ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
AlterNet

March 25, 2013

By Valerie Tarico

At age sixteen I began what would be a four year struggle with bulimia. When the symptoms started, I turned in desperation to adults who knew more than I did about how to stop shameful behavior—my Bible study leader and a visiting youth minister. “If you ask anything in faith, believing,” they said. “It will be done.” I knew they were quoting the Word of God. We prayed together, and I went home confident that God had heard my prayers. But my horrible compulsions didn’t go away. By the fall of my sophomore year in college, I was desperate and depressed enough that I made a suicide attempt. The problem wasn’t just the bulimia. I was convinced by then that I was a complete spiritual failure. My college counseling department had offered to get me real help (which they later did). But to my mind, at that point, such help couldn’t fix the core problem: I was a failure in the eyes of God. It would be years before I understood that my inability to heal bulimia through the mechanisms offered by biblical Christianity was not a function of my own spiritual deficiency but deficiencies in Evangelical religion itself.

Dr. Marlene Winell is a human development consultant in the San Francisco Area. She is also the daughter of Pentecostal missionaries. This combination has given her work an unusual focus. For the past twenty years she has counseled men and women in recovery from various forms of fundamentalist religion including the Assemblies of God denomination in which she was raised. Winell is the author of Leaving the Fold – A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving their Religion, written during her years of private practice in psychology. Over the years, Winell has provided assistance to clients whose religious experiences were even more damaging than mine. Some of them are people whose psychological symptoms weren’t just exacerbated by their religion, but actually caused by it.

Two years ago, Winell made waves by formally labeling what she calls “Religious Trauma Syndrome” (RTS) and beginning to write and speak on the subject for professional audiences. When the British Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Psychologists published a series of articles on the topic, members of a Christian counseling association protested what they called excessive attention to a “relatively niche topic.” One commenter said, “A religion, faith or book cannot be abuse but the people interpreting can make anything abusive.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

BY KATHY KANE

I have been called for jury duty a few times but have never made it past the waiting area. This time when the summons arrived, I started to think about the possible case. If it involved anything to do with child sex abuse, could I be an impartial juror?

In the Sandusky trial there was overwhelming evidence of guilt, but that is not always the case. Child sex abuse cases rarely have eyewitnesses, multiple victims taking the stand, and a trail of odd behavior and past police calls in reference to the perpetrator. I have read that most cases are hard to prosecute. In those instances, it must be hard to be a juror.

When you hear of a person being arrested for sexually abusing a child, do you automatically assume guilt? What if it’s a priest? Does the emotional response outweigh the understanding that the case needs to be proven in court and the defendant is assumed innocent until proven guilty?

If the victim testifying seems believable but the evidence is weak, could you vote to acquit? Does the juror have the added burden of feeling that if they acquit and are wrong, they just helped release a person back into society who could harm more children? Would the possibility of that make a juror more willing to vote guilty?

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

March 29, 2013

Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age.

Victoria’s Human Rights Commission will investigate a complaint by Zephaniah Waks, the father of Jewish abuse victim advocate Manny Waks, that he has been shunned by the Orthodox Jewish community in Melbourne because of his son’s anti-abuse campaign.

Mr Waks snr says that since the police began investigating child sexual abuse complaints around Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre nearly two years ago, he has suffered an escalating campaign of ”innuendo, lies, vilification, victimisation and discrimination”.

The case, which is shocking in a community that prefers to sort out disputes internally, names Yeshivah Centre spiritual head Zvi Telsner and its committee head Hershel Herbst as respondents.

Mr Waks said on Thursday he had tried to resolve issues internally and through Jewish courts, but the Yeshivah leadership refused, so he had gained permission under Jewish law to go to the secular courts from a leading American rabbi, Yosef Blau from Yeshiva University.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Brian Roewe | Mar. 28, 2013

As Cardinal Roger Mahony entered the Sistine Chapel in Rome March 12 to begin the process of electing the next pope, his name made headlines in his home diocese for other reasons.

The cardinal, the Los Angeles archdiocese and an ex-priest agreed to settlements in four clergy abuse-related cases, totaling $9.9 million. The settlements are the first since the late January court-ordered release of 12,000 pages of abuse-related documents, and Mahony’s ban from public and administrative duties in the archdiocese.

On the same day another case, at the northern end of the state, also made headlines when a visiting priest was arrested on suspicion of child abuse.

The former priest at the center of the Los Angeles settlements was Michael Baker, who was removed from the priesthood in 2000 and convicted in 2007 of molesting two children. He was paroled in 2011 after initially receiving a 10-year prison sentence.

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CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle

The news that confessed pedophile priest Patrick Joseph McCabe had been released early from an Irish prison shook Greg Horne, who said the priest abused him while he was a student at St. Bernard’s Catholic School Church in Eureka from 1983 to 1985.

“Take every human emotion you can have, put it in a blender and that’s how I feel,” said Horne, a 41-year-old juvenile corrections officer who lives in McKinleyville (Humboldt County).

A judge in Ireland released the 77-year-old McCabe over the weekend, three months before the end of a two-year sentence. He cited McCabe’s advanced age and his confession that he had assaulted two boys in Ireland in the 1970s. This was before he was sent to the U.S., where he worked at churches in Eureka, Guerneville and Sacramento.

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IRELAND
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

“Pope Francis continues to surprise us day after day. I spoke to a friend of mine working in the Vatican who is in close contact with the Pope and asked him how he would describe the atmosphere in the Vatican under Pope Francis and he summed it up saying: “surprises and more surprises and even more surprises to come” and my friend is one of those who is pleased with the surprises he is seeing.

We thank God for a Pope who has the interior freedom to surprise us. We thank God for a Pope who shows us that simplicity and humility are not signs of weakness and concession, but signs of strength and signs of a strength that comes from faith.

Pope Francis has given us some very significant signs and gestures about how he understands his role as Bishop of Rome and successor of Saint Peter. But they are not just signs about himself; they are signs about what the Church means. He does not want us just to look at these gestures on television and feel good about them and feel good that we have a new Pope like him. There are many who have no belief who will like the new Pope. There is not much good, however, in Christians feeling good about the new Pope if we do not make our own what he is saying and teaching and doing.

The first thing that this involves is allowing Jesus to surprise us and for us to find the courage to change. We are at a critical juncture in the history of the Catholic Church in this diocese and in our country. We are at critical juncture about the place of the Catholic Church in Irish society and in the future culture of Ireland. And we are at a critical juncture about the very place of faith and the very understanding of faith within the Catholic community.

We are at a critical juncture and the only valid answer is an answer of enthusiasm and optimism, of commitment and renewal in our own lives. We have to witness to others the sense of meaning and purpose that Jesus brings to our lives. If all we have to offer is a tired and discouraged faith, then we have to ask questions about the quality of our own faith

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IRELAND
Journal

ARCHBISHOP DIARMUID MARTIN has said, “we are at a critical juncture in the history of the Catholic Church in this diocese and in our country”.

He was speaking at the Chrism Mass this morning in St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral in Dublin.

The Archbishop also spoke about the amount of people losing faith and leaving the Catholic church:

“We are at critical juncture about the place of the Catholic Church in Irish society and in the future culture of Ireland. And we are at a critical juncture about the very place of faith and the very understanding of faith within the Catholic community.”

But he said “despite the difficulties of the Church in Ireland there are also so many signs of hope”.

Victims

He prayed for the “anguish” of victims of child clerical sex abuse following the sentencing of former priest of the Diocese, Patrick Mc Cabe, for abuse. Seventy-year-old McCabe was, who abused two boys over 30 years ago, was sentenced to 18 months in prison last week.

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CALIFORNIA
Santa Cruz Sentinel

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Staff Writer
montereyherald.com
Posted: 03/27/2013

A former Palma High School chaplain and teacher has admitted in sworn testimony that he sexually assaulted a Palma student.

In a videotaped deposition, the Rev. Gerald Funcheon claimed he molested just one student at Palma and that the boy was his last. The redacted video does not include the names of any of the priest’s alleged victims.

Five men have leveled claims that Funcheon molested them when they were students at the school during the Crosier priest’s tenure from 1984 to 1985.

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CALIFORNIA
Lodi News-Sentinel

By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

An immigration judge allowed a Catholic priest temporarily serving in Lodi to be released on bail Wednesday.

Father Julio Cesar Guarin-Sosa, 43, has been charged with a felony count of false imprisonment, and misdemeanor counts of annoying or molesting a minor and sexual battery involving a 16-year-old girl at a Mass conducted in a private home in Yuba City, according to the Appeal-Democrat newspaper, based in Marysville.

Jacquelyn Stenson, a deputy district attorney in Sutter County, refused to discuss specifics of the Sutter County charges. Guarin-Sosa’s attorney, Markus Dombois, has not returned several calls from the News-Sentinel since Guarin-Sosa was arrested.

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NEDERLAND
Nieuws

(Novum) – Wim Deetman is het niet eens met de kritiek op zijn rapport over misbruik van meisjes in de rooms-katholieke kerk. Dat bleek donderdag tijdens een gesprek dat hij had met de Tweede Kamer.

Het Vrouwenplatform Kerkelijk Kindermisbruik uitte eerder ‘ernstige bezwaren’ tegen het rapport. Zo herkennen vrouwen zich niet in de manier waarop hun geschiedenis in het rapport is beschreven. Ook ontbreekt een ‘ondubbelzinnige morele veroordeling’ van het fysieke en psychische geweld. Dat vindt het platform onacceptabel.

Deetman zei donderdag dat zijn commissie heeft voorgesteld om met een speciaal bemiddelingstraject te komen voor vrouwen die te maken hebben gehad met buitensporig geweld. “Dat is naar mijn oordeel ten principale de erkenning. Daar kan geen misverstand over zijn”, zei hij. “Dat is ook mijn antwoord naar diegenen die zeggen: wij herkennen ons er niet in.” Hij beklemtoonde dat geweld niet valt goed te praten.

