ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Jun. 26, 2012
By John L Allen Jr

ANALYSIS

In the original “Star Trek,” Capt. James T. Kirk was both the brilliant tactician and the swashbuckling ladies’ man. When “Star Trek: The Next Generation” rolled around, Kirk’s character was split in half, with Capt. Jean-Luc Picard as the brains and First Officer Will Riker as the brawn.

In effect, the Vatican has now unveiled a “Next Generation” strategy to address its perceived PR woes.

During the John Paul years, the Vatican had its Kirk on the communications front, someone who combined both external visibility and insider clout. Spanish layman Joaquin Navarro-Valls was a power broker in his own right, with a place at the table when decisions were made and the public face of the institution, second only in terms of visibility to the pope himself.

Under Benedict XVI, the Vatican has limped by on half that formula. Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the current spokesperson, is endlessly accessible and visible, but he lacks the insider muscle wielded by Navarro-Valls.

The Vatican has finally moved to plug that hole.

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CHILE
La Tercera

Víctima de Karadima responde a Yrarrázabal y asegura que parroquia estaba “llena de heridas”

El actual párroco de El Bosque, Carlos Yrarrázaval, señaló que no ha ido a ver a Fernando Karadima debido al rol de los medios de comunicación en el caso y que al momento de recibir esta iglesia del sector oriente de Santiago, ésta estaba viva y llena. Sin embargo, estas palabras hicieron eco en Juan Carlos Cruz, una de las víctimas del ex párroco.

Cruz afirmó a La Tercera que cuando viene a Santiago -ya que vive en Estados Unidos- no ve a una parroquia El Bosque “llena”. “Si el párroco dice que recibió a una iglesia llena, será llena de heridas, porque las veces que he pasado por ahí no se ve llena para nada”.

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DEUTSCHLAND
taz

HAMBURG taz | Wenn es um sexuelle Übergriffe geht, tut sich die Kirche immer noch schwer, eine Sprache zu finden. Von „Anerkennung von Leid“ spricht der Hamburger Domkapitular Ansgar Thim, Beauftragter für Fragen der sexuellen Gewalt an Minderjährigen beim Erzbistum Hamburg. 50 Anträge auf „Anerkennungsleistungen“ seien bei ihm eingegangen, 38 habe er an die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz nach Bonn weitergeleitet, sagt Thim auf der Pressekonferenz am Montag. „Heißt das, Sie gehen davon aus, dass die Anschuldigungen in diesen Fällen der Wahrheit entsprechen?“ – „Ja.“

Thim ist ein gepflegter Herr mit randloser Brille, seine Aufgabe ist es, Gespräche mit den potenziellen Opfern zu führen. Und mit den Tätern. „Kein Fall ist wie der andere“, sagt er. Oft sei die Situation die, dass Vorwürfe erhoben würden, und die Beschuldigten sagten: „Das war nicht so.“ Die Staatsanwaltschaft sei in allen Fällen eingeschaltet worden, aber sie ermittle in keinem – die Vorgänge seien verjährt.

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CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times

By Tracey Kaplan tkaplan@mercurynews.comcontracostatimes.com
Posted: 06/26/2012

The judge in the priest beating trial this morning once again denied a renewed motion by defense attorneys for a mistrial, then made a ruling that dealt a blow to their case.

Although Judge David A. Cena ruled that three other alleged victims of Rev. Jerold Lindner will not be able to testify in the trial of Will Lynch, who is accused of beating Lindner at a Jesuit retirement center in Los Gatos two years ago.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

Paolo Gabriele, the valet to Pope Benedict XVI who was arrested on May 23 in connection with the leaks of confidential papal documents, will remain in a secure room inside the Vatican.

Gabriele has been questioned extensively about his role in the “Vatileaks” affair in two sessions with magistrates. Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, said that no further questioning is currently scheduled.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

June 25, 2012

By Ruth Ann Dailey

Two adult men, Monsignor William Lynn and Jerry Sandusky, were convicted Friday of, simply put, hurting children.

One is a high-ranking priest, the other a respected football coach. Both harmed society’s most vulnerable members.

Both men are, or were, part of great institutions whose reputations — and whose other innocent members — have been damaged by their crimes.

But there the likeness ends, because Mr. Sandusky is a predator, and Monsignor Lynn is an enabler of predators.

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WEST VIRGINIA
The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

June 25, 2012

No one will ever know how many children have suffered needlessly because adults decided it was less important to protect them than to avoid the taint of scandal at a school, church or other institution. But last week two juries in Pennsylvania issued reminders that the children always take priority.

By coincidence, separate trials in Philadelphia and Bellefonte ended Friday. In one, a jury in Philadelphia convicted a Roman Catholic church official of child endangerment for covering up situations in which priests had abused children. Monsignor William Lynn was the first U.S. church official convicted of a felony in such a coverup.

In Bellefonte, another jury convicted former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky of sexually abusing children during a period of about 15 years.

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KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

Editorial

Do not think that the guilty verdicts handed down in Pennsylvania last Friday have little or nothing to do with anyone here.

Just because they dealt with a Roman Catholic official in Philadelphia who was convicted of child endangerment for his role in moving around predatory priests without informing the public of the danger that awaited in their churches, and with a serial molester who used his Penn State coaching credentials and his community standing as a “saint” who worked with at-risk kids to shield his crimes, doesn’t mean those horrors are somehow removed from us.

It is true that Monsignor William Lynn, who could spend up to seven years in prison, and former football coach Jerry Sandusky, who faces more than 400 years behind bars, were convicted of crimes they committed in a different state, and held accountable by juries of their peers.

But both defendants and what landed them in court illustrate unthinkable horrors that are visited on children throughout the country, including those in our own communities.

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NEW YORK
Times Herald-Record

Similar verdicts in similar cases in two Pennsylvania courtrooms last week provided a small measure of justice to some of the most vulnerable victims imaginable, young men who trusted older figures of authority who then abused them.

In Bellefonte, Pa., a jury quickly decided that Jerry Sandusky, a legendary part of the legendary Penn State football program, had systematically lured and abused these victims over decades. In Philadelphia a jury took almost two weeks before deciding that Msgr. William J. Lynn was guilty of endangering children because of his role in covering up abuses by Roman Catholic priests.

While the Sandusky case had the bigger media impact, the decision concerning the church could have much longer-lasting and wide ranging effects. For the first time, prosecutors were able to convince a jury of something that most people have already concluded, that failing to do something about this abuse is almost as despicable as the abuse itself. And when the cover-up has been an integral part of the institutions, as the cases showed it has been in Penn State and the church, the message is as clear as those warnings we see in another context: If you see something, say something.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Patriot-News

By Patriot-News Editorial Board

Pennsylvania lawmakers cannot continue to hide behind the “we’ll get to it” mantra when it comes to reforming the state’s child abuse laws.

We owe it to the victims of Jerry Sandusky who bravely came forward against community pressure and in the midst of a media circus.

We owe it to the victims of child molestation at the hands of certain Catholic clergy in Philadelphia. They, too, stood their ground, leading to a landmark guilty verdict in the case of Monsignor William Lynn.

And we owe it to all the victims who have only felt able to come forward recently or who are still living in confusion and shame.

Just last week The Patriot-News received a letter to the editor from a woman in Camp Hill alleging abuse from a neighbor when she was growing up.

Lawmakers know what they should do.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) – A St. Paul priest has been dismissed from his parish after allegations that he engaged in misconduct involving a minor.

According to Jim Accurso, media and external relations manager for the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese, Reverend Curtis Wehmeyer was removed by Archbishop John Nienstedt after learning of allegations of misconduct. Wehmeyer was the pastor of Blessed Sacrament parish in east St. Paul.

The Archdiocese reported the allegations to police, and is fully cooperating in the investigation. Wehmeyer is barred from any involvement in ministry in the Archdiocese pending the outcome of the investigation. He is no longer in residence at Blessed Sacrament.

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ARLINGTON (VA)
Courthouse News Service

By JAMES BRIDGE

ARLINGTON, Va. (CN) – A Roman Catholic priest “kissed (a woman) on all parts of her body” during a so-called “exorcism” session, and “frequently explained full, passionate kisses as ‘blowing the Holy Spirit into’ her,” the woman claims in court.

Jane Doe sued the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, its Bishop Paul Loverde – who is not the priest accused of the abuse – and Human Life International and the HLI Endowment Inc., of Charlottesville, in Arlington County Court.

Doe claims she was sexually abused repeatedly by her “exorcist,” Thomas J. Euteneur, who was president of Human Life International and the HLI Endowment; Euteneur, however, is not named as an individual defendant.

Doe claims that Euteneur, a Roman Catholic priest, offers “‘spiritual deliverance’ and the performance of the rite of exorcism,” and did it “with the knowledge and consent of the Diocese and the Most Rev. Paul S. Loverde. … On at least one previous occasion, the Diocese and Bishop Loverde gave permission to Euteneur to conduct an exorcism within the Diocese.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

In an interview with Vatican Insider, Greg Burke, the Vatican’s new media adviser said his job would not just involve putting together responses but coming up with strategies

Andrés Beltramo Álvarez
Vatican City

Last 10 June, U.S. journalist Greg Burke decided he was going to turn his life around. He accepted the offer of a position as media adviser to the Vatican Secretary of State. This is a new role and was conceived in light of the Vatileak scandal, the crisis triggered by the leak of confidential documents belonging to Benedict XVI. Burke said this was a “high risk” job.

The 52 year old Opus Dei member will officially start his new role on Monday 2 July. Up until now he has been working as a correspondent for Fox News, following a stint at Time magazine. He has been living in Rome for over two decades and is well aware of the difficulties that exist within the Vatican. Burke is also aware of the fact that no one can snap their fingers and change the world of the Roman Curia just like that. No one. Not even the Pope.

