ABUSE TRACKER

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Poly Prep settles lawsuit claiming football coach Phil Foglietta sexually abused hundreds of boys

By Michael O’Keeffe / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Poly Prep Country Day School, one of New York’s most prestigious private schools, has agreed to settle a landmark lawsuit claiming its longtime football coach sexually abused hundreds of boys over a 25-year period and that officials covered up the assaults for decades.

The settlement ends a three-year legal and public relations battle that divided parents and alumni and turned the elite Brooklyn school into a symbol of institutional indifference to sexual abuse in youth sports. The explosive suit, filed in 2009, claimed officials at the Dyker Heights prep school knew that coach Phil Foglietta was a sexual predator, but ignored repeated complaints during his 25 years at the school because they didn’t want to jeopardize the institution’s athletic reputation and fund-raising efforts.

Poly Prep officials declined to reveal the details of the settlement in a statement issued on Wednesday.

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NEW YORK
WABC

NEW YORK (WABC) — There is word Thursday that the sex abuse lawsuit involving one of New York City’s most prestigious private schools is over.

Brooklyn’s Poly Prep has reportedly settled the suit claiming a longtime football coach abused hundreds of boys over a 25-year period.

The lawsuit also claimed the administration covered up the abuse.

According to the New York Daily News, terms of the settlement have not been released.

Twelve plaintiffs were seeking $20 million apiece.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The historic clergy abuse case in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia resulted in a guilty plea this year by one priest (see news story), and a church official was convicted of endangering children by protecting the predator priest (see news story).

The trial evidence — a lot of it from the church’s own secret files — exposed sins committed over a period of decades by supposed men of God.

The prosecution presented evidence of a pattern of conduct: predator priests routinely moved from parish to parish, left to attack again, with an endless supply of unwary victims.

“Obviously this has devastated their lives,” says Philadelphia prosecutor Evangelia Manos. “And it really amounts to destruction of a child.”

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UNITED STATES
KTVU

AP and KTVU.com

LOS ANGELES —

Thousands of previously unpublished Boy Scouts of America files that detail suspected sexual abuse by employees and volunteers have been posted online.

The Los Angeles Times published the database containing redacted victims’ names on Tuesday, including material that was released earlier by an Oregon Supreme Court judge’s ruling. The names of the alleged abusers — including doctors, teachers, priests — are included.

The newspaper’s heavily pocked database map depicts alleged incidents of abuse that affected, or in some way connected to, Scouts in every state in the nation, as well as South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

The Boy Scouts kept the files for internal use for nearly a century and have said they’ve improved youth protection policies. The group has conducted criminal background checks on volunteers since 2008. In 2010, the organization mandated any suspected abuse be reported to police.

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UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

By Jessica Naziri and Nell Gram, Los Angeles Times
December 25, 2012

The Times on Tuesday released about 1,200 previously unpublished files kept by the Boy Scouts of America on volunteers and employees expelled for suspected sexual abuse.

The files, which have been redacted of victims’ names and other identifying information, were opened from 1985 through 1991. They can be found in a database along with two decades of files released by order of the Oregon Supreme Court in October. The database also contains summary information on about 3,200 additional files opened from 1947 to 2005 that have not been released publicly.

Together, the material in the database represents the most complete accounting of suspected sexual abuse in the Scouts that has been made public. All of the material was obtained as a result of lawsuits against the Scouts by alleged abuse victims or by media organizations. The Boy Scouts kept the files for nearly a century for internal use only, to keep suspected abusers from rejoining.

DATABASE: Tracking decades of allegations

About as many files were opened in the six years before 1991 as in the previous two decades. At least in part, that reflects greater reporting of accusations, as awareness of child sexual abuse rose in the Scouts and society at large. About that time, the Scouts launched a concerted effort to train youths and adults on how to identify and prevent sexual abuse.

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Robert Gavin

Updated 12:39 pm, Wednesday, December 26, 2012

ALBANY — A Loudonville rabbi who admitted having inappropriate physical contact with two 13-year-old boys in 2007 is being sued by their families for alleged sexual assault.

Yaakov Weiss, the founder of Chabad of Colonie and the Chabad Hebrew School, also is being sued for allegedly defaming the youths when he claimed the allegations were “100% untrue” and concocted by a rival, according to court papers reviewed by the Times Union. Weiss has since been suspended and is no longer affiliated with the Colonie Chabad.

The case is set for trial in Jan. 22 before state Supreme Court Justice Eugene “Gus” Devine, though it could be assigned to another judge.

Weiss complained about the civil lawsuit to a rabbinical tribunal in Rockland County, according to people with knowledge of the situation. That body could potentially excommunicate the parents of the victims for taking the matter outside a religious setting.

Weiss, now 32, was convicted of misdemeanor child endangerment in January 2010 when he admitted he knowingly had inappropriate physical contact with the boys separately while naked in a small pool, known as a mikvah, used for ritual purification.

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ITALY
AGI

(AGI) – Lerici, Dec 26 – A parish priest of Lerici (La Spezia,) father Piero Corsi, said: “The text only had a provocative intent and I wish to apologise to all women who were offended by it.” The parish priest’s statement responded to the growing controversy created by his flyer on violence against women.
Corsi was summoned earlier on Wednesday afternoon by his bishop. . .

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg’s Attacker Charged With 4 Counts Of Assault And Criminal Weapons Possession

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes indicted Meilech Schnitzler today for the bleach assault on Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg which took place the day after Rabbi Nechemya Weberman was convicted of 59 counts of child sexual abuse.

Schnitzler was indicted for Attempted Assault in the First Degree for throwing a cup of bleach in Rosenberg’s face on a Williamsburg street on December 11.

The 37-year-old Schnitzler is charged with two counts of Attempted Assault in the First Degree; Assault in the Second Degree; Assault in the Third Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree.

If convicted on the top charge, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

“This indictment alleges an act of thuggery in broad daylight that cannot be tolerated. The indictment sends a clear message that anyone who would seek to intimidate someone opposed to the uncovering of sexual abuse in the Orthodox community will face serious criminal charges and if convicted, I will ask for the maximum jail time,” Hynes said in a press release.

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ITALIA
Reset Italia

Scoppia la polemica su Don Piero Corsi, che davanti la parrocchia di Lerici ha affisso un manifesto choc sul femminicidio: «Donne facciano sana autocritica. Quante volte provocano?».

Il parroco di Lerici, paesino in provincia di Genova, le affigge in un manifesto sulla bacheca della parracchio e non passano certo inosservate.

Un documento choc in cui oltre ad addossare sul corpo delle donne parte delle responsabilità dei numerosi femminicidi che ci sono stati quest’anno, le si rimprovera di essersi allontanate dalle virtù familiari. E’ una vecchia tesi, quella che il prete ritira fuori. «Donne e ragazze in abiti succinti provocano gli istinti, facciano un sano esame di coscienza: forse ce lo siamo andato a cercare», si legge nel documento.

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ITALIA
la Repubblica

Il parroco di San Terenzo, nel comune di Lerici, pubblica le sue tesi sulla bacheca della chiesa: “Fate un esame di coscienza. Voi provocate gli istinti e vi andate a cercare i guai”. La rezione di Telefono rosa: “Episodio intollerabile: intervenga il Papa. ”

Il femminicidio? Colpa delle donne che “provocano”. Parola del parroco di San Terenzo, un piccolo paese che si affaccia sul golfo della Spezia cantato da poeti di tutto il mondo. In una lettera affissa nella bacheca della Chiesa, don Piero Corsi si scaglia contro le donne e le loro “responsabilità” nel caso di omicidi, stupri e violenze sessuali. La tesi è semplice: “Colpa della donna che provoca con abiti succinti”. Il documento è un estratto dalla lettera apostolica ‘Mulieris dignitatem’ commentata dall’editorialista del sito Pontifex.it

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ITALY
Gazzetta del Sud

Turin, December 26 – A flyer displayed on a church bulletin board by a priest in the northern region of Liguria, and then subsequently posted on the social network Facebook by outraged members of the congregation, has caused an uproar for allegedly “encouraging” violence against women. The priest from the San Terenzo church in the town of Lerici, father Piero Corsi, entitled the leaflet “Women and femicide – healthy self-criticism. How often do they provoke?”. The lengthy discussion written by Corsi asks if men are just “randomly crazy, or are they pushed?”. “The fact is that women are increasingly the cause…and end up exacerbating tensions by leaving children to themselves, keep dirty houses, put cold dishes on the table, buy fast food and provide filthy clothes.

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CONNECTICUT
NC Advertiser

Cristina Commendatore

Last week New Canaan School Superintendent Dr. Mary Kolek sent out a letter to parents informing them a recently released sex offender moved to town. Robert Tate, a former 35-year music director of Christ Church in Greenwich, is now living in a village apartment.

Tate, 70, who served time in federal prison and was previously ordered to join a sex offender treatment program, is living in an apartment on the east end of Elm Street. Tate was originally sentenced to five and a half years in prison in 2008 after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography.

Tate is required to register as a sex offender wherever he works or lives, have monitored Internet usage, and is barred from spending any time alone with children younger than 18 years old — unless a “responsible adult” who is aware of his conviction is present.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The departure from the Curia of the anti-abuse “mastiff” Charles Scicluna is not the end of the fight against the priests involved in abuse

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

The new Vatican “promoter of justice” father Robert Oliver is the advocate of “zero tolerance” in the US archdiocese of Boston. Therefore the Pope is continuing with determination his fight against the scourge of clergy sexual abuses. In fact, today the Vatican has announced the appointment of Reverend Robert Oliver as the promoter of justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He is the current assistant for canonical issues in the diocese of Boston, one of the most affected in the United States by the paedophile priests scandal, that exploded in the United States in the early 2000s.

Rev. Oliver takes the place of Mgr. Charles Scicluna, a leading character in the Pope’s action against clergy sexual abuses, who was recently appointed auxiliary Bishop of Malta and whose movement from the role of promoter of justice in the Congregation had raised some concerns about a possible softening of the fight against the abuses of the clergy, which in Europe reached its apex in recent years, particularly in Ireland, but also in Germany and Belgium. After the appointment as auxiliary Bishop of Malta, Mgr. Scicluna was appointed member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by the Pope, which was a little unusual because Scicluna is not an Archbishop. The appointment of Oliver confirms the determination of Pope Benedict XVI and his line of zero tolerance against the abuses of the clergy, since the new promoter may count on the advice of his predecessor, to the benefit of the fight against abuses.

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UNITED STATES
The Christian Century

Dec 25, 2012

WASHINGTON (RNS) From the nuns to the “nones,” religion dominated the headlines throughout 2012. Faith was a persistent theme in the presidential race, and moral and ethical questions surrounded budget debates, mass killings and an unexpected focus on “religious freedom.”

