ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Nicola Anderson and Caroline Crawford

Teddies, babygros and children’s shoes were amongst poignant tributes left at the gates of Leinster House during a candlelit vigil marking the deaths of the 796 babies who died at a mother and baby home in Tuam.

One message inked on a tiny babygro read: “For the babies we hold in our hearts and not in our arms.”

A march took place from outside the Department for Children on Mespil Road under banners demanding justice, while earlier, two seven year old girls, Dasha Dlyaritskaya-Hilliard and Juliette Bruce Merzouk from Dublin delivered a petition to Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald urging the Government to escalate investigations into what went on.

Around 250 people turned up for the rally in the capital last night, which began with song and verse before a minute’s silence was solemnly observed for the young lives lost.

Meanwhile hundreds of people gathered in silence in Galway last night to express their horror at the deaths of almost 800 children in the Tuam Mother and Baby’s home.

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IRELAND
Sunday World

Tuesday 10th June 2014

● FR. BRIAN D’ARCY

The recent revelations about the mistreatment of young children and babies in homes run by religious orders continues to shock and dismay me.

When I first heard the news that more than 800 babies were buried in what was formally a septic tank I was astonished – because initially I thought it happened in some famine-stricken country today.

Then I thought I was hearing about Nazi Germany. But when I realised it happened in Ireland during my own lifetime to children in the care of religious sisters, I was overcome with a deep sorrow bordering on depression.

There appears to be no reason to doubt the veracity of the horror stories that have come out in the past few days. Yet we do need to be certain of all the facts – and I hope that will be the first thing the Government does.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 11, 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 retired New York priest may get a plea deal in his child pornography case. We hope if he does get a plea deal that it is harsh and protects innocent children.

[Syracuse.com]

Fr. Robert Ours, who is currently living in Syracuse, was arrested last month for child porn charges. We hope whatever the plea deal is his superiors in the Syracuse Catholic diocese aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Ours’ crimes and urge them to contact police and prosecutors immediately.

Additionally, Bishop Robert Cunningham should visit every parish Fr. Ours worked and beg witness, whistleblowers, and victims to come forward and report to secular officials. And we hope anyone who was hurt by Fr. Ours will stop suffering in silence and self-blame, get help and start healing.

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IRELAND
Amnesty International

The recent public and political focus on allegations of human rights abuses in Mother and Baby Homes has rekindled an important public discussion about the need to address past human rights abuses, and the relevance of such issues to Irish society today.

But of course this is not a new debate in Ireland. In recent decades there have been a number of such investigations.

The abuse and exploitation of tens of thousands of Irish children in State funded institutions as detailed in the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (the Ryan Report) and the abuse detailed in the Ferns, Murphy (Dublin) and Cloyne Reports constitute arguably the gravest and most systemic human rights violations in the history of this State.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Aine McMahon

Wed, Jun 11, 2014

Several hundred people attended a vigil in memory of babies who died at mother and baby homes across the State outside the Dáil tonight.

The vigil was organised by Justice for the Tuam Babies .

Those taking part in the vigil marched from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to the gates of the Dáil.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams was among those who attended.

Teddy bears and children’s shoes were attached to the railings outside the Dáil to remember those who died in the homes.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Jun 11, 2014 By Aine Hegarty

Survivors draped babygrows and teddy bears with poignant messages from the gates of Leinster House

Over 1,000 people held a candlelit vigil this evening in memory of the 4,000 babies who died in mother and baby homes.

Emotions ran high as people left poignant messages on babygrows draped on the iron railings of Leinster House along with shoes, teddy bears and flowers in memory of the dead infants.

One read “For the babies we hold in our hearts and not in our arms” and another “For the mothers, the love and support you never had is here today”.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho June 11, 2014

Yesterday social media lit up with news accounts claiming Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis had told victims attorney Jeff Anderson that when he was an auxiliary bishop in St. Paul and Minneapolis, he didn’t know that it was illegal for an adult to have sexual contact with a child. Here’s how one of those stories began:

Archbishop Robert J. Carlson claimed to be uncertain that he knew sexual abuse of a child by a priest constituted a crime when he was auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, according to a deposition released Monday (June 9).

“I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” Carlson replied. “I understand today it’s a crime.”

Today the Archdiocese of St. Louis defended Carlson with a long press release accusing Anderson, and by extension news accounts that cited him, of “strategically” taking Carlson’s testimony “out of context.” According to the archdiocese, “in the full transcript of Archbishop Carlson’s deposition, the actual exchange between Archbishop Carlson and Plaintiff’s counsel is quite different from what is being widely reported in the media.” The statement continues: “What Plaintiff’s counsel has failed to point out to the media is that Mr. Goldberg himself noted at this point in the deposition ‘you’re talking about mandatory reporting?’ When the Archbishop said ‘I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,’ he was simply referring to the fact that he did not know the year that clergy became mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse (pgs. 108-109).” In other words, Carlson was talking about mandatory-reporting laws, not laws against adults having sex with minors.

This prompted the alternative magisterium at the National Catholic Reporter to quickly publish a story that essentially repeats the archdiocese’s press release. The editors even added an update at the top of the Religion News Service piece they published about this–which also parrots the archdiocese’s claims. The St. Louis CBS affiliate published a similar article. So did Deacon Greg Kandra at Patheos. And the Winona Daily News.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Public Radio

By SHULA NEUMAN

The St. Louis Archdiocese is defending statements that Archbishop Robert Carlson made during his deposition one month ago in a priest sex abuse lawsuit in Minnesota.

On Monday, video of Carlson’s deposition was released in which he repeatedly said he was uncertain if he knew during his time as auxiliary archbishop in St. Paul that a priest engaging in sex with a child was a crime. Today, the Archdiocese released a statement saying that the video took Carlson’s statements out of context.

In a statement, the Archdiocese said:

“During a press conference held on June 9, 2014, Plaintiff’s lawyer strategically took Archbishop Carlson’s response to a question out of context and suggested that the Archbishop did not know that it was a criminal offense for an adult to molest a child. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

The statement goes on to point out that even though current Minnesota law makes it a crime for members of the clergy not to report suspected child abuse, that statute did not go into effect until 1988, after the events for which Carlson was being deposed.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Democrat

By Democrat Staff

A Roman Catholic priest who allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship with a teenage girl was arraigned on Tuesday in Yolo Superior Court.

Rev. Hector Coria Gonzales, 46, is charged with three felony courts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a teenager he met while working at a Davis church.

According to the complaint, the charges stem from encounters between Gonzales and a 17-year-old girl that took place at a home, in a vehicle and at the church rectory over eight months.

At the arraignment, Gonzales did not enter a plea, and Yolo County Court Commissioner Janene Beronio scheduled a hearing at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24 in Department 1 for him to do so. There will also be a pre-hearing conference at that time, while the preliminary hearing for the case is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 8 in the same department.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

A former priest at the center of a lawsuit against church officials in the Twin Cities and Winona admits he sexually abused 12 teens from the 1960s to the mid-1980s.

In a sworn deposition released Wednesday, Thomas Adamson says church leaders sent him to other parishes or treatment, but didn’t ask about other victims.

An attorney for one of Adamson’s alleged victims says records show Adamson abused 40 people – and there may be more who haven’t come forward.

Adamson is involved in a lawsuit that alleges the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese and the Winona diocese created a public nuisance by keeping names of accused priests secret.

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AUSTRALIA
Northern Star

Leah White | 12th Jun 2014

SICKENING violations of trust like the ones carried out by former St Joseph’s principal John “Kostka” Chute and former St Carthage’s Primary School teacher Gregory Sutton will never happen again, Lismore Trinity Catholic College and Marist Brothers representatives have said.

Details of the ongoing and systematic sexual abuse of school children by Brother Chute and former Br Sutton at schools across NSW, Queensland and the ACT are being heard at the child abuse Royal Commission in Canberra this week.

Trinity Catholic College principal Br John Hilet said a wide and thorough range of measures and processes were in place to ensure history did not repeat itself.

These measures, which were enforced in schools across the state, included the screening of all teachers, employees and visitors, registration requirements for teachers and criminal history checks for all staff and volunteers in the school as well as mandatory reporting.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

A senior teacher from a school where multiple allegations of child sexual abuse were made against a Marist Brother will give evidence at a royal commission

The former assistant principal of a Marist Brothers school will tell a royal commission how the church dealt with complaints of child sexual assault against a teacher.

Jan O’Grady was the deputy headmaster at St Carthage’s School in Lismore in NSW’s northeast where former brother Gregory Sutton is alleged to have sexually assaulted at least five boys and girls between 1985 and 1987.

The school allegedly received complaints from parents and fellow teachers about Sutton’s misconduct and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, currently sitting in Canberra, is assessing if these reports were handled adequately.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JUNE 12, 2014

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

THE child abuse royal commission will ask the federal government to extend its work beyond next year, with the commission’s chairman saying it is currently dealing with allegations relating to more than 1000 institutions across the country.

When the commission was ­announced in November 2012, “no one had any realistic idea of the size of the task and the time that would be necessary to complete it”, judge Peter McClellan will tell an audience at Brisbane’s Griffith University today. The first interim report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, due this month, will make the case for extending the 2015 deadline.

“This was always recognised as unlikely to be achieved,” Justice McClellan will say. “By the end of 2015 we estimate that … we will have been able to conduct only 40 public hearings. From the information we have collected we have concluded that there are at least 30 more institutions which must be examined.”

To date, the commission has held other, private, hearings with more than 1700 people, while a further 1000 people are waiting on such sessions and about 40 new requests are arriving each week, Justice McClellan will say.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 12, 2014

Ehssan Veiszadeh

The royal commission into child sex abuse is investigating how the Vatican dealt with allegations of abuse against its priests in Australia.

Commission chair Peter McClellan has written to the Secretary of State of the Vatican City, asking for a copy of all documents held in Rome relating to complaints of sexual abuse by priests and religious leaders in Australia.

Justice McClellan hopes the documents will shed light on how complaints were handled by the Catholic Church.

“We have asked for copies of documents which reveal the nature and extent of communications between Catholic congregations in Australia and the Holy See,” Justice McClellan will tell Griffith University in Brisbane on Thursday.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 11 June 2014

The royal commission into child sex abuse is investigating how the Vatican dealt with allegations of abuse against its priests in Australia.

Commission chair Peter McClellan has written to the Secretary of State of the Vatican City, asking for a copy of all documents held in Rome relating to complaints of sexual abuse by priests and religious leaders in Australia.

Justice McClellan hopes the documents will shed light on how complaints were handled by the Catholic Church.

“We have asked for copies of documents which reveal the nature and extent of communications between Catholic congregations in Australia and the Holy See,” Justice McClellan will tell Griffith University in Brisbane on Thursday.

“From these documents we should be able to determine how church authorities in Australia, under the guidance or direction of the Vatican, have responded to individual allegations of abuse.”

The commission has received some documents from the Vatican relating to its upcoming public inquiry of the Wollongong diocese.

