ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
The Journal

Updated 1.30pm

THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS in Ireland have apologised to survivors who were abused while under their care.

In a statement, released today with a report into their current safeguarding policies, the Order said it regretted the “significant missed opportunities” to protect children from abusive behaviour.

Provincial Hugh McKenna said he apologises “unreservedly to each and every survivor for the pain and harm inflicted on those who suffered abuse while under our care”.

“I apologise for the breach of trust, and the suffering victims and their families endured,” he continued.

I also know that no apology can ever be sufficient, and acknowledge with deep shame and sadness that the Franciscan Order failed you.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland released its review report into the order today. The Order admitted that it described the “stark reality of abuse perpetrated by members of the Irish Franciscans over a 45-year period from 1953 to 1998″.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Social Work Helper

Between 1981 and 1985, Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Geoffrey Dickens campaigned to uncover a pedophile ring at the heart of Westminster. In 1984, Dickens presented a 40-page dossier of evidence to Margaret Thatcher’s then Home Secretary, Leon Brittan, implicating numerous prominent figures “in positions of power, influence and responsibility”, including the name of the late MP Cyril Smith. On receiving the dossier, Leon Brittan sent a letter to Dickens, informing him that his file would be given to police and passed on to the Home Office for investigation.

After the Jimmy Savile scandal broke in Britain in 2011, Peter McKelvie, a former Child Protection manager, contacted Labour MP Tom Watson with claims that at least 20 prominent figures, including former MPs and government ministers, had abused children for “decades”. McKelvie had discovered links between paedophiles and the government while assisting police in investigating convicted paedophile Peter Righton who had made his career as a child protection expert. Amongst evidence seized from Righton’s home in 1992 were a vast number of documents that pointed to a “very well organized pedophile network.”

As more information emerged, different investigations were launched by the police, under Operation Fairbank, including inquiries into activities of child abuse at Elm Guest House in London and Operation Midland, which is specifically looking at information about three possible murders linked to child abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

David Gibson | February 10, 2015

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The German churchman christened the “Bishop of Bling” by the media for lavish expenditures he made on his residence and church offices has quietly been given a low-level post at the Vatican, nearly a year after Pope Francis ousted him from the Limburg diocese.

Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst may already be in Rome, according to church sources and media reports, and next month will begin work as a “delegate” at the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, an office in the Roman Curia.

While the Vatican has so far declined to comment, Tebartz-van Elst will reportedly help prepare catechetical materials – his area of expertise – for various national bishops conferences. But he won’t have his name attached to any documents, according to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, head of the council.

The post was created for Tebartz-van Elst and has the hallmarks of a “make-work” job because the Vatican couldn’t figure out what else to do with the prelate.

Controversy over Tebartz-van Elst’s outlays in Limburg erupted in October 2013 when it was revealed that costs to renovate the diocesan center and the bishops’ home ran several times over the initial estimate, to some $40 million.

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AUSTRALIA
Haaretz

SYDNEY, Australia – A week from hell. That’s how dark these past seven days have been for the Australian Jewish community. The hearings at the Royal Commission into the child sexual abuse scandal have been suffused with acrimony and accusations, tragedy and trauma.

Unsurprisingly, the damning testimonies and explosive admissions have fuelled a barrage of bad publicity – in print, on radio, TV and online, where details of the sordid scandal are being streamed live.

The government-sponsored commission is probing how leaders of Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre and its Sydney counterpart responded to multiple claims of sexual abuse at both Chabad institutions in the 1980s and 1990s. David Cyprys and David Kramer, former employees at Yeshivah in Melbourne, were convicted and jailed in 2013; Daniel “Gug” Hayman, a one-time director of Sydney’s Yeshiva, was convicted in 2014 with a suspended sentence.

If you missed the first week of the two-week commission, here are the horrific headlines, and the fallout:

• Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, a Chabad rabbi in Sydney who has campaigned for the victims, accused a senior rabbi at Yeshiva in Sydney in the 1980s of being a liar and described those involved as “bastards” with “blood on their hands.”

“I’m prepared to say that Rabbi [Boruch] Lesches lied when he said that he didn’t know about the abuse,” Gutnick told the commission last week. Lesches, who now lives in America, was a senior official at Chabad’s headquarters in Sydney at the time of the abuse. It is understood he will not appear before the commission despite attempts by Australian officials to bring him in.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
SDPB

By JACKELYN SEVERIN

House lawmakers are discussing a measure surrounding child sex abuse cases and the statute of limitations in South Dakota.

In 2010 the South Dakota legislature passed a law tightening the statute of limitations for childhood sex abuse claims. Child sex abuse victims who are 40 years or older can no longer bring civil law suits against their alleged perpetrators. Represented Steve Hickey of Sioux Falls says the 2010 law had unintended consequences. He says many lawsuits that were in court during the passage of the law were thrown out because the courts applied the statute retroactively. Hickey has brought a measure that would allow those victims to bring those cases back to court.

Barbara Dahlen and her nine sisters say they were sexually abused by clergy at the Blue Cloud Abbey in eastern South Dakota during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Dahlen says their civil case was thrown out after the legislature passed the 2010 law. She says their case should be vetted and decided in court not by the legislature.

“I ask you today to allow our voices to be heard so social justice can be determined,” says Dahlen.

The 2010 law affected other cases similar to Dahlen’s. Representative Steve Hickey says his bill could impact around 67 cases involving church officials of native boarding schools in South Dakota.

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IRELAND
Herald

BY TIM HEALY – 10 FEBRUARY 2015

A 68-YEAR-old woman is suing two religious orders and the HSE over the alleged forced adoption of her four-month-old baby 45 years ago.

She said that at the age of 21, in 1968, she was raped near Howth in Dublin, became pregnant, and was sent for pre- and post-natal care to St Patrick’s mother and baby home on the Navan Road, Dublin, before giving birth in March 1969, the High Court heard.

At that time, she had been living and working in the Magdalene Laundry in Drumcondra, Dublin, having already spent most of her life in care.

From the age of six, she lived in institutions which each had “extremely harsh” environments. She said she was physically abused, went hungry, was frightened a lot of the time and had to work hard for no money in the institutions.

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CANADA
Blackburn News

By The Canadian Press on February 10, 2015

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission is weighing whether to ask the Vatican to repeal the Papal Bulls of Discovery that granted 15th-century explorers the right to conquer the New World and the “heathen” aboriginals that called it home.

Chair Murray Sinclair says the commission examining the impact of Canada’s Indian residential schools is looking carefully at the 1455 and 1493 Catholic edicts as part of its final report.

Many argue the proclamations legitimized the treatment of aboriginal people as “less than human.” Crown sovereignty in Canada can be traced back to those papal bulls and neither Canada nor the United States has repudiated them, Sinclair said.

“The movement to repudiation is very strong and is moving ahead,” Sinclair said in an interview. “If we as the commission are going to join that movement or endorse it … we have to come to a conclusion that it’s necessary for reconciliation, to establish a proper relationship between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people.”

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Franciscan Friars in Ireland (OFM) have expressed regret for missing opportunities to protect children who were sexually abused by a number of their Friars.

They say a report by the Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog describes a “stark reality of abuse perpetrated by members of the Irish Franciscans over a 45 year period” up until 1998.

The report is one of 16 published today following the completion of the latest tranche of audits by National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The report on the Irish Franciscans, says three friars were convicted by the courts during the period, and highlights the order’s failure to deal adequately with complaints brought to its attention at the time.

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GEORGIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Six Georgia predator priests ‘outed’
They all worked in Atlanta archdiocese
But none have attracted local attention
Victims prod Catholic officials to take action And they push for new state law to help expose pedophiles

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose names and key information about six predator priests have molested and been “outed” elsewhere and who spent time in Atlanta but have gotten little – if any – public attention in Georgia.

They will also prod church officials – Catholic and others – to –

– back a proposed state law that would enable more victims to expose more sexual predators, and
— post on church websites, “for the safety of kids,” the names, photos and whereabouts of child molesting clerics.

WHEN
Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 11:00 a.m.

WHERE
Outside the Atlanta Catholic Cathedral of Christ the King, 2699 Peachtree Road, Atlanta, GA 30305

WHO
Three-four adults who were molested as kids by Catholic priests and now belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org) including a Missouri woman who is the organization’s long time outreach director.

WHY SNAP has discovered six proven, admitted or credibly accused predator priests who assaulted kids elsewhere and spent time in Atlanta. Though the allegations against them generated mainstream media coverage in other states, the men remain largely “under the radar” in Georgia.

SNAP wants Georgia’s two Catholic bishops to warn the public about these clerics and aggressively seek out anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered their crimes. SNAP says these new names show why it’s important to reform Georgia’s archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly” statute of limitations which prevents most child sex abuse victims from taking legal action against the predators who hurt them. The group wants Georgia religious officials to lobby for the “Hidden Predators Bill (HB 17), sponsored by Rep. Jason Spencer. It would create a two year “window” during which anyone who was abused at any time by any predator could use the civil courts to warn parents and the public about those who commit and conceal child molesters.

[Atlanta Journal Constitution]

All too often, SNAP says, church figures fight against stronger child safety laws, fearing abuse and cover up lawsuits. But “if religious officials aren’t hiding child sex crimes – and if they act responsibly when abuse is suspected or uncovered – they have nothing to fear from this legislation,” SNAP says.

The bill was discussed earlier this month at a subcommittee hearing.

The six “under the radar” predator priests who worked &/or lived in Atlanta include: Fr. Charles G. Coyle, Fr. Charles Arnold Bartles, Fr. William Groves, Fr. Jonathan W. Franklin, Fr. Anthony Jablonowski and Fr. Robert D. Huneke. Two of them (Groves and Jablonowski) were criminally convicted. One (Franklin) was charged but died before trial and another (Huneke) was mentioned in a grand jury investigation. (Photos of Jablonowski and Huneke are available at BishopAccountability.org.)

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UNITED STATES
New York Times

Ross Douthat

Soon after Jorge Bergoglio became Pope Francis, I wrote several pieces exploring the idea that the new pope might be striving to effectively transcend the liberal/conservative civil war that’s dominated Catholic life in the West since the Second Vatican Council, and find a new synthesis or center for the church somewhere beyond that post-1960s conflict. I have not written as much on that theme in the last year, mostly because of what’s been happening with the debate around divorce and communion: There the pope’s choices have at least temporarily added fuel to Catholicism’s internal conflict, rather than cooling it, in ways that threaten to overshadow other elements of his agenda, other possibilities for his time as Peter.

But even with that polarizing debate percolating in the background, the last few weeks have offered a pair of case studies of what I had in mind when I envisioned this pope as a unifying figure (to the extent that’s possible) for the post-John Paul/Benedict church. …

Then the second case study comes from the sex abuse commission appointed by Francis, which has just raised the key outstanding issue in the church’s reckoning with sexual misconduct — the need to have a mechanism of accountability for bishops who ignore or cover up allegations against priests. The failure to establish such a mechanism was the signal omission in Benedict’s otherwise laudable efforts in this area, and when Francis was elected I opined that the shadow of scandal and media suspicion couldn’t be lifted from the church without one. Subsequent events have suggested that I wasn’t completely correct, since the press, enthused and fascinated on other fronts, hasn’t exactly held the pope’s feet to the fire on this issue … but I think the basic point is still sound, and that the issue has the potential to return and return and return without some formal process for dealing with the episcopal disasters that continue to surface.

Francis has established some potential precedents in this area, removing a Paraguayan bishop for protecting an accused abuser and ordering an investigation of Kansas City’s bishop for his handling of a pedophile priest. But those remain ad hoc exercises, and since both bishops are on the traditional end of the Catholic spectrum those cases have been read by some as cases of theological score-settling rather than just disinterested discipline. I think/hope that reading is mistaken, but either way it highlights the need for a more formal and transparent process. And since sex abuse has been an issue that’s cut across every theological divide within the church, such a reform has the potential to unify and satisfy Catholics of differing views … while at the same (hopefully) turning the page, at last, on one of the defining crises of the post-conciliar church.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

February 10, 2015 by J-Wire Staff

The Progressive Rabbinic Council of Australia, Asia and New Zealand and the Union for Progressive Judaism have stated their position on statements made at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Signed by Stephen Freeman, president of the UPJ and Rabbi Adi Cohen, Chairman of Moetzah, the statement reads:

The Rabbis of the Moetzah (the Progressive Rabbinic Council of Australia, Asia and New Zealand) and the leadership of the Union for Progressive Judaism (UPJ) join those who are shocked and horrified by the revelations about the deceit and ignorance displayed by rabbis within the Chabad Yeshivahs and communities in Australia.

The abhorrence to these statements is compounded by the attempts of these senior leaders to use Jewish tradition and Jewish Law as an excuse for them to cover up child sexual abuse; to protect the perpetrators; and to vilify the victims and their families

This abuse of Jewish law in order to create a code of silence and to protect evildoers is a damning condemnation of the people involved and reflects terribly on the movement of which they are representatives and spokespeople. While the number of people who have perpetrated the crimes may be small, the pervasive and deliberate conspiracy to attack the victims and their families is clearly spread widely through the Chabad community.

