ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Police whistleblower Peter Fox continues evidence at child sex abuse inquiry in Newcastle

by: Neil Keene
From: The Daily Telegraph
May 07

POLICE whistleblower Peter Fox developed such a mistrust of senior colleagues that when called to a meeting to discuss investigations into child sex offences in the Catholic church he deliberately left critical documents sitting on his desk.

Continuing his evidence today at the special commission of inquiry into the alleged cover-up of paedophilia within the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, Det-Chief-Insp Fox was asked whether he deliberately lied to his colleagues who had convened that meeting in late 2010.

“Absolutely, yes,” he replied.

Det-Chief-Insp Fox said he was told to bring all documents relating to his investigation to a meeting to discuss furthering his investigations.

But he held fears the meeting with senior Newcastle police would actually result in him being forced off the case.

“Sadly, the latter was true,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian May 07, 2013

A NSW detective who previously claimed he was ordered to stop investigating a pedophile priest has said it was reasonable for the case to be given to another detective, but he was disappointed not to be involved.

A NSW special commission of inquiry is investigating claims by the policeman, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, that he was ordered “to stand down from the case” of the alleged cover-up of pedophile crimes committed by Father Denis McAlinden in Newcastle, NSW.

The inquiry heard this morning that NSW Police established a Strike Force in 2010 to investigate the allegations, operating under the control of the city’s regional police Local Area Command.

Detective Fox, who was assigned to a different police command, had been conducting his own private investigation of the allegations, without telling his bosses or making any record of this work on the police system.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

NSW police whistleblower Peter Fox has told an inquiry he lied to fellow officers when he said he forgot to bring statements from sex abuse victims to a meeting.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox told the hearing in Newcastle on Tuesday he had deliberately left the documents on his desk.

Asked by counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC, if he had lied to police in saying he had forgotten them, he replied: ‘Absolutely.’

He has previously testified that he had lost trust in some senior police.

‘I was hoping I wouldn’t have to surrender them (the documents),’ Insp Fox said.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

By Ken Kolker
SAUGATUCK, Mich. (WOOD) – The impact of sexual abuse that allegedly went on for years in Chicago — involving a youth minister and four boys — is being felt 20 years later in Saugatuck.

It is forcing the Presbytery of Chicago to sell its 130-acre Presbyterian Camp on dunes overlooking Lake Michigan to a Grand Rapids developer, according to those familiar with the deal.

The camp has served thousands of children over the last century, many of them from the Chicago area.

“I don’t think it should be up to the camp to pay for his sins, and I don’t think the Presbytery should have the camp pay for his sins either,” said Lisa Lenzo, who worked at the camp for 11 years and still lives in the Saugatuck area.

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CANADA
Calgary Herald

BY DARYL SLADE, CALGARY HERALD MAY 6, 2013

The mother of a young boy who was sexually molested by former church youth volunteer Kyle Roderick Janssen says her entire family “was devastated by the blatant and absolute breach of trust.”

The woman, who cannot be named in order to protect her son’s identity, said in her victim-impact statement she read in court at a sentencing hearing on Monday that her family had not yet recovered from the betrayals of trust.

“We are emotionally raw and more vulnerable than we have ever been,’ the mother, whose son was one of a half-dozen victims of the pedophile, told provincial court Judge Catherine Skene.

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UTAH
Deseret News

By McKenzie Romero, Deseret News
Published: Monday, May 6 2013

SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake City man is charged with sexually assaulting a boy he met at church.

Michael Driggs, 62, is facing four counts of sodomy on a child and two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, all first-degree felonies, as well as one count of providing harmful material to a minor, a third-degree felony, according to charges filed Monday in 3rd District Court.

Driggs is accused of sexually abusing the boy between January 2004 and December 2005, when the boy was 12 and 13 years old, charges state.

Driggs reportedly helped the boy set up an email account, which he used to send him pornographic movies and photos. He allegedly sexually abused the boy when he came to the Kearns house where Driggs lived at the time, according to the charges.

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UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune

By Jennifer Dobner | The Salt Lake Tribune

A Sandy man is facing multiple counts of felony charges for alleged sexual encounters with a young teen boy whom he met at church.

Prosecutors on Monday filed four counts of sodomy, two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of dealing in harmful materials to a child against 62-year-old Michael Driggs in Salt Lake City’s 3rd District Court.

A judge also issued an arrest warrant for Driggs.

Driggs was not in custody on Monday night and it was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON May 7, 2013

A senior policeman lied and deliberately withheld documents relating to child sex abuse by Maitland and Newcastle priests because of suspicions about why he was summonsed to a meeting with senior police.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox’s admission came as he resumed his evidence this morning at the Commission of Inquiry into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

Counsel assisting Julia Lonergan SC asked Inspector Fox why he “lied” to Newcastle Supreme Court yesterday, after claiming he forgot to bring the documents to the meeting at Waratah Police Station in December 2010.

“I may have misheard and I apologise for that but I certainly didn’t lie,” Inspector Fox said.

“So you lied to police at the meeting?” Ms Lonergan asked Inspector Fox.

“Absolutely yes,” he replied.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

Former top Diocese of Manchester official under investigation for ‘improper financial transactions’

By BEN LEUBSDORF
Monitor staff
Monday, May 6, 2013

A priest who was the public face of the Diocese of Manchester during a damaging sex abuse scandal is being investigated for “improper financial transactions” involving church funds, the diocese said yesterday.

Monsignor Edward Arsenault, who was a senior official of the Roman Catholic Church in New Hampshire from 1999 to 2009, is being investigated by both the diocese and the attorney general’s office after a church review “discovered evidence suggesting improper financial transactions by Msgr. Arsenault involving diocesan funds,” the diocese said in a news release.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young said church officials approached the attorney general’s office about two weeks ago, and a criminal investigation is under way.

She said the office is working with investigators from the state police and the FBI but declined to comment on any possible charges.

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AUSTRALIA
The Star

By JASON GORDON May 6, 2013

DETECTIVE Chief Inspector Peter Fox described a meeting at which an investigation into child paedophilia was taken off him as ‘‘sinister’’.

Mr Fox again spent the morning giving evidence to the Special Commission of Inquiry into alleged cover-ups of child sex abuse within the Newcastle area, detailing a December 2010 meeting where he was told to cease his eight-year investigations.

Mr Fox told the inquiry that he was instructed by Superintendent Max Mitchell to cease contact with all witnesses and alleged victims, as well as Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy.

‘‘I said, ‘these people have been through hell, they have trusted me and I promised them I would see this through,’’ he said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

The NSW policeman who blew the whistle on an alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse within the Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church says Newcastle’s chief police officer was keen to see him fired.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox is back in the witness box for the second day of a special commission of inquiry’s public hearings in Newcastle.

The inquiry is looking at how complaints about deceased former priests Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese were investigated.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox told the hearing, the former Newcastle superintendent Max Mitchell told him to hand over the files on the church and stop investigating the allegations, stop communicating with journalist Joanne McCarthy and stop speaking with witnesses.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

BY DOUG CONWAY, AAP SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
From: AAP May 07, 2013

WHISTLEBLOWER cop Peter Fox was axed from investigating alleged child sex abuse by priests in the NSW Hunter region, despite his protests that victims had been through hell and he’d promised them he’d follow through.

Subsequently, he breached an order not to contact a journalist because he felt it was a sinister move designed to sabotage the investigations.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox, who has alleged a “Catholic mafia” of police and others tried to cover up the clergy’s pedophilia in the NSW Hunter Valley, told an inquiry in Newcastle on Tuesday he was ordered off the case at a “hostile” meeting in December 2010.

Superintendent Max Mitchell, now an assistant commissioner, had made it clear to him that he would have no role in “any way, shape or form” in a new investigation.

But Insp Fox said the new probe was a sham he believed was “set up to fail”, and the meeting confirmed his suspicion that some senior police were effectively trying to “sabotage” the investigations.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON May 7, 2013

A contingent of more than 20 journalists and their camera crews occupied every seat of the designated media section of Newcastle Supreme Court for the first day of inquiry hearings into an alleged Catholic church cover up.

Media from the country’s largest publishers and broadcasters reported on the Commission of Inquiry into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

Three bar tables were installed in the court to seat 12 solicitors and barristers including counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC.

Members of the public, the majority in their 50s and 60s, listened to Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC speak of Maitland’s “troubled history” of sexual abuse.

“It has rightly been said that child sexual abuse is no longer a crime in which the conspiracy of silence continues to the grave,” Commissioner Cunneen said.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Washington Post

Former diocese of NH leader investigated for misuse of funds, improper relationship

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, May 6

CONCORD, N.H. — The leader of one of the nation’s top clergy treatment centers resigned Monday over allegations involving an inappropriate adult relationship and misuse of church funds in New Hampshire, where he previously served in numerous leadership positions with the Diocese of Manchester.

Msgr. Edward Arsenault held several senior positions in New Hampshire from 1999 to 2009 before becoming president and CEO of Saint Luke Institute in Maryland in October 2009. In New Hampshire, Arsenault had been former Bishop John McCormack’s top lieutenant, handling the clergy sexual abuse crisis and being responsible for the church’s new child protection policies.

The Diocese said Monday that it received allegations earlier this year regarding a potentially inappropriate relationship involving Arsenault. During its investigation, the diocese found evidence of improper financial transactions, and reported the matter to the attorney general’s office.

In a statement, Bishop Peter Libasci said the diocese will cooperate fully with the investigation.

“I am committed to reviewing our internal diocesan operations to ensure that any issues are identified and corrected, as necessary,” he said. “We will do this in the light of day.”

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Public Radio

[with audio]

By JOSH ROGERS
The New Hampshire attorney general’s office is investigating a former top official in the Manchester diocese.

Monsignor Edward Arsenault is under investigation for improper transactions involving diocesan funds.

