ABUSE TRACKER

CALIFORNIA
LA Daily News

By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer
dailybreeze.com
Posted: 02/11/2013

At churches, schools, offices and across social media, Pope Benedict XVI’s historic announcement that he’s resigning triggered a wave of surprise, a flurry of tributes, and speculation about how the Catholic Church will evolve under his successor.

Worshippers expressed astonishment at the news they’d heard when they awakened for morning Mass, and priests quickly tucked a reference to Pope Benedict into their sermons.

Leaders at the Los Angeles Archdiocese, the nation’s largest, scrambled to react to the pope’s statement that he will step down Feb. 28 because of failing health.

Archbishop Jose Gomez quickly posted a statement on his Facebook page, expressing affection for the 85-year-old pope and describing him as “one of the wisest persons in our world today.” …

Joelle Casteix, western regional director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said her group was upset with Pope Benedict’s resignation because they believe he will not be held accountable for the cover up of sex abuse by members of the clergy.

And while she feels that the College of Cardinals will act to protect it own, she still holds out hope for victims of sex abuse.

“I hope there will finally be that man of action who will punish wrongdoers and who will ensure that molesters are turned over to civil authorities.

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

UNITED STATES
Current – The Young Turks

Sexual assault survivor on Pope Benedict’s resignation: ‘He’s resigning without having done what he needs to have done’

Cenk talks to Peter Isely, a founding member of the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), about the surprising resignation of Pope Benedict and his legacy. “The point about Benedict resigning is that he’s resigning without having done what he needs to have done as Pope,” Isely says, referring to the continuing child abuse scandals and coverups within the Catholic Church. Isely continues his point, laying out direction for the papal sucessor. “The first day he comes into office, [he needs to] sign a decree…that any priest that has sexually assaulted or harmed a child is going to be immediately removed from the priesthood.”

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

The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Ian Traynor in Brussels, Karen McVeigh in New York and Henry McDonald in Dublin
guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 February 2013

For the legions of people whose childhoods and adult lives were wrecked by sexual and physical abuse at the hands of the Roman Catholic clergy, Pope Benedict XVI is an unloved pontiff who will not be missed.

Victims of the epidemic of sex- and child-abuse scandals that erupted under Benedict’s papacy reacted bitterly to his resignation, either charging the outgoing pontiff with being directly complicit in a criminal conspiracy to cover up the thousands of paedophilia cases that have come to light over the past three years, or with failing to stand up to reactionary elements in the church resolved to keep the scandals under wraps.

From Benedict’s native Germany to the USA, abuse victims and campaigners criticised an eight-year papacy that struggled to cope with the flood of disclosures of crimes and abuse rampant for decades within the church. Matthias Katsch, of the NetworkB group of German clerical-abuse victims, said: “The rule of law is more important than a new pope.”

Norbert Denef, 64, from the Baltic coast of north Germany, was abused as a boy by his local priest for six years. In 2003, Denef took his case to the bishop of Magdeburg. He was offered €25,000 (then £17,000) in return for a signed pledge of silence about what he suffered as a six-year-old boy. He then raised the issue with the Vatican and received a letter that said Pope John Paul II would pray for him so that Denef could forgive his molester.

“We won’t miss this pope,” said Denef. He likened the Vatican’s treatment of the molestation disclosures to “mafia-style organised crime rings”.

That view was echoed by David Clohessy in the US, executive director of SNAP (Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests), an organisation with 12,000 members: “His record is terrible. Before he became pope, his predecessor put him in charge of the abuse crisis.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Beacon

By Patricia Rice, special to the Beacon

In an announcement that surprised even his closest associates and flummoxed the Vatican chief spokesman, Pope Benedict XVI, 85, told a gathering of cardinals that he is resigning at the end of the month. …

Acting on abuse

St. Louisan David Clohessy, the executive director of SNAP the largest network of survivors of those who have been abused by priests, is hopeful that Benedict might take some decisive action in the next week to clean the church of those priests who have abused children or those bishops who have sheltered abusive priests. He is “absolutely” sure the pope understands the issue well.

“No one more than Benedict has more knowledge about the (scandal of clerical sex abuse) and no one has more power. So we still hope that in the days remaining the pope will use some of that power, now that he is free of any political considerations and other obligations to act,” Clohessy said.

Clohessy acknowledged that this pope had long worked on the issue before he became pope and encouraged Pope John Paul II to take action in 2002 when the late pope was ailing and his physical efforts curtailed.

“Benedict talked more than Pope John Paul did about” clerical sex abuse of minors, he said. “But talking is not enough, you have to take action to protect kids. So, it is hard to give him credit for addressing the public scandal when the revelations greatly increased during his papacy.” “We hope that the he next pope will take more action to protect kids.”

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

VATICAN CITY
Courthouse News Service

By JACK BOUBOUSHIAN

(CN) – Pope Benedict’s retirement plans may open him up to prosecution by the International Criminal Court for sheltering child abusers, an advocacy group said Monday.

Citing his frail health on Monday, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he will step down as pope after less than eight years in office. He is the first pope to retire in the last 600 years.

Though a surprise to many, one group that the announcement failed to rattle is the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). It announced hours later: “whether he is in office or not makes no difference, but it may lower the bar of resistance enough for justice to be served.”

“In this case, all roads really do lead to Rome,” the group said in a statement. “Not only does Pope Benedict XVI bear responsibility in his official capacity for the church-wide policy of systematic and widespread concealment and enabling of the crimes, but he bears individual responsibility in a number of cases in which he ensured that perpetrators would be shielded and protected and left in place to assault more victims.”

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

UNITED STATES
Yahoo! News

By Liz Goodwin, Yahoo! News

Pope Benedict XVI, 85, will become the first pontiff to resign since the 15th century, the Vatican announced on Monday. He steps down on Feb. 28.

The pope said he was resigning because he does not have the physical strength necessary to do the job.

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” the pope said in a statement.

The pope took the helm in 2005, just when allegations that the church covered up sexual abuse by clerics were making waves in the U.S. and Ireland. Over the pope’s next eight years on the job, sexual abuse allegations also surfaced in Germany, Norway and other European countries, and the ensuing crisis became one of the defining aspects of his tenure.

In a statement on Monday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the pope had brought a “listening heart” to victims of sexual abuse.

But some advocates and victims groups said on Monday that the pope did not turn his listening into adequate action.

David Clohessy, for one, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told Yahoo News that the pope’s record on helping those abused by clergy is “terrible.”

While he was pope, reporters uncovered Benedict XVI’s personal connection to what advocates characterize as an inadequate response to abuse by church leadership for decades. In 1980, the pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was aware of a 1980 decision to move a German priest who had molested children back into a parish after he received treatment from a psychiatrist, The New York Times reported in 2010.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
KSHB

[with video]

By: Cynthia Newsome

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Pope Benedict XVI’s legacy is the subject of much debate.

Dennis Coday, managing editor of the National Catholic Reporter, has covered Benedict since he first became pope in 2005.

Coday said the high point of the pope’s career was his push to encourage faith.

“He declared this the year of faith and wanted to increase Christianity in society,” Coday explained.

But Coday said he was disappointed the pope wasn’t more transparent about priests accused of sex crimes. Many of those priests were often reassigned to other churches to avoid prosecution and embarrassment for the church.

“The Pope apologized, but he could have done more,” he added.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

Ronnie Polaneczky, Daily News Columnist
Posted: Tuesday, February 12, 2013

IF I’M EVER elected pope – a long shot for a female, nonpracticing Catholic – I would never resign from the position the way Pope Benedict XVI has done after fewer than eight years on the job.

The pontiff cites his age, faltering health and decreasing stamina as reasons for handing over his staff and crown. But if I were pope, I wouldn’t care how creaky, pooped or mentally goofy I was becoming. I’d hang on to those red slippers until my last breath.

That’s how badly I want to be infallible. …

Pedophile priests wouldn’t have been secretly moved from parish to parish like Parcheesi pieces because one of those parents would’ve said, “If we don’t do something about this now, the next kid who’s hurt might be mine.”

Pope Benedict could’ve used his nearly eight years of infallibility to open all church records to the light of day, to come clean about the extent of the cover-up and let the chips fall where they would’ve. And he’d have an easy answer to those who might’ve implicated him in the cover-up, back in the days when he was a cardinal.

“I was fallible then. And now I’m not.”

See how well this thing works?

Pope Benedict will step down on Feb. 28. That gives him 16 more days of infallibility – time in which he can act without worrying about “even the possibility of error.” I can think of no better way to use his time than to honor a request of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

In a statement released Monday, its founders called upon the pope to take meaningful action on behalf of victims of priest sex crimes.

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

MINNESOTA
KARE

[with video]

Boua Xiong

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Pope Benedict’s reign started at the height of sex scandals in the Catholic church. Eight years later, as he steps down, the issue still plagues him as much as it does the victims.

“He didn’t finish his job,” Bob Schwiderski said Monday after he learned about the resignation.

Schwiderski was an altar boy for St. John’s Catholic Church in Hector more than five decades ago. It was there he said he was sexually abused repeatedly by a priest.

“I was 7-years-old the first time,” he said.

The abuse continued until he was 11. He didn’t tell anyone until he was in his 30s and only after he found out others suffered the same way he did too. Over the years, he listened to the Pope apologize and set new reporting rules, but he said that was never enough.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph

The new Pope should not condemn contraception, its former leader in England and Wales suggested today as speculation began about the future of the Church following the surprise resignation of Benedict XVI.

By John-Paul Ford Rojas
10:23AM GMT 12 Feb 2013

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor said that while a radical departure from previous teaching was not likely, it would be “wise” to focus on “what’s good and what’s true” about marriage and family life instead.

He said that Catholic teaching on sexuality should steer away from saying “we condemn this, we condemn that”.

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

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

AUSTRALIAN human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson says the Pope’s resignation could expose him to lawsuits from victims of pedophile priests.

Robertson, writing in UK newspaper the Independent, argues the Pope’s resignation is “merely expedient” as he’d become too old to cope in the job.

“It would have been both astonishing and courageous, a few years ago, had it been offered in atonement for the atrocity to which he had for 30 years turned a blind eye – the rape, buggery and molestation of tens of thousands of small boys in priestly care,” writes the author of The Case of The Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse.

Robertson, based in London, argues that the Pope’s “command responsibility” goes back to 1981 when he was appointed head of the Vatican body that disciplines errant priests.

