ABUSE TRACKER

CALIFORNIA
What They Knew

[with video]

The Jesuits are back in the news again. This time the California Province is being implicated in the death of one of their own, a fellow Jesuit who was sexually abused and forced to live with his abusers at Sacred Heart Retreat Center in Los Gatos. Thanks to the courage and dedication of John Chevedden the story is finally getting out and hopefully his brother’s death will be properly investigated. With the offer of a $5,000 reward for information regarding his brother’s mysterious death, John is offering a way out for some Jesuit in the California Province. Here is a chance to come clean, do what Jesus would and get enough for a new start after the Society.

Anyone with information about Jim Chevedden’s death should contact the family at truthforjim@yahoo.com

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OSTERREICH
Der Standard

Thomas Neuhold, 31. August 2012

Salzburger Historiker verlangen eine einheitliche Regelung zur Entschädigung von Heimkindern. Der Missbrauch war “gesellschaftlicher Konsens” und die “Verantwortungskette” war lang

Salzburg – Voraussichtlich im Oktober werden die Salzburger Universitäts-Historiker Ingrid Bauer, Tina Kubek und Robert Hoffmann ihre Forschungsergebnisse zur Situation der Heim- und Pflegekinder im Land Salzburg von 1945 bis in die 1980er-Jahre vorlegen. Die Studie entsteht im Auftrag der Landesregierung. “Das Land ist von sich aus aktiv geworden und an das Institut für Geschichte herangetreten”, lobt Bauer die Sozialabteilung. In manchen Bundesländern habe die Forschung noch nicht einmal begonnen.

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OSTERREICH
Tiroler Tageszeitung

Wien – Bis weit ins letzte Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts hinein waren die Kinder- und Jugendheime in Österreich „Zentren der Gewalttätigkeit und des sexuellen Missbrauchs“. Zu diesem Befund kommt der österreichische Journalist und Sachbuchautor Hans Weiss in seinem Buch „Tatort Kinderheim“, das am Montagabend in der Wiener Hauptbücherei präsentiert wird. Bei einigen Heimen habe es sich um regelrechte „Kindergulags“ gehandelt, hält Weiss fest.

Der mit Titeln wie „Bittere Pillen“, „Schwarzbuch Markenfirmen – Die Machenschaften der Weltkonzerne“ und „Schwarzbuch Landwirtschaft“ bekanntgewordene Autor hat für sein aktuelles Werk die Vorgänge in 135 Heimen und Internaten untersucht. Mit 45 Zöglingen, die psychische, körperliche und sexuelle Gewalt erlebt haben, hat Weiss persönlich gesprochen. Weiss hat auch Täter und Täterinnen mit den wider sie erhobenen Vorwürfen konfrontiert. Zusätzlich zu seinen eigenen Recherchen lässt er bereits andernorts erschienene journalistische Arbeiten und gedruckte Erinnerungen Betroffener in seinen Bericht einfließen.

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OSTERREICH
Der Standard

Zudem sollen auch Landesorganisationen Heimkinder beschäftigt haben – Bericht des Landeskontrollamtes aus dem Jahr 1977 dokumentiert Vorgänge

Innsbruck – In der Causa um Zwangsarbeit von Heimkindern der Tiroler Landeserziehungsanstalt St. Martin in Schwaz sind weitere Details bekanntgeworden. Auch das Land Tirol und das Bundesheer soll die Mädchen für sich arbeiten haben lassen, berichtete die “Tiroler Tageszeitung” (TT) in ihrer Sonntagsausgabe. Das gehe aus einem Landeskontrollamtsbericht aus dem Jahr 1977 hervor, der unter anderem die Vorgänge in der heimeigenen Lohnwäscherei dokumentiere.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

They are the cardinals, the bishops, the priests whom Benedict XVI has wanted to add to the participants in the upcoming synod. Three of them are from Opus Dei. And another three from Communion and Liberation

VATICAN CITY, September 22, 2012 – In recent days, another 36 names have been made public of churchmen whom Benedict XVI has called to be part of the thirteenth general assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which will be held from October 7-28 on the theme: “The new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith.”

The names are those of 12 cardinals, 20 archbishops and bishops, 4 priests.

They will be added to the synod fathers elected by the episcopal conferences of the whole world and by the union of superiors general of the religious orders (who in any case must be approved by the Holy See and the official list of which has not yet been published), and also to the members of the assembly by right, like the secretary general of the synod and the dicastery heads of the Roman curia.

The leadership figures of the synod have also been appointed by the pope. Like the three presidents delegate, cardinals John Tong Hon, bishop of Hong Kong, Francisco Robles Ortega, archbishop of Guadalajara in Mexico, and Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Like the presenter general, Cardinal Donald William Wuerl, archbishop of Washington in the United States. And like the special secretary, Pierre-Marie Carré, archbishop of Montpellier in France.

Scanning the list of synod fathers appointed directly by the pope, one encounters names of churchmen who have been selected out of institutional propriety (like cardinal dean Angelo Sodano) or because they head important ecclesial organisms that include regional or continental episcopal conferences.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Anti-child abuse campaigner Chrissie Foster who is fighting for change within the Catholic system discusses the tragic story of her daughters, who were abused over a number of years by members of the clergy.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky Valley Chronicle

CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA CONFIRMS HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN ABUSED BY CLERGY

(MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA) — In yet another horrific tale of child sexual abuse at the hands of clergy, the Roman Catholic Church in the Australian state of Victoria has confirmed that more than 600 children have been sexually abused by priests going back to the 1930s.

According to published reports, the number of confirmed abuse cases within the church were released to a state investigation into the handling of abuse cases by religious and non-government organizations.

In the release of information church officials said the 620 cases went back 80 years but the majority of cases took place between the 1960s and the 1980s.

A report by The Saturday Age (theage.com) newspaper in Victoria says all but 13 of the cases were before 1990.

The four Victorian dioceses of the church gave a joint report on the abuse cases to the State Parliament inquiry on Friday.

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AUSTRALIA
International Business Times

By Geetha Pillai

September 22, 2012

The Roman Catholic Church in the Australian state of Victoria has admitted to hundreds of child sex abuse cases by church officials, including priests and church workers, dating back to the 1930s.

In a submission to a Victorian parliamentary inquiry, the church confirmed it knew of 620 cases of sexual abuse. Another 45 cases are being investigated by church authorities.

The Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, described the numbers as “shocking and shameful” and extended the full cooperation of the church to the inquiry.

“We have been open about the horrific abuse that has occurred in Victoria and elsewhere,” said Hart.

“It is shocking and shameful that this abuse, with its dramatic impact on those who were abused and their families, was committed by Catholic priests, religious and church workers.

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AUSTRALIA
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The Catholic Church in the Australian state of Victoria has revealed its clergy were responsible for more than 600 “shameful and shocking” cases of child sexual abuse dating back to the 1930s.

By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney
9:19AM BST 22 Sep 2012

The Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, said the figures were “horrific” – though campaigners said the number of victims could be as high as 10,000.

The church has revealed to a parliamentary inquiry that its complaints department has upheld 618 complaints of abuse in the past sixteen years. The inquiry was announced after it emerged that 40 victims in the state had committed suicide.

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CHILLICOTHE (OH)
Chillicothe Gazette

CHILLICOTHE –A Washington Court House man who was found guilty of nine sex abuse charges from the 1990s involving children likely will appeal his conviction.

Just after noon Friday, the jury in the trial of Gary W. Freeland, 61, returned guilty verdicts on four counts of rape, two counts of felonious sexual penetration, and three counts of gross sexual imposition.

Judge Wm. Jhan Corzine ordered a victim-impact statement, but not a presentencing investigation.

“I don’t really see the point in a PSI when life in prison is a sentence for a number of these offenses,” Corzine said in court, adding he doesn’t want to waste resources.

Sentencing has been tentatively scheduled for 2 p.m. Oct. 5 in Ross County Common Pleas Court. Corzine noted sentencing will be complicated since the laws have changed and some of the charges no longer exist in the form they did when the crimes took place in 1994 and 1995.

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OHIO
Chillicothe Gazette

Written by
Jona Ison
Gazette Staff Writer

CHILLICOTHE — After a judge dismissed five of 14 sexual abuse charges against a Washington Court House man, the jury began deliberating on the remaining charges on Thursday afternoon.

Gary W. Freeland, 61, took the stand on Thursday in Ross County Common Pleas Court, offering a “No, sir” to every direct question about sexual conduct alleged to have happened in 1994 and 1995. The testimony came after Freeland’s attorney, Jim Boulger, started the day with a motion to dismiss charges.

Judge Jhan Corzine dismissed the charges after determining the state had failed to provide evidence to back up their elements. The dismissed charges included a rape that was alleged to have happened in a basement bathroom at Tabernacle Baptist Church.

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TULSA (OK)
News On 6

Tami Beyersdoerfer, NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma –
The controversy surrounding Victory Christian Center intensified Friday, as the mother of an alleged sexual abuse victim filed a lawsuit against the church, claiming employees willfully concealed allegations of rape on the church campus.

According to the petition, the mother is accusing the megachurch of gross negligence and intentional or reckless infliction of emotional distress, with regard to the way church leaders handled her daughter’s allegation that she was raped on the Victory Christian campus.

The suit claims that Chris Denman, 20, who was arrested and charged with rape and child molestation on September 5, forced the 13-year-old into sexual intercourse and forced her to perform oral sex.

Read the nine-page petition filed by the victim’s mother on Friday.

The mother alleges that the church failed to do a proper investigation into Denman’s background before he was hired to work at the church’s Camp Victory, which is where the mother claims her daughter first met Denman, and then, once notified of the alleged assault, failed to report it to the proper authorities and the parents.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
WFAA

[with video]

by JIM DOUGLAS

Posted on September 21, 2012

FORT WORTH — Bells of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral echoed through downtown Fort Worth at noon Friday, calling parishioners to Mass.

Many arrived with heavy hearts.

“It’s a sad day,” said worshiper Felipa Hernandez. “We love Bishop Vann. Our hearts are with him.”

The news that Pope Benedict XVI has reassigned Bishop Kevin Vann to the Diocese of Orange in southern California had just come in.

In fact, Bishop Vann was already in California as congregants in North Texas lifted prayers for him.

