ABUSE TRACKER

NEW YORK
Wall Street Journal

By SOPHIA HOLLANDER
June 11, 2015

A renewed drive to overhaul New York’s statute of limitations for sexual-abuse cases involving minors appears to have stalled in the state Legislature, despite attracting a record number of sponsors this year, advocates said.

Legislative attempts to revamp the statute date back a decade. Versions of the bill have passed four times in the Assembly, but never received a vote in the Senate. The legislative session ends on June 17.

Under current law, people who were sexually abused as minors have five years after they turn 18 to file a claim against their alleged abuser.

The bill, which attracted more than 60 sponsors in the Assembly, including more than a dozen Republicans, would eliminate civil and criminal statutes of limitations for sex crimes against minors.

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GUAM
Marianas Variety

BY JASMINE STOLE | VARIETY NEWS STAFF

ABOUT 30 Catholic parishioners, most from the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Toto, gathered in peaceful prayer in front of the Archdiocese of Agana Chancery Office in Hagåtña yesterday afternoon.

A letter from the chancery office to Rev. Mike Crisostomo, pastor of the Toto church, indicated Crisostomo was to meet with Archbishop Anthony Apuron at 3 p.m. yesterday which was also when the prayer service began. Parishioner John Taitano told the crowd gathered that the prayer service was for Crisostomo.

When Crisostomo arrived at about 3 p.m., he walked up the hill to the Chancery Office with the crowd praying the Divine Mercy chaplet following.

According to Catholic blogger Tim Rohr and the letter from Apuron to Crisostomo, at issue is the Archdiocesan Annual Appeal. Catholics upset with Apuron have stopped contributing to the appeal, according to Rohr.

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NEW YORK
JWeekly

The Riverdale Jewish Center in the Bronx, New York, reportedly is seeking to get rid of Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, whose habit of inviting young males to join him for naked heart-to-heart talks in the sauna was the subject of a recent article in the New York Times.

In a meeting June 8, the board of directors of Rosenblatt’s Orthodox synagogue, voted 34-8 to seek a financial settlement to get Rosenblatt to resign his pulpit position, the N.Y. Jewish Week reported. Though Rosenblatt’s unusual behavior long was known in his synagogue community, the board surmised that the publicity that now surrounds Rosenblatt would make it impossible for him to fulfill his rabbinic duties at the 700-member shul, the newspaper reported.

The Times story that prompted the firestorm focused on Rosenblatt’s custom of inviting male congregants or students, some as young as 12, to play squash or racquetball, then join him in the public shower and sauna or steam room, often naked. No one cited in the story accused Rosenblatt of sexual touching, but several expressed their discomfort with the practice and described the behavior as deeply inappropriate for a rabbi and mentor.

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NEW YORK
Riverdale Press

By Shant Shahrigian
Posted 6/11/15

Nearly 200 members of the Riverdale Jewish Center (RJC) have signed a petition calling for Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt to remain the leader of the 700-strong synagogue, a petition organizer says.

The move came after RJC’s board appeared poised to oust the longtime leader of the synagogue following a May 29 New York Times article reporting that Rabbi Rosenblatt had led boys to a sauna naked in the 1980s and 1990s.

Mark Friedlander, a recently retired Supreme Court judge and 43-year-long RJC member, said as of Thursday afternoon, 187 total members have signed a document saying they “have never supported, do not support and will not support any effort to ‘buy out’ the rabbi’s contract and we urge all members, trustees and officers of the synagogue to continue to treat the rabbi with the full respect required.”

A Tuesday article in The Jewish Week quoted unnamed sources as saying the board had voted 34-8 “to seek a financial settlement with the rabbi and for him to step down.” The move followed a petition from at least 44 RJC members calling for the rabbi to leave.

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UNITED STATES
Arizona Jewish Post

Posted June 11, 2015 / Deborah Rosenbloom, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — When I read the article in The New York Times detailing the accusations against Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt of the Riverdale Jewish Center, I was deeply saddened.

This is the synagogue and community where I grew up. My parents moved to Riverdale in the 1950s and are among the RJC’s founding members. Rosenblatt — like the synagogue’s four rabbis before him — played an important part in the life of my family. However, my focus is not the RJC or any one rabbi.

My concerns are with the institutions in which we place our trust — institutions that seem to ignore the simple fact that rabbis and teachers are human and subject to temptations and personal demons. We hold our leaders in high esteem, but our institutions fail to monitor them to ensure that their power is not being abused and that the esteem is merited.

Whispers, like those in Riverdale, have been present in dark corners of many communities over the years. Those whispers have been hushed by men and women who choose to protect the institution to the detriment of those it’s supposed to serve. This is what happened at Penn State, which ignored or mishandled numerous episodes over the years in which football coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abused children. Our leaders often demonstrate poor judgment, pretending that if they ignore the underlying problem or handle it quietly among themselves the behavior will stop and the problems disappear

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By ANDY NEWMAN
JUNE 11, 2015

The prominent rabbi of a Bronx synagogue who has been the focus of attention for having taken boys and young men to the sauna naked is negotiating a buyout and expects to reach an agreement to step down “in the near future,” his lawyer said on Thursday.

The rabbi, Jonathan Rosenblatt of the Riverdale Jewish Center, anticipates a “very fair” settlement that recognizes his 30 years as the leader of the 700-member Modern Orthodox synagogue, his lawyer Benjamin Brafman said in a statement.

The synagogue board told congregation members on Tuesday that it had voted to try to “achieve an amicable resolution with Rabbi Rosenblatt.”

Rabbi Rosenblatt, 58, has three years left on his contract, Mr. Brafman said. He and synagogue officials declined to say how much the rabbi’s salary is.

For at least 25 years, Rabbi Rosenblatt would take younger male members of his congregation, other young men and rabbinical interns to play squash and then to the shower and sauna where, often naked, he would engage them in long talks that he described as critical to his mentoring process.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

By Yael Shahar

What would you do if rumors of sexual impropriety were circulating about someone in your community?

Whom would you approach and where would you get advice? It all depends. If the rumors concerned someone in your child’s school, you might go to the principal. If they concerned someone in your congregation you would likely talk to the rabbi; after all, the rabbi is expected to know everyone and to be above personal squabbles. He would be able to sniff out the source of the rumor discreetly, and if the matter were found to be serious, he would know whom to contact.

But what if the rumors were about the rabbi himself? Further, what if the rabbi in question is beloved by many, and in any case you’re not sure that any serious transgressions have occurred?

In a culture as reverent of tradition as ours, the veneration of rabbis is understandable. But this is not without risk: it removes the checks and balances that might keep inappropriate behavior from escalating to actual transgression.

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UNITED STATES
Skip Shea

Today the Vatican announced that they would create a tribunal “for judging bishops accused of covering up or failing to act in cases of child sexual abuse by priests.” writes Elisabetta Povoledo and Laurie Goodstein for the New York Times. Not so buried in the story are two examples of criminal charges against Archbishop John C. Nienstedt of Minneapolis and St. Paul, whose archdiocese was indicted last week on charges related to the cover-up of sexual abuse of children. Then we have “Bishop Robert W. Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri, who was convicted on a misdemeanor charge for negligently handling a case involving a pedophile priest.” Plus Pell in Australia, the gay marriage vote in Ireland, which was seen as an “an unmitigated disaster” for the Catholic Church and well, that whole UN investigation and committee hearings into crimes against humanity and torture of children. Not the best PR for the PR Pope.

So what will this tribunal do? Who tells them that someone needs to be investigated?
For instance this past March the vatican appointed Bishop Juan Barros as the new Bishop of the southern Chilean diocese of Osorno. Barros has been not only accused of covering up for the notorious pedophile Reverend Fernando Karadima, in some cases Barros is accused of observing the abuse. Just to make sure he was actually covering up for a pedophile and not some poser. Still the Holy See found “no objective reason” not to make the appointment. Even as the Vatican found Karadima guilty of sexually abusing kids. Obviously Barros would never make it in front of this tribunal. He gets a new appointment.

Then there is the case of Jozef Wesolowski, defrocked archbishop of the Dominican who was called back to Rome avoiding criminal charges in the Dominican and who has been under house arrest within the walls of the Vatican. In an apartment. Because of his health. An awful lot of people pay 15 euros to get inside the walls of the Vatican to see the Sistine Chapel. His apartment is somewhere around there. For free.

The tribunal is good PR, especially with the charges filed in Minnesota. They want to look like they are in the prosecution game too. But if their very recent past actions are any indication, it’s just another PR stunt.

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CANADA
StarPhoenix

BY MATTHEW FISHER, NATIONAL POST

At a Thursday meeting with Pope Francis, Prime Minister Stephen Harper only indirectly raised the issue of an apology from the Roman Catholic Church in the residential schools scandal – angering those who had hoped for a more personal appeal.

Harper did draw the pontiff ‘s attention to a letter to the Vatican from Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt. It takes no stand on what the Pope should do, but does note that Harper had already issued an apology in 2008 to former residential school students – to the day seven years ago, in fact – and that the TRC released an executive summary of its final report last week, with 94 recommendations, including one related to “the Churches which operated residential schools in Canada.”

But in a news release issued after Harper had his private papal audience, the Vatican did not mention the Valcourt letter or the possibility of an apology.

The ostensible reason for Harper’s meeting with the Pope on Thursday was to invite him to Canada for the 150th anniversary of Confederation, in 2017. There was no indication from the Vatican whether the Pope would take the prime minister up on his offer.

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PARAGUAY
Ultima Hora

El padre Carlos Urrutigoity abandonó la Parroquia de Ciudad del Este, Alto Paraná, según informó la Diócesis de esta ciudad a través de su cuenta en Facebook. El sacerdote fue acusado de abuso sexual en el extranjero y en su momento ha sido hombre de confianza del destituido obispo Rogelio Livieres Plano.

Urrutigoity abandonó la Parroquia del Espíritu Santo del Área 4 de CDE el pasado sábado 6 de junio. Sin embargo, recién este jueves fue publicada la noticia por la Diócesis local a través de su página de Facebook. El hombre fue nombrado en 2008 como Vicario General y era, además, superior de una congregación en la referida parroquia.

“Damos la bienvenida al padre Javier de los Misioneros de Jesús, que se reintegra en la Diócesis de Ciudad del Este, volviendo de Argentina. Acompañamos con nuestras oraciones a dos sacerdotes que dejan la Diócesis: el P. Adalberto Pelc, que tomó el avión el día 10 rumbo a Polonia para residir en su país, y el padre Carlos Urrutigoity, que viajó el 6 de junio a la Argentina, donde se quedará”, refiere el comunicado de la Diócesis publicado en la fecha.

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PARAGUAY
ABC

[Priest Carlos Urrutigoity has left the Ciudad del Este diocese by order of Bishop Guillermo Steckling. The decision was taken after the pope decided to form a tribunal to judge bishops who protect child molesters. The decision was announced in a short statement released on Facebook. Urrutigoity was accused of abusing minors in other countries before coming to Paraguay.]

El sacerdote Carlos Urrutigoity fue sacado de la diócesis de Ciudad del Este por disposición del obispo Guillermo Steckling. El párroco había sido acusado en el extranjero por abuso sexual y pese a eso fue nombrado vicario general por monseñor Rogelio Livieres. Su expulsión sucede después de que el papa Francisco haya decidido crear un tribunal para juzgar por el delito de “abuso de poder” a los obispos que han encubierto a curas pederastas.

CIUDAD DEL ESTE (De nuestra redacción regional).Mediante un escueto comunicado divulgado en la red social de Facebook, la diócesis de esta comunidad altoparanaense informó ayer que el cuestionado sacerdote Carlos Urrutigoity fue sacado de esta comunidad.

Esta decisión se tomó después de que el papa Francisco decidiera conformar un tribunal que juzgará a los obispos protectores de abusadores de menores. Los prelados fueron comunicados cinco días antes de que se crearía dicho colegiado, lo cual fue informado oficialmente el miércoles último. Para evitar cualquier problema en dicho sentido, monseñor Guillermo Steckling invitó a Urrutigoity a que se retire de su diócesis y regrese a su país, Argentina.

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ITALY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Rome, June 10 – Information provided by the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), the Vatican bank, allowed investigators to “close the circle” in their probe of the 500 million euro fraudulent bankruptcy of the Divine Providence nursing homes chain, judicial sources said Wednesday.

Replies supplied by the Holy See bankers allowed investigators in Puglia to undertake “a more pregnant technical examination” of financial flows through bank account data in which assets of the Congregation of Divine Providence had been hidden, the sources said.

Meanwhile it was disclosed that a Socialist MP, Raffaele Di Gioia, also is among those under investigation in the probe in addition to an NCD Senator and two nuns.

Finance police confiscated 32 million euros and a building that the nuns were planning to turn into a private clinic in Guidonia in Rome province.

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ITALY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Rome, June 10 – Two nuns were arrested and a request to arrest a Senator filed Wednesday over the fraudulent bankruptcy of a southern Italian nursing-home chain called Divine Providence.

The case highlighted the progress made by the Vatican Bank towards full transparency of its formerly opaque affairs, investigators said.

“The IOR’s collaboration was precious,” prosecutors told reporters.

An arrest warrant was issued for the Senator from the conservative New Centre Right-Popular Area (NCD-AP) party, Antonio Azzolini, on charges of involvement in the fake crash.

