ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN
La Croix

Le préfet de la Congrégation pour la doctrine de la foi dit impossible une éventuelle reconnaissance par l’Église d’une seconde union après un divorce.

Comment concevez-vous votre rôle auprès du pape François ? Est-ce différent d’avec Benoît XVI, qui était théologien et vous avait précédé à la Congrégation pour la doctrine de la foi ?

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller : L’arrivée sur le Siège de Pierre d’un théologien comme Benoît XVI est sans doute une exception. Mais Jean XXIII n’était pas un théologien de métier. Le pape François est aussi plus pastoral, et la Congrégation pour la doctrine de la foi a une mission de structuration théologique d’un pontificat.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The German cardinal has suggested a new area of responsibility for his dicastery: to provide the “theological structure of a pontificate”

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

In one of the numerous interviews he has given over the past few weeks focusing on the next Synod, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, spoke about a new task for his dicastery. It is a task that is never been mentioned in the documents outlining the precise competencies of the former Holy Office.

In an interview with French Catholic newspaper La Croix, the German cardinal stated: “The arrival of a theologian like Benedict XVI in the Chair of St. Peter was no doubt an exception. But John XXIII was not a professional theologian. Pope Francis is also more pastoral and our mission at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to provide the theological structure of a pontificate.” So according to Müller’s statement, the former Holy Office must “theologically structure” Pope Francis’ pontificate. And this is probably the reason why the Prefect gives public statements on such a frequent basis, like never before.

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ITALY
Daily Mail

Priest who ‘indulged in sexual role play where he made men pretend to be Judas Iscariot atoning for betraying Jesus during gay orgies’ is fired in Italy

By HANNAH ROBERTS IN ROME FOR MAILONLINE

An Italian priest has been sacked amid claims that he took part in gay orgies with a Swiss Guard.

The prelate was sacked from a religious order in Taranto after one of his online lovers contacted the church authorities with a dossier containing alleged evidence of sex with prostitutes, role play and explicit gay web chats.

The priest allegedly favoured sexual role-play scenarios in which his lover played the disciple Judas Escariot, and had to atone for his betrayal of Jesus by becoming his slave.

The diocese confirmed that the priest had been dismissed but claimed there were no other prelates involved.

A 32-year-old man, from Rovigo in northeast Italy, claimed he was contacted by the unnamed priest around six months ago on Facebook.

The man, an unemployed labourer, said he was having problems at the time and thought that ‘it could have been a sign from heaven.’ ‘I needed spiritual help,’ he told Corriere della Sera.

The priest revealed that he was gay during online chats and attempted to seduce the labourer.

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FRANCE
Out

BY JAMES MCDONALD
APRIL 07 2015

On the campaign trail in 2012, François Hollande declared his support for the LGBT citizens of France by promising to pursue the legalization of same-sex marriage. The following year, newly-elected President Hollande signed the the successful bill, making France the thirteenth nation in the world to realize marriage equality. His presidency has had some rough patches and there has been vocal resistance to the furtherance of LGBT rights within the country, but Hollande has remained faithful to his commitment to the community. In a bold move earlier this year, he appointed the openly gay veteran politician Laurent Stefanini as ambassador to the Holy See. Yet, despite the fact that France’s last ambassador stepped down over a month ago, the Vatican has yet to confirm Stefanini’s appointment. While this may be due to resistance from within the heart of Roman Catholicism, Hollande has insisted that he will not back down on his choice.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 8

Statement by Mary Caplan of New York City, SNAP Leader, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 917 439 4187, mcaplan682@aol.com )

Brooklyn diocesan officials have scheduled a “healing mass” for abuse victims. At worst, this is a cynical public relations move. At best, it misses the mark. (See details below.)

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio’s focus should be on real reforms that actually make kids safer, not symbolic gestures that make him seem nicer or that make a few adults temporarily feel better. And events like this imply that the crisis is past when in fact it’s not. By focusing on “healing,” DiMarzio wants us all to believe that prevention is no longer needed. That’s backwards. Only when every cleric who has committed or concealed child sex crimes are identified, punished and kept away from kids should bishops concentrate on healing.

DiMarzio’s first job should be protecting the vulnerable. And much remains to be done on this front.

He should discipline – publicly and harshly – those who hid or ignored clergy sex crimes, to deter such irresponsible behavior in the first place.

He should support – not oppose – reforming New York’s secular child safety laws, especially the archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations.

He should house – in remote, secure, independent treatment centers – every proven, admitted or suspended and credibly accused child molesting cleric, so that kids will be safer.

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UNITED STATES
Newsweek

BY ABIGAIL JONES / APRIL 8, 2015

“Basically, what we are going to be doing is kidnapping a guy for a couple of hours and beating him up and torturing him and then getting him to give the get,” Rabbi Mendel Epstein told two potential clients. It was August 14, 2013, and he was sitting in his home in Lakewood, New Jersey, with a young Orthodox Jewish woman and her brother. She had sought out Epstein because she desperately wanted to divorce her husband, who was refusing to give her a get, the document that formally dissolves a marriage under Jewish law.

In Orthodox Judaism, only husbands can give gets, and while most do, those who refuse wield enormous power over their wives. Even with a civil divorce decree in hand, a woman is not divorced in the Orthodox Jewish world until her husband gives her a get. Until then, she is an agunah, a “chained” woman. If she falls in love and decides to remarry without the get, she would be considered an adulteress, and her children from that union would be shunned.

Epstein, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Brooklyn, New York, and Lakewood, had a reputation for facilitating divorces. On that August day a couple of years ago, he explained to the woman and her brother how he would persuade her husband to give her a get. He mentioned a team of “tough guys” who could torture her husband with electric cattle prods, handcuffs and karate and suffocate him using plastic bags. “I guarantee you that if you’re in the van, you’d give a get to your wife,” he said. “Hopefully, there won’t even be a mark on him.”

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ITALIA
Corriere Romagna

VALMARECCHIA. Ore decisive per sciogliere il “giallo” delle ossa ritrovate nel cimitero di Sestino (in provincia di Arezzo) che si sospetta appartengano a Guerrina Piscaglia, la 50enne scomparsa quasi un anno fa dalla sua casa di Ca’ Raffaello (frazione di Badia Tedalda).

Intanto, viste le voci rimbalzate nelle ultime ore, la procura di Arezzo ha precisato che il blitz di sabato scorso nel piccolo cimitero è stato effettuato su iniziativa dei carabinieri della stazione di Badia Tedalda e non su segnalazione di una sensitiva. Da quando la donna è scomparsa, già diversi sensitivi si sono occupati del caso ma nessuno avrebbe indicato il cimitero di Sestino come luogo dove cercare Guerrina.

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ITALIA
La Nazione

CASO GUERRINA / Intervista a Federica Sciarelli: “Un ritrovamento anomalo: la chiave del giallo resta il frate”

Arezzo, 8 aprile 2015 – «Una sparizione molto strana». La scomparsa di Guerrina Piscaglia è al centro del programma televisivo Chi l’ha visto? di Rai Tre, da settembre. Ma per Federica Sciarelli, giornalista e conduttrice del programma, il caso della casalinga cinquantenne di Ca’ Raffaello è saltato all’occhio subito, ad agosto. «Abbiamo notato immediatamente che c’era qualcosa di strano in tutta questa storia _ afferma la giornalista _ Quando ci è arrivata la lettera della famiglia, disperata, che ci chiedeva aiuto. Com’è possibile che una donna sia scomparsa a maggio e nessuno ancora ad agosto non aveva indagato sulla vicenda? Forse le forze dell’ordine e la Procura avevano ricevuto fin troppe piste false. Quando ci siamo interessati anche noi alla storia è cambiato il corso delle indagini».

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ITALY
The Independent (UK)

ROSE TROUP BUCHANAN Wednesday 08 April 2015

The Vatican has been embroiled in two separate, highly embarrassing, scandals.

In one, a north Italian priest has been removed from office after allegations emerged that he had been surfing the internet to find gay lovers and had been involved in gay orgies.

The other, which has generated – if possible – even more lurid press coverage in Italy, alleges a priest in the south of the country is under investigation on suspicion of murdering one of his parishioners.

Father Gratien Alabi, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is under investigation for murder following the discovery of female bones under the flagstones of an ancient mountain chapel.

The bones are anticipated to belong to Guerrina Piscaglia, 50, who disappeared from nearby Arezzo in Tuscany last year, The Times reported.

The case has generated intense media interest, with some papers claiming that Father Alabi had engaged in an affair with the woman, a parishioner of his and another priest’s church, and fathered a child with her.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The Associated Press
Wednesday, April 8, 2015

A new federal indictment identifies three alleged victims in the case of a Pennsylvania priest charged with traveling to Honduras to have sex with poor street children during missionary trips.

The Rev. Joseph Maurizio has been jailed since last fall when federal prosecutors in Johnstown accused him of molesting one boy, and possessing child pornography. The new indictment returned Tuesday adds two victims and charges the 69-year-old priest with sending $8,000 to a charity to help facilitate the trips which ended in 2009. None of the alleged victims are named, but all are under 18.

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CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 8

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

Two more Canadian provinces have reformed archaic and arbitrary laws that protect child predators. We applaud these moves and urge lawmakers to go further.

[National Post]

Specifically, we urge legislatures to make it easier for child sex abuse victims to pursue those who commit AND those who conceal child sex crimes, in both criminal and civil courts.

It’s tough to prevent a shrewd child molester from assaulting a child. But we can stop him before he assaults 30 or 40 children. How? By vigorously pursuing and harshly punishing his friends, colleagues and supervisors who ignore or hide his crimes.

Roughly one in ten children are sexually violated. If we are to reduce this horror, we must enable victims to take legal action any time they are able. Deadlines of any sort only help wrongdoers. These predator-friendly statutes of limitations must be eliminated. And laws that give a “free pass” to complicit colleagues must be reformed too.

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SAN FRANCISCO
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Morris-Young | Apr. 8, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO Star of the Sea School in the San Francisco archdiocese has become a kind of war zone between the majority of school parents and Star of the Sea Parish’s two priest leaders — Fr. Joseph Illo, administrator, and Fr. Patrick Driscoll, associate pastor.

The priests began their assignments there last August as part of a plan to establish an oratory, or a kind of fraternity where diocesan priests live in community.

Battle was engaged in November when Illo announced that girl altar servers would be discontinued. Made without known consultation with parents or other archdiocesan priests, the decision generated parental protest, local headlines, and eventually national media coverage.

Illo’s actions were also the subject of heated exchanges at an archdiocesan priests council meeting, NCR learned.

Star of the Sea generated more heat in early February when it came to light that Driscoll had distributed to even young students a pamphlet titled “Examination of Conscience and Catholic Doctrine,” an extensive listing of potential sins, including adultery, masturbation, fornication, entertaining impure thoughts, and abortion — without notifying teachers or the principal.

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

Fr. Tony Flannery hosts International Network of Church Reform Movements participative conference in Co. Limerick

An International Network of Church Reform Movements conference will take place next week, from Monday 13th April to Thursday 16th April, in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Limerick. Hosted by Fr. Tony Flannery, the participative conference will be the first time such a large gathering of leaders of the Church Reform Movement have met. It is also the first time such an event has been hosted in Ireland.

The four day workshop will be facilitated by Austrian and Canadian leaders and participants will come from twelve different countries around the world, from the U.S. and Canada, Australia, India, many countries in Europe, and of course Britain and Ireland. Each of the main reform movements in Ireland will be represented. Many familiar names in the reform movement will attend; Paul Collins and his wife Marilyn Hatton from Australia, Donald Cozzens, Deborah Rose-Milavech and Jeannine Gramick from the U.S., Astrid Lobo Gajiwala from India, Helmut Schuller from Austria, Christian Weisner and Martha Heizer of We Are Church international, and many others.

​The main focus of the event will be to get to know each other, with the aim of supporting Church Reform, both at the level of structures of authority and at the grass-roots. This is the first time that this group will come together, so a lot of it will be sharing experiences and ideas on Church reform. Some of the topics expected to be discussed throughout the week include sharing perceptions of the reform agenda of Pope Francis, the future of parishes and communities, women’s equality and how to communicate with the Vatican.

A Press Conference will take place at the end of the conference, at 2.00pm on Thursday, 16th in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Limerick

This four day event is not open to the public but there will be an open session at 8.00pm on Thursday, 16th April in the Radisson Blu in Limerick. Some of the international participants will speak of their experience of Church Reform in their parts of the world, and how we can move forward. Members of the public are welcome to this event.