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TULSA (OK)
Tulsa World

[the lawsuit]

By JARREL WADE World Staff Writer
Published: 9/22/2012

The mother of a 13-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by an employee at Victory Christian Center filed a lawsuit against the church Friday claiming church officials blamed the girl for her involvement in an attempted cover-up, court records show.

The lawsuit, filed in Tulsa County District Court, claims the church intentionally inflicted emotional distress by not reporting the alleged crime to police or the victim’s parents for about two weeks after learning of the assault.

“Rather than contacting the appropriate authorities, defendant (Victory Christian Center) chose to conduct its own ‘investigation’ with the ultimate purpose of doing damage control as opposed to protecting” the victim, according to the lawsuit.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram

Bishop Kevin Vann in Fort Worth

May 2005 — Vann, formerly a monsignor in the Springfield, Ill., diocese, is appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to lead the 28-county Fort Worth Diocese, replacing Joseph Delaney, who had been bishop since September 1981.

July 12, 2005 — Delaney, who had been ill for years, dies on the eve of Vann’s ordination as successor.

July 13, 2005 — Vann is installed as third bishop of the dioceses.

February 2006 — The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests delivers a letter to Vann, urging him to call for the Rev. Joseph Tu Ngoc Nguyen’s removal from a Houston parish. Nguyen had formerly worked at an Arlington church, where he was accused of sexual misconduct with six women and girls.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW in Rome

AHEAD OF a brief meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in Castel Gandolfo this morning, Taoiseach Enda Kenny was yesterday unrepentant about his criticism last year of the Holy See’s response to the clerical sex abuse crisis in Ireland.

Complaining in the Dáil about the “dysfunction, disconnection, elitism and narcissism that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day”, Mr Kenny suggested that the Holy See had responded to the sex abuse crisis with the “gimlet eye of a canon lawyer”.

Asked by The Irish Times if he would feel “uncomfortable” when meeting the pope this morning for the first time since the July 2011 speech, the Taoiseach said that he was happy to meet him.

“I think that the matter that I raised in the Dáil in regard to the Catholic Church has been beneficial in the sense that it has brought about a new sense of reality. In my dealings with church authorities since then, there has been a realism and an understanding that the scars of the past have to be dealt with and dealt with fully and that we have to put in place foundations for the future which demonstrate the sense of values that we have for our country and for our peo

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IRELAND
Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE FORMER papal nuncio to Ireland archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi left Dublin and the Vatican’s diplomatic service in 1989 after it emerged there were large amounts of unaccounted for money in three Irish bank accounts belonging to him.

The money is believed to have originated in South America. He had been papal nuncio to Chile from 1961 and led the Chilean delegation to the second Vatican Council, which opened in October 1962.

Dr Alibrandi was papal nuncio to Ireland from 1969 and during his 20 years in the Republic he is believed to have been involved in the appointment of 26 Catholic bishops.

The disclosures about the circumstances of his departure from Ireland and the Vatican’s diplomatic service were disclosed in the Dr Garret FitzGerald Memorial Lecture at UCC last night by Seán Donlon, former secretary general at the department of foreign affairs.

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ORANGE (CA)
The Orange County Register

By DOUG IRVING and DANIEL LANGHORNE / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

ORANGE – The incoming bishop of the Diocese of Orange, a North Texas priest with the Virgin of Guadalupe stitched into his boots, promised to “love you and do my best to serve you” as he was introduced Friday.

Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann will succeed Bishop Tod D. Brown, who turned 75 last year and, following tradition, offered his resignation to the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI announced on Friday that Vann would become the fourth bishop of Orange County’s 36-year-old diocese.

Vann said he sees similarities between Orange County and his diocese in North Texas, especially the fast pace of its growth and its diversity. In introducing him as the new bishop, the Diocese of Orange highlighted his work to encourage immigration reform. He also oversaw the construction in Texas of one of the largest Catholic churches in the nation to serve a Vietnamese congregation.

Vann takes over the tenth-largest and fastest-growing diocese in the country and will oversee the development of the Crystal Cathedral into a Catholic cathedral. He also enters a diocese that has struggled for more than a decade with a clergy sex-abuse scandal.

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OHIO
Bucyrus Telegraph Forum

COLUMBUS — A former area priest has been arrested by Franklin County Sheriff’s Office on sex charges.

Patrick Hughes, also known as Rev. Nicholas Hughes, was arrested Wednesday night. Police said he was arrested by the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children task force on suspicion of attempted rape and attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

Hughes served at Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Mansfield. He had lived at St. Theodore House, a small monastery in Galion. He left there in 2009.

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ORANGE (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

Sep. 21, 2012
By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — Pope Benedict XVI named Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Fort Worth, Texas, 61, to be bishop of Orange, Calif., and accepted the resignation of Bishop Tod D. Brown, 75, who has headed the diocese since 1998.

The pope also accepted the resignation of Bishop Matthew H. Clark of Rochester, N.Y., 75, and named Bishop Robert J. Cunningham of Syracuse, N.Y., 69, as apostolic administrator of the Rochester diocese until a successor to Clark is named and installed.

The appointments were announced Friday in Washington by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Clark celebrated 33 years as Rochester’s bishop and the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination at a special Mass Sept. 16 at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester. When he turned 75 on July 15, he submitted his resignation, as canon law requires for all bishops.

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UNITED STATES
CBS News

By Julia Dahl

(CBS) NEW YORK – The recent revelations that the Boy Scouts of America have spent years covering up sexual abuse reports against their scout leaders came as no surprise to Professor Marci Hamilton.

“Boy Scouts, the Catholic church, the Citadel, Penn State, the Mormon church – it’s all the identical problem,” says Hamilton, a professor at Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University and the author of “God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law.”

“They’ll ignore wrong-doing and bad behavior because it’s in the best interest of the institution not to have bad publicity.”

But the bad publicity has rained down, inserting “pedophile priests” into the lexicon and turning a storied college sports program into a national disgrace. And the tales keep on coming. This week alone, an official at USA Swimming was banned for life from the sport for covering up for a coach who allegedly began a sexual relationship with a swimmer when the girl was 13-years-old; and the leader of a megachurch in Tulsa, Okla. was hit with charges that she knew about sex abuse allegations against former church employees but kept the matter in-house instead of going to police.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A St. Paul parish priest is charged with criminal sexual conduct for allegedly molesting children under the age of 16.

Curtis Carl Wehmeyer, 47, faces three separate counts involving sexual acts on two brothers, now ages 15 and 16.

The criminal complaint says Wehmeyer, then priest at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, abused the boys inside his camper trailer parked in the church parking lot and on a camping trip.

The victims tell prosecutors that during the summer of 2010 Wehmeyer provided them with alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes, showed them pornographic images and videos on his computer then fondled them and masturbated in front of them.

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MINNESOTA
KMSP

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
A St. Paul priest has been charged with sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy over the past two years. Three charges of fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct were filed Thursday against 48-year-old Curtis Wehmeyer following a three-month investigation.

The Church of the Blessed Sacrament learned in June that Reverend Curtis Wehmeyer may have been abusing a boy within the church. The next day the church spoke with the victim, and then contacted St. Paul police who opened an investigation.

According to the criminal complaint, the boy’s mother was the one who reported the alleged abuse to the church on June 21. Wehmeyer was immediately relieved of his duties, and on his way out told the boy’s mother, “(The boy) doesn’t lie. I intend to plead guilty and spare your family the embarrassment.”

The victim, now-14, alleged Wehmeyer gave him alcohol and marijuana and sexually abused him inside a camper parked outside the church. He says his brother was also inside the camper on one occasion, and that Wehmeyer would play pornographic movies and remove his pants.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: DAVID CHANEN , Star Tribune
Updated: September 21, 2012

A St. Paul priest was charged this week with sexually abusing two boys in his camper trailer on the church’s parking lot in 2010.

Curtis Wehmeyer, 47, was arrested in June after one of the boys told his mother. The boys were 12 and 14 at the time of the alleged abuse, according to the criminal complaint filed Thursday in Ramsey County District Court.

Wehmeyer, of Oakdale, was relieved of his duties as pastor at Church of the Blessed Sacrament when he was arrested. The church declined to comment Friday and referred media calls to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Calls there weren’t immediately returned.

According to the complaint: Wehmeyer brought the boys to his trailer, showed them pornography and gave them alcohol and marijuana. He then allegedly would touch their genitals. One of the boys was molested during a camping trip in Aitkin County, the complaint said.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A former pastor at a St. Paul parish is being charged with criminal sexual conduct after he was accused of molesting one boy and exposing himself to another.

A criminal complaint says Curtis Carl Wehmeyer was the parish priest at The Church of the Blessed Sacrament. He was removed from duty in June after church officials learned of the allegations.

According to the complaint, a boy told authorities Wehmeyer abused him throughout the summer of 2010, when he was 12. He said Wehmeyer took him to a camper trailer on church grounds and touched him inappropriately while showing him pornography. The complaint says Wehmeyer also exposed himself to another boy, too.

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ORANGE (CA)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange

The Next Roman Catholic Bishop of Orange Announced: Bishop Kevin W. Vann to Succeed Bishop Tod D. Brown as the Fourth Bishop of Orange

Orange, CA (September 21, 2012) — His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI has announced today that Bishop Kevin W. Vann (61) will succeed Bishop Tod D. Brown as the Bishop of Orange. Bishop Vann, the current Bishop of Fort Worth, Texas, will be installed as the fourth Bishop of Orange in December. Bishop Brown was advised of the new appointment by the Papal Nuncio, the official representative of the Holy See for the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano.

Bishop Brown, who was appointed the Bishop of Orange on the 30th of June 1998, reached the mandatory retirement age last year and completes 14 years of service as the leader of the tenth largest Roman Catholic Diocese in the United States. The Diocese is comprised of 62 parishes and diocesan centers and has a population of 1.2 million Catholics. …

In response to Bishop Vann’s appointment as his successor, Bishop Brown said:

“The Diocese of Fort Worth has enjoyed a dynamic period of growth and the demands for comprehensive pastoral services there are not unlike those we have experienced, here in the Diocese of Orange. Bishop Vann enjoys an enviable record of success and I am exceedingly pleased by his appointment as my episcopal successor.