A request for Azzolini’s immunity to be lifted already has been presented to parliament, judicial sources said.

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AUSTRALIA
Red Flag

Mick Armstrong

The Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse has revealed some of the outrageous abuse of children at the hands of Catholic priests, brothers and nuns.

It was not just the abuse itself that was appalling, but the decades-long coordinated cover-up by the church hierarchy, and the penny pinching that has denied the victims anything approaching adequate financial compensation for their torment.

There are a whole series of factors that come together as a toxic cocktail to explain the scale of the crimes.

First, there is the authoritarian nature of the church, which gives virtually unfettered power to the hierarchy. There is absolutely no democracy in the church. Parishioners don’t get to elect their priest, let alone their bishop. They have no say over church policy.

This was even more the case in the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s. In those days, most Catholics were poor working class people who were often viewed with ill-disguised contempt, or at best paternalism, by the bishops and many priests.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE ARCHDIOCESE OF Dublin has revealed today that there has been an increase in the number of its priests accused of child abuse in the last year.

A meeting to discuss the Archdiocese’s child safeguarding and protection service is taking place in Dublin today as it emerges another five priests from the Diocese have been the subject of child sexual abuse allegations.

Three of the accused were deceased and the other two were retired. This brings the total number of priests accused since 1940 to 106. This includes confirmed, inconclusive and unfounded allegations, the Archdiocese said today.

The number of allegations of abuse have fallen in the past five years, from around 100 per year back in 2010 and 2011 to less than 40 in the last two years.

However there was an increase in the number of priests subject to complaints in the last year.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

At least 12 of Ireland’s Catholic bishops may be subject to investigation by the new Vatican tribunal announced this week by Pope Francis.

The tribunal will hold bishops to account where it is claimed they failed to protect children from sexual abuse by priests.

It is being established following a proposal by the Vatican Commission for the Protection of Minors. It was unclear on Wednesday whether the tribunal could deal with retrospective cases of negligence by
Speaking to The Irish Times on Thursday, Dublin abuse survivor Marie Collins, a member of the commission, said she had that morning sought clarification on the matter and it was confirmed to her the new tribunal will have such retrospective powers.

It was also confirmed the tribunal will include lay members, men and women. She believed a similar tribunal would be set up to deal with religious superiors in the same situation.
Serious criticisms

Among living Irish bishops who have faced serious criticisms over their handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in the past are Cardinals Desmond Connell and Seán Brady, as well as Bishops Brendan Comiskey, Donal Murray and Jim Moriarty, who resigned following such criticisms.
The current Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby and the current Bishop of Raphoe Philip Boyce, as well as retired Bishops Dermot O’ Mahony, Edward Daly, Seamus Hegarty, Eamon Casey, and Joseph Duffy could all also be investigated.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Nicola Woolcock
Education Correspondent

June 11 2015

A vicar who worked as a primary school teacher has been struck off for life by a misconduct panel for allegedly repeatedly sexually abusing pupils while they read to him in front of the class.

James Wilson was cleared in a court case in 2010 of fondling young children while working as a teacher in the 1970s and 80s.

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CANADA
Toronto Sun

BY FARZANA HASSAN, TORONTO SUN

I attended a Roman Catholic school in the late 1960s, run by the Sisters of Charity at Sacred Heart in Lahore, Pakistan.

The sisters worked hard to promote the English language and European culture and values among a predominantly Muslim and Punjabi student population.

We were often chastised for speaking our native language.

We were Muslim, but we even recited the Lord’s Prayer.

The punishments for not following the rules felt draconian at the time, but no one complained, and our families supported the school’s policies.

The idea was to promote a culture of elitism in a country born out of the ashes of colonialism.

English speakers were considered upper class. They still are.

Canada’s residential schools were, of course, a different matter.

Their policy was to obliterate local cultures, against the will of the people they were attempting to assimilate.

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VATICAN CITY
John Thavis

Pope Francis has approved a system of reporting and judging bishops who fail to protect minors, a critical development in the Vatican’s actions on sexual abuse.

Announced June 10, the move authorizes three Vatican offices to receive and investigate complaints against bishops, and establishes a special tribunal under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to determine whether a bishop is guilty of “abuse of office.”

The pope still has the ultimate say in requesting a bishop’s resignation, but as a Vatican spokesman said, the tribunal’s findings would normally be accepted and acted upon by the pope.

For years, bishops’ accountability has been the missing element in the Vatican’s approach to sexual abuse by priests. Despite the many cases of mismanagement and negligence on the part of bishops who turned a blind eye or moved abusive priests from parish to parish, very few bishops have been removed from office.

That’s because, until now, there was no systematic process for discipline and dismissal when such failures occurred.

There are several remarkable aspects of Pope Francis’ decision:

— It demonstrated that bishops are no longer considered “untouchable,” and will face serious consequences for their actions or inaction.

— It made clear that bishops answer not only to the pope, but also to their people. That reflects a new willingness at the Vatican to implement the church law provision that says bishops can lose their office for “culpable negligence” that harms the faithful.

— By inviting complaints against bishops – saying, in fact, that Catholics have a “duty” to report such failings – the Vatican has opened a new and important channel of communication for Catholic laity.

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

By Lilly Fowler

Religious freedom, vocations to the priesthood, family and marriage were among the top priorities Roman Catholic bishops from across the U.S. gathered here in St. Louis outlined on Thursday.
Some bishops, however, left the discussion feeling dissatisfied.

They argued bishops should follow in the steps of Pope Francis and place a greater emphasis on alleviating poverty.

“There needs to be given greater visibility to plight of the poor,” said Bishop George Thomas of Helena, Mont.

Approximately 250 U.S. bishops gathered at the Hyatt Regency at the Arch for a second day of meetings. They were here for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops annual spring assembly.

Other priorities outlined by bishops included evangelization, as well as human life and dignity — combating the “throwaway culture of abortion and euthanasia.”

Regarding religion freedom, the persecution of Christians was of specific concern.

“I am burning. Christianity is burning,” said Bishop Yousif Habash of the Syrian Catholic Church in Newark, N.J.

A draft of the priorities is expected to be finalized at the 2016 general assembly, held in November in Baltimore.

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TEXAS
KFOX

EL PASO, Texas – A man who says he’s the victim of a pedophile priest filed a lawsuit against the El Paso Catholic Diocese.

The alleged victim said he was sexually molested by Father Denis Tejada, when he was 10 and 11 years old in the 1970s.

He accuses Tejada of abusing him when he was an altar boy at Saint Patrick Cathedral.

According to El Paso Times, the Catholic Church removed Tejada from his pastoral and administrative duties in 2002 after someone else came forward with sexual abuse allegations.

In response to the lawsuit, El Paso’s Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz sent the following statement:

“We are very concerned about anyone who has suffered abuse. Though time passes, we know the pain for the victim remains. And we know that to be true for many of the nation’s sex abuse victims.

“The lawsuit that was filed on Wednesday, June 10, pertains to an event that is decades old. As noted by the attorney for the complainant, Fr. Denis Tejada was removed from his ministry in the Diocese of Las Cruces 13 years ago. He no longer serves as a priest.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler
Jun 11, 2015

By creating a new Vatican tribunal that will judge bishops accused of negligence in abuse cases, Pope Francis has addressed the second of three companion scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church worldwide in the early 21st century.

As I explained a decade ago in The Faithful Departed, it’s inaccurate to speak about the “sex-abuse scandal” as a single problem. The scandal actually involved three different problems, which came to light in quick sequence.

First we learned that many Catholic priests—a small minority of priests, but still a large number—had molested children and adolescents. That was horrifying news, and the public rightly demanded action. At their historic meeting in Dallas in June 2002, the US bishops instituted a “zero tolerance” policy that called for effective disciplinary action against any cleric credibly accused of abuse.

But there was one crucial flaw in the Dallas Charter. To work effectively, it required conscientious leadership from the bishops. And unfortunately, the second scandal – which had been exhaustively documented by the time of the Dallas meeting—was the massive failure of leadership in the part of the American hierarchy.

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MAINE
ABC News

PORTLAND, Maine — Jun 11, 2015
By DAVID SHARP Associated Press

The lawyer for an orphanage founder accused of sexually abusing boys in Haiti got into a heated confrontation with a man who advocates for child victims, shouting “Shut up!” as the sides met in Maine for a deposition in a defamation lawsuit.

The tense exchange erupted as orphanage founder Michael Geilenfeld arrived for a deposition in a lobby where Paul Kendrick suggested that the truth was being covered up and that Geilenfeld left Haiti illegally.

Geilenfeld’s lawyer, Peter DeTroy, advised his client not to answer any questions and snapped “shut up!” and “keep your mouth shut!” to Kendrick.

“Get him under control!” DeTroy angrily told Kendrick’s lawyer, David Walker, as DeTroy waited for elevator doors to close.

The group later met behind closed doors for the deposition as plaintiff and defendant met face-to-face in Maine, where the defamation lawsuit is due to proceed next month.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

MARK KENNEDY, OTTAWA CITIZEN

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is under fire for turning his back on aboriginal residential school survivors after he skipped a chance to personally urge the Pope to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in the abusive system.

Harper met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday, just nine days after the release of the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Instead of backing that commission’s call for a papal apology, Harper merely “drew attention” to a four-paragraph letter that Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt wrote last week to the Vatican to inform it of the TRC report.

By coincidence, Harper’s meeting with the Pope came on the seventh anniversary of his own June 11, 2008, apology in the House of Commons for the federal government’s role in establishing and supervising the church-run residential school system.

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CANADA
CTV

[with video]

Don Martin, Power Play Host
@DonMartinCTV

Published Thursday, June 11, 2015

Seven years ago today, Stephen Harper had his finest moment in aboriginal relations.
The Prime Minister stood in the House of Commons and apologized for the residential school tragedy. He said it was sincere. He said it was profound. He vowed that all of Canada would share the burden of aboriginal reconciliation in the future.

Today, there are legitimate grounds to wonder if it was all just an act.

By what could’ve been a beautiful coincidence, the Prime Minister had an audience with Pope Francis Thursday morning.

The coincidence is that just last week, the reconciliation commission which Harper created, recommended the Pope be asked to apologize this year for the Catholic church’s shameful role in a school system which was fronting a cultural genocide.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
ABC News

ST. LOUIS — Jun 11, 2015

By RACHEL ZOLL AP Religion Writer

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops engaged Thursday in a rare public discussion about whether their priorities properly reflect those of Pope Francis, with one church leader urging an emphasis on helping immigrants that’s at least as energetic as the bishops’ focus on religious freedom.

The issue arose at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ mid-year assembly in St. Louis, where church leaders considered their programming through the end of the decade.

In recent years, American bishops have channeled significant resources toward securing religious exemptions from laws they consider immoral such as gay marriage, seeking carve-outs for the church, its massive network of charities and individual for-profit business owners. Francis, elected in 2013, has a far different focus, dedicating his pontificate to the poor and most marginalized, from immigrants to the elderly.

In the morning session Thursday, Archbishop Blase Cupich, chosen by Francis last fall as Chicago archbishop, noted the effort U.S. bishops have made on behalf of “individual employers, secular employers,” with religious objections to some laws. He argued church leaders should give equal ranking to changing U.S. immigration policy in their planning for the years ahead.

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NEW YORK
Jewish Link

THURSDAY, 11 JUNE 2015 06:28 BY PHIL JACOBS

It’s been a week of emails, petitions, articles, comments and more emails.

Riverdale Jewish Center members have experienced any number of statements concerning Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt and his very future as the shul’s spiritual leader.

First came the May 31 New York Times article covering the rabbi’s practice of playing squash, showering and then sitting in the sauna with youths to young men over the years.

RJC’s Executive Committee released a letter June 2 to its membership directed at the Times article.

“As you know, Rabbi Rosenblatt is a highly respected member of the community who has given decades of devoted service to the Riverdale Jewish Center and its members,” reads a paragraph from the statement. “That said, we take any allegations of impropriety very seriously. Years ago when RJC leadership heard rumors about the Rabbi’s alleged interactions surrounding athletic activities, the details were assessed and no evidence of misconduct was found. In order to avoid even the appearance of impropriety as to such activities, in the 2011 time frame the Rabbinical Council of America issued explicit guidelines regarding participation in athletic activities by clergy. The RJC has followed those guidelines.

“It bears emphasis that as far as we are aware, Rabbi Rosenblatt has fully complied with the guidelines, and there is nothing in The New York Times article that indicates otherwise. Significantly, if we ever saw evidence to the contrary, we would of course take appropriate measures.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Shawn F Raymundo June 11, 2015

The pastor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Toto was summoned to the Archdiocese of Agana Chancery Office on Wednesday to discuss why the church’s donations in an annual campaign for funds were “not favorable.”

During the roughly three-month period in which the island’s Catholic churchgoers donate toward what’s called the annual appeal, Rev. Michael Crisostomo and the Toto church only raised $150 toward its goal of more than $5,000, said John Taitano, member of the Toto parish council.

“The results of the Immaculate Heart was unfavorable,” Taitano said. “The archbishop wanted to meet with our pastor to discuss the unfavorable results.”

From Ash Wednesday to Pentecost Sunday, churches collect money meant to fund the religious education of prospective priests attending seminaries. The annual appeal donations also assist chaplains at Guam Memorial Hospital, the Department of Corrections and Department of Youth Affairs.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A priest has been banned from teaching “indefinitely” over allegations he touched pupils inappropriately.