Here are 10 ways religion made news in 2012: …

10 years later: The long shadow of sexual abuse
As U.S. Catholics marked the 10th anniversary of the clergy sex abuse scandal that erupted in Boston, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was confronted with two landmark criminal convictions: Monsignor William Lynn, found guilty of child endangerment for shuffling abusive priests around the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and Kansas City, Mo., Bishop Robert Finn, convicted of failing to tell police about a priest suspected of sexually exploiting children.

Even as the Penn State abuse scandal showed that abuse is not just a “church problem,” popular Franciscan priest Benedict Groeschel was forced to retract statements that seemed to defend priests who sexually abuse children and blamed some victims for “seducing” them. The chairman of the bishops’ National Review Board warned the prelates: “If there is anything that needs to be disclosed in a diocese, it needs to be disclosed now. No one can no longer claim they didn’t know.”

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UNITED STATES
Religion Newswriters Association

Journalists vote for contraception fight as top 2012 U.S. religion story, pick Catholic bishops’ president as top newsmaker

COLUMBIA, MO—As the nation reeled from the Dec. 14 killing of 20 first graders and six adults in Newtown, Conn., religious leaders sought to console a stunned public and to discern religion’s role in future debates about mental health and gun control.

The No. 1 U.S. religion story in December 2012 was, without a doubt, the school attack and the mournful search for meaning that follows.

However, before the shooting, professional journalists who cover religion voted on the year’s other significant religious events.

The U.S. Catholic bishops’ opposition to national health care legislation mandating contraception coverage was ranked the No. 1 Religion Story of 2012 by members of the Religion Newswriters Association.

Related to the top story, the top religion newsmaker was Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, who became the point man for Catholic objections to required coverage of contraception, sterilization and morning after drugs in Obamacare.

The Top 10 Religion Stories of the Year are below:

1. U.S. Catholic bishops lead opposition to Obamacare requirement that insurance coverage for contraception be provided for employees. The government backs down a bit, but not enough to satisfy the opposition.

2. A Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey shows that “nones” is the fastest-growing religious group in the United States, rising to 19.6 percent of the population.

3. The circulation of an anti-Islam film trailer, “Innocence of Muslims,” causes unrest in several countries, leading to claims that it inspired the fatal attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya. President Obama, at the U.N., calls for toleration tolerance of blasphemy, and respect as a two-way street.

4. Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith turns out to be a virtual non-issue for white evangelical voters, who support him more strongly than they did John McCain, in the U.S. presidential race.

5. Monsignor William Lynn of Philadelphia becomes the first senior Catholic official in the U.S. to be found guilty of covering up priestly child abuse; later Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., becomes the first bishop to be found guilty of it.

6. The Vatican criticizes the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an umbrella group of U.S. nuns, alleging they haven’t supported church teaching on abortion, sexuality or women’s ordination.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

(by Jerry Slevin, retired Wall Street lawyer)

If Nero fiddled while Rome burned; Pope Benedict XVI is tweeting. Christians worldwide have again celebrated the incomprehensible birth of the divine child, Jesus, that changed and still changes history, both for believers and non-believers. A half world away, Sydney’s Cardinal Pell apologized deeply for the Catholic Church’s continuing failures, directly alluding thereby to his unexpected bold admission, earlier this month to Scottish Bishops, of the Church’s continuing failures sufficiently to protect children from sexual violence and to help sexual abuse survivors heal. In Rome, on the other hand, the Pope amazingly tweeted about his childhood nativity set. You can’t make this stuff up!

What is going on? Is Cardinal Pell campaigning against the ruling Vatican clique’s “Omerta” policy on child abuse to try to get elected next pope on a reform platform? Or is he only trying to spin the media in advance of Australia’s royal commission’s personally threatening investigation of the Catholic Church’s role in condoning sexual violence against children? Or both? Is he expecting that this commission’s proceedings and findings will lead to breaking the centuries’ old power grip of secretive Vatican cliques directly on the Catholic hierarchy and indirectly on the worldwide Catholic Church community? Is he also worried about his own personal situation?

Will other Cardinals follow Pell’s apparent lead, now or before the next papal election anticipated to be occurring soon? Separately, what impact might President Obama’s potential actions have now, in light of the imminent Australian efforts, in ending the Vatican’s long standing efforts to cover-up priest sexual abuse of children?

The Pope, of course, is well aware of the abuse Elephant in the Room. Indeed, a few days ago, he shockingly, apparently either arrogantly or obliviously, appointed as chief Vatican prosecutor of predatory priests one of disgraced Boston Cardinal Law’s former canon lawyers, who reportedly has a reputation for going much easier than many canonists on accused predatory priests. Law’s “man” will replace the last prosecutor who got “promoted out” of Rome after unexpectedly and publicly announcing on child abuse matters that the Vatican administration operates under a code of silence, or “Omerta”, as it is also called in the Godfather movies.

Please tell President Obama to try to stop this endless Vatican evasion by setting up a special U.S. commission now to investigate all organizational sexual abuse, not just in the Catholic Church, and to identify suitable Federal responses. Please click on and read, then sign, the short petition at: http://wh.gov/5aAQ

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Catholic Insider

As we get to the end of the year, BCI is catching up on some news from the fall we never got to cover. Today, we give an update regarding the “financial transparency” or lack thereof of the Boston Archdiocese under newly appointed Chancellor/Chief Financial Officer, John Straub.

Straub was serving as interim chancellor after previous Chancellor Jim McDonough left, and Straub was officially given the job in early October. When he was interviewed by the Boston Globe, Straub said:

“the Archdiocese had come a long way both with financial stability and financial transparency” and one of his goals would be to “continue to maintain that stability and transparency and enhance it where we can.”

Straub said that when Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley took the helm of the archdiocese in 2003 the church was financially “hemorrhaging.” Now, he said, “I would suggest we’ve reached a very stable point.”

“Maintaining that stability is a challenge for any organization,” he said, but he also noted that “the goal is never just to be stable, the goal is to be thriving.”

We have three points today.
1.If Mr. Straub wants to continue to maintain the financial transparency that was in place prior to his arrival, we suggest that he should post the 2012-2013 Central Ministries operating budget on the archdiocesan website, as has been done in years past but has not been done this year. This lets faithful Catholics know exactly how and where their donations are being spent.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Luke Byrne

Wednesday December 26 2012

RELIGIOUS orders that owe the State millions in reparations for child sex abuse continue to receive hundreds of thousands of euro in charitable donations.

A survey conducted by the Irish Independent has revealed how organisations shamed by sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have continued to receive support.

All are eligible to claim tax relief because their religious status guarantees official charitable recognition.

Under the 2002 indemnity agreement, the orders were asked to pay €128m to the State.

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HOLYOKE (MA)
WWLP

Updated: Tuesday, 25 Dec 2012

Ryan Walsh

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – Friends of Mater Dolorosa Church in Holyoke spent their Christmas morning singing and praying that their church will re-open in the new year.

Mater Dolorosa Church closed in June 2011.

Parishioners spent more than a year protesting the closure by holding a round the clock vigil inside the church.

That stopped in June when the Vatican’s high court told protesters to leave the church, but said they will hear the parishioners appeal to re-open the church.

Victor Anop, Chairperson of the Friends of Mater Dolorosa, told 22News he was encouraged by today’s turnout.

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WORCESTER (MA)
WBUR

By The Associated Press
December 25, 2012

WORCESTER, Mass. – A Roman Catholic priest who was indicted in Massachusetts on child pornography and larceny charges is spending Christmas in jail.

The Telegram & Gazette reports the Rev. Lowe Dongor was ordered held on $500,000 cash bail after pleading not guilty at his arraignment on Monday in Worcester Superior Court.

Dongor was assigned to St. Joseph’s parish in Fitchburg when he was initially charged in 2011. Prosecutors said child pornography was found on his computer, and he was also accused of stealing from the church’s weekly collection.

Authorities say Dongor later fled to his native Phillipines. He returned to the U.S. last month and surrendered to authorities

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FITCHBURG (MA)
CBS Boston

FITCHBURG (CBS) – A Fitchburg priest is being held of $500,000 cash bail after appearing in court Monday on child porn and larceny charges.

Thirty-five-year-old Father Lowe Dongor was removed from public ministry in July after he was accused of having explicit images of preteen girls on his computer.

Dongor fled to the Philippines but was extradited back to the United States and re-arrested earlier this month.

Investigators also say Dongor was stealing money from St. Joseph Parish.

Dongor is due back in court on January 3.

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HOLYOKE (MA)
The Republican

By Jeanette DeForge, The Republican
on December 24, 2012

HOLYOKE — Friends of Mater Dolorosa will hold a Christmas prayer event at 11 a.m. on Christmas in front of the closed Mater Dolorosa Church at Maple and Lyman streets.

The group, which has appealed the decision of the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, to the Vatican, held a round-the-clock vigil inside the church for more than a year to protest the closing of the church and the merger of its parish with that of Holy Cross Church. The new parish, called Our Lady of the Cross, worships at the former Holy Cross Church on Sycamore Street.

Protesters decided to end the vigil in June after the Apostolic Signatura, which is the Vatican’s supreme court, agreed to hear the appeal but told protesters to leave the church and ordered the bishop to refrain from destroying or selling the building.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

Keith Moor
From:Herald Sun
December 25, 2012

DEAD paedophile priest Father Anthony Bongiorno is the only suspect in the 1980 murder of Thornbury bookshop owner Maria James who hasn’t been cleared by DNA.

His sister has refused to provide police with her DNA so her brother can either be linked to the death or eliminated from a new probe into the unsolved killing.

Ms James’s son Mark yesterday urged police to dig up the disgraced Catholic priest’s body so DNA can be extracted from it.

“There is enough circumstantial evidence that he was involved in the murder of my mother to warrant his body being exhumed,” Mr James said.

He said he told his mother Father Bongiorno had attempted to lure him into the parish headquarters with chocolate bars and he believed his mother later confronted the family priest with the paedophilia allegations.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Donna Boynton TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
dboynton@telegram.com

WORCESTER — The former Fitchburg priest who fled to his native Philippines after he was charged with child pornography was arraigned in Worcester Superior Court Monday, weeks after he surrendered to federal authorities.

Rev. Lowe B. Dongor, 36, pleaded not guilty to possession of child pornography and larceny of more than $250 during his arraignment in Worcester Superior Court. The petite priest, dressed all in black, answered a strong “not guilty” after each of the two charges was read by Judge Richard Tucker.

Judge Tucker ordered Rev. Dongor, the Diocese of Worcester’s first Filipino priest, held on $500,000 cash bail or $5 million with surety. …

Raymond Delisle, spokesman for the Worcester Diocese, said he did not believe the diocese was providing for Rev. Dongor’s legal counsel. Rev. Dongor qualified for a public defender and was represented by Anthony Salerno yesterday.

