ABUSE TRACKER

CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on March 07, 2013

We sincerely apologize for offending anyone by using the phrase “dirty dozen.”

We are a staff of three abuse victims working very hard to protect kids, help victims, expose wrongdoers and deter cover ups in a huge, powerful, global institutions. We simply are incapable of monitoring how a 40 year old movie title translates into multiple languages and slang expression.

We hope Catholics and citizens, in Canada and elsewhere, will focus on what we believe really matters:

–Accounts in credible mainstream media that Cardinal Ouellet refused to meet with victims in Canada.

–Cardinal Ouellet’s recent bragging about the church’s abuse response

–Cardinal Ouellet’s widely reported – and thus far un-refuted – brokering of a deal with a Scottish church official who retired a few weeks early after denying and then admitting sexual misconduct with several seminarians and young priests.

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ROME
NPR

by Mark Memmott

March 06, 2013

As Roman Catholic cardinals now gathered in Rome continue to make preparations for their conclave that will choose a new pope, NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli tells our Newscast Desk that “advocates for victims of clerical sex abuse across the world are stepping up demands that three cardinals withdraw” from that process.

According to Sylvia:

“The victims groups accuse three cardinals of covering up crimes. Victims of an Italian priest have launched a petition against Cardinal Domenico Calcagno. Advocates of victims in Chile accuse Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz of ignoring accusations they were abused by a popular priest. In Mexico, victims of the disgraced Father Marcial Maciel are demanding that Cardinal Norberto Rivera stay away from the conclave.”

As The Associated Press notes: Calcagno has declined comment about accusations that he covered up any abuse; Errazuriz has also “denied any cover-up;” and Rivera has “repeatedly denied wrongdoing.”

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ROME
Fox News Latino

By Bryan Llenas

Published March 07, 2013

As the Archbishop of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Odilo Pedro Scherer bears the tremendous responsibility of being the face of the Church in the world’s most populous Catholic nation.

Born to German immigrant parents in the Brazilian city of San Francisco, Cerro Largo, Scherer, 63, is the youngest of the Latin American cardinals considered possibilities to become the next pope.

Scherer is also one of the few cardinals with a Twitter account — @DomOdiloScherer — and though he doesn’t send out daily dispatches, he has amassed 22,500 followers.

His age could prove to be a double-edged sword with those who think he lacks sufficient seasoning for the top job. Conversely, some of the cardinals who will select the next pope may be looking for a man who can be expected to lead the Church for decades, as did Pope John Paul II.

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CANADA
CNews

By Giuseppe Valiante, QMI Agency

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.

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PHILIPPINES
GMA News

A U.S.-based organization representing victims of child abuse named two cardinals and an archbishop, who they say are the best candidates to become the new Pope.

At a news conference in Rome, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said that Cardinals Christoph Schonborn and Luis Antonio Tagle and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin were the “least worst” papal candidates on the basis of their words and actions in regards to the clergy sex abuse crisis.

The Roman Catholic Church has been rocked in recent decades by repeated sex scandals, primarily in wealthy Western nations such as the United States, Ireland and Germany. Many of the cases dated back decades and became known only later.

SNAP member Barbara Doris explained why the organization favors Schonborn, Tagle and Martin before SNAP Director David Clohessy held up a card listing their names.

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CANADA
Canada.com

The Canadian Press
Published: March 7, 2013

QUEBEC — A Roman Catholic Church spokesman is criticizing a list that calls Canada’s Marc Cardinal Ouellet and 11 other papal candidates the “Dirty Dozen.”

Jasmin Lemieux-Lefebvre, a church spokesman in Quebec City and a former press attache to Ouellet, says none of the cardinals deserves such negative recognition.

The U.S.-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests put Ouellet on the list because it said he refused to meet with sex-abuse victims. Ouellet recently told the CBC he met with victims during a visit to Ireland.

The “Dirty Dozen” reference comes from a 1967 film of the same name that features 12 convicts assigned to a raid on a German-filled chateau during the Second World War.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

Thursday, March 7, 2013

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

Billy Doe’s mother kept meticulous track of both of her sons’ grade school events.

On monthly calendars, she noted dates and times for football and hockey games, doctor’s appointments, and guitar lessons, flu shots and snow days. She wrote down dates for upcoming exams, school projects, home and school meetings, as well as the day that report cards came out.

She also kept track of the Masses that her sons were scheduled to serve at as altar boys at St. Jerome’s Church.

Billy Doe’s mother kept all those calendars, including the 1998 and 1999 calendars when Billy was a fifth grader at St. Jerome’s. That’s the school year when Billy claims he was raped by Father Charles Engelhardt after a 6:30 a.m. Mass.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Telegraph (Australia)

A DECISION on when to elect the new head of the Catholic Church could be made as early as tomorrow as cardinals are reportedly already clashing on the timing of the election.

The Vatican has reported the last of the 115 cardinals eligible to vote on a new pontiff are expected in Rome today, almost a week after Pope Benedict XVI’s historic stepping down causing a power vacuum at the top.

Up to a dozen cardinals have been missing from pre-conclave meetings designed to look at potential papal candidates ahead of the actual voting process to be held in the Sistine Chapel.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

David Gibson | Mar 7, 2013

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Roman Catholic cardinals meeting here to pick a successor to Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday (March 7) that they still have not set a date for the actual conclave to begin, and while that decision could come any day, a lot of people are wondering what is holding them up.

Benedict announced his intention to resign nearly a month ago, on Feb. 11, the resignation took effect on Feb. 28, and most of the cardinals have been in town for more than a week. So what’s the delay?

The problem, in short, stems from the arcane structure of the papal election process, which forbids cardinals from campaigning (overtly) for the top office while a pope reigns – or even when he leaves office. More importantly, the process does not allow for any real vetting or lobbying during the prayerful silence of the conclave balloting itself.

As a result, the precious days between the time a pontiff leaves office and the moment the 115 cardinal-electors enter the Sistine Chapel provide virtually the only opportunities for them to sound out colleagues and size up potential candidates, and that’s what’s happening now during the daily meetings known as the General Congregations.

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ROME
The Times (UK)

James Bone
Rome

A group representing victims of abuse by Catholic clergy called yesterday for the Archbishop of Dublin to be made Pope. The Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) endorsed Archbishop Diarmuid Martin — even though he is not a Cardinal.

SNAP, the largest victims group, put him on its “most promising candidates” list alongside Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines and Christoph Schoenborn of Austria. All 115 voting Cardinals have now arrived in Rome, making it possible for them to decide the date of the conclave to select the next pope.

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ROME
NBC News

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

American Cardinal Roger Mahony tweeted Thursday that his fellow princes of the church are close to setting a date for the conclave that will choose the next pope, but the day ended without it happening.

Vietnamese Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man arrives at the Vatican on Thursday. He was the last of the 115th electors to arrive in Rome for the conclave.

“Days of General Congregations reaching a conclusion. Setting of date for Conclave nearing. Mood of excitement prevails among Cardinals,” wrote Mahony, who was stripped of his public duties in January over his handling of sex abuse claims in Los Angeles. He still retains a vote in the conclave.

Mahony took to Twitter a day after all cardinals agreed to a media blackout after concern was raised that some of them — chiefly the Americans, who held two press briefings — were talking too much.

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ROME
Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA

It is now March 7 here in Rome. In two days, our Novena to St. Joseph begins. It would be an incredible blessing to have it end on the Feast of St. Joseph, Universal Patron of the Church, on March 19, with the Inauguration of our new Pope!

Please join me in this 9 day Novena:

O glorious St. Joseph, faithful follower of Jesus Christ, to you do we come to ask your powerful intercession in obtaining from the merciful Heart of Jesus all the helps and graces that we need for our spiritual and temporal welfare, and in particular the grace of a happy death, and the special favor we now implore (silently recall the grace you are requesting). O guardian of the Word incarnate, we know with confidence that your prayers on our behalf will be graciously heard before the throne of God, and that God will grant us whatever is for His greater glory and for our greatest good.

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VATICAN CITY
John Thavis

The College of Cardinals’ blanket ban on interviews with the press has returned the conclave narrative to its traditional padroni: Italian journalists and their Italian and Roman Curia sources.

On a practical level, the move effectively muzzled U.S. cardinals and sent a signal that the Vatican’s communication culture remains one of back-channel sources, leaks and speculation — not on-the-record press conferences.

Not surprisingly, the Italian papers today – in particular, La Stampa – were chock full of unsourced details from the cardinals’ closed-door general congregation meetings. Cardinal Fernando Filoni, the Italian head of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, gave a global report on missionary challenges. Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, the Italian head of the Congregation for Clergy, weighed in with an overview on the priesthood and vocations.

Italian Cardinal Camillo Ruini spoke about the need to choose a younger pope with sufficient energy. Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet and U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, both Roman Curia officials, talked about the figure and role of “pope emeritus.” Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola went over the five-minute limit in his talk on the nature of the church.

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VATICAN CITY
La Stampa

Andrea Tornielli

VATICAN CITY

One of the cardinals getting ready to enter the upcoming conclave knows that he himself is not papabile — that is, his is not one of the names being considered as a possible next pope. Perhaps for this reason he has taken the time to lay out to La Stampa, in a letter written with an old-fashioned silver fountain pen, what he believes is the ideal profile for the successor to Pope Benedict XVI. Other cardinals have spoken to us in confidence, and a few have even spoken in public, about the man they will be seeking when the conclave begins later this month. While an ideal picture begins to come into focus, so too does the challenge of finding one man to meet all the requirements.

“What we want in a new pope is someone who isn’t too old and has good physical stamina, which is what Benedict XVI indicated to us in his own statement of resignation,” wrote the anonymous Cardinal. “That he is not too young has been repeated by many of my fellow cardinals so that we avoid another reign of 30 years. (a reference to John Paul II’s 27-year reign) That we need a pontiff able to reform the Curia (Vatican government) is something many think; that the faithful expect a shepherd pope who is able to bring forth a positive message is something we all know.

This time, age and physical strength are likely to weigh in. Just like they were important in the second conclave in 1978 after the sudden death of Pope John Paul I, when the cardinals chose a 58-year-old cardinal as his successor: Karol Wojtyla. As he announced that he would be stepping down, Benedict XVI said: “In today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary.”

Even with the possibility that resignation, after Benedict set a new precedent, could pave the way for a very young successor, most cardinals say they believe the most likely successor is someone “around 65-70 years-old.”

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ROME
dotCommonweal

March 7, 2013,

Posted by Dominic Preziosi

Leading stories on a slow news day: “Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi has announced that no date for the papal conclave has been established,” while rumors of a Monday mass for “election of the pontiff” are not true. And, the final electing cardinal has landed in Rome; he is “Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man from Vietnam, and his arrival brings the College of Cardinals to its full count of 115.”

The ban on on-the-record interviews was supposed to plug leaks to the press, but John Thavis reports on the unsurprising results, noting that “the Vatican’s communication culture remains one of back-channel sources and speculation,” as evidenced by the fact that Italian papers today “were chock-full unsourced details from the cardinals’ closed-door” meetings. (A good example from earlier this week: La Stampa’s piece headlined “The Perfect Next Pope: A Secret Guide From Anonymous Cardinals,” in which one unidentified Vatican source is described “taking the time to lay out” his thoughts in a letter “written with an old-fashioned silver fountain pen.”)

Thavis says another story line (aside from the apparent lack of cohesion and focus among cardinals) may be the Curia’s surprise at the “unexpected activism” of the U.S. contingent of cardinals—and the consequent renewed attention to potential American candidates like Timothy Dolan.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The last of the 115 cardinals who will chose the new Pope has arrived in Rome.

Vietnamese Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man joined his colleagues in closed-door discussions at the Vatican.

His presence means a date can now be set for the conclave to choose a successor to Benedict XVI as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict stepped down last month after nearly eight years in office, becoming the first pontiff to do so in 600 years.

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ITALY
PolicyMic

Jake Horowitz

In a very strange update courtesy of PinkNews.com, which bills itself as Europe’s largest gay news service, a Catholic priest has apparently called on the conclave to elect a gay man to be the next pope, to avoid association with pedophilia.

Don Andrea Gallo, who is an outspoken advocate of LGBT right, had this to say to Italy’s Radio 24: “A homosexual pope would be a magnificent thing. The essence of the Gospel is that we are all God’s sons and daughters and we are all equal as God’s children. “The homosexual priest must be free to express his identity and his sexuality, because repression leads to pedophilia.”

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CANADA
Hindustan Times

A woman has come forward in defence of Hindu priest, Karam Vir, accused of sexually exploiting two teenage members of his congregation in March 2010.

The woman, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, was a defence witness at British Columbia (BC) Supreme Court, where she stated that the priest made a “big difference” during his tenure at an Abbotsford temple.