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UNITED STATES
AL.com

By Frances Coleman
on June 11, 2014

I have a philosophy about things posted on Facebook or other social media platforms, and it is this: When you hear that a public figure has said something especially shocking, the first thing you should do – even before gasping and certainly before responding — is read a transcript of what the public figure actually said.

So that’s what I did when I saw the report that Robert Carlson, archbishop of St. Louis, said he wasn’t sure whether he knew in 1984 that it was a crime for an adult to have sex with a minor.

Unfortunately, that is indeed what the archbishop said in a deposition he gave last month. In response to an attorney’s question on the subject, he said: “I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not. I understand today it’s a crime.”

When the attorney asked, more specifically, whether he knew in 1984 that it was a crime for a priest to engage in sex with a child, the archbishop replied, under oath, “I’m not sure if I did or didn’t.”

Now, being surrounded as I am by lawyers – three in my immediate family and assorted cousins in the extended family – and having watched my share of “Law & Order” over the years, I understand some of the nuances of depositions. Especially, I understand that the person under oath, on the advice of his attorney, will try his best to avoid giving specific answers to specific questions about what he does and doesn’t remember.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Speaking in the Seanad tonight, Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan said he does not want to see the Commission of Investigation into mother-and-baby homes descend into a “bottomless quagmire”.

Mr Flanagan said he wanted its work to be conducted in a timely and efficient manner.

He said he was committed to clear and reasonable terms of reference and said that a reasonable person will accept that if an inquiry is to complete its work in an efficient manner, its terms of reference must be realistic.

The minister also said he did not want to prejudge the outcome of the deliberations and information gathering by an interdepartmental group ahead of the inquiry.

Earlier, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said he believes any statutory inquiry should include all mother-and-baby homes and similar bodies run by the church and the State, as well as voluntary private homes.

Archbishop Martin said the inquiry should look at all aspects of these institutions, including adoptions; it should consider how people entered these institutions, how they were treated and how they left.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The scale of the task facing the forthcoming Commission of Investigation into mother-and-baby homes is apparent when the issue of infant burial is considered.

A review of interment records for Tuam between 1922 and 1943 provides little evidence that deceased infants from the town’s home were buried in the local cemetery.

The Commission of Investigation into mother-and-baby homes will examine all aspects of the institutions, which operated for much of the last century.

High mortality rates, adoptions and questions relating to clinical trials will all be examined.

The issue of burial practices is also key to the inquiry, but it may be difficult to achieve definitive answers in this regard.

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

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 11, 2014

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

Catholics, you may feel powerless but you aren’t. You can donate to groups that prevent abuse, not institutions that hide it. You can write letters to lawmakers urging better child safety laws. You can invite child sex abuse victims and their advocates to speak in your churches or to your organizations. You can speak out – in public and online – because secrecy only helps the bad guys.

You can look at the list of 51 proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting St. Louis Catholic clerics at BishopAccountability.org. You can ask every current and former Catholic you know about these predators – your friends, your family, your neighbors. You can get specific, and ask “Did any of these priests, nuns, seminarians or brothers hurt you?” If they say yes, you can beg them to call police, prosecutors, therapists or our support group. You can assure them that healing is possible, and sometimes justice and prevention are possible too. You can encourage them to explore any legal options they may have – criminal or civil.

You can beg your colleagues – fellow parishioners – to report what they know or suspect about clergy sex crimes to law enforcement. You can remind them that nothing is too small, old or seemingly minor to report. You can tell them it’s their duty to share what they’ve heard or seen, and it’s law enforcements’ duty to decide what’s worth investigation or prosecuting.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on media bias against St. Louis Archbishop Robert J. Carlson:

On June 9, attorney Jeff Anderson released video clips from a May 23 deposition transcript of Archbishop Carlson. It was vintage Anderson: he misrepresented the truth. What the media did, led by the editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was to echo the distortion.

The Post-Dispatch editorial said the following: “Mr. Anderson asked the archbishop if at the time [1984], he knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a child. ‘I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,’ Archbishop Carlson replied. ‘I understand today it is a crime.’” The editorial then hammered Carlson for his response.

What actually happened was quite different. The lead question in this exchange was never shown on the video clip. The question was: “Well, mandatory reporting laws went into effect across the nation in 1973, Archbishop.” At this point, Carlson’s lawyer, Charles Goldberg, interjected, “I’m going to object to the form of that question.” Anderson said he wanted to finish the question, and Goldberg agreed. Anderson then said to Carlson, “And you knew at all times, while a priest, having been ordained in 1970, it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a kid. You knew that right?” Goldberg jumped in again: “I’m going to object to the form of that question now. You’re talking about mandatory reporting.” Anderson agreed to rephrase it.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

One of the ironies of this situation is that when Robert Carlson was auxiliary bishop of St. Paul, he was actually trying to raise some warning flags about the case in question.

Had he been more forthcoming in his recent deposition, things would have gone better. A commenter on Fr. Z’s blog notes …

Archbishop Carlson reminds me of former Bishop of South Bend D’Arcy. They both consistently said that abuser priests should not be transferred while they were auxilliary bishops, had that advice rejected by the bishops above them, and eventually took over dioceses of their own …
The difference is that D’Arcy admitted that he had given his bishop (Law) good advice, only to see it ignored. People widely praised D’Arcy for his candor. If Carlson had been equally candid – and he surely could have been – he would be praised in the press right now, not vilified.

But here’s the greatest irony in the whole situation.

All sinners in or out of the Church are either judged or excused by the light of Christ.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Washington Times

By Meredith Somers-The Washington Times Wednesday, June 11, 2014

BALTIMORE | Advocates for victims of clergy abuse are calling on the Southern Baptist Convention to take steps to prevent and protect its members.

A half-dozen members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) stood Wednesday outside the Baltimore Convention Center, urging attendees at the Southern Baptists’ national meeting to talk with their families about abuse and ask their church leaders to support an internal review for abuse reports.

“It’s why we do what we do,” said Becky Ianni, SNAP director for the D.C. and Virginia area and an abuse victim herself. “If we can be here, we can do something to protect children.”

While SNAP is well known for its criticism of the Vatican and its handling of the Catholic clergy abuse scandal, Ms. Ianni said the organization is “inclusive” and helps survivors from any church or denomination.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Jon Collins St. Paul, Minn. Jun 11, 2014

A former Catholic priest who has admitted to sexually abusing children said in a deposition made public Wednesday that he was never asked by church officials to identify all the children he’d abused, even though some officials knew he’d abused young boys as early as 1964.

Former Rev. Thomas Adamson, 80, was called to testify under oath in a lawsuit alleging that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona created a public nuisance by keeping information on abusive priests secret. The man who filed the suit claims he was sexually abused by Adamson in the 1970s.

Adamson admitted in the deposition to abusing at least 10 boys while serving in the Diocese of Winona and in positions at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Some top-ranking officials knew that Adamson had abused children as far back as 1964, according to Adamson’s deposition. But none reported the abuse to police. Officials instead transferred Adamson to schools and parishes. Adamson has never been criminally convicted and was officially removed from the priesthood just five years ago.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 11, 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 )

If a CEO is told: “our company has two dozen sites where we’re unsafely storing dangerous chemicals,” can you imagine him or her not even asking “Where?”

That’s what several Twin Cities Catholic officials did when an admitted pedophile priest told them of his victims. They didn’t even ask who those victims were.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Never mind what highly educated catholic officials knew or didn’t know, recalled or didn’t recall, understood or didn’t understand about predator priests’ crimes or psyches or Minnesota’s criminal or civil laws. These Catholic officials – Nienstedt, Flynn, Carlson, McDonough, Laird and others – knew they should seek out and help boys and girls who were known to be sexually assaulted by priests. They did not do this. And they didn’t even express curiosity about who these kids were, much less help them.

Fr. Thomas Adamson’s deposition indicts the Twin Cities Catholic hierarchy never asked who the child victims were. Shame on each of them.

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UNITED STATES
Press TV (Iran)

[with video]

A Lutheran pastor and former US Senate candidate told Press TV on Tuesday that an “entire homosexual pedophile network” is operating within the Catholic Church in the United States.

Mark Dankof, who is also political commentator in San Antonio, Texas, condemned US church officials following reports that St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson claimed to be uncertain that sexual abuse of a child by a priest constituted a crime when he was auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota.

The former chancellor gave a deposition last month in a lawsuit that claims the Minnesota archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona created a public nuisance by keeping information on abusive priests secret, reported Minnesota Public Radio.

The 69-year-old Carlson also faces a massive clergy abuse lawsuit in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, where he’s served as archbishop since 2009.

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IRELAND
LifeNews

Story of 800 Babies Buried in Mass Grave in Septic Tank Next to Home for Children of Unwed Moms Was a Hoax

by Matthew Archbold | Dublin, Ireland | LifeNews.com | 6/11/14

If you’re a Catholic and you’re on the internet you’ve heard about the nuns in Ireland who killed and dumped hundreds of babies in a septic tank in the 1960′s.

The story is a mainstream media hoax that was, for them, just too good to be true. It’s telling that when right now it turned out that babies were being burned in an incinerator for energy the media pretty much ignored that one for a long time but a rumor about nuns nearly a century ago gets splashed all over the MSM. They showed their hand on this one. Let’s face it, they don’t care about dead babies. They care about attacking the Church and making Catholics appear like hypocrites.

There’s only one sin in MSM world and that’s hypocrisy. But, you see, in that outlook the only sinless person is the nihilist.

This Forbes report takes down the story pretty effectively:

Few of us are inclined to look a gift horse in the mouth, and that applies in spades to journalists running with a sensational news story. But even by normal media standards, recent reports about the bones of 796 babies being found in the septic tank of an Irish orphanage betray a degree of cynicism and irresponsibility rarely surpassed by allegedly reputable news organizations.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By Douglass Dowty | ddowty@syracuse.com
on June 11, 2014

Syracuse, NY — A plea deal may be in the works for a Catholic priest living in Syracuse accused of possessing child pornography.

County Court Judge Joseph Fahey indicated that the case may reach a disposition — in all likelihood a plea deal — at the next July 8 court appearance.

Robert Ours, 65, was charged with six counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child in an indictment unsealed May 21.

The Catholic Diocese of Syracuse reported the allegations of child porn to the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office several months ago.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

WHO WE ARE

We are victims of child sex abuse (and supporters) who are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Our mission is to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded.

WHY WE’RE HERE

We want Baptist officials to take child sex abuse cases more seriously and take strong steps now to safeguard innocent children and vulnerable adults from those who commit and conceal clergy sex crimes.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

First ask your children or loved ones if they were molested by church workers or volunteers and, if so, beg them to call police and therapists immediately.

Second, urge Baptists officials to;

–hire independent experts to review child sexual abuse scandals and,

–immediately respond to child sexual abuse reports with openness and compassion.

–fully fund and conduct (again using independent outside experts) an abuse database study, which was approved at the SBC’s 2007 annual meeting but never actually done.

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DEUTSCHLAND/SUEDAFRIKA
RP

Aachen. Der aus dem Bistum Aachen stammende und wegen Missbrauchs angeklagte Geistliche Georg Kerkhoff soll von Südafrika nach Deutschland ausgeliefert werden. Das teilte die Diözese am Mittwoch in Aachen mit.

