ABUSE TRACKER

CANADA
APTN

Julien Gignac
APTN National News

Residential school survivors continue to battle federal lawyers who failed to provide documents which could potentially validate claims of abuse at the hands of school staff.

This comes on the heels of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions report released earlier in the month.

Two groups of survivors who attended separate Indian residential schools allege Ottawa is still not living up to the terms of the settlement agreement which set out a process for determining compensation for abuses suffered by survivors at Indian residential schools. The groups say federal lawyers continue to withhold documents from the Independent Assessment Process.

Justice Canada has not carried out its legal obligation of recovering documents in relation to crimes of abuse committed against people who attended Bishop Horden residential school in Moose Factory, Ont., according to the Ontario Superior Court.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

06/17/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

As many of you know by now, the announcement that Archbishop Nienstedt and Bishop Piche had resigned their offices as Archbishop/Auxiliary of Saint Paul and Minneapolis was made on a day when two other things of possible significance were scheduled to occur. One of those things was my second interview with investigators from the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office. The other was the biannual assembly of the priests of the Archdiocese.

When Ramsey County investigators called me to schedule Monday’s interview, they were very clear about what they wanted to talk about. They informed me that they were still working towards a determination of whether Archbishop John Nienstedt, Bishop Lee Piche, and perhaps other Chancery officials would be criminally charged as individuals for their role in abuse committed by Curtis Wehmeyer. To that end, they wanted to know what I had been asked when I was interviewed for the Greene Espel investigation, and what information I had provided.

The County Attorney’s Office is not alone in being interested in that investigation. Many priests, lay Catholics, and journalists have called for a public release of the investigative report. However, I think it is important to point out that my impression is that the County Attorney’s interest in the investigation’s conclusions are different from your and my interest, that of the general public, or even that of the Church. To be blunt, I believe the County Attorney is not interested in whether Archbishop Nienstedt is homosexual, heterosexual or, like Miley Cyrus, ‘open to anything’. I don’t think he is interested in whether Archbishop Nienstedt was faithful to his promise of celibacy or his obligation of chastity. He is not- as far as I can tell- particularly interested in what may or may not have occurred in Detroit, Rome, or New Ulm. His interest is purely in how the Archbishop’s personal conduct impacted his decision making when it came to Curtis Wehmeyer and the safety of children and young people in this Archdiocese.

This was also a concern of Greene Espel, and something that I believe they investigated as thoroughly as they were able. In fact, when I was originally approached by the firm’s investigators for an interview in the spring of 2014 the specific reason for the request was to discuss what I knew or might know about the relationship between Nienstedt and Wehmeyer. Of course, the Greene Espel ambit was not as limited as that of the County Attorney. Nienstedt’s January 29, 2014, letter authorizing the investigation (which I was shown at the time of my interview) stated the mandate was to ‘investigate allegations in my [Nienstedt’s] past’. That same letter instructed Bishop Piche to see that the results of the investigation were provided to the Archdiocese and to Nienstedt himself.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Marcus Howard Star Tribune JUNE 17, 2015

ROCHESTER, Minn. – New interim Archbishop Bernard Hebda was in Minnesota Wednesday morning saying mass at an annual meeting of the state’s Catholic priests.

About 200 priests attended the mass at St. John the Evangelist Church. Afterward, one priest who asked not to be named said Hebda’s message was one of healing. It was, he said, “a meeting of brothers.”

Hebda’s appearance comes days after he took over the leadership of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Monday following Archbishop John Nienstedt’s resignation, along with Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché. Their departures came days after the Vatican announced the creation of a new tribunal to hold bishops accountable for the abuse of minors by priests under their jurisdiction, and little more than a week after the Ramsey County attorney’s office charged the archdiocese for failing to protect children from an abusive priest.

Hebda is assigned to the archdiocese in Newark, N.J., where he is expected to succeed Archbishop John J. Myers.

While Hebda has yet to speak publicly, he issued a statement referring to his experience as bishop in northern Michigan, “where I first came to know the vibrancy of the faith shared by Catholics of the upper Midwest. I am hopeful that there will be opportunities to meet many of you in the weeks ahead.”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler Jun 15, 2015

Last week in this space, I argued that by setting up a tribunal to judge bishops accused of neglect in sex-abuse cases, the Vatican has finally addressed the second of three related scandals. Now let’s address the third scandal.

The first scandal, as you may recall, was the sexual abuse of young people by clerics. That scandal was addressed by the Dallas Charter, which established a “zero tolerance” policy for abusive priests. But the implementation of that policy has been marred by the second scandal: the negligence of many bishops. A “zero tolerance” policy has little value if the Church leaders ultimately responsible for enforcing that policy are not reliable. Thus the need to hold bishops accountable, as the Vatican tribunal will do. But the third scandal has not yet been addressed.

The third scandal, as I explain in The Faithful Departed, is the widespread homosexual activity within the clergy.

For more than a decade now, we have been incessantly reminded that homosexuality and pedophilia are not related. That’s true if you’re talking about true pedophilia: the disorder characterized by an attraction to young children. But the scandal that has ripped through the Catholic Church has not been, primarily, a matter of pedophilia. True, there have been some priest-pedophiles, and their cases understandably drew the greatest publicity. But the vast majority of the cases that emerged from diocesan archives involved priests who preyed on adolescent boys.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Public Radio

By RACHEL LIPPMANN

St. Louis prosecutors have dropped criminal charges against a priest in the St. Louis Archdiocese accused of abusing a student at St. Louis the King School.

Father Xihui “Joseph” Jiang was charged in 2014 with two counts of sodomy for allegedly assaulting the boy in a bathroom at the school, near the Cathedral Basilica in the Central West End. A judge was scheduled to rule on Thursday whether prosecutors could use statements that the victim, identified in court documents only as A.M., made to investigators at the Children’s Advocacy Center.

(St. Louis Public Radio has redacted Father Jiang’s address and Social Security number from the charging documents linked above. No other changes have been made.)

But prosecutors on Tuesday dismissed the charges “for the reason that the state is unable to proceed at this time,” the circuit attorney’s office said in a statement. “The statute of limitations in this case does not run out for another 35 years. The office remains hopeful that charges will be refiled in the future. For this reason, we are unable to provide any additional information or discuss the case further.”

“It’s about time,” said Paul D’Agrosa, Jiang’s attorney. “This case should never have been brought to begin with. It was a false allegation from the beginning.”

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By GABRIEL WINGATE-PEARSE June 17, 2015

THERE are more than 40 witnesses named in a brief of evidence against former Hunter priest, Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson, who is accused of concealing child sex abuse in the Catholic church.

The brief is more than 2000 pages long, Magistrate John Chicken was told in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday.

Archbishop Wilson was not in court, having been excused if legally represented.

Magistrate Chicken asked Mr Wilson’s barrister, Simon Buchen, if the list of 40 witnesses could be ‘whittled down’.

“Yes, we hope to whittle it down significantly,” Mr Buchen said.

Both the prosecution and defence counsel agreed to a five-week adjournment to consider the brief and a reply.

The matter was scheduled for another mention on July 22 and Mr Wilson was again excused from attending on that occasion.

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UNITED STATES
Pew Research Center

BY MICHAEL LIPKALEAVE A COMMENT

Pope Francis RatingsAlthough Pope Francis is no stranger to headlines, he has drawn an unusually large amount of media attention in the past week for two reasons: He approved a new tribunal to address bishops involved in the sex abuse scandal, and he is set to release a new encyclical on environmental issues and climate change.

It is unclear what impact these new developments might have on views of the pope. But before these actions, U.S. Catholics did not rate Francis’ performance in addressing the sex abuse scandal and the environment as highly as they did for other issues.

To be sure, at least half of U.S. Catholics think Francis is doing a “good” or “excellent” job on the sex abuse issue and the environment. Over half (55%) of Catholics rated Francis positively on addressing sex abuse (19% “excellent,” 36% “good”), and 53% gave him high marks on environmental issues (18% “excellent,” 35% “good”), according to our survey conducted in May and early June. But out of nine areas where respondents were asked to rate the pope, these were the two in which Francis drew the least positive ratings.

For example, far more Catholics say Francis is doing a good or excellent job addressing the needs of the poor (79%, including 42% who rate Francis as “excellent” on this topic). Fully, 84% of American Catholics say Francis has done well at spreading the Catholic faith. Similarly about eight-in-ten give him high marks on addressing the needs of families, promoting good relations between religions and standing up for traditional values.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

JUNE 17, 2015

Ross Douthat

The conversation about Catholicism and Pope Francis is about to be dominated by the topics of the environment and climate change, thanks to tomorrow’s (official; there have been leaks) release of the pontiff’s ecological encyclical, Laudato Si. But let me sneak in a belated comment on last week’s news that the Vatican is setting up a tribunal to handle accusations of negligence by bishops in sex abuse cases, with coincided, probably not coincidentally, with the resignations of the archbishop of Minneapolis-St. Paul and his auxiliary over their handling of a now-defrocked predator priest.

When the Francis era began, I wrote a column and then a blog post arguing that nothing in his pontificate would matter nearly as much as the restoration of moral credibility, the lifting of scandal’s shadow, and that Bergoglio/Francis would be judged above all on whether he took concrete steps to bring accountability not only to abusive priests (where the church had taken most of the necessary steps under Benedict) but to those bishops and cardinals who protected them (where it conspicuously had not). I’m not sure if the sweep of my judgment quite holds up given all the other issues that this very active pontiff has stirred up or may stir up soon. But the basic point still holds: The reason the sex abuse issue was a crisis for the church rather than just a scandal was that it exposed systemic failures of governance within the Catholic hierarchy, systemic culpability on the part of the episcopate, and neither Rome nor the bishops themselves seemed to have any kind of response that wasn’t ad hoc, situational, and self-protective.

So for the sex abuse crisis to actually end, as opposed to just sort of gradually petering out as offending bishops aged and died and disappeared, something needed to be done to insure that nothing so systematic could happen again. And the mechanisms established under the last pope, while appropriate and admirable, were not sufficient to this task, because they only applied to abusive priests rather than encompassing the blindness and arrogance and fecklessness that kept those priests in the ministry.

Now, though, it seems like the church will finally have a mechanism fitted to those sins. Francis had already moved personally to remove a handful of bishops, but those moves probably personalized the process unduly, turning the pontiff into a kind of one-man supreme court, and inspiring talk of enemies’ lists among (mostly traditionalist) Catholics skeptical of his choice of targets. Such talk will accompany the operations of the tribunal, too, no doubt, but a formal process will at least minimize it, and hopefully lend some transparency to the path from complaints to resignations.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier-Mail

Opinion: Tim Carmody’s child protection credentials make him right man for Chief Justice role

HETTY JOHNSTON THE COURIER-MAIL JUNE 18, 2015

JUSTICE Peter McClellan AM, chair of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, stated in his very first public speech in the role that he thought he knew about child sexual assault. That was, however, before he was assigned to his current post, where he quickly realised how much he didn’t know or understand and the impact this crime has on victims, families and entire communities.

He pledged that all judges would be trained so they, too, could garner a better understanding.

In Queensland, Chief Justice Tim Carmody knows more about child protection than any other judge in the state because, like McClellan, he has dealt at close quarters with the victims and their families. This is why he is so valuable, and why his appointment is so widely supported – except by a few disgruntled peers.

He knows what some of his detractors do not, understands what they don’t – even if they think they do. He is a grassroots operator who can mend the divide between the courts and the people. He can rebuild confidence. He is an innovative reformist with a brilliant legal mind and extensive broadscale experience, and that is exactly what Queensland needs right now.

Carmody has served his community as a police officer, public defender, barrister, legal officer and special prosecutor in the Fitzgerald inquiry into police corruption.

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

For immediate release Wednesday, June 17

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

For the second time in two years, Fr. Joseph Jiang, who has followed Archbishop Robert Carlson to several cities, has escaped criminal prosecution.

We’re heart-broken for the two families who have been devastated by Fr. Jiang’s crimes. Twice he’s faced criminal child sex abuse charges and successfully exploited legal loopholes and used legal maneuvers to escape consequences for his hurtful and illegal misdeeds. By doing so, he’s also helped keep a lid on the complicity of his boss, St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson.

We applaud these two brave families. And we’re grateful that one of them is now pursuing a civil abuse and cover up lawsuit against Fr. Jiang and Archbishop Carlson.

Now more than ever, it’s crucial that anyone who saw, suspected or suffered Fr. Jiang’s crimes speak up. And it’s crucial that they seek independent help – from police, prosecutors, lawyers, family, friends or support groups like ours, instead of calling Catholic officials.

