ABUSE TRACKER

CHILE
Digital Journal

By AFP
Feb 6, 2014

The Vatican has opened an investigation into a Chilean bishop for alleged sexual abuse, the local Church leadership said Thursday.

A statement released by Chile’s Catholic church leadership said San Felipe bishop Cristian Contreras had “expressed the wish” for the allegations against him to be investigated.

Contreras denies the allegations as “completely unfounded.”

The case came to light after an investigation by the Center for Investigative Journalism, or CIPER, which revealed the archdiocese had received complaints from other priests of suspected abuses by Contreras — in one case against a 15-year-old child.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

By Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
on February 06, 2014

CHICAGO – The director of a nationwide support group for victims of sex abuse by religious leaders said he hopes the whistleblower in the case of a Muscle Shoals pastor will encourage others to come forward.

David Clohessy, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, issued a statement this morning after reading about the arrest of Jeffrey Dale Eddie, 41, a children’s minister at Highland Park Baptist, on two counts of child pornography, 31 counts of second-degree sodomy, and three counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12. He is being held in Colbert County Jail on $1 million bond.

It’s the second such case at a Colbert County church within a month. In January, Oliver Brazelle, 79, the former music director at the First United Methodist Church in Sheffield, was charged by Lauderdale County authorities with second-degree sexual abuse and one-count of second-degree sodomy.

In the case of Jeff Eddie, known to congregants as “Brother Jeff,” police received a tip from a church staff member, an act Clohessy praised.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Rev. Harold J. Greif was a Jesuit who spent the bulk of his priesthood in Alaska. He was ordained in 1940 and died in 1991. Greif was the subject of allegations of sexual abuse by at least two people, according to bankruptcy reorganization documents from the diocese of Fairbanks in 2010.

Ordained: 1940
Died:Oct. 28, 1991

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Carol Glatz Catholic News Service | Feb. 6, 2014

VATICAN CITY Pope Francis reconfirmed Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko as president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and German Bishop Josef Clemens as secretary.

Among the 14 new members named Thursday were Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia; Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila, Philippines; Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna; and Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Germany, who is also part of the pope’s eight-member Council of Cardinals that advises the pope on reorganizing the Roman Curia.

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UNITED STATES
WBUR – Hear and Now

[with audio]

A new United Nations report is bluntly critical of the Vatican, saying it has adopted polices that allowed priest to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades.

The widely anticipated report from the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child goes on to say that the Vatican is guilty of a “code of silence” that has “systematically” put the reputation of the church and offending priests over the protection of child victims.

The Vatican says the report goes too far when it also includes criticism of the church’s teaching on conception and birth control, human sexuality and abortion.

That report comes as a Catholic-affiliated publisher in Poland issues a controversial book of Pope John Paul II’s notes.

Vatican expert and journalist John Allen joins Here & Now’s Robin Young to discuss both the U.N. report and the book.

Interview Highlights: John Allen

On reaction to the U.N. report

“I suspect reaction to it — both at the Vatican and in the wider Catholic world — is going to be mixed, because the cause of child protection here is bundled, as you indicated, with the culture wars. It also is basically telling the Vatican they need to repeal Catholic teaching on abortion, birth control and gay marriage. You know, my reaction to that as a journalist is, ‘how to you spell non-starter.’ You know, those things are just not going to happen. And I suspect there will be some backlash that will want to style this report somehow as driven more by politics than a real concern for the protection of kids.”

On the impact of the U.N. report

“The child sexual abuse scandals in Catholicism are real, the need for reform is real. There still is a division in the church between reformers and those who are kind of in denial, and that’s true at the grassroots, it’s true of the leadership. This report was an opportunity to strengthen the hand of the reform cause by making very specific recommendations that would be hard to argue with. And the fear would be that by bundling this with the very divisive matters of the culture wars, you’ve given ammunition to those in denial, to say ‘eh, this is all politics.’”

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ROME
Boston.com

By NICOLE WINFIELD / Associated Press / February 6, 2014

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Legion of Christ religious order has elected a new superior and governing council for the first time since the Vatican took it over in 2010 amid revelations that its founder was a pedophile and a fraud.

But in a clear sign that the Vatican didn’t trust the Legion’s own choices, the Holy See itself appointed two comparatively reform-minded priests to serve on the order’s governing council, including the new No. 2.

The new general director is the Rev. Eduardo Robles Gil, a Mexican who was a longtime collaborator with the Legion’s disgraced late founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel. Legion priests who have left the order called him a ‘‘spiritual son’’ of Maciel and say his election shows no break from the order’s troubled past.

Robles Gil said Thursday he adopted as his own a statement issued by the Legion in which it distanced itself from Maciel, apologized to his victims, acknowledged its own problems and vowed to reform.

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UNITED STATES
Legal Broadcast Network

[with video]

Secret Files of Church Dioceses Disclosed in Sex Abuse Scandal, With Jeff Anderson, Attorney in St. Paul, Minnesota

In litigating against church dioceses in sexual abuse cases for over 30 years, attorney Jeff Anderson, of Jeff Anderson and Associates in St. Paul Minnesota, has found that every diocese keeps secret files that demonstrate known histories of offenders in almost every instance. Anderson began to reveal this through litigation.

In 2005, he negotiated a case in Chicago that every case that had an offender, the church would agree to release the file, however, the settlement grew quite complicated, which led to a review of all those files. After 30 files were reviewed, an agreement was made to have those files released to the public both for the healing of the survivors and to protect public safety. Unfortunately, Anderson says, it became so controversial with the arch dioceses, it was difficult to extract the files and make them public. They began mediating, arbitrating and fighting for several years which ultimately led to a release of the files on January 15. At that time, Anderson was finally able to publicly disclose the files of those 30 offenders and under the agreement there’s still another 35.

The secret files are profiles and portraits of the same pattern he’s seen across the country for 29 years, Anderson says. This pattern was the same choices made by top officials, to include making sure they protect the offender from prosecution or public exposure, to make sure that the reputation of the dioceses is preserved and to get help for the offender and move them to another location, treated or untreated and mislead those where he had been known to be abused.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic News Agency

Washington D.C., Feb 6, 2014 / 12:22 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- U.S. Catholic leaders criticized a United Nations committee report for trying to impose secular moral views and failing to acknowledge advancements made by the Church in the area of child protection.

Austen Ivereigh, founder of Catholic Voices, an organization of lay faithful who defend the Church’s teaching in the public sphere, called the report “ignorant and misguided.”

He said that it “betrays an extraordinary misunderstanding of the nature of the Church and the Holy See” while seeking to “impose an ideology of gender and sexuality in violation of the U.N.’s own commitment to religious freedom.”

In a blog post analysis on Catholic Voices’ website, Ivereigh responded to a report issued Feb. 5 by the U.N. Committee on the Protection of the Child, which claimed that the Vatican “systematically” adopted policies allowing priests to rape and molest children.

The report also criticized the Catholic Church’s teachings on contraception, abortion and same-sex “marriage,” suggesting that the Church change its canon law to support these “rights.” …

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R.-Fla.), himself a Catholic, said the U.N. report “has overreached in its efforts to discredit the Catholic Church’s core teachings.”

While the report serves as a legitimate reminder of the essential obligation to protect children, he said, it also seeks “to make political statements about Catholic doctrine on abortion, contraception, and marriage.”

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ROME
BBC News

The Legion of Christ Catholic order has for the first time apologised to the victims of sexual abuse carried out by its founder, Father Marcial Maciel.

In a statement, the order condemned the “reprehensible and objectively immoral behaviour” of the Mexico-born priest.

Father Maciel led the order from its foundation in 1941 until 2006, when Pope Benedict ordered him to retire.

He abused seminarians as young as 12, and died in 2008 aged 87 without ever being convicted of his crimes.

A Vatican investigation also found out that he had fathered several children by at least two women, and used drugs.

“We want to express our deep sorrow for the abuse of minor seminarians, the immoral acts with men and women who were adults, the arbitrary use of his authority and of material goods,” said the Legion of Christ in a statement.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatched

Vatican, ‘Cool Pope’ Blast UN Link Between Sexual Abuse Scandal and Church Attitudes on Gays, Contraception, Abortion

Post by PATRICIA MILLER

What’s remarkable about the profile of Pope Francis in the current issue of Rolling Stone isn’t its content—after all, it largely consists of information that’s been reported elsewhere—it’s that it exists at all. In Rolling Stone. Fascination with “Cool Pope Francis”—as Gawker dubbed him—is running so high that even a magazine usually devoted to guitar gods and pop princesses devoted nearly 8,000 words to the pontiff.

While that article attempts to determine just how much of an agent for change Francis might actually be, the big question, as commentators like Mary Hunt here on RD have asked in one form or another, is how much headway he can make—or wants to make—on reforming church doctrine on the role of women, contraception and LGBT issues.

But as the report released today by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child slamming the Vatican for its handling of clergy sex abuse illustrates, no matter how well-intentioned (or Cool) Francis may be, the problem is that the Church still doesn’t recognize what the real problem is.

The report acknowledges some progress on abuse made under Francis, notably the announcement of an independent commission, but also says: “The Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Online

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – A long-awaited UN report on the Vatican abuse scandals of decades past fires harsh criticism at the Church. The report, as well as victims and their advocates, all cite traditional Vatican secrecy as a key reason why many child abusers were left to repeat their crimes.

The report serves as a literal rap on the knuckles for the Vatican, by the UN, for the sins of its recent past.

Please pray for all those involved in cases of abuse. Pray for justice, pray for peace.

For its part, the Catholic Church, particularly under Benedict and Francis, has accepted its culpability in these cases, and continues to take steps to prevent the abuse of more children by unfit clergy.

Benedict made public apologies for the acts committed by members of the clergy in decades past and defrocked hundreds of offenders during the last two years of his pontificate. Pope Francis doesn’t appear to be letting up either. Pope Francis has said that Catholics should be ashamed of these incidents, and that everything possible to protect children must be done.

In the past, bishops notoriously discouraged victims from going public with her accusations, and generally handled the problems internally. In some cases, that meant discreetly moving priests to monasteries, or into treatment programs. In other cases priests were simply moved to neighboring parishes, and in most cases those priests continued to repeat their crimes.

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MISSISSIPPI
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A Mississippi judge on Wednesday refused to reduce a 10-year prison sentence he handed down to a former Southern Baptist traveling evangelist and popular youth speaker convicted of video voyeurism in 2012.

“I think basically I got you right,” DeSoto County circuit judge Gerald Chatham told prisoner Sammy Nuckolls, who preached at churches across the country and events including LifeWay Christian Resources Centrifuge summer camps before he was caught secretly recording video of women while they took showers and during other private moments in Arkansas and Mississippi and allegedly in Texas and Virginia.

Nuckolls, who acknowledged at trial watching women at his home in Olive Branch, Miss., without their knowledge, filed a motion in June requesting judicial review of two five-year sentences that run consecutively and 11 others that are concurrent. Had all 13 sentences been consecutive, it would have added up to 65 years.

After 17 months behind bars, however, Nuckolls’ lawyer said his client is remorseful, has learned from his mistakes and due to restrictions that come with being a registered sex offender, would pose no danger to society. Attorney Ronald Michael of Booneville, Miss., asked the court to give Nuckolls credit for time served and place him under house arrest with monitoring and treatment for as long as Judge Chatham desired.

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ROME
Boston Globe

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

A religious order that’s become a leading symbol of the sexual abuse scandals in Catholicism today expressed “deep sorrow” for abuse and sexual misconduct committed by its once-powerful founder, and also announced the election of new leadership intended to steer the order on a reform path.

The apology by the embattled Legionaries of Christ comes one day after the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a scathing report on the Vatican’s response to the abuse scandals, at one point expressing specific concern about the recruiting practices of the Legionaries.

Founded by the late Mexican Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado in 1941, the Legionaries of Christ and their lay arm, the Regnum Christi movement, became a powerful force in the Catholic Church during the Pope John Paul II years, enjoying the favor of the late pope and support from influential prelates around the world.

In 2006, however, Maciel was sentenced to a life of prayer and penance by Pope Benedict XVI following accusations of sexual misconduct and abuse, which included relationships with two women and fathering up to six children, as well as abuse of young members of the order and, allegedly, two of his own children.

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ROME
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Legion of Christ religious order has elected a new Superior-General and governing council .

The new Superior is the Mexican-born Father Eduardo Robles Gil.

Please find below the translation from Spanish of the Communiqué of the Extraordinary General Chapter of the Legionaries of Christ about the path of renewal the order has undertaken.

1. The Extraordinary General Chapter, which is convened in Rome and is being presided over by the Pontifical Delegate, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, publishes this communiqué about the path of renewal that we are traveling. We address this communiqué to all those who have followed the recent events in our religious congregation, especially to our brother Legionaries of Christ, to the lay consecrated men and women, and to the rest of the members and friends of the Regnum Christi Movement.