But like any journalist, he is also well aware that the Holy See is going through a terrible moment in terms of its image. It is being tormented by news leaks, poison pen letter writers and by a series of obvious internal management errors which have received negative attention in the press. In an interview with Vatican Insider, Burke explained how he imagines his contribution, which he refers to as his “grain of sand”, to the vital change of course in apostolic communication.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) has decided that a senior priest in the Diocese of Down and Connor has no case to answer following abuse allegations.

Father John McManus from Portaferry has always denied any wrong-doing but stepped aside during the investigation.

The police conducted an inquiry after a complaint was made to the Down and Connor child safeguarding office more than a year and a half ago.

The PPS has now directed that no prosecution will be brought.

When contacted by the BBC, Fr McManus said he had “nothing to say”.

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CALIFORNIA
The Press Democrat

By PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Monday, June 25, 2012

Three men who said they were molested by a Humboldt County priest in the 1980s have settled their lawsuit against church officials for $550,000.

A fourth man has rewritten his lawsuit to avoid being timed out by the statute of limitations.

All claim they were victims of Father Patrick McCabe, a priest at St. Bernard Parish in Eureka from 1983 to 1985. McCabe was arrested in 2010 on unrelated child-sex charges and extradited to Ireland for prosecution.

In March, three men who sued the Santa Rosa Diocese and the Archdiocese of Dublin, alleging officials knowingly placed a pedophile in their midst, settled their case for $550,000, their lawyer, Joseph George Jr., said Monday.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Jon Collins, Minnesota Public Radio
June 25, 2012

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A St. Paul priest has been removed from his post after allegations surfaced that he sexually abused a minor.

The priest was arrested on Friday, but has not yet been charged. MPR News typically does not name suspects before they are charged. The abuse allegedly occurred during a two-year period.

Police spokesperson Howie Padilla said the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis approached police with the allegation.

“We had information on Thursday that there was a possible allegation of sex abuse regarding an employee of the archdiocese and a juvenile male victim,” Padilla said. “The investigation is at this time ongoing.”

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

A St. Paul priest was removed from his job after allegations surfaced that he sexually abused a minor.

The Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer is no longer at the Blessed Sacrament parish in St. Paul, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The archdiocese learned of the allegations and reported them to police, according to the statement posted on its website Sunday.

St. Paul police filed a report Thursday that said a juvenile reported being sexually abused by Wehmeyer for two years, starting in 2010. Police arrested Wehmeyer on Friday. He has been released, and has not been charged.

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CONNECTICUT
New Britain Herald

Monday, June 25, 2012

By Lisa Backus
Staff Writer

Newly released arrest warrants allege that a popular priest was having sexually oriented conversations with at least nine teenage boys, most under the age of 16, while he was working at St. Paul’s Church in Berlin.

Michael Miller, 42, was arrested in July 2011 on charges he made inappropriate comments during conversations on Facebook with a 13-year-old boy. As part of the investigation, police seized several of Miller’s computers, according to three warrants issued for Miller’s June 14 arrest.

The warrants detail the results of the computer examination which revealed that Miller was having inappropriate conversations with several teenage boys, most of whom were parishioners who met him through the church, according to police.

In the talks on Facebook, which were retrieved by the Digital Forensics Unit at the New Britain Police Department, Miller described for one 15-year-old boy the pornographic movie he was watching and said he preferred boys “because they know how the parts work.”

Another 15-year-old confirmed that Miller, who used the screen name “Brendan Duvey,” would describe sex acts to him and how to perform certain maneuvers. Yet another 15-year-old told police he began talking to Miller about his parents’ divorce and his girl problems and ultimately the priest began discussing his bisexual relationships with the boy and which sex acts he preferred to perform, according to the warrant.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

June 26, 2012 by Susan Matthews

Many on this site, including myself, have commented that they no longer wish to contribute to the archdiocese. We’d like to offer a comprehensive a list of Catholic or victim organizations that could use those funds for their good works. Please submit you suggestions (with url and short description) in the comments and I will create a Charity Resource page. Thank you.

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MINNESOTA
My Fox Twin Cities

[with video]

by Leah Beno

St. Paul Police are investigating a local priest accused of abusing a boy for the past two years.

Last Tuesday, a spokesman for Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says it was brought to their attention that Reverend Curtis Wehmeyer maybe abusing a boy within the church. The next day, the church spoke with the victim. By Thursday, St. Paul police were investigating.

“We have been in complete communication with the Archdiocese and they have cooperated to this point,” said Howie Padilla, St. Paul police spokesman.

According to the police report, the victim claims Wehmeyer has been sexually assaulting him for two years. To complicate things further, the boy’s mother also works for the church.

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CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times

By Tracey Kaplan
tkaplan@mercurynews.com

In another bizarre legal twist, the judge in the San Jose priest-beating case Monday threw out the testimony of the Jesuit after he invoked his right against self-incrimination and refused to answer more questions in the trial of a man charged with assaulting him.

Judge David A. Cena said he will instruct the Santa Clara County jury to ignore the Rev. Jerold Lindner’s 40-minute testimony last week, including his insistence that he did not sexually molest his suspected attacker, Will Lynch, 35 years ago when Lynch was 7 years old.

The ruling deprives the prosecution of its star witness, making the assault case against Lynch potentially more difficult to prove.

But it also could hurt Lynch, whose attorneys immediately called for a mistrial, saying it was unfair to proceed with the case because they will not have the opportunity to cross-examine Lindner. They said the jury heard half the story and could be left with a lingering impression of the May 10, 2010, attack at the Sacred Heart retirement center in Los Gatos, which the elderly priest described as “vicious” and painful.

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MINNESOTA
Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
June 26, 2012

This week, St Paul priest, Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, was removed as pastor of Blessed Sacrament parish in St. Paul , according to a statement from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis..

The Minneapolis Tribune reported that :

St. Paul police filed a report Thursday that said a juvenile reported being sexually abused by Wehmeyer for two years, starting in 2010. Police arrested Wehmeyer on Friday. He has been released, and has not been charged.

Police spokesman Howie Padilla said the victim was a boy, but could not divulge more details because of the ongoing investigation.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has relieved a priest of his duties while police investigate allegations of abuse.

St. Paul police arrested 47-year-old Curtis Wehmeyer, of Oakdale, after a juvenile male told investigators he had been assaulted over a two-year period. Wehmeyer has not been charged with a crime. He served as pastor at the Parish of the Blessed Sacrament on St. Paul’s east side.

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

Norbert Denef, Sprecher des Netzwerks Betroffener von sexualisierter Gewalt e.V. mit Sitz in Scharbeutz, befindet sich seit dem 8. Juni 2012 im unbefristeten Hungerstreik. Ihm schlossen sich eine Reihe von Unterstützern an, darunter Christiane Kieburg, Katharina M., Anette W., Alwin Michel, Wilfried Fesselmann und Brigitte Lunzer Rieder aus Österreich.

Das Netzwerk Betroffener von sexualisierter Gewalt e.V., kurz netzwerkB, ist eine Vereinigung von und für Menschen, denen sexualisierter Gewalt, oftmals verbunden mit Formen von psychischer und physischer Gewalt angetan wurde, einmalig, mehrmalig bis hin zu jahrelang systematisch, im Säuglings-, Kindes-, Jugendlichen oder Erwachsenenalter. Sie wurde 2010 in Scharbeutz gegründet.

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The pope’s new PR strategist not only hails from Fox News; he belongs to the secretive Opus Dei society and lives in an all-male house cleaned by women members.

June 25, 2012

By Adele M. Stan

Let’s say you’re at the top of a large, right-wing institution; one with such a patriarchal bent that only men are allowed into leadership. Imagine that, in recent times, your once-powerful worldwide conglomerate is losing oodles of clout, thanks in part to media coverage of the scandals that have beset you: the leaking of your CEO’s private correspondence to a reporter, that pesky decades-long epidemic of child sexual abuse by your branch managers, mutiny amid the ranks of the service wing of your organization, and the perception that you have played dirty with one of your competitors.

Where would you find a really savvy player in the media world with legendary message discipline on a range of issues that serve the interests of the moneyed, exclusionary, patriarchal elite? Who ya gonna call?

Why, Fox News, of course.

This weekend the Vatican announced its hire of Fox News correspondent Greg Burke for the newly created role of communications strategist. Since the beginning of Pope Benedict XVI’s reign over the Roman Catholic Church, the Holy See, as the Vatican is known, just can’t seem to catch a break in the media. Kicking off his papacy with hard-line rhetoric against Islam that resulted in rioting, Benedict now seems to have lost all control even of his own subordinates, as evidenced by the spilling over into the public sphere a round of internecine Vatican battles that resulted in the arrest of the pope’s butler for allegedly leaking Benedict’s private correspondence to a journalist.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

Published on Tuesday 26 June 2012

The jury in the trial of a priest accused of indecently assaulting a teenage girl are expected to consider their verdict today.

Fr Eugene Boland, of Parochial House, Killyclogher Road, Omagh, denies five charges of indecently assaulting the 14-year-old girl between June 28, 1990 and June 30, 1992.

The allegations made by the complainant are that the now 66-year-old hugged her, kissed her on the lips and rubbed her back underneath her clothes.

During day six of the trial, the jury of eight women and four men heard from a number of defence witnesses giving evidence on behalf of Fr Boland and closing speeches by the prosecution and defence counsel.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By ANDREW ROSENTHAL

The Roman Catholic Church has been getting a lot of press lately, much of it negative: The priest sex abuse scandal won’t go away (on Friday, a former cardinal’s aide was convicted of covering up sexual abuse by priests under his supervision); the pope’s butler leaked private documents alleging corruption in Vatican finances (he was then arrested); and church leaders are cracking down on nuns for daring to buck doctrine.

So the Vatican has done what all powerful institutions do in this sort of a situation – it’s hired a new press consultant. Because none of these cases reflects an actual problem. (As the pope’s right-hand man, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, put it last week, the media are guilty of “pettiness and lies.”) It’s all just a matter of getting the message right and getting it out there more efficiently.

