ABUSE TRACKER

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

January 4, 2019

by Michael Sean Winters

What will 2019 bring in the life of the church? Will Pope Francis be able to lead the way to a new era of episcopal accountability? If so, how will that cohere with other of his objectives such as increased synodality? Will the church in the United States begin to confront the degree to which some of its ministries have become a counterwitness to the Gospel and others a mere extension of the Republican Party, with all the ugliness that entails in the Age of Trump? Will the bishops even begin to know how to cope with the decline of Trump, in whatever form that takes, and prepare for the tsunami that awaits them once he is hurled from office? Will the Catholic left mature into the kind of force that can remain distinctively Catholic but also make an impact on the life of both church and state?

The clergy sex abuse mess has prompted more heat than light in the year just past, but I anticipate we will see a clear rejection of faux and foolish reform efforts and an embrace of some real ones. Nothing will come of the efforts of conservative zillionaire Tim Busch, who organized a conference on “authentic reform” of the church in which laypeople like himself, well-heeled in the wallet and a little light in theological depth, would come to the rescue and make the church in the U.S. into their own image, an image they know well from admiring it so much.

Equally barren will be some of the calls for reform from the left, such as that of former Rep. Tim Roemer whose solutions veered remarkably close to advocating lay trusteeism, which doesn’t work and isn’t Catholic. Fr. James Connell gets the prize for the worst single idea: He wants to take away the inviolability of the confessional. His argument rests on canonical analysis, not theology, most especially the theology of conscience which Pope Francis is so keen to revive. I can confidently predict that the pope will not let our venerable sacramental theology be tossed overboard by ideologically driven canonists.

Instead of these faux reforms, I will echo Mark Silk’s prediction at RNS: I am betting Pope Francis is going to find a way to make the February meeting of the presidents of all the episcopal conferences in the world work. I predict that meeting will yield some concrete proposals for adoption, with some variation, by local episcopal conferences and that in the course of the year, some clearer methods of holding bishops accountable at the Vatican will emerge. The February meeting may disappoint some in the U.S., even though it may advance the cause of child protection throughout the world. That may say more about the myopia of the U.S. church than it does about the pope’s determination to protect children.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
Catholic News Service

January 3, 2019

By Joyce Duriga

To show support for the U.S. bishops as they gathered at the Mundelein Seminary at the University of St. Mary of the Lake near Chicago for a weeklong retreat in early January, members of lay ecclesial movements met at St. Mother Theodore Guerin Parish in Elmwood Park Jan. 3 to pray.

More than 70 people attended Mass and adoration at the parish as part of a larger effort of the 21 lay movements active within the Archdiocese of Chicago to support the bishops. Each group is taking a day to have its members pray during the bishops Jan. 2-8 retreat.

“We want to show them that we support them, that they are not alone in this,” said Renata Kaczor, co-chair of the archdiocesan committee for lay movements and a member of Domowy Kosciol (“Domestic Church”), dedicated to the sanctity of marriage. “We also want to ask God to help them, help us and everybody in the very difficult situation the church is going through now.”

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

MIDDLETOWN (NY)
Times Record Herald

January 3, 2019

Ever since the scandal of priests sexually abusing young boys was exposed in Boston in 2002, the Catholic Church has demonstrated, in big ways and small, despite promises and proclamations from the pope and cardinals worldwide, that it is incapable or unwilling to conduct a thorough reckoning with its behavior.

Big ways: A recent grand jury investigation led by the Pennsylvania attorney general, identified nearly 300 “predator priests” dating back seven decades and accused church leaders of covering up for the abuses by returning priests to duty after treatment or reassigning them.

Small: The Archdiocese of New York told a California university that a Middletown priest had never been accused of sexual abuse of a minor and was fit to serve as a priest, even though it had paid compensation in one sexual abuse case and reopened a 15-year-old investigation into other allegations of sexual abuse against him.

The latter involves the Rev. Donald G. Timone, of the Church of St. Joseph on Cottage Street. He has been a visiting priest at John Paul the Great University in Escondido, Calif., for several years. He celebrated Mass, heard confessions, taught a class on Catholic spirituality. He was supposed to teach another class this winter.

That’s not happening, not since the university learned of the archdiocese investigation in The New York Times. The church’s inability to deal forthrightly with the issue in this case came in the form of a letter from the archdiocese’s director of priest personnel that Timone presented last month to the university. The letter vouched for Timone’s character and for his qualification “to serve in an effective and suitable manner as a priest.”

It also said “without qualification” that Timone had “never been accused of any act of sexual abuse or sexual misconduct involving a minor.”

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

January 3, 2019

As American bishops meet outside Chicago for a week of “prayer and self-reflection” the Vatican’s request, Pope Francis has sent a letter explaining what he hopes comes of this retreat. Unfortunately, his letter ignores the most critical issue of all: accountability for bishops who conceal sex crimes.

The Pope’s letter clearly shows the self-centeredness of Vatican officials. In one brief sentence, he mentions victims. But his concerns, in order, are that “the church has been badly shaken,” lay people have been “confused,” the “communion of bishops” has suffered and the church’s credibility has waned.

Only half-way through his letter does he mention what should be his highest priority: “protecting those in our care.”

The Pope’s letter is long on platitudes but short on the words that survivors and advocates want to read. Not once in his eight-page, 3,500+ word letter does Pope Francis speak to the urgent need for accountability for bishops who conceal clergy sex crimes.

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NEW YORK (NY)
NBC News

January 3, 2019

By Corky Siemaszko

Pope Francis delivered a blunt message Thursday to his American bishops — stop “playing the victim or the scold” and do something about the “culture of abuse” that has resulted in a crisis of credibility for the U.S. Roman Catholic Church.

Francis’ letter, which was dated Tuesday, was delivered as the bishops were at a weeklong spiritual retreat at the Mundelein Seminary north of Chicago.

“These have been times of turbulence in the lives of all those victims who suffered in their flesh the abuse of power and conscience and sexual abuse on the part of ordained ministers, male and female religious and lay faithful,” Francis wrote in his eight-page letter. “The Church’s credibility has been seriously undercut and diminished by these sins and crimes, but even more by the efforts to deny or conceal them.”

Instead of “helping to resolve conflicts,” Francis wrote the actions of the church thus far have “enabled them to fester and cause even greater harm.”

“We know that the sins and crimes that were committed, and their repercussions on the ecclesial, social and cultural levels, have deeply affected the faithful,” the Pope wrote.

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

MONTPELIER (VT)
VTDigger

January 3, 2019

By Kevin O’Connor

Vermont Catholic Bishop Christopher Coyne, facing a rise in priest misconduct headlines and a fall in parishioner attendance, is set to hold a series of open meetings this month seeking public comment about the state’s largest religious denomination.

“Anybody’s welcome, not just Catholics,” Coyne said in announcing what he calls “part of a continuing effort to promote full transparency about Catholic matters in the state.”

Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese, the target of more than 40 clergy misconduct lawsuits in the past quarter-century, has a decades-long history of defying court orders and outside review.

That’s why Coyne, leader of the state’s 72 Catholic parishes since 2015, has made headlines by agreeing to work with law enforcement, releasing past child abuse victims from nondisclosure agreements and forming a lay committee to review clergy misconduct files and publicly release the names of abusers.

“I have no idea how the meetings are going to go, but I felt it was important to establish better two-way communication with people in the pews,” he said.

The bishop is basing the sessions on traditional Vermont town meetings.

“These meetings are ‘democracy in action’ because any citizen of the town may speak to the matters within the meeting or even propose matters for discussion,” he said in a separate statement to the state’s 118,000 Catholics. “The idea is that everyone present gets to hear what others have to say in order to come to some consensus about what the community as a whole should do.”

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DEKALB COUNTY (IL)
Daily Chronicle

January 3, 2019

By Katie Smith

A Chicago law firm has vowed to release the names of more than 300 Catholic clergy members with whom they’ve settled sexual abuse allegations.

Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman, of Anderson and Attorneys, made the announcement at a news conference Thursday morning. They expect to release the report Feb. 11, complete with the names, histories and photos of each priest they’ve settled with over the past 20 years.

“There are over 300 survivors who had the courage to come to us privately and work with us,” Anderson said. “Most all of those offenders…we made known public. But not all of them.”

None of the settlements were confidential, Anderson said.

The attorneys also urged each of the Illinois Catholic dioceses to publicly identify more than 500 unnamed clergy members whose identities church officials intentionally keep under wraps, according to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Last month, Madigan released the preliminary findings of her investigation of sexual abuse claims within the Catholic church and claimed to know of more than 500 unidentified clergy members accused of sexually abusing minors. The investigation is expected to continue under the eye of Illinois Attorney General-elect Kwame Raoul.

Madigan’s report did not include the accused clergy members’ names or confirm which Illinois diocese they belonged to.

The Catholic Diocese of Rockford responded to the report with skepticism, and said it has fully cooperated with the attorney general’s investigation.

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SAN LUIS OBISPO (CA)
Cal Coast News

January 3, 2019

The Monterey Diocese has released a report that identifies every Catholic priest they say has been credibly accused of child sexual abuse including a clergyman who worked in San Luis Obispo County.

The report, which lists 30 clergyman, includes former Mission San Luis Obispo Priest Alberto Battagliol. He allegedly molested several boys in the 1970s, but the allegations were not made public until several lawsuits were filed in 2003.

Battagliola worked as a priest at Mission San Luis Obispo from 1972 through 1974. In 1977, Battagliola was murdered in a San Francisco motel room.

In 2003, a 44-year-old San Luis Obispo man filed a lawsuit against the Monterey Diocese claiming that Battagliola sexually abused him when he was a 14-year-old altar boy.

None of the people listed in the report are still working for the diocese. Many of them are deceased.

A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles in October, alleges clergy officials at ten dioceses in California conspired to cover up sexual assaults within the church. The Diocese of Monterey responded with the release of the names of 30 priests who they determined molested children.

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

BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW TV

January 3, 2019

By Charlie Specht

Buffalo Bishop Richard J. Malone has found a buyer for his palatial mansion on Oakland Place.

Buffalo Diocese spokeswoman Kathy Spangler confirmed Thursday that the mansion is under contract but would not identify the potential buyer.

“We will not disclose details until it has closed,” she said in an email.

Malone in April announced he was selling the mansion — owned by the diocese since 1952 and appraised at more than $1 million — to help compensate victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The diocese plans to pay at least $11 million in payments to victims through its settlement program. Internal documents obtained previously by 7 Eyewitness News show the diocese has a surplus of $48 million.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

January 3, 2019

By Terence McKiernan

Editor’s note: Following is a reprint, with permission, of a letter written to Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich from Terence McKiernan, president of BishopsAccountability.org. It is posted in full here.

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich
Archbishop of Chicago
Archdiocese of Chicago
835 N. Rush Street
Chicago IL 60611-2030

Your Eminence,

I am writing to you about the upcoming summit in Rome. One of your colleagues in planning the event, Cardinal Oswaldo Gracias, says that I should be worried, and I am. “Either it will be successful, or it will be a disaster for the Church.”

But while I write you this letter, you and your brother bishops are beginning a retreat at Mundelein led by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap., the Preacher to the Papal Household. This is the same Cantalamessa who once compared criticism of clergy abuse in the Church to “the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.” Survivors of clergy abuse are the retreat masters you need now.