It’s very frustrating, but time and time again in St. Louis, shrewd lawyering and archaic statutes enable those who commit and conceal clergy sex crimes to dodge responsibility for their horrific wrongdoing.

–In the first-ever civil pedophile priest trial in St. Louis city, a jury said Fr. James Gummersbach and the archdiocese guilty and ordered that the victim be paid $1.2 million. But that verdict was later overturned because Catholic officials exploited the statute of limitations.

–In the first-ever criminal pedophile priest trial in St. Louis city, a jury found Fr. Thomas Graham guilty of sexually assaulting Lyn Woolfolk. But Catholic officials later overturned that verdict on a technicality.

–In the first-ever criminal pedophile priest trial in St. Louis County, Fr. Bryan Kuchar walked free after a hung jury. (Luckily, prosecutors re-tried the case and Kuchar was sent to jail.)

–In a first, Fr. James Beine (a.k.a. Marr James) faced two sets of criminal charges: indecent exposure in St. Louis city AND child porn in Illinois federal court. But he exploited technicalities and escaped prosecution completely (and moved to Nevada where he tried to get a teacher’s license).

Thankfully, none of these four clerics has been put back on the job by Catholic officials. That of course strongly suggests that church bureaucrats know these priests are guilty of assaulting kids. But it’s dreadfully hurtful and disillusioning to victims, witnesses and whistleblowers when popular and powerful predators and their allies evade justice using loopholes.

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MINNESOTA
Wall Street Journal

By TOM CORRIGAN

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to hire a criminal defense team, after prosecutors in Minnesota filed charges against the archdiocese for allegedly failing to protect children from abusive priests.

In court papers filed Tuesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in St. Paul., Minn., the archdiocese asked Judge Robert Kressel to approve its application to employ two attorneys from Fredrikson & Byron P.A., a Minneapolis-based law firm.

The two attorneys are Joseph T. Dixon and Chelsea Brennan DesAutels, who will charge $400 per hour and $320 per hour respectively. Mr. Dixon’s fee represents a “substantial discount,” according to court papers.

For corporations in bankruptcy, expenses outside the ordinary course of business are typically subject to bankruptcy-court approval because those expenses could eat into limited resources that might one day be used to repay creditors or, in the archdiocese’s case, compensate alleged victims.

The archdiocese, home to 187 parishes and 825,000 parishioners, filed for chapter 11 protection in January in the face of mounting abuse-related lawsuits. The bankruptcy stemmed largely from the passage of the Minnesota Child Victims Act in 2013, which eliminated the statute of limitations for child sexual-abuse cases and opened a three-year window during which alleged victims can file civil lawsuits demanding compensation.

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TEXAS
WRIC

TARRANT COUNTY, Texas (WRIC) — The trial for a former Richmond mega church pastor continues Wednesday in Texas.

The prosecution began to present its case against Geronimo Aguilar yesterday.

Kelly Ortiz was the first witness on the stand Wednesday. Ortiz was part of “Set Free Ministries,” a church that Geronimo Aguilar’s dad founded in California. She is also a former member of Aguilar’s church, the Richmond Outreach Center, who came to Richmond in 1998 with her husband help start up the ROC.

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MINNESOTA
Post-Bulletin

When John Nienstedt was appointed archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, it was noted that his outspoken management style would be a contrast to his predecessor, Harry Flynn, a decidedly low-key personality.

“Much ink has been spilled in the press over speculation about how (I) will differ from the present archbishop,” Nienstedt said during his welcome Mass nearly eight years ago at the Cathedral of St. Paul. “But frankly, I believe that speculation is misplaced.”

It turns out it wasn’t. Nienstedt called for unity when he celebrated his first Mass in St. Paul, but instead, he presided over the most turbulent period in the diocese’s history. He resigned Monday, 10 days after criminal charges were filed against the archdiocese by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office for its “role in failing to protect children and contribution to the unspeakable harm” in priest sex-abuse cases.

“My leadership has unfortunately drawn attention away from the good works of his church and those who perform them. Thus, my decision to step down,” Nienstedt said in a statement posted by the archdiocese.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 16

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

Archbishop John Nienstedt’s replacement should immediately disclose more information about Fr. Gerald Dvorak, the latest Twin Cities archdiocesan cleric to be accused of child sex crimes.

Last month, allegations against Fr. Dvorak surfaced publicly but Catholic officials refused to say

–when Nienstedt learned of the allegation
–how Nienstedt learned of the allegation
–which church official allegedly told law enforcement about it
–which law enforcement agency was allegedly told about it
–when church officials allegedly told law enforcement and
–where the abuse allegedly happened.

So much for “openness and transparency.”

It’s possible, therefore, that Nienstedt and other Twin Cities Catholic officials have known of and concealed this abuse report for years.

It’s especially outrageous that Twin Cities church officials refuse to say which police department they allegedly told of this abuse report. Lacking that, others who might help prove or disprove this allegation don’t know who to call to share what they may know about this case. That’s very self-serving and irresponsible.

Catholic officials should make it easier, not harder, for victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to be helpful. Church staff know know this. For their own selfish reasons – protecting their careers, comfort and reputations – they are deliberately making it harder for police and prosecutors to build a case against a credibly accused child molester. Hebda should take action on this case immediately.

We call on every Catholic employee and parishioner in Minnesota who has suspicions or knowledge of crimes by this cleric or church cover ups by any cleric to call police, expose wrongdoing, protect kids and start healing. And we call on Bishop Hebda to disclose more information about Fr. Dvorak immediately.

(NOTE: Fr. Dvorak worked in Hopkins, St. Paul, and Minneapolis.)

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Monday, June 15

Statement by Megan Peterson survivor of Fr. [Joseph] Jeyapaul, 218-689-9049

I was going to wait until I felt I had become centered again. Waiting for myself to be able to approach this in a very formal and graceful manner for you all. To erase all hints of anger and discomfort. To be a put-together, well-oiled machine. But the truth is, life is messy. Our emotions are messy. We cannot always carry ourselves with the grace we have envisioned.

I want to be as honest with myself and with you as possible to show that you don’t have to be put together. We all deserve the opportunity to hurt, to be messy, and to mourn. Myself included. Maybe by being a little more vulnerable and messy we can give one another a better opportunity to connect and understand each other. Because the truth is, this hurts. There are moments when it doesn’t feel fair or right at all. Moments when it is hard to swallow and even harder to breathe. When the full weight of this comes barreling at me like a freight train, hits and knocks me down. And then I breathe again. I see the positives, I see the differences that we have made. I have known all along, through each emotion I endured, that every step was worth it.

Justice is not always black and white. Although I would have loved to see Joseph Jeyapaul criminally prosecuted for what he did to me, that was not what this ten-year journey was ultimately about. It was and remains about the children and doing everything in my power to keep them safe from what I know to be harmful. Which I believe I have done and will continue to do. I believe protecting children is everybody’s responsibility. For all of society loses when a child is harmed. It is my hope that individuals, in the Crookston Diocese and elsewhere, will continue to come forward with information about any suspected abuse and/or cover-up.

I was advised shortly before Jeyapaul was to be extradited back to drop the charges, as it could cause too much harm and potentially be damaging to myself. I was told the likelihood of his being prosecuted, for various reasons, would be slim to none. But I didn’t drop the charges. It is a decision I did not make lightly. As hard as it was, I would make the exact same decision one thousand times over again. There were a few things in particular that weighed on my mind. One, it was my understanding that if I decided against his extradition the other brave individual he harmed would lose the opportunity to see him criminally prosecuted. Two, as painful as the process was expected to be and was, I knew at the very least we could keep him incarcerated and away from children this way— if only for a little while longer.

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UNITED STATES
The Financial

Wednesday, 17 June 2015 03:23
Written by Michael Lipka

The FINANCIAL — Although Pope Francis is no stranger to headlines, he has drawn an unusually large amount of media attention in the past week for two reasons: He approved a new tribunal to address bishops involved in the sex abuse scandal, and he is set to release a new encyclical on environmental issues and climate change.

It is unclear what impact these new developments might have on views of the pope. But before these actions, U.S. Catholics did not rate Francis’ performance in addressing the sex abuse scandal and the environment as highly as they did for other issues, according to Pew Research Center.

To be sure, at least half of U.S. Catholics think Francis is doing a “good” or “excellent” job on the sex abuse issue and the environment. Over half (55%) of Catholics rated Francis positively on addressing sex abuse (19% “excellent,” 36% “good”), and 53% gave him high marks on environmental issues (18% “excellent,” 35% “good”), according to our survey conducted in May and early June. But out of nine areas where respondents were asked to rate the pope, these were the two in which Francis drew the least positive ratings.

For example, far more Catholics say Francis is doing a good or excellent job addressing the needs of the poor (79%, including 42% who rate Francis as “excellent” on this topic). Fully, 84% of American Catholics say Francis has done well at spreading the Catholic faith. Similarly about eight-in-ten give him high marks on addressing the needs of families, promoting good relations between religions and standing up for traditional values.

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

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 17

Statement by Frank Meuers, Minnesota SNAP leader, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )

Some are talking of “moving on” and “turning the page” in the Twin Cities abuse and cover up scandal. . .

Such thoughts are misplaced. They show a callous disregard for vulnerable kids.

Job one is not “recovering” or “healing.” Job one is safeguarding kids. That means every single cleric who committed or concealed clergy sex crimes musts be exposed, ousted and prosecuted.

It means that the names of all child molesting clerics – priests, nuns, bishops, seminarians and brothers – must be permanently and prominently posted on church websites and in church bulletins.

It means that predator-friendly laws must be reformed. It means that former Twin Cities clerics – men like Duluth Bishop Paul Sirba and St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson – must be disciplined too.

Adults can heal regardless of what church or secular officials do or don’t do. Kids, however, cannot protect themselves without active, proven prevention steps by church and secular officials. So let’s keep the focus where it belongs — on

Let’s let “healing” and “turning the page” come later.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Nick Murray, CBC News

Former Roman Catholic priest Eric Dejaeger, who is serving time for sexually abusing children in Igloolik, was in an Iqaluit courtroom yesterday expecting to hear an update on whether his outstanding charges from Alberta will be heard in Nunavut.

Instead, Dejaeger will return Thursday morning because his lawyer didn’t call in to the court in time due to a misunderstanding.

Dejaeger, who in February was convicted of 24 sex-related charges involving children more than 30 years ago, had applied to have his three outstanding Alberta-based sex-related charges heard in the Nunavut Court of Justice.

The charges stem from a period in the mid-1970s, when he was studying at the Newman Theological College in Edmonton.

The 68-year-old Dejaeger appeared wearing the standard-issue navy blue sweats from the Baffin Correctional Centre, where he’s serving a 19-year sentence. He wore a pair of glasses with brown frames, and his white beard had become long and puffy.

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MINNESOTA
Washington Times

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis wants to hire former federal prosecutor Joseph Dixon III to defend it against accusations that it failed to protect children from abuse.

An application filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court by the archdiocese says it needs to hire Dixon as special counsel because the criminal charges could affect the availability of insurance to cover mounting claims filed by accusers.

The Star Tribune (http://strib.mn/1fgBG9c ) reports court documents show Dixon plans to charge a reduced rate of $400 an hour given that the archdiocese is in bankruptcy. Dixon says that’s a substantial discount.

The former assistant U.S. attorney is now with the law firm Fredrikson & Byron. As a prosecutor, Dixon sent Ponzi scheme convict Tom Petters to prison.

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SAN FRANCISCO
Catholic San Francisco

June 17th, 2015

Archbishop Salvatore J Cordileone has appointed Michael Brown the Director of Communications for the archdiocese, the archdiocese announced June 15. A longtime resident of and parishioner within the archdiocese, Brown has an extensive background in communications, and he has professional experience in media, both with the Catholic Church and also institutions in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.

For the past seven years, Brown has been responsible for communications in the Diocese of Oakland. In that capacity, he provided important service to three bishops, including Archbishop Cordileone, who, prior to coming to San Francisco, was bishop of Oakland for three years.

Mike joins the archdiocese with over 40 years of successful communications and media experience. Before working for the Catholic Church, Brown held the position of Partner at Brown and Raleigh LLC, a full-service public relations counsel to corporations and associations whose clients included St. Mary’s College and the California Province of the Society of Jesus. He also served as the Director of Corporate Communications for Consolidated Freightways Corp., a Fortune 500 company, and Director of University Communications at the University of San Francisco for 10 years. His early career in communications began as staff editor for a senior columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle.

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NEW YORK
Broadway World

Tom Ebert, an 80 year old widower, has completed his new book “Abuse”: a gripping and powerful look into the world of child abuse.

Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Tom Ebert’s tale begins with the death of a Catholic priest and the detective that believes it is more than a simple heart attack.

Detective Pat Handel has a hunch there is foul play afoot when Father Bello dies during the consecration of mass. Further investigation proves fruitful when he finds a history of threatening calls and letters.

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

CANADA
The Province

BY KEITH FRASER, THE PROVINCE JUNE 15, 2015

A lawyer for freelance journalist Laura Robinson argued Monday that former Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong employed a “media strategy” to attack his client and never seriously intended to follow through with his defamation lawsuit against her.

After Robinson wrote an article in the Georgia Straight in September 2012 alleging that Furlong had abused some former students in northern B.C. more than 40 years ago, Furlong filed a defamation suit against her.

Robinson counter-sued him for defamation. In March, after three lawsuits alleging Furlong had sexually abused students had been dismissed, Furlong dropped his lawsuit.

Robinson decided to proceed with her suit, and in his opening statement to a judge Monday her lawyer, Bryan Baynham, argued Furlong did little to advance his lawsuit.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

SUNNY DHILLON
VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jun. 16, 2015

A freelance journalist who is suing former Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong for defamation says she was shocked when he accused her of shoddy reporting, implied she tried to extort money from him, and said she had a vendetta, she testified Tuesday.

Laura Robinson wrote an article for the Georgia Straight, a weekly newspaper, in September, 2012, in which eight former students of Mr. Furlong’s alleged he physically abused them. The allegations stemmed from Mr. Furlong’s time as a physical-education instructor at Immaculata Roman Catholic Elementary School in Burns Lake, B.C., in 1969-70.

Mr. Furlong held a news conference the day the story was published, denying the allegations and criticizing Ms. Robinson, who later sued Mr. Furlong for defamation.

Ms. Robinson testified that as she prepared her story, Mr. Furlong had many opportunities to respond to her questions through his lawyer. She said she also approached Mr. Furlong in person in April, 2011, and August, 2011. The first time, she said, Mr. Furlong told her to “stop it” as she asked questions and he walked away.

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CANADA
The Province

BY KEITH FRASER, THE PROVINCE JUNE 16, 2015

Laura Robinson says she was shocked and devastated by the reaction of Vancouver Olympic CEO John Furlong to an article she wrote alleging he’d physically abused former students in northern B.C. more than 40 years ago.

The Ontario freelance journalist began her testimony Tuesday at the trial at which she is alleging Furlong defamed her following the September 2012 story in the Georgia Straight newspaper.

A day after the article was published, Furlong held a press conference at which he said he was “very disappointed” by the “shocking lack of diligence” that Robinson had done in researching the article.

“I was completely shocked,” Robinson said of her own reaction to Furlong’s statement.

“It affected me in a very devastating way that someone would say those things about me.”

Under questioning from her lawyer, Bryan Baynham, Robinson said that from the very beginning she and Charlie Smith, the editor at the Georgia Straight, knew it was going to be “ very difficult” story to research and tell.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Laura Kane, The Canadian Press Posted: Jun 16, 2015

A journalist who is suing former Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong for defamation says she was devastated by his response to an article she wrote alleging he abused students at a northern British Columbia school more than 40 years ago.

Laura Robinson began her testimony Tuesday in her civil trial, where she is alleging that Furlong’s public comments after the story was published in the Georgia Straight newspaper have damaged her reputation, career and health.

Furlong held a news conference the day the story was published in September 2012, where he absolutely denied any wrongdoing and accused Robinson of “a shocking lack of diligence” and a “personal vendetta.”

“I was completely shocked,” Robinson testified. “It affected me in a very devastating way that someone would say those things about me.”

The Ontario-based journalist said the most shocking part was when Furlong implied she tried to extort money from him. He told reporters at the news conference that before the 2010 Winter Games, he was contacted and told that “for a payment it could be made to go away.”

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Voice

WEDNESDAY, 17 JUNE 2015 08:21 BY: TOM DEMARCO

Before taking its annual summer recess, lawmakers in the New York State Senate and Assembly are working to wrap up several important legislative matters, rather than leaving them for resolution when they return.

On Friday, it was reported that despite a record number of sponsors, the initiative to revamp the state’s statute of limitations for minors who were victimized in sexual abuse cases has met resistance in the state house.

Under current statutes, those who were sexually abused as legal minors are given up to five years after they reach the age of 18 to file charges against their alleged abuser.

The bill say advocates would afford alleged victims the opportunity to file civil suits against people or institutions in older cases and would begin 60 days after Governor Andrew Cuomo would sign the bill.

For approximately a decade, attempts have been made to modify the statue currently on the books. Several incarnations of the bill have seen passage at least four times in the Assembly but did not come to a vote in the Senate and this floundered. The legislative session ends on June 17th.

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UNITED STATES
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By David G. Clohessy

It was a hot June in a Midwestern city, during a meeting of 250 U.S. Catholic bishops, that the new, unprecedented church panel was announced. It was hailed as a ground-breaking move that would herald a new era in the church’s continuing clergy child sex abuse and cover-up scandal. More specifically, the panel was to address whether bishops were — or were not — following church abuse policies.

I’m not talking about St. Louis in 2015, when the church hierarchy’s latest shiny new reform plan was a new tribunal to consider whether bishops endangered kids by concealing crimes.

I’m talking about Dallas in 2002, when the church hierarchy’s latest shiny new reform was the creation of a National Review Board. The NRB was to be a watchdog. It was to ride herd on recalcitrant prelates. It was to be a mechanism that would ensure accountability.

But quickly, it became — and remains — a lapdog, not a watchdog. Our fear, of course, is that the new papal tribunal will do so as well.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON June 17, 2015

THE Anglican Bishop of Newcastle has admitted that church leaders knew about a culture of bullying and child abuse within the diocese and worked to conceal those offences.

In an emotional media conference at Lambton on Wednesday, Bishop Greg Thompson conceded that the church had failed abuse victims, and that he is now working with police and the Royal Commission to right the ‘‘wrongs of the past’’.

Today marks 500 days since he became the Bishop of Newcastle, he said, but during that time he had ‘‘discovered that our culture allowed bullying and abuse but was mostly silent about it’’.

‘‘Our culture allowed people to conceal what had happened,’’ he said.

‘‘I have heard these stories first hand. I believe we will hear recollections of anguish and harm for many years to come.’’

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SCOTLAND
STV

A former university lecturer who founded his own church and sexually abused members has avoided jail after a sheriff said he had “already suffered a spectacular fall from grace”.

Walter Masocha, who called himself “The Prophet”, was made subject to a community payback order with the condition that he performs 250 hours unpaid work.

The 51-year-old was also placed on supervision and the sex offenders register for 12 months.

The “Archbishop” of the Stirling-based Agape for All Nations Church, who put his hand down the trousers of a schoolgirl saying he was trying to remove demons, was assessed by social workers as at “moderate risk” of re-offending.

Masocha, who also groped a young deaconess while he was supposed to be praying for a problem she had with her stomach, was told by Sheriff Kenneth McGowan his conduct must have left his victims “hurt and bewildered”.

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TEXAS
WRIC

By Kerri O’Brien

TARRANT COUNTY, Texas (WRIC) — One of the alleged victims in Geronimo Aguilar sex abuse trial took the stand Tuesday.

She broke down in tears when she was asked to point out the former Richmond Outreach Center pastor.

The woman alleges Aguilar began touching her inappropriately when she was just 11-years-old.

She told the jury, “Geronimo would lay next to me and he would be hard.”

Aguilar was the youth pastor at her church in Texas back the 1990s.

The alleged victim says her parents allowed Aguilar to live with her family, even share a bedroom with her and she claims the touching turned to sex on Halloween night in 1996 when she was 13.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Jon Tevlin

One was a gregarious Irishman who focused his ministry on social justice, racism and poverty. The other was a stern, hierarchical leader bent on returning orthodoxy to the church and blocking same-sex marriage.

Archbishops Harry Flynn and John Nienstedt couldn’t be further apart in beliefs and style, but now they are inexorably linked in the sex scandals and criminal charges that have rocked the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Nienstedt has suffered the spectacular public fall after resigning on Monday, and many are happy to see him go. But charges filed by Ramsey County Attorney John Choi suggest that many of the bungled cases of priests accused or convicted of child abuse began under Flynn and his right-hand man at the time, vicar general Kevin McDonough.

Flynn is retired and has kept a low public profile, refusing interviews. McDonough remains pastor at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in St. Paul, which also runs a school. Others who have been complicit in a failure to protect children and/or a coverup, serve on nonprofit boards and generally go on with their public lives.

But that does not mean their legacies will not also be seriously tainted.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) In the words of its founder, Dr Theresa Burke, Grief to Grace is a psychological and spiritual programme which aims to heal the wounds of anyone who has suffered degradation or violation through physical, emotional, sexual, or spiritual abuse, whether in childhood or as an adult.

Whilst other programmes are available, Grief to Grace differs in that it aims to help victims of abuse to discover a spiritual healing. Abuse sufferers often experience a considerable sense of isolation which Grief to Grace endeavours to combat, notably within the wholesome context of a spiritual retreat which is fully centred upon the Person and transforming presence of Jesus Christ, the Divine Physician.

This is an intimate and powerful journey during which participants are gently invited to unite their own suffering with those of Christ’s Passion. By walking the way of the Cross with Christ, and by experiencing intimately the Paschal mystery, it is hoped they will also share in the Resurrection to new life.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Fr John McCullagh sex abuse cover-up should be investigated by Pope Francis’ tribunal, says Amnesty

BY DONNA DEENEY – 17 JUNE 2015

A cover-up of the sexual abuse of an eight-year-old girl by pervert priest Fr John McCullagh exposed by the Belfast Telegraph is part of a call by Amnesty International for a government inquiry in Northern Ireland.

The human rights organisation reacted to the Vatican’s announcement that it would set up a tribunal to investigate bishops who failed to protect children by saying the Northern Ireland Executive must do likewise.

In 2010, this paper revealed how McCullagh, now deceased, had sexually abused a Londonderry girl for 10 years.

It was further revealed that the former Bishop of Derry, Seamus Hegarty, was party to an out-of-court settlement by McCullagh, which included forcing his victim to sign a document forbidding her to make public the abuse or the meagre payment she received in compensation.

Similar deals drafted by former Cardinal and Archbishop of Armagh Sean Brady in 1975, and signed by two victims of the notorious paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth, also need to be examined, according to Amnesty.

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NEDRLAND
Volkskrant

Door: Peter de Graaf 17 juni 2015

Tot dusver heeft de klachtencommissie van het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik RKK ruim 250 klachten ongegrond verklaard. In de meeste gevallen is dat gebeurd wegens gebrek aan ‘steunbewijs’: er hadden zich geen andere slachtoffers van de aangeklaagde priester gemeld. De klachtencommissie gaat uit van het rechtsbeginsel dat niemand veroordeeld kan worden op grond van ‘één enkele verklaring’.

‘Dat is een enorme klap, een drama voor het slachtoffer’, zegt Guido Klabbers, woordvoerder van Klokk, de koepel van slachtofferorganisaties.

De nieuwe regeling wordt de ‘slotactie’ genoemd in de jarenlange procedure voor erkenning, genoegdoening en compensatie voor slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik. Aanleiding zijn de verklaringen twee jaar geleden van voorzitter Wiel Stevens van de klachtencommissie tijdens een hoorzitting in de Tweede Kamer. Hij zei geen twijfel te hebben dat ‘het overgrote deel’ van de afgewezen klagers wel degelijk is misbruikt. ‘Maar de regels laten niet toe hun klacht gegrond te verklaren’, aldus Stevens.

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NETHERLANDS
Dutch News

The Dutch Catholic church plans to offer other victims of sexual abuse, whose cases have not been formalised, some form of compensation, the Volkskrant reports on Wednesday.

The committee investigating the abuse has determined that 250 cases are not proven, mainly because there were no other complaints about the priest concerned.

The new ruling has been prompted by a statement in parliament by the head of the complaints commission two years ago. Wiel Stevens said at the time he had no doubt that most of the rejected complaints were also true. The rules then did not allow any compensation payments to be made to those victims.

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NETHERLANDS
NL Times

Posted on Jun 17, 2015 by Janene Van Jaarsveldt

Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests are critical about the Catholic church’s plans for a scheme to pay compensation to victims whose complaints were were judged unfounded. Victims feel that the scheme is too much like a quick payoff.

