ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 9, 2012

A senior police investigator has publicly challenged NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell to launch a royal commission into child sex abuse by clergy, saying the Premier is lucky his own children haven’t become victims too.

He also said he wasn’t sure if he would face disciplinary action for his comments, but did not care if he did.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, who has investigated clergy abuse around Newcastle for decades, wrote an open letter to the Premier and then criticised the state government’s continued failure to launch a judicial inquiry on national television.

“We’re lucky. We haven’t had to go through what some of those other families have gone through,” he told ABC’s Lateline on Thursday, noting that Mr O’Farrell is the father of two boys.

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ST. PAUL (MN)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 08, 2012

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A former pastor of a St. Paul church has pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct involving two brothers and to possessing child pornography.

Forty-eight-year-old Curtis Wehmeyer of Oakdale admitted in Ramsey County court Thursday to criminal sexual conduct involving the boys when he was pastor of The Church of the Blessed Sacrament on St. Paul’s East Side. Wehmeyer also pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography that was found on his laptop.

Wehmeyer was charged Sept. 20 with three counts of criminal sexual conduct. He was accused of molesting one boy and exposing himself to the other in the summer of 2010.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio and video]

By Suzanne Smith
A senior serving police officer has challenged New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell to set up a Royal Commission into sex abuse in the Catholic Church, alleging the Church hierarchy covers up for paedophile priests, silences investigations, and destroys crucial evidence to avoid prosecutions.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox has spent more than 30 years as an investigator and has been at the centre of major police operations in the Newcastle-Hunter region of New South Wales.

He has written a letter to Mr O’Farrell, published in the Newcastle Herald, calling for a Royal Commission into child sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

Mirroring police evidence given to the Victorian inquiry into the Catholic Church launched this year, he says in his letter: “Many police are frustrated by this sinister behaviour which will continue until someone stops it.”

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By David Gibson| Religion News Service,

Updated: Thursday, November 8

As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops gathers for its annual fall meeting in Baltimore next week (Nov. 12-15), one of the biggest issues confronting the prelates won’t be on the formal agenda: how to cope with the re-election of a president whose policies many bishops denounced as unprecedented attacks on the Catholic Church.

But another topic not on the agenda may loom just as large for a hierarchy hoping to wield influence in the public square. In September, Bishop Robert Finn of Missouri became the first bishop to be found guilty of covering up for a priest suspected of child abuse.

Unlike President Barack Obama’s election, however, Finn’s status isn’t a subject the churchmen are eager to discuss.

The verdict against Finn, leader of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and an outspoken conservative, initially prompted widespread calls for his resignation, a Vatican suspension or discipline from his fellow bishops.

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ARIZONA
Ahwatukee Foothills News

Posted: Thursday, November 8, 2012

By Jim Taunt Special to AFN

For 85 years I have been a practicing Catholic. My career education is as an electrical engineer. Most of my time was spent in the computer industry. My job was to find and fix problems.

I believe I have talked with more people about religion than 90 percent of the people. I have heard lots of kickback. In my old age, I go to Mass six times a week. I plan to die Roman Catholic, complaining every step of the way.

State of the Catholic Church in the U.S.

The Catholic Church (C.C.) has the best story of all the churches. It is by far the oldest organized group in the world. Empires last 400 years or so and die. The C.C. is 2,000 years old. There are older religions than this, but they are not organized. Examples are Hindu, Buddhism and Confucianism. The Jewish Church stopped being an organization in 70 A.D. The Romans destroyed the priesthood and the Sanhedrin that tried Jesus.

The Church is solid with those who attend Mass. Twenty-five percent go to Mass every Sunday. One-half percent go to Mass more than once a week. Father Greeleg, a socialist, found that Catholic laymen contributions have dropped from 2 percent to less than 1 percent of their income (most Protestants still contribute 2 percent. A 10 percent contribution is rare). As any old politician will tell you, “Ignore the headlines — follow the money.” The laymen are protesting their church management.

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ST. PAUL (MN)
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.comtwincities.com
Posted: 11/08/2012

An Oakdale priest who formerly served at a parish in St. Paul pleaded guilty Thursday, Nov. 8, to molesting two boys and possessing child pornography.

Curtis Carl Wehmeyer, 48, sexually abused the boys when he was pastor of Blessed Sacrament on St. Paul’s East Side, he admitted in a Ramsey County District Court hearing Thursday afternoon. He also pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.

Wehmeyer was charged Sept. 20 with three counts of criminal sexual conduct. He molested the boys in the summer of 2010.

The molestation took place on a camping trip and in a camper that the priest owned in the church parking lot.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

A senior NSW officer who says he was stood down after uncovering explosive claims of clergy sex abuse is demanding Premier Barry O’Farrell act now.

A senior police investigator has publicly challenged NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell to launch a royal commission into child sex abuse by clergy, saying the premier is lucky his own children haven’t become victims too.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, who has investigated clergy abuse around Newcastle for decades, wrote an open letter to the premier and then criticised the state government’s continued failure to launch a judicial inquiry on national television.

“We’re lucky. We haven’t had to go through what some of those other families have gone through,” he told ABC’s Lateline on Thursday, noting that Mr O’Farrell is the father of two boys.

“He has a lot of thanks to give that his boys were never ever abused. … If he has any compassion and humanity for some of these victims, he’s got to turn around (his position).”

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OHIO
Columbus Dispatch

Columbus Jewish Film Festival

As he sat in a synagogue listening to sexual-abuse survivors pour out their hearts, Phil Jacobs was moved.

As an observant Orthodox Jew, he was shocked to hear, in 2006, tales of people being abused by rabbis, friends and camp counselors.

As a journalist, he knew he had an important story.

As the survivor of a sexual assault by a camp counselor at age 14, his heart went out to the victims. Then came his turn to speak.

“I heard myself tell them for 10 minutes what had happened to me,” said Jacobs, 59. “There was one particular guy in the group who got up and said, ‘It doesn’t matter what we say or do here, but nobody’s going to listen to us and nothing’s going to change. It will all be covered up.’

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Thursday, November 8, 2012

The appeal judgment in the child abuse case against two former priests has been put off to Tuesday. It was due to be handed down tomorrow.

Godwin Scerri and Charles Pulis (above) both members of the Missionary Society of St Paul, were sentenced to five and six years in prison respectively for sexually abusing boys in their care. They filed their appeal in June last year.

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CANADA
Catholic Register

Written by Catholic Register Staff
Thursday, 08 November 2012 16:34

ANTIGONISH, N.S. – The diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia no longer owes $16 million to 125 victims of clerical sexual abuse.

The diocese has made its final payment to settle a class-action lawsuit, the Canadian Press reports. The settlement was negotiated by former Bishop Raymond Lahey, who was arrested on charges of importing child pornography just three weeks after announcing the deal to settle claims dating as far back as the 1950s.

The lawsuit was initiated in 2002 by Ron Martin, whose brother committed suicide that year leaving a note about abuse he suffered at the hands of Fr. Hugh Vincent MacDonald. MacDonald was charged in 2003 but died before his trial could come to a conclusion.

The last payment is not the end of the process of healing, said diocesan spokesman Fr. Don MacGillivray.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record

Summary of Case: A member of the Irish Christian Brothers order, Walczak was accused in a July 2012 lawsuit of having sexually abused a boy in the early 1970s at Brother Rice High School in Chicago. Walczak denied the accusation. Walczak spent his career as an educator at Christian Brothers schools in Illinios, California, Hawaii and Washington state. In August 2012 Walczak was called to New York by the order ostensibly to assist with a claim in the order’s bankruptcy proceedings. Walczak was, at the time, Principal of O’Dea High School in Seattle. The school community was not informed of the allegation of abuse against Walczak until it was publicized in Oct. 2012. Walczak resigned from O’Dea the same day.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Porsia Tunzi | Nov. 7, 2012

Recent declarations from the Vatican followed by assenting decrees from a number of bishops make it clear that Roman Catholic hierarchs will not entertain questions about ordaining women priests.

They’ve underscored their decrees with excommunications, notably Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois and the women who have been ordained as part of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement.

While priestly ordination is seemingly off the table and out of bounds, what is emerging is a fairly open discussion about ordaining women to the permanent diaconate.

Three recent media events have drawn attention to conversations fermenting in church circles for some time already.
• The Chicago Tribune reported on an ongoing conversation about the diaconate at St. Nicholas Parish in Evanston, Ill., taking place among the pastor, laypersons and Chicago’s cardinal.
•America magazine featured an article by retired auxiliary bishop of the Rockville Centre, N.Y., diocese, Emil A. Wcela that makes a strong case to open the diaconate to women.

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OHIO
Times Reporter

By Lee Morrison
TimesReporter.com staff writer

Posted Nov 08, 2012

NEW PHILADELPHIA As the judge commented that the depth of trust is equivalent to the depth of betrayal, a former youth pastor was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for a sexual relationship with a teenage girl attending his church.

Jan-Mikkel Jasper, 36, who is known as Mikkel Jasper, was charged with one count of sexual battery. The third-degree felony charge states that Jasper was a cleric, and the other person was a minor attending the church he served. He no longer is a pastor, nor associated with Alpine Bible Church near Sugarcreek.

Jasper, now of Mineral City and formerly of Dover, pleaded guilty in September to a bill of information, a process in lieu of an indictment through a county grand jury. On Wednesday, he was sentenced by Judge Elizabeth Leigh Thomakos in Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, a 30-year veteran with the NSW police force, alleges a cover-up by the Catholic church into child sexual abuse and is calling for a Royal Commission.

Tony Jones

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox joined me in the studio just a short time ago.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, thanks for joining us.

PETER FOX, NSW POLICE: It’s a pleasure, Tony.

TONY JONES: Let’s start with how you got so frustrated and angry that you were publicly challenging the NSW Premier. Now your letter to Premier O’Farrell begins like this: “I’ve investigated so many sexual assaults in 30 years of policing that I’ve lost count. I’ve seen the worst society can dredge up, particularly the evil of paedophilia within the Catholic Church.” What is the worst of it?