You and Cardinal Gracias and Archbishop Scicluna and Fr. Zollner advised the conference presidents to “reach out and visit with victim survivors of clergy sex abuse in your respective countries prior to the meeting in Rome, to learn first-hand the suffering that they have endured.” This is good advice. Will Cardinal DiNardo start with La Rosa Lopez survivor J.H., or with M.V., who spoke to police about the “duplicity of Cardinal DiNardo”?

This is one problem with the summit. Many of the conference presidents are the wrong men for the job, and the people know it.

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

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Times-Picayune

January 3, 2019

By Kim Chatelain

Pope Francis has called on Roman Catholic bishops in the United States to restore the church’s credibility, which has been left in tatters by a bourgeoning clergy abuse crisis, the Catholic News Agency reported.

In a letter dated Jan. 1 and released Thursday (Jan. 3) by the U.S. bishops’ conference, the pope insisted upon a “change of mindset” to help renew trust in the Catholic church.

“Clearly a living fabric has come undone, and we, like weavers, are called to repair it,” the pope wrote in the letter that was sent ahead of the U.S. bishops’ weeklong retreat at Mundelein Seminary, in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The repair process must involve a “change of mindset” by bishops in relation to prayer, power, exercising authority, and handling money, the pontiff explained, with the change rooted in an acknowledgment of the “sinfulness and limitations” which necessitate God’s grace.

Acknowledging that the abuse scandals have diminished the credibility of the Church in the U.S., the pope said that a cover-up mentality “enabled them to fester and cause even greater harm to the network of relationships that today we are called to heal and restore,” the news agency reported.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Patriot News

January 3, 2019

By Ivey DeJesus

Billing them as “listening sessions,” the Harrisburg Diocese has announced that Bishop Ronald Gainer early this year will hold town hall style meetings to address a host of topics, chief among them the 2018 grand jury report on clergy sex abuse.

Gainer also plans to address the diocese’s response to abuse and its “path forward.”

Janet McNeal, who was recently appointed to oversee the diocese’s youth protection program will also participate in the meetings. McNeal is a retired Pennsylvania State Police captain.

The listening sessions will be held in January and February of 2019.

The Harrisburg Diocese is expected to launch in coming weeks a fund that will financially compensate victims of clergy sex abuse. Harrisburg’s program will operate independently of other dioceses, and will be overseen by attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who administered the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund as well as a similar compensation fund for the Archdiocese of New York.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
Religion News Service

January 3, 2019

By David Clohessy

This week, America’s Roman Catholic bishops are gathering near Chicago for a retreat. This unusual high-level meeting comes quickly after their annual national get-together, in Baltimore last November, and just before a February meeting in Rome, where the highest-ranking Catholic prelates from across the globe will convene to address the same topic: clergy sexual abuse.

To some, this flurry of meetings may seem hopeful. But to those of us who’ve closely followed the church’s distressing self-inflicted scandal for decades, this seems depressingly familiar.

Why? Because virtually every time the crisis nears a boiling or tipping point, the Catholic hierarchy follows the basic same formula: Act shocked at recent revelations. Then schedule a meeting among themselves.

Over time, the formula has become more sophisticated: Structure each meeting slightly differently, so each can be called “unprecedented.” Throw in a papal apology (“We failed to protect the little ones … ”) and some tough talk (“We will no longer tolerate abuse … ”). Beg for forgiveness and patience. Then wait out the storm.

This formula has been used by bishops and cardinals and popes with surprising success for decades now. (It was in 1992 that the U.S. bishops first publicly discussed abuse as a group, seven years after the scandal first produced national headlines.)

It may not be a shrewd long-term strategy, but it works well enough to get embattled prelates through the short term. Public attention wanes, victims give up, secular authorities back off. Parishioners complain quietly but hunker down, keep going, keep giving and focus solely on their local parish, assuming the corruption is basically limited to the men at the top.

Sound undeservedly harsh? Consider this.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press

January 3, 2019

By Roxanne Garcia

Over the past four months, Roman Catholic dioceses across the U.S. have released the names of more than 1,000 priests and others accused of sexually abusing children in an unprecedented public reckoning spurred at least in part by a shocking grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania, an Associated Press review has found.

Nearly 50 dioceses and religious orders have publicly identified child-molesting priests in the wake of the Pennsylvania report issued in mid-August, and 55 more have announced plans to do the same over the next few months, the AP found. Together they account for more than half of the nation’s 187 dioceses.

The review also found that nearly 20 local, state or federal investigations, either criminal or civil, have been launched since the release of the grand jury findings. Those investigations could lead to more names and more damning accusations, as well as fines against dioceses and court-ordered safety measures.

“People saw what happened in these parishes in Pennsylvania and said, ‘That happened in my parish too.’ They could see the immediate connection, and they are demanding the same accounting,” said Tim Lennon, national president of the board of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

The recently disclosed accusations date back six or seven decades in some cases, with the oldest from the 1910s in Louisiana. Most of the priests were long ago removed from ministry. An AP examination found that more than 60 percent are dead. In most cases, the statute of limitations for bringing criminal charges or suing has run out.

Nevertheless, advocates say exposing molesters nearly two decades after the scandal first erupted in Boston in 2002 is an encouraging step, in part because it gives some victims a sense of vindication after decades of official silence or denials. Also, it could increase pressure on dioceses to set up victims’ compensation funds, as the church has done in Pennsylvania already. And it could result in the removal of molesters from positions outside the church that give them access to children.

“This is a milestone. We are getting closer and closer to what this ought to be, the true coming to terms that would have to be at a national level,” said Joe McLean, who filed a lawsuit with other victims seeking to compel the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to release files on alleged abusers nationwide.

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

BOSTON (MA)
BishopAccountability.org

January 3, 2019

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich
Archbishop of Chicago
Archdiocese of Chicago
835 N. Rush Street
Chicago IL 60611-2030

Your Eminence,

I am writing to you about the upcoming summit in Rome. One of your colleagues in planning the event, Cardinal Oswaldo Gracias, says that I should be worried, and I am. “Either it will be successful, or it will be a disaster for the Church.”

But while I write you this letter, you and your brother bishops are beginning a retreat at Mundelein led by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap., the Preacher to the Papal Household. This is the same Cantalamessa who once compared criticism of clergy abuse in the Church to “the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.” Survivors of clergy abuse are the retreat masters you need now.

You and Cardinal Gracias and Archbishop Scicluna and Fr. Zollner advised the conference presidents to “reach out and visit with victim survivors of clergy sex abuse in your respective countries prior to the meeting in Rome, to learn first-hand the suffering that they have endured.” This is good advice. Will Cardinal DiNardo start with La Rosa Lopez survivor J.H., or with M.V., who spoke to police about the “duplicity of Cardinal DiNardo”?

This is one problem with the summit. Many of the conference presidents are the wrong men for the job, and the people know it.
Another problem, especially for you and your brother bishops in the United States, is that you are between a rock and a hard place – in your case, between Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Attorney General-elect Kwame Raoul on the one hand, and those African and Asian bishops who would rather try to avoid the abuse problem in their countries on the other. Any summit outcome that pleases the abuse deniers will enrage your people back home. Especially after the U.S. bishops were silenced by Pope Francis in Baltimore.

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

GET RELIGION
January 3, 2019

By Terry Mattingly

I realize that it’s rare for me to run a think piece during the week. But let’s face it, the Paul Moses essay at Commonweal must be discussed — as journalists try to figure out what’s happening in, well, the Loggia.

We are talking about some very important tea leaves linked to the biggest religion-news story in the world, which is the Vatican’s ongoing efforts to handle interlinked scandals linked to clergy sexual abuse of some children, lots of teens and significant numbers of seminarians.

When watching the action unfold, I suggest that journalists keep asking this question: What would that great Catholic politico — Theodore “Uncle Ted” McCarrick — do in this situation?

The Commonweal headline references one of those stories that religion-beat pros just know is important, but it’s hard to explain to editors WHY it’s so important.

‘Like Cleaning a Sphinx with a Toothbrush’

Greg Burke Resigns from the Holy See Press Office

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CHICAGO (IL)
Associated Press

January 3, 2019

By Jeff Karoub

Pope Francis is encouraging U.S. bishops meeting near Chicago to unify as the Catholic church deals with a “crisis of credibility” stemming from the clergy sex abuse scandal.

In an eight-page letter addressed to the bishops and released to the media Thursday, Francis acknowledges “no response or approach seems adequate” to the crisis representing a grave threat to his papacy.

Still, he wrote, all church leaders must reckon with parishioners’ pain, heal internal divisions and devise specific approaches that go beyond “creating new committees or improving flow charts.”

Francis suggested the bishops hold the current weeklong retreat for prayer and spiritual reflection. The event at the Mundelein Seminary is a prelude to a high-stakes summit of the world’s bishops at the Vatican next month to forge a comprehensive response the crisis engulfing the church.

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

HARRISBURG (PA)
WHTM TV

January 3, 2019

By Christine McLarty

If you have questions surrounding the Harrisburg Catholic Diocese clergy sex abuse report, you will soon be able to get answers.

During the next two months, Bishop Ronald Gainer is traveling to nine parishes where he will begin taking questions during an open forum series of seminars.

A diocese spokesperson says Gainer is looking forward to speaking with parishioners one-on-one to help them through this understanding process. During the meetings, the bishop will begin with opening remarks and then the floor will be open for questions about clergy sex abuse.

The grand jury report released in August uncovered sexual misconduct allegations against more than 300 priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses.

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CHICAGO (IL)
AndersonAdvocates.com

January 3, 2019

Illinois Bishops continue to protect and conceal over 500 alleged sexual abusers; attorneys admit their efforts to force disclosure have fallen short

WHAT: At a news conference on Thursday in Chicago, sexual abuse survivors and their attorneys and advocates will:

• Launch a statewide initiative, “Fight for 500,” which seeks to uncover the identities and information about the more than 500 alleged predator priests the Illinois Attorney General recently reported are being hidden by Illinois Bishops;
• Plaintiffs and survivors who have joined the fight will discuss the alarming preliminary findings of the Illinois Attorney General’s investigation into clergy sexual abuse and how these findings expand the lawsuit filed in October 2018 against all Illinois Bishops;
• Demand all the Illinois Catholic Bishops come clean by disclosing all the identities of all priests accused of sexually abusing minors and those who have been credibly accused;
• Attorney Jeff Anderson will candidly and soberly admit that efforts to force the Illinois Dioceses to disclose offenders have fallen short despite nearly 20 years of representing dozens of survivors in the State;
• Demand the release of the files pertinent to the histories of each priest so the public, police and parishioners know who was complicit in the ongoing concealment of this hazard;
• Demand full disclosure of all the credibly accused offenders in the Dioceses of Springfield, Rockford and Belleville where no disclosures were made until forced by the Attorney General;
• Invite all Illinois Dioceses to release a complete disclosure of all religious order and deceased priests who have offended in their dioceses.

WHEN: Thursday, January 3, 2019 at 11:00 AM CT

WHERE: Marriott Residence Inn Chicago – Downtown/Loop
3rd Floor- Daley 1 & 2
11 South LaSalle Street
Chicago, IL 60603

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[Brazilian cardinal says Vatican has covered up the abuses of Marcial Maciel for more than 60 years]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

January 2, 2018

By Valentina Salvo U.

