ABUSE TRACKER

DEUTSCHLAND
Schwabische

Bamberg / lby In Bayern zeichnet sich ein Rückgang der Verdachtsfälle von sexuellem Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche ab. Im vergangenen Jahr gingen bei der Missbrauchsbeauftragen des Erzbistums Bamberg, der Anwältin Eva Hastenteufel-Knörr, sieben neue Vorwürfe ein. Im Jahr zuvor seien noch zwölf Fälle aktenkundig geworden, sagte ein Sprecher der Erzdiözese.

Auch im Bistum Augsburg nahmen die Meldungen von sexuellem Missbrauch durch Geistliche oder Mitarbeiter der Diözese im vergangenen Jahr deutlich ab: Es gingen 14 Hinweise ein, im Jahr 2011 waren es nach Angaben des Missbrauchsbeauftragten mit 30 Fällen mehr als doppelt so viele. Zugenommen haben aber 2012 die Meldungen von körperlicher Gewalt von 4 auf 16. Seit 2010 wurden in dem Bistum insgesamt 148 sexuelle oder gewalttätige Übergriffe registriert. Zu zwei Dritteln handelte es sich dabei um sexuellen Missbrauch, zum größten Teil fanden diese Taten vor 1980 statt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kreiszeitung

Oldenburg/Hannover/Osnabrück – Immer neue Missbrauchsfälle in der Kirche schockierten die Bürger in den vergangenen Jahren. Jetzt steht ein ehemaliger Kirchenmusiker deswegen vor Gericht. Die Kirchen haben das heikle Thema nach eigenen Angaben inzwischen im Griff.

Im Prozess wegen 23-fachen Kindesmissbrauchs hat ein ehemaliger Kirchenmusiker am Dienstag vor dem Landgericht Oldenburg zum Auftakt ein Geständnis abgelegt. Auf Antrag der Verteidigung schloss das Gericht dazu aber die Öffentlichkeit aus und begründete die Entscheidung mit dem Schutz der Intimsphäre von Opfern und Angeklagtem.

Die Staatsanwaltschaft wirft dem Verwaltungsangestellten vor, in 23 Fällen von Anfang 2011 bis März 2012 mehrere Kinder sexuell missbraucht zu haben. In den vier schwersten Fällen gehe es um beischlafähnliche Taten. Der Strafrahmen dafür liegt nach Angaben von Gerichtssprecher Michael Herrmann bei 2 bis 15 Jahren Haft.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Dave Sutor dsutor@tribdem.com

JOHNSTOWN — A Bishop McCort Catholic High School spokesman on Monday dispelled widely circulating rumors about multiple teachers being fired from the academic institution.

Matt Beynon called the speculation “unfounded.”

He elaborated by saying, “That is not an accurate description of any events that have occurred.”

Rumors began circulating in the afternoon that anywhere between five and nine teachers had been fired from a staff of slightly more than three dozen instructors.

“No one was let go,” Beynon emphasized.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.comtwincities.com
Posted: 04/02/2013

Kirill Bartashevitch, the St. Paul man who allegedly pointed an AK-47 at his 15-year-old daughter in a dispute over her getting B’s instead of A’s in school, is a highly respected Russian Orthodox priest who should be treated with leniency.

That’s the message from at least 20 supporters throughout the world, including people in Russia, Canada, New York and Ohio, who wrote to Judge Lezlie Ott Marek on his behalf.

The writers describe Bartashevitch as a deeply religious man who expresses great care and compassion for others, helping them grow in the faith. Some said they did not believe reports of the charges.

Bartashevitch appeared in Ramsey County District Court Tuesday, April 2, initially asking for another continuance in his case so that he could deal with potential “immigration consequences that are quite significant,” said his attorney, Cullin Smith. Smith did not elaborate. Bartashevitch then changed his mind. Judge Joy Bartscher set a pretrial date of May 1.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

The Royal Commission into the abuse of children which is due to start in Melbourne tomorrow , is having trouble dealing with the number of people who want to give evidence.

Transcript

STEVE CANNANE, PRESENTER: THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED ROYAL COMMISSION INTO THE ABUSE OF CHILDREN GETS UNDERWAY IN MELBOURNE TOMORROW.

MANY HOPE THE SCALE OF ABUSE WILL BE REVEALED.

THERE ARE ALREADY CLAIMS THOUGH THAT THE COMMISSION ISN’T COPING WITH PEOPLE CONTACTING OT TO GIVE EVIDENCE

HAMISH FITZSIMMONS REPORTS

HAMISH FITZSIMMONS, REPORTER: With the opening statements now only hours away, the royal commission carries the hopes of many.

STEPHEN WOODS, ABUSE SURVIVOR: I really want to see this royal commission being used for what it should be and that’s to heal so much of Australia.

HAMISH FITZSIMMONS: Stephen Woods and two of his siblings were sexually assaulted over years at schools in Ballarat. He says the royal commission has encouraged many victims to speak for the first time.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

April 3, 2013

Barney Zwartz

The stakes, and the expectations, are high for the royal commission into child sexual abuse, which begins today.

After decades of desperate struggle to have the world take them seriously, survivors of child sexual abuse by clergy are beginning to live, in the words of survivor and advocate Peter Blenkiron, in a fragile ”bubble of hope”.

Blenkiron is the spokesman for a group of about 40 survivors in Ballarat, a city where another 40 or so victims have already taken their own lives. What has given them this cautious sliver of optimism is being heard by people who can change things.

Since November the Victorian government has been running an inquiry that has given many victims a voice. In NSW, one inquiry has recently examined church behaviour about abuse complaints and another will start in May. The most important – the long-sought royal commission – begins in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Although many survivors recover to lead fulfilling lives, many others are walking a tightrope just to get through each day, their potential paralysed and hopes stolen because of events decades earlier, events that were beyond their control. ”The abusers are soul destroyers,” one victim said recently.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The royal commission into institutional sexual abuse begins today.

It’ll hold its first sitting in Melbourne, but the flood of victims’ stories will have to wait because no evidence will be tendered.

Instead, chair Justice Peter McClellan will outline how the commission will conduct its hearings and counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC will make an opening statement.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video and audio]

The historic Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will begin in the Victorian County Court in Melbourne today.

The commission will look at religious organisations, state care providers, not-for-profit bodies, as well as child service agencies and police forces and what can be done so that the victims have justice.

The commission’s chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, will today provide information on how future private and public hearings will be conducted.

The senior counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness, will also deliver an opening statement.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM

TONY EASTLEY: The full cost of the Royal Commission is yet to be revealed and it will be determined in part by the length of the inquiry.

The Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has announced that child abuse victims giving evidence will have access to a free legal advice service.

It will help people put together submissions to the Royal Commission and provide advice on the options they may have to pursue civil or criminal action.

Mark Dreyfus spoke to Anna Henderson after last night’s Cabinet meeting in Canberra.

MARK DREYFUS: This is a very, very large royal commission and its exact scale is going to start to become clear when the commission holds its first hearing in Melbourne.

ANNA HENDERSON: What is the significance of providing free legal advisory services for people who are engaging with the Royal Commission?

MARK DREYFUS: It’s going to be there to provide people with legal and procedural advice on important issues such as how they go about preparing a submission to the Royal Commission, how they give evidence, what ways they can participate in the hearings.

As well, this free legal advisory service is going to make sure that people have advice on their legal options – not just how they can engage with the Royal Commission but civil law options, criminal law options and of course giving them face-to-face advice, a bit like a duty lawyer, if they are appearing in the Royal Commission.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Taylor Auerbach
Herald Sun
April 03, 2013

AUSTRALIA’S historic royal commission into child abuse begins in Melbourne today, supported by a formidable female legal duo.

The Federal Government has announced that NSW barrister Gail Furness SC and Victorian Melinda Richards will be counsel assisting the royal commission.

The pair has been recruited to investigate how institutions with a responsibility for children, including the Catholic Church, have reacted to and managed allegations of child sex abuse within their walls.

The royal commission will investigate where systems have failed child victims and make recommendations about how to prevent further abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Victims of clergy sex abuse will be given free legal advice to help them participate in the royal commission, which starts in Melbourne on Wednesday.

During the commission’s first sitting, chairman Justice Peter McClellan will outline how the national body will operate and counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness, SC, will make an opening statement.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the free legal service will provide victims with advice ‘a bit like a duty lawyer’.

‘It’s going to be there to provide people with legal and procedural advice on important issues,’ he told ABC Radio on Wednesday, citing examples such as how they go about preparing a submission, how they give evidence and what ways they can participate in the hearings.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

by:Stuart Rintoul
From:The Australian
April 03, 2013

THE federal government has appointed two lawyers, Gail Furness and Melinda Richards, to steer the direction of the child sexual abuse royal commission.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hold its first hearing in Melbourne’s County Court today.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Sr. Rose Pacatte | Apr. 2, 2013

The Hollywood Reporter announced Tuesday that Dreamworks and Participant Media have obtained the rights to the Boston Globe’s yearlong investigation of clergy sex abuse in Massachusetts.

The investigation by the Globe’s “Spotlight Team” of reporters and editors led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston. The 2002 revelations have had worldwide repercussions for the Catholic church that continue today in terms of allegations, settlements and pastoral policy.

The Globe won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its coverage of the scandal in 2003.

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AUSTRALIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Nicky Davis on April 02, 2013

SNAP Australia welcomes the announcement of the provision of basic legal advice to those wishing to provide evidence to the Royal Commission.

We hope this service will be made available to whistleblowers and witnesses as well as to victims themselves, and that anyone providing this service will first be required to undergo training for dealing with those affected by complex trauma.

In addition to legal advice, victims desperately need access to free counselling to help with preparing their submissions. The Royal Commission will expose vulnerable victims to the emotional roller coaster of being heard, believed and supported for the first time in their lives, while also reliving horribly traumatic experiences. To ask these innocent victims, whose needs have been ignored and neglected for their entire lives, to find the courage to do this without vital support would be heartless indeed and detrimental to efforts to discover the truth.