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ITALIA
Corriere del Veneto

ROVIGO «Mi ha stravolto la vita: adesso ogni prete che vedo mi fa paura». Marco (il nome è di fantasia), è il 32enne di Rovigo che ha denunciato le pesantissime avance sessuali subite nei mesi scorsi da un sacerdote in servizio a Taranto. La Curia pugliese ha subito avviato delle verifiche al termine delle quali il prete è stato cacciato perché – si legge in una nota diffusa lunedì – la sua è stata una «condotta moralmente riprovevole e assolutamente non compatibile con il ministero presbiterale ». Il racconto di Marco è agghiacciante. «Nei mesi scorsi, a causa della crisi, ho perso il mio lavoro di manovale. Stavo affrontando un periodo difficile e, la vigilia di Natale, venni contattato attraverso Facebook da un uomo che mi disse subito di essere un sacerdote. Pensai fosse un segno del Cielo: avevo bisogno di un aiuto spirituale».

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ITALY
The Local

Published: 08 Apr 2015

A priest in southern Italy has been defrocked for allegedly making gay sexual advances to a man on Facebook.

The priest was sacked from his post in Taranto after a 32-year-old man contacted church authorities to expose him, Corriere della Sera said.

The 32-year-old man, from Rovigo in north-east Italy, claimed he was contacted by the unnamed priest around six months ago. An unemployed labourer, the man said he was going through a difficult time when he received a Facebook message from the priest.

“I thought it could have been a sign from heaven, I needed spiritual help,” he told Corriere.

After a few days of chatting online, the priest allegedly revealed he was gay and soon after began making sexual advances towards the labourer.

“He told me he was excited looking at my photos and asked me to send an intimate photo,” the man claimed.

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IRELAND
The Tablet

08 April 2015 11:12 by Sarah Mac Donald

Catholic reform leaders from around the world will meet in Ireland next week for a three-day conference organised by the censured Redemptorist priest Fr Tony Flannery.

Forty representatives from North America, South America, Asia, England, Germany, Switzerland and Ireland are due to attend the conference between 13-16 April in Limerick.

Participants include Martha Heizer, head of We Are Church Austria, who was excommunicated by the Vatican along with her husband, Gert Heizer, for celebrating Mass without a priest present.

Other participants include Australian Paul Collins who resigned his priesthood in 2001 over the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s censure of his book, Papal Power.

Speaking to The Tablet, Fr Flannery, who was banned from ministry by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2012 for what it considered heret­ical views on the Eucharist and priesthood, said some of the topics expected to be discussed include the “reform agenda of Pope Francis, the future of parishes and communities, women’s equality and how to communicate with the Vatican”

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CANADA
National Post

Sarah Boesveld | April 7, 2015

Two Canadian provinces are making it easier for victims of sexual assault to sue their attackers — a move proponents hope will lead more people to seek civil justice, although critics feel this will not protect complainants from the victim-blaming they seek to avoid.

Just over a week ago, Nova Scotia removed its statute of limitation in sexual abuse cases, allowing victims to pursue a civil claim no matter how much time has passed.

In its wide-sweeping action plan to stop sexual violence and harassment released last month, Ontario pledged to amend the statute of limitations to drop time restrictions on filing a lawsuit alleging sexual assault.

As the impacts of sexual assault become better understood, personal injury lawyers are getting more queries from victims of sexual assault by partners, or colleagues. Some may choose to pursue a civil claim, instead of a criminal complaint, in an attempt to maintain some control over their experience and to see the burden of proof significantly lowered. Both options are possible.

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

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

Virginia Jones

Last week I planned to attend a Passover Seder celebrated in a church, but I found myself too anxious to enter the building. I never even parked my car. After driving 45 minutes from my home to the church, I just turned around and drove home.

The Passover Seder is a dinner cum religious ceremony in Judaism that celebrates why and how the Jewish people fled slavery in Egypt for freedom in the land of Canaan. Traditionally, the youngest child present shares the basic story of the Passover, but in Reform Judaism the celebration has become an opportunity to contemplate injustice in modern times as well.

For example, during a Passover Seder, one might contemplate why so many people are still enslaved in the modern world and why do so many people remain hungry.

It is also a common practice to invite to your Passover Seder the stranger and the person in need, in part, as symbols of the injustice the Jewish people had to endure in Egypt. In other words, the Egyptians treated the Jews as strangers when they enslaved them. The idea of inviting a stranger to your Passover Seder is to not behave like Pharaoh, to be hospitable and compassionate.

I long knew about the story behind the Passover Seder and the focus on social justice. I wish I had known about the part of inviting a stranger to your table.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Wednesday 08 April 2015

A retired Church of England priest who lives in Eastbourne has been served with a summons alleging eight offences of indecent assault against a boy between 1974 and 1977.

Robert Coles, 74, of Upperton Road, is accused of assaulting the boy at an address in Sussex and an address in Hampshire.

Coles is due to appear at Brighton Magistrates Court today (Thursday April 9).

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY LIAM CLARKE – 08 APRIL 2015

Child abuse at Kincora boys home must be investigated by an independent inquiry set up by Westminster into VIP paedophile rings after the general election, Alliance and the DUP have said.

The calls follow revelations in the Belfast Telegraph and later on Channel 4 News by Richard Kerr, a former resident in the notorious east Belfast boys home, that he was trafficked to London to be abused by senior figures.

The current plan is to deal with allegations of sexual abuse at Kincora at Sir Anthony Hart’s inquiry into Historical Institutional Abuse in Banbridge.

But there are growing calls urging the claims to be dealt with by a more powerful inquiry into abuse in England and Wales headed by New Zealand High Court judge, Justice Lowell Goddard.

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CALIFORNIA
Press-Enterprise

BY MARK MUCKENFUSS / STAFF WRITER
Published: April 7, 2015

For Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron, society isn’t transitioning into the digital realm, it’s already there. It’s now up to newspapers like the Post and other media outlets to catch up.

Baron addressed a crowd of about 250 people Tuesday night as this year’s speaker for the 47th annual Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture. He spoke about the state of journalism and his vision for what needs to be done in adapting a 20th century model for news gathering and dissemination into the 21st century.

“Never have I seen a moment of so much excitement and so much anxiety,” he told the crowd.

“Journalism is being thoroughly re-imagined.”

The retooling of the trade, he said, has brought new opportunities. As the editor of the Boston Globe, Baron oversaw the investigation of sexual abuse in the city’s Catholic Diocese. It was a story that pointed out the power of the Internet. In the past, such a story might not have seen much attention beyond New England.

Instead, he said, “the investigation of the church had the largest reach of anything that had ever come out in the Globe. The audience was worldwide.”

Social platforms allowed those concerned about the issue to more easily organize themselves and do additional investigation on their own.

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

BY DAVID HENCH PORTLAND PRESS HERALD
dhench@pressherald.com | @MaineHenchman | 207-791-6327

An advocate for victims of clergy sex abuse says a recently uncovered letter shows the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland church knew for years about allegations against a parish priest but did nothing to protect potential young victims.

The letter mentions allegations against the Rev. James Vallely, who served in St. John’s Parish in Bangor and was later transferred to St. Dominic’s Parish in Portland and to St. Michael’s Parish in South Berwick. He was working with a church in Florida when he was removed from active ministry following allegations of abuse. He has since died.

Robert Hoatson of the New Jersey victims advocacy group Road to Recovery held a news conference outside the Portland diocese Tuesday to call attention to the letter, which he said was one of the documents the church was compelled to release as part of a lawsuit brought by one of Vallely’s victims. That suit alleged fraudulent concealment by the church and was recently settled. Hoatson said he could not provide more details about the case because the name of the victim in the suit, brought in Cumberland County, has not been made public.

The letter was written in 2005 by the Rev. Richard P. Rice and is addressed to “Marc,” apparently Monsignor Marc B. Caron, Hoatson said. In it, Rice said that an article in the Maine Sunday Telegram had reminded him of a conversation he had around 1993 with the Rev. Dick Harvey in which Harvey said five boys had confided to him that they had been abused at St. John’s.

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INDIA
The New Indian Express

KOCHI:The police are finding it difficult to trace the Christian priest who is accused of sexually harassing a minor girl at Puthenvelikara. Even though one week has passed since an FIR was registered against Fr Edwin Figarez, a priest attached to the Lourdes Matha Church, Puthenvelikkara, for allegedly molesting a 15-year-old girl, he remains underground and continues to evade the police. According to Puthenvelikara Sub-inspector M S Shibu, the mobile phone of the accused has been switched off for several days. “The Cyber Cell has put the mobile phone under surveillance, and persons close to the priest are under surveillance. A forensic team visited the priest’s house, and collected evidence,” he said. A medical examination of the victim had confirmed that she was sexually abused. However, the official spokesperson of the Kottapuram Diocese refused to comment on the incident. Meanwhile, Felix Puloodan of the Joint Christian Counsel filed a memorandum with the Kottapuram Diocese, demanding action against the priest. He alleged that Fr Edwin Figarez was being helped by an ‘abkari’ contractor. The case against the priest was registered based on a complaint filed by the mother of the victim. The complainant alleged that priest molested the girl on several occasions when she was alone at home.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

April 7, 2015

By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A federal grand jury has indicted a Johnstown-area priest already accused of traveling to Honduras for sex with a boy on more charges pertaining to other trips to sexually assault boys, as well as three counts of transmitting funds out of or into the U.S. in furtherance of his criminal activity.

A superseding indictment filed Tuesday named Rev. Joseph Maurizio, 69, who remains in federal custody from the earlier charges.

A judge had ordered him detained in November as a danger to the community and also because federal agents feared he would use church funds to flee the country.

The criminal division of the IRS had been examining Father Maurizio’s finances, but it’s not clear exactly what money the priest is accused of transferring out of the U.S. and to what end.

Nor is the source of his money known. Father Maurizio had told a pre-trial services officer that his net worth was $107,000 but agents said it is really about $1 million.

He had previously been charged with illicit sex with one minor in Honduras, as well as possession of illicit images, but the new charges add other incidents of sex tourism dating to 2004. The new money-transferring counts pertain to the years 2006 through 2009.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The US right wing media appear to have initiated attention to the anticipated 2016 USA national election alliance of the Vatican and Jeb Bush. This apparently will be a “reunion” for the Bush family and longtime Vatican power, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, and his clique. This seems evident in Jeb’s recent interview (with even a smiling Sodano-Jeb photo) by the National Review Online, “On the 20th Anniversary of His Conversion, Jeb Bush Talks Pope Francis and How to Win on Social Issues“, here,

[National Review]

Of course, the winning “social” issues include a “get out the fundamentalist vote” discussion of abortion and other “life” issues, with no mention in the interview of the epidemic of priest sexual abuse of children. Apparently, no reporter dares to ask a potential US presidential candidate for his/her views on clerical sex abuse of children. For shame!

This major issue was instead relegated recently to a safer plea at First Things, a US neo-conservative outlet, in an article, “Pope Francis and Zero Tolerance“. Likely concerned about the Vatican Revolution erupting among Catholics, as indicated by the near riot at Chilean Bishop Barros’ recent installation, see here , the First Things author raises the alarm on the politically tricky priest child abuse scandal and cover up, which obviously could undercut Pope Francis’ effort to draw out fundamentalist US Latino voters for right wing Republican candidates. Of course, Jeb Bush spoke in this “softball interview” about his grandchildren, but, God forbid, could not be asked about the priest child abuse scandal or the Chilean revolt, it appears.

Jeb did note, apparently in an appeal to fundamentalist Catholic voters, that the media may be missing the whole story when Pope Francis gets into “specifics.” Jeb predicts that there might “turn out to be a real disappointment” for people, who expect “big changes” in terms of Catholic doctrine, apparently including with respect to the contraception ban. Jeb added, “But you have to say what you believe as well,” surmising apparently that in the case of Francis, the media, in search of sound bites, may have glossed over some of the pope’s more inconvenient underlying beliefs. And of course Jeb gratuitously asked questions that appeal to fundamentalist voters like, “Do you think a 13-year-old should have an abortion without a parent’s consent, or being notified?”

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

MAINE
WCSH

[Letter Regarding Early Notice of Vallely Abuse – BishopAccountability.org]

[with video]

Sarah Delage, WCSH

PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — A recently revealed letter may prove that a Maine priest was sexually abusing children as far back as the 1950s.

The letter discusses abuse by Father James Vallely, who is now deceased. It came to light during legal discovery in a recently settled sexual abuse case.

Robert Hoatson, founder of the organization Road to Recovery, held a press conference in front of the Portland Catholic Diocese headquarters Tuesday. He gave out copies of the letter, which was written by a retired priest to a Diocese official. It describes a conversation between another priest and a bishop about five boys who had reported being abused at St. John’s Church in Bangor. According to the letter, Vallely was transferred shortley after that conversation. Hoatson said the transfer occurred in 1956. He said this is yet another example of the church concealing abuse over the years.

