ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jul. 21, 2014 NCR Today

Step aside, Mary Jane.

Tom Petty is dancing with the Catholic church in his next album “Hypnotic Eye.”

In new song titled “Playing Dumb,” famed rocker Petty and his band the Heartbreakers — who together have produced classics such as “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” “Free Fallin’” and “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” — address their outrage with the church’s decade-long abuse scandal.

“For every confession that wasn’t on the level/For every man of God that lives with hidden devils,” Petty sings at one point.

“Playing Dumb” does not appear among the album’s 11 main tracks, but is included as a bonus song on Blu-Ray and vinyl editions.

In an interview with Billboard magazine, Petty said he did not intend to attack Catholics or religion in general. But the abuse scandal, however, has left him seeing it difficult for people to maintain their faith.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

By Antonia Blumberg
Posted: 07/21/2014

Rocker Tom Petty has taken on a weighty and controversial topic in the bonus track to his new album, “Hypnotic Eye,” and it’s not bound to win him any friends at the Vatican.

The song — “Playing Dumb” — addresses the victims of the Catholic Church’s sex abuses over the last several decades and will appear as a bonus track on the new album’s vinyl release.

In an interview with Billboard preceding the album’s release, Petty said:

“I’m fine with whatever religion you want to have… [But] if I was in a club, and I found out that there had been generations of people abusing children, and then that club was covering that up, I would quit the club. And I wouldn’t give them any more money.”

Billboard quoted several lines from the song that illustrate a sense of distrust toward the church: “For every confession that wasn’t on the level/For every man of God that lives with hidden devils.”

Although “Playing Dumb” may be one of the first songs explicitly written about the Catholic Church’s sex abuses, Petty isn’t the first mainstream artist to publicly condemn the church its response to the allegations. In 1992 singer Sinéad O’Connor unexpectedly ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on the set of Saturday Night Live to protest sex abuse in the church.

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OHIO
National Catholic Reporter

Nicholas Sciarappa | Jul. 21, 2014

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests donated $1,000 to a Catholic Worker house that shelters homeless women after the Cincinnati archdiocese retracted its funding because a woman priest led a prayer service at the shelter.

The archdiocese had promised Lydia’s House, which offers shelter to homeless women and their children, $1,000 toward the purchase of a new washer and dryer. A number of community organizations support the house, which can hold up to four women and six children, and the archdiocese was an irregular donor.

“We spent the money in June with the promise that it would be reimbursed at the start of the new fiscal year July 1, and we submitted the receipt on July 5,” said Mary Ellen Mitchell, one of the founders of Lydia’s House. “We found out Wednesday, July 16, of this week that [the archdiocese] wouldn’t do the reimbursement.”

The archdiocese withdrew the donation after learning that Debra Meyers would hold a July 20 prayer service at the house. Meyers is a Roman Catholic Woman Priest, but the house’s monthly newsletter, which contained information about the prayer service, did not identify her as such.

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UNITED STATES
Billboard

By Fred Schruers | July 21, 2014

n a new track — and a blunt conversation — Petty won’t back down when asked about a religious scandal

During his hard-fought, ascendant career, Tom Petty has often been labeled as intense. The artist wouldn’t disagree — and a corrosive new track called “Playing Dumb” won’t change anyone’s mind. Though the song didn’t make the new album — it was hard to sequence with the rest of the tracks, says Petty — it will be included as a bonus cut on the accompanying vinyl release.

Petty hitches back in his seat when “Playing Dumb” comes up. In the lyrics, he proposes lighting a candle “For every confession that wasn’t on the level/For every man of God that lives with hidden devils.”

The song mourns the victims of sex abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy, and takes aim at the controversial financial settlements the church eventually made. This is not a love song.

When asked about “Playing Dumb,” Petty arches an eyebrow at the digital recorder before him. “Catholics, don’t write me,” he says. “I’m fine with whatever religion you want to have, but it can’t tell anybody it’s OK to kill people, and it can’t abuse children systematically for God knows how many years.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOV

(KMOV) – The hearing in the case of Joseph Jiang scheduled for Monday morning, was delayed and the prosecutor said the trial is set to start September 2, 2014.

The Reverend Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang is charged with two counts of first degree statutory sodomy involving a boy younger than 14 at the St. Louis Cathedral School.

His lawyer has said Jiang denies the allegations.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis suspended Jiang from duties pending the case.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, July 21, 2014

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

A new, credibly accused predatory Twin Cities Catholic cleric, Monsignor Jerome Boxleitner, is exposed in today’s alarming four-part Minnesota Public Radio series. We hope that every current or former parishioner who spent any time around Boxleitner will ask their children and loved ones if they were hurt by the priest. (MPR reports that “Boxleitner stayed in ministry and remained a prominent Twin Cities leader until his death in 2013.”)

A second credibly accused child molesting cleric, Fr. Gilbert Dutel, has also been publicly exposed for the first time as a predator by MPR. He’s still working in a parish today.

Minnesotans owe it to themselves to read the four-part series. Here are a few disturbing “high lights”

–“When they encountered a fellow priest abusing a child, most priests looked the other way.”

–“No reporter cited independent sources for the claim that the archdiocese was a pioneer in confronting clergy sexual abuse. Those assurances came from church leaders, church-paid psychologists and the church’s lawyers.”

–“At St. Joseph of the Lakes parish in Lino Lakes, a string of accused priests served for 20 years. One offender served as the pastor and supervised two associate priests, both of whom were also accused of child sexual abuse. After all three men left, another abuser arrived. On and on it went.”

–“Some parishes were served for decades by a series of priests now known to have been accused of child sexual abuse.” St. John the Baptist in New Brighton, for example, had in succession:

Fr. Thomas Stitts, who was later accused of abusing dozens of boys,

Fr. Gerald Grieman, now under criminal investigation for alleged child sexual abuse, and

Fr. Michael Keating who is accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl.

With every new revelation about heinous crimes and continuing cover ups, the tepid actions by Twin Cities law enforcement officials becomes more and more disgusting and untenable. Still, those who saw, suspected, and suffered clergy sex crimes should continue speaking up. It’s the only real chance of prodding secular officials to act responsibly and protect kids.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Institutional abuse campaigners say they have been “reassured” by the First Minister Peter Robinson that money will be available for the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA).

It follows Mr Robinson’s warning that HIA funding was under threat due to a dispute over Stormont finances.

On Monday, campaigners met Mr Robinson at Stormont to raise their concerns.

The inquiry is examining allegations of abuse in NI care homes between 1922 and 1995.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Evening Extra programme after the meeting, abuse campaigner Margaret McGuckian said she was happy with the outcome.

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

For immediate release: Monday, July 21, 2014

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

Archbishop Robert Carlson keeps playing “good cop” in the Fr. Joseph Jiang case while letting (or perhaps encouraging) a few misguided parishioners play “bad cop” by publicly professing the priest’s alleged innocence despite two accusers, two criminal indictments and a pending civil abuse and cover up lawsuit.

This is immoral and cruel.

Today, five or six Fr. Jiang backers publicly rallied around Fr. Jiang, picketing the courthouse claiming the priest didn’t sexually assault either of the youngsters he’s accused of sexually assaulting. Carlson is tolerating – or maybe prodding – them to do so. And that scares others who were hurt and keeps them silence. And it discourages others who saw or suspected abuse into giving up and doing nothing.

As adults, we can either make it harder or easier for kids and teens to report molesters. The moral choice is to make it easier. Carlson is making it harder.

Carlson knows how to respond when allegations of clergy sex crimes surface. But when his close pal Fr. Joseph Jiang was arrested on a second set of criminal child sex charges in April, Carlson chose to publicly cast doubt on and violate the privacy of the second alleged victim’s family. Shame on him and on every person on his staff who played a role in this callous, self-serving statement.

Carlson himself publicly cast doubt on this courageous family when, weeks ago, he issued a statement claiming that the second victim’s family supposedly didn’t mention child sex abuse until recently.

[St. Louis archdiocese]

Everyone knows that the overwhelming majority of child sex abuse victims can’t understand and disclose their trauma until decades later. So delays in reporting child sex crimes are not unusual or relevant at all.

But by mentioning the alleged delay, Carlson is deliberately casting doubt on the victim’s family.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

‘A jigsaw puzzle that must be looked at in its entirety’

Pamela Duncan

Mon, Jul 21, 2014

When TD Anne Ferris took to her feet in the Dáil chamber last week it was to speak on a deeply personal matter. The 59-year-old revealed that, up until a fortnight ago, she had “never laid eyes” on her sister: the two women were adopted from different mother-and-baby homes, grew up in different families and ended up living in different countries.

In a poignant address Ms Ferris said that, when they met they “looked like sisters but we didn’t talk like sisters”.

“Where other sisters in our age group have shared experiences and a shared family history, we have just had a very long, long gap in our lives . . . We look very alike but so far that’s the only aspect of our lives that we share.”

Jigsaw puzzle

Ms Ferris went on to describe mother-and-baby homes, adoption practices, the Magdalene laundries, the county homes, private homes, religious organisations and the State as part of a “very large jigsaw puzzle that must be looked at in its entirety”.

Some pieces have already fallen into place due to the work of historian Catherine Corless, whose research into 796 child deaths in the home in Tuam, Galway sparked national controversy and led to the Government establishing an inquiry into mother-and-baby homes.

Since then, The Irish Times has published figures on a number of deaths recorded in contemporaneous local government and public reports and returns filed by the homes with the Department of Health. A further 222 deaths have been documented in the Protestant-run Bethany Home.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Pamela Duncan

Mon, Jul 21, 2014

A group representing people housed in mother-and-baby homes has warned that it will bring a complaint to the UN Committee Against Torture if the terms of a forthcoming inquiry are not inclusive.

Paul Redmond of the Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors said the terms of reference of the Government’s commission of investigation into mother-and-baby homes must be comprehensive.

“My hope for the terms of reference is that they will be as full and inclusive as possible and that the entire issue of how society treated unmarried mothers before and after the birth of their children should be looked at,” he said.

He said this should include all women and children housed in State-supported mother-and-baby homes, those run by religious orders, county homes, Protestant-run homes, private homes including the Regina Coeli hostels, institutions such as Stamullen, Co Meath and St Patrick’s Infant Hospital in Temple Hill, Blackrock and other associated institutions as well as adoption practices.

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UNITED STATES
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | Jul 21, 2014

Jennifer Haselberger’s affidavit ought to be sounding alarms throughout the length and breadth of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. What the former chancellor of the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minnesota has done is to call into question the efficacy of the procedures the American church has put into place to assure the faithful and society at large that it is successfully dealing with the sexual abuse of minors by priests.

The 109-page document is the first insider’s account of the handling of reports of clergy abuse by diocesan officials in the years following passage of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, initially approved at the bishops’ June, 2002 meeting in Dallas. No doubt, there are facts asserted by Haselbeger that might not constitute proof beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. As she herself notes on a number of occasions, her recollection is at odds with what others have sworn to.

Nevertheless, it is impossible to dismiss her portrait of an archdiocesan culture bent on working around the Charter, on keeping information from the civil authorities to the extent possible—all the while putting up a show of caring deeply for the victims. Anyone who doubts this portrait should listen to the hour-long documentary on Minnesota Public Radio, which integrates what Haselberger has to say with statements of a wide range of church leaders, victims and their families, and legal experts.

Where the buck stops in Minnesota is with Archbishop John Nienstedt, who inherited a corrupt regime and perpetuated it. Nienstedt, who is himself being investigated for sexual misconduct, has provided more than ample evidence that he is unworthy of serving in his present position.

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LOUISIANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, July 21, 2014

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

Recently uncovered files show that an accused predator priest is still on the job in Louisiana and former Lafayette Bishop Harry Flynn covered it up. We urge the current bishop to take immediate action and suspend this cleric immediately.

When then-bishop Flynn was asked about Fr. Gilbert Dutel, Flynn said “he’s cured.” Despite multiple allegations of sexual abuse of young men and a child, Fr. Dutel was kept in ministry. Church records show no information was ever given to the police or made public regarding the allegations.

Everyone knows that child molesters are rarely “cured.” They often continue abusing until they are publicly exposed and kept away from children.

Fr. Dutel is currently the pastor of St. Edmond church and has worked at elementary and high schools. http://www.st-

We are deeply concerned about this information. Recently released depositions and documents show a long history of cover-ups by Flynn, both in Lafayette and the Twin Cities. We are worried about how many other current or former priests have credible allegations of abuse, but were allowed to keep working near children.

We urge Bishop Michael Jarrell to immediately oust Fr. Dutel and use his vast resources to beg anyone who saw, suspects or suffered crimes by Dutel to come forward, call police and start healing.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

Political pressure to have allegations of a paedophile ring at the Kincora Boys’ Home included in a Westminster inquiry is increasing.

First Minister Peter Robinson has added his voice to calls for the terms of reference of the UK’s Child Abuse Inquiry to include claims of paedophilia at the east Belfast home during the 1970s and 80s.

Mr Robinson has also made public a letter from Sir Anthony Hart – the chair of the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) – stating his belief that “there may be benefits to the UK-wide inquiry examining the relevant allegations into Kincora Boys’ Home”.

The former High Court judge said the HIA does “not have sufficient powers” in its present form to investigate allegations relating to the activity of the Army or MI5 – but added that the HIA could continue to run alongside the Westminster probe.

Mr Robinson said: “I want to see a full investigation into the terrible abuses which occurred in Kincora. Having received this communication from Sir Anthony, it is clear that the proper route to fully investigate the abuse at Kincora Boys’ Home is to have it included in our United Kingdom’s Child Abuse Inquiry.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Kincora probe has to access secret files, says former Army officer Colin Wallace

BY COLIN FRANCIS – 21 JULY 2014

Former Army officer and whistleblower Colin Wallace has called for any new investigation of the Kincora Boys’ Home to have access to information from intelligence agencies.

Mr Wallace tried to draw attention to sexual abuse at the east Belfast home in the 1970s.

