ABUSE TRACKER

NEW YORK
Jewish Daily Forward

By Anne Cohen
Published September 26, 2013.

The former chancellor of Yeshiva University may be excused from testifying at in the $380 million sex abuse lawsuit currently pending against the Modern Orthodox institution, the New York Post reported Thursday.

Rabbi Norman Lamm, 85, was reportedly examined on September 16 by Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center neuropsychologist Elise Caccapolo. According to Lamm’s lawyer, she found that his testimony, if provided, would not be reliable.

“Dr. Caccappolo found that a deposition was unlikely to pose a risk or threat to Dr. Lamm’s health,” lawyer Joel Cohen wrote to Judge John Koetl, who is overseeing the case at the U.S. District Court, the Post reported.

“However, after administering a battery of tests conducted over a period of nearly five hours, Dr. Caccopolo determined that ‘the pattern of Dr. Lamm’s cognitive impairment impedes his ability to independently comprehend and adequately respond to questions posed to him, as well to reliably retrieve and report past information.”

On September 9, Koeltl ordered a medical evaluation of Lamm, in response to claims by Cohen during a pre-trial hearing that Lamm is unfit to be deposed because he is suffering from dementia.

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NEW YORK
Times Ledger

By Phil Corso

A St. Francis Preparatory School graduate has revealed her name to the public in the midst of a $17 million sexual abuse lawsuit against her former school.

Felicia Mooradian, 21, graduated from the Fresh Meadows school in 2009 and had kept her identity private since accusing a Franciscan brother at the school of sexual harassment in Brooklyn federal court in June. She revealed her name to the New York Post over the weekend, saying she wanted to be the face for other victims to come forward.

“It should be called St. Francis ‘Predatory’ School,” she told the Post. “The Christian thing would be to admit your mistakes, not hide them.”

Attorneys on the school’s side contended from the beginning that she had no legal reasons to remain anonymous. She had previously been referred to in court documents only as Jane Doe.

She, another former student and a former teacher filed the suit against St. Francis Prep, Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn and various members of the school’s board of trustees.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Courier Express

Associated Press

A former Philadelphia priest named in more than 20 abuse complaints during a long church career has been criminally charged for the first time after a new accuser came forward within the new time limit.

The Rev. Robert L. Brennan, 75, was arrested on rape charges in Perryville, Md., where he’s been living since he was suspended after being named in a 2005 grand jury report on sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He is now charged with sexually abusing an altar boy from 1998 to 2001 in northeast Philadelphia.

Earlier complaints against Brennan were long buried in a locked vault at the archdiocese, according to documents unearthed in a landmark church-abuse trial last year. But Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said the archdiocese _ after the conviction of a church official over his handling of complaints _ did the right thing when Brennan’s latest accuser contacted them in January.

“This shows the sea change, I believe, in the manner in which the archdiocese under (Archbishop Charles) Chaput is handling” complaints, Williams said.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Cleric allegedly abused in Monterey, San Jose & San Francisco

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, SNAP Western Regional Director, jcasteix@gmail.com, (949) 322-7434

Coming forward to expose abuse is never easy, especially when an predator is still working as a priest in one of the largest archdioceses in the United States. We applaud the three brave victims who came forward to report being abused by Fr. Donald Flickinger. Were it not for their action, Flickinger would still be living and working as a priest around children in San Francisco.

We are disappointed that church lawyers have fought to keep Flickinger’s personnel documents secret in the hopes that more victims will not come forward. We fear that the documents may outline Flickinger’s long career of abuse and cover-up by church officials. It is our hope that anyone who may have been hurt by Flickinger—or anyone else—comes forward and gets the healing they deserve. We also beg anyone who may have seen or suspected abuse, or has evidence of abuse by Flickinger in Monterey, San Jose or San Francisco reports to law enforcement. Children are only safe with predators are behind bars.

The victims were represented by attorney Tim Hale of Santa Barbara, timothy@nps-law.com, (805) 963-2345 (cell)

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Melissa Hanson, Globe Correspondent

A Boston priest has been appointed interim president and chief executive of iCatholic Media, the media arm of the Boston archdiocese, officials announced today.

Father Robert Reed was appointed by Cardinal Sean O’Malley and the board of trustees for iCatholic Media, the archdiocese said in a statement.

The nonprofit company operates a number of media outlets for the archdiocese. The company oversees Catholic TV, the radio program “The Good Catholic Life,” The Pilot newspaper, Pilot New Media, and Pilot Bulletins and Printing, the statement said.

Sister Marian Batho chairwoman of iCatholic Media, said Reed “brings a wealth of experience and energy to the position.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Philly

BY MATTHEW GAMBINO

Father Robert L. Brennan, a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia whose priestly faculties were suspended since 2005, has been arrested in Maryland on charges of sexually abusing a Northeast Philadelphia boy between 1998 and 2001.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams made the announcement at a press conference today, Sept. 26, in Philadelphia.

Father Brennan, 75, was arrested on charges of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and aggravated indecent assault in Perryville, Md., where he was living in a private residence. He is being held in Maryland’s Cecil County where he faces an extradition hearing today.

He was included in the 2005 Philadelphia Grand Jury report investigating incidents of sexual abuse of minors by clergy. The report cited a years-long pattern of reports of inappropriate behavior, including touching and other physical contact, between Father Brennan and boys with whom he came into contact during his assignments at parishes and schools in the archdiocese.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivors Advocates Coalition

The Interview, The Denial, The G-8

It’s an understatement to say that survivors’ lives are difficult.

They carry burdens, scars, and pouches of psychological festerings that can protrude in unlikely ways and places.

It’s not an overstatement to say that the abuse is always present tense no matter when it happened.

It seems the first rule of the Church and particularly its leaders should be in line with Hippocrates’ thinking: First, do no harm.

That hasn’t been what’s emerged through a media swollen with the interview and reports of the interview given by Pope Francis to Jesuit colleagues, the letter written by Pope Emeritus Benedict and the imminent opening of the gathering with Pope Francis of the eight cardinals he tapped to be a chapel cabinet.

The wide ranging Pope Francis interview spanned three question sessions and a copy of the interview was provided to him for review in Italian and approved before publication and translation.

That doesn’t leave much, if any, wiggle room that the great void of non-mention of sexual crisis, the largest crisis in the Church since the Reformation, was the fault of a hasty process, quick on the fly, shoe horned in sessions, bad translation, misinterpretation of meaning and intent.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Meanwhile, as Pope Francis’s recent interview and what it portends for the direction of the Catholic church continues to be discussed, Kristine Ward of the National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) points out that what Francis didn’t say also deserves notice. Nothing in his interview touches on the abuse crisis in the Catholic church, which is, as Kris notes, “the largest crisis in the Church since the Reformation.”

Francis did speak, but glancingly, of “wounds” from which the Catholic church is suffering, Kris observes–and the fact that his language about the abuse crisis, to which the coded term “wounds” clearly refers, has to be encoded while he speaks bluntly about abortion, contraception, and homosexuality, speaks loudly and clearly about the way in which the church’s top leaders too often continue approaching (or, better, failing to approach) this subject. As she points out, it’s difficult for pastoral leaders to speak transparently about a crisis in whose mismanagement they themselves have long been “in too deep.”

And right on the heels of the interview, as she also notes, comes a denial from the previous pope, Benedict XVI, that he ever participated in covering up abuse. To which Barbara Blaine of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) replies, “We obviously and vehemently disagree.” And to which Barbara Dorris of SNAP says, “He could not be more wrong.”

Here’s Andrew Sullivan on Benedict the “unrepentant”:

To give some obvious, glaring examples of his complicity: despite sitting on mounds of evidence of the crimes of Marcial Maciel for years, Benedict waited and waited to act, and refused to talk in public about the matter, while Maciel went on to rape even his own son; he also helped give refuge to Cardinal Law, one of the most heinous cover-up artists in the whole disgusting saga; he even personally ensured that the man who raped over 200 deaf boys at St John’s School for the Deaf, Father Murphy, was allowed to retire in peace in the “dignity” of his priesthood. And yet Benedict is still capable of telling his interlocutor: “I never tried to cover up these things.”

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UNITED STATES
The Dish

[with video]

Andrew Sullivan

As Pope Francis has charmed the globe, the former Pope has been corresponding with Piergiorgio Odifreddi, an Italian mathematician and philosopher, on a whole range of topics. I haven’t been able to get an English translation and cannot find one online (if a reader has one, I’d be most obliged). Maybe the reported fragments lack important context, but they sound like Benedict to me, especially on the long, horrifying child-rape conspiracy from the Vatican on down, over which he had total control and unique knowledge from 2001 onwards.

To give some obvious, glaring examples of his complicity: despite sitting on mounds of evidence of the crimes of Marcial Maciel for years, Benedict waited and waited to act, and refused to talk in public about the matter, while Maciel went on to rape even his own son; he also helped give refuge to Cardinal Law, one of the most heinous cover-up artists in the whole disgusting saga; he even personally ensured that the man who raped over 200 deaf boys at St John’s School for the Deaf, Father Murphy, was allowed to retire in peace in the “dignity” of his priesthood. And yet Benedict is still capable of telling his interlocutor:

I never tried to cover up these things.

Seriously. But to me, the most egregious statement is the following:

That the power of evil penetrates to such a point in the interior world of the faith is, for us, a source of suffering. On the one hand we must accept that suffering, and on the other, at the same time, we must do everything possible so that such cases aren’t repeated.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on September 26, 2013

Your Holiness:

I was a nobody. A lost sheep – a victim of sex abuse in the Catholic church who was “thrown away” by the priests and bureaucrats in the Diocese of Orange, California. I was disposable. But unlike the parable, no shepherd came to look to me. Alone and isolated from my community, my family and my faith, I had to struggle to heal myself. Against the odds, I succeeded. And now I speak for those who still suffer alone, in silence.

I am not a nobody anymore. And that is why I am writing to you.

You have reached out to atheists and agnostics. You have said you cannot judge the homosexual community. Those were huge steps, but very easy things to do. You followed your heart and the teachings of the Bible. Now I ask you to do the hard thing: embrace the lost sheep that your people sexually abused, shunned and shamed. Tackle the “elephant in the room” that has been ignored for so long.

Doing that will be difficult. But rumor has it that dying on the cross wasn’t terribly easy either.
You have a bishop in Missouri, USA, who was convicted of child endangerment. Why is he still a bishop? I can’t help but think that Jesus would weep to see that secular authorities are doing more to save your lost sheep than you are.

You have Cardinals in the United States who have covered up abuse, yet they stand in judgement—saying that victims are just bitter, money-grubbers.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams is charging 75-year-old Rev. Robert Brennan with rape, involuntary deviate sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and aggravated indecent assault.

“Rev. Brennan is charged with sexually assaulting an altar boy at Resurrection of Our Lord Parish in Northeast Philadelphia between 1998 and 2001,” Williams said. “The assaults started when the boy was 11 years of age and continued until he was 14 years old.”

Brennan was assistant pastor of the church at the time of the alleged assaults. Williams says his team began investigating the case after receiving information from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

“The victim reported Brennan’s abuse to the Archdiocese in 2013, the Archdiocese immediately — I mean that same day — contacted the District Attorney’s office to share that report,” he said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PhillyBurbs

By Jo Ciavaglia Staff writer
Posted on September 26, 2013

A Catholic priest who briefly served at a Lower Makefield church has been charged with sexually assaulting a Philadelphia man starting when the man was an 11-year-old altar boy at a Northeast Philadelphia church.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced the charges against the Rev. Robert Brennan, 75, at a news conference Thursday. He is charged with rape, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse and aggravated assault.

Brennan was arrested Wednesday in Maryland, where he has been living since he was suspended following a 2005 Philadelphia grand jury report. He remains an ordained priest, but was removed from active ministry in 2005, according to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Brennan is suspected of abusing more than 20 children, according to the grand jury report. But in 2005, prosecutors said the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution had expired.

He served at St. Ignatius Catholic Church for about six months in fall 1989, according to his archdiocese profile. Robert Brennan is not related to the Rev. James J. Brennan, who faces retrial after a jury last year could not reach a verdict in his case of alleged sexual abuse of children.

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PERU
RPP

[Summary: At leave 50 parishioners – men and woman – from the parish of San Francisco de Paula are mobilized in the streets of Aycucho in support of former Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Miranda, who ahs been accused of pedophilia. The group, carrying rosaries, are demanding justice for the bishops who ws removed by the Vatican. These people believe the bishop is innocent and that no formal complaints have been made against him at district police stations.]

Al menos 50 feligreses entre varones y mujeres pertenecientes a la parroquia San Francisco de Paula se movilizan por las calles de la ciudad de Ayacucho, en respaldo al exobispo auxiliar acusado de pedofilia, Gabino Miranda.

