ABUSE TRACKER

CANADA
Digital Journal

By Arthur Weinreb
Mar 11, 2013

Montreal – A Quebec victims group would like to see Marc Cardinal Ouellet succeed Pope Benedict as the next head of the Catholic Church. But the reasons for their support are not exactly complimentary to the 68-year-old cleric.

A small rally was held yesterday outside a Montreal church. Some protesters wore white paper hats similar to mitres worn by Bishops saying, “Vote for Ouellet.” At the rally, the Quebec Association of Victims announced their support for the Quebec cardinal to become the next pontiff. The group was, and is, critical of Ouellet for not doing enough to help those who were victimized by the church.

Since Pope Benedict announced his resignation last month, Ouellet’s name has been included in a list of serious contenders to succeed Benedict. In supporting the cardinal, the group does not believe he is necessarily the best candidate for the job.

The group believes if Ouellet becomes the next pope, international attention will be focused on Quebec and this will put the abuse suffered by their 3,500 members in the international spotlight.

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TEXAS
Houston Press

By Casey Michel
Mon., Mar. 11 2013

Martin Villanueva didn’t mind the first time his tires were punctured. He knew how to repair the drill-holes — take a nail, take a bit of adhesive, and call it good. He was frustrated, sure. But these things happen. Random day, random car.

Then, it happened again. Nails, adhesive, frustration. And it happened again, and again, and again. And Villanueva’s nail stock ran low, and his budget ran lower, new tires purchased after every few punctures.

And a pattern, beginning nearly three years ago in Edinburg, began to grow. The holes, this automotive stigmata, came only when Villanueva’s car was sitting in the parking lot of a new church he was visiting. They came only when he skipped out on his traditional place of Catholic worship, Edinburg’s Holy Family Church, and settled into another pew on Sunday mornings.

The whole time, Villanueva suspected. The location, and timing — it all pointed to one individual. It all pointed to a jilted love. It all pointed to a friend-cum-vagrant, a priest, Eusebio Martinez, who believed that he and Villanueva should maintain more than a simple pastor-parishioner relationship.

“When I met when him, I was building a house for him,” Villanueva told Hair Balls on Friday. A relationship developed, and flowered. It grew far quicker than Villanueva would have preferred. “He wanted me to be real close, wanted to be a real good friend. And then he wanted to be in control of myself.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
My Fox Boston

IPSWICH, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) – There are more abuse allegations against a Roman Catholic priest who is already accused of abusing a young boy in Ipswich.

The Salem News says Rev. Richard McCormack has been indicted on additional counts of child sex abuse.

Last year, McCormack was charged with abusing a young boy in the early 1980s. That’s when McCormack worked at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center and seminary in Ipswich. FOX 25 covered that story.

A second victim has reportedly now come forward to prosecutors after McCormack’s arrest. He claims he was abused between 1981 and 1983 when he was 9 years old.

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ROMA
La Repubblica

Lo strano affare del palazzo del cardinale che in un giorno raddoppiò il suo prezzo

Roma, pagato 9 milioni e rivenduto a Propaganda Fide per 20. Imbarazzo in Vaticano perché negli stessi locali c’è la sauna gay più famosa d’Italia. E grazie a Tremonti la Chiesa non paga un euro di tasse. L’acquisto voluto fortemente dal Segretario di Stato Bertone di CARLO BONINI

ROMA – Al civico 2 di via Carducci, nel cuore della città umbertina, a un centinaio di metri dal ministero dell’Economia, un palazzo nobiliare dall’elegante atrio e dalle grandi finestre tiene insieme, tra le stesse mura, la Congregazione per l’Evangelizzazione dei Popoli (Propaganda Fide) e la più grande sauna gay d’Italia.

Non solo. Custodisce i segreti di una singolare operazione immobiliare costata al Vaticano 23 milioni di euro, caldeggiata dal cardinale e Segretario di Stato Tarcisio Bertone, conclusa con grande soddisfazione e importanti plusvalenze da una società di Busto Arsizio, ma con nessun vantaggio fiscale per le casse dello Stato che, a questo complesso immobiliare acquistato dalla Congregazione ha riconosciuto l’extraterritorialità e dunque l’intangibilità e la totale esenzione fiscale che i Patti Lateranensi assicurano ai luoghi di culto.

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NEDERLAND
NRC

door Joep Dohmen

De Rooms-Katholieke Kerk moet vrouwen die als kind vaak ernstig mishandeld zijn in katholieke tehuizen, erkennen en smartegeld betalen. Dat adviseert Wim Deetman in een vandaag gepubliceerd vervolgonderzoek rond het misbruikschandaal in de Kerk.

In de bestaande klachtenprocedure krijgen alleen slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik erkenning en compensatie. Deetman stelt voor vrouwelijke geweldsslachtoffers te helpen via een speciale bemiddeling door mediators. Over mannelijke geweldsslachtoffers zegt hij niets.

Vervolgonderzoek commissie-Deetman

Het vervolgonderzoek bouwt voort op het onderzoek van de commissie-Deetman, naar seksueel misbruik van jongens en meisjes in de katholieke kerk. Daaruit bleek dat “enkele tienduizenden” kinderen, vooral jongens, sinds 1945 slachtoffer waren. Voor hen kwam er een klachten- en compensatieregeling. Op verzoek van de Tweede Kamer keek Deetman daarna nog specifiek naar het seksueel misbruik van meisjes en jonge vrouwen, en naar schrijnende gevallen van geweld.

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NEDERLAND
Kerknieuws

De commissie-Deetman heeft drie gevallen van seksueel misbruik binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk gemeld aan het Openbaar Ministerie (OM). De gevallen zijn verjaard, maar omdat de gemelde mishandelingen zo ernstig waren, zijn ze toch aan het OM doorgegeven.

Dat meldde de commissie-Deetman maandag, op basis van vervolgonderzoek naar seksueel, fysiek en geestelijk misbruik van meisjes binnen de kerk.

De commissie onder leiding van Wim Deetman deed eerder al onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik binnen de kerk. Uit dat onderzoek bleek dat door falend toezicht tussen de 10.000 en 20.000 kinderen misbruikt konden worden in katholieke instellingen en internaten. Voor dit vervolgonderzoek kwamen 181 nieuwe meldingen binnen van minderjarige slachtoffers over seksueel misbruik, al dan niet in gecombineerd met geweld. 79 meldingen werden verder onderzocht. Ook 71 oude meldingen, uit het vorige onderzoek, werden meegenomen.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

UPDATE Ruim veertig procent van de meisjes die melding hebben gedaan van seksueel misbruik door rooms-katholieke geestelijken zijn ‘ernstig’ misbruikt. Dat blijkt uit het rapport dat Wim Deetman maandag presenteert.

Bij ‘ernstig’ misbruik is sprake van verregaande seksuele handelingen en penetratie. De meeste seksuele zaken vonden thuis en in de parochie plaats. Fysiek geweld vond vooral plaats in instellingen, zoals internaten en ziekenhuizen. Meisjes waren doorgaans tussen de 6 en 14 jaar toen het misbruik of het geweld begon.

Het onderzoek, dat zich richtte op de periode van 1945 tot 2010, bracht alleen verjaarde feiten aan het licht. Deetman kreeg 181 nieuwe meldingen binnen, waarvan er 79 nader zijn onderzocht. Ook zijn er 71 meldingen uit het vorige onderzoek (naar seksueel misbruik van jongens) meegenomen.

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VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

March 11,2013 (Romereports.com) (-ONLY VIDEO-) On Monday morning at 9:30 a.m, Cardinals made their way to the Vatican to hold their last congregation meeting before the conclave begins on March 12th.

The congregation meetings are a time for the 115 cardinal electors (and non-electors) to discuss the state of the Church, its strengths, challenges and above all the profile the next Pope should have.

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VATICAN CITY
City News Toronto

Cardinals began arriving at the Vatican on Monday for a final day of talks before entering the conclave to elect a new pope.

The balloting process is due to start on Tuesday.

The cardinals are expected to discuss the state of their Church which was left reeling by the abdication last month of Pope Benedict and struggling to deal with a string of sexual abuse and corruption scandals.

“So today is really a day where the cardinals are coming together for a meeting, they’re having more prayer and reflection in their very great responsibility for the rest of the week,” Kim Daniels, the Director of Catholic Voices USA said.

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CANADA
Times Colonist

Following a coroner’s inquiry into the deaths of four truant children, frozen to death on Fraser Lake on New Year’s Day 1937, the headlines in most B.C. newspapers reported no blame for the tragedy should be attached to the priests who ran the Lelac Indian School, about 80 kilometres west of Prince George.

“Indian School Authorities Absolved in Lake Tragedy,” read one. “No blame in boys’ death,” echoed another. And the Catholic priest who ran Lelac suggested it was really the failure of parents to discipline their children that led to the deaths of eight-year-olds Maurice Justice and Allan Willie, and nine-year-olds Johnny Michael and Andrew Paul.

Careful reading of the coroner’s report tells a different story.

School principal Father Patrick MacGrath, testifying at the inquiry convened Jan. 4, 1937, by local coroner C. Pitts, MD, set the scene for casual indifference of staff toward students on the day the drama began. Mark his protestations of innocence carefully: “I had been away all day on Jan. 1, returning at 5 p.m., but it was not until 9 p.m that I first heard that four boys were missing.” Four boys aged eight and nine missing late on a winter afternoon with temperatures already below zero and falling fast, and no one thought to inform the principal for four hours? He added the runaways were “first reported to Bishop Caudert” but didn’t clarify whether the bishop had been alerted earlier or whether he, on hearing the news, had immediately passed the word along.

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ROME
CBS Miami

ROME (CBS4) – While many pilgrims on a spiritual journey are flocking to Rome to observe history in the making, others have made the trek here to expose hurt anger and outrage.

Dark clouds hovered above St. Peter’s Basilica Sunday, days before the start of the papal conclave. The haunting faces of innocence lost, allegedly stolen at the hands of abusive priests, emerged with the hope the world will watch and the cardinals will listen.

They feel that the cardinals need to select a Pope who will do more to heal the wounds of victims and more to safeguard the children.

“They have to do something, intervene, because there’s a problem. We are talking about children, they are completely abandoned before, during and after. They are treated like animals,” David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) told CBS4′s Michele Gillen in Rome.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

AAP

Cardinal George Pell has labelled an article about him in the Fairfax media on Monday as a “smear of the most vindictive kind”.

A statement released by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney on Monday says the article misrepresents the outcome of a 2002 inquiry into an allegation against Cardinal Pell.

The inquiry, headed by independent commissioner Alex Southwell QC, cleared Dr Pell of allegations he molested a boy during a camp at Phillip Island, in Victoria, in 1961.

The church says the article said Dr Pell was tainted by sex abuse scandals and long dogged by allegations of sexual abuse against him.

