Abuse Tracker

IRELAND
The Irish Times

TUAM REPORT SUMMARY: THE AUDIT into the response to clerical child sexual abuse allegations in the Tuam archdiocese has paid tribute to Archbishop Michael Neary’s “quiet resolve to do what is right”.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church review says “serious harm was done to children by a few priests” of the Tuam archdiocese.

However, it says that since Dr Neary’s installation in January 1995, he had met such allegations with a “steady, serious approach”, even though he met “resistance” in asking a priest to step aside from public ministry.

The audit records 26 allegations levelled against 18 priests in the archdiocese, dating back to 1975. Ten of these priests had died, while eight are “out of ministry” or have left the priesthood. There have been two convictions.

LifeSite News

by John-Henry Westen

November 29, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - For many years faithful Catholics around the world have agonized over the actions of some bishops that discredit the faith and bring scandal. And for the purposes of this analysis I’ll exclude the sexual abuse scandal. Many of the faithful wonder why the Pope does not seem to take action and if he in fact even knows what is going on. Well, he does. However, if you’re not watching closely you may miss the interventions, even though they are public.

Let’s take a couple recent examples which were rather obvious.

Regular LifeSiteNews readers will readily remember the scandal of the German bishops being 100% owners of a $1.7 billion dollar annual sales book company which pedaled 2500 pornographic erotic novels and similar videos. For a decade, the bishops ignored the behind-the-scenes pleas of faithful Catholics to rectify the situation.

When the mainstream media reported the scandal, the bishops’ representatives feigned ignorance and filtering errors. The head of the book company even went to far as to suggest that since the erotic offerings didn’t meet the strict legal definition of ‘porn’, those who accused the bishops’ company of pedaling porn were guilty of slander and that the company would be suing “the slanderers.”

IRELAND
The Irish Times

IAN ELLIOTT

ACROSS ALL of the six dioceses that have participated to date, a marked improvement in two key areas of safeguarding practice is evident.

Firstly, reporting allegations to the statutory authorities occurs promptly and comprehensively. All known details are regularly shared and each of the dioceses has established a sound working relationship with their relevant statutory agencies. This represents a major development as past practice did not always reflect this commitment.

Secondly, the need to create and maintain a safe environment for children in the church is comprehensively accepted and implemented. Each of the dioceses examined had developed a safeguarding framework which mirrored that as set out in Safeguarding Children: Standards and Guidance. This framework is almost entirely volunteer-led.

The critical role of “delegate” or “designated officer” has in many cases been undertaken by a member of the clergy. In some of the reviews, a recommendation has been included that where possible, this role should also be undertaken by a suitably qualified and experienced lay person.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

GERRY MORIARTY

BISHOP OF Raphoe Dr Philip Boyce received no direct complaints of clerical abuse in the diocese before the trial of Fr Eugene Greene in 2000, the bishop told a press conference in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, yesterday.

Bishop Boyce apologised for his failures and that of his predecessors, Bishop Séamus Hegarty and Bishop Anthony McFeely, in relation to the high incidence of priestly child sexual abuse in the diocese of Raphoe from 1975.

Bishop Boyce said that during the trial, it emerged that a father of two of Fr Greene’s victims had said in the 1970s that he wrote to a local parish priest to complain about the priest, who was imprisoned for 12 years.

“We did not know of that letter,” he said. “At the time the information on these terrible things . . . weren’t handed up as far as the bishop’s office. There was no reference . . . to any allegations in the files which I saw when I came [in to office].

IRELAND
The Irish Times

GERRY MORIARTY

IN 1995, shortly after he was appointed Bishop of Raphoe, Dr Philip Boyce travelled to Annagry in west Donegal to address a rumour about Fr Eugene Greene, one of Ireland’s worst sexual abusers of children. He spoke to a concerned school teacher and others but there was nobody prepared or able to give him hard evidence or make specific allegations against Greene.

“There was nothing really you could do about it because you didn’t even have a name of a person abused or the name of anyone who could say anything about it,” he said yesterday. “I could not get anything.”

Two years later Greene was caught. When one of his victims attempted to blackmail him, he complained to the Garda – which set in train an investigation that finally led to Greene being sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment in 2000.

Yesterday’s audit goes back to 1975 and, according to Dr Boyce, over that period Greene was allegedly involved in 21 or 22 sexual abuse cases against children.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

GERRY MORIARTY, Northern Editor, in Letterkenny

REPORT SUMMARY: THE CATHOLIC diocese of Raphoe has one of the highest incidences of child sexual abuse so far recorded in Ireland, according to figures from the audit of child protection practices in the diocese published yesterday.

Over a 35-year period from 1975 until last year there were allegations against 14 diocesan priests of the sexual abuse of 52 children.

Some 22 of these cases involved paedophile Fr Eugene Greene, who was jailed for 12 years in 2000.

There are currently 62 priests serving in the diocese. The diocese at the time of writing did not have a figure for how many priests in total would have served in Raphoe over the 35 years. Nonetheless, 14 accused priests represents a high percentage of alleged abusers compared with the numbers of priests who ministered in the diocese.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

CARL O'BRIEN

OVERALL SUMMARY: INDEPENDENT REVIEWS into the past handling of sex abuse in six Catholic dioceses criticise senior clergy for failing to respond adequately to allegations. However, they also show major improvements in safeguarding practice in recent times.

A total of 164 allegations have been made against 85 priests in six dioceses since 1975. Of these, eight members of the clergy have been convicted of offences against children or young people.

The reviews were carried out by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church and cover the dioceses of Derry, Dromore (Down), Kilmore (Cavan) and Ardagh Clonmacnois (Longford, Leitrim and Offaly), as well as Tuam archdiocese.

The board was established by Irish bishops and religious orders to provide independent monitoring of church practice in child protection. The reports may be published only with the consent of individual bishops or church authorities. However, these authorities are not allowed to interfere with the content of the reports.

IRELAND
The New York Times

By DOUGLAS DALBY

Published: November 30, 2011

DUBLIN — Roman Catholic Church authorities in Ireland were slow or did nothing to notify civil authorities and the Vatican of hundreds of allegations of clerical child sexual abuse over several decades, according to independent audits of six dioceses published simultaneously on Wednesday.

The church-sponsored National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland found allegations of widespread abuse in all of the dioceses it investigated, saying that 85 priests in the six dioceses had been accused of 164 sexual assaults on children since 1975, but that only 8 were ever convicted. Of the 41 who are still alive, 30 no longer serve as priests.

Despite those findings, many victims, police investigators and advocates dismissed the report as another whitewash by the church. One victim, Martin Gallagher, said on RTE, the national broadcaster, that it was not “worth the paper it’s written on.”

MICHIGAN
The Sault Star

By Rachel Punch

A former St. Mary's College student says he has struggled through decades of shame, depression and addiction in the wake of sexual abuse he alleges occurred at the hand of the late Rev. Leo Campbell at the school in the 1980s.

"Unfortunately, I do have memories, almost like snapshots of a movie," said Peter Luci. "I'll be sleeping and it will come almost like a little short film. I'll wake up screaming or in a sweat.

"My relationships have suffered, my self-esteem. I still have nightmares," he said. "Every aspect of my life has been affected.

"I can't put a price on what it's done or what I could have contributed to society instead of what I've cost society."

Luci, now 46, is suing the Congregation of St. Basil and the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board over the allegations, none of which have been proven in court. The total amount of his claim is more than $1.1 million, plus legal costs.

MISSOURI
Connect Missouri

by Stephanie Backus

The Jefferson City Catholic Diocese issued a statement Wednesday regarding allegations made against one of its priests.

Spokesperson Dan Joyce said Fr. Brendan Doyle is currently on a temporary leave of absence.

The statement said Fr. Doyle reported a virus on his computer and asked for technical assistance. Then, according to the statement, an individual found inappropriate photos on Doyle's computer.

According to the statement, Doyle's computer was given to law enforcement, but Jefferson City Police Spokesman Capt. Doug Shoemaker said his department did not have any information on the case. Joyce would not release which law enforcement agency received the computer. He said it was turned over in an abundance of caution.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By GLENN E. RICE
The Kansas City Star

A former manager who once led a team of financial advisers will serve as director of the new department of child and youth protection for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, church officials announced today.

Carrie Cooper, who had previously worked for American Century Investments, will lead an existing team that includes the diocese’s safe environment coordinator, ombudsman and victim’s advocate.

Among her duties, Cooper will create educational programs for diocesan parishes and schools; make sure that clergy, diocesan employees and church volunteers submit to background checks; and investigate and report to authorities any allegations of suspicious or inappropriate behavior or sexual misconduct by clergy, church staff and volunteers.

“Carrie Cooper will be the point person for the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in our diocese,” said Bishop Robert Finn in a statement. “She brings an extraordinary wealth of experience and a complete commitment to the protection of children.”

IRELAND
Bock the Robber

By Bock

Remind me again how much RTÉ gets in licence fees. I think it’s about €200 million, give or take, in addition to another €100 million or so from advertising. A €300 million budget to run a broadcasting service for a tiny nation.

What do we get for that? Well, of course, we get Fair City, and we get a lot of RTÉ executives’ friends and neighbours sitting around in the afternoon talking about their dinners. We get their neighbours’ young children doing voice-overs on ads and we get their neighbours’ older children plugging their bands on the Late Late Show. We also get an ignorant, right-wing lout shouting at us for an hour and a bit just after lunch every day.

In addition, we get some thoughtful analysis and high-quality current-affairs programming. We get a reasonable amount of investigative reporting and we get Pat, whatever his faults, the Plank Kenny, who at least has read his brief and knows what he’s talking about when he interviews somebody. In fairness to RTÉ , they have made governments and churches squirm under the spotlight of public exposure, although they have also cowered under the ministerial whip from time to time.

Now, I’m not a suspicious-minded man, but if I happened to be of such a persuasion, I’d be seeing conspiracies everywhere in the Kevin Reynolds debacle. In the midst of the gravest crisis ever to face the nation, at a time when any government must take the most unpopular decisions, RTÉ staff conspired, whether they knew it or not, to hand the government a great big stick with which to beat investigative journalists into submission.

What on earth were they thinking? RTÉ has a budget of €300 million and access to the best legal minds in the country. I have a budget of zero and access to Gonad the Ballbearian. Yet, even I know that it would be madness to publish the sort of accusations that RTÉ levelled against Kevin Reynolds.

Despite the fact that the man offered to do a DNA test in order to disprove the allegation, they went ahead and broadcast the programmme, Mission to Prey, which falsely claimed that he had raped a Kenyan woman and fathered a child. Even the alleged rape victim told RTÉ that Reynolds was not the child’s father. The result was inevitable. After the broadcast, Reynolds took proceedings to clear his name, as he was fully entitled to do, and secured substantial damages, paid for out of our licence money,. He was right. I’d do the same in his shoes.

AUSTRALIA
ABC Newcastle

The Catholic Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle says he prays that a convicted paedophile former priest will honour the truth when dealing with the latest allegations against him.

69-year-old John Sidney Denham will stay in jail until he is at least 80, after last year admitting he abused 39 boys in Newcastle, Sydney and the mid north coast.

Yesterday the ABC revealed another 12 alleged victims have come forward, prompting police to lay an additional 40 charges.

The lives of dozens of Denham's victims have been torn apart, with many sharing in a multimillion dollar compensation package.

CLINTON (MS)
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

CLINTON, Miss. (ABP) – Questions about a Mississippi Baptist church’s handling of child sex-abuse allegations against a former minister are focusing on a church elder and politician who is nominated as the state legislature’s first Republican Speaker of the House since Reconstruction.

Philip Gunn reportedly advised elders at Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, Miss., not to talk to police about their internal investigation of former associate pastor of music and ministries John Langworthy, who faces trial on eight felony counts of gratification of lust stemming from acts alleged to have taken place in the early 1980s.

Gunn, an attorney and Baylor University graduate, claims church leaders are bound to secrecy under priest-penitent privilege. A series of reports by local television station WJTV questioned his interpretation of state law. Mississippi College law professor Matt Steffey told the station Nov. 25 it does not exempt ministers from reporting a crime.

HELIAS (MO)
California Demcrat

A priest who works at Helias High School has been put on leave while authorities investigate information that was found on his school computer.

Details about the investigation into Father Brendan Doyle was sent out to parents and school staff Wednesday.

Doyle has been serving as temporary pastor at St. Peter's Catholic Church and was an associate pastor at Immaculate Conception Church.

Deacon Dan Joyce, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City, said Doyle reported on Thursday, Nov. 17, a suspected virus on his computer at Helias.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff

The Archdiocese of Boston is moving forward with a plan to reorganize the management of its 290 parishes, creating teams to oversee the operation of multiple parishes under a single pastor, in hopes of realizing savings through economies of scale.

The plan, to be unveiled Monday at a priest-only meeting with Cardinal Sean O’Malley, does not call for the closing of more churches, though the new local teams may make such recommendations in the future.

The archdiocese estimates it would create about 125 “pastoral service teams,” each of which would likely oversee two or more parishes. The exact number, and the way parishes are to be grouped together, is yet to be determined.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

Human rights body Amnesty International Ireland said that while it welcomed “some signs of progress” in the diocesan audits on safeguarding children published today, it had a number of serious concerns.

Executive director Colm O’Gorman said the examination of the Diocese of Raphoe was “particularly worrying”.

“It highlights concerns over the approach adopted to child protection complaints by three bishops, including Bishop Dr Philip Boyce, and concerns about the system for protecting children as late as 2009,” he said.

IRELAND
Westmeath Independent

by Adrian Cusack

A long-awaited report has commended the Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, Colm O'Reilly, for the way in which he handled allegations of child abuse in the diocese.

The Catholic church's child protection watchdog conducted the report, which examined the response to abuse allegations in the diocese.

Thirteen priests from the diocese had an abuse allegation, or allegations, made against them between January 1975 and April of this year. One of the priests who is alleged to have committed abuse was still living at the time of the report's completion, but was no longer in ministry.

The report by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) said the Diocese "performed well" by promptly reporting abuse allegations to statutory authorities such as the Gardai and HSE.

IRELAND
BBC News

Six reports published by the Catholic Church in Ireland have revealed there were child abuse allegations against 85 priests across the dioceses.

The audits of child protection practices - two of NI dioceses - were conducted by the Church's National Board for Safeguarding Children.

They covered the period from 1975 until the present.

The bishop of Raphoe apologised for "poor judgements" in managing priests accused of "horrific acts of abuse".

IRELAND
The Journal

SIX REVIEWS INTO the handling of allegations of clerical child sex abuse by authorities in the Catholic church has found that the response of the dioceses were inadequate in many instances.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Chuch (NBSCCC) today published reports into child protection services in the dioceses of Raphoe in Co Donegal, Derry, Dromore in Co Down, Kilmore in Co Cavan, Ardagh Clonmacnoise in counties Longford, Leitrim, Offaly dioceses as well as Tuam archdiocese.

The reports are part of an all-island review of child protection policies in the Catholic church.

NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Judge rules prosecutor can't ask janitor charged with killing Chatham priest about his alleged bigamy

Written by
Peggy Wright | Staff Writer

A Morris County jury will not hear that accused priest killer Jose Ramon Feliciano is suspected of being a bigamist, a judge ruled today.

Outside the presence of the jury, county Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi asked Judge Thomas V. Manahan in Morristown for permission to reveal at trial that no records can be found of Feliciano divorcing his first wife to marry his current wife, Marisol, in 1990.

“It goes squarely to the credibility of the defendant. This man moves around facts. This man moves around circumstances and places himself in the world as an upright” individual, Bianchi said.

Defense lawyer Neill Hamilton objected and the judge ruled that the evidence would be too prejudicial to the 66-year-old defendant, on trial on charges of murdering the Rev. Edward Hinds, pastor of St. Patrick R.C. Church in Chatham, with 44 stab wounds on Oct. 22, 2009.

IRELAND
New Zealand Herald

A new series of reports into Catholic dioceses north and south of the Irish border on Wednesday revealed horrific child sex abuse by priests and mistakes by church authorities in dealing with them.

Audits of abuse in six dioceses by the Church's own National Board for Safeguarding Children were published by bishops, providing fresh evidence of a widespread cover-up of sexual abuse.

In Raphoe in the northwest of the Republic, Bishop Philip Boyce said horrific acts of child sex abuse were carried out by priests in his diocese over the last 35 years.

NORTHERN IRELAND
The Guardian

Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 November 2011

Amnesty International has called for an independent inquiry into clerical child sex abuse in Northern Ireland after internal Catholic Church reports found the clergy guilty of inaction over paedophile priests.

An inquiry in Derry found that allegations were not robustly challenged or adequately managed, and that priests who were moved out of parishes in the diocese continued to abuse elsewhere.

Monsignor Eamon Martin, acting as the administrator of the Derry diocese following the retirement of Bishop Dr Seamus Hegarty, acknowledged it was "disturbing" that the diocese seemed more interested in protecting the church than the children. He said the victims had been "violated, their self-esteem and self-belief battered, and their spirit crushed."

In the neighbouring Raphoe parish just over the border in Co Donegal, a report revealed that there were 52 complaints of child abuse against 14 priests. More than 20 of the offences were committed by one priest, Fr Eugene Green. In Raphoe it was found that the practice of failing to report allegations of abuse went on for 36 years.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Cardinal Sean Brady has offered to apologise in person to the victim of a notorious paedophile after he made an undisclosed out-of-court settlement.

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland was sued by Brendan Boland, one of two teenagers he swore to secrecy in 1975 following his investigation into their allegations of abuse by Father Brendan Smyth.

The 50-year-old from Co Louth launched the case against Cardinal Brady and Smyth's Norbertine Order 14 years ago.

The settlement was finally agreed shortly before a date for a hearing was due to be fixed at the High Court in Dublin.

UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

By Christa Brown

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

(ABP) -- Penn State has hired former FBI director and federal judge Louis Freeh to investigate gaps in how the university handled allegations of child sex crimes involving former football coach Jerry Sandusky. To assist him in the task, Freeh has assembled a team of former FBI investigators and federal prosecutors. Many have expertise in child predator cases.

This internal investigation is in addition to the criminal investigation that was conducted by a grand jury.

“No one -- no one -- is above scrutiny,” said Kenneth Frazier, a member of the university’s board of trustees. That includes university administrators, employees and “every member of our board of trustees.”

AUSTRALIA/ROME
The Swag

November 2011

By Eric Hodgens

The Australian bishops were in Rome during October for their regular five yearly report. This gave Cardinal Pell the chance to get the pope to bless his favourite project in Rome – a beautifully refurbished old religious house which has been turned into a 33 room guest house for paying visitors. Its grand chapel and organ have been richly restored. It can be used for conferences and has a 150 seat auditorium.

It also has an apartment for Cardinal Pell.

It did not come cheap. Tess Livingstone and Paul Wilson in The Australian cost it at $30 million. But other reliable sources quoted by Paul Barry in Powerindex (http://tinyurl.com/44vp9qc) say it is $85 million before overruns – the bulk of it coming from Sydney Archdiocese funds. The cardinal had hoped that many Australian bishops would have contributed but ended up with only Melbourne, Perth and Lismore coming to the party. These are the only names on the dedication stone.

Guests can book in at www.domusaustralia.org. The rates are $160 to $220 per night depending on the season.

Who paid and was it worth it? Hard to tell. Dioceses do not publish their accounts. Diocesan funds belong to the Catholics of the diocese. However, bishops are free to dispose of diocesan funds as they please and with no disclosure, no transparency, no accountability.

IRELAND
The Argus

By OLIVIA RYAN

Wednesday November 30 2011

LOUTH priest Fr Oliver Brennan says he ' holds no grudges' against the church hierarchy, after a PSNI investigation found he had no case to answer in an abuse allegation.

The former Black-rock parish priest, pictured right, who had to stand down in August 2010, said he prays for his accusers.

Fr Brennan told The Argus of his 'absolute relief ' at being completely cleared by the North's Public Prosecution Service.

'I knew that I was innocent, and anyone who knows me knew this was a false and groundless allegation, but it was a very difficult time, a painful 15 months.'

IRELAND
The Argus

By OLIVIA RYAN

Wednesday November 30 2011

THE community rallied behind their parish priest after an allegation of abuse was made against Fr. Oliver Brennan in August 2010,

The anger which had built in the community first simmered a few months earlier, in the spring of 2010 when a group of parents had made it known that they did not want Cardinal Sean Brady to officiate at a confirmation ceremony for children in the parish.

The decision had been taken, according to local people, in response to revelations that in the early 1970s Cardinal Brady, who was then a young priest, had asked two young people who claimed they had been abused by Fr. Brendan Smyth to sign confidentiality clauses.

Fr. Oliver Brennan had to inform the Cardinal of the wishes of the Blackrock parents.

IRELAND
The Argus

Wednesday November 30 2011

LOUTH priest Fr. Oliver Brennan said he ' held no grudges' against the church hierarchy for the way he was treated following allegation of abuse in August 2010.

Speaking after his solicitor had been informed by the Public Prosecution Service of Northern Ireland last week that he would have 'no case to answer', Fr. Brennan admitted the ordeal had been ' traumatic and painful.'

He recalled the morning of August 14th, when Bishop Gerard Clifford and a Child Protection Officer arrived at the Parochial House in Blackrock and read out a statement to him.

'It was like a bolt out of hell,' he admitted.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

A sex abuse survivor has today demanded a full State inquiry into an alleged cover-up of a church paedophile ring in Co Donegal.

John O'Donnell, 55, from Falcarragh, denounced the church's own internal report into abuse as "too little, too late".

Confronting Bishop of Raphoe Philip Boyce during today's launch of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church report, he said it offered no comfort whatsoever to victims.

"I want to see a full State inquiry," he said. "What has happened is not good enough."

NEW JERSEY
Patch

Jose Feliciano took the stand for the third day of testimony in the trial for the Rev. Edward Hinds' murder.

Feliciano said under cross examination that the former paster of St. Patrick's Church in Chatham Borough began touching him inappropriately in 2004. In another incident in 2006, "Father Ed was teling me when he was touching my privacy that he would make sure my family will always be protected. ... He told me I could stay [in the job."

In 2008 when a new custodial supervisor, John Gallagher, was hired, one of the custodians at St. Patrick's Church lost his job. Feliciano said he spoke to a teacher and the administrator at the church because he "was concerned" about losing his own job.

DETROIT (MO)
The Detroit News

Oralandar Brand-Williams/ The Detroit News

Detroit — Local Catholics are expected to find out Wednesday night or early Thursday whether their parishes are on a list of churches recommended for closing or merger in the Archdiocese of Detroit.

The Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, a group made of mostly of lay Catholics, will hand over its 40-page document to Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron; the plan is expected to list its recommendations for the future of the area's 270 Catholic parishes.

A volunteer group of 1,500 area Catholics has been meeting for the past year to discuss possible parish closures, mergers and other issues as the Archdiocese of Detroit deals with declining revenue, southeastern Michigan's shrinking population and a growing priest shortage.

NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Naked pictures of a former priest accused of sex abuse were shown to the jury on Wednesday.

The five pictures, showing the back of 53-year-old James Martin Donaghy, were put into evidence by his defence team.

The third of his alleged victims completed his cross-examination at the Belfast Crown Court trial.

Mr Donaghy, from Lady Wallace Drive in Lisburn, denies a total of 26 charges involving the alleged sex abuse.

NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

Naked pictures of a former priest accused of sex abuse have been shown to the jury of nine men and three women at his Belfast Crown Court trial.

The five pictures, showing the back of 53-year-old James Martin Donaghy, were put into evidence by his defence team as the third of his alleged victims completed his cross-examination.

The 29-year-old - who also trained to be a priest - had claimed that while being abused he noticed Donaghy had an indentation near his buttocks.

Donaghy, from Lady Wallace Drive in Lisburn, denies a total of 26 charges involving the alleged sex abuse and indecent assault of three males between June 1983 and December 2000, including fellow priest, Fr Patrick McCafferty.

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

BY JOANNE MCCARTHY

DEFROCKED Catholic priest John Denham will appear in Newcastle Local Court today via an audio visual link from jail after he was charged yesterday with 40 child sex offences.
Detectives attached to Strikeforce Georgiana travelled to Sydney to charge Denham, 69, with 40 counts of indecently assaulting 12 males under 16 at various Hunter locations in the 1970s.

The charges include allegations that he indecently assaulted male students at St Pius X High School at Adamstown. Denham was formally refused bail.

In a statement yesterday, Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Bill Wright said Denham had been a priest in the diocese between 1972 and 1986.

MISSOURI
KY3

by KY3 News
newsalerts@ky3.com

11:33 a.m. CST, November 30, 2011
WILLARD, Mo. -- A Willard man claiming he was abused by pedophile priests as a boy will talk about his ordeal in front of the Springfield Diocese Offices on Wednesday. Joe Eldred says he wants Springfield's Bishop to encourage others to come forward. Victims advocates say that's more than a dozen people in the Ozarks.

Eldred is suing 3 priests for alleged abuse in the Kansas City area in the 1980's while he lived there. One of them, Monsignor Thomas O'Brien, worked at St. Agnes Church in Springfield from 1951 to 1954. Eldred says O'Brien seduced him with marijuana, alcohol and pornography, and had sex with him in the church sanctuary and the priests residence several times.

FRANCE
France 3

Première journée de procès à Rodez: le frère Pierre-Etienne Albert assume sa responsabilité

Le procès du frère Pierre-Etienne Albert s'est ouvert ce mercredi à Rodez. L'ancien membre de la communauté des Béatitutdes comparaît pour 38 cas d'agressions sexuelles.

La première plainte a été déposée à Avranches en 2000. L'homme reconnait son entière responsabilité dans les faits qui lui sont reprochés.

Il a lui même produit une liste de 57 noms d'enfants sur lesquels il s'était livré à des attouchements. "Le fait de me retrouver devant la justice est très important par rapport à mes victimes", a-t-il déclaré lors de cette première journée d'audience, "J'espère qu'elles trouveront un certain apaisement après ce procès, je l'espère de tout coeur." Certains faits sont prescrits. Le frère Pierre-Etienne Albert doit répondre de seulement 38 cas devant le tribunal correctionnel de Rodez. Les agressions sexuelles ont été commises entre 1985 et 2000, sur des garçons et des filles âgés de 5 à 14 ans.

WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

November 30, 2011

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director
CONTACT: 414.336.8575

The trial of Fr. Joseph Gibbs Clauder commenced yesterday inside a Madison courtroom. In March, Clauder was officially charged with second degree sexual assault of a child under the age of 16. The assaults are reported to have begun in 2003 when the victim was just 14 years old.

By the time of these reported assaults, Clauder was already well known to the Madison diocese as a potential abuser.

In 1999, the diocese of Madison secretly removed Clauder from ministry for sexual misconduct, without notifying Catholics or the public that they considered him a danger to others. Instead, Clauder was allowed to continue to present himself as a priest in good standing. And he continued to use his religious authority to harm others. The victim in the current criminal case, who is now 22 years old, described how Clauder assaulted her in a hotel room, as well as in her own bedroom at home. She testified that Clauder instructed her not to tell anyone of the assaults or she would go to hell. She stated “I really wanted to tell because I didn’t want it to happen again…because I was scared that I’d go to hell”.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Newtownabbey Times

A GLENGORMLEY man who claims to have been repeatedly abused by a teacher at a Catholic primary school in West Belfast more than 40 years ago has expressed his dismay that the government inquiry into historical institutional abuse will not consider his case.

However, the man, who wants to be identified only as Joe Abused, is hopeful that the scope of the inquiry will eventually be broadened so that those who were subjected to horrific abuse at day schools can also have their voices heard.

Joe was educated by the De La Salle Christian Brothers at St. Finian’s School in the lower Falls Road area of west Belfast. He says he was first abused at the age of nine in September 1964, with incidents involving the same Brother continuing until he left the school in June 1966.

IRELAND
Archdiocese of Tuam

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church has reported on the Audit which it conducted in the Archdiocese of Tuam. The Report is being published today.

The report illustrates that strong procedures have been put in place to ensure that children are safe and cherished here in the Archdiocese of Tuam.

I warmly welcome the Report of Ian Elliott, the CEO of the National Board, and am very happy that he has adjudicated so positively on the way things are being addressed in our Archdiocese. This is an enormous tribute to all working in this area. It is very encouraging to see that their work has been recognised, affirmed and appreciated in the Report. They convened and worked long hours to address the problems of sexual abuse in a fair and transparent manner. I want to thank all who were involved in this important work for the way in which they have given so generously of their time and expertise. Each parish now has a trained Child Safeguarding Representative.

I am grateful to Ian Elliott, the members of the National Office and the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church for their guidance, availability and on-going support.

IRELAND
Diocese of Raphoe

Press Statement of Bishop Philip Boyce, Bishop of Raphoe

I am happy to be able to publish and present the Review of the Diocese of Raphoe on the subject of child abuse by members of the clergy of the Diocese. The Review of our Diocese was undertaken in August 2010. It was carried out by the independent National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church.

The purpose of the Review was to examine all case files from 1975 to 2010, determine how allegations and cconcerns were dealt with, interview key persons involved in child safeguarding, judge how cases are curretly assessed, how the sttutory authorities are notified and thus determine if there are current risks to children. I fully accept the recommendations contained in the Review and and I am committed to implementing them. Indeed many have already been acted upon.

IRELAND/NORTHERN IRELAND
Diocese of Dromore

The Bishop of Dromore, Dr John McAreavey speaking from Newry Cathedral has said:

"In the past generation we have lived through a time when trust between Church goers and Church leaders has been badly damaged. The disclosures in report after report that children and young people had been abused in our Church and the inadequate response of Church leaders have caused deep distress and dismay. My thoughts today are particularly with these women and men and again I express to them my deepest sorrow for what they experienced.

"In 2006 the Irish Church leaders set up the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland. This independent body was set up to offer guidance in this area and to oversee the implementation of good practice. In 2010 the Church asked the Board to review safeguarding in every diocese, religious congregation and missionary institute in Ireland. In December 2010 I wrote to the Board to invite a review of this diocese and in doing so I committed myself to publishing the report on completion. We are now at this stage.

"I want to thank the personnel of the National Board who carried out this review for their professionalism. To submit oneself or one's diocese to the scrutiny of an independent body is not easy. However the National Board carried out its review by helping us to recognise both our strengths and weaknesses. The final report also provides a series of recommendations to help us improve the way we do things.

IRELAND
Diocese of Derry

Speaking Notes of Monsignor Eamon Martin, Diocesan Administrator, Diocese of Derry at the publication of the Review of Safeguarding Practice in the Diocese of Derry carried out by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church on Wednesday 30 November 2011

On behalf of the Diocese of Derry I want to thank Mr Ian Elliott and the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church for conducting a thorough Review of Safeguarding Practice in the Diocese of Derry and for presenting this report and its recommendations to us.

