ABUSE TRACKER

NEW YORK
The New York Times

Place:Off Off Broadway
Venue:Fourth Street Theatre
Cast: Starring David Beck, Joe Capozzi, Alfredo Diaz, Jorge Humberto Hoyos, Tom Pilutik and Bilgin Turker

Plot Description for For Pete’s Sake

Have you ever had a secret? Something so terrible, so dark, that it suffocated you, slowly destroying your life and leaving you emotionally starved, empty inside? ‘For Pete’s Sake’ takes you on a journey inside Joe’s mind as he struggles with the truth. Tormented by the voices in his head and the memories from his past, Joe takes a comedic look at the tragedy in his life as he struggles to find understanding and free himself from an abusive past. This is a play that gives voice to survivors of sexual abuse…and it’s a comedy.

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VATICAN CITY
Malta Today

Matthew Vella

Monsignor Charles J. Scicluna, the Vatican prelate who for many years stood by the side of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in the Catholic Church’s congregation for the doctrine of faith, is expected to be appointed auxiliary bishop of Malta.

Scicluna, 53, the Vatican’s promoter of justice and chief prosecutor in the clerical sex abuse scandals that rocked the Roman Curia in the past decade, is expected to take up the role of Bishop Annetto Depasquale, according to Italian newspaper La Stampa.

La Stampa’s specialist Vatican Insider blog noted that his promotion outside the Vatican’s inner circle, by sending Scicluna back to his native island, was not expected.

“Scicluna was the incarnation of the zero-tolerance policy towards the church sex abuse cases and he sustained Ratzinger’s activity when it came to changing existing laws and canonical norms, but above everything else a change in mentality: he brought to the frontline the suffering of abuse victims and he promulgate so called emergency laws. And this was the subject of internal discussions inside the Holy See,” La Stampa said.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on October 04, 2012

■Group appeals to Buffalo rabbis
■It doesn’t want whistleblower ousted
■A vote is scheduled to be held this Friday
■Local rabbi organization may impeach its president
■He spoke up about a credibly accused abusive colleague

A self-help group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging Buffalo rabbis to postpone their plans to act tomorrow against a colleague who warned the public that a once-ousted rabbi was leading services again in recent weeks.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing the Buffalo Board of Rabbis about Rabbi Keith Karnofsky. Karnofsky is currently the president of the rabbis’ group, but a meeting is set for Friday at which some members plan to try to impeach him.

Some rabbis are apparently upset with Karnofsky, in part, because he told The Buffalo News about Rabbi Charles Shalman, who helped with seven services recently at the Jewish student organization at the campus of the University of Buffalo.

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UXBRIDGE (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

YOUNG WOMEN GIVEN TRESPASS NOTICES, ALLIGATOR REMOVED FROM HOME

By Susan Spencer/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

UXBRIDGE — Two brothers who serve as pastors of the Church of the End Times, as well as directors of a local paving company, were arraigned in Uxbridge District Court Wednesday on charges related to violation of a restraining order after a standoff with police at their home.

A young woman at the home was also arraigned on charges of trespassing, disorderly conduct and assault and battery on a police officer.

According to court documents, Uxbridge Police Officers Thomas Stockwell and Josiah Morrissette attempted to serve a restraining order Monday around 7:30 p.m. to Dennis H. Stanley, 36, of 41 Murphy’s Way. The restraining order was sought by Mr. Stanley’s wife.

When Mr. Stanley arrived home, where police were waiting outside, his brother David H. Stanley, 40, of 51 Murphy’s Way came over and joined Dennis in refusing to take the restraining order from the police.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
SF Bay

By Jesse Garnier

October 5, 2012

t’s been a week of lows and highs for newly-installed San Francisco archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.

On Monday, Cordileone pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless driving after his arrest at a DUI checkpoint in San Diego last month.

Then on Thursday, Cordileone was installed as the latest Catholic archbishop of San Francisco in a ceremony at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

We can’t call His Excellence a drunk driver here, even though San Diego police said he blew greater than the legal limit of 0.08 at a late-night checkpoint set up to ensnare newly-arrived San Diego State students in August.

Instead, a plea bargain reduced his charges, meaning “reckless driver” is the most severe criminal label that can be attached to the 56-year-old San Diego native.

Bay City News reported Cordileone’s sentence is believed to be three years of probation plus about $1,000 in fines and a mandated appearance at a Mothers Against Drunk Driving victims’ panel.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
ABC News

By LISA LEFF Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO October 5, 2012 (AP)

San Francisco’s new Roman Catholic archbishop made self-deprecating jokes about his recent drunken-driving arrest during his formal installation ceremony, which came just days after he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of reckless driving.

But Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone, a strong supporter of California’s ban on same-sex marriage, did not refer to the distress his appointment has aroused in this gay-friendly city and mentioned marriage only obliquely Thursday. …

Cordileone had been scheduled to appear in court on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence next Tuesday. Court records show he pleaded guilty on Monday to a reduced charge of reckless driving, an option frequently given to first-time DUI offenders, said Gina Coburn, a spokeswoman for the San Diego City Attorney.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
U-T San Diego

Written by
Dana Littlefield

SAN DIEGO — The new archbishop of San Francisco for the Catholic Church has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless driving after being arrested in San Diego on suspicion of drunken driving.

Then-Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, 56, was taken into custody Aug. 25 after being stopped at a DUI checkpoint near San Diego State University.

He was scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court next week on misdemeanor DUI charges but instead pleaded guilty Monday to alcohol-related reckless driving, a lesser charge commonly known as a “wet reckless.”

Cordileone was placed on three years’ probation and ordered to pay a fine. He also will have to attend a Mothers Against Drunk Driving victim-impact panel and a three-month, first-conviction program through the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

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CALIFORNIA
Press TV (Iran)

The Roman Catholic archbishop in the western US city of San Francisco has pleaded guilty to the charge of reckless driving after being originally arrested for driving while intoxicated.