“These statements are utterly false and seriously defamatory,” the church said in a statement.

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CANADA
APTN

By Kathleen Martens
APTN National News
WINNIPEG – Canada’s chief adjudicator for the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement’s Independent Assessment Process (IAP) has resigned, APTN Investigates has learned.

Dan Ish gave his written notice to the IAP’s Oversight Committee a few weeks ago, saying it will be effective in June.

Ish has been overseeing the multi-billion dollar program since being appointed for five years in Sept. 19, 2007.

However, the IAP has received triple the expected number of applications from former residential school survivors, something Ish cited in stepping down.

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TEXAS
Spiritual Sounding Board

Sometimes, catastrophic events sweep us into a stress-inducing storyline that we never intended or even imagined. And the outcomes may change our lives forever. That’s the core of the story in the 2012 movie, The Impossible. Just as a family is enjoying what’s supposed to be a relaxing vacation together in Thailand, they get caught in a disastrous tsunami. It literally sweeps them apart from one another and lands them in crisis mode as they scramble just to survive – and then, hopefully, to search despite stress, find one another, and recover.

I think that’s kind of what happened to Chris Tynes this past week. I don’t know where this experience will take him, but for now, he’s ended up seemingly at the vortex of a long-term controversy involving Prestonwood Baptist Church (PBC) in Plano, Texas. Through a series of events outside his control, he became the latest lightning rod in a spiritual electric storm that started in the 1980s and has been building toward super-spark status since 2010. He was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he got shocked.

Or – if you believe that God providentially puts the right person in the right place at the right time – then Chris is yet another link in a heaven-ordained chain of people sent to Prestonwood to give them opportunities to respond to truth and justice. And pretty much all Chris did was ask questions, especially to confirm or deny some rumors that had surfaced. Here’s the new reality: Because we live in an era where allegations linger, in part because news online is “unscrubbable,” it turned out Chris read accounts from Amy Smith and Christa Brown about ongoing accusations of issues at PBC with a now-convicted sexual offender, John Langworthy, who previously served on staff with Prestonwood in Dallas. Apparently Chris asked PBC leaders “The Deplorable Question,” and it triggered what seemed to be self-protective actions by one of the largest churches in the entire Southern Baptist Convention.

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NEDERLAND
NOS

De commissie-Deetman komt vandaag met een tweede rapport over seksueel misbruik binnen de katholieke kerk. Het rapport gaat met name over het misbruik van meisjes en vrouwen, van 1945 tot nu.

Het onderzoek van de commissie, waarvan oud-minister Wim Deetman de voorzitter is, richtte zich eerder vooral op de gang van zaken in katholieke internaten. Daar werden jongens opgeleid en daardoor lag de focus op mannelijke slachtoffers van misbruik.

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NEDERLAND
RTL

Wim Deetman presenteert vandaag een rapport over seksueel misbruik van en geweld tegen meisjes en vrouwen in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk. Het onderzoek richtte zich op seksueel misbruik en fysiek en psychisch geweld van 1945 tot nu.

Een commissie onder leiding van oud-minister en voormalig burgemeester van Den Haag Deetman deed het onderzoek op verzoek van de Tweede Kamer. Eerder al onderzocht de commissie-Deetman seksueel misbruik van minderjarige mannen binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk.

Naast een analyse van de meldingen worden ook ervaringen van de slachtoffers beschreven. Voor het onderzoek zijn gesprekken gevoerd met een aantal melders, deskundigen en vertegenwoordigers van lotgenoten en met bestuurlijk verantwoordelijken. Ook zijn archieven onderzocht.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

THE Catholic Church in Scotland have been rightly accused of hypocrisy, their official spokesman admitted yesterday.

And the Church have failed to support people struggling with their sexuality, Peter Kearney, director of the Scottish Catholic media office, said in the most frank comments by a Church official yet about the downfall of Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

After a gruelling fortnight for the Church, which saw O’Brien, their most senior cleric, admit sexual misconduct, Kearney admitted the Church rightly faced charges of being hypocritical.

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia – who replaced O’Brien – said last week the Church had been accused of hypocrisy “for obvious reasons”.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

by Jason Berry
Mar 11, 2013

Marcial Maciel Degollado, a priest from Mexico with an extravagant name, was the greatest fundraiser for the postwar Catholic Church and equally its greatest criminal.

“A life … out of moral bounds,” is how Pope Benedict XVI described Maciel in a 2010 interview, two years after Maciel’s death. A “wasted, twisted life.”

And a life that exposed shocking flaws in the Vatican and the papacy. The saga of Father Maciel opens a rare view onto the flow of money in the Roman Curia across the last half century, a time during which his rise to power and late-life crash into scandal stained the campaign for John Paul II’s sainthood and became a quagmire for Benedict XVI.

In the late 1940s, Maciel began sexually plundering teenage seminarians in the religious order he founded, the Legion of Christ. He also shuttled between Mexico, Venezuela, and Spain, courting benefactors like a senator with silk between the fingers, portraying his Legionaries as a force of resurgent orthodoxy, himself a fearless foe of communism.

That message had booming resonance in Mexico, a heavily Catholic country seared by memories of lethal anticlerical persecutions set in motion by the Calles regime in the 1930s, a milieu powerfully evoked in Graham Greene’s novel The Power and the Glory. Maciel won government support for seminary scholarships in Madrid, after the Spanish Civil War cemented ties between Francisco Franco’s dictatorship and the Catholic hierarchy. Wealthy industrialists and patricians from the Spanish-speaking world poured money into Maciel’s fledgling order.

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ROME
Chiesa

It will be a Church with two thirds of the faithful in the southern hemisphere. With more Catholics in Manila than in Holland. With the West in a decline of faith. And with the United States at the center of the new geography

by Sandro Magister

ROME, March 11, 2013 – The pope whom the cardinals are preparing to elect will guide a Church that over the past century has experienced the most impetuous numeric growth of its history, and at the same time a very strong change in its geographic dislocation. With the United States as the focal point of the shift.

Catholics were and remain one sixth of the global population. They were and remain half of all Christians. But in absolute numbers they have quadrupled. In 1910 they were 291 million. In 2010 1.1 billion.

What is most arresting, however, is the geographical revolution. This has been presented by the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in a recent survey:

> The Global Catholic Population

A century ago, 70 percent of Catholics lived in Europe and North America. Today just 32 percent, less than one third of the total.

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VEREINIGTE STAATEN
Die Presse

Boston. Jeder vierte Amerikaner ist Katholik, sieben von hundert Katholiken weltweit sind Amerikaner: Die römische Kirche ist in den Vereinigten Staaten nach mehr als 200 vorwiegend protestantisch geprägten Jahren eine etablierte Größe. Im Jahr 1910 waren 16 Prozent der US-Bürger katholisch, 2010 waren es 26 Prozent.

Und die Kirche dürfte trotz der wie überall im Westen fortschreitenden Verweltlichung der Gesellschaft weiterhin wachsen. Denn während im 19. Jahrhundert die Einwanderer aus Irland und Italien den Katholizismus in der Neuen Welt stärkten, sorgen heute die Lateinamerikaner für frisches Blut. Zwar war laut der aktuellsten Erhebung des Pew Research Center im vergangenen Jahr nur jeder dritte amerikanische Katholik hispanisch. Doch 30 Prozent der rund 75,4 Millionen Katholiken in den USA sind im Ausland geboren. Im US-Kirchenvolk gibt es somit mehr als doppelt so viele Einwanderer wie in der gesamten Bevölkerung. Die hispanischen Katholiken sind jung, die Hälfte ist unter 40 Jahre.

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OSTERREICH
Der Standard

Bringen wir das in wenigen Stunden beginnende Konklave auf den Boden der Realität: Es geht weniger darum, den Richtigen zu finden, als vielmehr darum, den Falschen zu vermeiden! Die Bekenntnisse des Kardinal O’Brien müssen für seine Amtsbrüder ein Schock sein. Fast wäre er in die Sixtinische Kapelle mit eingezogen. Kürzlich hat er sich zu sexuellen Übergriffen bekannt. Ist er der Einzige, der diesbezüglich etwas auf dem Kerbholz hat? Vermutlich nein. Gerade der konservative Flügel muss sich vor der Formel fürchten: je konservativer, desto Groër.

Aber es geht nicht nur um dieses Thema. In der römisch-katholischen Kirchengeschichte war stets die Dreifaltigkeit von Sex, Macht und Geld präsent. Geld: Wer von den Kardinälen ist in den internationalen Finanz-Schlamassel der Vatikanbank involviert? Macht: Wer ist politisch belastet, weil er in seinem Heimatland hinter den Kulissen zu sehr in politische Machenschaften involviert ist? Eine Frage vor allem für demokratisch wenig entwickelte Länder.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
New Hampshire Union Leader

The next Pope needs to be much more than a holy man, teacher and shepherd to the estimated 1.2 billion Roman Catholics worldwide and a better manager of the Vatican’s internal bureaucracy than his predecessor, several New Hampshire Catholics said.

But Pope Benedict XVI’s successor must be much more.

The new pontiff must continue to address the clergy sexual abuse crisis and – perhaps most importantly – confront what several clerics call the “godless” agenda of the primarily secular Western world that threatens to strip people of their humanity and seeks to silence the voice of religion. …

Clergy sexual abuse

While Catholics hold widely varying opinions on qualities the next Pope should have, most agree he must be committed to resolving the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

“It’s paramount,” Frontiero said. Benedict, he said, made “some progress in the accountability of bishops.”

“That progress needs to continue and there needs to be transparency … We can’t evade these things any more. We’ve got to handle them directly. Accountability, especially among the bishops, is critical,” he added.

Guevin added that “we need a Pope who would continue to address the clergy abuse scandal to make it clear to the bishops that … they really try to make it a priority to protect children.”

Longtime advocate of abuse victims, Carolyn Disco of Merrimack, said the only viable candidate for the post is Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.

“There is a zero chance for his election, but he ‘gets it’,” Disco said in an e-mail response. Martin admitted bishops covered up clergy sexual abuse, voluntarily released church files to government-sanctioned investigators and served in the Holy See’s diplomatic corps, said Disco, who is New Hampshire Voice of the Faithful’s survivor support chairman.

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CANADA
Leader-Post

By Jason Warick, The StarPhoenix March 11, 2013

Saskatoon and area Roman Catholic priests and volunteers will soon be prohibited from meeting behind closed doors with parishioners.

The main goal of the new policy, which also mandates criminal record checks and directing those with criminal allegations to police first, is to eliminate sexual abuse, said Blake Sittler, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon’s co-ordinator of care. It should also protect priests and other workers from false allegations, he said.

“This is a major paradigm shift,” Sittler said in an interview Sunday after attending a Calgary conference on the issue.