The woman said that before Vir arrived in 2008, the temple was unclean and had financial problems, which she described through an interpreter as “very bad, actually”.

She said Vir properly submitted donation receipts and operated according to temple rules.

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Charisma News

3/7/2013 Naomi O’Leary/Reuters

Colm O’Gorman was 14 years old when Father Sean Fortune arrived unannounced at his parents’ house in a small town in southern Ireland. The priest was given tea and a seat by the fire, and asked the teenager to help set up a youth group.

“I was 14, and very eager and hungry to be out in the world, involved in things, doing things, making a difference. And that’s what he exploited,” said O’Gorman, now 46 and the executive director of Amnesty International in Ireland.

The abuse that followed, culminating in Fortune’s repeated rape of the boy, was part of one of the greatest scandals ever to hit the Catholic Church, damaging the curtailed papacy of Pope Benedict and posing a huge challenge to whoever succeeds him.

O’Gorman’s story is just one in a worldwide scandal that destroyed lives, bankrupted dioceses, and in many cases cost the Church its most precious asset: faith.

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HAWAII
KPUA

By 67AM KPUA News

A lawsuit has been filed in Honolulu Circuit Court accusing a revered Big Island priest of sexually abusing two boys while employed at Damien Memorial High School in the 1960’s. The suit filed this week on behalf of two men identified as John Roe 6 and John Roe 7 to protect their privacy names Father George DeCosta, Damien Memorial High School, the Roman Catholic Diocese and the Congregation of Christian Brothers as defendants.

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TEXAS
Hispanically Speaking News

Father Eusebio Martinez has been arrested in Texas for vandalizing the property of a local resident family, the Villanuevas.

Father Martinez is Pastor of the Holy Family Catholic Church in the border town of Edinburg, Texas which has a predominantly Latino population. He was allegedly caught on camera drilling holes in the tires of the family’s car according to Valley Central. It is not known if the priest was wearing his official garb when he was filmed.

Local police began investigating Father Martinez back in January when the family submitted video evidence of the vandalism. He was arrested this morning and is out of jail on a personal recognizance bond.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

By Terry Sanderson

The Catholic Church is in crisis, and not a moment before time. The level of arrogant politicisation to which it aspired under the papacy of Joseph Ratzinger was appalling.

Not that such interference in secular politics has stopped. Only this week we read that the Catholic bishops in Northern Ireland are rushing to support new restrictions on abortion in the province, where the law is already severe by most European standards. And in thePhilippines a huge tarpaulin has been erected over the front of a cathedral naming politicians who didn’t vote in the way the Church wanted them to, and advising worshippers in turn not to vote for them in elections.

Now Cardinal Keith O’Brien,Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric and one of the most prominent opponents of same-sex marriage, has been brought low over “inappropriate behaviour”. His own cruel and overblown rhetoric is now catching up with him and intensifying his humiliation. The hatred that he heaped on the gay community because it dared to aspire to equality turns out to have been just a cover for his own, unresisted, sexual impulses.

So what will the Catholic Church do now? Will the new pope see sense and accept that the world has moved on and that his Church must move on too, if it is to retain any relevance. Will he accept that many of its teachings are impractical, unheeded and despised?

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TEXAS
Valley Star

By Ildefonso Ortiz, The Monitor

McALLEN — An Edinburg area priest was arrested by McAllen Police for slashing the tires of a parishioner.

Eusebio Martinez was formally charged with one count of vandalism on Thursday morning when Municipal Judge Robert Salazar set his bond at $2,000 personal recognizance.

Police began investigating Martinez on January 13 after a victim got video of him damaging the tires, said police spokesman Lieutenant Joel Morales.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on attempts by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) to smear papal candidates:

David Clohessy, the head of SNAP, rails against the Catholic Church for not reporting suspected sexual abusers to the police, yet he has admitted that he himself failed to call the cops when he learned of a priest who molested a male youth. He accuses the Church of lying, yet he has admitted under oath that he has lied to the media about his work. He says the Church lacks transparency, yet he refuses to disclose the source of his funding. He says the Church failed to give adequate counseling to victims, yet he acknowledges that SNAP offers no counseling services. Moreover, in 2007, his organization spent $593 for “survivor support” (Clohessy, who has no counseling license, holds counseling sessions at Starbucks), yet in 2008 he spent $92,000 on travel. And so on.

SNAP is broke. Less than two weeks ago, it sent an e-mail to its donors pleading with them, “We are barely meeting our everyday expenses.” That’s because they have nothing to do. The homosexual abuse scandal ended almost three decades ago, leaving few of their rapacious lawyer friends who have been suing the Church to grease them anymore. This explains their latest stunt.

Yesterday, Clohessy released SNAP’s “dirty dozen” list of cardinals who may be named pope. It’s a sure sign they are in panic mode; they need to kick-start their operations once again. It was revealing, too, that they are furious about those “who pretend the worst is over.” They have to say that. They have no other choice but to lie.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Mar. 7, 2013

Rome —
While we wait for a date for the conclave, there are three fresh developments in the pre-conclave drama worth bringing up to speed.

A boost for Dolan

Veteran Italian writer Sandro Magister has offered a major plug for the candidacy of Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York as the next pope, styling him as the great hope of non-Roman cardinals who want to break the grip of “the feudal lords of the curia.”

Magister upsets conventional wisdom by suggesting Dolan is actually a stronger runner than his fellow North American, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who usually finishes much nearer the top of candidate handicapping lists.

He also suggests that the candidacy of Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer of Brazil is being floated by the Vatican’s old guard, who, Magister asserts, see him as “docile and bland.” In part, the analysis is based on the fact that Scherer served in the Congregation for Bishops from 1994 to 2001 under Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, a consummate Vatican insider and presumably one of those “feudal lords” Magister had in mind.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

The Conclave rescue effort to find a new Captain to save Peter’s sinking Barque has already failed. Women and children were not first. Instead, women’s equality and child protection have already, in effect, been thrown over the side. Aging Vatican Captain Ratzinger had already shrewdly jumped ship with Gorgeous Georg to manipulate the Conclave by remote control.

Dominant aging Vatican Cardinals, led by Cardinal Sodano and his new ally (apparently out of desperation), Cardinal Bertone, have been left on board to steer. These students of Machiavelli have focused almost solely on helping some Cardinals continue to avoid prosecution, among other ways, by closely guarding the secret dossier on Vatican scandals. These over-the-hill successors to petty Italian princes seem unable to see, it appears, that the Vatican barque is almost mastless and taking on water. This Vatican clique just refuses to change its secret course despite rumors that more Vatileaks from many more Vatican moles are in transit. While the best Clown Prince may have just been elected to run Italy, the unintended Italian Clown Princes seem to be controlling the Conclave.

Of course, Cardinal Sodano had a half century earlier seen Cardinal Ottaviani, his predecessor as Vatican clique leader, play this game very succesfully at the Second Vatican Council where his opponent was a brave anti-Nazi veteran, Cardinal Frings, and his smart and ambitious aide, Joseph Ratzinger. At Vatican II, almost all Cardinals and Bishops wanted power sharing with the Vatican, a married priest option and more family planning choices for couples, while they frequently criticized the Vatican clique, the Curia. The Curia patiently marked time and undid or undercut the Council’s reform initiatives by controlling the Popes, in some cases beginning even before the Vatican II prelates returned home. Thereafter, the ambitious Ratzinger switched from the losing side and developed Vatican II amnesia, as he climbed ruthlessly and rapidly up the hierarchical ladder. He also played this game before.

Watching the Conclave in light of the Vatican clique’s manipulation of the Second Vatican Council’s unimplemented reform initiatives, one must immediately think of the quote of the famous Italian American “ballplayer/philosopher”, Yogi Berra, “It is ‘deja vu’ all over again”! By “faking” his own ecclesiastical “death”, the Shadow Pope, Ratzinger, appears well on his way masterfully to installing a younger clone to replace him in the drive to create a smaller priest cult funded worldwide by overly trusting, insufficiently informed and politically conservative Catholics led by their plutocratic cheerleaders.

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PHILIPPINES
Massachusetts Newswire

MANILA, Philippines, March 6, 2013 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Only a few days have passed since the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, and already speculation is rampant about his replacement. In Asia, those who are devoted to one of the prime candidates, Archbishop of Manila Cardinal Luis Tagle, have mounted an Internet campaign to share their support of his potential selection, according to Batangas Varsitarian.

On websites like http://Batangasvarsitarian.net they even post links to social network pages of members of the College of Cardinals, so that supporters can directly message the actual decision makers who will choose the next Pope.

There has never been a Pope from Asia, and no pontiff has been chosen from outside Europe for 1500 years (since Gelasius I, who was from North Africa). Supporters of Cardinal Tagle believe that his selection would bring the world’s attention not only to the Philippines, home of 75 million Catholics, but to the vast number of Third World believers often ignored by Western media.

Says website co-director Eula Laki “We know the Church has their own selection process which is almost 2000 years old. We have no idea if God supports using social media to affect this procedure, but we decided to put the information out there and let people decide what to do according to their own consciences.”

“If nothing else,” says Angelina Ramos, one of the effort’s founders, “We will be acquainting the world with the amazing works and character of this exemplary church father.”

Already the effort has brought together many expatriate Filipinos in learning about the revolutionary work the Church has done in the Archipelago in promoting education, health care, and poverty alleviation.

Though Cardinal Tagle is an accomplished humanitarian and scholar, as a Professor of Dogmatic Synthesis at San Carlos Seminary and winner of the Adelina Award for charity work, his youthful age (56) may work against him as a potential candidate for Pope. But the founders of the movement believe their work has already been successful in throwing a spotlight on the Catholic Church in Asia.

For more information go to http://batangasvarsitarian.net/ .

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler
March 07, 2013 12:19 PM

Something historic is happening in Rome this week. Not only preparations for the election of a new Roman Pontiff—although that would be historic in itself—but the clash between two incompatible visions of how the Catholic Church should present herself to the world.

Yesterday the American cardinals abruptly suspended the press briefings they had been organizing every day during the sede vacante period, apparently under pressure from other prelates. The director of the Vatican press office, Father Federico Lombardi, seemed more comfortable, now that the competition to his own daily briefings had been eliminated. He explained that while the cardinals were meeting for confidential discussions, it was important for all the participants to be sure that their talks would not leak into the public domain. More candid officials (and it is not difficult to find officials more candid than the Vatican’s chief spokesman) revealed that the American cardinals were shutting down their media operation because of a backlash caused by leaks to the Italian press.

There had indeed been some serious leaks. The Italian daily La Stampa, in particular, had printed detailed accounts of the “confidential” talks in the cardinals’ congregations. But these leaks had nothing to do with the American prelates’ daily briefings.

Think about it. A “leak” is, by nature, a surreptitious release of information. The American cardinals were doing nothing at all surreptitious; they were speaking in plain sight, with cameras and tape recorders rolling. If their briefings had been the source of indiscreet reports on the meetings in the Synod Hall, the whole world would have known it—and would have known exactly who broke the seal of secrecy.

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VATICAN CITY
Los Angeles Times

By Tom Kington
March 7, 2013

VATICAN CITY — A day after the U.S. delegation shut down its popular daily media briefing, the Vatican continued to struggle Thursday to stem the tide of leaks to Italian media, allegedly by cardinals gathered for private meetings ahead of their eagerly anticipated conclave to elect a new pope.

About 150 cardinals have been meeting daily this week at the Vatican to discuss the future of the Roman Catholic Church and to form opinions about possible candidates to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who retired last week.

Despite the prelates’ sworn oath to keep details of the proceedings secret, Italian newspapers have provided daily leaked accounts of which cardinals have spoken and of the reluctance on the part of some to agree on a date for the conclave until they are told more about alleged infighting and mismanagement at the Vatican.

Cardinals had been allowed to give interviews as long as they skirted the details of the meetings, known as general congregations. But that practice came to an end when the cardinals agreed Wednesday to refrain from all contacts with the media.

The decision put a lid on the daily briefings given by cardinals from the United States, leading critics to allege that the ban was aimed primarily at halting the Americans’ bid to bring some transparency to the traditionally secretive Vatican.

Despite the ban, on Thursday there was no sign of the leaks in Italian media drying up. La Stampa alleged that a senior European cardinal had asked to know the names of two lay people reportedly named in a secret report commissioned by Benedict on corruption inside the Vatican. The request was turned down, the report said.

Asked on Thursday if the cardinals might consider further measures to stop the leaks, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said, “We count on the responsibility and morality of people.”

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UNITED STATES
Fox News Latino

By Bryan Llenas

Published March 07, 2013

Miguel Diaz, the former US Ambassador to the Vatican, is one of the few Americans who got to know Pope Benedict XVI on a personal level.