James Wilson, 66, taught at Pennycross Primary School in Plymouth between 1970 and 1985.

Five former pupils gave evidence to an education professional conduct panel which has banned him from teaching in any school or college in England.

He was previously charged with a number of offences but found not guilty at Plymouth Crown Court in September 2010.

Mr Wilson denied the allegations and did not attend the final hearing of a professional conduct panel of the National College for Teaching and Leadership.

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VATICAN CITY
The Daily Beast

Barbie Latza Nadeau

Pope Francis’ new judicial tribunal will now tackle the enablers of child abuse by priests: the bishops.
For the first time in the long and sordid history of the Catholic Church’s saga with pedophile priests, the Vatican has approved a special judicial tribunal that could bring to justice the bishops who have helped protect offending priests.

But is it enough to protect kids? Survivors groups hope that this time the Vatican has come up with an approach that will work.

“It could be, but only time will tell,” David Clohessy, the national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests (SNAP), told The Daily Beast. “But this isn’t like horseshoes. Every ‘miss’—however close it seems to be to the peg—means more kids will be raped.”

The new tribunal was the brainchild of American cardinal Sean O’Malley, who has become a central figure in the popular papacy of Pope Francis, which may make him a major contender when it comes time for the next conclave. As head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, and one of the pope’s trusted confidantes who sit on the elite Commission of Cardinals, O’Malley presented the plan at a meeting of the pope’s key men in Rome this week. They adopted it unanimously. …

The real question, though, is whether the new process will actually translate into effective punishment for proven offenders, and whether the secular courts will still be kept at bay when it comes to punishing child abusers and sex offenders. The organization Bishop Accountability, which keeps a database of extensive public records of accusations against abusers, warned that the very office that enforces accountability must itself be accountable. …

Survivors groups are hopeful, but they say they would prefer that all sex abuse cases are all handled in the secular courts, not dealt with in a Vatican-operated tribunal.

“I don’t think we welcome any new internal cleric-dominated process, especially when it’s in the CDF, which, for decades, has refused to defrock or delayed defrocking some of the worst predator priests,” Clohessy says. “On paper, a mechanism like this looks good. But church abuse mechanisms always look good on paper. If this one is used to prevent cover-ups and punish ‘enablers,’ we’ll be surprised and pleased. If, however, it’s used to mollify distraught parishioners and generate good headlines, we won’t be surprised. That’s been the history of nearly all of the hundreds of church abuse panels over the past three decades.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

EDITORIAL

Never before has the language describing the mishandling of these cases by bishops been so strong.

It has been slow in coming and the steps taken are incremental, but there is little doubt that the Catholic church has entered a new phase in the decadeslong crisis and scandal of clergy sexually abusing children. For the first time, there is clear evidence that the people’s cry for justice and action has reached the pope and his closest advisers. For the first time, there is clear evidence that bishops who perpetuated and extended this scandal by covering up, dismissing or ignoring abuse are going to be held accountable.

The clearest evidence is the Vatican’s announcement June 10 that Pope Francis, on the recommendation of his nine-member Council of Cardinals, has approved a plan for holding responsible bishops who mishandle cases concerning the sexual abuse of children (Page 3).

The outline of the policy, prepared by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, calls the mishandling of these cases an “abuse of office.” Members of the church have “the duty to report” these offenses and accused bishops must stand in judgment. Never before has the language describing the mishandling of these cases by bishops — and by extension their diocesan officers — been so strong.

A tribunal will be appointed to judge bishops for these abuses of episcopal office, and a new section with permanent personnel within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to handle these cases will be established. The person in charge will be a secretary of the congregation reporting directly to the prefect of the congregation. Most important, Francis has “authorized that sufficient resources will be provided for this purpose.”

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TEXAS
Valley Central

DALLAS (AP) — A 37-year-old former minister at a North Texas church faces up to life in prison for luring a girl in his youth group into having sex with him.

Derek Hutter pleaded guilty Wednesday to enticement of a minor in the case involving a 13-year-old girl.

Hutter, who was arrested last fall, remains in custody pending sentencing by a federal judge in Dallas.

Authorities say Hutter was a youth pastor at South Garland Baptist Church and married when he began an online and cellphone relationship with the teen.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

SIDEWALK OUTSIDE THE CONFERENCE OF BISHOPS AT THE HYATT REGENCY
SNAP members chided Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon because one of his priests argued to a judge that a convicted sex offender should get no jail time. And Carol Kuhnert hawked her new book, “No Longer on Pedestals.” She’s a south county grandmother who comforted victims of her brother, Fr. Norman Christian, who molested kids in Affton, Normandy, Woodson Terrace and the city. (Despite the accusations, lawsuits and settlements, the Archbishop Raymond Burke gave Christian a burial with full priestly honors.)

AND KUDOS TO THE GREY LADY

Only The New York Times pointed out that the church’s abuse scandal that erupted on the national scene 30 years ago (when a Louisiana pedophile priest garnered national headlines for assaulting dozens of kids) versus the more common but false narrative that “it all began in Boston in 2002.” And the Times noted that a spokesman yesterday at the conference was Vermont Bishop Christopher Coyne who spent years as a flak for Boston’s disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law.

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VATICAN CITY
New Zealand Herald

Pope Francis has taken the biggest step yet to crack down on bishops who cover up for priests who rape and molest children, creating a new tribunal inside the Vatican to hear cases of bishops accused of failing to protect their flock.

The initiative, announced yesterday, has significant legal and theological implications, since bishops have long been considered masters of their dioceses and largely unaccountable when they bungle their job, with the Vatican stepping in only in cases of gross negligence.

That reluctance to intervene has prompted years of criticism from abuse victims, advocacy groups and others that the Vatican had failed to punish or forcibly remove bishops who moved predator priests around from parish to parish, where they could rape again, rather than report them to police or remove them from ministry.

The Vatican said Francis had approved proposals made by his sexual abuse advisory board, which includes survivors of abuse as well as experts in child protection policies. The proposals call for a new mechanism by which the Vatican can receive and examine complaints of “abuse of office” by bishops, and bring them to trial in a Vatican tribunal.

A special new judicial section, with permanent staff, will be created inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “to judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors”, a Vatican statement said.

Details must still be worked out, including possible punishments and the statute of limitations to determine whether old cases of negligence by bishops dating back 20 or 30 years can now be heard.

The congregation currently reviews all cases of priests who have abused minors and the statute of limitations is 20 years, though the congregation can waive that limit.

“I sincerely believe this is a real step forward,” commission member Marie Collins, herself a survivor of abuse, wrote in an email. “Time will tell the effectiveness of the new measure, but I am hopeful.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JUNE 12, 2015

John Ferguson
Victoria Editor
Melbourne

Two of Australia’s highest profile Catholics could be scrutinised by the Vatican’s new sex abuse tribun­al empowered to try bishops accused of shielding abusers and to punish offenders.

Some of the church’s most senior figures in Australia, living and dead, have been accused, or were found either to have shielded ­perpetrators or failed to act to ­prevent further cases of sex abuse.

Former bishop of Ballarat Ron­al­d Mulkearns, now a priest, has been widely condemned for his failure to halt offending in his diocese, where hundreds of assaults occurred. However, he has not faced legal or internal action over his management, under which serial offender Gerald Ridsdale assaulted hundreds of minors.

Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson is also fighting allegations he failed to report abuse allegedly committed by pedophile priest Jim Fletcher in the 1970s, while both were working in the Maitland diocese, near Newcastle, in NSW. Fletcher was jailed for raping a 13-year-old boy between 1989 and 1991, and died in 2006.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

David Pierre

In covering the issue of the media and Catholic sex abuse for over a decade now, we do not believe we have seen reporting as dishonest and biased as that from Madeleiene Baran from Minnesota Public Radio (MPR).

Indeed, Baran has shamelessly smeared an innocent priest, has claimed facts which were either outright false and misleading, and has produced a three-part series that was an inaccurate and irresponsible screed against Church officials based upon thin evidence and innuendo.

Perfect soulmates

Therefore, it was little surprise when we saw that MPR’s Baran will be a headline speaker at this year’s annual conference for the lawyer-funded, anti-Catholic group SNAP.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | Jun 11, 2015

It is hard to overstate the importance of Pope Francis’ decision to establish a standing tribunal at the Vatican to deal with bishops who fail to deal properly with charges of child sexual abuse against priests and other diocesan personnel. Ever since the issue of the sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church began to be raised publicly three decades ago, the principal cause of scandal has not been the abuse itself, but its coverup by diocesan officials — bishops above all.

After years of pretending that all that was needed were procedures for handling accusations of abuse, Rome has finally recognized that without a formal mechanism for holding accountable bishops who “abuse their office” by flouting them. All credit is due to the papal commission on sex abuse for proposing the tribunal, to the pope’s Council of Cardinals for approving it, and to the pope himself for giving it his blessing.

The tribunal will be attached to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), and appropriately so. The CDF was given responsibility for handling clergy abuse cases by Pope John Paul II in 2001. That’s where the Vatican’s evidence and expertise in this area resides — evidence and expertise that will be required to assess an accused bishop’s conduct in a particular case. Headed by a secretary, and equipped with additional staff and resources, the tribunal will be constituted into a new judicial branch of the CDF to address abuse cases in just such an integrated way.

To be sure, there is much that is unclear about how the tribunal will operate. Cases of clerical abuse are currently referred to the CDF by their bishops. What will be the procedure for referring “abuse of office” cases against bishops? With what degree of openness will such cases be handled? Will there be a set of rules for how bishops should handle abuse cases and a set of sanctions for failure to observe them? If anyone in the Vatican imagines that a closed and obscure process will solve the problem, he should think again.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | Jun. 11, 2015

The Holy Father’s approval of a new procedure and process for holding bishops accountable if they fail in their responsibilities to protect children, and to assign this task to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is an enormous step forward in the Church’s long effort to rid itself of the scourge of clergy sex abuse and to create a culture that sees the protection of children as one of its highest duties. The issue, given its gravity, has become a threshold issue for many Catholics, that is to say, if the Church hierarchy can’t deal with us, many people in the pews will not listen to anything else the Church’s leaders have to say.

The key issue here is the accountability of bishops. As Msgr. Stephen Rossetti said this morning in the Washington Post article on the story, “It’s a major thing it’s putting bishops on notice. ‘If you don’t deal with this, you have to face the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,’ and no one wants to face the CDF.” The Church’s canons have consequences, and now they have consequences for bishops who drag their feet or otherwise compromise the Church’s effort to deal with this insidious problem.

It is hard to overstate the degree to which bishops have not previously felt accountable. Of course, many, indeed I think most, bishops feel a deep sense of accountability – to the Word of God, to the traditions and teachings of the Church and, importantly, to the people entrusted to their care. But, the clerical culture does not always strengthen that last, vital sense of accountability. By way of example, a priest friend of mine recalls studying in Rome. He was at a reception and fell into conversation with a bishop. The bishop asked him where he was from and he named the diocese. The bishop then said something about that city being in a particular state, but not being an American, he understandably got the state wrong. My friend gently corrected him, naming the correct location of the diocese. His superior, who was part of the conversation, then chastised him: “Never contradict a bishop!” If a bishop cannot be corrected on a small matter of no consequence, multiply that incident by a million over the years, and you will have an insight into what is wrong in the curia.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Catholic Philly

BY CAROL ZIMMERMANN
Catholic News Service

ST. LOUIS (CNS) — When the U.S. bishops opened their spring general assembly in St. Louis June 10, the Catholic Church was already in the day’s news with the announcement from the Vatican about a new process for holding bishops accountable for protecting children from abuse.

The bishops did not mention the new procedures during the opening session of their gathering, but when some of them were asked about it by reporters during a midday news conference, they said they supported the Vatican’s decision.

Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, was noticeably not at the U.S. bishops meeting, because his commission had been meeting with Pope Francis about the need for greater accountability of bishops in dealing with clerical abuse cases.

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the bishops welcomed the new procedure and would cooperate with it.

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VATICAN CITY
CP24

Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, June 11, 2015

VATICAN CITY, Italy — Prime Minister Stephen Harper raised the troubling findings of the residential schools commission during his unusually brief meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican Thursday, but appeared to have stopped short of inviting him to Canada to apologize.

Instead, Harper referred to letter sent earlier in the week to the Vatican by his aboriginal affairs minister that merely informed the Holy See of the commission.

“Prime Minister Harper also drew attention to the letter sent by Minister (Bernard) Valcourt to the Holy See regarding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” Harper’s office said without elaborating.
Harper’s spokesman did not respond to a request for clarification.

Harper’s 10-minute meeting with the Pope Francis was unusually short by Vatican standards. Russian President Vladimir Putin had a nearly 50-minute private audience with the pontiff a day earlier.

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CANADA
Toronto Sun

Prime Minister Stephen Harper brought up last week’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report on Canada’s residential schools with Pope Francis during a visit to the Vatican Thursday, the PMO says.

But the news release issued Thursday morning doesn’t say whether Harper asked the Pope to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in ripping more than 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children from their families and forcing them to attend the schools in what the TRC report says amounted to a “cultural genocide.”

In its report, the commission specifically calls on the Pope to issue an apology “for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical and sexual abuse…in Catholic-run residential schools.”

