ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

David Gibson

(RNS) Pope Francis has approved the first-ever system for judging, and possibly deposing, bishops who fail to protect children from abusive clerics, a major step in responding to Catholics who have been furious that guilty priests have been defrocked while bishops have largely escaped punishment.

The five-point plan on accountability for bishops originated with the special sex abuse commission that Francis set up to deal with the ongoing crisis. After some modifications, his nine–member Council of Cardinals unanimously signed off on it this week and Francis gave his final blessing to it on Wednesday (June 10).

“Very pleased the Pope has approved the Commission’s proposal on accountability,” tweeted Marie Collins of Ireland, one of two victims of sex abuse by clergy who sit on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Peter Saunders of England, the other victim on the commission, also called the new system “good news,” telling the Catholic news site Crux that “this is a positive step that clearly indicates that Pope Francis is listening to his commission.”

Saunders’ support is especially notable because he has said that if the pope did not institute a reliable system for holding bishops’ feet to the fire he would leave the panel.

Saunders is also currently embroiled in an ugly verbal tussle with Cardinal George Pell, the pontiff’s top financial reformer, whom Saunders has accused of being “almost sociopathic” in his handling of clergy sex abuse when Pell served as a bishop in Australia. …

“Accountability necessarily involves consequences for wrongdoers. Whether a new, untested, Vatican-ruled process will mean consequences for wrongdoers remains to be seen,” said David Clohessy, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“This move will give hope to some,” Clohessy said. “But hope doesn’t safeguard kids. Punishing men who endanger kids safeguards kids. That should have happened decades ago. … That’s not happening now. And that must happen — strongly and soon — if the church is to be safer.”

A test case for the new system might be in Minnesota, after a county attorney last week filed criminal charges against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The criminal charges were a first against an archdiocese, and allege that church leaders failed to protect children from molestation by a cleric. …

“The pope’s decision to hold bishops accountable for mishandling sex abuse cases is a long-overdue and indispensable step in fighting abuse,” said the Rev. James Martin, an editor at the Jesuit weekly America and a widely followed commentator on church affairs.

Until now, Catholic bishops have only been answerable directly to the pope, who has the sole power to appoint them and also to fire them.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

Violent nuns treated children at a Belfast care home with hatred, an alleged victim has told the High Court.

Michael McKee, 65, claimed he was beaten with a leather strap for either wetting or failing to make his bed properly at Nazareth Lodge.

Telling a judge he was attacked on a daily basis after entering the institution back in 1958, he questioned whether the alleged perpetrators viewed him as “sub-human”.

Mr McKee is suing The Sisters of Nazareth over the physical abuse he claims to have been subjected to during his stay as an eight-year-old boy.

Lawyers for the congregation are defending the action by challenging the reliability of his account and questioning why he waited half a century.

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VATICANO
Yahoo! Noticias

O Papa Francisco autorizou o julgamento por “abuso de poder” dos bispos que acobertam os padres denunciados por abuso sexual de menores de idade ou pessoas frágeis, anunciou o Vaticano.

O pontífice ordenou a criação de um tribunal para estes casos, que será uma parte da Congregação para a Doutrina da Fé, explicou o porta-voz do Vaticano, padre Federico Lombardi.

O delito de “abuso de poder episcopal” foi revisado porque já existia no direito canônico, mas agora estão estabelecidos os mecanismos para abordar os casos, completou Lombardi.

Esta é uma reforma importante para mostrar o compromisso de Francisco na luta contra a pedofilia de religiosos.

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VATICAL CITY
Wall Street Journal

By FRANCIS X. ROCCA
June 10, 2015

ROME— Pope Francis ordered the establishment of a special court to try bishops for mishandling cases of clerical sex abuse, filling a widely decried gap in the Vatican’s approach to the problem.

The Vatican on Wednesday said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which already holds responsibility for cases of sex abuse by priests, will also “judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors.”

While the Vatican has disciplined hundreds of priests for sex abuse since the outbreak of scandals in the early 2000s, no pope has explicitly punished a bishop for failing to prevent or punish abuse committed by other clergy.

A number of bishops accused of mishandling such cases have resigned under a provision of church law calling for them to step down on account of “ill health or some other grave cause.” A prominent recent case was that of Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City, Mo., who was convicted by a local court in 2012 for failing to report a priest who had produced child pornography. Bishop Finn resigned in April.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

‘Pope Punts; Backs Pell & Mueller Over O’Malley; Failed CDF To Get 5 Years To “Develop Proposals” To Judge Bishops On Child Abuse Crimes

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis is conducting Vatican business as usual at the “old boys’ club”, it appears. Pope Francis has responded, in effect, to Peter Saunders’ attempt to get the illusory papal advisory “abuse commission” under Cardinal Sean O’Malley to hold Cardinal George Pell, Bishop Juan Barros and other bishops accountable for alleged child sexual abuse cover-up crimes. The pope has apparently passed the buck to his successor and evidently left the unaccountable bishops’ abuse scandal mess under its current failing Vatican set up.

In effect, the fundamentally flawed Congregation For the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) under Cardinal Gerhard Mueller and his tainted US Jesuit aide, Fr. Robert Geisinger, will continue to run the “abuse cover up zero tolerance show” as before. Geisinger is the Vatican’s current top prosecutor of abusive priests and had been implicated, along with several other Catholic officials, in allowing a notorious abusive priest to remain in ministry for years after learning of his long history of sexual abuses, legal documents show according to the Boston Globe. Geisinger’s efforts at the Vatican to date are neither impressive nor reasons for Catholic parents or survivors to hope the Vatican will ever police and reform itself effectively or transparently.

The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., has indicated, in effect, that that Council of Cardinals (C9), with the pope participating, all unanimously (including the pope) approved five specific proposals {my italics}, namely:

It is proposed that:

“1. because the competence to receive and investigate complaints of the episcopal abuse of office belongs to the Congregations for Bishops, Evangelisation of Peoples, or Oriental Churches, there is the duty to report all complaints to the appropriate Congregation;

2. the Holy Father mandate 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;

3. the Holy Father authorise the establishment of a new Judicial Section in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and appointment of stable personnel to undertake service in the Tribunal. The implementation of this decision would follow consultation with the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith;

4. the Holy Father appoint a secretary to assist the prefect with the Tribunal. The secretary will be responsible for the new Judicial Section and the personnel of the section will also be available to the prefect for penal processes regarding the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults by clergy. This appointment will also follow the consultation with the prefect of the Congregation;

5. the Holy Father establish a five-year period for further development of these proposals and for completing a formal evaluation of their effectiveness; …” (emphasis mine).

So there you have it! After stalling on the abuse scandal for over two years, the pope has decided to stay with the same flawed team and passed the ultimate buck to whomever is pope in five years — likely Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Cardinal Angelo Sodano’s protege. This is about what I had expected and have tried to warn Catholics against since the pope was elected in March 2013.

Will all or any of the abuse commission members now resign? They have apparently been relegated to a mere academic study group status, no?

This development will likely have immediate negative implications for the Vatican, especially in the USA. For over three decades, the Vatican and US bishops have been close political allies of the US Republican party and its “low tax/lower regulation/least safety net” billionaire donors. For over two of those decades, the Vatican and its US bishops have had fundamental disagreements with the US Democratic party’s most prominent woman and current leading presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, as noted here.

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VATICAN CITY
Los Angeles Times

By TOM KINGTON

In a response to critics who charge that the Roman Catholic Church is dragging its feet on stopping child abuse, Pope Francis has created a tribunal at the Vatican to judge bishops accused of covering up for abusive priests.

Following a wave of scandals, from the United States to Australia, the church has begun to crack down on priests who sexually abuse children. However, activists say bishops who protect the priests continue to escape punishment.

Some bishops have been accused of simply moving priests to a new parish after they reportedly abuse children, only to see them commit the same offense again.

In a statement released Wednesday, the Vatican said a tribunal within its Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith would “judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors.”

“The Congregation has never judged bishops for abuse of office; that needed authorization from the pope,” said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi. “Now we have a regular procedure.”

The move is in response to suggestions made by a panel of experts, including past victims, that Francis appointed to advise him on how to safeguard against abuse.

American Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who heads the abuse commission, presented the proposal Monday to the group of nine cardinals advising Francis on reforming the Vatican’s sclerotic bureaucracy. The group approved the measure, as did Francis, who also provided funding to staff the tribunal.

The Vatican abuse commission has begun to make its voice heard since it was created last year.

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VATICAN CITY
NPR

Taking a new step toward holding bishops accountable for not protecting children who were sexually abused by priests, Pope Francis has set up a tribunal that will hear cases against senior clergy. But a victims’ group says the Vatican isn’t going far enough.

The move establishes “a new Judicial Section in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” the Vatican says, to investigate allegations of negligence of duty. The Holy See also set a five-year period for the program to be developed and evaluated.

From Rome, NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli reports:

“Decades of clerical sex abuse first emerged in Boston in 2002 and triggered a wave of revelations of scandals in the Catholic Church across the world.

“In case after case, known abusers were quietly moved by their superiors from parish to parish, instead of being handed over to the authorities.

“A Vatican statement said that Pope Francis had approved proposals made to him by the commission advising him on how to root out abuse of children by priests.

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TEXAS
Dallas Morning News

Rudolph Bush

It’s difficult still to go back and read the stories about the pedophile Rudy Kos, who damaged so deeply young boys when he was serving as a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Dallas.

I’m reminded by Dan Michalski’s 1998 story in D Magazine about just how many red flags were ignored so that Kos could be enrolled in Irving’s Holy Trinity Seminary – a place that, in that time, had turned away from the strict sexual discipline that is part and parcel of Roman Catholic priesthood.

Kos went to Holy Trinity long before Charles Grahmann became bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas.

But Grahmann was in charge when the Kos scandal broke. He never read a file full of warnings on Kos and let the pedophile run a parish until 1992 despite continued warning of abuse. One of Kos’ victims, Jay Lemberger, committed suicide at age 20.

Then there was the case of Rev. Justin Lucio, who was removed from parish leadership after two young men said he pressured them into sex with promises of immigration help and threats he would turn them into the authorities.

Grahmann nevertheless had Lucio run a ministry for immigrants without oversight.

Grahmann didn’t resign until 2007, when he turned 75.

Thankfully, his successor, Bishop Kevin Farrell, understood the enormous threat pedophile priests pose, first to young people’s innocence and psychological health, but also to the faith and confidence of all Catholics.

Bishop Farrell has worked to make the diocese much more responsive to accusations of abuse, both in policy and practice.

But the entire Church needed more leadership on this critical problem.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, June 10 (Reuters) – Pope Francis approved on Wednesday an unprecedented Vatican department to judge bishops accused of covering up or not preventing sexual abuse of minors, in an attempt to meet 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 the bishops could also be judged if they had failed to take measures to prevent sexual abuse of minors.

The complaints against the bishops would be initially investigated by one of three Vatican departments, depending on under whose jurisdiction the bishops fall, before being judged by the doctrinal department.

“This development is potentially quite significant. For the first time there may be a clear road map for disciplining bishops who conceal or enable child sexual abuse,” said Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org, an independent group that helps tackle the issue in the Catholic Church.

“But the path already promises to be bumpy. How can the Vatican discipline enablers when its own top ranks are occupied by them?,” she told Reuters in an email.

She mentioned Australian Cardinal George Pell, who has been accused of covering up sexual abuse by a priest in the 1970s when Pell was a priest.

Pell, now head of the Vatican’s economic secretariat, has denied the accusations, saying he has always taken a strong stand against child abuse. He denies moving priests accused of abuse between parishes or offering one victim inducements to drop a complaint.

“Disciplining such powerful colleagues will be politically harrowing. But for the pope to make good on ‘bishop accountability’ this new program must begin at the top. Diocesan bishops cannot be expected to comply with standards that Vatican officials have ignored with impunity,” said Barrett Doyle.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Public Radio

By STEPHANIE LECCI & LINDA LOCKHART

As Catholic bishops from across the country gather in St. Louis this week for their annual Spring General Assembly meeting, many local Catholics are hoping church leaders discuss a wide array of issues.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ official agenda includes discussions on the state of the American family and marriage, ahead of an expected U.S. Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.

While in St. Louis, the bishops also will receive an update ahead of Pope Francis’ visit in September to Philadelphia, as well as discuss the Pope’s upcoming encyclical on the environment and ecology.

The church leaders are also expected to talk about immigration reform, work on their quadrennial statement on political responsibility to be released ahead of the next general election, hear about ongoing work in Haiti, and learn of new digital resources available to bishops and diocese.

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VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

Pope Francis has established a new tribunal with powers to judge bishops accused of covering up sexual abuse of minors. The move follows years of criticism that the church has failed to punish the guilty.

A statement from the Vatican said the pope would set up a new department that would examine the cases of bishops accused of covering up or failing to prevent child sex abuse by their priests.

The Vatican said Pope Francis had approved the proposals, aimed at making bishops more accountable, after they were put forward by his sexual abuse advisory board.

The statement said the office would be set up “to judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors.”

The unit would be empowered to help prosecutors in criminal cases, the Vatican said.

Church accused of failure

Pope Francis’ decision follows years of complaint from victim groups who claim the Vatican has comprehensively failed to take measures against those who sexually abuse minors.

