ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
NPR

[with audio]

The pontiff will meet with six survivors Monday. Correspondent Sylvia Poggioli tells NPR’s Linda Wertheimer the pope has been criticized for being slow to address the issue of sex abuse by priests.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I’m Linda Wertheimer. Tomorrow, Pope Francis will meet, for the first time, with survivors of clerical sex abuse. The meeting will be at his Vatican residence. His decision to meet with six European survivors comes after criticism that this pope has been slow to speak out on an issue that has severely damaged the credibility of the Catholic Church. NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli is with us now on the line from Rome. Sylvia, hello.

SYLVIA POGGIOLI, BYLINE: Hello, Linda.

WERTHEIMER: So this meeting with survivors is a private one. And I understand that the Vatican has not released any details about it. Do you know who’s going to be there?

POGGIOLI: There’ll be six people – two each from Britain, Germany and Ireland. The victims are in the 30’s age bracket, which suggests their abuse occurred 15, 20 years – maybe more. They will attend a mass in the chapel in the pope’s residence. And then they’ll have an opportunity to give Pope Francis a first-hand account of their suffering. Each group will be accompanied by a member of the pope’s commission on the protection of minors. One of the escorts will be Marie Collins, the Irish woman who was abused by a priest at the age of 13.

WERTHEIMER: Rachel Martin spoke with Marie Collins not very long ago on this program. Sylvia, the Vatican was criticized this year by two United Nations committees. What did the committees say?

POGGIOLI: Well, the U.N. committees on the rights of the child and against torture accused the Vatican of systematically following policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children worldwide and blasted the practice of transferring suspects from one parish to another to cover up their crimes. In an interview, Pope Francis defended the church, saying it tackled the issue with the utmost transparency and responsibility. …

WERTHEIMER: Sylvia, what was Pope Francis’s record on the issue of sex abuse before he was pope when he was Bishop of Buenos Aries?

POGGIOLI: Little was known in English-speaking world until the Boston-based group bishopaccountability.org recently published a report showing that when Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was president of the Argentine Bishops Conference, the future Pope Francis was silent on the issue. In the book he wrote together with his friend Rabbi Abraham Skorka, then-Cardinal Bergoglio says there were no cases in his diocese. And when a bishop called him for advice, he told him not to allow the suspect to exercise as a priest and to start a canonical trial. But according to this new report, Bergoglio was aware of at least four cases in Argentina. And his former spokesman says the cardinal declined to meet with the victims. The report says it would have been particularly appropriate for Argentine victims to be present at the meeting with the pope tomorrow.

WERTHEIMER: There also are not going to be any abuse survivors from the United States at that meeting. And that is, of course – the entire scandal first erupted here back in 2002.

POGGIOLI: Yeah. And that’s also surprising because the person who heads the pope’s commission on protection of minors is Cardinal Sean O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, who has worked hard to try to restore credibility to the archdiocese where the scandal first exploded. Now presumably, Cardinal O’Malley had a lot to do with selecting the participants in this meeting tomorrow. So the absence of American victims is striking.

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

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 6 July 2014)

A senior priest at a prominent Australian Catholic school has admitted accessing and possessing child pornography. Now, in July 2014, a church spokesman has announced that this priest will retire from active ministry. However, the church will continue to give him regular financial support and accommodation.

Father Stanislaus John Hogan, 69, who has long been associated with Saint Ignatius College in Adelaide (plus prominent Catholic schools in Sydney and Melbourne), appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on 6 March 2014.

He pleaded guilty to one count of using a carriage service to access child pornography and one aggravated count of possessing child pornography. He is still waiting to be sentenced.

The offences happened at Athelstone (the Adelaide suburb where the St Ignatius College is located) between April 2012 and August 2013.

St Ignatius College is a school of the Catholic religious order of Jesuit priests (officially called “the Society of Jesus”), and Father Stanislaus Hogan, SJ, is a member of that order.

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AUSTRALIA
Western Advocate

July 7, 2014

A FORMER priest and St Stanislaus’ College form master has been committed to stand trial in the District Court on 10 counts of indecently assaulting a male.

The matter involving Peter John Ryan, now 71, of Newington, was before magistrate Michael Allen in Bathurst Local Court.

Ryan appeared in court in person.

Ryan was charged earlier this year by officers attached to Strike Force Belle, which was established in 2008 to investigate allegations of a paedophile ring at St Stanislaus’ College and All Saints’ College in the 1970s and 1980s.

On Monday, Mr Allen committed Ryan for trial to the District Court, with the matter now listed for callover on August 13 at 9:30am before the District Court at Sydney’s Downing Centre.

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MISSOURI
Fox 2

POSTED 11:04 AM, JULY 6, 2014, BY STAFF WRITER

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI)- Trial is set to begin Monday in the civil case against a former Archdiocese of St. Louis priest accused of sexual abuse. According to the suit, Father Joseph Ross is accused of sexually molesting a female parishioner in the late 1990s and early 2000s when she was just five to six years old. Ross was assigned to St. Cronan Church in the city of St. Louis. The suit names both the priest and the archdiocese.

The Ross case is scheduled to go to trial July 7 at the Carnahan Courthouse in downtown St. Louis.

Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement, “We are grateful to the brave and persistent victim in this case. Her courage will inspire others to get help and expose Catholic officials who commit and conceal heinous crimes against children.”

According to our partners at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Ross case is only the second child sexual abuse case against the archdiocese to make it to trial.

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

OHIO
13 ABC

[with video]

Father Gerald Robinson will be given the usual funeral for a priest in the Toledo Diocese according to Diocesan Administrator Father Charles Ritter.

Robinson died on July 4. He was convicted of the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Pahl in 2006 and was serving 15 years to life in prison at the time of his death.

Robinson was ordained as a priest in 1964 and served across the diocese until he was brought to trial for murder.

In a statement Father Ritter said said, “Whether in the eyes of God Father Robinson was or was not guilty of this crime, I do not know. I do know that he is the work of God’s hands, as are we all. He was a sinner, as are we all. He was a baptized member of the body of Christ, and he was, and remains an ordained priest of the Roman Catholic Church. This is the context in which his funeral will take place.”

Not everyone shared Father Ritter’s feeling. Georgiane Warren, a parishioner at Little Flower Catholic Church said, “I think it’s very unfair to the family of the woman he murdered. I wish he would’ve said I’m sorry and he did it. Then I would be fine if they gave him a priest’s funeral.”

Others said that it was between Robinson and the Lord now.

Claudia Vercelotti of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests takes issues with the decision saying that Robinson did not deserve the same treatment as other priests who have passed away. “I would hope that somebody in a position to make a better decision would strongly reconsider a funeral that we give priests in good standing in this community, being given to a convicted murderer who violently heinously struck down the life of an innocent elderly religious woman.”

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

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, July 6

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 clergy child sexual abuse and cover up trial is set to begin tomorrow, only the second in St. Louis history and the first since 1999. We are grateful to the brave and persistent victim in this case. Her courage will inspire others to get help and expose Catholic officials who commit and conceal heinous crimes against children.

We suspect that dozens of local families have suffered and are suffering because Catholic officials hid and enabled Ross’ crimes.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

This is the first such trial in the St. Louis area

–since 1999,
–in which the archbishop was punished for contempt and secrecy before the trial even begins, &
–in which a judge ordered Catholic officials to give thousands of pages of long secret church records to a victim.

Fr. Joseph D. Ross has a long history of abuse and sexual misconduct and for decades, Catholic officials hid his crimes. In 1988, Ross plead guilty to sexual assaulting an 11 year old boy. At that time he admitted he had molested one child in the 1970s.

Still, despite his admission and conviction, St. Louis Catholic officials quietly put him back on the job around unsuspecting parishioners at St. Cronan’s church in south St. Louis city where he sexually assaulted another child.

Here’s how BishopAccountability.org – a credible, independent, research-based website – summarizes Ross’ clerical career: “Pled guilty 1988 to sexual assault of 11 yr old boy 12/86. Sentenced to 2 yrs probation and treatment. Admitted then he had been accused of molesting one youth in 1970s & had also been arrested for propositioning a police officer & public indecency. Allowed to return to work. Removed 3/02. Civil suit filed 11/02 alleged abuse of 14 yr old boy in 1977. Laicization announced 8/02. Arrested 9/08 on new charges from 2000. Crim. charges dropped 8/10. Lives in AR. New suit filed 10/11 re abuse of girl.”

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, July 6

For more info: Mary Caplan of New York City ( 917 439 4187, mcaplan682@aol.com ), Barbara Dorris 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com or David Clohessy 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Cardinal Dolan is deposed, trial starts Monday
Priest abused was re-assigned & allegedly abused again

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan was quietly deposed last month in a case that goes to trial on Monday in Missouri. It involves a priest who was put back into a parish after admitting abuse and allegedly molested again. The cleric was suspended while Dolan was in charge of pedophile priest cases in St. Louis in 2002.

The case is Jane Doe vs. Fr. Joseph Ross and the St. Louis Archdiocese. According to Missouri Lawyers Weekly and a St. Louis on-line columnist, the deposition took place in late June.

[Missouri Lawyers]

[Berger’s Beat]

“We’re glad Dolan faced tough questions under oath about this awful case and hope he’ll honor his promises to be ‘open’ and release his deposition,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests . “He has rarely been forced to explain his reckless and callous handling of heinous child sex crimes here.”

“Dolan has escaped real scrutiny in this continuing abuse crisis, because he’s worked in three states where it very hard for victims to file lawsuits and depose bishops,” said Mary Caplan of SNAP’s New York Director. “He’s usually been able to exploit archaic laws to avoid being grilled by victims’ lawyers.”

“It’s not too late for others who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes to come forward, expose predators, protect kids, start healing, and help this brave victim who is exposing those clerics who commit and conceal these hideous crimes,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP. “It’s always tempting to keep quiet about child sex crimes – whether known or suspected. However, it’s also always irresponsible. Kids are only safe when adults are brave and caring enough to speak up.

Fr. Joseph D. Ross has a long history of abuse and sexual misconduct and for decades Catholic officials hid his crimes. In 1988, Ross plead guilty to sexual assault of an 11 year old boy. At that time he admitted he had molested another child the 1970s.

Barring a last minute settlement, that trial will start on Monday in St. Louis city before Judge Jimmie Edwards. It will be the first civil pedophile priest trial in St. Louis in 15 years, since a 1999 jury awarded $1.2 million to a victim man. That verdict was later overturned on appeal.

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

OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by SNAP leader Claudia Vercellotti of Toledo ( 419 345 9291, SNAPtoledo@aol.com )

We hope Fr. Robinson’s passing brings some comfort to those he hurt and their loved ones and we hope now that others who he hurt will feel more comfortable coming forward and getting help.

It’s tragic for virtually everyone involved that the Catholic hierarchy in callously let a convicted murder go to his grave as a priest in good standing.

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

PARAGUAY/UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 1

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

A Vatican team is being sent to investigate a priest who allegedly molested several U.S. boys and is now second-in-command at a diocese in Paraguay.

[Washington Post]

[Pocono Record]

While we are very skeptical of internal church investigations, we are glad at least something is happening about this troubing case. But we also want bishops in both countries to reach out to others this priest has hurt.

Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity was accused of sexually abusing at least four boys at St. Gregory’s Academy in Moscow, Pennsylvania between 2002-2004. At least two civil suits were filed and one of them was settled for $380,000. Scranton diocesan officials sent Fr. Urrutigoity to a church treatment center which concluded that he “should be removed from active ministry and his (priestly) faculties should be revoked.”

We call on Catholic officials throughout Paraguay, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania to aggressively reach out to their flocks – using their bully pulpits, church bulletins, diocesan websites, and personal parish visits – and beg anyone who saw, suspects or suffered child sex crimes to come forward, report any crimes or misdeeds they may have seen, suspected or suffered by Fr. Carlos to police and prosecutors.

And we urge those with information or suspicions about him to seek independent sources of help, like law enforcement officials and groups like ours.

A Boston-based research group called BishopAccountability.org disclosed that Fr. Urrutigoity is now in the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay and is its Vicar General. We are grateful for their painstaking and accurate research.

In the 1990s, Fr. Urrutigioity lived and taught at the St. Pius X Seminary in Winona. He belonged to a controversial and very conservative religious order known as the Society of St. Pius X.

