ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Simon Jenkins
theguardian.com, Monday 28 April 2014

Two new saints were declared at the weekend. Amid euphoric scenes in Vatican Square, Pope Francis defied his modernisation drive by canonising two of his recent predecessors. The world’s press indulged the occasion as one of universal joy. Even if they did regard it as barking mad, they thought it bad form to rain on someone else’s parade.

Of all Catholic rituals, sanctification drips with medieval nonsense. A prospective saint is nominated, investigated by a committee and, if displaying “heroic virtues”, is tested for a miracle. Since a miracle is an act of God answering a prayer, it must be medically “inexplicable”, putting some pressure on the doctors concerned. Only martyrs do not need miracles for saintliness.

This leads to beatification, followed by canonisation if a second miracle is “scientifically proven” within five years of the candidate’s death. Apparently the potency of saintly intercession wanes after a period. These rules can be waived if the candidate is a huge celebrity, like Mother Teresa. The committee was clearly keen on John XXIII and John Paul II, even if it seemed a trade union stitch-up for popes to move so briskly from office to sanctity. It is an echo of Britain’s House of Lords.

At such times I can sympathise with intelligent Catholics. Loyal to their tribe, they wrestle with virgin birth, papal infallibility, transubstantiation and much nonsense about sex. They explain away the rituals of the church as clothing God’s relationship with humans in familiar metaphors and ceremonies; some punitive, some heart-warming, like sainthood. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints – which oversees the canonisation process – should be seen as merely conducting a Vatican X Factor.

I am less indulgent. There is a notorious potency to the narratives of religious faith, throughout history a means by which elites have ruled the lives of the gullible. At a time when more death and destruction is being perpetrated in the name of religion than for many decades past, sensible people should guard against nonsense in its name, however ostensibly harmless.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

SECOND IN SERIES BY KATHY KANE

A few years ago when I encountered a breach in the Safety Environment Program, it gave me an opportunity to learn about our archdiocese’s child protection system. A few archdiocesan employees and a kind regional Vicar led me through the process. The most valuable lesson I learned from the experience was concerning the role of the pastor in child protection at the parish level. He is the ultimate decision maker concerning the safety of the children in the school, PREP, CYO, youth groups, altar servers and any other situations, activities or events involving children. Of course on a parish level there are many people involved — such as school principals, Religious Education Directors and many other. But the pastor has the absolute authority. This could not have been made clearer by all involved and even led to discussions on how this might not necessarily be a good thing in some situations.

I also attended the Mandatory Reporting sessions which were required of all volunteers in the Archdiocese. At the session I learned about Pa. law and the reporting process. I was instructed that I was free to make a report of suspected abuse myself, or could report the suspected abuse to the institution. There was a lot of discussion concerning the reporting chain and the institution. In the Archdiocesan written information concerning mandatory reporting, the title of pastor is listed first. For anyone unfamiliar with mandatory reporting and the responsibility of the head of the institution, the upcoming trial of PSU president Graham Spanier is a good example.

So I first learned about the importance of the role of pastor as the decision maker concerning many child safety issues from Archdiocesan employees and then learned about the role of head of the institutions (pastor) under Pa. Mandatory Reporting law.

It was shocking to say the least, when news broke that Father John P. Paul was left as pastor of a parish for a full year while being criminally and internally investigated for allegations of child sex abuse. I don’t care if it was a janitor, a food service worker, a teacher or volunteer who is being investigated, that person should be temporarily removed while the investigation unfolds. A pastor in charge of the safety of hundreds of children should absolutely be removed.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

APRIL 28, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

In this case, a portrait says a thousand words. Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop emeritus of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, visited St. Charles Borromeo Seminary on April 2 for the official unveiling of his official portrait. He celebrated Mass preceding a dinner reception at the Seminary.

What this portrait says to the laity is that seminarians were taught a lesson in revisionist history. Despite a tradition of portraits, Cardinal Rigali’s legacy in Philadelphia in regard to the child sex abuse scandal is nothing to be commemorated.

“In Philadelphia, a Changing of the Guard in the Shadow of Scandal,” by Katharine Q. Seelye, The New York Times, July 19, 2011

Excerpt: After Cardinal Rigali said there were no priests in active ministry who had been accused of abuse, he reversed field and suspended 21 of them in one day, prompting criticism that he should have alerted prosecutors sooner.

Despite Cardinal Rigali’s best efforts Tuesday to leave the scandal behind, it has come to define his term.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Inforamtion Service

Vatican City, 28 April 2014 (VIS) – Today at 9 a.m., at the premises of the Institute for the Works of Religion, the Supervisory Commission of Cardinals met in order to draw up guidelines for their action. Furthermore, it was decided that the Supervisory Commission will initially meet thrice yearly, notwithstanding special circumstances necessitating other meetings.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 28 April 2014 (VIS) – The fourth meeting of the Council of Cardinals with the Holy Father began this morning, and will continue during the 29 and 30 April. The Council of Cardinals was instituted by Pope Francis to help him in the governance of the universal Church and to draw up a project for the revision of the apostolic constitution “Pastor Bonus” on the Roman Curia.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Pittsburgh

Trina Orlando

MONONGAHELA (KDKA) – A group of parishioners staged a sit-in Saturday to protest the closure of their church.

St. Anthony Catholic Church in Monongahela’s final Mass was held Saturday at 4 p.m., but a group of more than 35 parishioners refused to leave when it ended.

The decision to close the church was made over a month ago.

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

VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

By Barbie Latza Nadeau
The Daily Beast

VATICAN CITY — Around 800,000 people braved stormy skies and dense crowds today in St. Peter’s Square and at piazzas throughout Rome where giant screens were erected to watch Pope Francis create two new saints for the Catholic Church. Many millions more around the world tuned in to watch the grand event, which was broadcast in 3-D for the first time in Vatican history.

The ceremony, mostly in Latin, lasted nearly two hours, but the saint making was done within the first 15 minutes when Pope Francis announced the elevation of Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II to raucous applause in the packed square. …

The popemobile steered clear of a handful of people who opposed the canonization of John Paul II and held up pictures of children abused by priests during his reign, but that was a small pocket of protests in a largely celebratory feel-good Catholic party. The Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests known as ++SNAP++ [[ http://www.snapnetwork.org/ ]] wrote an open letter to victims ahead of the ceremony: “Our hearts ache for each of you who were abused during and after John Paul II’s long tenure as Pope. We know these days are difficult, even painful, for many of you, given the awful suffering so many still experience, suffering that is often made worse as the Catholic hierarchy praises wrongdoers instead of punishing them.”

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

THAILAND
UCA News

Fr. Michael Kelly, Bangkok
International
April 28, 2014

This is a time of reform in the Church. Everyone who bothers to look, from average Catholics around the world to the cardinals who elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio to become Pope Francis, knows the Church is in strife and in need of a lot of work to render it an effective means to the end it serves: to proclaim the Gospel and serve God’s people.

First steps are being taken to fix a dysfunctional Vatican. But some of the big-ticket items for the wider Church won’t be fixed as quickly. Many of them are pastoral and require cultural change as much as administrative amendments. And as anyone with experience in changing the culture of an organization will attest, that type of change is the slowest in coming.

It will start in October with an issue that is perhaps the single most undeclared but neuralgic item in the Church’s life; also the one that frequently triggers the departure of otherwise observant Catholics from the Church: divorce and remarriage. …

And unless the issue is addressed in its full context, with full consideration given to what ministry in the Church is there to accomplish, such a change would also run the risk of enhancing something that bedevils the Church today and has contributed substantially to the syndrome of sex abuse.

I speak, of course, of clericalism, that culture of self-interest which promotes and sustains the presumption of superiority among clergy and their practice of protective secrecy. It is something that priests share with all would-be elites, such as professional associations in law and medicine, bureaucrats and the military.

If ordaining married men to priesthood inducts more people into a destructive culture that is the antithesis of anything Jesus hoped for among his followers, the move won’t reform but rather entrench the decadence. This is a constant theme of the present pope when he rails against careerism and narcissism among the clergy and the Church administration in Rome.

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

AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

ABC

A former resident of a Christian Brothers school in Western Australia has described living in constant terror at the institution where “violence was a way of life”.

John Hennessey is the first of a number of victims to give evidence at the Perth hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He was a child migrant from the UK and told the hearing he was excited to come to Australia as an 11-year-old boy, considering it an adventure.

Mr Hennessey, who was a resident at the Bindoon Farm School north of Perth, broke down during his evidence today as he recounted the moment he realised “something was amiss”.

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

AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

AMANDA BANKS, LEGAL AFFAIRS EDITOR AND AAP The West Australian
April 28, 2014

A former Christian Brothers student has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse his abusers acted with impunity, safe in the knowledge the authorities would do nothing.

Young boys at four WA Christian Brothers homes were repeatedly raped and brutally beaten when they reported the abuse, which often led to perpetrators being removed and simply replaced with another brother who would inflict more sexual assaults.

John Hennessey spoke at first public hearing in Perth of the royal commission, saying the men who abused him during his time at St Joseph’s Farm and Trade School in Bindoon felt safe in doing so.

“I was exploited and abused by criminals (who were) safe in the knowledge that the State Government and church were my legal guardians, and would never bother to meet their responsibilities,“ he said.

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

CANADA
Toronto Star

By: Donovan Vincent News reporter, Published on Sun Apr 27 2014

The race is on for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission probing abuse in Indian residential schools to comb through mountains of historical government records in search of documents pertaining to this painful chapter in Canada’s history.

For the past four years, the commission has been holding public hearings across the country during which survivors have told riveting personal stories about mistreatment in residential schools.

Those hearings have wrapped up and by June 2015 the commission must write a report that includes recommendations for preventing a similar tragedy in the future.

Kimberly Murray, a lawyer and executive director for the commission, says there’s not enough time left.

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

NEDERLAND
NRC

[Summary: In the last 20 years people’s trust in churches has never been so low, according to the social and cultural planning office in a report on religious developments in the Netherlands. Since 2006 the percentage of people who said they have little or no confidence in churches has risen from 45 to 58 percent.]

door Frank Huiskamp

In de afgelopen twintig jaar is het vertrouwen dat mensen in de kerken hebben nog nooit zo laag geweest, schrijft het Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau (SCP) in een rapport (pdf) over de godsdienstige ontwikkelingen in Nederland.

De laatste jaren (vanaf 2006) is het percentage mensen dat zegt “zeer weinig tot helemaal geen vertrouwen” te hebben, gestegen van 45 naar 58 procent. Tussen 1966 en 2006 daalde volgens het SCP bovendien het percentage kerkleden dat meent dat je je aan alle regels van de kerk dient te houden van 51 naar 34 procent.

Het percentage Nederlanders dat lid van een kerk is, slonk sinds 1970 met de helft. Nog sterker gedaald is het percentage mensen dat regelmatig een kerk of “godsdienstelijke samenkomst” bezoekt. Onder alle mensen daalde dat met liefst 71 procent, van 51 naar 15 procent.

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

UNITED STATES
Enlightened Catholicism

I swore I wasn’t going to write one more word on the upcoming Canonizations of JPII and John XXIII, but that was not to be. This morning Joshua McElwee posted an article for the NCR in which two very prominent JPII apologists attempt to convince us JPII acted with expediency on clergy sexual abuse. The two men are, American neocon George Weigel and JPII’s papal spokesman Dr Jaoquin Navarro-Valls. Both are closely connected with Opus Dei. This is important because JPII decreed Opus Dei a Personal Prelature of the Papacy. This act essentially took OD beyond the control of any local bishop, gave OD a great deal of freedom to operate, and paid back some debts. (For some reason, ‘Lannister’s always pay their debts’ comes to mind.)

John Paul II derived great deal of benefit from his association with Opus Dei….all the way to and through out his papacy. Now that their ‘pope’ has taken hit after hit in the major news outlets over his handling (mishandling) of the clerical abuse scandal, Opus Dei has brought out their best spinners to defend the soon to be Saint John Paul II.

The following is an excerpt from McElee’s article.

…..Navarro-Valls said Friday that John Paul II was not able to act more quickly in Maciel’s case because the pope was dying while an investigation he ordered was being concluded. As part of that investigation, Navarro-Valls said, John Paul II had sent Charles Scicluna, then an official at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and now an auxiliary bishop in Malta, to collect testimony in places around the world.

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

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

As a footnote to what I posted yesterday (citing Colleen Baker) about how influential Opus Dei folks have leapt to the defense of Pope John Paul II as critical questions have been raised about his abysmal handling of the abuse crisis when it broke wide open under his papal leadership: I want to recommend very highly Betty Clermont’s recent essay on how Opus Dei influence has risen to the very top of the Vatican under the current pope, Francis.