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FLORIDA
Sun-Sentinel

A South Florida man is organizing a chapter of SNAP, or the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests.

The group will offer support to abuse survivors, said David Pittman, at meetings on the fourth Thursday of every month. SNAP is a nonprofit organization with no connection to the Catholic Church.

The initial meeting will be Thursday. For confidentiality purposes, Pittman is asking prospective members to call him at 754-234-7975 or email him at snappittman@ymail.com to learn where and when the meeting will be.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Randy Griffith rgriffith@tribdem.com

JOHNSTOWN — Supporters of suspended Bishop McCort High School principal Ken Salem have formally organized as they continue to push for more information about the shake-up.

Salem was placed on suspension March 1.

Although reasons for the suspension have not been made public, the school is conducting an internal investigation following accusations that the late Franciscan Brother Stephen Baker molested numerous students throughout the 1990s when he worked as an athletic trainer at McCort. Baker committed suicide on Jan. 26.

“This group of parents and alumni are very interested smoothing over the issues related to Brother Baker and in helping the faculty at the school and the students at the school get through this with as little impact on their education as possible,” said Rod Eckenrod, vice president of the newly incorporated Friends and Family of Bishop McCort High School.

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ROME
Chiesa

The handwritten notes of his remarks to the cardinals at the congregation of March 9. The intention of electing him pope was strengthened. The outcries against the “spiritual worldliness” that afflicts the Church

by Sandro Magister

ROME, March 27, 2013 – It is a widespread opinion, confirmed by numerous testimonies, that the intention of electing pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio grew substantially among the cardinals on the morning of Saturday, March 9, when the then-archbishop of Buenos Aires spoke at the second to last of the congregations – covered by secrecy – that preceded the conclave.

His words made an impression on many. Bergoglio spoke off the cuff. But we now have the account of those words of his, written by the hand of the author himself.

Bergoglio’s remarks in the preconclave were made public by the cardinal of Havana, Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, in the homily of the chrism Mass that he celebrated on Saturday, March 23 in the cathedral of the capital of Cuba, in the presence of the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Bruno Musarò, of the auxiliary bishops Alfredo Petit and Juan de Dios Hernandez, and of the clergy of the diocese.

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NEDERLAND
NOS

Audio De leider van de franciscanen in Nederland, pater Jan van den Eijnden, is niet blij met de manier waarop de Tweede Kamer zich bemoeit met de afhandeling van klachten over misbruik in de katholieke kerk. Vandaag hoort de Kamer Wim Deetman die de zaak onderzocht. Verslaggever Roel Pauw sprak met Van den Eijnden over het misbruik binnen zijn congregatie

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NEDERLAND
Katholiek Nieuwsblad

Beschuldigingen als zou de onderzoekscommissie Deetman belastende informatie over bepaalde bisschoppen hebben achtergehouden zijn ongefundeerd en feitelijk onjuist.

Dat concludeert de voormalige onderzoekscommissie in een 21 pagina’s tellende reactie op twee recente artikelen in NRC-Handelsblad. Daarin werd de beschuldiging geuit dat voorzitter Wim Deetman “belastende feiten” verbloemd zou hebben over de Rotterdamse oud-bisschop Ad van Luyn en diens Roermondse collega Frans Wiertz. Dat zou zijn gebeurd, suggereert het artikel van Joep Dohmen en Wereldomroepredacteur Robert Chesal, omdat Deetman en Van Luyn “elkaar goed kennen”.

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OREGON/NEBRASKA
The Oregonian

By Aimee Green, The Oregonian
on March 27, 2013

Thomas Laughlin — one of Oregon’s most notorious pedophile priests who admitted to molesting dozens of boys over decades in parishes throughout the state — has died after spending his last years living a quiet existence near family in Omaha, Neb.

Laughlin was known as an exceptionally charismatic priest and tremendous church fundraiser who hobnobbed with Portland’s Catholic business and political elite — someone many in the church thought could be bishop one day. But he also was the first priest molester to be criminally convicted in the Archdiocese of Portland.

At his 1983 sentencing hearing for sexually abusing two boys, the then-57-year-old priest pondered aloud a concern that he’d be remembered only as a child molester.

“I felt everything good I had done for 35 years would be forgotten, and I would be remembered only for the harm I had done to those I was sent to serve,” he said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Business Journal

Jeff Blumenthal
Reporter- Philadelphia Business Journal

Last week, I interviewed Marci Hamilton, a lawyer representing victims in the Sandusky and Philadelphia Archdiocese child abuse scandals, as part of our Inside the Reporters Notebook series. And it was a lively discussion where the audience included some knowledgeable people on child sexual abuse matters, including former Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham and Support Center for Child Advocates Executive Director Frank Cervone.

But the session was not a one-sided affair. In an exchange that can be viewed in full on the link above, an audience member questioned the “wisdom and constitutionality” of so-called window legislation that would lengthen Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations period for when alleged victims can file lawsuits against accused predators. He also asked Hamilton if she was benefitting financially from her work on the Sandusky and Archdiocese cases.

Hamilton’s pointed response explained what she says is a personal reason for her involvement. She is a professor at Cardozo School of Law and not a litigator by trade. But she said she was incensed on February 10, 2011, when a Philadelphia Grand Jury released a report following an investigation into allegations that two priests and a teacher sexually abused a 10-year-old boy at St. Jerome Parish in Philadelphia, and that another priest assigned to St. Jerome sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy.

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CALIFORNIA
New Times

A document dump reveals local aspects of the church’s sex abuse scandal

BY NICK POWELL

It is unfortunate that he has been guilty of improper actions on two or three occasions … but how many priests are there completely blameless over a period of 10 years?”

The above words were penned in 1980 by Juan Arzube, a now-deceased bishop in the Catholic Church’s Los Angeles Archdiocese, which governs parishes in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Los Angeles counties. Arzube wrote to Rome pleading that Father Willebaldo Castro be allowed to transfer home to Mexico and remain in the ministry following the latest allegation of the priest’s sexual deviancy.

That time, according to the letter, Castro had been arrested after approaching a security guard—presumably for sex—in a Pomona department store bathroom, but previous troubles include a vague “moral charge” from his early years in Mexico and the accusations of molestation of teenage boys in Los Angeles and Santa Maria—incidents that were described in his private clergy file and made public with the recent release of 12,000 pages detailing the church’s internal handling of 128 priests accused of abuse.

The release stems from a 2007 settlement of 508 lawsuits that blamed 194 priests and bishops in the L.A. Archdiocese for the sexual abuse of underage victims. The church agreed to pay $660 million, an average settlement of $1.3 million per victim, and a federal judge ordered that the files on accused clergy be made public, with privacy protections built in for victims. At first, members of church hierarchy were also to be protected, but another judge later ordered that their names be included as well. The files were collected, redacted, and finally made available on the L.A. Archdiocese website Jan. 31, 2013.

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CALIFORNIA
Monterey County Weekly

By Sara Rubin

Thursday, March 28, 2013

A Catholic priest removed from leading the Old Mission San Juan following allegations of sexual abuse is preparing to leave the priesthood for good. But he may walk away with enough money to live on for the rest of his life. 


Lawyers for Father Edward Fitz-Henry and the Diocese of Monterey are hashing out the terms of a settlement over a lawsuit Fitz-Henry filed, according to Tom Riordan, vicar for temporalities and administration at the diocese, and Fitz-Henry’s attorney, Daniel De Vries. 


The priest claims the diocese failed to protect him against a 2011 sexual-abuse lawsuit. In February 2011, a young man identified in court papers only as John RJ Doe alleged Fitz-Henry sexually abused him as a teen at Madonna del Sasso parish in Salinas. Fitz-Henry never admitted wrongdoing, and the diocese maintains that John Doe’s allegations were unfounded. 


Still, the diocese settled a case for $500,000 in exchange for John Doe dropping his lawsuit.


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UNITED KINGDOM
National Catholic Reporter

by Simon Caldwell, Catholic News Service | Mar. 27, 2013

Manchester, England —
Twenty-one Catholic members of Parliament have written to Pope Francis to ask him to relax the rule on priestly celibacy for Latin-rite priests.

The members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords said in a letter Monday to the pope that the rule should be changed to allow married men to be ordained priests where pastoral needs required it.

They suggested it was unfair to allow married former Anglican ministers to be ordained as Catholic priests in England, Wales and Scotland while the church insisted on the celibacy rule for Catholic candidates in those countries.

The letter did not suggest that serving priests should be given permission to marry, and the legislators proposed that the celibacy rule be retained for bishops, as in the Eastern Catholic churches, which allow priests to marry.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Kansas City Star

A judge announced Wednesday that he will sentence the Rev. Shawn Ratigan in September, more than a year after the Catholic priest pleaded guilty to producing child pornography.

Ratigan pleaded guilty in August to using five girls to produce or attempt to produce child pornography over several years while serving as pastor to congregations in the Northland and St. Joseph. Prosecutors have said they plan to seek a “virtual life sentence” when Ratigan is sentenced Sept. 12.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Ordained in 1939, Axer was a priest of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus who spent the bulk of his career as a professor at the University of Seattle. The Province notified the Seattle U. community in 2006 that Englebert had been accused of sexually abusing a boy in 1956 at a summer ministry program in northern California. Englebert died in 1989.

Ordained: 1939
Died: Sept. 1989

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CUBA
Inquirer (Philippines)

Associated Press
4:18 am | Thursday, March 28th

HAVANA—Pope Francis issued a strong critique of the Church before the College of Cardinals just hours before it selected him as the new Pontiff, according to comments published on Tuesday by a Roman Catholic magazine in Cuba.

