ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

VERITY EDWARDS From: The Australian June 06, 2013

THE Director of Public Prosecutions in South Australia has recommended that no charges be laid against Catholic priest Ian Dempsey, after he was accused of sexually assaulting a fellow seminarian in Adelaide in the 1960s.

John Hepworth, the global primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion until April last year, raised allegations in September 2011 that he had been abused by three Catholic priests while in an Adelaide seminary in the 1960s. Two of the priests have since died.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon used parliamentary privilege to name Monsignor Dempsey as one of the alleged perpetrators.

After a three-month investigation commissioned by the Catholic Church, which found no substance to the allegations, Bishop Hepworth reported the allegations to police.

It is understood that DPP Adam Kimber SC advised the police and both parties yesterday that there was insufficient evidence for a jury to have a reasonable chance of convicting Monsignor Dempsey and that no charges would be laid.When contacted late yesterday, Bishop Hepworth said he was considering the decision.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

[with photos]

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

In the last four years, Father Charles Engelhardt has lost 50 pounds.

But as his boss, Father James J. Greenfield, will tell you, “This is a weight loss program I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

It began in 2009, when a man subsequently identified in a grand jury report as “Billy Doe” accused Father Engelhardt of raping him back when the alleged victim was a 10-year old altar boy.

Four years ago, the 5-foot-11 priest weighed 220 pounds. He had a double chin and a pot belly. But last week, according to his family, when they visited him in jail, Father Engelhardt looked frail and barely weighed 170. His arms, sticking out of a bright-yellow jumpsuit, were skinnier than his baby sister’s.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

TOM TUITE – 05 JUNE 2013

THE case of a former priest awaiting trial on historic child sex abuse charges has been adjourned for two weeks.

William Carney, aged 63, who is currently of no fixed abode, is charged with 34 counts of indecent assault of eight boys and two girls, at locations in Dublin and north east Leinster from 1969 until 1989.

Today at Cloverhill District Court, Judge Grainne Malone further remanded him in custody with consent to bail. His next hearing will take place at the same court on June 19th.

A book of evidence has yet to be served on Mr Carney, who is to face a Circuit Court trial.

At an earlier stage Judge Malone had lifted an earlier gag order prohibiting the news media from naming the 63-year-old who currently has no fixed address.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

JEFFREY R. ANDERSON

Saint Benedict said in the Rule of Benedict that we are to listen with the ear of our heart.

Considerable commentary has been spoken and written of the 22 monks of Saint John’s Abbey accused of sexually abusing minors. None, however, demonstrates the misuse of therapists to cover up Saint John’s knowledge of child sexual abuse more than the case of Reverend Allen (Gilbert) Tarlton OSB.

Five successive Abbots have known since 1958 that Father Allen repeatedly sexually abused students at Saint John’s Prep and Saint John’s University. To squelch the scandal of monks abusing students, time and time again Father Tarlton was whisked away to treatment under the cover of alcohol problems.

This was not the real story. In fact, Father Allen told Abbot Baldwin Dworshak OSB in a 1965 letter that the psychiatrist of Sartel suggested he be laicized.

What did the Abbots do?

The Abbots of Saint John’s continued to camouflage their knowledge of Father Allen’s conduct by sending him to various Catholic doctors, therapists and psychiatric facilities such as Seton Psychiatric Institute, Servants of the Paraclete and the Saint Luke Institute.

Father Allen treated with the Catholic elite such as Dr. Leo Bartemeier at Seton and Father Michael Peterson M.D. at St. Luke Institute.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

The Christian Brothers in the Geelong area have been exposed as a hot bed of abusers in the recent Victorian Parliamentary enquiry. They ran the St. Augustine’s Orphanage, which is now the location of their private school. It is heritage listed. The site was granted by the government originally. Government also donated a third of the building costs. The valuable site should be sold and given to victims in compensation.

It had all of the usual problems associated with the old children’s homes. In 2011, it formed the basis of a claim for dereliction of duty against the State government, by several former residents, represented by barrister Dr Vivian Waller. Much of the claim involved Christian Brother, William Houston. Related claims involved Brother Best, who is usually described as a close associate of Cardinal “Georgie” Pell.

Justice for Brother Houston’s victims appears to be seriously delayed.

In June 1997, he appeared in the Geelong Magistrates Court, charged with committing 14 sexual offences against a boy at St Augustine’s. Houston was remanded on bail pending a County Court hearing. The magistrate’s order was reported in the Melbourne Herald Sun, 18 June 1997, page 10, with a photo of William Houston. However, the County Court trial has not yet been held as the Director of Prosecutions did not wish to fund a single-victim trial in 1997.

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UNITED STATES
The Jewish Press

By: Harry Maryles
Published: June 5th, 2013

I have always been impressed with the students of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim. I do not recall ever meeting anyone from that Yeshiva that I wasn’t thoroughly impressed with. My son actually attended WITS which is a branch of that Yeshiva in Milwaukee – for his freshman year in high school. I have nothing but the highest regard for – and gratitude to – the two Roshei Yeshiva at the time, Rabbis Cheplowitz and Harris… as well as all of the Rebbeim there.

Chofetz Chaim is a Charedi Yeshiva. Their standards of Torah study are very high. Getting Semicha (rabbinic ordination) from Chofetz Chaim is a 9 year program, if I recall correctly. That tends to weed out the the truly incompetent. One can be sure that a rabbi from Chofetz Chaim has earned his title; that his religious education is broad; and that he has very likely had a good secular education. (I should also mention that Ma’arava is a Chofetz Chaim Yeshiva high school in Israel that is Charedi and has an excellent secular studies department.)

If there was ever a school that was definitive of moderate Charedism – Chofetz Chaim is it. I only wish that its ethos were the standard for every Charedi Yeshiva. Unfortunately that is not the case. In the ‘move to the right’ world we live in, Lakewood’s ethos is the model.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
ABC News (Australia)

Victims of clerical abuse in Northern Ireland which did not take place in an institution are campaigning for their own government inquiry into their experiences. The Northern Ireland Historical Abuse Inquiry only covers people who were abused when they were under the age of 18 and in a state or church-run institution.

Transcript

ELEANOR HALL: To Northern Ireland now and the child abuse inquiry that is being run there is strikingly similar to Australia’s Royal Commission.

As in Australia, there has been controversy over which instances of abuse will be considered by the Inquiry.

In Northern Ireland, abuse which took place outside institutions but at the hands of the local parish priest are not covered, but a campaign is being launched to try to change that.

As Europe correspondent Barbara Miller reports.

BARBARA MILLER: It takes some victims of child abuse many years to speak of their experiences.

Michael Connolly who says he was abused in the 1970s by a priest he’d turned to for help is no exception.

MICHAEL CONNOLLY: I was 48 years of age before I spoke about my abuse, and it came as quite a shock to my wife when I first told her about this. In fact it’s so painful even now when I speak to you, it’s so painful thinking back on that.

I couldn’t tell her. I had to write her a seven page letter… and that was difficult.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 6, 2013

Chrissie Foster

High-ranking clerics must answer for the smokescreen they created in protecting criminal priests.

On the last two Mondays in May, we heard the Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, and Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, give testimony to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse in religious organisations. They spoke on the sexual abuse of hundreds of “innocent people” – known to the rest of us as children – committed by priests and brothers in Victoria.

Discussion, debate and analysis have followed their evidence. I must add to this argument. I bear personal witness to experiences with both Archbishop Hart and Cardinal Pell which contradict their limited vision of events. Space limits the attack I would like to launch, so I will refer to just two instances, one relating to the cardinal and one the archbishop.

I first locked horns with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in 1996, and the protection of children has meant I have not stopped challenging them since. In March 1996 I discovered that my eldest daughter Emma had been sexually assaulted by our parish priest, Father Kevin O’Donnell, who at that time was in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting children from 1946 to 1977. Emma’s disclosures and, later, those of our second daughter, Katie, took his offending to his retirement in 1992 – amounting to 50 years of raping, sodomising and sexually assaulting, most likely, hundreds of children.

In Cardinal Pell’s written submission to the parliamentary inquiry, he stated: “Although he [Father O’Donnell] brought shame upon the priesthood and the church, he was buried with other priests in Melbourne. Had he been laicised before he died, this would not have occurred.” Seemingly the cardinal is lamenting that a career child rapist was not laicised before he died so, sadly, a criminal priest is “buried with other priests”. This sounds a noble and reasonable lament for a pious and forthright cardinal.

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UNITED STATES
The Jewish Press

By Rabbi Avrohom Stulberger

The recent guilty plea of an Orthodox Rabbi to molestation charges in New Jersey as well as the District Attorney’s expressed hope that this case will encourage other parents of abused children from the Orthodox community to come forward to report crimes, beg the questions that have bothered me for years : Why is there such a reticence on the part of Orthodox Jews to put these perpetrators behind bars? Why are threats of retribution aimed at the victims and their families if they report these crimes, when logic dictates that our wrath should be aimed at the abuser and not at the abused?

I recently read an article in the L.A. Times about Phil Jackson’s new book, and what he says in it about Kobe Bryant. Jackson writes that he harbored a deep underlying hatred for Bryant the year that he was accused of sexual assault, because Jackson’s daughter was a victim of a similar assault years earlier. That episode, therefore, hit Jackson close to home. It struck me clearly that the mere fact that Jackson had a daughter wasn’t enough to affect him deeply. The basic feelings of empathy and compassion that dictate revulsion at the mere mention of such a heinous crime were apparently beyond even beyond Phil Jackson’s capabilities.

I am not here to criticize Jackson, but could it be that we the chosen people, are mired in the same place? Do we hear the words “abuse” and “molestation,” shake our heads and move on? Do we, Heaven forbid have to feel the pain personally before we react the way a parent of a victim would? Let me make a suggestion: let us rename these people “murderers” instead of molesters. From a religious point of view, that is exactly what they are. Killing one’s souls, in Jewish law, is at least as destructive as killing one physically.

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CALIFORNIA
Catholic San Francisco

June 5th, 2013
By Valerie Schmalz

The California state Senate narrowly approved a waiver of the statute of limitations for child sex abuse damage lawsuits – a bill that could have a devastating effect on nonprofits including Catholic Charities and Catholic schools while exempting public employers.

The legislation, SB 131, would force private schools to defend claims that may be 40 years old but forbid victims from suing any public school for abuse that may have occurred before 2009, the California Council of Nonprofit Organizations said.

“To add insult to injury, SB 131 even protects the actual abuser from being sued – the only claims that are revived are against private employers and nonprofit organizations,” said Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference.

Private employers including nonprofits would be eligible to be sued for sex abuse claims going as far back as 40 years, while all public entities as well as convicted perpetrators for whom the statute of limitations has expired would be exempt from civil lawsuits, he said.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Joplin Independent

The Archdiocesan Review Board has concluded that the recent charge of abuse against Father John Wieberg, a priest at the Archdiocese of St. Louis who died in 1963, is “serious and credible,” according to a statement made by Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. This determination by the board has come after interviewing individuals who reported being abused.

Johnston, as well as Archbishop of St. Louis Robert Carlson, are encouraging any other victims of Wieberg to contact the Archdiocese so that “they may receive help for healing.” “The diocese maintains its strong commitment and the allocation of resources toward creating and maintaining safe environments,” Johnston said.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

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

WORCESTER — Elizabeth Darcy said her churchgoing parents, Alan and Irma Blizard, were “filled with joy and pride” when her brother, David, was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1974 by Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul.

