ABUSE TRACKER

SCOTLAND
The Guardian

Ben Quinn
guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 March 2013

The hierarchy of Scotland’s Catholic church was on the defensive again last night over claims that bishops knew of as many as 20 allegations of child sex abuse by priests in the 1980s and 90s, along with a separate revalation that the Vatican is currently considering the case of a Scottish priest accused of child sex abuse.

The claims about the 20 cases, which were made by an academic previously involved in advising the church on sexual abuse and how to respond to it, also came as a report suggested that Cardinal Keith O’Brien was summoned to Rome to answer charges of sexual impropriety as early as October last year.

O’Brien was forced to resign last month by Pope Benedict XVI, barely 36 hours after the Observer disclosed that three serving priests and one former priest were accusing him of “inappropriate acts” against them nearly 30 years ago.

While he made a dramatic admission last weekend that he was guilty of sexual misconduct throughout his career in the church, new questions about the handling of his case have now been raised by a report by the Catholic weekly, the Tablet, which claimed that he was called to Rome last year after a priest lodged an allegation with the Congregation for Bishops. A spokesperson for the Scottish Catholic church last said that he was unable to confirm the report as O’Brien is currently out of the country.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

CLERGY sex abuse victims have released a “dirty dozen” list of potential papal candidates – including Australia’s Cardinal George Pell – and are urging the Catholic Church to “get serious” about protecting children, helping victims and exposing corruption.

“We want to urge Catholic prelates to stop pretending that the worst is over regarding the clergy sex abuse and cover-up crisis,” said David Clohessy, director of the US-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

“Tragically, the worst is almost certainly ahead,” he said, adding that the truth of “widespread, longstanding and deeply-rooted” abuse and cover-ups has “yet to surface in most nations”.

The organisation cited a dozen cardinals from the US, Mexico, Honduras, Italy, Australia, Czech Republic, Canada, Argentina and Ghana accused of protecting pedophile priests and making offensive public statements.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Mail

By Ben Spencer

There was a widespread cover-up of child sex abuse in the Scottish Catholic church, it has been alleged.

Scots bishops reportedly knew of at least 20 allegations of abuse between 1985 and 1995.

The Church in Scotland insists child protection procedures have since improved dramatically and such cases are now rare.

In the mid-1990s, Alan Draper, a lecturer at Dundee University, was appointed to advise the Church on sexual abuse.

The BBC said it had seen letters to him from Scotland’s eight bishops which refer to 20 allegations of abuse by priests.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. ,Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 5, 2013

Rome —
To help Americans get a handle on Cardinal John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, let’s set things up this way: Speaking solely about the force of his personality, there’s a sense in which he’s the Timothy Dolan of Africa.

Just like the always-effervescent cardinal of New York, Onaiyekan is a big, brash, smiling figure, a man who tends to dominate every room he walks into. He’s quick with a laugh, he loves to press the flesh, and he clearly relishes being the center of attention.

Yet beneath all the charm, Onaiyekan is also seen as one of the leading intellectual lights among the African bishops, as well as an influential political and moral authority in his own country and beyond.

Among the highlights from the interview:
• Onaiyekan expressed a degree of frustration with some of the oratory currently being delivered in the General Congregation meetings of cardinals: “No matter how brilliant you may think your speech is, do we really need it?”
• He said there doesn’t yet seem to be a consensus on how long the cardinals should wait before starting the conclave.
• He insists he doesn’t yet know who will get his vote to be the next pope, and says he’ll really start thinking about it only when the conclave begins.

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VATICAN CITY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on March 08, 2013

The National Catholic Reporter disclosed today that Vatican servers are blocking users from accessing www.bishopaccountability.org.

The famous author George Bernard Shaw once said that “all censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions.” By blocking the site BishopAccountability.org, the Vatican is proving Mr. Shaw very correct.

BishopAccountability.org provides a valuable service by providing facts about clergy sex abuse. They do this without being partisan and without skewing information. They are archivists of information, not any sort of propaganda organization. It is one thing for Vatican officials to turn a blind eye to these facts, as they have done for years, but it is quite another to attempt to prevent others from seeing them as well.

The very name of this organization shows exactly what church officials are afraid of; being held accountable for their decades of inaction on clergy sex abuse. Today, they finally took action, but once again, it was the wrong one. By refusing to allow themselves to be held accountable, they prove ever more how it is true that it is people, not polices that are the problem.

This is a cowardly move, and it should be known as such. We applaud BishopAccountability.org in their work, and the fact that they are trying to be silenced today proves just how much of an impact they have made, and despite this setback, will continue to make.

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VATICAN CITY
John Thavis

We now know the starting date of the conclave: Tuesday, March 12. And we know that the cardinals will process into the Sistine Chapel in the afternoon, which leaves time for the first ballot that evening.

If the balloting continues for three days without a new pope, the cardinals are to suspend the voting for a maximum of one day – for prayer, discussion and a spiritual pep talk. Then they resume voting, taking additional pauses – again, up to a full day – every seven ballots if there is no outcome.

After about 13 days, or about 34 ballots, if there is no candidate who receives the two-thirds majority needed for election, the cardinals move to runoff ballots between the two highest vote-getters, until a two-thirds majority is reached.

While all that seems fairly straightforward on paper, if the conclave goes more than a few days it may not be clear what’s happening on the inside – at least to the waiting world. For example, it’s doubtful we’ll be told exactly when a “pause for reflection” occurs, and how long it may last.

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ROME
USCCB Blog

By Sister Mary Ann Walsh

The conclave opens Tuesday, March 12, with the Conclave Mass Tuesday morning. The General Congregation voted on this during their afternoon session today.

Snow in the U.S. has delayed some media. WUSA, Channel 9 in Washington, was delayed by snow and expects to arrive tomorrow. Media are searching for photo ops, even asking if any cardinal will offer Mass at his titular church on Sunday. All cardinals have a titular church. That makes them clergy of the Diocese of Rome, which entitles them to vote for the pope, who is the Bishop of Rome.

We’ve scheduled a briefing tomorrow at 11 a.m., Rome time, with Archbishop Piero Marini and Msgr. Kevin Irwin. The briefing will focus on liturgical rites related to the conclave. Msgr. Marini, who was head of papal liturgical ceremonies during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, knows this area thoroughly and literally wrote the book on it. Msgr. Irwin, of the faculty of The Catholic University of America, is a professor of liturgical studies. Archbishop Wilton Gregory, who will offer commentary for ABC-TV during the Conclave, stopped by the office this morning. We invited him to come to the briefing, if only to be in the audience. He also is a liturgy expert. Depending on the schedule of the conclave, we hope to pursue other briefings.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

[with video]

By Anne Cohen

Published March 08, 2013.

Two employees of Yeshiva University spoke at a hearing Friday in favor of a proposed law that could potentially harm their own school, which is currently under scrutiny because of allegations it failed to address child sexual abuse over several decades at its high school affiliate.

Marci Hamilton, Paul Verkuil Chair in Public Law at the Cardozo Law School of Yeshiva University, and Rabbi Yosef Blau, rabbi and spiritual advisor at Yeshiva University, testified at a New York Assembly hearing in support of the Child Victims Act, which would enable adults who were abused as children to file suits against institutions they believe were negligent in protecting them.

Currently, anyone who failed to file such a suit by their 23rd birthday is barred from doing so by New York State’s statute of limitations on such crimes. The Child Victims Act would abolish those limits for cases going forward and open up a limited, one-year window during those abused in the past could file civil law suits against their alleged abusers and institutions that knew or should have known about such abuse committed by members of their staffs.

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ROMA
IVG

Savona. Francesco Zanardi è stato bloccato dalla polizia sotto il colonnato di San Pietro. Era partito alla volta di Roma per presentare la petizione contro il cardinal Domenico Calcagno, sottoscritta da 12.500 cittadini. La rete L’Abuso e Zanardi intendevano consegnarla alla segreteria di Stato Vaticana per chiedere che il cardinale, ex vescovo di Savona, non partecipi al conclave in quanto avrebbe coperto preti pedofili.

Zanarsi sostiene di essere in stato di fermo e che rischia di essere denunciato “per manifestazione non autorizzata”, mentre da parte della polizia si limitano a spiegare che “stanno valutando” la sua posizione. Zanardi accusa il vescovo Calcagno di aver insabbiato le responsabilità di alcuni preti pedofili quando era vescovo di Savona. L’intenzione ora di Zanardi è ora quella che se gli verranno riconsegnate dalla polizia le firme: “Le presenterò all’ambasciata vaticana in Italia”.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The Vatican’s Clown Prince clique have convinced a majority of voting Cardinals to begin the election Conclave circus. Any other course, a month after the Shadow Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, threw in the towel and after eight contentious meetings to decide on a starting date, would just confirm to the 5,000+ media members present that Peter’s Barque, the Catholic Church, had already sunk.

The election circus will be held in the Sistine circus tent in two daily sessions for two days, then break for a day. By the fourth act on Wednesday, the Cardinals will most likely reach a decision because the three different groups of performing Cardinals will have made very clear their positions and level of support by then. The appearance of protracted conflict or indecision benefits no Cardinal. It will be clear by late Wednesday that further votes will be fruitless.

The Cardinals have only three options now:

(1) Maintain the hierarchical status quo and elect now another Pope, a Papal UberMensch or Superman, for life and hope for the best.

(2) Fix the Church leadership structure first now, and delay the election until a two-thirds consensus is reached on the needed repairs.

(3) Elect a new Pope now for a stated short term, perhaps three years, based the new Pope’s public commitment to call a council away from Rome to begin within a year to fix the Church structure and other problems by a majority vote. The Shadow Pope has just shown that Popes are no longer elected for life. If the new Pope, perhaps at the Vatican clique’s urging, were then to fail to honor his commitment, then another election would be held.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register

By TOMOYA SHIMURA / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – Samantha Stribling instructed her students to put away their cell phones and bring all their backpacks in front of her desk.

Then she told them to lock the classroom door so they were shut out from the rest of the world.

Stribling, a religion teacher at Santa Margarita Catholic High School, wanted her students to experience what cardinals go through when they lock themselves behind the walls of the Vatican to select a new pope.

As the Vatican announced Friday the conclave – the voting process of selecting a new pope – will begin Tuesday, the local Catholic high school has been organizing mock conclaves in classrooms to promote interest and understanding of the historic event.

Twenty-six sophomores taking Stribling’s class hung photos of real-life cardinals around their necks and locked themselves away for an hour Wednesday to get a sense of what it’s like to be part of the conclave.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Media Office

Following a number of enquiries about the policy of the Catholic Church in relation to the protection of children and vulnerable adults, the following statement was issued on Friday 8 March 2013:

The Catholic Church has had nationally agreed guidelines on the protection of children and vulnerable adults, since 1999. In this regard the Church was two years ahead of the Nolan Commission in England & Wales, which reported in 2001, see;

Scottish Catholic Church Responds to Nolan Report

The Church recognises that the statutory authorities are the responsible bodies for investigation. All allegations are notified to the police and anyone making an allegation of wrongdoing is advised to contact the police. All necessary steps are taken to remove anyone in danger from situations of risk.