Mr. Salerno said the priest turned himself in to the FBI in the Philippines and was arrested Dec. 10 by Los Angeles police. Rev. Dongor turned over all his travel documents to the FBI in Los Angeles when he returned to the U.S. earlier this month.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester

December 20, 2012, WORCESTER, MA — Following a complete audit of its financial accounting, the Diocese of Worcester has issued online and printed editions of the annual report detailing activities for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2012. In his letter, the Most Rev. Robert J. McManus, S.T.D., Bishop of Worcester, wrote that “our financial reports demonstrate that we have been good stewards of the donations we have received either directly or through our parishes.” The audited report showed an operating surplus of $109,804 after expenses totaling $26,037,091 for 2012 compared to a deficit of $315,690 the previous year on expenses totaling $27,016,336. Given the reduction of nearly $1 million in expenses, the bishop’s letter noted that “the various departments in our central administration exercised tight fiscal controls in order to operate within their budgets.”

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Bronislaus B. Kush TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
bkush@telegram.com

WORCESTER — The Diocese of Worcester — fighting off the downside impact of a sluggish economy — did some penny pinching and managed to turn around its finances during the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31.

An independent audit by O’Connor, Maloney & Co. P.C. of Worcester showed that the local Roman Catholic Church finished last fiscal year with an operating surplus of $109,804 after expenses that totaled $26,037,091.

That’s a marked change from last year, when the diocese incurred a $315,690 deficit on expenses totaling $27,016,336.

Diocesan officials said bills were cut by nearly $1 million, thanks to department heads who exercised tight fiscal control over their separate budgets.

Bishop Robert J. McManus said the audit demonstrated that the diocesan officials have been “good stewards” of the donations made directly to the chancery or through the parishes.

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo! News

By Barbara Goldberg | Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Experts say 2012 was a year of unparalleled justice for child sex abuse victims, but whether the string of high-profile convictions will translate into a turning point for juvenile safety remains to be seen.

The year’s headlines heralded the criminal convictions of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, Monsignor William Lynn of the Catholic Church’s Philadelphia Archdiocese and ultra-Orthodox Jewish therapist Nechemya Weberman, a prominent figure in New York’s Satmar Hasidic sect.

Sandusky, 68, was sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars for raping and molesting 10 boys, some in the campus football showers. Lynn, 61, was ordered to prison for up to six years for covering up for pedophile priests. Weberman, 54, faces up to 25 years’ imprisonment when he is sentenced on January 9 for sexually abusing a girl during counseling sessions.

Each conviction hinged on the testimony of victims brave enough to shatter years of silence surrounding the abuse. Each verdict was reached by a jury determined to decide fairly in the shadow of a revered institution that, at best, ignored the crimes, sometimes for years.

“2012 is a landmark in the drive to reduce and deter community-based abuse,” said Marci Hamilton, a law professor at Yeshiva University and an advocate for victims of clergy sex crimes.

“The key here is modern-day courage,” Hamilton said. “It took extraordinary courage for survivors to break ranks from their communities and accuse those inside the community.”

Decades of secretiveness have shrouded child sex abuse within institutions that turned a blind eye, said David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Mon, 12/24/2012

Shmuel Herzfeld

The media has reported serious accusations against two former employees of Yeshiva University’s High School (known as MTA), Rabbi Macy Gordon, a Talmud teacher, and Rabbi George Finkelstein, the principal.

According to reports in The Forward and The New York Times, currently a total of 14 former students have said that there was inappropriate sexual abuse by these educators, going back two to three decades. Some of the students claim that they brought their complaints to Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, who was then President of the University. These complaints were ignored for a long time until finally, these men were let go, but they were allowed to keep their reputations intact and thus continue in their careers as Jewish educators.

I went to MTA from 1988 to1992, and during that time Rabbi Finkelstein was first assistant principal and was then promoted to principal. I never felt any abuse from Rabbi Finkelstein, thankfully, but then again I stayed far away from him. Even at that time, I remember hearing students say that all was not kosher with his behavior. Although I don’t know enough to say that these accusations are accurate, I can say that I was not surprised to read them in the Forward.

If Rabbis Finkelstein and Gordon did what they are accused of then they deserve to be punished. But there is another story here as well – not regarding whether Yeshiva University acted inappropriately in its past behavior with respect to Rabbis Gordon and Finkelstein. We now know that they certainly did.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By Rachel Monahan / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, December 24, 2012

More victims of two creepy rabbis at Yeshiva University’s high school have come forward with claims that the shocking sexual misconduct spanned more than two decades and affected at least a dozen students.

The alleged abuse, by former principal Rabbi George Finkelstein, started as early as 1972 and continued until the mid-1990s, the Jewish newspaper the Forward revealed after 11 more former students stepped forward.

Three more former students said they suffered at the hands of Talmud teacher Rabbi Macy Gordon, who, in one case, allegedly penetrated a boy using a device from a medical cabinet — an eerie parallel to a previous revelation.

“I have a very strong feeling that Finkelstein should be punished even though he’s old,” Ivan Hartstein, 48 and a 1982 graduate at the school, told the Daily News, while also calling for for Yeshiva University to explain how the abuse was covered up.

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NEDERLAND
Metro

Slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk hebben in het afgelopen jaar bijna allemaal een schadevergoeding gekregen. In totaal is er voor enkele miljoenen euro’s uitgekeerd. Dat zei Wim Deetman, voorzitter van de commissie die onderzoek deed naar de misstanden, dinsdag op Radio 1.

De bedragen verschillen per slachtoffer, benadrukte Deetman. Volgens hem zijn er kleine en grote gevallen. Deetman kan geen taxatie geven waar het uiteindelijke bedrag op uitkomt. Volgens hem is nu het belangrijkste dat de kerk ‘enigszins iets goed kan maken’ en daarmee ‘in het reine kan komen’.

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NEDERLAND
NOS

Audio Het is een jaar geleden dat het eindrapport van de commissie-Deetman over seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk is gepresenteerd. Hoe is het nu, met de slachtoffers en met de kerk? Daarover een gesprek met Wim Deetman.

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NEDERLAND
NRC

door Pim van den Dool

Slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk hebben in het afgelopen jaar bijna allemaal een schadevergoeding gekregen. In totaal is er voor enkele miljoenen euro’s uitgekeerd. Dat zei Wim Deetman, voorzitter van de commissie die onderzoek deed naar de misstanden, vanochtend op Radio 1.

De bedragen verschillen per slachtoffer, benadrukte Deetman. Volgens hem zijn er kleine en grote gevallen. Deetman kan geen taxatie geven waar het uiteindelijke bedrag op uitkomt. Volgens hem is nu het belangrijkste dat de kerk “enigszins iets goed kan maken” en daarmee “in het reine kan komen”.

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NEDERLAND
BNR

Door Melvin Captein
2012-12-25

In totaal hebben slachtoffers van misbruik in de katholieke kerk het afgelopen jaar enkele miljoenen euro’s aan schadevergoeding ontvangen. Bijna alle slachtoffers zijn daarmee vergoed.

Dat zegt voorzitter van de onderzoekscommissie Wim Deetman tegenover Radio 1. Uit het rapport dat Deetman indiende bleek dat tussen 1945 en 1981 zo’n tien- tot twinitigduizend kinderen slachtoffer zijn geworden van seksueel misbruik door geestelijken.

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NEDERLAND
Elsevier

Een groot deel van de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik binnen de katholieke kerk heeft een schadevergoeding ontvangen. In totaal is voor enkele miljoenen euro’s aan vergoeding uitgekeerd.

Dat zei Wim Deetman, voorzitter van de gelijknamige commissie die onderzoek deed naar misbruik binnen de katholieke kerk, op radio 1.

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NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

DEN HAAG (ANP) – Veel slachtoffers van het seksuele misbruik van kinderen in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk hebben in het afgelopen jaar een schadevergoeding gekregen. Er is in totaal enkele miljoenen euro’s betaald. Dat heeft Wim Deetman, de voorzitter van de commissie die het misbruik heeft onderzocht, dinsdag gezegd op Radio 1.

Een commissie onder leiding van een oud-rechter uit Den Bosch beslist over de schadevergoedingen. De raad kijkt onder meer naar het bewijs en naar de schade die iemand heeft geleden. Sommige mensen krijgen een klein bedrag, anderen hebben veel geld ontvangen, aldus Deetman. Hij verwacht dat de commissie eind 2013 of halverwege 2014 klaar is met haar werk.

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WORCESTER (MA)
NECN

[with video]

(NECN: Mike Cronin) – On Monday, Lowe Dongor plead not guilty to charges of child pornography possession and larceny over $250.

The 36-year-old man was a priest at St. Joseph’s Parish in Fitchburg, Mass.

The state says pornographic images were found on church computers when they were sent out for regular maintenance in June 2011.

“During the course of that review, they noted images consistent with child pornography, young girls approximately 10, 11, and 12 years old on this defendant’s computer,” Courtney Sans, prosecutor, said.

State police interviewed Dongor shortly afterwards. Sans says he then admitted to possessing the pornography.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Sentinel and Enterprise

By Jack Minch, jminch@sentinelandenterprise.comsenlandenterprise.com
Posted: 12/25/2012

WORCESTER — A priest who fled the country after being charged with possession of child pornography and stealing from his Fitchburg church, was arraigned in Worcester Superior Court Monday.

Judge Richard Tucker ordered the Rev. Lowe Dongor held on $500,000 cash bail or $5 million surety.

If he makes bail, Dongor must stay away from St. Joseph Church and children under 16 years old. He is also forbidden from using the Internet, said Paul Jarvey, spokesman for District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.

The FBI tracked Dongor to his native Philippines, where he was arrested and extradited to Los Angeles on Dec. 10, then sent back to Massachusetts.

The Diocese of Worcester offices were closed for the Christmas holiday, so nobody was available for comment Monday.

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BOSTON (MA)
Catholic Culture

A Boston priest has been named the Vatican’s top prosecutor in sex-abuse cases.

Father Robert Oliver, who has been an assistant for canonical affairs in the Boston archdiocese, will become the “promoter of justice” at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He replaces Msgr. Charles Scicluna, who had established a reputation for toughness in sex-abuse investigations before he was appointed an auxiliary bishop in his native Malta.

The appointment of a Boston priest drew some criticism from spokesmen for groups representing sex-abuse victims, who pointed out the Father Oliver had advised Cardinal Bernard Law, who was forced to resign as Archbishop of Boston because of revelations that he had covered up evidence of sexual abuse. But Father Oliver began advising the cardinal only after those offenses had been brought to light.