“While we have accomplished much in the years since I succeeded Bishop Norman MacFarland, including the recent acquisition of the former Crystal Cathedral and its campus, much work remains to be done. This work will require an administrator with proven skills and a spiritual leader with an abundance of faith. Bishop Kevin Vann has these attributes and much more. We are all blessed by his selection and I assure you – that I will do all I can to help make his transition to this important new responsibility enjoyable and productive.

“I plan to address the Diocese sometime soon and to reflect on the journey we have taken together. For now, the news is not about me – it is about our Diocese of Orange stepping into the future with its dynamic new leader.

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ORANGE (CA)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange

[en espanol]

Diocese of Orange, California
21 September 2012

Dear members of the media present today, and all who are here. I am very grateful for your presence and for your welcome. I especially thank Bishop Brown and Msgr. Heher for their wonderful welcome. Bishop Brown and I have known each other for 31 years. He was a priest on the sabbatical program at the North American College in Rome, and I was a newly ordained priest studying canon law. We were in residence at the Casa Santa Maria of the North American College at the time. And, in the same residence, Msgr. Heher and I were studying together during the same time period. When we were younger (!) priests!! And, Bishop Dominic and I have known each other for several years, and he was my guest in Fort Worth last December when we dedicated the new Church of Vietnamese Martyrs in Arlington, Texas, one of the biggest Vietnamese parishes here in the United States. So it is a blessing for me to be with you all here and see familiar faces.

I have learned over the years to try to place each day, every decision in the presence of the Word of God as it starts, to surround me and guide me, and all of us. Today is the feast day of St. Matthew, Apostle and evangelist. The first reading for today’s feast day in the Church’s calendar is from St. Paul to the Ephesians when he says “Brothers and Sisters: I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace: one Body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

I cannot think of a better section of Sacred Scripture for me, for all of us today, to describe to what we are called as the Body of Christ. One of the many blessings I have learned from the HIspanic people is that the Church called by them as the “Family of God”. And, that, I believe with all my heart is who we are: this is what I have learned from my years in Fort Worth, and from what I have learned about all of you so far from Bishop Brown.

You see, when Bishop or a priest is transferred from one parish to another or one Diocese to another, they leave one family behind and gain another. I have so much to be grateful to God for the people of the Diocese of Fort Worth, and north TExas and beyond. I will miss them very much. But, I promise that as we grow together in this exciting and dynamic time of the Diocese of Orange, I will love you and do my best to serve you, with the Lord’s help. That is one thing I learned in Fort Worth, and what I will live here.

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ORANGE (CA)
Patch

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Fort Worth, Texas, to take over the much more populous Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange from Tod D. Brown, who is retiring after 14 years because he has reached the age of 75.

Brown planned to hold a news conference in Orange at 11:30 a.m. Friday to publicly announce his retirement and introduce the 61-year-old Vann, a native of Springfield, Ill., who became bishop in Fort Worth in July 2005 and soon will be Orange’s fourth bishop.

Before attending seminary in 1976, Vann worked as a medical technologist, according to a biography on the Fort Worth diocese’s website.

After taking over the Fort Worth diocese, Vann issued a stinging rebuke of his predecessor, saying Bishop Joseph Delaney’s handling of sex-abuse allegations against priests was a “huge moral failure.”

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CALIFORNIA
Catholic News Agency

By Carl Bunderson

Washington D.C., Sep 21, 2012 / 09:46 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Fort Worth, Texas has been named the fourth bishop of Orange, Calif. by Pope Benedict XVI.

Bishop Vann will succeed Bishop Tod D. Brown, who offered his resignation to Pope Benedict earlier this year upon reaching the age limit of 75.

The appointment and resignation were both announced Sept. 21 in Washington, D.C. by Archbishop Carlo M. Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop Vann will shepherd the nation’s tenth largest and fastest growing diocese.

The diocese’s total population is 3.2 million, of whom 41 percent, or 1.3 million, are Catholic.

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GERMANY
Irish Times

DEREK SCALLY

CATHOLIC BISHOPS in Germany have announced plans to effectively excommunicate believers who refuse to pay the country’s controversial church tax.

The “general decree”, effective from September 24th, excludes non-payers from Communion, Confirmation and Confession or belonging to a Catholic congregation. Catholic funerals will also not be possible “if the person who has left the church has not shown any sign of remorse before death”.

The church says non-payment violates an obligation on its members to make a “financial contribution that allows the church to fulfil its role”.

Germany’s church tax has its origins as compensation for church property seized by state authorities in the early 19th century. Two centuries on, the tax, calculated as up to 8 per cent of income tax, raises approximately €5 billion annually for the Catholic Church; the Lutheran church receives €4 billion. It is collected by the state tax authorities and forwarded on to churches for a handling fee.

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GERMANY
The Australian

The Times
September 22, 2012

ROMAN Catholics in Germany who decline to pay the country’s church tax will be denied communion, confession and a religious burial under moves signed by the Pope that, in effect, excommunicate them.

The decree, issued yesterday by Germany’s bishops and approved by Benedict XVI, seeks to end a long-running dispute over the implications for Germany’s 24.6 million Catholics of opting out from a church tax. It will block churchgoers who choose not to pay the optional levy from becoming godparents or belonging to a Roman Catholic congregation.

The church tax, which is collected by provincial authorities and is between 8 per cent and 9 per cent of income depending on the state collecting it, raises almost €5 billion ($6.2bn) a year.

“The declaration of leaving the church before the competent civil authority … is a deliberate and wilful alienation from the church and is a grave offence against the Christian community,” states the decree, which comes into effect this weekend.

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GERMANY
Reuters

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS | Fri Sep 21, 2012

PARIS (Reuters)- Germany’s Roman Catholic bishops have decreed that people who opt out of a “church tax” should not be given sacraments and religious burials, getting tougher on worshippers who choose not to pay.

Alarmed by a wave of dissenting Catholics quitting the faith, the bishops issued a decree on Thursday declaring such defection “a serious lapse” and listed a wide range of church activities from which they must be excluded.

Germans officially registered as Catholics, Protestants or Jews pay a religious tax of 8 or 9 percent of their annual tax bill. They can avoid this by declaring to their local tax office that they are leaving their faith community.

The annual total of church leavers, usually around 120,000, rocketed to 181,193 two years ago as revelations about decades of sexual abuse of children by priests shamed the hierarchy and prompted an apology from German-born Pope Benedict.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

By Jeff Brush

A former priest at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church in Tariffville was found guilty of a sex assault charge brought against him in 2011.

Reverend Edward Warnakulasuriya, 54, was arrested by the Simsbury Police Department on Aug. 11, 2011 and charged with three counts of fourth degree sexual assault.

A warrant for the arrest of Warnakulasuriya says he touched an 18-year-old male inappropriately after the man had gone to the priest’s residence for confession.

Warnakulasuriya was given a suspended 1-year sentence and 3-years of probation when he appeared before Judge Howard Scheinblum at Enfield Superior Court on Sept. 19.

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KENTUCKY
Daily News

Associated Press

The Kentucky Court of Appeals has rejected an attempt by a Lexington man to withdraw his guilty plea to beating to death a convicted sex offender and retired priest with a pickax.

Judge Michelle M. Keller wrote on Friday that 32-year-old Jason Anthony Russell cannot show he was too incompetent to seek to back out of the agreement with prosecutors within three years of going to prison.

Russell is serving a 30-year sentence at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville. His projected release date is Dec. 12, 2033.

He pleaded guilty in 2005 in Lexington to attacking and killing 78-year-old Joseph Pilger, who previously admitted to abusing four boys in western Kentucky in the 1960s when he was a pastor in Sturgis.

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ORANGE (CA)
Orange County Business Journal

By Jane Yu Friday, September 21, 2012

Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann has been named the new head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange.

Vann will succeed Bishop Tod Brown, who plans to retire in December after 49 years as priest, the last 14 as bishop.

The Diocese of Orange was founded in 1976, when it split from the Los Angeles Archdiocese. It now includes about 1.2 million Catholics here.

Vann has led the Diocese of Fort Worth since 2005. The Texas diocese grew nearly 80% to 710,000 members during his tenure.

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ORANGE (CA)
The Orange County Register

By DOUG IRVING, GREG HARDESTY and DANIEL LANGHORNE / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

BULLETIN:

A Roman Catholic priest in North Texas has been named bishop of the diocese of Orange County, the Associated Press is reporting.

Pope Benedict XVI on Friday announced the appointment of Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann.

The 61-year-old Texas priest takes over for Bishop Tod Brown, who is retiring. Brown is 75.

Vann will be installed in December. He’s led the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth since July 2005. The diocese serves about 710,000 congregants.

——————————

ORANGE – Bishop Tod D. Brown, who has led the Diocese of Orange through explosive growth, historic change and some of the darkest years of its clergy sex-abuse scandal, will announce his retirement on Friday morning.

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ORANGE (CA)
CBS Los Angeles

ORANGE (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest in North Texas has been named bishop of the diocese of Orange, Calif.

Pope Benedict XVI on Friday announced the appointment of Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann.

The 61-year-old Texas priest takes over for Bishop Todd Brown, who is retiring. Brown is 75.

Much of Brown’s tenure was marked by a priest abuse scandal where he agreed to a $100 million settlement for 90 alleged victims.

Vann will be installed in December. He’s led the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth since July 2005. The diocese serves about 710,000 congregants.

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ORANGE COUNTY (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on September 21, 2012

Today, Bishop Kevin Vann of the Diocese of Fort Worth has been promoted to lead the Diocese of Orange County, CA, replacing outgoing Bishop Tod Brown. Neither of these men have been friends to victims; while Brown actively perpetuated cover-ups and allowed abusive priests to remain in ministry, Vann refused to remove abusive priests or to apologize to victims for the cover-ups perpetrated in his diocese.

In 2006, Bishop Vann called a press conference to apologize to abuse victims for their suffering, but refused to acknowledge that cover-ups had gone on or to take steps to ensure that future cover-ups would not take place. Similarly, only last year, repeated his refusal to acknowledge or apologize for cover-ups when a case against Msgr. James Reilly was settled out of court.

