ABUSE TRACKER

TENNESSEE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Pedophile priest worked in Nashville
He was publicly exposed last week for first time
Sex abuse victims seek help from Tennessee bishop
Group blasts “bare minimum” approach by Catholic officials

A credibly accused predator priest who was exposed for the first time last week worked for years as a pastor in Tennessee. And a support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging Nashville’s Catholic bishop to “aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered his crimes.”

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Because of a court order, St. Paul Minnesota church officials revealed that Fr. Kenneth Gansmann was removed from active ministry because of allegations that he molested a child. Fr. Gansmann, who is now deceased, also worked in three Illinois dioceses: Springfield, Joliet and Chicago.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are asking Bishop David R. Choby to use his vast resources to seek out any others who may have seen, suspect, or suffered abuse. Bishop Choby should visit every parish were Gansmann worked and beg victims or witnesses to come forward.

Gansmann worked in Nashville at St. Vincent De Paul from 1961 until his death in 1974.

“He had access to hundreds of children every year. It is never too late to report abuse,” said

David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “We hope those who are suffering in silence will find the courage to speak up. And we hope Nashville’s bishop will gently but firmly prod them to do so.”

“It’s hard for some to understand this, but many times, victims stay silent unless someone in authority – a prosecutor, a bishop, or even a parent – begs them to step forward and get help,” said Susan Vance of Knoxville, another SNAP leader. “Fr. Gansmann’s victims are likely getting up in age. They were kids in an age when kids were often to be ‘seen, not heard,’ So it’s likely they’re still carrying this horrible burden alone. Catholic officials can and should gently but firmly prod them to break their silence and start healing.”

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

MISSISSIPPI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014

For more information: Amy Smith, SNAP Dallas Leader (281)748-4050, spacecitysnap@gmail.com and David Clohessy, SNAP Executive Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Victims applaud abuse seminar
But they urge use of “outside experts”
Church protected predator just two years ago
Aggressive outreach to find victims, witnesses vital to child safety
Convicted minister may have more victims, they fear

A support group for child sex abuse victims is applauding a Mississippi Baptist church—that just recently protected and embraced a now-convicted child predator—for holding an abuse awareness and prevention seminar. But the group wants church officials to do “aggressive outreach” to encourage victims to report to police and to add at least one “outside” secular expert to the panel.

Officials at Morrison Heights Baptist Church are planning a sex abuse awareness training conference with a goal “to equip church leaders with the skills and resources they need to keep children safe.” The conference focuses on reporting crimes, creating a safe environment, and a victim’s story of abuse and recovery.

“Outside” secular experts are essential if this seminar is to be successful at creating a safer environment for children. “Secular experts have no bias when it comes to helping institutions and officials adopt child and victim friendly policies. They are able to put the needs of children before the reputations of institutions,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP.

[Baptist Children’s Village]

But SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), wants church leaders to go a step further by aggressively seeking out more victims and witnesses of abuse. In 2011, a former music minister at the church, John Langworthy, admitted from the pulpit that he had molested kids in two states. A Dallas news investigation showed that accusations against Langworthy date back to 1989, when Prestonwood Baptist Church leaders quietly investigated the allegations and fired him but failed to report him to the police, allowing him to move back to MS where he continued to work with kids as a minister and public school choir teacher for the next 22 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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Express-News

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Opening statements are set to start Thursday in the Philadelphia trial of a priest arrested after his accuser followed child sex-assault trials involving Penn State and the Roman Catholic church.

The accuser says he was sexually assaulted after Mass in 1997 by the Rev. Andrew McCormick.

McCormick was suspended from the Philadelphia archdiocese over a less serious allegation when he was arrested in 2012.

The 57-year-old priest’s lawyer says the charges stem from one encounter with a lone accuser.

Philadelphia prosecutors have been investigating priest-abuse reports in Philadelphia for a decade, and have gained several sex-abuse convictions.

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

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Sylvia

The six-day preliminary hearing of Father Linus Bastien is scheduled to start at 10 am this morning (Thursday, 27 February) in Windsor, Ontario.

The hearing is open to the public. Anyone can attend and sit in court for the entire proceedings. There will as always in Canada be a publication ban on all testimony and evidence – that means that while there may be media in attendance there will be no media coverage of the testimony. There can be coverage of such things as the number of people in attendance, and Father Bastien’s demeanor and dress.

The hearing is a little like a mini trial in which the judge determines if he/she believes there is sufficient evidence to go to trial. The Crown will present evidence to prove that there is, while defence will try to prove that there is not.

Keep the complainants and their families in your prayers. The complainants will probably be called to testify and will be grilled by Bastien’s lawyer, a Patrick Ducharme. I know nothing of Mr. Ducharme but have been told that he is a man of some repute in the Windsor area and a high-profile criminal lawyer.

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
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

One of Australia’s most prominent Catholic leaders, Archbishop Frank Little, covered up complaints about a priest’s child-sex crimes, a Melbourne court was told. Despite knowing about Father Wilfred Baker’s crimes, Archbishop Little allowed Baker to be transferred to a new parish, thereby enabling this priest to commit more child-sex crimes.

Broken Rites first heard about Father Baker after Broken Rites launched its Australia-wide telephone hotline in late 1993. Broken Rites advised these callers that victims should contact the Victoria Police sexual offences and child abuse unit. As a result, detectives eventually charged Baker with child-sex crimes.

In the Melbourne County Court on 8 June 1999, Father Wilfred James Baker (then aged 62) was sentenced to four years’ jail, with parole after two years.

What the judge said

In a pre-sentence hearing on 7 June 1999, Judge Russell Lewis told the court that, at the Gladstone Park parish (in Melbourne’s north-west) in 1978, a family complained to the church that Father Billy Baker was misbehaving towards their young son. The judge said Melbourne’s Archbishop Frank Little was made aware of the complaint. Despite this (said the judge) Baker was then transferred from the Gladstone parish to Eltham (in Melbourne’s north-east).

“He continued with his criminality [at Eltham]”, the judge said.

The judge added: “In the past, there have been paedophile priests who have been moved around with the full knowledge of the hierarchy.”

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
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 27 February 2014)

Father Wilfred James Baker, a retired priest from the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese, who was jailed in 1999 for crimes against boys, was scheduled to face the Melbourne County Court in 2014 (case number CR-13-01856) on additional charges regarding more boys. However, Baker died on 15 February 2014, meaning that this court case will be cancelled.

News of the death was kept secret for 12 days. Finally, a death notice appeared on the Melbourne Herald Sun website on February 27:

BAKER. Wilfred. Died peacefully at Ashwood Feb. 15, 2014, aged 77. A Private Funeral Service was held on Feb. 20, 2014.

Questions

Broken Rites would like to see answers to these questions:

1. Following his convictions in 1999 for child-sex crimes, did the Catholic Church authorities officially revoke Wilfred Baker’s ordination as a priest? That is (to use the church’s language), was he laicised? The answer apparently, is “No” (according to other Melbourne priests who have spoken to Broken Rites).

2. Where was the funeral service conducted? And conducted by whom?

3. Was Father Baker buried with his fellow deceased priests in the church’s special vault for priests at the Melbourne General Cemetery? If so, why was he given this honour?

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.

PHILDELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright today swore in a panel of 12 jurors and 4 alternates. Then, the judge gave the jury a cold case to solve, namely whether a Catholic priest had sexually assaulted a former altar boy some 16 years ago.

The cold case comes with a media spotlight. “This is what’s called a publicity or media case,” Judge Bright warned the just-picked panel of 12 women and 4 men.

The judge informed the jury that it was one of the most “important and solemn duties of citizenship” for them to sit as jurors who will decide the fate of Father Andrew McCormick. The 57-year-old priest is accused of sexually assaulting a former 10-year-old altar boy during the 1997-98 school year at St. John Cantius Church in Northeast Philadelphia.

McCormick was arrested on July 26, 2012, after the victim in the case came forward some 14 years after the alleged crime. The victim told the district attorney’s office he was motivated by the trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn. Lynn, the former secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, was convicted on June 22, 2012 of one count of endangering the welfare of a child, another former 10-year-old altar boy known as “Billy Doe.”

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 KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Orthodox Jew jailed for sexually assaulting girl makes audacious attempt to be released early so he can attend his son’s Bar Mitzvah

By BEN ENDLEY

An Orthodox Jew who sexually abused a schoolgirl has failed in his bid to be released early to attend his young son’s Bar Mitzvah.

Menachem Mendel Levy, 41, is currently serving a three-year jail term after being convicted of two sex assaults in June 2013.

His victim, now in her 20s, was aged between 14 and 15 years old when the attacks took place.

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article 3

By Eric Bates | February 27, 2014

The U.N. Report

Recently, the United Nations demanded that the Vatican fire all clergy members who are known or suspected to be child abusers and turn them over to the police. The Vatican’s reputation has been shattered after an extensive report prepared by the U.N. was released that detailed the protection of pedophile priests at the expense of their victims.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child also demanded that the Vatican give up its files on suspected abuse of thousands of children.

According to the U.N. report, no Catholic bishop has ever been sanctioned for sheltering an abusive priest, but the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.N. repudiated that allegation. He also later pointed out that during his last two years as Pope, Benedict XVI defrocked close to 400 priests for raping and molesting children. Benedict’s most recent defrocking binge resulted in more than twice the defrockings that had been ordered during the two years that preceded the explosion of sexual abuse allegations.

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

TESS LIVINGSTONE THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 28, 2014

ANTHONY Fisher was in a Pontifical Council for Life meeting in Rome on Monday when his mobile beeped. “Sydneyensis est sede vacante,” the message said.

He knew it meant his friend and mentor, George Pell, had been promoted to the Vatican and, correctly, he guessed the job. “He’s exactly the right man,” Bishop Fisher said yesterday after returning to Parramatta.

Bishop Fisher, 53, has headed Australia’s fifth-largest diocese for four years. It is also Australia’s most Catholic region, almost one in three belonging to the church.

He is a frontrunner to step up to the role of Archbishop of Sydney, where he grew up and served as an auxiliary bishop. But, within the church, those who know about such matters don’t talk and those who talk don’t know. He’s not talking. But he says those who dedicate their lives to Christ as priests should be prepared to go where the church asks them. He’s keeping a low profile and would not allow a fresh photograph.

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
Change.org

Petition by
Aletha Blayse
Brisbane, Australia

Dear General André Cox, Salvation Army World Head:

I’m disgusted by what I learned in the news in recent weeks about the Salvation Army’s treatment of children in its ‘care’ in Australia.

I’m shocked that the Salvation Army recently awarded a ‘Silver Star’ award to John McIver.

I’m shocked to learn how victims who first spoke out about abuses in Salvation Army institutions were ignored by your organisation, and sometimes even called liars.

I am appalled to learn that Lewis Blayse told your organisation of abuses at Alkira in the 1990s but that I’ve only just learned about them just now.

I don’t believe the slick spin put out by the Salvation Army that everything is all better now – I can make up my own mind, and I’m not impressed.

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
SBS

Source AAP

Churches, the Salvation Army and authorities have known for 40 years about the abuse coming to light at a royal commission, a prominent Sydney reverend says.

“They all knew,” Wayside Chapel’s Reverend Bill Crews told AAP. “There’s no institution or organisation, whether it’s the church or the government or NGOs, who can claim they didn’t know.”