From the outset, the Diocese of Derry has welcomed this review process as an opportunity to demonstrate openness and accountability and our sincere commitment to best practice in safeguarding children and young people. For some time now the diocese has had clear written policies and procedures for safeguarding. But words on a page do not protect children. We requested Mr Elliott and his team to carry out this Review so that an independent team of experts could test if what we say we are doing is actually happening in practice. We gave full access to all case records and files so that we could confront any poor practice, historical or present, in order to learn lessons about how to better protect children in the future. I accept this report on behalf of the diocese. We pledge to study it carefully and act upon the recommendations it contains. It is our hope that the Review will represent a significant step for the Diocese of Derry along the path of healing and renewal.

I was appointed Diocesan Administrator five days ago. This is my first public message, and I offer it to those who have suffered abuse at the hands of members of the Church. ‘Today will be yet another painful day for you. No matter how positive this report may be about current practice, nothing can take away the awful wrong that was done to you. It is understandable if you cannot accept that the Church is at last serious about this issue. You trusted members of the Church before and you had that trust terribly betrayed. Your dignity was violated. Your self-esteem and self-belief was battered. Your spirit was crushed. The terrible things that happened to you can leave a wound and scar that doesn’t go away. When some of you got the courage to tell your story, no one really listened or took you seriously. I am truly sorry at what happened to you and ashamed at the way you were treated. I pray that the Lord Jesus, who himself was betrayed and broken, will heal you and bring hope and love and peace back into your life. I will do everything that I can, with the help of the good people of our diocese, to ensure that the welfare of children and young people is paramount and that the terrible things which happened to you will not recur’.

IRELAND
Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois

Bishop Colm O'Reilly

The Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois is one of the six dioceses which had its Child Safeguarding procedures reviewed by the National Board for Safeguarding Children. All six dioceses concerned sought to have the Review carried out. I am very pleased that the process has now been completed and I commend the work of Mr Ian Elliot and the National Office for the diligence and professionalism with which they carried out their work. I assure the people of this Diocese and all others who will read the Review on our website (www. ardaghdiocese.com) that all the information on how our Diocese has dealt with this difficult matter has been made available for this review.

One cannot but be conscious at this time of the fact that people who suffered because of wrong doing by Church personnel will be affected by having to think again about an experience which pained them deeply. It is my hope that this pain will be lessened by the knowledge that their lives can move into a new phase when some at least of the past can be left behind. I want to express my sorrow at how they have been made to suffer and I want to welcome any contact which any person who is feeling distressed at this time would make with me or with the Diocesan Delegate for Safeguarding of Children.

I want to avail of the opportunity of this time to express my heartfelt thanks to our Diocesan Child Safeguarding Committee, to the priests and lay people who have given much dedicated service to furthering its work. To each and every child safeguarding representative in our parishes I express my sincerest thanks for their commitment to keeping children safe. In the parishes priests and lay people share the burden of caring for children. That unity of purpose is a great source of strength for the Church and for society in fulfilling the responsibility we all have for caring for children.

Diocese of Raphoe

Archdiocese of Derry

Diocese of Kilmore

Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois

Archdiocese of Tuam

TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on November 30, 2011

Shame on San Angelo’s Catholic bishop. He’s trying to have his cake and eat it too – paying a settlement to make a clergy sex abuse and cover up case go away while suggesting no one did anything wrong. And he’s basically trying to bully other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers into keeping silent, by talking tough about going to trial.

Bishop Michael Pfeifer should be encouraging, not discouraging, those who suffer to come forward. Instead of acting like a caring shepherd, he’s acting like a cold-hearted CEO.

The bishop called the settlement ‘the best solution.’ Of course he thinks that. A trial would have almost certainly exposed callous and corrupt church co-workers and supervisors who knew of or suspected – and ignored or concealed - Father David Espitia’s child sex crimes.

SPRINGFIELD (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

WHAT:
Holding a sign and a childhood photo, a Willard man will
--discuss his just-filed child sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit against three predator priests and a Catholic bishop,
--urge citizens and Catholics – especially current and former church employees – to share what they know about clergy sex crimes and cover ups with police and prosecutors, and
--beg anyone who may have been hurt by clerics to “step forward, get help, and start healing”

WHEN:
Wednesday, Nov. 30, at 2:00 p.m.

WHERE:
Outside the Springfield Catholic diocesan headquarters, 601 South Jefferson Ave., (corner of E. Harrison) in Springfield, MO.

KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

A Roman Catholic priest will stand trial May 29 on seven felony charges of sodomy stemming from allegations that he sexually abused two boys in their early teens in the 1970s.

The trial date was set on Wednesday for the Rev. James R. Schook, 64, who was removed from ministry last year.

Six of the charges involve one boy, with the incidents alleged to have occurred from 1971 to 1974. The seventh charge involves a second boy with an incident alleged from 1974 to 1975.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

A report into child abuse in the Dromore Diocese of the Catholic Church has found 35 allegations were levelled against 10 priests dating back to 1975.

The report also revealed no convictions have been made, but the cases have been reported to the police and social services.

Bishop John McAreavey addressed Mass-goers at Newry Cathedral where he expressed his sorrow over the mistreatment of children and the Catholic Church's handling of the cases.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Donegal has probably the worst record for clerical child sex abuse in Ireland, Bishop Philip Boyce has admitted.

The Bishop of Raphoe also revealed that 20 people working for the Catholic Church in the diocese, which covers most of the county, had still not been vetted.

A report by the church's own watchdog warned that some priests had expressed reluctance to undergo Garda security clearance.

Bishop Boyce said he "didn't think" anyone had refused and that he did not know the breakdown of priests and lay people who had so far declined to return vetting papers.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

IRISH TIMES REPORTERS

A number of reviews into the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations have found that dioceses failed to respond adequately to the accusations.

Six reports were published this morning as part of an all-island review of child protection policies in all Catholic institutions on the island of Ireland.

The reviews, which were carried out by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, covered Derry diocese, Dromore (Down), Kilmore (Cavan), Ardagh Clonmacnoise (Longford, Leitrim, Offaly) dioceses as well as Tuam archdiocese.

While many dioceses come in for criticism for their handling of abuse allegations in the past, the reviews conclude lessons have been learned. Most dioceses are praised for the manner in which they have implemented child protection guidelines and for their proactive approach to dealing with accusations.

IRELAND
Vatican Radio

“I think we have got to be encouraged, what these reviews prove is the Church in Ireland’s dedication to complete transparency and accountability when it comes to the issues of allegations of clerical child sex abuse..we have seen a huge leap forward in this and full credit goes to the bishops and their diocesan teams who are implementing the standards for safeguarding children in the Church”, says Ian Elliot, chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church.

On Wednesday, the Board published reviews of how allegations of clerical child sex abuse were handled in six of the Ireland’s 26 dioceses. Theses reports are part of a nationwide review of child protection polices in all Catholic institutions in Ireland, North and South of the border. They involved the dioceses of Derry, Dromore (Down), Kilmore (Cavan), Ardagh Clonmacnoise (Longford, Leitrim, Offaly) as well as Tuam Archdiocese.

Elliot points out that while some dioceses come in for criticism for their handling of abuse allegations in the past, the reviews conclude that “lessons have been learned” and that at present most dioceses have implemented child protection guidelines and taken a pro-active approach to dealing with accusations. “We must give credit where credit is due”, he says, “but the Board is an independent body and therefore, where we find that bad practise has occurred we also highlight that, we must be totally honest, totally credible”.

IRELAND
Catholic News Service

By Michael Kelly
Catholic News Service

DUBLIN (CNS) -- Audits of six Irish Catholic dioceses reveal "a marked improvement" in how the church is handling clerical abuse allegations.

However, the reviews, carried out by the independent National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church and released Nov. 30, also show that, in the past, too much emphasis was put on the rights of accused priests and protecting the reputation of the church. Each review found evidence that insufficient attention was paid to the suffering of victims and the long-term consequences of abuse.

Ian Elliott, chief executive of the safeguarding children board, said the audits show that "reporting allegations to the statutory authorities (now) occurs promptly and comprehensively." He said that "represents a major development, as past practice did not always reflect this commitment."

He also said that "the need to create and maintain a safe environment for children in the church is comprehensively accepted and implemented."

KENTUCKY
WDRB

LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- A Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing young boys will go to trial on May 29th. A Jefferson County grand jury indicted Reverend James Schook this summer on seven counts of sodomy involving two teenage boys in 1971 and 1972.

Schook's accusers say they are frustrated it's taken almost three years to get a trail date. One, Michael Stansberry, when asked what it was like to see him in court, replied, "Nauseating. It takes everything I got to keep from hurting him because I was lied to."

IRELAND
BBC News

By Mark Simpson
BBC Ireland Correspondent

The latest reports into child sex abuse within the Catholic Church in Ireland confirm that the scandal did not stop at the Irish border.

Children in Northern Ireland were badly affected too. The full extent of their suffering will never be known.

In the Derry and Dromore dioceses, since 1975, there were allegations of abuse against a total of 33 priests. Nineteen of them are now dead.

The number of convictions for child abuse in these two dioceses? Zero.

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Nov. 30, 2011
By John L Allen Jr

Last year, veteran Italian journalist Massimo Franco published a book about what he sees as the Vatican’s declining international relevance. Its opening chapter was titled “The Last Ambassador,” and featured a diplomat from a major Western nation who compared his situation, representing his government to the Vatican today, to that of the final ambassadors to the soon-to-disappear Republic of Venice in 1797.

Franco quoted another diplomat at a Vatican reception looking around at his colleagues and openly wondering, “How many of us will still be here in 10 years?”

Whatever the answer, it will be at least one less. In early November, Ireland announced it was closing its embassy to the Vatican, while still maintaining diplomatic relations with the Holy See. (The announcement was made in tandem with closures of two other Irish embassies, in East Timor and Iran.)

Immediately, the move was seen against the backdrop of the massive sexual abuse crisis in Ireland. Some observers, however, wonder if it may turn out to be just the first closure in a broader cycle -- one that leaves formal diplomatic relations with the Vatican intact on paper, but the number of full-time representatives working on the relationship on a daily basis in steady decline.

IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

Michael Kelly

Audits into the handling of clerical abuse allegations in six of Ireland’s Catholic dioceses reveal “a marked improvement” in how the Church is dealing with allegations. However, the reviews, carried out by the independent National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) and released November 30 also show that in the past too much emphasis was put on the rights of accused priests and protecting the reputation of the Church.

According to Ian Elliott, Chief Executive of the NBSCCC (pictured) the audits show that “reporting allegations to the statutory authorities occurs promptly and comprehensively”. He said that “represents a major development as past practice did not always reflect this commitment”.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Cardinal Sean Brady made an undisclosed settlement today with the victim of notorious paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

Cardinal Brady, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, was sued by Brendan Boland, one of two teenagers he swore to secrecy in 1975 following his investigation into their allegations of abuse by Fr Smyth.

The 50-year-old from Co Louth launched the case against Cardinal Brady in his personal and official capacities, along with the diocese of Kilmore and Smyth’s Norbertine Order.

IRELAND
RTE News

A settlement has been agreed by Catholic Primate Cardinal Seán Brady and a man who was one of two teenagers he swore to secrecy about allegations of abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth.

Brendan Boland, 50, sued Cardinal Brady in his personal and official capacities, the diocese of Kilmore and Smyth's Norbertine Order.

The High Court was told this morning that the proceedings had been settled and could be struck out.

In a statement following today's proceedings, Mr Boland said he had been abused by Smyth between 1973 and 1975, starting when he was 12 years old.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Cardinal Sean Brady has made an undisclosed settlement with the victim of a notorious paedophile priest.

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland was sued by Brendan Boland, one of two teenagers he swore to secrecy in 1975 following his investigation into their allegations of abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth.

The 50-year-old from Co Louth launched the case against Cardinal Brady in his personal and official capacities, along with the diocese of Kilmore and Smyth's Norbertine Order.

IRELAND
BBC News

Dublin's High Court has heard that a legal action against Cardinal Sean Brady over his handling of sex abuse allegations by Fr Brendan Smyth has been settled.

Brendan Boland claims he was abused by Fr Smyth over a three year period.

The terms of the settlement have not been made public.

Mr Boland is one of two young people the cardinal, who as a priest in 1975, allegedly swore to secrecy.

IRELAND
Reuters

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has agreed to a legal settlement over his role in administering an oath of secrecy to a teenage victim of clerical sexual abuse in 1975, the victim’s lawyer said on Wednesday.

Cardinal Sean Brady has previously said he was ashamed that he had been present at meetings where children had to sign oaths of silence about allegations of abuse against Nobertine priest Brendan Smyth, one of Ireland’s most notorious paedophiles. Many victims have called on Brady to resign.

Smyth died in 1997, just one month into a 12-year sentence after pleading guilty to 74 charges of indecent and sexual abuse on boys and girls for more than 30 years, many after Brady oversaw the oath.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

The Diocesan Administrator of the Diocese of Derry said the shortcomings highlighted in a report into how it handled allegations of clerical sex abuse “disgraced” the Church.

Monsignor Eamon Martin made the remark following the publication of the Review of Safeguarding Practice in the Diocese of Derry carried out by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC).

The report found that the Diocese has dealt with allegations against 23 priests made since 1975 and that 33 allegations had been referred to social services on both sides of the border. It also found that no priest of the Derry Diocese has been convicted of child abuse.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

The Derry Diocese has dealt with 23 allegations of sex abuse against priests since 1975, a report into child protection has confirmed.

The review into child protection practices - conducted by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church - further reveals a total of 31 allegations had been reported to police in either Northern Ireland or the Republic.

The review also states a total of 33 allegations had been made to social services, while four priests against whom allegations were made are now “out of ministry”.

Seven of the priests against whom allegations were made are still living - 16 have since died.

IRELAND
Midlands 103

Bishop Colm O'Reilly is being commended for his commitment to protecting children.

It follows an investigation into safeguarding practices in Ardagh and Clonmacnoise from 1975 to 2010.

Today's report, released by the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church, states its appreciation of the "openness" shown by Bishop O'Reilly.

It said the case files examined were "well recorded" and "comprehensive in their content".

IRELAND
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 November 2011

One of Ireland's leading Catholic bishops admitted on Wednesday that "poor judgments" had been made on how paedophile priests were dealt with.

Responding to a damning report into clerical child sex abuse in the diocese of Raphoe, County Donegal, Phillip Boyce said it had highlighted a "significant level" of paedophile crimes over the past decades.

A separate report for the Derry diocese in Northern Ireland said it had dealt with 23 allegations of sex abuse against priests. Six reports are due out on Wednesday on the extent of clerical abuse in dioceses in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The Raphoe report pointed to "significant errors of judgment" by "successive bishops". The report concluded that "judgments were clouded, due to the presenting problem being, for example, alcohol abuse and an inability to hear the concerns about abuse of children".

ST. PAUL (MN)
Minnesota Public Radio

by Tim Nelson, Minnesota Public Radio
November 30, 2011

St. Paul, Minn. — A St. Paul attorney known for winning sex abuse cases against the Catholic Church said he's filing the first civil case in the Penn State scandal.

Jeffrey Anderson said he's filing the case in Philadelphia Tuesday on behalf of a young man who he said was abused by Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, starting when the alleged victim was 10 years old.

"There has been a grand jury investigation, upon which we've relied heavily," Anderson said. "We have brought the information we've assembled to law enforcement."

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Vatican officials offered strong encouragement, precise questions and occasional challenges to bishops from New York state during their November "ad limina" visits, said Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York.

Their talks included free and informative exchanges on sex abuse, parish closings, the state of Catholic schools and seminaries, and reception of the new translation of the Roman Missal, Archbishop Dolan said in an interview with Catholic News Service Nov. 28.

Pope Benedict XVI, too, gave the group ample time, listening carefully and asking many questions. All this exceeded the bishops' expectations and helped make the visit a "very positive, good experience," the archbishop said.

He said one specific piece of news the group took away from the weeklong visit was that the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy is preparing a document that it hopes will offer "crisper and cleaner and more consistent" guidelines on parish closings and mergers, both for the bishops and for the faithful who sometimes appeal a bishop's decision.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Steven McCaffery

Wednesday November 30 2011

A REPORT into child abuse in the Dromore Diocese of the Catholic Church has found 35 allegations were levelled against 10 priests dating back to 1975.

The report also revealed no convictions have been made, but the cases have been reported to the police and social services.

Bishop John McAreavey addressed Mass-goers at Newry Cathedral where he expressed his sorrow over the mistreatment of children and the Catholic Church's handling of the cases.

The report by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church said three of the priests had died.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

The Diocese of Derry now has “very clear procedures” for the management of allegations against priests in the diocese, the National Board for Safeguarding Children said in its review.

The reviewers noted “significant improvement” in the management of allegations since the last review of practice in 2009.

The new procedures were set out in a November 2010 diocesan policy and procedures document.

"The guidance provided is comprehensive and appropriate and can be easily followed," the review said.

IRELAND
Inside Ireland

By Laura McGuigan

Cardinal Sean Brady today made an undisclosed settlement with the victim of notorious paedophile priest, Father Brendan Smyth.

Cardinal Brady, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, was sued by Brendan Boland, one of two teenagers he swore to secrecy in 1975, following his investigation into their allegations of abuse by Fr Smyth.

The 50-year-old from Co Louth launched the case against Cardinal Brady in his personal and official capacities, along with the diocese of Kilmore and Smyth’s Norbertine Order.

The settlement was agreed shortly before a date for hearing was due to be fixed at the High Court in Dublin.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Barney Zwartz, Leesha Mckenny
December 1, 2011

A LEADING Catholic priest has criticised Cardinal George Pell for reserving a "grand apartment" for himself at the Australian church's new guest house in Rome, saying "the ethics of our secular state are higher than those of our church".

Father Eric Hodgens, of Melbourne, an elder statesman among the clergy, also savaged Australia's Catholic bishops for what he regards as an abject performance during their five-yearly visit to Rome last month, particularly in failing to stand up for Bill Morris, sacked earlier this year as bishop of Toowoomba.

"They eat their own when fingered by Rome," Father Hodgens wrote of the bishops in The Swag, the national journal of Catholic priests. "How can you trust them?

IRELAND
RTE News

Audits of child protection practices - conducted by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church - have been published by six dioceses.

Much attention is focused on the diocese of Raphoe, where the board found that there were serious delays in reporting concerns to the civil authorities over a 36-year period.

The report on the Diocese of Derry said allegations were not robustly challenged or adequately managed and problems were often handled by moving priests to postings elsewhere.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

In the Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, just one priest (not pictured) has been convicted of clerical sex abuse over the last 35 years, auditors revealed today.

The review, which examined records across Longford and parishes in surrounding counties from 1975, found:

* Allegations were made against 13 clerics;

* 14 cases were reported to gardaí, with one suspect never made known to diocesan officials, and nine were referred to the local health board;

IRELAND
The Journal

A report into child sex abuse allegations against Catholic priests in Donegal has found there were “significant” errors made by bishops in the diocese in dealing with the accusations.

The current bishop of the diocese of Raphoe said that there had been “very poor judgements and mistakes made” and described the abuse committed against children as “horrific”.

The report into how allegations were dealt with in the diocese of Raphoe, which covers most of Donegal, looked at 52 allegations against 14 separate priests since 1975.

All of the priests are still alive. Eight have left the priesthood or are no longer serving in a ministry. Four of them have been convicted of offenses against children or young people.

IRELAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on November 30, 2011

No! Bishops did NOT make judgment errors in clergy child sexual abuse and cover up cases. These are smart, well-educated men surrounded by bevies of smart, well-educated advisors. They repeatedly made self-serving, callous decisions, not judgment errors.

That’s the problem when Catholic appointees allegedly investigate Catholic bishops – self-serving choices are depicted as well-intentioned “mistakes” and people are left with the impression that deliberate cover ups are simple mistakes. The results are inevitably skewed in favor of the church hierarchy and the truth is severely compromised.

Kids will not be safer in the church if we can’t even accurately describe what’s going on.

Consider this simple, telling fact: “As recently as 2009 a priest was appointed to a protection body in the Diocese of Raphoe by Bishop Philip Boyce even though he was uncomfortable examining lifelong friends and had no formal child protection training.” Was that an accident? Of course not. Bishop Boyce deliberately picked a man he knew was incompetent and incapable for this crucial role. And that was just two years ago.

IRELAND
International Business Times

By Ewan Palmer | November 30, 2011

The Catholic Bishop of Raphoe has admitted that "horrific acts of child abuse" occurred in the diocese and that "very poor judgements and mistakes" have been made.

Bishop Phillip Boyce gave the statement as a review into how child protection measures have changed since 1975 in six Catholic dioceses were released on Wednesday.

The audit was was conducted by National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC).

The report of events in the Diocese of Raphoe in County Donegal has been much anticipated following allegations that priests sexually abused children over a 36-year-period.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Priests suspected of child sex abuse over more than three decades were not robustly challenged or properly managed, the watchdog's report into the Derry diocese said.

Problems were often handled by moving them to postings elsewhere where abusive behaviour continued, the 24-page document said.

There was a delay in referring sex abuse allegations against priests in Derry to the authorities by those advising the bishop.

The report said: "Priests about whom there were clear concerns were not robustly challenged or adequately managed and problems were often handled by moving them to postings elsewhere.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Despite seven allegations of abuse against priests in the Diocese of Kilmore, an audit has found child protection measures are a model of best practice within the Church.

The review, which examined records from 1975 in Cavan and parishes in surrounding counties, found:

* All seven allegations were reported to gardaí and health board officials, but three of the clergy had died.

* Two of those still living were out of ministry or left the priesthood.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Civil Lawsuit in Penn State Sex Scandal to be Announced at Philadelphia News Conference Today

What: At a news conference today at the Omni Hotel at Independence Park in Philadelphia, Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marci Hamilton will announce a civil lawsuit to be filed on behalf of a man identified in the complaint as John Doe and whose abuse was not disclosed in the Grand Jury report. The man claims that as a child he was repeatedly sexually abused by Jerry Sandusky. A statement from the victim will be read at the news conference. The complaint, to be filed Wednesday in Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, names Penn State University, The Second Mile and Gerald Sandusky as defendants.

WHEN: Wednesday, November 30, 2011
11 A.M. EST

WHERE: Omni Hotel Independence Park
Private Dining Room/R level
401 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA

BELGIE
Zita

De Brusselse Kamer van Inbeschuldigingstelling (KI) verklaart de huiszoekingen en inbeslagnames bij kardinaal Danneels en in het aartsbisschoppelijk paleis in Mechelen nietig. Alle inbeslaggenomen documenten moeten worden teruggegeven. Reden: onderzoeksrechter Wim De Troy ging zijn boekje te buiten.

Voor zijn huiszoekingen op 24 juni 2010 steunde onderzoeksrechter De Troy zich op twee processen-verbaal. Het ging om twee verhoren van rechter Godelieve Halsberghe. Zij had gehoord dat er geheime documenten over seksueel misbruik binnen de Kerk verborgen waren in de Sint-Romboutskathedraal in Mechelen. Ze had echter niets gezegd over de privéwoning van kardinaal Danneels en ook niets over het aartsbisschoppelijk paleis.

UNITED STATES
The Philly Post

Paul Davies

With all due respect, Pope Benedict XVI either lives in an alternate reality or needs better PR handlers. His comments over the weekend to U.S. bishops about the sex abuse of children showed a continued disconnect with the church’s mishandling of this ongoing scandal. The pope referenced the church’s “conscientious effort” to confront sex abuse by priests.

Uh? Perhaps the pope meant to say conscientious cover-up.

No institution has done more to deny and downplay the sexual abuse of young boys than the Catholic Church. No institution has done more to discredit victims and protect pedophile priests than the Catholic Church. And no institution has done more to avoid accountability for decisions made at the highest levels to cover up decades of sexual abuse of boys by scores of priests.

After decades of denial, it is really stunning for the pope to talk about the church’s “conscientious effort” to confront this scandal. At best, there have been some half steps brought on mainly by legal actions. If anything, the church has orchestrated a conscientious effort to minimize the scandal and hide behind any legal statute of limitations. But most everyone—including many Catholics like myself—is still waiting for church leaders to root out all the problem priests and hold others accountable for the cover-up.

FRANCE
France Soir

« Une défaillance de la hiérarchie des Béatitudes. Quand mon client s'est dénoncé, il a été envoyé d'une maison à l'autre. Il y a eu des appels au secours de sa part mais ils n'ont pas été entendus. On ne peut donc pas ignorer la responsabilité des modérateurs des Béatitudes » attaque Me Rudelle-Vimini, avocat de Frère Pierre-Étienne Albert devant le tribunal correctionnel de Rodez, ce mercredi. C'est ainsi qu'elle entend défendre son client. Pour elle, de nombreux actes auraient pu être évité. La défense tentera, également de ramener les faits à des actes déplacés. Les faits, le frère Pierre-Étienne Albert les a reconnu. Il s'agit d'attouchements sur une cinquantaine d'enfants.

FRANCE
France Soir

« Seulement » neuf personnes se sont constituées parties civiles pour ce procès qui va s'ouvrir devant le tribunal correctionnel de Rodez. Ces présumées victimes désignent toutes un seul homme : Pierre-Étienne Albert, aujourd'hui'hui âgé de 60 ans, un religieux de l'importante communauté catholique des Béatitudes. Elles l'accusent d'attouchements sexuels. Mais le religieux aurait fait plus d'une cinquantaine de victimes, comme il l'a reconnu, au moment ou il a été démasqué. Les abus sexuels auraient duré de 1985 à 2000 sur des enfants (garçons ou filles) âgés de 5 à 14 ans.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Monica Yant Kinney, Inquirer Columnist

An extraordinary legal drama is the talk of the town this week, but unlike most of what transpires in the American criminal justice system, this exclusive engagement was just for VIPs.

Behind closed doors at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary on the Main Line, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua was deposed and cross-examined on video in the privacy of his own home. Since when are criminal witnesses given such deference?

A handful of prosecutors, defense attorneys, and defendants attended the two-day legal proceeding. At least I think they did. No one associated with the child-rape and cover-up case can discuss it without risking being held in contempt.

The gag order rivals the church's chilling culture of secrecy. Yesterday, the judge even refused to confirm that the hearing had ended.

BELGIE
HLN

SNAP Belgium is teleurgesteld over de beslissing van de Brusselse kamer van inbeschuldigingstelling om de huiszoekingen in het aartsbisschoppelijk paleis en in de privéwoning en het kantoor van kardinaal Danneels, op 24 juni 2010, nietig te verklaren. Dat laat de organisatie van slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door geestelijken weten. Volgens de organisatie waren de huiszoekingen wel gerechtvaardigd.

BELGIE
HLN

Meesters Christine Mussche en Walter Van Steenbrugge, die een aantal slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door geestelijken vertegenwoordigen, overwegen in cassatie te gaan tegen het arrest dat de Brusselse kamer van inbeschuldigingstelling vandaag heeft uitgesproken. Die verklaarde de huiszoekingen nietig die onderzoeksrechter De Troy op 24 juni 2010 liet uitvoeren in het aartsbisschoppelijk paleis en de privéwoning en het kantoor van kardinaal Danneels in Mechelen.

NEDERLAND
NOS

Door verslaggever Pauline Broekema

De Rooms-Katholieke Kerk in Nederland wist eind jaren 50 al van grootschalig misbruik op katholieke internaten van de kinderbescherming.

De internaat-directies werden door het overkoepelend bestuur gevraagd alert te zijn op de achtergrond van jeugdwerkers. "Het inwinnen van grondige informaties is niet alleen gewenst, maar beslist dringend noodzakelijk", schreef pater Denis, voorzitter van de Katholieke Kinderbescherming aan de instellingen.

IERLAND
Kerknieuws (Nederland)

WO 30 nov 2011 | 11.06
De Kinderbescherming van de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk in Ierland presenteert vandaag onderzoeksrapporten naar seksueel misbruik door priesters in zes verschillende Ierse bisdommen. Naar verwachting wordt opnieuw een beerput open gedaan.

In de afgelopen jaren toonden verschillende onderzoeksrapporten aan dat seksueel misbruik op grote schaal plaatsvond in de Ierse kerk en dat kerkelijke autoriteiten in veel gevallen de misstanden in de doofpot stopten.

DEUTSCHLAND
Deutschlandfunk

Der Runde Tisch gegen sexuellen Kindesmissbrauch beendet seine Arbeit

Von Claudia van Laak

Als im vergangenen Jahr zahlreiche Missbrauchsfälle an verschiedenen Schulen ans Tageslicht kamen, reagierte die Bundesregierung mit der Einrichtung eines Runden Tisches. Vorderste Aufgabe: eine bessere Prävention schaffen und die Fälle aufarbeiten. Nun wird die Arbeit eingestellt.

DEUTSCHLAND
Deutschlandfund

Opferschutzverband kritisiert Abschlussbericht zu Kindesmissbrauch

Ursula Enders im Gespräch mit Anne Raith

Zu wenige Fachleute - zu viele politische Verpflichtungen: So beurteilt Ursula Enders von der Kölner Opferschutzstelle "Zartbitter" die Besetzung des Runden Tisches "Sexueller Kindesmissbrauch", der jetzt seinen Abschlussbericht vorgelegt hat. Dementsprechend mager sei das Ergebnis.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A further dozen men have alleged they were abused by a former Sydney school chaplain who was recently defrocked by the Pope.

John Sidney Denham will not be eligible for parole until he is 80 after he admitted last year that he abused 39 boys, mainly in Newcastle in the 1970s and '80s.

The latest claims bring the total number of alleged victims to 51 and mean Denham is facing an additional 40 charges.

The former Catholic priest had also spent time working at the exclusive Sydney boys school Waverley College as well as on the mid-north coast.

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Josh White, Published: November 29

Jerry Sandusky was an icon. He was fun, motivating, successful, trustworthy. He was a coach, a mentor, a family man, a churchgoer and a dedicated philanthropist who split his life between two pursuits: Penn State football and helping disadvantaged kids.

Now, Sandusky is alleged to have repeatedly courted, groomed and abused young boys for at least

But police, prosecutors and sex crime experts say that Sandusky’s alleged abuse is illustrative of sex predation across the country. It is an extremely high-profile version of what police departments and social services offices see regularly: A man in a position of trust is accused of abusing those who are most vulnerable.

IRELAND
Irish Central

By
CATHAL DERVAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

A young Irish woman is suing the Mormon Church for damages after she was abused when still a minor by one of its elders who has since fled to America.

The woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, has brought High Court proceedings in Dublin against the Church and her alleged abuser.

The Irish Times reports that the woman was still below the legal age for consensual sex when she was repeatedly abused by the Church elder who served as a missionary in Ireland for the Irish Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints Ltd.