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GEORGIA
Atlanta Daily World

Jul 5, 2014 By Terry Shropshire, National Correspondent

A Florida church had barred children from service because a sex offender convicted of child molestation became their pastor. He was prohibited from being in the vicinity of children, prompting the church ban on children.

Just the other day, the probation on the minster was changed to enable him to minister to children and the church leaders lifted the ban from kids attending service.

Darrell Gilyard, 52, is currently pastor at Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., and began his tenure at the church right after being released from prison in December 2011 for sex crimes against two minor girls at his previous church.

According to WJXT, a judge modified Gilyard’s probation which now enables him to “minister to children under the age of 18 as long as the children are supervised by an adult other than the defendant.”

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SINGAPORE
Yahoo! News

Vincent Wijeysingha rejects Catholic Church request to lodge complaint over molest allegation

By Jeanette Tan | Yahoo Newsroom

After raking up a three-decade-old incident where a priest allegedly tried to molest him when he was a teen, Singapore civil activist Vincent Wijeysingha said he has rejected a request from the Catholic Church to file an official report. The Church has asked him to either file a police report or a complaint with an internal church body which can investigate the case.

In a Facebook status on Saturday afternoon, the former Singapore Democratic Party member said he received a letter from a representative of the Catholic Church’s professional standards office on Thursday, 4 July. In the correspondence, the representative invited the 44-year-old to lodge a complaint with the police as well as the office so that both parties can investigate the accusation he made last month.

Wijeysingha, who said previously that he is Catholic, had in an earlier Facebook note written that he “came into unfortunate contact with a priest who would engage (him) in play wrestling and attempt to touch (his) crotch in the process”.

“He once brought me to his bedroom and took a stack of pornographic magazines from his wardrobe to show me,” he added, saying he was 15 years old at the time.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Why do the ‘11,000’ babies buried in Belfast bog not get international media coverage, like Tuam?

BY PAUL CONNOLLY – 04 JULY 2014

I often wonder whether old inter-media rivalries in Belfast are seriously clouding editorial judgments. I have plenty of examples of compelling stories, many from the Belfast Telegraph but from other outlets too, not being followed up by other media. Usually I put my bewilderment down to a personal mixture of cynicism and prickliness.

However, the latest example really does give greater cause for concern. Consider, if you may, two stories from last month.

In the first, nuns are accused of presiding over an uncaring regime that featured unnaturally high death-rates and the ‘dumping’ of babies’ bodies in unmarked mass graves.

In the other, nuns are accused of presiding over an uncaring regime that featured unnaturally high death-rates and the ‘dumping’ of babies’ bodies in unmarked mass graves.

Yes, you read that correctly. The same issue. The first story is from Tuam, Co Galway. The second from Belfast.

The Tuam case made, and continues to make, international headlines and is the subject of a high-level Government inquiry.

The Belfast case? No fuss, virtually no follow-ups and certainly no inquiry.

The most disturbing allegations in both the Tuam and Belfast cases have yet to be proven, but in both, detailed and credible concerns have been raised.

In my opinion the reaction to the Belfast story speaks volumes about the state of the media, the health of our body politic and an apparent lack of interest from the public. The long shadow of the Troubles is allowed to overly dominate discourse.

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VATICAN CITY
NPR

July 06, 2014

Audio for this story from Weekend Edition Sunday will be available at approximately 12:00 p.m. ET.

Pope Francis will meet this week with victims of sexual abuse by priests. Correspondent Sylvia Poggioli tells NPR’s Linda Wertheimer the pope has been criticized for being slow to address the issue.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
The Times-Tribune

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is sending officials to Paraguay to investigate activities of a priest accused of abusing children when he served the Diocese of Scranton.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests released a statement last week citing a Washington Post article about the Vatican investigation into Monsignor Carlos Urrutigoity. The priest was accused more than a decade ago of abusing children when he worked at the St. Gregory’s Academy in Elmhurst, a residential school.

In 2002, a former St. Gregory’s student filed a federal suit against Monsignor Urrutigoity and another priest, claiming abuse. That lawsuit was settled for a reported $380,000 in 2005.

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

UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

Olivia Nuzzi

Allegations that he had multiple sexual relationships with men are just the most recent in a long line of unseemly accusations against Minneapolis’s notoriously anti-gay archbishop.

There may be something to be said for the theory that anger and hate stem from an individual recognizing in others a quality that they themselves possess, but don’t want to. One of the Catholic church’s most vocal opponents of homosexuality is currently under investigation after allegations that he had multiple sexual relationships with priests, seminarians, and other men.

Minnesota archbishop John Nienstedt, 67, has spent years advocating against gay marriage. In 2013, speaking to a starry-eyed crowd at the Napa Institute, he said: “Today, many evil forces have set their sights on the dissolution of marriage and the debasing of family life. Sodomy, abortion, contraception, pornography, the redefinition of marriage, and the denial of objective truth are just some of the forces threatening the stability of our civilization.”

Nienstedt—he of the dramatic side-part and deer-in-the-headlights gaze—warned that “Satan knows all too well the value that the family contributes to the fabric of the good, solid society, as well as the future of God’s work on earth.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Nation (Pakistan)

July 06, 2014 AFP

VATICAN CITY : Pope Francis will meet victims of paedophile priests for the first time on Monday, as a Vatican commission moves to address the problem of clerical sex abuse in developing countries.

Six victims from Britain, Germany and Ireland will talk with the head of the Roman Catholic Church at his private residence near Saint Peter’s Basilica in a gesture aimed at expressing his closeness to the tens of thousands of people abused by priests globally. The private meeting – the first with abuse victims since Francis was elected in February last year – is hotly awaited by victim support groups who have criticised the Argentinian for not acting earlier.

Francis has been slow to speak out on an issue which has hugely damaged the Catholic Church for over a decade, but in May he branded the sexual abuse of children by priests a crime comparable to a ‘satanic Mass’ and promised ‘zero tolerance’.

Monday’s encounter, which will follow a mass in the pope’s private chapel, will come a day after a meeting of the commission set up by Francis to advise him on the sexual abuse crisis and draw up protocols for the pope to consider. Composed of experts from eight countries, the body includes campaigner Marie Collins – who was assaulted as a 13-year-old by a hospital chaplain in her native Ireland – as well as British and French psychiatrists, a German psychologist and an Italian cannon law professor.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston – where the clerical sex abuse scandal erupted in the United States in 2002 – is also a member. The meeting is expected to open up the commission to experts from the Southern Hemisphere and the developing world, where paedophilia is largely a taboo subject and cases of abuse are much less likely to be reported.

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

UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF JULY 06, 2014

Last week’s big religion story in the States was Monday’s Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case, striking down the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandates for some closely held firms. Predictably, America’s Catholic bishops applauded the ruling while expressing hope it will extend to nonprofits, such as the University of Notre Dame and the Little Sisters of the Poor, which also have legal challenges pending.

Wherever one stands on the merits of requiring employers to cover birth control, this seems a good time for the White House to find a political solution without putting everyone through litigation that now seems terribly redundant.

Among many faith-based groups, Monday’s ruling is being celebrated as a big win for religious freedom. And protecting religious expression was indeed a major focus of the decision. Yet Americans might do well to recall that in many other parts of the world, believers face threats far graver than lawsuits or fines. …

What to expect from pope’s meeting with abuse victims

Pope Francis will meet victims of clerical sexual abuse for the first time on Monday. The plan is for a small group to join the pontiff for his morning Mass, and then for the pope to sit down with each victim one-on-one. This time there won’t be any Americans in the group, though the pontiff may meet with victims from the United States when he travels to the country in September 2015.

Pope Benedict XVI met victims six times, and on each occasion the Vatican didn’t announce the encounter until it was over. In this case, Francis revealed plans for the meeting during the return flight from his May 24-26 trip to the Middle East. But even so, organizers are trying to keep things low key. Whatever information emerges is likely to come from the victims rather than Vatican channels.

Francis is famously unpredictable, making it hard to handicap how the meeting will play out. If things hold to form, however, there are three outcomes one can reasonably expect.

First, the meeting should strengthen the pontiff’s resolve.

Anyone who’s ever listened to abuse victims tell their stories knows the experience packs an emotional punch. What action might ensue is a different question, but it’s basically impossible to walk away thinking “no big deal.”

As proof, one may criticize the unfinished business of Benedict XVI, but there’s no denying he moved the ball on the church response to abuse scandals. As the Vatican’s doctrinal czar, he was critical in upholding the American bishops’ “zero tolerance” policy. As pope, he weeded hundreds of abuser priests out of the system, including almost 400 in 2011 and 2012 alone.

Aides say Benedict’s willingness to act was influenced by reading case files in which victims recounted their experiences and was strengthened by meeting them in the flesh. If anything the impact may be even stronger on Francis, who tends to wear his heart on his sleeve to a greater degree.

Second, victims in the room are likely to come away with positive vibes.

As a rule, victims who agree to take part in these sessions tend to be the kind still open to reconciliation with the church, or who at least believe it’s possible the church will do the right thing. Moreover, it’s not as if they’re walking in off the street — they’ve been invited by church officials precisely because they’re disposed to dialogue.

In the press, the victims’ voice tends to be carried by watchdog groups. That’s an entirely legitimate function, but it’s not in every victim’s interest. Some see making peace with the church as part of healing, and some are willing to give the church the benefit of the doubt, seeing a mix of light and shadows rather than a uniformly depressing landscape.

Generally, those victims don’t hold press conferences, but they’re part of the story, too.

In addition, many victims over the years have found it hard to get anyone in officialdom to listen. Being taken seriously by the pope, therefore, is in itself often a powerful balm.

Third, victims’ groups and reform movements are likely to strike a skeptical stance.

In the past, critics have warned that these meetings create an expectation of change, and if it doesn’t come, at least to the degree victims expected it would, the disappointment will be correspondingly greater.

Experience lends some credence to that concern. Bernie McDaid, for instance, was 11 years old when he was molested for the first time by Fr. Joseph Birmingham at St. James Parish in Salem, Mass. He was among the first five victims to meet a pope, taking part in an April 2008 encounter with Benedict XVI in Washington, D.C.

At the time, McDaid expressed optimism that the wheels were turning. He later changed his tune, helping to organize a protest at the Vatican in 2010.

Reached for comment on Thursday, McDaid said he’s not optimistic Francis’ encounter will be any different.

“Despite the media hype about what a nice guy this pope is, it’s taken more than 14 months for him to reach out, and that alone says a lot to me,” McDaid said. “[Church officials] talk about moving on, but when you see them doing the same old things it’s almost like getting abused all over again.”

In general, such critics tend to see three things as defining what counts as convincing action:

■ A uniform global “mandatory reporter” policy of turning over all accusations of abuse to the police and other civil authorities, and full cooperation with their investigations;

■ Full transparency, including releasing all records concerning abuse allegations;

■ Accountability, not just for clergy who abuse but also for bishops and other superiors who fail to make “zero tolerance” stick.

Whatever one makes of those demands, they’re likely to figure prominently in reactions to Monday’s meeting.

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

AUSTRALIA
7 News

ANNETTE BLACKWELL
July 6, 2014

News that the Vatican will not hand over all documents about Australian priests who molested children has been greeted with derision at a major gathering of abuse survivors in Sydney.

Justice Peter McClellan, chair of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, told the 14th anniversary forum of Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) on Saturday the Holy See had provided two sets of documents about two priests.

However, the Vatican had informed the commission “that requests for all information regarding every case – which include requests for documents reflecting internal ‘deliberations’ – are not appropriate”.

The Holy See said it maintained the confidentiality of internal deliberations related to its judicial and administrative proceedings.

Justice McClellan’s comments were greeted with cries of derision and moans of despair from dozens of victims of Catholic Church abuse.

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IRELAND
The Journal

POPE FRANCIS WILL meet survivors of abuse by paedophile priests for the first time tomorrow, as a Vatican commission moves to address the problem of clerical sex abuse in developing countries.

Six abuse survivors from Ireland, Britain, and Germany will talk with the head of the Roman Catholic Church at his private residence near Saint Peter’s Basilica in a gesture aimed at expressing his closeness to the tens of thousands of people abused by priests globally.

The private meeting – the first with abuse survivors since Francis was elected in February last year – is hotly awaited by support groups who have criticised the Argentinian for not acting earlier.
Speaking out

Francis has been slow to speak out on an issue which has hugely damaged the Catholic Church for over a decade, but in May he branded the sexual abuse of children by priests a crime comparable to a “satanic Mass” and promised “zero tolerance”.