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

euronews

Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned on February 11 and is expected to leave his post on February 28, will leave behind a Vatican administration mired in scandal over child sex abuse by priests. David Lorenz, who heads up a US group for victims, says the pope failed to really tackle the problem. Lorenz himself was abused by a priest working as a guidance counsellor at his school when he was 16.

Lorenz himself was abused by a priest working as a guidance counsellor at his school when he was 16. Lorenz said of the outgoing pope, “He’s apologised the Irish. He’s apologised to the United States. He’s apologised to Australia, Germany, Spain – you know, letters of apology for what’s gone on in those countries. But the fact is there’s been no action, and words without action really are emptiness.”

Looking ahead to the next pope, Lorenz said, “I’m concerned that we’ll get somebody just as poor and just as rigid on this issue as he was.” Cardinal Roger Mahony, the former Archbishop of Los Angeles, was stripped of his public duties after being linked to efforts to conceal abuse within the Roman Catholic Church.

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

ROME
The Times (United Kingdom)

James Bone
Rome

Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to abdicate because of old age followed secret surgery late last year to replace the battery in his pacemaker, it has emerged today.

The 85-year-old pontiff had a new battery implanted to replace one in the pacemaker he received after suffering a stroke over a decade ago.

According to Italy’s Il Sole 24 business newspaper, the operation took place at the Pius XI clinic in Rome just under three months ago.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Press-Telegram

With the selection of a new pope, the Roman Catholic Church signals the way forward for an institution whose policies affect the whole world. The shocking news Monday that Pope Benedict XVI is resigning this month presents just such an occasion, giving the church a chance to move beyond the sins of the past, to modernize.

But the church can hardly expect to cleanse itself as long as Benedict’s replacement will be chosen by a College of Cardinals that includes Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles.

Last week, following further revelations about Mahony’s role in protecting priests who sexually molested children, and the removal of the former head of the L.A. archdiocese from administrative duties, we called on him to resign his post as cardinal.

Mahony’s potential role in choosing Benedict’s successor underscores what a purely symbolic gesture that removal was and highlights the need for the North Hollywood resident to step aside.

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

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

The Taoiseach has refused to say if he will apologise to the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.

Enda Kenny met with some of the women affected yesterday, along with the Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore.

Afterwards, the survivors said they expect an apology will be forthcoming.

But speaking on his way into Government Buildings this morning, the Taoiseach refused to be drawn on the issue.

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

IRELAND
The Sun

By MYLES McENTEE
Political Correspondent

SURVIVORS of the Magdalene Laundries cried yesterday as they told Taoiseach Enda Kenny their harrowing stories.

Six women who served in the nun-run workhouses had an emotional three-hour meeting with Mr Kenny and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore at Government Buildings.

Speaking afterwards, the survivors praised the meeting — and said it had helped bring some “closure” to the affair.

And they said they were sure Mr Kenny would make a formal apology on behalf of the State for their treatment, as highlighted in the McAleese Report.

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

IRELAND
BBC News

Women from the Magdalene Survivors Together group have said they are confident they will receive an apology from the prime minister (taoiseach) of the Irish Republic.

The laundries were Catholic-run workhouses that operated in Ireland and where girls and women had to do unpaid, manual labour.

Many were sent there by the state.

The women were speaking after a meeting with both Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his deputy Eamon Gilmore.

They said they had received a very compassionate response from both men.

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

UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

For Immediate Release

February 11, 2013

Pope Benedict made a sensible decision. It is evidence the papacy and the Church can change.

Let’s hope it is a signal of strength for the next pope to take the steps that the Church needs.

The Church is in bad shape and needs the tremendous power of the papacy to be used courageously and forcefully for good – starting with the sexual abuse crisis, the largest crisis the Church has faced in 500 years.

Pope Benedict, by being in the unique position of being alive, and with his considerable political skills that were in evidence before and during the last conclave will have influence over the coming conclave and, it can be reasonably expected, into the next papacy.

Pope Benedict should bar Cardinal Roger Mahony from entering the conclave. The Los Angeles documents are evidence enough that this high honor of voting for the next Pope should be withdrawn from him. There should be an empty chair to mark Mahony’s spot.

Pope Benedict took a few, tiny, window dressing steps toward resolving the crisis. With the exception of action against the Legionaire of Christ founder Pope Benedict’s provided words only and weak ones at that.

What’s needed now is true righteousness and courage to match the nobility of action that the survivors have brought forth from lives crucified by rape and sodomy by priests and nuns.

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

UNITED STATES
KGO

[with video]

Lyanne Melendez

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — In a surprising and rare move, Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation Monday. His tenure as pope involved one of the most painful issues confronting the Catholic Church: the sexual abuse of children by some members of the clergy.

As pope, Benedict repeatedly apologized for years of inaction by the Catholic Church, but it’s what he did not do when he was cardinal that threatens to overshadow his legacy.

“Above all, I express my deep sorrow to the innocent victims of these unspeakable crimes,” he said during that visit.

He was also the first pontiff to meet with victims. But for some of them, his actions came too late.

“No I don’t think he did enough,” said Tim Lennon, who is with Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, commonly known as SNAP.

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

AUSTRALIA
9 News

Pope Benedict XVI has done nothing to help sexual abuse victims and has instead covered up crimes to protect the church, Australian advocates for victims of church sexual abuse say.

Melbourne lawyer Judy Courtin says the Pope had been “absolutely appalling” in his handling of the worldwide issue.

“He’s certainly been responsible for the Catholic Church’s policy of concealing and covering up (sexual abuse crimes),” Ms Courtin told AAP.

“And I know his edicts, coming from the Vatican to the bishops worldwide, have been such that there’s been threats of excommunication if they don’t keep these things secret.”

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

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Retiring Pope Benedict XVI wasn’t the best governor but he did a huge amount to address child sexual abuse in the church, Brisbane’s Archbishop says.

The 85-year-old Pope announced his decision to step down during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning (local time), saying age prevented him from carrying out his duties.

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge says it’s “simply wrong” to suggest the retiring Pope didn’t do enough to address the abuse issue.

He said before he became Pope, he had pursued the issue with then Pope John Paul II.

“To say that this Pope has done nothing I think just flies in the face of what I take to be the facts,” the archbishop told ABC TV.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Global Mail

By Stephen Crittenden
February 12, 2013

The next pope will need to come to grips with the generations of systemic sexual abuse within the Catholic church. But in Australia, the spotlight is now on the credibility of protocols set up by the church to handle such claims.

Even before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse starts, Australia’s Catholic bishops know they have a problem.

Of all the matters the royal commission is expected to delve into over the coming years, the church’s own protocols for handling allegations of abuse will be one of the most important.

The Catholic church in Australia has two separate abuse protocols: Towards Healing, covering most Australian dioceses was introduced in 1997. The Melbourne Archdiocese is covered by what has come to be known as the Melbourne Response, introduced by Archbishop George Pell (now Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney) around the same time.

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

AUSTRALIA
9 News

Australians are sharply divided over Pope Benedict XVI’s legacy on the vexed issue of church sexual abuse.

Supporters are hailing his efforts, but critics denounce his reign as one of concealment and cover-up.

The 85-year-old pontiff’s surprise decision to retire comes as Australia embarks on a three-year royal commission into child abuse, which victim groups have urged other nations to follow.

Melbourne lawyer Judy Courtin, a PhD student studying sexual assault in the Catholic Church, said the Pope had been “absolutely appalling” in his handling of the global issue.

“There’s no doubt there’s been that culture of (the Catholic Church) protecting their assets and protecting their name by concealment and cover-up,” Ms Courtin told AAP on Tuesday.

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

AUSTRALIA
9 News

The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, says there is a “continuing misconception” about what Pope Benedict XVI did to address child abuse in the Catholic church.

The 85-year-old pontiff’s surprise decision to retire comes as Australia embarks on a three-year royal commission into into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

In an online interview with the communications director of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Cardinal Pell addressed the allegation by victims’ groups and politicians that the Pope hadn’t done enough on the issue of Church sexual abuse.

“I think it’s a continuing misconception for a number of reasons,” he said.

“First of all, the overwhelming responsibility for meeting this crisis, this abuse, rests with the local hierarchy, the local bishops and the local religious superiors.

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

SOUTH AFRICA
Sowetan

Pope Benedict XVI did nothing to punish pedophile priests or Church seniors who looked the other way, according to US and Irish victims hoping his successor will focus on fighting sex abuse.

Barbara Blaine, founder and president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, called the outgoing pope’s record “dismal.”

“He has made lofty statements. He has not matched those statements with deed or action. Under his reign, the children remained at risk,” Blaine said.

In recent years, the United States and Ireland have been among several countries rocked by successive sex scandals involving members of the Catholic clergy and Church higher-ups accused of covering up abuses. …

“I’m very happy that the pope is resigning because he really did not do very much about clergy sexual abuse,” said Robert Hoatson, president of victims aid group Road To Recovery.

“The next pope has to tackle this issue. This is the most important issue because it concerns children, and it is a worldwide problem and the pope has to commission a group of expert to determine what has to be done to solve this problem.

“And if it means firing all the bishops that have covered up, so be it.”

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

WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

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

Pope Benedict’s announcement Monday at a consistory, or gathering of cardinals considering candidates for the sainthood, caught many area religious authorities and local Vatican watchers by surprise.

“Popes in the modern day just don’t quit so one has to believe that Pope Benedict is pretty sick and that the stresses of the job are really beginning to take a toll on him,” said Mathew N. Schmalz, a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross.

Worcester Bishop Robert J. McManus said he learned of the resignation after turning on the radio for the morning news. …

The groups said Pope Benedict “kept the culture of secrecy intact” and that he allowed hundreds of bishops who knew of the abuse to remain in their jobs.

“Instead of remedies, he gave us words. Instead of true penitence, he gave us public relations,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks priests accused of sexually abusing individuals. “His failure to enact real change in the church’s handling of sexually abusive priests will be his significant and shameful legacy.”

Ms. Doyle said Pope Benedict could have enacted true reform by forcing the immediate resignation of bishops who did little or nothing to stop predator priests. …

“Pope Benedict followed the same script church officials have used for years, speaking of abuse in oblique terms and only when forced to do so — ignoring the cover-ups, using past tense, as if to pretend clergy sex crimes and cover-ups are not still happening now,” added Barbara Dorris, a spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

She said Pope Benedict still has time to “show true leadership and compassion” to take tangible action to safeguard vulnerable children.