“We do not want this (abuse) to happen. It disgusts and disappoints us as well.”

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Brendan J. Lyons

Updated 5:59 am, Monday, March 11, 2013

NEW YORK — A proposal to abolish New York’s statute of limitations on sex crimes involving children was the subject of a gut-wrenching Assembly hearing in Manhattan that included testimony from an attorney for two brothers who said they were raped as boys by an Albany Roman Catholic Diocese priest.

Tina M. Weber, a Philadelphia attorney, read statements from the brothers, who are now adults, about their emotionally tumultuous lives since they said they were raped repeatedly in the 1980s and 1990s by a former priest, Gary Mercure, who was convicted two years ago of forcibly raping a child in Massachussetts.

Weber implored the Assembly’s Codes Committee to push legislation that would make New York one of a growing number of states that have expanded or eliminated statutes of limitations on child sex crimes.

Variations of the measure, known as the Child Victims Act, have passed the Assembly four times but never made it to a vote in the state Senate, where Republican leaders and other lawmakers say the legislation could be financially devastating to the Catholic Church and other organizations.

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IRELAND
New York Daily News

[PaddyPower.com]

By Stephen Rex Brown / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Sunday, March 10, 2013

There’s a new favorite in the Popestakes: Italy’s Angelo Cardinal Scola is 2-1 to be the next pontiff, overtaking the previous front-runner, Ghana’s Peter Cardinal Turkson, who is at 4-1, according to Irish bookie Paddy Power.

Rory Scott, a spokesman for the legal bookmaker, said the lengthy deliberations among the cardinals last week worked in Scola’s favor, because the formal conclave this week is now likely to move faster.

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BOSTON (MA)
NECN

(NECN: John Monahan, Boston) – There is renewed speculation that Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley is a top candidate to become Pope.

A leading Italian newspaper polled eight Vatican experts. Five of them list Cardinal O’Malley as one of their top picks to be elected during the conclave that will begin Tuesday.

Cardinal O’Malley tied a Brazillian cardinal as a top contender, but won an online reader’s poll.

Sunday, O’Malley and the other cardinals had a chance to say Mass in their honorary churches in Rome.

Cardinal O’Malley made no mention of the clamor during his Mass. Instead, he focused on praying for the best possible outcome.

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MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

By Christina Hall
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

A lawsuit has been filed against the Archdiocese of Detroit, a Mt. Clemens church, its pastor and a parishioner who was convicted of a sex crime involving a 14-year-old girl on church property.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Macomb County Circuit Court, seeks at least $25,000 in damages from the archdiocese; St. Peter’s Catholic Church and the Rev. Michael Cooney, and Michael Lentini, who was convicted of assaulting the child. It also requests a jury trial.

The lawsuit was filed by the mother of the girl. The family belonged to the church.

The suit cites negligence on the part of the archdiocese, church and Cooney for failing to ensure child abuse or suspected child abuse or inappropriate sexual behavior is reported to authorities.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) — A lawsuit against a priest and the Catholic church says they failed to protect a 14-year-old girl from sexual abuse by a 19-year-old man.

The Detroit Free Press (http://on.freep.com/YafjoD ) says the suit was filed last week in Macomb County Circuit Court against the Rev. Michael Cooney, St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Mount Clemens, the Archdiocese of Detroit and sexual misconduct convict Michael Lentini.

The suit says the priest and church were negligent and failed to act after getting reports of the sexual misconduct.

The archdiocese suspended Cooney in February 2012 after learning of the case, saying he apparently failed to report what he knew to police as church policy requires. He later was reinstated.

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VATICAN CITY
Canada.com

By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News March 10, 2013

VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Marc Ouellet ambled across St. Peter’s Square Saturday afternoon unnoticed by swarms of pilgrims, tourists and journalists.

Thirty hours later the 68-year-old Canadian, who is among the favourites to be named as the next pope, was greeted by hundreds of journalists when he celebrated mass Sunday evening in a packed church 200 metres from the Vatican.

If Ouellet is chosen to succeed Benedict XVI as the Vicar of Christ at a papal conclave that is to begin Tuesday one can only imagine how much life will change for the burly prelate from the backwoods of Quebec. At a minimum the avid hockey player and fan will never again enjoy a leisurely stroll in St. Peter’s Square or a quiet vacation with his 91-year-old mother Graziella, or hunting and fishing with friends and relatives in his birthplace of La Motte, Que., a tiny village 500 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.

Parishioners who attended Ouellet’s mass at the Santa Maria in Traspontina Church in Rome on Sunday were unanimous that he had given a bravura performance. Speaking entirely in Italian at the local church assigned to him as cardinal-priest when he became one of the princes of the church is 2003, Ouellet said during his homily that God had already decided who the next pope would be and that the cardinals would simply be naming the one that He had already chosen.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

By STEPHEN MCGINTY
Published on Monday 11 March 2013

THE Catholic Church in Scotland should open its “secret” files and publish an audit of abusive priests, according to the former head of the Church’s working party on child protection.

Alan Draper, who compiled a report on 22 “problem priests” as long ago as 1995, criticised the Church for paying lip service and failing to act on a second damning report in 2004, which said certain priests were not adequately monitored and “unacceptable levels of risk to children may have been and could remain present”.

The second, 27-page report was written by May Dunsmuir, then director of child protection for the Catholic Church, and has been seen by The Scotsman. It criticised Scottish bishops for failing to provide proper training, adequate supervision of problem priests and for organising “no national or diocesan collation and dissemination of child protection statistical information and analysis”.

The report, which was sent to Archbishop Keith O’Brien, then president of the Bishops’ Conference, also criticised existing policy as “silent on certain matters, eg, how to respond to allegations involving clergy or a bishop”.

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SCOTLAND
Mirror

By: Greg Christison
Published: Mon, March 11, 2013

Speaking a week after Cardinal Keith O’Brien admitted sexual misconduct, the Church’s head of media, Peter Kearney, also admitted it rightly faces claims of hypocrisy.

His comments come as a child protection expert appointed to advise the Catholic Church over abuse claims said evidence suggested that priests were “out of control sexually”.

Academic Alan Draper has been informed of 20 child sex allegations in Scots parishes during the Eighties and Nineties and revealed that not all were reported to police.

Mr Kearney admitted more needs to be done to provide support for Catholics struggling with their sexuality.

He added: “If there’s an area where the Church hasn’t been seen – frankly, because it’s not present – it’s in that area of compassionate, pastoral outreach to people who are struggling with same-sex attraction, or they’re confused about it and would love the chance to talk to someone in a compassionate, pastoral context.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
WSPA

Sexual misconduct allegations have been made against a local Catholic Priest.

On Friday a man who was representing the catholic church approached an investigator at the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office. He told investigators that a sexual incident involving a minor occurred years ago at Our Lady of Lourdes with Father Hayden Vaverek. Deputies say the victim now lives out of state and had someone from the catholic church meet with the Sheriff’s Office to make a report.

The Dioceses of Charleston tells 7 On Your Side that an allegation of sexual misconduct of a minor dating back more than 15 years has been made against Father Hayden Vaverek. As diocesan policy he has been put on administrative leave and his priestly faculties withdrawn.

According to Dioceses of Charleston, “The reported allegation indicates the alleged misconduct occurred while Father Vaverek was pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes in Greenwood; however, no parishioners of that parish were involved in the reported allegation.”

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SOUTH CAROLINA
ABC 4

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) – A spokeswoman with the Diocese of Charleston says a pastor has been placed on administrative leave amidst allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor.

The allegations against father Hayden Vaverek date back more than 15 years to his time as pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in Greenwood.

The Diocese says it is their policy to relieve Vaverek of his priestly facilities duing the investigation.

Father Vaverek has served in several parishes and schools in South Carolina, including nearby Moncks Corner.

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ROME
The Guardian (UK)

Lizzy Davies in Rome
The Guardian, Sunday 10 March 2013

It was a mass with a difference. For one thing, there were more worshippers in the Santa Maria della Vittoria church than usual. (“Come back!” begged the excited local priest.) For another, the liturgy was led by a jovial American who joked about swiping the church’s most exquisite treasure and taking it back to Boston. What’s more, the congregation knew that by the end of the week, that man, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, could – just possibly – be pope.

He wasn’t the only one, of course. Across Rome, a similar story was being played out in many of the titular churches whose status affords them a special link with one or other of the 115 cardinals who will choose Benedict XVI’s successor. On a day of rest before the start of conclave , many of the most prominent prelates visited their Roman flocks and called on them to pray for the right choice to be made. For many, good communication skills and a solid pastoral record are top of the list of qualities needed in the next pope – a fact that may not have gone unnoticed by the cardinals who chose to spend yesterday among the people.

“The conclave is just around the corner,” said Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan and a leading papabile (possible candidate). “Let us pray that the holy spirit gives the church a man who can lead her in the footsteps of the great pontiffs of the past 150 years.”

As the preparations for conclave entered the final stretch, the chimney that will emit white smoke when a pope is elected was fixed on to the roof of the Sistine chapel on Saturday. A Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, announced, meanwhile, that, among other objects, Benedict XVI’s fisherman’s ring had been scratched and thus destroyed. With a hint of relief, Lombardi also announced that yesterday was – as he put it – “a holiday”.

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ROME
CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) – Former Boston Cardinal Bernard Law is also in Rome ahead of the Papal Conclave.

Law will not vote because he is 81 years old and not eligible to take part in the Conclave to elect a new pope. The cut off for voting is age 80.

Law celebrated Mass at The Church of Santa Susanna in Rome Sunday morning.

Amid a throng of reporters, Law stopped for just a moment when asked what he wants from a new pope.

“Whoever the Holy Spirit chooses will lead us in this year of faith,” Law said.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Independent Mail

By Michael Eads
Posted March 10, 2013
michael.eads@independentmail.com
864-260-1256

CHARLESTON — A former priest at Anderson’s St. Joseph’s Catholic Church has been accused of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Father Hayden Vaverek has been placed on administrative leave by the Diocese of Charleston and will be unable to conduct Mass, due to a criminal complaint filed Friday with the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office. An unidentified man told police investigators about an incident with a minor that allegedly occurred more than 15 years ago.

“The reported allegation indicates the alleged misconduct occurred while Father Vaverek was pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes in Greenwood; however, no parishioners of that parish were involved in the reported allegation,” according to a news release issued Sunday by the diocese.

“In regards to the criminal process, law enforcement authorities will conduct their investigation and we will fully cooperate with them,” said Maria Aselage, director of media relations for diocese.

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UNITED STATES
Aljazeera

Rob Reynolds

American Catholics say the clergy child sexual abuse scandal is the biggest problem confronting the church today. That’s one finding of a survey by the Pew Research Center conducted in February. The survey also shows large majorities feel Pope Benedict XVI and American bishops have done a poor job of handling the crisis and in dealing with sexual abusers in the clergy.