IRELAND
The Associated Press

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press

DUBLIN (AP) — Six Catholic dioceses in Ireland that shielded child-molesting priests from the law in the past have adopted policies that effectively protect children from sexual abuse today, the Irish church's own investigatory arm reported Wednesday.

The findings of the church's National Board for Safeguarding Children represented the start of a project to test whether the Irish church — long responsible for harboring pedophiles in the priesthood — is protecting children from sex predators today.

Bishops in the six dioceses welcomed the findings and expressed remorse for past concealment of crimes.

"We are truly sorry for the terrible deeds that have been inflicted on so many by a small minority of priests," said Bishop Philip Boyce of the northwest diocese of Raphoe. He conceded that he and other bishops had placed the needs of victims below "the misguided attempt to protect the reputation of the church."

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

The Bishop of Raphoe has admitted that horrific acts of abuse of children by individual priests happened in the diocese.

"During the past decades there have been very poor judgments and mistakes made," said Bishop Philip Boyce in a statement released this morning.

"There were horrific acts of abuse of children by individual priests, that should never have happened, and if suspected should have been dealt with immediately in the appropriate manner."

He also admitted insufficient emphasis was placed on the needs of victims, often in the "misguided attempt" to protect the reputation of the Church.

IRELAND
Donegal Democrat

It is clear that significant errors of judgement were made by successive bishops when responding to child abuse allegations that emerged within the Diocese of Raphoe, a review of safeguarding practices undertaken by the NBSCCC (National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church) has acknowledged.

The 23-page report, which was released this morning, also acknowledged that the Diocese of Raphoe experienced a significant level of clerical abuse cases reported in the past two decades.

“Amongst these one particular case stands out. This involved a serial paedophile priest who was the subject of a book and also of a great deal of media attention. This priest, Fr. Eugene Greene, was charged and convicted of a number of serious offences against children.

The report goes on: “Too much emphasis was placed on the situation of the accused priest and too little on the needs of their complainants. Judgements were clouded, due to the presenting problem being for example, alcohol abuse and an inability to hear the concerns about abuse of children, through that presenting problem.

IRELAND
Donegal Democrat

A former Garda Detective has called the Raphoe Report “a whitewash and an insult to victims”.

The Report, released today, found that there were 52 complaints made against 14 priests between 1975 and 2010.

Martin Ridge investigated and brought to justice Fr Eugene Greene, a native of Annagry, who was jailed for 12 years in 2000 after pleading guilty to 41 charges of sexual assault against 26 boys in west Donegal parishes between 1965 and 1982. He had originally faces 100 charges.

Martin Ridge, who wrote a best-selling book about the case, called Breaking the Silence, today reacted to the report and Bishop Boyce’s statement.

“I think this is basically a total whitewash and I think it is a total insult to the victims and survivors and their parents because what we witnessed in west Donegal was just carnage that you wouldn’t ascribe to any civilised society.

IRELAND
Donegal Democrat

The Bishop of Raphoe, Dr Philip Boyce, said this morning that neither he nor his predecessor Bishop Séamus Hegarty knew of any letters alleging that Fr Eugene Greene sexually abused boys until Fr Greene’s trial in 1998.

Speaking on Highland Radio’s Shaun Doherty show ahead of a press conference this morning, Bishop Boyce said:

“I went through all the files and found no allegations against Fr Eugene Greene. I spoke to my predecessor, Bishop Hegarty and he assured me that the same thing was true in his case.

“At the time of the trial in 1998, a father of one of the boys said that he had written to the parish priest in the late ‘70s but this was the first time we had heard of the letter and we could find no trace of it.”

IRELAND
Donegal Democrat

Bishop Philip Boyce released a statement this morning on the Review by the independent National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church on the subject of child sexual abuse by members of the clergy in the diocese.

The review examined all case files from 1975 to 2010 to determine how allegations and concerns were dealt with, interview key persons involved in child safeguarding, judge how cases are currently assessed, how the statutory authorities are notified and thus determine if there are any current risks to children.

Bishop Boyce said: “I fully accept the recommendations contained in the Review and I am committed to implementing them. Indeed many have already been acted upon.”

He acknowledged that in the past, “During the past decades there have been very poor judgments and mistakes made.”

IRELAND
BBC News

The Catholic bishop of Raphoe has apologised for "poor judgements" in managing priests accused of "horrific acts of abuse" against children.

Bishop Philip Boyce was speaking as a review of the County Donegal diocese found "a significant level" of clerical abuse cases in past decades.

The case of Father Eugene Greene, the convicted paedophile, stood out.

The review is one of six, including two from Northern Ireland dioceses, being published on Wednesday.

WISCONSIN
Madison.com

ED TRELEVEN | etreleven@madison.com | 608-252-6134

Did a Madison priest fondle a teenage girl in her home in 2004, or are false memories brought on by years of mental health problems to blame for the accusation?

That's what a Dane County jury will sort out this week as it hears testimony in the case of the Rev. Joseph Gibbs Clauder, 65, who is charged with sexual assault of a child under the age of 16.

The young woman, who was 14 at the time and is now 22, testified Tuesday about three alleged incidents involving Clauder, whom she has known since birth. The incident for which Clauder was charged allegedly happened in April or May 2004 when Clauder came to her home in Monona while she was alone, got her to her bedroom under the pretense of a tour of her parents' home and fondled her pubic area over her clothing.

IRELAND
BBC News

The report into historical sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raphoe is the latest review conducted by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church. This board was set up because of various child abuse scandals and is now reviewing every diocese in the country, examining what was done wrong in the past. BBC News Online takes a look at other significant reports and their findings.

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

The Bishop of Raphoe Philip Boyce last night defended his decision to promote a priest convicted of voyeurism, writes Greg Harkin.

Fr Patrick McGarvey was appointed parish priest of Fanad, Co Donegal last month.

The elevation took place at a special Mass at St Mary's in Fanavolty last
month.

Fr McGarvey was caught by undercover police at the Foyleside shopping centre in Derry in August 2004 watching people go to the public toilets there.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Three bishops made significant errors of judgment when allegations of child sexual abuse were made against priests, a Catholic Church watchdog has found.

As recently as 2009 a priest was appointed to a protection body in the Co Donegal Diocese of Raphoe by Bishop Philip Boyce even though he was uncomfortable examining lifelong friends.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) found the priest lacked confidence, was emotionally challenged by the job and had no formal child protection training.

A lay person has since been appointed to the role.

IRELAND
UTV

A report into the safeguarding of children in the Roman Catholic diocese of Raphoe has revealed 52 allegations of clerical abuse were reported to Gardaí between 1975 and 2010.

The document is one of six published on Wednesday, looking at how child protection measures have changed since 1975 and setting out what is currently being done to safeguard young people in the dioceses.

The allegations were made against 14 priests in Raphoe, eight of whom have since left the priesthood or are 'out of ministry'.

The document, published by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCC), stated "it was clear that the guidelines are not referenced on a regular basis when handling complaints".

UNITED STATES
The Loyola Phoenix

by Yara Shams yshams@luc.edu

Members of a support group for victims of clergy misconduct rallied at Loyola's Lake Shore Campus following the recent arrest of a Jesuit priest in Chicago who allegedly sexually abused a child.

The support group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), suspected that the Rev. Richard James Kurtz was living at the Lake Shore Campus at the time of his Nov. 21 arrest by the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force. Kurtz is being charged with two felonies for a decade-old incidence of alleged misconduct: sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, and attempted sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, authorities said.

SNAP had seen Kurtz's residence listed as being near the Loyola community, said the organization's president Barbara Blaine, one of the four SNAP members who passed out fliers at Loyola's entrance on N. Sheridan Road.

IRELAND/NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Three bishops made significant errors of judgment when allegations of child sexual abuse were made against priests, a Catholic Church watchdog has found.

As recently as 2009 a priest was appointed to a protection body in the Diocese of Raphoe by Bishop Philip Boyce even though he was uncomfortable examining lifelong friends.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) found the priest lacked confidence, was emotionally challenged by the job and had no formal child protection training. A lay person has since been appointed to the role.

The NBSCCC audit singled out Bishop Boyce, his predecessor Seamus Hegarty, who retired as Bishop of Derry earlier this month due to ill-health, and his predecessor, Bishop Anthony McFeely for mishandling complaints against clergy since the 1970s.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

A settlement has been agreed by Cardinal Seán Brady with a Co Louth man who was one of two teenagers he swore to secrecy in 1975 following his investigation into their allegations of abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth.

Brendan Boland (50) sued Cardinal Brady, the diocese of Kilmore and Smyth’s Norbertine Order.

The settlement was concluded in the High Court this morning.

Commenting after the settlement was announced, Mr Boland revealed that guilt plagued him when he heard Smyth, now dead, had continued to abuse children for years after he made a statement to three priests, including a then Fr Brady.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

LUKE CASSIDY

A report into the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in the Diocese of Dromore said 35 allegations were made against 10 priests from January 1st 1975 to date.

While no convictions were made all the allegations were reported to the police and social services, the review by the National Board for Safeguarding Children said.

Three of the priests have since died and the remaining seven are “out of ministry” or have left the priesthood. However, it added that three of these exercise a “limited ministry under tightly controlled and restricted conditions and never to children or young people”.

IRELAND
Roman Catholic Diocese of Raphoe

[statement from Bishop Boyce]

Background

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) was asked by the Sponsoring Bodies, namely the Episcopal Conference, the Conference of Religious of Ireland, and the Irish Missionary Union, to undertake a comprehensive review of safeguarding practice within and across all the Church authorities on the island of Ireland. The purpose of the review was to confirm that current safeguarding practice complied with the standards set down within the guidance issued by the Sponsoring Bodies in February 2009 and that all known allegations and concerns had been appropriately dealt with. To achieve this task, safeguarding practice in each Church authority was to be reviewed through an examination of case records and through interviews with key personnel involved both within and external to the diocese. The findings of the review will be shared with a reference group before being submitted to the diocese along with any recommendations arising from the findings. This report contains the findings of the Review of Safeguarding Practice within the Diocese of Raphoe undertaken by the NBSCCC in line with the request made to it by the Sponsoring Bodies. It is based upon the case material made available to the reviewers by the diocese. NBSCCC do not have powers of compellability and therefore sharing of data has been done on the basis of consent. The NBSCCC believes that all relevant documentation for the cases in the diocese of Raphoe was passed to the reviewers. This has been confirmed by the diocese.

IRELAND
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tuam

Statement of Archbishop Michael Neary to accompany the Launch of the Audit of the National Board on Child Safeguarding

Wednesday November 30th, 2011

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church has reported on the Audit which it conducted in the Archdiocese of Tuam. The Report is being published today.

The report illustrates that strong procedures have been put in place to ensure that children are safe and cherished here in the Archdiocese of Tuam.

I warmly welcome the Report of Ian Elliott, the CEO of the National Board, and am very happy that he has adjudicated so positively on the way things are being addressed in our Archdiocese. This is an enormous tribute to all working in this area. It is very encouraging to see that their work has been recognised, affirmed and appreciated in the Report. They convened and worked long hours to address the problems of sexual abuse in a fair and transparent manner. I want to thank all who were involved in this important work for the way in which they have given so generously of their time and expertise. Each parish now has a trained Child Safeguarding Representative.

I am grateful to Ian Elliott, the members of the National Office and the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church for their guidance, availability and on-going support.

IRELAND
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tuam

Background

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) was asked by the Sponsoring Bodies, namely the Episcopal Conference, the Conference of Religious of Ireland and the Irish Missionary Union, to undertake a comprehensive review of safeguarding practice within and across all the Church authorities on the island of Ireland. The purpose of the review is to confirm that current safeguarding practice complies with the Standards set down within the guidance issued by the Sponsoring Bodies in February 2009, and that all known allegations and concerns had been appropriately dealt with. To achieve this task, safeguarding practice in each Church authority is to be reviewed through an examination of case records and through interviews with key personnel involved both within and external to the archdiocese or other authority.

This report contains the findings of the Review of Safeguarding Practice within the Archdiocese of Tuam undertaken by the NBSCCC in line with the request made to it by the Sponsoring Bodies. It is based upon the case material made available to us by the archdiocese along with interviews with selected key personnel who contribute to safeguarding within the archdiocese. The NBSCCC believes that all relevant documentation for these cases was passed to the Reviewers, and the archdiocese has confirmed this.

IRELAND
Roman Catholic Diocese of Kilmore

30 November 2011

Leo O’Reilly
Bishop of Kilmore

I welcome the publication of the Review of Safeguarding Practice in the Diocese of Kilmore. In June 2010 I invited the National Board to undertake this Review and I committed myself to publishing its findings.

The review was carried out in November 2010 by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church. It reports on the work undertaken in the diocese to make it a safer place for children. It also reviews the management of allegations against priests in the diocese and provides a statistical summary of these.

The statistical data in the Review cover a period of seven decades, from the 1940s until 2010. During that period there were allegations of abuse against seven priests of the diocese of Kilmore. One priest was convicted in the courts of abuse of a minor and is currently serving a sentence.

Each allegation represents a person who has suffered and my thoughts today are very much with the survivors of abuse. I am aware that the publication of this and other Reviews of Child Safeguarding today may reopen painful wounds of those who have suffered abuse at the hands of priests. I once again apologise to them and express my anger and deep sadness that they experienced this betrayal by those who should have brought them Christ’s love and compassion

IRELAND
Roman Catholic Diocese of Kilmore

Background

This report examines current practice with regard to the safeguarding of children in the Diocese of Kilmore. It is based on the examination of all existing case files, supporting documentation supplied by the bishop, guidance and policy documents produced by the diocese itself and a series of interviews with diocesan safeguarding staff, including Bishop O’Reilly himself.

The overall view of current practice is that it is of a consistently high standard. In many respects, the Diocese of Kilmore may be viewed as a model of best practice within the Church in this critical area. To a significant extent, this is seen as a consequence of the personal commitment and diligence of Bishop O’Reilly who demonstrated a willingness to lead others and to address safeguarding concerns when they arose. For this he should be commended.

IRELAND/NORTHERN IRELAND
Roman Catholic Diocese of Derry

[Safeguarding Children Contact Details for Relevant Agencies and Services]

Background

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) was asked by the Sponsoring Bodies, namely the Episcopal Conference, the Conference of Religious of Ireland and the Irish Missionary Union, to undertake a comprehensive review of safeguarding practice within and across all the Church authorities on the island of Ireland. The purpose of the review1 is to confirm that current safeguarding practice complies with the standards set down within the guidance issued by the Sponsoring Bodies in February 2009 and that all known allegations and concerns had been appropriately dealt with. To achieve this task safeguarding practice in each Church authority is to be reviewed through an examination of case records and through interviews with key personnel involved both within and external to the diocese or other authority.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

ELAINE EDWARDS

There were 13 priests incardinated in the Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois against whom an allegation was made since January 1st 1975 and up to the date of the review by the National Board for Safeguarding Children.

Fourteen allegations were reported to An Garda Síochána in that timeframe. Nine were reported to the HSE or health boards.

Just one priest against whom an allegation had been made was still alive at the time of the review; 12 had died.

One priest against whom an allegation had been made had since left the priesthood. One priest in the diocese had been convicted of an offence.

IRELAND
Roman Catholic Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois

[Safeguarding PracticeReport - Statement by Bishop Colm O'Reilly - PDF.]

[Review of Safeguarding Practice in the Diocese of Ardagh & Clonmacnois - PDF.]

[Diocesan Response to Recommendations - PDF.]

The Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois is one of the six dioceses which had its Child Safeguarding procedures reviewed by the National Board for Safeguarding Children. All six dioceses concerned sought to have the Review carried out. I am very pleased that the process has now been completed and I commend the work of Mr Ian Elliot and the National Office for the diligence and professionalism with which they carried out their work. I assure the people of this Diocese and all others who will read the Review on our website (www. ardaghdiocese.com) that all the information on how our Diocese has dealt with this difficult matter has been made available for this review.

One cannot but be conscious at this time of the fact that people who suffered because of wrong doing by Church personnel will be affected by having to think again about an experience which pained them deeply. It is my hope that this pain will be lessened by the knowledge that their lives can move into a new phase when some at least of the past can be left behind. I want to express my sorrow at how they have been made to suffer and I want to welcome any contact which any person who is feeling distressed at this time would make with me or with the Diocesan Delegate for Safeguarding of Children.

I want to avail of the opportunity of this time to express my heartfelt thanks to our Diocesan Child Safeguarding Committee, to the priests and lay people who have given much dedicated service to furthering its work. To each and every child safeguarding representative in our parishes I express my sincerest thanks for their commitment to keeping children safe. In the parishes priests and lay people share the burden of caring for children. That unity of purpose is a great source of strength for the Church and for society in fulfilling the responsibility we all have for caring for children.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

LUKE CASSIDY

A review into the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in the Diocese of Tuam has praised the current Archbishop Michael Neary for his actions.

The report said serious harm was done to children by a few priests of the archdiocese but Dr Neary met allegations “with a steadily serious approach, taking appropriate action under existing guidelines, and rapidly assimilating the lesson of the necessity for the removal of the priest, where there is a credible allegation, pending investigation.”

It said prior to Dr Neary’s tenure, “there were on occasions delay in taking such action.”

The report said it is clear from the “excellent records” that a genuine effort was made to gather evidence from victims and their families during the Church inquiry stage and such “thoroughness is to be commended”.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

HSE Counselling Service (Letterkenny)
Freephone: 1800 303529
Open from 8am to midnight today, Thursday and Friday.

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre
Freephone: 1800 778888
24-hour helpline
drcc.ie

One in Four
Telephone: 01 6624070
oneinfour.org

Samaritans
Callsave: 1850 609090
24-hour helpline
dublinsamaritans.ie

Connect, the National Adults Counselling Service
Freephone: 1800 477 477 (Republic of Ireland) 00800 477 477 77 (Northern Ireland or UK)
Connect is an out of hours service available Wednesday to Sunday, from 6-10pm
connectcounselling.ie

Dublin Diocese Child Protection Service
Telephone: 01 8360314
cps.dublindiocese.ie

National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland
Telephone: 01 505 3124
safeguarding.ie

Towards Healing
Counselling and psychotherapy referral service by people working for the Catholic Church. From today the service will open on an extended basis as follows:
From 11am-11pm today, tomorrow and Friday and from 11am-8pm on Saturday and Sunday the 3rd and 4th of December.
Freephone: 1800 303416 (Rep of Ireland) and 0800 0963315 (Northern Ireland and UK).
towardshealing.ie/site/

Cork Sexual Violence Centre ( formerly Cork Rape Crisis Centre)
Freephone: 1800 496496 from 9am to 5pm daily
sexualviolence.ie

IRELAND
The Irish Times

One of the most notorious priest abusers to come to public attention in Ireland was Fr Eugene Greene of Raphoe diocese.

He was jailed for 12 years at Donegal Circuit Court in 2000 when he pleaded guilty to 41 sample charges of sexual assault against 26 children in Donegal parishes between 1965 and 1982.

He had been charged on over 100 counts. The trial heard that many of his victims were altar boys, who suffered repeated assault and buggery. Sentencing him, Judge Matthew Deery noted some of his victims had turned to drink to try to erase the pain of their childhood abuse which he described as “horrific”.

In 2001 Greene sought a reduction in his sentence at the Court of Criminal Appeal on grounds of advanced age and a drink problem; the appeal was dismissed. He was released in 2008 after serving nine years.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

A number of reviews into the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations have found that dioceses failed to respond adequately to the accusations.

Six reports were published this morning as part of an all-island review of child protection policies in all Catholic institions on the island of Ireland.

The reviews, which were carried out by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, covered Derry diocese, Dromore (Down), Kilmore (Cavan), Ardagh Clonmacnoise (Longford, Leitrim, Offaly) dioceses as well as Tuam archdiocese.

The Diocese of Raphoe in Co Donegal comes in for particular criticism with the review concluding that "significant errors of judgment" were made by successive bishops in responding to the accusations.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Ed Carty, Brian Hutton and Sarah Stack

Wednesday November 30 2011

THREE bishops made significant errors of judgment when allegations of child sexual abuse were made against priests, a Catholic Church watchdog has found.

As recently as 2009 a priest was appointed to a protection body in the Diocese of Raphoe by Bishop Philip Boyce even though he was uncomfortable examining lifelong friends.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) found the priest lacked confidence, was emotionally challenged by the job and had no formal child protection training.

A lay person has since been appointed to the role.

The NBSCCC audit singled out Bishop Boyce, his predecessor Seamus Hegarty, who retired as Bishop of Derry earlier this month due to ill-health, and his predecessor, Bishop Anthony McFeely for mishandling complaints against clergy since the 1970s.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

CHARLIE TAYLOR

A review into the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in the Diocese of Raphoe has concluded that "significant errors of judgment" were made by successive bishops in responding to the accusations.

Bishop of Raphoe Dr Philip Boyce said he fully accepted the recommendations contained in the review, which was undertaken by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church.

In a statement, Dr Boyce admitted that during the past decades there had been "very poor judgments and mistakes made.

"There were horrific acts of abuse of children by individual priests, that should never have happened, and if suspected should have been dealt with immediately in the appropriate manner," he said.

NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Written by
Peggy Wright | Staff Writer

Ex-custodian Jose Feliciano told a jury Tuesday that he heard “a voice” telling him to “do it” and attack the Rev. Edward Hinds in the rectory of a Chatham church during their argument in 2009 over Feliciano’s firing.

“Tell this jury, nice and loud, what voice did you hear?” Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi asked, sarcastically baiting the 66-year-old defendant, who is accused of fatally stabbing the pastor of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church 44 times on Oct. 22, 2009.

“I heard a voice say ‘Do it now, now, now. Do it now,’ ” Feliciano testified.

By the end of the court day Tuesday, the jury had heard three different versions from Feliciano of the priest’s killing, all elicited by Bianchi, who cross-examined the suspect for at least five hours — and still is not finished.

IRELAND
RTE News

[video]

Audits of child protection practices - conducted by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church - are being published by six of the country's Catholic Church dioceses today.

Much attention will focus on the diocese of Raphoe, where the board has been investigating how ecclesiastical authorities responded over a 36-year period to indications that priests may have sexually abused children.

The board's audits of Tuam, Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Kilmore, Dromore and Derry are also being published by the respective dioceses.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

THE HIGH Court has continued a ban on publication of a chapter of the Dublin Catholic archdiocese abuse report pending the outcome of certain criminal proceedings.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan yesterday said he was continuing an order restraining publication of chapter 20 of the report and adjourned the matter to July 2012.

Following discussions with all relevant parties, it was agreed the court should keep in place an order from November 2009 withholding publication of chapter 20, pending the outcome of criminal proceedings relating to a person named in that chapter.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THREE HEADS of Raphoe Catholic diocese, which includes most of Co Donegal, are believed likely to be criticised for their handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in a report on child protection practices there to be published this morning.

They include the incumbent, Bishop Philip Boyce; his immediate predecessor Bishop Séamus Hegarty, who retired as Bishop of Derry last week for health reasons, and his predecessor, Bishop Anthony McFeely.

Bishop Hegarty succeeded Bishop McFeely in 1982 and became Bishop of Derry in 1994. Bishop Boyce became Bishop of Raphoe in 1995.

Last August, in Knock, Bishop Boyce urged Catholics not to lose confidence. “The moment of history we live through in Ireland at present is certainly a testing one for the church and for all of us,” he said.

PHOENIX (AZ)
ABC 15

•By: Katie Fisher

PHOENIX - A Phoenix high school teacher has been fired amid allegations of sexual advances from two former students.

President of Brophy College Prepatory, Edward Reese said he recently received information from the students, now adults, of inappropriate sexual advances when they were minors by faculty member Dan Whitehead.

Reese said he reported the allegations to Phoenix police that same day.

As of Tuesday afternoon, no charges against Whitehead have been filed.

ROME
Independent Catholic News (United Kingdom)

Posted: Tuesday, November 29, 2011

As the Legionaries of Christ recover from scandal, Pontifical delegate Cardinal Velasio de Paolis has placed its lay branch, Regnum Christi, under the administration of an external commissioner and set out strict guidelines for its future conduct.

Cardinal De Paolis issued a letter with concrete guidelines for consecrated members of the 'Regnum Christi', after the apostolic visit which also placed the lay branch of the Legionaries of Christ under the administration of an external commissioner.

The movement currently has approximately 70,000 members, including young people, adults, deacons and priests, in more than 30 Countries around the world.

PHOENIX (AZ)
The Arizona Republic

by William Hermann - Nov. 29, 2011
The Arizona Republic

A longtime Brophy College Preparatory School instructor was dismissed amid allegations of sexual abuse, school officials said Tuesday.

Dan Whitehead, a Brophy lay faculty member since 1979, was accused by two former Brophy students, now adults, "of inappropriate sexual advances when they were minors,'' Edward Reese, S.J., the president of the school, said in a letter to the school community.

In the letter, Reese, a Jesuit priest, said, "I reported the allegations to the Phoenix Police Department that same day. Brophy then terminated Mr. Whitehead's employment.''

The letter does not indicate when the former students made their allegations, nor does it say the precise day when Reese reported the allegations to police.

DEUTSCHLAND
SHZ

Ruhestandspastor Friedrich H. muss sich verantworten: Dem 70-Jährigen droht der Verlust sämtlicher Ansprüche. Dem Ahrensburger wird sexueller Missbrauch vorgeworfen.

Ahrensburg. In den Ahrensburger Missbrauchsfällen muss sich Ruhestandspastor Friedrich H. (70) vor der Disziplinarkammer der Nordelbischen Kirche verantworten. Dem früheren Pastor der Kirchengemeinde Ahrensburg (Kreis Stormarn) wird vorgeworfen, den sexuellen Missbrauch durch seinen Kollegen Gert Dietrich Kohl in den 70er und 80er Jahren vertuscht und seinerseits junge Mädchen seiner Jugendgruppen sexuell missbraucht zu haben.

SCHWEIZ
Blick

BERN - Als Reaktion auf die jüngsten Missbrauchsfälle in Behindertenheimen haben Branchenvertreter eine Charta zur Prävention ausgearbeitet.

Nach dem Motto «Wir schauen hin!» sollen Mitarbeiter sensibilisiert werden. Zudem wird darin die Einrichtung von Meldestellen gefordert.

NETHERLANDS
Dutch News

Tuesday 29 November 2011

The Catholic church was aware of child abuse at orphanages and other institutions throughout the Netherlands as early as 1954, according to documents found by researchers in church archives.

Senior church officials have consistently claimed they were not aware of the abuse.

However, television current affairs show Altijd Wat reported on Monday night the church's council for child protection issued warnings about child abuse in church-run homes and boarding schools in 1959 and 1962.

Warnings

The warnings were sent to the authorities at 112 homes and residential schools.

The letters urged institution managers to be aware of the dangers of employing people who are 'unsuitable' to give leadership to children.

FLORIDA
WINK

FORT MYERS, Fla.- A Bonita Springs priest is speaking publically for the first time Tuesday amidst allegations he misused church funding.

Until Tuesday, Father Stan Strycharz has kept quiet for more than year, under a "gag" order. Father Stan Strycharz says he can't stay quiet any longer and he is armed with a new report, released by a forensic accouting firm.

The Save the Southwest Florida Diocese group, who supports Father Stan, paid for the report. He hopes this new information will clear his name against what he says are false accusations by the bishop. ...

The diocese issued the following statement regarding Father Stan Strycharz' press conference held on Tuesday:

"At a press conference held earlier today and in a press release sent this morning from public relations representatives, Father Stan Strycharz made repeated false statements. It was hurtful and sad that the Diocese learned of the press conference from news reports rather than from Father directly; however, the contents of the press conference had basically all been heard before.

This opportunity is taken to refute only some of the falsehoods levied against the Diocese and Bishop Frank J. Dewane, Bishop of the Diocese of Venice in Florida.

To begin, this press conference was not the first time Father Strycharz has stepped forward since being placed on administrative leave. His voice has been echoed through a paid public relations firm for many months—this is hardly evidence that he has been silent during the canonical process. During the canonical process, the rights of all parties involved, include the priest, the parish, and the faithful must be respected. Letters from Bishop Dewane to the parish were issued to respond to pressing questions from the parishioners of St. Leo Parish, and not intended hurt Father Strycharz. All information was based on facts and an independent expert report by financial auditors. There was never any attempt by the Diocese to embarrass Father Strycharz, and each correspondence addressed the factual findings of the investigation

PHOENIX (AZ)
KPHO

[with video]

By Tammy Leitner

PHOENIX (KPHO) -
The Mormon church's role in reporting abuse is under scrutiny after two alleged sexual abuse victims say their church leaders failed to report the abuse to police.

Brian Poe was a young teen when he says he forged a bond with a Valley family in the LDS church. A church he later joined. But he says everything changed when the adult woman he trusted, crossed the line.

"The mother had initiated kissing - and over the next couple of months things escalated from there," said Brian.

During the next three years Brian claims the married woman sexually abused him and showered him with gifts.

FLORIDA
Market Watch

Embattled Bonita Springs Priest is Cleared of Misappropriating Church Funds by Nationally Known Forensic Accounting Firm

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla., Nov. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- A nationally known forensic accounting and valuation firm has completed a detailed investigation of church funds at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Bonita Springs covering the five years it was under the leadership of the embattled Father Stan Strycharz and determined there is no evidence of fraud or misappropriation of church funds.

The report, by The Financial Valuation Group of Ft. Lauderdale, is a stinging rebuke of the accusations made by Bishop Frank Dewane. He publicized his allegation that Father Stan had not justified or accounted for at least $1 million of church funds. The forensic accounting firm said there is no evidence of fraud or misappropriation of parish funds after they examined thousands of pages of documents in its investigation of St. Leo finances.

"Based on my work described in our report, I have not found evidence that Father Stan misappropriated monies or other property from St. Leo's Parish," wrote forensic accountant Michael Crain, a certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner of The Financial Valuation Group, in its 260-page report.

Father Stan said he hopes the investigation will bring to an end nearly 16 months of verbal abuse and public accusations from the bishop. Father Stan said he hopes that the bishop will apologize for his actions and restore Father Stan's good name.

FLORIDA
NBC 2

Father Stan Strycharz spoke publicly for the first time in 16 months about the allegations he stole nearly $1 million from the church. He denied taking the money and says a 260 page report from a forensic accounting firm supports that.

Father Strycharz was removed from St. Leo's Catholic Church in July of 2010 as the investigation began.

An audit from the Diocese of Venice claimed Strycharz stole nearly $1 million from the church, using the parish's money to pay personal credit card statements.

The accounting firm found no evidence that Father Strycharz committed any fraud or misappropriated any money.

Father Strycharz claims Bishop Dwayne placed a gag order on him and his salary was cut to $500 a month.