“We don’t have evidence that Father Oliver helped conceal clergy sex crimes in Boston,” admitted David Clohessy of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a group that has been invariably critical of Church leadership. “But likewise there’s no evidence whatsoever that he tried to chart a new course.” Actually Father Oliver did chart a new course in Boston, helping to draft the new sex-abuse policies that the archdiocese adopted in 2003, after Cardinal Law’s departure.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Online

Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
12/24/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Incendiary atheist will say anything to get attention.

According to the infamous atheist, Richard Dawkins, growing up Catholic is a form of child abuse worse than sexual abuse. Go ahead and reread that, and let it sit for awhile.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Dawkins made his outrageous claim in an interview on Al Jazeera. His interviewer, Mehdi Hasan asked him to clarify previous comments he has made that religion equates to child abuse. Dawkins explained, “Horrible as sexual abuse no doubt was, the damage was arguably less than the long-term psychological damage inflicted by bringing the child up Catholic in the first place.”

Hasan followed up, “You believe that being bought up as a Catholic is worse than being abused by a priest?”

Dawkins answered, “There are shades of being abused by a priest, and I quoted an example of a woman in America who wrote to me saying that when she was seven years old she was sexually abused by a priest in his car. At the same time a friend of hers, also seven, who was of a Protestant family, died, and she was told that because her friend was Protestant she had gone to Hell and will be roasting in Hell forever. She told me of those two abuses, she got over the physical abuse; it was yucky but she got over it. But the mental abuse of being told about Hell, she took years to get over.”

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CANADA
CBC

A Montreal-area deacon facing child pornography charges will spend Christmas in jail after his bail hearing was pushed back.

William Kokesch, 65, was arrested Friday morning and charged with distribution and production of child pornography.

Kokesch was silent during a brief court appearance in Montreal on Monday. His bail hearing was rescheduled for Dec. 27.

The Pointe-Claire resident was a deacon for the St-Edmund of Canterbury parish in Beaconsfield on Montreal’s West Island.

He also worked as a communications director for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and helped co-ordinate World Youth Day conferences in Toronto, Rome and Paris, according to the organization’s website.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

By Karen Seidman, THE GAZETTE
December 24, 2012

MONTREAL — Church deacon William Kokesch will spend Christmas behind bars after his bail hearing was postponed until Thursday during an appearance in court Monday morning.

Kokesch, 65, is facing pornography charges after he was arrested on Friday and charged with distribution and production of child pornography.

A prominent deacon of St. Edmund of Canterbury Parish in Beaconsfield, police made the arrest after searching his Pointe Claire home and the church.

The Archdiocese of Montreal announced on Saturday it immediately removed Kokesch from all ministry and pastoral activity.

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CANADA
CTV

[with video]

Published Monday, Dec. 24, 2012

MONTREAL—At the Montreal courthouse on Christmas Eve, former West Island deacon William Kokesch learned that his bail hearing was delayed and he would spend the holidays behind bars.

Kokesch was arrested on Friday by the Montreal police at his Pointe-Claire home and charged with the production and possession of child pornography. Police alleged that over 2,000 pornographic photos were found on the man’s home computer.

With his bail postponed until Dec. 27, Kokesch also announced on Monday that he had taken on the services of high-profile lawyer Jeffrey Boro.

The 65-year-old was a consultant for the Catholic Church in St-Edmund’s parish for the past seven year and was the spokesman for Canadian Conference of Bishops until 2006.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Donna Boynton TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
dboynton@telegram.com

WORCESTER — The Rev. Lowe B. Dongor pleaded not guilty to possession of child pornography and larceny of more than $250 during his arraignment in Worcester Superior Court this morning.

Rev. Dongor, who worked at St. Joseph Parish in Fitchburg until his arrest last year, was ordered held on $500,000 cash bail or $5 million with surety by Judge Richard Tucker.

Rev. Dongor — the Diocese of Worcester’s first Filipino priest — was assigned to St. Joseph’s Parish in Fitchburg when the child pornography allegedly was found on his computer. When he was being questioned by police, he confessed to stealing $40 to $60 each week from the weekly collection over a period of months and wiring that money to his family in the Philippines, Prosecutor Courtney Sans said.

He was charged with possession of child pornography and larceny of more than $250 in Fitchburg District Court in September 2011 and was released on personal recognizance. At that time he was ordered to have no contact with the church, no contact with children, and no access to computers or the Internet.

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UNITED STATES
Irish Central

By
DARA KELLY,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Monday, December 24, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a Boston priest as the Vatican’s new sexual crimes prosecutor.

The Vatican said that Rev. Robert W. Oliver, who handled sexual abuse cases in the Roman Catholic Church in Boston at the height of the scandal, would be “the promoter of justice” at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal office that reviews all abuse cases.

“It is with deep humility and gratitude that I received the news that the Holy Father is entrusting me with this service to the church,” said Father Oliver, in a statement released by the Archdiocese of Boston.

Father Oliver will succeed Msgr. Charles Scicluna, 53, who was promoted to auxiliary bishop in Malta in October.

Father Oliver was among the canon lawyers brought in to advise Cardinal Bernard F. Law on sexual abuse cases in Boston in 2002 and was responsible for investigating charges against accused priests when the cardinal was forced to resign after it was revealed that he had kept abusive priests working in parishes.

In 2003, he helped write a new abuse prevention policy for the archdiocese.

However, abuse victim advocates are criticizing Oliver’s new appointment.

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of a watchdog group called Bishop Accountability, told The New York Times, “Reverend Oliver is a champion of accused priests, which obviously does not bode well for the job he will do as promoter of justice.”

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AUSTRALIA
Radio New Zealand

The head of the Roman Catholic church in Australia, Archbishop George Pell, has used his Christmas message to apologise to all those who’ve suffered at the hands of Christian priests and teachers.

He said he, too, felt shock and shame at the revelations of such crimes and wrongdoing.

He says it goes against the teachings of Jesus and Christians need faith in God’s goodness and love to cope with these disasters.

Where there is evil, there is less peace, says the Archbishop.

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UNITED STATES
The Legal Examiner

Posted by Joe Saunders
December 23, 2012

Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Rev. Robert W. Oliver, a Boston canon lawyer, to be the “Promoter of Justice” at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in Rome. A major portion of the job of the Promoter of Justice is the supervision of the Church’s internal investigation and prosecution of Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children.

After the Pope’s announcement, Rev. Oliver got a no confidence vote from one of Boston’s leading child protection advocates. Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-Director of Bishop Accountability, commented to the New York Times that: “Rev Oliver is a champion of accused priests, which obviously does not bode well for the job he will do as the promoter of justice.”

Boston was the epicenter of the public disclosure of the worldwide scandal of Catholic priests sexually abusing children. The Boston Globe newspaper series documented an extensive cover up of pedophile priests by Cardinal Bernard Law. The cover up of the priests who sexually abused children involved the protection of the priests from criminal prosecution by civil legal authorities and moving the priests to other parishes where more children could be victimized. Rev. Oliver was brought into Boston in 2002 when Cardinal Law was removed from his post in Boston and moved to Rome.

Anne Barrett Doyle and Bishop Accountability have carefully followed and documented the Catholic priest abuse scandal for over a decade and have a reputation as an independent watchdog for the protection of children. Ms. Doyle and Bishop Accountability leveled specific criticisms of Rev. Oliver’s work in Boston that raise concerns about whether he will make the protection of children his top priority. For example, Rev. Oliver cleared 45% of accused priests in Boston when statistics across the country show that about 10% of accused priests in other dioceses are cleared. Rev. Oliver also made it easier for accused priests to stay in ministry and harder for abuse survivors to obtain church records.

Bishop Accountability has worked tirelessly to protect children and would have supported a choice by the Vatican that was supported by the factual record. Bishop Accountability has created a worldwide registry of pedophile priests. The Vatican has failed and refused to make a comprehensive list of pedophile priests public, a job that has fallen to Bishop Accountability by default. After 10 years in Boston, Rev. Oliver has made no efforts to call Cardinal Law to justice for covering up abuse of children. He has focused only on reviewing whether there is proof against individual priests. In fact, Cardinal Law got in essence a promotion to head a basilica in Rome when he should, in my opinion, be in prison.

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AUSTRALIA/UNITED KINGDOM
The Conversation

Judy Courtin

With the year’s end tantalisingly close, Australia awaits the announcement of the Federal government’s terms of reference for the national Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

The nature and breadth of these sex crimes and their alleged concealment is expected to be profound. As Australia prepares for its national inquiry, England is reeling from sexual abuse allegations “on an unprecedented scale”. A joint report, due early 2013, by the Metropolitan Police and the children’s charity, NSPCC, will reveal the findings of their ten-week investigation into the former BBC celebrity, Jimmy Savile. Savile faced multiple allegations of child sex offences before his death, but no prosecutions.

The head of this investigation, Commander Peter Spindler, revealed an astonishing 450 people have made sexual abuse allegations against Savile. Although this “scoping exercise”, named Operation Yewtree, into the alleged assaults by Savile has been completed, police continue investigations into the allegations of another 139 victims of alleged sexual assaults committed by other high profile celebrities in the UK.

What do the Australian Royal Commission into religious institutions and the English investigations into high profile celebrities have in common?

First, the majority of the crimes being dealt with are historic in that, broadly, they were committed between the 1960s and the 1990s.

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CANADA
RT

A deacon known to be strong critic of the way the Catholic Church has dealt with sex abuse by the clergy is to appear in front of a judge on charges of producing and distributing child pornography.

­The sixty-five year-old, William Kokesch of St. Edmund of Canterbury Parish in Beaconsfield, was arrested Friday after police carried out searches at his house and church, securing more than 2,000 files on his computer as well as messages left on chat-room sites.

Following the news of his arrest, the Archdiocese of Montreal has immediately banned him from pastoral activity, saying in a statement that “child pornography is an affront to human dignity, and our first concern rests with those who are its victims.”

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

(by Jerry Slevin, retired Wall Street lawyer)

WHERE DOES THE VATICAN NOW STAND?

Major new political developments worldwide affecting the Vatican may quickly lead to long overdue changes in its flawed child protection strategy. Two important and informed Cardinals, Martini and Pell, one a former, and the other a present, rumored contender to be elected pope, surprisingly and publicly admitted recently, reportedly, that the Catholic Church’s decades’ old priest child abuse scandal had still not been resolved and would continue to harm the Church, and presumably more innocent children and suffering survivors as well, unless reforms were effected.

Cardinal Martini, who died in September and had been a highly regarded Jesuit scriptural scholar and a very popular head of Italy’s largest diocese, Milan, also noted in August as part of his final description of the Vatican’s strategic failure to protect children sufficiently, that ” … the church bureaucracy rises up …”, clearly pointing his finger at the secretive and powerful Vatican administrative clique within Pope Benedict XVI’s administration, also called the Curia.

