ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
Norwich Evening News

Saturday, June 14, 2014

A Norwich man has written a book about his life-long struggle to overcome sexual and physical abuse he says he suffered at a Catholic-approved boarding school.

David Armstrong, 67, wrote the book ‘Out of the Shadows’ as closure for his own ordeal and to help other victims of abuse to speak out and reclaim their lives.

In the book he describes the beatings and sexual abuse he claims he suffered as a 13-year-old boy at the hands of Irish-born Catholic ‘Presentation Brothers’ at St Vincent’s school in Dartford, Kent – one of six such Irish-run institutions then in existence in the UK.

After he left the school, he ended up in borstal and eventually served a term in Broadmoor, where he met disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile.

Following release from Broadmoor, he began the long process of rehabilitation. And apart from a well-publicised blip when, as a gambling addict, he banned himself from every betting shop in East Anglia, he has triumphed over adversity and forgiven his abusers.

He said: “It took me 10 years to begin talking about my experiences at St Vincent’s. Writing this book has taken me over two years and is a final part of the long rehabilitation process.

“Edmund Burke said that, if good men stay silent, evil will prevail, which encapsulates the primary reason I am sharing my story publicly for the first time. In these pages I bare my soul.”

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

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Times-Picayune

By Theodore P. Mahne, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on June 13, 2014

There was a telling moment this week during the New Orleans gathering of the Roman Catholic bishops from across the United States, which hinted at the shift in tone among the leadership of the church.

The 250 bishops, archbishops and cardinals assembled at the Cabildo and on the slate walkway of Jackson Square leading to the St. Louis Cathedral on Wednesday afternoon. They were preparing to celebrate the official opening Mass for the annual spring meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Also on the plaza was a group of demonstrators, a not-uncommon sight whenever leaders of a faith, government or industry convene, usually amid chants shouted from behind police barricades.

This demonstration, however, was different. There was no police phalanx and no shouting. Consisting of about a dozen members, mostly middle-aged and older (like many of the bishops), the demonstrators quietly held up banners calling for the church to ordain women to the Catholic priesthood, a point of doctrine that popes have repeatedly said is unchangeable.

As the bishops prepared for the grand procession into the historic cathedral, several walked over to the crowd with smiles on their faces and hands outstretched. The discussions were necessarily brief, but friendly and dignified on both sides.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOV

(KMOV.com) – St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson is responding to the controversy about his statements he gave in a deposition as part of a sexual abuse lawsuit.

In a letter released Friday night, Carlson said he “misunderstood” a series of questions when he said he was unsure if he was legally obligated to report sexual abuse to police. Carlson had been deposed for a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, where he was previously a bishop. Carlson had a role in handling claims against priests who were accused of sexually abusing children from 1979-1994.

Carlson also said he supports mandatory child abuse laws.

Below is the letter in full:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I wish to respond to certain misconceptions stemming from a deposition that I gave in a case regarding alleged sexual abuse by a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis nearly thirty years ago. I wish to set the record straight.

I understand this situation has caused concern and frustration for many people, and for that I apologize. Abuse of any kind is a serious moral offense and a crime. As always, I encourage anyone who has suffered abuse to bring it to the attention of law enforcement first and foremost and additionally to the Archdiocese’s Office of Child and Youth Protection so that justice and assistance can be rendered.

Sexual abuse of children is deplorable and is never to be tolerated. Actions speak louder than words and my record on this issue speaks for itself. I am committed to the safety of children and have shown compassion for victims. I have promoted and enacted codes of ethical conduct, extensive safe environment programs and ongoing training for clergy to heighten their awareness of this issue.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Review

Joseph Kenny | jkenny@archstl.org | twitter: @josephkenny2

New! Watch the video statement regarding the controversy from Archbishop Robert J. Carlson and click here to read his letter to Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

A videotaped deposition of Archbishop Robert J. Carlson in a lawsuit involving an alleged abuse some 35 years ago was covered extensively this week when a video clip of it was highlighted to news media outlets at a press conference June 9 by the plaintiff’s lawyer.

The attorney “strategically took Archbishop Carlson’s response to a question out of context and suggested that the archbishop did not know that it was a criminal offense for an adult to molest a child. Nothing could be further from the truth,” a statement from the Archdiocese of St. Louis pointed out. Read the deposition here.

In another part of the deposition, Archbishop Carlson is asked by the plaintiff’s attorney whether he knows a specific sexual act by a priest on a child is a crime, and the archbishop answers, “Yes.”

The deposition was related to a lawsuit seeking damages in a Minnesota state court against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Winona and a former priest of Winona, Thomas Adamson. Archbishop Carlson is a former priest and auxiliary bishop of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese, where he served on the Personnel Board and as vice chancellor and chancellor. Neither Archbishop Carlson nor the Archdiocese of St. Louis are parties of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit concerns allegations of abuse by Adamson of a minor in 1976-77.

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

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

[with video]

By Valerie Schremp Hahn vhahn@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82461

ST. LOUIS • St. Louis Archbishop Robert J. Carlson issued a statement and video Friday about comments he made in a deposition last month about whether sexual abuse of children by priests was a crime.

“In the deposition last month, I misunderstood a series of questions that were presented to me,” he said. “I wish to clarify that situation now. I fully understand, and have understood for my entire adult life, as I stated in other sections of this same deposition, sexual abuse is a grave evil and a criminal offense.”

The reports of his comments during the deposition sparked outrage among some in the community and prompted a small protest outside the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis on Wednesday.

“I understand this situation has caused concern and frustration for many people, and for that I apologize,” Carlson said. He encouraged anyone who had suffered abuse to contact police and the archdiocese.

Friday marked the third time in a week the archdiocese has offered responses to the statements offered by Carlson in the deposition.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Fox 2

[with video]

(KTVI)– St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson is speaking out after criticism erupted over comments he made during a priest sex abuse case.

In a three minute statement and a letter to parishioners in the archdiocese, Archbishop Carlson apologized for the concern and frustration the deposition caused.

The diocese and Carlson’s attorney have said that his testimony for a sex abuse case while he was a church leader in Minnesota, were taken out of context.

Now, he said he misunderstood a series of questions presented to him.

Archbishop Carlson said his tenure has promoted and put in place conduct codes, safe environment programs and clergy training.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

St. Louis (KMOX) St Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson is responding to the controversy surrounding his recent statements regarding child sexual abuse.

Carlson issued a video and a statement tonight (Friday) regarding the comments he made during a deposition last month as part of a sexual abuse lawsuit.

Carlson now says he misunderstood a series of questions when he stated he was unsure if he was legally obligated to report sexual abuse to police.

Carlson says he wants to clarify that he “fully understands-and has understood his entire adult life-that sexual abuse is a grave evil and a criminal offense.”

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

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

[with video]

June 13, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

ST. LOUIS – His Excellency, Most Reverend Robert J. Carlson, Archbishop of St. Louis, released the following letter regarding the recent deposition controversy:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I wish to respond to certain misconceptions stemming from a deposition that I gave in a case regarding alleged sexual abuse by a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis nearly thirty years ago. I wish to set the record straight.

I understand this situation has caused concern and frustration for many people, and for that I apologize. Abuse of any kind is a serious moral offense and a crime. As always, I encourage anyone who has suffered abuse to bring it to the attention of law enforcement first and foremost and additionally to the Archdiocese’s Office of Child and Youth Protection so that justice and assistance can be rendered.

Sexual abuse of children is deplorable and is never to be tolerated. Actions speak louder than words and my record on this issue speaks for itself. I am committed to the safety of children and have shown compassion for victims. I have promoted and enacted codes of ethical conduct, extensive safe environment programs and ongoing training for clergy to heighten their awareness of this issue.

In the deposition last month, I misunderstood a series of questions that were presented to me. I wish to clarify that situation now. I fully understand, and have understood for my entire adult life, as I stated in other sections of this same deposition, sexual abuse is a grave evil and a criminal offense.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK

[with video and copy of the statement]

Brandie Piper, KSDK 8:16 p.m. CDT June 13, 2014

ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson released a letter and video Friday evening responding to coverage of the deposition videos released earlier this week.

The videos show Carlson responding to questions about how he handled sexual abuse allegations against a Minnesota priest in the 1980s. At one point he says he is unsure if he knew back then that sex abuse was a crime.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis has been critical of media reports surrounding the deposition.

In the letter released Friday evening, Carlson apologizes for causing concern and frustration, stating “abuse of any kind is a serious moral offense and a crime.”

Carlson goes on to say he “misunderstood a series of questions that were presented,” and that he has understood his entire adult life that sexual abuse is a crime and he is committed to protecting children from abuse.

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

CANADA
Castanet

The Law Society of Alberta has disbarred a lawyer accused of misconduct in his handling of settlements awarded to survivors of residential school abuse.

David Blott had asked to be allowed to resign before the society’s investigation was complete.

The chairman of a panel hearing the application Friday made it clear to Blott that his resignation is the same as disbarment.

“The member is coming before the law society and has effectively said, ‘I will agree to be disbarred. I will resign with the conditions that equate with disbarment,'” Rob Harvie said.

“Some might suggest this is too little consequence for the conduct of the member. To this I would again affirm that, according to the law society, this is the most serious consequence that we have the authority to impose.”

The panel heard that between 2006 and 2012, Blott’s Calgary law firm handled almost 4,600 residential school claims, many in southern Alberta. Information was taken from each victim who would sign a retainer agreement. If the settlement were $100,000, Blott would receive $15,000 from the federal government and up to an additional $15,000 from the settlement payout.

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

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
SF Gate

C.W. Nevius
Friday, June 13, 2014

Good news San Francisco. We’re still the go-to place to make outrageous, attention-grabbing political statements.

In fact – see Texas Gov. Rick Perry – people are flying into town to grab a microphone and stir up controversy.

Even more cynical is Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who was sent to the city by the Catholic Church despite (or because of) his stubborn, out-of-touch opposition to same-sex marriage. This in the city of Harvey Milk – a national symbol for LGBT rights and acceptance. And just in case you think we’re being too hard on Cordileone, he’s signed up to be a speaker at the hate-mongering National Organization for Marriage’s march in Washington, D.C., next week. …

Cordileone is a more disturbing case. As the head of the archdiocese, he’s the representation of Catholic faith. Appointing him to serve in San Francisco – when he’s been an implacable foe of same-sex marriage, was seen as a slap at the city.

“My sense was that when the Vatican assigned the archbishop to San Francisco it was a fairly provocative action,” says Supervisor Scott Wiener, who represents the Castro district. “We were hoping that once he came here he would work with the community and not take antagonistic steps. That has not been the case.”

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

OREGON
KPTV

Updated: Jun 13, 2014
By FOX 12 Staff

ALBANY, OR (KPTV) –
A former Corvallis priest pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.

Stanley Brittain, 39, who also went by the name Father Isidore, pleaded guilty this week to four counts of first-degree encouraging child sex abuse.

Police raided a property on the 2400 block of Southeast Eighth Avenue in Albany in April. According to court documents, investigators tracked the sharing of explicit movies showing the sexual abuse of children to Brittain’s phone and computer.

Court documents state Brittain was naked in his camper in front of his computer at the time of his arrest and said he had just injected methamphetamine.

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

IRELAND
Liberation

By Jane Cutter
JUNE 12, 2014

If you want more proof that anti-abortion policies and politics have nothing to do with respect for the sanctity of life, look no further than Ireland and the recent discovery of the bodies of nearly 800 children in a septic tank at the site of a former home for unwed mothers.

Take a minute to think this over. Ireland, to this day, has some of the most restrictive policies on abortion in Europe. Since women are barred from having abortions, unwanted pregnancies are going result in many women carrying their pregnancies to term (obviously). For many years in Ireland, unwed mothers were sent to “homes” run by religious orders where they were forced to work and were separated from their babies. The so-called Magdalene Laundries were notorious for the abuse and virtual enslavement of thousands of women.