El grupo de personas portan rosarios y piden justicia para el Miranda, quien fue destruido por el Vaticano. Incluso indican que es inocente de los hechos que se le imputan.

Por lo pronto, no existe ninguna denuncia formal de los agraviados en las comisarías de las provincias.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Republic

[Report of the Philadelphia Grand Jury – BishopAccountability.org]

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Priest
September 26, 2013 – 12:40 pm EDT

PHILADELPHIA — A former Philadelphia priest suspected of abusing more than 20 children has been criminally charged after a new accuser came forward.

Seventy-five-year-old Fr. Robert L. Brennan was arrested in Perryville, Maryland, where he’d been living since he was suspended after a 2005 grand jury report.

At the time, prosecutors said it was too late to pursue complaints that went back decades.

But accusers now have more time to pursue charges, and a new accuser says Brennan sexually assaulted him from 1998-2001, starting when he was 11.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Father Robert L. Brennan was removed from active ministry in September 2005 following the Grand Jury report issued by the Philadelphia District Attorney. He has not been permitted to function as a priest anywhere since that time. A canonical process aimed at his laicization is in progress with the Holy See.

His current arrest stems from an allegation of sexual abuse involving a minor reported to the Archdiocese in January 2013. The alleged wrongful conduct occurred between 12 and 15 years ago prior to his removal from ministry. The Archdiocese immediately reported the information to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, and cooperated fully with the subsequent investigation. Since arriving in Philadelphia, Archbishop Chaput has reinforced the Archdiocese’s strong commitment to work with law enforcement in ensuring justice for victims of sexual assault. The Archdiocese reports all allegations of sexual abuse of minors to public authorities.

Father Brennan is 75 years old. He was ordained in 1964. He has served at the following parishes in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia: Saint Pius X, Broomall (1964-1970); Our Lady of Calvary, Philadelphia (1970-1974); Stella Maris, Philadelphia (1974-1981); Saint George, Glenolden (1981-1986); Chaplain, Archbishop Prendergast High School, Drexel Hill (1986); Saint Helena, Philadelphia (1986-1988); Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Yardley (1988-1989); Saint Eleanor, Collegeville (1989); Saint Mary Schwenksville (1989-1992); Leave of Absence (1992-1993); Resurrection of Our Lord (1993-2004); Chaplain, Camilla Hall (2004-2005); Ministry Restricted and faculties removed (2005).

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Office of the District Attorney

September 26, 2013: The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office has charged the Rev. Robert L. Brennan with Rape, Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (IDSI), and Aggravated Indecent Assault. He is charged with sexually assaulting an altar boy at Resurrection of Our Lord Parish in Northeast Philadelphia between 1998 and 2001, beginning when the boy was 11 and continuing until he was 14 years old. Brennan, then 60 to 63 years old, was the assistant pastor at the church. Brennan is accused of digitally penetrating the boy’s anus, beginning when the victim was in 6th grade. He later began forcing the boy to perform oral sex on him. The assaults took place in the sacristy of the church, in the priest’s rectory bedroom, in a storage area on parish property, and in a movie theater. The abuse continued for three years.

Brennan, who now lives in Maryland, was arrested late on Wednesday, September 25th by Perryville Maryland police. He is currently being held in Cecil County and is expected to go before a judge there later today for an extradition hearing.

The victim reported Brennan’s abuse to the Archdiocese in January 2013, six months after a jury convicted Monsignor William Lynn of child endangerment for failing to supervise predatory priests. In accordance with its current policy of reporting all sexual abuse accusations to law enforcement, the Archdiocese immediately forwarded this victim’s allegations to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. The lengthy subsequent investigation resulted in Brennan’s arrest.

“A serial abuser is now behind bars thanks to the brave actions of this young man,” said District Attorney Seth Williams. “It takes tremendous courage for any sexual assault victim to come forward and report the horrors he or she endured, particularly if it happened over the course of several years. The Archdiocese is also to be commended for immediately turning this case over to our office. I hope this arrest continues to send the message to sexual assault victims that we hear you, and we will bring the person to justice.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Philly Post

Simon van Zuylen-Wood

Rev. Robert Brennan, a 75-year-old former Philly priest has been charged with assaulting a altar boy over the course of four years in the late 90s and early 2000s. The alleged abuse began when the boy was 11.

[District Attorney Seth] Williams said the alleged assaults occurred when Brennan was an assistant pastor at Resurrection of Our Lord Church in Northeast Philadelphia. According to Williams, some of the assaults happened on church grounds, Brennan’s bedroom and a movie theater.

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POLSKA
Gazeta Wyborcza

[Summary: The Polish church believes that if priests hurt someone in the Dominican Republican, then it is up to the individuals and not the church to fix the problem. Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk said there is no collective responsibility in the church. All crimes, where pedophilia or other, are the responsibility of the person who committed those crimes.]

Katarzyna Wiśniewska 26.09.2013

O polskich księżach oskarżonych o pedofilię mówi cały świat. Trudno dziś przekonywać – jak lubi to nadal robić wielu księży – że pedofilia w naszym Kościele to problem marginalny.

Dowiedzieliśmy się znów, jakie podejście do rozwiązywania problemów z pedofilią ma polski Kościół. – Jeżeli ksiądz skrzywdził na Dominikanie kogoś, to jest jego obowiązkiem naprawić tę sprawę, a nie Kościoła w Polsce. Nie ma w Kościele odpowiedzialności zbiorowej, jest indywidualna – stwierdził prymas Polski abp Józef Kowalczyk. Tłumaczył, że “za wszelkie przestępstwa – pedofilskie czy inne – odpowiada podmiot, który tego dokonał, a nie fabryka, wspólnota czy podmiot prawa międzynarodowego”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Sept. 26

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

We respectfully disagree with DA Seth Williams. The Philadelphia archdiocese deserves no kudos for reporting this priest to law enforcement. And one incident cannot be deemed some sort of “sea change” in a long-standing, deeply-rooted culture of secrecy, recklessness, callousness and deceit.

Church officials reported Fr. Brennan, we believe, because they didn’t want to go to jail like Msgr. William Lynn has. It’s self-interest, not reform, that prompted this call.

We are disappointed that Catholic officials are being praised for simply, finally, obeying the law.

We caution Mr. Williams and Philadelphia Catholics against premature complacency. Premature complacency protects on one. Only sustained vigilance protects kids.

Here’s what the 2005 grand jury report said about Fr. Brennan:

[BishopAccountability.org]

He was psychologically evaluated or “treated” four times. (NOTE-Archbishop Charles Chaput wants us to believe church officials are ‘reforming.’ But we suspect they still send sexually troubled clerics to the same discredited church facilities they’ve always used.)

Depending on the level of scandal threatened by various incidents, Cardinal Bevilacqua either transferred Fr. Brennan to another parish with unsuspecting families or ignored the reports and left the priest in the parish with his current victims. The Cardinal’s managers advised Fr. Brennan to “keep a low profile,” but never restricted or supervised his access to the youth of his various parishes.

When Cardinal Bevilacqua retired, Fr. Brennan was still a parochial vicar at Resurrection parish in Philadelphia, despite reports from parish staff that he had inappropriate contact with several students from Resurrection’s grade school. In June 2004, Fr. Brennan was appointed Chaplain at Camilla Hall, a retirement home for nuns.

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POLSKA
Wielkopolskie

[Summary: The cases of Rev. Wojciech Gil and Archbishop Jozet Wesolowski are so shocking that Archbishop Josef Kowalczyk, the Polish primate, said that if the priests harmed someone in the Dominican Republic then action must be taken. He added that the church does not have collective responsibility but the responsibility is with the individuals.]

Dla pedofilów nie powinno być litości. Wszyscy księża zamieszani w tę sprawę powinni ponieść karę. Cała ta afera bulwersuje cały świat – tak w skrócie podsumować można aferę polskich duchownych na Dominikanie.

Całym światem wstrząsnęła wiadomość o pedofilskich skłonnościach księży na Dominikanie. W całą sprawę zamieszani są również polscy duchowni: ks. Wojciech Gil oraz abp Józef Wesołowski.

Ostatnio media żyją informacjami o tym, że badająca tą sprawę prokuratura prawdopodobnie posiada już wypowiedzi pokrzywdzonych chłopców. Nieoficjalne źródła podają również, że na skonfiskowanym komputerze jednego z księży zabezpieczono filmy pornograficzne.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Times

PHILADELPHIA – A former longtime priest in the Philadelphia Archdiocese has been arrested on charges of raping an altar boy, and District Attorney Seth Williams said it is both a sign of how the church has changed in terms of reporting crime, and another troubling sign of the way the issue used to be handled.

The Rev. Robert L. Brennan, 75 was arrested in Perryville, Md., Wednesday afternoon and faces an extradition hearing Thursday afternoon. Brennan has been living in Maryland since he was suspended following a 2005 grand jury report.

Williams said Brennan has been charged with the rape of an altar while he was an assistant pastor at Resurrection of Our Lord Parish in the Rhawnhurst section of Northeast Philadelphia from 1998 to 2001.

“A serial predator is now behind bars thanks to brave actions of this young man,” said Williams.

Williams said the alleged assaults included penetration and oral sex.

The district attorney congratulated current archdiocese officials for immediately notifying authorities when they learned of the allegations against Brennan. Williams also castigated former archdiocese officials, in particular Monsignor William Lynn, for failing to stop Brennan despite clear evidence of a troubling pattern of behavior.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WFMJ

Updated: Sep 26, 2013
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A former Philadelpiha priest suspected of abusing more than 20 children has been criminally charged after a new accuser came forward.

Seventy-five-year-old Fr. Robert L. Brennan has been arrested in Perryville, Md., where he has been living since he was suspended following a 2005 grand jury report.

At the time, prosecutors said it was too late to pursue complaints that went back decades.

But accusers now have more time to pursue charges, and a new accuser says Brennan sexually assaulted him from 1998 to 2001, starting when he was 11.

District Attorney Seth Williams says he would have also charged Monsignor William Lynn with child endangerment for allegedly hiding the earlier complaints, but the statute for that charge had run.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

[with video]

A Philadelphia priest is accused of sexually molesting an altar boy over a three-year period.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced the arrest Thursday morning of Rev. Robert L Brennan.

“A serial predator is now behind bars thanks to brave actions of this young man,” said Williams.

Williams described in graphic detail how Brennan, who was 60 when the alleged attacks began, allegedly penetrated the boy when the boy wasn’t even in seventh grade before proceeding to oral sex once the boy entered seventh grade.

The alleged assaults happened inside the church and rectory and off church grounds while Brennan was an assistant pastor at Resurrection of Our Lord Parish in the Rhawnhurst section of Northeast Philadelphia from 1998 to 2001.

“The assaults took place in the sarcricy of the church, in REv. Brennan’s bedroom, in the rectory, in a storage area on parish property and in a movie theater,” said Williams.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
6 ABC

PHILADELPHIA – September 26, 2013 (WPVI) — A priest who once served in Philadelphia has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing an altar boy.

Robert L. Brennan, 75, is charged with rape, deviate sexual intercourse and other offenses.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced the arrest Thursday.

Williams said the alleged abuse happened between 1998 and 2001 at the Resurrection of Our Lord Church in Northeast Philadelphia when Brennan was an assistant pastor there.

According to Williams, the alleged abuse began when the victim was 11 years old and continued until he was 14. The victim told prosecutors the incidents took place in the church, in Brennan’s bedroom and in a movie theater.

Williams said the victim came forward in January 2013 and reported the incidents to officials at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

He said the archdiocese contacted the district attorney’s office that same day to report the allegations.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

JOSEPH A. SLOBODZIAN AND JOHN P. MARTIN, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
LAST UPDATED: Thursday, September 26, 2013

A Catholic priest whose alleged sexual abuse of teen and preteen boys figured prominently in last year’s trial of a Philadelphia church official was arrested Thursday on sex abuse charges.

The arrest of the 75-year-old Rev. Robert Brennan, 75 – confirmed by a source close to the case – is to be announced at a news conference this morning by District Attorney Seth Williams.

Though Brennan was not charged as a result of the 2011 county grand jury report on clergy sex-abuse of children in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the source said Brennan has been accused by a man, now in his 20s, of sexually molesting him between the ages of 11 and 14.

The allegations against Brennan surfaced at last year’s trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first Catholic church official convicted for his supervisory role in covering up the conduct of pedophile priests.

Prosecutors introduced details of Brennan’s case to show that Lynn and other Archdiocesan officials had a longstanding practice of moving abusive priests to different parishes where they were then able to prey on a new group of children.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

Live stream of the press conference.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams is expected to announce details this morning about the arrest of a Philadelphia priest.