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UNITED STATES
Market Watch

By Brett Arends
Published: Feb 10, 2015

It’s time for Pope Francis to confess.

His Holiness has said he wants to bring a new era of openness and light to the Roman Catholic Church.

Good for him.

He can start by at last throwing open the Vatican’s secret records about its shady dealings with Hitler, Mussolini and their allies before, during and after World War II.

What did the Vatican know about the Holocaust and other atrocities taking place? How much did it cover up? And, most of all, how much did it profit from them?

Those issues have been given new life by the publication of Gerald Posner’s new book, “God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican,” which details for the first time all that we do know about the financial shenanigans in the Holy See from that time. But it is tantalizing how much remains buried in the Vatican’s so-called “Secret Archive,” hidden from prying eyes.

These are not private or confidential Roman Catholic Church matters that have no business being aired in public. These relate directly to the church’s conduct during and after the war — as a moral authority in the world, a sovereign state, an investor and as an offshore bank.

Here are the questions that Posner’s book raises and which the pope should answer if he seriously wants to be considered “the People’s Pope.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 10, 2015 7:27PM

Pia Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne

A VICTIM of child sexual abuse perpetrated by two members of the Yeshivah community has described the ultra-orthodox leadership culture as “rotten to its core”, after learning a senior rabbi described him as an “informer” with no contradiction.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is currently examining the response of the Chabad Yeshivah Centre and school in Melbourne as well as its counterpart in Sydney after the abuse committed by three convicted pedophiles became known, amid accusations of widespread cover-ups.

A man known by the pseudonym AVB, who was abused at Yeshiva College in Bondi and by a Yeshivah Melbourne staff member, told the commission he was stunned to learn this week that Sydney Rabbi Yosef Feldman had described him as a “moser” to other rabbis and met no argument.

A moser is a Jew who informs on another Jew to secular authorities, according to the historical Jewish practice of mesirah.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Sarah Farnsworth

A child abuse victim has branded the Jewish Yeshivah community “rotten to the core” and has called for leaders who ignored molestation to be banished from power, a royal commission has heard.

The man, known as AVB, was 10 when, in the 1980s, he was sexually abused at Sydney’s Yeshiva Bondi centre, at the hands of now convicted child abusers Daniel Hayman and David Cyprys.

AVB, who is now a member of Melbourne’s Yeshivah community, reported the abuse to police three years ago.

Giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, AVB said Yeshivah had a “culture of enablers” and many rabbis and jewish leaders within the Chabad community continued to denigrate the victims and rally around the perpetrators.

“This whole thing is vile from beginning to end,” he said.

AVB told the inquiry rabbis who knew of abuse should be held accountable and banned from leadership positions.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN FEBRUARY 10, 2015

ADMINISTRATORS of Yeshivah College have admitted never investigating complaints of a child sex abuse coverup, saying they briefed high-profile lawyer Robert Richter QC instead.

It comes as it was revealed a victim of child sexual abuse was forced to sit and watch at the weekend as Rabbis accused of the coverup were granted religious honours.

Former general manager Nechama Bendet said yesterday the college never even discussed investigating claims of a cover up.

But she said they approached Mr Richter, one of Australia’s top criminal barristers, in 2011 after former Yeshiva guard David Cyprys was charged with a string of child sex offences.

Ms Bendet, now the school’s director of development, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse Mr Richter gave advice about public relations and dealing with victims.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A child sex abuse victim says the perpetrator has never apologised, and the Jewish community continues to endorse the convicted man.

The victim – referred to only as AVB – has likened sex abuse of children within that community to murder.

AVB told a sex abuse inquiry that his convicted abuser – Daniel Hayman – has yet to offer an apology.

He says Hayman has also continued to have the support of senior rabbis, despite some co-operating with the inquiry.

Hayman was a camp chaperone at Yeshiva school, in Sydney, in the 1980s when he sexually abused AVB, who was then a teenager.

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UNITED STATES
Wonkette

by Kaili Joy Gray
Feb 09

Sure, maybe the Catholic Church used to have a teeny tiny little problem — that covered the globe and cost a few billion dollars — of covering up the epidemic of clergy raping kids all the time. But that’s all behind us now. The church is officially against that; it has made statements and printed “Don’t Rape Kids, M’kay?” pamphlets and everything.

Plus, ever since Pope Benedict XVI (yeah, the Hitler youth one) retired to spend more time not doing a goddamned thing about it, things have really changed at the Vatican. Pope Francis has indicated that in addition to feeding the hungry and caring for the poor and other weird commie Jesus crap like that, he’s a definitive “no” vote on whether it is OK for the church to cover up all that kid-raping.

And we should see some action on that any century now. From the Don’t Rush Into Anything files:

A commission advising Pope Francis on how to tackle clerical sex abuse of minors has completed its first full meeting at the Vatican. The commission — which has been criticized for its slow start — says it’s now drawing up recommended sanctions against bishops who have covered up cases of abuse.

On the one hand, um, it’s better that the big fat Do Nothing Whatsoever policy previously practiced by the Vatican. On the other hand, sweet Jesus, how long does it really take a 17-person commission of clergy and lay folks, headed by Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, to meet and decide that the punishment for bishops who have protected child molesters should be ALL THE WORST THINGS?

But, the Catholic Church being the Catholic Church, it has taken this long for the commission to meet, and it’s going to take a while longer to finish jotting up some notes to pass on to the pope, who can then either nod his papal head in agreement or say, “I don’t know, this seems a bit much. Spend a few more years back at the drawing board.”

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VATICAN CITY
Asia One

AFP

VATICAN CITY – A new Vatican child protection panel called Monday for abusers within the Church to be held accountable for their actions, but stopped short of saying how this should be achieved.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which counts two victims of clerical abuse among its 16 members, said it would prepare materials for a day of prayer for victims and that it was making an initial proposal to Pope Francis.

The multinational panel did not divulge what the proposal was: a move likely to draw criticism from victims’ groups who accuse the Church of failing to take decisive action to stamp our paedophilia within its ranks.

In a statement, the 16-member panel said: “The Commission is keenly aware that the issue of accountability is of major importance.

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ZAMBIA
UKZambians

Zambia Civic Education Association (ZCEA), an NGO that promotes and advocates for children’s rights has told the Pope that smacking children is unacceptable.

Pope Francis last week stirred up a hornet’s nest with remarks in which he said it’s OK for parents to spank children, so long as they do it with dignity.

The comments came in his general audience Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square, when Francis was talking about the importance of a good father within a family.
“I once heard at a wedding a father say, ‘I sometimes have to hit my children a little but never in the face, so as to not demean them.’ How nice, I thought, he has a sense of dignity,” the Pope said.

But ZCEA Executive Director Judith Mulenga in a statement below to Zambian Eye said smacking children is violence and a violation of children’s rights.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Tuesday 10 February 2015

A child sex abuse victim has described management of orthodox Jewish Yeshivah centres as “rotten to its core”, saying he often questioned whether he made the right decision in coming forward.

The witness, identified only as AVB, told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse about how he had been abused when he was 11 years old at the Yeshivah College in Bondi by a Yeshivah security guard visiting from Melbourne, David Cyprys.

He was also abused by another employee, Daniel “Gug” Hayman.

There was a “fundamental cultural dynamic” within the management of Yeshivah – which operates schools, youth services and synagogues – that meant victims became targets and were discouraged from speaking out, AVB said on Tuesday.

“Until we address it nothing is going to change,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what [Yeshivah management] policy might be, if the foundation’s rotten to its core. I often wonder whether I made the right decision in coming forward.”

Appearing before the commission at Melbourne’s county court had also been difficult, AVB said.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

February 10, 2015 by J-Wire Staff

The Progressive Rabbinic Council of Australia, Asia and New Zealand and the Union for Progressive Judaism have stated their position on statements made at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

progressSigned by Stephen Freeman, president of the UPJ and Rabbi Adi Cohen, Chairman of Moetzah, the statement reads:

“The Rabbis of the Moetzah (the Progressive Rabbinic Council of Australia, Asia and New Zealand) and the leadership of the Union for Progressive Judaism (UPJ) object to any attempt to use Jewish tradition or Jewish Law in order to cover up child sexual abuse, or any crime at all.

Both organisations encourage victims of any kind of abuse to seek the help and support provided by the local and statutory authorities. During the past few years we have faced too many cases of child sexual abuse within the Jewish community in Australia. Sadly the victims of those crimes suffered not only from being violated by people they trusted as their spiritual leaders, but also from social pressure from their own congregations in an attempt to prevent them from reporting the crimes to the authorities. This is nothing less than abusing Jewish law in order to create a code of silence.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

02/09/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Since I posted the letter from the mediator last Friday, I have gotten a number of telephone calls and emails from people asking what the letter means. For those of you who are pastors or parish staff, it means you need to discuss the situation with your parish leadership and an informed attorney. For anyone else, let me give you some suggestions as to what it might mean. But first, a caveat: these are just some possible reasons why the letter was sent. There may be other reasons of which I am unaware, or information not currently available that would change my assessment.

The first reason is, I believe, undisputed. All parties involved in the mediation want access to the parishes’ insurance policies, including those in which the parish is an ‘additional insured’ with the Archdiocese and vice versa. The goal of the mediation is to reach a settlement that is agreeable to both victims of abuse and the Archdiocesan leadership, and tapping into additional insurance policies is a relatively painless way to increase the dollar amount available as compensation.

Not all parishes will have available insurance coverage, however, so it is likely that there are other factors at stake. In other Catholic bankruptcies, parishes have joined the process in order to secure a release from existing and future claims. However, according to the notices to creditors sent out last week, no deadline for proof of claims has been set. Establishing such a deadline is difficult in this bankruptcy because more than a year still remains in the ‘civil window’ which temporarily permitted the filing of lawsuits in cases of sexual abuse that otherwise would be time barred.

There is also the question of the benefit trust and general insurance money (and deposits in the interparish loan fund). As I pointed out in a previous entry, nearly every parish (and even some that no longer exist) have been listed as a creditor because of previous contributions to these funds. If those monies are being proposed as potential sources of settlement funds, parishes and other Catholic entities would certainly have an interest in the proceedings.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

A Greek finance official reportedly said on Monday (2/9/15) that he did not believe German Chancellor Angela Merkel would let Greece go bankrupt. “I think what counts is what Greece will put on the table,” Merkel said at a news conference in Washington where she is meeting with US President Obama on the Greek debt and other crises.

Part of the solution for the Greek debt crisis may be for Merkel and Obama to show some fortitude and shift some of the excessive subsidies that both their countries pay to support obscene “bling bishops” in Germany and the USA. German government direct subsidies to Catholic bishops exceed $6 billion a year and US indirect subsides (contribution tax deductions, tax exemptions, etc.) are likely even much higher.

In addition, both countries face escalating governmental social welfare expenditures related to tens of thousands of survivors of priest sexual abuse that the Catholic Church has virtually abandoned. German and USA national leaders have been far behind others, like Australian, Irish and recently the UK leaders in seeking to hold unaccountable Catholic bishops’ feet to the fire. Please see “Peter Saunders & Marie Collins Should Quit Pope’s Abuse Commission, No?“, here, [Christian Catholicism]

Interestingly, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the so-called most famous “Bishop of Bling”, who was removed from his German diocese because of his lavish spending on his bishop’s palace, has reportedly now been appointed to an important new position at the Vatican. How does that fit into Pope Francis’ much hyped Christmas scolding of his Vatican staff?

Bishop Tebartz-van Elst made world headlines two years ago when details of a €30 million renovation project for his bishop’s palace were uncovered. Among the items of lavish expenditure it revealed were works of art, chapel windows, built-in cupboards and also a two-seater bathtub costing approximately €20,000. It is unclear who the second seat is for. Of course, this pales compared to the almost $ 200 million each reportedly spent by NY’s Cardinal Dolan and LA’s Cardinal Mahony to satisfy their excessive “edifice complexes”.

In addition to the German allegations against Tebartz van Elst, there are the reports that Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s Munich archdiocese has spent $150 million on a new diocesan service center. Marx, who is president of the German bishops’ conference, has also reportedly had his residence renovated at a cost of $9 million, paid for by the state of Bavaria.

Francis, who preaches a lot about helping the poor and smelling like the sheep, should publicly chastise Marx, who is meeting with him this week as a member of the “C-9″ group of elite Cardinals.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Feb. 9

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach CA, western regional director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (949 322 7434, jcasteix@gmail.com )

A controversial German bishop who was quickly ousted by Pope Francis because of his ostentatious spending now has a new church job.

[National Catholic Register]

This is why corruption in the church hierarchy continues. And it’s why the supposed “new policies” to deal with irresponsible bishops wont’ work. Because virtually no wrongdoer is ever harshly disciplined. And even when a prelate’s misdeeds are so egregious that the Vatican must act, the “discipline” is temporary.

(Cardinal Bernard Law and Cardinal Roger Mahony are two examples of church officials who acted so terribly that they were sidelined, but only temporarily.)

Monarchs rarely discipline other monarchs. So monarchs act irresponsibility. And Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst lands on his feet.

The pope’s abuse panel uses the word “accountability” four times in its latest short news release. But talking about accountability is easy. Enforcing it is hard. And in the highest echelons of Catholicism, it’s exceedingly rare.