“It was a glorious day for them,” said Mrs. Darcy, a Sturbridge resident. “The church was important to them and they were thrilled that one of their sons had become a priest. But a lot has happened since that day and, I think that, if they were still living today, they’d be embarrassed by him.”

Mr. Blizard, who served as a parish curate in Oxford, Worcester, Athol and Upton and taught religion at St. Bernard’s Central Catholic High School in Fitchburg and at Holy Name High School, was removed from the ministry in 1988 by Bishop Timothy J. Harrington. Chancery officials determined there was enough evidence to link the clergyman to “a child sex ring” run by diocesan priests that operated out of the former House of Affirmation in Northbridge.

The Vatican last March formally defrocked Mr. Blizard, who is now living in Florida.

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UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

“In a generational changing of the guard, Southern Baptists are gaining a new advocate for their values in Washington and around the country as Russell Moore, a media-savvy theologian, takes the helm of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.” This news, reported last week by the Religion News Service, means that the ERLC will no longer be headed by Richard Land, who had been at the commission’s helm for nearly twenty-five years.

As the ERLC’s new leader, Russell Moore claims that he will use “convictional kindness” to defend Southern Baptist ideals.

“Convictional kindness.” What do you think that means with respect to the denomination’s do-nothingness on clergy sex abuse? Will there be any change?

Kindness starts with listening. But Southern Baptists lack any system for even hearing the voices of clergy abuse survivors, much less for listening to them. There is no denominational office to which people might report abusive clergymen – no safe place where they might hope to have their abuse reports compassionately heard – no trained panels for responsibly assessing abuse reports – no one in denominational authority who will take any responsibility for doing anything at all, regardless of how many abuse reports a minister may have against him.

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AUSTRALIA
Lawyers Weekly

5 June, 2013 Stephanie Quine

More research on how victims of child abuse in ‘total institutions’ experience justice processes and outcomes is needed, it has been claimed.

Professor Kathleen Daly (pictured), a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Griffith University, said lawyers doing work for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse need to be aware of such research in order to build an effective justice response.

“We know a lot about victims’ and survivors’ experiences in institutions … but we know a lot less about their experiences with justice processes and outcomes,” said Daly, speaking at a multi-disciplinary forum entitled: Responding to Historical Child Sex Abuse, at Sydney University Law School on Friday (May 31).

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TEXAS
WWBT

By Chris Thomas

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) –
We now have our hands on the arrest warrants for embattled Richmond pastor Geronimo Aguilar.

The founder of the “ROC” church is facing child sex charges out of Fort Worth, Texas.

We are seeing the detailed, graphic allegations against Geronimo Aguilar known as Pastor G for the first time.

Fort Worth Police say the pastor repeatedly sexually assaulted two young girls under the age of 14.

The alleged assaults started back in 1996 when Aguilar was 26 and his youngest victim was 11.

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TEXAS
WTVR

[with video]

June 5, 2013, by Nick Dutton

(WTVR) — Arrest warrants out of Texas are revealing more about the case against ROC head pastor Geronimo Aguilar, who was charged with multiple counts of aggravated sexual battery of a child under the age of 14.

According to the warrants obtained by the Fort Worth Star Telegram, Aguilar began sexually assaulting an 11-year old girl and her 13-year old sister in October of 1996 while he was living in their parents’ Fort Worth home.

The warrants accuse Aguilar of having sex with the two girls for more than a year.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholica

[the petition]

Editorial Commentary by Brian Coyne

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson’s book, and the accompanying petition were originally planned in the expectation that Pope Benedict would still be leading the Catholic Church in the world. A lot has changed in the last few months. Within the institution a mood of cautious optimism has even re-emerged that Catholicism might be turned around in the world and become something that the broad community might hold in some respect again.

The ABC had provided a twelve and a half minutes video summarising the main points made by Bishops Robinson and Power in launching the petition. Click the image above or HERE to watch the video.

The bottom line for the Catholic Church today is not actually the Clerical Abuse Scandal and its cover-up. That is merely a symptom of a much deeper malaise and illness reflected in the fact that in a country like Australia around 88% of the adult baptized have ceased listening and ceased participating. The statistics for Australia, it seems, reflect the mean of the statistical disenchantment across the industrialised world. The figures are even more disturbing across the Europe – the original heartland of Catholicism, and buoyed only slightly by the statistics across the United States.

While some might place hope that the future of the Catholic Church lies in the Developing World where the use of simple devotions and simple theologies still work as they once worked so effectively in what today is the Developed World, the likely reality as that as the Developing World acquires the general education levels and affluence of the Developed World the Catholics of the Third World will end up following the attitudes of us “clever and affluent things” in the First World. Do the priests and hierarchs of the Church who believe that the future of Catholicism lies in the Third World ever stop for even a microsecond and reflect on what this Supreme Mystery we condense into words like Almighty God actually think of this thinking? Do they ever reflect on how history might judge their judgements, or what accountablity might accompany their lives — whether it is some literal judgment before Almighty God, or that is merely symbolic of some other form of accountability?

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

[the petition]

Wednesday 5 June 2013

A retired Australian bishop has urged Roman Catholics around the world to sign an online petition to Pope Francis to call a new global council to take effective measures to end the sexual abuse of children in the Church.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, a former auxiliary bishop of Sydney who co-ordinated the Australian church’s response to the sexual abuse crisis, said only a council of the world’s bishops would have the power to make the changes needed.

The new organisation would be akin to the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, Bishop Robinson told a news conference in Sydney.

However, this council would focus only on solving the abuse issue, he added.

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VIRGINIA
Delmarva Now

Written by
Nancy Drury Duncan
Staff Writer

ACCOMAC — A 60-year-old man who came to Accomack County with a group of youth volunteers from a Norfolk church to clear brush, improve trails and do other work at a church-owned camp facility pleaded guilty in Circuit Court to sexual abuse.

The case against Hampton Roads, Va., resident Michael Douthat, originally scheduled to be a bench trial, was settled with a plea agreement.

Testimony showed Douthat became intoxicated at the Occohannock on the Bay Camp and Retreat Center near Craddockville, which is owned and operated by the Eastern Shore District of the United Methodist Church, before touching a 14-year-old girl.

Douthat was not well-known to the others in the volunteer group, said Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Brenner. He stressed that the group was not connected with Camp Occahannock on the Bay but came as volunteers.

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TEXAS
WRIC

[with video]

FORT WORTH, VA—Arrest warrants out of Texas reveal shocking new details about the case against ROC head pastor Geronimo Aguilar.

Arrest warrants obtained by 8News show the alleged victims claim they were repeatedly sexually assaulted by Aguilar, known as “Pastor G,” and claim the abuse went on for years.

One of the alleged victims claims she was just 11-years-old when Aguilar began penetrating her with his finger.

According to the arrest warrants the girl’s sister alleges “Pastor G” repeatedly sexually assaulted her when she was just 13-years-old. At the time, the pastor was 26-years-old and married.

The documents support what the alleged victims told 8News in an exclusive interview several months ago.

“I was 13, and it started out the same way where he was very flirtatious, and it progressed,” an alleged victim told 8News in an exclusive interview. “Within a month’s time, we started having sexual intercourse.”

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TEXAS
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Tue Jun 4, 2013.
BY LOUIS LLOVIO
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Geronimo Aguilar, senior pastor of the Richmond Outreach Center, began sexually assaulting an 11-year old girl and her 13-year old sister in October 1996 while living in their parents’ home, according to arrest warrants issued in Fort Worth, Texas last month.

The two warrants, sworn out by Fort Worth Detective D.L. Nash, accuse Aguilar of having sex with the two girls for more than a year.

According to the warrants, Aguilar was taken into the home after the girls’ parents followed him from California to Fort Worth to join him at a church called New Beginnings.

Texas authorities have charged Aguilar with seven felonies in two cases. Four of those charges carry sentences of up to life in prison.

Aguilar is free on bail and on paid leave from the South Richmond megachurch known as the ROC.

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TEXAS
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

BY DEANNA BOYD
dboyd@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH — A Virginia pastor recently accused of sexually abusing two young sisters in the 1990s was asked to leave his former Fort Worth church after a member caught him kissing one of the young girls, according to court documents.

A Virginia attorney for Geronimo Scott Aguilar has previously said Aguilar was in Fort Worth during the mid-1990s to help start a small mission but relocated to Richmond, Va., for other opportunities.

But arrest warrant affidavits obtained by the Star-Telegram on Tuesday indicate that Aguilar had been asked to leave the Fort Worth church, New Beginnings International Church, after a member saw him kissing one of the alleged victims and alerted church pastors.

New Beginnings senior pastor Don Couch said Tuesday, however, that he never heard any allegations of sexual misconduct during the roughly year that Aguilar was employed at the church as an outreach and youth minister.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Dr. Jeff Mirus June 03, 2013

The appointment of Peter French Ryan, SJ to the key doctrinal post for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is very interesting indeed. Fr. Ryan, who once served on the Board of Directors of the Cardinal Newman Society, is a high-profile advocate not only of doctrinal fidelity but of a strong Catholic identity in Catholic higher education—at a time when Jesuit universities and colleges are among the least faithful. He has just been named Executive Director of the Secretariat of Doctrine and Canonical Affairs at the USCCB.

So now we have the very highest position in the Church occupied by a Jesuit (Pope Francis) and also the highest full-time doctrinal position in the United States. I wonder if there is a connection.

The Society of Jesus is a particularly tough organization to reform. The traditional prestige and academic eminence that many Jesuits enjoy, along with the worldly favor shown to precisely those who betray the teachings of the Church, tends to make them impervious to effective criticism and reluctant to change from within. Successive Superiors General of the Society since the mid-20th century have done surprisingly little to foster renewal despite consistent encouragement by every pope to do exactly that.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler June 04, 2013

Well, stop the presses! An Australian prelate, Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, has called for a new ecumenical council to address questions related to sexual abuse. It will take a worldwide council to get the job done, he said, because sweeping changes are needed.

This clarion call by Bishop Robinson reminds me that back in 2010, another Australian bishop called for an ecumenical council to address Church teachings on sexuality, offering the same line of reasoning: that sweeping changes were necessary.

Oh, wait. That wasn’t another Australian bishop. That was Bishop Robinson, too.

So how is he coming, with those plans for an ecumenical council? Not too well, I’m afraid. Bishop Robinson doesn’t actually pull much weight in the worldwide hierarchy. For one thing, he isn’t an active bishop. He resigned back in 2004. He wasn’t required to resign because of his age; he was only 66. His health was apparently not a major concern; he’s still going strong, nine years later. He just… resigned.

Not that he has been quiet in his retirement. Far from it. But there are problems with what Bishop Robinson says when he airs his views. In 2008 the Australian bishops’ conference took the rare step of warning about “doctrinal difficulties” in Robinson’s new book. Those problems, the Australian bishops said, included “among other things, the nature of Tradition, the inspiration of the Holy Scripture, the infallibility of the Councils and the Pope, the authority of the Creeds, the nature of the ministerial priesthood and central elements of the Church’s moral teaching.” Even Cardinal Roger Mahony, not ordinarily considered a doctrinal hard-liner, barred Bishop Robinson from speaking in his Los Angeles archdiocese that year.

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WORCESTER (MA)
GoLocalWorcester

Tuesday, June 04, 2013
GoLocalWorcester News Team

DUI charges against Worcester Bishop Robert McManus were dismissed today in Rhode Island, according to his lawyer.