CathNews

BY DRASKO DIZDAR

The solution to the problem of clericalism is not in anticlericalism but in the undoing of the clerical distortion of priesthood by recovering what Irish teacher and poet John O'Donohue called "the priestliness of the human heart".

Clericalism is a disease; and the entire church — "clergy" and "laity" — are infected. Anticlericalism is the same disease, only in reverse. The pathology is in the rivalry and the violence at the heart of both.

If clericalism is the arrogation of power to and by the clergy, then anticlericalism is its mirror image, its ugly twin, its envious rival. Instead of heaping contempt on priests and attempting to undermine the "clerical institution", we need to heal the "ecclesial body", for the body is one and needs to be whole. Our clerical brothers and sisters are our brothers and sisters: part of an "us" that (God knows how) is Christ's Body, his "priestly people".

NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Sheriff’s officers surrounded murder suspect Jose Feliciano and the jury was hustled out of the courtroom today when the ex-janitor rose from the witness chair at his murder trial and angrily responded to a cross-examination question.

Feliciano, the 66-year-old former custodian of St. Patrick R.C. Church in Chatham is on the stand in Morristown being cross-examined by Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi about the Oct. 22, 2009, fatal stabbing of church Pastor Edward Hinds, 61.

The trial resumes this afternoon after a lunch recess.

Just minutes into the cross, Feliciano’s temper flared and he rose a bit from his chair, barking at Bianchi, “No sir, not really, no sir, not really. Don’t change my story! Don’t change my story. Don’t change my story.”

TEXAS
Standard Times

By Jennifer Rios
Standard Times

Tue, 11/29/2011

SAN ANGELO, Texas -- Diocese of San Angelo Bishop Michael Pfeifer said the recent settlement of a sexual abuse lawsuit against the diocese in no way meant it accepted the accusations against one of its former priests.

He said both sides felt the settlement, which was not disclosed, was the best solution to the suit.

The priest, Father David Espitia, hanged himself June 13, 2003, in Colorado City, Texas, after the allegations of abuse became known to the diocese.

The suit alleged Espitia had abused a boy over an eight-year period, up to 2002, while Espitia was a priest in the San Angelo Diocese.

"It was never proven; it was an allegation," Pfeifer said.

CHATHAM (NJ)
The Star-Ledger

By Ben Horowitz/The Star-Ledger

CHATHAM — An angry exchange erupted today in a Morristown courtroom when Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi began his cross-examination of former church custodian Jose Feliciano during his trial in the slaying of a Chatham priest.

Bianchi reminded Feliciano that he is under oath and told him there were discrepancies between what he told Capt. Jeffrey Paul of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office in an interview two days after the killing and what he said in response to questions in the trial on Monday from one of his public defenders, Balin Baidwan.

Feliciano admitted testifying Monday that he “didn’t remember a lot of stuff” he said in the three-hour interview with Paul that produced a 152-page transcript. “If you could remember it all, you’re a genius,” Feliciano told Bianchi.

UNITED STATES
SNAP Wisconsin

The headlines in the United States have been dominated recently by sexual assault scandals taking place at two of America’s centers of higher learning; Syracuse University and Penn State University. The media are to be commended for bringing renewed attention to the epidemic of childhood sexual assault that exists in our country. While much of the focus has been on these scandals there were events overseas that made the news as well.

The Irish Times reported that this week publications will be issued concerning the sexual assault of children in six dioceses in Ireland. The reports were created by the National Board for Safeguarding Children and include the dioceses of Raphoe, Derry, Dromore, Kilmore, Ardagh Clonmachnoise and Tuam. The publication of these reports follows the release of the devastating Cloyne Report in July.

The bishop of Derry, Seamus Hegarty, resigned last week, his request being granted by Pope Benedict only two weeks after he officially submitted it to the Vatican. Hegarty was the bishop of Raphoe from 1982 to 1994 prior to leading the Derry diocese. Hegarty admits that sex assault reports have been made against 26 priests of the Derry diocese. Sex assault reports have also been made against 20 priests in the diocese of Raphoe. Despite the history of sexual misconduct in the diocese of Raphoe the Belfast Telegraph reports that Fr Patrick McCarvey was promoted to the position of parish priest by the current bishop of Raphoe Philip Boyce. Father McCarvey has been banned from one of Ireland’s shopping centers after undercover police officers caught him watching people as they used the restrooms. This behavior is apparently not a concern for the bishop.

UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

Dr. Jeff Mirus | November 29, 2011

Saturday’s address by Pope Benedict XVI to the U. S. Bishops of Region II may mark a turning point in the Catholic response to sexual abuse. I’ve been saying for years that the Church has been unfairly singled out and rapaciously prosecuted for what is an extremely widespread social and moral problem. We may be getting close to the time when we can talk about the wider problem without first emphasizing Catholic guilt.

The Pope has not done that yet, but he has initiated an important shift:

It is my hope that the Church’s conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society. By the same token, just as the Church is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same standards.

This is a remarkable change in direction, and I hope all Catholic commentators will follow it. I will illustrate why with just one example from the United States.

As poorly and as culpably as the Catholic bishops handled the abuse problem, priestly abuse had already dwindled dramatically by the time the media finally picked up on it in 2002, and since then the number of credible complaints has subsided almost to the vanishing point. At the same time, a 2004 study of physical sexual abuse in the American public schools concluded that nearly 10% of all students experience sexual harassment or more serious abuse in the course of their school years, and that for every minor abused by a priest, there are over 100 minors abused by public school personnel.

NORTHERN IRELAND/IRELAND
Derry Journal

Published on Tuesday 29 November 2011

Potentially damning reports into the extent of clerical child sex abuse in both the Derry and Raphoe dioceses are to be published tomorrow morning.

The two reports have been conducted by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church which helps to protect children from being abused by priests or anyone else.

In July of this year, at the request of the retired Bishop of Derry, Dr. Seamus Hegarty, a team from the Board carried out a review intended to assess if current child safeguarding practice in the Derry diocese complied with the national standards and guidance.

The review also aimed to ensure that all known allegations and concerns about child abuse are being appropriately dealt with.

IRELAND
Breaking News

29/11/2011

Six separate reports on child protection measures in Catholic dioceses in Ireland will be published tomorrow.

Counselling services are gearing up for an influx of calls from survivors of clerical abuse after the audits from the church’s own watchdog are posted online.

The study into diocesan child protection measures in Raphoe, Derry, Dromore, Tuam, Kilmore, and Ardagh and Clonmacnois were carried out by Ian Elliot, chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCC).

It is understood the long-awaited reports will not focus on historical complaints of clerical sex abuse, leaving victims of one of Ireland’s most notorious paedophile priests, Raphoe-based Eugene Greene, searching for answers. ...

Anyone affected is urged to call the HSE National Counselling Service (NCS) helpdesk on freephone 1800 303 529 or the National Rape Crisis 24-hour helpline for victims of rape and sexual abuse on freephone 1800 778 888.

NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A man who claims he was sexually abused by a priest said while he consented to some abuse, it was "forced free will".

The trial of 53-year-old former priest, James Martin Donaghy, continued at Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday.

Mr Donaghy, from Lady Wallace Drive in Lisburn, denies a total of 26 charges involving the sex abuse.

Speaking about a London trip in October 1999 when he was 17, the now 29-year-old alleged victim said: "I did consent to it because I felt I had to consent".

BELGIUM
Expatica

Appeal judges on Tuesday ruled inadmissible evidence seized by Belgian police in dramatic raids on the Catholic Church after insider tips about decades of abuse causing hundreds of victims.

The raids, condemned by the Vatican after officers stunned a conference of Belgium's Roman Catholic bishops in June 2010, unearthed truckloads of material prosecutors hoped to use to bring leading Church figures to justice.

Judges said evidence gleaned from computers, mobile phones and paper records seized from the Church headquarters and the home of Belgium's former archbishop, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, must be dismissed and returned.

They said police were not free to act on a tip-off by a former head of a Church-appointed investigating commission, separate evidence taken from its offices having already been ruled inadmissible last year on the grounds officers acted in a heavy-handed way.

NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Laura Silvius

Defense attorney Balin Baidwin continued the direct examination of Jose Feliciano, the St. Patrick's Church custodian accused of killing the Rev. Edward Hinds in October 2009.

Feliciano said in his testimony "I didn't want nobody to know" that he had killed the priest. He said when his wife asked about the red color on his clothes, he told her it was paint.

He said he laid down in the back seat of the family van while his wife drove to their Easton, Pa. home, and that he showered and washed his clothes before disposing of items he took from the parish rectory.

"I couldn't tell my wife and my daughter what I had done," he said.

IRELAND
The Journal

THE BROADCASTING Authority of Ireland’s compliance committee says that it has decided to proceed with an investigation into an episode of Prime Time Investigates in which a Catholic priest was defamed.

The programme, A Mission to Prey, had incorrectly claimed that Fr Kevin Reynolds had fathered a child with a teenage girl while working as a missionary in Africa. The priest launched legal action which led to RTÉ issuing a public apology and paying undisclosed damages to Reynolds.

The incident also sparked two inquiries into the allegations – one within RTÉ and the other by the BAI.

The BAI says its investigation will focus on whether the programme breached the Broadcasting Act 2009 as regards a broadcaster’s duty to ensure the fair, objective and impartial treatment of current affairs content.

FLORIDA
The News-Press

Father Stan Strycharz today spoke for the first time about being forced to leave St. Leo’s Catholic Church in Bonita Springs due to allegations of misuse of more than $1 million in church funds by the Diocese of Venice and questions concerning the fact that he had fathered a child.

“I want to share with you my side of the story, the truth of the allegations against me” Strycharz said to an overflow crowd of mostly parishioners in a banquet hall at the Trianon Hotel, all of whom had been waiting for nearly 17 months to break his silence.

The crowd of about 100 gave Strycharz a standing ovation when he entered the room and two more ovations before he left. He denied any wrongdoing and Otis Wragg, spokesman for the group Save our Southwest Florida Diocese, a support group for the priest, presented a forensic accountant hired by the group that reiterated the priest had not misused funds.

“I want to make it clear with you that I have never taken anything from St. Leo the church that did not belong to me personnaly,” Strycharz said.

FLORIDA
Naples Daily News

By LIZ FREEMAN

Posted November 29, 2011

A national accounting forensics firm reviewed thousands of St. Leo Catholic Church documents and found the embattled Father Stan Strycharz did not misuse any church funds, contrary to the claims of Bishop Frank Dewane.

At a news conference Tuesday morning in Bonita Springs, Strycharz said Dewane’s actions were retaliatory for not following the bishop’s directive when he refused to fire the church’s music director several years ago. The bishop removed Strycharz from the church in July 2010 for not following his orders and a claim he misused nearly $1 million in church funds.

At the new conference, Strycharz called for the bishop to apologize to him.

“I have never taken anything from St. Leo Catholic Church that did not belong to me personally,” he said.

He also said he would not be pursuing legal action against the bishop, the Diocese of Venice or the Catholic Church for Dewane’s public defamatory remarks.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Rebecca Puddy
From:The Australian
November 30, 2011

ANGLICAN breakaway archbishop John Hepworth yesterday lodged a complaint with police alleging he was raped by a Catholic priest 40 years ago.

The leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion filed the complaint in South Australia on legal advice a day after a church inquiry found "no substance" to allegations he had made against Adelaide priest Ian Dempsey.

Mr Hepworth said he had no choice but to turn to the police, four years after first raising the matter with the Adelaide Catholic Archdiocese, which he said had "betrayed" him.

"It was never my intention to go beyond the processes of the church," he said.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Catholic League

Today, dozens of bars, barber shops and beauty parlors in the Kansas City, Missouri area are being sent copies of the Catholic League ad that the Kansas City Star refused to run on October 30.

This is the twelfth and final segment of the Kansas City area to receive the ad that the Star would like to censor. Previously, we hit (1) every Catholic church, as well as all the nuns, order priests and brothers, (2) every Catholic lay organization, (3) all Catholic schools and colleges, (4) over 100 Protestant churches, (5) Orthodox Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups, (6) private schools, (7) public schools, (8) private and public colleges, (9) government officials, (10) all Chamber of Commerce officials and over 150 local businesses and (11) more than 80 civic associations.

SOUTH CAROLINA
News 14

[with video]

CHARLOTTE -- North Carolina attorneys and child advocacy groups say now could be the time to improve the state's child sex abuse statutes. There is currently no statute of limitations for criminal felony cases, but there is a statute of limitations for civil matters.

Statute of limitations is front and center nationally. Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine was fired Sunday after allegations of sexual abuse. Because of New York State's statute of limitations, some of those charges can't be used against him criminally.

In North Carolina, Charlotte attorney Seth Langson says generally the statute runs out once a victim has turned 21, which can make it difficult for a victim to take an alleged abuser to court.

BELGIE
Gazet van Antwerpen

De Brusselse Kamer van Inbeschuldigingstelling (KI) verklaart de huiszoekingen en inbeslagnames bij kardinaal Danneels en in het aartsbisschoppelijk paleis in Mechelen nietig. Alle inbeslaggenomen documenten moeten worden teruggegeven. Reden: onderzoeksrechter Wim De Troy ging zijn boekje te buiten.

Voor zijn huiszoekingen op 24 juni 2010 steunde onderzoeksrechter De Troy zich op twee processen-verbaal. Het ging om twee verhoren van rechter Godelieve Halsberghe. Zij had gehoord dat er geheime documenten over seksueel misbruik binnen de Kerk verborgen waren in de Sint-Romboutskathedraal in Mechelen. Ze had echter niets gezegd over de privéwoning van kardinaal Danneels en ook niets over het aartsbisschoppelijk paleis.

IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

Statement from the Association of Catholic Priests in response to Archbishop Martin’s interview on Morning Ireland: Nov. 28th

The Association of Catholic Priests welcomes the comments of the Archbishop of Dublin on Radio this morning.

We are glad that at last a bishop has made a statement on the Kevin Reynolds situation. And we agree with his conclusions that questions need to be addressed in the wake of this case,
and that it is important, in the question of media bias, that not all media are
tarred with the same brush in the way that priests have been.

But we do believe that this particular case did show what seems to us very much like bias in at least two instances:
◦The fact that RTE were not willing to wait until Fr. Reynolds had a chance to prove his innocence suggests to us that they were confident that anything could safely be said about a priest in the present climate without fear of repercussions; that the Church authorities would not back him, and that people generally would believe the story.
◦That they door-stepped Fr. Reynolds in both a time and place that is sacred to the Catholic faith. There is, we believe, no doubt that RTE, or indeed any journalist, would not do the same to an Iman in the precincts of his mosque, or to a Jewish rabbi at his synagogue.

Questions need to be asked, also, about whether some bishops, including Dr. Martin himself, have been complicit in the denigration of priests. We are well aware that he has not experienced any harassment by media, since they generally tended to be happy with what he was saying. But the experience of ordinary priests and religious who have spoken on programmes has sometimes been very different. The collateral damage done to priests and religious in general, and to innocent priests in particular, has been significant.

IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

REASONS WHY

Priests and religious have been accused of not speaking out about the sexual use and abuse of children. Why did they not?

Those using children for sexual gratification are secretive and even their closest colleagues may not know about it. Those who misuse alcohol can also be so secretive that even their spouses, families and colleagues do not know they are addicted or dependent, or know the
schemes they use to satisfy their need. Priests or religious could hide an addiction to sexual
gratification from even the closest of their colleagues especially when so much
of the work they do is confidential and their colleagues, including those in authority, do not and often cannot probe closely into it. In the nineteen forties and fifties when people had great
confidence in the clergy priests in Ireland said proudly that in other European countries priests could not visit households during the day because their intentions were suspect but in Ireland clerics could visit freely while husbands and men folk even tended to make themselves scarce when a priest visited. People inIreland presumed all was well and seemed unwilling to upset this belief.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY MCGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

A group representing Catholic priests in Ireland has asked whether some bishops, including the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, “have been complicit in the denigration of priests.”

In a statement welcoming Dr Martin’s comments yesterday on RTÉ’s defamation of Fr Kevin Reynolds, the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) say they agree with his conclusions that “in the question of media bias, that not all media are tarred with the same brush in the way that priests have been”.

RTÉ’s treatment of Fr Reynolds suggested, it says, that “they were confident that anything could safely be said about a priest in the present climate without fear of repercussions; that the Church authorities would not back him, and that people generally would believe the story”.

BELGIE
Klokk

Zware klap voor Belgische slachtoffers seksueel misbruik:
Bewijsmateriaal Operatie Kelk door rechter nietig verklaard.

Op 24 oktober 2011 boog de Brusselse Kamer van inbeschuldigingstelling zich voor de derde keer op een jaar tijd over de rechtsgeldigheid van Operatie Kelk. Het federale parket en Christine Mussche, de advocaat van een reeks slachtoffers, pleitten op de zitting dat de huiszoekingen bij kardinaal Danneels en in het paleis van de aartsbisschop rechtsgeldig waren. Fernand Keuleneer, de advocaat van kardinaal Danneels en van het aartsbisdom, pleitte het omgekeerde. De zitting werd verwezen naar datum van 8 november 2011. Op 29 november 2011 viel de uitspraak: de Brusselse kamer van inbeschuldigingstelling verklaart de huiszoekingen en inbeslagnames bij kardinaal Danneels en het aartsbisdom nietig. Tenzij de advocaten van de slachtoffers, Christine Mussche en Walter Van Steenbrugge alsnog in cassatie gaan, is Operatie Kelk definitief afgesloten.

Met deze beslissing kan niets wat tijdens de Operatie Kelk aan bewijsmateriaal in beslag werd genomen, door de advocaten van de slachtoffers worden gebruikt ter staving van hun standpunt dat de katholieke kerk, en in het bijzonder de bisschoppen van België en de oversten van congregaties, niets ondernomen hebben tegen het bewezen seksueel misbruik dat sinds de jaren vijftig gedocumenteerd is. Daar waar in Nederland op dezelfde dag stukken worden vrijgegeven waardoor duidelijk bewezen wordt dat de kerkelijke overheid over het misbruik op de hoogte was, en hoe ze met haar priesters en fraters daarover communiceerde, blijven de Belgische archieven gesloten.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

A classified circular letter reminds all the dicasteries of the Roman Curia that nothing can be divulged without first being checked by the Secretary of State

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

The cardinals and bishops of the Roman Curia that head the Roman dicasteries, have all received a circular letter reminding them of the praxis regarding the publication of pontifical texts: nothing can be divulged with the Pope's signature without being approved by Benedict XVI's Secretary of State first.

The classified document was published on www.chiesa.espressoonline.it, a website run by Sandro Magister, who revealed its existence a few days ago, linking the circular to the disappointment allegedly provoked within the Vatican by a document sent by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace on the financial crisis. The latter text requested for the establishment of a world authority able to regulate financial transactions. The hypothesis that the turn of the screw referred to the document from the aforementioned pontifical council – signed by the Cardinal president Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson and by the bishop secretary Mario Toso –was strongly doubted by John Thavis, an American Vatican correspondent from the “Catholic News Service”.

BELGIE
hbvl

De Brusselse Kamer van Inbeschuldigingstelling (KI) verklaart de huiszoekingen en inbeslagnames bij kardinaal Danneels en in het aartsbisschoppelijk paleis in Mechelen nietig. Alle inbeslaggenomen documenten moeten worden teruggegeven. Reden: onderzoeksrechter Wim De Troy ging zijn boekje te buiten.

Voor zijn huiszoekingen op 24 juni 2010 steunde onderzoeksrechter De Troy zich op twee processen-verbaal. Het ging om twee verhoren van rechter Godelieve Halsberghe van 21 juni 2010. Zij had gehoord dat er geheime documenten over seksueel misbruik binnen de Kerk verborgen waren in de Sint-Romboutskathedraal in Mechelen. Ze had echter niets gezegd over de privéwoning van kardinaal Danneels en ook niets over het aartsbisschoppelijk paleis.

BELGIE
Knack

dinsdag 29 november 2011

Brugge - De huiszoekingen die onderzoeksrechter Wim De Troy op 24 juni 2010 liet uitvoeren in het aartsbisschoppelijk paleis en in de privéwoning en het kantoor van kardinaal Danneels, afkomstig van Kanegem, zijn nietig. Dat heeft de Brusselse kamer van inbeschuldigingstelling dinsdag beslist. Al het materiaal dat bij die huiszoekingen in beslag werd genomen, moet dan ook terugbezorgd worden.

IRELAND
RTE News

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has held a board meeting to discuss Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte's request that it inquire into the circumstances of RTÉ's defamation of Fr Kevin Reynolds.

The Minister had requested that the BAI Compliance Committee use its powers under Section 53 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 to determine whether RTÉ had met its statutory responsibilities around objectivity, impartiality and fairness.

A meeting of the Compliance Committee will take place tomorrow.

Earlier, the Archbishop of Dublin called for independent regulation of the media in the wake of the Fr Reynolds case.

SAMOA
Radio New Zealand

Two Catholic priests in Samoa have reportedly been stood down for alleged misconduct.

Le Weekender newspaper says one priest has been removed amid allegations he had had a sexual relationship with a young woman parishioner - claims the priest has vehemently denied.

The newspaper says a nother priest has been relieved of his duties for disobeying church orders that he end a business arrangement with a woman of the parish.

BONITA SPRINGS (FL)
News-Press

Priest to address misconduct charges during tenure at St. Leo's Church in Bonita Springs

Written by
Mary Wozniak

The Rev. Stan Strycharz will finally step before the public and tell his story after almost 17 months of silence.

The former pastor of St. Leo Catholic Church is scheduled to have a press conference at 11 a.m. today to address, for the first time, accusations by the Diocese of Venice that he misused more than $1 million in church funds, and the fact that he fathered a child.

Both issues resulted in Strycharz being placed on forced leave by Bishop Frank Dewane on July 23, 2010. The priest left behind brokenhearted parishioners and many unanswered questions.

The press conference will be held at the Trianon Hotel-Bonita Bay at The Promenade, 3401 Bay Commons Drive.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Tuesday, 29 November 2011

A Catholic priest who was banned from a shopping centre after he was caught spying on people in a men's toilet has been given a promotion, it has emerged.

Fr Patrick McGarvey (43) has been appointed parish priest of Fanad, Co Donegal, by Bishop of Raphoe Philip Boyce.

The elevation took place at a special Mass at St Mary's in Fanavolty last month.

Fr McGarvey was caught by undercover police at the Foyleside shopping centre in Derry in August 2004 watching people go to the public toilets there.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
My Fox Philly

PHILADELPHIA - Retired Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua faces another round of questions Tuesday in the ongoing priest sex abuse scandal.

This is day two of the retired archbishop's deposition.

Bevilacqua began Monday at his home at a seminary in Wynnewood answering questions about what he knew about alleged sex abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

There are some new developments in the priest sex abuse scandal in Philadelphia.

NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Written by
Peggy Wright | Staff Writer

Ex-church janitor Jose R. Feliciano testified Monday that he endured years of sexual fondling by the Rev. Edward Hinds of Chatham and “went crazy” in 2009 and stabbed the priest after he told him he was being fired.

Maintaining a downcast appearance and speaking in a soft, halting voice at his murder trial in Morristown, Feliciano, now 66, said he told Hinds, the pastor of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church, in late 2003 that he had committed a crime in Philadelphia in the 1980s and could not withstand a fingerprint check necessary to keep his parish custodial job.

Feliciano claimed that Hinds deliberately did not forward his fingerprints to proper authorities and hung this favor over his head in exchange for chances to sexually molest him in the rectory, parish office and the school library. Under questioning by defense lawyer Balin Baidwan, Feliciano said “Who would believe me?’’ if he filed a complaint against the priest and he claimed that he told the priest he wanted to retire in March 2010 when he turned 65. He said the priest urged him to stay on the job longer.

CANADA
The Vancouver Sun

By KIM PEMBERTON, Vancouver Sun November 28, 2011

A total of $227.6 million compensation has been paid to 1,669 B.C. first nations residential-school abuse claimants out of the 3,200 who had applied up until the end of September.

When the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement was signed in 2006, the budget for compensation of former students who were abused was $960 million. To date $1.1 billion has been spent across the country, under the Independent Assessment Process (IAP) set up by the agreement.

Across Canada 21,074 people have made IAP applications, and 29,000 people are expected to apply before the deadline of Sept. 19, 2012 — more than double the number originally anticipated.

That means the total payout to survivors of physical or sexual abuse at residential schools is likely to hit $2.6 billion, IAP chief adjudicator Daniel Ish said last week.

UNITED KINGDOM
Bath Chronicle

A former school chaplain from Bath who carried out a string of sex assaults on six young pupils was jailed for three-and-a-half years yesterday.

Father Leslie Carter, 84, preyed on his victims, aged between eight and 13, over a period 20 years while working at private schools in the UK and South Africa.

The Anglican priest ‘abused his position’ by targeting the boys while he was alone with them in churches, Scout huts and his own home in school grounds.

Carter, who lived in a flat in Bathwick Street, had previously admitted nine charges, relating to three boys, at a hearing in September, after which three more victims came forward, Harrow Crown Court was told.

UNITED KINGDOM
Harrow Observer

Nov 29 2011 By Ian Proctor

A FORMER chaplain at an preparatory school in Harrow has been jailed for three-and-a-half years for sexually abusing six children.

Anglican priest Leslie Carter, 84, admitted 18 indecent assaults on boys, four of them pupils at Quainton Hall School in Hindes Road where he began as a chaplain in 1968.

Carter was sentenced on Monday at Harrow Crown Court when it was explained the youngest victim was just seven years old and the allegations only came to light in 2004.

Detective Constable Rachel Snow, from the Metropolitan Police's Child Abuse Investigation Team, said: "The abuse that Carter subjected these boys to has had devastating consequences.
"The fact that these crimes were committed over 30 years ago is not a factor - this sentence sends out a clear message that police will take any allegations of abuse seriously, they will be thoroughly investigated and any perpetrators will be brought to justice.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Press Association

A former school chaplain has been jailed for three-and-a-half years for a string of sex offences on pupils spanning three decades.

Leslie Carter, 84, from Bathwick Street in Bath, admitted 18 counts of indecent assault on six schoolboys between 1956 and 1978.

Scotland Yard said the "unrepentant paedophile" committed his attacks in the UK and South Africa, as well as on board a ship between the two countries.

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A former Anglican chaplain has been jailed for three-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to several indecent assaults on boys in his care.

Leslie Carter, 84, of Warminster, Wiltshire, admitted 18 counts of indecent assault on six schoolboys between 1956 and 1978.

The first boy was assaulted when Carter was chaplain to a school in Cape Town.

Other victims were abused after his appointment in 1968 to Quainton Hall School in Harrow, north-west London.

AUSTRALIA
ABC Sydney

Updated November 29, 2011

The Traditional Anglican Archbishop who claims to have been sexually abused by a serving priest has filed a complaint with South Australian police.

Archbishop John Hepworth claims abuse by Catholic priest Monsignor Ian Dempsey decades ago when they were training for the priesthood.

A Catholic Church-commissioned investigation of the claims by Michael Abbott QC has cleared Monsignor Dempsey of any wrongdoing.

Archbishop Hepworth has now been to police in Adelaide to make a complaint.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

AAP
November 29, 2011

A BREAKAWAY Anglican church leader, who claims he was raped by a Catholic priest, has filed a police complaint after an internal church investigation cleared his alleged abuser.

A breakaway Anglican church leader, who claims he was raped by a Catholic priest, has filed a police complaint after an internal church investigation cleared his alleged abuser.

Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) Archbishop John Hepworth said earlier this year he had been raped by three priests, beginning in 1960 when he was 15.

Senator Nick Xenophon named Adelaide priest Monsignor Ian Dempsey as one of the rapists under federal parliamentary privilege, saying the Catholic church had taken too long to investigate.

NEDERLAND
Nujij

Geachte heer Naftaniel, beste Ronny …

ik vroeg het me eerder al af. Waarom heeft u als directeur van het Centrum Informatie en Documentatie Israel (CIDI) destijds geen aangifte deed tegen kardinaal Simonis, ooit de hoogste baas van katholiek Nederland? Al eerder bleek dat deze ‘goedheiligman’ wel degelijk afwist van seksueel misbruik binnen de katholieke kerk en er bewust voor koos om tijdens de talkshow van Pauw en Witteman de holocaust te gebruiken om zijn leugen kracht bij te zetten.

Wellicht was zijn uitspraak te vaag voor u? Misschien is het not done om iemand met de statuur als die van Simonis als voormalig leider van katholiek Nederland op zijn vingers te tikken? Of is dat hetgeen wat Geert Wilders met de Joods-Christelijke’-traditie wil duidelijk maken, een old boys network dat elkaar de hand boven het hoofd houdt? Kan het zo zijn dat u uw pijlen liever richt op kinderen zonder enig historisch besef? Vergeeft u mij. Ik vroeg het me af, in alle eerlijkheid.

NEDERLAND
HLN (Belgie)

Van het kindermisbruik op Nederlandse internaten wist de roomskatholieke kerk al in de jaren vijftig. Daarmee opent De Volkskrant vandaag.

Het Nederlands Katholiek Verbond voor Kinderbescherming heeft de roomskatholieke internaten al gewaarschuwd voor seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen door priesters en geestelijken in 1959 en 1962, zo blijkt volgens de krant uit twee brieven uit die tijd, die zijn verstuurd aan de besturen en directies van alle 112 aangesloten internaten.

UNITED STATES
Baptist Press

Katie McCoy
Posted on Nov 28, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) -- The headlines stunned the nation. The accusations of child sexual abuse by former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky have outraged an entire country. We were shocked by the alleged evil of a seemingly respectable man, sickened by the unthinkable abuse of his victims, and incensed by the moral cowardice of those who didn't do enough to stop it.

Like Israel in the time of the Judges -- in the dregs of their moral bankruptcy -- we too have asked, "What is this wickedness that has occurred among you?" (Judges 20:12). As reprehensible as the allegations of abuse are, what is perhaps even more incredulous is the ever-increasing number of people who, though they did what was legal, failed to do what was right. Where was their courage to intervene on behalf of the powerless? Where were the valiant?

Tragically, this same injustice is a life-long reality for millions of children across the world. They are children like Prema, who, according to YWAM's booklet "30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless," was just 11 years old when she joined the other girls in a Mumbai brothel. For the past two and a half years, she has been forced to degradingly dance for and "service" the international customers. Her family needed the money and promised to buy her back when they could. I knew of the global evil that is child prostitution and heard about the staggering enormity of the human trafficking industry. I knew of the grieving reality that children worldwide have been victimized, traumatized and enslaved. But it wasn't until reading about little girls like Prema that the statistics had a name.