According to Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio urged the Vatican to eschew self-absorption and refocus its energies outward.

“The Church is called on to emerge from itself and move toward the peripheries, not only geographic but also existential (ones): Those of sin, suffering, injustice, ignorance and religious abstention, thought and all misery,” Bergoglio said.

Ortega said Bergoglio’s comments were made to cardinals as they gathered to select Benedict XVI’s replacement, and reflect his vision of the contemporary Catholic Church. He said Bergoglio later gave him a handwritten version and permission to divulge its contents.

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CONNECTICUT
Yahoo! News

(Reuters) – A former Catholic priest from Connecticut arrested by federal authorities earlier this year on suspicion of dealing methamphetamine has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute the drug, according to court documents.

Kevin Wallin, 61, of Waterbury, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge on Tuesday, court documents showed, just before a scheduled appearance in U.S. District Court in Hartford. The conspiracy charge was one of seven charges that he faces.

If convicted, Wallin faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a fine of up to $10 million.

His lawyer and a spokesman for the Diocese of Bridgeport did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

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ISRAEL
YNet News

A prominent rabbi has been indicted for sexual offences against his daughters, all minors, which took place over the course of several years.

The indictment has been filed with the Jerusalem’s Magistrates’ Court, in which a long list of sexual offences within his family are listed, as well as breaches of privacy. He was remanded for an additional two days. (Aviel Magnezi)

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MISSOURI
KCUR

[with audio]

By Dan Verbeck

Independence police from a child exploitation task force hauled four computers out of St. Ann’s Catholic Church offices yesterday.

Examiners will be studying the hardware, looking for child pornography. There will now be changes made in internet distribution at parishes.

Detectives told a diocese executive that someone had accessed child porn on the morning of February 5th, and the IP address was traced back to the parish office.

Diocese Communications Director Jack Smith said police were joined by FBI agents in his presence as computers were collected.

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MISSOURI
Fox 4

[with video]

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Computers, computer equipment and unknown items in boxes were removed from the rectory office of St. Ann’s Catholic Church on Tuesday in Independence, Mo.

Federal investigators said on February 5, between 6:30 and 7:30 in the morning, there were two downloads of child pornography from peer-to-peer file sharing sites to an IP address registered at St. Ann’s church rectory, where the priest, Father Bernard Branson lives.

The church had an open Wifi system, which allows for the possibility that someone outside the parish used the ‘free’ Internet service to make the downloads. To determine if this is what happened, investigators seized four desktop computers and towers from inside the church rectory.

Carrie Cooper, who heads the diocese’s new Office of Child Protection said she’s waiting for results of a forensic exam of the church computers to determine who downloaded the child porn.

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MISSOURI
The Olathe News

By GLENN E. RICE
The Kansas City Star

Federal and state authorities today seized four computers from the office of St. Ann Parish in Independence.

Detectives told parish officials that they had detected two downloads of child pornography from peer-to-peer websites by an IP address associated with the parish office, said Jack Smith, spokesman for the Catholic Dioceses of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

The downloads occurred between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 5, Smith said he was told by detectives.

The office, at 10113 E. Lexington Ave., had an unsecure WiFi connection, Smith said, meaning the downloads could have been made by a computer in the parish office or nearby.

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MISSOURI
The Examiner

By Kelly Evenson – kelly.evenson@examiner.net
The Examiner

Posted Mar 27, 2013

Independence, MO —

Federal investigators and the Independence Police Department were at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in western Independence Tuesday after it was discovered that child pornography had been downloaded using the church’s IP address.

Carrie Cooper, director of the office of child protection with the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese, said that a search warrant was issued for computer equipment that was in the rectory. At St. Ann’s, 10113 E. Lexington Ave., the rectory is where the priest lives and houses the church offices. Two child pornography downloads from peer-to-peer file sharing sites were made between 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. Feb. 5. The downloads were traced back to an IP address that is registered to the rectory at St. Ann’s.

“We are fully cooperating with local law enforcement in this matter,” Cooper said. “We always make sure we fully cooperate with law enforcement in any matter relating to child sexual abuse.”

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MISSOURI
Raw Story

By David Edwards
Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Federal and state authorities on Tuesday raided a Catholic parish in Independence, Missouri as part of an investigation into child pornography.

A spokesperson for the Catholic Dioceses of Kansas City-St. Joseph said that investigators tracked down child porn downloads to an IP address used by an unsecured wireless network at the offices of St. Ann Parish in Independence, according to The Kansas City Star.

Four computers seized in the raid will be analyzed to determine if they were used to download the illegal material from a peer-to-peer network. It is possible, however, that outside computers accessed the wireless network because it was not password protected.

“The church does not tolerate child sexual abuse or child abuse or child pornography of any kind,” Diocese Director of the Office of Child Protection Carrie Cooper told KSHB. “And we will work fully — cooperate fully with law enforcement until this matter is resolved.”

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MISSISSIPPI
Clarion-Ledger

A 71 year-old Mississippi pastor has been indicted on child sex charges and is being held on $1 million bond, according to media reports.

A Tate County grand jury indicted Larry Singleton on 18 felony counts. Singleton, former minister of Bay Springs Baptist Church, is accused of abusing a boy who is now 18.

Singleton was arrested in December after the Tate County Sheriff’s Department received a complaint from the victim. Investigators say the sexual abuse started when the victim was 11 and continued for several years.

Singleton is charged with fondling, sexual battery and child pornography.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Thueringer Allgemeine

Erfurt. Das Bistum Erfurt hat einem Medienbericht zufolge bislang 29.000 Euro Entschädigung an Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs gezahlt. Die sieben Betroffenen hätten Beträge zwischen 1000 und 5000 Euro erhalten, wie ein Sprecher des Bistums laut dem Sender MDR Thüringen vom Mittwoch sagte. Soweit möglich würden die Täter an den Zahlungen beteiligt.

Wie es weiter hieß, sind seit 2011 zwölf Anträge auf finanzielle Entschädigungen eingegangen. Während drei Fälle noch nicht abschließend geklärt seien, habe das zuständige Gremium zwei Anträge abgelehnt, da das Opfer nicht durch einen Mitarbeiter der katholischen Kirche missbraucht worden sei oder aber keine Straftat nachgewiesen werden konnte.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by Arthur Jones | Mar. 27, 2013

Analysis
If Pope Francis is serious about reforming the Roman Curia, God bless him. Further, if he undertakes that reform with the poor in mind, the first question is not where might he begin, but how long has he got?

Of our nine popes since 1913, only Pius XII, John Paul II and Benedict XVI have made it to 82 or beyond. So the question about a 76-year-old pontiff isn’t as impertinent as it first may seem.

Francis lives simply, walks quickly and walks a lot. Can we assume (to achieve Pius XII’s 82 years) the new pope has six vigorous years to work with?

If so, six years takes the story to 2019. By 2019 Francis will be able to appoint about 40 percent of the College of Cardinals, approximately 50 of the 120.

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WASHINGTON
KIMA

YAKIMA, Wash — A new lawsuit has been filed against the Yakima Diocese. It alleges child sex abuse by former priests.

The suit claims the abuse happened to a woman back in the 1970s. She was a parishioner between 8 and 12-years-old at the time.

The lawsuit claims the Diocese should have known about the danger before letting the priests into the church.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald Republic

By Jane Gargas
Yakima Herald-Republic

YAKIMA, Wash. — A woman has started a lawsuit in Superior Court here against the Catholic Diocese of Yakima, alleging that she was sexually abused by three Jesuit priests during the 1970s.

Michelle Duerre, who lives in King County, asked that her name be made public in her suit against the diocese. Now 44, Duerre alleges that the Revs. Frank Duffy, John Morse and James Poole abused her when she was between the ages of 8 and12 and a student at St. Joseph/Marquette School.

She says in court documents that Morse and Duffy abused her at the school and in the church rectory and that Poole abused her at the St. Peter the Apostle retreat house in Cowiche.

Monsignor Robert Siler, diocese chief of staff, said that Duerre had not previously contacted the diocese about the alleged abuse. “We’re sorry for any abuse this woman may have suffered,” Siler said.

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TEXAS
Daily Sentinel

By Paul Bryant pbryant@dailysentinel.com | Posted: Tuesday, March 26, 2013

A fourth plaintiff has joined a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic diocese of Beaumont alleging sexual abuse by a Sacred Heart Parish priest in Nacogdoches more than 30 years ago.

“All four of the plaintiffs have claimed that defendants used deception to conceal Father (Ronald W. Bollich’s) past crimes as well as those of other predatory Beaumont priests or former priests, such as Ernest Dale Calhoun, Frank Paduch, August Pucar, Roger Thibodeaux … and to conceal its own failure to properly assign, supervise, investigate, report and remove Father Bollich for his injurious criminal sexual misconduct,” stated attorney Tahira Khann Merritt in a press release.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

A former choirmaster at Manchester’s world-famous Chetham’s School of Music was today behind bars for a campaign of sex assaults – but still denying his guilt.

Predatory sex offender Michael Brewer, the school’s ex-director of music, has been jailed for six years for a campaign of abuse against tragic former pupil Frances Andrade.

Acclaimed violinist Mrs Andrade is understood to have committed suicide after being branded a ‘fantasist’ and ‘liar’ during his trial. The jury, however, convicted Brewer of five counts of indecent assault.

Computer records showed Mrs Andrade, 48, who was found dead at home in Surrey a week after testifying against Brewer, had researched details of the trial on Google before her body was found.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Bronislaus B. Kush TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
bkush@telegram.com

WORCESTER — Shortly after the Rev. Lowe B. Dongor was arraigned on possession of child pornography charges in 2011, Bishop Robert J. McManus asked the Vatican to defrock the diocese’s first Filipino priest.

