ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
Sunday Independent

Niamh Horan
Published 08/06/2014

‘The mother went absolutely hysterical. There was a big picture of the Sacred Heart on the wall, she pulled it off the wall and danced on the glass of it … ‘

‘Good! I have another bloody PFI … ! She came to us this morning! How soon can you take her?”

PFI stands for ‘pregnant from Ireland’ and this was the typical late-night call picked up by Fr James Good in the Fifties.

Now one of Ireland’s most eminent and outspoken theologians, Fr Good had been appointed as the head of an adoption agency to bring back babies who had been left by their mothers in England for adoption.

“They were normal, happy girls,” he recalls from his home in Douglas, Co Cork. “But ‘get rid of the baby’, that was the main idea. It was such a shame. All of ours [mothers in crisis] would have gone to England for one purpose only and that was to cover the pregnancy.

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MISSOURI/MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Media Advisory

June 8, 2014

St. Paul Press Conference Monday

What: At a news conference Monday in St. Paul, MN attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan will:

· Release video clips and the deposition transcript of the current Archdiocese of St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson taken on May 23, 2014 as part of a civil lawsuit in Minnesota. Carlson was ordained in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1970 and rose to the position of Auxiliary Bishop until 1994.

· Discuss the disturbing and alarming sworn testimony given by Carlson who chose not to recall important events he was personally involved in including advising former Winona Bishop Loras Watters “not to remember” when Watters’ gave his own testimony.

· Demonstrate how the documents show a conscious choice, made by then Bishop Carlson, to protect offenders and conceal crimes.

WHEN: Monday, June 9, 2014 at 11:00AM CDT

WHERE: Law Office of Jeff Anderson & Associates
366 Jackson Street Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101

Notes: The press conference will live stream from our website www.andersonadvocates.com and copies of the video testimony will be available in our office. The entire video, clips and transcript will be posted tomorrow on our website and YouTube page, AndersonAdvocates.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Cell: 612.817.8665 Office: 651.227.9990
Mike Finnegan: Cell: 612.205.5531 Office: 651.227.9990

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IRELAND
BBC News

Mari Tatlow-Steed lives in Philadelphia, but was born at the Bessborough home run by Sacred Heart sisters in County Cork.

She said there were two categories of children in the home.

“Children that were earmarked to go over to the United States for adoption or even remain in Ireland, we were fattened up, we were given the better food,” she said.

‘Neglect’

“And I have no doubt there were probably children who might have had difficulties when they were born, congenital problems, weaknesses whatever it may be, that the nuns just decided, ‘well we know this one is not going to be earmarked for adoption’, so they’re not going to get the same level of decent care.”

She described it as a form of “benign neglect”.

“They (nuns) felt these children were not going to thrive or be as marketable, ‘well, we’re just not going to spend as much effort or time’,” she said.

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IRELAND
BBC News

One of the most senior figures in the Catholic Church in Ireland has said a full inquiry is needed into the deaths of almost 800 children at a convent-run mother and baby home.

The remains were found in a disused septic tank in County Galway.

The children, one as old as nine, died between 1925 and 1961. The grave in Tuam was initially thought to date to the 1850s when discovered 40 years ago.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said the truth must come out.

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IRELAND
Daily Mail (UK)

‘My granny delivered the Tuam babies’: Michelle Fleming grew up hearing stories about the ‘abandoned children’

By MICHELLE FLEMING

What happened at Tuam, at the Mother and Child Home run by the Bon Secours nuns, shocked everyone.

But for me, it feels personal – for my Granny Nora delivered many of those babies.

Michelle Fleming’s granny, Nora Burke, who was a midwife at the Tuam Mother and Child Home
I grew up hearing stories about these abandoned children, the ‘Home Babies’, with whom my mother Mary and her sister Eleanor played as children.

I think I was about 10 when my mother first told me about the Home Babies. She told me how she was in fifth class at the Mercy Convent when Sister Lawrence attempted to teach the girls the ‘facts of life’.

Puzzled by Sister Lawrence constantly prefacing every statement with ‘when you get married’, she shot up her hand.

‘No Sister, that can’t be right,’ she said. ‘What about the Home Babies, Sister? Their mammies and daddies aren’t married.’

The flustered nun accused my mother of being disruptive and sinful.

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IRELAND
Daily Mail (UK)

We need to dig ‘babies graves’: Ground Penetrating Radar reveals two ‘anomalies’ beneath Tuam Home site

By ALISON O’REILLY and NEIL MICHAEL

An expert survey of what is thought to be the burial site of 796 babies in Tuam has uncovered two areas of interest where anomalies in the soil indicate likely human activity beneath the surface.

The survey recommends further investigation and experts say if we are to find out anything more a dig would be necessary.

The Irish Mail on Sunday can also reveal that the Sisters of Bon Secours, who are at the centre of the scandal, had the remains of 12 members of the order exhumed and re-buried in a cemetery in Knock before they abandoned their base in Galway in 2001 – after selling property to the Western Health Board for a reported €4m.

Meanwhile, Government sources say that an inquiry into the scandal is inevitable and will probably be announced within the next few days.

The ground penetrating radar survey carried out by a top engineering company on behalf of the MoS revealed there are ‘two anomalies’ on the site at the centre of the Tuam babies scandal.

The specialised radar showed two areas at the site which are likely to be man-made or unnatural structures; one a box-like structure and another a wide area of up to 48 square metres which has been covered over and which contains items of denser material than the surrounding soil.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has called for an independent commission of investigation with judicial powers into all mother-and-baby homes.

His comments come after reports of a mass grave of infants and children found in the grounds of a convent run by the Bon Secours order of nuns in Tuam, Co Galway.

The home operated from the 1920s to the 1960s.

The Government has established an initial inquiry, the results of which will determine the nature of a more thorough investigation.

In an interview with RTÉ’s This Week, the Archbishop said the issue of adoption should also be included in any inquiry.

Any investigation should be independent of Church and State, he said.

He said: “The indications are that if something happened in Tuam it probably happened in other mother-and-baby homes around the country.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

June 9, 2014

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

Brother Alexis Turton, the former Provincial of the Marist Brothers who supported Brother Kostka Chute at his trial in 2008, is one of several senior members of the order who will give evidence at the royal commission hearing in Canberra that begins on Tuesday.

Three former students of Brother Kostka (aka William John Chute) from Marist College Canberra will also testify before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The hearings, set down for nine days, will also take evidence from former teachers from Canberra and Lismore and past and present high-ranking Catholic church and Marist Brothers officials.

Brother Alexis was the head of the Marist Brothers in 1993 when, after repeated complaints to the Marist College Canberra hierarchy from parents about sexual abuse, the decision was made to end Brother Kostka Chute’s teaching career.

Chute was transferred to Sydney and no public mention was ever made of the allegations that had prompted his departure. The matter was not referred to the police.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

EXCLUSIVE JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 09, 2014

THE 40-year cover-up by the hierarchy of the Marist Brothers, of one of the state’s most notorious paedophiles, is at the centre of the child sex abuse royal commission’s latest investigation.

The Catholic order moved Brother Kostka Chute around at least 12 schools across NSW, Canberra and Queensland until he was finally jailed for two years in 2009 after admitting to abusing six of the boys he was teaching.

That was only the tip of the iceberg, lawyer Jason Parkinson said yesterday.

Mr Parkinson represented 90 students from the Marist College Canberra who were victims of Brother Kostka and after initially denying they owned the school, the Marist Brothers has settled almost all of the claims in out of court ­settlements.

“This was the first case where the Australian public got to see the ugly side of the Catholic Church,” Mr Parkinson said. “It was also the first time so many people came forward on the one occasion to sue a school.”

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CHILE
Terra

[Summary: The story of Juan Carlos Cruz is painful. Abused by priest Fernando Karadima, his voice still breaks when he tries to tell what happened to him.]

La historia de Juan Carlos Cruz es a ratos dolorosa. Tanto, que a pesar de la fortaleza que intenta mostrar, su voz se quiebra y sus ojos reflejan los abusos de los que fue víctima, cuando formaba parte del séquito de jóvenes que mantenía el párroco de la iglesia de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima.

Un periodo de su vida, que por mucho que lo intenta, reconoce le ha costado superar, no sólo porque fue víctima de abusos sexuales y sicológicos, sino porque constantemente se siente revictimizado producto de la falta de apoyo recibida por parte de la jerarquía de la
Iglesia chilena, la que según dice, le ha cerrado las puertas y le ha dado la espalda.

Juan Carlos Cruz, es uno de los que se atrevió en 2010 a denunciar junto a Fernando Batlle, James Hamilton y José Murillo los abusos sufridos más de veinte años atrás en la parroquia del Bosque y ahora se atreve a revelar con más detalles en el libro “El fin de la inocencia. Mi testimonio”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Journal

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: June 08, 2014

PHILADELPHIA — The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has reinstated a priest suspended after a scathing 2011 grand jury report into child sexual abuse.

The diocese said Sunday that Archbishop Charles Chaput decided Monsignor Joseph Logrip is suitable for ministry. It cited “unsubstantiated allegations that he sexually abused minors over 20 years ago.”

It says Logrip’s case is the last to be decided out of 26 priests put on leave after the grand jury report was unsealed.

Including Logrip, 11 were reinstated while 14 were removed from ministry. One died during the investigation and one, the Rev. Andrew McCormick, was charged.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

DYLAN PURCELL, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
LAST UPDATED: Sunday, June 8, 2014

Archbishop Chaput has restored Monsignor Joseph L. Logrip to ministry after concluding that allegations that he sexually abused minors over two decades were unsubstantiated.

Logrip was among 26 priests placed on administrative leave following a February 2011 grand jury report on sexual abuse by Archdiocesan priests. His is the last case to be resolved by the Archdiocese.

Of the priests placed on leave, fourteen were found unsuitable to return to the ministry, ten were permitted to return. One died before the investigation concluded. The investigation resulted in the arrest of one priest.

Logrip, 67, served in parishes in Philadelphia, Norristown, Plymouth Meeting and most recently, Saint Stanislaus, Lansdale.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

June 9, 2014

Ben Doherty
South Asia correspondent for Fairfax Media

George Pell, the Catholic Church’s new finance tsar, has tapped the manager of the Sydney archdiocese’s finances to help clean up the Vatican’s accounts, which have been plagued by corruption and cronyism scandals.

Cardinal Pell, former archbishop of Sydney and now Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy in Vatican City, has appointed the archdiocese business manager, Danny Casey, to his office. The pair will work out of Saint John’s Tower in the Vatican, a building usually reserved for VIP guests or the Pope if his apartments are unavailable.

Mr Casey told priests in Sydney his office ”will be central to the establishment of new policies, systems and practices”.

Mr Casey’s abilities as a financial manager were revealed before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse earlier this year when it held hearings on the Catholic Church’s handling of child sex abuse complaints.

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IRELAND
Sunday Independent

Ralph Riegel
Published 08/06/2014

ARCHBISHOP of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin has warned that only an independent inquiry led by a senior judicial figure can provide the answers required from Ireland’s escalating mother and baby home scandal.

The move will be confirmed once gardai have concluded preliminary investigations into claims 796 babies were buried in a septic tank near the Tuam, Co Galway home run by the Bon Secours nuns.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has appointed two senior gardai and they will immediately begin work examining the Tuam mass grave claims.

The operation of mother and baby homes from the 1920s to 1960s is regarded as the last of Ireland’s Church-linked scandals.

Dr Martin warned that it was vital for modern Irish society the issue be independently investigated with controversial issues such as secret adoptions and vaccine trials included.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Paul Muschick, Of The Morning Call
1:43 p.m. EDT, June 8, 2014

Allegations of sexual abuse against a priest who served two parishes in Lansdale are unsubstantiated and he is suitable for ministry, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Sunday.

Monsignor Joseph L. Logrip was among 26 priests placed on administrative leave following a 2011 report by a Philadelphia grand jury that investigated sexual abuse of minors by clergy and archdiocese employees. His case is the final one to be resolved.

Logrip had most-recently served the St. Mary Manor and St. Stanislaus parishes in Lansdale from 2010 to 2011. Announcements about the disposition of his case were made at those parishes this weekend and counselors were made available, the archdiocese said in a statement.