No one knows precisely how many boys and girls have been sexually molested by priests; one estimate says at least 100,000 children were abused in the United States alone.

Adrian Ramirez, a 38-year-old married father of two who lives in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles, spoke to Al Jazeera about the sexual abuse that blighted his childhood and affected his adult life.

From the age of 11 Ramirez was brutally and repeatedly raped- hundreds of times over the course of two years.

The abuser was a man studying for the priesthood who had been placed in charge of youth activities in the parish.

“I’m constantly reliving it,” he says quietly. “After the youth groups he would rape me in his car. He would…even at church he would do it—in the pews. He would say, ‘imagine it’s God touching you. ‘ Who does that to a kid, you know? I was 12-years-old and I’m like, ‘Really? God is saying this is OK?’”

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Greenville Online

Associated Press

CHARLESTON — The Diocese of Charleston has placed a priest on administrative leave after someone made an allegation of sexual misconduct against him.

Church officials said they are cooperating fully with investigators reviewing the allegation against Hayden Vaverek.

Authorities say someone went to police last week and said Vaverek assaulted the person about 15 years ago when Vaverek was pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes in Greenwood. During his career, Vaverek has also served in parishes and schools in Greenville, Simpsonville, Anderson, Greenwood, McCormick, Myrtle Beach, Garden City, Moncks Corner, Bonneau, and Hilton Head Island.

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ROME
KL.FM (UK)

A victim of a paedophile priest has called for an Italian cardinal who will help elect the next Pope to step down, accusing him of covering up abuse.

Francesco Zanardi says he was abused by his local priest, father Nello Giraudo, when he was a young boy and is adamant Catholic Church chiefs knew of the case but failed to act.

At a press conference close to the Vatican, Mr Zanardi showed a letter dated 2003 which was written by the then Bishop of Savona in northwest Italy, Domenico Calcagno, who is now one of the 115 elector cardinals.

In the letter Bishop Calcagno wrote to Joseph Ratzinger, two years before he was elected Pope and while he was head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, outlining the case against Father Giraudo.

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ROME
Irish Central

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Sunday, March 10, 2013

Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley is the joint favorite to win the Papal election according to Italy’s paper of record, Corriere della Sera – and their readers’ pick.

The National Catholic Reporter website reports that the well respected paper asked eight contributors, including their own Vatican reporters and noted Vatican-watchers, to name their top three picks to be the next pope.

The report says Cardinal O’Malley was mentioned by five of those eight experts, tied with Odilo Pedro Scherer of Brazil and just one mention ahead of Angelo Scola of Milan.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Mar. 10, 2013

January 2012 was the ten-year anniversary of the eruption of the clerical sexual abuse scandals in Boston, and on that occasion Cardinal Sean O’Malley sat down for an exclusive interview with NCR to discuss where things stand in Boston, across the country and around the world. He also spoke in candid terms about the toll the crisis has taken on him personally, and how the experience in Boston may have forced him to “toughen up.”

In light of the continuing buzz around O’Malley as a possible pope, it may be worth taking a second look at that interview, which can be found here: O’Malley on the sex abuse crisis: ‘It’s not behind us’

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ROME
First Things

Sunday, March 10, 2013,

Kevin Staley-Joyce | @KevinSJoyce

For the small percentage they comprise of Catholics worldwide, Italians are disproportionately represented in the Roman Curia and ecclesial governance more broadly, not to mention their long history of native-born popes. And while the last memory of an Italian pope is now three decades old, today’s populus Romanus has not let go of its special concern for the Roman pontiff. If the Corriere della Sera‘s polling can be trusted, a strong current of Italians (it claims nearly forty percent) has expressed admiration for Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley among the field of papabile cardinals. Along with his pastoral and theological strengths are qualities that resonate profoundly with the loyalties and hopes of many Italians. He is a Capuchin Franciscan like the nation’s beloved Padre Pio. He speaks Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese flawlessly, and strikes most as humble and consummately apolitical.

Today O’Malley offered Mass at his titular church, Santa Maria della Vittoria, the Roman landmark famed as the home of Bernini’s masterwork, St. Theresa in Ecstasy. The church has received much attention of late, if perhaps for indecorous reasons, being a stop on the city’s Angels and Demons tour. But at least Dan Brown’s fantasy manages to commit the irony of bringing tourists into churches instead of away from them.

The aged Carmelite friars who serve as the church’s caretakers excitedly said they had never in recent memory witnessed a crowd of today’s size. Perhaps forty print journalists, cameramen, and reporters packed into the transepts of the diminutive space, one of them having to be pulled away to allow O’Malley to process to the altar. A large congregation also attended, most of them natives, judging by their laughter when O’Malley joked in Italian of his desire to take the Bernini statue back to Boston. The press were largely Italian as well, save a number from Boston news outlets.

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ROME
Wisconsin Rapids Tribune

by Marco della Cava, USA TODAY

ROME – Applause is not what you commonly hear at a solemn Catholic Mass. And yet there it was, clear as the blue sky overhead.

The 100-odd parishioners packed inside Santa Maria della Vittoria, a gleaming jewel box of a Baroque edifice near this city’s central train station, directed their clapping Sunday toward U.S. Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, who had come to say Mass at his titular church. Every cardinal has a titular church in Rome designated to him where he preaches when he’s in town.

The gesture was in response to an introduction by Father Rocco Visca, who in Italian had said, “May this be your last visit here as cardinal, and may we be the first church you visit as the next pope.”

Seated nearby, O’Malley, 68, allowed himself the briefest of smiles.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Catholic Insider

The international buzz about Cardinal Sean O’Malley has a few facts correct and a lot of them missing or wrong. In this post, we try to lay out everything as best we can, so you, the reader, can separate fact from fiction. This post will emerge by the end as a summary of the experiences in Boston over the recent years of his tenure.

We start with a discussion about what folks are saying the Catholic Church and Cardinals are looking for in the next Pope, then the positive references cited about Cardinal O’Malley, then the facts, results, and wrong or missing information about his track record in Boston in the areas of teaching and governing. Check back a few times between today and Monday morning as we add to the content.

Attributes Cardinals Say We Need in Next Pope

The key attributes we keep hearing repeatedly quoted in the press as desirable for the next pope are the following:
o Great governance, leadership and managerial skills: to shake-up and overhaul a Vatican curia tainted by internal political infighting and the “Vatileaks” scandal, restore financial transparency to the Catholic Church’s operations and assemble a solid team of people around him to support his teaching and apostolic ministry
o Great teaching skills—someone who can proclaim the Gospel and truths of our faith to all people, in-season and out-of-season, and who teaches not just by his words but also by his actions.

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CANADA
CBC News

Several dozen people who say they were sexually abused by members of Quebec’s Catholic church gathered today on the steps of St-Viateur church.

They were protesting against what they see as a lack of action in addressing sexual abuse in the church.

Some protesters wore white paper hats mimicking bishops’ mitres that read “Vote for Monseigneur Ouellet.”

They’re hoping Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s position as a possible candidate for Pope will shed some international light on their pending cases against the church.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott kmellott@tribdem.com

JOHNSTOWN — An application for notice of incorporation forming Friends and Family of Bishop McCort was shipped off to Harrisburg late last week, as Catholics in the area take another step toward coming to grips with what allegedly happened at one of their most sacred institutions – the place where they send their children to be educated.

Still reeling from the revelation two months ago of alleged sexual abuse by a Franciscan friar employed at Bishop McCort Catholic High School, parents, alumni and financial supporters of the school were shocked when principal and longtime school employee Ken Salem was placed on leave with pay.

The response has been swift and harsh.

The hope is that a formal organization will help the group, now several hundred strong and growing, get a response as they demand answers to why Salem was placed on leave and seek information about the makeup of the board of directors.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The first voting session to elect the new Pope will take place on Tuesday 12th at 6 pm. The strongest candidates are Scola and Scherer

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

The Conclave’s real test, after the “extra omnes” pronounced by the Master of Ceremonies and the closure of the Sistine Chapel’s heavy wooden door, will come at around 6 pm this coming Tuesday.

The initial scrutiny for the election of Benedict XVI’s successor is the equivalent of political primaries. This is when the real candidates will shine through, those who have the strongest chances of getting majority votes. These will be the candidates who emerged as favourites in last week’s informal meetings.

The 2005 Conclave was a first for all but two cardinals. While the crowds paid their respects to Pope Wojtyla, a number of influential cardinals were subtly trying to push for the election of the strongest candidate among the cardinals: the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger. The so-called “progressivists”, who were already at death’s door so to speak, tried to get Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini through but he only obtained 12 votes in the first scrutiny, while Ratzinger obtained a consistently high majority, with 47 votes in his favour. This time there is much more uncertainty but it is highly unlikely groups of electors will be trying to reach a consensus on the basis of a cardinals’ nationality. What has emerged from the recently held discussions is that cardinals are looking for a man with spiritual depth, who is able to govern, engage in dialogue and communicate. Even if there is no candidate who has quite the same authority and power as Ratzinger, the almost unanimous decision to bring the Conclave forward proves that something must have happened between Wednesday and Thursday.

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ROME
dotCommonweal

March 9, 2013

Posted by Margaret O’Brien Steinfels

The coverage of Archbishop Timothy Dolan in the Times over the last week is far better than he usually gets. Saturday’s love letter from Michael Paulson in Rome is quite amazing (even featuring Dolan with the kiss-a-baby photo). Just in case, he doesn’t get the big job in Rome, there is a mayoral election coming up in NYC. Wonder how he’d do? The Times would almost certainly not endorse him for that job, but probably the Post and the Daily News would.

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ROME
CNN

By Chris Cuomo and Eric Marrapodi, CNN

Rome (CNN) – Crowds lined the walls and spilled out the front door of the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Monte Mario on Sunday to catch a glimpse of the gregarious American Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, who smiled broadly as he came into the church, stopping to wave to photographers and kiss a baby whose parents were holding him up.

Dolan has made the short lists of some Vatican watchers as a likely choice to be elected as the next pope by the College of Cardinals, a designation called “papabili” in Italian.

A local officiant began the service by saying it was great to have Dolan at the church close to Easter.

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ROME
Religion News Service

David Gibson | Mar 10, 2013

ROME (RNS) If ordinary Romans still had in a say in selecting their bishop – also known as the pope – the way they did in the early centuries of the church, then Cardinal Timothy Dolan might already be pontiff.

On Sunday the archbishop of New York continued to charm the citizens of the Eternal City (and many in the media, who probably seem him as more papabile than his fellow cardinals do) as he celebrated mass at the parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe in a middle-class Roman neighborhood.

“What a great crowd – let’s take two collections!” Dolan quipped, deploying his workman-like Italian in an unabashedly American accent, and drawing laughs and applause throughout the liturgy.