No bishop has ever been forcibly removed from office for protecting guilty clergy, although Francis did accept the resignation in April of a US bishop convicted of failing to report a suspected child abuser. An Irish bishop, John Magee, also tendered his resignation in 2010 amid allegations of him concealing the crimes of two priests in his diocese of Cloyne.

The Vatican said Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the head of Francis’ advisory commission, presented the proposals to Francis’ cardinal advisers. The panel, along with the Pope, approved the measures and authorized funding for full-time personnel to staff the new office

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VATIKAN
Sueddeutsche

Neue Gerichtssektion für Missbrauchsfälle

Lange hat sich die katholische Kirche dagegen gewehrt, sich mit Missbrauchsfällen in den eigenen Reihen auseinanderzusetzen. Der emeritierte Papst Benedikt XVI. war der erste Pontifex, der sich bei Missbrauchsopfern entschuldigt hatte. 400 Priester entließ er allein in den Jahren 2011 und 2012 wegen des Verdachts auf Kindesmissbrauch. Sein Nachfolger, Papst Franziskus, führt die Aufarbeitung fort.

Jetzt soll im Vatikan eine neue juristische Abteilung gegründet werden, um Amtsmissbrauchs-Beschwerden gegen Bischöfe zu prüfen. Dazu gehören auch Beschwerden gegen Kirchenmänner, die im Verdacht stehen, Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs vertuscht zu haben. Der Papst habe einem entsprechenden Vorschlag der 2014 gegründeten Päpstlichen Kinderschutzkommission zugestimmt, hieß es in einer Mitteilung des Vatikans. Mit der neuen Institution soll auch ein eigener Sekretär für das Thema ernannt werden.

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VATIKAN
Zeit

Papst Franziskus hat der Schaffung eines Gerichts zur Ahndung der Vertuschung von Missbrauchsfällen durch Bischöfe zugestimmt. Das Oberhaupt der Katholischen Kirche folge einer Empfehlung des neu gegründeten Gremiums gegen sexuellen Missbrauch durch Geistliche, gab der Vatikan bekannt. Demnach soll im vatikanischen Strafrecht auch ein Tatbestand des “Missbrauchs des Bischofsamts” eingeführt werden.

Das neue Gericht soll bei der Glaubenskongregation angesiedelt sein und Bischöfe belangen können, die Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs durch Geistliche in ihren Diözesen vertuscht haben. Dies fordern Missbrauchsopfer bereits seit Langem

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO and LAURIE GOODSTEIN
JUNE 10, 2015

ROME — Roman Catholic bishops accused of covering up or failing to prevent the sexual abuse of children by priests will now be subject to judgment and discipline by a new Vatican tribunal, according to a plan approved on Wednesday by Pope Francis.

The decision is a measure that abuse victims have urged for years. The church has judicial procedures for judging priests accused of abuse, but until now bishops accused of negligence or cover-ups were almost never held accountable by the church itself.

The tribunal will also deal with the backlog of cases involving sexual abuse, “which are still very numerous,” a Vatican official said on Wednesday.

The issue of accountability has been under discussion for some time, said the Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. “As you see, it didn’t remain on paper,” he said.

The Vatican announced on Wednesday that the pope had approved a series of proposals advanced by the committee that advises him on sexual abuse.

The proposals set out the procedures for examining complaints of abuse of office by bishops. The complaints will be first investigated by the congregations that the bishops belong to, and then will be judged by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which already reviews all cases of clergy accused of abusing minors.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 10

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

The Associated Press correctly reports that “the Vatican was never known to have meted out punishment for a bishop who covered up for an abuser.” Note the word “never.” Ponder this carefully before feeling hopeful about today’s Vatican move.

Again we remind everyone: The pope has virtually limitless power. By now, he could have sacked dozens of complicit bishops. He has, however, sacked no one. Nor has he demoted, disciplined or denounced even one complicit church official – from Cardinal to custodian. None of his predecessors did either. No prelate on the planet has even found the courage to say “Archbishop John Nienstedt shielded child molesting clerics.”

So 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.

Imagine a huge oil company that had never disciplined a single manager and won’t admit it’s drilling offshore. If it sets up an internal panel to recommend possible manager discipline to its CEO, few would get excited.

That’s what we have here. Catholic officials have disciplined virtually no one for ignoring, concealing or enabling abuse, anywhere on the planet. And Catholic officials won’t admit there are deliberate cover ups, instead disingenuously claiming “mistakes,” “oversights,” and “miscommunication.”

If you can’t properly name a crisis, you’re likely unable to fix it.

Kids need a courageous church culture, not another church committee.

Kids need brave behavior by church officials, not more bureaucracy.

Kids need church members and staff to bring evidence to prosecutors, not to Vatican officials.

Church officials still fight civil lawsuits, criminal prosecutions, governmental investigations and independent institutions like the United Nations. So at one level, this looks again like an effort to stone-wall secular authorities, saying “Back off. Go away. We’re dealing with this internally.”

Accountability necessarily involves consequences for wrongdoers. Whether a new, untested, Vatican-ruled process will mean consequences for wrongdoers remains to be seen.

This move will give hope to some. But hope doesn’t safeguard kids. Punishing men who endanger kids safeguards kids. That should have happened decades ago. That should have happened days after Francis took action. That’s not happening now. And that must happen – strongly and soon – if the church is to be safer.

“The question of accountability for bishops who mishandle abuse cases has long been seen as the most unresolved issue in the church’s response to clergy sexual abuse,” writes the National Catholic Reporter.

That question remains unresolved.

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VATICAN CITY
The Australian

AAP JUNE 10, 2015

THE Vatican has agreed to share tax information with the United States in its latest move to improve the reputation of its scandal-marred bank and crack down on tax cheats.

VATICAN and US officials signed an agreement on Wednesday in which the Holy See committed to comply with a 2010 US law designed to encourage – some say force – foreign financial institutions to share information about US account holders with US tax authorities.

The aim is to make it more difficult for Americans to use overseas accounts to evade US taxes.
The Vatican bank has long been accused by Italian authorities of being an offshore tax haven.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Aoife Carr

Women who worked in the Magdalene laundries and remain resident in Ireland will get a medical card and other supports including home help, counselling and physiotherapy services free of charge from July 1st when the Redress for Women Who Were Resident in Certain Institutions Act comes into force.

Payments made by the State to the women will be exempt from means test criteria for services such as nursing home support and the women will not be charged for acute in-patient services.

Women living abroad who were in the launderies are not covered by the Bill and their access to equivalent medical services will be dealt with “on an administrative basis” by the Health Service
This is because of the “wide variation of different health systems internationally” according to the Department of Justice.

Announcing the commencement of the Act on Wednesday, Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald said the women would receive all the medical services recommended by Mr Justice Quirke in his report on the Magdalene Laundries.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Pope Francis has created a new Vatican tribunal within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to deal with bishops who fail to protect children from being sexually abused by priests.

The announcement in Rome on Wednesday is seen as unpredendented and as a major success for the Vatican’s new Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The new office will be able to hold bishops to account for mishandling or covering up allegations of clerical child sex abuse. It will act as a tribunal to pass judgement on accused bishops “with regard to crimes of the abuse of office when connected to the abuse of minors.”

To date no Catholic bishop has been removed from office by the Vatican for his role in covering up clerical child sex abuse. Following publication in November 2009 of the Murphy report, which investigated the cover up of clerical child sex abuse in Dublin’s Catholic Archdiocese, the resignations of two Irish bishops were accepted by Rome. Prior to that, the resignation of Bishop of Ferns Brendan Comiskey in 2002, and in similar circumstances, was also accepted by Rome.

In April Pope Francis accepted the resignation of US Bishop of Kansas – St Joseph Robert Finn who had been convicted in the courts of failing to report clerical child sex abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Holy See Press Office) In the afternoon session of 8 June 2015, the Council of Cardinals received a report from Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, OFM Cap. with a proposal for the Holy Father regarding allegations of the abuse of office by a bishop connected to the abuse of minors, originally prepared by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Cardinal O’Malley’s report also included a proposal regarding allegations of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults by clergy.

For each proposal, the report indicated the general terms which define it, issues relating to procedure and to the Tribunal which judges the cases, as well as the advantages of the proposal compared with other possible solutions. The text concludes with a list of five specific proposals made to the Holy Father, which are listed below. It is proposed:

1. That because the competence to receive and investigate complaints of the episcopal abuse of office belongs to the Congregations for Bishops, Evangelization of Peoples, or Oriental Churches there is the duty to report all complaints to the appropriate Congregation.

2. That the Holy Father mandate 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.

3. That the Holy Father authorize the establishment of a new Judicial Section in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and appointment of stable personnel to undertake service in the Tribunal. The implementation of this decision would follow consultation with the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

4. That the Holy Father appoint a Secretary to assist the Prefect with the Tribunal. The Secretary will have responsibility for the new Judicial Section and the personnel of the Section will also be available to the Prefect for penal processes regarding the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults by clergy. This appointment will also follow the consultation with the Prefect of the Congregation.

5. That the Holy Father establish a five-year period for further development of these proposals and for completing a formal evaluation of their effectiveness.

The Council of Cardinals agreed unanimously on these proposals and resolved that they be submitted to the Holy Father, Pope Francis. The Holy Father approved the proposals and authorized that sufficient resources will be provided for this purpose.

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VATICAN CITY
Malta Today

The Vatican has said that it will create a tribunal to hear cases of bishops accused of covering up child abuse by paedophile priests.

The move marks the biggest step yet the Vatican has taken to hold bishops accountable. No bishop has ever been forcibly removed for covering up for guilty clergy, although in April, Francis accepted the resignation of an American bishop who had been convicted of failing to report a suspected child abuser.

The Vatican said Wednesday that Pope Francis had approved proposals made by his sexual abuse advisory board.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Independent

Pope Francis has created a new Vatican tribunal section to hear cases of bishops who fail to protect children from sexually abusive priests.

The move marks the biggest step yet the Vatican has taken to hold bishops accountable.

No bishop has ever been forcibly removed for covering up for guilty clergy, although in April, Francis accepted the resignation of a US bishop who had been convicted of failing to report a suspected child abuser.

The Vatican said that Francis had approved proposals made by his sexual abuse advisory board. They create a mechanism by which the Vatican can examine complaints of abuse of office by bishops and adjudicate them.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 10

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 312-399-4747, bblaine@SNAPnetwork.org )

At best, most church abuse panels have been ineffective distractions. At worst, they’ve been manipulative public relations moves We suspect this new one won’t make a difference either.

Throughout this decades-long crisis, church panels, procedures, protocols and promises have been plentiful. They’ve also been irrelevant. As long as clerics are in charge of dealing with other clerics who commit and conceal child sex crimes, little will change.

Church officials should join us in reforming secular abuse laws so that clerics who hurt kids and hide predators will be criminally charged. If that happens, we’ll be encouraged.

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VATICAN CITY
Zee News (India)

Vatican City: In a historic decision, Pope Francis on Wednesday gave the approval for setting up a tribunal where cases related to bishops, accused of covering up child abuse by priests, will be heard.

The decision was taken by the Pope after the recommendations made by his sexual abuse advisory board.

Barring the sole incident earlier this year in which a US bishop resigned after being convicted of failing to report a suspected child abuser, no other case is known in which a bishop has been removed for covering up a child abuse case, as per a news agency report.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Abby Ohlheiser and Michelle Boorstein June 10

The Vatican Wednesday announced the creation of a new tribunal for holding accountable bishops who fail to deal properly with clergy sexual abuse.

While the announcement didn’t appear to include new penalties for bishops, some sex abuse experts said it was significant that Pope Francis was firming up the oversight process of bishops, who are traditionally granted wide-ranging powers and autonomy over the affairs in their region.

The new structure will be inside the Vatican’s doctrine-enforcing arm – considered perhaps the most powerful body within the church.

“It’s a major thing because it’s putting bishops on notice. It’s saying: ‘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,” said Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist and professor at the Catholic University of America who used to head St. Luke’s Institute- a key treatment center for priest-offenders.

Rossetti called the issue of accountability for bishops who oversee or cover up abusers “the cutting edge” for the church. Long ago, he noted, popes established that abusers had committed the “gravest of crimes … but I think it’s true that this issue of accountability [for their bishop-bosses] was not as nailed down. This nails it down very clearly.”

The proposal was submitted to the pope by a high-level body he created to suggest improvements in dealing with abusers and their superiors. While the topic exploded in the United States more than a decade ago, it is just erupting around the world, particularly in developing countries. While the U.S. system built in the past decade to prevent abuse is highly praised, bishops who moved around abusers are still rarely held accountable at all.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian

Reuters in Vatican City
Wednesday 10 June 2015

Pope Francis has approved an unprecedented Vatican department to judge bishops accused of covering up or not preventing sexual abuse of children, 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 Fr Federico Lombardi told reporters the bishops could also be judged if they had failed to take measures to prevent sexual abuse of minors.

The complaints against the bishops would be initially investigated by one of three Vatican departments, depending on whose jurisdiction the bishops fall under, before being judged by the doctrinal department.

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VATICAN CITY
Belfast Telegraph

BY CLAIRE CROMIE – 10 JUNE 2015

Pope Francis has created a Vatican tribunal to hear cases of bishops accused of covering up child abuse by paedophile priests

The announcement marks the biggest step ever taken by the Catholic Church to hold bishops to account.

No bishop has ever been forcibly removed for covering up for guilty clergy, although in April, Francis accepted the resignation of a US bishop who had been convicted of failing to report a suspected child abuser.