PETER FOX: Oh, Tony, I think most people would be absolutely crumpled up in tears to hear it. Just some examples of what I’ve sat and listened to is that one young boy at the hands of paedophile priest James Fletcher, he was 12 years of age when the priest drove to a secluded park outside of Maitland. He told the boy to remove his pants and the boy was totally unaware of what was going on and quite embarrassed, but that particular priest anally penetrated him.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Mitchell Nadin
From:The Australian
November 09, 2012

A SENIOR detective in the NSW police force has accused the Catholic Church of covering up widespread pedophilia within the church and written to the NSW Premier, Barry O’Farrell, demanding a royal commission.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, who was instrumental investigating systemic pedophilia over more than a decade in the NSW Hunter region, claims a network of priests worked to conceal their actions and even used parish money to fight legal battles.

Inspector Fox said many priests had “no hesitation” in lying about the chronic practice, which took place in the Newcastle-Maitland Diocese.

The region has attracted attention for the large number of victims — numbering about 400 — and 11 clergy have been charged and convicted since 1995. Three current priests are also on trial.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A senior police investigator has publicly challenged NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell to launch a royal commission into child sex abuse by clergy, saying the premier is lucky his own children haven’t become victims too.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, who has investigated clergy abuse around Newcastle for decades, wrote an open letter to the premier and then criticised the state government’s continued failure to launch a judicial inquiry on national television.

“We’re lucky. We haven’t had to go through what some of those other families have gone through,” he told ABC’s Lateline on Thursday, noting that Mr O’Farrell is the father of two boys.

“He has a lot of thanks to give that his boys were never ever abused. … If he has any compassion and humanity for some of these victims, he’s got to turn around (his position).”

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
KERRY O’SHEA,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Thursday, November 8, 2012,

Bishop John Kirby of Clonfert in Ireland has stepped down from his role as chairman of Trócaire following a report that he “inappropriately” handled matters of child abuse within his diocese.

The Irish Times reports on the abdication of his role. Trócaire said that Bishop Kirby had briefed the board about the report that accused him of not properly managing child abuse within his diocese, and the stemming publicity from the report.

The report said that Bishop Kirby “acknowledged the grave mistakes he had made in the early 1990s and reiterated that he takes full responsibility for them. He also acknowledged that his remarks in an interview had caused offence to survivors and he repeated the apology that he had made in an earlier letter to the people of his diocese.”

In response, board members “acknowledged and welcomed Bishop Kirby’s statement in this regard.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Tom McIlroy
Nov. 8, 2012

BALLARAT’S former Catholic Bishop Ronald Mulkearns withheld knowledge of child sexual abuse offences committed by paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, a damning Victoria Police report found.

The September 1995 report, released as part of a Freedom of Information request and provided to The Courier last month by the Broken Rites organisation, was prepared by the Victoria Police Child Exploitation Unit after Ridsdale was convicted in October 1994 of abusing 21 children.

Details of the month-long investigation codenamed Operation Arcadia are expected to be included in evidence heard today by the state inquiry into the handling of child sexual abuse by religious and other organisations, including the revelation that Bishop Mulkearns had knowledge of the offences “much earlier than he suggests”.

It said the now-retired Bishop Mulkearns displayed a “reluctance/inability to properly handle the matter” dating back to the 1970s.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

A senior serving police officer, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, claims the Catholic church covered up crimes of paedophile priests, silenced investigations and destroyed crucial evidence to avoid prosecutions in the Newcastle-Hunter area of New South Wales.

Suzanne Smith

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Tonight a senior serving police officer alleges the Catholic Church covers up crimes of paedophile priests, silences investigations and destroys crucial evidence to avoid prosecutions.

Detective chief inspector Peter Fox has spent more than 30 years as an investigator and has been at the centre of major police operations in the Newcastle-Hunter area of New South Wales.

He’s written a letter to the Premier, Barry O’Farrell, calling for a Royal Commission.

Mirroring police evidence given to the Victorian inquiry, he says in his letter, “Many police are frustrated by this sinister behaviour which will continue until someone stops it.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
AO Advocates

Posted by: A.Dean on Nov 08 2012

Another week passes and a new front opens in the expanding investigations into child sexual abuse in our society.

Labour MP Tom Watson’s high-profile push the past two weeks for the government to revisit its inquiry into a north Wales paedophile ring operating in the 1970s and 1980s has met with early success. Watson first raised the issue in a question to David Cameron on 24 October, when he confronted the Prime Minister about the potential links between this paedophile ring and “a senior aide to a former Prime Minister”. Cameron parried Watson’s question, calling the allegations “very difficult and complex”, but the issue has not gone away.

On the contrary. In fact it has been revealed that the Prime Minister in question was Margaret Thatcher, and the senior aide the late Tory MP Sir Peter Morrison, though details remain hazy. Watson is controlling the dialogue surrounding this issue and his call for an inquiry has Cameron and the Conservatives playing defence in the media.

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BELIZE
7 News Belize

The Baptist Church is immersed in scandal this evening. Just months after the pastor and principal from Belmopan Baptist High was dismissed for having a sexual relationship with an under-aged student, tonight, one of its pastors from Frank’s Eddy village is in prison, accused of having sex with an 11 year old girl, inside the church building!

And, there’s more: allegations that he had inappropriate contact with 2 more girls – and had two others on a list.

It is a story about abuse of trust, but it is also a ground shaking event in a small western village where they trusted their community pastor – and now he’s accused of being a pedophile, a predator amongst the flock, preying on their children.

We found out more when we went to Frank’s Eddy near Jaguar Paw today:

Daniel Ortiz Reporting

The Community of Franks Eddy is trying to recover from the betrayal of trust by their spiritual leader, Pastor Julio Cesar Garcia.

He is accused of a heinous case of sexual abuse against 11 year-old female, the daughter of one of the church members.

Indications are that he had intentions of targeting as many as 5 girls from the community, but tonight, he is in prison because his 11 year-old victim decided to speak up.

Voice of Mother #1 – Her Child Was Abused
“She was getting ready to go to school. So, I asked her, and she said that yes, it happened to her. I asked her why she didn’t tell me. She told me that it was because she was afraid to talk to her father or me because this happened. She said that he grabbed her by her hands and pushed her into his house. It was right there that he abused her. She told me that this happened 2 weeks ago. As soon as I found this out, I wanted to know if it was true, so I asked her again 2 more times. She told me yes every time. Immediately, I took her to the hospital, and there, they said that yes, she was abused.”

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CALIFORNIA
MyMotherLode

November 07, 2012
Tracey Petersen, MML News Reporter

San Andreas, CA — Another victim filed a lawsuit in San Joaquin County today against the Dioceses Of Stockton, Bishop Steven Blaire, Monsignor Richard Ryan and Father Michael Kelly. The victims claims Kelly sexually abused him when he was a 10 year old altar boy at St. Andrew and Mokelumne Hill Parishes in San Andreas in the early 2000’s.

This is the second victim to come forward since a jury unanimously found Kelly guilty of sexually assaulting another victim earlier this year. After the verdict, Kelly went to his native Ireland and the Diocese settled the case for $3.5 million dollars.

This new lawsuit is suing for damages charging the defendants with 10 counts, including sexual battery. The Victim’s Attorney, John Manly says, “The main difference between this case and the prior case is the Diocese admits they were on notice of Father Kelly’s danger to children well before he ever met our client in this case. The current Bishop of Stockton, Steven Blaire, is the one who put him in ministry at San Andreas. Kelly was put there right after he got out of a pedophile treatment facility. So the Diocese and the Bishop have a lot to answer for here.”

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

By Sue Nowicki
snowicki@modbee.com

A third man claiming to be victim of the Rev. Michael Kelly filed a lawsuit Tuesday, saying that the Stockton Diocese priest sexually assaulted him more than a decade ago when he was a 10-year-old altar boy at a Catholic church in Calaveras County.

The lawsuit against Kelly, the diocese, Bishop Stephen Blaire and Monsignor Richard Ryan was filed in San Joaquin County on behalf of a 22-year-old man from Southern California. He said the abuse happened in the early 2000s at a Mokelumne Hill church, which the lawsuit identifies as a mission of St. Andrew’s parish. The church is listed as St. Thomas Aquina on the diocese’s Web site.

In April, a jury found Kelly liable of sexually abusing Travis Trotter, who said he had repressed memories of abuse that occurred when he was a Catholic school student in Stockton.

Kelly fled to Ireland on the eve of the second part of the trial to decide the diocese’s liability in the case; Trotter settled for $3.75 million.

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CALIFORNIA
The Record

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer

November 08, 2012

STOCKTON – The Diocese of Stockton has been hit with a third child sex abuse lawsuit that names former priest Michael Kelly, who returned to Ireland in April in the middle of another sex abuse trial.

A 22-year-old Orange County man filed the latest civil lawsuit Wednesday, saying Kelly molested him in the early 2000s while the then-boy was a parishioner at Mokelumne Hill Church. Kelly served the small mission church after leaving St. Andrew’s Church in San Andreas.

Identified as John MT Doe, the plaintiff is suing for damages claiming negligence, constructive fraud and sexual harassment, among others.

His attorneys say the diocese and its top leaders had a duty to disclose Kelly had previously been accused of sexual misconduct, and that they should have stopped him from ministering to children.

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CALIFORNIA
Lodi News-Sentinel

By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Former Lockeford priest Michael Kelly and the Stockton Diocese have been sued for the third time on allegations that Kelly sexually abused former altar boys.

The most recent lawsuit was filed by Orange County attorney John Manly on Wednesday morning in San Joaquin County Superior Court in Stockton.

The suit alleges that a former altar boy, who was 10 years old at the time, was sexually assaulted three times in about 2000, when the boy attended Mokelumne Hill Catholic Church in Calaveras County. Mokelumne Hill is a mission church to St. Andrew’s in San Andreas. Kelly was pastor of both churches at the time.

Kelly was pastor at Lockeford’s St. Joachim Catholic Church in Lockeford from 2004 until he was removed as a priest on April 6, the same day a San Joaquin County Superior Court jury found him liable of sexual assault relating to incidents in the mid-1980s. Kelly left abruptly for Ireland about a week after being found liable.