It is also extremely important that the Commission not expose victims to service providers, Commission staff or even Commissioners with strong, high level ties to the institution which enabled and covered up their abuse. Those with ties to the Catholic Church should not hear evidence from or provide support to Catholic victims, those with strong ties to the Scout movement, state institutions, the Salvation Army, the Jewish Community etc should be kept away from dealing with victims of those institutions. Neither should Bob Atkinson, a former Queensland Police Commissioner, hear any matters involving Queensland Police investigations.

While a legal and technical process, it is important to remember this Royal Commission is about Australian children who were targeted, preyed upon, and exploited by those in positions of absolute power over them, then betrayed and abandoned by church officials and other institutions, to suffer in lonely silence for decades, cruelly denied the help that would have relieved our suffering.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By Bob O’Toole and Lindsay Gardiner
April 2, 2013

Why didn’t the victims say something years ago?

In most situations, children are groomed for sexual abuse by the perpetrating priest, brother, teacher etc over a period of years.

Their family is also groomed by the perpetrator, who becomes a close and trusted family friend and, sometimes, a spiritual adviser and confidant. The family feel great pride at the special attention they are being paid.

The perpetrator has spent years building a trusted and respected community profile. He makes the child believe the child has invited the abuse and enjoyed the relationship.

At first, the child enjoyed being special to someone so important.

The perpetrator tells the child no one will believe the story of abuse or he tells them something bad will happen to those he or she loves if the child speaks up.

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UNITED STATES
Moviefone

It’s been more than 10 years since the Boston Globe first reported the decades-long sexual abuse — and subsequent cover-up — plaguing the Massachusetts Catholic Church, setting in motion revelations of similar abuse in the Catholic Church worldwide. Now, the story behind how that abuse was uncovered is set to be told on the big screen, with DreamWorks Studio and Participant Media announcing that they’ve acquired the film rights to the Globe’s reporting.

The paper spent a year investigating abuse allegations, interviewing victims, and reviewing thousands of pages of documents, ultimately revealing that church leadership had made a concerted effort to ignore and in many cases cover-up reported abuse. One accused priest was shuttled from parish to parish, despite the church’s awareness of his record.

The scandal rocked the church on both a national and worldwide level, leading to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, who had a hand in hiding priests’ serial abuse. Abuse allegations are still rampant today, and DreamWorks executive vice president Jonathan King said the film would capture “a powerful and still-evolving story.”

Members of the Globe’s Spotlight Team — reporters and editors who worked together to investigate and break the story — who will be featured in the film include then-Globe editor Marty Baron, special projects editor Ben Bradlee Jr., Spotlight Team editor Walter “Robby” Robinson, and reporters Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer, and Matt Carroll. The team won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003 for their reporting.

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UNITED STATES
Variety

Dave McNary
Film Reporter@Variety_DMcNary

DreamWorks Studios and Participant Media have joined the untitled feature about the Catholic Church’s cover-up of its pedophile priests in Massachusetts, uncovered by the Boston Globe.

Variety reported in October that “Win Win” helmer Tom McCarthy and scribe Josh Singer (“The West Wing”) had been tapped by Anonymous Content and Rocklin/Faust to work on the project, which follows the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who exposed the scandal. At that point, McCarthy had been working in secret for more than a year on the movie.

Steve Golin and Michael Sugar of Anonymous Content are producing with Nicole Rocklin and Blye Faust. David Mizner, who brought the project to Rocklin/Faust, will consult and serve as an associate producer.

Participant’s Jonathan King and Jeff Skoll will exec produce.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

April 02, 2013

DreamWorks Studios and Participant Media have acquired the film rights to the story of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal in Massachusetts, DreamWorks president of production Holly Bario announced Tuesday. The movie based on the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series of stories will be directed by Tom McCarthy, a BC grad whose credits include “The Station Agent,” with a screenplay by Josh Singer. “The Boston Globe’s coverage of the Catholic priest scandal opened the door to a bigger story that had worldwide ramifications,” Bario said in a statement Tuesday. “The story of how this team of editors and reporters came to uncover the truth will make a dramatic and compelling film, especially with the talents of our director Tom McCarthy and his co-screenwriter Josh Singer on board.”

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UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

By Nicole Sperling
April 2, 2013

Looks like the Boston Globe’s yearlong investigation into the Catholic Church’s coverup of its pedophile priests in Massachusetts will be turned into a feature film.

Dreamworks Studios and Participant Media announced Tuesday that they have acquired the life rights to the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight Team” of reporters and editors who spent a year interviewing victims and reviewing thousands of pages of documents, discovering years of coverup by Catholic Church leadership.

Their reporting lead to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law and led to other unveilings of church coverups around the world. It also earned the team a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003.

Tom McCarthy (“Win Win”) has signed on to direct and co-write the script with Josh Singer, who most recently wrote the Wikileaks drama “The Fifth Estate” for Dreamworks and director Bill Condon.

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UNITED STATES
Inside Movies

by Hillary Busis

In 2001, reporters at the Boston Globe began investigating and reporting on the Catholic Church’s history of covering up sexual abuse perpetrated by priests in Massachusetts. Their tireless work earned the paper a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003 — and ten years later, the rights to their story have been acquired by DreamWorks Studios and Participant Media.

Win Win director (and Boston University graduate) Tom McCarthy has signed on to direct the movie; he’ll also co-write the script with Josh Singer, a veteran TV writer who also penned DreamWorks’s upcoming Wikileaks drama The Fifth Estate. This will be the sixth collaboration for Participant and DreamWorks; the companies have previously partnered on The Fifth Estate, Lincoln, The Help, The Kite Runner, and The Soloist.

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TEXAS
Your Houston News

Posted: Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Staff Report

A Cypress youth pastor has been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual assault of a child and online solicitation of a minor.

The 16-year-old girl met Chad Foster, 34, in the summer of 2011 while he was serving as a youth pastor at the Community of Faith Church on Becker Road in Cypress. Court documents show that the two communicated frequently through texts, but the relationship turned sexual in July when the girl visited Foster at his home. From July to mid-October, the two had sex at least half a dozen times, records state.

Foster reportedly told the girl several times not to tell anyone about their relationship because he would get in trouble for their age difference, according to court documents.

When the girl started to feel bad about the relationship, she told her Spanish teacher at Cy-Woods High School and an associate pastor at the Community of Faith Church about the relationship on Oct. 27, who then reported the relationship to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

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TEXAS
KHOU

by KHOU.com staff
khou.com

Posted on April 1, 2013

CYPRESS, Texas – A former youth pastor, who pleaded guilty to raping a 16-year-old girl in 2011 and soliciting another teen online, was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday.

Chad Foster’s sentencing came after hearing testimony from his victims in front of family members, many of whom were in tears.

“It’s hard to think of any child being victimized that way, but to have it done by a youth pastor at church where they’re supposed to be safe, I think, is just extra repugnant,” Lacy Johnson, assistant district attorney, said.

The girl who Foster seduced and had sex with testified that she felt “used and cheated.” She added that she had lost her faith in God.

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By EDMUND H. MAHONY, emahony@courant.com
The Hartford Courant
11:24 a.m. EDT, April 2, 2013

HARTFORD -—

A suspended Catholic priest from Bridgeport pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in a bi-coastal methamphetamine distribution ring.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin, 61, faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in June. The sentencing guideline is 135-168 months. He entered his plea in front of Senior Judge Alfred V. Covello in U.S. District Court.

Wallin faced a single charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute the powerful stimulate methamphetamine.

The indictment of Wallin on narcotics charges in January stunned the Diocese of Bridgeport, where he formerly served in positions that included personal secretary to successive bishops, including Edward Egan, later appointed a cardinal.

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IRELAND
Limerick Leader

Published on 02/04/2013

A WELL known Limerick priest has stepped aside from his ministry while an alleged incident of a sexual nature, officially described as a ‘historical child protection matter’, is dealt with by the Diocese of Limerick.

The priest is currently based in county Limerick but was in a parish in the city when the alleged incident occurred in the mid-1990s.

Gardai are aware of the allegation but it is unclear at the moment whether they are investigating a formal complaint.

“The Diocese of Limerick can confirm that a priest of the diocese, in accordance with the recommendations of Church policy on safeguarding children, has asked to step aside from ministry while an alleged historical child protection matter is being dealt with,” said a spokesperson in the statement.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Carly Crawford
Herald Sun
April 01, 2013

CARDINAL George Pell will appear at the Victorian inquiry into child abuse within weeks, as the Catholic Church proposes a new system for handling abuse complaints.

Cardinal Pell introduced Melbourne’s controversial complaints handling system when he was Archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s. The church confirmed Cardinal Pell would appear before the panel in coming weeks.

“The committee has indicated some interest in Cardinal Pell attending and he’s certainly willing to co-operate with that,” church spokesman Shane Mackinlay said.

Church figures will propose changes to its complaints process, which has attracted criticism for keeping abuse allegations in-house and making victims feel that they could not report their abuse to police.

In Victoria, the Catholic Church will propose having the Ombudsman review its abuse investigations. And it will suggest changing the Crimes Act so that the church can routinely report abuse complaints to police without identifying victims.

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AUSTRALIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Nicky Davis on April 02, 2013

As the royal commission begins we stand full of gratitude and hope, gratitude to the Prime Minister and those in the government who have made this possible and hope that children of Australia will be safe as a result.

We seek the full truth and want complete transparency. The response should be compassionate toward the wounded and stinging for the predators and their enablers.

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INDIA
Daily Bhaskar

Chhatarpur: A priest, his partner and three brothers were booked for allegedly raping a woman, the Madhya Pradesh police said on Tuesday.

According to reports, the woman (33) was kidnapped by the temple priest on January 17. After allegedly raping her, the accused priest sold her for Rs 40,000 to three brothers who also raped her repeatedly.