Ms. Dorris urged the College of Cardinals to think about the sexually abused when picking a successor.

“For the church to truly embody the spiritual teachings of Jesus Christ, it must be led by a pontiff who demands transparency, exposes child molesting clerics, punishes wrongdoers and enablers, cooperates with law enforcement and makes true amends to those who were hurt so greatly by Catholic priests, employees, and volunteers,” she said.

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

CANADA
The Globe and Mail

MICHAEL VALPY
Special to The Globe and Mail

Published Tuesday, Feb. 12 2013

Benedict XVI’s eight-year reign as Pope was a losing battle against perception – most tellingly the perception that, as absolute ruler of the Roman Catholic Church, he did far less than enough to rid it of the cancer of sexually abusive priests and may have been complicit in its spread.

The 85-year-old German intellectual also vacates the Throne of St. Peter tarnished by accusations that he rejected all theological efforts to move Roman Catholicism toward a more progressive, contemporary morality and institutional comportment around feminism, sexual orientation and sexual behaviour, and ham-fistedly failed to reach out to those who seek God by other paths.

As well, he’s been given failing grades on his great goals of reigniting Christianity as the bedrock of European life and halting the spread of secularism and moral relativism in a materialist world.

Has it all been true? “Perception is 90 per cent of truth. It’s what people latch onto,” said Prof. Mark McGowan of University of Toronto’s St. Michael’s College, one of Canada’s outstanding scholars on the Catholic Church.

And yet the historical record of Benedict’s papacy is far more complex – perhaps no more so than on his record of handling the church’s horrific calumny of sex abuse.

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

SOUTH CAROLINA
GoUpstate

A former youth pastor was sentenced to 15 years in prison last week at the conclusion of a four-day trial on a sex abuse charge in Union County, according to information released by the 16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

Stephen Douglas Berry, 40, was convicted of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor. He must serve 85 percent of the sentence and register as a sex offender. Berry, who previously served as the youth pastor at New Life Baptist Church in Union, was accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl over a six month period in 2010.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by NCR Staff | Feb. 11, 2013

Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez’s public rebuke of his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, at the end of January was quickly described as unprecedented.

Sharply critiquing Mahony’s handling of sex abuse cases after the long-delayed release of church files made clear the cardinal had shielded abusive priests from public scrutiny and possibly law enforcement at the expense of children’s safety, Gomez announced Jan. 31 that his predecessor would “no longer have any administrative or public duties” in the archdiocese.

In a hierarchical system long known for prelates reluctant to criticize one another, the public rebuke was certainly rare. Yet a question remained: What does it mean?

On one level, Gomez’s move against Mahony has little practical impact. Following his initial announcement, Gomez clarified Feb. 1 that Mahony remained a bishop “in good standing,” able to celebrate the sacraments and minister regularly.

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

VATICAN CITY
IBN Live

Rome: Pope Benedict leaves office having failed to stamp out the sexual abuse of children by priests and with the culture of secrecy that fostered the scandal still in place, groups representing some of the victims said on Monday. Bishops Accountability, a US pressure group, said the pope had apologised frequently for the harm done by priests but had never taken effective action to rectify the “incalculable harm” done to hundreds of thousands of children by predatory clergy.

“Benedict’s words rang hollow. He spoke as a shocked bystander, as if he had just stumbled upon the abuse crisis,” Anne Barrett Doyle, the group’s co-director said in a statement. The festering child abuse scandal broke out well before the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger took office in 2005 but it overshadowed his papacy from the beginning, as more and more cases came to light in dioceses across the world.

Hundreds of victims came forward with devastating accounts of abuse suffered at the hands of priests sometimes over years that left them with deep psychological wounds. The scandal broke in Boston in 2002 when reports emerged of the systematic cover-up of sexual abuse, with guilty priests being quietly transferred between dioceses instead of being stripped of their office and handed over to civil authorities.

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

UNITED STATES
PolicyMic

Hannah Kapp-Klote

The Catholic Church is a complicated political and legal entity with its own logic of accountability: priests who ordain women, like Father Roy Bourgeois, are excommunicated without ceremony, and priests who molest children, or aid in covering up the activities of such priests, are kept in the church, if not promoted. Before he was pope, Joseph Ratzinger acted was a top Vatican official, helping to re-locate a priest who sexually abused over 200 deaf boys. It’s impossible to adequately assess his papacy without discussing his role in covering up priests’ sexual abuse of children for decades, and prioritizing the public image of the Church over the well being of thousands of children.

The late atheist Christopher Hitchens was one of Ratzinger’s harshest critics, especially when it came to the church’s policy of self-policing:

“The accusations, intoned Ratzinger, were only treatable within the church’s own exclusive jurisdiction. Any sharing of the evidence with legal authorities or the press was utterly forbidden. Charges were to be investigated “in the most secretive way … restrained by a perpetual silence … and everyone … is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office … under the penalty of excommunication.”

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

UNITED STATES
ABC News

[with video]

By RUSSELL GOLDMAN (@GoldmanRussell)

Feb. 11, 2013

When Pope Benedict XVI resigns at the end of this month, he leaves behind a Church grappling with a global fallout from sex abuse and a personal legacy marred by allegations that he was instrumental in covering up that abuse.

As the sex abuse scandal spread from North America to Europe, Benedict became the first pope to meet personally with victims, and offered repeated public apologies for the Vatican’s decades of inaction against priests who abused their congregants.

“No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse,” the pope said in a 2008 homily in Washington, D.C., before meeting with victims of abuse for the first time. “It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention.” During the same trip to the U.S., he met with victims for the first time.

For some of the victims, however, Benedict’s actions were “lip service and a public relations campaign,” said Jeff Anderson, a Minnesota lawyer who represents victims of sex abuse. For 25 years, Benedict, then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, headed the Vatican office responsible for investigating claims of sex abuse, but he did not act until he received an explicit order from Pope John Paul II.

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

UNITED STATES
Myrtle Beach Online

By MITCHELL LANDSBERG – Los Angeles Times

Time and again in his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI spoke out against the scourge of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests, using words that would have been scarcely imaginable by his predecessors.

It was, he said, “evil,” “gravely immoral,” “a terrifying sign of the times.” He spoke of the “deep shame” and “humiliation” the scandal had brought on the Catholic Church. He apologized to victims.

Not long into his tenure, Benedict essentially banished an influential Mexican priest, Father Marcial Maciel, who had long been suspected of sexually abusing seminarians and boys in his care and had fathered at least three children. Benedict ordered investigations into sexual abuse and issued guidelines in 2010 that made it easier to punish abusive priests.

For all that, there were those who were ultimately disappointed by the pope’s record on the issue. Benedict never acquiesced to demands that he open Vatican records to outside scrutiny and almost never took action against those just below him – his bishops and cardinals – who failed to protect children from abusive priests.

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

Raw Story

By Ian Traynor, The Guardian
Monday, February 11, 2013

For the legions of people whose childhoods and adult lives were wrecked by sexual and physical abuse at the hands of the Roman Catholic clergy, Pope Benedict XVI is an unloved pontiff who will not be missed.

Victims of the epidemic of sex- and child-abuse scandals that erupted under Benedict’s papacy reacted bitterly to his resignation, either charging the outgoing pontiff with being directly complicit in a criminal conspiracy to cover up the thousands of paedophilia cases that have come to light over the past three years, or with failing to stand up to reactionary elements in the church resolved to keep the scandals under wraps.

From Benedict’s native Germany to the USA, abuse victims and campaigners criticised an eight-year papacy that struggled to cope with the flood of disclosures of crimes and abuse rampant for decades within the church. Matthias Katsch, of the NetworkB group of German clerical-abuse victims, said: “The rule of law is more important than a new pope.”

Norbert Denef, 64, from the Baltic coast of north Germany, was abused as a boy by his local priest for six years. In 2003, Denef took his case to the bishop of Magdeburg. He was offered €25,000 (then £17,000) in return for a signed pledge of silence about what he suffered as a six-year-old boy. He then raised the issue with the Vatican and received a letter that said Pope John Paul II would pray for him so that Denef could forgive his molester.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Arthur Beesley

Background: Damning reports brought relations with the Vatican to an all-time low

Benedict XVI’s papacy came at a time of worsening relations between Ireland and the Vatican as the State deepened its investigations into clerical child abuse in the Catholic church.

The church’s response was found wanting as new light was cast on a legacy of brutal sexual violence against children and systematic cover-ups, sapping its moral authority and blunting its political influence.

A nadir was reached two years ago in the wake of the Cloyne report, when Taoiseach Enda Kenny castigated the Vatican in a Dáil speech for its “brazen disregard” for child protection.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

GERRY MORIARTY in Armagh

The Catholic Primate of All-Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady has indicated that he does not consider himself a possible successor to Pope Benedict XVI.

The Archbishop of Armagh, who will play a part in electing the next pontiff, said he would use the time ahead to reflect on how he might vote before travelling to Rome next month for the conclave of cardinals.

Asked what his response would be were he prevailed upon to be next pope, Cardinal Brady replied: “I don’t think that eventuality is likely to arise.”

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

Sex abuse Where Ireland is concerned, Pope Benedict XVI will probably be best remembered for his Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland in 2010, following publication of the Murphy report the previous November.

The letter was unequivocal in its sympathy for victims of clerical child sex abuse and for what Irish Catholics had been through, but also in its criticisms of Irish church leadership.

It was followed by seven high-powered apostolic visitations to the four Irish Catholic archdioceses, the seminaries and religious congregations. The focus seemed to be on orthodoxy and on bringing the Irish church back into line, though few outside the church believed this was relevant to the abuse scandals.

As pope he has been proactive in his dealings with this issue, which so dominated his papacy. On all his trips abroad he has met abuse victims and has seen to it that the church is putting in place adequate child protection measures.

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

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Lydia Mulvany of the Journal Sentinel

Feb. 11, 2013

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a Chicago-based nonprofit that has helped victims in Milwaukee, said Monday that the Catholic Church must elect a new pope that protects children from clergy sexual abuse after Pope Benedict XVI resigns.

“For the Church to truly embody the spiritual teachings of Jesus Christ, it must be led by a pontiff who demands transparency, exposes child-molesting clerics, punishes wrongdoers and enablers, cooperates with law enforcement, and makes true amends to those who were hurt so greatly by Catholic priests, employees and volunteers,” said Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP, in a release.