Following a plea bargain with legal authorities, Salvatore Joseph Cordileone entered the guilty plea to a less severe offense of misdemeanor, reckless driving, on Monday in San Diego County Superior Court after he was arrested last August in the southern borderline California city for driving under the influence of alcohol.

A native of San Diego, the American cleric was reportedly stopped at a late-night checkpoint near San Diego State University after having dinner with his mother. He was then transferred to a county jail.

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WISCONSIN
FemPop

By Josephine Maria

It is extremely rare that a film makes me question anything about my life. I went into Mea Maxima Culpa expecting to hear another sad story, in another town, about something so far removed from me that I would come out, write a review, and move on. Instead, Mea Maxima Culpa made me question everything I know about the Catholic administration in my hometown of Milwaukee. Then it kept going.

I am not Catholic, and there is no clergy or administration who I have ever given my confidence or total trust. The intimate relationship a person has with their priest or minister is foreign to me. However, my family at large are devout Roman Catholics. It was not until this film that I realized how ingrained in me was the assumption that the Catholic hierarchy was doing what it thought was best, and would never allow harm by one of its members to continue. My assumption was wrong.

In cases of assault and rape, we often forget that men can be the victims. Mea Maxima Culpa is the story of 4 men fighting against their abuser, Father Lawrence Murphy. The place where these men were assaulted as children, along with hundreds of other, took place at a school for the deaf that was a couple of blocks from my childhood home. By the time I was growing up there, Father Lawrence had retired and died a year before my family moved- without going to court. The trail doesn’t stop there.

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CANADA
Metro

By Phoebe Ho

A 90-year-old priest will be released this Thanksgiving after serving a two-year sentence for sexually abusing more than a dozen children across the province.

Rev. William Hodgson Marshall was convicted in June 2011 for sexually abusing 16 boys and one woman while he was working at schools in Windsor, Toronto, and Sudbury from 1952 to 1985. He now automatically qualifies for statutory release after serving two-thirds of his sentence under federal law.

Parole conditions have been imposed indicating Marshall must avoid any location where children are present, he must report any relationship with an adult who cares for children and avoid any contact with the victims and their families

Living arrangements have been made for the disgraced priest to stay with his former employer and religious order, the Congregation of St. Basil, says the Basilian Fathers’ spokesperson Rev. Timothy Scott.

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SOUTH AFRICA
The New York Times

By MATT MCCANN

At a book signing in Cape Town, the photographer Pierre Crocquet was writing his name in copies of his book “Pinky Promise” when he thought he recognized someone in the crowd. Was that James just now, one of the subjects — a perpetrator — who participated in the making of this book, a documentary project on child sexual abuse?

Or was it Mr. Crocquet’s imagination? Either seemed plausible; James had had a career in military intelligence during the decades of apartheid and used those techniques, and disguises, to abuse children undetected. An air of paranoia hung over him — perhaps it had seeped into Mr. Crocquet’s psyche as well, and his mind was playing tricks. After all, Mr. Crocquet had spent a lot of time with James, getting to know him over the course of the project, which had been three years in the making.

“Pinky Promise,” the first edition of which was published by Fourthwall Books last year, is an unusual view of child sexual abuse. It presents the stories of eight people, three abusers and five who were abused. The subjects tell their own stories, and occasionally we hear from family members or therapists. Its materials aren’t only photographic and documentary — besides the personal testimonies, there are also scraps from journals, drawings, family photos and report cards, creating a kaleidoscopic presentation of the effects of a transformative, and sometimes defining, trauma.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Yahoo! News

By LISA LEFF | Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Amid heavy security and the splendor of his faith’s most sacred rites, the new Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco assumed office Thursday without referring to the distress his appointment has aroused in this gay-friendly city, but offering self-deprecating jokes about his recent drunken driving arrest.

Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone, wearing gold and red robes with a matching miter, told an audience of more than 2,000 invited guests at his installation mass that he was grateful for the messages of support he had received from people of different religious and political viewpoints following the Aug. 25 arrest in his home town of San Diego.

“I know in my life God has always had a way of putting me in my place. I would say, though, that in the latest episode of my life God has outdone himself,” Cordileone said with a chuckle as he delivered his first homily as archbishop.

The 56-year-old priest, the second-youngest U.S. archbishop, went on to say he did not know “if it’s theologically correct to say God has a way of making himself known in this way,” and asked for the indulgence of other high-ranking church leaders in the audience.

The connection, he said, was that the compassion he was shown “in the wake of the regrettable mistake I made to drive after drinking” made him hopeful the Bay Area’s Catholic community has the tools it needs to be part of a broader rebuilding of the church. …

Cordileone’s arrest came after he was stopped at a police checkpoint near San Diego State University. His mother and a visiting priest from Germany were with him in the car he was driving. He said at the time that he had consumed some alcohol while having dinner with friends then decided to drive his mother home.

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UNITED STATES
Voice of the Faithful

NEWTON, Mass., Oct. 1, 2012 – Recent exposing of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s financial woes (see “Archdiocese of Phila. in serious financial shape – and so are its parishes,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 30, 2012) underscores the Roman Catholic Church reform movement Voice of the Faithful’s long-time calls for more transparency and accountability in parish and diocesan finances.

VOTF distributed a paper called Financial Transparency and Accountability during its recently concluded 10th Year Conference in Boston. “Since its founding in 2002,” the paper begins, “Voice of the Faithful® has worked consistently to support increased transparency and accountability with regard to church finances at the parish and the diocesan levels. We (VOTF members) realized then that the scandal of clerical sexual abuse was enabled by lack of diocesan financial transparency. Since 2002, significant progress has been made in many dioceses, although the progress has varied greatly across the United States.”

