ABUSE TRACKER

SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Saturday 18 May 2013

Hugh Dougherty

Three months of agony may well be over for the Scottish Catholic in the pew, now that the Vatican has finally taken action on the Cardinal Keith O’Brien affair.

But uncertainty remains over what may happen at the end of his six-months’ purdah, and there are disturbing questions about what really went on in seminaries in the past. And why was Cardinal O’Brien made both archbishop and cardinal when his failings must have been well known to many in the Scottish hierarchy and in the Vatican?

But, above all, ordinary Catholics are hurting. It has been shaming, embarrassing and faith-challenging to watch the whole sorry tale staggering on over three months, as the church ties itself in knots over its internal procedures, giving credence to the charge of it keeping parishioners and media alike guessing. There has been a lack of leadership and a woeful lack of appreciation of the damage done by the whole affair to the church’s reputation and, by association, to that of all Christian denominations in Scotland.

What has been lacking, from day one, has been a statement to parishioners, an apology for failings, and a clear indication of how matters will be put right. Instead, ordinary Catholics have been gleaning what they can about their church’s discomfort and actions, or lack of them, by scouring the media for crumbs of conjecture. The church has committed the ultimate sin of public relations, by failing to communicate, first and foremost, directly with its own stakeholders.

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BELGIEN
Grenzecho

Aus Brüssel berichtet Gerd Zeimers

„Die Zeit ist vorbei, dass sexueller Missbrauch durch Geistliche einfach unter den Teppich gekehrt wurde“, hieß es estern in Brüssel, als der erste Tätigkeitsbericht der zehn Kontaktstellen vorgestellt wurde, die die Kirche für Opfer von sexuellem Missbrauch in einem pastoralen Umfeld eingerichtet hatte. Mehr als 300 Opfer meldeten sich im Laufe eines Jahres.

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AUSTRALIEN
Gayosterriech

NSW: Unzählige Kinder sollen ab den 1940er- bis in die 1980er-Jahre in einem Kinderheim der anglikanischen Kirche von England in Lismore bei Brisbane an der Nordküste von New South Wales misshandelt und sexuell missbraucht worden sein. Jetzt verkündete der anglikanische Bischof der Diözese Grafton deshalb seinen Rücktritt.

Bekannt geworden sind die Vorwürfe bereits im November 2005, als eines der Opfer – ein bekannter Fotograf – in einem Interview mit ABC North Coast Radio seine Geschichte erzählte: “Ich lebte im Kinderheim der Kirche von England von 1949 bis 1964”, schilderte ein Opfer. “Die meisten Jahre waren voller Hass, es gab blutig-brutale Auspeitschungen, Bashing, Hunger und sexellen Missbrauch. Es war ein Haus der Hölle und der Wut.” In der Zeit, in der er im Heim war, sollen mehr als 200 Kinder verbal, körperlich und sexuell missbraucht worden sein. “Angst beherrschte unser Leben”, schilderte das Opfer weiter. Die mutmaßliche Täter sollen Mitarbeiter, auf Besuch befindliche Geistliche und andere Personen gewesen sein. Nach dem Bekanntwerden der Vorwürfe kündigte Premierministerin Julia Gillard im November letzten Jahres die Bildung einer königlichen Kommssion zur Prüfung der Vorwürfe an.

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OSTERREICH
Kurier

Ein möglicher Kindesmissbrauch könnte ungesühnt bleiben, weil ein Staatsanwalt lasch ermittelt haben soll.

3. September 2012, Andreasgasse 4 in Wien: Marian beschreibt gegenüber der Polizistin, wie ihn sein Vater schwer sexuell missbraucht haben soll. Irgendwann sagt der Zehnjährige: „Aber er hat mir in den Popo gegriffen.“ Eine Kamera und ein Tonband laufen mit. Das Material landet bei der Staatsanwaltschaft Korneuburg. Die Beamten empfehlen eine kontradiktorische (Anmerkung: schonende) Einvernahme und die Beiziehung einer Kinderpsychologin. In solchen Fällen ist das Usus. Nicht für einen Staatsanwalt in Korneuburg, der das Verfahren einstellte.

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IRELAND
The Journal

CHILDLINE RECEIVED ALMOST 800,000 calls in 2012, but 34 per cent of phonecalls to the service go unanswered.

The ISPCC’s Childline is a a member of Child Helpline International (CHI), which is marking the seventh annual International Child Helpline Day today.

CEO Ashley Balbirnie said that without helplines like Childline, children’s voices would not be heard.

Childline receives no government funding and relies on the generosity of corporate partners and members of the public to maintain the service. ISPCC would like to take this opportunity to thank our dedicated, enthusiastic volunteers throughout the country for their commitment and support, without them we would not be able to provide a helpline for children.

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AUSTRALIA
Special Commission of Inquiry

Friday, 17 May 2013: Transcript – Day 10 [PDF, 806kb]

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JOLIET (IL)
Patch

By Karen Sorensen May 17, 2013

A former assistant principal and athletic director at Joliet Catholic Academy will spend the rest of his life in prison for having sex with a teenage boy in Florida,

William Wert, 56, was living in Sarasota, Fla., when he was arrested for having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old and charged with seven counts of sexual battery of a minor and four counts of lewd behavior, according to a story in the Joliet Herald News. He was not working as a priest at the time of his arrest.

A jury found Wert guilty, and he was sentenced Thursday, the story said.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

SOURCE: AAP

A lawyer says the Catholic Church and other organisations that contributed to child sex abuse problems should have to pay for the royal commission.

Catholic Church officials have been likened to the mafia, outlaw motorcycle gangs and drug cartels by a legal activist.

Lawyer and lobbyist Bryan Keon-Cohen said the church, currently at the centre of a royal commission into the handling of child sex abuse complaints, saw itself as above the law and resisted governmental responses to child sex abuse.

Dr Keon-Cohen, the president of community lobby group COIN (Commission of Inquiry Now), said the church’s own mechanisms for investigating abuse, such as Towards Healing and the Melbourne Response, were insufficient and objectionable.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

The NSW Special Commission of Inquiry has been told a police investigation into alleged concealment of child sexual assault by senior clergy in the Hunter Valley region had been very thorough, but that a senior serving clergyman had refused to give an interview to investigating officers.

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The NSW Special Commission of Inquiry has been told that a police investigation into alleged concealment of child sexual assault by senior clergy in the Hunter was very thorough.

Ian Lloyd QC was brought into the inquiry to assess the three briefs of evidence presented to the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions by Strike Force Lantel.

Mr Lloyd’s report revealed that one very senior serving clergyman has refused to give an interview to the strike force.

Suzie Smith reports from Newcastle.

SUZIE SMITH, REPORTER: In the witness box former senior Crown Prosecutor, Ian Lloyd QC. He’s the Commission’s independent witness called in for his professional opinions. Today he was asked about the claim by whistleblower police officer, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox that Strike Force Lantel was set up to fail. Mr Lloyd told the inquiry the strike force’s briefs were of an excellent standard. He said:

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Sitting quietly in the public gallery of a Newcastle court, the man who sparked a royal commission on child sex abuse following a set of explosive, scathing and accusatory claims about the police force and his colleagues has this week watched a queue of his former colleagues paint a very different picture.

One by one, former and serving officers in the Newcastle-Maitland area and from the elite Sex Crimes Squad in Sydney have rejected Detective Inspector Peter Fox’s claims at the Special Commission of Inquiry, one even describing his allegations as ”disgusting”, ”crazy” and that he had ”destroyed” the reputations of good, hard-working officers.

Inspector Fox propelled himself onto the national stage with allegations that a strike force set up to investigate allegations of abuse cover-up within the church had itself failed because of a whitewash by senior officers.

He alleged that his superiors ordered him to stop investigating the alleged cover-up of abuse committed by a priest, Father Denis McAlinden – however, Commissioner Margaret Cunneen, SC, has been told he was in fact never part of the police strike force, code-named Lantle, established to investigate the so-called cover-up.

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AUSTRALIA
Failed Messiah

“…Saturday in the synagogue Australia Chabad’s] senior spiritual leader, Rabbi Zvi Telsner, delivered a stern sermon from the pulpit. “Who gave you permission to talk to anyone? Which rabbi gave you permission?” he thundered, without mentioning any names. Zephaniah and his wife Chaya walked out in a spontaneous protest with six others. Rabbi Telsner insists his remarks were not directed at any individual. “It’s like calling someone fat,” he tells me. “If you think you’re fat that’s up to you.…”

The Australian has a very long article today on the Chabad child sexual abuse scandal and the impact it has had on the Waks family. What follows are excerpts from that article:

Manny Waks pays the price for speaking about sexual abuse in an Orthodox Jewish community
KATE LEGGE • The Australian

…[Zephania Waks] prays on the Sabbath. He walks to the synagogue. He studies the Torah. He observes the rituals of the Chabad. Why has this solid pillar of his community become persona non grata? Waks believes his so-called sin was supporting his eldest son Manny, 37, who went to the media in July 2011 with allegations he was sexually abused as a teenager at the Yeshivah Centre, where school and synagogue squat in the heartland of this tight-knit group of worshippers.

The fears that choke child-abuse victims in every community cast an even darker shadow in orthodox circles, where dirty laundry is typically dealt with in-house. The archaic concept of Mesirah – the prohibition on reporting another Jew’s wrongdoing to non-Jewish authorities – still exerts a powerful hold. Zephaniah began to feel a bristling towards him from the first Sabbath after his son’s disclosures. That Saturday in the synagogue the most senior spiritual leader, Rabbi Zvi Telsner, delivered a stern sermon from the pulpit. “Who gave you permission to talk to anyone? Which rabbi gave you permission?” he thundered, without mentioning any names. Zephaniah and his wife Chaya walked out in a spontaneous protest with six others. Rabbi Telsner insists his remarks were not directed at any individual. “It’s like calling someone fat,” he tells me. “If you think you’re fat that’s up to you.” He had dismissed as “absolute rubbish” any suggestion he sought to discourage witnesses from stepping forward.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

KATE LEGGE From: The Australian May 18, 2013

TO outsiders, Zephaniah Waks blends in with other bearded orthodox Jewish men dressed in black on the footpaths of the East St Kilda neighbourhood where he has dwelt for almost three decades.