So instead of wondering why bishops continue to conceal sexual violence, we should really be asking “Why wouldn’t a bishop conceal crimes? He won’t be punished by his church supervisors or peers if he does.”

(Ironically, the National Catholic Register complains that other German bishops also spend wildly but suffer no consequences, citing “the archdiocese of Munich and Freising which has just spent $150m on a new diocesan service center” and “Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who heads the archdiocese and is president of the German bishops’ conference” and “has just had his residence renovated at a cost of $9m, paid for by the state of Bavaria. But unlike Tebartz van Elst, the media has paid little attention to the high spending.”)

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by David Clohessy Executive Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,

Phone: (314) 566-9790, E-mail: davidgclohessy@gmail.com

I hate to see hopes raised and then dashed. So at the risk of being the skunk at the garden party, let me make two points about the possibility of “new” church “processes” that allegedly will “ensure accountability” by complicit bishops.

[National Catholic Reporter]

First, over the past 2.5 years, not a single one of the 4,000 bishops in the world has found the courage to even publicly say “Bishop Robert Finn did wrong.”

(Yes, it’s now been two and a half years since a Kansas City judge found Finn guilty of refusing to give police thousands of images of child pornography from Fr. Shawn Ratigan’s computer.)

So if Catholic officials can’t bring themselves to denounce a bad bishop, is there any real chance they’ll be able to discipline one?

(In fact, some church officials still defend Finn, notably Bishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas.)

Second, did Pope Francis need some “new process” to oust “The Bishop of Bling?” Nope. Has any pope tried to fire a bishop and but given up because he couldn’t find an appropriate “process” to use? Not that I know of.

So why do we need one?

We WILL get one, though. The pope’s abuse panel will recommended one. It will be adopted. Millions will feel some hope and relief.

And then, as the years drag on, and as cover ups continue, the protocol will be forgotten and ignored.

And those for many, those raised hopes will become dashed hopes.

(Post script: Maybe three or four of the 38,000 US priests have publicly managed to say “Bishop Finn did wrong.” Kudos to Fr. Thomas Reese, Fr. Jim Connell and the other few.)

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Hunter region survivors of childhood sexual abuse will give evidence to the Royal Commission during four days of private hearings in Newcastle later this month.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is investigating how organisations, such as churches, have dealt with allegations of abuse.

32 people will have the opportunity to tell a commissioner of their experiences, with the hearings to be held from February 24 to 27.

The commission CEO Philip Reed says it is critical the evidence is given in private, as it allows commissioners to hear first-hand “the tactics perpetrators used and how institutions responded, or failed to respond”.

Mr Reed says the Newcastle sessions will be held in a confidential and safe environment, with commission staff ready to provide counselling.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

A VICTIM of sexual abuse at a Melbourne Jewish school is likely to continue giving evidence to a royal commission on Tuesday.

SOME of Australia’s top rabbis are also expected to give evidence during the second week of public hearings in Melbourne.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is investigating the response of Yeshivah Melbourne and Yeshiva Bondi to abuse by David Cyprys, David Kramer and Daniel Hayman in the 1980s and ’90s.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic World Report

Vatican City, Feb 9, 2015 / 02:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The reform of the Roman Curia must be an example for the spiritual renewal of the entire Church, the prefect of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote in an essay published Saturday in the Vatican’s newspaper.

“A true reform of the Roman Curia and of the Church has the objective of rendering the mission of the Pope and of the Church in the world of today and of tomorrow more radiant” Cardinal Gerhard Mueller wrote Feb. 7 in L’Osservatore Romano.

In the article, “Purifying the Temple,” Cardinal Mueller identified the final goal of Church reform as enlightening the mission of the Church; stressed the differences among the Roman Curia, the College of Cardinals, the Synod of Bishops, and the administration of Vatican City; and warned against the temptation of over-spiritualizing the Church, thereby relegating it to an environment of ideals divorced from reality.

Cardinal Mueller’s article was published on the eve of a meeting of the Council of Cardinals, and a subsequent consistory convoked by Pope Francis to discuss curial reform.

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CANADA
Comox Valley Record

Erin Haluschak
Record Staff

St. Michael’s Residential School in Alert Bay, B.C. — one of five remaining residential schools in the province — is slated for demolition later this year. This is the first of a three-part February series looking further into the stories of the students, challenges faced by local First Nations in the Comox Valley today, and a special mid-month ceremony at the school to acknowledge the past and ignite hope for the future.

Evelyn Voyageur remembers her mother coming home in tears.

She was nine years old, living on Gilford Island when she was told she had to leave to Alert Bay to attend St. Michael’s Residential School.

“You have to go to the school or you’ll be taken away from us forever, or we’ll go to jail,” she recalls her mother saying.

The next day, she was placed on a water taxi.

Voyageur, who now lives in the Comox Valley, has gone on a healing journey, but says she has absolutely no recollection of the approximately 30-kilometre trip from her home to the school.

“I try to bring it up in my memory, but it must have been so traumatic,” she says. “Ten of us were on that taxi.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the former Bishop of Limburg who triggered a scandal over the cost of his lavish bishop’s residence, has been given a new assignent in Rome: he will hold a catechesis-related post in the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

The Secretariat of State informed him of his new post last 5 December. The 55-year-old former Bishop of Limburg, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, has been given a new appointment following the scandal surrounding his excessive spending on a restructuring project for his residence and the local curia. The situation the scandal created and the enormous media attention the case attracted worldwide meant it was difficult for the prelate to be placed in another German diocese. The solution was therefore to create a brand new position within the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation led by Archbishop Rino Fisichella.

Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst will be a “delegate for the catechesis”, which basically means he will be studying the catechesis and its link to the new evangelisation. He is expected to arrive in the Vatican next month.

The Limburg affair came to an end just under a year ago, on 26 March 2014, when Pope Francis “accepted” the bishop’s resignation following months of controversy and an enquiry carried out by the German Episcopal Conference, whose findings were submitted to the Vatican Congregation for Bishops.

A statement read out by Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, reads: “With regards to the administration of the diocese of Limburg in Germany, the Congregation for Bishops has carefully examined the report of the commission set up by the Bishop and the Limburg cathedral chapter to look into who was responsible for the construction of the St. Nicholas Diocesan Centre. Given that the situation verified in the diocese of Limburg is such as to prevent His Eminence Mgr. Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst from a fruitful continuation of his ministry, the Holy See has accepted the prelate’s resignation, presented on 20 October 2013, and has nominated His Eminence Mgr. Manfred Grothe as Apostolic Administrator of the vacant see. The outgoing bishop, His Eminence Mgr. Tebartz-van Elst, will be assigned a different position at an opportune time. The Holy Father asks the clergy and faithful of the diocese of Limburg to obediently accept the Holy See’s decisions and to make an effort to revive a spirit of charity and reconciliation.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Among the issues addressed by the Commission’s work group were: pastoral care for victims, guidelines in best practice and norms governing allegations of abuse

IACOPO SCARAMUZZI
VATICAN CITY

The Vatican Commission for the Protection of Minors which held its first meeting with all members present from Friday to Sunday in the Vatican, “is keenly aware that the issue of accountability is of major importance.” This was communicated in a statement dated February 8th and issued today by the Holy See newsroom. It comes after members of the body – created by Pope Francis in December 2013 and led by Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley – expressed the need for suitable punishments for bishops who neglect or cover up accusations made against priests who commit sex abuse in their dioceses. They did so during a briefing held Saturday. In its Assembly, members agreed on an initial proposal to submit to Pope Francis for consideration.

The Assembly, which was held in recent days, “was the first opportunity for all 17 members of the recently expanded Commission to come together and share their progress in the task entrusted them by the Holy Father, namely to advise Pope Francis in the safeguarding and protection of minors in the Church.” Aside from President Cardinal Seán O’Malley and the new secretary Mgr. Robert Oliver all other members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors – both those that were appointed right at the beginning and those who were added last December in order to have representatives from all continents and of all sensibilities – were also present: Rev. Luis Manuel Ali Herrera (Colombia); Catherine Bonnet (France); Marie Collins (Ireland); Gabriel Dy-Liacco (Philippines); Sheila Hollins (England); Bill Kilgallon (New Zealand); Sr. Kayula Lesa, MSC (Zambia); Sr. Hermenegild Makoro, CPS (Zimbabwe); Kathleen McCormack (Australia); Claudio Papale (Italy); Peter Saunders (England); Hanna Suchocka (Poland); Krysten Winter-Green (United States); Rev. Humberto Miguel YÁÑEZ, SJ (Argentina) and Rev. Hans Zolliner, SJ (Germany).

The statement reads: “During the meetings, members presented reports from their Working Groups of experts, developed over the past year. The Commission then completed their recommendations regarding the formal structure of the Commission and agreed upon several proposals to submit to the Holy Father for consideration. The Working Groups are an integral part of the Commission’s working structure. Between Plenary Sessions, these groups bring forward research and projects in areas that are central to the mission of making the Church ‘a safe home’ for children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults. These include: pastoral care for survivors and their families, education, guidelines in best practice, formation to the priesthood and religious life, ecclesial and civil norms governing allegations of abuse, and the accountability of people in positions of responsibility within the Church when dealing with allegations of abuse. The Commission, the statement reads, “is keenly aware that the issue of accountability is of major importance.” In its Assembly, members agreed on an initial proposal to submit to Pope Francis for consideration. Moreover, the Commission is developing processes to ensure accountability for everyone in the Church – clergy, religious, and laity – who work with minors.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

In their first meeting, the Council of Cardinals will be presenting their dicastery merger plans to cardinals from all over the world

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

Pope Francis has invited cardinals from all over the world to attend the upcoming Consistory (Thursday to Friday) that will precede the new cardinal creations and will be dedicated to Curia reform. The cardinals were sent a preparatory document several days ago. The document was not the draft for a new Apostolic Constitution but a summary of the work carried out by the C9 – the Council that assists the Pope in the government of the universal Church – last year and the criteria it followed. The nine cardinals who met the Pope this morning, talked about how they would present the results of their work to their confreres during the Consistory.

The proposals are already known. The details of these have already been presented to heads of Roman Curia dicasteries, who mostly approved them, despite the resistance understandably shown by those who it seems will definitely be affected by the mergers. The second step in Curia reform – after the structural reform already carried out, which involved the creation of the Secretariat for the Economy – is to reduce the number of Pontifical Councils by means of mergers, creating two big dicasteries: one will be dedicated to the laity and will be in charge of family and life related issues. The other will be dedicated to charity and justice and will merge together the Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace, Cor Unum, Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People and Assistance to Healthcare Workers. Each of these big new bodies will be subdivided into secretariats and duties will remain the same though there will be fewer heads of dicasteries. It is possible therefore that the number of Curia cardinals will drop. In the future, the two new bodies will give more space to lay people and families, who will be able to hold positions of responsibility.

It is still not clear whether the two new dicasteries will become congregations or remain Pontifical Councils. The current Apostolic Constitution regarding the Roman Curia, John Paul II’s “Pastor Bonus”, distinguishes between Congregations and Pontifical Councils because the former have the jurisdictional power to act on the Pope’s behalf, while the latter do not. Nevertheless, the Constitution establishes that they have “equal dignity”. According to a number of canon law experts, on the basis of the jurisdiction criterion there would be no problem in turning the body for the laity into a Congregation, while matters addressed by the charity, justice and peace dicastery will deal with specific initiatives. Nevertheless, the latter dicastery looks to be quite large and will deal with important issues that are particularly pertinent today: justice, peace and migration.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the so-called “Bishop of Bling” who was removed from the diocese of Limburg in Germany because of his lavish spending on the bishop’s palace, is to be appointed to a new position in the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation, according to Rome-based website Vatican Insider.

Bishop Tebartz-van Elst (55) made world headlines two years ago when details of a €30 million renovation project for the bishop’s palace were revealed by a German church-commissioned report. Among the items of lavish expenditure it revealed were works of art, chapel windows, built-in cupboards and also a two-seater bathtub costing approximately €20,000.

The bishop had excused himself by saying he was much more a theologian than an architect, adding that he had been keen to see that the restoration of the period palace be done properly. At the time of his “resignation” from the diocese in March of last year, a Vatican statement had said that, in time, another job would be found for him.

Pope Francis: had been speaking at a general audience when he said it was okay to smack children to discipline them. Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty ImagesPope not encouraging smacking of children, says Vatican

Given that it would have proven difficult to appoint the bishop to another German diocese, it seems that a low-key role has been found for him at New Evangelisation, headed by Archbishop Rino Fisichella. In theory, his new job title will be “delegate for catechism teaching”, or the study of the relevance of church teaching to the New Evangelisation.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on February 09, 2015

The alleged abuse spanned four decades, one teenage boy after another.

The Rev. Terence McAlinden, the alleged victims said, used alcohol, threats and the name of God to coerce them into sexual situations. Years later, in a videotaped deposition, the former youth leader admitted sleeping nude with boys and bathing with them naked in a hot tub.

Today, those boys — now grown men in their 40s, 50s and 60s — said a painful chapter of their lives had closed after learning that McAlinden, 74, was dead.