Chancery officials said the bishop has always maintained a zero-tolerance policy when it came to clergy charged with sexual improprieties but added they were surprised that the Worcester prelate would move so quickly to strip Rev. Dongor of the priesthood.

“There was no question that the bishop would seek to have Dongor laicized,” explained one chancery official. “But the feeling was that he’d wait until the matter wound itself through the local court system. Obviously, the bishop wanted Rev. Dongor removed from the priesthood as quickly as possible.”

Local church officials, pointing to Bishop McManus’ action regarding Rev. Dongor, insist they are doing everything they can to protect kids and added that the diocese has fully embraced the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. …

“For the most part, the audits are superficial,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a watchdog group. “The auditors have to assume that the information they are reviewing is factual.”

She said oversight is difficult because auditors physically visit a diocese once every three years. During the other two years, they are dependent on the reports sent to them.

Victim advocates also note that many bishops ignore the purpose of the charter and continue to cover up improprieties.

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MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

[with video]

By Patricia Montemurri
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

A longtime Michigan resident said Tuesday that he confronted an official at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s high school in 1985 about his son’s alleged sexual abuse by Brother Stephen Baker, a Franciscan friar who killed himself in January after abuse incidents became public at Ohio and Pennsylvania schools.

In March 1985, the father said he confronted Baker and a St. Mary’s administrator. The father said he demanded that Baker be terminated immediately.

“You are a sick man, and this is your last day at the school,” the man said he told Baker. “I’ll see to it.”

The father spoke at a Romulus news conference Tuesday arranged by a victims advocacy group, Road to Recovery of New Jersey, and attorney Mitchell Garabedian.

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UGANDA
AllAfrica

The Observer (Kampala)

By Alon Mwesigwa, 26 March 2013

For 92-year-old John Baptist Lubowa, hearing his former parish priest, Fr Anthony Musaala, call for a review of the vows on celibacy, was shocking.

“When I heard the news, I first doubted it,” says Lubowa in a soft tone, “You see, he lied to Jesus, to God, to us [the Christians], that he was devoted and we trusted him”.

Lubowa says Fr Musaala’s assertions were satanic.

“I think it was Satan that came into his head; now what can we say?” wonders Mzee Lubowa.

Lubowa is among hundreds of Busega parishioners, still angry with their former priest’s letter, which lifted the lid on goings-on in the Catholic Church. On March 12 as Pope Francis was being inaugurated, Father Musaala wrote an open letter to the Catholics, among which he raised the issue of celibacy among Catholic priests as a myth.

He concluded calling for action against priests who have abused children and those gone against their vow of chastity. Musaala has since been suspended from the church service.

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ARGENTINA
Reuters

By Paulo Prada and Helen Popper

BUENOS AIRES | Wed Mar 27, 2013

(Reuters) – When Jorge Bergoglio finished studying chemistry at high school his mother asked him what he would study next.

“Medicine,” replied the skinny 19-year-old, according to his younger sister, Maria Elena.

Bergoglio’s mother cleared a storage room in the family’s working-class Buenos Aires home for him to use as a study. Every day, after his morning job in a lab, he would arrive home and disappear into the room.

One morning, though, his mother got a surprise. In the room, she found not anatomy or medicine texts but books on theology and Catholicism. Perturbed at his change of course, she confronted her eldest son.

“What is this?” she asked.

Bergoglio responded calmly: “It’s medicine for the soul.”

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By EDMUND H. MAHONY, emahony@courant.com
The Hartford Courant

BRIDGEPORT ——

A suspended Catholic priest from Bridgeport suspected of trying to launder thousands of dollars a week in drug money through an X-rated sexual novelty store has indicated he will plead guilty next week to participating in a bi-coastal methamphetamine distribution ring.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin, 61, faces a sentence of 10 years to life in prison if he follows through with his plan to changes his plea to guilty on a single charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute the powerful stimulate methamphetamine.

Wallin’s federal public defender filed notice in federal court Tuesday of the change of plea and a hearing has been scheduled for April 2, at noon, in Hartford. Neither Wallin, who is being held without bond, nor his lawyer could be reached Tuesday.

The indictment of Wallin on narcotics charges in January stunned the Diocese of Bridgeport, where he formerly served in positions that included personal secretary to successive bishops, including Edward Egan, later appointed a cardinal.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Michael P. Mayko

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

HARTFORD — For 15 years, Kevin Wallin heard confessions as a Roman Catholic monsignor and pastor, first at St. Peter Church in Danbury, then at St. Augustine’s Cathedral in Bridgeport.

On April 2, Wallin is expected to make his own confession before Senior U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello and plead guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute the highly addictive crystal methamphetamine in Connecticut, according to court documents.

“Monsignor Wallin’s guilty plea will represent an important step in his coming to terms with his own actions and their impact on others,” said Brian Wallace, a spokesman for the Bridgeport Diocese.

“It is a difficult moment for all of us, but we hope it is also the first step in rebuilding his life. We pray that he moves toward healing and wholeness.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Ralph Riegel– 27 March 2013

THE elderly cleric at the centre of the Cloyne Report into child-abuse allegations is appealing his dismissal from the priesthood to Pope Francis and a top Vatican court.

The priest, known only by the pseudonyms ‘Fr Ronat’ and ‘Fr B’, faces being defrocked after a church canonical court upheld abuse allegations lodged against him by former minors in the diocese of Cloyne.

A relative of the cleric, speaking to the Irish Independent, confirmed that an appeal has been lodged within the stipulated 15-day period.

“We are very disappointed with the negative outcome. But there will be an appeal, particularly in respect of the fact we believe that a full defence against the allegations was not properly taken into account,” he said.

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NEDERLAND
Dagblad De Limburger

Wim Deetman wordt opgeroepen voor een getuigenverhoor over het misbruik en de mishandeling van een jongen in huize Sint Joseph in Cadier en Keer in de jaren 60. De rechtbank in Breda heeft dat woensdag bepaald.

ANP

Het slachtoffer kreeg vanwege het seksueel misbruik een schadevergoeding van 25.000 euro toegekend door de compensatiecommissie van de kerk. Maar omdat hij ook een vergoeding wil voor het fysieke geweld, heeft de man uit Coevorden (nu 59 jaar) de priestercongregatie voor de rechter gesleept. Voor zover bekend is het voor het eerst dat een misbruikslachtoffer een rechtszaak begint over mishandeling.

Deetman kan bijdragen aan het bewijs voor de lichamelijke mishandeling, omdat hij in zijn onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik in de kerk ook bij Sint Joseph in het archief heeft gekeken en gesproken heeft met slachtoffers en daders. Ook de provinciaal overste van de congregatie, een priester en twee medeleerlingen zijn opgeroepen voor het getuigenverhoor.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A church organist and choirmaster who is accused of historical child sex abuse was convicted years earlier of abusing a boy, a court has heard.

Michael Mytton, 68, from East Chiltington, East Sussex, has denied aiding and abetting indecent assault.

In 1981 Mr Mytton was forced to leave his position at a church in Uckfield after being convicted of two counts of gross indecency on a 12-year-old boy.

The jury at Hove Crown Court heard he had admitted he liked boys.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese says a purpose-built one-stop-shop for all its community services will bolster support for people who have been sexually abused by clergy.

The Church’s welfare arm, CatholicCare Social Services, and its child protection unit, Zimmerman Services, have moved into the retrofitted Sport and Recreation Club at Mayfield.

Co-ordinator of healing and support, Maureen O’Hearn, says there will be increased synergies between the counselling programs and advocacy.

She says the move comes at a crucial time as the nation prepares for the Royal Commission into abuse within institutions.

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CALIFORNIA
The Press Democrat

By PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

A former North Coast priest who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing children in his native Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s has been released from an Irish jail.

Patrick Joseph McCabe, 77, was freed over the weekend by a Dublin judge based on his age, statements of contrition and the fact that he had already served 21 months of a two-year sentence.

Men who claimed they were molested by McCabe when he served at St. Bernard Parish in Eureka from 1983 to 1985 said Tuesday they were disappointed he didn’t receive a more serious punishment.

Greg Horne, 40, of McKinleyville, said the judge missed a chance to send a strong message that church abuse won’t be tolerated.

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MISSISSIPPI
Clarion-Ledger

A Jackson pastor accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old is facing a civil lawsuit filed by his accuser.

Allegations surfaced in October 2012 that the Rev. Danny Ray Hollins, pastor of Greater Fairview Missionary Baptist Church, lured and coerced the girl to have sex with him during a summer 2012 church convention. Hollins reportedly stepped down as pastor then but is listed now on the church’s website as the pastor, including a gospel message he authored on the website’s home page.

Jackson police officers investigated the allegations, but Hollins was not charged. However, the Hinds County District Attorney’s office also has investigated, and that office will present their findings to a Hinds County grand jury, said assistant district attorney Jamie McBride.

“It’s not unusual to bring a case directly to the grand jury and for us to investigate it,” McBride said. Legal stipulations prevent his office from saying when a grand jury will convene.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Steve Marroni | smarroni@pennlive.com
on March 26, 2013

CARLISLE — The former Bible Baptist School music teacher pleaded guilty in Cumberland County court Tuesday to a host of charges filed against him for sexually abusing children at the school.

William C. Jackson, 58, of New Cumberland, pleaded guilty to seven counts of corruption of minors, three counts of institutional sexual assault, and one count of indecent assault.

Jackson was charged in September, after a 17-year-old boy told police that Jackson had fondled him, court documents state.

But as police conducted the investigation, Senior Assistant District Attorney Christin Mehrtens-Carlin said the total number of victims increased to seven, coming from six different families.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Sentinel

Former Bible Baptist School music minister William Jackson Tuesday pleaded guilty in court to the sexual abuse of seven students.