Ein Strafverfahren in Südafrika gegen den Geistlichen sei eingestellt worden. Das südafrikanische Gericht sei aber dem Antrag der Staatsanwaltschaft Krefeld gefolgt und habe die Auslieferung angeordnet. Gegen den Pfarrer liegt ein internationaler Haftbefehl vor. Die Staatsanwaltschaft Krefeld wirft ihm vor, während seiner Dienstzeit im Bistum Aachen zwei Minderjährige sexuell missbraucht zu haben.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOV

by Associated Press
KMOV.com
Posted on June 11, 2014

ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis archdiocese is condemning media reports of Archbishop Robert Carlson’s deposition in a Minnesota lawsuit.

Carlson was deposed last month in a suit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Carlson served there for years and had a role in handling claims against accused priests from 1979 through 1994

Media reports of the deposition, made public Monday, quoted him as saying that he wasn’t sure he knew in the 1970s or 1980s that sex with a child was criminal.

The St. Louis archdiocese says the dialogue involved Carlson’s knowledge of Minnesota child abuse reporting statutes, and when clergy became mandatory reporters of abuse allegations—not the legality of sex with a child.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Cahir O’Doherty @randomirish June 11,2014

Tuam: How did it come to this? That was the question the locals in Tuam, County Galway, were asking each other in the shops and on street corners last weekend, reflecting on the shocking news that their town was apparently the site of a mass infant grave.

In the town on Saturday morning I listened to a group of elderly women, two of them former teachers, who had gathered around a local coffee shop table to consider all the facts, adding supporting details from their own unforgettable experiences as young women growing up in the 1950s.

They didn’t doubt the truth of the claims. Strikingly, no one I spoke in Tuam this weekend doubted the facts and figures local historian Catherine Corless’ research has produced.

Ordinarily there will be a diversity of opinion about such dramatic claims, but in Tuam this weekend I couldn’t find a single person willing to challenge her. It was remarkable.

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IRELAND
Herald

BY JOHN DOWNING – 11 JUNE 2014

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny has said that the treatment of young women who had children outside of marriage was “an abomination” as he unveiled plans for a major state inquiry into religious-run mother and baby homes.

A commission will head up an investigation into the deaths at homes across the country in the wake of the discovery of a mass grave at Tuam, Children’s Affairs Minister, Charlie Flanagan (inset) said.

He said the inquiry will 
cover the infant mortality rate, vaccines, medical trials, the geographic spread of these institutions and the legal 
complexities.

The Taoiseach said the 
inquiry will examine the shameful past of Irish society rather than apportion blame.

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IRELAND
Forbes

Eamonn Fingleton Contributor

Few of us are inclined to look a gift horse in the mouth, and that applies in spades to journalists running with a sensational news story. But even by normal media standards, recent reports about the bones of 796 babies being found in the septic tank of an Irish orphanage betray a degree of cynicism and irresponsibility rarely surpassed by allegedly reputable news organizations.

Although the media attributed the “dumped in a septic tank” allegation to Catherine Corless, a local amateur historian, she denies making it. Her attempt to correct the record was reported by the Irish Times newspaper on Saturday (see here) but has been almost entirely ignored by the same global media that so gleefully recycled the original suggestion. That suggestion, which seems to have first surfaced in the Mail on Sunday, a London-based newspaper, reflected appallingly on the Sisters of Bon Secours, the order of Catholic nuns at the center of the scandal.

Today the Irish Times has published a reader’s letter that has further undercut the story. Finbar McCormick, a professor of geography at Queen’s University Belfast, sharply admonished the media for describing the children’s last resting place as a septic tank. He added: “The structure as described is much more likely to be a shaft burial vault, a common method of burial used in the recent past and still used today in many part of Europe.

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IRELAND
Salon

MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

The full details of what exactly happened to the children of the Home – institute for unwed mothers that operated in County Galway between 1926 and 1961 – are still emerging. The picture that has already been uncovered since the revelation this past weekend that historian Catherine Corless had uncovered death records for nearly 800 babies and young children who had died there – and a mass grave near a septic tank on the now shuttered site’s grounds. It worsened with the further news this week from Cork University’s School of History’s Michael Dwyer that potentially thousands of children in the Irish care homes system were also subjected to experimental vaccine trials. But hey, let’s not get too judgmental here.

In a jaw-droppingly dismissive piece this week Forbes calls the story a “hoax.” Irish writer Eamonn Fingleton, to boost his case, notes that Corless never actually used the word “dumped” to describe what happened to the bodies, and the remaining question of where, precisely, all the unaccounted for bodies may be found. But from there he goes straight to speculation. “Although many of the nuns may have been holier-than-thou harridans, they were nothing if not God-fearing and therefore unlikely to treat human remains with the sort of outright blasphemy implied in the septic tank story.” See, it’s a hoax because he can’t believe it. “The nuns who ran the orphanage have long since gone to their reward but if they could speak for themselves they would no doubt claim they were doing their best in appalling circumstances,” he adds. They were so young when they entered religious life — typically in their late teens or early 20s — that they had little understanding of the secular world and were evidently short on managerial skills.” And while explaining the “positively Dickensian” circumstances of Ireland at the time, he feels it necessary to add, “Very often readers do not have the experience and worldly wisdom to see through the nonsense, particularly in interpreting reported developments in nations whose cultures diverge sharply from those of the West.” On this at least we agree — if there is a “reward” in the afterlife, I sincerely hope the nuns who ran the Home are receiving it.

Let’s look at this “nonsense.” The abuses of women and children that went on in the Irish homes and institutions of its sort in the first part of the twentieth century have been well established and documented. A 2009 Child Abuse Commission report cited multiple accounts of “physical, emotional, neglect and sexual” abuse throughout the Irish Church and state run institutions at the time, and last year, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny issued a formal apology to the women who were forced into labor in the country’s infamous Catholic run Magdalene Laundries, calling it “a national shame.” A 1944 report on the conditions in the Home notes overcrowded conditions and children who were “poor, emaciated and not thriving,” “pot-bellied” and “fragile.” And Corliss recalls that growing up, those managerially challenged nuns would make sure that the Home children “were always segregated to the side of regular classrooms…. They didn’t suggest we be nice to them. In fact if you acted up in class some nuns would threaten to seat you next to the Home Babies.” In some years, more than half of the children died.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: June 11, 2014

Former priest Thomas Adamson recalls 10 boys he has had sexually abused, out of list of 38 alleged victims, in court deposition

Thomas Adamson, a former priest in Winona and the Twin Cities, has testified in a court deposition that he sexually abused at least 10 boys as he moved from parish to parish in the 1960s through the 1980s.

Adamson testified that he met his first victims while coaching junior high and high school basketball teams at St. Adrian High School in Adrian, Minn., in the 1960s, according to a deposition made public Wednesday.

He said he later admitted the abuse to the bishop of Winona — but no action was taken to remove him from ministry or to warn parents and children.

Instead, Adamson was eventually transferred to the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis in 1975, where he allegedly abused a young man who is behind a 2013 lawsuit that has put a relentless spotlight on far broader sex abuse in the archdiocese.

During his deposition, Adamson calmly explained which boys he abused and in which parishes, sometimes adding details of sexual activity that happened in school gymnasiums, his car and his home.

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MINNESOTA
Post-Bulletin

Kay Fate, kfate@postbulletin.com

Thomas Adamson, a former Rochester priest at the heart of a lawsuit against officials of the Catholic church, told attorneys that he sexually abused at least 10 boys but said he “looked at it more as a sin than — a crime.”

Adamson’s May 16 videotaped deposition in Rochester was released today by Jeff Anderson, the Twin Cities attorney whose law firm represents several alleged victims who say high-ranking diocese officials in the Twin Cities and Winona, where Adamson previously worked, simply moved him from parish to parish despite complaints of abuse that surfaced as early as 1964.

It’s the latest testimony to be made public, following that of former St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop Harry Flynn, current Archbishop John Nienstedt and others.

Now 80 and living in Rochester, Adamson balked at the first question posed. When asked about his current health, he asked his attorney, “What do you want me to say about that?”

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

POSTED: 06/11/2014

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com

The former priest and admitted pedophile named in a lawsuit that has disgorged thousands of internal church documents said in a deposition last month that no bishops or other officials had ever asked him how many children he had abused or who they were.

Thomas Paul Adamson, now 80, said he began abusing children in about 1961, when he was a priest at St. Adrian Church in southwest Minnesota.

He admitted in the May 16 deposition to sexually abusing one child there, a 14-year-old boy, though he was accused by others.

Attorney Jeffrey Anderson asked him to review a list of 37 other accusers and identify the ones he had abused. Adamson marked off nine other names with a highlighter.

He initially estimated there were “several” victims. Anderson asked if the number could be over 100, or over 50. Adamson said no.

“You’re not certain of the number, are you?”

“No, I’m not,” Adamson said.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson and Associates

[the deposition]

[videos]

News Release

June 11, 2014

Testimony of Former Priest Thomas Adamson Released Publicly
Adamson admits to abusing several children throughout his 25+ years as a priest in the
Diocese of Winona and the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis

(St. Paul, MN) – The sworn testimony of former priest Thomas Adamson has been publicly released by attorneys as a part of a civil lawsuit filed in 2013 in Ramsey County. Adamson’s deposition was taken May 16, 2014 as a part of a civil lawsuit, Doe 1 vs. the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis, Diocese of Winona and Adamson.

“No top official, for 30 years, ever asked Thomas Adamson how many kids he abused and who those kids were,” said Doe 1’s attorney Jeff Anderson. “It is both alarming and disturbing and a demonstration of what the priorities were and still are.”

The entire deposition transcript and video clips are available at www.andersonadvocates.com and on YouTube (AndersonAdvocates). A DVD copy of the video deposition is also available at our office.

Contact: Jeff Anderson Cell: 612.817.8665 Office: 651.227.9990
Mike Finnegan: Cell: 612.205.5531 Office: 651.227.9990

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

COMMENTARY: The international body is becoming more and more a machine that fashions the language of human rights into a weapon of religious oppression.

by ASHLEY E. McGUIRE 06/11/2014

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Human rights have come to have a definite meaning to the people of the world, which we must not allow any nation to so change that they are made synonymous with suppression.”

She herself chaired the drafting committee of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which affirmed the “freedom of thought, conscience or religion” as among the most important of human rights, and served as a delegate to the fledgling body formed to protect the rights of people everywhere.

Sadly, today, the United Nations is increasingly becoming a platform for turning human-rights language and treaty bodies into vehicles for intolerance and religious oppression, aimed with particular zeal at the Catholic Church. And our own government is party to it.

Since the start of 2014, the Church has come under attack at the United Nations not once, but twice. Catholics were shocked and caught off guard when the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a report in February, which, for example, simultaneously called on the Church to enact greater protections for children from all forms of violence while demanding that she change her Code of Canon Law when it comes to abortion.

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

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 11, 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 )

We raised three concerns about Archbishop Robert Carlson’s recent deposition. Today, through his public relations staff, Carlson ignores two of our concerns.