He said if the home was included in the UK-wide investigation into institutional abuse, then the terms of any inquiry into what happened must be widened.

In 1981 three senior care staff at the home were jailed for abusing 11 boys.

It has also been claimed that people of the “highest profile” were connected – taken to mean senior politicians.

Mr Wallace received intelligence in 1973 to say that boys were being abused, but claims some of his superiors refused to pass on the information.

“I know that some officers from the security services in Northern Ireland did know and actually reprimanded intelligence officers from raising the matter and also told them they were to desist from any further investigation,” he said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Full story of Kincora Boys’ Home in east Belfast yet to be told, says child sex abuse victim

BY ADRIAN RUTHERFORD – 16 JULY 2014

A UK-wide inquiry into child sex abuse will lack credibility unless it examines allegations surrounding Kincora Boys’ Home, it has been claimed.

Pressure is mounting for the notorious east Belfast home to be included in the Government’s review, with one victim saying the full story around Kincora has yet to emerge.

Clint Massey, who waived his right to anonymity to speak about how he was abused, said: “I strongly believe there’s a lot more to come out.”

Amnesty’s Northern Ireland director Patrick Corrigan also warned that any inquiry must examine Kincora.

William McGrath was one of three staff members jailed in 1981 for abusing boys at Kincora
“For an inquiry to take place into child sexual abuse and potential cover-ups by the establishment and not include Kincora would mean that that inquiry lacks credibility,” he said.

Supporting the calls, East Belfast DUP MLA Robin Newton said the perpetrators behind Kincora’s grim past must be held accountable.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A former Army officer has said any new investigation of the Kincora Boys’ Home must have access to information from intelligence agencies.

Colin Wallace tried to draw attention to sexual abuse at the east Belfast home in the 1970s.

He said if the home is included in a UK-wide investigation into abuse, then the terms of any inquiry into what happened must be widened.

In 1981, three senior care staff at the home were jailed for abusing 11 boys.

It has been claimed that people of the “highest profile” were connected.

Mr Wallace received intelligence in 1973 to say that boys were being abused, but claims some of his superiors refused to pass on the information.

“I know that some officers from the security services in Northern Ireland did know and actually reprimanded intelligence officers from raising the matter and also told them they were to desist from any further investigation,” he told the BBC’s Sunday Sequence programme.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY CIARAN BARNES – 21 JULY 2014

A firebrand preacher who was a good friend of Rev Ian Paisley has been linked to the abuse of children at Kincora.

Pastor Willie Mullan took his own life in December 1980, less than a year after police started an investigation into the paedophile ring operating at the east Belfast care home for boys.

Sources say the 79-year-old, who was also struggling to come to terms with the death of his wife, shot himself with his legally held weapon after learning he could be arrested.

Mullan, who was never charged, had close links to William McGrath — the sinister Orange Order leader who used his role as housemaster at Kincora to sexually assault dozens of boys.

He was also friendly with Joss Cardwell, an Ulster Unionist councillor who preyed on kids at the home and who died by suicide in 1983 after being |questioned by the RUC.

“There were strong rumours at the time about Willie Mullan’s involvement in Kincora, particularly as he
killed himself not long after the police investigation began,” said a religious source.

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IRELAND
Herald

BY CLODAGH SHEEHY – 21 JULY 2014 12:00 AM

A DUNDALK man abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth and sworn to secrecy by the Church, has revealed he was offered €10,000 by its lawyers.

Brendan Boland was one of two boys who had to sign an oath of secrecy in 1975 when they gave evidence about their abuse by Smyth to a church inquiry.

Norbertine priest Smyth continued to abuse children and is believed to have raped and sexually assaulted more than 100 children over five decades up to the 1990s.

In his memoir “Sworn to Silence”, Boland says Cardinal Sean Brady, who was a 36-year-old canon lawyer and teacher in 1975, countersigned the oath of secrecy the Dundalk man was required to make about Smyth.

He says in 2011 Church lawyers offered him €10,000 to settle his High Court case for damages. The amount was to include legal costs for 14 years litigation.

Boland subsequently settled the case for €100,000 plus costs the following year.

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MISSOURI
KMOV

Posted on July 21, 2014

(KMOV) – The next hearing in the case of Joseph Jiang is scheduled for Monday morning.

The hearing will begin at 9:00 a.m. at the Division 16 Carnahan Courthouse.

The Reverend Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang is charged with two counts of first degree statutory sodomy involving a boy younger than 14 at the St. Louis Cathedral School.

His lawyer has said Jiang denies the allegations.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, July 21, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy (314-566-9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

Presbyterian minister sues Presbyterian church
He reports being abused as a kid by mid-MO minister
Convicted for child porn, the accused is also a murder suspect
And he cut off a man’s genitals in a botched sex change operation

A former Presbyterian minister who is a suspect in a missing person case, who pled guilty to sex crimes and who admitted severing a man’s genitals in an illegal gender reassignment surgery is now being sued for allegedly sexually assaulting a boy who grew up to be a Presbyterian minister.

Rev. Kris Schondelmeyer has filed a civil lawsuit against the now-imprisoned Jack Wayne Rogers, formerly of Fulton, Missouri. Schondelmeyer says Rogers sexually violated him at a nationally sponsored youth conference in Maryland in 2000. At the time, Rogers was a Presbyterian Lay Pastor for the Missouri Union Presbytery serving at Bellflower Presbyterian Church.

Rogers is now behind bars in Florida for child pornography and other sexual crimes. He has been publicly named as a suspect in the disappearance of a northwest Missouri boy who went missing months after Rogers allegedly assaulted Schondelmeyer. According to the Associated Press, “authorities believe Rogers bragged in an online chat room that he abducted, raped and murdered a man (and) said police would never find the body because of how he disposed of it.”

However, Rogers has never been charged in connection with the man’s disappearance. He did, however, plead guilty a decade ago to first-degree assault and practicing medicine without a license after cutting off “a man’s genitals in a makeshift gender reassignment surgery in a hotel room,” the Associated Press reported.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Bucks County Courier Times

By JOSEPH TEVINGTON

Like many local newspapers, the Courier Times relies on large news organizations for national and international news. In the area of religious news, those organizations have a small pool of writers who may or who may not be well-equipped for their specialized work.

With marriage being a hot news topic, large news organizations were quick to pick up on the Vatican’s June 26 release of a working paper, “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Age of Evangelism.” It is a preparatory document for an upcoming international meeting of bishops exploring “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.” We can undoubtedly expect to be seeing that document and the bishops’ meeting discussed on the pages of the Courier Times.

Where the document has already received coverage, much focus has been on how the Church might supposedly change its teaching to accommodate adults who disagree:

* “The Vatican conceded that most Catholics reject its teachings on sex and contraception as intrusive and irrelevant and officials pledged not to ‘close our eyes to anything’ when it opens a two-year debate on some of the thorniest issues facing the Church.”

* “The bishops will discuss the paper in October and could make recommendations on changes to Church teachings, on which the pope would decide.”

* “Called an instrumentum laboris, or ‘working paper,’ the document sets the table for a summit of Catholic bishops from around the world in Rome Oct. 5-19, summoned by Pope Francis to discuss the family. It should be great theater, since there’s almost no hot-button issue that isn’t germane. The text is designed to synthesize the input the Vatican has received, including responses to a questionnaire requested by Francis to seek the views of the Church’s grass roots. In early reporting, much was made of the document’s acknowledgment that many Catholics do not follow church teaching on contraception. That’s hardly a thunderclap, however, since it’s been blindingly obvious for decades.”

Whether one agrees with what the Catholic Church teaches, it strikes me that anyone seeking information would want, and be entitled to, accurate reporting. Whether it is intentional or not, the reports from the AP, Reuters and Boston Globe seem misleading.

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UNITED STATES
Minnesota Public Radio

July 21, 2014

· EDITOR’S NOTE ·

A week ago, MPR News broadcast a radio documentary as part of its investigation of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The story showed how church leaders over decades protected many priests accused of sexually abusing children and it revealed a pattern of choices supported by a culture that put the needs of the church ahead of the needs of its people.

Today’s four-chapter story builds on the radio documentary to present a closer look. Both reports relied on dozens of interviews, hundreds of thousands of never-before-published documents, and the account of a whistleblower with unprecedented access to the church’s secrets. Many source citations are listed below.

MPR News published its first investigative report in September 2013. The fallout was immediate. The vicar general resigned within days. Police launched criminal investigations. Catholics held protests, the archbishop suspended his public appearances and an important fundraising campaign eventually was canceled.

The scandal grew as MPR News reported more revelations: that the archdiocese had kept accused priests in ministry, failed to call police, ignored Vatican rules, and given special payments to priests who had admitted privately to abusing children. Since the radio documentary aired last week, calls for the resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt have increased among Twin Cities Catholics and the story has gained more national attention.

— Chris Worthington, MPR News managing director

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UNITED STATES
Minnesota Public Radio

How three archbishops hid the truth – radio documentary

By Madeleine Baran · July 21, 2014

· CHAPTER ONE OF FOUR ·

Lafayette, La. — The Diocese of Lafayette stretches from the city south to Vermilion Bay, whose waters lead to the Gulf of Mexico. Down among the bayous and sugar cane fields of southern Louisiana, Catholicism runs deep.

Many of the 300,000 Catholics who live here trace their history back to the late 1700s, when their French ancestors fled Canada to escape British rule. In this humid, undeveloped land, they discovered waters filled with shrimp, oysters and crawfish, and they built churches on patches of dry ground.

For generations, they believed the priest served as the living face of Jesus Christ. He forgave their sins, baptized the young and anointed the sick. In his purity, he gave the faithful a glimpse of what heaven would be like.

No one had ever heard of a priest raping a child.

So when the Rev. Gilbert Gauthe arrived in the 1970s and showed an interest in young boys, no one paid much attention.

The priest took boys on camping trips and invited them for sleepovers in the rectory. He claimed to hold practices for altar boys every day at 6 a.m. and encouraged parents to let their boys spend the night.

His sexual appetite was uncontrollable. He put bars on the windows of a rectory. He kept a gun by the side of his bed, and when children refused to submit he threatened to use it. At night, he raped the boys, forced them to perform sex acts on each other, and took photographs on his Polaroid camera.

It went on this way for more than a decade. Gauthe remained in ministry even when his bishop learned that he had abused one boy and licked the faces of two others. After the second complaint, the bishop transferred Gauthe to a small church in the isolated town of Henry, La. On Sundays, the priest stood at the altar and surveyed his victims.

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UNITED STATES
Minnesota Public Radio

By Madeleine Baran · July 21, 2014

· CHAPTER TWO OF FOUR ·

In the fall of 1984, with reporters and top church officials focused on the clergy abuse crisis in Lafayette, a lawyer in Minnesota received a phone call that would lead to the church’s next major scandal.

Jeff Anderson, then 37, had created a name for himself in the Twin Cities as a combative, ambitious trial lawyer who represented underdogs and outcasts. Tanned and trim at 5 feet 5 inches, often dressed in a three-piece suit, he projected a confidence and intensity that captivated jurors.

Anderson idolized Clarence Darrow, the famous crusading attorney who took on powerful institutions, and he decided to go to law school after reading a Darrow biography called “Attorney for the Damned.” He barely graduated. “I couldn’t really engage in the study of the past, which law requires you to do, because I was more interested in shaping the future,” he recalled.

One day, Anderson got a call from a colleague about a married couple who claimed their son had been abused by a Catholic priest. He didn’t want the case but thought Anderson might.

He was right. Anderson met John and Janet Riedle, who explained that their son Gregory had been sexually abused by a priest named Thomas Adamson. They said they’d met with Chancellor Robert Carlson, but he refused to remove Adamson from his parish.

Then the couple showed him a check for about $1,500 they’d received after going to the archdiocese. “Should we cash it?” they asked.

“Go ahead,” Anderson said. “But we also need to call the police, and I need to look into this.”

Anderson wasn’t sure where to start. He’d never heard of a priest raping a child, and a search of court records for lawsuits came up empty. He looked up the full name of the local Catholic Church and wrote it down: the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Then he prepared a lawsuit and walked it over to the chancery. The next day, he got a call from a church lawyer. As he recalled later, the lawyer asked, “What do you want?”

“OK,” the lawyer said. “We’re removing him today. What else do you want?”

“I want to know who’s in charge,” Anderson said.

“Archbishop John Roach,” the lawyer said.

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UNITED STATES
Minnesota Public Radio

By Madeleine Baran · July 21, 2014

· CHAPTER THREE OF FOUR ·

On Jan. 6, 2002, the Boston Globe published a story that would lead to the worst scandal in the history of the U.S. Catholic Church. It showed that Cardinal Bernard Law kept the Rev. John Geoghan in ministry for years despite allegations of child sexual abuse. Geoghan was accused of abusing more than 100 children.

Although similar cover-ups had been reported in Louisiana and Minnesota years earlier, the Boston scandal was different — it happened in one of the wealthiest cities on the East Coast with an aggressive media and one of the most powerful archdioceses in the world.

Nearly every day, the Boston Globe published more disturbing revelations. Newspapers reported similar cover-ups in other dioceses. Donations dried up, parishioners began to leave the church, and hundreds of lawsuits hit dioceses across the country as victims came forward. It got so bad that some Catholics speculated that Satan had created the crisis to destroy the church. The faith of the nation’s 65 million Catholics and the wealth and reputation of the church were at risk. Soon the clamor reached the Vatican.

Faced with the worst scandal yet, bishops panicked. Familiar strategies — expressing regret, vowing to help victims, blaming the media — no longer worked. They decided they needed a national response led by a bishop with credibility.

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UNITED STATES
Minnesota Public Radio

By Madeleine Baran · July 21, 2014

· CHAPTER FOUR OF FOUR ·

Bishop John Nienstedt was driving near Marshall, Minn., on April 2, 2007, when his phone rang with a call from the Vatican Embassy.

Cell phone reception was spotty, and it took nearly an hour to understand that Pope Benedict XVI had appointed him as the new archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He would take over in May 2008 when Archbishop Harry Flynn retired.