El prefecto de la Congregación para los Institutos de Vida Consagrada de la sede pontificia, João Braz de Aviz, afirmó que existían documentos sobre las conductas ilícitas del fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo desde 1943

El prefecto de la Congregación para los Institutos de la Vida Consagrada y las Sociedades de Vida Apostólica de la Iglesia Católica, el cardenal brasileño João Braz de Aviz, aseguró que el Vaticano ocultó por 63 años los abusos sexuales a menores cometidos por el fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo, el sacerdote mexicano Marcial Maciel. Según afirmó en entrevista con la revista católica Vida Nueva, el miembro del organismo de la Curia Romana aseveró que la sede pontificia tenía antecedentes de los delitos de pederastia de Maciel desde 1943.

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[Chilean reactions to Vatican calling Maciel’s abuse “a terrible mistake”]

CHILE
BioBioChile

January 2, 2019

By Gonzalo Cifuentes and Nicole Martínez

El Vaticano reconoció este miércoles poseer documentos que daban cuenta de la pederastía del fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo, Marcial Maciel, desde 1943.Joao Braz de Aviz, prefecto de la Congregación para los Institutos de Vida Consagrada del Vaticano, fue quien calificó como un “tremendo error” esta situación.

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[VIDEO: Juan Carlos Cruz says the Pope “is very lonely” in the fight against abuses]

CHILE
Emol TV

January 3, 2019

Francisco “está muy solo” en su lucha para erradicar los abusos sexuales en la Iglesia, dice una de las víctimas chilenas que ayudó a develar las prácticas de abusos en el clero local. Nota de AFP.

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[Miguelianos leader challenges the Church after his sentence: “I want to speak face to face with the bishops”]

A CORUÑA (SPAIN)
El País

January 2, 2019

By Sonia Vizoso

Rosendo recurrirá ante el Supremo la condena a nueve años de cárcel por abusar sexualmente de una chica desde que tenía nueve años

Tras ser condenado por abusos sexuales y absuelto de asociación ilícita y otros 20 delitos, el fundador de la orden de los miguelianos, Miguel Rosendo, ha comparecido públicamente este miércoles en A Coruña para cargar contra la jerarquía de la Iglesia católica que amparó durante años las actividades de su organización pero que le dio la espalda en cuanto fue detenido en 2014. “Quiero hablar cara a cara con los obispos y que me digan lo que no fueron capaces de decirme en su momento; que me expliquen la trampa, la red que me han echado encima”, ha afirmado Rosendo, arropado por tres sacerdotes y la abogada Beatriz Seijo, quienes han acusado a “una serie de hombres” de la Iglesia y del Opus Dei de urdir un “montaje” para acabar con la orden.

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ROME (ITALY)
National Catholic Register

January 2, 2019

By Edward Pentin

Cardinal João Bráz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, has disclosed that the Vatican had documents on the abusive conduct of the disgraced founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Father Marcial Maciel, from as long ago as 1943.

The Brazilian cardinal told the Spanish Catholic online magazine Vida Nueva that “those who covered it up were a mafia, they were not the Church.”

Cardinal Bráz de Aviz did not give any more details about the documents in the interview, given while he was in Madrid for a conference late last year, but said his congregation currently has “nothing to do” with such a coverup and now follows “a very good process.”

According to a 2006 article in the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Rome investigated Father Maciel for suspected pedophilia between 1956 and 1959 on the instructions of Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani — 13 years after the first reports referred to by Cardinal Braz de Aviz.

During those four years, Maciel was suspended as superior general of the Legion and expelled from Rome, but the investigation yielded no results and he soon returned to his old ways but with more power.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

January 3, 2019

By John L. Allen Jr.

On the clerical sexual abuse scandals that have rocked Catholicism anew in recent months, the pope’s top aide has said the Church must do “everything possible, and even the impossible, to eliminate this phenomenon.”

At the same time, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, also defended the Church’s response to date.

“We have to recognize that the Church has made enormous progress,” Parolin said in an interview with the Italian broadcast network TV2000. “It’s developed a progressive awareness of the problem, of the devastation these acts have produced in victims, and it’s tried to react.”

“Certainly, we’re human and we don’t always reach perfect results,” Parolin said, “but I believe there’s been commitment to determination.”

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Daily News

January 2, 2019

By Kate Feldman

While the Catholic Church faces widespread allegations of sexual abuse within its ranks, victims say nuns around the country are guilty as well.

Several women told CBS News about allegations of misconduct by nuns, including molestation and forced kissing, in an epidemic that some have dubbed “pedophile nuns.”

Trish Cahill claims that a sister at her New Jersey convent would feed her drugs and alcohol, “grooming” her for sex at just 15 years old after confessing that her uncle sexually abused her.

“I would have done anything for her. I would have died for her,” Cahill told CBS News. “She gave me everything that was lacking that I didn’t even know I was lacking. I was so broken. She filled in all those pieces.”

In 1994, Cahill received a $70,000 settlement to “shut her up,” she said. But she’s not alone, she said, calling it “the secret not yet told.”

A former nun, Mary Dispenza, said at least 18 people have told her about sexual abuse at the hands of other nuns.

“A lot has to do with the culture of nuns which are, they are very, very private by nature,” she told CBS News.

Almost all of the focus has been on Catholic bishops as the Church reckons with sexual abuse scandals dating back decades.

In August, a report from a Pennsylvania grand jury found that hundreds of priests had abused at least 1,000 children over a 70-year span.

“Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades,” the report read.

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NEW DELHI (INDIA)
The Indian Express

January 3, 2019

The Supreme Court Thursday refused an urgent hearing on a plea seeking contempt proceedings against Sabarimala’s chief priest, a day after he closed the temple to perform “purification” rituals after two women entered the sanctum santorum.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice S K Kaul said the matter will be heard on January 22 when the bench will take up review pleas challenging its earlier order allowing the entry of women between the age group 10-50.

Advocate P V Dinesh, appearing for Indian Young Lawyers Association, told the bench that the temple authorities closed the shrine Wednesday for purification purpose after two women had entered the temple which is in violation of apex court verdict.

Two women, in their early 40s, entered the Sabarimala temple under police protection on Wednesday for the first time since the Supreme Court lifted the ban. Bindu and Kanakadurga entered the shrine around 3.45 am through a passage meant for staff and were escorted by policemen dressed in black, which is the customary colour of clothing for devotees. After the news of their visit became public, the temple was closed for an hour for “purification” rituals.

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GUAM
Pacific News First

January 3, 2019

By Jolene Toves

The Concerned Catholics of Guam are penning a letter to the Vatican hoping that what they have to say about Archbishop Anthony Apron will carry weight in standing by Apuron’s conviction by the tribunal.

On March 16th of last year, a five-judge panel of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) found Archbishop Anthony Apuron guilty of certain unspecified abuses. To this day the charges that Archbishop Anthony Apuron was convicted on by the Vatican’s tribunal remain undisclosed to the public. The only information provided by the Vatican in regards to Apuron is that he has said he will appeal the conviction.

In line with canon law the Concerned Catholics of Guam are making a statement to the Vatican in hopes of cleaning up the mess within the local Catholic Church. CCOG President David Sablan was on air with K57’s Patti Arroyo to share their hope that the Pope will do whats right.

“You know this is an outreach to the Vatican and the Pope to stay with the penalties that were imposed by the tribunal who found Apuron guilty of the issues that came before them which include the mismanagement of the Archdiocese, the cover ups of the abuse by priests, also him personally allegedly accused of sexual abuse when he was a priest in Agat, and as the Archbishop with one or two of the victims as well at his Chancery house,” stated Sablan

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WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND)
Radio New Zealand

January 2019

In Papua New Guinea, Fr Giorgio Licini said any cases of priests abusing children would be dealt with severely.

Fr Giorgio said an office had been established to deal with the matter.

Meanwhile, the head of the church in Fiji, Archbishop Peter Loy Chong, said his church had policy and protocols in place for suspected sexual offending amoung priests.

Peter Loy Chong.Peter Loy Chong. Photo: Pacific Theological College
“That has been the stand of the church and each conference of bishops has been instructed that we need to put in a policy for sexual abuse. We have a sexual abuse policy,” the archbishop said.

“To see to it that when somebody is a sexual offender, that procedures are carried out so that this person is interrogated and taken to task.”

Archbishop Peter Loy Chong and Fr Giorgio Licini’s comments come in the wake of global outrage over hundreds of cases of children abused by priests.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Commonweal

January 2, 2019

By Paul Moses

The abrupt resignation of Greg Burke as director of the Holy See Press Office is one more disturbing sign that the Vatican is not up to the task of responding to the Catholic Church’s crisis over clergy sexual abuse and its cover-up.

Burke, a St. Louis native and an alumnus of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, brought an American way of doing business to a press office that not so long ago closed for the day at 1 o’clock p.m. He helped build what became an impressive presence for the church on social media, adapt the media operation to a twenty-four-hour news cycle, and create a positive image for a new pope. But the veteran newsman could not push the Vatican bureaucracy into responding quickly and forthrightly to developments in the clergy sexual-abuse scandal, and this clearly frustrated him through much of his tenure as the press office’s director.

In a New Year’s Eve tweet announcing that he and his deputy, the Spanish journalist Paloma Garcia Ovejero, were resigning effective January 1, Burke exited with an expression of affection for Pope Francis but not much else to say other than that the job had been “fascinating.” In a subsequent tweet, he apparently looked to dispel the notion that he was leaving because of personnel changes above his level in the Vatican communication dicastery, writing, “Just so you know, we had been praying about this decision for months, and we’re very much at peace with it. Grazie!”

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MANASSAS (VA)
FOX 5 DC

January 2, 2019

By Lindsay Watts

It’s a potentially dangerous loophole in Virginia law: church leaders who suspect child abuse are not mandated to report it.

After a child sex abuse scandal at a Manassas church, former members realized they needed to fight for change, and now, that’s paying off. Lawmakers in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates have proposed laws that would put clergy on the list of mandated reporters.

Hannah Hudson, Liz Thomasson and Kristin Frazier attended The Life Church where a former youth pastor was convicted of sexually abusing a 16-year-old church member. Baird was then re-arrested, accused of abusing a different teen around the same time period, in 2014. The second trial is set for February.

Hudson was subpoenaed to testify in the first case.

“Because of inappropriate texts that Jordan had sent me a few years back,” Hudson said.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Illinois News Network

January 2, 2019

By Greg Bishop

As a weeklong summit of U.S. Catholic bishops begins in the Chicago suburbs, groups of clergy sex abuse survivors are demanding more independent action, and for the removal of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops began its weeklong meeting in the Chicago suburb of Mundelein Wednesday. Bishops from all around the country are expected to pray and reflect on the child sex abuse scandal.

The Catholic News Service reported the meeting is “a spiritual retreat to pray and reflect on the important matters facing the Catholic Church” and was planned “in response to Pope Francis’ request to a delegation of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops leaders during a meeting at the Vatican” last fall.

Zach Hiner, executive director of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said the church needs to do more than pray.

“I’m sure that’s important for them. It is irrelevant to this crisis,” Hiner said. “Prayer is not really going to help us right now. What we need to see is concrete action.”

Hiner said there needs to be accountability, and not just for priests accused of abuse “but also for those prelates and other officials that have enabled the abuse by moving abusers around and concealing allegations from the public and law enforcement.”