Blaine said that the era of secrecy and coverups must end, and that victims of sexual abuse want to ensure that other children never experience what they did.

SNAP, which has more than 12,000 members, is the largest support group for clergy abuse victims. Victims include those who were molested by religious leaders in all denominations, including priests, nuns, rabbis and Protestant ministers.

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

MILWAUKEE (WI)
San Francisco Chronicle

MILWAUKEE (AP) — An advocacy group that has helped clergy abuse victims in Milwaukee says the Catholic Church must elect a new pope who protects children.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, issued a statement Monday after Pope Benedict announced he is retiring at the end of February due to health issues.

SNAP President Barbara Blaine says the Catholic Church must be led by a pontiff who demands transparency, exposes child-molesting clerics, punishes wrongdoers and cooperates with law enforcement.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (http://bit.ly/XDjRlW ) report Blaine also said the new pope needs to make “true amends” to those who were hurt by Catholic priests, employees and volunteers.

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

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Denis Hamill

An Irish-American Pope would have made my mother’s life complete.

Hey, don’t laugh: Speculation swirls that New York’s Timothy Cardinal Dolan has an outside chance of succeeding retiring Pope Benedict.

In my mother’s home, the Pope was basically the King of the World.

My immigrant parents were raised Roman Catholics in the sectarian turmoil of Ulster, the six counties of Northern Ireland that in 1921 were divided from the 26 southern counties of the Republic of Ireland.

In Ulster, Protestant “loyalists” who swore allegiance to the British crown outnumbered Catholics, 2 to 1. My parents’ lives in Northern Ireland were defined by religious sectarianism akin to the way race has divided America. The reason my mother spelled my name with one N instead of the more common two in Dennis is because I was named for St. Denis, once the bishop of Paris. It didn’t matter that there were tasty rumors of St. Denis being a cannibal; he was an “R.C.”

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

PHILIPPINES
GMA News

EARL VICTOR L. ROSERO, GMA NewsFebruary 12, 2013

Some Vatican observers said Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, installed as a cardinal by the pope only last November, is one of the frontrunners to be the global Catholic Church’s next pope.

On Monday, 85-year-old German-born Pope Benedict XVI on Monday announced that he will resign on February 28, making him the first pope to do so in centuries.

Journalist John Allen Jr. of the United States-based National Catholic Reporter (NCR) has written extensively about the possible popes.

Even in 2011, when Tagle was not yet a cardinal and thus not yet eligible to become a pope, Allen already wrote that the Filipino priest was not only “a rising star in the Asian Church” but also a “papal contender.”

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

VATICAN CITY
GMA News

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI, who has announced he will resign on February 28, will retire to a monastery tucked away inside the historic walls of the Holy See: so once the new pope is elected, there will be a former pontiff and his successor living in the Vatican.

Benedict, 85, who said he was standing down due to old age, will temporarily stay at the papal summer house at Castel Gandolfo near Rome.

During that time, the Mater Ecclesiae monastery building within the Vatican grounds — an oasis of calm with its own vegetable garden and blooming flowerbeds — will be renovated.

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

VIRGINIA
WTVR

[with video]

RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) – A group of protesters from the Virginia Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) were in front of the Richmond Catholic Diocese asking for recognition of a man accused of sexually abusing more than 80 children.

Stephen Baker worked in Norfolk in the 1970s, and was accused of molesting children in three other states. He committed suicide in January, after settling 11 of the cases brought against him.

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

VIRGINIA
WRVA

Richmond, VA (1140wrva.com) _ On the day Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation effective February 28, a small group called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) held a news conference outside the Richmond Catholic Diocese headquarters alleging that church officials in five states concealed child abuse allegatiions surrounding a priest who worked in Norfolk, and asking the diocese to determine whether there were any victims in Virginia.

The late Franciscan Brother Stephen Baker was assigned to the James Barry Robinson High School and Home for Boys in Norfolk in the 1970s. The High School closed in 1977 and became a treatment center for emotionally disturbed children.

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

UNITED STATES
NBC News

‘Woefully inadequate’ or a ‘great reformer’: Child sex abuse crisis overshadows Benedict’s legacy

By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

As Pope Benedict XVI’s prepares to step down, his legacy is being viewed through the prism of how he handled the child sex abuse crisis, with some observers saying he dealt with it aggressively while others calling his response to the scandals “woefully inadequate.”

During Benedict’s eight-year papacy, thousands of people came forward to claim that had been raped or molested by priests as children, and that bishops had covered it up.

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, it was Benedict’s old office that dealt with abuse cases, yet he never admitted failure by himself or of the Vatican, and never punished bishops who ignored or covered up the abuse.

“It’s hard to escape the fact that his biggest challenge was the sex abuse crisis and it really didn’t get better during his papacy,” said Michael D’Antonio, author of the upcoming book “Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal.” “And in fact, one can see that the church declined in moral authority, especially in the developed world and that includes places like Ireland and Belgium, which were until a few years ago the most Catholic and the most conservatively Catholic countries in the world. And all of this, I really think is traceable to his failure.”

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Independent

Associated Press

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will review personnel files of allegedly abusive priests that were recently released by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Scott said Monday the special victims bureau is reviewing all the files and comparing them to cases the department has already investigated to see if there are additional victims or if there are cases or crimes they weren’t aware of.

The Los Angeles Police Department announced a similar review last week. The two probes are independent, but Scott says resources may be shared.

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

ARIZONA
KVOA

[with video]

Florence – We’ve been investigating a monastery mystery near Florence for 7 years. It’s a beautiful religious oasis but some parents say, it’s more like a cult.

St. Anthony’s Monastery sits on 106 acres of desert land. And it looked pretty much the same when we went back, recently, to walk the grounds.

A former monk killed himself outside of the monastery this past June. 25 year-old Scott Nevins from Modesto, CA was in our report 7-years ago.

In that report we showed you photos of Scott, provided by his family, where he appeared frail. He was one of about 50 monks inside St. Anthony’s Monastery at the time. He looked nothing like he had a year before he moved there.

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

UNITED STATES
Newsbusters

By Matt Hadro | February 11, 2013

Right as CNN’s The Situation Room reported the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, correspondent Brian Todd launched into a litany of the “controversies” of his papacy and pushed the positive analysis to the bottom of his report.

“Pope Benedict’s papacy has been marked by serious controversies,” began anchor Wolf Blitzer. Todd followed up that as far as “controversies” were concerned, “there was certainly no shortage of those during his papacy.” [Video below the break. Audio here.]

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

UNITED STATES
Opposing Views

By News Hounds, Mon, February 11, 2013

That the alleged “Fair & Balanced” Fox News is a propaganda vehicle for the conservative positions of the Catholic Church isn’t a surprise given that, along with the many Catholics in the ranks of *Fox hosts, there is a conservative Catholic near the top of the Fox News hierarchy. John Moody, Fox News Executive Vice President and executive editor is a staunch conservative Catholic who once wrote an article about how offended he was by Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s black liberation theology. And as Fox’s top RC, he used the alleged Fox News show “America’s Newsroom,” today, to discuss Pope Benedict’s resignation and, in so doing, positively gush over the awesomeness of the Pope. Alleged news host and conservative Catholic Martha MacCallum shared the love.

In introducing Moody, fellow Catholic Martha MacCallum noted that he wrote a biography of Pope John Paul II and interviewed the current pope. Moody, who wrote an article for the Fox website, “As Vatican Leader, Pope Benedict Never Had a Chance,” was just bursting with praise about the outgoing pontiff. He said that the resignation “was one of the bravest things I have ever heard of” and that this “reflects the kind of man and the kind of leader of the Church that he insisted on being.” (Right, offered an apology and not penalties for sexual abuse.)

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

IRELAND
Irish Independent

11 February 2013

THE Martin McAleese Report on the Magdalene Laundries is a flawed document. It is not based on the best evidence. Its focus is inappropriately narrow. Its research, despite claims of prodigious hunting through the enormous ocean of state records, missed obvious and important information about the laundries.

Its terms of reference were wrong and have been dishonestly represented to the Irish people. The Government issued what can only be described as ‘a mandate both broad and narrow’. The narrow bit was “to establish the facts of state involvement with the Magdalene Laundries”. This was primitive and clumsy. Its objective seems to have been to find out where the State was at risk from legal pursuit.

The committee broadened this into ‘a Narrative Report’ on the laundries, into which they threw every possible document, many of which were absurd for the task at hand. For example, what are Tomas Derrig’s ‘Rules for the Industrial Schools’ doing as a grubby photocopy appendix version for St George’s Industrial School in Limerick, signed but not dated by the minister?

Industrial school rules had nothing to do with the laundry girls. They were lucky to get a faint whiff of education as they lifted their heads from the steaming cauldrons of filthy clothing that dominated their lives.

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

NEW YORK
Politicker

By Colin Campbell

Earlier today, Pope Benedict XVI surprisingly announced his abidcation–the first time a Pope has stepped down since 1415–setting the stage for the dramatic process of electing a new Vatican leader. And, although Congressman Michael Grimm doesn’t get a vote in that select process, the Staten Island lawmaker wants everyone to know he’s backing New York’s own Cardinal Timothy Dolan for the holy vocation.

“It is too early to determine the full extent of Pope Benedict’s legacy; however, New Yorkers will never forget the gift he gave us with the elevation of Cardinal Dolan,” Mr. Grimm announced in a statement. “Cardinal Dolan has lifted the spirits of Catholics and non-Catholics throughout New York and the world, and renewed the faith of many. If it were up to me to pick the next pope, Cardinal Dolan would have my vote!”

Mr. Grimm, who is Catholic, additionally praised Pope Benedict’s unusual decision to step down, calling it “a sign of a great leader.”

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

VATICAN CITY
NBC News

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

The bookmakers in Europe already have their favorites, but the world won’t know who will succeed Pope Benedict XVI until that puff of white smoke is sent up the chimney of the conclave room next month.

The College of Cardinals has no shortage of factors to consider in picking the next pope — from age to geography — and no dearth of potential candidates.

Here are some of the princes of the church whose names have emerged from Vatican watchers since Monday’s surprise abdication announcement:

Cardinal Angelo Scola: He’s the archbishop of Milan, a good launching pad for popes, and the former Patriarch of Venice, which has also produced many a papal front-runner. Scola, 71, has close ties to the conservative Communion and Liberation movement, is a champion of immigrants’ right and has been active in outreach to the Muslim world. Vatican expert John Allen has written of Scola: “If you like Benedict XVI, you’ll love Scola; even if you don’t, you’ll find it hard not to be charmed.”