But they were more concerned about “protecting the good name of the institution” than the abused children.

Between 1971 and 1983, Rev Crews ran a crisis centre in Kings Cross, where many street kids came for help.

That’s where he first met Mary Hooker.

She was raped and beaten as a 13-year-old girl while living at a state-run home in 1972, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard on Thursday.

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
KARE

[with video]

DOCUMENT: 1992 memo on Father Funcheon

Julie Nelson, Anchor and Steve Eckert, Investigative Producer KARE 11

ST. PAUL, Minn. – He liked to be called “Father Jerry”.

By his own account, Gerald Funcheon of the Catholic Order of the Holy Cross – the Croisers – started abusing young boys in the 1970’s here in the Twin Cities.

“I suspect, and I don’t remember, it would have been at it St. Odilia’s,” he testified in a 2012 deposition.

“The guy was a wolf,” according to David Bidney, one of kids who says he was abused starting when he was just 10. “They hurt me bad. And they hurt a lot of kids bad.”

In addition to St. Odilia’s in Shoreview, Father Jerry served in parishes and schools in Anoka, Onamia, and St. Cloud plus other assignments literally from coast-to-coast.

Just last week, Father Funcheon’s name was added to the local Archdiocese’s official list of abusive 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.

AUSTRALIA
7 News

PATRICK CARUANA
February 27, 2014

Prosecutors have dropped child sex charges against a convicted Victorian pedophile priest who died last month.

Michael Glennon was serving a 14-year sentence for the abuse of 15 children between 1974 and 1991, mostly at youth camps at a rural property.

He died aged 69 on New Year’s Day at the Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat.

It can now be revealed that Glennon was facing five charges of indecent assault against a boy between 1977 and 1978.

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 KINGDOM
Nottingham Post

THE Ministry of Justice has no record of which judge or magistrate decided to call off the search for on-the-run Nottingham paedophile priest Francis Cullen.

HM Courts and Tribunals, which is governed by the department, said a search warrant was withdrawn nine years after Cullen went missing because it was believed he could not realistically be found.

A spokesman said “a judge or a magistrate” would have signed a document calling off the warrant after the priest skipped bail in 1991.

But records at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court do not show who was sitting on the day it was signed.

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

Dennis Coday | Feb. 27, 2014 NCR Today

2014

In January, Cardinal Francis George prepared Chicago Catholics for a release of documents detailing the archdiocese’s mishandling of clergy accused of sexually abusing minors. An archdiocesan statement described the documents as “upsetting” and “painful to read.” The decisions church officials made decades ago “are now difficult to justify” but were based on “the prevailing knowledge at the time,” it said.

George’s letter specifically addressed the case Daniel McCormack, a priest that the cardinal would eventually defrock, but whom he allowed to stay in ministry — against the advice of his review board — for months after allegations against McCormack surfaced. George only removed him after McCormack’s second arrest in 2006.

“The response, in retrospect, was not always adequate to all the facts, but a mistake is not a cover up,” George wrote.

2013

Last fall, as details emerged about how the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese mishandled cases of clergy sexually abusing of minors, Archbishop John Nienstedt acknowledged mistakes: “Our policies and procedures may not have been uniformly followed.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

NCR Editorial Staff | Feb. 27, 2014

EDITORIAL
The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a report in early February that chastised the Vatican for substandard policies that fall short in protecting children, specifically from sexual abuse.

The condemnation came from a committee of 18 independent experts who monitor the implementation of the 1989 U.N. treaty — ratified by the Holy See in 1990 — related to child protection and children’s rights. Among the committee’s chief criticisms are that the Vatican “has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed,” that its systems and procedures are shrouded in secrecy that shields the abusers and denies justice to victims, and that the church’s global network has been used to hide perpetrators and obstruct investigations.

Critics have faulted the U.N. report for not keeping its focus on the sexual abuse of minors and instead also criticizing Vatican policies (we would call them teachings) on abortion, birth control, homosexuality and even corporal punishment. Bringing up these issues — which the committee may not have been able to avoid because of its wider mandate — made the report too easy to dismiss by the very people it should have roused to action. It also focused too much on the historical record and ignored some recent progress the Vatican has made. Because of this, the report comes off as dated, giving critics more ammunition to dismiss it. A more politically savvy report could have had greater impact. Commentators even on the NCR website called the report poorly done, sloppily executed and an opportunity squandered.

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

FEBRUARY 27, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

One of our site members, “Catholic Mom,” noticed that Father John Roebuck’s name still appeared on the archdiocesan clergy list this morning with his contact information changed to “care of the clergy office.” The list details the assignments and affiliations of priests with full faculties (currently in ministry). The names of those with restricted faculties are removed from the list. Roebuck is the former parochial vicar from St. Stanislaus parish in Lansdale who has been charged with indecent assault without consent. He has admitted to touching a man’s genitals at a YMCA. Read article here.

Kathy Kane confirmed with the archdiocesan spokesperson, that Roebuck’s faculties have indeed been restricted and that the clergy list would be changed this afternoon. It was changed all right. He contact information now lists him as back at St. Stanislaus Parish.

Some priests use the the clergy list as a resource to be sure that a priest visiting their school or parish is in good standing. It’s invaluable in the current climate and should be carefully maintained. Not sure if this was a clerical error or something else. We will follow up tomorrow.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

How do you get the attention of America’s newspaper of record?

First, find a handful of others to form a group declaring yourself opposed to sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Second, put together a third-rate website (even if it is not even online) announcing your intention to solve the now largely nonexistent problem of sex abuse. Finally, phone the New York Times National Religion Correspondent Laurie Goodstein to obtain all the free public relations you want.

So appears the strategy of a fringe group of dissident priests, nuns, and other left-wing zealots called Catholic Whistleblowers, which Goodstein proudly promoted on the Times’ front page just last year.

The premise of the group is simple but inane: the diabolical hierarchy of the Church is still covering up widespread abuse of minors by priests, and it is up to these select and valiant malcontents to blow the lid off the cover-up.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A sentencing hearing begins today for a notorious Hunter Valley Catholic priest who has admitted to sexually abusing 18 boys.

It is his second conviction for multiple child sex offences.

John Sidney Denham is already in prison for child sexual abuse, as Sydney’s District Court hears submissions on his sentencing for additional crimes.

The former Maitland-Newcastle priest is serving 13 years in jail for sexually abusing 39 boys.

In July last year, Denham pleaded guilty to 25 new charges dating back to the 1970s, including indecent assault and buggery.

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MEXICO
El Siglo

[Summary: The film “Perfect Obedience” is about the life of Catholic priest Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ.]

Desde sus inicios como actor de cine, Juan Manuel Bernal ha cumplido a cabalidad uno de sus propósitos: mostrar al público, a través historias ficcionadas en pantalla grande, los problemas que afligen e incomodan a la sociedad.

Ahora, con la cinta “Obediencia perfecta”, ópera prima de Luis Urquiza inspirada en los casos de abuso sexual cometidos por el fallecido sacerdote católico Marcial Maciel, el histrión espera provocar en el público una reflexión sobre los temas que tienden a minimizarse y, al mismo tiempo, a considerarse intocables.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Keenan

Thu, Feb 27, 2014

A witness at the North’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry has told how he “had enough of the torture” from a named nun at a Derry boys’ home run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

However, he also insisted many people did their best for those at St Joseph’s, Termonbacca, and this was why he wrote a letter to the Derry Journal in 2004 praising those who “helped light up our lives”.

Struggling with his emotions, the anonymous witness told the inquiry’s senior counsel Christine Smith he could take no more beatings with an electric flex from a named nun and physically confronted her.

“I just couldn’t take it any more, I was beaten so severely with that flex,” he said.

‘Put up resistance’

“I put up resistance, stopped her, disarmed her, restrained her, let her break free. She came back at me with a dustpan brush.”

He continued: “At the end of it, she came at me with a pair of scissors, I was able to disarm her and restrain her. I told her, ‘you are not going to beat me again – ever’. She realised she could not get the better of me. I never got beaten again.”

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FLORIDA
News-Press

Suspect was arrested on Jan. 29

Written by
Marisa Kendall

A week has passed since Robert Little was arrested on accusations of molesting a Catholic school student, but he continues to reside next to the school in a building owned by the church.

Little, 74, was arrested Jan. 29 on a charge of lewd or lascivious behavior on a victim 12-16 years old. Investigators said Little made the victim expose himself, and touched him, while the victim was visiting Little’s condo on Fort Myers Beach, according to a Lee County Sheriff’s Office report. Little told deputies the victim was a student at the now-defunct Father Anglim Academy for mentally challenged children, according to the report.

Little was released from Lee County Jail on Saturday, on a bond of $10,000. He is to have no contact with the victim or other children, according to court documents. His arraignment is scheduled for March 3.

After his release, Little returned to his unit in Villa Francisco, a senior living home owned by the Diocese of Venice. The church is considering whether it can and will remove Little from the home — it’s a complicated decision because the home is run independently of the church, said Billy Atwell, spokesman for the Diocese of Venice.

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
Fox 4

[with video]

By Sara Belsole

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, demonstrating outside St. Francis Xavier Church in Fort Myers.

“Church officials can and should do more,” says Barbara Blaine, President of SNAP.

Blaine says they have concerns about how the Diocese of Venice responded when Eucharistic Minister Robert Little was arrested for molesting a young boy he met at church.

“The way the diocese dealt with this was reckless and that it placed children at risk.” Blaine says.

Little was no longer volunteering at Saint Francis Xavier when he admitted to police he touched the boy inappropriately, but was living at the diocese-owned Villa Francisco, just blocks from the church.

The Diocese didn’t ask Little to leave until a week after his arrest and after a local attorney, who represents another boy who claims Little molested him, voiced his concerns to Fox 4.

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
Real Clear Religion

By Samuel Gregg

It’s a long way from growing up in your father’s pub in the Australian regional city of Ballarat to becoming someone who answers directly to the Successor of Saint Peter in Rome. That, however, is the path that’s been followed by Pope Francis’s inaugural appointment as Prefect of what’s being officially called the “Secretariat for the Economy.”

A tall, somewhat imposing figure with a lifetime of intellectual achievement, pastoral work, and a forceful engagement in the public square behind him, Cardinal George Pell doesn’t fit most people’s image of a financial administrator. The 72 year-old ecclesiastic has, however, been asked to undertake a major role in fixing what has become a major source of scandal for the Catholic Church in recent years.

It may well turn out to be the greatest challenge of his priestly life.

You don’t need to watch the Godfather Part III to know that the Catholic Church has struggled for several decades to address some real problems in the management of the Holy See’s finances. Just looking at an organizational chart of the various units involved in some way in administering the Holy See’s resources is enough to make even devout Catholics think that maybe Dan Brown’s novels are onto something.

What’s often called “the Vatican Bank” — it’s more formal title is the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR) — is just one of several institutions that the Holy See has created over the years to manage various resources. In many ways, a far more important structure is the lesser-known “Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See” (APSA), which, as it stated under its governing document, serves “to administer the properties owned by the Holy See in order to provide the funds necessary for the Roman Curia to function.”

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
Stadtzeitung

[The Augsburg district court has issued an order of punishment against a forme rpriest at the parish community of Thurheim. It is alleged he was in possession of child pornography. The priest has been since 2005 a priest of the Augsburg diocese.]