VOTF is on record as applauding the progress in financial transparency in the Archdiocese of Boston under Cardinal Sean O’Malley; while local financial experts in Philadelphia, according to Philadelphia Inquirer, point to the opposite there. “’It probably seems to them (Philadelphia archdiocese) that they are being more transparent,’ said Nancy Gunza, a partner in the Plymouth Meeting office of the accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen, who looked at the (archdiocese’s) June financial report. ‘But without a fully consolidated set of financial statements, the picture’s not complete.’”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Thu, 10/04/2012

by
Joshua J. McElwee

The high-ranking church official responsible for the Vatican’s takeover of the group that represents the majority of U.S. Catholic sisters has warned that the sisters should not “take an attitude against Rome” or be “anti-Rome.”

“Setting oneself up against ‘Rome’ has never brought authentic reform or renewal to the church,” Archbishop Gerhard Müller said in an interview posted to the National Catholic Register website Thursday.

Müller is the head of the Vatican’s powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which last April sharply criticized the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the organization that represents about 80 percent of U.S. Catholic sisters.

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HAWAII
What They Knew

Another Chapter in Where in the World was Donald McGuire SJ – Hawaii

This time at WTK we begin with a picture and not a document. In an image worth a thousand words and possibly millions more in monetary damages for victims, we have Donald McGuire SJ in Honolulu, Hawaii circa 2003. He was already under strict supervision from Chicago at the time of the picture and had to provide itineraries to his superiors for approval of travel. We don’t know if any young male “assistants” accompanied him to the sandy beaches of Honolulu, yet. Or if this was his only trip there? As WTK reported earlier McGuire’s good friend and fellow sued abuser Bishop Joseph Sullivan of Baton Rouge was subject to a lawsuit in Hawaii in 2005.

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TEXAS
KFOX 14

By Jesse Martinez

EL PASO, Texas —

A youth minister accused of possessing pornographic images of children plead guilty and faces up to 30 years in prison, according to federal officials.

U.S. attorney Robert Pitman and FBI Special Agent in Charge Mark Morgan announced that Joe Tapia, 46, pleaded guilty to solicitation of material relating to the sexual exploitation of children. Tapia made his plea Thursday before U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo.

Tapia admitted that he had images of child pornography as well as a sexually explicit instant messenger chat with a 16-year-old male on his work computer.

Tapia also admitted that he recorded video and still images of two individuals while they were changing for a church performance.

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HAMMOND (IL)
Post-Tribune

By Teresa Auch Schultz tauch@post-trib.com October 4, 2012

Updated: October 4, 2012

A federal judge has sealed communication between Jack Schaap, the former pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond, and his 17-year-old victim, according to an order filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond.

U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano granted a motion by Schaap’s attorneys to keep the documents, which include emails and letters, private because they include information that identifies the victim.

Schaap pleaded guilty last month to taking the girl, who was receiving counseling from him and was one of his congregants at First Baptist, across state lines into Illinois and Wisconsin for sexual activity.

Schaap said during his hearing he didn’t realize what he was doing was criminal, although he did know it was a sin.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

W. H. Auden wrote in his famous poem “September 1, 1939”, the terrible day the German army invaded Poland, that “all I have is a voice to undo the folded lie.”

The brave survivors of childhood rape and sexual assault of the Milwaukee Archdiocese from St. John’s School for the Deaf have been undoing the folded lies of the Milwaukee Catholic hierarchy and their Vatican overseers for a very long time: nearly four decades. Now these beautiful voices—which are really the single voice of justice for all victims of clergy sex crimes—will be heard and seen by a worldwide audience thanks to Oscar winning director Alex Gibney’s powerful new film, “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God”, which will make its U.S. premier in Milwaukee on Friday.

Survivors and family members of priest predators of the Milwaukee Archdiocese are expected to be in attendance at the premier to welcome Gibney and his film, and will once again embrace these deaf survivor champions and advocates, several of whom are long-time local SNAP leaders.

Unfortunately, Fr. Lawrence Murphy, the predator priest who is the focus of Gibney’s film, is only one of literally dozens of clerics and church workers in the Milwaukee Archdiocese—at least as many as 144, according to recent filings in U.S. Federal Court—alleged to have raped and assaulted children and minors. And most of these recorded crimes against children, over 8,000 according to the court records, took place during a 25 year period from 1976 to 2002 when the Milwaukee Archdiocese was under the control of one man: Archbishop Rembert Weakland.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Radio Maria

Il vescovo della diocesi di Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, Robert W. Finn, 59 anni, è il primo vescovo della Chiesa cattolica a subire una condanna per aver coperto casi di pedofilia nella sua diocesi.

Il caso, che è stato tenuto nascosto dal vescovo per oltre cinque mesi, riguarda il sacerdote Shawn Rattigan, di Independence, nel Missouri, reo confesso in un altro processo appena concluso di cinque atti di pedofilia e detenzione di materiale pedo pornografico all’interno del suo computer.

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DEUTSCHLAND
kath.net

“Netzwerk katholischer Priester” übt schwere Kritik am Kirchensteuerdekret der Deutschen Bischöfe: Es gibt triftige Gründe für Gläubige, die Kirchensteuer in ihrer bisherigen Form einzubehalten. Katholisch ohne Kirchensteuer ist möglich

Köln (kath.net)
Guido Rodheudt, der Sprecher des Netzwerks katholischer Priester, hat in der jüngsten Ausgabe der Zeitung “Christ und Welt” schwere Kritik am Kirchensteuerdekret der deutschen Bischöfe geübt und das als eine “pastorale Zumutung” für einen Pfarrer bezeichnet. Dieser habe jetzt den Schwarzen Peter, denn erst durch die Rechtsbelehrung, die der Pfarrer mit dem angeordneten Schreiben beziehungsweise im Gespräch dem Ausgetretenen zukommen lasse, trete für diesen die Exkommunikation ein.