Cardinal Marc Ouellet: Former archbishop of Quebec, he heads the Congregation of Bishops, a power center. Ouellet, 68, speaks six languages, spent a decade as a missionary in Colombia and has strong ties to Latin and South America. He’s considered conservative and made headlines in 2010 when he said abortion was a “moral crime,” even in cases of rape. In a 2011 interview, he laughed off the idea of becoming pontiff, saying the workload and responsibility “would be a nightmare.”

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

TEXAS
Houston Chronicle

By Cindy Horswell | February 11, 2013

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo – the first ever cardinal from the southern United States who also oversees the Houston-Galveston diocese – will be among the select few to not only chose the next pope but be a possible candidate.

But a betting website, paddypower.com, gave him only 100 to 1 odds of being picked as the pope’s successor from among the 54 possible candidates the site listed. DiNardo ranked 12th from the bottom, with Cardinal Peter Turkson from Ghana ranked first with 3 to 1 odds.

DiNardo, 62, is one of only 118 cardinals worldwide who are just one step below the pope.

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

OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By Rita Price
The Columbus Dispatch
Monday February 11, 2013

A former central Ohio priest who spent a year in prison for molesting a 12-year-old boy has died.

Thomas L. McLaughlin, known as “Father Mac,” died last Wednesday at the age of 82.

McLaughlin was removed from his duties as pastor at Church of the Resurrection in New Albany months before he pleaded guilty in 1989 to molesting the child at the priest’s cottage at Indian Lake in Logan County. In exchange for the plea, charges that he had molested six other boys were not pursued.

McLaughlin also was pastor at St. Mary Church in Marion and served at other parishes in the Columbus diocese.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

As surprise washed over Catholic parishioners Monday after the resignation announcement by Pope Benedict XVI, retired nun Mary Dispenza was left saddened that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony will have a hand in picking the pontiff’s successor.

Mahony, who was stripped of his public duties last month following new disclosures in the priest sex-abuse scandal, says he will travel to Rome to vote on the next pope.

“Cardinal Mahony still has his powers under the church’s law,” said Dispenza, who received a 2006 settlement from the archdiocese over claims of molestation by her parish priest in the 1940s.

“It is a sad commentary that he walk into Rome and cast his vote despite his behavior,” she said. “But church law is that way.”

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
LA Weekly

By Dennis RomeroMon., Feb. 11 2013

If you thought Roger Mahony being stripped of his “duties” was a cop out intended to make you think the church was doing something regarding past priest abuse and the Cardinal’s strategy to transfer bad clergy away from the prying eyes of the law, you’re probably right.

It was a mild, public slap in the face (and Mahony responded by slapping back, if you’ll recall). Now the disgraced former leader of the L.A. Archdiocese is rubbing it in your face:

He gets to go to Rome and vote on the next pope. Yep, he even blogged about the honor today.

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

WORCESTER (MA)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester

February 11, 2013, WORCESTER, MA — I was stunned when I heard the news early this morning that our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI has decided to resign as Bishop of Rome and Universal Pastor of the Church, effective February 28, 2013. However, upon further reflection, this dramatic news does not completely surprise me.

As recently as 2011 in an interview with a German journalist, the Holy Father said, “When a Pope arrives at a clear awareness that he no longer has the physical, mental or psychological capacity to carry out the task that has been entrusted to him, then he has the right, and in some cases, the duty to resign.”

No doubt some people will offer reasons for the Holy Father’s decision to resign. At this point, all such explanations would be mere speculation. What we can say with certainty in that the Holy Father’s decision reflects his love for and commitment to promoting the good of the Church. Pope Benedict XVI has served the Church with extraordinary wisdom, unshakable faith and undaunted courage as a priest, theologian, cardinal and pope.

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

NORTH CAROLINA
Digtriad

[with video]

Greensboro, NC — Monday, Pope Benedict XVI announced he will resign at the end of February. Assistant Director of the Elon University Poll, Jason Husser explains how the resignation will affect the Catholic Church, politically.

Explain what this will do for the Catholic Church.

Husser: This resignation could cause lowered attendance for Catholics who aren’t deeply invested into the Church. For some Catholics who were already suspicious of the organization, this kind of unprecedented change will raise further doubts and confirm existing fears. As a result, I’d expect to see a decline in Catholic attendance, at least in the short term. In the unlikely event an American Cardinal is elected, interest in the Catholic Church will likely rise in the United States.

What are the political ramifications of the Pope’s resignation?

Husser: The resignation will probably help the Republican Party, though only slightly. If the resignation influences adherence rates in the United States, it will probably be among those who attend only occasionally. Those infrequent attenders are asymmetrically Democratic voters. As a result, the Catholic Church could become more homogeneously Republican, making Catholic voters an easier target for GOP politicians. Furthermore, if the Pope’s successor continues a theologically conservative movement, Catholic voters may become increasingly likely to vote for Republicans for social policy reasons.

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

UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Peter Mirus | February 11, 2013

Around the news sites and blogosphere, you have begun to see only the first of the many inaccurate, meaningless, irresponsible, and completely misinformed (not to mention heretical, in some cases) reporting on Pope Benedict’s resignation and the election of a new pope. Talking heads, so called “experts,” etc. will be put forward by the media and will seldom say anything correct or insightful. Here are some examples for you from the Wall Street Journal.

•”The cardinals will look for ‘someone who has a combination of theological stances, but who also best addresses where we are seeing the church going today,’ said Francesco Cesareo, president of Assumption College in Worcester, Mass.”

•”‘The pontificate of Benedict has combined tradition and innovation. I don’t believe that the conclave will break up this heritage,’ said Francesco Perfetti, professor of contemporary history at Luiss Univerisity.”

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
LA Daily News

[Cardinal Mahony’s statement]

By Barbara Jones and Melissa Pinion-Whitt, Staff Writers
dailynews.com
Posted: 02/11/2013

Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony will be among those traveling to Rome next month to participate in a papal conclave to elect a successor to retiring Pope Benedict XVI.

The 210-member College of Cardinals elects the pope, but only those under age 80 can participate in the secret election.

“Surely one of his great legacies will be a continuing emphasis on the need for all Catholics to exercise their role as evangelizers in the world,” the 78-year-old cardinal said in a statement. “His focus upon the new evangelization will continue to enliven all disciples of Jesus.”

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

VATICAN CITY
SBS (Australia)

Widely seen as an ultra-conservative, the first German pope in history has proved in many ways more flexible and modern than his Polish predecessor.

Pope Benedict XVI will leave behind a Catholic Church grappling with crises from child abuse scandals involving priests to confronting radical Islam as well as struggling to find its place in an increasingly secular Western world.

German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who will step down at the end of this month after an eight-year pontificate, was elected pope on April 19, 2005 at a time when anger at clerical abuse was at its height in parts of Europe and North America, shaking the faith of many ordinary Catholics.

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

AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

A MELBOURNE priest claims the extra strain placed on Pope Benedict from dealing with widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic Church may have been a factor in his resignation.

Father Max Vodola said the elderly Pope’s shock exit from the role may be because he is too physically and emotionally weak to deal with the decades-old problem.

It comes as Archbishop Denis Hart leads Victorian tributes to the Pope, who he describes as gentle and loving.

“Trying to correct the errors that went as far back as 50 years would be an immense shame and embarrassment, and would require the right protocols in place to deal with it,” Father Vodola said.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
The Southern Illinoisan

CHICAGO (AP) — Cardinal Francis George of Chicago plans on attending his second papal conclave next month.

Pope Benedict XVI said Monday he would resign Feb. 28, becoming the first pope in 600 years to step down. Cardinal George talked to reporters Monday about the expected March conclave to replace the pontiff. George previously attended the conclave in 2005 that elected Benedict after Pope John Paul II died.

George says he feels more experienced now and would spend more time asking questions and getting impressions of his fellow cardinals. The Roman Catholic Church elects a new pope from among its cardinals. George says he would make better use of his time before voting begins.

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

CHILE
Santiago Times

Monday, 11 February 2013
Written by Jay Balagna

Chilean gay rights group Movilh expressed its hopes Monday for a supporter to land in the Vatican’s top spot after news of Pope Benedict XVI´s plans for retirement spread around the world.

The statement, which lists the Movilh’s complaints over Benedict’s stance against homosexuality, calls for members of the church and its clergy to press for the election of a new pope with a more accepting viewpoint.

The statement comes in contrast to official reactions to the news from around the world, including that of the Chilean government. In a statement, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera called the announcement “an act of courage and of conscience.”

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Sioux City Journal

Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony will help elect a new pope, despite recently being rebuked for not doing more to stop sexual abuse by priests when he led the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

Mahony has been barred from public duties in the archdiocese by the current archbishop because of revelations about his past handling of clergy pedophile cases. But Mahony remains in good standing as archbishop emeritus.

Mahony says he looks forward to traveling to Rome to participate in the conclave that will choose the next pope.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
KPCC

UPDATE 2:39 p.m. Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez began Monday’s mid-day mass by praying for Pope Benedict, who announced his surprise resignation on Monday, then spoke glowingly about the Pontiff who placed him in his current post.

“His decision to resign is a beautiful, Christ-like act of humility and love for the church,” Gomez said. “This is the act of a Saint, who thinks not about himself but only about the will of God, and the good of God’s people.”

Gomez informed parishioners at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in downtown L.A. of the coming conclave of cardinals that will choose the next pope.

His predecessor in L.A., Cardinal Roger Mahony, plans to attend. Mahony was recently pulled from daily duties in the L.A. Archdiocese amidst a scandal over how Mahony handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests. (You can view Mahony’s full statement on the Pope’s resignation below; the story continues beneath the window.)

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

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS | Mon Feb 11, 2013

(Reuters) – Pope Benedict would not be the meticulous theologian he has always been if he didn’t make sure even his shocking resignation – the first by a pontiff in over 700 years – was fully in line with Roman Catholic doctrine.

His announcement was so stunning that many Catholics will have instinctively asked if a pope is allowed to step down. For many of them, Pope John Paul’s long and very public agony before he died in 2005 is the iconic image of the end of a papacy.