Tomorrow’s encounter, which will follow a mass in the pope’s private chapel, will come a day after a meeting of the commission set up by Francis to advise him on the sexual abuse crisis and draw up protocols for the pope to consider.

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

IRELAND
The Journal

Survivors are calling for the Westbank home, in Greystones, Co Wicklow, to be included in the wide-ranging inquiry tasked with investigating the State’s network of mother-and-baby homes.

The children allege that they were beaten with electric flexes and coathangers, that they were constantly hungry and starving and that Ms Mathers, who insisted on the name ‘Auntie’ ran a sort of a reign of terror.

ADELINE MATHERS RAN the Westbank (aka Mayil) orphanage in Co Wicklow for over 50 years.

Originally known as the Protestant Home for Orphan & Destitute Girls and based in Harold’s Cross, Dublin, the institution moved to Wicklow in the late 1940s, and began taking in boys as well as girls.

Over the following decades, Mathers presided over a regime whereby children were forced to carry out manual labour, deprived of food, whipped and beaten (so badly, at least on one occasion, that the authorities had be called).

Between 30 and 50 children, aged from just a few months old to their late teens, were resident in the home at any given time. Mathers, who began her career as a nurse, named all of the children after herself, residents recall — perhaps in an attempt to ‘Anglicise’ their names.

Residents were also trafficked illegally over the border and placed with unregistered foster carers — in some of these arrangements, the children also suffered from physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

James O’Shea @irishcentral July 06,2014

Pope Francis will meet Irish survivors of abuse by pedophile priests, the first time he has met victims, tomorrow following a mass in the pope’s private chapel.

The six survivors drawn from Ireland, Britain and Germany will be hosted at the pope’s private residence and the meeting will be eagerly watched by survivor groups who have long called for such a meeting.

In May, Francis called the sexual abuse of children by priests a crime comparable to a “satanic Mass” and promised “zero tolerance.”

Two members of his abuse commission have close Irish ties. Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston and Irish campaigner Marie Collins who was assaulted as a 13-year-old by a hospital chaplain will meet with the pope today before the meeting with the abused survivors.

Other members of the commission are drawn from eight countries. British and French psychiatrists, a German psychologist and an Italian cannon law professor are also members. The membership is set to be expanded to include new members from southern hemisphere countries and developing countries including the pope’s native South America, where abuse is still a taboo subject.

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ZIMBABWE
Nehanda Radio

By Liberty Dube

MUTARE – A storm is brewing at a local church, Royal Family Life Fellowship, after its founder, Apostle Action Khomani, is allegedly involved in sex orgies with female church congregants and misappropriation of church funds, among other shocking shenanigans.

Khomani, also known as AK-47 — who resides at House Number 19, Crispy Road, Palmerstone — was last weekend picked up by the police for allegedly sexually abusing a female congregant (name withheld) sometime in October.

Deputy Manicaland provincial police spokesman Assistant Inspector Luxson Chananda said Khomani (40) was arrested and was assisting them with investigations for allegedly raping a church congregant with the help of his maid after he had invited her for “counselling”.

“Sometime in October 2012, around 5pm, Khomani invited the woman to a prayer and counselling session. After the session, he went to his bedroom while the woman slept in his maid’s room.

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MINNESOTA
Lowdown

Former St. Peter’s priest Jerome Kern of Edina, 73, admitted in an April 15 court deposition to sexually abusing three children during more than 30 years as a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He denied other claims of abuse lodged against him.

Kern was assigned to St. Peter’s Church in Forest Lake from 1996 to 2002, and 10 different people alleged sexual abuse from Kern between 1969 and 1993. Video clips, the deposition transcript, timeline and key documents are available at www.andersonadvocates.com and on YouTube under AndersonAdvocates.

Kern was deposed in April as part of a 2013 civil lawsuit file in Ramsey County. Last week attorneys for a sexual abuse survivor known as Doe 26 released Kern’s video deposition along with key documents demonstrating how top Archdiocesan officials failed to prevent Kern from abusing more children despite reports of inappropriate behavior with children dating back to 1969.

Kern testified no one from the Archdiocese questioned him about the abuse or reported him to police.

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IRELAND
Sunday Independent

Carol Hunt
Published 06/07/2014

I recall, years ago, listening to some friends reminiscing about their not so pleasant school days. 
One mentioned an
infamous teacher who
had earned
the soubriquet “Feeler”.

“Why?” I asked rather naively. They rolled their eyes at me. “Why do you think?” The man in question had disappeared suddenly when a brave father had arrived at the principal’s office to complain; he was later discovered to have been sent to a so-called Third World country
where parents don’t 
have quick access to solicitors.

I was reminded of this conversation last week when I heard that Rolf Harris had earned himself the nickname “The Octopus”. Why? Well, as those boys said so many years ago, “Why do you think?”

As with so many other cases of child abuse, the evidence was there all along, in front of our eyes, hiding in broad daylight. Harris had a penchant for “playing” with young girls. We now know that he visited websites on his computer with names like “My little nieces” and “Tiny teen girlfriends”.

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IRELAND
Sunday Independent

Niamh Horan
Published 06/07/2014

The latest chapter in the tragic life of Phyllis Hamilton has come to light – it has been revealed she had a third child, after being raped by a priest.

The woman, who took on the Catholic Church after 
living an extraordinary double life with Fr Michael Cleary, gave birth to a baby girl 
following the sexual assault.

The baby was born after the two boys she had with Fr Cleary and was given up for adoption to a family in America.

It is not known where the girl – who would be in her 20s now – is today, or whether she has tried to find her birth mother since.

The final sad instalment to the legacy of Phyllis Hamilton has become public 13 years after she died from cancer, having undergone DNA tests to categorically prove her son Ross Hamilton was fathered by Fr Cleary.

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OHIO
Hamilton Spectator

By Kantele Franko and John Seewer

COLUMBUS, Ohio A Roman Catholic priest convicted of stabbing and strangling a nun 34 years ago in a hospital chapel will receive a funeral Mass, a church official said Saturday.

The Rev. Gerald Robinson remained an ordained priest after his conviction and his services will follow the usual protocol for a diocesan priest’s funeral, the Rev. Charles Ritter, administrator for the Diocese of Toledo, said in a statement.

Robinson, 76, died Friday. He had been serving a prison sentence of 15 years to life in what church historians have characterized as the only documented case of a Catholic priest killing a nun. He was arrested 24 years after the nun’s death and found guilty in 2006 of stabbing and strangling Sister Margaret Ann Pahl at a Toledo hospital where they both worked.

Robinson had been in a hospice unit since the end of May after suffering a heart attack.

Robinson and Pahl, 71, had worked closely together at the hospital, where he was a chaplain and she was caretaker of the chapel. He presided at her funeral in Massachusetts.

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OHIO
The Blaze

COLUMBUS, Ohio (TheBlaze/AP) — A Catholic priest convicted of stabbing and strangling a nun 34 years ago in a hospital chapel will receive a funeral Mass, according to an Ohio diocesan official.

Rev. Gerald Robinson died Friday. The 76-year-old had been serving a prison sentence of 15 years to life in what church historians have characterized as the only documented case of a Catholic priest killing a nun.

But Robinson remains an ordained priest, the Toledo diocesan official said, and his services will follow the usual protocol for diocesan priests’ funerals. Robinson had been in a hospice unit since the end of May after suffering a heart attack.

He was found guilty in 2006 of killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in 1980 at a Toledo hospital where they both worked.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: John Schwartz was ordained a priest of the Jesuits’ Oregon Province in 1981. He was campus minister of Jesuit High in Beaverton through much of the 1980s, after which he left the Jesuits and spent a few years into the 1990s as a University chaplain and assistant at a Salem, OR parish. In 1997 Schwartz was accused of having sexually abused a Jesuit High student over a two-year period in the 1980s. Schwartz denied wrongdoing. The Official Catholic Directory does not index Schwartz between 1993-2003. It does show that he worked in parishes in the San Francisco archdiocese 2002-2005. His accuser sued in 2005 and Schwartz went on a leave of absence. Schwartz re-emerged as a nursing home chaplain in the archdiocese 2007-2011. His whereabouts beyond 2011 are unknown.

Ordained: 1981

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 6, 2014

Heath Gilmore
Reporter

The Vatican’s refusal to hand over documents about child sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests in Australia is poised to become a headache for the federal government.

The head of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Justice Peter McClellan, disclosed in a speech on Saturday to a victims’ group that he had personally written to the Vatican, seeking copies of all documents relating to complaints about abuse involving priests in Australia.

The Vatican has provided documents to the royal commission relating to two cases, but Justice McClellan wanted more information to find out how the church hierarchy in Australia, under the guidance or direction of the Vatican, responded to the allegations of abuse. In a written response, the Vatican said the Holy See maintained the confidentiality of internal church deliberations, adding that it would be inappropriate to provide such documents.

West Australian Liberal MP Steve Irons, who attended Justice McClellan’s address at the 14th anniversary of the Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) at the Bankstown Sports Club in south-western Sydney, said he would ask the government to become involved.

A key figure in the national apology to the Forgotten Australians, Mr Irons also said he would take up the issue of funding being guaranteed to extend the work of the commission for another two years until 2017.

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OHIO
Toledo Blade

Despite his 2006 conviction for a nun’s murder, Father Gerald Robinson will be given a normal funeral befitting a diocesan priest, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo announced today.

“Whether in the eyes of God, Father Robinson was or was not guilty of the crime, I do not know,” Father Charles Ritter, the diocesan administrator, said in the statement. “I do know that he is the work of God’s hands, as are we all. He was a sinner, as are we all. He was a baptized member of the body of Christ, and he was, and remains an ordained priest of the Roman Catholic Church. This is the context in which his funeral will take place.”

The arrangements themselves remain to be made.

Father Robinson, 76, died early Friday in Franklin Medical Center, a Columbus hospital run by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, where he had been admitted for heart problems.

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CHILE
Globo 1

[Summary: The Vatican has punished Chilean priest Fernando Karadima for celebrating Mass, which was forbidden by the Vatican. A victim of abuse by Karadima reported that the priest celebrated the Mass in violation of the church edict.]

O Vaticano puniu novamente o sacerdote chileno Fernando Karadima, declarado culpado de abuso sexual de menores e de abuso de poder pela Igreja Católica, por descumprir a condenação ditada contra ele.

Uma das vítimas de abusos por parte de Karadima denunciou que o sacerdote ministrou uma missa, apesar de estar proibido de celebrar atos religiosos em público, acusação que foi investigada pela Igreja.

A Congregação para a Doutrina da Fé, o órgão do Vaticano responsável pela investigação, afirmou que “a missa em questão não pode ser considerada uma celebração pública”.
No entanto, a Congregação “determinou que o presbítero Karadima fosse punido com uma advertência canônica por tentar frustradamente contactar membros da ex-União Sacerdotal’, afirmou um comunicado do arcebispado de Santiago.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[A list of priests, seminarians and nuns who have committed suicide in Italy.]

Preti, suore e seminaristi suicidi

1) 14/08/1992 Bisaglia Mario, 75 anni, fratello del deputato DC Toni Bisaglia, trovato annegato nel lago di Centro Cadore
2) ……………/1997 Castronovo Antonio, gesuita, trovato morto nel porto di Palermo
3) 08/08/1997 I. U., 47 anni, sacerdote nigeriano suicida nella casa del Clero in via della Scrofa, 70, Romahttp://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1997/ag…708068785.shtml
4) 08/07/2000 ……. Suora 75enne si getta dal convento in via Vitellia, sotto le finestre del monastero di Santa Chiara, nel quartiere Monteverde di Roma. “non mi fanno uscire”.
5) 30/10/2000 D’Auria Alfredo, 66 anni da Tobbiana, frazione di Prato, sparatosi alla tempia in sacrestia. Nell’agonia aveva fatto suonare le campane elettriche per chiedere aiuto. Depressione.
6) 18/07/2003 Damiani Vittorio, 62 anni, di Villa di Serio, diocesi di Bergamo, prete pedofilo, impiccatosi dopo l’arresto
7) 01/03/2006 Betaxio Mullunesh Mariam Tebrz, 39 anni, suora etiope, suicida a Roma con una coltellata alla gola

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ROMA
La Repubblica

[Summary: In the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, which is dear to Pope Francis, there are allegations of embezzlement, misappropriation and theft of goods. Monsignor Bronislaw Morawiec, of Polish origin, treasurer of the basilica, goes onchurch trial tomorrow to see whether his actions were criminal offenses to be handled in the State of Vatican City court. The monsignor has already been convicted in the basilica chapter. The Vatican in tomorrow’s action will be promoter of justice and will be represented by Gian Piero Milano. Father Frederick Lombardi downplayed that Cardinal Bernard Law, former archpriest of the basilica, was present in a discrete manner in the chapter.]

di CARLO PICOZZA

Sono stati accertati ammanchi nella gestione di Santa Maria Maggiore e a finire sotto processo nella mattinata di domani sarà il canonico ed economo della basilica papale, monsignor Bronislaw Morawiec, di origine polacca. A giudicare se nel suo operato siano stati consumati illeciti penali sarà il tribunale dello Stato della Città del Vaticano, dove saranno presenti anche diversi testimoni.