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, the Chicago Archdiocese said it “recognizes and mourns the grave damage done to many people harmed by clergy sexual abuse. We will always need to own and express deep regret for the suffering caused both by the abuse and the past failures to respond.”

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MONTEREY (CA)
KSBW TV

January 2, 2019

The Catholic Diocese of Monterey has released a list of 30 clergymen who have been “credibly accused” of abusing children going back to the 1950s.

The list documents cases dating back as far 1954 and as recently as 2009. Eighteen priests were arrested and 19 of them are now dead. None of those still living are currently active clergymen except maybe for 1 whose status was listed as “unknown”.

Most of the allegations occurred in the 1970s. The fewest in the 2000s.

In a written introduction to the report, the Diocese states that it “engaged in a review of the files of all Clergy with known allegations of sexual misconduct as well as reviewed the files of all currently active Clergy in the Diocese of Monterey to determine if there are any allegations of sexual misconduct with a child against any Clergyman currently in ministry.”

The Diocese also states that it is making the report public to promote transparency and trust.

In addition, an outside law firm was hired to review the files and to make an independent decision as to whether a clergyman’s name should be included on the list of those credibly accused.

“Clergyman” includes priests, deacons, religion men and candidates for ordination.

In order to be identified on the list as “credibly accused” of child sexual abuse, the clergymen had to meet four criteria:

1. The allegation involves clergy and

2. Involves sexual misconduct with a minor (i.e. under 18) and

3. The accusation appears credible (i.e. believable) or

4. The clergyman was dead at the time the allegation was received by the Diocese, which prevented a complete investigation, but the allegation appears plausible (i.e. alleged to have occurred at a time and in a place where the clergyman was assigned).

The Diocese divided the list of the “credibly accused” into three categories.

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NEW YORK (NY)
CBS News

January 2, 2019

By Chelsea Tatham

While Catholic bishops from around the country gather at a seminary near Chicago on Wednesday for a retreat to address the sexual abuse crisis, CBS News reported several cases of nuns accused of sexual misconduct.

CBS’ Nikki Battiste spoke with several women who recently reported abuse by nuns ranging from forceful kissing to molestation.

One woman said she was 15 years old when she confided in Sister Eileen Shaw at a New Jersey convent. The woman said she confided in Shaw about the sexual abuse she claims she suffered at the hands of her late uncle, who was a priest.

The woman said Shaw “groomed” her, plying her with drugs and alcohol and teaching her how to have sex with a woman.

“I would have done anything for her. I would have died for her,” the woman told CBS. “She gave me everything that was lacking that I didn’t even know I was lacking. I was so broken. She filled in all those pieces.”

The woman told CBS that while she was with her friends during the day, she was “with this pedophile nun on the evenings and on the weekends, and in the summer.”

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune Review

January 2, 2019

The Catholic Church has a lot of nerve airing a radio commercial urging Catholics to come back to their religion by coming to confession. Are you kidding? Once again, ignore the perverted priests and focus on what laypeople have done wrong.

It sickens me that the Catholic Church continues to act as though it is above the law. Horrible child abuse was covered up for decades, and guess what? It turns out that those who commit atrocities against children cannot hide behind the church anymore.

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[Six more people accuse Father Mauricio Víquez Lizano of sexually abusing them as minors]

COSTA RICA
La Teja

November 30, 2018

By Shirley Sandí

Testimonios serán enviados al Vaticano el próximo martes

La Curia Metropolitana confirmó que ha recibido seis denuncias más por supuestos abusos contra menores de edad cometidos por el sacerdote Mauricio Víquez Lizano. Esto quiere decir que en total ha recibido nueve acusaciones en contra del cura desde el 15 de mayo del 2018 a la fecha, por hechos que ocurrieron hace 20 años. Los denunciantes, todos hombres, ya son mayores de edad.

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[For 63 years, Vatican hid sexual abuses by Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

January 2, 2019

By Juan G. Bedoya

El prefecto de la Congregación para los Institutos de Vida Consagrada reconoce que la sede pontificia tenía desde 1943 documentos sobre las conductas de Marcial Maciel

El prefecto de la Congregación para los Institutos de Vida Consagrada, el cardenal João Braz de Aviz, reconoce ahora que el Vaticano tenía desde 1943 documentos sobre la pederastia del fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo, Marcial Maciel. El religioso fue investigado entre 1956 y 1959. “Quien lo tapó era una mafia, ellos no eran Iglesia”, ha dicho al ser entrevistado por la revista católica Vida Nueva. João Braz estuvo en Madrid hace un mes para clausurar la asamblea general de la Confederación Española de Religiosos (Confer). “Tengo la impresión de que las denuncias de abusos crecerán, porque solo estamos en el inicio. Llevamos 70 años encubriendo, y esto ha sido un tremendo error”, sostiene.

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[Vatican expels priest accused of abusing minors from diocese of Astorga]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

January 1, 2019

José Manuel Ramos fue suspendido por el Vaticano por abusos sexuales en un colegio de Puebla de Sanabria y en el seminario de La Bañeza

El obispado de Astorga emitió este martes una nota en la que anuncia que hoy mismo, el sacerdote José Manuel Ramos Gordón, comenzará a cumplir la pena impuesta por abusos a menores en un monasterio fuera de la diócesis de Astorga. “El sacerdote interpuso un recurso de reposición ante el obispo contra el decreto penal en el mes de septiembre obteniendo una respuesta negativa. Después de haber manifestado su intención de no ejercer el derecho al recurso de alzada ante la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe y una vez transcurrido el tiempo previsto por la ley, el caso ha pasado a ser cosa juzgada”, explican.

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[Experts discuss challenges Bishop Ramos faces in meeting with the Pope and possible changes to Chilean Church]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

December 31, 2018

By Pía Larrondo

Tres expertos hablan de las implicancias que podría tener la cita que se realizará el 21 de febrero, en la que se abordará el tema de la protección a menores.

Gran repercusión produjo este sábado el anuncio de que el obispo Fernando Ramos, secretario general de la Conferencia Episcopal chilena, reemplazará al obispo castrense y presidente de la instancia, Santiago Silva, en la reunión de los titulares de los episcopados de la Iglesia Católica del mundo con el Papa Francisco en Roma.

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[A questioned spokesperson: Profile of the bishop who will represent Chile’s Episcopal Conference before the Pope]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

January 1, 2019

By Consuelo Ferrer

Este fin de semana se conoció que será Fernando Ramos quien viaje al encuentro con el Pontífice en febrero, decisión que fue criticada por las víctimas de Karadima y los laicos de Osorno. “No es la persona idónea para ir”, señalaron.

“Con respecto a la invitación que el Santo Padre ha hecho para los presidentes de las conferencias episcopales del mundo para el encuentro de febrero, el presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal en Chile me pidió que asistiera yo”, aseguró este domingo el administrador apostólico de Rancagua, obispo Fernando Ramos.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Religion News Service

January 2, 2019

By Fr. Thomas Reese

Shortly before Christmas, Pope Francis declared in response to the sexual abuse crisis that “the church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whosoever has committed such crimes.” He promised that “the church will never seek to hush up or not take seriously any case.”

For decades, people have been hoping for such a statement from a pontiff, which Francis made in a public address to the Roman Curia, the offices in the Vatican that help him govern the church.

He acknowledged that it was “undeniable that some in the past, out of irresponsibility, disbelief, lack of training, inexperience…or spiritual and human myopia, treated many cases without the seriousness and promptness that was due.”

“That must never happen again,” he said.

Francis even gave “heartfelt thanks to those media professionals who were honest and objective and sought to unmask these predators and to make their victims’ voices heard.” He asked people not to be silent, but to “bring it objectively to light, since the greater scandal in this matter is that of cloaking the truth.”

To those who have abused minors, he said, “convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

January 2, 2019

As Americans bishops gather in Illinois, survivors demand Pope remove two US Cardinals from prominent roles in papal summit

Findings in explosive Illinois AG report “disqualifies” Chicago Cardinal Cupich from major appointment

Cardinal DiNardo of Texas also “unfit to lead” US delegation in Rome, survivors say

Summit will have “no credibility” if led by prelates who cover-up child sex crimes

Francis must include global survivor groups in summit

WHAT

At a sidewalk news conference, the leading global and US organizations representing clergy abuse survivors will

Release a joint letter sent today by the two organizations to Pope Francis urging him to remove Cardinal Blase Cupich from his prominent role in the upcoming February worldwide Papal Summit on Abuse
Insist that Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops step down as leader of the US delegation to Rome
Demand the release before the end of the bishops retreat this week of all sexual abuse allegations held in secret by every US bishop, including those of over 500 predator clergy in Illinois discovered by the Illinois AG
Urge Francis to include the leadership of global survivor groups in the summit
WHEN

Wednesday, January 2, 2019 at 1 pm

WHERE

Outside the headquarters of the Archdiocese of Chicago, located at 835 N. Rush St

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

January 1, 2019

A newly published letter from officials at the Vatican to the head of American bishops has called into question the reasons for the scuttling of proposed church accountability reform from last November. Ultimately, however, the letter is both irrelevant to the church’s pattern of inaction on clergy abuse and to the urgent need for reform to come and come quickly.

We take no position on the finger-pointing between Cardinals Marc Ouellet and Daniel DiNardo, other than to note that it is extremely disappointing that once again Pope Francis seems more willing to discipline a bishop for insubordination than for covering up sex crimes. But in this case, whether it was the Vatican or the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USSCB) who is most to blame in this specific instance of failing to act on clergy abuse and bishop accountability means little. The fact is, at the end of the day, there was still a failure to act as the reforms were never discussed and promises went unfulfilled.

The proposed updates to policies and the creation of codes of conduct were, at best, half-measures. But their passage would have been at least a sign that a key message was getting through: that there must be accountability not just for the abusers, but equally so for those that enabled and concealed them. In order to prevent future crimes, we must be able to have faith that wrongdoers will be brought to law enforcement, not shuffled and concealed, and only when prelates are brought to justice for their role in that concealment will that faith be restored.

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AYODHYA (INDIA)
Press Trust of India

January 1, 2019

The chief priest of a temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly holding a woman devotee hostage and raping her several times, police said.
The 30-year-old woman had come to the temple from Varanasi on December 24 to take lessons on spirituality from Krishna Kantacharya, the temple’s priest, Ayodhya police circle officer A K Sav told reporters.

Kantacharya allegedly offered the woman to stay at the temple premises where he held her hostage and raped her several times, the officer said.

He said the woman somehow managed to call the police on Tuesday following which she was rescued.

The woman was sent for a medical examination and the priest arrested, police said.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Hill

January 1, 2019

By Brett Samuels

The Vatican requested U.S. bishops delay a vote on measures to address the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals because church leaders in the U.S. failed to properly consult with the Holy See before voting, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

The news outlet obtained a letter from Cardinal Marc Ouellet at the Vatican that said the measures the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops planned to vote on were legally problematic and that the group had only given the Vatican a few days to review them.

The letter contradicts the explanation at the time by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, who told other church leaders in November that Pope Francis did not want the bishops to vote on the proposals until after a meeting of church leaders in February.

DiNardo said at the time he was “disappointed” by the pope’s request.

The AP reported Tuesday that the Vatican letter, which undermines DiNardo’s explanation, could spur questions at a spiritual retreat of U.S. bishops that begins Wednesday.