2. This is the first meeting of the General Chapter since 2005. Since the Chapter is the highest internal authority that represents the whole Congregation, it seems necessary for us to take a stance regarding the significant events that have occurred in the past nine years. With this, we want to define conclusively the posture of our Congregation with respect to the behavior of Fr. Marcial Maciel and his role as founder, in continuity with the decisions of the Holy See and the previous declaration of all the major superiors of the Legion of Christ1. As well, we offer some initial reflections on the most important points of the process of renewal of our Congregation. Throughout the coming weeks, we will continue to analyze the different issues that demand our attention, and we will give orientations to the new government of the Legion for the journey yet to come.

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ROME
Headlines from the Catholic World

Rome, Italy, Feb 6, 2014 / 10:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Legionaries of Christ revealed the names of their new general council on Feb. 6, also issuing a formal apology to those hurt by the immoral actions of their founder.

The announcement of the new superiors comes in wake of the Legionaries’ first General Chapter meeting, which began on Jan. 9, and was mandated by Benedict XVI in wake of the revelation of the double-life led by the congregation’s founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, who is since deceased.

In a Feb. 6 press release, the Legionaries revealed the election of Fr. Eduardo Robles Gil as their new General Director, and Fr. Juan José Arrieta, as Vicar General.

“Since my ordination, I have served in different parts of the world and in different types of ministry: schools, family ministry, administration or as a superior of a Legionary community,” Fr. Eduardo recalled in the press release, “Now, I will have to get used to Rome.”

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service | Feb. 6, 2014

ROME Representatives of the Legionaries of Christ, meeting to reform their troubled congregation nearly four years after it was effectively taken over by the Vatican, announced a new slate of leaders Thursday and formally apologized to victims of their disgraced founder.

The statement by the congregation’s extraordinary general chapter, released Thursday, expressed “deep sorrow” for the late Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado’s “reprehensible and objectively immoral behavior,” including “abuse of minor seminarians,” “immoral acts with adult men and women,” “arbitrary use of his authority and of material goods,” “indiscriminate consumption of addictive medicines” and plagiarism.

Saying they were “grieved” it had taken so long to apologize to Maciel’s “many victims,” the members of the chapter acknowledged a “long institutional silence” in response to accusations against him and offered a progress report in efforts to overcome the founder’s demoralizing legacy.

The gathering of 61 Legionary priests from 11 countries, which opened Jan. 8 and is expected to last until the end of February, is the culmination of a reform process that began with a Vatican-ordered apostolic visitation in 2009. That investigation was prompted by revelations Maciel, who died in 2008, had fathered at least one illegitimate child and sexually abused minors.

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ALABAMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, February 6, 2014

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

A children’s minister from Alabama has been charged with over 30 counts of child sexual abuse.

Jeffery Dale Eddie was investigated after police got a call from someone at the Muscle Shoals church concerned about Eddie’s behavior.

[Montgomery Advertiser]

We are so grateful to the brave whistleblower that altered authorities. It is through the brave actions of whistleblowers and victims that keeps dangerous predators away from children. We hope his arrest will give courage to anyone who may have seen, suspects, or suffered sexual abuse to call authorities.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 6 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A Legion of Christ official apologized to victims today.

[Reuters]

Apologies are easy but reform is hard. And actions, not words, protect kids. So we urge Catholics to ignore the latest words from this disgraced, secretive, scandal-ridden order and insist on tangible steps that will safeguard children.

Who in the Legion – past or present – hid Fr. Marcial Maciel’s crimes? Who in the Legion – past or present – are hiding other clergy sex crimes? Who in the Legion – past and present – engages or engaged in financial fraud?

And what punishment is being meted out to these Catholic officials.

When we know these answers and see these steps, we’ll begin to believe the Legion may be headed in the right direction. To assume that now, however, is foolish. Worse, it’s a disservice to vulnerable kids around Legion clerics now and an insult to wounded adults suffering because of Legion clerics.

Notice what Legion officials apparently did not say today:

– “If you were hurt by one of our clerics, call the police.”
– “We’re now lobbying for better secular laws that protect kids.”
– “We’re now posting all our predator priests on our website” or even
– “We’re not releasing their names, but here’s how many Legion priests have molested kids.”

Not a single fact or tidbit of useful information. Just more words.

And denouncing a widely-documented molester, womanizer, thief and fraud is no act of courage.

Yesterday in Geneva, an Ethiopian man on a United Nations panel essentially told Catholic officials that his committee is not in the business of declaring ‘well said’ but rather in the business of declaring ‘well done.’

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POLSKA
Gazeta

darez 06.02.2014

Pierwszy w Polsce pozew za pedofilię przeciwko Kościołowi katolickiemu ma dziś trafić do sądu. Marcin K., 26-latek z Kołobrzegu, którego sprawę szeroko opisywaliśmy w TOK FM, chce przeprosin w prasie i 200 tys. zł zadośćuczynienia – wyjaśnia Adam Bodnar z Helsińskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, która pomagała mężczyźnie.

Pozew skierowany jest przeciwko skazanemu za pedofilię byłemu duchownemu Zbigniewowi R., ale także przeciwko parafii św. Wojciecha w Kołobrzegu i kurii koszalińsko-kołobrzeskiej.

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POLAND
GlobalPost

Agence France-Presse February 6, 2014

Poland’s powerful Roman Catholic church is being sued for damages for the first time by the victim of a paedophile priest, a human rights group said Thursday.

A demand for 47,500 euros ($63,500) was made by a 25-year-old male — identified only as Marcin K — who was molested as a child, Adam Bondar of the Helsinki Foundation that has taken up the unprecedented case, told reporters in Warsaw.

A Catholic priest was sentenced in 2012 to two years behind bars in the case, but his diocese refused to be held financially liable.

“It is the first civil lawsuit against the (Polish) Catholic church,” Bodnar said, adding that more than a dozen priests have been convicted of paedophilia in Poland.

“But there has never been a case in which a victim sues not just the perpetrator but also the church as an institution,” he added.

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UNITED STATES
Newsmax

Thursday, 06 Feb 2014

By Bill Donohue

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has just released a report on the way the Vatican has responded to the sexual abuse of minors by priests. The 15-page report contains not a single footnote, endnote, or any other mode of attribution. But it does provide plenty of evidence as to its real agenda.

The U.N. panel is using the sexual abuse of minors as a pretext for its true objective: It wants the Vatican to submit to its authority, and not just in instances involving international law — it wants the Catholic Church to change Canon Law and to adopt a secular sexual ethics.

As such, it is one of the most ambitious power-grab efforts ever undertaken by a U.N. committee. The panel is also profoundly ignorant of the data.

On page 3 of the report, the panel says the Holy See should “undertake the necessary steps to withdraw all its reservations and to ensure the [U.N.] Convention’s precedence over internal laws and regulations.” (Its emphasis.)

It is quite explicit: “The Committee recommends that the Holy See undertake a comprehensive review of its normative framework, in particular Canon Law, with a view to ensuring its full compliance with the Convention.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, head of the Institute of Psychology at the Gregorian University in Rome and Centre for the Protection of Minors, says the Church has learnt lessons and has made great strides in the safeguarding of children.He made the comments to Vatican Radio following the publication of a report issued on Wednesday by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child which accused the Vatican of turning a blind eye to decades of sexual abuse of children by priests.

The report comes less than a month after a meeting between the United Nations Committee and a Holy See delegation in Geneva.

Fr Zollner said the report was “harsh in parts but recognises that the Holy See and the Church as a whole has made steps forward.”

Asked about references made in the report to issues such as abortion, homosexuality and contraception, Fr Zollner said there was no reason for these issues to be included, he said, “it looks as if some people… just wanted to make their point…”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler February 06, 2014

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which has instructed the Vatican on proper treatment of children, includes representatives from Ghana, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Russia, and Sri Lanka.

Would you rather have your child raised at the Vatican or in one of those countries?

The UN committee, which criticized the Vatican for discrimination against girls, includes members from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Egypt.

How well are girls treated in those countries?

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UNITED STATES
Nonprofit Quarterly

WRITTEN BY RUTH MCCAMBRIDGE CREATED ON THURSDAY, 06 FEBRUARY 2014

In a scathing report, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child took the Vatican to task for maintaining a corporate culture within which child predators were systematically protected from exposure and prosecution. The report called the culture a “code of silence” and it called on the Vatican to release all documents on its internal investigations into charges of abuse.

The committee wrote that it “is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.”

But NPQ suggests that readers take a look at the report itself (linked above) because not did only it deal with child sexual abuse, it also took the Church on for its positions on abortion, domestic violence, institutionalization of children and same sex marriages among other things. In short, the report is a bold human rights gauntlet. How will the pope respond?

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ROME
Legionaries of Christ

ROME (February 6) – Fr. Eduardo Robles Gil, LC, has been elected General Director of the Legion of Christ.

On January 20th, the Extraordinary General Chapter of the Legion of Christ elected Fr. Eduardo and the other members of the central government of the Legion.

The election was personally confirmed by the Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, O.F.M., secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life on February 6, 2014.

Along with his election, the Vicar General, Fr. Juan José Arrieta, LC, and one of the general councilors, Fr. Juan Sabadell, LC, were named by the Holy See. Two more general councilors, Fr. Sylvester Heereman, LC, and Fr. Jesús Villagrasa, LC, were elected by the chapter members. Fr. José Gerardo Cárdenas, LC, has been elected General Administrator. Fr. Clemens Gutberlet, LC, has been elected General Procurator.

Here is a run-down of the entire outcome of the election:

General Director: Fr. Eduardo Robles Gil, LC.
Vicar General: Fr. Juan José Arrieta, LC.
General Councilor: Fr. Sylvester Heereman, LC.
General Councilor: Fr. Jesús Villagrasa, LC.
General Councilor: Fr. Juan Sabadell, LC.
General Administrator: Fr. José Gerardo Cárdenas, LC.
General Procurator: Fr. Clemens Gutberlet, LC.

The General Chapter published the announcement of the election of the new central government simultaneously with the publishing of a in which the members of the chapter take a conclusive stance on Fr. Marcial Maciel and on the path of renewal the Legion of Christ has been travelling.

Fr. Eduardo Robles Gil, LC

Fr. Eduardo brings a wide range of spiritual and apostolic experience to his role as General Director. He has exercised his ministry principally in Spain, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. He has served as a director of several schools, as a superior of several Legionary communities, as territorial administrator for two years in Mexico and as a section director of Regnum Christi, spiritual director and local coordinator of apostolate. He helped found the Legion and Regnum Christi’s presence in Brazil. In 2011, he was named to the Outreach Commission created by Card. Velasio De Paolis to work with the abuse victims of Fr. Marcial Maciel. He began to serve as a major superior in the Legion in August, 2013, when he assumed the post of Territorial Director of Mexico.

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ROME
Legionaries of Christ

ROME (February 6) – The representatives of the Legion of Christ meeting in an Extraordinary General Chapter this week approved a wide-ranging communiqué. The document is an effort by the chapter members to define conclusively the posture of the congregation with respect to the behavior of Fr. Marcial Maciel and his role as founder in continuity with the decisions of the Holy See and previous statements by the Legion. It concludes with an apology to any and all who have been hurt of the congregation’s shortcomings.

Fr. Eduardo Robles Gil, LC, the newly elected General Director of the Legion, summarized the intention of this communiqué in the following way: “The Chapter marks both an ending and a new beginning. This is what many of the chapter fathers feel and that’s how we have expressed it in the chapter hall. But, so that it can truly be a new beginning, it is necessary to put the challenges of the past in their place. This is why the Chapter decided to publish a statement for the Legionaries, the members of Regnum Christi and for all those who have been following our recent history. We can’t erase the past. We have to learn the lessons, mourn what occurred, trust in God’s mercy and, like St. Paul, run forward in pursuit of the goal of reaching Christ.”

The General Chapter issued this communiqué simultaneously with the publishing of the results of the election of the new central government.

Regarding Fr. Maciel

The communiqué offers a summary of what has been learned of Fr. Maciel’s misbehavior to date, how his actions influenced the Legion and what the Legion is doing in light of these discoveries.

“When we ponder the magnitude of the evil and scandal caused, we realize that we are under the merciful gaze of God who, with his providence, continues to guide our steps. United with Jesus Christ, we hope to be able to redeem our painful history and overcome with good the consequences of evil. Only in this way can we consider what has taken place in light of the Gospel and build our future on the solid foundations of trust in God, of fidelity to the Church, and of the truth.”

“Our founder died in 2008. We ask God to have mercy on him. At the same time, we want to express our deep sorrow for the abuse of minor seminarians, the immoral acts with men and women who were adults, the arbitrary use of his authority and of material goods, the indiscriminate consumption of addictive medicines and the act of presenting writings published by third parties as his own. We find the incongruity of presenting oneself as a priest and a witness of the faith continuously for decades while hiding this immoral behavior to be incomprehensible. We firmly condemn this. We are grieved that many victims and other affected persons have waited so long in vain for an apology and an act of reconciliation on the part of Fr. Maciel. Today, we would like to issue that apology as we express our solidarity with these persons.”

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ROME
Reuters

BY PHILIP PULLELLA
ROME Thu Feb 6, 2014

(Reuters) – A disgraced Catholic religious order whose late founder lived a double life as a paedophile, womanizer and drug addict officially denounced him on Thursday and apologized to his “many victims”.