This job, which has to be the last prize in the 2012 public relations career lottery, is going to Greg Burke, a 52-year-old correspondent for Fox News who has covered the Vatican since 2001. Much is being made of the fact that Mr. Burke is the first person hired to work on the Vatican’s public relations who came from outside the Catholic news agencies, although he is a numerary of the Opus Dei movement, which means that he is celibate and gives the church most of his income.

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OHIO
ABC 6

[with video]

ERIE COUNTY, Ohio — A mother wants a local youth leader locked up amid allegations he sexually assaulted the her 16-year-old son.

ABC6/FOX28 spoke to the mother of the alleged victim, who did not want to be identified.

“I felt numb. I felt sick to my stomach,” the mother said. “I did what a normal mother would do. I started crying. It was devastating.”

According to investigators, the group from Judah Christian Community Church in Columbus arrived to Beulah Beach Christian camp in Vermillion Twp. last weekend.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

OLIVER MOORE and KIM MACKRAEL
The Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Jun. 25 2012

Scouts Canada has referred more than 100 allegations of historic sexual abuse to police after a forensic audit raised troubling questions about the organization’s handling of the cases over the past several decades.

A report from KPMG, released Monday, offers new detail on the organization’s reaction to sexual abuse allegations. It found no evidence of a systemic cover-up but showed that even after 1992, when internal rules changed to require that such allegations be reported to the authorities, the information was not always shared.

“We have decided to confront the good and the bad of our past,” Scouts Canada chief commissioner Steve Kent told a news conference in Ottawa.

Information on 65 cases, about one-fifth of which were reported after 1992, was not given to police when allegations surfaced. And for another 64 cases, roughly split between pre- and post-1992, there were not sufficient records to be sure the cases were reported, the audit found.

All 129 of these cases have now been handed over to police, Mr. Kent said. He would offer no details of the individual circumstances, citing the active investigations, but suggested the cases spanned the country.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer

For the last four nights, William J. Lynn has been known as No. 1102886 – one of 2,883 men living at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, the largest of the city’s prisons, in Northeast Philadelphia.

On Tuesday, Lynn’s lawyers hope they can persuade a Philadelphia judge to grant Lynn bail, allowing him to resume his role as a monsignor of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and, at least temporarily, live at a relative’s home instead of solitary confinement.

Lynn, 61, was found guilty Friday by a Common Pleas Court jury of a count of child endangerment, the first Catholic Church official criminally charged for his administrative duties as part of the ongoing sex-abuse scandal.

From 1992 to 2004, Lynn was archdiocesan secretary for clergy, responsible for investigating allegations of sexual abuse against priests.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Brockton Enterprise

By Erik Potter
Enterprise Staff Writer

Posted Jun 26, 2012

EASTON —

“I want people to know that they are safe from Paul Hawksley.”

The child that Hawksley repeatedly and forcibly raped eight years ago has been waiting years to be able to say that.

After coming forward in 2010 with his story of sexual abuse at the hands of an Easton church youth leader, the young man, whose name is not being published because he is the victim of a sex crime, has watched the criminal case against Hawksley wend slowly through the justice system.

When he heard the verdict on Monday – guilty on all counts – he cried.

“I was in tears. I was overjoyed,” he said in a phone interview with The Enterprise. “I’m working on putting back the pieces and getting my life back together. This gets me a lot closer. Closure is what I’m feeling now.”

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UNITED STATES
Patch

By Penelope Ettinger, Executive Director of PEI Kids

When are we going to create a safe community to protect our children from sexual abuse? Jerry Sandusky has been convicted of 45 out of 48 counts of child sexual abuse. Monsignor William Lynn of Philadelphia, in a landmark clergy-abuse trial, was convicted of child endangerment for covering up abuse claims. In the past year, coverage of child sexual abuse has increased with more than 1,800 stories in the news. Yet, in our communities we do little to create a safe environment for our children.

The alarming statistics of child sexual abuse are well substantiated – 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused by their 18th birthday. Ninety percent of child sexual abuse is committed by someone the child (and the family) knows, trusts and in many cases loves. Thirty percent of these cases are committed by a family member. And most sexual abuse is never reported. The grim reality is child sexual abuse happens in every community. If the child doesn’t receive treatment, the adverse emotional and social impact on the child victim is life-long. The long-term economic costs to business and community are great.

Still, there is a solution. It is our primal moral responsibility to educate ourselves and our children about these potential dangers in our communities. Recently the Greater Mercer Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse was formed to do exactly this –educate every adult who lives and/or works in the greater Mercer area on how to keep children safe, how to recognize signs of abuse and how to respond with compassion to any child who tells of abuse. The Coalition, which is part of a statewide effort, comprises a growing group of community leaders from business, the faith-based community, health care, , the media, youth and social service organizations, government and education to address this issue within their own disciplines and to get the message out to constituents—and where appropriate—adopting appropriate child safety policies.

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.

PENNSYLVANIA
Sports Illustrated

John Wertheim

Last Friday, a 12-member Pennsylvania jury issued a groundbreaking decision that will change the way we prosecute and perceive sex crimes against children. The guilty verdict will have far-reaching consequences for how authority figures and institutions can be held criminally liable when committing and covering up sexual abuse.

Yet when Monsignor William J. Lynn, a former cardinal’s aide with the archdiocese of Philadelphia, was found guilty of endangering children — and now faces jail time for concealing evidence about predatory priests, transferring them to other parishes instead of confronting allegations about their abuse — a nation hardly stopped its business. Twitter wasn’t atwitter, networks didn’t break from regularly scheduled programming to announce the verdict, and reporters on the ground didn’t file reports over the whir of circling news helicopters.

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.

CALIFORNIA
NBC Bay Area

By Breena Kerr

Monday, Jun 25, 2012

Lindner testified last week in the trial, in which defendant William Lynch, 44, has been charged with felony assault and elder abuse for allegedly attacking Lindner at a Los Gatos retirement home in May 2010.

A Jesuit priest who was allegedly assaulted in 2010 by a man who claims the priest molested him several decades ago is refusing to testify further in his accused attacker’s San Jose trial.

The Rev. Jerold Lindner told Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge David Cena Monday morning that, under the advice of his attorney, he is invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and is declining to give additional testimony.

Cena is taking the matter under consideration and has recessed the case until 1:30 p.m. Monday.

Lindner testified last week in the trial, in which defendant William Lynch, 44, has been charged with felony assault and elder abuse for allegedly attacking Lindner at a Los Gatos retirement home in May 2010.

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.

IRELAND
The Irish Times

A FORMER priest has admitted the attempted rape of a young girl and the sexual assault of her brother in west Cork more than 30 years ago.

John Calnan (73), of the Presbytery, Paul Street, Cork, pleaded guilty to the attempted rape of the girl between January 1st, 1980, and April 30th, 1980, in west Cork. She was aged seven at the time.

Calnan also admitted three counts of sexually assaulting the girl between October 25th, 1976, and October 24th, 1979.

He further admitted one count of sexual assault on the girl’s brother between August 10th, 1975, and October 9th, 1979. The victim was aged between nine and 12 at the time.

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.

ROCHESTER (NY)
Democrat and Chronicle

Written by
SEAN DOBBIN
Staff writer

A momentous undertaking, the Diocese of Rochester’s three-day synod in October 1993 centered on the recommendations of more than 30,000 parishioners, who over several years had submitted countless suggestions regarding the future of the diocese and how it tied in to their faith, their values and their dreams.

But while the synod itself ranks highly among his favorite moments in Rochester, engaging with the parishioners beforehand and drawing on their strength, joy, and goodwill, is among Bishop Matthew H. Clark’s most cherished memories of his time here.

“The experience of doing it that way has had its good fruit for all the years since,” said Clark. “The realization that yes, what we do is extremely important, and the decisions we make are crucial, but no less important are the ways we come to it.”

In July, Clark will reach the age of 75, whereupon he will submit his resignation to the Vatican as is mandated by Canon Law. On Monday, he spoke to members of the media and reflected on his 33 years as bishop, saying that interacting with his parishioners was the best part of the position. …

But most painful of all was the national sex abuse scandal which saw thousands of priests nationwide removed from the priesthood; earlier this month, the Diocese of Rochester published the names of 23 such priests it had removed from the ministry over the past 10 years.

“It’s the worst thing that has ever happened in my lifetime to the church,” said Clark. “The core damage done to the young people victimized by priests, of whom had every right to expect the highest level of trust and care, that is a terrible black mark and stain on our recent history.”

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

Lost in all the hoopla over the “historic” conviction of Msgr. William J. Lynn was the jury’s repudiation of the prosecution’s central allegation in the priest abuse case: that Lynn had somehow conspired with predator priests to keep them in ministry, so they could abuse new victims.

The prosecution’s conspiracy theory was that Lynn got up every day and said in effect, what can I do to keep pedophile priests in ministry, so they can continue to rape, molest and abuse more innocent children.

On Monday, the jury foreman in the case went on Fox 29 and said that not only did he and other jurors not believe the prosecutors’ theory, but also that they didn’t understand it. It would be comical, except that the Commonwealth just spent millions of dollars and eight weeks of trial trying to convince the jury that Bill Lynn the quintessential company man was the alleged mastermind of the conspiracy down at the archdiocese to endanger children.

The jury found Lynn not guilty of conspiring with Father Edward V. Avery, or anyone else, to endanger the welfare of children.

On Monday morning, jury foreman Isa Logan went on Fox 29’s Good Day and told anchors Mike Jerrick and Karen Hepp that he didn’t buy the prosecution’s conspiracy theory, and neither did anyone else on the jury.

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.

ST. PAUL (MN)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:
Sunday, June 24, 2012

Source:
Jim Accurso

Archbishop John Nienstedt has removed the pastor of Blessed Sacrament parish in St. Paul, Reverend Curtis Wehmeyer, after learning of allegations that the priest had engaged in misconduct involving a minor. Following archdiocesan policy, the Archdiocese immediately reported the allegations to the police, and an investigation into the allegations was begun. The Archdiocese is cooperating fully with police in their investigation.

Pending the outcome of the investigation, Father Wehmeyer is prohibited from exercising any ministry in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. He is no longer in residence at Blessed Sacrament.