A number of individuals have been involved over many years in the development of policies and procedures they have competence in many related fields. In 2003, to augment existing Diocesan protection staff, the Church appointed a National Director of Child protection. Ten years later that post now titled; National Co-ordinator remains a key part of our safeguarding structures.

The number of annually reported incidents in Scotland have been small since we began to audit and have only very rarely involved a member of the clergy. Where a report is made the matter is passed on to the police for further investigation and we consider it is the responsibility of the police and the prosecuting authorities to record incidents of criminal behaviour.

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NEDERLAND
Volkskrant

Hoewel merendeels mannen slachtoffer zijn geworden van seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk, zijn het vooral vrouwen die de hoogste schadevergoeding krijgen uitgekeerd.

De compensatiecommissie van het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik RKK heeft tot dusver aan zeven slachtoffers de maximale vergoeding van 100 duizend euro toegekend. Onder hen zijn vijf vrouwen, die reeds op jonge leeftijd zijn misbruikt door katholieke priesters die bij hun ouders thuis kwamen en zelfs als ‘huisvriend’ werden gezien.

Het grote aandeel vrouwelijke slachtoffers aan wie de katholieke kerk wegens ‘uitzonderlijk misbruik’ het maximumbedrag van een ton heeft uitgekeerd, is opmerkelijk. In de misbruikaffaire is de aandacht vooral uitgegaan naar jongens die op internaten zijn misbruikt. Ook in alle 127 uitspraken die de compensatiecommissie tot half februari heeft gedaan, zijn weinig vrouwelijke slachtoffers. …

Bij de meisjes gebeurde het meestal thuis

1. Je fantaseert en liegt
Een kapelaan die later tot pastoor in Roermond is benoemd, heeft een nu 73-jarige vrouw van haar 12de tot 26ste jaar misbruikt. Haar familie vond dat ze ‘fantaseerde en loog’ en plaatste haar in een tehuis voor moeilijk opvoedbare meisjes. Op 24-jarige leeftijd raakte ze zwanger van hem. Met pillen forceerde ze een miskraam.

2. Mijn oom de missionaris
Haar oom was missionaris die tijdens verlof in Nederland bij de familie logeerde. Het seksueel misbruik begon toen ze 4 of 5 jaar oud was. Op haar 16de werd ze enkele malen verkracht in haar kamer. Haar oom zette haar ‘door middel van bedreigingen en bangmakerij psychisch onder druk’.

3. Moeders vriend
De kapelaan had vanaf 1957 een verhouding met de moeder van het slachtoffer. Hij maakte deel uit van het gezinsleven. Het misbruik (met een vinger bij haar binnendringen, aftrekken en oraal bevredigen van de dader) begon toen ze 4 jaar was en ging door tot haar 10de jaar. Later heeft ze haar moeder tevergeefs gesmeekt de relatie met de geestelijke te verbreken.

4. Huisvriend
De vrouw was 9 jaar toen het misbruik begon. De priester was een soort huisvriend. Ze kwam ook vaak met haar broers in de pastorie om klusjes te doen. Op een keer sloot hij de deur en trok haar op schoot, betastte haar tepels onder haar shirt en stopte zijn vingers in haar vagina. Dat gebeurde daarna herhaaldelijk. Het was ‘hun geheimpje’.

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NEDERLAND
Powerwrouwen

Het grote aandeel vrouwelijke slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de Rooms Katholieke kerk is opmerkelijk.

In de kaffaires is tot nu toe vooral de aandacht uitgegaan naar jongens die op internaten werden misbruikt.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

BBC Scotland has seen evidence that bishops in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland knew of 20 allegations of child sex abuse by priests from 1985 to 1995.

Another alleged victim of abuse says his life has been ruined.

The man, named by the BBC as “Chris”, has encouraged others to speak out.

The Church said all allegations of abuse were passed to the police.

Chris, whose identity is not being published to protect his anonymity, is another who claims he was abused by his local priest.

He was not one of the 20 alleged victims identified in the decade up to 1995.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The BBC has seen evidence that bishops in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland knew of 20 allegations of child sex abuse by priests between 1985 and 1995. In the mid-1990s, academic Alan Draper was appointed to advise the Church on sexual abuse and how to respond to it. The BBC has seen the letters which they sent in reply to Mr Draper. The BBC has also spoken to a man called Chris, who claims he was abused by a priest from the age of nine or 10 until he was into his early teens, in the 90s. Here is the Church’s response to the allegations:

The Catholic Church has had nationally agreed guidelines on the protection of children and vulnerable adults since 1999.

In this regard the Church was two years ahead of the Nolan Commission in England and Wales, which reported in 2001.

All allegations are notified to the police. The Church recognises that the statutory authorities are the responsible bodies for investigation.

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SCOTLAND
Telegraph

ROMAN Catholic priests in Scotland were “out of control sexually” under the leadership of the disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the Church’s former adviser on child abuse claims.

By John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor
7:45PM GMT 08 Mar 2013

Alan Draper has accused the Church leadership, of being “unwilling” to expose supposedly celibate priests who were leading “double lives” in the 1980s and 1990s.

Mr Draper, a lecturer in ethics from Dundee University, was brought in to advise Scottish bishops on abuse allegations but was removed after a disagreement.

He has disclosed that bishops were aware of 20 separate cases in the Church between 1985 and 1995 but he alleges that they were “reluctant” to take matters further and rejected his call for independent experts to be brought in.

He is now calling for files relating to Catholic Church in Scotland to be handed over to judge led inquiry.

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ROMA
La Repubblica

Zanardi voleva consegnare alla segreteria di Stato vaticana una petizione contro il cardinal Calcagno, che lui accusa di aver coperto dei preti che hanno abusato di ragazzini

L’intenzione era quella di presentare una petizione, sottoscritta da 12.500 cittadini alla segreteria di Stato vaticana per chiedere che il cardinale Domenico Calcagno non partecipasse al conclave “perché ha coperto dei preti pedofili”, ma Francesco Zanardi, portavoce della “Rete l’Abuso di Savona” è stato bloccato per un controllo dalla polizia italiana sotto il colonnato di San Pietro, nei pressi di Porta Angelica.

Zanardi sostiene di essere in stato di fermo e che rischia di essere denunciato “per manifestazione non autorizzata”, mentre da parte della polizia si limitano a spiegare che “stanno valutando” la sua posizione.

Zanardi accusa il vescovo Calcagno di aver insabbiato le responsabilità di alcuni preti pedofili quando era vescovo di Savona.

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ROMA
La Repubblica

Francesco Zanardi, portavoce della rete contro gli abusi dei religiosi, bloccato prima che riuscisse a consegnare 12.500 firme contro la partecipazione al Conclave del cardinale Calcagno. “Quando era vescovo insabbiò la responsabilità di un prete pedofilo”. E la Curia di Savona apre un procedimento canonico contro un religioso che tentò di abusare di un giovane seminarista

L’intenzione era quella di presentare una petizione, sottoscritta da 12.500 cittadini alla segreteria di Stato vaticana per chiedere che il cardinale Domenico Calcagno non partecipasse al conclave “perchè ha coperto dei preti pedofili” quando era vescovo di Savona, ma Francesco Zanardi, portavoce della “Rete l’Abuso di Savona” è stato bloccato per un controllo della gendarmeria sotto il colonnato di San Pietro, nei pressi di Porta Angelica.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

By James Cook
Scotland Correspondent, BBC News

The BBC has seen evidence that bishops in the Catholic Church in Scotland knew of 20 allegations of child sex abuse by priests between 1985 and 1995.

Another alleged victim of abuse says his life has been ruined.

An academic who compiled a report for the Church on how to deal with abuse says not enough was done.

The Catholic Church in Scotland insists its child protection procedures have improved dramatically since the 1990s and allegations of abuse now are rare.

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ROMA
Il Secolo XIX

Roma – L’intenzione era quella di presentare una petizione, sottoscritta da 12.500 cittadini alla segreteria di Stato vaticana per chiedere che il cardinale Domenico Calcagno non partecipasse al conclave «perché ha coperto dei preti pedofili», ma Francesco Zanardi, portavoce della rete “L’Abuso” di Savona è stato bloccato per un controllo dalla polizia italiana sotto il colonnato di San Pietro, nei pressi di Porta Angelica.

Lui sostiene di essere in stato di fermo e che rischia di essere denunciato «per manifestazione non autorizzata», mentre da parte della polizia si limitano a spiegare che «stanno valutando» la sua posizione. Zanardi accusa il vescovo Calcagno di aver insabbiato le responsabilità di alcuni preti pedofili quando era vescovo di Savona. Tra questi preti ce ne è uno che, secondo Zanardi, ad 11 anni abusò di lui.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 8, 2013

Rome —
The cardinals of the Roman Catholic church will begin voting for the new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics Tuesday, the Vatican has announced.

The decision to set the date for the vote, widely anticipated after five days of secret deliberations, came amid a reportedly unsure atmosphere among the cardinals.

Going into the final meetings, there was reportedly a lack of clear consensus among the cardinals on who the leading candidates are for the next pontiff.

Friday’s decision to set the date of the secret vote for the next pope, known as the conclave, came at the cardinals’ eighth meeting since the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI Feb. 28. They have been meeting daily, sometimes twice daily, since Monday.

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ROME
The Guardian (UK)

Lizzy Davies in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 March 2013

Cardinals of the Roman Catholic church will enter the Sistine chapel on Tuesday afternoon to begin the conclave that will elect the 266th pope, the Vatican has announced.

Eight days after Benedict XVI became the first pontiff in nearly 600 years to abdicate, a decision that stunned even his closest advisers and sent shockwaves through the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the process of choosing his successor would start on Tuesday afternoon after a morning mass in St Peter’s basilica. …

There is no obvious frontrunner. In an interview earlier this week with the Italian daily La Stampa, the American cardinal Donald Wuerl said the relative openness of the pool of candidates could result in a conclave that lasts longer than the last one, in 2005, which was over in two days. “There doesn’t seem to be a cardinal going into the conclave that everybody says is clearly going to be the pope,” he told the paper’s Vatican Insider website. “Of course they often say, he who enters as pope comes out as cardinal. So I think it is going to take a little while. How little or how long, that’s all in the hands of God.”

According to several reports in the Italian press on Friday, however, the field of candidates has narrowed, with two leading papabili gaining the support of two significant blocks. Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan and a known favourite of the emeritus pope, was reported to be the candidate of those who want to see big changes in the way the Roman curia is run, while Odilo Pedro Scherer, the archbishop of São Paulo, is tipped as the choice of those within the curia.

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph (UK)

[with video]

The conclave, the centuries-old process by which a new Pope is elected, will begin on March 12, meaning Catholics should have a new pontiff by the end of next week.

Nick Squires in Rome
5:10PM GMT 08 Mar 2013

More than 150 cardinals, who have held discussions in Rome all week on the crises facing the Roman Catholic Church, announced the long-anticipated start date on Friday, 12 days after Benedict XVI resigned the papacy because of fatigue and old age.

The conclave will be held amid the utmost secrecy in the Sistine Chapel, famous for its frescoes by Michelangelo and other Renaissance masters. The longest conclave in the 20th century took five days, and most lasted between two and four days. …

There is a reformist bloc led by Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, which has the backing of many non-Italian cardinals, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, and Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Austria.