The district attorney’s office had declined to press criminal charges and Logrip was investigated by the archdiocese.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Archbishop Chaput makes final decision in last remaining case of priests placed on
administrative leave following the February 2011 Grand Jury Report

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced today that Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. has made a final decision in the last remaining case of priests placed on administrative leave following the February 2011 Grand Jury Report. While on administrative leave, priests are not permitted to exercise their public ministry, administer any of the Sacraments, or present themselves publicly as priests.

Archbishop Chaput has decided that Monsignor Joseph L. Logrip is suitable for ministry based on unsubstantiated allegations that he sexually abused minors over 20 years ago.

Announcements were made at Saint Stanislaus Parish and Saint Mary Manor, both in Lansdale, when Monsignor Logrip was placed on administrative leave in March of 2011. Follow up announcements were made at those locations this weekend regarding the final decision in this case. Counselors were also made available.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CatholicPhilly

BY MATTHEW GAMBINO

Msgr. Joseph L. Logrip, whose case was the last to be resolved among the 26 priests placed on administrative leave following the 2011 Philadelphia Grand Jury report on clergy sexual abuse of minors, has been found suitable for ministry based on unsubstantiated allegations that he sexually abused minors over 20 years ago.

Archbishop Charles Chaput made the decision on the priest and it was announced by the Philadelphia Archdiocese in a statement June 8. Announcements about the decision were made at St. Stanislaus Parish and St. Mary Manor, both in Lansdale, this weekend and when Msgr. Logrip was placed on leave in March 2011.

All such priests were not permitted to exercise their public ministry, administer the sacraments or present themselves publicly as priests.

The archdiocese did not indicate when or in what capacity Msgr. Logrip, 67, will return to priestly ministry. Ordained in 1972, he served in the following assignments: St. Ignatius, Yardley (1972-1974); St. Rose of Lima, North Wales (1974-1975); Bishop Kenrick High School (1974-1983); Epiphany of Our Lord, Plymouth Meeting (1975-1981); St. Gabriel’s Hall (1981-1983); Archbishop Carroll High School (1983-1990); St. Francis of Assisi, Norristown (1990-1992); St. Monica, Philadelphia (1992-1994); Mater Dolorosa, Philadelphia (1994-2000); Immaculate Conception, Levittown (2000-2007); SS. Philip and James, Exton (2007-2008); Mother of Divine Grace, Philadelphia (2008-2010); Chaplain, St. Mary Manor (2010-2011) and St. Stanislaus, Lansdale (2010-2011).

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TEXAS/ARIZONA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 06, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-503-0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

An Arizona priest is facing a civil complaint over allegations that he abused a mentally disabled person. We are grateful to the brave victim for stepping forward and working to expose the truth.

The complaint also alleges that the Diocese of Tucson and the Diocese of El Paso were aware of the risk the priest posed and did nothing. We hope church officials come clean about what they knew about this dangerous priest.

[Courthouse News Service]

Fr. Richard Zamorano, a former teacher at Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson, allegedly befriended the victim and then sexually assaulted him. We want church officials in Tucson and El Paso to come clean about everything they know about this priest. It is not enough to simply suspend him.

Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson and Bishop Mark Seitz should visit every parish Zamorano worked and beg witnesses, whistleblowers, and victims to come forward and report to secular officials. They should post Zamorano’s name, photo, and work history on parish bulletins and websites.

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TEXAS
KTSM

EL PASO, TX (KTSM) — An El Paso priest is under fire and facing a civil complaint for allegedly sexually assaulting a mentally disabled man.

“He has not been in the Diocese of El Paso since 2002 and he will not be re-instated until this is resolved,” said El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz.

Father Richard Zamorano was ordained by the El Paso Diocese in 1993 and served as priest at San Elizario Parish, according to Bishop Seitz.

In 2002, he took a leave of absence to move to Tucson, Arizona and care for his mother.

“Around that time in 2002, when he left the Diocese, he adopted 2 boys from Mexico,” said Bishop Seitz.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Sun, Jun 8, 2014

Breda O’Brien

In the film Calvary, there is a scene where two airport workers are waiting to load a coffin onto an aircraft. They are having a chat and one of them is leaning his elbows on the coffin, as if it were any old piece of freight.

A young French woman, who is in the appalling situation of having to transport her husband home in a coffin after a car crash, witnesses this as she waits to board the aircraft along with Fr James Lavelle, the central character in Calvary (played brilliantly by Brendan Gleeson.)

Without wishing to give away the plot, the casual disrespect and the disregard for the grief of the bereaved shown by the workers triggers an important turning point in the film.

We Irish pride ourselves on doing death well, on having healthy rituals that help both to make sense of grief and to build a sense of community.

It seems that it all depends on who you are. Yet again, we see that if you are small and powerless, even the most basic respect of having a marked grave may be denied you.

We have witnessed this already in the long struggle of the survivors of the Bethany Home for recognition.

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IRELAND
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin has urged those responsible for running any of the Mother and Baby homes in Ireland, or any other person having information about mass graves, to give that information to the authorities.

Archbishop Martin said, “The Gospel message is that authentic faith is measured by how we treat children who represent Jesus Christ.” He said the details emerging from Tuam, and perhaps elsewhere, were sickening.

Several months ago, Archbishop Martin asked the Dublin Diocesan Archivist to compile information in the archive concerning Mother and Baby homes in Dublin. Hundreds of documents have already been collated. The Archbishop has said he will share this information with any inquiry the government will establish. He expressed the hope that a full bodied inquiry will be set up, examining all aspects of life in the homes and crucially how adoptions were organised.

Over the past number of years Archbishop Martin has met with representative groups and some people who were born in Mother and Baby homes. He said the story of the homes was not simply one from another time or era, but the personal story of hundreds of men and women alive today, living here and abroad. He said every effort should be made, by all parties who were involved in setting up, running and overseeing these homes to ensure the mothers and children who were sent there, have an accurate account as possible of their own life stories.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Tim O’Brien, Elaine Edwards

Sun, Jun 8, 2014

The Catholic archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has called for a properly constituted commission to examine issues raised by the discovery of a mass babies’ grave in Tuam, Co Galway – including the allegation that medical trials were carried out on children.

Archbishop Martin also said the commission should investigate whether similar burials took place at other mother and baby homes throughout the State.

He suggested the commission be independent of the Catholic Church and State agencies with a chairman possibly taken from the judicial profession. He suggested membership should include people such as Ian Elliott former chief executive officer of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Gardaí have begun to examine the circumstances around the discovery of a large quantity of human remains at a site in Tuam, Co Galway beside a former mother-and-baby home run by the Bon Secours order between the 1920s and the 1960s.

Archbishop Martin said the indications were that “if something happened in Tuam it probably happened in other mother and baby homes around the country”.

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IRELAND
Sunday Independent

Maeve Sheehan and Niamh Horan
Published 08/06/2014

TWO senior gardai are to conduct a “fact-finding” mission into the deaths of 796 babies believed to be buried in a mass grave in Tuam, the Sunday Independent has learned.

The officers were appointed on Friday, on foot of a request by Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald to gather the “facts” behind reports that almost 800 children were buried near a disused septic tank at a mother and babies home that was run by the Bon Secours nuns.

They have been asked to gather all surviving records, including death certificates and the ledgers kept by the mother and baby home until it closed in 1961. Crucially, the officers are also expected to carry out preliminary tests on the site of the suspected mass grave, which lies on the edge of a housing estate in the Galway town.

The exploratory inquiry marks the first step in an official Garda response to the revelations, as yet another religious scandal that was overlooked by Irish authorities for years hit the international headlines.

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IRELAND
Sunday Independent

Caroline Crawford
Published 08/06/2014

THE full extent of the horrendous conditions children were forced to live in at the Tuam mother-and-baby home, where up to 300 infants are buried, are revealed in an official inspector’s report obtained by the Sunday Independent.

The damning 1947 report, compiled after a visit to the home, paints a picture as grim as the harrowing accounts of starved children that emerged from Romanian orphanages after the fall of Ceausescu in the early 1990s.

It tells how children were suffering from malnutrition and in many instances were pot-bellied – a sign of starvation. The report records children as having wizened limbs, with many described as being ‘mentally defective’.

One child is described as ‘a miserable, emaciated child with a voracious appetite and no control over bodily functions’, while another is reported to be ’emaciated, with flesh hanging loosely on limbs’.

It also reveals that the home was crowded with 271 children and 61 mothers living there at the same time. This number exceeded the ‘desirable’ level of 243, according to the inspector.

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IRELAND
Daily Mail (UK)

‘I thought I’d seen it all. Then I found nuns’ secret grave for 800 babies’: By Philomena writer MARTIN SIXSMITH

SPECIAL REPORT BY MARTIN SIXSMITH
PUBLISHED: 7 June 2014

In nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent, I covered stories of mass graves in far-flung locations in Eastern Europe and Russia. The thought of them has remained lodged in my memory.

But never did I expect to be covering a mass grave from modern times on my own doorstep; I thought Western and Northern Europe was immune from such horrors.

Yet that is exactly what I came across in January this year in the small Irish town of Tuam in County Galway, an ugly place with its rundown streets and council estates.

On a grey, rainy afternoon, I was taken to a patch of land in the centre of one such estate. Surrounded by houses built in the 1970s, on the edge of a scruffy playground, I found a plaster statue of the Madonna on a pile of stones, incongruously sheltered by an old enamel bathtub. Beneath it were the bodies of nearly 800 babies.

The remains of a forbidding 8ft wall nearby were a clue to the place’s history. Until 1961 this had been the site of a Catholic religious community run by the Sisters of Bon Secours.

They had bought the workhouse in the 1920s and converted it into a home for unmarried mothers. For the next 36 years, the nuns took in thousands of women. In those days, sex outside marriage was proclaimed a mortal sin.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

JUNE 8, 2014

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced today that Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. has made a final decision in the last remaining case of priests placed on administrative leave following the February 2011 Grand Jury Report.

While on administrative leave, priests are not permitted to exercise their public ministry, administer any of the Sacraments, or present themselves publicly as priests. Archbishop Chaput has decided that Monsignor Joseph L. Logrip is suitable for ministry based on unsubstantiated allegations that he sexually abused minors over 20 years ago.

Announcements were made at Saint Stanislaus Parish and Saint Mary Manor, both in Lansdale, when Monsignor Logrip was placed on administrative leave in March of 2011. Follow up announcements were made at those locations this weekend regarding the final decision in this case.

Counselors were also made available. Monsignor Logrip’s case followed the same procedure as all other cases of priests placed on administrative leave following the February 2011 Grand Jury Report. Prior to any investigation, the case was submitted to the appropriate local district attorney’s office. After the district attorney declined to press charges, investigations were conducted by the MultiDisciplinary Team and the Archdiocesan Office of Investigations.

The results of this process were submitted to the Archdiocesan Professional Responsibility Review Board (APRRB). The APRRB is comprised of twelve men and women, both Catholic and nonCatholic, with extensive professional backgrounds in the investigation and treatment of child sexual abuse. It functions as a confidential advisory committee to the Archbishop, which assesses allegations of sexual abuse as well as allegations of violations of The Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries. This body provided a recommendation as to suitability for ministry to the Archbishop, who made the final decision.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

Up to one-third of infants died in homes in Dublin, Tipp and Cork in 1933

Up to a third of infants died in mother and baby homes in Dublin, Tipperary and Cork in 1933.

Newly released archive material from the Dublin Archdiocese, show mortality rates in Tuam were either matched or exceeded, by homes elsewhere in the country.

Pelletstwon in Cabra, Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea and Bessborough in Cork had death rates of up to one-third in 1933.

The General Registration Office is to carry out a trawl of death certificates in the hope of establishing the exact number of deaths in all seven mother and baby homes.

The GRO was the source used by historian and genealogist Catherine Corless, who revealed the fact that 796 babies died in Tuam.