Suspended from ministry by the Diocese of Trenton since 2007, McAlinden died Friday at a hospital, his sister said. The priest’s accusers said they were told he had suffered a heart attack.

The sister, Pat Brzusek of Bellevue, Wash., said she did not know the cause of death but learned recently her brother, a resident of Little Egg Harbor, was undergoing treatment for lung cancer.

“If there is truly a judgment day, my brother has faced his,” said Brzusek, who has been estranged from McAlinden for many years. “It’s a very sad situation.”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

by Edward Pentin 02/09/2015

Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst, the former bishop of Limburg near Frankfurt, Germany, is to begin a new appointment in March as a delegate on catechesis at the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, the Register has learned.

An official at the Pontifical Council confirmed today that Bishop Tebartz van Elst was appointed in December on behalf of Pope Francis through the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. It follows reports in the German press that the bishop had been appointed to the Council, but that the appointment had been subsequently withdrawn by Pope Francis, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The Vatican press office refused to comment on the appointment when asked by the Register last week, neither confirming nor denying it had taken place, although Archbishop Georg Gänswein unofficially confirmed the news to Vatican Magazin on Feb. 7.

Bishop Tebartz van Elst was at the center of allegations that he had approved a $40m remodeling and building project in his diocese that included the bishop’s residence. The expensive project had actually been ordered by his predecessor, Bishop Franz Kamphaus, who retired in 2007.

Many believe Tebartz van Elst was the victim of a smear campaign and forced out because of his orthodoxy. In 2008, he drew the ire of some of the German hierarchy when he dismissed a local priest for blessing a same-sex union. Some local priests also criticized his homilies and statements, and drew up a petition. Bishop Kamphaus, on the other hand, sparked controversy in the early 2000s by refusing to comply with several request from Pope John Paul II to stop issuing certificates that opened the way for women to have abortions.

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GERMANY
Straits Times

BERLIN (AFP) – An explosive film by acclaimed Chilean director Pablo Larrain about paedophile priests given refuge from justice by the Roman Catholic Church sent a jolt through the Berlin film festival Monday.

A drama with tinges of black comedy, The Club tells the story of five former clerics and a nun living together in a seaside town in a kind of purgatory for their sins.

When Father Lazcano moves in, a drunk and dishevelled man comes to the gate of the home and shouts in graphic detail about how the clergyman repeatedly raped him as a child.

One of the other priests hands Father Lazcano a gun “to fire in the air and scare him off”. Thus begins a scandal that threatens to expose the small colony of exiles from the Church, before a Vatican emissary is dispatched to deal with the affair.

A brutal cover-up ensues but a remarkable twist at the end reveals the hurdles to escaping worldly justice.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Pope Francis’ advisory sex abuse commission is orchestrated by disgraced Boston Cardinal Law’s former canon lawyer, Fr. Robert Oliver. It met for the first time at the Vatican with all 17 of its members this weekend. It has touted its predictable empty promises of action on unaccountable bishops in a press statement released Monday (2/9/15). The pope’s illusory, even farcical commission is now, in effect, being exposed as little more than another of the Vatican’s Machiavellian political ploys — a classic stall tactic in the form of an extremely unfocused, open ended, conflicted, slow and understaffed “study commission”.

* The pope’s “main accomplishment”, after stalling on the abuse scandal for two years, apparently has been to get two brave, but inexperienced, abuse survivors, Marie Collins and Peter Saunders, to publicly state, after seeing up close the planned procrastination, that they will cooperate with the farce for a further two years, a major mistake. Please see “Peter Saunders & Marie Collins Should Quit Pope’s Abuse Commission, No?“, here,

* [Christian Catholicism]

* Marie Collins and Peter Saunders, very brave and active survivors, appear to be trying their best, but from my professional perspective, they both are being exploited. They would have more impact, it appears to me, if they resigned now. I certainly hope they do. They are giving this farcical commission by their presence a legitimacy that the commission has not earned on its merits, and likely as currently structured never will earn. This likely could have serious negative repercussions for other abuse survivors worldwide, including quite desperate ones in bankrupt USA dioceses, especially Milwaukee and Minneapolis. A lot is at stake for all of them, as well as for millions of defenseless children worldwide, with this commission.

* Most importantly, Pope Francis has inexcusably to date failed to appoint to the commission respected canon lawyer, Tom Doyle, a Dominican priest in good standing and the world’s top expert on curtailing priest child abuse. Fr. Doyle and the pope both worked, at different times within a few years of each other, under the same Cardinal, Pio Laghi. Why is Tom Doyle being overlooked? What is the pope afraid of ? Why have Marie Collins and Peter Saunders failed during their many press briefings to demand that Tom Doyle be added to the commission?

* It is clear that Marie Collins and Peter Saunders are outmatched by Francis, Oliver and their many high priced advisers, et al. These two survivors have already done damage by naively announcing publicly they will give their survivors’ seal of approval to Francis for another two years — clearly a major tactical error on their part.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

February 9, 2015 12:45 pm | Author: berger

Later this month, Fr. Gary Wolken will walk free having served most of his 15-year sentence for molesting a five year-old here. (Years earlier, he’d been sent to church therapy for abusing another child.) When he was arrested, Wolken shared a rectory with another since ousted predator priest, Fr. Michael Campbell, and a once ”rising star,” then-Bishop Timothy Dolan (who at the first opportunity unsuccessfully pleaded for Wolken’s early release from prison). One of Wolken’s victim’s received what’s believed to be the highest settlement ever paid by this archdiocese: $1.675 million.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Gerry Moriarty

Mon, Feb 9, 2015

The Sisters of Nazareth have denied claims by a 65-year-old woman that while under their care as a child she suffered serious abuse.

The woman, now living in England, has told the North’s Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry that while in care as a child she was raped by two priests, sexually abused by two nuns and also forced to eat her own vomit.

The woman said when she was 10 or 11 and in care in Nazareth House in Belfast, she was sexually assaulted while attending confession.

A priest dragged her into the sacristy and raped her, she said. After the alleged assault, the priest told her she “was not worthy” and made her “beg for forgiveness”, the witness told the 92nd day of the inquiry on Monday.

She said the priest told her she “had the devil’s eyes”.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

David Gibson | February 9, 2015

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis on Monday (Feb. 9) began what could be a key week for his reformist papacy, starting with meetings with his hand-picked kitchen cabinet of nine senior cardinals, who are developing plans to overhaul the Roman Curia, the papal civil service that has been plagued with crisis and dysfunction.

The three-day gathering was preceded by intense talks among his economic advisers, who are trying to revamp the scandal-plagued Vatican bank as well as instituting other reforms aimed at cleaning up the Vatican’s tangled finances.

At the same time, the commission Francis set up to tackle the clergy sex abuse crisis held its first full meeting over the weekend, with its 17 members vowing to find ways to finally hold bishops accountable if they look the other way on abuse.

The week will conclude with two days of closed-door meetings with the entire College of Cardinals — more than 150 scarlet-clad princes of the church — before Francis formally adds 20 members to their ranks at a service in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday.

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UNITED STATES
Canonical Consultation

02/09/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Earlier today, the Holy See’s Press Office issued a news release about the work of the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which held its first meetings this past weekend. According to the statement, the Commission approved an initial proposal regarding accountability for bishops who fail to uphold their obligations to create a safe environment.

‘The Commission is keenly aware that the issue of accountability is of major importance. In its Assembly, members agreed on an initial proposal to submit to Pope Francis for consideration. Moreover, the Commission is developing processes to ensure accountability for everyone in the Church – clergy, religious, and laity – who work with minors.

Part of ensuring accountability is raising awareness and understanding at all levels of the Church regarding the seriousness and urgency in implementing correct safeguarding procedures. To this end, the Commission also agreed to develop seminars to educate Church leadership in the area of the protection of minors.’

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UNITED STATES
CT Mirror

By: CHRISTOPHER M. ANDERSON | February 9, 2015

Adverse childhood experiences are a public health crisis affecting more Americans than diabetes and heart disease combined.

Many people instinctively understand that compassionate support is important for people who have lived through abuse and trauma, but instinct can make for a poor teacher. Our initial response to a survivor’s disclosure can have a profound impact on his chances for recovery.

Compassionate listening is a skill that can be taught and could potentially have just as powerful an impact on our society’s health as the promotion of CPR has had.

It is significantly more likely than not that a given person has experienced at least one form of childhood trauma or abuse. For many survivors, disclosures of a painful past are often met with doubt, anger, or apathy. These negative reactions can reinforce feelings of shame and fear that make it harder for survivors to engage in the work of healing — which almost always requires survivors to acknowledge and talk about what they have experienced and how it has impacted their lives.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Inés San Martín
Vatican correspondent February 9, 2015

ROME — Following a meeting of Pope Francis’ new anti-sex abuse commission at which members demanded that bishops be held accountable for how they handle allegations, the Vatican has vowed that it’s “keenly aware that the issue of accountability is of major importance.”

A statement released Monday said the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which met in Rome Feb. 6-8, is focusing on accountability “for everyone in the Church — clergy, religious, and laity — who work with minors.”

“Part of ensuring accountability is raising awareness and understanding at all levels of the Church regarding the seriousness and urgency in implementing correct safeguarding procedures,” the statement said.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 9 February 2015 (VIS) – The eighth meeting of the Council of Cardinals began this morning. To be attended by the Holy Father, the meeting will continue until 11 February. On the following days, Thursday 12 and Friday 13 February, the Consistory of the College of Cardinals is to be held in the Synod Hall.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Patch

By Les Masterson (Patch Staff)

Father Thomas M. Gillespie, pastor of St. Theresa’s Parish, has been placed on administrative leave after the Archdiocese of Boston received an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, announced the archdiocese on Sunday.

The alleged abuse dates back to the late-1970s.

When given the information, church officials alerted law enforcement and started a preliminary investigation, said the archdiocese.

In a statement, the Archdiocese of Boston said, “The decision to place Fr. Gillespie on administrative leave represents the Archdiocese’s commitment to the welfare of all parties and does not represent a determination of Fr. Gillespie’s guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation.

“The Archdiocese will work to resolve this case as expeditiously as possible and in a manner that is fair to all parties.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors gathered in Rome for their Plenary Assembly February 6-8. A statement issued by the Vatican said the members who took part in the Assembly were: Cardinal Seán O’Malley OFM Cap. (United States), President; Mons. Robert Oliver (United States), Secretary; Rev. Luis Manuel Ali Herrera (Colombia); Catherine Bonnet (France); Marie Collins (Ireland); Gabriel Dy-Liacco (Philippines); Sheila Hollins (England); Bill Kilgallon (New Zealand); Sr. Kayula Lesa, MSC (Zambia); Sr. Hermenegild Makoro, CPS (Zimbabwe); Kathleen McCormack (Australia); Claudio Papale (Italy); Peter Saunders (England); Hanna Suchocka (Poland); Krysten Winter-Green (United States); Rev. Humberto Miguel YÁÑEZ, SJ (Argentina) and Rev. Hans Zolliner, SJ (Germany).

The statement went on to say that this year’s meeting was the first opportunity for all 17 members of the recently expanded Commission to come together and share their progress in the task entrusted them by the Holy Father, namely to advise Pope Francis in the safeguarding and protection of minors in the Church.

During the meetings, members presented reports from their Working Groups of experts, developed over the past year. The Commission then completed their recommendations regarding the formal structure of the Commission and agreed upon several proposals to submit to the Holy Father for consideration.

The Working Groups are an integral part of the Commission’s working structure. Between Plenary Sessions, these groups bring forward research and projects in areas that are central to the mission of making the Church ‘a safe home’ for children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults. These include: pastoral care for survivors and their families, education, guidelines in best practice, formation to the priesthood and religious life, ecclesial and civil norms governing allegations of abuse, and the accountability of people in positions of responsibility within the Church when dealing with allegations of abuse.

The Commission, the statement reads, “is keenly aware that the issue of accountability is of major importance.” In its Assembly, members agreed on an initial proposal to submit to Pope Francis for consideration. Moreover, the Commission is developing processes to ensure accountability for everyone in the Church – clergy, religious, and laity – who work with minors.

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VATICAN CITY
NPR

[with audio]

FEBRUARY 09, 2015

SYLVIA POGGIOLI

A commission advising Pope Francis on how to tackle clerical sex abuse of minors has completed its first full meeting at the Vatican. The commission, which has been criticized for its slow start, says it’s
Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, head of the commission, told reporters it’s drafting practical recommendations on making bishops accountable for cover-ups and failure to prevent abuse.

“Obviously,” he said, “there has to be consequences and there needs to be procedures that will allow these cases to be dealt with in an expeditious way.”

No details were revealed, but the cardinal said the recommendations are almost ready and will “then be presented to the Holy Father and hopefully implemented.”

The commission comprises 17 lay and clerical members from around the world, including two people who were abused as children by priests.

Its key tasks include drawing up guidelines to be followed by Bishops Conferences across the world, as well as educational programs and means to audit compliance to ensure that religious institutions are safe for children.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Feb. 9, 2015 NCR Today

VATICAN CITY
Somewhat cryptically hinting at possible new procedures for handling Catholic bishops who mishandle clergy sexual abuse, the Vatican commission advising Pope Francis on the issue says it is “developing processes to ensure accountability for everyone in the Church.”