The children born to these women were kept in the homes as orphans and they too faced deplorable conditions, leading to a high mortality rate.

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

IRELAND
Herald

12 JUNE 2014

In the Dail this week, as an inquiry into mother and baby homes was announced, our Taoiseach Enda Kenny made another impassioned speech condemning the wrongs of Irish history.

After an emotional apology to the Magdalene women (many of whom have yet to receive compensation, some of whom have died waiting) and a heartfelt address about Church wrongdoing, you’d think he wouldn’t still have that fire in him.

But, it seems, we all have that fire in us when it comes to historical injustices and righting past wrongs.

Or, at least, talking about righting past wrongs.

I don’t doubt that he was sincere in doing so, but history shows that political and media outrage at the dehumanisation of a marginalised group rarely leads anywhere. Just look at direct provision.

As one Bessborough baby told me yesterday, people knew. And every so often, we all wring our hands and we spend days or weeks raking up internal grief, then forget about it again with vague promises that something will be done.

In her words, what we need now is “a cut off, and justice”.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Groups demand inclusion of other institutions in mother and baby home investigation

Patsy McGarry

Fri, Jun 13, 2014

Magdalene laundries and County Homes should be included in terms of reference for the Commission of Investigation into mother and baby homes , four advocacy groups have said.

In a joint statement tonight, the groups also called for the investigation, announced last week by Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan, to be carried out by an independent commission, including at least one international expert.

In a statement, Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR), Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA), Bethany Survivors Group and the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI), called on on the Government “to meet international best practice requirements” in the proposed Commission of Investigation by including the Magdalene laundries and county homes.

Katherine O’Donnell of JFMR said the inclusion of the Magdalene laundries was “absolutely essential to ensuring that the truth of what happened in all of these institutions is brought to light”.

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

UNITED STATES
Leadership Journal

My spiral of sin destroyed my life and ministry.
Name Withheld

Editorial Note: Since publishing the following piece on Monday, there has been a tremendous backlash from readers. Many voiced concerns that the author mischaracterized the nature of the relationship he had with his student and failed to acknowledge the gravity of his crime. We’ve heard your criticisms and would like to add the following clarifications.

First, the intent of this article was to serve as a cautionary story for church leaders and to prevent future abuse. According to Richard Hammar, a leading expert specializing in legal and tax issues for churches and clergy, sexual abuse is the number one reason churches end up in court. Cases involving youth leaders abusing students are particularly common and this piece was meant to draw attention to this tragic problem. We simply can’t deny the pervasiveness of this problem or the deep and lasting wounds instances of abuse leave on the lives of victims.

Second, we in no way meant to downplay the severity of the author’s crimes. He is currently serving time in prison and has taken 100 percent of the responsibility for what transpired. Some of the language in the article did appear to portray the “relationship” he had with his student as consensual. We regret any implication of that kind and strongly underscore that an adult cannot have a consensual sexual relationship with a minor. This was not an “affair.” It was statutory rape. To make sure the article does not communicate otherwise, we have changed the language to reflect the true nature of the author’s crimes.

Thank you for reading and voicing your concerns. We are listening and incorporating your feedback. We appreciate your help as we strive to build up the church and equip its leaders.
Sincerely,

The Editors of Leadership Journal
—————————-

Seven years ago I was hired by my church to be the new youth minister. The youth group was on life support at the time, with only a few students involved. My wife and I, newly married, already had good relationships with the students and their parents and, with my college ministry experience, I seemed to be the perfect fit for the position.

The ministry grew steadily. Within a few years the group that once struggled to fill a minivan was taking over 40 students to camp every summer. Teens were involved in every area of our church. The students were participating in local, regional, and international missions, and were inviting their friends to our activities. The gospel was being taught, and students were accepting Christ, getting baptized, and serving.

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

UNITED STATES
Slacktivist

A preferential option for predators: Christianity Today hires the Rev. Humbert Humbert to serve as a spiritual adviser to its readers

June 13, 2014 By Fred Clark

“I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” Robert J. Carlson, the Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Louis, said in a deposition released earlier this week. Carlson was talking about the sexual abuse of a child by a priest who served under him when he was an auxiliary bishop in Minnesota.
But that, alas, is not the most appalling, foolish and inadvertently revealing statement this week about sanctimonious sexual predators who target children. That dishonor goes, instead, to Leadership Journal, the magazine for white evangelical clergy published by Christianity Today. Carlson can’t compete with CT’s horrifying decision to publish this: “My Easy Trip From Youth Minister to Felon.”

(Reader’s discretion advised: Those links and the remainder of this post discuss some really disturbing stuff.)

The anonymous former youth minister, writing from prison, is every bit as narcissistic and self-justifying as Humbert Humbert, if not as repulsively charming as the unreliable narrator of Nabokov’s novel. And his agenda throughout the piece is the same as Humbert’s, only with a sanctimonious sheen of religiosity and pious Bible-talk (including, of course, the obligatory self-comparison to poor King David, who in the writer’s telling was simply not spiritual strong enough to resist raping the tawdry temptress Bathsheba).

The writer’s methodical selection, isolation and grooming of his victim began when she was still in middle school — something readers will find only from reading between the lines of his apologia. But he (and the editors of Leadership Journal) presents the story as though it were a slowly developing romantic affair, a mutual sin entered into by two equals who were equally culpable.

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

CALIFORNIA
KCRA

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —The pastor of a Carmichael church was one of 24 people arrested in a prostitution sting, officials said Thursday.

Watch report: Carmichael pastor among suspects in Sac County prostitution sting

The undercover operation was conducted by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department along Watt Avenue.

Deputies said 50-year-old John Oselsky was arrested at the intersection of Watt and Myrtle avenues Wednesday.

Oselsky is the senior pastor at the Grace Family Church in Carmichael.

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

CALIFORNIA
KFBK

Sacramento Sheriff’s deputies have identified one of the more than 20 people arrested on Watt Avenue for soliciting prostitution as 50-year-old John Oselsky, and he is listed as the Senior Pastor for the Grace Family Church in Carmichael.

However, members of his church steadfastly refuse to believe he is guilty.

Some saying Pastor Oselsky’s arrest is a mistake and may be due to his inability to speak English well.

The pastor was released after being booked. He’s not made a public statement about the arrest. He reportedly has a wife and four children.

The son-in-law of the pastor insists it’s all a misunderstanding.

Mike Borisov writes on a Facebook that Pastor Oselsky does not speak English very well and did not realized he was being asked if he was interested in paying for sex.

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

CALIFORNIA
Sacramento Bee

By Bill Lindelof and Cathy Locke
blindelof@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Jun. 13, 2014

Two dozen adults – including a Carmichael pastor – and one minor were arrested Wednesday, accused of prostitution-related offenses, during a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department sting in North Highlands.

The undercover sting was conducted by the sheriff’s north-area problem oriented policing team at several locations along Watt Avenue. The arrests occurred at Margaret Way, Winona Way, Longview Drive, at Myrtle Avenue and Polk Street, and in the 4800 block of Watt Avenue.

Among those arrested was the Rev. John Oselsky, the pastor of Grace Family Church, 4837 Marconi Ave. A Slavic community leader said Oselsky told him that he should never have been arrested.

Florin Ciuriuc, a friend who has acted as a Russian-speaking liaison with the sheriff’s department, has known the pastor for 20 years and spoke with him Thursday night.

“The guy believes that he 100 percent innocent,” said Ciuriuc.

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

WASHINGTON
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Morris-Young | Jun. 13, 2014

“During the last two decades” the Catholic church has “been repeatedly sued because bishops and others in authority sent priests known to have molested children to new assignments where they molested other children. This is not such a case,” a federal judge wrote in the introduction to a June 12 ruling that the Diocese of Yakima, Wash., is not liable for the 1999 sexual abuse of a 17-year-old boy by a transitional deacon.

In a 34-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Edward Shea rejected arguments that the diocese failed to adequately vet Rev. Mr. Aaron Ramirez when it accepted him as a priesthood candidate from Mexico or that it did not adequately oversee him.

The plaintiff failed to prove the church knew or should have known that Ramirez posed a risk as a sexual predator, the judge declared.

The lawsuit sought $8 million. Calls to the plaintiff’s legal firm to ask about a potential appeal were not immediately returned.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 13, 2014

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

A Catholic school official has been fired for sending inappropriate texts to students. We hope that school officials acted promptly and that anyone who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes will call police right away.

[Boston Globe]

James Cerbo was the assistant athletic director at Catholic Memorial in West Roxbury. According to news reports, school officials sent letters to parents and notified secular authorities. We hope this was done immediately when Cerbo’s inappropriate behavior was first known or suspected.

We beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered crimes or inappropriate contact from Cerbo to call law enforcement – not church or school staff – so that other kids might be spared the horror of child sexual crimes and so that Cerbo might be successfully prosecuted and kept away from children.

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

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

video only

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 13, 2014

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, Western Regional Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (9 49.322.7434, jcasteix@gmail.com )

We call on Christians to boycott Christianity Today for giving a convicted child molesting clergyman 2,700 words to deceptively describe his crimes, essentially ignore his victim, dramatically minimize his wrongdoing and perpetuate dreadful myths about child sex crimes.

[Christianity Today]

Or, we urge Christianity Today to devote an equal number of words, in their next two issues, to victims of clergy sexual violence (one male, one female) to give accounts of the trauma they endured.

We don’t make this call lightly. We strongly believe in the First Amendment. But we believe even more strongly that kids must be protected and that those who hurt kids – directly or indirectly – must be punished, so they’re less likely to hurt kids again.

So we aren’t being punitive here. We’re being protective. Some will claim that a boycott would inflict unnecessary pain on this publication. We’re more interested in deterring unnecessary pain on innocent, vulnerable kids and wounded, suffering adults.

Others have done excellent work pointing out how misleading and hurtful this article is. We’d just stress that this minister cleverly and deceptively calls his crime ‘a relationship,’ which implies that the two were somehow equal partners. That, of course, is never true when kids and adults interact. It’s one of many falsehoods he perpetuates.

We fear that still struggling men, women and teenagers who were sexually assaulted will stay silent now – and not reach out for help or report predators – and feel even more depressed and hopeless because a Christian publication has run such a hurtful story.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston.com

Catholic Memorial Fires Assistant Athletic Director Over ‘Inappropriate’ Texts

By Roberto Scalese
Boston.com Staff
JUNE 13, 2014

Catholic Memorial has fired Assistant Athletic Director James Cerbo for sending inappropriate text messages to students.

WHDH reports:

Earlier this week, a letter went home to Catholic Memorial High School parents warning them of a “serious situation that has developed involving one of our employees.”

The school has not given any details into the nature of the texts or identified who received the messages, but told WCVB that they violated the school’s policies.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
CBS Boston

[with video]

WEST ROXBURY (CBS) – Catholic Memorial School has fired its assistant athletic director for “inappropriate text messaging.”

In a letter to parents this week obtained by WBZ NewsRadio 1030, school president Paul Sheff said James Cerbo was fired after an investigation determined that the text messages were unacceptable and clearly violated the West Roxbury school’s policies on “harassment, electronic communications and boundaries. “

Sheff also noted that the Department of Children and Families has been notified.

No other details were released by the school, which said it “takes very seriously its moral and legal obligation to protect its students.”

“Our office has been notified of the matter and we are investigating,” a spokesperson for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office told WBZ-TV Friday.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Catalina Gaitan | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JUNE 13, 2014

The assistant athletic director at Catholic Memorial School in West Roxbury was fired this week after administrators discovered he was allegedly sending inappropriate text messages, school officials said.

James Cerbo was dismissed from his position at the school following allegations about the messages and an investigation, according to school spokeswoman Susan Griffin.

The Department of Children and Families was notified of the investigation, Griffin said.

The school sent letters this week to students’ families regarding the dismissal.