Everything Betty writes is exhaustively researched, and densely packed with valuable citations. A brief teaser excerpt from any of her essays does not by any means do justice to the essay — to all that a reader will find there, when she/he grapples with the essay in its complexity.

So I’m offering the following introductory paragraphs to readers here as an encouragement to all of you to go to the essay itself and read it through — you will not be disappointed if you do so:

Opus Dei, an official institution of the Catholic Church, at the top is a secret society of international bankers, financiers, businessmen and their supporters. Their goal is the same as other plutocrats – unbridled power – except they use the influence of the Catholic Church and its worldwide network of institutions exempt from both taxes and financial reporting requirements to advance rightwing parties and governments.
A year after Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s elevation as head of the Church and his many appointments, the dust has settled. Three cardinals have emerged as the most powerful in this papacy; all have close ties to Opus Dei. Two now control all Vatican finance.

When the history of this perplexing period of Catholic institutional life, in which reform seems to become anti-reform and decentralization becomes more concerted centralization — all attended by Opus-Dei directed media spin and glitzy circuses that divert our attention from the inversion of values* we’re seeing with our own eyes — is written, right at the very center of the text will be the words “Opus Dei.” The influence of that rich, secretive, reactionary, and very powerful movement at the heart of the Catholic church from the papacy of John Paul II right through to today cannot be overestimated.

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

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

At her Enlightened Catholicism site, Colleen Baker points out that the Vatican spin doctors who are now trying to spin Pope John Paul II’s abysmal record vis-a-vis the abuse crisis prior to his canonization (I wrote about this yesterday) are Opus Dei folks: they belong to the powerful, exceptionally wealthy, secretive right-wing Catholic organization that has had increasing influence on the governance of the Catholic church from the papacy of John Paul II forward. Here’s Colleen on this:

This morning Joshua McElwee posted an article for the NCR in which two very prominent JPII apologists attempt to convince us JPII acted with expediency on clergy sexual abuse. The two men are, American neocon George Weigel and JPII’s papal spokesman Dr Jaoquin Navarro-Valls. Both are closely connected with Opus Dei. This is important because JPII decreed Opus Dei a Personal Prelature of the Papacy. This act essentially took OD beyond the control of any local bishop, gave OD a great deal of freedom to operate, and paid back some debts. (For some reason, ‘Lannister’s always pay their debts’ comes to mind.)

John Paul II derived great deal of benefit from his association with Opus Dei….all the way to and through out his papacy. Now that their ‘pope’ has taken hit after hit in the major news outlets over his handling (mishandling) of the clerical abuse scandal, Opus Dei has brought out their best spinners to defend the soon to be Saint John Paul II.

At National Catholic Reporter, Father Tom Doyle vigorously rebuts Weigel’s and Navarro-Valls’s spin, because, as it happens, he was there: he was in the middle of the process by which important information was being transmitted to the Vatican about the abuse situation in the period in which Weigel and Navarro-Valls say the Vatican did not have information and did not understand the situation. Doyle:

George Weigel claimed there was an information gap between the United States and the Holy See in 2002. This is nonsense. There was no gap then, and there was no gap in 1984, when the abuse issue boiled to the surface of public awareness. I was working at the Vatican embassy in 1984 and have firsthand experience of the transmission of information to the Vatican.

The papal nuncio, Laghi, then an archbishop, received a letter in the summer of 1984 from the vicar general of Lafayette, La., telling him that a couple whose little boy had been violated by Gilbert Gauthe was suing Gauthe, the bishop, the diocese, the archbishop of New Orleans, the papal nuncio and the pope. Soon after, the nuncio received the official complaint. From then on, there was a constant flow of information from Lafayette to the nuncio and from another diocese that popped onto center stage for the same reason — Providence, R.I.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

NICOLAS PERPITCH THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 28, 2014

A CHRISTIAN Brother tried to indecently assault a nine-year-old boy who went to him with the revelation that he had been anally raped by a fellow Brother, a royal commission has been told.

The first hour of evidence about abuse in up to four West Australian institutions run by the Christian Brothers has included allegations of anal rape and brutal beatings.

The Royal Commission into Christian Brothers Institutions in WA has begun public hearings into the Bindoon, Tardun, Clontarf and Castledare institutions run by the Christian Brothers.

The commission will hear evidence from 11 men who were residents at the institutions between 1947 and 1968.

Ahead of the Perth hearings, adult survivors of abuse at Christian Brothers-run residences in Western Australia told of their hopes that a royal commission could bring some justice. Many were sent to Australia from Britain as young boys, part of the Home Children migration scheme in which over 100,000 British children sent to Commonwealth realms including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Monday 28 April 2014

A survivor of severe sexual and physical abuse at a Christian Brothers boys institution in Western Australia says the orphanage was “devoid of love” and run by men who believed the children were born of the devil.

John Hennessey has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse that when he was 12 he was publicly stripped and nearly flogged to death by a Christian Brother while at St Joseph’s Farm and Trade School, Bindoon.

“No one came to my aid,” said a visibly upset Mr Hennessey, the first witness at the 11th case study examined by the commission.

“I am now left with a stutter.”

The man who beat him, Brother Paul Keaney, also repeatedly sexually abused Mr Hennessey.

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

SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 28 April 2014

Martin Williams
Senior News Reporter

A PRIEST suspended for alleging a culture of homosexual bullying within the Catholic Church in Scotland is determined to remain in a parish house despite a notice to quit.

Father Matthew Despard, who has been suspended since last November, is refusing to leave the presbytery house of St John Ogilvie in High Blantyre, Lanarkshire, despite having until Thursday to move out.

His solicitor Hugh Neilson has confirmed the priest has been issued with a notice to quit. Some parishioners have said they are willing to blockade the house on Thursday, believing that is when he might be removed.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

SIMON SANTOW: As orphans in England they were promised an adventure and an education in Australia, but instead they were beaten and sexually abused.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is in Perth for the next fortnight to publicly examine four homes run by the Christian Brothers.

The commission will hear the experiences of a number of men and how the Catholic Church responded when presented with the allegations and the evidence.

One victim says the hearing is a crucial part of the healing process but nonetheless, he says, he’ll take his suffering to the grave.

Thomas Oriti reports.

THOMAS ORITI: John Hennessey was 10 years old when he was moved from an orphanage in England to Western Australia.

He arrived on a ship at Fremantle in 1946 and remembers the Christian Brothers separating boys from their sisters.

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

MISSISSIPPI
Sun Herald

BY JACK ELLIOTT JR.
Associated Press
April 27, 2014

JACKSON — Beginning July 1, Mississippi mental-health professionals will report if a committed person has children or has visitation with minors. The information goes the Mississippi Department of Human Services, the agency responsible for child-protection issues.

The new law is the third in three years enacted by lawmakers for the protection of children.

Rep. Nick Bain, D-Corinth, said the new law can help prevent children from being left in the care of a mentally ill parent. Bain, the lead sponsor of House Bill 810, describes it as another means of reporting possible child-endangerment situations.

It took a tragedy in Alcorn County to spur action.

Eleven-year-old Andrew Loyd, after whom the new law is named, was killed by his father, Billy Loyd, in their Farmington apartment in 2012. Bain said the killing occurred about three days after Loyd was released from the community mental-health center. Loyd took his own life after killing his son.

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

AUSTRALIA
Collie Mail

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has opened in Perth and witnesses have been recounting their stories into horrific abuse.

Counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness told the hearing at the Western Australian Industrial Commission that in the next two weeks 11 men would talk about their experiences.

The evidence relates to residents at Casteldare Junior Orphanage, St Vincent’s Orphanage Clontarf, St Joseph’s Farm school in Bindoon and St Mary’s Agricultural School at Tardun.

The abuse is alleged to have occurred between 1947 and 1968 on boys as young as seven years old who were sent to Australia as child migrants.

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

AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

EMILY MOULTON AND AAP APRIL 28, 2014

FOR John Hennessey being robbed of his innocence was not the most unforgivable thing he endured at the hands of the Christian Brothers – it was being robbed of the chance to have children of his own.

For five years he was brutally raped, beaten and emotionally abused by 10 brothers at Bindoon boys home during the 1940s.

Yet it was the after-effects of that abuse that he sees as being the most destructive.

The former Deputy Mayor of Campbeltown Council, who received an OBE for his role following the Granville train disaster, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sex Abuse he was so scarred by his experience at the remote Catholic boys home in WA that he was unable to form any real relationship in his later years.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A lawyer representing 33 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse is urging the Roman Catholic church not to pull out of planned mediation.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said Sunday the withdrawal will re-traumatize his clients and prevent them from healing. Talks had been scheduled to take place this week in Philadelphia.

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown said Friday that it’s suspending settlement talks until state authorities finish their investigation of Brother Stephen Baker.

The Franciscan friar worked at Bishop McCort High School from 1992 to 2001. He committed suicide last year after being linked to abuse claims in Ohio.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 27, 2014

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pennsylvania — A lawyer representing 33 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse in central Pennsylvania is urging the Roman Catholic church not to pull out of planned mediation.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said Sunday the withdrawal will re-traumatize his clients and prevent them from healing. Talks had been scheduled to take place this week in Philadelphia.

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown said Friday that it’s suspending settlement talks until state authorities finish their investigation of Brother Stephen Baker.

The Franciscan friar worked at Johnstown’s Bishop McCort High School from 1992 to 2001. He committed suicide last year after being linked to abuse claims in Ohio.

A church spokesman said Sunday the diocese “intends to resume the settlement efforts” when it’s appropriate.

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

AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

AMANDA BANKS LEGAL AFFAIRS EDITOR The West Australian
April 28, 2014

Parents of children attending WA Catholic schools have been assured that safety of their children is of the highest priority and any allegations will be fully investigated as the community braces for a public hearing starting in Perth today that will expose horrific stories of abuse at Christian Brothers’ homes.

Catholic Education Office of WA executive director Tim McDonald has written to parents and carers ahead of the public hearing expressing his support for the “critical work” of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

“Though the incidents being examined are some 50 years ago, I am very conscious that the hurt, suffering and sense of betrayal have not diminished with the passage of time for the victims and their families,” Dr McDonald said in a letter sent on Thursday.

“I remain hopeful that claims of systemic failures by institutions including the Catholic Church in response to child sex abuse are thoroughly examined so that children will be better protected against abuse, perpetrators held to account and that victims are provided with justice.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

April 27, 2014 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Parishioners of a church in Chicago’s Lakeview community are reacting as a new sexual abuse investigation is launched into their pastor, Father Michael O’Connell.

When a south suburban resident claimed to have witnessed lewd acts by O’Connell in the late 90’s, the investigation against him was reopened. And Sunday a self-proclaimed support a group took their message directly to the church.

It was the start of mass at Saint Alphonsus Parish and in front of the church were members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. They told parishioners their Pastor, Father Michael O’Connell was under investigation for alleged sexual abuse and that the church is breaking its own rules by reinstating him.

“This is very reckless and this is against the zero tolerance that the bishops agreed to in 2002,” said Rosemary McHugh.

Mark Basile is a parishioner here and has two children in the school.

“Obviously there safety is my utmost concern, but for groups to come out and kind of villainize Father O’Connell at this point before an investigation is complete I think is unfair,” he said.

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

OHIO
U.S. Catholic

By Scott Alessi

In what seems to be a growing trend these days, another employee of a Catholic institution was fired for making a personal choice that conflicts with the moral beliefs of her employers. And this time, the former employee is taking the church to court.

A federal judge has allowed Christa Dias, a former teacher at a school in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, to take the archdiocese to court over her 2010 firing. Dias was let go when she informed the school that she was pregnant, but somehow they knew it didn’t happen in the natural way. According to CBS News:

“The Enquirer reports Dias was initially fired for being single and pregnant but once her employer found out that could violate anti-discrimination laws, both federal and state, she was fired for being artificially inseminated, which is considered ‘gravely immoral’ by the Roman Catholic Church.”

The AP reports that Dias is a non-Catholic computer teacher and had no role in teaching the faith, so she argues that her personal decision of how to have a baby shouldn’t affect her employment. But the archdiocese says that having an employee who doesn’t follow Catholic teaching sets a bad example (though I have no idea how parents or especially students would have any idea how their teacher’s baby was conceived, nor should they).