“He had a personal way of relating to my family, when we asked him to pray about the kids, he would always smile and in an affirmative way convey to us that he would do so,” Díaz told Fox News Latino.

The Cuban-American is the first Hispanic to ever represent the US at the Holy See and, as a result, has had a front row seat to Benedict’s pontificate – and therefore is more keenly aware of who needs to be the next pope.

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VATICAN CITY
CTV (Canada)

The Associated Press
Published Thursday, Mar. 7, 2013

VATICAN CITY — The last cardinal who will participate in the conclave to elect Benedict XVI’s successor as pope has arrived in Rome.

Vietnamese Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man attended the Thursday afternoon session of the pre-conclave meetings in a Vatican audience hall after his flight landed earlier in the day. He said nothing to reporters as he arrived.

He was the last of the 115 cardinal electors to arrive in Rome, and his presence now means that the cardinals can set a date for the conclave.

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

By Samuel Burke & Juliet Fuisz, CNN

Pope Benedict XVI bears personal responsibility for not holding sexually abusive priests in the Catholic Church accountable, alleges the director of a new documentary, “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God.”

“From 2001 to 2005, as cardinal, [Benedict] ran the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. And in that office, he looked over every sex abuse case that there was all over the world. So he’s the most knowledgeable person in the world about this issue,” director Alex Gibney told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “Then, as pope, he presided, as more and more information about this came out. And he was pretty much utterly ineffective in being able to stem the tide.”

Gibney, whose documentaries have taken on complicated characters from Jack Abramoff to Dick Cheney, says Benedict took some positive steps: “He did make some apologies. He did blame some bishops. But he took no responsibility for the Vatican itself. So, in a way, I think this whole sex abuse crisis engulfed Benedict.”

“Mea Maxima Culpa” focuses on the case of Father Lawrence Murphy, an American priest who is accused of molesting as many as 200 boys at St. John’s School for the Deaf. The film traces his case to the highest levels of Church power.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Solihull News

Mar 7 2013

A SOLIHULL priest and school governor has been arrested by police investigating historic child sex allegations.

Father Ted Simpson, based at Olton Friary in Solihull, was arrested on January 25 on suspicion of sexual activity with a minor.

West Midlands Police said he was currently on bail while inquiries continued.

Staff at the church seemed unaware of the police investigation. One said: “He has not retired yet, but he may do. I should leave things alone for the moment.”

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ROME
Gazzetta del Sud

(By Christopher Livesay) Rome, March 7 – As the last cardinals made their way to Rome this week ahead of the conclave to elect a new pope, fresh priest sex-abuse allegations surfaced on Thursday as advocates and victims called on the Church to make pedophilia a central focus when considering a successor to Benedict XVI. In Italy, a group campaigning against priest sex abuse on Thursday called for Cardinal Domenico Calcagno to be banned from electing a new pope. Francesco Zanardi, the head of L’Abuso, said he he will be in Rome Friday to “personally hand (Vatican Spokesman Federico) Lombardi and the Vatican administrative office” a petition signed by numerous people demanding that “Cardinal Calcagno stays out of the conclave”. Zanardi accuses Calcagno, a former bishop of the northern city of Savona, and two other recent bishops there of systematically covering up cases of pedophilia in the diocese. On Sunday, pedophilia victims appeared on Italian television with accusations that Benedict knew of several cases of priest sex abuse in Savona but never did anything about it. The accusers, who made their statements on Italian television program Le Iene, said that the Vatican failed to press charges against several priests in the city of Savona who victimized minors 10 years ago when then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was cardinal-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose role required investigating the sexual abuse of minors by priests. Presented as evidence on the program was a letter dated September 8, 2003 and addressed to Ratzinger in which Calcagno informed him of a priest who had been accused of pedophilia. The priest, who was later transferred to another parish, was sentenced to one year in jail last year. In an unrelated case, an Italian consumer association is pressing forward in its motion to investigate Cardinal Roger Mahony and his role in allegedly covering up instances of priest sex abuse in the United States.

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ROME
The Daily Beast

by Barbie Latza Nadeau
Mar 7, 2013

As Cardinals arrive in Rome to choose a new pontiff, victims of priest sex abuse have laid out their case against the top contenders, and say that even the best options are tainted by the global scandal.

“Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and a pure heart…” says the Bible. But as the College of Cardinals gets closer to choosing a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who retired on February 28, it is becoming an

This week, as the cardinals descended on Rome for pre-conclave congregational meetings to share concerns for the global church and form a profile of what they want in a new pontiff, another group of concerned Catholics held court of their own to voice the concerns of victims of predator priests. SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests), the 12,000-member strong priest abuse victims’ group, issued its “dirty dozen” of potential popes who they feel would be “the worst papal candidates for the safety of children” and gave their blessing to three others who they feel are “the least of the bad” who could lead their church out of its darkest hour. They also presented a wish list for what they believe the church should do going forward, which includes “to severely and clearly discipline, demote, denounce and defrock bishops caught concealing sex abuse crimes.” They would also like the church to order bishops in local diocese to “turn over every piece of paper relating to accusations of abuse” which they believe would stop predators in their tracks.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Birmingham Mail

Father Ted Simpson, of Olton Friary in Solihull, has been arrested and quizzed by police over child sex allegations

A Midland priest and school governor has been arrested by police investigating historic child sex allegations.

Father Ted Simpson, based at Olton Friary in Solihull, was arrested on January 25 on suspicion of sexual activity with a minor.

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VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost

An excommunicated female priest decked out in her liturgical robes was detained by Italian police for demonstrating at the Vatican on Thursday, where she called on the Catholic Church to rethink its policy on ordaining women.

Unfurling a red and white banner reading “Women Priests are Here”, Janice Sevre-Duszynska said she wanted to draw attention to the lack of a voice for women as cardinals gather at the Vatican to choose former pope Benedict XVI’s successor.

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ROME
CNN

By Richard Allen Greene and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

updated 11:29 AM EST, Thu March 7, 2013

Rome (CNN) — A cardinal from the Philippines, another from Austria and an archbishop from Ireland would be the “least worst” choices to be the next pope, according to a group representing the victims of abuse by priests.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, released its list Thursday as cardinals held meetings at the Vatican in a prelude to the selection of the next pontiff.

The three are Cardinal Luis Tagle of the Philippines; Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Austria; and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, Ireland.

Martin is not a cardinal, but SNAP noted that a man need not be a cardinal to be elected pope. Historically, the role has gone to cardinals, however.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Cardinals are calling for stronger communication between the Pope and his “ministers” and between the Church headquarters in Rome and the local Churches

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

After asking for more information on the Vatileaks affair, cardinals are calling for reforms in the Curia. There needs to be better communication between the Pope and his “ministers”, improved coordination between dicasteries and stronger links between the central Church in Rome and the local Churches. These were some of the issues discussed during the third General Congregation session yesterday morning. The Conclave start date is still to be decided and a number of cardinals have asked for the discussion phase to be extended to the beginning of next week. They are eager to get to know each other, to examine the state of the Church across the world and to find out what the state of affairs within the Roman Curia is, given the various scandals it has recently been at the centre of.

Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts gave a speech on the last of these issues. The Milanese cardinal spoke of the need for better communication between the Pope and dicastery leaders: there needs to be constant contact and exchanges with the Pope. Once upon a time, the Pope used to hold pre-scheduled audiences throughout the year, not just with prefects of Congregations, but also with secretaries; so even deputies had contact with the Pope and could get a first hand idea of the problems the Church was facing, helping them in their decision-making.

In recent decades, the number of pre-scheduled audiences has been reduced and were only attended by some heads of dicasteries such as prefects of bishops and of the former Holy Office. The Secretariat of State has increasingly acted as a buffer: recently one dicastery leader/cardinal had to wait several months before he was able to meet with the Pope.

Cardinal Cocopalmerio therefore spoke of the need for an improved coordination and exchange of information within the Curia itself, between the various “ministries”. The cardinal also touched on the subject of relations between the Holy See in Rome and the Episcopal Conferences across the world: he emphasised that it is important for more consideration to be given to the needs of local Churches. Finally, Coccopalmerio said it was high time the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus was updated. This was the document with which John Paul II reformed the Curia in 1988.The cardinal did not go into the details but many now agree that streamlining and rationalisation are crucial.

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NEW YORK
Catholic League

Bill Donohue addresses New York State Assemblywoman Margaret Markey’s Child Victims Act:

Over the past several years, Markey has introduced legislation addressing the sexual abuse of minors. One problem: her bills focus unfairly on private institutions, leaving public institutions virtually untouched. This year’s version of her bill offers no change; it would open up a one-year window for alleged victims who were abused in a private institution regardless of when it took place. But it changes nothing for a victim who was abused in a public school even as recently as Thanksgiving (he only has ninety days to report the abuse).

On Friday, Markey will hold a rally outside City Hall in Manhattan in an attempt to persuade the public. It is interesting to note that the roster of speakers at the press conference does not include anyone from the Department of Education. Doing so would open Markey up to questions that she does not want to answer. One being, why a private school student who had his crotch grabbed by a janitor a quarter century ago has greater rights than a public school student who was abused by a teacher a few months ago.

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ROMA
Fatti di Cronaca

La chiesa attende l’elezione del nuovo Papa, ma il caso Vatileaks irrompe sulle pagine della stampa nazionale mentre il Conclave non è ancora ufficialmente aperto. “I corvi sono tanti, più di 20 persone“. È quanto emerge da un’intervista fatta da Marco Ansaldo per Repubblica proprio a un “ex corvo” come si definisce l’intervistato. Con le dimissioni di Benedetto XVI il caso torna a spaventare il Vaticano e per i corvi “è venuto il momento di parlare“. I motivi sono vari, ma c’è un unico scopo: i documenti trafugati dall’Appartamento del Papa fanno parte di “un’operazione di trasparenza nella Chiesa“, necessaria per riformare i vertici vaticani.

Il maggiordomo del Papa, Paolo Gabriele, non è il solo corvo in Vaticano. Più di venti, donne e uomini, laici e prelati: lo spiega “l’ex corvo” che si definisce così perché “non ci sono più Papi da difendere o verità da far emergere. È tutto nel rapporto segreto compilato dai tre cardinali anziani“. È un credente, molto fedele alla Chiesa, che conosce il Vaticano e i suoi ingranaggi così come i protagonisti dei retroscena, quelli che tirano i fili da dietro le quinte, ed è esperto di finanza.

Sarebbe proprio l’aspetto finanziario la vera causa scatenante del caso Vatileaks, tenendo conto che i documenti in possesso del giornalista Gianluigi Nuzzi. Circa due anni fa il Papa chiese a monsignor Carlo Maria Viganò di iniziare “un’operazione di razionalizzazione nelle attività economiche dalla Santa Sede, unite all’opera di trasparenza affidata a Gotti allo Ior“.

Tutto però venne ostacolato perché si temeva che venissero lesi gli equilibri degli enti che si andavano a controllare. “Così nacque una lobby in Vaticano, composta da persone che lavoravano fra Governatorato, Apsa, Segreteria di Stato, Biblioteca, Archivio, Musei, Cei, Osservatore Romano, che ha cominciato a dialogare“.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Vatican is still annoyed at the leaks of confidential proceedings to the media by U.S. cardinals. All cardinal electors are now in Rome: the Conclave nears

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

All 114 cardinal electors have now arrived in Rome so the College of Cardinals can finally decide on a date for their entry to the Sistine Chapel. During the Congregations, cardinals discussed thepossibility of beginning the election process Sunday or Monday. This morning the remaining few cardinal electors swore an oath of secrecy and in the afternoon the Conclave start-date could be announced. The arrival of cardinals Nycz (Poland), Lehmann (Germany), Naguib (Egypt) and Tong Hin (China), has marked the beginning of the X-Hour. “The decision can now legitimately be made,” said the jurist, Archbishop Sciacca who is assisting Bertone during the sede vacante period.

There is still no decision on the date but the Curia has imposed a media blackout so cardinals are not allowed to give information tot he press. Tensions have been rising in the past few days, leading to yesterday morning’s clash between “Romans” and “foreigners”.

The Dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano and the Camerlengo, Bertone (who have formed an alliance against cardinals outside the Curia after eight years of mutual hostility) did everything in their power to contain the solid group of U.S. cardinals. In the name of transparency, U.S. cardinals had held a series of parallel news briefings with the press on the issues relating to the Conclave. The briefings were held at the Pontifical North American College where the cardinals are currently staying. For this reason on Monday Rigali, the U.S. cardinal who is closest to the Curia, was given the task, through Re, of letting his group know that these news briefings were inappropriate. On Tuesday, Sodano supporter Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo also had a go at urging them to stop: “Americans talk tot he press more because it’s their style, they are expansive.” A glasnost which violates a century-old tradition of discretion and stealthy caution. The American cardinals finally gave in to growing pressure from the Vatican, cancelling their umpteenth press briefing. The Vatican’s irritation came like a slap in the face in the midst of the Synod Hall. “Concern was expressed in the general congregation about leaks of confidential proceedings,” the U.S. cardinals’ spokesman Mary Ann Walsh later explained. Dolan’s 14:30 press conference was cancelled an hour before it was due to start.