According to Diocese of Manchester, it was allegations about a inappropriate adult relations that prompted its scrutiny of Monsignor Edward Arsenault. That in turn, uncovered evidence suggesting Arsenault misused diocesan funds.

Arsenault was the diocese point person for during its landmark settlement sexual abuse settlement with the state a decade ago.

Arsenault left New Hampshire in 2009 to lead the St. Luke institute, a Maryland treatment center for Priests.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE/MARYLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 06, 2013

Today, a former high ranking New Hampshire diocesan Catholic official has stepped down from his position because of allegations of sexual and financial impropriety.

He is Msgr. Edward Arsenault of the St. Luke’s Institute in Maryland, where hundreds of child molesting clerics have been housed over the years.

We’re saddened but not surprised by this news. All too often Catholic officials who are in charge of pedophile priests turn out to have accusations of sexual misdeeds against them as well.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON MAY 06, 2013

Peoria’s former Catholic bishop is now in hot water in New Jersey.

Newark Archbishop John Myers – who headed the Peoria diocese for more than a decade (1990 to 2001) – may face criminal charges of violating an agreement to keep an admitted predator priest away from kids.

He’s essentially behaving in New Jersey the same way he behaved in Illinois – recklessly, callously and deceitfully.

In 2001, Fr. Michael Fugee admitted to police in New Jersey that he molested a boy several times.
In 2003, Fr. Fugee recanted, was tried, and was found guilty of child sex crimes.
In 2006, a higher court reversed the verdict due to improper jury instructions.
In 2006, Myers agreed to keep Fr. Fugee away from kids (in a written deal with prosecutors).

But a Newark newspaper has disclosed that Archbishop Myers put Fr. Fugee in a hospital chaplaincy and a parish. Facebook photos also show that Fr. Fugee heard kids’ confessions, went on retreats with kids and even took kids to Canada.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 6, 2013

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
KEVIN DONOVAN
OFFICE OF COMMUNICATION
603-669-3100, EXT. 185

Earlier this year, the Diocese of Manchester received allegations regarding a potentially inappropriate adult relationship involving Msgr. Edward J. Arsenault, a priest of the Diocese of Manchester. The diocese began a review of the claims. The review discovered evidence suggesting improper financial transactions by Msgr. Arsenault involving diocesan funds. Because the diocese was concerned that illegal acts may have been committed, it reported the matter to the New Hampshire Office of the Attorney General. The diocese is cooperating with the Attorney General’s investigation.

The Attorney General’s office and the diocese continue their respective investigations. As a result, the diocese cannot discuss this matter further. The diocese will offer more information when it is appropriate to do so.

Msgr. Arsenault held senior positions in diocesan leadership from January 1999 to February 2009. Since October 2009, he has been serving as the President and Chief Executive Officer of St. Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Maryland. Msgr. Arsenault has resigned from that position and will refrain from all public ministry, pending the investigations.

Bishop Peter A. Libasci said, “I am committed to reviewing our internal diocesan operations to ensure that any issues are identified and corrected, as necessary. We will do this in the light of day. In the meantime, we will be cooperating fully with the Attorney General’s investigation. Please join with me in keeping all those involved in your prayers.”

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
WCVB

MANCHESTER, N.H. —A priest of the Diocese of Manchester is being investigated for possible “improper financial transactions,” the diocese said Monday.

The diocese said that earlier this year, it received allegations that the Rev. Msgr. Edward J. Arsenault was having an inappropriate adult relationship. The diocese said that as it was reviewing that claim, it discovered evidence of improper transactions involving diocesan funds.

No details of the allegations were released. The diocese said it was concerned that illegal acts might have been committed, so it contacted the Attorney General’s Office.

“I am committed to reviewing our internal diocesan operations to ensure that any issues are identified and corrected, as necessary,” Bishop Peter A. Libasci said in a written statement. “We will do this in the light of day. In the meantime, we will be cooperating fully with the attorney general’s investigation.”

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MARYLAND
St. Luke Institute

(May 6, 2013) Monsignor Edward J. Arsenault has stepped down as president and CEO of Saint Luke Institute, effective May 3, 2013. Leadership responsibilities will be shared between Monsignor Stephen J. Rossetti, Ph.D., who will serve as interim president, and Sheila Harron, Ph.D., who will serve as interim CEO.

Msgr. Arsenault offered his resignation in light of investigations announced today by the Diocese of Manchester (in New Hampshire) into possible improprieties, including improper financial transactions and a possible inappropriate adult relationship. Msgr. Arsenault is a priest of that diocese and held a number of leadership positions there prior to joining Saint Luke Institute in 2009.

The investigations do not involve Saint Luke Institute.

“This is very difficult news, and we are keeping this situation in prayer. Saint Luke Institute has been in the process of expanding education and services nationally. We are committed to continuing to move forward, to providing high quality care for priests and religious, and to supporting a culture of healthy ministry in the Church,” Dr. Harron said.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE/MARYLAND
Religion News Service

David Gibson | May 6, 2013

(RNS) The priest who heads a leading treatment center for clergy suffering from emotional, sexual and addiction problems has resigned in the wake of accusations that he misused funds in his home diocese and that he was engaged in an “inappropriate adult relationship.”

Saint Luke Institute, located just outside of Washington, said Monday that Monsignor Edward J. Arsenault had resigned as president and CEO of the center.

Over the past two decades the institute became well known for treating priests who had sexually abused children, though the center deals primarily with priests, nuns and brothers who have a range of other issues, such as depression, anxiety, and addictive behaviors.

Arsenault took over at Saint Luke’s in 2009 after a decade as a senior official in the Diocese of Manchester, which covers the state of New Hampshire.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

By MARK HAYWARD
New Hampshire Union Leader

MANCHESTER — A former top priest in the Catholic Church in New Hampshire has been suspended from his priestly duties in light of allegations of an “inappropriate adult relationship” and improper financial transactions on his part.

The Diocese of Manchester today announced the suspension of the Rev. Msgr. Edward J. Arsenault in light of investigations by the Diocese and the New Hampshire Attorney General.

During the last decade, Arsenault served in one of the top positions of the Diocese. As chancellor, he handled the non-religious side of the institution.

He did so during the priest sex-abuse scandals under former Bishop John B. McCormack, often appearing in news articles and before news cameras.

Meanwhile, the investigation appears to involve Catholic Medical Center, where Arseneault served on the board of directors.

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NEW JERSEY
National Catholic Reporter

Pat Perriello | May. 6, 2013 NCR Today

Mark Silk has written a comprehensive review of the sexual abuse case of Fr. Michael Fugee in Newark, N.J., and the involvement of their archbishop, John J. Myers, in the case. It reviews in detail the issue of whether or not the archdiocese abrogated the agreement they had made with prosecutors regarding Fugee. For those interested in this case, it provides a clear chronological depiction of all the steps involved.

The article illustrates how quick some are (Catholic League president Bill Donahue is cited) to come to the defense of the church without making sure all facts are known. This knee-jerk reaction to defend the church and church officials time and again has not served the church well. It has enabled too many of the scandals we now see to fester and damage the church’s credibility and spiritual mission.

Inside the church there continues to be the notion that it is above criticism and any form of disagreement reflects anti-Catholicism or disloyalty among Catholics. Can it be that within the church, only 100 percent adherence or blind obedience is acceptable?

As an American, I have great difficulty accepting such a dictum. I know I am free to criticize my president or any other political figure. Even more important, I know that in a democracy, what I and others have to say makes a difference. This national dialogue and diversity is what makes our nation stronger.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Freethinker

BY BARRY DUKE – MAY 5, 2013

CARDINAL Keith O’Brien’s sexual misconduct may have angered an embarrassed the Catholic Church but no moves have been made, as we reported yesterday, to remove the vile hypocrite from the priesthood – so he gets to keep his red hat.

But with unseemly haste, the Roman Catholic Church this week rid itself of a Brazilian priest for, among other things, supporting gay rights.

According to this report, the rogue Brazilian, Father Roberto Francisco Daniel – known to local parishioners as Padre Beto – was excommunicated before he had the chance to announce his planned resignation from an organisation he described as:

A lukewarm and disengaged church that is out of touch with today’s society.

In a statement released on Monday, the priest’s diocese said Daniel had:

In the name of ‘freedom of expression’ betrayed the promise of fealty to the Church.

It alleged that Daniel had:

Injured the Church with grave statements counter to the dogma of Catholic faith and morality.

His actions amounted to ‘heresy and schism’, the statement said.

The rare punishment follows what Daniel’s bishop and the priest himself said were repeated rebukes he received over the videos he had made and other public activities, such as a radio broadcast and local newspaper column, in which he challenged Church doctrine.

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RHODE ISLAND
Westerly Sun

Posted: Monday, May 6, 2013

By THE SUN STAFF

NARRAGANSETT — Worcester Bishop Robert McManus, 61, was arrested by Narragansett police Saturday night charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and refusal to submit to a chemical test to determine intoxication.

“On Saturday evening May 4, I made a terrible error in judgment by driving after having consumed alcohol with dinner. There is no excuse for the mistake I made, only a commitment to make amends and accept the consequences of my action,” McManus wrote in a prepared statement issued late Monday morning by diocese spokesperson, Ray Delisle. “More importantly, I ask forgiveness from the good people whom I serve, as well as my family and friends, in the Diocese of Worcester and the Diocese of Providence.”

McManus served in Providence Diocese before he was assigned to the Worcester Diocese.
Questions were referred to William Murphy, a Rhode Island attorney.

Police say McManus was arrested at his home in Bonnet Shores and was released on a summons to appear for arraignment in 4th Division District Court in Wakefield Monday. Reports indicate McManus was followed home by another motorist who called Narragansett police.