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair echoed that call during question period Wednesday, asking if Harper would make that request during his scheduled meeting with the Pope Thursday.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt responded by saying he had written to the Vatican to inform the Pope about the TRC report.

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ARKANSAS
InTouch Weekly

[with audio of the 911 call]

The new issue of In Touch Magazine reveals that the Duggar family is under investigation again by the Arkansas Department of Human Services and police were called when the family refused to cooperate.

Now, In Touch has the audio of that 911 call made by a representative from the Washington County DHS on May 27 at around 11 a.m. to the Springdale Police Department asking for police assistance when DHS was not allowed to see the minor they were concerned about. In Touch, which broke the story of Josh Duggar’s sexual molestation scandal, has the full transcript of the emergency call in the new issue.

The new investigation comes as the family tries to save its TLC reality show, 19 Kids and Counting, which the network pulled off the air, while determining its fate. Jim Bob, Michelle and two of their daughters sat for interviews with Fox News, attempting to minimize the damage, but much of what they said was widely condemned as misinformation and not full disclosure.

The Duggars made no mention of the fact that they have been under investigation again, but In Touch discovered what they are hiding via another Freedom of Information Act request that produced the 911 call.

After identifying himself as a Washington Country DHS employee and stating the Duggar family address, the caller tells the 911 operator, “We have an investigation and I guess they’re not being cooperative. We have to see the child to make sure the child is all right. So we just need police assistance.” The 911 call was then transferred to Washington County authorities.

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ARKANSAS
Politics USA

The DHS in Arkansas has launched a new investigation into the Duggars, and it looks like Fox News helped Jim Bob and Michelle cover up the new investigation into the welfare of their children.

InTouch Weekly reported:

The Duggar family is under investigation again by the Arkansas Department of Human Services and police were called when the family refused to cooperate, In Touch magazine is reporting exclusively in its new issue that hits newsstands today.

A representative from the Washington County DHS called 911 on May 27 at around 11 a.m. asking for police assistance when DHS was not allowed to see the minor they were concerned about.
….

After identifying himself as a Washington Country DHS employee and stating the Duggar family address, the caller tells the 911 operator, “We have an investigation and I guess they’re not being cooperative. We have to see the child to make sure the child is all right. So we just need police assistance.”

The Duggars first interview with Fox News aired on June 3. Fox News had days before the Duggar interview to learn about and disclose to their viewers the new investigation, but they did nothing. It is possible that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar lied to Megyn Kelly and Fox News. It is just as possible that Fox News never bothered to look and invested themselves in supporting the Duggars.

If Fox News was not aware of this new investigation, it is because they didn’t want to know. The new investigation also explains why the Duggars and Kelly put so much effort into trying to discredit the police and social services. Fox News defended a family that was uncooperative with the authorities and under a new investigation related to the welfare of their children.

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VATICAAN
RKK (Nederland)

Rome (RKK) 10 juni 2015 – Paus Franciscus heeft ingestemd met de vijf voorstellen van de Pauselijke Commissie voor de Bescherming van Minderjarigen. Een daarvan betreft de instelling van een speciaal tribunaal voor bisschoppen die seksueel misbruik van kinderen door katholieke geestelijken niet bestraffen en in de doofpot stoppen. Dat is vandaag bekendgemaakt door de persdienst van de Heilige Stoel na afloop van een driedaagse sessie (8-10 juni) van de Raad van Kardinalen.

Voorzitter van de Pauselijke Commissie voor de Bescherming van Minderjarigen is kardinaal Seán O’Malley, aartsbisschop van Boston. Tevens is hij lid van de Raad van Kardinalen. Hij legde de vijf commissievoorstellen voor aan zijn mederaadsleden. De Raad van Kardinalen stemde er unaniem mee in en besloot ze voor te leggen aan de paus. Franciscus heeft ze inmiddels goedgekeurd en heeft de uitvoering ervan bevolen.

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VATICAAN
De Redactie (Belgie)

Bisschoppen die ervan beticht worden dat ze gevallen van kindermisbruik door priesters hebben toegedekt of onvoldoende deden om het misbruik te doen ophouden, zullen binnenkort voor een nieuw op te richten tribunaal moeten verschijnen. Paus Franciscus heeft ingestemd met de oprichting van de nieuwe dienst. Slachtoffers van kindermisbruik binnen de Katholieke Kerk drongen daar al jaren op aan.

Vorig jaar nog haalden de Verenigde Naties nog scherp uit naar het Vaticaan omdat het er maar niet in slaagde komaf te maken met het kindermisbruik binnen de kerk en omdat het doofpotoperaties tolereerde.

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VATICANO
Rete L’Abuso

Non che si voglia essere critici su quanto il Papa stia cercando di fare a livello canonico in materia di pedofilia, ma è sufficiente ?

Va intanto detto che la massima pena che un tribunale canonico può infliggere è la riduzione allo stato laicale, la scomunica. Come vediamo però viene usata solo in casi che sono balzati all’onore delle cronache, come ad esempio il caso di don Mauro Inzoli.

Il più delle volte viene invece applicata la sospensione a divinis, che altro non è che una sospensione temporanea dal sacerdozio, giusto il tempo di redimersi dai peccati per poi ritornare a fare il sacerdote, magari in un posto lontano dal precedente.

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VATIKAN
Domradio

[No immunity for bishops.]

Papst Franziskus will konsequenter gegen Bischöfe vorgehen, die sexuellen Missbrauch durch Priester vertuschen oder die Aufklärung verzögern. Bei der Glaubenskongregation soll eine neue Gerichtssektion für solche Fälle errichtet werden.

Vatikanfinanzen, die Struktur der Medien sowie Rechtsnormen für Bischöfe, die in Missbrauchsskandale verstrickt sind, standen im Mittelpunkt der zehnten Konferenzrunde des sogenannten Kardinalsrates für die Kurienreform (“K9-Rat”).

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

[Survivor advocate Norbert Denef commented on the pope’s new plan to hold bishops accountabile for cover-ups. Mr. Denef said he asked Pope John Paul II for help in 2003 because the bishop of Magdeburg wanted to silence him with 23,000 euros. He got a letter back from the pope saying he’d pray for him.]

Papst Franziskus stimmte Vorschlägen zu, die die Päpstliche Kommission für Kinderschutz wie folgt benannte:

1. Die Bischofskonferenzen, die Missions- und die Ostkirchen-Kongregationen sollen künftig für Fälle von Amtsmissbrauch durch Bischöfe (im Bereich sexueller Missbrauch durch Kirchenleute) zuständig sein und die entsprechenden Anzeigen entgegennehmen.
2. Die Glaubenskongregation soll den Auftrag bekommen, in diesen Fällen einen Prozess gegen Bischöfe zu führen.
3. In der Glaubenskongregation soll eine neue Justizabteilung eingerichtet werden.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

By: Laurel J. Sweet

An attorney for Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley vowed to a state Appeals Court justice yesterday that the Archdiocese of Boston will not sell or tear down St. Frances X. Cabrini Church in Scituate while the legal battle to resurrect the parish rages on — if the judge agrees to evict the protesting parishioners now.

“It’s been 10 1⁄2 years. What is the harm to the archdiocese? Why wouldn’t you give the parishioners their day in court, so to speak?” Judge Judd J. Carhart asked O’Malley’s counsel William J. Dailey, while considering the parishioners’ request to stay the eviction order while their appeal of the eviction is pending.

Dailey replied, “I would suggest there’s absolutely no harm to the (parishioners) if they’re ordered to vacate the property with the understanding we’re not going to do anything with the property. … We have no intent of selling the property or razing the property or doing anything while the appeal is pending.”

Dedham Superior Court Judge Edward P. Leibensperger one month ago gave the parishioners until last Friday to leave the church that’s been shuttered since 2004 while the Vatican’s Supreme Court decides whether to validate the archdiocese’s claims of financial hardship or reopen St. Frances. But he also stayed his order so the parishioners’ attorney Mary Elizabeth Carmody could argue for lifting it indefinitely while her appeal to have the eviction order overturned is pending.

Carhart took arguments by both sides under advisement.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

‘Top Bishop seeks review of earlier Bishops’ misdeeds too! Why not? Let’s start with Ratzinger, Sodano, Bertone, Levada, Law, Rigali, Mahony, Pell, et al.

Bravo ! Instead of amnesty for old crimes, the top leader of the Irish Catholic Church, Primate Eamon Martin, has said that Pope Francis’ newly announced tribunal, which will judge bishops accused of covering up child sexual abuse, should also investigate abuse allegations relating to events a long time ago. Irish bishops, it appears, are likely still reeling from Irish voters’ overwhelming rejection of the pope’s civil marriage position.

Meanwhile, US bishops seemed typically clueless about the pope’s new decision on bishop accountability. They appear understandably to be preoccupied with the serious criminal and civil law implications for all US bishops of the unprecedented and unexpected recent criminal and civil actions triggered by the Minneapolis Archdiocese’s ongoing rampant and horrible child endangerment record.

Martin rightly noted that child abuse related crimes are serious and are not diminished by the passage of time — certainly not for the survivors. The new tribunal could readily begin by reviewing the International Criminal Court’s online file on ex-pope Ratzinger, and Cardinals Sodano, Bertone and Levada, then move on to readily available records on Cardinals Law, Rigali, Mahony, Brady, O’Brien, Danneels, Dolan, Pell, Murphy-O’Conner, Mueller (Regensburg), et al. and Bishops Finn, Vangelhuwe, Mueller (Norway), Barros, et al. The pope needs to provide a big budget here, as he did to save the Vatican Bank!

The Vatican had told the UN committees, in effect, the pope did not have authority to hold bishops accountable. Now we see otherwise. All it took was a papal decision. Why has this taken decades, if not centuries, when so many innocent children and their loved ones have needlessly suffered?

Interestingly, the Boston Globe’s John Allen in a co-authored column reports support for investigating Cardinal Law now. He notes that Roderick MacLeish, a lawyer whose firm represented hundreds of victims in the Boston Archdiocese sex-abuse scandal, said, ” The first person who should be on the list is Cardinal Law. If this tribunal is going to be meaningful, it has to start in Boston, … ”. On the other hand, Allen adds that Mitchell Garabedian, another Boston lawyer who has represented clergy sex-abuse victims, called the creation of the tribunal “cosmetic in nature.’’ “The members of the tribunal will probably be made up of church officials who had known of the sexual abuse of children by priests for decades yet did not act to protect children,” Garabedian added according to Allen’s report. (emphasis mine)

Nicky Davis, leader of (SNAP) Australia, said, “The most appalling aspect of this announcement [of the new tribunal] is that this move should have been made decades ago, could have saved much suffering and lives lost to suicide, and is treated as something worthy of congratulation.” She indicated that the tribunal ” … certainly should never replace independent criminal or civil investigations or accountability.” She added, “I worry that this panel will be used as smokescreen to delay other much-needed changes until the current crop of officeholders are old enough or dead enough to permanently evade responsibility for their actions.” (emphasis mine)

Ireland’s Archbishop Eamon Martin spoke following the Vatican’s announcement about the pope’s decision, apparently made under pressure from significant negative publicity about numerous allegations, including some about his No. 3, Cardinal George Pell, and Chile’s Bishop Juan Barros, raised prophetically by Peter Saunders and others.

The pope accepted a proposal for such a tribunal that was reportedly pressed by the papal abuse commission that Saunders sits on. The trade off for Saunders, et al., appears to be that the tribunal will be under Cardinal Mueller’s clerical and flawed CDF, rather than under the papal abuse commission, where it belongs with its independent lay members, like Saunders and Marie Collins. Lay oversight is coming, voluntarily or involuntarily — I am confident of that.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Sorcha Pollak, Patsy McGarry

The new Vatican tribunal created by Pope Francis to deal with bishops who fail to protect children from being sexually abused by priests should deal retrospectively with past allegations of sexual abuse, says survivor Marie Collins.

Ms Collins, who is the only Irish member of the Vatican Commission for the Protection of Minors, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme that the main recommendations of the commission would focus on accountability for incidences of sexual abuse.

“If he (a bishop) doesn’t have the right attitude to abuse, or if he doesn’t deal with a case properly and it means a child is not kept safe, then he will have to answer to his own higher authority as well as to civil authority,” said Ms Collins.

“This is to make sure that as far as the church laws go, a bishop can longer… just behave as he wishes.”

The new tribunal within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will be able to hold bishops to account for mishandling or covering up allegations of clerical child sex abuse. To date no Catholic bishop has been removed from office by the Vatican for his role in covering up clerical child sex abuse.

Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin said he would support any initiative that made clear the church was not a safe haven for people who abuse children, adding that justice would be treated retrospectively.

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CANADA
CTV

[Comunicato della Sala Stampa: Udienza al Primo Ministro del Canada, 11.06.2015]

Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, June 11, 2015

VATICAN CITY, Italy — Prime Minister Stephen Harper raised the troubling findings of the residential schools commission with Pope Francis at the Vatican Thursday, but appeared to have stopped short of inviting him to Canada to apologize.

Instead, Harper referred to letter sent earlier in the week to the Vatican by his aboriginal affairs minister that merely informed the Holy See of the commission.

“Prime Minister Harper also drew attention to the letter sent by Minister (Bernard) Valcourt to the Holy See regarding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” Harper’s office said without elaborating.