The Legionaries of Christ, which former members said was run like a cult rooted in secrecy, accused Father Marcial Maciel of “reprehensible and objectively immoral behavior” as head of the order from 1941 until former Pope Benedict removed him in 2006.

Once a darling of the Vatican because it attracted many Catholics to religious vocations and made sizeable financial donations to the Church, the order has been in Vatican receivership since 2010 and came close to being disbanded.

The apology, issued by delegates from around the world meeting in Rome to set a new direction for the order, came a day after a United Nations committee singled it out in a scathing report accusing the Church of ignoring child abuse by priests.

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UNITED STATES
Voice of Russia

The UN has accused the Vatican of adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest thousands of children over decades. And international community demands that all clergy who are suspected or known child abusers should be “immediately removed”. In its report, the UN committee severely criticized the Holy See for its attitude toward homosexuality, contraception and abortion stating it should review its policies. David Clohessy, national director and spokesman for the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the largest and oldest self-help group for victims of clergy molestation in the United States, spoke to the Voice of Russia correspondent on the issue.

David, let’s just jump right in and – can you give us a comment on the news that in its report, the UN watchdog for children’s rights has accused the Vatican of “systematically” adopting policies allowing priests to sexually abuse thousands of children?

We believe that the Vatican panel is right on target. Church officials have known about and concealed this crisis for decades, they continue to. They say all the right things in public, but their private behavior is radically different. They continue to rebuff law enforcement and intimidate victims and move predators. So we are very grateful that the UN has done this investigation and released this report.

I’ve got to be honest with you, basically what you described is a conspiracy and a conspiracy that hides a crime is in itself a crime. How are these people not in jail?

It is a very good question. Bishops are very smart men, they have plenty of smart lawyers and they are very careful to keep their fingerprints of these cases and to keep the documents that prove their complicity hidden. And sadly too often secular officials in government and law enforcement have been far too timid to do what this UN panel has done and launch investigations and file prosecutions. So we hope that that will be one result of this disclosure. We hope that government officials and law enforcement officials will develop some spine and start similar probes themselves at the national level across the globe.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, February 6, 2014

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

Four years ago, a priest was reported to Catholic officials for alleged child sexual abuse. Eight months ago, that priest was sued for alleged child sexual abuse.

Now, finally, Cardinal Francis George discloses that allegation. But he won’t say why he kept the accusation secret for years and the lawsuit secret for months.

[Chicago Tribune]

Making a bad situation worse, as best we can tell, Fr. Wilk has not been monitored and could have preyed on other children or be preying on them now.

We desperately hope that, over the past four years, Fr. Wilk has not assaulted another child.

Where is the archdiocesan lay review board? Why are they not up in arms about this reckless and hurtful delay? Imagine if Fr. Wilk were accused of stealing money from the church. Think it would have taken four years for archdiocesan staff to resolve it?

Our hearts ache for both Fr. Wilk’s victim and for that victim’s father. Four years of irresponsible behavior by Catholic officials – who kept this serious allegation hidden – must have been very tough to take.

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MEXICO
Pulso

[Summary: Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Mexico have recognized the UN committee report that it said the church adopted policies that allowed priests to rape thousands of children for decades. Victims and activists in Mexico said at a press conference Wednesday that the pope has the opportunity to recognize institutional responsibility of the Holy See and to take steps to face up to and prevent reoccurence. Jose Barba, a former Legionanaire, who reported being a victim of Fr. Marcial Maciel, said he now will know whether the pope’s statements will have real effects within the church.]

Víctimas de abuso sexual de sacerdotes católicos en México reconocieron al comité de las Naciones Unidas que señaló que el Vaticano adoptó políticas que permitieron a curas violar a miles de niños por décadas, aunque advirtieron que sigue pendiente la batalla por llevar a todos los pederastas y a sus encubridores en la Iglesia a que enfrenten la justicia civil.

Las víctimas y activistas mexicanos dijeron el miércoles en rueda de prensa que el Papa Francisco tiene la oportunidad, que no quisieron aprovechar sus antecesores, de reconocer la responsabilidad institucional de la Santa Sede en los abusos sexuales en que han incurrido los sacerdotes y tomar medidas para enfrentarlo y evitar que vuelva a ocurrir.

José Barba, un ex legionario que denunció haber sido víctima junto a otros seminaristas del abuso sexual del fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo, Marcial Maciel, dijo que ahora se podrá conocer si las declaraciones del Papa pueden tener “efectos verdaderos” dentro de la Iglesia.

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UNITED STATES
Cardinal Newman Society

February 6, 2014, at 9:34 AM | By Matthew Archbold

A United Nations committee’s criticisms of the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse by clergy outrageously included criticisms of Catholic schools that rise to the level of anti-Catholicism, argues Deacon Keith Fournier at Catholic Online.

“It intruded into the doctrine, teaching, discipline and rights of the Church,” he writes. “It insisted that the Church change its unchangeable teachings. It even scolded the Church on how she instructs children in Catholic schools and sought to impose a curriculum.”

The report issued by the Convention on the Rights of a Child outrageously included several criticisms of Catholic schools including:

The Committee urges the Holy See to adopt a rights-based approach to address discrimination between girls and boys and refrain from using terminology that could challenge equality between girls and boys. The Committee also urges the Holy See to take active measures to remove from Catholic schools textbooks all gender stereotyping which may limit the development of the talents and abilities of boys and girls and undermine their educational and life opportunities…

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VATICAN CITY
NorthJersey.com

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 6, 2014
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Irish woman who inspired the Oscar-nominated film “Philomena,” about a mother forced to give up her son for adoption, says she doesn’t blame the Vatican for her ordeal despite a damning U.N. report holding the Holy See responsible for such practices.

Philomena Lee spoke Thursday after meeting briefly with Pope Francis and screening “Philomena” for Francis’ personal secretary at the Vatican.

Lee was sent to a Catholic church-run workhouse in Ireland after she got pregnant as a teenager in 1952. Her son was sent to the United States to be adopted when he was 3.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Conversation

David Pilgrim
Professor of Health and Social Policy at University of Liverpool

The blame game about child abuse in the Catholic Church continues. While the Vatican are to give due consideration to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s demand to remove offenders and hand them over to the civil authorities, a major sticking point remains. The church puts canon law above civil law; outsiders such as the UN are depicted as “interfering”. At times, the church also argues that these matters are historical and that it was not the responsibility of the Vatican but of local dioceses and their bishops.

The reputation of the church is clearly a central concern for its current defenders, and its public apologies to victims tend to ring hollow. This reflects a central political stand-off of our postmodern times: are we really prepared to accept theocratic authority as superior to the legal rules of a shared civil society?

The institutional abuse of children is certainly not limited to the Catholic Church, but as a case study, the Catholic scandal does highlight the complexity of learning about child protection in any society. There are many nuances here, which might be missed if we focus too narrowly on the problem of “paedophile priests”. The problem at large can be wrongly reduced to an aberration, merely to an unfortunate prevalence of bad apples in the barrel. Instead, the barrel itself must also bear critical examination.

A wider lens

For a start, much of the proven abuse in the church was physical and emotional, and not sexual – though these processes were often intermingled. Regimes of cruelty were fostered by physical isolation, where adults had unbridled power over children. We know that institutional abuse in a wide range of settings is characterised by multiple, not single, forms of isolation. If we think about the creation of isolation and its predictable risks in systems, we can widen our focus beyond the sexual pathology of individuals and begin to see how abuse can arise from the collective policy decisions of those with good intentions.

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BELGIE
Deredactie

Het vernietigende VN-rapport over kindermisbruik door geestelijken is “oneerlijk, verdraaid en ideologisch gekleurd”. Dat zegt aartsbisschop Silvano Tomasi, die vorige maand verhoord werd door de VN-commissie. In een persmededeling had het Vaticaan eerder laten weten dat het de conclusies van het rapport “grondig zal bestuderen”.

Tomasi leidde de delegatie die midden vorige maand verhoord werd door de VN-commissie die het rapport heeft opgesteld. Hij zei vanmiddag op Radio Vaticaan dat ngo’s die pleiten voor het homohuwelijk wellicht de VN-commissie hebben beïnvloed om “een ideologische lijn” in het rapport af te dwingen.

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NEDRLAND
RKK

Hilversum (van onze redactie) 5 februari 2014 – Het bestuur van de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk heeft beleid gevoerd waardoor het mogelijk was dat pedofiele geestelijken kinderen seksueel konden misbruiken. Zo luidt het oordeel van de Commissie voor Kinderrechten (CRC) van de Verenigde Naties in een vandaag in Genève gepresenteerd rapport.
Nieuwe wetten

De CRC acht het noodzakelijk dat de Kerk in haar canoniek recht regels opneemt die minderjarigen tegen misbruik moeten beschermen. Ook zouden alle dossiers van verdachte geestelijken moeten worden opgengesteld. De VN-kinderrechtencommissie sprak half januari met afgevaardigden van de Heilige Stoel.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

[Summary: The UN criticized the Catholic Church for their work with children, especially abuse, cover-up, corporal punished. Conclusion: The Vatican protects its reputation and not the rights of minors. The report is a secular settlement with the church’s double standards.]

Von Barbara Hans

Die Uno kritisiert die katholische Kirche für ihren Umgang mit Kindern – insbesondere Missbrauch, Vertuschung, Züchtigung. Das Fazit: Der Vatikan schütze seinen Ruf, nicht die Rechte Minderjähriger. Der Report ist eine weltliche Abrechnung mit der kirchlichen Doppelmoral.

Hamburg – Es ist ein Aufeinanderprallen zweier Welten: Die Vereinten Nationen, gegründet, um den Weltfrieden zu sichern – und die Weltkirche, die seit jeher Sonderrechte pflegt und verteidigt, vor allem gegen einen sich wandelnden Zeitgeist. Die Vereinten Nationen haben dem Vatikan in ihrem aktuellen Bericht zu Kinderrechten ein schlechtes Zeugnis ausgestellt. Der Kirchenstaat sei vor allem darauf bedacht, sich selbst zu schützen – nicht aber die Kinder in seiner Obhut. Schadensbegrenzung heißt aus Sicht der katholischen Kirche demnach, Schaden von der eigenen Reputation abzuwenden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
taz

[Summary: It’s perpetrators protection from above. The UN has accused the Vatican of lack of action of abuse but the church pouts and continues to do nothing for the victims. It is business as usual.]

Die UNO traut sich was: Sie wirft dem Vatikan mangelnde Aufarbeitung vor. Die Katholische Kirche schmollt und tut weiterhin nichts für die Opfer. Alles wie gehabt.

Bei oberflächlichem Hinsehen möchte man meinen: Alles wie gehabt. Der Vatikan steckt Prügel ein, muss sich erneut nicht bloß den massenhaften Missbrauch von Kindern durch Angehörige des Klerus, sondern obendrein auch die flächendeckende Vertuschung dieser Verbrechen vorwerfen lassen – und hat als Reaktion auf die Vorwürfe wieder einmal die gut eingeübte Beleidigte-Leberwurst-Nummer zu bieten.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

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

A British Catholic, Austen Ivereigh, has blasted the United Nations panel that found that Catholic officials “still place children in many countries at high risk of sexual abuse, as dozens of child sexual offenders are reported to be still in contact with children.”

[Catholic Voices]

Let’s take a quick look at some of his claims.

He claims Vatican officials were “ambushed” by the panel.

— I’m not positive, but I’ll bet that Vatican officials knew back in 1990 they would be questioned periodically on their compliance with the treaty. The Catholic hierarchy saw this coming long ago. In fact, they asked for it when they wanted to be treated like a nation and signed the treaty.

So this is not the UN “coming after” the Vatican. It’s simply the UN doing what the Vatican agreed to have them do.

He calls the panel a “kangaroo court.”

Really? The panel is a group of more than 20 volunteers from across the globe who are experienced in children’s issues. They’re with the United Nations, a pretty respected institution. They spent more than a year on this effort, giving equal opportunities to both abuse victims and church officials. A kangaroo court? Hardly.

He claims the report “was designed to produce headlines like the BBC’s — ‘UN slams Vatican for protecting priests over child abuse’ — in order to sustain the myth of the Church, and the Vatican in particular, as an unreformed institution.”

Really? He knows the alleged hidden and impure motives of more than 20 veteran children’s advocates he’s never met, from across the globe, who are experts in children’s safety but have somehow conspired to abuse their positions and this process just to embarrass Catholic officials? Really?

He claims that “since 2001,” the Vatican “has been the catalyst of . . . best practices, cajoling bishops’ conferences across the world to put in place measures of the sort pioneered in the US and the UK.

–-Really? Where’s the evidence? He doesn’t cite or show a single document that indicates this.

On the contrary, church records obtained through civil lawsuits show – over and over and over again – that some bishops wanted Vatican approval to more quickly deal with predator priests but were repeatedly rebuffed by church bureaucrats in Rome. (See the Fr. Lawrence Murphy case in Wisconsin, among many others.)

In fact, in 2002, Vatican officials severely weakened the US bishops’ draft abuse policy by removing a mandatory reporting provision and replacing it with the far weaker and vaguer instruction to ‘comply with applicable civil laws.’

(He may be confused. It was 2001 when then-Pope John Paul II ordered bishops across the world to send all their abuse reports to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. That, however, helped ensure secrecy, not openness.)