“Many victims are very upset that their complaint is not honored. They can not be fobbed off with a few thousand euros. They want recognition, not just a cash register receipt.” Guido Klabbers, spokesperson for victims’ association Klokk, told the Volkskrant.

So far the complaints committee of the Reporting Point Sexual Abuse RKK has found 250 complaints unfounded, according to the newspaper. In most cases this was due to a lack of “supporting evidence” – no other victims had filed a complaint against the accused priest. The committee works on the legal principle that no one can be convicted on the basis of a single statement.

This new scheme follows a statement made by Wiel Stevens, the president of the complaint committee, in the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, two years ago. He said that he had no doubt that the vast majority of the rejected complainants were indeed abused. “But the rules do not allow us to declare their complaint well-founded.” he said.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Joe Soucheray
jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com

A friend of mine who has always been useful to the Catholic Church as a volunteer in his parish told me upon the arrival of John Nienstedt as archbishop that I had best not call him “Arch.”

“Why?”

“He is not the ‘Arch’ type,” I was told.

I had called Nienstedt’s predecessor Harry Flynn “Arch” when I saw him out and about. I think I was being cautioned to understand that Nienstedt was possibly a bit more stern than Flynn, a bit more officious, more formal and standoffish. I do not know that to be the case. I never had the chance to find out, because I never saw Nienstedt out and about. Never. Flynn worked the room, meaning the whole archdiocese, and maybe Nienstedt did, too, but I never saw him, so I never had the chance to hail him as “Arch” and discover the consequences of such informality.

It was with great sadness that I learned that Flynn developed memory loss when he was grilled about abusive priests. He got so lawyered up that I’m not sure he would have remembered the time of day if he had just glanced at his watch.

Nienstedt got lawyered up, too. For the past couple of years, it felt like the archdiocese was run by the lawyers and that there was no room for these guys to practice what they were supposed to preach. The allegations of a cover-up struck to the very core of cowardice. Every day — OK, not every day, but maybe every time you went to Mass — you kept waiting for the dam to break and for some leader, most principally the archbishop, to grab this horrid mess by the scruff of the neck and throw it out into the open, into clear air and sunlight. That didn’t happen.

Well, it has been thrown out into the open. John Choi, not the church officials, patiently saw to that. Through the bankruptcy proceeding, the victims will get compensated, which might be small consolation. The church will sell off properties and will have to humble itself financially just to pay the bills for years of cover-ups.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune JUNE 16, 2015

Ramsey County authorities are investigating personal ties between former Archbishop John Nienstedt and the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest now serving time in prison for sexually molesting two boys in his parish, say sources familiar with the investigation into the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The inquiry is part of the county attorney’s ongoing probe into the archdiocese’s alleged lax handling of Wehmeyer, a priest known for sexual misconduct and alcohol problems. The criminal complaint filed earlier this month against the archdiocese cited multiple examples over years of Nienstedt’s failure to act on troubling information about Wehmeyer.

Nienstedt resigned Monday.

Jennifer Haselberger, a former chancery canon lawyer who warned Nienstedt about Wehmeyer, said she was interviewed Monday by the county attorney’s office “regarding their ongoing investigation into potential criminal charges against Nienstedt, [former bishop Lee] Piché and/or other Chancery officials.”

She said she was asked about any connections between Nienstedt and Wehmeyer, in particular about the questions she may have been asked by the Greene Espel law firm. The firm was hired in 2014 by the archdiocese to investigate allegations of sexual improprieties between Nienstedt and seminarians and priests before he became archbishop.

That report was never made public, and key sources told the Star Tribune that the archdiocese halted the inquiry while investigators were still pursuing leads.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A Newcastle court has heard there are around 40 witnesses in their case against Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson, who’s been charged with concealing child sexual abuse.

Adelaide’s Archbishop Philip Wilson was excused from his second Newcastle local court appearance this morning.

He has previously pleaded not guilty to concealing the serious indictable offence of another person.

The charge relates to when Wilson was an assistant parish priest in East Maitland in the 1970s, and worked with paedophile priest James Fletcher.

The court today heard the brief of evidence, which is more than 2,000 pages long, has been served.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jennifer Bjorhus Star Tribune JUNE 16, 2015

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is seeking to hire former federal prosecutor Joseph Dixon III to defend it against new criminal and civil accusations that it failed to protect children from an abusive priest.

And given that the archdiocese is in bankruptcy and short on cash, Dixon is charging a reduced rate of $400 an hour, court documents show.

“This reflects a substantial discount,” Dixon said in his engagement letter.

The papers are part of the archdiocese’s application to hire Dixon and the law firm where he works, Fredrikson & Byron, as special criminal counsel. The application was filed Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, a day after the church’s sexual abuse scandal forced the resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt and his second in command, Bishop Lee Anthony Piché.

Dixon is a legal sharpshooter, a well-regarded former assistant U.S. attorney best known for sending Ponzi fraudster Tom Petters to prison. After a stint at insurance giant UnitedHealth Group Inc., he jumped to Fredrikson & Byron — and to the defense side of the bar — saying he missed the courtroom.

Dixon didn’t respond Tuesday to messages for comment.

The archdiocese said it needs Dixon because the recent criminal charges could affect the availability of insurance to cover mounting claims, and have “serious repercussions” on the bankruptcy estate’s finances. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi filed the charges earlier this month.

Dixon’s fees would add to the stack of legal bills generated since the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization Jan. 16. It has been racking up legal and professional costs at the rate of $473,000 to $887,000 a month, the archdiocese estimates. The latest monthly operating report, filed for April, shows the church owed nearly $1.6 million in legal and professional fees. Most of the costs are for the archdiocese’s main bankruptcy attorneys at Briggs and Morgan.

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AUSTRALIA
MICE BTN

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Leaders in the field of ‘victim services and research’ will discuss the latest ways to improve the lives of victims at the 15th International Symposium of the World Society of Victimology (WSV), to be held 05 – 09 July in Perth, Western Australia.

Organised by Victim Support Australia in partnership with angelhands, the Australian Institute of Criminology and the WSV and sponsored by the Western Australian Government, the Symposium is expected to attract more than 450 professionals including victims’ advocates, researchers, police, child protection workers, lawyers and social workers.

The theme of the Symposium is Victimisation, justice and healing: challenging orthodoxies and a number of international and national speakers will provide keynote addresses including: Professor Sandra Walklate, an internationally recognised expert in victimology (particularly criminal victimisation and the fear of crime) from the University of Liverpool’s Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology; professor Eric Stover, who will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a victim-centred approach at international criminal courts. Stover is faculty director of the Human Rights Center and Adjunct Professor of Law and Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley and commissioner Helen Milroy from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Newcastle’s Anglican Bishop has fought back tears while apologising for past church cover-ups and the poor handling of complaints about child sexual abuse.

Greg Thompson has spent 500 days in the job, and to mark that milestone today he talked of cover-ups, collusion and intimidation.

He said that system of operation within the church hierarchy is over.

“I’m devastated by the accounts of abuse,” he said.

“I am so sorry for the terrible harm done and by a culture that would not listen.”

He said there was a culture that allowed bullying and abuse, and there was a system of intimidation that left victims silent.

Bishop Thompson said more than $4 million has already been paid to abuse survivors in the Hunter, but no amount of money can compensate them for their pain.

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MINNESOTA
KFGO

by Jim Monk

FARGO (KFGO-AM) – A group that represents thousands of clergy sex abuse victims around the world is worried that former Minnesota priest Joseph Jeyapaul will re-offend after he’s deported back to India.

Jeyapaul was sentenced in a plea deal Monday to a year in jail already served for sexually molesting a teenage girl.

Barbara Dorris of Chicago is the outreach director for “SNAP”, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “Our fear is that he is being deported to India, where he will be free in a group of children that are extremely vulnerable,” Dorris said. “We had hoped that the justice system would have pursued all charges and found a way to keep him locked up.”

Dorris says Jeyapaul’s sentence is “extremely frustrating” because he’s destroyed the lives of at least two young girls. “He’s basically paying no penalty for that,” she said.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Public Radio

[with audio]

By STEPHANIE LECCI

At their annual spring meeting held in St. Louis last week, U.S Catholic bishops discussed several issues currently facing the Catholic Church, including: the clergy sex abuse scandal, what the Church sees as challenges to marriage, and the pope’s upcoming encyclical on the environment.

St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson attended the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting, where he spoke with reporter Stephanie Lecci. An excerpted interview aired on “St. Louis on the Air” and part of it is included below: …

On steps the Church is taking to combat clergy sex abuse of children and the pope’s new Vatican tribunal to hear cases of bishops accused of covering up cases of abuse

I think it’s a good thing. Obviously, as I look back over my more than 30 years as a bishop, the whole thing has changed a great deal. I think there were changes in the ’90s, and then again in 2002, and there’s still changes that we need. But the pope has brought it to the attention of the whole church, so it’s something that we are working on.

When I came to St. Louis, I felt that they had a very good review board process, and my commitment has always been to listen to them and to follow what this group of experts feels is the right way to proceed. And I think it’s a wonderful way that laity, whether you’re a grandmother in the community or psychologist or an attorney or a counselor, or whatever you might be, can listen to what victims are saying and can give a recommendation to me. And my commitment is to follow… the advice I receive from this group. As a matter of fact, you can check, I’ve absolutely followed their advice since I came here.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By JIM YARDLEY and ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
JUNE 16, 2015

ROME — The unexpected leak of Pope Francis’ much-anticipated environmental encyclical has meant the return of something that not long ago was fairly common around the Vatican but had become often dormant during the two-plus years of Francis’ mostly charmed papacy: intrigue.

Who leaked it and why? Was this the work of frustrated conservatives in the Vatican, as some experts have speculated? Does it portend big fights at a pivotal October meeting in which church officials are expected to grapple with homosexuality and divorce? Or is it just a tempest in a teapot?

“Somebody inside the Vatican leaked the document with the obvious intention of embarrassing the pope,” said Robert Mickens, a longtime Vatican expert and editor of Global Pulse, an online Catholic magazine.

The Vatican press office was tense on Tuesday. Hours after a draft of the encyclical was published Monday on the website of L’Espresso, an Italian magazine, the Vatican indefinitely revoked the credentials of Sandro Magister, the journalist who wrote a short introduction that accompanied the magazine’s publication of the draft. Vatican officials say the leaked draft is not the final version of the encyclical, which has been barred from release until Thursday.

Leaks are hardly uncommon in journalism — some would consider them sustenance — and Vatican journalism has been no exception. Most recently, Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy was undermined when his butler leaked documents, in an episode known as VatiLeaks, that exposed infighting and discord in the Vatican. The scandal is considered one of the reasons that Benedict resigned, leading to the March 2013 election of Francis.

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CHILE
Piensa Chile

[More than 250 lay people in Chile have requested a visit from a papal commission to investigate issues involving Bishop Juan Barros.]

Más de 250 laicos en Chile solicitarán la visita de una Comisión papal para lograr la salida del Obispo Juan Barros

Reunidos en el Centro Cultural Latinoamericano de la población San Maxiliano Kolbe en Osorno, más de 250 Laicos procedentes de Valparaíso al sur, llegaron a la ciudad para participar en el primer encuentro nacional de este movimiento cristiano.

La actividad comenzó con una ceremonia de bienvenida que dio paso después a reuniones grupales donde se abordaron dos temas de importancia para los laicos, “la voz del laicado en la Iglesia Chilena” y “Osorno: Iglesia herida y dividida desde la llegada de Juan Barros”.

Mario Vargas, representante en Osorno del Movimiento de Laicos, señaló que “estamos felices con esta convocatoria que marca un precedente para Osorno, donde el obispo Juan Barros fue el tema central de análisis, que mantiene dividida a la comunidad cristiana local”.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

By Nicole Winfield

VATICAN CITY (AP) – There’s something of a whodunit going on in the Vatican to discover who leaked Pope Francis’ environment encyclical to an Italian newsweekly, deflating the release of the most anticipated and feared papal document in recent times.

L’Espresso magazine published the full 191 pages of “Laudato Si” (Be Praised) on its website Monday, three days before the official launch. The Vatican said it was just a draft, but most media ran with it, given that it covered many of the same points Francis and his advisers have been making in the run-up to the release.

On Tuesday, the Vatican indefinitely suspended the press credentials of L’Espresso’s veteran Vatican correspondent, Sandro Magister, saying the publication had been “incorrect.” A letter from the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, to Magister advising him of the sanction was posted on the bulletin board of the Vatican press office.

Magister told The Associated Press that his editor, not he, obtained the document and decided to publish it.