Jackson did not say anything during the guilty plea, and the families of the victims declined to comment.

Jackson was scheduled to make the plea last week, but it was rescheduled so families could be present.

He will undergo evaluation on whether or not he will be deemed a sexually violent predator, and he will be sentenced in July.

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CONNECTICUT
The Republic

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN Associated Press
March 26, 2013

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — A court filing shows a suspended Roman Catholic priest in Connecticut accused of taking in more than $300,000 from sales of methamphetamines plans to plead guilty to one of the charges against him.

Kevin Wallin is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Hartford next week for a hearing in which he would plead guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Tuesday’s filing was obtained by The Associated Press.

A message left with his attorney was not immediately returned.

Authorities say the 61-year-old Wallin had methamphetamine mailed to him from co-conspirators in California and made more than $300,000 in drugs sales out of his apartment in Waterbury last year.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Beth Brogan, BDN Staff

Posted March 26, 2013

An Episcopal priest from Augusta pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to misdemeanor possession of Suboxone and will serve 45 days in jail followed by one year of probation.

The Rev. Stephen Foote, 70, of Bremen, was sentenced to 364 days of incarceration, with all but 45 days suspended, and one year of probation, in an agreement with the office of the Maine Attorney General, according to Bill Stokes, deputy attorney general and chief of the office’s criminal division.

“We don’t see priests smuggling drugs into jails — that’s pretty uncommon,” Stokes said Tuesday. “And we understand Rev. Foote has no prior criminal record, but we really insisted that he do some jail time because we were more concerned that we send the message that you’re going to do jail time if you do this, even if you’re a priest.”

Stokes said Tuesday that the attorney general’s office agreed to the plea on the condition that the sentence include “a significant amount of community service” to include Foote spending time “talking about the error of his ways.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The U.S. Catholic Church hopes for a positive solution to the controversy

Maria Teresa Pontara Pederiva
Rome

The recurring theme of Bergoglio’s papacy, mercy, has not just sparked hope among the laity, but also within the Church, of this subject being given a greater focus. The list is long: from remarried divorcees – one of the Pope’s sisters falls into this category – to gays (who are eagerly waiting for the civil unions which Bergoglio declared himself in favour of in Buenos Aires), from theologians who were “reproached” to “rebel” priests, to the women religious of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) whom the Vatican placed under the administration of an external commissioner last year.
The organisation was accused of devoting too much time to social justice and assistance to the poor (particularly women and children), to the detriment of the promotion of a pro-life culture, intended as a fight against abortion and euthanasia. According to the LCWR, this was too limiting. Pope Francis’ arrival, which promises a “poor Church for the poor”, gives us reason to hope for a downscaling of the disciplinary clash.

What really could make the difference is Pope Francis’ Jesuit background. Two women religious believe that the fact Bergoglio comes from a religious order is important. Sister Nancy Sylvester of the Sisters of the Immaculate heart of Mary in Monroe, Michigan, feels encouraged by the emphasis Bergoglio has placed on the poor: “I am really trying to be hopeful,” she said, adding that were signs in Francis’ public comments as Pope and his track record “that he would be much more sympathetic to women religious.” Sister Simone Campbell who is known for her speech at the last Democratic Convention, said that the world is thirsty for a real spiritual leader and that she hoped the new Pope would be precisely this and not get caught up in internal politics. Referring explicitly to Italian methods, she added that the LCWR issue is all to do with internal politics and nothing to do with faith.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Tom Roberts | Mar. 26, 2013

Within days of the election of Pope Francis, stories began to surface about his conduct as the former Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, head of the Jesuit order in Argentina during that country’s “Dirty War,” as well as his handling of the sex abuse crisis later as head of the Buenos Aires archdiocese.

The stories revisit two of the most difficult crises that have confronted the modern church — the role of its leaders in countries split by violent dictatorships and in dealing with clerics accused of sexual crimes against children. In both instances involving Bergoglio, the reporting has included liberal use of such terms as “cloudy” and “murky.”

Bergoglio was appointed Jesuit provincial when he was 37, a position he held from 1973-79, a time of civil and religious turmoil. Religious orders were losing members at a significant rate at the time; additionally, in many countries in Latin America, orders were torn between their traditional ministries and a new sense of obligation to marginalized and oppressed.

The period during which Bergoglio headed the order in Argentina coincided with the rule of a vicious military junta that killed as many as 30,000 in what was billed as a fight against communism and was officially called the Process of National Reorganization. The purge of “enemies” of the regime, which included thousands who resisted the dictatorship, was carried out in some instances with the cooperation of religious authorities.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by Cindy Wooden,Catholic News Service | Mar. 26, 2013

Vatican City —
Pope Francis has decided not to move into the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace, but to live in a suite in the Vatican guesthouse where he has been since the beginning of the conclave that elected him, said Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.

“He is experimenting with this type of living arrangement, which is simple,” but allows him “to live in community with others,” both the permanent residents — priests and bishops who work at the Vatican — as well as guests coming to the Vatican for meetings and conferences, Lombardi said Tuesday.

The spokesman said Pope Francis has moved out of the room he drew by lot before the conclave and into Suite 201, a room that has slightly more elegant furnishings and a larger living room where he can receive guests.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Osthessen News

26.03.13 – FULDA – „Wer aber einem von diesen Kleinen, die an mich glauben, Ärgernis gibt, dem wäre es besser, wenn ihm ein Mühlstein an den Hals gehängt und er in die Tiefe des Meeres versenkt würde.” Dieses Bibelzitat aus dem Matthäusevangelium ist in Stein gemeiselt – in einen, über den man in den nächsten Wochen in Fulda stolpern soll – und zwar gedanklich. Denn seit heute Vormittag liegt der 1,40 m hohe „Mahnende Mühlstein” vor der alten Stadtwache gegenüber dem Stadtschloss in Fulda. Schon seit 2008 reist der Koloss quer durch Deutschland, um ein Zeichen gegen Gewalt an Kindern zu setzen und Erwachsene an ihre große Verantwortung gegenüber Heranwachsenden zu erinnern.

Der Stein ist ein Projekt der Initiative gegen Gewalt und sexuellen Missbrauch an Kindern und Jugendlichen e.V. und wurde 2007 vom Diplompädagoge und Initiativenvorsitzendem Johannes Heibel initiiert. Nachdem sich in Regensburg ein Priester wiederholt sexuell an Kindern vergriffen hatte, wollte er auf die Ohnmacht der Opfer aufmerksam machen und beauftragte zwei Bildhauer mit der Arbeit am Stein. Auch Oberbürgermeister Gerhard Möller und Weihbischof Dr. Karlheinz Dietz waren am Vormittag dabei, als der Stein durch die Steinmetzwerkstatt Hartmann & Sohn aus Künzell-Bachrain auf dem Bürgersteig abgelegt wurde.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Tageblatt

Oldenburg/Nordenham (dpa/lni) – Ein ehemaliger Kirchenmusiker muss sich wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern ab kommender Woche vor dem Landgericht Oldenburg verantworten. Der 47-Jährige soll sich von Anfang 2011 bis März 2012 in 23 Fällen an mehreren Kindern vergangen haben. Der frühere ehrenamtliche Mitarbeiter der evangelischen Kirche in Nordenham habe die Vorwürfe gestanden, sagte ein Gerichtssprecher am Dienstag.

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POLEN
Markifche Oderzeitung

Warschau/Kolobrzeg (dpa) Erstmals in Polen will ein Missbrauchsopfer eines katholischen Priesters eine Entschädigung von der Kirche einklagen. Ein heute 25 Jahre alter Mann, der als Zwölfjähriger im nordwestpolnischen Kolobrzeg von einem Priester sexuell missbraucht wurde, will vom Bistum 100 000 Zloty (25 000 Euro) Entschädigung für die erlittenen seelischen Schäden verlangen. “Mein Leben wurde zerstört” sagte er dem Rundfunksender TOK FM. “Ich bin entschlossen, zu kämpfen.”

Der Priester, der ihn vor mehr als zehn Jahren missbrauchte, wurde in zwei Instanzen zu zwei Jahren Haft verurteilt. Der 25-jährige ist überzeugt, dass die Vorgesetzten des Pfarrers, der auch noch andere Jungen missbrauchte, die pädophilen Neigungen des Priesters kannten, aber nichts unternahmen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Explizit

Seitdem Ende Januar 2010 Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch am Canisius-Kolleg in Berlin bekannt wurden, lässt die Debatte über dieses Thema die Öffentlichkeit nicht mehr los. Im Dezember 2012 veröffentliche die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz eine forensisch-psychiatrische Studie zur Analyse der sexuellen Übergriffe durch katholische Geistliche in Deutschland und zuletzt berichteten die Medien Anfang März über die Veröffentlichung der Missbrauchsstudie des Klosters Ettal. Bei all diesen Studien, so könnte man den Eindruck haben, gehe es nur darum, wie in Zukunft Übergriffe verhindert werden können. Eigentlich sind die Kirche, die Sportverbände und andere Einrichtungen aber auch dazu verpflichtet, den Opfern zu helfen. Von keiner der Institutionen ist zu erfahren, was wirkliche Hilfe für Opfer von sexuellem Missbrauch wäre und ob sie entschieden genug umgesetzt werde. Über diese Problematik sprach explizit.net mit Veit Schiemann vom „WEISSEN RING“, einer bundesweit agierenden Hilfsorganisation für Kriminalitätsopfer und ihre Familien.

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DEUTSCHLAND
WDR

Sprecher:
Benedicamus Domino

Sprecherin:
Deo gratias!

Sprecher:
Es ist 6.15: Wecken in einem katholischen Internat, Ende der 1960er/Anfang der 1970er
Jahre.