UNITED STATES
PR Web

In response to national headlines about sexual harassment and abuse claims against people in trusted leadership roles, this commentary, by Nan Stein, Ed.D., senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College, and Bruce Taylor, Ph.D., principal research scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago, calls for schools to help address sexual harassment in adolescence, before behaviors fester unchecked in adulthood. The authors, experts on teen dating violence, cite recent findings from their research conducted in NYC middle schools and funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, that identify effective, accessible ways this can be done.

Sexual harassment and assault claims against people in leadership roles have topped media headlines this month; little attention, however, has been given to examining the issue of peer-to-peer sexual harassment in schools, even with a striking report that was recently released showing that nearly half of all seventh through twelfth graders experience this in school. Experts on teen dating violence, Nan Stein, Ed.D., senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College, and Bruce Taylor, Ph.D., principal research scientist with NORC at the University of Chicago, were compelled to write a commentary that calls on schools to help address these problems before they fester unchecked in adulthood. They cite recent findings from their U.S. Department of Justice-funded research in New York City middle schools that can inform educators on ways to address these behaviors. The commentary follows.

ILLINOIS
The Journal-Standard

By Travis Morse
The Journal-Standard

Freeport, Ill. —

Dakota resident James W. French has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing an underage girl in Naperville, and a sentencing hearing will likely be held early next year, said Paul Darrah, a spokesman for the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The crime occurred on Nov. 12, 2010, and French was arrested at his Dakota home by Naperville police on the morning of Dec. 2, 2010. According to Darrah, French pleaded guilty on Oct. 17 to one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving a family member under 18, which is a Class 2 felony. French could face three to seven years in prison, depending on the results of the sentencing hearing. ...

French is a founder and former pastor at Indian Grove Country Church in Rock City. Police say he has a connection to the Naperville area, but they have not specified what that connection is. The defendant was also an adjunct professor of history at Rock Valley College in Rockford, according to the Naperville Sun.

CALIFORNIA
The Sacramento Bee

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Published: Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011

Prosecutors offered it as powerful evidence of why children who make molestation allegations ought to be believed, but a defense expert Monday labeled child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome as "junk science."

University of Nevada professor William O'Donohue testified as the second-to-last witness for Tommy Gene Daniels before the defense rested its case in the Rio Linda pastor's child molestation trial in Sacramento Superior Court.

O'Donohue, a professor of clinical psychology, called the syndrome "a very problematical theory."

"I think it's a false account," O'Donohue testified. "I think it's potentially dangerous. I think it's junk science."

Earlier in the trial, Deputy District Attorney Kimberly Macy called UC Davis School of Medicine pediatrics professor Anthony J. Urquiza to testify as an expert on the child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome. Urquiza testified that CSAAS theory explains why children are apt to keep their molestation secret. He said its tenets also make it easier to understand victims' sense of helplessness and entrapment, their tendency to delay reporting allegations of sexual abuse and their relatively high rate – 25 percent – of recanting their stories.

IRELAND
Irish Central

By
CATHAL DERVAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Monday, November 28, 2011

Victims of clerical sex abuse want the unpublished chapter of the controversial Cloyne Report made public as the Cork diocese awaits the appointment of a new bishop.

Speculation is mounting that the Vatican will now appoint a successor to Bishop John Magee after confirmation that Irish-American Monsignor Charles Brown is the new Papal Nuncio to Ireland.

Archbishop Dr Dermot Clifford, currently running the East Cork diocese after the retirement of Bishop Magee, has admitted that the new man will need to show strong leadership.

IRELAND
Donegal Democrat

Published on Tuesday 29 November 2011

The long-awaited report from the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children regarding the Diocese of Raphoe is to be released tomorrow morning (Wednesday, November 30) at 10am.

The report will be published on the diocesan website Raphoe Diocese at approximately 10 am.

Bishop Philip Boyce will then officiate at the launch of the report at the Diocesan Pastoral Centre Hall in Letterkenny at 11.30am.

IRELAND
Donegal Democrat

Published on Tuesday 29 November 2011

Victims of sexual abuse in the Raphoe Diocese could be left “very disappointed” by the audit which is due to be released this week, a leading commentator has claimed.

Reliable sources have indicated that the Raphoe Diocesan Audit will be officially released tomorrow (Wednesday) but will not contain the level of detail on sexual abuse that some victims may be expecting.

PR consultant, Michael Keane, from Insight Consultants, has been employed to act as “Diocesan spokesman” on the matter.

He explained yesterday that the report is an audit of the church’s procedures and it is not a detailed report of individual cases.

WASHINGTON
Indian Country Today Media Network

By Stephanie Woodard
November 28, 2011

On November 22, eight members of the Yakima and Colville tribes filed a lawsuit against Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). They allege physical, sexual and emotional abuse during the 1950s, 60s and 70s, when DSHS placed them as foster children at Jesuit-run St. Mary’s School in Omak, Washington. While there, they say, they were abused by their guardian, Father John Morse, an approved DSHS foster parent, as well as by other clerics employed by the school.

Tamaki Law Firm, of Yakima, Washington, filed the civil complaint in the state’s Superior Court. Attorney Blaine Tamaki called DSHS negligent, saying, “They chose not to protect some of our state’s most vulnerable children.” The agency is the target of one additional St. Mary’s-related abuse suit.

John Wiley, DSHS spokesperson, said the department had not yet seen the complaint. “We do not normally comment on pending litigation,” he said. “When we do file a response, it will be in court.”

SAN ANGELO (TX)
San Angelo Standard-Times

By Jennifer Rios

Posted November 28, 2011

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Diocese of San Angelo Bishop Michael Pfeifer said the recent settlement of a sexual abuse lawsuit against the diocese in no way meant it accepted the accusations against one of its former priests.

He said both sides felt the settlement, which was not disclosed, was the best solution to the suit.

The priest, Father David Espitia, hanged himself June 13, 2003, in Colorado City after the allegations of abuse became known to the diocese.

The suit alleged Espitia had abused the boy over an eight-year period, up to 2002, while Espitia was a priest in the San Angelo Diocese.

"It was never proven; it was an allegation," Pfeifer said.

UNITED KINGDOM/SOUTH AFRICA
The Star (South Africa)

Ian Evans

London: A paedophile who abused a Cape Town school pupil nearly 55 years ago was imprisoned for three-and-a-half years in London yesterday.

Father Leslie Carter was a chaplain and English teacher at St George’s Grammar School in the late 1950s when he abused a 12-year-old boy while on a boat trip from South Africa to the UK.

It was only after the victim contacted the Metropolitan Police in 2004 that Carter was investigated, leading to him facing 18 counts of indecent assault against six boys between 1957 and 1977.

Yesterday he sat alone in the dock at Harrow Crown Court, just a few kilometres from Quainton Hall Prep School in north London where he taught after leaving South Africa, and where he also abused boys. Aged 84, he appeared in custody after his wife Judith threw him out of their marital home in Warminster following the additional allegations.

IRELAND/NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

Published on Monday 28 November 2011

The Derry Diocese is refusing to speculate on the contents of a major report into the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations ahead of its publication next week.

The Diocese of Raphoe will publish its report in midweek, most likely on Wednesday, and it’s believed that reports from Derry and Dromore will follow almost immediately.

The reports have been carried out by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, an independent body set up by the church.

The Board has now said that the reports are complete and ready for publication by the church.

TEXAS
Midland Reporter-Telegram

Shanna Sissom
Midland Reporter-Telegram

A child sexual abuse lawsuit against the Diocese of San Angelo was settled Nov. 18 for an undisclosed amount. The lawsuit stemmed from allegations a former altar boy repeatedly was raped by the Rev. David Espitia as he was assigned at various churches throughout West Texas.

Espitia was found dead in his rectory June 13, 2003, just days after he told Bishop Michael Pfeifer of allegations coming forth against him. Authorities ruled his death a suicide, and the Colorado City Police Department later found hundreds of homosexual and child pornography images on his computer, according to court documents.

The assaults, according to plaintiff attorney Tahira Khan Merritt, spanned between 1994 to 2003, beginning when the boy was 7 or 8 until he was 16. Espitia was parochial vicar at St. Anthony and St. Joseph Catholic churches in Odessa, director of vocations and director of seminarians for the diocese and pastor at St. Ann's Parish in Colorado City, according to a press release from the plaintiff.

AUSTRALIA
ABC/AM

[audio]

An inquiry led by an Adelaide QC has cleared Monsignor Ian Dempsey of rape allegations stretching back almost 40 years. The Catholic Church commissioned the inquiry and it has already been attacked by Senator Nick Xenophon as being a farce and unfair. The alleged victim, the head of the breakaway Anglican Communion, Archbishop John Hepworth, refused to give evidence.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

THE COMPLIANCE committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland reviewed the Prime Time Investigates: Mission to Prey programme last August following a complaint and concluded that in both it and a Frontline debate which followed, “the subject matter was treated fairly and the content was fair to all interests concerned.”

It said “there was a wide range of significant viewpoints included and the persons against whom allegations were made were afforded a right of reply.” No one against whom allegations were made on Mission to Prey appeared on the Frontline programme.

Its observations are made in a decision rejecting a complaint by Mark Vincent Healy which arose from a decision by Prime Time Investigates to drop an interview with him from Mission to Prey and RTE’s use of a 28-second clip from it at the beginning of the Frontline programme.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY and CHARLIE TAYLOR

ARCHBISHOP OF Dublin Diarmuid Martin has called for independent regulation of the media.

Speaking yesterday, he criticised RTÉ over the time it took to admit it had wrongly accused Fr Kevin Reynolds, parish priest of Ahascragh, Co Galway, of raping a minor and fathering a child with her in Africa 30 years ago.

On RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme the archbishop said there was a need to ensure a “basic balance between the right to investigate and press freedom and the protection of the rights of individuals”.

“Press freedom is a vital element of our society. Investigative journalism has done much good for our society, but we need to have forms of regulation which are independent and we need a broad discussion in Ireland about how we manage these,” he said.

NEDERLAND
NRC Handelsblad

Misbruik katholieke kerk al in jaren vijftig bekend – ‘opnieuw blijk gebrekkige zorg aan slachtoffers’

door Hans Klis

De rooms-katholieke kerk wist al in de eerste helft van de jaren vijftig van kindermisbruik in internaten. Dat meldt RTL Nieuws.

In 1954 schreef de algemeen overste van de fraters van Tilburg, Canisius, in een nieuwsbrief: “mannen wees toch voorzichtig in de omgang met kinderen en maak jezelf niet voor een heel leven ongelukkig. Houd je handen thuis.” De brief is in het bezit van RTL (pdf).

De kerk heeft altijd beweerd niet op de hoogte te zijn van het misbruik. Canisius spreekt expliciet over seksueel misbruik. “De laatste jaren komt ontucht met kinderen frequenter voor dan vroeger”, stelt hij in de brief. In de aanhef staat dat de brief moest worden voorgelezen door de leidinggevenden van de internaten. Daarna moest het document achter slot en grendel worden opgeborgen.

FRANCE
Ladepeche

Mercredi s'ouvre devant le tribunal correctionnel de Rodez le procès du frère Pierre-Etienne Albert, un religieux de la communauté des Béatitudes, prévenu d'attouchements sexuels sur neuf personnes.

Onze ans après le retentissant procès de l'abbé Maurel, la justice aveyronnaise est confrontée, mercredi, à un nouveau procès d'actes pédophiles. A la barre du tribunal correctionnel de Rodez va, en effet, comparaître le frère Pierre-Etienne Albert, un religieux, aujourd'hui âgé de 60 ans, qui a reconnu des attouchements sur une cinquantaine d'enfants et qui va se retrouver face à neuf de ses victimes.

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

Virginia Jones

This year, as she has every year for many years, Elizabeth Goeke is leading an icon Advent Labyrinth Walk, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral here in Portland, Oregon.

Elizabeth might have led an Icon Advent Labyrinth Walk in Benedictine Monastery as she once was a young Benedictine Nun. But fate intervened. A priest tried to rape her on a Christmas Eve in the mid 1960s. She fought the priest off but ended up bloodied and shaken. She pulled herself together and played the church organ for Christmas Eve Mass, but inside she struggled with what had happened to her. Her confessor ordered her to remain silent or face ex communication. When she could no longer remain silent, he told her she had lost her vocation and could only speak of the attempted rape in confession. So she returned to her parent’s home and sought advice on what to do during confession with the priest in her parent’s parish. The priest accused her of lying and threw her out of the Church. She left the Catholic Church and Christianity for the next 35 years or so until coming forward as a survivor of clergy abuse inspired to seek spiritual answers for what had happened. Unfortunately her former Benedictine sisters and her Catholic family did not understand her spiritual pain. She found the support she lacked in the Catholic Church at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. Since 2002, Elizabeth has spent many years studying Christian theology through a variety of sources and has much experience leading retreats.

MISSISSIPPI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on November 28, 2011

An exclusive TV news report says that a Mississippi politician is defending a church that employed an accused and recently-arrested child molester. And this account suggests that Hinds County prosecutors are having trouble getting church officials, including the politician, to divulge information that could help them prosecute that alleged criminal.

The church is Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton MS. The politician is Philip Gunn. And the accused is John Langworthy.

We’re not lawyers or prosecutors. We don’t claim to understand what the law does or doesn’t require when it comes to knowledge or suspicions of child sex crimes in Mississippi. But we’re skeptical when any church official tries to keep information from law enforcement about child sex crimes. And it certainly seems like Mr. Gunn has some explaining to do.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Peter Isely on November 28, 2011

We’re pleased but not surprised that a judge has found Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua competent to testify. Time and time again, we see Catholic officials feigning ill health or poor memories when they’re really only suffering from a desperate desire to evade tough questions about their complicity in child sex abuse and cover up cases.

We are grateful prosecutors are doing what they can to establish the full truth about the horrific cover up of hundreds of child sex crimes by Philadelphia Catholic clergy.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — A retired Roman Catholic cardinal testified behind closed doors for about three hours Monday as lawyers prepare for a groundbreaking priest-abuse trial in Philadelphia.

Prosecutors deposed Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua in case he cannot appear for the March trial of three accused priests, an ex-teacher and a church administrator. The deposition was set to resume Tuesday at the cardinal's residence at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, just outside the city.

Bevilacqua, 88, suffers from cancer and dementia, and church lawyers fought to block his testimony. However, Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina deemed him competent Monday after reviewing his medical records and meeting with him Monday morning, her office said.

Monsignor William Lynn, his longtime secretary for clergy, is charged with felony child endangerment and conspiracy for allegedly transferring predator priests without warning new parishes. Lynn, 60, is the first Roman Catholic church official charged in the U.S. for his administrative actions. Three priests and a former teacher are charged with raping boys.

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Before this month gets away from us, I want to take note of a report that the group* Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) released early in November. The VOTF statement responds to the John Jay College report* about the causes and context of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests in the last half century published by the U.S. Catholic bishops this past May. It's entitled "Voice of the Faithful’s Conclusions about the John Jay College Report, The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010."

VOTF's assessment of the John Jay report is that, despite its highly publicized "reliance on non-independently-verified data supplied by diocesan leaders" (that is, the data John Jay used to form its conclusions about the abuse crisis in the American Catholic church were supplied by the bishops), the report is "highly credible" and will remain an "invaluable resource" for anyone wishing to understand clergy sexual abuse of minors.

Nonetheless, VOTF concludes that some of the deductions towards which the John Jay report moves based on the evidence supplied to its researchers are flawed, and that, more importantly, the report skirts some of the most significant and compelling causative explanations for the abuse crisis. Above all, it skirts the issue of clericalism, which, in the view of VOTF, is perhaps the single most salient explanatory factor to account for what has happened in the abuse crisis, why it has happened, and why the crisis continues to manifest itself.

NEDERLAND
NOS

De Rooms-Katholieke Kerk waarschuwde geestelijken al in het midden van de jaren 50 voor seksueel misbruik van kinderen. Dat blijkt uit een circulaire uit 1954, die RTL Nieuws heeft ontdekt.

In de circulaire (.pdf) schrijft de overste van de Fraters van Tilburg dat ontucht met

NEDERLAND
Nu

AMSTERDAM - De rooms-katholieke kerk wist al in de eerste helft van de jaren vijftig van kindermisbruik in internaten.

In 1954 schreef Canisius, de algemeen overste van de fraters van Tilburg, in een nieuwsbrief: "Mannen wees toch voorzichtig in de omgang met kinderen en maak jezelf niet voor een heel leven ongelukkig. Houd je handen thuis." De brief (pdf) is in het bezit van RTL Nieuws.

NEDERLAND
Parool

De Rooms-Katholieke kerk wist al midden jaren '50 af van grootschalig kindermisbruik in de eigen internaten. De algemeen overste van de fraters van Tilburg stuurde een nieuwsbrief rond, waarin hij zijn collega's waarschuwde met hun handen van kinderen af te blijven. De brief is in bezit van RTL Nieuws.

De kerk heeft altijd volgehouden niet op de hoogte te zijn geweest van het misbruik. Wat opvalt in de brief uit 1954 is dat het seksueel misbruik wordt benoemd in termen die voor die periode vrij expliciet zijn, aldus RTL. Zo schrijft de overste Canisius: 'De laatste jaren komt ontucht met kinderen frequenter voor dan vroeger.' En: 'Mannen wees toch voorzichtig in de omgang met kinderen en maak jezelf niet voor een heel leven ongelukkig. Houd je handen thuis.'

In de brief noemt de frater-overste Canisius ook oorzaken van de toename van ontucht met minderjarige kinderen. Volgens Canisius is het misbruik te wijten aan 'een tekort aan zedigheid inzake kleding, kleverigheid bij sommige kinderen door te wekelijke, huishoudelijke opvoeding, tekort aan godsdienstzin en slapheid van wil, genotzucht, hoogmoed en eigenzinnigheid die wijze bepalingen en voorschriften versmaadt.'

NEDERLAND
RTL

[document]

De Rooms-katholieke kerk wist al midden jaren '50 af van grootschalig kindermisbruik in de eigen internaten. De algemeen overste van de fraters van Tilburg stuurde een nieuwsbrief rond, waarin hij zijn collega's waarschuwde met hun handen van kinderen af te blijven.

De kerk heeft altijd volgehouden niet op de hoogte te zijn geweest van de grote omvang van het misbruik. De brief is in bezit van RTL Nieuws (pdf).

Misbruik expliciet benoemd
Wat opvalt in de brief uit 1954 is dat het seksueel misbruik wordt benoemd in termen die voor die periode vrij expliciet zijn (pdf). Zo schrijft de overste Canisius: "De laatste jaren komt ontucht met kinderen frequenter voor dan vroeger". En "Droevig is het te moeten constateren dat ook in de rangen van de katholieke leken, ja zelfs in die van de kloosterlingen, dergelijke mislukkingen voor komen". Verderop valt te lezen: "Mannen wees toch voorzichtig in de omgang met kinderen en maak jezelf niet voor een heel leven ongelukkig. Houd je handen thuis."

NEDERLAND
de Gelderlander

TILBURG - Een algemeen overste van de Fraters van Tilburg heeft midden jaren '50 in een nieuwsbrief de leden van de congregatie expliciet gewaarschuwd voor kindermisbruik. RTL Nieuws heeft de brief ontdekt en er maandag over bericht.

"De laatste jaren komt ontucht met kinderen frequenter voor dan vroeger'', schrijft overste Canisius in de brief. En: "Mannen wees toch voorzichtig in de omgang met kinderen en maak jezelf niet voor een heel leven ongelukkig. Houd je handen thuis.''

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

by EDWARD PENTIN
11/28/2011

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI’s unusual nomination on Saturday, Nov. 26, of an American Curial official to be the new apostolic nuncio to Ireland has been widely applauded by Catholics in Rome and Ireland.

Msgr. Charles Brown, 52, a native of New York, has served at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 1994 and is thus a striking choice. Unlike most nuncios, he didn’t graduate from the Ecclesiastical Academy — the Holy See’s prestigious school for Vatican diplomats. Rather, his experience dealing with clergy abuse scandals at the CDF made him a strong candidate for the Dublin post.

Archbishop-elect Brown received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, completed graduate studies at Oxford University and the University of Toronto, and earned a doctorate in sacramental theology from the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant’Anselmo in Rome. The newly appointed nuncio will be elevated to archbishop and given the titular see of Aquileia.

MISSISSIPPI
WJTV

The man who wants to be Mississippi’s next House Speaker faces some tough questions about his role in a child sex abuse case.

Philip Gunn, who's a Republican, is an elder and attorney representing a metro area church where a former music minister in now charged with child sex abuse.

Gunn says he supports a law requiring the reporting allegations of child abuse. He claims Democrats have blocked the legislation for years.

But it's ironic that Gunn is pushing for such a bill to be passed.

MISSISSIPPI
Cottonmouth

Lost in many of the news articles hailing Philip Gunn’s triumphal entry as Speaker of the House are the sex abuse allegations leveled at Gunn’s former minister, John Langworthy. In the months following the arrest of the former Morrison Heights Baptist Church music minister, Gunn has served as the church’s attorney, spokesperson, and elder. This would seem enough hats for a man who is also mounting a speaker’s campaign but last week, Gunn added another, clergyman.

In an article published Tuesday and updated over the weekend, Ross Adams of WJTV reported that Gunn has instructed elders at the Clinton, Mississippi church not to discuss what they learned during a recent church initiated interview with Langworthy. When asked if this was the proper course of action for a person who has championed mandatory reporting of all alleged sexual abuse, Gunn bristled, “What I’m telling you is that the elders are bound by privilege under the law there’s a legal privilege that attaches.”

The privilege Gunn is referring to comes from Mississippi Rule of Evidence 505 which is otherwise known as the “Priest-Penitent Privilege”. The heart of the rule is found in subsection b which reads, “A person has a privilege to refuse to disclose and prevent another from disclosing a confidential communication by the person to a clergyman in his professional character as a spiritual adviser.”

SOUTH CAROLINA
Patch

By Lindsay Street

While no charges have been pressed in Summerville or Dorchester County against Louis "Skip" Reville, who is charged in multiple jurisdictions for child molestation, Summerville Police have begun seeking potential victims here.

"We're still tracking down victims in the ReVille case," police PIO Capt. Jon Rogers said. He added that "a couple" of cases have been discovered.

Summerville Police are working off ReVille's statements while in custody.

SYRACUSE (NY)
The Post-Standard

By Charley Hannagan / The Post-Standard

Syracuse, NY – Members of the New York Coalition to Protect Children this morning had mixed reactions to Syracuse University Basketball Coach Jim Boeheim's statement Sunday that he regrets his earlier remarks about two men who accused assistant coach Bernie Fine of sexual abuse.

Boeheim had earlier stated strong support for Fine, and told ESPN that at least one of the accusers was lying. ...

Coalition member Richard Tollner, from the Albany area, applauded Boeheim, calling the statement an “appropriate response. People have to understand you can’t jump to conclusions.”

The Rev. Robert M. Hoatson, a Catholic priest who is president of Road to Recovery Inc., a non-profit that supports victims of sexual abuse, was less charitable.

Boeheim’s earlier statements were “completely inappropriate and out of line. Now he’s backtracking on his story,” Hoatson said.

“Bernie Fine’s firing is just the beginning,” Hoatson said.

“Once again it proves when people begin to attack victims it comes back to haunt them,” he said.

NEW JERSEY
ABC News

MORRISTOWN, N.J. November 28, 2011 (AP)

A former church janitor accused of killing a New Jersey priest has told jurors the priest touched him sexually in exchange for keeping silent about the janitor's outstanding arrest warrant.

Jose Feliciano is accused of fatally stabbing the Rev. Edward Hinds in 2009 in the rectory of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Chatham. Prosecutors say Feliciano murdered the priest because he was going to fire him.

Feliciano has admitted the killing but seeks a lesser charge of manslaughter.

SYRACUSE (NY)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Jeffrey R. Anderson

When it comes to child protection and childhood sexual abuse, Jim Boeheim and Syracuse University’s quick defense of and rebuke of the courageous victims is fundamentally wrong. Boeheim’s comments immediately dismissing the victims reflect his own and our society’s general lack of understanding and ignorance regarding childhood sexual abuse. Society is quick to rally around an offender without knowing more than just his or her public persona as a trusted person who is also in denial.

In Syracuse we are seeing yet another example of institutional failures in child protection. Jim Boeheim rebuked these victims, saying their accusations were “a bunch of a thousand lies.” Jim Boeheim and others at Syracuse who allowed Bernie Fine to continue working as an assistant basketball coach at Syracuse for the past six years since these allegations have surfaced, need to be trained and educated on mandatory reporting and child protection. As Victor Vieth, the director of the National Child Protection Training Center, and his co-authors write in a recent article, Lessons From Penn State, “sex offenders who have been ‘caught’ abusing a child without a report being made to the authorities or without any meaningful consequences often feel emboldened, giving them a sense of invincibility.” In contrast, with proper training, University officials would know to report and competently investigate and assess any reasonable suspicions of child sexual abuse.

In an email to faculty, staff and students Sunday night, the chancellor of Syracuse University, Nancy Cantor, defended the University’s actions in 2005 because at the time “those who felt they knew Bernie best could not imagine what has unfolded” and the University did not have a copy of the recently-released telephone call with Bernie’s wife wherein she states that she believes he molested children. These excuses should never have prevented the University from acting quickly to thoroughly investigate Bernie Fine at the time. Instead, Bernie was emboldened as the University failed to investigate or impose any consequences until finally yesterday, when they fired Bernie Fine.

MISSISSIPPI
WJTV

[video]

Mississippi College School of Law professor says ministers are not exempt from state law to report child sex abuse.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Times Record

The Associated Press
Posted November 28, 2011

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A retired Roman Catholic cardinal is being deposed this week as part of a criminal priest-abuse case in Philadelphia.

Prosecutors are preserving Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua's (bev-uh-LOK'-wuhz) testimony before a March trial of three accused priests and a former administrator.

Monsignor William Lynn, his longtime secretary for clergy, is charged with felony child endangerment for allegedly transferring predator priests. Defense lawyers say he was acting on the cardinal's orders.

Three other priests and an ex-teacher are charged with rape.

NEW YORK
SNAP Wisconsin

Marist Brother found guilty of child porn possession; Brother Gordon worked as assistant principal in Archdiocese of New York

Shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday the New York Post reported on the arrest of Brother Lawrence Gordon on charges of possessing child pornography. Gordon, a Marist brother, was once an assistant principal at a prestigious boys school in the Bronx. That school is Mount Saint Michael Academy which proudly states that its philosophy is to “cooperate with families as they strive to fulfill the responsibility given to them by the church, specifically the Christian education of their children”.

The families of children who attend Mount Saint Michael learned that the school failed miserably in their duty to live up to that responsibility. According to reports Brother Gordon had inadvertently left his USB drive in one of the schools computers. The USB drive, left in the computer on Valentine’s Day, was filled with images of child pornography, specifically images of underage boys. A teacher at the academy found the images; fortunately a child at the school was spared the trauma of viewing the photographs, which may have included pictures of children his own age.

The discovery of child pornography, a crime in the state of New York, was not reported to the District Attorney’s office until sometime in March, weeks after the USB device was found. Parents of children who attend the academy were not notified until last week, a full nine months after school officials learned that their assistant principal possessed child pornography.

CHATHAM (NJ)
Patch

By Jake Remaly

Accused murderer Jose Feliciano told jurors Monday morning that he confided in the priest he's accused of killing about his "problems in Pennsylvania" and that during subsequent meetings the priest rubbed his leg and grabbed him sexually.

Feliciano took the witness stand for the first time in his trial in the stabbing death of the Rev. Edward Hinds of St. Patrick's Parish in Chatham Borough where Feliciano worked as a custodian.

Feliciano testified that he told Hinds in confession about his "problems in Pennsylvania" after Hinds came to the parish and parish employees had to start to be fingerprinted in 2003. Feliciano was a fugitive wanted on charges of indecent assault of a 7-year-old girl and corrupting the morals of a minor.

CHATHAM (NJ)
The Star-Ledger

By Ben Horowitz/The Star-Ledger

CHATHAM — Former church custodian Jose Feliciano testified in his murder trial today that a Chatham priest began touching his genitals after he agreed to hide criminal charges faced by Feliciano.

Feliciano is accused in the Oct. 22, 2009 stabbing death of the Rev. Edward Hinds of St. Patrick Church.

In 2004 – after Hinds agreed not to send fingerprints taken of Feliciano to State Police – the priest called him into the rectory and “asked how I was doing,” Feliciano testified.

Hinds then put his hand on Feliciano’s lap and “he went and grabbed my privacy,” Feliciano testified.

“I pushed him to the side and said, ‘Father, what are you doing?’ ” Feliciano said.

Hinds’ response was, “It was not for me to worry about. He had my fingerprints,” which would reveal he was a fugitive from 1988 Pennsylvania criminal charges of indecent assault on a 7-year-old girl and corrupting the morals of a minor, Feliciano said.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The judge hearing private testimony today from Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua about the alleged sexual abuse of children by clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has ruled that the retired cardinal was legally competent to be offering his testimony.

Cardinal Bevilacqua was questioned for several hours in the case, in private but on videotape, at his residence at St. Charles Borromeo seminary in Wynnewood, Pa. His testimony was scheduled to resume tomorrow.

Because of a gag order in the case, court officials said today that they could not disclose the substance of the cardinal’s testimony.

The trial judge and attorneys in the case were expected to question Cardinal Bevilacqua, who is not charged, about his knowledge of aspects of the case that occurred under his watch.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

On Saturday 26 November it was made public that he appointed:

- Msgr. Charles John Brown, official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as apostolic nuncio to Ireland, at the same time elevating him to the dignity of archbishop. The archbishop-elect was born in New York, U.S.A. in 1959 and ordained a priest in 1989. Before coming to Rome he worked as parochial vicar in the parish of St. Brendan in the Bronx. In September 2009 he was appointed as adjunct secretary of the International Theological Commission.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

VATICAN CITY, 28 NOV 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in audience:

- Cardinal Marc Ouellet P.S.S., prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

- Cardinal Justin Francis Rigali, archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia

AUSTRALIA
Catholic News Service

ADELAIDE, Australia (CNS) -- A prominent church-appointed lawyer who investigated an Anglican archbishop's claims of rape against a Catholic priest has found there is no substance to the allegations.

The primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, Archbishop John Hepworth, claimed in September that a still-living Catholic priest had raped him more than 40 years ago when Hepworth was a young Catholic priest. He also claimed he had been a victim of two other priests who have since died.

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson, who appointed a Michael Abbott, queen's counsel, to conduct an investigation into the claims, said, "Mr. Abbott found that there is no substance to the allegations made by Archbishop Hepworth."

Archbishop Wilson said Nov. 28 that the lawyer's conclusions were arrived at "after an examination of all of the relevant facts and circumstances."