Two days before they go into the conclave to begin voting for a new pope, Dolan and many of the other 115 cardinal-electors meeting here took a pause from their pre-election deliberations to visit what are called their titular churches, or parishes that they are given ceremonial title to when they are given a red hat.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
WMBF

By WMBF News Staff

HORRY COUNTY, SC (WMBF) – A catholic priest who once served in Myrtle Beach faces an allegation of sexual misconduct of a minor, according to a news release from The Diocese of Charleston on Sunday afternoon.

The reported allegation indicated the misconduct took place more than 15 years ago when Father Hayden Vaverek was a pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes in Greenwood, SC. The diocese says no parishioners of that parish were involved in the reported allegations.

Father Vaverek served at several parishes and schools in South Carolina including Myrtle Beach, Garden City, Greenwood, Greenville, Simpsonville, Anderson, McCormick, Moncks Corner, Bonneau and Hilton Head Island.

Law enforcement authorities have been notified of the allegations, according to diocesan officials. Father Vaverek has been placed on administrative leave and his priestly faculties withdrawn.

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SLOWENIEN
Stimme Russlands

Sloweniens Katholische Kirche zahlt ein Entschädigungsgeld in Höhe von knapp 80.000 Euro dem Opfer des Priesters, der der Pädophilie bezichtigt wird und am Vorabend der Urteilsverkündung verstorben ist.

Insgesamt wurde der Priester Karl Jošt, der in einer der Pfarreien der Erzdiözese Maribor diente, knapp 16 Mal wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs der Mädchen unter 15 Jahren, denen er die Religion unterrichtete, angeklagt. Der Fall wurde wegen Todes des Angeklagten geschlossen, aber ein der Opfer verlangt in einem separaten Gerichtsverfahren von der Kirche für den moralischen Schaden nach dem Entschädigungsgeld.

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ROM
Katholisches

(Rom) Das in Österreich umgangssprachliche gebrauchte Wort Schmäh, trifft die Sache am besten. Im Ausdruck Schmäh hat sich das mittelhochdeutsche Wort smaehe erhalten und meint Beschimpfung und verächtliche Behandlung. Um eine solche verächtliche Behandlung handelte es sich bei der Meldung vom „schmutzigen“ oder „dreckigen Dutzend“. Jener Liste mit den Namen von zwölf Kardinälen, die „Freunde der Pädophilen“ seien, weil sie angeblich pädophile Priester gedeckt oder nicht rechtzeitig entfernt hätten.

Die Liste wurde von der amerikanischen Vereinigung SNAP verbreitet. SNAP steht für Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (Netz der Überlebenden, die von Priestern mißbraucht wurden). Veröffentlicht wurde sie kurz vor Beginn des Konklave und enthält – siehe da – den Großteil jener, die in den Medien, ob zu recht oder zu unrecht, als „Papabili“ genannt werden. Hinter der Aktion verbirgt sich blankes Profitdenken.

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CHILE
Terra

El Arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, se refirió a los casos de abuso sexual que se le imputan al sacerdote Fernando Karadima. “Me criticaron por visitarlo, pero es mi deber acompañar a los que sufren”, sostuvo.A lo anterior, agregó: “Cómo no van a doler los casos que hemos tenido de problemas que tocan a los muchachos, a los niños situaciones como esa duelen muchísimo. El dolor más grande que he tenido en dos años son estos casos, sobre todo por las personas que han sido ofendidas. Siento vergüenza por ello, pero también siento que he actuado como debía actuar”, sostuvo.

Del mismo modo, se refirió a las críticas que recibió por parte de diversos sectores por reunirse con Karadima, a lo que el prelado respondió: “Lo visité en vísperas de navidad. Como pastor, yo tengo que visitar a todos los que sufren. Voy a la cárcel, a los hospitales. No por visitar a una persona quiere decir que apoye lo que ha hecho”.

“Él se declara inocente”

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Department of Justice said it has received around 1,000 calls about the fund which is to be set up for former residents of Magdalene laundries.

Mr Justice John Quirke, who is carrying out a review to devise recommendations on payments and support, has been meeting Magdalene Survivor representative groups this week.

He met the Magdalene Survivors Together group, and the UK-based Irish Womens Survivors Support Network, to discuss the fund.

The Government is asking the four religious orders concerned to make what it calls an appropriate contribution to the fund, and the Department said contact is ongoing with the Orders about the issue.

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AUSTRALIA
Mudgee Guardian

By Barney Zwartz
March 11, 2013,

Cardinal George Pell, tainted by sex abuse scandals, has no chance of becoming the 266th pope after Australian critics campaigned to publicise allegations that have long dogged him to Italian media and voting cardinals, according to Australian commentator Paul Collins.

Following traditionalist guardians quick to report Australian infractions to Rome, progressive Catholics have lobbied overseas journalists and cardinals to make sure they are aware of the 2002 inquiry into allegations the Sydney Archbishop molested a 12-year-old boy several times in 1961.

Retired Supreme Court judge A. J. Southwell was ”not satisfied the complaint was established” but said he was impressed by the testimony of both the complainant and the cardinal.

”The judge never cleared Pell and that has rendered Pell irrelevant. He has no chance,” Dr Collins, a former priest, said.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Caller

On Sunday’s broadcast of “Face the Nation” on CBS, the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan explained why the next pope might just be an American.

“Look, it is a divine and yet profoundly human institution, the Vatican,” Noonan said. “Sally [Quinn], you quote Jesus Christ well, but remember, he said to Saint Peter, before he was called Saint Peter, ‘On this rock I will build my church,’ and he said ‘even the fires of hell will not prevail against it.’ Sometimes the cardinals get a little frustrating because they act like, ‘Oh, good, it doesn’t matter what we do. It will always continue.’ I don’t think that’s probably the correct message to have been taken out of that, but the church has been around for a long time. It will be around for a long time.”

As for who will lead the Catholic Church, Noonan said the possibility of an American pope has been elevated, since Europeans no longer view the United States as a superpower.

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VATICAN CITY
Deseret News

Associated Press
Published: Sunday, March 10 2013

VATICAN CITY — Cardinals from around the world gather this week in a conclave to elect a new pope following the stunning resignation of Benedict XVI. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. Yet several names have come up time repeatedly as strong contenders for the job. Here is a look at who they are:

CARDINAL ANGELO SCOLA: Scola is seen as Italy’s best chance at reclaiming the papacy, following back-to-back pontiffs from outside the country that had a lock on the job for centuries. He’s also one of the top names among all of the papal contenders. Scola, 71, has commanded both the pulpits of Milan’s Duomo as archbishop and Venice’s St. Mark’s Cathedral as patriarch, two extremely prestigious church positions that together gave the world five popes during the 20th century. Scola was widely viewed as a papal contender when Benedict was elected eight years ago. His promotion to Milan, Italy’s largest and most influential diocese, has been seen as a tipping point in making him one of the leading papal candidates. He is known as a doctrinal conservative who is also at ease quoting Jack Kerouac and Cormac McCarthy.

CARDINAL ODILO SCHERER: Scherer is known for prolific tweeting, appearances on Brazil’s most popular late-night talk show and squeezing into the subway for morning commutes. Brazil’s best hope to supply the next pontiff is increasingly being touted as one of the top overall contenders for the job. At the relatively young age of 63, he enthusiastically embraces all new methods for reaching believers, while staying true to a conservative line of Roman Catholic doctrine and hardline positions on social issues such as rejection of same-sex marriage. Scherer joined Twitter in 2011 and in his second tweet said: “If Jesus preached the gospel today, he would also use print media, radio, TV, the Internet and Twitter. Give Him a chance!” Scherer became the Sao Paulo archbishop in 2007 and was named a cardinal later the same year.

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VATICAN CITY
Christian Post

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor

March 10, 2013

With the Vatican’s announcement that the Roman Catholic Church will begin voting for the new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics Tuesday, it is expected that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s successor will be elected by Friday.

There’s “no reason to believe it will take long” to elect the new pope, Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Fredrico Lombardi, told reporters Saturday, the day after the Vatican said in a release the Conclave will begin on Tuesday, March 12.

The last six popes were all elected within four days, and the election of Benedict in 2005 took less than 24 hours.

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VATICAN CITY
NECN

Mar 10, 2013

Editors,

The cardinals have set Tuesday as the start date for the conclave to select a new pope. The first vote is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, following a morning Mass. Here are the AP’s multiformat plans for the days leading up to the first vote.

Sunday, March 10

Spot coverage: Cardinals hold Mass in their titular churches in Rome. All formats covering.

Tour of Sistine Chapel for photo.

— CROWD CONTROL — What are the crowd control challenges for the conclave? We speak with the Rome deputy mayor in charge of logistics. All formats covering. Text by Fran D’Emilio.

— VATICAN-CARDINALS — A series profiling the men who could be pope. Text thumbnails of the profiles with photos.

Cardinals who have been featured in the Vatican-Cardinal “papabili” series: Filipino Antonio Tagle, Sri Lankan Malcolm Ranjith, Italian Angelo Scola, Canadian Marc Ouellet, Honduran Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, American Timothy Dolan, Argentinians Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Leonardo Sandri, Austrian Christoph Schoenborn, Ghanian Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, Hungarian Peter Erdo, Brazilian Odilo Scherer, Italian Gianfranco Ravasi .

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ROME
NBC News

By Alastair Jamieson, Keir Simmons and Yuka Tachibana, NBC News

ROME — An American cardinal in Rome hinted Sunday hinted at the difficulty of deciding who should be the next pope, saying the papal conclave was a time when “the will of God is not entirely clear.”

Chicago’s archbishop, Cardinal Francis George, asked for “help and prayers” as he and 114 other cardinals prepared to enter the papal conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI.

“I ask you for your prayer to help the Holy Spirit to be present among us to open our hearts and our minds to what is the will of God for his people throughout the world,” he told reporters after saying mass at the local church assigned to him during his stay in Rome.

He added: “This is a momentous occasion, when perhaps the will of God isn’t entirely clear to many of us.”

Vatican observers say the choice is wider than it has been in modern memory, with no emerging consensus on who should be the next leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

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DEUTSCHLAND
LN Online

Von Susanne Peyronnet

Scharbeutz. „Wer nichts tut und wegschaut, ist mit schuldig an diesem Verbrechen.“ Norbert Denef aus Scharbeutz gibt nicht auf. Er ist Sprecher von Netzwerk-B, dem größten Zusammenschluss von deutschen Missbrauchsopfern. Das Wegschauen wirft er der Politik und dem „Runden Tisch Sexueller Kindesmissbrauch“ vor, der im Februar nach drei Jahren die Arbeit einstellte. Nach Denefs Ansicht hat der nichts gebracht. „Der Runde Tisch hat nur drei Jahre Zeit vertan, mehr ist nicht geschehen.“ Die Opfer seien nichts als Marionetten gewesen, die „verdrängende Arroganz“ derer am Runden Tisch sei der Größe des Verbrechens nicht gerecht geworden.