In many cases, the covering-up of abuse can be worse than the actual abuse itself, because it allows a predator continued access and chances to turn more innocent kids into victims of sex abuse. The fact that Bishop Vann has repeatedly refused to acknowledge the pain caused by these cover-ups is telling.

It appears that this move, sadly, is garbage-in garbage-out. We would have hoped that the Vatican would have had the sense to promote a cleric that came from a diocese with a cleaner record or who had actually taken steps to oust predators instead of concealing them.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram

By Darren Barbee
dbarbee@star-telegram.com

Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann, who led the diocese through a tumultuous period of gut-wrenching exposure of child abuse, is headed west.

Pope Benedict XVI has named Vann, who saw the Fort Worth diocese expand by nearly 80 percent to 700,000 Roman Catholics, as the new bishop of the Orange, California Catholic Diocese. Vann’s new job starts in December.

Vann, 61, was installed as the bishop on in July 2005 after the death of ailing Bishop Joseph Delaney.

Vann will become the fourth bishop of the Orange Diocese. That diocese has an estimated 1.3 million Catholics.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Verity Edwards
From:The Australian
September 22, 2012

THE Catholic Church has cleared priest Ian Dempsey to return to parish duties, despite an ongoing police sex-crimes investigation into allegations he raped former Traditional Anglican Church primate John Hepworth more than 40 years ago.

This comes as the Director of Public Prosecutions, Adam Kimber, considers whether to lay charges against the priest.

Vicar-General Philip Marshall told The Weekend Australian Monsignor Dempsey’s resumption of ministry was justified on the basis of an independent investigation by Michael Abbott QC last year, which found no substance to allegations made by Archbishop Hepworth. “It was now evident that despite the fact the matter was referred to police as long ago as November 2011, it is obvious that any inquiries by police could take some time to be completed,” Father Marshall said.

“His return to ministry, which is founded on his right to the presumption of innocence, does not contravene any of the church’s policies or any civil requirements, therefore there was no reason for him not to resume his parish duties.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, (VIS) – The Holy Father: …

– Appointed Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Fort Worth, U.S.A., as bishop of Orange in California (area 2,025, population 3,037,000, Catholics 1,291,000, priests 269, permanent deacons 96, religious 412), U.S.A. He succeeds Bishop Tod D. Brown, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

– Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Rochester, U.S.A., presented by Bishop Matthew H. Clark, upon having reached the age limit.

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UNITED STATES
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

WASHINGTON—Pope Benedict XVI has named Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Fort Worth, Texas, 61, to be bishop of Orange, California, and accepted the resignation of Bishop Tod D. Brown, 75, from the pastoral government of the diocese. The pope also accepted the resignation of Bishop Matthew H. Clark of Rochester, New York, 75, from the pastoral governance of the Rochester diocese and named Bishop Robert J. Cunningham of Syracuse, New York, 69, as apostolic administrator of the Rochester diocese until the appointment and installation of a new bishop there.

The appointments were publicized in Washington September 21, by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Kevin Vann was born May 10, 1951, in Springfield, Illinois and was ordained a priest for the diocese of Springfield in 1981. He earned a doctorate in canon law in 1985 from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome. In the Springfield Diocese he served as associate pastor, pastor, and on the staff of the diocesan tribunal. In 2005, he was named coadjutor bishop of Fort Worth, Texas, to succeed Bishop Joseph Delaney, who died one day before Bishop-designate Vann was ordained bishop.

Bishop Brown, a native of San Francisco, was ordained priest of the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno, California, in 1962. He was named bishop of Boise, Idaho in 1988, and Bishop of Orange in 1998.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
Houston Chronicle

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest in North Texas has been named bishop of the diocese of Orange, Calif.

Pope Benedict XVI on Friday announced the appointment of Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann.

The 61-year-old Texas priest takes over for Bishop Todd Brown, who is retiring. Brown is 75.

Vann will be installed in December. He’s led the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth since July 2005. The diocese serves about 710,000 congregants.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The trial of Paolo Gabriele and IT technician Claudio Sciarpelletti begins on 29 September. The two stand trial for their alleged involvement in the Vatican document leak scandal

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

The President of the Tribunal of Vatican City State, Giuseppe Dalla Torre has issued a decree “ruling that the first hearing of the trial of Paolo Gabriele and Claudio Sciarpelletti, will take place at 9.30 a.m. on 29 September. The two accused were sent for trial by the examining magistrate on 13 August,” a statement released by the Holy See Press Office states.

“The hearing – the statement adds – will take place in the audience hall of the Tribunal of Vatican City State. The parties concerned have been notified of the decree.”

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ORANGE (CA)
Whispers in the Loggia

Over recent years, it’s hard to think of a national project on which Bishop Kevin Vann hasn’t been intimately involved.

From serving on the three-member USCCB team that oversaw the Stateside implementation of Anglicanorum coetibus and mediating the bench’s oft-delicate relations with the nation’s Catholic hospitals, to filing suit against the Federal government over the contraceptive mandate of the Obama administration’s sweeping health-care reform, the 61 year-old prelate has cris-crossed considerably more ecclesial turf than the sprawling 28 counties of Northwest Texas he’s overseen since 2005.

Now, however, the latest task comes via Rome… and given its centerpiece, well, it’s worth its weight in Crystal.

This morning, the Pope named the energetic head of the booming Fort Worth church to lead the diocese of Orange, succeeding Bishop Tod Brown at the helm of the 1.3 million-member fold in Los Angeles’ southern suburbs.

Barring an expedited succession in Chicago – the nation’s third-largest diocese, where Cardinal Francis George, 75, is undergoing a fresh round of treatment for a recurrence of cancer – the move will be 2012’s most significant handover of an American see in terms of size.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Il Santo Padre ha accettato la rinuncia al governo pastorale della diocesi di Orange in California (U.S.A.), presentata da S.E. Mons. Tod D. Brown, in conformità al can. 401 § 1 del Codice di Diritto Canonico.

Il Papa ha nominato Vescovo di Orange in California (U.S.A.) S.E. Mons. Kevin William Vann, finora Vescovo di Fort Worth (U.S.A.).

S.E. Mons. Kevin William Vann

S.E. Mons. Kevin William Vann è nato a Springfield (Illinois) il 10 maggio 1951. Dopo aver frequentato la Saint Agnes School e la Griffin High School, ha conseguito il Baccellierato in “Tecnologia Medica” alla Millikin University a Decatur (Illinois). Diventato seminarista nel 1976, ha frequentato l’Immaculate Conception Diocesan Seminary a Springfield e poi il Kenrick Seminary a Saint Louis (Missouri). Successivamente ha ottenuto il Dottorato in Diritto Canonico presso l’Angelicum a Roma.

Ordinato sacerdote per la diocesi di Springfield in Illinois il 30 maggio 1981, ha svolto gli incarichi di Vice Parroco della Blessed Sacrament Parish a Springfield (1985-1990); Difensore del Vincolo (1985-1994); Giudice del Tribunale di Appello per la Provincia ecclesiastica di Chicago (1985-1994); Amministratore parrocchiale della Saint Mary Parish a Pittsfield, della Holy Redeemer Parish a Barry e della Holy Family Parish a Greggsville (1989-1990); Parroco della Saint Benedict Parish a Auburn (1990-1992) con responsabilità di Amministratore parrocchiale della Saint Mary Parish a Pawnee (1991); Parroco della Our Lady of Lourdes Parish a Decatur (1992-2001) con responsabilità di Amministratore parrocchiale dell’Our Lady of the Holy Spirit a Mt. Zion (1995), della Saint Isidore Parish a Bethany e della Sacred Heart Parish a Dalton City (1995-1997); Vicario foraneo (1996-2001); Incaricato del Vescovo per la pastorale agli ispanici della diocesi di Springfield (1999-2005); Vicario per il Clero e Parroco della Blessed Sacrament Parish (2001-2005).

Nominato Vescovo Coadiutore di Fort Worth (Texas) il 17 maggio 2005, è succeduto a tale Sede il 12 luglio 2005 ed ha ricevuto la consacrazione episcopale il 13 luglio successivo.

Nel seno della Conferenza Episcopale è Membro del Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance e del Committee on Migration. Inoltre, è l’Episcopal Liaison alla Catholic Health Association.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

THE Catholic Church has admitted it failed victims of sexual abuse, and says it has upheld 620 cases of criminal child abuse by clergy in the past 16 years.

Four Victorian dioceses combined to make a submission to a State Government inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other non-government organisations.

Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart said in a statement the submission, titled Facing the Truth, was open about the church’s failings.

“In Facing the Truth we have been open about the horrific abuse that has occurred in Victoria and elsewhere,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
CathNews

The Catholic Church in Victoria will today lodge the Church’s submission, titled Facing the Truth, to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Non-Government Organisations, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, announced in a media release.

“We will co-operate fully with the Inquiry, and in Facing the Truth, we have been open about the horrific abuse that has occurred in Victoria and elsewhere,” Archbishop Hart said.

“Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has caused deep concern among Catholics and the wider community. It is shameful and shocking that this abuse, with its dramatic impact on those who were abused and their families, was committed by Catholic priests, religious and church workers.

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AUSTRALIA
Failed Messiah

Melbourne Jewry’s roof body, the JCCV, has submitted a self-serving report to a Victorian Parliamentary committee regarding the steps it claims to have taken to combat child sexual abuse and to properly handle allegations of these crimes when they do occur. But a submission made by Jewish alleged victims of these crimes at Chabad’s Yeshivah Centre shows the depth of the child sexual abuse problem in that segment of the Jewish community – including reporting coverups of child rape and sexual abuse carried out by Chabad’s leaders. It also helps to expose the JCCV’s lack of action and its unethical handling of its most senior staff member, now just resigned, who is sleeping with a convicted pedophile. Here are both reports.

Note that many of JCCV’s activities detailed in their submission do not appear to have gone much further than issuing the press releases. Also note that from what I’ve heard over the years from many of the contacts I have in Melbourne, including alleged victims in the Chabad child sex abuse scandal and people close to victims in the Adass scandal from a few years ago, the JCCV did not really follow through on its promises to help victims through its constituent organizations.

The JCCV also had, until last month, an executive director who was sleeping with David Cyprys.

Cyprys is accused of raping and molesting at least 12 children in Chabad’s Yeshivah Centre and/or in related programs. But he also pleaded guilty before this having inappropriate sexual contact with a child. He was allowed to pay a fine and have a conditional release – orchestrated, I’m told, by senior members of the Chabad community.