The new shocking announcement that one of Cardinal Law’s former Boston canon lawyers is to be the new Vatican prosecutor on priest child abuse cases just reinforces these Cardinals’ recent negative assessments of the Vatican’s current flawed strategy. Cardinal Law fled to the Vatican in 2004 apparently to escape the fallout from the explosive 2002 Boston Archdiocesean priest child abuse revelations. Cardinal Law’s former subordinate replaces the Vatican’s chief prosecutor, who was recently “promoted out” to Malta following his “bombshell” public statement confirming the harmful influence of a pervasive Vatican code of silence, or in Mafia terminology, “Omerta”, on child abuse matters.

Also surprisingly, in one fateful and unprecedented week last month, Catholic laity concerned about children in different parts of the world directly rejected clear Vatican signals by supporting the re-election of President Barack Obama in the USA, and the establishment of a special national child sexual abuse investigation commission by Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Australia. And now the Philippine legislature has just approved a very popular law to make contraception affordably accessible there, despite strong Vatican opposition.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

The year 2012 gave us one of the biggest living proofs of Pope Crimes and Vatican Evils and Catholic Injustice in the glorious retirement of Cardinal Bernard Law – and it also gave us the proof of the goodness and justice system of Secularism – in the punishment of the late Joe Paterno at Penn State University. All measures of judgement on the most heinous crimes of pedophiles against children should study and remember these men-one a “Prince of the Vatican Catholic Church” (it’s no longer RCC Roman Catholic Church because Rome is a secular city of Italy…while the Vatican is the Holy See that controls Catholics worldwide) and the other a football coach, read their stories below. Cardinal Bernard Law is the living proof of the most corrupt system of injustice in the world of the Vatican Sacrament of Confession that protects criminals and persecutes their victims, read here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/11/sacrament-of-confession-protects.html

How Cardinal Bernard Law can continue to be a Cardinal, let alone a priest, after he admitted that he transferred from one parish to another – EIGHTY (80) Pedophile priests is beyond good reason and it shows the fanaticism of Catholics who tolerate such Pope Crimes and Vatican Evils and Catholic Injustice. Catholics are like those medieval people who obeyed their king no matter what crimes he committed and they cheered on the public squares as they see people being beheaded at the order of the King. Likewise today, Catholics allow Cardinals, Bishops and pedophile priests to continue performing the Magic of the Eucharist despite knowing the crimes they have committed against children.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – The St. Louis-based director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is reacting to Pope Benedict XVI’s pick for a new sex crimes prosecutor.

David Clohessy says Father Robert Oliver was an adviser to Cardinal Bernard Law on the Boston sex abuse cases and says the appointment of anyone with ties to Cardinal Law is problematic in his mind.

“This just rubs even more salt into the already very deep and oftentimes still fresh wounds of thousands and thousands of betrayed Catholics and wounded victims,” Clohessy said.

Oliver continued advising the Archdiocese of Boston after Cardinal Law was forced to resign in 2002 amid an uproar over revelations that the cardinal had kept abusive priests working in parishes.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

Victims’ support groups say the Catholic Church could be preparing to acknowledge its involvement in historic child sexual abuse in Australia after Cardinal George Pell apologised to those who ‘‘suffered at the hands’’ of priests.

In a Christmas message, the Australian church’s most senior cleric said he was ‘‘deeply sorry’’ for the hurt that had occurred, describing it as ‘‘completely contrary’’ to Christ’s teachings.

But he stopped short of specifically mentioning allegations of child sex abuse by members of the clergy.

‘‘I feel too the shock and shame across the community at these revelations of wrongdoing and crimes,’’ Cardinal Pell said.

His apology came after the federal government this year announced a royal commission to the response of institutions, including the church, to cases of child sexual abuse in Australia.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

An apology made by Australia’s most senior Catholic to those who suffered abuse at the hands of priests has been labelled a ‘minimal response’ by a child sexual abuse victims group.

In his Christmas message, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell said he was ‘deeply sorry’ for the hurt that had occurred, calling it ‘completely contrary’ to Christ’s teachings.

But he did not specifically mention allegations of child sex abuse by members of the clergy, only those who ‘suffered at the hands’ of fellow Christians, Christian officials, priests and religious teachers.

Adults Surviving Child Abuse president Dr Cathy Kezelman said the Catholic Church needed to be more transparent and forthright about its role in the abuse of children over the years.

‘It’s an absolutely minimal response to express regret,’ she told AAP on Monday.

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AUSTRALIA
The New Age

Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric on Monday apologised to those who “suffered at the hands” of priests and religious teachers, in a Christmas message issued after a turbulent year for the Church.

In the video message broadcast on television, Sydney Archbishop George Pell said he was shocked and ashamed, following a series of paedophile allegations against priests and claims they were hushed up….

Pell’s Christmas message drew mixed reactions from victim support groups, with some saying it represented a “major shift” in the Church’s position while others said it did not go far enough.

“It’s pleasing that he’s opening up his heart to these people,” Wayne Chamley, spokesperson for victims support group Broken Rites, told ABC television.

“They seem to now appreciate the scale of it. I don’t think we’ve seen a statement in the past which was reflecting on the scale of what’s gone on.”

But Adults Surviving Child Abuse president Cathy Kezelman called it “an absolutely minimal response to express regret”.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

By Karen Seidman, THE GAZETTE
December 23, 2012

They may be deaf and mute, but a group of about 200 alleged victims of sexual abuse by a Roman Catholic teaching order who gathered for a demonstration on a frigid Sunday afternoon were able to communicate a powerful message.

In view of their plight, they asked that as people gather in their local Catholic churches for midnight mass on Christmas Eve, that they not donate money to the collection plate as it is passed around.

“Until the Catholic Church acknowledges the abuse that has occurred, until it tries to repair the damage that was done, we think people should stop giving money that will just be used to pay for expensive lawyers who help the church deny these allegations and protect pedophile priests,” said France Bédard, founder of a not-for-profit support group, the Association des victimes de prêtres, which aims to help people who say they were abused by members of religious orders. She said she herself was raped by a priest as a teenager.

“This is the biggest payday of the year for the church,” said Carlo Tarini, a spokesperson for the group. “We are calling for a worldwide boycott of these collection plates to send a clear message to the Catholic Church. People should donate to Centraide or the United Way instead.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Lurgan Mail

Published on Monday 24 December 2012

THE anonymity of a former Lurgan priest who was convicted of indecently assaulting a young girl in the County Armagh area has been lifted. He has been named as Fr Terence Rafferty.

A former Administrator at Newry Cathedral, Fr Rafferty, whose address was given as Chestnut Grove, Newry, was convicted at Craigavon Crown Court on Monday of four counts of indecent assault relating to offences in 2001.

Sitting before Judge Patrick Lynch, five other offences of indecent assault between December 2000 and January 2002 were left on the books.

The victim was a minor at the time.

Details of the case were only released last Thursday after a court ban protecting the 50-year-old priest’s identity was lifted.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Radio Australia

[with video]

Catholic Cardinal George Pell has used his Christmas message to apologise to those who have been sexually abused by Christians.

Cardinal Pell says he is shocked and ashamed by the abuse suffered at the hands of priests and teachers.

He says it goes against the teachings of Jesus and Christians need faith in God’s goodness and love to cope with these disasters.

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AUSTRALIA
MSN

Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric on Monday apologised to those who “suffered at the hands” of priests and religious teachers after a turbulent year for the Church.

Sydney Archbishop George Pell said he was shocked and ashamed, following a series of paedophile allegations against priests and claims that they were hushed up.

In his Christmas message, Pell said his heart went out to “all those who cannot find peace at this time, especially those who have suffered at the hands of fellow Christians, Christian officials, priests, religious teachers”.

“I am deeply sorry this has happened,” he added.

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AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
24 Dec 2012

Like every other priest and bishop I bring Christ’s message of peace and goodness once again this Christmas. Where there is evil, there is less peace, sometimes no peace.

My heart, the hearts of all believers, of all people of good will go out to all those who cannot find peace at this time, especially those who have suffered at the hands of fellow Christians; Christian officials, priests, religious, teachers.

I am deeply sorry this has happened. It is completely contrary to Christ’s teachings and I feel too the shock and shame across the community at these revelations of wrong doing and crimes.

We need our faith in God’s goodness and love to cope with these disasters, to help those who have been hurt. We need the hope that comes to us from Christ’s birth with his call to conversion, to sorrow for sins and the necessity of reparation.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

AN apology made by Australia’s most senior Catholic to those who suffered abuse at the hands of priests has been labelled a “minimal response” by a child sexual abuse victims group.

In his Christmas message, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell said he was “deeply sorry” for the hurt that had occurred, calling it “completely contrary” to Christ’s teachings.

But he did not specifically mention allegations of child sex abuse by members of the clergy, only those who “suffered at the hands” of fellow Christians, Christian officials, priests and religious teachers.

Adults Surviving Child Abuse president Dr Cathy Kezelman said the Catholic Church needed to be more transparent and forthright about its role in the abuse of children over the years.

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AUSTRALIA
Brimbank Weekly

By Nicole Hasham
Dec. 24, 2012

The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, has apologised to “those who have suffered at the hands of fellow Christians” in his first Christmas message since the federal government announced a royal commission on child sex abuse.

Cardinal Pell, who said last month that the royal commission would help decipher real claims from “significant exaggeration”, did not address the sex abuse claims directly, but said he felt the “shock and shame across the community at these revelations of wrongdoing and crimes”.

“My heart will go out to all those who cannot find peace at this time, especially those who have suffered at the hands of fellow Christians; Christian officials, priests” and teachers, he said.

“I am deeply sorry this has happened. It is completely contrary to Christ’s teachings.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now

[with video]

AN apology made by Australia’s most senior Catholic to those who suffered abuse at the hands of priests has been labelled a “minimal response” by a child sexual abuse victims group.

Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell apologised to those who have “suffered at the hands” of priests and religious teachers.

While not specifically mentioning allegations of child sex abuse by members of the clergy, Cardinal Pell said he was “deeply sorry” for the hurt that had occurred, calling it “completely contrary” to Christ’s teachings.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
7 News

December 24, 2012

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric on Monday apologised to those who “suffered at the hands” of priests and religious teachers after a turbulent year for the Church.

Sydney Archbishop George Pell said he was shocked and ashamed, following a series of paedophile allegations against priests and claims that they were hushed up.

In his Christmas message, Pell said his heart went out to “all those who cannot find peace at this time, especially those who have suffered at the hands of fellow Christians, Christian officials, priests, religious teachers”.

“I am deeply sorry this has happened,” he added.