Conor Mulvagh is a lecturer in Irish History in UCD, he published the latest findings in today’s Sunday Business Post.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Cahir O’Doherty @randomirish June 06,2014

Christopher Quirin, 63, was born to a single mother in Ireland in 1950, a time when such a thing was considered an unspeakable disgrace. Back then Quirin’s mother was sent by her parents to the now notorious Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, the same mothers and babies home as Philomena Lee. Lee is the woman whose shocking life-story inspired the recent Academy Award-nominated movie starring Judi Dench.

Lee and Quirin’s mother had children just two years apart, and Quirin says he imagines he must have played in the same rooms as Michael, Lee’s boy who was later adopted by the American couple Doc and Marge Hess.

Unlike Lee, however, after beginning his new life in America Quirin was left to piece together the details of the one he had left behind with no help from a dedicated senior journalist or the nuns at Sean Ross Abbey.

Because of the shame attached to their origins and the desire to prevent the birth mother from ever tracing her offspring at a later date, to this day adoption records have been closely guarded by the religious orders and the Irish state.

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IRELAND
Daily Mail (UK)

‘A miserable, emaciated child with a voracious appetite and no control over his bodily functions’: Documents which reveal the tragic story of a short life at St Mary’s

By ALISON O’REILLY
PUBLISHED: 7 June 2014

It is the harrowing certificate that shows how 16-month-old John Desmond Dolan was described as being a ‘congenital idiot’ at the time of his death in St Mary’s Mother and Baby home.

John is one of the 796 children whose remains were left in a mass grave on the grounds of St Mary’s, which was run by the Sisters of Bon Secours.

Documents given to the Irish Mail on Sunday by the boy’s sister reveal how he had a healthy birth and weighed 8lbs 9oz when he was born at the Tuam home on February 22, 1946.

His mother Bridget Dolan, a farmer’s daughter from Clonfert, Co. Galway, gave birth to him in the presence of a woman known as Bina Rabbitte.

There are no details given of his father. Records from the home show how a health inspection was carried out in April 1947 by a man known as Mr Humphreys.

Despite being born a healthy baby, a year later John was described as a ‘miserable emaciated child with a voracious appetite and no control over his bodily functions’.

Doctors referred to John as ‘probably mental defective’.

That year there was an outbreak of measles in the home, which John contracted.

He died on June 11, 1947. On his death certificate it showed how Ms Rabbitte was again present at the time of John’s death.

It is understood she had been born in the home and remained on, assisting the nuns with the children.

John’s cause of death was recorded as ‘congential idiot and measles’.

His sister said: ‘He was born healthy and yet he died less than two years later. What is a congenital idiot? How could anyone call a child that?

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IRLAND
Focus

Entdeckt wurde das Massengrab von zwei Forscherinnen. Eine von ihnen, Catherine Corless, glaubt laut Sixsmith nicht, dass dies das einzige Massengrab in Irland ist: “Ich weiß, dass es in ganz Irland solche Gräber gibt. Und es gibt Menschen, die endlich Gewissheit haben wollen. Unbekannte, identitätslose Kinder wurden einfach abgelegt. Wir hoffen, dass wir ihnen zumindest hier in Tuam zu ein bisschen Gerechtigkeit verhelfen können.”

Warum die Frauen trotz der Gräueltaten in solche Kloster gingen, erklärte Corless im Gespräch mit der US-Zeitung “Washington Post” so: “Es war das schlimmste Verbrechen, das eine Frau begehen konnte. Selbst wenn sehr oft eine Vergewaltigung die Ursache war.” Die Frauen seien von ihren Familien verstoßen worden, die Mutter-Kind-Heime oft die einzige Zuflucht gewesen.

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IRLAND
Focus

Martin Sixsmith wurde bekannt durch sein Buch “Philomena”, das jüngst mit Judi Dench in der Hauptrolle verfilmt wurde. Nun berichtet Sixsmith von einer weiteren herzzerreißenden Geschichte: In einem irischen Mutter-Kind-Heim starben über Jahrzehnte Hunderte Kinder. Ihre Leichen endeten in einer Grube vor dem Gebäude – ein westeuropäisches Massengrab.

Dieses Erlebnis wird Martin Sixsmith für immer verfolgen: Der Autor des inzwischen verfilmten Dramas “Philomena” hat im irischen Tuam ein Massengrab besucht. 800 Kinder wurden dort zwischen 1920 und 1970 auf dem Grundstück eines Mutter-Kind-Heims verscharrt – von den dort lebenden Nonnen.

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IRLAND
Kronen Zeitung

Die Vergangenheit holt Irland ein: missbrauchte Kinder in Schulen und Heimen, ausgebeutete Frauen in Arbeitshäusern, und nun auch noch Massengräber voller Kinderknochen. Die Überreste von 796 Kindern und Säuglingen liegen im westirischen Ort Tuam. Die Spuren führen in ein katholisches Heim für ledige Mütter, das von 1925 bis 1961 von Nonnen betrieben wurde. Die Kinder sollen zwischen 1921 und 1965 gestorben sein.

In den irischen Heimen für unverheiratete Mütter lag die Kindersterberate “bei über 50 Prozent”, erklärt Susan Lohan von der Initiative “Adoption Rights Alliance”. Zu Tausenden wurden die kleinen Leichen anonym verscharrt. Der Fall, der derzeit Schlagzeilen macht, ist besonders grausam. Fast 800 Skelette liegen in einer Jauchegrube in Tuam, einem Örtchen im Westen des Landes.

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IRLAND
N-TV

Von Nora Schareika

Bis in die 1960er-Jahre leben irische Mütter mit unehelichen Kindern wie Aussätzige in kirchlichen Heimen. Die Kinder müssen für ihre pure Existenz büßen und erreichen kaum das Schulalter. Aktivisten rollen nun die Geschichte eines Baby-Massengrabs neu auf.

Neue Enthüllungen über die teils grausige Vergangenheit der Heime für unverheiratete Mütter in Irland setzen die Regierung in Dublin unter Druck. Besonders die Geschichte eines abgelegenen Heims im Westen des Landes bewegt die Iren, nachdem lokale Medien mit Zeitzeugen gesprochen, Fotos und schockierende Details veröffentlicht haben.

In der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts hatten Familien ihre Töchter in solche Heime abgeschoben, weil diese unverheiratet schwanger geworden waren – im erzkatholischen Irland jener Zeit eine Schande.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Cahir O’Doherty @randomirish June 08,2014

Reporting from Tuam, County Galway

“You would not talk to them,” the locals told me in Tuam near Galway City this weekend, “they were outcasts.”

They were speaking to IrishCentral about the mothers and babies secreted away to The Home, an 1840’s institution run by the Bon Secours sisters in the town from 1925 to 1961, but this week locals insisted that more and more people want to remember them now.

One of them is Paul Kanahan, 46. Yesterday he took the long drive to Tuam from his home in County Sligo to visit the site that in the last fortnight has become one of the most controversial in the world.

Inspired by news reports, Kanahan told IrishCentral he made the trip to the unmarked grave site to pay his respects to the Home Babies and reflect on his own experience as a Home Baby from another notorious mother and baby home called Castlepollard in County Westmeath.

An adoptee and now a father himself, Kanahan found his birth mother and sister in 2010 through a series of lucky breaks and with the health of a priest and a Facebook page for adoptees from the Castlepollard Mothers and Babies home.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

We need to know why the death rate among ‘illegitimate’ children was so high, writes Gene Kerrigan

How come hundreds of children died in the care of a Catholic Church institution in Tuam? And how come some – if not all – of them were disposed of like spoiled fruit? Dumped beside a septic tank. Why did it happen?

What do we know about this country that might explain how such a thing could happen?

And let’s leave aside the unbearable thought that there were more – many more – children, in other locations, who had similarly short lives and who were disposed of with similar lack of human dignity.

It didn’t just happen. It wasn’t just bad management. It took years of organisation, strategies of intimidation and control. And, let’s face it, it took a citizenry steeped in fear and reverence.

A population that was deferential. People who did what they were told. People who didn’t dare ask questions.

Not, of course, that dumping the bodies of almost 800 kids near a septic tank was the object of the exercise – that was just a byproduct. Just some human waste that had to be tucked away in a suitable place.

It was about sex and power. It was about the right of the Church to do whatever it thought necessary to preserve its domain. It stemmed from a hierarchy of old men who were obsessed with sex.

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IRELAND
Daily Mail (UK)

By ALISON O’REILLY
PUBLISHED: 7 June 2014

One woman who knows the truth of how nuns in Ireland of the late 1950s handled the children entrusted to their care is Mary Lawlor, who was adopted out by the nuns at Sean Ross Abbey, Co. Tipperary.

Letters she obtained from her adoptive parents detailing how she was given to them also sheds light on the nuns’ attitudes towards children of poorer single mothers.

The nuns cautioned the prospective parents not to pick a child of the ‘wrong class’, and to take a young child as ‘the better class girl has to leave here quickly so as not to be detected in her sorrow’.

In a letter dated July 26, 1961, sent to the adoptive parents of Mary Lawlor, the sister in charge of the Roscrea institution reads:

‘We had a wonderful reference from your priest and we think you should take a baby over six months… the baby will be brought up just as you would bring your own child up and a child of two years has been too long in an institution to fall easy into your ways. We have a very nice little girl Mary Margaret who is of good background and very intelligent,’ the nun wrote.

Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday, Mary Lawlor said the nuns also gave her adoptive parents a book detailing how to look after a baby.

‘They were picking and choosing babies, so the older ones – who would have needed a bit more
support – ended up being left there because the nuns were putting people off them.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

David Ellery
Reporter for The Canberra Times.

Daniel Hopkinson is 36 years old and still waiting for his life to start. The former Marist College Canberra student has never been able to finish a university degree, make a long-term relationship work or secure lasting employment.

“I am now unemployed, under-educated and still looking for a life path,” he wrote in a submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on May 23.

He had been prompted to tell his story for the first time in more than two decades by the news the commission was to hold a public hearing in Canberra starting on Tuesday, June 10.

While specific details of his allegations cannot be published as they have yet to be tested in a court of law, Mr Hopkinson names a brother, whose name has not come up in previous investigations and court actions, as an alleged sexual predator.

Mr Hopkinson says while he was never sexually abused himself, he did become aware other children were being molested, and that in his final year at the college in the mid-1990s, he confronted staff over that abuse.

“I was victimised by this individual [the alleged sexual predator] for three years [from year 4] and when I progressed into the senior school, the victimisation continued through different brothers.”

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IRELAND
Sunday Independent

Ralph Riegel
Published 08/06/2014

THEY were made to scrub the hard, cold floors on their knees with a toothbrush, and to cut the huge lawns with only a scissors.

Mothers at the Bessborough mother-and-baby home in Co Cork, privately referred to as “a secret penitential jail”, were refused all social contact with the outside world, and not allowed to even speak with each other.

Former inmates believe up to 3,000 children are buried in unmarked graves at the country’s largest mother and baby home.

John Barrett, who was born at Bessborough on July 17, 1952, told the Sunday Independent: “If there are 800 babies buried in a single plot in Tuam, I can guarantee you that there are thousands buried at Bessborough. I would estimate from my information that there are probably between 2,000 and 3,000 children buried there.”

The infant mortality rate at Bessborough in the late Forties was 55 per cent – meaning burials would have been taking place on a weekly basis.

The young women were routinely forbidden from attending the funerals of their babies and, in one case, a woman who lost her baby received nothing more than a pair of his shoes as she was sent home.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

But in Ireland we have never pursued the people responsible for horrors such as the little bodies in the cesspit.

Emer O’Kelly
Published 08/06/2014

Seventy years ago, on the orders of a maniac, little children and babies were herded into barren camps in Germany and occupied Poland by men in black uniforms. They were starved to death in those camps; sometimes they had hideous medical experiments carried out upon them while alive, so hideous the silence of death was probably merciful. And when they died, their little bodies were thrown into huge pits. Because they were scum: Jewish scum.

And since then we have called what was done in those camps the greatest collective evil ever carried out by humankind.

Twenty years ago, the opposing tribes who comprised the population of a country called Rwanda festered in such hatred for each other that one tribe took to the ritual slaughter of the other in an attempt to wipe its existence from the face of the earth. And often the mass of slaughtered bodies, including those of little children, and comprising 20 per cent of the country’s population, was so great that they were flung unceremoniously into great pits. Because they were scum: tribally inferior scum.