“As a precaution, the cardinals have agreed not to do interviews,” Sister Walsh added, saying that complaints were mainly in relation to the cardinals’ interviews with the Italian media (in particular one report published by Italian daily La Stampa)who use some cardinals as sources. If U.S. cardinals came to Rome with the conviction that Benedict XVI’s butler was not the only one to blame for the leak of confidential Holy See documents but that poor Curia governance was also to blame, this has only strengthened everyone is mutually responsible for the their belief. The term “leaks” (like Wikileaks and Vatileaks), used twice by Mary Ann Walsh is not coincidental. Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi clarified that “everyone” in the College of Cardinals “has a shared responsibility in the process that is under way and each cardinal needs to be able to balance their duty of confidentiality with other duties.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Things turned sour towards yesterday’s General Congregation, the third in the series of pre-Conclave meetings: “Discussions are still too general”

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

In a speech given during yesterday’s General Congregation, a foreign cardinal asked for some information on two individuals who are allegedly mentioned in the Vatileaks scandal dossier prepared by the three-man investigation commission . But the Camerlengo, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, sent an internal communiqué urging those present not to “name names” if they are not “certain”, as they could risk fomenting a climate of suspicion and resentment.

Italian newspaper La Stampa has learnt that the two individuals referred to yesterday were not members of the clergy but laymen. One of them does not work in the Holy See but has had frequent contact and collaborated to a high level with Holy See institutions. The other is a Vatican employee. The foreign cardinal’s frank request indicated that although the Vatileaks case is not the focal point of discussions ahead of the Conclave, many are keen to learn more about the contents of the dossier that will end up in the hands of the new Pope.

“The Church in today’s world and the requirements of the new Evangelisation,” the reform of the Curia and “relations between the Holy See, the dicasteries and the Episcopates” and the profile of the new Pope are the big topics discussed during the fourth General Congregation yesterday. The meeting was attended by 153 cardinals, 113 of whom will be entering the Sistine Chapel to elect Ratzinger’s successor. The Prefect of Propaganda Fide, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, gave a presentation of his dicastery, illustrating figures and other data about missionary lands. The Prefect of the Clergy, Mauro Piacenza also gave a speech about the priesthood and vocations. Meanwhile, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who is over 80 and therefore not eligible to vote in the Conclave, traced an outline of the future Pope’s profile. In tune with what other cardinals said in their speeches over the past few days, the former Vicar of Rome suggested electing a “dynamic” Pope who is young enough to adequately deal with the challenges currently faced by the Church.

Two influential members of the Curia gave speeches, in which they gave different perspectives on the unprecedented question of the “Pope Emeritus” title. Never in the history of the Catholic Church did a Pope resign due to old age so no one ever had to ask the question of what title he should be given. The issue was also addressed by the Prefect of the Congregation Marc Ouellet, a papabile and the American Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, Raymond Leo Burke

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

March 7, 2013 by Susan Matthews

We are asking supporters of child sex abuse statute of limitations reform to email your state representative today (Find your state rep and contact info here) with this message.

Support McGeehan, Rozzi Amendments – Protect Kids, Not Predators!

Dear Representative:

Although the Task Force for Child Protection made recommendations for new laws dealing with child sexual abuse, it failed to take up the most powerful tool designed to expose predators and to afford victims the justice they deserve.

HB 342, a bill on the voting calendar for next week, may give us the opportunity to create a one time, two year window that suspends the civil statute of limitations to allow past victims of child sex abuse to be heard. It would allow access to the justice system so that suspects could be subpoenaed and deposed. The victim would still have to prove “gross negligence” and the current sovereign immunity defense for public employees would be suspended.

Rep. McGeehan and Rep. Rozzi will be offering child sex abuse statute of limitation amendments to HB 342.

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ROM
n-tv

Papst Benedikt XVI. ist zurückgetreten. In den kommenden Tagen treffen sich die Kardinäle, um einen Nachfolger zu suchen. Vor der Entscheidung über einen neuen Papst taucht nun eine

Opfer von sexuellem Missbrauch durch katholische Geistliche haben eine Schwarze Liste möglicher Kandidaten für das Amt des Papstes veröffentlicht. Die Liste enthält die Namen von zwölf Kandidaten für die Nachfolge von Benedikt XVI., denen verharmlosende Äußerungen zum Thema Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche oder das Inschutznehmen pädophiler Geistlicher vorgeworfen wird.

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ROM
OTZ

Opfer von sexuellem Missbrauch durch katholische Geistliche haben eine Schwarze Liste möglicher Kandidaten für das Amt des Papstes veröffentlicht. Die Liste enthält zwölf Kirchenmänner, denen verharmlosende Äußerungen zu dem Thema vorgeworfen werden.

Opfer von sexuellem Missbrauch durch katholische Geistliche haben eine Schwarze Liste möglicher Kandidaten für das Amt des Papstes veröffentlicht. Die Liste enthält die Namen von zwölf Kandidaten für die Nachfolge von Benedikt XVI., denen verharmlosende Äußerungen zum Thema Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche oder das Inschutznehmen pädophiler Geistlicher vorgeworfen wird.

Zudem sprach sich die US-Organisation Netzwerk der Überlebenden von Missbrauch durch Priester (SNAP) gegen die Wahl eines Mitglieds der römischen Kurie zum neuen Papst aus. “Nach unserer Überzeugung hat kein derzeitiger Vatikan-‘Insider’ den Willen, wirklich reinen Tisch im Vatikan oder anderswo zu machen”, sagte SNAP-Vorstand David Clohessy.

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DEUTSCHLAND
OTZ

Mit dem sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern an katholischen Schulen in Irland hat sich am Mittwoch der Europäische Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte befasst.

Mit dem sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern an katholischen Schulen in Irland hat sich am Mittwoch der Europäische Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte befasst. Die 17 Richter der Großen Kammer des Straßburger Gerichts prüften die Klage eines der Opfer. Das damals neun Jahre alte Mädchen war im Jahre 1973 mehrere Monate lang wiederholt vom Leiter ihrer Schule in der südirischen Ortschaft Dunderrow missbraucht worden. Sie wirft den irischen Behörden vor,

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

Es war eine Institution, aus der es kein Entrinnen gab. Im Internat des Benediktinerklosters Ettal herrschte bis in die achtziger Jahre hinein “ein System der Unterdrückung”. Das geht aus einem Untersuchungsbericht hervor, der der SZ vorliegt. Auch sexuelle Übergriffe seien Teil dieses Gewaltsystems gewesen.

Im Internat des Benediktinerklosters Ettal herrschte bis in die achtziger Jahre hinein “ein System der Unterdrückung”. Gewalt sei “gezielt als pädagogisches Mittel eingesetzt” worden. Auch sexuelle Übergriffe seien Teil dieses Gewaltsystems gewesen. Das geht aus einem Untersuchungsbericht hervor, der der SZ vorliegt und der an diesem Donnerstag vorgestellt wird.

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ROMA
La Repubblica

di MARCO ANSALDO

ROMA – “Il maggiordomo del Papa, Paolo Gabriele, non è l’unico corvo del Vaticano. I corvi sono tanti. Più di venti persone, tutte legate alla Santa Sede. Siamo donne e uomini, laici e prelati. Se abbiamo fatto uscire i documenti dall’appartamento del Papa, con l’aiuto di Paolo Gabriele, è stato per compiere un’operazione di trasparenza nella Chiesa. Ora, dopo la rinuncia di Benedetto XVI al pontificato, e alla vigilia del Conclave, il caso Vatileaks continua a tenere banco”. “E per noi è venuto il momento di tornare a parlare”.

Il tavolino della veranda di un bar ai Parioli, a Roma, lontano dal Vaticano e da occhi indiscreti. Una mano che tormenta un anello dorato con lo stemma del Papa. La persona che parla è credente, fedelissima alla Chiesa, ha una perfetta conoscenza della macchina vaticana, dei suoi protagonisti, e spiccate competenze in materia finanziaria. Nessun nome, com’è ovvio. Anche il maggiordomo del Papa è rimasto a lungo ignoto. Ma la “fonte Maria” che in passato aveva fornito ai media carte e documenti è del resto un nome collettivo.

In epoca di Conclave i corvi tornano a volare?
“Io sono un ex corvo”.

Cioè?
“Non ci sono più Papi da difendere o verità da far emergere. È tutto nel rapporto segreto compilato dai tre cardinali anziani”.

Che cosa c’è dentro?
“So qual è stata la metodologia, e soprattutto lo scopo di questa relazione”.

Quale?
“I documenti fuoriusciti avevano portato a un’atmosfera di tutti contro tutti in Curia. E il Papa voleva capire cosa stesse succedendo, e se il malumore che aveva spinto quelle persone a utilizzare il suo maggiordomo fosse stata la molla di un disagio più grande”.

“Verissima. Altroché. Potrei fare nomi e cognomi di cardinali e monsignori, di vescovi e funzionari. Dai piani alti della Segreteria di Stato a dicasteri di prima fila”.

Che altro c’è?
“Questioni finanziarie legate allo Ior. Benedetto confidava moltissimo nell’operazione di trasparenza che poteva fare Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. E nel momento in cui questi fu sfiduciato, ne chiese le ragioni. Le risposte furono insoddisfacenti, e la sua reazione fu di aprire una commissione di inchiesta che facesse piena luce”.

Si è parlato di molte persone che stessero dietro al corvo: cardinali, laici, donne e uomini a contatto quasi quotidiano con Benedetto. Chi sono i mandanti dell’operazione Vatileaks?
“Noi abbiamo parlato, come ha fatto il maggiordomo, con la stampa. Ma se di mandanti si può parlare sono altre le sfere che vanno cercate. Ben più alte. Molto più vicine al pontefice di quello che siamo noi”.

Ci sono altri documenti oltre a quelli già emersi?
“Sì”.

Potrebbe uscire un altro libro di Gianluigi Nuzzi basato sulle carte?
“Sì”.

Con documenti consegnati da Paolo Gabriele oppure con altre carte?
“So solo che il libro “Sua Santità” non contiene tutti i documenti in possesso di Nuzzi, ma che ce ne sono altri”.

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ROME
Gazetta del Sud

Rome, March 7 – An Italian consumer association is pressing forward in its motion to investigate Cardinal Roger Mahony and his role in allegedly covering up instances of priest sex abuse in the United States. On Thursday, Codacons filed a motion with Rome prosecutors to convene with the leaders of US-based SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) as expert witnesses. Named in the motion were SNAP directors David Clohessy and Barbara Dorris, who are in Rome advocating for issues related to sex abuse in the Church to be a priority in electing a new pope at the upcoming conclave.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Tim Lennon on March 06, 2013

Thankfully the American people now understand that top ranking Vatican officials have not addressed the problem of sexual violence within the church. Americans should remain vigilant in demanding zero tolerance from US bishops, especially since a grand jury found three dozen predators working in one diocese just over a year ago, (Philadelphia.)

The new Pope needs to make the protection of children his top priority. He will be judged by his actions, not merely by his words. We hope to see his first act be to demand that all credibly accused predators be removed from ministry and reported to police immediately. He should follow that with a demand that all bishops who knowingly transferred a predator resign immediately. These actions will help protect children immediately.

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on March 07, 2013

In a new interview with the Chicago Tribune, Cardinal George says that Cardinals are ‘vetting’ one another on abuse and cover up. If he is correct about this – and we hope he is – we are encouraged. But such vetting should go beyond just likely papal candidates. It should be vigorously expanded to include all church officials.

If any cardinal is willing, and to the degree we are able, we’d be glad to help in any way.

George is wrong, however, when he claims that church officials must continue dealing with abuse because of victims. They must take prompt, effective action because of children. They are still being sexually violated, right now, across the globe. Even if George thinks victims are being treated well (and many are not), surely he knows that kids still need and deserve real protection from predatory priests.

In fact, we’re stunned that he said this week that “the incidence of abuse is practically zero right now.”

In all but a handful of western nations, little is known about clergy sex crimes. It’s sadly quite easy, in most countries, to guilt-trip and intimidate victims in to staying silent and prevent them from taking legal action. In many cultures and countries, it’s very hard to talk publicly of painful personal subjects. So it’s a struggle to find solid information on how church officials across the globe mishandle clergy sex abuse cases.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Catholic Insider

In our last post we talked about Cardinal O’Malley’s Vatican PR campaign, and how his communications secretary was looking for stories so he could feed the press. Cardinal O’Malley also said he was reading the National Catholic Reporter as an “interesting” source of information in preparation for the upcoming conclave. Today we update you with several new developments.