Al porporato, amministratore del patrimonio di Santa Maria Maggiore, la basilica cui è particolarmente legato Papa Francesco, vengono contestate gravi appropriazioni indebite, distrazioni e sottrazioni di beni. Ad accusare monsignor Bronislaw, già riconosciuto colpevole in via preliminare dal capitolo della basilica, sarà il promotore vaticano di giustizia Gian Piero Milano.

La vicenda del prelato polacco segue quella di Bernard Law, già arciprete della basilica romana, il quale a Boston, pur a conoscenza di preti pedofili, avrebbe solo spostato questi in altre parrocchie dove sarebbero rimasti in contatto con altri minori. Le misure adottate dal cardinale non sono piaciute a Papa Bergoglio.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Lindy Kerin

The Vatican has declined a royal commission request to hand over documents about child sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests in Australia.

The head of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Justice Peter McClellan, revealed last month that he had personally written to the Vatican, seeking copies of all documents relating to complaints about abuse involving priests in Australia.

The Vatican has provided documents to the royal commission relating to two cases, but Justice McClellan wanted more information to find out how church authorities in Australia, under the guidance or direction of the Vatican, responded to allegations of abuse.

In a written response, the Vatican says the Holy See maintains the confidentiality of internal deliberations, adding that it would be inappropriate to provide such documents.

Leonie Sheedy, founder and chief executive of Care Leavers Australia Network, a support group for victims of child sexual abuse says the Catholic Church is treating the Australian public with contempt.

“I’m not surprised … I feel like the Catholic Church believes it is above the laws of Australia and probably the world,” she said.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Aaron Akinyemi
July 5, 2014

Pope Francis will meet victims who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of priests for the first time on Monday.

Six victims from Britain, Germany and Ireland will meet with the pontiff at his private residence, near St Peter’s Basilica, in the first such direct dialogue since the pope was elected last March.

The meeting will follow a mass at the pope’s private chapel, where he will to express his sympathy with tens of thousands of people abused by priests around the world.

In May, Pope Francis told journalists priests who molested children had performed the equivalent of a ‘satanic mass’, and said there must be ‘zero tolerance’ of paedophilia within the church.

Victims’ groups have long called on the Vatican to hold abusers to account, as well as bishops who shielded paedophiles or were negligent in protecting children.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Summary: Pope Francis today is visiting Molise, Campobasso, Castelpetroso and Isernia. With the goodness that he is doing he call on him to tell us how they are going to handle cases of pedophila priests who have worked in this region.]

Sabato cinque luglio Papa Francesco viene in visita in Molise. In mattinata sarà a Campobasso, nel pomeriggio si sposterà a Castelpetroso e Isernia. Noi di unavoceperledonne , convinte della bontà dell’opera pastorale di Papa Bergoglio, nell’occasione lanciamo un appello per chiedere come andranno a finire i casi dei preti pedofili che hanno operato proprio in questa regione. E nel farlo ricordiamo i tre casi principali seguiti da Rete l’Abuso.

Cominciamo da quello di Giada Vitale. La 19enne di Portocannone che ha denunciato Don Marino Genova per presunte violenze subite da quando aveva 13 anni fino ai 16. Storia finita alla ribalta nazionale grazie alle Iene e a Repubblica e finita anche su France 24. Il processo secolare è nelle mani del Tribunale di Larino e siamo ancora alle indagini preliminari. E’ stato avviato un processo canonico dopo la sospensione a divinis del parroco. Ma di esso non si sa ancora nulla. Nonostante Giada abbia scritto più volte al Santo Padre senza avere risposte.

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WALES
JWsurvey

Mark Sewell, the disgraced former elder convicted of a string of sex abuse offenses, including 5 counts of indecent assault against two young girls and the rape of a woman, has now been sentenced to 14 years having shown “not a thread of remorse.”

His crimes were committed during the time he was serving as an elder between the years of 1987 and 1995. Like most Jehovah’s Witness elders he was respected in his congregation, and he used this respect to inflict great damage on people’s lives.

News of the sentencing has prompted the Charity Commission to open an operational compliance case on Sewell’s congregation. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has also weighed in by issuing a press release expressing gratitude for the “brave victims who worked courageously to get Sewell behind bars.”

One such victim has bravely stepped forward and waived her anonymity by giving a series of media interviews.

Karen Morgan is the perpetrator’s niece who he took advantage of sexually, bribing her with alcohol. She has recounted how, tragically, her congregation did nothing simply because Sewell refused to confess.

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VATICAN CITY
IOL

July 5 2014
By Jean-Louis De La Vaissiere

REUTERS

Vatican City –

Pope Francis will meet victims of paedophile priests for the first time on Monday, as a Vatican commission moves to address the problem of clerical sex abuse in developing countries.

Six victims from Britain, Germany and Ireland will talk with the head of the Roman Catholic Church at his private residence near Saint Peter’s Basilica in a gesture aimed at expressing his closeness to the tens of thousands of people abused by priests globally.

The private meeting – the first with abuse victims since Francis was elected in February last year – is hotly awaited by victim support groups who have criticised the Argentinian for not acting earlier.

Francis has been slow to speak out on an issue which has hugely damaged the Catholic Church for over a decade, but in May he branded the sexual abuse of children by priests a crime comparable to a “satanic Mass” and promised “zero tolerance”.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Sat, Jul 5, 2014

Although the Holy See has offered no official confirmation, it seems likely that a much anticipated meeting between clerical sex abuse survivors, including Irish survivors, and Pope Francis will take place in the Vatican on Monday morning.

For much of this week, different media sources have claimed that the pope will meet a small group of survivors in his Vatican residence, the Domus Santa Marta.

It was the pope himself who announced this meeting when speaking to reporters on the papal flight on the way back to Rome, following his recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

On that occasion, he did not say when the meeting would take place but he did indicate that it would be sometime in early July.

Given that the pope’s morning Mass in Santa Marta, the Vatican residential hall that he uses in preference to the pomposity of the Apostolic Palace, has become a key aspect of his pontifical teaching, it seems only logical that the survivors of abuse will be invited to attend Mass there.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM

ASHLEY HALL: The Vatican has declined a request from a royal commission to hand over documents about child sex abuse committed by Catholic priests in Australia.

At a conference in Sydney later today, the head of the royal commission, Justice Peter McClellan will detail the Vatican’s written response.

It says the Holy See maintains the confidentiality of internal deliberations and it would be inappropriate to provide such documents.

Lindy Kerin reports

LINDY KERIN: The head of the toyal commission Justice Peter McClellan revealed last month that he’d personally written to the Vatican.

He was seeking copies of all documents that relate to complaints about abuse involving priests here in Australia.

But the Vatican has declined. In a written response, it’s said it;

(Excerpt from Vatican response)

VATICAN (voiceover): Respectfully suggests that requests for all information regarding every case which includes requests for documents reflecting internal ‘deliberations’ are not appropriate.

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OHIO
The New York Times

By JOHN SCHWARTZ
JULY 4, 2014

The Rev. Gerald Robinson, a Catholic priest who was convicted in 2006 of murdering a nun more than 20 years earlier, died on Friday in Columbus, Ohio. He was 76.

Father Robinson had a heart attack in May, and since then, he had been in a hospice at Franklin Medical Center, which is run by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. His lawyer, Richard Kerger, confirmed his death.

Father Robinson had worked at Mercy Hospital in Toledo with Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, when she was killed the day before Easter in 1980. She was found in the hospital chapel, where she had been preparing for Easter services. She had been strangled, draped with an altar cloth and stabbed 31 times, including nine wounds in the shape of an upside-down cross. There was a smear of blood across her forehead, as if she had been anointed in last rites.

Father Robinson was questioned, and he would later admit to making up a story that someone else had confessed to the murder. But the case was soon dropped for lack of evidence.

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TEXAS
KRIS

CORPUS CHRISTI- Another alleged victim has come forward, accusing Monsignor Michael Heras of inappropriate behavior.

6 News has learned this latest person walked into the Gregory Police Department last night, to file a criminal complaint against the Monsignor.

Gregory Police Chief Robert Meager couldn’t provide any details, but did say the allegations will be turned over to the San Patricio county district attorney’s office.

The first person who made accusations against the Monsignor, says it happened nearly 30 years ago when Heras was a pastor at Immaculate Conception church in Gregory.

The diocese is now investigating that claim.

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TEXAS
KIII

Law officers are looking into new allegations of misconduct against a well known member of the local clergy, Monsignor Michael Heras.

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OHIO
Toledo Blade

BY ALEXANDRA MESTER AND RONEISHA MULLEN
BLADE STAFF WRITERS

A Toledo priest convicted of murder in 2006 for the 1980 slaying of a nun died early Friday in a prison hospital.

Father Gerald Robinson, 76, was in hospice at Franklin Medical Center, a Columbus hospital run by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, when he died at 4:15 a.m.

His attorney, Rick Kerger, said an official cause of death had not yet been disclosed.

Robinson had been in the facility for heart problems.

The priest was serving 15 years to life in prison for the slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, who was killed on April 5, 1980 — a day before Easter and a day before she would have turned 72.

Sister Margaret Ann’s body was found on the floor of the sacristy of the former Mercy Hospital on Holy Saturday. Evidence showed that she had been choked to the edge of death and stabbed 32 times in the chest, the neck, and the face.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier-Mail

STEVE RICE SUNDAY MAIL (SA) JULY 05, 2014

A CATHOLIC school priest caught with more than 1500 child pornography images will receive financial support so he is not made homeless, despite quitting the ministry.

John Hogan will be paid accommodation and cost-of-living expenses regardless of whether he is jailed, the Jesuit Provincial Society has confirmed.

Hogan, 69, has pleaded guilty to one count of using a carriage service to access child pornography and one aggravated count of possessing child pornography.

The District Court has heardpolice seized 1555 images and videos of children and teenagers aged between three and 16 years old in his bedroom at Saint Ignatius College in 2012.

In a letter to parents and guardians of students at the Athelstone college, Father Stephen Curtin of the Jesuit Provincial Society said Hogan had asked to be released from his priestly ministry.

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VATICAN CITY
Gazzetta del Sud

(ANSA) Vatican City, July 4 – Pope Francis has had “free, frank and friendly” discussions with the C9 group of cardinals charged with examining reforms, Vatican Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Friday. The focus of the meetings this week, the fifth session since the start of the Argentinian’s pontificate, has been threefold: a presentation on the situation in the Governorate and the Secretariat of State, an in-depth look at the re-shuffle of the Vatican departments and the Institute of Religious Works (IOR) or Vatican Bank, Fr. Lombardi said. The cardinals expressed their esteem Thursday for IOR President Ernst Von Freyberg, amid speculation that he plans to resign from the bank, which is trying to make the white list of credit institutions with top transparency credentials “An English-language cardinal spoke of the ‘3Fs’ to describe the atmosphere in which the cardinals work with the pope,” Lombardi said.

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VATICAN CITY
Naharnet (Lebanon)

Pope Francis will meet victims of pedophile priests for the first time on Monday, as a Vatican commission moves to address the problem of clerical sex abuse in developing countries.

Six victims from Britain, Germany and Ireland will talk with the head of the Roman Catholic Church at his private residence near Saint Peter’s Basilica in a gesture aimed at expressing his closeness to the tens of thousands of people abused by priests globally.

The private meeting — the first with abuse victims since Francis was elected in February last year — is hotly awaited by victim support groups who have criticized the Argentinian for not acting earlier.

Francis has been slow to speak out on an issue which has hugely damaged the Catholic Church for over a decade, but in May he branded the sexual abuse of children by priests a crime comparable to a “satanic Mass” and promised “zero tolerance”.