The Vatican said that Francis had approved proposals made by his sexual abuse advisory board. They create a mechanism by which the Vatican can examine complaints of abuse of office by bishops and adjudicate them.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

Pope Francis has approved the creation of a tribunal to hear cases of bishops accused of covering up child abuse by paedophile priests.

The unprecedented move followed a recommendation from the Pope’s newly-created panel on clerical sex abuse.

Victims’ groups have long called for the Vatican to do more to make bishops accountable for abuse on their watch.

Last year, the UN strongly criticised the Vatican for failing to stamp out child abuse and for allowing cover-ups.

A statement from the Vatican said the department would come under the auspices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 10 June 2015 (VIS) – The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., gave a briefing this morning on the work of the tenth meeting of the Council of Cardinals, which began on Monday and concluded this morning in the Domus Sanctae Marthae. The Holy Father attended all the sessions, both morning and afternoon, on Monday and Tuesday; however as usual he did not participate in this morning’s session due to the Wednesday general audience.

Cardinal Laurent Mosengwo Pasinya was unable to attend the meeting.

The first day was dedicated largely to the examination of the draft Preamble of the new Constitution, which will be further elaborated.

With regard to financial and economic reform, Cardinal Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, presented a report with updated information on the financial reforms. He mentioned the appointment of the new Auditor General, the approval of the new Statute for Pension Funds and the completion of the list of bodies subject to the control and supervision of the Council for the Economy, in accordance with its Statutes. He also referred to three new initiatives of the Council for the Economy, constituting three working groups: one for the analysis of income and investments; one for human resources management, and a third for the study of the existing IT systems, their compatibility and their efficiency. He concluded by reporting on the progress of the various current activities of the Secretariat for the Economy.

In the afternoon session of 8 June 2015, the Council of Cardinals received a report from Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, OFM Cap. with a proposal for the Holy Father regarding allegations of the abuse of office by a bishop connected to the abuse of minors, originally prepared by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Cardinal O’Malley’s report also included a proposal regarding allegations of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults by clergy.

For each proposal, the report indicated the general terms which define it, issues relating to procedure and to the competent Tribunal, as well as the advantages of the proposal compared with other possible solutions. The text concludes with a list of five specific proposals made to the Holy Father, which are listed below. It is proposed that:

1. because the competence to receive and investigate complaints of the episcopal abuse of office belongs to the Congregations for Bishops, Evangelisation of Peoples, or Oriental Churches, there is the duty to report all complaints to the appropriate Congregation;

2. the Holy Father mandate 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;

3. the Holy Father authorise the establishment of a new Judicial Section in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and appointment of stable personnel to undertake service in the Tribunal. The implementation of this decision would follow consultation with the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith;

4. the Holy Father appoint a secretary to assist the prefect with the Tribunal. The secretary will be responsible for the new Judicial Section and the personnel of the section will also be available to the prefect for penal processes regarding the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults by clergy. This appointment will also follow the consultation with the prefect of the Congregation;

5. the Holy Father establish a five-year period for further development of these proposals and for completing a formal evaluation of their effectiveness;

The Council of Cardinals agreed unanimously on these proposals and resolved that they be submitted to the Holy Father, Pope Francis, who approved the proposals and authorised the provision of sufficient resources for this purpose.

In the morning of 9 June the Council of Cardinals heard a report given by Msgr. Dario Vigano, director of the Vatican Television Centre and president of the Commission for Vatican communications instituted by the Holy Father Francis on 23 April 2015 (made public on 30 April), and expressed its unanimous approval of the feasibility study conducted by the same Commission.

Starting from the analyses and reports of McKinsey and the previous commissions (COSEA and the Vatican Media Commission chaired by Lord Chris Patten), the current Commission presented a plan for reform to be implemented over a four-year period, ensuring the protection of staff and a gradual integration of institutions. These are the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the Holy See Press Office, Vatican Radio, the Vatican Television Centre, the Osservatore Romano, the Photographic Service, the Vatican Publishing House, the Vatican Typography and the Internet Office.

The Council of Cardinals expressed a positive judgement to the Holy Father, also in relation to the expected time span. The constitution of the dicastery will be drafted, and the necessary appointments made during the coming months to enable the process to be initiated. The Commission is currently continuing its work, which has yet to be completed.

On Wednesday morning, the Council heard a communique from Fr. Michael Czerny of the Pontifical Council “Justice and Peace” regarding the Holy Father’s new encyclical and the preparation for its publication. Fr. Czerny explained that, at the Pope’s behest, emails will be sent, introduced by a letter from Cardinal Turkson, to inform ordinaries throughout the world of the upcoming publication of the encyclical and to provide suggestions and assistance on the teaching and previous interventions by the Pope on the theme of the environment. It is hoped that this will allow individual bishops and episcopates to prepare for the new document and to accompany it with appropriate explanations and comments, so as to ensure that the publication of the encyclical is experienced as an important event in the life of the universal Church and in communion with the Holy Father.

The next meeting of the Council of Cardinals is scheduled for 14 to 16 September.

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VATICAN CITY
Panorama

Pope Francis Wednesday 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, Reuters reports.

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.

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VATICAN CITY
Bristol Herald Courier

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has created a new Vatican tribunal section to hear cases of bishops accused of failing to protect children from sexually abusive priests, the biggest step the Holy See has taken yet to hold bishops accountable.

For years, the Vatican has been criticized by victims, advocacy groups and others for having failed to ever punish or forcibly remove a bishop who covered up for clergy who raped or molested children. In April, Francis accepted the resignation of a U.S. bishop who had been convicted of failing to report a suspected child abuser, but that wasn’t a forced removal.

The Vatican said Wednesday that Francis had approved proposals made by his sexual abuse advisory board. They create a mechanism by which the Vatican can receive and examine complaints of abuse of office by bishops and adjudicate them.

A special new judicial section 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.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jun. 10, 2015

VATICAN CITY Pope Francis has approved the outline of a new system of accountability for Catholic bishops who do not appropriately handle accusations of clergy sexual abuse, in what could be a breakthrough moment on an issue that has plagued the church globally.

Proposed by Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley at the behest of the pope’s commission on clergy sexual abuse, the system gives power to the Vatican’s 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.”

It would also see the establishment of a new office at the congregation to undertake work as a tribunal to judge such bishops.

Such a system will be a first at the Vatican, where bishops have long held near impunity with regard to their actions or inactions on clergy sexual abuse. In the Catholic church, only the pope can fire prelates — a process that, if it ever occurs, normally takes years or even decades.

Vatican spokesman Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi said that while that firing power ultimately remains with Francis, the pope accepts the decisions of those he puts in such tribunal offices.

“If the pope says that [this is] the judgment and the competence of the tribunal, then normally the pope accepts the judgment of the tribunal,” said Lombardi, responding to a question from NCR at a press conference Wednesday announcing the new system.

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UNITED STATES
Jewish Daily Forward

Deborah Rosenbloom (JTA)
June 9, 2015

When I read the recent 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.

But today social media amplifies whispers. Victims hear the whispers of other victims, awareness grows, and what happens behind closed doors is exposed and headlined. I have seen this in my work at Jewish Women International — on college campuses, on football fields, even in the military. Victims are speaking out.

Related: Don’t Blame the Sauna Rabbi — Blame Orthodox Mentality

Our synagogues and rabbinical institutions need to wake up. Responding in secret or in an ad hoc manner — being reactive — does not work. This modus operandi inhibits response, discussion and community resolution. Secret “solutions” end up being neither secret nor solutions.

Instead, we repeatedly see the accused relying on his or her relationships with powerful supporters, and together they spread the fear of public revelation of scandal. Time and again, the message to the victims and communities is that only with silence can the institution be protected. That is another way of saying that those who are victimized are less important than the institution itself.

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NEW YORK
Riverdale Press

The Riverdale Jewish Center executive committee’s June 9 letter to congregants.

By Shant Shahrigian
Posted 6/10/15

Riverdale Jewish Center’s (RJC) board appears to be on the way to ousting Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt following recent revelations he took boys to a sauna naked over a period of years.

After a Monday night board meeting and vote about how to handle the situation, RJC’s executive committee on Tuesday sent a letter to congregants stating in part: “We discussed the ongoing challenges and the profound impact on our shul community. The Board ultimately concluded that, in view of all these circumstances, the best course of action would be to achieve an amicable resolution with Rabbi Rosenblatt, and we are constructively engaged in discussions to that end.”

Yesterday, RJC President Samson Fine and other board members did not answer phone and e-mail inquiries seeking clarification about the Monday night vote. On Tuesday, The Jewish Weekly cited 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 board vote followed growing discontent among RJC members. On Sunday, at least 44 of them e-mailed Rabbi Rosenblatt a petition calling on him to resign. They wrote that the 30-year-long leader of the synagogue “is unfortunately but irrevocably unable to lead our community.”

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NEW YORK
Jewish Daily Forward

The Riverdale Jewish Center 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 Monday night, 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 and therefore it is preferable that he step down, 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. At various times, Rosenblatt was told by rabbinic bodies or his congregation’s board to limit such activity.

Rosenblatt says he is innocent of any crime. The Bronx district attorney’s office said it is looking into whether any crime was committed and has urged victims to come forward.

In a letter sent last week to congregants , Rosenblatt did not acknowledge any inappropriate behavior but said, “If any of you feel that my behavior, even if innocent, was inappropriate, I apologize to those affected.”

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NEW YORK
Haaretz

JTA

At least 44 members of a New York synagogue are calling for the resignation of their rabbi, whose custom of inviting young men to meet with him naked in a sauna has brought extensive media attention.

In an email petition sent Sunday, members of the Riverdale Jewish Center, an Orthodox congregation in the Bronx, urged Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt to resign, the Riverdale Press reported.

“We in Riverdale have had a grueling week, trying to manage the crisis that has engulfed our community. It is now clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that our rabbi of almost thirty years, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, is unfortunately but irrevocably unable to lead our community,” the email says, according to the Press.

The petition comes in the aftermath of a recent New York Times article about Rosenblatt’s longtime custom of inviting male congregants, 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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VATICAN CITY
Financial Times

The Vatican has agreed to implement US legislation designed to curb offshore tax evasion, offering further evidence of the desire of Pope Francis to clean up the finances of the Catholic Church and stamp out the Holy See’s reputation as a haven for illicit activity.

In what was dubbed a “historic event” by Archbishop Richard Gallagher, the equivalent of the Vatican’s foreign minister, the Holy See signed a deal to apply within its walls the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca), enacted by president Barack Obama in 2010.

James Politi reports that the agreement – the first intergovernmental deal between the US and the Vatican – will force the Institute for Religious Works (IoR), also known as the Vatican Bank, to transmit information on accounts held by American taxpayers in the city-state back to US authorities.

In implementing Fatca, the Vatican joins just 62 other countries that have such deals with the US – while many others have resisted the pressure to comply.

In a statement, the Archbishop said:

As Pope Francis frequently reminds us, evading just taxes is stealing both from the State and from the poor.

Every person has in fact the duty to contribute, in charity and justice, to the common good, according to his own abilities and the needs of others, by promoting and assisting the public institutions dedicated to bettering the conditions of human life.

Meanwhile, Kenneth Hackett, US ambassador to the Holy See, said the deal would help forge a “stronger, more stable, and more accountable global financial system”.

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VATICAN CITY
Europe Online

Vatican City (dpa) – The Vatican said Wednesday it had signed an anti-tax evasion deal with the United States, agreeing to share information on assets held by US citizens within Vatican walls.

“This agreement […] underscores the commitment of both parties to promote and ensure ethical behaviour in the financial and economic fields,” a joint statement by the Holy See and the US said.

The Vatican‘s official newspaper, L‘Osservatore Romano, said that even though the agreement affects a “relatively limited number of persons,” it was of “great importance” as it underscores the Holy See efforts to “promote ethics and integrity in economics and finance.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(Vatican Radio) The Holy See and the U.S. have signed a first-ever inter-governmental economic accord aimed at fighting tax evasion. Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Gallagher – acting also on behalf of the Vatican City State – and the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, Kenneth Hackett, signed the agreement in the Vatican on Wednesday.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome

Wednesday 10 June 2015

The Vatican bank will automatically report information about American holders of its accounts to US tax authorities under an agreement signed on Wednesday that the American ambassador to the Holy See said was a “very significant step” to combating tax evasion.

The agreement – the first inter-governmental deal between the Vatican and the US – was hailed as a “type of stamp of approval” of the Vatican bank’s efforts to be more transparent, said the US ambassador, Kenneth Hackett.

The bank, which is formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion, has been dogged for years by accusations that it has helped launder money for rich Italians, among others, who were seeking to evade taxes and carry out other illicit activity. It began a clean-up process at the end of Pope Benedict’s tenure, following intense pressure by the Bank of Italy, which essentially sought to cut the bank off from working with other banks in Italy if it did not change its ways and adopt internationally recognised anti-money laundering regulations.

Pope Francis has also put financial reform at the top of his agenda, and the bank has spent millions of euros on consultants, including US advisory firm Promontory Financial Group, in its effort to implement a modern compliance programme and weed out problematic accounts.

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VATICAN CITY
Philly.com

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
POSTED: Wednesday, June 10, 2015

VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican has agreed to share tax information with the United States in its latest move to improve the reputation of its scandal-marred bank and crack down on tax cheats.