But to insiders who live, work, gossip and pray here, his presence reminds them of things they’d rather forget. He is a stone in their shoe: uncomfortable, irritating, difficult to extract. For the past two years he has been singled out for the kind of shunning that others not as stubborn or as flinty or as sure of their stand would sooner flee than endure.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner

THE Anglican Diocese of Grafton said while it regretted Bishop Keith Slater’s “error in judgment”, it commended “his honest acknowledgment of mistakes in this regard”.

Following the resignation of the Right Reverend Keith Slater as Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton yesterday, Archdeacon Greg Ezzy will fulfil the role of administrator until the appointment of a new bishop.

Archdeacon Ezzy said the diocese was satisfied that action had been taken to fix past mistakes and it will act on any identified in the future.

“We regret the serious error of judgment made by Bishop Keith Slater when he responded to complaints of abuse which occurred at the North Coast Children’s Home some decades ago but we commend our bishop for his honest acknowledgement of mistakes in this regard,” Archdeacon Ezzy said.

“We support the genuine apology he has made to survivors of abuse. We affirm him in his generosity and courage in resigning his episcopate as an expression of the serious effects that these decisions may have brought about for some of those survivors.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner

THE Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton has resigned because some victims of sexual abuse who came to the diocese for support or compensation were turned away.

The Right Reverend Keith Slater yesterday issued a statement admitting he failed in his duty to follow protocol by not referring sexual abuse cases at Lismore’s North Coast Children’s Home to the professional standards director “as they should have been”.

The abuse took place at the home over a number of decades between the 1940s and 1980s.

The bishop’s comments relate to cases reported to the diocese from 2006 on.

Yesterday he apologised to victims who were not given access to the professional standards director which could have helped with ongoing police investigations.

Abuse cases allegedly occurred at the home between 1940 and 1980

In 2006, complainants started to come forward

In 2007 the diocese settled 39 claims through payments. Two others were not ready to settle.

“After the majority of claims had been settled, seven more people came forward,” Rev Slater said.

“The Diocese received these additional claims between 2008 and 2011.

“A few, but not all, alleged sexual abuse while resident at the home.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Bruce MacKenzie

The Anglican Diocese of Grafton says it is developing a new approach to better support victims of abuse following the shock resignation of a local bishop.

The Right Reverend Keith Slater resigned as bishop yesterday over his handling of about 50 claims of acts of physical, sexual and psychological abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore, on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

The abuse took place between the 1940s and 1980s.

Reverend Slater acknowledged that he did not pass on some matters to the church’s professional standards director for investigation.

He has apologised to those involved, and says the question of legal liability clouded the issue.

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ILLINOIS
Southtown Star

By Janet Lundquist jlundquist@stmedianetwork.com May 17, 2013

A former athletic director at Joliet Catholic High School was sentenced to life in prison by a Florida judge Thursday for having sex with a teenage boy.

A Sarasota County jury convicted William Wert, 56, of sex abuse charges in February.

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KENTUCKY
Herald-Leader

By Josh Kegley — jkegley@herald-leader.com

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lexington to investigate and punish a priest suspended over sex abuse allegations. The priest is living in McCreary County.

David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), recently sent a letter to Lexington Bishop Ronald Gainer asking that the diocese take action against Carroll Howlin, a Roman Catholic priest living in Whitley City who was suspended by the Joliet, Ill., diocese on accusations of abusing teenage boys.

“We want you to take real steps — now — to get this suspended, credibly accused serial predator priest away from children,” the letter said.

However, a spokesman for the Lexington diocese said there was little it could do, since Howlin was employed and suspended by a different diocese.

“He’s not an employee of the Diocese of Lexington, nor is he a priest of the Diocese of Lexington,” spokesman Tom Shaughnessy said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Catherine Clifford

A 59-year-old former Catholic priest has been charged with 64 additional offences relating to alleged historical child sexual abuse.

The charges were laid by officers from Strike Force Glenroe, which comprises detectives from the Sex Crimes Squad, New England Local Area Command and Barwon Local Area Command.

In October 2012, 25 charges were laid against the ex-priest connected to the alleged sexual abuse of three girls in the 1970s and 80s.

Detectives continued their investigations and, in January, laid a further 35 charges against the ex-priest in connection with the alleged sexual assaults of six alter boys in the Catholic dioceses of Moree and Armidale.

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AUSTRALIA
Advertiser

Read Bishop Keith Slater’s full statement
Read the Diocese’s full statement

By Nick Ralston May 18, 2013

An Anglican bishop has resigned over his failure to properly pass on child sex abuse complaints at a children’s home on the NSW north coast.

Bishop Keith Slater has stood down as the Archbishop of Grafton apologising for his ”past failings” in the management of claims of abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

”I apologise to those who bravely came forward to tell their story of abuse and were turned away,” he said in a statement. ”I acknowledge the pain and further damage that this response may have caused.”

In 2006 the Anglican Diocese of Grafton received a number of claims alleging acts of ”physical, psychological and sexual abuse” at the home between the 1940s and the 1980s.

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UNITED STATES
Dickinson Press

GRAND FORKS — An annual report, sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, says an independent audit and study found 2012 had the biggest drop in allegations of sexual abuse by priests in a decade.

By: Stephen J. Lee, Forum News Service

GRAND FORKS — An annual report, sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, says an independent audit and study found 2012 had the biggest drop in allegations of sexual abuse by priests in a decade.

But the report also singles out one diocese as the only one that refuses to take part in the annual audit and data collection of compliance with the conference’s own 2004 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People: the Diocese of Lincoln, in Nebraska.

That may be of interest to people in eastern North Dakota since the bishop-elect for the Fargo diocese, Monsignor John Folda, is coming from Lincoln, where he has been a priest for two decades.

Appointed last month to replace now-Archbishop Samuel Aquila, who is in Denver, Folda is to be ordained bishop in Fargo on June 19.

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AUSTRALIA
The Right Reverend Keith Slater – BISHOP OF THE ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF GRAFTON

Following is a public statement by the Right Reverend Keith Slater regarding the management of claims of abuse by the Diocese of Grafton at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore NSW.

Since 2006 the Diocese of Grafton has received a number of claims alleging acts of physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore NSW. The abuse
took place over a number of decades (1940’s to 1980’s). The alleged perpetrators included staff at the Home, visiting clergy, members of holiday host families and other residents.

When the claims were initially received it was necessary to clarify the Diocese of Grafton’s legal liability for the actions at the Home. Legal opinion stated that the Diocese did not have a legal responsibility. However, given the Church’s recognised connection with the Home, the Diocese resolved that it did have a moral responsibility to respond to these claims and chose to settle them as expediently as it could.

In 2007 the Diocese settled thirty-nine of these claims through a payment negotiated with the solicitors acting for the claimants. Two other claimants were not ready to settle at that time.

In the cases of sexual abuse, and where the perpetrators were identified, the Diocese informed
the Police and received advice that Police investigations had been instigated. This related specifically to allegations against two members of clergy who were still alive at the time the claims were presented.

After the majority of claims had been settled, seven more people came forward. The Diocese received these additional claims between 2008 and 2011, some through a solicitor; some complainants chose to write directly to me as Bishop. A few, but not all, alleged sexual abuse while resident at the Home.

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AUSTRALIA
Anglican Diocese of Grafton

Following the resignation of the Right Reverend Keith Slater as Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton today, Archdeacon Greg Ezzy will fulfil the role of Administrator until the appointment of a new Bishop.

On behalf of the interim leadership Archdeacon Ezzy stated today “We regret the serious error of judgment made by Bishop Keith Slater, when he responded to complaints of abuse which occurred at the North Coast Children’s Home some decades ago but we commend our Bishop for his honest acknowledgement of mistakes in this regard.

We support the genuine apology he has made to survivors of abuse. We affirm him in his generosity and courage in resigning his Episcopate as an expression of the serious effects that these decisions may have brought about for some of those survivors.

Along with our Bishop we grieve for those who continue to suffer as a result of past abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner

THE Right Reverend Keith Slater has resigned as Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton.

Read Bishop Keith Slater’s full statement
Read the Diocese’s full statement

Bishop Slater said he accepts full responsibility for the incorrect management of claims of abuse alleging acts of physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

The Bishop said the Diocese had adopted a Professional Standards Ordinance and Protocol in 2004 which outlines the obligations and processes for managing complaints of sexual abuse.

Initial findings from an audit in January indicated that the Professional Standards Protocols had not always been applied, specifically in matters associated with claims of abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home.

“I acknowledge that I was responsible for ensuring full compliance with the Protocol and that I failed in this duty,” Bishop Slater said in a media statement.

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AUSTRALIA
Northern Star

Peter Weekes 18th May 201

THE resignation of Grafton’s Anglican Bishop yesterday over mishandling allegations of physical and sexual abuse at a Lismore children’s home has “come too late” for victims, one said last night.

“He has been misbehaving, doing the wrong thing, not acknowledging children of abuse and not doing what he was supposed to do to help them for a very long time,” said Tommy Campion, who was a resident for 14 years from the age of two at North Coast Children’s Home.

In a statement Bishop Keith Slater yesterday apologised for his past failings in managing allegations of physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the home between 1940 and the 1980s.

“As a sign of my recognition of these matters and in the hope that it may contribute towards healing and wholeness for those who are abused I forthwith resign from being the Bishop,” he said.

He said the diocese had received a number of allegations of abuse.

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VERMONT
Bennington Banner

Wednesday May 15, 2013

NEAL P. GOSWAMI
Senior Staff Writer

BENNINGTON — The Legislature agreed Tuesday to extend the statute of limitations on crimes committed against children after a local prosecutor sought changes following the trial of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

40-year statute of limitations

Sexual crimes committed against a child will now have a 40-year statute of limitations. Current law only allows for prosecution of sexual assault, lewd and lascivious conduct, sexual exploitation of a minor within 10 years after it is reported or until a child turns 24.

Bennington County Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Christina Rainville said the Sandusky case was a “watershed moment” for her and led her to seek a change in Vermont law. She approached Bennington County Democratic Sen. Dick Sears, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to seek an extended limit.