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DEUTSCHLAND
domradio

Die Kirchen stehen unter Druck: Als die wohl größten privaten Arbeitgeber in Deutschland beschäftigen allein ihre Wohlfahrtsverbände Caritas und Diakonie rund eine Million Mitarbeiter. Doch das gesonderte kirchliche Arbeitsrecht steht mehr denn je auf dem Prüfstand. Ein Fürsprecher ist der frühere Bundesverfassungsrichter Udo di Fabio.

In Kürze wird das Bundesarbeitsgericht über das Streikrecht bei der evangelischen Diakonie entscheiden. Beobachter erwarten, dass letztlich das Bundesverfassungsgericht angerufen wird. Auch die katholische Kirche sieht sich herausgefordert: Anders als bei den Protestanten geht es nicht um Streikrecht und Lohnfindung, sondern um die besonderen Loyalitätspflichten, die die Kirche von ihren Mitarbeitern fordert: Es geht darum, dass sie auf die Privatsphäre und die persönliche Lebensführung ihrer Arbeitnehmer zugreift und etwa Abtreibung oder neue zivile Ehe nach Scheidung mit Kündigung bestrafen kann.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Kreis Neuwied – Lehrer Dirk S. darf nicht mehr katholische Religion unterrichten. Der 37 Jahre alte Pädagoge aus dem Kreis Neuwied, der Anfang 2007 einer damals 14-jährigen Schülerin seiner Parallelklasse als Klassenlehrer gehörig den Kopf verdrehte und mit ihr eine sexuelle Beziehung einging, musste dem Bistum Trier die Lehrerlaubnis für dieses Fach, die sogenannte Missio Canonica, zurückgeben. Das erklärte Dr. Stephan Kronenburg, Leiter der Bischöflichen Pressestelle in Trier, und bestätigte somit Informationen der RZ.

Der Generalvikar des Bistums hatte den betroffenen Lehrer zum Verzicht aufgefordert, erklärte Kronenburg. Der Aufforderung aus Trier sei der Pädagoge innerhalb der gesetzten Frist nachgekommen. „Der Lehrer hat daraufhin erklärt, dass er auf die mit der Missio verbundenen Rechte (Erteilung von Religionsunterricht) verzichtet“, sagte der Chef der Bischöflichen Pressestelle. Der Generalvikar des Bistums habe seinerseits diesen Verzicht jetzt angenommen. Erst Ende August war S. auf eigenen Wunsch hin aus dem Beamtenverhältnis entlassen worden, um einem Disziplinarverfahren des Schulamtes aus dem Weg zu gehen.

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WISCONSIN
Urban Milwaukee

By Marie Rohde – Oct 4th, 2012

What does it take for a deaf man to be heard? That’s the question asked by the documentary film “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” which will be shown by the Milwaukee Film Festival Friday night.

Long before the waves of the Catholic Church’s child sex abuse scandal surged across America, three young men, molested as children at the St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis, tried to tell their stories and stop one of the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s most prolific — and horrifying — pedophiles.

The deaf men — Gary Smith, Bob Bolger and Art Budzinski — would not accept defeat. They began their battle in 1974, launching their first organized protest a decade before the case of an abusive priest in Louisiana, Gilbert Gauthe, which was the first to make headlines across the country.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Legal Examiner

Mike Bryant
Attorney

(866) 735-1102 Ext 555

The plea of Rev. Shawn Ratigan last month to production of child pornography was a major step in the prosecution of priests who have been involved in the abuse of children. What has been revealing is the deposition testimony of Julie Creech, the IT director for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. In the deposition, she described confronting Finn about the naked images of young girls she found on Ratigan’s computer.

“Finn did indicate that…sometimes priests do things they shouldn’t,” Creech said in the deposition. “He said, ‘Sometimes boys will be boys.'”

Since this deposition, Creech did release the following statement through her lawyers:

The statement Julie Creech attributed to Bishop Finn during her deposition that “boys will be boys” is not consistent with her recollection of any conversations she had with the bishop concerning the Shawn Ratigan matter. Following the deposition, Julie realized she had misspoken. She understood that pursuant to the rules of civil practice, she would receive a copy of the deposition transcript and have the opportunity to acknowledge and correct her mistaken testimony. Because the deposition was so recently completed, Julie has not yet had a chance to do that, so we were certainly surprised to learn that an unverified copy of her testimony was attached to a pleading in a civil case.

It will be interesting what happens the next time she testifies. As with any deposition testimony, what she said was taken under oath. Seems like a very significant quote that shouldn’t have been said or offered lightly. It could be confirmation of the very attitudes that have gotten the Church in so much trouble.

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SALEM (NH)
Eagle-Tribune

By John Toole jtoole@eagletribune.com The Eagle-Tribune

SALEM — For the first time in the Greater Salem area, the leader of New Hampshire’s Roman Catholics will offer a healing Mass tonight for victims of child abuse.

Bishop Peter Libasci is scheduled to celebrate the Mass at 6:30 p.m. at St. Joseph Church on Main Street.

The service comes 10 months after Libasci became bishop of the Diocese of Manchester and 10 years into the still-unfolding Catholic clergy abuse scandal in New Hampshire.

A critic of the church’s response to the scandal, David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said Libasci has disappointed those who hoped for change. “He has been disappointing on so many levels,” Clohessy said. “Libasci is in an enviable position. He can say, ‘I don’t know these men. I wasn’t here.’ That makes it much easier for him to be forthcoming and proactive.”

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CHILE
Generaccion

[con audio]

El obispo Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández, de la región Iquique en Chile es investigado por el Vaticano a raíz de una denuncia de abuso sexual a un menor de edad.

Es la primera vez que un obispo chileno es investigado por esta causa. Y ha consternado a la población de dicha región.

El obispo, que es el más joven de la Conferencia Episcopal chilena con 47 años, dejó sus funciones en agosto de este año, aduciendo problemas en su hígado. En esa ocasión le comunicó a su entorno que estaba siendo investigado y pidió que rezaran por él.