First, we ask the question, why is there a big international media campaign around Cardinal O’Malley? Cardinal O’Malley has apparently brought a few members of his media and communications team to Rome.We know the editor of the Pilot was on the plane to Rome with the Cardinal, and Communications Secretary, Terry Donilon, is in Rome to coordinate the campaign. We called his office to volunteer BCI to brief reporters looking for Boston-related stories on our ministry and got his voicemail saying he is in Rome. No return date is indicated on the voicemail. Why the big international media campaign, with no apparent bound on how long Donilon will stay? Beyond that, why are thousands of dollars in Catholic Appeal donor funds being squandered to pay travel and expenses for the Boston media guys to be in Rome?

Secondly, couldn’t the Cardinal’s time be used better to prepare for the critical vote than in press briefings? In an interview with the Boston Globe, published Wednesday, we heard the following:

O’Malley also seemed to ache for a little down time. He had just finished a long press conference and had more report­ers to speak with before a dinner with cardinals. He said he had not been able to spend much time going out to dinner or otherwise enjoying the city. “If I didn’t have all these interviews,” he said with a laugh, “I could be in a bookstore right now.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

March 7, 2013 by Susan Matthews

The last Cardinal has arrived in Rome. Soon the most important business of the Church will be in the hands of several Cardinals involved in clergy sex abuse cover ups. Apparently, we aren’t supposed to notice.

We can’t pry open the doors of the secret archives, but we can certainly understand the facts in front of us. Thousands of pages of documents, depositions, and testimonies have revealed a tainted hierarchy. Will Mahony vote for a Pope who will be tough on clergy sex abuse? Seems counterproductive to his interests.

Does Archbishop Chaput think the participation of Cardinals Mahony and Rigali in the conclave hurts the rebuilding of trust with Catholics in Philadelphia and Los Angeles? Can they be removed? And if so, by what process?

I posed these questions and Kenneth Gavin, Associate Director of Communications answered on behalf of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. “Neither the Archbishop nor the Archdiocese has any authority over the conclave so we wouldn’t be able to comment further than that.”

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VATICAN CITY
NBC Chicago

By Mary Ann Ahern

Thursday, Mar 7, 2013

While there is strong speculation the conclave to pick the next pope will begin Monday, the cardinals have not yet officially set a date. The Vatican spokesmen say the “mood” is that their discussions are not done and they aren’t ready to vote.

The Roman Catholic cardinals held their fifth discussion Thursday morning but are still waiting for the cardinal from Vietnam, arriving in Rome today. Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said they realize the “huge responsibility placed on the shoulders of the cardinals” and do not want to rush their decision of who will succeed Benedict XVI.

The cardinals meet again Thursday afternoon, but a Vatican spokesman does not necessarily believe the conclave date will be set then either. While they have not yet scheduled a Saturday session, it is a possibility.

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CANADA
The Province

By L. Ian MacDonald, The Province
March 7, 2013

There is a saying, one of many in Rome, that he who enters a conclave as pope leaves as a cardinal.

By that standard, Cardinal Marc Ouellet needn’t worry about the outcome. As one of the early favourites he doesn’t stand a chance of becoming the first non-European pope in nearly 1,500 years, and the first in history from the Americas. And a Canadian one at that.

Still, it’s not hard to see why the oddsmakers, media and papal pundits fancy his chances to succeed Benedict XVI, who resigned in February. One doesn’t campaign for the office — that’s considered unseemly — but there are lots of opportunities for meeting and greeting in a papal interregnum. And Ouellet has a lot going for him.

First, he’s a reliable theological conservative, and that’s what this College of Cardinals wants. The last two popes, Benedict and John Paul II, have packed the college with doctrinal conservatives over the last 35 years, reversing the liberal appointments of John XXIII and Paul VI.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The very first issue on Fr. Federico Lombardi’s agenda Thursday during his daily briefing with international press was to reiterate once again that no date has yet been set for Conclave. He noted that news reports of St Peter’s Basilica having been booked Monday afternoon next at 5pm, for a Mass for the election of the Roman Pontiff are unfounded. Fr. Lomabrdi pointed out to press that the Missa pro eligendo pontifice can be celebrated by any priest during the interregnum, or Vacant See, as part of the Universal Church’s call to prayer during this period.

152 Cardinals were present for the 5th general congregation that began at 9:30 with prayer. There were two new arrivals overnight: Cardinal Nycz from Warsaw, Poland, who is an elector; and Italian Cardinal Coppa, who is not. The Vietnamese Cardinal Pham of Hồ Chí Minh City is due to arrive in time for Thursday afternoon’s session. His arrival will bring the number of Cardinal Electors present in Rome to the total 115 men who can vote in Conclave for the Pope.

On Thursday morning, the particular congregation, or executive that aids the camerlegno, Cardinal Bertone, and is chosen by lot every three days, was renewed: The names extracted were Cardinal Rai for the order of bishops, Cardinal Monsengwo for the order of priests and Cardinal De Paolis for the order of deacons.

Also Thursday morning the Cardinal-Dean, Angelo Sodano, read the text of a telegram that the College of Cardinals will send to Venezuela marking death of President Chavez.

There were 16 interventions, the first three by Cardinals in charge of the economic affairs of the Holy See; Cardinal Versaldi who is in charge of economic affairs, Cardinal Calcagno in charge of APSA (administration of the Holy See’s patrimony) and Cardinal Bertello from the Governatorate of Vatican City State. Paragraph 171 of the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia Pastor Bonus demands the College of Cardinals receive a report on the patrimonial and economic status of the Holy See during the Vacant See.

The remaining 13 interventions were wide ranging: touching on topics from the Church’s commitment to evangelization, relations with local bishops, ecumenical dialogue and the Church’s charitable commitment to the poor. Further discussion concerned the talents, qualities and characteristics required of the next Pope.

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CANADA
CJAD

Posted By: Trudie Mason
tmason@astral.com·3/7/2013

People who suffered abuse at the hands of Catholic priests are split on whether Quebec’s Marc Cardinal Ouellet should be a candidate to replace Pope Benedict.

One victims group based here in Quebec is siding with the American group SNAP. It has put Ouellet on a list of a dozen Cardinals it feels are unfit to be Pope because of their handling of clergy abuse cases.

But another Quebec based group, the Association of Victims of Priests, ardently hopes that Ouellet does become Pope – so it can unmask him as contemptuous of abuse victims. The association says the Cardinal never met with victims, leaving them feeling detested.

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SPAIN
National Catholic Reporter

by Michael Sean Winters | Mar. 7, 2013

A reader, Oswald Sobrino, generously took me up on my request that someone translate the essay I linked to yesterday by Mario Vargas Llosa on Pope Benedict. My views of the now Pope-Emeritus are less sullen than the great poet’s, but I think he captures the essence of Benedict in a way few Catholics have, and why Benedict’s writings pose a challenge not just to Catholics but to the entire culture of the West. Thank you Mr. Sobrino for so generously translating the article and sending it on so I can publish it here.

“ The Man Who Disturbs”

by Mario Vargas Llosa

I do not know why the abdication of Benedict XVI has been such a surprise; although exceptional, it was not unforeseen. It was enough to look at him, fragile and as if lost in the midst of those crowds in which he was obligated to submerge himself, making superhuman efforts in order to play the protagonist in those spectacles obviously foreign to his temperament and calling. So different from his predecessor, John Paul II, who navigated like a fish in the water among the masses of believers and onlookers that the Pope attracts in all his appearances, Benedict XVI would appear completely alien to those extroverted events that today make up the required duties of a pontiff. In this way, we can understand better his reluctance to accept the chair of St. Peter that was imposed on him eight years ago and to which, as we know now, he never aspired. The only ones who abandon absolute power with the ease with which he has just done it are those rarities who, instead of coveting power, disdain power.

He was not a charismatic man nor a man of the stage, as Karol Wojtyla, the Polish Pope. He was a man of the library and of the lecture hall, of reflection and study, surely one of the most intelligent and cultured popes that the Catholic Church has had in all her history. In an age when ideas and reasons matter much less than images and gestures, Joseph Ratzinger was already an anachronism, since he belonged to what is an especially conspicuous species on the way to extinction: the intellectual. He thought with depth and originality, based on his enormous theological, philosophical, historical, and literary knowledge, gained in the many classical and modern languages that he had mastered, among them Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.

Although his books were always conceived within the bounds of Christian orthodoxy—but with a very broad horizon, his books and encyclicals often went beyond the strictly dogmatic and contained novel and bold insights concerning moral, cultural, and existential problems of our time that non-believing readers could read fruitfully and often—this has happened to me—with some discomfort. His three volumes dedicated to Jesus of Nazareth, his small autobiography and his three encyclicals—especially the second one, Spe Salvi, of 2007, devoted to the twofold nature of a science that can extraordinarily enrich human life but can also destroy and degrade it—contain a dialectical vigor and an expositive elegance that stand out sharply among conventional and redundant texts, written by the convinced, that the Vatican has customarily produced, for a long time now.

To Benedict XVI has fallen one of the most difficult periods that Christianity has ever faced in its more than two thousand year history. The secularization of society advances with great speed, especially in the West., the citadel of the Church until relatively recently. This process has been aggravated by the great scandals of pedophilia in which hundreds of Catholic priests have been enmeshed and whom part of the hierarchy protected or tried to ignore, scandals which continue to be exposed everywhere, just as the accusations of money laundering and of corruption that affect the Vatican bank.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 7, 2013

Rome —
Impose silence, and it seems a press secretary gets more questions he’d rather not have been asked.

The Vatican’s daily press briefing Thursday about the cardinals’ meeting covered financial and governance matters and even the role women play in conclave preparations, but questions kept coming back to one topic: Why a series of popular briefings given by the U.S. cardinals were canceled.

The cardinals met Thursday for the fifth time since Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation. They are meeting daily before entering the conclave, the secret meeting where they will elect the next pope.

While a spokesperson for the U.S. bishop’ conference said Wednesday the Americans canceled their briefings because of concerns of leaks of confidential information in the Italian media, those leaks continued Thursday.

Several Italian papers Thursday carried detailed reports, attributed to confidential sources, of what had happened in Wednesday’s meeting, including which cardinals had spoken, what they had said, and whether they broke a five-minute limit on talks.

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VATICAN CITY
York Dispatch

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
Updated: 03/07/2013

VATICAN CITY—Cardinals in Rome for the conclave to elect the next pope received a briefing on the Holy See’s finances Thursday amid questions about the Vatican bureaucracy and continued suspicions about its bank.

The heads of the Vatican’s three main financial offices briefed the cardinals as required by rules covering the transition period between papacies, during which cardinals meet daily to discuss the problems of the church and the qualities needed in a new pope.

The cardinals didn’t set a date for the start of the conclave, and the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said he didn’t expect a decision to be taken in Thursday’s afternoon session. The last of the 115 voting-age cardinals, Vietnamese Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man, was arriving later Thursday and the date can’t be set until he does.

But a decision on the start also depends on a determination by the cardinals that they have had sufficient time to gather all the information they need about the state of the church and who should be pope.

Once the conclave starts, there is very little time for discussion. There are two votes in the morning and two votes in the afternoon—all of them conducted in silent prayer, not chatter. As a result, setting the date for the conclave is akin to setting the deadline for when deliberations effectively finish.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Yes, many Catholic priests are hypocrites. But so are the Lefty media. Most people are hypocrites; get over it

Ed West

I’m sure many of you listening to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor on Radio 4 the other day shared my disgust at how such a large and powerful organisation – one always lecturing the rest of us on morals – could be so full of sexual wrongdoers.

But that shouldn’t negate all the good work that the BBC does, nor its central moral message. It’s just that, like the Catholic Church, its members are bound to fall short of the moral demands made of them.

Dr Tom Wright has written an interesting piece for the Guardian about our attitude to hypocrisy, and why there is such an obsession with the Catholic variety. He writes:

The joke here is that it is usually the media that tell people how to behave. Yes, the church sometimes “speaks out”. But if it’s moralising you want, turn on the radio. Or pick up a newspaper. And the institution the media especially love to attack is of course the church. There is a logic to this. The media want to be the guardians of public morality, but some people still see the church that way. Very well, it must be pulled down from its perch to make way for its secular successor.

Don’t be fooled when “religious affairs correspondents” look prim and solemn and shake their heads at the latest clerical scandal. They are enjoying every minute of it. It keeps them in a job (did anyone imagine that the real “religious affairs” of this country, the prayerful and self-sacrificial work that goes on under the radar every day of every year, would ever make headlines?). More: it makes it easier to sustain the fiction that the journalists have taken over as the nation’s moral police.