The commission, which met for the first time at the Vatican with all 17 of its members this weekend, makes the claim of such new processes in a press statement released Monday afternoon.

Mentioning the word “accountability” four times in the statement, the commission says it is “keenly aware that the issue of accountability is of major importance.”

The commission says one of its working groups is specifically tackling the issue of “accountability of people in positions of responsibility within the Church when dealing with allegations of abuse.”

In their weekend meeting, the commission says, “members agreed on an initial proposal to submit to Pope Francis for consideration.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Monday 9 February 2015

Chris Tuck

I am a survivor of mental, emotional, physical and sexual abuse within the home, and sexual abuse by a third party outside of the home. While writing a book in which I share my story, I came across the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac). Through meeting and working with Napac I now know that most abuse occurs within the home, and I wanted to try to raise awareness of this, and show how devastating abuse is to victims and survivors – often for the rest of their lives.

I became involved with the government’s child sex abuse inquiry when Theresa May requested to meet survivors. I, like many others, could not believe the shambles we saw with the appointment of the first two chairs. I am not a political person, but I felt that as a survivor and campaigner my input could be of value. It was important to step forward so that my voice, alongside many others, could help shape an inquiry that would be fit for purpose.

After meeting with May again this week, I truly believe she wants to get to the truth and gain justice for victims and survivors of institutional and organised abuse. She was the first person to acknowledge that the inquiry started off on the wrong foot, perhaps because she didn’t fully understand what she was dealing with, or know how to deal with it in the right way.

At the very first meeting, all the individuals in the room introduced themselves by name, stated what had happened to them and explained how they had suffered as a result of abuse. I truly felt that this was the first time May had realised how devastating abuse can be on the individual, and how important it was to get the inquiry right. I think she heard from enough of us to work out that she needed to listen to victims and survivors if the inquiry is to be successful.

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VATICAN CITY
Bolletino

Press Statement of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors

The members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors gathered in Plenary Assembly February 6-8, in Rome.

The members who took part in the Assembly are: Cardinal Seán O’MALLEY, OFM Cap. (United States), President; Mons. Robert OLIVER (United States), Secretary; Rev. Luis Manuel ALI HERRERA (Colombia); Catherine BONNET (France); Marie COLLINS (Ireland); Gabriel DY-LIACCO (Philippines); Sheila HOLLINS (England); Bill KILGALLON (New Zealand); Sr. Kayula LESA, MSC (Zambia); Sr. Hermenegild MAKORO, CPS (Zimbabwe); Kathleen MCCORMACK (Australia); Claudio PAPALE (Italy); Peter SAUNDERS (England); Hanna SUCHOCKA (Poland); Krysten WINTER-GREEN (United States); Rev. Humberto Miguel YÁÑEZ, SJ (Argentina) and Rev. Hans ZOLLNER, SJ (Germany).

This year’s meeting was the first opportunity for all 17 members of the recently expanded Commission to come together and share their progress in the task entrusted them by the Holy Father, namely to advise Pope Francis in the safeguarding and protection of minors in the Church.

During the meetings, members presented reports from their Working Groups of experts, developed over the past year. The Commission then completed their recommendations regarding the formal structure of the Commission and agreed upon several proposals to submit to the Holy Father for consideration.

The Working Groups are an integral part of the Commission’s working structure. Between Plenary Sessions, these groups bring forward research and projects in areas that are central to the mission of making the Church ‘a safe home’ for children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults. These include: pastoral care for survivors and their families, education, guidelines in best practice, formation to the priesthood and religious life, ecclesial and civil norms governing allegations of abuse, and the accountability of people in positions of responsibility within the Church when dealing with allegations of abuse.

The Commission is keenly aware that the issue of accountability is of major importance. In its Assembly, members agreed on an initial proposal to submit to Pope Francis for consideration. Moreover, the Commission is developing processes to ensure accountability for everyone in the Church – clergy, religious, and laity – who work with minors.

Part of ensuring accountability is raising awareness and understanding at all levels of the Church regarding the seriousness and urgency in implementing correct safeguarding procedures. To this end, the Commission also agreed to develop seminars to educate Church leadership in the area of the protection of minors.

Following on from the Holy Father’s Letter to Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences and to Superiors of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, dated February 2, the Commission looks forward to collaborating with churches on a local level in making its expertise available to ensure best practices in guidelines for the protection of minors.

The Commission is also preparing materials for a Day of Prayer for all those who have been harmed by sexual abuse. This will underscore our responsibility to work for spiritual healing and also help raise awareness among the Catholic community about the scourge of the abuse of minors.

Pope Francis writes in his letter to Church leaders “families need to know that the Church is making every effort to protect their children”. Conscious of the gravity of our task to advise the Holy Father in this effort, we ask you to support our work with prayer.

Rome February 8th, 2015

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Gerry Moriarty

A man has alleged at the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry in Banbridge, Co Down, that as a boy in care he was struck on the hands more than 60 times by a nun wielding the handle of a hurley stick.

The man, who was in the care of the Sisters of Nazareth at Nazareth Lodge in Belfast from 1945 to 1953 when he was aged between 7 and 15 told the 92nd day of the inquiry on Monday about several incidents when he was allegedly hit by nuns.

He described what he said was his worst experience and recounted how he fought a psychological battle with one nun by refusing to show pain even though he was allegedly hit at least 66 times on the two hands.

The witness said he was struck after he was wrongly accused of damaging a jotter by biting into its cover. He said the nun “beat me in front of the entire class; she said he would beat me until I told the truth”.

He said he lost count after he was struck for the 66th time. He said he was counting the strikes because “I was fighting a battle in my head” with the nun.

Describing what he was thinking and feeling at the time he said, “I can’t say (to the nun) I done this because I had not done it. Actually I did not feel the physical pain because I felt, ‘I am going to win this, I am going to win this’”.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A middle-aged man has defended nuns who cared for him as an orphan at the Nazareth Lodge care home in Belfast.

Giving evidence at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA), the witness said he “never witnessed any violence or abuse by nuns”.

However, he said he was beaten by two domestic workers who deny the claims.

The inquiry is examining allegations of child abuse in children’s homes and other residential institutions in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995.

Paying tribute to the Sisters of Nazareth, the witness said he was “grateful for their care and support” during the first 10 to 11 years of his life and said he thought “very fondly” of the nuns.

Another witness claimed he was beaten by one nun against whom other allegations of cruelty have been made.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

February 9, 2015 by Roz Tarszisz

Rabbi Yossef Feldman completes his evidence…and another victim reads his statement.

The Yeshiva Centre rabbi who made public his support of a resolution that encouraged child sexual abuse victims to come foward to civil authorities was not happy with the identity of a perpetrator of child sex abuse being made public.

He also had difficulty with the idea of a perpetrator going to prison 25 years after the offences took place.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman made a public statement in July 2011 via The Australian Jewish News in which he clarified his personal views. He stated unequivocally that there were no longer any grey areas on the issue of mesira (non reporting to authorities). This meant that victims of child sexual abuse should definitely go to civil authorities without fear of retribution from within the Jewish community.

After lengthy questioning by Counsel assisting the Commission, Maria Gerace, Feldman said that he would prefer that publicity was not given to child sexual abuse cases as he feared it could encourage non-genuine , or “fake” victims to come forward.

Feldman appeared to have been fixated on whether public statements by the Rabbinical Council of Victoria and both the Sydney and Melbourne Beth Dins were the catalyst that propelled child abuse victims to come forward. He appears convinced that encouraging people to come forward is not a good thing and might “encourage people to give false accusations.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 10, 2015

Pia Akerman
Reporter

JEWISH leaders should not publicly encourage victims to go to police as it feeds media “hype” that causes “fake victims” to make allegations, says an outspoken ultra-Orthodox rabbi.

In explosive evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse yesterday, Rabbi Yosef Feldman said he was ­“annoyed” a friend who had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Yeshiva organisation faced the prospect of jail for child sex abuse, describing the victim as an informer and emailing him directly to ask whether he would be “healed” by seeing his abuser jailed.

The commission heard Rabbi Feldman — a senior rabbi at Bondi’s Yeshiva centre — had expressed concern when he learnt in 2011 that Beth Dins (rabbinical courts) in Sydney and Melbourne were planning to make public statements encouraging abuse victims to come ­forward.

“Too much hype causes miscarriages of justice,” he told the commission. “I didn’t think it was the time and place for the rabbis to come out in the media with public statements.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 9 February 2015)

A retired senior Catholic priest from western Sydney, Father Richard Cattell, is scheduled to appear before Judge H. Syme in Sydney’s Penrith District Court on 20 February 2015 for sentencing on child-sex charges.

Father Cattell retired from parish work in the mid-1990s. He later lived privately at Port Macquarie on the New South Wales mid-north coast and, recently, on the Gold Coast in Queensland. On 28 February 2014, New South Wales detectives travelled to Tweed Heads, on the New South Wales side of the Queensland border, and interviewed Richard Cattell at Tweed Heads police station about one former altar boy who has alleged that he was sexually abused while Cattell was based at parishes in western Sydney in the 1980s.

Cattell was summoned to Tweed Heads Local Court on 24 March 2014, to enable the matter to be officially filed in New South Wales.

Richard St John Cattell, aged 73, was charged with indecent acts against this boy.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Miriam Dalli 9 February 2015

Three months down the line following the resignation of Paul Cremona as Archbishop of Malta, a new successor to lead the Maltese Church has not yet been named.

But informed sources close to the Vatican told MaltaToday that Archbishop Joseph Spiteri’s name has become the “most touted name inside Vatican corridors” since last month.

Spiteri, appointed Titular Archbishop of Serta in 2009, is 55 – just five days younger than Apostolic Administrator Charles Scicluna, and is currently serving in a Holy See diplomatic mission in Ivory Coast.

Apostolic Nuncio Aldo Cavalli, the Holy See’s envoy in Malta, has finalised a three-month process during which he met Maltese bishops, diocesan priests, religious people and laymen to discuss the role of the archbishop. The Apostolic Nuncio left Malta with the ‘terna’ of names who could be Malta’s next archbishop.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Patriot Ledger

By Jessica Trufant
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb. 9, 2015

SCITUATE – The Archdiocese of Boston has ordered parishioners to end their decade-long occupation of the closed St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church by March 9 or face legal recourse.

Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese, on Sunday said the archdiocese has informed parishioners in writing that they must vacate the Hood Road building by March 9.

St. Frances was among dozens of Boston-area churches pegged for closure in 2004 as part of a reconfiguration plan designed to shrink the archdiocese’s growing debt.

But some parishioners refused to leave their churches, including the Friends of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church, who in October celebrated 10 years of holding a continuous vigil.

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GERMANY
Reuters

BY MICHAEL RODDY
BERLIN Mon Feb 9, 2015

Feb 9 (Reuters) – A Chilean film showing defrocked priests protected by the Catholic Church and a Guatemalan film about the hard lives of Mayan coffee farmers are making waves at the Berlin film festival.

Chilean director Pablo Larrain made “The Club” after he realised some paedophile priests had collaborated with the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet or were ordinary criminals, and had never paid for their misdeeds.

“The Catholic Church for decades really has been spiriting away those priests, hiding them, shielding them from the public sphere,” he told a news conference on Monday to loud applause.

“That’s how we came up with this ‘club’, the idea of a club of lost priests.”

The film focuses on four priests living in a fishing village whose cosy lifestyle is shattered by the arrival of a priest trailed by a tramp who proclaims from the street that the cleric had forced him to have sex with him.

The accused priest commits suicide with a gun another house resident gives him to scare away the intruder. This leads to a visit from Father Garcia, a Jesuit interrogator, who wants to know what happened and threatens to close down the retreat.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 9, 2015

Mark Russell
Court Reporter for The Age

A former Christian Brother who was part of a notorious paedophile ring involving the clergy should be returned to jail for a “significant” period of time, a court has heard.

Ted Dowlan found himself in a Melbourne courtroom this month, nearly 20 years since his first appearance in a dock, after more of his victims came forward during the state’s parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse last year.

Dowlan, who changed his name by deed poll to Bales in 2011, has pleaded guilty to 33 counts of indecently assaulting boys under the age of 16 and one count of gross indecency between 1971 and 1986 involving 20 victims.

Crown prosecutor Brett Sonnet told the County Court on Monday that Dowlan’s offending had involved him gratifying his own lust at the expense of his students’ welfare and he deserved a “significant” jail sentence.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

They are proposed by an Australian theologian and economist, in an open letter to Pope Francis. A simple and concrete contribution to the reform of the curia that is in the works

by Sandro Magister

ROME, February 9, 2015 – For three days, beginning today, the nine cardinals of the council that assists the pope in the governance of the universal Church will draw an assessment of the work done so far in the reform of the curia.

And on February 12 and 13, they will submit their proposals for the examination of the whole college of cardinals, gathered in consistory.

The consistory will be secret, but in any case it will not produce any conclusion. Pope Francis himself is taking his time and has pushed back all practical decisions until at least 2016.