They have been appalled by revelations of nepotism and cronyism within the Holy See that were revealed by confidential documents stolen from the Pope by his butler and leaked to the media in what was dubbed the Vatileaks scandal.

The reformists are squaring up to a more traditionalist bloc led by Cardinal Odilo Peter Scherer, the archbishop of Sao Paolo in Brazil, and comprising many Italian cardinals, who are resisting calls for radical reform of the Curia, the Church’s governing body.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW in Rome

The conclave that will elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI will start next Tuesday, March 12th.

Papal spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, made the announcement this afternoon with a brief communiqué that reads

“The eighth General Congregation of the College of Cardinals has decided that the Conclave will begin on Tuesday March 12th, 2013. A “pro eligendo Romano Pontifice” mass will be celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica in the morning. In the afternoon, the Cardinals will enter into the Conclave”.

At first glance, the date chosen looks like a reasonable compromise choice between those who wanted to anticipate the Conclave as much as possible and those who wanted to wait until the scheduled start date of March 15th.

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VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost

Jason Berry

ROME — The Vatican announced this afternoon that the conclave of cardinals to elect the new pope will begin Tuesday, March 12, ending a week of meetings — called congregations — in which dozens of cardinals spoke amid discussions of the central issues facing the church. The cardinals adhered to a tight policy restricting access to the media in order to preserve decorum and a sense of fraternal confidence among the 115 who will vote.

Much of the speculation in the Italian press has lately focused on Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan, the largest archdiocese in the world with 5 million people, as a potential front runner.

“The other candidate,” wrote Andrea Tornielli, a respected religion writer for La Stampa, “expected to start with a good number of votes is the Brazilian Odilo Pedro Scherer, Archbishop of Sao Paulo, who has a long curial and Vatican experience and would have the support of some influential Cardinals of the Curia.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Pilot

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Cardinal electors assembled in Rome will begin voting for the next pope March 12.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, announced the date for the start of the election, known as a conclave, in a message to reporters March 8.

The first session of voting inside the Sistine Chapel will begin in the afternoon, following a morning Mass “Pro eligendo Summo Pontifice” (“for the election of the supreme pontiff”) in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Rules governing papal elections state that a conclave must start between 15 and 20 days after the Holy See falls vacant; but shortly before his resignation Feb. 28, Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree allowing cardinal to move up the start date if they choose.

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ROME
KTVQ

Posted: Mar 8, 2013 by Richard Allen Greene and Laura Smith-Spark – CNN

ROME (CNN) — The Catholic cardinals gathered in Rome voted Friday to begin the secret election, or conclave, to elect a new pope next Tuesday afternoon, the Vatican said.

The 115 cardinal-electors taking part in the conclave will enter the closed-door process after a morning Mass, the Vatican said. Only those younger than 80 are eligible to vote.

The cardinals voted Friday morning to accept the letters of explanation of two cardinal-electors who are eligible to vote for the next pope but will not attend the conclave: Keith O’Brien of Scotland and Julius Riyadi Darmaatmadja of Indonesia.

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VATICAN CITY
The Detroit News

By Nicole Winfield
Associated Press

Vatican City — Cardinals have set Tuesday as the start date for the conclave to elect the next pope, signaling that they were wrapping up a week of discussions about the problems of the church and who best among them might lead it.

The conclave date was set on Friday afternoon during a vote by the College of Cardinals. Tuesday will begin with a Mass in the morning in St. Peter’s Basilica, followed by the first balloting in the afternoon.

In the past 100 years, no conclave has lasted longer than five days.

That said, there doesn’t appear to be a front-runner in this election, and the past week of deliberations has exposed sharp divisions among cardinals about some of the pressing problems facing the church, including of governance within the Holy See itself.

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CANADA
Castanet

A priest from Sorel-Tracy has been arrested in connection with the posession and distribution of child pornography.

Daniel Moreau, 56, is scheduled to appear in court Friday morning for a bail hearing after he was charged Thursday at the Sorel-Tracy courthouse, via video-conferencing.

According to a website for local parishes in Sorel-Tracy, Moreau led worship at the Ste-Anne, St-Joseph and St-Pierre parishes.

His resumé is posted on the website and lists his work as a scout and church youth group leader. Moreau is also cited as the webmaster for the Montenach de Beloeil scouts group.

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ROME
GlobalPost

Jason Berry

ROME — Yesterday as cardinals huddled in secret meetings before the conclave, a leader of the women’s priest movement wearing her liturgical robes was arrested for unfurling a banner at St. Peter’s Square.

Today leaders of the abuse survivors’ movement called on bishops to fund penal centers for predator priests who avoided prosecution.

Such are the moments in a slow news town when one of the biggest stories in the world plays out behind closed doors.

SNAP — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — held their event in a crowded hotel conference room, with St. Louis residents David Clohessy, the national director, and Barbara Dorris, in charge of victims’ outreach, releasing a two-page list of 20 steps the new pope should take to ensure children’s safety.

“Church officials should turn to secular professionals in cases not brought to criminal proceedings,” said Clohessy, who called for the church to fund remote, securely maintained residences for pedophiles. In endorsing what he admitted was tantamount to church penal centers, Clohessy said that many bishops have such facilities today, though they are not publicized and offenders “are not getting much treatment.”

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HAWAII
Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

A press conference and protest was held Wednesday outside of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in downtown Honolulu to urge Honolulu Bishop Clarence Silva to obey church directives demanding zero tolerance for child sexual abuse within the clergy.

At issue is the Bishop’s refusal so far to remove an accused predator, named in the lawsuit as Father George DeCosta, who is still an active priest in Hawaii even after two former students filed a lawsuit in state court on March 1 seeking damages.

Accusations against the priest were first raised in August and appeared in a local newspaper on the Big Island.

The alleged victims were able to come forward because of Hawaii’s new civil window law. The law, passed last year, gives victims of child sexual abuse a chance to seek justice in the courts no matter when they were abused. Some other states have passed similar laws, which are necessary because short statutes of limitations would otherwise preclude adults from filing suit for events that occurred when they were much younger.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

The conclave that will elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI will begin on Tuesday, March 12.

Voting on Friday evening, March 8, the College of Cardinals chose to open the conclave next Tuesday.

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VATIKAN
Frankfurter Rundschau

Von Joachim Frank

Kurz vor der Papstwahl kursiert das Gerücht über ein geheimes Sex-Dossier aus dem Vatikan. Ein Insider hat gegenüber „La Repubblica“ von einer „Gay-Lobby“ im Vatikan berichtet. Namen will der Insider nicht nennen. Noch nicht.

Die „Raben“ kreisen wieder über Rom. Corvi, so nennen die Italiener anonyme Informanten. In der Vatileaks-Affäre vor einem Jahr haben sie eine Fülle vertraulicher Dokumente vom Schreibtisch des Papstes an die Öffentlichkeit lanciert. Jetzt, kurz vor der Papstwahl, raunen die Raben von neuen Enthüllungen, insbesondere zum heikelsten und heißesten Thema der in Rom versammelten Kardinäle: Was steht in dem geheimen Dossier zu den Hintergründen von „Vatileaks“? Was ist dran an Informationen über schwule Netzwerke im Vatikan, Abhängigkeiten und die Erpressbarkeit hochrangiger Prälaten?

Die links-liberale Tageszeitung „La Repubblica“ hatte kurz vor der Abdankung Benedikts XVI. erstmals über angebliche Inhalte der 300 Seiten berichtet, die drei vom Papst beauftragte Kardinäle erstellt und ihm am 17. Dezember in zwei „rot gebundenen“ Konvoluten übergeben hatten. In derselben Zeitung antwortet jetzt ein Insider, der keinen Namen hat, aber einen „Goldring mit päpstlichem Siegel“ am Finger trägt, auf die Frage nach der behaupteten „Gay Lobby“ im Vatikan: „Verissima! Allzu wahr! Darauf können Sie wetten.“ Er könnte Namen nennen von Kardinälen und Monsignori, von Bischöfen und Funktionsträgern“, hochrangigen Leute aus dem Staatssekretariat und den wichtigsten vatikanischen Behörden.

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UNITED STATES
Leon J. Podles: Dialogue

Just when you think that the bureaucrats at the Vatican cannot do anything stupider than they’ve done before, they manage do outdo themselves:

One of the domain names of a website that is the primary source of information on clergy sex abuse cases has been blocked on the Vatican’s web servers.

Users on Vatican servers who try to access one of the four web addresses for Bishopaccountability.org, which tracks publicly available information on clergy accused of abuse, are told the page has been blocked because of “Hate/Racism.”

A Vatican spokesman said the site may be blocked because of an automatic filter system that checks words that appear on websites for explicit nature or inappropriateness.
————–

Bishopaccountability.org, which is a non-profit corporation in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, is run by a staff of two located in the Boston area.

A staple of those researching the decades-long clergy sex abuse crisis, the site includes links to reporting on abuse since the 1980s, a database of accused abusers throughout the U.S., testimonies of abuse survivors, and court documents from lawsuits and criminal prosecutions across the U.S.

Among its activities in the past year, the site has:

*Made available more than 8,500 pages of material detailing claims of sexual abuse by a group of Franciscan priests and brothers in California, after their court-ordered release in May 2012;

*Provided a detailed timeline of the witness testimonies and evidence in the trial of Msgr. William Lynn, a former official in the Philadelphia archdiocese who was found guilty in June 2012 of endangering children during his time at the archdiocese from 1992-2004, and;

*Given background information on the release of some 12,000 files documenting Cardinal Roger Mahony and the Los Angeles’ archdiocese’s handling of abuse cases in the 1980s, following the files’ court ordered release in February 2013;

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ROME
John Thavis

Covering the conclave would be a lot simpler for journalists if cardinals would just organize themselves into ecclesial “parties” and then vote the party line inside the Sistine Chapel.

Naturally, it doesn’t work that way. In the 21st century, it’s hazardous to peg any cardinal to a voting bloc and delineate conclave caucuses. There are several reasons, but the biggest is that it presumes a level of organization among cardinals that usually isn’t there.

That doesn’t stop intrepid reporters from trying, of course. For days we’ve been reading about the “Roman Party” in the conclave, which in theory includes many of the 41 Roman Curia cardinals (past or present) who will cast a vote, along with some of their 28 Italian confreres.

In fact, this may be the most cohesive group in the College of Cardinals – and recent criticism of the Roman Curia’s performance has probably led them to close ranks. These cardinals, if they’re on the same page, may well be able to deliver 40 or more votes to a candidate on a first ballot, which could generate enough momentum to carry the day.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Mar. 8, 2013

Rome

Journalism 101 teaches you to put your article’s bold claim at top, so people will pay attention, and then qualify it to death later if you must.

So, here’s my bold claim: Against all odds, the American cardinals are emerging as the anti-establishment insurgents of the 2013 conclave.

I say “against all odds” because it’s become conventional wisdom that over the last twenty years, the goalposts within the U.S. bishops’ conference have shifted to the right, towards defense of church teaching and tradition rather than accommodating secular mores.

Today’s leading lights are prelates such as Cardinals Francis George of Chicago and Timothy Dolan of New York. Despite being very different men, both are “evangelical” bishops more concerned with proclaiming the gospel than with internal church reform.