A year later, a town was wiped off the face of the earth in a place called Srebrenica in what had until recently been Yugoslavia, the flower of its youth, the young men and boys, marched into woodland where they were ritually slaughtered, and their bodies thrown into huge pits. Because they were scum: Muslim scum.

And the men who gave the orders and supervised the slaughter went on the run. But the world pursued them, and charged them with crimes against humanity.

And in Ireland, where there is still a widespread smugness about our decency and our devotion to the Faith of our Fathers, the Virgin Mother of God, and the efficacy of the Holy Rosary, a pit has been found filled with the skeletons of tiny babies and small children, 800 of them, dumped in the pit which some prefer to call a “mass grave” but is actually a septic tank.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Jun 08, 2014 By Adelina Campos

Shocking claim after woman’s 35-year search to find her infant cousin’s burial place

Every household in Ireland could be rocked by the forgotten babies inquiry, a mum-of-two warned last night.

Mary Frances Joyce, who has been trying to find the grave of her infant cousin for more than three decades, said: “Ireland needs to get its head out of the sand because tens of thousands of women were sent to mother-and-baby institutions and had children there.

“I don’t think there is a family in this country that hasn’t got a dark secret hanging over them somewhere.”

Mary’s cousin was born at Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, one of the largest mother-and-baby homes in the country on October 4, 1950.

She died just over two months later but there is no burial record for her.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Published 07/06/2014

Gerard O’Regan

There was a time in rural Ireland when the amount of money donated by individuals and families to various Catholic Church collections was read out from the altar by the local priest at Sunday Mass.

As the priest intoned his way through the names, listing whether they gave five shillings, 10 shillings, one pound, or even the odd five pounds, it was a public affirmation of where people were placed in the social hierarchy. Those financially better off were obviously near the top of the contributions list, those doing not too badly in the middle, and the really hard done by somewhere near the bottom.

So when it came to monies for Christmas or Easter Dues, or whatever the awesome power of unquestioned Irish Catholicism expected at the time, everybody knew and accepted their place. This was determined by their economic circumstances. And it would be unmarried mothers from the five shillings – or less – contributions figure, who would most likely end up in places like the converted Famine workhouse run by the nuns in Tuam, now at the centre of international controversy.

Those who want to get their heads round the fact that the bodies of nearly 800 babies and young children were seemingly disposed of in such shocking circumstances need to transport themselves back to the Ireland we had from the 1920s to the 1960s. It is absolutely pointless, when trying to understand the motives of the nuns involved, applying the norms of this more affluent, mainly secular, better informed age, to the psychological rigidity of Ireland back then.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS SF Bay Area

DAVIS (CBS/AP) — A Roman Catholic priest has been charged with three felonies for allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage girl he met while working at a Davis church.

Yolo County prosecutors released a criminal complaint on Friday that charges the Rev. Hector Coria Gonzales with three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse.

According to the complaint, the charges stem from encounters between the 46-year-old Coria and a 17-year-old girl that took place at a home, in a vehicle and at the church rectory over eight months.

Coria has been a staff pastor at St. James Parish in Davis for almost two years. After his arrest in May, Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento put him on leave.

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UNITED STATES
New Oxford Review

By Jay Dunlap

Jay Dunlap served as communications director in North America for the Legion of Christ and its lay affiliate, Regnum Christi, from 1998 to 2006 and as a communications consultant from 2006 to 2010. He is currently President of Madonna School & Workshop, the Archdiocese of Omaha’s outreach to children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

This April Popes John XXIII and John Paul II were canonized together. This moment of great rejoicing in the Church arose under a shadow, due in large part to two high-profile television documentaries that detail how the Church responded — or failed to respond — to the criminal actions of Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legion of Christ. A PBS Frontline investigation titled Secrets of the Vatican, and a documentary on Irish television titled The Legion, both dwell on the fact that three Popes — John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II — failed to take action when informed of Fr. Maciel’s sexual abuse, drug addiction, and misuse of funds.

There is a good explanation for why these three Popes did not move against Maciel. The explanation does not excuse inaction, nor does it abrogate responsibility at various levels of the Vatican for having enabled Maciel’s corruption and deception. But such an explanation answers the question raised about these three Popes: Why didn’t they act?

I served as communications director for the Legion of Christ in North America from 1998 to 2006. My responsibilities included media relations and helping the Legion in crisis management. Published reports of allegations against Fr. Maciel kept me and my colleagues busy for long stretches of time. And a central part of the Legion’s response, I am convinced, explains why the three Popes ignored the allegations: “The charges had already been thoroughly examined and found baseless.” Or so we were led to believe, and so we told others.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Nick Webb
Published 08/06/2014

Former AIB chairman Peter Sutherland flew to a crisis meeting in the Vatican last July as Pope Francis, left, sought to deal with the financial scandals that have hit the Catholic Church.

Sutherland addressed the Council of Cardinals, the most senior advisers to the Papacy, in a room close to Doma Santa Marta, the Pope’s residence.

Sutherland, an unpaid financial adviser to the Vatican, is understood to have pressed for the church to change its ways. ‘Transparency is important and necessary’ is said to have been the theme of his briefing. Sutherland, chairman of Goldman Sachs international, was appointed as an adviser to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, an asset manager for the Vatican.

Pope Francis has ordered a major reform of the Vatican’s banking and financial systems after a series of scandals have emerged in recent months.

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TEXAS/ARIZONA
El Diario

[Summary: A priest who belonged to the El Paso diocese until 2002 remains suspended from his job after being accused to sexually abusing an adult with mental disabilities in Tucson, Ariz. Cleric Richard Zamorano allegedly began a friendship with the claimant, who is classified as a vulnerable adult with mental disabilities, and the person has now filed a civil complaint against the church. According to the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, the lawsuit also alleges that the Tucson and El Paso dioceses were aware of the risk posed by the priest.]

Perla Chaparro
El Diario de El Paso

Un sacerdote que perteneció a la Diócesis de El Paso hasta 2002, continúa suspendido de sus funciones luego de que se le acusara de presunto abuso sexual a un adulto con discapacidad mental en Tucson, Arizona.

El clérigo Richard Zamorano inició presuntamente una amistad con el reclamante, quien es calificado como un adulto vulnerable con discapacidad mental, y está presentando ahora una queja civil en contra del eclesiástico.

Se dice que el sacerdote, quien fue investigado y el caso fue cerrado–, pasó por el demandante a su casa, y presuntamente Zamorano compró alcohol para sí mismo y para el demandante, luego lo llevó a un hotel en el Condado de Pima y abusó sexualmente de él, según el portal de Courthouse News Services y en base a la queja.

De acuerdo a la Red de Sobrevivientes Abusados por Sacerdotes (SNAP), la demanda también alega que la Diócesis de Tucson y de El Paso eran conscientes del riesgo que planteaba el sacerdote y fallaron en no advertir sobre él.

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CANADA
Cape Breton post

Dolores Campbell
Published on June 06, 2014

Will the repentance service on Sunday in Port Hawkesbury signify case closed to the abuse scandal as it applies to the Diocese of Antigonish?

It was to be a reconciliation service when it all began quite a few months ago, but those attending any of the seven meetings held to prepare for such a service heard quite a bit of anger expressed by parishioners as to how the scandal had impacted on their lives.

Some thought any such service would merely keep open the wound the abuse scandal had inflicted on the world, and especially on our diocese. For them, it was time to move on. And, in fact, many were trying to do just that in their home parishes.

At the time, many were upset at new security requirements for anyone working with children in their parishes, despite some having been involved in those ministries for years. In fact, anyone wishing to donate their time and energy to assisting in any way in their various parishes faced security checks.

Church closures were blamed on the fact that money was confiscated and used for abuse compensation; leaving a shortfall for churches needing maintain their buildings and programs. The fact that church closures have been on the books for more than 30 years cut no ice with those faced with the loss of their worship space.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

KURT STREETER

The four men were dressed in white and cream-colored robes. They knelt on the stone floor, ending up face down in a supplicating sign of obedience and respect. In front of thousands of onlookers, they were about to become Catholic priests.

“Lord have mercy,” the crowd chanted, slowly. “Christ have mercy…. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us….”

It was a ritualized, peak moment during Saturday’s ordination — an annual event held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in which seminarians become full-fledged priests, prepared after years of study to serve parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. …

Even as the number of parishioners climbs, the Roman Catholic church has long struggled with a shortage of priests in the U.S., a falloff that hasn’t been helped by sex abuse scandals that have rocked the church in recent years. (Cardinal Roger Mahony, whom some blame for failing to aggressively root out abuse during his tenure as L.A.’s archbishop, was on hand at Saturday’s ceremony.) There are currently about 40,000 priests nationwide, according to statistics from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. In 1965, there were about 60,000.

The shortage isn’t felt as acutely in Los Angeles, said Father Sam Ward, the diocese’s associate director of vocations, partly because the region attracts clerics from outside areas. Still, the diocese is pushing to boost the number ordained locally each year.

Heartened by the number of men who’ve recently entered the diocese’s St. John’s Seminary — enrollment hit 92 in the fall of 2013, up from 71 in 2008, an uptick ascribed in part to the popularity of Pope Francis — officials say they expect to soon be ordaining groups of 10 to 12 priests, and possibly more, each year.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: June 7, 2014

The Rev. Timothy McCarthy was the “kids’ pastor” who wore sneakers under his vestments and dropped profanities into his sermons. Girls had crushes on him, and parents let their children go camping with him.

When McCarthy abruptly resigned the priesthood in 1991, he told his flock at the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Maplewood that he had outgrown Catholic Church dogma. He was quitting, he said, to go down a new spiritual path.

But newly released files reveal that the church ousted McCarthy after allegations that he sexually abused two boys early in his career and later engaged in an exploitative sexual relationship with a college student. Despite those concerns, the church helped McCarthy gain credentials that allowed him to work closely with teenagers and young adults. He later lost his job as a Hennepin County correctional officer after being accused of criminal sexual conduct with a 17-year-old.

McCarthy’s previously hidden history is laid out in documents that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis divulged under an order from a Ramsey County district judge in a clergy sexual abuse lawsuit brought by St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson. The court order has triggered the release of more than 70,000 pages of classified memos about more than 45 accused priests — and could bring more litigation under a change in Minnesota law that allows people to bring claims of long-ago abuse.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Democrat

By The Associated Press and Democrat staff
CREATED: 06/07/2014 0

A Roman Catholic priest has been charged with three felonies for allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage girl he met while working at a Davis church.

The Sacramento Bee reports that Yolo County prosecutors released a criminal complaint on Friday that charges the Rev. Hector Coria Gonzales with three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse.

According to the complaint, the charges stem from encounters between the 46-year-old Gonzales and a 17-year-old girl that took place at a home, in a vehicle and at the church rectory over eight months.

Gonzales has been a staff pastor at St. James Parish in Davis for almost two years. After his arrest in May, Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento put him on leave. According to a Facebook page of St. Thomas Catholic Church in Paradise, he was ordained in January 2011.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

By GEMMA KHAICY June 8, 2014

n the wake of sex abuse scandals enveloping the Catholic Church and an ageing population of priests, Stephen Varney stepped into a seminary at age 26. Nearly six years later he couldn’t be happier. He speaks to GEMMA KHAICY about his decision to be a priest.

Stephen Varney doesn’t have sex.

He has made a vow of celibacy because, he says, his life is filled with a passion greater than his carnal cravings.

His deep love of God and commitment to his faith provides him with satisfaction no woman can fulfil.

Ironically, he says, this sacrifice allows him to connect with others on a deeper level as he enters the priesthood. …

Italian women in love with priests sent a letter to Pope Francis last month asking him to make celibacy optional, while other proponents of overturning this rule have linked it to the sexual abuse of children.

The church, however, has rejected this argument, saying paedophilia is the result of psychological problems.

“I think it’s a bit rude to imply that someone who is living a celibate life, whether voluntary or involuntary, is somehow a potential child abuser,” Stephen says.

“It seems strange in my mind to think if you were going to disregard your vow of celibacy, why that would suddenly be towards children.

“It’s completely abnormal.”

As a priest-to-be, he says sex abuse scandals and cover ups in the church have been demoralising at times.