“I just wrote the introduction,” Magister said in a text message, adding that he had promised the Vatican to keep quiet about the scoop

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TEXAS
Star-Telegram

BY MITCH MITCHELL
mitchmitchell@star-telegram.com

A woman who said she was repeatedly raped by a charismatic pastor more than 18 years ago hesitated Tuesday as she pointed at the accused.

She cringed from the witness stand while she described an item of his clothing.

Testifying under the pseudonym April Moore, the 32-year-old woman said Geronimo Aguilar first noticed her when she was 11 or 12 and living in California.

“He got me a sweatshirt with a gorilla or a monkey on it,” Moore testified. “He was the cool guy so getting a gift from him was a big deal.”

Aguilar, now 45, is the former music minister of a church in Fort Worth and former pastor of a megachurch in Richmond, Va.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Al Momento

[Francisco Dominguez Brito, attorney general for the Dominican Republic welcome the decision of the Vatican court to prosecute former nuncio Josef Wesolowski, who is accursing of sexually abusing minors in the Dominican Republic. “In this, as in other cases, we have made and continue to make efforts as necessary for the truth to prevail and justice; there is justice in accordance with the law and international law, ” he said.]

Santo Domingo, 16 jun (EFE).- El procurador general de la República, Francisco Domínguez Brito, valoró hoy la decisión del Tribunal del Estado del Vaticano de enviar a juicio de fondo al ex nuncio Jósef Wesolowski, acusado de incurrir en un delito de abuso sexual en perjuicio de menores de edad de la República Dominicana.

“En este, como en otros casos, hemos hecho y seguiremos haciendo cuanto esfuerzos sean necesarios para que prevalezca la verdad y la justicia; que haya justicia con apego a la ley y al derecho internacional”,

“Se trata de un caso que ha lastimado profundamente a nuestra sociedad y debe de haber una decisión que se corresponda con el hecho en sí y el daño provocado a las víctimas”, manifestó Domínguez Brito.

Asimismo, resaltó la voluntad y el empeño de las autoridades del Vaticano para que el ex nuncio apostólico sea procesado, y afirmo que en este caso “he visto que hay voluntad y cooperación de parte de las autoridades del Vaticano”.

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FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel

By Paula McMahon
Sun Sentinel

Jurors took just 3 1/2 hours Tuesday to find Jeffery London, a church youth pastor, charter school disciplinarian and unofficial foster parent, guilty of a federal sex abuse charge.

London, 51, showed no visible reaction to the verdict. He faces 10 years to life in federal prison when he’s sentenced in August for using a cellphone to lure an underage boy into sexual activity.

The victim seemed overwhelmed by emotion and relief and put his head to his knees when the guilty verdict was announced in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. Later, he hugged prosecutors Francis Viamontes and Jodi Anton and the FBI agents who handled the case.

Now 20, the victim declined to comment on the verdict. He testified that London began sexually abusing him when he was just 7 years old and the assaults went on until he was 16.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

The church that has been a central part of St. Paul’s identity from our city’s first days is poised for a fresh start.

The resignations Monday of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche were needed for the good of the local church, observers told the Pioneer Press.

The announcement came 10 days after the Ramsey County attorney’s office brought criminal charges against the archdiocese as an institution for its handling of the abuse case of a St. Paul pastor.

It’s a development whistleblower Jennifer Haselberger, the archdiocese’s former chancellor for canonical affairs, has called a tipping point.

The charges, six gross-misdemeanor counts brought by Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, are the result of a 20-month investigation.

The investigation continues, with a significant commitment: to allow the facts to lead the way.

Choi used those words in a statement Monday outlining his office’s intention to finish what it started and to “do only what the law allows and to do what justice requires without fear or favor.”

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CANADA
CBC News

Retired Catholic priest Paul-André Harvey pleaded guilty in a Chicoutimi court on Tuesday to sexual offences involving approximately 40 victims.

The 78-year-old man from the diocese of Chicoutimi admitted to committing the acts over a span of four decades. Most victims were between the ages of six and 12.

He pleaded guilty to nearly 40 charges.

Ten witnesses and victims were expected to testify today. Some people asked for the publication ban applied to their testimony be lifted so they could publicly share their experiences.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Cape Cod Times

By Ethan Genter
egenter@capecodonline.com

Posted Jun. 16, 2015

A Falmouth man who alleges he was sexually abused by a St. Anthony’s Parish priest more than 200 times as a child has filed a lawsuit against the priest’s supervisor, the former bishop of the Fall River Diocese.

The civil suit, filed June 5 in Middlesex Superior Court, maintains that former Bishop Daniel A. Cronin knew or should have known about the abuse by Msgr. Maurice Souza.

The Falmouth plaintiff is joined in the suit by a man from Marlboro. The two were altar servers at St. Anthony’s from the late 1970s until the mid 1980s. Although both are identified in the suit, the Times is not naming them because of the allegations of sexual abuse.

Souza died in 1996, and Cronin, who served as bishop of the Fall River Diocese from 1970 until 1991, retired in 2003 after leading the Archdiocese of Hartford for 11 years.

The lawsuit originally was filed in Connecticut, but was dismissed there and filed in Massachusetts when Cronin agreed to travel here to testify and to waive the statute of limitations as a defense, according to Mitchell Garabedian, the plaintiffs’ attorney.

“It’s unusual that a defendant would waive the statute of limitations,” Garabedian said Monday. “Most of these cases the defendants raise the statute of limitations as a defense.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Taunton Gazette

Brian Fraga
Herald News Staff Reporter

Posted Jun. 16, 2015

FALL RIVER — A lawsuit that accuses former Fall River Bishop Daniel A. Cronin of being negligent in failing to supervise a priest who allegedly molested two boys in the 1970s and 80s has been refiled in Massachusetts.

Originally submitted last year in Connecticut, the lawsuit was filed June 5 in Massachusetts after Cronin, the retired archbishop of Hartford, agreed to transfer the case and travel to Massachusetts to testify. Cronin also agreed to waive any statute of limitation defense.

“These two concessions are significant,” said Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who is representing the two plaintiffs.

The original lawsuit had also named the Diocese of Fall River as a defendant, but the diocese is not named in the new lawsuit, a move that Garabedian described as a strategic legal decision.

The lawsuit alleges that the late Monsignor Maurice Souza sexually assaulted the victims from the time they were approximately 9 and 10 years old to when both were 17 years of age. Both alleged victims met Souza when he was the pastor of St. Anthony’s Church in East Falmouth, according to court documents.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/VATICAN
Latin Times

By Cedar Attanasio | Jun 16 2015

Vatican officials announced on Monday that they will try former Archbishop and diplomat Jozef Wesolowski on charges of statutory rape solicitation committed in the Dominican Republic, as well as possession of child pornography inside the Vatican. Church officials say that he could face six to ten years of imprisonment if found guilty. Wesolowski, 66, is Polish and also a citizen of the Vatican. His trial, which begins on July 11th, will be the first of it’s kind; no one has ever been charged with child abuse in the Vatican. The announcement comes after the former priest has effectively evaded justice in other countries for over two years, shielded by the power of the Catholic Church.

In addition to allegedly paying for sex with child prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, Vatican officials found child pornography on his computer after he returned to Rome. Thousands of images reportedly depicted minors between 13 and 17 forced to engage in sexual acts. Many were downloaded from the internet, while others reportedly appear to have been taken by victims themselves. It’s unclear if any of the images involved Wesolowski’s alleged victims in the Dominican Republic. …

“We have formally opened an investigation,” Dominican Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito told reporters in 2013. “Here we have to work with two legal aspects, first national laws and also international laws in his status as a diplomat, which implies other mechanisms of investigation and judgment.”

Before the investigation concluded, however, the Vatican recalled Wesolowski, effectively saving him from arrest. The move also insured that the Church could protect Wesolowski without the embarrassment of invoking diplomatic immunity. The Vatican denied that the timing had anything to do with helping their diplomat avoid prosecution.

“The recall of the ambassador is by no means an effort to avoid taking responsibility for what might possibly be verified,” a Vatican spokesman said at the time.

What did responsibility mean? The Vatican initially tried Wesolowski under the Church’s canon law, and found enough evidence to defrock the apparent pedophile. Defrocking is the most severe punishment for a member of the clergy, but it’s a far cry from a jail cell. Meanwhile, Wesolowski’s colleague, Rev. Wojciech Gil, was put on trial in Poland for abusing six altar boys. Gil, who is also Polish, worked alongside Wesolowski in the Dominican Republic, where he confessed to abusing four boys. The other two were abused in Poland. In March of 2015 Gil was sentenced to seven years in prison, and ordered to pay damages to his victims.

In 2014 Vatican officials confirmed that Wesolowski no longer had diplomatic immunity, and was open to prosecution. However, Vatican officials refused to extradite him to any countries where they do not have a specific extradition treaty, which include the Dominican Republic as well as Poland (another place where Wesolowski was charged with child rape). In fact, the Vatican has no extradition treaty with any country, despite reforms spearheaded by Pope Francis in 2013 that make it easier for officials to extradite. That still made the Vatican into something of a golden cage for the former priest. For example, Italy has an extradition treaty with the Dominican Republic, so he couldn’t step outside the tiny Vatican grounds without fear of arrest.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Thomas Farragher GLOBE COLUMNIST JUNE 16, 2015

Even for an institution that measures its history in centuries, not decades, the Vatican’s move toward sanctions against bishops who cover up for pedophile priests seems glacial.

So when news arrived last week that Pope Francis has approved the creation of a church tribunal to do just that, embracing the recommendations of a papal commission led by Boston’s archbishop, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, you could imagine a Greek chorus of abuse victims responding: “It’s about time.’’

Had the tribunal been in place back in 2002, when the clergy sexual abuse crisis exploded in Boston and quickly spread around the globe, there is little doubt who would have been the first bishop hauled before the panel.

That would be Bernard Francis Law, one of O’Malley’s predecessors who resigned in disgrace in late 2002 and continues to live in gilded retirement Rome where he is regarded — if not quite a pariah — as an embarrassment, an archbishop whose silence, even after he knew kids were being assaulted, was beyond indefensible.

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UNITED STATES
Voice of the Faithful

BOSTON, Mass., June 15, 2015 – The Roman Catholic Church reform movement Voice of the Faithful hopes the resignation today of St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt signals the Church is continuing to turn the corner on holding bishops accountable for covering up clergy sexual abuse.

His resignation comes just 10 days after St. Paul-Minneapolis prosecutors brought criminal charges against the archdiocese for failing to protect children; five days after Pope Francis set up a Vatican tribunal to judge allegations against bishops involved in the clergy sexual abuse; less than two months after the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, who was convicted of covering up abuse; and the same day the Vatican announced former papal nuncio Jozef Wesolowski would stand trial at the Vatican for sexual abuse of children.

Pope Francis already has accepted Nienstedt’s resignation and the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche and appointed another archbishop there to administer the diocese.

VOTF has long called for accountability for bishops who have covered up abuse, and for Nienstedt in particular, given longstanding revelations of his mishandling local clergy sexual abuse.

We only wish Nienstedt would have admitted his wrongdoing instead of standing by his previous actions, but his resignation no doubt is for the good of the Church and the faithful of his diocese, which he said in his statement was the reason for his resignation.

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NEW YORK
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on a proposed abuse bill in New York State:

Every year New York Assemblywoman Margaret Markey introduces her bill lifting the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse, and every year she loses. The word is out: she’s a phony. Her bills almost always give public school employees a pass (the doctrine of sovereign immunity means that public school victims have only 90 days to press charges). Her latest attempt—it is her seventh—is also a loser. Unlike previous years, this bill is being introduced at the end of the legislative year. Why? It’s rooted in vindictiveness.

Markey’s bill is her latest gift to the Catholic community: She is unhappy that an education tax credit bill, which is supported by most Catholics, Orthodox Jews, and minorities, might pass. It provides a tax credit that makes it easier for families, especially poor ones, to send their children to private or parochial schools. The enemies of the indigent, which include the teachers’ unions, want to deny the poor the same options that the affluent have. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is leading the campaign to deny school choice to poor Latinos and African Americans.

Catholic bashers have branded the Catholic community’s opposition to Markey’s bill as insensitive. It’s a lie. In 2009, after Markey took a beating in the press (led by the Catholic League) for not including public schools in her bill, she broke precedent and actually came clean. But her bill, which applied to both the public and private sectors, was knocked down because the public school establishment went insane. Yet no one called it insensitive.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Jon Collins Jun 16, 2015

Following a long extradition fight, a Catholic priest from India was sentenced in Roseau County District Court Monday for criminal sexual conduct with a 16-year-old girl a decade ago.