The proposals that have been leaked to this point appear, in fact, to be very far from constituting an organic project. They include, for example, the consolidation of a certain number of curial officials in two new congregations, one for justice and peace and another for the family and laity, each of them subdivided into five departments, but there is no agreement on how they could actually function.

And the same uncertainty also applies to a few key existing dicasteries, like the secretariat of state, the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, and the congregation for bishops.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian Jewish News

A VICTIM has told the Royal Commission that he lost his Yeshivah scholarship and was effectively kicked out of the school when he told Rabbi Avrohom Glick (pictured) that he was sexually abused by David Cyprys.

The victim, who is not from Melbourne and is known as AVR to protect his identity, was raped by Cyprys five times in the early 1990s.

He said that he didn’t reveal his abuse to his mother because she had leukaemia at the time he was very unwell.

“I was embarrassed.

“My mum was sick and alone and interstate.

“I was worried about her.”

But when he was struggling to cope one day a friend found him crying in the playground.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

February 9, 2015 by J-Wire News Service

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry had distanced the community from Rabbi Yosef Feldman, the spiritual head of the Southern Sydney Synagogue who has completed giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing in Melbourne.

In a statement released by the ECAJ, President Robert Goot and executive director Peter Wertheim say: “Rabbi Yossi Feldman’s reported statements to the Royal Commission have shocked and appalled his fellow rabbis, the Australian Jewish community and the wider community. Amongst his other objectionable comments, it is unacceptable for any religious leader to confess ignorance of basic law relating to the crime of child sexual abuse or to suggest that there are circumstances in which instances of such abuse should not be reported to the authorities. Nobody should take the law into their own hands, or be encouraged to do so.

Yossi Feldman’s statements are repugnant to Jewish values and to Judaism, which is centred on the sanctity and dignity of individual life, especially the life of a child.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 09, 2015

Pia Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne

AN orthodox rabbi has argued media “hype” causes “fake victims” to make allegations of child sexual abuse, while admitting he feared people were making false allegations against his friend, David Cyprys, who was later convicted of serious child sex offences.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman, rabbinical administrator of Bondi’s Chabad Yeshiva centre, today told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he had expressed concern when he learnt in 2011 that Beth Dins in Sydney and Melbourne were planning to make public statements encouraging abuse victims to come forward.

“Too much hype causes miscarriages of justice,” he said. “I didn’t think it was the time and place for the rabbis to come out in the media with public statements.

“I think it’s bad for the Jews.”

Rabbi Feldman wrote a series of emails to other rabbis in 2011 — when abuse allegations involving Yeshivah College in Melbourne became public amid a police investigation — arguing Jews with information about child sex abuse allegations should see a rabbi rather than police.

He said today that he would “highly encourage” Australia to change its laws to allow rabbis to assess the veracity of child sex abuse complaints before encouraging victims to alert police.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN FEBRUARY 09, 2015

A RABBI has defended paedophiles, saying some should be left alone if they haven’t offended for decades.

In a stunning outburst to the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, Rabbi Yosef Feldman said he didn’t agree that paedophiles who had repented and not reoffended risked jail time if they were prosecuted.

“Someone who’s done teshuva (repented), ending up in jail for many years, I didn’t think is a good thing,” he said.

“Obviously we’re terribly concerned about the victims.

“Is it just a situation where we punish someone for what they did 40 years ago even though they’ve changed totally?

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Sunday 8 February 2015

A senior leader within Victoria’s Jewish community – who is also principal of one of the state’s top schools – has called for head rabbis within the orthodox Yeshivah community to resign.

Rabbi James Kennard made the comments as two of the most senior figures within the current Yeshivah administration, Don Wolf and Rabbi Avrohom Glick, prepare to face the royal commission into institutional responses into child sex abuse this week.

The hearings before Melbourne’s county court are placing the Orthodox Jewish Yeshivah centres and colleges in Sydney and Melbourne under scrutiny for the first time since the commission began its work in 2013.

Kennard, who is principal of Mount Scopus Memorial College, said child sex abuse had been covered up and ignored by senior Yeshivah leaders for too long, and that coming out to condemn the abuse and urge victims to go to police was no longer enough.

“While anyone who held a position of leadership in the Yeshivah community in the period when these terrible mistakes were made remains in such a position today, the community is not able to say that it has learnt and it has changed,” Kennard said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Monday 9 February 2015

A victim of child sex abuse should not necessarily go to police if the perpetrator has not offended for decades and the abuser has repented to God, a senior Jewish leader has told a royal commission.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman also said rabbinical organisations issuing statements to the media in support of abuse victims might prompt “fake victims” to go to police, and proven victims to exaggerate their stories.

The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, before Melbourne’s county court, is investigating abuse within the Orthodox Yeshivah organisations and their communities in Sydney and Melbourne for the first time.

“There should be a lot more leniency on people who have shown that they haven’t offended in the last 20 years or decades, and they’ve had psychological analyses … and if they have done repentance,” Feldman said on Monday.

“Even for victims, knowing repentance is a big thing, they would understand how repentance is the main point. They should respect that specifically – if they [the perpetrators] have repented and if they have [paedophilic] tendencies, and don’t act on that.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By court reporter Peta Carlyon and wires

Paedophiles who are no longer abusing children should not have to spend their lives feeling like the “scum of the Earth”, a senior rabbi has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman, a leader within the Sydney Yeshivah community, told the inquiry he was friends with convicted child abuser Daniel Hayman when he was arrested and charged in 2011.

He said he did not think it was fair that a member of the community should go to jail for an historical case of child abuse if they had already repented and received treatment.

“I would be asking for more leniency on people who have shown that they haven’t offended in the last 20 years or decades ago, and have psychological analyses that this is the case,” Rabbi Feldman said.

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AUSTRALA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Monday 9 February 2015

A child sex abuse victim who was repeatedly raped by a staff member of an Orthodox Jewish school said he was stripped of his scholarship when he told the principal what happened.

The victim, identified only as AVR, said a security guard at the Yeshivah centre and college in Melbourne, David Cyprys, raped him multiple times.

Cyprys was convicted of those offences in 2013, and is in jail.

AVR told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse that he had been living in Queensland when his mother fell ill with leukaemia, and in 1990 he was sent to school at the Yeshiva college in Melbourne.

It was there that Cyprys began abusing him.

“I did not know much about sexual matters,” AVR said, adding that he had no father and that Cyprys was the only father figure he knew.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A senior rabbi believes the justice system should be more lenient towards paedophiles who have stopped offending so that those who repent don’t feel like ‘scum’ forever.

Paedophiles who are no longer abusing children should not have to spend their lives feeling like the ‘scum of the earth’, Rabbi Yosef Feldman told the royal commission into child sex abuse on Monday.

‘I would be asking for more leniency on people who have shown that they haven’t offended in the last 20 years or decades ago, and have psychological analyses that this is the case,’ Rabbi Feldman said.

‘Once someone is not a pedophile any more or is showing (he) is not acting wrongly any more, that should be considered in a very strong way.’

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Sunday Times

Joseph Toal Published: 8 February 2015

LAST September, Pope Francis named Monsignor Robert Oliver as the new secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The commission — whose members include survivors of clerical sexual abuse; mental health professionals; and experts in civil and church law — is tasked with devising a pastoral approach to helping victims and preventing abuse.

The Pope established the commission to advise him directly and to propose initiatives to encourage local responsibility within the church, highlighting best practice from around the world and developing programmes of training for the whole church in this important area.

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INDIA
New indian Express

THRISSUR:The 35-year-old pastor who was arrested on Saturday night on charges of sexually abusing two minor girls on their house premises in Peechi, was remanded in judicial custody on Sunday. The priest, Sanal K James, a native of Kottayam, was booked under relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and Section 376 of IPC (Punishment for rape).

According to police, Sanal had been sexually abusing the two minors studying in the 7th standard, for quite sometime. The sexual abuse came to light after one of the girls confided in her teacher during a student counselling programme at school. The headmaster then informed the police, who later arrested Sanal from his quarters while he was trying to flee from the spot.

The police said he used to visit the Peechi-Payakandam migrant colony and conduct religious programmes for around 12 families in the colony. Since he was a respected person in the area, people had given him the liberty to visit the houses anytime he wanted even in the absence of elders. Taking advantage of this freedom, he betrayed the trust and misused his position of a pastor by sexually abusing two girls and then threatening them with dire consequences if the matter was revealed to anyone.

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INDIANA
WBIW

Updated February 9, 2015

(WASHINGTON) – A Washington man was arrested after he allegedly abused a boy for six years.
55-year-old Armando Bruno-Morales on three felony counts of child molesting.

According to a probable cause affidavit, police began investigating the allegations after the victim contacted police. Police say there is only one victim.

The victim says the abuse began in 1008 when he was 8-years-old. The victim told police Bruno was a pastor at the Hispanic Church on West Main Street where the family attended. Bruno also had lived with the family briefly and later stayed overnight as a guest. It was during that time the alleged sexual assaults happened.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Jacaranda FM

09 February 2015 at 09:44 by Sapa – A German court has sentenced paedophile and former Randburg priest Georg Kerkhoff to six years in jail for more than 20 cases of sexual abuse of children, The New Age reported on Monday.

Kerkhoff, 56, was sentenced by the Krefeld district court on Friday.

He was found guilty of eight cases of sexual abuse of children under his protection, 13 cases of sexual abuse of children and four cases of severe sexual abuse of children, the newspaper reported.

The 56-year-old reportedly committed the crimes in Krefeld and Nettetal, Germany, from 2001 to 2006.

The Saturday Star reported in January that Kerkhoff used alcohol, drugs, sex toys and a parish sauna while molesting boys in Germany. When the allegations surfaced, the Catholic diocese in Germany sent him to South Africa, where he was later accused of abusing five children at a First Communion camp in Brits, in 2008.

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SOUTH AFRICA
The New Age

Itumeleng Mafisa

The South African families of the victims of paedophile priest Georg Kerkhoff, 56, are preparing to seek compensation from the church after he was sentenced to six years imprisonment for sexual offences against children by a German court.

The Krefeld district court sentenced the former Randburg priest on Friday to six years in prison for eight cases of sexual abuse of children under his protection, 13 cases of sexual abuse of children and four cases of severe sexual abuse of children.

His conviction and sentencing came after he was extradited from South Africa where he faced similar charges, to face more than 20 charges in Germany his home country.

The father of a Johannesburg teenager, who claims he was abused by Kerkhoff during a church camp in 2008, said a German children’s rights group was representing some of the victims, including his son, to get compensation from the Catholic Church.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Tim Diacono 9 February 2015

Fr Charles Fenech, the Dominican friar charged with sexually assaulting a mentally unstable patient, is soliciting people for adverts in the February issue of a religious magazine.

The magazine in question, Xandar il-Kelma, is published by the Maltese Dominican Province. An e-mail written by Fenech and seen by MaltaToday reads: “I am forwarding to you this attachment for advertising in a special edition of XK Magazine, Malta’s No 1 religious magazine distributed in households. Can you please help us by confirming an advert. Thanks, Fr. Charles Fenech OP.”

The attachment is a poster of Pope Francis, with the words Xandar il-Kelma: The No. 1 Religious Magazine in Malta: 70,000 copies’ superimposed over it.

The poster includes the advertising rates and a message from Fenech, editor-in-chief of the magazine.

“Outside Western Europe, a lot of people still believe in God,” Fenech’s message reads. “Here, we tend to regard religion as passé – something they did centuries ago, when unenlightened Europeans took the advice of burning bushes. But out beyond the EU, millions of people stubbornly continue to put their faith in the Almighty. The West may enjoy comparative power and wealth, but our attachment to secular liberalism is a minority opinion”.

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CALIFORNIA
ABC News

SAN FRANCISCO — Feb 6, 2015

By LISA LEFF Associated Press

About 100 people attended a vigil outside the Roman Catholic cathedral in San Francisco on Friday to protest the local archbishop’s move to require teachers at four Catholic high schools to lead their public lives inside the classroom and out in accordance with church teachings on homosexuality, birth control and other hot-button issues.

The protest, which also included songs and prayers, came as Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was holding mass for teachers from parochial schools throughout the three-county Archdiocese of San Francisco and then meeting with high school teachers to answer questions about changes he wants to make to their faculty handbook and employment contract.

“I chose to send my children to Catholic schools because I wanted their education to be grounded in love, compassion, and a strong sense of social justice,” said Peggy O’Grady, a parent at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco. “This effort by the archbishop will do the opposite, and would run counter to all I believe and value in a Catholic education.”

Cordileone this week presented teachers at the four high schools owned by the archdiocese with a detailed statement of faith affirming that Catholic school employees “are expected to arrange and conduct their lives so as not to visibly contradict, undermine or deny” church doctrine on matters related to sexuality, marriage and human reproduction.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

It was one of the worst Masses I’ve ever attended. It was almost sacrilegious.

To begin with, the tabernacle was off to the side, and in front of it were the backs of several chairs; for the focus on this church is not Jesus, but the priest. The priest, who looked resplendent in his green gown, was clearly on stage, clearly performing. He would joke with the deacon and the altar boys. While preparing for the Eucharist, for example (during the “hymn for preparation”), he was ribbing an altar boy, who was carrying a paten, making the kid smile broadly and laugh, and making me sick to my stomach.