He ignores the fact that he admits never once calling police about abuse in 24 years as a Catholic official. And he ignores a fellow bishop’s sworn testimony that Carlson urged him to pretend memory loss if he was deposed.

In his new statement, Carlson quibbles with media coverage of one answer he gave under oath.

We hope Catholics and citizens will look at and read Carlson’s full deposition and make up their minds about Carlson’s honesty based on what he admitted and said under oath, not what he’s claiming under fire.

Carlson should understand that saying things don’t make them true. Proof is required. And the best proof is one’s personal actions. His actions show that he has acted and still acts recklessly, callously and deceitfully in clergy sex cases, while saying almost all of the right things in public.

Carlson says that in 1980, he wrote “This behavior cannot be tolerated” in a memo referencing a priest’s abusive actions.

So? I can write “Domestic violence cannot be tolerated” all day long. But if I refuse to call police when my buddies beat their wives, I’m dead wrong.

Carlson says he’s a “leader” in the church on abuse. So? Where’s the evidence?

One bishop has lobbied against archaic, predator-friendly abuse laws. Not him.

Some bishops have put SNAP members on their local abuse review boards. Not him.

Some bishops have released victims from their gag orders. Not him.

Some bishops have publicly denounced their complicit colleagues. Not him.

Thirty bishops have posted predators’ names on their websites. Not him.

We could go on and on and on. We see no evidence whatsoever that he’s any kind of “leader” in the church on abuse. We challenge him to produce such evidence.

And we challenge him to a public debate or discussion about his records on clergy child sex abuse and cover up cases.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

Here’s what happens these days.

A popular (or even not so popular) figure in the Church is publicly criticized. Supporters have a knee-jerk reaction and circle the wagons. Meanwhile, documents exist that would allow supporters, critics, or any interested party to evaluate for themselves what the person in question has actually done.

(For instance: Archbishop Carlson claims that he is being quoted out of context when he states under oath that he doesn’t remember if he knew that child molestation was a crime, and that he “offered his testimony as clearly and thoughtfully as possible”. P. 108 and 109 here reveal the context. Those with patience can read the entire deposition and judge for themselves how forthright the archbishop is being. Likewise, there are source documents on the Bishop Finn scandal that make things quite clear in that case as well.)

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler Jun 10, 2014

Please, Archbishop Carlson, don’t insult our intelligence, and we won’t insult yours.

You have testified, under oath, that in the 1980s it was not clear to you that sexual abuse of children was a crime. Do you expect us to believe that? Do you want us to believe it?

If you didn’t know that molesting children was a crime, why were you concerned that parents of a victim might talk to the police? If you didn’t know that sex with children was illegal, why did you write a memo alluding to the statute of limitations? …

update

The St. Louis archdiocese has issued a statement complaining about “inaccurate and misleading reporting” about Archbishop Carlson’s deposition. The statement suggests that when he expressed uncertainty about “whether I knew it was a crime or not,” the archbishop was referring to a new mandated-reporting law. But the full transcript of the archbishop’s deposition, which the archdiocese helpfully provides, shows otherwise:

Q. (By Mr. Anderson) Archbishop, you knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a kid?

A. I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not. I understand today it’s a crime.

Q. When did you first discern that it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a kid?

A. I don’t remember.

Q. When did you first discern that it was a crime for a priest to engage in sex with a kid who he had under his control?

A. I don’t remember that either.

Q. Do you have any doubt in your mind that you knew that in the ’70s?

A. I don’t remember if I did or didn’t.

The statement from the St. Louis archdiocese claims to be “intended to clear up confusion” about the archbishop’s testimony. I’m afraid it’s actually designed to cause confusion, because right now clarity does not work in Archbishop Carlson’s favor.

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UNITED STATES
Spokesman-Review

Catherine Johnston

He claims he did not know sex between a child and priest was illegal?! Robert Carlson, a former archbishop of the Minneapolis-St. Paul archdiocese, claims he did not know sex between a child and a priest (or presumably any adult) was illegal. I had to write it twice because the comment is truly unbelievable.

Carlson, now archbishop of St. Louis, served as point person on clergy abuse in the 1980s to the mid-1990s.

Theologians must complete years and years of education. What part of Catholic social teaching’s main principle -“the inherent dignity of every human person” – did Carlson miss? To claim legal ignorance on this horrible activity is ludicrous. Carlson needs to step down from his role in the Catholic Church – he is not worthy to serve God’s people.

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IRELAND
National Catholic Register

Editor Brendan O’Neill says reports on the Secours Sisters’ St. Mary’s home for unwed mothers is ‘a mishmash of anti-Catholic prejudice, Irish self-hatred and the modern thirst for horror stories involving children.’

by CNA/EWTN NEWS 06/11/2014

DUBLIN, Ireland — Distorted claims about the burials of hundreds of children who died at an Irish home for unwed mothers show a trend of “exaggerations and myths” about injustices in the country’s Catholic past, one commentator charged.

The truth about the hundreds of children allegedly buried in a septic tank “was a very different story to the fact-lite, fury-heavy tale that had already gone round the world,” said Brendan O’Neill, editor of the current affairs magazine Spiked.

O’Neill made his remarks in a June 9 editorial about news coverage of the Bons Secours Sisters’ St. Mary’s home for unwed mothers, which operated in Tuam in the 20th century.

“Clearly this isn’t about news anymore; it isn’t a desire for facts or truth that elevated the crazed claims about Tuam up the agenda; rather, a mishmash of anti-Catholic prejudice, Irish self-hatred and the modern thirst for horror stories involving children turned Tuam into one of the worst reported stories of 2014 so far,” he said.

“The transformation of Ireland’s past into a cesspit of human wickedness that modern Irish historians and assorted Catholic-bashers can dip into in search for stuff to stand up their contemporary prejudices inevitably leads to the skewing of facts.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – The Archdiocese of St. Louis has issued a statement addressing the controversy surrounding remarks made by Archbishop Robert Carlson in a videotaped deposition released Monday.

The case concerns allegations of abuse against a Minnesota priest in the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese in 1984, when Carlson was an Auxiliary Bishop.

During the deposition, the plaintiff’s attorney asks Archbishop Carlson if he knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a child, to which Carlson responds, “I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not. I understand today it’s a crime.”

The statement released by the Archdiocese of St. Louis on Wednesday morning notes that neither Archbishop Carlson nor the Archdiocese of St. Louis is a party to the case.

“Further, the Archbishop has been previously deposed by the same Plaintiff’s counsel on at least three separate prior occasions in the 1980s focused on the activities of the same priest that he was again asked about last month – 27 years later,” the statement reads.

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IRELAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 11, 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 )

Revelations of horrors at Tuam center for unwed mothers are no doubt causing real suffering to relatives of babies and toddlers who died there and to those men and women who spent time there. So we call on Ireland’s Catholic bishops to immediately set up a fund to provide therapy for anyone who has been traumatized by this scandal, whether at Tuam or at other similar facilities.

Finding the full truth can come later (although it is essential that finding the full truth not be unduly delayed). Helping the wounded must come now.

No matter who is ultimately found responsible for these dreadful acts, every bishop is responsible for the safety of his flock and every group of nuns operates in a diocese only with the permission of a bishop. So bishops must step up and help struggling mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers of those who perished in these church facilities, and those adults who have suffered and are suffering because they endured such inexcusably callous treatment by Catholic nuns.

Irish bishops failed to protect their flocks and allowed hundreds of innocent children to die and hundreds of women and men to suffer. They can help now though. They can do the moral thing, the right thing, and provide funds for therapy so those who suffered for so long can find healing.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Jun. 9, 2014 NCR Today

In November, when the U.S. bishops met for their annual meeting in Baltimore, they did not pick up on the themes that are the signature features of the papacy of Pope Francis: concern for the poor and marginalized, criticism of the capitalism, and the mercy and compassion of God. Rather, they continued to worry about gay marriage and the contraceptive mandate and voted to write a statement on pornography. (Spoiler alert: They are against it.)

It was truly embarrassing to watch the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in action in Baltimore, especially for those who remember the glory years when the bishops were prophetic voices with their letters on peace and the economy. It was as if they had missed the Francis memo.

This week, the bishops will have another chance to get on the Francis bandwagon as they meet Wednesday through Friday in New Orleans. Will they miss the bus again?

“Family issues” will again be front and center at the meeting in New Orleans. The bishops will get an update from their Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, chaired by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco. This is the committee that fights gay marriage.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bistum Limberg

LIMBURG – Der im März emeritierte Bischof von Limburg, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, gibt im September dieses Jahres seinen Wohnsitz in Limburg auf. Bis er eine neue Aufgabe übernimmt, wird er gemeinsam mit seiner Familie eine Wohnung in Regensburg anmieten. Der Bi­schof von Regensburg, Rudolf Voderholzer, hat ihm die mitbrüderliche Aufnahme und Gastfreundschaft in seiner Diözese zugesichert. Eine dem emeritierten Bischof zustehende Dienstwohnung nimmt Tebartz-van Elst damit künftig nicht mehr in Anspruch.

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GERMANY
The Local

Published: 11 Jun 2014

Germany’s disgraced “bling bishop”, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who earned his name blowing €31-million on luxurious headquarters in central Germany has been given a new home in Bavaria.

Tebartz-van Elst was suspended by Pope Francis as Bishop of Limburg in Hesse in October last year and resigned in March following a string of revelations about spending on his new headquarters.

The lavish project including €213,000 spent on a fish tank, €20,000 on light switches and €350,000 on wardrobes.

A report into the huge sums spent was published in March, but the 54-year-old has continued to live in the luxurious surroundings of his Limburg home, while the church tries to find a new role for him.

But in a statement on Tuesday, the diocese of Limburg said the problem of what to do with Tebartz-van Elst had been solved. He will move in September to a rented apartment in Regensburg until he takes up a new role.

Bishop of Regensburg Rudolf Voderholzer has assured him a “fraternal welcome and hospitality”, the Limburg diocese said.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

June 11, 2014

The Marist Brothers have paid out $6.84 million in compensation to 38 former students who were sexually abused by John William Chute, who is also known as Brother Kostka.

Counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Simeon Beckett, said payments averaged $178,000 but those made through Towards Healing were substantially less.

Chute is now living in the community in NSW.

The royal commission heard on Tuesday that allegations of sexual abuse were made against him as early as 1960 and that he had admitted to “inappropriate touching” while at Marcellin College in Randwick.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

[with video]

By ROD DREHER • June 11, 2014

Catholic journalist Phil Lawler is disgusted by Archbishop Robert Carlson’s cowardly, butt-covering testimony in a child abuse deposition. Carlson said, under oath, that in the 1980s, when he was serving as an auxiliary bishop in Minnesota, he wasn’t sure that adults having sex with kids was a crime. Excerpt from Lawler’s column:

Is the reputation of the Catholic Church improved by the fact that, yet again, an archbishop has been quoted as saying things that most people find impossible to believe? How could things have been worse, if you had simply told the unvarnished truth to the best of your ability, and admitted what everyone already knows?