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JAIPUR (INDIA)
Mirror Now

January 2, 2019

In the wake of the MeToo movement making inroads in India in the past couple of months, an appalling matter has come to light from Jaipur in Rajasthan where a 44-year-old woman has accused the vice principal of a missionary-run college of sexually exploiting her. In her complaint, the woman has accused one priest named Joshy Kuruvilla of harassing and pressurising her to court sexual favours.

What is even more shocking is that an internal committee formed by college authorities to investigate the matter under the ambit of the Vishakha Guidelines, in its report submitted on December 22 of last year, found the complainant ‘indisciplined’ and recommended action against her. The committee had launched a probe following a complaint by the woman on July 26 of 2018.

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NAIROBI (KENYA)
Nairobi News

January 2, 2019

By Eric Wainaina

The Nairobi Catholic Archdiocese has kicked out a priest, who is under investigation for sexual misconduct.

A priest from Githunguri in Kiambu, who was mid last year accused of sleeping with female parishioners — including schoolgirls and married women — will remain suspended until the outcome of the investigation is vetted and a verdict made at the church headquarters in Rome.

This is after a tribunal formed by John Cardinal Njue filed a report, which sources said had been forwarded to the Vatican.

The youthful priest — who has since left John Paul II, a Catholic institution in Murang’a where he had been banished — was accused of luring young women to his residence and having sex with them.

The residence would at times host lewd parties where girls would be served with alcohol.

He would also arrange outings in hotels where, among other things, the girls would swim naked.

PROCURE ABORTIONS

Some of his victims were reported to be minors. When the girls got pregnant, the priest allegedly helped them to procure abortions.

In one incident, according to sources privy to the priest’s amorous behaviour, he reportedly paid a Sh40,000 bribe to conceal his wayward behaviour.

After the issue was brought to the attention of the church leadership in September last year, Cardinal Njue, who is also the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Nairobi, and Auxiliary Bishop David Kamau announced his suspension until the matter is concluded.

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KURAVILANGAD (INDIA)
Associated Press

January 2, 2019

The stories spill out in the sitting rooms of Catholic convents, where portraits of Jesus keep watch and fans spin quietly overhead. They spill out in church meeting halls bathed in fluorescent lights, and over cups of cheap instant coffee in convent kitchens. Always, the stories come haltingly, quietly. Sometimes, the nuns speak at little more than a whisper.

Across India, the nuns talk of priests who pushed into their bedrooms and of priests who pressured them to turn close friendships into sex. They talk about being groped and kissed, of hands pressed against them by men they were raised to believe were representatives of Jesus Christ.

“He was drunk,” said one nun, beginning her story. “You don’t know how to say no,” said another.

At its most grim, the nuns speak of repeated rapes, and of a Catholic hierarchy that did little to protect them.

The Vatican has long been aware of nuns sexually abused by priests and bishops in Asia, Europe, South America and Africa, but it has done very little to stop it, The Associated Press reported last year.

Now, the AP has investigated the situation in a single country — India — and uncovered a decades-long history of nuns enduring sexual abuse from within the church. Nuns described in detail the sexual pressure they endured from priests, and nearly two dozen other people — nuns, former nuns and priests, and others — said they had direct knowledge of such incidents.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS TV

January 2, 2019

By Jessica D’Onofrio

Hundreds of Bishops from across the country will gather in north suburban Mundelein Wednesday for the start of a week-long spiritual retreat. This comes amid growing outrage over clergy sexual abuse.

Protestors are outraged over how the sex abuse scandal has been handled and they have several demands of the Catholic Church.

This demonstration also comes following the discovery of a stunning Vatican letter which blocked U.S. bishops from addressing the church’s sex-abuse scandal. Anti-clergy abuse activists say the summit will have “no credibility” if it’s led by prelates who cover-up sex crimes against children.

During Wednesday’s protest, activists will call on Pope Francis to remove Cardinal Blase Cupich from his prominent role in the upcoming February worldwide Papal Summit on Abuse.

A scathing preliminary report issued recently by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan revealed that at least 500 clerical predators were not reported by Cardinal Cupich and his fellow Illinois bishops.

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The Media Project

January 1, 2019

By Terry Mattingly

It was in 1983 that parents told leaders of the Diocese of Lafayette, west of New Orleans, that Father Gilbert Gauthe had molested their son.

Dominos started falling. The bishop offered secret settlements to nine families – but one refused to remain silent.

The rest is a long, long story. Scandals about priests abusing children – the vast majority of cases involve teen-aged males – have been making news ever since, including the firestorm unleashed by The Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” series that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003.

This old, tragic story flared up again in 2018, and Religion News Association members selected the release of a sweeping Pennsylvania grand-jury report – with 301 Catholic priests, in six dioceses, accused of abusing at least 1,000 minors over seven decades – as the year’s top religion story.

“The allegations contained in this report are horrific and there are important lessons to take away from it,” said Michael Plachy, a partner at Lewis, Roca, Rothgerber, Christie, a national law firm that emphasizes religious liberty cases. However, “to be candid, much of what’s in this report has been known for years. … It’s important, but it’s mostly old news.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Associated Press

January 2, 2019

By Jeff Karoub

U.S.-based Roman Catholic bishops will gather Wednesday for a weeklong retreat near Chicago on the church sexual abuse scandal that organizers say will focus on prayer and spiritual reflection and not formulating policy.

The retreat begins a day after The Associated Press reported that the Vatican blocked U.S. bishops from taking measures last year to address the scandal because U.S. church leaders didn’t discuss the legally problematic proposals with the Holy See enough beforehand.

The rebuke from Rome was contained in a letter from a Vatican official before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops met in November. The move stunned abuse survivors and some other Catholics demanding actions.

The retreat also is a prelude to a summit of the world’s bishops at the Vatican next month to forge a comprehensive response to the crisis that has lashed the church.

The meetings follow two blistering reports during 2018 from state attorneys general — in Illinois and Pennsylvania — alleging negligence by state church leaders.

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TUAM (IRELAND)
Irish Central

January 1, 2019

The big stories for 2019 are mostly signposted but I consider the Tuam babies scandal to be potentially the biggest of all. Yes, folks bigger than Brexit, which has utterly dominated the news in 2018.

The announcement that the excavations of the underground sewer will commence was made by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

“We anticipate that there’ll be excavations in Tuam in the latter half of 2019 because we have to pass legislation in the Oireachtas giving us, the Government, the power to do the excavations,” said the Irish leader, according to RTÉ.

“Because, for lots of reasons, we don’t have the power to do that.

“So we’ll have to pass that legislation in the New Year, and we’d envisage carrying out the first excavations in the second half of 2019.”

The task will be to seek out the bodies of perhaps hundreds of little children who are allegedly buried there. It means that if bodies are found it will be Ireland’s mini Auschwitz, a place of death where thousands of little souls were condemned to pain and suffering and then discarded in sewer cesspools.

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OMAHA (NEBRASKA)
Omaha World-Herald

By Christopher Burbach

December 29, 2018

A national organization of priest sexual abuse survivors is stepping up its push for Cardinal Daniel DiNardo to resign as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests says DiNardo, formerly bishop of Sioux City, Iowa, is unfit to lead the bishops’ response to the latest Catholic sexual abuse crisis because of allegations that he covered up abuse by priests in Iowa and Texas. Tim Lennon, president of SNAP’s board of directors, and others plan a press conference Saturday in Sioux City.

U.S. bishops are expected to take measures to address the crisis after they, led by DiNardo, meet in February with Pope Francis and other bishops in Rome.

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DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register

January 1, 2019

By Shelby Fleig

Survivors of sex abuse by Catholic clergy are calling for the resignation of Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the former bishop of Sioux City, from his post as President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

DiNardo, currently the archbishop of Galveston-Houston, is accused of covering up abuse cases in both Iowa and Texas. According to a statement released by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), DiNardo helped conceal admitted abuse by the Rev. Jerome Coyle and allegations against the Rev. George B. McFadden while serving as bishop of Sioux City from 1997 to 2004.

“SNAP believes that the Cardinal’s role in covering up abuse in both Sioux City and Houston make him unfit to lead the USCCB,” SNAP said in the statement. If law enforcement seized records from the Sioux City diocese, “they would find that additional crimes were concealed” by DiNardo and others, the statement read. The group first called for DiNardo’s resignation in November.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Catholic News Service via National Catholic Reporter

December 31, 2018

Retired Bishop Robert Mulvee of Providence died Dec. 28 at the St. Antoine Residence in North Smithfield, following a brief illness. He was 88.

“Bishop Mulvee was a good and gentle shepherd of God’s people. He was a faithful follower of Christ who served the church with dignity and compassion,” said Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin in a statement.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated Jan. 10 at the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul in Providence followed by a burial at St. Ann Cemetery in Cranston.

Mulvee was bishop of Providence from 1995 to 2005.

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NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA)
Ilawarra Mercury

January 1, 2019

By Joanne McCarthy

A legal roadblock stopping child sexual abuse survivors from suing churches and other powerful institutions has been “condemned to the scrapheap” from today, said NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman.

NSW Government legislation abolishing the so-called “Ellis defence” takes effect from today after more than a decade where it blocked many survivors from seeking justice against the institutions that failed them.

“I’m pleased my first item of business in 2019 is to condemn the ‘Ellis defence’ to the scrapheap and create a fairer civil litigation system for all child abuse survivors,” Mr Speakman said.

The “Ellis defence” was a legal precedent set in 2007 when former altar boy John Ellis lost a landmark civil action against the Catholic Church for child sexual abuse.

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WASHINGTON D.C.
NBCWashington.com

December 31, 2018

By David Culver

[Video]

A Virginia man who says ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick abused him for years starting when he was an 11-year-old boy is showing his face for the first time since testifying to the Vatican.

“There were times when McCarrick always wanted to get me alone for his own ability to prey on me,” James Grein said.

Grein said McCarrick began abusing him decades ago at his family’s New Jersey home. He says McCarrick groped him several times and the abuse got worse as he got older.

“And he told me that he was my pathway to God and that I need to trust him,” Grein said.

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MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
The New York Times

December 31, 2018

By Jason Gutierrez

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has admitted to sexually assaulting a housemaid when he was a teenager in a speech that drew condemnation from women’s groups, but which his office later dismissed as a joke.

Mr. Duterte has made headlines around the world for remarks that run the gamut from innocuously bawdy to dangerously sexist, including jokes about rape. His speech on Saturday to local officials, however, appeared to be the first time in which he publicly admitted to personally assaulting a woman.

In a speech that focused his ire on the Roman Catholic Church — a powerful political foil in this predominately Catholic country — and what the president sees as its hypocrisy, Mr. Duterte recounted a confession he made to a priest about entering the bedroom of a maid and assaulting her.

“I lifted the blanket,” Mr. Duterte, 73, said. “I tried to touch what was inside the panties.”

“I was touching. She woke up. So I left the room,” he added.

The priest, he said, told him to say, “five Hail Marys because you will go to hell.”

Mr. Duterte’s comments were intended to shed light on the church’s sexual abuse crisis, but instead drew outrage from his own critics, who called on him to immediately resign.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

January 1, 2019

By Nicole Winfield

The Vatican blocked U.S. bishops from taking measures to address the clergy sex abuse scandal because U.S. church leaders failed to sufficiently consult with the Holy See beforehand about legally problematic proposals, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

The Nov. 11 letter from the Vatican’s Cardinal Marc Ouellet provides the primary reason that Rome balked at the measures that were to be voted on by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at its Nov. 12-14 assembly. The blocked vote stunned abuse survivors and other Catholics who were demanding action from U.S. bishops to address clergy sex abuse and cover-up.