UNITED STATES
Westword

By Michael Roberts
Mon., Nov. 28 2011

​Last week, we reported about the arrest of Father Richard James Kurtz, a Jesuit priest based in Chicago, for an alleged sexual assault on a male under the age of eighteen back in 2001. The post attracted a comment from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, complete with a salute to the victim.

Judy Block-Jones writes:

This victim is to be commended for speaking up and taking action to expose the truth.
Hopefully others who may have knowledge or been harmed by Father Richard Kurtz will have the courage to speak up and report it to police, not church officials. Crimes against kids, however old, should be investigated by the independent professionals in law enforcement, not the biased amateurs in church offices.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WHTM

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A retired Roman Catholic cardinal is expected to be deposed Monday as part of a criminal priest-abuse case in Philadelphia.

Prosecutors want to preserve Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua's (bev-uh-LOK'-wuhz) testimony in case he can't testify at the March trial of 3 accused priests and a former administrator.

The 88-year-old Bevilacqua suffers from cancer and dementia.

Monsignor William Lynn, his longtime secretary for clergy, is charged with felony child endangerment for allegedly transferring predator priests without warning. Lawyers for Lynn say he was only acting on the cardinal's orders.

NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

In a closed meeting meant only for pulpit rabbis and first reported on FailedMessiah.com, Agudah security evicted anyone not pre-approved to attend. Then Agudath Israel of America's General Counsel told the handpicked audience how to deal with claims of child sex abuse in a way that skirts mandatory reporting law. And he claimed the Brooklyn DA, Charles Hynes, personally approved this end around.

CHATHAM (NJ)
The Star-Ledger

By Ben Horowitz/The Star-Ledger

CHATHAM — Testifying today in his murder trial former church custodian Jose Feliciano said he kept criminal charges from his past hidden from everyone except the Rev. Edwards Hinds, who he is accused of killing.

Feliciano testified that in December 2003 he told Hinds that he could not be fingerprinted because "I had some problems in Pennsylvania."

The Diocese of Paterson was requiring that all church employees who had contact with children be fingerprinted at that time.

HInds said "not to worry about it, it would be up to him", Feliciano testified. Feliciano said he had his fingerprints taken, but Hinds was going to keep them and not send them into the State Police.

Then in March 2004, Feliciano said he told Hinds about the charges he faced during confession. Feliciano was a fugitive from 1988 charges of indecent assault on a 7-year-old girl and corrupting the morals of a minor.

IRELAND
Herald

By Cormac Murphy

Monday November 28 2011

THE INVESTIGATION into the Fr Kevin Reynolds libel will concentrate on why RTE allowed reporter Aoife Kavanagh to enter into correspondence with the priest's lawyers.

It's been discovered Ms Kavanagh was writing to the defamed priest's solicitors from her own personal e-mail even after she libelled him on television.

It's highly unusual for a reporter to respond to legal letters without the knowledge or authority of their superiors. Normally it is left to the journalist's lawyers or legal team.

The Prime Time Investigates programme, in which the claims were made, A Mission to Prey, was broadcast on May 23.

Three days later, Ms Kavanagh emailed Fr Reynolds' representatives, Fair & Murtagh Solicitors, to say: "Prime Time is satisfied that it can stand over each and every allegation made against your client in its programme."

UNITED STATES/VATICAN CITY
Pewsitter

Press Advisory
Pewsitter.com

November 28, 2011 - Washington DC - When the European Commission referred a long running Holocaust money laundering case against the Vatican Bank to the newly organized Autorita di Informazione Finanziaria, the Vatican agency tasked with anti money laundering, it left open the possibility of legal action by the European Commission against the Vatican.

Now the attorney for over a thousand claimants is asking the European Commission to take action after the Autorita di Informazione Finanziaria deliberately ignored his complaint. Dr. Jonathan Levy is accusing the Vatican of misfeasance and violating European anti money laundering laws. The Vatican is an associate member of the Eurozone (it issues Euros) and part of the European Anti Money Laundering regime through the Vatican Bank and must adhere to certain Directives.

Levy states the Autorita di Informazione Finanziaria is merely continuing a long running fight against an audit of certain accounts at the Vatican Bank belonging to the Franciscan Order and the Diocese of Zagreb. Levy first made his request for an accounting in 1999 and went on to sue the Vatican Bank and Franciscan Order. The case was dismissed in 2010 after a United States appeals court stated it had no jurisdiction.

DEUTSCHLAND
Welt

Eine neue Studie offenbart Schreckliches. Fast jede zweite Frau mit Behinderung wird Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs – vor allem in Betreuungseinrichtungen.

Einer Studie zufolge ist fast jede zweite körperlich behinderte Frau schon mal Opfer sexueller Übergriffe geworden. Nach Informationen der "Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung" zeigt das eine Erhebung der Universität Bielefeld, die das Bundesfamilienministerium vorstellen wird. Bundesfamilienministerin Kristina Schröder (CDU) nannte das Ausmaß in dem Bericht "erschreckend hoch" und kündigte schnelle Hilfe für die Opfer an.

OSTERREICH
der Standard

Kommentar der anderen | 30. Oktober 2011

"Massives gesellschaftliches Versagen" - Aufgang zum ehemaligen Kinderheim der Stadt Wien im Schloss Wilhelminenberg.

Vom Wegschauen, vom Mauern und von der Gefahr, dass die angekündigte Aufarbeitung des Erziehungsterrors in Kinderheimen nur entschädigungstechnisches Stückwerk bleibt: Erinnerungen und Forderungen eines ehemaligen Internatszöglings - Von Michael Amon

Es wird langsam Zeit, sich schnell von der Vorstellung zu verabschieden, das Missbrauchsproblem drehe sich um einige verdruckste Pfarrer, ein paar hundert Opfer und sei mit ein bisserl Geld und der einen oder anderen Kommission zu lösen.

DEUTSCHLAND
sueddeutsche

Hartmut von Hentig reagiert auf Kritik im Missbrauchsskandal

Der berühmte Reformpädagoge Hartmut von Hentig, 86, hätte vieles zu klären. Er geriet im vergangenen Jahr in den Strudel des Missbrauchsskandals an der Odenwaldschule. Hentig hatte seinen Lebensgefährten Gerold Becker, der lange Zeit Direktor der Schule war und als Haupttäter gilt, nicht nur in Schutz genommen. Hentig hat den Skandal 'aussitzen' wollen, auf die Opfer ist er nicht zugegangen, im Gegenteil. Scheinheilig fragte er, der doch angeblich stets die Rechte der Kinder stärken wollte, was er überhaupt damit zu tun habe. Hentig vertauschte Täter- und Opferrolle, indem er den Gedanken in den Raum stellte, ob nicht sein Freund Becker verführt worden sei? Die Betroffenen fühlten sich verhöhnt, viele Weggefährten und Anhänger von Hentigs Pädagogik vor den Kopf gestoßen.

DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit Online

Missbrauchsopfer wollen endlich die Verjährungsfristen kippen. Sie planen jetzt, die Bundesrepublik zu verklagen. Ein Gespräch mit Norbert Denef vom Netzwerk Betroffener.

DIE ZEIT: Herr Denef, wieso wollen Sie die Bundesrepublik Deutschland verklagen?

Norbert Denefl: Weil unsere Regierung nicht bereit ist, ihre politische Fürsorgepflicht gegenüber den Opfern sexualisierter Gewalt zu erfüllen.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on November 28, 2011

While we're grateful that Bevilacqua is being questioned, it's long overdue. And it's time that Catholic officials are treated, by our justice system, just like anyone else - no special privileges or deference.

We suspect the Cardinal will do what many of his colleagues have done - and pretend to recall almost nothing about dozens and dozens of cases of child molesting priests, nuns, seminarians and other church personnel. We hope the judge will see through this ruse.

NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

The conviction of a Catholic priest for sexually abusing three young sisters more than 40 years ago is unsafe, the Court of Appeal has heard.

Lawyers for Father Eugene Lewis claimed issues around excessive delay, allegedly contaminated evidence and the admissibility of supposed "reprehensible" behaviour called the reliability of the guilty verdict into question.

The 77-year-old was jailed for four years in September 2010 for 11 counts of indecent assault.

CHATHAM (NJ)
The Star-Ledger

By Ben Horowitz/The Star-Ledger

CHATHAM — Former church custodian Jose Feliciano will be testifying today in his murder trial in the slaying of a Chatham priest.

Superio Court Judge Thomas Manahan, sitting in Morristown, announced this morning that Feliciano will be taking the witness stand.

Manahan asked Feliciano if he’s had enough time to “consider” his decision.

“Yes sir,” Feliciano answered softly adding that it is “my decision.”

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Catholic League

Today, more than 80 civic associations in the Kansas City, Missouri area are being sent copies of the Catholic League ad that the Kansas City Star refused to run on October 30.

This is the eleventh segment of the Kansas City area to receive the ad that the Star would like to censor. Previously, we hit (1) every Catholic church, as well as all the nuns, order priests and brothers, (2) every Catholic lay organization, (3) all Catholic schools and colleges, (4) over 100 Protestant churches, (5) Orthodox Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups, (6) private schools, (7) public schools, (8) private and public colleges, (9) government officials and (10) all Chamber of Commerce officials and over 150 local businesses.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Tess Livingstone and Rebecca Puddy
From:The Australian
November 29, 2011

TRADITIONAL Anglican Communion leader John Hepworth has rubbished a Catholic Church inquiry that yesterday cleared Catholic priest Ian Dempsey of raping him nearly 40 years ago.

Archbishop Hepworth, who was first a Catholic and then an Anglican priest and is now the primate of the breakaway TAC, said no other victim of clerical abuse could feel safe after the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide's handling of his complaints.

"No victim in the world will be safe after this type of attack," he said. "Given that so many perpetrators of abuse were moved from diocese to diocese this process leaves the way open for findings in favour of victims in one diocese to be reconsidered by another diocese and overturned.

"I was told I would have to bear the costs of bringing witnesses before the inquiry, which I could not afford and I was also told that no witnesses would be indemnified.

IRELAND
Irish Central

By
CATHAL DERVAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Monday, November 28, 2011

Victims of clerical sex abuse want the unpublished chapter of the controversial Cloyne Report made public as the Cork diocese awaits the appointment of a new bishop.

Speculation is mounting that the Vatican will now appoint a successor to Bishop John Magee after confirmation that Irish-American Monsignor Charles Brown is the new Papal Nuncio to Ireland.

Archbishop Dr Dermot Clifford, currently running the East Cork diocese after the retirement of Bishop Magee, has admitted that the new man will need to show strong leadership.

A report in Monday’s Irish Independent also states that the incoming Bishop and the Dublin government will have to deal with calls to publish the final chapter of the Cloyne Report.

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

DANIEL BEEKMAN, LARRY MCSHANE

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

A pervert assistant principal, in a plea bargain deal to dodge jail time, admitted perusing his kiddie porn stash on a library computer inside his all-boy Catholic high school.

Brother Lawrence Gordon — who was canned from his job at Mount St. Michael Academy — accidentally left his smut-laden USB drive in the computer last Valentine’s Day, officials said.

The drive, holding sexually explicit images of underaged boys, was discovered by another teacher at the Bronx school.

NEW YORK
Wall Street Journal

Associated Press
NEW YORK — The former assistant principal of a Bronx high school is in a treatment program after admitting that he viewed child pornography on a library computer.

Brother Lawrence Gordon took a plea deal to avoid jail time. He's been fired by the Mount St. Michael Academy, an all-boys school.

According to the Daily News (http://nydn.us/sVXkRt ), Gordon accidentally left a USB drive in the school computer last Valentine's day. It held sexually explicit images of underage boys.

NEW YORK
Gothamist

A former assistant principal at an all-boy Bronx Catholic high school has admitted to viewing child pornography on the school's library computer. Brother Lawrence Gordon, 65, had accidentally left a USB stick filled with child porn in the library computer last Valentine's Day, which was discovered by another teacher. Gordon has agreed to a plea deal to avoid jail time, and will instead spend 12 to 18 months at a Maryland in-patient treatment facility and halfway house.

Gordon, who now must register as a sex offender, was fired from his job at Mount St. Michael Academy last week. The school notified parents in a letter last Friday about the firing, insisting there was no sexual contact between the school administrator and the students: "Brother Lawrence Gordon, former assistant principal at Mount St. Michael academy, has been on leave since early this year. He will not be returning to Mt. St. Michael because the administration discovered inappropriate images on his flash drive. We reported the matter to the Bronx County District Attorney's office," the letter said.

But the Post alleges that the school refuses to answer whether Gordon has ever been previously accused of sexual misconduct with a child—and also put off telling authorities about the evidence.

SYRACUSE (NY)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on November 28, 2011

We're glad that Bernie Fine has been fired but it's crucial that Syracuse University officials discipline Jim Boeheim for his extraordinarily hurtful recent comments attacking abuse victims.

Boeheim's apology will do little or nothing to 'undo' the harm he's caused. Nor will it deter others from making similarly callous comments in the future.

If the university really wants to move forward, and create a safe climate for abuse victims, it must take decisive action against Boeheim.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
iradiophilly

After months of legal maneuvering, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua is expected to testify about how the Archdiocese of Philadelphia handled years of child sex-abuse allegations. His deposition will take place over several days in a closed hearing at Bevilacqua's residence beginning November 28th at St Charles Seminary. The Cardinal's lawyers have claimed that Bevilacqua is suffering from dementia and would not be a competent witness. But after review of medical records, Common Pleas Judge Sarmina sees no reason not to proceed.

PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

November 28, 2011 by Susan Matthews

Protesters are now gathering outside St. Charles Seminary where attorneys and a judge will attempt to question Cardinal Bevilacqua today in regard to the upcoming trials.

SYRACUSE (NY)
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

By Michael Zennie and Mark Duell

Last updated at 12:50 PM on 28th November 2011

The Syracuse University basketball coach accused of sex abuse has been fired after damning new evidence suggested his wife watched him molest a boy who was staying at their house.

Laurie Fine allegedly told one of her husband's three accusers in a recorded phone call that she suspected he had done the same to other boys - but that she never did anything to stop it.

She is also said to have revealed that she slept with one of the victims, once he turned 18 - as it emerged that the tapes had been in the hands of police and ESPN for nearly ten years and no action was taken.

UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

Seven years ago, Darlene Ellison’s charismatic ex-husband was arrested for sex-related crimes he hid for over a decade. Now, she reveals how Jerry Sandusky’s wife may have been kept in the dark as well.

When news of former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky’s alleged sex crimes broke, I froze in my steps. My stomach knotted. A fog seemed to fill my head, and all I could think was “It’s happening again.” Then “I wonder if he has a wife and kids." I wasn’t reacting as a college-football fan; I was reacting as the ex-wife of a pedophile.

Just shy of seven years ago, my life and the lives of my two children were turned upside down. The man I had been married to for more than a decade had been arrested as a part of an FBI sting to bring down NAMBLA, the North American Man-Boy Love Association, an advocacy group for pedophiles that supports an “end to the extreme oppression of men and boys in mutually consensual relationships.” I was a well-educated, philanthropic, 39-year-old mother who, until recently, was living a charmed Dallas life, married to a well-liked dentist who had been living a lie for our entire relationship.

A former youth-ministry volunteer at a local church, an energetic volunteer at our kids’ elementary school, and a favorite at their Y-Guides outings, my ex-husband, Todd, turned out to be a criminal who brought tremendous harm, both physically and emotionally, to prepubescent boys. He was an “inner circle” member of NAMBLA—a member of its board of directors—wanted by the feds. Throughout our marriage, which ended in a confusing divorce shortly before the FBI swept in, I believed him when he said he was traveling to dental conventions—when in fact, he was attending pedophile conferences. He kept a secret mailbox at the local post office, where he received his pedophilia newsletters and other suspicious mail.

AUSTRALIA
Vexnews

A couple of months ago, SA independent Senator Nick Xenophon denounced a Catholic Monsignor as a rapist under parliamentary privilege.

The Adelaide Archdiocese of the Church ordered an inquiry by leading Adelaide QC Michael Abbott into the claims.

He interviewed 29 witnesses, “many of whom were present at the time the events were alleged to have occurred” and extensive documentation from the time was reviewed.

Abbott is the top criminal lawyer in South Australia, by all accounts, with a big reputation to defend, so few could dispute he’d take this task seriously.

He found “no substance to the allegations” raised by Xenophon under privilege.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

Mark Metherell
November 29, 2011.

AN INQUIRY into allegations against a senior Catholic priest that he had raped a seminarian 40 years ago, had found ''no substance'' to the claims, Adelaide's Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson has announced.

The allegations by Archbishop John Hepworth, of the breakaway Traditional Anglican Communion, were revealed in the Senate in September.

Senator Nick Xenophon named Monsignor Ian Dempsey, an Adelaide parish priest and former head navy chaplain, as John Hepworth's assailant.

AUSTRALIA
ABC/Lateline

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 28/11/2011
Reporter: Alina Eacott

The Catholic Church has dismissed sexual abuse allegations against a South Australian priest named in the Senate by Nick Xenophon.

Transcript
ALI MOORE, PRESENTER: The Catholic Church in Adelaide says allegations of sex abuse against a serving priest raised in the Senate by Nick Xenophon have been found to have no substance. But the Church won't release a QC's report into the case, saying it contains sensitive material and Senator Xenophon has accused the church of bias.

Alina Eacott reports from Adelaide.

ALINA EACOTT, REPORTER: Adelaide priest Monsignor Ian Dempsey was named as an alleged rapist in the Senate by Nick Xenophon in September. He says he's relieved a QC's report has cleared him.

IAN DEMPSEY, CATHOLIC PRIEST: It's been a very long few months since those accusations became public through the Senate and it's been a very trying and difficult time.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Independent

Monday November 28 2011

A 66-year-old priest who stood down over a child abuse allegation said he hoped priests could be treated like other professions where no public statement is made when they take administrative leave.

The North's Public Prosecution Service concluded this week after a 15-month police investigation that Father Oliver Brennan had no case to answer.

The Louth-based parish priest said yesterday: "I never got a shock like it in my life when a statement was read to me saying that an allegation was made."

AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

THERE is no substance to a breakaway Anglican church leader's claim to have been raped by a Catholic priest, Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson says.

Traditional Anglican Communion Archbishop John Hepworth said earlier this year he had been the victim of violent rapes by three priests that began in 1960, when he was 15.

Senator Nick Xenophon named an Adelaide priest as one of the rapists under federal parliamentary privilege, saying the Catholic Church had taken too long to investigate.

Adelaide Archbishop Wilson said today that an independent inquiry into the allegations by Michael Abbott QC had found there was no substance to the allegations.

IRELAND
RTE News

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has held a board meeting to discuss Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte's request that it inquire into the circumstances of RTÉ's defamation of Fr Kevin Reynolds.

The Minister had requested the BAI Compliance Committee use its powers under section 53 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 to determine whether RTÉ had met its statutory responsibilities around objectivity, impartiality and fairness.

The BAI board meeting has now concluded.

Earlier, the Archbishop of Dublin called for independent regulation of the media in the wake of the Fr Kevin Reynolds case.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said there had been considerable delay in RTÉ admitting that the priest had been wrongly accused on a Prime Time Investigates programme of sexually abusing a teenager and fathering a child.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

CHARLIE TAYLOR

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has called for independent regulation of the media.

Speaking earlier today, Dr Martin also criticised broadcaster RTÉ over the time it took them to admit that it had wrongly accused Co Galway priest Fr Kevin Reynolds of sexually abusing a teenager and fathering a child while working in Africa 30 years ago.

In an interview broadcast on RTÉ radio this morning, Dr Martin said there was a need to ensure a "basic balance between the right to investigate and press freedom and the protection of the rights of individuals".

He said news organisations must learn from the Reynolds case but denied suggestions that there was an anti-Catholic bias in the media.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Edel O'Connell and Don Lavery

Monday November 28 2011

THE Vatican's new representative in Ireland will take up residency in Dublin in January.

Irish-American priest Monsignor Charles Brown (52) has been announced as the new Papal Nuncio in Ireland following a turbulent period of relations between the Republic and the Holy See over sex abuse scandals.

The Irish Government, which announced the closure of its embassy to the Holy See last month for economic reasons, gave its approval for the new papal ambassador at a cabinet meeting last week.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Ralph Riegel

Monday November 28 2011

VICTIMS have called for an unpublished chapter in the Cloyne Report into clerical abuse to be released.

The chapter was not released on the orders of the High Court last July for specific legal reasons.

The published sections of the Cloyne Report -- which followed a two-year investigation led by Judge Yvonne Murphy -- rocked the Catholic Church last summer.

It revealed a catalogue of incidents whereby church leaders failed to properly act on reports of clerical abuse, including assaults on children.

It also found that the diocese had failed to fully implement church-stipulated child-protection guidelines, despite the fact it had itself signed up to them.

CHILE
Rebelion

Alvaro Ramis
Punto Final

Algo más que sonrisas logró arrancar la ex directora de la JUNJI, Ximena -“Reguleque”- Ossandón, cuando afirmó que Fernando Karadima era un prócer de la Iglesia y que el culpable de sus abusos era el mismísimo demonio. Igualmente bochornosas resultan hoy las declaraciones del abogado Juan Pablo Bulnes: “Soy capaz de poner mis manos al fuego por el padre Karadima; he seguido su actividad junto a mi familia y mis hijos. No ha cometido abusos contra menores ni contra mayores”.

Luego de décadas de secretismo, mentiras y evasión, la verdad se ha impuesto y sin apelación. La ministra en visita de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago, Jessica González, ha logrado probar judicialmente la existencia de reiterados delitos de abuso sexual cometidos por el párroco Fernando Karadima. Sobre las denuncias de James Hamilton, la ministra resolvió: “Que, los antecedentes, en el contexto procesal que se revisan, son a juicio de esta sentenciadora suficientes para concluir que se encuentra justificado en autos que James Hamilton a la edad de 17 años, desde mediados del año 1983 y hasta octubre del mismo año, primero en público y luego en privado, fue objeto de tocaciones en los genitales y de besos en la boca por parte de su confesor y director espiritual, quien para ejecutar las conductas descritas se valió de su condición de sacerdote y del vínculo de superioridad y dependencia creado en relación a la víctima, lo que no fue consentido o aceptado libremente por ésta”.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Catholic Church in Adelaide says an investigation has found there is no substance to allegations made by Traditional Anglican Archbishop John Hepworth against a parish priest.

Archbishop Hepworth has alleged he was sexually abused when he was a young man by Monsignor Ian Dempsey.

The investigation was conduced by prominent Adelaide lawyer Michael Abbott QC.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Edel O'Connell and Independent.ie reporters

Monday November 28 2011

THE second most senior Catholic Church leader today called for the independent regulation of media in the wake of the Fr Kevin Reynolds’ defamation case.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said that he was not trying to curb journalism, but to find ways that responsibility was guaranteed.

He said that press freedom was a vital element of society and investigative journalism had done much good, but he compared it to market freedom and said that independent regulation was required.

Speaking on Morning Ireland he said there may be an anti Catholic bias on the part of some journalists, but you could not say that there was an anti Catholic bias in the media in general.

VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

VATICAN CITY, November 28, 2011 – In a memo sent to the cardinals and archbishops who head the congregations, the tribunals, the pontifical councils and the offices that make up the Roman curia, the secretariat of state has reiterated the "practice in effect" that governs the publication of pontifical texts.

This memo, issued on November 4 but not made public until now, was covered by www.chiesa in an article on November 10:

The memo – reproduced in its entirety further below – is authoritatively signed by Archbishop Angelo Maria Becciu, who, in his capacity as "substitute," heads the first section of the secretariat of state, the office that most closely assists the pope in governing the curia.

AUSTRALIA
Catholic Culture

November 28, 2011

An investigation conducted by an attorney under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Adelaide has found that Msgr. Ian Dempsey, a former chief chaplain of the Australian Royal Navy and archdiocesan vicar general, did not sexually assault Archbishop John Hepworth, the onetime Catholic priest who is now primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion.

Attorney Michael Abbott “personally interviewed 29 witnesses, many of whom were present at the time that the events were alleged to have occurred,” said Archbishop Philip Wilson. “Archbishop Hepworth’s claims against Msgr. Dempsey, which were analyzed and examined in details, were comprehensively rejected by Mr. Abbott.”

AUSTRALIA
7News Adelaide, Yahoo!7

November 28, 2011

An investigation by the Catholic Church has cleared Brighton priest Monsignor Ian Dempsey of claims he raped another priest, 40 years ago.

The claims were aired in parliament by Senator Nick Xenophon in September, using parliamentary privilege.

Mr Xenophon said in parliament at the time that the Catholic Church had not handled the claims properly.

"Allegations have been outstanding that Priest Ian Dempsey raped John Hepworth and that Church leadership has failed to stand this priest down."

In a written statement today, Archbishop Philip Wilson said the Catholic church had appointed Michael Abbott QC to investigate the claims.

"I am satisfied that Mr Abbott examined all of the allegations raised by Archbishop Hepworth," Archbishop Wilson said.

CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: Aldo Santin

Posted: 11/28/2011

Justice Murray Sinclair told a Sunday brunch crowd that Canadian society must heal the damage caused by the Indian residential school system or deal with the violence that will be undoubtedly unleashed against it.

Sinclair, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said the children and grandchildren of the aboriginal students who were forced to attend residential schools are the modern-day victims: over-represented in jails and as victims of crime and suicide.

But he cautioned that one day soon, instead of the violence being directed at themselves or other aboriginal people, the violence will be directed at general society.

SYRACUSE (NY)
New York Post

By TIM PERONE

Syracuse University fired longtime basketball assistant coach Bernie Fine last night — just hours after a bombshell recording emerged of his wife telling a man accusing him of sex abuse that she “[knows] everything.”

Fine, 65, who had been a coach at the national powerhouse for 36 seasons, was originally placed on administrative leave earlier this month after two former ball boys accused him of molesting them.

But the university said it was compelled to fire Fine after a third accuser came forward and ESPN played a recorded phone conversation between his wife, Laurie Fine, and Bobby Davis, one of the ball boys.

SYRACUSE (NY)
New York Daily News

Raid of Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine’s house comes as local authorities refuse to help each other

BY Tom Harvey
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

There’s a reason people laugh when they hear the famous Shakespeare line, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

This is understandable, especially when we hear “lawyer stories” like the one my friend told me about his experience with the highly secretive SEAL Team 6 unit. He had spent over a decade carrying out top-secret missions, but could never get over the fact that shortly before going into harm’s way, there would inevitably be a last-minute meeting with a lawyer, who literally would go over the law and review what is known as “the rules of engagement.” That’s right, a lawyer would tell the SEALs when they could or couldn’t shoot someone.

Fast forward to Syracuse University: you need a scorecard to keep track of the various law enforcement agencies and prosecutors’ offices involved in the investigation of the recent scandal surrounding assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, especially in light of a dozen federal agents swarming Fine’s house Friday and poring through trash and carting away filing cabinets and other material.

NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

BUNSCHOTEN – Vanwege het reële gevaar van seksueel misbruik zou iedere kerkelijke gemeente minstens twee interne vertrouwenspersonen (ivp) moeten aanstellen. Dat betoogde Ineke van Dongen zaterdag op de toerustingdag van Meldpunt Misbruik.

Het Meldpunt Misbruik in Kerkelijke Relaties is een gezamenlijk adviesorgaan van de Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken, de Gereformeerde Kerken vrijgemaakt en de Nederlands Gereformeerde Kerken. De toerustingdag voor interne vertrouwenspersonen, zaterdag in Bunschoten, had als thema ”De Kerk een veilige plaats?!” en trok veel meer belangstellenden dan de zeventig personen die zich hadden aangemeld. „Deze overweldigende opkomst is een teken hoezeer het thema leeft”, aldus een van de organisatoren.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

THE POPE has said that all institutions – and not just the church – should be held to exacting standards in the response against sex abuse. His address to American bishops in the Vatican on Saturday coincided with the second anniversary of the Murphy report, published on November 26th, 2009, which investigated the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations by church and State authorities in the Dublin archdiocese.

Pope Benedict told the bishops the paedophilia scandals were a “scourge” for society, and that the church was making “conscientious efforts” to confront the problem.

He acknowledged that decades of scandals involving the clergy’s sexual abuse of young people had disoriented the faithful in the US.

UNITED STATES
The Washington Times

WASHINGTON, November 26, 2011—The world of college sports had been thrown off balance by recent allegations of sexual abuse against Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State University. Sandusky is accused of having inappropriate sexual contact with young boys he met through the “Second Mile” charity he founded in 1977, and using the athletic facilities at Penn State as a haven for his abusive actions.

Since the release of the grand jury report on November 4 of this year, a growing list of victims have come forward to speak of their abuse by Sandusky. The most recent accusations have come from one of his own grandchildren.

Allegations of sexual abuse first rocked the Catholic Church beginning in 2002 and the reverberations from this scandal placed a crack in the wall of silence that has imprisoned victims for many years. Accusations have recently surfaced against Bernie Fine an assistant basketball coach at Syracuse University and a Citadel summer camp counselor.

WISCONSIN
The Badger Herald

By Adrianna Viswanatha

Weeks after sexual abuse allegations embroiled the Penn State campus, Wisconsin legislators are seeking to reintroduce legislation providing broader opportunities for childhood victims to prosecute their perpetrators in court.

At a press conference held Tuesday, Sen. Julie Lassa, D-Stevens Point, and Rep. Sandy Pasch, D-Whitefish Bay, proposed reintroducing the Child Victims Act, which has previously been proposed twice.

Lassa said the recent incidents at Penn State University demonstrated the need to act now more than ever.

NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

By MIKE KELLY
RECORD COLUMNIST

As monuments go, the circular black millstone outside St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Mendham

A memorial to victims of clergy sex abuse at St. Joseph's Church in Mendham was destroyed this month.

But it's funny what a little vandalism can do.

The stone and a small adjoining garden, dedicated seven years ago to victims of sexual abuse and to call attention to the abuse of local boys by a former St. Joseph's pastor from Paterson, were destroyed recently by what police describe as a man acting alone with a sledgehammer.

The impact has been a reinvigorated focus on the memorial's meaning, especially in light of the recent sex abuse revelations at Penn State University. It also underscores how sensitive this issue can be.

ROME
WTHI

[with video]

ROME, (WTHI) - The leader of the Catholic church expresses sympathy for victims of sexual abuse linked to the church.

Pope Benedict the 16th made the comments while speaking to a group of U.S. Bishops visiting Rome.

The Pope says the church made efforts to investigate the problem.

Sexual abuse scandals and allegations of cover-ups have surrounded the church over the past several years.