Enough! The paltry defenses, the dog-ate-the-homework excuses are an embarrassment to the Church. Stop it! If you don’t know the truth, if you aren’t prepared to testify to the truth, then you aren’t fit to be a Catholic bishop. If you can’t be a credible witness, resign!

Phil’s not going to like this clip from the same deposition. In it, the lawyer reads from the 1986 deposition of a then-Bishop Watters, who testified that Bishop Carlson had advised him in advance of the deposition on a clerical child sex abuse case that “the best thing you can say is ‘I don’t remember.’” Carlson, now an archbishop, said he doesn’t remember if he ever said that, but he doubts he did:

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis

June 11, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information contact:
Gabe Jones
Community Relations Specialist
Phone: 314.792.7557

ST. LOUIS – This statement is intended to clear up confusion generated by the release on June 9, 2014, of a videotaped deposition of Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, Archbishop of St. Louis. This deposition was taken in a lawsuit for damages pending in a Minnesota state court relating to events that occurred more than 30 years ago in Minnesota. Neither Archbishop Carlson nor the Archdiocese of St. Louis is a party to this case. Further, the Archbishop has been previously deposed by the same Plaintiff’s counsel on at least three separate prior occasions in the 1980s focused on the activities of the same priest that he was again asked about last month – 27 years later. Recent inaccurate and misleading reporting by certain media outlets has impugned Archbishop Carlson’s good name and reputation.

During a press conference held on June 9, 2014, Plaintiff’s lawyer strategically took Archbishop Carlson’s response to a question out of context and suggested that the Archbishop did not know that it was a criminal offense for an adult to molest a child. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Contrary to what is being reported, Archbishop Carlson is and has been a leader in the Church when it comes to recognizing and managing matters of sexual abuse involving the clergy. As far back as 1980, then-Father Carlson wrote “This behavior cannot be tolerated” in a memo referencing a priest’s abusive actions (Exhibit 301 of this case).

In the deposition video, which was released by Plaintiff’s counsel, the dialogue between Plaintiff’s counsel and Archbishop Carlson focused on Archbishop Carlson’s knowledge of Minnesota child abuse reporting statutes and when clergy became mandatory reporters. In the full transcript of Archbishop Carlson’s deposition, the actual exchange between Archbishop Carlson and Plaintiff’s counsel is quite different from what is being widely reported in the media. Plaintiff’s counsel began his line of questioning as follows:

Q. Well, mandatory reporting laws went into effect across the nation in 1973, Archbishop.

Charles Goldberg, attorney representing Archbishop Carlson at this deposition, explained that while current Minnesota law makes it a crime for clergy persons not to report suspected child abuse, that statute did not become effective until 1988. What Plaintiff’s counsel has failed to point out to the media is that Mr. Goldberg himself noted at this point in the deposition “you’re talking about mandatory reporting?” (emphasis added). When the Archbishop said “I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” he was simply referring to the fact that he did not know the year that clergy became mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse (pgs. 108-109).

At another point in the deposition, the Plaintiff’s counsel attacked Archbishop Carlson about the answer “I don’t remember,” to which the archbishop’s legal counsel objected:

Q. [Plaintiff’s Counsel] Can you tell me today that you have no memory of ever having advised anybody to report to the police…?

MR. GOLDBERG: Just a minute. I’m going to register an objection to that question. As I mentioned at the outset…you personally, Mr. Anderson, have deposed Archbishop Carlson on June 21st, 1985; March 30th, 1987; April 2nd, 1987; and May 4th, 1987 about each of these matters in some detail of which you had over 30 exhibits marked in those depositions, and I think in fairness to the Archbishop, if you want to ask him about these things and get specific answers, he needs to see these documents, because no human being can be expected to remember, regardless of how outrageous some of these matters may have appeared, to explain in detail those things to you without a reference to these depositions 25 to 30 years ago (pg. 19).

On page 22 of the transcript, Plaintiff’s counsel questions the Archbishop, who had repeatedly requested and was denied the ability to review case documents pertaining to the questions asked of him, and who, 27 years after last being deposed, is now being maligned for his inability to recall certain events.

To reiterate, Archbishop Carlson is not a party in this case, nor has he committed a crime. He has not only voluntarily participated in this legal process, he has offered his testimony as clearly and thoughtfully as possible, given both the span of time in which this discovery process has taken place and accessibility to certain documents.

The media reports of this deposition have not only called into question the exemplary record Archbishop Carlson has amassed during his more than 40 years of ministry, but has also reopened the wounds of survivors of the heinous act of sexual abuse, and has caused further pain to the Catholic Faithful, both here in the Archdiocese of St. Louis and beyond. These misleading and inaccurate reports have also resulted in negative commentary both in traditional as well as social media outlets. Nevertheless, the fact remains that Archbishop Carlson and the Catholic Church abhor any form of sexual abuse.

The full transcript of Archbishop Carlson’s deposition is on the website of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis:
http://www.archspm.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/158765rcarlson05232014_Full_Redacted.pdf

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

[the entire deposition – via Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis]

Dennis Coday | Jun. 11, 2014 NCR Today

The Minnesota lawyer who released the deposition of St. Louis’ archbishop this week took the archbishop’s response to a question “out of context and suggested that the Archbishop did not know that it was a criminal offense for an adult to molest a child. Nothing could be further from the truth,” says in a statement the archdiocese released this morning.

“Recent inaccurate and misleading reporting by certain media outlets has impugned Archbishop Carlson’s good name and reputation,” the statement says.

A full reading of the deposition shows that Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis was responding not to a general question about the sexual abuse of children but to a question about a specific point of Minnesota law — mandatory reporting laws — when he said, “I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not. I understand today it’s a crime.”

“In the deposition video, which was released by Plaintiff’s counsel, the dialogue between Plaintiff’s counsel and Archbishop Carlson focused on Archbishop Carlson’s knowledge of Minnesota child abuse reporting statutes and when clergy became mandatory reporters,” the archdiocesan statement says.

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IRELAND
Bock the Robber

Posted by Bock on June 10, 2014

How symbolic it is that the inquiry into the oppressive practices of the religious orders in Ireland should be announced by a son of Oliver J Flanagan.

Who’s that? somebody asked me earlier today.

Oliver J Flanagan, TD, was an extremely conservative Catholic bigot, an anti-Semite, a short-lived Fine Gael minister and a proud Knight of Columbanus. The Mountmellick Monolith, as John Healy once called him in the Irish Times, represented the worst of parish-pump Irish political stroke-pulling, a ward-heeling kisser of every episcopal ring that came within 100 miles of his ambit and a symbol of everything that was wrong with this backward little country since independence.

How refreshing, therefore, that his son, Charlie Flanagan, minister for children and youth affairs, should be the one to announce a commission of inquiry into the activities of the mother and baby homes that wrought such misery on some Irish people, with the active support of many others.

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UNITED STATES
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) 2014 Spring General Assembly will be held in New Orleans June11-13, 2014. You will be able to follow the bishops’ actions at the meeting by viewing the live stream or reviewing video-on-demand of the public sessions and following the Twitter feed. You will also find links to related USCCB news releases and coverage from Catholic News Service on this page. Links to the agenda, speeches, votes and other material will be posted in the right hand column of this page.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Delco News Network

By Patti Mengers

RIDLEY TOWNSHIP — Notre Dame de Lourdes Church parishioners who had expected to submit an appeal to keep their parish open to Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput last Friday, finally sent him their letter, drafted by a canon lawyer, Monday along with petitions containing more than 3,000 signatures.

“Everybody we speak to says the momentum is growing. I hope we can sustain it,” said Thomas Donahue, spokesman for the parish’s Save Notre Dame de Lourdes campaign.

The 3,527 parishioners learned at masses on May 31 and June 1 that the archbishop, on the advice of the archdiocesan Strategic Planning Committee, has determined that Notre Dame de Lourdes will close July 1 and merge with Our Lady of Peace Parish in Milmont Park.

The closures and mergers are part of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Parish Planning Initiative conceived in 2010 by former Philadelphia archbishop Cardinal Justin Rigali and implemented in 2011 by Chaput to determine parish sustainability. For now, the churches of the closed parishes will remain as worship sites for special occasions, but their assets, debts and properties will be transferred to the parishes with which they are merging.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Fox 2

[with video]

JUNE 11, 2014, BY ANTHONY KIEKOW

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – St. Louisans continue to question the comments Archbishop Robert Carlson made during his recent deposition testimony. Two organizations plan to protest Wednesday afternoon. They are fuming about comments the Archbishop made during a deposition in a sex abuse case.

His comments during the deposition have the Association for the Rights of Catholics and SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, planning to protest outside of the new cathedral. The deposition was about what Carlson knew about sex abuse allegations during the 80s and 90s, when he served as a Catholic official in Minnesota. Carlson admitted that he never once called police to report any abuse allegations and he said something else that upset many people.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis released a statement saying the Archbishop believes abuse is “A most egregious offense.” The protest will begin at 2p.m.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Delaware County Daily Times

By Phil Heron, Delaware County Daily Times

POSTED: 06/11/14

The fight goes on for the parishioners of Notre Dame de Lourdes.

They have no intention of going quietly into the night after receiving the stunning word from the archdiocese that instead of taking in residents from another embattled parish, their doors would be closing and they would be forced to go elsewhere.

They have filed a formal petition and appeal with the archdiocese with more than 3,000 signatures. They are posting signs around the neighborhood.

And tonight they will be here in Primos to talk about their uphill fight on our live-stream Internet show, ‘Live From the Newsroom.’

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AUSTRALIA
Sunshine Coast Daily

Jessica Grewal | 11th Jun 2014

A CHILD-abusing teacher told a 10-year-old victim he would kill her entire family if she outed him when he took a transfer to a Lismore Catholic School, the royal commission has heard.

Gregory Sutton, a former Marist Brother who was allowed to teach at schools across Australia and the US before finally being extradited to NSW and jailed in the late 90s, already had a swath of victims when he was given a job at St Carthages in1985.

At his previous school, St Thomas Moore at Campbelltown, two young girls had endured a year of being fondled, abused and forced to commit sexual acts on Sutton and each other while he watched on.

One witness, known as ADM, told the commission she and her best friend were in Sutton’s Grade 5 class when he befriended them and began asking them to sit on either side of his lap before eventually asking if he could “go inside” her pants.

As time went on, Sutton became more aggressive in his behaviour, asking the girls to see him before class or after hours and abusing them in the school storage room, often asking them to kiss each other and sending them back to class with a bottle of glue or paint to hide what had really occurred.

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

ST. LOUIS • A group of concerned Catholics and a support group for clergy sex abuse victims will hold a vigil this afternoon outside the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis protesting comments made by St. Louis’ archbishop during a deposition that was released on Monday.

Leaders of the ARC, the Association for the Rights of Catholics and SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say they are upset by admissions and alleged memory lapses by the area’s top Catholic official, Archbishop Robert Carlson.

The event will be at 2 p.m. outside the “new” cathedral at 4431 Lindell Boulevard.