In the Twin Cities, reaction was mixed. Catholics had grown accustomed to the less doctrinaire approach of Flynn and his predecessor, Archbishop John Roach.

Nienstedt had built a reputation as the conservative bishop of New Ulm, Minn. He criticized parishioners who missed weekly Mass, spoke of Satan’s efforts to drive men away from the priesthood and warned that “homosexual inclination is a result of some psychological trauma” that occurs before the age of 3.

He saw himself as fighting for the souls of the faithful. “Believing in sin has become countercultural,” he wrote in 2005. “Oh, the reality of crime, violence, road rage, sexual promiscuity, infidelity and deceit are all around us.”

The new archbishop exuded self-control. At age 61, 6 feet tall, trim, with perfect posture, Nienstedt kept his black clerical outfit spotless and his short gray hair neatly trimmed. When he walked into a room, he expected everyone to stand.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Sat, Jul 19, 2014

It was possibly a watershed moment in Holy See media relations. The scene was the Sala Stampa of the Holy See some 10 days ago. Australian Cardinal George Pell was presenting the New Economic Framework for the Holy See, a document which outlines proposed major reforms not only to IOR (the Vatican bank) and to APSA (the Vatican City treasury), but also to all the various Vatican-run media. Halfway through the press conference, a reporter from Milan newspaper Corriere Della Sera asked a question. She wanted to know why, among the six new lay members of the board of IOR, there was no Italian representative. For a brief moment, almost the entire press room started to laugh.

So, what do you want to do? Put the foxes in charge of the chickens again? Has not the recent traumatic history of IOR been besmirched by the nonchalant ease with which, thanks to a bit of blind eye and to a bit of maladministration, Italian high finance (Banco Ambrosiano, Enimont) and sometimes even organised crime used IOR for their own money-laundering purposes.

Cardinal Pell, of course, was much too polite to acknowledge any such thoughts but, rather, he assured us that there will soon be Italian bankers on the IOR board. The point, though, is there for all to see. One aspect of Pope Francis’s reform drive, but by no means the only aspect, involves changes in the all-too Italian ways of much of the Roman curia, which at times can still seem modelled on the court of a 16th-century Tuscan city republic.

Pope’s annoyance Recently, Italian media reported the Pope’s alleged annoyance at the fact that the former secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, was having major reconstruction work done on a 700 sq m flat inside the Vatican. Francis, of course, continues to live in 70 sq m in the relatively modest surrounds of the Vatican’s Santa Marta residence, rather than in the Apostolic Palace. When questioned about his apartment, Cardinal Bertone pointed out that (a) the Pope was not annoyed about it, (b) it was 300 sq m, not 700, and (c) that all the reconstruction work was being done at his own expense. Curiously, in the middle of these polemics, the papal Twitter issued a tweet which read: “A sober lifestyle is good for us and enables us to share more fully with those in need.”

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UNITED STATES
New Oxford Review

By Jay Dunlap

Jay Dunlap served as communications director in North America for the Legion of Christ and its lay affiliate, Regnum Christi, from 1998 to 2006 and as a communications consultant from 2006 to 2010. He is currently President of Madonna School & Workshop, the Archdiocese of Omaha’s outreach to children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

This April Popes John XXIII and John Paul II were canonized together. This moment of great rejoicing in the Church arose under a shadow, due in large part to two high-profile television documentaries that detail how the Church responded — or failed to respond — to the criminal actions of Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legion of Christ. A PBS Frontline investigation titled Secrets of the Vatican, and a documentary on Irish television titled The Legion, both dwell on the fact that three Popes — John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II — failed to take action when informed of Fr. Maciel’s sexual abuse, drug addiction, and misuse of funds.

There is a good explanation for why these three Popes did not move against Maciel. The explanation does not excuse inaction, nor does it abrogate responsibility at various levels of the Vatican for having enabled Maciel’s corruption and deception. But such an explanation answers the question raised about these three Popes: Why didn’t they act?

I served as communications director for the Legion of Christ in North America from 1998 to 2006. My responsibilities included media relations and helping the Legion in crisis management. Published reports of allegations against Fr. Maciel kept me and my colleagues busy for long stretches of time. And a central part of the Legion’s response, I am convinced, explains why the three Popes ignored the allegations: “The charges had already been thoroughly examined and found baseless.” Or so we were led to believe, and so we told others.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Eilish O’Regan
Published 21/07/2014

The number of people who are putting their names on an adoption contact register to retrace a birth mother or child has soared in the wake of publicity generated by the film ‘Philomena’ and the Tuam babies controversy.

The register is open to a birth mother or adopted child to put their name on it saying they would be interested in meeting or getting medical information.

The register is operated by the Adoption Authority of Ireland since 2005 and it has arranged 700 matches after the parent and child put their names down seeking contact.

Kieran Gildea, acting registrar of the Adoption Authority, said the rise was mainly due to the film ‘Philomena’ which told the story of Philomena Lee who was sent to the convent of Roscrea after falling pregnant.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
Published 21/07/2014

REVELATIONS concerning Cardinal Sean Brady’s involvement in a 1975 canonical inquiry into Fr Brendan Smyth’s abuse of Brendan Boland have sparked fresh calls for the Catholic Church’s most senior churchman to stand down.

Marie Kane, who was one of six survivors who met Pope Francis two weeks ago in the Vatican, has threatened to write again to the Pope if Dr Brady does not offer his resignation.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Ms Kane said Mr Boland’s book “confirms the conversation I had with Pope Francis and the issues I raised” regarding “cover-ups and secrecy in the Irish church”.

“This is a book Pope Francis really needs to read,” she said as she called on Dr Brady to make a statement.

However, the Catholic Communications Office in Maynooth declined to comment on the book’s contents.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Post

By Niall O Sullivan on July 21, 2014

ONLY 67 Magdalene Laundry survivors based in Britain have come forward for compensation despite claims that the “vast majority” of abuse survivors are based here.

Figures released last month show that £10.2m has been paid out in compensation to 357 Magdalene Laundry survivors. Of those survivors, just 67 – or one-in-five – are British-based, accounting for £1.7m in compensation.

Campaign groups in Britain believe that that figure should be nearer 500 given the number of survivors they claim are based here.

Last year Sally Mulready, of the Irish Women Survivors Support Network (IWSSN), told The Irish Post that the “vast majority” of the 10,000 Magdalene women left Ireland for new lives in Britain.

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CANADA/UNITED STATES
CBC News

By Amber Hildebrandt, CBC News Posted: Jul 21, 2014

Last year, Ethan Edwards, a man in his mid-50s, confided his deepest secret to a close friend: that he was a pedophile.

“He’s happy to keep my secret,” Edwards wrote in an online chat with CBC News, too fearful of vigilantes to give out his phone number. But he says his friend now feels infected by his secret.

Edwards, a pseudonym, only realized he was attracted to young girls a few years ago. He says he’s never acted on it.

Now, he’s devoting his energy to helping others ensure they, too, never victimize a child.

Edwards, who says he is from Pennsylvania and is the father of three daughters, co-founded a online support group called Virtuous Pedophiles.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

John Spain
Published 21/07/2014

A MAN who survived horrific sex abuse at the hands of paedophile Brendan Smyth has told how priests sought to saddle him with “blame and shame” in a meeting attended by Sean Brady, now the most powerful cleric in Ireland.

Brendan Boland (53) was an 11-year-old altar boy when the notorious priest began to abuse him in the 1970s.

In March 1975, he told three priests, including the cardinal – who was then Fr John Brady – of the abuse in the hope that it would prevent further cases. But Smyth went on to abuse dozens more victims.

Now details have emerged of the highly intrusive and inappropriate line of questioning that the 14-year-old was subjected to during a meeting where he was alone in the room with the priests.

Questions included whether he had done these things before with another boy or man, whether the abuse by Smyth had led him to masturbate alone and why he had taken so long to go to Confession.

Terrified

Transcripts of the secret church inquiry are revealed in Mr Boland’s new book ‘Sworn to Silence’, published today by O’Brien Press.

“I knew that the quizzing about Confession was all about me and my fault.

“Then I was just terrified and scared. Today I am angry, furious. Even as I am recounting this, I want to smash my fist against the bloody wall beside me,” he says.

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UNITED STATES
Another Voice

In October 2014, there will be an “Extraordinary Synod on the Family,” a big Roman Catholic gathering of bishops to consider important issues of Catholic belief and practice.

In preparation for that October gathering, the Vatican sent out questionnaires; and now the results have been processed and a Vatican “working document,” called an instrumentum laboris has been written.

The questionnaire results show that large numbers of Catholics around the globe neither accept nor follow official Roman Catholic teaching on: birth control, sterilization, in vitro fertilization, homosexuality and homosexual unions, cohabitation before or without marriage, and recognizing the legitimacy of marriages for the divorced and remarried.

Some open-minded Catholics, encouraged by the apparently open-minded and friendly behavior of Pope Francis, are expecting big changes in October. That may occur; but the instrumentum laboris seems to reiterate the same old teaching, in a rather judgmental manner. It stresses that many Catholics do not accept church teaching because they have been distorted by the individualistic, relativistic, and secularistic cultures in which people live today. To summarize: Catholic people do disagree with official church teaching: but the people are misguided and wrong. Food for though.

In a recent article in The Tablet (July 12, 2014), Charles Curran, formerly of the Catholic University of America and currently Professor of Human Values at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, sees two current problems in official Roman Catholic ethical statements: (1) natural law as an outdated approach to ethical decision-making and (2) the papalization of moral truth.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

The Associated Press July 20, 2014

MINNEAPOLIS – Lawyers for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis return to court Monday to ask a judge to dismiss a clergy sex abuse lawsuit that’s already forced painful revelations about how top church officials handled allegations of misconduct by priests.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson filed the lawsuit last year for a man identified as Doe 1 who alleges he was molested by the Rev. Thomas Adamson while Adamson was working at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in St. Paul Park around 1976.

But the case has taken on a much greater significance. Anderson offered a novel legal theory that the archdiocese created a “public nuisance,” and has used it to take court-ordered depositions from Archbishop John Nienstedt and other top church leaders — and to make them public.

Here are five things to know about the case and the issues to be discussed Monday:

1.THE LEGAL ISSUES

The archdiocese is asking Ramsey County District Judge John Van de North to dismiss the lawsuit. It says no evidence has emerged to back up Doe 1’s claim that church officials were negligent in assigning Adamson to St. Thomas Aquinas. The archdiocese also argues that the public nuisance claim doesn’t stand up. Van de North wrote in a December ruling that the claim is “a bit of a stretch” and a “particularly close call.” But he let the case go forward, giving Anderson his opening to depose Nienstedt.

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FLORIDA
News-Journal

By Frank Fernandez
frank.fernandez@news-jrnl.com
Published: Sunday, July 20, 2014

Experts say child porn suspect Matthew Graziotti’s multiple contacts with children fit a classic pattern seen among pedophiles.

“Classic, classic, predator behavior of using every means possible to gain access to kids and access to and authority over kids,” said David Clohessy with the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests.

Graziotti, 43, was arrested by the FBI last week after a search of his Edgewater home revealed thousands of images of child pornography on his computer, authorities said. He faces federal charges of production, distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography, and is being held without bail at the Seminole County jail.

Graziotti has a preliminary hearing set for 10 a.m. Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas B. Smith at the federal courthouse in Orlando.

Graziotti had worked at Warner Christian Academy, a private school in South Daytona, for about nine years, teaching fifth- to eighth-grade classes and was director of the school’s summer day camp.

He was an adult volunteer leader in scouting, according to the Boy Scouts of America. A website listed him with Cub Scout Pack 425 in Edgewater. Graziotti also volunteered to help supervise children at the Edgewater Alliance Church.

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IRELAND
Gladys Ganiel

Marie Keenan: Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church – Book Review, Part 3: The Irish Model of “Perfect Celibate Clerical Masculinity”

by Gladys Ganiel on July 19, 2014

Today I continue a series reviewing some key insights from Marie Keenan’s important book, Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: Gender, Power, and Organizational Culture (Oxford University Press, 2012).

I don’t think that the book has received as much attention as it should have, so I am focusing on four key areas, which I think deserve greater public debate:

1. The Dangers of Individualizing the Abuse Problem

2. Why the Catholic Church’s Response to Abuse should not be considered a “Cover-up”
3. The Irish Model for “Doing” Priesthood of “Perfect Celibate Clerical Masculinity” and its Consequences
4. The Complexity of the Abuse Problem and How it can be Addressed

Today, in part three, I focus on:

The Irish Model for “Doing” Priesthood of “Perfect Celibate Clerical Masculinity” and its Consequences

One of the unique, and valuable, aspects of Keenan’s research is that it involved in-depth interviews with clerics who had abused, providing insights not only into how the men described their decisions to abuse – but their experience of being priests prior to, during, and after the times they abused.

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GUAM
Marianas Variety

Published on Monday, July 21, 2014
By Jasmine Stole – jasmine@mvguam.com – Variety News Staff

HAGÅTÑA — An independent network of survivors of institutional sexual abuse released a statement on Friday announcing their disappointment with Guam Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron for allowing a priest accused of molestation to work under the Hagåtña archdiocese.

SNAP, or the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said Fr. John Howard Wadeson was accused twice of molesting children in Los Angeles, California.

According to www.bishop-accountability.org Wadeson was accused of molestation by two individuals between the years 1973 and 1977. A report from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles dated Feb. 17, 2004 details the same information about Wadeson.

SNAP’s statement did not indicate when Wadeson began working for the local archdiocese, but the island’s Roman Catholic newspaper published a photo of Wadeson with Apuron and three others, celebrating the archbishop’s 30th anniversary of his Episcopal Ordination in Hawaii. The photo was published in February of this year.

The 2013 Agana Archdiocesan directory lists Wadeson as one of four incardinated priests away from the archdiocese.

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MINNESOTA
robbobradio

Media Advisory
For Immediate Release

A well-known St.Paul priest is calling for Archbishop John Nienstedt to step down.