When I got there, before the Mass began, I knelt on the floor to pray (for the pews had no kneelers). The church was packed with middle-aged to elderly people who were all talking very loudly to one another, all at once. A giddy carnival atmosphere prevailed. It was a party without the little cocktail wieners – right there, in a Catholic church, in front of the hidden (but present) Blessed Sacrament. People were laughing and talking at the top of their lungs and I was tempted to stand up and shout in my loudest voice, CAN’T YOU PEOPLE SHUT UP?

Then the band started. The band consisted of a woman singing very loudly in a stylistic cross between Broadway show tunes and full-fledged opera, with a very cultivated (and ridiculous) vibrato that she apparently thought made her sound sincere. The instrument that dominated was a cheesy 1970’s electric organ played in a very schmaltzy and annoying manner, with the volume turned up to 11. The band was right beside the altar, very much a part of the show. …

Meanwhile, a blogger on the internet is busy analyzing a case of sexual abuse and institutional failure in the Episcopalian community.

Joelle Casteix at the Worth Adversary writes (my emphasis) …

In 2003, Headmaster Nick Stoneman had a choice.

His drama teacher had been found with child pornography on a school computer. This same teacher—Lynn Seibel—had admitted to being complicit in “Naked Dance Parties” with male students in school bathrooms. Seibel was also rumored to have conducted a special AP (Advanced Placement) class in penis enlargement. What is the headmaster of one of the nation’s most elite boarding / day schools to do?

Shattuck-St. Mary’s (SSM) in Faribault, Minnesota is considered a “feeder school” for the National Hockey league. Their alumni list is a “who’s who” of the professional sport. Tuition is $29,000 a year for the day students and $43,000 for students who live at the school. There’s a lot at stake. Plus, Stoneman had no idea how many students had been “peeked at,” groomed, or molested by Seibel. He also had no idea if Seibel had created pornographic images of any of SSM’s students. …

What’s the connection between these two stories, the annoying Mass I went to on Saturday and the scandal at the Minnesota prep school?

I think there are several connections.

* When an institution does not do what it is supposed to do, it can easily get hijacked by scoundrels who use it for their own selfish purposes, whether those purposes include molesting young people, creating a personality cult, making money, etc.

* Lay Catholics have become, for the most part, “sheep without a shepherd”. While our popes have been preaching with courage and vigor, our bishops have in effect abdicated, and many of our pastors are feeding upon the flock instead of guarding it. In this way we are similar to adolescents. Teen aged boys at a boarding school can either be trained, and their energies channeled, so that they learn and are well formed and begin to mature, or they can be seduced into “naked dance parties” in the bathroom with their drama teacher. In the same way, adult parishioners can either be taught to be respectful and to be in awe of a God that they should take seriously, partaking of a Faith they should mature in, or they can be allowed to become chatty and petty and self-centered and shallow, growing queer over a man in glowing green vestments that, if he were not a priest, they shouldn’t even consider buying a used car from. Human nature cuts both ways, and people are shaped into the molds their shapers mold for them in. Allow naked dance parties in the bathroom at your boarding school, and you will get them. Allow the Mass to become a contrived and frivolous show, and you’ll get it.

* But these things don’t arise merely if they’re simply allowed or tolerated. Naked dance parties with your teachers don’t spring up on their own, and suburban parishes do not automatically slide toward the kind of garish and gaudy circle-jerk sessions that I saw on Saturday. Yes, these things will happen if you allow them to happen, and if you don’t take pains to prevent them or correct them – but they typically happen after a long process of grooming. Things get this bad deliberately, when bad people in positions of authority seduce and lead astray. I would suspect it took the drama teacher at Shattuck-St. Mary’s a long time to get his victims to a point where they would get naked for him in the bathroom. He must have put a lot of effort and manipulative skill into that. Grooming is not easy! And the kind of show the priest I saw on Saturday presided over, a show centered on him and his need for attention and adoration – this is something these parishioners likewise had to be groomed for, over the long haul. And so, while there’s always a tendency for these abuses to happen, there’s always some sort of abuser taking an active role to make them happen.

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FRANCE
Society of Saint Pius X

[VIDEO. Vatican : ce cardinal qui entend “résister” face au pape François.

Pour la première fois, le cardinal américain ultraconservateur Raymond Burke s’exprime devant une caméra. À la tête d’une fronde contre le pape François, ce fidèle de Benoît XVI résistera si l’évêque de Rome persistait dans sa voie d’ouverture. Une exclusivité de “13h15 le dimanche”. – France TV Info]

Some frank answers from Cardinal Burke during a French TV interview that will be broadcasted on Sunday, February 8th.

We present here some extracts of Cardinal Raymond Burke’s comments given during an interview conducted by Lionel Feuerstein, Karine Comazzi, Patrice Brugeres, Nicolas Berthelos and Claire Aubinais for the “13H15 le dimanche” episode of French Television channel, France2.

The complete interview will be broadcasted on Sunday, February 8 on FranceTV.info.

Cardinal Burke: I cannot accept that Communion can be given to a person in an irregular union because it is adultery. On the question of people of the same sex, this has nothing to do with marriage. This is an affliction suffered by some people whereby they are attracted against nature sexually to people of the same sex.

Question: If perchance the pope will persist in this direction, what will you do?
Cardinal Burke: I shall resist, I can do nothing else. There is no doubt that it is a difficult time; this is clear, this is clear.

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CANADA
Journal de Montreal

JOSÉE HAMELIN
Dimanche, 8 février 2015
MISE à JOUR Dimanche, 8 février 2015

SAINT-HYACINTHE | Un ancien frère mariste accusé d’attentat à la pudeur sur cinq garçons clame son innocence dans une entrevue exclusive accordée en attendant son procès.

Réjean Trudel, 71 ans, était le directeur adjoint du Patro Lokal, un centre d’hébergement dirigé par la communauté religieuse, qui accueillait des garçons de 12 à 17 ans ayant des problèmes familiaux.

Les présumées agressions se seraient produites de 1976 à 1982. Il a été arrêté en novembre après que cinq anciens pensionnaires eurent porté plainte contre lui pour des crimes sexuels.

Selon la requête visant à déposer un recours collectif contre les Frères maristes, il y aurait eu des caresses intimes, de la masturbation et de la fellation.

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CANADA
Toronto Sun

JOSEE HAMELIN, QMI AGENCY

FIRST POSTED: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2015

SAINT-HYACINTHE, Que. – A former priest accused of forcibly fondling and engaging in oral sex with several boys between 1976 and 1982 says he did nothing wrong.

Rejean Trudel, 71, was a deputy director of Patro Lokal, a shelter for 12- to 17-year-old boys with family problems in Saint-Hyacinthe, a Quebec town about 60 km east of Montreal.

The shelter was run by the Marist Brothers, an offshoot of the Catholic Church dedicated to education. He was arrested in November after five former residents of the shelter filed complaints.

Now, he’s come forward to deny any wrongdoing.

“The young people in our care were like our own children,” he said.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, SNAP Western Regional Director, jcasteix@gmail.com, (949) 322-7434 cell

We were saddened to hear of the harm caused by Los Angeles priest, Fr. Nicholas Assi, who has been accused of “inappropriate conduct” by an adult woman at American Martyrs Parish in Manhattan Beach. We applaud this brave woman for reporting to law enforcement, because we understand how difficult it is to report abuse to the police.

We believe that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is minimizing what happened by calling the alleged incident “inappropriate conduct.” We also hope that the Archdiocese will vigorously search for anyone who may have seen or suspected abuse by any cleric, including Fr. Assi.

————————————————-

From the parish bulletin of American Martyrs Church

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has given us the following statement to place in our bulletin:
Father Nicholas Assi served as an Associate Pastor from 2008 to 2014 at American Martyrs Catholic Church in Manhattan Beach. An accusation involving an adult was brought against him in 2014 and an investigation was initiated. Father Assi was placed on administrative leave pending the investigation of this matter. The investigation has been concluded and Father will be returning to ministry with an assignment at St. Basil’s parish as a priest in good standing. We are sorry for the painful experience of this matter and we ask you to keep all impacted in prayer.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

The Migrante International is one of the largest Philippine groups that keep protesting American Imperialism and its power over the Philippine’s President BS Aquino and its corrupt government and they wrote an open letter to Pope Francis asking him, “Pope of the Poor, Fight for Us”. Below is its open letter proving how stupid and idiotic Filipinos are to believe in Pope Francis who is the very same Pope – who colludes with American imperialists – therefore he is the Pope of the Rich who oppresses the Filipino people. Migrante International should have used the visit of Pope Francis to protest US Imperialism and Vatican Imperialism – after all the Philippines (was under Spaniard and the Vatican Catholic Church oppression for over 400 years) and today the Philippines continue to be controlled by the Vatican Catholic Church and the Vatican Swiss Banks continue to hoard American and European Imperialists’ loot,the late President Marcos’ loot and President Aquino’s loot from the Philippine treasury, read our related article, Hidden Heist in the Holy See.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, Feb. 8

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

In suspending yet another credibly accused predator priest, Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley refuses to take two key steps. We’re appalled by his unwillingness to act responsibly about the child sex allegations against Fr. Thomas P. Gillespie.

[Boston archdiocese]

First, O’Malley refuses to urge anyone with information or suspicions about Fr. Gillespie to call police immediately. Instead, in his statement today, O’Malley does what hundreds of bishops have done for decades: he asks victims to call church officials, not law enforcement officials. He’s dead wrong. This is extraordinarily irresponsible. This is precisely the approach that has enabled more than 6,300 US priests to become proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesters and hurt more than 100,000 boys and girls.

Second, O’Malley refuses to say how long he and his staff have taken to suspend Fr. Gillespie. All O’Malley will say is that the abuse report was made “recently.” That could mean nine months, nine weeks or nine days ago. This is crucial information. O’Malley has repeatedly promised “openness and transparency” in pedophile priest cases, and citizens and Catholics deserve to know whether he acts quickly or slowly when kids are at risk.

More than any prelate on the planet, O’Malley claims he’s a ‘reformer’ on abuse. He’s the pope’s top advisor on the crisis. And he’s had tons of experience with the scandal. So if any Catholic official anywhere ought to get it right, it’s him. But his refusal to take these two simple steps shows just how recalcitrant the Catholic hierarchy’s most veteran abuse “fixer” is. And it shows that even now, one of the most powerful Catholic official on earth still tries to handle child sex abuse reports “in house” instead of getting those reports promptly into the hands of the independent professionals in law enforcement.

O’Malley should visit every parish where Fr. Gillispie ever worked, imploring anyone with information or suspicions about the predator priest to call law enforcement.

O’Malley can and should use pulpit announcements, church bulletins and parish websites to beg anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Gillespie’s crimes to call police. He should send mailings to former church members and staff who may have spent time around Fr. Gillespie, urging them to do the same. He should get out from behind his desk, shove his public relations staff aside, and personally hold a news conference pleading with parishioners and the public to step forward if they might, in any way, be able to help police and prosecutors file charges against this cleric.

In short, O’Malley should stop acting like a cold-hearted CEO and start acting more like a compassionate shepherd.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit Online

Zurück nach Limburg darf er nicht mehr, jetzt arbeitet Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst in Rom. Der 55-Jährige hat ein Amt als Sekretär im Vatikan übernommen – neun Monate, nachdem er als Limburger Bischof abberufen wurde. Laut Medienberichten wurde Tebartz bereits im Dezember zum Delegaten im Päpstlichen Rat für die Neuevangelisierung ernannt.

Nach einem Skandal um die extrem hohen Kosten seines neuen Amtssitzes im Limburg hatte Tebartz im März vergangenen Jahres sein Amt verloren. Eine bischöfliche Prüfungskommission kam zu dem Ergebnis, dass er kirchliche Vorschriften umgangen und die Baukosten in die Höhe getrieben hatte. Die Staatsanwaltschaft in Limburg ermittelte nicht gegen den ehemaligen Bischof wegen Untreue.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

[A Catholic news agency learned on Saturday from a reliable source that Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst, also known as the “Bling Bishop”, has been appointed a delegate to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization at the Vatican. The appointment letter was signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and was transmitted by Archbishop Nicola Eterovic, the pope’s ambassador to Germany.]

Der frühere Limburger Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst hat eine neue Aufgabe in Rom erhalten. Wie die Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur am Samstag aus sicherer Quelle im Vatikan erfuhr, wurde Tebartz-van Elst im Dezember 2014 zum Delegaten im Päpstlichen Rat für die Neuevangelisierung ernannt. Das Ernennungsschreiben wurde von Kardinalstaatssekretär Pietro Parolin unterzeichnet und vom Papstbotschafter in Deutschland, Erzbischof Nicola Eterovic, übermittelt.

Tebartz-van Elst ist im Päpstlichen Rat für die Katechese zuständig und hat in dieser Funktion Ende Januar ein Referat gehalten. Ernennungen im Rang eines Delegaten werden im Vatikan traditionell nicht einzeln mitgeteilt. In der in wenigen Wochen erscheinenden Neuauflage des Päpstlichen Jahrbuchs wird der Name Tebartz-van Elst in seiner neuen Funktion aufgeführt sein.