“I am disgusted by it and you might even lose faith in what you’re doing, but that would give even more power to those who have done wrong,” he says.

“I think the Royal Commission needs to happen and I am willing to be that champion of faithful priesthood and helping the victims who have been abused by priests or people in other institutions.”

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: The Canadian Press

PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish, N.S., says it will hold a special service to acknowledge the pain of victims of sexual abuse.

Father Donald MacGillivray says he hopes the victims of the abuse by members of the clergy will attend the service, which is being held at 3 p.m. Sunday at St. Joseph’s Church in Port Hawkesbury.

MacGillivray says the service was agreed upon as part of a class-action lawsuit against several priests dating back more than 50 years.

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IRELAND
The Sunday Times (UK)

Justine McCarthy Published: 8 June 2014

THE historian who discovered that 796 children may be buried in a mass grave in the west of Ireland believes three mothers are also interred there with their babies.

Catherine Corless has established that nine women were buried in the grave in the grounds of the former St Mary’s mother-and-baby home in Tuam, Co Galway. She has identified three of them by matching the home addresses on their death certificates with the addresses of those of the children. She has so far been unable to identify the other six women.

Corless is adamant that the Tuam crypt, which she says was originally a septic tank, contains scores of bodies.

Barry Sweeney, who accidentally found the grave in 1975 when he was playing there with a friend, Francis Hopkins, said he had been left with the impression that there were “about 20 bodies” of boys aged 10 to 12.

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IRELAND
culchieworks

The tides are finally turning…

Twenty years I’ve been at this, promoting and advocating for the rights of adopted people in and from Ireland (and in the US). We’ve talked, cajoled, written, and held countless meetings with successive governments in that period. A small but fearless band of us connected in the early days of the Internet, spanning the Atlantic. It was the first time I’d ever spoken with people adopted in and from Ireland in my life. We eventually began a Yahoo! group, which even today continues to receive members and posts. Some of us who had been ‘banished’ to the US, particularly in the Northeast, formed a small group (Adopted Citizens of Eire).

The topics have certainly been well-covered, even internationally. In 1989, activist and survivor Paddy Doyle led the charge with his excellent The God Squad. In 1997, former RTÉ journalist Mike Milotte researched and published his results on the trafficking of children from Ireland to the US in his seminal Banished Babies (updated in 2012). Mary Raftery and Eoin O’Sullivan had written Suffer the Little Children on the heels of Raftery’s award-winning three-part series States of Fear on RTÉ in 1999. Stephen Humphries produced an excellent documentary on the Magdalene Laundries, Sex in a Cold Climate, in 1997 and it eventually became the basis for Peter Mullan’s award-winning feature film The Magdalene Sisters in 2002. BBC also released the documentary Sinners in 2002. The latest, and perhaps most widely-seen chronicle of Irish adoption, is the award-winning film Philomena. The film was inspired by Martin Sixsmith’s 2009 book, The Lost Son of Philomena Lee. And our heroine, the real-life Philomena Lee, has been playing a blinder as one of the most eloquent, gracious and courageous spokeswomen for Irish mothers of loss. Thanks to her good work, Adoption Rights Alliance has now partnered with The Philomena Project, and it set the cogs in motion toward the most recent explosion and revelation in Tuam.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Documents offer glimpse of correspondence

Cases that may be used as evidence

By Lilly Fowler • lfowler@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8221 AND Robert Patrick • rpatrick@post-dispatch.com 314-621-51541

When the Rev. Joseph D. Ross was assigned to minister at St. Cronan Church, the other priest there already knew his secret.

He heard the pastor coming to help him in 1991 had just returned from the St. Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Md., a mental health treatment center for Catholic clergy, according to court filings.

The priest recognized that in all likelihood this was code for Ross having just undergone therapy for a sexual attraction to children. Although the priest worried about the well-being of the parishioners, according to court filings, the Archdiocese of St. Louis assured him that Ross was fit to return to ministry.

Twenty years later, a young woman who attended St. Cronan between 1997 and 2001 would claim she was abused by Ross when she was only 5 or 6 years old, filing a civil lawsuit against the priest and the archdiocese. The alleged victim and perpetrator are set to finally have their day in court when a trial begins next month at the Carnahan Courthouse in downtown St. Louis. …

JOSEPH D. ROSS: A TIMELINE

In a lawsuit, a woman claims the Rev. Joseph D. Ross abused her when she was a child attending St. Cronan Church. The suit also claims the Archdiocese of St. Louis failed to take steps to protect children.

1969 • Ross is ordained.
1969-1974 • Ross is assigned to Immacolata Catholic Church in Richmond Heights.
1972 • Ross is arrested after being caught by police masturbating with two other men in a store bathroom. The charges are later dismissed.
1974-76 • Ross is assigned to St. William in Woodson Terrace.
1975-77 • According to a 2002 lawsuit, Ross is accused of sexually abusing a young boy at St. William.
1978-82 • Assigned to St. Bridget of Kildare in Pacific.
1982-86 • Assigned to St. Francis De Sales in St. Louis.
1986-88 • Assigned to Christ the King in University City.
1986 • Ross is charged with grabbing and kissing an 11-year-old boy multiple times during confession at Christ the King. He pleads guilty in 1988 to sexually assaulting the boy and is sentenced to two years probation.
1988 • Sent to treatment center in Washington D.C. area.
1989 -1991 • Assigned to Corpus Christi Parish in Jennings.
1991 • Assigned to St. Cronan Church in St. Louis.
1997-01 • According to the current lawsuit, Ross is accused of molesting and raping a young girl. Criminal charges are filed in the case in 2008, but are dropped in 2010.
2002 • The Vatican announces Ross’ laicization. Ross then moves to Arkansas.
Source: Post-Dispatch archives and BishopAccountability.org

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Caroline Crawford and Tom Brady

GARDAI are preparing an initial dossier for Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald on reports of an unmarked grave at a former Catholic Church-run home where almost 800 children died.

But it is not clear when they will be in a position to determine if a criminal investigation is warranted.

Two local senior officers, Chief Supt Tom Curley and Supt Patrick McHugh, visited the site in Tuam, Co Galway, yesterday along with 51-year-old Frannie Hopkins, who found what he believed to have been a mass grave there when he was 12 years old.

Separately yesterday, President Michael D Higgins said he was “appalled” at the terrible reports that have been appearing, in particular in relation to the high death rates in Tuam.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Ralph Riegel
Published 07/06/2014

A MAN born in one of the most notorious mother-and-baby homes has called for a major audit of its cemetery to establish whether it too hides a mass grave.

John Barrett said: “I have been saying for years that we need answers about what exactly happened at places like Bessborough.

“There were always rumours about burials and the (Bessborough) graveyard. There could well be thousands of babies buried there. This was the largest mothers-and-baby home in Ireland so who knows?

“I think we now need to find out whether these were just rumours, or whether just like Tuam in Galway, there was some- thing tragic going on.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

NCR Staff Catholic News Service | Jun. 7, 2014

WASHINGTON The U.S. bishops are scheduled to meet in New Orleans June 11-13. On their agenda is a discussion of today’s economy and its impact on marriages and evangelization. They are also to review their efforts in preventing sexual abuse of children, strengthening marriage, helping typhoon victims and preparing for upcoming church-sponsored events on family life.

The bishops are to hear presentations on “Marriage and the Economy” and “the New Evangelization and Poverty” on the second day of their gathering before they close for executive sessions.

The first day is to be filled with reports on upcoming events, including presentations on the Oct. 5-19 extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family and on the World Meeting of Families, set for Sept. 22-27, 2015, in Philadelphia. …

Other items on the agenda for the meeting include:

* The annual progress report of the bishops’ efforts to protect children and young people from sexual abuse, presented by Francesco Cesareo, chairman of the National Review Board;

* Debate and vote on the renewal of the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, formed in 2011, for an additional three-year term;

*An update on the work of the bishops’ Subcommittee on the Catechism and their Subcommittee on the Promotion and Defense of Marriage;

* Debate and vote on the request for renewal of the “recognitio,” or Vatican approval, for the national directory for the formation, ministry and life of permanent deacons.

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IRELAND
Daily Mail (UK)

Thousands of children in Irish care homes at centre of ‘baby graves scandal’ were used in secret vaccine trials in the 1930s

By HARRIET ARKELL and NEIL MICHAEL

Scientists secretly vaccinated more than 2,000 children in religious-run homes in suspected illegal drug trials, it emerged today.

Old medical records show that 2,051 children and babies in Irish care homes were given a one-shot diphtheria vaccine for international drugs giant Burroughs Wellcome between 1930 and 1936.

There is no evidence that consent was ever sought, nor any records of how many may have died or suffered debilitating side-effects as a result.

The scandal was revealed as Irish premier, Enda Kenny, ordered ministers to see whether there are more mass baby graves after the discovery that 800 infants may be buried in a septic tank outside a former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway.

The Taioseach intervened from the United States yesterday to say that he had ordered his officials to ‘see what the scale is, what’s involved here, and whether this is isolated or if there are others around the country that need to be looked at.’

Michael Dwyer, of Cork University’s School of History, found the child vaccination data by trawling through tens of thousands of medical journal articles and archive files.

He discovered that the trials were carried out before the vaccine was made available for commercial use in the UK.

Homes where children were secretly tested included Bessborough, in Co. Cork and Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, both of which are at the centre of the mass baby graves scandal.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Patrick Counihan @irishcentral June 07,2014

More than 2000 Irish children in religious run homes were subjected to drugs trials in the 1930s according to a shocking new report.

As the Tuam burial ground scandal erupts, it has now emerged that Catholic Church run homes and state institutions let the children of unmarried mothers be used in medical experiments.

The Irish Daily Mail has published a damning report which outlines how scientists secretly vaccinated more than 2,000 children in religious-run homes in suspected illegal drug trials.

The paper says that old medical records show that 2,051 children and babies in Irish care homes were given a one-shot diphtheria vaccine for international drugs giant Burroughs Wellcome between 1930 and 1936.

The report adds that no evidence exists that consent was ever sought.

Historian Michael Dwyer who unearthed the documentations says that no records of how many may have died or suffered debilitating side-effects as a result are in existence.

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IRELAND
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tuam

Archbishop Neary welcomes the announcement today of the Minister to establish a Cross-Departmental Examination for the burial arrangements of Children in Mother and Baby Homes.

I was greatly shocked, as we all were, to learn of the extent of the numbers of children buried in the grave-yard in Tuam. I was made aware of the magnitude of this situation by media reporting and historical research. I am horrified and saddened to hear of the large number of deceased children involved and this points to a time of great suffering and pain for the little ones and their mothers.

I can only begin to imagine the huge emotional wrench which the mothers suffered in giving up their babies for adoption or by witnessing their death. Many of these young vulnerable women would already have been rejected by their families. The pain and brokenness which they endured is beyond our capacity to understand. It is simply too difficult to comprehend their helplessness and suffering as they watched their beloved child die.

Regardless of the time lapse involved this is a matter of great public concern which ought to be acted upon urgently. As the diocese did not have any involvement in the running of the home in Tuam we do not have any material relating to it in our archives. I understand that the material which the Bon Secours Sisters held, as managers of the Mother and Baby Home was handed over to Galway County Council and the health authorities in 1961.

I welcome the announcement today by Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Mr. Charlie Flanagan, TD to establish a Cross-Departmental examination for the burial arrangements of Children in Mother and Baby Homes. This will have the legal authority to examine the situation and to determine the truth. While the Archdiocese of Tuam will cooperate fully nonetheless there exists a clear moral imperative on the Bon Secours Sisters in this case to act upon their responsibilities in the interests of the common good.

The Diocese will continue to work with the Sisters and the local community to provide a suitable commemorative prayer based memorial service and plaque and to ensure that the deceased and their families will never be forgotten.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Caroline Crawford
Published 07/06/2014

Bodies of nine women who died in the Tuam Mother and Baby home may also lie near the 796 infants buried in a septic tank on the grounds, according to locals.

The records obtained by local historian Catherine Corless – which show that close to 800 babies died at the Tuam Mother and Baby home – also reveal that nine women died over the same period.