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SCOTLAND
Paisley Daily Express

May 3 2013 by Lynn Jolly, Paisley Daily Express

A mother-of-eight yesterday broke down in tears after telling a jury that a ‘nun’s curse’ had ruined her life.

Lucille Cope, 57, said that Mother Martin put a jinx on her while she was in Dalbeath Approved School in Bishopton in 1971.

In evidence at Paisley Sheriff Court, Mrs Cope said: “The curse placed on me by Sister Martin has followed me all my life.

“It’s time for her to remove the curse.”

Mrs Cope, who now lives in London, was giving evidence at the trial of Anne Kenny, 79, known as Mother Rosaria, and Agnes Reville, 77, known as Mother Martin.
They deny assaulting girls in their care in the early 1970s.

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NEW YORK
Think Progress

By Zack Ford on May 6, 2013

Last month, Cardinal Timothy Dolan compared gay Catholics to people with “dirty hands,” suggesting that anybody who engages in same-sex sexual acts is unwelcome at Church. This prompted a protest yesterday featuring gay Catholics and their allies arriving at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City with literally dirty hands seeking entry to Mass. Protest organizer Joseph Amodeo wrote about the “cold” welcome they faced when they attempted to enter:

It is what transpired in the moments after soiling our hands that I have trouble understanding and placing in the context of the Christian experience. At around 9:30am, the ten of us gathered were greeted by four police cars, eight uniformed officers, a police captain, and a detective from the Police Commissioner’s LGBT liaison unit. The detective informed us that the Cathedral would prohibit us to enter because of our dirty hands. It was at that moment that I realized the power of fear. The Archdiocese of New York was responding out of fear to a peaceful and silent presence at Mass. Even in light of this, we decided that we would walk solemnly from our gathering spot to the Cathedral with hopes that we might be welcomed.

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HAWAII/NORTH DAKOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 06, 2013

A civil child sex abuse and cover up case involving a Hawaii Catholic priest and a North Dakota Catholic diocese has been settled.

Steven Crochet filed his case against the diocese for the abuse he suffered as a child by Rev. Maurice G. McNeely on a US Army base in Hawaii. The details of the settlement have not been released, but according to news reports McNeely did not admit to his guilt in the settlement. This does not surprise us, many credibly accused clerics never admit what they did. We are glad the Crochet is happy with the results and we hope he is able to find peace.

We hope McNeely’s superiors still take action against him, placing him in a secure and remote treatment facility. We hope anyone else who saw, suspects, or suffered abuse by McNeely – or any other official – comes forward, reports to police and gets help.

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NEW YORK
The New Civil Rights Movement

Cardinal Dolan Uses NYPD To Bar Gay Catholics From Sunday Worship In St. Patrick’s Cathedral

by DAVID BADASH on MAY 5, 2013

Cardinal Timothy Dolan today used the NYPD to prohibit from Sunday worship services gay Catholics and their allies by barring their entry into NYC’s historic St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the iconic home of the Roman Catholic Church in New York.

The small group of silent Catholic protestors were threatened with arrest by a New York City Police detective — unless they first washed their hands.

The ten Catholics, who are LGBT and not LGBT, and even parents of LGBT people, were responding to Cardinal Dolan’s April 25 blog post, “All Are Welcome!,” which tells gay people who wish to participate in the Catholic faith, you must first “wash your hands!” They labeled their actions today a “Dirty Hands Vigil.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Volksfreund

Nach Missbrauchsvorwürfen: Drei Priester weniger im Bistum Trier

Der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann hat erneut einen Priester wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs aus dem Klerikerstand entlassen. Ein weiterer Bistums?priester hat um seine Entlassung gebeten; ein Dritter darf nie wieder als Priester tätig sein.

„Drei auf einen Streich“ – so kommentierte Hermann Schell vom kirchenkritischen Internetportal Schafsbriefe.de etwas hämisch die am Montag offiziell bekanntgegebenen Personalveränderungen des Bistums Trier. Die haben es in der Tat in sich. Der Trierer Bischof und katholische Missbrauchsbeauftragte Stephan Ackermann feuert nach Abschluss eines kirchenrechtlichen Verfahrens einen heute 71-jährigen Ruhestandspriester vor Jahrzehnten an zwei minderjährigen Messdienerinnen vergangen hat. Der vor seiner Suspendierung zuletzt in einer Saarbrücker Pfarrei eingesetzte Geistliche hatte vor zwei Jahren eingeräumt, „in den 1980er Jahren sexuelle Kontakte zu einer Schutzbefohlenen gehabt zu haben“. Der Priester hatte auch für Schlagzeilen gesorgt, weil er an Weihnachten 2010 in seinem Haus von Unbekannten überfallen, ausgeraubt und dabei schwer verletzt wurde.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Main Post

Verärgert hat die Pressestelle der Diözese Würzburg auf den Beitrag dieser Zeitung über die Aufklärung des kirchlichen Missbrauchsskandals („Die Perspektive der Opfer“) vom 25. April reagiert. Darin haben Opfer von Pater Damian M. der Diözese Vertuschung und fehlendes Mitgefühl unterstellt. Der Pressesprecher der Diözese, Bernhard Schweßinger weist „diese Vorwürfe entschieden zurück“. Von einem „Schweigen des Ordinariats“ könne keine Rede sein. Die Pressestelle habe schriftlich und mündlich Fragen dieser Zeitung beantwortet.

Dazu stellt die Redaktion dieser Zeitung fest, dass die folgenden vier von neun Fragen unbeantwortet blieben: Ist es den Opfern von Damian M. möglich, Entschädigungsforderungen zu stellen? Wie viele kirchenrechtliche Verfahren wurden aufgrund von 2010 bekannten Missbrauchsfällen eingeleitet? Wie vielen Tätern wurde in diesen Verfahren Schuld nachgewiesen? Wie viele kirchenrechtliche Verfahren, die 2010 eingeleitet wurden, sind noch nicht abgeschlossen?

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DEUTSCHLAND
dradio

CDU und CSU haben sich dafür ausgesprochen, an den Staatsverträgen mit den Kirchen festzuhalten. Die Kirchen leisteten einen unverzichtbaren Beitrag für die Gesellschaft, heißt es in einer Erklärung, die die Unionsfraktionsvorsitzenden aus Bund, Ländern und Europaparlament in Dresden verabschiedeten. Sie verwiesen unter anderem auf Krankenhäuser, Pflegeeinrichtungen, Kindergärten und Schulen. Zuvor hatte es ein Treffen mit dem Vorsitzenden der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, Zollitsch und dem Ratsvorsitzenden der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland, Schneider gegeben. In Sachsen hatte der CDU-Koalitionspartner FDP auf dem Landesparteitag Ende März die Kirchenstaatsverträge und damit die staatlichen Zuschüsse an die Kirchen in Frage gestellt.

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TEXAS
Letters from Texas

by Harold Cook on May 2, 2013

Sadly, Westboro Baptist has it all wrapped up for the worst church in the world. But The Church Of Corinth near Dallas is doing their best to come in a close second place.

It started when their pastor, Jeffrey Dale Williams, was jailed yesterday, charged with attempted sexual performance of a child. Police say the entire pathetic episode was captured on a two-hour audio tape, and they’re currently seeking out possible additional victims.

Curious, I went to the church’s Facebook page early this morning. I found scores of comments, almost all of which were supportive of, sympathetic with, or combative on behalf of, the church and its accused pastor. Many indicated their belief that this accusation is an attack on the church and its pastor by Satan. A sampling:

Remember the prayers over our Pastor and family a few weeks ago….this is Satan in full force trying to destroy!

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Prefect for the consecrated life Congregation explains the LCWR case to nuns from across the world and reveals how Pope Francis made his first Curia appointment

ALESSANDRO SPECIALE
VATICAN CITY

The Vatican’s relationship with America’s nuns cannot be reduced to confrontation and as far as the Holy See’s concerned, it’s time to open a so far non-existent path to dialogue with the women religious in the U.S. Brazilian cardinal and Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life Joao Braz de Aviz admitted this during the plenary meeting of religious superiors from across the world, on Sunday.

“Starting a dialogue that didn’t exist before is possible,” the cardinals said in an interview with the International Union of Superiors General (UISG).

Last April, with the then Pope Benedict XVI’s approval, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a critical report on the behaviour and activities of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the body which represents 80% of U.S. women religious. The LCWR was criticised for giving a voice to “radical feminism” during its conferences and for focusing its efforts on fighting poverty but not abortion. The Archbishop of Seattle, Mgr. Peter J. Sartain, was nominated a “delegate” and given the task of reorganising the Conference. A week or so ago Pope Francis issued a communiqué “reaffirming” the Holy See’s position with regards to the LCWR.

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UGANDA
Digital Journal

By Brett Wilkins
May 6, 2013

Kampala – A popular Ugandan priest has been ostracized from the Catholic Church after exposing what he calls an ‘open secret’– the rampant sexual abuse of children by clergy members.

Earlier this year, Ghanian cardinal and papal candidate Peter Turkson raised eyebrows when he told CNN that the international clergy sex abuse scandal couldn’t happen in Africa because “African traditional systems kind of protect… its population against this tendency” and “in Africa homosexuality… [is] not countenanced in our society.”

But one African priest strongly disagrees. Anthony Musaala, a gospel music star known as the “Dancing Priest,” has been publicizing sex abuse among clergy in his native Uganda. In doing so, he’s forcing the country’s Catholic Church to confront an ugly epidemic that it says doesn’t exist.

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NEW YORK
New York Magazine

By Steve Fishman

The president of St. John’s University, Father Donald Harrington, will announce his retirement this afternoon. The news comes in the midst of an investigation into the conduct of both Harrington and his chief of staff, Rob Wile, after allegations of corruption and misuse of university finances. Wile will resign effective June 30, according to sources.