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AUSTRALIA
Truthdive

Sydney, Sept 21 (ANI): A Catholic Church in Melbourne has admitted it failed to extend support to victims of sexual abuse, and admitted that it was ‘too slow to react’ to the complaints of abuse.

Four Victorian dioceses made a report in response to a Victorian State Government inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other non-government organisations.

According to the Herald Sun, Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart said in a statement the report, titled Facing the Truth, was open about the church’s failings.

“In Facing the Truth we have been open about the horrific abuse that has occurred in Victoria and elsewhere,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne

The Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, announced on behalf of the leaders of the Catholic Church in Victoria that today they would lodge the Church’s submission, Facing the Truth, to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Non-Government Organisations.

“We will co-operate fully with the Inquiry, and in Facing the Truth we have been open about the horrific abuse that has occurred in Victoria and elsewhere.

“Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has caused deep concern among Catholics and the wider community. It is shameful and shocking that this abuse, with its dramatic impact on those who were abused and their families, was committed by Catholic priests, religious and church workers.
“In our submission we discuss the Church’s commitment to caring for children, the failures of the Church, and the developments in society’s and the Church’s understanding of the pernicious nature of paedophilia. It includes a detailed chronology from 1961 to today of such developments in the English speaking world.

“The Church, both internationally and in Australia, has continued to review and refine its processes, procedures, and practices. We put the child first, and our refined measures promote the protection of children.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Ballarat

[with audio]

Father Shane Mackinlay says the Catholic Church of Victoria’s submission to a parliamentary inquiry, which will look into how the church handled child abuse allegations, admits its failure to respond to complaints. The church says it is now facing the truth.

The Catholic Church of Victoria has submitted a document titled ‘Facing the Truth’ to the state parliamentary inquiry into the handling of alleged criminal abuse of children by religious and other organisations.

It says the submission talks about the clergy’s commitment to caring for children and acknowledges its past failures.

A submission co-signed by 32 Ballarat victims details a long list of physical and sexual abuse at the hand of the church.

Father Shane Mackinlay of the Ballarat Diocese admits that the church had its “head in the sand” for a long time.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Danny Morgan

The Catholic Church in Victoria has confirmed 620 cases of child sexual abuse by clergy since the 1930s.

It is the first time the church has publicly released the figure.

In a submission to a Victorian Parliamentary inquiry, the church revealed the cases of criminal child abuse have been upheld by its own complaint procedure.

It says the cases go back 80 years, but the vast majority relate to abuse in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

Most of the cases reported came from Ballarat and Mortlake, in regional Victoria, and Oakleigh and Rupertswood.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

By Charisse Ede
From: AAP
September 21, 2012

THE Catholic Church in Victoria says it has upheld more than 600 cases of criminal child abuse by clergy in the past 16 years.

The church says the incidence of abuse has fallen dramatically since “appalling” numbers in the 1960s and 1970s and it has received very few complaints of abuse that has taken place since 1990.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart said sexual abuse in the Catholic Church was “shameful and shocking” and the church would fully co-operate with a Victorian parliamentary inquiry on child abuse.

He said the church’s inquiry submission, Facing the Truth, acknowledged the suffering endured by children who had been in the church’s care and the church renewed its apology to them.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

September 21, 2012

Barney Zwartz

The Catholic Church in Victoria today admitted that it had upheld 620 cases of criminal child abuse by clergy in the past 16 years.

Most of the cases were before 1990, some dating back to the 1930s, the church said in a statement about its submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by churches and non-government organisations.

As the church has earlier said it had upheld some 330 cases via the Melbourne Response protocol it launched in 1996, this suggests that the other Victorian dioceses of Ballarat, Sale and Sandhurst (Bendigo) have upheld nearly 300 complaints. This figure has not been released before.

Submissions to the inquiry close today, and public hearings are expected to begin early next month.

The four Victorian dioceses have combined to make one submission, titled Facing the Truth, signed by Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, Ballarat Bishop Peter Connors, Sale Bishop Christopher Prowse and Sandhurst Bishop Les Tomlinson, plus the state and national heads of Catholic Religious Orders, Sister Helen Toohey and Sister Annette Cunliffe respectively.

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TULSA (OK)
KSWO

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – Tulsa police have arrested a second suspect as an investigation continues into allegations of sexual abuse by former employees at a south Tulsa megachurch.

Police say 23-year-old Israel Shalom Castillo, a former employee at Victory Christian Center, surrendered at the Tulsa County Jail on Thursday morning. He was booked on allegations of making a lewd or indecent proposal to a minor and using a computer to commit a sex crime.

His next court date is Sept. 28 and jail records did not list whether he had an attorney.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Bill Rodgers / Journal Staff Writer
on Fri, Sep 21, 2012

Parents brought their sons to a church program hoping that they would grow in their faith, but the boys instead got the “nightmare of their lives,” said state District Court Judge Michael Vigil.

Vigil heard from two families whose young boys were sexually abused by 36-year-old Anthony Martinez of Santa Fe while he was a youth program volunteer at Santa Maria de la Paz Catholic Church. The father of one victim told Vigil his son, a “loving child with much faith in the Lord,” went from being a good student and athlete to being withdrawn, depressed and suicidal because of Martinez’s actions.

Before sentencing Martinez to the maximum 15-year penalty available under a plea deal for two different sex crime cases, Vigil told the families that he hopes their children can heal.

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TULSA (OK)
WPEC

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS Associated Press

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A 17,000-member megachurch in south Tulsa has been rattled by allegations that five employees waited two weeks to report the rape of a 13-year-old girl in a campus stairwell, allegedly by a church worker.

Police say the girl is among at least three victims of alleged sex crimes by two former employees of Victory Christian Center who face criminal charges. Investigators say more could surface.

Authorities have also charged five ministry employees for waiting two weeks before reporting to police the alleged rape of the 13-year-old.

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KENTUCKY
Herald-Leader

By Valarie Honeycutt Spears — vhoneycutt@herald-leader.com

A former youth leader at Southland Christian Church’s Danville campus is accused of sending sexual emails and text messages to a 15-year-old girl he met through church.

Jonathan David Hall, 29, of Danville was charged with unlawful use of electronic means to induce a minor to engage in sexual activities.

Hall was arrested Tuesday by the Kentucky State Police Electronic Crime Branch as part of an undercover Internet Crimes Against Children investigation, state police said Thursday in a news release.

Police said a search of Hall’s home uncovered nude photos of what appeared to be juvenile girls. Those girls apparently live in at least three other states, police said. The investigation is continuing, and additional charges are pending.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott kmellott@tribdem.com

BEDFORD — A Bedford County jury began deliberations late Thursday evening in the sexual assault case of a traveling preacher charged in the April 2, 2009, molestation of an 11-year-old girl.

The Rev. Walter Bradshaw, 63, of Lexington, N.C., faces 24 charges related to the sexual abuse of the girl, now, 15, who along with her mother was befriended by the minister while he was preaching at the Alum Bank God’s Missionary Church.

Bradshaw, a carpenter by trade who conducted revival services for years throughout Pennsylvania, including the Cambria-Somerset region, stopped in Bedford the day of the alleged abuse to visit with the girl and her mother, according to his testimony.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Church

The sentencing hearing for a former Southern Baptist evangelist convicted of video voyeurism offered a rare public glimpse into the emotional, marital and spiritual impact suffered by victims of sexual abuse by clergy.

News analysis by Bob Allen

Women secretly videotaped while showering or in front of a bathroom vanity in the home of a popular Southern Baptist evangelist compared the experience to rape, while young husbands described anger at being betrayed by a friend they considered a brother in ministry Sept. 14 in a courtroom in Hernando, Miss.

Sammy NuckollsSammy Nuckolls, 33, a former traveling evangelist popular at youth events including summer camps sponsored by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and more than $80,000 in fines and restitution after being found guilty on 13 counts of video voyeurism.

Nuckolls was arrested last October while staying in a private home in Gosnell, Ark., during a local church revival where he was preaching. His hostess discovered a hidden camera spy pen set up in a bathroom to photograph her as she prepared to shower.

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AUSTRALIA
Christian Today

Friday, 21 September 2012

The Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, announced on behalf of the leaders of the Catholic Church in Victoria that today they would lodge the Church’s submission, Facing the Truth, to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Non-Government Organisations.

“We will co-operate fully with the Inquiry, and in Facing the Truth we have been open about the horrific abuse that has occurred in Victoria and elsewhere.

“Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has caused deep concern among Catholics and the wider community. It is shameful and shocking that this abuse, with its dramatic impact on those who were abused and their families, was committed by Catholic priests, religious and church workers.

“In our submission we discuss the Church’s commitment to caring for children, the failures of the Church, and the developments in society’s and the Church’s understanding of the pernicious nature of paedophilia. It includes a detailed chronology from 1961 to today of such developments in the English speaking world.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Catholic Church admits it failed sex abuse victims, in submission to Victorian Government inquiry

THE Catholic Church has admitted it failed victims of sexual abuse, and says it has upheld 620 cases of criminal child abuse by clergy in the past 16 years.

Four Victorian dioceses combined to make a submission to a State Government inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other non-government organisations.

Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart said in a statement the submission, titled Facing the Truth, was open about the church’s failings.

“In Facing the Truth we have been open about the horrific abuse that has occurred in Victoria and elsewhere,” he said.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Sheila Sanchez

The brother of the late Los Gatos Jesuit priest Jim Chevedden held a news conference in front of the San Jose Hall of Justice Wednesday at noon to announce a $5,000 reward for any information about his death.

John Chevedden says his brother’s demise, which San Jose Police said was a suicide after he jumped from the third story of the parking structure across from the courthouse on Hedding Street, is suspicious enough to reopen the investigation.

Jim Chevedden died in May 19, 2004 on his 56th birthday and according to his brother was coincidentally driven to the courthouse on that fateful day for jury duty by Father Jerold Lindner, the cleric who was beat up in May of 2010 by one of his alleged victims of abuse. That man, William Lynch, was acquitted on July 5 of felony assault and elder abuse of Lindner.