“My client had admitted violation of refusing to take a chemical breath test last month, and today was the pretrial proceedings for the DUI and leaving the scene of the accident charges,” McManus’ lawyer William Murphy told GoLocal. “As he didn’t have prior record, the dismissal of the DUI charge is standard for first time offenders.”

The charges were dropped this morning when McManus appeared before a Traffic Tribunal in Wakefield. McManus had plead not guilty in Washington County District Court on May 7 to driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident, following reports McManus had struck a driver on May 4.

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RHODE ISLAND
WWLP

By Chris Raia
Reporting by Andrew Adamson

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. (WPRI) — A few weeks after he agreed to a six-month license suspension and a $945 fine, criminal charges against Worcester Bishop Robert McManus were officially dismissed Tuesday morning.

McManus was not present in Wakefield District Court for the proceedings, but his lawyer was there.

“The bishop is sorry. He’s remorseful for what occurred,” said lawyer William Murphy. “He’s a fine man, and this is just abhorrent behavior on his part. I think the whole community was saddened when they heard it happened.”

Narragansett police arrested McManus May 4 on charges of drunk driving and leaving the scene of an accident, after he struck a car near his vacation home.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Bob Kievra, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
rkievra@telegram.com

WORCESTER — A drunken driving charge against Bishop Robert J. McManus was dismissed Tuesday in Rhode Island, a month after he was arrested following a hit-and-run accident near his Narragansett, R.I., vacation home.

Bishop McManus was not present for the dismissal in Wakefield District Court, which was part of a May 14 agreement in traffic court in which he admitted to refusing a chemical test, said his lawyer, William J. Murphy. Such an agreement is common practice for a first-time offender.

At the traffic court, Bishop McManus pleaded guilty to the refusal charge, which resulted in a six-month loss of license, 10 hours of community service, mandatory DUI education charges and a $945 fine.

“The bishop is sorry; he’s remorseful,” Mr. Murphy said. “This was abhorrent behavior on his part and he apologizes to the people of the diocese and the people of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.”

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RHODE ISLAND
Seattle PI

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (AP) — Criminal charges have been dismissed against the leader of a Roman Catholic diocese in Massachusetts after he pleaded guilty to refusing a chemical test after a driving accident.

WPRO-AM reports the charges were dismissed Tuesday against Worcester Bishop Robert McManus, which is common for a first-time offender.

The 61-year-old bishop was arrested last month near his vacation home in Narragansett for an alleged hit-and-run accident. He has said he “made a terrible error in judgment” by driving after drinking wine at dinner.

After he entered his guilty plea before the Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal last month, his license was suspended for six months.

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PUERTO RICO
Prensa Latina

San Juan, 3 jun (PL) Las autoridades federales de Estados Unidos se mostraron hoy sorprendidas por el auge que ha tenido la producción de pornografía infantil en Puerto Rico.

La jefa de la fiscalía federal para el distrito de Puerto Rico, Rosa Emilia Rodríguez, expresó que su asombro luego de que se arrestara en hechos separados por tal delito a un pastor evangélico y a la madre de un niño de 9 años.

“Es preocupante que durante las primeras 20 semanas de este año, 21 personas han sido arrestadas por casos de pornografía infantil”, dijo la jefa de fiscales estadounidenses en esta isla del Caribe.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

Por Mariana Cobián / mariana.cobian@gfrmedia.com

Leo de la Rosa Meran, un pastor evangélico del Ministerio Sanidad Completa en Río Piedras, fue arrestado el viernes por producción e intención de producción de pornografía infantil contra dos menores que iban a su iglesia.

El hombre de 45 años permanece en el Centro de Detención Metropolitano (CDM) hasta la vista de fianza en su contra, pautada para el miércoles a las 9:30 a.m. ante la magistrado federal Camille Vélez Rivé. De ser encontrado culpable, el pastor se enfrenta a entre 15 y 30 años de cárcel.

Según la denuncia, agentes de la Oficina de Investigaciones de Seguridad Interna del Servicio de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE-HSI) recibieron información confidencial el 22 de abril pasado relacionada a que De la Rosa Meran sostenía conversaciones sexualmente explícitas con dos jóvenes de 17 años. La información recibida especificaba que el pastor les había solicitado imágenes desnudas a ambas y que una de ellas, identificada como Jane Doe 1, llegó a enviarle fotos. Él, a su vez, les envió imágenes de sus genitales a ambas.

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PUERTO RICO
Dom-Rep

San Juan, Puerto Rico – Ein Priester aus der Dominikanischen Republik steht in Puerto Rico unter Anklage. Leo de la Rosa Meran (45) wird angeklagt der Kinderpornografie mit Minderjährigen. In Rio Piedras, seiner Kirchengemeinde, soll es zu 2 Zwischenfällen gekommen sein. Zur Zeit sitzt der Priester im CMD (Centro de Detencion Metropolitano), man verhandelt ob er gegen eine Bürgschaft freigestellt werden kann. Sollte er der Straftat für schuldig gesprochen werden so drohen ihm 15-30 Jahre Haft. Man wirft ihm vor sich mit 2 jungen Personen im Alter von 17 Jahren sexuell vergnügt zu haben, weiter habe er Nacktaufnahmen gemacht. Eines der Opfer ist Jane Doe 1, sie gab an dass sie den Pfarrer seit 2 Jahren kannte und dieser seine sexuellen Annäherungen im November 2012 begann.

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VATIKAN
Radio Vatikan

Nicht nachlassen im Kampf gegen sexuellen Missbrauch – dies hat Papst Franziskus an diesem Dienstagmorgen Mitarbeitern des internationalen Zentrums für Kinderschutz der Päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana in Rom mit auf den Weg gegeben. Im Anschluss an die Messe mit dem Papst im vatikanischen Gästehaus Santa Marta habe es Gelegenheit gegeben, Franziskus über die laufende Präventionsarbeit zu informieren. Das berichtet der deutsche Jesuit Hans Zollner, Vizerektor der Gregoriana, im Anschluss an die Begegnung im Interview mit Radio Vatikan:

„Der Papst hat sehr aufmerksam zugehört. Er hat mehrfach gesagt, dass wir in dieser Arbeit weitermachen müssen, dass es eine wichtige Arbeit ist und dass wir darin nicht nachlassen dürfen, dass wir also mit Geduld und Beharrlichkeit weitermachen müssen.“

Als Papst hatte sich Jorge Mario Bergoglio am 6. April zum ersten Mal zu dem Thema sexueller Missbrauch geäußert: Bei einem Treffen mit dem Präfekten der Kongregation für die Glaubenslehre, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, empfahl er, die Kongregation solle in Fortführung der von Benedikt XVI. erteilten Vorgaben bei Fällen sexuellen Missbrauchs mit aller Entschiedenheit vorgehen, Maßnahmen zum Schutz betroffener Minderjähriger ergreifen und die Vergehen ahnden. Die Glaubenskongregation hatte alle Bischofskonferenzen weltweit dazu angehalten, Leitlinien für den Umgang mit sexuellem Missbrauch zu entwickeln. Allerdings haben bis heute noch nicht alle Konferenzen ein entsprechendes Regelwerk vorgelegt, so Zollner:

„Dieser Prozess wird von der Glaubenskongregation überwacht, und von dort weiß ich – das hatte der jetzige ,Anwalt der Gerechtigkeit‘ Pater Oliver vor drei Monaten bekanntgegeben – , dass etwa 80 Prozent der Bischofskonferenzen weltweit bisher Leitlinien geschickt haben. Ich denke, mittlerweile dürften es um die 85 Prozent sein. Es gibt eben einige Gegenden, wo der Prozess noch hakt… Und dort werden wir alles Mögliche tun, was in unserer Macht steht, damit dieser Prozess dann auch weitergeht.“

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OSTERREICH
ooe@ORF

Die Anklage gegen einen ehemaligen Pater des Stiftes Kremsmünster wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs ist rechtskräftig. Das Oberlandesgericht Linz hat die Beschwerde des Ex-Ordensmannes dagegen abgewiesen.

Das Gericht bestätigte der APA am Dienstag einen entsprechenden Bericht im „Neuen Volksblatt“. Der Prozess dürfte demnach Anfang Juli im Landesgericht Steyr starten.

Sexual- und Gewaltdelikte
Die Anklage wirft dem 79-Jährigen sexuellen Missbrauch sowie andere Sexual- und Gewaltdelikte vor und spricht von 24 Opfern. Zudem legt die Staatsanwaltschaft dem Mann den Besitz einer nicht registrierten Pumpgun zur Last. Dem mittlerweile in den Laienstand zurückversetzten Ex-Geistlichen drohen bis zu 15 Jahre Haft.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jun. 4, 2013

When Carla Hale’s mother died in March, the 57-year-old didn’t know the life transition would also involve the abrupt ending of a nearly two-decade career as a Catholic high school teacher.

Columbus, Ohio, Bishop Frederick Campbell dismissed Hale, a Methodist who had taught at Bishop Watterson High School for 19 years, after someone notified the diocese she had included the name of her female domestic partner, Julie, among the survivors in her mother’s local newspaper obituary.

As other church officials have said in the cases of other Catholic teachers and parish workers who have faced similar firings in recent months, Campbell said in interviews that Hale was not fired because she is gay.

She was let go, the bishop said, because her “quasi-spousal relationship” violates church teachings, her contract and diocesan policy, the latter of which requires employees to follow general church tenets.

But how does a bishop or a church pastor or Catholic school board decide when employees aren’t following church tenets? And how do they respond when they receive anonymous tips about an employee’s supposed violations?

Mostly, they respond without any sort of official guidance or policy.

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AUSTRALIA
Reuters

[the petition]

Tue Jun 4, 2013

* Robinson says only a council can make effective change
* New pope has raised hopes among Catholics for reform
* Online petition a novel way to address the Vatican (Corrects “new organisation” to “meeting” in third paragraph)

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

June 4 (Reuters) – A retired Australian bishop urged Roman Catholics around the world on Tuesday to sign an online petition to Pope Francis to call a new global council to take effective measures to end the sexual abuse of children in the Church.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, a former auxiliary bishop of Sydney who coordinated the Australian church’s response to the sexual abuse crisis, said only a council of the world’s bishops would have the power to make the changes needed.

The meeting would be akin to the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, Robinson told a news conference in Sydney, referring to the historic body that transformed the Catholic Church with modernising reforms.

But this council would focus only on solving the abuse issue, he added.

Robinson said Francis had “given out a lot of good signals” since his surprise election in March.

The Argentinian-born pontiff, 76, has raised hopes for change among Catholics worldwide by ignoring Vatican protocol and openly addressing controversial issues, but it was not clear how he would react to an innovation like an online petition.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

[the petition]

By Simon Frazer, ABC
June 5, 2013

Two retired Australian bishops have called for a fundamental shake-up of the Catholic Church, officially launching a worldwide petition they hope will lead to an “Arab Spring” revolution within the church.

Retired bishops Geoffrey Robinson and Pat Power say the royal commission into child sexual abuse will not go far enough.

Bishop Robinson, who retired nearly a decade ago because of disillusionment with the church’s efforts to deal with clerical abuse, released a book on Tuesday outlining what some will consider radical ideas to put the church on a modern footing.

His long list of changes includes making celibacy voluntary, moderating the moral authority conveyed on priests, and greatly expanding the role of women in the church.

Bishop Robinson says change must come from within the church, because while the royal commission can help victims and target offenders, it does not have the power to solve the deeper problems behind the abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Today the Pope encouraged Church workers and organisations to move ahead with their commitment to combating child sex abuse

ALESSANDRO SPECIALE
VATICAN CITY

After this morning’s mass in St. Martha’s House, the Pope encouraged the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Hans Zollner, head of the Centre for the Protection of Children, to “move ahead with the commitment against child sex abuse.”

