities said on Thursday.

Between 2009 and 2013, the rabbis – Mendel Epstein, Martin Wolmark, Binyamin Stimler and Jay Goldstein, who also went by “Yaakov” – kidnapped or tried to kidnap men and torture them with beatings and stun guns until they agreed to divorce their wives, according to the indictment filed in New Jersey federal court by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.

Orthodox Jewish women cannot get a divorce unless their husbands consent through a document known as a “get.” Experts say such kidnapping schemes are responses to so-called “get abuse,” in which husbands demand a larger share of the couple’s communal property before granting the divorce.

The rabbis face up to life in prison and a $250,000 fine for each kidnapping count if found guilty, Fishman said in a statement.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

STEPHEN MCMAHON HERALD SUN MAY 26, 2014

IMPROVING sexual abuse and family violence reporting are top of the agenda for the nation’s new top rabbi.

Melbourne’s longtime Jewish leader Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant will today be elevated to the role of president of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australia at its conference in Caulfield — making him the defacto leader of the Jewish community.

This will be the first time in six years a Victorian has held the position.

Rabbi Kluwgant said modernising the faith’s awareness around the dangers of sexual abuse and family violence were his top priorities.

This comes after a damaging police investigation into the handling of ­allegations of sexual abuse at Yeshiva College.

Numerous former college employees have been jailed for the abuse of dozens of students over several decades — but victims have accused the Executive Council of Australian Jewry of doing everything it could to downplay the scandal and abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

By GEMMA KHAICY May 25, 2014

This year’s Red Shield Appeal yielded both donations and heartwarming stories as people across the Illawarra shared some of their struggles to volunteers over the weekend.

On Sunday, the church received about $60,000 in donations.

“A family donated and commented on the wonderful support given by the Salvos in Wollongong while their child faced addiction problems,” said a Salvation Army spokeswoman.

A Vietnam veteran drove to the organisation’s office to donate because he had been helped by the church during the war.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (updated 24 May 2014)

This Broken Rites article is the most comprehensive account available about how the large Catholic order of Salesian Fathers harboured an Australian paedophile priest, Father Frank Klep, for many years – allowing him to commit sexual crimes against defenceless boys. With help from Broken Rites, some of his victims finally managed to expose Klep and the Salesians during three court cases. Since then, more victims have contacted the police, and on 26 May 2014 Klep is scheduled to be sentenced again for the third time.

Frank Gerard Klep was ordained as a priest of the Salesian teaching order in Melbourne in 1972. Years later, some ex-students revealed that they had been sexually abused by Father Klep when they were children in his “care”. However, the Salesian order protected Klep from any complaints.

Eventually, in 1994, some ex-students managed to get Klep convicted in Melbourne for indecently assaulting them, when they were aged 13, in the sick dormitory of a Salesian secondary school, Salesian College (also known as “Rupertswood”), at Sunbury in Melbourne’s north-west. The offences occurred in the 1970s but were covered up until the 1994 court case.

On the day of the Klep court case, a Broken Rites researcher was visiting the court building (for a different case) and discovered that a Catholic priest (Father Frank Klep) was in an adjoining courtroom on child-sex charges. Therefore, Broken Rites began researching Frank Klep and the church’s cover-up. Broken Rites later found more victims of Klep.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

May 2013: First lawsuit under new law is filed by John Doe 1, a man alleging abuse by former priest Tom Adamson in 1970s.

September: Whistleblower Jennifer Haselberger tells Minnesota Public Radio that top archdiocese officials knew about sexual misconduct of Curtis Wehmeyer years before he was found guilty in 2012 of abusing two boys.

October: Vicar General Peter Laird resigns following reports of archdiocese mishandling of priest abuse reports.

The Rev. Michael Keating takes leave of absence from Universityof St. Thomas after a young woman files suit.

Former Archbishop Harry Flynn steps down as chairman of the board of trustees at the University of St. Thomas.

Former Vicar General Kevin McDonough resigns from University of St. Thomas board.

Archdiocese creates task force to review abuse policies.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Chronology of clergy abuse, May 2013-present

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: May 24, 2014

Older misconduct cases may not have ever surfaced without Child Victim’s Act.

One year ago this month, Minnesota opened its courtroom doors to alleged victims of child sex abuse that occurred decades ago — a step that has rocked the Catholic Church as never before.

More than 40 lawsuits have been filed since then under the new Minnesota Child Victim’s Act, implicating at least 30 Catholic priests in sex crimes against children.

The lawsuits claim the church has mishandled, or covered up, serious abuse charges in every diocese in the state. Five of the six Minnesota dioceses have since made public the names of long-secret priest offenders, revealing more than 100 names to date.

For those who have bottled up memories of clergy abuse for decades, too nervous or fearful to report it, the law has spurred some to step forward, said Christy, a St. Paul mother who sued her abuser last year.

“It’s like a weight lifted from my shoulders,” said Christy, who did not want her last name used.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By FIONA HENDERSON May 23, 2014

SEVENTEEN institutions have been named on Ballarat’s child sexual abuse survivors’ group submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.

Nine of the institutions are local, with another eight from around Victoria, where abuse allegedly took place.

Survivor Peter Blenkiron said many individuals who had joined the submission were also taking major steps forward by changing from anonymous to named victims. …

The Ballarat institutions named include St Alipius Christian Brothers School, St Patrick’s Christian Brothers, Macarthur Street, Dean and Queen Street primary schools, St Patrick’s Secondary College, St Paul’s Technical College, St Joseph Boys’ Home and St Alipius Junior School, which was similar to a kindergarten.

Those named outside Ballarat include Geelong Grammar and St Augustine’s Orphanage in Geelong, St Joseph’s Technical College in Abbotsford, Christian Brothers College in Warrnambool, St Thomas Moore College in Forrest Hill, De La Salle College in Malvern, St Joseph’s Boys’ Home in Surrey Hills and Warragul Technical College.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Salvation Army says donations from its Red Shield Appeal not to fund compensation for victims of abuse

MICHAEL MADIGAN THE COURIER-MAIL MAY 24, 2014

CHILD sexual abuse and a tough federal Budget will both have an impact on this weekend’s annual Red Shield Appeal.

The Salvos have promised to prove that donations will not be used to fund compensation for victims of abuse.

Red Shield Appeal Queensland director Major Neil Dickson says the tax-deductible donations he hopes will total $1.3 million by Sunday night will all be subject to an audit the public can see if necessary.

The Salvos have been concerned by reports that money raised in their 50th Red Shield Appeal will go to victims of abuse identified in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse.

Commissioner James Condon, who heads the Salvos’ eastern territory including Queensland and New South Wales, has expressed shock and deep regret about revelations of sexual abuse, including allegations that children were abused at the Alkira Home at Indooroopilly.

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UNITED STATES
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Crawford

This month, the government took action against a large, powerful corporation for keeping silent about what it knew was a defective ignition switch that put people’s lives at risk. The feds levied a $35 million fine against General Motors.

One government official pointed out that it was clear that many people within the company, from workers to executives, had known about the issue for many years, but the CEO claims to have found out about the problem only recently.

We also learned that the company’s training materials discouraged employees from using words like “defect” or “dangerous” when reporting up the chain of command.

So why did it take so many years before the car manufacturer took action to disclose or offer to correct the problem?

And it appears the company may still be trying to minimize the problem, as it now admits at least 13 deaths were related to the defect. Advocates say the number is much higher, with at least 53 deaths related to the company’s inaction.

Now our Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation and many are calling on the government to bring charges against the workers and company officials who knew about the defect. The executive director of the Center for Auto Safety said, “That’s the only way you’re going to change GM’s behavior.”

Said Transportation Secretary Anthony Fox: “Literally, silence can kill.”

I agree, but GM isn’t the only large, powerful institution that has a history of hiding facts, minimizing dangerous threats and keeping quiet about much of what it knew. The silence inflicted harm on children and families and, yes, also led to many deaths.

So one must ask: Why has our government so far failed to act when religious or charitable institutions have acted with a similar disregard for the public’s safety?

For years, we have learned of similar dangerous and irresponsible actions by large and powerful institutions, such as the Boy Scouts of America, Penn State University, the Horace Mann School, Yeshiva University, the American Boy Choir School and the Roman Catholic Church. These institutions put self-interest and self-preservation before the need for children to be safe from known sexual predators. Many lives have been devastated by these deliberate actions and some, unable to cope with the overwhelming damage, have tragically taken their own lives.

I call on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to vigorously investigate the actions of religious and charitable institutions for their criminal attempts to conceal and minimize dangerous predators — actions that included the sexual abuse of children in this country. Ireland, Spain, Australia, Canada, Germany, Chile and several other European countries have done just that, to uncover the extent and impact of child sexual abuse upon the people of their country.

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ILLINOIS
The Raw Story

By Tom Boggioni
Saturday, May 24, 2014

A Chicago-area Catholic priest,who has campaigned in his parish against Internet pornography, has been arrested for publicly exposing himself at a gas station, reports WREX13.

Monsignor Aaron R. Brodeski, 44, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of public indecency relating to an incident at a Road Ranger Gas Station, where witnesses say he exposed himself inside the gas station and then again in the parking lot.

According to Winnebego County Sheriff Deputy Chief Dominic Iasparro, Brodeski’s actions were observed by adults but no children were present.

Employees at the gas station contacted authorities who were able to track Brodeski down after being provided with his license plate number.

Following the issuance of a warrant, Brodeski turned himself in to authorities and was released after posting bail.

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ALASKA
News Miner

By Rod Boyce / rboyce@newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS—The priest assigned to Sacred Heart Cathedral has been placed on administrative leave amid allegations of computer misconduct on the Internet, the Diocese of Fairbanks announced Friday evening.

The actions of Rev. Clint Landry, ordained as a priest three years ago, are being investigated by the FBI, according to Diocesan spokesman Robert Hannon.

Landry, 57, has not been charged with a crime.

Sacred Heart is the largest Catholic congregation in Fairbanks, with about 1,000 people attending Sunday services.

Landry, who presided at services at the church, is the parochial vicar assigned to Sacred Heart and is under the direction of Archbishop Roger L. Schwietz, the apostolic administrator overseeing the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks. The diocese is awaiting the appointment of a bishop to replace Bishop Donald Kettler, who was reassigned to Minnesota last year by Pope Francis.

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ALASKA
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 24, 2014

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — A Fairbanks priest has been placed on administrative leave while the FBI investigates his conduct online.

Police have declined to say what they’re looking for in the inquiry into the Rev. Clint Landry, a priest assigned to Sacred Heart Cathedral.

The Diocese of Fairbanks announced Landry’s leave on Friday night. Landry has not been charged with a crime. He was ordained three years ago.

Church officials say the reported misconduct involved the use of diocesan computers, and the diocese acted swiftly upon receiving a report of misconduct, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported (http://is.gd/P99N8t ).

“At the time we were notified of potential misconduct, immediate measures were taken,” said Ronnie Rosenberg, director of human resources and legal coordinator for the diocese. “The computer was secured, and law enforcement was notified.”

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UNITED STATES
These Stone Walls

Editor’s Note: This continues an ongoing series of TSW guest posts by Ryan A. MacDonald. Part One was “The Trial of Father MacRae: A Conspiracy of Fraud.” Part Two was “The Prison of Father MacRae: A Conspiracy of Silence.”