Now John Chevedden wants the San Jose Police Department to open the investigation into his brother’s death and is asking the California Province of
the Society of Jesus, headquartered in Los Gatos in a large compound at 300 College Ave., to turn over any records and documents related to the death to the authorities.

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NORTH DAKOTA
The New York Times

By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS

Published: September 19, 2012

SPIRIT LAKE INDIAN RESERVATION, N.D. — The man who plays Santa Claus here is a registered child sex offender and a convicted rapist. One of the brothers of the tribal chairman raped a child, and a second brother sexually abused a 12-year-old girl. They are among a number of men convicted of sex crimes against children on this remote home of the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe, which has among the highest proportion of sex offenders in the country.

Federal officials are now moving to take over the tribe’s social service programs, according to members of the tribe, government officials and documents. The action comes after years of failure by government and tribal law enforcement officials to conduct proper investigations of dozens of cases of child sexual abuse, including rape.

While members of the tribe say that sexual violence against children on the reservation is common and barely concealed, the reasons for the abuse here are poorly understood, though poverty and alcohol are thought to be factors. The crimes are rarely prosecuted, few arrests are made, and people say that because of safety fears and law enforcement’s lack of interest, they no longer report even the most sadistic violence against children. In May 2011, a 9-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother were killed on the reservation after being raped and sodomized.

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NORTH DAKOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on September 20, 2012

It’s heartbreaking to learn of the extent of child sex crimes at Sprit Lake Indian Reservation in North Dakota and the woefully inadequate response to it from authorities.

Poverty, discrimination and historic maltreatment by governmental figures in no way excuses child sex crimes and cover ups. While we sympathize with Native Americans who have been neglected and oppressed in many ways, we sympathize even more with their children, especially those at Spirit Lake, whose innocence has been shattered while police, prosecutors and federal officials have moved slowly and ineffectively to stop these heinous crimes.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on September 20, 2012

We are grateful to police for pursuing these charges. It is sad that with the advent of modern technology, the reach of child predators has grown exponentially. Because of the easy access to children that the internet provides, we urge parents to be careful to monitor their children’s online activity and report any suspicious messages or conversations to secular authorities.

We hope that the church officials at The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Columbus, OH will immediately and aggressively seek out others in their congregation who may have seen, suspected, or suffered crimes at the hands of Fr. Patrick Nicholas Hughes. The fact that Fr. Hughes was allegedly setting up meetings with these boys leads us to believe that there may be others who were contacted by him.

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POLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on September 20, 2012

We are deeply concerned over photographs showing an “initiation” ritual posted on the St. Dominika Savio Silesian School’s website. No matter what you call it, the pictures are clearly showing inappropriate behaviour with minors.

We applaud Polish officials for getting in an uproar over the pictures and launching an investigation.

Father Marcin Kozyra, who is head of the school and shown in the photos, insisted that there is nothing wrong with the pictures. According to him it is a long running tradition at the school and no one has ever complained before.

Just because no one has ever complained, does not mean it is not abuse. We demand the Fr. Kozyra be fired from his position and a full investigation started.

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ORANGE (CA)
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on September 20, 2012

From my SNAP statement:

Today, the Diocese of Orange has announced the retirement of Orange County, California Bishop Tod D. Brown. We will learn the name of his successor tomorrow.

Simply put: we are grateful to see him go. Why? The facts of his tenure are shocking for victims of abuse, Catholics and the Orange County community.

For more than ten years, Brown cultivated an environment that fostered and rewarded the cover-up of clergy abuse. Need some examples? Since he became Bishop of Orange, he:

– Sent his former highest ranking priest out of the country to avoid a sex abuse and cover-up deposition and then faced criminal contempt of court charges,

– Used an over-priced PR stunt to announce “reforms” in his diocese – reforms that he never took seriously,

– Kept numerous priests in ministry who had been accused of abuse, and then removed them in events that deceived parishioners and shamed victims about the true nature of the abuse,

– Currently keeps an accused priest in ministry, even transferring him to a wealthy south county parish without giving complete information to parishioners, and

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.comtwincities.com
Posted: 09/20/2012

An Oakdale priest has been charged with criminal sexual conduct involving a 12-year-old boy.

The boy reported to his mother that Curtis Carl Wehmeyer, 47, pastor of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul, had been sexually abusing him in a camper trailer in the church parking lot, according to a criminal complaint.

The priest owned the trailer.

Church officials went to the rectory June 21 after the mother called police and “advised defendant that he was immediately relieved of his duties and instructed to leave the premises,” said the complaint, filed late Thursday, Sept. 20, in Ramsey County District Court.

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OHIO
The New York Times

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Published: September 20, 2012

Samuel Mullet Sr., the domineering leader of a renegade Amish sect, and 15 of his followers were convicted of federal conspiracy and hate crimes Thursday for a series of bizarre beard- and hair-cutting attacks last fall that spread fear through the Amish of eastern Ohio.

The convictions of Mr. Mullet, along with several relatives and others from his settlement who carried out the assaults, could bring lengthy prison terms. The verdicts were a vindication for federal prosecutors, who made a risky decision to apply a 2009 federal hate-crimes law to the sect’s violent efforts to humiliate Amish rivals.

Defense lawyers in the case and an independent legal expert had argued that the government was overreaching by turning a personal vendetta within the Amish community, and related attacks, into a federal hate-crimes case. But the jury accepted the prosecutors’ description of the attacks as an effort to suppress the victims’ practice of religion, finding Mr. Mullet and the other defendants guilty on nearly all the multiple charges they faced of conspiracy, hate crimes and obstruction of justice.

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ORANGE (CA)
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano
Thu., Sep. 20 2012

Just got word that tomorrow, Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown is going to announce his retirement, and his successor will also be named.

HELL YA! ABOUT DAMN TIME!!!

This represents only the second good thing Brown has done in his 14 years heading Orange County Catholics–the first, of course, being his decision to buy the Crystal Cathedral instead of building a $100 million cathedral up the street from South Coast Plaza.

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ORANGE (CA)
Times-Standard

The Associated Press
Created: 09/20/2012

ORANGE, Calif.—The bishop of the Diocese of Orange is retiring after 14 years as head of the nation’s 10th largest Roman Catholic diocese.

Bishop Tod D. Brown will introduce his successor at a news conference Friday.

Brown was ordained in 1963 and installed as Bishop of Orange in 1998.

As head of the 1.2-million person Orange County diocese, Brown oversaw a $100 million settlement to victims of sexual abuse in 2004.

At the time, the settlement was the largest ever.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

CONTACT: Peter Isely SNAP Midwest Director, 414.429.7259 , John Pilmaier SNAP Wisconsin Director, 414.336.8575

In what is being called by critics as an “explosive” new documentary by Oscar winning filmmaker Alex Gibney about child sex crimes and cover up in the Catholic Church, “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” will make its US premier October 5 at the Milwaukee Film Festival.

The film (see trailer) will be shown at the Oriental Theater Friday October 5th at 7:00 p.m. Information about purchasing tickets can be found online at the Milwaukee Film Festival website. HBO is scheduled to air the documentary on cable next year.

Gibney’s film alternates between the story of child sex crimes by Fr. Lawrence Murphy at Milwaukee’s St. John’s School for the Deaf, the cover up of those crimes by the Vatican and officials at the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and the vast, unfolding dimensions and implications resulting from the still continuing revelations of tens of thousands of such crimes from around the globe.

Critics are calling the film “chilling”, “eye-opening” and “a powerful movie which could galvanize audiences “around the world.” Variety says the film weaves” a “meticulously researched” and “staggering arsenal” of interviews, documents, and archival materials into a “uniquely devastating account of priestly pedophilia into an excoriating indictment of the entire Vatican power structure.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

Date:
20 Sep 2012

Exclusive

Garry O’Sullivan

There is growing pressure from influential political and Church figures to stall an attempt by the Irish bishops and religious congregations to let Ian Elliott step down next summer this newspaper can reveal. Mr Elliott is CEO of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) whose shareholders and funders are the bishops’ conference, the Conference of Religious in Ireland (Cori) and the Irish Missionary Union (IMU).

Earlier this month questions were raised about the continuation of Mr Elliot’s contract beyond next summer – Mr Elliot reaches retirement age – but the Chairman of the Board John Morgan refused to say whether it would be renewed or not.

However The Irish Catholic has learned that there has been pressure brought to bear on the Board by some at shareholder level to ensure that Mr Elliot would step down as CEO next summer and his contract would not be renewed. This paper has also learned that there is a growing political consensus North and South that Mr Elliot should continue in the job and this view has been communicated informally to the Board.

Adding her voice to this consensus, Baroness Nuala O’Loan writing in this newspaper asks why Mr Elliot’s age is cited as a reason to seek his retirement when bishops and many who hold high office in Ireland are much older than him, and concludes that his age is immaterial given his record. She writes: “The question must be asked: Why is Mr Elliott’s contract not going to be renewed to enable him to finish the audit of the dioceses and religious congregations?

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OHIO
NBC4

By: Alex Mazer | NBC4

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus Priest was arrested Wednesday evening for soliciting sex from a minor online, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.

Patrick Hughes, 56, has been arrested by the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force for attempted rape and attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

Detectives say the investigation began early Wednesday morning after Hughes posted an ad on an adult social networking site. The nature of the ad indicated he was looking for sexual relations with children. A detective responded to the ad and began communicating with Hughes.

During the conversation, Hughes believed he was setting up a meeting with two young boys, ages 9 and 14, to engage in sexual activity, according to the sheriff’s office.

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POLSKA
Gazeta

Marzena Żuchowicz

Musimy bardzo intensywnie pracować nad tym, by dzieci w Polsce zaczęły zdawać sobie sprawę z tego, że autorytet nie może sobie pozwolić na wszystko – uważa rzecznik praw dziecka Marek Michalak

Zdjęcia z otrzęsin pierwszoklasistów z Gimnazjum Salezjanów w Lubinie obiegły internet i wywołały oburzenie. Widać na nich ks. Marcina Kozyrę, dyrektora szkoły, siedzącego w krótkich spodenkach i klęczące przed nim dzieci. Na kolanach ksiądz ma bitą śmietanę (niektórzy uczniowie podają, że był to krem do golenia), a dzieci są w pozach, które sugerują, że ją zlizują. Buzie mają umazane pianą. O sprawie pisaliśmy w “Gazecie” w środę i w czwartek. Sprawą zajęły się kuratorium i prokuratura. Ks. Marcin Kozyra przyznał, że rytuał dotykania przez dzieci ustami piany na jego nogach to szkolna tradycja – forma hołdu oddawanego mu podczas otrzęsin. “Do tej pory nikt nie zgłaszał zastrzeżeń” – tłumaczył.