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on November 7, 2012

What:
Holding signs and photos of themselves when they were abused, abuse victims and their supporters will disclose a new child sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit against the Honolulu Catholic diocese and a convicted predator cleric. The suit charges that a Catholic brother:

– Sexually abused two Damien Memorial School students,
– Was transferred from school to school because of abuse allegations,
– Was removed from Damien for abuse allegations, but parents and students were never informed.

They will also:

– Discuss a recent child sex abuse accusation against a former Damien principal,
– Urge victims and witnesses to report to abuse to law enforcement, not church officials, and
– Show how a landmark new Hawaii law is helping to warn parents about predators.

Where:
Outside of Damien Memorial School, 1401 Houghtailing Street (at School Street) in Honolulu

When:
Thursday, November 8 at 11:00 am

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Stacy Davis

Published 8:03 p.m., Wednesday, November 7, 2012

EASTON — Ted Alexander Jr. always was the last one dropped off after Boy Scout meetings.

The driver, his Boy Scout leader, would take the 8-year-old to a parking lot on Black Rock Turnpike and they would wrestle in the car. Sometimes, the man would shove his head into Alexander’s crotch.

The man was Stephen Toth.

Shortly after his death in 1985, the town named a park after him. Many knew Toth for helping children, serving on the Parks and Recreation Commission and volunteering his time to the Boy Scouts and Little League.

Others say his reputation is tainted and want the name of Toth Park changed. …

Michael Powel, who said Toth also assaulted him, traveled to Connecticut from his home in St. Petersburg in 2004 to urge the commission to take Toth’s name off the park. Powel, who died in 2008 from brain cancer, said Toth tied him up, blindfolded him, performed sexual acts on him and photographed him in compromising positions. The abuse started after he joined his Boy Scout Troop in 1968 and continued for three years, sometimes at the park named after him, Powell said in 2004.

Powel also alleged that Carlo Fabbozzi, a former Trumbull town councilman and janitor/landscaper for St. Theresa’s Church, and a priest, Rev. Joseph Gorecki, abused him in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a result, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport agreed to pay $200,000 to Powel’s family last year. Powel also won a $10 million verdict in 2006 against Fabbozzi but never was able to collect it.

Fabbozzi could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

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CALIFORNIA
The Union Democrat

Written by Alex MacLean, The Union Democrat
November 07, 2012

A third sexual abuse lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Stockton and a former priest who ministered in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties was planned to be filed this morning in San Joaquin County Superior Court.

A copy of the complaint obtained by The Union Democrat from the plaintiff’s attorneys said a now 22-year-old Orange County man has accused Father Michael Kelly of the Stockton Catholic Diocese of molesting him at Mokelumne Hill Church in 2000.

The plaintiff, who was 10 at the time, claims Kelly “groomed” him for abuse and later forcibly molested him on church grounds.

Kelly was named head pastor at St. Andrew’s Parish in San Andreas in 2000 and part of his duties included serving as pastor at Mokelumne Hill Church, according to the lawsuit.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY
Nov. 7, 2012

THE Catholic Church covers up the crimes of paedophile priests, silences victims and hinders police investigations, one of the Hunter’s most experienced detectives alleges in a letter to Premier Barry O’Farrell in the Newcastle Herald today.

To read Peter Fox’s open letter to Mr O’Farrell, click here.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox has accused the church of alerting offenders, destroying evidence and moving priests to protect its “good name”, based on his experiences over 35 years.

His comments mirrored Victoria Police submissions about the Catholic church to a parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse last month.

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IRELAND
The Nationalist

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

LAST WEEK, there was much comment regarding Pope Benedict’s wearing of the papal fanon. The fanon was regularly used before the Second Vatican Council but then fell into disuse. On 21 October 2012, during a canonisation Mass, Pope Benedict XVI wore the fanon. The garment had not been used since the early 1980s, when Pope John Paul II wore it once when visiting a Roman convent.

In itself, it’s not earth-shattering news, nor will it contribute to the renewal of the Church, but I do find such trivia indicative of a clerical culture within the Catholic Church that is determined to ignore the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, whose anniversary is the very reason we celebrate this year of faith.

The fanon is a far cry from the disillusionment many people feel towards the Roman Church at this time. For me, there is a worrying trend that rank, title and costume remain so very important to so many Church leaders.

Enniskillen-based priest and well-known broadcaster Fr Brian D’Arcy spoke earlier this week on a BBC documentary entitled Turbulent Priest about the pressures of being a priest in Ireland amid the fall-out of various clerical sex abuse scandals, as well as grappling with controversial Church teaching on issues such as clerical celibacy, contraception and homosexuality. Fr D’Arcy communicated a sense of great sadness and real hurt in the way the established Church has effectively both silenced and crushed his spirit.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By PETER FOX
Nov. 8, 2012

I HAVE investigated so many sexual assaults in my 35 years of policing I’ve lost count.

Having spent most of those years at the coal face I have seen the worst society can dredge up, particularly the evil of paedophilia within the Catholic Church.

I am not in an executive position or relying on statistics or reports being shielded from reality, I speak from first-hand experience with victims and their abusers.

It is not an easy story to hear and the reason so many cover their ears and turn away. I’ve visited victims in mental hospitals and listened to families tell of suicides. I have looked into their faces, seen their tears of pain, anguish and despair, listened to the hurt of betrayal and felt their isolation from not being believed.

We all hear the words ‘‘paedophile’’ or ‘‘child molester’’ but what do they really mean? The term ‘‘child abuse’’ sweeps over the acts sanitising images of this appalling crime. It’s our inbuilt defence to protect us from those horrific images.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The government has been urged by the MP for East Worthing and Shoreham to include the Anglican Church in Sussex in its inquiry into child sex abuse.

Former children’s minister Tim Loughton spoke out after the home secretary’s statement on historical allegations of child abuse in north Wales.

The MP said an inquiry should look at all institutions linked to child abuse.

Three retired priests and a church organist have been charged with sexual offences against children in Sussex.

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MINNESOTA
Isanti County News

By Rachel Kytonen on November 7, 2012

An Isanti County pastor who has been serving the community since 1989 has been accused of engaging in sexual contact with young men seeking spiritual counsel.

Ryan Jay Muehlhauser, 55, of Cambridge, was charged by complaint this week with eight counts of felony, 4th degree criminal sexual conduct. He made his first appearance Tuesday, Nov. 6, before Judge P. Hunter Anderson in Isanti County District Court in Cambridge.

Muehlhauser has been serving as senior pastor at Lakeside Christian Church in Cambridge since January 2012. Prior to that he served as the church’s associate pastor for 22 years.

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ALABAMA
The Randolph Leader

Penny L. Pool

Friends and family members of Community Life Church Pastor Stephen Dean were elated when a jury found him not guilty last week on the charge he sexually abused a then under 12-year-old child.

Fifth Judicial Circuit Judge Tom Young sternly warned the courtroom twice against any kind of display on either side when the verdict was announced.

There was a muffled sound of joy from family, friends and church members who filled the right side of the courtroom as Dean broke into tears.

His attorney William H. Broome of Anniston in his closing argument told the jurors they had to decide who to believe.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 6, 2012

The University of San Diego canceled a British theologian’s fellowship after an influential alumnus and a conservative watchdog group backed by a high-ranking Vatican official protested the appointment to the university’s board of trustees.

Tina Beattie, a professor of Catholic studies at London’s University of Roehampton known for her work in contemporary ethical issues, was to have begun a two-month fellowship at the university Tuesday, Nov. 6.

University president Mary Lyons informed Beattie that the fellowship had been canceled in an Oct. 27 letter.

Thirteen members of the Catholic university’s theology and religious studies faculty and the 47,000-member American Association of University Professors raised concerns about the impact of Lyons’ action in separate letters Monday and Tuesday. (See related story: National group: Theologian’s disinvite raises ‘serious issues’.)

In a letter to Beattie Oct. 27, Lyons alleged the theologian publicly dissented from church teaching. The rescission, which was made public by Beattie Nov. 1, sparked near immediate criticism from prominent theologians in the U.S. and the U.K. who expressed worries that it might have a chilling effect in the academic world.

Among those protesting Beattie’s appointment was Thomas McKenna, president of the San Diego-based group Catholic Action for Faith and Family, a non-profit organization backed by Cardinal Raymond Burke, the head of the Vatican’s supreme court.

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CALIFORNIA
Sys-Con Media

STOCKTON, Calif., Nov. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Another lawsuit was filed in San Joaquin County, California today against the Diocese of Stockton, Bishop Steven Blaire, Monsignor Richard Ryan and Father Michael Kelly by a man claiming that Kelly sexually abused him as a child in the early 2000’s. This is the second victim of Father Michael Kelly to file suit after a jury unanimously found him guilty of sexually assaulting Travis Trotter earlier this year.

The Complaint for Damages charges the defendants with ten counts, including sexual battery, fraud and intentional affliction of emotional distress, seeking punitive damages.

Plaintiff’s attorney Vince Finaldi from the law firm Manly and Stewart said, “Father Michael Kelly was known to have sexual misconduct issues. Despite this knowledge, Father Kelly was placed in a position of trust and authority as pastor of St. Andrew Parish and Mokelumne Hill Parish. There he used his position to sexually assault my client, who was 10 years old at the time of his abuse. Had the Diocese of Stockton acted prudently by removing Fr. Kelly from ministry, he would never have had the opportunity to sexually abuse my client.”

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VATICAN CITY
MSN

The Vatican on Wednesday appointed a Swiss lawyer who helped Liechtenstein shed its shady reputation, to head up the Vatican’s financial authority in a bid to meet global rules against money laundering.

The Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (FIA), which was set up in 2010, will still be headed up by Italian Cardinal Attilio Nicora but the 40-year-old Rene Bruelhart will now be the body’s executive director.

Bruelhart was hired as a consultant by the Vatican in September.

The Vatican said the appointment “has strengthened its internal organization. This represents one more step in the effort to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism,” a Vatican spokesman said.

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UNITED STATES
The Wartburg Watch

“I wore black because I liked it. I still do, and wearing it still means something to me. It’s still my symbol of rebellion — against a stagnant status quo, against our hypocritical houses of God.” Johnny Cash

Al Mohler and Phillip Gunn

In 2007, Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page said critics of the convention’s policy on sexual abuse by clergy are not really advocating on behalf of children but rather are opportunists motivated by personal gain. Link.