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VATICAN CITY
WGRZ

ROME (USA TODAY) — The Vatican will announce the start date for the conclave that will pick the successor to Pope Benedict XVI at 7 p.m. local time (1 p.m. ET) on Friday, Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said Friday.

The conclave could start early next week, Lombardi said.

The announcement will come after five full days of pre-conclave congregations with the College of Cardinals.

Before the congregations began Monday, Lombardi said the decision on the conclave’s start date would be made only after all the 115 cardinal electors expected to participate in the conclave were in Rome; the last of them, Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man of Vietnam, arrived Thursday.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Mar. 8, 2013 All Things Catholic

Rome —
Back in 1992, James Carville famously coined the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid” to remind the Clinton campaign staff of the winning issue in the race for the White House. If Carville were managing a campaign for the papacy in 2013, he might be inspired to coin a similar phrase: “It’s governance, stupid.”

If it wasn’t already, it’s become abundantly clear in the week since Benedict’s papacy ended and the sede vacante began that governance — or, if one prefers, business management — is a titanic concern.

Yet if the 115 cardinals who will soon file into the Sistine Chapel seem in basic agreement about the question facing them, they don’t appear to have an equally clear answer about who the right man is to be that governor.

Well before Benedict’s surprise resignation announcement on Feb. 11, many cardinals were convinced that something was rotten in the Vatican bureaucracy. Speaking on background, many cardinals have grumbled that when bombs go off in Rome, they’re the ones left to pick up the pieces in their dioceses and with their local and national media.

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ROME
GlobalPost

Jason Berry

ROME — Pope Benedict XVI’s farewell deprived the media of one of those rare events that rivet coverage across the globe: the solemn majesty of a papal funeral. Presidents and prime ministers seated in pews set a stately tone for the conclave to follow, as the cardinals retreat under tight security to elect the new pope, signaled by the white smoke sent up after burning their ballots.

Benedict’s resignation was visionary, laying a precedent for future popes to exit gracefully in the event of memory loss or diminished capacity. But the papacy is sede vacante — Latin for a vacant seat. The Vatican has issued a postage stamp emblazoned sede vacante to cash in on the moment.

For the media, the absence of a funeral means a news vacuum, which is being filled by reports on scandal-tarred cardinals in the abuse crisis, come to vote in the conclave; balkanized infighting of the Roman Curia; and quickening coverage, much of it speculative on the papabile, leading contenders for pope.

The Vatican has accredited 5000 journalists. Satellite trucks abound, and a three-story scaffolding for TV cameras faces St. Peter’s Square. At night, twenty feet away, homeless men sleep in doorways of gift shops.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 8 March 2013 (VIS) – “The eighth General Congregation that will meet this evening will vote on the date to begin the Conclave”, Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, announced. “It is likely,” he clarified, “that the Conclave will begin early next week: perhaps Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. It definitely will not be tomorrow or Sunday. Tomorrow a General Congregation will only take place in the morning and on Sunday it is expected that the cardinals will visit their titular churches in the city to pray. They are under no obligation to do so, but it is likely that they will.”

Before beginning the press conference, Fr. Lombardi noted that today is International Women’s Day and offered a bouquet of mimosas with a rose to a female journalist in representation of all women in keeping with the custom in the Vatican to give flowers to the women who work in the Holy See today.

Continuing, Fr. Lombardi reported on the sixth General Congregation, which took place yesterday evening from 5:00pm until 7:00pm and was attended by 151 cardinals. Two newly arrived cardinals swore the oath: Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man, metropolitan archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Cardinal elector) and Cardinal Adam Joseph Maida, archbishop emeritus of Detroit, Michigan, USA (non elector). The entire complement of 115 Cardinal electors who were expected has thus arrived. During the course of the Congregation 16 interventions were given.

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CANADA
CTV

CTV Montreal
Published Friday, Mar. 8, 2013

A priest accused of possessing child pornography will have to spend the weekend in jail before having a bail hearing.

Father Daniel Moreau was arrested Thursday at the St. Gabriel Lalement church in Sorel-Tracy, and was brought to court at 10:15 a.m. Friday, but will not have a bail hearing until Monday.

Moreau was only able to hire a lawyer on Friday, and the legal expert said he needed the weekend to study the charges. The Crown is opposing bail.

Parishioners who were in church while Moreau was arrested were shocked to see him led away in handcuffs.

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VATICAN CITY
Wanted in Rome

In the continuing absence of any date for the start of the conclave to elect the new pope the spotlight has turned to a quiet and unassuming Jesuit. Father Federico Lombardi is the head of the Vatican’s press office and Vatican Radio. It is through him that all official news of what is happening behind the closed doors in the Vatican is now being filtered.

Unlike his predecessor, the dynamic and charismatic Joaquín Navarro Valls who was one of the men closest to Pope John Paul II in or out of the Vatican, Lombardi has never had a direct relationship with either Pope Benedict XVI or with the powers in the Vatican curia. Paradoxically this may now be his very strength.

For years he has managed to mediate, often with considerable difficulty, between the angry and ever investigating media and the Vatican. Questions over sex abuse scandals, upsets over inter-faith relations, Vatileaks, the incarceration without trial of the pope’s butler, the Vatican banking investigations, all these have passed over his desk.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WBUR

Fri, Mar 08, 2013
by Caryl Rivers

Caryl Rivers: In 1983, at the age of 38, my brother hanged himself with his belt in a hospital ward and his once promising life was over, stolen away by years of abuse at a Catholic school. (AP)

Over the past two decades, the vast clergy sex abuse scandal has left the Catholic Church morally and economically devastated. It left my family devastated as well and caused more pain than I ever could have imagined.

In the 1960s, my brother went off to a high school run by the Christian Brothers. He emerged four years later terribly damaged and depressed. Along with dozens of other boys in the school, he was abused over the entire course of his time there by one of the priests, and he was warned not to tell anyone about it.

For years, he did not. Then, in his early 20s, he had a major mental breakdown from which he never recovered. A psychiatrist told my mother “I have never seen such ego destruction as what happened to your son in that school.”

A bright, caring, handsome young man, my brother struggled mightily to overcome his abuse, but he did not succeed. Although he married and had a child, his demons ultimately got the best of him. In 1983, at the age of 38, he hanged himself with his belt in a hospital ward and his once promising life was over, stolen away by years of abuse at a Catholic school.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

David Gibson | Mar 8, 2013

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The conclave to pick a new pope will begin as early as Monday, and likely no later than Wednesday, the Vatican said Friday morning. The final date was to be set by a vote of the cardinals later Friday evening.

The start date was an open question that has been dogging the cardinals, and reportedly dividing them as they gathered in closed-door meetings over the past week to prepare for the papal election.

Some of the cardinals — notably the American electors and several from Africa and Latin America — had balked at trying to hold the conclave too quickly, arguing that the more than 150 cardinals gathered here needed time in their General Congregation meetings to discuss the key issues facing the church and to size up potential candidates.

Others cardinals, notably those associated with the Roman curia, the Vatican bureaucracy, were pushing for a quick conclave, apparently in hopes of choosing a candidate to their liking before the cardinals from other parts of the world could rally around an outsider.

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ROME
Irish Central

By
IrishCentral Staff Writers

Published Friday, March 8, 2013

Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley has become a contender to fill the recently vacated position of Pope, at least according to Irish bookmakers Paddy Power.

The bets being placed on who the new Pope will be brought a surge of business to Paddy Power who believes the betting could set the record for a non-sporting event.

Rory Scott, spokesman for Paddy Power, said to the Christian Post ,”We’d be comfortable saying it’s a million dollar market and certainly it’s on track to be the biggest non-sporting event in Paddy Power’s history.”

“I think pope betting has really captured people’s imagination,” he added.

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CANADA
Global News

Group representing victims of sex abuse apologizes for dubbing a group of clergy the ‘Dirty Dozen’, including Ouellet

QUEBEC – A U-S based group representing victims of sexual abuse by priests is apologizing for offending Catholics by referring to a group of clergy as the “Dirty Dozen.”

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests issued a list yesterday called the “Dirty Dozen.”

It included Quebec`s Cardinal Marc Ouellet, considered a serious contender to become the next Pope.

The group says it put Ouellet on the list because it claims he refused to meet with sex-abuse victims.

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VATICAN CITY
RTE News

Roman Catholic cardinals will vote later today on when to start a conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict, the Vatican said, adding that the balloting would most likely begin early next week.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said a decision was expected for after 7pm at the end of an afternoon session of preliminary meetings known as “general congregations”.

Father Lombardi told a news conference that it was “likely” the conclave in the Sistine Chapel would start either on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

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VATICAN CITY
Channel News Asia

VATICAN CITY: Cardinals from around the globe will hold a conclave to elect a new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics next week, the Vatican said, although the exact date will be set later on Friday.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said a meeting of cardinals that ends at 1800 GMT would take a vote on the date for the start of the conclave.

“The conclave will be next week. It could be Wednesday. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, maybe even Thursday,” Lombardi said at a press briefing.

The Vatican said all 115 “cardinal electors” who will vote in the conclave are now in Rome.

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CANADA
CBC News

A priest from Sorel-Tracy has been arrested in connection with the posession and distribution of child pornography.

Daniel Moreau, 56, is scheduled to appear in court Friday morning for a bail hearing after he was charged Thursday at the Sorel-Tracy courthouse, via video-conferencing.

According to a website for local parishes in Sorel-Tracy, Moreau led worship at the Ste-Anne, St-Joseph and St-Pierre parishes.

His resumé is posted on the website and lists his work as a scout and church youth group leader. Moreau is also cited as the webmaster for the Montenach de Beloeil scouts group.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL — A priest in Sorel-Tracy will try to obtain a release from a court Friday, after he was arrested Thursday inside a church on suspicion of possession of child pornography.

Father Daniel Moreau, who is believed to be in his mid-50s, was arrested at the Saint-Gabriel-Lalemant church on de Roi St.

Reports indicate he was taken away in handcuffs.

The Sûreté du Québec was apparently acting on a request from a police force outside the province.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Well-liked by Ratzinger, he is seen as an outsider to the Roman Curia. After four days of discussions, the first alliances take shape

ANDREA TORNIELLI
Vatican City

After four days of discussions and six General Congregations, the groups and the strongest “papabili” are emerging more clearly in the meeting room but even more so in the face to face talks taking place away from prying eyes. Among them is the Archbishop of Milan, Angelo Scola, who is coming to the fore. He has been considered one of the possible candidates for the Papal Seat right from the beginning; the votes of several American cardinals and of other European cardinal electors, from Germany to Eastern Europe, as well as those of some Italians, could be cast for him. It is important to remember that thanks to the initiatives of the Oasis Foundation, the Milanese cardinal has interwoven relationships with Eastern Churches as well; for example, with the Lebanese Patriarch Bechara Rai.

Scola was held in particular esteem by Pope Benedict XVI, who transferred him from the Venice to the diocese of Milan. An unprecedented decision considered as a sign by many. And it is no secret that Joseph Ratzinger, endorsing Cardinal Camillo Ruini’s suggestion, had also considered him in 2007 for appointment as President of the Italian Episcopal Conference. At that time, it was the newly appointed Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, who objected and the nomination was dropped. Scola is thus perceived as an outsider to the Roman Curia and to the management that has characterized it in recent years. Because of his international renown he could be one of the two strongest candidates from the very first vote in the Conclave that starts next week.