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VERMONT
Bennington Banner

Wednesday May 15, 2013
I grew up in State College, Pa., home of Penn State University and its fabled football program. In high school I walked the halls and attended classes with the children of Penn State football royalty: A couple of Paternos, some Sanduskys. We were the Little Lions, a play on the college mascot the Nittany Lion.

In 2011 when it came to light that former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky had been sexually abusing boys for a number of years, I simply didn’t believe it. It seems that as I wrapped up my journalism degree at Penn State, children were being irrevocably harmed by a predator whose face we’d all seen on the sidelines at Beaver Stadium for years.

Later, as I read the 23-page grand jury report about the alleged abuse, my heart fell and my stomach turned. There were too many victims for these allegations not to have some truth to them. I read that fellow State High alum Mike McQueary had witnessed Sandusky raping a 10-year-old boy in a football building in 2002. I felt physically sick. McQueary reportedly followed the chain of command, and within the scope of the law reported what he saw to his superior, Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno.

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VERMONT/NEW YORK
WNYT

[with video]

By: Abigail Bleck

BENNINGTON and ALBANY–Mark Lyman lives and breathes the Statute of Limitations in New York. Both as an advocate for people who have been sexually abused and as a victim himself. Prosecutors in the Empire State have a five year window after a sexual abuse victim turns 18 or five years after it is reported–whichever comes first.

“A significant number of people go into their 30s, 40s and even 50s before they decide to come forward or even remember of the sexual abuse,” explains Mark Lyman of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, in Albany.

Vermont, however, accomplished what New York has not. Just this week in Montpelier, the House and Senate increased the statute of limitations for sexual abuse against a child from 24 years to 40.

“This is clearly having an effect on our ability to protect today’s children and really to do something about it,” says Christina Rainville, Bennington County’s Chief Deputy State’s Attorney and the prosecutor who helped legislators draft the bill.

Rainville believes the change was necessary because children are often too fearful to report abuse at the hands of an authority figure. They also don’t always realize–or remember–that it occurred, especially with young children. And for those who do, reliving the pain necessary for a successful prosecution isn’t always possible.

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AUSTRALIA
Special Commission of Inquiry

Transcripts

Thursday, 16 May 2013: Transcript – Day 9 [PDF, 1222.438kb]

Wednesday, 15 May 2013: Transcript – Day 8 [PDF, 702kb]
Tuesday, 14 May 2013: Transcript – Day 7 [PDF, 1170kb]
Monday, 13 May 2013: Transcript – Day 6 [PDF, 1130kb]

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

By TRICIA L. NADOLNY
Monitor staff
Friday, May 17, 2013

The Pembroke parents who accused a Concord priest of making inappropriate sexual comments to their son during the sacrament of confession will be paid $2,000 to settle the lawsuit they filed in February, according to a spokesman from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester.

The settlement, reached Wednesday, stipulates that the money will go to future educational costs of the 14-year-old boy, who is a student at St. John Regional School.

Spokesman Kevin Donovan said the settlement is not an admission of guilt by the Rev. George Desjardins, who was accused of talking about pornography and rape in a December 2012 confession held during the school day. Donovan called the payment “minimal” and a “means to an end, so the community can move on.”

The parents, who are not being named to protect the name of their son, maintain that Desjardins’s comments were unacceptable, their lawyer, Peter Hutchins, said. In the lawsuit filed at Hillsborough County Superior Court, they accused Desjardins of asking the boy whether he had “engaged in watching pornographic material and masturbating.” When the boy said that he hadn’t and that he had a girlfriend, Desjardins told the boy to use “rubbers” and warned him to be careful because a girl can “yell ‘rape’ ” during sex, the lawsuit continued.

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BRIDGEPORT (CT)
CT Post

The Diocese of Bridgeport has been without a bishop for longer than one year and now “a buyout offer to 60 employees” raises questions about diocesan financial health. The past two men who held this office were promoted to grander positions, in some way acknowledging the value of this episcopal position as a stepping stone to political advancement. Fairfield County is known for its overall wealth and income per capita as well as for the glaring gap between those at the top and bottom of such demographics.

In recent years the diocese has decreased from 87 to 82 parishes. Schools have been closed and the number of priests and religious serving has decreased while the average age of those serving has increased. The diocese suffered episodes of sexual abuse claims with settlements exceeding $37.7 million 10 years ago as well as several other publicized clergy scandals more recently. Bishop William Lori organized a very disciplined financial reporting system. He was personally instrumental in annual appeal fundraising as well as endowment activity. (In a way it is strange that diocesan statistics continue to reference 460,000 Catholics while local observers note fewer faithful in the pews. Is it also curious there seem to be no statistics or stories regarding the healing journeys of those who were abused by clergy as youth whether there were settlements or not?)

What Bishop Lori failed to accomplish was to be open, accountable and transparent when it came to financial details of the diocese. There is no publication of any audits or other financial reports on the diocesan site since June 30, 2008. The three specific reports available (as examples of financial stewardship) are not close to comprehensive representation of the entirety of Catholic activity in the boundaries of the diocese, but merely a few slices of the dollars at work or at rest. The latest announcement of retirement offers to employees at Jewett Avenue provides a confirmation to rumors in recent months about extremely tight budgets, school finances under pressure, and division of full-time positions into multiple part-time jobs to avoid the expense of benefits, particularly healthcare.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MICHAEL MCKENNA, AMANDA GEARING From: The Australian May 18, 2013

MORE victims have made child-sex allegations against senior Anglican clergymen at a shut-down north Queensland boarding school, as church officials confirmed they had sat on a 2004 report about complaints from Britain into one of the suspected serial abusers.

Former students Mark McClintock and Greg Shaw have this week come forward with allegations against Robert Waddington, headmaster at St Barnabas boarding school, in Ravenshoe southwest of Cairns, in the 1960s. Waddington later returned to Britain and rose to become head of education for the Church of England and Dean of Manchester.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

STUART RINTOUL From: The Australian May 18, 2013

BARRISTER Bryan Keon-Cohen has likened the Catholic Church to outlaw motorcycle gangs, drug cartels and people-smugglers over its treatment of child-abuse victims.

Speaking at a legal conference yesterday, Dr Keon-Cohen, president of abuse organisation Commission of Inquiry Now, said the church had put the welfare of priests above concern for child rape victims, treated abuse as a sin rather than a crime, and its protocols for dealing with abuse were insufficient and objectionable.

Dr Keon-Cohen, who came to prominence as a barrister in the Mabo case, said the church hierarchy had put Catholic doctrine before the law.

“(This) places these officials . . . in the same smelly bed as outlaw motorcycle gangs, the mafia, drug cartels and people-smugglers,” Dr Keon-Cohen said.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

By CYDONEE MARDON May 18, 2013

The man co-ordinating the Catholic Church’s response to the royal commission into child sex abuse visited Wollongong this week.

Francis Sullivan, chief executive of The Truth, Justice and Healing Council, met Bishop Peter Ingham, clergy, religious school principals, and employees of the Catholic Education Office, CatholicCare and Office of the Bishop.

Mr Sullivan walked through the process of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and “gave an understanding of the public and private hearings”.

“This is our opportunity not to let down people who have been damaged by the Church,” Mr Sullivan said.

Bishop Ingham again apologised to anyone in the diocese “who has been harmed”.

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CANADA
CBC News

Residential school survivors in Williams Lake, B.C., are reuniting this weekend to remember and heal.

Though St. Joseph’s Mission School was torn down in the 1980s, the painful memories are still fresh for the school’s former students.

Esketemc Chief Fred Robbins was taken to the residential school when he was six years old.

“My aunt and uncles brought me, dropped me off, and said, ‘We’ll see you in 11 months’ and left,” he said. “Then they shuffled me into the dormitory. The first week all I did was cry. All I wanted to do was go home.”

Yesterday, a commemorative monument was unveiled in the cemetery at the former school — a tribute, Robbins says, to those who died at the school and those who are still healing.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The “black pope” has been placed in charge of the International Union of Superiors General for the next three years

GIACOMO GALEAZZI
VATICAN CITY

Fr. Antonio Nicolas (Superior General of the Society of Jesus since 2008) is the new President of the International Union of Superiors General. The UISG represents the superior generals of more than 200 male religious congregations.

In 2006 and 2009, when the Vatican would not do anything its Salesian Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone was not okay with, his fellow Salesian Fr. Pascual Chávez Villanueva, Rector Major of the Society of St. John Bosco, served two mandates as head of the Union. Not long after the first Jesuit in history was elected Pope, the world leader of the Society of Jesus has now been appointed as head of the UISG.

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SPAIN
The Local

[with video]

A priest in Murcia has been fired after photos and a YouTube video allegedly showing him involved in public acts of gay sex became a social media sensation.

Church bosses in Cartagena have removed Francisco Javier Ruiz, the priest of the Murcian town of Churra, from his position after sex photos set off a social media scandal.

Spanish daily laverdad.es reported that images and videos were released on Twitter, purportedly showing the priest in the so-called Coto Cuadros, an area famous for “cruising” – anonymous, casual public sex.

A person alleged to be the priest can be seen masturbating with another man and practicing oral sex.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian May 18, 2013

THE Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide allegedly “provided a one-way air ticket to England” for a pedophile priest rather than report the man to authorities, according to police documents tendered to a state inquiry.

The allegations are contained in a 2011 email from Detective Inspector Paul Jacob, who was assigned to the investigation of alleged cover-ups of pedophile crimes by clergy in the diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in NSW.

Detectives investigated a number of senior clergy, according to evidence before the inquiry, including the late bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Leo Clarke, and the current Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson.

The two were involved in a 1995 internal church inquiry into pedophile abuse committed by one of the diocese’s priests, Denis McAlinden.

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SCOTLAND
The Tablet

Abigail Frymann
17 May 2013

So Rome has ordered Cardinal Keith O’Brien to leave Scotland, three months after it was first reported that four priests and a former priests accused him of ‘inappropriate acts’.

For a Prince of the Church this is a colossal and rare humiliation – not just for the owner of the red hat but also for the Vatican that gave it to him. The Church has no process for stripping a cardinal of his position in the way that it can remove a priest from ministry – O’Brien is not, as one national newspaper wrote this week, an ‘ex-cardinal’.