Frank Page should be ashamed of himself. Tom Rich, TWW, Wade Burleson and others who have advocated for this initiative gain nothing personally from our crusade. We advocate for a database because we care about the victims. It is about the victims, pure and simple. One may disagree with our solution but one cannot denigrate our motives. In fact, there is much within the SBC that indicate that Page should have pointed the finger towards himself and others.

Al Mohler’s stated view on the church and child sex abuse.Link

“The moral and legal responsibility of every Christian — and especially every Christian leader and minister — must be to report any suspicion of the abuse of a child to law enforcement authorities. Christians are sometimes reluctant to do this, but this reluctance is both deadly and wrong.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Vatican Press Office director, Fr. Federico Lombardi made the following statement Wednesday regarding appointments to the Financial Information Authority, the body that oversees the Vatican’s financial institutions:

Francesco De Pasquale named to the Board of Directors of the Financial Information Authority (AIF) and Rene Bruelhart appointed the new AIF Director.

Francesco De Pasquale came to the Vatican after extensive experience at the Ufficio Italiano Cambi and the Bank of Italy and has been Director of the Financial Information Authority (AIF) since June of 2011. He has been named a member of the board of AIF, which in addition to the President, Cardinal Nicora, includes Prof. Condemi, Prof. Dalla Torre, Prof. Bianchi and Dott. Testa.

Cardinal Nicora has named Rene Bruelhart to succeed De Pasquale. Bruelhart, former director of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Liechtenstein and Vice-President of the Egmont Group, the international network of FIUs, has been an adviser to the Holy See and Vatican City since September in matters relating to anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A former Catholic priest, charged with 25 child sex offences against three young girls has been granted bail.

The 59-year-old has appeared in Armidale Local Court via audio visual link from Silverwater Correctional Centre in Sydney and was granted bail, but ordered to forfeit 230-thousand dollars if he fails to comply with the lengthy conditions imposed on him.

The court also ordered he deposit 10-thousand dollars as surety and also ordered two acceptable people each deposit five-thousand dollars surety on his behalf.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

A retired Catholic priest yesterday denied defrauding his former Co Down parish of nearly £150,000 over a 19-month period up to October 2009.

Fr Conleth Byrne (78) allegedly paid monies to a woman from the funds of his former parish of Loughinisland in the Diocese of Down and Connor. No details surrounding the fraud were given to Downpatrick Crown Court, as his trial, expected to last three to four days, was fixed for the end of January next.

Initially Fr Byrne appeared apprehensive when asked to confirm his date of birth before being asked for his address, which he gave as “the guest house” in Portglenone Monastery.

Judge David Smyth explained these were just “formal questions, introduced for the purpose of the court record”.

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MAINE
Sun Journal

Julia Bayly/Bangor Daily News

FORT KENT — The Maine Attorney General’s Office has decided not to pursue criminal charges against a parish priest after a months-long investigation into “possible embezzlement of parish funds,” according to a statement released Tuesday by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.

The Rev. James Nadeau has been on voluntary leave from his position as pastor at St. John Vianney Parish since April, pending the conclusion of the investigation.

When an allegation of possible embezzlement of parish funds came to the attention of the diocese from a third party, the diocese was obligated to refer the matter to the Maine attorney general’s office, which decided to investigate [and] the diocese fully cooperated with this investigation, according to the release.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Opinion

Barney Zwartz

Parliament’s committee is secretive, evasive and doing the minimum it can get away with.

IT SEEMS the parliamentary inquiry into the churches’ handling of clergy sex abuse has learnt at least one thing from submissions about the Catholic Church: how to operate in as much secrecy as it can manage while apparently doing the minimum it can get away with.

Its public examination in the two hearings – one a half day – it has managed since the inquiry was called in April is not even a once-over lightly, it is a hovercraft floating above the surface: shallow, short, shocking.

The longer this inquiry goes on – or rather doesn’t really go on – the more questions arise. But they hang in a vacuum, because the committee chaired by Georgie Crozier will not even explain why it won’t explain. In this deliberately engineered information vacuum, it is hard to work out whether this is sinister, or incompetent or merely bureaucratic.

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BELGIQUE
DH

C’est plus que les plaintes reçues par la commission Adriaenssens !

BRUXELLES Le chiffre fait froid dans le dos. 583 dossiers ont été introduits devant le Centre d’arbitrage en matière d’abus sexuels. Soit autant de dossiers qui concernent des méfaits commis par des gens d’Église…

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IRELAND
Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby is to stand down as chairman of Trócaire. A recent review of child protection in his diocese found he had dealt “inappropriately” with abuse allegations there.

In a statement, Trócaire said the bishop had briefed its board at a recent meeting on that review and “subsequent publicity that surrounded this”.

It said Bishop Kirby “acknowledged the grave mistakes he had made in the early 1990s and reiterated that he takes full responsibility for them. He also acknowledged that his remarks in an interview had caused offence to survivors and he repeated the apology that he had made in an earlier letter to the people of his diocese.” Board members “acknowledged and welcomed Bishop Kirby’s statement in this regard”.

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ISLANDI
RUV

Joannes Gijsen, sem var biskup kaþólsku kirkjunnar á Íslandi í rúman áratug, eyðilagði bréf frá manni sem lýsti slæmri reynslu sinni af séra Georg, skólastjóra Landakotsskóla. Rannsóknarnefnd kaþólsku kirkjunnar telur hann með því hafa vanrækt skyldur sínar.

Gijsen hefur verið sakaður um kynferðisbrot í Hollandi á sjötta og sjöunda áratug síðustu aldar.

Gijsen var biskup kaþólsku kirkjunnar á Íslandi á árunum 1996 til ársins 2007. Hann kom við sögu í einu tilviki þar sem hylmt var yfir ásökunum um kynferðislegt ofbeldi.

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UNITED STATES
Fr. Ted’s Blog

To All My Beloved Fellow Members of St. Paul Parish,

Glory to Jesus Christ!

I want in this letter to convey to you my thoughts and feelings as your parish priest about the situation with our diocesan bishop. I have already conveyed these ideas to Bishop Matthias and also to some members of the Synod of Bishops. While I will offer my opinion here about how I understand our situation, my prayer is for all of us to be faithful to the Gospel.

The Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America after reviewing the report and recommendation of the Response Team appointed to investigate the allegations of sexual misconduct against our Diocesan Hierarch, the Right Reverend Matthias, have accepted the fact that the allegations are substantiated. The Synod, following the OCA’s Policy, Standards and Procedures, rendered a decision regarding a course of action to take with Bishop Matthias who they found guilty of sexual misconduct.

The reaction of many in the Diocese to our bishop’s behavior has been dismay, disappointment, and even disgust. Many have questioned how he could ever again serve as bishop since he has destroyed his moral authority and by his own actions revealed a lack of pastoral wisdom or judgment which one would expect from someone who had been ordained for 40 years.

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CANADA
CBC News

A Winnipeg-based Roman Catholic order is being sued by six men from a northwest Ontario First Nation who say they were sexually abused by a priest as children.

The men, from Lac La Croix, are seeking unspecified financial damages from the federal government, a Catholic diocese in Thunder Bay, and the order of Les Oblats de Marie Immaculee du Manitoba, along with a priest who lived and worked on the reserve in the 1960s.

The six men allege the assaults took place in the priest’s home, in a schoolhouse and in a hotel.

They say they felt powerless to speak out because of the priest’s position of power in their small community.

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AUSTRALIA
The Armidale Express

By STEPHEN JEFFERY
Nov. 7, 2012

A FORMER Armidale priest accused of repeatedly sexually abusing three girls during the 1970s and 1980s has been granted bail.

The 59-year-old appeared in Armidale Local Court via audio visual link from the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre in Silverwater this morning.

He offered his house, valued at $230,000, as a surety, as well as $10,000 cash. His brother and sister will also contribute $5000 each in order for bail to be granted.

Magistrate Mark Richardson granted bail with strict conditions after determining the accused would spend too much time in custody while waiting for a trial to commence either next year or in 2014.

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: Aldo Santin

SIX men from a reserve in northwestern Ontario are suing a Winnipeg-based Roman Catholic organization for alleged sexual abuse committed against them by a priest in the 1960s.

The six men, from the Lac la Croix First Nation, are suing Les Oblats de Marie Immaculée du Manitoba, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Thunder Bay and the Government of Canada, asking the court to award them unspecified damages, general and punitive damages and damages for loss of past and future income.

The six men now range in age from 55 to 61. They allege they were regularly subjected to forced anal intercourse several times each summer when they were as young as nine until they reached the age of 14 or 15.

The men claim the priest who abused them, Father Jean Lambert, died in 1986. Lambert is also named as a defendant.

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UNITED KINGDOM/UNITED STATES
Catholic League

This is the twelfth and last installment of Bill Donohue’s report on the BBC sexual abuse scandal and its implications for the New York Times:

New York Times op-ed page columnist Joe Nocera has asked some tough questions about Mark Thompson’s knowledge of the Jimmy Savile matter [click here]; Thompson, who will head the Times Company on Monday, was running the BBC when a report exposing BBC child rapist Jimmy Savile was spiked late last year. Concerning the question of whether Thompson ever heard about rumors of Savile’s predatory behavior, Nocera cuts him a break, saying that “given the byzantine nature of the BBC bureaucracy, these are plausible denials.”

Nocera’s position is not without merit. The only reason I mention this is because of the double standard held by some of the harshest critics of the Catholic Church: they say that Pope John Paul II must have known about predatory priests in the employ of the Holy See, and that Pope Benedict XVI (Cardinal Ratzinger under John Paul), must also have known. Yes, of course they knew there was a problem, but just how big it was, and exactly who was involved is another matter altogether.

Thompson defends himself, in part, by saying that the enormous size of the BBC—23,000 employees, eight TV channels, 50 radio stations—made it impossible for him to know details that were known to others. Again, this position is not without merit. But the BBC is tiny next to the Catholic Church.