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

UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

History does not lie. Facts do no lie especially on the most photographed, most videoed, most seen by millions of people – pope John Paul II whose every word and action were recorded by historians and biographers and media TV & Internet the world has invented in the 20th century. So no matter how many Opus Dei Beast PR stunts liars are coming out with defence for their new fake saint John Paul II, his actions for his longest 27 years papacy will always trump over their words.
.
News came out from Chile today, that Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz defended the actions of Pope John Paul II in dealing with cases of child abuse by priests. The cardinal said the pope said clearly there was no place in the church for priests who abused children. (Cooperativa)

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

MEXICO
La Jornada

[Summary: Victims of sexual abuse by priests have launched a new battle to demonstrate to the United National Committee Against Torture that priests accused of pedophilia have engaged in cruel and inhumane acts against thousands of victims throughout the world.The Center for Constitutional Rights and the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests has submitted a 123-page report to the UN which discusses abuse of children and cover-ups of abuse in many countries around the world including Brazil, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, Mozambique and Peru. Two cases to be submitted to the UN committee in Geneva on May 5 and 6 includes abuse by Father Marcial Maciel of Mexico and Father Fernando Karadima Farina of Chile, known as The Chilean Marcial Maciel.]

Sanjuana Martínez
Especial para La Jornada
Periódico La Jornada

Domingo 27 de abril de 2014, p. 12

Las víctimas de abusos sexuales de sacerdotes han emprendido una nueva batalla: demostrar ante el Comité contra la Tortura de la Organización de Naciones Unidas que el Vaticano y sus representantes, los sacerdotes acusados de pederastia, han incurrido en actos crueles e inhumanos contra miles de víctimas en el mundo.

El Centro de los Derechos Constitucionales y la Red de Sobrevivientes de Abusos Sexuales de Sacerdotes (CCR y SNAP por sus siglas en inglés) han presentado el reporte Informe paralelo, de 123 páginas, donde incluyen casos paradigmáticos de abusos sexuales de sacerdotes y evidencias de protección y encubrimiento por el Vaticano ocurridos en Brasil, Chile, Honduras, México, Mozambique y Perú.

Dos de los casos clave, que serán presentados los días 5 y 6 de mayo ante el comité en Ginebra, son el del mexicano Marcial Maciel y el del sacerdote Fernando Karadima Fariña, conocido como El Marcial Maciel chileno, acusado de violar a cientos de menores con la protección y encubrimiento de la Santa Sede.

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

HOLLIDAYSBURG (PA)
Road to Recovery

PRESS RELEASE

APRIL 27, 2014

Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Mark Bartchak must stop deceptive tactics and get to the negotiating table

What: A press conference announcing the disappointment and frustration of dozens of clergy sexual abuse victims and their advocates toward the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA because of the last minute withdrawal by Bishop Mark L. Bartchak of Altoona-Johnstown from attending mediation to settle dozens of cases of sexual abuse by Br. Stephen Baker, T.O.R.

When: Monday, April 28, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Where: On the sidewalk in front of the headquarters of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, 927 S. Logan Boulevard, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648 – 814-695-5579.

Who: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non – profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including several Johnstown, PA area victims and families. One or two sexual abuse victims of Br. Stephen Baker and their family members may attend as well.

Why: Religious leaders and attorneys representing the Franciscan Third Order Regular Friars of Hollidaysburg, PA; the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio; the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown; and attorneys for victims of sexual abuse were scheduled to meet with a mediator on Thursday and Friday, May 1-2, 2014, in Philadelphia, PA, to begin negotiations to settle dozens of cases of sexual abuse by Br. Stephen Baker, T.O.R., a former member of the faculty and staff of Bishop Mc Cort High School in Johnstown, PA, and a serial sexual abuser of children in Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Through his attorneys, the Bishop of Altoona-Johnstown, Mark L. Bartchak, suddenly and without warning, cancelled his diocese’s participation in the previously-scheduled mediation hearing, thus re-victimizing dozens of survivors of clergy sexual abuse. The press conference will call on Bishop Bartchak to stop his deceptive tactics, treat sexual abuse victims of Br. Stephen Baker and others with dignity, and stop the re-victimizing of survivors of sexual abuse.

Contacts: Robert M. Hoatson, Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

The day of the four popes, they’re calling it.

We had Vatican II, which told us that the church is the people of God on pilgrimage together to the reign of God. Vatican II called us to recognize the presence of the Spirit among the entire body of the people of God, to decentralize and declericalize our church after the centralization and clericalization that occurred in response first to the Reformation and then the rise of modernity and democracy had smothered the church and turned it into a fusty, creaky museum piece, a travesty of an institution effectively proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ in contemporary culture.

All of that, and in 2014, we find ourselves at the day of the four popes? With two living popes canonizing two of their predecessors and another in the wings to be canonized (please see Jerry Slevin’s valuable commentary on the latter point)? This is what Vatican II was all about?

Popes added to popes added to popes. Popes declaring each other — presto abracadabra! — saints at the drop of a hat, as soon as one of them has taken his last breath.

Because they were popes, for goodness’ sake! And popes are ipso facto holy (unless they happen to be the forgotten pope who died mysteriously after a reign of only 33 days in which he announced plans to reform the Vatican bank and said that God is “even more our mother” than our father — that poor fellow seems totally ignored when the presto abracadabra! of saint-making takes place, doesn’t he?).

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

MAINE
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Fr. Jim Michaud was ordained for the Portland, Maine diocese in 1977. He ministered as an assistant in Lewiston, Augusta and Biddeford parishes until 1986, when he assumed the role of pastor at St. Ann’s Indian Island Church in Old Town. Michaud was pastor of St. Joseph’s in Ellsworth when he was removed in April 2002, due to the surfacing of an allegation that he sexually abused a teen boy in the 1970s, beginning when Michaud was a seminarian. In 2007 the bishop stated that the diocese had no proof that Michaud had abused a minor, but that the priest should stay out of public ministry because of “other misconduct”. He continues to be indexed in the Official Catholic Directory through at least 2012 as “Special or Other Diocesan Assignment”.

Ordained: 1977

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

UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes&Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

April 27, 2014

John Paul II and Hitler are allies in crimes against humanity and both are the epitome of narcissistic obsession to be “the Great”.

What a coincidence, again, that John Paul II and Hitler are permanently allied in history on this date, today as he is canonized, April 27, 2014, it’s also United States Holocaust Remembrance Day. The internationally recognized date for Holocaust Remembrance Day corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. It seldom falls exactly on a weekend of April 27 but this year it does – only to coincide with John Paul II’s canonization.

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

VATICAN CITY
The Barrie Examiner

Philip Pullella and James Mackenzie, REUTERS
Sunday, April 27, 2014

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis proclaimed his predecessors John XXIII and John Paul II saints in front of more than half a million pilgrims on Sunday, hailing both as courageous men who withstood the tragedies of the 20th century.

Cheers and applause rang out across St Peter’s Square after the historic double papal canonization as many in the crowd fixed their gaze on huge tapestries of the two popes on the facade of the basilica behind Francis.

“We declare and define Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II to be saints and we enrol them among the saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole Church,” Francis said in his formal proclamation in Latin.

Relics of each man – a container of blood from John Paul II and skin from John XXIII – were placed near the altar. …

Groups representing victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests also say he did not do enough to root out a scandal that emerged towards the end of his pontificate and which has hung over the church ever since.

The controversy did nothing to put off the rivers of Catholic faithful.

“I think that they were two great people, each of them had their own particular character, so they deserve what is happening,” said Leonardo Ruino, who came from Argentina.

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

VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Josephine Mckenna | Religion News Service, Updated: Sunday, April 27

VATICAN CITY — Popes John Paul II and John XXIII, who presided over enormous changes within the church and across the world, were proclaimed saints on Sunday (April 27) before a crowd of nearly 1 million people in an historic ceremony celebrated by Pope Francis with his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

Around 100 heads of state and government leaders, including the King Juan Carlos of Spain and controversial Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, joined the pilgrims who crammed into St. Peter’s Square under gray and dreary skies. Thirty Jewish leaders were among the official delegations who took part at the Vatican. …

Survivors of clerical sexual abuse have criticized John Paul’s canonization, claiming he did not do enough to clamp down on accused abusers, punish the bishops who protected them or protect minors.

The Survivors Network of Abuse by Priests (SNAP) said John Paul’s sainthood sends a “dangerous signal” for the church. “It’s time for the Vatican to stop honoring those who enabled wrongdoing,” said Barbara Blaine, president of the SNAP, which represents 18,000 victims from around the world.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Sudwest Presse

[Summary: Police on Thursday searched the home of a Catholic priest in Lauchheim on suspicion of possession of child pornography. The information was made public Sunday in the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese. A spokesman for the police department confirmed there was an investigation but gave no further details.]

Wegen des Verdachts auf Besitz von kinderpornografischen Schriften hat die Kriminalpolizei Aalen bereits am vergangenen Donnerstag die Wohnung eines katholischen Pfarrers in Lauchheim (Ostalbkreis) durchsucht. Diese Information teilte die Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart am Sonntag der Öffentlichkeit mit. Ein Sprecher der Polizeidirektion Aalen bestätigte, dass es ein entsprechendes Ermittlungsverfahren gebe. Zu Details und zum Zeitplan gab der Beamte keine weitere Auskunft.

Nachdem die Kripo Aalen die Diözese von der Durchsuchung unterrichtet hatte, veranlasste Bischof Gebhard Fürst, dass der in Verdacht geratene Mann bis zur „endgültigen Klärung des Sachverhalts seine Aufgaben als Pfarrer der Seelsorgeeinheit ruhen lässt“. Der Pfarrer, der zugleich stellvertretender Dekan des Dekanats Ostalb ist, habe bereits dieses Wochenende die Gemeinde in Lauchheim verlassen. Der Mann werde nun seelsorglich und psychologisch betreut.

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

CHILE
Cooperativa

Cardenal Errázuriz defendió actuación de Juan Pablo II ante casos de pederastia

[Summary: Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz defended the actions of Pope John Paul II in dealing with cases of child abuse by priests. The cardinal said the pope said clearly there was no place in the church for priests who abused children.]

El cardenal Francisco Javier Errázuriz defendió la actuación que tuvo el papa Juan Pablo II -proclamado santo este domingo- frente a los casos de pederastia protagonizados por sacerdotes.

“Fue él el que con toda claridad dijo que no tienen cabida en la Iglesia aquellos sacerdotes que abusan de niños y tomó una orientación muy clara”, aunque “no siempre llegó a condenar a algunas personas que también tenían mucha fama de aparente santidad”, admitió Errázuriz en conversación con el enviado especial de Cooperativa a Roma, Jorge Espinoza Cuéllar.

“Yo creo que a él lo convencieron de que los rumores eran falsos”, agregó Errázuriz, al plantear “la dificultad de poder tener la certeza de que aquí hubo un delito”.

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

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

April 28, 2014

Survivors of physical and sexual abuse in orphanages and children’s homes across Australia will be in Perth to support men giving evidence at a hearing into Christian Brothers-run residences in Western Australia.

The hearing, beginning on Monday at the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission, is the 11th case study by the royal commission examining how Australian institutions responded to child sexual abuse. It is the first hearing in WA.

The evidence from men who were resident at Castledare Junior Orphanage, St Vincent’s Orphanage Clontarf, St Mary’s Agricultural School at Tardun and the notorious Bindoon Farm School/Boys Town, an isolated institution north of Perth, is expected to be some of the most shocking and explosive heard by the commission.

The hearing will run for two weeks.

Thousands of children, some as young as five, were sent to Australia as part of various British child migrant schemes in the 40s and 50s, with many housed at Bindoon which opened in 1938

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

NEW YORK
WGRZ

WGRZ Staff, WGRZ 9:06 a.m. EDT April 27, 2014

St. Casmir is a historic church in Buffalo’s Kaisertown neighborhood. In 1976, Pastor Czeslaw Kyrsa was a young seminarian in Niagara Falls. “A group of bishops came to St. Casimir’s,” he recalls.”My pastor then told me it’s a bunch of bishops from Poland.” He happened to speak Polish. “‘We’re going to Buffalo.’ That’s all he said.” Leading the delegation was Cardinal Karol Wojtyla. “With all this anticipation and excitement, right down the steps that I walk down now, every single day, comes Karol Wojtyla, vested for Mass and everything, greeting everybody, saying a few words, and he said, ‘Oh, yeah, I saw you at Niagara Falls yesterday, so he had a very good memory.”

Two years later, that same Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in more than 450 years, and at age 58, the youngest pope in over 150 years. Some who were at the Vatican for his installation sensed the achievements to come even then. “He’s made it, he’s made it,” said Monsignor John Gabalski of St. Stanislaw’s Church in Buffalo. “He’s the people’s man.”