The other candidate who, at the moment, is expected to start with a good number of votes is the Brazilian Odilo Pedro Scherer, Archbishop of São Paulo, who has a long curial and Vatican experience and would have the support of some influential Cardinals of the Curia; from the former Prefect of bishops, Giovanni Battista Re, to the Dean Angelo Sodano (who will not enter the Sistine Chapel to vote).

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

A sophisticated anti-bug and cell phone signal system has been installed in the Sistine Chapel: “Confidentiality is crucial”

GIACOMO GALEAZZI
Vatican City

Still no white smoke to mark the start of the Conclave. Only yesterday, criticisms were being made about the running of the Roman Curia. Vatileaks, lack of coordination, problems in the Curia’s relations with Bishops’ Conferences were all central issues in the cardinals’ speeches during the General Congregation. Lajolo, a Sodano supporter, leapt to the Curia’s defence but another Curia member, Rodé, joined in the criticisms. The start of the Conclave has still not been announced as agreement has not yet been reached. But in a comment, the American, Mahony, said: “The Congregations are coming to an end, the start-date is near.” “It will not be loong before we decide,” French cardinal, Barbarin confirmed. After Benedict XVI’s resignation, cardinals need to show to the world that they have taken on board his warning against “the divisions that disfigure the face of the Church.”

So the sticking points (IOR, scandals, governance) need to be resolved before the start of the Conclave, because too many inconclusive votes could give the world the impression that there is a lack on unity in the Church, both in terms of aims and vision. “The mass media have come up with all sorts of exotic names for potential popes, but who’s actually going to vote for them?” the Italian Curia member asked, smiling, as he stood in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. Althought the Conclave start-date is not yet known, the voting area and the spaces surrounding it, (Sistine Chapel and the Santa Marta residence) are in the process of being cleared out and debugged. The aim is to avoid what happened in the 2005 Conclave, when a German cardinal managed to leak cardinals’ choice of Joseph Ratzinger for Pope, so German television reported the news before the Protodeacon managed to make the famous “Habemus Papam” announcement. To prevent this, a Faraday cage is going to be used to block bug signals.

The Apostolic Palace is riddled with bugs which were installed as a response to the document leak. In the Vatileaks era the Conclave has also become a game of mirrors between those who installed the bugs and those who now have to remove them. Two needs must be reconciled here: one is the need for the Curia’s security and secrecy in the papal election. The Secretariat of State has explained that it is “like a post-war conversion.” The hunt for the poison pen letter writers involved the need for exceptional measures to be taken, but in the case of the sede vacante these measures pose a threat to the secrecy of the papal election. A “heavy” apparatus that was useful during the “war time” but which must now be re-adapted to the extremely delicate “peace” phase during which time the Pope is chosen. The Synod Hall, where the pre-Conclave meetings take place, has already been shielded to prevent the use of cell phones and the wireless network has been deactivated to ensure a complete communication black-out with nearby media. Throughout the course of the papal election, electors’ movements between the Santa Marta residence and the Sistine Chapel will be monitored and they may also be searched. The risk is a news leak via technological means.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Times

Friday 8th March 2013

By Chris Hewett.

An Orthodox Jewish rabbi and three others arrested as part of a sex assault investigation have been released on bail until April.

Rabbi Chaim Halpern, of the Divrei Chaim Synagogue, in Golders Green, was detained on February 20 on suspicion of sexual assault and perverting the course of justice.

The 54-year-old was arrested by officers investigating allegations of sexual abuse within the Orthodox Jewish community.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 8, 2013

Rome —
One of the domain names of a website that is the primary source of information on clergy sex abuse cases has been blocked on the Vatican’s web servers.

Users on Vatican servers who try to access one of the four web addresses for Bishopaccountability.org, which tracks publicly available information on clergy accused of abuse, are told the page has been blocked because of “Hate/Racism.”

A Vatican spokesman said the site may be blocked because of an automatic filter system that checks words that appear on websites for explicit nature or inappropriateness.

Some court documents that appear on the site might contain such language, said Basilian Fr. Thomas Rosica. “It would make sense they would block the words, not knowing it’s a clergy abuse website.”

When accessing one of the four web addresses for Bishopaccountability.org, users are told “this page has been blocked by the Vatican protection system” in Italian capital letters in a notice at the top of a page with a background image of St. Peter’s Basilica.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by Dennis Coday | Mar. 8, 2013

Nigel Baker, the UK Ambassador to the Holy See, blogs from his government’s Foreign Office website. This morning to mark International Women’s Day he has a blog titled: Women at the Holy See. He writes:

” … it seems clear to me that one of the tasks awaiting the successor to Benedict XVI will be to explore how the Holy See, and the Roman Catholic Church, can use better the talents, energy and loyalty of the women in its ranks.”

Baker then gives a long list of women working in, for and along side the church here in Rome.

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ROME
Boston Herald

[with video]

By
Matt Stout / Boston Herald

The Italian press and its leak-fueled coverage of the cardinal confabs continued to breathe life into the once-unthinkable possibility of an American pope, with one noted member of the Vaticanisti trotting out not only Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley but now New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan as rising contenders for St. Peter’s Chair.

On a day with little news emerging from within the Vatican’s walls, the buzz over Americans not only kept its legs, but seemingly gained momentum among Italian reporters, who continued to serve as pace-setters in the hunt for Vatican information since Wednesday’s media blackout.

Sandro Magister, a respected reporter at the Italian magazine Espresso, gushed over the capabilities of Dolan, the gregarious former rector of the Pontifical North American College, while mentioning O’Malley as another possibility.

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VATICAN CITY
The Nation

Vatican City – The Italian media on Friday identified two frontrunners for the papal race – Angelo Scola of Italy and Odilo Pedro Scherer of Brazil – as the wait continued for cardinals to set a date for the conclave that will elect the new leader of the Catholic Church.

Cardinals have gathered for the fifth day of General Congregations, a preliminary forum for discussions. They were joined Thursday by the last of the 115 papal electors that had yet to arrive, allowing them to finally decide on when to start the conclave.

“All 115 of the Eligible electors for the next Pope are now in Rome. Hope date for Conclave is set soon. Your prayers are really needed,” US Cardinal Roger Mahony wrote on Twitter.

The expectation was that the secluded assembly in the Sistine Chapel could commence no earlier than Tuesday.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Mark Abrams

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Philadelphia’s Archbishop will not be attending the conclave in Rome, because he hasn’t been elevated to the post of cardinal just yet.

KYW Newsradio‘s Mark Abrams sat down with the shepherd of the region’s Roman Catholics to talk about the upcoming election.

Archbishop Charles Chaput knows many of the players. He also has a sense of what they’re looking for in the next pope.

Chaput says the electors certainly are keenly aware something has to be done to address the clergy sex abuse scandal and allegations of corruption inside the heart of the Vatican.

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CANADA
Sun News

TONY BLAIS | QMI AGENCY

EDMONTON – An Edmonton area man, who claims a Catholic priest sexually assaulted him and said his parents “would die and go to hell” if he told them about it, is suing for $475,000.

According to a statement of claim filed Feb. 22, the middle-aged man alleges the priest, who is now dead, sexually assaulted him in the early 1970s when he was about 10 years old and the priest was a teacher at St. Mary’s Boys School in Edmonton.

The man alleges he would often go over to the school to play or for recreational purposes and claims the priest took him to a dormitory in a back area after asking him to help carry some things to the gym.

He alleges the priest picked him up and tossed him onto a dorm bed and sexually assaulted him.

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TEXAS
Brownsville Herald

Posted: Thursday, March 7, 2013

By Ildefonso Ortiz The Monitor

McALLEN — An Edinburg priest has been charged with vandalism after police say he punctured the tires of a parishioner. The priest is also a person of interest in a series of arsons.

Eusebio Martinez turned himself in to McAllen police Thursday morning and then was formally charged with one count of vandalism by Municipal Judge Robert Salazar, who set his personal recognizance bond at $2,000.

The Diocese of Brownsville has placed Martinez on leave while the case is resolved. Martinez maintains his innocence, the diocese said in a written statement.

Martinez attorney Reynaldo “Trey” Garza III said his client is innocent of the charge.

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TEXAS
Valley Central

by Veronica Gallegos

Posted: 03.07.2013

A McAllen family said a priest betrayed their trust and crossed the line when he harassed them after they decided to stop attending his church.

Now Father Eusebio Martinez is facing criminal charges.

Father Martinez stood before a judge with shackles on his hands and feet, emotionless as the charges were read.

His vandalism was all caught on tape. …

“At one time I spoke to a parishioner and a sister who are very involved in church. We went to talk to the bishop about the father,” Villanueva said.

We went to talk to the bishop about the father wanting me to tell him, ‘I love you’ and wanting me to kiss him when we said ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’.

I think that after I accused him of that, he began to cause harm to me.”

All are strong allegations.

Action 4 News spoke to Father Martin’s attorney Reynaldo Trey Garza.

He addressed the current charges ‘stressing’ his client’s innocence.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Salem News

BY JULIE MANGANIS STAFF WRITER

IPSWICH — The former head of a Roman Catholic religious order, already facing child sexual abuse charges, was indicted yesterday for allegedly raping a second child while serving in Ipswich in the early 1980s.

The Rev. Richard J. McCormick, 71, who held a position that is the equivalent of a bishop with the Salesian Brothers of Don Bosco, was already under indictment for alleged sexual abuse of a boy who was 9 and 10 years old at the time.

Yesterday’s indictment charges that McCormick also raped a younger boy while serving at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center and seminary in Ipswich. The boy was between the ages of 7 and 9 when the alleged abuse occurred, from 1981 to 1983.

Carrie Kimball Monahan, a spokeswoman for Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, said the second victim, now in his late 30s, came forward last year after learning from news accounts about McCormick’s indictment.

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INDIA
Times of India

KOCHI: Suryanelli gang rape victim hasn’t been banned from entering the church, priest of the church said on Friday.

The clarification was issued following media reports that the girl and her relatives have been banned from entering St Francis Xavier Church at Sachivothamapuram near Kurichy in Kottayam district. Reports had stated that the directive not to enter the church under Vijayapuram diocese was issued two weeks ago.

The priest, Xavier Mammoottil, was said to have told the victim’s family that as the residents in the area have come to know the identity of the victim and her family, it is better that they should stay away from the church until all the problems related to the sex case are resolved.

It was in 1996 that the girl, who was a 16-year-old then, was raped by over 40 men over 40 days by transporting her across the state. The victim had recently lodged a police complaint and a petition before a local magistrate court against Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson PJ Kurien alleging that he had raped her and a probe should be conducted.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By David Gibson| Religion News Service

Published: March 7

VATICAN CITY — In Catholic theology, as in the popular imagination, the closed-door conclave to elect a new pope is supposed to be guided by the Holy Spirit.

There’s no horse-trading or lobbying, no insider deal-making or outside influences allowed. Just red-robed cardinals solemnly entering the Sistine Chapel, accompanied only by prayers and their consciences, sitting beneath Michelangelo’s fresco of the Last Judgment and discerning God’s will on who should be the next successor to St. Peter.