An 11 a.m. press conference should reveal more details about the arrest.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013

Statement by Karen Polesir of Philadelphia SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 267-992-9463, karenpolesir@yahoo.com )

Prosecutors in Philadelphia will announce the arrest of a suspected predator priest at a news conference this morning.

“Discrimination!” “We’re being singled out.” “The DA doesn’t call a news conference to announce the arrest of a child molesting Lutheran pastor or Methodist minister.”

Apologists for Archbishop Charles Chaput and others in the corrupt archdiocesan hierarchy will no doubt make these claims.

Those complaints are, of course, disingenuous. For decades, many in the archdiocese have ignored, enabled and covered up child sex crimes. And little in the archdiocesan hierarchy has changed. So prosecutors are doing their duty when they continue to shine a light on that small band of secretive, self-serving individuals who keep putting their reputations and careers and colleagues ahead of the safety of children.

We applaud prosecutors who use their “bully pulpits” to expose individuals who commit and institutions that conceal heinous child sex crimes. That should happen more often. That’s smart law enforcement. That better protects kids.

It’s very hard to deter child sex crimes. It’s not hard, however, to deter cover ups. It takes two things: prosecuting and exposing those who cover up child sex crimes.

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GERMANY
National Catholic Reporter

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt | Sep. 26, 2013

Curia reform and how to improve the Vatican’s negative image will take priority when Pope Francis’ eight-member council of cardinals meets in October, says the German cardinal on that council.

He also says Francis has brought a “new atmosphere” and “new sensitivity” to the church.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich gave an extended interview to the German weekly newsmagazine Die Zeit in September. He discussed the present state of the church and the changes that are crucial in his eyes.

“We need a strong central authority and that is why, as I have already emphasized in Rome, we must improve the Holy See’s reputation. The Curia is here to help local churches, which are not just Roman offshoots. We must bring a positive change to the Vatican’s image. It must no longer be possible for our faithful to regard the Vatican primarily as something negative. We must once again be able to be proud of our headquarters,” said Marx, who is president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community.

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PERU
Trome

[Summary: Former Bishop Gabino Miranda apparently was denounced by a 14-year-old boy from Huanta who accused the bishop of improper touching. The alleged victim was an altar boy, according to the magazine Caretas, and the abuse is said to have occurred in 2012 during confession in the church of San Francisco de Paula, which is a block from the Plaza de Huamanga. Garay Chavez, a provincial prosecutor, said he does not know whether there are other victims.]

El exobispo de Ayacucho Gabino Miranda habría sido denunciado por un menor de 14 años oriundo de Huanta por “tocamientos indebidos”.

Según fuentes de la revista Caretas, la presunta víctima era su monaguillo y el abuso ocurrió durante un acto de confesión en la iglesia San Francisco de Paula, a una cuadra de la Plaza de Armas de Huamanga, en 2012.

Luego de que el Vaticano destituyera a Miranda por las acusaciones de pedofilia que pesan en su contra, la Fiscalía de esa región le abrió de oficio una investigación.

El fiscal Garay Chávez, de la Primera Fiscalía Provincial de Huamanga, dijo al semanario que ignora si hay más víctimas de Miranda.

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DEUTSCHLAND
FN Web

WÜRZBURG/KARLSTADT. Tatort war ein Pfarrhaus im Landkreis Main- Spessart, missbraucht worden ist über Jahre hinweg der Sohn einer evangelischen Pfarrers-Frau, die nach der Scheidung mit ihren Kindern bei dem mit ihrem Ex-Mann auf ökumenischer Basis befreundeten katholischen Bekannten Unterschlupf fand und das Opfer war, als ihn der “Ersatz-Vater” zum ersten Mal “anfasste”, gerade fünf Jahre alt.

Einen 58 Jahre alten katholischen Priester, Mitglied des “Deutschen Ordens”, hat Oberstaatsanwalt Thomas Trapp am Dienstag vor einer Großen Strafkammer des Landgerichts Würzburg wegen sexuellem Missbrauch eines Kindes in mindestens 14 Fällen angeklagt. Der Priester hatte sich über zwölf Jahre nach der letzten Tat bei dem für den Deutschen Orden zuständigen Missbrauchs-Beauftragten selbst angezeigt. Möglicherweise ein taktisches Manöver, denn der Pfarrer soll kurz zuvor erfahren haben, dass auch sein “Opfer” eine Anzeige vorbereitet.

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PERU
Caretas

[Summary: Details about the removal of Auxiliary Bishop Gabina Miranda have not been revealed but sources told Caretas the complaint goes back to June 2012 when a 14-year-old altar boy from Huanta said Gabino improperly touched him. The abuse is said to have happened in the confessional. The Archbishop of Ayacucho, Salvardor Pineiro, who is also president of the Episcopal Conference, immediately opened a case against Miranda in strictest confidence and sent the file to the Vatican. Aware of the complaint, Miranda in April wrote a letter to Pope Francis asking for a sabbatical to reflect on imprudence. The Vatican ignored him and he was gone by early August. Prosecutor Garay Chavez said he does not know if there are more victims but it is believed another complaint was made by a 15-year-old.

Miranda was born in the Curahuasi district in Apurimac and studied at the minor seminary at Abancay. His education was clearly linked to Opus Dei at the major seminary at Our Lady of Cocharcas. He was ordained on Dec. 12, 1987 and he studied theology at the University of Navarre in Spain. He was appointed bishop in 2002 by Pope John Paul II at request of Juan Luis Cipriani, cardinal and Archbishop of Lima. Opus Dei said Miranda is not a bishop of the prelature but belonged to the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross which is separate from the prelature.]

Contra Sextum. Con los vientos que hoy soplan en el Vaticano, este concepto de derecho canónico es uno de los más temidos. Son los delitos que van contra el sexto mandamiento (“No cometerás adulterio”).

Se refieren en primer lugar, al concubinato del clérigo. Pero también a “cualquier forma de pecado externo” que “se comete por fuerza, amenaza, públicamente o con menores de 16 años” (canon 1396).

En carta del 1 de julio dada a conocer por la prensa, el obispo titular de Usula –y auxiliar de Ayacucho–, Gabino Miranda (53), niega haber cometido delito contra sextum a pesar de que “en algunas circunstancias he sido imprudente”.

La misiva se la dirige a monseñor Aloisius Franciscus Ladaria, el número dos de la Congregación Para la Doctrina de la Fe que en mayo pasado decidió en Roma su retiro del cargo y su suspensión como obispo y sacerdote.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

PHILLY.COM STAFF
LAST UPDATED: Thursday, September 26, 2013

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced this morning that a priest from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has been arrested.

Williams did not release further information, but set an 11 a.m. press conference.

Fox29 is reporting that the yet unidentified priest is accused of molesting a 6th grader. However, that was not officially confirmed.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A Philadelphia priest has been arrested after being accused of sexually assaulting a grade school student.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams is expected to announce the charges during a news conference at 11 a.m. today.

The details regarding the alleged sexual assault remain unclear, but the priest is in police custody. His identity was not immediately released.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

By Dan Stamm | Thursday, Sep 26, 2013

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams is expected to announce details this morning about the arrest of a Philadelphia priest.

An 11 a.m. press conference should reveal more details about the arrest.

All that is known at this point is that a priest in the Philadelphia Archdiocese was arrested.

NBC!0 is working to find out the identity of the priest and the accusations against the Catholic leader.

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GALLUP (NM)
Gallup Independent

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola

September 19, 2013

After a last-ditch legal maneuver was denied by an Arizona judge, Bishop James S. Wall of the Diocese of Gallup submitted to a deposition Wednesday by two attorneys who have filed 13 clergy abuse lawsuits against the diocese.

Wall’s deposition was held in Albuquerque and was accompanied by the deposition of the Rev. Alfred Tachias, a longtime Gallup priest. The depositions took place as scheduled because the diocese has yet to file its Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition, a move that will halt the proceedings in the civil lawsuits.

However, at least for the time being, the contents of Wednesday’s depositions are confidential, over the objection of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Robert E. Pastor of Phoenix and John C. Manly of Irvine, Calif.

“Bishop Wall and Father Tachias gave statements under oath today,” Pastor said in an email Wednesday evening. “We are not permitted to discuss the content of their testimony because at the outset of the deposition the Diocese of Gallup designated the testimony confidential. We noted our objection and found it odd that the Diocese would make the testimony confidential before the witnesses even testified. We hope that one day all of the facts surrounding clergy sexual abuse of children in the Diocese of Gallup will be shared with the faithful Catholics of the diocese.”

The depositions were scheduled as part of Pastor and Manly’s first clergy sex abuse case against the Gallup Diocese, which is scheduled to go to trial in February in Coconino County Superior Court in Flagstaff, Ariz. The case involves abuse allegations against the Rev. Clement Hageman, who is deceased. Tachias formerly worked as an assistant pastor under Hageman.

Last-minute motion

In Masses held over the Labor Day Weekend, priests in the Gallup Diocese read a letter from the bishop, announcing plans to seek Chapter 11 reorganization because of increasing numbers of clergy sex abuse lawsuits and claims. [For texts of the letter and related civil complaints, see Diocese of Gallup to File Bankruptcy, by Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola, Gallup Independent, September 3, 2013.]

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY DANIEL BEEKMAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

The former president of Yeshiva University has a doctor’s note that could excuse him from testifying in the shocking $380 million sex abuse lawsuit against the Washington Heights institution.

Norman Lamm, a longtime Yeshiva administrator named as a defendant in the federal case, has a “cognitive impairment” that makes him an unreliable witness, a brain expert determined earlier this month, Lamm’s lawyer said.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Rich Calder
September 25, 2013

One of the defendants in a scathing $380 million lawsuit accusing Yeshiva University of covering up decades of sexual and physical abuse against students now has a doctor’s note that could get him out of testifying in the case.

Former Yeshiva University Chancellor Norman Lamm, 85, was examined on Sept. 16 by neuropsychologist Elise Caccappolo of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, who found that he can’t provide reliable testimony, Lamm’s lawyer wrote this week.

“Dr. Caccappolo found that a deposition was unlikely to pose a risk or threat to Dr. Lamm’s health,” lawyer Joel Cohen wrote Judge John Koetl on Tuesday.

“However, after administering a battery of tests conducted over a period of nearly five hours, Dr. Caccopolo determined [in her written report] that ‘the pattern of Dr. Lamm’s cognitive impairment impedes his ability to independently comprehend and adequately respond to questions posed to him, as well to reliably retrieve and report past information.”

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AUSTRALIE
Trouw

Paus excommuniceert priester die pleit voor homo’s en vrouwen

Een Australische priester die campagne voerde voor de priesterwijding van vrouwen en het homohuwelijk moet de rooms-katholieke kerk verlaten. Het Vaticaan heeft hem geëxcommuniceerd.

Dat melden de Australische krant The Age en het katholieke tijdschrift National Catholic Reporter (NCR). Volgens de brief die de priester uit Rome ontving, is de beslissing genomen door of namens paus Franciscus.

Greg Reynolds uit Melbourne kreeg naar eigen zeggen niet te horen wat de reden is van zijn excommunicatie, de meest drastische maatregel die het Vaticaan kan nemen. De aartsbisschop van Melbourne legt de schuld in een brief aan zijn priesters bij Reynolds’ pleidooien voor vrouwelijke priesterwijding en het feit dat hij onbevoegd de eucharistie (het ritueel van brood en wijn) viert. Daarmee gaat hij, ondanks enkele waarschuweingen, in tegen de kerkleer.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

UPDATE In een donderdag gepubliceerd interview neemt paus Franciscus het op voor homo’s en geeft hij scherpe kritiek op de kerk. Toch is hij volgens Vaticaankenners niet radicaal.

Heeft u het 27 pagina’s tellende interview nog niet gelezen? Geen nood. De opmerkelijke uitspraken vindt u hier.

Vaticaankenner John Allen: Franciscus wijkt niet af van de kerkleer
‘Franciscus geeft naar eigen zeggen slechts een samenvatting van de rooms-katholieke catechismus (de kerkelijke leer, red.) Daarin staat dat de kerk homoseksuele handelingen afkeurt, maar dat homoseksuelen behandeld moeten worden met ‘respect, compassie en gevoeligheid’.’

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PERU
El Pais (Espana)

[Summary: Last Thursday, Diego Garcia Sayan, president of the inter-American human rights court, said that a bishop in an Andean jurisdiction was removed from office because of pedophilia. Hours later, Luis Bambaren, bishop emeritus, confirmed that it was Gabino Miranda, former auxiliary bishop of Ayacucho. However, the Peruvian Episcopal Conference is still silent on the case although Miranda was dismissed in May. This is the first expulsion in Peru under the new papal regulations which are more drastic when sexual abuse of minors is alleged. Juan Luis Cipriani, archbishop of Lima, said Saturday he was unaware of the case and asked that people “do not beat a dead horse.” Garcia Syan also said that MIranda and Cipriani were members of the Opus Dei prelature.]