“The people’s man” became the most traveled pope in history. He visited more than 100 countries during his 27 years in office. He was the first pope to visit Cuba, the first modern pope to visit a synagogue. Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone found him to be deeply spiritual. “I had the privilege of being in his private chapel for morning Mass,” he tells us. “I was a priest working in Boston then. Going in there, he was already there, sitting in a chair, with a kneeler in front of him, he wasn’t vested, he wasn’t dressed yet for Mass, he was just there for his morning prayer. And just looking at him, his eyes were closed tightly, and you could hear the slightest whisper of a prayer. You knew that this man was a mystic. You just knew looking at him that he was deeply in contact with God. We were coming in quietly and taking our places and waiting for Mass to start. He wasn’t even aware that we were there. Then, eventually, one of his assistants would, about five minutes before the Mass, would come over and just tap him gently. He wasn’t asleep, he was deep in meditation, tap him, and he’d get ready for mass. A remarkable experience.” …

But some Catholic believe it was too fast, especially in light of the priest sex scandals in the Church. Critics claim he and his top advisors failed to grasp the severity of the abuse problem until late in his papacy. Judith Burns-Quinn of Hamburg heads the WNY chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. She says she’s torn between her admiration of Pope John Paul and the failure of the Church under his watch “I think he was a wonderful man and was a good pope. (But) I think this is very premature and they’re rushing.”

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

MISSISSIPPI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, 4/26

For more info: Amy Smith, SNAP leader Texas, 281-748-4050, watchkeepamy@gmail.com
David Clohessy, Executive Director, SNAP, 314-566-9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Survivors urge outside review of Baptist church
State lawmaker implicated in cover-up
Convicted music minister may have molested more kids, group fears
“Awareness training” not enough, group says
Transparency and action keep kids safe, they urge

On the eve of a church “sexual abuse awareness training,” a clergy abuse survivors’ group is asking church officials to take a hard look at their own failures in connection with a clergy sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), are writing to Morrison Heights Baptist Church officials about the church’s handling of abuse allegations against former music minister John Langworthy. In 2013, Langworthy pled guilty to five felony counts of child sexual abuse. He is now a registered sex offender.

[Associated Baptist Press]

Morrison Heights church officials—including attorney and Mississippi Speaker of the House Philip Gunn—have been blasted for keeping allegations against Langworthy secret and hiding behind the “priest-penitent privilege.”

[Associated Baptist Press]

While SNAP would like to support any education program that builds awareness for sexual abuse, they believe such programs are worthless when men and women who may have covered-up abuse are not investigated or punished. http://www.wjtv.com/story/21261586/what-philip-gunn-did-in-child-sex-case

“Morrison Heights has failed its children for decades,” the letter says. “We are asking you to honestly acknowledge that failure and to do something about it. Until then, we cannot be assured that the crimes of the past are not continuing and thriving within your church’s walls.”

“If kids are to be protected, then no one’s conduct should be above scrutiny,” said SNAP’s executive director David Clohessy, “and that includes even prominent people such as senior pastor Greg Belser and church elder and Mississippi Speaker of the House Philip Gunn.”

The safety of children at Morrison Heights and the healing of survivors are the group’s primary concerns.

“Actions speak louder than words,” said Amy Smith, a SNAP leader in Dallas who was instrumental in bringing to light the child sex crimes of former Morrison Heights minister John Langworthy, who is now a registered sex offender. “Morrison Heights cannot whitewash its abysmal conduct in the Langworthy scandal by simply hosting an awareness training.”

In its letter, SNAP asks Morrison Heights officials to allow an outside investigatory organization such as G.R.A.C.E. to fully review church officials’ conduct in connection with the Langworthy matter, including review of the church’s internal records.

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

AUSTRALIA
Radio New Zealand

British child migrants who were sexually abused at Christian Brothers institutions are planning a silent vigil outside hearings for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Perth next week.

Thousands of children were shipped to Australia from Britain from 1947 until 1970, often without the knowledge or consent of their parents.

They were sent to the Bindoon, Castledare, Clontarf and Tardun orphanages in Western Australia, institutions that survivors have described as being more like concentration camps than children’s homes.

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

ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by SNAP leader Miguel Hurtado of the U.K/Spain

(outside the Vatican today in Rome) +44 7787 638245

One Polish Catholic official is a soon-to-be saint. A second one, however, is a fugitive.

When John Paul II celebrations wind down on Monday, we call on Francis to extradite Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski to Polish law enforcement authorities who want to charge him with sexually assaulting kids in the Dominican Republic.

Three months ago, The Tablet reported that “The Holy See said that Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski was a citizen of the Vatican, and that Vatican law did not allow for his extradition.”

This is hypocrisy, plain and simple.

Francis’ top aides claim that they only handle clergy sex crimes that happen on the soil of the tiny Vatican city/state itself. They said this to a United Nations panel in January. They’ll say it again to a similar UN panel next month.

Both can’t be true. The Vatican says

–it will deal with clergy sex crimes that happened in the Caribbean, but

–it can only deal with clergy sex crimes that happened in a tiny portion of Rome.

So Francis should either turn over the fugitive archbishop to secular authorities or reverse his silly claim that he can’t deal with in charge of the church across the globe.

NOTE – ANOTHER UPCOMING SNAP EVENT IN EUROPE

A few SNAP members from several nations will be in Geneva from April 30 through May 7 for a hearing on May 5 and 6 before the United Nations Committee Against Torture, which will consider whether Vatican officials are violating or complying with an international treaty regarding torture.

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

MALTA/AUSTRALIA
Times of Malta

Maltese child migrants who were raped, tortured and emotionally abused at four Christian Brother’s homes in Western Australia will be among those giving evidence in an inquiry staring tomorrow, the Herald Sun reported.

The newspaper said that many of those giving evidence were sent to Australia from the UK and Malta after the war for what was supposed to be a better life.

310 Maltese were sent to Australia as child migrants between 1950 and 1965 as part of a scheme promising parents a better future for their children.

It later emerged they were forced to work in institutions and many were not educated. A number of them suffered physical and sexual abuse.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse will be looking specifically into the experiences of former residents sent to Castledare, Clontarf, Bindoon and Tardun orphanages from the late 1940s up until the 1960s.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Observer

27th Apr 2014

THE Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is launching a national public awareness campaign today calling for survivors of child sexual abuse to come forward to share their stories.

Royal Commission chief executive officer Janette Dines said that while more than 1400 people had spoken with a Royal Commissioner, there may be many more who were yet to make contact.

“A recent telephone survey found that while there is widespread community awareness of the Royal Commission, many people are still unsure about what the Royal Commission can look into,” Ms Dines said.

“This campaign is designed to encourage all Australians to find out more about the work of the Royal Commission and how survivors can share their story of child sexual abuse.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Centre Daily Times

HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has suspended efforts to resolve claims related to allegations of sexual molestation involving Franciscan friar Stephen Baker.

More than 80 people came forward with allegations against Baker, and more than 40 individuals have filed lawsuits in Cambria and Blair counties, The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown has reported.

Most of the alleged victims are males who attended Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown.

The Tribune-Democrat has reported that Baker has been linked to claims stretching back four decades in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan and Ohio.

The state Attorney General’s Office took over the local case in January.

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

UNITED STATES
CBS News

Becky Ianni, director of the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests, says John Paul II did nothing during his time as pope to protect children from abuse

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

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

As I continue reading about the preparations for tomorrow’s canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, I keep thinking — I’ll be honest — This is leadership? I’m not referring specifically to the two popes as I ask that question.

I’m referring quite specifically to the legacy of the John Paul II era in my church: This is leadership? How can I possibly read the following stories and not ask that question — how can I read these stories and fail to ask what the saint-to-be did to my church as he set into place top pastoral leaders who are offering the church the kind of leadership that is critically dissected (and with very good reason) in the following articles?

1. At Wild Reed, Michael Bayly calls on St. Paul-Minneapolis archbishop John Nienstedt to resign, after Nienstedt’s recent deposition was published and showed him to be either “astoundingly inept” (Michael’s words) in handling abuse cases in his archdiocese, or mystifyingly oblivious. Over and over, Nienstedt testified that he just didn’t know, couldn’t remember, was fuzzy about the details of this or that.

But as Michael points out, all the while that Nienstedt claims he was just not informed about or aware of salient facts wildly important to those concerned about young people who were being or who might be sexually molested by priests under his episcopal charge, there was this going on — he was leading his flock in the following quite specific way:

From the very start of his tenure as archbishop (in fact, even well before he was appointed coadjutor archbishop) John Nienstedt has been obsessed with demonizing consensual sexual relationships between same-sex couples and working to ensure that such relationships are in no way legally acknowledged or recognized. In terms of the latter, he has failed completely. The anti-gay “marriage amendment,” which he tirelessly championed, was defeated and, shortly after, both the Minnesota House and Senate passed marriage equality legislation. Same-sex couples now have the same civil right to marry as opposite-sex couples. During the often contentious marriage amendment “battle,” many Minnesota Catholics opposed Nienstedt’s anti-gay activism. In 2013 they celebrated the victory of marriage equality in the civil sphere.

Here’s the crux of the matter: The time and energy that Nienstedt expended on demonizing gay relationships and attempting to deny such relationships legal recognition in civil law, could and should have been focused instead on creating a local church reflective of gospel values, including confronting and dealing with the many issues relating to clergy sex abuse within the archdiocese; issues, which Nienstedt openly admits in his deposition, he was “out of the loop” about (emphasis in original).

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

UNITED STATES
Sun Journal

Marty McIntyre
Columns & Analysis | Sunday, April 27, 2014

I don’t get it.

In 2002, the issue of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church by Catholic priests came to light in America. Much of the abuse had been of children between the ages of 11-14, and had occurred decades earlier.

Worse, the Church knew about many of these allegations and had simply moved the offender to a different parish in a different part of the country. These revelations sparked enormous outrage worldwide, and resulted in well over 3,000 civil lawsuits against the offenders and the Catholic Church.

Beginning in 1991 with the Tailhook Scandal, we learned that sexual assault is a common occurrence in the nation’s military. We learned that an estimated 19,000 sexual assaults occur in the military each year, and that 15 percent of female veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from “military sexual trauma” (the Department of Defense term for the impact of sexual assault that occurred within military service).

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Jade Macmillan

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will begin two weeks of hearings in Western Australia on Monday.

The focus will be on four institutions run by the Christian Brothers: the Bindoon Farm School, St Mary’s Agricultural School, St Vincent’s Orphanage Clontarf and Castledare Junior Orphanage.

John Hennessey, who migrated to Australia as a child, is one of a number of men set to give evidence.

Mr Hennessey was 10 years old when he was taken from his orphanage in Bristol, England, in the mid-1940s and sent to Western Australia.

He says the commission will open old wounds.

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

NORTH CAROLINA
The Independent Tribune

Posted: Saturday, April 26, 2014

Staff reports

CONCORD, N.C. — A former Concord youth pastor who spent years overseas after indecent liberties charges were filed against him has been indicted by a grand jury.

Robert Bradley Price was indicted on April 14 on three counts of taking indecent liberties with a child. He has been out on bond since October.

Price is accused of committing sexual acts upon the bodies of two males who were less than 16 years old at the time of the acts, according to arrest warrants. One of the indictments stems from an out-of-county case.

The Cabarrus charges stem from incidents that allegedly occurred in 2009 and 2011 and involve two alleged victims, a Concord police official said in October.

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

VATICAN CITY
The Malay Mail

VATICAN CITY, April 27 — Pope John Paul II, who was declared a saint today along with John XXIII, was a charismatic leader who helped topple communism but was criticised for failing to tackle the scourge of child sex abuse by priests.

The first non-Italian pope since the Renaissance, and the first from eastern Europe, Polish Karol Wojtyla was hugely popular, eschewing the pomp that surrounded his predecessors and seeking contact with ordinary people.

During a papacy that lasted nearly 27 years, John Paul II travelled far and wide, often greeted by massive crowds as he championed peace, denounced human rights abuses and deplored the decadence of the modern world.

Some of the most memorable moments of his papacy were his attempted assassination in St Peter’s Square, his call on mobsters to repent and a meeting in which he kissed people with AIDS at the height of the devastating epidemic.

John Paul II also sponsored ultra-conservative Catholic movements like Opus Dei and the Legion of Christ in an effort to counter rising secularism in the West and win new followers, particularly in the developing world. …

Dogged by a rising wave of scandals of paedophile priests, the pope, at the behest of US bishops, approved new measures to punish clergymen committing sexual abuses but only after a long silence.

His refusal to denounce Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ and a serial sexual predator who abused male seminarians and fathered at least three children despite his vows of chastity, drew criticism.

But the Vatican has brushed off the accusations, with spokesman Federico Lombardi saying there was “no personal implication” of the pope in the scandal.

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

ROME
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. and Inés San Martin | GLOBE STAFF | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT APRIL 26, 2014

Although the late Pope John Paul II was a revered figure around the world, his elevation as a saint by Pope Francis has drawn fire from critics who charge that the Polish pontiff turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, who’s long been on the front lines of dealing with the fallout from the abuse crisis, believes that a younger John Paul II would have been more vigorous in tackling the problem.