“I feel too the shock and shame across the community at these revelations of wrongdoing and crimes.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Ynet News (Israel)

Rabbi Levi Brackman

Multiple women have accused an extremely prominent London haredi rabbi, Chaim Halpern, of sexually abusing them during their marriage counseling sessions with him.

A number of rabbinic judges in London had the courage to investigate the claims and subsequently found Halpern unfit to serve in any religious capacity. In response, Halpern stepped down from many of his religious positions.

Yet the saga continues because Halpern still maintains his position as a rabbi in his own community. In addition his father, another prominent and venerable rabbi, Chanoch Halpern, together with numerous other rabbis, have dismissed the allegations and maintain that Chaim Halpern is a righteous man who has been caught up in a conspiracy.

The proverb says that “there is no man on the earth who is (completely) righteous, who does good and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). We are all human and, thus, none of us are perfect. Yet the abuses allegedly committed by Halpern are in a different league – they are especially heinous.

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CANADA
CBC News

Some parishioners at a Montreal Catholic church were shocked to learn Sunday that a deacon is being charged with producing and distributing child pornography.

William Kokesch, 65, was arrested Friday morning and charged on Saturday via video link at the Montreal courthouse.

Police said they found more than 2,000 images of children on a computer. His bail hearing will be held Monday at the Montreal courthouse.

Kokesch, who lives in Pointe-Claire, was a deacon for the St-Edmund of Canterbury parish in Beaconsfield on Montreal’s West Island.

Carmella Guerriero told CBC News she was mortified by the news.

“I’m here this morning without my kids,” Guerriero said on her way into the church.

“I just want to see if they have anything to say about what’s happened. It’s horrible,” she said, adding that she is no longer comfortable having her children attend the church.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Day by day during one year

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

January 25th, 2012
During an episode of “Gli Intoccabili”, aired on La 7 and hosted by Gianluigi Nuzzi, the letters that Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò (secretary of the Governorate then promoted/removed as nuncio to the United States) sent to the Pope and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone were released. In the month of January, in the Italian newspaper “Il Fatto Quotidiano”, several documents were published: an account concerning an alleged plot against the Pope, and some notes about the Vatican Bank.

February 6th, 2012
The first denunciation to Vatican justice is formalized.

February 22nd
A private note sent by Father Federico Lombardi to the secretary of the Pope, Georg Gänswein on the case of Emanuela Orlandi is partially released.

May 19th
Gianluigi Nuzzi’s book is released in book stores. The book contains, among various documents, the transcription of encrypted documents from the nunciatures, and also contains a budget of the Ratzinger Foundation which had been sent only to the Pope and had not cleared the Secretariat of State.

May 21st
A dramatic meeting of the the Pontifical Family, convened by Mgr. Georg Gänswein, takes place in the papal apartment. The secretary of the Pope speaks openly of the suspicions of Paolo Gabriele in his presence. The accused denies being responsible for the massive leak of documents.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

“Fatherly gesture toward a person with whom the Pope shared for years a daily familiarity “But it will not work for the Holy See

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

Pope Benedict’s decision about Paolo Gabriele, the butler guilty of stealing, copying, and circulating the vatileaks documents by removing them from the table of the Papal Secretariat, arrives today. The announcement of the pardon allow Gabriele, who is currently held in a cell in the palace, to return to his family to spend the holiday season without having to go back to prison afterwards. “Paoletto”, who was arrested last May after thousands of copies of confidential documents had been found in his home, was granted house arrest in late July. After being committed to trial on August 13th, and found guilty by the Court on October 6th following a short trial, Gabriele was back in prison on October 25th after the 18-month sentence had become definite because of the defense’s decision not to appeal.

At the time he was being returned to prison, the Secretariat of State issued a statement denying that a Papal pardon could be taken for granted and stressing the seriousness of the actions committed by the former butler as well as the seriousness of its consequences. The Vatican note had been expressly approved by the Pope, who was particularly rattled by the incident. “Evil has crept among us”, he said to the Papal family during the days of the scandal. The impression of the Vatican hierarchy is that Gabriele had not fully repented and hadn’t fully understood the scope of his action. An understanding may have come during the recent weeks in jail, when he asked a priest, “How can I atone?”

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

December 23, 2012

By
Richard Weir

Pope Benedict XVI tapped the Archdiocese of Boston’s top canon law expert as the Vatican’s new prosecutor, an appointment hailed by church leaders but criticized by victims rights advocates who say his past positions cast doubt on whether he will be an impartial investigator of priest sexual abuse.

The Rev. Robert W. Oliver, a Bay Shore, N.Y., 
native, currently serves as the archdiocese’s assistant to the moderator of the Curia for Canonical Affairs.

“Fr. Robert Oliver is a gifted priest who has served the Archdiocese with distinction,” Cardinal Sean O’Malley said yesterday, describing the Dartmouth-educated Oliver as “a dis­tinguished canon lawyer who brings the requisite 
experience and an understanding of the importance of this office within the 
life of the Church.” …

But his past handling of several controversial policy changes has critics questioning his objectivity.

“We are concerned that he is primarily someone who looks out for the rights of the accused priests,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org. “The position … is a sensitive and important one and he will have to be equally a champion of victims. We wonder if he will be capable of being even-handed.”

In 2003, Oliver helped 
revise an archdiocese policy, altering it to curtail access by alleged victims of abuse to church records — a move that surprised lay leaders who sat on the Cardinal’s Commission for the Protection of Children.

Also that year, Oliver said the church went too far in immediately removing priests from their public ministries once they were accused of abuse. He implemented a new policy stripping them of duties only after claims are investigated.

Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese, called the criticism of Oliver “unfounded and just plain wrong,” adding, “He is a good and decent priest who is widely viewed as just, competent and committed to the truth.”

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Lisa Wangsness
| Globe Staff

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday appointed a Boston canon lawyer with extensive experience handling sexual abuse complaints to be the Vatican’s chief prosecutor of sex crimes against minors.

The Rev. Robert W. Oliver, 52, will become promoter of justice — a title akin to prosecutor in the American legal system — for the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, the Vatican office charged with protecting church doctrine. It oversees all serious crimes against the church, including the sexual abuse of children by priests.

Oliver is a longtime professor of theology and canon law who since 2002 has served in a variety of capacities in the church’s internal legal system, or canon law system, in Boston – as judge, promoter of justice, chief of investigations, and member of the archdiocesan review board that handles sexual abuse complaints. …

The Boston tribunal, as the archdiocesan court is known, is still struggling to adjudicate a backlog of sexual abuse cases against priests. Fifteen cases have been languishing since 2004 or earlier.

Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented many sexual abuse victims in Boston, said he wondered whether Oliver’s departure would further delay some of those cases.

“Closure in these cases is such an important part of the healing process for sexual abuse victims,” he said.

Donilon said concluding the cases was a church priority. “Closure and the care of survivors and their families is important to the cardinal,” he said.

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CANADA
Canoe

By Giuseppe Valiante, QMI Agency

MONTREAL – A well-known Montreal-area Deacon who once spoke on behalf of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, has been charged with production and distribution of child pornography.

William Kokesch, 65, appeared in a Montreal courtroom Saturday afternoon via videoconference. The day prior, based on a tip from the public, Montreal police searched two locations in the city’s west end, including Kokesch’s home, and allegedly found more than 2,000 child porn images.

Montreal police spokesperson Dany Richer wouldn’t give details about Kokesch’s alleged victims. Nor would he say if any of the children in the images seized from Kokesch’s home were members the church.

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CANADA
CBC

A Montreal deacon has been accused of producing and distributing child pornography.

William Kokesch, 65, was charged Saturday via video link after police searched his west-end home a day earlier, Const. Dany Richer said, adding investigators seized more than 2,000 images.

Kokesch will remain in jail until Monday when he’s scheduled to appear in court, Richer said.

Kokesch, a communications director for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, helped co-ordinate World Youth Day conferences in Toronto, Rome and Paris, according to the organization’s website.

In a news release issued Saturday, the Archdiocese of Montreal announced Kokesch had been removed from all ministry and pastoral activity at a church in Beaconsfield, a suburb in Montreal’s West Island, and that it would co-operate with civil authorities.

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CANADA
CTV

[with video]

A well-known Montreal-area deacon is charged with possession and production of child pornography after a citizen’s complaint led to a search of his home, police said.

Police arrested William Kokesch at his Pointe-Claire, Que. home Friday morning. Investigators say they found more than 2,000 images with sexual content, and have seized the hard drive of Kokesch’s computer.

Kokesch, 65, served as a deacon, or a church assistant, at St-Edmund of Canterbury parish on the West Island for the last seven years, and was once a spokesperson for the Canadian Conference of Bishops.

William Kokesch, a Montreal deacon, who has been charged with producing and distributing child pornography, is shown in this undated image.

In addition to serving as a frequent commentator on church issues, he was also very active in organizing events for Catholic youths in both Canada and Europe.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

A Montreal deacon is being accused of producing and distributing child pornography a day after police say they seized 2,000 images from his home.

William Kokesch, 65, was charged Saturday via video link at the Montreal courthouse. Investigators say they searched his home and arrested him a day earlier.

Montreal police Const. Dany Richer said Mr. Kokesch will remain in jail until Monday when he’s scheduled to again appear in court to face the allegations against him.

Mr. Kokesch was a deacon for a church in Beaconsfield, a suburb on Montreal’s West Island.

Mr. Kokesch was a communications director for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. He helped co-ordinate World Youth Day conferences in Toronto, Rome and Paris, according to the organization’s website.

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CANADA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal

Montreal – December 22th The Archdiocese of Montreal learned on Friday, December 21, that Mr. William Kokesch, permanent deacon, had been arrested that same day. As a result, the Archdiocese of Montreal immediately removed him from all ministry and pastoral activity.

Having just learned of the charges against Mr. Kokesch, the diocese is profoundly upset. Child pornography is an affront to human dignity, and our first concern rests with those who are its victims.

The archdiocese will be attentive to the needs of concerned parishioners and will co-operate with civil authorities. “We wish to assure all those concerned by this event that we are keeping them in our prayers, and we urge everyone to have confidence in and respect for the judicial process and to await its conclusions.“

As the judicial process is currently under way, no further comment will be made at this time.

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CANADA
Huffington Post

MONTREAL – A Montreal deacon is being accused of producing and distributing child pornography a day after police say they seized 2,000 images from his home.

William Kokesch, 65, was charged Saturday via video link at the Montreal courthouse. Investigators say they searched his home and arrested him a day earlier.

Montreal police Const. Dany Richer said Kokesch will remain in jail until Monday when he’s scheduled to again appear in court to face the allegations against him.