Joseph Jeyapaul, 60, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for the 2005 incident where

The sentence counts as time served because he had already been held in custody for 1,187 days, according to the county attorney’s office. Jeyapaul pleaded guilty to the fourth-degree sexual conduct charges last month.

Jeyapaul is being processed through the prison system and will be transferred to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation to India, according to prosecutor Heidi

Earlier charges of sexual misconduct with a different girl in 2004 and 2005 were dismissed, Davies said.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

[with video]

by Iris Perez

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
To St. Thomas Canon Law professor Charles Reid, John Nienstedt’s resignation is further proof that the embattled archbishop’s continued position was unsustainable.

“We have the arch dios in bankruptcy, we have the criminal charges that have been brought against the archdiocese, we have the creation of a panel a tribunal in Rome to investigate cases of cover ups by bishops,” Reid listed.

Resigning from the archbishop seat does not leave him without privilege however, but the question remains: Was stepping down a calculated move to keep from being defrocked?

“As an administrator, as an archbishop, he’s done completely. As someone who can still say mass, as someone who can act as a priest, perform confirmations, he can still do that,” Reid said.

What’s next for Nienstedt could be up for negotiation.

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UNITED STATES
The Dallas Morning News

Rudolph Bush

Only a week has passed since Pope Francis declared a new tribunal to review cases of bishops who shielded pedophile priests and shuffled them around parishes to protect them from discovery.

And just two weeks have passed since prosecutors in St. Paul, Minn. accused the Catholic Archdiocese there of “willfully ignoring signs of a pedophile priest,” according to a story in the New York Times.

In a signal that the Vatican is at last catching up to the concerns of the faithful, both Archbishop John Nienstedt and Lee Piche, an auxiliary bishop, resigned in St. Paul yesterday.

Nienstedt suggested the decision was his own. The facts, and his longtime reticence to resign, suggest otherwise.

“In order to give the Archdiocese a new beginning amidst the many challenges we face, I have submitted my resignation as Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis to our Holy Father, Pope Francis, and I have just received word that he has accepted it,” Nienstedt wrote.

He added that he leaves the church with a clear conscience.

It will be up to prosecutors to show whether that clear conscience is warranted.

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FRANCE
Tamil Guardian

French authorities have arrested a Rwandan priest on suspicion of committing crimes against humanity during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The 61 year old man was arrested in Trappes, northern France, executing an international arrest warrant issued by Rwanda’s prosecutor.

It is claimed the individual, an ethnic Hutu, was involved in the killing of up to 1,000 university students after pointing them out to men armed with machetes. He is also accused of personally interrogating and tracking down ethnic Tutsis.

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UNITED STATES
CNN

Becky Ianni, Clergy Abuse Survivor and SNAP Director chats with Brianna Keilar about the Vatican’s historic decision to hold a criminal child abuse trial.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Kieran Tapsell | Jun. 16, 2015 Examining the Crisis

Cardinal Desmond Connell, the former archbishop of Dublin, told the Murphy commission in Ireland that mental reservation was deceiving someone without telling a lie. He said it is permissible to use “an ambiguous expression realising that the person who you are talking to will accept an untrue version of whatever it may be.”

There is an exquisite piece of mental reservation in a recent announcement from the Vatican. According to Vatican Radio, “The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors presented a five point plan to the Pope and his closest advisors at this week’s meeting, including the establishment of a ‘new judicial section’ to examine all cases of bishops accused of abusing their office and failing to report crimes committed by priests in their care.”

The ambiguous expression in this case is “failing to report crimes” because it does not say to whom the bishops should have reported. Nearly everyone would understand the expression to mean reporting to the police. That is not what the Vatican means. It means reporting to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in every case and only sometimes to the police.

As the Holy See told the Irish foreign minister in 2011, bishops are the governors of their own diocese, and so far as the church is concerned, the only restraint on them is canon law. Bishops can only be put on trial before this new tribunal for breaching canon law. A bishop who fails to report credible allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is in breach of canon law because that obligation is set out in the decree Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela.

Likewise, canon law in the United States since 2002, and for the rest of the world since 2010, requires bishops to comply with domestic civil reporting laws. A failure to do so constitutes a breach of canon law. The recently resigned bishops — Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché of St. Paul-Minneapolis and Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., who was convicted by a Missouri court of failing to report a priest’s possession of child pornography — could be brought before the new tribunal for failing to comply with civil laws on reporting as required by the norms approved in December 2002 by the Holy See for the United States.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Elizabeth Mohr and Sarah Horner
Pioneer Press

The walls were closing in on the archdiocese.

Child sexual abuse lawsuits. An investigation into the archbishop. Bankruptcy. Criminal charges. And now a Vatican tribunal to punish bishops who covered up abuses.

On Monday, two top officials of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis stepped down.

Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piché said they are resigning, a rare occurrence within the Catholic hierarchy.

The announcement came 10 days after the Ramsey County attorney’s office filed a 43-page criminal complaint, detailing the alleged roles of church officials – including Nienstedt, 68, and Piché, 57 – in protecting a predatory priest.

In a statement, Nienstedt said: “In order to give the archdiocese a new beginning amidst the many challenges we face, I have submitted my resignation. My leadership has unfortunately drawn attention away from the good works of (Christ’s) Church and those who perform them. Thus, my decision to step down.”

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Tim Gihring

The letters began arriving shortly before John Nienstedt was appointed archbishop in 2008: clean up or be shut down. It was the least that his predecessor, Archbishop Harry Flynn, could do: play the good cop; warn the rebellious parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis before the bad cop arrived.

Nienstedt seemed to relish the bad-cop role. He wore a fedora, like a G-man. Through his Rumsfeldian, half-frame glasses, he saw sin everywhere, and he revamped the Catholic Spirit, a once-freethinking archdiocesan newspaper, as a pulpit to rail against it.

And he did indeed drive some of the most accommodating members among his flock of 750,000 into hiding, banning lay people from addressing the faithful during Mass, calling out priests who welcomed openly gay worshippers as abetting “a grave evil,” and quickly shutting down services like the one at St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, in Minneapolis, where women often led the liturgy — without so much as a hello.

“You’re a controversial figure,” a woman told him back in 2008, at a St. Paul gathering of the National Council of Catholic Women. “I am?” he joked. “I tend to be straightforward — perhaps that puts people off.”

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POLAND
The News

The Vatican has confirmed that its former envoy to the Dominican Republic is due to stand trial in July, charged with sexually abusing minors and the possession of child pornography.

Former archbishop and papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic Józef Wesołowski was defrocked in June 2014, having intially been recalled from his post in the Caribbean in August 2013.

According to a statement released by the Tribunal of Vatican City State, Wesolowski’s first hearing will be on 11 July.

The tribunal has noted that the child abuse allegations, which concern Wesołowski’s tenure as nuncio in the Dominican Republic between January 2008 and August 2013, are “based on evidence transmitted by the judicial authorities of Santo Domingo.”

The possession of child pornography charge relates to material allegedly found in Wesołowski’s lodgings following his return to Rome

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on June 16, 2015

Two years ago, in what was widely seen as a move to steady the leadership in the controversy-ridden Archdiocese of Newark, Pope Francis tapped a little known but well regarded bishop, Bernard Hebda, to serve as Archbishop John J. Myers’ top assistant and eventual successor.

Now, with Hebda chosen to stabilize a far more troubled diocese in Minnesota, the question is when he will return to Newark full-time, if at all.

The pope on Monday named Hebda, 55, interim leader of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, which was criminally charged last week for what a prosecutor described as a systemic failure to protect children from a sexually abusive priest.

Hebda replaces Archbishop John Nienstedt, who resigned Monday morning with his top assistant, Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche.

In a statement, Hebda said he will remain Newark’s co-adjutor archbishop, the official term for a bishop-in-waiting, and he stressed that his role in Minnesota would be temporary. In addition, Jim Goodness, a spokesman for Myers, said he expects no change in Hebda’s future assignment as leader of the Newark Archdiocese.

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MINNESOTA
John Thavis

The resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt in St. Paul-Minneapolis came after nearly two years of patience at the Vatican, which generally prefers a bishop to put his diocese in order rather than be yanked from office. Despite Nienstedt’s efforts to make some changes, it was clear that the problems were not going away.

Filing for bankruptcy four months ago was bad, but worse came 10 days ago, when a local prosecutor announced he would bring charges against the archdiocese for failing to protect children. That meant the drumbeat of bad news would continue for the foreseeable future.

On Minnesota Public Radio this morning, I took a long look at the implications of the resignation and possible future steps. I’ve been a member of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese for a couple of years now, and I think many Catholics here recognize that Archbishop Nienstedt’s departure will not solve all the problems.

I’m glad the pope did not immediately name the archbishop’s successor. I hope it is a sign that the Vatican is going to take the time to carefully evaluate the needs of the archdiocese. I see two key priorities. First, the Vatican should involve lay Catholics in the selection process. In practice, that can range from listening sessions in local parishes to canvassing for local candidates. We should move beyond the point where Rome’s choices simply parachute in to dioceses, with no connection to their new flock.

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VATICAN
NZZ (Schweiz]

(ap) Der Vatikan hat nach dem Pädophilie-Urteil gegen einen Priester die Rücktrittsgesuche zweier amerikanischer Bischöfe angenommen. Der Erzbischof von St. Paul im Gliedstaat Minnesota, John Nienstedt, und dessen Weihbischof Lee Anthony Piché hätten von der Kirchenrechtsbestimmung Gebrauch gemacht, den Papst wegen Krankheit oder einem anderen ernsten Grund um ihre Entlassung zu bitten, teilte der Vatikan mit. Papst Franziskus habe zugestimmt und den Erzbischof von Newark, Bernard Hebda, zum Bischofsverwalter ernannt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Evangelisch

[Jesuit Father Mertes: Church must consistently educate about abuse.]

Der Skandal um den Missbrauch an Kindern und Jugendlichen durch Priester hat das Vertrauen in die katholische Kirche erschüttert. Wer Prävention betreiben will, muss die Fälle zuvor aufklären, heißt es auf einer Fachtagung.

Der Jesuitenpater Klaus Mertes hat die katholische Kirche aufgefordert, Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch in den eigenen Reihen weiter konsequent aufzuklären. “Prävention setzt voraus, dass aufgeklärt wurde”, sagte er am Montag bei einer Fachtagung zu sexualisierter Gewalt in der katholischen Kirche in Hannover. “Erst die Aufklärung deckt Fehler auf.” Wenn hier nicht weitergearbeitet werde, verliere die Prävention ihre Glaubwürdigkeit.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SWR

[The Weisenauer Pastor Christian Nagel has apologized during a church service on Saturday night for the sexual assaults in a Mainz Catholic daycare center.]

Der Weisenauer Pfarrer Christian Nagel hat sich während eines Gottesdienstes am Samstagabend für die sexuellen Übergriffe in einer Mainzer Kita entschuldigt. Gleichzeitig kündigte er Aufklärung an.
Blick auf die geschlossene Katholische Kindertagesstätte Maria Königin, aufgenommen am.

Gleich zu Beginn des Wochenend-Gottesdienstes der Katholischen Gemeinde Mariä Himmelfahrt lenkte Nagel auf das Geschehen in der kirchlichen Kita. “Ich bitte alle betroffenen Kinder, die an Leib und Seele verletzt wurden, um Entschuldigung”, so Nagel.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Bucks Free Press

by Andy Carswell, Senior reporter

A former church elder who groomed and sexually abused two young children – before going on to download the most extreme type of indecent photos nearly 40 years later – has been jailed for four and a half years.

Alan Baker “put a stain on the development” of the two children whose lives he “blighted” during the 1970s and 80s, an Amersham Crown Court judge said as he was imprisoned today.

Now aged 78, Baker abused a position of trust as an elder at a church in Wooburn Green to “engineer” meetings with the two children, the court heard.

When his home in Altona Road, Loudwater, was searched by police in 2014 several indecent images of the most severe category were found.

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NEW YORK
Capital New York

ALBANY—As discussion swirls about an education tax credit that will benefit private and parochial schools, the Assembly is advancing a bill—long opposed by the state’s Roman Catholic bishops—that makes it easier to sue for childhood sexual abuse.

The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, a Queens Democrat, would create a one-year window during which people sexually abused before their 18th birthday could bring suit against their alleged abusers—including private institutions like summer camps and church organizations. The window does not apply to public school institutions. The state’s Catholic Conference opposes the bill, which could open the church to a flurry of lawsuits and drain its coffers for legal defense, settlements or awards.