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

By Bill McClellan bmcclellan@post-dispatch.com 314-340-81437

To • Archbishop Robert J. Carlson

From • Swifty McClellan, Public Relations Maven

Good morning, Your Eminence. How you doing? Don’t answer. I know how you’re doing. You’re still reeling from the release of that transcript of a deposition from Minnesota in which you claimed you couldn’t remember whether you used to know it was a crime for an adult to have sex with a child.

That didn’t play too well, did it? Especially because at the very time you supposedly weren’t sure about the legality of molesting kids, you were writing memos to your boss about the statute of limitations for such a crime. If you knew about a statute of limitations, you had to know it was a crime. Or am I missing something?

Again, don’t answer. I am not here to harangue you. I’m on your side. As far as I’m concerned, “Thou shalt not lie” is strictly Old Testament stuff.

You need some public relations help, Your Em. Nothing against the people you have on staff, but I read the statement from Gabe Jones, spokesman for the archdiocese: “While not being able to recall his knowledge of the law exactly as it was many decades ago, the archbishop did make clear that he knows child sex abuse is a crime today.”

You think the flock is going to rally around something like that?

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IRELAND
Laois Nationalist

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou is backing calls for the Mother and Baby Home inquiry to include the Magdalene Laundries.

A full commission of inquiry is being set up, and will have the power to compel documents and witnesses.

It will include at least one institution outside Catholic control.

Speaking today Deputy McDonald said concerns expressed about a report on the issue carried out by Martin McAleese could be addressed in the new investigation.

“To understand the Mother and Baby homes you have to include the Magdalene Laundries,” Deputy McDonald said.

“It makes no sense to have a thorough, statutory investigation into those institutions and to excluse the laundries.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Ciara McDonagh

Wednesday 11 June 2014

The Children’s Minister says he doesn’t want the mother and baby home inquiry to take ‘years to report’.

Charlie Flanagan was responding to repeated calls for the Magdalene Laundries to be included in the investigation announced by the government yesterday.

At least one institution outside the control of the Catholic church will be included in the team’s work.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Jun 11, 2014 12:29 By David Coleman

Ms Burton was speaking after Commission of Investigation launched into mother and baby homes

Labour’s Joan Burton has opened up about her own adoption and called for adoptees to be allowed access to their birth certificates.

Ms Burton was speaking after a Commission of investigation was launched into mother and baby homes following the discovery of a mass burial ground in Tuam, Co Galway.

She told Newstalk Breakfast: “I have a personal interest in all of this, as a child I was adopted and the matters are of a very significant concern to me, as well as of political concern.

“That legislation has existed in Scotland for decades, and in the UK. I think there has been a enormous amount of work done on it and there are different points of view.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Shaun Connolly, Claire O’Sullivan and Conall Ó Fátharta

Catholic bishops apologised for the “hurt caused by the Church” as Taoiseach Enda Kenny ordered a wide-ranging investigation into what he branded the “abominable” way mothers and babies were treated in religious-run homes.

The probe will look at death rates and burial practices at the homes, as well as illegal adoptions and vaccine trials.

The bishops’ conference said in a statement: “The investigation should inquire into how these homes were funded and, crucially, how adoptions were organised and followed up.

“We also support the Irish Government’s intention to publish legislation on ‘tracing’ rights for adopted children and their mothers with due regard to the rights of all involved.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Shaun Connolly Political Correspondent

Women and children are still being discriminated against by the State, the Dáil heard as TDs debated the mother-and-baby home scandal.

Independent Wexford TD Mick Wallace said women were treated badly across a range of issues, from the denial of the right to choose whether to have a termination in the Republic, to cuts in lone parent payments.

Mr Wallace warned that children were suffering now under the Direct Provision restrictions on asylum seekers and their families.

“And how do we treat our most vulnerable today?” Mr Wallace asked in the Dáil.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

A maintenance worker employed in Bessborough in the late 1980s and early 1990s has spoken of how he came across child remains while burying the bodies of two nuns.

Eugene Kelly, from Cork, worked as maintenance man at the former mother-and-baby home and adoption society in Blackrock between 1984 and 1992 and recalls coming across “little skulls and little bones” as he buried two nuns in the small graveyard on the site.

“I was only asked then when Timmy [who operated the farm] was getting too old, when he was semi-retired, would I bury a few of the nuns? I said ‘No problem’ — it was an adventure to me, I was only 19 or 20 at the time. It frightened the bejaysus out of me the first time.

“I remember when I was doing the dig, I came across little skulls and little bones. It was frightening. It was frightening, as it was half past five on a November or something like that, or December, and it was getting dark.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter

Adoption, children’s and human rights organisations have welcomed the decision by the Department of Children to set up a statutory commission to investigate practices, deaths, illegal adoptions and vaccine trials at the country’s mother-and-baby homes.

Groups welcomed the fact that the commission’s statutory footing meant it would be able to compel witnesses to attend and organisations to provide documentation. Many of the groups also commented that successive governments had known about abuse at these homes for years.

Adoption Rights Alliance chairwoman Susan Lohan said that Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan’s announcement appeared to “answer everything we were looking for” but said that “these matters could have been dealt with decades ago” as various groups had lobbied for their investigation. These thoughts were echoed by Amnesty International Ireland executive director Colm O’Gorman who said successive governments had been made aware of concerns about mother-and-baby homes.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Yesterday afternoon’s announcement that a statutory commission will inquire into unfolding scandals in religious-run mother-and-baby homes is very welcome despite its inevitability and the horrors it will undoubtedly uncover.

Its findings are unlikely to strengthen this society’s idea of self-worth but if they force us to confront the dysfunction at the heart of our treatment of vulnerable children and women then something of worth might be achieved.

The chilling story — the remains of 796 infants believed buried at a home run by the Sisters of the Bon Secours in Tuam; forced adoptions often secret or illegal; children offered and used as guinea pigs in vaccine trials — is so utterly appalling that any other response would not have been acceptable and would have perpetuated the dishonesty, cruelty, and institutionalised misogyny that underlines these horrors.

It may be half a century since the last child was buried at the Tuam home but that does not diminish the obligation to try to understand what went on, how such cruelty and evil was so very commonplace. That this inquiry follows others almost too many to count into the horrors inflicted on the vulnerable, the abandoned, and the ostracised by religious orders makes this story even darker.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Gerard Howlin

IN Ireland there are particular circumstances feeding the recurring frenzies of first using nuns as guardians of female sexuality, and then turning on them for doing just that.

Post-famine Ireland, the development of a large Catholic class of smallholders and a smaller catholic middle class, was rooted in social insecurity and the craving for respectability. The norms of what is socially respectable have changed, but the craving remains unabated. The outburst of anger, the running of rhetoric ahead of facts, is as much a recoiling from the horror of ourselves as any love of justice — least of all for the afflicted.

The repetitive episodes of first handing over unmarried pregnant women into the ‘care’ of women religious, the employment, and then excoriation of those same women religious are part of a continuing theme. It has deep-rooted, but not extinct echoes, of a centuries old treatment of women who through their economic independence, social isolation or sexual apostasy, challenged the norm.

Seeing the differences, without understanding the similarities, between the nuns who managed mother and baby homes, and the women who were put into them, is to read history backwards. It is the means for a socially insecure, vindictive society to isolate and punish errant women. ‘Witch-hunt’ recalls a craze, but only partly that, where women, overwhelmingly ones isolated from appropriate male authority, were picked off and punished. The unmarried and the widowed were far more likely to be accused. Their lack of appendage to a man, affronted and unsettled people. It left them vulnerable to the phobias of a surrounding society and the recurring need for vengeance we are so familiar with now.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
Irish Examiner Reporter

Detailed 80-year-old legislation gave Government a clear right to all records on child deaths and adoptions in mother-and-baby homes as they happened — but allowed “charities” to exempt themselves from the oversight.

The situation is outlined in the Registration of Maternity Homes Act, 1934 — a law only passed in response to concerns over standards of care at maternity facilities, including religious-run “not-for-profit” mother-and-baby homes.

Documents obtained after a trawl of legal records by the Irish Examiner show the law, which remains on the statute, allowed Government unrestricted access to details, that 80 years later, it is only now searching for.

However, the law also exempted an unknown number of groups from the vital public safety net as they were considered not-for-profit charities that did not need to be examined.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Colette Browne

It is too late to help the 800 children whose bodies were dumped in a septic tank in Co Galway, but there are thousands of children living in poverty and suffering from neglect today who can be saved.

Speaking about the shocking discovery of hundreds of tiny corpses in a mass grave in Tuam, Children’s Minister Charlie Flanagan said it was “a reminder of a darker past in Ireland”.

The notion that back then, in a dim and distant past, Ireland didn’t cherish all of its children equally is both distressing and reassuring.

We grieve for the long-dead children of unmarried mothers, who were condemned to a life of torment for the crime of being born, but salve our consciences with the knowledge that today things are better.

We tell ourselves that the callousness and cruelty of the past are interred with the remains of those children in their tomb.

But for many, the suffocating gloom of that dark past never lifted. We just choose to ignore it.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Colette Browne

The establishment of a Commission of Investigation into the mother-and-baby home scandal is welcome, but the church is not the only body with questions to answer.

For the past number of weeks there have been ubiquitous expressions of shock, surprise and revulsion from church leaders, politicians and the public at the horrifying stories emanating from mother-and-baby homes.

Tales of ostracised women incarcerated for years, newborn babies being torn from their hands and children being raised in Dickensian, disease-ridden conditions leading to mortality rates that were five times higher than the national average.

But these institutions did not operate in a vacuum and the depredations suffered by women and children, locked up behind their walls, have been a matter of public record for many decades.

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IRELAND
The Guardian (UK)

Andrew Brown
theguardian.com, Wednesday 11 June 2014

Why is it that we are more shocked by what happens to dead babies than to live ones? The story that almost 800 dead babies were buried in a disused sewage tank outside Tuam in rural Ireland turns out to be problematic. It is certain that 796 babies did die under the care of nuns in a home for unmarried mothers there between 1925 and 1961 and that is in itself a shocking statistic. But what gave the story wings was the claim that their bodies had been dumped in a septic tank, widely attributed to Catherine Corless, the local historian who uncovered the scandal.

In an interview she has denied that she ever used the term “dumped”. More to the point, it was impossible that 800 children were placed there, since “only” 204 died in the years before the home was connected to the mains water supply, in 1937. In her first account of the discovery, Corless described the structure as a “crypt”. Only later did she identify it, from a map, as a septic tank. If the bodies were placed in it long after it had been drained and disused, this would seem much less shocking. That less shocking story is at least plausible: the alternative would be that the nuns buried some babies decently in the unofficial graveyard but just dumped others in the cesspit. On what basis could they possibly have chosen?

This is not to deny that almost 800 children died and were buried in an unofficial graveyard behind the home. In the manner of these things in rural Ireland, it was both known and not known – according to the Irish Times “this small grassy space has been attended for decades by local people, who have planted roses and other flowers there, and put up a grotto in one corner”.

Twenty babies dropped in a cesspit as corpses is a horrifying figure. Even one would be dreadful. And of course the whole story fits wonderfully into the larger stories of Irish nuns as heartless and cruel, which many undoubtedly were. But what’s interesting to a student of religion is why the desecration of dead bodies should be so very much more shocking than the deaths of living babies.