Vatican and U.S. officials signed an agreement Wednesday in which the Holy See committed to comply with a 2010 U.S. law designed to encourage – some say force – foreign financial institutions to share information about U.S. account holders with U.S. tax authorities. The aim is to make it more difficult for Americans to use overseas accounts to evade U.S. taxes.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jun. 10, 2015

VATICAN CITY The U.S. and the Holy See have signed a joint measure to reduce tax evasion by American individuals holding money at the so-called Vatican bank, in what officials said is the first such inter-governmental agreement between the country and the city-state.

Under the new measure, signed Wednesday by U.S. Ambassador Ken Hackett and Vatican Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See has agreed to automatically report information on Vatican bank accounts held by American citizens.

While neither U.S. nor Holy See officials would identify how many American individuals hold money at the Vatican, the number is assumed to be rather small, perhaps in the dozens.

Hackett, the American ambassador to the Holy See, told reporters at a briefing Wednesday morning that the move was “a type of stamp of approval” of the improvements the once scandal-plagued Vatican financial structure has made in recent years.

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VATICAN CITY
Bolletino

June 10, 2015 – Today, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, and the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, Kenneth F. Hackett, signed an historic agreement between the Holy See (acting also in the name and on behalf of the Vatican City State) and the United States of America to improve international tax compliance and exchange of tax information in view of the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

This agreement – which is the first formal inter-governmental agreement between the Holy See and the United States – underscores the commitment of both parties to promote and ensure ethical behavior in the financial and economic fields. In particular, this agreement will prevent tax evasion and facilitate the compliance of fiscal duties by those U.S. Citizens who conduct financial activities in Vatican City State.

Ensuring the payment of taxes and preventing tax evasion are of crucial economic importance for every community since adequate tax revenues and public spending are indispensable for governments to become instruments of development and solidarity, to encourage employment growth, to sustain business and charitable activities, and to provide systems of social insurance and assistance designed to protect the weakest members of society.

In a context of economic globalization, it is therefore essential to strengthen the exchange of information with the view to prevent tax evasion. The present agreement is thus based on the most up-to-date global standards to curtail offshore tax evasion through the automatic exchange of tax information.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

WASHINGTON—The 2015 Spring General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will be broadcast via satellite from St. Louis, June 10-11, to Catholic television outlets and all broadcasters wishing to air it. The satellite feed will run Wednesday, June 10, (10:15 a.m.-4:15 p.m. Eastern), and Thursday, June 11, (9:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Eastern). Media conferences will follow open sessions of the meeting.

The proceedings will also be live streamed at www.usccb.org/about/leadership/usccb-general-assembly/index.cfm. News updates, addresses and other materials will be posted on this page. For those wishing to follow the proceedings on social media, updates from the meeting will be live tweeted at http://twitter.com/USCCBLive with the hashtag #USCCB15. Updates will also appear at www.facebook.com/usccb.

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

“Bishops are backsliding,” victims say
Group blasts prelates as they meet here
SNAP releases list of accused priests are still on the job
Three of the alleged predators are working in St. Louis
One admits molesting child & another faces three accusers
Victims: “Bishops must train their flocks to respond better”
When abuse reports surface, many parishioners “rally around the accused”

WHAT
As hundreds of US Catholic bishops gather for their annual meeting, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will

–reveal a list of 12 alleged pedophile priests who are still on the job (including 3 in St. Louis),
–accuse bishops of “backsliding” on their pledge to quickly oust accused predator priests, and

urge bishops to

–stop parishioners from rallying around alleged child molesting clerics and
–train their flock to react appropriately when child sex abuse reports surface

WHEN
Wednesday, June 10 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
On the northeast corner of Chestnut & Fourth, outside the Hyatt, in downtown St. Louis MO

WHO
Three-four adults who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (including two of the organization’s long-time leaders)

VISUALS
They will also hold signs and childhood photos.

WHY
On Friday, the St. Paul archdiocese was charged with endangering kids by keeping a now-convicted predator priest on the job long after accusations of sexual misdeeds had been made about him. SNAP contends these charges (and the convictions of top church officials in Kansas City and Philadelphia) show bishops are backsliding from their pledge to quickly remove credibly accused predator priests.

Last month, a high profile Hispanic priest was sued for allegedly molesting a child. He works for both Notre Dame and the San Antonio archdiocese. Similarly, on Long Island, a priest was sued in January for alleged child sex crimes by the nation’s most experienced clergy abuse attorney but is still a pastor. Neither cleric was even temporarily suspended.

As the public tires of the on-going clergy abuse and cover up crisis, and as the priest shortage continues, SNAP believes more bishops are gradually refusing to suspend credibly accused child molesting clerics, thus endangering kids and rebuffing victims.

Three accused priests are still working in St. Louis: Fr. Vincent Bryce, Fr. Alex Anderson and Fr. Bruce H. Forman. Bryce is at the Aquinas Institute on the edge of St. Louis University. Anderson and Forman are pastors of parishes in DeSoto and Soulard respectively.

SNAP will call on bishops to honor the pledges they’ve made for decades (and they formalized in 2002 at a summer meeting like this one) by immediately suspending alleged predator priests.

Dioceses teach staff how to report abuse and kids how to stop abuse. But no diocese or church entity teaches parishioners how to respond appropriately when abuse reports arise (whether against clerics, choir directors or school personnel) arise. Because most predators are charming and charismatic, many times church-goers publicly rally around accused child molesters. This intimidates and depresses other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers from speaking up, exposing wrongdoers and safeguarding children.

SNAP will urge bishops to provide formal training to parishioners on how to support accused priests in ways that do not deter others from reporting known or suspected abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Chicago Sun-Times

WRITTEN BY NEIL STEINBERG

It stays submerged.

We glimpse it, then turn away as it disappears again. But it always comes back.

A popular TV show implodes. We chatter about its fallen star. No sooner does the scandal start to fade, however, when a new one emerges: this one the former Speaker of the House, accusing of paying a fortune to hush up decades-old accusations.

Dennis Hastert’s cash kept it quiet for years. Josh Duggar, reality TV star of “19 Kids and Counting,” eked out a dozen.

Their secret shame becomes fertile ground for public comment and eventual remorse. Hastert admits no wrongdoing, yet. Duggar does. “I acted inexcusably” he says. And TLC, to its credit, doesn’t excuse him but yanks the hit show amidst generally half indignant, half amused clucking about the frequent hypocrisy of those who flaunt their superior standards.

Each case is easy to chatter about. Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post trenchantly observed how the Duggar crime is “a reminder of how badly the cult of purity lets victims down,” portraying them as ruined bikes, cups of spit, chewed gum, as if their entire value lay in their sexuality. As with priests, when there are no sexual outlets, it’s sometimes sought in the wrong places.”

“When all sexuality is a sin, when even holding hands is off limits, there isn’t a clear line between permissible, healthy forms of exploration and acts that are impermissible to anyone, not just the particularly devout,” she writes. “This gospel of shame and purity has the potential to be incredibly harmful because it does away with important lines.”

True enough. But there’s much more to this than specific scandal, much more than further evidence of how dysfunctional the devout can be. We analyze individual cases, the life of one politician or one TV star, looking from one tree to the next without ever seeing the forest. Without ever realizing we should start talking about the tremendous toll that sexual and physical abuse takes on our general society right now, today, and into the foreseeable future. The true scandal isn’t what Dennis Hastert might have done to boys at Yorkville High School or what Josh Duggar did to five girls. The scandal is how frequently this sort of thing, and far worse, happens.

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

Yesterday I reported on the 1 year jail sentence of Menachem Tewel (aka Mendy Tevel) on charges of oral sex with a minor. Jewish Community Watch has posted the text he used in making a statement to the court just before sentencing. The victim, now a married young adult, spoke eloquently about the persistent harm of abuse including PTSD, difficulties in intimacy and other after effects.

He also spoke about the various attempts to intimidate him out of going forward in pressing his charges. According to his statement:

I’ve been cheered for by many and harassed by many. It seems everyone I met, had their 2 cents to add. Some felt I was doing the right thing and was a hero and others felt that if the defendant went to jail, he would surely be killed and that would be on my conscience. Some even went as far as to call me and my family ‘murderers’.

During the last few months leading up this day, some have tried to threaten or bribe me to drop the charges. I was offered $200,000 to sign documents stating that I consented to and requested the sexual activity and therefore it was not abuse. Others have tried the other approach, threatening me that they have 4 girls willing to testify that I raped them and they will come forward after the sentencing. I have been threatened to have my name smeared publicly in our community to the point that my wife and I would “literally” be unable to walk the streets. Some have gone as far as to approach my wife and attempt to convince her to leave me.

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NEW YORK
Jewish Community Watch

Posted on June 9, 2015

My name is …….. …… and I am the victim of sexual abuse. The man who abused me is named Mendel. I met him when he was my dorm counselor at a boy’s yeshiva. He took advantage of the position of authority he had over me and used it to physically and sexually abuse me. I went through horrific ordeals at his hands that has left me scarred until this day.

One way in which I’ve coped with the abuse was to drink alcohol. Some even mistook me for an alcoholic when in fact drinking was just a way I drowned out the pain of my experiences. Over the last few years, I’ve met many people who were also sexually abused and victimized at the hands of someone else. It happens way more than many of us would like to believe. I’ve also found out that the challenges I’ve dealt with are very typical of victims of sexual abuse.

For example, I often have flashbacks, sleepless nights or nightmares. At times, and this is very personal but I feel like I must say it, it is difficult for me to be intimate with my wife. It can trigger a flashback I am absolutely powerless to stop. This greatly effects our marriage but I am lucky to have a strong and supportive wife who has stood lovingly by my side throughout this ordeal.

On numerous occasions, she has had to wake up to me having a full blown panic attack in my sleep. I know these are common symptoms for victims of abuse but that does not make it any easier to deal with.

Sometimes, when leaving my home, I am fearful that I may bump into my abuser, Mendel, while walking. After all, we grew up on the same street and his Family live nearby to my own.

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CHILE
ACI Prensa

[The Community of the Schoenstatt Fathers in Chile issued a statement in which they announced the start of a canonical process after the “indictment against Father Francisco Mendez for allegations of abuse of authority and sexual abuse.]

SANTIAGO, 09 Jun. 15 / 11:04 pm (ACI).- La Comunidad de los Padres de Schoenstatt en Chile emitió un comunicado en el que informó del inicio de un proceso canónico tras la “acusación formal contra el padre Francisco Basáñez Méndez por situaciones de abuso de autoridad y abuso sexual, que habrían ocurrido entre 2002 y 2005”.

En el comunicado, con fecha 3 de junio de 2015, se señala que la acusación fue “inmediatamente acogida, conforme a nuestros procedimientos y protocolos, y entre marzo y mayo de este año se realizó la investigación previa correspondiente para verificar la verosimilitud de estas acusaciones. Se tomaron, asimismo, las medidas cautelares necesarias y se dio aviso a la autoridad eclesiástica de la Arquidiócesis”.

La misiva fue publicada en el sitio web de los Padres de Schoenstatt y está firmada por su Superior Provincial, P. Mariano Irureta, quien sostiene que durante la investigación el sacerdote en cuestión “ha sido separado de toda actividad pública y pastoral. A partir del mes pasado, se ha dado comienzo al proceso canónico correspondiente, para determinar su responsabilidad en los abusos que se le imputan”.

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UNITED STATES
Roll to Disbelieve

by Captain Cassidy

We’re still reeling from the Duggar sex abuse scandal, but on the heels of it comes another involving Christian leaders totally misreading a child-abuse situation and handling it in the poorest, most tone-deaf way possible. Another day, another fundagelical scandal involving sex abuse. I know–weird, isn’t it? The group claiming a monopoly on morality and so busy trying to paint gay people as pedophiles eager to prey upon children seems to have a real problem with sheltering the sex abusers and attackers in their very own midst who are preying upon children. It’s just sooooo baffling!

A few days ago, a Christian woman attending a Dallas megachurch called The Village Church (TVC, which is a Southern Baptist group though they seem to be downplaying that like a lot of SBC churches are nowadays) discovered that her very very Christian husband was way into child pornography. And shockingly, that discovery was only the start of an unimaginable ordeal for her.

When she realized what her husband was doing, Karen Hinkley immediately applied for an annulment of the marriage–not a divorce, mind you; an annulment means that the marriage wasn’t actually valid in the first place. Even Catholic leaders are okay with annulments. The result of an annulment is that it’s as if the marriage never happened at all, and both parties are left as if they’d never married in the first place. That means any children born during the fraudulent union might suddenly find themselves illegitimate–which was the big problem for Catherine of Aragon when Henry VIII wanted an annulment from her; she didn’t want her daughter Mary to become a bastard–but otherwise it’s a pretty definitive statement about the original validity of a particular marriage contract.

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OHIO
News-Leader

by Briana Barker | Reporter Published: June 10, 2015

Northfield Center — A national group has asked Cleveland Catholic Diocese Bishop Richard Lennon to visit St. Barnabas Catholic Church to evaluate and “punish” the Rev. Ralph Wiatrowski for his support of a man convicted of child pornography related charges.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests stated in a letter to Bishop Lennon it released June 4 that “Wiatrowski must be publicly punished for trying to keep a convicted predator walking free, and for siding with a guilty friend over innocent children.”

The letter called for the discipline of the Rev. Wiatrowski for the letter he wrote April 13 asking the court for leniency on behalf of former Nordonia Hills School Board President Steve Bittel, who pleaded guilty in March to felony charges related to child pornography and a police standoff he initiated last September. The Rev. Wiatrowski had also appeared in court on Bittel’s behalf.