At least that’s the theory. The last millennium has shown that papal elections can be fraught with politics or worse, and can take months or even years of wrangling to reach a resolution.

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BELGIE
De Standaard

Het Sint-Andriesziekenhuis erkent dat er in de jaren tachtig ‘onaanvaardbare feiten’ werden gepleegd door de toenmalige deken van Tielt. Norbert Bethune reageert tevreden.

De voorbije weken barstte de discussie tussen de raad van bestuur van het Tieltse Sint-Andriesziekenhuis en Norbert Bethune van de werkgroep Mensenrechten in de Kerk over het seksueel misbruik van patiënten door voormalig deken Leopold Lefebvre weer in volle hevigheid los. De man is intussen overleden.

Bethune was zelfs van plan om actie te voeren bij de opening van de nieuwe vleugel van de kliniek op 15 maart en diende klacht in bij de procureur in Brugge omdat de directie destijds de namen van de patiënten doorgaf aan de deken.

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CANADA
Times Colonist

Louise Dickson / Times Colonist
March 7, 2013

The sentencing of a Roman Catholic priest convicted of sexually touching a young person while in a position of trust will not take place until at least early June.

Last week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper found Father Phil Jacobs deliberately touched a young person between the ages of 14 and 18 for a sexual purpose.

The offence occurred between Jan. 1, 2000, and June 30, 2001, and carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Jacobs, who was parish priest at St. Joseph the Worker in Saanich from 1997 to 2002, was acquitted of three other charges, including sexual assault and two counts of sexually touching a person under 14.

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on March 08, 2013

Here are 20 simple steps the next pope could and should promptly take with little effort or real controversy. Based on our 25 years of dealing with this crisis, we are convinced these moves will make children much safer by exposing and deterring wrongdoing in child sex cases by church staff.

New proposals

—Ordering bishops to set up and finance a “whistleblower fund” to reward church staff whose actions lead to criminal charges or conviction of current or former abusive clerics.

—Removing child sex abuse from the CDF’s jurisdiction so that all church officials will clearly see that clergy sex abuse and cover up is a crime, not a sin, and a matter of discipline not of doctrine.

—- Insisting that priests immediately give their passports to their bishops when abuse accusations arise (so they can’t flee overseas).

—-Demanding that bishops hire independent corrections staff to house and monitor child molesting clerics (who cannot be criminally charged) in remote, secure facilities so they will be kept away from children.

—-Instructing bishops to use only licensed therapists (not priests or nuns) to deal with abuse victims.

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NEDERLAND
RKnieuws

AMSTERDAM (RKnieuws.net) – Hoewel merendeels mannen slachtoffer zijn geworden van seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk, zijn het vooral vrouwen die de hoogste schadevergoeding krijgen uitgekeerd. De compensatiecommissie van het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik RKK heeft tot dusver aan zeven slachtoffers de maximale vergoeding van 100 duizend euro toegekend. Onder hen zijn vijf vrouwen, die reeds op jonge leeftijd zijn misbruikt door katholieke priesters die bij hun ouders thuis kwamen en zelfs als huisvriend werden gezien.

Het grote aandeel vrouwelijke slachtoffers aan wie de katholieke kerk wegens uitzonderlijk misbruik het maximumbedrag van een ton heeft uitgekeerd, is opmerkelijk. In de misbruikaffaire is de aandacht vooral uitgegaan naar jongens die op internaten zijn misbruikt. Ook in alle 127 uitspraken die de compensatiecommissie tot half februari heeft gedaan, zijn weinig vrouwelijke slachtoffers, aldus de Volkskrant.

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CANADA
CBC News

The media have been too negative in reporting about Quebec papal contender Cardinal Marc Ouellet, said the Quebec City Archdiocese.

Jasmin Lemieux-Lefebvre, spokesman for the Archdiocese, said a recent “blacklist” compiled by a U.S.-based group, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, is unfair to Ouellet.

The organization nicknamed a group of 12 cardinals including Ouellet “the dirty dozen,” saying it did too little to address concerns of abuse in the Roman Catholic church.

“When I saw this coverage, I could only say to myself, ‘This is enough,’” said Lemieux-Lefebvre at a press conference this afternoon.

He said none of the 12 cardinals on the so-called blacklist deserve to be on it.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The curtain has been lifted this week on key aspects of the Vatican operation that supports the Papal Wizard of Oz and it is a very ugly picture. Sausage making is pretty by comparison. After a Pope quit in despair, we are beginning to understand better why he despaired. The Vatican is literally out of control. Almost a month after the Pope resigned, Cardinals are still arguing over a schedule. They have failed to agree on a public relations policy: the Italians prefer their standard “leak to a friendly reporter” approach, while the Americans prefer a press conference where they say nothing of substance, ideal for someone like Cardinal Dolan who can often say less with more words than any other public figure.

A choice by the Cardinals to finish by Easter will indicate the Conclave will have been a complete failure. Electing a Pope is not enough. A Papal Superman does not exist, no matter what country he hails from. The preliminary Conclave meetings, even with Fr. Lombardi’s spin, demonstrate that deep distrust exists among Cardinals, even within country groups, not just between Cardinals from different countries.

One Cardinal reportedly said this Conclave is like going to the dentist; one wants to get it over with as soon as possible and get home. The problem is that it is already quite clear that there are many rotten teeth and failing to acknowledge that now will likely be disasterous. The time, likely the only time, to address them is now. Government regulators and prosecutors, not dentists, can be expected to invade Rome soon. When that happens, Cardinals will lose control of the situation. Now is the time to fix the Church.

The Cardinals must just admit and accept that the Shadow Pope, Joseph Ratizinger, has left them with a real mess, which understandably he wants to be nearby with Georgeous Georg to limit their own exposure.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

NICOLE WINFIELD | March 8, 2013

VATICAN CITY — The election of a new pope always brings with it hopes for change from across the Catholic ideological and theological spectrum. Advocacy groups from around the world have descended on Rome to try to publicize their causes while media attention on the Vatican is high. These lay groups won’t determine the vote. But some movements are influencing the debate, particularly those which count hundreds of active Catholic priests as members – a threat the Vatican cannot easily ignore. Here is a look at some of the more well-known “dissident” reform and advocacy groups, from those claiming to have ordained female priests to those seeking Vatican files on sexually abusive priests.
___

ASSOCIATION OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS: Founded in 2010 in Ireland by three priests, the ACP now says more than 1,000 of the estimated 3,500 active priests in Ireland are members. The group’s founding constitution calls for a re-evaluation of the church’s teaching on sexuality and for greater lay involvement in church decision-making, but it is better known for its support for an end to mandatory celibacy for priests and opening discussion on women’s ordination. One of its founders, the Rev. Tony Flannery, has been sanctioned by the Vatican for his views: Until he recants, he can’t be in active ministry. But Flannery, a member of the Redemptorist order, is undeterred. “The point we try to make is that in 20 years’ time, there will be very few priests in Ireland. Who is going to provide the Eucharist to people?” The ACP promotes inviting back priests who have left the priesthood to marry, allowing mature married men to celebrate the Eucharist “and then having made those changes, you can begin to look seriously at the question of ordaining women,” Flannery said in a telephone interview.
___

PFARRER INITIATIVE: Founded in 2006 in Austria by the Rev. Helmut Schueller, the former vicar of papal contender Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the “Priest Initiative” claims 350 priests and 79 deacons as members. Most of them are in Austria, but Schueller is looking to expand to Germany, Ireland, France, Australia and the U.S. The group’s 2011 “Appeal to Disobedience” calls for the admission of women and married men into the priesthood to relieve the priest shortage – an appeal that has so shaken the church in Austria that Schoenborn briefed Vatican officials about it. “The Roman refusal to take up long needed reforms and the inaction of the bishops not only permits but demands that we follow our conscience and act independently,” the appeal reads. Those supporting the call pledge to ignore the ban on preaching by trained laity, including women, and vow to never deny communion to the faithful, including divorced and remarried Catholics. Church teaching forbids such divorcees from receiving the Eucharist. In November, the Vatican stripped Schueller of the right to call himself “monsignor.”

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ROME
The Globe and Mail (Canada)

ERIC REGULY
ROME — The Globe and Mail

A report that more Vatican insiders are ready to spill secrets has brought the so-called Vatileaks scandal back to life, just as cardinals are preparing to elect a new pope.

The revelation, made Thursday in La Repubblica, one of Italy’s biggest newspapers, came a day after American cardinals got swept up in the Vatican’s obsession with secrecy.

American cardinals had been meeting the press at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, but on Wednesday, an hour before powerful U.S. cardinals Francis George and Timothy Dolan were to appear on statge, the College of Cardinals told the Americans to cancel the events.

The order came down in the days leading up to the papal conclave, the meeting of cardinals to choose the successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who retired on Feb. 28. Its start date is expected to be announced this weekend.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By DANIEL J. WAKIN and ALAN COWELL

Published: March 8, 2013

ROME — For a fifth straight day, Roman Catholics awaited word from the Vatican on Friday on whether the so-called princes of their church have agreed a date to begin the formal voting to select a successor to Pope Benedict XVI who retired abruptly last month, citing old age and advancing infirmity.

Since Monday, 115 cardinals under age 80 — those who are eligible to participate in the papal balloting — have converged on Rome to prepare for the moment when they enter the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel to begin the processes of voting known as a conclave, a word derived from Latin denoting a lockable room and reflecting the closed and secretive nature of the ballot.

Despite expectations among Vatican watchers that the cardinals would set the date earlier in the week, the prelates have proceeded cautiously and with deliberation, joining with older cardinals to debate a wide range of issues about the papacy and the challenges facing the church without resolving the question of a date.

The cardinals have been meeting behind closed doors in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall every day this week, their utterances regarded as potential auditions for those among them regarded as “papabile,” or candidates for pope.

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priestsi

The ACP welcomes the present period of reflection in the Church, and commends Pope Emeritus Benedict for facilitating this by his resignation. We also welcome the growing realisation at all levels in the Church of the need for reform and renewal, in the Church all over the world, but not least in the Vatican itself.

We hope for the following actions in particular from the new Pope.

Firstly, we hope he will not reappoint the existing heads of congregations within the Vatican, or at least that he will only give them temporary appointments, and that he will bring new people with fresh ideas and attitudes into the system. This, we believe, is the only way that the acute problems in the Curia will be put right.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland has urged that Pope Benedict’s successor should dispel the climate of fear and repression in the Church.

It has also called on the new pope not to reappoint any of the Vatican’s departmental leaders but new people who would introduce new ideas and attitudes.

The association also calls on the new pope to fully implement the second Vatican Council’s programme for renewal.

Today is the fourth day of the College of Cardinals’ pre-election discussions.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

by Robert Shrum
Mar 8, 2013

The bureaucracy of the Catholic Church is more maladroit than managerial. And the cardinals fear change. Is there any hope for a reformer as pope?

It was so like the Curia: distressed by leaks to the Italian press from Italian cardinals about the machinations of electing a new pope, the hierarchy muzzled the Americans. U.S. cardinals were ordered to stop holding press conferences every day, in which no secrets were revealed but prelates at least talked openly about the needs of the church. Simultaneously, Vatican insiders were alleged to be cassock-rushing the conclave with the aim of holding on to both the papacy and their own power. Cardinals not permanently ensconced in Rome were pushing for more time to take a broader measure of each other.