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AUSTRALIA
Cairns Post

JESSICA MARSZALEK THE CAIRNS POST JUNE 11, 2014

TWO former teachers from a North Queensland school and at least two ex-students will be witnesses at a royal commission into child sexual abuse.

The inquiry is sitting in Canberra to consider whether the Marist Brothers ignored repeated reports and suspicions of abuse by two long-serving brothers, choosing instead to move them on to new schools.

The 16-person witness list for the 10-day commission ­includes a former teacher and a former principal of a Marist Brothers school in North Queensland.

It also lists two former ­students of the school, which has not been named.

The inquiry yesterday heard that a self-confessed paedophile was allowed to teach in NSW and the ACT for 40 years during which he allegedly assaulted nearly 50 boys ­despite repeatedly ­admitting his ­actions to ­superiors.

It heard Brother John Chute taught from 1952 to 1993, despite admitting to four cases of abuse when children came forward ­between 1960 and 1972. Despite these admissions, he went on to teach for 17 years at Marist College Canberra, which 39 of his 48 alleged victims attended.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

A former senior teacher at Marist College Canberra said he cannot recall being told in 1986 that Brother Kostka Chute was a child molester but he stopped short of denying the conversation ever took place.

John Doyle gave testimony by phone from London on the same day a witness told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse in Canberra that the Marist Brothers had long had a culture of condoning the unacceptable and that going to confession (about acts of abuse) was regarded as “washing dirty water off their chests”.

Witness AAJ, who says he was abused at Marcellin College in Randwick by Chute in 1960, said on Wednesday that while women were out of bounds, boys were considered acceptable.

Earlier in the day, former Marist College Canberra student Damian De Marco, who says he has a vivid recollection of speaking to Mr Doyle about Chute in 1986, told the commission he was not surprised that the lawyer representing Marist Brothers had used Mr De Marco’s past drug use to question his testimony.

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AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

11 June 2014

The Canberra hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse are under way at the ACT Magistrates Court Building in Civic.

The focus is on the response of the Marist Brothers to allegations of child sexual abuse in schools in the ACT, NSW and Queensland.

The hearings, set down for nine days from 10 June, run from 10am-4pm each day (with breaks from 11.30am-noon and 1-2pm) and are open to the public.

Hearing room updates are available on the Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council website here. A live webcast can be viewed on the royal commission website here.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Child sex abuse royal commission hears paedophile Marist brother dressed students up before abusing them

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 11, 2014

A NOTORIOUS paedophile Marist brother made one boy dress up in women’s clothing and then kiss him, the child sex abuse royal commission has been told today.

The 65-year-old man said he still found it difficult to talk about it even 53 years later.

He said that Brother Kostka Chute, then aged about 26, had told him there was going to be a school play at the Marcellin school in Randwick.

“I was dressed up like a Mandarin woman,” the man said.

“The thing was that there was never going to be a play. It was like the whole thing was invented in order for Brother Kostka to have physical contact with me.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Helen Davidson in Canberra
theguardian.com, Wednesday 11 June 2014

A man who repeatedly warned the Marist Brothers that one of their members, Brother Kostka Chute, had abused him and was still abusing other young students said he was ignored and given false promises that Chute would be kept away from children, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has heard.

The 13th public hearing for the commission is examining the Marist Brothers order’s response to numerous allegations and complaints that two of its members were sexually abusing students for decades. It is known at least five men among their ranks abused children. Four were convicted and one took his own life shortly after confessing.

Greg Sutton and Kostka Chute were shifted from school to school across Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT throughout their teaching careers, despite – and in some cases because of – multiple complaints against them alleging child sexual abuse and inappropriate behaviour.

Sutton, who could be legally identified for the first time in 18 years from Tuesday, was convicted in 1996 after pleading guilty to 67 charges of sexual assault against 15 children. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison, with a minimum term of 12 years, and was released in 2008.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC

EWAN GILBERT
June 11, 2014

A man sexually abused as a child has told an inquiry how a Catholic Brother made him dress in women’s clothing and kiss him in the school gymnasium.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard the victim, know only as AAJ, was nine years old when he first attended Marcellin College in Sydney’s Randwick in the 1960s.

His teacher was John Chute, also known as Brother Kostka, who has since been convicted of paedophilia.

AAJ detailed how Brother Kostka sexually abused him at Marcellin College.

“The thing about Brother Kostka is he was none too discreet,” AAJ told today’s hearing in Canberra.

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NEW JERSEY
WPIX

[with video]

JUNE 10, 2014, BY MARY MURPHY

MORRIS COUNTY, N.J. (PIX11) — When 44-year-old Bill Wolfe finally won the right to reveal his story of priest sex abuse at the private Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey, his sister noticed something she hadn’t seen in thirty years.

“His shoulders went back! His whole demeanor absolutely changed,” Lisa Gerwig told PIX 11 Investigates. “The smile is back.”

Wolfe was 14-years-old and a freshman in 1984 when he sought help from Delbarton’s guidance counselor, Father Timothy Brennan.

He felt that he wasn’t fitting in with other classmates.

“He gained my trust,” Wolfe recalled recently to PIX11 Investigates. “It’s a process, a grooming process,” Wolfe said.

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NEW YORK
CBS 6 Albany

[with video]

Updated: Wednesday, June 11 2014

CLIFTON PARK– A local priest accused of inappropriate conduct with an underage girl makes his first court appearance this morning.

James Michael Taylor, known to many as Father Michael, was arrested back in April after police say he had physical contact with a 15-year-old Saratoga County girl.

Police tell us that the two met when Taylor was serving as Deacon and Youth Minister for the Corpus Christi Church in Clifton Park. Taylor has since been ordained and now serves at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Schenectady but is on administrative leave.

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

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 10, 2014

For more information:

David Clohessy 314 566 9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, Robert Schutzius 314 837 0678

Two groups hold vigil
They’re appalled by archbishop
Just-released deposition gets national attention

A group of concerned Catholics and a support group for clergy sex abuse victims will hold a short vigil tomorrow outside the Cathedral protesting comments made by St. Louis’ archbishop during a deposition that was released on Monday.

Leaders of the ARC, the Association for the Rights of Catholics and SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are upset by admissions and alleged memory lapses by the area’s top Catholic official, Archbishop Robert Carlson.

The event will be at 2 p.m. outside the “new” Cathedral on Lindell (at Newstead)

Last month, under oath, Carlson:

– claimed 193 times that he didn’t recall specifics about clergy sex abuse cases,
– admitted that he never once called police to report abuse in 24 years as a Catholic official in Minnesota, and
– said he wasn’t sure if he knew in the 1980s whether child sex abuse was illegal.

A firestorm of criticism, from conservative and liberal Catholics, has erupted and articles from coast-to-coast have pilloried Carlson.

http://arcc-catholic-rights.org/

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CANADA
APTN

10. JUN, 2014

Kathleen Martens
APTN Investigates

WINNIPEG – A Calgary lawyer is being allowed to resign instead of being kicked out of the legal profession.

David Blott is scheduled to give up his right to practice in Alberta on Friday, June 13. The move is in lieu of a disciplinary hearing where Blott could be disbarred for financially exploiting residential school survivors.

Legal officials say a resignation means the same thing as a disbarment but not to Kelly Busch of Saskatoon. Busch was one of the form-fillers indirectly employed by Blott to find and obtain residential school compensation information from survivors.

“A disbarment is not the same as resigning,” a disappointed Busch said over the phone. “It’s almost like letting him take the coward’s way out.”

Busch was one of two whistle-blowers to expose the Blott operation in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which involved wrongly charging survivors for filling out their residential school compensation forms, wrongly providing loans at exorbitant interest rates in advance of compensation payouts, and overcharging for legal work — along with other financial and legal misconduct.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Adoption Rights Alliance has called for the establishment of counselling services for former residents of mother-and-baby homes in tandem with the promised statutory inquiry.

While cautiously welcoming the Government’s commitment to a statutory inquiry, the alliance warned against further delays in providing access to family records and advice on reunions given the age profile of the women who suffered in the homes.

It said the Government should speedily establish regional counselling services.

The Justice for Magdalenes research group has asked for Magdalene laundries to be included in the inquiry’s terms of reference, citing what it called the “huge traffic” between mother-and-baby homes and the laundries.

It said the Government-appointed McAleese investigation into State involvement with the Catholic-run laundries did not retain records received from the religious orders which operated them.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Caroline Crawford
Published 11/06/2014

A SURVIVOR of the Tuam mother-and-baby home has told how he wouldn’t “crawl” to the State for any compensation after a large swathe of women in the Magdalene Laundries were barred from the redress scheme for those facilities.

JP Rodgers welcomed the news that a full inquiry would be held into the mother-and-baby homes but warned the Government that it must not make survivors “jump through hoops” for redress.

In the 1940s, Mr Rodgers’ mother was moved from St Mary’s home in Tuam and placed into the Magdalene Laundry in Galway when he was just 13 months old. Mr Rodgers (right) remained in the Tuam home until he was fostered out at the age of five. He believes it was a miracle that he survived.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SR Online

[Summary: The sexual abuse case against a priest from Weiskirchen is time-barred. He is alleged to have abused a 16-year-old in the early 1980s. While the Trier diocese is investigation under canon law, the prosecution will not deal with it.]

Ein Pfarrer aus Weiskirchen soll Anfang der 1980er Jahre eine16-Jährige sexuell missbraucht haben. Während das Bistum Trier den Fall kirchenrechtlich untersucht, wird sich die Staatsanwaltschaft nicht weiter damit beschäftigen. Die Sache ist juristisch gesehen verjährt.

(10.06.2014) Der wegen angeblichen sexuellen Missbrauchs einer 16-Jährigen beurlaubte Pfarrer aus dem Saarland muss nicht mit strafrechtlichen Folgen rechnen. Die vorgeworfenen Taten seien „unter allen denkbaren rechtlichen Gesichtspunkten“ verjährt, teilte der Leitende Oberstaatsanwalt Harald Kruse am Dienstag in Koblenz mit. Das Verfahren sei daher eingestellt worden.

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SUEDAFRIKA
Westdeutsche Zeitung

Willich/Kreis Viersen. Das Verfahren gegen den aus Willich stammenden Pfarrer Georg K. vor einem Gericht in der Nähe von Johannesburg (Südafrika) ist am heutigen Dienstag überraschend zu Ende gegangen. Der Geistliche hatte sich seit 2009 dort verantworten müssen, weil er sich in einem Kommunioncamp Kindern sexuell genähert haben soll.

Der Prozess hatte sich schier unendlich in die Länge gezogen. Jetzt wurde der Priester wegen verfahrenstechnischer Probleme freigesprochen, allerdings sitzt er dem Vernehmen nach in Auslieferungshaft und soll so schnell wie möglich nach Krefeld gebracht werden.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Helen Davidson, in Canberra
theguardian.com, Wednesday 11 June 2014

A man who was abused as a child by a former Marist Brothers teacher accused the Catholic church of having a “sociopathic disregard for the welfare of victims” after its senior counsel attempted to discredit him as a witness by airing past drug use.