In an interview Friday on ROBBOB RADIO (www.robbobradio.com), Fr. Stephen O’Gara says the recent public release of Jennifer Haselberger’s testimony was the tipping point for him.

(Audio Files Attached)

Fr. O’Gara recently retired as pastor of Assumption church in St. Paul but is still an active priest in the Archdiocese. He and other priests have previously suggested the need for change, but this is the first time a priest in the Archdiocese has publicly called for Archbishop Nienstedt to specifically resign. (An O’Gara homily last year criticizing the Archbishop ended up on YouTube, and Fr. Bill Deziel, pastor at St. Peter in North St. Paul, last year called for a “do-over” with regard to Archdiocese leadership.)

The entire interview can be heard on the Audio Archive page @ www.robbobradio.com.

About ROBBOB Radio
Based in St. Paul, Robbob Radio @ www.robbobradio.com is a unique mix of rock music (new and old) and short talk segments.

Contact:
Rob Hahn
651-659-9220

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AFGHANISTAN
The New York Times

By ROD NORDLAND
JULY 19, 2014

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — It was bad enough that the alleged rape took place in the sanctity of a mosque, and that the accused man was a mullah who invoked the familiar defense that it had been consensual sex.

But the victim was only 10 years old. And there was more: The authorities said her family members openly planned to carry out an “honor killing” in the case — against the young girl. The mullah offered to marry his victim instead.

This past week, the awful matter became even worse. On Tuesday, local policemen removed the girl from the shelter that had given her refuge and returned her to her family, despite complaints from women’s activists that she was likely to be killed.

The case has broader repercussions. The head of the Women for Afghan Women shelter here where the girl took refuge, Dr. Hassina Sarwari, was at one point driven into hiding by death threats from the girl’s family and other mullahs, who sought to play down the crime by arguing the girl was much older than 10. One militia commander sent Dr. Sarwari threatening texts and an ultimatum to return the girl to her family. The doctor said she now wanted to flee Afghanistan.

The head of the women’s affairs office in Kunduz, Nederah Geyah, who actively campaigned to have the young girl protected from her family and the mullah prosecuted, resigned on May 21 and moved to another part of the country.

The case itself would just be an aberrant atrocity, except that the resulting support for the mullah, and for the girl’s family and its honor killing plans, have become emblematic of a broader failure to help Afghan women who have been victims of violence.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, July 20

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)

Could there possibly be a more hideous case than this one? The family of a ten year old, forty pound rape victim wants to kill her. Why? Because she was brutally attacked by an Afghan mullah in a mosque, allegedly bringing her relatives “shame.”

And speaking of shame – real shame – the mullah, Mohammad Amin, absurdly claims it was “consensual sex.”

[New York Times]

An advocate for the girl says that prosecutors and some religious figures are siding with the accused rapist and are ignoring the girl’s plight. We call on every single religious official in Afghanistan to denounce this crime and defend this girl.

The New York Times story about this horror ends with this chilling sentence: “Those caring for the girl (at a shelter) said she had been terribly homesick and wanted to return to her family, but no one had the heart to tell her they had been conspiring to kill her.”

“Heart-breaking” is a word that can easily be over-used. But it’s inadequate in this case. We desperately hope the international community – not just women’s groups or victims’ groups – rise up in outrage, help this suffering young victim, and take real steps now to better safeguard Afghan girls from such horror.

And we hope that those who are helping to save this girl – Dr. Hassina Sarwari, Manizha Naderi, and Nederah Geyah – are soon publicly praised and thoroughly protected themselves. They inspire us with their extraordinary courage and compassion.

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

Statement from the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) responding to the establishment of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and the appointment of Yvonne Murphy

The ACP welcomes the establishment of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. It is important that it be carried out competently, justly and in strict accordance with guidelines to be laid down by the government, which should reflect natural and constitutional justice.

The ACP notes the appointment of Judge Yvonne Murphy who chaired the Murphy Commission into abuse in Dublin diocese.

It is also important to note that, in view of a report commissioned by the ACP into procedural fairness in that investigation, Fergal Sweeney, an Irish barrister who worked for many years as a judge in Hong Kong, concluded that the Murphy Report contained significant deficiencies in terms of respecting the demands of natural and constitutional justice.

Last October, the ACP published Fergal Sweeney’s findings. His conclusions are on pages 37-39 of his document, which is on I this web-site.

The final point is as follows:

4.14 However, from the legal perspective it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that insofar as the Catholic clerics who were called to testify were concerned, the practices and procedures of the Murphy Commission fell far short of meeting the concerns of the Law Reform Commission
and, more importantly, of natural and Constitutional justice.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
L’ Espresso

Appartamenti, ville, vigneti, uliveti, boschi. I risultati di mesi di ricerche catastali sui patrimoni personali di oltre cento alti prelati: una collezione di fortune private (regolarmente dichiarate al fisco), alla faccia dell’umiltà e alla modestia di Papa Francesco

DI PAOLO BIONDANI

Beati i poveri, perché di essi è il regno dei cieli, insegnava Gesù di Nazareth nel Discorso della Montagna. Dopo duemila anni di predicazioni nel nome di Cristo, però, sulla terra continuano a passarsela meglio i ricchi. Non solo i laici, agnostici o miscredenti. Anche tra i cattolici più devoti c’è chi ostenta patrimoni invidiabili. E perfino tra gli alti prelati di Santa Romana Chiesa ora spunta una specie di club dei milionari: cardinali e vescovi che sono proprietari di grandi fortune private. Palazzi, appartamenti, monolocali, fabbricati rurali, capannoni, cantine, fattorie, agrumeti, uliveti, frutteti, boschi e pascoli sterminati.

Si tratta di ricchezze assolutamente lecite, spesso frutto di lasciti testamentari o eredità familiari, che non si possono in alcun modo accostare alle fortune illegali accumulate da quelle pecore nere che, ieri come oggi, non sono mai mancate neppure nelle greggi cattoliche. Dopo l’avvento di Papa Bergoglio, il pontefice che ha scelto di ispirarsi già dal nome a San Francesco d’Assisi e che non perde occasione per richiamarsi alla «Chiesa dei poveri», ammonire che «San Pietro non aveva il conto in banca», scagliarsi contro «il peccato della corruzione» e «certi preti untuosi, sontuosi e presuntuosi» che sfoggiano «macchine di lusso», però, anche in Vaticano c’è chi comincia a chiedersi quante ricchezze personali possiedano i prelati più potenti. Chi riuscirà a passare dall’evangelica cruna dell’ago?

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
L’ Espresso

Il pontefice ha fatto sapere che i depositi depennati sono 1660. Ma in realtà quelli sotto osservazione alla luce delle normative anti riciclaggio sarebbero molti di più

DI ORAZIO LA ROCCA

E’ praticamente conclusa la complessa operazione di pulizia dei conti accreditati presso la Ior (Istituto per le Opere di religione) – la banca vaticana – ma sul numero di clienti depennati la confusione regna sovrana. Quanti sono? Ben 1600 come ha detto il Papa? Oppure un migliaio, stando alle notizie dell’Aif, l’Autorità di informazione finanziaria vaticana? O nelle casse della Santa Sede c’è un problema molto più pesante? Le indiscrizioni di stampa sul report finale di Promontory Financial Group, l’agenzia americana incaricata di controllare i depositi alla luce delle normative antiriciclaggio, parlano di 4825 depositi “sotto osservazione”, pari a un quarto di quelli censiti.

È quasi un giallo. Da una parte Francesco nei giorni scorsi non ha avuto problemi a dire che «allo Ior sono stati chiusi 1600 conti di persone che non avevano diritto a servirsi della banca vaticana». Dall’altra, i vertici dell’Istituto – presieduto dal tedesco Ernst von Freyberg – non fanno cifre. E, pur definendo «finita» l’analisi da parte della Promontory Financial Group, su quanto detto dal Papa si chiudono in difesa. «Non parliamo di numeri, ma di metodo eseguito e siamo in grado di sostenere che la situazione è ormai tutta chiara e sotto controllo», afferma Max Hoenberg, funzionario dello Ior delegato alle relazioni esterne, che ammette solo che «la Promontory ha esaminato 18.900 clienti, il numero degli utenti nel 2013». È tra questi 18.900 clienti che «sono state trovate situazioni non chiare segnalate all’Aif. Per quanto riguarda la cosiddetta chiusura dei conti è un altro discorso. Lo scorso luglio il consiglio di Sovrintendenza ha definito in modo più stretto l’utenza che dovrebbe essere servita dall’Istituto – dipendenti vaticani, congregazioni, religiosi, pensionati della Santa Sede – su chi non entra in queste categorie abbiamo avviato, sotto tutela dell’Aif, un processo di cancellazione. Ma questi controlli, voluti dal presidente Von Freyberg, sono quotidiani e dureranno per sempre».

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VATICAN CITY
L’Espresso

Real estate, stock, gold and currency assets worth at least $ 10 billion. From APSA to IOR, an overview of all the businesses within the Pope’s holdings

DI EMILIANO FITTIPALDI

If money is the dung of the devil, the Vatican seems to observe the proverb “pecunia non olet”: Over the centuries, priests, bishops and cardinals piled up bullions and gold coins, banknotes of any currency and immense real estate assets. While it is almost impossible to quantify accurately a wealth that has taken on biblical proportions, L’Espresso managed to read a significant amount of top-secret documents, and can now, for the first time, shed light on a big part of God’s treasure.

Sifting through a secret report by Cosea, the reference Commission set up to assess the organization of the economic structure of the Vatican, one learns, for example, that “the many Vatican institutions manage proprietary assets and assets belonging to third parties worth a declared value of € 9-10 billion, 8 to 9 billion of which are invested in securities, and one in real estate. From the audit of the balance sheet APSA (the organization that manages the Apostolic estate) never disclosed, and of some confidential notes undersigned by the new president of IOR, Jean Baptist de Franssu, we derived that a bulk of the treasure is kept hidden by APSA itself, as unlike IOR, it has never released any information about its holdings.

The treasure hunt kicks off at Place Vendôme, in the very center of Paris. Just a few yards away from the Ritz Hotel, in rue de Rome, a French subsidiary of APSA holds some of the most prestigious properties in the area. Sopridex SA had many famous tenants (like François Mitterrand), and has currently assets recorded on its balance sheet topping € 46.8 million. Its staff includes “a director, three employees, cleaning staff,” and as many as “16 porters”.

APSA controls itself other ten Swiss companies (among which mysterious Diversa SA, Immobiliere Sur Collonge and l’Immobiliere Florimont), which, together with Profima SA, manage property and land in the Swiss confederation and all over Europe. Their assets sum up to € 18 million. “Bear in mind that historically APSA undervalues its assets in the balance sheet for tax purposes,” said a qualified source within the financial organization headquartered in Palazzo Apostolico. “Moreover, those are non consolidated Swiss companies, and could therefore hold assets for much higher amounts than those they report.”

If on the one hand, it is no secret that Profima was incorporated in Lausanne in 1926, and that it served Pope Pius XI after he decided to hide abroad part of the “compensation” paid out to the Catholic Church following the signing of the Lateran Treaty with the fascist regime, on the other, its holding company Diversa is virtually unknown. Incorporated in Lugano in August 1942, its chair is currently Gilles Crettol. The Swiss lawyer runs the Pope’s businesses on the Northern side of the Alps: his name pops in almost all of the other Swiss companies of the Pope’s estate.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE COLUMNIST JULY 19, 2014

During the Clinton administration, American politics developed a new bit of argot: “FOB,” meaning “friend of Bill,” an intimate of the president who enjoyed access to the corridors of power and perhaps helped shape his agenda.

Today Catholicism has its own emerging “FOB” class, in this case standing for “friend of Bergoglio.” The reference is to those with personal ties to Jorge Mario Bergoglio, better known to the world as Pope Francis, who could be positioned to influence his papacy.

The degree to which those friends have the pope’s ear makes the Vatican’s official chain of command less revealing these days about who’s driving the train in the Catholic Church than, say, the pontiff’s Facebook account. (That is, it would be if Francis were actually on Facebook.)

The latest FOB to pop up is Giovanni Traettino, leader of the Protestant “Evangelical Church of Reconciliation.” The Vatican announced this week that Francis will travel July 28 to the southern Italian city of Caserta to see Traettino, who became friends with Bergoglio a decade ago while serving in Argentina.

In Caserta, Francis will join Evangelicals and Catholics for prayer at Traettino’s church. Though not unprecedented, it will mark one of just a handful of occasions when a pope has ventured into a Protestant church to pray.

The trip is part of a recent pattern of outreach from Francis to the Evangelical and Pentecostal worlds, in each case driven by people he knows.

In January, Francis sent a video message to a conference led by American Pentecostal Kenneth Copeland in which the pope offered a “spiritual hug.” That prompted a group of Evangelicals and Pentecostals to visit Rome, an event capped off when the pontiff and televangelist James Robison high-fived over the need for Christians to have a personal relationship with Jesus.

“God has begun the miracle of unity,” Francis said in his video, quoting Italian novelist Alessandro Manzoni that “God never begins a miracle he does not finish well.”

As it turns out, the video was a byproduct of a FOB. An Anglican Evangelical and charismatic named Bishop Tony Palmer, who had become friends with Bergoglio in Argentina, visited him in Rome earlier in January, and told him about Copeland’s gathering, prompting Francis to volunteer to send greetings.

As for Traettino, he got to know Bergoglio through an Argentine movement called “Renewed Communion of Evangelicals and Catholics in the Spirit.” In 2006, Bergoglio took part in a prayer service sponsored by the movement that drew 7,000 people to Luna Park in Buenos Aires, a venue ordinarily used for boxing matches.

At one stage, Bergoglio knelt and allowed himself to be prayed over by some 20 Protestant clergy.

That act led disgruntled traditionalist Catholics to declare the see of Buenos Aires “vacant” on the grounds that it was occupied by a heretic, but the future pope was undaunted.