The Rev. Wiatrowski did not return calls by press time. He told the News Leader in May that he thinks his actions have been misconstrued.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Take a look at these two giant statues and see how identical they are — a giant statue of John Paul II in Mexico and a giant statue of Julius Caesar in Rome. They have identical stance and hand gestures. Almost all statues of John Paul II have this stance and gesture of Emperor Caesar. The Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team who created the 27 years papacy and sudden sainthood of John Paul II is copycatting ancient statues of the Caesars who were the self-proclaimed Roman deities of the Roman Empire. All roads lead to Rome – so giant statues of Emperor Cesar was in every country, every temple and every roadside of countries that Rome conquered. And these giant statues of the Roman emperor and deity – all lead to Rome.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Andrew Hamilton | 10 June 2015

In my early years of secondary school there was a very fine footballer in the senior team of another school. I had never met him, but hated him with a passion. For me he was the embodiment of evil: came from a snobs school, had a non Anglo-Irish name, represented the wrongs inflicted on Ireland, ran rings around our team, and was a filthy player.

I later recognised that he was an unassuming young man who was scrupulously fair in his play. But that was later. In boyhood hatred created its object out of all the prejudices that lay to hand.

This memory returned in recent weeks when reading of the constant booing and vilification of Adam Goodes, and reading some of the opinion pieces on the Ballarat sexual abuse.

Goodes, already marked as the enemy by rival tribes, either because of his high skills or his fearless representation of an unpopular cause, became invested with racial prejudices, suspicions of unfairness, and imputations of self-righteousness, and so a target for hatred. He is no longer a person but a representative of evil, and so what can you do but boo and execrate?

Unless, of course, he joins your tribe.

Tribal hatred in football in Australia is unattractive, but pretty harmless. Supporters generally don it when they go to the ground and divest themselves of it when they leave. But they always reveal something of themselves in their conduct.

What the Royal Commission laid out in Ballaarat was horrifying and aborrent.

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OHIO
Gospel Herald

By SUZETTE GUTIERREZ-CACHILA (NEWS@GOSPELHERALD.COM) Jun 09, 2015

Seth Oiler, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Newark, Ohio, committed suicide last month after confessing that he had an adulterous affair with a church staff. He took his own life in the parsonage where he lived with his wife and children.

Oiler reportedly met with Bishop Gregory Palmer and “confessed to a sexual misconduct with an adult in the congregation.” The pastor then requested for a voluntary leave of absence.

“He agreed with the bishop that stepping aside from his current appointment at First United Methodist Church was best in order to provide a time of counseling for himself and his family,” said Lisa Streight, communications director for the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church, in a statement published in the Newark Advocate.

After Oiler’s confession, the church decided to extend support to him by continuing to give his salary and letting him and his family stay in the parsonage temporarily. The news of his suicide came as a shock to the church and the community.

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CALIFORNIA
Imperial Valley Press

By JULIO MORALES Staff Writer, Copy Editor

Posted on Jun 10, 2015

A 47-year-old El Centro resident and bishop of Second Baptist Church in El Centro was arrested by authorities for allegedly communicating with a minor for the purposes of committing a lewd act.

Mark Anderson was booked into Imperial County jail Saturday evening following an investigation by Brawley police detectives. A 14-year-old female had alerted authorities Friday evening of having received inappropriate sexual communications from him, a Brawley Police Department press release stated.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
10 JUN 2015

An Anglican diocese in Victoria has voted to become a company so child abuse survivors will know exactly who to sue if they launch a case against the church.

Wangaratta is the third Anglican diocese in Victoria to make the decision to incorporate.

Ballarat and Bendigo have already voted to make the change and the diocese of Melbourne will vote on whether to do so in the next few weeks.

The Victorian decisions cut through debates about the legal status of Anglican and Catholic churches in sex abuse law suits.

David Parsons, a legal adviser to Wangaratta said the decision to become a discrete legal entity was made at a recent meeting of the diocesan synod – the governing body – which covers 60 Anglican congregations in north-east Victoria.

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OHIO
News-Leader

by Briana Barker | Reporter Published: June 10, 2015

Northfield Center — A national group has asked Cleveland Catholic Diocese Bishop Richard Lennon to visit St. Barnabas Catholic Church to evaluate and “punish” the Rev. Ralph Wiatrowski for his support of a man convicted of child pornography related charges.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests stated in a letter to Bishop Lennon it released June 4 that “Wiatrowski must be publicly punished for trying to keep a convicted predator walking free, and for siding with a guilty friend over innocent children.”

The letter called for the discipline of the Rev. Wiatrowski for the letter he wrote April 13 asking the court for leniency on behalf of former Nordonia Hills School Board President Steve Bittel, who pleaded guilty in March to felony charges related to child pornography and a police standoff he initiated last September. The Rev. Wiatrowski had also appeared in court on Bittel’s behalf.

The Rev. Wiatrowski did not return calls by press time. He told the News Leader in May that he thinks his actions have been misconstrued.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Hillary Clinton Benefits From Errors, of US Bishops and the Pope’s Cardinals Council and Billionaire Donors, on Fixing the Pope’s Major Messes on Child Abuse, Gay Marriage and Contraception (Obamacare)

For over three decades, the Vatican and US bishops have been close political allies of the US Republican party and its “low tax/lower regulation/least safety net” billionaire donors. For over two of those decades, the Vatican and its US bishops have had fundamental disagreements with the US Democratic party’s most prominent woman and current leading presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, as noted here.

Ironically, Hillary Clinton now appears to be benefitting considerably from the multiple “messes” that the US bishops and both Pope Francis’ elite Council of Cardinals (C9) and billionaire donors have, in effect, evidently exacerbated by their many errors and omissions. These messes relate to (A) continuing priest child sexual abuse under unaccountable and stonewalling bishops’ noses, (B) opposition to same sex civil marriages, and (C) opposition to free contraception under Obamacare that contributes both to family poverty and to global warming through unwanted overpopulation.

The pope needs to re-assess in light, among other things, of the recent criminal cases relating to former US House Speaker, Dennis Hastert, and Minneapolis bishops. The recent image of Hastert, once two steps away from the US presidency, pleading Not Guilty in a Chicago Federal court should cause many in the Catholic hierarchy to reflect and reform, no? No one is now above the law, not even the pope!

It is likely only a matter of time before the media and prospective voters ask whether the allegations in Chicago about Hastert’s “secret side” and in Minneapolis about alleged cover-ups of priest child abuse by Fr. Kevin McDonough, brother of President Obama’s Chief of Staff, were factors in the Federal government’s currently inexplicable failure for years to investigate the epidemic of institutional child sexual abuse in the US, especially in the Catholic Church, as Australia, Ireland, Canada, the UK and many other nations are now doing?

Protecting child abusers turns off most modern voters. Opposing civil same sex marriage also turns off a growing majority of these voters, as recent US polls and the Irish Catholic vote make very clear. Opposing contraception and Obamacare is also a “vote loser”, especially with the millions of US voters who would lose their new health insurance if Obamacare is invalidated by the US Supreme Court.

It is no surprise that many US Republican political leaders privately hope the US Supreme Court will soon declare same sex marriage to be a constitutionally protected right. These Republicans fear the same sex marriage trap. Many Republicans, and likely several of the politically astute conservative US Supreme Court justices who want their successors to be appointed soon by a conservative Republican US president, now realize that Republicans likely can only win the 2016 US elections (and thereby control the selection of future US Supreme Court justices) by losing on the Obamacare and same sex marriage cases soon to be decided at the US Supreme Court. President Obama seems to understand all of this as well, which may be why he is reaching out to Catholics on health care.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 8 June 2015)

Cardinal George Pell is claiming now that he has “helped” the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse victims. Therefore, let’s look at how Pell treated one of the church’s victims — a former altar boy, John Ellis. Cardinal Pell (as head of the Sydney Catholic archdiocese) instigated the archdiocese’s legal battle against John Ellis, according to evidence and documents presented to Australia’s child-abuse Royal Commission. Pell’s legal victory in 2007 (known as the “Ellis defence”) now forces church-victims to accept a discounted in-house “Towards Healing” settlement instead of suing for proper compensation, the Commission was told. And this Broken Rites article demonstrates that John Ellis was not the only victim of his abuser, Sydney priest Father Aidan Duggan.

John Ellis was thrice abused

According to statements and documents given to at the Royal Commission, the Sydney archdiocese victimised John Ellis three times:

The first abuse: In 1974 the Sydney archdiocese recruited Father Aidan Duggan (from a religious order in Britain) and appointed him to a Sydney parish (Bass Hill), where it gave him easy access to a 13-year-old altar boy, John Ellis. Duggan, who had been a serial child-abuser in Britain, immediately began using his priestly authority to sexually abuse John Ellis, and this happened on church premises. As often happens in church-abuse cases, the church culture intimidated John Ellis into remaining silent about the abuse. This secrecy disrupted John Ellis’s adolescent development and his later life.

The second abuse: In 2002, when he was aged 41, John Ellis told the Sydney archdiocese about how his life had been damaged. He sought an acknowledgement about this church-abuse, plus some support in addressing the damage. But (according to evidence at the Royal Commission in 2014) Archbishop George Pell behaved evasively, traumatising John Ellis further. Pell finally accepted that John Ellis was a victim of church sexual abuse but refused him compensation, offerng him only a discounted “pastoral” settlement (commonly known as a “Towards Healing” settlement). The draft settlement document stated that this settlement was being offered by:

1. George Pell (as the head of the Sydney archdiocese) and
2. the trustees of the archdiocese.
This document would require Mr Ellis to give up his right to sue the archdiocese for proper compensation. Mr Ellis refused to sign away this right.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

[Bishops’ Spring General Assembly In St. Louis Will Be Available By Web Stream, Social Media, Satellite Feed]

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will gather for their annual Spring General Assembly, June 10-12, in St. Louis. Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, USCCB president, will present a summary to the bishops on the consultation of U.S. dioceses for the 2015 Synod on the Family. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap., will give an update on the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, which Pope Francis will attend on his September Apostolic Journey to the United States.

Alice and Jeffrey Heinzen of the Diocee of La Crosse, Wisconsin, will give one of three presentations by married couples on marriage and family. The Heinzens were observers to the 2014 Extraordinary Synod on the Family. The other presenters are Lucia and Ricardo Luzondo, directors of Renovación Familiar Ministries, and Claire and John Grabowski, Ph.D., members of the Pontifical Council for the Family. Curtis Martin, founder and CEO of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), will speak on messaging the Gospel to young people.

Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Communications, will unveil new digital resources available to U.S. bishops and dioceses. Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, will lead a discussion on themes associated with the anticipated encyclical by Pope Francis on ecology. Archbishop Wenski will also give an update on a planned 2017 convocation by the Bishops’ Working Group on the Life and Dignity of the Human Person.

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, chairman of the Subcommittee on the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, will present on the Conference’s marriage policy efforts ahead of the anticipated decision by the U.S Supreme Court. Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio L. Elizondo, MSpS, of Seattle will give an update on USCCB’s ongoing work in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. Bishop Elizondo, who chairs the Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America and the Committee on Migration, will join Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Orange, California, for an update on immigration reform.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houson, USCCB vice president, will provide an update on the work to update the bishops’ quadrennial statement on political responsibility, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, the bishops’ liaison to World Youth Day, will give an update on World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow. Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, New York, will report on the Lay Ecclesial Ministry Summit, to be held in St. Louis ahead of the bishops’ meeting.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Who do you believe and would support and follow today? Who is right?

A 21st century contemporary secular American county young attorney — or — a self-claimed infallible pope of the Medieval Ages whose Papal Bull is still being followed by 1.2 billion Catholics today?

Behold! Ramsey County Attorney John J. Choi versus Pope Boniface VIII ex-cathedra Unam Sanctam !

So what’s the big deal? What’s different this time? Why does it seem suddenly so serious and it feels so authentically different – in the gut – as if this time it’s for real?

For more than 10 years, we’ve seen and heard it all, from Boston to Los Angeles – 3 billion dollars payout to victims in the US – to Ireland, across Europe, to the UN in Switzerland, now it’s on-going Down Under in Australia, all kinds of civil secular courts trying to hound and nail the Roman Catholic Church for its heinous bestial crimes against children but it seems to always get away – unscathed.

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CANADA
CBC News

A court ruling has compelled the federal government to search RCMP records for evidence of abuse at Bishop Horden Indian Residential School in Moose Factory, Ont.

The ruling comes after a group of former students asked an Ontario Superior Court to ensure the federal government was doing all that is required to search for and disclose evidence related to residential schools.

The nine former students involved in the case attended Bishop Horden residential school in Moose Factory, Ont. in the 1960s and say they suffered physical or sexual abuse.

“The finding that the federal officials have been in breach of their documentary disclosure obligations is very important to the clients I am representing,” said lawyer Fay Brunning in an email.

“If a child was abused and someone reported it to the police, of course documents were generated.”

The former students had claimed the federal government is obliged to provide information about the former residential school, the people that worked there and any charges or convictions on record.

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NEW YORK
TWC News

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A local church is speaking out after one of its former church-group leaders was indicted on sex abuse charges.

Roy Battle, 36, is accused of having inappropriate sexual relations with two teenage boys.