The pope governs an institution with over 1 billion members residing in every part of the globe. Besides the Roman Curia and the College of Cardinals, those who work for the pope include: more than 5,000 bishops; 400,000 priests; almost 40,000 permanent deacons; 55,000 non-ordained male religious; over 700,000 female religious; and over 100,000 seminarians. They work in over 3,000 dioceses serving some 220,000 parishes throughout the world.

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BELGIE
Knack

(Belga) Er zijn 583 dossiers ingediend bij het arbitragecentrum voor seksueel misbruik in de Kerk. Dat bericht La Dernière Heure vandaag. Slachtoffers hadden tot 31 oktober de tijd om hun dossier in te dienen.

De procedure voor het arbitragecentrum zorgt ervoor dat slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de Kerk gehoord en erkend worden. Ze kunnen ook een schadevergoeding vragen die maximaal 25.000 euro bedraagt. “Zullen alle slachtoffers een schadevergoeding krijgen? Ik hoop het, maar ik weet het niet”, aldus Karine Lalieux (PS), voorzitster van de parlementaire commissie. (DLA)

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MAINE
WGME

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The attorney general’s office says it won’t prosecute a northern Maine priest following allegations of possible embezzlement of parish funds.

The Roman Catholic Diocese announced in April that the Rev. James Nadeau had taken a leave from the St. John Vianney Parish in Fort Kent pending an investigation by the attorney general. The nature of the investigation wasn’t disclosed, but Nadeau’s attorneys said it didn’t involve allegations of sexual impropriety.

In a letter to Bishop Richard Malone, Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin said Monday there’s insufficient evidence to initiate a criminal prosecution.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Papst Gefluester

Aus den Schlagzeilen der Weltpresse ist der sexuelle Missbrauch weitgehend verschwunden – doch das Thema muss bleiben und wird auch in der katholischen Kirche weiter behandelt. Zum einen geht es um die lückenlose Aufklärung von Verbrechen in der Vergangenheit, zum anderen um die Prävention künftiger Fälle. Mit Letzterem tut sich die Kirche leichter und wird gegenüber anderen gesellschaftlichen Gruppierungen sogar zum Vorreiter. Auf einer internationalen Konferenz der katholischen Kirche in Freising bei München wurde jetzt ein neues Schulungsprogramm vorgestellt, das vom Kinderschutzzentrum in München entwickelt wurde und ab 2014 von Kirchenmitarbeitern in aller Welt genutzt werden soll.

Der Missbrauchsskandal hat die katholische Kirche in vielen Ländern erschüttert, die deutsche Kirche hatte er 2010 erreicht. Weltweit haben inzwischen fast 80 Prozent der nationalen Bischofskonferenzen eigene Richtlinien zum Umgang mit diesem Problem erlassen, so der Vizerektor der Päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana in Rom, Jesuitenpater Hans Zollner, bei der Tagung. Er glaubt, dass die Vernetzung der katholischen Kirche dazu führen kann, Fehler zu vermeiden, die in anderen Ländern gemacht wurden und voneinander zu lernen.

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SCHWEIZ
Die Weltwoche

Dass Priester sich um den Nachwuchs kümmern müssen, ist so sicher wie nur irgendwas, aber: Solange die Kirche am Zölibat festhält, wird aus Nächstenliebe immer wieder Pädophilie.

Von Mathias Binswanger

Als typische Schwulenberufe gelten Flight-Attendant, Balletttänzer, Coiffeur, Modedesigner und – katholischer Priester. Gemäss Schätzungen sind heute rund 20 Prozent aller Priester schwul. Eine Prozentzahl, die sowohl die Kirche selbst als auch die Bevölkerung immer wieder in Erstaunen versetzt. Man kann sich ja als Heterosexueller noch zusammenreimen, warum Berufe wie Modedesigner oder Balletttänzer unter Schwulen so gefragt sind. Aber was reizt Schwule am katholischen Priestertum, obwohl die katholische Kirche ja im Allgemeinen alles andere als schwulenfreundlich ist?

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ISLAND
ORF (Osterreich)

Die kleine katholische Kirche in Island hat Fälle von jahrzehntelangem Kindesmissbrauch in einer von ihr betriebenen Internatsschule zugegeben. Der Kirchenleitung wird vorgeworfen, nicht auf Hinweise reagiert zu haben.

Wie es in einem in Reykjavik diese Woche von der Kirche veröffentlichten Untersuchungsbericht hieß, war neben dem aus den Niederlanden eingewanderten Schulleiter auch eine Deutsche aktiv an sexuellem Missbrauch von Jungen und Mädchen beteiligt. Die in Essen geborene Lehrerin starb 2008.

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OSTERREICH
Der Standard

Verdacht der geschlechtlichen Nötigung, beharrlichen Verfolgung und Körperverletzung

Baden/Wiener Neustadt – In den Missbrauchs-Ermittlungen gegen den Pfarrer von Traiskirchen (Bezirk Baden) wartet die Staatsanwaltschaft Wiener Neustadt auf den Abschlussbericht der Polizei. Danach würden weitere Entscheidungen getroffen, sagte Erich Habitzl, Sprecher der Anklagebehörde, am Dienstag. Gegen den Pfarrer wird wegen geschlechtlicher Nötigung, beharrlicher Verfolgung und mehrfacher Körperverletzung ermittelt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

Von Birger Menke

Ein Verlag hat der Berliner Staatsanwaltschaft eine Liste mit den Namen von fünf Kirchenmitarbeitern übergeben, die Verbindungen zu kreuz.net haben sollen. Ein in Verdacht geratener Pfarrer hat sich vom Hetzportal distanziert. Doch Texte und Kommentare lassen daran zweifeln.

Selbst für manche Gegner des Hetzportals kreuz.net war es zunächst gewöhnungsbedürftig, was der Bruno Gmünder Verlag Anfang Oktober verkündete: 15.000 Euro “Kopfgeld” versprach er für Hinweise, die helfen, die Macher von kreuz.net ausfindig zu machen. Doch die Aktion scheint sich gelohnt zu haben.

Seit rund acht Jahren verbreitet kreuz.net nach eigener Darstellung “katholische Nachrichten”. Tatsächlich waren die Beiträge anfangs noch geprägt von einer Haltung, die zwar erzkonservativ war, aber nichts Strafbares hervorbrachte. Das änderte sich: Hetzschriften gegen Homosexuelle wurden veröffentlicht, der Ton wurde rauer, die Haltung menschenverachtender.

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CANADA
Leader-Post

By Kerry Benjoe, Leader-Post
November 6, 2012

Indian residential school survivors are getting some assistance from the Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness (CCAA).

The national organization is planning events for survivors who are in the process of resolving their claims through the Independent Assessment Process (IAP).

“We applied for and received funding from the Indian Residential School Adjudication Secretariat to assist survivors of abuse from residential schools with being prepared to go into their adjudication for their compensation,” said Sanderson Layng, CCAA president and COO.

“Most people, who are applying for compensation, have already done that but now there is a waiting time between when their application is heard and when they meet with an adjudicator. Our project (Group IAP program) is working with survivors, as a group, and looking at how the group can be supportive of one another and create support mechanisms.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by NCR Editorial Staff | Nov. 6, 2012

When the bishops of the United States gather later this month in Baltimore for their fall meeting, they ought to take some time to ponder a simple question: Were their words and actions during the recent election season the kind of discourse that informs and persuades or did they contribute to the partisan shrillness that we hope our teachers are educating youngsters to rise above as they mature into voting citizens?

We do not yet know the outcome of the national election, but the results for the church are already well-known — no polls necessary here. The activity of the loudest and most extreme voices in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have left us the most politicized and divided church in recent memory. They have not only done a disservice to the cause of unity, they haven’t done much to advance the causes they so stridently champion. …

The bishops are so beholden to the huge sums of money dumped on them by the Knights of Columbus (see story) that they can’t imagine pushing back against the political agenda of an organization led by a longtime, high-level Republican operative.

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ROME
Vatican Insider

During the course of the meeting on the history of the Vatican Press Office, the director also talked about the role of the Vatican’s communications consultant, Greg Burke and about financial transparency

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

The scandal surrounding the cases of clerical sex abuse against minors and the developments in the Vatican’s finances are illustrative of the Holy See’s efforts to become more transparent: the Vatican’s Jesuit spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi said this in a statement this morning at a conference at the LUMSA University in Rome. The title of the conference was “Birth and development of the Vatican Press Office: From the Council to today”.

“Some recent events have been a real testing bench for greater transparency in the Church,” Lombardi said, mentioning paedophilia as a primary example and recalling the scandal which broke out in 2010, the pressure of the international mass media and the efforts of the Vatican Press Office to provide “unbiased information” in relation to the Holy See’s responses (the Pope’s speeches, new canonical laws, conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University).

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NORTHER IRELAND
UTV

A retired Catholic priest has denied defrauding his former Co Down parish of nearly £150,000 over a 19-month period up to October 2009.

Fr Conleth Byrne, 78, allegedly paid monies to a woman from the funds of his former parish of Loughinisland in the Diocese of Down and Connor.

No details surrounding the fraud were given to Downpatrick Crown Court on Tuesday, as his trial, expected to last three to four days, was fixed for the end of January in the New Year.

Initially Fr Byrne appeared apprehensive when asked to confirm his date of birth before being asked for address, which he gave as the “guest house in Portglenone Monastery”.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Cardinal George Pell says he has lost confidence in the St Johns College council at the University of Sydney and has asked priest members to resign following continued bad behaviour by students.

He says he will be asking the NSW government to review governance arrangements at the Catholic college and the need to amend outdated laws covering the institution.

Reports of loutish behaviour at the 150-year-old college have continued despite an incident in March that resulted in a female student being hospitalised.

The college suspended 33 students over the incident, in which male residents surrounded a girl and encouraged her to drink a toxic concoction as part of an initiation process.

In a statement on Tuesday, Cardinal Pell said he no longer had confidence in the capacity of the college council to ensure reform, “despite their good will and the dedication of the chairman”.

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UXBRIDGE (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

UXBRIDGE — Two people affiliated with the Church of the End Times were arraigned yesterday in Uxbridge District Court on charges of burglary and intimidating a witness. A warrant was issued for a third person.