Francis’ tendency to set policy through friendships is clear across a range of issues.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

John Waters
Published 20/07/2014

Some people talk about Pope Francis — some in admiration, some not — as though he is not a Catholic at all, but a liberal interloper determined to dismantle some of the key moral teachings of the church. A disconsolate conservative rump regards him as a dangerous showman, indifferent to the consequences of unwarranted loose talking, prepared to sell out on the truth for an easy popularity.

More than a few in the church are confused, but remain loyal and obedient because the pope is given to them by the Holy Spirit. There are others who see him as the pontiff with the cunning plan, the purveyor of a constructive ambiguity designed to throw the enemies of the church off guard.

Within a few weeks of his election, he started saying things that appeared to throw open the Church’s position on hot-button issues like homosexuality, abortion, women priests and clerical celibacy. These statements, together with what is interpreted as a left-leaning position on economics, have turned Pope Francis into the darling of the liberal media and the new white hope of ‘progressive’ Catholics.

Pope Francis, who insists that he is ‘a son of the Church’, attracts vast crowds whenever he appears, and is described as ‘a breath of fresh air’ even by agnostic journalists who hitherto had nothing but ill to say of the Vatican and all belonging to it. Already, by all accounts, there’s a steady flow of lapsed Catholics back to the pews and the sacraments.

It’s interesting that, invariably, this pope’s most talked-about observations have occurred in off-the-cuff comments or interviews, rather than formal speeches or prepared statements in the manner of his predecessors. For the most part, he has limited himself to interviews with Italian periodicals, which is a little odd for the leader of a global church. (Pope Francis speaks very little English, but is fluent in both Italian and Spanish.) In several of the most headline-grabbing interviews, his interlocutor was the same Italian journalist, Eugenio Scalfari, the 90-year-old co-founder of the leading socialist

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Gerry O’Sullivan
Published 19/07/2014

A Mexican psychologist, a British peer and an Irishman walk into the Vatican. That line might just read like there’s a jokey punchline coming (there’s not), but the Vatican’s latest attempt to reform its communications involves such an international line-up, and the Vatican is very serious.

The international flavour of the committee announced last week to propose – though not to implement – media reforms in the Vatican reflects Pope Francis’ determination to bring in outsiders to help the ongoing reform process. Most notable is the committee’s chairperson, Lord Patten, a former governor of Hong Kong and former chairman of the BBC Trust.

The Holy See said the new committee would propose reforms and publish a report and plan within 12 months. The other members of the committee are from USA, Germany, France, Mexico, and Singapore.

Representing the Vatican on the committee is Mons. Paul Tighe, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, who will act as secretary of the committee. Vatican Radio, the Secretariat of State, and its internet service and newspaper will also be represented.

Mons. Tighe is a Dublin priest, an academic who ran Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s public affairs office and a close friend and confidante of the Archbishop. He worked at the Vatican many years ago and is seen as the Archbishop’s eyes and ears in Rome. Although he had no formal qualifications in communications, he was appointed to the Rome post in late 2007. His academic training helped him quickly establish himself in the number two post at the social communications ‘ministry’ of the Vatican, which liaises with Catholic universities worldwide.

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UNITED STATES
The Anxious Bench

July 20, 2014 By Philip Jenkins

Jason Berry is a journalist who works on Catholic issues and clergy sexual abuse. He has recently published an article on abuse issues, in which he attacks my work. He is quite at liberty to make such a criticism, but he cannot do so on the basis of an outrageous mis-representation of what I actually said.

Berry says this:

In 1996, Philip Jenkins… argued in Pedophiles and Priests that the earlier coverage of clergy abuse was a “putative” crisis, one “constructed” by the media and church critics. In 2002, a Boston Globe investigation of such cases ignited a chain reaction in many newsrooms about a deeply rooted culture of churchmen concealing abusers that the Vatican ignored. The “putative crisis” resembled a construction of its author.

What he suggests, then, is that (a) I had claimed that the reported instances of clergy abuse were invented or made up, and that (b) my argument was demolished by the post-2002 media exposés of the scale and severity of clergy abuse. Both statements are flat wrong. Did Berry actually read my book?

Already in the early 1990s, long before the Boston Globe exposés, stories of clergy sexual abuse were becoming very widespread in the US and Canada, usually in a Catholic context. The issue was thus becoming defined as a major social problem. In my book Pedophiles and Priests, I analyzed how the problem was being constructed, a term I defined at considerable length, but not, evidently, in a way that Berry chooses to understand. Contrary to what he implies, “constructed” is NOT synonymous with “invented.”

The term “construction” is a commonplace of social science, and is in fact the primary means of approaching and analyzing social problems. To speak of a problem being constructed makes no necessary statement about the scale of its objective reality, and it certainly does not mean that the issue at question is bogus or mythical. For a social scientist, all social problems are constructed.

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CALIFORNIA
Visalia Delta-Times

The following was published Julyy 9, 2014, in The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield (Mass.).

It’s impossible to justify the Catholic Church’s decision to cover up the allegations of sexual abuse by clergy members that exploded like a July 4 firecracker several years ago.

Sexual abuse in any form is a heinous act and has long-lasting repercussions for the victims. Church officials did not handle the scandal or its fallout well, and the higher-up officials have never held some of the perpetrators responsible.

Given that history and those circumstances, Pope Francis deserves credit for trying to deal with the situation in his own unorthodox way. Not only did he meet with six of the victims, he begged for their forgiveness and vowed to hold bishops accountable for their handling of pedophile priests.

Do the pope’s actions change what happened? No. In his remarks, the pope made no mention of the countless victims or their families around the world, or whether bishops and other prelates involved in the cover-up would be fired or demoted. But it is a start.

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IOWA
KCCI

DES MOINES, Iowa —The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that the sexual exploitation convictions of a former Pella pastor will stand.

The Des Moines Register reports that the ruling Friday reverses a previous decision by the Iowa Court of Appeals that found Patrick Edouard deserved a new trial.

Edouard was charged after four women complained in 2011 that he had repeatedly coerced them into sexual relationships while counseling them. He quit his clergy job but fought the charges. Jurors acquitted him of sexual abuse charges, but found him guilty of four sexual exploitation counts.

Edouard argued that he did not have a formal counseling relationship with the women.

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TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Guardian

Published: Sunday, July 20, 2014
Shaliza Hassanali

Principal of the St Michael’s School for Boys’ Kelvin Nancoo claims that more than four years ago allegations of rampant “abuse, incompetency and mismanagement” were reported to the authorities at the home, but it was swept under the carpet. Nancoo said when the report was made and nothing was done, he tendered his resignation as a member of the Anglican board after eight years of service.

At that time, Calvin Bess was head of the Anglican Diocese of T&T. Anglican Bishop Clyde Berkley is now head of the Diocese. The chairman of the board of management of the St Michael’s home is Deacon Eric Thompson. Alison Salandy is manager of the home. Nancoo said what pushed him to resign from the board was when a member “told me nothing will change and nobody is going to remove those responsible…”

Everything was unearthed on Tuesday when Attorney General Anand Ramlogan revealed that he had asked the Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams and the Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard to launch a criminal investigation into the operations of the home after he read from a report into the death of inmate Brandon Hargreaves, who was found dead at the home in April 2014. Hargreaves’ report showed sexual abuse of inmates by supervisors and violents fights among inmates.

“I told them years ago that it would come back to haunt them. And it has,” Nancoo said. “If there is a tribunal and they want me to speak, then I will. I have expressed my disgust on many occasions to those in authority, but it was pushed under the carpet.” Yesterday, after being told of reports reaching the Sunday Guardian that files at the home were being destroyed as an investigation was launched, Deputy Commissioner of Police Glenn Hackett said he would dispatch a team to deal with the issue.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

JOHN SPAIN
Published 20/07/2014

Transcripts of the secret church inquiry into the abuse of Dundalk boy Brendan Boland by the notorious child molester Fr Brendan Smyth will be published for the first time this week.

The explicit transcripts of the inquiry, in which Cardinal Sean Brady (then Fr. John Brady) took part, are contained in the new book by Brendan Boland, who was an 11-year-old altar boy when he was abused by Brendan Smyth in the 1970s.

The memoir, Sworn to Silence, is published tomorrow on Monday and gives details of the intense abuse carried out by Smyth.

Two years after the abuse began, Brendan Boland plucked up the courage to tell another priest what was happening.

A secret church inquiry was arranged, and he was questioned in isolation by a group of priests including Fr Brady.

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INDIANA
Lafayette Journal & Courier

Steven Porter, sporter@jconline.com July 18, 2014

Former pastor Robert Lyzenga, who admitted in May to hiding two video cameras inside a women’s restroom at the Lafayette church he shepherded, was sentenced Friday to four years in prison followed by three years of probation.

Lyzenga, 58, pleaded guilty to allegations he surreptitiously recorded five women and five girls over the course of several months in 2011 and 2012.

A parishioner discovered the cameras, which were disguised as air fresheners in the women’s bathroom just off the sanctuary at Sunrise Christian Reformed Church.

Investigators downloaded video footage from the devices and located files on Lyzenga’s computers. They determined that the pastor had not only viewed the videos but also edited some of the footage, according to a sentencing summary released by Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Pat Harrington.

Video of a 16-year-old girl had been edited to include “slow-motion replays showing her exposed pubic area,” the document states.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
L’ Espresso

[Summary: The treasure of the Vatican is worth at least 10 billion.Real estate, stocks, gold, hard currency to a value greater than ten billion Euros. “L’Espresso” in the current issue tomorrow presents the first comprehensive analysis of the investment of the Holy See throughout Europe, written by Emiliano Fittipaldi thanks to confidential documents and internal budgets. Sifting through a secret affair of Cosea, the dissolved Commission representative on the organization of the economic structure pontifical it turns out, for example, that “the various Vatican institutions manage their assets and those of third parties in a declared value of € 9000000000-10000000000 , of which 8000000000-9000000000 in securities, and one of the real estate.

” The heart of the investments is administered APSA. That controls the Sopridex Sa, owner of luxury real estate in the center of Paris with the famous tenants as François Mitterrand and today has assets recorded in the financial statements that arrive at 46.8 million euro. But APSA are headed even ten Swiss companies (including the mysterious Different You know, Immobiliere Sur Collonge and Immobiliere Florimont) which, together with Profima Sa, manage property and land in the Swiss confederation and a half in Europe. All together are worth 18 million .

In addition, the Vatican owns real estate companies in England (the British Grolux Investments Ltd, founded in 1933, currently manages assets in London to the tune of € 38.8 million to € including luxury stores in New Bond Street) and, of course, in Italy : In addition to the endless treasure chest of Propaganda Fide (renamed the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, has a fortune estimated, net of the housing crisis, about 7 billion ), the company also controls Sirea and Leonine, which in the financial statements are worth more than 16 million.]

DI EMILIANO FITTIPALDI

Immobili, azioni, oro, valute pregiate per un valore superiore a dieci miliardi di euro. “L’Espresso” nel numero in edicola domani presenta la prima analisi completa degli investimenti della Santa Sede in tutta Europa, radiografata da Emiliano Fittipaldi grazie a documenti riservati e bilanci interni.

Spulciando una relazione segreta della Cosea, la dissolta Commissione referente sull’organizzazione della struttura economica pontificia si scopre, per esempio, che «le varie istituzioni vaticane gestiscono i propri asset e quelli di terzi a un valore dichiarato di 9-10 miliardi di euro, di cui 8-9 miliardi in titoli, e uno di immobiliare». Il cuore degli investimenti è amministrato dall’Apsa. Che controlla la Sopridex Sa, proprietaria di immobili di lusso nel centro di Parigi con inquilini famosi come François Mitterrand e oggi ha attività iscritte a bilancio che arrivano a 46,8 milioni di euro. Ma all’Apsa fanno capo anche dieci società svizzere (tra cui la misteriosa Diversa Sa, l’Immobiliere Sur Collonge e l’Immobiliere Florimont) che, insieme alla Profima Sa, gestiscono proprietà e terreni nella confederazione elvetica e in mezza Europa. Tutte insieme valgono 18 milioni.

Inoltre il Vaticano possiede società immobiliari anche in Inghilterra (la British Grolux Investments Ltd, fondata nel 1933, gestisce oggi a Londra attività per la bellezza di 38,8 milioni di euro inclusi negozi di lusso in New Bond Street) e, ovviamente, in Italia: oltre allo sterminato forziere di Propaganda Fide (ribattezzata Congregazione per l’evangelizzazione dei popoli, ha un patrimonio stimato, al netto della crisi immobiliare, di circa 7 miliardi), controlla pure le società Sirea e Leonina, che a bilancio valgono oltre 16 milioni.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Mark Piggott
July 19, 2014

When Pope Francis was elected he promised to make the Catholic Church a “poor church for the poor”, eschewing expensive perks and – allegedly – driving round the Vatican in a Ford Focus.

“It hurts my heart when I see a priest with the latest model car,” the Pope told trainee priests. “If you like the fancy one, just think about how many children are dying of hunger in the world.”

Yet 2,000 years of accumulating wealth and making canny investments means the “poor” church is actually sitting on vast wealth in securities, property, works of art and other assets.

A report in Italy’s L’Espresso claims the Vatican is worth €9-10 billion (£7-8 billion). London assets include shops on New Bond Street including the jewellers Bulgari and a property in St James’s Square.

Other international assets – funded by a huge donation by Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as a thank you for recognising his regime – include places in Switzerland and a home belonging to former French President Francois Mitterrand.

Even the figure of €9-10 billion is believed to be an under-estimate – the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples is said to have holdings of €7 billion.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. . Earlier this week, Archbishop Robert Carlson was criticized for keeping secret about the identities of 63 credibly accused child molesting clerics. (The number comes from the church records disgorged in the recent civil suit against the now-defrocked Fr. Joseph Ross.) And in a new editorial this week, Carlson’s St. Louis Catholic Review opines (evidently with no irony) that “All of us in the Church (must) continue the crusade against abuse assertively and transparently.” The prelate is upset about controversial Louisiana Supreme Court ruling that is attracting national attention and that he says threatens “the sanctity of the confessional.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

by FATHER C. JOHN MCCLOSKEY
07/19/2014

An Anxious Age
The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America
By Joseph Bottom
320 pages, $25 (hardcover)
Image Books, 2014
To order: imagecatholicbooks.com

Joseph Bottum, the former editor of First Things magazine and a top-flight observer of the American religious scene, has written an intriguing book entitled An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America.