Harper’s spokesman did not respond to a request for clarification.

A separate readout from the Vatican did not mention the residential schools issue among the topics discussed.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 11, 2015

A Vatican tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up child sex abuse is unlikely to investigate any Australian bishops until after the royal commission has concluded, the church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council says.

The Vatican announced on Wednesday night that it had established a tribunal under its doctrinal arm, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “to judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors”.

Victims’ advocates have for years called for the Vatican to establish clear procedures to make bishops more accountable for abuse in their dioceses, even if they were not directly responsible for it.

The Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard how former Australian Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns decided to move serial child sex offender Gerald Ridsdale around churches in Victoria and to a posting in Sydney, where he continued to abuse children. It also heard that Cardinal George Pell, then a priest, was previously a member of the College of Consultors, a group of priests who advised Bishop Mulkearns on such moves.

Francis Sullivan, chief of the Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council in Australia, said he “wouldn’t speculate” on whether the Vatican’s new tribunal would investigate Ronald Mulkearns.

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CALIFORNIA
The Intelligencer

Lancaster, CA (PRWEB) June 10, 2015

The Zalkin Law Firm has announced the filing of a childhood sexual abuse civil lawsuit today on behalf of a victim of alleged childhood sexual abuse at an Assembly of God church in Lancaster, CA. The lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the Plaintiff, Leonor Vasquez, who was a minor at the time of the sexual abuse alleged in the complaint. The complaint was filed this morning in the Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. MC 25512.

The civil complaint identifies four Defendants; the Assembly of God Pentecostal Church in Lancaster, California, the national organization, the General Council of the Assemblies of God located in Springfield, MO, and several John Doe defendants, two who the firm identified as agents of the church, Michael Walsh, the alleged perpetrator, and his wife, Sharon Walsh. According to the civil complaint, the Plaintiff began attending the Assembly of God Church in Lancaster in 1995 at the age of 13 and she participated in services, youth events and stayed at a church camp. During this time, she allegedly met the defendants Michael and Sharon Walsh on a church mission trip to Mexico.

According to the complaint, in 1998 when the Plaintiff’s mother left the country, Leonor was left in the care of the Walsh’s based on their involvement with the church. The complaint then alleges that Michael Walsh sexually abused and molested the plaintiff on multiple occasions from 1998 to 2001, when the Plaintiff was 16 to 18 years old and was living with the Walshs. According to the complaint, the Walshs acted as youth group leaders for the Church and also facilitated other church activities, including Bible study and chaperoned other events.

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

U.S. Catholic bishops condemn racism and police misconduct at St. Louis meeting

By Lilly Fowler

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops kicked off on Wednesday a gathering in St. Louis of approximately 250 of the nation’s bishops by referring to Ferguson.
“We mourn those tragic events in which African-Americans and others have lost their lives in altercations with law enforcement,” said a statement prepared by Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., which was read by Bishop Ronny Jenkins, general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“Racism is an evil which endures in our society and in our church.” ….

Francesco Cesareo of the National Review Board, a committee established in 2002 to help prevent the sexual abuse of minors in the church, warned against complacency. Cesareo noted that although the church had made much progress, six allegations of sexual abuse in 2014 had been substantiated.

Bishops at the conference also announced a new, free Catholic mobile app that will offer news about Pope Francis, Mass schedules and parish locations, among other features. The app is expected to launch in July.

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CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register

BY SEAN EMERY / STAFF WRITER

The trial of a volunteer Sunday school teacher suspected of sexually assaulting more than a half-dozen children began Wednesday, as attorneys painted opposing portraits of the man as a devout religious leader and father figure or a serial child molester.

Christopher Bryan McKenzie Sr., 51, is facing two dozen felonies after being accused of having unlawful sexual contact with seven teen and pre-teen boys.

Among the accusers are neighbors and Sunday school students McKenzie met through Rock Harbor church in Costa Mesa, along with two boys whose mother had a long-term relationship with McKenzie. Most of the boys worked with McKenzie, assisting him with his pool cleaning business.

“He seemed to be a man of God; he seemed to have a love in his heart for children,” Deputy District Attorney Heather Brown told the jury during her opening statements Wednesday morning, explaining why parents trusted him with their children.

McKenzie kept his face down and appeared to be taking detailed notes as the prosecutor outlined the sexual abuse claims provided to authorities by seven boys. The alleged misconduct ran from the late 1990s to 2010.

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LOUISIANA
Herald Argus

LA PORTE — A La Porte pastor has been accused of sexually touching a member of his church and could face prison time if found guilty.

Curtis Southwood, 77, is charged with sexual battery of a mentally disabled victim, a level 6 felony.
Southwood is a pastor with Calvary Baptist Church. He was arrested on a warrant on May 6 and will be appearing in court for his next hearing on July 8.

According to La Porte City Police reports, the 35-year-old victim claimed that while she was speaking to her grandmother on the phone during a Thanksgiving Dinner at the church, Southwood allegedly stuck his hand down her shirt and pinched her breast.

The victim also said she was at the hospital with Southwood, whose wife was receiving surgery, and that he began to talk sexually, telling her that women should wear shorter skirts and wear their shorts higher to show more leg.

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FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel

By Paula McMahon
Sun Sentinel

Jurors found Jeffery London not guilty of 27 sex charges involving underage boys last year but the former youth pastor and charter school official will be back in court Thursday — this time facing a related federal charge.

London, 51, was acquitted of the state charges after a lengthy trial in Broward Circuit Court but stayed in jail because he was facing other criminal allegations.

Federal prosecutors took over the case against London in December and filed a lone criminal charge —using a cellphone to lure an underage boy into sexual activity — against him.

London has pleaded not guilty and jury selection is scheduled to begin Thursday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. If convicted, he would face 10 years to life in federal prison.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

BY GLENN E. RICE
grice@kcstar.com

Prosecutors have accused a man from Kansas City, North, of offering youths cellphones, other electronic devices and sometimes money to look at sexually inappropriate material.

Anthony R. Snyder, 30, allegedly met the boys, ages 12 to 15, through his church, a gym and a flag football team.

Platte County prosecutors charged Snyder with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and seven counts of first-degree promoting obscenity. Police arrested him early Tuesday. Bond was set at $200,000.

“There are predators who misuse the Internet in ways to hurt children,” Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said as he announced the charges Wednesday afternoon. “Just as good parents would not leave children unattended in a dark alley, parents should not leave their children unattended in the dark corners of the Internet.”

According to allegations outlined in court records, Snyder met the boys at St. Therese Catholic Church, where Snyder is a parishioner; at the Edge gym in Riverside; and through a YMCA flag football team he coached. The team practiced at Congress Middle School in the Park Hill School District.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fox 4

[with video]

BY MICHELLE PEKARSKY, SHANNON O’BRIEN AND KATIE BANKS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 30-year-old man has been charged in Platte County with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor child and seven counts of promoting obscenity. He could face up to 58 years in
Wednesday afternoon during a news conference, Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said he believes Anthony Snyder, 30, enticed the boys at Northland locations where children spent time.

Zahnd said Snyder encouraged seven boys, between the ages of 12 and 15, to view pornography on phones or computers that Snyder allegedly provided them. Two of the boys told child services advocates that Snyder connected them to what he said were teenage girls on a messaging service called KIK. The children said Snyder encouraged them to send pictures of their genitals to the girls. Instead, Prosecutor Zahnd alleges that some of the pictures went to an IP address belonging to Snyder rather than these purported girls.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBC

[with video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —Announcing sexual exploitation charges against a former youth volunteer at a Catholic parish in Kansas City, Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd made a point of saying how cooperative the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese has been in the investigation.

Anthony R. Snyder is accused of encouraging boys to look at pornographic materials on cellphones and computers that he provided or altered in a way that they could receive them.

Snyder who has been a youth athletics coach, also worked as a youth ministry volunteer at St. Therese Parish from 2006-2008. Last spring, Snyder had been a confirmation sponsor for a teenager at Holy Family Parish. He had previously been a sponsor for another student at St. Therese.

Prosecutors said he met at least two of his victims at church.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann sent a letter to parishioners at St. Therese and the Holy Family parishes. He said the pastor at the church was first informed of suspicious behavior involving Snyder last month.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By KARIN ROBERTS
JUNE 10, 2015

In setting up a Vatican tribunal to discipline negligent Roman Catholic bishops, Pope Francis has taken the most concrete step of any pope in holding accountable church leaders who failed to prevent the sexual abuse of minors by priests. Although Francis and his most recent predecessors, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II, made efforts to punish abusive priests, the tribunal is the Vatican’s first mechanism to punish their superiors.

Here is a look at responses to scandals by the last three popes.

John Paul II

Many of the known cases of sexual abuse by priests took place during the 27-year reign of John Paul II. Despite being widely loved, John Paul II was criticized for ignoring or failing to become aware of the problem. In particular, his long friendship with the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of a powerful Catholic religious order, raised questions about whether John Paul was willing to overlook abuse. Father Maciel molested seminarians and young boys for decades. Vatican investigations also revealed that he fathered several children with at least two women.

John Paul II apologized for the sexual abuse of children by priests for the first time in 2001 in an email sent to churches around the world. A year later, the Vatican said it would use ecclesiastical courts to try priests suspected of abuse. But the trials were secret, and critics said they would only reinforce the belief that the church was trying to hide its dark past.

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AUSTRALIA
3AW

A senior Victorian priest has welcomed a new inquiry into the cover-up of abuse by priests, approved by the Vatican last night.

Pope Francis has approved a Vatican department to hear accusations of bishops covering up or not preventing sexual abuse of minors.

Father Kevin Dillon of St Mary’s Church has told Neil Mitchell that current methods of holding priests to account are inadequate.

“I think anything that moves towards greater accountability within the Church is very welcome,” Fr. Dillon said on 3AW on Thursday.

“There aren’t enough structures built in whereby the people that we serve are able to let their voice be heard and pull us up where we need to be.”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

BY EDWARD PENTIN
06/09/2015

VATICAN CITY — A lawyer representing Cardinal George Pell has asked Peter Saunders, a sexual-abuse survivor and member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, to correct “false allegations” he has made against the cardinal and withdraw them.

The move is just the latest development in a strange dispute that has left Vatican officials confounded and unsure of what to do next. The cardinal’s position, however, is not thought to be at risk.

In a June 8 letter to Saunders, attorney Richard Leder said the strong criticisms Saunders made against the cardinal on the Australian Channel Nine program 60 Minutes last month were “either uninformed as to the relevant history or were deliberately selective.”

In his comments on the program, Saunders claimed the cardinal had a “catalogue of denigrating people, of acting with callousness, coldheartedness.” He said such “lack of care” was “almost sociopathic.”

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CANADA
Vancouver Sun

BY BRIAN MORTON, VANCOUVER SUN

The Anglican Church of Canada will issue a formal apology Monday for the historical abuse perpetrated by one of its priests, in the hopes of making amends to victims who never came forward.

The late Goichi Gordon Nakayama, a former priest in B.C. and Alberta and the father of poet and novelist Joy Kagawa, ministered to the Japanese-Canadian community. He was ordained in 1932 and left the church in 1995, the same year he died.

In 1994, he confessed in a letter to church officials to sexually abusing many people and resigned from the church in 1995.

The church dealt with the scandal internally, allowing Nakayama to resign. There’s nothing to indicate that the police were ever informed, said Randy Murray, communications officer for the Diocese of New Westminster, which covers most of the southwestern B.C. mainland.

“There’s never been anything said about that (going to police),” Murray said on Wednesday, noting that he didn’t know why but that the bishops will address that issue. “There was nothing done.”

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UNITED STATES
Verdict

Marci A. Hamilton

The Josh Duggar and Dennis Hastert cases highlight the need to reform criminal and civil statutes of limitations (SOL) so that victims of childhood sexual abuse can seek justice in the courts of law when they are ready, even if it is years after the abuse against them occurred. In fact, I dare anyone to name the never-ending list of perpetrators and institutions that have cheated justice and gotten a free pass from this legal technicality—Penn State, the Olympic swim team, Catholic and Latter-day Saints bishops, Jewish rabbis, the Horace Mann School in New York, and the Boy Scouts, among others. All these, and thousands of others show how perverse the current SOLs can be when it comes to this horrific crime. There is hope, though.

An SOL is nothing other than a deadline for going to court. And when it expires, a victim—regardless of the strength of the case—is shut out of the justice system. There are good reasons for SOLs in many contexts, like contract and property disputes, but no good reason for an SOL when the victim is a child. We know that the average age for victims to come forward is 42, which is several decades after the abuse occurred. So, the only beneficiaries of short SOLs are sex offenders themselves, and entities that aid and abet and cover up their crimes.

The criminal charges filed last week against the Minneapolis Archdiocese show the light that shines at the end of the SOL tunnel.

The SOLs Prevent Justice for Hastert’s Victims

Three of Dennis Hastert’s victims have come forward. So far, no one is remotely within the Illinois criminal or civil SOLs. When Hastert was a coach at Yorkville High School in Illinois from 1965 to 1981, the child sex abuse SOLs were cruelly short. The criminal SOL ran three years after the abuse, and the personal injury SOL ran two years after the event. That’s right; victims had to race to court to get justice.