O-Ton 1: Winfried Ponsens
Das war meine Kindheit. Diese Vorstellung, in der Kirche ist alles gut. Und
wenn du glaubst, wird alles gut.

Sprecher:
6.45 Uhr: Werktags: Heilige Messe.
O-Ton 2: Winfried Ponsens
Ich war schon naiv in diesem Kinderglauben und habe natürlich irgendwie
gehofft, ich würde der Welt auch das große Heil bringen können, indem ich
Missionar in Indonesien werde.
Erzählerin:

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DEUTSCHLAND
WDR 5

Die Opfer sexualisierter Gewalt und ihr Verhältnis zu Kirche und Glauben

Sexuell missbraucht worden zu sein – das bedeutet für die Opfer Depressionen, Suizidversuche, Aufenthalte in psychiatrischen Kliniken und teure Psychotherapie. Opfer sexueller Gewalt eines Geistlichen zu sein, das bedeutet darüber hinaus auch, spirituell und religiös orientierungslos zu werden. Die Zöglinge in katholischen Internaten kamen aus sehr religiösen Familien und hatten vielfach selbst den Wunsch, Priester zu werden. Ihre Missbraucher hatten sich als von Gott Berufene bezeichnet. Doch sie prügelten, demütigten und zerstörten das Selbstbewusstsein ihrer Opfer, erwarteten gleichzeitig, dass diese ihren Missbrauch als Form der Zuwendung und Liebe empfinden sollten

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

March 27, 2013

Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age.

Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church gets covered up through a system of blackmail and ”sacred silence”, according to the founder of the Broken Rites advocacy group, Chris Wilding.

She said sexual activity by priests and bishops set up a pattern of institutional secrecy and a system of blackmail that reached the highest corridors of the Vatican.

Ms Wilding told the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled sex abuse that celibacy was a myth, and that when a priest was promoted his sexual partners could also advance.

”It is this system of blackmail that is central to the response of bishops, locally and around the world, relocating paedophile priests. If the bishop is compromised because he is known to be sexually active, the predatory cleric resorts to blackmail,” she said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A former choirmaster at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester has been jailed for indecently assaulting a former pupil from the age of 14.

Michael Brewer from Birmingham was convicted of sexually abusing Frances Andrade, who killed herself during the trial, between 1978 and 1982.

Brewer, 68, was sentenced to six years imprisonment at Manchester Crown Court.

His ex-wife Hilary Brewer, also 68, was sentenced to 21 months for indecently assaulting Mrs Andrade.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A choirmaster who sexually abused a pupil who went on to take her own life during his trial has been jailed for six years.

Michael Brewer, 68, of Swarthmore Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham, was convicted last month of indecently assaulting 48-year-old Frances Andrade when she was an underage student at the prestigious Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester.

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INDONESIA
The Jakarta Post

Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post

The city administration will cooperate with a number of institutions to set up child protection task forces (Satgas PA) in neighborhood and community units to curb the rising number of child abuse cases.

Among the child right defenders are government-sanctioned body Indonesian Commission on Child Protection (KPAI) and the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak).

Komnas Anak chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait said that the Jakarta administration was the first province to respond to the call to set up a child protection system in subdistricts. He said he had spoken with Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo about the children protection system pilot project.

“We will launch a pilot project in three subdistricts in the coming weeks. The subdistricts are Kampung Tengah in Kramat Jati, Ciracas and Cakung, all in East Jakarta,” he told The Jakarta Post.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

The recent history of Church resignations in Ireland may help to explain the departure of Pope Francis’ predecessor, says Patrick McCafferty

26 March 2013

The inauguration of Pope Francis brought a refreshing air of optimism to a Catholic Church that lay moribund in recent decades.

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI should, perhaps, be credited with remarkable prescience: his resignation now seems like a remarkable act of sacrifice by a selfless pope in the best interests of the Church.

And yet, there is something not quite right about this picture of Benedict.

His resignation was not just a break with papal tradition; it is at odds with everything that he practised. Benedict was remarkably unwilling to allow anyone to resign – even when that would have been for the good of the Church.

One could almost feel sorry for Cardinal Sean Brady in Armagh. Almost three years ago, when revelations in relation to preventing further children being abused were questioned, he asked to retire.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The A.I.R. Network

by Greg Banks on March 25th, 2013

Monsignor Anthony Little, pastor at St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Newry, Blair County has become the latest area priest to be accused of molesting an area boy in the 1990s. The allegations against Little surfaced last week when the Bishop,The Most Rev. Mark L. Bartchak notified Blair County District Attorney Rich Consiglio of the accusations against the area priest. The Altoona Johnstown Diocese in press statements has released that no further action has been taken against Little, while the Blair County DA has yet to make a statement. Diocese officials have however stated that Little has been sent to an unknown location where he has no access to children while the investigation continues.

Monday morning Steve Austin spoke with Judy Block Jones of the The Survivor’s Ntework of Those Abused By Priest or SNAP to get her reaction to the recent allegations that have risen in the region including Brother Steve Baker who was accused of molesting children at Bishop McCort High School in the 90s along with the latest allegations against Monsignor Anthony Little.

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CHILE
Lamula

Tomado de la revista Velaverde.- Columna El ojo de Mordor, por Pedro Salinas.- A ver si logro que me lean con atención. James Hamilton Sánchez tiene casi cincuenta años, es chileno y cirujano gástrico. Quienes le conocen, comentan que jamás se desprende de su notebook que suele llevar en una pequeña mochila roja. Y siempre está atento a su blackberry. Pero sin duda uno de los rasgos más saltantes de su biografía es su condición de víctima sexual (siendo menor de edad) del sacerdote Fernando Karadima, un líder religioso de la Pía Unión del Sagrado Corazón, que es una suerte de red religiosa a la que adhieren medio centenar de curas y cinco obispos, y opera desde la iglesia El Bosque, en la comuna de Providencia, en Santiago.

La Pía Unión es un movimiento conservador, como los Legionarios de Cristo o el Opus Dei o el Sodalicio, por citar apenas tres ejemplos, porque hay más. Y Karadima, con fama de orador persuasivo y predicador de una moral rígida, era su jefe máximo, al que sus seguidores le daban trato de “santo” y lo presentaban como discípulo del jesuita Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, quien, como sabrán algunos, es el segundo santo chileno, canonizado por el papa Benedicto XVI en el 2005.

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IRELAND
Journal

ONE OF THE groups representing survivors of the Magdalene Laundries has published a guide to help the women navigate their way through the Magdalene Commission.

Justice For Magdalenes (JFM) prepared the guide for the survivors ahead of a report by a former High Court judge into how the State can best provide redress and support for the women.

Survivors have been asked to register the fact that they were in one of the laundries before the decision is made on exactly how the fund for survivors will operate.

JFM said the guide to intended as an aid to survivors to create a checklist of their current needs and to help them to prepare to engage with the official process.

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MONTANA
Independent Record

Judge declines to hear insurance companies’ complaints about defending Helena diocese in sex abuse scandal

By EVE BYRON Independent Record

A federal judge in Helena has refused to hear a case brought by three insurance companies against the Helena Diocese, saying the matter already is being handled in Lewis and Clark District Court.

Three Travelers Insurance Companies – Travelers Casualty and Surety Company, United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, and St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company — filed the federal court lawsuit last year, arguing that they weren’t obligated to defend the Bishop in pending state litigation because they weren’t given timely notice of alleged sex abuse by priests and nuns.

The insurance companies also wanted to add a claim based on the recent discovery of a 1994 settlement agreement that allegedly released St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company from any obligation to indemnify the Diocese for future sexual abuse claims and allegedly promised that the Diocese would pay the costs of any future claims.

But Senior U.S. District Court Judge Charles Lovell wrote in a ruling released late Friday that the latter claim would first require determinations of state law, which can be raised in the state proceedings, and that venue also is the proper place for the entire lawsuit — at this point.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM

[with audio]

A former student at Melbourne’s prestigious Xavier College wants the State and Federal Governments to sue the Catholic Church for 6 billion dollars to pay victims for ongoing counseling and support. Speaking at Victoria’s Parliamentary Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Chris Whelan said a high profile Jesuit teacher at Xavier College sexually abused young boys repeatedly more than 30 years ago.

Transcript

TONY EASTLEY: A former student at Melbourne’s prestigious Xavier College wants the State and Federal Governments to sue the Catholic Church for six billion dollars and use the money to pay for counselling and support of sexual abuse victims.

Speaking at Victoria’s Parliamentary Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Chris Whelan said a high profile Jesuit teacher at Xavier College sexually abused young boys repeatedly more than 30 years ago.

It’s only the second time someone has spoken publicly about sexual abuse by Jesuits in Australia.

Alison Caldwell reports.

ALISON CALDWELL: Xavier College in Kew in Melbourne’s East has been described as the city’s best connected school and counts among its alumni former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer, Federal Minister Bill Shorten and the current Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

PIA AKERMAN
From:The Australian
March 26, 2013

THE founder of a leading victims’ rights group has called for legislative change to allow lawsuits against the Catholic church and retrospective charges for clergy who helped pedophile priests avoid exposure.

Chris Wilding, who began the Broken Rites group, today told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry that compensation and legal change were the priorities for victims.

“They have to be able to sue the church,” she told the committee which is examining how religious and non-state organisations have handled child sexual abuse claims.

“Most victims would want the hierarchy, the clergy to be prosecuted for protecting them (pedophiles), for shielding them, for moving them on for being accessories to a crime.

“It’s essential that is recognised by our state laws.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

March 26, 2013

Patrick Caruana
AAP

A man who was abused for years at a Catholic orphanage has urged a Victorian parliamentary inquiry to turn the church “upside down” to take the rot out.