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UNITED STATES
The Atlantic

Oct 3 2012

Michael Agresta – Michael Agresta is a writer living in Los Angeles.

Twenty years ago today, Sinead O’Connor tore up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live—and the media largely misunderstood why. Is America finally ready to hear her out?

In the weeks and months after Sinead O’Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on live television, commentators in the media sought to explain the motives of her protest. Very few, however, made use of the traditional tools of journalism: interviews, research, and textual analysis. Instead, most commentators seem to have consulted their own imaginations.

On the right, John Cardinal O’Connor in Catholic New York suggested that the singer had employed “voodoo” or “sympathetic magic” to physically destroy her enemy in the Vatican—an extraordinarily poor choice of imagery for a Church authority attempting to silence an outspoken female. On the left, Richard Roeper in the Chicago Sun-Times celebrated Sinead for providing “a moment of truly great television.” He assumed offhand that she was protesting the Vatican’s positions on women’s rights or the ongoing violence in Northern Ireland, but he focused his praise on O’Connor’s acumen as an entertainer.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee and victims of sexual abuse by clergy and others will continue to try to settle after Judge Susan V. Kelley extended the mediation deadline a second time, to Oct. 12.

At issue is how many of the estimated 570 victims should be compensated and to what extent. At least one attorney has said previously that he would not agree to a settlement that did not also include the release of church documents.

The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2011, as it prepared to defend itself in a dozen fraud lawsuits, saying it was the only way it could fairly compensate victims and continue its essential missions. But it has sought to limit its liability by objecting to claims that are beyond the statutes of limitations for the underlying allegations; involve victims who received a prior church settlement; or accuse a teacher, religious order priest or other individual the archdiocese doesn’t consider its employee.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pocono Record

By Michael Sadowski
Pocono Record Writer

October 04, 2012

A Long Pond man who was once a volunteer at the Pocono Community Church is accused of sexually molesting a 16-year-old girl and having inappropriate relationships with two other minors at the church, according to police.

Criminal complaints against 47-year-old Ramzan Ali say he met and coerced a 16-year-old girl into sex every week for five or six weeks in a handicapped bathroom stall at the Pocono Community Church.

Pocono Mountain Regional Police also said he had inappropriate relationships with two other girls — ages 16 and 12 — though those victims’ accounts did not detail any physical, sexual contact.

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IOWA
World-Herald

By Chad Nation
WORLD-HERALD NEWS SERVICE

COUNCIL BLUFFS — The Iowa Court of Appeals has reduced one of the three charges a former pastor at a Council Bluffs church was convicted of in 2011.

Although Efrain Umaña had the charge of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse reduced to assault, he will still likely spend the same amount of time in prison.

Umaña, 57, was found guilty of second-degree sexual abuse, third-degree sexual abuse and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse in January 2011 after members of his congregation came forth with several allegations of abuse.

The victim in the second-degree sexual abuse conviction was 11 when Umaña took her to his Council Bluffs church, Templo Monte Horeb, where she said he forced her to have sex with him.

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TEXAS
The Monitor

Elizabeth Findell

SAN JUAN — A small cluster of activists gathered for the media Wednesday morning outside the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville offices near the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan Del Valle holding pictures of children – victims of sexual abuse by clergy members across the country.

Such victims exist in the Rio Grande Valley, too, but their abusers remain anonymous, they said.

Members of the national support group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and the local branch of Catholic activist group Call to Action held the news conference to call on Bishop Daniel Flores to release the names of priests within the Brownsville diocese who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

The diocese released a report in 2004 indicating that it has reason to believe that seven area priests sexually abused children between 1965 and 2004, based on 12 allegations.

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HAWAII
KHON 2

[with video]

Reported by: Kanoe Gibson
Email: kgibson@khon2.com

It was supposed to be a safe place– the church just across the street from his home– where a now 49-year-old Colorado man says he was sexually abused when he was an altar boy.

He’s been named John Doe No. 87 and has filed suit against the Diocese of Bismarck, alleging that while his family was stationed at Fort Shafter in the early 1970s, he was sexually abused by Father Maurice McNeely.

According to the man’s attorney, this is only the beginning of a series cases he will be filing in Hawaii and claims that there may be more victims in military families.

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PHILIPPINES
Catholic Culture

A retired Filipino prelate has told reporters that he accepted a priest for ministry, after he was charged with sexual abuse in the US, under an agreement with the accused priest’s religious order.

Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, the former Archbishop of Cebu, said that Msgr. Cristobal Garcia was given permission for ministry in the Cebu archdiocese years ago. Msgr. Garcia is now under investigation in a probe into the smuggling of ivory. When news of that investigation first became public, the Cebu archdiocese said that the priest was suspended from ministry because of the sex-abuse charges. Police reported that Msgr. Garcia was acting as administrator of a shrine.

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ALABAMA/TEXAS
Sand Mountain Reporter

Posted: Wednesday, October 3, 2012

By Jonathan Stinson | jstinson@sandmountainreporter.com

In June, Mark Allen Green, former pastor of the Cowboy Church in Marshall County, said he turned himself over to authorities in Ellis County, Texas, after he was charged with the sexual abuse of a minor.

Green went on to say he spent 90 days in jail and, since then, a grand jury in Ellis County decided not to indict him on the charges after the child who made the accusations recanted her story.

A clerk in the Ellis County District Attorney’s office confirmed that the grand jury did not indict Green.

He is also facing the same charges in Navarro County, but Green said he expected those to be dropped as well, since they were based on the same investigation, and involved the same person, in Ellis County.

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MISSOURI
Connect MidMissouri

A Morgan County pastor will be back in court again for sex crimes charges.

Travis Smith, 42, is charged with statutory rape and statutory sodomy.

The Moniteau County prosecutor said these charges stem from an alleged incident in 2005.

Smith has bonded out of jail on a nearly $70,000 bond for all the charges. He’s due in court for his arraignment later this month.

These new charges come a little more than a year after Smith was found not guilty on child molestation charges.