A spokesman for the Catholic Conference, Dennis Poust, questioned why the bill suddenly re-emerged during the final week of the legislative session. He said it seemed to be retaliation for an aggressive lobbying campaign on behalf of the tax credit, which has sent over a dozen mailers into the districts of some Democratic Assembly members.

“This is a bill that has not moved in the Assembly in years, due to the fact that it selectively targets private institutions while giving publics a pass,” Poust said. “The timing, given our strong advocacy in favor of the education tax credit and the calling out of Assembly majority members, certainly gives the impression of political payback, which is really quite chilling.”

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ROME
GlobalPost

Jason Berry
Valeria Fraschetti

Jun 15, 2015

ROME — An hour before L’espresso magazine leaked an Italian-language PDF of Pope Francis’s long-awaited encyclical on ecology, Massimo Faggioli was unwinding over orange juice in a café near St. Peter’s Square after a day’s research in the Vatican Archives.

The Italian-born Faggioli, a theology professor at St. Thomas University in Minneapolis, reflected on the drumbeat of opinion over a pope weighing in on climate change.

“American Catholic conservatives have already dismissed the letter because of Cardinal [Peter] Turkson’s role in the drafting process,” said Faggioli.

“An African cardinal in charge of drafting a document for a Latin American pope is too much for some of these people.”

A few minutes later, Faggioli checked his iPhone and saw that the conservative Vatican correspondent Sandro Magister had posted the entire encyclical, Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home, on L’espresso — three days before its scheduled release at noon Thursday.

“I believe this was leaked to Magister by one of the enemies to embarrass the pope and deflate the hyped launch,” Robert Mickens, Vatican correspondent for the Jesuit-edited news magazine Global Pulse, said in a tweet.

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VIRGINIA
NBC 29

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va (WVIR) – The child sex abuse case against a former Charlottesville youth pastor is moving forward.

A grand jury indicted 34-year-old Jacob Daniel Kepple of Scottsville Monday.

He is charged with indecent liberties with a child.

Kepple worked as a youth pastor at First Baptist Church on Park Street.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Kirstan Conley and Carl Campanile

Assembly Democrats, under pressure from the Catholic Church to pass a tax break to help parochial schools, on Monday revived a bill that would allow lawsuits involving decades-old claims of sexual abuse by priests.

“This is a retaliatory strike against the church,” Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, told The Post.

“We haven’t heard a whisper about this bill in six years .

“If this bill becomes law, it will have catastrophic consequences for the church — and they know it,” Poust added.

The legislation, sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens), would wipe out a law giving accusers up to five years to file suit once they reach 18. But after that period, lawsuits are barred.

The new law would allow anyone to sue going back decades for one year after the measure is enacted.

The Democratic-controlled Assembly hasn’t seriously debated the sex- abuse issue since 2008, Poust said. But the dormant proposal was amended on Sunday and put before the Assembly Codes Committee on Monday, when the Legislature was considering a flurry of bills before breaking for summer recess.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jun. 15, 2015

A prudent move. A painful process. An important step. A tiny step.

A broad cross-section of reactions met the news Monday of the resignations of St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché.

“I think it was a necessary move and a prudent one,” said Jennifer Haselberger, the former canonical chancellor whose decision to resign the position and speak out publicly on observed mishandling of clergy sexual abuse accusations largely set off the scandal that has settled on the region since fall 2013.

The announcements came the same day as the start of the biannual presbyteral assembly, which gathers the archdiocese’s nearly 400 priests for meetings through Thursday in Rochester, southeast of the Twin Cities. A priest who spoke on background said he detected among his fellow priests a sense of relief with the news, that they understood the gravity of the situation but also saw a path forward toward healing in the region.

In a letter to the priests, Nienstedt wrote of his resignation, “I would have preferred to share this with you in person, but the desire of the Holy See to announce this made it impossible to wait.” …

In a statement to media, Ramsey County prosecutor John Choi said while many in the community may view the resignations as a positive development, the six criminal charges, the civil petition and ongoing investigation will proceed.

“As we have said, the goals of our actions are to hold the Archdiocese accountable, seek justice for the victims and our community, and to take appropriate steps to ensure that what we have alleged and intend to prove about the past conduct of church officials will never be repeated,” Choi said. “Today’s resignations do not directly accomplish those goals, but I believe that it is an affirmative step toward a new beginning and much needed reconciliation.”

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Tom Scheck, Jon Collins

Jun 15, 2015

The man who will serve as a temporary caretaker for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is an Ivy League-educated attorney with working-class Rust Belt roots — and a high-profile archdiocese job in his sights.

He’s known in his New Jersey diocese for eschewing a fancy residence where he could live by himself and instead choosing to live in a dormitory suite alongside other priests.

Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who has served since 2013 as coadjutor bishop in the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., as apostolic administrator of the Twin Cities archdiocese.

The Vatican announced Monday that the pope accepted the resignations of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche, only 10 days after prosecutors filed criminal charges against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for its “role in failing to protect children and contribution to the unspeakable harm” done to three sexual abuse victims of a former priest.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

The resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt could boost donations to the Catholic Church in the Twin Cities, where many parishioners have grown frustrated by his handling of allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

Nienstedt resigned Monday following two years of damaging revelations about the failure of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to protect children from sexual abuse by priests.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January, contending that it likely would be unable to afford potentially huge financial judgments that could be awarded to victims of clergy sex abuse. The judge overseeing the church’s reorganization quickly ordered all parties into mediation, hoping to achieve a faster fix for the archdiocese’s finances and compensation for abuse victims.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Hal Davis
Pioneer Press
POSTED: 06/15/2015

Key players in the resignations of John Nienstedt and Lee Anthony Piche:

JOHN NIENSTEDT

Archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“In order to give the archdiocese a new beginning amidst the many challenges we face, I have submitted my resignation,” he said Monday. “I leave with a clear conscience knowing that my team and I have put in place solid protocols to ensure the protection of minors and vulnerable adults.”

LEE ANTHONY PICHE

Auxiliary bishop who was tasked last year with investigating allegations of sexual misconduct against Nienstedt from July that he had inappropriate sexual conduct with adult priests, seminarians and other men. No results have been reported.

Piche had previously taken over Nienstedt’s public duties after the archbishop removed himself from ministry in December 2013 as an investigation led by Choi examined an allegation that Nienstedt inappropriately touched a boy during a 2009 confirmation photo. The archbishop returned to full-time duty in March 2014 after that investigation found no evidence against him.

In 2010, a fellow priest told Piche that he had found Wehmeyer in bed with a boy during a camping trip the previous month. In a later interview with police, Piche said he didn’t remember the priest’s report.

JENNIFER HASELBERGER

Former chancellor of canonical affairs. Resigned in April 2013.

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“I’ve raised the point time and time again that the leadership has to change,” she told Minnesota Public Radio. “It’s pretty much same old, same old.”

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

Editorial

ON MONDAY, shock waves in Minnesota were felt in Newark. Archbishop John Nienstedt resigned as head of the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese amid a clergy sex scandal, and Newark Coadjutor Archbishop Bernard Hebda was named apostolic administrator, a temporary replacement. How temporary is unknown.

Hebda has been seen as the heir apparent to Newark Archbishop John Myers, who will reach the mandatory retirement age of 75 next year. Myers has been touched by scandal as well. His handling of the Rev. Michael Fugee has been heavily criticized not just by critics of the Catholic Church, but by Bergen County prosecutors, who had allowed Fugee to avoid criminal prosecution by entering into an agreement to have no contact with minors. The archdiocese did not properly monitor Fugee, and he violated that agreement. Fugee is no longer a priest.

Additionally, Myers has refused to give up plans to move into his more-than-7,000-square-foot, newly expanded retirement mansion, flouting Pope Francis’ call for bishops to live modestly. Monday’s announcement raises more questions than provides answers for New Jersey Catholics.

The situation in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is dire. Prosecutors have taken the unprecedented step of criminally charging the archdiocese for allowing a predator priest to prey on children. Not only Nienstedt, but one of his auxiliary bishops, Lee Anthony Piche, resigned Monday. Piche was the bishop responsible for investigating how the archdiocese handled cases of sexual abuse.

These joint resignations, as well as the Vatican’s announcement that it is putting its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Jozef Wesolowski, on trial in a Vatican court for allegedly sexually abusing boys, is more proof that this pope has begun cleaning the church’s stairs from the top down. Taken in conjunction with the recent announcement of a Vatican tribunal to review how bishops handle allegations of sexual abuse by priests, it is clear the pope wants to move the church past more than a decade of sex scandals that have robbed it of its moral authority and are draining its financial resources in payouts to victims.

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UNITED STATES
WBUR

Tue, Jun 16, 2015
by Rich Barlow

Might some Friends of Francis appear before the pope’s just-created tribunal to investigate bishops charged with shielding pedophile priests? Lovers of soap opera can only hope. As for us Catholics, the fact that the queue of defendants could look as crowded as the Republican presidential debate stage is painful, but the tribunal is overdue.

The pope who famously asked “who am I to judge” about gays is poised to judge accused concealers of crime. Good for him. Meanwhile, the aggregated response of abuse survivors and their advocates to the papal announcement has been a measured two cheers. They welcome the idea but, wisely, are withholding final assessment until they see how the panel works in practice.

he aggregated response of abuse survivors and their advocates to the papal announcement has been a measured two cheers.

Victims should be the go-to sources on this. They suffered the crimes and have been the most relentless voices for reform in the church. The tribunal is a longstanding demand of theirs, as episcopal enablers helped perpetuate the pedophile scandal but largely have escaped punishment. Peter Saunders, an abuse survivor advising Francis, termed the papal creation “a positive step.”

At the same time, he told The New York Times, “When allegations against senior clergy are brought to the tribunal, we’ll see whether it’s working.” The president of Boston-based BishopAccountability.org was cheered by the news, but his counterpart at Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests was underwhelmed, seeing the tribunal as Roman-collared foxes guarding the hen house. Better, she argued, for the Vatican to lobby for more robust secular prosecution of guilty bishops. For its part, the Vatican insisted that the tribunal would not take the place of law enforcement but would add ecclesiastical penalties.

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MINNESOTA
Independent

June 15, 2015
Associated Press

A man who says he was sexually abused by a Minnesota priest decades ago is welcoming the resignation of St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt.

Al Michaud (mih-SHAWD’) sued the archdiocese in the 1980s, long before Nienstedt led the archdiocese, and eventually settled.

The 54-year-old Michaud called Nienstedt’s resignation a “huge step” but says more needs to happen.

Niendstedt resigned Monday, 10 days after Minnesota prosecutors filed criminal charges accusing the archdiocese of failing to protect children.

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MINNESOTA
Independent

June 15, 2015
Associated Press

The whistleblower who accused Catholic leaders in Minnesota of mishandling clergy abuse cases says Archbishop John Nienstedt’s resignation was “a necessary and prudent step.”

Jennifer Haselberger was an archdiocese lawyer when she came forward in 2013 to accuse Nienstedt and others of doing too little to rein in problem priests. Nienstedt resigned Monday, 10 days after a prosecutor filed criminal charges that accuse the archdiocese as a corporation of failing to protect children.

Haselberger says those charges and the civil petition prosecutors also filed made it impossible for Nienstedt or another bishop, Lee Piche (pih-SHAY’), to stay in their jobs.

She says any support the two might have had to stay would have disappeared from anyone who read the criminal complaint.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Greg Rasmussen, CBC News

The Anglican Church of Canada expressed regret on Monday for the “immoral sexual behaviour” of one of its priests and apologized for not publicly disclosing a confession made two decades ago by the B.C.-based priest, who admitted to sexually abusing parishioners.

Gordon Nakayama’s case was never reported to the police, but his story was the inspiration for The Rain Ascends, a novel by well-known Canadian author Joy Kogawa who is also the priest’s daughter.

The former priest ministered to the Japanese-Canadian community in B.C. and Alberta. During the Second World War, he followed his Japanese-Canadian parishioners from Vancouver to their internment camps.

There were rumours he had abused young men and boys, and decades later he admitted it in writing to church officials.

“I made mistake. My moral life with my sexual bad behaviour. I sincerely sorry what I did to so many people,” he said in his confession to the church in 1994.

Instead of reporting his admission of a crime to the police, the church locked away this painful secret because, it says, the community preferred that at the time.

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UNITED STATES
Sticking the Corners

How to Idiot Proof Your Parish and Diocese Against the Sexual Abuse Crisis

June 15, 2015 by Jennifer Fitz

The idiots in question are ordinary people like yourself, busy, overwhelmed with responsibilities, always trying to figure out which situations are the most desperate and which are okay enough to leave be for the moment. Elizabeth Scalia and others report on the latest round of resigning bishops, and here’s the thing you need to understand: That diocese is just like yours, and by that I mean it is filled with people like you.