“There were mistakes during his pontificate on this issue, but I don’t think they were made out of malice,” O’Malley told the Globe.

“I like to think that if he had been younger when [the abuse crisis] exploded, he would have come to Boston and dealt with it,” O’Malley said. By the time the scandals erupted, he argued, John Paul II’s “health was deteriorating, and he obviously did not have a full grasp of what was happening in the church.”

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

ROME
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. | GLOBE STAFF APRIL 27, 2014

ROME — Oct. 11, 1962, brought a beautiful moonlit night to Rome. Pope John XXIII was in an ebullient mood because of that morning’s launch of the Second Vatican Council, a gathering conceived by the pontiff in which bishops from around the world would throw open the windows of the Catholic Church to the modern world.

The first pope of television’s Golden Age, “Good Pope John” had a roly-poly, grandfatherly persona and seemingly inexhaustible cheer that won fans everywhere, though the changes he set in motion also stirred up critics, then and now. That night, the pope looked out over St. Peter’s Square at the vast crowd praying for the council, and made some off-the-cuff remarks that passed into history as his “Sermon on the Moon.”

A son of sharecroppers, he marveled at how a “simple brother” like him had become the father of the Church, which is what “pope” means. He mused that even the moon wanted to be part of the scene that night, and he ended with a line that is burned into Italian national consciousness much as “four score and seven years” is for Americans. …

Advocates for victims of clerical sexual abuse also charge that John Paul II turned a blind eye to the church’s scandals, citing his support for Marcial Maciel Degollado, the now-deceased Mexican priest who founded the Legionaries of Christ and who was later acknowledged to have committed a wide range of abuse and misconduct, and the fact that John Paul welcomed Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law to Rome after he resigned in disgrace in 2002.

Canonizing John Paul “sends precisely the most harmful signal to Catholic employees across the globe — that no matter how much you endanger kids, you’ll be honored by the church,” asserted a statement from the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests, the largest advocacy group in the United States.

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

VATICAN CITY
Aljazeera

Aaron D’Souza

“Santo subito!” (“Sainthood now!”) chanted the millions of Catholics mourning at the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005.

When Pope Francis carries out a historic double canonisation of two popes this Sunday – Pope John XIII and Pope John Paul II – Francis will be acting upon the will of millions of Catholics and non-Catholics around the world. It is exciting and, for many, a long time coming.

Given the massive popular devotion to Pope John Paul II, his sanctity and holiness have never been in doubt among Catholics. It is only natural, then, that John Paul II’s successor, Benedict XVI, waived the requirement to wait five years after death before starting the process of Pope John Paul II’s canonisation. The shouts of “Santo subito!” reverberating around Rome at the time of his death were enough to confirm what the faithful wanted.

Many would admit that the Church, like so many other institutions such as Hollywood and the BBC, just didn’t get the sexual abuse that was going on in the 60s and 70s. Yet while the abuse happened then, the pain continues now. This is something that is recognised by the Church, and shown by the action the Church has taken in the past decade.

However, it must be remembered that John Paul II only became pope in 1978, after most of the abuse happened. It took two decades for the Church really to understand how widespread the problem was. By this time, John Paul II was getting old, debilitated by Parkinson’s disease which would affect the later years of his life. When he did find out he was appalled; it was beyond his understanding. In 2001 he asked Cardinal Ratzinger, who four years later would become Pope Benedict XVI, to deal with the problem in a decisive way.

It is likely that if he were alive today, John Paul II would still be leading the clean-up, since throughout his pontificate he was not afraid of apologising publicly for historic wrongdoings by the Catholic Church.

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

At times, Pope Francis is like a riddle—tough to figure out. He appears charming, yet authoritarian; self-confident, yet imprudent; and purposeful, yet unpredictable. His opportunistic apologists fawn over him, while a thirsty 24/7 media world cannot get enough of his free publicity punch. He volunteered at 77 years old to fix a child abuse and financial mess for frightened cardinals concerned about saving their necks. Many Catholics, on the other hand, welcomed him hoping he would grab some cardinals’ necks. He mainly smiled his way through his first year, while keeping his cards close. Now he has been forced to show his hand finally, with three papal saints in the works and two UN Committees on his back.

Criticism continues about whether popes should be declared saints with the canonizations of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. John XXIII apparently steered 2,000+ bishops at the Second Vatican Council away from addressing the child abuse scandal in the 1960′s. John Paul II and Benedict XVI steered them away from the scandal from the 1970′s until last year.

Desperate efforts were made this week by John Paul II’s Opus Dei former spokesman and by the pope’s opportunistic biographer, George Weigel, to air brush over the Polish pope’s extensive knowledge for years of the priest child abuse epidemic. Francis met with Weigel recently and also met with him several months before he was selected to be pope. Coincidence? Perhaps. Again why? These apologists’ efforts were recently blown away by Fr. Thomas Doyle, who had direct knowledge of what the pope knew and when he knew it, as shown here

[National Catholic Reporter]

Now an Italian magazine has predicted the contraception ban author, Paul VI, will be beatified in 2014, paving the way for his sainthood, as reported here

[National Catholic Reporter]

According to the magazine , a miracle in California has been attributed to Paul VI. In a magazine preview, the article said Francis’ Congregation for the Causes of Saints would meet in a week to confirm the miracle attributed to Paul VI. Once the miracle is confirmed, Pope Francis will then likely proclaim Paul VI’s beatification in October at the end of the Synod on the Family, the magazine predicted. So much for the fair consideration of reversing the contraception ban by the 150 childless Synod Bishops.

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

VATICAN CITY
The Daily Beast

Barbie Latza Nadeau

VATICAN CITY — This Sunday, Rome, a city of nearly 3 million mostly sane people, will tilt into complete chaos as two dead popes are elevated to sainthood in the presence of two live popes at a lavish ceremony in St. Peter’s square. A fleck of skin, a vial of blood and three miracles will be the central features of the double-barreled canonization ceremony, which is expected to last about two hours and draw as many as a million people to an area with a capacity for 250,000.

The event is the first of its kind. Two popes have never been canonized together, not to mention the odd fact that two popes have never actually been alive together, making the event a sort of quadruple pope-a-palooza. Reigning Pope Francis will preside over the ceremony, and retired Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI is expected to make an appearance as well. Karol Wojtyla from Poland, who was Pope John Paul II from 1978 to 2005, and Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli from Italy, who was Pope John XXIII from 1958 to 1963, will then be bona fide saints, making them easier to pray to, among other things, and, according to Catholic teachings, offering a guarantee that they are both securely in heaven, should anyone have been concerned.

John Paul II is interred in the crypt under St. Peter’s basilica, and John XXIII, whose body is somewhat odd and eerily completely preserved in a glass coffin, is in the upper church in a side apse. After the ceremony, revelers are expected to pray at their tombs. When parsed down into cold hard facts, the half-day event, which will cost the city of Rome around $7 million, may sound a little frivolous, but just ask any of those who have made the trip and they’ll try to convince you that what may seem like a leap of faith is actually part of being a believer. “Sometimes when everyone around you believes in something, it rubs off on you,” Johann Schulz from Germany told The Daily Beast in St. Peter’s Square on Friday. “I think a lot of us who came here for this need to believe in miracles and saints. Otherwise things look pretty grim.” …

Despite the palpable buzz in Rome, not everyone is looking forward to Sunday’s love fest for the two popes. Survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests held their own briefing in Rome on Friday, against a backdrop of the photos of young children who were sexually abused during the time John Paul II was pontiff. “We were abused because John Paul II didn’t act,” Nicky Davis, a spokesperson for the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests known as SNAP told reporters. “We don’t’ believe it is saintly behavior to allow child abuse to continue for 27 years.”

The group, which has 18,000 members from 79 countries, says canonizing John Paul II is like “pouring salt into an open wound.” They say there is ample proof and documentation that John Paul II turned a blind eye to hundreds, if not thousands, of reports of abusive priests, and chose not to act. “We will never know what it was like not being raped,” said Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP, and for that reason alone, John Paul II should not be elevated to sainthood. The group will hold a candlelight vigil ahead of the canonization “for all those who lost their innocence during John Paul II’s reign.”

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

ROME
All Voices

A young man was killed in the Italian village of Cevo near Brescia Thursday, when a giant crucifix of Pope John Paul II, fell on top of him.

The huge 98-foot high wooden and concrete cross, built in honor of the late Pope after he visited the Alpine village in 1998, fell on 21-year-old student Marco Gusmini, during a ceremony, crushing him to death. Another man who was injured in the freak accident had to be hospitalized, ITV News reported.
This tragedy comes only days before Sunday’s historic twin canonization of Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXII in St. Peter’s Square and the ceremony is not without its controversy.

While many agree that the late pope was destined for sainthood and think he deserves this noted recognition nine years after his death, some do not agree. Critics say only one pope, St. Anthony of Padua who was graced with sainthood one year after his death centuries ago in 1231—received the honor faster than John Paul II. …

Critics are accusing Pope Francis of rushing the ceremony to distract as well as lift the heavy child sexual abuse cloud shrouding the church. It may also be an attempt to infuse new faith by providing fresh icons for followers.

One such outspoken critic is Barbara Blaine, president of The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, who thinks the late pope’s inaction and slow response to victims of child sexual abuse by priests should prevent him from becoming a candidate for sainthood.

“John Paul II had the opportunity to stop violence and refused to do so,” Blaine reportedly told NBC News in St. Peter’s Square Friday. “He was more interested in the reputation of church officials than in the protection of children.”

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

ROME
WPVI

By SARAH BLOOMQUIST

ROME – April 25, 2014 (WPVI) — About 50 Catholics from the Delaware Valley have traveled to Rome as part of a trip organized by the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

It’s the trip of a lifetime to see two popes named saints: Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII. Two living popes will be in attendance for the canonizations – Pope Francis will conduct the mass with Pope Benedict XVI at his side.

“It’s just the thrill of a lifetime to be here, to be present, to feel the energy and the grace of the day. It’s just wonderful,” said Sister Alexa Meany, South Philadelphia. …

However, not everyone is celebrating Pope John Paul’s impending sainthood. Barbara Blaine is president of SNAP- Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

She and others believe Pope John Paul could have done much more to uncover and prevent abuse by priests.

“Covering up and enabling sexual predators is not saintly behavior,” said Blaine

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

VATICAN CITY
Newstalk (Ireland)

The double canonisation on Sunday will be presided over by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square of the two men he believes revitalised the Church while giving it purpose and direction.

The current pontiff described John Paul II and John XXIII as “wonderful” and “brave men”, and bent years of tradition by allowing them to be celebrated on the same day.

A candidate for sainthood would normally have to pass a rigorous test which begins at least five years after their death and includes the verification of two miracles.

John Paul II had his canonisation fast-tracked (as he did for Mother Theresa during his pontificate) while John XXIII candidacy was pushed through without having to clear the hurdle of a second confirmed miracle. …

There has been criticism that the swift canonisation of John Paul II ignores criticism that he failed to tackle the growing problem of priest sex abuse, especially in the United States.

The Vatican says an “information gap” between church officials in America and the Vatican was behind the speed of the response, which meant he was not “living the crisis in real time”.

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

ROME
WWNO

This Sunday, Pope Francis will elevate two former popes to sainthood: Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II.

While Pope John XXIII is remembered as an icon of the progressive wing of the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II is remembered for upholding orthodoxy and doctrine.

Millions of pilgrims are expected to descend upon Rome for the joint canonization, which occurs just one week after the ceremonies of Holy Week.

NPR’s Senior European Correspondent Sylvia Poggioli joins Here & Now’s Robin Young from Rome to discuss this weekend’s canonization and the disparate legacies of these two popes. …

YOUNG: Well Barbara Blain(ph) of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the group SNAP, she told the Boston Globe that they think it’s sinful for the pope to be made a saint so soon because of the sex abuse scandal. So does the church respond to comments like that?

POGGIOLI: Well, there have been many critics of the canonization of John Paul, as you said about the speed and also for his record on those issues. His defenders say that aides may have kept the information from him. Others believe that John Paul may have believed the charges were a plot and a slander against the church similar to those by communist authorities in Poland, and that may be the reason he simply did not attribute the necessary attention to the sex abuse scandals.

YOUNG: Well, that debate will continue even after this weekend’s ceremonies. Let’s move to Pope John XXIII. He served from 1958 the ’63, an icon of the progressive wing of the church. He launched the reforming Second Vatican Council, opening the church to the modern world. But in this case, Pope Francis waived the required second miracle for his canonization.

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

ROME
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Sat, Apr 26, 2014

The mood was festive in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican today as thousands of people from around the world began to gather for tomorrow morning’s canonisation of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II.
There are very many Polish here but also large contingents from South America, particularly from Brazil and Argentina. And this reporter spotted one Irish tricolour but on investigation it was discovered that the owner “had gone for a walk.”