Monday’s encounter, which will follow a mass in the pope’s private chapel, will come a day after a meeting of the commission set up by Francis to advise him on the sexual abuse crisis and draw up protocols for the pope to consider.

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VATICAN CITY
Press TV (Iran)

[with video]

Pope Francis is to meet with victims of pedophile priests for the first time in a gesture to express his closeness to the tens of thousands of people abused by priests globally.

Six victims from Britain, Germany and Ireland will have face-to-face talks with the head of the Roman Catholic Church at his private residence in the Vatican on Monday, July 7.

The private meeting with abuse victims is the first since the Argentinian Pope was elected last year.

Francis has come under increasing fire for perceived inaction on the part of the Vatican in addressing the problem. Earlier in April, he issued an unprecedented apology for the child sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church.

The Vatican has been rocked by major inquiries into claims of abuse in Ireland, the United States, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and several other countries.

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AUSTRALIA
Radio Australia

Child sexual abuse royal commission: Vatican declines request to provide all documents relating to Australian priests

Updated 5 July 2014

Lindy Kerin

The Vatican has declined a royal commission request to hand over documents about child sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests in Australia.

The head of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Justice Peter McClellan, revealed last month that he had personally written to the Vatican, seeking copies of all documents relating to complaints about abuse involving priests in Australia.

The Vatican has provided documents to the royal commission relating to two cases, but Justice McClellan wanted more information to find out how church authorities in Australia, under the guidance or direction of the Vatican, responded to allegations of abuse.

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NEW YORK
Patch

Posted by Wendy Mitchell (Editor), July 04, 2014

A South Nyack man convicted for the sexual abuse of a 4-year-old child, began his 3 year prison term after the New York Court of Appeals refused to hear his case, the Rockland County Times reports.

Todd Retallack, 51, of 32 Terrace Drive, South Nyack, was arrested in May of 2011 and charged with first-degree sexual abuse, a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, Patch reported.

According to reports, Retallack, a former church youth leader, was babysitting a friend’s daughter in 2009 when he molested the child.

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IRELAND
The Guardian

Tanya Gold
The Guardian, Friday 4 July 2014

There was a vigil outside the Irish embassy in London on Thursday. It was for the 796 children who died in a former mother and baby home in Tuam, County Galway, which was operated by the Sisters of Bon Secours between 1925 and 1961. There are death records but no burial records for these children. The location of their graves is a mystery, although it is probable that they are near the home, and that some of them, according to testimony from two local boys, who found skeletons in 1975 after disturbing a concrete slab, may be in what was once a septic tank in the grounds. When the story broke a month ago there was fury, and misreporting. All the missing children, it was said, were in the tank. This is supposition. No one knows precisely where they are. The site has not been searched.

I do not praise misreporting. It should not have happened. The New York Times and the Washington Post carried corrections. So did the Guardian. But the scandal – and here scandal blooms upon scandal – is how an initial error has allowed the fate of the mothers and babies of Tuam to be diminished and then normalised. It is similar to watching fabric fray. Tug at a thread and hope the whole collapses.

In a piece for Spiked Online, Brendan O’Neill railed against the false headlines. He was right to abhor them, but then he lost his balance. He presented those furious at the needless deaths as a “Twittermob constantly on the hunt for things it might feel ostentatiously outraged by”. He was, it seems, more interested in what was misreported than what actually happened; the conditions in the homes, the stigma that took the women there and the question of how many similar graves there might be across Ireland were less important. What began as a polemic seeking fact swiftly became the opposite. In fact, he said, the “unhealthy obsession over the past 10 years with raking over Ireland’s past … has become a kind of grotesque moral sport, providing kicks to the anti-Catholic brigade and fuel to the historical self-flagellation that now passes for public life in Ireland”. Is that what the survivors of the Magdalene laundries, the industrial schools, and the sexual abuse by priests think is the result of their testimony? Hysteria? Kicks? Or, at last, an acknowledgement of what happened?

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

The redress obligations of cash-poor but asset-rich institutions where children were abused will be covered in a report to be delivered next year, the chairman of the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse says.

Justice Peter McClellan told a forum organised by victims’ support organisation Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) that redress was a priority and a report would be handed down by mid-2015.

Following Saturday’s 30-minute keynote address, Justice McClellan was asked questions by abuse survivors, many of whom had travelled interstate for a forum marking the 14th anniversary of CLAN.

One woman asked why assets “built on the backs of children” could not be taken back.

Justice McClellan said the issue had been raised especially at a Christian Brothers hearing in Perth.

Boys who were placed in now infamous homes such the Bindoon farm had to build their own institution.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Abington Journal

July 04. 2014

By Mark Guydish – mguydish@civitasmedia.com

The Vatican is sending a cardinal and a bishop to Paraguay to investigate activities of a priest previously accused of sex abuse while residing in the Diocese of Scranton, according to a report in the Washington Post.

The Post reported that Monsignor Eliseo Ariotti, the papal nuncio, or pope’s ambassador, in Paraguay confirmed the team will visit the Diocese of Ciudad del Este in late July.

The team “will likely look into the activities of the Rev. Carlos Urrutigoity, an Argentinian-born priest accused of sexually molesting minors when he served as a priest in Scranton more than a decade ago,” the Post story contends, though the sentence simplifies Urrutigoity’s saga here.

Urrutigoity was one of the founding members of the “Society of St. John” set up in Pike County, part of the Diocese of Scranton. While the diocese sanctioned his request to set up the conservative Catholic enclave, he and co-founder Eric Ensey were not, strictly speaking, diocesan priests.

Urrutigoity and Ensey were initially two unnamed priests accused of sexual misconduct with boys in 2002. Then-Bishop James Timlin revoked their rights to publicly practice as priests in any capacity, and had them evaluated at a facility in Canada.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Ryan was a Jesuit of the Oregon Province, ordained in or around 1935. His career was spent on Indian reservations in Montana, Idaho and Washington state. He died in 1967. Ryan’s name was on the Spokane diocese’s list in 2007 of “Admitted, Proven or Credibly Accused Perpetrators of Sexual Abuse.”

Ordained: circa 1933
Died: Feb. 6, 1967

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CANADA
APTN

04. JUL, 2014

By Kathleen Martens
APTN Investigates

WINNIPEG – Priests, nuns and oblates have lost a small court battle related to residential school documents.

More than 30 Catholic organizations across Canada tried to stop the new National Research Centre (NRC) from participating in a hearing on the future of survivor testimony.

But Justice Paul Perell of the Ontario Superior Court decided otherwise. On June 14th, he granted intervenor status to the centre which will be located at the University of Manitoba.

Groups including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Indian Residential School Adjudication Secretariat are at odds over whether to archive or destroy documents collected through the Independent Assessment Process (IAP). So Perell will hear arguments from the centre and other groups seeking his direction on what to do with the documents. The hearing will happen July 14-16 in Toronto.

The IAP is a confidential, legal process where former students disclose the abuse they suffered to be eligible for financial compensation. It was created to help resolve claims of sexual abuse, serious physical abuse and other wrongful acts perpetrated by school staff and students.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Susanne Cervenka, @scervenka July 4, 2014

A Brick woman has filed a civil lawsuit against a Catholic priest awaiting trial on criminal charges accusing him of sexually assaulting the woman and her two children.

Dawn Corvino of Brick, as well as her two children, who are listed in the lawsuit as John and Jane Doe, are accusing Marukudiyil Velan of sexually assaulting them in their home in July 2012, causing emotional distress.

A criminal case related to the incident is pending with a trial scheduled for September, said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. Velan faces charges of criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child, sexual assault, according to the February 2013 indictment.

The civil lawsuit, filed Tuesday, also names the Catholic Diocese of Trenton and Church of the Visitation on Mantoloking Road in Brick, accusing both of causing emotional distress as well as failing to supervise Velan, who previously was a priest at the church.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

BY ANNETTE BLACKWELL
July 5, 2014

The Vatican has told the child sex abuse royal commission that it will not hand over all information about members of its clergy who abused children in Australia.

Commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan on Saturday will address a 14th anniversary gathering of one of the main victims’ support groups.

Justice McClellan will tell Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) the Holy See has provided two sets of documents and says it may provide others where copies are not available in Australia.

But it has told the commission “that requests for all information regarding every case – which include requests for documents reflecting internal `deliberations’ – are not appropriate.”

It said the Holy See maintained the confidentiality of internal deliberations related to its judicial and administrative proceedings.

The reason was it “depends upon deliberative confidentiality to ensure the integrity and efficacy of its judicial and administrative processes.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The national head of the Marist Brothers says the failings of its leadership are to blame for the crimes of two pedophile brothers across three decades.

In a public letter to all members of the Catholic order, provincial head in Australia, Jeffrey Crowe, has again apologised to child abuse victims.

Br Crowe says after listening to recent royal commission hearings into how the crimes of brothers John Kosta Chute and Gregory Sutton were dealt with in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, it is clear leadership inaction at the time was responsible.

Both men were jailed for abusing children in schools in NSW, Queensland and the ACT.

“On behalf of all Marist Brothers I acknowledge and apologise to their victims for the abuse and very real damage done to young people by their criminal actions,” he said on Friday.

He said it was clear some were victims of the men because of “ineffective responses” and “inaction” by leaders.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Editorial

Australians have been disgusted – and many have felt guilt-ridden – that a public figure as trusted and seemingly innocuous as Rolf Harris was allowed to get away with sexual abuse of vulnerable children over decades.

Harris is not the first and certainly not the last high-profile Australian to hide his crimes behind the veil of celebrity. Nor is Harris alone in exploiting institutional and public blindness to behaviour that ruins lives. For every Harris, thousands of people linked to trusted institutions get away with similar crimes.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse has heard shocking details of more than 3300 such cases in its first year. Brave victims have come forward in person and in writing, knowing it will cause them great anguish, but proceeding nonetheless in the hope fellow Australians will recognise that future generations must not be forced to endure similar pain.

“We do not yet know how prevalent abuse has been or continues to be within institutions,” the royal commission says in its interim report out this week.

That statement alone should be enough for the Abbott government and taxpayers to agree immediately to the commission’s request for a two-year extension to December 2017 and a further $104 million on top of the $281 million for 2012-13 to 2015-16.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/abbott-must-fund-longer-child-abuse-royal-commission-20140704-zsvk9.html#ixzz36X2wgx6K

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OHIO
International Business Times

By Marcy Kreiter
on July 04 2014

A former Toledo, Ohio, priest convicted of killing a nun in a hospital chapel before Easter 1980 died early Friday in a prison hospital.

The Rev. Gerald Robinson, 76, who was sentenced to 15 years to life for the killing of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, died at Franklin Medical Center in Columbus. He had been given last rites a month ago after he suffered a heart attack.

Robinson was convicted in 2006 for the murder in the sacristy of the former Mercy Hospital chapel where he and the victim both worked. The nun had been strangled and stabbed 31 times.

Pahl’s stab wounds formed an upside-down cross. There was a smudge of blood on her forehead.

The death came after a federal judge Thursday refused a petition for compassionate release. Gov. John Kasich had earlier denied a similar plea, the Toledo Blade reported.

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OHIO
The Raw Story

By Reuters
Friday, July 4, 2014

(Reuters) – An ex-priest convicted of murdering a nun died behind bars on Friday, a day after a federal judge rejected his plea for compassionate release for his final days, a spokesman for Ohio’s governor said.

Retired Roman Catholic priest Gerald Robinson, 76, who was serving a life sentence for the 1980 stabbing, died early on Friday, the spokesman for Governor John Kasich said in an email.

Robinson, who had suffered a heart attack in May and was not expected to live more than two months, had asked to be released from a prison hospice into the care of his brother and sister-in-law for his last days.

But on Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Gwin said the federal courts had no jurisdiction over the request.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

Vatican City, Jul 4, 2014 / 09:46 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday, the final day of the meeting of the Council of Cardinals, the group set their sights on the Pontifical Councils for the laity and the family, with a special mention of the potential inclusion of laity in those councils’ tasks.

According to Fr. Lombardi, director of the Holy See press office, the council of cardinals on July 4 “resumed its reflections on the dicasteries of the curia. The Pontifical Councils for laity and family were studied in particular depth, especially in terms of the contributions and role that should be assumed by laypeople, married couples, and women.”