„Ich renne überall gegen Wände“, beschreibt Denef seine Situation. Von den 64 000 Unterschriften, die er im vergangenen November an den SPD-Landesvorsitzenden Ralf Stegner übergab, hat er nie wieder etwas gehört. „64 000 Unterschriften kann man doch nicht unter den Tisch fallen lassen.“ Die Unterzeichner sprechen sich dafür aus, die Verjährungsfristen für sexualisierte Gewalt aufzuheben.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Updated March 8, 2013 International Women’s Day http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

Today is International Women’s Day and there should have been a women’s march in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican – to protest the zero tolerance for women – by the all-male mysogynist Papal Conclave at the gay infested Vatican Titanic.

SNAP list “Dirty Dozen” worst papal candidates, see news updates below. SNAP says Cardinals who are members of the Vatican Curia (not Roman Curia) must not be elected pope.

The picture says a thousand words – Canada’s TV priest Thomas Rosica sits besides Vatican spokeperson Lombardi – which proves the Vatican has prepared and chosen Cardinal Ouellet as its leading papal horse, see news and photo updates below.

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TEXAS
KHOU

[with video]

by Drew Karedes / KHOU 11 News

HOUSTON — A well-known Catholic teacher at St. Thomas High School has resigned after allegations of misconduct. Father Jack Hanna was been with the all-boys school since 1981.

The school would not answer questions on camera, nor would they elaborate on the nature of the allegations.

St. Thomas says Rev. Hanna has entered a therapeutic center for priests. A spokesperson released a brief statement to KHOU 11 News.

“He has acknowledged that he behaved inappropriately and will be receiving extensive residential treatment at the facility. He has expressed deep regret for any harm caused by his behavior,” the statement said in part.

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TEXAS
Sylvia’s Site

From: St. Thomas High School [mailto:alumni@sths.org]
Sent: Friday, March 08, 2013 7:58 AM
To:
Subject: Important Message from Frs. Storey and Fulton

Dear Alumni,
Approximately three weeks ago, you were informed that an allegation of misconduct was made by an adult against Father Jack Hanna. Immediately upon receipt of the allegation, Father Hanna agreed to undergo an assessment at a therapeutic center for priests. He has acknowledged that he behaved inappropriately and will be receiving extensive residential treatment at the facility. He has expressed deep regret for any harm caused by his behavior and believes it is best that he resign his position at St. Thomas High School so that he may focus on his treatment.
We wish to express our sincere appreciation to you for your concern for Father Hanna and ask you to please keep him in your prayers during this difficult time.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Kevin Storey, C.S.B.
Fr. Patrick Fulton, C.S.B.

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TEXAS
Sylvia’s Site

A Basilian priest in Houston, Texas, Father Jack Hanna, has been suspended following an allegation of “misconduct.”

The following email was sent to alumni of St. Thomas High School in Houston Texas:

February 11, 2013

Dear Alumni,
This weekend, the Basilian Fathers were contacted by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and informed that there is an allegation of misconduct against Fr. Jack Hanna, C.S.B.. The allegation involves an adult who is neither a student nor an employee at St. Thomas High School. At the direction of the Superior-General of the Basilian Fathers, while this matter is under investigation, Fr. Hanna will not be engaged in teaching or any priestly ministry. Please keep the St. Thomas community in your prayers during this time, Yours in Christ, Fr. Kevin Storey, C.S.B

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TEXAS
Houston Chronicle

By Allan Turner | March 8, 2013

The Rev. Jack Hanna, a Spanish and art history teacher at Houston’s Catholic St. Thomas High School, has resigned and entered treatment at a therapeutic center for priests, school officials said on Friday.

In a statement issued by the Rev. Kevin Storey, school president, and the Rev. Patrick Fulton, principal, the school said Hanna had been accused of unspecified misconduct. School officials said the complainant was an adult.

Hanna, a 1962 graduate of the school, operated by the Congregation of St. Basil, taught introductory and advanced placement Spanish classes and art history. He had been a member of the faculty since 1981.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Gwd Today

Brian King
News Editor

A former priest at Our Lady of Lourdes in Greenwood has been placed on administrative leave after allegations of sexual misconduct were made to the Diocese of Charleston.

According to officials with the Diocese of Charleston, Father Hayden Vavarek has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation. The alleged misconduct took place at Our Lady of Lourdes about 15 years ago.

Officials with the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office say that a criminal investigation has not yet begun, as the victims are located out of state.

Vavarek served at various parishes in the upstate, including Greenville, Anderson and Simpsonville.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Fox Carolina

Posted: Mar 10, 2013

By Derek Dellinger

GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) –
A Catholic priest with some deep ties to the Upstate is in administrative leave following allegations of sexual misconduct.

Father Hayden Vaverek had “his priestly faculties withdrawn,” according to the Diocese of Charleston.

FOX Carolina obtained a letter sent from St. Joseph’s Catholic School to parents regarding the allegations. The letter said the allegations of sexual misconduct involve a minor and date back more than 15 years. The misconduct allegedly occurred while Vaverek was pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Greenwood, but “no parishioners of that parish were involved in the reported allegation,” the diocese said. The school said Vaverek had previously served on the Board of Trustees at St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Greenville.

Vaverek also served at several parishes across the Upstate, including Simpsonville, Anderson and Greenwood.

In 2011, he began working for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association based in New York City.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Stadt Zeitung

In der Diözese Augsburg wurden in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten 148 Kinder und Jugendliche missbraucht, 99 von ihnen sexuell. Das geht aus dem Arbeitsbericht hervor, den der scheidende Missbrauchsbeauftragte Otto Kocherscheidt nun vorgelegt hat.

Der ehemalige Richter hatte sein Amt im März 2010 angetreten. Damals ging eine Flut von Hinweisen ein. Das habe zunächst den Eindruck vermittelt, körperliche Gewalt und sexueller Missbrauch seien in kirchlichen Einrichtungen eine systembedingte Begleiterscheinung. Tatsächlich aber handle es sich „um eine erschreckende Zahl von Einzelfällen, die teilweise Jahrzehnte unentdeckt geblieben sind“, resümiert Kocherscheidt.

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MEXIKO
Neopresse

Von Emilio Godoy

Mexiko-Stadt, 6. März (IPS) – Während sich 117 katholische Kardinäle auf das Konklave zur Wahl eines neuen Papstes vorbereiten, sorgen die Fälle von Pädophilie innerhalb der Kirche weiterhin weltweit für Empörung. Opfer und Menschenrechtsaktivisten dringen darauf, dass kirchliche Würdenträger, die direkt oder indirekt an sexuellem Missbrauch beteiligt waren, nicht über den Nachfolger des am 28. Februar zurückgetretenen Benedikt XVI. abstimmen dürfen.

Mindestens fünf Kardinäle, die der Pädophilie beschuldigte Priester schützten, stehen unter dem Druck der Öffentlichkeit. Einer von ihnen ist Norberto Rivas aus Mexiko. “Damit die Kirche ihre moralische Statur wiedererlangen und zu dem werden kann, was sie einmal war, muss der neue Papst von Menschen gewählt werden, die sich moralisch einwandfrei verhalten”, sagte der mexikanische Aktivist Joaquín Aguilar, der in Mexiko das Netzwerk von Missbrauchsopfern von Priestern (SNAP) leitet.

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JERSEY
Daily Echo

A senior Church of England clergyman has been suspended over allegations that a complaint of abuse made by a vulnerable female parishioner was not taken seriously by him.

Dean of Jersey, the Very Rev Robert Key, has had his commission withdrawn by the Bishop of Winchester following a critical independent report into the 2008 complaint by the woman of abusive behaviour by a churchwarden in Jersey.

The report, commissioned by the Diocese of Winchester’s Safeguarding Panel, raised concerns that the dean did not take the complaint seriously.

He also showed a perceived lack of neutrality, offered poor communication and failed to act in relation to the parishioner.

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JERSEY
BBC News

The Anglican Dean of Jersey has been suspended over concerns about his handling of a parishioner’s complaint.

The Bishop of Winchester earlier withdrew the commission of the Very Reverend Robert Key following the publication of a diocesan report.

The Safeguarding Panel found there were failures in the implementation of policies in relation to a complaint by a vulnerable adult parishioner in 2008.

The complaint concerned the alleged abusive behaviour of a churchwarden.

A statement from the diocese said the bishop, the Right Reverend Tim Dakin, would begin an investigation to examine “an apparent failure to take the complaint seriously, a perceived lack of neutrality, poor communication and lack of action”.

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JERSEY
BBC News

The Archbishop of Canterbury apologised to a woman whose complaint of abuse was apparently not taken seriously enough.

Justin Welby said: “I wish to add my own personal apologies to the young woman who was so badly let down.”

Anglican Dean of Jersey, the Very Reverend Bob Key, was suspended over concerns about his handling of the complaint.

The Bishop of Winchester, Tim Dakin, withdrew Mr Key’s commission following the publication of a diocesan report.

The Safeguarding Panel found there were failures in the implementation of policies in relation to a complaint by a vulnerable adult parishioner in 2008.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Anglican Diocese of Winchester

Introduction

I have been asked by the Safeguarding Panel for the Diocese of Winchester to look into the response of the Diocese to a complaint made by a vulnerable adult against a church warden in a parish on Jersey.

I have been requested to consider the written documentation and audio recordings supplied, and to interview all those who I consider appropriate to enable me to fulfil my remit. I have had some difficulty in achieving access to Officers of the Church of England on Jersey and in significant cases met with an entire lack of available records. Assessing the reasons for this comes within my brief.

The purpose of the review is not to revisit the allegation of abuse which was put to the police in November 2008 and found to have insufficient evidence to proceed, but to consider how the Diocesan Safeguarding Procedures, and any separate Jersey complaint procedures, responded both at the time of receiving the complaint and the repercussions that followed it.
Terms of Reference

1) To consider the way the complaint was initially addressed both from:
a) The complainant’s position,
b) The following of Diocesan Safeguarding Procedures,
c) The following of Jersey complaint’s procedures where appropriate.
July 2008 – November 2008
2) To consider how the subsequent allegations of failure by Officers of the Church and Diocesan Staff to resolve the issue were handled.
December 2008 – October 2010 Jersey
October 2010 – July 2011 Mainland
3) To explore what communication and behaviours appear to have helped or exacerbated the problem with a view to making recommendations for dealing with similar complaints in the future.
I will look at the communication and recording at each of these three stages.