“The difficulties for everyone during the past year have convinced me, after much prayer and reflection, that the time to leave the presidency has now come,” Harrington wrote in an internal communication to the St. John’s community.

The dual departures follow a series of New York Magazine stories detailing a web of undisclosed, interlocking business interests between Harrington and Wile. Particularly troubling to investigators was a real-estate venture partnership that was struck at the same time that Harrington recommended Wile for hundreds of thousands of dollars of no-interest loans from the university.

The changes at the top of St. John’s, one of the country’s largest Catholic universities, follow the trial of former dean Cecilia Chang, who committed suicide after being accused of defrauding the university for more than $1 million. Both Wile and Harrington benefited from the generosity of Chang, who picked up the bill for vacations, expensive suits, and jewelry, and fraudulently passed the expenses along to the university. At one point, Wile signed off on her expense reports. “You don’t see stuff like this except in corrupt companies,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfield of Yale University, an expert in business governance.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By WENDY RUDERMAN
Published: May 3, 2013

The longtime president of St. John’s University, the Rev. Donald J. Harrington, announced his retirement on Friday, ending a tenure that included successes like soaring student enrollment and campus expansion, but also financial scandal: he acknowledged going on trips with a former dean who committed suicide while on trial for corruption.

His retirement comes amid a pending inquiry requested a few months ago by the board of trustees into possible financial improprieties involving officials at the university, in Queens.

In announcing his retirement, effective July 31, Father Harrington, 67, alluded to the successful and difficult chapters during his 24 years as president.

“St. John’s has been transformed and stands today a truly world-class global university,” he wrote Friday to the trustees, but, “the difficulties for everyone during the past year have convinced me, after much prayer and reflection, that the time to leave the presidency has now come.”

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY JACKIE SOUTHEE ON MAY 06, 2013

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan is rushing to judgment and defending a priest being investigated for potential financial misdeeds.

In New York Magazine, Dolan says this about the just-resigned president of St. John’s University, Fr.Donald Harrington: “I am delighted to learn that in his retirement Father Harrington will be available to the Church to continue to champion Catholic education,” Dolan said in a statement. “I expect to call on him.”

This kind of premature rallying around a potential criminal that discourages people who see suspect and suffer wrongdoing in the church from speaking up.

Dolan should be using his massive resources to encourage, not discourage, those with information or suspicions about Fr. Harrington to step forward.

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WORCESTER (MA)
CBS 3

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) – The leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester has been arrested on drunken driving charges in Rhode Island.

Police say Bishop Robert McManus was arrested Saturday night after a hit & run accident in Narragansett, R.I.

Police say the driver of the vehicle that was hit followed McManus and called police. Police say McManus was arrested at his nearby vacation house.

He’s scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in District Court in Wakefield, R.I.

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NARRAGANSETT (RI)
ABC 6

Dee DeQuattro
ddequattro@abc6.com

Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester was charged DUI and refusal to submit to a breathalyzer test after a hit-and-run accident in Narragansett on Saturday night.

Police say the incident happened on Boston Neck Road. Police were notified by the driver allegedly hit by McManus’s vehicle. The driver followed McManus to his home in Bonnet Shores.

Police arrived to his home and arrested McManus. He is scheduled to be arraigned on charges in Washington County Courthouse tomorrow.

The Bishop released the following statement regarding the issue:

“On Saturday evening, May 4, I made a terrible error in judgment by driving after having consumed alcohol with dinner. There is no excuse for the mistake I made, only a commitment to make amends and accept the consequences of my action. More importantly, I ask forgiveness from the good people whom I serve, as well as my family and friends, in the Diocese of Worcester and the Diocese of Providence.”

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WORCESTER (MA)
Worcester Magazine

by Brittany Durgin

Reports state Worcester Bishop Robert Joseph McManus was arrested Saturday, May 4 in Narragansett, Rhode Island with the charges of Operating a vehicle Under the Influence.

According to the Worcester Diocese’s website, McManus was born in Providence, the son of Edward and Helen McManus of Narragansett, and graduted Blessed Sacrament School in Providence and Our Lady of Providence Seminary High School.

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WORCESTER (MA)
The Republican

By Kevin Koczwara, MassLive.com

on May 06, 2013

WORCESTER – Bishop Robert J. McManus of the Worcester Archdiocese was charged with drunken driving on Saturday night in Narragansett, R.I. According to an NBC affiliate in Rhode Island, McManus was also charged with refusal of a chemical test.

NBC10 reports that McManus was involved in a hit-and-run accident Saturday on Boston Neck Road. Narragansett Police Chief Dean Hoxsie confirmed the hit-and-run charges and said that the man that Bishop McManus allegedly hit followed the Bishop and called police.

“On Saturday evening, May 4, I made a terrible error in judgment by driving after having consumed alcohol with dinner,” reads a statement from Bishop McManus regarding the arrest in Narragansett. “There is no excuse for the mistake I made, only a commitment to make amends and accept the consequences of my action. More importantly, I ask forgiveness from the good people whom I serve, as well as my family and friends, in the Diocese of Worcester and the Diocese of Providence.”

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette* reports that McManus was arrested at his vacation home in Bonnet Shores. He was released on a summons and scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow in district court in Wakefield, R.I.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester

“On Saturday evening, May 4, I made a terrible error in judgment by driving after having consumed alcohol with dinner. There is no excuse for the mistake I made, only a commitment to make amends and accept the consequences of my action. More importantly, I ask forgiveness from the good people whom I serve, as well as my family and friends, in the Diocese of Worcester and the Diocese of Providence.”
May 6, 2013, WORCESTER, MA

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RHODE ISLAND
WPRI

Updated: Monday, 06 May 2013

By Ted Nesi, WPRI.com Reporter

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. (WPRI) – Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester Robert McManus was arrested in Rhode Island on Saturday evening on suspicion of drunken driving, WPRI.com has confirmed.

Narragansett Police Capt. Sean Corrigan confirmed McManus, 61, was charged with driving under the influence and refusing to take a chemical test. McManus is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday in Washington County District Court.

McManus acknowledged his arrest in a statement issued Monday by the Diocese of Worcester.

“On Saturday evening, May 4, I made a terrible error in judgment by driving after having consumed alcohol with dinner,” the bishop said. “There is no excuse for the mistake I made, only a commitment to make amends and accept the consequences of my action.”

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RHODE ISLAND/WORCESTER (MA)
Boston Globe

By Todd Feathers | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT MAY 06, 2013

Bishop Robert J. McManus, head of the Diocese of Worcester, was arrested for driving under the influence this weekend after police stopped him in Narragansett, R.I., police said.

McManus was arrested at 10:32 p.m. Saturday on charges of drunken driving, leaving the scene of an accident, and refusing a chemical test, Narragansett Police Captain Sean Coorigan said. McManus is to be arraigned Tuesday in district court in Wakefield, R.I.

“I made a terrible error in judgment by driving after having consumed alcohol with dinner,” McManus said in the statement. “There is no excuse for the mistake I made, only a commitment to make amends and accept the consequences of my action.”

“More importantly,” he said, “I ask forgiveness from the good people whom I serve, as well as my family and friends, in the Diocese of Worcester and the Diocese of Providence.”

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RHODE ISLAND
Turn to 10

Posted: May 06, 2013
By NBC 10 News

Narragansett Police arrested Worcester Bishop Robert McManus Saturday night. Police said McManus was charged with DUI and refusal of a chemical test.

Police Chief Dean Hoxsie said McManus was involved in a hit-and-run accident Saturday on Boston Neck Road. The man he allegedly hit followed him and called police.

Police arrived at McManus’ home in Bonnet Shores and arrested McManus. He was released on a summons and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday or Tuesday.

In a statement to the press, Bishop McManus said,

“On Saturday evening, May 4, I made a terrible error in judgment by driving after having consumed alcohol with dinner. There is no excuse for the mistake I made, only a commitment to make amends and accept the consequences of my action. More importantly, I ask forgiveness from the good people whom I serve, as well as my family and friends, in the Diocese of Worcester and the Diocese of Providence.”

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Shaun Sutner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
ssutner@telegram.com

Worcester Bishop Robert J. McManus was arrested Saturday night in Narragansett, R.I., charged with drunken driving and refusing a chemical test, Narragansett police confirmed this morning.

The arrest was first reported by Rhode Island TV station NBC10.

According to the station, the bishop was in a hit-and-run accident on Boston Neck Road. The man whose vehicle he allegedly hit followed him and called police.

Police arrested the bishop at his vacation home in Bonnett Shores. He was released on a summons and will be arraigned either today or Tuesday.

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UGANDA
The Voice of Russia

[with video]

The Catholic Church has suspended indefinitely an Uganda priest who chose to blow the whistle on widespread sexual abuse of children and other crimes committed by the African clergy instead of covering it all up as he had been instructed to do, media report.

Anthony Musaala said he was ostracized by the archbishop of Kampala for shining a light on what he called an open secret.

“The Vatican turns a blind eye because it doesn’t want to be embarrassed about this blooming church. But I think it’s time we had the truth,” he told reporters. “Wherever you go, people know about this. It’s like an open secret. People know. Nothing is ever done.”

The issue was brought to the limelight after the media laid hands on Musaala’s leaked letter to archbishop Cyprian Lwanga that cited numerous instances of wrongdoings among the Uganda priesthood, including secret wives, children and abuse of minors.

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MISSOURI
Courthouse News Service

By JOE HARRIS

CLAYTON, Mo. (CN) – A young man killed himself after years of sexual abuse by a St. Louis priest, his parents claim in court.

John Doe 118 and Jane Doe 117 sued the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Archbishop Robert J. Carlson and Father Bryan Kuchar, in St. Louis County Court.

The Does claim Kuchar sexually molested their son while he attended a church camp at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary from 1999 to 2002, when he was 12 to 14.