Das Amtsgericht Augsburg hat gegen den früheren Pater der Pfarreiengemeinschaft Thürheim einen Strafbefehl wegen Besitz von kinder- und jugendpornografischem Bildmaterial erlassen. Der Geistliche stand seit 2005 im Dienst des Bistums Augsburg.

Strafbefehl gegen den früheren Pfarrer der Pfarreiengemeinschaft Thürheim: Pater Thomas Schilling muss wegen Besitz von kinder- und jugendpornografischem Bildmaterial eine Geldstrafe von 90 Tagessätzen zahlen. Das teilte Roland Fink, Sprecher am Amtsgericht für Strafsachen, auf Nachfrage unserer Zeitung mit.

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 New York Times

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
FEB. 25, 2014

An investigation into Bob Jones University’s handling of sexual abuse complaints will be allowed to resume, the university and investigators said on Tuesday, after the school endured two weeks of criticism for cutting off the inquiry, without explanation, as it neared completion.

After Bob Jones, a fundamentalist Christian college in Greenville, S.C., suspended the investigation in late January, people who said they had been abused and had been interviewed by the investigators went public with their stories, some for the first time. Some common themes were that when university students sought counseling, officials at Bob Jones called them liars or sinners, and told them not to report abuse to the police because turning in a member of their religious community — especially a parent or pastor — would harm Jesus and the church.

Most of the accounts involved abuse that occurred when the students were children. But some people did say they were abused as students at the university or its affiliated grade school, Bob Jones Academy.

The university has not explained why it terminated its contract with the group it had commissioned to conduct the investigation, Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, or Grace. Stephen Jones, the university president and a great-grandson of the founder, acknowledged this month that it had not told Grace of any of its concerns before halting the investigation.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier-Mail

[with video]

PAUL HEGERTY THE COURIER-MAIL FEBRUARY 27, 2014

IN MY business there is a saying: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” The tragic stories uncovered by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse suggest a change to the saying. Culture devours child protection policy for breakfast, lunch and tea.

Culture is what a group accepts as normal. If a group doesn’t talk about child safety then in its culture it is normal to ignore child safety. If an organisation values other things above child safety then, culturally, it will minimise its seriousness. Policies and procedures, especially if they are from head office, will have minimal impact.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge spoke forcefully in The Courier-Mail yesterday about failures within the Catholic Church and a new path forward. He is concerned that assumptions the Church has learned in the past 20 years are rendered false by recent failings, especially in Catholic Education, which is meant to lead the way.

But an archbishop cannot change things by himself. Bishops already have policies and procedures but the strategy-devouring culture can chew and spit them out.

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CHICAGO (IL)
DNA Info

By Adeshina Emmanuel on February 26, 2014

UPTOWN — A documentary scheduled for release Friday — and a lawsuit filed recently in Cook County Circuit Court — accuse Uptown Christian commune Jesus People USA of hiding “rampant” sexual abuse of children at the commune decades ago.

“No Place To Call Home” is a documentary by former Jesus People member Jaime Prater that alleges he and dozens of former members were abused as children while living in the commune between 1974 and 1998.

The movie was initially scheduled for a July release. Prater said he prolonged the process to gather more interviews with alleged victims of abuse.

“This baby of mine has been gestating for five years, and so I’m nervous and anxious and excited,” said Prater, 37, who now lives in Indiana. The film project, which began in 2009, received donations through Kickstarter and will be released online, he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Chronicle

OPINION: On the Catholic Church Insurance web page about how to make a claim is the advice, “Report theft (or attempted theft), malicious damage, and loss of personal valuables to the police.”

The Catholic Church also has procedures to report child sexual abuse allegations to police. My experience is that church officers comply with the insurance advice for material things.

But in Toowoomba we have seen the tragic results of failure to comply with the church’s procedures for child abuse. This highlights the cultural issues that Bishop Bill Morris and others raise.

It is one thing to identify cultural issues but people often wonder what to do about them. In my line of work we find experienced and intelligent people struggle to overcome culture.

So what is the culture we are talking about here? Culture is simply what people think is normal. People conform to what is normal. People don’t turn up to the workshop in their swimmers or to the beach in their boots and overalls.

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NETHERLANDS
Dutch News

Thursday 27 February 2014

The sexual abuse scandal has so far cost the Dutch Catholic church over €8m in research costs and compensation payments to victims.

Most of the money has gone on the massive research project led by Wim Deetman into the scale of the problem.

The report, published in 2011, concluded at least 800 Roman Catholic priests and monks were involved in abusing children in their care between 1945 and 1985.

In total, €3m has been paid in compensation to victims, according to the Church’s annual accounts and quoted by news agency ANP. It is the first time the church has published its annual accounts and the figures cover 2012, ANP says.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Feb. 27, 2014

A HUNTER man who was raped by paedophile priest John Denham was not in court yesterday for the process that will confirm Denham dies in jail.

‘‘I don’t want to see him ever again,’’ the man, 49, said.

‘‘The police asked me to write a victim’s impact statement, but even that’s beyond me. I hope the next time I hear about him will be when they let me know he’s passed away.’’

A pre-sentence hearing in Sydney yesterday was adjourned to May on an application from Denham’s lawyer. The former priest, who was defrocked by the Catholic Church in 2011 – 11 years after he was first convicted of sexually abusing a boy – pleaded guilty in August last year to 25 child sex charges involving 18 boys at Singleton, Wingham and St Pius X School, Adamstown, in the 1970s, and accepted another 23 indecent assault charges had occurred.

The 25 offences, including buggery, forced oral sex and indecent assault, were committed against boys aged 11, 12 and 13.

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MINNESOTA
dotCommonweal

February 26, 2014

Grant Gallicho

In early December a judge ordered the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to release its list of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse. Plaintiffs’ attorneys received the names in a 2009 lawsuit, but the court sealed the list. The archdiocese long fought its release, but reversed course after Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) reported that for years bishops had failed to inform police about a priest who had admitted to molesting boys. Archbishop John Nienstedt made the list public on December 5. It included the names of thirty-three men. But last week MPR reported that the actual number of accused priests was seventy. “Some of the…men remain in ministry,” according to MPR. “Others are long dead.” They worked in nearly every parish in the archdiocese.

(The same judge also ordered the archdiocese to release the names of all priests accused of abuse–not just those “credibly accused”–by February 18. The archdiocese appealed the order on that date, and has until February 26 to provide answers to a judge’s questions.)

The archdiocese disputes MPR’s account. In a statement released the day after MPR published its report online, the archdiocese claimed that “the twenty-eight clergy members identified by MPR have not been publicly disclosed by the archdiocese because they do not, to date, constitute substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor.” The statement continued: “At least sixteen of the twenty-eight clergy members identified by MPR were the subject of false, meritless or unsubstantiated accusations against them.”

What about the other twelve? “Over ten” of them, the archdiocese claims, “are not from our archdiocese and the allegations against them concern alleged conduct that occurred outside of this archdiocese.” Still, they worked in the Twin Cities. According to the statement, such priests “are subject to the authority of other orders and dioceses and…the archdiocese does not have sufficient information or even jurisdiction to determine whether those foreign claims are credible or have been substantiated.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Montgomery Media

Published: Wednesday, February 26, 2014

By Eric Devlin
edevlin@montgomerynews.com

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has found a former priest, who previously served in Maple Glen, unsuitable for ministry, following allegations of sexual misconduct.

In an official Feb. 23 statement released by the Archdiocese, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. has found the Rev. John P. Paul, a former priest at St. Alphonsus Church in Maple Glen, unsuitable for ministry, following a substantiated allegation that he sexually abused a 17-year-old minor over 40 years ago.

Paul was placed on administrative leave, according to a Dec. 15 statement, following allegations that he had sexually abused minors more than 30 years ago. Originally, the allegations stated that Paul abused minors during his time in the seminary more than 40 years ago.

Paul resigned as pastor of Our Lady of Calvary Parish, Philadelphia, Nov. 6, where he had been serving since 2000, according to the Archdiocese.

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MINNESOTA
The Freethinker (UK)

Priest’s paedophilia classified as a ‘disability’ and he now gets generous church and state hand-outs

BY BARRY DUKE – FEBRUARY 26, 2014

AFTER the Rev Gil Gustafson was convicted of child sex abuse 30 years ago, the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis decided to ensure his financial security for decades to come.

The priest was fined $40 and sentenced to 10 years probation and six months in jail. He served four-and-a-half months. The abuse destroyed the life of his victim, Brian Gerrity, who died of drug abuse and AIDS at the age of 28.

According to this report, the church continued Gustafson’s priestly salary and health insurance, covered his living expenses and psychological treatment and paid for his education and training. It also gave him jobs in the chancery, helped him establish his own consulting business and steered clients his way.

In July 2006, Gustafson was declared “disabled” based on his paedophilia, the church said. This allowed him to collect disability payments on top of his earnings as a leadership consultant.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

[Summary: In a dramatic twist the Dioceses of San Juan and Arecibo have recently reported cases of sexual abuse by priests contrary to what their procedure has been in the past. ]

Por Limarys Suárez Torres / lsuarez1@elnuevodia.com

En un giro drástico, la Iglesia Católica, específicamente las Diócesis de San Juan y Arecibo, denunciaron recientemente a las autoridades casos de abuso sexual perpetrados por sacerdotes, contrario a lo que había sido su postura de mantener estos escándalos dentro del cerrado ámbito eclesiástico.

Ayer el arzobispo de San Juan, Roberto González Nieves, reveló que existen otros cinco casos de abuso sexual de menores cometidos por curas en la zona metropolitana por lo cual decidió entregar al Departamento de Justicia toda la información relacionada a estos casos.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Tmes

Dan Keenan

Wed, Feb 26, 2014

A witness to the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry has broken down as she recalled a conversation she had with another person who had been in care the day before he took his own life.

The witness, who wishes to remain anonymous, was taken into care at various times in the 1970s at St Joseph’s home at Termonbacca in Derry, run by the Poor Sisters of Nazareth.

She cried openly as she told Senior Counsel to the inquiry Christine Smith QC that the man whom she knew from her time at the home told her he had been raped after he had been transferred to another care home in Kircubben, Co Down.

“He came to see me the day before he hung himself,” she told the inquiry.

Recovering her composure she went on: “[HE] told me the day before he committed suicide that he had been anally raped in Rubane House.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

February 26, 2014 9:57 am | Author: berger

A PBS “Frontline” segment last night focused on the forces that led to Pope Benedict’s shocking resignation last year and the challenges facing his successor, Pope Francis, including the abuse crisis. It featured attorney Jeff Anderson and Wisconsin SNAP leaders questioning why then-Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan suddenly moved $57 million into a cemetery fund, effectively reducing to $4 million the church funds available to compensate clergy sex abuse victims. The show can be viewed at http:/www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/secrets-of-the-vatican/.

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ROME
National Catholic Register

by EDWARD PENTIN 02/26/2014

ROME — The papal delegate to the Legion of Christ ended a three-year period of reform Tuesday, declaring the congregation “reconciled with themselves, with their history, with the world and the Church.”

Closing the Legion’s Extraordinary General Chapter, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis said the congregation had “looked inside themselves with a new and purified glance” and examined their current situation “in order to single out potential traces of pollution left by the founder of the Legion in their identity and action, in their legislation and way of working.”