Ouellet’s letter undermines the version of events provided by the conference president, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo. It could also provide fodder for questions during a spiritual retreat of U.S. bishops, dedicated to the abuse crisis, that opens Wednesday in Chicago.

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WASHINGTON (D.C.)
Catholic News Service via America

December 31, 2018

By Carol Zimmermann

2018 will no doubt be remembered as a dark time for the U.S. Catholic Church.

Catholics felt betrayed by church leaders accused of sexual misconduct and cover-up revealed this summer and this cloud still hung over the church at the year’s end.

In June, allegations were made against then-Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, accused of sexually abusing a minor almost 50 years ago and having sexual contact with seminarians while he was a bishop in New Jersey.

A month later, Pope Francis accepted Archbishop McCarrick’s resignation from College of Cardinals and suspended him from public ministry, ordering him to a “life of prayer and penance” until the accusations against him were examined in a canonical trial.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Catholic News Agency via National Catholic Register

December 31, 2018

By Ed Condon

The Archdiocese of New York told a California Catholic college in December that a local priest had never been accused of sexual abuse, even while the priest was being investigated by the archdiocese for several abuse charges. An administrator at the college called the letter “a lie,” and said she can no longer trust assurances from the archdiocese.

On Dec. 4, the New York archdiocese issued a letter stating “without qualification” that Father Donald Timone had “never been accused of any act of sexual abuse or misconduct involving a minor.”

In fact the archdiocese first received in 2003 an allegation that the priest had sexually abused minors, and it reached settlements with alleged victims (and surviving family members) in 2017.

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BOSTON (MA)
Church Militant

December 31, 2018

By Stephen Wynne

The rector of a troubled Massachusetts seminary has been forced out of the archdiocese of Boston.

Monsignor James P. Moroney, former head of scandal-ridden St. John’s Seminary in Brighton in the archdiocese of Boston, is being recalled to his home diocese of Worcester. Announcing the transfer Friday, Worcester authorities explained that beginning January 1, Msgr. Moroney will serve in the diocesan office for divine worship and as interim rector of the Cathedral of St. Paul.

Moroney’s transfer follows allegations that he allowed a ‘toxic culture’ of homosexual abuse and cover-up to flourish during his tenure at St. John’s.Tweet
The reassignment is being painted in a positive light. Worcester Bp. Robert J. McManus said he is “grateful” that the monsignor’s “pastoral leadership skills will once again be placed at the service of his home Diocese.” Moroney echoed his new bishop’s sentiments, saying, “I am deeply grateful for my time at St. John’s Seminary and look forward to serving the people of Worcester in the years to come.”

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NASHVILLE (TN)
Nashville Tennessean

December 31, 2018

By Anita Wadhwani and Holly Meyer

Former Nashville Catholic priest Edward McKeown, convicted in 1999 of the rape of a teenage boy a decade after he was forced from the priesthood, died Sunday while serving a 25-year sentence. He was 74.

McKeown, who was incarcerated at South Central Correctional Facility in Clifton, Tennessee, died at a local hospital of natural causes, a prison spokeswoman confirmed.

McKeown pleaded guilty to abusing a 12-year-old boy in his neighborhood over a three-year period. He was due to be released May 1, 2020.

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ROSARIO (ARGENTINA)
Crux

December 30, 2018

By Inés San Martín

Despite being at the heart of a clerical sexual abuse crisis rocking the Catholic Church in Chile, the president of the bishops’ conference, Santiago Silva, who’s been subpoenaed on charges of cover-up, has decided to skip a Feb. 21-24 Vatican summit to address the issue and send the conference’s secretary instead.

Silva is one of the eight Chilean bishops who’ve been called in by the prosecutor’s office, but one of the few in this group who’s still heading a diocese. Most of those bishops have been removed by Pope Francis since May, when all the bishops of Chile submitted their resignations.

Also among those being investigated by civil authorities, but who remains as the head of a diocese, is Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati of Santiago. The pontiff is expected to accept his resignation in upcoming months.

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NEW YORK POST

December 31, 2018

By George Weigel

No one with a sense of justice can fail to be outraged when, in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a jury in Maycomb, Ala., bows to social pressure and convicts an innocent man of a crime he couldn’t have committed.

Something similar took place last month in real-world Melbourne, Australia, where Cardinal George Pell was falsely and perversely convicted on charges of “historic sexual abuse” dating to the 1990s.

The facts of the case have been hard to come by, owing to a media gag order issued by the trial judge. A journalistic feeding frenzy has long surrounded Pell, the former Catholic archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney and later the Vatican’s chief ­financial officer.

The trial judge was rightly concerned that opening the proceedings would make it impossible for Pell to get a fair trial on charges he forcefully denies. That order has left Australians largely in the dark. But certain facts are known, and others can be reasonably inferred.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Herald

December 31, 2018

The Archbishop of Boston this month forwarded to the pope’s U.S. representative concerns sent to him about a New York priest who was in active college and parish ministry while under investigation for charges of sexual abuse.

The cardinal forwarded the correspondence the day after media reports emerged detailing the allegations made against the priest.

On December 21, Cardinal Sean O’Malley sent to Archbishop Christophe Pierre correspondence he had received regarding Rev. Donald Timone, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York who was being investigated by the review board of that archdiocese.

“I note the seriousness of the allegations [redacted] presents with regard to Rev. Timone,” O’Malley wrote, in a letter published Dec. 28 by Spanish Catholic news site Religión Digital.

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ESCONDIDO (CA)
CBS News 8 (KFMB-TV)

December 28, 2018

By Abbie Alford

An Orange County pastor faces charges stemming from the alleged abuse of at least one child, police said.

Escondido police arrested John Rodgers McFarland, 66, December 18 on suspicion of child molestation. Escondido police said they arrested McFarland at his Fullerton home for molesting a relative under the age of 14 while visiting family in Escondido several years ago.

Escondido police say they started the child molestation investigation against the pastor, who is also a police chaplain, in November 2018. Fullerton and Fountain Valley police served a search warrant at McFarland’s Fullerton home, his place of employment and Fountain Valley United Methodist Church.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune-Review

December 28, 2018

By Dillon Carr

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh is disputing a state grand jury’s claim that Catholic Charities Fund money was used to cover parochial school bills for the children of a clergy sex abuse victim.

An alleged victim of former priest William Yockey received payments totaling nearly $55,000 that went toward his children’s Catholic school educations from 2012 to 2017. A grand jury report released in August detailing decades of sexual abuse in Pennsylvania dioceses said the money came from various diocesan funds, including a “Catholic Charities Fund.”

The Tribune-Review cited the payments in a Dec. 17 article about a lawsuit filed by an alleged victim of Yockey’s that accuses the diocese of covering up Yockey’s sexual abuse while he served at St. Bernadette Church in Monroeville in the 1980s.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Associated Press via Crux

December 30, 2018

The head of a Boston seminary that the Catholic Church is investigating following allegations of misconduct has been tapped to lead a cathedral in Worcester.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester announced Friday that Monsignor James Moroney will become interim rector of the Cathedral of St. Paul starting Jan. 1.

Moroney said in the announcement he’s “deeply grateful” for tenure at the Boston theological school and looked forward to serving his home diocese.

Friday’s announcement didn’t mention the status of the investigation but Moroney said in a blog post he looks forward to the results of the inquiry.

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NEW ZEALAND
stuff.co.nz

December 29, 2018

By Adele Redmond

A survivor of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church will share his story at the Vatican.

Dunedin man Darryl Smith will meet with Catholic bishops, and potentially Pope Francis, during a global summit on clergy sexual abuse in Rome in February.

Smith claims he was first abused as a 6-year-old at Christchurch’s Marylands School, a Catholic institution for children with learning difficulties, in 1971.

“The Pope has stated publicly that he wants the bishops to meet the survivors,” Smith said on Saturday.

“The trick is to talk about the other survivors of Marylands and get some help with them too.”

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[“This is the worst moment in history of the Church]

CHILE
La Tercera

December 30, 2018

By Carla Pía Ruiz Pereira

La visita del Papa a Chile debía ser un éxito, pero fue todo lo contrario. Varios episodios detonaron un huracán que apuntaba a un solo motivo: las denuncias por abusos sexuales en contra de sacerdotes. Reportajes reunió a cuatro de ellos -un exobispo, un Schoenstatt y dos jesuitas- para hablar de la crisis y sus repercusiones. Esto es lo que discutieron.

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[“He suggested that I not speak because he would destroy me:” the brutal memory of José Andrés Murillo 20 years after his first complaint about Karadima’s abuses]

CHILE
Publimetro

December 30, 2018

By Camilo Henríquez

“Así se cierra un ciclo”, escribió en su cuenta de Twitter.

José Andrés Murillo, una de las víctimas y denunciantes de Fernando Karadima, señaló que se “cierra un ciclo” luego de que se cumplieron 20 años de su primera denuncia.

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[Bishop Ramos’ trip to meet with Pope unleashes criticism: “He is not the right person”]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

December 29, 2018

By Juan Peña and Pía Larrondo

Juan Carlos Cruz y los laicos de Osorno salieron al paso del anuncio de la Conferencia Episcopal. En tanto, vaticanista dice que decisión no evitará los cuestionamientos a la Iglesia chilena.

El anuncio de que el presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal, Santiago Silva, no irá a la reunión que convocó el Papa Francisco en Roma para febrero y que en su reemplazo asistirá el obispo Fernando Ramos, no fue bien recibida por los cercanos a las víctimas de abusos sexuales ocurridos al interior de la Iglesia.

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[Fernando Ramos branded a “hypocrite” for attending Vatican meeting on child protection]

CHILE
Publimetro

December 29, 2018

By Aton Chile (news agency)

El secretario general de la Conferencia Episcopal, Fernando Ramos, asistirá a una reunión para analizar cómo proteger a niños. Las críticas no tardaron en llegar.

Juan Carlos Cruz, denunciante de los abusos del ex sacerdote Fernando Karadima, trató de “hipócrita” al secretario general de la Conferencia Episcopal, Fernando Ramos, quien en febrero asistirá a un encuentro en el Vaticano sobre protección de menores.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

December 31, 2018

By Elise Harris

On Monday the Vatican announced that papal spokespersons Greg Burke and Paloma Garcia Ovejero have resigned – a move that comes just over two years after their 2016 appointments, and just weeks after two other key personnel changes in the Vatican’s communications operation.

Taking the reins in the interim will be Alessandro Gisotti, until now Coordinator of Social Media for the Vatican office for communications and a longtime veteran of Vatican Radio.

Both Burke and Garcia Ovejero made Vatican history when they stepped on board as the Director and Vice Director, respectively, of the Holy See Press Office in August 2016, marking the first time the papal spokespersons were both non-clergy, and included a woman.

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[Bishop Fernando Ramos will meet with the Pope on behalf of the Chilean Church]

CHILE
La Tercera

December 29, 2018

By EFE (news agency)

Juan Carlos Cruz, denunciante de los abusos del exsacerdote Fernando Karadima, trató de “hipócrita” al obispo Ramos al aceptar reemplazar a Silva en el encuentro en el Vaticano sobre protección de menores.