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JERSEY
Anglican Diocese of Winchester

Independent Review of a Safeguarding Complaint for the Diocese of Winchester (PDF)

A statement from the Diocese of Winchester

THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER has today withdrawn the commission of the Dean of Jersey, the Very Reverend Robert Key, effectively suspending him. The Dean of Jersey’s suspension follows the publication today of an Independent Report (see below), commissioned by the Diocese of Winchester’s Safeguarding Panel. This has found that there were a number of failures in the implementation of policies, in relation to a safeguarding complaint in 2008.

The report raises concerns that the Dean of Jersey did not comply with key safeguarding procedures in dealing with the complaints of a vulnerable adult parishioner, who had made a complaint about abusive behaviour by a Churchwarden in Jersey.

Following the announcement of the suspension, the Bishop will now begin an investigation into the conduct of the case by the Dean of Jersey and other matters raised by the report. The report describes a number of areas where proper practice was not followed including an apparent failure to take the complaint seriously, a perceived lack of neutrality, poor communication and lack of action.

The Right Reverend Tim Dakin, Bishop of Winchester, who is responsible for the Church of England in the Channel Islands said, “Firstly I want to give my unreserved apologies to the complainant for her treatment. Protecting the vulnerable is at the heart of the Church of England’s mission. With that comes a duty to ensure those in need are properly looked after. It is vital that robust safeguarding policies are in place and, above all, that they are properly implemented.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Archbishop of Canterbury

9th March 2013

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has supported the response of the Bishop of Winchester to yesterday’s (8 March) publication of an independent report into a safeguarding complaint in Jersey from 2008.

The report raises concerns that the Dean of Jersey did not comply with key safeguarding procedures in dealing with the complaints of a vulnerable adult parishioner, who had made a complaint about abusive behaviour by a Churchwarden.

Following the publication of the report, the Bishop of Winchester announced he was withdrawing the commission of the Dean of Jersey, effectively suspending him, and he has begun an investigation into the conduct of the case by the Dean and other matters raised by the report.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said:

“The Bishop of Winchester’s swift, decisive and wholly necessary actions following his receipt of this report are to be commended. I too wish to add my own personal apologies to the young woman who was so badly let down by those she had turned to for help and I wholeheartedly support the investigation that the Bishop has launched. He must receive full cooperation from all involved.

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JERSEY
Daily Mail

Archbishop of Canterbury offers personal apology to victim abused by cleric who was ‘badly let down’ by church investigation

By Anna Edwards

The Archbishop of Canterbury has apologised after the Church of England did not take her allegations of abuse seriously and ‘badly let her down’.

The new Archbishop, Justin Welby, made a personal apology as a senior Church of England cleric was suspended.

The Bishop of Winchester Tim Dakin suspended the Dean of Jersey, the Very Rev Robert Key, yesterday following a critical independent report into the 2008 complaint by the woman of abusive behaviour by a churchwarden in Jersey.

The report, commissioned by the Diocese of Winchester’s Safeguarding Panel, raised concerns that the dean did not take the complaint seriously.

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JERSEY
Channel Online

[with video]

The leader of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has offered his personal apologies to the woman whose complaints of abuse by a Jersey church warden were judged to have not been properly handled by the Dean.

On Friday the Bishop of Winchester suspended the Very Reverend Bob Key and announced an immediate investigation into his conduct. The Rt Rev Tim Dakin is due to visit Jersey tomorrow (Monday).

An independent report concluded Mr Key had failed to properly investigate the allegations made by the woman – described as a 26-year-old vulnerable adult.

Jersey comes under the Diocese of Winchester which has clear safeguarding procedures on what to do when allegations of abuse are made against a church worker. The report found that the procedures had not been followed.

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ROME
The Daily Beast

by Christopher Dickey
Mar 10, 2013

Archbishop Donald Wuerl fought for justice on behalf of the Church’s sex-abuse victims long before the Vatican did. Christopher Dickey on the odds he’ll be chosen.

Each of the cardinals now in Rome to elect the new pope has long had a church assigned him where he says mass when he’s in the Eternal City. But when Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C., was made a cardinal in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI gave him a church of singular importance: San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains). …

Wuerl first came to national attention after Pope John Paul II named him bishop of Pittsburgh in 1988, right in the middle of the first waves of horrific revelations about predatory priests and the shameful way their crimes were covered up by the church hierarchy. His predecessor had just banned three priests in his diocese from public ministry. Another, a former high school principal, was still serving as a diocesan administrator, and after psychiatric treatment Wuerl made him a hospital chaplain.

But a few weeks after that decision Wuerl met with the devout, deeply disillusioned, and increasingly litigious family of one victim. They invited Wuerl to dinner and, according to a lengthy and laudatory report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2003, when Wuerl left that table his views of the issue had changed. Before, his actions had been closely aligned Church policies, which were basically a CYA masquerading as piety. Now Wuerl told his staff it had to get its priorities straight: the first concern was the injured party, the second was for the person’s family, the third – and only the third – was the potential harm to the church and its reputation. He’s on the record declaring zero tolerance for priests accused of sexual abuse 14 years before that became official policy.

But the accusations just kept coming, until it got hard to distinguish between coverups, counter-charges, and good-faith efforts to set the clergy on a more righteous – and legally defensible — path. In 1993 Wuerl fought to have a priest accused of molesting a young teenager banned from public ministry. But the Vatican reinstated him. Wuerl appealed and fought for two more years before, finally, reluctantly, Rome agreed with the ban.

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ITALY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

ITALY- Italian clergy sex victim detained

Posted by David Clohessy

Here are three documents about the Francesco Zanardi case.

(Zanardi has many more.)

One is reportedly a 2003 letter from then-Bishop Calcagno to then-Cardinal Ratzinger asking what to do about Fr. Giraudo because of his alleged sexual abuses of Savona children.

Two others are reportedly documents written by Savona church officials about Fr. Giraudo’s personal history, and reportedly includes this sentence: “Nulla è trapelato sui giornali e non ci sono denunce in corso,” essentially meaning “so far nothing of this case came out in the newspapers and none of the abused have pressed charges.”

For more info on the case, please see our EVENTS section.

Click below to find the three documents about the Francesco Zanardi case:

Click here

Click here

Click here

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ROME
John Thavis

If it were up to Maria Cherubino, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston would emerge from the coming conclave as the next pope.

“He’s a spiritual figure, he’s fairly young and energetic, and he seems sure of himself. All that is important, because I think the church needs a great guide in this particular moment,” she said after attending Mass celebrated by Cardinal O’Malley in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.

A few pews away, Elisabetta Porco gave a similar endorsement.

“There was just something about him I immediately liked when I saw him. Maybe being a friar is part of it, but I have the feeling he would be a different kind of pope,” she said.

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VATICAN CITY
Sky News

As Roman Catholic cardinals prepare a secret conclave in the Vatican to choose a new pope, the only woman seen taking part in the preparations has been the seamstress sewing the ceremonial tablecloths.

The most important decision in the life of the Church is being taken with one half of the Catholic community either looking on or playing an auxiliary role as the male hierarchy deliberates.

‘Not hearing the opinions of half of the world is like a slap in the face,’ said Janice Sevre-Duszynska, who was excommunicated by the Vatican after her unofficial ordination as a female priest.

The American said the idea that only men should decide on the next Pope who will rule over both men and women was ‘a mockery’.

Sevre-Duszynska was quickly detained by police for demonstrating at the Vatican in her ceremonial robes, with police saying they wanted to check that she had the ‘right to wear those vestments’.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By Lisa Wangsness
| Globe Staff
March 10, 2013

ROME — Masculine authority has been on vivid display at the Vatican during the last week, as the princes of the Roman Catholic Church gather to elect a replacement for Pope Benedict XVI.

The world has watched the all-male college of cardinals lining up to say goodbye to the retiring Benedict, sweeping past hordes of television cameras to enter the cardinals’ pre-conclave discussions, and gathering in the Basilica of St. Peter to pray for the church.

Three men, all priests, serve as the multilingual media team at the Vatican’s daily press conferences. At briefings last week, they showed clips of conclave preparations under way — men marring the seal in the papal garden with rakes and hoes to signify the papal vacancy, men hauling the cast-iron stove for ballot burning into the Sistine Chapel.

A reporter, noting that one video clip showed a woman appearing to sew a tablecloth for the event, asked if there were any other women involved in the conclave. A Vatican spokesman replied: “There could be other women involved in the whole preparation of the conclave, in serving the fathers working with” the cardinals at their Vatican hotel.

It is against this backdrop that some leading cardinals, including Boston’s Sean P. O’Malley, have expressed a desire to open new leadership opportunities for women in the Roman Catholic Church, saying the matter will be an important concern for the next pope. There is a sense among some prelates that some movement on the gender front is essential; less evident are what steps could win the approval of the pope who will be elected in the days ahead.

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VATICAN CITY
Philly.com

Nicole Winfield, Associated Press

Posted: Sunday, March 10, 2013

VATICAN CITY – The preliminaries over, Catholic cardinals are ready to get down to the real business of choosing a pope. And even without a front-runner, there are indications they will go into the conclave Tuesday with a good idea of their top picks.

Then it will be just a matter of agreeing on one man to lead the church and tackle its many problems.

The conclave date was set Friday during a vote by the College of Cardinals, who have been meeting all week to discuss the church’s problems and priorities, and the qualities the successor to Pope Benedict XVI must possess.

That said, there doesn’t appear to be a front-runner, and the last week of deliberations has exposed sharp divisions among cardinals about some of the pressing problems facing the church, including governance within the Holy See itself.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pre-conclave meetings had given the cardinals a chance to discuss the “profile, characteristics, qualities, and talents” a future pope must have.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Mar. 10, 2013

ROME – John Allen is offering a profile each day of one of the most frequently touted papabili, or men who could be pope. The old saying in Rome is that he who enters a conclave as pope exits as a cardinal, meaning there’s no guarantee one of these men actually will be chosen. They are, however, the leading names drawing buzz in Rome these days, ensuring they will be in the spotlight as the conclave draws near. The profiles of these men also suggest the issues and the qualities other cardinals see as desirable heading into the election.

Heading into the 2013 conclave, there’s a small set of candidates destined to get a serious look from the outset, such as Cardinals Angelo Scola of Milan, Marc Ouellet of Canada, and Odilo Pedro Scherer of Brazil. The buzz around those names ensures that most cardinals are thinking about them right now, three days before the balloting actually begins.

One could probably add two American names to that list, at least as measured by public clamor: Cardinals Sean O’Malley of Boston and Timothy Dolan of New York.

Then there’s a wider range of figures who may not have strong support in the early rounds of voting, but who could come into play if none of the initial candidates seem to have sufficient support to get across that magic two-thirds threshold, meaning 77 votes out of the 115 cardinal electors.