I hope that when the Cardinals finally enter the Sistine Chapel to choose a successor to Benedict XVI, they will comprehend that nothing so became his papacy as the manner of leaving it. I’m not referring to the helicopter that whisked him away—an image so at odds with his richly venerable Renaissance appearance after he took the Medici vestments out of 16th-century mothballs. At least the Pope, with a measure of genuine humility, at the end affirmed that the papal office is just that—-the position, not a person anointed permanently through debility and even unto death. It was the most striking, uncharacteristically progressive decision of his reign.

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ROME
Telegraph (UK)

A clergy abuse victims group has named cardinals from Austria and the Philippines as the only papal contenders untainted by sex abuse scandals.

By Nick Squires, Rome
10:56AM GMT 08 Mar 2013

Only two of the dozen cardinals in the running to become the next Pope are “clean” in terms of their handling of scandals involving sexually abusive priests, a prominent association of victims of clergy sex abuse said on Thursday.

The damning indictment came as it was claimed that there were up to 20 moles inside the Vatican prepared to leak more confidential documents in order to expose corruption, following the example of Pope Benedict XVI’s butler, who was jailed for theft after handing a stash of stolen papers to an Italian journalist.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said the vast majority of cardinals are tainted by having ignored cases of predatory priests or by having actively covered them up and impeded efforts by police and prosecutors to bring the offenders to justice.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

By Dario Thuburn (AFP)

VATICAN CITY — Catholic cardinals have seized the rare chance of being able to air their grievances against the Vatican at talks that continued Friday, with no new pope to defer to and no old pope to mourn.

Benedict XVI suddenly announced his resignation last month saying he was too old to keep up with a fast-changing modern world, an unprecedented decision in modern Catholic history that has sent shockwaves through the Church worldwide.

The meetings of elderly cardinals that began on Monday are normally something of a formality before the conclave to elect a new pope but this time around they have taken a revolutionary turn.

The closed-door talks are protected by an oath of secrecy sworn by the cardinals, but the voices calling for change have been growing louder after the first papal resignation since the Middle Ages.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

8. März 2013

Abt und Prior sollen Zusagen nicht eingehalten haben – Kritik an Art der Aufarbeitung des Geschehenen

Kremsmünster/Steyr/Linz – Missbrauchsopfer des oberösterreichischen Stiftsinternats Kremsmünster und Vertreter der Ordensgemeinschaft treffen am Montag – dem dritten Jahrestag des Bekanntwerdens der Affäre – in Steyr im Gerichtssaal aufeinander. Zwei frühere Klosterschüler brachten eine Zivilklage gegen das Stift ein, weil Abt und Prior Zusagen nicht eingehalten haben sollen. Da sie mit der Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsaffäre durch das Kloster unzufrieden sind, veranstalten einige Betroffene am 21. März ein eigenes hochkarätig besetztes Symposium zu dem Thema in Linz.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Mittelbayerische

von Pascal Durain, MZ

Regensburg. Als im Jahr 2010 Fälle von sexuellen Missbrauch und Misshandlungen in zahlreichen katholischen Einrichtung in Deutschland bekannt wurden, erschütterte der Skandal auch Regensburg. Denn auch in einem der ältesten Knabenchore der Welt, den Regensburger Domspatzen, kam es zu Übergriffen und Gewaltexzessen. Das Bistum versprach Aufklärung und betonte immer wieder, nichts unter den Teppich kehren zu wollen. Doch zahlreiche Opfer hegen schon lange Zweifel daran.

Die Suche nach der Glaubwürdigkeit

Bistumssprecher Clemens Neck weist diese Kritik zurück. Persönliche und individuelle Aufarbeitung könne sehr unterschiedlich sein. Diese könne zum Beispiel Therapieangebote umfassen oder auch Gespräche mit Beschuldigten.

Er erklärte, dass man sich bei der Aufarbeitung an die Leitlinien der katholischen Kirche halte. Und: „Jede Beschuldigung sexuellen Missbrauchs, die das Bistum Regensburg erreicht, wird umgehend veröffentlicht, indem sie der Staatsanwaltschaft zur Kenntnis gebracht wird“, so Neck schriftlich.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

Ein Bericht über sexuellen Missbrauch im Kloster Ettal offenbart: Viele Schüler mussten durch die Hölle gehen. Die Mönche sollen aus “sadistischer Motivation” Kinder missbraucht und gebrochen haben.

Das Leben im Internat des Klosters Ettal muss die Hölle gewesen sein. Schüler wurden geschlagen, betatscht, missbraucht, an den Haaren durch den Schlafsaal gezerrt. Der Bericht des Klosters, der die Missbrauchsfälle aufarbeiten soll, offenbart viele solcher erschreckenden Details.

Die “Süddeutsche Zeitung” zitiert aus dem Bericht, die Pädagogik der Erzieher habe ein System der Unterdrückung aufbauen und bewahren sollen. Das Ziel: Den Willen der Schüler zu brechen, damit die sich den vorgegebenen Regeln unterordneten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Rhein-Gieg-Anzeiger

Der Ton in der Diskussion um den Missbach am Aloisiuskolleg hat sich verschärft. Im Bezug auf die FKK-Urlaube von Patern mit Schülern sieht der Jesuitenprovinzial eine Betriebsblindheit im Rahmen “damaliger liberaler Sexualkultur”. Von Ebba Hagenberg-Miliu

Bonn.
Kurz vor Veröffentlichung des zweiten Aufklärungsberichts zu Missbrauch in Aloisiuskolleg (Ako) und Ako-pro-Seminar durch Professor Arnfried Bintig Mitte März hat sich der Ton im Dialog zwischen der Opfergruppe Eckiger Tisch und Jesuitenprovinzial Stefan Kiechle verschärft.

Der Redaktion liegen drei Schreiben vor: 100 Fragen der Gruppe an den obersten Jesuiten, seine Antworten und die Rückantwort von Heiko Schnitzler, Matthias Katsch und Rudolf Jekel. Im Fokus steht die Frage nach der Verantwortung, die nach Opfermeinung der 2010 bei Ausbruch des Skandals zurückgetretene Rektor Pater Theo Schneider zu tragen habe. Und zwar in Bezug auf die schon im ersten Aufklärungsbericht erhobenen schweren Missbrauchsvorwürfe gegen seinen Vorgänger und Ziehvater Pater Ludger Stüper und gegen den Ex-Leiter des Ako-nahen Vereins Ako-pro-Seminar. Pater Schneider ist heute von Kiechle als Superior in der jesuitischen Gemeindearbeit in Göttingen eingesetzt.

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GHANA
Ghana Business News

Victims sexually abused by priests name Ghana’s Turkson among 12 blacklisted cardinals ahead of Pope election

A group made up of victims abused by Catholic priests has listed Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson among 12 worst cardinals who are likely to become the next Pope.

According to the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), they listed the 12 cardinals based on their approach to handling child sex abuse claims.

“The following twelve papal candidates are the ones that we are most worried about becoming the next pope,” said SNAP on March 5, 2013.

These twelve were chosen based exclusively on their actions and/or public comments about child sex abuse and cover up in the church, it added.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Mathew N. Schmalz,

Published: March 7

There’s a media blackout surrounding the lead up to the papal conclave. No interviews—and probably no blogging or podcasts.

USCCB spokesperson, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, managed to spin the whole thing quite positively: she weaved in the fact that only American cardinals were doing press conferences in addition to mentions of the official Vatican briefings. She then moved to a nun joke.

The Americans brought their pros.

Black out it is. But it’s really a temporary cease-fire in the Catholic culture wars: a lull in the battle between the new world and the old, between the church as it is now and the church as it will become.

The lead up to the papal conclave has been surprising in many ways. Like other commentators, I had initially expected that the conclave would be held sometime before March 8 since it would give the new pope enough time to settle in before Easter. I also though that curia officials would push for a quick start, since it would benefit established candidates.

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ROME
Religion News Service

David Gibson | Mar 8, 2013

The U.S. cardinals may have been barred from holding their popular daily press briefings but the war of words between the Italian cardinals and their allies – who are suspected of engineering the silencing – and the Americans only seemed to escalate.

On Friday, Vaticanista Marco Tosatti of La Stampa, an Italian daily that has been a chief conduit for Roman curialists who want to plant select information anonymously, wrote a piece ripping the American cardinals for insensitivity in holding briefings and telling the other cardinals, in effect, “We are here, and we are the ones running the conclave.”

Tosatti’s post was provocatively titled “Conclave: USA uber alles,” a reference to the German national anthem that begins, “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,” or “Germany, Germany, over all.” And he included a picture of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the most visible and vocal of the U.S. cardinals, pointing in a characteristically exuberant – or perhaps aggressive, from the Italian perspective – way.

Tosatti went on to say that by holding their own briefings the American cardinals were tainting the “climate of reflection and meditation that should accompany a serious choice” like electing a new pope.

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VATICAN CITY
euronews

[with video]

No public stages, no extra flags, no slogans… You won’t find anything like that in Rome before the conclave of cardinals who will choose a successor to Benedict XVI from among their number.

Cardinals do not campaign to become pope. Even when names are floated in public of men seen as having the right stuff, they themselves keep quiet. It’s one of the ways that a papal election is unlike any other. Secrecy reigns.

The other rules include an age limit. To be able to vote; a cardinal must be younger than 80 at the time the papal throne was vacated. Two of the 115 cardinals eligible to participate in this conclave had their 80th birthdays just after Benedict resigned on February 28th.

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VATICAN CITY
Times of Malta

Vatican officials yesterday told cardinals gathered for the election of the next Pope to stop speaking to the media, as further indications emerged that a conclave would not start early next week as had been expected.

American cardinals who had been scheduled to hold their third media briefing in as many days cancelled it less than an hour before it was to have started at Rome’s North American College, where they are residing.

A spokeswoman for the American cardinals said “concern” was expressed at yesterday’s closed-door meeting “about leaks of confidential proceedings reported in Italian newspapers”.

More than 150 cardinals attended the third day of the preliminary meetings to sketch a profile for the next Pope following the shock abdication of Pope Benedict last month. All but two of the 115 “cardinal electors” aged under 80 have arrived for the meetings, the Vatican said.

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VATICAN CITY
IOL

March 8 2013
By Ella Ide

Vatican City –

As Roman Catholic cardinals prepare a secret conclave in the Vatican to choose a new pope, the only woman seen taking part in the preparations has been the seamstress sewing the ceremonial tablecloths.

The most important decision in the life of the Church is being taken with one half of the Catholic community either looking on or playing an auxiliary role as the male hierarchy deliberates.

“Not hearing the opinions of half of the world is like a slap in the face,” said Janice Sevre-Duszynska, who was excommunicated by the Vatican after her unofficial ordination as a female priest.

Speaking to AFP on the eve of International Women’s Day on Friday, the American said the idea that only men should decide on the next pope who will rule over both men and women was “a mockery”.