El obispo Fernando Ramos confirmó hoy que será él quien represente a la Conferencia Episcopal de Chile (CECh), en el encuentro con el Papa Francisco en el Vaticano, el próximo 21 de febrero.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press via Crux

December 28, 2018

The Vatican has taken testimony from a man who says ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick sexually abused him for years starting when he was 11, evidence that the initial case against the retired archbishop has expanded to include serious allegations of sexual misconduct, including in the confessional.

James Grein testified Thursday in New York before the judicial vicar for the New York City archdiocese, who was asked by the Holy See to take his statement, said Grein’s civil attorney Patrick Noaker.

The testimony, which lasted about an hour, was difficult and stressful but Grein was proud to have done it, Noaker said.

“He wants his church back. He felt that in order to accomplish that end, he had to go in and testify here and tell them what happened, and give the church itself the chance to do the right thing,” Noaker said in a telephone interview Friday.

Grein initially came forward in July after the New York archdiocese announced that a church investigation determined that an allegation that McCarrick had groped another teenage altar boy in the 1970s was credible.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

December 29, 2018

By Peter Smith

The Rev. Thomas Smith, known as the “Singing and Dancing Priest” for his Broadway-seasoned “theatrical evangelism,” is now among the latest subjects of allegations of sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh sent letters this month to various parishes where the late Father Smith served, informing them of an allegation of sexual abuse against the priest, who died in 2015 at age 90.

During one of the listening sessions held by Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik in early December in response to the grand jury report on sexual abuse by Catholic priests, one of the attendees who spoke identified him as her abuser.

She said the abuse happened in 1967, when she was about 15 or 16 years old and a student at St. Anselm High School in Swissvale, where Father Smith worked as a priest.

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ROME (ITALY)
Washington Post

December 31, 2018

By Chico Harlan

The Vatican capped a tumultuous year Monday by announcing the unexpected resignations of its head spokesman, Greg Burke, and his deputy, the figures most responsible for day-to-day dealings with the media.

The statement provided no reason for the departures of Burke and Paloma Garcia Ovejero, but the moves follow the Vatican’s overhaul this year of much of its communications office. Earlier this month, Pope Francis named Andrea Tornielli, a veteran Italian journalist, as the editorial director for Vatican communications.

On Twitter, Burke said the resignations would be effective Jan. 1.

“At this time of transition in Vatican communications, we think it’s best the Holy Father is completely free to assemble a new team,” Burke wrote.

The head of the Vatican’s communications office, Paolo Ruffini, who was also appointed to his job this year, said the resignations were “autonomous” and of “free choice.”

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

December 31, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

The Vatican spokesman, Greg Burke, and his deputy resigned suddenly Monday amid an overhaul of the Vatican’s communications operations that coincides with a troubled period in Pope Francis’ papacy.

In a tweet, Burke said he and his deputy, Paloma Garcia Ovejero, had resigned effective Jan. 1. Francis accepted the resignation Monday, the Vatican said in a statement.

“At this time of transition in Vatican communications, we think it’s best the Holy Father is completely free to assemble a new team,” Burke wrote.

He and Garcia both thanked the pope. “A stage is ending. Thank you for these two and a half years,” Garcia tweeted.

Francis named a longtime member of the Vatican’s communications operations, Alessandro Gisotti, as an interim replacement.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

December 31, 2018

By Michael Sean Winters

If the year 2018 in politics was dominated by Donald Trump, the life of the Catholic Church in this country in 2018 was marked by two major stories, one a reprise and the other just beginning, and one story that did not happen, the ecclesial dog that did not bark.

In the event, Pope Francis addressed both major stories in his address to the Roman Curia just before Christmas: the clergy sex abuse crisis and the newfangled simony afflicting the church. I shall consider those comments in their proper place.

When I ventured my predictions for the year last January, I did not predict that the clergy sex abuse crisis would return, and return with a vengeance, but it did. Beginning with the removal from ministry of, and subsequent resignation of his cardinalate by, Theodore McCarrick, followed by the Pennsylvania grand jury report, on through the November meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the issue sucked all the air out of the sanctuary.

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UNITED STATES
CNN

By Daniel Burke

December 29, 2018

A prominent cardinal resigned in disgrace. Grand jurors accused hundreds of Catholic clerics of secretly abusing children. A former Vatican ambassador urged the Pope himself to step down.

It was enough for New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan to call it the Catholic Church’s “summer of hell.”

The cardinal may have been overly optimistic.

In fact, the church’s hellish year began in January, when Pope Francis forcefully defended a Chilean bishop he had promoted. He later had to apologize and accept the bishop’s resignation.

But the clergy sex abuse scandal shows no signs of abating, with a federal investigation and probes in 12 states and the District of Columbia in the works.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Boston Globe

December 28, 2018

By Kay Lazar

The rector of a Brighton seminary who has been on sabbatical during an investigation of alleged misconduct there will be returned to his home diocese in Worcester, according to an announcement Friday by church officials.

Monsignor James P. Moroney, who was placed on sabbatical in August by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, will become interim rector of the Cathedral of St. Paul and the Worcester Diocese Office for Divine Worship, the announcement said.

Moroney had been rector at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton for the past six years.

The announcement did not say whether the investigation has been completed or what, if anything, has been concluded.

In August, O’Malley said he launched the investigation after learning that two former St. John’s seminarians posted allegations on social media that during their time at the seminary “they witnessed and experienced activities which are directly contrary to the moral standards and requirements of formation for the Catholic priesthood.”

Former seminarians alleged a panoply of unpriestly behavior at the 134-year-old institution including heavy drinking, sexual harassment, bullying, and intimidation.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Review

December 29, 2018

By Jamie Martines

Brother Frank Meder gave the Troy Hill neighborhood kids candy and soda when the old North Catholic High School cafeteria was closed on Saturdays. Sometimes he invited them to look at the stamp collection in his office.

But first, he would molest them, according to one woman and four men whose accounts are detailed in the 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report.

Brother John Keegan, also a member of the Marianist religious order who worked at North Catholic, was accused of asking male students if he could “examine” their genitals.

He allegedly read the minors explicit scripts and molested them.

Abuse at the hands of these individuals — along with abuse committed by other members of religious orders named throughout the grand jury report — could go unacknowledged and uncompensated as the Diocese of Pittsburgh and other dioceses across the state set up and administer victim compensation programs.

Survivors of abuse committed by members of religious orders like the Marianists, as well as by laypeople including teachers, janitors or other adults working in diocesan schools and parishes, will not be eligible to submit claims, according to details of the Pittsburgh program released this month by the diocese and the Washington-based law firm led by Kenneth Feinberg. The dioceses of Pittsburgh and Greensburg hired Feinberg’s firm to design and administer the program.

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ILLINOIS
TheHill.com

By Tal Axelrod

December 29, 2018

The former president of an Illinois Catholic high school who is under investigation for allegations of sexually abusing a male student in the 1990s is missing from the Augustinian order to which he belongs, according to The Chicago Tribune.

Sister Mary Ann Hamer, assistant treasurer for the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, which operates Providence Catholic High School, told the Tribune Friday that Rev. Richard McGrath, 72, was “absent without leave” after having moved out of the St. John Stone Friary. Hamer added that he had left in the last couple of months on his own accord.

But Rev. Anthony B. Pizzo, prior provincial of the Midwest Augustinians, sent a statement to the Tribune Friday that McGrath was “illegitimately” absent, which means he is no longer affiliated with the Augustinian order. While he remains a priest, he lacks the canonical authority to fulfill a priest’s duties.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle

December 16, 2018

By Betty Clermont

In October, two sexual abuse survivors sued the Vatican in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco for failing to prevent and covering up the abuse of them and other children by priests.

In November, a class-action lawsuit on behalf of six sexual assault victims was filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The lawsuit accuses the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the Vatican of “endemic, systemic, rampant, and pervasive rape and sexual abuse” of the plaintiffs and others by members of the clergy, religious orders, and other Church representatives.

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) establishes the limitations as to whether a foreign sovereign nation (or its political subdivisions, agencies, or instrumentalities) may be sued in U.S. courts. Under that law, a foreign state shall be liable for personal injury or death occurring in the United States and caused by the foreign state or any official or employee of that foreign state while acting within the scope of his office or employment. (I am not a lawyer, so I hope anyone wanting exact information will click on these links for the specifics.)

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SIOUX CITY (IA)
Sioux City Journal

December 30, 2018

By Mason Dockter

Tim Lennon, the president of the board of the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), brought an emotional message to Sioux City Catholic parishioners Saturday afternoon: parishioners need to take control of their churches and the churches’ response to sexual abuse.

Lennon, now 71 and living in Arizona, said he was raped by the Rev. Peter B. Murphy when he lived in Sioux City in 1960. Memories of the abuse left him with years of depression, anxiety, anger and nightmares. Lennon held a news conference Saturday at the Stoney Creek Inn to call attention to the issue. Approximately 15 people were in attendance.

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MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
Fox9.com

December 29, 2018

By Alex Lehnert

[Video]

A Minneapolis attorney has found himself on the world stage in a case he believes is a first of its kind.

Patrick Noaker is currently fighting Vatican City and the Catholic Church in the hopes of justice for victims of sexual abuse.

It’s a Vatican trial set to determine the punishment for a former high-ranking Cardinal within the church.

Noaker says his client, James Grime, was sexually abused by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The testimony happened this week and those documents will be taken straight to Vatican City.

Noaker has been practicing law for years, routinely defending victims of sexual abuse. He says this trial is unlike anything he’s ever experienced.

“It’s very formal, there is a lot of paperwork that goes with it,” Noaker said. “It has testimony like every other trial.”

His client, Grime, says he was sexually abused by the now ex-Cardinal when he was just 11 years old.

“So, McCarrick used to take him into another room, and the first thing he would have him do as part of the confession is he would touch him, improperly… sexually,” Noaker said.

Grime testified Thursday in front of a representative for the Vatican in New York. He recounted moments Noaker says have haunted him for years.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune Review

December 29, 2018

By Aaron Aupperlee

Like dominoes falling one after another, dioceses across Minnesota declared bankruptcy in the wake of the state passing a law that gave victims of sexual assault a three-year window to file civil lawsuits regardless of when the abuse occurred.

Five of the six Catholic dioceses in Minnesota, home to about 1.2 million Catholics, have turned to Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection to settle hundreds of claims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests.

The bankruptcies will allow the dioceses to settle mounting claims of sexual abuse without going before a jury, but victims will often receive a fraction of what juries might award and strip them of their day in court.

Bankruptcies don’t wipe out dioceses. They don’t dissolve them. They don’t disappear. Dioceses file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reorganize and emerge as leaner operations.

The bankruptcies set up funds to pay victims who have filed claims of sexual abuse against the dioceses. Those victims are paid, along with other creditors who claim the diocese owes them money.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune Review

December 29, 2018

By Aaron Aupperlee

The 15-page packet of information John Delaney received in the mail weighed heavily on him.

Inside was information about a fund set up by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to compensate victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and an application to apply.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do. It’s a hard pill to swallow,” Delaney, 48, said in a telephone interview from his Sevierville, Tenn., home.

Delaney, the first victim of sexual abuse to testify before the Philadelphia grand jury in 2005, could soon face a choice: Accept money from a compensation program that has paid out $25,000 to $500,000 to victims of clergy sexual abuse elsewhere — a tacit acknowledgment from the church that abuse occurred — but give up any chance of ever taking his claim against the church to court. Or he could wait on the Pennsylvania legislature to perhaps, one day, open a legal window for him to sue the church, to have his day in court, and potentially win millions.