Fr. Zollner told Vatican Radio that “after the mass, we had a chance to greet the Pope. There were three of us from the Gregorian University Centre for Child Protection. We presented the project to the Pope. I was joined by our Polish representative and the person who is helping me prepare the canonical and theological education units for the long-distance learning programme we want to introduce worldwide. The Pope listened very carefully, stressing on a number of occasions how important our work was.”

The encouragement given by Francis for the anti-paedophilia efforts to continue, follows on from Benedict XVI’s work. Francis himself sent out a message during the Angelus prayer last 5 May, inviting us to work for the good of the most vulnerable and children.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Pope spoke out against political correctness at this morning’s mass in St. Martha’s House, later tweeting: “Christ leads us to go out from ourselves more and more, to give ourselves and to serve others”

VATICAN INSIDER STAFF
ROME

“Hypocrisy is the very language of corruption. A Christian should not use a “socially mannered language”, prone to hypocrisy, but speak the truth of the Gospel with the transparency of a child,” Pope Francis said during the mass he celebrated this morning in St. Martha’s House. The president of Italian state broadcasting company, RAI, Anna Maria Tarantola and Director General, Luigi Gubitosi, attended the celebration.

“From the corrupt to their language of choice: hypocrisy. Pope Francis continued his thread of thought from Monday’s homily in his reflections on the episode recounted in the Gospel of the day: The tribute due to Caesar, and the Pharisees and of the Herodians’ subtle questioning of Christ on the legitimacy of that tribute,” Vatican Radio reported.

“Let us think closely today: What is our language? – the Pope asked – Do we speak in truth, with love, or do we speak with that social language to be polite, even say nice things, which we do not feel? Let our language be evangelical brothers and sisters! Then these hypocrites that start out with flattery, adulation and all of that, end up, through false witnesses, with accusing the very ones they had flattered.” “Those who now approached Jesus and “seem so amiable in their language, are the same people who will go to fetch him on Thursday evening in the Garden of Olives,” Vatican Radio quoted the Pope saying.

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FLORIDA
Miami New Times

By Kyle Munzenrieder Tue., Jun. 4 2013

Father Daniel Kubala of Miami’s St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church and Parish is on leave after a lawsuit was filed last month claiming that the priest twice made sexual advances on an unidentified adult male who worked at the church.

Kubala, however, denies the accusations, and claims he voluntarily took the leave of absence so as not to be a distraction.

According to NBC Miami, the unidentified “John Doe,” is an adult who has a female companion with which he has a child. Though the man is only 5’1″ and 125 pounds, and the lawsuit describes him as having “the appearance of a teenaged male.”

The suit says the first incident occurred on April 8th. Doe accuses Kubala of luring the man into a bedroom, kissing him, groping his genitalia and saying, “I want your body.” The incident allegedly happened on church grounds. The man refused, but claims Kubala told him to come back later that night to have some whiskey and “make it better.”

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OHIO
Lez Get Real

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on June 4, 2013.

The Catholic Church isn’t going to be too happy with this verdict. US District Court Judge Susan Dlott has ordered that the Archdiocese of Cincinnati must pay Christa Dias some $171,000 after they fired the unmarried teacher for becoming pregnant by artificial insemination. The jury ruled in favor of the fired teacher.

Dias, who is lesbian and not Catholic, said after the verdict “I was relieved. It’s been a very, very long road. Now, I can go on with my life.”

The thirty-four year old was a computer teacher at Holy Family and St. Lawrence schools, both run by the archdiocese. Back in 2010, she informed officials that she needed maternity leave, which was surprising to officials since Dias is single and the Catholic Church frowns upon unwed mothers. The method by which she got pregnant is also forbidden under Church teaching.

The archdiocese argued that she had violated her employment contract which required her to live within the teaching of the Catholic Church. Dias countered that she was not a “ministerial employee” and did not teach religion or Catholicism. The contract did not exactly specify that she be Catholic, but did specify that she be Christian and follow the Bible. The archdiocese apparently forgot that there are different interpretations of the Bible across different forms of Christianity.

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VERMONT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON JUNE 04, 2013

We are grateful to Vermont lawmakers for extending the criminal statute of limitations on child sex crimes. We hope they will do the same with Vermont’s archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly civil statute of limitations.

Often, child sex abuse victims are reluctant to report to overworked and underfunded police and prosecutors. Often, they feel safer contacting civil attorneys. And victims often believe – correctly – that a civil suit can be the quickest and most effective way to warn unsuspecting families about child predators.

Men and women who were sexually assaulted as children deserve options. They deserve a chance to expose their predators in court – both criminal and civil.

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OHIO
Edge on the Net

by Lisa Cornwell
Associated Press
Tuesday Jun 4, 2013

A jury found an Ohio archdiocese discriminated against a teacher fired after becoming pregnant via artificial insemination, leaving legal experts expecting an appeal they say could have a much wider legal impact.

Christa Dias, who was fired from two schools in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati in October 2010, was awarded more than $170,000 Monday after winning her federal anti-discrimination lawsuit against the archdiocese.

Dias’ attorney, Robert Klingler, argued she was fired simply because she was pregnant and unmarried, a dismissal he said violated state and federal law.

Steven Goodin, the attorney for the archdiocese and the schools, contended Dias was fired for violating her contract, which he said required her to comply with the philosophies and teachings of the Catholic church. The church considers artificial insemination immoral and a violation of church doctrine.

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OHIO
Baptist Joint Committee

Written by Don Byrd
Tuesday, 04 June 2013

A jury awarded $170,000 to teacher Christa Dias yesterday in an employment discrimination suit after she was fired for being pregnant while unmarried (via in vitro fertilization). Her employer was the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, which now may argue the case should never have gotten to a jury due to the ministerial exception, which exempts religious employers from discrimination laws regarding employees with a ministerial role.

Associated Press has more:

The archdiocese argued before trial that Dias, who was a computer technology teacher, was a “ministerial employee,” a position that has not been clearly defined by the courts.

The Supreme Court has said religious groups can dismiss those employees without government interference. But [Dias’ attorney Robert] Klingler insisted Dias had no such ministerial duties, and the Cincinnati court found she was not a ministerial employee and that the issue couldn’t be argued at trial.

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OHIO
Yahoo! News

By LISA CORNWELL | Associated Press

CINCINNATI (AP) — A Catholic school teacher who was fired after she became pregnant through artificial insemination was awarded more than $170,000 Monday after winning her anti-discrimination lawsuit against an Ohio archdiocese.

A federal jury found that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati discriminated against Christa Dias by firing her in October 2010.

Dias, who taught computer classes, declined to comment immediately after the verdict but said later in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that she was “very happy and relieved.”

The jury said the archdiocese should pay a total of $71,000 for back pay and compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages. Dias had sued the archdiocese and two of its schools; the jury didn’t find the schools liable for damages.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON JUNE 04, 2013

An Ohio jury has awarded damages to Christa Dias, an unwed teacher who was fired from her Catholic school job after becoming pregnant through artificial insemination.

Read the full story

In SNAP, we take no positions on church-related controversies other than clergy sex crimes and cover ups. So we have no stance or view or statement on this court ruling.

But we do comment on how church officials use a clear “double standard” to excuse clergy sexual misconduct. That double standard can be described as “One standard for clergy, another for laity.”

We see that inconsistency in this case too.

Cincinnati archdiocesan PR man Dan Andriacco, who has explained and minimized plenty of illegal and immoral behavior by predatory Catholic clerics and complicit church supervisors, is quoted in today’s news accounts about the teacher’s discrimination case. Andriacco said that the court fight was about “an employee who broke a contract.”

OK, if that’s what the archdiocese cares about – enforcing contracts – then Andriacco’s bosses had better get busy.

There are some 30 proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting Cincinnati archdiocesan clerics. (see BishopAccountability.org) My hunch is that most of them are still on the payroll.

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON JUNE 04, 2013

A civil lawsuit accuses Father Daniel Kubala of the Miami archdiocese with making two unwanted sexual advances towards a man and accuses Catholic officials of hiding the alleged assaults.

The alleged crimes happened in April. The police were notified in April. The civil lawsuit was filed in April. But Archbishop Thomas Wenski delayed telling anyone about these serious allegations for at least three weeks (maybe longer).

And as best we can tell, Wenski has only told Fr. Kubala’s current parishioners. There’s no notice on the archdiocesan website. There are no alerts to other parishes where Fr. Kubala worked. There’s no news conference or news release to the secular Miami area media.

Why does this matter?

First, because it’s what America’s bishops have repeatedly promised: to be “open and transparent” in clergy sex cases. Belatedly telling a tiny portion of his 1.3 million parishioners about two or more alleged sexual assaults by a priest is not “open and transparent.”

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IRELAND
The Nationalist

A NEW bishop was appointed to the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin last week.

Fr Denis Nulty, a former parish priest in St Mary’s Parish, Drogheda will fill the position, which has been vacant for more than three years.

The diocese has been without a figurehead since the resignation of Bishop Jim Moriarty was accepted in December 2009.

At 49, Fr Nulty will become the youngest bishop in the country.

Almost 200 people, young and old, gathered outside the Cathedral of the Assumption in Carlow town on Tuesday morning, 7 May, for the announcement.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Maureen Fiedler | Jun. 4, 2013 NCR Today

Fr. Helmut Schüller, a leader of church reform in Austria, is coming to the United States for a 15-city speaking tour from July 16 through Aug. 6.
In March, just as Pope Francis was elected, The New York Times featured Schüller as a “rebellious priest” who comes from what “might well be the unruliest country in the Catholic world.”

I know from personal experience that the Wir Sind Kirche (“We are church”) movement began in Austria in the 1990s in the wake of the sex abuse charges against Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër of Vienna. Even after Groër (who never faced civil charges) was replaced by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Catholics in that country have not ceased to be leaders in reform.

Schüller has been the leader of more than 400 priests and deacons who issued an “Appeal to Disobedience” in 2011, calling for (among other things) admission of women and married people to the Catholic priesthood.

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UNITED KINGDOM
EADT 24

Colin Adwent crime correspondent colin.adwent@archant.co.uk
Tuesday, June 4, 2013

As Ipswich man has spoken of the brutality inflicted by a priest at the centre of a police investigation into alleged abuse at a Catholic orphanage.

Describing St Francis Boys Home, near Bedford, David Cox, of Alderman Road, said: “That place was a brutal hellhole.”

The 61-year-old left the orphanage in 1968 when aged 16.

Mr Cox and at least two other former residents have said they were physically abused by Father John Ryan, who died five years ago.

He said: “Even though John Ryan is dead, the memories are not.

“Ryan was the most brutal man I’ve ever come across in my life. He threw kids around like they were toys. We were all punch bags.

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NEW JERSEY
Cliffview Pilot

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A stroke suffered by Teaneck rabbi Uzi Rivlin has put him in the intensive care unit and all but ended his trial on charges of molesting two 13-year-old Israeli boys staying with him as part of a scholarship program.

“Rabbi Rivlin is in the intensive care unit, and cannot walk or speak,” Superior Court Judge Patrick Roma said, reading from a letter written by Rivlin’s treating physician.

Defense attorney Howard Simmons told the judge that Rivlin, 66, is in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit of Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Demetra Maurice said one of the alleged victims arrived from Tel Aviv last Wednesday, just as news broke of Rivlin’s illness. The other was due to leave Israel today.