In 2011, Vatican officials did urge that bishops’ “CIRCULAR LETTER” IS THE EVIDENCE. IT’S IN THAT DOC THAT THE CDF “CAJOLED” BISHOPS’ CONFERENCES TO ESTABLISH GUIDELINES FOR HANDLING SEXUAL ABUSE.

He claims that “The best interests of children . . .has been a central tenet of the Holy See’s efforts for at least the past decade.”

Really? In our view, the Vatican ever-so-slightly (and belatedly) gave a slap on the wrist to a notoriously corrupt serial predator (Fr. Marcial Maciel) and ever-so-slightly sped up a smart legal defense and public relations maneuver – the defrocking of a tiny handful of the most egregious child molesting clerics, long after they’ve been caught and have devastated dozens of lives. That’s about it.

If Vatican officials put “the best interest of children first,” why won’t they turn over an accused Polish bishop, wanted for allegedly molesting several kids in the Dominican Republic, to law enforcement officials?

If Vatican officials put “the best interest of children first,” why do they let bishops suspend proven, admitted and credibly accused predator priests but not house or monitor them, so they end up living (and sometimes working) among unsuspecting neighbors who are never warned there’s a predator in their midst?

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014

For more information:

David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Clergy sex victims seek more info on charges
NH church official pled guilty to felony theft
But amount he stole from 3 institutions remains hidden
“Citizens and Catholics deserve to know more,” SNAP says

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging New Hampshire’s Catholic bishop and attorney general to release more information about the crimes of an admitted thief who has been a long time top diocesan official.

[New Hampshire Public Radio]

[Concord Monitor]

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are urging Bishop Peter Anthony Libasci and Attorney General Joseph Foster to “tell parishioners and the public how much Msgr. Edward Arsenault has stolen and whether he’s suspected of other misdeeds too.”

“Catholic bishops have pledged to be ‘open’ about clergy crimes, yet Bishop Libasci is revealing almost nothing about Msgr. Arsenault’s theft,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “We understand not wanting to compromise an on-going investigation, but can’t see how telling people whether this diocesan official stole $4,500 or $450,000 – and may have broken other laws – hurts in any way.”

“No one in the Manchester diocese has said anything for months about the accusation that Msgr. Arsenault has committed sexual misconduct with an adult,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP’s outreach director. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or years to determine whether that allegation has merit and it’s callous and self-serving for Bishop Libasci to let this charge languish.”

“We hope these officials will do the right thing and disclose more about both the theft and the abuse allegation and any other wrong doing,” Dorris said. “We also hope that anyone who has seen, suspected or suffered clergy crimes and cover ups in New Hampshire – whether financial or sexual – will report to secular officials, not church officials.”

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UNITED STATES
Daily Kos

Betty Clermont

A “dossier” accusing papal nuncio Archbishop Josef Wesolowski of sex abuse of minors was sent to Pope Francis sometime in July by Santo Domingo Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez. The pope found the information credible enough to dismiss Wesolowski, nuncio to both the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, on Aug. 21 via confidential letter N.2706/PR to the bishops of both countries.

Neither the civil authorities nor the public knew about Wesolowski until a local TV program did an expose’ on Aug. 31. The result of a year-long investigation, the broadcast contained testimony from residents of the Zona Colonial in Santo Domingo that Wesolowski paid minors for sex.

Three days after the TV broadcast, a local bishop confirmed that Wesolowski had been recalled for sexually abusing minors.

Wesolowski reportedly had left the country only a few days before. There were accusations that the pope allowed his nuncio to escape and speculation that Wesolowski fled to Haiti where children are even more desperately poor.

On Sept. 23, the Dominican Republic’s Justice Ministry confirmed there was evidence of pedophilia against Wesolowski. A deacon confessed to “pimping” minors for the prelate who allegedly waited in his vehicle nearby. The deacon, Francisco Javier Occi Reyes, who is being held in pretrial prison on pedophilia charges, was arrested when one of Wesolowski’s alleged victims alerted a police officer. The deacon said on that occasion Wesolwski left but said nothing because he thought the Church’s influence would get him out of prison.

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UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

They’re going to use the abortion references in the UN report to disparage the entire report, thus being able to ignore and negate the part about clergy abuse:

This was probably the Vatican scheme from the start. Why else “cooperate” with the UN commission at all?

Who inserted the abortion and reproductive rights issue and language into a report on abuse and neglect of children?

Now the Vatican has a door wide open allowing them to refuse to have anything to do with the UN Commission and get away with it.

And that’s just what they will do. Watch.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

[with video]

6 February 2014

A Vatican spokesman has accused the United Nations watchdog for children’s rights of ‘”intervening” in doctrinal practice.

A report by the group denounced the Holy See for adopting policies which allowed priests to sexually abuse thousands of children. It also criticised Vatican attitudes towards homosexuality, contraception and abortion.

Father Thomas Rosica, of the Holy See press office, told BBC Newsnight that the Catholic Church accepted it had a problem with child abuse and that “crimes had been committed”, but said the committee had “gone over the top in asserting themselves in areas over which they have no competence whatsoever”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

By FR ALEXANDER LUCIE-SMITH on Thursday, 6 February 2014

I was out and about yesterday, and so not at home to pick up the email from a television news programme asking me to give a live interview about the recent UN report on the Vatican and what is always known as “clerical sex abuse”.

If I had been available, what would I have said?

Any proper response would have to rely on a thorough reading of the entire UN report, something for which one does not have the time, nor, often, reports being what they are, the inclination. But one can rely on reports of the report, such as the one in the Daily Telegraph, or this unusually long, detailed and balanced one in the Guardian.

First a bit of background. This matter is not primarily about “clerical sexual abuse” per se. The Holy See is a signatory to the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child, and thus the UN has the right to monitor the way the Holy See implements this charter of rights. The committee’s remit is thus a broad one, enabling it to look at child welfare in toto, not just part of it. Of course it has chosen to focus on sexual abuse, and this is hardly surprising, as sexual abuse is a serious issue in child welfare, indeed the most serious issue.

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ROME
Telegraph (UK)

By Nick Squires, Rome 06 Feb 2014

A woman whose three-year-old son was taken from her by the Catholic Church more than 60 years ago has called on the Vatican to open up its files on the policy of forced adoptions.

Philomena Lee’s tragic story inspired the film Philomena, which stars Dame Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, who wrote the screenplay.

Mrs Lee, now 80, who met Pope Francis on Wednesday at an audience in St Peter’s Square, was 18 and unmarried when she fell pregnant in Ireland in 1952.

Like tens of thousands of other Irish women, she was told her pregnancy out of wedlock was a sin and was shamed into giving up her child for adoption.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

The Chicago Archdiocese has added a former Roman Catholic priest at a Schaumburg church to its updated list of clergy who have substantiated allegations of abuse against them, the Chicago Tribune is reporting.

Joseph Wilk, the former pastor of St. Matthew Catholic Church in Schaumburg, was accused of abusing a 10-year-old in 1995, the Tribune is reporting.

Archdiocese officials on Wednesday confirmed the addition of Wilk’s name to a list of priests who have substantiated claims of abuse against them, the Tribune reports on their website.

Wilk resigned from the priesthood in 2010, the Tribune reports.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

Editorial

Even when the survivors catch a break – and catch a big one they did in the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Report – they still can’t catch a break.

First, the break they caught: for the first time, on a major international scale the world has heard what the victims have been saying for years. That’s historic. The David of Truth has slain the Goliath of the Code of Silence.

For that, the survivors deserve an immense amount of credit.

It’s only through the courage, the perseverance, and the suffering of the survivors that the people in the pews and the world at large have learned of the extent of this largest crisis in the Roman Catholic Church in 500 years.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child Report is described in news reports as “scathing,” and “blistering” against the Vatican regarding sexual abuse.

The Church is called out on a global stage for its “code of silence” and the upholding of the Church’s reputation and the protection of the perpetrators over concern for and action on behalf of children — the victims.

Here are links to news coverage of the UN Report:

[New York Times]

[Catholic Culture]

[Los Angeles Times]

Within the Los Angeles Times report is the UN Document.

The report did call for the “immediate removal of all known and suspected child abuses” from their positions and the referring of the matters to law enforcement for prosecution

The report did acknowledge the cover –up by the hierarchy

What it did not do is call for the removal, immediate or otherwise, of those who covered up from their positions of authority and esteem in the Church or the entry of law enforcement to investigate them.

We ask our readers to act and re-double efforts as citizens to be heard at every level of government in the United States, at the federal level in the US Departments of Justice and State, the Congress, State Legislatures and School Boards to move the fight forward to protect children and open wide the opportunities for access to justice to survivors.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 6 February 2014 (VIS) – Yesterday afternoon Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, permanent observer for the Holy See at the United Nations in Geneva, commented on the concluding observations of the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child, which were very critical regarding the issue of the abuse of minors by members of the clergy and the actions taken by the Vatican and the Holy See on the matter, and urges revision of the Church’s teaching on certain themes such as contraception and abortion.

“My first impression: we need to wait, read attentively and analyse in detail what the members of this Commission have written”, commented the nuncio. “But my first reaction is of surprise, because of the negative aspects of the document they have produced and that it looks almost as if it were already prepared before the meeting of the Committee with the delegation of the Holy See, which had given in detail precise responses on various points, which have not been reported in this conclusive document or at least have not seemed to be taken into serious consideration. In fact, the document does not seem to be updated, taking into account what, over the last few years, has been done by the Holy See, with the measures taken directly from the authority of Vatican City State and then in various countries by the individual Episcopal Conferences. It therefore lacks a correct and updated perspective, which in reality has seen a series of changes for the protection of children that, it seems to me, are difficult to find, at the same level of commitment, in other institutions or even in other States. This is simply a question of facts, of evidence, which cannot be distorted!”.

With regard to the Holy See’s reaction to the document, the archbishop affirmed that “the Holy See will respond, because it is a member, a State that is part of the Convention: it has ratified it and intends to observe it in the spirit and letter of this Convention, without added ideologies or impositions that lie outside of the Convention itself. For instance: in its Preamble, the Convention on the Protection of Children talks about the defence of life and the protection of children before and after birth; whereas the recommendation made to the Holy See is that of changing its position on the question of abortion! Of course, when a child is killed it no longer has rights! Hence this seems to me to be a real contradiction of the fundamental objective of the Convention, which is the protection of children. This Committee has not done a good service to the United Nations, seeking to introduce and request the Holy See to change its non-negotiable teaching! So, it is somewhat sad to see that the Committee has not grasped in depth the nature and functions of the Holy See that, however, has expressed clearly to the Committee its decision to carry forward the Convention’s requests on the rights of the child, but defining precisely and protecting first of all those fundamental values that give real and effective protection to the child”.

The observer for the Holy See also commented on the fact that the United Nations had said at one time that the Vatican had responded better than other countries to the protection of minors, and with regard to the change of opinion expressed in the document published yesterday, he said, “the introduction to the final report recognised the clarity of the answers that were given; there was no attempt to avoid any request made by the Committee, on the basis of the evidence available, and where there was no immediate information, we had promised to provide it in the future, according to the directives of the Holy See, as all countries do. So it seemed to be a constructive dialogue and I think it should remain as such. Therefore, given the impression received through direct dialogue by the delegation of the Holy See with the Committee and the text of the conclusions and recommendations, it is tempting to say that probably that text had already been written, and does not reflect the input and clarity, other than by some hasty addition, to that which had already been offered. So we must, with serenity and on the basis of the evidence – because we have nothing to hide! – bring forth the explanation of the position of the Holy See, respond to the questions that remain, so that the fundamental objective that is to be pursued – the protection of children – can be achieved. We are talking about 40 million cases of child abuse in the world: unfortunately some of these cases – even though in small proportions in comparison to all those that are happening in the world – affect people in the Church. And the Church has responded and reacted and continues to do so! We must insist on this policy of transparency, of no tolerance of abuse, because even one single case of child abuse is one case too many!”

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

In Newcastle Local Court (New South Wales) on 5 February 2014, a Marist Brother (Darcy John O’Sullivan, known as Brother “Dominic”) was committed for trial on eight charges of indecently assaulting four schoolboys in the 1970s. In written police statements, the former students alleged that they were indecently handled by Brother Dominic while in class, and they allegedly saw him placing his hands into other students’ shorts.

Brother “Dominic”, now elderly, is retired from teaching and resides at a Marist Brothers facility in Queensland. He was charged under his birth name, Darcy John O’Sullivan. “Dominic” is the religious name that he adoped when he joirned the Marist Brothers.

Police charged Brother Dominic with having indecently assaulted the four boys, aged 14 and 15, at the Marist Brothers Hamilton school in Newcastle. The offences allegedly occurred in 1971 and 1972.

The court received written statements, signed by each of the ex-students.

The statement from one student alleged that Brother Dominic put his hand up the boy’s shorts and squeezed the boy’s penis. The boy stated that he yelled at Brother Dominic: ‘‘F— off and leave me alone’’.