He added that in “renewing their vocations, their self-giving to Christ and to one another, they have been freed of the burden that weighed on their backs. They have gone out of themselves and have found their place within the whole Regnum Christi movement.”

In 2010, Benedict XVI appointed the Italian cardinal to help oversee reform of the congregation, after a Vatican investigation revealed widespread corruption and abuse by its founder, Father Marcial Maciel.

On Feb. 6, the Legionaries of Christ released a statement that condemned the actions of their founder, apologized to his victims and set a new course for the congregation’s future.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In a letter to an Italian journalist, retired Pope Benedict XVI said questions about the validity of his resignation are “absurd.”

“There is absolutely no doubt regarding the validity of my renunciation of the Petrine ministry,” the retired pope wrote in a letter to Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican correspondent for the newspaper La Stampa and the website Vatican Insider.

Tornielli said he wrote to the retired pope Feb. 14 after reading articles questioning the canonical validity of his announcement Feb. 11, 2013, that he was stepping down.

In the letter, Pope Benedict described as “simply absurd” doubts about how he had formulated his announcement to cardinals gathered for a meeting about canonization causes.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic News Service

[Secrets of the Vatican]

By John Mulderig
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) — The historic resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the headline-grabbing start of his successor’s ministry are certainly events worthy of close and careful analysis.

Unfortunately, “Secrets of the Vatican,” a PBS documentary purporting to provide just such an examination, turns out to be, in large part, both sloppy and one-sided.

A “Frontline” presentation, Antony Thomas’ film premieres Tuesday, Feb. 25, 10-11:30 p.m. EST (check local listings).

Thomas identifies three primary causes for Pope Benedict’s retirement, all of them scandalous: the plague of clergy sexual abuse, financial shenanigans at the Institute for the Works of Religion, aka the Vatican Bank, and the damaging release of secret documents that has come to be known as “Vatileaks.” It’s Thomas’ treatment of clergy sexual abuse that suffers the most from factual lapses — and that also displays the most bias.

An early indication that scrupulous attention to detail is not on the agenda here — and that an appealing Pope Francis is to be implicitly contrasted with his unacceptable predecessor — comes with the statement that the current pontiff was elected after “one of the shortest conclaves ever.” Yet the 2005 gathering of cardinals that selected Pope Benedict was just as brief; in fact, it ended about an hour sooner.

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OREGON
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Morris-Young | Feb. 26, 2014

Editor’s note: This is Part 3 of a five-part series on the dispute between a pastor and his bishop in St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Bend, Ore. Removed from his post last October, Fr. James Radloff filed an appeal, but his request was denied by the Vatican, as the Congregation for Clergy sided with Baker, Ore., Bishop Liam Cary. The Jan. 31 decision allows Cary to keep secret the reason for the ouster and permits a continued bar on Radloff’s public ministry. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Baker, Ore. Bishop Liam Cary’s emphasis on the vow of obedience in his May 7, 2013 open letter to St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Bend, Ore. is viewed by many as a key to Fr. James Radloff’s removal as pastor.

Petitions were circulated asking the bishop to back down on plans to transfer popular Spanish-speaking priest Fr. Juan Carlos Chiarinoti, a native Argentinian. In the letter, Cary admonished parishioners and Radloff for the petition effort. He called it “out of place” and said it “thrust into public view matters that must be dealt with in private and whetted the appetite for an explanation that could not be forthcoming.”

Cary also directly rebuked Radloff: “In launching this movement to pressure me to do what he wanted, your pastor made a very serious error of judgment. He actively recruited you to stand with him against your bishop. … On the day of his ordination, a priest places his hands between those of the bishop and publicly promises ‘respect and obedience’ to him and his successors. … To build up the unity of the Church, priests must be willing to walk the way of obedience; and a bishop must be able to count on his priests to be true to their promise.”

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MINNESOTA
Seattle PI

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A newly released police file shows a Minnesota priest remained in ministry even after church leaders learned he had searched online for sexual images of children.

St. Paul police released documents Tuesday in the case of the Rev. Jonathan Shelley, who was investigated for possible child porn possession. The case was closed last month without charges after prosecutors said they found no evidence of a crime.

The file includes a 2004 report on Shelley’s hard drive by a private forensic examiner. The examiner’s report to an investigator hired by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said he found search terms including “free naked boys” and “blond boys sucking pics.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Der Westen

Alkoholsucht, berufliches Aus, Scheidungen: Drei Männer erzählen, wie Pädophile ihr Leben zerstörten. Mit den Taten abfinden können sie sich nicht. Nun hoffen sie, dass die Verjährungsfrist für sexuellen Missbrauch fällt – damit sie ihre Täter auch noch nach 30 Jahren juristisch belangen können.

Ein Bundestagsabgeordneter, der bei einem internationalen Kinderpornoring Nacktfilme von Knaben bestellt haben soll: Als Markus Elstner von der Affäre Sebastian Edathy hörte, kam sofort seine eigene Geschichte wieder hoch. Die des zwölfjährigen Messdieners, der auserwählt war, beim charismatischen Kaplan an den Wochenenden zu übernachten. Was wie eine Auszeichnung wirkte, fügte dem heute 47-jährigen Bottroper schweren Schaden zu.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON FEBRUARY 26, 2014

Our first SNAP member who played in the NFL and to publicly speak out about his childhood trauma, Roy Simmons, has passed away, and our hearts go out to his family during this difficult and painful time.

Over the past decade, Roy joined us several times in several states (Massachusetts, Ohio and elsewhere) pushing to eliminate and extend the biggest legal roadblock to protecting kids – the archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly statutes of limitations. He also bravely spoke at several SNAP events. (In fact, if you look at the photo accompanying Roy’s obituary in the New York Times, you can see photos of other SNAP members in the background.)

Roy found it both embarrassing and painful to speak publicly about his childhood abuse, even after so many years have passed since it happened. But he spoke up anyway. He said “it isn’t easy, but I can endure this if it will help another child. It hurts so much and I don’t want anyone else to endure this. Kids should not have to suffer like I did.”

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NEDERLAND
NRC

[Summary: The dioceses of the Netherlands are in the red. In 2012 they sustained a 4.3 million euro loss on total revenues of 30.1 million euros.]

door Joep Dohmen

De bisdommen in Nederland zitten in de rode cijfers. In 2012 hebben ze samen 4,3 miljoen euro verlies geleden, op een totaal aan inkomsten van 30,1 miljoen. Parochies dragen minder af, terwijl de kosten – onder meer door herstelbetalingen aan misbruikslachtoffers – stijgen.

Dat blijkt uit de jaarverslagen die de zeven bisdommen hebben vrijgegeven. Het KRO-programma Brandpunt Reporter bericht er morgen over. Het is voor het eerst dat de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk in Nederland inzage geeft in haar financiën. De openheid past in de door paus Franciscus ingezette koers naar meer transparantie.

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BELGIE
Gazet van Antwerpen

[Summary: A total of 403 victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church filed as application for compensation from the King Baudouin Foundation.]

Al 403 slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de Kerk dienden een verzoek tot schadevergoeding in bij de Koning Boudewijnstichting. Slachtoffers hebben daarvoor nog tot 31 oktober de tijd. Dat deelde Kamerlid Renaat Landuyt (sp.a) zopas mee. Landuyt is niet alleen lid van de parlementaire opvolgingscommissie over seksueel misbruik, maar ook advocaat van één van de slachtoffers van Operatie Kelk.

Twee op de drie verzoekers is Nederlandstalig en 80% zijn mannen, aldus Landuyt. Het Kamerlid zegde dat de opvolgingscommissie in het parlement zich ook gebogen heeft over de tekst die slachtoffers voorgelegd krijgen in geval van verzoening (bij akkoord over de schadevergoeding). Volgens Landuyt wil de Kamercommissie dat slachtoffers nog altijd mogen blijven praten over de feiten waarvan zij het slachtoffer waren, ook als ze een schadevergoeding hebben gekregen. En zo’n schadevergoeding sluit rechtszaken over andere feiten dan die waarvoor er een schadevergoeding was, niet uit.

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BELGIE
De Morgen

[Summary: The arbitration center on sexual abuse in the last 18 months has already paid 1.4 million euros to victims of pedophila offenses. The center was created in the aftermath of the case involving former Belgian Bishop Roger Vangheluwe.]

Het Centrum voor Arbitrage inzake seksueel misbruik heeft in anderhalf jaar tijd al 1,4 miljoen euro uitgekeerd aan slachtoffers van verjaarde pedofiliefeiten binnen de Kerk. Dat blijkt uit het jaarverslag dat vandaag werd voorgesteld in de Opvolgingscommissie seksueel misbruik van de Kamer.

Het Arbitragecentrum werd opgericht in de nasleep van de zaak rond ex-bisschop Roger Vangheluwe, die toegaf zijn minderjarige neefje te hebben misbruikt. Dat leidde tot een stroom aan getuigenissen van andere slachtoffers, vaak over zaken die al lang waren verjaard. Daarom werd een Arbitragecommissie opgericht die toch schadevergoedingen kan toekennen in dergelijke zaken. Aanvragen moesten binnen zijn voor 31 oktober 2012.

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UNITED STATES
Frontline

by Nathan Tobey

Secrets of the Vatican reveals the culture of a Vatican few outsiders have seen, plagued by corruption, cover-ups and ruthless power struggles.

Using undercover footage and interviews with Vatican insiders, as well as abuse victims, whistleblowers, and journalists, Secrets of the Vatican also shows the deep sexual hypocrisy within the Catholic Church and the long legacy of clergy sexual abuse of children.

“Unless you spend some time inside this kind of culture, it’s very hard to believe that it could be like this,” journalist Robert Mickens tells FRONTLINE.

How did the Vatican get to this point? Just how far does the corruption extend? Is there hope for meaningful reform? Can Pope Francis take on the entrenched interests in the Vatican bureaucracy? Is he really going to try?

We’ve asked Secrets of the Vatican filmmaker Antony Thomas and co-producer Jason Berry and to join us for a live chat to answer those questions and take yours.

They’ll be joined by guest questioner Elizabeth Dias from TIME magazine. Elizabeth recently co-wrote TIME’s Person of the Year portrait of Pope Francis.

You can leave a question in the chat window below, and come by at 2:30 p.m. ET on Feb. 26 to join the live discussion.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014

For more information: David Clohessy ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com ), Barbara Dorris ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Victims blast justices for not taking abuse case
Missouri’s highest court refuses to hear appeal
Employers of child molesters “get off the hook,” SNAP says
Lower court rulings are “a horrific injustice,” group maintains
SNAP: “When priests abuse ‘off premises,’ Catholic officials exploit technicality”

For now, Missouri’s highest court will not consider overturning a lower court ruling that tossed out a clergy sex abuse case against Catholic officials because a priest’s alleged crimes did not happen on church property.

Yesterday, Missouri’s Supreme Court declined an appeal from attorneys for a Kansas City man who says he was molested by Fr. Michael Tierney, a priest who has faced several civil child sex abuse lawsuits. Last November, a western Missouri appeals court ruled that since Fr. Tierney’s purported sexual assaults happened on private property, his employer, the Kansas City Catholic diocese, can’t be held responsible for them.