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NEW JERSEY
Failed Messiah

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

The trial of alleged Teaneck child sexual abuser Rabbi Uzi Rivlin is on indefinite hold after Rivlin suffered a massive stroke last week, NorthJersey.com reported.

Rivlin allegedly molested two teenage Israeli boys in two separate series of incidents in his home.

Opening arguments in the trial were slated to begin today.

Rivlin is reportedly in critical condition in a medically induced coma at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, on a respirator and unresponsive since his stroke Wednesday.

Judge Patrick J. Roma told the open court that he received a letter from a physician at Holy Name Hospital confirming that Rivlin is unable to walk, talk, and cannot appear in court.

Rivlin’s wife allegedly left her husband in bed on Wednesday morning, went to work, and when she returned 12 hours later, found him still in bed. She called 911 after she noticed that her husband’s breathing was unusually shallow.

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NEW JERSEY
Houston Chronicle

HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) — The trial of a New Jersey rabbi accused of molesting two Israeli boys is postponed after the 65-year-old suffered a stroke.

The Record newspaper (http://bit.ly/12qRJK4 ) reports Uzi Rivlin remains in critical condition in a medically induced coma while doctors assess the magnitude of the stroke.

Rivlin’s trial was due to start Monday in Hackensack. But the judge received a letter from Holy Name Hospital that the Teaneck rabbi was unable to walk or talk.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Noah Cohen
June 3, 2013

The trial of a 65-year-old Teaneck rabbi accused of molesting two teenage boys has been delayed indefinitely after the rabbi suffered a stroke last week, NorthJersey.com reported Monday.

Uzi Rivlin was in a medically induced coma at Holy Name Medical Center, defense attorney Howard Simmons said, according to the report. Rivlin was admitted to the hospital Wednesday and was unresponsive.

Opening arguments were set to begin Monday. Prosecutors charged Rivlin in 2011 with sexually abusing the two 13-year-old Israeli boys, who were staying with him as part of a scholarship program he set up, authorities said. He pleaded not guilty in August 2011.

Simmons has maintained his client is innocent and said one of the alleged victims previously made bogus abuse allegations.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) “This is important work, keep it up!” said Pope Francis three times Tuesday morning as he greeted Prof. Hans Zollner, the German Jesuit who heads the Gregorian University Centre for Child Protection. The Centre has just finished hosting an annual English language conference – sponsored by the US Bishops and with the participation of the bishops of Sri Lanka – this year dedicated to the theme “Prevention of abuse: We are going Global”. The Holy Father also greeted representatives from various national Committees for the protection of children and young people who were present at morning Mass. Listen:

On the very day that the United Nations has dedicated to Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, Pope Francis wanted to meet with the Centre staff who are helping bishops conferences, religious congregations, local churches and society at large face the issue of the abuse of children and find the best way forward to make sure that it is eradicated.

“It is always a privilege to meet the Holy Father and this morning three people from the Gregorian University Centre for Child Protection were invited to attend morning Mass, because we are also at the end of an English language conference, that is organized every year by the American bishops plus the Sri Lankan bishops. This year the topic was ‘Prevention of abuse: We are going Global’ and certainly our aim from the Centre for Child Protection is that we do something on a global level and therefore we were very glad that some months after we presented the same project to Pope Benedict, we could present it today to Pope Francis. He listened very carefully when we explained about our procedure our measure and our scope, that it is an international one, a truly Catholic one and his words – more than two or three times he repeated – keep up the work! Go on! This is very important!”.

The Centre for Child Protection was founded in 2010 as a cooperation between the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome, Italy), the Department for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of Ulm University Hospital (Germany), and the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising (Germany).

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International Cultic Studies Association

Background of an ICSA conference track entitled, “Are there cultic aberrations in the Catholic Church?”

The Roman Catholic Church, the largest religious organization in the world, has more than one billion adherents. For this reason, if for no other, what happens in the Catholic Church matters to non-Catholics as well as Catholics.

In recent decades, some Catholic movements and organizations have generated controversy because outside observers have called them “cultic” or “sect-like.” …

The sexual, financial, and organizational scandals surrounding Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi, gave impetus to this special track because the Maciel controversy caused Church authorities to pay more attention to the sectarian spirit within the Church . Many who were fooled into thinking that Maciel was headed for sainthood asked, “How could we have been so wrong?”

People affiliated with ICSA are not so surprised. They know of many instances in which seemingly benign leaders or organizations turned out to be very different from their public faces. As with Maciel, this duplicity masked the strategic application of social-psychological pressures to prevent members from discussing, or even acknowledging to themselves, disagreement with the beliefs and/or practices of leaders or organizations. Groups such as the Legion may claim allegiance with a mainstream religion in a sly attempt to “hide” themselves in orthodoxy by shifting the meaning of key theological terms. One might view them as “ideological frauds.”

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SCOTLAND
Clydebank Post

Published 4 Jun 2013

FORMER Clydebank priest Archbishop Philip Tartaglia recently told local Catholics “Don’t shoot the messenger just because you don’t like the message”.

He also urged his flock to become actively engaged in traditional and new media, from Facebook to Twitter to newspapers and television and stressed the importance of communications in the life of the Church – “and in our own everyday existence”.

He said Catholics had been “dismayed, hurt and embarrassed” to read headlines and hear news bulletins bringing shameful revelations about the Church in recent times.

He added: “We have experienced the power of the media, and sometimes felt under siege from the harsh glare of rolling news.”

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UNITED STATES
Greek Orthodox Christians for Truth and Reform

(Or: who are those among us that have the courage of conviction)

These are strange and interesting times, especially as they concern our Church. There is something missing……… “We are in need of heroes.” They shape the identities of those who aspire to grow with a sense of noble character and/or purpose. Heroes can help shape not only individual identities, but communities as well. Typically these heroes are stereotypically leaders, or other prominent public figures, like teachers, clergymen, soldiers, politicians, or successful businessmen (to name only a few). But sometimes these heroes that are often unsung. The fact is that there are more unsung heroes than prominent ones.

When the people that we expect to act as heroes compromise their responsibility as role models, there sometimes emerge voices, daring voices, voices that are willing to risk everything for the sake of truth, by altruistically speaking up. It is reminiscent of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. The sole voice that shouted that the Emperor had no clothes was not otherwise a hero but was compelled to shout the naked truth. Initially this shouting was held in suspicion; until a consensus was reached that the Emperor was indeed naked. Perhaps the youngster’s voice itself was briefly held suspect. However, some might say that this voice was the voice of a hero that saved the subjects from an egomaniacal despot who was in pursuit of vainglory at the expense of truth. …

Cappy Larson, Greta Larson and Melanie Jula Sakoda
founders of www.Pokrov.org

The welcome page states that Pokrov.org “is a resource for survivors of abuse in the Orthodox Churches. Pokrov.org is proud to be under the umbrella of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Abuse can take place whether you are a child, a teenager or an adult. Adults can be married, single or divorced, male or female. Even clergymen, seminary students and clergy-wives can be abused. Abusers can be clergymen, Monastics, clergy-wives, or just members of the laity”.

No institution is immune from elements of a fallen humanity. This site has ministered to the needs of those abused and exploited. It also documents names of alleged perpetrators.

Unfortunately, we need this “ministry”. Sweeping things under the rug can allow improprieties to continue and wounds to remain unhealed. This site has striven to a variety of injustices and improprieties. This has come with the risk of retribution from those who feel this should be hidden from view. Violent threats and character malignment are just a few examples of the measures that these fine people have had to endure.

We applaud these advocates of the abused and the hurt. We thank them for their courage and persistence in standing up for what is right.

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FLORIDA
NBC 6

South Florida Priest on Leave of Absence as Sexual Misconduct Allegations Investigated: Official

By Justin Finch | Tuesday, Jun 4, 2013

A prominent South Florida priest has taken a temporary leave of absence as allegations of sexual misconduct against him are investigated, Archdiocese of Miami spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta said Monday.

A civil complaint was filed against Father Daniel Kubala of Miami’s St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church and Parish last month. In the complaint, the unnamed plaintiff alleges Kubala made two unwanted sexual advances towards the plaintiff, identified as “John Doe,” back in April.

An adult male worker at the church has made the accusations, Ross Agosta said in a statement.

The complaint does not include the plaintiff’s age, but does note that he is 5 feet 1 inches tall, weighs 125 pounds, and has the appearance of a teenaged male. His attorney said his client has a female companion, and that the two share a child.

Kubala denies the accusations against him, but has requested a leave of absence so he is not a distraction while a full investigation is conducted, Ross Agosta said.

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VERMONT
Bennington Banner

NEAL P. GOSWAMI
Senior Staff Writer

BENNINGTON – With lawmakers, law enforcement and prosecutors by his side, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed legislation in Bennington Monday extending the statute of limitations for sexual crimes committed against children.

Sexual crimes committed against a child now have a 40-year statute of limitations. Until Monday’s signing ceremony, Vermont law only allowed for prosecution of sexual assault, lewd and lascivious conduct and sexual exploitation of a minor within 10 years after the crimes were reported, or until a child turned 24.

Bennington County Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Christina Rainville pushed for the legislation following the conviction of former assistant Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky. Rainville noted that eight of the 10 victims who came forward against Sandusky, would have been barred from seeking justice in Vermont because of the state’s shorter statute of limitations.

“The result is phenomenal”

“It really took a lot of people, but the result is phenomenal. We’re now going to be able to better protect today’s children because when we have someone who committed crimes 40 years ago still having contact with children today, we can’t protect today’s children. This eliminates that huge problem with our law, so I’m very, very grateful for everyone’s effort,” Rainville said.

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VERMONT
Times-Argus

June 04,2013

BENNINGTON — Under new legislation, which Gov. Peter Shumlin signed into law in Bennington on Monday, the statute of limitations for certain sex crimes committed against children has been extended so the crimes can be reported up to 40 years after they were committed. Shumlin, who signed the bill at the Bennington County Child Advocacy Center, thanked the legislators and prosecutors who “saw a wrong and chose to right it.”

“We all know that with a crime like this … it often takes years and years and years and years before the victim is able or ready or willing to talk about their trauma and ensure that justice is served,” he said.

Among those who attended the signing of the bill were Bennington County State’s Attorney Erica Marthage, Bennington County House representatives Ann Mook, Mary Morrissey and Alice Miller and Detective Anthony Silvestro of the Bennington Police Department, who is assigned to investigate sexual crimes in Bennington.

However, Shumlin said special thanks should go to Christina Rainville, Bennington County’s chief deputy state’s attorney, and Sen. Richard “Dick” Sears, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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VERMONT
Bennington Banner

It’s no coincidence that Gov. Peter Shumlin chose Bennington on Monday as the place to sign legislation that extends the statute of limitations for sexual crimes committed against a child in Vermont.

The idea for the law originated here. It was proposed by Bennington County Sen. Dick Sears, Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, after Christina Rainville, Bennington County Chief Deputy State’s Attorney, approached him seeking changes to the state law.

Sexual crimes committed against a child now have a 40-year statute of limitations, whereas before the law only allowed for prosecution of sexual assault, lewd and lascivious conduct and sexual exploitation of a minor within 10 years after the crimes were reported, or until a child’s 24th birthday.

Rainville was moved to do so following the much-publicized trial and conviction of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky last year. She told The Banner that the Sandusky case was a “watershed moment” for her.