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INDIA
Hill Post

Dhradun: Perturbed by the alleged molestation attempt of a 28-year-old woman in a Delhi hotel by the ‘rawal’ (chief priest) of the famed Badrinath shrine, that has sent shock waves amongst the Hindu community in general and residents of the upper reaches of Uttarakhand in particular, the Badri-Kedar Temple Committee has decided to ban pilgrims going to the residence of the ‘rawal’ and other priests and dignitaries of the temple for their blessings.

Hoping that this would prevent the pilgrims from coming to a one-to-one meeting with the ‘rawal’ and other dignitaries, and thereby avoid such a situation which has made the head of the Committee members and the Hindu community hang their heads in shame, there was a strong feeling that the practice of going to the residences of the ‘rawal’ and other dignitaries of the temple created personal attachments and relations, which were best avoidable.

Amongst other preventive measures that have been adopted following the arrest of the chief priest of the temple, Keshavan Namboodri, by the Delhi police in the alleged molestation bid, the Committee has also decided that all workers and volunteers working at the temple premises will wear dhotis while in the temple, so that they can be easily identified. It was decided that employees and volunteers not wearing dhotis would not be allowed inside the temple premises.

Even as the special committee formed by the Badri-Kedar Temple Committee to probe into the allegations of molestation by the ‘rawal’ has got in touch with the Delhi police to get information in the matter before a final decision on the continuing of Keshavan Namboodri as ‘rawal’ is taken, it was also decided that use of mobile phones would be banned in the temple premises.

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

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

Because the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has no police power, it relies on moral pressure to get member states to adopt its child protection recommendations. That is obviously what it hoped to accomplish with Wednesday’s report on the Vatican and the child abuse scandals that have rocked Catholicism over the last dozen years, issuing a stinging indictment of what it called a culture of “impunity” for perpetrators.

There is a strong possibility the fusillade from the UN panel may backfire, however, by blurring the cause of child protection with the culture wars over sexual mores.

In several sections of its report, the committee joins its critique on abuse with blunt advice to Rome to jettison church teaching on matters such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception. At one stage, the panel even recommends repealing a codicil of church law that imposes automatic excommunication for participating in an abortion.

Not only are those bits of advice most unlikely to be adopted, they may actually strengthen the hand of those still in denial in the church about the enormity of the abuse scandals by allowing them to style the UN report as an all-too-familiar secular criticism driven by politics.

That could overshadow the fact that there are, in truth, many child protection recommendations in the report that the church’s own reform wing has long championed.

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VATICAN CITY
New Straits Times

The UN’s damning report on the Vatican’s handling of child sex abuse cases has turned up the pressure on the Church to convince a sceptical international community it has adopted a zero-tolerance approach.

“The Vatican has taken some steps forward, but they have been largely symbolic: energetic words rather than actions. The UN is right to have spoken out so strongly,” Vatican commentator Paolo Flores D’Arcais told AFP.

The Church was denounced by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on Wednesday for failing to stamp out predatory priests, and urged to hand over known and suspected abusers for prosecution.

The UN committee’s recommendations are non-binding but have held up a fresh mirror to highly damaging Vatican failures.

The report was a bolt from the blue for an institution revelling in the popularity of its new pope, Francis, who has spoken little of the abuse and who appeared to hope the Church had left the crisis behind it.

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UNITED STATES
NPR – All Things Considered

[with audio]

by SYLVIA POGGIOLI
February 05, 2014

The United Nations watchdog for children’s rights has accused the Vatican of caring more about its own reputation and members of the clergy than the victims of sexual abuse. The group is calling for the Vatican to immediately remove any priests suspected of sexually abusing children.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I’m Audie Cornish.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I’m Melissa Block. The Vatican is angered by a UN report issued today that looks into the church’s record on child sexual abuse. A UN committee on the rights of children is demanding the Roman Catholic Church turn over archives relating to how it dealt with priests. It accuses the Vatican of policies that effectively allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children worldwide. NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli joins me from Rome to talk about that.

And Sylvia, tell us more about just what this report says.

SYLVIA POGGIOLI, BYLINE: Well, it expressed grave concern that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed by priests and has not taken the necessary steps to address cases of child sex abuse. The report came out just a few weeks after Vatican officials were grilled for an entire day in Geneva on the Holy See’s implementation of the international treaty on the rights of the child.

The report also urges the Vatican to immediately remove all known or suspected child abusers from the clergy and turn them over to the police. And in the key point, the committee rejects the Vatican’s longstanding claim that it does not control bishops or their abuses priests. The report claims the Holy See is responsible for implementation of the international treaty it signed, not just in Vatican City, but around the world as the supreme power of the Catholic Church.

BLOCK: Now, Sylvia, this report from the UN also went beyond the issue of child sex abuse. It also called for changes in traditional church attitudes. What specifically did it say?

POGGIOLI: Well, the committee severely criticized the Vatican for its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception and abortion and urged it to review its policies to insure children’s rights and their access to healthcare, including abortion, for example, in a case to save the life of a young mother. In response, the Vatican said the report was distorted, unfair and ideologically slanted.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSHB

By: ALAN SCHER ZAGIER

ST. LOUIS (AP) – The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the Archdiocese of St. Louis must release the names of more than 100 church employees accused of sexual abuse over the past 20 years as part of a civil lawsuit it faces.

The denial of an archdiocese request upholds a St. Louis judge’s earlier decision. The names will be released only to an unnamed woman suing the diocese and her attorneys, not to the general public.

The lawsuit was filed in 2011 by a 19-year-old woman who claimed the abuse began when she was 5 years old and attended St. Cronan’s parish.

The priest, who was later defrocked, had been convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy at a parish in University City decades earlier. He then received treatment and was reassigned to St. Cronan’s.

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IRELAND
Reuters

By Padraic Halpin FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Advocacy groups for women forced to work at the Catholic Church’s notorious Magdalene laundries in Ireland backed calls from the United Nations for religious orders to pay compensation and face prosecution for decades of abuse.

In an unprecedented report on Wednesday, the U.N. demanded that the Vatican “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers. It also urged the Holy See to conduct an investigation into the laundries.

Women, many unmarried mothers, sent to the laundries were made wash items for business, hospitals and state bodies in slave-like conditions, and were often subject to cruel and degrading treatment as well as physical and sexual abuse, the report by the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said.

“The state has allowed the perpetrators of these crimes to get away without taking responsibility,” said Steven O’ Riordan, director of Magdalene Survivors Together. “The religious orders are still not being held accountable, they have never apologized directly for their part in running the laundries.”

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY BRIAN HUTTON – 06 FEBRUARY 2014

The United Nations has openly challenged Pope Francis to launch an investigation into decades of abuse of girls and young women at Catholic-run workhouses in Ireland.

It has also demanded the religious orders involved or the Vatican itself pay compensation to survivors and families of victims of the notorious Magdalene Laundries.

In a blistering attack on Rome’s response to the laundries scandal – recalled in the recently Oscar-nominated film Philomena – the UN’s children’s rights watchdog said the church took no action to investigate the abuse.

Nor did church authorities compel nuns who ran the workhouses to co-operate with police inquiries into those who organised and knowingly profited from unpaid work by girls incarcerated in the laundries, the UN said.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

06 FEBRUARY 2014

THE United Nations has singled out Ireland’s Magdalene laundries scandal as part of a devastating onslaught on the Catholic Church’s handling of clerical abuse.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child accused the Vatican of systematically turning a blind eye to decades of sexual abuse of children by priests, and demanded it immediately turn over known or suspected offenders to face justice.

And the UN committee launched a scathing attack on Ireland’s shameful treatment of women incarcerated in the Magdalene laundries.

Crucially, the UN report stated that the Magdalene women who were “arbitrarily confined” in institutions run by four religious orders of sisters should be paid compensation by the church.

The United Nations report was issued on the same day that Pope Francis met Philomena Lee, the campaigner who has called on the Government to open up adoption records and reunite mothers separated from their children as a result of forced adoption.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE STATE HAS been called on to begin immediate action on the Magdalene Laundries restorative justice scheme.

The call came from JFM Research as it welcomed a UN Report on the Holy See.

Today’s report from the UN watchdog for children’s rights said that the Vatican should immediately remove all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers, and turn them over to civil authorities.
Magdalenes

Today, JFM said that the Catholic church and the four religious orders that ran Magdalene Laundries in Ireland “have refused to accept unanimous survivor testimony that they were imprisoned and subjected to forced labour and torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM

[with audio]

TONY EASTLEY: A United Nations committee is calling on the Vatican to immediately remove all known and suspected child abusers from their posts and hand over their files to police.

In a damning report the UN’s watchdog for children’s rights lambasted the Vatican for implementing policies it said allowed thousands of children worldwide to be abused.

The Catholic Church in turn has accused the UN body of interference and of being out of touch.

Europe correspondent Barbara Miller reports.

BARBARA MILLER: The report by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child pulls no punches.

Committee chairwoman Kirsten Sandberg:

KIRSTEN SANDBERG: The main finding of the committee was that the Holy See has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.

BARBARA MILLER: The committee said the Church should remove immediately from their positions all known or suspected child abusers and hand over any case files to relevant authorities.

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GENEVA
PRI

[with audio]

A United Nations panel had harsh words for the Vatican overs its handling of child sex abuse cases.

Kirsten Sandberg, chairwoman of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, said the main finding of the report was that the Holy See adopted policies and practices that led to continued abuse by, and no punishment for, the perpetrators.

“The Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the Church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests,” she said.

The panel asked the Vatican to remove all known or suspected child molesters from their posts and report them to civil authorities. It also demanded that the Vatican open its files on members of the clergy who had “concealed their crimes” so that they could be held accountable.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Maeve O’Rourke and James M Smith

Thu, Feb 6, 2014

It is almost a year since the Taoiseach made his emotional apology to survivors of the Magdalene Laundries, and yet these women continue to suffer poverty, ill-health and trauma after decades of State-sponsored abuse.

It may surprise the Irish public to discover no legislation has been tabled to provide for the restorative justice scheme recommended by Mr Justice John Quirke last May. To those of us who campaigned against previous denial and delay, this represents more of the same.

Over the past few weeks, Magdalene survivors have begun to receive formal offer letters from the State. In them, the Department of Justice offers a lump sum payment, but states that all other aspects of the scheme remain subject to legislation or discussions with other Government departments.

These additional elements are therefore unspecified, apart from the statutory old age pensions, to be paid from “early 2014”. Disturbingly, many core aspects of Mr Justice Quirke’s scheme are not mentioned in the Terms of an Ex Gratia Scheme , a 13-page document accompanying the offer letters.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Thomas Oriti
Updated Wed 5 Feb 2014

An inquiry into physical and sexual abuse at a Salvation Army boys home in Queensland has been told child welfare officers were aware of the concerns, but the home continued to operate.

A former social worker Roy Short has been asked why more was not done to address reports of severe abuse at the boys home.

Salvation Army officers are accused of beating and raping boys at the Alkira boys home in the Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly in the 1970s.

Lawyers at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have been attempting to gather further information in light of revelations that boys were also being flown to Sydney as part of a prostitution network.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source AAP

The Salvation Army wanted to know why the NSW department of child welfare had not let them handle a child sex abuse allegation against one of their officers instead of going to police, an inquiry has heard.

The chief executive of the NSW Department of Community Services, Maree Walk gave evidence at a public hearing of the royal commission into child sexual abuse in Sydney on Thursday.

Her evidence was based on a review of how the department supervised two Salvation Army homes in the 1970s – Bexley Boys’ Home in Sydney’s south and the Gill Memorial Home in Goulburn.

Documents showed that in February 1974, a NSW welfare officer reported to police that the manager of the Gill home, who has been identified as X17, had indecently assaulted a boy.

Records also show a Salvation Army officer identified as Major X4 called the department “to raise the question of why the matter had not been handled by way of reference direct to the Salvation Army”.

The welfare officer at the time responded that the provision of the law required it be referred and wrote a memo saying “Major X4 was obviously disappointed in this attitude, but I am still of the opinion that was the correct course to take”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Thomas Oriti

A former child welfare officer has launched a stinging attack on state and federal governments, telling a public inquiry they have historically failed to properly provide for children in need.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is currently examining four boys homes operated by the Salvation Army in New South Wales and Queensland.

Former residents have cried as they recalled years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of Salvation Army officers and older boys in the 1960s and 1970s.

Janice Doyle was a supervisor at the Queensland Department of Children’s Services in 1975 and observed conditions in Salvation Army homes at Riverview and Indooroopilly.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

United Nations Releases Scathing Report on Handling of Abuse Crisis by Catholic Authorities

The United Nations Committee on Protection of the Rights of the Child has now released its report (pdf file) following the Vatican’s grilling (and here) by that committee in mid-January. The report is scathing. The committee report urges the Vatican to act immediately to remove from ministry all priests known to have abused or suspected of having abused children, and to report them to civil authorities.

In dry, understated statements, the committee notes (e.g., I.2) that the Vatican has stonewalled the U.N. for years now, as that body has sought to call the Vatican (and the Catholic hierarchy as a whole) to accountability for its handling of the abuse crisis in the Catholic church. As the report suggests, at the recent hearing before the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Vatican continued its obfuscation, refusing to answer direct questions in any direct manner:

The Committee regrets that most of the recommendations contained in the Committee’s concluding observations of 1995 on the initial report of the Holy See (CRC/C/15/Add.46) have not been fully addressed (IV.9).