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POLSKA
Gazeta Wroctawska

Ewa Chojna

Skandal w Salezjańskim Gimnazjum im. Dominika Savio w Lubinie. Na wyjeździe integracyjnym przed rozpoczęciem roku szkolnego uczniowie pierwszych klas zlizywali bitą śmietanę z kolan księdza Marcina Kozyry, dyrektora tej szkoły.

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POLAND
New York Daily News

Polish police in a lather over creepy ‘initiation’ photos showing teens licking whipped cream off priest’s knees

By Corky Siemaszko AND Philip Caulfield / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Polish authorities have launched a probe about a possible perv priest after photos surfaced showing teenage boys and girls licking whipped cream off his knees during a bizarre “initiation ceremony.”

The priest’s school, however, doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.

The creepy snapshots were taken during an initiation ceremony for freshmen at St. Dominika Savio Silesian School in Lubin, southeast Poland.

The shots show a group of boys and girls on all fours – some of them in cat make-up – taking turns licking white foamy cream off Father Marcin Kozyra’s knobby knees.

In one set, Kozyra is sitting in a battered armchair with a rod across his lap.

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ORANGE (CA)
The Orange County Register

By DOUG IRVING / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

ORANGE – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange has scheduled a press conference on Friday morning to announce the retirement of Bishop Tod D. Brown and to announce his successor.

Brown has served as bishop for 14 years. The diocese described him in a brief press advisory as instrumental in the recent decision to buy the Crystal Cathedral and rename it Christ Cathedral. But Brown has also been dogged in recent years by the Catholic Church’s child sex-abuse scandal, and questions about what he knew.

Brown’s successor will be introduced at the press conference, scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. Friday, according to the diocese. He will oversee a diocese of 1 million Catholics, the 10th-largest and fastest-growing in the nation.

The diocese declined further comment beyond what was in its brief press advisory.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia archdiocesan officials said a new round of civil lawsuits filed Sept. 18 “are not the best mechanism to promote healing in the context of the very private and difficult circumstances of sexual abuse.”

“We have not received copies of the cases that the plaintiffs have said they intend to file, so we cannot provide more detailed information on those particular lawsuits at this time,” said a brief statement posted on the archdiocesan website the same day.

“We will work to assure all victims of sexual abuse receive appropriate assistance,” the statement said.

A total of nine plaintiffs filed eight lawsuits against the archdiocese and its priests, according to an Associated Press story. The plaintiffs claim the Philadelphia Archdiocese covered up abuse allegations made against seven priests decades ago.

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NEW YORK
Catholic Online

[with video]

A former Bronx priest is suing the Archdiocese of New York for libel. Charles Kavanaugh was accused of sexual abuse by a teenage boy who later admitted he made up the allegations. However, Kavanaugh says the archdiocese persisted in libeling him anyway.

NEW YORK, NY (Catholic Online) – Specifically, Kavanaugh was convicted in a secret court trial of the misconduct and stripped of his position, despite the recantation. Later, the Archdiocese repeated the allegations in a press release.

The allegations against Kavanaugh were made in 2002 by Daniel Donohoe, who said the priest jumped into a bed with him and rubbed against him. He also claimed Kavanaugh held his hands during prayer in a manner that made him feel uncomfortable.

However, the now-adult Donohoe has recanted his allegations saying, “The statement was not true and I apologize for it.” The apology was submitted to a federal court in a sworn statement.

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OHIO
10TV

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children Unit is investigating a central Ohio priest accused of soliciting sex.

According to the ICAC Unit, Father Patrick Nicholas Hughes is accused of trying to meet two underage boys to engage in a sex act.

Hughes, a priest at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church on North High Street, was arrested on Wednesday and is currently jailed on $100,000 bond.

Hughes is charged with two felony counts of attempted rape.

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CALIFORNIA
Loyolan

Posted: Monday, September 17, 2012

by Editorial Board

Transparency. It’s a common theme in Loyolan board editorials about the University’s actions. But the current Loyolan staff has never been more serious in its call for transparency than now.

News broke last Tuesday, Sept. 11, that Brother William Farrington, S.J. – who worked at LMU for 15 years, from 1987 to 2002 – has been accused of sexually molesting a former student at San Jose’s Bellarmine College Preparatory and of “improprieties” involving two former students at Jesuit High School near Sacramento – both schools that Farrington worked at prior to arriving at LMU (See “Jesuit accused of sexual molestation spent 15 years working at LMU,” Page 1). Although no lawsuit has been or is currently filed against Farrington, both Bellarmine Prep and Jesuit High’s presidents have called the accusations “credible.”

Both schools made sure to inform hundreds of alumni who attended during Farrington’s tenure, urging anyone who may have been abused by Farrington to come forward. Both presidents wrote letters about the situation, apologizing for the potential harm done. Spokesman for Jesuit High School Jordan Blair is quoted in the Sept. 12 Sacramento Bee article “Ex-Jesuit High teacher accused of inappropriate conduct with student” as saying, “We are acting with full transparency. … We wanted to make sure this information was out there.”

When the Loyolan asked LMU’s Vice President for Communications and Government Relations Kathleen Flanagan whether the University would follow suit, she said, “As far as I know, there was nothing that happened at LMU, so there would be no reason to do it.”

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UGANDA
The Africa Report

Parents and children rights organisations in Uganda have urged the authorities to act following an upsurge in cases of sexual abuse of minors.

The African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) said it had received 17 cases of minors who were raped in just two weeks.

According to the country’s annual crime and traffic safety report for 2011 7,690 cases of rape were recorded that year.

“If we are to go by the police statistics, at least 21 children are defiled everyday in Uganda,” said Marlon Agaba, an ANPPCAN information officer. “These reported cases are however a tip of an iceberg as many cases aren’t reported due to a multiplicity of factors.”

“One absurd case is of a seven year old girl who was defiled and her uterus damaged, she is currently recovering at a Kampala Hospital.”

“Another case is one involving a Pastor in Mukono who was caught in a lodge with a 17 year old girl.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

Sep. 20, 2012
By Daniel Burke and David Gibson, Religion News Service

In a surprise announcement that seemed scripted by the novelist Dan Brown, a Harvard professor revealed an ancient scrap of papyrus Tuesday that purports to refer to Jesus’ wife.

The so-called “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” presents a dialogue between Jesus and his disciples, said Karen King, a well-respected historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School.

The fourth-century fragment says, “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …,'” according to King. The rest of the sentence is cut off. The fragment also says “she will be able to be my disciple,” according to King.

The discovery that some ancient Christians thought Jesus had a wife could shake up centuries-old Christian traditions, King suggested.

But even King acknowledged that questions remain about the receipt-sized scrap, which contains just 33 words and incomplete sentences. Here are five of the biggest questions.

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POLAND
The Sun (United Kingdom)

A POLISH Catholic priest has been forced to defend himself after pictures emerged of children licking cream off his legs.

The photos show an “initiation ceremony” at the Salesians’ high school in Lubin, southern Poland.

In them 13 year-old pupils, both male and female, are seen licking whipped cream off a priest’s bare knees as well crawling up a flight of stairs.

The priest in the images, who is the school’s principal, has defended his actions by saying such ceremonies for first year pupils have been an annual event for many years.

Adding that no one has ever complained, he said he saw nothing wrong in his actions.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

Opfer erheben Vorwürfe wegen sexuellem Missbrauch in einem katholischen Kinderheim in Rüdesheim. Die Kirche sieht dafür jedoch keinen „zweifelsfreien Beweis“.

Das Bistum Limburg kennt fünf Personen, die den Vorwurf erheben, vor Jahrzehnten im katholischen Kinderheim St. Vincenzstift in Rüdesheim-Aulhausen sexuell missbraucht worden zu sein. Das teilte Bistumssprecher Martin Wind der Frankfurter Rundschau auf Anfrage mit. Diese Menschen hätten sich beim Missbrauchsbeauftragten des Bistums, Guido Amend, gemeldet.

Ob sie tatsächlich Opfer von Übergriffen geworden seien, könne aber nicht „im Sinne eines zweifelsfreien Beweises der Vorwürfe“ aufgeklärt werden, teilte Wind mit. Dieser Beweis könne „schon deswegen nicht erfolgen, weil der Hauptbeschuldigte, der ehemalige Leiter des Stiftes, Müller, seit 1970 nicht mehr am Leben“ sei.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

Die deutschen Bischöfe haben Sanktionen für Kirchenaustritte beschlossen: Wer keine Kirchensteuer zahlt, wird faktisch exkommuniziert. Die Oberhirten reagieren mit klarer Kante auf ein heikles Thema. Von Lucas Wiegelmann

Die Frage ist so alt wie das Christentum selbst. Schon die Apostel Petrus und Paulus haben sich darüber in die Haare bekommen. Und wenn es stimmt, was im Katechismus steht, dann wird diese Frage spätestens nach unserem Tod noch einmal ziemlich wichtig werden: Wer gehört eigentlich zur Kirche? Wer ist Mitglied in der Gemeinschaft der Gläubigen – und wer muss draußen bleiben?

Diese Frage ist unter deutschen Katholiken derzeit umstritten wie lange nicht mehr. Seit einigen Jahren vertreten manche Gelehrte die Auffassung, man könne auch katholisch sein, ohne Kirchensteuer zu zahlen. Es müsse möglich sein, aus der Kirche als Körperschaft öffentlichen Rechts auszutreten, damit die Steuer zu umgehen – und sich trotzdem weiterhin als gläubig und als Mitglied der Kirche zu empfinden.

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CALIFORNIA
The Sacramento Bee

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: A story about an ex-Jesuit teacher William Farrington – accused of improper conduct with a student – has sparked controversy here and in Los Angeles.

The Bee story outlined how Jesuit High and San Jose’s Bellarmine College Preparatory School sent emails to alumni telling them that “credible” accusations had been made against Farrington, who had taught at both schools. It asked anyone who may have been victimized to contact authorities.