Their son was thinking of becoming a priest and Kuchar was his mentor, the parents say.

“Young John Doe SON and the defendant had a confidential and/or fiduciary relationship,” the complaint states. “The power imbalance between defendants and John Doe SON increased the young boy’s vulnerability to defendant Kuchar.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

JOANNE McCarthy was ‘‘the genesis’’ of a police strikeforce set up to investigate the Catholic Church’s alleged cover-up of paedophile priests, an inquiry was told on Monday.

But the Newcastle Herald journalist was largely ignored by senior police, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told the inquiry, and police were ordered not to talk to her.

At a meeting of senior police in December 2010, Mr Fox and other officers were gagged from talking to the media.

Mr Fox suggested police should involve McCarthy in their investigation because ‘‘she knows more about this issue than this entire room put together’’.

‘‘She is the be-all and end-all on this matter,’’ he said. ‘‘She has all the information and all the witnesses … it would be silly to cut her out.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON May 6, 2013

DETECTIVE Chief Inspector Peter Fox was ‘‘uneasy’’.

His office had been raided while he was on leave, he and other police had been pulled off investigations into the alleged cover-up of child sex abuse, and a colleague had told him about the ‘‘Catholic Mafia’’ that existed within Newcastle’s police ranks.

‘‘I just didn’t trust other police,’’ he said.

Mr Fox spent most of yesterday in the witness box as the first day of inquiries into police handling of child sexual abuse allegations within the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese got under way.

The inquiry, headed by Commissioner Margaret Cunneen, heard a series of stunning allegations from Mr Fox including suggestions that a ‘‘Catholic Mafia’’ was behind a grand scheme of collusion, and that police chose not to charge former Catholic Bishop Michael Malone with hindering police investigations into paedophile priests.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON May 6, 2013

COMMISSIONER Margaret Cunneen, SC, began proceedings yesterday with, quite possibly, the understatement of the year.

‘‘The Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle has had a very troubled history regarding issues of child protection and the sexual abuse of children perpetrated by persons associated with the diocese, including certain priests,’’ she said in her opening address.

She’s right. To this day, almost 20 people associated with the diocese have been convicted, charged or are facing court over child sex abuse allegations.

But this inquiry is not an exercise in proving the guilt of those who she said displayed ‘‘a reprehensible betrayal of faith and trust’’ against ‘‘vulnerable and innocent children’’.

This part of the statewide inquiry has two terms of reference: whether or not detective chief inspector Peter Fox was told to stop investigating the church’s cover-ups of those crimes, and whether or not the church assisted and co-operated with police investigations, or if they in fact colluded to protect members of the church.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

NEIL KEENE From: The Daily Telegraph May 07, 2013

A “CATHOLIC mafia” of senior officers within the NSW Police Force hampered investigations into child sex abuse within the Church, an inquiry was told yesterday.

A Special Commission of Inquiry heard from police whistleblower Peter Fox about conversations he had with another officer in 2010 about the so-called mafia and its role in covering up entrenched paedophilia within the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox said he and former officer Troy Grant – now a National Party MP in Dubbo – spoke about senior police “aligned to the Catholic Church” interfering with investigations into the clergy.

Those police allegedly sent Mr Grant on trips away and snowed him under with other investigations to ensure he would have no time to interview alleged victims or conduct a thorough investigation.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian May 07, 2013

NATIONALS MP and former policeman Troy Grant will directly contradict evidence given by whistleblower Peter Fox about alleged police cover-ups of child abuse in the Catholic Church, an inquiry has heard.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox told the NSW special commission of inquiry into child abuse yesterday that Mr Grant once used the phrase “Catholic mafia” to describe serving officers who were interfering with his own investigation of a pedophile priest.

Mr Grant, a former police inspector, “was referring to what he perceived to be police who he felt to be aligned to the Catholic Church, who were attempting to discourage investigations into clergy”, Mr Fox said.

During the 2002 conversation between the then-serving officers, Mr Grant was also “highly critical of some senior police at Newcastle (whom) he perceived to be hindering his investigation”, he said.

But counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC, said Mr Grant, who will give evidence tomorrow, had signed a statement directly contradicting this claim. In this sworn statement, the member for Dubbo, in western NSW, denied using the phrase “Catholic mafia”, or that the conversation took place as Mr Fox described.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A police whistleblower who alleges a “Catholic mafia” including police covered up child sexual abuse by priests in the NSW Hunter Valley has made explosive claims that his office was ransacked while he was away on leave.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told a government-ordered inquiry that in September 2010, on the day he started a month’s leave, he was asked to handle a ministerial complaint regarding concerns about a “church conspiracy”.

When he returned from leave he was told by a now-retired public servant that his superior, Superintendent Charles Haggett, and Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey, had got the keys to his office and searched it “from top to bottom, looking in every filing cabinet”.

“You are kidding,” an astonished Insp Fox told the public servant.

“Please don’t tell them I told you,” she said. “But whatever it was they were looking for, they didn’t find it.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

May 7, 2013

Jason Gordon

A ”Catholic mafia” within the ranks of Newcastle police colluded with church leaders to cover up sex abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, an inquiry into the abuse has been told.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told the inquiry on Monday that while on leave his office had been raided, he and other police had been pulled off investigations into the alleged cover-up of child sex abuse and a colleague told him about a ”Catholic mafia” within the ranks of Newcastle police.

”I just didn’t trust other police,” he said.

The inquiry, headed by Commissioner Margaret Cunneen, was told police chose not to charge former Catholic Bishop Michael Malone with hindering police investigations into paedophile priests.

The inquiry was also told that senior police were gagged from talking to Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy, despite her being ”the genesis” of a strikeforce investigating the cover-up of child sex abuse within the diocese.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

When he was still the Vatican’s chief prosecutor in clerical abuse cases, Monsignor Charles Scicluna stated that the victims of clerical sex abuse at the St Joseph’s Home in Santa Venera deserved compensation, urging the Curia to set up a “fund which could go beyond the demands of damages granted by law”.

Later, on promotion to Auxiliary Bishop, he qualified this, saying that this was the “personal responsibility” of those who caused the damage. He said it was “unfair” to make the Church “vicariously liable” (that is, liable for the criminal acts of another because the institution has a particular legal relationship to the person who acted negligently or criminally) because the crimes were committed by individual priests, not the Church community as an institution.

The Church is cynically hiding behind the law in order to force 11 financially weak victims to desist from pursuing their rightful case for compensation.

In the immediate aftermath of the conviction of Godwin Scerri and Charles Pulis 20 months ago, Archbishop Paul Cremona had also publicly accepted responsibility for what had happened. He discussed financial compensation. But he reneged on this on the spurious grounds that the Church “bore no legal responsibility for what had happened to boys in the care of a religious order”.

Fair play, natural justice and, overridingly, the Church’s moral responsibility alone should suffice to be outraged at such a line of argument.

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SPRINGFIELD (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Monday, May 6, 2013

For more information, please contact SNAP Leader Melanie Sakoda at:
925-708-6175
melanie.sakoda@gmail.com

Priest accused of sexual misdeeds is reassigned
He was ousted from Champaign church in 2007
Now, cleric pastors congregation in Springfield
SNAP to church officials: “Be upfront with his flock”

A Greek Orthodox priest from Champaign who was suspended from the priesthood now works at a Springfield church.

Rev. George Pyle (formerly of Three Hierarchs Church in Champaign, IL) is now the priest at St. Anthony Hellenic (Greek) Orthodox Church in Springfield.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, recently learned that Metropolitan Iakovos Garmatis assigned Father George Pyle to Saint Anthony’s in February. The group wants church officials to disclose all information.

“We beg the metropolitan to give Springfield parishioners a complete and candid history of the allegations that were made against Rev. Pyle, including information about his treatment at Saint Luke Institute in Maryland,” said Melanie Sakoda of SNAP. Saint Luke is a Catholic facility which specializes in treating abusive clergy.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

By Sam Levin Mon., May 6 2013

A local couple is suing the St. Louis Archdiocese and Father Bryan Kuchar in a lawsuit alleging that their son was raped by the priest when he was a young boy and, once the “abuse finally overtook him,” killed himself.

“It has been almost four years since his death, and we struggle with the part the Archdiocese of St. Louis played in the death of our son,” the parents write in a statement. “The fault lies with the church officials who failed to keep our son and other victims of predatory priests safe.”

Ken Chackes, attorney for the St. Louis couple, tells Daily RFT, “The sexual abuse was a cause of the death.”

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NEW YORK
Huffington Post

Joseph Amodeo

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

Today, myself and others knocked at the door of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, but the door was not opened, rather it was slammed in our faces. As I begin to write this article, I’m cognizant of the raw emotions that I feel deep inside my heart. It’s a feeling that I’m unfamiliar with, because until today, I have never been denied a seat at Christ’s table. In fact, today marks the first day that I have ever felt disowned, abandoned, and lost.

Earlier today, a group of Catholics including myself gathered on the corner of East 46th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. We gathered for a simple purpose, to dirty our hands as we prepared to attend Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We were soiling our hands as a silent response to Cardinal Dolan’s column last week in which he suggested that LGBT people were welcome in the church so long as they washed their hands. As we began to rub our hands together with pieces of ash, our hands took on the look and feel of the effort that has defined our work to receive an equal seat at the table of Christ in the Catholic Church. Those participating were not only LGBT Catholics, but also allies and, perhaps most importantly, parents of LGBT children. We gathered not in protest, but as a silent witness.

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NEW JERSEY
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | May 6, 2013

What are they thinking over at archdiocesan headquarters in Newark?

In last Thursday’s self-exculpatory announcement of the departure of Fr. Michael Fugee from the “public exercise of priestly ministry,” they assert:

Following the Memorandum of Understanding, the Archdiocese did not assign Fr. Fugee to any post involving ministry with minors. His assignments were supervised administrative positions located at the Archdiocesan Center in Newark.