The incident came to light when the victim’s brother traced her along with a child in Pipra village of Tikamgarh district in Madhya Pradesh.

Later, the victim and her brother filed a complaint against all the accused. No arrests have been made so far. The police is investigating the matter.

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VATICAN CITY
Trust Law

Tue, 2 Apr 2013

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, April 2 (Reuters) – Pope Francis, who has said he wants the Catholic Church to be a model of austerity and honesty, could restructure or even close the Vatican’s scandal-ridden bank as part of a broad review of its troubled bureaucracy, Vatican sources say.

Francis, who inherited a Church mired in scandals over priests’ sexual abuse of children and the leak of confidential documents alleging corruption and infighting in the Vatican’s central administration, is mulling his options as he sets the tone for a reformed and humbler Holy See.

One of the tests of his papacy will be what he does about the bank which has regularly damaged the Vatican’s image over three decades and faces growing calls for reform.

Last year a European anti-money laundering body found that the bank – formally called the Institute for Works of Religion and known by the Italian acronym IOR – had failed to meet some of its standards on fighting financial crimes.

“Certainly if the pope wants to, he can close the IOR,” said a senior Vatican official, a prelate who had years of experience of directly dealing with the bank. The future of the IOR was one of main issues Francis would have to confront now that the whirlwind of his surprise election was slowing, he said.

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IRELAND
Galway Bay FM

More than 400 women who worked in Magdalene laundries, including the one based at Forster Street in the city, have applied for state compensation.

Since a Department of Justice helpline was set up last month more than 1,100 calls have been received, according to today’s Irish Independent.

424 women have registered their interest in being included in receiving benefits from the state compensation fund.

The women were asked to give details of which laundry they were resident in, the dates they were there, and whether they have any records to support their application.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Michael P. Mayko

Updated 8:40 am, Tuesday, April 2, 2013

HARTFORD — Charges of widespread sexual abuse by the director of a program funded by wealthy area Catholics and created to help abandoned Haitian boys appears headed to trial.

U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny, who is presiding over the 22 cases each seeking more than $20 million, began clearing the way for trial by dismissing several of the charges while allowing others including the negligent supervision of Douglas Perlitz to stand. No date has been set for the trial as of Tuesday.

Perlitz, a Fairfield University graduate whose work in Haiti garnered him national attention, is serving a 19-year, seven-month federal prison term after he pleaded guilty to traveling overseas to engage in sex with a minor. During his sentencing he admitted there were several victims.

Shortly after Perlitz’s sentencing, 23 of those victims permitted Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer who has won millions suing Catholic priests and their Dioceses on sexual abuse charges, to pick up their cause. In the suits, Garabedian named the Rev. Paul Carrier, a former chaplain at Fairfield University and Perlitz’s mentor; Fairfield University and the Society of Jesus New England, Carrier’s order as defendants for being negligent in their supervision of the program. He also sued Hope Carter, a New Canaan philanthropist; the Order of Malta, American Association, which provided the 1997 start-up grant to Perlitz and the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes along with 15 others on similar negligence charges. Carter and Carrier also were directors of the Haiti Fund, a nonprofit organization that raised money for Perlitz’s programs. Each suit seeks $20 million in damages from each defendant.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

April 3, 2013

Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age.

Victims of clergy child-sex abuse and others will be given free legal advice so they can engage with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which holds its first hearing on Wednesday in Melbourne.

Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the free service would give legal, advice including help with submissions and advice on confidentiality agreements.

The announcement came as Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council, named the council’s 12 members and told Fairfax Media that the council was already providing documents and files to the commission.

Mr Dreyfus said legal advice would be offered through the National Association of Community Legal Centres on a free nationwide telephone service, with some face-to-face help available in some locations yet to be identified.

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UGANDA
Daily Monitor

By Ladislaus K. Rwakafuuzi

Posted Monday, April 1 2013

When a bird perches off its nest without a word, it must only be too young. I will not fail to say something about Fr Anthony Musaala’s saga because I am neither too young to speak nor am I too daft to fathom the preponderance and momentousness of his dossier.

Fr Musaala has said that the Catholic Church should re-examine celibacy for its priests. Musaala has reasoned that many otherwise good priests fail in their vows of celibacy. What Musaala is raising here is not new. That debate is as old as the date the church decided on celibacy.

Celibacy was not a precept for priests in the beginnings of the church. The church later mooted celibacy as a means of serving God better without family distractions. The same church has the power to reverse itself on this precept if it sees that priests are no longer serving better when celibate. So Musaala has proposed that celibacy may be made optional. This is one arm of Musaala’s arguments.

The second arm is that the church should not merely watch when some of its priests who have failed to be celibate cause harm. Musaala is proposing that the church should strictly discipline the priests whose failure in celibacy causes harm to third parties, especially the children.

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IRELAND
Justice for Magdalenes

Justice for Magdalenes (JFM), the survivor advocacy group, has published a guide, entitled Survivor Guide to Magdalen Commission,for women who were incarcerated in the Magdalene Laundries as they prepare to engage with the Magdalen Fund.

Following the official State apology issued by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny on 19th February 2013, the government asked Justice John Quirke to undertake a three-month review and make recommendations to the Government about the criteria for applying to the Magdalen Fund for payments and other supports.

Survivors who have not already registered with the Magdalen Commissionare encouraged to do so. Registration forms are available from [click here]

The Survivor Guide to Magdalen Commission is intended solely as an aid to survivors; its purpose is to help them and their families to create a checklist of present-day needs. The Guide is not intended to supplant or replace any official documents created by the Magdalen Commission or the Irish State; it is offered simply as a guide to help women to prepare to engage with the process.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Sheila Sanchez

April 1, 2013

A former lay employee of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary Catholic Convent in Los Gatos’ sentencing has been scheduled for 10 a.m. April 11 at the federal court building on South First Street in downtown San Jose.

The official pronouncement of the punishment against Linda Gomez, 67, originally scheduled for March 28, got postponed two weeks by U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen.

Gomez, also known as Linda Surrett, pleaded guilty in October of 2012 to 17 counts of fraud after admitting having embezzled $100,000 from the religious order. A 2011 grand jury indictment included 14 counts of wire fraud and three counts of mail fraud against her.

The maximum statutory penalty for wire and mail fraud is 20 years in prison and a fine of $1 million, plus restitution, said U.S. Attorney Joseph Fazioli.

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UGANDA
New Vision

Publish Date: Apr 02, 2013

By Taddeo Bwambale

The Catholic Church has set up a commission to investigate allegations by Fr Anthony Musaala that some priests had deviated from the oath of celibacy.

“We have set up a commission to look into the allegations by Fr Musaala. As to whether the allegations are correct or not, the commission will determine,” he said.

Addressing journalists at his residence in Rubaga on Saturday, the Archbishop of Kampala, Dr. Cyprian Kizito Lwanga said the commission would establish the truth.

The probe stems from a document purportedly authored by Musaala recently, claiming that many Catholic priests and bishops are sexually abusing minors, have mistresses and children who they are concealing or have abandoned

The letter also calls for a review of celibate chastity in the Catholic Church. Musaala has since acknowledged writing the document, but claims it leaked on the internet after he gave it to a fellow priest to edit it.

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CANADA
Toronto Sun

By Maryam Shah,Toronto Sun

First posted: Thursday, March 28, 2013

TORONTO – A day after being acquitted of sex-related charges, a former Toronto imam was arrested Wednesday for extradition to the United States.

Mohammad Masroor, 50, is wanted in Michigan and Florida on charges of criminal sexual contact with a person under 13, Toronto Police said.

“The offences are alleged to have occurred between 2000 and 2005,” police said Thursday.

Masroor was charged two years ago with sexually assaulting six people between November 2008 and July 2011. He was also charged with threatening death.

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AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

02 April 2013

The former Canberra and Goulburn archbishop Mark Coleridge has been appointed to the Truth Justice and Healing Council, which will manage the Catholic Church’s work with the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

Archbishop Coleridge, now the Archbishop of Brisbane, is one of 13 members announced by president of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference Archbishop Denis Hart and chair of Catholic Religious Australia Sr Annette Cunliffe, RSC.

Prof Greg Craven, vice-chancellor of Australian Catholic University, is also on the council, which will be chaired by Justice Barry O’Keefe, a former chief judge of the NSW Supreme Court and once a commissioner on the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Katherine Donnelly Education Editor– 02 April 2013

THE Catholic Church is being told to hand over another 23 primary schools in an historic shake-up of the eduction system designed to offer parents more choice.

Department of Education surveys in 43 towns and suburbs over the past six months found that two-thirds of parents wanted a more diverse range of schools — meaning a reduction of the church’s overwhelming dominance of school patronage.

The results of the consultation with 10,000 parents on future control of local schools can be revealed today, with Education Minister Ruairi Quinn pointing out that a majority of areas surveyed had shown sufficient parental demand for wider choice of schools.

He insisted: “We cannot ignore this call for change.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

“Hofstaat-Gehabe”: Katholiken im ganzen Land legen ihre Zurückhaltung ab und diskutieren über einen radikalen Richtungswechsel im Vatikan. Die Hoffnungen sind groß. Das gefällt jedoch nicht allen. Von Gernot Facius

Kardinal Karl Lehmann (76) hat als rom-erfahrener Theologe ein sicheres Gespür für Veränderungen. Wo immer er in diesen Tagen hinkommt, sagt Lehmann: “Ich erwarte spannende Wochen.”

Die Veröffentlichung der Brandrede von Papst Franziskus (76) im Vorkonklave, in der der neue Mann auf dem Stuhl Petri alle Formen klerikaler Eitelkeit, die “Selbstbezogenheit” und den “theologischen Narzissmus” seiner Kirche geißelte, befeuert im deutschen Katholizismus die Diskussionen über einen möglichen radikalen Richtungswechsel im Vatikan.