This book is not an easy read, but worth the trouble in order to understand the collapse of America as a largely Protestant country with a Catholic minority. In its place, we see a nation that seems to be following the once largely Christian Europe into what one can call practical atheism, i.e., people may believe in God, but he plays no important role in day-to-day living in worship or morality.

The first part of the book details how all of this happened, mostly by tracing the thought and effects of various intellectuals such as Walter Rauschenbusch and William James, who began the process that turned traditional Protestant religion into a quest for social justice rather primarily worship of the Creator, moral living and personal witness and evangelization.

Bottum intersperses his history (to my mind, unnecessarily) with descriptions of people he knows to show how they are affected in the present day by the teachings of these Protestant revolutionizers of the 1800s and early 1900s in the United States.

For Catholic readers, however, Bottum hits his stride when giving a masterly brief history of American Catholicism from the 1940s up to the present. In Chapter 10, he focuses on arguably our nation’s greatest Catholic theologian, the late Cardinal Avery Dulles, a Jesuit.

Cardinal Dulles, who converted to Catholicism (as a student at Harvard), was born into one of those old blue-blood Protestant families who reared their children in lessons of leadership and noblesse obliged (reinforced by prep schools and Ivy League colleges) to steer organizations, hold political office and in general rule the country.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A campaigner for victims of institutional abuse has called on Peter Robinson to retract his statement that an abuse inquiry is at risk.

On Friday, the first minister said the Historical Abuse Inquiry (HAI) may have to be suspended due to a dispute over Stormont finances.

Mr Robinson accused Sinn Féin of “foot-dragging” over the latest financial monitoring round.

Campaigner Margaret McGuckin said the inquiry should not be endangered.

“I ask Peter Robinson to retract this statement,” she said.

“He can think of other ways, the two parties, or all the parties up there, can come together.

“Please do not play games, silly games, with the victims. They’re playing one against the other and I find it very shameful and quite abusive.”

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UNITED STATES
Hamilton and Griffin on Rights

July 3, 2014

The little girl was weeping as she recounted to the police officer her history of sexual abuse at the hands of her father. When it was all over, when she had told all that she remembered, the police officer asked her if she had any questions for him. The child froze for a moment, and then began to play with her hair and stare at her toes. Slowly, nearly inaudibly, she asked “am I still a virgin in God’s eyes?”

This account, based on a real case, is not isolated. There is a large and growing body of research documenting that many abused children are not only impacted physically and emotionally but also spiritually. This may happen because a religious theme is used in the abuse of the child. In this particular case, the abusive father specifically told the girl she was no longer a virgin and, if she ever told, she could never wear white at her wedding. In other instances, a child simply has spiritual questions about the abuse. Many children, for example, may be hurt or angry that God did not answer their prayers to stop the abuse.

Although the spiritual impact of abuse can be devastating, research also documents that spirituality can be a source of resiliency for many children and that those who are able to cope spiritually, also do a better job of coping emotionally and physically. In this blog, I summarize the research on spiritual injuries, and offer some thoughts on improving our abilities to address this aspect of child abuse.

The spiritual impact of child abuse

There a dozens of studies, involving more than 19,000 children, detailing the spiritual impact of child abuse (Walker 2009). For example, a study of 527 victims of child abuse (physical, sexual or emotional) found a significant “spiritual injury” such as feelings of guilt, anger, grief, despair, doubt, fear of death, and belief that God is unfair (Lawson 1998).

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RHODE ISLAND
The Professorial Shock-Jock

[with video]

Early last November, the Rev. Father Bernard A. Healey, present pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, posted photos on the parish web site of the church sign, with its trademark crimson outline with gold lettering, blown face down by a wind gust.

Located in the affluent, bayside town of East Greenwich, a suburb minutes south of Providence via I-95 and Route 4, Our Lady of Mercy (O.L.M.) Church is the spiritual home to over 2,000 area households. Its adjacent Our Lady of Mercy School educates students, grades K-8, from the parish and surrounding communities.

Having lived on either side of town of East Greenwich, R.I. for almost my entire life, I was a parishioner at O.L.M. for 15 years, from 1997 to 2012. Long before then, I attended the O.L.M. parish regional grammar school for grades one and two, from fall 1985 through spring 1987. By my late youth in the late 1990’s, I was attracted by the comparatively solemn, traditional-styled liturgies and choir music that the parish had adopted in its liturgies (this would become one of the church’s “selling points” among area congregations). While never featuring the totally traditional, altar-pushed-back, pre-Second Vatican Council Mass entirely in Latin, its celebrations occasionally included rituals and customs somewhat uncommon in post-1960s Catholicism, leading me to a deeper level of fascination with the faith. For most of my years at O.L.M., I never quite fathomed what else this seeming spiritual hamlet – in some ways apparently so removed from the wicked, everyday world with all of its celebratory beauty and splendor – truly represented.

The church’s trademark sign being blown over by gusts of wind indicated that a choppy storm was upon this parish, very soon.

At some point in either 2010 or 2011, I was curious about the why the pastor, the late Rev. Monsignor John W. Lolio had still not set up a parish web page. Most other parishes had begun doing so in the late 90s, and O.L.M., a particularly large parish, and the spiritual home of the sitting Rhode Island governor in the 2000s, Donald Carcieri, was unfamiliar to even many lifelong Catholics from either end of this very small state. So I performed a google search for “Our Lady of Mercy, East Greenwich, R.I.”

The search instantly revealed the stories of Helen McGonigle and Jeff Thomas. As two O.L.M. grammar school students in the late 1960s, both were molested and repeatedly raped by the Irish missionary priest, Father Brendan Smyth. Formerly assigned to O.L.M. parish from the mid to late 1960s, Smyth had long garnered international notoriety. The following Northern Irish Television Network broadcast — which clearly features the Rhode Island church — demonstrates this:

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republic

By The Republican Editorials
on July 18, 2014

Victims of child sexual abuse now have until they reach the age of 53 to sue the perpetrators of this heinous and all too common crime.

The law, signed by Gov. Deval Patrick last week, extends the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits by three decades. Until last week the statute of limitations expired at the age of 21.

This change will mean that those who are traumatized will have additional time to decide whether to pursue civil litigation, which can be harrowing and difficult at best, traumatizing at worst.

The criminal statute of limitations was extended in 2006 from 15 years after a victim’s 16th birthday to 27 years.

Kathy Picard, of Ludlow, worked for a dozen years to get the law changed, and last week she stood with Gov. Deval Patrick as he signed the bill.

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GUAM
Jungle Watch

In October of 2013, speaking about his getting rid of Fr. Paul Gofigan in front of thirty members of the clergy, Archbishop Apuron bragged:

“…even S.N.A.P. heard about this and applauded me for doing this on this priest and hope that I do not reinstate him because of that…”

S.N.A.P. stand for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. I was particularly angered when I heard about what Archbishop Apuron had said because in 2010, when SNAP was on Guam investigating the Archbishop, I was asked to publicly go on the offensive against SNAP in order to defend him. And so I did. I learned later that I had been lied to and that SNAP’s visit had been a close call for the Archbishop.

I kept quiet about it because I didn’t know all the details but I was shocked to hear the Archbishop bragging about SNAP supporting his decision against Fr. Paul when I had been used as cannon fodder to protect him only a couple of years earlier. Well, Archbishop, now it’s your turn to protect yourself. Don’t call me.

And Fr. Wadeson…really? Too bad you didn’t keep to yourself your “deep concern and hurt” (your words) about us lay people learning about the content of your Monday meeting with the Apostolic Delegate. Otherwise no one would have even known you were here. (Of course given what we learned about what was said at both meetings, we can see why you didn’t want us to know.) But since you let us know WHERE you are, now you can let us know WHO you are:

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FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

By David Harris, Orlando Sentinel
7:37 p.m. EDT, July 18, 2014

A Seminole County pastor was arrested Thursday for not reporting to law enforcement that a man was sexually abusing three girls, officials said.

Pastor Cesar Chin knew about the abuse for at least a year, but said nothing to authorities, according to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. Both the victims and the suspect confided in Chin, and he was acting as a counselor, deputies said.

“That’s a year that went by without us being able to go in there and stop this and to provide the victims services,” said Kim Cannaday, spokeswoman for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. “They were allowed to be re-victimized.”

The alleged abuser, Normail Reynoso Perez, is facing abuse charges. His wife, Irma Gallegos Torres, also is facing charges for not reporting the alleged abuse. She even walked in on it once, deputies said. …

David Clohessy, director of the St. Louis-based of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he was “extremely disappointed” by Chin and Gallegos Torres.

“They did nothing [and] let an innocent child suffer needlessly. Shame on them,” he said in a statement.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Guam – The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP] has posted a statement on their website calling attention to a Los Angeles priest now working on Guam who, SNAP says, has been “accused twice of molesting children.”

The statement, issued by SNAP Spokeswoman Joelle Casteix, names the priest as Father John Wadeson.

[St. Dorothy Church]

Casteix says Wadeson “has been named in LA archdiocese records and in news reports as a twice accused predator priest” and “because those allegations were deemed ‘credible’ by church officials, he is not allowed to present himself as a priest anywhere in the Archdiocese of LA.”

Casteix expresses shock that Wadeson now works as a priest on Guam. And while she notes that Father Wadeson has not been convicted of abuse, “the fact that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has banned him from ministry is just cause for” Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron “to immediate remove Fr. Wadeson from ministry.”

“We fear that Apuron is putting Guam’s children at direct risk,” states Casteix, “and protecting a credibly accused predator instead of protecting his flock.”

PNC News has emailed Archdiocese Spokesperson Msgr. David C. Quitugua requesting comment but we have not yet received a response.

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FLORIDA
WPTV

Brian Entin
4:10 PM, Jul 18, 2014

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Fifty nine child pornography charges have been dropped against a former Rosarian Academy teacher accused of sexual activity with two fourth-grade students.

Palm County State Attorney spokesman Mike Edmondson says their office dropped the charges against Stephen Budd because of “facts that arose during the investigation of the case.”

According to Budd’s defense attorney, West Palm Beach police violated Budd’s constitutional rights by doing an improper search of his car to find a hard drive.

Budd is not off the hook.

Two former students allege that Budd had engaged in sexual activity with them during the 2006-2007 school year.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Historical abuse inquiry could be axed because of spending row at Stormont, says Peter Robinson

BY LIAM CLARKE – 19 JULY 2014

A state inquiry into historic institutional abuse in Northern Ireland is under threat because of a stand-off at Stormont over spending, the First Minister has warned.

Peter Robinson said there would be “catastrophic” consequences if he and Martin McGuinness cannot agree a series of emergency cuts early next week.

They are needed because our budget has been reduced by London to reflect the fact that we are now overspending on welfare payments compared to England and Wales.

Things came to a head in the June monitoring round, a review of budgets in which cuts must be made in spending budgets. Some £80m in capital spending must also be allocated or else handed back to the treasury.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

Damian Thompson

Today’s front-page splash in The Catholic Herald reads: ‘Vatican in a spin as Pope Francis grants an explosive new interview’. That interview, with La Repubblica, quoted Francis as saying that his advisors had told him that two per cent of clergy were paedophiles – including ‘bishops and cardinals’. The Independent ran with the headline: ‘Pope Francis: “One in 50” Catholic priests, bishops and cardinals is a paedophile’.

What fascinates me is the reaction of the Vatican Press Office, which has gone into full L/Cpl Jones ‘Don’t Panic!’ mode. Fr Federico Lombardi, the Pope’s hapless press officer, has been pointing out that La Repubblica’s interviewer, Eugenio Scalfari, (a) didn’t use a tape recorder, (b) didn’t take notes but relied on his memory and (c) is 90 years old.

All of which is true. But it was also true last September, when Francis gave an earlier interview to Scalfari – an atheist, incidentally – under exactly the same conditions. That produced lurid headlines: Francis supposedly called the Vatican court ‘the leprosy of the papacy’, and poor Lombardi had to run around saying, hang on, there were no notes, Scalfari is ancient, etc.

So why did Francis go back to Scalfari? I reckon the uncheckability of the quotes suits him fine. He can express his views that the Vatican is crawling with fawning backstabbers and that sexual perverts are over-represented among the clergy right up to the level of cardinal – yet leave himself diplomatic legroom by allowing for the possibility that he’s been misquoted. He is a Jesuit, after all. So is Lombardi, but it’s obvious who is being more Jesuitical here.

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo Music

By Chris Willman
Yahoo Music

Tom Petty doesn’t have a reputation for being a political activist in his music, but with a song set to be released next week, he implicitly takes on the Catholic Church for “covering up” the clergy sex abuse scandals, according to a new cover story in Billboard.

“Playing Dumb,” which appears as a bonus track on the Blu-ray and two-LP vinyl editions of his new album, Hypnotic Eye, includes such lyrics as: “For every confession that wasn’t on the level/For every man of God that lives with hidden devils.”

Billboard writer Fred Schruers notes that Petty “arches an eyebrow at the digital recorder before him,” when asked about “Playing Dumb.” But the singer didn’t hold back.
.
“Catholics, don’t write me,” Petty tells the magazine. “I’m fine with whatever religion you want to have, but it can’t tell anybody it’s OK to kill people, and it can’t abuse children systematically for God knows how many years… If I was in a club, and I found out that there had been generations of people abusing children, and then that club was covering that up, I would quit the club.” He says he “felt that I was being asked to play dumb” and believe “that ‘OK, well, they paid some money, so it’s all over.’ I don’t trust that.”