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ROME
Gazzetta del Sud

Rome, March 7 – A group representing American survivors of sexual abuse by priests on Thursday named three cardinals they said were ‘promising’ candidates for pope because of their record on child sex-abuse claims. The three lauded by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) were Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines and Christoph Schoenborn of Austria, and Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin. Martin is a longshot candidate since he is not a cardinal, while the other two have been named as ‘papabili’, or papal contenders.

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UNITED STATES
ABA Journal

Posted Mar 6, 2013
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Will Pope Benedict XVI lose legal protections because of his retirement in actions seeking to hold the Vatican accountable for failing to stop clergy abuse?

The answer is no, according to Jeffrey Lena, a U.S. attorney for the Vatican. He maintains that Benedict would have the same legal immunity as other high-ranking officials, the Associated Press reports. The Vatican has legal treaties that govern relations with several countries that could provide additional legal protections.

But Minnesota lawyer Jeff Anderson, who has filed several clergy abuse lawsuits, says the pope’s decision to retire could create legal problems if he travels outside the Vatican and a government decides to take action against him.

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UNITED STATES
NPR

[with audio]

by Caitlin Kenney

March 06, 2013

Now that Pope Benedict XVI has officially gone into retirement, the next leader of the Catholic Church has a lot to consider, including finances.
Oli Scarff/Getty Images

The next pope will be the spiritual leader of the world’s Catholics. He will also be leading a multibillion-dollar financial empire. And from a business perspective, the Catholic Church is struggling.

We talked to several people who study the business of the church. Here are a few of the issues they pointed out.

1. Globally, the church’s employees are in the wrong place.

Most Catholics live in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and that’s also where growth in church membership is higher. But only about half of all priests are in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

If the church were a business, the CEO would just transfer existing workers to other parts of the world. But the church just isn’t organized to make that kind of thing happen.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 7 March 2013 (VIS) – The Santa Martha House (Domus Sanctae Marthae) is a modern residence building located near St. Peter’s Basilica on the site of a former hospice for pilgrims. Since its construction in 1996 it has provided housing for prelates and others having business with the Holy See. The five-story building has 106 suites, 22 single rooms, and one apartment. Its management is entrusted to a director, whose appointment is reserved to the Secretariat of State, and its tasks are defined by statute.

In this period of the Sede Vacante, those persons residing in the “Domus” have been moved in order to make the necessary preparations for housing the Cardinal electors. When the Conclave begins, besides the Cardinal electors, the “Domus” will also house those persons resident within the Vatican who also form part of the Conclave, as established in No. 46 of “Universi Dominici Gregis”.

Juridically speaking, the current manifestation of the Domus Sanctae Marthae is a foundation. It was established in 1996 by a chirograph, that is, a hand-written charter, which was penned by Pope John Paul II himself. Today’s building replaces the St. Martha Hospice that was ordered built by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 during the fifth cholera pandemic to care for the sick from the areas around the Vatican. During World War II, the building was used to house refugees, Jews, and ambassadors from countries that had broken diplomatic relations with Italy.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 7 March 2013 (VIS) – In the course of the daily press briefing held by the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., the news reported by a press agency that some of the Masters of Ceremony had reserved St. Peter’s Basilica this coming Monday to celebrate a “pro eligendo Summo Pontefice” Mass, thus giving an indication that the Conclave date had been set, was summarily dismissed.

“I spoke with the Master of Ceremonies Marini [Msgr. Guido Marini, master of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff] personally,” Fr. Lombardi said, “and that is definitely not the case. Moreover, reserving St. Peter’s Basilica is not the task of the Master of Ceremonies but of the College of Cardinals. That news, therefore, is completely false. Also, all priests can celebrate a “pro eligendo Summo Pontefice” Mass asking God to enlighten the pontifical College in these days so such a Mass would not indicate the beginning of the Conclave.”

There were 152 cardinals present at this morning’s fifth General Congregation, which was held from 9:30am until 21:30am. This includes two newly arrived cardinals who took the oath of secrecy: Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz, archbishop of Warsaw, Poland, who is a Cardinal elector and Cardinal Giovanni Coppa, apostolic nuncio emeritus to Czech Republic. The final Cardinal elector expected, Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man, archbishop of Thanh-Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, is in the process of arriving.

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VATICAN CITY
News 24

Vatican City – There are still scandals to be uncovered in the Vatican, an anonymous source who claims to have been part of a network of moles that prompted the VatiLeaks scandal said on Thursday, as cardinals continued to hold preliminary talks to elect a pope.

The VatiLeaks affair concerns the leaking of confidential papal papers that purported to shed light on alleged power struggles and corruption within the Vatican hierarchy. The butler of retired pope Benedict XVI, Paolo Gabriele, was tried and pardoned over the case.

“The pope’s butler is not the only mole in the Vatican. There are lots of moles, more than 20, all connected to the Holy See,” the source told the La Repubblica newspaper.

Before his cover was blown, Gabriele had told investigative journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi that “around 20” people had helped him leak the documents. During the trial he retracted this, insisting he had acted alone.

“After Benedict XVI renounced his pontificate, and on the eve of the conclave, the VatiLeaks case is still relevant. And for us it is time to speak again,” the source said.

The outgoing pope tasked three cardinals to look into the affair. Their report has remained secret – although La Repubblica claims to have been informed about it and has written that its contents were so explosive that they convinced Benedict to leave his post.

Underground homosexual network

Several cardinals have said that it is important for them to question the authors of the secret report before entering the conclave.

One of their most sensational findings, according to La Repubblica, was the presence of an underground Vatican homosexual network, whose members were prone to blackmail. The cardinals allegedly also documented cases of graft and financial impropriety.

“It is all true: I could list the names of cardinals and monsignors, bishops and officials,” the source said about the gay allegations. He claimed that Nuzzi was in possession of VatiLeaks documents that have not yet been published.

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Press TV (Iran)

[with video]

An international lawyer says that the Roman Catholic Church and Pope can be sued in the International Court of Justice over hundreds of filed sexual abuses cases.

The comments come as the leader of Catholic church Pope Benedict XVI has officially resigned, ending an eight-year pontificate shaped by struggles to move the church past sex abuse scandals. Meanwhile international lawyers are looking into former Pope Benedict XVI’s legal status to see whether the former pontiff is liable to a legal action over failing to stop child sex abuse by church priests.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Edward Corrigan, international lawyer from What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Mr. Corrigan your perspective on this? How likely will this even be allowed that a lawsuit will be able to file against him and that it would actually go to court?

Corrigan: Well, there already are lawsuits that are filed against the pope and naming him as party to the action.

In particular there is a very egregious case of sexual abuse where a priest, Father Murphy, I guess actually he has admitted to this, sexually abused over 200 deaf boys and that there has been a lawsuit initiated there which names former Cardinal Ratzinger as a party and Cardinal Ratzinger was the person in charge of the…, I guess, the Vatican’s special department that looked after keeping, sort of, religious order within the church and also dealt with issues like the sexual abuse and all this. He hold that position for 20 years.

So he clearly had knowledge, in some cases the priests were defrocked, in other cases nothing happened, they were moved, they were transferred. people have criticized this sort of covering up and trying to protect the Roman Catholic Church from scandal.

Press TV: But Mr. Corrigan filing a lawsuit is very different than actually being able to take it into a court of law.

My question is, how likely is that aspect to happen? Do you think that it will actually reach that level?

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PHILIPPINES
ABC News

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press
IMUS, Philippines March 7, 2013 (AP)

Asia’s most prominent Roman Catholic leader knows how to reach the masses: He sings on stage, preaches on TV, brings churchgoers to laughter and tears with his homilies. And he’s on Facebook.

But Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle’s best response against the tide of secularism, clergy sex abuse scandals and rival-faith competition could be his reputation for humility. His compassion for the poor and unassuming ways have impressed followers in his homeland, Asia’s largest Catholic nation, and church leaders in the Vatican.

Tagle’s rising star has opened a previously unimaginable possibility: An Asian pope.

The Filipino prelate’s chances are considered remote, as many believe that Latin America or Africa — with their faster growing Catholic flocks — would be more logical choices if the papal electors look beyond Europe. But even the hint of papal consideration has electrified many in the heavily Catholic Philippines, where past pontiffs had been welcomed by millions with rock-star intensity.

———

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the Roman Catholic Church prepares to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, The Associated Press is profiling key cardinals seen as “papabili” — contenders to the throne. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. But these are the names that have come up time and again in speculation. Today: Luis Antonio Tagle.
______

“It’ll bring such immense glory to us and our country,” said Leo Matias, one of several waiters at a Chinese restaurant in Manila’s suburban Quezon city who served dinner to Pope John Paul II when he visited in 1995.

The restaurant has displayed the set of spoon, fork, table napkin, water goblet and knives — still unwashed after the pope’s meal of grilled fish and fried shrimp.

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VATICAN CITY
Wausau Daily Herald

John Thavis

Let’s hope the Roman Catholic cardinals were listening closely to Pope Benedict when he addressed them a few hours before resigning Feb. 28, because he sent an important signal about change in the church.

By describing the church as a “living reality” able to transform itself and adapt to the times, the pope was inviting cardinals to pick up on the spirit of his historic decision to retire at age 85.

Many in Rome believe that as the cardinals meet this week in their run-up to the conclave, they should — like the pope has done — consider some bold changes in the way Benedict’s successor carries out his ministry.

In effect, the cardinals have an opportunity to revise the pope’s job description. And there’s an appetite for change even inside the Vatican, particularly when it comes to the way the pope manages his bureaucratic apparatus, the Roman Curia.

Based on ideas Vatican officials have floated in conversations during the last two weeks, here are seven relatively simple steps the next pope could take to streamline and improve governance at the heart of the church:

• 1. Bring in his own team. Newly elected popes habitually leave the Roman Curia heads in place for years, in part because they don’t want to be seen as “rocking the boat.” But this only makes it more difficult to change policies and challenge entrenched attitudes. The next pope should thank the existing team of Vatican officials for their service, and then send them home.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Jaweed Kaleem

While the College of Cardinals meets to discuss the priorities of the Roman Catholic Church and select a new pope, a new survey shows that American Catholics see sex abuse by clergy as the church’s biggest problem.

A survey from the Pew Forum for Religion and Public Life asked U.S. Catholics to describe the problems facing the church and found that 34 percent thought the most important was sexual abuse. No other issue, including lower church attendance and loss of faithful youth, got more than 10 percent of responses in the survey.

Conducted between Feb. 28 and March 3 among 184 Catholics, the poll also asked about the church’s positive role in society. Twenty-seven percent of U.S. Catholics surveyed said the church’s role in helping the poor, sick and needy was the most important, helpful work it does.

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ROME
Chicago Tribune

By Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune reporter
March 6, 2013

ROME — Days before Pope Benedict XVI resigned and Roman Catholic cardinals descended on Rome to select his successor, Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien was, for all intents and purposes, fired.

As one of the cardinal electors for the next pope, O’Brien, who later apologized for sexual misconduct with other clergy, could have had a say in the next pope. Technically, he could have become the next pontiff.

But in an exclusive interview with the Tribune before the American cardinals’ moratorium, Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George said there are attempts to vet candidates to avoid surprises. He also said ties to anyone guilty of sexual misconduct — whether intended or unintended — could put a man’s candidacy in question if it could distract from his spiritual mission.

David Clohessy, executive director of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP, said that kind of vetting should have been taking place for decades. On Wednesday, Clohessy’s group issued a list of a dozen cardinals whose selection as pope would cause further offense to victims of sex abuse by priests.

“If it’s starting now, it’s progress,” said Clohessy, who is also in Rome during the papal transition. “Realistically, if someone will deceive his staff and his flock, he’s likely to try to deceive his colleagues as well.”

George said that given the troubling circumstances surrounding the issue of priest sex abuse, cardinals aren’t just asking about leadership and communication style. They are asking about each man’s moral character, he said.

“Does he have a past?” George gave as an example. “(O’Brien) has been in people’s minds and hearts. They’ll talk about the feeble witness of the church today because of the sins of churchmen. That would be one of them. So without mentioning him in particular, there are enough others that certainly contribute to that conviction.”

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MINNESOTA
Brainerd Dispatch

The sexual abuse of children is a public health epidemic, increasing the risk of alcohol and drug abuse, eating disorders, post traumatic stress and suicide in adulthood. It sometimes takes decades for victims to confront the abuse but our current laws only give victims a narrow window in which to come to terms with that abuse and seek justice against their abusers, treating it essentially the same as fraud and product liability.

Recent surveys show that one out of every two Minnesotans knows someone who has been sexually abused, and that 10 percent of Minnesotans were sexually abused themselves as a child. As a network of advocacy centers across Minnesota which provide support services to victims of sexual abuse, we see the effects of sexual abuse every day.