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DEUTSCHLAND
YouTube

Published on Feb 14, 2013

..eine Nachrichtensendung je Jahr von Oktober 2009 bis Januar 2013 als MediaMix

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DEUTSCHLAND
Passauer Neue Presse

In Bayern zeichnet sich ein Rückgang der Verdachtsfälle von sexuellem Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche ab. Im vergangenen Jahr gingen bei der Missbrauchsbeauftragen des Erzbistums Bamberg, der Anwältin Eva Hastenteufel-Knörr, sieben neue Vorwürfe ein. Im Jahr zuvor seien noch zwölf Fälle aktenkundig geworden, sagte ein Sprecher der Erzdiözese.

Seit Oktober 2011 registrierte das Bistum Passau einen Fall des Verdachts auf Missbrauch. Es seien Vorwürfe gegen einen Lehrer an einer kirchlichen Schule erhoben worden, teilte die Diözese mit. Seitens der Staatsanwaltschaft wurde dieses Verfahren eingestellt. In zwei weiteren Fällen wurde gegen zwei Priester der Diözese der Vorwurf übermäßiger Gewaltanwendung gegenüber Schülern erhoben. Beide Fälle lagen bereits so weit in der Vergangenheit, dass eine Weiterleitung an die Polizei bereits aus diesem Grund unterblieb, wie ein Sprecher mitteilte. “In beiden Fällen wurde mit den Opfern Kontakt aufgenommen und angemessene Hilfen angeboten.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Tue, Apr 2, 2013

The Justice for Magdalenes advocacy group has published a guide for women who were incarcerated in the Magdalene laundries as they prepare to engage with the Government Magdalene Fund. Titled Survivor Guide to Magdalen Commission , it is available at magdalenelaundries.com.

Following the official State apology by Taoiseach Enda Kenny on February 19th, the Government asked Mr Justice John Quirke to undertake a three-month review following which he is to make recommendations on criteria for applications to the Magdalene Fund.

Women who had been in the laundries and who have not already registered with the Magdalene Commission are encouraged to do so.

The group’s guide is intended solely as an aid to the women. Its purpose is to help them and their families create a checklist of their current needs.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Breda Heffernan– 02 April 2013

MORE than 420 former residents of the Magdalene Laundries have applied to be included in a state compensation fund.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice’s special helpline has received almost 1,100 calls about the fund since it was established last month.

The department invited former residents to register a preliminary expression of interest in receiving benefits from the fund and so far 424 women have registered their interest.

They were asked to give details of which laundry they were resident in, the dates when they were there and whether they have any records to support their application.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian Times (UK)

By Paul Bleakley on 2 April, 2013

CATHOLIC Cardinal George Pell will appear before a Victorian inquiry into child sexual abuse within weeks, at a time when the church has proposed sweeping changes to its handling of complaints of abuse against members of the clergy.

Pell was a driving force behind the introduction of a controversial process for dealing with complaints of abuse in Victoria while serving as Archbishop of Melbourne during the 1990s. This practice involved the Catholic Church investigating alleged abuse in-house and encouraging victims to avoid going to the police with their claims.

It is expected that current Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart and a range of other church officials will give evidence to the inquiry. Spokesman for the Catholic Church Shane Mackinlay said that the Victorian inquiry had been given “unfettered” access to files detailing over 600 allegations of abuse that had been investigated by the Victorian wing of the church since Pell’s complaints process was introduced.

Mackinlay said: “The committee has indicated some interest in Cardinal Pell attending and he’s certainly willing to co-operate with that.”

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mercury

APN Newsdesk
2nd Apr 2013

THE much-anticipated Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hold its first hearing on Wednesday.

Justice Peter McClellan, who is chairing the inquiry, will outline the work of the Royal Commission, while senior counsel assisting will deliver an opening address.

No evidence will be taken during the hearing, which is being held in Melbourne.

All six commissioners will be present for the hearing.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard bowed to growing pressure and established the royal commission late last year.

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AUSTRALIA
Christian Today

By: Australian Catholic Bishops Conference

Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Archbishop Denis Hart, President of The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, and Sr Annette Cunliffe RSC, Chair of Catholic Religious Australia, have today announced the members of the Truth Justice and Healing Council (TJHC).

The TJHC will oversee the Catholic Church’s engagement with the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Council, welcomed the announcement saying the 13 member Council is made up of men and women with professional and other expertise, especially across child sexual abuse, paedophilia, trauma, mental illness, suicide and public policy.

“The Church and members of the TJHC are determined that the truth be told and that the Church assists victims and those damaged by abuse as children receive justice and to embark on a sustainable process of healing,” Francis Sullivan said.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Patrick Caruana, AAP
April 2, 2013

The royal commission into institutional sexual abuse will begin on Wednesday, but the flood of victims’ stories will have to wait.

No evidence will be tendered at the first sitting in Melbourne of the commission to examine institutional responses to abuse.

Instead, its chair, Justice Peter McClellan, will outline how the commission will conduct its hearings and counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, will make an opening statement.

Chris Wilding, who founded victims’ group Broken Rites in 1992, said it would be a significant day for survivors of abuse.

“It’s certainly very exciting for me to see this happen after 20 years of exposing these sorts of crimes,” she told AAP on Tuesday.

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OREGON
WNYT

(AP) SALEM, Ore. – A Catholic priest pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy he invited for a sleepover when he was pastor of a church in a small city south of Portland.

The Rev. Angel Armando Perez was sentenced to more than six years in prison after pleading guilty in Marion County Circuit Court to first-degree sexual abuse, DUI and furnishing liquor to a minor.

Perez, a former pastor at St. Luke Catholic Church in Woodburn, was arrested in August. The Salem child told police he woke up during a sleepover in Perez’s home to find the priest touching his genitals and apparently taking photographs with a cellphone.

Police said the boy ran from the home with Perez chasing him. Neighbors took the boy to his sister’s house.

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WISCONSIN
Fox 6

WAUWATOSA (WITI) — Wauwatosa police are investigating a priest who serves at Tosa’s St. Pius X parish and Mother of Good Counsel parish — for alleged inappropriate behavior.

The Milwaukee Archdiocese says on March 27th, it received information that a teacher at Wauwatosa Catholic School had observed some behavior she believed to be questionable or inappropriate with a student by Father Robert Marsicek — a Salvatorian priest.

Following this report, Wauwatosa police launched an investigation.

Additionally, the Provincial of the Salvatorians, Father Joe Rodrigues was notified, and made the decision to remove Father Marsicek from his parish/pastoral duties effective immediately. Rodrigues has also restricted Father Marsicek’s exercise of any public ministry.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Everton Bailey Jr., The Oregonian

A Woodburn priest accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy has been sentenced to a little more than six years in prison Monday.

The Rev. Angel Armando Perez, 47, pleaded guilty in Marion County Circuit Court to first-degree sexual abuse, DUII and furnishing alcohol to a minor charges. He will serve six years and three months in prison.

Previous charges of using a child in display of sexually explicit conduct and evidence tampering were dropped.

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OREGON
KATU

WOODBURN, Ore. – A Woodburn priest took a deal from prosecutors and pleaded guilty to a sex abuse charge on Monday.

Angel Armando Perez was accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy last August. Court documents said Perez invited the boy to spend the night at his house after a party. The boy told police Perez touched his genitals and took pictures using a cell phone.

Perez pleaded guilty to sexual abuse in the first degree, which is a Measure 11 crime. He was sentenced to more than 6 years in prison.

He also pleaded guilty to DUII and a charge of giving alcohol to a person under 21. He will service those sentences concurrently.

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OREGON
Statesman-Journal

News Release from: Marion Co. District Attorney’s Office

On April 1, 2013, Angel Armando Perez entered guilty pleas before the Honorable Courtland Geyer to charges stemming from an August 12, 2012 investigation conducted by the Woodburn Police Department.

Mr. Perez was a priest at St. Luke’s Catholic Church when a complaint of sexual abuse was made to the Woodburn Police Department. Mr. Perez was arrested on August 13, 2012 and a grand jury subsequently indicted him on charges of Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, Using a Child in Display of Sexually Explicit Conduct, Tampering with Physical Evidence, Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants, and Furnishing Alcohol to a Person Under 21 Years of Age.

Mr. Perez pled guilty to Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants, and 2 counts of Furnishing Alcohol to a Person Under 21 Years of Age. The remaining charges were dismissed. Mr. Perez was sentenced to 75 months in prison on the charge of Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, a Ballot Measure 11 offense. He was sentenced to concurrent jail sentences on the remaining counts.

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UGANDA
Daily Monitor

By Tabu Butagira

Posted Tuesday, April 2 2013

Kampala

A Catholic priest, who last month exposed prevalence of sexual adventure by his colleagues in violation of celibacy oath, has disengaged from the debate citing an “agreement” he reached with Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga.

Fr. Anthony Musaala, whom the prelate suspended about a fortnight ago for raising the allegations in public, yesterday said he was constrained to further discuss a subject he thrust into the public domain. “I made an agreement with the Archbishop [not to talk to the media] because there was so much happening; so much at stake, he said, “So, I will not comment and I hope you appreciate that.”

Fr. Musaala’s premature withdrawal came a day after Archbishop Lwanga, who suspended him mid-last month, made a U-turn on Easter eve to acknowledge and apologise for alleged sexual abuses, including of minors, by some priests. “It’s sad that there has been some misbehaving by some (priests) as alleged,” he said, before announcing an ad hoc commission had been constituted to inquire into the matter.

Findings of the investigations, according to Archbishop Lwanga, would not be made public because the Church has a cocooned mechanism of resolving such slip-ups.