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POLEN
Deutschlandfunk

Die katholische Kirche Polens tut sich schwer, sexuellen Missbrauch durch Geistliche aufzuarbeiten
Von Holger Lühmann

Wegen ihrer Rolle im Kampf gegen den Sozialismus genießt die katholische Kirche in Polen noch immer hohes Ansehen. Umso schwieriger ist es, sexuellen Missbrauch, der von Geistlichen ausgeht, öffentlich anzusprechen. Eine neue Stiftung will das ändern.

Vielen Opfern geht es nicht um finanzielle Entschädigung. Sie wollen eine Entschuldigung hören und Zeichen sehen, dass die Kirche die Täter ausfindig macht.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

TERRY SWEETMAN THE SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) JUNE 02, 2013

IT IS a sad state of affairs when even the faithful send me jokes and cartoons reinforcing coarse images of priests as pedophiles and adulterers.

But that’s one measure of the harm done to the institution of the Catholic Church by its lax oversight of its servants, its infamous attempts to cover up their sins and its need to put its own reputation above the care of children and the delivery of justice.

Like many, I was pretty unimpressed with evidence and the demeanor of Archbishop George Pell before the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child sexual abuse.

Suffice to say, it will be interesting to see if he can demonstrate more conviction when he appears before the Federal Royal Commission with its powers of coercion.

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ICELAND
Pressan

Iceland: Bishop’s daughter: ‘Sexual assaulter once came to power – It can’t happen again’

Guðrún Ebba Ólafsdóttir – daughter of the late Ólafur Skúlason, previous bishop – wants that every preventative measure be taken to ensure that no sexual offender is able to reach the highest position of any church ever again. Guðrún has invited the Church council (“Kirkjuráð) – the highest executive authority of the Church in Iceland – to a meeting, after her request for a hearing.

As the newspaper DV has discussed in the previous week, Guðrún supported Sigríður Pálína Ingvarsdóttir’s claims, accusing bishop Ólafur of sexual abuse and a rape attempt.

Sigríður had a meeting with the Church Council and presented her side of the story. Guðrún requested to meet the bishop last Spring but never received a reply. She lobbied her claim to the entire Council this Spring and will be allowed another meeting this Fall.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

[the petition]

June 4, 2013

Stephanie Anderson
Breaking news reporter at The Canberra Times.

Bishop Pat Power has thrown his support behind a petition calling for the Pope to address the systemic causes of abuse in the Catholic Church.

The former Auxiliary Bishop of Canberra-Goulburn was joined by retired auxiliary bishop of Sydney Geoffrey Robinson in Sydney to officially launch the world-wide petition, which has already attracted around 15,000 signatures.

Addressing media on Tuesday, Bishop Power said it wasn’t indifference from the church community blocking progress on sexual abuse cases.

“I don’t think there’s apathy there,” he said.

“I think it’s really frustrating that they can’t be heard. That’s why I applaud this petition. It gives ordinary, grassroots Catholics a voice.”

Bishop Robinson said the petition urged Pope Francis to consider issues such as the lack of a “strong feminine influence” in the Church, as well as the part celibacy plays in abuse.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Hong Kong Standard

(06-04 11:43)

Experts investigating abuse in Northern Ireland children’s homes appealed for victims living abroad, chiefly in North America and Australia, to provide testimony so that the full scope of trauma can be documented.

Northern Ireland’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry said it already has received abuse complaints from 271 former residents of about 35 orphanages and state-funded homes where children allegedly suffered sexual or physical harm. The investigation started this year and is supposed to publish findings and recommend compensation for victims by January 2016. It seeks evidence of abuse from 1922, the year of Northern Ireland’s foundation, to 1995, AP reports.

Investigators particularly suspect Western Australia could be a venue for much testimony, because scores of boys and girls in Northern Ireland state care were resettled there while they were still children.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 04, 2013

A GROUP of rebel Catholic bishops have today launched a petition to tell the people at the top – the Pope and the Vatican – to act to stop the abuse of children within the church.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, emeritus auxillary bishop of the Archdiocese of Sydney, said the national royal commission into institutionalised child sex abuse could bring healing and change laws but it could not force the church hierarchy to make fundamental changes.

“Millions of good Catholics have been deeply disillusioned, both by the revelations of widespread abuse and even more by what they have perceived as the defensive, uncaring and unchristian response on the part of many who have authority in the church and claim to speak in God’s name,” Bishop Robinson said today.

“Catholic people all over the world are sick of the scandal and this is a chance for them to speak up and join a collective voice that will be heard in Rome.”

The bishop, who resigned from the church in 2004 partly because of its lack of recognition that it had a massive sexual abuse problem, launched the petition today with the support of Bishop Pat Power, the retired bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, and Bishop Bill Morris.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Times (UK)

A RETIRED Sydney bishop says the federal government’s royal commission into child sex abuse will not eradicate abuse from the Catholic Church.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who designed Australia’s Catholic clergy sex abuse response, wants a “people-powered revolution” to force the Vatican to make the changes needed to banish sexual abuse.

He says the Australian royal commission is limited because it will not have the power to fully eradicate the causes of abuse in the church.

“It’s really the church itself that needs to take a hard look at itself and see what we could find there in the way of causes and the systemic factors which may have contributed to the abuse,” he said.

On Tuesday, Bishop Robinson launched his new book, For Christ’s Sake, End Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, in Sydney, with the backing of former NSW premier and Catholic Kristina Keneally.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Sydney

[with audio]

By Emma Crowe

Retired Sydney bishop Geoffrey Robinson is calling for a ‘Catholic Spring’.

Speaking to Hamish Macdonald on 702 Drive on the day of the launch of his new book*, Robinson joined former New South Wales Premier, Kristina Keneally in a frank and open discussion about the need for ordinary Catholics to help confront the Vatican on the issue of child sexual abuse.

Bishop Robinson, 75, believes that real change can only come from a groundswell movement of ordinary Catholics, working together to take their views to the top.

‘Some bishops are much better than others and some of them are dragging their feet, but they do not have the authority to change the things that I’m looking to change. Only the Pope or a council of the church would have the authority to do that’.

Kristina Keneally, well known as former Premier of New South Wales, is a committed Catholic. She believes that the response to allegations of abuse would have been very different had there been women and parents in the leadership of the church.

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INDIA
Nagaland Post

Following interaction with families in Manipur who had sent their children to a Jaipur-based illegal children’s home, social activists have alleged that batches of children went back home with severe physical deformities, sexual abuse – and in one case even pregnant. Four children reportedly died on their way back home.

Ukhrul District Alliance for Child Rights has filed a report to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, pointing out over 30 cases of physical and sexual abuse of children lodged in Grace Home in Jaipur, said a report by The Indian Express.

Grace Home, run by Pastor Jacob John, was raided on March 12. In two other following raids, 53 children were rescued by an NGO FXB India Suraksha, Rajasthan Commission for Protection of Child Rights and Jaipur Police.

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ILLINOIS
WUIS

Posted on June 3, 2013 by WUIS

Victims of sexual abuse in Illinois have a limited amount of time in which to file charges.

But a proposal on its way to the governor would back some of those limits.

Tiffany Denmark of Chicago said she was sexually abused not once, but twice, by a pastor – with the second encounter resulting in her becoming pregnant.

Denmark said she was pressured into having an abortion. Afterwards, she says she fell into a state of depression, and attempted suicide.

DENMARK: “My mother’s pastor was aware of what happened and even visited me in the hospital, but said because I didn’t say anything when I was younger it was too late.”

Illinois currently has a 10-year window where criminal sexual charges can be filed against an alleged attacker.

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AUSTRALIA
Maroondah and Yarra Ranges Weekly

By DAVID SCHOUT June 4, 2013

A HEALESVILLE father whose son was sexually abused by a Catholic priest in the 1990s has described Cardinal George Pell’s apology as “full of criminal cliches”.

Last week Cardinal Pell appeared before the Victorian inquiry into child abuse, giving testimony in a gruelling four-hour session.

But Ian Lawther, who himself made a submission to the state inquiry in November last year, said Pell’s comments were disingenuous.

“An absolute disgrace,” he said.

“It was a kick to the groin of every Australian Catholic, maybe even Christian. His behaviour has been far from Christ-like.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Northern Echo

THE ARCHBISHOP of York is back at home after undergoing surgery for prostate cancer.

Dr John Sentamu underwent surgery for locally-advanced cancer at St James’s Hospital in Leeds.

Today (Sunday June 2) he was recovering from his operation at his residence, Bishopthorpe Palace, in York.

The 63-year-old has said he will be “out of action” for some time.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill, Michael McKenna

The Church of England was accused last night of delaying its inquiry into a clergyman exposed as a serial child abuser, as another victim came forward.

Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, promised an independent inquiry last month after The Times and The Australian uncovered the activities of Robert Waddington, the former Dean of Manchester Cathedral .

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Republic

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK Associated Press
June 03, 2013

DUBLIN — Experts investigating abuse within Northern Ireland children’s homes appealed Monday for victims living abroad, chiefly in North America and Australia, to provide testimony so that the full scope of trauma can be documented.

Northern Ireland’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry said it already has received abuse complaints from 271 former residents of about 35 orphanages and state-funded homes where children allegedly suffered sexual or physical harm. The investigation started this year and is supposed to publish findings and recommend compensation for victims by January 2016. It seeks evidence of abuse from 1922, the year of Northern Ireland’s foundation, to 1995.

Virtually all testimony so far has come from people living in Britain or Ireland. But investigators believe many hundreds of former residents have made their homes in the United States, Canada and Australia and want to hear their stories. They particularly suspect Western Australia could be a venue for much testimony, because scores of boys and girls in Northern Ireland state care were resettled there while they were still children.

The lead investigator, Sir Anthony Hart, said his fact-finding team was willing to travel overseas to collect testimony or cover witnesses’ travel expenses to come to Belfast.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

High-profile friends of a Calvinist leader accused of covering up the molestation of children continue to endorse the embattled pastor despite calls urging them to refrain until the facts are known.

By Bob Allen

Members of Pastor C.J. Mahaney’s Kentucky church plant “don’t fully grasp” their privilege, the embattled Calvinist leader’s defender and friend Mark Dever told the congregation of Sovereign Grace Church in Louisville June 2.

Dever, senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., spoke at the church that meets in a Louisville hotel days after joining Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler and Presbyterian Church of America minister Ligon Duncan in a joint statement expressing confidence in Mahaney, who is named in a lawsuit being described as the largest evangelical sex-abuse scandal to date.

The trio, who with Mahaney lead a biennial preaching conference called Together for the Gospel, originally posted the statement on Facebook, but after more than 100 negative comments appeared in the first 24 hours it was moved to the T4G website.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted June 03, 2013

PORTLAND, Maine — Two brothers who were altar servers at a South Berwick parish in the late mid- to late 1970s have sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland claiming the bishop at the time knew the priest who sexually abused them was a danger to children but did not remove him from ministry.

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston attorney known for representing victims of clergy sexual abuse, filed separate lawsuits May 15 in Cumberland County Superior in Portland on behalf of Frederick Sean Conroy, 46, of Essex County, Mass, and Jeffrey Patrick Conroy, 45, of Bexar County, Texas. The men claim that they were sexually assaulted between 1976 and 1979 by the Rev. James Vallely, now deceased, when he was pastor at St. Michael Catholic Church.

The lawsuits name the bishop of the diocese as the defendant. Maine Catholics currently are waiting for Pope Francis to appoint a new bishop. The former leader of the diocese, Bishop Richard J. Malone, 67, now head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, N.Y., left in July after eight years in Maine. Answers to the complaints have not yet been filed. Gerald F. Petruccelli, the Portland attorney who represents the diocese, declined to comment on the lawsuits Monday. Efforts to reach Garabedian last week and on Monday were unsuccessful.