Battle was a youth ministry volunteer between 2005 and 2012 before moving to California. The Open Door Baptist Church says it has been working with the Rochester police department and Monroe County district attorney’s office since allegations surfaced in 2014.

The church says Battle, like all Youth Ministry workers, go through background checks and receive training to adhere to a strict code of conduct. It goes on to say Battle was never as a paid church staff member nor was ever considered a Pastor.

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

The Rabbinical Council of America and Yeshiva University were critical of Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt’s practice of mentoring boys and young men in extended mutually nude interactions in showers and saunas. However, the Orthodox Union (OU) used Rosenblatt for rabbinic mentoring events starting in 2009 and 2010. These events ran through 2013 but it is not clear if he was used for all of the remaining events, though the OU did not claim otherwise when I inquired.

According to a 2010 email by OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Steven Weil,

In Toronto I attended a three-day conference for over 30 rabbis from large, medium and small shuls across North America. This is part of a regular series of gatherings organized by the OU, which occur on-site in numerous locations; last year, the rabbis met in Chicago, while next year’s conclave is planned IY”H for Kansas City.

Many of the rabbis who participate in this group are relatively new to the pulpit (within the past decade, but most newer). They are mentored by more experienced rabbis, foremost among them Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt of the Riverdale Jewish Center. This event was held at Shaarei Shomayim, following which, I was privileged to remain behind in order to serve as Shabbat scholar-in-residence. (emphasis added).

In a reply, OU spokesman *Mayer Fertig wrote, “Rabbi Rosenblatt was featured at the request of the participants, as were other guest speakers.” (See full statement below).

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

To show that the church’s abuse and cover up crisis is “much more widespread than anyone realizes,” SNAP is making available its first-ever, on-line virtual “Predator Priest Tour” of St. Louis’ central corridor. It exposes the names and photos of dozens of child molesting clerics and where they work/ed and live/d.

SNAP is inviting the hundreds of US bishops, who are meeting this week at the Hyatt, to watch it and urging them to make similar information available to their own parishioners. And SNAP is urging St. Louisans to watch it and circulate it, especially to local Catholics.

Each of the nearly 50 clerics have been publicly accused of abuse through criminal prosecutions, civil lawsuits, church disclosures, financial settlements, or mainstream news reports. About ten of the clerics, who were sent here from elsewhere, have never been exposed as having been in St. Louis.

The tour includes almost 20 accused predators from a dozen states (one from MI, WV, KS, WA, IN, NY, PA, IA, CT and two or more from IL, WI, and MN).

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. .Noted Catholic church observer and blogger Rocco Palmo reports that “in his new job as catechesis czar for Pope Francis’ Evangelicism panel ,” German prelate Tebartz Van-Elst is in our town advising some of the 200+ bishops who are meeting this week at the downtown Hyatt. Van-Elst is better known as “The Bishop of Bling,” after he generated world-wide headlines by spending $43 million renovating his mansion. (The papal pick was also fined for perjury having sworn he and a colleague flew coach to India when, in fact, they’d flown first class).

ON THE EVE of the U.S. Conference of Bishops annual confab here, SNAP is posting online a virtual “Predator Priest Tour” concentrating on about 50 “proven, admitted or credibly accused molesting clerics” who lived or worked (still do) in the central corridor. . .

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By MARY ALEXANDER June 10, 2015

SURVIVORS of child sexual abuse will be able to detail their experiences at private sessions with a royal commissioner in the Warrnambool district.

It will also hold a community information forum in Warrnambool on Wednesday, June 17, for people interested in learning more about the commission’s work.

Commissioner Justice Jennifer Coate will provide an overview of the commission and answer questions from the public.

Royal commission CEO Philip Reed said the community forum was open to anyone who had an interest in the royal commission.

“We particularly encourage people who have been affected by child sexual abuse in the care of an institution to attend,” Mr Reed said.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jun. 9, 2015

ROME A group of some 20 American community organizers and union leaders are holding meetings with Vatican officials this week to sway Pope Francis into addressing a number of lingering national social justice issues in his upcoming visit to the United States.

Organized by the national faith-based action network PICO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the leaders are meeting with four pontifical councils, the head of two pontifical academies, leadership of two global religious orders, and the executive director of Caritas Internationalis.

Among the key issues they are asking officials to advise the pope to consider discussing with President Barack Obama or during his address to Congress: immigration reform, economic injustice for low-wage workers, pervasive racism in U.S. institutions and society, and mass incarceration.

In an interview Monday at the beginning of their visit, five of the organizers laid out the specific requests they might make to Vatican officials and what brought them to make the trip from various parts of the U.S.

“Pope Francis’ words and example really resonate with people,” said Joseph Fleming, who helped organize the group as the Catholic engagement coordinator for PICO.

The pope, Fleming said, is “speaking to a spiritual hunger that people feel and a sense that things are out of balance. There’s growing economic insecurity and pressures on families that are not being spoken to and addressed.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESSA AKERMAN THE AUSTRALIAN JUNE 10, 2015

The handling of child sexual abuse by Australia’s most prestigious private school, Geelong Grammar, could be aired for the first time after the royal commission into child sex abuse called for victims to come forward.

The call came as it was ­reported yesterday that an ­exclusive Melbourne school, Scotch College, could face fresh claims of abuse of its students.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse yesterday asked anyone who was sexually abused or knew of sexual abuse at Geelong Grammar to contact the commission.

In 2005 former Geelong Grammar staff member Phillipe Trutmann pleaded guilty to abusing more than 40 boys under the age of 16 while he was working as a boarding house ­assistant at the school’s Highton campus between 1985-95. The charges included 19 counts of gross ­indecency, 22 counts of ­indecent acts with a child and one count of possessing child pornography. He was sentenced to ­6½ years’ jail.

In a letter sent to school community members last month, principal Stephen Meek wrote that Geelong Grammar had provided the commission with ­material relating to conduct by some former staff members since the 1960s.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Lexi Belculfine / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A former Homestead bishop who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a boy will spend up to nine years longer in prison for violating his probation by abusing another child, an Allegheny County Common Pleas judge decided Monday.

“This man, with an ankle [monitoring] bracelet on his leg, was still molesting children,” the second boy’s mother said during Duane Youngblood’s probation violation hearing.

The former bishop at Higher Call World Outreach Church will be incarcerated for 54 to 108 months for violating probation, Judge David R. Cashman said.

“He has lied and he has scammed and he has conned me from the minute he stood before me,” the judge said.

That sentence will begin once Youngblood, 48, completes a 16- to 48-month jail term imposed in March by Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos after Youngblood pleaded guilty to corruption of minors in December.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune Review

By Patrick Cloonan
Tuesday, June 9, 2015

The former pastor of a Homestead church was given additional jail time Monday for violating probation when he sexually abused two boys he was counseling.

At a probation/parole violation hearing Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman sentenced Duane E. Youngblood to 54 to 108 months in prison for violating terms Cashman set for probation on March 3, 2008.

At that time Cashman sentenced Youngblood, 48, of Wilkinsburg to a year of house arrest and seven years probation as part of a plea deal.

On Dec. 15, 2014, Youngblood pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony count of corruption of minors before Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos.

On March 10, Rangos sentenced Youngblood to 16 to 48 months in prison for sexually abusing two teenage boys he was counseling between 2009 and 2011.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Raw Story

DAVID EDWARDS
09 JUN 2015

A former Pennsylvania bishop who was sentenced to probation for sexually assaulting a child had his probation revoked this week after he was caught molesting another child.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, then-Higher Call World Outreach Church pastor Duane Youngblood was sentenced to probation in 2008 after he admitted sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy who he was supposed to be counseling.

In December, Youngblood was sentenced to serve up to 48 month in jail over allegations that he sexually assaulted another boy for more than 2 years during counseling sessions at the church.

And then on Monday, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman sentenced Youngblood to serve an additional 54 to 108 months for violating his probation.

“He has lied and he has scammed and he has conned me from the minute he stood before me,” Cashman said at Monday’s hearing. “A year after he was on probation, he faced new charges. The court has been misled, deceived and lied to so he could prey on children.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Catholic News

Rebecca Tinsley
Tuesday, June 9, 2015

“The Great Reformer: Francis and the making of a radical Pope”
by Austen Ivereigh, publisher: Allen & Unwin, 2105

A recent profile of Pope Francis in Der Spiegel* reports a Vatican whispering campaign against the Argentine pontiff. When Francis highlighted the pomp and ostentation of the clergy, it was “an unspoken declaration of war, especially against the Vatican Curia.” By challenging corruption in the Vatican bank, and ex-communicating Mafia bosses, Francis also confronted Rome’s unsavoury vested interests, the article suggests. Those plotting against Francis accuse him of caring little for tradition or theology, wondering if his “confusion” will abate by the Synod of Bishops in October.

This whispering campaign makes Austen Ivereigh’s biography of Jorge Bergoglio all the more timely.

The story of Bergoglio, as Ivereigh tells it, is also the story of Argentina. The reader must therefore be prepared for his rendering of the junta’s dirty war in the 1970s and 1980s, liberation theology, and the resulting splits within the Catholic Church. To this day Bergoglio is a divisive figure because of what he did, or did not do during the dirty war.

There is also much about Peronism, a political label that defies Anglo Saxon understanding of left and right. Hence it is too simple to label Pope Francis as a liberal or a conservative, when he should be viewed in the Argentine context.

Some commentators suggest the transformation of the authoritarian Bergoglio to the Francis who savages exploitative capitalism is due to a life-changing reassessment of his role during the dirty war. But Ivereigh carefully describes a more complex journey, where profound compassion has co-existed with a rejection of political extremes. Bergoglio was always more comfortable among the poor than the Church’s ideologues and intellectuals. He also preferred attending fiestas in the slums rather than cocktail parties because “the poor celebrate Christ, not themselves.”

Ivereigh conveys a wonderful sense of the keen, earnest, bright young Bergoglio, and the lower middle class Buenos Aires in which he grew up. He has surprised people all his life with his frugality, shunning the trappings of office, using public transportation, making his own phone calls, and cooking and cleaning for himself and colleagues who are unwell.

During the dirty war Bergoglio’s superiors instructed him to both protect Jesuits and assist the victims of the repression, which he did, at great risk to himself. “What he did not do was speak out publicly against the regime, but he could hardly have done so without sacrificing his objectives, for no obvious gain,” writes Ivereigh.

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

Victims invite bishops on “virtual tour”
Group launches new on-line “slide show”
It shows where 50 predator priests worked/lived
Many of them were sent here from other dioceses
Ten of them have never been “outed” in St. Louis before
SNAP: “Public & prelates should see how extensive the crisis is”
And bishops should make similar disclosures to their flock, SNAP says

WHAT
Outside the hotel where 250 US Catholic bishops are meeting, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will try to hand them fliers. The leaflets urge bishops to

–take an on-line virtual “tour” of places where 50 St. Louis predator priests live/d and work/ed, and
–make similar disclosures to back home: the names, photos, whereabouts and work histories of all child molesting clerics who’ve been in their dioceses (especially ones from out-of-town or out-of-state and whose local presence has likely gone unnoticed).

WHEN
TODAY, Tuesday, June 9 from 4:45 p.m. until 6:15 p.m.

WHERE
On the northeast corner of Chestnut & Fourth, outside the Hyatt, in downtown St. Louis MO

WHO
Three-five adults who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (including two of the organization’s long-time leaders)

VISUALS
They will also hold signs and childhood photos.

WHY
To show that the church’s abuse and cover up crisis is “much more widespread than anyone realizes,” SNAP is making available its first-ever, on-line virtual “Predator Priest Tour” of St. Louis’ central corridor. It exposes the names and photos of dozens of child molesting clerics and where they work/ed and live/d.

SNAP is inviting the hundreds of US bishops, who are meeting this week at the Hyatt, to watch it and urging them to make similar information available to their own parishioners. And SNAP is urging St. Louisans to watch it and circulate it, especially to local Catholics.

Each of the nearly 50 clerics have been publicly accused of abuse through criminal prosecutions, civil lawsuits, church disclosures, financial settlements, or mainstream news reports. About ten of the clerics, who were sent here from elsewhere, have never been exposed as having been in St. Louis.

The tour includes almost 20 accused predators from a dozen states (one from MI, WV, KS, WA, IN, NY, PA, IA, CT and two or more from IL, WI, and MN).

Some prelates, SNAP admits, grudgingly and belatedly disclose partial information about predator priests when forced to do so. But few (if any) of them, SNAP says, voluntarily release such information or

Include “the level of detail that really helps parishioners, police, prosecutors, parents and the public protect kids from predators.”

Such disclosure is crucial, SNAP says, because “it takes only a few seconds for a predator to shove his tongue in a girl’s mouth or his hand down a boy’s pants, potentially causing a lifetime of serious harm to an innocent child.” It’s also important, the group feels, because most clergy sex offenders are “well-educated and shrewd, few of them are ever prosecuted and, if convicted, few end up behind bars for long, so they are particularly dangerous and apt to molest again.”

Because several church-run housing and treatment centers are in the St. Louis area (including ones in Franklin and Jefferson County), SNAP contends that this archdiocese “has been and is a ‘magnet’ for predator priests, attracting a disproportionate number of them from across the US,” some of whom stay in St. Louis and work in or for church institutions.

The tour will be posted on line later today.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 9

Statement by Verne Wagner of Duluth, Northeast MN SNAP director ( 218-340-1277, lwagsmn@yahoo.com )

On Friday, the St. Paul archdiocese was charged with six offenses. They stem from accusations that top church officials ignored or hid suspicions and actual reports of sexual misdeeds by a now-convicted predator priest.