“How could six Bishops, six Catholic bishops encompassing the state of Maine allow a pedophile to travel throughout the state of Maine and sexually abused children for many, many decades?” Hoatson asked.

This is not the first time Vallely has faced these kinds of accusations. He was identified by the church in 2005 as one of eight deceased priests who were accused of abuse in the last few decades. Two brothers sued the church in 2013, saying Vallely abused them when they were altar boys in Portland in the 1970s.

Bishop Robert Deeley released a statement about the letter. He said the church respects the privacy of victims, even they choose to go public.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on April 7, 2015

This morning I spoke with KFI 640 AM’s Bill Carroll about my new book, child sex abuse and cover-up, and why we are seeing more female teachers being arrested for sexually abusing boys.

It was a great conversation—covering everything from internet safety to the importance of civil and

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Darren Fishell, BDN Staff
Posted April 07, 2015

PORTLAND, Maine — Robert Hoatson spent Tuesday morning walking in front of the Catholic diocese building at 510 Ocean Ave., carrying a sign that said “Reaching out to abuse victims.”

The national advocate for people sexually abused by Catholic clergy and a Boston attorney have alleged a letter uncovered through a lawsuit shows that Catholic Church leaders in Maine knew abuses by the Rev. James Vallely — who is now deceased — began earlier than previously admitted.

“It’s just another indication that the church still has not come clean and we’re calling on them to finally — let’s have the absolute truth,” Hoatson said. “Release all the documents about every priest that you’ve ever had an allegation against and let the victims heal.”

Hoatson, a former priest, said he has counseled more than 3,000 sexual abuse victims through the New Jersey-based nonprofit group Road to Recovery Inc., which he founded in 2005.

He said he hoped his trip from New Jersey to Portland would cause more people who were sexually abused by Vallely to come forward. The church previously acknowledged there were credible abuse allegations against Vallely that extended back to 1977.

A 2005 letter from the Rev. Richard P. Rice uncovered through a now-settled lawsuit filed in 2013 by two former altar servers at a South Berwick parish suggests that church leaders knew Vallely sexually abused boys before 1956, according to Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian.

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ITALIA
Corriere del Mezzogiorno

«Orge tra sacerdoti su Internet» E l’arcivescovo rimuove il parroco

di Nazareno Dinoi

TARANTO — Tremano le stanze della curia tarantina per un esposto, presentato al Tribunale ecclesiastico regionale della Puglia, che scopre il velo su presunte attività sessuali di alcuni sacerdoti. Autore della denuncia è un trentaduenne del Nord Italia, molto vicino agli ambienti della Chiesa, che ha deciso di raccontare il suo rapporto sessuale con un parroco, conosciuto su Facebook, di un’importante chiesa di Taranto. La notizia, pubblicata dal Corriere del Mezzogiorno, ha già avuto una conseguenza pratica: l’arcivescovo di Taranto, Filippo Santoro, ha rimosso dalle sue funzioni il sacerdote coinvolto. L’ufficialità è arrivata da una nota emessa dalla Curia di Taranto nella serata del lunedì in Albis dopo «i fatti apparsi sulla stampa sulla condotta moralmente riprovevole e assolutamente non compatibile con il ministero presbiterale di un parroco dell’arcidiocesi di Taranto». Nel comunicato la Curia sottolinea che «il sacerdote interessato, che non appartiene al clero di Taranto, bensì a un ordine religioso, è stato rimosso da monsignor Filippo Santoro dalla cura parrocchiale, non appena lo stesso arcivescovo insieme ad alcuni curiali, ha appurato l’attendibilità dei fatti». Dalla Curia evidenziano anche che «nella documentazione acquisita dal tribunale ecclesiastico al momento non c’è traccia alcuna del coinvolgimento in diocesi di altri sacerdoti».

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VATICAN CITY
The Times (UK)

Philip Willan Rome

The Catholic church in Italy has become embroiled in a scandal, with one priest suspended last night for alleged involvement in gay orgies and another under investigation on suspicion of murdering a parishioner.

A 50-year-old priest from the southern diocese of Taranto was accused of engaging in sex with other priests, using the internet to find new partners and engaging in online sexual encounters, according to the newspaper Corriere del Mezzogiorno.

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MAINE
WGME

PORTLAND (WGME) — There are new allegations of a cover-up by the Diocese of Portland but the bishop says the church is protecting the privacy of the sexual abuse victims.

Former Priest Robert Hoatson has been an outspoken critic of the Catholic Church’s documented history of covering up sexual abuse of minors by members of the clergy. He co-founded Road to Recovery to help those victims.

Hoatson claims a 2005 letter from a retired priest shows that past bishops at the Diocese of Portland knew Father James Vallely had sexually abused at least five boys at a Bangor church in 1956 but did nothing to stop him.

“We have documents now that prove that the church covered up, and continues to cover up, child sex abuse. Since 1956 at least, the Diocese of Portland has had information about Father Vallely’s sexual abuse of children. This is another example of the Catholic Church’s efforts to keep things secret,” Hoatson said.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on April 7, 2015

So printing a brochure is what passes as “help[ing] the healing process.”

This past Sunday, the Orange County Register published a front page story on Orange Bishop Kevin Vann. The focus of the article was a profile of the new-ish bishop and his views on the meaning of Easter. But what the article actually said was far more pernicious.

This is what got me:

‘The bishop also doesn’t shrink away from the molestation scandals. English, Spanish and Vietnamese leaflets sit in the administration building’s lobby detailing the diocese’s pledge, “To do everything possible to help the healing process of the victims of sexual abuse.”’

What? Really? You’ve got to be kidding me

I can tell you this: a brochure never helped a survivor heal.

As we reach the 10-year anniversary of the 2005 settlement with 97 child sex abuse victims and the subsequent release of documents that outlined the scope and scale of the cover-up, we can argue that Vann’s actions have only exacerbated the pain and frustration of survivors, who want nothing more than for wrong-doers to be punished.

Some examples:

* In the time that Vann has been Bishop, he has never asked for any kind of formal or informal meetings with survivors. He has also not proactively reached out for any kind of communication.

* Msgr. John Urell—who was shown in documents and depositions to be the major facilitator of child sexual abuse and the person in charge of transferring, covering-up for, and protecting dozens of sexually abusing clerics and employees—is still an active and influential priest in the Diocese of Orange. He has never been reprimanded for what he did.

* The administrators of Mater Dei High School (Patrick Murphy and Frances Claire) have retained their positions, although it has been shown that they allowed abusers like Jeff Andrade to return to campus (after he admitted to sexually abusing students).

* Administrators at Santa Margarita High School who personally covered up for numerous predator priests and teachers at Mater Dei still retain their positions as high-ranking officials at Santa Margarita High School.

I anticipate the response of the Register was “Well, this is old news.” But I will tell you this: it is not old news to victims. It is not old news to their families. And it most certainly should not be old news to Vann, who should be using his tenure to push out abusers and their enablers, instead of shrugging his shoulders and depending on media fatigue to give him a cover for doing NOTHING.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Magazine

By Joel Mathis | April 7, 2015

A new bill in the Pennsylvania Senate would give childhood victims of sexual abuse until the age of 50 to file a civil lawsuit against their abuser.

Sen. Rob Teplitz, a Democrat who serves Perry and Dauphin counties, introduced the bill Monday, saying it addressed one of the few remaining issues left over from the state’s Task Force on Child Protection that made recommendations in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State. The current statute of limitations gives childhood victims of abuse until the age of 30 to file a civil claim; the statute of limitations for criminal charges in such cases is already age 50.

That rule is “arbitrary and archaic” Teplitz said in a sponsorship memorandum.

The Task Force on Child Protection, though, quite explicitly declined to recommend an extended statute of limitations. Its findings did otherwise lead to 23 new laws passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The Catholic Church is reviewing how it dealt with the transfer of a priest who was found to have indecent videos of teenage boys.

Anthony McSweeney, 68, was last month jailed after he was found guilty of indecent assault between 1979 and 1981.

In 1998, he was found to have pornographic videos while at St Peter’s Catholic Church in Essex.
Bishop of East Anglia Alan Hopes is reviewing how McSweeney was allowed to move to St George’s, Norwich.

Southwark Crown Court heard how McSweeney and his friend John Stingemore, who died before the trial, assaulted a 15-year-old boy.

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NROTHERN IRELAND
Channel 4 News

A former army intelligence officer says he alerted MI5 to abuse at Kincora boys’ home, but was told to stop digging. It is not the first time MI5 has been accused of covering up child abuse.

Channel 4 News brought Kincora victim Richard Kerr face to face with Brian Gemmell, who worked as an army intelligence officer in Belfast in the 1970s. Mr Gemmell said he put in an official report about Kincora to a senior MI5 officer, but to his astonishment he claims he was ordered to stop digging and forget about it.

Speaking to Mr Kerr, he said: “That’s the thing that hits me – that if I really pushed the thing through in 75-76, you could have been rescued. I’m sorry.” Channel 4 News has contacted MI5 via the Home Office and is awaiting a response to Mr Gemmell’s claims.

Mr Gemmell said he believed what happened at Kincora decades ago should be brought within the scope of the over-arching, judge-led inquiry Home Secretary Theresa May set up “to consider the extent to which state and non-state institutions have failed in their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation”.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Guardian

Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent
Tuesday 7 April 2015

The next home secretary must include the Kincora boys’ home scandal in the Westminster paedophile inquiry, according to a leading politician in east Belfast, where the abuse took place.

Naomi Long, who is deputy leader of the Alliance party and battling to retain her Belfast East seat in the general election, also called on Tuesday for victims of the Ulster loyalist paedophile ring to report their claims that Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers threatened boys for speaking out about the abuse to Northern Ireland’s police ombudsman.

There have been persistent claims from boys abused at Kincora and human rights organisations that military intelligence and the RUC knew about the rape of children in care but used the information to blackmail the paedophiles, forcing them to spy on fellow loyalists.

The Alliance MP’s call comes as a victim of abuse at Kincora speaks out on Tuesday night’s Channel 4 News alleging that he was taken from the east Belfast home to London where he was molested by members of a VIP paedophile ring.

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UNITED STATES
Hamilton and Griffin on Rights

“Openness and transparency.” Apparently, the public relations professionals who advise Catholic officials have insisted that this is the winning phrase, the mantra that if repeated relentlessly, will restore the laity’s trust in the church hierarchy, the trust that’s been violated time and time again by the church’s on-going clergy child sex abuse and cover up crisis.

For decades now, when clergy sex crimes and cover ups are uncovered, bishops and others in the church hierarchy respond by pledging to turn over a new leaf and to start dealing with such reports with “openness and transparency.”

The phrase is found often in official written church abuse policies. And it’s used by church officials in interview after interview after interview. (Sometimes, members of the Catholic hierarchy go so far as to claim they’re now the ‘best’ institution when dealing with abuse cases.)

This promise, however, seem mostly to be honored in the breach. Consider these recent cases:

–For a full year, Mobile Alabama Archbishop Thomas Rodi hid allegations that Fr. Johnny S. Savoie was accused of molesting a youngster. The allegations only surfaced because of separate civil lawsuits charging parochial school staff with tolerating bullying.

Now, Rodi is going even farther and using parishioner donations to pay lawyers to try to keep a continued lid on the child sex allegations.

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MAINE
BishopAccountability.org

[with copy of the handwritten original letter]

By Rev. Richard P. Rice
July 19, 2005

This is a transcription of a handwritten letter obtained by attorney Mitchell Garabedian in Vallely discovery and partially quoted in Bangor priest abused boys in 1950s, according to letter, by Judy Harrison, Bangor Daily News (4/7/15). The article tentatively identifies the letter’s addressee as the Rev. Marc Caron, co-chancellor of the diocese at the time the letter was written. Bishop Daniel J. Feeney, who is discussed in the letter, was coadjutor bishop 1952-1955 and bishop 1955-1969. The letter refers to “Sunday’s article.” Vallely was discussed in Substantial Evidence Led to Naming Nine Priests, Diocese Says, by John Richardson, Portland Press Herald, which appeared on Sunday (7/17/05). It is not clear whether Rice is referring to this specific article. See also documents released by the Maine Attorney General in 2005 1 2. Rice’s phrase “when the news first broke in 1993” refers to revelations covered in the national press. See, for example, 3 Say Ex-Priest Abused Them, Orlando Sentinel (3/5/93).

ST. MARY’S CHURCH
144 Lincoln Street
Bath, Maine 04530-2198
(207) 443-3423

[Date stamped] JUL 20 2005

July 19, 2005

Dear Marc: Some peace I hope!