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UNITED STATES
Noise 11

by MUSIC-NEWS.COM on JULY 19, 2014

Tom Petty has slammed the Catholic Church in a song about child abuse on the new Heartbreakers album ‘Hypnotic Eye’.

This week’s Billboard cover story features Tom Petty, who opens up about his ​new track “Playing Dumb.” The song addresses​ ​the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic clergy and criticizes Catholic Church .​

Tom Petty blasts the Catholic Church, saying: “[Religion] can’t tell anybody it’s okay to kill people, and it can’t abuse children systematically for God knows how many years.”

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY July 19, 2014

RAHAM Rundle was seven when he became a number, in the quiet outside a storeroom at a Salvation Army boys home in the Adelaide Hills.

44. It was the number he would carry for eight years.

The only witness was a Salvation Army sergeant, a man who, nearly 50 years later, would scream hysterically after a jury convicted him of violently raping four boys at the home, including the child known as 44.

Sergeant William Keith Ellis was 27 on Rundle’s first day at Eden Park boys home in 1960.

Rundle was a bewildered child taken to Eden Park by his father on the promise of a two or three week ‘‘holiday’’ with other children, after problems with his stepmother.

When his father left that day ‘‘he tapped me on the head, walked to his truck and started it up, and he didn’t look at me again’’.

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iILLINOIS
Peoria Journa -Star

By Michael Smothers of GateHouse Media Illinois
Posted Jul. 18, 2014

PEKIN — Tazewell County prosecutors believe they put two child sexual molesters behind bars this week, including one who allegedly found his victims through a Pekin church’s youth activities.

The other, already convicted and on probation for sexual abuse of a minor, is “potentially violent” and indicated he could molest a child at any time, according to court records.

Cody Brown, 21, and Judah Blunier, 19, both of Morton, were jailed on bonds of $75,000 in their unrelated cases this week.

Brown was charged Wednesday with one count of criminal sexual assault and two of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. He’ll next appear in court Aug. 7.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
La Repubblica

di PAOLO RODARI

CITTA’ DEL VATICANO – Dice che la misericordia di Dio c’è per tutti ma, insieme, “occorre pentirsi del male che si fa”. E, a maggior ragione, debbono pentirsi i preti pedofili perché coi loro atti “hanno profanato il corpo di Cristo”. Promotore di giustizia alla Dottrina della Fede (Cdf) durante il pontificato di Benedetto XVI, Charles Scicluna è ora vescovo ausiliare a Malta. Pochi come lui conoscono i dossier del Vaticano sui cosiddetti delicta graviora, fra questi “gli atti impuri” commessi da un prete con un minore.

Monsignore, partiamo dai numeri: il Papa nel colloquio con Eugenio Scalfari ha detto che il due per cento del totale dei pedofili nel mondo sono preti. Le segnalazioni giunte all’ex Sant’Uffizio negli ultimi anni sembrano essere minori. È possibile fare chiarezza?

“Sono stato promotore di giustizia presso la Cdf dal 2002 fino al 2012. Abbiamo studiato e deciso centinaia di casi, ma non abbiamo mai fatto studi di natura statistica… Purtroppo le percentuali per il clero cattolico sembrano essere allo stesso livello di altre professioni e categorie. Il condizionale è qui d’obbligo perché mancano degli studi scientifici ad ampio raggio”.

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VATICAN CITY
Malta Independent

In an interview carried by yesterday’s edition of La Repubblica, Auxiliary Bishop Mgr Charles Scicluna says that the paedophile tragedy inside the Catholic Church ‘could have been avoided’.

Mgr Scicluna was asked about a remark reportedly made by Pope Francis in a discussion with the paper’s editor Eugenio Scalfari that 2% of all paedophiles in the world are priests. Mgr Scicluna who was Promotor of Justice for the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith between 2002 and 2012, said that while he has examined hundreds of cases, he did not carry out a statistical study.

Asked why to report such cases is not obligatory in the Church, Mgr Scicluna replied that the church always insisted on following domestic law and in any case one must not hinder the victim from reporting the case.

He admitted there has been a recent improvement in the theological understanding of sexual abuse of minors by clerics in the church. Pope Francis has said that violating a minor is equal to profaning the Eucharist.

Mgr Scicluna was asked whether Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI have covered up for abuse but the Vatican always replied it is the local bishops who were responsible. Mgr Scicluna seems to agree with this latter interpretation and said that if bishops had followed the Church’s law, many tragedies may have been avoided.

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ALABAMA
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A longtime administrative assistant at a Southern Baptist church in Alabama is accused of using a church credit card to make unauthorized personal purchases totaling more than $129,000 in a grand jury indictment alleging theft and fraud.

Deborah “Debbie” Mansell, 63, was arrested July 16. Mansell, until recently ministry assistant to the administration pastor at Highland Park Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, Ala., faces charges of first-degree theft of property and 20 counts of fraudulent use of a credit card.

According to the Times Daily newspaper in Florence, Ala., an investigation was launched after an internal audit found discrepancies in financial records among more than 2,200 transactions that Mansell made from July 2011 until April 2014. Police said the investigation goes back only to 2011 due to a statute of limitations.

According to a web page archived last November, Mansell has been a member of Highland Park Baptist Church for 46 years and worked at the church for 23 years. She was described as a widow and mother of two with three grandchildren who “loves the Lord, HPBC and music.”

Highland Park lead pastor Brett Pitman told the Times Daily the church is “wounded and hurt” by Mansell’s alleged actions.

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CALIFORNIA
Visalia Times-Delta

My name is Larry Drivon and I was the lead plaintiff’s attorney in the case of Rocha vs the Diocese of Fresno and Rev. Eric Swearingen.

I have seen the piece that you wrote on his elevation to a new position in Visalia (“Visalia’s new pastor,” published July 11). There are a few more facts that were not included in your article.

Juan Rocha was, after his early problem with the Marine Corps, able to not only join the U.S. Army, but achieved the rank of E-7 in only seven years. That is a very rare accomplishment. His status, standing and rank in the Army was attested to his Command Sgt. Major who was one of the highest ranking enlisted men in the U.S. Army. He testified that not only would he trust his life to Sgt. Rocha, but he had. It was established that Sgt. Rocha was a member of an elite Army group which could not be further identified. To question Sgt. Rocha’s integrity, honesty or commitment to his country is an abomination, and to suggest that he was decorated with fraudulent awards is to accuse him of a federal crime which would have been a salacious fact at the time if it had been true. To suggest that now is the act of a coward. Juan Rocha is an American Hero, and that fact was confirmed by his commanding officer who testified. I will not sit by and allow his honesty or veracity to come into question. The jury came down on his side.

Next, the jury did not find that it was “likely” that the abuse happened, the jury determined with their verdict that the abuse had occurred. It was not unanimous, but under our system of justice it need not be. The fact was established. Following the verdict, the Bishop suggested that binding arbitration would be his preferred next step.

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FLORIDA
WESH

[with video]

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. —A Winter Springs pastor has been arrested and charged with failing to report child sexual abuse.

Two members of his church are charged in connection with the sexual abuse of three young girls that allegedly went on for seven years.

According to deputies, one of the victims told Fellowship Church Pastor Cesar Chin that she was being sexually abused. Chin provided counseling but never reported it to police, deputies said.

The lead pastor of the church, Roger Diaz, says when Chin told him about ongoing child sex abuse among members of his following, he knew what reporting it would bring.

“This was an incredible weight on me because here goes an entire family, completely decimated,” said Diaz.

But Diaz knew the law required Chin to stop covering for the suspect.

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CANADA
Durham Region

By David Lea
A 28-year-old former Oakville youth pastor has been charged in an alleged sexual assault of a teen.

The Halton police Child Abuse and Sexual Assault Unit received a complaint from the Meeting House, a 2700 Bristol Circle church, in early July that prompted an investigation into a male employee.

An arrest was made on July 11.

Halton police Sgt. Chantal Corner said the alleged victim is a 17-year-old girl.

Corner would not comment on the details of when or where the alleged assault took place.

Sandra Neufeld, communications director with The Meeting House, confirmed this morning the accused is no longer working at the church.

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IOWA
Journal-Express

Steve Woodhouse
Journal-Express

Des Moines — The Supreme Court of Iowa issued a ruling today which affirms a District Court ruling that sent a former Pella pastor to prison.

Patrick Edouard was charged with three counts of third-degree sexual abuse and four counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist. He allegedly had forced sexual contact on at least three women while serving as a minister from 2003-10. Charges were filed in March 2011.

In August 2012, a Dallas County jury found Edouard not guilty on all three charges of sexual abuse, but found the former pastor guilty on all four of the sexual exploitation charges – including an additional charge of entering into a pattern/scheme/practice to engage in sexual exploitation as a counselor or therapist, a Class D felony. The last charge came as a result of being found guilty of two or more of the original sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist charges in which he violated law banning sex between people who provide “mental health services” and those who come to seek guidance from them.

Edouard was sentenced to one year in prison for each of the sexual exploitation charges and five years for the ongoing charge in October 2012. He apologized for his actions during the sentencing. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office placed him in handcuffs and intended to take him to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Oakdale to begin serving his sentence.

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COLORADO
Daily Camera

By Alex Burness, Camera Staff Writer
POSTED: 07/18/2014

A Boulder District Court judge sentenced youth pastor Jason Roberson to two years in prison Friday on a conviction stemming from a seven-year relationship he initiated with a 15-year-old congregant.

Following his prison stay, Roberson, 35, will serve a 30-day sentence either in the Boulder County Jail or under a work-release program, depending on whether the latter has any openings.

And after his release, Roberson will enter into 10 years of intensive sex-offender probation.

Roberson pleaded guilty in April to sexually exploiting and stalking Danielle DesGeorges, now 24, while he was employed by Vinelife Church, located at 79th Street and Lookout Road between Niwot and Gunbarrel.

In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped charges including sexual assault on a child in a position of trust and unlawful sexual contact.

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COLORADO
CBS Denver

LONGMONT, Colo. (CBS4) – A former youth pastor was sentenced to two years in jail and 10 years of sex offender probation on Friday.

Jason Roberson, 35, pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of children and stalking in May.

He admitted to an inappropriate relationship over several years with a girl, then 15, who attended the Vinelife Church in Longmont.

The victim, now 23, was in court Friday and began crying at one point. Roberson’s wife approached the victim and apologized on her husband’s behalf.

Prosecutors said Roberson manipulated the family to get close to the woman.

“It’s one thing to be sexually abused. It’s another thing to be sexually abuse by somebody that you’ve invited into your home, that you’ve made a part of your family, that you’ve trusted and that your parents trust,” prosecutor Adrienne Van Nic told CBS4. “And who do you turn to when the person who’s abusing you is someone who your parents have put in a position of authority with respect to you?”

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CANADA
Cape Breton Post

Cecile Miller
Published on July 18, 2014Share

An update on the implementation of the diocesan five-year plan

How can trust and hope be rebuilt in a diocese which is struggling with the sexual abuse by clergy and the victimization of so many?

In October 2013, a diocesan renewal congress, “Renewing My People the Church,” was held at the Membertou Trade and Convention Centre.

Three hundred delegates from parishes across the Diocese of Antigonish approved a five-year diocesan plan for renewal. In December 2013, Bishop Brian Dunn announced the formation of an implementation committee of 20 members — two representatives from each of the seven deaneries of the diocese plus five members-at-large to work with him to implement the strategies and work at “rebuilding trust and hope” in the diocese. Two members, Fr. Andrew Boyd and Cecile Miller, agreed to be co-chairs. The committee has met once a month since December.

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AUSTRALIA
Dubbo Photo News

Saturday, 19 July 2014 15:58 Written by Tony Webber

The thoroughly appalling revelations of child sexual abuse seem endless.

The Rolf Harris case was world news, and followed on the heels of other high profile UK entertainment figures being prosecuted, all of which emerged from the revolting allegations against the late mega-celebrity, Jimmy Saville.

The torrent of information in Australia has resulted in a recent request for a two-year extension to the Royal commission into the institutional response to child sexual abuse.

Churches, non-government organisations, children’s homes, schools, charities – from the Salvation Army, through the Police Boys’ Clubs and now Swimming Australia – all have had their names ruined through association with the endemic abuse of children.

Of course none compare to the atrocious record of the Catholic Church in not only committing these crimes on a horrendous scale, but concealing them from not only the authorities but also the vulnerable young parishioners of the diocese to which the pious predator was relocated.

The Pope recently went as far as estimating that two per cent of the clergy worldwide are paedophiles, and I suppose it is unlikely he estimated on the upper end of the scale.

That is truly astonishing, yet it is a reflection of the degree to which Catholic priests have, to be brutally blunt, become synonymous with raping children, that the Pope’s announcement scarcely caused a ripple, even though it must amount to thousands of men who are authority figures with close proximity to children.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • July 18, 2014

In a must-read column, Damon Linker explores the role that the Internet plays in undermining the authority of the Catholic Church (and by extension, all hierarchical, authoritative religions). Excerpt:

What matters is that, regardless of whether faithful members of traditionalist churches should be working to conceal scandalous facts, today’s technologies of publicity render such efforts effectively impossible.

Consider: Church attendance is already in decline. How long will the remaining parishioners keep returning to the pews when they’re confronted by a persistent drip of scandal implicating people at all levels of the institution?

Damon puts his finger on a profound truth, one that I see little evidence is understood by contemporary religious leaders. The reason the US Catholic Church was upended by the sex abuse scandals that began to be unraveled in 2002 was not because the scandals were new. It was because those revelations happened in the age of the Internet, when it was possible for everyone to know virtually everything. When Judge Constance Sweeney, presiding over the abuse trial of Boston priest John Geoghan, declined the Archdiocese’s request to seal the trial record, and instead made it public, those documents hit the Internet, and the Catholic world had crossed the Rubicon. Everyone, anywhere in the world, could read the Boston Globe’s excellent reporting. Everyone could read what ordinary Catholics were saying about the scandal. Reporters in newsrooms across the country saw what was happening in Boston, and wondered if it might be happening in their own backyards — and went looking for it.