A possible merger of those two councils into a congregation for the laity is expected, but Fr. Lombardi stressed that “decisions were not made, though more detailed proposals were offered that will subsequently be inserted into the overall framework of the new configuration of the curia.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JULY 05, 2014

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

THE Vatican has declined a ­request from a royal commission to hand over every document it holds relating to child-sex abuse committed by Catholic priests in Australia.

Speaking at a western Sydney meeting of the Care Leavers Australia Network today, commission chairman Peter McClellan will say that the Vatican has to date provided several documents, relating to two individual priests.

Justice McClellan quotes a letter sent by the Vatican to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, that ­“respectfully suggests that ­requests for all information regarding every case — which ­includes requests for documents reflecting internal ­‘delib­erations’ — are not appropriate”.

“The Holy See maintains the confidentiality of internal deliberations … and indeed depends upon deliberative confidentiality to ­ensure the integrity and efficacy of its judicial and administrative processes,” the letter states.

To date, half of the royal commission’s 14 public hearings have investigated the response of Catholic institutions or orders to instances of child-sex abuse.

The commission’s first interim report, released this week, found that more than two-thirds of the Australian faith-based institutions at which child abuse allegedly took place were Catholic.

Last month, the commission publicly examined the Vatican’s own response to one such case, where the Australian church’s ­attempts to discipline an abusive priest were held up for years by ­appeals to the Holy See.

“We have been told in evidence on more than one occasion that there was a view in the Roman Catholic Church, at least in the 20th century, that the sexual assault of children … was a ‘moral failure’ but not a crime,” Justice McClellan says today. “Why did such a view, which is out of step with community values reflected in the criminal law, emerge?

“Furthermore, if, as appears likely, that view was common in the Roman Catholic Church, was it a view held more generally in the community?” he says. “If it was, why was it not challenged in previous generations?”

In recent years, Justice McClellan says, the modern Catholic Church within Australia has done much to reform its handling of child-sex claims, including reviewing compensation agreements previously made with the victims of such abuse.

Giving evidence to the commission in March, the then-­archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, publicly accepted the church should reconsider its use of legal defences against such claims.

“He acknowledged that there must be an effective institutional response to the damage done to an individual who is abused within that institution,” Justice McClellan says.

Many Australian dioceses and orders have provided documents in relation to requests by the royal commission. The Vatican has also indicated that other documents may be provided from copies held in Rome, he says.

In his speech, the commission chairman repeats the case made in this week’s interim report for the federal government to grant a two-year extension to its work ­beyond the current 2015 deadline.

Having received more than 3000 accounts of child abuse at over 1000 institutions, “the commissioners have been able to define the ‘project’ which we believe must be completed if the issues are to be adequately addressed”.

Originally published as Vatican rejects calls for abuse papers

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OHIO
NBC 24

by Amulya Raghuveer

The Toledo priest convicted in 2006 of killing a nun in a hospital chapel two decades ago has died. The Rev. Gerald Robinson was 76.

Robinson was eight years in to his 15 years to life prison sentence for the 1980 killing of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. His attorney, Richard Kerger, says the family told him Robinson died Friday morning at a Columbus prison hospice unit.

Robinson suffered a massive heart attack in early June and had since been transferred from general prison population to a prison hospice in Columbus.

His attorney asked the court to release Robinson to the care of relatives in Toledo, where the priest had wanted to die. Just Thursday, a federal court refused that request.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Register

BY JOSEPHINE MCKENNA, RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
July 4, 2014

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis is sending a cardinal and a bishop to Paraguay to investigate the activities of a priest previously accused of sex abuse in Pennsylvania, the Vatican’s diplomatic envoy to the Latin American country said.

The cardinal and the bishop will visit the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, in the country’s east in late July, said papal nuncio Monsignor Eliseo Ariotti.

They will likely look into the activities of the Rev. Carlos Urrutigoity, an Argentinian-born priest accused of sexually molesting minors when he served as a priest in Scranton more than a decade ago.

Urrutigoity is now second in command in Ciudad del Este and his career advance has provoked widespread debate among local bishops as well as opposition from the victims’ support group SNAP.

Urrutigoity was accused of sexual abuse in a highly publicized lawsuit in Scranton in 2002. At the time he and another priest, Eric Ensey, were suspended by now-retired Bishop James Timlin, amid allegations they had sexually molested students at St. Gregory’s Academy in Elmhurst, now closed.

Urrutigoity was transferred to Canada before settling in Paraguay but his Pennsylvania diocese has described him as a “serious threat to young people” on its website and reiterated the concern of Timlin’s successor, Bishop Joseph Martino, who resigned in 2009.

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OHIO
Toledo Blade

BY RONEISHA MULLEN
BLADE STAFF WRITER

Father Gerald Robinson, the former Toledo priest convicted of brutally killing a nun, died early today in a prison hospital, his attorney said.

Robinson‘s death comes one day after a federal court judge denied his plea to be released from prison to live out his final days.

The priest was serving 15 years to life in prison for the 1980 slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.

He suffered a heart attack around Memorial Day and was told he had 30 to 60 days to live.

Rick Kerger, Robinson‘s attorney, said he spoke with his client Thursday afternoon to share the court‘‍s ruling.

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OHIO
10TV

TOLEDO, Ohio – A Roman Catholic priest convicted in 2006 of killing a nun in an Ohio hospital chapel two decades earlier has died. The Rev. Gerald Robinson was 76.

Robinson was serving 15 years to life in prison. His attorney, Richard Kerger, says the family told him Robinson died Friday morning at a Columbus prison hospice unit.

A federal court had refused Thursday to release Robinson so he could die in his hometown, Toledo.

Robinson was convicted of strangling and stabbing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl during Easter weekend in 1980. Church historians have said it’s the only documented case of a priest killing a nun.

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OHIO
The Kansas City Star

BY KANTELE FRANKO AND JOHN SEEWER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
07/04/2014 12:08 PM 07/04/2014

A Catholic priest convicted of killing a nun inside a chapel a day before Easter 1980 died Friday at a Columbus prison hospice unit, a day after a federal judge refused his request to be released to family care so he could die in his hometown of Toledo.

Attorney Richard Kerger said the Rev. Gerald Robinson’s sister-in-law told him the priest died Friday morning. He was 76.

Robinson had been serving a sentence of 15 years to life. He was arrested 24 years after the nun’s death and was found guilty in 2006 of stabbing and strangling Sister Margaret Ann Pahl at a Toledo hospital where they both worked.

Church historians have said it’s the only documented case of a Catholic priest killing a nun.

Robinson and Pahl had worked closely together at the hospital where he was a chaplain and she was caretaker of the chapel. He presided at the funeral Mass for her.

The 71-year-old nun was killed while she was preparing the chapel for Easter services in 1980. She was choked and then stabbed 31 times.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(Vatican Radio) The Fifth Meeting of the Council of Cardinals concluded today here at the Vatican. With the recent addition of the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, the nine-member body is working to advise Pope Francis on important issues within the Church.

In a midday press conference today, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, spoke about the meetings.

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SCOTLAND
The Courier

By GRAEME OGSTON, 4 July 2014

Four men have appeared in court accused of historical child abuse and assaults at a former Fife school.

The men, aged between 60 and 76, face a total of 11 charges allegedly committed at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Two other men, aged 71 and 61, are being sought by police after failing to appear at Dundee Sheriff Court on Thursday.

Edward Egan, Michael Murphy, Timothy Foxall and William Don appeared separately on petition before Sheriff Tom Hughes.

Egan, 76, of Wicker Lane, Altrincham, Greater Manchester, faces a total of six charges — two of assault, two of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour, one of indecent assault and one of sexual assault, all against boys at the school. Murphy, 74, of Orwell Place, Dunfermline, faced two charges of assault, while Foxall, 63, of Hexham, Northumberland, is charged with one assault on a boy by allegedly dragging him down two flights of stairs.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

July 4, 2014 9:25 am | Author: berger

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan was quietly deposed last month in the Jane Doe vs. Fr. Joseph Ross and the St. Louis Archdiocese, reports Missouri Lawyers Weekly. Barring a last minute settlement, that case goes to trial on Monday before Judge Jimmie Edwards. It will be the first civil pedophile priest trial here in 15 years, since a 1999 jury awarded $1.2 million to Hank Bachmann, who was molested by Fr. James Gummersbach. That verdict was later overturned on appeal.)

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NEW JERSEY/MASSACHUSETTS
Road to Recovery

[Where does the buck stop in the Archdiocese of Newark? – Commonweal]

In a letter to the editor of the Jersey Journal of Hudson County, New Jersey, approximately one year ago, James G. Goodness, Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, attempted to defend the inexcusable inaction of Bishop Edgar da Cunha who, at the time, was the Vicar General (second in command) of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey.

Bishop da Cunha has been accused by a northern New Jersey mother of ignoring her distressed and desperate pleas for help for her two sons who allege they were sexually abused by Fr. Angelito Rosales, a member, with Bishop da Cunha, of the religious order known as the Society of Divine Vocations or Vocationist Fathers and Brothers.

Phone records obtained by the mother indicate that from June 12 to June 17, 2009, she phoned the office of Bishop da Cunha several times seeking to speak with him about two matters, including the sexual abuse of her twin boys by at least one member of the Vocationist Fathers and Brothers.

Phone records indicate that calls were made from an Archdiocese of Newark phone number to the mother during that time and that she informed Bishop da Cunha in June, 2009, that her sons had been sexually abused. One call of seventeen minutes was made by Bishop da Cunha to the mother’s phone on June 16, 2009, and another nine minute call was made by Bishop da Cunha to the mother on June 17, 2009.

Bishop da Cunha did not inform law enforcement officials of the allegations in June, 2009, as required by the Memorandum of Understanding with the New Jersey Attorney General’s office, he did not offer the woman counseling services for her twin boys, and he was aware that at least one of the abusers, Fr. Angelito Rosales, SDV, was allowed to return to the Philippines where, according to reports, he continues to work with boys who are the same age as the alleged victims from New Jersey.

During June, 2009, phone records confirm that at least nine phone calls were made between the mother and Bishop da Cunha or his office. Bishop da Cunha, according to the mother, was informed of the sexual abuse of her twin boys, and Bishop da Cunha did nothing about it. On or about August 25, 2012, the mother emailed Bishop da Cunha with a request for immediate psychological counseling for at least one of her two sons who was suffering emotionally as a result of the sexual abuse he allegedly endured.

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

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MEXICO
La Jornada

[Summary: Victims of clergy sexual abuse, researchers and human rights advocates have asked that Pope Francis clearly state that all cases of sexual abuse in the church be punished by civil authorities, prohibit relocation of pedophile clerics and repeal all provisions of silence imposed on victims and those who knew of the crimes.

In an open letter, they demanded the dismissal of Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera for his “clear involvement” in the cover-ups of crime by Father Marcial Maciel, Father Nicolas Aguilar and other pedophiles in Mexico.

They also ask the archbishop of San Luis Potosi to give to civil authorities all information he has on priest Eduardo Cordova and all other cases of child abuse in his jurisdiction.

In releasing the text, Alberto Athie, former priest who fights against clerical pedophilia, asked the pope to stop “crimes against humanity” against innocent victims from around the world.

The letter also calls on Pope Francis to refer to civil authorites all abusers where crimes of abuse and cover-ups were made. They ask that Cardinal Bernard Law be delivered to competent authorities in the United States and former nuncio Archbishop Joseph Wesolowski be sent to the Dominican Republic.]

Por Alma E. Muñoz

México, DF. Víctimas de abuso sexual de sacerdotes, investigadores y defensores de derechos humanos solicitaron al Papa Francisco que establezca claramente en todas las normas y jurisdicción de la Iglesia Católica que ese tipo de conductas son delitos penales que deben ser sancionados por las autoridades civiles, prohíba la relocalización de clérigos pederastas, derogue todas las disposiciones en imponer el silencio a las víctimas y a quienes conocen los delitos.

En una carta abierta, le demandaron que destituya al cardenal Norberto Rivera Carrera “por su clara participación en el encubrimiento del padre Marcial Maciel, del padre Nicolás Aguilar y “de otros pederastas en nuestro país”. Lo mismo, pida al arzobispo de San Luis Potosí que entregue toda la información que tenga sobre el sacerdote Eduardo Córdova y todos los casos de pederastia en su jurisdicción”.

Al dar a conocer el texto, Alberto Athié, ex sacerdote que lucha contra la pederastia clerical, pidió al Pontífice “detener los crímenes de lesa humanidad en contra de víctimas inocentes de diferentes partes del mundo; nosotros le urgimos a acabar con esta dolorosa e injusta situación que está al alcance de su mano”.