–> In the unlikely event that you’re one of those people who has it completely together, and never ever makes a bad judgment call, never ever drops the ball, never ever says, “But I didn’t think that would happen!” believe you me, the rest of the slouches in your parish, ministry, or organization are complete idiots. That’s just how it is. What this means is that in order to keep our children safe from sexual abuse, we have to idiot-proof our work.

Fortunately, it’s doable. Here are the basics:

1. Learn to dial 911.

In reading the harrowing account of how a serial abuser was left in office for years, one fact stands out: Bunches of people knew the abuse was going on, and not a single one called the police. Not one.

You don’t need permission to pick up the telephone.

It doesn’t matter what your boss says. It doesn’t matter what your job description is, or that you haven’t got one. The police are so easy to contact even a kindergartner can do it, and that means you can, too. If you suspect a crime is taking place, pick up the phone and call the police. You can talk to the competent church authorities after.

To put your mind at ease:

You can talk to an officer at your local police station and describe the situation first before naming the perpetrator, if you are unsure whether a crime is actually taking place.

The police have the job of conducting investigations and sorting out guilt from innocence, not you. Your parish priest knows an awful lot of stuff, but he’s probably not a cop specializing in investigating this type of crime. Pull in the pro’s ASAP, and let them help your parish figure out if there’s really a problem or not.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

JUNE 15, 2015

key questions

Why did the archbishop resign?

Nienstedt said his leadership has become distracting; he also may have faced pressure from the Vatican. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is facing charges that church officials failed to protect children from abusive priests.

Does this change the court action?

No. The Ramsey County civil and criminal cases will continue. The next appearance is scheduled for July 17.

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CANADA
Vancouver Sun

By Gordon Hoekstra, Vancouver Sun June 15, 2015

The much-anticipated defamation trial between freelance journalist Laura Robinson and former 2010 Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong is shaping up to be fought over whether Robinson carried out her job to acceptable journalistic standards.

Robinson, slated to testify today, is suing Furlong for damaging her reputation in statements he made in 2012 and 2013, at a news conference, in interviews and in statements written to rebut an article she wrote in the Georgia Straight three years ago.

Earlier, Furlong dropped his defamation suit against Robinson over her article, which said Furlong had verbally and physically abused aboriginal students in the ’70s at a Catholic elementary school in Burns Lake in north-central B.C. It also detailed omissions on when he moved to Canada in his biographical 2011 book, Patriot Hearts.

Furlong, who attended court Monday, has said the allegations from the former students are not true.

The opening day of testimony Monday hinged on how Robinson carried out her job, with her lawyer Bryan Baynham introducing a report from former Ryerson University head of journalism John Miller that concluded she did her investigative job to acceptable standards.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Associated Press JUNE 15, 2015

ROSEAU, Minn. — A Catholic priest who pleaded guilty last month to criminal sexual misconduct has been essentially sentenced to time served.

The Rev. Joseph Jeyapaul was sentenced Monday to a year and a day in prison in connection with the 2005 abuse of a teenage girl. But he’s been in custody since March 2012, and was given credit for time served. He now faces deportation to India.

As part of the plea deal, charges that he raped another girl from 2004 to 2005 are dismissed.

Jeyapaul came to Minnesota in 2004 and served at Blessed Sacrament Church in Greenbush. He returned to India in 2005 and was brought back to Minnesota last year to face charges.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

[with video]

Allen Costantini, KARE

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Pope Francis turned to a Vatican veteran to take the temporary reins of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The Pope formally accepted the resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt on Monday.

The Most Reverend Bernard Hebda, 55, is currently the Coadjutor Archbishop of the Newark, New Jersey Archdiocese. Hebda will become Archbishop when the current Archbishop of that diocese retires in 2016 or dies.

Now, Hebda is also the Apostolic Administrator of Minnesota’s largest diocese until an Archbishop can be appointed. Hebda promised in a statement to “be as available as possible” locally while still performing his duties back East.

“He is very well connected,” said Dennis Coday, National Catholic Reporter Editor. “He spent 13 years working at the Vatican. His expertise is Canon law. So, what he is going to bring is kind of a pastoral approach, but very much steeped into the rules and regulations that run the Church.”

Hebda was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He was ordained a priest in 1989 and served at the Vatican in Rome from 1996-2009. He was appointed as Bishop of Gaylord, Michigan from 2009-2013.

Coday said his experts at the independent newspaper called Hebda “brilliant, generous, gentle and pious,” when he was appointed to the New Jersey position in 2013.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

Bill Hudson

ST. PAUL (WCCO) — Archbishop John Nienstedt has been on the forefront of the clergy sex abuse scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church for the better part of 30 years.

“This is a beginning of a reckoning,” St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson said.

From his St. Paul law offices, flanked by two men who survived priest sex abuse, Anderson called it a global crisis that is finally beginning to change.

He called Monday’s resignations of the Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche as a sign from Rome that the Vatican is ready to start moving forward and repair past wrongs.

“The resignations forced under pressure and accepted by the Vatican demonstrate an incremental realization that they have to do something,” Anderson said.

The lawyer is representing Al Michaud and Jim Keenan, both of whom were abused by their priests as young boys.

Michaud admits the resignations caught him totally by surprise.

“I got the blip on my phone and went, wow, that’s huge,” he said.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Editorial

Archbishop John Nienstedt stepped down as head of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on Monday because, he said in a statement, “my leadership has unfortunately drawn attention away from the good works of His Church and those who perform them.”

The relief that washed over many Minnesotans — Roman Catholics and the rest — with Monday’s news that Archbishop John Nienstedt has resigned should not be mistaken for a sense that all is now well within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Rather, for some time, Nienstedt’s departure has been widely seen as a sad necessity. The Star Tribune Editorial Board has called it a requisite first step in a long effort to restore the reputation of the region’s largest religious organization — a reputation sullied by child molestation and an alleged coverup so widespread that both criminal charges and a civil case were filed against the entire archdiocese in Ramsey County District Court on June 5.

Fairly or not, the 68-year-old Nienstedt became the face of those charges — a fact that, to his credit, he seemed to acknowledge in a statement announcing his resignation early Monday. He was stepping aside, he said, “to give the Archdiocese a new beginning amidst the many challenges we face.” Exiting with him is Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché, whose resignation statement said “the people of the archdiocese … need healing and hope. I was getting in the way of that, so I had to resign.”

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jenna Ross Star Tribune JUNE 15, 2015

Even before the sex abuse scandal made him one of the most embattled figures in the Catholic church, Archbishop John Nienstedt’s tenure was turbulent.

His pricey fight against same-sex marriage had backfired. His unyielding style had riled some priests. And while some parishioners praised his conservative stances, for many he became a polarizing figure among local Catholics.

“He was a warrior bishop waging a cultural war,” said Charles Reid, a professor of canon and civil law at the University of St. Thomas.

Unease about Nienstedt’s leadership arose before he even moved into the Chancery in St. Paul. As bishop in New Ulm, he became known for his strict adherence to orthodox doctrine — denouncing his predecessor’s call for dialogue on opening the priesthood to women; rebuking a priest in St. Peter for worshiping with Lutherans after a 1998 tornado destroyed the town’s Catholic church; and urging legislators to support a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Those moves mirrored the attitude of the Vatican under Pope Benedict, who picked Nienstedt as the new archbishop in 2007. But many priests and parishioners in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, with its long history of being “moderately progressive,” greeted his arrival with trepidation, Reid said.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By James Walsh Star Tribune JUNE 15, 2015

Shortly after delivering a homily about turning the other cheek, the Rev. Jim Schoenberger asked the 50 souls who had gathered Monday for noon mass at the Church of the Assumption to say a prayer for Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piché.

Hours earlier, the two Catholic Church leaders had resigned in the wake of the archdiocese’s oversight of sexually abusive clergy members. For some sitting in the pews of St. Paul’s oldest church, that news came as a shock. For others, the announcement came much too late. Several, in fact, said they had lost confidence in Nienstedt’s leadership long ago.

“It is a sad day, but it’s sad that things happened like that, that people had to suffer here,” said Ray Kieser, a member of the parish, located downtown, for 20 years. “It is going to take a new person to come in here and do what they can to repair it.”

Another parishioner, an 83-year-old woman who asked not to be named, said she was “dumbfounded” by the news but “I am glad he resigned. I think he was covering up for people doing terrible things.”

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UNITED STATES
MSNBC

By Emma Margolin

Twin announcements from the Vatican on Monday showcased a surge of activity surrounding what Pope Francis once labeled a “scourge” of sexual abuse against minors, a scandal that has plagued the Catholic Church for decades. But survivors’ advocates, as well as one prominent Catholic conservative group, fear political motivations lie behind these latest actions.

Jozef Wesolowski, a defrocked archbishop and the Vatican’s former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, will stand trial next month on charges stemming from child sex assault, the Holy See said Monday. It marks the first Vatican-held criminal trial for sexual abuse.

The Vatican also announced on Monday that Pope Francis had accepted the resignations of two high-ranking Minnesota clerics facing criminal charges for mishandling complaints of sexual misconduct against a priest. John C. Nienstedt, the archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said in a statement Monday that he was resigning along with Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piché so as not to draw “attention away from the good works of His Church and those who perform them.”

Both announcements follow last week’s debut of a new church tribunal, which was created to investigate and potentially punish bishops engaged in covering up abuse.

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MINNESOTA
InForum

By Sarah Volpenheim / Forum News Service

A Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing a 16-year-old Minnesota girl will walk free and be deported to India immediately.

Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, 60, was sentenced Monday to one year and one day behind bars—time he already served while awaiting court proceedings—after taking a plea deal last month. As part of the deal, Jeyapaul pleaded guilty to 4th-degree criminal sexual conduct in Roseau County District Court.

Jeyapaul had been in custody since he was arrested in his home country of India in March 2012 to face criminal charges he sexually abused two girls while serving as a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Crookston in 2004 and 2005.

The conviction coincided with the Monday resignation of John Nienstedt, the archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which came 10 days after criminal charges were brought against the archdiocese in connection to sexual abuse of youths by a former clergy member.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with audio]

Guests

John Thavis: Former Vatican bureau chief for the Catholic News Service and author of “The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church”
Madeleine Baran: MPR News reporter

Archbishop John Nienstedt resigned today as head of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. His announcement comes nearly two years into a clergy sex abuse scandal and after criminal charges against the organization for failure to protect children.

The Vatican moves very deliberately for a reason, said John Thavis, former Vatican bureau chief for the Catholic News Service on MPR News with Tom Weber:

“When problems erupt in a diocese they don’t want to be seen as yanking a guy out before he’s had a chance to resolve them,” Thavis said. “I think they gave Archbishop Nienstedt really almost two years to resolve these problems and it was clear 10 days ago when the prosecutor announced charges would be brought against the archdiocese that the problems were not resolved and in fact they would continue for some time to come.”

After Pope Francis announced a new process to evaluate and judge bishops before a Vatican tribunal for similar cases, Thavis said people suggested Nienstedt be the first to go through the process. But it became clear it could take months or years to set up the procedure.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Peter Smith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pope Francis has named Archbishop Bernard Hebda, a Pittsburgh native, to administer a scandal-plagued Minnesota archdiocese in the wake of the resignations of its leaders.

Archbishop Hebda will serve as apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis after the departures of Archbishop John Nienstadt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche, whose resignations were announced today.

The resignations came less than two weeks after state prosecutors filed criminal charges accusing the archdiocese of failing to protect children from an abusive priest now serving a five-year prison sentence for molesting two boys.

Archbishop Hebda is currently coadjutor archbishop in the Archdiocese of Newark, meaning he is second in command to Archbishop John J. Myers and designated to succeed him.

He’ll maintain that assignment while also being tasked with steadying the Minnesota archdiocese.

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

MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Jennie Lissarrague

A Catholic priest who was extradited from his native India to Minnesota has been sentenced to one year in prison Monday after pleading guilty to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct back in May.

According to the Roseau County Attorney’s Office, Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was originally charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2006 for incidents that happened from 2004-2005 while he was a priest in Greenbush and Middle River.

Prosecutors say he assaulted a girl multiple times in 2004 and 2005, starting when she was 14. Jeyapaul was a priest at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Greenbush, near the Canadian border, at the time.

The attorney’s office says Jeyapaul fled to his native India in August 2005 and continued to serve as a priest. He was arrested in 2012 and extradited to the United States in November 2014. At that time, the additional fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct charge was filed against him for an Aug. 15, 2005, incident.

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.