My first installment in this series of occasional guest articles on the story of Father Gordon MacRae was “The Trial of Father MacRae: A Conspiracy of Fraud” posted here in February. I have since learned that after it was published, These Stone Walls received a couple of unposted comments that could be construed as death threats. Both were from the same person using fake identities, and contained the same overtly threatening language, “Kill the priest, kill the priest, kill the priest!” They were posted by a man with an IP address in Eastern Massachusetts.

The man who posted them happens to be known to me, but he has been unaware of that fact until now. This man has tried to post other comments using fake names both on These Stone Walls and at other venues when commenters mention the case of Father Gordon MacRae. He seems to take very personally these efforts to uncover and publish the truth of this matter though he has no direct involvement in this story, and he has never even met Father MacRae. He appears to be highly motivated, however, to bury the truth of this case under the usual toxic rhetoric and hysteria that plague the subject of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse, and prevent constructive, rational investigation.

Like many members of SNAP, that writer does not post a lot of comments so much as he posts the same comment over and over again in any venue that will accept it. In the case of Father Gordon MacRae, this Toxic Avenger’s favorite comment is that MacRae “has publicly admitted to molesting children!” The claim is by no means new, but like so much of this case it has become part of a public mantra, a snowball that grew ever bigger as it rolled downhill. It is but the latest chapter in this perversion of justice. I want to thank our Massachusetts friend for raising it again and spreading it around until finally I was moved to take it up.

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UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

While the world yawns, survivors hear crickets

I think what they accomplished at the UN yesterday was amazing, yet not one mainstream paper has reported it with any significance and now the Pope is visiting the Middle East. Forget that the UN torture / clergy sex abuse announcement came out on the Friday before Memorial Day, it’s astonishing that SNAP doesn’t have every one of its local groups doing significant stuff locally to spread word about the UN committee decision yesterday.

I’m ready to mend fences, I emailed a couple L.A. SNAP people saying, why don’t we do something to publicize this and I got . . . crickets, nothing, no one has anything planned, they say they haven’t heard anything.

BUT I also just put the idea on my Facebook page and a SNAP volunteer in the Philippines thinks it’s a good idea. Maybe we should just spontaneously on our own say, hey, the UN is citing the Pope for the way bishops aided and abetted pedophiles, just like we’ve been saying here on our own for more than twenty years.

I’d go to a SNAP event in L.A. even though it will cost me to get there, as I think the thing at the UN yesterday was amazing. I don’t get why it isn’t being used as a rallying cry to reignite us and publicize it publicize it publicize it.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

Marist College Canberra headmaster Richard Sidorko met with students on Friday to explain the background to next month’s visit to the ACT by the sexual abuse royal commission.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is to conduct a public hearing on June 10 into the response of the Marist Brothers to allegations of child sexual abuse in schools in the ACT, NSW and Queensland.

A commission spokeswoman said the hearing would focus on abuses committed by Brother John Chute (aka Brother Kosta) and former Brother ZA.

Chute was jailed for two years plus another year of weekend detention in June 2008 after being found guilty of molesting six boys at the college in the 1980s.

Mr Sidorko said there had been an almost 100 per cent turnover in the college student body since that time and most of the boys had no knowledge of the events that had sparked the inquiry. Only 50 per cent of the current staff at the college were there in 2008.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

Australia’s national Royal Commission is investigating how the Catholic order of Marist Brothers have handled allegations of child sexual abuse in Marist schools. At a public hearing in Canberra (beginning on 10 June 2014), the focus is on Marist Brothers schools in Canberra, New South Wales and Queensland.

The hearing will focus particularly on how the Marists responded to complaints about two Brothers:

* Brother John Chute (also known as “Brother Kostka”) and
a former Brother who will be referred to by the code name “Brother ZA”.
*The inquiry will also examine:

* Any steps taken by the Marist authorities to report these allegations to the police.
* The response of government and other agencies to these allegations.
* The settling of compensation claims for victims of Brother Chute and “Brother ZA.”

The Royal Commission says:

Any person or institution who believes that they have a direct and substantial interest in the scope and purpose of the public hearing is invited to lodge a written application for leave to appear at the public hearing by 30 May 2014.

Applications for leave to appear should be made using the form available on the Royal Commission website.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 24 May 2014)

The Marist Brothers knew that Brother Kostka John Chute was a danger to boys but they continued to inflict him on new victims. In 2008 some of Brother Kostka’s victims succeeded in getting him jailed for some of his crimes. And now, in June 2014, Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission is to hold a public hearing to examine how the Marists handled (or mis-handled) Brother Kostka and another Marist Brother.

Marist Brother John William Chute (who was aged 75 when in court in 2008), was also known by his “religious” name, “Brother Kostka”. He pleaded guilty in the Australian Capital Territory Magistrates Court to committing indecent acts against pupils at a Canberra school (Marist College) between 1985 and 1989 when they were aged 13 and 14.

On 22 June 2008, Kostka was sentenced to a total of six years jail, with the first two years in full-time prison, the third year to be served by weekend detention, and the remaining three years to be fully suspended.

An agreed statement of facts (submitted to the Supreme Court jointly by the prosecution and the defence) revealed that the parents of at least one victim reported Brother Kostka Chute’s abuse to the Marist College headmaster in 1986, but Kostka remained at the school until the end of 1993.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Northern Echo

A ROMAN Catholic priest has been arrested on suspicion of defrauding a large amount of cash from the church, it has been revealed.

Police seized thousands of pounds in euros and sterling currency when they searched the home of parish priest Father John Reid, a court was told today.

Fr Reid’s arrest followed an audit by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle which discovered that a substantial amount of cash had gone missing while he was serving as parish priest at St Cuthbert’s Church, in Chester-le-Street, County Durham.

He has voluntarily withdrawn from public ministry.

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GENEVA
My Way News

May 23

By JOHN HEILPRIN and NICOLE WINFIELD

GENEVA (AP) — In a report that could expose the Catholic Church to new legal arguments by clerical sex abuse victims, a U.N. committee found Friday that the Vatican does exercise worldwide control over its bishops and priests and must comply with the U.N.’s anti-torture treaty.

The U.N. Committee Against Torture concluded that Vatican officials failed to report sex abuse charges properly, had moved priests rather than discipline them, and had failed to pay adequate compensation to victims. Although the panel did not explicitly say that the Holy See had violated any of its obligations under the anti-torture treaty, which it ratified in 2002, panel members said that was implicit in the criticism.

“Legal scholars will tell you that when the committee addresses a problem and makes a recommendation, it sees the state as not meeting the requirements of the convention,” the panel vice chair, Felice Gaer, told reporters. “It’s absolutely clear what we’re saying.”

But the Vatican dismissed the 10-member panel’s conclusions as “fundamentally flawed” and insisted it didn’t exercise direct control over its priests worldwide.

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NEW YORK
Detroit Free Press

By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, Terence Corcoran and Alex Taylor
The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A single dad in Mahopac secretly videotaped his son’s 9-year-old friend in a swimming pool changing room, while a Westchester Medical Center nurse had 19 videos of children under 13 having sex with adults, authorities said Thursday as new details emerge about a regional crackdown on Internet child pornography.

Among the more than 70 people charged was a Port Chester man who had allegedly been downloading child porn for five years and a Kent man, charged with having images of girls as young as 6, whose father was deported six years ago for setting up a sexual tryst with a 14-year-old girl at a Wendy’s restaurant in Chicago.

Advocates contend it’s a small fraction of the disturbing illegal industry.

“How many more children are not counted? How much child porn is still out there?” said Keira Pollock, deputy executive director of programs and clinical services at the New City-based Center for Safety and Change. “It seems like there’s this epidemic hidden industry that continues to profit off of children.”

Dubbed Operation Caireen, the crackdown was headed by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and was prompted in part by a probe of then-Mount Pleasant Police Chief Brian Fanelli, who was arrested in January and charged with downloading and distributing child pornography.

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COLORADO
Steamboat Today

By Matt Stensland

Steamboat Springs — Attorneys met with Judge Shelley Hill on Friday to discuss last minute details before a nine-day trial is set to begin Tuesday.

John Brothers Jr., has been charged with 16 felonies and a sentence enhancer that would extend his sentence if he is found guilty.

Brothers, a former preacher in Yampa and teacher at Heritage Christian School just west of Steamboat, is suspected of sexually assaulting one boy eight times throughout a six-week period. The boy and his father reported the incident in March 2012. Brothers was arrested the next month.

Brothers attended the hearing Friday with his parents and was being represented by Routt County Public Defender Sheryl Uhlmann. Matt Karzen and Eliot Thompson represented the District Attorney’s Office.

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UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune

By Marissa Lang | The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published May 23 2014

For two years, Efrey Guzman stood firm in the face of lurid and bizarre accusations.

When prosecutors said the former LDS branch president assaulted a teen girl in her Millcreek home, he denied it. When they said he attacked a mother, he insisted he had not. When they said he bit the penis of a young man so severely that the man required reparative surgery, he swore his innocence.

On Friday, Guzman left the courthouse a free man.

An eight-person jury acquitted the 48-year-old man of all charges: aggravated sexual assault and aggravated burglary, both first-degree felonies, and sex abuse of a child and forcible sexual abuse, second-degree felonies.

“He’s a good man, a church man, and he was accused of a very awful, awful crime of which he was innocent,” said Guzman’s defense attorney Bel-Ami De Montreux. “He simply was not there. He has an alibi.”

In the course of Guzman’s five-day trial, prosecutors accused the man of groping a 13-year-old girl in May 2012, then returning for her three months later, crazed with desire.

They said he burst through the front door, shouting for the 13-year-old girl, pushed the mother to the floor, ripped her shirt, grabbed her breast and choked her as he attempted to undo his pants.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UTAH
KUTV

[with video]

(KUTV) A former LDS church leader accused of sexually assaulting a family has been found not guilty.

A jury ruled that Efrey Guzman was not guilty on all four counts against him including aggravated sexual assault, sex abuse of a child and aggravated burglary.

Charges were filed back in 2012 after a woman accused Guzman of trying to rape her.

Prosecutors claimed when the woman’s son tried to stop the attack, Guzman bit the son’s penis through his boxer shorts. After listening to five days of testimony including Guzman himself the jury acquitted him on all charges.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UTAH
KSL

[with video]

By Pat Reavy

SALT LAKE CITY — A Sandy man accused of sexually abusing a mother and her daughter and biting the woman’s son in a sexual assault in their home was acquitted of all charges Friday by a jury.

Efrey Antonio Guzman, 48, who was branch president of an LDS Spanish-speaking branch in Midvale and was released from his church position after the allegations were made, was found not guilty of all four counts of aggravated sexual assault, aggravated burglary, sex abuse of a child and forcible sexual abuse.

“I’m really grateful,” Guzman said after the trial. “Great judicial system. I believe in it.

“I’m innocent. All the time I was saying ‘I’m innocent.'”

Outside the courtroom, the GPS ankle monitor that he had been required to wear while the trial was pending was cut off.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Christianity Today

Published 23 May 2014 | Carey Lodge

CJ Mahaney has broken his silence on the two-year sex-abuse scandal that has rocked Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), a coalition of 80 Reformed evangelical churches.