The editorial board of the “Los Angeles Loyolan” – Loyola Marymount University’s student newspaper – cites the story and asks university officials why they have not issued a similar letter to alumni who may have come in contact with Farrington when he worked in the registrar’s office there between 1987 and 2002. The editorial demands “transparency.”

The editorial says the case is even “more troubling” because the Jesuit brother reportedly was barred from working with minors in 1987- the year he was removed from Jesuit.

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IRELAND/VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

[Enda Kenny’s speech regarding the Cloyne Report]

Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, who attacked the Vatican for its failure to intervene to prevent child abuse by priests, will meet the Pope this week

Gerard O’Connell
Rome

Ireland’s Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Enda Kenny, will meet Pope Benedict XVI next Saturday, September 22, together with other European political leaders of the Centrist Democrats International Group, that is the global international political group dedicated to the promotion of Christian democracy. There is some speculation in Ireland that Kenny may use the occasion to invite the Pope to visit the country.

It will be their first encounter since Kenny openly attacked the Vatican in a speech to the Dail (the Irish Parliament’s lower house) on 20 July 2011 for failing to intervene in ways that could have prevented the sexual abuse of children by priests in the Republic.

He then accused the Vatican of putting the institution before children, dissuading Irish bishops from reporting abuse cases to the civil authorities, and attempting to obstruct a Government Commission of Inquiry into the abuse of children by priests in Cloyne diocese in recent years. He said the Cloyne report revealed “the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism, the narcissism, that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day”.

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ROME
Vatican Insider

A recently discovered scrap of papyrus dating back to the 4th century, presented at a conference in Rome, makes reference to Jesus having a wife

Andrea Tornielli
Rome

A piece of papyrus written in Sahidic, a Coptic dialect of Lower Egypt, has rekindled the Jesus marriage debate. Professor Karen King of Harvard Divinity School presented the scrap of papyrus at a conference in Rome. It reads: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife ….’”.This is the first and only explicit reference to Jesus having a wife, the New York Times reported.

In her study, which will be published in the Harvard Theological Review in January 2013, Professor King warned that this finding does not constitute definitive proof of Jesus having been married, although everything indicates that the fragment is genuine: various experts have excluded the possibility of the text having been added later on, to an ancient piece of papyrus. The fragment is small, it only measures 4 by 8 centimetres and only bits of longer sentences are legible.

Professor King stated: “It is not evidence, for us, historically, that Jesus had a wife,” but it highlights that the question of his possible marriage and his sexuality were often the subject of intense debate. The writing on the papyrus suggests the text was written in the second half of the 4th century. But its contents could have been copied form a 2nd-century Greek text. There could be a link with between this text and other texts of the time, known as the Gospels of Thomas and Mary – texts which were born out of a Gnostic context.

As is known, the Church only recognises the “canonical” Gospels of Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as authentic texts. These date back to the 1st century: Matthew and John were apostles while Mark and Luke were followers of Peter and Paul. Although the common belief is that ecclesiastical authorities imposed the canonical gospels over other texts which were rejected as “apocryphal”, this is not quite true. The canonical gospels were the most widespread among Christian communities, which recognised the apostolic origin of these texts and thus their link with eye witnesses of Jesus’ life. So the canonical gospels were canonical well before they were actually defined as such. A fragment discovered in the Vatican Library by Ludovico Muratori proves that these gospels were being read and venerated as far back as the year 157.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Bob Hohler
Globe Staff / September 20, 2012

Six months ago, the Boston College football team suspended Jaryd Rudolph after he was charged with violating a female student’s privacy by audiotaping her having consensual sex with his teammate in a campus suite the players shared. But Rudolph never missed a game.

With the criminal charge pending, Rudolph has played all three games this season for the Eagles. The 6-foot-4-inch, 295-pound junior, a graduate of Silver Lake Regional High School in Kingston, has emerged as BC’s starting defensive right tackle despite a team spokesman saying before the season that Rudolph’s football future would remain uncertain until the case was adjudicated.

The female student is hurt and angry, according to her attorney, Mitchell Garabedian. He said the woman, who is undergoing counseling because of emotional distress stemming from the incident, believes BC acted insensitively by clearing Rudolph to play and not informing her of its decision.

According to Garabedian, the woman was stunned to learn by watching a televised game that Rudolph had returned to the football field.

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UNITED STATES
CNN

By Patrick Boyle, Special to CNN

updated 8:04 AM EDT, Thu September 20, 2012

Editor’s note: Patrick Boyle is a veteran journalist who serves as communications director for the Forum for Youth Investment, a nonprofit that helps communities improve their services for youth, and a parenting blogger for the Huffington Post. He served as editor of Youth Today for 13 years and is the author of “Scouts’ Honor,” which examines sex abuse in the Boy Scouts of America.

(CNN) — After being smacked in the face by wave upon wave of sex abuse scandals for the past decade, it’s easy to feel nothing but angry or numb.

So Joe Paterno’s statue came down, a slew of dioceses went bankrupt, and thousands of once-secret documents about molesters in the Boy Scouts will soon be made public. It’s fair to ask: Have we learned anything?

That makes it a good time to step back and look beyond individual villains to the big picture. When you put together the stories of Penn State, the Roman Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts and other organizations hit by abuse scandals, you see they reacted in much the same way. Their behavior was shocking, but it was more common than we knew.

Thanks to lawsuits and news reports, we now see this: For decades, some of our most trusted institutions — from schools, camps and sports leagues to correctional facilities, foster care agencies and religious groups — have inadvertently enabled child molesters at the expense of victims. While leaders in many youth-serving organizations have confronted the abuse problem head-on, others routinely erred on the side of molesters, ignored the extent of abuse in their ranks, hid abuse from authorities and misled the public.

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POLAND
The Huffington Post UK

The Huffington Post UK | By Jessica Elgot Posted: 20/09/2012

A Polish catholic priest has been forced to defend himself after pictures emerged of children licking cream off his legs.

The photos show an “initiation ceremony” at the Salesians’ high school in Lubin, southern Poland -which Father Marcin Kozyra, who is also the school’s principal, said was entirely innocent, and such ceremonies for first year pupils had taken place for years.

In the pictures, 13 year-old pupils, both girls and boys, are seen licking whipped cream off a priest’s bare knees as well crawling up a flight of stairs.

Father Kozyra said he saw nothing wrong in his actions or the pictures being posted on the school’s website.

Parents of some pupils have come out in support of the priest in a letter, where they claimed that the whipped cream was actually shaving foam and nobody was forced to eat it.

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POLAND
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Probe launched into Polish priest who gets young children to lick whipped cream off his knee in creepy school initiation

By Jill Reilly

PUBLISHED:05:41 EST, 20 September 2012

A police investigation has been launched after a series of photos emerged showing schoolchildren licking whipped cream from the knee of a Polish priest.

The images – which are apparently part of an ‘initiation ceremony’ at Salesians High School in Lubin, southern Poland – show both male and female 13-year old pupils taking part in the bizarre practice.

Father Marcin Kozyra, who is also the school’s principal, has defended his actions by saying such ceremonies for first year pupils have been an annual event for many years.

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PHILADLEPHIA (PA)
CNN

By Sarah Hoye, CNN

Philadelphia (CNN) – Defense attorneys for a senior Roman Catholic official convicted in the child sex abuse scandal said this week that prosecutors persuaded a defrocked priest to falsely admit to sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy in exchange for their client’s conviction.

Monsignor William Lynn, 61, was found guilty in June of one count of child endangerment, and is serving a sentence of 3 to six years at a minimum-security facility. The trial judge denied bail pending his appeal.

The trial marked the first time U.S. prosecutors charged not just the priests who allegedly committed abuses, but also a church leader for failing to stop them.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Philly

Father Michael Chapman, 56, pastor of Ascension of Our Lord Parish in Philadelphia, has been placed on administrative leave by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput following allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

The priest was suspended in March 2011 for an alleged violation of the Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s guidelines for conduct by all church personnel.

After a probe of the allegation by a team of investigators and evaluation by the Archdiocesan Review Board, Archbishop Chaput found Father Chapman suitable for ministry in May 2012 (background).

The archdiocesan Office for Child and Youth Protection, as part of the Honesty, Healing and Hope in Christ parish restoration initiative, consequently began working with Ascension Parish to prepare for Father Chapman’s return to ministry. Before he returned, the Archdiocese received allegations of sexual abuse of minors against Father Chapman in May 2012.

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CALIFORNIA
KGO

Carolyn Tyler

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) — The family of the Jesuit priest who died in San Jose eight years ago is offering a reward for information about his death. Police ruled the death of James Chevedden a suicide, but the family is not convinced of that. They believe it was a homicide and they want police to take a second look.

James Chevedden, a Jesuit priest, died on his birthday, May 19, 2004. Authorities say Father Chevedden, who was on jury duty that day, committed sucide by jumping from the roof of a parking structure across the street from the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice. His family doesn’t believe that’s the case. ” I question whether he was hurled over because hee seemed to be motionless,” Chevedden’s brother John told ABC7 News.

In the years before his death, Father Chevedden had accused another priest living at a church facility in Los Gatos of sexually abusing him. The Jesuits reached a $1.6 million settlement with the family following Chevedden’s death. A spokesperson Wednesday said, “We are not going to comment. It’s a settled legal matter.”

Still, the family and supporters are asking the Jesuits to turn over any information they have to police and they are asking law enforcement to open a new investigation. “There’s so many inconsistencies& Suicide jumpers don’t land on their back. They land on their feet or their head. There’s just so many questions,” said Joelle Casteix with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

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RHODE ISLAND
Valley Breeze

By GERRY GOLDSTEIN, Valley Breeze & Observer Correspondent

SMITHFIELD – As a devout Catholic, the late millionaire Gabrielle Mee entrusted her faith – and her finances – to the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado.

According to court documents, she “worshipped him nearly as a saint.”

But in the end, Father Maciel, as he was commonly known, was unmasked as a sexual predator who disgraced the religious order he founded in 1941, the Legionaries of Christ.

For years, Mee, who knew Maciel personally, gave his international order millions of dollars, joined it as a “consecrated woman” in her old age, and then willed it all her assets.

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