“We are very sad the justices are choosing to not look at this horrific injustice,” said David Clohessy of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “We’re also sad that KC Bishop Robert Finn has used this technicality to protect a serial predator priest and we fear other employers will be emboldened now to do likewise.”

[BishopAccountability.org]

[The Kansas City Star]

“For years, at least two Missouri prelates have successfully exploited this legal loophole to conceal clergy sex crimes and cover ups,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP’s outreach director. “Now, it’s likely they’ll continue and other defendants will follow suit, which means that fewer child sex abuse lawsuits will be filed, fewer child molesters will be exposed and fewer children will be protected.”

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Two snapshots this morning that speak volumes about why the abuse scandal has proven so intractable in the Catholic church–and why we remain so far still from addressing it effectively:

In the PBS “Frontline” series “Secrets of the Vatican” (the show itself aired last night; PBS now has a series of articles connected to the show online), Robert Mickens notes that not one of recent popes–not John Paul II, Benedict, or Francis–has gotten in front of the issue. They’ve all had to be dragged to deal with it.

And then there’s this about Benedict, in particular:

One of the things that always struck me as odd was the first reaction that Benedict XVI had toward child abuse, at least the first public reaction, and this happened with the case of the Irish bishops when that big scandal hit, the statement came out, and the pope’s first reaction was he was horrified that a priest could do something like this.
That’s interesting. He wasn’t horrified that a kid was abused. … Why is it horrifying that a priest could do something like that? A priest can do all kinds of things, but it gives a light into the man’s mind that … that was the most horrifying thing for him. …

And at Raw Story, Travis Gettys reports on the attempt of officials of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese to blame a mother for . . . well, I suppose, for allowing? . . . the molestation of her sons by Father Curtis Wehmeyer, who’s now in prison for his crimes. Gettys notes that Archbishop John Nienstedt has never met with this mother or her family, but he did discuss the situation with a group of priests last December, noting that his vicar general Father Peter Laird had had to resign after Wehmeyer’s abuse of the boys became public knowledge.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Phyllis Zagano | Feb. 26, 2014 Just Catholic

Will Pope Francis’ new money lord make any difference? Australian Cardinal George Pell, 72, who moves to Rome next month to head a new Vatican office, is not known as a financial expert.

Australian sex-abuse critics call his appointment a golden parachute, one that may touch down in a palatial suite in the AUS$30 million “Domus Australia” guesthouse Pell dedicated in 2011.

Of course Francis is trying to do the right thing. Religion and money are never a good mix, and a long history of scandals only complicates the task of getting the Vatican bureaucracy in order. As Cardinal Prefect of the new dicastery, the Secretariat for the Economy, Pell reports directly to the pope. He also reports to the new Council for the Economy, eight cardinals and seven lay experts projected to analyze internal controls, transparency, and governance. In addition, there will be an Auditor-General empowered to check the books of any Holy See component.

Pell’s mandate appears to be oversight of any money the Vatican touches, particularly that in the Administration of the Patrimony for the Holy See (APSA), which manages Vatican-owned money and property, and the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), also known as the Vatican Bank, which manages between $6 billion to $7 billion dollars in cash and securities owned by various clergy, religious orders, dioceses and church-affiliated persons and institutions.

Both are ripe fields for fraud, waste and abuse. The lack of transparency at the Vatican Bank, which has 19,000 clients worldwide and does a quarter of its business in cash, has long been cause for scandal. No one knows where it invests its funds. In 1982, the head of the collapsed Banco Amrosiano, Roberto Calvi, was found hanged in London. The Vatican Bank owned controlling shares of Banco Ambrosiano. More recently, Italian police arrested Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, former head of accounting at APSA, on suspicion of using the Vatican Bank to move money for “others.” He was also accused of trying to smuggle $20 million Euro by private plane from Switzerland.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Derby Telegraph

By Martin_Naylor | Posted: February 26, 2014

A SEARCH warrant for on-the-run paedophile priest Francis Cullen was withdrawn because it was believed he could not realistically be found.

The Ministry of Justice say “a judge or a magistrate” would have signed a document calling off the warrant nine years after he skipped bail in 1991.

But the department said the warrant would have been reissued if, during further investigations, circumstances changed and Cullen could have been found.

On Monday, the 85-year-old, who was parish priest at Christ the King, in Mackworth from 1960 to 1978, pleaded guilty to 21 sexual abuse offences.

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Huffington Post

Dragana Brown

I met up with Geoffrey Robertson QC, a human rights lawyer, author of numerous books, and one in particular that caught my attention a few years back – The Case of The Pope.

I was curious as to what had inspired him to write it – perhaps a particular story that touched him deeply amongst the myriad of cases of child sexual abuse within Catholic Church?

In fact, the spark came from his friend, Christopher Hitchens, who enquired during the time all the abuse cases were going ballistic, particularly in the US, if Robertson thought there was enough material to amount to a crime against humanity.

Robertson promised to have a look and started to read everything that was happening around the world. He observed how nobody had brought the whole thing together and judged it by legal standards – no one had gotten to the bottom of it. And so one Saturday night spark turned into a roaring fire resulting in the most enlightening book on the modern Catholic Church ever written – EVER.

Robertson’s publisher wanted to call it: ‘The Case Against The Pope’, but he felt that was loaded. This simple statement confirmed an inspiring quality he holds – a total absence of any vendetta or any pre existing animus towards the Catholic Church or any religion indeed. He was matter of fact, simply looking at the evidence about Ratzinger, and the fact that he had not taken ANY action against paedophile priests who have been a public profile nightmare for the Catholic Church.

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UNITED STATES
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Written by Peter Smith on Wednesday, 26 February 2014

Roman Catholic laypeople should have a role in choosing their bishop, according to Nicholas Cafardi, dean emeritus and professor of law at Duquesne University.

The whole process should be handled with more transparency, said Mr. Cafardi, who formerly chaired the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board, which advised bishops on their response to sexual abuse. In fact, he said the abuse crisis itself can partly be traced to an opaque, insider process of picking bishops.

Mr. Cafardi writes in a recent article in U.S. Catholic:

‘Pope Francis says that he wants a special kind of bishop for our church—he wants “shepherds who smell of their sheep.” Let us take our Holy Father at his word: Who knows how the sheep smell better than the sheep themselves? No one. So then why not let the sheep … have a significant say in the choice of our bishops.’

The current process is based on insider recommendations from bishops, up the chain of command to the papal nuncio (diplomatic representative) to the United States and to the pope himself. Priests and some influential and wealthy lay people have an advisory role, but not the lay people as a whole, he writes.

When a candidate is named, he added, the Vatican circulates questions to a select group of those who know him, asking his stances on such issues as same-sex marriage, women priests and abortion — an agenda that “has given us so many culture warrior bishops,” Mr. Cafardi writes. He wonders if, under Francis, such questions as whether the man has a concern for the poor or drives a fancy car will also be asked.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI has lamented what he calls “absurd speculations” about his resignation in a letter to Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli, of the newspaper La Stampa. The Pope-emeritus was responding to a question about recent newspaper theories surrounding the validity of his resignation one year ago.

“There is absolutely no doubt regarding the validity of my resignation from the Petrine ministry,” Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI wrote. He said the only condition for the validity of his resignation was the complete freedom of his decision. He called speculation regarding its validity “simply absurd.”

He also clarified he continued to wear the white cassock and kept the name Benedict for “purely practical reasons,” noting that at the moment of his resignation there were no other clothes available.

In any case, he added that he wears the white cassock in a visibly different way to how the reigning Pope wears it. He called questions about his attire another case of “completely unfounded speculation”.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

David Gibson | Feb 26, 2014

VATICAN CITY (RNS) On the eve of the first anniversary of his shocking resignation, Pope Benedict XVI has rejected as “simply absurd” the speculation that he was forced to step down, and he explained that he continues to wear the distinctive papal white cassock for “purely practical reasons.”

“At the moment of my resignation there were no other clothes available,” Benedict wrote in a brief letter to an Italian journalist that was published on Wednesday.

The emeritus pope also said that he kept the name Benedict, rather than reverting to his birth name of Joseph Ratzinger, because it was a simple solution, and said rumors that this signaled that he remained something of a “shadow pope” to his successor, Pope Francis, “another case of completely unfounded speculations being made.”

“There is absolutely no doubt regarding the validity of my resignation from the Petrine ministry,” Benedict wrote to Andrea Tornielli, a veteran Vatican reporter with La Stampa newspaper.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

Vatican City — Pope emeritus Benedict XVI on Wednesday rejected as “simply absurd” the notions that his resignation might not be valid and that the Vatican hierarchy was now divided between loyalty to him and to Pope Francis.

“There is no doubt at all on the validity of my renunciation,” Benedict said in an unprecedented letter published in the La Stampa daily, after it had written to him with questions about when he stepped down in 2013.

“The only condition for validity is that the decision be taken in full freedom. Speculation over an invalid renunciation is simply absurd,” said Benedict XVI, whose Latin title is now “pontifex emeritus”.

Benedict became the first pope since the Middle Ages to resign in February last year, when he said he could no longer carry on because of his declining health.

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VATICAN CITY
Headlines from the Catholic World

Vatican City, Feb 26, 2014 / 03:47 am (CNA).- Today the Italian newspaper La Stampa has published excerpts of a letter from Benedict XVI, who wrote to affirm the existence of only one Pope, Francis.

“There is absolutely no doubt regarding the validity of my resignation from the Petrine ministry,” wrote Benedict XVI in a letter published on Feb. 26.

His letter was a response to La Stampa’s inquiries regarding “various interpretations that have been circulating in the press and on the web regarding his gesture,” the article noted. Some have questioned whether or not Benedict XVI’s resignation was valid, a speculation the retired Pontiff roundly rejected.

“The only condition for the validity of my resignation is the complete freedom of my decision.

Speculations regarding its validity are simply absurd,” he wrote.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider (La Stampa)

Benedict XVI responds to a letter sent to him by the Vatican correspondent Andrea Tornielli. The journalist sent him some questions regarding the alleged pressures and conspiracies which some claim led to his resignation

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

“There is absolutely no doubt regarding the validity of my resignation from the Petrine ministry” and the “speculations” surrounding it are “simply absurd”. Joseph Ratzinger was not forced to resign, he was not pressured into it and he did not fall victim to a conspiracy: his resignation was genuine and valid and there is no “diarchy” (dual government) in the Church today. There is a reigning Pope, Francis, who leads the Catholic Church and an Emeritus Pope whose “only purpose” is to pray for his successor.

The Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has put pen to paper to set the record straight on the historic decision he took one year ago, in response to the various interpretations that have been circulating in the press and on the web regarding his gesture. Writing from the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican, he replied in person to a letter with some questions which we sent him a few days ago, after certain comments made in the Italian and international press about his resignation. Ratzinger was brief and to the point; he denied speculations about any secret reasons behind his resignation and urged people not to give undue importance to certain choices he has made, such as his decision to carry on wearing the white cassock after stepping down as Bishop of Rome.