SGM and its leadership have been embroiled in controversy for some time following allegations of a child abuse cover up in its former flagship church, Covenant Life Church (CLC).

Nathaniel Morales, now 56, was convicted on May 15 this year of sexually abusing three underage boys between 1983 and 1991 during his time as youth pastor at Covenant Life.

During his trial, questions were raised as to whether or not the leadership of the church knew about Morales’ transgressions.

In a separate civil lawsuit, Mahaney – who founded Sovereign Grace and was lead pastor of CLC during Morales’ employment – was accused of being aware of the youth leader’s crimes and failing to take action against him.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GENEVA
Times of Malta

The United Nations watchdog on torture urged the Vatican yesterday to cooperate with civil authorities in prosecuting all cases of suspected sexual abuse by paedophile priests and to set up its own individual complaints mechanism.

Rape and sex crimes can amount to torture or cruel treatment and the Vatican must prevent and punish such abuses, the UN Committee against Torture said. It had already found that sexual abuse amounted to torture in some 50 countries, officials said.

“The Holy See says sexual abuse is not torture. Well, sexual abuse, including rape, can be torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” Felice Gaer, a committee member, told Reuters TV. “We say whether it’s cruel treatment or torture depends on the facts of the case.”

It was the second time this year that a UN human rights body has criticised how Roman Catholic officials have handled the decades-long sexual abuse of minors by priests.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GENEVA
National Catholic Register

by CNA/EWTN NEWS 05/23/2014

GENEVA — A U.N. anti-torture committee report has said that the Holy See did not violate the international Convention Against Torture.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the apostolic nuncio leading the Holy See’s permanent observer mission to the United Nations in Geneva, told Vatican Radio the committee’s observations are “an acknowledgement of the good-faith efforts of the Holy See to comply [with] always and to advance the Convention Against Torture.”

The U.N. Committee on the Convention Against Torture released an advanced unedited version of its concluding observations on May 23.

“The committee did not conclude that the Holy See, its officials and those acting on its behalf, in conjunction with it or under its direction or control have violated the Convention Against Torture,” the Holy See stressed in a communiqué.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

The UN has again criticised the refusal by the four orders than ran the Magdalene laundries to offer any money towards compensating survivors.

In its latest observations report, the UN Committee Against Torture (Uncat) said it was “concerned” that, more than a year after the State apology to women abused in Magdalene laundries, none of the orders were willing to contribute to the redress scheme.

Uncat also expressed concerns about the State’s failure to hold the Catholic Church accountable for institutional abuse

The UN has previously called on the Vatican to investigate the Magdalene laundries so those responsible for the abuse suffered can be prosecuted.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
Irish Times

Mark Hilliard

Sat, May 24, 2014

A group representing survivors of clerical sex abuse has welcomed a UN report criticising the four religious orders behind the Magdalene laundries for their “continued refusal” to offer financial compensation.

The US-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap) said the situation was characteristic of an “inexcusable recalcitrance of Catholic figures who still treat these deeply wounded victims with callousness and contempt”.

The UN’s Committee Against Torture yesterday urged the Catholic church to do more to punish perpetrators, help victims and place “meaningful sanctions” on clerics who failed to deal properly with “credible allegations” of abuse by members of religious orders.

It said there had been 3,420 such allegations of abuse by members of the clergy reported to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith between 2004 and 2013. These have resulted in the defrocking of 848 priests and disciplinary action against a further 2,572.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Central Queensland News

Jessica Grewal 24th May 2014

SENIOR members of the Lismore Catholic Diocese had the chance to publicly shame a predator priest and strip him of his title, more than a decade before he died, the royal commission has heard.

In her final submission to the inquiry into the Church’s response to Lismore victim Jennifer Ingham, Senior Counsel Gail Furness said it was open to the panel to find the Diocese could have called on the Holy See to dismiss alcoholic child abuser Rex Brown.

She said the application should have been made from the time Brown, who died in 2005, was convicted of child porn offences in 1996.

She also asked the commission to reject the evidence of former Lismore parish priest Father Frank Mulcahy, who denied he was told of Ms Ingham’s abuse as far back as 1990 and did not know her at the time.

Ms Ingham had previously told the commission she had been abused by Father Brown, a former Lismore and Tweed Heads priest, from the time she was 16 until early adulthood.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
The Record

MAY 23, 2014
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

WAYNE — Parishioners at Our Lady of the Valley said they were stunned Friday after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson suspended their popular pastor for allowing another priest, who had been accused of abusing children in a widely publicized case, to attend a family festival last week.

Bishop Arthur Serratelli told the pastor, Monsignor Chris Di Lella, on Friday that he was being placed on administrative leave and that his priestly faculties were being suspended, which means he is not allowed to wear the clerical collar or present himself as a priest, according to a diocese news release.

That action came after the bishop received a letter on Tuesday complaining that a former priest of the Newark Archdiocese, John Capparelli, had attended the parish’s annual Family Festival on May 12, diocese officials said. The diocese statement noted that Capparelli, who stopped working as a priest more than 20 years ago and had been teaching in the Newark public school system, had his teaching license revoked last year after allegations that he abused children were made public.

Capparelli, who once worked at Our Lady of Fatima in North Bergen, was defrocked in March, according to James Goodness, spokesman for the Newark archdiocese. The archdiocese had sent a request to Rome last year asking for Capparelli, who remained a priest even though he no longer worked as one, to be defrocked after the Star Ledger published stories about the allegations against him.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

By Susan Sarkauskas

The pastor of Holy Cross Catholic Church in Batavia has been charged with misdemeanor public indecency, accused of exposing himself to a worker and customers at a Rockford gas station.

The Winnebago County State’s attorney filed the charges Friday against Monsignor Aaron Brodeski, 44.

The Rockford Diocese put Brodeski on leave April 25, after Winnebago County authorities sent word they were investigating Brodeski.

He was then sent for evaluation and possible treatment “for any difficulties affecting his conduct and ministry,” according to a news release the diocese sent Friday.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

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

In a new interview, a top Vatican official (Fr. Robert Oliver from the Boston archdiocese) claims “procedures” must be “developed” to deal with bishops who enable or hide clergy sex crimes. That’s patently ridiculous.

[Catholic Culture]

Catholic officials quickly bring the hammer down on Catholic writers who write something they consider wrong or Catholic teacher who says something they consider wrong. Like most monarchs, Catholic officials don’t quibble over ‘procedures,’ they just exercise their nearly limitless power.

So to claim that now somehow there’s some suddenly uncovered and unspecified “procedure” deficit that prevents popes and bishops from quickly demoting or disciplining the proven wrongdoers (like Cardinal Bernard Law or Bishop Finn or Monsignor William Lynn) or credibly accused wrongdoers (like Archbishop Josef Wesolowski who accused of molesting several kids in Poland and the Caribbean or Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity, who is accused of repeated sexual misconduct but is second-in-command of a diocese in Paraguay) is absurd at best or deceitful at worst.

Often, when Vatican wrongdoing is exposed (like the UN’s Committee Against Torture did today), church officials immediately ratchet up their promises to give the impression that they’re taking action. Fr. Oliver’s remarks are just the latest example of this old public relations trick.

But it often ends up showing that most Catholic officials are fixated much more on their reputations than on real reform.

Finally, Fr. Oliver conveniently calls Catholic officials who help predators and hurt kids “negligent.” That is deceptive too. Clergy sexual violence is covered by many or most priests and bishops willfully, not negligently. You’re negligent when harm happens because you’re careless. But you deliberately cause harm when you knowingly destroy evidence, shuffle molesters, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, fabricate alibis, stonewall prosecutors, and deceive police, as church officials have done for decades and still do today.

For more on this Vatican official:

[SNAP]

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sunday World

A convicted paedophile grilled his traumatised victims about their ordeals in a series of meetings organised by Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Women who complained that former Jehovah’s Witness elder Jonathan Rose, 40, had molested them as children relived their nightmares in front of him after he was released from jail.

In October, the Manchester Evening News reported how Rose was jailed for nine months for abusing two little girls, one aged five, another aged 10, at the Jehovah’s Witness congregation he belonged to.

The two victims came forward after a third woman, who Rose had previously been acquitted of molesting as a teenager, branded him a ‘paedo’ on Facebook.

Rose, of New Moston, was released early from jail in March.

The three complainants were told if they wanted him barred from the church they would have to recount their ordeal before elders.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Jehovah’s Witness elders allowed convicted predator to “grill” victims; Victims respond

[Sunday World]

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 23, 2014

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach CA, western regional director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 949 322 7434, jcasteix@gmail.com )

One of the most difficult—but important—things that a survivor of sexual abuse can do is report the crime and put a predator behind bars. That’s what the victims in this case did. They worked with law enforcement to ensure that Jonathan Rose was arrested, convicted and jailed for molesting two little girls.

But to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, that was not enough to “prove” Rose’s guilt. Allowing a convicted—or a credibly accused predator—to “grill” victims is shocking and disgraceful. It breeds fear in victims that they, too, will be unprotected, revictimized and shunned by their faith community if they are ever brave enough to come forward and report crimes to police.

The Jehovah’s Witness elders who participated in this shameful activity should immediately remove themselves from any position of authority in the church, apologize to victims, and immediately rewrite any church rules that would allow “inquisitions” like this to continue. Until then, we have to believe that the Jehovah’s Witnesses will only continue to protect and embrace child predators at the risk of children globally.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

The Vatican’s new top prosecutor for sex-abuse cases believes that bishops who shelter abusive priests should be disciplined.

Father Robert Oliver, the “promoter of justice” at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that a bishop whose negligence puts children at risk should be punished. “It is a crime,” he observed.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
CBS Chicago

Bob Roberts

(CBS) – The pastor of a Catholic church in Batavia was charged Friday with public indecency.

Monsignor Aaron Brodeski is accused of exposing himself to those inside and in the lot outside of a Road Ranger gas station at 4980 S. Main St., in Rockford, on the evening of March 27.

Winnebago County Sheriff’s Police Deputy Chief Dominic Iasperro said, in a press release, that the clerk copied the license plate, which checked back to the 44-year-old Brodeski, who is pastor of Holy Cross parish in Batavia.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GENEVA
Leader-Herald

May 23, 2014
Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — The Vatican exercises effective worldwide control over its bishops and priests and must comply with the United Nations’ anti-torture treaty globally, a U.N. committee found Friday in a report that could expose the Catholic Church to new legal arguments by victims of clerical sex abuse.

The U.N. Committee Against Torture concluded that Vatican officials failed to report abuse charges properly, moved priests rather than disciplined them, and failed to pay adequate compensation to victims. Though the panel stopped short of finding that the Holy See had violated its obligations under the anti-torture treaty, which it ratified in 2002, panel members said that was implicit in the criticisms.

“Legal scholars will tell you that when the committee addresses a problem and makes a recommendation, it sees the state as not meeting the requirements of the convention,” the panel’s vice chairperson, Felice Gaer, told reporters. “It’s absolutely clear what we’re saying.”

But the Vatican dismissed the 10-member panel’s central conclusions as “fundamentally flawed” and insisted it didn’t exercise direct control over its priests worldwide.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GENEVA
Press TV (Iran)

[with video]

Fri May 23, 2014

The United Nations Committee against Torture has slammed the Vatican over its handling of sexual abuse of minors by pedophile priests, saying clerics must comply with a UN anti-torture treaty.