But the Code of Canon Law, the legal corpus governing the Church, clearly provides for a papal resignation in its Canon 332. John Paul mentioned it in a detailed 1996 document that laid down the procedure for electing a new pope.

Benedict’s reputation as an orthodox and self-effacing pope ensures there will be few questions about the legality of the move and will reduce speculation that he plans to continue to play a decisive role behind the scenes.

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 11, 2013

By stepping down, Pope Benedict has proven he’s capable of bold action. For the safety of children, in the weeks ahead, we hope he’ll show similar decisiveness and

—discipline at least a handful of current prelates who are concealing or who have concealed child sex crimes,

–insist that every bishop post names of the credibly accused predator priests on his website (as 30 US bishops have done: http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/lists.htm),

–order bishops to actively work with lawmakers to pass stronger child safety measures and reform archaic laws that shield officials who commit and conceal child sex crimes,

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

UNITED STATES
Catholics4Change

February 11, 2013 by Susan Matthews

The U.S. broadcast news, with the notable exception of Cokie Roberts – whose mother was ambassador to the Vatican, seems clueless in regard to the mindset of the College of Cardinals. These insulated, arrogant, elderly men wrapped in robes don’t bother themselves with the daily life of the average American.

They are not concerned with popularity or being liked. I can assure you that none of them came up with the idea of the Pope having a twitter account. All this might be fine if their focus was on protecting Church doctrine against decaying modern morals.

Over the course of several hundred years, the College of Cardinals has proven its primary concern is maintaining a Machiavellian grip on money and power. They wield Tradition – capital T – in order to do so. That’s not O.K.

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

ROME
Wall Street Journal

By LIAM MOLONEY And GIADA ZAMPANO

ROME—The sudden nature of Pope Benedict XVI’s departure could affect the profile of his successor, in part because voting cardinals will have little time to strategize about who the next pontiff should be.

A speedy decision is likely to favor a compromise figure that is similar to Pope Benedict: a traditionalist in doctrine, but open to building bridges between the Vatican and the modern world, Vatican experts said.

The cardinals will look for “someone who has a combination of theological stances, but who also best addresses where we are seeing the church going today,” said Francesco Cesareo, president of Assumption College in Worcester, Mass.

The Papal conclave—the secretive meeting of Roman Catholic cardinals to elect a new pope—is expected to start shortly after the end of this month, when the 85-year-old pontiff said he would step down.

A main question facing the conclave is about style. The cardinals will likely debate whether to select a low-key gradualist or someone who is going to govern with grand gestures, such as Pope Benedict’s predecessor John Paul II.

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

VATICAN CITY
Mirror (United Kingdom)

[with photo of the lightning strike]

This was the moment lightning struck the Vatican today – hours after Pope Benedict XVI’s bolt-from-the-blue resignation.

The lightning touched the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, one of the holiest Catholic churches, after the Pope’s shock admission he lacks strength to do the job.

The Vatican stressed that no specific medical condition prompted Benedict’s decision to quit – the first pontiff to do so in 600 years.

The move surprised even his closest aides, even though Benedict, 85, had made clear in the past he would step down if he became too old or infirm.

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

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

James Mackenzie
Reuters
3:43 p.m. CST, February 11, 2013

ROME (Reuters) – Pope Benedict leaves office having failed to stamp out the sexual abuse of children by priests and with the culture of secrecy that fostered the scandal still in place, groups representing some of the victims said on Monday.

Bishops Accountability, a U.S. pressure group, said the pope had apologized frequently for the harm done by priests but had never taken effective action to rectify the “incalculable harm” done to hundreds of thousands of children by predatory clergy.

“Benedict’s words rang hollow. He spoke as a shocked bystander, as if he had just stumbled upon the abuse crisis,” Anne Barrett Doyle, the group’s co-director said in a statement.

The festering child abuse scandal broke out well before the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger took office in 2005 but it overshadowed his papacy from the beginning, as more and more cases came to light in dioceses across the world.

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

ROME
The New York Times

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Published: February 11, 2013

ROME — Pope Benedict XVI’s surprise decision to resign on Monday immediately set off a flurry of speculation about his replacement, who will be called upon to guide the Roman Catholic Church through an increasingly secular era in which the church has lost the certainty it claimed for centuries.

Some Vatican observers predicted that the growing importance of the developing world to the church could weigh on the decision and, perhaps, lead to the choice of a non-European pope. But the voting bloc of cardinals coming from Europe remains sizable and influential, experts said.

“It’s a premature question, though it’s clear that two non-Italian popes in a row have broken the notion that the pope has to be Italian,” said Alberto Melloni, a historian of the Roman Catholic Church and director of the John XXIII Center in Bologna, a liberal Catholic research institute. “But the church is not the Austro-Hungarian Empire where leaders alternate between countries. The pope is first of all bishop of Rome, and then the leader of the universal church.”

Vatican experts argued that vision, rather than geography, would likely determine who would replace Benedict, and that the ability to communicate with a distracted world would be high on the list of desirable qualities. As nearly all of the cardinals eligible to vote were appointed by the current pope or his predecessor, John Paul II, it is likely that the next pope will share strong continuity in terms of vision and doctrine.

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

CANADA
Vancouver Sun

By Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press
February 11, 2013

MONTREAL – If a Canadian does become the next pope and spiritual leader to the world’s one billion Catholics, the story of his ascension will begin, appropriately enough, on a hockey rink.

The moment of inspiration where Marc Cardinal Ouellet decided he should pursue the priesthood came as he nursed a broken leg, sustained during a hockey game.

Longtime friend Lionel Gendron, a Quebec bishop, says that at the time the teenaged Ouellet was studying in northwestern Quebec to be a teacher.

He says Ouellet was an excellent hockey player.

He says the 68-year-old Ouellet still plays the game with his nephews when he visits his family in Quebec.

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

AUSTRALIA
Advertiser

By NICK MILLER
Feb. 12, 2013

THE surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI – the first by a pontiff for almost 600 years – has led to calls for his replacement to be the Catholic Church’s first black leader.

In a letter to his Catholic brethren Pope Benedict, 85, said his advanced age and the pace of change in the modern world had left him unable to “adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me”.

Tributes have poured in from religious and political figures around the world – but many also expressed their shock at the news.

Some commentators argued that the Roman Catholic Church should take the opportunity to modernise, after eight years under Pope Benedict in which it was accused of being overly conservative, and hobbled by sexual abuse scandals.

Cardinal George Pell, born and educated in the Victorian town of Ballarat, has long been touted as a candidate for Pope.

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

VATICAN CITY
KTAR

(AP) – Pope Benedict XVI set clear and ambitious goals for his papacy quickly after he was elected: He hoped to re-evangelize the increasingly secular West. He would show that religious faith and reason could co-exist in the modern world. He would reach out to traditionalists who had split from the church and shore up Catholic identity.

He came into the papacy with the reputation of a brilliant theologian; nearly eight years later, he leaves the Holy See with that reputation intact. But because of burdens he inherited and ongoing problems in his own pontificate, Benedict fell short of the mark he set for himself on unifying the church, building relationships with other religions and restoring the church’s influence in broader society.

A look at some aspects of his legacy:

CHRISTIAN HERITAGE: Benedict dedicated his pontificate to stemming the spread of secularism, especially in Europe, where church attendance has dwindled. He condemned same-sex marriage, argued that gender had become something chosen instead of given from God, and said lack of belief was dangerous, pointing to violence that resulted when past atheist governments “tried to stamp out the light of God to instead turn on illusory and misleading glows.” Yet even as he made his arguments, acceptance of same-sex relationships grew throughout Europe and the United States. …

VATICAN SCANDALS: Some major scandals shook the Vatican during Benedict’s pontificate. In 2010, the Holy See’s top two banking officials came under scrutiny in a money-laundering inquiry that resulted in millions of euros being seized from a Vatican bank account. The pope hired a Swiss expert a few months ago to help upgrade safeguards against wrongdoing, but problems remained. Meanwhile, the pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was sentenced to prison after stealing the pope’s personal correspondence and leaking the documents to a journalist. Gabriele said he thought the pope wasn’t being informed of the “evil and corruption” in the Vatican. Benedict later pardoned him.

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

MAINE
Seacoast Online

By Laura Dolce
ldolce@seacoastonline.com

February 11, 2013

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — When Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he would be retiring at the end of the month, he may have caught the world by surprise, but for Maine’s Monsignor Charles Murphy, there were signs more than a year ago that the pope was struggling.

“I saw him last in December 2011 and his walk was very impaired,” said Murphy, director of deacons for the Archdiocese of Portland and the author of several books, including The Spirituality of Fasting and Eucharistic Adoration. “He had to be wheeled around. But mentally, he was very sharp.”

Murphy, who spent more than a decade of his life in Vatican City, first as a student from 1958 to 1962, and then as rector of the North American College for seminarians from 1978 to 1985, visits each year and said Benedict’s stepping down was “unprecedented.”

“John Paul II wouldn’t, even with advanced Parkinson’s,” he said. “He’d say, ‘Do you ask the father of the family to retire?’”

Benedict, Murphy said, was “more realistic.” Chosen to serve as an “interim” pope following the long term of John Paul II, he understood that his role was to give the cardinals a chance to “regroup and rethink.”

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Cardinal Roger Mahony Blogs LA

STATEMENT on the RESIGNATION of POPE BENEDICT XVI

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony
Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles

February 11, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI has been an extraordinary Successor to St. Peter these past eight years, and I thank God for the graces and blessings which have come to the Church and to the world during his Pontificate.

It was my privilege to participate in the Conclave of April 2005 when Pope Benedict was elected. I recall so clearly his words when he told the Cardinals that he was choosing the name of Benedict because of his fondness for the prayerfulness and the Rule of St. Benedict, and also because Pope Benedict XV [1914—1920] served during a time of turmoil and wars across the world.

Pope Benedict XVI began his Petrine ministry from a firm foundation of prayer, holiness, and remarkable scholarship. Before the end of 2005 he issued Deus Caritas Est, a letter on the virtue and gift of charity and love among the disciples of Jesus Christ. Two more followed: one on hope in 2007, the third on faith in 2009.