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CANADA
The Windsor Star

Convicted sex offender Rev. William Hodgson Marshall will be out of prison in time for Thanksgiving.

The 90-year-old disgraced Basilian priest and former Windsor high school teacher will released from custody next Monday — having automatically qualified for statutory release under federal law after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

“He is not a free man,” said Greg McCullough, one of Marshall’s Windsor victims.

“He’s free in the sense that he can walk the streets, but he’ll never be free. He’s a cowardly person who was protected by various people … when they knew full well what was going on.”

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CHILE
Catholic News Agency

Santiago, Chile, Oct 3, 2012 / 12:05 pm (CNA).- In a statement Oct. 2, the Apostolic Nunciature in Chile revealed that local Bishop Marco Antonio Ordenes of Iquique is under investigation for sexual abuse.

According to the Chilean daily La Tercera, Bishop Ordenes, 47, has said he is innocent. Since the accusations were made, his poor health caused by genetic kidney condition has worsened.

The Diocese of Iquique confirmed that his health is deteriorating and that he is currently in Peru resting on doctor’s orders. He is expected to return to Chile soon to continue his recovery. Because the accused is a bishop, the investigation is being carried out by the Vatican.

The nunciature added that is has “offered psychological support and assistance to those involved and has been in contact with Bishop Ordenes.”

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UNITED STATES
What They Knew

[with document]

In another letter from November 30, 1959 Chicago – Detroit Province Jesuit superiors state in correspondence that there is “serious doubt about [his] fitness for the Order” of one Donald McGuire SJ. McGuire would later rise through the ranks of the Jesuits, befriend popes and three candidates for sainthood, only to be convicted criminally twice by juries in both state and federal court for child sexual abuse. Names of other “doubtful” Jesuit novices are included as well. Who they are, we don’t know yet.

Given the severity of the letter below, it is remarkable to see the image above from June 11, 1961 when McGuire was ordained to the priesthood. Although he remained a Jesuit for over 50 years until 2008 (although he was convicted criminally in 2006) reports of sexual abuse and improper relationships with minor children began in 1964 as we shall see later.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Heise

Thomas H. durfte für die TSA unter anderem “pat downs” bei Minderjährigen durchführen

Früher wurden katholische Priester, die in den Verdacht gerieten, Kinder zu missbraucht zu haben, nach dem Bekanntwerden der Vorwürfe in aller Stille ermahnt und versetzt. So erging es auch dem 1978 geweihten Priester Thomas H. aus der US-amerikanischen Diözese Camden im Bundesstaat New Jersey. Erst im Mai 2002, nach zunehmendem öffentlichen Druck im Gefolge tausender Missbrauchsfälle in den USA und lange nach dem Ablauf der strafrechtlichen Verjährung, meldete man Vorwürfe gegen ihn den weltlichen Behörden und warf ihn hinaus. Vorher hatte sich die Religionsgemeinschaft in zwei Zivilklagen wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Mädchen auf eine Vergleichszahlung in Höhe von 195.000 Dollar einigen müssen.

H. entging einer Anklage und fand vier Monate nach seiner Entlassung einen neuen Job: Die Transport Security Administration (TSA) setzte ihn am Philadelphia International Airport zum Kontrollieren von Fluggästen ein. In diesem Rahmen durfte er nicht nur Erwachsene betatschen, sondern auch “pat downs” bei Kindern durchführen, bis man den heute 65-Jährigen 2004 zum Kofferdurchleuchter mit einem Jahresgehalt von 75.600 Euro beförderte.

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OSTERREICH
Der Standard

Kommentar | Markus Rohrhofer, 3. Oktober 2012

Der Kardinal rät zu einem Rückschritt. “Step back and see” lautet sein Motto

Streng nach Lehrbuch haben die heimischen Bischöfe und die Pfarrerinitiative die letzte Stufe einer Konfliktbildung erreicht. Die Eskalation ist vorüber, es folgt die Phase der Abkühlung. Doch ohne Konfliktlösung verhärten sich die Fronten. Stimmt das Kräfteverhältnis, ergibt sich eine klassische Pattsituation. Das hat nun auch Kardinal Christoph Schönborn erkannt. Ein labiles Gleichgewicht, das schnell ins Wanken gerät.

Der Kardinal rät daher zu einem Rückschritt. “Step back and see” lautet sein Motto. Doch nur einen Schritt zurückzugehen und aus sicherer Entfernung zu schauen, was passiert, wird eindeutig zu wenig sein. Der jüngst präsentierte Hirtenbrief zeigt einmal mehr auf, dass man auf Bischofsebene immer noch nicht verstanden hat, dass das provokante Spiel mit dem Ungehorsam längst vorbei ist. Schlusspfiff. Unentschieden im Match Pfarrer-Unterhaus versus Bischofs-Oberliga. Eine Verlängerung wäre sinnlos.

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OSTERREICH
Tiroler Tageszeitung

Von Wolfgang Otter

Thiersee – Seelische Wunden verheilen nur langsam, oft schmerzen sie noch Jahrzehnte später. Manches Mal brechen sie auch erst spät auf und erst dann können die Betroffenen darüber reden. Diese Erfahrungen musste die Dorfgemeinschaft im idyllischen Thiersee machen, als plötzlich die Taten des verstorbenen Pfarrers und Ehrenbürgers an die Öffentlichkeit kamen.

Der Geistliche hatte vor Jahrzehnten mehrere Buben und Jugendliche sexuell missbraucht, über einen langen Zeitraum hinweg, wie sich herausstellte. Die Erzdiözese Salzburg machte die unglaublichen Vorgänge sogar selbst öffentlich. Im Anschluss an einen Gottesdienst verlas Prälat Johann Reißmeier eine dementsprechende Erklärung.

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HAWAII
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on October 03, 2012

We are grateful that more victims of Fr. Maurice McNeely are stepping forward. When victims stay silent, nothing changes. But when victims find the courage to take action, there’s at least a chance for prevention, healing and justice.