Gordon Hill was physically, mentally and sexually abused at the hands of nuns and priests at a Ballarat orphanage more than 50 years ago.

He was repeatedly assaulted and forced to do manual labour, he told the inquiry into sexual abuse within religious organisations.

When inquiry chair Georgie Crozier asked what he now wanted from the church, Mr Hill was unequivocal.

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IRELAND
Alaska Dispatch

Paresh Dave

March 26, 2013
DUBLIN — In his first week at the Vatican, Pope Francis called for a leaner, no-frills church rooted in Christ’s original mission of serving the most needy. Many heralded his vision for the future, but not everyone is convinced that Francis can reposition the diverse global institution.

Dublin City Councillor Mannix Flynn is among the naysayers. A victim of sexual abuse while at a church-run industrial school in Ireland, Flynn said he believes the church will continue down a perilous course.

“You get people projecting onto the person that he’s a very simple man, that he’s a humble man, that he’s broken with precedent, that he’s doing everything differently. But it’s the same make, same shape — only different color,” Flynn said of the pope during a recent interview.

“The idea that a man from Barcelona, or from Argentina or from Berlin is going to change the dynamics of what’s been around for a long time is completely crazy,” continued Flynn, a 56-year-old Independent who represents the posh southeast section of Dublin’s inner-city.

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IRELAND
GlobalPost

Diane Winston
March 26, 2013

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Malachi O’Doherty says his nieces and nephews are helpless at funerals.

Raised without religion, they are flummoxed by the practices and customs that accompany a Catholic ritual. Though he himself left the church as a teenager in the 1960s, he’s ambivalent about the loss of a binding and, at times, beautiful religious culture.

“People are rejecting something they don’t even remember,” said O’Doherty, whose 2008 book “Empty Pulpits: Ireland’s Retreat from Religion” chronicled the impact of secularization on Ireland. “We may have only a sterile, secular culture that looks at the Catholic Church as an army of priests raping children.”

As Pope Francis takes over the global church, O’Doherty, like many church-watchers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, ascribe the religion’s current troubles to secularization. In 1946, Pope Paul VI called Ireland “the most Catholic country,” but starting in the mid-1960s, a growing number of the Irish — like many in Western Europe and the United States — began questioning the authority of religious institutions. Today, the percentage of Irish practitioners remains high compared with most of the rest of Europe.

But attendance at weekly Mass continues to decline, also reflecting fallout from two decades of revelations about clergy sexual abuse. William Crawley, a BBC journalist who covers religion in Belfast, agreed that secularization and the sex abuse crisis have dealt a one-two punch to the faithful.

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FLORIDA
News Chief

By Matthew Pleasant
THE LEDGER

LAKELAND | A former pastor faces mandatory life in prison after a federal jury found him guilty Friday of sexually assaulting a teenage boy and trying to groom two others for abuse.

Arnold Mathis, 41, was arrested in December 2011 after spending a late night at a casino and returning home to find Polk County deputies waiting.

Detectives began investigating Mathis a day before when the victim, now in his 20s, accused the former Higher Praise Ministries assistant pastor of sexually abusing him.

When the abuse began, Mathis served as senior pastor of Saint City Power and Praise Ministries in Winter Haven, Polk County deputies said at the time of his arrest.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Newcastle

By Carol Duncan (ABC Local Radio)

When senior NSW Police Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told ABC TV’s Lateline programme that the Catholic Church had covered up crimes by paedophile priests, silenced investigations and destroyed evidence to avoid prosecution – the public outrage triggered a Royal Commission into institutional child abuse. One of the stories that led to this is that of Patricia Feenan’s son, Daniel, a 14-year-old altar boy when first raped by a priest in the Newcastle/Maitland diocese.

Patricia Feenan is a warm and generous woman, a loving mother telling an unimaginably terrible story of the sexual abuse of her son, Daniel, by a Catholic priest trusted by the family. The details are graphic, shocking and are revealed in her book about her son and her family’s experience.

Patricia says she thought long and hard about writing the book, Holy Hell, but felt there was a need to tell the story.

“I was encouraged by interested people to tell it and see what I could make of it, of explaining the impact on a family of clergy sexual abuse. In initially wrote it to try to get it out of my head after my son went through a criminal trial in 2004. I could write it, put it on a shelf and it would be there as a record for the family.”

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SOUTH AFRICA
The New Age

Itumeleng Mafisa

A Roman Catholic priest who is allegedly facing charges of molesting five boys while based at a Randburg parish three years ago had “run away” to South Africa after facing similar allegations in his home town in Germany.

Church authorities on Thursday failed to explain how a priest who had allegedly committed such serious crimes had managed to avoid detection and land in a Johannesburg parish.

A source close to the case told The New Age that Fr Georg Kerkhoff was subsequently moved by the church and was “operating within the archdiocese of Cape Town”.

Durban Cardinal Wilfrid Napier’s comments that paedophilia is an illness and not a crime has brought the spotlight on the soft treatment of alleged child abusers within the Catholic church.

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SOUTH AFRICA
The New Age

Itumeleng Mafisa

The Archbishop of Cape Town, Stephen Brislin, has denied that the church was protecting German Catholic priest Georg Kerkhoff, who is facing charges of sexually abusing boys in Germany and SA.

Responding to reports that Kerkhoff had moved to Cape Town after being charged with the abuse of children during a church retreat in 2008, Brislin denied that the church had moved Kerkhoff from Johannesburg to Cape Town after his arrest. He said Kerkhoff was staying in the mother city as a private citizen.

“Once the legal process in South Africa, which the church fully supports, has been completed, he will face deportation to answer the charges against him in Germany,” Brislin said.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on Bill Maher’s latest attack:

The March 22nd episode of “Real Time” was one of Bill Maher’s most obscene assaults on Catholicism. He not only went on another rant against the Catholic Church, he stooped to a new low when he attacked Pope Francis. After labeling the pope a “virgin bachelor,” Maher opined, “What other business could you be in where your company gets caught running a child sex ring since forever and you still keep your customers?”

HBO seems either afraid of Maher, or the officials there like what he says. We need to know whether the parent company, Time Warner, feels the same way. That is why we are mailing a copy of Maher’s anti-Catholic remarks, dating back to 1998, to Time Warner’s executive management team and board of directors.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Mar. 24, 2013

In the early days of a papacy, absolutely everything the new pope says or does is subject to endless interpretation as a hint of things to come. At times, the frenzy produces a few instant “urban legends,” meaning words or deeds attributed to the new pope that never actually happened, or that are subjected to so much over-interpretation that they become essentially unrecognizable.

During his first ten days in office, the “Francis phenomenon” has given rise to at least three such urban legends worth debunking here, lest they take on a life of their own. …

Law’s exile

On March 14, the day after his election, Pope Francis made a visit to Rome’s basilica of St. Mary Major to pay homage to the Virgin Mary. As it happens, the basilica is also home to an apartment belonging to Cardinal Bernard Law, who offered the new pope a brief greeting upon his arrival.

Law, of course, resigned in Boston amid protests over his handling of the child sexual abuse scandal in 2002, and then served as Archpriest of St. Mary Major until his retirement in 2011 when he turned 80.

The Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano reported that when Francis saw Law that morning, he brusquely ordered him to stop appearing in public at the basilica. The report also said that the new pope, “as his first act of purification,” is preparing to dispatch the 81-year-old Law to a cloistered monastery.

Once again, it would be a dramatic insight into the new pope if true – and, once again, that insight turned out to be built on sand.

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CANADA
Soo Today

NEWS RELEASE
ANISHINABEK NATION

Survivors’ monument signifies resilience: Madahbee

UOI OFFICES (NIPISSING FN) March 25, 2013 – The Anishinabek Nation has created a monument to honour thousands of its citizens who have felt the impacts of Indian Residential Schools [former Shingwauk Indian Residential School in Sault Ste. Marie shown].

The memorial was unveiled today at a ceremony at the head office of the Union of Ontario Indians as part of the “Honouring Our Children, Families, and Communities affected by Indian Residential Schools Project” initiated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The TRC was created following the June 11, 2008, apology by the Government of Canada for the damage caused by the network of 139 government- operated schools.

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WISCONSIN
Superior Telegram

By Patty Murray, Wisconsin Public Radio, Superior Telegram

Two brothers who settled an abuse case with the Green Bay Catholic Diocese say there are still priests who have not been identified or prosecuted for crimes against children.

Todd and Troy Merryfield won a $700,000 settlement from the Green Bay Catholic diocese.

In the 1970s the brothers were abused by Patrick Feeney, who was then a priest with the church. Speaking outside the local cathedral, the brothers said their settlement is cold comfort.

Todd Merryfield still lives in Wisconsin; his brother Troy lives in Virginia.

“Money doesn’t cure something like this, never does. Anyone who tells you that, they’re lying.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Altoona Mirror

March 25, 2013

By Phil Ray (pray@altoonamirror.com) , The Altoona Mirror

When Tess Himes, a parishioner at St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Newry, learned Saturday her pastor, Monsignor Anthony B. Little, had been placed on inactive status because of child abuse allegations, she cried “so hard.”

For years, she didn’t attend church, but, Himes said, it was Monsignor Little who “brought me back,” and now she attends church every day.

Himes spoke about the repercussions of Bishop Mark L. Bartchak’s decision this weekend to suspend Little from the active priesthood on Sunday as she was tucking a granddaughter into a car seat outside St. Patrick’s.

She, her mother, Miriam, and more than 150 others had just attended an impromptu rosary service in an effort to show support for the banned priest and to ask for God’s guidance.

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IRELAND
Herald

Declan Brennan– 25 March 2013

A former priest whose abuse of children in the 1970s and 1980s was featured in the Murphy Report will walk free despite receiving an 18-month jail term.