A bipartisan group of legislators has introduced the Minnesota Child Victims Act (SF 534/ HF 681) that would finally lift the veil of protection that many abusers and the institutions that ignore the abuse hide behind by eliminating the civil statute of limitations.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger
Edited By Larry Cohler-Esses

Published March 07, 2013, issue of March 15, 2013.

Adults abused as children decades ago in New York could file civil lawsuits against their abusers and the institutions that employed them, if a national surge of legislative reform reaches Albany.

Advocates for child sex abuse victims say that this year, the prospects look good for a bill that sank four times previously following strong opposition from Catholic and ultra-Orthodox groups. If passed, the legislation could ease the way for a slew of lawsuits against Jewish and Catholic institutions accused of failing to report accounts of child sex abuse to law enforcement authorities.

“I’ve never been more optimistic we can succeed in 2013,” the bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, said.

Yeshiva University may also be casting a wary eye toward Albany as it continues to investigate a scandal involving abuse allegations first reported by the Forward and dating back four decades.

The bill, known as the Child Victims Act, still faces a real test in the state senate where a key Democrat, Jeffrey Klein, indicated he would not support it.

But, Markey said, the success of similar legislation in other states as well as a wave of similar bills being considered across the country this year gave her hope.

The statute of limitations sets a time limit within which victims of abuse must file civil claims against their alleged abusers or within which prosecutors must seek indictments against alleged perpetrators. The statute for civil and criminal charges varies state by state. In New York, those who claim they were abused as children must file a civil claim before their 23rd birthday.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP
March 07, 2013

THE South Australian government has cleared the way for the federal government’s royal commission into child sexual abuse to conduct its investigations in the state.

Premier Jay Weatherill told state parliament on Thursday the appointment of the commissioners under state law ensured the commission had all the powers it needed to perform its functions.

The wide-ranging inquiry will look into institutional response to child sex abuse, investigating where systems failed to protect children and make recommendations on how to improve laws, policies and practices.

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on March 07, 2013

The following three papal candidates are the ones we feel are the most “promising candidates”. These three were chosen based on their words and actions in regards to the clergy sex abuse crisis. Sources include mainstream media accounts, legal filings and victims’ experiences. The names are in no particular order.

1. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle — Manilla, Philippians

[National Catholic Reporter]

Cardinal Tagle is one of very few prelates who have spoken clearly about the “culture of shame” that surrounds victims of sex abuse. He has said that the church has contributed to this culture, and says that in order to move on, the church must find ways to help victims heal.

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NEDERLAND
Friesch Dagblad

Den Haag | Drs. Wim Deetman presenteert maandag het eindrapport van het vervolgonderzoek naar seksueel misbruik van en (excessief) fysiek en psychisch geweld tegen minderjarige vrouwen in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk.

Het is het vervolgonderzoek op het rapport van de commissie-Deetman uit december 2011. Daarin was volgens sommigen misbruik onder vrouwen onderbelicht. Van mei tot 1 juli vorig jaar konden mensen zich melden. Het gaat om de periode 1945 tot heden. De onderzoeksorganisatie heeft de bisdommen, congregaties en ordes verzocht om bij hen bekende meldingen voor zover de voormalige Onderzoekscommissie Deetman deze destijds niet heeft ontvangen, ook te melden. Daarnaast zijn het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik RKK, de koepelorganistatie van slachtoffers KLOKK en de commissie-Samson verzocht om bij hen bekende meldingen door te geven, na goedkeuring van de melder.

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ROM
Sueddeutsche

Sie beschuldigen aussichtsreiche Papst-Kandidaten, sexuellen Missbrauch innerhalb der katholischen Kirche vertuscht und verharmlost zu haben: Eine Gruppe von Missbrauchsopfern veröffentlich eine Liste, mit der sie zwölf Teilnehmern des Konklaves schwere Vorwürfe macht.

Peter Turkson, Tarcisio Bertone, Timothy Dolan: Mit einer schwarzen Liste erhebt eine Gruppe von Missbrauchsopfern schwere Vorwürfe gegen mehrere Kardinäle, die als aussichtsreiche Kandidaten für das Papst-Amt gelten. Die US-Organisation Snap (Netzwerk der Überlebenden von Missbrauch durch Priester) wirft zwölf Teilnehmern des Konklaves verharmlosende Äußerungen zum Thema Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche vor. Außerdem hätten sie pädophile Geistliche geschützt.

Die katholischen Prälaten müssten “aufhören zu behaupten, dass mit Blick auf sexuellen Missbrauch durch Kleriker das Schlimmste vorüber ist”, fordert Snap-Vorstand David Clohessy. Die ganze Wahrheit über den “weit verbreiteten, lang dauernden und tief verwurzelten” Missbrauch müsse in vielen Ländern erst noch aufgedeckt werden.

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CANADA
CBC

[with video]

An investigation by retired Supreme Court of Canada Justice Michel Bastarache into sexual abuse has been delayed for the third time as more people have come forward with new allegations.

The process began last spring when several people in the southeastern village of Cap-Pelé came forward alleging abuse against Father Camille Léger, who has been dead for 23 years.

Those claims forced the church to address other allegations of sexual abuse by hiring Bastarache to lead the independent investigation.

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ROME
Prague Daily Monitor

ČTK | 7 March 2013

Prague/Vatican, March 6 (CTK) – The Prague Archbishopric Wednesday protested against the criticism of its head, Cardinal Dominik Duka, voiced by the American organisation Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

The SNAP listed Duka, primate of the Czech Catholic Church, among some dozen cardinals who did not adequately react to the accusations of priests of sexual abuse, and this is why they should not elect a new pope.

The Prague Archbishopric said the criticism of Duka was unsubstantiated.

“It was voiced as the moment when the media are strongly interested in the collegium of cardinals over the prepared election of the pope, while the cardinals, who are not at home and are pledged to secrecy, can hardly defend themselves,” the Prague Archbishopric said.

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TEXAS
The Battalion

By Jessica Smarr

Published: Thursday, March 7, 2013

The Sistine Chapel, graced by the fingers of Michelangelo and the footsteps of popes, will be the site of the upcoming papal conclave. The chapel has stood to hear the prayers of the faithful for centuries, but the world around it has not stood so still.

On Feb. 28, Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope to resign in more than 600 years. Wednesday marked the third day of preliminary meetings for the cardinal electors to discuss the state of the church around the globe. Though some predicted the conclave — when the cardinals vote for the pope — will be set for early next week, the date hasn’t been announced.

As the world awaits the election of a new pope, the less flattering portraits of the Catholic Church are being painted. In the wake of the publication of stolen papal documents last year, which detailed infighting, financial scandals and sexual abuse. Immediate access to global news makes it difficult to forget the financial scandals and thousands of abuse lawsuits.

The process of selecting a new pope is built upon centuries of tradition, but the world is more connected than ever before. Christian Gonzalez, communications director for the diocese of Austin, said the increase of information and media communication has changed the way the church functions.

“The world is a certainly smaller place now,” Gonzalez said. “We’re not separated by the vast oceans anymore. We’re not even really separated by time anymore. The church has realized that. The Pope is on Twitter, the Vatican is on Facebook and on the Internet. The church realizes where it is, and where it is in terms of the world … and technology and the globalization of things.”

Yet even the way in which members of the church hierarchy communicate can differ based on background. On Monday and Tuesday, while most cardinals remained silent about pre-conclave meetings and discussions, American cardinals held press conferences. The Most Rev. Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston, said it seemed “more American” to keep the media informed.

“We want to honor the confidentiality of the discussions, but at the same time let people — and letting our own folks know at home — that we are meeting day by day. There are interesting things happening and we are moving ahead,” DiNardo said in a Vatican City press conference on Tuesday.

Rev. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said Wednesday the College of Cardinals had decided to emphasize an “increasing degree of reserve,” after specific details of the proceedings were leaked to the Italian press, according to the Associated Press. The American cardinals cancelled their daily press conference, though Cardinal Timothy Dolan still proceeded with his radio broadcast that morning. This evolving relationship between the Catholic Church and the media has changed the way the average person interacts with the hierarchy.

“I think that because of social media and modern communication, we now have much more information about the cardinals themselves,” said Patrick Slattery, professor of teaching, learning and culture at Texas A&M. “So many of the struggles within the Catholic Church are becoming public in ways that they didn’t generations ago.”

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AUSTRALIA
Gadens

Independent Schools and the impact of NSW State and Federal Institutional Child Sexual Abuse Commissions

Wendy Blacker, Partner, Sydney
Amelia Williams, Paralegal, Sydney
7/03/2013

Overview

Two separate Commissions related to Child Sexual Abuse were announced in Australia in November 2012, one by the Federal Government which is wide-ranging in scope and one by the NSW Government which relates to a specific Catholic Diocese. Both however, relate to child sexual abuse in an institutional context.

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

The NSW Commission was formulated in response to allegations by NSW Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox that he was taken off the case (of investigating allegations of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in the Hunter Region) after becoming aware that senior clergy had concealed abuse and established a close relationship with victims.

The NSW Commission may make findings and recommendations in relation to:

(a) the circumstances in which Detective Fox was asked to stop investigating the
abuse and whether it was appropriate to do so; and

(b) whether the Catholic Church (and any related organisation) assisted with
police investigations or whether any investigations were hindered or
obstructed, by such things as failure to report criminal conduct, the
discouraging of witnesses to come forward or destroying evidence.

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VATICAN CITY
KTLA

[with video]

VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles staunchly defended his record on dealing with sexual abuse in the church in an interview published by an Italian newspaper Tuesday.

Mahony, who has been criticized for moving predator priests from posting to posting, told Corriere della Sera that “after 20 years, people are talking about abuse as if we had not done anything. However, since 2002, we have had our program Protecting the Children, in which we illustrate procedures and the guidelines of our zero-tolerance policy that allows no possibility, for example, of anyone found guilty of abuse of minors working for the diocese.”

Mahony, who in recent months has refused requests for interviews with the Los Angeles Times, was publicly rebuked in February by current Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez in connection with his handling of sexual abuse cases.

The cardinal, who is in Rome ahead of the conclave to elect the successor to former Pope Benedict XVI, described to the Italian paper his approach to abuse in earlier years, saying: “I had not understood the real nature of the problem, that people who commit abuse — not only in the church — continue to commit their crimes. These things were not so well understood then as they are now.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Ordained a priest of the Tehuacan diocese in Mexico in 1970, Rev. Nicolas Aguilar-Rivera was sent to the U.S. archdiocese of Los Angeles in March 1987, after he was severely attacked at the Cuacnopalan parish where he was pastor. An investigator in the case, who also lived in the parish neighborhood, said Aguilar-Rivera often had young men and teenagers spend the night with him. The investigator suspected the priest was attacked by one or more of them. Aguilar-Rivera was assigned to an East Los Angeles parish, and was transferred from there to a South Central Los Angeles parish after just a few months. In December 1987 the young sons of two of the many Spanish-speaking families whose trust Aguilar-Rivera had gained told their parents, who told the archdiocese, that the priest had sexually abused them. Aguilar-Rivera was confronted with the allegations by archdiocesan officials. The officials did not inform police, and Aguilar-Rivera fled to Mexico. California police estimated that Aguilar-Rivera sexually abused at least 26 children from both Los Angeles parishes during his nine months in the archdiocese. He is said to have abused at least 60 Mexican children, both before and after his stay in California. Aguilar-Rivera was charged with abuse in Mexico in 1997, was convicted of the charges in 2003, but was not sentenced because the judge determined that the charges were too old. He was allowed to remain in ministry. In July 2009 Aguilar-Rivera’s laicization was announced. In March 2013 Aguilar-Rivera remains at large and is on Mexico’s federal Most Wanted list on charges of rape and indecent assault.

Ordained: 1970
Laicized: 2009

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ROME
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on March 06, 2013

SNAP calls three papal candidates “promising”
Clergy sex abuse victims cautiously release new list
And they call for 3 types of training in dioceses across globe
Two kinds – with kids & employees – are already done in US
SNAP: “But no prelate shows flock how to act when accusations surface”
So backers of alleged predators end up “intimidating” victims & witnesses
Victims have prepared 21 point brochure offering guidance for parishioners

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos, at a news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will discuss and give out a list of three “promising” prelates (based on their records in dealing with clergy sex crime and cover ups). They will also urge Catholic officials to provide training in dioceses across the world to

–teach children how to prevent and stop abuse and employees how to detect and report abuse, and

–teach parishioners and staff how to respond appropriately when abuse allegations surface, so as to not scare or intimidate others with information or suspicions about abuse into keeping quiet

WHEN
TODAY, THURSDAY, 10:45 a.m. on March 6

WHO
Two leaders of an international support group for clergy sex abuse victims called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including the organization’s long-time executive director

WHERE
The Orange Hotel at 86 Via Crescenzio in Rome (+39 06 686 8969)

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UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic

By Maria-Pia Negro Catholic News Service

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (CNS) — Students from St. Louis Catholic School in Alexandria erupted in cheers as Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson was elected the “new pope” during a mock conclave held at a gym-turned-“Sistine Chapel” March 4.