Courtney Bish, 20, who gave her address as 19 Industrial Drive, the same address as the Church of the End Times and Driveways Corp., was arraigned on multiple charges in Northbridge, Blackstone and Sutton of breaking and entering for a felony, larceny, destruction of property and receiving stolen property ($250 or more). The alleged crimes took place in recent months.

Ms. Bish and Gina Elliott, 41, also of 19 Industrial Drive, had been arrested by Sutton police in September on other burglary-related charges. Police estimated the pair had been involved in eight to 10 burglaries in the Blackstone Valley in Massachusetts and in northern Rhode Island.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 7, 2012

Eamonn Duff, Nick Ralston

FIVE Catholic priests quit the council of the elite St John’s College last night as the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, and the Premier, Barry O’Farrell, voiced their disgust over the initiation ritual scandal.

Mr O’Farrell said he would consider changes to the Saint John’s College Act 1857. “I will not allow the behaviour of a few to tarnish the global reputation of the University of Sydney,” he said.

“While any changes would need to be approved by cabinet, I am more than willing to work with Cardinal Pell in his efforts to reform the college’s culture.”

Cardinal Pell said he no longer had confidence that the council was able to fix the problems within the elite college at the university.

The mass resignation of the five priests from the 18-person council has left it powerless to continue to govern. Cardinal Pell called on the government to change the laws governing St John’s in a move that could mean the church cedes sole control of the 150-year-old institution.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

Interview by ADA CALHOUN

Published: October 26, 2012

In April, the Vatican accused your group, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the country’s most influential nuns’ organization, of “radical feminism.” Did that surprise you?

I was surprised by us being called radical feminists. I could introduce them to some real radical feminists.

Part of the criticism was that the sisters weren’t speaking against issues like abortion, contraception and gay marriage.

But if you look at the Gospel, Jesus welcomed sinners with the idea that they would be drawn to change their lives. Human beings are frail. None of us always act the way we wish we would act.

Cardinal Levada, who oversaw the assessment of the L.C.W.R., has been questioned for his handling of sex-abuse cases.

I’m not going there.

Do you have feelings about the sex-abuse scandal?

I don’t want to go there. I’ll tell you personally, I’m appalled, but so is everyone else. We’re all appalled.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By GAIA PIANIGIANI

Published: November 5, 2012

The Vatican computer expert accused of helping Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler of stealing the pope’s confidential papers had no reason to risk his career to help the butler because he did not know him well, his lawyer argued on Monday in the opening hearing of the second trial related to a security breach at the Vatican. The pope’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, was convicted of leaking the stolen documents to the news media. The computer expert, Claudio Sciarpelletti, 48, is charged with helping Mr. Gabriele by giving “wavering and contradictory” answers to the authorities about a closed envelope addressed personally to Mr. Gabriele and containing material that was found in his desk, the indictment read. Mr. Sciarpelletti’s lawyer explained his client’s contradictory statements as a reflection of his confused “emotional state.” The trial was adjourned until Saturday.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

By Frances D’Emilio
| Associated Press
November 06, 2012

VATICAN CITY — A Vatican computer programer accused of helping the pope’s former butler steal secret correspondence did not know the man well and had little motive to risk his 20 years on the job for him, a defense lawyer argued Monday at the start of the second trial in the scandal.

The Vatican’s accusations are based in part on information from an anonymous source that the two defendants had frequent contacts, but Paolo Gabriele, the former butler, didn’t even trust his client enough to let him upgrade his outdated work computer, lawyer Gianluca Benedetti told the court.

Claudio Sciarpelletti, the ­Holy See’s computer programmer in the key office of Secretariat of State, is facing trial a month after Gabriele was convicted by a Vatican court of the theft of the documents. The documents reportedly formed part of an Italian muckraking journalist’s book of scandalous revelations about bureaucratic infighting, power plays, and alleged corruption.

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VATICAN CITY
Sun Herald

By HANNS-JOCHEN KAFFSACK — dpa

VATICAN CITY — A Vatican court on Monday rejected a request from defense lawyers that the charges brought against a computer technician, accused of aiding and abetting Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler in leaking confidential papal documents to the press, be dropped.

In an opening hearing largely devoted to procedural matters, Gianluca Benedetti, the lawyer of Claudio Sciarpelletti, argued that his client had no motive for committing the crime as he was not a personal friend of the butler, Paolo Gabriele, as the prosecution has charged.

Sciarpelletti has been accused of providing contradictory explanations as to how he came into possession of material that was eventually published in a chapter of a book, “Sua Santita” (“His Holiness”), which exposed infighting within the Vatican hierarchy.

The chapter in question, titled “Neapoleon at the Vatican,” refers to alleged conflicts of interest involving the Vatican gendarmerie.

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AUSTRALIA/UNITED STATES
JTA

November 4, 2012

SYDNEY (JTA) – A rabbinical court in New York will determine the fate of a Chabad rabbi in Melbourne who was dismissed from his post amid allegations of improper conduct.

A Chabad-Lubavitch spokesman confirmed that Rabbi Chaim Herzog has appealed his dismissal after he received an official letter last month saying he no longer has the authority to operate in the name of Chabad. The meeting with the beit din, or rabbinical court, is scheduled for this week.

At the center of the dispute are allegations that Herzog was waging a “turf war” against colleagues operating near his Chabad house in Melbourne’s city center.

Herzog, who has been running the Chabad of Melbourne Central Business District since 1998, declined to comment, except to say that “Everything you print is a lie and I’m not going to comment any further.”

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UNITED STATES
The Jewish Chronicle

by Toby Tabachnick, Staff Writer The Jewish Chronicle

In 1985, after discovering that her three children were being sexually abused by an uncle, Denise instinctively turned to her priest for help and guidance.

But he did not know what to do.

“He told me they didn’t deal with that kind of thing, and that [my children] would have to see a psychiatrist,” she recalled. “The priest came out and said there was nothing he could do.”

Denise, whose last name is withheld here to protect her privacy, had an experience that is more common than one might think. Members of the clergy—including rabbis — typically are not trained in how to counsel victims of child abuse or their parents. And yet, it is the clergy that is often called on as the first responders by people of faith.

About 17 female interfaith clergy members gathered at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Monday, Nov. 5, for the workshop titled “Child Sexual Abuse and Neglect: What they didn’t teach in seminary.” The workshop, organized by the Pittsburgh chapter of Jewish Women International in conjunction with several co-sponsors, is the second in a series of domestic violence prevention programs for female clergy, intending to fill a gap in their pastoral education.

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IDAHO
Idaho Statesman

Published: November 6, 2012

By MEGHANN M. CUNIFF — mcuniff@idahostatesman.com

Ronald Evan Morgan was 13 when he says a scoutmaster molested him on a Boy Scout camping trip in Idaho. Born and raised in the Treasure Valley, Morgan, now 46, lived with the secret for nearly three decades before suing the organization in 2007 for failing to protect him from a man he said everyone knew was pedophile.

He never got his day in court. The Idaho Supreme Court ruled three years ago that because the state law allowing claims based on childhood sexual abuse wasn’t enacted until 1989, Morgan and his two unnamed co-plaintiffs were too late.

But an August ruling by a federal judge in Boise could reopen a door previously closed.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill has allowed a $5 million lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Ore-Idaho Council of the Boy Scouts in Boise to be heard by a jury on the grounds that the organizations engaged in institutional fraud by purporting to be a safe place for young boys while they knowingly concealed sexual abuse by its members.

It’s the first child sex abuse lawsuit in Idaho to pursue such a legal angle.

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TULSA (OK)
Tulsa World

By BILL BRAUN World Staff Writer
Published: 11/6/2012

A former Tulsa church child-care worker pleaded no contest Monday to charges of abusing two young children, with the offenses separated by almost two years in time.

Meredith Allison Howard, 40, will be sentenced Jan. 29 on two felony charges of child abuse by injury.

Howard, who waived her right to a trial, has no agreement with the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office regarding her sentence. District Judge William Kellough will decide the sentence.

One case is linked to an injury that prosecutors contend was inflicted on an 8-month-old boy on Dec. 8, 2008, at a day care affiliated with Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian, 4102 E. 61st St.

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ICELAND
Iceland Review

Bishop of the Catholic Church of Iceland Pétur Burcher has established a council of specialists, which is to provide consultation on the right for damages for victims of sexual and other abuse within the church, following the release of a report confirming the abuse.

The council is also to suggest changes to the church’s work methods when abuse is reported, as well as preventive methods and other improvements, ruv.is reports.

Supreme Court lawyer Eiríkur Elís Þorláksson is to chair the council, on which anthropologist April Frigge and lawyer Skúli Guðmundsson will also have a seat. It is to commence its work immediately and hand in suggestions no later than June 1, 2013.

The investigative committee of the Catholic Church in Iceland concluded that all of the church’s bishops from 1968 to this date, Hinrik Frehen, Alfred Jolsons, Joannes Gijsen and Pétur Burcher, failed the students of Landakotsskóli and neglected their duties.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Schafsbrief

04.11.2012. “Zweifelhafter Priester hält Messen in +Ackermanns Zuständigkeitsbereich, Stephan duckt sich weg!”

Pater Benedikt Ulitzka (bürgerlich Hubert Ulitzka) wohnt und beseelt ahnungslose Katholiken in Mettlach

Es ist unglaublich, aber wahr!

Kommentarschaf. “Der im Zusammenhang mit den von Pfarrer Klaus Leist (Ermittlungen wegen vermeintlichem Drohbriefschreiben laufen hier immer noch) als Gerüchte bezeichnete Missbrauchsvorfälle in Köllerbach stehende Pater Benedikt Ulitzka hält Messen in Mettlach. Messen in einer Art Privatkapelle einer Mettlacher Familie. Die Messfeiern sind als traditionalistisch einszustufen. Dagegen ist erst mal nix einzuwenden.

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OSTERREICH
betroffen

[mitt Audio]

Die Pfarrer-Initiative trennt sich nun von Mitgliedern, denen sexueller Missbrauch vorgeworfen wird. Damit zieht die Initiative Konsequenzen, nachdem die Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt ihr vorgeworfen hat, zwei Missbrauchstäter in den eigenen Reihen zu haben.