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CALIFORNIA/CONNECTICUT
Orange County Weekly

By Matt Coker
Mon., Apr. 1 2013

A suspended, cross-dressing Roman Catholic priest nicknamed “Monsignor Meth” because of his role in a drug operation whose suppliers were alleged to be two South County residents is expected to plead guilty to charges against him Tuesday. Federal court papers in Waterbury, Conn., indicate Kevin Wallin, who was accused in January of laundering drug sales proceeds through his post-priestly Land of Oz adult entertainment shop, will cop to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Chad McCluskey, 43, of San Clemente; his longtime girlfriend Kristen Laschober, 47, of Laguna Niguel, and two Connecticut men previously entered not guilty pleas at their arraignment hearing on the same federal counts, which carry with them fines of up to $10 million and 10 years to life in prison with convictions.

Wallin had also originally pleaded not guilty, but he filed court papers last week to change his plea, the Associated Press reported.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Monday, April 1, 2013

By Michael P. Mayko

HARTFORD — On Jan. 3, Monsignor Kevin Wallin was prepared to leave on a two-week vacation in London, before authorities arrested him for dealing crystal methamphetamine.

On Tuesday, the 61-year-old Wallin made preparations for a much longer trip — this one to federal prison for at least 10 years as a result of a guilty plea to participating in a conspiracy to deal the drug.

Wallin, once a charismatic priest with a knack for fund raising, is expected to enter a guilty plea before Senior U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello. He is the first of five defendants in the case to plead. The others, including his next door neighbor and close confident, Kenneth Devries and his two meth-addicted California suppliers, Chad McCluskey and Kristen Laschober and Michael Nelson, pleaded not guilty to the conspiracy charge and are awaiting trial.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

April 1, 2013

A Catholic priest has been temporarily suspended from ministry at two parishes and elementary schools, pending a Wauwatosa police investigation into allegations involving inappropriate contact with a student, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and his religious order confirmed Monday.

Father Robert Marsicek was relieved of his duties at Pius X parish in Wauwatosa, Wauwatosa Catholic School and at Mother of Good Counsel parish and school in Milwaukee last week, standard procedure for both the archdiocese and his Milwaukee-based religious order, the Society of the Divine Savior, or Salvatorians.

Archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski said police were called after a teacher observed behavior she believed to be “questionable or inappropriate.” Teachers are required by law to report any suspicions.

Marsicek has not been charged with a crime, and Wauwatosa police have not returned repeated telephone calls for information.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

[Click here for the story.]

Nick Bramhill

Sun, Mar 31, 2013

Actor Gabriel Byrne has launched a stinging attack on the Catholic Church and described it as a “force for evil”.

The veteran Hollywood star had a strict Catholic upbringing in Dublin and spent five years in a seminary training to be a priest.

But he said it was his own unhappy memories of the seminary, where he says he was sexually abused by a priest, that made him decide not to raise his two children as Catholics.

And in an interview, the 62-year-old says he remains unrepetentant on his views of organised religion and even claimed the Catholic Church once drew inspiration from Hitler’s Nazis.

Recalling the the time he was sent away to an English seminary at just 11 to study for the priesthood, he said: “It was part of the culture. It was a very religious, oppressive society, though we didn’t see it as oppression at the time.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on April 01, 2013

Lawmakers in Missouri are considering making significant changes to the state’s sex offender registry. We hope that any changes they make will aim to further protect children, and not convicted adults.

Among the changes, lawmakers are considering adding “levels” to the registry. While this is a good idea in theory, in reality prosecutors will often allow plea deals for lesser sentences in order to spare victims the pain of a trial. We fear this will lead to less protection for kids.

Another provision is the ability for offenders to petition to have their name removed from the list, dependent on a “risk assessment” done by mental health professionals. Again, this is a good idea in theory, but institutions like the Catholic Church have shown us that a psychiatrist who is friendly to a predator can give him a favorable review, allowing that person to potentially victimize more children.

The state also complains of the burden of maintaining the registry. Yet the burden of keeping an online database up to date is far less than the burden of knowing that another child was able to be abused because of policy changes.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Stuart Rintoul
From:The Australian
April 02, 2013

VICTIM advocates have urged the child sexual abuse royal commission to use its powers aggressively to go to the heart of institutional cover up, while also expressing the hope the inquiry does not become adversarial.

With the royal commission to begin in Melbourne tomorrow , Broken Rites researcher Wayne Chamley said he had urged the commission to follow paper trails within the Catholic Church and use its subpoena powers to go “right up the line” to bring the church hierarchy into the dock.

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INDIA
Virtue Online

Fifteen out of 21 Anglican bishops said to be corrupt according to Central Intelligence Authorities
Nearly two million dollars given for Tsunami victims by The Episcopal Church that were siphoned off reveal tip of financial corruption

Special Report

By David W. Virtue in Chennai
www.virtueonline.org
March 27, 2013

Nearly two million dollars given by Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), the social service arm of The Episcopal Church, for victims of the 2004 Tsunami never got to those for whom it was intended. A Church of South India General Secretary diverted a third of the money to a private clinic run by her medical daughter, a Dr. Beneta.

The money was supposed to have gone to fishermen who lost their boats following giant earthquake driven Tsunami waves that killed 155,000 people and decimated the fishing industry. Money was given to rebuild their homes and to buy new fishing boats destroyed by the 50 foot waves. They received minimal sums of money for boats but nothing for reconstructing their lives and homes.

This is just one of numerous stories of a decades-long history of corruption in the Church of South India that has left Christians cynical that change is possible and good order can ever be restored to the biggest Protestant Church in India. One Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) detective (the equivalent of the FBI) says that the problem remains so widespread in the Church of South India that as many as 15 of the church’s 21 bishops have been tainted by corruption over the years.

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CALIFORNIA
California Anti-SLAPP Project

Posted by Evan Mascagni on Mar 26, 2013

CASP has blogged and questioned whether Gerbosi v. Gaims, (2011) 193 Cal.App.4th 435, was the worst decision ever decided under the California anti-SLAPP law, as it held that the mere allegation that defendant’s conduct was criminal means that the anti-SLAPP law does not apply. Yesterday, five amici briefs were filed in Malin v. Singer, a case at the California Court of Appeal, which among other things, could help repudiate Gerbosi. The California Anti-SLAPP Project represents two of the appellants in this case – a woman who has been sued because her lawyer sent a pre-litigation demand letter, and her husband.

The five amici briefs that challenge the trial court’s decision that the demand letter was criminally extortionate and support the broad construction of California’s anti-SLAPP law were filed yesterday by the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel (ASCDC), the Beverly Hills Bar Association, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU/SC), and Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP. Professor George (Rock) Pring and the Center for Public Interest Law, among others, signed on to the BHBA brief. Survivors, activists, survivors’ rights organizations, and law firms that represent survivors all signed on to the SNAP brief. …

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
Written by attorney David Cook of Cook Collection Attorneys.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is a self-help group that supports people who have been victimized by clergy, and helps them try to pick up the pieces of their lives, heal and move forward. SNAP believes that survivors of sexual assault need and deserve compensation for life long therapy and medical expenses, which should be paid without the risk of adverse litigation for bogus claims. This is why SNAP supports survivors’ right to send a demand letter to a predator free of the risk that they will be sued for “extortion.” Many sexual predators are highly aggressive individuals, and would lack any motivation to settle, absent a threat that their misconduct would become public. The thrust of the amicus brief by SNAP is that the threat in a pre-litigation demand letter to reveal misconduct is not extortive if the misconduct itself is the act upon which the claim and ensuing lawsuit are based.

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TEXAS
From the Heights

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. Romans 12:3

The movie Mississippi Burning chronicles the details of racial unrest in the southern part of the state during the 1960s. As the FBI begins to close in on the KKK, one of them says, “Looks like the rattlesnakes are starting to commit suicide.” And rattlesnakes turning on one another has to be an absolutely hideous sight.

Sometimes I feel that way as a Baptist. It seems that I (and many other people I know) can be pretty quick to criticize and call out those with whom we disagree. Since none of us are Saints, it’s pretty arrogant to jump the gun in our critique of other churches who may have nothing in common other than sharing the name Baptist and the classification as Christian.

Then again, issues seem to keep coming up that demand a response, from all of us. One of those has occurred at Prestonwood Baptist, one of the “crown jewels” of the Southern Baptist Convention. It boasts over 20,000 members and the pastor, Jack Graham, has been there for over twenty years. Graham has also been president of the Southern Baptist convention, and he is one of the keynote speakers at the 2013 gathering.

Graham is also in the middle of what could be–and perhaps should be–a massive scandal.

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UNITED STATES
IND

THU, MAR 28
by Walter Pierce

Dr. David Primeaux was beloved in Petersburg, Va. The computer science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University was an active member and past chairman of the Historic Petersburg Foundation, a country-club nonprofit that restores old buildings in this historic city of about 35,000, 23 miles south of the state capital, Richmond, where for nearly two decades he taught at VCU.

In addition to his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Tennessee, Primeaux held a doctorate in philosophy from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. His academic interests included non-traditional artificial intelligence — heady topics that, buttressed by his philosophy degree, threw smart, dreamy VCU undergrads into a swoon.

David Primeaux was a popular professor and civic leader. Until Dec. 27, 2012.

That’s the day Petersburg police got a call from Primeaux’s wife telling them he had left the house distraught. Cops made brief contact with the professor via cell phone, but he said his phone battery was about to die and ended the call. The next day in a rural neighboring county, a local resident found Primeaux dead inside his 1986 Mazda pickup parked beside a gravel pit. Cause of death, carbon monoxide poisoning; manner of death, suicide, according to the medical examiner’s office, which only recently released the results. …

But until 1985, David Primeaux was a priest in South Louisiana, mainly in Lafayette Parish. A priest who molested children. A priest who benefitted from the church’s willingness — eagerness, it can easily be argued — to play shell games with its most toxic clergy, moving them around after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced. A priest who got away with it.

And the Rev. David Primeaux was, in many ways, forgettable. The infamous Gilbert Gauthe saga began spilling its messy entrails all over everything in 1983. Gauthe probably molested hundreds of kids in Vermilion Parish, although he was prosecuted on only a fraction.