Kokesch was a deacon for a church in Beaconsfield, a suburb on Montreal’s West Island.

Koesch is listed as a communications director for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. He helped coordinate World Youth Day conferences in Toronto, Rome and Paris, according to the organization’s website.

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CANADA
Canada.com

By Aaron Derfel, The Gazette December 22, 2012

MONTREAL — A prominent West Island deacon who used to speak publicly about sexual crimes has been charged with the production and distribution of child pornography following a police investigation.

William Kokesch, a 65-year-old deacon of St. Edmund of Canterbury Parish in Beaconsfield, was arrested Friday after police carried out two search warrants — one at his home in Pointe Claire and the other at the church.

The Archdiocese of Montreal announced on Saturday that it immediately removed Kokesch from all ministry and pastoral activity.

“Having just learned of the charges against Mr. Kokesch, the diocese is profoundly upset,” it said in a statement. “Child pornography is an affront to human dignity, and our first concern rests with those who are its victims.”

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Catholic Insider

Boston priest, Fr. Robert Oliver, has been tapped by Pope Benedict XVI to be Promoter of Justice for the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith. You can read the Boston diocesan press release here. The position is akin to a prosecutor in the American legal system. The CDF is charged with protecting Catholic doctrine, but also handles all serious crimes against the church, including the sexual abuse of children, desecration of the Eucharist, violation of the seal of confession, heresy and schism. He will be essentially the Vatican’s chief prosecutor of sex crimes against minors.

Oliver has served as judge and promoter of justice in the archdiocesan tribunal, and he has also advised Cardinal O’Malley on issues including pastoral planning. He was a longtime professor of theology and canon law at St. John’s Seminary. This past year he served as a visiting professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He is a very smart orthodox priest. With his departure from the Pastoral Center, Bishop-elect Deeley and Cardinal O’Malley lose a trustworthy adviser with a lot of horsepower who worked quietly behind the scenes to make critical things happen.

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BOSTON (MA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

December 22, 2012

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and RACHEL DONADIO / The New York Times

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday appointed as the Vatican’s new sex crimes prosecutor a priest who handled clergy sexual abuse cases in the Roman Catholic Church in Boston at the height of the scandal and for years afterward. …

Father Oliver was among the canon lawyers brought in to advise Cardinal Bernard F. Law on sexual abuse cases in Boston, where the church’s sexual abuse scandal erupted anew in 2002. He was put in charge of the office investigating charges against accused priests after the cardinal was forced to resign in 2002 amid an uproar over revelations that the cardinal had kept abusive priests working in parishes.

Father Oliver helped write the archdiocese’s new abuse prevention policy in 2003. He has been serving as a canon lawyer for the archdiocese and as a visiting professor of canon law at Catholic University of America in Washington.

Advocates for abuse victims in the Boston Archdiocese criticized his record on Saturday. Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of Bishop Accountability, a watchdog group that maintains an archive of abuse cases and documents, said in an interview, “Reverend Oliver is a champion of accused priests, which obviously does not bode well for the job he will do as promoter of justice.”

She said that under that under Father Oliver’s guidance, the Boston Archdiocese reported that between 2003 and 2005 it had cleared 32 of 71 accused priests, about 45 percent, saying it did not find “probable cause” to pursue abuse cases against them. That was a far higher clearance rate than the 10 percent reported by other dioceses nationwide, according to a report in 2005 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

She also said the new policy on abuse that Father Oliver helped write in 2003 allows accused priests to remain in the ministry without being publicly identified while allegations against them are investigated. In contrast, laypeople suspected of abuse who work or volunteer for the church are to be immediately suspended.

Father Oliver is not expected to grant any interviews, said Terrence C. Donilon, a secretary for communications for the Archdiocese of Boston. But he said, “Any attacks on Father Oliver’s distinguished track record of service to the church and his many contributions to the response to clergy sexual abuse are unfounded and just plain wrong.”

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MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Kolar was accused of sexually abusing three young women while he was director of the St. Paul Youth Center in St. Paul in the 1970s and 1980s. One of his victims was 15 years-old when he started grooming her. Kolar admitted to having a problem with vulnerable young women, and that he was a sexual abuser. He was laicized in 1992.

Ordained: 1969
Incardinated: St. Paul-Minneapolis

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday appointed a Boston canon lawyer to be the Vatican’s chief prosecutor of sex crimes against minors.

The Rev. Robert W. Oliver, 52, will become Promoter of Justice — akin to a prosecutor in the American legal system — for the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, the Vatican office charged with protecting Catholic doctrine. It handles all serious crimes against the church, including the sexual abuse of children.

Oliver has served as judge and promoter of justice in the archdiocesan tribunal, which is still struggling to adjudicate a backlog of sexual abuse cases against priests. More than a dozen have been languishing since 2004 or earlier.

He appears to have handled some sexual abuse cases against priests during the tenure of Cardinal Bernard M. Law, who resigned in disgrace for his role in the sexual abuse crisis that erupted in Boston in 2002. It is not clear what his roles were in the archdiocesan tribunal under Law or how the cases he handled were resolved.

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MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Kern was accused in 1993 of having molested a 15 year-old boy in a swimming pool in 1977. Church officials told Kern’s accuser that there were allegations against Kern dating back to 1969. The man sued and received a settlement; he claimed he was promised that Kern would never work in another parish or be around children. It came to light in 2002 that, since 1995, Kern was in active parish ministry; the parish had a school and a religious education program.

Ordained: Dec. 17, 1966
Incardinated: St. Paul-Minneapolis

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BOSTON (MA)
CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS/AP) – Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a priest from the archdiocese of Boston, ground zero in the U.S. clerical sex abuse scandal, to a position that involves serving as the Catholic Church’s sex crimes prosecutor.

Rev. Robert W. Oliver, S.T.D., J.C.D. will take over as the Promoter of Justice for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

The position is similar to that of a prosecutor. Oliver will be responsible for investigating crimes that the Church considers most serious, which includes the sexual abuse of minors by clerics.

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VATICAN CITY
The Windsor Star

The Associated Press | Dec 22, 2012

VATICAN CITY – The pope has named a priest from the archdiocese of Boston, ground zero in the U.S. clerical sex abuse scandal, as his new sex crimes prosecutor.

The Vatican said Saturday that the Rev. Robert W. Oliver, a canonical expert in the archdiocese, replaces Bishop Charles Scicluna, who was recently named auxiliary bishop in his native Malta.

Scicluna’s departure had sparked some fears among sex abuse victims that the Vatican might roll back on the tough line on clergy abuse he charted in his 10 years at the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

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BOSTON (MA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

Braintree, MA (December 22, 2012) – Today, Pope Benedict XVI announced the appointment of Rev. Robert W. Oliver, S.T.D., J.C.D. as Promoter of Justice for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, one of the central offices of the Holy See which is located in Vatican City State in Rome. Fr. Oliver currently serves as Assistant to the Moderator of the Curia for Canonical Affairs and is a Visiting Professor of Canon Law at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C..

Cardinal Seán said, “Fr. Robert Oliver is a gifted priest who has served the Archdiocese with distinction. We are pleased to learn of the Holy Father’s wish to appoint him as Promoter of Justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Fr. Oliver is a distinguished canon lawyer who brings the requisite experience and an understanding of the importance of this office within the life of the Church. We assure him of our prayers and our support for this important ministry.”

Fr. Oliver said, “It is with deep humility and gratitude that I received the news that the Holy Father is entrusting me with this service to the Church. Having been so blessed to serve the Archdiocese of Boston with Cardinal Seán and Bishop-elect Deeley, I wish to express my sincere gratitude for their confidence and support. Receiving this assignment during the Year of Faith is inspirational and it is challenging. The Congregation’s role is to promote and safeguard the doctrine of the faith and morals in the universal Church. I humbly ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance and grace to assist Archbishop Müller and the Congregation in fulfilling this important work.”

Bishop-elect Robert P. Deeley, J.C.D., Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, said, “In appointing Fr. Robert Oliver to this important position as Promoter of Justice, the Holy Father has chosen a priest who will serve faithfully and effectively. Fr. Oliver is an experienced canon lawyer who has served as a Judge, taught, developed policy and offered counsel as a canonical advisor. He has had an important voice in many of the major decisions we have faced as an Archdiocese and in the national Church. His experience, intelligence, understanding, compassion and respect for all of God’s people have prepared him well for this important ministry of justice. Fr. Oliver’s talents and good counsel will be missed here in Boston but we are comforted in knowing that his presence will be felt across the universal Church.”

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on December 21, 2012

Today, a former Detroit Catholic priest will be in court facing child porn charges. We hope the judge gives him little or no benefit of the doubt.

Often sex offenders like Timothy Murray get top notch defense lawyers, exploit technicalities, strike deals, and win leniency. They then use that leniency to flee the country or offend again.

And, while free awaiting trial, they often destroy evidence, intimidate victims, discredit whistleblowers, and threaten witnesses.

At a bare minimum, we hope the judge will insist that Murray give up his passport. We also hope that anyone else who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Murray will contact police and prosecutors promptly so that he might be effectively prosecuted and kept away from kids.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on December 21, 2012

Next week Bishop Emeritus Edmond Carmody is returning to work in the diocese of Tyler. For the last ten years Carmody has been working in the diocese of Corpus Christi.

During the 1990s Carmondy was the Bishop of Tyler and during his time as bishop he helped cover up for at least two predator priests. One of those predator priests was able to flee the country, avoiding justice and potentially hurting more innocent children.

It is a callous and hurtful move to allow Carmondy to return to the diocese where he allowed so much pain to befall his diocese.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By RACHEL DONADIO

Published: December 22, 2012

ROME — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday appointed a priest who handled sexual abuse cases under the disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston as the Vatican’s new sex crimes prosecutor.

The pope also pardoned his former butler, who was serving a prison term after leaking confidential documents in the Vatican’s most embarrassing security breach in decades.

The Vatican said that the Rev. Robert W. Oliver, a canon law specialist at the Archdiocese of Boston, would be the “promoter of justice” at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal office that reviews all abuse cases.

Father Oliver was among the canon lawyers who advised Cardinal Law on sexual abuse cases in Boston, the center of the church’s child abuse crisis in the United States. He continued advising the Archdiocese of Boston after the cardinal was forced to resign in 2002 amid an uproar over revelations that the cardinal had kept abusive priests working in parishes.

David Clohessy, who helps lead the victims advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said that appointment of “anyone with ties to Law” was problematic.

“It just rubs salt into the wounds of hundreds and hundreds of Boston victims when anyone associated with Law is given any kind of responsibility or power or prestige,” he said. “On the other hand, we’d rather someone hold that position who has had a lot of experience, even if their track record is less than stellar.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by NCR Editorial Staff | Dec. 22, 2012

Editorial

O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light,
sun of justice:
come and shine on those who dwell in
darkness
and in the shadow of death.