El jueves pasado, Diego García Sayán, presidente de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, comentó en su columna quincena que un obispo de una jurisdicción andina fue destituido de su cargo por pedofilia. Horas después, el obispo emérito de Chimbote, Luis Bambarén, confirmó que se trataba de Gabino Miranda, antiguo obispo auxiliar de Ayacucho. Ambos pidieron que el Ministerio Público investigara de oficio, lo cual se concretó. Sin embargo, la Conferencia Episcopal Peruana aún guarda silencio sobre el caso a pesar de que Miranda fue cesado en mayo. Se trata de la primera expulsión por este motivo en Perú, y bajo el nuevo reglamento papal, más drástico sobre actos sexuales contra menores.

El arzobispo de Lima, Juan Luis Cipriani, dijo el sábado pasado que no estaba enterado del caso y pidió “no hacer leña del árbol caído”. “Estando en Roma, no me resulta fácil interpretar los datos tan delicados que me están anunciando”, dijo a una radio peruana. García Sayán también comentó que el sacerdote cesado pertenecía al Opus Dei, prelatura de la que Cipriani es miembro, pero el jerarca lo negó. “Conozco bastante bien la situación de este sacerdote y obispo, que tiene una dirección espiritual y una cercanía en la espiritualidad libremente escogida con gente el Opus Dei, pero no es un sacerdote incardinado en el Opus Dei”, refirió. Hoy, el periodista Andrés Beltramo confirma en Vatican Insider que el obispo Miranda perteneció a la Sociedad Sacerdotal de la Santa Cruz, “una fraternidad que es parte de la prelatura”.

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PERU
Tuteve

[con video]

A raíz de lo acontecido por la denuncia contra exobispo auxiliar de Ayacucho, Gabino Miranda, por pedofilia, el Arzobispo de Lima, Juan Luis Cipriani, más allá de mostrar su preocupación por las presuntas víctimas, se solidarizó con el religioso.

Tal como señala el informe del programa “Al Día”, Cipriani dejó dudas si tenía conocimiento o no de este hecho, sobre todo porque el desaforado obispo es un miembro cercano al Opus Dei.

Por su parte, José Godoy, periodista especializado en temas religioso, manifiesta que la máxima autoridad del catolicismo en el Perú con el tema de derechos humanos ha sido “accidentado” y “conflictivo”.

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ARGENTINA
UPI

BUENOS AIRES, sep. 25 (UPI) — César Cigliutti Presidente de la CHA dijo que “La detención del sacerdote Julio César Grassi nos permite confiar un poco más en la justicia ya que termina con la impunidad de los delitos de abuso de menores.

En la Comunidad Homosexual Argentina como organización de Derechos Humanos trabajamos para proteger, en este caso, a los niños abusados. Las actuales “dudas” planteadas públicamente hoy por el obispado de Morón ratifican la denuncia de la CHA sobre la complicidad que tuvieron sistemáticamente los obispos frente a las denuncias de abusos a menores.

Lo menos que pueden hacer es guardar un respetable silencio y lo que se espera (que hagan en algún momento) es que condenen y repudien estos actos y que protejan a las víctimas, respetando lo resuelto por la justicia argentina. Los testimonios, las pruebas presentadas durante el proceso, más la actitud del propio acusado hacen que el juico tenga sobrados elementos (más que suficientes) para haber determinado la culpabilidad de Grassi. Lo que agrava la persistencia de los obispos por seguir encubriéndolo.

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ARGENTINA
UPI

[Summary: Three convictions of sexual abuse were not enough to convince the church that priest Julio Cesar Grassi was guilty, according to newspaper Clarin. The Moron bishopric expressed doubts about his guilt and even questioned the flight risk that Grassi posed which was an argument the prosecutor made to the judges. Last Thursday, a few hours after the Supreme Court upheld Grassi’s conviction, Bishop Marcelo Cuenca became the first senior member of the church to defend him and say he was totally innocent. He later confirmed his statements. The bishop said although pedophilia exists in the church, it does not so in this situation.]

Publicado: sep. 26, 2013

BUENOS AIRES, sep. 25 (UPI) — Tres fallos condenatorios por abuso sexual no alcanzaron a convencer a la Iglesia de la culpabilidad del acusado, el antes mediático cura Julio César Grassi, consignó el diario Clarín.

El obispado de Morón –al que pertenece Grassi– expresó sus “dudas” acerca de la culpabilidad del sacerdote. Fue a través de un comunicado difundido al día siguiente de que un tribunal dispusiera, finalmente, su encarcelamiento. E incluso también se puso en duda el “peligro de fuga” de Grassi, un concepto que formó parte de los argumentos de los jueces que lo enviaron a la cárcel.

El jueves pasado, a escasas horas de que la Suprema Corte de Justicia confirmara la condena a Julio César Grassi, el obispo de la diócesis del Alto Valle de Río Negro, Marcelo Cuenca, se convirtió en el primer integrante de alto rango de la Iglesia en defender a Grassi. “Es totalmente inocente”, afirmó en declaraciones periodísticas. Más tarde, Cuenca le confirmó sus dichos al tabloide. “La pedofilia existe dentro de la Iglesia, pero en este caso concreto es una situación armada. Nos han enviado resúmenes gruesos, tres volúmenes, con argumentos legales. Ahí se nos muestra que hay algunas de las acusaciones en contra del padre Grassi que están armadas”, señaló al diario.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

MARK COLVIN: The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse is preparing to turn its attention to the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore. Public hearings set down for November will examine how the Anglican diocese of Grafton, which ran the home, handled complaints of abuse. It will also revisit the civil legal action of 2006 and 2007.

Leading the charge against the church is one survivor, Richard “Tommy” Campion, who was in the Lismore home between the 1940s and ’60s. He launched the campaign to have the Anglican Church admit that it had a legal duty of care for the orphans who were sexually and physically abused in the home. He’s now hoping the Royal Commission will lead to public apologies to individual victims and compensation.

Emily Bourke reports.

EMILY BOURKE: Richard “Tommy” Campion lived in the North Coast Children’s Home from the late 1940s to 1963.

RICHARD “TOMMY” CAMPION: I can say it was a hellhole. Brutal bashings. Children were flogged with broomsticks, canes, pony whips, belts. Children were locked in cupboards. Children were made to stand on one leg and if they did fall over they’d be belted and flogged.

If the child wee’d the bed, they were paraded in the dormitory with the sheets over their head, telling this would be a lesson to you guys if you do this. And then they had to go out to the back into the laundry and wash them, and some of the children couldn’t reach the tubs. It was pretty sad.

EMILY BOURKE: When the trauma of the abuse surfaced decades later, he approached the Anglican Church which ran the Lismore orphanage.

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VATICAN CITY
All Voices

BY Mike Sarzo

Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI broke a months-long silence Tuesday kept since he left the papacy back in February in order to defend the Catholic Church’s response to child sexual abuse scandals that has roiled the world community for years.

In a letter he wrote to well-known Italian atheist and author Piergiorgio Odifreddi, Benedict denied personal responsibility for the scandal surrounding a potential cover up of wrongdoing by priests.
“I never tried to cover these things up,” Benedict wrote. Regarding the scandal and the negative press the church faced as a result, the former pontiff said the church had to bear responsibility.

“That the power of evil penetrated so far into the interior world of the faith is a suffering that we must bear, but at the same time, we must do everything to prevent it from repeating,” he wrote.

However, instead of citing new ways in which the church could own up to and combat the abuses and strive to prevent such abuses in the future, Benedict copped out.

“The percentage of priests who commit these crimes isn’t any higher than the percentage of other similar professions,” Benedict wrote. “One shouldn’t present this deviation as if it were something specific to Catholicism.”

That misses the point, which is the church has rightly received intense scrutiny for abdicating its responsibility in rooting out and stopping the abuse.

Before he was pope, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger led the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and was responsible for handling abuse cases. In that role during 2001, he instructed bishops to send cases to his office rather than allow them to reshuffle priests accused of sexual abuse to avoid church trials. In 1988, he asked the Vatican’s legal team for faster ways to remove priests accused of abuse but was denied because it didn’t allow the priests to defend themselves.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

Difficulty coming to terms with allegations of child sex abuse prevented Catholic Church officials reporting pedophile priests, a NSW inquiry has heard.

Barrister Lachlan Gyles says it was not the culture of the Church that held senior figures back, but their problems in grasping the nature of what was alleged.

“It was not a cultural disinclination to report,” Mr Gyles told the last day of the special commission of inquiry’s public hearings in the Newcastle Supreme Court.

“It was coming to terms (with the fact) that people were capable of doing the things that they were alleged to have done.”

Mr Gyles said church leaders were just as repulsed by child sexual abuse as other people in the community and were now doing all they could to ensure that the offences of the past were not repeated.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Keloland

[with video]

ABERDEEN, SD – A priest working as a chaplain in Aberdeen has lost his job after allegations of sexual harassment.

Charles Emezie was a chaplain at an Avera hospital and nursing home. Emezie no longer works for Avera and can’t practice ministry in the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls either.

Emezie worked more than 18 years as a chaplain for Avera in Aberdeen. When word spread that he’d lost his job after sexual harassment allegations, Nicholas Berens was surprised.

“I think everybody is equal and the same measures should be taken no matter what, but I would expect more out of a clergyman,” Berens said.

Because it’s a personnel matter, administrators with Avera say they can’t comment beyond saying Emezie doesn’t work for Avera any longer and he didn’t hurt any patients in the hospital or residents in the nursing home.

According to a statement released by the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, an investigation found that reports that Emezie sexually harassed adult female staff members have been found credible. The Diocese also says Emezie’s conduct violated its sexual misconduct policy.

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GEORGIA
Coastal Courier

A Catholic priest, who once worked in Pembroke, was found guilty last week of criminal child sex abuse in U.S. Federal Court in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Father Robert “Bob” Poandl was found guilty of federal child sex charges that he transported a 10-year-old boy from Cincinnati to Spencer, W.Va., in August 1991 where he sexually assaulted the child.
He is expected to be sentenced by the end of the year.

In addition to Pembroke, Poandl also worked six other Georgia towns: Blairsville, Dahlonga, Cleveland, Glenville, Claxton and Sand Hill.

Poandl belongs to a Fairfield, Ohio-based Catholic religious order called the Glenmary Missioners. Besides Georgia, he worked at churches and church assignments in Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi.

“We believe there are more victims of Poandl, and it’s never too late to share what you know or suspect with law enforcement officials,” Judy Jones of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said.

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GEORGIA
Statesboro Herald

BY Jason Wermers
jwermers@statesboroherald.com 912-489-9431

In the wake of a former Catholic priest who used to work in southeast Georgia being found guilty on a child sex abuse charge, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah is reminding parishioners of its sexual abuse hotline.

Robert Poandl, 72, was found guilty Friday by an Ohio jury of transporting a minor across state lines with intent to engage in sexual activity.

Poandl, also known as “Father Bob,” took a 10-year-old Cincinnati boy to West Virginia on an overnight trip in 1991. The victim reported the incident in 2009, saying that during the trip to a rectory, Poandl awakened him to have sex, then said they had just sinned and needed to pray for forgiveness, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

Poandl will be sentenced at a later date.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Patriot-News

By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com
on September 25, 2013

Rep. Mark Rozzi came to the state Capitol on Wednesday to talk about justice for child abuse victims after a restless night of repeatedly re-living the nightmare of sexual abuse he suffered as a boy at the hands of a Catholic priest.

The 42-year-old Berks County Democrat said he would like to close that chapter of his life that he was unable to talk publicly about until four years ago but until he feels justice is served, he can’t.

Pennsylvania allows child sex abuse victims until age 30 to bring civil claims against their abusers.

Unfortunately, he said victims operate on their own time schedule as to when they are ready to open up about the abuse they experienced. Oftentimes, he said it is not until they aged out of the opportunity to seek justice through civil litigation.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The first lump sum payments to survivors of the Magdalene Laundries are expected to be issued within four to six weeks of forthcoming Cabinet consideration of the matter.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter made the announcement in the Dáil this afternoon.

The Government approved the immediate implementation of cash lump sum payment scheme based on duration of stay in laundries, as recommended by Mr Justice John Quirke, on 25 June.

It also tasked an inter-departmental group with giving further detailed consideration to the steps necessary to implement the recommendations made by Judge Quirke.