The diocese previously acknowledged that there were credible abuse allegations against Vallely. In 2005, the diocese said that Vallely would have been fired if he had lived. The priest died in 1997 in Florida.

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UNITED STATES
The Courier-Journal

[Statement from Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, and Albert Mohler]

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Peter Smith

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler and other leading New Calvinist figures have issued statements of confidence in one of their partners in ministry, C.J. Mahaney — ending their months of silence over a lawsuit alleging that Mahaney and his denomination conspired to cover up claims of sexual abuse.

The statements by Mohler and others came days after a Maryland judge dismissed, on legal grounds, what had been a growing lawsuit alleging a cover-up by Mahaney and other leaders in Sovereign Grace Ministries and its congregations. (Two of the 11 plaintiffs can re-file in the same court, and their lawyers say they’ll appeal the rest to the next level.) That decision in itself came just days after the lawsuit was amended for a second time, alleging a series of sex crimes allegedly committed by various people associated with the denomination. (Previous coverage is here.)

Sovereign Grace Ministries, which recently relocated to Louisville, was until last year based in Maryland, and many of the alleged incidents are said to have occurred in the D.C. area.

Mohler’s statement was co-signed by two other men who — along with Mohler and Mahaney — head up a cross-denominational group, Together for the Gospel (T4G). It hosts conferences every two years in Louisville drawing thousands of mostly male attendees, many of them pastors or seminarians. The other two are Mark Dever, pastor of a Southern Baptist congregation in Washington, D.C., and Ligon Duncan, a Jackson, Miss., pastor in the Presbyterian Church of America.

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ROME/AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

[Domus Australia]

Lewis Blayse

Domus Australia (“Australia House”) is a palatial building in Rome which the Catholic Church purchased and renovated for about $30 million (see photo above). Cardinal “Georgie” Pell stays there six or seven times a year, according to the rector of the on-site chapel, Father Andrew James.

Victorian Parliamentary enquiry into clerical child sexual abuse committee member, Andrea Coote caused a sensation when she suggested the Catholic Church could sell it to raise funds for compensating victims. Father Brendan Arthur sprung to the defence of what he fondly calls an “Australian Oasis” saying that selling the place would be a crime since “for people like that [victims] it’s never going to be enough.” Father Brendan said, “Where do you stop? Sell off St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney next? Or St Patrick’s in Melbourne?” Probably wouldn’t fetch as much as Domus Australia, though.

Cardinals of the Catholic Church are fondly known (by some) as “Princes of the Church”, so it is fitting that Prince Pell should have his own palace. Like all impoverished nobility, he is forced to rent it out to the hoi-polloi occasionally, for a mere $250 per night per room and $120 per meal. When he stays, if there are other “guests”, poor Prince Pell only occupies two rooms. A current guest, Father Brennan, who is on holidays there from his parish in Dandenong North, in Victoria, likes to slip out for a quiet cigarette in the internal courtyard (see photo below).

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UNITED STATES
The Catholic Tipping Point

Sponsoring Organizations

Call to Action
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good
CORPUS
DignityUSA
FutureChurch
National Coalition of Nuns
New Ways Ministry
Voice of the Faithful
Quixote Center
Women’s Ordination Conference

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Jun. 3, 2013 NCR Today

“A Catholic Tipping Point: Conversations with Fr. Helmut Schüller” is a summer speaking tour of the United States by Fr. Helmut Schüller, founder of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, a group of Austrian priests pushing for institutional reforms in the Catholic church.

The tour starts July 16 in New York City and ends Aug. 6 on Long Island. Along the way, Schüller will be stopping at Boston; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Detroit; Cincinnati; Denver; San Diego; Los Angeles; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle. See this website for details: The Catholic Tipping Point.

Watch the NCR website throughout the tour for updates and news on the trip.

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PHILIPPINEN
Kipa

Manila, 3.6.13 (Kipa) Die katholische philippinische Bischofskonferenz hat sich gegen den Vorwurf einer Vertuschung von Missbrauchsfällen verwahrt. Ermittlungen gegen mutmassliche pädophile Mitarbeiter seien «vertraulich», die Ergebnisse müssten nach Rom gemeldet werden, sagte der Generalsekretär der Bischofskonferenz, Joselito Asis, laut dem asiatischen katholischen Pressedienst Ucanews (Montag).

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PHILIPPINEN
Kathweb

Bischöfe: “Vertrauliche” Ermittlungen gegen mutmaßliche pädophile Mitarbeiter – Menschenrechtsaktivist ortete “grassierenden sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern durch Kleriker”

03.06.2013
Manila, 03.06.2013 (KAP) Die katholische Philippinische Bischofskonferenz hat sich gegen den Vorwurf einer Vertuschung von Missbrauchsfällen verwahrt. Ermittlungen gegen mutmaßliche pädophile Mitarbeiter seien “vertraulich”, die Ergebnisse müssten nach Rom gemeldet werden, zitiert die deutsche katholischen Nachrichtenagentur KNA den Generalsekretär der Bischofskonferenz, Joselito Asis im Interview mit dem Pressedienst “Ucanews” (Montag). Zuvor hatte ein Ordenspriester und Aktivist gegen Sextourismus Bischöfe beschuldigt, einen “grassierenden sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern durch Kleriker” weiterhin zu verschleiern.

“Wir haben hier diese Bischöfe, die sehr viel von dem Missbrauch vertuscht haben, und wir wissen, dass das immer noch passiert”, sagte der aus Irland stammende Ordensgeistliche Shay Cullen dem Pressedienst. Die Kirchenleitung müsse “entschieden handeln”. Täter müssten aus dem Kirchendienst entfernt und “der Justiz und zivilen Gerichten übergeben” werden. Cullen, seit 1969 auf den Philippinen tätig, wurde für sein Engagement im Jahr 2000 u.a. mit dem Menschenrechtspreis der thüringischen Stadt Weimar ausgezeichnet.

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UNITED STATES
Mary DeMuth

Something is wrong when the church protects perpetrators and marginalizes victims. In recent months, we’ve seen a bit of the underbelly of covering up sexual abuse, demanding victims forgive and forget instantly for the sake of the poor offenders whose lives might be ruined if they were found out. (See this article at Christianity Today that summarizes a recent case).

(Note: This post isn’t about the Sovereign Grace Ministries situation particularly as much as it is about any church that listens more to the perpetrators than to the victims. I believe this is a universal problem.)
Cover up that exalts the “ministry” or a ministry personality over the well being of one who has been sinned against does not represent the Jesus I follow.

Jesus looked for the outcasted. He dignified the marginalized. He stooped (in the sweetest, gentlest way) to side with the woman caught in adultery, against her prosecutors and (perhaps) her sexual partner. He confronted sin in his closest group of ministry partners, even telling Satan to take a backseat. He noticed the woman with the issue of blood—a victim of biology and the probably shunning of the crowd. He clearly listened to the downtrodden. He identified, by coming to earth, with those bent beneath their loads. He welcomed scampering children while the disciples scoffed. His lap was safe.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON JUNE 03, 2013

Usually, when Catholic officials try to deny child sex abuse victims their day in court, I moan or cry or shake my head in dismay. But a sentence in a new National Catholic Register article on statute of limitations reform had the opposite effect on me. It made me laugh out loud.

Here’s the background: Gradually, more lawmakers are proposing civil “window” laws that temporarily suspend the civil statute on child sex crimes.

The laws enable child sex abuse victims to protect kids, stop predators, expose wrongdoing, and deter cover ups by seeking justice in court.

But Catholic officials claim these laws are unfair because they sometimes exempt public institutions.

So here’s the line that made me snort with laughter. Dennis Poust of the New York State Catholic Conference says window laws are “fundamentally flawed and unjust” because they “effectively discriminate against victims based solely on where the abuse occurs.”

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UNITED STATES
Christianity Today

[Click here for the story.]

(UPDATED) Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, and Albert Mohler also defend friend C. J. Mahaney, while Scot McKnight joins Boz Tchividjian in criticism.
Jeremy Weber

Third Update (May 24): Scot McKnight disagrees with the many prominent Reformed supporters of C. J. Mahaney. “There is blatant failure here to recognize the complicity of a leader in what transpired under his watch,” he writes.

McKnight supports the view of GRACE’s Boz Tchividjian who, noting that the now-dismissed lawsuit’s allegations are “one of the most disturbing accounts of child sexual abuse and institutional ‘cover up’ I have read in my almost 20 years of addressing this issue,” writes:

These leaders have once again, and perhaps unwittingly, demonstrated the art of marginalizing individual souls for the sake of reputation and friendships.
…
Does this mean that a jury is required in order to determine the existence of evil? … Such an approach to sin is incredibly damaging to so many precious individuals who were sexually victimized for years and manipulated by perpetrators and church leaders into remaining silent. It tells them that their voice and experience doesn’t matter nearly as much as the voice of a judge or jury.
…
Many of these men have not hesitated to write (or tweet) on the Penn State horrors, homosexuals in the Boy Scouts, and universal healthcare, but have been conspicuously quiet on this issue. And when they finally speak, what is omitted speaks more than what is said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced today that Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. has reviewed recommendations of the Archdiocesan Strategic Planning Committee and made decisions to merge parishes in Philadelphia and Delaware County.

These mergers are the result of ongoing restructuring that will ultimately strengthen parish communities throughout the Archdiocese positioning them for future growth and sustainability. It is hoped that the result will be revitalized parishes throughout the Archdiocese that are better equipped to meet the spiritual and pastoral needs of future generations.

The recommendations and resulting mergers are an outcome of the Archdiocesan-wide Parish Pastoral Planning Area initiative, which began in 2011. Parishioners at all affected parishes learned of the final decisions through letters mailed to all registered parishioners as well as announcements made at all Masses this weekend.

The mergers announced today were based on a combination of factors, including, but not limited to, demographic shifts in Catholic populations, concentrated density of parishes in a limited geographic area, history of declining Mass attendance and sacramental activity, increasing economic challenges that threaten sustainability, a decrease in the availability of clergy to staff parishes and a review of facilities.

In each instance of a merger, parishioners will attend daily and Sunday Mass at the church of the newly formed parish. The church of the former parish will remain open and be maintained as a worship site. At the discretion of the pastor, this site will be utilized for weddings, funerals and feast days, as well as traditional and ethnic devotions for the time being. Sunday Mass may also be celebrated at a worship site at the discretion of the pastor and the newly formed pastoral council.

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PENNSYLVANIA/DELAWARE
Philadelphia Inquirer

JONATHAN LAI, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
POSTED: Sunday, June 2, 2013

Linda Fleming was baptized at St. Leo the Great on Father’s Day in 1958, exactly two weeks after she was born. She received the sacraments of communion and confirmation there, and attended the church’s grade school. The Funeral Masses for her parents were said at St. Leo’s.

And even after moving to Bustleton in 2010, Fleming still attended services at the church in Philadelphia’s Tacony section.

In short, Fleming said Sunday outside the church on Keystone Street, “This is our home.”

That home is set to be incorporated into Our Lady of Consolation parish less than a mile away, also in Tacony, as part of an ongoing Archdiocese of Philadelphia initiative to merge parishes.