But for these short SOLs, Hastert’s victims could have pressed charges or sued Hastert for the abuse when they were ready, which is more often than not in one’s 40s. According to the indictment, Hastert’s payments to one of his victims began in 2010. If that man was 15 in 1980 (to use round numbers), he was 45 in 2010.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

Editorial

POPE FRANCIS took another important step toward making the Catholic Church fully accountable for its role in allowing priests to sexually abuse children for decades. The pontiff approved a plan to create a Vatican tribunal that would hold bishops accountable for how they dealt with sexual abuse cases in their respective dioceses.

The priest sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the foundation of the church revealed an institution more obsessed with self-preservation than with child protection. U.S. bishops, for example, have endorsed their own national charter that created a protocol for responding to sexual abuse allegations, but bishops are held accountable by the Vatican, not by other bishops. While it is unclear how much teeth this tribunal will have, it is a very promising development.

But it does not take the place of civil law enforcement’s ability to fully investigate any allegations of sexual abuse by priests. For the church to fully address this widespread problem it has to ensure that every bishop, every pastor, every priest knows that his first priority is to protect children from predators. Police must be contacted immediately, and dioceses must fully cooperate with them.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

By: Bob McGovern

A new Vatican tribunal — charged with investigating bishops who fail to protect children from sexually abusive priests — has come under fire from critics who believe the Catholic Church still isn’t doing enough to protect its most vulnerable members.

“This is a process, and a process can be used or abused,” said David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. “We fear that this will be used to encourage complacency and mollify parishioners and generate good headlines. We will be pleasantly surprised if it’s actually used to discourage cover-ups.”

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors yesterday announced what it called “a new judicial section” to examine cases of bishops accused of protecting priests who abused children. The commission is headed by Boston’s Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley.

O’Malley is currently in Rome, and spokesman Terrence Donilon referred all questions to the Vatican.

Those who confronted the horror of priest sexual abuse said they are encouraged but aren’t sure whether the new tribunal will be effective.

“I think we will only know if this works when cases come up and bishops are indeed held accountable,” said Charles Martel, a psychotherapist who worked with individuals who were sexually abused by priests. “This could be a good thing, but we also really hope that this isn’t a situation where we hope, but nothing happens.”

Meanwhile, Catholic Church supporters say it’s a step in the right direction.

“In the past it has been helter skelter, and this will be much more judicial and specific,” said Philip Moran, former pastoral counsel for the Archdiocese of Boston. “I think there are people on the other side who still want their pound of flesh, and this should help alleviate the situation.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. and Rosa Nguyen GLOBE STAFF AND GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JUNE 11, 2015

Pope Francis, addressing arguably the biggest point of contention over the Vatican’s response to the Catholic child sexual abuse scandals, endorsed new procedures on Wednesday to judge bishops charged with violating the church’s “zero tolerance” policy for abuse by clergy members.

The Vatican announced Francis has approved the creation of a church tribunal to judge the accused bishops and to ensure they are punished by the church in addition to facing criminal penalties.

The idea — recommended by a panel headed by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston — comes as the pope’s handling of the long-lasting crisis has been drawing fire around the world. Some sex-abuse survivors and their representatives reacted cautiously to the new approach.

“I will withhold judgment of the committee until it’s proved it will do anything. There have been all kinds of committees over the years that essentially have done nothing,’’ said Ann Hagan Webb, the New England representative for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

A British abuse survivor, Peter Saunders, who sits on an antiabuse commission advising the pontiff and who has been critical of the Catholic Church on other fronts, called the creation of the tribunal a “positive step” that shows “the pope is listening.” …

An American clearinghouse for information related to the Catholic abuse scandals, BishopAccountability.org, released a statement Wednesday calling the new tribunal “a promising step” but warning that making it work would require “a courage and an aggressive commitment that have so far been sadly lacking.”

Roderick MacLeish, a lawyer whose firm represented hundreds of victims in the Boston Archdiocese sex-abuse scandal, said Cardinal Bernard Law, O’Malley’s predecessor in Boston, should be a focus of the new tribunal. Law was criticized for failing to adequately address the sex-abuse scandal in Boston.

“The first person who should be on the list is Cardinal Law. If this tribunal is going to be meaningful, it has to start in Boston,” MacLeish said.

Mitchell Garabedian, another Boston lawyer who has represented clergy sex-abuse victims, called the creation of the tribunal “cosmetic in nature.’’

“The members of the tribunal will probably be made up of church officials who had known of the sexual abuse of children by priests for decades yet did not act to protect children,” Garabedian said.

The BishopAccountability.org group also cited an American prelate who might become a target for the tribunal: Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who has been accused of allowing at least two priests to continue serving despite facing either allegations or convictions for the abuse of minors.

The situation in St. Paul-Minneapolis is so bad that the archdiocese is in bankruptcy from paying victims’ claims, and prosecutors filed criminal charges last week against the archdiocese as a corporation for failing to protect children.

The new tribunal will be housed within the Vatican’s powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which lends it immediate political heft.

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MASSACHUSETTS
ABC News

BOSTON — Jun 10, 2015

By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press

Parishioners illegally occupying a long-closed Roman Catholic church were issued a reprieve Wednesday after a judge ruled they could continue their round-the-clock vigil while they appeal a lower court decision that ordered them to vacate.

Mary Elizabeth Carmody, the lawyer for the Friends of St. Frances X. Cabrini Church, said she was surprised how quick the decision was but added that the key test was still to come. A three-panel judge will next consider their bid to have the order declaring them trespassers thrown out altogether, she said. Arguments in that case will come at a later date.

“It’s a relief,” Carmody said late Wednesday. “But it doesn’t surprise me, based on the judge’s comments in court.”

Earlier Wednesday, Associate Justice Judd Carhart heard arguments in a brief hearing packed with protesters.

Carmody argued that a lower court judge had made “several, consistent” legal errors and “abused” his discretion when he considered the Archdiocese of Boston’s petition to remove the protesters from the property.

The protesters say the judge, among other things, wrongly denied their request for a jury trial and did not consider their primary arguments, which were largely focused on church law.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

Jay Levine

(CBS) — Pope Francis ordered a Vatican tribunal to deal with bishops who failed to protect children in a move to fill what some have called a gap in the church’s fight against sex abuse by priests.

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports it’s a major step by a no-nonsense Pope, extending the zero tolerance, one strike you’re out policy toward predator priests, to those who’ve enabled them: bishops allowed to retire or step aside without formal sanctions.

“No bishop or vicar of priests or cardinal has ever been disciplined for covering up sex abuse of victims and that’s a shame,” said attorney Marc Pearlman.

Files released by the Chicago Archdiocese last year showed some auxiliary bishops had moved offenders from parish to parish, hoping treatment or a change of venue would stop them.

Several months later, the victims group SNAP took its fight to the World Court.

“What we want to see is the Vatican punish the bishops who cover up the sex crimes,” said SNAP founder Barbara Blaine.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian Jewish News

ORTHODOX rabbis within Australia and New Zealand have come together to establish a new organisation to help educate members to face the challenges of the modern rabbinate, develop a code of conduct which all members must adhere to and to represent them more efficiently and effectively to the broader community.

The Rabbinic Council of Australia and New Zealand (RCANZ) was formed last week when more than 50 rabbis from across the continent gathered in Melbourne.

Working with state-based rabbinic councils, lay leadership bodies, and professional organisations including the staff at the Sir Zelman Cowan Centre, where the conference was held, the RCANZ also aims to provide continuing professional development for members.

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CALIFORNIA
Your Central Valley

Former Pastor of St. Joseph Church in Los Banos Arrested.

Merced County District Attorney’s Office filed formal charges against Rev. Robert E. Gamel, former Pastor of St. Joseph Church in Los Banos.

In August 2014, the Department began an investigation into allegations of internet related sex crimes perpetrated by Gamel. Detectives worked with Federal investigators on the case, but after a lengthy review it was determined best handled by the Merced County District Attorney’s Office. “The investigation has been painstaking, and we have been committed to completing a thorough investigation to determine the best possible outcome.

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CALIFORNIA
Merced Sun-Star

BY ROB PARSONS
rparsons@mercedsunstar.com

A former Los Banos Catholic priest has been charged with possession of child pornography following a 10-month investigation by the city’s police department.

The Rev. Robert Gamel was arrested Wednesday afternoon and booked into the Merced County Jail, according to booking records.

The Merced County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday filed a single felony count against Gamel of possession of matter depicting sexual conduct of person under the age of 18, according to court records.

A warrant was issued for his arrest, but Gamel surrendered Wednesday to the Los Banos Police Department, Cmdr. Jason Hedden confirmed.

Gamel was booked Wednesday afternoon into the Merced County Jail on the charge, posted $20,000 bail just 30 minutes later and was released.

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TEXAS
The Pasadena Citizen

By Stacey Glaesmann

GALVESTON — Dr. Dennis Hughes, a Pediatric Oncologist employed by MD Anderson Cancer Center accused of Federal Possession of Child Pornography, arrived for his Preliminary Exam and Detention hearing at the Federal Courthouse here Wednesday (June 10) afternoon.

The FBI confiscated large numbers of pornographic files containing images of children from Hughes’s Pearland home on Friday (June 5) and Hughes confessed to the crime. …

The defense called Dr. Hughes’s wife to the stand and asked questions that painted a picture of a loving husband and father who volunteered at his children’s’ school, attended Catholic church and served as an Assistant Coach for several years for Pearland Little League.

Dr. Hughes wept as he listened to his wife tearfully answer questions.

Mrs. Hughes and SA Berry both testified that there was no known evidence of any inappropriate contact between Hughes and either his own children or any children from the larger community, including his patients.

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TEXAS
ABC 13

By Miya Shay

GALVESTON, TX (KTRK) — A pediatric cancer doctor accused of possessing child porn was released on bond Wednesday afternoon, 5 days after his arrest.

Dr. Dennis Hughes walked out of the Galveston County Jail to a crowd of media. He didn’t say a word about the accusations against him.

On Friday, the world-renowned doctor was arrested in his Pearland home for allegedly possessing thousands of images of child pornography in his home. Federal agencies say the MD Anderson doctor had more than 8,200 images of young girls inside his home. MD Anderson has contacted more than 200 of his patients and have placed him on paid administrative leave.

When Dr. Hughes was released, we tried to ask him about exclusive Eyewitness News information about his arrest and charges in 2002 when he was a fellow at the University of Michigan. He had no comment. He got into a waiting vehicle with his wife and left.

Dr. Hughes is out on $50,000 bond. There are a number of conditions, including no internet and not being able to be near children except for his own.

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TEXAS
KHOU

GALVESTON, Texas – A judge has decided that an M.D. Anderson pediatric oncologist accused of possessing child pornography can be released on a $50,000 bond

The judge said he believed Dr. Dennis Hughes did not pose a flight risk or danger to anyone.

Hughes was arrested at his Pearland home last Friday, June 5 and charged with possession of child pornography.

The court ordered Hughes to wear a GPS monitor at all times, not to access the Internet, surrender his passport, have no unsupervised contact with minors (except his children) and not be near places where children regularly congregate, such as schools and parks.

At the hearing in Galveston, Hughes’ wife testified that she did not know of her husband’s alleged activities.

An FBI agent testified that they also found child porn on Hughes’ work computer, although there was no evidence of patients being involved. The FBI also testified that Dr. Hughes confessed to his priest that he viewed child porn but never sought professional help.

Additional information was also presented that Hughes regularly participates in childrens’ activities at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School including the Lord’s Day Program, in which he sings songs in a classroom with children. In addition, Hughes was allegedly scheduled to participate in their vacation bible school later this month. He was also a regular fixture at the children’s chapel and was known to take pictures of the children at the school.

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CALIFORNIA
Bakersfield Now

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) – A priest of the Diocese of Fresno has been arrested on suspicion of possessing matter depicting a minor engaging in sexual conduct.

Father Robert Gamel has been on leave from St. Joseph Church in Los Banos since last summer. The Diocese of Fresno announced his arrest Wednesday.

The investigation started after concerned parents contacted the church. Last fall, Los Banos Police Commander Jason Hedden confirmed to Eyewitness News that the priest had allegedly obtained nude photographs of a teenager from social media websites.

Most Rev. Armando X. Ochoa, bishop of the Diocese of Fresno, issued the following statement Wednesday: “It is with great sorrow when a Bishop receives news that one of his priests has been charged with a crime; especially, something that involves a minor. My concern is for the wellbeing of all who are impacted; the youth, the family, the parish and school community, his brother priests, and for Fr. Gamel. The days ahead will be difficult for many. I ask the faithful to hold this matter of concern in prayer so that healing may begin.”

Gamel is no stranger to Kern County. According to Teresa Dominguez, chancellor and spokeswoman for the Diocese of Fresno, the priest served at Christ the King Church in Oildale, Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Bakersfield and St. Joseph Mission Church in Oildale, which no longer exists.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with audio]

Emily Kaiser Jun 8, 2015

The whistleblower who revealed how her superiors at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis were handling clergy sexual misconduct said the recent criminal charges and civil petition are a step in the right direction to stop future abuse.

Jennifer Haselberger was once the top canon lawyer for the archdiocese. She resigned that post and two years ago approached MPR News with her story of frustration.

The archdiocese stands criminally accused after Friday’s announcement of charges by Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, who said the archdiocese contributed to harm done to three victims of former priest Curtis Wehmeyer.