Minister Shatter said he has already established a special unit to process applications and to determine whether an applicant resided and worked in an institution covered by the scheme and the duration of their stay, as well as the calculation of the capital sum due to be paid to them.

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PERU
Peru 21

[Summary: Monsignor Percy Quispe, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Ayacucho, said they do not know the details about the accusations made against former Bishop Gabino Miranda who was removed by the Vatican after being accused of pedophilia. He believes the complaint might have gone directly to the Vatican.]

El monseñor Percy Quispe, canciller de la Arquidiócesis de Ayacucho, manifestó que en dicha ciudad no saben de qué se le acusa al exobispo auxiliar Gabino Miranda, quien fue destituido de su cargo por el Vaticano, tras ser acusado por pedofilia.

“Me da mucha pena el caso de (Gabino) Miranda; sin embargo, aquí en Ayacucho no hubo ningún tipo de denuncia en las instancias judiciales por pedofilia”, indicó el religioso, quien dijo que Miranda Melgarejo no se comunica con ellos para explicar sus razones por temor a que sea víctima de interceptaciones telefónicas.

En una carta, con fecha del 1 de julio de 2013, el exsacerdote reconoce que “en algunas circunstancias he sido imprudente”, pero asegura que esas “supuestas faltas no pueden ser tipificadas de delito contra sextum (sexto mandamiento)”.

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ARGENTINA
Nuevo Diario

BUENOS AIRES.- El Padre Grassi, condenado a 15 años de prisión efectiva por el delito de abuso sexual y corrupción de menores, se encuentra en una situación difícil con la iglesia. Se encuentra suspendido como sacerdote y no puede ejercer misa en público. El mismo s e enfrentará a un juicio canónico, que consiste en que su congregación lo juzgue. En caso de que se lo encuentre culpable, pierde su condición de clérigo.

El rector de la Catedral Metropolitana, Alejandro Russo, sostuvo que el padre Julio César Grassi podría ser exonerado luego de ser condenado por abuso sexual.

“El Vaticano puede echarlo como clérigo de la Iglesia pero tiene que haber un juicio canónico previo”, explicó en declaraciones a “Hola Chiche” por Radio 10. Russo aclaró que “sacerdote no deja de ser nunca, quien se ordena sacerdote muere sacerdote”.

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Standing on My Head

September 24, 2013 By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Pope Benedict has broken his self imposed silence to defend his record against attacks that he did not do enough to expose child molesting priests. London’s Daily Telegraph reports on the Pope Emeritus’ dialogue with a leading atheist about this issue here.

The critics have jumped in with unfounded accusations that he never exposed a pedophile priest. They don’t know how the Church works. It was never his job to be a one man pedophile police force. Within his area of authority Benedict did everything he could to root out the evil, but too often the diocesan authorities themselves obstructed and hid what was going on.

Nevertheless, the rot still goes on. This week a priest in Pennsylvania was charged with molesting a teenaged boy he met through Craigslist and the news reports about Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer in Minnesota make for depressing reading. The Vicar General in particular seems to be a classic case of an ignorant, arrogant, incompetent churchman of the highest order.

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NEW JERSEY
The Jersey Journal

By Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal
on September 25, 2013

Just after it was announced that he appointed as coadjutor the New Jersey’s largest diocese yesterday morning, Archbishop Bernard Hebda headed to a Hoboken church with Archbishop John J. Myers in the afternoon to make his first parish visit.

There the two archbishops met with Hebda’s old friend and fellow alumni of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Italy, The Rev. Robert S. Meyer, pastor of Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church at Hudson and Fourth streets.

Yesterday morning it was announced that Hebda would Myers in running the state’s largest diocese and eventually take over.

“I’m honored that he came here as his first parish visit,” Meyer said yesterday after the visit, adding that Hebda promised to return in November. “I believe that Archbishop Myers suggested that Hoboken is a great, vibrant and active community of faith.”

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Aberdeen News

By Jeff Bahr, jbahr@aberdeennews.com
12:56 p.m. CDT, September 25, 2013

The Rev. Charles Emezie, who has been terminated from his work at two Aberdeen institutions, did not work for any parishes in the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, says diocese director of communications Jerry Klein.

Emezie, 59, was employed as chaplain at Avera St. Luke’s Hospital and Avera Mother Joseph Manor in Aberdeen for more than 18 years. Emezie is a priest of the Diocese of Orlu in Nigeria.

The Diocese of Sioux Falls announced Tuesday that Emezie has been terminated from his chaplaincy employment by the Avera administration. According to the press release, “Recent allegations of sexual harassment of adult female staff members have been found credible.”

Klein said Wednesday that he believes Emezie’s only employment within the diocese was at Avera St. Luke’s and Mother Joseph Manor.

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PERU
La Republica

[Summary: The Peruvian Episcopal Conference is still maintaining some secrecy about the case of former bishop Gabino Miranda of Ayacucho who was expelled from the church by Pope Francis for engaging in pedophilia. Church sources explained only Archbishop Salvador Pineiro, also titutal Bishop of Ayacucho, should answer inquiries he he is abroad and not expected back until Saturday.]

A pesar de los días transcurridos, la Conferencia Episcopal Peruana (CEP) mantiene cierto hermetismo sobre el caso del ex obispo de Ayacucho Gabino Miranda, quien fue expulsado de la Iglesia Católica por el papa Francisco por haber incurrido en pedofilia.

Fuentes de la Iglesia Católica explicaron que solo el presidente de la CEP, monseñor Salvador Piñeiro, por ser también obispo titular de Ayacucho, es quien debe absolver las consultas de este caso pero se encuentra en el extranjero y su retorno está programado recién para este sábado.

Benedicto aclara

De otro lado, el papa emérito Benedicto XVI, a través de una carta al escritor Piergiorgio Odifreddi, señaló que nunca trató de encubrir el abuso de niños cometidos por miembros de la Iglesia Católica.

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PERU
RPP

[Summary: Parishioners of San Francisco de Paula in Ayachurcho have called for a march on Thursday for former Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Miranda, who is accused of pedophilia. For a fifth consecutive day, a Mass and vigil has been held for the bishop. Javier Gonzales, who heads the senior prosecutors board for the judicial district, said so far no complaints have been lodged against the bishop with police stations in the region.]

Feligreses de la parroquia San Francisco de Paula en Ayacucho han convocado para este jueves a una marcha en favor al exobispo auxiliar Gabino Miranda, acusado por pedofilia.

Del mismo modo y por quinto día consecutivo, hoy miércoles por la noche realizarán una misa y vigilia en apoyo al exparroco destituido.

Por lo pronto, según el presidente de la Junta de Fiscales Superiores del distrito judicial de Ayacucho, Sosino Javier Gonzáles Torres, no existe hasta el momento denuncias de los supuestos agraviados en las comisarías de la región y tampoco se tiene mayor información del tema que la proporcionada por la prensa.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Sep. 25, 2013

ANALYSIS
Great hopes have been placed in the eight cardinals who will arrive in Rome next week to advise the pope. Pope Francis appointed these cardinals, all but one from outside of Rome, to help him come up with a plan to reform the Vatican. Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston is the only American on the committee.

What can we expect from these cardinals, who will meet Oct. 1-3? Will it be just another Vatican meeting that accomplishes little, or will it move the church toward real reform? How can we judge whether the meeting is a success?

The typical meeting in Rome occurs behind closed doors and consists of long speeches by curial officials or their favorite “experts” with little time for discussion or questions. At the end of the meeting, a press release is issued full of quotes from church documents, pious generalizations, and assertions about how fruitful the meeting was.

I doubt Francis will put up with that standard practice. He has the typical Jesuit impatience with long, meaningless meetings. Nor does he consider meetings helpful if all they do is produce documents.

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ROME
Vatican Insider

“La lista di Bergoglio” written by journalist Nello Scavo and currently only out in Italian, tells the never-told-before stories of men and women who were secretly helped by the Pope during Argentina’s dictatorship years

GIANNI VALENTE
ROME

Many of Bergoglio’s friends couldn’t make any sense out of it: “Why doesn’t he respond? Why doesn’t he tell everyone the truth so all these lies can stop?” Fr. José Maria “Pepe” di Paola kept on asking. Fr. Pepe coordinates priests in the villas miserias, Buenos Aires’ slums. The priest was referring to the slanderous comments a left-wing journalist had been making against Bergoglio for years, to the immense joy of ultra-right wing movements. The journalist accused him of collaborating with the military dictatorship and facilitating the arrest of two fellow Jesuits Francisco Jalics and Orlando Yorio, who were in turn accused of being subversive “communists”.

No sooner had Bergoglio been elected Pope on 13 March than blogs and newspapers started firing accusations at him, in a hungry attempt to find embarrassing material on Peter’s successor. On the very evening of Francis’ election, Nello Scavo, a journalist for Italian Catholic daily Avvenire started looking into the stories circulating on the web about the Pope having allegedly complicit with the Argentinian dictatorship. Scavo had no premeditated theories to prove and no hagiographical intentions. As a journalist whop focused on legal and judicial issues, he knew that if he could prove the accusations against the newly elected Pope were true, he would be in for a huge scoop. He also knew that an honest reconstruction of the facts leaves no room for censorship and prejudices.

It was on that special evening that Scavo began the long investigation described in his book “La Lista di Bergoglio salvati da Francesco durante la dittatura”(“Bergoglio’s List: Those Saved by Pope Francis; Stories Never Told”), published in Italian only by missionary publishing house Emi. The book which has been written in the style of an interview is out in bookstores tomorrow. The fast-paced text includes an appendix with a transcript of the 2010 testimony Bergoglio gave during a nearly four-hour court interrogation on the crimes committed in the Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA) the Navy School of Mechanics that operated during Argentina’s military dictatorship.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By MICHELLE HARRIS Sept. 25, 201

THE Maitland-Newcastle diocese of the Catholic Church did not have a culture against reporting allegations of child sex abuse to police, a barrister told the last public hearing of the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle yesterday.

Rather, the diocese was ‘‘coming to terms [with the fact] that people were capable of doing the things that they were alleged to have done’’.

That had been the challenge for Church officials over recent decades, the diocese’s barrister, Lachlan Gyles SC, told the hearing.

The inquiry has heard evidence – both public and private – over several months relating to the Church’s handling of allegations involving paedophile priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.

The inquiry was established after Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox alleged a Church cover-up of abuse and criticised police handling of investigations.

The public part of the inquiry concluded yesterday, with Mr Gyles urging Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC not to make adverse findings against the diocese because officials had acted in line with the wishes of victims, who did not want to report priests to the police. He said it would be ‘‘unfair’’ to construe the diocese was ‘‘hiding behind’’ victims, and the commission should be wary of finding ‘‘scapegoats’’ for terrible events.

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POLONIA
Metro

VARSOVIA, Polonia (AP) — Las autoridades polacas solicitaron a la República Dominicana detalles de la investigación por abuso sexual a menores por parte de dos sacerdotes polacos, uno de los cuales era el enviado del Vaticano a esa nación, se informó el miércoles.

El caso del enviado probablemente pondrá a prueba la disposición de la Santa Sede a asumir sus responsabilidades legales en vista de las acusaciones dirigidas contra uno de sus propias filas. El Vaticano ha llamado de regreso al enviado, arzobispo Jozef Wesolowski, y lo ha relevado de su cargo como nuncio apostólico. Agregó que cooperaba con la investigación dominicana pero no reveló el paradero del acusado.

El procurador general polaco escribió a las autoridades dominicanas solicitando detalles de su investigación y preguntando si había evidencias de mal comportamiento en Polonia, afirmó un vocero de la fiscalía, Mateusz Martyniuk. Explicó que sin esa información su país no puede efectuar una investigación propia.

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POLSKA
Newsweek

Wśród biedy, z dala od ludzi, w piekielnym tropiku łatwo uwierzyć, że jest się poza dobrem i złem. Jako wysłannik Kościoła i postępu możesz być jak bóg.

Nasz dziennikarz Wojciech Cieśla pojechał do Dominikany, żeby się dowiedzieć, o co chodzi w historii oskarżonych o pedofilię księży – abp Józefa Wesołowskiego, byłego nuncjusza papieskiego oraz ojca Wojciecha Gila z zakonu michalitów. Relacja z jego wyprawy ukaże się w najnowszym „Newsweeku”. Poniżej publikujemy jej fragment.