However, she has been unable to ascertain where their graves are.

Local man Martin Ward, who is heavily involved in the committee to erect a plaque in memory of the dead, said he believes the women lie alongside the infants.

“We believe there’s nine women buried there as well,according to the records. They show nine women died and we presume that they are buried there,” he said.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Jun 07, 2014 06:00 By Adelina Campos

President Higgins calls for State inquiry as detectives finally begin to investigate the horrific discovery

Gardai have launched an investigation into the mass baby grave scandal, it was revealed last night.

Detectives have questioned two men who found bones on the site in Tuam, Co Galway, in 1975.

They will now decide whether to launch a full criminal investigation into the dumping of the children’s bodies without proper burial or records.

The move came as President Michael D Higgins said he was “appalled” by the revelations and called for a Government inquiry.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

Eoin Brennan

Saturday 7 June 2014

The bodies of nine women who died at the Tuam mother and Baby home may also be in the septic tank believed to hold the bodies of 796 children.

Catherine Corless – the local historian who first discovered the death records of the children – show nine women also died at the home during the same period and their burial spots are currently unkown. At this point Corless can confirm that the women died at the home between the years of 1937 to 1961 but she has not been able to find graves for the women. Corless stresses that she cannot confirm the nine are buried with the children.

“When I was getting the names of the children who died in the home …they also gave me a list of nine adult women who died, and it stated on the certs that they died in the home in Tuam.

“Now, I can’t confirm that they were buried with the children. They died in the home during the years from 1937 to 1961, that’s all I can tell you. I have nine names and I have no idea where they are,” Corless told Newstalk.

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IRELAND
Herald

BY CAROLINE CRAWFORD – 07 JUNE 2014

DETECTIVES have visited the site where almost 800 babies are believed to be buried in a mass grave.

Two officers called to the site in Tuam, Co Galway, yesterday along with Frannie Hopkins (51) who found the mass grave when he was 12.

It is also feared that the bodies of nine women who died in the Tuam Mother and Baby Home may lie near the 796 infants buried in a septic tank in the grounds.

After meeting the detectives, Mr Hopkins went through in detail where he had discovered the bodies.

“They brought me up to the site and I showed them where it was and how we came across it. It was all quite informal and only took about 15 minutes,” he said.

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IRELAND
Bock the Robber

Posted by Bock on June 6, 2014

The bishop of Tuam has released a statement in which he seeks to distance his diocese from the appalling treatment of the women who were locked up in the notorious Mother and baby Home.

In doing so, he follows in the footsteps of Cardinal Cahal Daly, who also sought to distance himself from any responsiblity for the monstrous behaviour of Father Brendan Smyth, the paedophile whose activities brought down a government and first exposed to the world what was really going on behind the veil of sanctity in Ireland.

Daly, you might recall, pointed out that he had no authority over Brendan Smyth, because the priest was a member of the Norbertine order and was therefore under the control of his religious superior within that order. This was why, according to Daly, he could not intervene in the priest’s rape of children. He was powerless to do so.

Oddly enough, this lack of power didn’t prevent Daly’s successor from intervening in the activities of another priest who was also a member of a religious order. Cardinal Seán Brady who, as a young priest, had sworn abused children to secrecy on pain of damnation, had no hesitation in stepping in when Father Iggy O’Donovan, an Augustinian priest in Drogheda committed a transgression in 2006.

His crime? Iggy O’Donovan celebrated an ecumenical service with a Protestant clergyman, in a spirit of reconciliation and solidarity.
…

When Dr Deeny, the Chief Medical Officer, unilaterally closed Bessborough Home because of the number of children it was killing, the Papal Nuncio complained him to DeValera on the order of Bishop Lucey of Cork, even though the home was run by nuns.

The bishops knew everything and the bishops controlled everything. Let us not forget that this bishop of Tuam was the very same one to whom the entire county library catalogue was submitted for vetting. Gilmartin selected the books to be burned, and yet, somehow, Michael Neary would have us believe he was a benign, bumbling old Santa Claus figure who had nothing to do with the systemic oppression of women in post-independence Ireland.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 7 June 2014)

Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission is currently investigating how Catholic Church authorities ignored the crimes of a Marist Brother who (for legal reasons) is being referred to as “Brother Z.A.” He was inflicted on Australian Catholic schoolchildren for 20 years. The letters “Z.A.” do not refer to this Brother’s real name; this is merely the Royal Commission’s code-name for him. Some revelations about the cover-up are likely.

Broken Rites understands that “Brother Z.A” worked as a primary teacher, from the early 1970s to the early 1990s, in various Catholic schools in Queensland, New South Wales and Canberra.

Starting on 10 June 2014, the Royal Commission is holding a week or more of public hearings (Case Study 13) which will include the question of how the Marist Brothers administration responded (or failed to respond) to the crimes of “Brother ZA”, plus another Marist (Brother John “Kostka” Chute).

These public hearings will examine:

* Any steps taken (or not taken) by the Marist authorities to report these allegations to the police.
* The response of government and other agencies to these allegations.
* The settling of compensation claims for victims of Marist Brothers, including Brother Kostka Chute and Brother Z.A.

The public hearings of Case Study 13 (including both Kostka Chute and ZA) will be streamed, via webcast, on the Royal Commission’s website. To reach the Commission’s webpage for Case Study 13, click HERE.

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IRLAND
euronews

800 tote Säuglinge: Irland ordnet Untersuchung an

In Irland werden die mysteriösen Todesfälle von Kleinkindern neu aufgerollt. Bereits 1975 war in der Stadt Tuam ein Massengrab mit fast 800 Leichen entdeckt worden. Dabei soll es sich um Säuglinge aus einem Mutter-Kind-Heim handeln, das von 1925 bis 1961 von katholischen Ordensschwestern betrieben wurde.

“Ich habe Kinder- und Jugendminister Flanagan damit beauftragt, eine Kommission zu bilden, um das Ausmaß und die Beteiligten festzustellen”, sagt der irische Premierminister Enda Kenny. “Es soll herausgefunden werden, ob es sich um einen Einzelfall handelt oder ob es andere gibt, die untersucht werden müssen”, so Kenny weiter.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Neue Presse

[Summary: On theWeihnachtsfeiertag holiday in 1998 there was an uproar in the St. Mary parish in Sonnenfelt. A father got up from his seat, went into the sanctuary and accused the pastor of sexually abusing is son. The boy was an altar boy. The believers were shaken.]

Coburg/Berlin – Am zweiten Weihnachtsfeiertag des Jahres 1998 kommt es in der katholischen Kirchengemeinde St. Marien in Sonnefeld zu einem Eklat. Ein Vater steht auf, geht in den Altarraum und wirft dem Pfarrer während des Gottesdienstes vor, seinen Sohn sexuell missbraucht zu haben. Der Junge war Messdiener gewesen. Die Gläubigen sind erschüttert.

Am 4. Januar 1999 informiert ein Mitglied der katholischen Kirchengemeinde Ebersdorf/Sonnefeld den Generalvikar der Erzdiözese Bamberg, Alois Albrecht. Es folgen innerkirchliche Prüfungen, und dann schaltet das Erzbischöfliche Ordinariat die Staatsanwaltschaft Coburg ein. Eine Lawine ungeahnten Ausmaßes kommt ins Rollen.

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ITALIA
A ragion verduta

[Summary: In Italy, only two dioceses – Bessanone and Verona – after dozens of sexual abuse complaints have decided to establish a commission of inquiry]

Redazione: Questo libro appare la naturale estensione all’Italia del suo precedente lavoro. Nel nostro Paese non si sono però avute commissioni d’inchiesta sull’argomento, abbiamo anzi una conferenza episcopale che pare ami ribadire che non vi è alcun obbligo di denuncia dei sacerdoti pedofili. Come si sta evolvendo la situazione in Italia?

Tulli: In Italia, fino a oggi solo due diocesi in seguito a decine di denunce che peraltro erano rimaste inascoltate per anni hanno deciso di istituire una commissione d’inchiesta: Bressanone e Verona. In entrambi i casi gran parte delle denunce sono risultate fondate ma la prescrizione ha negato la possibilità di ottenere giustizia alle vittime. Si è trattato peraltro di commissioni che hanno agito a livello “locale”. Nel nostro Paese, diversamente dall’Irlanda, Belgio, Stati Uniti, Australia, Olanda, Germania solo per citarne alcuni, non è mai nemmeno stata ipotizzata la possibilità di istituire una commissione d’inchiesta a livello nazionale che facesse luce quanto meno sulle dimensioni del fenomeno.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sexueller Missbrauch durch Angehorige der katholischen Kirche

“Du sollst nicht schweigen” – Priester erhebt Vorwürfe gegen das Bistum: “Man habe ihm im Priesterseminar nicht beigebracht, dass man so etwas nicht tun dürfe.”

Jahrelang wird eine Minderjährige von einem katholischen Pfarrer missbraucht – drei Jahrzehnte später macht sie sich auf ihre Weise Luft

Von Hans Holzhaider

Würzburg – Zum Aufruf vor dem Zivilrichter Peter Müller am Landgericht Würzburg kommt die Sache Fromm gegen Weiß (Namen geändert). Johannes Fromm, 70, katholischer Pfarrer im Ruhestand, will Claudia Weiß, 40, verbieten lassen zu behaupten, er habe sie sexuell missbraucht oder sexuelle Handlungen an ihr vorgenommen. Ferner soll es, fordert der Kläger, Frau Weiß verboten werden, zwei Schreiben des Missbrauchsbeauftragten und des Generalvikariats des Bistums Würzburg, in denen auf diesen sexuellen Missbrauch Bezug genommen wird, zu verbreiten oder an Dritte weiterzuleiten.

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IRELAND
Finfacts Ireland

By Michael Hennigan, Finfacts founder and editor
Jun 6, 2014

Every country is an Organised Hypocrisy to some degree. Countries have aspirations and stated principles, which more often than not, contrast with a grim reality – – at least in democracies today, there is an opportunity for some rebalancing.

Thomas Jefferson, America’s third president and a cruel slave master, who had penned the line in the 1776 Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” fathered at least six children with his slave Sally Hemings but he regarded them as sub-human, while Karl Marx a German philosopher, who had seen the grim existence for workers in Germany and Britain in the first century of the industrial revolution, would not have expected to become the god of brutal dictatorships that crushed the human spirit in the twentieth century.

The revelation that 796 babies died in a facility run by a religious order in Tuam, County Galway over 36 years, is shocking even after the litany of stories of abuse in recent decades.

Two sectarian states had developed in Ireland from the 1920’s and in the South, behind the veneer of “republican principles,” conservative elites held power and brooked little opposition.

In the Irish Times in 2009, the late journalist Mary Raftery wrote on Mr Justice Seán Ryan’s report on decades of child abuse in Ireland: “It’s is quite simply a devastating report. It is a monument to the shameful nature of

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IRELAND
Journal

IN THE SPACE of two weeks, the story about a mass grave at a former mother and baby home in Galway has grown from something that was just talked about locally in Tuam to a worldwide news story.

The oh-so-gradual unfolding of the story, beginning in the 1970s with the discovery of multiple skeletons, seemed to take people by surprise. After breaking in the media almost a fortnight ago, it took more than a week before any politician made a comment about it, and it was days before national mainstream outlets covered it.

Here, we look at how the story has unfolded, and all of the many, many questions that still remain.

What is the home at the centre of the controversy?

From 1925 until 1961, an order of nuns calls the Bon Secours Sisters ran an institution at this building in Tuam in Co Galway.

The institution was called St Mary’s but was known locally as The Home. Unmarried women in the area who became pregnant were sent there to give birth away from their families, as at the time, having a so-called ‘illegitimate’ child was regarded as shameful.

The babies were then left in the orphanage to be raised by the nuns. Some of them were put up for adoption while some remained in the care of the nuns.

Some of the poorer women who gave birth were forced to work for the nuns in the institution after they had their child as a way to pay for the service which had been provided to them.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

Jun 06, 2014 00:11 By Jilly Beattie

The 81-year-old said she now knows her son Anthony was “lucky” because he “lived and loved” although she was never reunited with him

Movie inspiration Philomena Lee spoke yesterday of her horror over the mass baby grave.