The UN committee said on Friday that Vatican officials have failed to report abuse charges properly, transferred abusive priests rather than punishing them as well as failed to pay adequate compensation to victims.

The panel of 10 independent experts called on the Holy See to cooperate in prosecuting all cases of suspected abuse, adding that all cases of suspected sexual abuse must be referred to authorities for investigation.

The UN committee also asked the Vatican to stop protecting suspected priests and immediately suspend them, urging the Holy See to establish an independent complaints mechanism for possible victims of abuse over the past decades.

Victims accuse Roman Catholic authorities of protecting abusive clerics and of ignoring their complaints.

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UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

God has a sense of humor
Or maybe it’s Kathy Shaw

First this ran on the Tracker

U.N. Panel Says Vatican Is Lax Over Abusive Priests
GENEVA
The New York Times
By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE and LAURIE GOODSTEIN
MAY 23, 2014
GENEVA — The Vatican on Friday faced criticism from a United Nations panel for the second time this year over failures to report priests accused of sexually abusing children to civil authorities or to ensure redress for victims. Posted by Kathy Shaw at 1:36 PM

When this was posted
Just before it
So ran right after it

Pope Francis ‘Not Pleased’ About Scandalous Canonization Banquet
VATICAN CITY
Newsmax
Friday, 23 May 2014 By Drew MacKenzie
Pope Francis has expressed displeasure at a sumptuous banquet held on a Vatican veranda during the recent dual canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, according to reports in Italy.
The pontiff, who leads a life of austerity and humility, was “not pleased” when alleged photos of the extravagant feast appeared in the Italian website Dagospia, according to the Catholic News Agency quoting a Vatican official.
The photos appeared to depict 150 guests, including businessmen, leading journalists and Italian religious leaders, gathered on the veranda of the Vatican Prefecture for Economic Affairs during the April 27 canonization ceremony. . . Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, prefect of the Vatican Prefecture for Economic Affairs, told Italia 1 television network, “I can’t reveal what he (Francis) said. . . Posted by Kathy Shaw at 1:33 PM

I think that’s funny,
like,
does The Pope have any idea
what is going on
even in his own little principality?

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ILLINOIS
WLS

ROCKFORD (WLS) — Rockford Priest Aaron Brodeski is charged with two misdemeanor counts of public indecency after allegedly exposing himself to a gas station employee.

Father Brodeski, 44, turned himself in to officials, according the deputy chief of Winnebago County, Ill. He was taken to Winnebago County Jail.

In March, Brodeski allegedly exposed himself to the Road Ranger gas station employee in Rockford while both in the store and inside a vehicle in the parking lot. Officials said the license plate number of the vehicle led them to Brodeski.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

FLORIDA
Herald Tribune

STAFF REPORT
Published: Friday, May 23, 2014

VENICE – At least 10 priests and pastors in the Diocese of Venice sent a letter to papal authorities voicing sharp criticism of Bishop Frank Dewane, questioning the diocese’s financial transparency under his leadership and condemning what the group called Dewane’s “bullying” and “outbursts of rage,” according to a Fort Myers television station.

Channel 2, an NBC affiliate, posted the letter Thursday evening but did not disclose who signed it.

Bob Reddy, the diocese’s communications director, told the Herald-Tribune on Friday that after some “vague inquires” the diocese confirmed that the letter sent to Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano appears legitimate.

But the diocese strongly disputed the allegations.

“Bishop Frank J. Dewane and the Diocese of Venice in Florida take seriously all letters of inquiry. However, anonymous letters or unsigned correspondences, as such, in professional circles lack all credibility,” the diocese responded. “This is a clear attempt to maliciously and publicly damage the reputation of Bishop Dewane and the Diocese of Venice.”

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE “CONTINUED REFUSAL” of four orders that ran Magdalene laundries has been criticised by the UN.

The UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) today released a report into the Holy See, making specific mention of the Magdalene redress schemes.

The government has said that the fund will cost between €35 and €60 million.

The report says the state should:

“Encourage the provision of redress by individual religious orders to victims of violations of the Convention carried out by them and take additional steps to ensure that victims obtain redress as needed, including in the case of the Magdalene Laundries.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GENEVA
Telegraph (UK)

By John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor 23 May 2014

The United Nations anti-torture watchdog has ordered the Vatican to hand over files containing details of clerical sexual abuse allegations to police forces around the world amid concerns over the use of “diplomatic immunity” to hamper investigations.

Members of the UN Committee on Torture also warned the Holy See against effectively allowing suspected paedophiles to seek sanctuary in Rome, after calls for a former Papal ambassador to be extradited to his native Poland to face investigations.

In a highly critical report, published in Geneva, it questioned attempts by the Vatican to claim that its obligations under international law only apply within the tiny city state.

It ordered the Vatican to use its authority over the Roman Catholic Church worldwide to ensure all allegations of clerical abuse are passed on to the secular authorities and impose “meaningful sanctions” on any Vatican officials who fail to do so.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 23, 2014

Statement by David D’Bonnabel of SNAP (+43 699 125 904 64)

Victims in Austria are grateful that a UN Committee today expressed concern about concordats and other agreements negotiated by Vatican officials that “may prevent prosecution of alleged perpetrators by limiting the ability of civil authorities to question, compel the production of documentation by or prosecute individuals associated with the Catholic Church.” The CAT urges that these troubling agreements should not be used to shield criminals.

It is time for Austrian secular officials to ensure that Austrian children are protected and that those who are sexually violated by priests and others in the church have redress and justice. These unhealthy, archaic concordats endanger kids and protect criminals. For the safety of children, they should be abolished.

Here are facts from the UN CAT report as well as the actual Concordat in force today between Austria and the Vatican.

Section 15 of today’s report makes clear: “The Committee is concerned at allegations that concordats and other agreements negotiated by the Holy See with other States may effectively prevent prosecution of alleged perpetrators by limiting the ability of civil authorities to question, compel the production of documentation by, or prosecute individuals associated with the Catholic Church (arts. 2, 12, 13 and 16).”

It goes on to say, “The State party should consider reviewing its bilateral agreements concluded with other States, such as concordats, with a view to fulfilling its obligations under the Convention and preventing the agreements from serving to provide individuals alleged to have violated the Convention or believed to possess information concerning violations of the Convention with protection from investigation or prosecution by civil authorities as a result of their status or affiliation with the Catholic Church.”

The Concordat between Austria and the Vatican says, “If (a bishop) does not remove him (an abusive cleric, whether diocesan or religious order) from his office, the federal government will act.” Article 20th of the Concordat, Dolfuss 1933.

The two Articles have been used in Austria to shield child molesting clerics and to keep them immune from criminal prosecution by the civil authorities.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Statement by Terence McKiernan

May 23, 2014

The Concluding Observations of the U.N. Committee against Torture bring some additional accountability to an institution that was for years a law unto itself. (See also the Holy See’s Initial Report.) This is a valuable development, somewhat too diplomatically implemented in the report released today. Significantly, the Committee insisted on a broad standard for accountability. Against the objections of the Holy See, the Concluding Observations state (para. 10) that the Holy See must be held accountable for torture committed by persons under its “effective control.” The Committee cited (para. 10) the Holy See’s own statistics, showing that 848 priests outside the Vatican City State have been removed from the priesthood in the last decade by the Holy See – surely an example of effective control — and that 2,572 priests have been disciplined by Rome.

Transparency: The Committee should have pushed more strongly for detailed disclosure of names and documents, instead of urging disclosure of “statistical data.” In the hard work of transparency, statistics are not even half a loaf. The Holy See maintains the world’s largest archive on child abuse and its mismanagement; it should have been told to release the names and detailed case files of every priest defrocked or disciplined by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), and by the other dicasteries responsible for those cases before the Holy See’s organizational consolidation in 2001. Merely counting the cases is not nearly enough, particularly since such counts cannot be verified apart from the files on which they are based.

Redress: The Committee urges the Holy See to apply the redress provision of the Convention against Torture in the case of the Magdalene laundries, so that the religious orders responsible will contribute to the compensation of their victims. Those orders, unnamed in the Concluding Observations, are the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge, the Good Shepherd Sisters, and the Sisters of Charity. Even more important, the Committee alluded to the Holy See’s acquiescence and authorization (para. 16) of the Milwaukee archdiocese’s protection of assets prior to its bankruptcy. The Committee was referring to the exchange of letters between then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee and Cardinal Cláudio Hummes at the Holy See.

The Holy See’s action in Milwaukee and its inaction in Ireland are evidence of a fundamental opposition to compensating victims. This stance was articulated by Bishop Charles Scicluna during the Holy See’s testimony to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in January 2014. He said that it is the obligation of the individual abuser, not the church, to compensate victims. “We promote personal responsibility. The person causing the damage has the duty to compensate,” Scicluna said. In a 2012 interview, Scicluna called civil court rulings that the Church is liable “unfair.” We wish the Committee against Torture had challenged the Holy See more sharply on its resistance to redress.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Friday, May 23, 2014

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

An Illinois priest has been charged with indecent exposure. We are worried that his crimes don’t stop there.

[The Rock River Times]

The cleric, who was assigned in Batavia, was seen exposing himself – allegedly twice – at a local gas station. Fr. Aaron R. Brodeski turned himself in today after victims gave his license plate number to responding officers.

We want Bishop Malloy to help police investigate this crime by immediately visiting every parish where Fr. Brodeski worked and begging anyone who saw, suspected or suffered any crimes to come forward, report to secular authorities and start healing.

He should also post Fr. Brodeski’s name, photo and work history on parish bulletins and websites, with the same plea for victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police. There are hundreds of parish bulletins, church websites and pulpits where verbal announcements could and should be made, imploring people with knowledge or suspicions to step forward.

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UNITED STATES
YouTube

Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests/Center for Constitutional Rights

[livestream]

Started on May 23, 2014
CCR and SNAP respond to UN CAT report

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FLORIDA
NBC 2

[with video]

Updated: May 22, 2014
By Jim Spiewak, NBC2 Investigator

Venice, FL –
Ten priests and pastors go on the record calling the Diocese of Venice Bishop a bully who relies on intimidation and fear.

That’s just beginning of a list of complaints now on the way to Washington, D.C.

A group of priests wrote a letter to the Pope’s liaison with major concerns over Bishop Frank Dewane.

We obtained a copy of that letter.

In it, the group says the Venice Diocese under Bishop Frank Dewane’s leadership has become quote “intolerable.”

The letter was sent to Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano in January and centers around three complaints; financial transparency, violation of canon church law and intimidation and bullying tactics.

The letter cites examples of excessive, unmonitored spending of diocesan funds by Bishop Dewane. …

An official with the diocese says they’re unaware of the letter and had no further comment.

We reached out to Archbishop Vigano and the Vatican, but did not hear back.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 23, 2014

Statement by Mary Caplan of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 917 439 4187, mcaplan682@aol.com )

Here is the bottom line in the new UN committee report which severely criticizes the Vatican.

Ever so gradually, brave victims and secular authorities are putting an end to centuries of impunity, immunity, and selfishness by Catholic officials in rampant and devastating cases of clergy sexual violence and cover ups.