In all, mergers affecting 27 parishes throughout Northeast, Northwest, and West Philadelphia, as well as Delaware County, were announced Sunday in conjunction with the archdiocesan effort to cut costs and achieve greater efficiencies in light of declining membership.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 4, 2013

Gerard Henderson
Executive director, The Sydney Institute

Cardinal George Pell in Sydney and Archbishop Denis Hart in Melbourne have become public targets for criticism concerning sexual abuse by priests and brothers within the Catholic Church in Australia. The evidence suggests that paedophiles have been active in religious and secular institutions and elsewhere over the years, particularly between the 1950s and the 1980s. The situation within the Catholic Church has been particularly serious.

During their recent appearances before the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse, Pell and Hart were subjected to hectoring by some parliamentarians, along with occasional demonstrations and generally hostile media coverage, particularly on the ABC and in The Age. Yet it appears they were among the first Catholic leaders in the world to address the issue in a serious way.

A lot of the commentary on this issue has been replete with an ignorance as to how the Catholic Church operates by those who should know better. For example, on ABC1’s News Breakfast last week Wayne Chamley of Broken Rites said the Church “runs on anarchy”. It doesn’t. Last July, the Four Corners program ”Unholy Silence”, by Geoff Thompson and Mary Ann Jolley, failed to make the point that Pell is not responsible for archdioceses or dioceses other than his own. Each bishop reports direct to the Pope in what is an authoritarian structure.

More seriously, Four Corners refused to run Pell’s comment to this effect, either in the program itself or in the extended interview which is on the Four Corners website. The latter omission looks like censorship. This was important since the cases of sexual abuse covered in the program pertained to crimes committed by a one-time priest identified as “F” in the dioceses of Armidale and Parramatta, which are outside Pell’s immediate control.

The bishops of Armidale and Parramatta commissioned a report into the management of F by retired Federal Court judge Antony Whitlam, QC, (a non-Catholic).

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UNITED STATES
Voice of the Faithful

Fr. Helmut Schuller, the charismatic founder of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative (Pfarrer-Initiative), is visiting the United States this summer. Invited by a coalition of 10 church reform organizations for a 15-city tour, July 15 to August 7, Fr. Schuller will discuss initiatives taken by the Austrian priests, why they took action, and how the international reform movement is faring.

The Austrian Priests’ Initiative was organized in 2006 to address a deepening shortage of priests, which has forced many Austrian parishes to close. The priests’ initiative is calling for inclusive and transparent changes to Church governance, including greater lay leadership and lay preaching in parishes without a priest. Fr. Schuller’s work inspired priests to establish similar priest groups in Germany, Ireland, France, and the United States.

The coalition of Church reform organizations that invited Schuller to the United states is calling his tour a Catholic Tipping Point because priests and people worldwide are creating a critical mass to transform the Church from the bottom up. An alternate title for his talk is: “Creativity, Courage and Conscience: Re-imagining Church Governance and the Voice of the Laity.”

Voice of the Faithful® is collaborating with other groups to sponsor the kick-off event in Fr. Schuller’s tour. This will take palce Tuesday evening, July 16, at Judson Memorial in Greenwich Village, New York City. VOTF also is sponsoring two addtional talks. The first will be on Wednesday evening, July 17, at St. Susanna’s Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, and the second will be on Wednesday evening, August 7, in Manomet on Long Island, New York. Mark your calendars now. We will have much more information as the dates come closer.

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UNITED STATES
The Catholic Tipping Point

Fr. Helmut Schüller, founder of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, a movement organized in 2006 to address an increasing shortage of priests, will be on a national speaking tour this summer.

His “Call to Disobedience,” signed by a majority of Austrian priests, has brought worldwide attention and momentum to addressing the crises in the Catholic Church. Today, he leads a practical movement that recognizes the Holy Spirit among the laity and the necessity of reforming church governance. Join Helmut Schüller and Catholics across the country in a new season of dialogue.

July 16 New York City
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South
7:00 PM
Contact: Francis X. Piderit francis@piderit.com C: 917-916-7575 T: 212-826-3118
Art McGrath artmcgrath@aol.com

July 17 Boston, MA
St. Susannah’s
262 Needham St. Dedham MA
7:00 PM
Contact: Ron DuBois debber@beld.net 781-843-1676

July 19 Philadelphia, PA
Chestnut Hill College
7: 00 PM
Contact: Regina Bannan reginab317@gmail.com 215-545-9649
Joe Boyle josephboyleoil@comcast.net

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FLORIDA
New Times

By Terrence McCoy Mon., Jun. 3 2013

No matter what, Violeta Maczynski wants you to know that her Boca Raton company, US Passport Services, is most definitely not a scam.

So ignore the 190 complaints filed against it with the state Better Business Bureau alleging misdeeds from failure to reimburse customers to not honoring its verbal contracts with customers.

Ignore that the Better Business Bureau has allotted the passport company on NW 77th Street an ‘F’ rating, and hasn’t granted it accreditation.

Ignore that US Passport Now — an offshoot of US Passport Services — claims on its site that it’s housed in a swank and official-looking office building – when its actual accommodations are pedestrian.

Ignore that the company’s president, Marek Maczynski, is a former priest booted from the the Orlando diocese, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Maczynski was removed from his duties at Holy Name of Jesus in Indialantic in 2005 after more than $10,000 went missing from the church’s coffers. (Maczynski apologized and returned the money, the newspaper reported, and no charges were filed against him.)

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RICHMOND (VA)
WRIC

Posted: Jun 03, 2013

The executive pastor at the Richmond Outreach Center appeared in court in Richmond Monday morning.

Jason Helmlinger is accused of threatening Allen Caldwell, a former pastor at the ROC.In court Monday, a follow-up court date was set for June 21.

The alleged threats were made after Caldwell spoke out to 8News about ROC founding pastor Geronimo Aguilar, known as “Pastor G.” Aguilar is facing multiple child sex abuse charges in Texas, where, if convicted, he could face up to a year in prison.

Caldwell says soon after his interview with 8News, Helmlinger called him and yelled profanities and threatened to do bodily harm to Caldwell, who called police to report the incident.

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RICHMOND (VA)
NBC 12

[with video]

Updated: Jun 03, 2013

By Mike Valerio
Posted by Phil Newsome

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) –
The Roc’s top pastor will fight charges of threatening phone calls Monday morning.

Jason Helmlinger stepped down last week, and is the second Roc leader to face criminal charges. His friend and fellow pastor, Geronimo Aguilar, faces sexual abuse charges in Texas.

There has been a lot of confusing controversy at the Roc, but things could start to get back to normal if Executive Pastor Jason Helmlinger beats this charge of making threatening phone calls.

When a former church member last week said Aguilar, who founded the Roc, had inappropriate relations with church wives, police say Helmlinger called the former church member and threatened to harm him. That’s what the case is all about Monday morning.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Ben Feuerherd | Jun. 3, 2013

NEW YORK A group calling itself “Catholic Whistleblowers” celebrated its launch at a Manhattan news conference May 22.

The group’s message:

*Catholics who blow the whistle on the sexual abuse of minors in the church deserve a network they can turn to for support;
*A decade after the church issued “zero tolerance guidelines” for abuse, it is still mishandling these cases;
*The bishops who mishandle these cases must be held accountable.

Founding member Dominican Sr. Sally Butler of Brooklyn, N.Y., said the creation of a nationwide “whistleblower protection program” is necessary. “Clearly, the women and men who work for the church now fear reprisals for speaking out,” she said.

Attorney Marci A. Hamilton, the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Cardozo Law School in Manhattan, N.Y., said that she and her team of five law students have promised to defend any whistleblowers who come forward.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

SARAH MACDONALD – 03 JUNE 2013

A NEW Catholic group formed to give lay people a bigger say in the running of the Irish church is seeking an urgent meeting with the hierarchy to discuss the critical shortage of priests here.

The Association of Catholics in Ireland (ACI), which has committed itself to reform and renewal of the church, was formally launched in Dublin on Saturday.

During the meeting, members discussed the role of the laity in shaping the future church here.

According to ACI spokesman Noel McCann, the objectives of the new group include working towards greater inclusion of the laity in decision making in the church, as well as fostering dialogue and transparency.

The group also wishes to address issues such as the effect on young people of the archaic language in the church’s liturgy.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

The president of the “bank” of the Holy See, in this interview with Vatican Radio, opens his campaign to restore credibility to the controversial institution. With more integrity, more transparency, more communication

by Ernst von Freyberg

Q: President Ernst von Freyberg, do you like your job, coming from Frankfurt down to Rome, working inside the Vatican?

A: It is a great privilege to work here; it is the most inspiring environment you can imagine: working at the Vatican. And it is a great challenge to serve the pope in re-establishing the reputation of this institute.

Q: What did you imagine your work to be, prior to starting here?

A: Different from what it is. When I came here I thought I would need to focus on what is normally described as cleaning out and dealing with improper deposits. There is – until now – nothing I can detect. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything, but it means that it is not our biggest issue.

Our biggest issue is our reputation. Our work – my work – is much more communication than originally thought. And it is much more communication inside the Church. We haven’t done enough of that in the past. It starts a home, with our own employees, with those who work for the Church in Rome, with those in the Church around the world. To them we owe first of all transparency and a good explication of what we do and how we try to serve.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

The Department of Justice has said it has received the report about a potential redress scheme for survivors of the Magdalene laundries.

Mr Justice John Quirke’s recommendations are expected to be considered by the Government this week.

Last week, the United Nations Committee Against Torture criticised the McAleese report into the Laundries as “limited” and “not sufficiently independent”.

The UN’s response gave voice to some of the concerns held by Magdalene Survivors Together.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

June 3, 2013

Amanda Vanstone
Former Howard government minister

Surely there can be no one in Australia who wants to give an easy ride to those who abused children or those who helped cover it up. Hopefully the state inquiries and the royal commission will not only uncover some perpetrators but serve to put a stop, if not completely to the crime, then at least completely to institutional cover-up.

Abhorrent as we find both the crime and the cover-up, our shared revulsion in no way entitles or excuses any diminution of our own obligation to conduct inquiries in an exemplary manner.

The more serious the allegation the higher standard there must be on an inquiry. If the gravity of the offence doesn’t stir us into exemplary behaviour then the consequences for the accused should certainly do so. Naturally enough the more odious the allegation the higher the penalty and public opprobrium for the alleged perpetrator. Imposing penalties and opprobrium of a deep and long-lasting kind on our fellow citizens is not something we should take lightly. And we don’t.

Your freedom and mine rests on the simple principle that we are each innocent until proven guilty. We demand that the state makes its case before a penalty is imposed or someone’s liberty is restrained.

In that context, coverage of the Victorian parliamentary hearings at which Cardinal George Pell appeared were a cause of some concern. Parliamentary inquiries of course are not courts. Direct allegations are generally not being made; rather, information is being sought. Those appearing before inquiries do not have the opportunity to test either the relevance or veracity of what is said about them by others.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

Cardinal George Pell stonily impassive giving testimony at the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into institutional child sexual abuse

SUE WIGHTON THE COURIER-MAIL JUNE 03, 2013

I WATCHED most of Cardinal George Pell’s evidence to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry last week about child sexual abuse by members of the clergy and its subsequent cover-up by the church.

I didn’t mean to watch the whole thing, but I was transfixed.

I was struck by Pell’s seeming lack of emotional engagement during his testimony. He sat stonily impassive in the face of stringent questioning by the panel members. His tone was largely defensive and even combative at times.

Although there was a reluctant and measured intellectual response from Australia’s most senior Catholic, the man seemed unable to show visible empathy or any true emotion for the victims, mostly innocent children.

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