Seeing Sunday’s article once again reminded me of something that I feel I should share with you.

When the first news broke in 1993 re James Vallely, I wrote a letter to him with prayer and encouragement. He responded with gratitude but also saying: “if such a memorable event occurred (between him and a youth), he would remember. He had no memory of such an action.

Sometime later, Fr. Dick Harvey and I were together. I commented upon Jim’s letter. Dick said: “Dick (only he called me that) Jim is in denial.” He then paused and finally said: Dick there were 1, 2, 3, 4, no, 5 boys who had confided to Dick of their abuse at St. Johns. He then told me, when Bishop Feeney arrived for confirmation, Dick asked him to walk with him on York St. and told him about this. Within a very brief time, Jim Vallely was transferred. I do not know the years, but such a transfer would indicate the time.

I write this to you so that if any young men from St. Johns at that period were in touch with the Diocese, this conversation with Dick Harvey might help validate their truthfulness and need.

Prayerful good wishes and healing for us all.

Richard P. Rice

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

He says the disclosure opens the door to victims previously barred by Maine’s statute of limitations.

BY DAVID SHARPTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A lawyer says a newly revealed letter indicating Roman Catholic Church officials knew a Maine priest was allegedly abusing children in 1956 opens the door to lawsuits by additional victims.

Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian said the 2005 letter referring to abuse allegations against the Rev. James Vallely shows then-Bishop Daniel Feeney knew about Vallely’s abuse earlier than previously stated. He says that disclosure opens the door to victims who previously were shut out by Maine’s statute of limitations to file lawsuits.

Garabedian, who already settled one fraudulent concealment case, said he’s representing five of Vallely’s victims from the 1960s and 1970s. Vallely died in 1997.

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UNITED STATES
Thomas P. Doyle

[note: This does not connect to a web site.]

By Kieran Tapsell
Adelaide, NSW, Australia
ATF Press, 2014

Reviewed by Thomas P. Doyle, J.C.D., C.A.D.C.

In the years since the revelation of rampant sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clerics first became public, a number of clerics and canon lawyers have claimed that if the Church had only followed its own canon law system the problem could have been avoided. The most prominent has been Cardinal Raymond Burke, former prefect of the Apostolic Signatura and now Patron of the Sovereign Order of Malta. In 2012 Cardinal Burke addressed a canon law convention in Kenya and said that the church has a “carefully articulated process by which to investigate accusations of sex abuse.” He went on to say that the discipline of canon law was not followed, hence the on-going problem of clergy sex abuse.

Burke’s assertion and those of the others who have made similar claims are far removed from the reality of canon law’s role in the Church’s abysmal failure to deal with the epidemic of sexual misbehavior. On the other side of the of the reality divide there have been bishops who actually tried to deal with priest-perpetrators according to the Church’s rules and found themselves stymied and stone-walled by a confusing and contradictory array of canonical regulations.

Kieran Tapsell, an Australian legal scholar with an extraordinary grasp of canon law, its spirit, sources and labyrinthine mechanisms, has written the most comprehensive, insightful and accurate exposition of the canonical landscape yet to be produced. He takes a careful look at all of the strands of canon law and comes up with a thorough description of some of the key points of contention including a) the nature and extent of the obligation to maintain secrecy, b) the origin and effect of the two versions of the Vatican decree on procedures, Crimen sollicitationis, c) the question of reporting cases of sexual abuse to civil law enforcement, and d) the canonical barriers to effectively moving against priests who violate minors.

This is not a dry, academic treatise but a highly readable and engaging account of one of the most important and relevant aspects of the clergy abuse debacle. The author not only goes through the bewildering canonical swamp but brings his conclusions to life with real examples. This is not only a commentary on canon law but an invaluable historical source for his description of the Church’s response through history is comprehensive, including all the major events and ecclesiastical pronouncements.

Potiphar’s Wife is a foundational source about clergy sexual abuse. It is one of handful of books of the several hundred that have been written, that is essential to a comprehensive and accurate understanding of what is surely a highly complex, multi-faceted historical phenomenon.

The author and his publisher both told me that there had been a number of criticisms of the book by canon lawyers in Australia. I have searched high and low and found nothing in writing. There was a positive review from a moral theology professor at Catholic University of America that was pulled from the internet because, as its author explained to Mr. Tapsell, he had received emails from canonists criticizing it. Yet no one has stepped forward to engage him in debate except Dr. Ian Waters, a canonist from the archdiocese of Melbourne. Waters responded in his private capacity to a speech by Kieran Tapsell in Melbourne. A copy of Dr. Waters’ speech and Kieran Tapsell’s response to it can be found at http://www.awrsipe.com/Miscl/Ian-Waters-Speech-with-Commentary5.pdf

One common comment made by some defenders of the hierarchy is that very few bishops received copies of Crimen sollicitationis in either iteration, 1922 or 1962, and that consequently it was largely irrelevant and unused. I have had the occasion to review several thousand files of clerics accused of sexual molestation of minors over the past 27 years. These cases have been from throughout the U.S. and from Canada, Ireland, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico and Colombia. I have found a number of documents that were clearly part of the penal process mandated by Crimen. It would be close to impossible to determine how often this procedure was used, in all or in part, but is has been used.

Potiphar’s Wife is highly readable, not a dry, impersonal treatise as one would usually expect from a canon law book. It is engaging, at times shocking and infuriating and in sum, an essential and not just a valuable contribution to understanding the byzantine and all too often contradictory response of the Catholic hierarchy and the Vatican to the most destructive force the Church has seen since the middle ages.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV News

PENNY MARSHALL SOCIAL AFFAIRS EDITOR

An investigation by ITV News has discovered dozens of new allegations of historical child sex abuse within the Church of England have been made in the last few months.

This increase in survivors coming forward may reveal a new found confidence from those who have been sexually abused to seek redress and help.

They may also reflect the church’s own efforts to reach out now to the survivors they have wronged in the past. In all likelihood, they are a combination of both.

The survivors’ group MACSAS says these figures are the tip of the iceberg and warn that they expect many more will make contact. They do not know how many of these new cases have contacted the police.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV News

As an ITV News investigation discovers dozens of new historical allegations of child sexual abuse within the Church of England have been made in the last few months, one survivor speaks out.

I was groomed and sadistically abused by a senior establishment figure in the Church of England as a teenager in the mid-1970s.

I didn’t only reach out for help – but reached up for it by telling quite senior people in the church – including bishops. None of whom apparently kept any record.

I told in the region of 40 Church of England priests across nearly four decades – and finally got help to report it to the police and the Bishop of Durham last summer.

In the current hierarchy there are a handful of senior figures, including two bishops and others – who knew my story at one time, but seem to have all walked away and forgotten.

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UNITED STATES
Brent Detwiler

Monday, March 30, 2015

Two years ago a “hush fund” masquerading as a benevolence fund was deceptively set up by Mark Prater (Executive Director for SGM), Paul Buckley (Chairman of the SGM Board), and Tommy Hill (Director of Finance & Administration for SGM) in order to surreptitiously meet the demands of a SGM pastor whose son was sexually abused by the son of another SGM pastor in the same church.

The fund came about because the father of the victim was thinking about joining the sex abuse lawsuit against SGM if SGM did not agree to reforms and if he did not receive restitution monies from SGM for harms done. Insurance lawyers told SGM leaders they would lose their liability coverage if payouts were made thereby arguably admitting fault. Instead, SGM lawyer Chip Grange suggested a plan whereby monies be raised for the victim’s family as “a collection and private gift to help him avoid eviction.” This plan was approved by C.J. Mahaney and the SGM Board of Directors and implemented by Mark Prater.

As a result many SGM pastors who knew the pastor and father of the victim were contacted and asked to give benevolence to the family. Prater, Buckley, Hill and the Board deceived these pastors into giving personal and church monies to a benevolence fund that effectively functioned as a hush fund. The pastors had no idea what was really going on behind the scenes. They were intentionally deceived in the matter.

People inside and outside of SGM must come to grips with the corruption that characterizes the leadership of SGM starting with C.J. Mahaney. He was the President of SGM when this hush fund was set up. No one should be supporting or following any of these men. As I’ve demonstrated countless times, you cannot believe anything they tell you.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Kay Aviles on April 07 2015

Pope Francis is sweeping off clean the Vatican bank, which for many years has been cloaked with controversy for allegedly providing a safe haven to Italian individuals who laundered money and evaded taxes. On Wednesday, the Holy See’s signed tax treaty with the government of Italy — which obliges parties to share financial and tax information — seeks to regulate Vatican bank’s banking secrecy.

The Institute for Works of Religion, or IOR, Vatican bank’s official designation, began its operations as a safe place to store Catholic Church’s vast fortune. In fact, it has been dubbed as the world’s most secret bank. IOR has been a subject of criticism for its violations of its mission when the bank permitted illegitimate accounts enabling illicit transactions across Europe.

In 2010, reforms were already introduced to make the bank compliant with the international standards on financial transparency and on money laundering. Moreover, in 2013, in an effort to enforce transparency and carry out the bank’s reform process, around 3,000 bank accounts were blocked and 400 accounts were closed. Pope Francis, according to Voice of America, believed that in order for the church to have credibility, the Vatican finances should be transparent and reforms must continue.

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MINNESOTA
WDAY

[with video]

Crookston, MN (WDAY TV) – The Crookston Diocese under fire after its Bishop is accused of withholding the names of priests involved in sex abuse cases.

A survivor’s network of people abused by priests alleges Bishop Michael Hoeppner left out two priests from a list of offenders released in January 2014.

Rick Boyd was convicted in 1984 for possessing large amounts of child pornography.

Jerry Foley admitted to sexual misconduct in the 1970s and 80s.

David Clohessy/Executive Director SNAP, “These two should have been the first two on the list, because Father Foley admitted sexual misdeeds and Father Boyd was convicted of sexual misdeeds, so these should have been the easiest and the first predator priests who’s names the bishop disclosed.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Noel Baker
Senior Reporter

Irish Catholic bishops have come out against confidentiality agreements in cases where a priest has fathered a child, according to correspondence between it and newly formed organisation Coping International.

Coping International, which is seeking to support the children and ex-partners of priests in different countries around the world, including Ireland, had written to the Irish Bishops’ Conference regarding the confidentiality agreements — querying if such agreements were ethical.

It based its comments on the UN’s Children’s Rights Commission and its concluding observations on the second periodic report of the Holy See, in which the UN body said: “The committee is concerned about the situation of children fathered by Catholic priests, who, in many cases, are not aware of the identity of their fathers.

“The committee is also concerned that the mothers may obtain a plan for regular payment from the Church until the child is financially independent only if they sign a confidentiality agreement not to disclose any information about the child’s father or the plan.”

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IRELAND
The Irish News

THE religious order of serial paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth is quitting its Co Cavan abbey.

The Norbertine Fathers are departing Kilnacrott Abbey near Ballyjamesduff.

The five remaining priests held their last Mass at the abbey on Easter Sunday.

First put on the market in 2007, with an asking price of €3m, it was initially thought the abbey and its
44 acres would be transformed into a 60-bed residential nursing home after being reportedly sold for €900,000 in 2011.

However, that sale fell through and the property eventually sold in 2012 for €610,000 to a controversial lay religious group known as Direction For Our Times, which is run by Chicago native Kathryn Ann Clarke, otherwise known as ‘Anne a lay apostle’.

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OSTERREICH
Steiermark

Bei einem Gottesdienst am Ostermontag hat der Dechant in der Pfarrkirche Leoben-Donawitz angekündigt, seine Kirchenämter niederzulegen. Der 45-Jährige begründete seine Entscheidung damit, dass er heiraten werde. Er sei erleichtert, sagte er nun im Interview mit dem ORF Steiermark.

Der Gottesdienst am Montag in der Pfarrkirche Leoben-Donawitz nahm eine alles andere als alltägliche Wendung, als Dechant Maximilian Tödtling seine Heiratsabsichten bekanntgab.

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AUSTRIA
The Local

An Austrian priest gave his congregation a surprise during a church service on Easter Monday in Donawitz, Styria, when he announced that he was giving up the priesthood to marry a woman he’d
Maximilian Tödtling (45) told his parishioners that he would quit in September and asked them to understand why he had chosen to leave.

Tödtling has been in charge of the parish of Leoben-West for eight years, and according to a report in the Kronen Zeitung newspaper is very popular.

By the end of August he will have given up all his church duties and will apply to the Pope for laicization – whereby his status as a member of the clergy will be removed.

Tödtling said that he was in a relationship with a woman called Nora who works for a Catholic charity that takes care of the poor and homeless.

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CANADA
CTV

The Canadian Press
Published Monday, April 6, 2015

A commissioner on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission wants mandatory education about residential schools for students across Canada.