Back in 2003, curiously, when he was given his red hat, O’Brien was made to swear an unusual oath that reaffirmed his allegiance to defending the Church’s teaching, especially on priestly celibacy, the immorality of homosexual relations, and contraception.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Augsburger Allgemeine

Der Vorwurf: Sexueller Missbrauch von Schutzbefohlenen. Die Staatsanwaltschaft hat die Ermittlungen gegen den Pfarrer eingestellt. Das Disziplinarverfahren läuft aber noch weiter. Von Angela Effenberger

Monatelang hatte die Staatsanwaltschaft Memmingen gegen den evangelischen Pfarrer in Burgau ermittelt. Der Vorwurf lautete: sexueller Missbrauch von Schutzbefohlenen. Jetzt wurden die Ermittlungen eingestellt. Strafrechtlich habe sich der Mann nichts zuschulden kommen lassen, so Staatsanwältin Renate Thanner. Seinen Beruf darf der Pfarrer aber weiterhin nicht ausüben. Das Disziplinarverfahren gegen ihn läuft noch.

Wie berichtet kamen Ende vergangenen Jahres die Vorwürfe auf, dass der evangelischer Pfarrer vor einigen Jahren sexuelle Kontakte zu einer damals minderjährigen Jugendlichen aus der Kirchengemeinde gehabt haben soll. Die Ermittlungen haben nun ergeben, so die zuständige Staatsanwältin auf Nachfrage unserer Zeitung, dass keine Straftat vorliege. Es hätten keine sexuellen Handlungen mit Kindern, also mit unter 14-Jährigen, stattgefunden und auch Hinweise auf Gewalthandlungen gebe es nicht. Genauer wollte die Staatsanwältin auf die Ermittlungsergebnisse nicht eingehen. Für die Staatsanwaltschaft Memmingen ist die Sache damit erledigt, Anklage werde nicht erhoben, mit strafrechtlichen Konsequenzen müsse der Mann nicht rechnen.

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ROM
SZ

Rom. Der in einen Sexskandal verwickelte schottische Kardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien wird das Land verlassen und sich für einige Monate zu Gebet, Buße und geistlicher Erneuerung zurückziehen. Das habe der emeritierte Erzbischof von St. Andrews und Edinburgh nach Absprache mit Papst Franziskus beschlossen, teilte der Vatikan gestern mit.

O’Brien war als Erzbischof zurückgetreten und hatte auch nicht an der Wahl des neuen Papstes im März teilgenommen. Er entschuldigte sich öffentlich für sein Verhalten gegenüber Seminaristen, die er in den 1980er-Jahren sexuell belästigt hatte. Seine weitere Zukunft werde mit dem Heiligen Stuhl abgesprochen, berichtete Radio Vatikan. (dpa)

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POLAND
France 24

[with video]

An interview by two FRANCE24 journalists with a Polish priest who is being investigated for alleged child abuse ended in a violent confrontation on Sunday. The video has sparked outrage in deeply Catholic Poland.

An attempted interview by two FRANCE 24 journalists with a priest accused of paedophilia ended in a violent confrontation on Sunday. The video has caused consternation in Poland, where the event has seemingly underscored rising tensions over the Catholic Church’s alleged efforts to cover up sex abuse.

FRANCE 24’s correspondent Gulliver Cragg and cameraman Tomasz Lubik requested an interview with the priest and as a result were briefly held against their will on May 12. The parish priest in the city of Szczecin invited them into the rectory, locked the door and tried to physically prevent them from leaving. The two journalists eventually managed to escape when the priest dropped his keys.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY JUDY JONES ON MAY 17, 2013

Our hearts ache for the Teeman family and for the dozens of families who are suffering because Kansas City bishops – and Finn – refused to take any real steps to protect kids from Missouri’s worst predator priest.

And we applaud the Teemans for seeking justice and helping to expose even more callousness and recklessness by dozens of Catholic employees.

This evidence proves what many have long said: that a host of KC Catholic officials – teachers, priests, bishops and others – have known that Msgr. O’Brien is a serial pedophile for decades but done little to stop him from assaulting kid after kid after kid after kid.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | May. 17, 2013 All Things Catholic

To no one’s surprise, the Monday release of the Vatican’s 2013 statistical yearbook, which surveys the global Catholic population as of 2011, confirmed the shift in Catholicism’s center of gravity away from Europe and North America to the southern hemisphere.

The Annuario shows that the global Catholic population, now 1.2 billion, kept pace with overall growth in 2011, but with major regional disparities. Catholicism in Africa increased by 4.3 percent and in Asia by 2 percent, both twice the general rate, but in Europe only 0.3 percent. The trend applies to Christianity generally. According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, the demographic heart of the faith is now in Timbuktu, Mali, and by 2100, it will have shifted even further south to Sokoto, Nigeria.

On the lecture circuit, Catholics in North America and Europe curious about how this will play out often ask two very intriguing questions:

Will the rise of the “global south” mean a shift away from issues that loom large in the West, especially the “culture wars” — contraception, gay rights, abortion and so on?
Will it mean a less political church, as Catholicism is increasingly shaped by cultures without the European legacy of church/state entanglement?

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Local Catholic officials received numerous reports alleging inappropriate behavior by a priest before a 14-year-old boy took his life in 1983, a motion filed this week by the boy’s parents says.

But the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese failed to act on the reports about Monsignor Thomas O’Brien, the motion alleges, and Brian Teeman committed suicide after suffering repeated sexual abuse by the priest.

The motion, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, is packed with excerpts from depositions of dozens of witnesses — including priests and nuns — and an affidavit from a former school board president at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary School, who said she complained about O’Brien to a former bishop, then resigned and pulled her son from the school in the 1980s because nothing was done about it.

Brian died of a gunshot wound to the head in November 1983 at the family’s home in Independence.
The motion is part of a wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the diocese and O’Brien by Don and Rosemary Teeman. The Teemans filed the suit in September 2011 after a man who had served as an altar boy with their son told them of the alleged abuse. The lawsuit says the diocese shares responsibility for Brian’s death because church officials knew that O’Brien was sexually abusing boys but covered it up.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Foxboro Reporter

By Frank Mortimer
Published: Thursday, May 16, 2013

Selectman James DeVellis’s May 7 testimony at the Statehouse and a H.U.G.S. sexual violence prevention forum the next night in Foxboro drove home the urgency — and some means — of protecting those who are vulnerable to exploitation.

Underscoring that prevention of abuse is better than seeking justice long after the damage is done, Rev. Bill Dudley is frustrated that a heartbreaking local abuse case remains unresolved.

Dudley has been providing advocacy and emotional support for men reporting they were abused as children decades ago by Foxboro teacher, recreation swim director and scout leader William E. Sheehan.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Caring for Our Children Foundation

By David Gibson
Religion News Service

(RNS) The Catholic diocese in Missouri led by Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted last year of failing to report a priest who was taking pornographic pictures of children, will pay a $600,000 settlement to the family of one of the priest’s victims.

The family filed the civil suit in federal court in 2011 against Finn, the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., and the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, who pleaded guilty last year to charges of producing child pornography.

Ratigan had taken hundreds of lewd and suggestive photos of young children; the lawsuit, which was settled on Tuesday (May 14), was filed by the parents of a girl who was 2 years old when Ratigan started photographing her in 2006.

“We hope this settlement comforts at least some of the many families who have suffered and are suffering because Bishop Robert Finn refused to call police, protect kids and monitor Father Shawn Ratigan,” said Barbara Dorris of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

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NEW JERSEY
The New York Times

By RUSS BUETTNER
May 12, 2013

COLTS NECK, N.J. — With 10 children knelt around the altar for their first communion and the pews at St. Mary’s Church packed with families gathered for Mother’s Day, there was little sign on Sunday of the turmoil that has struck the parish, and threatens the Archdiocese of Newark.

Just two weeks earlier, the parishioners learned that a priest working with their church’s youth groups had been barred from being around children unsupervised — a restriction that he accepted to avoid retrial on a sexual abuse charge.

“I think everyone was just shocked; there’s no other way to put it,” said Darren Barreiro, a father of three girls, as he left Mass on Sunday.

The priest, Michael Fugee, was convicted in 2003 of criminal sexual conduct stemming from allegations that he had groped a boy’s crotch during several wrestling horseplay encounters when he was associate pastor at St. Elizabeth Church in Wyckoff, N.J.

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NEW JERSEY
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | May 17, 2013

Newark Archbishop John J. Myers got back from his trip to Poland this week and, according to his spokesman, will shortly make his first public statement on the latest revelations about Michael Fugee, the molester-priest who, in contravention of a court order, was permitted to minister to minors at two New Jersey parishes. While Myers was away, I figured it might be interesting to read Space Vulture, the sci-fi novel he wrote with Gary K. Wolf five years ago. It’s a pretty good read, and a revealing one.

Myers and Wolf grew up together in the north-central Illinois hamlet of Earlville, where they learned to love science fiction from Space Hawk, a collection of stories about interplanetary gunslinger Hawk Carse, written in the early 1930s by Harry Bates and Desmond W. Hall under the pseudonym of Anthony Gilmore. Wolf went on to be a writer, most famously inventing the title character in the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Myers went into the priesthood, ascending first to the diocese of Peoria and thence to Newark. Space Vulture pays homage to their youthful enthusiasm and lifelong friendship.

The novel pits a galactic Lone Ranger named Victor Corsair against brilliant arch-villain Space Vulture, but the psychological drama at its core has to do with Gil Terry, a physically impaired space outlaw who cares only about himself. Abused as a child by his father, Terry achieves redemption by learning to love a seven-year-old boy and his adolescent older brother after their father has died and their beautiful mother is stolen away by Space Vulture.

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UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

Frank Douglas

Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, Archbishop John Myers of Newark, and Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph have made headlines recently.

Archbishop Gomez and his predecessor Cardinal Roger Mahony were in the news on May 9, 2013, when the LA Times revealed that Mahony was publicly performing confirmations in apparent violation of Gomez’s January letter to the region’s more than 4 million Catholics which seemed to rule out any conspicuous place for Mahony in the archdiocese. Noting that the cardinal had “expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care, ” Gomez told the faithful, “Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.”