Groups of young people lay out in the sun, many on mats on which they planned to sleep overnight in order to hold their spot in the Square for tomorrow’s events.

Earlier, it was confirmed that retired Pope Benedict XVI will attend the ceremonies, where he will sit with the cardinals and bishops to the left of the sanctuary. …

The US-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) staged a candle-lit vigil on the rooftop of a hotel near the Vatican in protest at the canonisation of Pope John Paul II, which they have described as “irresponsible and hurtful”.

The group said he “must have known” about the multiple sexual abuse allegations against Legionaries of Christ founder Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado.

Instead of disciplining or defrocking Fr Maciel, Pope John Paul II held a “highly publicised special ceremony celebrating the anniversary of Maciel’s ordination.”

Holding candles, signs and childhood photos, the clergy sex abuse victims stood in their rooftop vigil with St Peter’s Basilica in the background. They also read aloud an open letter – in French, German, Spanish and English – to victims, witnesses, and whistleblowers, urging them to keep speaking up and reporting crimes, “even though complicit Catholic officials (including Pope John Paul II) keep getting honored and promoted”.

They called for “every single incident or suspicion of clergy sex crimes and cover ups” to be reported to “secular officials, not church officials” to “boldly but compassionately keep reaching out and offering help to every single person who they know of or fear was sexually assaulted by clergy”.

They also made special reference to the “dozens of victims of the world’s most notorious predator priest – Fr Marcial Maciel – whose extensive crimes and misdeeds were ignored and hidden during Pope John Paul’s long papacy.”

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

INDIA
Deccan Herald

The police on Thursday registered a case of rape against a Catholic priest in Ollur, Thrissur district, based on a complaint filed by the parents of a minor girl.

According to the police, Fr Raju Kokkan, parish priest at St Paul’s Church in Thaikattussery, had undressed the 10-year-old girl and photographed her private parts when she visited him in church on April 8, 11 and 24.

The police said the priest abused the girl for the first time when she was at the parish in connection with her holy communion. The priest is learnt to have taken the girl into his room in the parish by promising her new clothes for the event. The girl told her parents about the incident only on Thursday. N K Surendran, Ollur Circle Inspector, told Deccan Herald that the 44-year-old priest has been booked under Section 376 of the IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

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

UNITED STATES
Gawker

Kehla Backman

I thought I’d never see my cult leader again.

And then a month ago, he showed up on my bedroom television. His name is Victor Barnard, and he was on the local news because two women in Pine County, Minn., near where I grew up as a member of his Fellowship church, had accused him of sexual abuse.

He had allegedly chosen a group of adolescent girls—the daughters of church members—to live alone in the church headquarters, where he sexually abused them with their parents’ permission. The women said he dressed like Jesus and called them “maidens.” He’d been accused before of sleeping with his married female followers, but this was the first time his child sexual abuse was being spotlighted. An investigation was open against him, but nothing had gone forward.

But the news report brought survivors out of the woodwork. Follow-up stories were aired, and Victor Barnard was, last week, officially charged with 59 counts of sexual misconduct. He’s now on the run from authorities—maybe being smuggled between the homes of his remaining followers.

I never had a sliver of hope that he would be brought to justice and made to answer for the horrific things he’s done to those girls, it’s hard to even now, it just seems too good to be true.

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

VATICAN CITY
New York Post

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — Retired pontiff Benedict XVI will help Pope Francis celebrate the sainthood ceremony Sunday for John Paul II and John XXIII, setting the stage for an unprecedented occurrence of two living popes canonizing two of their predecessors. About 1 million pilgrims are expected at the event and many were flooding into Rome on Saturday.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters on Saturday that Benedict will be in St. Peter’s Square for the canonization of John and John Paul. He said Benedict and many cardinals will “concelebrate” the Mass with Francis.

Benedict resigned from the papacy a year ago, and since has largely dedicated himself to prayer in a monastery on the Vatican grounds. Sunday’s appearance will be his highest-profile one since he retired. Francis, who lives elsewhere in Vatican City, in a guesthouse, has been quite welcoming to his predecessor, occasionally paying a call on Benedict. It was Francis who sought to include Benedict in Sunday’s ceremony, expected to draw hundreds of thousands of tourists and pilgrims.

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

ROME
Daily Mail (UK)

‘We don’t believe it’s saintly behaviour’: Abuse victims attack John Paul II’s failure to stamp out Catholic paedophiles, as one million gather to see him canonised alongside John XXIII

Abuse victims of Catholic priests have said that former Pope John Paul II does not deserve to be made a saint because of his failure to bring perpetrators to justice during his reign.

John Paul, who was head of the Catholic church from 1978 until his death in 2005, ‘enabled wrongdoing’ and was more interested in protecting the Church’s reputation than helping victims, according to campaigners.

The former pontiff is due to be canonised tomorrow alongside John XXIII, who was Pope from 1958-1963 in an unprecedented ceremony expected to be watched by around one million Catholics.

Barbara Blaine, the president of the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), spoke out against John Paul today.

Mrs Blaine told the Daily Telegraph: ‘It’s time for the Vatican to stop honouring those who enabled wrongdoing. Thousands of victims were abused because John Paul refused to read the reports he was receiving.’

Nicky Davis, a 50-year-old from Australia who was abused, said: ‘We don’t believe it’s saintly behaviour to allow sex abuse to continue for a 27-year reign. He could have used his enormous power to save children but instead he decided to save the reputation of the Church.’

The organisation also published an open letter on their website to other abuse victims. It said: ‘At best, [John Paul] turned a blind eye to clergy sexual crimes and cover-ups. At worst, he perpetuated and approved them.

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

ROME
NBC News

BY ALASTAIR JAMIESON AND CLAUDIO LAVANGA

ROME — He has railed against the “tyranny” of global capitalism and the “idolatry of money” but even Pope Francis needs a little corporate coin sometimes – as proven by the list of sponsors for Sunday’s canonizations.

An oil and gas giant, several banks and Switzerland-based food megacorp Nestle are among more than a dozen financial backers of the Rome event.

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

ROME
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Sat, Apr 26, 2014

Sainthood is all very well but at the end of this historic Roman weekend who is going to pick up the tab? The man asking that very practical question on the weekend of the canonisations of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II is none other than the Mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino.

“It’s only obvious that the organisation of a worldwide event like this has a cost. Just think of the figures – four million bottles of water distributed, 10,000 hours of overtime for the various police authorities including 2,000 Roman police and 2,600 members of the Civil Protection service…”, said the Mayor.

Mr Marino, a US-trained liver transplant specialist who returned to Italy to “make a contribution” to his own country, has put a price on this historic weekend.

“My calculations say that it will cost around €7 million,” he said. “This situation has already occurred in Rome, on the occasion of the funeral of John Paul II, and I have written to the prime minister (Matteo Renzi)…to argue that this has to be considered as a national and international event and that therefore Rome and Romans cannot bear all the costs.”

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

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Royal Commission to hear boys as young as five were abused for decades at Christian Brothers homes

EMILY MOULTON LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER PERTHNOW APRIL 26, 2014

BOYS as young as five were raped, tortured and emotionally abused for decades at four Christian Brother’s homes in WA, a national inquiry into child sex abuse will hear on Monday.

And many of those children were sent to Australia from the UK and Malta after the war for what was supposed to be a better life.

Janette Dines, chief executive of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, revealed the harrowing details ahead of the first WA public hearing which will start on Monday.

She said the commission would this week be looking specifically into the experiences of those former residents who were sent to Castledare, Clontarf, Bindoon and Tardun orphanages from the late 1940s up until the 1960s.

“Some of these men were sent to the residences as child migrants from the UK and Malta, while others were wards of the state,” she said.

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

UNITED STATES
skipshea

This weekend Pope Francis will canonize two previous Pope’s as saints. John XXIII and John Paul II. John XXIII will become a saint even though his second miracle has not yet been verified. When you’re a pope, isn’t one enough?

John Paul II is also getting fast tracked with the five year waiting period waived by Pope Benedict XVI because… Well, I don’t honestly know why. JPII is dead. He isn’t going anywhere soon.

Or maybe Benedict and Francis wanted to dictate how history will see the man. As Pope for 27 years he was beloved by many. Except Sinead O’Connor. Maybe she was on to something.

During his 27 year tenure, the Catholic Church sexual abuse of children scandal was exposed by the Boston Globe. After they read about it in the Boston Phoenix a year earlier.

How did the future Saint react? Well, he didn’t. Or almost didn’t.

Let’s back up to the other new saint, John XXIII. In 1962 a letter bearing his tamp went to every bishop in the world directing them to cover up clergy sexual abuse. I’m guessing that wasn’t the second miracle they were looking for.

Fast forward to 2001 when the then Cardinal Ratzinger sent a letter to every bishop in the world giving the similar instructions that John XXIII did in 1962. Ratzinger was then the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – formerly known as the Inquisition – and only took orders and directives from one man. The other new Saint John Paul II.

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

INDIA
India Today

A catholic priest is on the run since the police registered a case against him on Friday for raping a nine-year-old girl, who was attending church classes for receiving first Holy Communion.

The girl’s parents alleged that she was sexually assaulted several times in April and Fr Raju Kokken, 40, Vicar of the St. Pauls Church at Thaikkattussery in Thrissur, shot nude pictures of her in his mobile phone. Following the complaint and after internal inquiry, Thrissur Arch Diocese had ousted the priest from the Church.

According to Ollur Police, the girl was lured by the priest with promise of free robes for the Holy Communion and the Vicar raped the girl thrice in April in his office room. The girl, who hails from a poor family, was forced to go naked before him when the Vicar asked her to remove her clothes in the pretext of checking whether the Holy Communion dress suits her or not. The girl told police that she was sexually assaulted thrice by the priest afterwards. The girl said that the priest took her naked photographs in his mobile phone.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Glaube Aktuell

[Summary: The We Are Church organization has criticized the canonization of Pope John Paul II.]

Kritische Anmerkungen der Internationalen Bewegung „Wir sind Kirche“ zur Heiligsprechung von Papst Johannes Paul II.

26.4.2014

(München/wsk) – „Das gesamte System der Heiligsprechungen ist fragwürdig geworden und bedarf der Demokratisierung“, sagt Dr. Martha Heizer, Vorsitzende der Internationalen Bewegung „Wir sind Kirche“. „Die Reform der Heiligsprechungsverfahren sollte anderen aktuellen Reformen einhergehen, die Papst Franziskus in den Bereichen der Leitung, der Transparenz und der Finanzen angestoßen hat. Diese Reformen sind von wesentlicher Bedeutung für die Kirche, damit sie auch künftig „Licht für die Welt“ sein kann.“

„Wir sind Kirche“ ist der Meinung, dass Heiligsprechungsverfahren mehr in demokratischer Form durchgeführt und weniger für die Ziele vatikanischer Politik instrumentalisiert werden sollen. Die Heiligsprechung zweier Päpste – verbunden mit der Tatsache, dass die meisten der in der neueren Kirchengeschichte verstorbenen Päpste auf dem Weg zur „Ehre der Altäre“ sind – verklärt den Absolutheits- und Unfehlbarkeitsanspruch des Papsttums zuungunsten des restlichen Volkes Gottes.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Sol

[Summary: Some priests in the Limburg diocese have asked former Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst to give up part of his retirement salary to be used for charitable purposes.]

Limburg. Der abberufene Limburger Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst soll nach Ansicht einer Gruppe von Pfarrern auf einen Teil seines derzeitigen Ruhestandgehalts verzichten.

Die Priester des «Hofheimer Kreises» sandten einen Brief mit ihrer Forderung vergangene Woche an das Limburger Bistum – bisher allerdings ohne Reaktion, wie Pfarrer Werner Otto, einer der Sprecher des Kreises, am Freitag sagte.

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

NIEDERLANDE
Watson

Ein niederländischer Hilfsbischof hat in den 50er bis 70er Jahren mehrere Jungen sexuell missbraucht. Das Erzbistum Utrecht bestätigte am Freitag entsprechende Medienberichte. Vier Opfer des römisch-katholischen Geistlichen Jan Niënhaus seien entschädigt worden. Der Hilfsbischof starb im Jahre 2000.

Bereits 2012 war der Klage der vier Männer von der kirchlichen Kommission zu sexuellem Missbrauch stattgegeben worden. Das Erzbistum hatte dies jedoch nicht veröffentlicht. Im Februar hatte die römisch-katholische Kirche in den Niederlanden eingestanden, dass ein weiterer Bischof sich des sexuellen Missbrauchs schuldig gemacht hatte.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Kleine Zeitung

[Summary: Norbert Denef was sexually abused at age 16 by a priest in his home town of Delitzsch. He opposes the canonization of Pope John Paul II. Denef said the pope was responsible for the concealment and denial of sexual violence during his tenure as pope.]