Marie Wilson was in Saskatoon last week to speak about the legacy the commission will leave behind when it wraps up with closing events in Ottawa at the end of May.

Wilson says she hopes the commission will inspire jurisdictions across Canada to include residential school history as a required course to graduate high school.

The commission has collected testimony from residential school survivors to create an official record of the abuse they suffered, and will submit a final report to Ottawa.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY LIAM CLARKE – 07 APRIL 2015

In emotional scenes, Richard Kerr – a former Kincora resident who was sexually abused at the boys’ home – has received an apology from the military intelligence officer who tried to expose the abuse.

Brian Gemmell’s words represent the first time Mr Kerr has ever received an apology from the authorities who failed him.

Mr Gemmell was warned off revealing the paedophile activity at the east Belfast home by Ian Cameron, a senior MI5 officer, who told him this was not a matter for the intelligence services or the army to be concerned with. Now Mr Gemmell believes it was part of a cover-up of sex abuse by top people. He suspects that the intelligence services used such dark secrets as a way to control abusers who were politically influential. As a captain, Mr Gemmell put in an official report about Kincora to a senior MI5 officer. But to his astonishment he claims he was ordered to stop digging and forget about it. He now feels that he should have exposed it, whatever the consequences for his army career.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Belfast Telegraph

BY LIAM CLARKE – 07 APRIL 2015

Richard Kerr is still scared. He has been warned of Establishment feathers being ruffled. Living in Texas, he feels safe enough on the other side of the Atlantic, but is nervous of returning here again.

He last travelled here from his US home in February for a legal battle to demand that Kincora is investigated as part of a UK-wide public inquiry. This probe would have greater powers to get to the truth than Sir Anthony Hart’s Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry in Banbridge. Judgment in the case is still reserved.

“I’m still in some fear,” he says tonight on Channel 4. “I need to know that I can have faith in our government. But right now, when they’re not willing to bring Kincora into Westminster, the message that sends to me is that there’s some kind of cover-up.”

Mr Kerr pointed out that people like Ian Paisley senior have been accused of sexual misconduct on the internet – yet to Mr Kerr’s knowledge, the former DUP leader was never involved in abuse, and two intelligence officers who have spoken out concur.

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MONTANA
Montana Standard

HELENA — An approved plan to exit bankruptcy doesn’t mean the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena is on solid financial footing just yet, according to Chief Financial Officer Jim Carney.

“It’s going to be a long, slow road to recovery,” he said.

The Diocese of Helena, which oversees more than 60 parishes and 35 missions across western Montana, has been weighed down by debt said to be nearly double its assets since allegations of sexual abuse began to surface years ago. In January 2014, the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, making it one of nearly a dozen dioceses to do so over the last decade.

A federal bankruptcy judge approved the diocese’s plan in early March to compensate more than 360 alleged sexual abuse victims.

The diocese paid $2.6 million; its insurance company paid $14.4 million; and the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province, who were also part of the lawsuit, paid $4.45 million.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

[Letter Regarding Early Notice of Vallely Abuse – BishopAccountability.org]

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted April 06, 2015

PORTLAND, Maine — A 2005 letter from a retired priest to an official at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland shows that Maine’s bishop knew that a priest was sexually abusing boys at a Bangor church in 1956, according to an advocate for victims and an attorney.

The late Bishop Daniel J. Feeney knew that the Rev. James Vallely , now deceased, abused children at St. John Catholic Church in Bangor before 1956, according to Robert M. Hoatson, president of Road to Recovery Inc., a New Jersey-based nonprofit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families.

Efforts to reach the diocese for comment late Monday afternoon were unsuccessful.

The handwritten letter, dated July 20, 2005, was written on stationery for St. Mary’s School in Bath. It was signed by the Rev. Richard P. Rice and is addressed to “Marc.”

Marc is believed to be the Rev. Marc Caron, who was co-chancellor of the diocese in 2005, according to Hoatson. Rice is retired but continues to say Mass in All Saints Parish, which includes churches in Bath and the Boothbay Peninsula, according to information posted on the parish website.

Efforts to reach Rice on Monday night were unsuccessful.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Belfast Telegraph

Kincora child sex abuse victim Richard Kerr: I was molested by powerful people at Dolphin Square and Elm Guest House in London

07 APRIL 2015

Kincora child sex abuse victim Richard Kerr has claimed he was molested by “very powerful people” at several key locations connected to an alleged VIP paedophile ring.

Mr Kerr, who was a victim of abuse at Kincora Boys’ Home in Belfast, has claimed he was also attacked at the Dolphin Square luxury apartment complex and Elm Guest House, both in London.

It is thought to be the first time that the three places have been linked in relation to claims of historic sex abuse by influential Westminster figures.

Mr Kerr was abused at Kincora in the 1970s and claims he and two other boys were hand-picked to be trafficked to London in 1977 and sexually abused by men.

Both of the other men have since taken their own lives, Mr Kerr told Channel 4 News.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mal

I was trafficked by Westminster sex abuse ring: Victim claims he was attacked in children’s home, gay brothel and luxury London flats

By SAM MARSDEN FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Vulnerable boys were trafficked from a children’s home before being abused by ‘very powerful’ figures in a Westminster paedophile ring, a victim has claimed.

Richard Kerr, 53, said he was one of three youngsters who were taken from the home in Belfast to London in the 1970s.

Once in the capital, they were allegedly molested by politicians and other Establishment figures at Dolphin Square and Elm Guest House – which are now under investigation by Scotland Yard.

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ARGENTINA
Clarin

[The priest Justo Ilarraz, charged with sexual abuse of seminarians who were under his tutelage between 1984 and 1992, today refused to undergo psychiatric and psychological examination.]

El sacerdote Justo Ilarraz, imputado por abuso sexual a seminaristas que estuvieron bajo su tutela entre 1984 y 1992, se negó hoy a someterse a pericias psiquiátricas y psicológicas.

Fue durante una audiencia celebrada esta mañana en los Tribunales de Paraná y que fuera dispuesta por la titular del Juzgado de Transición Número 2, Paola Pintos, quien está a cargo del expediente caratulado “Ilarraz, Justo Jose s/Promoción a la corrupcion agravada”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Evening Post

Tony Gardner

A CHURCH helper had more than 3,000 vile images of children being sexually abused on computers at his West Yorkshire home, a court heard.

A court heard the discovery was made after computer equipment was seized from Nigel Holleran’s home on Walton Lane, Sandal, Wakefield, in May last year.

Leeds Crown Court was told Holleran contacted police officers and told them he “wanted to get things of his chest”.

He then admitted that he had been viewing abusive images of children for around five years.

Holleran, 57, later told a probation officer that he believed the children in the images, some as young as nine, had consented to the abuse they were being subjected to and had been paid for appearing in the images.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Tuesday 7 April 2015

The high profile peace campaigner and former priest Monsignor Bruce Kent has called for alleged victims of disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien to cease their “anonymous allegations.”

Mgr Kent, 86, became friends with the former leader of the Catholic Church in St Andrews and Edinburgh, through his work with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

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MICHIGAN
Michigan Radio

[with audio]

1968 was a very tense and pivotal year in Detroit’s history. The city was putting itself back together again after the riots in July of ’67.

That was the year 38-year-old priest Thomas Gumbleton became a Catholic bishop, and set about working to unite black and white parishes in the Detroit Archdiocese.

Today, after a lifetime of fighting for peace, justice and equality, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton is 85. And his life is now a film. American Prophet written, produced and directed by his parishioner Jasmine Rivera.

Rivera grew attending Bishop Gumbleton’s parish and says she didn’t truly understand how incredible his story was until she was older.

The film retraces the origins of when he became a bishop in 1968. …

Along with his fight for racial equality and social justice, the bishop has also spoken out about sexual abuse within the church. He himself is a survivor of sexual abuse inflicted by a professor at the seminary where he studied, and he avoided discussing his experience for 40 years.

“I never said anything about it to anybody until just a few years ago when the opportunity came along to help the survivors to get legislation that would open up the statute of limitations,” the bishop says.

Bishop Gumbleton says he’s been frustrated by the church’s response to the sexual abuse scandal. He says the church hierarchy listened to the advice of their lawyers first, rather than fulfilling their duties to their parishioners.

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NEW YORK
The Daily News

ALBION — Former pastor Roy Harriger was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison for repeatedly sexually assaulting two of his grandchildren in 2001 and 2002.

A jury found Harriger guilty Jan. 26 of two counts of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child. The jury found him not guilty of a third count against another grandchild.

Orleans County Judge James Punch imposed Monday’s sentence. Harriger, 71, had faced up to 25 years in prison.

All three victims testified that Harriger sexually assaulted them. Two of the victims, a brother and a sister, are now adults and testified that Harriger abused them in 2001 and 2002.

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NEW YORK
WKBW

ALBION, N.Y. (WKBW) – A 70-year-old pastor convicted of molesting his own grandchildren will spend the next 15 years behind bars.

Roy Harriger was convicted in January of two of three counts of coercive criminal sexual conduct against a child. He could have faced up to 25 years in prison, but was sentenced Monday to 15 years behind bars – seven-and-a-half years for each count.

He will also have 20 years post release supervision.

Jurors deliberated Harriger’s fate over two days. As the verdict was read, there were gasps, deep breaths, tears and even a cheer inside Orleans County Court. Harriger had no comment as he walked out of the courtroom that day.

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NEW YORK
TWC News

By Breanna Fuss
Monday, April 6, 2015

ALBION, N.Y. — A former pastor in Orleans County was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing children.

Roy Harriger, 72, was found guilty in January of sexual conduct against a child. In court, Harriger steadfastly denied everything.

The investigation into Harriger began a year and a half ago; however, it’s alleged he sexually abused at least 15 children over the course of 40 years.

Harriger was a pastor at Ash Wood Wesleyan Church in Lyndonville and at Community Fellowship Church in the Niagara County town of Hartland. The incidents he was convicted of occurred between 2000 and 2001.

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NEW YORK
Rochester Homepage

Albion, NY (WROC)- An Orleans County pastor, who was convicted of sexual abuse, will spend the next 15 years behind bars. Roy Harriger, 71, was convicted on two counts of sexual conduct for molesting two of his grandchildren, but they weren’t the only victims. More than 15 people signed affidavits saying Harriger molested them as well.

Until Harriger’s arrest, he continued preaching at the Community Fellowship Church in Johnson Creek.

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TEXAS
Big Country Homepage

Bethany Blaine

More details have been released about the arrest of a former Abilene church worker who is charged with sexual assault of a child.

According to an arrest report, a victim came forward saying they were sexually abused by 43-year-old Jeff Forrest back in September of 1993.

Forrest was the victim’s after-school daycare teacher, court documents state.

The victim reported that alleged abuse continued until their 8th grade year of school.

Records say that after several years of keeping the abuse secret, the victim finally admitted the abuse to their father in 2011.

According to court documents, the victim’s father then confronted Forrest, forcing him to tell his wife about the abuse.

Forrest’s wife then reported the sexual abuse to Child Protective Services.

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AUSTRALIA
Failed Messiah

In Sydney, Despite Horrific Child Sex Abuse Scandal, It’s Business As Usual For Chabad – And For A Local Politician

After the Australian Royal Commission hearings into widespread coverups of child sex abuse in Chabad institutions, including those Chabad institutions that Rabbi Pinchus Feldman heads in Sydney, exposed horrific behavior by Chabad rabbis – including Feldman himself – one might think politicians would be loathe to be seen with Feldman and the other Chabad rabbis – but you would be wrong.

After the Australian Royal Commission hearings into widespread coverups of child sex abuse in Chabad institutions, including those Chabad institutions that Rabbi Pinchus Feldman heads in Sydney, exposed horrific behavior by Chabad rabbis – including Feldman himself – one might think politicians would be loathe to be seen with Feldman and the other Chabad rabbis (some of whom may be indicted after the Royal Commission releases its official findings in May).

But if you thought that, you would be wrong.

If you thought politicians were anything more than their caricature as craven, self-serving, power- and money-hungry creatures, think again. Because here is a PR photo released by Rabbi Pinchus Feldman Chabad organization based in Sydney, Australia. The caption is his own. Note the smiling, beaming face of the Parliamentary Secretary for Justice for the Australian state of New South Wales (the state Sydney is in, like Los Angeles is in California):

Rabbi Pinchus Feldman OAM, Regional Director of Chabad NSW, sells the Chametz to The Hon. David Clarke MLC, NSW Parliamentary Secretary for Justice, in the presence of Rabbi Eli Feldman, Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of NSW. (Caption and photo as published by Shturem.org.)