Readers will recall the shock announcement Benedict XVI made on 11 February 2013, informing cardinals at the Consistory of his free decision to resign ingravescente aetate (because of old age): “I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.” He also announced that the Apostolic See was going to be vacant as of the evening of 28 February when the cardinals would meet to begin the process of electing his successor. In the days that followed, Ratzinger informed he would be keeping his papal name Benedict XVI (the name with which he signed the letter he sent us), that he would from that moment on be referred to as Pope Emeritus (this title also appears in print on the letter) and that he planned to carry on wearing a white cassock, albeit a simpler version than the papal one: Ratzinger does not wear the short shoulder cape, known as the “pellegrina” and without the fascia.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
La Stampa (Vatican Insider)

ANDREA TORNIELLI (VATICAN INSIDER)

«Non c’è il minimo dubbio circa la validità della mia rinuncia al ministero petrino» e le «speculazioni» in proposito sono «semplicemente assurde». Joseph Ratzinger non è stato costretto a dimettersi, non l’ha fatto a seguito di pressioni o complotti: la sua rinuncia è valida e oggi nella Chiesa non esiste alcuna «diarchia», nessun doppio governo. C’è un Papa regnante nel pieno delle sue funzioni, Francesco, e un emerito che ha come «unico e ultimo scopo» delle sue giornate quello di pregare per il suo successore.

Dal monastero «Mater Ecclesiae» dentro le mura vaticane, il Papa emerito Benedetto XVI ha preso carta e penna per stroncare le interpretazioni sul suo storico gesto di un anno fa, rilanciate da diversi media e sul web in occasione del primo anniversario della rinuncia. Lo ha fatto rispondendo personalmente a una lettera con alcune domande che gli avevamo inviato nei giorni scorsi, dopo aver letto alcuni commenti sulla stampa italiana e internazionale riguardanti le sue dimissioni. In modo sintetico ma precisissimo, Ratzinger ha risposto, smentendo i presunti retroscena segreti della rinuncia e invitando a non caricare di significati impropri alcune scelte da lui compiute, come quella di mantenere l’abito bianco anche dopo aver lasciato il ministero di vescovo di Roma.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (UK)

[Ratzinger: la mia rinuncia è valida, assurdo fare speculazioni – La Stampa]

Retired Pope Benedict denies speculation that he was FORCED to publicly stand down and is secretly active as a ‘shadow’ pope

By CHRIS PLEASANCE

In a letter to La Stampa newspaper Benedict called speculation he had been forced from his post ‘absurd’ ahead of the first anniversary of the resignation on Friday.

The Pope Emeritus has also fended off allegations that he is still active within the church, leading a faction of the Curia who are unhappy with Pope Francis’s sweeping new reforms.

Benedict announced his decision to resign on Feb. 11, 2013 and formally stepped down on Feb. 28, becoming the first pope in 600 years to do so.

Two weeks later, Francis was elected the first non-European pope in 1,300 years.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By TOM COWIE Feb. 26, 2014

CLERGY sex abuse survivors have welcomed the visit to Ballarat by officers from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The officers were in Ballarat yesterday for informal meetings with community groups and service providers to share information about the work of the Royal Commission.

The initial meetings will be followed by a visit to the region by Royal Commissioners, including the chairman, next month.

Clergy sex abuse survivor Andrew Collins said for him the consultation was about finding out what the plans were for the Royal Commission in Ballarat.

“I’m really glad it’s something that is being taken very seriously. There’s a lot of planning going into it,” he said. “They did make it obvious that they realise that Ballarat is one of the hotspots for abuse in Australia. “

So far, the Royal Commission has not said if it will hold public hearings in Ballarat.

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NEW YORK
UCA News

Catholic News Agency
United States
February 26, 2014

In an attempt to both anticipate and deflect “potentially negative publicity,” Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York has written a defense of his time as an auxiliary bishop of the St. Louis archdiocese.

“You know how I always try to alert you to any potentially negative publicity about the Church, or about me. Well, there could be some,” the cardinal wrote in a Feb. 18 blog post.

He noted that the Archdiocese of St. Louis, where he was ordained a priest and served as auxiliary bishop from 2001 to 2002, has “just complied with a court order to release the documents regarding cases there of sexual abuse of minors.”

“I would anticipate that my name will again be highlighted in the press,” he wrote. “I sure have nothing to hide, and am very much at peace with law enforcements officials reviewing the files. In fact, we already released all the documentation to them a dozen years ago!”

Last July, Cardinal Dolan criticized the repetition of “old and discredited attacks,” including the claim that he paid abusive priests to apply for laicization while he was Archbishop of Milwaukee. These payments, the cardinal said, were part of his duty to provide basic support for priests until they leave the priesthood.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Nottingham Post

By Martin Naylor and Peter Blackburn

PAEDOPHILE Nottingham priest Francis Cullen was “an arrogant man who thought he was better than others” says a former colleague.

Les Barr worked with the now 85-year-old former Hyson Green Catholic at a newspaper in Tenerife.

He said Cullen was employed to sell advertising for the fortnightly Island Connections newspaper that was sold to English speaking ex-pats and tourists on the holiday island.

But unbeknown to him his colleague was on the run from the police and the courts and had a perverted past that has now been thrust into the spotlight.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Gerry Moriarty

Wed, Feb 26, 2014

A witness has told the North’s historical institutional abuse inquiry she was sexually abused on several occasions by a young priest she thought wanted to help her. The priest has denied the allegation.

The 44-year-old witness, who was aged 10 at the time, recounted how she spent four days in the Sisters of Nazareth Termonbacca care home in Derry in 1980, after she had been discovered sleeping rough in a church in Co Tyrone.

The caretaker brought her to the parochial house, where a young priest was kind to her and expressed concern about injuries she had sustained as a result of physical abuse by her father, she told the inquiry in Banbridge, Co Down, yesterday.

However, when he took her into a room, ostensibly to check on her injuries, she said the priest sexually assaulted her. Later in Termonbacca, where she was in temporary care from her parents, both of whom were alcoholics, she said she was sexually abused on two occasions by the same priest.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WWLP

22News I-Team Investigation
By Laura HutchinsonUpdated: Tuesday, February 25, 2014

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Dozens of Western Massachusetts clergy sex abuse victims are now receiving counseling in an effort to move on.

However, not everyone is happy with the Diocese handling of financial implications. One man asked the 22News I-Team help with what he calls “a slow reimbursement process.”

“The Diocese and the victims advocate has just never been helpful,” said Easthampton’s Ray Drewnowski.

Drewnowski has harsh words for the Springfield Diocese. Not surprising. He’s one of dozens of western Massachusetts clergy sex abuse victims. The Diocese validated his claims and like most victims he required therapy. Therapy the church would pay for, or so he thought.

“What I realized was, they only really want to reimburse you for your co-payment with the insurance company. That your employer has you on,” Drewnowski said. “It was a moment for me to stand up and say no, that’s wrong. That’s not what you’re telling people.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Arthur Beesley

Wed, Feb 26, 2014

The Government will intensify efforts to secure a further €230 million from religious orders to cover the cost of institutional abuse after the official redress body indicated its work would be largely complete by the end of April.

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn briefed the Cabinet yesterday on the remaining work of the Residential Institutions Redress Board, which had 468 remaining applications to process and a further 17 late submissions to consider at the end of 2013.

The board was established in 2002. With the overwhelming majority of cases to be finalised in the next two months, at an estimated cost of some €1.46 billion, attention is turning once again to the 18 religious orders concerned.

The Minister wrote to the orders in October seeking a big increase in their contribution but he was unhappy with the reply. “The response has been disappointing,” Mr Quinn’s spokeswoman said.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit

[Summary: Pope Francis wants to bring peace to the Catholic Church and wants to remove the controversial Limburg bishop. Bishop Franz-Peter van Elst Tebartz is apparently unaware of the plans, according to some of his supporters and said he intends to return to Limburg. The bishop is currently in Rome and a few days ago he attended Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica with new German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller.]

Papst Franziskus will Ruhe in die Katholische Kirche bringen – und deshalb den umstrittenen Limburger Bischof loswerden. Aus dem Umkreis von Franziskus ist zu hören, der Papst beabsichtige, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst abzusetzen. Das berichtet die ZEIT in ihrer neuen Ausgabe.

Tebartz-van Elst selbst ahnt offenbar nichts von den Plänen des Papstes. Einige seiner Unterstützer sagten der ZEIT zufolge, der Bischof plane nach Limburg zurückzukehren. Tebartz-van Elst ist derzeit in Rom. Vor wenigen Tagen nahm er an einer Messe im Petersdom teil, mit der der neue deutsche Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller seine Einsetzung feierte. Teilnehmer berichten, der Bischof habe einen entspannten und gelösten Eindruck gemacht.

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GERMANY
YouTube

German language video regarding sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

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UNITED STATES
Frontline

[Secrets of the Vatican]

February 25, 2014 by Sarah Childress

The first report that church officials received about Father Shawn Ratigan, compiled by a Kansas City Catholic school principal in May 2010, was troubling.

Ratigan had taken hundreds of photographs of children, Julie Hess, the principal, wrote to church officials. He had tried to interact with kids on Facebook, and sometimes had physical contact with children in ways that appeared to other adults to be “boundary violations.”A pair of girl’s underwear was found in a planter in his backyard.

Parents and staff, Hess said, were “discussing whether he is a child molester.”

Bishop Robert Finn, who had authority over Ratigan, didn’t alert the police then, according to court documents. (Finn would later say he had only received a verbal summary of the letter from a deputy at the time.) He also didn’t call the police several months later, when a computer technician found hundreds of lewd photos of children on Ratigan’s laptop, most of which appeared to have been taken by a personal camera.

Instead, the laptop was turned over to the diocesan lawyer, and Finn called a psychiatrist, who said he thought he could help with Ratigan’s “severe loneliness that has caused this problem.”

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El Pais

INÉS SANTAEULALIA / WALTER OPPENHEIMER / MARÍA R. SAHUQUILLO / EVA SAIZ Mexico City / London / Madrid / Washington 26 FEB 2014

On January 16, a United Nations’ panel of human rights experts questioned Vatican representatives on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the main international treaty ensuring minors’ rights. During the day-long interrogation, the committee’s members — all independent experts — accused the Holy See of adopting policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over several decades, charges to which the Vatican’s representatives avoided responding directly. The panel subsequently released a report urging Pope Francis to open Vatican files on the pederasts and the churchmen who concealed their crimes, and hand them over to the courts.

Victims’ organizations around the world have welcomed the UN’s initiative, but most point out that individual pain cannot be cured with a report. Men and women who have been sexually abused by people in positions of trust have often spent their lives living with a terrible secret, as well as feelings of guilt. Those who dared to speak out have largely been ignored, as well as being put under pressure to remain silent by the Roman Catholic Church.

The victims are fighting not just for the sex offenders to be brought to justice, but also those who systematically protected these criminals. The blanket of silence thrown over the issue has added to their suffering. As early as 1962, the Vatican ordered all Catholic Church members to say nothing about sexual abuse, under threat of ex-communication. Over the years, the Holy See has pressured Catholics who knew about abuse to say nothing.

Complaints were often dealt with by transferring priests to other dioceses, or even abroad. In the United States, churches paid out millions of dollars in hush money. In many other cases, pressure from the Church, or fear of the resulting publicity, were sufficient to prevent victims of sexual abuse from speaking out. There are no exact figures on the number of such cases around the world. The Vatican, which has accepted and expressed its sorrow over the child abuse that has taken place among its ranks, has nevertheless refused to provide any information that would help to assess the scale of the problem.