En la carta se convoca al Papa Francisco remita a todos los abusadores y protectores a las autoridades civiles de los países donde se cometieron los delitos de abuso o de encubrimiento; entregue al cardenal Bernard Law a las autoridades competentes de Estados Unidos y al nuncio Joseph Wesolowski a las correspondientes de República Dominicana”.

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PORTUGAL
HispanTV

En Portugal, un sacerdote y un empleado de un hospital administrado por la Iglesia Católica han sido acusados ​​de abuso sexual a los pacientes, informó el jueves el Ministerio Público (MP) del país europeo.

Los presuntos delitos fueron cometidos en centros manejados por la mencionada orden católica, que opera en más de 250 hospitales en todo el mundo.

“Los cargos están relacionados con el abuso sexual de cuatro pacientes en el cuidado de instituciones administradas por la Orden Hospitalaria de San Juan de Dios”, indicó el MP en un comunicado.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 4 July 2014 (VIS) – The Council of Cardinals, gathered at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, will conclude its meetings this evening. The next sessions have been scheduled for 15-17 September, 9-11 December and 9-11 February 2015.

With regard to the themes considered, as well as those indicated in recent days (the Governorate, the Secretariat of State and the Institute for the Works of Religion), the Council resumed its reflections on the dicasteries of the Curia. The Laity and Family were studied in particular depth, especially in terms of the contributions and roles that should be assumed by laypeople, married couples and women.

Decisions were not made, but more detailed proposals were offered that will subsequently be inserted into the overall framework of the new configuration of the Curia.

This afternoon the Council will continue its meeting, turning its attention to the dicasteries that have so far been studied less thoroughly.

Other themes on which there has been an exchange of opinions during the meetings include the nunciatures and their work, and the procedures for the appointment of bishops.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (posted 4 July 2014)

Police have charged a 77-year-old man with child-sex offences, allegedly committed while he was working as a Christian Brother in Western Australia more than 40 years ago.

In a statement released on 3 July 2014, West Australian Police said that the alleged victim, who was aged seven to eight at the time, attended social events at the Christian Brothers Agricultural School near Tardun, Western Australia, between 1970 and 1971.

“It is alleged that during these events the boy was indecently assaulted by a Brother at the school,” the police statement said.

The 77-year-old man has been charged with two counts of indecent dealing with a boy under 14 years.

The man now lives in Broome (2,100 kilometres north of Perth), and he is scheduled to appear soon in the Broome Magistrates Court, where the charges will be officially laid.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Paddy Clancy @irishcentral July 04,2014

Public outrage has been prompted after a Dublin parish priest claimed there was no proof that Father Michael Cleary fathered two children by his housekeeper Phyllis Hamilton.

Even the archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has strongly disassociated himself from the view expressed by Father Arthur O’Neill of Cabinteely.

Cleary, a prominent priest and singer who entertained the crowd while waiting for Pope John Paul II to arrive in Galway in 1979, died in 1993. Phyllis Hamilton died in 2001.

Two years after Cleary’s death it was revealed he had a son, Ross, with his housekeeper. She later revealed the couple had given another son up for adoption.

In his St. Brigid’s parish newsletter in Cabinteely last month O’Neill described the revelations as “exasperating,” unproven and the result of “shoddy practice” by named journalists, whom he challenged to prove them.

He suggested his former clerical colleague had suffered a serious injustice: “The burial of a person’s legacy deeper than their body just isn’t fair – if it’s based on a falsehood.”

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OHIO
Toledo Blade

Former Toledo priest and convicted murderer Gerald Robinson will live out his days in a prison hospital.

A federal court judge Thursday denied his motion for a compassionate release. His attorney said Robinson, 76, has no other options.

“I have tried everything that seemed reasonably available, and unfortunately, there is nothing else,” his attorney, Rick Kerger, said.

Robinson was convicted of murder in 2006 in Lucas County Common Pleas Court for the 1980 slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl at the former Mercy Hospital chapel. He is now serving a life sentence with parole eligibility after 15 years.

On June 2, Mr. Kerger sent a letter to Gov. John Kasich asking that Robinson be released from custody after he suffered a heart attack and was told his condition was terminal. The governor’s office informed him the next day that Robinson was not eligible for release under a state law governing the release of dying inmates.

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CANADA/GUATEMALA
National Post

Graeme Hamilton | July 3, 2014

MONTREAL — Following reports of anti-Jewish sentiment in the rural Guatemalan village where members of the ultra-orthodox sect Lev Tahor have settled, Jewish leaders in the Central American country are reaching out to their Canadian counterparts for help.

Just back from a trip to Guatemala, David Ouellette of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ Quebec office said the recent arrival from Canada of more than 100 Lev Tahor members is testing the longstanding good relations between Guatemala’s small Jewish community and its Christian majority.

“I think there is grounds for concern. There is tension in the village,” Mr. Ouellette said in an interview Thursday, referring to San Juan la Laguna, where the Lev Tahor members have settled.

Representatives of Guatemala’s Jewish community, which Mr. Ouellette said numbers just 800 people, contacted the CIJA last month following reports in the local press that the arrival of Lev Tahor families had sparked anti-Semitism.

The sect, founded by Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans in Jerusalem in the 1980s, spent more than a decade in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, Que., before fleeing to Chatham, Ont., in the middle of the night last fall as Quebec child-protection authorities prepared to intervene.

Ultra-orthodox Jewish community distraught after seven members of sect arrested by Canada’s border services

The child-protection agency alleged that children were being denied a proper education, that girls were required to wear chadors from the age of three and that marriages were arranged for girls as young as 14.

With Canadian authorities scrutinizing the members’ immigration status (the adults were mostly born outside Canada) and Ontario children’s aid officials seeking protection orders, Lev Tahor leaders have decided they have no future in Canada.

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PARAGUAY
GlobalPost

Will Carless
July 4, 2014

BOULDER, Colorado — Pope Francis will send a delegation this month to a city in Paraguay that’s been rocked by a priest scandal detailed in a recent GlobalPost investigative story.

The news of the trip comes two weeks after Paraguay’s chief prosecutor for youth launched an investigation into Carlos Urrutigoity, the problem priest featured in this site’s article.

Urrutigoity, who was accused of molesting young men in Pennsylvania in the early 2000s, has risen to a position of significant power since moving to the eastern Paraguayan city of Ciudad del Este.

GlobalPost’s ground reporting there last month unleashed a flood of controversy over the priest’s continued work at the Paraguayan diocese and led local activists to call for Urrutigoity’s suspension.

He has denied ever molesting anyone. He said in a face-to-face interview with GlobalPost that he is a victim of a smear campaign.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Mark Hennessy

Fri, Jul 4, 2014

The Irish authorities must help the families of children who were sent to the United States for adoption to trace them, the daughter of one woman held in a Mother and Baby home in Ireland last night declared.

Helen Baker’s search for her half-brother, Oliver Cullen, began after her mother Margaret died three years ago, still missing the child taken from her a half-century before – her only memory a fading, treasured black-and-white photograph.

Last night, Baker was one of a small group to gather outside the Irish Embassy in London to demand that the Irish Government holds a proper investigation into Ireland’s Mother and Baby homes.

Margaret Cullen’s journey to Sean Ross Abbey, Roscrea, Co Tipperary, run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, began in Rathvilly, Co Carlow in 1956, after she became pregnant.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Catholic World Report

Kansas City, Mo., Jul 3, 2014 / 05:22 pm (CNA).- Attorneys for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph have questioned the legality of a $1 million abuse penalty against the diocese, criticizing “numerous factual inaccuracies” in an arbitrator’s ruling.

A June 20 motion from the diocese asks the circuit court of Jackson County, Mo., to “vacate, modify or correct” arbitrator Hollis Hanover’s decision to award the money to the plaintiffs from a 2008 legal settlement.

Hanover justified the decision on the ground that the diocese violated a prior legal agreement by not promptly reporting a priest who had taken pornographic photographs of young girls.

The arbitrator’s decision concerned an agreement reached after a 2008 $10 million settlement with 47 abuse victims or their family members, the Kansas City Star reports. As part of that settlement, the diocese’s head, Bishop Robert Finn, agreed to report suspected child abusers to law enforcement.

The arbitrator ruled that this agreement was violated in the diocese’s response to a sexually abusive priest in a separate legal case, that of Father Shawn Ratigan.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Thursday 3 July 2014

The national head of the Marist Brothers says the failings of its leadership are to blame for the crimes of two paedophile brothers across three decades.

In a public letter to all members of the Catholic order, the provincial head in Australia, Jeffrey Crowe, has again apologised to child abuse victims.

Crowe said that after listening to recent royal commission hearings into how the crimes of brothers John Kosta Chute and Gregory Sutton were dealt with in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, it was clear leadership inaction at the time was responsible.

Both men were jailed for abusing children in NSW, Queensland and ACT schools.

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AUSTRALIA
New Zealand Herald

Australia’s Anglican priests will be free to report serious crimes revealed to them during confessions, ending a church law that has its roots in the 12th century.

The Anglican General Synod has agreed to relax its rigid priest-penitent law following revelations of endemic child sexual abuse during federal and state inquiries.

While welcomed by child abuse victims’ groups, the move falls short of long-standing calls for mandatory reporting under laws applying to doctors and teachers.

The option of allowing priests to break confessional confidentiality also has to be approved separately by the church’s 23 dioceses, although the synod vote was unanimous and is expected to win nationwide approval.

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ROME
Legionaries of Christ

Rome, July 3, 2014 – Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL), and Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, secretary of the dicastery, met today with Fr. Eduardo Robles Gil, LC, general director of the Legion of Christ, and the general council of the Legion in the Legion’s Center for Higher Studies in Rome.

During the meeting, the Cardinal informed Fr. Eduardo that Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, SJ – a Canon Law maven who has been connected with the renewal of the Legion and Regnum Christi since 2010 – will serve as Pontifical Advisor to the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ. He will serve the Legion’s government as a consultant for the next few years especially in the area of relations between the different components of Regnum Christi and in the search for a canonical configuration for the Movement as a whole.

In a letter written today to the Legionaries of Christ, Fr. Eduardo Robles Gil said: “All of us in the central government have gratefully embraced the help that the Church is offering us by means of Fr. Ghirlanda. His experience and personal gifts, as well as his familiarity with the Legion and Regnum Christi – which he acquired as a personal councilor of the Pontifical Delegate – fill us with confidence.”

Cardinal Braz de Aviz emphasized that the role of the advisor will be strictly consultative, and that he will not be part of the government of the Legion. He will be able to participate in the meetings of the general council in his role as advisor when he sees fit. It is hoped that he will be able to continue supporting the Legion of Christ in overcoming the institutional crisis that has taken place in the past few years.

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News (US)

VATICAN CITY — Jul 3, 2014

Associated Press

The Vatican has named a Jesuit canon lawyer as special papal adviser to the Legion of Christ to help guide it for the next few years following revelations that its founder was a pedophile and a fraud and that the order needed reform.

The Rev. Gianfranco Ghirlanda is the second pontifical envoy named to try to turn the Legion around. Cardinal Velasio de Paolis presided over a three-year reform effort that ended in February. Ghirlanda had been one of de Paolis’ deputies.

His appointment signaled that Pope Francis, himself a Jesuit, doesn’t trust that the initial reform resolved all the Legion’s problems. The Legion said Thursday that Ghirlanda, while not part of the central government, would help clarify the Legion’s relations with its lay movement, Regnum Christi.

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MINNESOTA
Twin Cities Daily Planett

By Andy Birkey, The Colu.mn
July 02, 2014

Embattled Archbishop John Nienstedt is facing a church investigation into whether he had inappropriate same-sex relationships with fellow clergy while he was engaged in anti-LGBT advocacy, according to Commonweal, the oldest Catholic journal in the United States.

Commonweal reported on Tuesday that Nienstedt is the target of an investigation by an outside law firm hired by the church to investigate child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which oversees the state’s Catholic churches, organizations, clergy, and staff. The investigation seeks to learn whether Nienstedt had romantic relationships with fellow male staff and clergy, and whether he retaliated against staff and clergy who dismissed his advances.

Commonweal’s source about the investigation is Jennifer Haselberger, a former church employee and whistleblower who uncovered attempts to cover-up child sexual abuse.