Duluth’s current bishop was involved in this alarming case. At this point, no Catholic staff person faces individual charges. But we hope that changes. But Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said there was “a disturbing institutional and systemic pattern of behavior committed by the highest levels of leadership of the archdiocese… over the course of decades.”

And Choi said his investigation is “on-going.” So it’s crucial that more victims, witnesses and whistleblowers keep stepping forward with information or suspicions about clergy sex crimes and cover up anywhere in Minnesota.

We hope prosecutors will pursue Duluth Bishop Paul Sirba for his role in this disturbing crimes of Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer and other Twin Cities abuse cover ups.

According to records – from the church and the St. Paul prosecutor, a priest was concerned about Fr. Wehmeyer’s actions around kids. Here’s how Commonweal, a respected national Catholic publication, reports the story:

[Commonweal]

“(That priest) contacted the vicar general, then-Fr. Paul Sirba, to see whether he had been in touch with the mother of the boys who camped with Wehmeyer. If Sirba didn’t, he would, the priest warned. Sirba said he would speak with her.

In a September 29, 2009, memo, Sirba informed (Archbishop John) Nienstedt of Wehmeyer’s DUI charge. He explained that Wehmeyer had been under the supervision of the Clergy Review Board, Tim Rourke (the POMS monitor), and his therapist. Nienstedt replied that in fact Wehmeyer was not being supervised by the Clergy Review Board or Rourke. In a memo sent the next day, Sirba told Nienstedt that Wehmeyer “has not been faithful to the program,” and that Bishop (Lee) Piché suggested he speak with (Fr. Kevin) McDonough about the case, because he had worked with Wehmeyer about sexual-boundary issues before. Sirba reported that he was waiting for a return call from McDonough. Prosecutors found no evidence that McDonough replied.

In October, Wehmeyer phoned Nienstedt to apologize for the DUI. Nienstedt wrote in a memo that the cleric seemed repentant. He determined that “this had been a good lesson” for Wehmeyer, and took no disciplinary action against him. Nienstedt would later testify that he never saw the police report, and that no one told him Wehmeyer had been trying to pick up teenagers. He did not read Wehmeyer’s court-ordered chemical health assessment until June 2012—three years after the incident.

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MINNESOTA
Howie Blog

St. Louis County Attorney Mark Rubin today made the following statement addressing the issues of the reporting of allegations of sexual abuse by clergy in the Duluth Diocese and, specifically, the matter involving Father Cornelius Kelleher:

“The sexual abuse of a child is a felony offense. Jurisdiction to prosecute the case after investigation by law enforcement lies with the County Attorney’s Office. To enable us to hold offenders accountable and to protect our children, response to a report of sexual abuse needs to be compassionate and according to the law.

All allegations involving the sexual abuse of children by a priest or anyone, should always be reported. Allegations of sexual misconduct occurring within three years of the disclosure are required to be reported to either law enforcement or social services under the Minnesota Reporting of Maltreatment of Minors Law. These agencies then cross-report with each other. All other incidents should be reported, as they involve the alleged violation of criminal statutes. The issue of whether the statute of limitations has expired should be left up to the investigating agency. This is what should be done whether or not the victim wishes to remain anonymous. If there is any doubt about whether reporting is mandatory, the appropriate action is to report the matter to the responsible law enforcement agency or social services.

Earlier this year after conducting an internal investigation with the assistance of a professional, independent investigator, the Diocese of Duluth disclosed it had received from an adult in 2012, a credible allegation of sexual abuse by Father Cornelius Kelleher which abuse had occurred many years ago. The reporting victim requested that her privacy be respected and as a result, the Diocese did not report the allegation to law enforcement or social services. However, the Diocese did take immediate appropriate action to remove Father Kelleher from where he was residing as requested by the victim and has, pursuant to Church law, prohibited him from further acting publicly as a priest.

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NEW YORK
Jewish Journal

by Jared Sichel

Nearly two years after his arrest in Beverly Hills on sexual abuse charges, Mendel Tevel was sentenced on June 8 in a Brooklyn court to one year in prison, a spokesperson with the Brooklyn district attorney’s office confirmed with the Jewish Journal.

On Apr. 24, Tevel pleaded guilty to two counts of a “criminal sexual act in the third degree,” which, as described by the New York penal code, constitutes anal or oral sex with someone who a minor or is otherwise incapable of providing legal consent. Upon his arraignment in late 2013, he pleaded not guilty to 37 counts of sexual abuse—most either first-degree or third-degree—and was released on $100,000 bail.

Tevel, who is now 31 or 32, was arrested in October 2013 in Beverly Hills and then extradited to New York and charged for sexually abusing a minor there in 2007. His arrest came two months after the Journal published an investigative report in which four of Tevel’s alleged victims described sexual abuse that they said occurred from about 1995 to about 2004, when their ages ranged from 6 to 14.

Allegations against Tevel first became public in October 2012, when Meyer Seewald, the founder of Jewish Community Watch (JCW), listed him on the group’s website on its “Wall of Shame,” which spotlights people JCW’s internal review board believes are sexual predators within Orthodox communities.

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POLSKA
RP

Episkopat oficjalnie przedstawił dokumenty dot. procedur w sprawach o molestowanie seksualne nieletnich, które od marca obowiązują w polskim Kościele. “Rzeczpospolita” jako pierwsza pisała o nich dwa tygodnie temu.

Nowe wytyczne, które biskupi oficjalnie przyjęli w czerwcu 2014 r. watykańska Kongregacja Nauki Wiary zatwierdziła na początku marca tego roku.

Zakładają one, że biskup może natychmiast zawiesić księdza podejrzanego o molestowanie i rozpocząć postępowanie wyjaśniające. Ofiary molestowania mają otrzymać pomoc duchową, psychologiczną i prawną. Ofiara musi zostać poinformowana o możliwości oraz sposobach złożenia doniesienia o popełnieniu przestępstwa.

Jak informuje biskup Artur Miziński, sekretarz generalny episkopatu w prace nad dokumentem zaangażowani byli prawnicy, psycholodzy, terapeuci. – Były to głównie osoby świeckie, którym jestem winien wielkie podziękowanie – precyzował abp Wojciech Polak, który koordynował wszystkie prace.

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POLAND
The News

Primate of Poland Archbishop Wojciech Polak took part in a conference on Tuesday concerning reforms on how the Church is dealing with child abuse within its ranks.

Recently enforced regulations on how the Church combats child abuse were presented at the conference, in two separate documents.

Father Adam Żak, coordinator of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate’s Department for the Protection of Children, said that the documentation “gives everyone – the public, believers, the clergy, but most of all victims – certainty regarding the law, the activities of the Church, and the principles upon which it is based.”

As of March 2015, a priest suspected of child abuse must be immediately suspended and psychological aid provided for an alleged victim, who is immediately informed of his or her right to file a complaint with a local prosecutor. “

The Church is interested in purifying itself,” Father Żak stressed.

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NEW YORK
Jewish Daily Forward

At least 44 members of a New York synagogue are calling for the resignation of their rabbi, whose custom of inviting young men to meet with him naked in a sauna has brought extensive media attention.

In an email petition sent Sunday, members of the Riverdale Jewish Center, an Orthodox congregation in the Bronx, urged Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt to resign, the Riverdale Press reported.

“We in Riverdale have had a grueling week, trying to manage the crisis that has engulfed our community. It is now clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that our rabbi of almost thirty years, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, is unfortunately but irrevocably unable to lead our community,” the email says, according to the Press.

The petition comes in the aftermath of a recent New York Times article about Rosenblatt’s longtime custom of inviting male congregants, 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.

At various times Rosenblatt, 58, was told by rabbinic bodies or his congregation’s board to limit such activity. The Bronx District Attorney’s office said it was looking into whether Rosenblatt broke the law.

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MINNESOTA
The Daily Beast

Justin Glawe

Jeff Anderson’s fight for justice has nearly bankrupted the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and helped bring criminal charges against its leaders over sexual abuse–and he’s not done yet.
“Greg” walked into Jeff Anderson’s St. Paul office one day in 1983 and began telling a story that was then virtually unheard of: he’d been raped by a priest as a child.

Father Thomas Adamson was the culprit, Greg said, a priest who would eventually admit to abusing children throughout his 30-year career. Greg couldn’t turn to the police, his family, or his church so he sought Anderson’s help. Over the next 30 years, starting with Greg’s case, Anderson won a series of devastating lawsuits against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, making a career out of outing priests for their misdeeds.

Partly as a result of that dogged pursuit, criminal charges were filed last week against the archdiocese, an unthinkable development to victims of abuse that span the better part of four decades. But it all started that day in 1983, with a man named Greg whose true identity Anderson has protected to this day.

“I went to the police and they said they couldn’t do anything because of the statute of limitations,” Anderson said, recounting his first foray into the murky legal territory of clergy sexual abuse. “Then I went to the archdiocese and asked them what they were going to do. They said ‘nothing,’ so I sued them.”

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NEW YORK
Legislative Gazette

By JACKIE DAVIS, Gazette Staff Writer

More than 60 Assembly members are asking their leader for a chance to vote on the Child Victims Act as the session winds to a close.

Backed by 62 Assembly members, the Child Victims Act aims to eliminate criminal and civil statutes of limitation for those who have been sexually abused. A one-year “window” would also allow older victims who wish to revive their cases in civil courts where a previous statute of limitation has expired.

“There is no limit on what is a life-time of suffering and anguish for so many victims of child sexual abuse,” said Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, the bill’s sponsor and long-time champion. “That is why there should be no limit on the ability of victims and society to prosecute abusers and no limit on holding accountable those institutions and organizations that have deliberately protected and hidden pedophiles.”

According to a recent FBI study, one in five children are abused before the age of 18. Of these crimes, only 10 percent of the abuses are reported. Many times the child knows and trusts the predator. Current New York law states that a victim of childhood sexual abuse has within five years after their eighteenth birthday to report the crime. If adopted as law, the Child Victims Act would allow victims to report the abuse and seek legal action whenever they are ready.

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NEW NERSEY
NJ.com

By Mai Fernandez

Imagine living in a state ranked in the bottom half of the country in protecting victims of child sexual abuse and letting molesters off the hook. Believe it or not, if New Jersey is your home, you live in such a state, according to an analysis of all 50 states by SOL-Reform.com. This doesn’t have to be the case. New Jersey should be leading the charge on this issue.

According to data from the Crimes Against Children Research Center, one in five girls and one in 20 boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. In more than half those cases, the child was abused by a trusted person, such as a family member, an athletic coach or a scoutmaster. Despite the prevalence, up to 90 percent of the cases are never reported.

It often takes years or even decades for victims to acknowledge, let alone discuss, their horrifying experience. Victims of childhood sexual abuse tend to suppress awareness of the abuse; they have a hard time connecting their dysfunction as adults to the abuse they suffered as children; and when they finally realize the connection, they have to gather the courage to act. Unfortunately, at that point, New Jersey law puts the burden on them by requiring that they prove why they didn’t sue earlier.

Adults victimized as children in New Jersey only have two years to file civil suit from the time they first realize the sexual abuse damaged them. This small and inadequate window fails to account for the psychological scars and trauma that interfere with victims’ ability to remember the abuse, realize its effect and come forward. Many states have adopted bills that significantly lengthen or even discard statutes of limitations for sexual abuse claims, and many other states are considering such legislation.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Virgilio Elizondo was ordained a priest of the San Antonio TX diocese in 1961. He has assisted in parishes, pastored a cathedral, was chaplain of a boys’ day and boarding school, has served as dean of studies and vice-rector of a seminary, and was founder and president of San Antonio’s Mexican-American Cultural Center. Elizondo has gained prominence though his career as a professor of Latino theology, and has been called the founder of Latino theology in the United States. He has been a Notre Dame University faculty member since 1999. In in a civil lawsuit filed May 22, 2015 Elizondo was accused of sexually abusing a male minor in 1983 in San Antonio. His accuser said the abuse occurred when he sought help from Elizondo for sexual abuse he said he had suffered by former seminarian and then Rev. Jesus Armando Dominguez. The lawsuit says Elizondo was driving the boy in a car when the boy told the Elizondo of the abuse by Dominguez, and that Elizondo reached over, kissed him and fondled him. Elizondo denies the abuse.

Ordained: 1961

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MINNESOTA
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho

On Friday, a Minnesota county attorney filed criminal charges against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, alleging that for years church leaders—including Archbishop John Nienstedt—failed to protect children from a priest who would eventually plead guilty to molesting children and possessing child pornography. Owing to its acts or omissions, according to prosecutors, the archdiocese endangered children by mishandling a series of warnings about Curtis Wehmeyer dating back to his seminary days. He applied to seminary in 1996 and was jailed in 2013. (Prosecutors also filed a civil petition alleging the same offenses.) “It is not only Curtis Wehmeyer who is criminally responsible for the harm caused [to his victims],” said Ramsey County Attorney John Choi during a press conference, “but it is the archdiocese as well.”

In a statement released late Friday, Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens apologized for the suffering of all victims of sexual abuse, and pledged to cooperate with civil authorities. Nienstedt did not make a public statement. But on Saturday, June 6, he sent a letter to Twin Cities priests commenting on the charges. “The events of the past twenty-four hours have been disturbing to me,” the archbishop wrote. While prosecutors “had not indicated their findings to us before noon this past Friday,” he continued, “my staff and I will continue to work with them closely and collaboratively to meet their concerns.” Nienstedt concluded: “As we celebrate the great feast of Corpus Christi, we acknowledge that the grace of the Holy Eucharist elevates us beyond our all too human nature so as to be united in the one Body of Christ.”