The “conclave” explained the pope selection process in a tangible way. Middle schoolers acted as cardinals, Swiss Guards, priests, sisters, nurses, reporters and security personnel to re-enact a conclave for the whole school.

“It was a lot of fun for them just to dress the part but they really got into it. Some even picked this or that cardinal they knew (of),” said Father Matthew H. Zuberbueler, pastor of St. Louis, which is in the Arlington Diocese. “During the selection, they were very solemn. Every word mattered.”

The 34 “cardinals” of St. Louis School included well-known members of the College of Cardinals, along with representatives of all the continents. The “cardinals” spent two weeks learning about their specific role in the church and following media speculation about who was likely to replace Pope Benedict XVI.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Mar. 3, 2013

Rome —
John Allen is offering a profile each day of one of the most frequently touted papabili, or men who could be pope. The old saying in Rome is that he who enters a conclave as pope exits as a cardinal, meaning there’s no guarantee one of these men actually will be chosen. They are, however, the leading names drawing buzz in Rome these days, ensuring they will be in the spotlight as the conclave draws near. The profiles of these men also suggest the issues and the qualities other cardinals see as desirable heading into the election.

While there are still no tracking polls to establish who’s got legs as a papal candidate, the 2013 conclave at least has one objective measure not available in 2005: past performance. Many of the cardinals seen as candidates now were also on offer the last time around, and someone who had traction eight years ago could be a contender again.

By that measure alone, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, at least merits a look.

After the dust settled from the election of Benedict XVI, various reports identified the Argentine Jesuit as the main challenger to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. One cardinal later said the conclave had been “something of a horse race” between Ratzinger and Bergoglio, and an anonymous conclave diary splashed across the Italian media in September 2005 claimed that Bergoglio received 40 votes on the third ballot, just before Ratzinger crossed the two-thirds threshold and became pope.

Though it’s hard to say how seriously one should take the specifics, the general consensus is that Bergoglio was indeed the “runner-up” last time around. He appealed to conservatives in the College of Cardinals as a man who had held the line against liberalizing currents among the Jesuits, and to moderates as a symbol of the church’s commitment to the developing world.

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ROME
Chiesa

Perhaps the archbishop of New York. Or that of Boston. In the footsteps of Benedict XVI, moreover with the lash against mismanagement in hand. But the curia is resisting and counterattacking, bringing forward a Brazilian cardinal in its trust

by Sandro Magister

ROME, March 7, 2013 – The easiest bet is that the next pope will not be Italian. But not European, African, or Asian ether. For the first time in the bimillennial history of the Church, the successor of Peter could come from the Americas. Or to hazard a more targeted prediction: from the Big Apple.

Timothy Michael Dolan, archbishop of New York, 63, is a larger-than-life man from the Midwest with a radiant smile and overflowing vigor, precisely that “vigor of both body and mind” which Joseph Ratzinger recognized he had lost and defined as necessary for his successor, for the sake of properly “governing the barque of Peter and proclaiming the Gospel.”

In Benedict XVI’s act of resignation there was found already the title of the program of the future pope. And many cardinals were quickly reminded of the visionary vivacity with which Dolan developed precisely this theme, with his “primordial” Italian, his words, but scintillating, at the consistory one year ago, when he himself, the archbishop of New York, was preparing to receive the scarlet:

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ROME
Ottawa Citizen

By Nick Squires, The Daily Telegraph
March 6, 2013

The Vatican was accused of censorship Wednesday after cardinals were told to stop talking to the media about the process of electing a new pope.

In the past week American cardinals have given several briefings in Rome to discuss the challenges facing the Roman Catholic Church.

The Americans have called for the reform of the Roman Curia, the governing body of the Church, which has earned a reputation as a hotbed of turf wars and corruption.

But the briefings were stopped and the Americans gagged after other cardinals expressed fears of negative publicity relating to the conclave, the secretive election in the Sistine Chapel by which a new pontiff will be chosen.

The American cardinals, through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that concern had been expressed “about leaks of confidential proceedings reported in Italian newspapers”. The Vatican denied ordering the American cardinals to cancel the briefings.

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ROME
Bloomberg

By Jeffrey Donovan – Mar 6, 2013

Roman Catholic cardinals are going silent as divisions open up in their debate about when to start the secret Vatican conclave to pick a successor to retired Pope Benedict XVI.

American cardinals taking part in the pre-conclave talks at the Vatican canceled a scheduled press briefing yesterday in Rome following “leaks of confidential proceedings reported in Italian newspapers,” Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the U.S. bishops’ conference, said in an e-mailed statement.

While “the U.S. cardinals are committed to transparency and have been pleased” to engage the media in Rome this week, the church’s 207-strong College of Cardinals “agreed not to give interviews” after the leaks, she said. The Vatican denied exerting any pressure on the cardinals, who vow to keep secret all details of the talks known as the general congregations.

Cardinals from around the world are gathering for a fourth day to discuss challenges facing the church, size up possible papal candidates and set a date for the conclave. While the Vatican has said a pope should be in place by Easter on March 31, cardinals from more than 50 countries and six continents have yet to hold a vote on when to enter the Sistine Chapel to pick a new pontiff.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

March 6, 2013 By TheMediaReport.com

It may have been a first.

In what may have been the first time ever on a major television outlet, two popular TV personalities finally revealed that the media’s never-ending obsession with decades-old episodes in the Church actually has nothing to do with the abuse of children and everything to do with the Catholic Church standing in firm opposition to the media’s radical, secularist worldview.

A discussion starts with two

Radio talk-show host Laura Ingraham joined host Bill O’Reilly last Thursday on The O’Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel to talk about how the news of the Pope’s resignation has simply been used as an excuse by the media to once again rehash claims of sex abuse in the Church from 40 and 50 years ago.

O’Reilly, the highest rated host on cable news, opined that the media’s hammering of the Church about old abuse claims is, in reality, “all abortion-driven.” He added:

“The American media in general worships at the altar of ‘reproductive rights,’, and the primary driver against abortion is the Catholic Church, and that’s what this is all about.”

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ROME
Telegraph (UK)

Clergy sex abuse victims listed a “dirty dozen” potential papal candidates and urged the Roman 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 coverups has “yet to surface in most nations.”

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

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

American Cardinals and others want to keep the worldwide Catholic faithful, the guys who pay the bills, up to speed through media briefings. They also want to digest fully, if not read, the secret dossier on Vatican Cardinals’ scandals. The German Cardinals and others want a transparent and horizontal leadership structure (collegiality), regardless of the dossier’s revelations. The Vatican Cardinals want maximum secrecy and continued Curial domination with the present hierarchical structure. Who is right?

The Gospels have the answers. The Apostles talked freely and openly as equals to and with the first baptised Christians, the original People of God. The Truth made them free. No secrecy and no hierarchy. Case closed! The Gospels trump the Vatican clique’s orders every day of the week. Cardinals are under a clear evangelical mandate to disobey the corrupt Vatican clique’s gag order.

The Conclave must reject unnecessary secrecy and end the Conclave’s domination by the Vatican clique. How? On matters of truth telling, individual Cardinals’ consciences must be the last word. God demand’s no less. All Cardinals, Catholics are told, are successors to the Apostles. More Cardinals must now show some Christian fortitude as the original Apostles did when it mattered most. It matters most now.

On restoring the consensual and horizontal structure that Jesus and his early followers left behind, Cardinals must abide by the majority decision of voting Cardinals. This has usually been the traditional rule for 2,000 years for Church decisions at councils and synods that had been undermined and stymied by successive Vatican bureaucratic cliques for a half century since Vatican II. All voting Cardinals are now equal and the Pope has exited and has no further authority. All voting Cardinals wear red dresses. None are redder than the other. Pretty simple!

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Mark Abrams

ROME (CBS) – The Philadelphia woman who is behind a website open for Catholic dialogue on the clergy sex abuse scandal is hoping the Cardinals selecting the next Pope will elect someone who isn’t afraid to tackle the crisis.

Susan Matthews, founder and publisher of Catholics4Change.com, says the site grew out of frustration over the lack of places for Catholics to speak freely and honestly about the clergy abuse scandal here in Philadelphia.

However, she says it’s just an issue limited to the United States, but is clearly a problem for the church all over Europe as well.

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FLORIDA
News-Press

A Venice priest has been arrested, charged in the theft of more than $50,000 in church funds.

Robert Kondratick, 67, is believed to have written 28 checks for $53,950 over a 7-month period last year. Some of the checks were made out to “Cash” while the others were made out to himself, investigators say.

Holy Spirit Orthodox Church council members told investigators that Kondratick asked for blank checks to pay the church’s expenses. They state he was paid $3,673 a month, as well as reimbursed for medical insurance. He also received an automobile allowance. Those amounts paid to Kondratick are separate from the funds he allegedly misused, investigators say.

The probable cause affidavit states that a number of the checks Kondratick wrote were noted to have been intended for a “Good Samaritan Fund,” which is used to help parishioners. According to the check memo line, the amount of these checks was $18,000.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The director fo the Holy See Press Office expressed irritation today at U.S. cardinal’s on-the-side press briefings. In the afternoon, prayers were said in St. Peter’s Basilica and tomorrow cardinal electors are due to attend two General Congregation sessions

Alessandro Speciale
Vatican City

“Parallel” news briefings organised by U.S. cardinals at their headquarters – the Pontifical North American College of Cardinals, on Rome’s Janiculum Hill – are to stop. The news came out after American cardinal electors announced their decision this morning and just as the Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, was holding his daily news conference on the pre-Conclave General Congregations, in the Holy See Press Office.

The news stunned the over 5 thousand accredited journalists who are covering the Conclave and the preparatory meetings. The American cardinals’ decision to hold daily briefings with the media seemed to signal a new willingness to open up to and show trust in the media, establishing a more transparent relationship with the press, without having to resort to the traditional anonymous source strategy which dominates Vatican news coverage.

“Concern was expressed in the general congregation about leaks of confidential proceedings reported in Italian newspapers. As a precaution, the cardinals have agreed not to do interviews,” the U.S. prelates’ spokesman, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, said in a short statement.

During today’s press conference, Fr. Federico Lombardi answering questions about the cancellation of U.S. cardinals’ meetings with the press in an irritated tone. “Ask them,” he said bluntly. Before this, Lombardi had underlined that the Conclave and the preparatory discussions leading up to it, are not be confused with congresses of Synods of Bishops. In the pre-Conclave Congregations, “cardinals reflect in order to arrive at certain conscientious conclusions
that will help them in choosing the new Pope. Confidentiality is a Conclave tradition,” he recalled. Of course, he added, no one would dream of telling cardinals how to deal with the press. But Lombardi also reiterated that it is the College of Cardinals’ job to give guidance.

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VATICAN CITY
660 News

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press Mar 6, 2013

VATICAN CITY – In the end, American-style transparency was no match for the Vatican’s obsession with secrecy.

Cardinals attending closed-door discussions ahead of the conclave to elect the next pope imposed a media blackout Wednesday, forcing the cancellation of the popular daily press briefings by U.S. cardinals that had provided crucial insights into the deliberations.

The official reason for the blackout was that some details of the secret discussions about the problems in the church appeared in the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

But speculation mounted that the underlying aim of the blackout was to silence the Americans, who have been vocal in their calls for disclosure about allegations of corruption and dysfunction in the Holy See’s governance before they enter the conclave to elect a successor to Benedict XVI.

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CANADA
Windsor Star

Sarah Sacheli

Charges against a Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing boys more than four decades ago were withdrawn and stayed in a Chatham court this week.

Piotr Sanczenko, 86, had faced three counts of indecent assault stemming from allegations that date from 1963 to 1973 when Sanczenko served at Our Lady of Victory Church in Chatham. The Crown Tuesday withdrew two of the counts and stayed one.

A stay means the Crown has one year to resurrect the charge.

“The Crown assessed the entire situation,” defence lawyer Andrew Bradie said Wednesday. “It won’t be a surprise to anyone. Everyone was consulted.”

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ROME
KSDK

[with video]

Brandie Piper

ROME (CNN) – A group representing survivors of sexual abuse by priests named a “Dirty Dozen” list of cardinals it said would be the worst candidates for pope based on their handling of child sex abuse claims.

Their presence on the list is based “on their actions and/or public comment about child sex abuse and cover up in the church,” the group said.

The list includes Roman Catholic cardinals from several countries.

SNAP, the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests, said as it released the list Wednesday that its accusations were based on media reports, legal filings and victims’ statements.

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