An independent group of experts has concluded that the Vatican has not done its duty to prevent, punish and redress torture and ill treatment – because of how Catholic officials enable clergy sexual violence against kids and their refusal to stop and punish it.

As Reuters reports, the UN panel “rejected the Vatican’s position that the Holy See has jurisdiction only in the tiny Vatican City State.” Pope Francis should be ashamed that his top aides made and still make this transparently self-serving claim.

(In a news conference today, Committee chair Claudio Grossman said that it is a “settled thing in international law” as “old as bread and butter” that “the violation of the convention is not exclusively related to things that happen in your own territory” but extends to actions under a country’s jurisdiction or “effective control.”)

And as the Associated Press reports “the panel’s 10 independent experts. . .referred to rape and sexual violence, which clearly falls within the treaty’s mandate” and “Vatican officials failed to report abuse charges properly, moved priests rather than discipline them. . .”

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GINEBRA
Terra

Oescritório da Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU) contra a tortura pediu ao Vaticano, nesta sexta-feira, que coopere com autoridades civis no processo de todos os casos de abuso sexual cometidos por padres pedófilos, e também que estabeleça seu próprio mecanismo independente para atender às queixas.

Foi a segunda vez neste ano que uma entidade de direitos humanos da ONU criticou o modo como autoridades da Igreja Católica Romana têm lidado com casos de abusos de menores por padres, que já duram décadas.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Voice

Written by Hazelann Williams
23/05/2014

A CHURCH linked to a minister convicted of child abuse has denied he was ever a pastor in their service.

Mark Pearce was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault and a count of indecency against a child at Wolverhampton Crown Court on May 16.

The father-of-two, who reportedly headed The New Testament Church of God (NTCG) in the West Midlands, made advances towards a 14-year-old girl when they were alone at the MPM recording studio in Walsall and in his car.

Pearce had previously been convicted of sexual assaults in 1993 and 2002 and was described as a ‘persistent’ offender after his trial.

The New Testament Church of God (NTCG) released a statement on Friday (May 23) which said the 43-year-old was never an ordained minister at the place of worship.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

For immediate release: Friday, May 23, 2014

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

A New Jersey bishop suspended a pastor for allegedly allowing a predator priest to attend a parish event. This is a small belated step forward.

[The Record]

We are glad Patterson’s Bishop Arthur Serratelli is taking action to not only hold predators accountable, but those who enable them. It was reckless of Mgsr. Christopher C. DiLella to allow John Capparelli (a former Newark priest) to attend a festival with unsuspecting families.

We hope other would be enablers take this as a warning and take child sexual abuse allegations seriously.

We urge anyone who saw, suspects or suffered crimes by Capparelli or any other to call secular officials.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on May 23, 2014

A Passaic County pastor was suspended from ministry this morning after officials in the Diocese of Paterson learned he had invited a former priest accused of sexually assaulting boys to a family festival at Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Wayne.

The Rev. Msgr. Christopher C. DiLella may not perform clerical functions or hold himself out as a priest while Bishop Arthur Serratelli investigates the matter, according to a statement released by the Paterson Diocese.

DiLella, the statement said, permitted former priest John Capparelli to attend the festival during the week of May 12. Capparelli had served as a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark but was suspended in 1992 following allegations that he sexually assaulted and brutalized teenage boys during wrestling matches.

In 2011, The Star-Ledger revealed he was working in the Newark school system, teaching math to teens. Following the reports, he was pulled from the classroom and placed on administrative duty. The state later revoked his teaching credentials, citing the past allegations and his oversight of a fetish wrestling website that bordered on pornography.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 23, 2014

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

Today a United Nations committee severely criticized top Catholic officials for continually endangering children and specifically cited the case of a German priest who was, just a few years ago, allowed to stay on the job in ministry despite a criminal child sex abuse conviction.

[UN Committee Against Torture]

The Geneva-based Committee Against Torture expressed deep concern about cases where “clergy accused or convicted by civil authorities of such [sexual abuse] offenses were transferred to other dioceses and institutions where they remained in contact with minors . . . and in some cases committed abuse in subsequent placements.”

The panel cited the case of Fr. Peter Kramer, who even after being convicted of sexually abusing two boys, was allowed to stay in ministry. Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller even went so far as to hide Kramer’s crimes from parishioners. Fr. Kramer went on to abuse more children and be successfully convicted again.

[BishopAccountability.org]

When bishops and other top Catholic officials cover-up crimes and enable predators, they endanger children. They should be disciplined by the highest officials in the church and potentially by civil authorities.

This is just one case of many in which the Catholic hierarchy recently protected a predator instead of protecting children.

We call on Pope Francis to harshly punish any Catholic official who hides or enables child sexual violence, in the present or past, and we urge parishioners to remain vigilant and always report known or suspected abuse to secular authorities.

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CHILE
Santiago Times

By Amelia Wade
Published On : Fri, May 23rd, 2014

Priest Gerardo Joannon at the center of the scandal has apologized for a network that stole children from unwed mothers during the 70s and 80s

Chile’s child protection agency is working with detectives to determine how many children were involved in a network within the Catholic church which put babies up for adoption in the 1970s and 1980s without their parents’ knowledge, telling the biological mothers that their child had died.

A website has also been set up to help alleged victims — in just over a month more than 1,150 potential victims have come forward, 700 of which are children looking for their parents.

The stolen children network was uncovered by the Centro de Investigación Periodística (Ciper) which published a series of articles last month. The stories said in some cases the mothers were persuaded that giving up their child was the best choice for them, but in others they were told the baby was stillborn or had died soon after childbirth. The cases took place during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet and it is not known how many children were stolen.

Most of the cases now being investigated date from the 1970s and 1980s, but some were reported in 2005.

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ILLINOIS
WIFR

ROCKFORD (WIFR) — A Rockford Diocese priest has turned himself in after he allegedly exposed himself to an employee at a Rockford gas station.

According to the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department, the incident happened in late March at the Road Ranger gas station on South Main Street. The employee told deputies he had exposed himself while in the store and also while parked in a vehicle in the parking lot.

The suspect’s license plate number had been obtained but the vehicle had not been located.

After additional follow-up, an arrest warrant was obtained Friday for 44-year-old Father Aaron Brodeski. Father Brodeski is assigned to a parish in Batavia.

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ILLINOIS
The Rock River Times

The evening of March 28, Winnebago County sheriff’s deputies were sent to the Road Ranger Gas Station at 4980 S. Main St. in regards to a man who had exposed himself to an employee.

On arrival, the deputies spoke to a clerk at the station who indicated that a white male had been inside the business and had exposed himself while in the store and also while parked in a vehicle in the lot of the store. There were other employees and customers present inside the store at the time of the incident.

The subject had left the area prior to the deputies’ arrival. However, the suspect’s license plate number had been obtained.

The vehicle was not located that evening, and the case was assigned to sheriff’s detectives for additional follow-up.

The results of the investigation were reviewed with the Winnebago County State’s Attorney’s Office, and an arrest warrant was obtained on May 23 for Aaron R. Brodeski, 44.

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ILLINOIS
WREX

By Samantha Jeffreys

ROCKFORD (WREX) – A 44-year-old Catholic priest assigned to a parish in Batavia turned himself in to Winnebago County authorities Friday on two misdemeanor counts of Public Indecency.

The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department says deputies responded to the Road Ranger in the 4900 block of South Main Street on March 28 for reports of a man who had exposed himself to an employee. Deputies say they spoke to a clerk at the store who said a man had been inside the business and exposed himself while in the store and also while parked in a vehicle in the store’s lot. Other employees and customers were also inside at the time.

The man left the scene but deputies say they obtained his license plate number and additional follow-up led them to Aaron R. Brodeski. Brodeski is a Catholic priest in the Rockford Diocese who is assigned to a Batavia parish. He turned himself in to Winnebago County authorities Friday, May 23.

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ILLINOIS
My Stateline

ROCKFORD – A priest is under arrest for public indecency.

Aaron Brodeski, 44, turned himself in Friday to Winnebago County Sheriff’s Deputies. The alleged incident happened in March at the Road Ranger Gas Station at 4980 S. Main Street. Police say Brodeski exposed himself to an employee.

Other employees and customers saw it happen. Brodeski was able to leave the gas station before police arrived.

Monsignor Brodeski is from Rockford. He’s assigned to Holy Cross Catholic Church in Batavia. Police say the Rockford Diocese and Bishop’s office cooperated throughout the course of the investigation.

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GENEVA
The New York Times

By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE and LAURIE GOODSTEIN
MAY 23, 2014

GENEVA — The Vatican on Friday faced criticism from a United Nations panel for the second time this year over failures to report priests accused of sexually abusing children to civil authorities or to ensure redress for victims.

The panel, which is monitoring the Holy See’s compliance with an international treaty prohibiting torture, called on the Vatican to “take effective measures” to monitor the behavior of individuals under its control and prevent abuse.

In a statement, the Holy See said the Committee Against Torture had not found it in violation of the treaty, which prohibits torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Panel members bluntly contradicted that assertion. The committee makes recommendations when it sees states that are not living up to the requirements of the convention, and had issued eight pages of recommendations to the Holy See over what it said were its failures in preventing abuse, investigating accusations and compensating victims, Felice Gaer, the committee’s vice chairwoman told reporters in Geneva.

“You have the answer in front of you,” she said.

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VATICAN CITY
Newsmax

Friday, 23 May 2014
By Drew MacKenzie

Pope Francis has expressed displeasure at a sumptuous banquet held on a Vatican veranda during the recent dual canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, according to reports in Italy.

The pontiff, who leads a life of austerity and humility, was “not pleased” when alleged photos of the extravagant feast appeared in the Italian website Dagospia, according to the Catholic News Agency quoting a Vatican official.

The photos appeared to depict 150 guests, including businessmen, leading journalists and Italian religious leaders, gathered on the veranda of the Vatican Prefecture for Economic Affairs during the April 27 canonization ceremony.

Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, prefect of the Vatican Prefecture for Economic Affairs, told Italia 1 television network, “I can’t reveal what he (Francis) said. I informed him about it, and I can only say that he was not pleased, so to speak. But I can assure you that these incidents will not happen again.”

Versaldi said that he was trying to get to the bottom of who was behind the VIP dinner in a Vatican office, which reportedly cost private sponsors around $25,000, according to the news agency.

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VATIKAN/GENF
Kipa

Rom, 23.5.14 (Kipa) Der Vatikan sieht sich durch eine Stellungnahme des Uno-Antifolterkomitees weitgehend in seiner Linie bestätigt. Der am Freitag, 23. Mai, von dem Gremium in Genf veröffentlichte Text würdige umfassend die Bemühungen der Kirchenleitung im Kampf gegen Folter und sexuellen Missbrauch Minderjähriger, heisst es in einer Erklärung des Heiligen Stuhls. Dies betreffe auch die finanzielle Entschädigung und andere Hilfen für Missbrauchsopfer.

Insgesamt bescheinige das Uno-Anti-Folter-Komitee der Kirchenleitung viele «ernsthafte und substanzielle Reformen» entsprechend den Zielen der Antifolterkonvention, die der Heilige Stuhl 2002 unterzeichnete, so die Erklärung weiter.