Bolîvar R. Sánchez Veloz z prokuratury generalnej poprawia szarą marynarkę: – No więc najpierw chodzili za nimi dziennikarze. Nie wiem jak, ale informacje o tym, że telewizja kręci się wokół nuncjusza, trafiły do kardynała Lópeza Rodrigueza, arcybiskupa Santo Domingo. Latem ktoś od kardynała sprawdzał, czy mieliśmy jakieś postępowanie w sprawie nuncjusza. Dziś rozumiem, że Kościół robił własne śledztwo

– Nie prowadzę śledztw zza biurka – mówi Bolîar R. Sánchez Veloz. Po programie Nurii [dziennikarki, która jako pierwsza opisała sprawę nuncjusza Wesołowskiego – red.] pojechałem pod pomnik księdza Antonia Montesinosa. Szybko znalazłem tych chłopaków. O nuncjuszu już wiedzieli wszyscy. Opowiedzieli o jego jeepie. I o tym, że przychodził codziennie. Pytam kwiaciarza – też z nim byłeś? – Nie, nie. Ale kiedy koło nas przeszedł chłopak, sprzedawca kwiatów krzyknął: – To on, La Biblia, on był z tym księdzem!

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POLSKA
WP

Skandal pedofilski wśród księży na Dominikanie zatacza coraz szersze kręgi. Dominikańskie władze kościelne twierdzą, że to największy skandal w Kościele Katolickim w tym kraju. W komputerze ks. Wojciecha Gila znaleziono treści pornograficzne, prawdopodobnie z udziałem chłopców – podaje TVN24. O pedofilię podejrzany jest też abp Józef Wesołowski. Jak podają lokalne media, miał być w związku z księdzem Javierem Reyesem.

Jak nieoficjalnie podaje TVN24, powołując się na lokalne media, w kościelnym komputerze ks. Gila znaleziono 87 tys. zdjęć i filmów pornograficznych, prawdopodobnie z udziałem chłopców. Ks. Gil, który również został zawieszony i usłyszał zarzuty, nie wiadomo jednak, gdzie przebywa. Przez sąd w Santiago uznany został za zbiega.

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POLSKA
WP

Skandal pedofilski wśród księży na Dominikanie zatacza coraz szersze kręgi. Dominikańskie władze kościelne twierdzą, że to największy skandal w Kościele Katolickim w tym kraju. W komputerze ks. Wojciecha Gila znaleziono treści pornograficzne, prawdopodobnie z udziałem chłopców – podaje TVN24. O pedofilię podejrzany jest też abp Józef Wesołowski. Jak podają lokalne media, miał być w związku z księdzem Javierem Reyesem.

Jak nieoficjalnie podaje TVN24, powołując się na lokalne media, w kościelnym komputerze ks. Gila znaleziono 87 tys. zdjęć i filmów pornograficznych, prawdopodobnie z udziałem chłopców. Ks. Gil, który również został zawieszony i usłyszał zarzuty, nie wiadomo jednak, gdzie przebywa. Przez sąd w Santiago uznany został za zbiega.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Philly Post

Joel Mathis

ABC News reports:

Seven months after leaving the papacy, emeritus Pope Benedict XVI broke his self-imposed silence Tuesday by releasing a letter to one of Italy’s best-known atheists in which he denied covering up for sexually abusive priests and defended Christianity to non-believers.

For nearly a quarter-century, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger headed the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office responsible for handling abuse cases. He was prefect when the scandal first exploded in the U.S. in 2002 and was pope when it erupted on a global scale in 2010 with revelations of thousands of victims in Europe and beyond, of bishops who covered up for pedophile priests and of Vatican officials who turned a blind eye to the crimes and in some cases actively interfered with bishops trying to report pedophiles to police.

In his letter, Benedict denies personal responsibility. “I never tried to cover these things up,” he wrote….

No, sex abuse isn’t specifically a Catholic problem—something we Pennsylvanians know all too well after the scandal at Penn State. Still, it’s kind of hard to avoid the idea that Benedict should know better: He’s the one that offers up the comparison between the priesthood and other professions. The difference between the priesthood and, say, selling cars is that only one of those professions is responsible for nurturing the souls of its customers.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/POLAND
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Poland’s top prosecutor on Wednesday announced the launch of a probe into a bishop and a priest from that nation charged with sexually abusing minors in the Dominican Republic, EFE reports.

Andrzej Seremet’s announcement comes in the heels of the scandal of the recalled Vatican envoy Jozef Wesolowski and the priest Wojciech Gil (Padre Alberto), in the town of Juncalito (central).

in the announcement aired by Warsaw’s TVN, Office of the Prosecutor spokesman Mateusz Martyniuk said they’ve contacted the Polish Embassy in the region to gather more information into the allegations against Polish prelates. “We should get official confirmation that an investigation is underway (in Dominican Republic) and clarify details.”

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HAWAII
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

It was scheduled to start this week
Alleged child molester faces two accusers

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 25

For more information: David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com ), Barbara Dorris ( 314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A civil child sex abuse and cover up trial against a Hawaii priest and local Catholic officials has been delayed.

The trial, against the Diocese of Honolulu and the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers who employed Fr. Joseph M. Henry (deceased), was set to begin September 23. But it has been pushed back because Judge Edwin C. Nacino in of the First Circuit Court wants it to be re-filed under a newer state child sex abuse law.

That law, commonly called a civil “window,” gives anyone who was molested as a child in Hawaii a chance to file a civil lawsuit, no matter how long ago the alleged crimes happened.

“We’re disappointed because this brave victim is in poor health and because Hawaii citizens deserve to know the truth about church officials who commit and conceal child sex crimes,” said attorney Michele Betti of New York/California (646) 895-0939, mbettilaw@gmail.com) who represents two men who report having been sexually assaulted as children by Fr. Henry at St. Anthony’s Catholic School in Kailua. “During this delay, we hope that more current or former church staff or members will come forward with what they know about Fr. Henry and his complicit colleagues.”

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LOUISIANA
Fox 8

Written by: Sabrina Wilson

NEW ORLEANS – Catholics in Houma and Thibodaux will soon have a new bishop overseeing the diocese for that area.

Pope Francis has named Archdiocese of New Orleans Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar General Shelton Joseph Fabre as the new bishop for the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.

Monday afternoon New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond held a press conference to discuss Bishop Fabre’s promotion by the Vatican. Fabre will replace Bishop Sam Jacobs, who is retiring.

“I look forward to meeting the people, I look forward to going out to the parishes, I look forward to them teaching me,” said Fabre. “I know they have things to teach me, and I hope I have things to teach them.” …

In a press release, Barbara Dorris, an Outreach Director for SNAP said:

“We see no evidence that Bishop Fabre has done anything to help protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded or expose the truth in his long clerical career. He’s obviously had ample opportunity to do so.

Often, Catholics give a new bishop ever benefit of the doubt. We hope that Houma Catholics don’t do this with Bishop Fabre. Until he proves – by actions, not words – that he’s different from the vast majority of his complicit colleagues, Catholics should report known and suspected child sex crimes to secular officials, not church officials.”

“My heart still pains for the sexual abuse victims,” Fabre said in response. “I know that their pain and their anger is great. I was a part of those negotiations, I did offer an apology in the name of the church, and sometimes that was not accepted. Some were very angry – I understand that – but not all of them were. There were some who were there who thanked me for being there, for listening to them.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Courthouse News Service

By CHRISTINE STUART

(CN) – An Episcopal priest sexually assaulted a child parishioner for 10 years, the child, now a man, claims in court.

John Doe claims in Suffolk County Court that the late Rev. Paul A.L. LaCharite sexually abused him from 1995 until 2005.

LaCharite died on Sept. 26, 2012, apparently of suicide, two weeks after he was accused of indecent assault, according to reports in Boston newspapers and an Anglican Church website.

LaCharite was rector and priest at the defendant St. James Episcopal Church in Somerville. From 2005 until his death in 2012 he was pastor at Old North Church in Boston, which is not a party to the lawsuit.

Doe also sued the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and LaCharite’s estate.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic’s Justice Ministry on Sunday affirmed having evidence of pedophilia against former Vatican envoy Józef Wesolowski, while a deacon in an east region diocese has confessed to “pimping” minors for the senior prelate as well as of being his sexual partner.

Deputy Procurator and the case’s lead investigator Bolivar Sanchez said there’s proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the former diplomat committed child abuse and is ready to present it to the Vatican, but noted that Wesolowski cannot be extradited because of his diplomatic status.

He said the minors interviewed admitted to masturbating for, and of taking part in oral sex with the bishop as he filmed them with a cell phone, while another witness affirmed seeing porno in his laptop at the Vatican embassy.

Sanchez revealed that when the local Catholic Church submitted the evidence to the Vatican, the Justice ministry was unaware of the case, received the full cooperation as soon as the investigation was launched.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- The case of a catholic priest and a bishop, both Polish nationals charged with child molestation, has roiled Poland, whose media have sent journalists to cover the scandal that has rocked the Vatican and the Dominican Republic.

A former Dominican Today intern from Poland on Tuesday said Newsweek Pl. and one of the polish TV stations are covering the case extensively, and DT has already received the former’s investigative report published on Monday, by a journalist who with the help by DT staff also interviewed TV producer Nuria Piera, who first broke the case.

“Polish media published the article about this investigation in Dominican Republic and we have a little storm. They also covered the case of Juncalito. Something is really going on. Today this is already topic which we deal with every day,” the former intern said in reference to the town of Juncalito, where Polish priest Wojciech Gil (Padre Alberto) allegedly abused as many as one dozen minors.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
The Tablet (UK)

24 September 2013

The Justice Ministry of the Dominican Republic on Sunday said it has evidence of paedophilia against nuncio Józef Wesolowski, while a deacon has confessed to “pimping” minors for the senior prelate as well as of being his sexual partner, the website dominicantoday.com has reported.

The Deputy Procurator and the case’s lead investigator, Bolivar Sanchez, said there was proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the nuncio, whom the Vatican recalled last month, committed child abuse. Mr Sanchez said he was ready to present the evidence to the Vatican, but noted that Wesolowski cannot be extradited because of his diplomatic status. The Vatican has said it will cooperate with the Dominican Republic authorities, and has also launched its own internal investigation.

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POLAND
NECN

September 25, 2013

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish authorities have asked the Dominican Republic for details of its child sex abuse investigation into two Polish priests, one whom is the Vatican envoy to the Caribbean country.

A spokesman for Polish prosecutors, Mateusz Martyniuk, said Wednesday the prosecutor general has written to Dominican officials, asking for details of their inquiry and whether it revealed any possible wrongdoing in Poland. Martyniuk says without such information, Poland can’t start an investigation of its own.

Dominican authorities haven’t asked for any assistance from Poland for their investigation into the papal envoy, Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, and the Rev. Wojciech Gil.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Sep. 24, 2013

Editor’s note: Brian Roewe is working on a follow-up story. Keep an eye on NCRonline.org for updates.

An Australian priest vocal in his support of women’s ordination has become the first person excommunicated for such beliefs under the papacy of Pope Francis.

Fr. Greg Reynolds of Melbourne, Australia, told NCR by email late Monday night his initial reaction was “shock” upon learning of his separation from the church. Australian media have reported he is the first member of the Melbourne archdiocese excommunicated and the first priest from the area laicized for reasons other than pedophilia.

The news came Sept. 18 through a canon lawyer for the Melbourne archdiocese, Fr. John Salvano, who invited Reynolds a few weeks earlier to meet “to discuss ‘some canonical issue,’ ” Reynolds said. The former priest said Salvano presented him the letter of excommunication and proceeded to read it to him, since Reynolds did not read Latin.

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MISSOURI
East Missourian

Friday, September 20, 2013
By Emily Priddy ~ Southeast Missourian

Documents released recently as part of a legal settlement show two Catholic priests accused of molesting children in California spent part of their careers in Cape Girardeau and Perryville, Mo.

John Edward Ruhl and John V. “Jack” Farris, members of the St. Louis-based western region of the Vincentian order, were among the defendants in a lawsuit alleging child molestation by multiple clerics.

Under the terms of a 2007 settlement, the defendants’ personnel documents were made public earlier this month.

Among the documents in Ruhl’s file are references to three victims who claimed Ruhl molested them in the 1970s.

Ruhl worked at St. Mary’s Seminary in Perryville from 1961 to 1963 and spent the summer of 1964 at St. Vincent’s College in Cape Girardeau. By mid-1993, he had been placed on “inactive leave” and was not expected to return to active ministry, according to a note in his file.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Freethinker

BY BARRY DUKE – SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

IN A letter to Italian atheist mathematician Piergiorgio Odifreddi, the Vatican’s shadow Pope Ratzinger has vigorously defended his handling of allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy – and “politely” criticised the logician’s total reliance on scientific facts for The Meaning of Life.

Ratzinger deplored the fact that Odifreddi had depicting the Church as the only place where such “deviation” and “filth” occurred. And where they did occur in the Church:

I never sought to conceal these things.