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OREGON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, April 6

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

A Catholic priest has lost his wrongful dismissal case against his bishop. This outcome helps explain why Catholic officials continue to endanger kids, move predators, and conceal evidence in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases.

[Bend Bulletin]

Fr. James Radloff lost his complaint with the state Bureau of Labor and Industries in September, which charged that Baker Bishop Liam Cary had engaged in unlawful conduct when he was dismissed. The ruling wasn’t based on the facts. It was based on the “ministerial exception” which essentially says that religious employees can’t take legal action against their church superiors.

So in essence Catholic employees are serfs and their bishops are lords, immune to being scrutinized or second-guessed by secular officials. That means that church workers are largely powerless even when their bishops are corrupt.

And that’s why clergy sex crimes and cover ups keep happening in the church – because bishops continue to have nearly unlimited power to demote, discipline, defrock and denounce their employees, especially those employees who ‘blow the whistle’ on clerics who commit or conceal sexual violence against kids.

The remedy: Anyone who sees, suspects or suffers clergy sex crimes or cover ups should contact police, prosecutors, journalists, and groups like ours, and fight very hard to expose the truth, even if they are denied their day in court. And secular authorities should fight very hard to expose, prosecute and convict church officials who protect predators and endanger kids, even though the legal obstacles they may face are considerable.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register

BY DAVID WHITING / STAFF COLUMNIST

Bishop Kevin Vann, dressed in black priest’s clothing and sometimes called the Shepherd of Orange, walks through the Christ Cathedral campus discussing the meaning of Easter.

I can’t help but notice Vann is wearing cowboy boots. Could these be the bishop’s famous Our Lady of Guadalupe boots?

Vann grins. He spent the morning in San Juan Capistrano blessing the annual Portola horseback ride. The bishop who still sees himself as a simple parish priest lifts a pant leg.

Blue, yellow and red stitching appears.

Then Vann does something unexpected. He whips off a boot.

It turns out there are layers of meaning in that leather. …

The bishop also doesn’t shrink away from the molestation scandals. English, Spanish and Vietnamese leaflets sit in the administration building’s lobby detailing the diocese’s pledge, “To do everything possible to help the healing process of the victims of sexual abuse.”

So what’s all this have to do with Easter? As a lapsed Catholic – and it’s impossible not to re-evaluate one’s relationship to the church when talking to someone like Vann – I would suggest everything.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis and the Vatican recently made, and then compounded, a major blunder in Chile that seriously undermines the pope’s own already teetering sex abuse commission and his aimless Family Synod upcoming in several months. The Vatican, and an exhausted pope, are now desperately trying to change the subject to worldwide violent attacks by senseless terrorists, to Francis’ upcoming futile Family Synod and to pointless papal trips— anything but the subject of continuing senseless violent sexual attacks on children by priests too often protected by unaccountable bishops.

It is too late for such papal spin. This mistake will even likely lead to some protests during the pope’s upcoming visit to the USA and UN, as well as undercut some of his influence among US Latino voters for next year’s US Republican presidential candidate, likely Spanish speaker, Jeb Bush. This Bush is Catholic, has a Mexican wife and also has close ties to the neo-con Catholic establishment.

Yes, it is too late for the pope to try to spin past this mistake. By bypassing his own abuse commission as Francis just did, few will now take serious either his own illusory commission’s relevance or his futile Family Synod, that absurdly lacks family participants, especially women, as full participants. This Chilean bishop mistake, and the Vatican’s cowardly confirmation of it, are the last straws for many Catholics, especially parents, as should have been clear by the unprecedented near riot at Barros’ installation, see here .

Clearly, the outcry against Pope Francis’s appointment to Osorno of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, long associated with a notorious child abusing priest, has placed the pope’s already declining credibility, especially concerning his “zero tolerance” policy against sexual abuse, into further question, even among traditionally adamant papal supporters. This includes the US neo-conservative journal, “First Things”, a prime outlet often of key Catholic neo–cons like George Weigel. Mr. Weigel, who had been close to Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, reportedly has also had unusual access to Pope Francis, both currently as pope as well as when he was cardinal.

A usually supportive advocate of the dominant modern “infallible” papacy, William Doino, Jr., has indicated in First Things, fairly, correctly and pointedly, that the Vatican’s explanation of its Barros mistake is hardly persuasive. See “Pope Francis and Zero Tolerance“, where Doino perceptively criticizes the Vatican, here,

[First Things]

The Pope’s decision to appoint Barros as bishop of Osorno—even as Barros has been accused of covering up sexual abuse, and of being an eyewitness to the abuse—has been a source of consternation, not least among members of Francis’s own anti-abuse Commission, as Doino correctly points out.

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IRELAND
Yahoo! News

The names of five more children who died at the Bethany Home have been added to a memorial stone in Mount Jerome Cemetery.

That brings to 227 the number of children who were discovered to have been buried in unmarked graves in the Harolds Cross cemetery.

The news was announced by Bethany Home survivor and campaigner Derek Leinster, who said that the names were discovered in records.

Protestant home

Located on Dublin’s Orwell Road, the home was for unmarried mothers and was run by an evangelical Protestant group.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, April 6, 2015

For more information: David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, davidgclohessy@gmail.com ), Barbara Dorris ( 314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org ), Verne Wagner 218-340-1277, lwagsmn@yahoo.com

Victims blast Crookston bishop
He’s hiding the name of two predators
One is a now-defrocked priest who was convicted of child porn
The other admitted sexual misdeeds & was sent to Twin Cities
But neither were mentioned when diocese released accused priests

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is blasting Crookston’s Catholic bishop for ignoring two diocesan priests who are “credibly accused” abusers when he released the names of abusive clerics weeks ago.

In January, Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner acknowledged that six northwestern Minnesota priests have faced “credible” allegations of child sexual abuse or crimes and disclosed their names.

[BishopAccountability.org]

But he neglected to name Fr. Rick Boyd, who was convicted in 1984 of “possessing hundreds of items, including about 20 magazines, plus photos and albums, of teenage boys younger than 18 engaged in sex,” in what one source called “the “largest collection of child pornography uncovered in the upper Midwest.” And he made no mention of Fr. Gerald K. “Jerry” Foley, who admitted to sexual misconduct in the 1970s and 1980s with women in his pastoral care, including one who was ‘as young as 17.’

[Daily Beast]

[BishopAccountability.org]

Yet Boyd worked in ministry until 2003, a year after the so-called “one-strike” policy was adopted by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. And Foley, despite his admitted sexual misconduct, was transferred in 1985 from the Diocese of Crookston to the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis, where he was a chaplain at St Joseph Hospital in St Paul until about 2004.

SNAP discovered the Hoeppner’s omission of Boyd last week when a prominent Twin Cities Catholic whistleblower alluded to the case on her blog but did not name Boyd specifically. The whistleblower, Dr. Jennifer Haselberger, worked for the Crookston Diocese from 2006-2008, directing its “Safe Environment Program.” A canon lawyer, she also worked for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Fargo.

On her blog last week, Haselberger wrote of “a situation of which I was a part in 2005 and 2006, and which led to the ex officio dismissal of a priest for crimes involving sexual abuse of a minor.” She says the priest

–“was removed from ministry in 2005 as a result of charges to which he had previously pleaded guilty in civil court,”

–“was, at the time of his removal he was a ‘person of interest’ to the FBI because of an ongoing investigation into his more recent conduct,”

–“was sent to Saint Luke’s Institute (in Maryland) for an evaluation,”

–was deemed “a fairly high risk for reoffending,” and

–was urged to undergo “an extended period of inpatient therapy.”

But Haselberger writes that the cleric rejected that recommendation and “seemingly disappeared.”

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OREGON
Bend Bulletin

By Scott Hammers / The Bulletin
Published Apr 6, 2015

An employment complaint filed by a former Roman Catholic priest against the Diocese of Baker and Bishop Liam Cary has been dismissed.

James Radloff filed his complaint with the state Bureau of Labor and Industries in September, alleging Bishop Cary and the diocese had engaged in unlawful conduct when he was dismissed from his position with Bend’s St. Francis of Assisi parish in October 2013. Radloff claimed he and Cary had been at odds since months earlier, when he raised concerns over the bishop’s handling of a confession with a teenage boy.

Early last year, Radloff voluntarily left the Roman Catholic Church to start a new church in Bend, the Holy Communion Evangelical Catholic Church, a sect that borrows heavily from the ritual and doctrine of the Roman Catholics.

Radloff’s complaint detailed 29 allegations of mistreatment by Cary and the diocese, with Radloff claiming he was evicted from parish housing on four days’ notice and forbidden from traveling within the diocese, which covers nearly two-thirds of Oregon.

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SLOVAKIA
Celebtricity

Sister Ludovita stabs a 7-year-old schoolboy during R.E. lesson.

The Nun wanted to teach the class about Jesus, when she proceeded to stab the young boy in the arm with a needle. Leaving the whole class and the boy in shock.

Apparently she took the needle out of her handbag and rammed it into the poor boys arm. To show how Jesus suffered, and that the little boy would also suffer if he behaved badly.

The 7-year-old’s mum was horrified.

When Adam got home he had a wound on the back of his hand and when I asked him what had happened he told me the nun had done it. I was completely shocked. I mean, what on earth was she thinking?

And with Easter coming I began to worry about what she would do next – crucify one of the students or hammer a nail into their hands?

The school has responded to the mothers concern.

We strongly disapprove of this sort of teaching method. When I contacted the Sister she told me that the class had been learning about Jesus Christ and personal sin. She added that the children had been invited to voluntarily experience mild pain so they could empathise with the theme.

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CALIFORNIA
Stockton Record

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer

Posted Apr. 6, 2015

STOCKTON — Just outside the San Joaquin County Superior Court on Weber Avenue sits the historical Stockton Hotel.

“Have you seen the original ‘All the King’s Men?’ ” Judge Bob McNatt said of the 1949 film that won three Academy Awards. “It was filmed right there (at the hotel).”

For a juror, listening to hours of testimony in a courtroom can get stressful, maybe downright mind-numbing. But McNatt knows how to break up the tension and monotony by occasionally sharing bits of history in his courtroom.

He is known to be quite the trivia buff, just one of his many qualities that will be missed in Department 42 of the Stockton court branch.

McNatt, whose most infamous cases include the child sex abuse civil lawsuits involving then-priests Oliver O’Grady and Michael Kelley, officially retires on June 1. He has, however, already cleared out and technically is on vacation.

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UNITED STATES
First Things

by William Doino Jr.
4 . 6 . 15

he outcry against Pope Francis’s appointment of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, who was long associated with a child abusing priest-to the Diocese of Osorno, has placed the pope’s “zero tolerance” policy against sexual abuse into question.

As Pope, Francis has taken many decisive actions against sexual abuse. He created a special Vatican Commission to combat it, in all its forms, and soon thereafter met with a group of victims, expressing his pain over their suffering:

I feel the gaze of Jesus, and I ask for the grace to weep, the grace for the Church to weep and make reparation for her sons and daughters who betrayed their mission, who abused innocent persons.

Francis has defrocked abusive clergymen, disciplined Catholic prelates believed to have covered up for them, and stripped an abusive Cardinal of all his authority. The Pope has also personally intervened in other abuse cases, ordering investigations and encouraging the public authorities to take strong action against evildoers.

Given these welcome acts, the Pope’s decision to appoint Barros as bishop of Osorno—even as Barros has been accused of covering up sexual abuse, and of being an eyewitness to the abuse—has been a source of consternation, not least among members of Francis’s own anti-abuse Commission.

Barros was a long-time colleague and supporter of Rev. Fernando Karadima, a notorious abuser in Argentina. After Karadima was first accused of sexual abuse, Barros publicly defended his friend and mentor, and reportedly “tried to discredit the victims—even after the Vatican ruled against him [Karadima]” in 2011. The Chilean Bishops Conference subsequently ordered Barros, and three other bishops who had defended Karadima, to apologize.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

KATE CRAWFORD MOSMAN DAILY APRIL 06, 2015

A FORMER Riverview teacher has written a disturbing play about sexual abuse at a Catholic boys’ school.

Playwright Melvyn Morrow of Mosman says the play has proved “tragically timely’’ in the light of the exposure recently of allegations that a former teacher at Riverview abused a boy more than 30 years ago.

Riverview principal Paul Hine contacted about 6500 former students after the allegation emerged, asking them to come forward if they knew of any similar allegations.

Morrow admits some audience members could be outraged by his play, Vice, which challenges assumptions about sexual abuse in schools.

It opens at the King Street Theatre in Newtown on April 21.

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VATICAN CITY
KCEN

(WFAA) VATICAN CITY — Tens of thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square for Easter Mass in a cold, pouring rain Sunday to hear Pope Francis call for an end to global violence and the persecution of Christians by extremist groups.