Another priest will be appointed to Blessed Sacrament to provide for parishioners’ sacramental and pastoral needs.

Anyone having knowledge of misconduct within a parish should call the proper authorities and is encouraged to notify the Archdiocese at 651.291.4497.

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.

ST. PAUL (MN)
Patch

By Hannah Gruber

A St. Paul priest was arrested in Oakdale Friday after he was accused of having sexual contact with a minor.

Curtis Carl Wehmeyer, 47, was arrested Friday and released from Ramsey County jail on Monday, according to the Pioneer Press. He has not been formally charged, but police are investigating the case as a sexual assault.

A juvenile male told police that the abuse occurred for two years, said Howie Padilla, a spokesman of the St. Paul Police Department.

Since the allegations emerged last week, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis removed Wehmeyer from his position as the pastor at the Parish of the Blessed Sacrament at 1801 LaCrosse Avenue in St. Paul, according to the Pioneer Press.

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.

ST. PAUL (MN)
Pioneer Press

mgottfried@pioneerpress.com
twincities.com
Posted: 06/25/2012

Police arrested a St. Paul priest on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct, and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has removed him as a pastor.

The move came after the archdiocese learned “of allegations that the priest had engaged in misconduct involving a minor,” archdiocese spokesman Jim Accurso said in a Sunday, June 24, statement. “Following archdiocesan policy, the archdiocese immediately reported the allegations to the police, and an investigation into the allegations was begun.”

Police arrested Curtis Carl Wehmeyer, 47, in Oakdale on Friday. He was released from the Ramsey County jail Monday, pending further investigation. He has not been charged.

Police are investigating the case as a sex assault, said Howie Padilla, police spokesman. A juvenile male told police Thursday it happened over a two-year period, he said.

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.

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on June 25, 2012

It’s disturbing that Minnesota Catholic officials stayed silent about these serious and credible allegations for days.

Days of delay enable criminals to destroy evidence, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, fabricate alibis and even flee the country.

It’s irresponsible for Catholic officials to sit on crucial information that could protect kids while they selfishly wait for a more opportune time to release it.

Let’s hope that every person who saw, suspected or suffered Fr. Wehmeyer’s crimes (or misdeeds by any Catholic employee) will find the strength and courage to step forward, call police, protect kids, expose wrongdoing and start healing.

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.

NEDERLAND
Limburgs Dagblad

Binnen Huize Sint Joseph in Heel was in de periode dat tientallen jongens onder verdachte omstandigheden stierven, sprake van een verziekte cultuur.

Door onze verslaggevers
Heel

De leiding van het gesticht in Heel kampte begin jaren vijftig van de vorige eeuw met grote problemen. Binnen de muren van de instelling was sprake van seksueel misbruik van de kinderen, agressie en gedwongen nachtarbeid. Er was een machtsstrijd gaande tussen de verschillende broeders. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van deze krant naar de omstandigheden waaronder tientallen jongens in Heel overleden.

De problemen escaleerden tussen 1950 en 1954. Dat is precies de periode dat tientallen jongens in Huize Sint Joseph stierven. Een groot deel van hen verbleef op de verpleegafdeling van broeder Andreas, die nu verantwoordelijk wordt gehouden voor de sterfgevallen. Deze ‘broeder des doods’ claimde in zijn later geschreven biografie dat hij als onervaren verpleger in Heel volledig aan zijn lot werd overgelaten. Justitie heeft nadrukkelijk naar de rol van de verantwoordelijken in die tijd bij Sint Joseph gekeken, bevestigen bronnen.

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WIBW

(CBS/AP) PHILADELPHIA – A Roman Catholic church official convicted of child endangerment will learn Tuesday if he’ll get out of jail to await sentencing.

Monsignor William Lynn was found guilty of child endangerment Friday, making him the first U.S. church official convicted for covering up abuse claims.

A judge revoked his bail, but his lawyers want the 61-year-old priest released on house arrest until his Aug. 13 sentencing. They filed a motion Monday asking to have him released from prison.

“You guys are going to have to look a long, long time to find a 61-year-old defendant convicted of a third-degree felony with no prior record, with community ties who was remanded,” defense lawyer Jeffrey Lindy told CBS Philadelphia station KYW-TV Friday.

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.

CALIFORNIA
Santa Cruz Sentinel

By Tracey Kaplan
tkaplan@mercurynews.com
mercurynews.com

Posted: 06/25/2012

A Santa Clara County judge has stricken the key testimony of a retired Catholic priest who is the victim in a beating case after he invoked his right against self-incrimination and refused to answer more questions.

Judge David A. Cena also indicated Rev. Jerold Lindner can legally invoke 5th Amendment rights and refuse to continue his testimony.

But Cena indicated he will move forward with the trial against Will Lynch, who is accused of assaulting Lindner at a Catholic retirement center in Los Gatos in 2010.

Lynch’s attorneys said it is unfair to proceed with the case because the jury has already heard 40 minutes of Lindner’s testimony and defense would have no opportunity to cross-examine him. They said the jury heard half the story.

The trial was adjourned in the mid-afternoon and will reconvene at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, at which time the defense is expected to formally put their objections on the record.

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.

CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times

The Associated Press
Posted: 06/25/2012

SAN JOSE, Calif.—A judge has tossed out a priest’s testimony against a man charged with assaulting him after the reverend invoked his right to avoid self-incrimination as it became clear he may be accused of lying on the stand.

The man accused of attacking the priest in 2010 at a retirement home in San Jose, William Lynch, claims Father Jerold Lindner raped him and his brother decades ago. Lindner has denied the accusations.

The San Jose Mercury News reported (http://bit.ly/KIWRz9) on Monday that Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge David Cena allowed Lindner to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.

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.

UNITED STATES
Legal Examiner

by John McKiggan
June 25, 2012

On Friday, June 22, 2012, Monsignor William Lynn was convicted by a jury on charges of criminal endangerment. The case marks the first time that any official within the Catholic Church has been held criminally responsible for sexual abuse by Catholic priests.

Landmark Decision

I don’t believe the importance of this conviction can be understated. Every province in Canada and every state in the United States have laws that require persons in authority to report suspected cases of child abuse. The website BishopAccountability.org has a database of almost a hundred American priests who have been publicly accused of sexual abuse.

But until last week, not a single catholic official in charge of any of these priests have ever faced charges about their knowledge or complicity in failing to report these priests to civilian authorities.

Civil lawsuits by priest-abuse victims have uncovered, time and time again, evidence that persons in authority within the Church knew about abuse by priests and failed to report the abuse, or worse, moved the priests from parish to parish allowing them to continue their predatory acts.

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.

CALIFORNIA
KTVU

KTVU And AP Wires

SAN JOSE, Calif. —

A Superior Court judge rejected a mistrial motion Monday filed by a man who is accused of beating a priest who he claims raped him decades ago.

Judge David Cena denied the motion before testimony started for the day Monday.

The attorneys for William Lynch had claimed a prosecutor committed misconduct in handling the priest’s testimony. The defense attorneys accused the prosecutor of knowingly allowing false testimony, known as “suborning perjury.”

Father Jerold Lindner denied under oath on the witness stand Wednesday that he molested Lynch during a 1975 camping trip.

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.

CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Sheila Sanchez

A mistrial motion filed Friday afternoon citing prosecutorial misconduct and suborned perjury was denied this morning by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge David Cena, who’s presiding over the high-profile Los Gatos priest-beating case.

After attorneys representing William Lynch, accused of beating Father Jerold Lindner at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos in May of 2010, and Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Kevin Smith defended his colleague, prosecutor Vicki Gemetti, Cena ruled that the prosecution wouldn’t knowingly use perjured testimony to obtain a conviction on the case.

Cena further ruled that Lindner’s testimony denying the molestation accusations didn’t relate to either of the crimes with which Lynch is being tried for, assault and elder abuse of the priest, the judge said.

Cena also stated that Lindner has never stated that he’s molested anyone and has never been convicted of any molestation charge. He also said the defense had failed to prove that his testimony is 100 percent false when he denied abusing Lynch.

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.

VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Alessandro Speciale| Religion News Service, Updated: Monday, June 25

VATICAN CITY — The sexual abuse scandal has tarnished the image of the priest and contributed to a crisis of priestly vocations in the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican said Monday (June 25), while also faulting a widespread “secularized mentality” and parents’ ambition for their children, which leaves “little space to the possibility of a call to a special vocation.”

The “Pastoral Guidelines for Fostering Vocations to Priestly Ministry” were prepared over the last seven years by the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education.

The document says candidates to the priesthood shouldn’t be accepted if they show “signs of being profoundly fragile personalities,” and says future priests should learn the “importance” of their future commitments, “in particular with regard to celibacy.”

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.

DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit

Bonn (AFP) Nach zweieinhalb Jahren stellt die katholische Kirche ihre Hotline für ehemalige Heimkinder zum Monatsende ein. Seit Januar 2010 wurde das Angebot von 909 Betroffenen genutzt, die zwischen 1945 und 1975 in katholischen Einrichtungen schlechte Erfahrungen gemacht hatten, wie die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz am Montag in Bonn mitteilte. 645 der Nutzer meldeten sich telefonisch, 264 im Zuge einer Online-Beratung. 73 Prozent der Anrufer berichteten demnach von körperlichen Strafen, 48 Prozent von Demütigungen. 243 Anrufer gaben an, sexuellen Missbrauch erfahren zu haben.

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OREGON
The Garden of Roses: Stories of Abuse and Healing

Letter From a Father Struggling for Justice
Dear Friend:

My friend, Nam Hoang. asked me to post this letter. It is about a priest mentioned in a previous article posted to my blog — I Am Greatly Saddened By This Case.

The priest, who is Nam Hoang’s brother, had a credible accusation of abuse against him, but the Archdiocese placed him back into ministry. When Nam came forward in private to Church officials several years ago, he did not receive support from the community. Instead he and his wife, and children were harassed so badly they decided to leave the state of Oregon.

I edited some names but the most important one can be found in the previous blog post.