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CANADA
The News Watch

By tbnewswatch.com THUNDER BAY — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Thunder Bay is among those named in a lawsuit alleging sexual assault.

It was filed by six males members of the Lac La Croix First Nation. According to the Toronto Star, the plaintiffs allege they were sexually assaulted by a Roman Catholic priest who served on the reserve in the 1960s.

The priest has since died.

In the suit, the men are seeking damages from the Diocese of Thunder Bay, the federal government and a Catholic order based in Manitoba.

None of the allegations have been proven in court and no court date has been set.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Boston Globe

By DAVID KLEPPER
Associated Press / November 5, 2012

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island judge heard arguments Monday in a legal tug-of-war over sealed documents relating to the Legion of Christ, a disgraced Roman Catholic religious order.

The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Providence Journal and the National Catholic Reporter want Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein to unseal documents from a lawsuit contesting the will of an elderly widow who left the Legion $60 million. The Legion argues that the information could taint prospective jurors and wants it to remain hidden from public view.

The Vatican took over the Legion in 2010 after determining that its late founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, had sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children by two women.

The widow, Gabrielle Mee, died in 2008. Her niece Mary Lou Dauray had sought to challenge the will, saying her aunt had been defrauded by the order into leaving it her fortune. Silverstein last month threw out the challenge because he determined the niece lacked standing. Her attorney plans to appeal.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

submitted By Sister Maureen Turlish

On October 15, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced its decision to restore Rev. Joseph DiGregorio to ministry, a priest credibly accused of the sexual exploitation of a minor.

It did so while releasing as little information as possible.

The Archdiocese’s poor record of accountability and transparency began to become known as early as 2002 when then-Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua was quoted on CNN as saying, “We all are agreed that no priest guilty of even one act of sexual abuse of a minor will function in any ecclesial ministry or any capacity in our diocese.”

Later, the 2005 and 2011 grand-jury reports highlighted in graphic detail the lack of accountability and transparency shown by Cardinals Krol, Bevilacqua and Rigali.

Is there really a reason why faith should be put in this latest decision by Archbishop Charles Chaput to return DiGregorio to ministry without more information being released to the public? Chaput admitted in his statement that DiGregorio was found to have violated the church’s behavioral standards for priests.

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CANADA
Sun News

JAMES TURNER | QMI AGENCY

WINNIPEG — A group of men from a northwestern Ontario First Nations community are suing a Winnipeg-based Roman Catholic order and others to seek redress for alleged sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of their community priest as young boys.

The six men from the Lac La Croix First Nation near Fort Francis seek unspecified financial damages from the federal government, a Catholic diocese in Thunder Bay and the order of Les Oblats de Marie Immaculee du Manitoba, along with a priest who lived and worked on the reserve in the 1960s.

The men range in age from 55 to 61.

In separate statements of claim, each alleges his life has been deeply and negatively affected by the aftershocks of sexual assaults he was subjected to — abuse the men say they felt powerless to speak out about given the priest’s position of power in their small community.

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UNITED STATES
Joey Piscitelli

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Joey Piscitelli

The recent articles by Fr. Stephen Rossetti PhD, such as “A New Phase of Child Protection”, printed in the Washington Post on October 26th – are a lamentable diversion. They are masking the historic truth about the systematic shielding of clergy pedophiles.

Rev. Rossetti, now a “clinical professor” at the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C, had the insolence to state: “the steps taken in the last 30 years to prevent the devastating trauma of child sex abuse are making a difference”.

Rossetti of all people, should know better than to boast about clergy child abuse prevention. He was CEO at ground zero; the notorious St. Lukes Institute in Maryland – the Catholic treatment center victims have dubbed “Pedophile-Paradise”.

Ever since the clergy abuse scandal exploded years ago, countless observers have asked this question:

“Why weren’t pedophile priests prosecuted and convicted?”

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

BY: Dan Herbeck

A nun with a casino gambling problem will be charged today with stealing more than $100,000 from two churches where she worked in Orleans County, The Buffalo News learned late Sunday.

The felony grand larceny charge will be filed against Sister Mary Anne Rapp, who in recent years has been assigned to St. Mary Catholic Church in Holley and its sister church, St. Mark, in nearby Kendall.

Sister Mary Anne is scheduled to answer the charges in Kendall Town Court this evening, Orleans County District Attorney Joseph V. Cardone confirmed Sunday night.

“This is a situation that was brought to our attention by the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo and has been under investigation for months by the [Orleans County] Sheriff’s Office,” Cardone said. “It’s not a situation where the sister has been living an extravagant life. I think there are indications that she has a gambling problem.”

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NEW YORK
Huffington Post

HOLLEY, N.Y. — Authorities say a nun faces grand larceny charges after more than $100,000 was stolen from two western New York churches where she worked.

The newspaper reports that the money was stolen from Catholic churches in Holley and Kendall, rural parishes between Buffalo and Rochester.

No other details have been released.

The nun’s attorney, James Harrington, told the newspaper he couldn’t comment on the case.

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CANADA
Huffington Post

Wayne K, Spear

In many respects, my friend and colleague Garnet Angeconeb is representative of the countless Aboriginal children beaten and raped in Canada’s Indian residential schools. For years he told no one, including his wife. Angry, pain-filled and confused, he drank heavily to dull his feelings. The turning-point in his life arrived during a business trip to Ottawa, on October 31, 1990:

That morning, I got up, showered, dressed, and headed downstairs to meet a colleague for breakfast. “Hey, look at this front-page article on the residential school issue,” he said as he sipped his coffee. I had my own copy of the Globe and Mail tucked under my arm. There, on the front page, was an article about how the then-Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Phil Fontaine, had publicly disclosed that he had been physically and sexually abused while attending an Indian Lake residential school. As I read the article, I began to feel an indescribable pain crawling all over my body. Through this haze of pain, I struggled to admit to my colleague that I, too, like many former students, had experienced sexual and physical abuse while at residential school. I was also enraged by the psychological and spiritual scars inflicted on me and the other students. My colleague and I grew almost completely silent. The silence continued as we ate our breakfast. After a while, my colleague quietly asked, “So you were abused in residential school?” Not knowing what exactly to say, I responded, “Yes, I was abused — sexually.” I told him that a man at the school named Hands, who eventually became an Anglican priest, had abused me and many others at Pelican during the 1960s. I felt a wave of rage overtake me. I had a huge lump in my throat as I struggled to hold back the pain I had buried for so many years. Then, as if a floodgate had been thrown open, I cried uncontrollably. It was the first time I had ever told anyone that as a little boy I had been sexually abused at residential school. For the next year I tried to figure out how to deal with that admission. I had to tell my family (I have been married since 1978 and had never spoken of the abuse to my wife). It took a lot of soul-searching — I had so many doubts.

As Angeconeb recalls years later, Leonard Hands made a deliberate point of refusing to apologize to him either during the January 5, 1996 Kenora District Court sentencing or in the years leading up to his death in 2000: “he specifically stated he was not apologizing to me. He wasn’t allowed to use my name but said he was specifically excluding “G.A.” from his apology. He claimed he had already done so during our meeting in 1992, and that I had refused his apology. It angered me but I realized he was a man going down and that it was his only way of lashing out and trying to regain some control.” No longer among the living, Hands would be the object of posthumous forgiveness. In this way, Angeconeb would begin to let go of the rage and confusion, taking a huge step forward in his personal healing and spiritual growth.

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VATICAN CITY
U-T San Diego

VATICAN CITY — The lawyer for a Vatican computer whiz insists his client had little motive to risk his 20 years on the job to help the pope’s former butler steal confidential documents.

Claudio Sciarpelletti is accused of aiding Paolo Gabriele in the theft of papal correspondence and other documents from Pope Benedict XVI’s apartment. His attorney Gianluca Benedetti, says the two weren’t great friends and that Sciarpelletti would be unlikely to help a person he had no special relationship with.

Gabriele, who is serving the 18-month-sentence, had been scheduled to testify about their relationship Monday, but neither he nor other witnesses, including a Swiss Guard commander, took the stand. The hearing was adjourned to Saturday to give the defense more time to prepare.

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ZAMBIA
Zambian Watchdog

ANGLICAN Diocese of Central Zambia priests have complained that their Bishop Derrick Kamukwamba has been facilitating abortion for girls who are impregnated by his nephew who is training as a priest.

The sources said Bishop Kamukwamba’s nephew Stubbs has been living a sinful life and that his uncle has been in support of what he has been doing.

“What that boy has been doing is bad and we are not happy as priests in this diocese. Before he went for priesthood, he impregnated two girls and they have children for him, as a diocese we objected to this, but since his uncle is the bishop, he went to the seminary. Before he was ordained as deacon, the church refused and the church council at the Cathedral of the Holy Nativity refused to attend his ordination service as a way of rejecting him, because that boy drinks and he is ever found in bars, all this was brought to the attention of the Bishop but he went to on and ordain his nephew,” they complained.

The priests said Stubbs impregnated one of the girls from the youth fellowship and the Bishop facilitated for an abortion.

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UNITED STATES
Chicago Tribune

[Letters regarding Bishop Matthias now posted on Midwest web site – Orthodox Church in America]

By Manya Brachear
Tribune reporter

The local bishop of the Orthodox Church in America accused in August of “inappropriate” behavior with a woman has been found guilty of sexual misconduct by church investigators, but will remain at the helm of the Midwest Diocese.

Bishop Matthias (born David Lawrence Moriak) will stay on administrative leave until he meets the “rehabilitative measures” required by the church’s Holy Synod. Those measures include directly asking forgiveness from the woman who submitted a complaint, participating in a residential therapeutic program designed for clergy, and undergoing a mentorship with a peer bishop who will then recommend whether Bishop Matthias can return to his post.

“I am deeply sorry that I have offended, confused, and caused hurt to this young woman,” Bishop Matthias said in a letter read to parishioners during worship services on Sunday. “I will communicate my apology directly and personally to her.”

According to a statement issued by the Holy Synod, Bishop Matthias allegedly sent inappropriate text and e-mail messages to a female parishioner in the diocese. She filed a formal complaint in August, the statement said.