FRANCE
Chretiente Info

Lundi 28 novembre » Dernière mise à jour : 23h18

Une lettre écrite par les 17 prêtres (sur les 170 du diocèse) qui appellent à la désobéissance circule actuellement au sein du diocèse de Rouen. Ces prêtres ont rendez-vous avec Mgr Descubes, cette semaine. Ils lui remettront leur lettre ainsi que la pétition qui circule et qui a déjà été signée par un certain nombre de laïcs. Les quelques signataires non anonymes ont tous des postes à responsabilité au sein de l’organisation du diocèse. S’ils représentent toutefois un courant marginal, ils montrent que les structures diocésaines sont noyautées par des personnes qui ne se reconnaissent pas dans l’Eglise catholique. Bref, il y a un bon coup de ménage à faire. Voici le texte de la lettre des contestaires :

Nous, laïcs chrétiens de Rouen et de son agglomération, nous prenons à notre compte et nous venons porter vers vous les questions et l’interpellation lancées à notre Eglise par les prêtres du diocèse qui, dans la suite des prêtres autrichiens, ont écrit un “Appel à la désobéissance…pour une plus grande obéissance à l’évangile”. Ils ajoutent aussi “qu’ils veulent une Église qui soit à l’écoute des besoins et des attentes des hommes d’aujourd’hui, une Église solidaire des pauvres et des exclus”.

FRANCE
France Soir

Des curés normands ont lancé un appel à l’Eglise pour tenter de vivifier leurs paroisses en autorisant les femmes et les hommes mariés célébrer la messe.

FRANCE
Paris Normandie

Un groupe de laïcs catholiques rouennais publie une Lettre ouverte aux chrétiens du diocèse. Avec pour ligne directrice la volonté de rénover l'église, de l'ouvrir au dialogue et d'opérer de profondes réformes. Explications.

Que se passe t-il dans le diocèse de Rouen ? Un vent de révolte, une soif de renovation ? Il y a quelques semaines, dix-sept prêtres signaient un «Appel à la désobéissance». Et ces jours-ci, quelques laïcs catholiques se sont engouffrés dans la brèche et publient une Lettre ouverte aux chrétiens. Un texte paraphé par plus de 170 personnes, pour la plupart des membres actifs de mouvements d'Action catholique, d'animation du centre théologique universitaire, de membres de la Fraternité franciscaine...

SYRACUSE (NY)
CNN

Syracuse, New York (CNN) -- Syracuse University has fired Bernie Fine as an assistant men's basketball coach, a school spokesman announced Sunday night, hours after new reports arose regarding his alleged sexual abuse of boys.

"At the direction of Chancellor Cantor, Bernie Fine's employment with Syracuse University has been terminated, effective immediately," Kevin Quinn said in a statement, referring to Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor.

UNITED KINGDOM
Confessions of a Skeptic

This is the first in a series of articles I shall be writing on the Carlile report. As I mentioned before, it is a substantial document and I felt it deserved a measure of reflection before I wrote in detail about it.

Paragraphs 1-4 deal with the background and history of the school and contain nothing contentious.

Paragraph 5 briefly describes the circumstances of Carlile's appointment, but neglects to mention what I at least regard as a significant issue and which I raised at the press conference.

Carlile accepted this appointment as a barrister, and was therefore instructed by a solicitor, this being the normal way of things in the law. His instructing solicitor was the school's solicitor Mr. Anthony Nelson of the firm Haworth and Gallagher.

At the time Carlile took the instruction, Nelson was also acting as the defending solicitor for Father David Pearce, not only for his appeal against sentence (successful in that it was reduced from 8 years to 5), but also for Pearce's second trial this summer along with John Maestri.

FRANCE
La Croix

Des prêtres du diocèse de Rouen ont rendu public mardi 15 novembre une lettre de soutien aux prêtres contestataires autrichiens et appelant à « une Eglise qui soit à l’écoute des besoins et des attentes des hommes d’aujourd’hui, une Eglise solidaire des pauvres et des exclus »

FRANSE
RKnieuws (Nederland)

ROUEN (RKnieuws.net) - De 320 Oostenrijkse priesters die oproepen tot ongehoorzaamheid in de Kerk willen hervormen krijgen nu ook steun van priesters van het Franse bisdom Rouen. Dat meldt de Franse krant La Croix.

‘Het manifest van de Oostenrijkse priesters waarin onder meer aangedrongen wordt op gehuwde priesters en het voorgaan van leken in de eucharistieviering heeft duidelijk beperkingen. Men kan discussiëren over een of ander voorstel maar wij willen de beweging steunen om de zaken vooruit te laten gaan’, aldus de Franse priesters, die zich ook scharen achter de verklaring van de 190 Duitse theologen.

UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils...

Paris Arrow

Benedict XVI's speech to the Ad Lima American Bishops visit about the "plague of pedophilia" is a pack of lies because he was part of that plague for over 27 years. Pied Piper Benedict XVI has no moral authority left because he is a pathological liar and he was responsible for the cover-up of the same “plague of pedophilia” within the Catholic Church for over a quarter of century. As Cardinal Ratzinger, he was the most powerful Cardinal at the Vatican next to John Paul II when he was head of the CDF Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a new sweet name for the infamous Vatican Inquisition, and all he did - with all his power and might - was to cover-up thousands of pedophile priests which is why it is one of his crimes against humanity now laid againt him at The Hague, read the Full text Criminal Charges against Dr. Joseph Ratzinger, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/05/full-text-of-criminal-charges-against.html submitted on February 14, 2011 and Hague Is Asked to Investigate Vatican Over Child Abuse. Bravo to SNAP and the Center for Constitutional Rights!! Court Filing details.

UNITED STATES
Injury Board Blog Network

Posted by Mike Bryant
November 27, 2011

Interesting statement from the Pope last week as he pointed out that all institutions need to deal with the issues that are involved with providing access to children for pedophiles. In his statement , it was reported that he:

insisted on Saturday that all of society's institutions and not just the Catholic church must be held to "exacting" standards in their response to sex abuse of children, and defended the church's efforts to confront the problem.

If the Church had shown the commitment to zero tolerance that was available, this statement would mean something. He could actually stand there and give guidance on how each scandal should be handled. The problem is that they haven't in the past and have continued to show to not doing it in the present. They have no real policy in most of the world that even suggests that they are using "exacting" standards.

There are so many priests who are still being hidden and information that has been destroyed or covered up. If the Church was truly to lead the way, they wouldn't be suffering through the most recent problems with indited Bishops and new disclosures. They wouldn't need victims to finally come forward and be heard before they disclosed the hidden atrocities.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Saturday November 26 2011

IT was not for the first time that the country's most powerful churchman suggested that religious affairs correspondents were disgraceful secularists wilfully undermining the simple faith of the nation's loyal ecclesiastical majority. But it was to be the last time that the late Cardinal Cahal Daly spun an untruthful spiritual line which he first tried on me in 1972 when he was a bishop in Longford.

Unreconstructed in his Maynooth mind-set to the end, 'Daly hoisted his 'Last Hurrah' just as 1999 ticked towards the dawn of the third millennium.

Accusing the media of wrongly sounding the death knell of the Catholic Church in Ireland, he cited large attendances at Christmas ceremonies that twilight year as harbingers of green shoots for a renewed church. His flashing bushy eyes brizzled with nostalgia for the crowded churches of the 1950s recorded so graphically by the awestruck German writer, Heinrich Boll, in his classic 'Irish Diary'.

UNITED KINGDOM
Metro

The Rt Rev Dom Laurence Soper is wanted over allegations of assaulting youngsters while he was abbot of Ealing Abbey in west London.

The 69-year-old ex-banker disappeared from his current posting in Rome in March, when he was expected back in Britain to answer bail.

It is thought he hid in monasteries on the Adriatic coast before secretly returning to the Italian capital by train to empty his account in the summer.

He may now be hiding in the Balkan state of Montenegro, where he has friends, according to a Church source. Mr Soper taught at Ealing Abbey from 1972 until 1984, when he was made abbot, and left in 2000. He was arrested last September but had been allowed to return to Rome to work.

ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post

By SUSAN HATTIS ROLEF
11/27/2011

A trend is developing in the National Religious community of excluding women from the public domain in the name of “modesty."

Last week Army Radio reported that a group of students from the Chai Roi Institute, in the settlement of Eli, refused to attend a lecture by the director of the Knesset Research and Information Center (RIC) during a visit to the Knesset, because she happens to be a woman. The Knesset refused to replace her with a man, and the students had to make due with a visit without lectures.

According to the organization’s website, the Chai Roi Institute offers “a unique program, that enables the graduates of the Beit Midrash and Kollel [of Eli] to continue to engage in the Torah, and develop themselves towards public and idealistic leadership roles within Am Yisrael, parallel with their academic studies.”

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Talk to Action

Frank Cocozzelli

Sat Nov 26, 2011

Robert Finn, the militant Opus Dei bishop and head of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri who was recently indicted by a Jackson County Grand Jury on misdemeanor charges of failing to report child abuse has cut a deal with prosecutors in nearby Clay County in order to avoid similar charges.

Nevertheless, ubiquitous Catholic Rightist leader, Bill Donohue, is defending the bishop and his indefensible behavior.

As I reported here and here, Bishop Finn, previously best known for his Opus Dei vision of the Church and society, had constructive knowledge of improper touching of young girls and possession of child pornography by Father Shawn Ratigan (who has since been charged with the latter crime).

Under Missouri law, failure to report such crimes is also a crime. A Jackson County Grand Jury took the unprecedented step of indicting both the bishop and the diocese on misdemeanor charges of failing to report child abuse. After being questioned by a Clay County grand jury on the same issue, a second indictment was a strong possibility.

SYRACUSE (NY)
ESPN

[with video]

By Mark Schwarz and Arty Berko
ESPN

In a tape-recorded 2002 telephone conversation, the wife of Syracuse associate head coach Bernie Fine admitted she had concerns that her husband had sexually molested a team ball boy in their home, but said she felt powerless to stop the alleged abuse.

Bobby Davis, who has publicly accused Bernie Fine of years of molestation that Davis said started when he was in the seventh grade, legally recorded his Oct. 8, 2002, phone call to Laurie Fine.

"I know everything that went on, you know," Laurie Fine said on the call, obtained by Outside the Lines from Davis. "I know everything that went on with him ... Bernie has issues, maybe that he's not aware of, but he has issues ... And you trusted somebody you shouldn't have trusted ... "

SYRACUSE (NY)
Fox News

A third accuser has come forward claiming Syracuse University associate head basketball coach Bernie Fine sexually abused him as a child, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported Sunday.

The newest accusation prompted police to search Fine's home on Friday, according to the newspaper.

Zach Tomaselli, 23, of Lewiston, Maine, told police last week that he was molested by Fine when he was 13 years-old inside a Pittsburgh hotel room in 2002, the night before Syracuse's game against the University of Pittsburgh.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Pontifical delegate recently wrote a letter providing concrete instructions on the path that consecrated “Regnum Christi” members will have to take after being put under the administration of an external commissioner

GIACOMO GALEAZZI
Vatican City

The Holy See has called the “lay branch” of the Legion of Christ to order. On 21 December, the Pontifical delegate Velasio De Paolis sent out a letter with concrete indications as to the path that consecrated member of the “Regnum Christi” would need to take, after the apostolic visit which also placed the lay branch of the Legion of Christ under the administration of an external commissioner. The movement currently has approximately 70.000 members, including youngsters, adults, deacons and priests, in over 30 Countries throughout the world. Members of “Regnum Christi” are required to “testify their love for Christ and the Church, through their own life style.”

Cardinal De Paolis addressed five points: assistants’ duties with regards to consecrated members; the regulation that will be in force during the review phase; the central commission for the review of statutes and “Regnum Christi” regulations; further study into certain fundamental topics, through conferences and study days and the necessary difference that exists between reflections, suggestions and formal decisions during the process that is currently underway. The letter concluded with a call for prayer, dialogue and gratitude towards God, for the gift of consecration in the Church and in the “Regnum Christi”.

MASSACHUSETTS
The Patriot Ledger

By Suzette Martinez Standring
For The Patriot Ledger

Posted Oct 09, 2011

A company and its numerous branches do a largely cash business. The money is collected, dumped into a sack, and left in an unsecured space for 12 hours or more to be counted later. Meanwhile, others have access to the area where the money is held. The cash moves, with little or no accountability, through different hands before it is deposited into the bank. Theft and embezzlement are known issues, but the owner refuses to put a secure system in place.

This is how the Catholic Church treats its weekly collections, according to author Michael W. Ryan who wrote, "Nonfeasance: The Remarkable Failure of the Catholic Church To Protect Its Primary Source of Income" (Michael W. Ryan, $14.95, 2011, www.Lulu.com). The definition of nonfeasance is “failure to act: especially: failure to do what ought to be done.”

Ryan, now retired in Milton, has served as a U.S. postal inspector since 1963, conducting audits, evaluating security systems, and investigating fraud. He continues to be a devout and practicing Catholic, whose motivation is fueled by his faith. At Sunday Mass with others, he recites “The Confiteor,” a prayer that asks forgiveness for “what I have failed to do.” Failing to act, when one knows the right thing to do, can be sinful.

UNITED STATES
Nonfeasance

Michael W. Ryan

A groundbreaking work about the Catholic hierarchy’s knowing failure to protect the Church’s primary source of income is now available at Lulu.com and Amazon.com and will soon be available at Barnes & Noble and other booksellers.

Volumes have been written about the crime and tragedy of sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy upon young and otherwise vulnerable members of their congregations. What has thus far escaped exposure to the full light of day, however, is the incidence of church embezzlements - most notably those involving the Sunday collections - and the fact that they are connected to a number of the abuse cases and exist in far greater numbers than anyone knows or (among the hierarchy) would care to admit.

The phenomenon of Sunday collection embezzlement (the focus of this book) ultimately owes its existence to a long-standing decision by the U.S. Catholic hierarchy to shun the Church-wide imposition of readily available, low-cost procedures that, properly implemented and monitored, would virtually guarantee that every dollar placed in the collections each weekend is, in fact, properly deposited into the parish bank account.

IRELAND/NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Central

By
ANTOINETTE KELLY,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Two Northern Ireland Catholic dioceses will publish major reports on child abuse in the Church, reported the BBC.

The Diocese of Raphoe in Donegal, where priest Eugene Greene abused more than 20 boys, is publishing a highly-anticipated report next week. However, the dioceses of Derry and Dromore are also publishing separate reviews on child welfare.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, which helps to protect children in the Church from being abused, conducted all three reports. The board is now reviewing every diocese in the country.

IRELAND
Limerick Leader

By Donal O’Regan
Published on Sunday 27 November 2011

FR KEVIN Reynolds, the priest at the centre of the RTE Prime Time defamation case, has spoken of his enormous gratitude to his County Limerick family and supporters, who warmly greeted him at the wedding of his Cappamore nephew last Friday – a day after he was awarded damages.

Fr Reynolds celebrated the mass of Kevin Madden, Cappamore and Helen O’Halloran, Tralee. Speaking to the Limerick Leader, the defamed Longford priest said he had been inundated with requests for interviews from journalists but “he couldn’t turn down a Limerickman” due to the support he got from Cappamore and the county.

Fr Reynolds’ sister, Ann, is married to Tom Madden, well known proprietors of the Bridge Inn in Cappamore. A large contingent from the East Limerick village attended the wedding ceremony in Tralee, where Fr Reynolds said: “I’m more nervous today than I was in the High Court”.

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Ben Horowitz/The Star-Ledger

CHATHAM — Will former church custodian Jose Feliciano take the witness stand to testify in his own defense in the fatal stabbing of a Chatham priest?

That question will finally be answered this week in the murder trial which resumes tomorrow in Superior Court in Morristown after being recessed midway through the defense case on Nov. 15.

Feliciano’s public defender, Neill Hamilton, has declined to say whether he will put his client on the stand. But signs are pointing in that direction.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic News Agency

Philadelphia, Pa., Nov 26, 2011 / 06:22 pm (CNA).- Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput spoke highly of seven new members of the archdiocesan review board that makes recommendations in suspected abuse cases.

“These individuals, Catholic and non-Catholic, possess a broad range of professional competencies that are essential to conducting a review process that is equally thorough and just to all who may be involved,” Archbishop Chaput said in a Nov. 22 statement announcing the appointments.

“Non-clerical external advisers such as these are crucial to the process,” he noted, “as they provide a high level of expertise coupled with objective advice.”

BELGIE
hbvl

Bart Aben, de Bocholtse priester die tussen 1993 en 2007 zijn buurkinderen seksueel misbruikte, werd zowel in eerste aanleg in Tongeren als in beroep in Antwerpen veroordeeld tot acht jaar gevangenisstraf.

BELGIE
hbvl

Het Antwerpse hof van beroep handhaaft de straf die in mei was uitgesproken tegen Bart Aben, de voormalige pastoor van Bocholt en Overpelt. De man gaat 8 jaar de cel in omdat hij 15 jaar lang twee kinderen heeft misbruikt, onder wie een mentaal gehandicapte jongen.

UNITED KINGDOM/VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail

By Nick Pisa and Jonathan Petre

A monk wanted by police over child abuse allegations at a leading Catholic school secretly visited Rome to empty his Vatican bank account while on the run.

Father Laurence Soper, a former teacher at St Benedict’s, West London, disappeared in March and failed to answer his police bail.

The school is attached to the Benedictine monastery Ealing Abbey and old boys include comedian Julian Clary and BBC chairman Lord Patten. It has been at the centre of a scandal since claims surfaced last year that pupils had suffered decades of sex abuse from monks, prompting a high-level Vatican inquiry.

Fr Laurence, known as ‘St Benedict’s banker’ because of his financial acumen, had gone on to be treasurer at St Anselmo in Rome, the headquarters of the Benedictine Order, but as the investigation closed in on him he vanished.

AUSTRALIA
Virtue Online

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
November 26, 2011

John Hepworth, the Archbishop of the Adelaide-based Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), will be received back into the Roman Catholic Church, but only as a layman.

Sources say Hepworth was given a letter from Rome by the hand of Melbourne Archbishop Denis J. Hart. This was to have been kept quiet to allow the Archbishop a reflection period of several weeks.

VOL broke the news Tuesday in a story "PRIMATE PLUMMETS" saying that he had been denied a return to the Roman Catholic fold as a bishop or priest.

An Australian bishop leaked the content of this letter by way of gossip at the Australian Bishops Conference. The text was released to The Australian with a headline that ran Archbishop Hepworth to return to Catholic fold as Indian, not chief.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By MAEVE SHEEHAN

Sunday November 27 2011

THE Christian Brothers have criticised Prime Time Investigates for including sexual abuse allegations against a deceased brother in the documentary that libelled Fr Kevin Reynolds.

The late Brother Gerard Dillon was named as an abuser in A Mission to Prey. Yesterday Brother Edmund Garvey, spokesman for the Christian Brothers, joined the family's criticism of Br Dillon's inclusion in the documentary. Br Garvey said RTE gave him effectively "24 working hours" of notification of the allegations before the programme was aired. "We did not get adequate time. We effectively had less than 24 working hours to find out what was in this allegation," said Br Garvey.

Br Dillon's accuser, Tyrone Selmon, told yesterday's Irish Independent that he stands by his accusations against the late Christian Brother. Last week RTE said a number of former pupils corroborated Mr Selmon's testimony .

Mr Selmon said the abuse against him as a child occurred in the 1980s, but he could not remember what age he was. He also declined to go into the details of the allegation in a telephone interview.

UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

It takes hubris for Pope Benedict to tell his bishops that the Catholic Church has led in the fight against sexual abuse of children.

Issuing self satisfied pats on the back while children remain in danger, only further diminishes the Church’s credibility and deepens the laryngitis in its moral voice.

For the Pope to insinuate the Church is a leader and reformer in the movement to protect children from sexual abuse is counterfeit. We hope Catholics out of a false sense of respect and loyalty don’t buy this.

We feel for the Catholics who must be embarrassed by this papal approach and ask them to speak with their wallets and redirect their contributions until the Pope’s words and Catholic Church’s actions match up for the protection of children.

The Church to this day, while waving a moral flag, hasn’t even come close to the Penn State Board of Trustees response: no bishop has been fired.

CONNECTICUT/RHODE ISLAND
The Day

By Kristina Dorsey
Publication: The Day

Published 11/27/2011

Back when they were teenagers growing up in Westerly, pals Pete Jones and Justin Becker used to write stories for fun, trading often-comic tales back and forth in friendly competition.

Four years ago, when they were both 26, Jones and Becker took their writing ambitions to a new and much more serious plane. What compelled them was hearing about people - people they knew - who had been sexually abused years ago by priests.

Becker recalls hearing about one person's experience and says, "I was angry. But there was nothing I could do. So we talked about it and got the idea: let's write a script and try to get justice for all these people who have suffered through this."

In between their day jobs - Becker is a painting contractor, and Jones works for the railroad - they devoted their off hours to creating the screenplay that became "Acrobat."

VATICAN CITY
Reuters Video via YouTube

[video]

Nov. 26 - Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged the suffering of victims of clerical sexual abuse, says church has made efforts to investigate the issue. Rough Cut (no reporter narration)

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a speech to U.S. bishops, Pope Benedict XVI defended the church's "honest efforts" to confront the priestly sex abuse scandal with transparency, and said its actions could help the rest of society respond to the problem.

While the church is rightly held to high standards, all other institutions should be held to the same standards as they address the causes, extent and consequences of sexual abuse, which has become a "scourge" at every level of society, the pope said Nov. 26.

On wider issues, including the institution of marriage, the pope encouraged the bishops to speak out "humbly yet insistently in defense of moral truth." Responding to the challenges of a secularized culture will first require the "re-evangelization" of the church's own members, he said.

The pope made the remarks in a speech to bishops from the state of New York, who were in Rome for their "ad limina" visits. The group was led by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who as president of the U.S. bishops' conference has spoken of the need to restore the church's credibility and its evangelizing capacity.

COLUMBUS (IN)
The Republic

By The Rev. Dennis McCarty

First Posted: November 26, 2011

BACK when I studied for ministry, part of my training was a year’s chaplain residency at a large hospital.

One week in class, we had a serious discussion on childhood sexual abuse. Out of six chaplains, four had been touched by sexual abuse as kids. (Yes, I was one of them.) One more refused to talk about it.

From what I saw then and after, I worry that child sexual abuse is drastically under-reported. Recent news headlines tend to confirm my suspicions.

Within Catholic Church hierarchy, abuse cases are still playing out in Chicago, Philadelphia and Kansas City. Multiple U.S. Olympic coaches have just been dismissed for sexually abusing youngsters.

UNITED STATES
Norwich Bulletin

By RICHARD MEEHAN
The Bulletin

Posted Nov 26, 2011 The evil allegedly perpetrated by Penn State ex-coach Jerry Sandusky has done more than tarnish a sterling football program’s reputation and brought down its iconic coach.

What will most assuredly follow is a score of lawsuits, not unlike those involving the Roman Catholic Church. Sandusky will be the central target, and the history of the legion of successful cases targeting the church suggests the financial fallout will be substantial.

While Sandusky will be the target, lawyers representing plaintiffs will be looking to the deeper, institutional pockets for compensation for these victims. The church cases provide the roadmap.

Sexual abuse is a civil wrong (or tort, as the law describes it) as well as being a crime. For civil liability purposes, it’s referred to as an intentional tort. The victim is entitled to a panoply of potential damages, including, in many instances, punitive damages. The dilemma for victims of intentional torts is how to collect those damages.

VATICAN CITY
Columbia Daily Tribune

Sunday, November 27, 2011

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI insisted yesterday that all of society’s institutions and not just the Catholic church must be held to “exacting” standards in their response to sex abuse of children and defended the church’s efforts to confront the problem.

Benedict acknowledged in remarks to visiting U.S. bishops during an audience at the Vatican that pedophilia was a “scourge” for society and that decades of scandals over clergy abusing children had left Catholics in the United States bewildered. “It is my hope that the church’s conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge, which affects every level of society,” he said.

“By the same token, just as the church is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same standards,” the pope said.

An official of a U.S. group advocating for victims of clergy abuse lamented that Benedict, with his remarks, was setting a “terrible example” for bishops.

“No public figure talks more about child safety but does little to actually make children safer than Pope Benedict,” David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told The Associated Press in an emailed statement. “The pope would have us believe that this crisis is about sex abuse. It isn’t. It is about covering up sex abuse,” Clohessy said. “And while child sex crimes happen in every institution, in no institution are they ignored or concealed as consistently as in the Catholic church.”

FLORIDA
Patch

By Jeremy T. Simons, Esq.

As the NCAA football season winds down, the biggest story of the year is not who will win the BCS Championship, where Urban Meyer might be coaching next (does anyone know what a buckeye is anyway?), or even where Andrew Luck will be playing next year.

The entire 2011 college football season will forever be remembered for the child abuse scandal at Penn State involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Of course, Sandusky is innocent until proven guilty, but it appears he is already guilty in the court of public opinion. Let me be clear on my position: child sexual abuse is a disgusting, despicable and unforgivable act. However, this is not an article on the act of child sexual abuse by the abuser. This is an article on who Florida law charges with protecting children when it is suspected a child has been abused.

There has been an equal amount of media attention directed towards Penn State, its athletic department personnel (including of course coach Joe Paterno) and other members of the football staff for failing to bring the suspicions of Sandusky’s alleged child sexual abuse to the proper reporting agency. Specifically, there is significant attention to one graduate assistant’s personal observation of alleged child sexual abuse in 2002 and what the graduate assistant, the football program, the athletic program and the school itself did in response.

What does Florida law require in this situation? Here is an outline of the basic structure of child abuse reporting requirements in Florida. In other words, here is what the graduate assistant, Paterno and Penn State would likely have been legally required to do if this were a Florida institution.

EVERYONE HAS A DUTY TO REPORT CHILD ABUSE

PENNSYLVANIA
Republican & Herald

Auditors found the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown in compliance with national standards for the protection of children from abuse.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002. In the midst of a nationwide crisis of sexual abuse of minors by clergy and the cover up of the same by church authorities, the bishops instituted changes including mandatory background checks, requiring diocese to notify the civil authorities of any allegations of abuse and the removal from duty of the accused.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Journalists ignored a series of red flags and broadcast the libel of Fr Reynolds, writes Maeve Sheehan

WORD spread through the close community of Irish missionary priests in January that Prime Time Investigates, RTE's flagship current-affairs show, was planning a programme on child sex abuse in the missions.

Missionaries reported back to their orders that Aoife Kavanagh, a veteran reporter on African affairs for the State broadcaster, was in Kenya asking questions. Then came the questionnaires sent from Prime Time to various missionary societies, seeking statistics on the sex crimes of missionary priests.

Until he was door-stepped in his parish of Ahascragh, there hadn't been a whisper about Fr Kevin Reynolds. The 65-year-old priest with the Mill Hill Missionaries went to Africa after he was ordained in 1971 and stayed until 2004. He returned to the parish of Ahascragh without a blemish on his record.

On Saturday, May 7, after celebrating First Holy Communion in the Galway parish, Fr Reynolds was confronted by a television crew of three men and Aoife Kavanagh

VATICAN
RTL (Belgique)

Le pape Benoît XVI a déclaré samedi que l'Eglise catholique aux Etats-Unis faisait "des efforts consciencieux" pour combattre le "fléau" de la pédophilie, tout en soulignant que ce problème était loin d'être propre à l'Eglise.

"Il est juste que l'on applique à l'Eglise des critères très exigeants sur ce point, mais ces mêmes critères devraient s'appliquer aussi aux autres institutions, sans exception", a-t-il déclaré en recevant au Vatican un groupe d'évêques américains. "J'espère que les efforts consciencieux de l'Eglise pour faire face à cette réalité vont aider la communauté en général à mieux cerner les causes, la fréquence et les conséquences des violences sexuelles, et à lutter de façon plus efficace contre ce fléau qui affecte la société à tous ses niveaux", a-t-il ajouté. L'Eglise catholique aux Etats-Unis a été secouée ces dernières années par plusieurs affaires de pédophilie.

NEDERLAND
BN DeStem

BREDA - "Ik denk dat ik een inhaalslag moest maken. Ik zit altijd tussen de mannen, meisjes komen daar niet voor", aldus de 70-jarige T.E. De broeder van een Bredase kloostergemeenschap vertelde dat hij al op zijn 14e naar een jongensinternaat ging en 40 jaar in het onderwijs zat.

Op een jongensschool. Na zijn pensionering deed hij op dezelfde school vrijwilligerswerk. Justitie verdenkt er hem er van dat hij op 21 december vorig jaar 18 kinderpornografische foto's in zijn bezit had en dat hij 760 afbeeldingen op zijn computer had staan. De man vertelde dat hij onervaren op de computer was. Op zoek naar mooie foto's van kinderen en vrouwen die hij voor zijn schoolbibliotheek kon gebruiken, klikte hij door op het internet.

NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on November 26, 2011

Despite a decade of promises to be “open” about child sex crimes, New York Catholic officials have kept silent for nine months about child porn on an assistant principal’s school computer.

Such callous and irresponsible secrecy and delay gives ample time for corrupt church and school officials to intimidate victims, threaten whistleblowers, discredit witnesses, fabricate alibis, and destroy evidence.

Like Yogi Berra said, it’s déjà vu all over again. This is eerily similar to, and perhaps worse than, the stunning recklessness and deceit in Kansas City, where top Catholic officials kept silent this year about a priest’s child porn photos – hundreds of them – for at least five months.

These two cases - along with equally disturbing ones in Joliet Illinois and Philadelphia PA – prove again that little if any real reform has taken place in the Catholic hierarchy.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

For the Pope, “Since the Church has the duty, and rightly so, to require certain standards of behavior in this regard, all other institutions, with no exceptions, should observe the same rules.”

Vatican Insider Staff
Rome

Addressing American bishops brought together for the Ad Limina visit in the Consistory Hall, Pope Benedict XVI mentioned that “our meeting is the first since my pastoral visit in 2008 to your nation, the intent of which was to boost the morale of American Catholics following the scandal and confusion caused by the sexual abuse crisis of recent decades.”

“I personally wanted to acknowledge the suffering inflicted on the victims,” the Pontiff went on to say. “There have been honest efforts to guarantee, in that way, our children’s safety by dealing with accusations in an appropriate and transparent manner, as soon as they arise.”

UNITED STATES
Wall Street Journal

By NATHAN KOPPEL And STEPHANIE SIMON
The sexual-abuse investigation at Penn State marks the latest in a string of high-profile child-molestation allegations in recent decades, but experts say that doesn't mean such crimes are becoming more common.

Instead, they say, society has become more aware of the threat of child sexual abuse, and far more aggressive about investigating and punishing it. Sentences have grown longer, and the number of people listed on sex-offender registries has jumped.

"A lot more untoward behavior towards kids is recast as a serious felony when maybe in the past it would be sloughed off as, 'There goes that crazy uncle again,' or variations on that theme," said Douglas Berman, a professor at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law who specializes in criminal sentencing.