The committee flatly rejects (III.8) the argument that Archbishop Silvano Tomasi and Bishop Charles Scicluna sought to float at their recent hearing before the U.N. committee–that is, that the Vatican has no effective authority over bishops in dioceses around the world, or over the superiors of religious communities. The committee also rejects the Vatican argument that it has complied with the concerns of the U.N. about children’s rights and safety, when canon law continues to ignore the provisions of the U.N. about these matters, “in particular those relating to children‘s rights to be protected against discrimination, violence and all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse” (IV.13)

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
FEB. 5, 2014

A United Nations report excoriated the Vatican on Wednesday for failing to live up to international commitments to protect children, finding the widespread sexual abuse of children by priests had been compounded by church policies that allowed abusers to continue to prey on youngsters.

The documented evidence in recent decades shows the finding by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child was a well-deserved judgment, particularly as Vatican officials continue to insist the many thousands of cases of child rape and abuse by clergy were a matter outside their domain and best left to the discretion of local civil authorities.

The United Nations panel went to the heart of the matter in rejecting the church officials’ claims that they were responsible for enforcing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child only within the geographical limits of Vatican City and not globally through their power over the Roman Catholic diocesan hierarchy.

In practice, this policy fed the pattern of cover-up by local church officials who sent abusers to other parishes and ducked the obligation to notify civil authorities of crimes. Since it was the Vatican that ratified the children’s rights convention, it is responsible for ensuring its provisions are followed down to the parish level, the report said.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

[with audio]

By SBS

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child says tens of thousands of children worldwide had been abused systemically for years within the Catholic Church, and little has been done to redress the wrong doings.

The report accuses the Catholic Church of covering up the crimes by transferring abusers to different parishes, which it says facilitated the continuation of abuse.

It criticises the Church for dealing with accusations behind closed doors, allowing the vast majority of abusers to escape judicial proceedings.

Victims of clergy abuse advocate, Wayne Chamley of Broken Rites, says the church still doesn’t realise that the era of policing itself has finished.

“They don’t seem to realise that those days are over and what’s been going on around the world in things like the royal commision in Ireland, and the royal commission in Australia the Victorian inquiry etc, they’re being required to come to a process of scrutiny that they can’t control and they still don’t have the mindset that the days of self examination are over. It’s just not acceptable to the public and it’s not acceptable to the government.”

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NEW ZEALAND
Radio New Zealand

An organisation representing male survivors of sexual abuse including some abused by priests, says the Catholic Church in New Zealand, like other countries, is still in denial.

In a scathing report on the Vatican’s policies, the United Nations’ watchdog for children’s rights says Church officials imposed a code of silence on clerics and moved abusers from parish to parish in an attempt to cover up such crimes.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child says “tens of thousands of children worldwide” were abused systemically for years within the Catholic Church. It urged Church hierarchy to “immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers and refer them to relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution purposes”.

The Catholic Church in New Zealand says all complaints of abuse are given to police and a code of silence has not been evident in the country for at least 20 years.

A spokesperson for its national office for professional standards, Bill Kilgallon, said cover-ups did happen in the past.

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VATICAN CITY
euronews

The Vatican has described a scathing United Nations report in which the Catholic Church is accused of turning a blind eye to decades of child sex abuse by priests, as “distorted” and “unfair”.

In a written statement the Church reiterated its commitment to defending and protecting the rights of the child and described the UN report as ideologically slanted.

The Vatican’s Ambassador to the UN, Silvano Maria Tomasi added that the Holy See as head of the Vatican City had already changed its procedures and introduced measures which are specifically designed to prevent child sex abuse.

The UN committee which wrote the report, heard first hand witness statements from abuse victims at a grilling of the Vatican delegation in Geneva last month.

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UNITED STATES
Voice of Russia

[with audio]

By Andrew Hiller

WASHINGTON (VR)– The care of our children, both physical and psychological, is one of the most important duties of a family, community, or culture. When cracks appear in that duty, even if from a small minority, it can cause great concern. On Wednesday, a United Nations panel strongly rebuked the Vatican arguing that it has failed to acknowledge the scale of sexual abuse that has been perpetrated by its clergy and facilitated by policies that have led to “the continuation of the abuse and the impunity of the perpetrators.”

To analyze the UN’s remarks and how the Catholic Church can or should respond, VR’s Andrew Hiller spoke with Father Thomas J. Reese. Reese is a Senior Analyst for National Catholic Reporter.

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IRAN
Press TV

[with video]

A group representing victims of child sex abuse at the Catholic Church has called on the Vatican to prosecute offending priests.

In an interview with Italy’s edition of the English-language news publisher, The Local, on Wednesday, Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said more action needs to be taken by the Holy See concerning systematic child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

“Church officials have refused to take any action that will protect children. All Pope Francis has done is set up a commission but that does not protect children,” Blaine said.

A report by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recently shed new light on decades of such scandals.

The report criticized the Holy See for adopting policies that allow the clergy to sexually abuse children with impunity.

The Vatican, however, said in a statement that it was committed to “defending and protecting the rights of the child” and would submit the findings to “a thorough study and examination.”

However, SNAP described the Vatican response to the UN report as inadequate, adding that child abuse will remain as long as those church officials who are protecting the offending priests are not prosecuted.

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ALABAMA
Montgomery Advertiser

MUSCLE SHOALS – The children’s minister at a northwest Alabama church is facing more than 30 counts of sex abuse.

Muscle Shoals Police Chief Robert Evans said 42-year-old Jeffrey Dale Eddie of Muscle Shoals is charged with 31 counts of second-degree sodomy, three counts of sexual abuse of a child younger than 12 and two counts of possession of obscene material depicting children.

Eddie’s lawyer, Billy Underwood, said his client is a well-loved children’s minister at Highland Park Baptist Church.

Underwood told The TimesDaily that there are two sides to every story. Underwood said he thinks there’s “another side to the story that might exonerate him.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Eamon Duffy
The Guardian, Thursday 6 February 2014

This history of Catholic confession is in large part an impassioned response to sexual abuse by the clergy. But does it focus too much on sex?

Any Catholic over the age of 50 will have vivid memories of a now largely abandoned spiritual discipline, weekly or monthly visits to church to confess one’s sins to a priest. Beforehand, you prayerfully examined your conscience, working through the ways in which you might have broken the commandments, or succumbed to the “capital” or deadly sins – pride, envy, lust, wrath, avarice, gluttony and sloth. When your turn came (there was usually a queue) you entered the “dark box” of John Cornwell’s title, where, behind a shuttered grille, the priest waited for you to unload your fardle of failings. He might ask for clarification or offer advice before imposing a “penance” (usually reciting a few Hail Maries). Then, while you said an “act of contrition”, expressing sorrow and resolve not to sin again, the priest pronounced absolution.

This ritual might be a cursory routine lasting a couple of minutes or a searching ordeal that probed the soul. As parish priest and university chaplain, the future Pope John Paul II regularly detained penitents for up to an hour. Protestants dismissed confession as a licence to commit sin, confess glibly, then sin again. Posh Catholics in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited spoke of “going to scrape”, which perhaps lent credibility to the Protestant charge. But one way or another, in the years after the Second Vatican Council, those long queues dwindled to nothing, as Catholics in their millions simply stopped attending. Despite vehement attempts by John Paul II to promote its revival, frequent confession is now the custom of the few.

Private confession originated among soul-searching Irish monks in dark-age Europe. Backed by a ferocious tariff of punishments or “penances” for grave sins, the practice spread to the wider church, as a way of regulating the morals of a half-Christianised and often brutal lay world. Pastoral common sense gradually moderated the penances, and annual confession became mandatory for adults in the early 13th century as the emerging parish system gave everyone access to a local priest. This new discipline was in part a way of policing morals, in part a forum in which, as anxiety grew about heresy, orthodox Christian teaching could be transmitted and quizzed. From the 16th century onwards spiritual directors saw the sacrament as a means of promoting a more interiorised religion among the pious, while revivalist Catholic preachers saw it as an instrument to convert and civilise rural populations, whom they perceived as barely Christian and sunk in sin.

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FINLAND
Helsinki Times

A United Nations committee issued a scathing indictment Wednesday of the Vatican’s handling of cases of child sexual abuse involving clerics, releasing a report that included criticism of church teachings on homosexuality, gender equality and abortion.

The report demanded that the Vatican immediately turn over to criminal investigators any known or suspected abusers and end its “code of silence” by enforcing rules ordering dioceses to report abuse to local authorities. It also called on the Vatican to open its archives on sexual allegations against clerics.

The range of the report appeared to infuriate the Vatican, which last month sent two top officials to appear before the UN panel in Geneva for the first public accounting of the Holy See’s handling of abuse allegations. Officials said they are still studying the findings, but responded angrily to what they described as recommendations that are ideologically biased. They said the United Nations has no right to weigh in on church teachings. …

Although some Catholic leaders deemed the report anti-Catholic, an expert on the United Nations said there generally isn’t tension between the organisation and religion.

Wednesday’s critique of the Catholic Church around reproductive issues in particular recalled the clash of worldviews with the Holy See at the 1994 UN population conference in Cairo, where some participants called the Vatican to task for its stance against contraception. But some experts said it was rare for the United Nations to comment on religious doctrine.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Jack Quann

The head of Amnesty International in Ireland says the Vatican must not turn itself into a victim over a scathing report from the UN. A high-level committee yesterday accused it of failing to protect children from sexual abuse.

It also called for the church to investigate the Magdelene Laundries in Ireland and similar institutions.

The UN Committee of the Rights of the Child is also demanding all archives be handed over so any culprits can be held to account. The report was produced following the public questioning of Vatican officials last month.

The month-long investigation examined cases of clerics who have been “involved in the abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide”.

The Committee said their investigation had shown the Holy See has adopted policies which has led to the continuation of abuse.

Kirsten Sandberg, Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, said yesterday “It is a horrible thing that has been kept silent…the abuse has been going on and on”.

It has now recommended the Holy See immediately share any information on all cases of abuse – which follows criticism that the Vatican has declined to provide any data relating to the scandal.

The Committee has recommended the Holy See establish a framework for reporting and ensuring all members of the Catholic Church are educated on the issue.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has released the full text of its report that blasted the Vatican’s response to the abuse scandal.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child is responsible for examining compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a 1989 treaty signed by 193 states. (The United States is not bound by the treaty: although President Bill Clinton signed it in 1995, the Senate has not ratified it.) The Holy See signed the treaty in 1990, putting forward three reservations as it did so:

[The Holy See] interprets the phrase `Family planning education and services’ in article 24.2, to mean only those methods of family planning which it considers morally acceptable, that is, the natural methods of family planning.

[The Holy See] interprets the articles of the Convention in a way which safeguards the primary and inalienable rights of parents, in particular insofar as these rights concern education (articles 13 and 28), religion (article 14), association with others (article 15) and privacy (article 16).

[The Holy See declares] that the application of the Convention be compatible in practice with the particular nature of the Vatican City State and of the sources of its objective law (art. 1, Law of 7 June 1929, n. 11) and, in consideration of its limited extent, with its legislation in the matters of citizenship, access and residence.”
The treaty requires signatories to submit a report on their compliance within two years of ratification, and thereafter every five years. The Holy See submitted its first report nearly two decades ago but did not submit its second report until recently. At the beginning of its own 2014 report, the committee stated that it “regrets that the second periodic report was submitted with a considerable delay, which prevented the Committee from reviewing the implementation of the Convention by the Holy See for 14 years.”

In its 14-paragraph 1995 report on the Holy See’s compliance, the committee noted three areas of concern and offered five suggestions and recommendations. The committee asked the Holy See to withdraw its three reservations, expressed concern about gender discrimination in “Catholic schools and institutions,” and expressed concern about “the insufficient attention paid to the promotion of education of children on health matters, the development of preventive health care, guidance for parents and family planning education and services.”

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ALABAMA
WAFF

[court document]

[with video]

By Diana Crawford

MUSCLE SHOALS, AL (WAFF) –
The pastor of Highland Park Baptist Church spoke briefly Wednesday about the arrest of a children’s pastor facing charges of sexual abuse.

He has declined all requests for a separate interview, but at a press conference Wednesday, Pastor Brett Pitman said the church is outraged and saddened by the events that have unfolded over the last few days.

Pitman stressed the church’s top priority is to help those involved. He said children or families in search of counseling may contact the church office for assistance. He also thanked every person that has come forward, saying they are the heroes and should be treated as such.

“First and foremost, we are striving to assist any children and families that have been affected by these events. The health and well-being of these children is our number one priority at this time. For years, Highland Park Baptist Church has invested in the Shoals community and we are committed to helping our entire community cope with this situation,” Pitman said at the press conference.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Nicole Winfield, Vatican City

In a damning report, the UN committee also severely criticised the Holy See for its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception, and abortion and said it should change its own canon law to ensure children’s rights and their access to healthcare are guaranteed.