About the time Gauthe was convicted and sent off to prison in the mid 1980s, Primeaux, an Abbeville native, slipped quietly out of his collar. The story is sketchy for almost the next decade. He got a Ph.D. — we know that. He taught a few years in the mid ’90s at Troy University in Alabama, landing an assistant professorship at VCU in ’96.

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UNITED STATES
Juneau Empire

By Dr. MAUREEN LONGWORTH

Editor’s note: This column was inspired by the One Billion Rising rally and flash mob at the state office building atrium on Feb. 14, and was submitted by the author.

It was me.

“It could be anyone,” she said today. “One out of three women is raped or beaten in her lifetime in our world today.”

I was one.

My soul still screams.

I remain forever one who was raped by one of the hims who do the raping.

“It could be anyone,” she said.

But it was me.

It was my heart crushed by the weight of him pushing against my chest.

It was my voice unheard pleading, “No, please no.”

It was my beliefs shattered by this priest, my teacher, who violated me and my Church, robbing me of all spiritual connection to my rich religious past.

It was my vocation to be a nun, and serve God, stolen by him, replaced with emptiness.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Socialist Party of Great Britain

Sins of the Fathers

First there were the black and white smoke signals from the Vatican; then a bloke in a posh frock on the balcony announced in Latin (because these things have to be communicated in ways otherwise unused in the modern world) ‘Habemus papam’ which, roughly translated, means ‘We’ve got a new one.’ And out stepped the new Pope and asked the crowd of nuns and tourists, all weeping with joy because they’d got a new one, to pray for him.

He’ll need more than prayers to deal with all the stories of abuse, blackmail, bullying, gay rent boys and other dirty deeds in the Vatican, and in the Catholic Church generally, that beset the previous Pope’s last days in the job.

After deflecting the world’s attention from the widespread abuse of children in the Church, his job will be to deliberate on God’s latest thoughts on such things as abortion, celibacy, sin, sex, sodomy and contraception (or, when involving the priesthood, any combination of these).

But while the cardinals were still weighing each other up for the job, an organisation named SNAP (Survivors Network of Abuse by Priests) had come up with a list of a ‘Dirty Dozen’ candidates who, they say, because of their failure to deal with the problem, should not become Pope, or even be involved in the selection process. Their website (www.snapnetwork.org) makes interesting reading.

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CONNECTICUT
WTNH

Published : Monday, 01 Apr 2013

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A court filing shows a suspended Roman Catholic priest in Connecticut accused of making more than $300,000 in sales of methamphetamines plans to plead guilty to one of the charges.

Kevin Wallin is scheduled to appear Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Hartford for a hearing in which he would plead guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Messages left with his attorney were not returned.

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UGANDA
Daily Monitor

By TABU BUTAGIRA

Posted Monday, April 1 2013

Some Catholic priests in Uganda are involved in sexual liaisons contrary to their celibacy vow and others have in the process secretly begotten children, a senior church official has admitted.

Speaking on Holy Saturday, Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga, who about a fortnight ago suspended Fr Anthony Musaala for expressing similar sentiments, unequivocally apologised to the victims.

“It’s sad that there has been some misbehaving by some as alleged,” he said, “we apologise to [those] who may have fallen victims of what happened, but I assure you that the church is doing its duty and don’t give up hope.”

The otherwise controversial subject of sexual shenanigans by priests, most of them allegedly clothed from sanction by their superiors, has rattled the Catholic Church in the West, resulting in a plethora of lawsuits and public apologies.

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WISCONSIN
58 News

by Elizabeth Fay

Story Created: Mar 31, 2013

WAUWATOSA — On one of the most attended Sunday services of the year, parishioners at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Wauwatosa were told their priest is under a police investigation.

“I was shocked when I found out,” said Ryan Kennedy who attended mass.

Father Bob Marsicek is at the center of allegations. He leads mass at St. Pius X and Mother of Good Counsel Churches in Wauwatosa but today, another priest led Easter mass in his place.

That’s because Marsicek is suspended from his roles at the churches and Wauwatosa Catholic School.

A spokesperson for the Archdioices of Milwaukee says removal of pastoral duties is standard policy while an investigatigation unfolds.

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HOLYOKE (MA)
WWLP

Sunday, 31 Mar 2013

Sy Becker

HOLYOKE, Mass. – Parishioners who want Holyoke’s Mater Dolorosa Church to re-open, hope that Pope Francis will agree to overturn the decision that closed Mater Dolorosa two years ago.

Parishioners who now attend other churches held a commemoration of Easter Sunday morning on the street outside of the church.

The Vatican had ordered them to leave the building after their round the clock prayer vigils at the closed church.

Attorney Victor Anop, chairman of the Friends of Mater Dolorosa told 22News, their appeal to the Vatican Supreme Court is still pending.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Pastor under police investigation in Wauwatosa illustrates archdiocese control over religious orders

March 31, 2013

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director
CONTACT: 414.336.8575

The removal from ministry Friday of Fr. Bob Marsicek, Pastor of Pius X parish in Wauwatosa, by Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki illustrates perfectly and conclusively that the archdiocese has control over religious order clerics. Marsicek, a member of the Salvatorians, is under a current police investigation and has been ordered to stay away from Pius X parish and its school. The Salvatorians have their international headquarters in Milwaukee.

Why is this important?

Because over half the clerics working in archdiocesan parishes, schools and ministries are members of religious orders like the one to which Marsicek belongs. In fact, three of Marsicek’s fellow Salvatorians have been convicted of child sex crimes in Milwaukee: Fr. Dennis Pecore, Fr. Simon Palanthingal and Br. John Rice.

The Milwaukee Archdiocese has traditionally been a sanctuary for religious order sex offender clerics, actively concealing their criminal histories. A particularly glaring example was the notorious pedophile nun, Sr. Norma Giannini, a Sister of Mercy, who was convicted in Milwaukee of child sex crimes in 2008, even though the archdiocese had investigated and determined Giannini had committed multiple acts of child sex assault against several boys years earlier as the principal of St. Patrick’s Catholic Grade School on the South Side.

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WISCONSIN
Patch

The Rev. Bob Marsicek has suspended from his duties at St. Pius X Church in Wauwatosa as police investigate an allegation against him, according to Patch’s media partner WISN 12 News.

Marsicek’s superior, the Rev. Joe Rodrigues, told 12 News that the suspension is part of church protocol when there is an investigation.

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Buenos Aires Herald

Bergoglio expected to tackle negative attitude to sexuality, women

by Mario Osava
IPS

RIO DE JANEIRO — Jorge Mario Bergoglio begins his papacy as Francis facing the challenge of a Catholic Church caught up in a burdensome contradiction with modern society, because of its negative attitude to sexuality and women.

“There would be much more common sense, efficiency and tenderness in the Church, rather than that immense wave of paedophilia and paederasty in the hierarchy and the Catholic schools” if the Catholic Church had incorporated women into the priesthood and the different leadership roles in the institution, said João Tavares, a married former priest living in São Luis, in northeastern Brazil.

Women, who are “the real pillar of Christian communities,” can no longer remain without equal rights within the Church, “as if they were second-class human beings,” he said.

As well as being excluded from the hierarchy, a woman cannot even become the partner of a priest without invalidating his ministry, unless they both live a secret, hypocritical life. In practice, women are depicted by the Church as a contagious source of sin.

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PHILIPPINES/UNITED STATES
Sun.Star

By Florence F. Hibionada

Sunday, March 31, 2013

CALIFORNIA, USA — Ilonggo Catholic priest Fr. Lowe Dongor is “enjoying” his temporary liberty after a US court recently granted an earlier plea for probation.

Albeit with travel restrictions and faced with possible deportation, Dongor faces up to his plight. Or so he said he tries to do every day.

Originally charged in 2011 with theft and possession of child pornography in Worcester, Massachusetts, he was additionally charged with one felony count of Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution (UFAP).

Dongor surrendered to the Philippine’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Western Visayas in December 2012. He is a native of Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo.

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UGANDA
Sunday Monitor

By Ivan Okuda

Posted Sunday, March 31 2013

Not many desire to try out Fr Anthony Musala’s shoes right now. How one writes a stinging letter while the Pope assumes office, laying bare facts on the filth in the church and goes ahead to call for radical reforms is a reality too huge for the throat. You can describe him by any adjective in your mind. You can agree or disagree with him and you have the choice to either love or hate him. But perhaps, after a moment of reflection and soul searching, you and I might ask the question: What if this man is right?

The first time I came face to face with issues of clerical celibacy, particularly in the Catholic Church, I was a student of Julius Ocwinyo’s Fate of Banished, which is arguably the most authoritative Ugandan fiction voice on the same, especially having been written by a former seminarian. In there, I came face to face with a one Santo Dila, a Catholic priest entangled in an affair with a married woman. But that was only fiction.

Hardly a year after I shelved Ocwinyo’s novel, Musaala drops a bombshell and earns himself instant suspension. What follows? Testimonies by the public of priests and bishops siring children. One caller actually had to be stopped by a moderator when he called in Kfm’s Hot Seat show on Thursday and made sweeping allegations of a tycoon fathered by a deceased cardinal. During the same show, Ethics Minister, Rev Fr Simon Lokodo admitted he had, “heard of but not seen,” priests with children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Kevin McKenna
The Observer, Saturday 30 March 2013

The campaign by some in the Catholic church to limit the damage following Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s downfall was sadly inevitable. What could not have been foreseen, though, was how nasty and ham-fisted it would turn out to be. Catherine Deveney’s revelations in the Observer last month that three Scottish priests and a former priest had complained to the Vatican of being victims of inappropriate conduct by O’Brien exposed what many of us had long feared: that the leadership of the church in Scotland is rotten to the core and no longer fit for purpose.

The response by what passes for the church authorities since Deveney’s game-changing story only lends credence to this assertion. No pastoral outreach to these four men, each of whom believes they have a God-given vocation to serve His church, has been forthcoming. Instead, they have been subjected to a whispering campaign of innuendo and half-baked supposition. Incredibly, several influential Catholics, who really ought to have known better, have made shrill calls for the priests to “out” themselves. Last week it was suggested that they were motivated by little more than personal malice against O’Brien and that their claims amounted to a conspiracy to bring him down.