His homilies and addresses were so amazing because he was not speaking about Jesus Christ as a topic, but he was speaking about Jesus from a deep and intimate knowledge of Jesus himself. It was that attraction to the person of Jesus Christ which flowed from all his many teachings for the Church and the world.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Mercury News

By ROBERT JABLON Associated Press
Posted: 02/11/2013

LOS ANGELES—Cardinal Roger Mahony will help elect a new pope despite recently being rebuked for not doing more to stop sexual abuse by priests when he led the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

Mahony, 76, made no reference to the scandal when he issued a statement Monday saying he would be among the cardinals who will choose the next pope.

“I look forward to traveling to Rome soon to help thank Pope Benedict XVI for his gifted service to the church, and to participate in the conclave to elect his successor,” Mahony said.

Benedict, 85, announced Monday that he will resign on Feb. 28 because of failing health.

Mahony stepped down as head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 2011 after reaching retirement age. Long seen as a progressive leader who supported immigrant rights in an area with an enormous Spanish-speaking population, Mahony’s reputation was tainted by the abuse scandal that resulted in a record $600 million payout to more than 500 plaintiffs who sued the church over abuse.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
T Online

Geahnt hatten es Vatikan-Insider schon lange: Papst Benedikt XVI. – ehemals Josef Ratzinger – würde vermutlich nicht bis zum bitteren Ende durchhalten. Was jedoch treibt das Oberhaupt der katholischen Christenheit zu einem Schritt, den sich seit 1294 kein Pontifex mehr zu gehen gewagt hat?

Christian Feldmann, Ratzinger-Biograf aus Regensburg, ist einer der Experten, die mit dem Rücktritt gerechnet hatten. “Benedikt war schon immer ein schrecklich verzagter Charakter”, so Feldmann zu t-online.de. Der Papst sei einerseits bescheiden, vor allem aber “sehr ängstlich sowie zum Rückzug und zum Pessimismus neigend”.

Seine Betrachtung der Welt sei keineswegs “sieghaft-hoffnungsfroh”, sondern skeptisch, was den Fortgang der Dinge und den Charakter des Menschen angehe. Sein Handeln sei geprägt von der Angst vor einem Dammbruch, dem Moment, an dem alles in seiner Kirche auseinanderläuft.

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

IRELAND
Newstalk

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources says he is sure the state will behave appropriately, once the Taoiseach and Tanaiste meet with some of the survivors of the Magdalene Launderies today.

Pat Rabbitte was responding to questions about whether or not the Government will apologise to the women.

It follows last week’s report which detailed clear evidence of State involvement in how women were sent to the laundries, and in how the work-houses were operated.

The Justice for Magdalenes group has reservations about today’s meeting and has asked for clarification on the nature of it before deciding whether to attend.

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

What is Pope Benedict XVI’s rush? If the Catholic Church can survive a month without a new Pope, it can survive six months as well. In the past decade, it has survived with a seriously ill Pope, John Paul II, and a very old Pope, Benedict XVI. The Catholic Church needs to be fixed and 120 Cardinals in red dresses marching around St. Peter’s Square on short notice is no way to do that.

Of course, Pope Benedict and his Vatican clique of mainly Italian Cardinals must know this and apparently intend to try to stampede the many shell-shocked Cardinals. Are Cardinals all that naive? Are they so impressed with Pope Benedict’s performance that they are prepared to rubber-stamp his hand picked successor? A mere third of the voting Cardinals can forestall any Vatican clique favored candidate until the Catholic Church structure is fixed.

Many Cardinals are likely to face criminal prosecutors during the next Pope’s reign. Unlike in the Reformation, they have no European monarchs protecting them from imprisonment. As an experienced Harvard Law trained and now retired international lawyer, I would advise any Cardinals who were my clients to go slower here. Fix the Church now. You will not be able to do that if you are behind bars. This is likely to be many Cardinals’ last chance to save themselves. Look what happened to Cardinal Mahony, who apparently has just been fed, in effect, to the Los Angeles prosecutors by a public shaming evidentally with the Pope’s blessing. Who will be next?

Yes, go to Rome, but demand first that a conference be convened soon before any election to be held far away from Rome to address seriously and comprehensively the Church’s major problems, which are just getting worse with the recent decades of papal inattention.

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

LATIN AMERICA
Reuters

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS | Tue Feb 12, 2013

(Reuters) – With Pope Benedict’s stunning announcement that he will resign later this month, the time may be coming for the Roman Catholic Church to elect its first non-European leader and it could be a Latin American.

The region already represents 42 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion-strong Catholic population, the largest single block in the Church, compared to 25 percent in its European heartland.

After the Pole John Paul and German-born Benedict, the post once reserved for Italians is now open to all. The new pope will be the man that the cardinals who elect him at the next conclave think will guide the Church best.

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

UNITED STATES
Sydney Morning Herald

Washington: Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement that he will step aside this month means “he still has two weeks” to take action against child sex abuse by church staff, a US victims’ group says.

The Pope announced earlier that he will resign because of old age, becoming the first pontiff in more than six centuries to step down in a move that stunned the world.

“No matter how tired or weak Pope Benedict may be, he still has two weeks to use his vast power to protect youngsters. Before he steps down, we hope he will show true leadership and compassion and take tangible action to safeguard vulnerable children,” read a statement by SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“Imagine the shock waves – and the hope – that would be generated if, in his waning days, the pontiff demoted, disciplined, or defrocked even a handful of bishops who are concealing child sex crimes. And imagine the deterrent that would be to present and future cover-ups,” they stressed.

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

VATICAN CITY
CNN

By Paul Donovan, Special to CNN

February 11, 2013

Editor’s note: Paul Donovan is a lifelong Catholic and a commentator, writer and broadcaster who has contributed to The Guardian, Tablet, Universe, Irish Post and Independent Catholic News

(CNN) — The announcement of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI came as a bolt from the blue to the world but not a moment too soon for many Catholics.

The Catholic Church has continued to march backwards under Pope Benedict, seeming at times to be in a state of perpetual denial, whether the issue be that of child abuse, birth control, homosexuality or the role of women.

At the heart of the church there lies a deep chauvinism that seems to have infected the whole edifice.

Women may feel discriminated against in many institutions but few have made it so blatantly clear that the woman’s place remains at the kitchen sink as the Catholic Church.

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

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

In picking successor, Vatican must decide what’s needed in a 21st-century pope

By Michelle Boorstein,

Monday, February 11

Now that Pope Benedict XVI has made (modern) history by stepping down from office, so begins one of the Western World’s oldest parlor games: Guessing who will be the next pope.

Close watchers of the Vatican say the 118 cardinals who will select Benedict’s successor are watching the media-savvy leader of the massive Milan archdiocese, Cardinal Angelo Scola; top Vatican administrator Marc Ouellet, of Canada, and Peter Turkson of Ghana. Also in the mix is jovial New York City Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who would make history, as a superpower pope has been frowned upon thus far.

The list is highly speculative. Unlike a presidential race, Vatican practice for centuries has barred public discussion about possible successors while a pope is alive, or anything that even whiffs of open campaigning. Since this pope is still alive, the voting cardinals are in unchartered waters and will likely meet in small groups to quietly brainstorm and discuss the possibilities until March, when their voting meeting, or conclave, will begin.

And when they vote, they will be doing more than picking a person; they’ll also be answering a question: What does it take to be a 21st-century pope?

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

VATICAN CITY
CNN

By Eric Marrapodi CNN Belief Blog Editor

(CNN)–The questions reverberated from the Vatican to every corner of the Catholic world and left a billion members scratching their heads over something not seen since 1415 – why is the pope resigning now?

Pope Benedict XVI, 85, said Monday that it was because of his age.

“I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” he read in Latin to a group of cardinals gathered to examine causes for canonization.

The pressures may well have been too much for him to bear. As pope he was the bishop of Rome, the head of a tiny country, and spiritual shepherd to a billion people.

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

NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Eunice Lee/The Star-Ledger
on February 11, 2013

NEWARK — The stunning announcement of Pope Benedict’s resignation left Catholics in New Jersey with mixed reactions ranging from utter disbelief and sadness to optimism for the future of the church.

“I was shocked, literally,” said Miguel Martinez as he left Mass at St. Lucy’s in Newark and headed to work this morning.

Martinez, a 36-year-old Montclair resident, and a handful of others braved the rain and left mass at 8:30 a.m., just hours after the news broke. As one group left, more people quietly filtered into the subdued cathedral to celebrate mass.

“I was hoping he’d continue to lead the church for a very long time,” Martinez said.

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

VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Benedict XVI always cast himself as the reluctant pope, a shy bookworm who preferred solitary walks in the Alps to the public glare and the majesty of Vatican pageantry. But once in office, he never shied from charting the Catholic Church on the course he thought it needed — a determination reflected in his stunning announcement Monday that he would be the first pope to resign since 1415.

While taking the Vatican and world by surprise, Benedict had laid the groundwork for the decision years ago, saying popes have the obligation to resign if they can’t carry on. And to many, his decision was perfectly in keeping with a man who had dedicated his life to the church, showing his love for the institution and an acknowledgment that it needed new blood to confront the future.

The German theologian, whose mission was to reawaken Christianity in a secularized Europe, grew increasingly frail as he shouldered the monumental task of purging the Catholic world of a sex abuse scandal that festered under John Paul II and exploded during his reign into the church’s biggest crisis in decades, if not centuries.

More recently, he bore the painful burden of betrayal by one of his closest aides: Benedict’s own butler was convicted by a Vatican court of stealing the pontiff’s personal papers and giving them to a journalist, one of the gravest breaches of papal security in modern times.

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

CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

By Lisa Van Dusen, Ottawa Citizen February 11, 2013

About 24 hours before Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world by announcing he’d retire from a job men have so rarely retired from, I’d been sitting in a pew in a church, whiffing pancakes from the basement and marvelling at just how badly the Catholic Church needs a re-brand.

Most Catholics, lapsed or not, have had plenty of occasion to ponder the same issue in the time since Pope Benedict was elected in 2005. On this occasion, I was listening to a clearly talented priest wax nostalgic about the days when nobody ate meat on Fridays and wondering why it is that scrambling to hold onto any filament of an already overtaken status quo is so often the last redoubt of organizations in crisis.

Pope Benedict had a tough act to follow in what are arguably the toughest days the church has faced in modern times. He made the papacy more accessible with his own Twitter account, reassured some and offended others with his public pronouncements and showed perhaps his most convincing concession to the demands of modernity in recognizing that these days, being pope is a younger man’s job.