There have been recent calls for Archbishop Myers to resign, including from members of the New Jersey legislature, because of his “outrageous” handling of an accused pedophile priest, the Rev. Michael Fugee. Archbishop Myers had reportedly allowed Fr. Fugee to minister to children despite a binding agreement entered into with the Prosecutor’s Office that he would never work with children. Click here.

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NEW JERSEY
Forcechange

BY CHERI CHENG

Target: Archbishop John J. Myers

Goal: Condemn Archbishop for failing to prevent a priest who had been charged with sexual abuse from interacting with children

In 2007, the Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey signed an agreement stating that he would oversee one of his priest’s assignments to make sure that the priest never interacted with children unsupervised. Priest Michael Fugee is not allowed to interact with children after rumors circulated regarding his sexual affairs with young boys. Despite this fact, Archbishop John J. Myers failed to properly supervise Fugee, which angered the public when they heard about Fugee’s unsupervised trips with youth groups through the news.

In 2003, Fugee was convicted of criminal sexual conduct after the court found him guilty of manhandling a young boy’s privates during wrestling horseplay. However, this conviction was appealed three years later. Instead of going through another trial, Fugee agreed to sign a deal with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s office. In this agreement, Fugee stated that he would receive sex offender treatment and could no longer work with youth groups without supervision. Myers also signed this agreement taking responsibility for assigning Fugee to posts that did not involve children, and Myers has clearly failed on his part as well.

According to the Star-Ledger, after Fugee was appointed the co-director of the Office of Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests, he started to interact with children without anyone knowing. The Star-Ledger states that Fugee worked with youth groups from St. Mary’s and even travelled with young children on weekend retreats and gatherings. Apparently, Myers was unaware of all of this activity until a reporter from The Star-Ledger confronted him about it. This lack of care and supervision on Myers part is highly condemnable. He made a promise via a signed contract that he would keep his eye on Fugee’s activities and he has failed his community.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, has called for an investigation of the local district attorney’s office. He wants to know if any prosecutor had a financial stake in the criminal convictions of three priests and a former Catholic school teacher.

In response, the disciplinary board of the state Supreme Court has assigned disciplinary counsel Donna M. Snyder to investigate.

Meanwhile, the National Catholic Reporter, the paper that led the way in exposing the national scandal of clerical sex abuse, has run an editorial questioning the credibility of the district attorney’s star witness.

Here’s what NCR had to say about the witness responsible for putting three priests and a former teacher in jail: “The discrepancies between Billy Doe’s accounts to the archdiocese and later to the grand jury are not minor, they are utterly different versions of reality.”

The NCR editorial also called into question the conduct of the district attorney’s office: “Years of elaborate deceptions by Catholic leaders are hardly avenged if the response is more cunning deception by civil society.” That’s why NCR labeled the D.A.’s convictions, which may have relied on a phony plea bargain, “a shallow victory.” The newspaper called on Seth Williams to answer the questions originally posed by this blog months ago, questions that the D.A. continues to stonewall.

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ILLINOIS
Law 360

By Bibeka Shrestha

Law360, New York (May 16, 2013, 7:07 PM ET) — An Illinois appeals court on Monday upheld rulings that four insurers didn’t owe coverage to a Catholic religious order for claims a former priest sexually abused minors, but overturned a fifth insurer’s victory for the second time in the case.

The Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus challenged the lower court’s decision to side with Empire Indemnity Insurance Co., First Nonprofit Insurance Co., RLI Insurance Co., Mt. Hawley Insurance Co. and Pennsylvania General Insurance Co. in a dispute over insurance coverage for claims that former…

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 16, 2013

We commend this brave victim whose courage will now keep a serial predator priest away from kids for a long time. We hope he feels proud and relieved. And we hope every person who saw, suspected or suffered Fr. Wert’s crimes will step forward and get help.

It’s time for Venice’s Catholic bishop, and Fr. Wert’s religious order, to aggressively seek out and help others who were assaulted by this child molesting cleric. It’s especially time for Venice’s bishop to stop splitting hairs, deflecting blame and doing nothing. Fr. Wert spent years in the Venice diocese, so the Venice bishop has a duty to reach out to anyone who may be suffering because of Fr. Wert’s crimes.

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SCOTLAND
Gazette

A NUN accused of battering teenage girls resigned as headmistress of the school where the alleged abuse took place and left the country, a court has heard.

Anne Kenny, who is known as Mother Rosaria, stepped down from her post at Dalbeth Approved School, in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, in March 1971.

She then left Scotland and headed for London, where she enrolled in a course to reaffirm her faith.

Kenny, 79,and co-accused Agnes Reville, who is known as Mother Martin, are charged with assaulting six girls at the school, which was run by The Good Shepherd group, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

They deny hitting the girls with carpet beaters and riding crops, dragging them down corridors and locking them in rooms against their will.

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AUSTRALIA
The Star

By STEPHEN RYAN May 16, 2013

IT was either fiery and hostile or cordial and straight forward.

It was a meeting between some of Newcastle’s senior police and Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox at Waratah police station on December 2, 2010.

One of the officers who attended, former Senior Sergeant Justin Quinn, told a Special Commission of Inquiry on Thursday that the meeting was ‘‘cordial’’ with Detective Fox being asked to hand over documents he had relating to allegations of sexual abuse cover-ups within the Catholic Church.

Detective Fox has a different version.

His barrister, Mark Cohen, suggested to Mr Quinn, who has since left the force, that Detective Fox said the ‘‘only reason why we’re here’’ is because of Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By STEPHEN RYAN May 17, 2013

ONE of Australia’s most eminent criminal barristers has paid tribute to both the efforts of Newcastle detectives and those of Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox at a Special Commission of Inquiry this morning.

Ian Lloyd QC was asked to review the 3000-page brief of evidence that was prepared in relation to allegations of sexual abuse cover-ups within the Catholic Church.

Mr Lloyd, a former NSW Crown prosecutor who has practised in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom and is a former judge of appeal in Fiji, said the brief was ‘‘as good as I’ve ever seen in many countries’’.

He complimented the methodologies used by detectives and said the work of Detective Fox showed empathy and understanding of the trauma victims suffered.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian May 17, 2013

A NSW detective who claimed to be blowing the whistle on the investigation of sex abuse in the Catholic Church may himself have hindered any prosecution and endangered a pedophile victim, an inquiry has heard.

The NSW special commission of inquiry has heard the detective, Peter Fox, leaked to a Fairfax reporter, Joanne McCarthy, a copy of a confidential witness statement given by the victim.

Giving evidence to the inquiry in Newcastle yesterday, one of the state’s most experienced investigators, Paul Jacob, said this leak could have jeopardised an investigation into the alleged cover-up of church child abuse.

“If I was a defence barrister . . . that would be a huge feeding ground of opportunity for me to attack that victim’s credibility,” said Detective Inspector Jacob, the manager of the NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Police have compiled about 3000 pages of evidence for claims that the Catholic Church covered up allegations of child sex abuse by two NSW Hunter Valley priests, an inquiry has been told.

But a decision on whether charges should be laid against senior priests or church officials is not expected until later this year at the earliest.

The evidence was gathered in a police investigation codenamed Strike Force Lantle, set up in late 2010 to look at complaints made by four alleged victims about Father Denis McAlinden and Father James Fletcher between 1985 and 1999.

Ian Lloyd QC was engaged by government officials earlier this year to review the Lantle investigation for the special commission of inquiry that began in Newcastle 10 days ago.

The inquiry, sparked by police whistleblower Detective Peter Fox, is looking at the way police and the church have handled child sex allegations, particularly those involving McAlinden and Fletcher, who are both dead.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

KEVIN DOYLE – 17 MAY 2013

THE Justice for Magdalenes group has announced the end of its political campaign.

The advocacy body for survivors of the laundries said that it had achieved its main objectives.

Its members will continue to assist survivors but only in a personal capacity.

The body said today that its main aims where to bring about an official apology from the State for survivors and the establishment of a compensation scheme.

“The door will be open to every survivor and/or her family members and/or other groups representing Magdalene survivors to pursue their own claim for redress,” said a statement.

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SCOTLAND
STV

[with video]

The Vatican has confirmed the disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien will leave Scotland for several months following revelations about his sexual conduct.

Authorities in Rome said his departure had been decided “in agreement with the Holy Father,” but stopped short of saying whether Pope Francis had personally intervened.

But will this move draw a line under an affair that has added to a sense of crisis in the Catholic Church in Scotland? And what message does it send about how the Church deals with those who have abused their power?

Scotland Tonight hears from the journalist who broke the story on Cardinal O’Brien, Catherine Deveney, and the Scotsman writer Stephen McGinty, author of a biography of the late Cardinal Winning.

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SCOTLAND
STV

A number of windows have been smashed at the church where Cardinal Keith O’Brien was staying in East Lothian.

Vandals targeted Our Lady of the Waves Church in Dunbar sometime overnight between Wednesday and Thursday.

The Cardinal moved into a parish house attached to the church earlier this month after time away from Scotland.

He stood down as the Archbishop of St Andrews in Edinburgh after allegations of inappropriate behaviour in February.

On Wednesday, the Vatican said the Cardinal would be leaving Scotland for several months for “spiritual renewal, payer and penance”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Jason Kennedy

One of the main advocacy groups for survivors of the Magdalene laundries is ending its political campaign following the State apology earlier this year.

The group, Justice for Magdalenes, said its main goals were to see a State apology to laundry survivors and to ensure a compensation scheme was established. A statement issued by the group said responsibility to ensure justice is delivered now rests with Irish society, including Church, State, families and local communities.

“As a voluntary group, and having worked at maximum capacity over the past four years, JFM believes it has achieved all that it can by way of political advocacy,” it said. “In withdrawing from the political advocacy arena, JFM takes this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped the group accomplish its goals. Our campaign was truly a collaborative effort.”

The group has been preparing to end its campaign over recent months and has released a series of questions and concerns relating to the Magdalen fund they say remain unanswered. They have also published a self-help guide for survivors and another for family members.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE JUSTICE FOR Magdalenes (JFM) group has announced today it is to end its political campaign.

The group, which began its campaign in June 2009, said that it believes it has achieved all it can by way of political advocacy. Survivors from the Magdalene laundries in Ireland received an apology from the Irish State and news that a compensation scheme was established for them by the Irish government on 19 February.