Vatikan nicht mit allem einverstanden

Gleichzeitig kritisierte der Vatikan jedoch, das Uno-Komitee erwecke in der Stellungnahme unterschwellig den Eindruck, dass sexueller Missbrauch unter den Folterbegriff im Sinne der Uno-Konvention falle. Eine solche Interpretation ist aus Sicht des Vatikan und zahlreicher Rechtsexperten unzutreffend.

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DEUTSCHLAND
katholisch

Der Vatikan ist nach Auffassung der Vereinten Nationen für Missbrauchsfälle durch katholische Kleriker weltweit haftbar. Die Verantwortung eines Staates für das Tun oder Unterlassen von Amtsträgern erstrecke sich auch auf Bedienstete im Ausland, urteilte das UN-Antifolterkomitee zum Abschluss einer turnusmäßigen Überprüfung am Freitag in Genf. Der Vatikan bestritt diese Interpretation umgehend in einer Stellungnahme.

In seinem achtseitigen Dokument lobte das Komitee den Dialog mit dem Vatikan als “offen und konstruktiv”, bemängelte aber, dass er seinen ersten Bericht über die Umsetzung der Antifolterkonvention mit neun Jahren Verspätung vorgelegt habe. Der Heilige Stuhl war dem Abkommen 2002 beigetreten. Positiv wertete das UN-Komitee auch die Anpassung des Strafrechts im Vatikanstaat an internationale Normen sowie die Einrichtung einer Missbrauchskommission durch Papst Franziskus im Dezember.

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VATIKAN
Radio Vatikan

Das Genfer UNO-Komitee gegen Folter hat an diesem Freitag in Genf seinen Länderbericht zum Vatikan veröffentlicht. Vatikanvertreter hatten dem Gremium zu Monatsbeginn erstmals Rede und Antwort gestanden. In seinen Schlussfolgerungen verwirft das UNO-Gremium den Hinweis des Heiligen Stuhls, dass seine Jurisdiktion sich im Wesentlichen auf den Vatikanstaat, auf Kurienmitarbeiter und Einrichtungen des Heiligen Stuhls beschränke. Stattdessen macht es den Vatikan für Missbrauchsfälle durch Kleriker haftbar, wo auch immer diese auf der Welt geschahen oder geschehen: Die Verantwortung eines Staates für das Handeln von Amtsträgern erstrecke sich auch auf Bedienstete im Ausland. Der Bericht fordert den Vatikan auf, „effiziente Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, damit jedwede Verletzung der Anti-Folter-Konvention, von der er Kenntnis erhält, sofort den zivilen Behörden gemeldet wird“. Es handelt sich um das Schlussdokument zu einer Überprüfung des Heiligen Stuhls, die das erste Mal stattfand.

Der Heilige Stuhl vermerkt in einem Statement von diesem Freitag als positiv, dass das Anti-Folter-Komitee keine Verletzung der Konvention durch den Vatikan festgestellt habe. Auch würden in dem Bericht die „wichtigen Anstrengungen“ des Heiligen Stuhles anerkannt, den sexuellen Missbrauch von Minderjährigen und anderen zu verhindern. Der Bericht aus Genf würdigt im Einzelnen die Anpassung des Strafrechts im Vatikanstaat an internationale Normen sowie die Einrichtung einer Missbrauchskommission durch Papst Franziskus im vergangenen Dezember. Allerdings kritisiert das UNO-Komitee, dass diese Kommission bislang noch keine klar umrissenen Kompetenzen habe – und dass der Vatikan noch keine unabhängige Beschwerdestelle eingerichtet habe.

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GENF
religion@orf.at

Die Vereinten Nationen sehen noch erhebliche Mängel beim Umgang des Vatikans mit Fällen von Kindesmissbrauch. Grundsätzlich sei der Wille des Vatikans aber anzuerkennen, die Missbrauchsfälle aufzuarbeiten.

Das UNO-Antifolterkomitee der Vereinten Nationen hat am Freitag in Genf das Schlussdokument zu einer turnusmäßigen Überprüfung des Heiligen Stuhls veröffentlicht. Die katholische Kirche müsse sicherstellen, dass Missbrauchsfälle lückenlos den Behörden gemeldet würden, forderte der UNO-Ausschuss zur Bekämpfung von Folter. Die Vereinten Nationen seien besorgt über Berichte, wonach katholische Geistliche die Meldepflicht nicht ernst nähmen.

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GENF
Kurier

Zum zweiten Mal innerhalb weniger Monate haben die Vereinten Nationen den Vatikan für seinen Umgang mit Kindesmissbrauch durch Priester scharf kritisiert. Der UN-Ausschuss zur Bekämpfung von Folter findet in seinem aktuellen Bericht, der am Freitag in Genf vorgestellt wurde, deutliche Worte: Die katholische Kirche habe nicht sichergestellt, dass Missbrauchsfälle lückenlos der Polizei gemeldet würden; sie habe Geistliche versetzt, um ihnen Strafverfolgung zu ersparen, und sie habe es verabsäumt, Missbrauchsopfer angemessen zu entschädigen.

Fast 3500 Fälle

Für den aktuellen UN-Bericht legten Vatikan-Abgesandte auch Zahlen offen. Innerhalb der vergangenen zehn Jahre wurden demnach 848 Geistliche wegen sexueller Übergriffe ihres Amtes enthoben. 2572 weitere wurden – wegen fortgeschrittenen Alters oder gesundheitlicher Probleme – geringer bestraft. Insgesamt verfolgte der Vatikan zwischen 2004 und 2013 fast 3500 Fälle von Missbrauchsvorwürfen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Neue Presse

[Summary: There is no future in Germany for Bishop Franz-Peter van Elst Tebartz who was ousted from the Limburg diocese for lavish spending on a new house. The Congregation for Bishops in Rome is looking for a new job for him in the world church.]

Limburg. Für den emeritierten Limburger Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst wird es keine berufliche Zukunft im deutschsprachigen Raum geben. Die Bischofskongregation in Rom suche für ihn intensiv eine neue Aufgabe in der Weltkirche, sagte Bistumsleiter Wolfgang Rösch dieser Zeitung (Freitagsausgabe). „Die neue Aufgabe wird wohl nicht im deutschsprachigen Raum sein“, sagte Rösch. Hier könne es keinen unbefangenen Neubeginn geben.

Seit Wochen sitzt Tebartz-van-Elst wie ein Gefangener in seiner millionenteuren Residenz; geht noch nicht einmal zum Brötchenholen vor die Tür. Dass der emeritierte Bischof keine Miete, sondern nur die Nebenkosten zahlen muss, bringt das Kirchenvolk jedoch zunehmend in Aufruhr. „Wir können und wir werden ihn aber nicht vor die Tür setzen“, sagt der Bistumsleiter. Bis zum Amtsantritt des neuen Oberhirten werde es keine umfassende Entscheidung für die künftige Nutzung des 31 Millionen Euro teuren Diözesanen Zentrums geben. „Der neue Bischof wird auch die Freiheit haben, seinen Wohnsitz festzulegen“, sagte Rösch. Es werde von Seiten des Bistums weder den Wunsch geben, dass er in die Wohnung im Diözesanen Zentrum einziehe, noch die Aufforderung, aus moralischen Gründen darauf zu verzichten.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 23, 2014

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

A new United Nations committee report blasts Vatican officials for not making sure that Catholic officials compensate the thousands of victims of the church-run Magdalene laundries

The panel cited “the continued refusal by the four religious orders that ran the Magdalene laundries in Ireland to contribute to a redress fund for individuals subjected to abuse in those facilities.”

We are grateful that these international experts are calling attention to the inexcusable recalcitrance of Catholic figures who still treat these deeply wounded victims with callousness and contempt.

We are not optimistic, but we hope this latest plea for real church help for Magdalene victims – not words or gestures, but tangible help – will not fall on deaf Vatican ears.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

MAY 23, 2014
BY STAFF REPORT
THE RECORD

The Roman Catholic bishop of Paterson today suspended a Wayne pastor on suspicion that he permitted a former priest who is alleged to have sexually abused minors to attend a festival at the Valley Road parish this month, the Diocese of Paterson announced.

John Capparelli, formerly a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark and a former teacher in the Newark public school system, was seen at the annual Family Festival at Our Lady of the Valley parish during the week of May 14, according to a statement released by the Paterson diocese.

The statement said that Capparelli’s public-school teaching license had been revoked because of allegations of sexual abuse against minors while he was an active priest.

As a result, Bishop Arthur Serratelli placed Mgsr. Christopher C. DiLella, the parish pastor, on administrative leave and “revoked his priestly faculties, pending a full investigation of the matter.” Serratelli took the action, the statement said, following a preliminary investigation that included consulting with the Diocesan Review Board on Thursday.

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GENEVA
U.S. Catholic

By Josephine McKenna

ROME (RNS) A United Nations panel blasted the Vatican for the second time this year for failing to respond adequately to the child sexual abuse scandals that have swept the Catholic Church, but stopped short of saying the Holy See had violated U.N. treaty obligations on torture.

The report by the U.N. Committee Against Torture released in Geneva on Friday (May 23) expressed strong concerns about the failure of church officials to report abuse charges to police, to stop the transfer of clergy accused of abuse or to offer adequate compensation and rehabilitation to victims.

“The committee is concerned by reports that the State party’s officials resist the principle of mandatory reporting to civil authorities,” the report said.

“The committee is further concerned by numerous reports of cases in which clergy accused or convicted by civil authorities … were transferred to other dioceses and institutions where they remained in contact with minors and others who are vulnerable.”

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UNITED STATES
Hope. Fully. Known

At some point several years ago, I realized one of the most dedicated online advocates for victims of abuse in Christian environments was a beautiful Texan with a big heart named Amy Smith, known to her Twitter followers as @WatchKeep. Justice work usually comes at a cost, especially when you are seeking justice within the Church, and no one knows this better than Amy. But, still, she keeps at it. Even when many of us grow weary.

So, who is she? Amy Smith is a Dallas leader for SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Baylor University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Baylor University School of Nursing. She’s a Registered Nurse with—as her Twitter bio will tell you—a great man and kids too. When I announced she’d be featured here in this series, a few wonderful things were immediately said about Amy in the Twittersphere: She was called courageous and bold, a tireless fighter, and even an “amazing hero” by child protection champion Boz Tchividjian himself.

AMY’S PERSPECTIVE

Me: What made you want to start blogging?

Amy: I started my blog about four years ago really not being sure if blogging was for me and wondered if I would have anything worth blogging about. It became a place for me to post from time to time things meaningful to me or a place to post a recipe that I enjoy baking. Then, it was in the early years of my blog that I began to wrestle with the child sex abuse of boys at my former church, Prestonwood Baptist in Dallas, by my youth music minister John Langworthy.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Channel Online

The woman at the centre of long-running church abuse allegations has claimed she’s still being psychologically punished.

She is known as ‘HG’ and has written a public letter to the Bishop of Winchester, the Right Reverend Tim Dakin, claiming a report published last year and subsequent press statements are continuing to cause her huge damage.

The report looked into the way abuse allegations are dealt with by Jersey’s church.

The Dean of Jersey was originally suspended from office when details emerged of the way he handled an allegation of abuse involving a parishioner.