That’s not true. As was reported four years ago, and recalled in the Star-Ledger‘s stories about Fugee’s recent employment with parish youth groups, after his term of probation was over in 2009, Fugee was assigned as a chaplain to St. Michael’s Medical Center, over a mile away from the Center.

This untruth comes in the wake of the archdiocese’s turnaround on the issue of whether, according the memorandum of understanding negotiated with the Bergen County prosecutor’s office, Fugee was permitted to engage in supervised ministry of, and work with, children. When the Star-Ledger‘s Mark Mueller reported two weeks ago that Fugee was indeed doing ministry with minors, the archdiocese said that he was. Last week, they confessed that he wasn’t.

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TEXAS
KFOX

By Mateo Arnold and Catholic Diocese

EL PASO, Texas — Pope Francis named an auxiliary bishop out of Dallas as the new bishop of El Paso.

Mark Rev. Mark Joseph Seitz will take over for Bishop Armando Ochoa. Ochoa was appointed to lead the Catholic Diocese of Fresno, Calif. by Pope Benedict XVI in December 2011. Ochoa has temporarily been helping the Catholic Diocese of El Paso since then.

Seitz will become the seventh bishop of the Diocese of EL Paso. He first entered the seminary in Dallas when he was 18 years old, in 1972. He has been in Dallas ever since that time.

Seitz was born in Milwaukee, Wis. on Jan 10, 1954. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 17, 1980. In 1985, he received a Master’s Degree in Liturgical Studies from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. He also holds a Master’s in Divinity and a Master’s in Theology from the University of Dallas. Pope John Paul II named him a Monsignor in December 2004.

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TEXAS
Roman Catholic Diocese of El Paso

With Praise & Thanksgiving to Almighty God, the Holy Father Pope Francis will announce the new Bishop for the Diocese of El Paso on Monday, May 6, 2013 at noon (Vatican City Time), 4am Mountain Time. Press conference will take place at the Pastoral Center in the Martyrs of the Americas Hall and be available by live stream at 10am Mountain Time

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 4 May 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father: …

– appointed Bishop Mark Joseph Seitz as bishop of the Diocese of El Paso (area 69,090, population 848,00, Catholics 662,000, priests 103, permanent deacons 27, religious 190), Texas, USA. Bishop Seitz, previously auxiliary of Dallas, Texas, and titular of Cozyla, serves as a member of the Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 5 May 2013 (VIS) – “Today, the National Day of Children Victims of Violence, I give a special greeting to the ‘Meter’ Association. This gives me the opportunity to turn my thoughts to all those who have suffered and who are suffering because of abuse. I want to assure them that they are present in my prayers but I also want to forcefully state that we must all commit ourselves with clarity and courage so that every human person, especially children who are among the most vulnerable, be always defended and protected.” These were the Pope’s words before praying the Regina Coeli with the numerous faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, many of whom were with confraternities on pilgrimage to Rome for the Year of Faith.

The Holy Father also noted, in the context of that pilgrimage, that love for the Virgin “is one of the characteristics of popular piety that must be esteemed and well-ordered. That is why I invite those present to reflect on the final chapter of the Vatican II Constitution on the Church, ‘Lumen Gentium’, that speaks precisely of Mary in the mystery of Christ and the Church. It says that Mary ‘advanced in her pilgrimage of faith’. …. In the Year of Faith I leave you this icon of Mary the pilgrim, who follows Jesus the Son, and precedes all of us in the journey of faith.”

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

BY DENISA R. SUPERVILLE
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

WYCKOFF — For some parishioners attending Sunday Mass at the Church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, the resurfacing in the news last week of a former assistant pastor once accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy brought back memories they had left in the past.

“I would say people have put it behind them,” said Michael Jones, 34, a former Franklin Lakes resident who now lives in Bloomingdale, as he left noon Mass.

Jones said he only recalled the incident after reading an article on Friday about the Rev. Michael Fugee, 52, who served as assistant pastor from 1997 to 2001, when he was charged with criminal sexual contact and children endangerment for allegedly groping a 13-year-old boy.

“No one talks about it,” Jones said

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Anthony Panissidi
@APPanissidi

COLTS NECK — The resignation of a St. Mary’s parish priest has evoked sympathetic outcries from parishioners, while others believe he had to know he was allowing another priest previously accused of child molestation to work with youth groups at the church.

Father Thomas J. Triggs stepped down Saturday as pastor of St. Mary’s parish in Colts Neck, effective immediately. Bishop David M. O’Connell accepted the resignation according to a news release from the Diocese of Trenton which oversees the parish.

Lay youth group ministers Michael and Amy Lenehan have also stepped down.

The shakeup comes just days after the resignation of the Rev. Michael Fugee, a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark. St. Mary’s parishioners say Fugee had been involved with the parish youth group in defiance of an agreement with Bergen County prosecutors that he not work with children. The Lenehans had invited Fugee to take part in youth ministry events without ensuring he would have been cleared for such ministry in compliance with the Diocese of Trenton’s policies.

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AUSTRALIA
Queensland Times

APN Newsdesk 6th May 2013

SURVIVORS of child sexual abuse will get the chance to “tell their stories” in face-to-face private sessions when the next phase of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse begins on Tuesday.

The commission plans to travel around Australia conducting private sessions in capital cities and regional locations.

Private sessions will begin in Sydney on Tuesday and are expected to run for many months.

There are also plans for the commission to hold private sessions in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth in the coming months, with the details to be released soon.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 3, 2013

Dr Deb Anderson

Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will involve thousands of witnesses, at once validating their experiences and heralding institutional reform. But for survivors, having realistic expectations of the inquiry is important, says clinical psychologist Simon Crisp. The adjunct lecturer at Monash University has worked with adult and youth survivors of abuse in both private practice and the public mental health system.

Explain to us the guilt survivors often feel.

Survivors often seek an explanation for how and why the abuse happened. Especially if the perpetrator is trusted or seen as an authority, the victim develops the idea that they – the victim – must have been responsible for the abuse. This can include believing they caused this otherwise upstanding person – the perpetrator – to succumb to temptation. They can retrospectively analyse events and blame themselves. The guilt can be so powerful, survivors often lose almost all self-worth and confidence in themselves.

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AUSTRALIA
Central Telegraph

APN Newsdesk 6th May 20131:50 PM

SURVIVORS of child sexual abuse will get the chance to “tell their stories” in face-to-face private sessions when the next phase of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse begins on Tuesday.

The commission plans to travel around Australia conducting private sessions in capital cities and regional locations.

Private sessions will begin in Sydney on Tuesday and are expected to run for many months.

There are also plans for the commission to hold private sessions in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth in the coming months, with the details to be released soon.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A senior police whistleblower’s office was searched while he was away on leave, an inquiry into the alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the NSW Hunter Valley will hear.

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC, told its first hearing in Newcastle on Monday that evidence relating to Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox would be presented to the inquiry.

Ms Lonergan said evidence would show Insp Fox – whose allegations sparked the commission – pursued investigations that he kept to himself, rather than logging through official police channels.

In 2012 he was removed from any investigative role into sexual abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, and later that year he had become so concerned by the “absence of any obvious investigations” that he appeared on ABC TV’s Lateline program to air his claims.

Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC said in her opening remarks the diocese had a “troubled history” of sexual abuse by clergymen, and many people had been deeply affected by such “abhorrent” crimes.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A police whistleblower who alleges a “Catholic mafia” including police covered up child sexual abuse by priests in the NSW Hunter Valley has made explosive claims that his office was ransacked while he was away on leave.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told a government-ordered inquiry that in September 2010, on the day he started a month’s leave, he was asked to handle a ministerial complaint regarding concerns about a “church conspiracy”.

When he returned from leave he was told by a now-retired public servant that his superior, Superintendent Charles Haggett, and Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey, had got the keys to his office and searched it “from top to bottom, looking in every filing cabinet”.

“You are kidding,” an astonished Insp Fox told the public servant.

“Please don’t tell them I told you,” she said. “But whatever it was they were looking for, they didn’t find it.”

Insp Fox told the special commission of inquiry in Newcastle on Monday he had taken the precaution of locking the file in his safe because he was concerned that “something like this” might occur.

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SCHWEIZ
Blick

Publiziert: 05.05.2013
Von Peter Hossli

Fast ein Menschenleben lang hatte Charles Probst (83) auf Worte der Reue gewartet. Bis sie am 11. April kamen. «Für das Leid, das Ihnen angetan wurde, bitte ich Sie im Namen der Landesregierung aufrichtig und von ganzem Herzen um Entschuldigung», sagte Bundesrätin Simonetta Sommaruga (52). Einstige Verdingkinder wie Probst hörten ihr im Berner Kursaal zu.

Mit sechs kam Charly 1936 zu einer Pflegefamilie auf einen Bauernhof im Oberaargau BE. Zu arm war seine Mutter für ein Kind. Beamte nahmen ihr den Kleinen weg.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BRF

Es handelt sich um einen Geistlichen im Ruhestand aus dem Saarland. Was ihm vorgeworfen wird, ist noch nicht bekannt. Die Entlassung aus dem Klerikerstand ist im Kirchenrecht die Höchststrafe.

Der Trierer Bischof Ackermann
Der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann hat zum zweiten Mal einen Priester in seinem Bistum wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs aus dem Klerikerstand entlassen. Ein entsprechendes Dekret sei am 2. Mai ergangen, sagte der Sprecher des Bistums Trier am Montag und bestätigte damit einen Bericht der Zeitung «Trierischer Volksfreund».

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Newcastle

By Jeannette McMahon

Chief Inspector Peter Fox has spoken of the personal toll his pursuit of justice for child victims of sexual abuse by the Catholic Church has taken on himself and his family.