Peace be with us all. We need it.

Sincerely,
Virginia Jones

Email: paxdeus11@live.com
P.O. Box 11105
Manassas, Va 20113
Washington DC June 22 2012.
TO: Archdiocese of Portland and the Committee Review Board.
CC: Catholics and victims of sexual abuse, Media Outlets, Gov. John Kitzhaber (OR), Gov. Mac Donnell (VA), delegate David Albo (VA), Senator Scott Brown (Mass). Parishioners of Tillamook, Sacred Heart Church.
This letter will also be given to passerby and hand delivered to US congress of America.
Re: 1/Fr JVH erratic behavior and sexual misconducts.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Michael Sean Winters on Jun. 25, 2012 Distinctly Catholic

The jury in the trial of Msgr. William Lynn took 13 days to reach its verdict, and the verdict was clear: Those charged with oversight of clergy and who did not use that charge to protect children will be found guilty of criminal behavior — in this case, child endangerment.

We know something about what took the jury so long. The jurors had sent the judge a note saying they had reached a verdict on one count but were deadlocked on the others. In the end, they concluded they could not break their deadlock regarding Fr. James Brennan, who was charged with molestation, and consequently, they could not convict Lynn on the charge of child endangerment regarding Brennan’s assignments. But they did convict Lynn on the charge of child endangerment as regards his actions towards Fr. Edward Avery, who had previously pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and sexual assault. In other words, once the underlying crime was proven, the jury had little doubt as to the guilt of Msgr. Lynn, who served as the secretary for the clergy in Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004.

“This trial was not about a specific religion. It was about evil men who did evil things to children they should have protected but people were more concerned about the institution than about those victims or future victims,” Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said after the verdict. Williams is, by all accounts, a loyal Catholic.

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VATICAN CITY
The Daily Beat

Barbie Latza Nadeau

Mired in scandal, the Vatican poached an American Fox News journalist to handle communications. Greg Burke tells Barbie Latza Nadeau how he’ll bring the Holy See back to good graces.

One week after the Pope’s butler was arrested for allegedly leaking private Vatican documents to the press, Fox News’s Rome correspondent, Greg Burke, got what he refers to as “a curious call” from the Vatican. Burke was in the United States at the time, celebrating his father’s 90th birthday, and had turned off his Italian cellphone. When he turned it back on, he had several messages from the Holy See. “The Pope’s chief of staff would like to see you,” said one.

“I knew it was something important,” Burke, 52, told The Daily Beast. “I figured it wasn’t to talk about the best restaurants in Rome.”

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.

VATICAN CITY
The Guardian – Greenslade Blog (United Kingdom)

Would you believe it? The Vatican has hired a Fox News journalist to be its senior communications adviser.

Greg Burke, the News Corp channel’s Rome correspondent, has covered the Vatican for Fox since 2001. He is a member of the conservative Opus Dei movement.

He becomes the Vatican’s first communications expert hired from outside the insular world of the Roman Catholic news media. He is not replacing the current spokesman, Federico Lombardi, but will advise officials on how to shape their message.

Some Vatican observers regard the move as a power play by media-savvy Americans — including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York and the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — inside a Vatican hierarchy that is run by Italians.

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.

VATICAN CITY
The Age (Australia)

Rome
June 26, 2012

A FOX News reporter has been chosen by Pope Benedict XVI to sort out the Vatican’s media strategy amid signs that the 85-year-old pontiff is plotting a radical shake-up at the top of the Roman Catholic church.

Greg Burke, a 52-year-old member of the conservative Opus Dei fellowship, is to take a job in the Vatican’s secretariat of state. He said: ”I feel exactly the way I felt in Lebanon at the start of the 2006 war – nervous and excited at the same time.”

Burke, who is Rome correspondent for Fox television, said he had twice refused a similar offer from the Vatican ”because I had a really great job”.

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.

VATICAN CITY
NPR

by Bill Chappell

Seeking to modernize and widen its dealings with the media, the Vatican has hired Fox News Channel’s Rome correspondent to advise its press office. The move will put journalist Greg Burke, who is also a member of Opus Dei, into a new role working with Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi.

For NPR’s Newscast desk, Sylvia Poggioli reports from Rome:

“Greg Burke, 52, has been with Fox 10 years, and he’ll be the first Vatican communications expert with experience outside the world of Catholic media.

Last week, the pope’s right hand man, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. accused the media of ‘pettiness and lies.'”

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

By Francoise Kadri (AFP)

ROME — A scandal-hit Vatican, struggling to combat years of bad press, has hired American Fox News correspondent Greg Burke to modernise a communications strategy tainted by serious blunders in the past.

Burke told AFP he has been hired “primarily as a strategist” to “simplify the Vatican’s message (and) improve communications,” though Vatican watchers have said his appointment fails to tackle the real issues within the Holy See.

One of his main tasks, Burke says, will be “avoiding too many surprises.”

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CANADA
National Post

Kelly McParland Jun 25, 2012

Embroiled in more scandals than it has commandments, the Catholic Church hierarchy has reacted like governments everywhere do when they’re in trouble: hire a public relations adviser to “craft its message.”

In this case the Church has turned to what must be one of the world’s more questionable sources, if you’re looking for straightforward, unbiased communications: Fox News.

Well, not Fox News exactly, but Greg Burke, a veteran Fox News correspondent in Rome, and a member of Opus Dei.

Gee, how promising — a member of the Church’s most conservative wing, who works for the world’s most right-wing news organization, will now be guiding the Pope in trying to reassure the flock that everything is under control inside the world’s last independent walled city-state.

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.

CALIFORNIA
Mercury News

By Tracey Kaplan
tkaplan@mercurynews.com
mercurynews.com

Posted: 06/25/2012

A retired Catholic priest has refused to answer more questions in the trial of the man accused of beating him in Los Gatos, a move that could end the case.

When Rev. Jerold Lindner was called back to the stand this morning, he invoked the 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination. Lindner is the key witness against San Francisco resident Will Lynch, who is accused of assaulting Lindner in 2010.

Lindner allegedly molested Lynch decades ago when he was a child.

Judge David A. Cena dismissed the jury until this afternoon. He is considering whether Lindner can invoke his right against self-incrimination. The statute of limitations has run out on the alleged molestations, but Lindner’s attorney says the priest could be charged with perjury. He has already in court denied he molested Lynch.

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.

CALIFORNIA
Ventura County Star

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – Attorneys representing a California man charged with assaulting a priest who he claims raped him decades ago have filed a second motion for a mistrial.

William Lynch’s attorneys say prosecutor Vicki Gemetti withheld evidence she obtained from Father Jerold Lindner. Lindner allegedly told Gemetti that he would take the stand and say he did not molest Lynch. But Lynch’s attorneys say Gemetti denied knowing what Lynch would say.

The San Jose Mercury News (http://bit.ly/Q37bl6) obtained the second motion late Sunday.

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INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

INDIANAPOLIS — Noting that the church in Philadelphia is “now my family, an intimate part of my life” a year after being appointed to lead the church there, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput said that the clergy sexual abuse scandal “has caused terrible suffering for victims, demoralized many of our clergy, crippled the witness of the church and humiliated the whole Catholic community” in that region.

He made this assessment June 20, hours after a Philadelphia jury told Judge Teresa Sarmina that they could not agree on four of five charges in a clergy sexual abuse trial. Judge Sarmina instructed the jury, which has been in deliberations for 12 days, to continue to seek a verdict in the case against Father James J. Brennan and Msgr. William Lynn.

Archbishop Chaput made his remarks during a keynote address in the 2012 Catholic Media Conference, sponsored jointly by the Catholic Press Association and the Catholic Academy for Communications Arts Professionals.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on June 25, 2012

We call on Penn State officials to disavow confidentiality or “gag” orders and to agree not to ask victims to sign them before their cases are settled. From a PR perspective, these orders may be tempting, but from a prevention perspective, these orders will only do the public a disservice.

It is important that the facts about this harrowing situation can be made public, so that people may learn where things went wrong, and what can be done to prevent such wrongdoing in the future.

Penn State officials have publicly said they want these suits to be resolved quickly. But in some ways, we hope not all of them will be.

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OSTERREICH
Kaernten@ORF

Seit bekannt wurde, dass es auch in Heimen der evangelischen Diakonie in Treffen Missbrauchsfälle gegeben hat, läuft die Aufarbeitung. Die Diakonie zahlte den Opfern bisher 150.000 Euro Entschädigung. Rektor Hubert Stotter im Interview.

Sexueller Mißbrauch, sexualisierte Gewalt, schwarze Pädagogik, darüber berichteten bisher zehn Opfer, die als Kinder Zöglinge im Heim „de la Tour“ im Treffen waren. Manche wurden zu Hause missbraucht, kamen ins Heim, wurden dort wieder missbraucht. Als sie verhaltensauffällig wurden, kamen sie zu Kinderarzt Franz Wurst, dieser habe sie wieder missbraucht.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on June 25, 2012

Penn State must have something to hide. And it’s bad enough that they’re trying to bamboozle victims into gag orders.

From the Philadelphia Enquirer:

… School president Rodney Erickson said in a statement released just after the 45 guilty verdicts against Sandusky were brought in Friday night, ”The purpose of the program is simple. The university wants to provide a forum where the university can privately, expeditiously, and fairly address the victims’ concerns and compensate them for claims.” (emphasis mine)

Even the US Catholic Bishops have a rule against gag-orders, (Article 3 of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People). They give it the run-around as much as they can, but still.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
ABC News

PHILADELPHIA June 25, 2012 (AP)

Attorneys for a Roman Catholic church official convicted of child endangerment are asking a judge to release him on house arrest.

Monsignor William Lynn was found guilty of child endangerment Friday, making him the first U.S. church official branded a felon for covering up abuse claims.

His lawyers filed a motion Monday asking to have him released from prison pending his sentencing Aug. 13.