DELITZSCH. Bis zum 16. Lebensjahr wurde Norbert Denef in seiner Heimatstadt Delitzsch von einem Priester sexuell missbraucht. Der Katholik wandte sich Hilfe suchend an Papst Johannes Paul II. Der antwortete in einem persönlichen Brief, er werde Denef in sein Gebet aufnehmen. 2010 gründete der gebürtige Sachse das Netzwerk der Opfer sexualisierter Gewalt netzwerkB und kritisiert die am Sonntag in Rom stattfindende Heiligsprechung Karol Wojtylas. “Johannes Paul II. war in seiner Amtszeit verantwortlich für das Verschweigen,

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

DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

[Summary: Norbert Denef, a victim of clergy sexual abuse, said the canonization of Pope John Paul II is like rubbing salt into the wounds,]

Norbert Denef wurde von einem Priester missbraucht und kritisiert die Heiligsprechung von Johannes Paul II.

Herr Denef, mit welchem Gefühl blicken Sie auf die Heiligsprechung von Johannes Paul II. am Sonntag auf dem Petersplatz in Rom?

Denef: Das tut einfach weh. Das ist wie Salz in tiefen Wunden, die immer noch offen sind. Mein Fall beweist, dass Johannes Paul II. hauptverantwortlich für das Vertuschen und Verschweigen vieler Verbrechen ist.

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

CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

In case you missed my note elsewhere, Bishop David Monroe, the current Bishop of Kamloops, BC, is being summoned for examination for discovery in May of this year. The discovery is in relation to a lawsuit filed December 2012 alleging sex abuse by Father Damian Cooper.

Monroe was Rector at Holy Rosary Cathedral in the mid 80s when the newly ordained Father Damien Cooper was serving as an assistant. According to media reports it was during his time at the cathedral that Cooper started counseling 16-year-old Kathleen Taylor – he eventually began taking her to motels.

Kathleen disclosed the abuse to the Vancouver Archdiocese in 1994. According to a diocesan spokesman, Cooper was “removed from ministry,” but …Cooper then surfaced and served in the Diocese of Rockville, Centre, Long Island, New York.

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

VATICAN CITY
John Thavis

The double canonization Sunday of two popes, John XXIII and John Paul II, is a first in church history, and it’s prompted a debate among commentators: Has the church rushed too fast to declare John Paul a saint, especially in view of his record on clerical sex abuse cases? Is the addition of John XXIII to the canonization roster merely a political balancing act by Pope Francis? And should popes be canonized at all – is it really possible for the church to make a dispassionate judgment on the holiness of men who sat on the throne of Peter and were called “Your Holiness” in life?

The record-setting speed of John Paul II’s canonization does, indeed, raise some questions. The “Santo subito!” (Sainthood now!) banners in St. Peter’s Square at the funeral of the Polish pope reflected the sentiments of many faithful who thought his deep spirituality, evangelizing energy and strong defense of human rights made him a saint for our times.

Yet what pushed his cause through so quickly was support at the highest levels of the hierarchy. At that same funeral, the man who would be elected as John Paul’s successor, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, told the faithful: “We can be sure that our beloved pope is standing today at the window of the Father’s house, that he sees us and blesses us.” In effect, that’s like declaring someone a saint – all that was left was to make it official. And to speed things up, Pope Benedict waived the normal five-year waiting period to begin the sainthood process.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott
kmellott@tribdem.com

EBENSBURG — Efforts to resolve claims made by alleged victims of abuse by Brother Stephen Baker have been put on hold pending the outcome of a criminal investigation currently underway by the office of the state attorney general.

In a brief statement the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown announced late Friday that the negotiations have been halted.

“It would be inappropriate for the diocese to proceed with the civil matters while the attorney general’s office investigation is active,” Tony DeGol, diocese secretary of communications, wrote in an email.

Baker, a Francisician friar, worked at Bishop McCort Catholic High School from 1992 until about 2001 as a religion teacher and part of the athletic department.

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

UNITED STATES
NewsHounds

With its large stable of conservative Catholic hosts and its support for the teachings of the conservative Catholic bishops, it does seem like Fox News is a media arm for the Catholic Church. Nobody embodies Roger Ailes love for the Magesterium than Ailes’ *”surrogate,” Fox VP, John Moody, a devout pro-life Catholic conservative, whose views appear to suffuse Fox’s religious content. Because he is **concerned about what he perceives as anti-Christian bias in the mainstream media, he obviously wants to put a positive spin on Christian issues, such as when he and official Fox “news” anchor and fellow Catholic, Martha MacCallum gushed about Pope Benedict without a mention of the Catholic pedophilia scandal. This morning, during a lovefest for the two Popes who will be canonized, the sexual abuse crisis was not only framed as a euphemism, but the victims were trashed. Mirabile Dictu?

During the interview, MacCallum (a Cardinal Dolan pal as is Roger Ailes) and Moody were positively orgasmic about the canonizations. While Moody spoke positively of the liberal Pope John XIII, he focused mainly on Pope John-Paul II who, as he noted, represented the conservative wing of the church which for Fox and its viewers is the only game in town. Unlike on other news networks, which mention the reality that JP II didn’t adequately address the sexual abuse crisis, nothing was said about the pedophilia scandal that is still a hot issue in the church which has yet to defrock a bishop. The criticism of JP II seems to center around his ignoring the degeneracy of Father Marcial Maciel who, while head of the Legion of Christ, sexually abused a number of victims, was addicted to drugs, and who fathered several children. Fox recruited Fr. Jonathan Morris when he had a very high position in the Roman headquarters of the Legion. He has since left the order and now has a cushy assignment at Columbia U. JP II also appointed Boston’s Cardinal Law, who presided over a network of pedophile priests in Boston, to a Vatican position safe from extradition to the US.

But at one point during the conversation, MacCallum said this: “Obviously there’s a lot of cynicism out there, a lot of recent history that needs to be dealt with the Catholic Church so a lot of people look at these two individuals and they say what makes them a saint.” (Translation – “recent history” is the sexual abuse scandal about which people are cynical.” No shit, Sherlock!) Not only did Moody defend JP II but he appeared to attack the victims of the “recent history.” He gushed about how the popes “lived their lives the way God wants us to live our lives.” Then came the coup de grace: “Neither of them was perfect, none of us is, a lot of the criticism, a lot of the backbiting comes from bitter people who just couldn’t make it as Catholics, therefore they can take a shot that neither of these men can fight back.”

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

ROME
Press TV (Iran)

[with video]

Multinational victims of the Catholic Church sex abuse have held a candle-lit vigil at the Vatican in protest against upcoming canonization of Pope John Paul II.

The vigil by the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) was held in Vatican City on Friday.

SNAP members from all over the world traveled to the Vatican and lit candles and displayed pictures of children who had suffered abuse from Catholic priests.

The vigil was held in protest against Pope John Paul II being declared a saint, which is scheduled for Sunday.

On April 11, Pope Francis issued an apology for child sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church recently.

The pontiff issued the apology during a meeting with a children’s rights group known as the International Catholic Child Bureau. It can be considered as his first official apology for the sex abuse scandals.

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

AUSTRALIA
Queensland Times

Geoff Egan 25th Apr 2014

A FORMER pastor, who fled the law for seven years, has been found guilty of maintaining a sexual relationship with his daughter’s 12-year-old best friend and indecent treatment of children.

An Ipswich jury found the 51-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victims, guilty of maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child, and four counts of indecently treating a child under 16 in care.

In 2005 the man, after an affair with the girl’s mother ended, began abusing the then 12-year-old girl. He bought his daughter and the girl sex toys and lingerie which he forced them to wear around the house.

He would show the girl and his daughter pornography, and sexually abused the girl over a period of months.

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

FLORIDA
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A judge in Florida has changed probation terms for a preacher who is a registered sex offender to allow the former Southern Baptist pastor to minister to children in his church.

Darrell Gilyard, 52, began preaching at Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., shortly after his release from prison in December 2011 for sex crimes against two minor girls at his previous church. It made international news when the church barred children from worship, because Gilyard’s probation prohibited him from having contact with minors.

Recently, according to Jacksonville television station WJXT, a judge agreed to modify the probation so Gilyard can “minister to children under the age of 18 as long as the children are supervised by an adult other than the defendant.”

Gilyard pleaded guilty in 2009 to lewd or lascivious conduct and molestation involving two girls younger than 16. His 2007 resignation after 15 years as pastor of Jacksonville’s Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church, a 7,000-member predominantly African-American congregation, marked the fifth pastorate he lost due to allegations of sexual misconduct.

A native of Palatka, Fla., Gilyard rose to fame in the Southern Baptist Convention in the late 1980s under the mentorship of former SBC presidents Jerry Vines and Paige Patterson. Jerry Falwell’s pulpit gave Gilyard a platform to share on national television his dramatic testimony of growing up a homeless orphan who lived under a bridge, a story that was later discredited.

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

INDIANA
The Star Press

HARTFORD CITY — If Joseph Pennington — the former Hartford City youth pastor convicted of having a sexual relationship with 15-year-old congregation member — hoped to rehabilitate his image, this probably won’t help.

The Indiana Court of Appeals this week rejected Pennington’s appeal of the eight-year prison term he received last September from Blackford Circuit Court Judge Dean Young.

In rejecting the 33-year-old Pennington’s argument that his sentence was “inappropriate in light of the nature of his offense and his character,” the appeals court referred in part to allegations that were never aired during public court proceedings.

Pennington’s case was not resolved through a trial, but by his guilty plea to sexual misconduct with a minor, a Class B felony that carried a standard 10-year sentence.

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

INDIANA
Newsbug

HARTFORD CITY, Ind. (AP) — The Indiana Court of Appeals has rejected a bid for early release by a former youth pastor convicted of having a sexual relationship with a teenage congregation member.

Thirty-three-year-old Joseph Pennington was sentenced to eight years in prison last year after he pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor.

The Hartford City man had asked the state appeals court to reduce his sentence, release him from prison and place him on electronic home detention for six years.

But The Star Press reports (http://tspne.ws/1kc1Sj5 ) the court rejected Pennington’s argument that his sentence was “inappropriate.”

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

ILLINOIS
Daily Journal

Posted: Friday, April 25, 2014

A little more than a week ago a story came out that a Catholic priest from Chicago had been returned to active ministry after the Cook County Sheriff’s Department concluded there’s no evidence he sexually abused a minor nearly 20 years ago.

His name is the Rev. Michael O’Connell.

To probably all of you reading this column, his name has no meaning. To myself and my family, he’s Father Mike. Let me tell you about him.

In 2004, Linda and I wanted to get married in a Catholic church. We both were widowers and because we would be uniting our families to live in her Mokena home, we went to the local Catholic church to secure a wedding date. The pastor said we had to be a member of the parish for a year before we could get married.

We both were upset when my soon-to-be mother-in-law suggested her church, Our Lady of the Woods in Orland Park. While it’s about a 20 to 25 minute drive from Mokena, we went to visit the pastor, Father Mike O’Connell.

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

CALIFORNIA
Monterey Herald

By John Sammon
jwsammon@sbcglobal.net

POSTED: 04/25/2014

MONTEREY >> Bill Ditewig, a deacon at the Diocese of Monterey, has been invited to Vatican City to participate in the canonization” of Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII.

“These two popes were very special men,” Ditewig said. “In my own case, Pope John XXIII had a great influence on me.”

The ceremony will be held Sunday and an overflow crowd of more than 1 million spectators is expected in St. Peter’s Square. …

He said that although the church has faced recent charges of child sexual abuse, the public should also understand the great good the church does.

“Evil exists, as with any human element,” Ditewig said. “We look at the positive side without ignoring the bad. The church is involved in charity work, provides food and shelter, counseling and outreach. When there’s a disaster we’re usually first on the ground. Much of this work is done by volunteers, lay people and clergy.”

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Sat, Apr 26, 2014

The confirmation by the Taoiseach last night that he will be in Rome for the canonisation is the strongest indication yet of a determination by the Coalition to repair relations between Ireland and the Vatican which reached an all-time low in 2011.

That year, following four statutory reports into the sexual and physical abuse of children, as well as their neglect by Catholic clergy, and the cover-up of it all by senior church figures, Taoiseach Enda Kenny denounced the Vatican in trenchant terms in a speech to the Dáil on July 20th, 2011.

He criticised the Vatican’s handling of the Irish church’s sex abuse crisis, saying: “Far from listening to evidence of humiliation and betrayal with St Benedict’s ‘ear of the heart’ . . . the Vatican’s reaction was to parse and analyse it with the gimlet eye of a canon lawyer.”