In that second cluster waiting in the wings, there’s an Asian possibility who hasn’t yet received much attention, but who could strike some cardinals as an attractive fallback solution: Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay (Mumbai) in India.

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FLORIDA
TCPalm

I hope Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley is elected pope, and not just because he once was the bishop of the Palm Beach diocese, which includes the Treasure Coast.

O’Malley, now the archbishop of Boston, is just what the Catholic Church needs at this time. He’s a good listener and a good communicator. He dealt effectively with messes left by sexually abusive priests. He cares about people.

He’s theologically orthodox, preaching against abortion. That should please conservatives.

He also has an open mind and seems in tune with the Second Vatican Council, convened 50 years ago by Pope John XXIII to engage the church with the modern world. That should please progressives.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Patch

By Hal Millard

Father Hayden Vaverek, a former priest and administrator of St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church in Simpsonville, has been accused of alleged sexual misconduct, according to a news report.

Vaguely mentioning an unnamed and uncited report, WYFF said that Vaverek allegedly engaged in unspecified sexual misconduct dating back more than 15 years while he was pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes in Greenwood.

The Diocese of Charleston reportedly placed Vaverek on administrative leave. Meanwhile, potential victims of the priest’s alleged misconduct are encouraged to contact local authorities, the report said.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
WYFF

GREENVILLE, S.C. —

A priest with ties to the upstate is accused of sexual misconduct dating back more than 15 years.

The report claims the alleged misconduct of Father Hayden Vaverek occurred while he was pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes in Greenwood.

Throughout his time in the upstate, Father Vaverek spent time at several parishes in Simpsonville, Greenville, and Anderson.

Per the Diocese of Charleston’s policy, Father Vaverek was placed on administrative leave.

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CANADA
Global News

ALLISON LAMPERT, Montreal Gazette : Sunday, March 10, 2013

MONTREAL — On a chilly winter day in 2010, France Bédard led a picket demanding Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s resignation for not seriously addressing victims’ claims of abuse by Quebec clerics.

Today, she’d like to see him elected pope.

As founder of the Quebec Association of Victims of Priests, Bédard is to announce on Sunday the group’s support for Cardinal Ouellet becoming pontiff, during a protest against abuses by the Catholic Church held outside the Clercs de Saint-Viateur offices in Outremont.

Contrary to other groups that have “blacklisted” hometown born Ouellet, 68, the association believes his election as the first Canadian pontiff would thrust the stories of abuse recounted by its 3,500 members into the international spotlight, with reporters already descending on the Cardinal’s tiny hometown of La Motte.

“We are not being facetious, we are all for his election as pope,” Carlo Tarini, the association’s spokesperson told The Gazette. “What we hope they (journalists) will note is the No. 1 problem with the Catholic Church, which is the problem of pedophile priests. We want them to hear our claim that Quebec is a paradise for pedophile priests and how we knocked at (Ouellet’s) door in the past.

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

ITALY- Francesco Zanardi case

Posted by David Clohessy

Italian clergy sex victim detained
He joins SNAP at news conference
Man tried to give petitions to Vatican
But police held him Friday for two hours
He accuses voting cardinal of hiding predators
Prelate is urged to stay away from papal conclave
SNAP: “Such intimidation & harassment is common”
Group says Vatican should launch simple complaint mechanism

WHAT:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a news conference, an Italian clergy sex abuse victim will
–discuss being detained by police on Friday while trying to deliver petitions to the Vatican,
-explain why he thinks an Italian cardinal is complicit and should skip the conclave.

SNAP will
–praise the alleged victim and express solidarity with him,
— urge church officials to stop intimidating and harassing victims, and
— publicly push for the creation of a simple Vatican complaint mechanism

WHEN:
TODAY, —–Sunday, March 10 at 3:00 pm

WHERE:
Orange Hotel, 86 Via Crescenzio 00193, Roma +39.06.6868969

WHO:
An Italian man, Francesco Zanardi (ufficiostampe@francescozanardi.eu) who was abused as a child in the 1980s by a now-convicted Italian priest (and speaks some English). Joining him are two leaders of the US-based international support group SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org).

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FLORIDA
Tampa Tribune

By MICHELLE BEARDEN| The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 10, 2013

If Geri Callaghan had any input on the selection of the next pope — of course, she doesn’t — this lifelong Catholic could come up with a quick wish list.

“Someone who will openly address the sex-abuse scandal. It’s a stain on our church and it hasn’t been dealt with in the way it should,” she says. “We need a man of God with no hidden agenda. And let’s address all this wealth at the Vatican. So many parishes are struggling, yet you got all this money in Rome. We put our popes in robes and we treat them like kings. That’s just not right.”

Callaghan, 74, a member of Christ the King Catholic Church in Tampa, is unwavering in her faith. Her Catholicism defines her life and means everything to her.

But with the historic resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, she and many of the faithful are using this lame-duck period to talk about some of the church’s pressing needs and the type of man who could best address them.

According to a just-released poll by the Pew Research Center, Callaghan’s views are reflective of 34 percent of American Catholics, who consider the sex-abuse scandal the most important problem facing the church today. When asked about the church’s most important contribution, 27 percent agreed it is serving those in need through works such as helping the poor, feeding the hungry and healing the sick.

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UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

Long before accusing cardinals of complicity in the clergy abuse scandal became common fare, artist, writer, and survivor advocate Vinnie Nauheimer painted “Cardinal Sins” one of four completed paintings in a collection that is called “Stations of the Abused.”

This oil painting on canvas depicts a cardinal with three heads, which represent hear, see and speak no evil. The doves holding the vestments up represent the Holy Spirit who has made the abuse public and the two children represent all the children who have suffered at the hands of the clergy. Mr. Nauheimer would like his painting or a huge likeness of it hung up in the Sistine Chapel or personally handed to all the cardinals gathered to elect the new pope.

Artist, Vinnie Nauheimer, says that the vast beauty of the Sistine Chapel is not conducive to remembering the atrocities committed upon the bodies of Catholic Children around the world. They need a powerful visual message reminding them of their moral obligations and not the pomp and circumstance of the past. This painting drives home the culpability of the College of Cardinals. They are guilty by either acts of commission for their part in the clergy abuse cover-up or for acts of omission by keeping silent about the egregious sins they, to their disgrace, kept silent about.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

THE Catholic Church in Scotland is facing further turmoil amid reports bishops knew of 20 allegations of child-sex abuse by priests between 1985 and 1995.

Academic Alan Draper was appointed to advise the Church on sexual abuse and how to respond to it in the mid-1990s.

He asked the country’s eight bishops at the time to reveal how much they knew and reports claim responding letters referring to 20 accusations have surfaced.

Mr Draper is understood to have called for independent experts to investigate further, but the bishops disagreed.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Updated March 8, 2013 International Women’s Day

Hypocrite Mahony calls on Christians to “forgive”

Los Angeles Cardinal Mahony who’s now in Rome for the Papal Conclave is enjoying the final moments of the last fading glory of the Vatican Titanic sinking deep in the ocean of moral bankruptcy. In a medieval church he was assigned to say Mass, he dressed in the regalia of a Prince of the Church, and he called on Christians “to embrace forgiveness”. But “Forgiveness” is the Vatican tool of Injustice – and Mahony uses it well as a strategy to segue attention away – from the Vatican Titanic attacked by multiple icebergs made by its own crimes against humanity’s children – to other world problems as gangs, hate crimes and war.

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UTAH
Daily Herald

A former lay minister in southern Utah has been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison on child sexual abuse charges.

Fifth District Judge Wallace Lee imposed the sentence Friday on 65-year-old Kris Lounsbury, who earlier pleaded guilty in the abuse of four young female relatives.

Members of his church congregation were among those who spoke on his behalf at the sentencing hearing in St. George. Lounsbury founded the Living Word Christian Fellowship.

Lounsbury apologized and asked for forgiveness from the victims. He said he prays for them almost every day and “aches inside” when he thinks about the hurt he caused them.

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UNITED STATES
KMAS

George Doyle/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — As the cardinal electors contemplate the merits of their peer group, from which one will likely be named pope, U.S. Catholics said sex abuse is the biggest problem facing the church, according to a new survey.

The survey, from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, found that 34 percent of U.S. Catholics believe sexual abuse is the most pressing problem. However 17 percent of those surveyed said they didn’t know the most important problem or they declined to offer an opinion.

No other answers elicited more than 10 percent of a response.

Credibility was named as the biggest problem by 9 percent of respondents, while an outdated church and a loss of followers garnered 7 percent each.

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UNITED STATES
Times-Standard

Tim Martin/for the Times-Standard
times-standard.com
Posted: 03/10/2013

I’m sure you heard the news. Pope Benedict XVI recently broke with 600 years of tradition and threw in the towel. His resignation, along with blackmail allegations against the Vatican, sexual abuse cover-ups, and advocating for homophobia, has hit the titanic church like an iceberg and is slowly pulling it to the bottom.

The Roman Catholic Church has long had delusions of adequacy. Lately, it’s become clear just how deep and wide the chasm is between Catholicism and the modern world.

When Pope Benedict retired, he left behind a wave of ill-ease and a slew of unresolved crises. Among them are 4,450 priests accused of sexual abuse in the U.S. between 1950 and 2002 — according to a 2004 draft survey for the U.S. Conference of Bishops — that remain oddly unrepentant for their behavior, a clergy that is totally oblivious to the plight of women, and an institution that has little if any relevance to the human race in the 21st century.

It amazes me that Pope Benedict was considered “The Holy Father” during his time as spiritual leader of the church. Especially since he ordered all files on sexual abuse sent to his office, and knew more about the movement of child predators between parishes than anyone. Instead of retiring, Benedict should have resigned over his inability to address the widespread abuse perpetrated by church priests around the world, and the subsequent cover-ups. It would have been the Christian thing to do.

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MAINE
WCSH

[with video]

Danielle Waugh

PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Parishioners in Portland Diocese observed a Day of Prayer and Penance for victims of sexual abuse, a tradition started eleven years ago by Bishop Richard Malone.

“It’s important for Bishop Malone becuase he wanted to constantly be reminded of the fact that we’re always asking for forgiveness, and also always affirming our safe guards that have been put in place,” said Dave Guthro, Communications Director for the Diocese of Portland.

Monsignor Andrew Dubois celebrated mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Wednesday.

Asking for forgiveness and healing, he said the church’s work continues to prevent more cases of abuse.

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HAWAII
Star-Advertiser

By Pat Gee

The Diocese of Hono­lulu remains tight-lipped on recent lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and teachers in Hawaii, but its general response to nationwide scandals that surfaced in the past 10 years has been to acknowledge that violations have occurred, and to offer support to the victims.

The diocese plans to continue to publish an ad that it ran last April in newspapers and parish bulletins statewide, said Patrick Downes, diocese spokes­man and editor of the Hawaii Catholic Herald.

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