The 81-year-old’s struggle to find her son Anthony who was taken from her in an unmarried mother and baby home touched millions when it hit the big screen as an acclaimed film starring Dame Judi Dench.

And yesterday, Philomena said: “Now I know we were the lucky ones.

“For 50 years I kept my sweet boy a secret until I could hold it in no longer.

“My dream was to be reunited with him but sadly it was not to be and the grief I have suffered has broken me many times.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Michael Clifford

THE Tuam babies story this week says much about the past, but about the present also.

The graveyard in the grounds of the former so-called mother-and-baby home was first discovered by two 12-year-old boys, in 1975. One of them opened the concrete cover and was met with the horror below. Pretty quickly, the cover was drawn across again. In the 1970s, the past had not yet been acknowledged. Indeed, the past wasn’t even past.

The next major juncture in the story was last October, by which time local historian, Catherine Corless, had painstakingly compiled and matched records from the home. Corless concluded that the concrete tank must contain most, if not all, of the nearly 800 infants who had died in the home during its existence, between 1925 and 1961.

The story was first published in the Connaught Tribune on October 10 last, which reported that the number of babies allegedly involved was 788. Continuing research has brought this number up to 796.

Declan Tierney’s report in the Tribune began: “Research has shown that there are 788 children, from newborns to eight-year-olds, buried in a graveyard that was attached to an old orphanage in Tuam.

“And a group of interested individuals have now established the names of each of the children, what age they were when they died, and the causes of their deaths. It is now their intention to erect a memorial in their honour and this will contain the names of each of the 788 children.”

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VIRGINIA
Fredericksburg.com

BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

Priests at a Stafford County Catholic church are ready to handle any concerns that arise from the news that a former church member faces 111 felonies involving child molestation.

A Stafford grand jury indicted Thomas Francis Villacres on those charges Monday. Villacres, a former chairman of the Stafford County School Board, now lives in Florida.

While living in Stafford, Villacres was a member of St. William of York Catholic Church in North Stafford.

The Rev. Robert DeMartino is prepared to answer any questions parishioners may have about Villacres and the charges, said Michael Donohue, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Arlington. And if anyone comes forward to report abuse, DeMartino would encourage them to contact law enforcement, Donohue said.

The priest also plans to announce Villacres’ arrest, although those plans are not concrete yet. Church bulletins were printed Monday, before the charges against Villacres were published in the newspaper, Donohue said.

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LAS VEGAS (NV)
KTNV

CREATED Jun 6, 2014

Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) — A youth pastor from California has been arrested in the death of a Las Vegas man from last year.

Family members confirm police arrested Robert L. Cox on Tuesday. According to police records, Cox is accused in the murder of Link Ellingson, who died in December, 2013 of head injuries from an altercation outside a Las Vegas pub that happened months earlier.

Police records show Cox was visiting Las Vegas on June 13, 2013, with his family and interns as part of a ministry program. The group stopped for food at the Four Kegs Sports Pub on North Jones Boulevard near U.S. 95. The altercation with Ellingson took place in the parking lot afterwards, police wrote.

In police documents, officers said Cox punched the 6’8 Ellingson, who fell and hit his head. The records show Cox later denied throwing any punches.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Melissa Harris
Tribune columnist
4:02 p.m. CDT, June 6, 2014

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, a Roman Catholic who has clashed with Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George, has presided over two gay weddings this year, including a double wedding last week.

The double ceremony, held at Keith House in Chicago’s South Loop, marked the first time a member of the state’s highest court has married a same-sex couple since all counties began issuing marriage licenses to them in June, Burke said.

A brother and sister each married same-sex partners, said Burke, whose daughter knows one of the couples.

“That’s how they reached out to me,” Burke said. “The guys walked the girls down the aisle, and then took their respective partners’ hands. The girls wore wedding dresses. The guys had on nice suits and royal blue ties.”

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TEXAS
Valley Morning Star

By ILDEFONSO ORTIZ

A Mission teenager claims a Catholic deacon at a Mission church sexually abused him for about two years, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

The victim — now 18 years old — claims that from 2010 to 2012, when he was an altar boy at the San Cristobal Magallanes parish in Mission, Deacon Ronaldo Mitchell Chavez sexually assaulted him, the teen’s attorneys said in the lawsuit.

Police on Jan. 17 arrested Chavez on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child. Last month, an Hidalgo County grand jury returned an indictment against him on the sexual abuse charge. The case remains pending in the 430th state District Court.

In the lawsuit, attorneys seek exemplary damages claiming that the diocese should have known that Chavez was a danger to children, but instead he had unlimited access to the altar boys at the parish.

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PARAGUAY
ABC Color

El obispo de Ciudad de Este, Mons. Rogelio Livieres Plano, dijo ayer a ABC Color: “No voy a pedir perdón mientras que (Cuquejo) no se retracte de lo que dijo de mi sacerdote. ¿De dónde sacó la prensa que yo le llamé?”. Su tío, Mons. Jorge Livieres Banks, intentó mediar, pero no tuvo éxito.

Livieres Plano sigue con su enojo con el arzobispo de Asunción, Mons. Pastor Cuquejo. Ayer, en contacto con ABC Color, dijo categóricamente que no le va a pedir perdón. “No voy a pedir perdón mientras que (Cuquejo) no se retracte de lo que dijo de mi sacerdote (Carlos Urrutigoity, acusado de abuso sexual). ¿De dónde sacó la prensa que yo le llamé?”, preguntó en alusión a publicaciones en la web que daban como un hecho la reconciliación e incluso mencionaban que había llamado a Cuquejo para pedirle perdón.

El obispo paranaense agregó que estaba con la conciencia tranquila, “aunque él sea el metropolitano”.

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PARGUAY
ABC Color

CIUDAD DEL ESTE (De nuestra redacción regional). Las repercusiones que tuvo la advertencia de autoridades religiosas de los Estados Unidos acerca del supuesto peligro que representa el sacerdote argentino Carlos Urrutigoity para los jóvenes podrían sentirse en los estrados judiciales locales. Urrutigoity fue denunciado por conductas homosexuales y pedófilas en Argentina y Estados Unidos.

La fiscala de la Niñez de Ciudad del Este María Graciela Vera Colmán explicó que ayer recibió una denuncia verbal de que habría una o varias víctimas de abusos sexuales de Urrutigoity, pero que no tiene informaciones concretas.

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PARAGUAY
El Universal

[Summary: The bishops of two major cities in Paraguay are in a public confrontation regarding the Argentina priest Carlos Urrutigoity who is alleged to have assaulted a student in the United States.
The battle between Rogeligo Livieres Plano of Ciudad del Este and the Archbishop of Asuncion, Pastor Cuquejo, broke after the second suggested that an investigation be reopened to find study allegations of child molestation against Urrutigoity. Livieres appointed Urrutigoity as his number two official and has defended him saying the case is closed.]

El sacerdote argentino Carlos Urrutigoity fue acusado en Estados Unidos de asaltar sexualmente a un estudiante

Los obispos de las dos principales ciudades de Paraguay protagonizan un enfrentamiento público en torno a la figura de un sacerdote argentino que fue suspendido por pedofilia en Estados Unidos y ahora vive en el país sudamericano.

La batalla entre el obispo de Ciudad del Este, Rogeligo Livieres Plano, y el arzobispo de Asunción, Pastor Cuquejo, estalló después de que el segundo sugiriera reabrir una investigación para averiguar si son ciertas las acusaciones de abuso de menores contra Carlos Urrutigoity.

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PARAGUAY
Entorno Inteligente

[Summary: The public ministry has opened an official investigation of Argentine priest Carlos Urrutigoity who is accused of pedophilia. Maria Graciela Vera said they will verify all the charges against him and try to contact the family to see if they wish to make a complaint. Penalties for rape of children can be prison terms of up to 15 years or more. At the same time, the U.S. organization called Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests issued a statement asking that Paraguay suspend the priest from his clerical functions. Urrutigoity is now second in the structure of the Ciudad del Este diocese.]

Hoy.com.py / El Ministerio Público abrirá una investigación de oficio, contra el sacerdote argentino Carlos Urrutigoity, quien es acusado de pedofilia.

La fiscal de la niñez y adolescencia, María Graciela Vera, confirmó a la redacción de HOY, que investigará de oficio al cura Carlos Urrutigoity.

“Vamos a verificar todas las acusaciones en su contra y tratar de contactar con los familiares para ver si desean formular una denuncia”, expresó Vera.

Las penas por violación en niños, pueden ser de hasta 15 años, e incluso más, dependiendo del agravante de cada causa.

Sobre este mismo caso, la organización de Estados Unidos, denominada Red de sobrevivientes abusados por sacerdotes, emitió un comunicado días atrás, solicitando que Paraguay suspenda al cura .

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Hans Küng, Can We Save the Catholic Church?: An Excerpt re: President George W. Bush and Pope Benedict XVI

I’ve mentioned in the comboxes here in the past several days that I’m now reading Hans Küng’s new book Can We Save the Catholic Church?, trans. Dr. Herrlinger of Tübingen, with reworking by Thomas Riplinger and Andrew Lyon (London: William Collins, 2013). Kathy Hughes, a faithful reader of and contributor to this blog, kindly sent me a copy of the book.*

In days to come, I’ll be sharing some reports from my reading. As I begin the book, I’m struck by how the question in its title is echoed in a book another faithful reader of and contributor to Bilgrimage has sent me: Ruth Krall recently sent me a book by Sister Karol Jackowski entitled The Silence We Keep: A Nun’s View of the Catholic Priest Scandal (NY: Harmony, 2004). I’ve only dipped into this book, but as I begin Küng’s book, it interests me very much to see that Jackowski starts the final chapter of her book with the following questions:

So what happens next? Is this the end of the Catholic Church? Is this curtains for Catholicism?

Why are so many people asking such questions right now, I wonder as I begin Küng’s book. People who are, after all, “official” representatives of the church: Küng is a priest, a theologian, and was a peritus at Vatican II; and Jackowski is a nun . . . .

Meanwhile, here’s an excerpt from Küng’s book that caught my attention yesterday:

It was no coincidence that at Bush’s invitation, Benedict happily celebrated his 81st birthday in the White House, together with the autocratic president: both men, Bush and Ratzinger, proved themselves over the years incapable of learning anything, for example in their common stance on the issue of abortion (60-1).

Keep in mind that Küng knows Ratzinger intimately, that both were periti at Vatican II, and were friends during that period. Küng notes that, when Ratzinger was made pope, Küng held out hope that Benedict would begin to repair some of the tremendous damage he had inflicted on the whole church as the German shepherd watchdog heading the former Inquisition, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under the autocratic pope now known as St. John Paul II.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Donald Clarke

Sat, Jun 7, 2014

Much confusion still surrounds the alleged discovery of human remains near a mother-and-baby home run by the Sisters of Bon Secours in Tuam.

Since its appearance in the Irish Daily Mail, the story has buzzed furiously about social media while broadcasters and other newspapers tried to sort rumour from hard fact.

By Wednesday, Charlie Flanagan, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, was sufficiently concerned to describe the revelations as “a shocking reminder of a darker past in Ireland when our children were not cherished as they should have been”.

Further details are gradually oozing their way across newsprint and the airwaves. Whatever we subsequently learn about this squalid story, it can’t be denied that the Catholic Church has had another bad week. (That organisation doesn’t have too many good ones these days.)

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KENTUCKY
Courier & Press

By Beth Smith
Posted June 6, 2014

A Colorado jury has convicted a former Henderson youth minister of sexual abuse related charges.

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KENTUCKY
Tristate Homepage

A former Henderson youth pastor is convicted of 16 sexual abuse related charges in Colorado while still facing similar charges in the tristate.

44 year-old John Brothers is a former youth minister at Hyland Baptist Church. He could face life in prison.

Now this is just the beginning of Brothers’ days in a courtroom.

He is still awaiting trial in Henderson.

Brothers was first arrested in 2011 for the alleged sexual-abuse of two members of Hyland Baptist’s Youth Group.

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NEW JERSEY
News 12

[with video]

MORRISTOWN – A victim of sexual abuse by a priest is speaking publicly after Delbarton School has agreed to lift a confidentiality order going back 30 years.