Prosecutors say Lynn helped the Archdiocese of Philadelphia keep predators in ministry, and the public in the dark, by telling parishes their priests were being removed for health reasons and then sending the men to unsuspecting churches.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
My Fox Philly

[with video]

PHILADELPHIA –
Two big verdicts were handed down by two different juries on Friday, including the conviction of Jerry Sandusky and the conviction of Monsignor William Lynn.

But the jury in the Philadelphia church sex abuse trial could not agree on the charges against Father James Brennan, which resulted in a mistrial.

Joining “Good Day” Monday was Issa Logan, the jury foreman on that case.

The jurors come to agreement on the charges against Brennan, who was accused of trying to rape a teenager, “because the evidence didn’t allow us to actually believe – or all of us to believe – that he actually raped a child,” Logan said.

The accuser testified during the trial, but Logan said some of the jurors had problems with discrepancies in the evidence, adding that “the story didn’t stay as consistent as we needed it to be in order to make a decision.”

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CALIFORNIA
Marin Independent Journal

By Tracey Kaplan
tkaplan@mercurynews.com
mercurynews.com

Posted: 06/25/2012

A Santa Clara County judge this morning rejected the defense’s motions for a mistrial in the priest-beating case.

Judge David A. Cena also said testimony will resume later this morning with Rev. Jerold Lindner back on the stand.

Lindner allegedly molested Will Lynch when he was a child. Decades later, Lynch is accused of beating Lindner at a Los Gatos center for retired priests.

Lynch’s attorneys filed two motions for a mistrial. The first was that prosecutor Vicki Gemetti suborned perjury when Gemetti put Lindner on the stand Wednesday after announcing to the jury in her opening statement that he molested the brothers and would almost certainly lie under oath by denying the alleged molestation or saying he didn’t remember.

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CALIFORNIA
Oakland Tribune

By Tracey Kaplan tkaplan@mercurynews.comcontracostatimes.com
Posted: 06/25/2012

Prosecutors in the San Jose priest-beating trial have said they pursued the case despite the accused man’s understandable motive — retaliating against the cleric he said brutally molested him as a child — because it’s the right thing to do.

No matter how good the motive, they said, victims cannot be allowed to mete out justice in defiance of the rule of law.

But now, lawyers for the priest’s alleged assailant, Will Lynch, are filing a second motion for a mistrial, claiming among other grounds that prosecutor Vicki Gemetti violated the rule of law herself — by withholding evidence and lying about it.

Gemetti told the lawyers and judge she did not know what the victim and star witness — the Rev. Jerold Lindner — would say in court when she asked if he molested Lynch and his then-4-year-old brother on a camping trip in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the mid-1970s. The defense had asked for the information in multiple discovery requests right up until Wednesday, the first day of trial, so the lawyers could prepare to cross-examine him. Gemetti that morning “stated she had not discussed it (with the priest) and that she had no idea what he was going to say,” according to the motion.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 24 June 2012 (VIS) – The American journalist Gregory Burke, who is currently Rome correspondent for Fox News, will shortly take up the post of “communications advisor” to the Secretariat of State, according to an announcement made by Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J.

“This new figure”, Fr. Lombardi explained, “will have the task of dealing with communications issues in the work of the Secretariat of State, and will oversee relations with the Holy See Press Office and other media institutions of the Holy See”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 24 June 2012 (VIS) – Fr. Lombardi has provided journalists with information about meetings the Pope held on Saturday 23 June, first with heads of dicasteries of the Roman Curia, and subsequently with Cardinals George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia; Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops; Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue; Camillo Ruini, vicar general emeritus of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome, and Jozef Tomko, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

“In the context of the circumstances that have arisen following the publication of reserved documents, the Holy Father is seeking to deepen his knowledge of the situation through continuous dialogue with those people who share with him the responsibility for governing the Church”, Fr. Lombardi said.

“Last Saturday, as has already been made public, he became more fully informed on the course of the investigations in a meeting with the Commission of Cardinals responsible for conducting them, led by Cardinal Julian Herranz.

“This morning he is participating in the meeting with heads of dicasteries which, as is customary, is focusing on the issue of coordinating the work of the Roman Curia, something which is particularly important and urgent today in order to bear effective witness to the spirit of union which animates it.

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NEDERLAND
RTL News

Eén man zou verantwoordelijk zijn voor de dood van tientallen jongens in de jaren vijftig in een katholieke zwakzinnigeninstelling in Limburg. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van Dagblad de Limburger.

Tussen 1952 en 1954 was het sterftecijfer in de instelling Sint Joseph in het plaatsje Heel opvallend hoog. Volgens De Limburger onthult het Openbaar Ministerie binnenkort een onderzoek naar de zaak, en naar de rol van een zekere broeder Andreas. De krant schrijft dat deze broeder, die inmiddels zelf ook is overleden, verantwoordelijk is voor de dood van de ernstig gehandicapte jongens.

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NEDERLAND
Knack

maandag 25 juni 2012

Westvleteren – De dood van tientallen jongens in het psychiatrisch instituut Sint Joseph in het Nederlands-Limburgse Heel wordt toegeschreven aan één man, broeder Andreas. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van dagblad De Limburger naar een van de grootste misstanden ooit binnen Nederlandse katholieke jeugdinstellingen. De broeder belandde later bij de Trappisten in het Westvleteren.

Tussen 1952 en 1954 vonden tientallen zeer ernstig gehandicapte jongens de dood in de een instelling in Heel. Oorspronkelijk luidde het dat ze een natuurlijke dood waren gestorven. Maar daar is vorig jaar twijfel over ontstaan. Onderzoek van Dagblad De Limburger leerde dat het extreme sterftecijfer te maken had met broeder Andreas. Die werkte in Heel met de groep ernstigst gehandicapte kinderen die niets meer konden dan eten en slapen. Hulp bij de behandeling kreeg hij niet.

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NEDERLAND
de Stentor

Auteur: door Paul Bots, Hans Goossen | maandag 25 juni 2012

HEEL – De dood van tientallen jongens in zwakzinnigeninstelling Sint Joseph in Heel wordt toegeschreven aan één man, broeder Andreas. De doden vielen tussen 1952-1954.

Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van Dagblad De Limburger/Limburgs Dagblad naar een van de grootste misstanden ooit binnen katholieke jeugdinstellingen. Het Openbaar Ministerie presenteert op korte termijn het resultaat van een eigen studie naar het extreme sterftecijfer en de rol van broeder Andreas.

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NEDERLAND
Tubantia

HEEL – De dood van tientallen jongens in zwakzinnigeninstelling Sint Joseph in Heel wordt toegeschreven aan één man, broeder Andreas. De doden vielen tussen 1952-1954.

Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van Dagblad De Limburger/Limburgs Dagblad naar een van de grootste misstanden ooit binnen katholieke jeugdinstellingen. Het Openbaar Ministerie presenteert op korte termijn het resultaat van een eigen studie naar het extreme sterftecijfer en de rol van broeder Andreas.

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NEDERLAND
PowNed

De dood van tientallen zwakzinnige jongens, tussen 1952 en 1954 in de instelling Sint Joseph in Heel, wordt in zijn geheel toegeschreven aan broeder Andreas. Dit blijkt vandaag uit onderzoek van De Limburger. Het Openbaar Ministerie (OM) zal binnen korte termijn de resultaten van eigen onderzoek openbaren.

De ‘broeder des doods’ was in zijn eentje verantwoordelijk voor de verzorging van de zeer ernstig gehandicapte jongens. De kinderen waren tot niet meer in staat dan eten en slapen. De manier waarop hij de jongens om het leven bracht en de motieven van de broeder blijven onbekend.

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NEDERLAND
ND

HEEL – Het hoge sterftecijfer onder gehandicapte jongens in het rooms-katholieke internaat St. Joseph in Heel is toe te schrijven aan het werk van één broeder, Andreas.

Dat schrijft het regionale dagblad De Limburger op basis van eigen onderzoek dat vandaag is gepubliceerd. Onduidelijk is nog of deze broeder de zwaar gehandicapte kinderen actief om het leven bracht of dat hij ze aan hun lot overliet.De zaak naar de dood van 34 jongens onder de achttien jaar tussen 1952 en …

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NEDERLAND
NRC Handelsblad

door Joep Dohmen

Informatie over de mogelijke moord in de jaren vijftig op 34 zwakzinnige kinderen door een broeder in het katholieke gesticht Sint Joseph in het Limburgse Heel is in 1990 niet naar buiten gebracht.

De twee auteurs van een gedenkboek bij het tachtigjarig bestaan van Sint Joseph waren destijds in het archief van het bisdom Roermond informatie tegengekomen over de mysterieuze dood van de kinderen, waarvoor een broeder verantwoordelijk zou zijn. De door Sint Joseph ingehuurde auteurs hielden de gegevens echter achter omdat ze “niet bewezen” waren, zegt Phil Janssen uit Venlo die het boek schreef met Adri Gorissen, journalist van Dagblad De Limburger. Ze meldden het wel aan de directie van Sint Joseph, aldus Janssen. Die deed er niets mee.

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NEDERLAND
Limburgs Dagblad

[Summary: The death of dozens of boys in the St. Joseph mental institution is attributed to Brother Andreas. The deaths occurred 1952-1954. According to research by Dagblad De Limburger this is one of the great evils committed in a Catholic youth organization. By 1954, his religious order held him responsible for the high mortality rate and he was transferred. He later joined a Trappist order in Belgium.]

De dood van tientallen jongens in zwakzinnigeninstelling Sint Joseph in Heel wordt toegeschreven aan één man, broeder Andreas. De doden vielen tussen 1952-1954.

Heel

Door Paul Bots, Hans Goossen en Niki van der Naald

Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van deze krant naar een van de grootste misstanden ooit binnen katholieke jeugdinstellingen. Het Openbaar Ministerie presenteert op korte termijn het resultaat van een eigen studie naar het extreme sterftecijfer en de rol van broeder Andreas.