Officials did not say whether the recipient of the messages was a student at the school, which is an all-boys academy teaching grades 7 through 12.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
WCVB

WEST ROXBURY, Mass. —The assistant athletic director at Catholic Memorial School in West Roxbury was fired for sending inappropriate text messages, according to school officials.

Officials said they fired James Cerbo after an investigation into the allegations that Cerbo sent the text messages.

“It has been determined that the text messages were unacceptable and clearly violate the school’s policies pertaining to harassment, electronic communications and boundaries,” Susan Griffin, director of communications at Catholic Memorial School, said in a statement.

The school is not revealing who received the text messages, or what the messages contained.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Jamie Walker
Associate Editor, QLD
Brisbane

ANGLICAN Primate Phillip Aspinall is bowing out as titular head of the church in Australia after nine years bookended by bitter rows over child sexual abuse.

The 54-year-old will stay on as the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, his launch pad to the primacy. Having been appointed as archbishop when Peter Hollingworth was named governor-general in 2001, Dr Aspinall confronted allegations that the Brisbane diocese had failed to act against predatory priests and teachers employed by church schools.

He launched an inquiry that made devastating findings against his predecessor, contributing to Dr Hollingworth’s downfall in vice-regal office in 2003, two years before Dr Aspinall was elected spiritual leader of Australia’s 3.9 million Anglicans.

But last November, he admitted to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he could not bring rogue or recalcitrant bishops to heel. “The powers of the primate are very limited … if people think that the primate of the Anglican Church of Australia is the CEO of Australia’s Anglicans, then nothing could be further from the truth,’’ Dr Aspinall said.

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IRELAND
Herald

13 JUNE 2014

The Tuam babies story presents us with the usual depressing challenges, but some hope.

The challenges include distinguishing the facts from the hysterics and the blame-storming from the truth.

Rosita Boland in The Irish Times did us all a favour by interviewing Catherine Corless, who spent significant time and money researching the deaths at the home.

Boland reported Corless’ dismay that about headlines claiming that the remains of 796 bodies were dumped in a disused sewage tank.

DISTORTIONS

No such discovery took place. No one even knows if the vault was ever used as a septic tank. And they think about 20 bodies were in it anyway. Considering the facts are horrendous in themselves, the distortions are inexcusable.

Historian Sean Lucey has revealed the social context of the “committals” to these Mother and Baby homes. He recounted one case of a girl sent to Bessborough – not by a priest – but by a council official in Kerry on the recommendation of a local “respectable” woman.

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IRELAND
The Age (Australia)

June 12, 2014

Martin Flanagan
Sports Writer for The Age

I’ve never been to Tuam on the west coast of Ireland, although I have climbed the mountain further west called Croagh Patrick.

Croagh Patrick was an ancient pagan site, people climbing it to celebrate the summer equinox. Then Saint Patrick came along and fasted for 40 days and nights on its summit and claimed the mountain for his God. Irish pagan spirituality has a strongly female side. The Roman Catholic church which arrived around the 5th century was, and is, solely male in its lumbering hierarchy.

In the 1840s, Ireland’s population was halved by a terrible famine; in its wake, the grip of the Roman Catholic church intensified. During the 20th century, Ireland’s long-time leader Eamon De Valera embodied the notion that the Roman Catholic church was central to the identity of the poor, deeply conservative nation.

Like many others, I shuddered upon hearing the story that 800 babies had allegedly been found in a septic tank beside a former ‘‘Mothers and Babies’’ home in Tuam. The deaths occurred between 1925 and 1961 in the home for unmarried women and their illegitimate offspring.

A furious battle is now being fought, in Ireland and elsewhere, over the detail of the Tuam story. Some extremely angry Irish voices want an international body such as the United Nations to investigate, because they trust neither church nor state. Others say the whole matter has been misleadingly reported. One of only two witnesses to have seen inside the septic tank (in 1975) has said he saw no more than 20 bodies.

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IRELAND
The Guardian (UK)

Amelia Gentleman
The Guardian, Friday 13 June 2014

Catherine Corless spent eight months trying unsuccessfully to get people to pay attention to the research she was doing on an institution for unmarried mothers in Tuam, the Galway town where she grew up.

An amateur historian who had spent weeks scouring records in libraries, churches and council offices, she had uncovered the fact that, between 1925 and 1961, 796 children died in the St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home, run by nuns from the Bon Secours order, but she was unable to find records of where they were buried. Last September she suggested that many of the bodies may have been put in a disused septic tank in a corner of the home’s garden, a spot where boys had discovered a pile of children’s skeletons in the 1970s.

She was surprised that the local newspapers and radio stations did not share the horror that she and a few Tuam residents felt. She had hoped to get support for a fundraising campaign to install plaques with the names of the dead babies at the site of the home. A small article was printed, without prominence, in a local paper. “It seemed as if no one wanted to bring this up,” she said this week. She told the nuns, the local clergy and the police about her research, but there was no response.

“I couldn’t understand it. We were shocked. We expected an outrage. The only ones who were outraged seemed to be us,” she said. “The mentality seemed to be: ‘That’s a long time ago, forget about it, it doesn’t matter any more.'”

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UNITED STATES
Friendly Atheist

June 12, 2014 By Hännah Ettinger

Christian church culture is notoriously careless about protecting victims of child abuse, and this week, I was appalled to discover that Christianity Today‘s imprint publication, Leadership Journal, ran a first-person piece where a child sex offender/former pastor narrated his internal thought process as he went from youth pastor to felon.

A few years into my marriage and ministry I began to believe a lie. The realities of parenthood and marriage were sinking in, and I felt unappreciated at home. From my perspective, I was excelling at work and at home — and this perceived lack of appreciation led me to believe I deserved more.

The first big problem (besides the part where he essentially says it was his wife who drove him to this, which is next door to saying he didn’t have a choice in the matter) is that he never really seems to get that what he did to this minor was rape. Instead, he swaddles the entire story in Christianese, using it to distance himself from his actions and make the whole situation sound… normal. As if it were, at worst, an affair. Just look at the very next paragraph:

Meanwhile, there was someone else in my life that appreciated me very much. Seeking approval and appreciation, I gravitated toward that person. She and I were always happy to see each other and looked forward to each other’s company. Before long, we were texting each other and interacting through social media. Nothing scandalous or questionable — a Facebook “like” or comment here, a friendly text there. Things friends do.

Rhetorical choices aside, everyone should take note that we’re unaware how old his “friend” is.

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UNITED STATES
The Raw Story

Ex-youth pastor describes felony sex crimes as extramarital ‘friendship’ in Christian journal

By Travis Gettys
Friday, June 13, 2014

An online journal for Christian pastors published a lengthy account this week of one man’s “easy trip from youth minister to felon” that critics say makes apologies for rape.

Hundreds of Twitter users have urged Leadership Journal, which is published by Christianity Today, to #TakeDownThisPost.

Although the online journal has not removed the 2,540-word essay, it added a postscript that addresses the controversy.

“In response to readers’ concerns, the author of this piece has offered the following clarification: ‘I recognize that what I initially considered a consensual relationship was actually preying on a minor,’” the postscript added. “Youth pastors who do the same are not ‘in relationship’ but are indeed sexual predators. I take 100 percent of the responsibility for what happened.”

The piece is as noteworthy for what the writer does not say than for what he does say.

The writer, who pleaded guilty to two felony charges and is currently serving a prison term, does not use the word “rape” once in the piece.

He does not mention the words “crime,” “law,” “statutory,” or “illegal.”

“Leadership Journal allows a convicted child abuser a platform to manipulatively frame this as a story of personal selfishness and infidelity without one word about molestation, statutory rape, sexual grooming, or the abuse of power and children entrusted to the care of adults at a church,” writes blogger Susannah Paul, at The Smitten Word.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler Jun 13, 2014

With his customary bravado, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League claims that “Archbishop Carlson Has Been Framed” and says that criticism of the archbishop’s testimony (including mine, presumably) can be attributed to “malice, ignorance and laziness.” Strong words. Let’s see if they hold up.

Examining the transcript of the deposition, Donohue notes several times when the archbishop spoke of sexual molestation in terms that suggested it was a crime. Donohue concludes that in light of that recorded testimony, “it is simply impossible to believe that Carlson did not know it was against the law for an adult to have sex with a minor.”

But that’s exactly the point! No reasonable person thought that the archbishop was ignorant of the law. That’s why it was so shocking that the archbishop said he was ignorant. Let’s be clear here. The scandal did not arise because Archbishop Carlson didn’t know the law. The scandal arose because, under oath, he said he didn’t know the law.

Following the line of defense taken by the St. Louis archdiocese, Donohue says that the plaintiff’s lawyer, Jeffrey Anderson, skillfully edited a video of the archbishop’s presentation to make it appear that he was answering a different question. To be honest I wouldn’t put such shenanigans beyond Anderson. But also to be honest, I still haven’t seen the video. I based my opinion on the written record of the deposition. The transcript doesn’t lie.

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UNITED STATES
The Garden of Roses: Stories of Abuse and Healing

Virginia Jones

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a journal and a diary? In a diary you record the events of the day. In a journal you can write about events, but you also write about your thoughts and feelings. Diaries use words in the form of prose. Journals can include anything, even pictures and poems. Because journaling gives us the freedom to express our feelings many ways, journaling is a powerful tool we can use to help us heal the wounds of trauma.

I am presenting this blog about how to journal to heal from abuse in two parts. Part One is short and strictly about how journaling helps us heal and how to journal. Part Two includes the three examples of how journaling helped survivors heal. One example is Princess, a domestic violence survivor. Another example is Kay, a clergy abuse survivor. The third is me. I write about how journaling helped me cope with abuse and rape. Please note that people who are fragile may be triggered by my story and by Kay’s story, so read these parts of the blog only as you are able to handle stories of abuse.

Part One: How Journaling Helps Us Heal:

1. Retelling our story helps us heal as long as we are telling it to a supportive listener and not having to tell it over and over to different advocates and law enforcement officials. Sometimes it is difficult to talk about what happened to us, but when we are ready to share, every time we tell our story to a supportive person, the bad thing that happened to us becomes a little bit smaller and less threatening. The advantage of journals is that they can sit around and wait for us to be ready to share, and they never judge us or criticize us or offer us unsolicited advice.

2. Journaling can help us prepare ourselves for potential legal action. As we remember the story and write it down, we can tell it more coherently to judges, attorneys, therapists, or law enforcement officers.

3. Journaling helps us process what happened to us. While we did the best we could under difficult circumstances, journaling can help us sit back and look at what happened with some distance between us and a traumatic episode. With this distance we can work on positive actions we might take next time we are faced with a difficult situation.

4. Writing about friends, things, and events that help us (i.e. expressing gratitude) or writing affirmations can reframe what happened in a way that helps us feel better about ourselves. Affirmations are positive statements about one’s self such as, “I am strong and brave, and I keep putting one foot in front of the other. I am getting through this.”

5. After a traumatic incident or a conflict with a loved one or a conflict with someone who is trying to help us, writing in a journal helps us calm down from the heat of the moment. This is good for us as it heals us. This is also good for our relationships. It is much better for us to calm down before we interact with other people so we don’t take our anger and pain out on them in ways that may come back to haunt us. We don’t want to wound and drive away people who care for us or who are trying to help us. …

Kay the City of Angels Lady/ Clergy Abuse Survivor:

Kay was abused by a Catholic priest at age 5. For many years she lived her life not comprehending how self destructive many of the choices she made were and why she made such poor choices. She did not even remember what caused her problems until she was in her forties, and her daughter turned 5 — the age at which Kay was abused by a Catholic priest. Then Kay began struggling with extremely disturbing memories.