Here we are 12 years later, and there are still bishops and church leaders who think they can do what they want, and keep everything quiet. And some can — but it is an extremely reckless bet. From the NYT’s report this week about the hot mess Minneapolis Archbishop Nienstedt finds himself in:

Ms. Haselberger, a canon lawyer who has worked in other dioceses, said that in her more than five years as chancellor for canonical affairs in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Archbishop Nienstedt and his top deputies disregarded warnings about priests accused of inappropriate contact with children or with vulnerable female parishioners; declined to report suspected abusers to civil authorities; failed to monitor sex offenders in the clergy; and in various ways violated the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People written by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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OHIO
Toledo Blade

BY MARILOU JOHANEK
BLADE COLUMNIST

When the worldwide scandal of pedophile priests tore a hole in the robes of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, hypocrisy was starkly exposed. The perception that the church cared more about its clerics and institutional preservation than the mortals it was meant to serve and save was reinforced.

The church tried desperately to keep a lid on the sexual abuse perpetrated by its priests. Victims were not a priority.

Accused clerics frequently were reassigned by diocesan dictate. Their alleged sins remained secret until they abused again.

The scars they left are lasting. The shame of that chapter in church history is still being written.

But the church is still protecting its brotherhood of priests, still reluctant to condemn its own for molestation and even murder. Last week, the Toledo Catholic Diocese buried a convicted murderer who wore a Roman collar for most of his adult life.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Ann O’Loughlin

A 54-year-old man’s claim against the Redemptorist Order for damages over sex abuse he says he suffered more than 40 years ago as an altar boy has been dismissed by the High Court.

Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns said there would be “patent unfairness” if he allowed the case to proceed because of substantial prejudice to the Redemptorists as a result of the delay in bringing the case.

The man claims he suffered regular and continuous abuse at the hands of a since deceased Brother in Limerick between 1965 and 1970, when he was aged between seven and 11.

He claims that as a result, his personal development suffered, he attempted to take his own life at the age of 21, and developed a problem with alcohol. He says the abuse also damaged his relationships with women, including his marriage which broke up in 1999.

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ALABAMA
Opelika-Auburn News

Jul 18, 2014

Sara Falligant | Opelika-Auburn News

A former Auburn pastor has been arrested and charged with sexual abuse of a minor, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Friday.

John Sluder, 63, of Opelika was arrested for first-degree sexual abuse on May 8 after an investigation that began in April. Jackson said Sluder turned himself in. According to Sheriff Jay Jones, Sluder was an associate pastor at Believers Church in Auburn.

“The investigation revealed that there was a report of inappropriate sexual contact with a victim underage,” Capt. Van Jackson said. “It appears that there was more than one victim.”

The alleged abuse reportedly occurred about 14 years ago at Sluder’s residence near the Marvyn community in the south end of Lee County, Jones said. The report involved two individuals who were approximately 8 years old at the time. According to a release by the LCSO, there was evidence discovered through the investigation that led to warrants being issued against Sluder.

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ALABAMA
WTVM

[with video]

By Elizabeth White

AUBURN, AL (WTVM) –
A longtime associate pastor at Believers Church in Auburn has been arrested on child sex abuse charges.

His arrest in May got him kicked out of the church where he had been for 30 years. Lee County Sheriff’s detectives say the two adult victims came forward in April to report they were abused in the early 1990’s.

Every Sunday, for nearly 30 years at Believers Church on Moore’s Mill Road, 53-year-old John Sluder, an associate pastor, would play guitar during services.

“People have shed tears because of what he appeared to be, a gentle old man. So yes, we were very shocked,” said attorney Ben Hand.

Hand represents Believers Church where his father is the pastor. Hand says the church was stunned, then angry, when Sluder was arrested by Lee County, after two adult victims revealed Sluder had molested them on several occasions in the early 1990’s when they were 8 and 9 years old.

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FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

By David Harris, Orlando Sentinel
7:37 p.m. EDT, July 18, 2014

A Seminole County pastor was arrested Thursday for not reporting to law enforcement that a man was sexually abusing three girls, officials said.

Pastor Cesar Chin knew about the abuse for at least a year, but said nothing to authorities, according to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. Both the victims and the suspect confided in Chin, and he was acting as a counselor, deputies said.

“That’s a year that went by without us being able to go in there and stop this and to provide the victims services,” said Kim Cannaday, spokeswoman for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. “They were allowed to be re-victimized.”

The alleged abuser, Normail Reynoso Perez, is facing abuse charges. His wife, Irma Gallegos Torres, also is facing charges for not reporting the alleged abuse. She even walked in on it once, deputies said.

The abuse of the girls may have been going on for at least seven years and would occur weekly, deputies said in the arrest affidavit.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Ramsey County Hearing Scheduled for 1:30PM Monday, July 21, 2014

(St. Paul, MN) – On Monday, July 21, 2014, at 1:30PM in Ramsey County District Court, Judge John Van de North will hear oral arguments pertaining to numerous legal issues in the Doe 1 vs. Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis and Diocese of Winona civil lawsuit.

One of the issues the Archdiocese and Diocese of Winona seek to dismiss is the public nuisance legal claim. The Archdiocese also contends it did not know of then-priest Father Thomas Adamson’s history of sexually abusing children before he was placed at St. Thomas Aquinas parish where he abused Doe 1.

• The original Doe 1 complaint and additional information can be found on our website at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.964.3458 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.964.3458 Cell/612.205.5531

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WISCONSIN
WISN

MILWAUKEE —The third time was the charm for the priest accused of embezzling six figures from his former Milwaukee church.

Father James Dokos appeared in court Friday afternoon after missing two earlier hearings.

Dokos missed his first court appearance because his car broke down, and the second because he was in the hospital. The court commissioner warned if he failed to show up Friday, he would be headed to the jail.

Dokos’ attorney wouldn’t answer any questions before the hearing.

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CALIFORNIA
Visalia Times-Delta

Editor’s note:This page is devoted to the reaction within the community of the installation of the Rev. Eric Swearingen as the new pastor of The Catholic Church of Visalia. Following are letters to the editor received over the past week. Previous stories can be accessed at our website at www.visaliatimesdelta.com.

The installation last weekend of Visalia’s newest Catholic pastor, the Reverend Eric Swearingen, was met with an outpouring of joy from the Catholic community.

The Catholic Church of Visalia was welcoming home one of its sons who had attended George McCann school and graduated from Redwood High School in the heart of a community brimming with hometown pride.

The installation and mass at St. Mary’s Church in downtown Visalia on Sunday was held in front of a standing-room only crowd.

But a pall was cast on Fr. Swearingen’s installation by a long-ago but lingering allegation of molestation from a former altar boy when Swearingen was conducting ministry in the Fresno diocese — and the larger, unceasing scandal within the Catholic church of sexual molestation of youth.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

The Dominican Republic has the key to freedom from the Vatican Concordats if they would only use it and holler to the world and gather viral attention that their papal nuncio was a criminal pedophile for years and who left the country like a thief in the night last August 2013. He is now defrocked but it took a year before the Vatican laicised him because the Vatican needed his signature for all the billions of dollars he looted from the country via the Vatican Concordat. With his commission of millions of dollars, he is the wealthiest and savviest criminal member of the JP2 Army, thus one of the most dangerous predator of young boys. Read our article, Defrocked ex-Vatican ambassador must be jailed. Vatican must return all his loot of billions of dollars back to Dominican people.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

[Pope Francis Met With the Head of the Family – the Secretive, Powerful Politicians Based in a Wash. DC Townhouse – Betty Clermont]

Paris Arrow

Last June, Pope Francis flew in at the expense of the Vatican Foundation, all the most influential American evangelicals in the USA, Joel Osteen, Doug Coe, Kenneth Copeland et al, but he refused to meet with the American director, president and founder of SNAP, David Clohessy and Barbara Blaine – free of Vatican expense – they went to Rome at their own expense. Clohessy was already in Rome during the papal conclave waiting for a papal appointment with the new pope. Barbara Blaine was in Rome to protest the canonization of John Paul II. Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is the largest organization of victims founded in the USA with members now worldwide but Pope Francis ignored them completely. Instead he met and said his hypocritical apology in a papal Eucharist Satanic Mass with 6 handpicked survivors who are idiot Catholics from Europe who were brainwashed and trained to say and write only what the Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team have brainwashed them to do.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Rubén Rosario
rrosario@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 07/18/2014

I picked up a summer must-read this past week. It has drama, conflict, intrigue and zips along at 107 pages.

No. It’s not “Invisible” by James Patterson, though I really wish it were fiction. This read has a decidedly boring title: “Affidavit of Jennifer M. Haselberger.”

It should be retitled “The Archdiocese That Forgot Christ,” for this is really what it is: a scathing account of how top church officials from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis put kids and adults at risk.

It is the best argument yet, since the local clergy abuse and mismanagement scandal broke months ago, that Archbishop John Nienstedt should step down or if he refuses, be removed from his post.

I’m not saying this lightly. He is, as Haselberger told me, “my archbishop.” But he needs to go for the good of the church and the good people in it. Now.

A turning point for me, as it was for Haselberger, who served as chancellor for canonical affairs from 2008 to April 2013, were statements Nienstedt made after he celebrated Mass at a church in Edina last December. This was two months after Haselberger, reportedly rebuffed at every attempt to expose alleged cover-ups or mishandling of abusive and misbehaving priests, contacted Minnesota Public Radio and publicly bared the goings-on.

Nienstedt told reporters that he believed the issue of clergy abuse had been taken care of by the time he became archbishop in 2008 and that he was surprised when the news stories broke. Given that he had indeed reviewed recent clergy abuse files and that a priest was convicted the summer before of abusing two children, Haselberger almost fell out of her chair.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Bob Shaw
bshaw@pioneerpress.com

Everyone tries to sound so casual.

“People will ask how it’s going,” said Tim Marx, chief executive of Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. “They are asking the question without asking The Question.”

The Question is how he and other Catholics are coping with the scandal from hell, the revelations of the decades of priests abusing children and the church covering it up. They are asking about the crisis that is partly responsible for a 9 percent drop in 10 years in the number of Minnesotans who are registered Catholic.

The Question hasn’t changed. But lately, some of the answers have.

Many Minnesota Catholics are optimistic that the church is bouncing back. There may be more accusations to come — just last week, an affidavit was filed from a former official in the Twin Cities archdiocese accusing its leaders of covering up abuse cases and blaming victims — but some Catholics think the worst of them have been exposed.

“I don’t want to say we won’t see these things again, but I think it is changing,” said Bob Kennedy, chairman of the Department of Catholic Studies at St. Thomas University.

“We are coming back stronger. That is the nature of any kind of trial — you are stronger when you come out the other side,” said Joseph Grodahl of Richfield, a law school student who converted to Catholicism in 2009.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | Jul. 18, 2014

It is time for Archbishop John Nienstedt to go.

Reading the affidavit of Jennifer Haselberger, the former chancellor of the Archdiocese of St. Paul, is grim. Caveat: A lawyer friend told me that a good defense attorney could drive several trucks through the document and that may be true. But, even if a quarter of what is asserted in that document is true, it is obvious that the Archdiocese of St. Paul has failed to live up to the bishops’ own requirements regarding the protection of children. Instances of suspected child abuse were not reported to the civil authorities. Clergy were not removed from active ministry as required by the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children. Almost every page of Haselberger’s affidavit illustrates a clerical culture that, when confronted with evidence of proven or potential sexual abuse of a minor, instinctively reacted with the thought, “poor Father.”

Archbishop Nienstedt is not the first bishop to be found ignoring or ameliorating the bishops’ own guidelines for child protection. The grand jury reports from Philadelphia showed a similar willful disregard for the Dallas norms. We all know that Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph remains the bishop of that diocese even though he could not be hired to teach Sunday school because of his prior conviction for failing to report suspected child abuse. Each of these cases damages the credibility of the entire episcopacy. Each of these cases evidences a lack of accountability. Each of these cases gives the lie to the claim, repeated again and again since Dallas, that the bishops have cleaned up the mess, that the Catholic Church is now the safest place in the world for children, that the whole sordid clergy sex abuse mess is in the rear view mirror.

It is important to draw a distinction here. There is no excusing what happened before Dallas, the systematic re-assignment of predators, the cover-ups, the failure to abide by civil law to say nothing of the moral law. But, at Dallas, the bishops of the United States recognized the problems were systemic and adopted a systematic approach to those problems, a nationwide set of standards that they applied to themselves, and establishing a system of audits to assure compliance. There really are no excuses now. One of the most damning parts of the Haselberger affidavit is the section that shows how easily the authorities in St. Paul misrepresented their compliance with the Dallas Charter.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments as follows:

Michael Sean Winters wants St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt to resign. It is he who should resign.

Winters admits that the affidavit of Jennifer Haselberger, the person most responsible for hurling accusations at Nienstedt, is so blemished that “a good defense attorney could drive several trucks through the document.” That would be enough to make any reasonable person reject her testimony on anything. But Winters is not reasonable—he is irrational.

Regarding charges that Nienstedt “engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior” with adults—which the archbishop denies—Winters says he does “not really care” if this is true. I do. Why doesn’t Winters? It’s time he spoke with candor about his reasoning. He says he is concerned about whether Nienstedt violated the Dallas Charter. Fine. And what evidence does Winters offer? Nothing.

So what is Winters’ beef? He accuses Nienstedt of being “aloof” and “deeply conflicted.” If aloofness demands resignation, then Obama should have quit a long time ago, but no one at the National Catholic Reporter is about to call for his resignation. Winters says Nienstedt is conflicted about homosexuality (he has the shoe on the wrong foot), and takes him to task for once condemning the “wanton anal sex” in the film “Brokeback Mountain.” Such graphic words bother Winters. Yet it was the Reporter, in its quest to destroy a Republican operative who once had a one-night stand with a coed, that wrote the book on graphic sex. What it did was so vile it would have made Larry Flynt blush. The hypocrisy is stunning.

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