“Based on my interview with Greene Espel—as well as conversations with other interviewees—I believe that the investigators have received about ten sworn statements alleging sexual impropriety on the part of the archbishop dating from his time as a priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit, as Bishop of New Ulm, and while coadjutor and archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis,” Haselberger told Commonweal. “He also stands accused of retaliating against those who refused his advances or otherwise questioned his conduct.”

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PORTUGAL
Press TV (Iran)

A priest and his accomplice have been charged with sexually abusing patients in several hospitals across Portugal, prosecutors say.

The alleged crimes were reportedly committed between 2004 and 2010 in hospitals run by the Roman Catholic order.

“The charge relates to the sexual abuse of four patients in the care of institutions run by the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God,” prosecutors said in a statement on Thursday.

The order operates more than 250 medical centers around the world. One of the hospitals mentioned in the indictment is an institution specialized for the mentally ill.

The latest church scandal is unveiled as the Portuguese Catholic Church is already under fire for the case of another priest named Luis Miguel Mendes. He was sentenced in 2013 to ten years in prison for the sexual abuse of six minors aged between 13 and 15.

The Vatican has been rocked by major inquiries into claims of abuse in Ireland, the United States, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and several other countries.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

There are no power struggles behind the replacement of President Von Freyberg and the current administrative council. It is part of the Vatican “minister of the Economy’s” plans to change the IOR around

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

“There are no power struggles, nor is the president Ernst Von Freyberg being kicked out. What is going to be taking place over the next few days is an operation led by the Secretary for the Economy, Cardinal George Pell, aimed at bringing about a real reform of the IOR.” An authoritative source who has been informed about what is about to happen to the IOR’s leadership, said this in a statement to Vatican Insider. The source confirmed that what has been stated in the news in recent days regarding the replacement of the IOR’s head, is true. However, the reason for this change is the “Vatican bank’s” much-needed facelift in terms of transparency. Professional figures and required skills also need to be changed in order to bring the reform process forward.

The IOR’s current board was nominated in 2009 and will complete its mandate at the end of the summer. This also applies to President Freyberg who was selected to carry on Ettore Gotti Tedeschi’s mandate. But the imminent replacement of the Institute’s current administrative council and president is not down to new problems within the bank or to its bad management. The decision to ask the entire board to resign – not just because its member’s mandates are about to come to an end or because of the advanced age of some members – was allegedly Cardinal Pell’s idea. The reason behind this, is apparently to reshape the IOR to fit the broader framework of Curia reform.

The Institute for the Works of Religion will increasingly resemble a small bank with limited deposits, that deals with bank transactions (which are very useful for the world’s religious institutes) and will significantly limit its investments. Hence the board and the president will have to have experience in managing banks more than big financial investments. The board could thus resign within the next few days, allowing Pell and the commission of cardinals in charge of overseeing the IOR, to select a new team that responds to the new needs of the IOR.

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ROME
Catholic Culture

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the former Vatican Secretary of State, has threatened strongly denied a report in the Italian magazine L’Espresso that he helped orchestrate a campaign against the editor of a newspaper published by the Italian bishops’ conference.

Dino Boffo resigned as editor of Avvenire in 2009 after a series of reports in the Italian press implying that he was homosexual. Boffo said that the reports were “wrecking my family.” Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the president of the Italian bishops’ conference (which publishes Avvenire) said that the published rumors were a “disgusting” personal attack.

Shortly after Boffo’s resignation, new rumors appeared in the Italian press, suggesting that Cardinal Bertone had approved the release of damaging information about the Avvenire editor. (At the time, Boffo had been aggressive in criticizing the government of then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, with whom the Secretary of State was friendlier.) Cardinal Bertone angrily denied the charge.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Plymouth Herald

A Plymouth man is to stand trial accused of physical and sexual abuse of boys at a Scottish school run by a Catholic group.

The abuse is alleged to have taken place at the former St Ninian’s school in Falkland, Fife, which was run by the Irish Christian brothers.

Michael Murphy, 74, of Dunfermline, William Don, 60, of Leven, Edward Egan, 76, of Altrincham, and Timothy Foxall, 63, of Hexham, face 68 charges made no plea and were bailed at Dundee Sheriff Court.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

Four men have appeared in court over years of alleged physical and sexual abuse of boys at a Fife school run by a controversial Catholic group.

Michael Murphy, 74, of Dunfermline, William Don, 60, of Leven, Edward Egan, 76, of Altrincham, and Timothy Foxall, 63, of Hexham, face 68 charges.

The abuse is alleged to have taken place at the former St Ninian’s school in Falkland, Fife, which was run by the Irish Christian brothers.

All four made no plea and were bailed.

A further two men are being sought by police after failing to turn up at Dundee Sheriff Court to face the charges against them.

John Farrell, 71, of Coatbridge, and Paul Kelly, 61, of Plymouth, are accused of a series of assaults and indecent assaults over a five-year period.

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PORTUGAL
DN Portugal

Os dois estão acusados de abuso sexual de pessoa internada e de abuso sexual de pessoa incapaz de resistência

O Ministério Público (MP) acusou um funcionário e um sacerdote que exerciam funções numa instituição da Ordem Hospitaleira de São João de Deus, por abuso sexual de pessoa internada e de abuso sexual de pessoa incapaz de resistência.

As vítimas, segundo uma nota do Departamento Central de Investigação e Ação Penal (DCIAP), são quatro pessoas internadas numa instituição de saúde dirigida pela Ordem Hospitaleira de São João de Deus, através do Instituto de São João de Deus.

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PORTUGAL
Expresso

[Summary: The public ministry has accused a priest of sexually abusing four people in an institution of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God.]

Hugo Franco e Micael Pereira |
14:47 Quinta feira, 3 de julho de 2014

O Ministério Público (MP) acusou um funcionário e um sacerdote que exerciam funções numa instituição da Ordem Hospitaleira de São João de Deus, por abuso sexual de pessoa internada e de abuso sexual de pessoa incapaz de resistência.

As vítimas, segundo uma nota do Departamento Central de Investigação e Ação Penal (DCIAP), são quatro pessoas internadas numa instituição de saúde dirigida pela Ordem Hospitaleira de São João de Deus, através do Instituto de São João de Deus.

Segundo o MP, os factos foram praticados em 2004, 2005 e 2010.

Em comunicado enviado às redações, a Ordem Hospitaleira S. João de Deus, declara: “face ao processo que está a decorrer, estamos certos que as instâncias próprias decidirão de acordo com a lei e o direito”. E acrescenta: “A Ordem manifesta ainda a sua total disponibilidade para colaboração no cabal esclarecimento dos factos e aguarda serenamente a conclusão do processo.”

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PORTUGAL
Inquirer (Philippines)

LISBON, Portugal–A priest and an employee of a hospital run by a religious order in Portugal have been charged with sexually abusing patients.

The crimes are alleged to have been committed in facilities run by a Roman Catholic order that operates more than 250 hospitals around the world.

“The charge relates to the sexual abuse of four patients in the care of institutions run by the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God,” prosecutors said in a statement on Thursday.

According to the indictment, the alleged acts were committed in 2004, 2005 and 2010 in several hospitals run by the religious order, one of which was a hospital for the mentally ill.

The Portuguese courts opened an investigation in December 2012 after several reports of sexual abuse of the mentally ill, including a child, in institutions run by the Order of Hospitallers.

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PARAGUAY
Washington Post

Pope sends delegation to Paraguay to investigate Pa. priest accused of molesting boys

BY JOSEPHINE MCKENNA | RELIGION NEWS SERVICE July 3

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is sending a cardinal and a bishop to Paraguay to investigate the activities of a priest previously accused of sex abuse in Pennsylvania, the Vatican’s diplomatic envoy to the Latin American country said.

The cardinal and the bishop will visit the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, in the country’s east in late July, said papal nuncio Monsignor Eliseo Ariotti.

They will likely look into the activities of the Rev. Carlos Urrutigoity, an Argentinian-born priest accused of sexually molesting minors when he served as a priest in Scranton more than a decade ago.

Urrutigoity is now second in command in Ciudad del Este and his career advance has provoked widespread debate among local bishops as well as opposition from the victims’ support group SNAP.

Urrutigoity was accused of sexual abuse in a highly publicized lawsuit in Scranton in 2002. At the time he and another priest, Eric Ensey, were suspended by now-retired Bishop James Timlin, amid allegations they had sexually molested students at St. Gregory’s Academy in Elmhurst, now closed.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

by ANDREA GAGLIARDUCCI/CNA/EWTN NEWS 07/03/2014

VATICAN CITY — On the second of four days of meetings, the council of eight cardinals discussed the management of the Vatican City State and of the Curia, including the so-called “Vatican Bank,” whose process of reform is ongoing.

Pope Francis, along with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, is involved in the meetings with the group of cardinals he selected last year to help in Church reform efforts.

The Pope was present at the entire meeting Wednesday morning, having suspended his Wednesday general audiences for a summer break.

Although no document has yet formalized Cardinal Parolin’s membership in the council, Holy See Press Office director Father Federico Lombardi said, “Pope Francis told Cardinal Pietro Parolin he is a full member of the council, and so we can consider him fully a member of the council.”
Father Lombardi reported that, in these first two days of meetings, the cardinals discussed “three main themes.”

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FALL RIVER (MA)
South Coast Today

By SIMÓN RIOS
srios@s-t.com
July 03, 2014

FALL RIVER — The country’s first Brazilian-born bishop will take the helm of the Diocese of Fall River this fall, a year-and-a-half after the election of the first pope from Latin America.

“I wish to greet all my brother priests, and tell them I am eager to know them and work with them for the good of God’s people here in this area,” said the Rev. Edgar Moreira da Cunha, currently an auxiliary bishop of the Newark, NJ Archdiocese, who was named the eighth bishop of Fall River today.

Da Cunha, 60, will succeed Bishop George W. Coleman, who resigned after turning 75 this year in accordance with church law. The incoming diocesan chief spoke in English, Spanish and his native Portuguese, indicating with a smile his support for the Brazilian football squad as it gears up for its next match.

The appointment of Bishop da Cunha was announced this morning in the nation’s capital by Archbishop Carlo M. Vigano, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, after his candidacy was given the blessing of Pope Francis himself.

Bishop Coleman welcomed da Cunha at a press event in Fall River today. …

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a national advocacy group, said today that da Cunha has shown no real courage or compassion in one of the worst archdioceses in the U.S. for clergy sex abuse victims.

Asked to respond to that claim, da Cunha said in his position with the Archdiocese of Newark it was not his responsibility directly to address these issues.

“And even so, the Diocese of Newark has addressed these concerns (effectively and with care)… and as has been directed by the bishops of this country and by our policies,” he said.

David Clohessy, a victim of clergy abuse director of the Survivors Network, criticized da Cunha for failing to distance himself from the Newark hierarchy.

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OHIO
GlobalPost

By Kim Palmer

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – A dying ex-priest convicted of stabbing an Ohio nun to death cannot obtain an early release for his final days, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.

Gerald Robinson, 76, a retired Roman Catholic priest serving a life sentence for the 1980 killing, suffered a heart attack in May and is not expected to live more than two months.

U.S. District Judge James Gwin said the federal courts had no jurisdiction over Robinson’s request. He was convicted in 2006 of killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, in Toledo.

“There is no constitutional or inherent right of a convicted person to be conditionally released before the expiration of a valid sentence,” Gwin wrote.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Nicholas Sciarappa | Jul. 3, 2014

KANSAS CITY, MO. Survivors of clerical child sex abuse and their allies are demanding that the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese drop its appeal against an arbitration ruling that it pay victims of clergy sex abuse $1.1 million for breaching an agreement in a 2008 sex abuse settlement.

David Clohessy, executive director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), led a group of abuse survivors outside the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Chancery Wednesday, blasting Bishop Robert Finn for disputing the ruling of arbitrator Hollis Hanover.

Clohessy said the breach of contract suit was the first of its kind. According to Clohessy, no other survivors have checked in on previous legal agreements, found a breach of contract, and sought arbitration. He called it a huge victory for survivors of clerical sex abuse.

The suit was filed as a result of the case surrounding Shawn Ratigan, a former Kansas City priest convicted of child pornography charges. The diocese failed to report to authorities suspicions that Ratigan possessed pornographic pictures of children for nearly five months after diocese officials were alerted to suspect images on the priest’s computer in early 2010. In September 2012, Finn was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of failing to report suspected child abuse and under a two year suspended sentence in Jackson County, Mo.

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