JFM had been set up as a voluntary group to achieve such goals, and said today:

It is the collective responsibility of all citizens to ensure that the promise of An Taoiseach’s official State apology (19 February 2013) is delivered upon.

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AUSTRALIA
Truth, Justice and Healing Council

The Truth, Justice and Healing Council has been established by the Catholic Church to help the Church fully embrace the Australian Government’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The Council will help the Church deal with the tragic legacy of child sexual abuse and help victims and survivors to be heard and supported.

The Royal Commission is an opportunity for the Church to explain the way it has treated victims and survivors, to acknowledge past wrongs and failings and to find ways in which to work towards justice and healing for all.

Importantly, it is an opportunity for victims and survivors of sexual abuse to come forward and be heard in an environment of support and safety.

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AUSTRALIA
CathNews

TJH Council CEO visits Wollongong

TJH Council launches website

The Truth, Justice and Healing Council, has visited Wollongong to meet with Bishop Peter Ingham, clergy, religious, school principals, and employees from the Catholic Education Office, CatholicCare and the Office of the Bishop, the Council said in a media release.

Mr Sullivan walked through the process of the Royal Commission and gave an understanding of the public and private hearings. He commented, “This is our opportunity not to let down people who have been damaged by the Church.” All present were very positive in their response to Mr Sullivan’s presentation.

The ABC reports that the inquiry into child sexual abuse in the New South Wales Hunter Valley Catholic Church has heard an investigator did not want to examine allegations of abuse because he was waiting for more information.

Detective Inspector Paul Jacob, manager of the NSW Sex Crime Squad, said after a discussion with former Lake Macquarie commander Dave Waddell he believed there was no prospect of “criminal investigation outcomes” as key people were dead.

In an email, Detective Jacob said he was asking the commission’s senior executive team not to investigate, but was quick to tell the Newcastle Supreme Court today that should not be interpreted as the position taken by NSW Police.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Wollongong’s Catholic Bishop Peter Ingham has again offered his apology to victims of clergy abuse in the Illawarra and says he’s fully complying with requests from the royal commission.

A meeting of 120 clergy, school principals and catholic care staff was held in Wollongong this week to bring them up to date about the royal commission process.

Bishop Peter Ingham says he’s been asked to supply all documents about child sex abuse in the Illawarra from 1975 to now.

He says a large amount of material has been handed over which includes details of complaints against clergy and how the investigations were handled.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

An Anglican bishop on the New South Wales north coast has resigned over his handling of abuse claims at a children’s home.

The Anglican Diocese of Grafton received a number of claims in 2006 about acts of physical, sexual and psychological abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

The abuse took place between the 1940s and 1980s.

Thirty-nine of the claims were settled through negotiated payments, but two people did not accept the conditions, and seven others later came forward with similar claims.

The offer of financial compensation was later withdrawn.

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SCOTLAND
The Courier

By ALAN WILSON, 16 May 2013

A church warden who preyed on an eight-year-old girl over a near two-year period – sexually abusing her twice – has been jailed for 16 months.

Neil Morton attacked the girl in a bedroom at his home in Dundee.

The abuse only came to light after the girl told her parents.

She later told police that Morton was “doing things that were wrong”.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON May 17, 2013

The state’s most senior sex crimes detective has dismissed police whistleblower Peter Fox’s claim that Strike Force Lantle was a sham – describing the comment as “offensive in the extreme” and “detrimental” to the morale of police who investigated allegations of a Catholic Church sexual abuse cover up.

Under cross-examination at the Commission of Inquiry, NSW Sex Crimes Squad manager Detective Inspector Paul Jacob, who provided consultancy to Lantle investigators, said they compiled an “amazing” brief of evidence.

“[It is] offensive and I feel sorry for the police who have invested huge swathes of their time to investigate the matter,” Inspector Jacob said.

He said Inspector Fox’s belief that the investigation should have been given to more senior detectives was unfounded.

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SCOTLAND
Evening Telegraph

By GAYLE RITCHIE, 16 May 2013

A 65-year-old church warden who sexually abused a child was jailed for 16 months on Thursday.

At Dundee Sheriff Court, Neil Morton, of Pitroddie Gardens, admitting sexually assaulting the child on two occasions.

The court heard Morton had worked as a storeman in the city for 40 years before taking on a part-time position as a warden at the Central Baptist Church on Ward Road.

His solicitor, Jack Brown, said his client had a strict religious upbringing and no previous convictions.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON May 17, 2013

A QC who independently reviewed Strike Force Lantle said the brief produced by investigators is as good as he has ever seen.

Ian Lloyd QC, this morning told the Commission of Inquiry it took him more than three days to read the 3000 page brief that contained dozens of witness statements supporting claims of sexual abuse concealment by members of the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese.

“In all my years of prosecuting crimes, and we’re approaching 37 years now, the report is as good as I’ve ever seen,” Mr Lloyd said.

He said one of the investigators leading the strike force, Detective Sergeant Jeff Little, appeared to have carried out a complex investigation over 16 months.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

Documents tendered to an inquiry into child sexual abuse in the NSW Hunter Valley reveal a senior member of Australia’s Catholic Church refused to be questioned over an alleged abuse cover-up.

Ian Lloyd, QC, who was asked by the special commission of inquiry to assess Strike Force Lantle’s brief of evidence, found “all but one of the still living” persons of interest was interviewed.

Mr Lloyd’s report into the strike force said a “serving member” of the Catholic clergy “exercised his legal right to refuse to be questioned by police”.

In a statement tendered to the inquiry at Newcastle Supreme Court earlier this week, NSW Sex Crimes Squad manager Detective Inspector Paul Jacob said Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson declined to be interviewed.

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AUSTRALIA
TVNZ

Catholic Church officials have been likened to the mafia, outlaw motorcycle gangs and drug cartels by a legal activist.

Lawyer and lobbyist Dr Bryan Keon-Cohen said the church, currently at the centre of an Australian Royal Commission into the handling of child sex abuse complaints, saw itself as above the law and resisted governmental responses to child sex abuse.

Keon-Cohen, the president of community lobby group COIN (Commission of Inquiry Now), said the church’s own mechanisms for investigating abuse, such as Towards Healing and the Melbourne Response, were insufficient and objectionable.

“They seek to replace due process of civil and criminal law, while not being open for public scrutiny and accountability,” he told a legal conference in Victoria.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

BY PAUL MAGUIRE AAP MAY 17, 2013

THE senior policeman who told NSW detective Peter Fox to hand over all his documents relating to allegations of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests says the request was “cordial”.

Assistant police commissioner Max Mitchell was the acting Hunter region commander in 2010 when he told Detective Chief Inspector Fox that allegations in his documents would be investigated by a new police strike force based in Newcastle.

Mr Mitchell told a special NSW government commission of inquiry on Friday that his meeting with Det Insp Fox on December 2 that year was “very cordial”, with “no heated exchanges or annoyance and no outbursts by anyone”.

Mr Mitchell said that when Det Insp Fox arrived at the meeting and said he had mistakenly left the documents on his desk in the Port Stephens police station he simply asked him again to give them to officers involved in the new strike force.

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MARYLAND
WJLA

[with video]

By Greta Kreuz May 16, 2013

Renee Palmer Gamby was just a toddler when she says she was molested by a male babysitter from her church. Covenant Life in Gaithersburg was the flagship church of the Sovereign Grace Ministries denomination until this past December, when it pulled out.

Renee’s mother said that when she called their pastor about the abuse, he told her not to call police. Instead, Renee said she was required to meet with her alleged perpetrator and forgive him.

Renee and her mother said they thought they were the only victims. But years later, they found story after story on the “Sovereign Grace Ministries Survivors” blog. And now several are going public in what they hope will be a class-action civil lawsuit.

“We are alleging that a group of men, pastors, conspired together to cover up ongoing sexual abuse of children,” said Susan Burke, civil lawsuit attorney.

The suit alleges decades of brutal sexual and physical abuse of young children–boys and girls– from the 1980s on, at both Covenant Life Church, and Sovereign Grace Church of Fairfax.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Examiner

THE Right Reverend Keith Slater has resigned as Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton.

Bishop Slater said he accepts full responsibility for the incorrect management of claims of abuse alleging acts of physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

The Bishop said the Diocese had adopted a Professional Standards Ordinance and Protocol in 2004 which outlines the obligations and processes for managing complaints of sexual abuse.

Initial findings from an audit in January indicated that the Professional Standards Protocols had not always been applied, specifically in matters associated with claims of abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home.

“I acknowledge that I was responsible for ensuring full compliance with the Protocol and that I failed in this duty,” Bishop Slater said in a media statement.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP May 17, 2013

THE head of the Anglican Diocese in Grafton has resigned over the way allegations of abuse at a NSW north coast childrens home were handled.

Bishop Keith Slater today apologised for his past failings in managing the allegations of physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the North Coast Childrens Home in Lismore between 1940 and the 1980s.

“As a sign of my recognition of these matters and in the hope that it may contribute towards healing and wholeness for those who are abused I forthwith resign from being the Bishop of the Diocese of Grafton,” he said in a statement.

Bishop Slater said the diocese had received a number of allegations of abuse at the home between the 1940s and 1980s.

The alleged perpetrators included staff, visiting clergy, members of holiday host families and other residents.

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ILLINOIS
WLS

[with video]

May 16, 2013 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Roman Catholic priests who are sex abusers are being paid to handle prayer requests from unsuspecting families.

For centuries, the Catholic faithful have arranged masses for sick relatives, deceased loved ones or in the memory of friends. They’re called “intentions” and usually Catholics offer a small donation. The I-Team has discovered some intentions are being farmed out to priests who are sex offenders; men banned from regular ministry- now paid to pray- and some of the faithful are not informed. The bells tolled on Father Donald O’Connor’s career in 2002, when he was terminated as Pastor of Assumption Parish here in Coal City.

These newly-obtained records from the Diocese of Joliet reveal church findings that O’Connor had sexually abused many boys in numerous parishes.

The priest was quoted once as saying “it’s better than shacking up with a woman.”

One of his victims committed suicide according to the diocese files.