Despite her raw edges, Kay is a gifted writer. For many years she has used her skills as a writer to eke out a living. She hopes someday that sharing her story will earn her more than just barely enough money to live on. She currently is sharing her life story piece by piece in her blog, along with the stories of other survivors and news and opinion about what is happening in the world of Catholic clergy abuse. Please read her blog but be forewarned that it is not for the faint of heart. Please note anyone who wants a sanitized, easy to read version of clergy abuse, do not read Kay’s writings. Her writing is filled with raw details and raw anger and pain. However, Kay is excellent at putting words together and is quite funny when the opportunity to be funny arises, so if you can cope with this, read on.

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

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 13, 2014

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

Predator priest trial is soon
He was convicted before in 1980s
Now, he’s accused of molesting 3 more
Cleric was in three mid-Missouri counties
After leaving his Catholic post, he was a counselor
SNAP: “He’s one of the most egregious child molesting clerics”

In two weeks, the child sexual abuse trail against a former Catholic priest who lived and worked in Cooper, Boone and Callaway counties is set to begin and a support group is making a “last ditch” effort to find other victims and witnesses.

The accused is Gerald (“Jerry”) Howard who worked at a St. Peter & Paul Catholic church in Boonville. In the 1980s, he was a priest in New Jersey and was convicted of molesting a boy in the Jersey City area.

His Catholic supervisors then let Howard legally change his name – from Carmine Sita to Jerry Howard – and sent him to the Jefferson City diocese, without warning parishioners or the public, where he sexually assaulted at least four boys – three in Cooper County and one in Boone County.

“Now is the time – right now – for every single person who saw, suspected or suffered Howard’s crimes to speak up,” said David Clohessy of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “If you have any knowledge of or suspicions about Howard – or other child molesting clerics – stop being a coward and call law enforcement immediately.”

After leaving Boonville, Howard worked as a counselor in Boone and in Callaway counties, including a stint at the now-shuttered Charter Hospital in Columbia.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Mike Farragher @brainonshamrox June 15,2014

My father was a teenager when “The Quiet Man” was shot. He saw some of the filming at the Ballyglunin train station, which is on the outskirts of Tuam and just over the stone fence on the family farm.

One of the earliest and fondest memories he has centers around catching shillings on the train tracks that John Wayne threw out to himself and the other star-struck local kids on the set.

There is a cruel irony that “The Quiet Man,” the most beloved movie in Irish culture, would be filmed in and around Tuam, a town that kept quiet about burying babies in the backyard even while the movie was being made.

The horrific news reports out of the town that is home to my richest childhood memories are so hard to bear that I have no interest in rehashing them here in this space. But there are some key omissions in the narrative that are worth calling out.

In following this story, I haven’t really seen or heard anyone address the termites in the floorboard of Irish DNA that made the very existence of a home for unwed mothers and babies necessary in the first place.

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IRELAND
Limerick Leader

by Mike Dwane
Published on the 13 June 2014

MISSING burial records for almost 800 infants who died at St Mary’s mother and baby home in Tuam in the 36 years to 1961 have resulted in a storm of publicity around the world.

And many of the details in those media reports have been unearthed by Limerick historian Liam Hogan.

Tuam historian Catherine Corless, whose research on the Bon Secours home in the Galway town has ultimately resulted in a government inquiry, has distanced herself from more sensationalist reports of 800 babies “buried in a septic tank”.

And Mr Hogan, who works at Limerick City Library, said he had also taken the dispassionate historian’s approach to releasing information on the home he has found in newspaper archives in the last number of weeks.

“I had read about Catherine Corless and the revelations and wondered to myself how did we get to that point where we don’t know where nearly 800 children are buried. I just delved as far back as I could go on what was relevant and tweeted a contemporaneous account. People were really curious to see what the attitudes were at the time and what may have led to what we have learned in the last couple of weeks. I tried to create a narrative to help people understand it more,” said Mr Hogan.

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho

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

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

During the deposition taken last month, attorney Jeff Anderson asked Carlson whether he knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a child.

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

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

So how did so many members of the media get this wrong? How could they so badly misread the testimony of Archbishop Carlson, and in the process besmirch his good name? Probably because they can read. Let’s have a look at that “full transcript.”

The archdiocese says that the “actual exchange” started with Anderson asking Carlson about mandatory-reporting laws. And that’s not false. But what follows could not be clearer. Carlson is asked whether throughout his priesthood he knew that it was illegal for an adult to have sex with children, and he said he wasn’t sure–but that he understood that now. Roll tape:

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

MR. GOLDBERG: I’m going to object to the form of that question.

MR. ANDERSON: Let me finish the question.

MR. GOLDBERG: Go ahead. I’m sorry.

Q. (By Mr. Anderson) And you knew at all times, while a priest, having been ordained in 1970, it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a kid. You knew that, right?

MR. GOLDBERG: I’m going to object to the form of that question now. You’re talking about mandatory reporting.

MR. ANDERSON: Okay. I’ll — if you don’t like the question, I’ll ask another question.

MR. GOLDBERG: Well, you’ve asked a conjunctive question. One doesn’t —

MR. ANDERSON: Objection heard. I’ll ask another question. Okay?

MR. GOLDBERG: Go ahead.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By PAUL VALLELY
JUNE 13, 2014

LONDON — It looked extremely dramatic when Pope Francis fired the entire board of the Vatican’s financial watchdog last week. But that was only the half of it. The seismic changes that are underway behind the scenes in Rome are even more radical than public appearances suggest. And they offer illuminating insights into the steely character of the man who likes to present himself to the world as a model of smiling humility.

The body known as Rome’s Financial Information Authority (F.I.A.) supervises everything from the Vatican Bank to the real estate of the Holy See, its staff salaries and even the Vatican pharmacy. Its five Italian members were due to serve until 2016 when Francis asked them to resign early — to be replaced by an international team of financial experts that includes Joseph Yuvaraj Pillay, the man who turned around the Singapore economy, and Juan Zarate, a former financial security adviser to President George W. Bush.

The drastic move came after months of infighting between the old guard and the F.I.A.’s director, René Brülhart, a Swiss anti-money-laundering expert, charged with cleaning up one of the world’s most secretive banks, which has assets worth more than $8 billion. A former head of Liechtenstein’s financial intelligence unit, he found his reforms continually frustrated by an old-boy network. He complained to the pope, who swept aside the obstacle in a single move.

But there was more to it than that, as anyone would have suspected who knew the modus operandi of Jorge Mario Bergoglio when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires before he became pope. There, too, he had faced a banking scandal in which his predecessor, Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, had become embroiled in underwriting a multimillion dollar insurance deal for a family of prominent bankers who turned out to be paying all his credit card bills. When the bank went insolvent, bankers were jailed, and the Catholic Church was asked to repay huge sums it did not have, Cardinal Bergoglio called in the international accountants Arthur Andersen, closed the church bank and transferred its assets to commercial banks.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Jun 13, 2014 06:00 By Alana Fearon

Woman who spent 8 hellish years at Mount Carmel Industrial School demands government find out what happened to babies in hidden room

A woman who spent eight hellish years in an industrial school run by nuns, last night demanded the Government finds out what happened to the “secret” babies kept hidden away there.

Ellen Murphy came forward yesterday after we revealed that babies were kept in a private room in Mount Carmel Industrial School in Moate, Co Westmeath.

The Wexford woman, who was in the Sisters of Mercy-run school between the ages of eight and 16, says she is haunted by the memories of the tots “who never grew up”.

Opening up about the horror of her childhood, Ellen, 51, also claimed that she:

– is so traumatised by the “torture” that she tried to take her own life twice and is on sleeping tablets and spent years on anti-depressants

– was “loaned out” to families where she was sexually abused – was drugged to stop her crying when she wanted to go home

– was beaten and kicked so badly that she suffers from chronic back pain and is on pain killers for life

– has unexplained burn marks on her legs

And urging the Government to launch an inquiry into Mount Carmel’s murky past, Ellen revealed she is haunted “every day” by the faces of the babies and the not knowing what became of them.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY JANE GRAHAM – 13 JUNE 2014

As a longtime journalist I’ve heard some gruesome tales and feel I’ve developed a pretty thick skin. But I’ll admit, I just stood in the kitchen and cried when I read this week’s story about care home children in Ireland being ‘used’ in medical trials in the 1960s and ’70s.

There can’t be many people currently residing in the developed world who haven’t worked out that institutions, on the whole, don’t work very well. In the UK, numerous recent revelations regarding – deep breath – corrupt policemen, lying politicians, bent journalists, predatory celebrities, cruel nurses, greedy councillors, crooked bankers, cheating sportsmen, double-dealing lawyers and self-serving educationalists, have left us with little faith in that once revered and respected thing, The Establishment.

(Don’t get me wrong, the misty eyed Faragey notion that things were nicer in the olden days is risible; the only difference now is that we’re more likely to find out about monstrous acts. Ironically, though the work of journalists who expose and shame our villains sometimes ushers in waves of despair that leave us struggling to stay standing, it also offers hope that society might get better – even if it’s just because the bad guys are scared of ending up on the front pages.)

The case of almost 300 children in nun-run care homes being exploited in medical trials across two decades is a stinging reminder that the most dangerous institutions of all may be those in which the management believe their authority comes from a power higher than the democratic state; the ones, in short, who reckon they have God on their side. Of course the Magdalene laundries already persuaded many of us of that, and if allegations about dead babies from the mother and baby home in Tuam being dumped in unmarked graves turn out to be true, our hearts will yet again shrivel in horror.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

David Quinn

When the inquiry into the Magdalene homes was announced a couple of years ago I wrote a column challenging three myths about them. The first is that they were an Irish phenomenon only. They were not.

The second is that they were Catholic only. They were not. The third is that they were chiefly for unmarried mothers. They were not. The subsequent McAleese report backed all of this up.

With respect to our mother and baby homes similar myths are taking hold, chiefly that they were a particularly Irish and particularly Catholic phenomenon. They were not.

In particular what has taken root is the notion that Ireland, once the most Catholic country in Western Europe, was also a living nightmare, chiefly because of the church’s teachings on human sexuality – not a utopia, but its opposite, a dystopia.

It is true that Irish Catholicism was once in the grip of a spirituality that laid for too much emphasis on sin and punishment but it is not true to say that what we did to single mothers was uniquely Irish or uniquely Catholic.

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IRELAND
Derry Journal

by Claire Allan
claire.allan@derryjournal.com
Published on the 13 June 2014

Holocaust is a very strong word, isn’t it? And I’ll be honest I thought long and hard about whether or not it was appropriate to use in these circumstances.

I looked it up in the dictionary to get the exact meaning (beside the obvious historical meaning in relation to the mass murder of Jews and other ethnic minorities during World War II) and found it listed as ‘destruction or slaughter on a mass scale’.

I thought of the 793 bodies of children – from infants to the age of nine – uncovered in Tuam and the scandal which has followed. I thought of a friend of mine who stood at another mass, unmarked grave, in Belfast last week where she found the final resting place of her baby brother.

I thought of the reports I had read of unwed mothers being brutalised, having pain relief withheld during labour, denied the dignity of being stitched back together after childbirth ripped through their bodies. I thought of how they were denied antibiotics if they developed an infection.

I thought of the abuse – physical, sexual, mental – endured by a generation of Irish children whose only crime was to have been conceived. I thought of that pit in Tuam – of body on body. Tiny, fragile, beautiful faces. Locks of curly hair. Pudgy toddler legs. Grasping fingers. And I wondered how we as a nation can hold our heads high. Perhaps I am writing emotively – but this is our reality. When I think of these babies I think of my children, of my 10 year old, my five year old, of my one year old niece and her craving for affection and I feel sick to the pit of my stomach.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

June 12, 2014

Brendan Long

Those thousands of Canberrans who have journeyed with Marist College these past 40 years, as students, parents or teachers, might ask themselves whether they really want to know what is being said in a little room in the Magistrates Court in Civic these past few days. That’s because it is genuinely confronting.