For the first time, Bill Wolfe can speak publicly about the horrors that happened to him at the elite Delbarton School in Morristown. “It feels literally like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” he says.

Wolfe turned to a Delbarton priest for guidance when he was 14 years old, and says he was abused. “He asked me to expose myself, and then he asked me to relieve myself, to masturbate.”

The victim revealed the abuse to his family and successfully sued Delbarton, but under a 1988 court settlement, Wolfe had to remain silent until Thursday.

After suing Delbarton again, the Catholic boys high school run by the monks of St. Mary’s Abbey agreed to lift the gag order.

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AUSTRALIA
Dubbo Photo News

Fact, fiction and a fight far from over: Special Commission Enquiry report backs Grant

Saturday, 07 June 2014 12:48 Written by Jen Cowley

It’s a rare politician who doesn’t like to be proved right, but on at least this occasion, vindication is bittersweet for Troy Grant – former policeman turned politician and, recently, state government minister.

This week, a report from the Special Commission of Enquiry – set up to examine claims by former detective Peter Fox about the conduct of police in investigating child sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle – found that Grant, who led those investigations as a young detective during the 90s, was “an impressive and credible witness”, while rejecting Fox’s assertions that Grant had referred to “Catholic mafia” and complained of police hierarchy hindering his investigation.

Grant has always denied Fox’s version of their conversation, and has expressed his disappointment, on many occasions, over what he saw as a cruel distraction from the issue at hand – finding justice for the victims of child sexual abuse at the hands of the clergy.

The report is weighty – and Grant is glowing in his praise of Commissioner Margaret Cunneen in getting to the bottom of allegations made by Fox who, it’s now widely agreed, lost perspective on an otherwise admirable crusade for justice.

According to the commission, Grant’s evidence into the investigation of priest Father Vincent Ryan (who was subsequently found guilty of offences against 31 victims and sentences to lengthy gaol terms) was “persuasive”.

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TEXAS
Fox 2

[with video]

This civil lawsuit follows a similar criminal indictment for charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child that Ronaldo Mitchell Chavez is facing.

A statement released by the Salinas-Flores law firm accuses the diocese of Brownsville of negligence in the case of sexual assault of a minor.

The civil suit points to the alleged abuser Ronaldo Mitchell Chavez who was a deacon at the San Cristobal Magallanes parish in mission during the alleged assault.

The victim referred to as ‘John Doe 1′ to protect his identity, claimed to have suffered a continued sexual assault when the teenager was between 14 and 16 years-old from 2010 to 2012. Two years later the plaintiff decided to file a criminal complaint in December which led to the consequent arrest of Chavez by mission police in January.

The prosecution attorneys believe other victims are still out there, they realize fear is a factor, especially if it seems to go against their own faith.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Sharon Foley

Fri, Jun 6, 2014

It is hard not to be horrified, sickened and shocked at the heartbreaking revelations that 796 babies died and may have been buried in a mass grave in the grounds of a home run by the Sisters of the Bon Secours in Tuam, Co Galway, between 1925 and 1961.

As a mother, I am mourning to my core the loss of these precious lives. It is nearly beyond my capacity to understand how helpless, tiny human beings could have been apparently discarded and treated in this way.

The full facts surrounding the deaths will probably never be established. But the question on all our minds is what happened these babies? Did they die when the mother was in childbirth? Did they die from malnutrition and neglect? Did they die from an illness that is now easily treatable? Did they die alone?

These infants died in a mother and baby home at a disgraceful period in Ireland when unmarried mothers were banished and hidden away and cruelly forced to give up their infants for adoption on birth.

As founding chief executive of the government-funded Crisis Pregnancy Agency, I understand the trauma of a crisis pregnancy and our shameful history in failing to support Irish girls and women who were pregnant and unmarried.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Even the story of Philomena Lee, as recounted in the film starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, did not stir the national conscience to action

Sat, Jun 7, 2014

Eighteen years ago, on May 11th, 1996, Padraig O’Morain wrote in this newspaper about a woman he called Eileen, whose baby was taken from her in a mother-and-baby home and sent to the US for adoption.

It followed an announcement the previous month by Dick Spring, who was at the time the tánaiste and minister for foreign affairs, that files on the adoption of Irish babies in the US had been found. It was said this offered hope that birth mothers and children taken from them for adoption could meet again.

We’ve had four statutory reports since then on the abuses of children, and the McAleese report on the Magdalene laundries, but no investigation into mother-and-baby homes.

Even the deeply moving story of Philomena Lee, as recounted in the film ‘Philomena’ last year, did not stir the national conscience to action.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Rosita Boland

Sat, Jun 7, 2014

‘I never used that word ‘dumped’,” Catherine Corless, a local historian in Co Galway, tells The Irish Times. “I never said to anyone that 800 bodies were dumped in a septic tank. That did not come from me at any point. They are not my words.”

The story that emerged from her work was reported this week in dramatic headlines around the world.
“Tell us the truth about the children dumped in Galway’s mass graves” – The Guardian.

The Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, which was a home from 1930 to 1970. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA WireThis time, the issue of mother and baby homes must be addressed

“Bodies of 800 babies, long-dead, found in septic tank at former Irish home for unwed mothers” – The Washington Post.

“Nearly 800 dead babies found in septic tank in Ireland” – Al Jazeera.

“800 skeletons of babies found inside tank at former Irish home for unwed mothers” – New York Daily News.

“Almost 800 ‘forgotten’ Irish children dumped in septic tank mass grave at Catholic home” – ABC News, Australia.

Corless, who lives outside Tuam, has been working for several years on records associated with the former St Mary’s mother-and-baby home in the town. Her research has revealed that 796 children, most of them infants, died between 1925 and 1961, the 36 years that the home, run by Bon Secours, existed.

Between 2011 and 2013 Corless paid €4 each time to get the children’s publicly available death certificates. She says the total cost was €3,184. “If I didn’t do it, nobody else would have done it. I had them all by last September.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Shaun Connolly

AS horrific as it is, the dumping ground for hundreds of dead babies at the Bon Secours home in Tuam should not be the focal point of our concern, but rather how they ended up there, and why no one cared for so long.

The grim revelations that have been forcing themselves slowly to the surface of public consciousness for decades once again show our politicians only act with speed when it is in their interest to do so.

Even calling the Tuam establishment a “home” feels wrong, as Independent TD Catherine Murphy demanded the grave be labelled a crime scene.

“We are hearing references to ‘burials’, when, in fact we are talking about bodies being disposed of in a septic tank. Clearly, these were not respectful burials — they were disposals, as though these children were subhuman. It is stomach-churning. If this septic tank was discovered anywhere else in the country other than beside a religious institution, it would already have been declared a crime scene. It begs the question of why, in fact, it has not been declared as such, which it should and must be,” Ms Murphy told the Dáil.

And in response we got the usual platitudes of pity and pious shock from the Government front bench, but precious little else.

In his first test as Children’s Minister Charlie Flanagan flailed around badly, getting off to a poor start with group think, jargon-speak about looking at creating an “inter-departmental process” to deal with the situation which should see a response within a month, so the Government can decide what to do next. Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has also been extraordinarily slow in intervening.

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CALIFORNIA
Merced Sun-Star

BY DARRELL SMITH
dvsmith@sacbee.comJune 6, 2014

The Davis priest arrested in May on suspicion of having sex with a 17-year-old girl faces three felony charges tied to the allegations.

In a complaint released Friday, Yolo County prosecutors filed three felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and a misdemeanor charge of oral copulation with a person younger than 18 years old against Hector Coria Gonzales.

A priest at St. James’ Parish since July 2012, Gonzales is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Yolo Superior Court in Woodland.

Prosecutors say Gonzales, 46, engaged in sexual relations with the teenager over an eight-month span starting in September 2013, including alleged intercourse at a home, in a vehicle and at the church’s rectory, located on the Davis parish campus.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

June 6, 2014 – the 70th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy and the discovery of Irish Holocaust of 800 little babies skeleton in a septic tank dumped by stupid Roman Catholic Nuns obedient to Roman Catholic Evil Popes obsessed with the doctrines of the Virginity of Mary and superiority of the Vow of Chastity of nuns and priests over lay men and lay women. See the popes below who reigned from 1927 – 1961 during this Irish Holocaust of Irish babies born of unwed mothers in the horrific hands of evil nuns.

TOP 10 inspirations of Christ impelled on D-Day

If The Hague will not condemn the Vatican for its priests and nuns’ crimes against humanity and if the United Nations will not remove the Vatican as a “country” member of the UN, God will take matters into His own hands soon – because He has been asking us to tell the world: (1) that Pope Francis is the ultimate evil con-artist the CON-Christ and the biggest thief in mankind’s history, and that he is a Jesuit Master of Deceits and the Opus Dei Beast Pretender and Impostor of Jesus read our related article, Hidden Heist in the Holy See. The SECRET biggest heist in the history of mankind!

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MEXICO
Proceso

[Summary: Alberto Athie, a former priest and one of the leading activists in Mexico who are fighting pedophilia, said today he is sending a letter to Pope Francis asking him to once and for all “stop this slaughter of sex abuse against thousands of children worldwide.]

-MÉXICO, D.F. (apro).- El exsacerdote Alberto Athié, uno de los principales activistas contra la pederastia clerical, anunció hoy que en los próximos días enviará una carta al Papa Francisco para pedirle que de una vez por todas “paren esta masacre de abusos sexuales en contra de miles de niños en el mundo”.

En declaraciones a MVS Noticias, alabó la decisión del Vaticano de expulsar al sacerdote pederasta Eduardo Córdova Bautista, aunque lamentó la forma como la arquidiócesis potosina manejó el asunto, cuidando siempre la imagen de la iglesia y de sus representantes, en lugar de proceder a castigarlo.

Athié fue la primera persona que sacó a la luz pública el caso del padre Córdova, a quien definió como una persona con liderazgo, carisma y una inteligencia brillante que supo codearse con el poder, “aunque no más perverso que Maciel” .

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

BRIAN MEDEL YARMOUTH BUREAU
Published June 6, 2014

Author’s book Deliver Us From Evil details allegations against now-deceased priest

YARMOUTH — The book’s pages chronicle Del Boudreau’s memories, allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of “the most evil” man he says he has ever known, now-dead Catholic priest Adolphe LeBlanc.

Boudreau first came forward five years ago to talk about what was done to him and now, at 70, he has penned Deliver Us From Evil, a memoir he published this week.

Fr. LeBlanc died in the 1970s, after allegedly assaulting dozens of boys.

And although the abuse has not been proven in court, Boudreau was one of six victims who received part of the $1.5-million settlement from the Diocese of Yarmouth in 2011.

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TEXAS
The Monitor

Ildefonso Ortiz | The Monitor

McALLEN — Attorneys representing a Mission teenager have sued the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville alleging negligence after the teen had been a victim of sexual assault by a deacon.

The victim who is only identified as John Doe and is now 18-years old claims that from 2010 to 2012 when he was an altar server at the San Cristobal Magallanes parish in Mission, Deacon Ronaldo Mitchell Chavez sexually assaulted him, records show.

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TEXAS
Valley Morning Star

Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014

By Ildefonso Ortiz, The Monitor

McALLEN — Attorneys representing a Mission teenager have sued the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville alleging negligence after the teen had been a victim of sexual assault by a deacon.

The victim, who is only identified as John Doe and is now 18-years old, claims that from 2010 to 2012 when he was an altar server at the San Cristobal Magallanes parish in Mission, Deacon Ronaldo Mitchell Chavez sexually assaulted him, records show.

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TEXAS
Valley Central

A former altar boy has filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Diocese of Brownsville.

The now 18-year-old victim filed the lawsuit at the Hidalgo County Courthouse on Thursday morning.

According to the lawsuit, the teen claims he was sexually abused by Ronaldo Mitchell Chavez.

The teen claims Chavez sexually abused him several times between 2010 and 2012 while serving as an altar boy.

Chavez worked as a deacon at at the San Cristobal Magallanes Catholic Church in Mission where he befriended and later sexually abused the boy.

Mission police arrested Chavez on a continuous sexual abuse of a child charge back in January.

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