In the eight years since Pope John Paul II died, there have been more abuse scandals; almost uniformly, avoidably ultrascandalous for their component of coverup. There has been much debate and as much pushback on the nagging questions of female priests and open homosexuality in the clergy as opposed to the shushed-up and tarnished kind, and there have been gagging scandals over the attempted silencing of dissident priests and uppity nuns who dare to want to change the church they love.

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

VATICAN CITY
San Francisco Chronicle

By NICOLE WINFIELD and VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press

Updated 12:42 pm, Monday, February 11, 2013
VATICAN CITY (AP) — With a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict VXI did Monday what no pope has done in half a millennium, announcing his resignation and sending the already troubled Catholic Church scrambling to replace the leader of its 1 billion followers by Easter.

Not even his closest collaborators had advance word of the news, a bombshell that he dropped during a routine morning meeting of Vatican cardinals. And with no clear favorites to succeed him, another surprise likely awaits when the cardinals elect Benedict’s successor next month.

“Without doubt this is a historic moment,” said Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, a protege and former theology student of Benedict’s who is considered a papal contender. “Right now, 1.2 billion Catholics the world over are holding their breath.”

The move allows for a fast-track conclave to elect a new pope, since the traditional nine days of mourning that would follow a pope’s death doesn’t have to be observed. It also gives Benedict great sway over the choice of his successor. Though he will not himself vote, he has hand-picked the bulk of the College of Cardinals — the princes of the church who will elect his successor — to guarantee his conservative legacy and ensure an orthodox future for the church.

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

LATIN AMERICA
Washington Post

Posted by Juan Forero and Nick Miroff on February 11, 2013

Across Latin America, the pope’s announcement that he will step down at the end of the month is drawing official comment as well as some speculation that the next pope could come from the region. Forty percent of all Catholics are in Latin America, and clergymen from Brazil, Mexico and Argentina are considered contenders for a church that is shrinking in Europe but growing in many developing countries.

The president of the Episcopal Conference of Bishops in Venezuela said the move served “as a good example” for having shown that it is best to resign in the face of hobbling incapacity. In public comments, Archbishop Diego Padron also said the pope had the interest of the church and its renovation in mind. “The pope doesn’t usually give out news in pieces,” Padron said.

It was not lost on Venezuelans that Padron’s message could have been as easily directed at President Hugo Chavez as to Venezuela’s Catholics. That’s because the ailing Chavez hasn’t been heard or seen by Venezuelans since undergoing a complicated cancer surgery in Cuba two months ago. Since then, the government has only released news on Chavez’s condition in dribs and drabs, delivering few hard facts about the president’s prognosis. That remains a state secret.

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

VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The Vatican’s cardinals were getting ready to leave a meeting to discuss three canonisations, chaired by Pope Benedict XVI, when he announced, in Latin, that he had one other bit of business to attend to.

By Gordon Rayner, and Nick Squires in Rome
8:46PM GMT 11 Feb 2013

From his throne-like chair on a purple dais in the Sala del Concistoro, part of the Apostolic Palace, he quietly told his “fratres carissimi”, or “dear brothers”, that he needed to “communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church”.

Having examined his conscience, he said, he had “come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry”.

His “mind and body” were failing him, and in consequence he had decided to “renounce the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter”.

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

UNITED STATES
USA Today

Emma Beck, Eliza Collins and Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

Pope Benedict XVI’s efforts to address sexual abuse issues within the Catholic Church have drawn mixed reviews.

In 2001, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, his name before he became pope in 2005, urged Pope John Paul II to create a central system to further the Vatican’s investigations of sexual abuse under priests. He shifted control of the disposition of the cases from the Congregation for the Clergy where little action had been taken, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Ratzinger then headed.

And every week he examined the grueling cases coming, chiefly from the USA.

“He used to call that weekly meeting reviewing the cases that he used to call his penance,” said Greg Erlandson, co-author of Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal. Erlandson and church historian Matthew Bunson say in their book that Pope Benedict XVI “arguably was probably the most knowledgeable man on the abuse crisis.” …

“When forced to, he talks about the crimes but ignores the cover-ups, uses the past tense as if to suggest it’s not still happening,” said David Clohessy, the executive director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. “He has vast powers and he’s done very little to make a difference.”

In the USA alone, the abuse scandal offers horrifying statistics. According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection and independent studies commissioned by the bishops there have been:

— More than 6,100 accused priests since 1950.

— More than 16,000 victims identified to date although there is no national database.

— $2.5 billion in settlements and therapy bills for victims, attorneys fees and costs to care for priests pulled out of ministry from 2004 to 2011. …

His meetings with victims are viewed by some as “merely public relations. These gestures were cynical and, in a way, cruel, because they gave survivors and Catholics the illusion that he was a reformer,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org.

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

UNITED STATES
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

It is difficult today, with the announcement that Pope Benedict XVI is retiring this month, not to think of the many victim/survivors of sexual abuse from St. John’s School for the Deaf.

It was Benedict, as Cardinal Ratzinger in his previous post running the powerful Doctrine for the Congregation of the Faith CDF), who was in charge of the fate of the notorious Fr. Lawrence Murphy. Murphy, Ratzinger knew, had sexually assaulted at least 200 children at the boarding school in Milwaukee. Ratzinger ordered that Murphy be left in ministry, unpunished and unprosecuted, undetected to the public, and remain a priest, with all the rights, honors, and power which the church grants only to ordained clerics, right up until his death.

Benedict never once contacted, spoke to, or apologized to the deaf victims from St. John’s

Benedict’s fateful decision with Murphy at the time left children at risk in Wisconsin and also hundreds of deaf victims without a voice in their church. Is it little wonder, then, that Benedict leaves the Papacy without really addressing, fundamentally, the sex abuse crisis in the global church?

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

UNITED STATES
SNAP Wisconsin

Benedict Resigns: removing all known child sex offenders from the priesthood, firing bishops who conspired in covered-ups, must be new Pope’s first act

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

Pope Benedict, who announced today he will resign on February 28, will leave his tenure as Pope without having made the one, simple moral and executive decision that would have, in a single stroke of his pen, protected potentially millions of children from harm, brought justice to hundreds of thousands of victims, and finally turned the church on a path towards true recovery and reform: worldwide zero tolerance of child sex abuse by priests.

Because he never issued this decree, Benedict leaves office not only with countless children at risk around the world but scores of Cardinals and bishops in leadership positions who are actively covering up child sex abuse.

Amazingly, across the world today, although there was a modification in church law allowed by the Vatican for the United States, if you are a priest and have been found by your bishop to have raped or sexually assaulted a child, you can remain in the priesthood and in ministry, your crimes left secret and unpunished.

No other profession working with children in civil society today formally allows for this bizarre possibility under their occupational rules. Tragically, this makes the priesthood, in some ways, the most dangerous such occupation for children across the globe. Tragic and unnecessary, since obviously the vast majority of priests never harm a child and serve and support the children in their ministry admirably.

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

UNITED STATES
Patrick J. Wall

The German Pope’s resignation today as the Bishop of Rome (for health reasons) is the final lie in his Papacy. Since 2005, Benedict XVI’s church has been the subject of more civil and criminal inquiries of the Church since the time of the Protestant Reformation.

Just look at the sheer volume of child abuse and financial abuse inquires during Benedict XVI’s reign. The real story is how these worldwide child abuse inquires brought on the first resignation of a healthy Pope in eight centuries.

Click on the links to read the full reports.

Germany

German Bishops Halt Child Abuse Inquiry

Australia

Australian Prime Minister Julian Gillard announces National Inquiry of child abuse in the Roman Catholic Church

Belgium

Report on wide spread child abuse in Belgian Church

Bishop Roger Vanghuewe resigns after child abuse accusations

Mexico

Reverend Marcial Maciel, Founder of the Legionaries of Christ, was removed in 19 after first being removed as head of the Order for sexually abusing children in the 1950′s

United States

Los Angeles – Cardinal Roger Mahony’s 1985-2011 coverup of 128 priest perpetrators is revealed and Benedict XVI remains silent

Milwaukee – In the midst of planning for Bankruptcy and moving assets to shield them from child sex abuse survivors, Archbishop Dolan pays for the perpetrators silence. Pope Benedict XVI rewards Dolan and promotes him to Cardinal

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 11, 2013

No matter how tired or weak Pope Benedict may be, he still has two weeks to use his vast power to protect youngsters. Before he steps down, we hope he will show true leadership and compassion and take tangible action to safeguard vulnerable children.

(Imagine the shock waves – and the hope – that would be generated if, in his waning days, the pontiff demoted, disciplined, or defrocked even a handful of bishops who are concealing child sex crimes. And imagine the deterrent that would be to present and future cover ups.)

It’s reckless to assume the next pope will handle abuse and cover ups better. Vigilance, not complacency, protects kids. The next pope must be judged by his actual track record, not by our naïve assumptions.

Pope Benedict followed the same script church officials have used for years, speaking of abuse in oblique terms and only when forced to do so, ignoring the cover ups, using past tense (as if to pretend clergy sex crimes and cover ups are not still happening now). Instead of taking sweeping, proactive steps to deter wrongdoing, he offered only belated verbal apologies and ineffective symbolic gestures.

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Minnesota Catholics said Monday they were shocked by Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement.

Rev. John Nienstedt, Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, said in a statement that “like Catholics across the world, I was completely surprised.”

“At the same time, I am saddened by the thought of losing his strong leadership for the church,” the statement continued. “When my fellow Bishops and I met with him last March, his pastoral reflections about each of our dioceses–and this local Church in particular–were insightful as well as inspirational. …

Bob Schwiderski, director of the Minnesota chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said that Benedict “didn’t finish the job.”

“There are still thousands of survivors who have not been responded to pastorally,” he said. Schwiderski had hoped when Benedict was elected that he might “do the right thing,” he said, “And he didn’t do it.”

Schwiderski said that Benedict’s legacy will be stained by the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church. “As far as I’m concerned, they can give him the title ‘the enabler,'” he said. “The protector of the perps.”

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

PENNSYLVANIA
WFMJ

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Church officials say four U.S. cardinals with Pennsylvania roots and ties will be eligible to vote for the next pope.

Bishop David Zubik says that Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl was born in Pittsburgh and is a former bishop of that city.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo and Cardinal Sean O’Malley also grew up in Pittsburgh. Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, the retired archbishop of Philadelphia, will also be eligible to vote for a new pope.

Zubik, the current bishop of Pittsburgh, spoke Monday after Pope Bendict XVI announced his resignation.

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