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UNITED STATES
Frontline

[link to the full program: Secrets of the Vatican]

February 25, 2014, 8:31 pm ET by Jason M. Breslow

The list of problems facing the Catholic Church is long. Among the scandals Pope Francis inherited nearly one year ago are the clergy sex abuse crisis, allegations of money laundering at the Vatican bank and the fallout from VatiLeaks, to name just a few. Given the challenges, where should reform even begin? Moreover, how much change can truly be expected? FRONTLINE put these questions to five experts.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 02/25/2014

Reports released Tuesday by St. Paul police who investigated a priest for possible child pornography possession do not show that computer disks turned over by a Hugo man were examined.

Police investigated Rev. Jonathan Shelley, 52, of Minneapolis last year after a former employee of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis made a report to the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

In late September, police who reviewed three disks they had obtained from the archdiocese closed the case, saying there was no evidence of child porn.

On Oct. 5, they got a call from Joe Ternus of Hugo that led them to reopen the investigation.

Nine years earlier, Ternus had come into possession of Shelley’s computer because it was left at a Mahtomedi house that Ternus’ family used to own and where Shelley had lived.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

February 25
The Kansas City Star

Suffering from lung cancer, retired Kansas City Bishop Raymond James Boland has returned to Ireland, the land of his birth, to enter hospice care in Cork.

Boland was born in Tipperary this month in 1932 but grew up in Cork before moving to Dublin for his higher learning. Years ago, he had determined to be buried in his homeland. He left Saturday, according to the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

He served as bishop of the diocese from June 22, 1993, until May 24, 2005, when he retired and took the role of bishop emeritus here. Before that, he was the bishop in Birmingham, Ala., since early 1988.

In Kansas City, he was succeeded by Bishop Robert Finn, who released a statement last weekend noting: “In accord with his wishes I have shared this message with you after his departure. He humbly requested not a farewell, but only your prayers.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Gerry Moriarty

Wed, Feb 26, 2014

A witness has told the North’s historical institutional abuse inquiry she was sexually abused on several occasions by a young priest she thought wanted to help her. The priest has denied the allegation.

The 44-year-old witness, who was aged 10 at the time, recounted how she spent four days in the Sisters of Nazareth Termonbacca care home in Derry in 1980, after she had been discovered sleeping rough in a church in Co Tyrone.

The caretaker brought her to the parochial house, where a young priest was kind to her and expressed concern about injuries she had sustained as a result of physical abuse by her father, she told the inquiry in Banbridge, Co Down, yesterday.

However, when he took her into a room, ostensibly to check on her injuries, she said the priest sexually assaulted her. Later in Termonbacca, where she was in temporary care from her parents, both of whom were alcoholics, she said she was sexually abused on two occasions by the same priest.

Subsequently she ended up at the Fort James care home in Derry. By chance the young priest saw her outside the home. He later called regularly to see her at the home and over a two- to three-month period in that home he sexually assaulted her “two or three times” a week, she said.

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CANADA
Edmonton Journal

BY OTIENA ELLWAND, EDMONTON JOURNAL FEBRUARY 25, 2014

EDMONTON – Jerry Wood describes the 11 years he spent in two Alberta residential schools as the worst of his life.

He left angry and lacking self-confidence.

“I spent probably half my life with alcohol,” he said Monday after the Archbishop of Edmonton, Most Reverend Richard Smith, apologized to residential school survivors on behalf of the Catholic Bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories at a ceremony at Ben Calf Robe School.

“I realized that I was trying to drown my experiences in the residential schools from the sexual abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse, spiritual abuse that I went through,” said Wood, a member of the Council of Elders with Edmonton Catholic Schools, who was on hand to hear the apology.

He is still dealing with the trauma he experienced.

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PUERTO RICO
WPEC

February 25, 2014

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The archbishop of Puerto Rico’s capital has revealed that government prosecutors are investigating five additional cases of alleged sex abuse within the San Juan Archdiocese.

Roberto Gonzalez Nieves told reporters Tuesday that the priests accused in those cases have been suspended. He noted the statute of limitation had expired in all five cases.

He provided no further information but said he was cooperating with prosecutors. He recently announced that one other case was being investigated.

The announcement comes as Puerto Rico’s justice department investigates four cases of alleged sex abuse at the Mayaguez diocese and several other cases at the Arecibo diocese, which has defrocked six priests as a result.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Tuesday, February 25

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

We are grateful that Bob Jones university officials have reversed themselves and will let GRACE complete its report about campus sex crimes.

Still, we’re troubled by the school’s recent, sudden and unilateral move to cancel the report. We can’t help but be worried about university officials’ motives and whether they are trying – or may still try – to influence the report itself.

Regardless, it’s crucial that those who saw, suspected or suffered campus sex crimes or cover ups take two steps. First, they should report to law enforcement, no matter who the perpetrator is, what school officials have done or promised, and when or where the crimes happened. And second, they should realize that the GRACE report is just one step in a long process of slowly beginning to reverse an unhealthy climate of self-serving secrecy at this university.

Victims should stay in therapy, keep attending self-help groups, and continue working hard to recover from the trauma they experienced at Bob Jones. No one event magically erases a horrific betrayal or “cures” a victim of the nightmares, depression, addictions, insomnia, eating disorders and other devastating effects or rape and the sometimes almost equally devastating effects of institutional denial and insensitivity.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE FINAL COST of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund is expected to hit €1.46 billion with some €903.8 million already paid out and religious orders still hundreds of millions of euro short of the contribution expected of them.

Figures presented to Cabinet today show that the scheme, set up to compensate thousands of victims of abuse in residential institutions, has received 15,396 applications since it was set up over a decade ago.

At the end of 2012, 14,378 awards were made of on average €62,860, while 1,018 applications were either withdrawn, refused or no award was made. In addition, some €166.1 million in legal costs have been paid out by the Residential Institutions Redress Board, which administrates the fund.

There have been 2,766 late submissions received since applications formally closed in 2005 while the number of applications that still need to be processed stood at 468 at the end of last year, down from 685 at the end of 2012.

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MISSISSIPPI
Clinton News

Clinton Police Chief Michael Warren said a Central Hinds Academy and Raymond Road Baptist Church employee was arrested Tuesday on one count of gratification of lust while in a position of trust or authority.

In a release on Wednesday, Warren said Adam Epperson, 34, of Clinton, was arrested on the charges and bonded out on $25,000 bond the same day.

According to officials, the arrest was subsequent to a complaint received from an underage victim associated with Epperson through the Raymond Road Baptist Church.

The incident is alleged to have occurred at the suspect’s home in Clinton. Epperson surrendered to the Clinton police on Tuesday where he was booked and bonded out.

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MISSISSIPPI
Clarion-Ledger

A Central Hinds Academy and Raymond Road Baptist Church employee was arrested Tuesday on one count of gratification of lust while in a position of trust or authority.

In a release on Wednesday, Clinton Police Chief Mike Warren said Adam Epperson, 34, of Clinton, was arrested on the charges and bonded out on $25,000 bond the same day.

Officials said the arrest was subsequent to a complaint received from an underaged male victim who came to police with a parent. According to Clinton Detective Josh Frazier, the victim associated with Epperson through both the church and the school.

The incident occurred about two years ago, when the victim was 14 years old, Frazier said.

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MISSISSIPPI
WAPT

CLINTON, Miss. —Clinton police have arrested a 34-year-old church worker who is accused of having sexual contact with a teenage boy.

Adam Epperson, who until recently was an employee at Central Hinds Academy and a minister of students at Raymond Road Baptist Church, surrendered to police Tuesday.

Mug shots: February arrests

Police said the boy, who was 14-years-old at the time, knew Epperson through the church.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Herald

The Associated Press
February 25, 2014

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — A Spartanburg County pastor has been arrested and accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl.

Twenty-seven-year-old Robert Thomas Norris of Roebuck was charged Monday night with third-degree criminal sexual conduct. The warrant said the girl said she was abused between August 2012 and January. She said she was 16 when the abuse started.

Lt. Kevin Bobo said a school official in Woodruff reported that the girl said she had been touched and kissed inappropriately.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
WBTW

Spartanburg –
A Spartanburg County pastor has been arrested and accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl.

Robert Thomas Norris,27, of Roebuck was charged Monday night with third-degree criminal sexual conduct. The warrant said the girl said she was abused between August 2012 and January. She said she was 16 when the abuse started.

Lt. Kevin Bobo said a school official in Woodruff reported that the girl said she had been touched and kissed inappropriately by a relative. They then talked to the girls’ mother and boyfriend.

It was not clear if Norris has a lawyer.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
World Magazine

By LEIGH JONES
Posted Feb. 25, 2014

Bob Jones University administrators announced today they will reinstate the review into the school’s response to sexual abuse, apologizing for any anxiety the temporary suspension might have caused.

On Jan. 27, school officials terminated their agreement with the Christian group GRACE (an acronym for Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), hired in November 2012 to conduct an independent review of how the Christian university has responded to victims of sexual abuse. Although administrators didn’t give details about why they chose to suspend their relationship with GRACE, which was in the final stages of its review, they said they had concerns about how GRACE was conducting its work.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Fox Carolina

By Casey Vaughn

GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) –
A few weeks after announcing the school had suspended its work with the ombudsman, Bob Jones University announced it was working again with the independent review group.

The university hired the organization, known as Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, or GRACE, to evaluate the university’s procedures after revelations about sexual abuse on college campuses nationwide in 2011.

Then on Jan. 27, BJU suspended the review. The university said Tuesday that they met with GRACE on Feb. 18 and 19 to discuss any potential issues that may hinder their review.

According to the university, they believe the independent review can be completed.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Christianity Today

Jeremy Weber POSTED 2/25/2014

Bob Jones University has resolved its differences with GRACE and will allow the Christian abuse investigator to complete an independent review of BJU’s past response to abuse incidents and how the school can improve.

CT reported how BJU fired GRACE late last month as the review neared completion. Last week, the two groups met to “discuss any issues that might stand in the way of GRACE’s completion of thorough, transparent and objective review,” BJU announced today.

“GRACE satisfactorily addressed the University’s concerns and Bob Jones University is confident the review can be completed in a timely and professional manner,” said BJU. “To be clear, GRACE and BJU are united in their commitment to a review that is thorough, transparent and objective.”

GRACE announced the news on its Facebook page, noting the review will be “under the terms of the original agreement. No changes.” “Looking forward to completing this process with excellence,” said GRACE.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Religion News Service

Sarah Pulliam Bailey | Feb 25, 2014

(RNS) After firing an independent watchdog group to investigate allegations of sexual abuse on campus, Bob Jones University has rehired the same group, one month before the findings from a 13-month review were scheduled to be released.

The university had contracted with Lynchburg, Va.-based GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) in November 2012 but suspended the contract on Jan. 27. The university met with GRACE officials Feb. 18-19 to discuss the review.

“GRACE satisfactorily addressed the University’s concerns and Bob Jones University is confident the review can be completed in a timely and professional manner,” the university said in a press release.

“To be clear, GRACE and BJU are united in their commitment to a review that is thorough, transparent and objective.”

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

Bob Jones University announced Feb. 25 that an independent investigation into the school’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse can be completed.

The university abruptly terminated its 2012 agreement with Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE), a group founded by Basyle “Boz” Tchividjian, a law professor at Liberty University and grandson of Billy Graham, citing unspecified concerns about the directions the investigation team was heading.