Damian De Marco told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Canberra that he had repeatedly warned the Marist Brothers that one of their members, brother Kostka Chute, had abused him and was still abusing other young students, but he was ignored and given false promises that Chute would be kept away from children.

Chute eventually admitted to abusing six boys and was jailed for two years in 2009.

On Tuesday afternoon Peter Gray, who was representing the Marist Brothers but is also representing the Catholic church’s Truth, Justice and Healing council throughout the royal commission, sought to paint De Marco as a heavy marijuana user who likely had an affected memory as a result.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

John Downing
Published 11/06/2014

POOR young women who had children outside marriage were treated as “an inferior sub-species” for decades in Ireland, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said as he announced a major state inquiry into religious-run mother-and-baby homes.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that in many cases their treatment, and that of their babies, was an abomination,” the Taoiseach said in an emotive statement to the Dail.

Children’s Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan said the special commission will investigate the deaths of babies at mother-and-baby homes across the country in the wake of the discovery of a mass grave in Tuam containing almost 800 babies’ remains. He said the inquiry will cover the infant mortality rate, vaccines, medical trials, the geographic spread of these institutions and the legal complexities.

Mr Flanagan conceded that the question of compensation ultimately may arise and could not be ruled out. “But dealing with matters of compensation at this stage is premature,” he told the Irish Independent.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Miriam Lord

Wed, Jun 11, 2014

The publication of the Cooke report should have taken our minds off the Tuam babies story, but it didn’t. After the furore caused by the allegations surrounding alleged bugging of the Garda Ombudsman office by persons unknown, the arrival of the report into the affair was met with tired indifference around Leinster House. Although the government is happy, as Mr Justice Cooke concluded the evidence did not support the proposition. Some in South Dublin (or perhaps further afield, if he’s had enough of Kildare Street for the present) like Alan Shatter was probably allowing himself a rueful smile.

Sometimes, a ball of smoke is just that – a ball of smoke. Is it case closed? It would seem to be, unless GSOC or the Sunday Times or Verrimus (the interntional security company which carried out the examination of GSOC premises which gave rise to suspicion in the first place) can say otherwise.

But the day was really about the terrible history of Ireland’s mother and baby homes. All to do with an Ireland past, of course. We’re much more tolerant now. Enda pulled out all the stops in the Dáil. In fairness, he’s damn good at this. He oozes compassion and understanding. He can gather up a nation’s pain and soothe it with just the right amount of sadness, contrition and anger. A good deal of this is down to language. The Taoiseach casts out lines which catch the heart and sum up what most of us have been feeling. With lyrical bluntness, he holds the shameful deeds of a shared past up to the light and we publicly acknowledge our disgrace. For the first couple of times, the evocative phrases and skilful honesty really struck home. That emotional eloquence was on show again in the Dáil yesterday. But this time, we were kinda expecting it. Which somewhat took the shine off the latest performance.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Helen Davidson in Canberra
theguardian.com, Wednesday 11 June 2014

The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse is “a moment of truth for this nation”, said a witness who told of years of abuse by his teacher.

The man also accused the Marist Brothers of enabling the teacher, likening it to “putting an alcoholic in charge of the alcohol cabinet”, and described the actions of the church insurers in dealing with his complaint as “outrageous”.

The commission’s 13th public hearing opened in Canberra on Tuesday morning, focusing on the cases of two former Marist brothers: Greg Sutton and John Chute.

The royal commission was told that the two men were shifted from school to school across Queensland, NSW and the ACT throughout their teaching careers, despite – and in some cases because of – multiple complaints against them alleging child sexual abuse and inappropriate behaviour.

Chute, also known as brother Kostka, eventually admitted to abusing six boys and was jailed for two years in 2009.

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UNITED STATES
The Guardian (UK)

Associated Press in Nashville, Tennessee
theguardian.com, Tuesday 10 June 2014

An Arkansas mega-church pastor was elected Tuesday to lead the country’s Southern Baptists as the conservative denomination tries to turn around declining membership, church attendance and baptisms and faces increasing conflict with mainstream culture, especially over its conviction that gay sex is immoral.

Later on Tuesday, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination is scheduled to consider a resolution opposing the idea that gender identity can be different from a person’s biological sex. And a motion made from the floor by one Southern Baptist Convention delegate asks the group to discipline a Southern California church that has stopped preaching against homosexuality.

In nominating the Rev Ronnie Floyd for president, the powerful head of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Rev Albert Mohler, told the crowd of 5,000 meeting in Baltimore, “The nation is embracing a horrifying moral rebellion that is transforming our culture before our very eyes.”

He warned of “direct challenges to our religious freedoms and churches” and said Floyd is the person who can “convey our message in the midst of the most trying times.”

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Times-Picayune

By Theodore P. Mahne, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on June 10, 2014

New Orleans may have lost out on its bid to host the Super Bowl in 2018, but this week the city welcomes the leadership of the Catholic Church from across the United States, as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops convenes its annual Spring General Assembly.

The meeting will draw about 250 bishops, archbishops and cardinals to the Hyatt Regency Hotel and the St. Louis Cathedral from Wednesday through Friday (June 10-12).

New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond, as the host bishop, acknowledged that he had an easier time drawing his colleagues to New Orleans than persuading NFL owners to bring their championship game back to the city. It required no major public relations bid or politicking, he said.

“The city has all those things that attract anyone to it,” he said. In addition to the traditional lures of the history, food and culture, its Catholic culture and identity also were integral to the appeal.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KPLR

JUNE 10, 2014, BY BETSEY BRUCE

(KPLR)- A supporter of Archbishop Robert Carlson has called on him to “clarify” his testimony from a recent deposition in a Minnesota case.

Archbishop Carlson was asked by lawyers for a plaintiff in a sex abuse case from 30 years ago if “you knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a kid.”

Carlson responded, “I’m not sure if I knew or not, that it was a crime. I understand today it’s a crime.”

Critics have called the testimony “disturbing” and even “unbelievable.” St. Louis Catholic Bill Hannegan provided a statement to FOX2 News Tuesday. He questions the words used by the attorney suggesting the church leader could have “misconstrued” them.

Hannegan said, “ If Archbishop Carlson had been clearly asked whether he knew, back in 1984, that it was a crime for a priest, or any adult, to sexually abuse a child, I believe he would have answered yes, as he did when asked about a specific case elsewhere in the deposition. The actual questions he was asked did not contain the words ‘child’ or abuse,’ and so might have been misconstrued as questions about Minnesota Age of Consent laws. The sexual abuse of children has always and everywhere been a crime. I hope Archbishop Carlson quickly clarifies this confusion.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Daily Mail (UK)

Archbishop quizzed in sexual abuse lawsuit claims he didn’t know it was illegal for priests to have sex with children in the 1980s

A St Louis archbishop embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal has claimed he didn’t know it was illegal for priests to have sex with children in the 1980s, according to a court deposition released on Monday.

Archbishop Robert Carlson, who was chancellor of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul at the time, was deposed as part of a sexual abuse lawsuit in Minnesota involving the archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona.

In a testimony filmed last month and released by the St. Paul law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates, the Catholic archbishop was asked whether he had known it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a child.

‘I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,’ Carlson responded. ‘I understand today it’s a crime.’

When asked when he first realized it was a crime for an adult – including priests – to have sex with a child, Carlson, 69, shook his head.

‘I don’t remember,’ he testified.

Yet according to other documents released by attorney Jeff Anderson, who is representing an alleged clergy abuse victim, Carlson showed clear knowledge that sexual abuse was a crime when discussing incidents with church officials during his time in Minnesota.

In a 1984 document, for example, Carlson wrote to the then-archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis – John R. Roach – about one victim of sexual abuse and mentioned that the statute of limitations for filing a claim would not expire for more than two years.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Lawyer Herald

Documents show St Louis archbishop discredit himself on knowledge of priests having sex with kids as a crime

[via Jeff Anderson & Associates:
Watters Deposition 3-17-86 p. 55 for Carlson
Carlson Ex. 301 – Adamson meeting 11-25-80
Carlson Ex. 304 – Statute of Limitations 6-29-84
Carlson Ex. 305 – Meeting with McDonough 7-9-84]

On Monday, documents pertaining to the sexual abuse-related charges lodged against several senior church members and employees in the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis revealed that the a former auxiliary bishop is aware that sex abuse on children is a crime, Buzzfeed reported.

In a 1984 letter to then archbishop John Roach of St Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese, 69-year-old Robert Carlson, who is now archbishop, discussed the case of one sex abuse victim and the statute of limitations regarding the lawsuit. The document, which was released by law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates, revealed that Carlson mentioned that the statute of limitations for filing a claim will not expire for over two years. The letter also indicated that Carlson had wrote to the parents of the victim, who were considering to file a report to the police regarding the sexual abuse incident.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch said that the law firm had taken Carlson’s deposition as part of the sexual abuse lawsuit filed in Minnesota against Reverend Thomas Adamson.

In the deposition, Anderson asked Carlson about an alleged sexual abuse incident by another priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Referring to a 1987 church memo, he asked, “But you knew a priest touching the genitals of a kid to be a crime, did you not?”

Carlson said yes.

Last month, Buzzfeed said Carlson testified in a case involving a lawsuit about the Minnesota Archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona not disclosing information on priests who have sexually abused minor patrons. Carlson himself is facing a clergy abuse lawsuit along with over a hundred priests and church employees of the Archdiocese of St. Louis for the fact that he served as an archbishop there since 2009.

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

by Lilly Fowler lfowler@post-dispatch.com 314-340-822110

It was supposed to be a happy day for Archbishop Robert J. Carlson.

Tuesday marked the fifth anniversary of his installation as St. Louis’ archbishop, the shepherd of the region’s Roman Catholics.

But any celebrating on the part of Carlson was done in the midst of nationwide headlines about his connection to the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church for more than a decade.

On Monday, attorney Jeff Anderson released a deposition in which Carlson said he was uncertain whether during his time as auxiliary archbishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis he knew that a priest engaging in sex with a child constituted a crime.

Over and over, for a total of 193 times throughout the deposition, Carlson said he did not remember in response to questions posed by Anderson.

The deposition, taken last month, is part of a sexual abuse lawsuit in Minnesota involving the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona, Minn.

Carlson’s statements have angered many, prompting hundreds of comments on social media and news websites. The fact that he was a man of the cloth pleading ignorance has made the situation worse for some.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
WTHR

By WTHR Channel 13

ST. LOUIS –
The head of the Archdiocese of St. Louis said in a deposition he didn’t know it was a crime for a priest to have sex with a child.

In the deposition given last month, but just released this week, Archbishop Robert Carlson said under oath he couldn’t recall details of how he handled allegations of abuse against a Minnesota priest decades ago.

“Archbishop, you knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a kid,” Carlson was asked in the deposition.

“I’m not sure I knew whether it was a crime or not,” Carlson replied.

Carlson, who served as chancellor of the Twin Cities archdiocese in the 1980s also said he didn’t go to authorities in 1984 when the priest admitted that he engaged in sexual conduct with a minor.

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