In late 2013, the archdiocese was plunged into scandal after Nienstedt’s former top canon lawyer went public with damning accounts of how the archdiocese had handled cases of accused priests—including Wehmeyer. In December of that year, Nienstedt himself was accused of groping an eighth-grader (he denies the allegation and has not been charged). Adding to the controversy, in July 2014 it came to light that Nienstedt was himself being investigated by an outside law firm—hired by the archdiocese—for multiple allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct with seminarians, priests, and other adult men. Nienstedt denies any wrongdoing. Following a series of sexual-abuse lawsuits, the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January. Amid calls for his resignation, Nienstedt has said that he will not step down.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse would like anyone who has information regarding child sexual abuse at Geelong Grammar School to contact the Royal Commission.

The Royal Commission is tasked with investigating how institutions, including schools, responded to allegations of child sexual abuse.

If you were sexually abused at Geelong Grammar School, or have any information about sexual abuse of a child at Geelong Grammar School, the Royal Commission would like to hear from you.

The identity of anyone that provides information will be protected and will be kept confidential. At this stage, no public hearing into Geelong Grammar School has been announced. If a hearing is announced at a later date, victims of child sexual abuse will not be compelled to give evidence if they do not wish to.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

LUCIE MORRIS-MARR HERALD SUN JUNE 09, 2015

VICTORIA’S most exclusive private boarding school, Geelong Grammar, is being investigated for child abuse.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has announced it would “like anyone who has information regarding child sexual abuse” at the school to come forward.

The school, whose fees are among the most expensive in the country at $34,000 for year 12, has some highly notable alumni including Prince Charles, Kerry Packer and novelist Peter Carey.

In a statement, the commission said: “If you were sexually abused at Geelong Grammar School, or have any information about sexual abuse of a child at Geelong Grammar School, the Royal Commission would like to hear from you.” …

Trutmann, a boarding house assistant at the Anglican co-educational school, abused eight to 13-year-old boys over a decade from 1985.

Mr Meek said the school would send the notice to former students and the school community and would also offer details of a counselling service.

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ARKANSAS
5 News Online

SPRINGDALE (KFSM)- The mayor of Springdale released a statement Monday (June 8) in response to suggestions of misconduct by Police Chief Kathy O’Kelley after the police department released an incident report regarding sexual molestation allegations that were made against Josh Duggar of “19 Kids & Counting.”

In his statement, Mayor Doug Sprouse writes:

“The City will not dignify suggestions of misconduct in this matter by Chief O’Kelley with any comment beyond labeling them as outrageous and categorically false. Chief O’Kelley is a dedicated public servant whose career in law enforcement has been committed to duty and the adherence to the law.”

The statement comes after former Springdale alderman Ray Dotson filed a complaint with the Civil Service Commission on June 2 regarding the release of the Duggar incident report. In his complaint, Dotson asks the commission to see if any laws have been broken.

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UNITED STATES
Salon

The editorial director of InTouch says there’s a whole lot more to say about the Duggars.

David Perel, who runs the magazine which broke the story about Josh Duggar’s sexual molestation of several sisters, told the Washington Post that they are not done yet.

“Do I have more information on the Duggars in general?” Perel said to the Post. “Yes, I’d say we have some significant things coming out.”

The Post also reconstructed where the Duggar story originated from — and suggested “a woman named Tandra Barnfield apparently was a helpful guide.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Tuesday, June 09, 2015

By Ann Cahill
European Correspondent

The Justice for Magdalenes group is gearing up to sue the State over the hundreds of women who died and were buried in mass — and often unmarked — graves all over the country.

The long-running scandal of women who were frequently imprisoned and forced to work because they were unmarried mothers was raised by the UN committee on economic and social rights in Geneva.

Two committee members did not appear to accept the Government’s claim that they had properly investigated the Magdalene laundries issue and that the women were not detained against their will.

The State quoted the London-based Irish Women Survivors Support Network as saying: “We hope that time is not wasted calling for more statutory inquiries or demanding yet more bureaucratic statutory processes.

“In their advanced years, the women have repeatedly told us they have no wish for conflict or confrontation.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Government representatives are facing a second day of questioning by a UN committee examining Ireland’s human rights mechanisms today.

A delegation is in Geneva to explain how the Government has complied with the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights.

A number of civil society organisations including Threshold, Atheist Ireland and Justice for Magdalenes Research, are also attending.

Yesterday, the Department of Justice was asked about reparations to survivors of Magdalene laundries, the system of direct provision for asylum seekers and abortion laws.

Dr Katherine O’Donnell, of the Justice for Magdalenes Research group, wants the Government to be reprimanded by the UN committee.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

A former Salvation Army church official accused of historic child sexual abuse over 25 years intends to plead not guilty.

William Edwin Steele, 71, from Thornlie briefly appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with four counts of indecent acts, three counts of indecent dealing with a boy under 14 years, two counts of indecent assault and one count of aggravated indecent assault.

His lawyer said he intended to fight the charges.

Outside court, Salvation Army spokesman Bruce Redman said the organisation was shocked by the charges.

He said the Salvation Army had been in contact with the alleged victims.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

BY SARAH MOTHERWELL AAP JUNE 09, 2015

A 71-YEAR-OLD man will fight allegations he sexually abused boys over three decades as a Salvation Army member, a West Australian court has heard.

WILLIAM Edwin Steele is accused of abusing boys aged between 11 and 18 from 1963 to 1989 when he was associated with several Perth churches.

Steele was a band member and assisted in organising trips during that time, police say.
It is also alleged Steele used a rented flat in South Perth where he encouraged the boys to engage in sexual behaviour with him.

Steele briefly appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday where his lawyer said he intended to fight the 10 charges.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

By Erin Edgemon | eedgemon@al.com
on June 08, 2015

A former Dallas County pastor accused of sexually assaulting a young family member pleaded guilty to rape and incest.

William Best, 48, was set to stand trial today on charges of sodomy, rape, sexual abuse and incest, court records show. He was originally arrested in April 2014. He was held on $2.5 million bond.

Court records show Best pleaded guilty to first-degree rape and incest today. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for rape and 10 years for incest.

Best formerly served as pastor of Living Waters Worship Center in Valley Grande for three years. He was fired shortly after his arrest.

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ALABAMA
New York Daily News

BY NINA GOLGOWSKI

A former Alabama pastor has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of first-degree rape and incest involving a teenage girl.

William Best’s plea came before he was due to face trial Monday for additional charges including sodomy and sexual abuse, AL.com reported citing court records.

The 48-year-old was being held on $2.5 million bond after his arrest last year while serving at a Valley Grande church north of Selma.

That’s when his victim told a family member about the sexual abuse that she said took place at not only the church but his home over several years’ time, the Selma Times-Journal reported.

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ALASKA
Alaska Native News

It was announced by the Justice Department on Monday that a priest with the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese was sentenced on charges of for Attempted Enticement of a Minor on Friday by Chief United States District Court Judge Ralph R. Beistline.

Clint Michael Landry, who has been with the Fairbanks Diocese since June of 2011, was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release in connection with his plea agreement filed in May of 2014.

Landry “was caught using a work computer to receive images of child pornography through his Yahoo email account. A search of the computer found multiple sexually-explicit Instant Messages (IM) between the defendant and others believed to be located in the Philippines. In many of these IMs, the defendant is negotiating with a Filipino co-conspirator about viewing sexually explicit conduct involving minors through webcams and Skype communications,” DoJ’s Attorney Karen Loeffler reported.

According to the press release, Landry engaged in negotiations with people in the Philippines through at eight different Yahoo email accounts to view live videos and other streaming services of minors engaged in sexual conduct. In his communications, Landry sought videos of children younger than 11 years of age.

Some of the examples of Landry’s communications during the summer of 2013, included:

* On June 13, 2013, the defendant communicated with a co-conspirator, asking “[c]an you show me young boys[?]” He went on to ask, “what handsome young boys do you have?” When told that the available “young boy” was 10 years old, the defendant’s response was “ok,” and he inquired “how much.” The defendant then attempted to offer 1600 Philippine pesos for online access to the child, or approximately $35.

* On July 26, 2013, the defendant initially resisted an offer to view an 11-year-old girl. However, when the only other option offered by the defendant’s co-conspirator was an 18-year-old male, the defendant “ask[ed] for your young show,” and said that he would “send money tomorrow.”
On August 7, 2013, the defendant wrote, “I like to see you boy or girl because they are cute. Only see on yahoo.” When told by his co-conspirator that he had children available who were “10 and 8 yrs old,” the defendant replied, “I send you some western union tomorrow.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pottstown Mercury

By Michael P. Rellahan, mrellahan@21st-centurymedia.com
POSTED: 06/08/15

PHILADELPHIA >> A former Catholic priest with ties to Chester and Delaware counties pleaded guilty Monday to criminal charges involving child pornography and other offenses involving sexual misconduct with children, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The Rev. Mark Haynes, 56, of West Chester, pleaded guilty In U.S. District Court in Philadelphia to all counts contained in a superseding information filed by U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger charging child exploitation. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10. Haynes faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison with a maximum sentence of life, possible fines, and at least five years up to a lifetime of supervised release.

Haynes, a former parochial vicar at a number of churches in the Delaware Valley, pleaded guilty to using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in sexual conduct, transfer of obscene material to a minor, distribution of child pornography, possession of child pornography, and destruction or concealment of evidence.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Public Radio

By PATRICIA RICE

Two-hundred-fifty U.S. Catholic bishops are meeting in St. Louis this week to discuss earthly and heavenly concerns, ranging from the airborne danger posed by drones, to the smuggling of migrants on turbulent seas, to the environmental impact of underground shale oil recovery. The bishops say their concerns will be tempered to model Pope Francis’ emphasis on the gospel themes of love and mercy.

The formal 2015 spring General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops begins its hard work in committees, much like Congress does. On Monday at the Hyatt Regency downtown, some three dozen committees and sub-committees began candid discussions after hearing the views and research of experts and theologians. No sessions are open to the public; the Wednesday day-long and Thursday morning sessions will be open to the press.

The administration will not set an agenda until late Tuesday when most of the three dozen committees, sub-committees, ad hoc committees and agency boards have met and asked for time at the assembly’s microphone.

On Wednesday — when the group’s president, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, rocks his gavel to open the formal session — much of the program will be updates on the yearlong work from the committees. Any votes or decisions will likely require just a tweaking: a word change or a paragraph to amend a document.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Westmoreland Times

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Mark Haynes, 56 years of age, of West Chester, PA, pleaded guilty to all counts contained in a superseding information charging child exploitation. Haynes, a former parochial Vicar, pleaded guilty to using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in sexual conduct, transfer of obscene material to a minor, distribution of child pornography, possession of child pornography, and destruction or concealment of evidence. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for September 10, 2015. Haynes faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison with a maximum sentence of life, possible fines, and at least five years up to a lifetime of supervised release.

According to court documents, around 2010, Haynes posed as a 16-year old girl named “Katie” on a teen dating website. As “Katie,” Haynes would meet minor girls online and allegedly request that they take and send sexually explicit pictures. Haynes is also charged with distributing other images and videos of children being sexually assaulted over the Internet in 2014, again posing as “Katie.”

The case was investigated by the FBI in conjunction with the Chester County Criminal Investigative Division. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Rotella.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

The Council of Cardinals, the 9-man body appointed by Pope Francis to provide advice on reorganization of the Roman Curia, is meeting in Rome this week.

After the most recent meeting of the Council, in April, the Vatican disclosed that the cardinals expected to continue their work on plans for a reform of the Roman Curia at least into 2016. Their 3-day session this week will further their work on the preparation of a new apostolic constitution to define the roles of the Vatican’s dicasteries.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Editorial

The Cathedral of St. Paul serves the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which contains more than 200 parishes with about 825,000 Catholics.

Criminal charges against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have been a long time coming. Evidence of what Ramsey County Attorney John Choi called “institutional failure” to protect children from abusive priests has been accumulating for years.

Yet while not surprising, Choi’s announcement Friday that he has charged the archdiocese with six gross misdemeanor counts in connection with its oversight of former priest Curtis Wehmeyer is stunning for its courage. By asserting the bedrock principle of American justice that no one is above the law, Choi is proposing to hold one of St. Paul’s most powerful institutions to account.

Wehmeyer is now in prison after being convicted in 2012 of sexually abusing two boys whose mother worked with him at Blessed Sacrament Church in St. Paul. Choi’s related charges against the archdiocese spring from an investigation that took 20 months — a sign of painstaking prosecutorial diligence.

“This case is not about religion,” St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith said Friday. “It’s about allegations of misconduct and crimes that were committed.”

That may be true in a legal sense. But intrinsically, the archdiocese is “about religion.” That is what makes the crimes of which it is accused so repulsive, yet the prosecution of those crimes so risky. If, as accused, the archdiocese systemically looked the other way as Wehmeyer manipulated the faith of children and their families in order to prey upon them, it has betrayed the trust not only of the Roman Catholic faithful, but also the entire community. On the other hand, if the prosecutor overreaches, the damage he can inflict will be widely felt.

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