Onduidelijk is of de ‘broeder des doods’ de zeer ernstig gehandicapte jongens – al dan niet om hen verder lijden te besparen – actief om het leven bracht of dat hij ze aan hun lot overliet. De in 1917 in Brunssum geboren broeder werkte in Heel met de groep ernstigst gehandicapte kinderen die niet meer konden dan eten en slapen. Hulp bij de behandeling kreeg hij niet.

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CANADA
The StarPhoenix

By Jeremy Warren, The StarPhoenix
June 25, 2012

There are survivors of residential schools and then there are their descendants, who often survived their own abuse and social problems that are the system’s legacy, said several people testifying at the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission event in Saskatoon.

Former residential school students gave public testimonies about their experiences alongside younger generations of aboriginal people who told their own stories of surviving dysfunctional families and social struggles. The “inter-generational effects,” as people called them, have done as much harm as residential schools, the commission heard during the four-day event.

Marcia Mirasty testified at Saturday’s commissioners’ sharing panel with her mother, a residential school survivor. The Flying Dust First Nation health director talked about family violence and neglect, sexual and substance abuse and other health problems that survivors and their families have faced.

“We have a generation of parents who don’t know how to parent,” Mirasty said after her testimony. “A lot of parenting skills were broken.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The 21st Century American Catholic

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Yesterday, a church official was convicted of the crime of endangering children. Msgr. William Lynn, of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, can serve from 3-l/2 to 7 years in prison.

The archdiocese released a statement apologizing to the victims and then saying that from now on they will work to make the church safe for all people. I don’t believe them.

Everything happens in a context. The only reason that the church officials want to make the church “safe” is that they got caught. They got caught covering up priests’ sins and crimes against children. So, what they really mean is that they will do everything possible not to get caught again. The pressure on the church is coming from the outside, from the world that bishops and the pope consider a place of secularism and sin, “the culture of death”–a world that ordinarily they ignore or condemn.

Inside the church, the context is different. Lynn was convicted of obeying his archbishop, Cardinal Bevilacqua. Obedience is built into the church structure. At ordination a priest promises obedience to his bishop, and a bishop promises obedience to the pope. When a Cardinal receives his red hat from the pope, he promises never to publicly express anything that will make the church look bad.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

Christine M. Flowers
Philadelphia Daily News
Email Christine M. Flowers

I’VE BEEN PRAYING a lot of rosaries lately, some for personal reasons and the rest for my church. I finger the beads with reverence, knowing that each prayer brings me closer to a resolution, if not absolution.

In my heart, I love my church with the same accepting reverence of a child. In my mind, I know that sins were committed, crimes concealed, and so the rosary helps me find that inner place of peace. It also helps me face the painful truths that children who accepted, with reverence, that priests were all good men were betrayed.

My task is a private one. Not so for those 12 Philadelphia jurors who sacrificed three months of their lives to sort out the truths hidden among horrific allegations of abuse. They were not obligated to find peace but, rather, justice. And they did a magnificent job Friday, when they rendered a verdict that was both fair and heart-wrenching.

They were not looking for vengeance, nor were they willing to execute other people’s vendettas. They listened to the law, listened to the facts, heard the cries of alleged victims and watched the faces of alleged perpetrators, and then came to a decision.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

[Trial Narrative and Resources – BishopAccountability.org]

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer

The guilty verdict against Msgr. William J. Lynn – the first time a Catholic church supervisor has been found criminally liable for child-sex crimes by a priest – concluded one of the most unusual prosecutions in the history of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

It took nine years, two grand juries, and changes in Pennsylvania law.

And it made odd partners of former District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham and successor Seth Williams, whose relationship soured when Williams, a former Abraham prosecutor, challenged her in the 2005 Democratic primary.

Ironically, both prosecutors had to fend off criticism over their religions.

Abraham was criticized because she is Jewish and was investigating the Catholic Church; Williams, campaigning for election in 2009, defended himself against suggestions he would go easy on the church because he is an active Catholic.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The New York Times

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Published: June 24, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — “It’s been a rough week” is how the Rev. Charles Zlock, pastor of the St. Mary of the Assumption Parish, started his 10 a.m. homily on Sunday.

It seemed like an obvious reference to the searing trial that ended Friday with the conviction of a senior Philadelphia archdiocese official, Msgr. William J. Lynn, on a charge of endangering children by placing a known pedophile in an unwary parish.

But the 120 worshipers attending St. Mary’s on Sunday, though upset by the case, were mostly heartsick for a different reason: After final services next Sunday, this handsome church in northwest Philadelphia, a center of life for nearby residents since 1849, is scheduled to close.

For the unsettled Roman Catholics in this 1.5 million-member archdiocese, the closing is one more blow in sweeping and bitterly contested cutbacks. Across the city, thousands are already incensed because church leaders have closed 27 cherished schools.

Even as it struggles with the revelations of sexual abuse and the failure of top officials to act, the Philadelphia Archdiocese, long considered an eminent stronghold of Catholic power and tradition, is being battered from several sides.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Verdict

[Trial Narrative and Resources – BishopAccountability.org]

Marci A. Hamilton

Survivors of Sexual Abuse Prevail in Pennsylvania: The Lynn and Sandusky Cases Show Us What Justice Looks Like

Remember this date: June 22, 2012. That was the day that Msgr. William Lynn and Jerry Sandusky were each taken from their separate courtrooms in Pennsylvania and escorted to jail, after each had been convicted by a jury of his peers of committing crimes against children. That is justice. …

Msgr. William Lynn: Convicted on 1 of 3 Counts

On the very same day the Sandusky verdict was read, the beleaguered jury in the trial of Msgr. William Lynn finally emerged—after 11 weeks of testimony and 12 ½ days of deliberations—to convict Lynn on a charge of the endangerment of children.

This was the first time anyone in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church had been criminally convicted for the role he played in the corrupt system that has covered up the sexual abuse of children around the globe. It took ten years—from the convening of the first grand jury to today—for prosecutors to fully examine how the Philadelphia Archdiocese had handled child predators among the clergy, but it was a busy ten years for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. Their yeoman’s labors paid off in true justice, with Lynn being taken directly from the courtroom to jail.

The jury struggled with a conspiracy charge, partly because of the confusing instructions they received. There is also good reason to question the jury’s banker’s schedule in this case. The Sandusky jury deliberated for twenty hours in just two days. In contrast, there were weeks when the Lynn jury barely cracked 20 hours of deliberations.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

By Dan Geringer
Daily News Staff Writer

AFTER MONSIGNOR William J. Lynn became the first senior Catholic Church official convicted of covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests under his supervision, people attending Sunday’s evening Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul dealt with the ongoing scandal in different ways.

Rose Boyle, 22, a Temple student living in North Philadelphia, regularly attends Mass at the basilica, on the Ben Franklin Parkway at Logan Square. She said, “If you’re married and if saying, ‘I love you,’ to your wife is part of your marriage, and you hear about a guy who cheats on his wife, that doesn’t mean you stop saying, ‘I love you’ to your wife,” Boyle said.

“The institution of the Catholic Church is the way I express my love for God,” she said. “My relationship with the Catholic Church hasn’t changed because some people in the church did some wrong things. I’m not going to stop going to church and saying, ‘I love God.'”

David Sherrard, 56, of Seattle said, “I’m a confessed Christian. We’re all sinners. All of us need to ask for forgiveness, and to forgive.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

By Sean Carlin
Daily News Staff Writer

AFTER AN 11-week trial, Msgr. William J Lynn was convicted of one count of child endangerment, making him the first Catholic official in the nation to be held criminally liable for priest child-abuse. Lynn, 61, was secretary for clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004.

The jury deadlocked on a child-abuse charge against his co-defendant, Rev. James J. Brennan, 48, who was charged with attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

Some of the highlights of the trial:

March 26: Trial begins with questions aimed at Lynn’s role in covering up sexual abuse in the church. Lynn and Brennan plead not guilty.

April 4: A 30-year-old man testifies that Brennan molested him during an overnight stay in 1996 when he was 14.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Dara McBride
Inquirer Staff Writer

“Abominable,” “shameful” and “sad” were a few of the words the parishioners of St. Joseph Church in Downingtown used Sunday to describe the conviction of their former pastor, Msgr. William J. Lynn, of child endangerment in the landmark clergy sex-abuse trial in Philadelphia.

On Friday, Lynn, 61, became the nation’s first Catholic church supervisor convicted for covering up abuse by a priest. He faces up to seven years in prison.

On the first Sunday after that dramatic outcome, cars packed St. Joseph’s two parking lots as usual. But inside, Masses were different. Some parishioners cried. Others expressed confusion over the verdict as they spoke with clergy afterward.

“He was the lovingest and most supportive man I’ve ever known. He was there in my hour of need, not just for me, but for my family,” Bernadette Louden said after the 10:30 a.m. Mass. Without providing details, she said Lynn had helped her when she became seriously ill.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

Daily News Editorial
Philadelphia Daily News

GUILTY AS charged (although only on one of three counts): Msgr. William J. Lynn.

Guilty but not charged: Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

In a watershed decision in Philadelphia on Friday, a jury convicted (for the first time ever!) a Catholic Church official of child endangerment for taking part in a cover-up of priest abuse.

In a breathtaking coincidence, eight hours later and a few hundred miles away, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was found guilty of 43 counts of child sexual abuse. The swift decision, which followed a trial that got much more publicity than the Philadelphia proceedings, understandably dominated the rest of the day’s news cycle.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office managed to prove only one count against Lynn, the former archdiocesan secretary of clergy, to the jury’s satisfaction. Lynn was acquitted of another child-endangerment charge and a charge of conspiracy. (The jury deadlocked on both charges of abuse and conspiracy against the Rev. James J. Brennan.)

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Daily Times

Published: Monday, June 25, 2012

More than 10 painful years after the clerical sexual abuse scandal broke open wide with the child molestation conviction of a Boston priest, a U.S. Catholic church official who protected predator priests has finally been held accountable.

By doing nothing when he knew about pedophile priests while he was secretary of clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Rev. Monsignor William Lynn allowed the abuse to continue. That was basically the message sent by a Philadelphia jury Friday when, after a 10-week trial, they found Lynn guilty of one felony count of endangering the welfare of children.