A number of senior police, including Chief Inspector Fox, will give evidence at a public inquiry which starts in Newcastle today.

Fox is seen as a hero by many of the victims and their families for his tenacious pursuit of justice and his public comments, which have created career and personal pressure for himself.

The inquiry was set up by the NSW Premier after Fox appeared on the ABC’s Lateline, alleging some church officials failed to report claims of child sex abuse to police, and that he was told to stop investigating the matter.

The inquiry, overseen by NSW deputy crown prosecutor Margaret Cuneen, will look specifically at how the church handled complaints about former Hunter priests Jim Fletcher and Denis McAlinden, both now deceased.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

NSW special commission of inquiry into alleged child abuse in Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese begins

NEIL KEENE From: The Daily Telegraph May 06, 2013

THE Special Commission of Inquiry into alleged child abuse in the Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle got under way this morning in Newcastle.

This inquiry was ordered by the NSW Government and differs from the federal government’s royal commission into institutionalised child sex abuse which began earlier this year.

The NSW inquiry was launched last year to investigate alleged abuse by senior church members, along with allegations the church helped cover up those offences.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio and video]

By Dan Cox and staff

The New South Wales policeman who blew the whistle on an alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley says senior police searched his office for sensitive files while he was on leave.

The inquiry is looking at how complaints about deceased former priests Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese were investigated.

It was sparked by the allegations of whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, who is giving evidence today.

Peter Fox has told the inquiry two senior police officers turned his office upside down while he was on leave for a month.

He said the sensitive files they were after were in a secure safe, but after that he started to distrust senior police.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON May 6, 2013

SENIOR Newcastle police held informal discussions about charging former Newcastle Catholic Bishop Michael Malone with concealing serious child sex crimes, an inquiry has heard.

The Special Commission of Inquiry into the police handling of allegations against the church began in Newcastle Supreme Court this morning before Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC.

In her opening address, Commissioner Cunneen said the sexual abuse of ‘‘inherently vulnerable children’’ represented a ‘‘reprehensible betrayal of trust’’. She noted the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle had a ‘‘very troubled history’’ of priests who had abused children.

Commissioner Cunneen said the inquiry would this week focus on allegations made by Detective Chief Inspector Fox in the Newcastle Herald and on ABC television’s Lateline program last November, during which he alleged he had been asked to cease his investigations into the church and that the church had attempted to cover up instances of child sexual abuse.

Inspector Fox took to the stand shortly after 11am today. He has told the inquiry he believed the diocese had warned former priest James Fletcher that he was being investigated by police.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Special Commission of Inquiry into matters relating to the Police investigation of certain child sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle

Opening Address of Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC

Newcastle Supreme Court – Monday, 6 May 2013

1. Welcome to the public hearings of the Special Commission of Inquiry into matters relating to the Police investigation of certain child sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

2. I intend to make some introductory remarks about certain matters before inviting Senior Counsel Assisting, Ms Lonergan SC, to provide an opening address.

3. After that, I will take the appearances for parties authorised to appear at the public hearing.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian May 06, 2013

NSW police officers discussed whether a “Catholic mafia” existed within the force, deliberately hindering the investigation of pedophile priests, an inquiry has heard.

Giving evidence at the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into child sex abuse, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox said he discussed these fears in 2002 with the current state Nationals MP, Troy Grant, then a serving officer.

Mr Grant “was highly critical of some senior police at Newcastle in what he perceived to be hindering his investigation” into alleged child abuse by clergy, Detective Fox said.

The MP, who will give evidence tomorrow, used the phrase “Catholic mafia” to describe two particular officers he felt were deliberately asking him to work on other criminal investigations, Detective Fox said.

“He was referring to what he perceived to be police who he felt to be aligned to the Catholic Church, who were attempting to discourage investigations into clergy,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

BY DOUG CONWAY, AAP SENIOR CORRESPONDENT From: AAP May 06, 2013

A POLICE whistleblower who alleges a “Catholic mafia” including police covered up child sexual abuse by priests in the NSW Hunter Valley has made explosive claims that his office was ransacked while he was away on leave.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told a government-ordered inquiry that in September 2010, on the day he started a month’s leave, he was asked to handle a ministerial complaint regarding concerns about a “church conspiracy”.

When he returned from leave he was told by a now-retired public servant that his superior, Superintendent Charles Haggett, and Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey, had got the keys to his office and searched it “from top to bottom, looking in every filing cabinet”.

“You are kidding,” an astonished Insp Fox told the public servant.

“Please don’t tell them I told you,” she said. “But whatever it was they were looking for, they didn’t find it.”

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IRELAND
Irish Sun

By MICHAEL DOYLE

THE mum of a man who took his own life over the childhood abuse he suffered at the hands of Fr Bill Carney has hit out at the perv priest’s continued attempts to evade justice.

Paul Dwyer was just 13 when he was raped by the vile cleric and was left so mentally tormented by the attacks that he committed suicide in 2005, when he was 31.

Carney, who was defrocked in 1992 and has lived in the UK for the past 20 years, was described in the Murphy report as a serial sex offender and there was evidence that he carried out at least 32 attacks on boys and girls.

He is expected to be extradited from the UK in the coming week after British detectives arrested him in London on foot of a European Arrest warrant.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By court reporter Jamelle Wells, ABC
Updated May 6, 2013

Some of the most senior police officers in New South Wales will give evidence at a public inquiry starting today into child sex abuse and the Catholic Church.

New South Wales Deputy Crown Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen is overseeing the inquiry, which is looking at how the church handled complaints about former priests Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher in the Newcastle-Hunter area of New South Wales.

The men have since died, but, giving an overview of the inquiry in February, Margaret Cunneen said they “victimised” children and it appears that “collective responsibility” to take action against them was ignored.

New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell set up the inquiry after Hunter police Chief Inspector Peter Fox appeared on the ABC’s Lateline program.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON May 6, 2013

DETECTIVE Chief Inspector Peter Fox raised concerns with senior police about alleged cover-ups of child abuse within the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese of the Catholic Church as early as 2004, a court heard Monday morning.

The Special Commission of Inquiry into the police handling of allegations against the church began in Newcastle Supreme Court this morning before Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC.

In opening statements, Commissioner Cunneen said the inquiry will this week focus on allegations made by Inspector Fox in the Newcastle Herald and on ABC television’s Lateline program last November where he alleged that he had been asked to cease his investigations into the church.

Counsel Assisting, Ms Lonergan SC, said the inquiry will consider whether or not Inspector Fox was asked to cease investigating the cover-up claims, what he had been investigating, and whether or not those matters were shelved or ‘‘put to one side because they were considered too complex’’.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The Drum

By ABC’s Suzanne Smith

The Special Commission into sexual abuse in the Hunter is about the importance of a fundamental principle – the separation of church and state, writes Suzanne Smith.

It is the genesis of decades of suffering, the silent wrecking ball in our community behind too many broken families, too many lost and shattered lives and too much pain.” (Joanne McCarthy, The Newcastle Herald, 2012)

For many victims and their families in the northern NSW region of the Hunter, today will be a historic day.

It is the first day of hearings by the Special Commission of Inquiry set up by the premier Barry O’Farrell to investigate the police investigations into two notorious paedophile priests; Father James Fletcher and Father Denis McAlinden.

The Terms of Reference for the next two week’s inquiry is about the “circumstances in which Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox was asked to cease investigating relevant matters and whether it was appropriate to do so.”

Which brings us back to the fundamental question; why has there not been, until fairly recently, a more concerted effort by the police to investigate, with the full resources and power of the law, the most senior members of the clergy? Some police have done a tremendous job but in very difficult circumstances. Troy Grant, the current National Party MP from Dubbo, successfully prosecuted Father Vincent Ryan who had 31 victims in the Hunter. One of his victims was awarded the largest payout in Australia’s history; a sum of $3 million.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

An inquiry has opened in Newcastle into an alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the NSW Hunter Valley.

The special commission of inquiry began on Monday with an opening address by counsel assisting, Julia Lonergan SC.

Over the next fortnight Commissioner Margaret Cunneen will investigate the circumstances in which Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, whose allegations of a church cover-up sparked the inquiry, was asked to stop probing certain matters.

She will hear evidence from senior police including two assistant commissioners and two superintendents, as well as former policeman and now state Nationals MP Troy Grant.

The inquiry will concentrate on two priests, serial sex offender Father Denis McAlinden and convicted pedophile Father James Fletcher, both now dead.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

NSW special commission of inquiry into alleged child abuse in Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese begins

NEIL KEENE From: The Daily Telegraph May 06, 2013

THE Special Commission of Inquiry into alleged child abuse in the Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle got under way this morning in Newcastle.

This inquiry was ordered by the NSW Government and differs from the federal government’s royal commission into institutionalised child sex abuse which began earlier this year.

The NSW inquiry was launched last year to investigate alleged abuse by senior church members, along with allegations the church helped cover up those offences.

It will also investigate why senior police officer Detective Inspector Peter Fox was ordered to halt his investigation into the allegations.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A senior police whistleblower’s office was searched while he was away on leave, an inquiry into the alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the NSW Hunter Valley will hear.

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC, told its first hearing in Newcastle on Monday that evidence relating to Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox would be presented to the inquiry.

Ms Lonergan said evidence would show Insp Fox – whose allegations sparked the commission – pursued investigations that he kept to himself, rather than logging through official police channels.

In 2012 he was removed from any investigative role into sexual abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, and later that year he had become so concerned by the “absence of any obvious investigations” that he appeared on ABC TV’s Lateline program to air his claims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

PIA AKERMAN From: The Australian May 06, 2013

THE royal commission examining institutional responses to child sexual abuse has revealed it will begin hearing from victims this week, as a separate inquiry into alleged Catholic Church cover-ups in the Hunter Valley begins.