Patrick McCabe (77), formerly of Alameda, California, was extradited here in June 2011 and has spent the last 21 months in custody awaiting sentence.

Waiving his right to anonymity, one of his victims, James Moran (50), said McCabe’s sexual assault had blighted his life. Mr Moran said he went from being a happy child to contemplating suicide at 18.

McCabe pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to the indecent assault of Mr Moran at a Co Kildare school between January and April 1977.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

Das WDR-Magazin “Westpol” berichtet über Missbrauch in der Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie im sauerländischen Marsberg. Opfer erzählen, wie sich Nonnen an ihnen befriedigten. Am Ende gab es Schokolade. Von Eva Marie Kogel

Die Dämonen wollen ihn nicht verlassen. Neulich erst wieder stand Karl-Heinz Großmann auf seinem Balkon und war bereit, sich über die Brüstung zu stürzen. Er stand dort eine Weile, entschied sich dann gegen den Sprung. Stattdessen ging er zum Psychologen und machte seinen unfassbaren Fall publik.

Großmann war Patient in der Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie in Marsberg (Nordrhein-Westfalen), im St.-Johannis-Stift. In der Einrichtung sollen laut einer WDR-Sendung “Westpol” die Insassen bis in die 70er-Jahre furchtbarem Leid durch Offizielle der Kirche ausgesetzt gewesen sein. Kinder und Jugendliche wurden dort geschlagen, ruhig gestellt und in dunkle Zellen gesperrt.

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BRASILIEN
Spiegel

Er zeigt sexuellen Missbrauch an und mischt sich ein in Politik und Umweltschutz. Deshalb muss der brasilianische Bischof Erwin Kräutler nach Morddrohungen unter Polizeischutz leben. Vom neuen Papst erhofft sich der Befreiungstheologe eine kompromisslose Haltung in Sachen Sexualstraftaten.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Papst Franziskus wurde gerade ins Amt eingeführt. Sind Sie als brasilianischer Bischof froh, einen Lateinamerikaner auf dem Heiligen Stuhl zu sehen?

Kräutler: Ich bin begeistert! Mit ist es letztlich egal, wo der Pontifex herkommt, aber Franziskus ist ein offener Mensch und ein guter Seelsorger, das lässt hoffen.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Sie haben Jorge Bergoglio mehrfach auf Konferenzen getroffen. Was ist er für ein Mensch?

Kräutler: Er ist genau so, wie er auch in der Öffentlichkeit wirkt: sehr zugänglich, sehr herzlich, ein Mann ohne Berührungsängste, einfach und schlicht.

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SUOMI
Areena

Den katolska kyrkan behöver genomgående reformer för att få ett slut på de sexuella övergreppen mot barn. Det säger ett av de många offren i USA, som ändå tvivlar på att den nya påven kommer att göra tillräckligt för att skydda barnen.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

March 26, 2013

Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age.

Molested as a 10-year-old at the Jesuit-run Burke Hall in Kew, Chris Whelan marched to the headmaster’s office to tell him what happened.

”His first reaction was immediate and physical, ” Mr Whelan recalled on Monday. ”He reaches into the drawer, pulls out his strap and tries to hit me across the face.”

Mr Whelan felt relieved when he left Burke Hall for Xavier College, but there he was again to be sexually abused by Victoria’s ”most famous Jesuit” who preyed on several vulnerable children in Mr Whelan’s class, he told the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled sex abuse.

One boy at Burke Hall was ”kicked up the arse” so hard he later had to have stitches in his sphincter, but first he had to endure a double period of torment from his attacker.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Patriot-News

By The Associated Press
on March 25, 2013

NEWRY, Pa. — A central Pennsylvania bishop has suspended a priest and ordered him to have no contact with children because of a child-sex allegation dating to the 1990s which is being investigated by the district attorney.

Bishop Mark Bartchak, who heads the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona and Johnstown, suspended 58-year-old Monsignor Anthony Little on Friday after referring the allegation to Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio.

Consiglio wouldn’t detail the allegation, except to say it remains under investigation. Little has been forced to step down as pastor of St. Patrick Church in Newry, about 90 miles east of Pittsburgh.

The priest who pastored the parish before Little was the Rev. William Rosensteel. He committed suicide by jumping from a bridge following sex abuse allegations that surfaced in 2007.

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VATICAN CITY
CathNews

Pope Francis is to consider abolishing the Vatican Bank – which has been beset by a scandal over allegations of money-laundering – in a drive for greater transparency at the heart of the Catholic Church, according to a report by The Times in The Australian.

Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, who has been tipped as a possible secretary of state, or “Vatican prime minister”, said Francis would weigh up appeals made by two cardinals on the eve of his election for the bank – formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) – to be scrapped.

He said the Pope would be guided by a desire for “transparency . . . and faithfulness to international laws or rules in this field”, including those on money-laundering.

“The Pope will consider some suggestions because during the general congregations (the formal meetings that preceded the conclave), some cardinals were intervening about the problems of the IOR,” Archbishop Celli said.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 25 March 2013

A PRIEST who has spoken out about a culture of sexual bullying in the Catholic Church in Scotland says he has been inundated with support since he went public with his experience.

Father Matthew Despard, 48, said he spoke out in an attempt to tackle the problems of abuse and bullying, which he claims are “rife” in the Church.

He said that “phones have been off the hook with support” after he spoke of inappropriate behaviour at Chesters College in Bearsden – later named Scotus College – during the 1980s and his attempts to raise complaints with the authorities.

One congregation member, Stephen McNaughton, posted on Twitter last night: “Much respect for the bravery & honesty of our parish priest, speaking out about the Church’s issues.”

However Fr Despart, the parish priest of St John Ogilvie church in High Blantyre, Lanarkshire, last night said he did not want his story to overshadow the beginning of one of the most important times of the Catholic calendar, Holy Week.

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CANADA
Durham Region

WHITBY — Parents with children at a couple of Brooklin Catholic schools are still fuming over a letter sent home from their parish priest, while the Father himself has tackled the issue on the church website.

The letter dated Lent 2013, a call to return to Catholic practices, included a two-page “examination of conscience” and invitation to reflect on sins before going to confession.

From Rev. Charles Forget, pastor of Saint Leo the Great Catholic Church in Brooklin, the letter was sent home with students at St. Bridget and St. Leo Catholic schools.

Sins included “Have I committed adultery or fornication?,” “Have I become intoxicated?” and “Have I denied my spouse his or her marriage rights?”

“It was in my youngest son’s agenda. He’s seven,” said St. Leo mother Audrey Cowie.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

By Kerri Corrado

Newry, PA. —

“It’s almost like someone dropping a bomb. I mean the people are in shock. They loved this priest very much,” Raymond Crosser said.

Words from Reverend Raymond Crosser after he was asked by the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona and Johnstown to fill in for Monseigneur Anthony Little, a local Blair County pastor placed on leave.

The Bishop, Mark Bartchak made this decision quickly after allegations that little molested a young boy in the 1990s.

Little had been a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona and Johnstown for years. He was recently on active ministry at St. Patrick’s Parrish in Newry. He was forced to relocate to a location where he will have no contact with kids.

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CANADA
CBC News

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada paid a visit to the Boyle Street Community Services in Edmonton on Saturday.

As Nicole Weisberg reports, the commission has been gathering stories about the impact of residential schools on Aboriginal Peoples across Canada — but this is the first time it has visited Edmonton’s inner city.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

Published on Monday 25 March 2013

THE four men at the centre of the scandal that led to the resignation of Keith O’Brien have reportedly denied being part of a “gay cabal” which sought revenge for the cardinal’s anti-gay stance.

In a newspaper article at the weekend, the four men rejected reports quoting sources who claimed the former head of the Catholic Church in Scotland had been forced to quit by gay priests angry at the way he had spoken out on issues such as same-sex marriage.

“This isn’t about being gay. It’s about an abuse of power,” one of the men, who was referred to as “Father Peter”, said.

“Lenny”, a former priest who described how he had rebuffed the cardinal’s advances while he was a semanarian, said: “I was surprised at the suggestion that I was part of a gay cabal. And my partner of 26 years? I’d say she was quite surprised too.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Australian

The Times
March 25, 2013

POPE Francis is to consider abolishing the Vatican Bank – which has been beset by a scandal over allegations of money-laundering – in a drive for greater transparency at the heart of the Catholic Church.

Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, who has been tipped as a possible secretary of state, or “Vatican prime minister”, said Francis would weigh up appeals made by two cardinals on the eve of his election for the bank – formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) – to be scrapped.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A victim of clerical sexual abuse has urged the Victorian government to launch legal action against the Catholic Church.

Chris Whelan, who was a victim of and a witness to abuse while a student at two Melbourne Catholic schools, has asked a parliamentary inquiry to recommend a publicly funded civil lawsuit against the church.

Mr Whelan said victims needed the state government to champion their cause.

“I want this inquiry to come out with an arrowhead for the spear,” he told the inquiry into sexual abuse within religious and other organisations on Monday.

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ILLINOIS
WLS

(JOLIET) The Diocese of Joliet is urging people to report if they have ever been sexually abused by a clergy member, diocese employee or volunteer.

The diocese said in a news release it’s increasing efforts to promote healing and justice for victims in the church abuse scandal.

The diocese recently agreed to release thousands of pages of documents on the scandal as part of a legal settlement with a survivor of clergy abuse. The diocese has posted online the names of 34 priests who were identified by the diocese as having faced credible or substantiated charges of sexual abuse. Nine of the names were added after the settlement this month. All of the priests on the list have been removed from ministry.

Molly Fara, the Joliet Diocese’s director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection, said the diocese has promised pastoral assistance and continued cooperation with civil authorities. Reports may be made to any pastor to by calling (815) 263-6467.

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