Francis also expressed support for the Iran nuclear deal reached in Lausanne, Switzerland, saying he hoped it would be “a definitive step toward a more secure and fraternal world.”

Ominous gray clouds poured rain on crowds that started to gather hours before the pope’s traditional Easter “Urbi et Orbi” — Latin for “To the city and the world” — blessing.

The unseasonably cool weather kept crowds smaller than at previous major events Francis attended in recent months, but the enthusiasm that follows the pope wherever he goes was evident. …

Even those critical of the Vatican had praise for the pope’s message Sunday. Alvaro Romano, 23, a Rome native who was part of a small student group protesting the Vatican’s handling of sex abuse in the church, said the pope’s message of peace resonated with him.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Rockhampton commencing on Tuesday 14 April 2015 at 10:00am AEST.

The public hearing will inquire into the experiences of a number of men and women who were resident at St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol operated by the Sisters of Mercy between 1940 and 1975.

Please note that the audio on the webcast may be frequently cut to protect the identify of people who have been granted a pseudonym in this hearing.

Live streaming times
The public hearing will be streamed live via this website between 10am and 4pm (AEST).

Join us on Twitter and Facebook for regular updates.

Please be aware that the content of the public hearings can be distressing for viewers. Visit support services to find services near you, or for immediate support call the Royal Commission on 1800 099 340 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Location
The Rockhampton Court House, Virgil Power Building, 46 East Street, Rockhampton.

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

1. The experiences of a number of men and women who were resident at St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol operated by the Sisters of Mercy between 1940 and 1975;

2. The responses of:
a. the Sisters of Mercy
b. the Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton, and
c. the Queensland state government
to complaints made by former residents of St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol of child sexual abuse by workers, priests and nuns at the Orphanage between 1993 and present.

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OSTERREICH
OOE@orf

[New allegations have been made against the ex-priest at Kremsmunster monastery.]

Gegen den rechtskräftig wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs zu zwölf Jahren verurteilten Ex-Pater des Stiftes Kremsmünster sind neue Vorwürfe aufgetaucht. Ein mutmaßliches Opfer wirft ihm in der Zeitung „Österreich“ vor, sich in Kärnten an ihm vergangen zu haben.

Die Vorfälle seien in der Anstalt des pädophilen und wegen Mordes verurteilten, mittlerweile verstorbenen Kinderpsychiaters Franz Wurst geschehen, so das Opfer. “Der Pater hat mich im Alter von sechs Jahren in der Anstalt von Dr. Wurst in Klagenfurt sexuell missbraucht.

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ESPANA
Vega Media Press

[A new victim of pedophilia, a new spot on the face of the Spanish Church, a new case of sexual abuse of a minor in the times of “zero tolerance” of Pope Francis. According to the complaint in the police court Cieza (Murcia), Ignacio (fictitious name) suffered “serious and continuous abuse and sexual assault” by the sexton of the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption when he was 12 and was altar boy. Today he is 28, still retains faith, but feels mistreated in his own religious house.]

En la denuncia, a la que ha tenido acceso la web Religion Digital, se cuenta que los abusos y agresiones, que comenzaron en 1999 y continuaron hasta 2003, se cometieron “bajo engaño y posición dominante” del sacristán, que “premiaba o castigaba a los niños, según fueran o no complacientes con sus aberraciones sexuales”.

El abusado detalla algunos de los abusos sexuales que sufrió: “Tocamientos, masturbaciones, eyaculaciones en el cuerpo, rozamientos desnudos, fotografías desnudas, etc, todo ello con el empleo de la fuerza por parte del sacristán”. A cambio, les daba “regalos y dinero” o les ofrecía “puestos de relevancia en el altar e invitaciones a su casa de la playa”.

Un sacristán, FJRP, con mando en plaza, como empleado contratado por la parroquia. Y es que, según relata la denuncia, “era el verdadero administrador de la parroquia, ya que él manejaba la economía de la misma, disponía de los cepillos y dirigía los grupos de laicos”. Mientras tanto, el párroco, AMC, “sólo participaba en los actos litúrgicos, dejando todo el movimiento de la parroquia en manos del sacristán”.

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SLOVAKIA
Irish Mirror

5 April 2015 By Sam Webb

Sister Ludovita had been giving RE classes when she told pupil Adam Celko, 7, to come to the front of the class

An over-zealous nun stabbed a schoolboy in the hand with a needle to show him how Jesus suffered.

Sister Ludovita, 30, had been giving RE classes at a school in the town of Kysucke Nove Mesto in northern Slovakia when she told unsuspecting pupil Adam Celko, 7, to come to the front of the class.

She then took a needle out of her handbag and rammed it into the boy’s hand in front of the horrified class, telling him that this was how Jesus suffered – and he would too if he behaved badly.

The boy’s outraged mum Helena, 30, said: “When Adam got home he had a wound on the back of his hand and when I asked him what had happened he told me the nun had done it.

“I was completely shocked. I mean, what on earth was she thinking?

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Editorial

What a kick in the guts the federal government administered to the survivors of institutional child sexual abuse when it bluntly opposed the establishment of a national redress scheme.

Over months of hearings and in many submissions, survivors and their representatives made clear to the royal commission they strongly supported a national approach as the one most likely to deliver justice, fairness and consistency.

And yet, despite bipartisan support for the establishment of the commission and its terms of reference suggesting all governments accept the need for effective redress, the Abbott government rejected their “ideal” model at the first opportunity.

Perhaps it is looking at examples such as the Irish Residential Institutions Redress Board. At its inception in 2002, the board was expected to deliver €200 million ($282.5 million) to 2000 survivors of abuse of all forms, be half funded by Catholic religious orders and take up to five years. At the start of 2014, 16,000 survivors had received €1.6 billion, mostly from state coffers.

The royal commission’s actuarial modelling estimates that 65,000 Australians might seek redress, but warns it’s impossible to predict numbers with any certainty. It estimates a scheme with an average payment of $65,000 would total $4.3 billion over 10 years, with government paying $1.9 billion.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Daniel Boffey Policy editor

Saturday 4 April 2015

The home secretary, Theresa May, has come under renewed criticism over the independent inquiry into child sex abuse as controversy rages over the issue of survivors being appointed to its advisory panel.

Michael Mansfield QC has lent his name to a campaign to force a U-turn on the proposed membership criteria. At one stage Mansfield was considered as a possible head of the inquiry.

More than 200 survivors, whistleblowers and child protection professionals have expressed dismay at the declaration by the inquiry’s new head, Lowell Goddard, that survivors lack sufficient objectivity to be full quasi-judicial members. In an open letter to May, they point out British law does not bar child abuse victims from acting as judges or jurors on abuse cases. They say stigmatisation of survivors for lacking objectivity, before the inquiry has even started work, could doom the inquiry to failure.

The last inquiry into child sex abuse was scrapped by May following a series of scandals, including links between two chosen heads and those publicly accused of being involved in abuse.

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WASHINGTON
Bellingham Herald

BY LISA PEMBERTON
Staff writer
April 5, 2015

The steep decline in the number of monks at Saint Martin’s Abbey isn’t unusual for Roman Catholic monasteries.

“If you take a look at Catholic consecrated life across the United States, many congregations would say their numbers are down,” Owen Cummings of Mount Angel Seminary near Salem, Oregon, said.

Last year, there were 38,275 Catholic priests in the United States, more than 20,000 fewer than in 1965, according the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a Georgetown University-affiliated organization that studies trends in the Catholic Church.

The decline in “religious priests” — those who live in a priestly community such as a monastery — took an even sharper dive, falling to 12,010 from 22,707 in the same time frame.

Meantime, the number of “religious brothers,” which includes unordained monks, dropped to 4,318 from 12,271, according to the center.

Part of the decline in consecrated life stems from rules changed during Vatican II in the early 1960s, Cummings said. The new rules allowed lay people to perform some church duties that previously were exclusive to priests, nuns and monks.

Other theories for the decline include a fall in birth rates, a society more based on consumerism and the church dropping its ban on letting girls help priests during Mass in the early 1980s.

Some believe also it is tied to the sex and child abuse scandals that have rocked the church and led to congregation declines over the past three decades.

It continues to be a difficult situation for the church that has touched Saint Martin’s. Four men sued in 2008, alleging they were abused as boys during the 1950s by Father Leonard Feeney, who died in 1980.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Herald

Barbara Vitello

A Roman Catholic priest facing child pornography charges pleaded not guilty Friday, according to Cook County prosecutors.

Clovis Vilchez-Parra, 34, an associate pastor at Mission San Juan Diego in Arlington Heights, was charged in February with possession of child pornography and reproduction of child pornography following a joint undercover investigation by the Cook County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Palatine, Bartlett and Chicago police departments. Prosecutors say the task force was investigating individuals searching for and downloading images of child exploitation.

In the wake of Vilchez-Parra’s arrest, Chicago Archdiocese officials removed him from ministry pending the outcome of the case.

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ILLINOIS
Newsburg

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. (AP) — A Catholic priest from suburban Chicago has pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges.

Thirty-four-year-old Clovis Vilchez-Parra is an associate pastor at Mission San Juan Diego in Arlington Heights.

He was charged in February with felony possession and reproduction of child pornography
The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reports (http://bit.ly/1avGZiO ) that he entered the plea Friday.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mail on Sunday

63 police inquiries, 2,100 victims… the child abuse dossier that shames Britain after horrific explosion of historic sex cases since Savile

By MARTIN BECKFORD FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

The unprecedented scale of current police investigations into historic child abuse can be revealed for the first time today, as senior officers warn of the challenge of investigating alleged crimes that go back decades.

An investigation by The Mail on Sunday has revealed that:

* Forces around Britain are carrying out more than 60 major investigations into sex attacks and beatings in schools, children’s homes and churches dating back to the 1950s.

* More than 2,000 people have come forward in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal to say they were abused at institutions or by public figures, including prominent politicians.

* A staggering 1,200 of the alleged victims were inmates of just one institution, a northern borstal once visited by the late Home Secretary Leon Brittan and praised for its ‘short, sharp shock’ regime. He himself is now at the centre of a number of abuse claims.

* The first chairman of the troubled Government inquiry into historic abuse has warned of the ‘vast task’ of investigating the spiralling allegations.

The cases are putting police forces – already struggling to deal with 20 per cent budget cuts at the same time as an explosion in online crimes and a heightened terrorism threat – under huge strain as the operations are complex and evidence is difficult to find.

The investigations could expand further when victims give their testimony to the long-delayed public inquiry into historic abuse, which will finally begin in earnest next week as judge Lowell Goddard arrives from New Zealand.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Almost 2,500 bishops a half century ago, acting as a general council, the Catholic Church’s highest authority for almost 2,000 years, confirmed overwhelmingly in 1965 that the Church consists of all Catholics as the “People of God”. All were supposed to be entitled to have some say on important Church matters, as they often did in the earliest Church. Of course, this turned out to be a ruse.

As happened in 1789 with the short sighted French king, bishops and nobles, and the general populace, before the French Revolution, when the Second Vatican Council bishops left town, the Vatican bureaucracy and their carefully selected and elected papal monarchs generally disregarded the will of the People of God. Three years later in 1968, Pope Paul VI even rejected the will of his own birth control commission comprised of the People of God. Robert Blair Kaiser, a former Jesuit seminarian and top reporter for a half century, who just passed away on Holy Thursday, had vividly described this Vatican ruse in his classic book, republished as an e-book, that he made available as a free download as part of his permanent legacy.

Catholics seeking essential reforms now appear to have three choices: (1) accept this Synod, (2) leave the Church or (3) stay, resist and join the Vatican Revolution that just began in Chile. As to the first option, the Vatican since at least 1965 has operated, and still operates, as if it alone is the Church on all important matters. The Synod in October will be just more of the same, from most indications — just another ruse as discussed below.

The Synod agenda and participants were secretively “cherry picked” by the Vatican. For example, no families and certainly no women will vote on family matters. Moreover, the fundamental issue of bishop accountability, especially for their protection of priest child rapists, is absent from the agenda, see BishopAccountability.org . The reversal of the cruel contraception ban and Christian respect and acceptance of married gay Catholics have already, in effect, been rejected overwhelmingly at the initial Synod last October, it appears. Only the “money subsidy issue”, communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, appears to be up for any further discussion.