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GENEVA
Dominican Today

Geneva.- The Vatican’s responsibility in child abuse cases isn’t limited to its territory and covers abuses committed in third countries as long as the Holy See “exercises effective control” over the perpetrator, UN Committee to prevent torture affirmed Friday, EFE reports.

The Vatican’s interpretation that it lacks legal jurisdiction and responsibility over crimes committed by its priests in third countries “isn’t consistent” with the International Convention on the prevention of torture, of which it forms part, the Committee said.

It reminded the Vatican that the Convention requires responsibility for the acts of the people who work for it and “over which it exerts control” regardless of where they carry out their function.

“The State is responsible for the acts and omissions of its officers and others acting officially or on behalf of the State,” the UN said, noting that “this responsibility extends to the actions or omissions on the part of State officials deployed for operations abroad.”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the U.N. Committee Against Torture’s report on the Holy See that was released today:

For the most part, there is nothing in this report that merits criticism, though two matters must be addressed: there is a glaring inconsistency between the way the hearings were held and the concluding observations by this committee; and calls for the Holy See to encourage redress by religious orders for the “victims” of the Magdalene Laundries are unjust.

The report makes no mention of abortion, canon law, or any Church teaching on sexuality, yet these subjects were grist for attacks on Church officials during the hearings. Why, then, was committee member Felice Gaer allowed to conduct what amounted to, at times, a show trial? If none of her highly politicized remarks were even tangentially addressed by the report, it calls into question her continued service to this committee. She should be asked to step down immediately.

Pressuring the Holy See to force four Irish religious orders to provide “restitution, compensation, [and] rehabilitation” for the so-called victims of the Magdalene Laundries is wholly unjust. Has anyone on the committee even bothered to read the authoritative “McAleese Report on the Magdalene Laundries”? Had they done so they would know why I refer to the “so-called” victims. The Irish body that examined this issue, chaired by Senator Martin McAleese, did a full statistical analysis of all available data; it also interviewed 118 women who lived in the asylums, along with many physicians who cared for these women.

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GENEVA
The Washington Times

By Meredith Somers-The Washington Times

The Catholic Church needs to provide more transparency and cooperation with external authorities in its efforts to handle cases of sex abuse, a U.N. committee said in a report Friday.

The U.N. Committee Against Torture said that, while the Vatican has taken steps to find and punish abusers, there is still much work to be done to prevent further abuse and protect victims.

The Holy See, the committee said, should take “effective measures to monitor the conduct of individuals under their effective control, to stop and sanction such conduct in any case where they become aware of credible allegations of violations and to take other measures within their control to prevent the commission of subsequent violations by the individuals concerned.”

The report was released Friday, about two weeks after the Vatican appeared before the committee to defend its response to the global sex abuse scandal.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

VIENNA — The head of the Austrian bishops’ conference backed the excommunication of members of the dissident “We Are Church” movement for “celebrating” Masses without a priest.

“If someone takes a clear stand against something as central for our church as the Eucharist and propagates an idea far beyond our faith, this is a serious step outside the church’s fellowship,” said Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schonborn. “But we are all under one common roof, and the door is always open to the return of those affected.”

The cardinal spoke after the excommunication “latae sententiae” (automatically) of Martha Heizer, We Are Church’s chairwoman, and her husband, Gert Heizer. Bishop Manfred Scheuer of Innsbruck announced the excommunication May 21.

Cardinal Schonborn told Austria’s Kathpress news agency May 23 that he believed Bishop Scheuer had been “mild and circumspect” in handling the case and had “tried everything” to dissuade the Heizers from their actions.

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GENEVA
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The U.N. Committee Against Torture urged the Vatican to impose “meaningful sanctions” on any church authority who fails to follow church law in dealing with allegations of sexual abuse and asked that church officials worldwide be required to report abuse allegations to local police.

The committee’s recommendations were issued May 23 as a follow-up to a May 5-6 session at which Vatican representatives were questioned about the Holy See’s report on its adherence to the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment.

In a statement May 23, the Vatican said it would “give serious consideration” to the committee’s recommendations, although it said the committee mistakenly gave “the impression that all the priests serving around the world are directly, legally tied to the Vatican as a sovereign.”

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Vatican representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva, had tried to explain to the committee that the Holy See had direct juridical control only over Vatican City State, its citizens and employees, but not over all bishops and priests around the world. “It is one thing to be able to exercise jurisdiction and another to encourage a certain type of activity” or adoption of certain policies in Catholic communities around the globe, he had said.

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GENEVA
Times of Malta

Friday, May 23, 2014 by Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters

The United Nations torture watchdog called on the Vatican today to cooperate with civil authorities in prosecuting all cases of suspected sexual abuse by paedophile priests and to set up its own independent complaints mechanism.

It was the second time this year that a UN human rights body has criticised how Roman Catholic officials have handled the decades-long sexual abuse of minors by priests.

Victims accuse the Vatican of still protecting abusers and covering up sex crimes, failing to punish perpetrators, refer them to the authorities or provide adequate compensation.

The Vatican told the committee last week the Church’s accusers were “fossilised in the past” when attitudes were different. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said the Church had developed model child protection policies over the last decade that other states and institutions might emulate.

The UN Committee against Torture, which examined the Holy See’s record earlier this month, said Vatican officials should monitor priests and “stop and sanction” conduct that violates the UN treaty against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The pact is known as the CAT.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 23, 2014

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

A new United Nations committee report harshly criticizes top Catholic officials for endangering kids and specifically cites the case of a Polish archbishop who is accused of molesting children in Poland and the Dominican Republic.

He is Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, who was the papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic until last August, when allegations of sexual violence against him surfaced. To avoid prosecution, he fled to the Vatican where he is fighting extradition. Vatican officials are harboring him in Rome.

The UN’s Committee Against Torture said of the Wesolowski case that “competent authorities proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation of Archbishop Wesolowski… ensure such persons are criminally prosecuted or extradited … by the civil authorities.”

This is just one case of many where the Catholic church is refusing to protect children and is protecting predators instead.

We hope Polish bishops and Catholics contact Pope Francis and insist that he send Wesolowski back to face secular justice in Poland.

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GENEVA
Center for Constitutional Rights

Despite Objections and Early Pressure from Vatican Officials, Committee Takes on Church Policies and Practices That Enable Widespread Sexual Violence by Clergy

Contact: press@ccrjustice.org

May 23, 2014, New York, Geneva – Today, the United Nations Committee Against Torture found that the widespread sexual violence within the Catholic church amounted to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment prohibited by theUnited Nations Convention Against Torture. The committee issued concluding observations following its questioning of Vatican representatives, earlier in May, regarding the Vatican’s record on preventing, punishing and redressing torture. That hearing was the second time in four months that top Catholic officials were called before the UN to account for the Vatican’s human rights record on addressing the ongoing worldwide crisis of sexual violence within the Catholic Church. Attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) submitted reports to both committees and attended both hearings in Geneva.

“The committee called the widespread sexual violence within the Church what it is: torture,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Pam Spees. “This is an important recognition of the gravity of these offenses that have been minimized by the Church, places responsibility where it belongs – with the hierarchy in the Church, not the victims – and could help open new avenues for redress.”

“In advance of the Committee’s questioning, Vatican officials tried to pressure the Committee not to inquire about the widespread sexual violence within the Church,” Spees said. “We are glad to see that the Committee clearly addressed the fact of the widespread sexual violence as within its purview despite that pressure.”

The committee expressed serious concerns about the Vatican’s failure to prevent and punish rape and sexual violence. The committee further found that the Vatican’s obligations reach beyond the Vatican City State to all those acting under the Church’s effective authority and control; and expressed concern about the Vatican’s failures to meet its obligations under the Convention to provide redress, including financial compensation, rehabilitative support, and a guarantee that the crimes will not be repeated. The committee expressed deep concerns regarding church policies and practices such as moving priests, rather than reporting them to civil authorities for investigation and prosecution, failing to properly monitor known perpetrators, refusing to cooperate with national authorities, and lack of accountability for bishops and cardinals who have participated in cover-ups and enabled the crimes.

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GENEVA
The Guardian (UK)

Lizzy Davies in Rome
theguardian.com, Friday 23 May 2014

The United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) has criticised the Vatican’s handling of the clerical sex abuse scandal, urging the Catholic church to do more to punish perpetrators, help victims and place “meaningful sanctions” on clerics who fail to deal properly with credible allegations.

In observations published on Friday following a two-day hearing this month, the panel’s 10 experts rejected the Holy See’s argument that it only exercises control over the tiny Vatican City State and cannot be held accountable for the actions of Catholic priests and bishops throughout the world.

They called on the Holy See to “take effective measures” to monitor individuals under its “effective control” and to “stop and sanction” conduct that would constitute “credible allegations of violations of the [UN] Convention [against Torture]”.

Before the report had even been released, the Vatican issued a statement declaring that it had not been found to be “in violation” of the convention.

But advocates of abuse victims rejected this outright, labelling the report “a historic document” that they said recognised clerical sexual abuse as a form of torture and other cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, May 23, 2014

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

A new United Nations committee report harshly criticizes top Catholic officials for endangering kids and specifically cites the case of a fugitive Minnesota priest who molested at least one girl.

He is Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul who was charged in July 2009 for sexually assaulting Megan Peterson, then of Thief River Falls in the Crookston diocese. He is now in his home country of India fighting extradition.

[The Tablet]

The UN’s Committee Against Torture said of Jeyapaul that they are “concerned by numerous reports of cases in which clergy accused or convicte were transferred to other dioceses and institutions where they remained in contact with minors and others who are vulnerable, and in some cases committed abuse in their subsequent placements.”

After he fled the US, and while he faced criminal child sex charges, Jeyapaul was put on the job in India overseeing Catholic schools.

This is just one case of many where the Catholic church refused to protect children and broke international laws and standards of common sense and common decency.

We urge Minnesota bishops to use their resources and clout to publicly and privately push hard to have Jeyapaul brought back here to face justice.

We hope that every single person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes – by Jepayual or other clerics – will call police and prosecutors so that dangerous predator priests can be kept away from kids.

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GENEVA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Friday, May 23, 2014

Statement by Miguel Hurtado of the U.K/Spain, SNAP leader ( +44 7787 638245, michael_uk_1982@hotmail.com )

For the second time this year, an international panel of experts is harshly criticizing the Catholic hierarchy for endangering children. We are grateful that more secular authorities are finally stepping up to safeguard children from powerful Catholic officials who commit and conceal devastating and widespread sexual violence against children. We hope this trend continues.

[United Nations Committee Against Torture]

Most significantly, the UN panels clearly finds numerous acts by Catholic officials, in cases of child sexual assault, to constitute torture and trigger the Vatican’s duty to prevent, punish and remedy torture.

We are also grateful that the UN panel isn’t buying what the Vatican is selling – the patently absurd and self-serving claim that top officials in this powerful global monarchy lack real power or responsibility to protect kids from predators (and must only rely on the actions of thousands of individual bishops across the planet).

(The committee writes “States bear international responsibility for the acts and omissions of their officials and others acting in an official capacity or acting on behalf of the state, in conjunction with the state, under its direction or control…extends to actions and omissions.. deployed on operations abroad.”)