But just one month after O’Connor was permanently removed from any public ministry, he was sent a letter from the diocese chancellor asking if he was “in need of mass stipends…just let us know the number you would need…and a check will be issued every three months.”

——————————

Statement of the Diocese of Joliet
Re: Compensation to priests removed from ministry
May 13, 2013

The Diocese of Joliet does not provide compensation for any priest who is permanently removed from public ministry because of a credible or substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. Any benefits these priests receive, such as a pension, are mandated by federal, state or canon law.

To assist with the spiritual needs of people, priests routinely offer Mass for specific intentions. Priests who are removed from public ministry because of sexual abuse of minors may not celebrate Mass in public, but they are not prohibited from doing so privately. Like all priests, they may offer a Mass for a specific person or cause, and they may receive the small stipend if one is offered, usually $10.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP May 17, 2013

CATHOLIC Church officials have been likened to outlaw motorcycle gangs, drug cartels and people smugglers in an explosive speech delivered at a legal conference in Victoria.

Lawyer and lobbyist Bryan Keon-Cohen said the church, currently at the centre of a royal commission into the handling of child sex abuse complaints, saw itself as above the law and resisted governmental responses to child sex abuse.

Dr Keon-Cohen, the president of community lobby group COIN (Commission of Inquiry Now), said the church’s own mechanisms for investigating abuse, such as Towards Healing and the Melbourne Response, were insufficient and objectionable.

“They seek to replace due process of civil and criminal law, while not being open for public scrutiny and accountability,” he said.

Dr Keon-Cohen said the church’s refusal to recognise assault as a crime first and not merely a sin amounted to it putting Catholic doctrine before the law of the land.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

May 16
BY JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

Local Catholic officials received numerous reports alleging inappropriate behavior by a priest before a 14-year-old boy took his life in 1983, a motion filed this week by the boy’s parents says.

But the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese failed to act on the reports about Monsignor Thomas O’Brien, the motion alleges, and Brian Teeman committed suicide after suffering repeated sexual abuse by the priest.

The motion, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, is packed with excerpts from depositions of dozens of witnesses — including priests and nuns — and an affidavit from a former school board president at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary School, who said she complained about O’Brien to a former bishop, then resigned and pulled her son from the school in the 1980s because nothing was done about it.

Brian died of a gunshot wound to the head in November 1983 at the family’s home in Independence.

The motion is part of a wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the diocese and O’Brien by Don and Rosemary Teeman. The Teemans filed the suit in September 2011 after a man who had served as an altar boy with their son told them of the alleged abuse. The lawsuit says the diocese shares responsibility for Brian’s death because church officials knew that O’Brien was sexually abusing boys but covered it up.

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ALABAMA
WALA

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – A victims’ advocacy group is critical of Mobile Archbishop Thomas Rodi and his response to the announcement that Rev. James Havens, the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church faces an accusation of sexual abuse of a minor. In response, the Archbishop said, “We have been faithful to the promises the Archdiocese of Mobile has made to take accusations seriously.”

In a news release , SNAP or Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said Archbishop Rodi “basically kept the accusation and suspension secret” until FOX10 News anchor Bob Grip posted a series of tweets about it. The only public intimation of a problem came when the Archbishop himself tweeted on Monday evening, May 13 that he was “About to begin a parish meeting dealing with a painful matter. Please say a prayer for all concerned.”

“Even now, there’s no notice on Rodi’s archdiocesan website about the suspension. Then, when Rodi finally ‘came clean’ about the accusation against Fr. James Havens, he tried to minimize the alleged horror by citing the year of the possible crime and the claim that it didn’t happen at a church (as if somehow, it’s less devastating for a child to be molested on one side or the other of an invisible property line),” continued SNAP.

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FLORIDA
Herald-Tribune

By Shannon McFarland
Published: Thursday, May 16, 2013

SARASOTA – A Catholic priest was sentenced to life in prison today for repeatedly having sex with a teenage boy.

William C. Wert, now 56, had recurring sexual interactions with a 14-year-old Nokomis boy after the man found him on a chat website for teenagers. The messages turned explicit, later becoming key pieces of evidence for the prosecution.

“I think the sentence is appropriate considering the predatory behavior,” said Assistant State Attorney Dawn Buff, who prosecuted the case before Circuit Court Judge Frederick Mercurio.

In March, a jury found him guilty on eight counts of sexual offenses against a child; two other counts were dropped and the jury found him not guilty on one count. Wert has been in jail without bail since his arrest in February 2011.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE OLDEST KNOWN survivor of the Catholic-run Magdalene laundries has died at the age of 97.

Madge O’Connell, who was born in January 1916, was placed into the Good Shepherd Convent in Cork by a local priest when both of her parents died. She was 34 when she entered the laundry and she never left the care of the nuns for the rest of her life.

When the laundry closed its doors in 1993, Madge and other women being held in the laundry were moved to a new building but remained under the care of the Good Shepherd nuns.

Magdalene Survivors Together, one of the groups representing women who had been in the laundries, said that she had expressed an interest in being part of the redress scheme run by the Department of Justice following Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s official apology to the women in February.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

LUKE BYRNE – 16 MAY 2013

THE oldest survivor of the Magdalene Laundry institutions has died.

Madge O’Connell (97) was born in January 1916 in the small village of Dromina, in Co Cork. She passed away yesterday.

By the age of 34 both of Ms O’Connell’s parents had passed away and the local parish priest suggested that she sell her home and farm.

Despite being in her mid-30s Ms O’Connell was then placed into the Good Shepherd Convent in Sunday’s Well, where she would spend almost the rest of her life.

Ms O’Connell had this year begun the process of trying to claim redress for her time in the laundries.

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MISSOURI
Jeff Anderson & Associates

JANE DOE 173 AND FAMILY ACHIEVE HISTORIC SETTLEMENT WITH DIOCESE OF KANSAS CITY – ST. JOSEPH

GREGG MEYERS

On Tuesday, May 14, 2013, our clients, Jane Doe 173 and her parents, settled a historic lawsuit against the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph and its Bishop, Robert Finn. Their case was significant for two reasons. First, through the lawsuit, Jane Doe 173, with the brave support of her family, sought justice for the damages caused by Bishop Finn’s actions in supporting Father Shawn Ratigan, a child pornographer, at the expense of numerous children from the Diocese, including Jane Doe. Second, Jane Doe 173 brought her claim under Masha’s Law, a federal statute which allows survivors of sexual exploitation and child pornography to file a civil claim in federal court. Jane Doe 173’s case is one of the first in the country to be brought against an institution for its involvement and association with child pornography. The successful resolution of Jane Doe 173’s claim under Masha’s law is an important touchstone for the protection of children from the growing menace of child pornography.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), at least hundreds of thousands of websites with child pornography exist worldwide. In 2006, in recognition of this global problem, President George W. Bush signed the Adam Walsh Protection Act, which contained Masha’s Law (18 U.S.C. §2255). In addition to increasing penalties for downloading child pornography, the law provided that victims of sexual exploitation and child pornography could file a civil lawsuit against those persons, who received, possessed, and distributed child pornography. The statute provides that a victim may recover actual damages of no less than $150,000.00, along with attorney’s fees and costs of the suit. The law, therefore, explicitly recognizes the devastating repercussions that child pornography can have on its child subjects.

Corresponding with the adoption of Masha’s law, public awareness of the global proliferation of child pornography continues to grow. Emily Bazelon’s brilliant article in The New York Times Magazine, The Price of a Stolen Childhood, is a must read and presents the very real ramifications for survivors of such exploitation. Because the sexual exploitation of a child is reduced to a potentially permanent recording or an image, child pornography can haunt the victim for years after the original crime took place, tattooing the soul of its subject with hurt, shame, and fear. Each distribution of the image has the potential to create re-victimization. For some, the very uncertainty of distribution on the internet, will impact their life and career choices, as a survivor must confront the specter of the unknown. But we believe there is hope.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

Hans Küng – 11 May 2013

When Jorge Bergoglio took the name Francis as Pope, he did something no pontiff has done before: placed himself in the tradition of the Poverello. It is, says this leading theologian, a challenge to the Roman system, in terms of both spiritual and institutional reform

Who could have imagined what has happened in the last weeks? When I decided, some months ago, to resign all of my official duties on the occasion of my eighty-fifth birthday, I assumed that in my lifetime I would never see fulfilled my decades-long dream that – after all the setbacks following the Second Vatican Council – the Catholic Church would once again experience the kind of rejuvenation that it did under Pope John XXIII.

And now my theological companion of many decades, Joseph Ratzinger – both of us are now 85 – suddenly announced his resignation of his papal office effective from the end of February. And, on 19 March (his name day and my birthday), a new Pope with the surprising and programmatic name Francis assumed this office.

Has Jorge Mario Bergoglio considered why no Pope has dared to choose the name of Francis until now? At any rate, the Argentinian was aware that with the name Francis he was connecting himself with Francis of Assisi – the thirteenth-century downshifter who had been the fun-loving, worldly son of a rich textile merchant in Assisi until the age of 24, when he gave up his family, wealth and career, even giving his splendid clothes back to his father.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Steve’s surgery seems to have gone well, and he has spent the day sleeping. Thank you, all who have asked about this and have told us you’ll be praying. We both appreciate it very much.

Since my nursing duties are lighter as my patient sleeps, I’m sneaking an unanticipated moment to share some articles I’ve run across lately, or have been sent by friends or have read on Facebook. These all have to do with reform of the Catholic church and with the role Pope Francis may or may not play in reforming the church:

In The Tablet, theologian Hans Küng sees the papacy of Pope Francis as a window of opportunity for continued reform of the Catholic church along the lines of Vatican II, after Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI sought to restore things to the pre-conciliar norms. If Francis fails to reform the church, Küng proposes that reform continue from the bottom of the church upwards, without the approval of the hierarchy and even in direct contradiction to hierarchical commands. Failure to move in the direction of reform will produce an ice age in the Catholic church, Küng believes, in which Catholicism “will run the risk of dwindling into a barely relevant large sect.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CatholicPhilly

BY MATTHEW GAMBINO

Donna Farrell, the former director of communications for the archdiocese and Richard V. McCarron, the former secretary for Catholic education, both received letters dated May 8 from Archbishop Charles Chaput conveying the good news and inviting them to a formal award ceremony during the 6:30 p.m. Mass on Sunday, June 2 at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul.