Nowhere has there been an acknowledgment of what would have happened had these four men not come forward: that O’Brien would have joined his 115 brother cardinals in Rome for the conclave to elect a new pope and that, as such, he would have been a not unreasonable each-way bet for the ultimate elevation. This despite the fact that Vatican authorities were by then aware of at least five complaints made against him. Informed sources to whom I’ve spoken recently have stated that O’Brien had been viewed as a viable compromise candidate during the conclave which elected Benedict XVI in 2005.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

THE priest who made explosive claims about gay sexual bullying in the Catholic Church fears he could be stripped of his priesthood, claim friends.

They say details Father Matthew Despard, 48, exposed in his bombshell book Priesthood in Crisis have left senior clerics reeling.

The whistleblower – who said sexual misconduct had been rife in junior seminaries for years – believes the church could turn its back on him. A friend said: “Bishop Joe Devine called diocesan advisers to an emergency meeting to discuss Fr Depard’s claims.

“They told him he must ask the priest to attend a private meeting and explain his actions.

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WISCONSIN
LaCrosse Tribune

By Mike Tighe | mtighe@lacrossetribune.com

Easter signals a new beginning unlike any other, and it takes on additional meaning this year, as the Catholic Church enters the season with a new leader.

Much has been said about the firsts for the cardinal from Argentina: the first pope from the Western Hemisphere, the first Jesuit, the first Francis.

As speculation swirls about what Pope Francis’ first actions might be as he settles into the Vatican, the Tribune surveyed some Coulee Region residents on what they expect from the new pontiff.

The theologians

Pope Francis must address the Vatican’s sexual abuse and financial scandals to restore people’s faith in the Catholic Church, theology professor Michael Lopez-Kaley says.

“He has got to clean up the scandals of the church first,” said Lopez-Kaley of Viterbo University in La Crosse.

“I think there is a lack of confidence that the bishops are really serious” about the clergy’s sexual abuse cases, he said. “The pope definitely needs to state: You guys have to get serious about this and turn in the priests who are involved.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WISN

[with video]

MILWAUKEE —The Milwaukee Archdiocese confirmed the pastor of St. Pius X church in Wauwatosa has been removed from active ministry while police investigate an allegation against him.

The Rev. Bob Marsicek is suspended from his duties at both the church and Wauwatosa Catholic School.

Marsicek’s superior, the Rev. Joe Rodrigues, said the suspension is part of church protocol when there is an investigation.

Rodrigues told 12 News, the police contacted Marsicek and told him to stay away from Wauwatosa Catholic School while they look into the allegation. Rodrigues said police have not released many details about the allegation or investigation, but he noted Marsicek has not been arrested and is cooperating with the police.

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WISCONSIN
WISN

The Milwaukee Archdiocese confirmed the pastor of St. Pius X church in Wauwatosa has been removed from active ministry while police investigate an allegation against him

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Stacey Klein

Published March 31, 2013, issue of April 05, 2013.

We in the Orthodox Jewish community claim to value children deeply. We want to have children, and we pressure our own children to get married and have children, and yet, when it comes to really ensuring those children’s utmost protection from harm, somehow the silence is deafening.

As a Yeshiva University alumnus and a psychotherapist who works with abused children, I was horrified to learn that my alma mater was apparently involved in a 30-year cover-up of sexual abuse that affected hundreds of children and protected known abusers. Y.U. — an institution to which I am grateful for making me who I am today — also has refused to commit to releasing to the public details of its investigation into these abuses.

So I created a petition urging Y.U. to commit to sharing the report findings with the public. Nearly everyone I know — many alumni from Y.U. and its Stern College for Women, including rabbis, did not sign. Other than one or two brave figures, the people I worked with for years through Y.U., programs teaching Jewish children worldwide about Jewish values, wouldn’t sign, nor would they do anything else I am aware of to support victims.

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UNITED STATES
Palm Beach Post

By Richard D. Schuler

Question: Do I have a remedy if my child was sexually abused at camp, school or church?

Answer: Child sexual abuse cases present unique challenges, especially when the abuse occurs in an institution that should be protecting children. When the offender is an employee, holding the institution liable is the key to getting justice.

Liability against an institution such as a school or church generally involves either negligent hiring or supervision, both of which would apply to employees and volunteers.

Also, the injured party must first prove that the institution had actual notice of the danger the individual posed or, alternatively, through the exercise of reasonable diligence, the institution would have been on notice that the perpetrator was a danger to the injured child or others. This involves doing a thorough background check.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Ruaidhri Giblin– 31 March 2013

A censored chapter in Judge Yvonne Murphy’s report into the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations by the Catholic Church and State is finally set for full publication.

Chapter 20 has remained censored on foot of a High Court direction that its full publication could damage the trial of a defrocked priest charged with the sexual assault of children in the 1970s and 80s.

Former priest Patrick McCabe was sentenced last week by the Circuit Criminal Court after having pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two 13-year-old boys.

Although sentenced by Judge Margaret Heneghan to two concurrent 18-month jail terms, he walked free from the court because he had already been in custody for longer than the sentences handed down.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Radio Koln

Die Aufarbeitung des Mißbrauchsskandals in der katholischen Kirche scheint ins Stocken zu geraten. Nach einem Bericht des Stadt-Anzeigers hat der Kölner Kardinal Meisner seinen Ausstieg aus den Gesprächen angekündigt.

Als Grund für die Absage der Dialog-Initiative wird unter anderem eine Überlastung des Kardinals genannt. Der bundesweite Dialog der Bischöfe zu den Kirchen-Themen ist laut dem Bericht abgesagt.

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TEXAS
Stop Baptist Predators

Over the course of two and a half years, Amy Smith made dozens of phone calls, and sent even more emails, to try to assure that Southern Baptist minister John Langworthy would not be able to molest more children. Smith knew what had happened 20 years earlier at the prominent Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, when she was a college intern there.

“Although ministers at Prestonwood fired Langworthy in 1989 when at least one teen told church leaders Langworthy molested him, they never reported the allegation to police,” reports the Clarion Ledger.

Langworthy simply picked up and moved to Mississippi, where he went to work as a staff minister at another prominent Southern Baptist church, Morrison Heights. He also became a choir teacher in the Clinton school district.

In her efforts to bring Langworthy to justice, Smith encountered the usual brick wall of Baptists’ keep-it-quiet system. The saga of her efforts to get around that system, and to find someone who would put kids’ safety first, is a saga that implicates “the silence of the many.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 31, 2013

Judith Ireland
Breaking News Reporter

Victims groups are bracing for a flood of people wanting to give evidence about child sexual abuse, as the royal commission holds its first sitting in Melbourne this week.

The royal commission into child sexual abuse will outline how it plans to deal with the sensitive nature of the evidence at the session at the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday.

It will not take evidence, but the sitting will be the first major update on how the commission will work since the six commissioners were appointed in January.

Tens of thousands of Australians are expected to come forward over the three years of the inquiry to tell their stories of abuse in institutions such as schools, churches and orphanages.

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CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle

Reverend Monsignor
John Joseph O’Connor
Aug. 8, 1934 – Mar. 15, 2013

Fr. Jack was born in San Francisco on August 8, 1934 to John and Josephine O’Connor (both from Wexford, Ireland). He died on March 15, 2013. He was the nephew of the late Monsignor James O’Connor, brother of Philip O’Connor (deceased), and Peggy Vollert (Joseph). …

Fr. Jack began his journey to ordination in 1948 at St. Joseph’s Seminary. He then attended Archbishop Riordan High School where he served as Student Body President before graduating in 1952 and then returning to his studies at St. Joseph’s and St. Patrick’s. He was ordained on June 11, 1960. After earning a Masters Degree from Catholic University, he served in Catholic Social Services for the next twenty-five years. During that time he was in residence at St. Stephen’s, Sacred Heart, St. Isabella’s, and St. Kevin’s.

In 1983 he was appointed Pastor of his beloved Mission Dolores Basilica. He was named Prelate of Honor with the title of Monsignor by Pope John Paul II. In 1997 he was named Pastor of St. Mary’s Cathedral.

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NEW JERSEY
NorthJersey.com

BY MEGAN BURROW
MANAGING EDITOR
Teaneck Suburbanite

A Teaneck rabbi appeared in state Superior Court last week for a hearing in advance of his upcoming trial on charges of child endangerment, aggravated sexual contact and criminal sexual assault.

Rabbi Uzi Rivlin, 65, is accused a molesting two 13-year-old Israeli boys in his home in 2009 and 2010. According to Bergen County prosecutors, the victims had been staying in Rivlin’s house during two summers as part of a scholarship fund run by the rabbi. Upon returning to Israel, the alleged victims made the accusations separately to Israeli authorities.

The boys, along with three other witnesses, will be flown to the United States to testify at the trial.

Rivlin taught at Temple Beth Abraham in Tarrytown, N.Y. and ran the scholarship fund for more than a decade. The Israeli children who attained the scholarships would stay in the United States for several months, living with a host family and attending summer camp.

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UNITED STATES
Ledger-Enquirer

By BEN WRIGHT — benw@ledger-enquirer.com

Hours after the annual School of the Americas Watch protest ended at the Fort Benning gate last year, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois said the Maryknoll headquarters called and notified him that Pope Benedict XVI had expelled him from the priesthood.

With the election of new Pope Francis, Bourgeois said Friday he is working with an attorney to appeal the decision that expelled him from being a Catholic priest for the next 40 years.

“He signed the order in November and we are appealing it right now,” Bourgeois said of Benedict. “We hope the new pope will be more open to women in the church.”

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WISCONSIN
WTMJ

[with video]

By Keller Russell

WAUWATOSA – Good Friday is a time for reflection and celebration in most churches.