The UN blasted the “code of silence” that has long been used to keep victims quiet, saying the Holy See had “systematically placed preservation of the reputation of the Church and the alleged offender over the protection of child victims”. …

Executive director of abuse survivor group One in Four Maeve Lewis said: “This vindicates absolutely what survivors of abuse have been saying over the past decade. The Vatican has always tried to lay responsibility for child sexual abuse on the individual offenders and on local bishops.

“It has never admitted that its policies and regulations ensured that priests were protected at the expense of children’s safety. This falsehood is now exposed.

“If the Vatican is to retain any credibility it must immediately abide by the committee’s recommendations, hand over all its records and immediately put in place a policy of mandatory reporting of sexual crimes.”

The report urged the Holy See to establish clear rules for the mandatory reporting of abuse to police and to support laws that allow victims to report crimes even after the statute of limitations has expired.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Manya Brachear Pashman, Tribune reporter
9:22 p.m. CST, February 5, 2014

The Chicago Archdiocese has updated its list of clergy who have substantiated allegations of abuse against them to include a former Roman Catholic priest who was sued last May over claims of child sexual abuse.

Joseph Wilk, the former pastor of St. Matthew Catholic Church in Schaumburg, was accused in a suit filed in May of abusing Donnie Ophus starting in 1995, when he was 10 years old. Abuse continued after Ophus turned 18, according to the suit.

Archdiocese officials on Wednesday confirmed the addition of Wilk’s name to an online list of dozens of priests who have substantiated claims of abuse against them.

The suit claims that Wilk provided alcohol to Ophus and on two occasions in 2002 gave him $200 or $300. In an interview with the Tribune, Ophus said he threatened to go to authorities in 2003 if the priest didn’t give him $3,000. The priest gave him the money but made him agree in writing that he would not report the abuse to law enforcement or church authorities, Ophus said.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK

[with video]

Mike Rush, KSDK February 5, 2014

ST. LOUIS – After a months-long legal fight, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the Archdiocese of St. Louis must reveal the names of priests accused of sexually abusing minors. This all comes on the same day the United Nations is denouncing the Vatican for how they’ve handled sex abusers.

On the world stage, the Catholic Church is pushing back against the UN’s scathing report, but locally, with its legal options appearing to be exhausted, the Archdiocese of St. Louis is giving in, agreeing to reveal priests’ names it fought so hard to conceal.

The priests’ identities must be provided not to the public, but to lawyers suing on behalf of a female victim.

In a statement following the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling, the archdiocese said, in part, “We appreciate the concern given this case throughout the appellate process, and although we share the disappointment of the many innocent individuals who will be affected by it, the Archdiocese of St. Louis will comply with the court order entered by the Missouri Supreme Court.”

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UNITED STATES
NET – PBS Newshour

GWEN IFILL: The Vatican has long been criticized for its handling of sexual abuse cases, but today’s report from a United Nations panel was especially harsh.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child said the Vatican had not adequately acknowledged past crimes, and cultivated a code of silence that provided immunity for perpetrators. The Vatican calls the report distorted and unfair, in that it ignores corrective actions taken by the church.

Here to flesh out those arguments are Reverend Thomas Rosica, chief executive officer of Canada’s Catholic Salt and Light Television Network and an English-language spokesperson for the Vatican, and Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff attorney at the center for constitutional rights.

Reverend Rosica, how does this report, in your opinion, differ from what we have heard before?

REV. THOMAS ROSICA, Catholic Salt and Light Television Network: First of all, let me address the question of sex abuse, and that this report has a central mission to address that.

It is criminal. It is evil, and the church is doing everything possible to address the issue, particularly since 2001, when all of this exploded in Boston and other places in the United States. What I find disturbing about the report, basically three areas. It’s a great deal of ignorance that the committee reveals in the report, first of all, ignorance of what the church has already done, and what the church is doing, especially under the pontificate of Pope Benedict, and now under Pope Francis.

Secondly, there is gross mis-ignorance — gross ignorance, I should say, of the understanding of the reality of the church. How is the church structured? One could read the report and get the impression that the church is this huge monolithic structure, the headquarters, if you will, dictating to all the branch offices.

That’s not the reality of the church. And a very serious point of the report is its ability to meddle in the internal life of the church, in the basic tenets of our faith, what some would call the doctrinal issues. And the report is contradictory in a couple areas. …

KATHERINE GALLAGHER, Center for Constitutional Rights: Well, we see today is quite a historic day.

We at CCR represent of Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests. And for survivors who have been working for decades to bring to global attention the scope and scale and the severity of sexual violence against children, we are very gratified by the U.N.’s report today. It’s notable that the U.N. calls out not just the perpetrators, the individual perpetrators, but also the higher-level officials whose own practices and policies have enabled the continuation of sexual violence by covering up instances of violence — violence, by requiring confidentiality, by shifting priests from one jurisdiction to another without any warning, where they again commit more acts of sexual assault.

So we see today’s report, which recognizes that the Catholic Church, the Vatican puts its reputation over the safety of children, as a very, very welcome report.

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VATICAN CITY
Channel News Asia

VATICAN CITY: The UN’s damning report on the Vatican’s handling of child sex abuse cases has turned up the pressure on the Church to convince a sceptical international community it has adopted a zero-tolerance approach.

“The Vatican has taken some steps forward, but they have been largely symbolic: energetic words rather than actions. The UN is right to have spoken out so strongly,” Vatican commentator Paolo Flores D’Arcais told AFP.

The Church was denounced by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on Wednesday for failing to stamp out predatory priests, and urged to hand over known and suspected abusers for prosecution. …

“Publicly remove offenders from ministry”

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) dismissed as inadequate the Vatican’s tense response that it had “taken note” of the UN report and would submit it to “a thorough study and examination”.

“Bishops don’t move predators, shun victims, rebuff prosecutors, shred evidence, intimidate witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, dodge responsibility, fabricate alibis… because of inadequate ‘study’,” SNAP said.

“The quickest way to prevent child sexual violence by Catholic clerics is for Pope Francis to publicly remove all offenders from ministry…. But like his predecessors, he has refused to take even tiny steps in this direction,” it said.

The Vatican’s secretary of state Pietro Parolin spoke of the Church’s “desire to adhere to the commission’s needs”.

But frustration over the Vatican’s handling of the matter was expressed even by some Catholic groups.

“If the pope is serious about turning the page on this scandal, he should immediately dismiss any bishop who oversaw a diocese in which a priest who abused children was shielded from the civil authorities,” said Jon O’Brien, head of the US lobby group Catholics for Choice.

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By Michael Rezendes and Lisa Wangsness | GLOBE STAFF FEBRUARY 06, 2014

The Vatican was the subject Wednesday of a blistering critique by a UN human rights committee that accused the Catholic Church of systematically adopting policies that permitted priests to sexually abuse tens of thousands of children globally over the last several decades.

The United Nations committee faulted the church for failing to take effective measures to reveal the breadth of clergy sexual abuse in the past, and for not adopting measures to sufficiently protect Catholic children in the future.

“The committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse,” the report said. …

Terence McKiernan, president of the Massachusetts nonprofit Bishop Accountability, predicted that the impact of the UN findings will likely be profound.

“The depth and gravity of the Catholic Church’s abuse problem have now been confirmed by an international body,” McKiernan said.

Thomas H. Groome, professor of theology and religious education at Boston College, said the committee’s report should spur the Vatican to adopt stronger policies to prevent abuse.

“Whatever excuses the church may have cited for its egregious handling of clergy sexual abuse in the past (e.g., that it didn’t know the harm this did to children), it certainly has no excuse going forward,” Groome said in an e-mail. “It must embrace this report, facing it with total honesty, and then determine to implement what needs to be done to ensure that our church is never again so irresponsible and our Catholic faith never again so betrayed.”

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

There is little doubt but that the “negative” tone of yesterday’s UN report took the Holy See by surprise.
Three weeks ago, when the Vatican made its deposition in Geneva, it had done so in a climate of cordial co-operation, where its answers to hard questions seemed well received.

The Vatican delegation believed it had managed to get across one of its key points: that the Holy See had finally begun to get its house in order on the clerical sex abuse issue.

Implicit point

That point was implicit in a remark made in Geneva by former Vatican prosecutor Bishop Charles Scicluna, who said the Holy See now “gets it”, suggesting that in the past it had misunderstood and underestimated the clerical sex abuse issue.

The man who led that Holy See delegation, the Vatican’s permanent representative in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, seemed to reflect this view when he told Vatican Radio yesterday: “The report . . . points out a rather negative approach to what the Holy See has been doing and has already achieved in the area of protection of children. The first impression is that the report is in some ways not up to date.”

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UNITED STATES
Washington Times

By Meredith Somers-The Washington Times Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Conservative Catholic groups expressed outrage Wednesday over a U.N. panel’s scathing report on the Vatican’s sex abuse scandal, saying the oversight group overstepped its authority by calling for the Catholic Church to change some of its fundamental laws on homosexuality, birth control and abortion.

The Holy See referred to some parts of the report as “an attempt to interfere” with church teachings, and other Catholic advocates called the document offensive and an attack on the church.

“It shows a certain ignorance of how the church works,” said Ashley McGuire of The Catholic Association. “They don’t just change canon law. The church’s teachings, many of them are thousands of years old and are grounded in deep moral principle. To just fire a shot off the bow and not look at the actual reality of the last 10 years seems totally unfair and undermines the credibility of the report.”

Issued Wednesday by the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, the report is a response to the Holy See’s January update on how it is handling issues related to decades of child sex abuse by priests in the U.S. and around the world, and what it is doing to help the thousands of victims.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
TheMediaReport

Is the Catholic Church now responsible for hunting down and shadowing every past employee accused of abuse, and then constantly publicizing their whereabouts, no matter how long ago the alleged abuse occurred? A recent front page article for the Philadelphia Daily News by William Bender certainly appears to suggest so.

There can be no doubt that the alleged crimes committed by former Philadelphia priest James Brzyski years ago were abominable. But in an especially bad piece of journalism filled with hype and sensationalism (see the image of the front page of the Daily News that day), Bender quite incredibly faults the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for not issuing perpetual public updates on the exact whereabouts of Brzyski, even though he last functioned as a priest some 30 years ago.

Consider the following facts which Bender either ignored or only summarily mentioned:

* Records show that when the Archdiocese of Philadelphia first learned of allegations of abuse concerning Brzyski in 1984, it immediately removed him from his assignment;
* Bryzyski never again functioned publicly as a priest once the Archdiocese removed him; and
* the Archdiocese has publicly posted Brzyski’s assignment record on its web site for several years for anyone with an internet connection to review.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Review

SUBMITTED ON FEBRUARY 05, 2014

The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that the Archdiocese of St. Louis must release the names of alleged victims and priests who have been accused of sexual abuse of minors.

In its Feb. 5 ruling, the court denied a writ of prohibition requested by the archdiocese in response to a recent court order by Judge Robert Dierker granting a plaintiff’s attorney’s request for the release of contact information of alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse and of priests who have been accused of abuse. The ruling covers abuse allegations first made within the time frame of July 1, 1983 and June 30, 2003.

All information to be released is subject to a protective order, entered by Dierker, to prohibit public disclosure.

A statement from the archdiocese said that it will comply with the order. The statement also noted that although some allegations date back as far as the 1940s, all were reported within a 20-year window from 1983-2003. Most of the allegations predate the Catholic Church’s Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which was passed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002.

Dierker’s order stemmed from a 2011 lawsuit filed by a woman who said she was sexually abused by the former Father Joseph Ross, who has since been removed from the priesthood and from the clerical state.

In its statement, the archdiocese said it litigated to protect the privacy rights of all involved, including victims who had no connection to current litigation and who had come forth confidentially regarding their reported allegations. The request for information includes names, addresses and phone numbers.

“It is our fervent hope that today’s ruling will not deter victims from coming forward to report abuse,” according to the statement. “Sexual abuse is a sin and a crime. It remains the firm commitment of the Archdiocese of St. Louis to root out this evil whenever and wherever it presents itself within our ranks.

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ROME
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

There was widespread reaction in Rome, in Ireland and across the world to the report by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

In Rome, the Holy See issued a statement rejecting the Geneva committee’s attacks on Catholic teaching in the area of sexual mores.

“The Holy See . . . regrets to see in some points of the concluding observations an attempt to interfere with Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of the human person and in the exercise of religious freedom,” it said.

The UN watchdog for children’s rights said the Holy See should hand over its archives on sexual abuse so that culprits, as well as “those who concealed their crimes”, could be held accountable. Photograph: Tony Gentile/ReutersReputation of church ‘placed above children’s best interests’
“The Holy See reiterates its commitment to defending and protecting the rights of the child, in line with the principles promoted by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and according to the moral and religious values offered by the Catholic Church.”

‘Discriminatory’

Paragraph 25 of the committee’s report complains about the use of “discriminatory” language such as illegitimate children. It also argues that church teaching can lead to “the social stigmatisation of and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adolescents and children raised by same-sex couples”.

Lobby groups for victims of clerical sex abuse said the UN body’s findings supported long-held opinions.

In Ireland, One in Four said: “The report contains a scathing critique of the Catholic Church’s attempts to cover up the extent of the sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy and its failures to report incidents of abuse to civil authorities. This report by an international neutral body confirms what has long been suspected: that the Vatican had a far greater knowledge of the extent of clerical sexual abuse than it has ever acknowledged.”