The compensation programs offer a chance to heal, bishops across Pennsylvania have said. But attorneys who have shepherded victims through similar funds elsewhere say the funds allow the church to settle claims of sexual abuse for less money and with less public exposure than if it went to court. They say the funds can insulate the church both politically and legally should lawmakers change the statute of limitations and allow old claims.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Patch Staff |

December 29, 2018

By John Ferak

Father Richard McGrath, the disgraced Catholic priest who served as principal and president of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox for several years until his forced resignation one year ago, has now gone missing in Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

The Chicago newspaper has been tracking Father McGrath’s whereabouts ever since the Joliet Patch and New Lenox Patch broke an important news story in July revealing that the well-known Augustinian priest, who is a suspected pedophile, was now taking up residence at the Augustinian Order’s St. John Stone Friary in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

In recent days, The Sun-Times published a story headlined, “Priest accused of child rape, porn, now AWOL from his religious community.”

According to The Sun-Times, the Rev. Richie Mercado, secretary of the Augustinians’ Midwest province, told the newspaper that McGrath “is unlawfully absent from the community.” McGrath hasn’t been seen at the Hyde Park friary for the Augustinians for weeks.

The Sun-Times article also included the following information: “Augustinian officials would not answer questions about whether they know where McGrath is now living and, if so, whether he’s in a supervised setting, away from children.”

In December 2017, McGrath was booted out of Providence in New Lenox after school staff members notified New Lenox Police that a female high school student saw photographs of naked boys on Father McGrath’s cellphone. At the time of the incident, McGrath was sitting in the high school bleachers, all by himself, at a Providence High School wrestling meet.

Patch has previously reported that McGrath refused to cooperate with New Lenox Police, and he refused to give the cellphone with the suspected child pornography back to the Providence staff. He retained a criminal defense attorney and police were unable to interview him.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Georgetown Hoya

December 29, 2018

By Mason Mandell

Six Jesuit priests who were at one point associated with Georgetown University have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors, as determined by the Maryland, Midwest and West Provinces of the Society of Jesus in reports released this month.

None of the allegations specify incidents of abuse at Georgetown, although estimated periods of abuse overlap with on-campus assignments, according to the reports.

The Maryland Province’s Dec. 17 report lists priests who face credible accusations of sexual abuse — classified as allegations with “a preponderance of evidence that the allegation is more likely true than not” — as well as priests who were accused of committing abuse, but were not investigated. The Maryland Province did not investigate the credibility of an allegation in cases involving the death of an alleged abuser or incomplete historical information, according to the report.

SUBUL MALIK/THE HOYA Credible allegations of sexual abuse toward minors were filed against six Jesuit priests formerly associated with Georgetown, according to reports released by the Maryland, Midwest and West Provinces of the Society of Jesus.
University President John J. DeGioia supported the disclosure by the Maryland Province and said Georgetown is dedicated to taking action against sexual abuse in a universitywide email Dec. 17.

“Our University is deeply committed to preventing and responding to sexual assault and misconduct and to protecting the most vulnerable among us,” DeGioia wrote. “Let us all take part in this responsibility.”

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[Cardinal Carles signed letter allowing priest accused of abuses in 1990 to flee to Ecuador]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

December 22, 2018

By Íñigo Domínguez

Su sucesor, Martínez Sistach, era el obispo auxiliar. El clérigo imputado, localizado por EL PAÍS, declara que “todo es un montaje de la alcaldesa comunista” de Barcelona

El arzobispado de Barcelona ayudó a huir de la justicia y salir del país a Jordi Senabre, un cura acusado de abuso de menores en 1990, tal como reveló EL PAÍS, que ha localizado en Ecuador al sacerdote, donde ha ejercido todos estos años. Sin embargo, no estaba claro quién tomó la decisión de enviarlo de misiones a una diócesis extranjera, pues ese año cambió el arzobispo de Barcelona y la archidiócesis catalana tampoco ha querido aclararlo. Ahora la diócesis de Santo Domingo de los Colorados, en el país sudamericano, ha confirmado a este periódico que recibió una carta firmada por el entonces arzobispo y luego cardenal, Ricard Maria Carles, ya fallecido. La fecha de la misiva es el 4 de diciembre de 1990, según ha informado el vicario judicial de esa provincia ecuatoriana, Jorge Apolo.

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[Sexual offenses against minors will not expire until the victim reaches at least 40]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

December 28, 2018

By María Sosa

El Gobierno eleva la edad en que empiezan a extinguirse los abusos de los 18 a los 30 años. Los menores de 14 no declararán más de una vez en el proceso judicial

El plazo de prescripción de los abusos sexuales a menores comenzará a correr cuando la víctima cumpla 30 años, y no 18, como sucede ahora. Este es uno de los principales cambios que contempla el anteproyecto de Ley Orgánica para la Protección Integral de la Infancia y la Adolescencia frente a la Violencia, que el Consejo de Ministros tiene previsto aprobar este viernes en primera lectura. La medida responde a una de las principales peticiones de las víctimas de delitos sexuales, aunque las organizaciones de infancia habían solicitado que el tiempo comenzara a correr a los 50.

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[Karadima victims trust that Church authorities will be imprisoned for covering up abuses]

CHILE
BioBioChile

December 28, 2018

By Alberto González and Nicole Martínez

Víctimas de Fernando Karadima se manifestaron confiados en que altas autoridades de la Iglesia Católica en nuestro país, sean encarceladas por encubrir abusos sexuales. Por cerca de cuatro horas, dos de las víctimas del exsacerdote Fernando Karadima, Juan Carlos Cruz y José Andrés Murillo, prestaron declaración en la causa de encubrimiento de abusos sexuales al interior de la Iglesia Católica, en contra de Francisco Javier Errázuriz y Ricardo Ezzati.

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[UDI Deputy asks Catholic bishops to focus their Christmas message on “abused children and youth”]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

December 21, 2018

Álvaro Carter lamentó que la Conferencia Espicopal no abordara “el sufrimiento de quienes han sido abusados por sacerdotes”.

El diputado de la UDI, Álvaro Carter, lamentó que el mensaje de Navidad de la Conferencia Episcopal de los obispos chilenos no abordara en profundidad los casos de abusos a menores cometidos por miembros de la Iglesia Católica.

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[Bishop Fernando Ramos: “This is not the same Chilean Catholic Church as one year ago”]

CHILE
La Tercera

December 29, 2018

By María José Navarrete

En su balance del complejo año 2018, el prelado también anuncia que reemplazará al presidente del Episcopado, Santiago Silva -quien en octubre declaró ante la fiscalía por presunto encubrimiento de abusos- en la reunión extraordinaria de febrero convocada por el Papa.

“Decrecimiento”. Así lo asume -y reconoce- el obispo Fernando Ramos, secretario general de la Conferencia Episcopal y administrador apostólico de Rancagua. El prelado se refiere específicamente a los resultados de la encuesta CEP, dada conocer poco antes de Navidad y que muestra la baja de católicos en el país durante los últimos 20 años. Confronta sus razones y proyecciones. Y, junto a ese escenario, analiza también lo ocurrido durante este complejo 2018, que comenzó con la visita del Papa Francisco, pero que estuvo marcado por la investigación de casos de abusos en el clero.

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GET RELIGION

December 29, 2018

By Bobby Ross Jr.

I write more than 200 posts a year for GetReligion.

My pieces range from our bread-and-butter critiques of mainstream news media coverage of religion to our weekly Friday Five columns highlighting each week’s major (or just plain quirky) developments on the Godbeat.

At the end of each year, I’m always curious to see which posts caught the attention of the most readers.

What makes a GetReligion post go viral? In 2017, key ingredients included Joel Osteen, same-sex wedding cakes and the Mark of the Beast. The previous year — 2016 — Donald Trump’s “Two Corinthians,” Merle Haggard’s Church of Christ mama and a rare opening of a Chick-fil-A on Sunday were in the mix.

2018? Well, let’s check out the top five posts for GetReligionista Julia Duin, GetReligion editor Terry Mattingly and myself.

We’ll start with Julia, for reasons that will become obvious:

5. How journalists can nail down the rest of the Cardinal McCarrick story – for good

4. Cardinal Ted McCarrick, Part II: The New York Times takes a stab at this old story

3. Catholic News Agency pulls off investigative coup in the ‘Uncle Ted’ McCarrick saga

2. Another #ChurchToo: The Chicago Tribune investigates Bill Hybels in 6,000 words

1. The scandal of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and why no major media outed him

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

December 29, 2018

By Laurie Goodstein

When Antonio Aaron Bianco arrived for work at his Roman Catholic church office on a recent Monday morning, he was rattled to discover that someone had broken into the conference room and spray-painted a message in large yellow letters on the wall. It said “No Fags.”

For Mr. Bianco, a layman in charge of managing St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, the break-in was just another terrifying omen. Two weeks earlier, someone tried to set the sanctuary doors on fire before the early Sunday Mass. Before that, a stranger swung a punch at Mr. Bianco after Mass one day. For months he had received anonymous phone calls and letters with messages like “Sodomites not welcome in the church.”

Located in the heart of San Diego’s largest gay neighborhood, St. John the Evangelist is one of about 300 Catholic parishes around the country that quietly welcome gay Catholics. Although the Catholic church teaches that same-sex relationships are sinful, growing pockets of the church have accepted openly gay parishioners, staff members and even priests.

But since this summer, when the church faced renewed allegations of clergy sexual abuse, these gay-friendly parishes and church workers have been facing a hostile backlash. Some bishops and conservative Catholic media outlets immediately blamed the crisis on homosexuality, fueling a campaign to purge the church of gay clergy members and church workers.

More than 1,700 people signed a petition started in August demanding that the archbishop of Atlanta “remove priests who promote the L.G.B.T. agenda from public ministry” and stop supporting parishes known to welcome gay people. In Chicago, a priest burned a rainbow flag and led parishioners in a “prayer of exorcism.” For the first time, protesters showed up outside an annual spiritual retreat of gay priests in Wisconsin in October. In November, bishops attending a conference in Baltimore were greeted by Catholics holding signs saying “All Homosexual Cardinals, Bishops and Priests MUST RESIGN!”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Sun Times

December 28, 2018

I was born, raised and educated as a Catholic. I am appalled at the stance taken by church leaders with regard to the possible cases of sexual abuse by a large number of practicing priests in Illinois.

No matter what Archbishop Cupich or any of his aides declare, there is simply no defense for the current state of affairs. The Catholic Church has failed to obey its own precepts. The alleged abuses go back as far as 1992, and what has the church done to combat them? Removed the priests from their parishes, put

With the latest report by Attorney General Lisa Madigan, it is hard to believe that the church has reported all the incidents of abuse in the Chicago diocese. As a Catholic, it is hard for me to consider adhering to the guidance and direction of people who fail to follow their own advice. And instead of trying to get their own affairs in order, they spend their time trying to defend their actions and position. No matter what they proclaim, one case of abuse, reported or not, is one too many. When the numbers soar into triple digits, it is inexcusable.

It is now time for the state to step in and investigate, punish those who have committed these crimes and incarcerate offenders as they would anyone not protected by a collar.

Daniel Pupo, Orland Park

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