But one religious community has been rocked to the core by a police investigation. Their priest has been told to stay away from children.

Father Bob Marsicek is a long time fixture at St. Pius Catholic community.

But Friday we confirmed police are investigating allegations against the priest, and that he’s been removed from ministry while they do so.

On the holiest week for Catholics, parishioners at St. Pius X are stunned to hear their priest isn’t allowed to celebrate mass with them.

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UGANDA
The Independent

Vatican is watching how Archbishop Lwanga deals with the Fr. Musaala saga

“It is a good point for reflection but it will not change the fundamentals of the church.” That is how one practicing Catholic assessed the impact of recent revelations by renowned celebrity Catholic priest, Father Anthony Musaala of sexual impropriety in the church. That belief in theinvincibility of the old Catholic Church might be similar to the Biblical house built on quick sand, without a foundation.

What one hears in conversations on the street and in the media across the country is that Fr. Musaala’s letter has sparked unprecedented public debate of what some have called the “double standards and hypocrisy’ of the Catholic Church that the letter points out.

It is without doubt that depending on how the leadership of Uganda’s biggest religious congregation of 14 million Catholics in four archdioceses and 19 dioceses handles the Fr. Musaala saga, the church could be changed; perhaps irrevocably. The man on whose shoulder lays the task of steering the church through the storm is Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga of Kampala diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Jared Owens
From:The Australian
March 30, 2013

CHRISTIAN leaders across Australia have urged believers to reflect on social injustice this Easter, especially those “shattered” by sexual abuse, living in poverty on our streets or struggling with diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

As Pope Francis broke tradition by washing and kissing the feet of young female sinners at a Roman prison, Cardinal George Pell cited the newly elected pontiff’s call for believers to carry the Christian message “certainly in our conversations and official teaching, but especially through our care for one another”.

“Once again the Easter message comes from Francis of Assisi – peace and goodness, especially to those who are suffering, to those wounded by Catholic church members, to the sick, the depressed, the bereaved, those experiencing misfortune,” the Archbishop of Sydney said in a video message from Rome.

“Deeds are more important than words. Christ is risen, and the victory over evil will one day be complete.”

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UNITED STATES
Pension Rights Center

For Immediate Release

Contact: Nancy Hwa, 202-296-3776

March 29, 2013

WASHINGTON — After a 10-year struggle, hundreds of former workers and retirees from the Hospital Center at Orange (HCO) once again have federal protections for their pensions. In an unprecedented move, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has reversed its 2003 decision to grant HCO’s pension plan recognition as a “church plan.” In response to the IRS action, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) will restore insurance protections to the HCO plan.

For decades, the Hospital Center at Orange was an independent nonprofit hospital, not affiliated with any religious organization. Its pension plan was covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the federal law that governs and insures most private pension plans, requiring them to follow certain funding rules and pay insurance premiums to the PBGC.

In 1998, the hospital entered into a financial arrangement with Cathedral Health Systems and, four years later, based on this affiliation, applied to the IRS for a ruling that its pension plan was a “church plan” exempt from ERISA. The IRS granted HCO’s request for church plan status in early 2003. It was only later that year that HCO employees learned that their pensions would no longer be protected by the PBGC, and that their underfunded plan only had enough money to pay retirement benefits for a few years. The Hospital shut down the following year.

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ROME
The Guardian (UK)

Lizzy Davies in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 March 2013

Traditionalists in the Roman Catholic church have expressed concern after Pope Francis became the first pontiff to wash the feet of two women during a Maundy Thursday mass, a move liberals welcomed but some conservatives feared set a worrying precedent.

At the Casal del Marmo youth detention centre on the outskirts of Rome, the Argentinian pope washed and dried the feet of 12 inmates as part of the traditional rite representing Jesus’s final act of humility towards his disciples.

He had surprised the Vatican with his decision to wash the prisoners’ feet – a move that echoed the early years of John Paul II, who once performed the rite in the St John Lateran basilica with a dozen homeless men.

But it was his inclusion of two young women, as well as Muslims, in the ceremony that was the most dramatic break with tradition. It even caused some traditionalists to wonder openly whether Francis, who is doctrinally a theological conservative who has explicitly stated he is against female ordination, might one day be willing to open the priesthood to women.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Of the several widely acknowledged priorities in the run-up to the conclave that chose Pope Francis, including the challenge of secularism and the growth of the church in the global South, none was more prominent than a need to reform the Roman Curia, the church’s central administration in the Vatican.

The College of Cardinals extensively discussed corruption and mismanagement sensationally documented in the 2012 “VatiLeaks” of confidential correspondence, which were also the subject of a detailed report that Pope Benedict XVI designated exclusively for the eyes of his successor.

The new pope has already given signs of his intention to reform. According to his personal notes for his pre-conclave speech to fellow cardinals, subsequently published with his permission, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio denounced the “self-referentiality” of a church “living within herself, of herself, for herself.” Although his main target seems to have been a “theological narcissism” that saps evangelical zeal, the future pope’s words were also an implicit rebuke to the inward-looking mindset of a pre-modern royal court, which still characterizes the Vatican in the 21st century.

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AUSTRIA
Montreal Gazette

By The Associated Press
March 29, 2013

VIENNA – An Austrian group representing victims of clerical sex abuse is criticizing a bishop’s plan to attend a memorial Mass for a late cardinal accused of molesting young boys.

Agidius Zsifkovics, the Bishop of Eisenstadt, says he will attend the April 8 Mass marking the 10th anniversary of the death of Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer.

Groer stepped down as archbishop of Vienna in 1995 after former theological students accused him of sexual abuse.

A statement Friday on the website of “Those Affected by Churchly Abuse” says Zsivkovics will be honouring a man who left “a trail of spiritual destruction.”

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano
Fri., Mar. 29 2013

Wow, the pathetic legacy of former Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown just keeps getting pathetic-er and pathetic-er-er. The Weekly has obtained a copy of a letter that His Excellency wrote back when he was merely His Stupidity, when Brownie was a Reverend Monsignor at the Diocese of Monterey during the mid-1980s. It concerns one Gerald Funcheon, a guy who was looking for a job after getting driven out of Hawaii after parents complained he told boys he wanted to get naked with them. Before Hawaii, Funcheon had been pushed out of other parishes after similar complaints–and this was the man Brownie would vouch for?

You know it!

Funcheon is currently facing lawsuits by students who suffered at his grubby hands at Palma High School in Salinas, a school where the pedo-priest has already admitted to molesting boys. In a June 11, 1984 letter obtained by the Weekly, Brown–then the chancellor for the Monterey diocese–wrote to Funcheon’s Crosier superiors that he would extend faculties (allow him to minister in another parish, in Catholic-speak) so he could be a chaplain at Palma. “Your evaluation of his ministry,” Brown wrote, “is very encouraging.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 30, 2013

On 11 March 2013, the online edition of The Sydney Morning Herald published an article “Tainted Pell out of race after lobbying” by journalist Barney Zwartz. A shortened version of this article titled “Pell has no chance of top job” also appeared in the print and online editions of The Sydney Morning Herald on 11 March 2013.

Our description of the outcome of the 2002 investigation by retired Victorian Supreme Court Judge A.J. Southwell into allegations against Cardinal George Pell did not fully set out his findings about Cardinal Pell. Soon after Mr Southwell made his findings in 2002, The Age published an article describing the findings as “a just result” and The Sydney Morning Herald accepts and agrees with this conclusion. As we said in an article published on 14 June 2010, this independent investigation cleared the Cardinal.

The Sydney Morning Herald apologises sincerely to Cardinal Pell for any suggestion to the contrary and for any adverse reflections on him in our 11 March articles.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

[Bishop Hart’s statement]

[Cardinal Pell’s statement]

March 30, 2013

Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age.

Australia’s two most senior Catholic prelates, Cardinal George Pell and Archbishop Denis Hart, have repudiated as inaccurate allegations against them at Victoria’s clergy sex abuse inquiry.

Melbourne Archbishop Hart denied testimony by Victorian Police Commissioner Ken Lay to the parliamentary inquiry that the church has hindered and obstructed police, and challenges police about why they have not acted already if they have evidence of such behaviour.

Cardinal Pell again rejected claims by Melbourne lawyer Vivian Waller that he was present in 1969 when a child described being raped to another priest, and attacked the claims as ”seriously defamatory” and possibly a contempt of Parliament and professional misconduct.

Their responses were posted on Thursday on the inquiry website, on a new section called ”right of reply”. Archbishop Hart first wrote on October 17 and Cardinal Pell’s statement is dated January 15.

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BHUTAN
Huffington Post

By Vishal Arora
Religion News Service

NEW DELHI (RNS) Health officials in the tiny Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan are making condoms available at all monastic schools in a bid to stem the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV among young monks who are supposed to be celibate.

“We are making condoms freely available everywhere, even in monastic schools and colleges,” Bhutan’s minister of health, Zangley Drukpa, said in a phone interview. The ministry, he added, has formed a special action group to deal with STDs in monasteries.

Warning signs of risky behavior among monks first appeared in 2009, when a report on risks and vulnerabilities of adolescents revealed that monks were engaging in “thigh sex” (in which a man uses another man’s clenched thighs for intercourse), according to the state-owned Kuensel daily.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

An elderly Irish cleric is appealing his dismissal from the priesthood directly to Pope Francis and to a top Vatican court.

According to the Irish Independent the priest, known only by the pseudonyms ‘Fr Ronat’ and ‘Fr B’, faces being defrocked after a church canonical court upheld the abuse allegations lodged against him by former minors in the diocese of Cloyne. ‘Fr Ronat’ was at the center of judicial enquiry known as the Cloyne Report which dealt with complaints against 19 priests made from 1996.

A relative of the cleric told the Independent that an appeal has been lodged within the stipulated 15-day period.

‘We are very disappointed with the negative outcome. But there will be an appeal, particularly in respect of the fact we believe that a full defense against the allegations was not properly taken into account,’ he said.

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