Seit längerem wurde innerkirchlich und in Medien über eine Anschlussverwendung des Kirchenmanns spekuliert. Der Pastoraltheologe war nach dem Skandal um das Bauprojekt auf dem Limburger Domberg von seinem Amt als Diözesanbischof zurückgetreten und im September in eine Privatwohnung nach Regensburg gezogen.

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KANSAS
KCTV

[with video]

By Chris Oberholtz, Multimedia Producer
By Brix Fowler, Multimedia Journalist

OVERLAND PARK, KS (KCTV/AP) –

To spank or not to spank.

It is an issue parents have dealt with for years. But now those in favor of it have a powerful supporter after Pope Francis made his stance clear being in favor of spanking.

“Spanking is a very simple form of punishment,” said Laticia Vargas.

Vargas knows about abuse. She says her biological father used to beat her, but she believes what Pope Francis is talking about is not abuse.

“I have been hit in the face by my previous male influence, and it does a lot damage. It is humiliating and it causes a lot of problems with my self-esteem,” she said.

That is why her new father figure, Larry Reyes, refuses to spank her, but he has spanked two of his other children and says it’s effective.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WWLP

By Associated Press
Published: February 8, 2015

BOSTON (AP) — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has placed a Massachusetts priest on administrative leave after receiving an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

Rev. Thomas Gillespie is pastor of St. Theresa of Lisieux Parish in North Reading. The archdiocese said Sunday that the allegation concerns the priest’s conduct in the late 1970’s and was recently reported to the Archdiocese.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Fox Boston

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) – The Archdiocese of Boston announced Sunday that it has placed a North Reading priest on administrative leave after receiving an allegation of sexual abuse.

The allegation concerns Rev. Thomas M. Gillespie, who is the pastor of St. Theresa of the Lisieux Parish.

The Archdiocese said in a press release issued Sunday that the alleged misconduct involves a minor and reportedly happened decades ago. It reportedly happened in the late 1970’s, but was just recently reported to the church.

The Archdiocese said it immediately notified law enforcement of the allegation and also has initiated its own investigation into the complaint.

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MASSACHUSETTS
CBS Boston

NORTH READING (CBS) — The Archdiocese of Boston announced Sunday that it had put a North Reading pastor on leave after receiving an allegation of sex abuse.

Rev. Thomas M. Gillespie, a pastor at St. Theresa of Lisieux Parish, is now on an administrative leave of absence after the Archdiocese said it received an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

The alleged abuse occurred in the late 1970s, but was only recently reported, according to the Archdiocese.

The Archdiocese said it notified law enforcement immediately and has started its own investigation into the allegation.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

(Braintree, Mass.) February 8, 2015 – The Archdiocese of Boston today announced that it has placed Rev. Thomas M. Gillespie on administrative leave of absence as a result of receiving an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. The allegation concerns conduct alleged to have occurred in the late 1970’s and was recently reported to the Archdiocese Fr. Gillespie is pastor of St. Theresa of Lisieux Parish in North Reading.

The Archdiocese immediately notified law enforcement of the allegation and has initiated a preliminary investigation into the complaint. Fr. Gillespie will remain on administrative leave without any public ministry pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation. The decision to place Fr. Gillespie on administrative leave represents the Archdiocese’s commitment to the welfare of all parties and does not represent a determination of Fr. Gillespie’s guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation. The Archdiocese will work to resolve this case as expeditiously as possible and in a manner that is fair to all parties.

Through its Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach, the Archdiocese continues to make counseling and other services available to survivors, their families and parishes impacted by clergy sexual abuse and by allegations of abuse by members of the clergy. Cardinal Seán encourages any person in need of pastoral assistance or support to contact the Archdiocese’s Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach by calling 617-746-5985.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WCVB

NORTH READING, Mass. —A North Reading pastor has been put on administrative leave following accusations of sexual abuse of a minor.

Rev. Thomas M. Gillespie, pastor of St. Theresa of Lisieux Parish, was placed on leave after the Archdiocese of Boston was recently made aware of an allegation against Gillespie of sexual abuse of a minor in the late 1970s, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of Boston.

The Archdiocese notified law enforcement of the allegation and has initiated a preliminary investigation into the complaint, according to the statement.

Gillespie will remain on administrative leave pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation, according to the Archdiocese of Boston.

“The decision to place Fr. Gillespie on administrative leave represents the Archdiocese’s commitment to the welfare of all parties and does not represent a determination of Fr. Gillespie’s guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation,” the Archdiocese of Boston said in the statement.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

North Reading pastor placed on administrative leave following allegation of abusing a minor

By Jacqueline Tempera
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT FEBRUARY 08, 2015

A North Reading priest was placed on administrative leave after allegations surfaced that he sexually abused a minor in the late 1970s, the Archdiocese of Boston disclosed Sunday.

The Rev. Thomas M. Gillespie, pastor of St. Theresa of Lisieux Parish in North Reading, was placed on leave until further notice, spokesman Terrence Donilon said in a statement.

When the Archdiocese received a complaint about Gillespie, church officials immediately notified police who launched an investigation, Donilon said.

Gillespie will remain on leave without public ministry, meaning he can not perform public masses, pending the outcome of that investigation.

“The decision to place Fr. Gillespie on administrative leave represents the Archdiocese’s commitment to the welfare of all parties, and does not represent a determination of Fr. Gillespie’s guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation,” Donilon wrote in the statement.

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MINNESOTA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 8, 2015

In 2003, Headmaster Nick Stoneman had a choice.

His drama teacher had been found with child pornography on a school computer. This same teacher—Lynn Seibel—had admitted to being complicit in “Naked Dace Parties” with male students in school bathrooms.

Seibel was also rumored to have conducted a special AP (Advanced Placement) class in penis enlargement. What is the headmaster of one of the nation’s most elite boarding/day schools to do? Shattuck-St. Mary’s (SSM) in Faribault, Minnesota is considered a “feeder school” for the National Hockey league.

Their alumni list is a “who’s who” of the professional sport. Tuition is $29,000 a year for the day students and $43,000 for students who live at the school. There’s a lot at stake. Plus, Stoneman had no idea how many students had been “peeked at,” groomed, or molested by Seibel. He also had no idea if Seibel had created pornographic images of any of SSM’s students.

It gets worse.

There were other teachers at the school who had molested students. While we don’t know how much Stoneman knew in 2003, but by 2012, Seibel and another teacher, Joseph Machlitt, would be criminally charged for molesting SSM students. In 2008, a third, Leonard Jones, would kill himself after one of his victims confronted Jones about the sexual abuse.

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PHILIPPINES
Manila Standard Today

By Robert A. Evora | Feb. 09, 2015

SAN JOSE, Occidental Mindoro—Two Catholic priests belonging to the Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose were ordered arrested after failing to account allegedly for P670 million in church funds.

Detained since Friday are Father Ruben Villanueva, former director of Social Services Commission, and Fr. Rodrigo Salazar Jr., past director of the Vicarial Indigenous People’s Affairs Office (Vipaco).

Fr. Carlito Dimaano, the vicar-general of the San Jose diocese, filed the estafa case against them for the missing P674,800 cash.

Villanueva and Salazar yielded to authorities after Branch 46 Judge Jose Jacinto Jr. of the Regional Trial court issued an arrest warrant for estafa. Jacky LG Gaytano, vicariate finance staff, joined them in the charge sheet.

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MARYLAND
Baltimore Jewish Times

FEBRUARY 5, 2015 – טז שבט תשעה
BY HEATHER NORRIS

New details have emerged in the case of the Ohio rabbi accused of sexually abusing a Baltimore County girl.

Reached at the seminary from which Rabbi Frederick “Ephraim” Karp, who is being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center in Towson, graduated in 1998, Rabbi Yaakov Spivak, dean of the Ayshel Avraham Rabbinical Seminary in Spring Valley, N.Y., said that Karp “was a very fine young man.”

“He was very dedicated to rabbinical work,” said Spivak, adding that Karp had a close group of friends at the school and took his studies seriously.

Though Spivak is a graduate of Loyola College and Ner Yisrael Yeshiva in Baltimore, the rabbi said he was unsure of what connection Karp had to the Jewish community in the area. Karp’s wife is a graduate of the University of Maryland and he has an aunt in Gaithersburg.

Karp made his first appearance in Baltimore County court last Thursday for a hearing at which a judge reduced his bail from $5 million to $500,000 and forbid him from any contact with his accusers, witnesses or children under the age of 18.

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MARYLAND
The Jewish Daily Forward

New details have reportedly emerged in the case of an Ohio rabbi accused of sexually abusing a Jewish Baltimore girl.

Although his seminary rabbi called Rabbi Frederick Karp a “very fine young man,” the Baltimore Jewish Times reports he is accused of molesting a girl who is now 12 for five years — and her sisters as well.

Karp, 50, who lives in suburban Cleveland resident and is a chaplain at the Menorah Park Center for Senior Living in Beachwood, Ohio, was extradited to Maryland on Jan. 28 from New York City, where he was arrested Jan. 15 as he awaited a flight to Israel.

Karp remains behind bars on $500,000 bail.

State prosecutor Lisa Dever, who heads the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s sex offense and child abuse division, said the alleged victim came into contact with Karp through a close relationship between the rabbi and her family, the paper reported.

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SOUTH AFRICA/GERMANY
IOL

February 8 2015
By Staff Reporter

AFP

Dussledorf – German Catholic priest Georg Kerkhoff, who is alleged to have been inolved in paedophilia in South Africa, has been sentenced in Germany to six years in jail on 25 counts of sexually abusing boys.

Judge Herbert Luczak, sitting in the Krefeld district court near Dusseldorf, gave Kerkhoff, 56, a harsher sentence than the five and a half years that the prosecutor had sought.

Kerkhoff’s victims in his parishes in the Lower Rhine included his godson, whom he sexually molested for five years from 2001, when the boy was 11.

The charges included aggravated sexual abuse, child abuse and abuse of wards.

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VATIKAN
kath.net

Fast alle Bischofskonferenzen weltweit haben Richtlinien zum Umgang mit Missbrauchsfällen erarbeitet – Britisches Missbrauchsopfer Saunders: Kirche muss im Umgang mit pflichtvergessenen Bischöfen “einen besseren Job machen” – Kein Platz fü

Vatikanstadt (kath.net/KAP) Die päpstliche Kinderschutzkommission drängt auf schärfere Konsequenzen für Bischöfe, die sexuellen Missbrauch in ihren Diözesen nicht hart genug ahnden. “Das muss Folgen haben”, sagte der Leiter des Gremiums, der Bostoner Kardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, am Samstag im Vatikan. Die Kommission könne zwar keine konkreten Vorschläge machen, doch die Frage nach dem Umgang mit Bischöfen, die ihrer Pflicht nicht nachkämen, sei ein wichtiger Punkt. Das von Papst Franziskus eingerichtete Gremium aus Laien und Geistlichen tagt seit Freitag bis Sonntag im Vatikan. Es soll Vorschläge und Initiativen für einen wirksameren Kampf gegen sexuellen Missbrauch von Minderjährigen im kirchlichen Raum entwickeln.

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VATIKAN
Katholisch

Die päpstliche Kinderschutzkommission drängt auf schärfere Konsequenzen für Bischöfe, die sexuellen Missbrauch in ihren Diözesen nicht hart genug ahnden. “Das muss Folgen haben”, sagte der Leiter des Gremiums, der Bostoner Kardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, am Samstag im Vatikan. Die Kommission könne zwar keine konkreten Vorschläge machen, doch die Frage nach dem Umgang mit Bischöfen, die ihrer Pflicht nicht nachkämen, sei ein wichtiger Punkt.

Das von Papst Franziskus eingerichtete Gremium aus Laien und Geistlichen tagt seit Freitag bis Sonntag im Vatikan. Es soll Vorschläge und Initiativen für einen wirksameren Kampf gegen sexuellen Missbrauch von Minderjährigen im kirchlichen Raum entwickeln.

Das britische Missbrauchsopfer und Kommissionsmitglied Peter Saunders erklärte, die Kirche müsse im Umgang mit pflichtvergessenen Bischöfen “einen besseren Job machen”. Er wünsche sich auch eine intensivere Debatte über die Motive von Missbrauchstätern. Das Etikett “pädophil” reiche zur Erklärung nicht aus. Seines Erachtens spielen der Zölibat und die Einsamkeit von Priestern eine Rolle. Saunders war als Jugendlicher von einem Priester seiner Schule missbraucht worden.

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VATICAN CITY
Newstalk (Ireland)

Richard Chambers

The Vatican has moved to clarify remarks from the Pope about smacking, saying the Pontiff was not encouraging parents to hit their children.

Last week, Pope Francis praised a father he met who said he hit his children if they behaved badly – but never in the face so as not to humiliate them.

A spokesperson for the Holy See says the Pope was speaking about “correcting without humiliating” with love and respect for dignity.

Fr Federico Lombardi said: “I wish to only point out that the Pope was speaking about the responsibility of parents to “correct without humiliating”, or rather, to assume the responsibility of keeping their children on the right track and to help them grow up well”.

“Finding the right way to “correct without humiliating” is part of the responsibility of good parents in a variety of situations”.

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