The subject of child sexual abuse has also edged more into the open as institutions such as the Boy Scouts of America and the Catholic Church have been forced to confront molesters in their midst.

IRELAND
The Journal

MIRIAM O’CALLAGHAN’S HUSBAND Steve Carson has been named as the acting editor of current affairs at RTÉ.

He will remain in the role for the duration of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s inquiry into the Prime Time Investigates programme about Fr Kevin Reynolds.

He temporarily replaces Ken O’Shea who is stepping aside until the station’s internal inquiry and the BAI inquiry are completed.

IRELAND
Herald

Saturday November 26 2011

A CLOYNE priest wept as he was acquitted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl who had claimed he whispered to her that God would approve.

Fr Dan Duane (73) had denied a charge of indecently assaulting the now middle-aged woman at an address in Cork in the summer of 1980.

Fr Duane -- of the Presbytery, Cecilstown, Mallow, Co Cork -- insisted that the woman's allegations were "invented".

IRELAND
The Irish Times

The Vatican has confirmed that that Irish-American Monsignor Charles Brown, 52, is to be the new papal nuncio, as reported in The Irish Times on Thursday.

Msgr Brown has worked with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was headed by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, since 1994.

He was ordained a priest in 1989 in St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York and was based at St Brendan’s parish in the Bronx until 1991.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

Below, please find the full text and audio of Pope Benedict XVI's remarks to the US Catholic bishops of Region II on Saturfday, November 26th, 2011

****************
Dear Brother Bishops,

I greet you all with affection in the Lord and, through you, the Bishops from the United States who in the course of the coming year will make their visits ad limina Apostolorum.

Our meetings are the first since my 2008 Pastoral Visit to your country, which was intended to encourage the Catholics of America in the wake of the scandal and disorientation caused by the sexual abuse crisis of recent decades. I wished to acknowledge personally the suffering inflicted on the victims and the honest efforts made both to ensure the safety of our children and to deal appropriately and transparently with allegations as they arise. It is my hope that the Church’s conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society. By the same token, just as the Church is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same standards.

A second, equally important, purpose of my Pastoral Visit was to summon the Church in America to recognize, in the light of a dramatically changing social and religious landscape, the urgency and demands of a new evangelization. In continuity with this aim, I plan in the coming months to present for your consideration a number of reflections which I trust you will find helpful for the discernment you are called to make in your task of leading the Church into the future which Christ is opening up for us.

Many of you have shared with me your concern about the grave challenges to a consistent Christian witness presented by an increasingly secularized society. I consider it significant, however, that there is also an increased sense of concern on the part of many men and women, whatever their religious or political views, for the future of our democratic societies. They see a troubling breakdown in the intellectual, cultural and moral foundations of social life, and a growing sense of dislocation and insecurity, especially among the young, in the face of wide-ranging societal changes. Despite attempts to still the Church’s voice in the public square, many people of good will continue to look to her for wisdom, insight and sound guidance in meeting this far-reaching crisis. The present moment can thus be seen, in positive terms, as a summons to exercise the prophetic dimension of your episcopal ministry by speaking out, humbly yet insistently, in defense of moral truth, and offering a word of hope, capable of opening hearts and minds to the truth that sets us free.

VATICAN CITY
KBOI

(VATICAN CITY) -- Pope Benedict defended the Catholic Church's response to the sex abuse scandal to a group of U.S. bishops on Saturday at the Vatican.

Speaking to a group led by Archbishop Timothy Dolan, President of the U.S. Bishops conference, the Pope defended what he said were the church's honest efforts to confront the priestly sexual abuse scandal with transparency. But he also said other institutions needed to be held to the same standards as the church.

VATICAN CITY
CBS News

(AP) VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI insisted on Saturday that all of society's institutions, and not just the Catholic church, must be held to "exacting" standards in their response to sex abuse of children, and defended the church's efforts to confront the problem.

Benedict acknowledged in remarks to visiting U.S. bishops during an audience at the Vatican that pedophilia was a "scourge" for society, and that decades of scandals over clergy abusing children had left Catholics in the United States bewildered.

"It is my hope that the Church's conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society," he said.

"By the same token, just as the church is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same standards," the pope said.

CHILE
El Comercio

ANSA 10:14 Sábado 26/11/2011

Isabel Margarita Lagos, sor Paula, superiora durante 20 años del exclusivo colegio de las Monjas Ursulinas, desestimó las acusaciones de abuso sexual en su contra y aseguró que sólo tuvo "gestos de cariño" hacia sus denunciantes.

"Nunca he abusado de nadie", afirmó la religiosa, que enfrenta denuncias por abuso sexual desde hace más de dos años.

VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

VATICAN CITY—European inspectors fighting money laundering on Saturday wrapped up a week of meetings with church officials as part of ensuring that the Holy See's law conforms with international efforts to combat financing of terrorism, the Vatican said.

The officials will issue a report that will that will be discussed by experts at the Council of Europe, likely in mid-2012, the Vatican said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Italian prosecutors ordered the release of euro23 million ($33 million) seized from a Vatican Bank account as part of a money-laundering probe. Italian financial police had seized the money in September 2010, and placed the bank's two top officials under investigation, over allegations that the bank broke the law by trying to transfer funds without identifying the sender and recipient.

IERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad (Nederland)

DUBLIN – Ierland krijgt een nieuwe diplomatieke vertegenwoordiger van het Vaticaan. Priester James Brown wordt de nieuwe Ierse nuntius. Zijn voorganger werd in de zomer overgeplaatst naar Tsjechië nadat de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk van Ierland werd bekritiseerd vanwege afwikkeling van klachten inzake seksueel misbruik.

SOUTH KOREA
Radio Netherlands

A South Korean Christian pastor was jailed for 18 months for having a decade-long affair with a woman whose wedding he had officiated at, according to a court.

Adultery in South Korea is a criminal offence punishable by up to two years in prison but most offenders usually receive only suspended jail terms and imprisonment is quite rare.

The 51-year-old pastor, whose name has been withheld for privacy, had a secret affair with the woman, 41, for more than 10 years after conducting her marriage ceremony. She and her husband were both followers of his church.

The woman was also given a year-long jail sentence.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Tom Brady Security Editor
Saturday November 26 2011

PROSECUTORS are to next month begin sifting through new garda files that examined the alleged cover-up of clerical sexual abuse in the Dublin archdiocese by bishops, gardai and state officials.

A two-year investigation into the findings of the Murphy commission is expected in the coming weeks.

The revelation comes on the second anniversary of the report's publication.

A second and final file on the outcome of garda inquiries in allegations of the covering up of abuse will be forwarded to Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan and then sent to the DPP, who will determine if criminal charges should be brought.

IRELAND/NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Terry Conlon and Grainne Cunningham

Saturday November 26 2011

A priest who stepped down from his position over a "child safeguarding" allegation has been cleared.

The Public Prosecution Service of Northern Ireland has found there was no substance or credibility to the allegations against Fr Oliver Brennan (66).

Fr Brennan, who stepped down as parish priest of Blackrock, Co Louth, 15 months ago, said yesterday that he planned to return to his duties.

He said he felt very hurt personally by the "false and groundless" allegations but had been determined to vindicate his good name and reputation.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Ralph Riegel

Saturday November 26 2011

A PRIEST wept yesterday as he was acquitted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl who had claimed he whispered to her that God would approve.

Fr Dan Duane (73) had denied a charge of indecently assaulting a woman, who is now middle-aged, at an address in Cork in the summer of 1980 when she was a teenager.

Fr Duane, of the Presbytery, Cecilstown, Mallow, Co Cork, insisted that the woman's allegations were "invented".

The retired Diocese of Cloyne cleric rested his head against a wooden ledge in the courtroom and silently sobbed yesterday when the Cork Circuit Criminal Court jury returned the not guilty verdict.

IRELAND
The Journal

THE VATICAN HAS named its new Papal Nuncio to Ireland.

American priest the Right Reverend Monsignor Charles J Brown will be the Pope’s envoy, filling the spot vacated by Dr Giuseppe Leanza in July.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told TheJournal.ie that the monsignor’s nomination was given Cabinet approval last Tuesday.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed New York native, Msgr. Charles Brown Papal Nuncio to the Republic of Ireland.

Msgr. Brown has worked at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 1994, and is the Adjunct Secretary of the International Theological Commission. He studied History as an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame, and afterwards went on read Theology at Oxford University, and did Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. Furthermore, he gained a doctorate in Sacramental Theology from the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant'Anselmo in Rome.

The Irish Government gave its approval at a Cabinet meeting November 23. Dublin has been without a papal representative since the former Nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza was recalled to Rome for consultations in July.

BELGIE
De Standaard

BRUGGE/POPERINGE - Volgens de regionale televisieomroep Focus-WTV heeft het Brugse bisdom een parochiemedewerker van de Poperingse Sint-Bertinusparochie geschorst nadat een slachtoffer donderdagavond bij de Brugse bisschop Jozef De Kesel ontvangen werd. De feiten dateren van de jaren zestig waardoor ze juridisch verjaard zijn. Ze werden gepleegd in het internaat van een school in Poperinge waar de man godsdienstlessen gaf.

DEUTSCHLAND
Unabhangige Beautfragte

Neue quantitative und qualitative Analysen der Anrufe und Briefe in der Anlaufstelle der
Unabhängigen Beauftragten jetzt veröffentlicht

Endbericht der wissenschaftlichen Begleitforschung enthält den bisher größten Datensatz über Zeugnisse und Forderungen von Betroffenen zu sexuellem Missbrauch in Deutschland.
Berlin, Ulm, 17. November 2011. Mit dem Ende der Amtszeit der Unabhängigen
Beauftragten zur Aufarbeitung des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs, Dr. Christine Bergmann, Bundesministerin a.D., am 31.10.2011 endete auch der Auftrag an die wissenschaftliche
Begleitforschung der Anlaufstelle, die durch ein Team um den Kinder- und Jugendpsychiater und Psychotherapeuten Prof. Dr. Jörg M. Fegert vom Universitätsklinikum Ulm durchgeführt und von einem wissenschaftlichen Beirat begleitet wurde.

FRANCE
La Manche Libre

Cet ancien membre de la communauté des Béatitudes est soupçonné d'avoir agressé sexuellement une cinquantaine d'enfants entre 1985 et 2000. Il vécut un temps à l'Abbaye-Blanche de Mortain.

Le 30 novembre prochain s'ouvrira devant le tribunal correctionnel de Rodez le procès de Pierre-Étienne Albert, ancien membre de la communauté religieuse des Béatitudes, soupçonné d'avoir agressé sexuellement une cinquantaine d'enfants âgés de 5 à 14 ans entre 1985 et 2000 dans plusieurs régions de France. Une dizaine de ses victimes présumées se sont portées partie civile.

FRANCE
France Info

[avec video]

La semaine prochaine s'ouvre à Rodez le procès d'un moine qui a avoué avoir pratiqué des attouchements sur des dizaines de mineurs au début des années 90. L'invitée des Choix de France Info a été l'une de ses victimes pendant des mois.

VATICAN CITY
AFP

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday named US archbishop Charles John Brown to be his new envoy to Ireland, after the previous ambassador was withdrawn during a row over child abuse scandals.

The 52-year-old Brown has been working since 1994 at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the main Vatican department that enforces Church teachings and is now charged with investigating thousands of abuse cases.

Brown was born in New York on October 13, 1959, and was ordained in 1989.

The pope also on Saturday elevated Brown to the formal title of archbishop of Aquileia, an important early Christian centre in northeast Italy.

BELGIE
HLN

[mit video]

Volgens de regionale televisieomroep Focus-WTV heeft het Brugse bisdom een parochiemedewerker van de Poperingse Sint-Bertinusparochie geschorst. Dat gebeurde nadat een slachtoffer van seksueel misbruik donderdagavond bij de Brugse bisschop Jozef De Kesel ontvangen werd. De feiten dateren van de jaren '60 waardoor ze juridisch verjaard zijn. Ze werden gepleegd in het internaat van een school in Poperinge waar de man godsdienstlessen gaf.

NEDERLAND
ED

[mit video]

EINDHOVEN - De deadline nadert: donderdag 1 december moet de Eindhovense priester Jan Peijnenburg zijn geliefde Threes van Dijck uit hun huis zetten, anders ontneemt het bisdom hem zijn priesterschap. De 81-jarige Peijnenburg hoopt dat het bisdom doorzet, want zijn strijd dient een hoger doel: een humanere kerk. Peijnenburg en zijn partner Van Dijck (85) zijn al bijna 50 jaar samen.

UNITED STATES/CANADA
CBC News

RCMP officers from British Columbia are heading to Texas next month to dig deeper into allegations of child trafficking.

The investigation was launched after U.S. police found documents that described how leaders of a breakaway Mormon sect shuttled children over the border to be married to much older men.

Three years ago, Texas police said they discovered a hidden vault of records when they raided a compound belonging to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

There were hundreds of boxes that included the dictated diaries of the church's self-proclaimed prophet, Warren Jeffs, and meticulously kept marriage records.

IRELAND
RTE News

In recent weeks the Board of RTÉ has been engaged with the most serious editorial question that has arisen since the late 1960s and that work continued at a special meeting today.

The Board is keenly aware of the range of concerns that have been expressed about the Prime Time Investigates programme, Mission to Prey.

Those concerns centre on the wrong done to Fr Kevin Reynolds, and they extend to questions about the very title of the programme and to doubts about the possibility of fair treatment for priests and religious in broadcast coverage of public affairs.

Under the Broadcasting Act 2009, Board members represent the interests of viewers and listeners and must ensure that RTÉ's news and current affairs are accurate and impartial.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

JIMMY WALSH

SEANAD REPORT: IT WAS important that the Government-ordered inquiry into the RTÉ programme that defamed Fr Kevin Reynolds had terms of reference sufficiently wide to facilitate an attempt at understanding “the psychology behind the appalling defamation and the appalling failure in the duty of care” to Fr Reynolds, Rónán Mullen (Ind) said.

“I have raised the issue about whether there could be some kind of institutional bias against clergy in particular arising out of scandals and so on.”

The media played an enormous role in shaping public understanding of issues, Mr Mullen added.

If there were any question that any sector of our society was seen to be pariahs or not entitled to the same level of due care as other sectors, that was something that needed to be explored.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

LAURA SLATTERY

MEDIA & MARKETING: RTÉ news and current affairs budgets had already been in retreat

WHEN RTÉ’S director general Noel Curran confirmed to Bryan Dobson on Tuesday’s Six-One news bulletin that the broadcaster was suspending Prime Time Investigates pending the outcome of a review of its editorial processes, it must have caused an additional personal pang – above and beyond the severe humiliation of the Fr Reynolds libel aftermath itself – that this was the flagship series that he himself had been responsible for launching in 2003.

Although the regular Tuesday and Thursday editions of Prime Time continue as normal, the December run of the investigative strand has been pulled subject to a review of RTÉ’s editorial processes.

A year is a long time in current affairs broadcasting. While Curran is now dealing with the fallout of what he admitted was “one of the greatest editorial mistakes that ever happened at RTÉ”, Prime Time Investigate s ended 2010 on a high. An edition called Carry On Regardless by reporter Rita O’Reilly and producer Bill Malone on the opulent lifestyles of the Nama developers and their suddenly independently wealthy spouses, was watched by 783,000 people in December 2010 – the highest audience in the history of the programme.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta and Stephen Rogers

Friday, November 25, 2011

RTÉ has denied claims by the family of another missionary featured in the Prime Time Investigates documentary Mission to Prey that the allegations it makes against their relative are incorrect, unsubstantiated, and prejudiced.

Writing in the latest issue of The Irish Catholic newspaper in the wake of the defamation by RTÉ of Fr Kevin Reynolds, the family of the now deceased Br Gerard Dillon described the documentary as "utterly despicable" and a breach of natural justice.

They asked that Br Dillon’s name be cleared, or proof be shown to back the allegation made against him in the programme.

The Prime Time Investigates programme carried a single allegation from a South African man, Tyrone Selmon, that he was abused by the missionary.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Friday, November 25, 2011

Justice Minister Alan Shatter has been criticised for comments he made following the broadcast of a defamatory 'Prime Time Investigates' programme about Fr Kevin Reynolds.

In a statement following the broadcast, Minister Shatter said he had watched the programme with a sense of revulsion at the unspeakable catalogue of abuse against children that was revealed.

He said he shared the public concern and disgust at the revelations and said there was a duty to do all without our power to ensure the perpetrators of this predatory abuse of children are brought to justice.

RTÉ subsequently made a full apology to Fr Reynolds, having admitted the claims made in the programme were unfounded, and last week agreed a substantial settlement.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Colm Kelpie

Saturday November 26 2011

THE man who told RTE's 'Prime Time Investigates' that he was sexually abused by a deceased Christian Brother is standing over his allegation.

Relatives of Brother Gerard Dillon have questioned the accusations carried in the 'Mission to Prey' programme that wrongly accused Galway priest Fr Kevin Reynolds of fathering a child and led to a massive libel settlement.

But Tyrone Selmon, who has an interior design business in South Africa, told the Irish Independent what he said was the truth.

And he said the relatives of Br Dillon have not contacted him to query his claims.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Majella O'Sullivan and Colm Kelpie

Saturday November 26 2011

THE family of a Christian Brother named as an abuser by 'Prime Time Investigates' last night ramped up pressure on RTE to produce the evidence for its allegations.

Br Gerard Dillon was named as an abuser in the controversial documentary 'Mission To Prey', which focused on Irish missionaries in Africa.

The same programme led to a massive libel settlement with Fr Kevin Reynolds, who was falsely accused of fathering a child with a woman in Kenya.

IRELAND
Breaking News

US Archbishop Charles John Brown has been announced as Ireland's new papal nuncio.

The 52-year-old Irish-American has worked with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was headed by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, since 1994.

The former ambassador, Giuseppe Leanza, was recalled from his post in July following the publication of the Cloyne report.

The report detailed the Catholic Church's handling of abuse claims against 19 clerics in the Cork diocese.

IRELAND
RTE News

The Vatican has named Irish-American Monsignor Charles Brown as its new nuncio to Ireland.

The Vatican has announced that its new nuncio to Ireland will take up residence here.

The Holy See Press Office has confirmed that 52-year-old Irish-American Monsignor Charles Brown is to be the Pope's new envoy.

Msgr Brown has worked with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was headed by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, since 1994.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday renewed his condemnation of the evil of child sex abuse, saying all institutions, without exception, should be held to exacting standards in the protection of children and young people. The Holy Father made his remarks during a special audience with the US Catholic bishops of region II, who are here in Rome for their ad limina visits. Three major areas of focus dominated Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks on Saturday to the US Catholic bishops of Region II – which comprises New York state. The first was the renewal of the Church’s condemnation of child sexual abuse and her commitment to protecting children and young people…

It is my hope that the Church’s conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society. By the same token, just as the Church is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same standards.

The Holy Father also discussed the urgent need for a new evangelization, promising to offer the Bishops a number of reflections on the theme in the coming months, before going on to express concern for what he called the grave challenges to a consistent Christian witness presented by an increasingly secularized society. Noting that many of the bishops themselves shared this concern with him, Pope Benedict went on to say that these concerns are wrapped up in the broader issue of the very future of the experiment with ordered liberty in society…

I consider it significant, however, that there is also an increased sense of concern on the part of many men and women, whatever their religious or political views, for the future of our democratic societies. They see a troubling breakdown in the intellectual, cultural and moral foundations of social life, and a growing sense of dislocation and insecurity, especially among the young, in the face of wide-ranging societal changes. Despite attempts to still the Church’s voice in the public square, many people of good will continue to look to her for wisdom, insight and sound guidance in meeting this far-reaching crisis.

VATICAN CITY
The Sacramento Bee

Associated Press

Published: Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI says all institutions and not just the church should be held to exacting standards in the response against sex abuse.

Benedict told U.S. bishops Saturday that the pedophilia scandals were a "scourge" for society and said the Catholic church was making "conscientious efforts" to confront the problem.

UNITED KINGDOM
Pannone

In brief: the extent to which the church should be held institutionally liable for the behaviour of individual priests.

Child abuse compensation claims have increased in recent years and a significant proportion of these claims have been brought against the Catholic Church. Many paedophile priests have been convicted and sentenced, but many of their victim shave also tried to hold the Catholic Church accountable in the civil courts. Some significant awards of damages have been made. In 2005, one victim of abuse by a priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham was awarded £635,000, a record in an abuse compensation claim. In dealing with these cases, the courts have had to grapple with the extent to which the Church should be held institutionally liable for the behaviour of individual priests. The issue has been considered most recently in JGE v English Province of Our Lady of Charity (1) and the Trustees of the Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust [2011] EWHC 2871 (QB), [2011]All ER (D) 50 (Nov) (judgment handed down 8 November 2011), a case which has attracted considerable press interest.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Sam Smyth

Saturday November 26 2011

LAST March a committee of clerical high-flyers was assembled to compile a report for the Vatican on the state of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The committee of five included some of the most eminent English-speaking prelates in the international church.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston examined the Archdiocese of Dublin and Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Emeritus Archbishop of Westminster, went to the Archdiocese of Armagh.

Thomas Collins, the Archbishop of Toronto, headed to the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly.

Terrence Prendergast, the Archbishop of Ottawa, went to the Archdiocese of Tuam, while Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, investigated seminaries and institutes of theology.

The five were despatched here in a belated response to the publication, two years ago today, of the Murphy report, which reached damning conclusions on clerical sex abuse and its cover-up in the Archdiocese of Dublin.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Alison O'Connor

Saturday November 26 2011

IF you want to get on the anti-RTE bandwagon, you'd better be quick because seats are filling fast. There is a creeping danger that the national broadcaster could be damaged far beyond what is necessary regarding the Fr Reynolds libel case.

The station's management could give lessons in how to make a bad situation disastrous. But we need not allow the situation run away with itself on the basis that there are so many people out there delighted to see a media organisation in trouble and particularly RTE, as the major broadcaster in the State.

It's a puzzle of epic proportions as to how RTE management, and in particular its director general Noel Curran, allowed this situation to slide so far -- that's just what has happened since the case was decided less than 10 days ago.

Imagine how different things might be now if the director general had stood outside the courts last Thursday week and expressed the profound regret of the station for how Fr Reynolds had been so shockingly libelled? Firstly, it would have been entirely appropriate, given what had gone on, but it would also have set a proper tone of contrition and lessons learnt.

PENNSYLVANIA
The Express-Times

By Rudy Miller | The Express-Times

After years of advocating on behalf of victims of pedophiles, it took only one coach to prompt a steady stream of victims to Juliann Bortz.

Bortz, of the Allentown chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, has waged a long campaign for victims of clergy abuse.

More than the case of a priest, however, it's been the case former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky to get more people talking about the issue.

"I personally have had more calls from victims since the Penn State scandal. It’s really triggered a lot of new victims," Bortz said.

FRANCE
La Manche Libre

SOCIETE Son livre “Le silence et la honte” retrace les odieuses agressions subies par la jeune femme. Solweig Ely avait 9 ans quand elle a été agressée sexuellement par un moine de l’Abbaye Blanche de Mortain.

■ Comment êtes-vous arrivée à la communauté des Béatitudes de Mortain ?

“En 1989, mes parents et mes deux petites soeurs, âgées de 6 ans et 18 mois, habitions à Dinan. Mon père travaillait comme percepteur au Trésor Public. Ma mère avait noué des contacts avec la communauté des Béatitudes de Saint-Broladre. En 1989, mes parents ont décidé de vivre au sein de cette communauté. Elle nous affecta à l’Abbaye Blanche de Mortain où nous avons posé nos valises à l’été 1989.”

■ Quels souvenirs avez-vous de cette période ?

“Nous étions coupés du monde. Le seul lien avec l’extérieur était l’école mais nous ne déjeunions pas à la cantine. Si on était invité à un anniversaire, il fallait demander la permission au “berger”, le chef de la communauté, qui en général disait “non”. Les activités extrascolaires du mercredi nous étaient interdites. L’autorité du chef de famille était transférée au “berger”. Nous voyions très peu nos parents, occupés à travailler et à prier toute la journée.”

CANADA
CNews

By Tina Peplinskie, QMI Agency

PEMBROKE, Ont. — A Roman Catholic priest has been found guilty of indecently assaulting a teenage boy in 1979.

Monsignor Robert Borne, 63, was also found guilty of gross indecency, but acquitted of the same charges in relation to another alleged assault in 1981.

Justice Julianne Parfett said she found the alleged victim from the 1981 events to be an unreliable witness because of the number of contradictions and inconsistencies in his testimony. But she also said Borne was evasive in his own testimony.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

REPORTS INTO six Catholic dioceses by the church’s child protection watchdog are to be published next week.

The reports by the National Board for Safeguarding Children and conducted in Raphoe, Derry, Dromore, Kilmore, Ardagh Clonmacnoise and Tuam archdiocese, were completed months ago.

Each report can only be published by the decision of the relevant bishop and, it is understood, that in all instances this was agreed some time ago.

The reports follow an investigation by the National Board for Safeguarding Children into child protection practices in each diocese and mark a beginning of such a review of all 26 dioceses in Ireland as well as other Catholic institutions. The reports are to be published individually and locally by each of the six dioceses, on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week (December 6th and 7th).

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

A CO Louth parish priest who stood down from ministry in August of last year following an allegation of child abuse has been cleared in an investigation by the PSNI.

Fr Oliver Brennan first heard of the allegation, which dated back over 30 years previously, shortly before the Auxiliary Bishop of Armagh Gerard Clifford arrived in Blackrock parish, Co Louth, to announce that the priest was standing aside from ministry pending an investigation.

Bishop Clifford made the announcement at Mass on Saturday, August 14th, 2010. He told the congregation of the allegation and that Fr Brennan had agreed to stand aside pending the outcome of an investigation.

He said “the allegation has been reported to the civil authorities, and the diocese and the priest will fully co-operate with any investigation. Whilst this process is ongoing the priest is entitled to the benefit of a presumption of innocence.”

IRELAND
The Irish Times

BARRY ROCHE, Southern Correspondent

A 73-YEAR-OLD retired priest in the diocese of Cloyne was yesterday found not guilty by a jury of indecently assaulting a woman when she was a 14-year-old girl in his house in north Cork more than 30 years ago.

Fr Daniel Duane of the Presbytery, Cecilstown, Mallow, Co Cork, had denied the single charge that he had indecently assaulted the young girl when she visited him at a parish house at Bellvue, Mallow, in the summer of 1980.

Yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, the jury of seven men and five women took 85 minutes to unanimously find Fr Duane innocent of the charge after hearing some two days of evidence in the case.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

AFTER AN initially lethargic and evasive response to the Fr Kevin Reynolds’s libel action, RTÉ moved rapidly and dramatically this week to catch up with the crisis in public confidence, writes NOEL WHELAN

Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte and his Cabinet colleagues are to be complimented for their swift action on Tuesday in deciding to have the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland conduct an investigation “to determine the true facts and circumstances” that led to the broadcast of the libellous Prime Time programme.

In doing so the Government did RTÉ a favour. The national broadcaster was about to dig itself deeper into a hole. Right up until the Government announced the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland inquiry, RTÉ continued to claim that the issues arising from the libel of Fr Reynolds could be addressed in a report generated internally and published at a pace of RTÉ’s choosing.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

BREDA O'BRIEN

ACCORDING TO the recent Rape Crisis Network national statistics and annual report 2010, some 20 per cent of survivors of child sexual abuse said the perpetrators were under 18.

Two-thirds of all sexual abuse is carried out by family members, friends, neighbours and acquaintances. It paints a grim picture, but there is no sustained public soul-searching.

In recent times, Dr Helen Buckley of Trinity College’s children’s research centre, Maeve Lewis of One in Four, and Fiona Neary of the Rape Crisis Network have all said that there is a disproportionate focus on sexual abuse of children by clergy, given that the figures for abuse by that category of people are so low.

The disgraceful targeting of an innocent priest, Fr Kevin Reynolds, and the utterly false allegation that he had sexually assaulted a young woman, impregnated her and then abandoned her, has brought the issue into sharp focus.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

PAUL CULLEN

EVEN BY THE sorry standards of recent history, the past fortnight has marked another low for the media. In London, public figures troop in each day to the Leveson inquiry into media practices, delivering shocking stories of indefensible intrusion by newspaper journalists. Last week, in the High Court in Dublin, two newspapers admitted that they had no evidence for reports they had carried about the death of the schoolboy Robert Holohan at the hands of Wayne O’Donoghue.

However, it is the case of Fr Kevin Reynolds, whom RTÉ wrongly accused of raping a woman and fathering her child while he was a missionary in Africa 30 years ago, that could mean a profound change in the way journalism is practised in Ireland.

The case relates to a Prime Time Investigates programme, featuring Fr Reynolds, that went ahead despite his offer to take a paternity test to disprove the allegations against him. The programme has prompted two independent investigations, and four senior journalists have stepped down or been temporarily transferred. As a result of the errors made in it, four programmes planned for broadcast next month have been held back and the future of the investigative strand must now be in doubt.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

ÉANNA Ó CAOLLAÍ

RTÉ has rebroadcast an apology to a Co Galway priest following concerns expressed by viewers regarding the quality of the original broadcast.

RTÉ last week agreed to pay a substantial sum in compensatory and aggravated damages under a settlement of Fr Kevin Reynolds’s High Court action for defamation arising from the Mission to Prey programme.

It subsequently broadcast an apology or "correction order" on foot of an order of the High Court. Tonight's apology was broadcast after the Nine O’Clock News.

In a statement issued to the press earlier this evening, RTÉ said it would rebroadcast the apology following concerns expressed by viewers regarding the quality of the original broadcast.

CANADA
The Ottawa Citizen

By Debbi Christinck, The Ottawa Citizen
November 25, 2011

PEMBROKE, Ont. - A Diocese of Pembroke priest was found guilty on Friday in a Pembroke courtroom of one charge of indecent assault and one of gross indecency in relation to an incident involving a 16-year-old boy that dates back to 1979.

The week-long trial concluded Friday morning when Msgr. Robert Borne was found guilty of two of the four charges against him. The 63-year-old priest was acquitted of charges of indecent assault and gross indecency against another victim who was 19 when the alleged incident occurred.

The priest, who has been on administrative duties with the diocese since his arrest in 2009, took the stand in his defence during the trial.

CANADA
CTV

A Pembroke priest was found guilty Friday on two counts each of gross indecency and indecent assault stemming from incidents that involved two teenage boys three decades ago.

The charges are related to incidents that took place in 1979 and 1981 when Msgr. Robert Borne worked as a priest in Pembroke and the small community of Griffith, located about 50 kilometres southwest of Renfrew.

The two male victims, who are now in their 40s, testified during a week-long trial.