“I think a lot of emphasis is being placed on the criminal charges, which I think many people feel are appropriate, but to me the real interest is the civil petition that’s conjoined with it,” Haselberger said. “In terms of actually creating a safer environment for children and the vulnerable in the church, it’s going to be the civil petition that will do that.”

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office also filed a civil motion that “would force the archdiocese to stop the alleged illegal behavior,” reported MPR News. “It asks the court to require the archdiocese to fix the conditions that led to the problems, a county attorney’s office spokesman said.”

Haselberger said she is still waiting to hear an official apology from the church and to see serious changes to the organization.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
NBC 12

By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer

ST. LOUIS (AP) – The U.S. bishops’ point-person on the environment defended Pope Francis’ plan to issue a high-level teaching document next week on ecology and climate change, saying Wednesday that global warming was the result of moral failings that the Roman Catholic Church has a duty to address.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, head of the bishops’ committee on justice and human development, said he has heard the comments from critics that the church should leave the debate to scientists. Wenski said the science is clear enough that global warming is occurring and that some leadership is needed to move beyond the ideological divisions that have plagued public discussion.

“Much of the debate on ecology in the past years has been really caught up in the partisan divide. Hopefully, by Pope Francis weighing in on it, he’s going to transcend that,” Wenski said, in an interview at a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Ecology is a moral issue because it touches human beings. And anything that touches human beings has moral and ethical implications. And that is what the pope is going to explore.” …

he highly anticipated papal teaching document, or encyclical, will be released June 18, and was expected to be the dominant topic at the St. Louis assembly of the bishops. However, as the session began, the Vatican announced Francis had approved a proposal from his sex abuse advisory panel for a tribunal system that would review cases of bishops who committed “abuse of office.” …

The announcement for the global church has particular resonance for the United States, where the abuse crisis erupted in 2002, then spread around the world. No U.S. bishop has been punished by the church for failing to notify parents or police about guilty priests.

In April, Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, who was convicted of failing to report suspected child abuse, resigned. Last week, prosecutors charged the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis with child endangerment. Archbishop John Nienstedt, who was not charged, attended the St. Louis meeting.

The Rev. Thomas Reese, an analyst with the National Catholic Reporter, called the Vatican announcement a “shot across the bow” to bishops around the world that they must “get their act together or there will be consequences.”

Bishop Christopher Coyne of Burlington, Vermont, said in an interview that the American bishops were not alerted ahead of time about the announcement, and learned of the plan only from news reports, which spread among the bishops as they listened to speeches on the environment and their relief work in Haiti.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who leads the pope’s advisory commission on abuse, is the archbishop of Boston, and was in Rome this week for meetings as a member of the pope’s advisory council of cardinals.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
CBS St. Louis

Kevin Killeen (@KMOXKilleen)
June 10, 2015

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – U.S. Catholic Bishops meeting in St. Louis are accused by a survivors group of failing to live up to the promises made to protect children at the Dallas Conference of Bishops in 2002.

David Closhessy of the survivors group SNAP – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – says more than a dozen “credibly accused” priests in the U.S. are still serving.

“Bishops have repeatedly said we will quickly suspend predator priests and keep them away from kids. And we’ve seen increasingly bishops are breaking that promise,” he says.

Archbishop John Wester, of Santa Fe, says in his experience, credibly accused priests are being suspended and investigated.

“Obviously the church, you know, we’re human beings, doing our best, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to make mistakes, but we want to know when we do make them and we want to correct them.”

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ROME
Global Post

Jason Berry on Jun 10, 2015

ROME — The Vatican announced today that Pope Francis’s nine Council of Cardinals — top churchmen charged with reforming the Roman Curia — embraced a plan by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley for a tribunal to weigh “allegations of the abuse of office by a bishop connected with the abuse of minors.”

The proposal, accepted by the pope, marks a shift in Vatican handling of the long crisis by establishing a church arena for proceedings against bishops, who with few exceptions have had de facto immunity for any role in concealing sexual predators.

The tribunal will be part of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly the Holy Office of the Inquisition, which has long judged theologians accused of straying from doctrinal unity. In a development pushed by Pope Benedict, who as a cardinal governed the CDF for most of John Paul’s long papacy, the office has in recent years defrocked close to 900 priests for abuse of youngsters.
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The development was welcomed by lay people appointed by the pope to his advisory board, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

“I am very pleased that Pope Francis has approved our commission’s proposal concerning bishop accountability in case of abuse of minors,” Dr. Catherine Bonnet, a French psychiatrist with a history of treating abuse survivors told GroundTruth.

“It is a very important move forward for the protection of minors,” she said from France, echoing praise of Peter Saunders, an abuse survivor in London on the commission.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland has said Pope Francis’ new tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up child sexual abuse should investigate allegations relating to events a long time ago.

Archbishop Eamon Martin was speaking following the Vatican announcement that it had accepted proposals for such a body made by a Papal commission on child protection.

The Pope approved an unprecedented Vatican department to judge bishops accused of covering up or not preventing sexual abuse of minors, meeting a key demand by victims’ groups.

A statement said the department would come under the auspices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal arm, “to judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors”.

Victims groups have for years been urging the Vatican to establish clear procedures to make bishops more accountable for abuse in their dioceses, even if they were not directly responsible for it.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters that the bishops could also be judged if they had failed to take measures to prevent sexual abuse of minors.

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VATICAN CITY
The West Australian

Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Francis has approved the creation of an internal Church tribunal empowered to punish bishops who cover up sex abuse by priests, the Vatican said Wednesday.

Under the reform, bishops suspected of protecting paedophile clerics or of failing to respond promptly to allegations of abuse face being charged with “abuse of episcopal office” under canon law, the Church’s internal set of rules.

The move follows a recommendation from the Vatican’s child protection commission, a body which includes victims of paedophile priests among its lay members and was set up last year with a brief to root out sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

The panel’s recommendation was also recently endorsed by the C9 group of cardinals who advise Francis.

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, which has been rocked by waves of sexual abuse scandals, told reporters the new tribunal should tackle cases from the past.

“I think that justice is indeed retrospective,” said Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin, whose predecessor Cardinal Sean Brady resigned last year after claims he failed to act on abuse.

“When it comes to something like child safeguarding just because something happened a long time ago doesn’t mean you’re not accountable for it now.”

The reform was greeted with scepticism by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which warned that the Church’s record meant it could not be relied upon to hold bishops to account.

“As long as clerics are in charge of dealing with other clerics who commit and conceal child sex crimes, little will change,” said the campaign group president, Barbara Blaine.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Science Monitor

By Sarah Caspari, Staff writer JUNE 10, 2015

The Catholic Church has taken strides to punish priests who have abused children, and is now widening its focus to include the bishops who supervise priests. Bishops have long been criticized for neglecting to prevent or report cases of abuse, and on Wednesday Pope Francis approved a tribunal to hold them accountable.

Under the new plan, complaints can be filed against bishops who respond inappropriately to cases of abuse. Next, one of three Vatican departments would investigate the complaint. The bishop would then be brought before the tribunal, run by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, for judgment.

The Vatican has not yet released information on the protocol for filing complaints.

Recommended: How much do you know about the Catholic Church? Take our quiz!
The plan came to the pope from the Pontifical Commission on the Protection of Minors, a group that includes two victims of sexual abuse by clergy members: Peter Saunders and Marie Collins. Both Mr. Saunders and Ms. Collins praised the pope for approving the plan.

Collins wrote via Twitter, “Very pleased the Pope has approved the Commission’s proposal on accountability,” and Saunders told Catholic news site Crux, “this is a positive step that clearly indicates that Pope Francis is listening to his commission.”

The proposal details five points for the establishment of the new system. Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org, an organization that digitally archives public documents on the subject, told Reuters in an email that the plan is “potentially quite significant” because it develops “a clear road map for disciplining bishops who conceal or enable child sexual abuse.”

However, while the plan may present a novel approach, some victims’ advocates are saying it does not go far enough. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said in a statement that the pope “could have sacked dozens of complicit bishops. He has, however, sacked no one.” SNAP director David Clohessy condemned the plan for failing to provide concrete punishments.

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UNITED STATES
Business Wire

* Senator Harry Reid leads legislative effort to empower survivors of abuse by providing incentives for states to remove statute of limitations
* Foundation co-founders Desirae and Deondra Brown offer perspective on bill for members of Congress and the media

June 10, 2015

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Foundation for Survivors of Abuse today announced that co-founders Desirae and Deondra Brown are working closely with U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) to guide the development of federal legislation that encourages all U.S. states and territories to remove the statute of limitations for crimes of sexual abuse.

The Reid bill would empower survivors of sexual abuse by providing incentives for states to enable victims to file charges against their perpetrators when they are ready to come forward.

Founding members of the internationally renowned piano quintet The Five Browns, Deondra and Desirae Brown created The Foundation for Survivors of Abuse to provide healing and empowerment for survivors of sexual abuse.

“We sincerely thank and applaud Senator Reid and his team for having the courage and compassion to develop and fight for this legislation,” said Desirae Brown. “Our own experiences with sexual abuse by our father made us realize the crucial need for survivors of abuse to heal and come forward on their own terms, whenever they feel ready. This includes empowerment to pursue prosecution against their abusers.”

“Triggers that send a victim back to the abuse, anxiety and PTSD are very real conditions, exacerbated when we are forced to deal with situations before we are able,” added Deondra Brown. “We know firsthand that survivors have to dig deep to find the courage to take back the power and control that is taken from us by sexual abuse.”

Sen. Reid and his staff have completed the bill’s initial draft, and are currently seeking Republican and Democratic co-sponsors to refine and help ensure its passage.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor June 10, 2015

In one fell swoop Wednesday, Pope Francis moved to address arguably the greatest bone of contention about the Vatican’s response to the Catholic child sexual abuse scandals and also gave himself a badly needed bit of good news, at a time when his handling of the scandals has been drawing fire around the world.

The Vatican announced Wednesday that Francis has approved the creation of a tribunal — a Church court — to judge bishops charged with failing to apply the Church’s official “zero tolerance” policy for abuse of minors properly. The idea is to ensure that if a bishop drops the ball, he’s held accountable.

The tribunal will be housed within the Vatican’s powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which lends it immediate political heft. In another sign of how seriously Francis takes it, he also approved an exception to a Vatican hiring freeze imposed in 2013 to allow the tribunal to attract qualified personnel.

The idea to create the court came from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, an advisory panel for the pontiff created in 2014 and headed by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston. It’s thus also further confirmation that O’Malley is the prime mover in shaping policy under Francis on matters related to sexual abuse. …

Critics cited Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, for instance, who was convicted on a misdemeanor criminal charge of delaying to report an accusation of child abuse against one of his priests in 2012, but remained on the job until Francis accepted his resignation in April.

Speaking on background, Vatican officials said the new tribunal is designed to handle precisely that sort of situation. In theory, a bishop could appeal a verdict to the pope, but a Vatican spokesman said Wednesday “there’s no reason to expect he’d overrule the tribunal’s decision.”

The announcement comes at a time when the pope’s commitment to abuse reform has come into question in various parts of the world.

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UNITED STATES
Voice of the Faithful

BOSTON, Mass., May 10, 2015 – The Roman Catholic Church reform movement Voice of the Faithful today thanks the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and Cardinal Sean O’Malley for presenting proposals to Pope Francis that have led to establishment of a new Vatican tribunal for judicial review of allegations against bishops involved in clergy sexual abuse of children.

At the same time, we thank Pope Francis for approving the tribunal and authorizing funding for it.

Time will tell whether these moves actually result in holding bishops accountable for coverups of crimes, but these steps are the most promising the Vatican has yet taken.

Although thankful that Pope Francis has funded the tribunal, we are awaiting similar funding for the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Unlike other Vatican committees, the Commission answers directly to the Pope and not to other Curial offices—and funding is essential for the Commission to maintain its independence from the Curia.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

For Immediate Release
June 10, 2015

National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) Statement Regarding Pope Francis’ Acceptance of Papal Commission’s Recommendations Regarding Bishops and Sexual Abuse

Contact: Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) 937-272-0308, KristineWard@hotmail.com

The proof is in the pudding.

We will wait and see.

Trusting in this action will require hope. We will hold out hope that The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith will be capable of a 180 degree reversal of the thinking that permitted, indeed appeared to encourage Bishop Robert Finn, recently resigned from the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph from presiding at ordinations.

If this truly is a back to the drawing board moment, we will watch to see what the new picture looks like.

Sadly, though, there is no indication in today’s news that there will be any action taken retroactively against any Bishop regardless of the preponderance of evidence that has surfaced in the crisis. That’s a pity. Through depositions and other legal disclosures it has certainly become evident that Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops have protected abusers and caused children to suffer.

Ultimately, it is Pope Francis’ responsibility to remove a Bishop and we hope he does so when a Bishop’s actions have protected perpetrators and caused suffering to children and the adults they become.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Inés San Martín
Vatican correspondent June 10, 2015

ROME — Two survivors of clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, who now sit on a commission advising the pope, hailed Francis’ creation on Wednesday of a new Vatican court designed to impose accountability on bishops who mishandle abuse complaints.

Speaking to Crux via e-mail, British layman Peter Saunders called Wednesday’s announcement “good news,” saying “this is a positive step that clearly indicates that Pope Francis is listening to his commission.”