There are few prayers more evocative than the O Antiphons of Advent. Blending poetry and theology, they teach us lessons about the human condition and our relationship with the divine that a hundred pages of prose cannot. They confront us with the fear we, in our human brokenness, have felt when we look into the shadows of doubt, the darkness of our own frailties and mortality. We do not abandon ourselves to despair because we also have known the splendor of the Radiant Dawn. We have known — however fleetingly — the sun of justice. Because of this we have hope.

And we need hope.

This issue of NCR is heavy with stories of shadow and darkness. The stories tell of people, sincere believers in the eternal light and sun of justice, who are being silenced: Jesuit Fr. Bill Brennan in Milwaukee (see story), Roy Bourgeois (see story and see story), a Wisconsin pastor removed from his parish on questionable charges of breaking the seal of confession (see story), Fr. Helmut Schüller in Austria (see story), Redemptorist Fr. Tony Flannery in Ireland (see story). Scholars at the University of San Diego (see story). A deacon stopped from talking to other deacons (see story). The silencing of academics — through direct edict or by intimidation — is most worrying and must be looked at seriously. The level of fear among the academic community, especially the theologians, is the highest we have ever seen. We fear that we are losing our best Catholic thinkers. This would be a shameful waste that ultimately will harm us all.

But these are only examples of high-profile cases and individuals. In the shadows of darkness, there are many more stories. The silenced live among us.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By RACHEL DONADIO

Published: December 22, 2012

ROME — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday named a priest from Boston, the epicenter of the sexual abuse crisis in the United States, as the Vatican’s new sex crimes prosecutor. He also pardoned his former butler who was serving a prison term after leaking confidential documents in the Vatican’s most embarrassing security breach in decades.

The two announcements, which came on the weekend before Christmas, were a telling juxtaposition for a complex, ancient institution that has always tread a fine line between grace and justice, crime and punishment, sin and redemption.

The Rev. Robert W. Oliver, a canon law specialist at the Archdiocese of Boston, will be the “promoter of justice” at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal office that reviews all abuse cases, the Vatican said Saturday.

The abuse crisis erupted in Boston in 2002, when church records unsealed in a court case revealed that the diocese had transferred priests known to have been pedophiles. The scandal led to the resignation that year of Cardinal Bernard F. Law as archbishop of Boston.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

by Edward Pentin Saturday, December 22, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI has today granted a Christmas pardon to Paolo Gabriele, his former valet who has been serving an eighteen month jail sentence for leaking confidential papal documents.

A Vatican communiqué, released this morning by the Secretariat of State, reads:

“This morning the Holy Father Benedict XVI visited Paolo Gabriele in prison in order to confirm his forgiveness and communicate in person his decision to grant Mr Gabriele’s request for pardon, thereby remitting the sentence passed against the latter. This constitutes a paternal gesture towards a person with whom the Pope shared a relationship of daily familiarity for many years.

“Mr Gabriele was subsequently released from prison and has returned home. Since he cannot resume his previous occupation or continue to live in Vatican City, the Holy See, trusting in his sincere repentance, wishes to offer him the possibility of returning to a serene family life”.

In October, Gabriele was found guilty of stealing and copying the Pope’s documents and leaking them to an Italian journalist. He said he acted out of love for the Church.

In other news today, the Holy Father appointed an American as the new Promoter of Justice, or chief prosecutor, at Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to oversee clerical sex abuse cases in the Church.

Fr. Robert W. Oliver, a canonical expert for the archdiocese of Boston, replaces Bishop Charles Scicluna who was appointed earlier this year as Auxiliary Bishop of Malta.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: December 22, 2012

VATICAN CITY — The pope has put a priest from the archdiocese of Boston, the center of a clerical sex abuse scandal in the United States, in charge of the Vatican’s review of sex abuse by priests.

The Vatican said Saturday that the Rev. Robert W. Oliver, a canonical specialist in the archdiocese, would succeed Bishop Charles Scicluna, who was recently named auxiliary bishop in his native Malta.

Bishop Scicluna’s departure had sparked some fears among sex abuse victims that the Vatican might roll back on the tough line on clergy abuse he charted in his 10 years at the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Vatican office, which Pope Benedict XVI headed for nearly a quarter century, reviews all cases of clerical sex abuse, telling bishops how to proceed against accused priests.

The pope also granted his former butler a Christmas pardon on Saturday for stealing the pontiff’s private papers and leaking them to a journalist, one of the gravest Vatican security breaches in recent times.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) On Saturday Pope Benedict XVI appointed Boston native Rev. Robert W. Oliver, B.H., Promoter of Justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

He takes over from Mons. Charles J. Scicluna, who was recently appointed Auxiliary bishop of Malta.

Rev. Oliver (centre in photo) is a Professor of Canon Law & Systematic Theology at St. John’s Seminary in the Archdiocese of Boston and formerly Promoter of Justice at the Boston Archdiocese Tribunal.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Korazym

Robert W. Oliver nuovo promotore di Giustizia della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede

Scritto da Andrea Gagliarducci
Sabato 22 Dicembre 2012

Quando nel 2002 i reportage del Boston Globe segnarono l’inizio dello scandalo della pedofilia negli Stati Uniti, Robert W. Oliver, sacerdote, professore di Diritto Canonico e di Teologia Sistematica al seminario di Saint John, fu chiamato a gestire la situazione. E fu il primo a metterci la faccia. Scrivendo lui stesso articoli sul Boston Globe, in cui spiegava come la diocesi si stesse muovendo per affrontare la crisi. Delineando e collaborando con il comitato di otto laici che avrebbe analizzato ogni denuncia di abusi del clero e si sarebbero coordinati con l’arcivescovo. E persino superando gli scossoni che erano seguiti nella diocesi, quando il cardinal Bernard Francis Law era stato rimosso dalla guida della diocesi e Boston era passata sotto la guida del cardinale francescano Francis O’Malley. Ora, Oliver dovrà portare le sue competenze alla Congregazione della Dottrina della Fede, di cui è stato appena nominato promotore di Giustizia.

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VATICAN CITY
Miami Herald

The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — The pope has named a priest from the archdiocese of Boston, ground zero in the U.S. clerical sex abuse scandal, as his new sex crimes prosecutor.

The Vatican said Saturday that the Rev. Robert W. Oliver, a canonical expert in the archdiocese, replaces Bishop Charles Scicluna, who was recently named auxiliary bishop in his native Malta.

Scicluna’s departure had sparked some fears among sex abuse victims that the Vatican might roll back on the tough line on clergy abuse he charted in his 10 years at the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

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OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By Rita Price
The Columbus Dispatch
Saturday December 22, 2012

The top official at the Loyal Order of Moose and Moose International retired on Thursday, one week after he was accused of molesting a boy in Franklin County more than 30 years ago.

William B. Airey, 71, left voluntarily and was not asked by the organization’s board to step down, spokesman Kurt Wehrmeister said yesterday. …

An advocacy group for victims of sexual abuse said yesterday that Airey should have been suspended instead. “It’s irresponsible for them to pretend their CEO isn’t facing serious allegations,” said David Clohessy, executive director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The group also speaks out on behalf of victims of abuse in other institutional settings.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 22 December 2012 (VIS) – Given below is the communiqué released this morning by the Secretariat of State:

“This morning the Holy Father Benedict XVI visited Paolo Gabriele in prison in order to confirm his forgiveness and communicate in person his decision to grant Mr Gabriele’s request for pardon, thereby remitting the sentence passed against the latter. This constitutes a paternal gesture towards a person with whom the Pope shared a relationship of daily familiarity for many years.

“Mr Gabriele was subsequently released from prison and has returned home. Since he cannot resume his previous occupation or continue to live in Vatican City, the Holy See, trusting in his sincere repentance, wishes to offer him the possibility of returning to a serene family life”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 22 December 2012 (VIS) – The Holy Father today appointed: …

– Fr. Robert W. Oliver, assistant for canonical matters of the archdiocese of Boston, U.S.A., as promoter of justice of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

December 22, 2012

Richard Wynne

A FRIEND came to my office unannounced recently. He is someone I see infrequently, although our work, political and social lives intersect. He arrived with a two-page, tightly written letter that was shocking and distressing. It was a chronology of the sexual abuse he had suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church, things he had not spoken about or acknowledged for more than 40 years.

To understand the insidious nature of systemic abuse, in all its forms, we need to acknowledge the power the Catholic Church exerted over its congregations. My experience and that of my friend, growing up in poor Catholic families, was that the church was inviolate. The ancient rituals of the Latin Mass (such a foreign and inaccessible ceremony); our duty to attend every Sunday; the annual St Patrick’s Day parade through the city, marching like a battalion in school uniform behind the open-top Rolls-Royce of Archbishop Mannix; and locally the unquestioned authority vested in the parish priest – all symbols of the church’s power and control over our daily lives.

It was simply inconceivable that you would complain or seek redress, let alone question what was occurring, particularly if you were a child. The church was all-pervasive, prepared to intervene in our communities’ spiritual and political life without invitation or accountability. I well recall heated arguments in my home between my father and his brother over the Labor Party split, a political divide that lives on today between me and my cousin.

I was the victim of systematic physical beatings at the hands of the Christian Brothers. I was violently strapped so many times I could not hold a pen for days. These actions went unchallenged.

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CANADA
Saanich News

By Edward Hill – Saanich News
Published: December 21, 2012

A retired teacher for St. Joseph’s Catholic elementary school testified Thursday for the defence as the final witness at the ongoing Phil Jacobs sexual abuse trial.

During testimony on Dec. 11, one of the three complainants against Jacobs testified the priest molested him during his time as an altar server at Joseph the Worker church.

The witness testified to a time Jacobs molested him while preparing for altar server duties during a school mass in a room attached to the preparation room behind the altar.

The witness couldn’t remember how many times he performed as an altar server, but said it was more than once and spanned two school years. Overall, the witness said Jacobs molested him more than once and less than a dozen times.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

‘Being raised Catholic is worse than child abuse’: Latest incendiary claim made by atheist professor Richard Dawkins

By Daniel Martin

PUBLISHED:19:03 EST, 21 December 2012

Raising your children as Roman Catholics is worse than child abuse, according to militant atheist Richard Dawkins.

In typically incendiary style, Professor Dawkins said the mental torment inflicted by the religion’s teachings is worse in the long-term than any sexual abuse carried out by priests.

He said he had been told by a woman that while being abused by a priest was a ‘yucky’ experience, being told as a child that a Protestant friend who died would ‘roast in Hell’ was more distressing.

Last night politicians and charities condemned the former Oxford professor’s views as attention-seeking and unhelpful.

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