If you were hurt by a priest, suffering in shame, isolation and self-blame won’t fix it. Only by stepping forward, speaking up and getting help can you both recover personally and help others. Now’s the time to do it. . . .

Let’s hope that every person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups in Hawaii will find the courage and strength to speak up, call police, expose wrongdoing, protect kids and start healing.

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HAWAII
The Garden Island

Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) — A 49-year-old Colorado man is suing the Catholic diocese serving western North Dakota, alleging one of its priests sexually abused him when he was a child in Hawaii decades ago.

A lawsuit filed in state court in Honolulu on Tuesday alleges a military chaplain sexually abused the plaintiff at an Army base around 1974 to 1975.

The plaintiff was an 11-to-12 year-old altar boy at a Fort Shafter chapel where the priest ministered to soldiers and their families. The priest now lives in Michigan.

The lawsuit accuses the Diocese of Bismarck of negligence. The diocese didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on October 3, 2012

Fr. Jose Alexis Davila, the Venezuelan national, San Diego priest, and misdemeanor sex offender, has vanished.

There has been no comment or statement from Diocese of San Diego, who just a few months ago, said that the “sex-probation priest” was “fit for ministry.”

This past New Year’s Eve, Davila, the associate pastor of St. Jude Shrine of the West, went to a young woman’s Southcrest home and forced himself on her. She called the police and he was arrested.

Parishioners and the priest’s friends rallied on behalf of the priest. In fact, parishioners supporting the priest formed a “lynch mob” at the victim’s mother’s home, in the hopes of forcing the victim to recant her story. It didn’t work.

In April, Davila pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of “unlawful touching of an intimate part” and was sentenced to probation.

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SLOVENIA
Vatican Insider

A 42 year old German claimed he was the cardinal’s son: “I was defamed and isolated”

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

The DNA paternity test taken by Cardinal Franc Rode to prove he was not the father of a German citizen who claimed the opposite has proven negative. Ljubljana’s local press communicated the news today.

A spokesman for Munich University’s Institute of Legal Medicine, where the test was conducted, confirmed that Cardinal Franc Rode was definitely not the father of the interested party. “I am glad that the results are those I expected at the start. Defamation of this kind isolates a man in his pain,” the cardinal and former archbishop of Ljubljana said in a statement quoted by the media.

At the end of August, Slovenian daily Delo published a statement by Peter S., a 42 year old German who claimed he was born out of a relationship between Tanja Breda, his mother and Franc Rode in 1969. At the time, Cardinal Rode was a young priest and professor at the faculty of theology in Ljubljana.

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Bob Gardinier

Published 2:51 p.m., Wednesday, October 3, 2012

HUDSON — A former Claverack Catholic priest who spent nearly four years in federal prison on child pornography charges was given a Level 1 sex offender status in Columbia County Court.

Raymond Ethier, 55, who was released from federal custody in January, appeared in court last week. Assistant District Attorney James A. Carlucci asked Judge Richard M. Koweek to assign Ethier the most severe, Level 3, status, according to the district attorney’s office.

Ethier’s lawyer, Daniel Stewart, asked for Level 1, stating that his client was a “low risk to re-offend” and noting that he was also sentenced to 10 years post-release federal supervision.

A Level 1 offender is required to register as a sex offender for a minimum of 20 years, while Level 2 and 3 offenders, considered more likely to re-offend, must register for life.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Paolo Gabriele has implicated the Holy See’s police force in the Vatileaks trial

Alessandro Speciale
Vatican City

It is not just the allegations of mistreatment made by Paolo Gabriele against Vatican policemen (he claims he was treated inhumanely during his first few weeks of detention in a Vatican security cell) that have raised questions about the Vatican Gendarmerie’s conduct.

During the second hearing of the Vatileaks trial on Tuesday, the Vatican Gendarmerie – the police force of the world’s smallest State – came under the spotlight on more than one occasion because of doubts regarding its investigation methods.

The Vatican Gendarmerie was founded in 1971 and is staffed by Italian citizens. It is led by Domenico Giani, a former Italian secret services agent. Giani is the man responsible for the investigations into and arrest of Paolo Gabriele and is at the centre of some confidential documents which Gabriele leaked to the press. Particularly that “defamatory libel” – as the Vatican Promoter of Justice, Nicola Picardi called it – which ended up in one of the chapters of Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi’s book “Sua Santità” (“His Holiness”).

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PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star

By Bernadette A. Parco

Thursday, October 4, 2012

A CHURCH official wasn’t expelled from a religious order in the midst of a child abuse case more than two decades ago, but chose to return home to Cebu, said Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal.

Cardinal Vidal also told reporters yesterday that his office received last Friday, when he was still in Manila, a copy of Arbishop Jose Palma’s instructions to stop issuing statements to the media regarding the issue.

The 81-year-old prelate said he is abiding by the directive but had to first hold a press conference just to clarify some issues that were already reported.

Msgr. Cristobal Garcia, former Archdiocesan Commission on Worship chairman, was not expelled from his former congregation, Cardinal Vidal said.

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UNITED STATES
Patrick J. Wall

Think that Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn’s recent guilty plea is a shock to Rome? Alas, for the Holy See, this is nothing new. The real question in the case of the Kansas City Bishop is: What options does the Holy See have available?

From the Roman viewpoint, this is a delicate balancing act. On one side, the Holy See does not want to concede to the “people” demanding the removal of Finn. Why? Because it is reminiscent of 19th century Lay Trusteeism. On the other side, the embarrassment of how Finn handled the Shawn Ratigan case (nearly ten years after the Charter and Norms were promulgated) is scandalous.

Here is a list of management techniques deployed by the Holy See in recent history to snuff out scandal created by Bishops. The management techniques fall into two categories: Geographic and Privation of Office.