Commission member Marie Collins of Ireland said via Twitter that she was “very pleased” with the pope’s decision to launch a new tribunal to conduct trials under Church law against bishops who fail to act on abuse charges.

The thumbs-up from Saunders and Collins is significant, given that both have been outspokenly critical of several aspects of the Vatican’s response to the abuse scandals, especially a perceived lack of accountability.

Last February, Saunders said that there’s “an abysmal record of so many ill-judged responses by priests and dioceses around the world.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jun. 10, 2015

ST. LOUIS
Requiring all allegations of clergy sexual abuse to be reviewed by diocesan review boards and making mandatory parish audits should be priorities for bishops, according to the head of its National Review Board.

Francesco Cesareo, chair of the National Review Board established under the Dallas Charter, addressed a gathering here of more than 200 bishops Wednesday morning. Cesareo said the U.S. church has made great strides in combating the abuse issue but left open the door for continued improvement and vigilance.

The chair reviewed pieces of the board’s annual report, which found that 188 dioceses participated in the last audit. The Lincoln, Neb., diocese and five eparchies did not, but Cesareo noted that three of those eparchies have indicated they will participate this year. During the 2014 audit year, 37 allegations were made by current minors, with six of them found substantiated.

“This persistence of allegations begs some questions for your consideration. Is there a need to change the audit instrument? Is the audit effectively serving the purpose for which you originally intended? How can the audit more effectively ensure the charter is being implemented and children are being protected? What more can we learn from the audits?” Cesereo asked.

He said answering those questions could lead to a more effective audit.

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CANADA
Metro

By Kristy Kirkup
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA – The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations wants the prime minister to urge Pope Francis to apologize for his church’s role in Canada’s residential school legacy.

Perry Bellegarde says this is a “prime opportunity” for the prime minister to raise the issue.

Stephen Harper is to meet the Pope in the Vatican on Thursday. The meeting comes exactly seven years after the prime minister issued his own apology in the House of Commons to school survivors.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was tasked with interviewing thousands of residential school students and documenting their experiences, issued its key findings and 94 recommendations last week. They included a call for a papal apology on Canadian soil.

Bellegarde said that would help bring closure to students who suffered atrocities and abuses at the schools, many of which were run by the Roman Catholic Church.

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UNITED STATES
CBS Philly

Mark Abrams

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Pope Francis’ decision to hold bishops accountable for failing to protect children from clergy sex abuse is drawing praise from a Philadelphia-based professor who follows the Vatican and Catholic Church issues.

St. Joseph’s University theology professor William Madges says the pope’s approval of a new Vatican tribunal to examine how bishops have responded to clergy abuse cases – only a year after appointing an advisory panel on the subject – is significant.

Madges says what’s most striking in the pope’s announcement is that a judicial panel will look at cases of omission as well as commission…What that means is…

“Not holding bishops accountable only if they actively helped cover something up or were guilty of abuse themselves,” Madges says, “but rather if they failed to act namely, if they should have known what was going on and didn’t know or didn’t take the appropriate action.”

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

By Daniel Burke, CNN Religion Editor

(CNN)Pope Francis has created a church tribunal to judge bishops who fail to protect children from sexually abusive priests, the Vatican announced Wednesday, a move long sought by abuse victims and their advocates.

The new court will be part of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Catholic Church’s chief watchdog. Since 2001, the congregation has judged priests accused of sexual abuse, but there has been no Vatican office with a similar role to judge bishops.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said the Pope will appoint a secretary and permanent staff for the tribunal. The tribunal was proposed by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which was appointed last year by Pope Francis.

Longtime critics of the Vatican called Wednesday’s move a “sea change” within the Catholic Church.

“Priests abuse children, and so do bishops,” said Terence McKiernan, president of the watchdog group BishopAccountability.org. “Bishops who offend are inevitable enablers, and the commission’s plan must confront that sad fact.”…

“I don’t have a lot of background information on it,” said Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. However, Kurtz said, he welcomes the Pope’s new tribunal. “We are eager to cooperate, and we know it’s a direction that we have to take seriously.”

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who is also in St. Louis for the meeting of Catholic bishops, said the tribunal does not represent the first time that popes have held bishops accountable.

“Throughout history popes have deposed bishops for various reasons,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 10

Statement by Becky Ianni of Burke VA, Washington DC area director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 703 801 6044, SNAPvirginia@cox,net )

Sound isn’t necessarily music. Motion isn’t necessarily progress. And a “process” isn’t necessarily prevention, especially if that process involves clergy sex crimes and cover ups and the Catholic hierarchy.

The problem has never been a lack of Vatican officials with the specific “process” to investigate their complicit colleagues. The problem has been, and is, a lack of Vatican officials with the courage to investigate their complicit colleagues. Sadly, no words on paper can give timid, career-focused, self-serving monarchs the courage to do what’s right – expose the corrupt colleagues.

Let’s be clear: we never asked for a new “process” to discipline bishops who endanger kids, protect predators, stonewall prosecutors, shrewd evidence, and mislead parishioners. We just asked that it be done. And it hasn’t been done.

Similarly, we never asked for a new “process” for a trial for Polish Archbishop Joseph
Wesolowski, who is accused of sexually abusing kids in the Dominican Republic. Vatican officials claim, however, that they’ve set one up and will put him on trial. It hasn’t been done – and he resigned his post almost two years ago. (We want him tried in secular courts.)

We never asked for a new “process” to oust complicit bishops. We asked that it be done. And it hasn’t been done.

We never asked for a new “process” for bishops to post names of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. We asked that it be done. Roughly 30 US bishops did. Most still haven’t.

A “process” can be used or abused. We fear this one will be used to mollify distraught parishioners and generate nice headlines. We hope to be proven wrong. If this “process” leads to complicit bishops being ousted and cover ups being deterred, we’ll be thrilled. But we’re not counting on it.

A new process can lead to prevention or to complacency. It’s just too early to tell. And it’s best to stay vigilant, especially given the troubling track record of church abuse bodies.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Parishioners wanted to express their disappointment with the Archbishop for targeting another priest.
Guam – Another silent protest was held today in front of the Archdiocese of Agana Chancery Office.

This time local Catholics gathered to demonstrate their disappointment with Archbishop Anthony Apuron for targeting yet another priest in the Church.

Local Catholics and parishioners were showed up to the parking lot of the Chancery Office to express their disappointment in a letter sent by Archbishop Anthony Apuron to Immaculate Heart of Mary Pastor Father Mike Crisostomo.

The June 2nd letter notifies Father Mike that his parish fell short in its Archdiocesan Annual Appeal—a fundraising effort by the Archdiocese that is separate from the monthly parish assessment.

Local Catholic blogger with an international following Tim Rohr says this is the second year that the appeal has fallen significantly short of the Archdiocese’s goal.

“I sort of started a campaign, “no money until there’s accountability.” It seems to have worked because there was a tremendous shortfall in the appeal collections,” explains Rohr. “It’s the laity that have responded with “no transparency, no money” but the Archbishop is afraid of the laity. He knows he can’t get to us. He knows he doesn’t have authority over our lives like he does his priests. So he’s gonna do what he normally does which is pick on the people that he can pick on.”

Rohr says this is similar to the punishment that Father Paul Gofigan and Msgr. James Benavente received from the Archbishop for defying him. But this time Rohr says the people have had enough and will not stand for it.

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

VATICAN CITY
Star Tribune

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press JUNE 10, 2015

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has taken the biggest step yet to crack down on bishops who cover up for priests who rape and molest children, creating a new tribunal section inside the Vatican to hear cases of bishops accused of failing to protect their flock.

The initiative has significant legal and theological implications, since bishops have long been considered masters of their dioceses and largely unaccountable when they bungle their job, with the Vatican stepping in only in cases of gross negligence.

That reluctance to intervene has prompted years of criticism from abuse victims, advocacy groups and others that the Vatican had failed to punish or forcibly remove bishops who moved predator priests around from parish to parish, where they could rape again, rather than report them to police or remove them from ministry. …

“Really pleased the Holy Father has approved our proposal,” commission member Marie Collins, herself a survivor of abuse, told The Associated Press in an email.

The main U.S. victims group SNAP was more cautious, noting that there are bishops currently in office who have delayed reporting abuse and yet no punishment has ever been meted out.

“In the face of this widespread denial, timidity and inaction, let’s be prudent, stay vigilant and withhold judgment until we see if and how this panel might act,” said SNAP’s David Clohessy. …

Terrence McKiernan, president of the online resource BishopAccountability.org, said the new tribunal was “a promising step” and that it was particularly significant that the Vatican was allocating senior staff and funds to it. But he said there were already several well-known cases of active bishops and cardinals who failed in their duty to protect children.

“This system will be coping with the complex interactions of enabling and offending that we see in cases involving bishops,” he said in a statement. “Priests abuse children and so do bishops — bishops who offend are inevitably enablers, and the commission’s plan must confront that sad fact.”

Canon law already does provide sanctions for bishops who are negligent in their duties, but the Vatican was never known to have meted out punishment for a bishop who covered up for an abuser.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Pope Francis has approved the creation of an internal Church tribunal empowered to punish bishops who cover up sex abuse by priests.

Under the reform, bishops suspected of protecting pedophile clerics or of failing to respond promptly to allegations of abuse could face charges of ‘abuse of episcopal office’ under canon law, the Church’s internal set of rules.

The move comes after the credibility of the Church’s efforts to address the scourge of pedophilia was called into question amid fresh cover-up allegations involving Australian cardinal George Pell.

Pell, the Vatican’s finance chief, has been accused by Peter Saunders, a British member of the Vatican’s child protection commission, of being an ‘almost sociopathic’ man who covered up abuse and tried to buy the silence of at least one victim.

Pell has threatened legal action and has been supported by the Vatican but the Briton, a survivor of abuse by a priest, has refused to apologise.

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

UNITED STATES
Newsday

By BART JONES bart.jones@newsday.com

Some advocates for sex-abuse victims on Wednesday hailed as a bold move Pope Francis’ creation of a new Vatican tribunal section to hear cases of bishops accused of failing to protect children from sexually abusive priests.

Others said it does not go far enough, and the Vatican should turn over any evidence of wrongdoing to prosecutors and law enforcement officials.

The pope’s decision, which the Vatican announced Wednesday, is the biggest action the Holy See has taken to hold bishops accountable since the priest abuse scandal came to light in 2002 after reports by The Boston Globe. The scandal rippled through the Catholic Church worldwide.

“I think it’s a wonderful step,” said Michael Dowd, a Manhattan-based attorney who has represented 175 alleged victims, including some on Long Island. “It will have a dramatic positive impact.”

David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priest (SNAP), however, said the measure doesn’t go far enough.

“It’s hard to get excited about yet another internal Vatican abuse panel,” Clohessy said. “While some might find this hopeful, prudent people will withhold judgment unless and until we see complicit bishops being defrocked, demoted or disciplined.”

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

06/10/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Back in June of 2012, when the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis learned of the abuse committed by then-Father Curtis Wehmeyer, chancery officials, clergy, and other interested parties in the Archdiocese were forced to choose sides. Each individual had to choose if they would stand with the boys that had been harmed (along with all of the other individuals who had been hurt by acts of sexual abuse by clergy) or stand with the corrupt, unholy bureaucracy that the Chancery had become. The side one chose dictated one’s actions. You either pursued accountability and an almost revolutionary change in the system, or you tried to hide the administrative acts and omissions that led to the abuse. The decision was not academic, and it was not amoral. Siding with the ‘church’, if you will, meant ignoring or disregarding the suffering of the boys that had been harmed (and their family) and causing additional harm to them by forcing them to substantiate their allegations without support, leaving them without the resources necessary for their ongoing care, and reinforcing the idea that they had somehow deserved or otherwise been responsible for their own abuse.

For some of us, the June 2012 revelations marked a line drawn in the sand. Although convinced long before that the Archdiocese’s child protection efforts were a sham, without additional victims (victims that couldn’t be deemed ‘ not credible’, that is) those efforts couldn’t be called a failure. In June of 2012, however, the failure became obvious to everyone at 226 Summit, the corruption was palpable, and therefore continuing down the same path was no longer an option.

That line in the sand still exists, as does the need to choose sides. You either stand with the boys who have been harmed, or you stand with the Archdiocese. There is no middle road. If you don’t believe me, listen to the audio of last week’s press conference by the Ramsey County Attorney. At around the 7-minute mark the County Attorney praises those clergy and laity who ‘chose to reveal the truth despite its implications’…those who spoke about their knowledge of what occurred, and sadly what has been occurring for many years. The County Attorney spoke of the consequences those individuals could face, and their courage in coming forward. Implicit was a critique of those who have not cooperated, or who have responded to summons or requests for interviews with subterfuge and half-truths.

A close reading of the criminal complaint makes it obvious to those ‘in the know’ just who these individuals are. It also makes it obvious that the Chancery itself, while claiming to be cooperating, is only doing so in half measures. They might produce a memo or two, but then the third of the series will be missing. They might turn over one page of an email, but the other two pages (including that identifying the recipient) are claimed to be ‘privileged’ and not disclosed. And, it appears that they have not given investigators the Greene Espel report on the investigation into the Archbishop’s conduct. That report would be particularly relevant to the ongoing investigation, especially considering the information it contains regarding the history of Nienstedt’s relationship with Curtis Wehmeyer. Certainly had that document been produced it would have been referenced in the complaint.

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