According to this report, the publication of the retired Pope’s leter to the atheist scholar on September 24 came in the same month as a letter written by Pope Number One – Frankie – to an Italian journalist concerning dialogue with non-believers. Both letters were published, with the two Popes’ permission, by the Italian daily La Repubblica.

The newspaper released long excerpts of Pope Benedict’s original 11-page response to Odifreddi, a prolific science writer who authored the book, Dear Pope, I Write to You in 2011.

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WALTHAM (MA)
BishopAccountability.org

September 25, 2013

[This summary provides links to articles and documents.]

Grassi was a Salesian until 1991, when he became a priest of the Morón diocese. In 1993, he founded Fundacion Felices los Niños (the Happy Children Foundation), aimed at rescuing street children. According to a news article, the foundation cared for 6,300 children in 17 homes nationwide from 1993 to 2002.

On 11/29/2000, an anonymous complaint filed in the Juvenile Court of Morón accused Grassi of corrupting minors. The case lay dormant until 10/23/2002, when Telenoche Investiga,an investigative news show on Argentina’s Channel 13, aired a program alleging Grassi’s sexual abuse of five boys, ages 11 to 17. It included an interview with a young man, his face obscured, who said that Grassi performed oral sex on him in 1998, when he was 15. Within days, Grassi was arrested and charged with 17 counts of abuse of three boys, who were 9, 13, and 17 when the alleged incidents occurred. Grassi denied all the allegations.
…

However after Grassi was found guilty, the Episcopal Conference of Argentina hired a leading criminal defense lawyer and legal scholar, Marcelo Sancinetti, to produce a “private,” multi-volume critique of his prosecution and conviction. Still president of the conference, Bergoglio approved the commission. The study vigorously asserted Grassi’s innocence and, according to a Pagina 12 report, denied even the prevalence of child sexual abuse itself. It reportedly was circulated to judges who had yet to make determinations in the case. The first volume, with 423 pages, debunked the accusations of “Ezequiel,” of which Grassi was acquitted; volume two, with 646 pages, attacked the credibility of “Gabriel,” of whose abuse Grassi was convicted. As of spring 2013, a third volume had been produced, and a fourth and final volume was expected.

The bishops’ commissioned exoneration of Grassi was revealed in December 2011 by Juan Pablo Gallego, an attorney for the Committee for Oversight and Implementation of International Conventions for Children’s Rights, who had represented the plaintiffs at the trial. Gallego called the study a “scandalous instance of lobbying and exerting pressure on the Court” and accused the bishops of “further hindering a process that has outrageously granted the condemned priest a situation of almost unthinkable freedom.” On September 23, 2013, the Morón Criminal Court No.1 ordered that Grassi immediately go to prison to begin serving his sentence.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

The other day, I referenced an article by Minnesota Public Radio in my post What Would You Do? regarding one of the most mishandled cases of abusing clergy since Bishop Finn and Father Ratigan.

And Bill Donohue has stepped into the fray, going so far as to giving “Kudos to Archbishop Nienstedt”, the man who must take the administrative blame for the sexual abuse of two boys by Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer. Kudos indeed.

Donohue’s legalistic defense of the indefensible can be read here.

The best thing to be said for it is that it’s short. And he ends with a pointed challenge, which I will be so bold as to answer. Or attempt to answer.

Donohue says …

The burden is on those who disagree to say exactly what should be done in instances where there are no complainants.

Well, there were complaints in the Wehmeyer case, as anyone reading the MPR article will see, but Donohue plays fast and loose with the facts. This is his M.O.

But he has pointed out that we should say “exactly what should be done” in cases like this.

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PERU
America TV

[con video]

Francisco Fernández es el abogado de origen español que denunció el pasado 21 de agosto al ex obispo auxiliar de Ayacucho Gabino Miranda por supuestamente tener relaciones sexuales con menores de edad.

“Que un cura se dedique a tronchar –tener relaciones sexuales – mozas me parece muy mal, pero que se dedique a tronchar niños me parece mucho peor”, dijo el letrado en exclusiva para América Noticias.

El letrado opinó sobre la carta que escribió el ex obispo Miranda en la que rechaza los cargos. “Todos, el 95% de las personas acusadas de pedofilia, concubinato, todos lo niegan”, dijo Fernández

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PERU
El Comercio

“Que un cura se dedique a tronchar -acostarse- con mozas me parece muy mal, pero que se dedique a tronchar con niños me parece mucho peor”, afirmó el abogado Francisco Fernández, quien denunció los supuestos casos de pedofilia del ex obispo Gabino Miranda.

En declaraciones para América TV, el letrado español detalló que Miranda habría pedido favores sexuales incluso en el confesionario. “Eso fue lo que me dijeron, no me especificaron número ni nombres”, dijo.

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PERU
Peru 21

El abogado español Francisco Fernández, quien dio a conocer el caso del exobispo auxiliar de Ayaucho Gabino Miranda, acusado de pedofilia, se pronunció sobre la carta en la que este dice desconocer los cargos que se le imputan y por los cuales fue separado de la Iglesia Católica.

“Que un cura o un obispo se dedique a tronchar mozas (acostarse con jovencitas) me parece muy mal y que se dedique a tronchar niños (acostarse con niños) me parece mucho peor (…) El 95% de las personas acusadas de delitos de pedofilia, concubinato, paternidad, en principio todos los niegan”, aseguró.

Asimismo, Fernández señaló que si Miranda Melgarejo, tal como lo expresa en su misiva, aceptó haber cometido una imprudencia, ello puede tener varias interpretaciones, pues indicó que “salir con una niña de 13 años a una fiesta y comprarle unos helados” es un ejemplo de un acto grave impropio.

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PERU
Peru 21

[Summary: Javier Gonzales, president of the judicial district attorneys in Ayacucho, said investigations have been launched into allegations of pedophilia made against former Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Miranda. The prosecutor handling the case has asked the attorney general’s office, which deals with international crimes, to receive information it has requested from the apostolic nunciature in Lima through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Gary Amanda Chavez said he hopes there will be quick response from the Holy See. He is also awaiting arrival of Archbishop Salvador Pineiro, president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference and current Ayachucho bishop, to give more information.]

El presidente de la Junta de Fiscales del Distrito Judicial de Ayacucho, Javier Gonzales, informó que se han iniciado las investigaciones por el presunto caso de pedofilia en contra del exobispo auxiliar de Ayacucho Gabino Miranda.

Por ello, el fiscal encargado del caso, Gary Armando Chávez, manifestó que se le ha pedido a la Fiscalía de la Nación –la cual tiene que ver con las denuncias que comprenden los delitos internacionales– que solicite toda la información concerniente a la Nunciatura Apostólica de Lima a través del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores.

“Ojalá que haya una respuesta rápida de la Santa Sede. En tanto, esperamos la llegada de monseñor Salvador Piñeiro (presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal Peruana y actual obispo de Ayacucho)para que nos dé más detalles”, señaló Gonzales.

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NEW JERSEY
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | Sep 25, 2013

Pope Francis’ appointment of Michigan Bishop Bernard Hebda to serve alongside John J. Myers as coadjutor archbishop of Newark might have been the first time the Vatican acted to discipline a bishop for dealing improperly with sexually abusive priests since John Paul II accepted Bernard Law’s resignation as archbishop of Boston in 2002. Coadjutors are often appointed when the Vatican wants to make clear its displeasure with a hierarch (e.g. the case of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle).

But Law was given fancy quarters and high responsibilities in Rome, so “discipline” hardly seems like the right word. As for Myers, he insisted yesterday that he had requested a coadjutor “some time ago,” so the 72-year-old martinet will presumably slide into retirement with his face saved, regardless of what the rest of the world thinks.

Myers’ troubles this year began with the revelation that Michael Fugee, a priest under court order not to minister to minors, had been ministering to minors. Then documents released in a $1.35 million abuse settlement by the diocese of Peoria suggested that when Myers was bishop there he had failed to take steps against the abuser.

Last month, in what might have been the last straw, Myers circulated an angry letter to the priests and laity of his archdiocese exonerating himself of all wrongdoing and anathematizing his accusers. “For any who set out to claim that I or the Church have had no effective part in the love and protection of children, is simply evil, wrong, immoral, and seemingly focused on their own self-aggrandizement,” Myers wrote. “God only knows their personal reasons and agenda. We are still called to love them. And God will surely address them in due time.”

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SLOVAKIA
The Slovak Spectator

25 Sep 2013

POLICE have charged a 47-year-old Roman-Catholic priest from the Zlaté Moravce district with sexual abuse. If found guilty, the man could spend from three to 10 years in prison, the TASR newswire reported on September 24.

From November 2011 to August 2012, the priest allegedly abused an 11-year-old girl . He would, for example, send her text messages telling her that he loved her, according to the website of the Nový Čas tabloid daily, Čas.sk.

The priest has been suspended from the parish until the court issues a verdict in his case, SITA informed.

Though the priest refused to comment on the charges publicly, he said off the record that he feels sorry. A source close to the investigation told the Sme daily that the priest confessed his affection for the girl.

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ARGENTINA
Sowetan (South Africa)

SEP 25, 2013 | SAPA-AFP

A high-profile Argentine priest who began a 15-year prison sentence for pedophilia this week has been barred from priestly work and his case sent to the Vatican, church officials said Tuesday.

Julio Cesar Grassi, 57, who was on provisional release since a 2009 trial, began his sentence after an appeal court in Buenos Aires upheld his conviction.

Grassi was found guilty of abusing a 15-year-old boy who had been living at the Felices los Ninos (Happy are the Children) foundation in Hurlingham, 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Buenos Aires during the 1990s.

Two other victims later came forward with their own stories of abuse by the priest.

Tuesday, the diocese of Moron said Grassi now was barred from priestly duties.

“The diocese of Moron, in line with its rights to do so, applied the disciplinary sanction of barring him from priestly work until his case is settled,” a statement from the diocese said.

“An investigation, as well as a report on the trial and behavior of Father Grassi have been sent to the Holy See” for review, it added.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Citizens Voice

JOSEPH KOHUT
Published: September 25, 2013

A Lackawanna County priest accused of having sex with a 15-year-old boy posted $50,000 bail Tuesday.

The Rev. William Paulish, 56, of Blakely, made bail by posting his house as collateral, court records show.

He was arrested last week after he was caught in his 2009 Toyota Venza with a 15-year-old. He faces a charge of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person under 16 and related charges.

The Citizens’ Voice does not identify victims of sexual assault.

The Rev. Paulish was scheduled to appear before a magistrate on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing, but a motion for continuance filed by his attorney, Bernard Brown, was granted Tuesday. A new hearing date has not been scheduled.

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POLAND
The News

Poland may launch its own investigation into two Polish clergymen accused of paedophilia in the

Attorney General Andrzej Seremet contacted the Polish Embassy in Colombia on Tuesday so as to clarify accusations in the case (the Bogota embassy’s duties encompass the Caribbean island).

Seremet has stated that if there is sufficient suspicion that a Polish citizen committed a crime abroad, proceedings can be initiated in Poland.

“We must obtain official confirmation that an investigation is being carried out [in the Dominican Republic] and clarify precisely what it concerns,” said Mateusz Martyniuk, spokesman for the attorney general, in an interview with Poland’s TVN news channel.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

September 21, 2013

Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age

Dissident priest Greg Reynolds has been both defrocked and excommunicated over his support for women priests and gays – the first person ever excommunicated in Melbourne, he believes.

The order comes direct from the Vatican, not at the request of Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, and apparently follows a secret denunciation in the best traditions of the inquisition, according to Father Reynolds.

The excommunication document – written in Latin and giving no reason – was dated May 31, meaning it comes under the authority of Pope Francis who made headlines on Thursday calling for a less rule-obsessed church.

Father Reynolds, who resigned as a parish priest in 2011 and last year founded Inclusive Catholics, said he had expected to be laicised (defrocked), but not excommunicated. But it would make no difference to his ministry.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Andrew Hamilton | 25 September 2013

Cardinal George Pell is an inviting subject for an extended essay. He is well-known, expresses strong views succinctly, and has equally strong admirers and detractors. That always guarantees a lively response.

David Marr is a splendid essayist, and his Quarterly Essay displays his habitual virtues. It is elegantly written, is structured around a strong and colourfully told story, and brings home powerfully the sufferings of the victims of clerical sexual abuse and the failures of the Catholic Church in meeting them.

It is unfair, but that is the nature of this kind of essay.

Marr follows the path of Pell from schooldays to seminary, study in Rome and Oxford, parish work and responsibility for Catholic education in Ballarat, through to his consecration successively as Auxiliary Bishop in Melbourne, Archbishop of Melbourne, Archbishop of Sydney, and Cardinal with strong connections in Rome.