Survivors of child sexual abuse in institutions will start telling their stories to the royal commission in private sessions beginning tomorrow in Sydney, ahead of other private hearings in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Commission chief executive Janette Dines said many people had already come forward wanting to speak about their experiences.

“I want to assure people who have already called that we will get back to them,” she said. ‘As soon as we have enough people registered in a particular location we will make arrangements to travel to that place.

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AUSTRALIA
Border Mail

By SAM RIGNEY and EMMA SWAIN May 6, 2013

AUSTRALIA’S first commission of inquiry into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church will begin today in Newcastle Supreme Court.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, who helped bring about the NSW public inquiry, is scheduled to give evidence during the first two days.

A long list of senior NSW police will follow Chief Inspector Fox into the witness box during the first two weeks of the inquiry, which precedes and runs separately from the broader federal royal commission into sex abuse.

Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC will rule on hearing in-camera testimony from some witnesses to avoid prejudicing potential future criminal proceedings.

The NSW commission of inquiry will consider police investigations of the late Hunter paedophile priests Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher over the next two weeks. It will later examine Church handling of allegations involving the priests, from June 24 to July 12.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

By CRAIG BROWN
Published on 06/05/2013

THE MSP Margo MacDonald has voiced her support for Cardinal Keith O’Brien following reports the Vatican ordered the disgraced former archbishop to leave the UK.

Ms MacDonald, a friend of 75-year-old cleric, said if the reports were true then the Vatican’s position showed “a lack of charity”.

The cardinal was last week seen moving his possessions from his former residence in Edinburgh to a church property in Dunbar where, he said, he intended to settle.

It was the first time he had been seen in public since February when he was ordered by Pope Benedict XVI to step down after allegations emerged of his relations with a priest in Aberdeen and four priests in the diocese of Edinburgh and St Andrews.

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NEW JERSEY
News 12

Protesters demonstrated outside St. Mary’s in Colts Neck after learning a convicted child molester has been working with children.

Father Thomas Triggs has been serving as pastor of the church since 2007. Under his watch, Father Michael Fugee was allowed on retreats with children. Since 2007, Fugee has had an agreement with the Bergen County prosecutor to never again work with children following…

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

COLTS NECK — The pastor and two youth ministers at a Colts Neck church have left their posts amid criticism that a priest once accused of child molestation was allowed to work with young parish members.

The Star-Ledger of Newark reported that the Rev. Thomas Triggs announced his resignation from the pulpit during a service Saturday night at St. Mary’s Parish in Colts Neck. The newspaper also said youth ministers Michael and Amy Lenehan no longer held those positions, though it was not clear if they resigned or were forced out.

The shakeup comes just days after the resignation of the Rev. Michael Fugee, a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark. Parishioners say Fugee, who is longtime friends with the Lenehans, had been involved with the parish youth group in defiance of an agreement with Bergen County prosecutors that he not to work with children.

Fugee was convicted in 2003 of criminal sexual contact involving a boy. It was overturned by an appeals court and the priest eventually entered a pretrial intervention program.

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NEW JERSEY
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

I can’t let this week end and another begin without mentioning, at least, the important story that has been reported of late from the archdiocese of Newark, NJ. As many readers of this blog will now know, it has come to light that after Father Michael Fugee was convicted of abusing minors in 2003, his conviction got overturned, in part, because the archdiocese of Newark agreed to keep him from contact with children.

That didn’t happen. Knowing fully Fugee’s track record and having made an agreement with the court to keep Fugee away from children, Newark archbishop John Myers has permitted Fugee to attend youth retreats and to go on youth pilgrimages. He appointed Fugee to the important position of co-director of an office forming new priests for the diocese, and he sent Fugee to a parish to do pastoral ministry among families with children without telling any of the parishioners of Fugee’s past.

And so the Newark Star-Ledger is now calling for Myers’s resignation, while Fugee has submitted his resignation from the priesthood. As Mike McShea notes at his This Cultural Christian site, some of the state’s legislators including Sen. Joseph Vitale are also echoing the call for Myers to resign.

Myers, don’t forget, is the Opus Dei bishop (and see also here) who told Catholics supporting marriage equality to stop taking communion last year. At the very same time in which Myers has known that he was exposing children to danger and violating a court agreement to keep Fugee from children, that is to say, he’s been rattling his moral saber about someone else–about his gay brothers and sisters.

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AUSTRALIA
Government of New South Wales

Special Commission of Inquiry into matters relating to the Police investigation of certain child sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle

Margaret Cunneen SC has been appointed as Special Commissioner to inquire into and report on matters relating to the Police investigation of certain child sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

The Commissioner will be assisted by Julia Lonergan SC, David Kell and Warwick Hunt of Counsel and the Crown Solicitor.

View the Terms of Reference for the Inquiry [PDF, 133kb]

Court dates

Public hearings will be held in the Newcastle Supreme Court, Court Room No.1, Church Street, Newcastle from 6 May to 17 May and from 24 June to 12 July 2013.

The Schedule of Witnesses [PDF, 147KB] details the witnesses proposed to be called to give evidence at public hearings starting at 10am on Monday, 6 May 2013. Please note that this schedule may be subject to change and will accordingly be updated periodically.

Practice Note no.1 [PDF, 138kb] explains the authorisation process for individuals or organisations who wish to appear at public hearings before the Commission.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By EMMA S WAIN May 6, 2013

Today marks the start of the first public hearings into child sexual abuse allegations within the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

By his own admission, Diocesan head Bishop Bill Wright (pictured) said the hearings would leave the community appalled, outraged and angered. He said above all – the stories about to be heard – would be extremely grim.

“We know there will be a lot of people wishing to tell their stories and that’s going to be pretty awful,” Bishop Wright said.

“In the first instance, the community will be appalled, outraged, angry, sympathetic and all the rest of it. And for people who have not had their minds turned too much to this whole issue, I think it’s going to be very hard to avoid it in the coming time.

“There will be a lot of stories that will be very grim for people to hear and there will be a lot of anger ­directed, and fair enough, at the ­perpetrators. But this will also be directed at the church and, as time goes on, other institutions which have dealt badly with these things.” …

The hearings will continue until May 17 and will resume again on June 24 until July 12. The special commission of inquiry will work with the National Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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NEW JERSEY
Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton

Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., has accepted the resignation of Father Thomas J. Triggs as pastor of St. Mary Parish, Colts Neck, effective immediately. The May 4 resignation follows recent reports that Father Michael Fugee, a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, had assisted in several activities of the parish’s youth group despite having been restricted from such ministry in an agreement with law enforcement authorities in Bergen County.

Bishop O’Connell has granted Father Triggs a period of sabbatical before he will be given a new assignment. A parish administrator will be appointed for St. Mary Parish.

In one of his last official acts as pastor, Father Triggs accepted the resignations of Michael and Amy Lenehan, parish youth group ministers, effective immediately. The Lenehans had invited Father Fugee to take part in youth ministry events without ensuring that he would have been cleared for such ministry in compliance with the Diocese of Trenton’s policies.

The Diocese of Trenton released a statement April 29 reporting that it was first made aware of the presence of Father Michael Fugee at a youth retreat held in St. Mary Parish through an inquiry from the media on April 23, 2013. The statement stipulated that Father Fugee had been given no permission to exercise ministry there by the Diocese nor had he filed with the Chancery the “letter of suitability” required of all priests outside of the Diocese before they are to conduct ministry here.

According to that statement, upon learning of Father Fugee’s activities, Bishop O’Connell immediately contacted Father Triggs and indicated that Father Fugee may not exercise ministry there, including any ministry involving youth. Bishop O’Connell then contacted officials in the Archdiocese of Newark to inform them of developments concerning Father Fugee.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | May. 5, 2013

ROME The controversial Vatican decision last year to place the main representative group of U.S. Catholic sisters under the control of bishops was made without consultation or knowledge of the Vatican office that normally deals with matters of religious life, the office’s leader said Sunday.

That lack of discussion over whether to sharply criticize the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), said Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, caused him “much pain.”

“We have to change this way of doing things,” said Braz de Aviz, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Religious.

“We have to improve these relationships,” he continued, referring to the April 2012 order regarding LCWR from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — approved by Pope Benedict XVI — that ordered the U.S. sisters’ group to revise.

“Cardinals can’t be mistrustful of each other,” Braz de Aviz said. “This is not the way the church should function.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

Governors at a top Catholic school rocked by historic sex abuse claims have stepped down to shield themselves from legal action brought by almost 20 alleged victims.

Former headmaster John Byrne is among seven governors who have resigned from the board at St Bede’s College, the M.E.N. can reveal.

The Bishop of Salford, the Diocese of Salford and governors at the Whalley Range school all face being sued over accusations that former rector Monsignor Thomas Duggan sexually abused schoolboys at St Bede’s during the 1950s and 1960s.

The M.EN. has learnt that one alleged victim claims he was raped by the late Mgr Duggan as a 12-year-old. We can also reveal that accusations of serious sexual abuse have been made against two other priests at St Bede’s in the 1950s – Father Charles Mulholland and Father Vincent Hamilton – who have both also since died.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

Reuters | By Philip Pullella
Posted: 05/05/2013

(Reuters) – Pope Francis wants the Catholic Church to “act decisively” to root out sexual abuse of children by priests and ensure the perpetrators are punished, the Vatican said on Friday.

Francis, in a meeting with the Holy See’s doctrinal chief, Archbishop Gerhard Mueller, had declared that combating sexual abuse was important “for the Church and its credibility”, a statement said.

Francis inherited a Church mired in problems and a major scandal over priestly abuse of children. It was believed to be the first time he had taken up the issue of sex abuse with a senior member of his staff since his election on March 13.

Mueller is head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department which includes the office of the “promoter of justice”, or sex crimes prosecutor, which investigates cases of sexual abuse and decides if priests are to be defrocked.

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