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

BY: Jay Tokasz

A local organization of rabbis has issued a statement condemning a former colleague’s participation in High Holy Day services at Hillel of Buffalo, on the University at Buffalo North Campus in Amherst.

The statement by the Buffalo Board of Rabbis, sent at the end of October to the leaders of various Jewish organizations in Western New York, expressed “deep dismay and disappointment” that Rabbi A. Charles Shalman was invited to participate in a leadership role during Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services.

Shalman was expelled in 2008 from the Rabbinical Assembly over ethics violations related to an inappropriate relationship with a member of the Amherst synagogue where he served as rabbi, as well as previous allegations of misconduct dating from 1999.

“Clergy abuse is extremely serious, and is not ‘just an affair’ or ‘an imperfection.’ It is imperative that members of the clergy who have violated that trust be prevented from functioning in any way that might be perceived as being in the role of a rabbi,” the statement reads.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

A computer technician has gone on trial in the Vatican City charged with aiding and abetting the Pope’s former butler in stealing papal documents.

Claudio Sciarpelletti is accused of helping Paolo Gabriele leak the confidential documents while working in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.

Gabriele was given an 18-month prison sentence by the same court last month.

He admitted passing documents to a journalist, but said he did it out of love for the church and the Pope.

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VATICAN CITY
euronews

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – A Vatican court on Monday heard how Pope Benedict’s former butler, who has been jailed for stealing papal documents, refused to allow technicians to check his computer for six years before his arrest.

The detail emerged at the first hearing of the trial of Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer expert who is charged with aiding and abetting former butler Paolo Gabriele.

Lawyers told the court Gabriele refused to have his computer maintained or updated by technicians.

Gabriele was convicted of aggravated theft at a separate trial last month and sentenced to 18 months in jail for stealing sensitive papal documents and leaking them to the media. He kept some confidential information on his computer.

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VATICAN CITY
USA Today

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The trial this week of a Vatican computer whiz over his alleged role in an embarrassing scandal of filched confidential papal documents is offering a chance for an insider glimpse at the Holy See’s security workings.

Among those expected to testify in the trial, which begins on Monday in a Vatican City tribunal, are the pope’s top bodyguard, a commander of the legendary Swiss Guards and a Vatican security official connected to an Italian company with expertise in detecting eavesdropping devices.

Also on the witness list is Paolo Gabriele, Benedict’s former butler who is serving an 18-month prison sentence at the Vatican. It will be Gabriele’s first opportunity for public comment since the Holy See tribunal convicted him last month of stealing the pontiff’s private letters and leaking them to an Italian journalist in one of the worst breaches of Vatican security in recent memory.

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UNITED STATES
Seeking Alpha

David Warsh

Scandal over the tendency of organizations to shield sexual predators sometimes concealed in their ranks, the public investigation of which began with the Catholic Church, spread to Penn State University college football, and the Boy Scouts, recently has stained the British Broadcasting Co. The story of the late Jimmy Saville, a one-time coal-miner turned British celebrity whose television presence over fifty years loosely resembled that of American Bandstand host Dick Clark (with more than a touch of W.C Fields thrown in), would be just another strange tale of Old England, except for one thing.

The New York Times Company (NYT), which, through its Boston Globe subsidiary, started the media’s sustained attention to the issue ten years ago with a painstaking investigation of the Boston Roman Catholic archdiocese, recently hired the BBC’s Mark Thompson to be its chief executive officer. Now it turns out that a program that would have documented both Saville’s history of preying on adolescent girls and his systematic enabling over the years by the authorities (including the BBC), was quietly scrubbed during the period that Thompson served as the BBC’s director general. The New York Times own public editor has urged the paper not to “pull its punches” in considering whether Thompson is the right person for the job, “given this turn of events.”

It was at a juncture something like this one that a famous old attorney, now long retired from the courtroom, listened in a private conference room as his colleagues waxed furious at demands that the other side had made during a negotiation: Outrageous! Preposterous! Unconscionable! After a long and thoughtful pause, the counselor intoned, “Friends, it is time to rise above principle.” The deal was done and everyone went back to work.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Express

Monday November 5,2012

By James Parry

IN A corner of a country churchyard in north Norfolk lies the grave of Harold Francis Davidson, the last resting place of a man who 80 years ago was at the heart of a case that scandalised the Church of England and caused a press furore. Davidson was a church rector who strayed beyond his brief and was sensationally defrocked in 1932 after a trial that gripped the nation. The potent mix of sex, skulduggery and abuse of authority proved toxic and still resonates today.

Davidson came from a long line of clergymen but his early interests were rather more theatrical. He revelled in amateur dramatics at school and toured for several months in 1895 with a group of likeminded friends, performing as entertainers. But in the autumn of 1903 the young Davidson turned his back on the stage and was ordained as a priest.

Three years later he was posted as rector to the parish of Stiffkey St John and Stiffkey St Mary & Morston, located on a remote stretch of the Norfolk coastline. In the Edwardian era that part of the country was far from being the fashionable rural playground for the chattering classes that it is today. Local society was still deeply feudal with a small-minded establishment holding sway and with firm views on what was and was not appropriate behaviour.

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ICELAND
Iceland Review

The investigative commission of the Catholic Church in Iceland presented its report on Friday, confirming that Rev. Ágúst Georg, principal of the church-run elementary school Landakotsskóli, and one of its teachers, Margrét Müller, abused their pupils.

The commission questioned 30 of the school’s former pupils and people who had joined the Catholic Church’s summer camps as children. Eight of them stated they had been sexually abused and 27 that they had been subject to or witnessed mental abuse, ruv.is reports.

Hjördís Hákonardóttir, who chairs the commission, said the report is a serious blow to the reputation of the Catholic Church in Iceland.

It reveals that Joannes Gijsen, who served as Bishop of the Catholic Church in Iceland 1996-2007, destroyed a letter from a man who described how he was abused by Rev. Georg, ruv.is reports.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

[Submissions – Parliament of Victoria]

November 6, 2012

Jane Lee

MOST of the evidence given to a state inquiry into child abuse has not been published more than a month after the deadline for submissions closed.

The committee of family and community development released 47 submissions on its website on October 10, ahead of its first hearing. They included statements from the Catholic Church and other religious groups, and a withering attack by Victoria Police on the church’s hindrance of its sexual abuse investigations since the 1950s.

But no further submissions have been published since, adding to scepticism over the inquiry’s effectiveness. Many critics are calling its six-member committee – which is due to report to Parliament in April – under-resourced and over-worked.

The committee has received hundreds of additional submissions since the inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and non-government organisations was called in April. That followed years of campaigning by victims, advocates and media.

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UNITED STATES
Orthodox Church in America

CHICAGO, IL [MW Diocese Communications]

On Saturday, November 3, 2012, Archpriest John Zdinak, Chancellor and Temporary Administrator of the Diocese of the Midwest of the Orthodox Church in America, forwarded two letters—one from the Holy Synod of Bishops, a second from His Grace, Bishop Matthias—to members of the Diocesan Council and all rectors and priests-in-charge, who were asked to read or post them in all parishes following the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, November 4.

The text of the letter of the Holy Synod may be accessed here. The text of the letter of Bishop Matthias may be accessed here.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Merkur

München – Prügel, Zwangsarbeit und sexueller Missbrauch – eine heute 72-Jährige aus dem Kreis Starnberg ist als Heimkind schwer misshandelt worden. Wegen ihres Traumas fordert sie jetzt Schadensersatz. Und zwar vom Freistaat Bayern.

Die schlimmen Dinge, die Eva R. (Name geändert) widerfahren sind, liegen Jahrzehnte zurück. Sie sollen zwischen 1946 und 1956 in bayerischen Kinderheimen passiert sein. Doch im Jahr 2008, als die Missbrauchsdebatte entbrannte, kam alles wieder hoch. So sehr, dass Eva R. eine „Retraumatisierung“ erlitten hat.

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DEUTSCHLAND
domradio

Bei einer internationalen Konferenz hat die katholische Kirche in Freising eine Zwischenbilanz in ihrem Kampf gegen sexuellen Missbrauch gezogen. Der Jesuit Hans Zollner zu ersten Erfolgen und anstehenden Aufgaben.

KNA: Pater Zollner, wie weit ist die katholische Kirche inzwischen vorangekommen bei der Eindämmung von sexuellem Missbrauch?

Zollner: Die Situation ist je nach Kontinent und Land anders. Weltweit haben inzwischen fast 80 Prozent der nationalen Bischofskonferenzen eigene Richtlinien zum Umgang mit diesem Problem erlassen, das ist sehr beachtlich. Einige Nachzügler gibt es in Osteuropa und auch in Afrika ist die Resonanz noch nicht zufriedenstellend.

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OHIO
Coshocton Tribune

AKRON — A northeast Ohio Catholic priest who embezzled money from an alcohol and drug rehabilitation center he founded began serving his six-month prison sentence this week in a tax fraud case.

The Rev. Samuel Ciccolini started serving time at a minimum-security federal facility in Morgantown, W.Va., the Akron Beacon Journal reported.

The 70-year-old Ciccolini, known as “Father Sam,” has been prohibited from saying Mass or hearing confessions. Bishop Richard Lennon and his advisers in the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland won’t determine Ciccolini’s status with the diocese until he’s out of prison, diocese spokesman Robert Tayek said.

The priest was a beloved figure in the Akron area, and the community was shocked by his 2010 arrest and the discovery that he’d amassed millions of dollars, the newspaper said.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sunday November 04 2012

The supine acceptance of Vatican authority is driving clergy out of office, writes Colum Kenny

THE Irish Bishops Conference has refused to meet the Association of Catholic Priests. The hierarchy will not dignify them with a high-level meeting.

‘Cardinal snubs plea by liberal priests for meeting,’ shouted one headline. But the Association of Catholic Priests is no fringe group of lax priests. It represents more than 1,000 members. The laity may be surprised to learn that there are still that many priests in Ireland.

The behaviour of the Irish hierarchy since Vatican II has driven committed priests and nuns out of office. And it has driven many other Catholics to despair. Its recent censoring of outspoken priests to placate the Vatican now means that even a priest as mainstream as Fr Brian D’Arcy has to submit his newspaper columns for approval in advance of publication.

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