His speech followed the Cloyne report, on the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in that diocese, which had been published a week earlier. It followed the Murphy and Ryan reports in 2009, and the Ferns report in 2005.

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

OREGON
Catholic Sentinel

The family of the boy who was molested in 2012 by Father Angel Perez, a priest who was serving in Woodburn, is suing the Archdiocese of Portland and the parish in Woodburn for $8.5 million, the Oregonian reports.

Father Perez is serving a six-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to first-degree sexual abuse, driving intoxicated and furnishing alcohol to a minor. Originally from Mexico, he may be deported after he serves his sentence at Two Rivers Correctional Institute in Umatilla.

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

OREGON
KOIN

[with video]

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Archdioces in Oregon perform background checks on priests, just like many employers do, but it isn’t enough to keep predators out of the system.

Friday, Scappoose, Ore. priest Michael Patrick appeared in court on charges related to an incident where he allegedly tried to lure a teenage girl into his car April 12 and last week, former Corvallis priest Stanley Brittain was arrested on child abuse and child pornography charges.

Priests are run through background checks, but if they have not previously offended, they are cleared.

Portland Catholic Archdiocese Director of Child and Victim Assistance Cathy Shannon said the church is trying to be more vigilant in screening people who could pose a threat to parishioners.

“[We perform] criminal background check on all employees, all volunteers who work with minors,and all of our clergy.”

Prospective priests are run through the sex-offender registry and must pass an in-depth interview process.

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

PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA

Harold Hayes

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A former Catholic priest convicted of possessing child pornography was sentenced to jail in court on Friday.

“He’s very ill,” said defense attorney John Knorr. “It very well may turn out to be a life sentence.”

That’s how David Dzermejko’s lawyer reacted to the three-year federal prison sentence imposed on his client after being convicted of possessing child pornography.

He was removed from priestly duties, which included pastorates in Charleroi and Ross Township.

The present case involved 100 to 300 child pornography images, but a longstanding dispute within the church about prior allegations surfaced in this case as well.

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

SOUTH CAROLINA
The Post and Courier

Adam Parker
Posted: Friday, April 25, 2014

The Catholic Diocese of Charleston is trying to stick its insurance companies with the bill for millions of dollars in claims paid to nearly 150 people whose lives were damaged by sexually abusive priests – three times the number of victims that was initially reported.

The diocese filed a civil lawsuit in late February demanding that its insurance and indemnity companies reimburse the church for numerous victim payouts it made in connection with a 2007 class-action settlement worth up to $12 million, according to documents obtained by The Post and Courier.

Tucked away in the lawsuit is a list of 148 victims – most called by the pseudonym John or Jane Doe – the type of abuse they endured, the years that abuse occurred, and the individual settlement amounts they received. Those payouts ranged from $13,000 to $425,000, with a total of $11.2 million going to those named on the list.

This is the first time such information has been made public, and it provides a clearer picture of the scope of the sexual abuse crisis that occurred in the diocese over three decades between 1950 and 1980.

Some 79 people – 72 men and seven women – received payments after alleging direct abuse by pedophile priests and other diocesan officials during this time period, according to court documents.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

April 27, 2014

There is no public “short list” for who will succeed Cardinal Francis George at the helm of the Chicago Archdiocese, and the process appears to be in the early stages. But here are some possible candidates cited by experts:

New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond

Aymond is the first New Orleans native to lead that archdiocese. In addition to serving on a number of national bishops committees, he once led the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People. “He’s made consistently good impressions as a good pastor and a capable administrator,” said the Rev. Robert Schreiter, a professor at Catholic Theological Union who knew Aymond when he served as rector of the seminary in New Orleans. “He takes the flock into consideration.”

San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller

Born in Mexico and the eldest of 15 children, Garcia-Siller came to the U.S. in 1980 with the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit. He became a U.S. citizen in 1998 and, after serving for four years as major superior of his religious order, became an auxiliary bishop in Chicago in 2003. “It would be not unreasonable to wonder whether or not, given the importance of the Latino presence in the Catholic Church in the U.S., it might be the time to see a Latino clergyman put in charge of Chicago,” said Michael Budde, chair of Catholic Studies at DePaul University.

Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory

As bishop of the downstate Belleville diocese and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002, Gregory oversaw the creation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in the wake of the clergy sex abuse scandal. Last month he announced he would move out of a recently renovated $2.2 million mansion in Atlanta after parishioners complained it flouted the austerity modeled by Pope Francis. Mark Bosco, a theology professor at Loyola University Chicago, believes Gregory’s public apology for the lapse in judgment bodes well. “I thought it was humbling and actually kind of a positive move … to give up the bishop’s residence,” Bosco said. “It showed he’s very sensitive to what’s going on in the church at this point in time.”

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

MEXICO
Tengri News

Many Mexicans have mixed emotions about seeing the late pope John Paul II become a saint: they loved the man but feel he covered up sexual abuses by priests, AFP reports.

In the Latin American country with the most Catholics after Brazil, most Mexicans “will welcome the canonization, but not all of them, because his pontificate had a dark side,” said sociologist Bernardo Barranco, who specializes in religious issues.

He added: “I do not think everyone will forgive him for having covered up” the pedophilia that went on to rock the church with scandal in recent years.

In his first overseas trip in 1979, John Paul visited Mexico, where 80 percent of the population of 118 million is Catholic.

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

MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Updated April 24, 2014
Deposition of Archbishop John Nienstedt

On April 2, 2014, Archbishop John Nienstedt gave his deposition in the case of Doe #1, which is a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Winona, and Thomas Adamson.

We offer the deposition in its entirety, as part of our renewed commitment to transparency. As you will notice, the Archbishop answered every question asked. The court pre-determined the length of the four hour deposition, and the Archbishop continued to answer questions past the time allotted. There was not a single question asked about Thomas Adamson and the allegations of abuse of Doe #1 in 1976-1977.

* You will see a searchable PDF of the deposition below (under Related Content).
* You will also see links to the entire video of the deposition (in three chapters) posted below, allowing you to see the questions and answers in context. …

Deposition of Father Kevin McDonough

On April 16, Father Kevin McDonough was deposed in the Doe 1 case in St. Paul. The case is a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Winona, and Thomas Adamson for allegations of abuse between 1976 and 1977.

We offer the deposition in its entirety as part of our renewed commitment to transparency and disclosure. As you will notice, Fr. McDonough answered every question asked. The court pre-determined the length of the six hour deposition.

* You will see a searchable PDF of the deposition below (in related content).
* You will also see links to the entire video of the deposition (in four chapters and multiple segments) posted below, allowing you to see the questions and answers in context.

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

MINNESOTA
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho April 25, 2014

In sworn testimony released yesterday, Fr. Kevin McDonough, former vicar general and abuse-prevention czar of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis disputed Archbishop John Nienstedt’s claim that McDonough had advised him not to keep written records of conversations about accused priests because they might be discovered in litigation. Having served three archbishops, two as vicar general for nearly twenty years and Nienstedt as “delegate for safe environment,” few know more about how the Twin Cities diocese handled clergy accused of sexual misconduct. (More from MPR here, full video here.)

During the six-and-a-half-hour interview–which ended abruptly after lawyers disagreed about the allotted time–McDonough acknowledged what most observers of the crisis already knew: for many years, archdiocesan practice was not to routinely laicize abusers. Nor did it, as a matter of policy, report all accusations to the police. But McDonough also provided his version of the events surrounding several controversial cases, including that of Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer, now jailed for molesting children, and that of Fr. John Shelley, whose computer was found to contain “borderline illegal” pornographic images (a county attorney did not press charges).

The release of McDonough’s deposition comes two days after Nienstedt’s was made public. Their court-ordered testimony was taken in connection with a lawsuit by a plaintiff who claims he was abused by a priest in the 1970s. The suit alleges that the archdiocese, along with the Diocese of Winona, created a public nuisance by hiding information about accused priests.

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

COLOMBIA
MDZ

[Summary: A 77-year-old priest from Pasto in Colombia was sent to prisons today for allegedly sexually abusing his 16-year-old daughter. The abuse has occurred during the last seven years.The girl and mother lived in several parishes where the priest worked. He presented them to the community as his sister and nieces.]

Un sacerdote católico fue enviado hoy a prisión en la ciudad colombiana de Pasto en el marco de un proceso penal por supuestos abusos sexuales contra una hija suya.

El cura, de 77 años, fue denunciado por una joven de 16 años que aseguró que es su hija y que durante los últimos siete años ha sido sometida a abusos sexuales.

La joven relató a la Fiscalía que vivió con su madre y una hermana en varias parroquias del departamento de Nariño donde trabajó el sacerdote. Éste las presentaba ante la comunidad como su hermana y sus sobrinas.

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

UNITED STATES
Daily Caller

Religious people can be so delightfully blasphemous when they’re angry.

Which was the case this week after Brett Decker, a conservative Catholic who works for the White House Writers Group and was previously editorial page editor for The Washington Times, wrote an op-ed piece this week that was published in USA Today. The gist of Decker’s story is that Pope Francis should not be canonizing two of his predecessors, John Paul II and John XXIII on account of what Decker deems was their failure to address global clergy sex abuse.

An excerpt: “Canonizing pontiffs from the era of abuse is not only tone deaf but also exposes a continuing, stubborn refusal to acknowledge the institutional coverup that occurred for decades and that those at the highest levels — including popes — didn’t do enough to prevent the crimes, enabling the crisis to continue.”

At least seven people wrote Decker and told him to “go to hell.”

For instance, MariaTM supportively promised, “I will pray for your burning soul.”

And Amanda kept things real simple: “Go to hell lowlife.”

One simple text just said: “hater.”

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

NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

By MARK HAYWARD
New Hampshire Union Leader

MANCHESTER — Luke Parkin, the man involved in an “inappropriate adult relationship” with the Rev. Msgr. Ed Arsenault III, is a gay recording artist/composor with 70 albums to his credit, according to Internet websites.

In interviews with music sites and gay-oriented sites, Parkin talks about his music, growing up gay and his dating habits. He never mentions romantic interests by name.

“Dating is fun when it’s not called ‘dating,'” he tells Chicago.GoPride.com in an interview. He said he’d favor a man who looks like Tom Brady, writes like Proust and can preach self-reliance like Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Jane Young on Wednesday said the investigation into Arsenault’s thefts of funds from the Manchester Catholic diocese and Catholic Medical Center found that the priest spent much of the stolen funds on Parkin.

Young called the relationship between the two consensual. …

The Diocese said the attorney general’s investigation found that between 2007 and early 2009, Arsenault billed the Diocese for numerous expenses related to the relationship:

• $2,500 for a cell phone.

• $3,200 for a trip to Santa Fe, New York and San Francisco, which included a $159 breakfast at the Four Seasons in San Francisco.

• Forty-eight nights at an extended stay hotel in Amesbury, Mass. Arsenault initially told Diocesan investigators the hotel was for a “homeless international priest,” the Diocese said.

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

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Catholic Culture

The romantic partner of a prominent New Hampshire priest who faces jail time for defrauding his diocese is a male recording artist, the Manchester Union Leader has disclosed.

Msgr. Edward Arsenault, a former chancellor of the Manchester diocese and head of the St. Luke Institute, reportedly spent tens of thousands of dollars on Luke Parkin, a young composer and performer. Prosecutors in New Hampshire said that early reports that the priest had been blackmailed were inaccurate, and that the spending was consensual.

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

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas P. Doyle | Apr. 25, 2014

COMMENTARY
Sitting on a bookshelf in my office is a red leather-bound copy of the Code of Canon Law. This isn’t just any copy of the church’s rulebook. It was signed by Pope John Paul II for me at the request of my former boss, the late Cardinal Pio Laghi. It is dated 6-6-1983 in the late pope’s own hand. I was definitely a fan in those days.

On Sunday after John Paul is promoted to sainthood, it will become a second-class relic. I will not venerate it, nor will I join the cheering crowds.

The past 30 years have led me to the opinion that his sainthood is a profound insult to the countless victims of sexual assault by Catholic clergy the world over. It is an insult to the decent, well-intentioned men and women who were persecuted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith during his reign, and it is an insult to the memory of Pope John XXIII, who has the misfortune being a canonization classmate.

This soon-to-be relic is a symbol of the shame and the failure of the book’s content, the collection of church rules, and of the pope who autographed it. People more eloquent than I have publicly stated the many reasons why this is so. I won’t repeat their words here. However, I believe it is important to clarify some of the bizarre statements John Paul’s two main cheerleaders have been making.

George Weigel claimed there was an information gap between the United States and the Holy See in 2002. This is nonsense. There was no gap then, and there was no gap in 1984, when the abuse issue boiled to the surface of public awareness. I was working at the Vatican embassy in 1984 and have firsthand experience of the transmission of information to the Vatican.

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