After meetings Feb. 18-19, Bob Jones officials said, “GRACE satisfactorily addressed the university’s concerns and Bob Jones University is confident the review can be completed in a timely and professional manner.”
.
Bob Jones, a fundamentalist Christian college in Greenville, S.C., founded in 1927 by evangelist Bob Jones Sr., consulted with GRACE after nine cases of sexual assault occurred on campus in 2011.

Another controversy involved a student allegedly expelled in retaliation for organizing the school’s first-ever student protest about a former member of the school’s board of trustees accused of covering up the rape of a 15-year-old girl in his congregation.

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CANADA
The Telegram

A woman was in provincial court in St. John’s today to face charges of fraud, theft and forgery related to the Roman Catholic St. Patrick’s Parish in St. John’s.

The woman’s case was set over.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s says the RNC charged the accused after a forensic audit of the finances of St. Patrick’s Parish in St. John’s.

A news release notes that in August 2012, the parish priest of St. Patrick’s reported to the Archdiocesan Business Office suspicions of fraudulent activity surrounding the parish finances.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Dr. Jeff Mirus February 25, 2014

Do you remember the Roman Inquisition? Unfortunately, when people today think of “the Inquisition”, they think of the Spanish Inquisition, which was unduly influenced by the Spanish crown. Even so, its weaknesses were horrendously exaggerated by hostile English historians in what has come to be known as the Black Legend. It is this which gives the term “inquisition” such a bad sound.

But do you remember the Roman Inquisition? Back in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Roman Inquisition operated throughout significant portions of Europe, firmly under the control of the Papacy, with the purpose of protecting the faithful against priests, religious and bishops who did not fulfill their obligations under Church law. It was an ecclesiastical judicial system and, as such, it was primarily used for cases involving ecclesiastical persons, who in those days were universally accorded the right to be tried by the Church instead of by the Crown. This was called “benefit of clergy.” Indeed, it was a significant benefit, because the ecclesiastical justice system protected the rights of the accused substantially better than the secular systems of the day.

Along the path to modernity, however, the Church’s judicial system withered. Canon Law is still in place, and some cases are still brought before diocesan courts and then appealed to Rome (especially marriage cases). But the prosecutorial role in the ecclesiastical justice system has largely disappeared. All you need to do is consider the widespread abuse of the rights of the faithful in the areas of the liturgy and Catholic education over the past fifty years to realize that internal prosecution of ecclesiastical persons has been virtually non-existent in modern times. This lack has been apparent in all kinds of abuse including, as all the world now knows, sexual abuse. Ecclesiastical trials seem to have become a thing of the past.

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PUERTO RICO
El Nuevo Dia

[Summary: Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of San Juan agreed today that he has information on five more priests accused of sexual abuse and he said he would give the details to the justice department. In a press conference, the archbishop said he will cooperate fully with civil authorities who are investigating sexual abuse by clergy.]

El arzobispo de San Juan, Roberto González Nieves, aceptó hoy que tiene información sobre cinco sacerdotes adicionales imputados por abuso sexual de menores y sostuvo que le entregará a Justicia todos los detalles.

En una conferencia de prensa sobre los Servicios Funerarios Católicos, en donde se puntualizó que operan bajo la ley y con todos los permisos del gobierno, González Nieves indicó que tendrá plena cooperación con las autoridades civiles para la pesquisa que realizan sobre los casos de abuso sexual dentro del clero.

Usted indicó a El Nuevo Día que iba a cooperar con las autoridades, ¿le entregó ya a la Fiscalía de San Juan todos los documentos de las pesquisas eclesiásticas sobre abuso sexual dentro de su clero?

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

Post by PATRICIA MILLER

One of the more striking accomplishments of tonight’s Frontline documentary “Secrets of the Vatican” (Tuesday, 10 p.m., PBS) is that it almost makes you feel sorry for Pope Benedict, which is no small feat. The man known as “God’s Rottweiler” was a heavy-handed enforcer of doctrinal discipline as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where numerous nuns, priests and theologians saw their careers crippled or destroyed for daring to question supposedly immutable Catholic teaching.

He was also one of many in the curia who turned a blind eye to increasing urgent reports of widespread sexual abuse on the part of priests and influential Vatican allies like Marcial Maciel of the Legionnaires of Christ, and “Inside the Vatican” effectively portrays the devastation that this abuse and subsequent cover-ups wrought on the lives of young Catholics.

It documents how a cascading series of scandals involving clerical sex abuse and Vatican corruption eventually overwhelmed the aging pope and resulted in his resignation one year ago. Confirmed are reports that the infamous “red dossier” presented to the pope—the results of an investigation into the curia that he ordered—contained accounts not only of rampant careerism and outright corruption but of the existence of a clique of gay senior clerics.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The clergy abuse survivors of Australia and the rule of law have scored a major victory. Cardinal Pell has been induced to take a Vatican desk job apparently to avoid the unrelenting and escalating pressure from the Australian Royal Commission’s investigation into institutional child sexual abuse. The pressure was increased by the testimony of a sacked Aussie bishop who described the Vatican’s interference in local abuse scandals as reported here

[My Daily News]

The Royal Commission can likely still reach Pell in due course, if and when it wants to.

The Vatican’s apologists, of course, have tried to spin this as a “promotion”, but this fantasy fools few. Australia’s top Catholic leader has reluctantly had to flee his beloved homeland to seek Vatican protection, as the USA’s Cardinal Law did a decade before.

Meanwhile, a Polish Archbishop, a protege of Pope John Paul II and former Nuncio to the Dominican Republic, is already crowding the Vatican’s refuge for hierarchs seeking to avoid the child abuse scandal fallout.

Who will be next as the Vatican circles its wagons to protect cardinals and bishops ? What ever happened to the Pope’s abuse commission? Can the Pope continue avoiding the abuse scandal as discussed here

[Christian Catholicism]

Pell has been made head of Vatican finances, which led a knowledgeable Jesuit insider, Thomas Reese, to ask ” … why did this job not go to a layperson? Do we really need cardinals to handle finances in the Vatican? The answer is that Rome is still a papal court where princes of the church still matter, despite all Francis’ protestations.” A fuller answer is that it gave Francis a face-saving way to yank Pell from Down Under as the heat from the Royal Commission intensifies.

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UNITED STATES
Krapt Poetry

In his twenty-sixth book, Catholic Boy Blues: A Poet’s Journal of Healing, to appear April 1, 2014 from Greystone Publishing of Nashville, TN, Norbert Krapf, at the age of seventy, speaks about his abuse as a child at the hands of a priest and the lifelong effects it has had on him, his family, and his loved ones. He speaks in four voices, the boy, the man, the priest, and Mr. Blues.

Indiana Poet Laureate 2008-10, Norbert has for almost fifty years had an ongoing love of the blues. In his last several collections, completed or published while he held a Creative Renewal Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis to combine poetry and music, with an emphasis on the blues, he often pays tribute to blues artists. In Catholic Boy Blues, “Mr. Blues” plays an important role in several ways, not the least of which is as an agent of healing. He speaks in the blues idiom, in dramatic lyrics delivered in the voice of a friend, advisor, counselor, and mentor.

Catholic Boy Blues is a brutally honest narrative filled with words of biting truth, painting explicit images of the effects of abuse. These words detail Norbert’s lifelong journey and show how abuse affected the various stages of his growth. This verse journal is both timely and newsworthy. It is a compassionate anthem directed to those struggling with their own abuse. It provides clarity to those who have never had to experience the indignity of abuse and affirms that healing and success can be achieved despite adversity. The book will appeal to survivors of abuse and their families and friends; the church and its members, clergy, and hierarchy who have an ongoing interest in the emotional, spiritual, and religious effects of child abuse and its prevention; and caregivers and others interested in knowing how to detect early signs of abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A top Southern Baptist official, Richard Land, says that gay couples who use surrogates to have children are essentially committing child abuse.

That’s horribly wrong and dreadfully insensitive to hundreds of thousands of people who have, in fact, suffered from devastating child abuse (and, of course, to gay people as well).

[Huffington Post]

People upset with Obama shouldn’t call him “subhuman.” People who are discriminated against shouldn’t call their opponents “Nazis.” And people who oppose gay couples shouldn’t compare them to child abusers.

Adults who were kicked and raped and tortured and sodomized as kids don’t deserve to have their pain trivialized. Land should apologize and other Baptist officials should denounce him for his hurtful remarks.

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IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 8627688, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Yesterday the Iowa senate unanimously approved an extension to the statute of limitations. We applaud this action.

[Quad-City Times]

The Iowa Senate bill will extend the statue of limitations to 25 years past the age of 18, giving deeply wounded victims a longer window to come forward. Now it needs to pass the house, and be signed into law as quickly as possible, to encourage those victims that have remained silent to come forward and receive some justice under the law that they have always deserved.

However, we disagree with the term used by one legislator that this bill now “cures” the injustice that has existed for so many years. This bill would address the need for a larger window for action by victims, except for those that may be now over the age of 43. We strongly believe that many victims are in their 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and beyond, and although they may have wanted, or presently want, to come forward, this has always been denied them, and this bill continues to perpetuate this wrong by still denying them due process. Having a longer window is key to prevention. If predators know they can be prosecuted they may not attack children.

We call on the legislature to pass a bill offering perhaps a onetime window of opportunity for these victims, so that they may truly have an opportunity to seek justice under the law and to prevent future abuse. We of SNAP know of many, many victims that have been abused as young people, and this bill will offer them no relief. We continue to call out on behalf of all victims, that this is one crime where a statue of limitations does not enhance the law, but provides a hiding place for those that prey on others.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

FEBRUARY 25, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

Words are not enough. This fact is highlighted by the following excerpt from an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer on September 25, 2005. It relays Father John P. Paul’s words to his congregation after the release of the 2005 Grand Jury Report. The archdiocese removed Paul from ministry this past weekend.

Excerpt:

Just before Mass, the current Calvary pastor, the Rev. John P. Paul, addressed the packed church and struck a conciliatory tone. “I would ask you to pray – especially for those who have suffered the hurt and the pain, those who are the victims,” Paul said. Highlighting a part of the report that mentioned the victims’ souls had been murdered by the abuse, Paul said the description was apt. “It does destroy the soul many times,” he said in an apparent reference to the abuse. He asked the congregation to “pray for those who need forgiveness,” and then adding: “Pray for us. We are the church. But we do not lose our faith in Jesus, and we do not lose our faith in the Catholic Church.”

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UNITED STATES
Frontline

by Jason M. Breslow

One year ago this week, Pope Benedict XVI did something that no other pope had done in nearly 600 years — he resigned the papacy.

It was a decision that sent shockwaves through the Vatican. Just eight years earlier, Benedict had promised a new beginning for the church at a time when it was reeling from the clergy sexual abuse crisis. But rather than stem the scandal, the crisis only grew.

Troubles spread to a second front in 2010 with allegations of money laundering at the Vatican bank. Then came VatiLeaks, a scandal that exposed a Vatican hierarchy plagued by cronyism, power struggles and bureaucratic corruption. For Benedict, it was a crippling blow to his authority.

Five weeks after Benedict’s resignation, white smoke from the Sistine Chapel signaled that the College of Cardinals had chosen his successor: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, known today as Pope Francis.

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