He interweaves this story with the incidence and response to clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Pell was later accused of sexual abuse when he was a seminarian and the charge found unproven; he worked in the same circles as Gerald Ridsdale (the convicted child molester who abused children while working as a Catholic priest), met victims and heard accusations of clergy in his episcopal role, and introduced a framework for dealing with accusations and compensating victims in Melbourne.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

VATICAN CITY, September 25, 2013 – With the announcement of the appointment of the new secretary of state and with the measures taken four days ago, Pope Francis has kicked off a first round of incisive changes in the Roman curia.

He has done so in relatively short order, as moreover had been asked of him by the cardinals who supported him to the point of electing him successor of Peter.

From this series of appointments, confirmations, and non-confirmations – preceded by small but significant adjustments in other Vatican offices – one can already draw a few indications on the lines of governance of a pope who loves to call himself bishop of Rome but who within the Leonine walls acts 100 percent as supreme pontiff of the universal Church.

*
First of all it can be said that if his predecessor Benedict XVI nourished a certain idiosyncrasy with regard to the “caste” of apostolic nuncios, pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio is not showing any prejudice in this. On the contrary. While decrying the fact that the clerics who carry out the diplomatic service are more threatened than the others by the leprosy of ecclesiastical careerism, when he finds among them a person he maintains to be valid and competent – or is presented to him as such by advisors he believes to be trustworthy – he shows no hesitation in promoting them to high and delicate positions.

This is certainly the case of the new secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, and of the new prefect of the congregation for the clergy, Beniamino Stella. Also valued by pope Bergoglio for their discrete profile, foreign to all forms of extremism.

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ARGENTINA
Telam

[Summary: Sergio Piris, who represents the boy abused by priest Julio Cesar Grassi, said the priest always felt comfortable because he was protected by the church. The statement from the Moron diocese which said it had doubts about Grassi’s guilt showed that it continues to protect him, he said.]

Sergio Piris, representante del joven por cuyos casos fue apresado Julio César Grassi, dijo que “el cura siempre se sintió muy cómodo porque estuvo protegido por la iglesia”. Fue después de conocerse el comunicado del Obispo de Morón.

“La Iglesia siempre lo protegió y hoy demuestra que lo sigue protegiendo”, dijo Piris al conocer el comunicado del Obispado de Morón, que hoy manifestó sus “dudas acerca de la culpabilidad” del cura Julio César Grassi”.

La máxima autoridad eclesiástica de Morón señaló en un comunicado hoy que antes de dar una opinión esperará a que haya “una sentencia firme” y que “contando con el asesoramiento de estudiosos especializados, se desprenden dudas acerca de la culpabilidad del padre Grassi, así como del `peligro de fuga`”.

“Grassi si manejó con total impunidad y hoy el Obispado de Morón confirma por qué pudo hacerlo” El comunicado del obispado argumentó que “él (Grassi) residió durante mucho tiempo sin alejarse de la vivienda declarada como su domicilio personal”.

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ARGENTINA
Minuto Uno

El obispado de Morón destacó que el padre Julio César Grassi “fue absuelto en quince casos y condenado en dos” y manifestó su “profunda preocupación por este hecho que es tan complejo y doloroso desde cualquier punto de vista”.

“Con actitud de misericordia, se hace solidaria hacia quienes afecta esta situación”, señala el texto que se reproduce completo a continuación:

El Obispado de Morón toma conocimiento del resultado del proceso judicial, mediante el cual la Suprema Corte de la Provincia de Buenos Aires ratifica lo actuado por los jueces inferiores.

El Padre Julio Cesar Grassi es nuevamente absuelto en quince casos y condenado en dos.

Luego de este revés judicial, el Padre Grassi se comunicó a este Obispado, manifestando que seguirá con las acciones legales tendientes a demostrar su inocencia, ya que considera que los hechos que motivan su condena son inaceptables.

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ARGENTINA
Clarin

[Summary: Three convictions for sexual abuse were not enough to convince the Church of priest Julio Cesar Grassi’s guilt. The bishopric of Moron expressed doubts about the priest’s guilt.]

POR SERGIO RUBIN
El obispado de Morón emitió un comunicado mencionando “dudas” sobre la responsabilidad del sacerdote, condenado a 15 años de prisión. El fallo fue ratificado hasta por la Corte de la Provincia.

25/09/13
Tres fallos condenatorios por abuso sexual no alcanzaron a convencer a la Iglesia de la culpabilidad del acusado, el antes mediático cura Julio César Grassi. El obispado de Morón –al que pertenece Grassi– expresó ayer sus “dudas” acerca de la culpabilidad del sacerdote. Fue a través de un comunicado difundido al día siguiente de que un tribunal dispusiera, finalmente, su encarcelamiento. E incluso también se puso en duda el “peligro de fuga” de Grassi, un concepto que formó parte de los argumentos de los jueces que lo enviaron a la cárcel.

Los jueces del Tribunal Oral 1 de Morón revocaron el lunes la libertad vigilada de Grassi y ordenaron que fuera trasladado a la Unidad 39 de Ituzaingó, para que quedara dentro de la jurisdicción de la diócesis de Morón. Ayer, sin embargo, el cura fue llevado a la cárcel de Campana. La detención llegó luego de que la semana pasada la Corte Suprema de Justicia bonaerense ratificara el fallo a 15 años de prisión de un tribunal oral por el abuso de un menor comprobado en dos hechos. Al día siguiente, la Cámara de Casación bonaerense sostuvo que la libertad vigilada del cura debía ser revocada.

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ARGENTINA
Clarin

25/09/13
Julio César Grassi no duró ni 24 horas en la Unidad 39 de Ituzaingó, adonde el lunes por la noche lo mandó detenido el Tribunal Oral N° 1 de Morón. Los jueces lo enviaron allí como deferencia por sus hábitos, ya que la cárcel queda dentro de su diócesis. Pero el Servicio Penitenciario Bonaerense (SPB) evaluó rápidamente que ese lugar –de seguridad media– no era el adecuado.

Para ayer a la mañana, en el escritorio de los jueces del TOC 1 ya había un pedido de los penitenciarios para trasladar a Grassi a la Unidad 41, de Campana. Y así se hizo. Según fuentes del caso, el sacerdote fue destinado allí a un área en la que se concentran los ofensores sexuales. Estos, por la naturaleza de su delito, suelen tener problemas con otros presos.

Las primeras horas de Grassi en una cárcel fueron rutinarias. En Ituzaingó tuvo una entrevista con el grupo de evaluación y seguimiento y luego se lo asignó al sector de “Sanidad”. Es que, según se dijo, no había celdas disponibles. Luego de despedirse de sus abogados, que lo acompañaron en el traslado, se le asignó una habitación (con reja en lugar de puerta) para él solo. Por la mañana, desayunó un té con tostadas y mermelada y no tuvo tiempo para acomodarse porque se comenzó a preparar su traslado a Campana, donde se encuentran alojados otros presos conocidos, como Carlos Carrascosa.

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ARGENTINA
Los Andes

[Summary: Priest Julio Cesar Grassi cannot say Mass in public but can do so in private, according to the Moron bishop. He will also face an investigation by the Vatican.]

El padre Julio César Grassi no podrá ejercer su ministerio sacerdotal en público y sólo podrá celebrar “misa privada”, a raíz de que el Obispado de Morón confirmó ayer la sanción eclesiástica en su contra y elevó a la Santa Sede “una investigación e informe de todo el proceso y actuación” del sacerdote.

Fuentes eclesiásticas dijeron que Grassi, condenado a 15 años de prisión por abuso sexual de menores, no puede “celebrar misa y tampoco impartir ningún sacramento, como bautismo o casamiento”.

“Tampoco podrá celebrar misa en la cárcel, sólo podrá hacerlo en privado, es decir sin asistencia de fieles. La única alternativa que le queda es hacerlo en la soledad de su celda”, precisaron.

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ARGENTINA
Pagina/12

Por Washington Uranga

Finalmente, la “preocupación” del obispado de Morón por la situación del sacerdote Julio Cesar Grassi se tradujo apenas en una tibia sanción disciplinaria que le prohíbe al cura “el ejercicio público del ministerio sacerdotal”. En realidad, se trata de una medida intermedia que la autoridad eclesiástica, en este caso el obispo de Morón, Luis Guillermo Eichhorn, adopta “hasta tanto se resuelva definitivamente esta situación” y a partir de la afirmación de que “contando con el asesoramiento de estudios especializados se desprenden dudas acerca de la culpabilidad del P. Julio Grassi”. En definitiva, a pesar de que la causa ya atravesó tres instancias y que prácticamente no quedan posibilidades de revertir el fallo condenatorio contra el cura acusado de pedofilia, el obispado de Morón sigue sin confiar en la Justicia. La disposición es la mínima que se puede adoptar y, más que una sanción, parece destinada a proteger al cura y a intentar disminuir el daño a la imagen institucional de la Iglesia que ha sido seriamente perjudicada por la inacción en muchos casos de pedofilia comprobados en diversas partes del mundo.

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ARGENTINA
Pagina/12

Tal como adelantó Página/12, Julio Grassi no quedó en la cárcel de mediana seguridad, sino que fue llevado adonde van los presos con condenas más altas. Allí está alojado Carlos Carrascosa. El cura llegó muy asustado y fue tranquilizado por otros internos.

Por Raúl Kollmann

El cura Julio César Grassi llegó ayer “asustado” –según describieron a este diario otros internos– a la Unidad 41, de máxima seguridad del complejo penal de Campana. El Tribunal Oral Nº 1 de Morón admitió la movida a propuesta del Servicio Penitenciario Bonaerense (SPB), que se basó en dos elementos: la pena de Grassi es alta, por lo que no corresponde que esté en un penal de media seguridad y, en segundo lugar, porque en el 41 de Campana hay un pabellón en el que correrá menos peligro. El traslado fue un anticipo exclusivo de Página/12. El tribunal había ubicado a Grassi en Ituzaingó argumentando que de esa manera no lo sacaba de su diócesis, pero la decisión contravenía normas del SPB. Uno de los compañeros de pabellón de Grassi es Carlos Carrascosa, imputado por el asesinato de su esposa, María Marta García Belsunce, aunque tiene otorgada la prisión domiciliaria, pero faltan algunos exámenes físicos y psiquiátricos. En el pabellón hay otro sacerdote, José Mercau, imputado por el abuso sexual de cinco menores, de entre 7 y 16 años, en El Talar de Pacheco.

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ARGENTINA
Clarin

25/09/13
El padre Julio César Grassi podrá seguir celebrando misa –ahora en la cárcel de Campana–, pero de modo privado, tal como lo hacía hasta el lunes, cuando estaba cumpliendo con el régimen de libertad vigilada. Así se desprende del comunicado del obispado de Morón difundido ayer. En el texto nada se dice de la impartición de sacramentos, pero bien podría interpretarse que no puede realizar oficios que impliquen congregar gente y trámites parroquiales, como un casamiento o un bautismo, aunque quizá podría confesar porque sólo basta una persona más: el que quiere confesarse.

La única manera de que Grassi no pueda realizar ningún oficio religioso es que sea suspendido o expulsado del ejercicio del ministerio sacerdotal. Y para ello hace falta la sustanciación de un juicio canónico (eclesiástico) donde sea encontrado culpable de los cargos. El obispado anticipó que no lo iniciará “hasta tanto no haya una sentencia firme”. Es decir, hasta que se pronuncie la Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación, la última instancia que le queda a Grassi para tratar de torcer su suerte. El cura llegó a argumentar ante los jueces que en un libro del caso hecho por un penalista había resultado “inocente” (ver foto).

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NEW JERSEY
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Michael A. Fuoco / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Bernard A. Hebda, bishop of the rural Diocese of Gaylord, Mich., since 2009, on Tuesday became coadjutor archbishop of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., making him the latest former Pittsburgher to rise to a level of national prominence in the Catholic Church.

The appointment by Pope Francis means that Archbishop Hebda, 54, leaves a diocese of 65,000 Catholics to assist in administering New Jersey’s largest diocese of 1.5 million Catholics in four counties. As coadjutor, he will automatically become archbishop upon the retirement, transfer or death of the current archbishop, John J. Myers, who at 72 is about three years from mandatory retirement.

At a news conference Tuesday in Newark, Archbishop Myers said “some time ago” he had requested a coadjutor (Latin for co-assister) to help with some strategic plans because he and two auxiliary bishops are in their 70s.

Archbishop Hebda said he was “humbled” by the pope’s confidence and grateful for “providing me with the ‘coadjutor’s cushion,’ an opportunity to experience the vitality of this local church and its challenges before ever being placed at the helm. I hope to take advantage of this blessing to the fullest extent possible,” by getting to know the priests, laity, parish, schools and institutions that make up the archdiocese.

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