People like myself, who have been “streaming in” to much of the proceedings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse are witnesses to an arcane legal process, but one that still allows for people to have their say, to speak of their pain, to say what happened. There are times when I find myself reaching for the speaker volume controls to mute the feed – one can easily get overloaded – at other times you want to pump up the volume to hear every word.

It is obviously beyond painful for these men to tell their stories. I don’t think I am alone in the wide Marist community when I say that we, who were not victims, stand with those who were. We feel for them and with them, and in a lesser way of course, share their pain. These are brave men who have fought demons without, and demons within, to bring themselves to the point where they have the extreme courage required to speak in their own voice, before the nation, of their painful story. I admire them.

Like them I journeyed with the Marist experience at the time the abuse occurred, but for me, on the whole, it was a good place to be, a place of learning and a place in which my Catholic faith was nurtured well. But in the same halls, the same corridors, their experience was so starkly different. I think of the immense sacrifice parents made to pay for their children’s education, trusting the Marist Brothers with their most precious of possessions: the care of their boys. For the parents of the victims the despair must be beyond words.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

A SERIAL paedophile had a labrador called Jason which was used as a possible “grooming device” against his students, the Royal Commission into child sex abuse has been told.

Former headmaster Brother Terence Heinrich has admitted it was “very peculiar” for brothers at Marist College Canberra to have dogs and pupils were “certainly” attracted to this one.

Brother Heinrich, 68, told a hearing in Canberra Brother John Chute, known as Brother Kostka, was not the only brother who ever had a dog.

“But certainly it was most unusual,” he conceded.

The Royal Commission is also looking into fellow Marist Brother Gregory Sutton, who abused children during his teaching years at several schools in the ACT, NSW and Queensland and was sentenced to 18 years jail for child sex offences.

Lawyer Peter O’Brien, representing former student Damian De Marco, put it to the headmaster that the labrador could have been used by Brother Kostka to “carry out his paedophilic behaviour”.

“I can’t agree with that notion, no,” Brother Heinrich replied.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Ewan Gilbert
Updated Thu 12 Jun 2014

Former Canberra Marist College headmaster Brother Terence Heinrich has denied he was involved in covering up allegations of child sexual abuse during the 1980s.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is examining the response of the Marist Brothers to allegations of child sexual abuse in schools across the ACT, New South Wales and Queensland.

Brother Heinrich today admitted under cross-examination that dealing with allegations secretly and internally was the way it was.

Brother Heinrich was the headmaster at Marist College from 1983 to 1989, while Brother Kostka Chute was sexually abusing boys at the school.

In 1996 Brother Kostka was convicted of abusing six boys and sentenced to two years in jail.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Friday, 13 June 2014

A labrador named Jason was part of a Marist brother’s plan to groom young boys, a royal commission has been told.

Former brother John Chute, also known as Brother Kostka, worked at Canberra’s Marist College between 1976 and 1990 and had the dog for some of that time, 1980s principal Terence Heinrich said.

‘Brother Kostka wasn’t the only brother who ever had a dog but certainly it was most unusual,’ Br Heinrich told a royal commission investigating institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

Lawyer Peter O’Brien, representing an abuse victim from the college, suggested the dog was used by Chute as part of ‘his pedophilic behaviour’.

‘It seems from what you recall that children were attracted to the dog,’ Mr O’Brien said to Heinrich.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

June 13, 2014

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

A former Marist College Canberra headmaster has denied he was subservient to his superiors, had deliberately obstructed sex abuse investigations and was protecting a former leader of the order.

Brother Christopher Wade, the headmaster when Brother Kostka Chute was removed from the college at the end of 1993, was testifying on Friday afternoon before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He said he had been aware of “gossip” that Chute may have been a child molester as early as the mid-1960s but did not follow this up when appointed to a school where Chute was on the staff.

Brother Wade said he had not been told of Chute’s history of sexual offending when he took up the MCC appointment at the start of 1993. Chute’s history included numerous admissions of touching students and a canonical warning in July 1969. Brother Wade, 78, is now retired. He said his memory of his time at MCC was poor because of his age.

“The only intimation I ever had Kostka may have been abusing children was 20 or 30 years before the date (1993),” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Friday 13 June 2014

The former headmaster of Marist College Canberra told the child abuse royal commission he believed one of his teachers when he brushed aside an allegation of sexual assault because Marist brothers are meant to tell the truth.

Terence Heinrich said he approached John Chute, also known as Brother Kostka, after the father of a student complained Chute had “interfered” with his son.

When Chute said the allegation was just a misunderstanding, Heinrich said he believed him.

“That’s the way we should be, that’s the way we are – to be true and honest,” Heinrich told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Friday.

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SPAIN
Journal (Ireland)

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH was within its rights not to renew the contract of a married Spanish priest, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.

José Antonio Fernandez Martinez was ordained in 1961, but applied for a dispensation from celibacy 23 years later. Having not received a response, he was married a year later.

He and his wife had five children and he went on to teach Catholic religion at a school in the Murcia region from 1991.

In November 1996 the Murcia newspaper La Verdad published an article about the “Movement for Optional Celibacy” of priests (MOCEOP) of which Fernández Martínez was an active member.

The article included comments by a number of participants indicating their disagreement with the Church’s position on abortion, divorce, sexuality and contraception, illustrated by a picture of Fernandez Martinez with his family.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

Jun 13, 2014 By Chris Clements

THE alleged victim claims he was drugged and abused at drunken orgy when he visited Coodham House as a boy.

AN OUTSPOKEN priest campaigning for justice for victims of sex abuse has revealed fresh claims of child rape at a Catholic retreat.

Father Gerry Magee has written to the church hierarchy quizzing them on allegations that a boy was given wine laced with drugs and then gang raped by priests at Coodham House in Ayrshire.

The alleged victim said it happened on a weekend visit to the house, near Symington, in 1960.

Father Magee, who has helped abuse victims for 18 years, said he was approached by the man after a BBC documentary about Catholic sex abuse was aired last year.

He has asked for answers from the Passionist Order, who ran Coodham House from 1948 to 1988, and the Diocese of Galloway but has had no response.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

By Jerome Christenson

A former Diocese of Winona priest who has admitted to having sex with more than 10 boys still draws a monthly check from the Diocese of Winona.

According to an agreement outlined in a letter signed Oct. 9, 2008 by Winona Bishop Bernard Harrington, Thomas Adamson will draw the annual pension agreed upon for senior priests under the Diocese Priests Pension Plan, along with medical and dental coverage for “the remainder of your life.”

Six months later, Pope Benedict XVI granted Adamson “dispensation from all the obligations connected to sacred ordination,” formally removing him from the Roman Catholic priesthood more than 45 years after he admitted sexually abusing boys to Bishop Edward Fitzgerald.

Adamson’s ongoing financial relationship with the diocese was revealed in a sworn May 16 deposition Adamson provided as part of a suit brought against the Diocese of Winona and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis by an anonymous plaintiff who claims he was sexually abused by Adamson in the 1970s. The lawsuit is the first filed after the Minnesota Legislature opened a three-year window in 2013 that set aside the statute of limitations in cases of abuse.

The Diocese of Winona failed to respond to requests for a statement or comment about Adamson’s deposition.

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IRLAND
WAZ

Tuam. In einem Massengrab im irischen Tuam wurden die Knochen von 796 Kindern gefunden. Sie kamen im katholischen Mütterheim zur Welt – und ums Leben. Weil nach katholischer Lehre unehelich geborene Kinder nicht in geweihter Erde und einem Grab beigesetzt werden durften, wurden die Leichen „entsorgt“.

Zwei spielende Kinder entdeckten das Massengrab. Sie schoben zerbrochene Betonplatten, die auf einem Rasenstück lagen, beiseite „und dann sahen wir sie“, berichtet Barry Sweeney gegenüber dem irischen Fernsehsender RTE: „Totenschädel, einer auf dem andern, zwei, drei Meter tief. Wir sind panisch geworden und weggerannt.“

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sexueller Missbrauch durch Angehorige der katholischen Kirche

[Parents and victims of priests are urged to reveal themselves to police. The Aachen diocese is one of the few dioceses in Germany whose share of priestly child abusers is not so case. The cases of priest Georg K. from Willich, however, has brought the barrel to overflow.]

Kinderschänder Pfarrer Georg K. (55) – Aktion Sühnezeichen – Heimkinderverband und die Kirchengemeinden St. Peter in Hinsbeck und St. Sebastian Lobberich setzen Mahnzeichen – Stahlnägel in den Kirchen als Mahnmahl

Eltern und Opfer aufgefordert, sich den Polizeibehörden zu offenbaren

Das Bistum Aachen hält sich zu Gute, dass es eines der wenigen Bistümer in Deutschland ist, deren Anteil an priesterlichen Kinderschänder nicht so hoch ist. Der Fall des Kinderschänders Pfarrer Georg K. aus Willich hat jedoch das Faß zum überlaufen gebracht. Der Heimkinderverband wird zusammen mit den Kirchengemeinden St. Peter in Hinsbeck und St. Sebastian in Lobberich ein einzigartiges Zeichen setzen. Stahlnägel werden dort in die Kirchenmauern eingeschlagen, als ewiges Mahnmahl, dass auch hier ein Priester in schlimmer Weise Kinder sexuell missbraucht hat. Der genaue Termin wird noch in einem Folgebeitrag bekannt gegeben. Der Heimkinderverband wird diesen Artikel an alle Kirchengemeinden des Bistums Aachen verteilen und um Stellungnahme und Teilnahme bitten. Ebenfalls wird Bischof Heinrich Mussinghoff gebeten, dass er die Aktion des Heimkinderverbandes unterstützt.

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SUEDAFRIKA
Express

In Brits bei Johannesburg wurde am Dienstag der 57-jährige Willicher Pfarrer Georg K. verhaftet.
Nachdem fünf Jahre gegen den Missionspriester wegen Verdacht des sexuellen Missbrauchs in einer südafrikanischen Gemeinde ermittelt worden war (EXPRESS berichtete), wird er jetzt ausgeliefert.

Der Haftbefehl stammt vom Amtsgericht Krefeld. Hier warten Ankläger mit dem Verdacht des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Jungen in 37 Fällen. Der Pastor soll sich in Kempen und Hinsbeck an Kinder seiner früheren Pfarreien vergriffen haben, ehe er nach Südafrika verschwand.

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WASHINGTON
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: John W. McDonald was an Oregon Province Jesuit priest, ordained in 1943. Most of his career was spent at Bellarmine Preparatory High School in Tacoma, WA. During the late 1940s through the 1950s he was assigned to St. Mary’s Indian Mission in Omak, WA, which was part of the Spokane diocese. McDonald’s name was included on that diocese’s 2007 list of priests and religious who were “admitted, proven or credibly accused perpetrators of sexual abuse.” He died in 1985.

Ordained: 1943
Died: Oct. 7, 1985

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CANADA
GlobalPost

WINNIPEG – A Manitoba judge says extra fees charged to residential school survivors by companies that fill out forms were in many cases illegal and in some cases unconscionable.

The ruling by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Perry Schulman affects more than 30 lawyers and agencies across Canada and will result in some survivors reimbursed for fees they paid.

“Given my view of the correct legal characterization of agreements between form-fillers and … claimants, I have concluded that those agreements are presumptively void and unenforceable,” Schulman wrote in his decision released last week.

“Apart from considerations of illegality, agreements to pay form fillers in circumstances of unequal bargaining power and where an improvident deal was made, such as the two examples in the record before this court, are unconscionable.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter

Survivors of Magdalene laundries will begin to receive enhanced pensions and weekly top-up payments from the Department of Social Protection in the coming week, as part of the redress package designed by Mr Justice John Quirke.

More than 400 women have already received €12.4m in lump sum payments in recognition of the years of unpaid labour they provided for the religious orders. Approximately 200 more are still awaiting offers of payment.

Their pensions will also be upgraded to the €230 contributory State pension if they are aged 66 or over. If they are aged under 66, they will receive payments of €100 per week until they reach 66. Payments, which will be introduced on a phased basis, will be backdated to August last year.