Farrell will receive the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (for the Church and the Pontiff), consisting of a gold medal inscribed with those words in Latin and an official scroll. Established in 1888, it is given to a Catholic who has shown distinguished service to the Church and to the papacy.

It is the first such honor given to a lay person in the Archdiocese since 2003.

The award “comes directly from the Holy See and is one of the highest honors the Holy Father can bestow on an individual,” Archbishop Chaput said in his letter. “As such, it’s an extraordinary blessing for the whole Catholic community in our region. This award is a testimony to your outstanding service to the Church in communicating her message of Christian hope under very demanding conditions.”

During Farrell’s tenure as the chief spokesperson and communications strategist for the archdiocese, the church was buffetted by numerous serious events, many unprecedented, to which the archbishop referred.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

The newly released annual audit of abuse in the Catholic Church reports that only six credible abuse allegations were made against priests by current minors in all of 2012 (out of some 40,000 active priests) and that the “fewest allegations and victims” ever were tabulated since annual reports began to be compiled in 2004.

This is obviously very good news. Yet in years past while syndicated news outlets like the Associated Press and Reuters have fallen over themselves to dig out unflattering statistics from these annual reports, the mainstream media is notably silent about this very positive report.

A search of news coverage about the Church’s new annual report found only three tiny secular newspapers reporting the news: the Press-Register (Alabama), the Rapid City Journal (South Dakota), and the Georgia Bulletin.

Not a single major secular newspaper (e.g., the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune etc.) reported on the study.

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SCOTLAND
The Scottish Sun

[with timeline]

By GAIL CAMERON

SHAMED Cardinal Keith O’Brien has been forced into months of exile by Pope Francis over the gay sex scandal that cost him his job.

The disgraced 75-year-old cleric — who admitted “inappropriate conduct” over claims by four priests — was ordered by the Vatican to quit Scotland for “prayer and penance”.

In a statement yesterday, the Catholic Church confirmed his departure was “in agreement with the Holy Father”. It said: “His Eminence Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien… will be leaving Scotland for several months for the purpose of spiritual renewal, prayer and penance.”

It added: “Any decision regarding future arrangements for his eminence shall be agreed with the Holy See.”

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UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

A Baptist blogger says by continuing to support individuals and groups publicly accused of sexual abuse of children, SBC leaders are tarnishing the denomination’s name.

By Bob Allen

A resolution submitted for consideration at next month’s Southern Baptist Convention in Houston claims that failure by influential leaders to confront the sexual abuse of children by clergy is giving the denomination a bad name.

Peter Lumpkins, a blogger and minister in Carrollton, Ga., said May 16 he submitted his first-ever SBC resolution the day after reading through a second amended class-action lawsuit just filed in a Maryland court.

It claims C.J. Mahaney, former leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries and popular speaker with a strong following in the SBC, colluded to cover up sexual and physical abuse of numerous children in SGM churches from 1982 until the present.

Lumpkins’ resolution urges “denominational servants, entity leaders and our trustee boards to sever all ties, whether official or unofficial, with any evangelical organization, fellowship of ministers, and/or celebrity leader who, presently or in the past, is facing criminal and/or civil litigation for neglecting moral or legal obligations to protect the little children whom Jesus said suffer to follow Him.”

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON MAY 16, 2013

Bishop Robert Finn allegedly asked his staff to “implement security measures” after the Kansas City police issued a search warrant.

However, Catholic officials have been dealing with clergy sex crimes for centuries and child porn for decades. It’s disappointing to see officials finally taking simple prevention steps only after harm has been done.

At a bare minimum, shouldn’t these measures have been adopted 2.5 years ago, after Fr. Shawn Ratigan was caught with child porn?

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ESPANA
Notiexpress

16/05/2013 14:56 | Un monumental escándalo colapsó las redes sociales en España y el mundo. Miles de usuarios se volcaron para ver las imágenes –fotos y videos- del sacerdote de la región de Murcia en donde un ciclista lo filman practicándole sexo oral a otro hombre. Para frenar las críticas, la Diócesis lo destituyó de manera inmediata. La noticia la dio a conocer el diario El Mundo |VIDEO|

“En el día de hoy, 15 de mayo, el Sr. Obispo ha destituido al párroco de Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación, de Churra, y ha encargado la cura pastoral de la misma al Sr. Vicario Episcopal de la zona Pastoral Suburbana II, Ilmo. Sr. D. Antonio Ballester Serrano, encomendando la parroquia a la intercesión de la Santísima Virgen María, en su advocación de la Encarnación”, dice de manera categórica el comunicado de la Diócesis al anunciar la destitución del padre Francisco Javier Ruiz.

En las imágenes puede verse presuntamente al cura en el conocido como Coto Cuadros, un lugar habitual en la práctica del ‘cruising’ (encuentros entre hombres que quedan en la vía pública para tener sexo), según recoge el diario digital LaVerdad.es, practicando sexo oral y masturbándose con otro hombre.

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ESPANA
Panorama

Su voz suena triste y cansada al otro lado del teléfono. Francisco Javier Ruiz, el cura de Churra (Murcia) cuyas fotos haciendo sexo oral arrasan en las redes sociales, está “hundido” y asegura que es “víctima de un montaje”. Para defenderse, presentó, esta tarde una denuncia ante los juzgados. Y espera que la Justicia civil y la religiosa reparen su honor “mancillado”.

“Estoy tan hundido que hasta rezar me cuesta, aunque ése es el único consuelo que me queda”, explica el párroco, que, nada más estallar el escándalo y aconsejado por su propio obispo, monseñor Lorca Planes, se fue de la casa rectoral de Churra. Para “evitar la presión de los medios, que no dejan de llamar”. De hecho, su móvil suena sin cesar, con peticiones de entrevistas de todo el mundo, reseñó el diario El Mundo.

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SPAIN
New York Daily News

BY LEE MORAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

Spain’s Diocese of Cartagena has removed Father Francisco Javier Ruiz as pastor of a church in Murcia after he was seemingly caught on video participating acts of a sexual nature with another man

A Spanish priest has been removed from his job after apparently being busted on camera performing oral sex on another man.

Father Francisco Javier Ruiz was dismissed from his position in the Churra section of the city of Murcia by Bishop of Cartagena Jose Manuel Lorca Planes on Wednesday.

It came after footage emerged purportedly showing him in an erotic embrace with a pal.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

TOM TUITE – 16 MAY 2013

A FORMER priest, who was extradited from the UK to stand trial on 34 child sex abuse charges, was remanded in custody by a court in Dublin today.

The 62-year-old was brought back to Ireland yesterday (THUR) afternoon to face a hearing at Dublin District Court where an order was made banning the news media from naming him in connection with the historic allegations.

The ex-priest is accused of indecent assault of eight boys and two girls, mostly in Dublin, in the 1970s and in the eighties.

Detective Garda Anthony Maloney of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation told Judge Hugh O’Donnell that the man was arrested on foot of 34 warrants at Dublin Airport yesterday (THUR) afternoon.

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IRELAND
RTE News

A former priest has this evening been charged with 34 counts of indecently assaulting children in the 1970s and 80s.

The man was extradited from the UK to stand trial for the offences in Ireland.

The man, who is in his 60s, appeared before Dublin District Court, where he was charged with 34 counts of indecent assault relating to eight boys and two girls.

The offences are alleged to have taken place in the 1970s and 1980s.

The court heard the man was arrested at Dublin Airport today and brought to Bridewell Garda Station before appearing before the court.

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KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 16, 2013

Victims write bishop about accused priest
KY cleric is accused of molesting at least 4 kids
But years later, he is still not being supervised
And Catholic officials let him remain in ministry
SNAP to Lexington prelate “Oust him from your diocese”
Group wants church to warn parents about him and “do outreach”

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging a Kentucky bishop to oust a four-time accused predator priest from his diocese and “aggressively seek out” anyone the cleric may have molested.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org) are writing Lexington Bishop Ronald W. Gainer about Fr. Carroll Howlin who lives unmonitored and “ministers” in eastern Kentucky in apparent violation of a Vatican order and the church’s national abuse policy.

Late last month, the Chicago Tribune reported that Fr. Howlin, suspended for sexually abusing Illinois boys, still lives and works – unsupervised – in McCreary County. The cleric has reportedly also molested two Kentucky boys, one of whom committed suicide.

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IRELAND
Galway Bay FM

The trial of a priest charged with the sexual abuse of two brothers in a Co.Galway school in the 1970’s collapsed today at Galway Circuit Criminal Court.

The priest had denied ten charges of sexual assault which were alleged to have occurred in 1970 and 1971 in the school.

Archbishop of Tuam, Dr. Michael Neary, a witness for the prosecution, gave evidence today on the third day of the trial.

The Archbishop confirmed he had made a statement to Gardai on January 19, 2006 in which he stated that at some time between August and September, 1995 he had been informed that one of the alleged victims had made an allegation of abuse against a priest, claiming he had been sexually abused by him between 1969 and 1974.

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UNITED STATES
Firedoglake

Last year I wrote a couple of posts about the Pedophile Enablers (aka the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts respectively.) Well there I was this morning, looking through the news sites as I do, when I saw this article at the Lexington Herald-Leader about a priest who had been removed because of sex abuse allegations yet was basically allowed to remain in place with no one actually monitoring him or his actions:

Five years after church officials ordered Carroll Howlin to stop functioning as a missionary priest in southeastern Kentucky, leaders of the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., received a letter from a suburban pastor that illuminated just how little the diocese had done to enforce its own protective measures amid a crippling sex abuse scandal.

Howlin, an avuncular-looking priest who moved here more than 30 years ago, had been suspended in 2002 after he was accused of molesting a teenage boy — the second of four such allegations he would face in his career. The Joliet diocese later substantiated claims involving two other victims, including one who committed suicide at 17.

Church officials removed Howlin from public ministry, but otherwise left him alone in Kentucky with a $1,100-a-month pension. He was allowed to continue living in this community where he once helped run the Good Shepherd Catholic Chapel, providing food, clothing and other social services.

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