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties said the report was “a devastating critique of systemic child protection failures by the Vatican”, and called on the papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, to indicate what action would be taken “to ensure that these shortcomings are rectified”.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Fox 2

[with video]

February 5, 2014, by Charles Jaco

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI)– The Missouri Supreme Court Wednesday ordered the St. Louis Archdiocese to turn over the names of more than 100 priests suspected of sexually abusing children over decades.

The names of the priests will be sealed, available only to the attorneys for a woman suing the archdiocese. She claims she was sexually abused by a priest starting when she was five years old and that the list of names going back to the 1980′s will show the archdiocese has a decades-old pattern of covering up for pedophile priests.

The Archdiocese was first ordered to turn over the names by a St. Louis Circuit Court Judge in November. But the archdiocese repeatedly appealed saying it was concerned with the privacy of both the accused and the victims. Following Wednesday’s Missouri Supreme Court ruling, the archdiocese says it will turn over the names, covering over 200separate incidents dating back to the 1980′s. In a statement, the Archdiocese said in part:

“The Archdiocese had litigated to protect the privacy rights of all concerned, including victims who had no connection to the current litigation and who had expressed anonymity regarding their reported allegation. The request for information includes not only names, but also addresses and phone numbers.”

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SPAIN
Zee News

Madrid: Spanish prosecutors have opened an investigation into newly chosen Spanish Cardinal Fernando Sebastian Aguilar after a gay-rights group accused him of hate speech for calling homosexuality a “defect”.

The public prosecutor for the southern province of Malaga, Juan Carlos Lopez, said he had opened a preliminary inquiry “to clarify whether the allegations constitute a criminal offence,” according to a document obtained yesterday.

Sebastian, who is close to Pope Francis, is one of 19 new cardinals chosen by the pontiff last month to be officially appointed on February 22.

A week after being picked, the 84-year-old archbishop emeritus of Pamplona gave an interview to a Malaga newspaper that drew condemnation from gay-rights activists.

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NEW JERSEY
Star-Ledger

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
on February 05, 2014

The most surprising thing about today’s scathing United Nations rebuke of the Vatican over decades of unchecked child abuse had nothing to do with its content. The allegations of systemic rape and cover-ups weren’t new, nor even shocking. The report compiles a tragic list of known crimes, and scolds the Catholic Church for inaction.

The surprise, instead, was the church’s response: outright criticism of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which conducted the inquiry, coupled with the tired “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” defense the church reserves for its strongest critics.

At its lowest point, the Vatican’s response accused the committee – a panel of independent experts on global children’s issues, not UN member states – of being co-opted by gay rights and gay marriage supporters.

The clumsy retort shows that Pope Francis – who’s winning fans even among the world’s atheists for his commentary on emerging issues of gay rights and income inequality – hasn’t scratched the surface of the church’s Dark Ages mindset.

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VATICAN CITY
CTV (Canada)

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press
Published Wednesday, February 5, 2014

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis came under new pressure Wednesday to punish bishops who covered up for pedophile priests when a UN human rights panel accused the Vatican of systematically protecting its reputation instead of looking out for the safety of children.

In a scathing report that thrilled victims and stunned the Vatican, the United Nations committee said the Holy See maintained a “code of silence” that enabled priests to sexually abuse tens of thousands of children worldwide over decades with impunity.

Among other things, the panel called on the Vatican to immediately remove all priests known or suspected to be child molesters, open its archives on abusers and the bishops who covered up for them, and turn the abuse cases over to law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution.

The committee largely brushed aside the Vatican’s claims that it has already instituted new safeguards, and it accused the Roman Catholic Church of still harbouring criminals.

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GENEVA
The New York Times

LAURIE GOODSTEIN, NICK CUMMING-BRUCE and JIM YARDLEY
FEB. 5, 2014

In a hard-hitting report applauded by victims as a landmark in the Roman Catholic Church’s clerical sex-abuse scandal, a United Nations committee on Wednesday called on the Vatican to remove all child abusers from its ranks, report them to law enforcement and open the church’s archives so that bishops and other officials who concealed crimes could be held accountable.

The report, issued by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, is likely to put pressure on Pope Francis to make concrete changes in the way the church handles abuse cases and put some muscle into the commission on abuse that he announced in December, whose members and mission have not yet been specified.

The Vatican responded on Wednesday that it had already made many of the changes called for in the report, and that the report’s conclusions were out of date.

The report, however, was harshly critical of the church’s current practices, not just those of the past. “The committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” the report concluded. …

But the Vatican press office said in a statement that it regretted to see the United Nations committee “attempt to interfere” with Catholic teaching and the church’s “exercise of religious freedom.”

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a blog post that the report was “weakened” by the panel’s decision to include objections to Catholic teaching on culture war issues. …

Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, who was abused by a priest as a child, said the report was “long overdue.”

“It is wonderful that the U.N. has spoken so clearly about what the Vatican has done — and what it has failed to do,” said Ms. Dorris, who is based in St. Louis, Mo. “To us, it is a call for the civil authorities to step in. Church officials have proved they cannot police themselves.”

But Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the pope’s permanent observer to the United Nations in Geneva, characterized the United Nations report in a radio interview as “a rather negative approach” to steps the Vatican had already taken, and said the report “in some ways is not up-to-date.” He said a Vatican delegation had told the committee about “concrete measures” that were being taken, including the new papal commission.

Ashley McGuire of The Catholic Association, a lay organization founded to help defend the church in the news media, called the report a “stunning and misguided attack” that “overlooks the fact that the Catholic Church is the leading advocate for women and children and human rights in general around the world,” on issues like sex trafficking and child hunger.

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GlobalPost

Agence France-Presse February 5, 2014

The UN denounced the Vatican on Wednesday for failing to stamp out child abuse, and called on the Church to remove all clergy suspected of raping or molesting children.

The following are paedophilia scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church in recent years:

– Canada: The Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John’s, Newfoundland was closed in 1990 after it emerged that staff had systematically abused 300 residents over several decades.

In 2002, associations representing more than 10,000 self-declared victims joined forces to seek compensation.

– United States: In 2004 a criminal investigation found that 4,400 priests had sexually abused minors between 1950 and 2002, and that the abuse had affected about 11,000 children.

The former archbishop of Boston, Bernard Law, was forced to resign in 2002 for having protected paedophile priests, and former archbishop of Los Angeles Roger Mahony agreed to pay $660 million to 500 presumed victims.

– Ireland: In one of the most staunchly Catholic countries in Europe, a priest admitted to sexually abusing more than 100 children, while another said he had abused minors regularly over 25 years.

A total of 14,500 Irish children are reported to have been victims of abuse by clergy.

– Germany: In early 2010, hundreds of alleged cases of child sex abuse in church institutions emerged, notably at the Jesuit college Canisius in Berlin where about 20 cases were reported.

In late 2012, a report said at least 66 church officials had been accused of sex abuse.

– Belgium: Former bishop of Bruges Roger Vangheluwe resigned in 2010 after acknowledging that he had abused two nephews. Thousands of other potential cases have emerged since then.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)

Lizzy Davies in Rome and Henry McDonald
The Guardian, Wednesday 5 February 2014

The leadership of the Roman Catholic church is engaged in a tense standoff with the United Nations after a damning report on the Holy See’s handling of the clerical sex abuse scandal was branded out of date, unfair and ideological by a top Vatican official.

After the appearance last month of a Holy See delegation before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the expert panel published a series of highly critical observations accusing the church of failing to acknowledge the scale of the problem and implementing policies that led to “the continuation of the abuse and the impunity of the perpetrators”.

The committee said it was particularly concerned that, when dealing with allegations of children being abused by priests, “the Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests”.

The panel also found fault with some central church teachings and their impact on children’s health, urging the Vatican to reconsider its stance on abortion and contraception, and encouraging it to tone down criticism of homosexuality in an attempt to reduce “social stigmatisation” and violence against gay youths and children raised by gay couples.

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GENEVA
Women News Network

(WNN) United Nations, Geneva, SWITZERLAND, WESTERN EUROPE: As the UN monitoring Committee on the Rights of the Child issues a pointed, detailed and critical report on Wednesday Febrary 5, the centuries long Vatican policy of impunity to report child predators may be cracking open ‘a tiny bit’ as the UN Committee asks for the impunity to stop for officials who have been given authority by the Holy See.

Reviewing numerous reports and child sexual abuse cases that provide a window into the tortures of secrecy and guilt for children under child abuse within the Roman Catholic Church, the UN child rights committee is bringing the Holy See to task.

Asking that the office of the Pontiff open the files to bring detailed information on child sexual abuse cases forward, the UN Committee also asked for details showing how the Holy See is restricting members of authority within the Church after knowledge of their sexual predatory behavior against children has been discovered.

While some measures to begin to discuss the decades old problem have been put in place more recently by the Church, the issue of child predators who remain hiding inside the Church is a concern for child advocates who are now also trying help adult survivors of sexual abuse.

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CANADA
Our Windsor

OTTAWA – A Canadian expert on Roman Catholicism says a United Nations committee overstepped its mandate in a scathing report that accused the Vatican of systematically covering up child sexual abuse by priests.

Robert Dennis, vice president of the Canadian Catholic Historical Association, said the UN panel watered down its advocacy of child sexual abuse victims by criticizing the Roman Catholic church for its doctrine on homosexuality, abortion and contraception.

Dennis said that by taking on core Catholic doctrine, the panel detracted from its examination of a serious issue facing the church — the decades-long coverups of sexual abuse by clergy in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Germany and elsewhere.

“We can’t blend these issues together. The report itself probably would have been more effective if it stayed more focused on this crucial question of child abuse,” said Dennis, also a Queen’s University professor in Kingston, Ont.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has just released a report on the way the Vatican has responded to the sexual abuse of minors by priests. The 15-page report contains not a single footnote, endnote, or any other mode of attribution. But it does provide plenty of evidence as to its real agenda.

The U.N. panel is using the sexual abuse of minors as a pretext for its true objective: it wants the Vatican to submit to its authority, and not just in instances involving international law—it wants the Catholic Church to change Canon Law and to adopt a secular sexual ethics. As such, it is one of the most ambitious power-grab efforts ever undertaken by a U.N. committee. The panel is also profoundly ignorant of the data.

On p. 3 of the report, the panel says the Holy See should “undertake the necessary steps to withdraw all its reservations and to ensure the [U.N.] Convention’s precedence over internal laws and regulations.” (Its emphasis.) It is quite explicit: “The Committee recommends that the Holy See undertake a comprehensive review of its normative framework, in particular Canon Law, with a view to ensuring its full compliance with the Convention.”

In other words, the teaching body of the Catholic Church, the Magisterium, i.e., the pope in communion with the bishops, should yield to the U.N. This would be the equivalent of asking the United States Congress to make sure its laws are in compliance with U.N. strictures. Hubris is too mild a word to describe this unmitigated arrogance.

On pp. 12-13, the panel says it wants the Catholic Church to change its teachings on abortion and contraception; it also says the Church needs to do more about HIV/AIDS.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KPLR

February 5, 2014, by Chris Smith

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (KTVI) – The Missouri Supreme Court Wednesday issued its ruling on whether the ST. Louis Archdiocese should hand over the names of priest accused of sexual abuse. The full panel of justices ruled that the Archdiocese must turn over the names of the priest, ending the battle over releasing the names first ordered by St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Robert Dierker.

The Post-Dispatch, reports that the order is part of a 2011 suit filed on behalf of a then 19-year-old woman, who accused a priest of sexual abuse from 1997-2001.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 05, 2014

ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Supreme Court says the Archdiocese of St. Louis must release the names of church employees accused of sexual abuse over the past 20 years.

The Wednesday ruling upholds a St. Louis judge’s earlier decision. The names will be released only to an unnamed woman suing the diocese and her attorneys, not to the general public.

The archdiocese subsequently released a list of 240 complaints made against 115 priests and other employees since 1986. A court order keeps the names sealed to the public.

The lawsuit was filed in 2011 by a 19-year–old woman who claimed the abuse began when she was 5 years old and attended St. Cronan’s parish.

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

Archdiocese of St. Louis must turn over names of accused priests, state supreme court rules

By Jennifer S. Mann jmann@post-dispatch.com 314-621-58041

ST. LOUIS • The Archdiocese of St. Louis must release the names of some 100 priests who have been credibly accused here of sexual abuse of minors, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.

The ruling, issued by a full panel of judges, is likely the end of the legal battle over the disclosures ordered by St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Robert Dierker.

The order is part of a 2011 suit filed on behalf of a then-19-year-old woman, who said she was sexually abused from 1997-2001 by the since-defrocked Rev. Joseph Ross. Her lawyers are trying to show church officials had a pattern of ignoring warning signs and shuffling abusive priests to other parishes, rather than addressing the allegations.

The archdiocese, while fighting further disclosures, released an anonymous matrix of 240 complaints made against 115 church employees. It deemed only 40 of those complaints “unsubstantiated.” Dierker ordered that was not enough and the names must also be turned over to the plaintiff’s lawyers — with the exception of those unsubstantiated cases.

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