Legislation has not been put in place yet to give women enhanced medical cards similar to those available to women infected by Hepatitis C from infected blood products.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Footnotes: Women, Violence, and Marriage; Irish Homes for Unwed Mothers; Archbishop Carlson’s Testimony in Minnesota

Footnotes to previous discussions here this week:

At Slate, Amanda Marcotte responds to W. Bradford Wilcox and Robin Fretwell Wilson’s Washington Post op-ed piece that I discussed yesterday, which argues that women can spare themselves violence by marrying strong male protectors. Marcotte’s powerful concluding takedown of Wilcox and Wilson’s argument:

It’s hard to overstate the gross negligence of this piece (which, by the way, is pegged to Father’s Day). One of the most confounding issues when it comes to domestic violence is that many victims believe that if they just love a little harder and put a little more work into the relationship, they can turn an abusive partner into a loving one. Even though Wilcox and Wilson admit “married men can and do abuse or assault their wives,” they immediately return to arguing that “married fathers are much less likely to resort to violence,” as if the marriage itself was the reason. The last thing that women in abusive relationships need is to be told that they can turn a bad man good by marrying him. Women in abusive relationships need help getting out, not a prod to stay in.

At Salon, Mary Elizabeth Williams slams the “pathetic scramble” to spin the story of the Irish homes for unwed mothers as what happened “back then.” I’ve noted the growing controversy about the facts of the Tuam case here and here. Williams’s response to those now attempting to spin stories about Irish baby homes (she specifically addresses Eamon Fingleton in Forbes):

Let’s look at this “nonsense.” The abuses of women and children that went on in the Irish homes and institutions of its sort in the first part of the 20th century have been well established and documented. A 2009 Child Abuse Commission report cited multiple accounts of “physical, emotional, neglect and sexual” abuse throughout the Irish church- and state-run institutions at the time, and last year, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny issued a formal apology to the women who were forced into labor in the country’s infamous Catholic-run Magdalene Laundries, calling it “a national shame.” A 1944 report on the conditions in the Home notes overcrowded conditions and children who were “poor, emaciated and not thriving,” “pot-bellied” and “fragile.” And Corliss recalls that growing up, those managerially challenged nuns would make sure that the Home children “were always segregated to the side of regular classrooms…. They didn’t suggest we be nice to them. In fact if you acted up in class some nuns would threaten to seat you next to the Home Babies.” In some years, more than half of the children died.

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UNITED STATES
Slate

By Amanda Marcotte

The routine conservative exhortations to single women to hurry up and get married already became downright irresponsible on Tuesday with W. Bradford Wilcox and Robin Fretwell Wilson’s piece in the Washington Post titled “One way to end violence against women? Stop taking lovers and get married.” It’s not a well-argued essay (clearly) but kudos to Wilcox and Wilson for managing both to blame women for male violence and guilt-trip them for not marrying the first man they meet with a pulse. If only they had worked in a dig about cats.

The headline is not misleading: The piece actually argues that marriage is the best prevention against violence for women. “The bottom line is this: Married women are notably safer than their unmarried peers, and girls raised in a home with their married father are markedly less likely to be abused or assaulted than children living without their own father,” they write. Of course, while playing the game of manipulating statistics, they pointedly ignore the fact that domestic violence rates have been falling at the same time marriage rates are falling. I guess correlation only equals causation if it serves the right cause.

While Wilcox and Wilson tacitly admit that the correlation between marriage and lower rates of violence might be because “women in healthy, safe relationships are more likely to select into marriage,” most of the piece is an attempt to convince women that it’s the presence of a wedding ring itself that reduces violence more than the likelier story, which is that abusive relationships often fall apart before the marriage begins.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Donald W. Meyers / Yakima Herald-Republic
dmeyers@yakimaherald.com

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Yakima was not responsible for the sexual abuse of a 17-year-old boy at a Zillah parish by a church deacon in 1999, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Edward Shea rejected arguments by the victim, identified in court papers as John Doe, that the diocese failed to properly screen the deacon when it accepted him as a priesthood candidate or that it failed to supervise him as he worked in the diocese.

There was no evidence to prove that the church knew or should have known that Deacon Aaron Ramirez posed a risk of misconduct, Shea wrote in his 34-page ruling.

“As we have said many times, we’re very sorry for the abuse Mr. Doe suffered,” Yakima Bishop Joseph Tyson said in a statement. “Our prayers are with him.”

“At the same time, we’re pleased that the court recognized the diocese’s strong legal position,” the bishop said. “It is unfortunate we weren’t able to settle this matter outside of trial.”

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe Joshua J. McElwee | Jun. 12, 2014

NEW ORLEANS
Closing the six hours of open meetings at their annual assembly Thursday, the nation’s Catholic bishops heard from two speakers who outlined a stark image of the state of religious freedom and respect for marriage in U.S. society today.

Addressing the ties between evangelization and service to the poor, lawyer Helen Alvaré at one point said it was “getting difficult” for Catholics to partner with the U.S. government in providing social services because of laws like a federal mandate requiring coverage of contraceptive services in health care plans.

“We have always believed it has been eminently possible and good for us to partner with the public authority,” Alvaré said. “Part of me worries some [people] at some levels of government are beginning to imagine a charitable services world where we are not a partner.”

Catholics, she said, must “use every single tool in our disposal” to prevent that from happening.

Alvaré, a law professor at George Mason University who also serves as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Laity, spoke Thursday at the bishops’ plenary assembly in New Orleans. After three and a half hours of deliberation on a number of topics Wednesday, the bishops devoted the last part of their meeting Thursday to talks from Alvaré and sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The New York Times

By MICHAEL PAULSON
JUNE 12, 2014

NEW ORLEANS — They are rethinking what kinds of houses they live in, and what kinds of cars they drive. They are wondering whether, in anticipation of the 2016 presidential election, they need to rewrite their advice to parishioners to make sure that poverty, and not just abortion, is discussed as a high-priority issue. And they are trying to get better about returning phone calls, reaching out to the disenchanted and the disenfranchised, and showing up at events.

Fifteen months into the pontificate of Pope Francis, the Roman Catholic bishops of the United States find themselves unsettled in ways large and small, revisiting both how they live and what they talk about in light of the new pope’s emphasis on personal humility and economic justice.

Over the last several days as the bishops gathered here for their semiannual meeting, they grappled with the substantive and stylistic implications of a still-new papacy.

After several of their colleagues faced recent criticism for lavish houses, several bishops said in interviews that they were paying new attention to their own spending, mindful of the pope’s decision to eschew the apostolic palace for a small suite in a Vatican guesthouse, and aware that their parishioners are concerned about how the church uses its money.

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CALIFORNIA
KUSI

By Sasha Foo

The defendants are the very same ones named in the original suit in May: the head of this ministry, his wife, another program employee and the well-known Rock Church. But the list of plaintiffs has doubled to more than a dozen women who claim they were subjected to daily abuse, but were too intimidated and scared to speak out.

“I feel betrayed by the people who were promising to protect me,” professed plaintiff Brienna Hartz.

They say they were betrayed, abused and shamed. Seven more women have added their complaints to a civil lawsuit against David Powers and his wife, the operators of a drug and rehabilitation program that’s been promoted and endorsed by The Rock Church.

“Before long, he was slapping my butt,” stated one plaintiff wishing to remain anonymous.

Now there are 13 women in all who say David Powers harassed, abused or sexually assaulted them while they were staying in his sober-living homes or in a residential program in La Jolla that only admitted young women.

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WASHINGTON
KIMA

By Natalie Eucce Published: Jun 12, 2014

YAKIMA COUNTY, Wash. — We begin tonight with a ruling in the high-profile sex abuse case against the Catholic Diocese of Yakima. A federal judge ruled the Diocese is not liable for the sexual abuse of a boy at a Zillah parish in 1999.

Judge Edward Shea said it was clear that former deacon Aaron Ramirez abused the plaintiff “John Doe” but that no church authorities knew Ramirez was at the Resurrection Parish when the abuse occurred.

Yakima Bishop Joseph Tyson issued a statement saying the Diocese was sorry for what the plaintiff suffered, but is pleased the court agreed with the church’s legal arguments.

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MINNESOTA
LaCrosse Tribune

Jerome Christenson jerome.christenson@lee.net

A former priest who has admitted to having sex with more than 10 boys still draws a monthly check from the Diocese of Winona.

According to an agreement outlined in a letter signed Oct. 9, 2008, by Winona Bishop Bernard Harrington, Thomas Adamson will draw the annual pension agreed upon for senior priests under the Diocese Priests Pension Plan along with medical and dental coverage “the remainder of your life.”

Six months later, Pope Benedict XVI granted Adamson “dispensation from all the obligations connected to sacred ordination,” formally removing him from the Roman Catholic priesthood more than 45 years after he admitted sexually abusing boys to Bishop Edward Fitzgerald.

Adamson’s ongoing financial relationship with the diocese was revealed in a sworn May 16 deposition Adamson provided as part of a suit brought against the Diocese of Winona and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis by an anonymous plaintiff who claims he was sexually abused by Adamson in the 1970s. The lawsuit is the first filed after the Minnesota Legislature opened a three-year window in 2013 that set aside the statute of limitations in cases of abuse.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK

[with video]

Stephanie Diffin, KSDK June 12, 2014

ST. LOUIS – NewsChannel 5 has learned about more local ties to a high-profile priest sex abuse case.

The abuser in the case is a former Minnesota priest, who served for a time under the current St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson. At the time, during the early ’80s, Archbishop Carlson was serving as a bishop in Minneapolis – St. Paul. He was one of the people in charge of monitoring former priest Thomas Adamson after the church became aware of Adamson’s sexual abuse.

Part of Carlson’s solution for Adamson brought the abuser to a treatment center in St. Louis.

The proof is in documents released as evident in a previous trial involving Adamson. They show Adamson agreed to undergo treatment at St. Michael’s Institute in St. Louis, which has since been integrated into programs at the Vianney Center in Dittmer, Missouri. The center is not affiliated with the school.

Documents outlining his stay show that at the beginning, Adamson’s doctors repeatedly described him as “angry” and “unsure of self.”

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KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 12

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

We beg a Louisville judge to keep a convicted predator priest behind bars and away from kids while he appeals.

[WDRB]

Dozens of times, we’ve seen savvy pedophiles fake or exaggerate illnesses to get special treatment. And hundreds of times, we’ve seen elderly, greying, slow-moving, stoop-shouldered but cunning clerics win parents’ trust and hurt kids even though they look and seem utterly harmless. It’s reckless to assume that older or ill child molesters can’t or won’t hurt kids. These are compulsive, driven men who can rarely control themselves, even if they are sick.

We hope this judge will put the safety of innocent kids before the convenience of a convicted criminal.

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UNITED STATES
NJ.com

[Note: The Kindle edition can be downloaded free of charge from Amazon.]

By Jacqueline Cutler
on April 27, 2014

Lou Romano, of Park Ridge, has written a heartfelt thriller about a complicated, abused man who happens to be a serial killer of pedophiles.

‘Intercession’
By Louis Romano
(Vecchia Publishing, 336 pp, $12.95)

It’s unusual to finish a book full of gruesome murders and feel deeply satisfied. It’s also unusual to read a book set in the neighborhood of your youth and know the streets, stores and churches, but realize you had no idea what was going on.

That’s not to suggest that Louis Romano is anything less than accurate; we moved in different worlds. Romano spins an excellent and disturbing story about pedophiles, concentrating on Roman Catholic priests.

A longtime Park Ridge resident, Romano sets much of the book around the Bronx of his childhood. His hero, John Deegan, attended parochial school and tried to do right by everyone.