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NEDERLAND
Omroe Brabant

Auteur: Ron Vorstermans

DEN BOSCH – Aankomende priesters kregen tussen 1900 en 1965 speciale lessen over zeer uiteenlopende seksuele handelingen. Dat schrijft René Bastiaanse, directeur van het Brabants Historisch Informatiecentrum en presentator van het bekende Omroep Brabant-programma De Wandeling, in zijn boek ‘Onkuisheid’ dat deze week verscheen.

Alle standjes en technieken kwamen in de lessen aan de orde, waaronder perverse handelingen als seks met dieren, kinderen en dode mensen. Alles werd tot in detail weergegeven en niets bleef onbesproken.

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ROME
International Business Times

New Pope 2013: Sex Abuse Victims Group Names Filipino, Austrian and Irish as Promising Papabiles After Rejecting Dirty Dozen Cardinals

By Vittorio Hernandez March 7 2013

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), after giving the thumbs down on Wednesday to 12 cardinals because of their alleged bad record in handling sex abuse cases involving minors, gave the thumbs up on Thursday to three papabiles.

SNAP identified the three as Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Austria and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Ireland.

The network conceded that the Irish clergyman is not a cardinal, but Vatican does not prohibit the election of a non-cardinal as pope, although historically, it had been cardinals.

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey 101.5

A monument at a New Jersey Catholic church that is dedicated to victims of child sexual abuse has been destroyed for the second time in less than two years.

Local authorities say someone caused extensive damage to the 400-pound millstone that sits outside St. Joseph Church in Mendham. No suspects have been identified.

Mendham Mayor Neil Henry tells The Associated Press it appears the damage occurred late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

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NEW YORK
NYUNews

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Peter Keffer

Emeritus Benedict XVI’s personal decision to renounce the papal role has given the world outside of the Vatican walls a fleeting glimpse of the person beneath the weight of the triple-tiara and the burden of papal duty. A first in 600 years, Joseph Ratzinger’s resignation demonstrates an expression of personal liberty within a church afflicted by sexual abuse scandals and increasing secularism. This radical conclusion of Ratzinger’s tenancy as the bishop of Rome and leader of the Roman Catholic Church has given rise to questions of individualism and personal choice in specific doctrines of the church where such convictions lack. Ratzinger has built a stage on which the future trajectory of the world’s largest faith will be played out.

The late John Paul II’s acclaimed papacy demonstrates a love for theater within the papal role. Where Benedict was a quiet academic and theologian, his predecessor was something of a diplomatic celebrity — images of the late pope kissing the earth of more than a hundred countries are sure to decorate the memories of devoted Catholics more lavishly than Benedict’s more muted gestures. Doubtlessly, John Paul II enjoyed immense popularity during his papacy — his funeral was attended by over four million people and was the largest gathering of any statesman in history. This popularity, however, was merely superficial — and as this appearance faded, the church and the pope who followed John Paul II were haunted by the re-emerged ghosts of sexual abuse and corruption.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

VATICAN CITY | Fri Mar 8, 2013 12:59pm IST

(Reuters) – Joseph Ratzinger never hid the fact he thought the Roman Catholic papacy was too big for one man.

For several days after being elected in 2005, Pope Benedict – as he chose to be called – spoke as if in shock. At his first public Mass, he asked: “I must assume this enormous task, which truly exceeds all human capacity. How can I do this?”

At a meeting with fellow Germans the following day, Benedict surprised his well-wishers by likening the experience of being elected in the Sistine Chapel to getting dizzy as he watched a guillotine blade fall upon him.

Now he has broken six centuries of tradition and resigned, the Catholic Church is asking whether in an era of democracy, 24/7 television and Twitter, the papacy modelled on Renaissance-era monarchy is suffering the same fate. There have been sexual abuse scandals, disputes with Muslims and Jews, suspected money-laundering at the Vatican Bank and communications gaffes. Stacks of private files stolen by Benedict’s own butler have documented corruption and in-fighting among senior officials. …

Benedict dealt with sexual abuse cases in the final years of John Paul’s papacy, and when he became Pope, he started out boldly. He ordered Rev Marcial Maciel, founder of the strict Legionaries of Christ order and a favourite of his predecessor, to retire to a monastery in penance for his secret life as father of several children, sexual abuser of seminarians and drug user.

He apologised for the scandals and made private meetings with abuse victims a regular part of his visits abroad.

COVER-UPS

But the dirt kept surfacing. Four official reports into clerical child abuse in Ireland in as many years exposed details of priestly sin, and how the hierarchy covered it up. One clearly said the Vatican was complicit, leading to a once-unthinkable rebuke by Prime Minister Enda Kenny. Dublin’s embassy to the Holy See was closed in late 2011 and relations remain strained.

Between December 2009 and April 2010, three Irish bishops resigned and apologised for mishandling abuse cases in their dioceses. Also in 2010, a German bishop quit and apologised for physically abusing children. A Belgian bishop stepped down after admitting having molested his own under-age nephews. A Chilean bishop accused of abusing an altar boy quit in 2012, saying he had committed “an imprudent act” but the boy was not underage.

Such “zero tolerance” did not always apply to bishops who protected the predators in their dioceses. Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles stayed in office for years despite accusations – later proven true – that he shielded molesting clerics from the police. He has admitted to making “mistakes” and said he had been naïve about the impact of abuse. Bishop Robert Finn still leads the Kansas City diocese after being convicted of failing to alert authorities to a trove of child pornography found on a priest’s computer. He apologised “for the hurt that these events have caused”.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WJLA

By John Gonzalez, Suzanne Kennedy

March 7, 2013
As Catholic bishops from around the world descend on the Vatican to prepare to pick a new pope, speculation continues to swirl about who will succeed Pope Benedict XVI.

One of those names that is being tossed around is Washington Archbishop Cardinal Donald Wuerl.

With the start of the papal conclave just days away, the local cardinal is already in Rome. He’s among the 117 cardinals from around the world, and one of 11 Americans who will select the next pope.

“I think it’s awesome,” said Washington resident Bernadette Semple. “Cardinal Wuerl, I know him – great theologian, great leader, wonderful man.”

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CANADA
Toronto Sun

By Giuseppe Valiante,QMI Agency

First posted: Thursday, March 07, 2013

MONTREAL – Quebec City’s Catholic Diocese pleaded Thursday for reporters to not help ruin Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s chances of becoming the next pope.

Diocese spokesman Jasmin Lemieux-Lefebvre said recent media reports have sullied Ouellet’s name and unfairly associated the cardinal with his brother, a convicted pedophile.

“Ouellet’s brother has paid his debt to society after he committed the abuse,” Lemieux-Lefebvre said to reporters in Quebec City.

“I am speaking to the conscience of communication professionals, to please not associate Ouellet to his brother as if it were a stain on the cardinal’s record.”

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ROME
Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW in Rome

On a day when the cardinals again failed to name a date for the forthcoming conclave to elect a new pope, a US abuse victims’ lobby named Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin as one of three “most promising candidates” to succeed Benedict XVI.

In a provocative gesture given that Dr Martin is not a cardinal, clerical sex abuse victims’ lobby Snap said the archbishop, along with the archbishops of Manila and Vienna, cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle and Christoph Schönborn, represented the “least worst” choices.

Yesterday’s statement followed one on Wednesday when the lobby named a “Dirty Dozen” of cardinals whom they felt should not become pope, largely because of their alleged mishandling of clerical sex abuse cases. The list includes Canadian Marc Ouellet, Italian Angelo Scola, Ghanaian Peter Turkson and US cardinals Tim Dolan and Sean O’Malley.

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ROME
USCCB Blog

Thursday, March 7, 2013

By Sister Mary Ann Walsh

The leaks at the Vatican continue. The morning La Repubblica newspaper ran a story claiming revelations from the secret Vatican Report on Vatileaks. Meanwhile, a few Italian journalists apparently have the minutes of the General Congregation. The topic came up at today’s briefing. Stopping the leaks will be one challenge in a media culture which lives on leaks. It’s just the way to do business here in Rome and has been for years. One journalist asked how they could be sure a cardinal will not leak the papal election result before the new pope comes out on the balcony after the famous phrase: Habemus Papam (We have a pope). Finally, Father Lombardi declared, “If you know who leaked, tell us.” He added that if someone is wrongly disclosing information it is on their consciences.

The cardinal from Vietnam has finally arrived (He was met by Vietnamese staff of Vatican radio, which reaches all around the world), so cardinals can now make the decision about when to start the conclave. Rumors among Italian journalists, which were denied by the Holy See Press office, were that the opening Mass would be Monday. The press office also showed a video of conclave preparations, which included laying a floor in the Sistine Chapel, darkening windows and moving in a stove to burn ballots. We also saw men turning over the sod where a floral papal coat of arms had been planted in front of the Casa Santa Marta. Out goes the pope; out go his flowers. Wonder if new ones will be planted while waiting for the next pope.

The media were filling all spaces at the regular press office (the overflow press facility is in the Vatican audience hall). Cindy Wooden and Frank Rocca were in the Catholic News Service booth and Nicole Winfield and Daniela Simpson were working at the other end of the room in the AP booth. Jason Berry was among journalists standing about. Father Tom Reese, now of National Catholic Reporter, was heading back to the Jesuit curia residence, where he stays, because he needed a land line for a radio interview.

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NEW YORK
Staten Island Advance

By Maura Grunlund/Staten Island Advance
on March 07, 2013

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which is headed by New York’s Cardinal Dolan, claims that the leaks of information from the Vatican are continuing despite the Vatican’s decision to cancel the popular news conferences given by the American cardinals.

More than 5,000 reporters have descended on the Vatican and it’s apparently become a media feeding frenzy since Pope Benedict XVI became the first pontiff in nearly 600 years to resign on Feb. 28.

In her blog, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, the director of media relations for the conference, wrote from her temporary office inside the Vatican that “La Repubblica newspaper on Thursday ran a story claiming revelations from the secret Vatican Report on Vatileaks. Meanwhile, a few Italian journalists apparently have the minutes of the General Congregation.”

“Stopping the leaks will be one challenge in a media culture which lives on leaks. It’s just the way to do business here in Rome and has been for years.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Michelangelo Sigorile

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Britain’s highest-ranking Catholic cleric until he resigned last week, now admits that he did in fact engage in inappropriate “sexual conduct” with priests, as the Vatican scandals rock on in the wake of Benedict XVI’s resignation. But O’Brien’s story appears to underscore a larger, more pervasive reality about the dangers of the closet in society, and how it can be a corrupting force when combined with power, as I pointed out in a post a few weeks ago about former New York City Mayor Ed Koch.

Powerful closeted gay men, driven by an almost pathological fear of being exposed, many times engage in two often destructive activities: 1) speaking out against gays and homosexuality, or courting those who are anti-gay, in a desperate attempt to show that they are not gay themselves, and 2) seeking sex through risky channels, feeling that they have no choice because they’re unable to freely have sexual encounters via public, everyday social situations, like dating or going to bars or public places.

We’ve seen this over and over again: the homophobic hypocrite caught trying to have gay sex in public restroom stalls or posting nude photos online. However, another way that the powerful and closeted seek sex is by engaging in workplace sexual harassment and abuse of men who are compromised (sometimes, but not always, closeted and conflicted themselves) and fearful of being fired from their jobs if they rebuff these sexual advances.

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