The committee says

–that COMPLICITY and participation in torture is a criminal act

–that statutes of limitations should NOT be applicable to crimes of torture

–that the Vatican refused to provide data to the committee

–that there is evidence that church officials resisted mandatory reporting to civil authorities

–that there should be impartial and independent monitoring and investigations “with no hierarchical connection between investigators and the alleged perpetrators…bodies carry out investigation PROMPTLY, THOROUGHLY, and IMPARTIALLY”

–that results of any church abuse investigations should be made public

– that church officials reconsider the concordats they have with nations that protect clerics who have committed sexual violence – constituting torture and ill-treatment – and those who have information about such crimes, from investigation and prosecution civil authorities.

The UN panel calls on Vatican officials to “take effective measures to ensure that allegations are communicated to the proper civil authorities to facilitate their investigation and prosecution of alleged perpetrators.” In 2014, after decades of this astonishing sexual violence and cover up by church officials and persistent pledges of reform by church officials, it is heartbreaking to us –and should be infuriating to millions – that church officials must still be admonished to call police and prosecutors when abuse reports surface. A clear and simple moral and civic duty recognized by nearly every adult on earth – calling law enforcement to stop predators from assaulting children – continues to be something Catholic officials refuse to do in many, many, many instances. (The committee made clear that this is a legal duty, too.)

The UN panel also calls on Vatican officials to “apply sanctions,” including dismissal from clerical service,” to “any official that fails to … react properly to credible allegations of abuse.”

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GENEVA
Metro

The United Nations torture watchdog called on the Vatican on Friday to cooperate with civil authorities in prosecuting all cases of suspected sexual abuse by pedophile priests and to set up its own independent complaints mechanism.

It was the second time this year that a U.N. human rights body has criticized how Roman Catholic officials have handled the decades-long sexual abuse of minors by priests.

Victims accuse the Vatican of still protecting abusers and covering up sex crimes, failing to punish perpetrators, refer them to the authorities or provide adequate compensation.

The Vatican told the committee last week the Church’s accusers were “fossilized in the past” when attitudes were different. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said the Church had developed model child protection policies over the last decade that other states and institutions might emulate.

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GENEVA
The Local

A UN watchdog body on Friday urged the Vatican to live up to Pope Francis’ pledge to stamp out child sex abuse by priests, calling on the Church to ensure violators face justice.

In a report three weeks after it grilled top Vatican representatives at a public hearing, the UN Committee Against Torture said the Roman Catholic Church had made strides, but spotlighted continued failings.

In a statement, the Vatican said it had “taken note” of the findings and would give them “serious consideration”.

The committee, which monitors not only torture but also other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment, urged the Church to take “effective measures” to monitor the behaviour of clergy and lay personnel.

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GENEVA
Wall Street Journal

By Liam Moloney

ROME—A second United Nations report this year has criticized the Vatican for its handling of the clerical sexual abuses of minors within the Catholic Church, without finding violations of a U.N. treaty against torture.

Friday’s U.N. report focused on the Vatican’s record on protecting children, condemning the church’s past practices of shielding its members through a widely-criticized tradition of moving abusers to other parishes or abroad, for failing to report to police such crimes, and not providing adequate financial compensation to victims.

The Holy See must “prevent the transfer of clergy who have been credibly accused of abuse for the purposes of avoiding proper investigation and punishment of their crimes,” wrote the U.N.’s Committee Against Torture in its final observations.

It must also “take effective measures to ensure that allegations…are communicated to the proper civil authorities to facilitate their investigation and prosecution of alleged perpetrators,” it added.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 23 May 2014 (VIS) – The Committee for the Convention Against Torture (CAT) has released an advance unedited version of its Concluding Observations on the Initial Report of the Holy See. These Observations recognise that the Holy See has made many serious and substantial reforms on its procedures that further advance the principles and objectives of the CAT. The Concluding Observations acknowledge extensively the good faith efforts of the Holy See to comply with and advance the CAT, to institute reforms to prevent sexual abuse, and to compensate and facilitate the care and healing of the victims of sexual abuse.

The report states that the Committee did not find the Holy See in violation of the CAT, and acknowledges that the Holy See and Catholic dioceses and religious orders have instituted important efforts to prevent sexual abuse. The Committee appreciates the open and constructive dialogue with the high-level delegation of the Holy See and notes that many Catholic dioceses and religious orders have provided financial settlements to victims of sexual abuse. Finally, the Conclusions do not assert that the Church’s efforts to protect the unborn are a form of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under the CAT, thus safeguarding the fundamental human right of freedom of religion and opinion and the protection and promotion of human life.

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GENEBRA
El Economista (Espana)

Por Stephanie Nebehay

GINEBRA (Reuters) – El organismo encargado de casos de tortura en las Naciones Unidas pidió el viernes al Vaticano que coopere con las autoridades civiles en el procesamiento de todos los casos de supuestos abusos sexuales por parte de sacerdotes pedófilos y que establezca su propio mecanismo independiente sobre estas demandas.

Se trata de la segunda vez este año que un organismo de derechos humanos de la ONU ha criticado la forma en que los responsables de la Iglesia han manejado los abusos de menores llevados a cabo por sacerdotes durante décadas.

Las víctimas acusan al Vaticano de seguir protegiendo a los agresores y de encubrir este tipo de delitos sexuales, al no castigar a los autores, ni entregarlos a las autoridades o proporcionar una compensación adecuada.

El Vaticano dijo al comité la semana pasada que quienes acusaban a la Iglesia estaban “fosilizados en el pasado”, cuando las actitudes eran diferentes. El arzobispo Silvano Tomasi dijo que la Iglesia había desarrollado un modelo de políticas de protección de los niños en la última década que otros estados e instituciones podrían emular.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

Vatican City, May 23 – The Holy See said Friday it “will take into serious consideration” a second UN panel’s criticisms of its response to child sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. In a new report by the United Nations Committee against Torture, the Church has been accused of transferring suspected clergy to “other dioceses and institutions where they remained in contact with minors and others who are vulnerable…and in some cases committed abuse in their subsequent placements”. The Committee also chides the Vatican for not mandating abuse cases be reported to law enforcement for not guaranteeing adequate victim compensation. The assessment follows a report by the UN’s Committee for the Rights of the Child in February, which said the Vatican was not doing enough, and in fact had fostered “impunity” for offenders.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Fri, 23 May 2014

UN Committee Against Torture criticises Vatican failures on child abuse

The UN Committee Against Torture has criticised the Vatican (in its guise as The Holy See) for several failures in its handling of the child abuse scandal.

The Vatican is a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture and has been questioned by the Committee as part of its regular examination of those states that have ratified the treaty.

The subsequent report, published on 23 May by the Committee Against Torture is critical of the Vatican’s failures.

Earlier this year, the Vatican was similarly scrutinised by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Its report was similar in many respects, but more scathing in tone.

The Torture Committee also slated the Vatican for failing to order that all abuse allegations should be reported to the police, for moving abusive clergy around from one diocese to another, enabling them to continue abusing children.

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GENEVA
The Tablet (UK)

23 May 2014 by Hannah Roberts in Rome, Hannah Roberts in Rome

The United Nations has issued a second damning report into the Vatican’s response to the child sex abuse scandal, but paid tribute to recent efforts by Pope Francis to improve the Church’s record on safeguarding.

In a report issued today, the UN Committee against Torture accused the Holy See of failing to report allegations of abuse to authorities, refusing to disclose information for criminal proceedings and transferring clergy to other dioceses, where they were able to molest children again.

But there was some praise for progress made by Pope Francis, in particular the recognition of crimes against minors and the establishment of the Pontifical commission for protection of minors.

The panel said it welcomed Francis’ statement acknowledging the damage done by priests, in which he said: “We will not take one step backwards … on the contrary we must be even stronger.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(Vatican Radio) The Holy See has responded to the Concluding Observations of the Committee of the UN’s Convention Against Torture on the Holy See’s Initial Report. The Holy See has issued a Communiqué saying that the Observations contain several positive elements, as well as some few points that require further clarification and elucidation. he said, adding that the report also notes the Holy See’s efforts to institute reforms to prevent sexual abuse and to compensate and facilitate the care and healing of the victims of sexual abuse.

The Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN Offices and Organisations in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, spoke with Vatican Radio about the Committee’s Concluding Observations. He said, “[The Observations] reflect the Committee’s acknowledgement of the good faith efforts of the Holy See to comply [with] always and to advance the Convention Against Torture.”

Click below to hear the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi’s extended remarks to Vatican Radio

Below, please find the full text of the Communiqué from the Holy See

**************************

Communique from the Holy See

The Committee for the Convention against Torture (CAT) has released an advanced unedited version of its Concluding Observations on the Initial Report of the Holy See. These Observations recognize that the Holy See has made many serious reforms in its procedures for dealing with the crime of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

The Concluding Observations include many positive outcomes that reflect the Committee’s acknowledgement of the good faith efforts of the Holy See to comply with the CAT, to institute reforms to prevent sexual abuse; and to compensate and facilitate the care and healing of the victims of sexual abuse. These positive outcomes include:

The Committee appreciated “the open and constructive dialogue with the high-level delegation” of the Holy See (paragraph 3).

The Committee did NOT conclude that the Holy See, its officials, and those acting on its behalf, in conjunction with it, or under its direction or control have violated the CAT.

In the process, Committee acknowledged that the Holy See and Catholic dioceses and religious orders have instituted important efforts to prevent sexual abuse against minors and others (paragraph 6, 9, 10, and 14).

The Committee acknowledged that many Catholic dioceses and religious orders have provided financial settlements to victims of sexual abuse (paragraph 16). Though not mentioned in the concluding observations, an estimated $2.5 billion has been paid to victims since 1950 and $78 million has been paid for the provision of therapy and other support.

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GENEVA
ABC News (Australia)

By Europe correspondent Mary Gearin, wires

The UN’s torture watchdog has criticised the Vatican for its reported refusal to provide information to authorities, including a NSW inquiry into child sex abuse.

The committee in Geneva says it is concerned about allegations that last year the Vatican’s representative in Australia invoked diplomatic immunity when refusing to provide documents to assist the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into sex abuse.

The UN Committee against Torture has called on the Vatican to cooperate promptly with civil authorities.

The UN also criticises the church for its insistence that its obligations under international law stop at the borders of the Holy See.

Prior to the report’s publication, the Vatican released a statement saying the committee would heavily criticise its handling of abuse cases but would not find it in violation of an anti-torture convention.

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GENEVA
RTE News

A United Nations Committee has criticised what it calls “the continued refusal” by the four religious orders that ran the Magdalene laundries in Ireland to contribute to a redress fund for survivors of abuse.

The Committee Against Torture also criticised the Vatican’s refusal to provide archival documentation to a Special Commission of Inquiry into sex abuse in Australia.

Today’s report from the Geneva-based committee contains its concluding observations on the Holy See’s report delivered earlier this month on its adherence to the UN Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Among the recent Vatican initiatives it welcomes is its Circular Letter to Assist Bishops’ Conferences in Developing Guidelines for Dealing with Cases of Sexual Abuses of Minors Perpetrated by Clerics, which establishes that “the prescriptions of civil law regarding the reporting of such crimes to the designated authority [in any state] should always be followed”.

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