“John Joseph Deegan was the second born of six children to Jack Joseph Deegan and Maureen Duffy. He was the shining apple of his parents’ eyes. In his mother’s heart, soul and mind, Johnny Boy was destined to be a priest from the day he was born. With John as a priest and by the grace of God, one of her daughters perhaps would join the convent, Maureen Deegan would have been happy to have closed her eyes and gone to heaven that very day. Her work on earth would have been complete as her children would work on saving souls and doing God’s work to alleviate the sins of the people.”

John was a perfect student and even the most severe of the nuns could not help but adore him. Though far smarter than his classmates, he was not obnoxious about his superior intellect and helped others. He was also very cute and quickly became a favorite of the parish priest.

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IRELAND
The Economist

Jun 14th 2014 | DUBLIN

CATHERINE CORLESS, a farmer, housewife and local historian in Tuam, a small town in the west of Ireland, struggled for four years to establish the truth about two questions: how many children died in a local mother-and-baby home between 1925 and 1961, and where were their bodies buried? Although she received little help, she has succeeded in answering the first question. A government inquiry should soon help to answer the second.

Her recently completed research showed that 796 children had died in the town’s home for unmarried mothers in those 36 years. The home, previously a workhouse, was run by the nuns of Bon Secours, a Roman Catholic order of French origin; the rate of infant mortality was well above the national average.

The revelation of the very large number of baby deaths, and the suggestion, as yet unproven, that many infants may have been buried in a mass grave in the grounds of the former care-home, has stirred the national conscience. It has also shed light on a shadowy chapter in Ireland’s history: how the church, the state and society as a whole treated unmarried women and their children. The women were shown little compassion and generally shunned as social outcasts. Many were disowned by their families; polite society dismissed them as “fallen”. Since their offspring were born out of wedlock, they were stigmatised, too. Unmarried mothers and their children were seen as a “ problem” best solved by removing them from society and by sending them to institutional care and isolation.

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IRELAND
Sunday World

AMANDA BRUNKER

Seven-hundred-and-ninety-six babies and infants dumped in a septic tank.

Could the Catholic Church make it any more difficult for people to keep faith?

The Government has done what it does best: set up a complex inter-departmental committee to investigate this.

The home closed 53 years ago, so what’s another few years to wait for answers, eh?

The Church has ordered the nuns who ran the home where the mass grave was found to co-operate with all enquires. So they’ve hired a PR company with a fancy name to make statements.
Our own Fr Brian D’Arcy described the septic tank tomb of skeletal bones as akin “to a horror story from Nazi Germany in WWII”.

As usual, he is the only member of the clergy to call it like it is. Because we can now see the network of mother-and-baby homes run under the cloak of Catholic morality for what they were: Ireland’s concentration camps.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

June 12, 2014 9:16 am | Author: berger

Local Catholic clerics have been accused of keeping too quiet about pedophile priests and there’s obviously some merit to those criticisms. But one wag noted the church hierarchy’s obsession with secrecy is a bit over the top when news releases by the official archdiocesan flack, Gabe Jones, go out to the media with this: “The information contained in this e-mail message and any attachments is confidential and is intended for use of the individual or entity named above. It may contain information that is privileged or exempt from disclosure under applicable law.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

Former children’s minister Frances Fitzgerald has admitted she read a dossier in 2011 calling for an inquiry into mother-and-baby homes, vaccine trials and illegal adoptions.

Ms Fitzgerald is coming under pressure to explain why she failed to act on the issue during her three years in office.

The 131-page dossier prepared by the Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA) called for a statutory inquiry into the homes, vaccine trials carried out in them and the scale of forced and illegal adoptions arranged in such institutions.

“During their time in the mother-and-baby homes, these women and girls were treated in a sub-human fashion, often denied adequate medical care or pain relief while giving birth. The women were also forced to carry out tough manual labour, whether they were pregnant or not. After their time was up (sometimes before) their babies were taken from them and sent for adoption, sometimes to America,” said the report.

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A Louisville priest convicted of sexually abusing a teenage boy in the 1970s is asking a judge to set him free while he waits for the outcome of an appeal.

In April, a jury convicted James Schook of three counts of sodomy and one count of indecent and immoral behavior.
A judge sentenced Schook to 15 years in prison.

Schook’s attorney filed the appeal this week. He asks for a reversal of the conviction and possibly a new trial based on questions of which state statutes were relevant to the prosecution — those in effect at the time of the offenses, modern day statutes or both.

The request to stay out of prison during the appeals process is based on Schook’s argument that he is terminally ill, unlikely to commit any crimes and unlikely to flee the jurisdiction.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 12, 2014

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

It’s said that the layman who heads the bishops hand-picked abuse panel apparently believes that his vague, mini-sermon today to America’s bishops might do something.

[National Catholic Reporter]

This panel, the National Review Board, was never a watchdog. And it quickly became a lap dog. Once filled with people who had independent jobs, it’s now largely stacked with people who depend on the church for paychecks (directly and indirectly). Once filled with high profile, somewhat outspoken people, it’s now filled with low profile and completely silent people. Once filled with somewhat savvy realists, it’s now largely filled with mostly naive optimists.

Reform of the Catholic hierarchy’s response to clergy abuse and cover ups, if it ever happens, will come thanks to external sources, not internal sources, and thanks to victims, police, prosecutors, journalists and advocates, and in spite of bishops and their carefully-chosen and cowardly appointees.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KTRS

video only

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OSTERREICH
Initiative Gegen Kirchen-Privilegien

Ablehnungsantrag wurde eingebracht

(Leoben, Wien, 12.6.14, PUR) Vertuschung von körperlicher und sexueller Gewalt, Täter, die mit Billigung der Kirchenobersten weiterhin in Amt und Würden bleiben und eine kircheneigene “Opferschutzkommission” die mitspielte: Der Fall Admont gewährt tiefe Einblicke in die Missstände der Kirche heute.

So hatte bereits das Oberlandesgericht Graz das umstrittene Urteil des Leobener Richters im Missbrauchsprozess eines ehemaligen Zöglings gegen das Stift Admont aufgehoben. Der Zögling gibt an, in seiner Kindheit von Mönchen des Stiftes wiederholt ausgepeitscht und vergewaltigt worden zu sein. Der Richter erster Instanz hatte die Klage mit der abenteuerlichen Begründung abgewiesen, dass die Täter im Internat des Stiftsgymnasiums “ausführende Organe des Bundes” waren“ – und damit sei der Staat haftbar, nicht jedoch das Stift oder die Admonter Mönche. Dieses merkwürdige Urteil hat das OLG zurückverwiesen. Jetzt müsste das Verfahren von demselben Richter neue verhandelt werden. Doch genau dagegen wehrt sich Rechtsanwalt Hiebler im Namen des Opfers mit einem Ablehnungsantrag nun: Denn der Richter sei offenbar befangen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst passt perfekt zum Bistum Regensburg. Und: Er hat sich beim Weitem nicht so viel zuschulden kommen lassen wie die Verantwortlichen hier.

bischof7953Tebartz-van Elst zieht nach Regensburg. Unmittelbar nachdem diese Nachricht heute von verschiedenen Medien vermeldet wurde, kam es in den Kommentar-Foren sozialer Netzwerke zu einer Vielzahl an – schonend ausgedrückt – ablehnenden Meinungsäußerungen. Die Frage ist aber doch: Was hat sich der ehemalige Limburger Bischof denn so Schlimmes zuschulden kommen lassen, was von den Verantwortlichen des nun von ihm zur neuen Heimat erkorenen Bistums Regensburg nicht problemlos getoppt werden könnte?

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
The Raw Story

By Travis Gettys
Thursday, June 12, 2014

The Archdiocese of St. Louis offered an explanation Wednesday for its leader’s claim to be unaware that priests could not legally have sex with children.

Archbishop Robert Carlson testified during a deposition last month that he was not sure in 1984, when he heard accusations of clergy sex abuse as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, that such relations were against the law.

“I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” Carlson testified as part of a lawsuit filed in Minnesota. “I understand today it’s a crime.”

The St. Louis archdiocese, which Carlson has headed since 2009, said in a statement that the archbishop’s comments had been taken out of context.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

[the full deposition]

Bill Donohue comments on St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson:

According to attorney Jeffrey Anderson, as well as Commonweal, and other media outlets, the transcript of the exchange between Anderson and Archbishop Carlson reveals that the archbishop did not know it was a crime for an adult to have sex with a child. They are all wrong.

Prior to the controversial exchange (which began with a question regarding mandatory reporting laws—see pp. 108-09 of the transcript), Anderson asked Carlson several questions about Tom Adamson (a homosexual priest who had sex with teenage males). Carlson said, “I remember he was accused of sexual abuse. That’s the trial I participated in.” (See p. 34.) Having said as much, it is simply impossible to believe that Carlson did not know it was against the law for an adult to have sex with a minor.

Anderson also asked, “And you also knew when first degree criminal sexual conduct is written and recorded, that is the most serious of the sex crimes against a child. You know that?” To which Carlson said, “Correct.” (See pp. 98-99.) This is further proof that Carlson knew what the law was; this was also said prior to the controversial exchange.

After the exchange in question, Anderson asks Carlson, “But you knew a priest touching the genitals of a kid to be a crime; did you not?” Carlson answered, “Yes.” (See p. 145.)

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Religion Dispatches

Post by PATRICIA MILLER

Reaffirming their fine tradition of looking the future squarely in the eye and then blinking and retreating to the comforting exegesis of the past, the have voted .

The U.S. Catholic Bishops’ vote to maintain their politically aggressive Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty for another three years signals that despite the warnings of Pope Francis to tone down the culture war stuff, the bishops are fully invested in their crusade against same-sex marriage and universal access to birth control.

And it’s no wonder, given the people they’re listening to for advice. On Thursday, the bishops will hear presentations on marriage from Helen Alvare, a former staffer and leading far-right proponent of the “contraceptive mentality” and its supposed dangers to women and marriage, and W. Bradford Wilcox, author of a controversial Washington Post op-ed which advised women to get married already so they wouldn’t get beaten or raped by their boyfriends (original headline: “One way to end violence against women? Stop taking lovers and get married”).

It’s the dream team of socially regressive conservative tripe on why marriage is good for everyone—except gay people, for whom it is very, very bad—and contraception is evil, largely because it allows women to avoid marrying their baby daddies.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Advocate

BY MICHAEL O’LOUGHLIN JUNE 12 2014

The man appointed by U.S. Catholic bishops to fight the church’s battle against marriage equality called Wednesday for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Speaking in New Orleans at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ summer meeting, San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone rejected calls from some priests to move on from the issue and instead seemed to double down.

In his report to his fellow bishops, Cordileone, head of the bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, said the nation finds itself at a “critical point,” according to the National Catholic Reporter.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Thu, Jun 12, 2014

The return in 2012 of documents collated by the vaccine trial division of the Ryan Commission to relevant pharmaceutical firms, religious congregations and State agencies has been criticised as “further abuse” of children in institutional settings used “as guinea pigs”.

Independent TD Denis Naughten also pointed out that “the trials that took place in 1973 were approved by the National Drugs Advisory Board and a licence was issued to Wellcome for a two-year period, yet these trials were still ongoing in January 1976.”

The trials were suspended in 2003 following legal action.

In a written reply to Mr Naughten this week, Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn said he had approved the return of the vaccine module documents to their original sources and understood this had been done.

He also confirmed that he was preparing legislation to retain the records of the Commission itself, the Redress Board and the Residential Institutions Abuse Review Committee in the National Archives where they would be sealed for 75 years, following which access would be restricted. Consultation on this with survivor groups and other stakeholders was planned, he said.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe Joshua J. McElwee | Jun. 12, 2014

NEW ORLEANS

Urged not to get complacent on clergy sexual abuse of minors, the nation’s Catholic bishops spoke little of holding one another accountable for failures in protecting children at their annual spring meeting.

The chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board, which advises the bishops on child protection policies, told those gathered Wednesday in New Orleans that the church “continues to slowly make progress” on the abuse issue and asked bishops present to “resist complacency” and “remain committed” to the work still ahead of them.

“Every time we learn about a situation that results from a decision not in conformity with the Charter [for the Protection of Children and Young People], the commendable efforts of the bishops to address the issue of sexual abuse are compromised,” Francesco Cesareo said. “These instances further erode the credibility of the bishops.”

Toward the end of his 20-minute address, Cesareo said Catholics must “hold each other accountable for any actions or decisions that run contrary” to the prelates’ charter, which the bishops’ conference adopted in 2002. However, Cesareo did not specify who needs to be held accountable and to whom.

The topic received no wider discussion in the general sessions Wednesday, with retired Erie, Pa., Bishop Donald Trautman posing the only question on the subject from the floor: “Are we able to say that all dioceses and eparchies are implementing the charter?”

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 12, 2014

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

We’re saddened but not surprised that America’s bishops have invited a man to speak to them who minimizes and mischaracterizes abuse.

He’s W. Bradford Wilcox, co-author of a controversial recent Washington Post op ed about violence against women.

[National Catholic Reporter]

Bishops do this often – consult with questionable male “experts,” men like Paul McHugh who said “I believe that the belligerent frenzy characteristic of media reports on priestly sexual abuse has done much damage and needs to stop.”

[Baltimore Sun]

(Bishops put McHugh on their first National Review Board overseeing the crisis.)

Bishops send predator priests to therapists like Father Benedict Groeschel, who said in 2012: “In many cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 is the seducer.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 12, 2014

Richard Ackland
Sydney Morning Herald columnist

How is it that the Catholic Church has not only harboured so many paedophile priests but strenuously covered up their criminal activities?

This conspiracy exists not only in Australia but in other countries where the Catholic Church functions. We’ve seen the same pattern in Ireland, Britain and the US. It is a cover-up on a global scale.

With the work of the royal commission into child sexual abuse and the Newcastle Maitland special commission we’ve been hearing, almost on a daily basis, of senior priests protecting the worst sort of offenders, failing to report them to the civil authorities, moving them around when things got hot, and generally being part of what can only be described as a large-scale criminal protection racket.

In his evidence to the special commission in Newcastle, Father Brian Lucas said that the obligation to report a serious crime depended on the wishes of the victim. The other rabbit hole of escape was that the secrecy of the confessional overcomes obligations to the criminal law.

This week the Marist Brothers in Canberra have been the focus of the McClellan royal commission, and the story is the same – protection of clergy against whom allegations of paedophilia have been made and giving victims the most incredible run-around.

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IRELAND
Aljazeera

Sinead O’Shea Last updated: 12 Jun 2014

Tuam, Ireland – “Everyone knew there was babies buried here, but we thought it was only a small few,” says James Mannion, a resident of this western town.

Camera crews and satellite vans assemble in the middle of a housing estate in Tuam. Mannion and other locals have come down to have a look. All are focused on a walled-in, grassy area the size of a basketball court.

Catherine Corless, a local historian, thinks there are 796 babies buried here, not including stillborns.

The site is on the former grounds of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home, which was owned by the Bon Secours nuns and was in operation from 1925 to 1961. This was one of several institutions funded by the state and run by the Catholic clergy to accommodate unmarried mothers – the “untouchables” of Irish life.

Unwed mothers brought their families great shame at a time when the Catholic Church’s influence over society was strong, and children born out of wedlock who died often did not receive a Christian burial.

At the institutions, mother and child were separated after nursing, and the children fostered out or, sometimes, sold to prosperous American families. Meanwhile, the mothers stayed to work off their “debts”. Some escaped to England. They risked arrest if they returned.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 12, 2014

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

In a deposition released Monday that’s attracting national attention (The Washington Post, NBC News, the Religion News Service, and elsewhere), former Sioux Falls bishop Robert Carlson claimed 193 times that he “couldn’t recall” information about predator priests. He also made two other startling claims;

1) that he never called the police about known or suspected clergy sex crimes at any point in his 24 years as a priest, bishop and other top church official in Minnesota.

2) that he wasn’t sure whether he knew it was illegal for priests to have sex with children when he worked as chancellor of the Twin Cities archdiocese in the 1980s.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

And another Catholic bishop testified under oath – in a different deposition – that Carlson advised him to claim memory loss if he were deposed in clergy sex abuse cases.

Clearly, he’s being deceptive. And he continues to be deceptive in clergy sex cases here in St. Louis.

Given this, we can’t help but suspect he also concealed clergy crimes during his years in Sioux Falls (1995 – 2005). According to BishopAccounatbility.org, there are 24 publicly exposed predator priests, nuns, brothers and seminarians in the Sioux Falls diocese.

So we call on current Sioux Falls Bishop Paul Swain to do what Carlson never did – take a firm stand to protect children and expose wrongdoing. He must post on his website the names, photos and whereabouts of all predator priests (proven, admitted and credibly accused). He needs to personally visit the parishes where they worked, begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police. And he should publicly denounce his predecessor for being deceitful.

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IRELAND
Evening Echo

THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014

A CORK MAN born in Bessborough Mother and Baby Home is hoping the imminent inquiry will give him the answers he has been waiting five decades for.

Christopher Kirwan, a 53-year-old from Glanmire, was born in the Bessborough home in November 1960 and was adopted the following June.

Christopher, who attended last night’s vigil outside the Dáil for the 796 babies who died at the Tuam Mother and Baby Home, says he has eight unexplained marks on his body.

Six are on his arms and two are on one of his legs.

Another two resulted from the BCG and smallpox vaccinations — but he doesn’t know what caused the others saying: “I want answers about why I am so badly scarred.”

He believes the unexplained marks are the result of vaccine trials which were carried out on some babies born at Bessborough.

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UNITED STATES
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The Association of U.S. Catholic Priests will meet in St. Louis June 23-26.

On June 12, the AUSCP released details of a letter written to Pope Francis, expressing sadness and dismay at the Vatican response to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

June 12, 2014

The Association of U.S. Catholic Priests has written to Pope Francis to express “sadness and dismay” at the release of comments by a Vatican official regarding the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

The letter was sent June 2 to Pope Francis, and signed by the AUSCP president, Father David Cooper of Milwaukee, and also by the AUSCP board members.

In their letter to the pope, the priests noted that the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith published on April 30 the “introductory observations” of Cardinal Gerhard Muller, but did not release “any aspects of the subsequent discussion.”

Those discussions were characterized by LCWR as “honest, respectful, and engaging” during which the LCWR leadership was able to “offer responses that illuminated some of the perceptions about the LCWR held by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” the priests said.

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ITALY
Newser

By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff
Posted Jun 12, 2014

(NEWSER) – In what could be one of history’s more intriguing cases of a Catholic confessing his sins, a former mobster has asked for a meeting with Pope Francis so he can confess three “very important secrets.” Vincenzo Calcara, described by the BBC as a “mafia turncoat” who was a member of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra before becoming a police informant, wrote a six-page letter to the pope claiming that what he has to say “can change the course of certain events,” according to local media. (This after Pope Francis in March warned mobsters to repent or “end up in hell.”) Specifically, he implies he has information about the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee.

Calcara wrote that what happened has been kept secret “because to reveal it would be like opening a box and bringing to light truths so weighty as to throw into crisis a system that links the Vatican with other deviant entities.” It’s not Calcara’s first run-in with the church: Years ago, he claimed that Ali Agca, who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in a St. Peter’s Square shooting in 1991, was a hitman hired by the mafia, according to the Catholic Herald.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Huffington Post

By Lydia O’Connor

The archbishop of America’s most liberal city is scheduled to speak at a massive anti-gay rally later this month, prompting more than 80 political and religious leaders to demand in a letter that he cancel his participation.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, a leading supporter of California’s Prop. 8 to ban same-sex marriage in 2008, will speak June 19 at Washington D.C.’s March for Marriage, an event organized by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and the Family Research Council — two groups that have taken some of the most hostile stances against same-sex marriage.

His involvement in their rally, the letter’s authors argue, is out of line with Pope Francis’ recent progressive words on treatment of the gay community.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Huffington Post

By RACHEL ZOLL
Posted: 06/12/2014

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops meeting Wednesday renewed their focus on abortion and gay marriage under Pope Francis.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to make only limited revisions to a guide they publish every presidential election year on church teaching, voting and public policy. The bishops also reaffirmed their fight for broader religious exemptions to laws recognizing gay marriage and a requirement in the Affordable Care Act that employers provide health insurance covering birth control.

Francis has said the church has been alienating Catholics by focusing more on divisive social issues than on mercy and compassion.

The bishops’ document on political responsibility, titled “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” has been published every four years since 1976, and has become a point of contention within the church over which issues voters should consider most important: abortion or social justice. The bishops voted Wednesday to incorporate Francis’ teachings into the document, but rejected a complete rewrite in favor of limited changes instead.

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MINNESOTA
KTTC

[with video]

By Nicole Goodrich, Reporter

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) — A defrocked priest at the center of a lawsuit against church officials in Winona and the Twin Cities has admitted to abusing several teens over three decades.

Thomas Adamson now lives in Rochester, and his newly released deposition details admitted abuse across communities in southeastern Minnesota.

Adamson is at the center of the lawsuit filed after a former alter boy from St. John’s Parish in Caledonia came forward accusing Adamson of allegedly raping him.

The sworn deposition was taken nearly four weeks ago but only released Wednesday.

“How many kids did you sexually molest?” Adamson is asked during the deposition.

“I don’t know,” the former priest responds. “I would have to study that out.”

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BELGIUM
National Post (Canada)

Araminta Wordsworth | June 11, 2014

Police in Belgium have charged a Roman Catholic deacon in the deaths of at least 40 patients during a 20-year killing spree, allegedly to put them out of their misery.

Ivo Poppe, 57, worked as a nurse and chaplain at the Hôpital du Sacré Coeur in Menin, west of Brussels, from 1980 to 2002, when he was ordained a deacon — one step below becoming a priest.

But prosecutors believe the killings continued up to 2011 as he went on visiting the hospital in his role of a part-time pastoral assistant.

The married father of three kept records of his victims, whom he killed by smothering with a pillow or administering a lethal dose of insulin. The list apparently included several family members, the Antwerp Gazette reported.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

The mother of a child sex abuse victim who is suing a Maryland ministry with ties to leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention said June 11 that a “good-old-boy” network among evangelical preachers is just as effective in covering up clergy predators as the Catholic hierarchy.

“It’s almost like a mafia system,” Pam Palmer, a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit heard June 9 by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, said in a media event staged outside the SBC annual meeting in Baltimore by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“To me, as a Bible-believing Christian, it should not be that way,” Palmer said of an alleged conspiracy to conceal child abuse by Sovereign Grace Ministries, an evangelical network of churches that during internal strife moved its headquarters from Montgomery County, Md., to Louisville, Ky., in part because of proximity to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“They have come out very publicly in support of Sovereign Grace Ministries,” Palmer described the grievance that brought her to Baltimore for a demonstration prodding Southern Baptist officials “to take child sex abuse cases more seriously and take strong steps now to safeguard innocent children and vulnerable adults from those who commit and conceal clergy sex crimes.”

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY JOHN MARZULLI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, June 11, 2014

These Onionheads were a bunch of knuckleheads.

The feds are suing a Long Island company that employees say they were forced to leave because they refused to participate in religious rites in the workplace called Onionhead — which included praying, thanking God for their jobs, and saying “I love you” to management and co-workers — a lawsuit charges.

Three former employees complained to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and federal investigators confirmed that United Health Programs of America in Syosset and its parent company, Cost Containment Group, had discriminated against them based on religion.

“Defendants have required employees to engage in practices pursuant to a belief system called ‘Harnessing Happiness,’ or more commonly, ‘Onionhead,’” EEOC lawyer Sunu Chandy said in the complaint.

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