The 61-year-old monsignor, who formerly was parochial vicar at St. Katharine of Siena parish in the Wayne section of Radnor, served as secretary of clergy from 1992 to 2004, mostly under former Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

During the trial, jurors learned that Lynn had assembled a “secret file” of known or suspected pedophile priests that, in 1994, Bevliacqua — a canon and a civil attorney — ordered to be shredded. Prosecutors got to see the list after a copy of it was found this year in an archdiocesan safe.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CNN

From Susan Candiotti and Sarah Hoye, CNN

updated 5:26 AM EDT, Mon June 25, 2012

(CNN) — Attorneys for Monsignor William Lynn will return to court Monday to argue that the cleric, who was convicted of child endangerment, be put under house arrest rather than jailed until his sentencing in August.

Lynn was found guilty Friday of one count of child endangerment, the first time a U.S. church leader has been convicted of such a charge.

He was found not guilty on a second count of endangerment and on a charge of conspiring to protect a priest accused of abuse.

The jury was unable to bring a verdict against his co-defendant, the Rev. James Brennan, who was charged with the attempted rape of a 14-year-old altar boy and endangering the welfare of a child.

Lynn was taken into custody after the verdict Friday, when the judge revoked his bail. His lawyer, Jeffrey Lindy, criticized the decision not to let his client remain free on bond prior to sentencing, calling it “an unspeakable miscarriage of justice (for) a 61-year-old man with no prior record and long established ties to the community.”

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Keene Sentinel

Posted: Sunday, June 24, 2012

Friday’s conviction of former Penn State athletics coach Jerry Sandusky was about his sexual abuse of 10 young males during a 15-year period.

But by inference the charges against him also concerned the failure of a system under which more than a few people kept mum on suspicions of abuse during that time — a failure underscored by the virtual flood of abuse-reporting legislation across the country since the charges against the 67-year-old Sandusky were filed last fall.

The National Council of State Legislatures says that so far this year more than 100 bills have been filed in 30 states and the District of Columbia to toughen up rules for reporting suspected abuse of children. In 10 states, new laws have been enacted.

New Hampshire is not among those jurisdictions because, to its credit, its mandatory reporting statute has long been broadly inclusive. Whereas some states, such as Pennsylvania, required practitioners of only certain professions to speak up when they sensed something wrong — among them nurses, clergy members, day care workers, but not athletic coaches — the Granite State since 1979 has required any person who suspects child abuse to go to the authorities.

Now, laws are only as good as their enforcement, as in the conviction of a top-level Catholic church official in Pennsylvania, also Friday, of covering-up for pedophile priests over many years.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Marco Tosatti
Rome

Reliable sources inside the Vatican say it is very likely that there will be changes at the top of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith this month. The retirement of the current head of the Congregation, the American William Levada will be announced publicly some time around the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul. Levada has asked the Pope to be relieved from his office, since he wants to go back to the United States.

Gerhard Mueller is a man with a remarkable personality, who exerts a certain influence over Benedict XVI. Although not one of the Pope’s closest friends, he is certainly a significant figure from an academic point of view and this establishes a tie between them. He also played, and still plays, an important role in the creation and work of the German born foundation which is in charge of preparing and publishing Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s literary works.

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SALINA (KS)
The Kansas City Star

By ERIC ADLER and LAURA BAUER
The Kansas City Star

SALINA, Kan. — SALINA, Kan. From the time he was a small boy, Jesse Mactagone dreamed he would become a U.S. Army officer.

His mom had painted the wall behind his bed olive green. His bed sheets depicted fighter jets.

“He never wore anything but camouflage,” said his mother, Jennifer Mactagone. “He knows every tank, every single helicopter.”

So, at age 14, when the time arrived for Jesse to choose a high school, the Auburn, Calif., boy leaped at an offer from his grandfather, a U.S. Navy veteran, to pay $30,000 a year for him to attend St. John’s Military School in Salina.

Website images of spit-and-polish students and a message of “discipline” and “a structured campus life” that promoted “qualities such as personal graces, confidence, respect, high moral character, and leadership” seemed the perfect fit.

“We didn’t send him to St. John’s,” Jesse’s mother said. “He wanted to go.”

But now, as part of a federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, the Mactagones stand with a growing number of St. John’s families alleging their sons experienced the opposite of grace and character.

The Mactagones allege that Jesse was so severely physically abused and beaten, not at the hands of faculty, but by other students, that four days after he stepped on campus in August 2011, he needed to be rushed to the hospital. He was unable to walk with two broken legs, including a displaced femur.

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UNITED STATES
YouTube

Published on Jun 23, 2012 by bonnie richard

Child abuse by priest or nun in Louisiana.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

The Associated Press has confirmed that St. Louis native Greg Burke is leaving his Fox News post to help the Vatican with public relations. He’ll work with Rev. Federico Lombardi, who runs the Holy See’s press office and papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Vallis, who, like Burke, is a member of Opus Dei. . .

With a top Philadelphia Catholic official having been found guilty of endangering children, attention turns to the case against St. Louis native Robert Finn, now bishop of the Kansas City diocese. It’s set for trial in September and revolves around the same basic claim: that known and suspected child sex crimes were hidden by church staff. Finn should be worried, says SNAP’s Barbara Dorris. “The Philly case involved older and more complex evidence, and layers of church bureaucracy,” she explained. “The Finn case involves more recent and clear cut wrongdoing in a smaller diocese with fewer underlings who can be scapegoated”. .

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Levada is to resign from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, leaving Müller in pole position to substitute him. Meanwhile, the Vatican library is getting a new librarian and Bertone’s substitution appears imminent

ANDREA TORNIELLI
Vatican City

Two important (cardinal) appointments are expected in the Vatican before the beginning of the summer holidays. The most significant one is the nomination of Joseph Ratzinger’s second successor as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This is a delicate and crucial role not only because faith is at the heart of Benedict XVI’s pontificate, but also because this is the dicastery that deals with scorching dossiers on cases of sex abuse against minors and it also manages the dialogue process with the Society of St. Pius X. Seventy six year old American cardinal, William Levada, intends to retire to the U.S. After months of deliberation, the Pope is likely to choose the 64 year old Bishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, for the post of Prefect of the Congregation. Unless there are any last minute surprises (other candidates considered include an American prelate and a French cardinal) he is expected to take over from Levada in the next few months.

Another expected appointment is that of the Librarian of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. The post has been vacant since outgoing librarian Cardinal Raffaele Farina (who will turn 79 next September) presented his resignation recently. The man that seems tipped to win the post is 68 year old French archbishop, Jean-Louis Bruguès, a Dominican. But even in this case there could be last minute surprises as the Pope could choose a cardinal from the Roman Curia who is nearing the end of his mandate. Vatican Librarians traditionally keep their role well beyond the age of 75.

Next 2 December the Vatican Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, will turn 78. When Bertone reached resignation age three years ago, Benedict XVI sent him an affectionate letter asking him to stay on. In an interview with Italian daily newspaper La Stampa last March Bertone stated: “Serving the Holy Father is always a strong experience of pastoral charity because of the way he leads the Church with clear judgement and moderate firmness. Obviously, however, whether my service continues or ends depends on Benedict XVI’s decision.” Many believe that the Pope wants to keep Bertone by his side for at least another two years, that is, until Cardinal Bertone turns 80. The Pope chose him for the role of Secretary of State shortly after his appointment as Pope in 2005 – although the nomination was announced in June 2006 and the installation the following September.

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VATIKAN
Focus

Ein US-Journalist soll dem Vatikan nach dem „Vatileaks“-Skandal wieder zu einer guten Presse verhelfen. Der Rom-Korrespondent der konservativen Fox News, Greg Burke, wird Kommunikationsstratege des Vatikans.

Das bestätigten Burke und der Papst-Sprecher Federico Lombardi am Samstag der italienischen Nachrichtenagentur Ansa. Burke (52) erhält ein Büro im Führungsgremium des Vatikans. Er gehört zum konservativen Opus Dei und arbeitete früher als Korrespondent des US-Magazins „Time“. Seine neue Aufgabe wurde ihm Ende Mai angetragen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Jesus.de

Das konservative “Netzwerk katholischer Priester” hat Erzbischof Robert Zollitsch zu einem härteren Vorgehen gegen Reform-Priester aufgefordert.

So solle der Vorsitzende der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz die Reformforderungen von Priestern, auch geschiedene Wiederverheiratete zur Kommunion zuzulassen, «nicht zweideutig kommentieren», zitiert «Der Spiegel» die Forderungen des Netzwerks. Der Sprecher des Netzwerks, Guido Rodheudt, wirft Zollitsch laut «Spiegel» vor, zuzusehen, «wie die Eindeutigkeit der katholischen Botschaft ins Zwielicht gerate».

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

Berlin – Wir zwei Hungerstreikende, Christiane Kieburg und Katharina M., nutzten die CSD-Parade am 23.6. 2012 in Berlin, um mit Transparent und netzwerkB-Flyern auf unsere Forderung nach Abschaffung der Verjährungsfristen bei sexualisierter Gewalt gegen Kinder aufmerksam zu machen.

Am Startpunkt sprachen wir Klaus Wowereit (SPD) persönlich an und bekamen die momentan übliche SPD-Antwort:

„Wir haben keine Mehrheit“

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VATIKAN
Politaia

Das folgende Video mit Alfred Lambremont Webre und Rev. Kevin Annett befasst sich mit der öffentlichen Deklaration an Papst Ratzinger und dem Vatikan, in der ausgesagt wird, dass – sollten keine spezifischen Maßnahmen seitens des Papstes und des Vatikans bis 15. September 2012 ergriffen werden – “jeder bekannte römisch-katholische Priester oder Beamte, der einem Kind Schaden zugefügt hat oder dieselben gedeckt hat, öffentlich durch unser Netzwerk namentlich genannt wird, öffentlich festgenommen wird und aus seiner Kirche vertrieben wird.”

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