As to the second option, tens of millions of Catholics have already left the Church completely, while hundreds of millions more have reduced their participation and/or donations. As to the third option, a “Vatican Revolution”, Catholics are increasingly resisting and pushing back, some perhaps even violently. In Chile, Catholics recently protested vigorously in church, some even shoving their bishops. Significantly, one of the leaders of the ongoing Chilean opposition, top US communications executive, Juan Carlos Cruz, lives in Philadelphia. He may reasonably be expected with many others to greet the pope with similar peaceful protests when the pope visits Philadelphia this summer.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

04/04/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Less than three months after Pope Francis decried the costs attached to Catholic declarations of nullity of marriage, stating, ‘How I wish all marriage proceedings were free of charge!’, the Diocese of Pittsburgh announced that it was waiving all fees associated with processing requests for annulments.

The change, which was implemented immediately on Wednesday, was meant to encourage more Catholics to take advantage of the process. According to Bishop David Zubik, ‘For people who have not taken advantage of it in the past, either because of financial reasons or out of principle, my hope is that now this opens the door for them to give it some consideration.’

Here in the W.D.O.E, however, we are moving in the opposite direction. At a recent meeting of the Presbyteral Council our Judicial Vicar, Father Timothy Cloutier, instead floated the idea of the Tribunal receiving its $600 fee upfront, at the time the initial paperwork is filed. Under this scheme parishes would issue a check for $600 to be sent with the application to the Tribunal, and then parishes (rather than the Tribunal) would play the role of bill collector and receive the payments from their parishioners.

There is nothing that pastors like more than paying money to a bankrupt Chancery, unless it is trying to collect hard-to-justify administrative fees from their flock. Still, I am sure that the Tribunal is becoming desperate. One can imagine the reluctance of the faithful to write a check to the Archdiocese, and especially to the Tribunal, which has had its own role in the sexual abuse scandal. This reluctance is no doubt increased by the fact that, as the Star Tribune reported in November of 2014, ‘the chances of getting an annulment from the Twin Cities archdiocese are among the lowest in the nation, and the waits are among the highest.’

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

On this Holy Saturday, a statement by Anne Barrett Doyle of Bishop Accountability to add to the ones about the revolt in the Chilean church over the episcopal appointment of Juan Barros that I cited on Thursday:

A Vatican spokesperson’s dismissive statement today defending Pope Francis’s appointment of Chilean bishop Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid deepens the crisis of credibility that the pope is facing. What’s at stake here is nothing less than papal accountability. Francis has pledged to discipline bishops who fail to protect children, and the Chilean public, along with members of his own abuse commission, are determined to hold him to his promise.

Today’s statement is a disingenuous attempt to shift blame for this decision from the pope to the Congregation for Bishops. Pope Francis made the appointment and must own it. He should begin by explaining his deliberate choice to ignore multiple victims’ testimony that Barros witnessed their sexual abuse by Karadima. Concepción archbishop Fernando Chomalí Garib, who discussed Barros with Francis in person last month, told the New York Times that the pope knew about these serious allegations. “The pope told me he had analyzed the situation in detail and found no reason” to rescind the appointment, Chomalí Garib said.

This response evokes not the compassion and honesty of Pope Francis but the coldness and dismissiveness of Cardinal Bergoglio. As Buenos Aires archbishop, he ignored repeated requests by anguished victims for intervention in their cases. While his colleagues in the US and Europe issued apologies, implemented reforms, and met with victims, he stayed largely silent on the issue of clergy sex abuse, except to issue an implausible denial that he had ever handled an abusive priest.

His only known action was to commission a behind-the-scenes report to Argentine Supreme Court judges that impugned the credibility of victims of a criminally convicted priest – an action eerily consistent with the disregard the Pope has shown survivors’ witness in the Barros/Karadima case.

To regain public trust in his reforms, Pope Francis must explain why he chose Barros despite the victims’ testimony, and he must immediately rescind the appointment. Barros must be suspended from ministry while his alleged wrongdoing is investigated.

And here’s Peter Isely of SNAP Wisconsin commenting on Facebook:

I guess the tomb really is empty. It wasn’t that long ago that the Milwaukee Cathedral was standing room only on Palm Sunday. But you can sure see the impact of five years of bankruptcy, financial fraud, and tens of millions of dollars spent on fighting survivors in this embarrassing news footage from FOX 6 on Palm Sunday. Looks like a few more tumbled in after the opening bell, but not many. Some years ago, [Cardinal Timothy] Dolan [former archbishop of Milwaukee and then head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops] stopped publishing archdiocesan yearly church attendance figures because the numbers were plummeting under our “rock star” archbishop and the facts contradicted the myth that he was bringing Catholics back to the pews or rounding up new ones (and having a rock star Pope hasn’t reversed any of this either). Probably the single most significant indicator of the health and future of any organization is the percentage of members who identify themselves as strongly committed to its mission and practice. The Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life has been tracking this number in the Catholic Church for almost four decades. That percentage is now the lowest it has ever been, with about only a quarter of Catholics considering themselves having a “strong” Catholic identity, down some 15 percentage points since the sexual abuse crisis began emerging into public awareness.

Interestingly, Protestant religious identity strength has been concomitantly rising, with over half (or double the Catholic figure) saying they have a strong religious identity. Maybe the weakness of Catholic identity helps explain why the church hierarchy has been so successful at keeping many of the key elements of the sexual abuse cover up in tact: Catholics simply don’t care enough about their church (as an organization at least) to hold their leaders accountable. In Mark’s Gospel, which has no actual resurrection account, when Mary and Mary Magdalene come to the tomb there is a young man who comically chides them about who they are looking for because the tomb is obviously empty? Maybe those are some of the same questions that need to be asked at the Cathedral over the next few days.

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UNITED STATES
OMG!

by David Timbs

If clericalism looms large in today’s church, it has had centuries to grow strong. David Timbs traces the roots of clericalism back to the end of the Apostolic age, at the end of the first century C.E. “By the early second century, “overseers” were assuming the role of apostle and began to exert authority over who would preside…” Modern clericalism gained traction at the Council of Trent, but Timbs highlghts today’s excesses in the power and prestige of the priesthood. “The Sacrament of Orders has assumed a de facto importance in Christian existence superior to that of Baptism. The consequent damage done to the dignity of Baptism cannot be underestimated. The ministry of Sacrificial Ritualism has been elevated to a status superior to the wider and more fundamental calls to discipleship, service and proclamation entrusted to all the Baptised.”

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UNITED STATES
Council on Foreign Relations

Description

Thomas J. Reese, senior analyst with the National Catholic Reporter, discusses Pope Francis’s work to date and his agenda for 2015, as part of CFR’s Religion and Foreign Policy Conference Call series.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Oddly enough, two sentences from a Republican politician about discrimination help explain why Pope Francis’ latest choice for bishop is generating such distress and dispute.

Many in the US are wondering why debates over Religious Freedom and Restoration laws, which have quietly passed with little upset in more than 20 states, have suddenly become so heated.

The mystery was explained succinctly by Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas two days ago: “This is a bill that in ordinary times would not be controversial. But these are not ordinary times.”

Hutchinson was referring to the dramatic and speedy shift in public opinion against discrimination against the LGBT community. (The clearest evidence of this sea change: In 1988, just 11 percent of US citizens backed legalizing same-sex marriage. Now, it’s up to 56 percent, an almost ten percent jump in the last two years.)

[Religion News Service]

Now look abroad and consider the unprecedented protests – literal and figurative – against Bishop Juan Barros Madrid, who was just picked by the pope to head a diocese in Chile.

I could be dead wrong, but I think the situations are analogous. I suspect journalist John Allen may be right about Francis being at “a tipping” point in the continuing crisis of clergy sexual violence and deceit.

Some Catholics – in Chile and elsewhere – seem to finally be fed up by church officials who keep concealing abuse while pledging “openness,” keep promising reform but delivering cover ups, keep saying “zero tolerance” while tolerating tons of hurtful and immoral behavior by bishops.

This “emotional whiplash” inflicted on Catholics by their church’s hierarchy takes a toll. Often, that toll is reflected in diminishing church attendance and participation. Sometimes, like in Chile recently, it’s reflected in protests.

And I believe that toll will increase as the gap between how Francis talks about abuse and what Francis does about abuse increases.

Some conervative US politicians are starting to understand that their support erodes when they practice discrimination. But few Catholic officials seem to understand that their suppor erodes when they practice hypocracy.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted on 3 April 2015)

Catholic priest David Edwin Rapson used computer games, soft drinks, alcohol and cigarettes to lure boys (as young as 12) into his office at a Catholic boarding school before he sexually abused them, a Melbourne court has been told. After two years of hearings which finished on 31 March 2015, Rapson (now aged 61) was convicted of serious child-sex crimes. Now he is locked up, awaiting his sentence.

Rapson, who was the school’s vice-principal at one stage, also gave some of his victims a drink of drug-laced chocolate-milk or lemonade to make them sleepy before he sexually abused them, the court was told.

However, if boys complained about Rapson’s abuse, they tended to merely tell Rapson’s colleagues and friends in the priesthood, some of whom might be offenders themselves. And the church does not arrest any priests or Brothers — only the police do this.

It was some of the victims, not the church authorities, who finally brought Rapson to justice.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

The Catholic Church harboured Father David Edwin Rapson for two decades, thus endangering boys in Catholic schools in Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales.

Rapson was born on 30 July 1953. He was recruited in the early 1970s as a trainee Catholic priest in Melbourne in a Catholic religious order, called the Salesians of Don Bosco. This is an Australia-wide order and subsequently Rapson ministered in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.

The Salesian religious order was founded by “Saint” John Bosco in 1859 in Italy. Operating world-wide, the Salesians expanded to Australia in 1923. The order began developing several Australian schools for boys – notably in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. It also developed Boys Town (a home for troubled youths) in Engadine, south of Sydney.

In Melbourne (where they have their Australian headquarters), the Salesians operated three schools:
* Salesian College “Rupertswood”, at Sunbury in Melbourne’s outer north-west;
* Salesian College, Chadstone, in Mebourne’s south-east; and
* St Joseph’s College, Ferntree Gully, in Melbourne’s east.

In addition to these schools, the Salesians also had a residential training centre near Melbourne for their recruits into the priesthood. This centre (originally known as “Auxilium College”) is in a rural setting at Lysterfield (30 kilometres south-east of Melbourne). Nowadays, with the decline in the number of priests, the Lysterfield property is known as the Salesian Retreat Centre, used for Catholic schools for “spiritual retreats”. The centre has overnight accommodation for several dozen visitors. There have been complaints about students being sexually abused while visiting this Lysterfield property.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Scituate

By Jessica Trufant
The Patriot Ledger

Posted Apr. 2, 2015

DEDHAM – A lawsuit brought against parishioners occupying the closed St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in Scituate is scheduled to go to a bench trial May 5 after a Norfolk County Superior Court judge denied their requests for a jury trial and more time to develop a defense.

At a pretrial hearing Thursday morning, Judge Edward Leibensperger denied an emergency motion by Mary Elizabeth Carmody, a lawyer representing the parishioners, seeking a delay in the case for discovery.

“Discovery is absolutely necessary under these facts. …We haven’t had the opportunity to flesh out the case,” Carmody said. “There’s no emergency here. It’s been ongoing for more than 10 years.”

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston filed a civil suit against the Friends of St. Frances after the parishioners failed to meet a March 9 deadline for leaving the church. The parishioners filed a counterclaim, and have vowed to bring their fight to the state’s highest court.

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

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Friday 3 April 2015

A fourth Melbourne church in a week has been set alight in suspicious circumstances.

Police are investigating a fire at a church on Doncaster Road in Doncaster East after witnesses saw smoke coming from it at 2.30pm on Good Friday. The blaze was contained to a small area of the building.

Detectives have not determined the exact cause of the fire, but are treating it as suspicious.

Three other churches had fires this week, and all three were connected to notorious pedophiles.

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CHILE
El Sol

[Several famous entertainers have joined a social media campaign against Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused of covering up sexual abuse. Benjamín Vicuña, Gonzalo Valenzuela and Juanita Viale were among those who joined the initiative in repudiating the Vatican’s decision to appoint Barros.]

Un gran revuelo se armó en Chile por el nombramiento del sacerdote Juan Barros como obispo de Osorno, quien fue acusado de haber encubierto los abusos sexuales en los que incurrió Fernando Karadima.

El hecho no sólo generó la molestia en los creyentes quienes protestaron en la Catedral San Mateo de Osorno, sino que también en el mundo artístico y televisivo. Uno de los denunciantes del ex párroco comenzó una campaña a través de redes sociales en contra del sacerdote con la etiqueta #FueraBarros, segùn publica el sitio Biobiochile.cl.

Benjamín Vicuña, Gonzalo Valenzuela y Juanita Viale fueron algunos de los que se sumaron a la iniciativa, repudiando la decisión del Vaticano, desde donde se desecharon las críticas y lo ratificaron como obispo de Osorno.

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