Geographic Solution

As a new priest twenty years ago, I saw the results of the Vatican quietly removing Bishop Lawrence Welsh of Spokane, WA.

Larry sexually assaulted a teenage prostitute in Chicago while at a Knights of Columbus convention. Larry was the national Chaplain to the Knights. Chicago police investigated and the Spokane newspaper exposed it.

The Holy See acted quickly, neutralizing the scandal by saying that Welsh was arrested for drunk driving and applying the “Geographic Solution.” Larry was removed as the Ordinary of Spokane and relocated to Saint Paul/Minneapolis.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on October 3, 2012

Let’s talk about Joliet, IL and Fall River, MA, two dioceses with bishops who, were it not for public embarrassment, were more than happy to throw child safety under the bus.

In Joliet, Bishop Dan Conlon (the head of the USCCB committee on child protection, by the way) was going to reinstate a priest suspended two years ago for credible allegations of child sex abuse. In fact, not only were the allegations credible, but no one within the church denied that the abuse had taken place.

Instead of following the polices of the organization he heads, Conlon told the press that the Vatican was “forcing him” to reinstate Fr. Lee Ryan. Ryan was going to minister to shut-ins. In their homes. With their children and grandchildren. Unsupervised.

Conlon finally reversed his decision after huge backlash. We have yet to hear if the Vatican is mad.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Journal
By Dennis Yohnka
dyohnka@daily-journal.com
815-937-3384

Washington, D.C. attorney Mark Schamel has been offering some informal counsel to the friends of Rev. Lee Ryan, former pastor of St. Edmund Catholic Church in Watseka.

He makes it clear, though, that he can offer little optimism to the group hoping to see their 79-year-old priest cleared of sexual allegations, dating from the mid-1970s.

Schamel, a 15-year veteran defense lawyer, represents the Rev. Kevin McBrian, the other priest accused by a Florida man, now 52, who reported that his former teachers — Ryan, at Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, and McBrian, at Joliet Catholic High School

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CHILE
UPI

Published: Oct. 3, 2012

SANTIAGO, Chile, Oct. 3 (UPI) — A Catholic bishop in Chile is being investigated by the Vatican in connection with the sexual abuse of a minor, sources close to the church said.

The sources told The Santiago Times that the Vatican’s Chilean representative began looking into the case of Bishop Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez, 47, four months ago.

Ivo Scapolo has been given the task of determining if the allegations are true and whether any other complaints have been made.

Ordenes reportedly stepped down from his post in the northern city of Iquique in August, blaming ill health for his absence from religious events.

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CHILE
La Republica

Ministerio Público chileno pidió solicitó al Episcopado detalles de la investigación canónica que iniciaron. Mientras tanto Órdenes se encuentra en nuestro país con descanso médico

La justicia chilena inició una investigación contra el al obispo de Iquique por violación sexual contra un menor, luego que El Vaticano iniciara una indagación canónica.

La Fiscalía de Tarapacá señaló que pedirá al Obispado de Iquique y a la Conferencia Episcopal los antecedentes de la denuncia realizada contra Marco Órdenes, obispo de dicha diócesis, que data del 2009.

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CHILE
La Tercera

Rodrigo Pino, uno de los denunciantes por abusos supuestamente cometidos por el obispo de Iquique, Marco Antonio Ordenes, aseguró que si bien no estaba seguro de la naturaleza de su relación con el sacerdote, “a los 16 años me enamoré del obispo”.

“Estaba muy embobado, lo defendí siempre”, agregó en un testimonio rescatado por Cooperativa.

Añade que “cuando yo experimenté la primera vez y me sentía una persona culpable y sucia”, pero que el obispo le habría dicho “yo soy tu padre, yo te veo como un hijo, como un hermano, como un amante y como un amigo”.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on a petition drive against Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph:

Approximately 100,000 persons have signed a petition demanding the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn. It’s a phony exercise.

The petition is found on the website of change.org, home to mostly left-wing activists. Anyone can sign it—you don’t have to be Catholic or from Finn’s diocese. For example, almost 7,400 signatures were sent to the diocese, and all but approximately 150 were from outside the area. Of the signatories online, activists from foreign countries have signed. In short, there is no grassroots rebellion against Bishop Finn.

We know who Bishop Finn’s enemies are: the Kansas City Star and the National Catholic Reporter (both are located in Kansas City, Missouri). They are the real source behind this phony petition drive: Both have been beating the drum calling for Finn to resign. It is not child sexual abuse that angers them, it is where it takes place and under whose purview it is.

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DEUTSCHLAND
News 4 Teachers

HEPPENHEIM. Zweieinhalb Jahre nachdem der Missbrauch an der Odenwaldschule an die Öffentlichkeit kam, kritisieren viele Opfer immer noch die mangelnde Aufarbeitung durch die Schule. Schule und Opfer starten jetzt einen neuen Versuch, die Vorgänge aufzuarbeiten.

Die als schleppend kritisierte Aufarbeitung des sexuellen Missbrauchs an der Odenwaldschule könnte neuen Schwung bekommen. Zweieinhalb Jahre nachdem die Übergriffe in großem Ausmaß an die Öffentlichkeit kamen, ist ein Treffen geplant, das es in dieser Zusammensetzung aus Vertretern von Schule und Opfern noch nicht gegeben hat.

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VATIKAN
Tagesschau

Im Prozess gegen den früheren Kammerdiener von Papst Benedikt XVI. sind neue Details zur Dimension des Diebstahls bekannt geworden. Polizisten fanden in der Wohnung des Kammerdieners etwa 1000 vertrauliche Papiere. Nur ein Bruchteil davon wurde bislang veröffentlicht.

Von Tilmann Kleinung, ARD-Hörfunkstudio Rom

Der ehemalige Kammerdiener des Papstes, Paolo Gabriele hat sich offenbar im Lauf der Jahre ein regelrechtes Privatarchiv angelegt. Die Polizisten, die heute vor dem vatikanischen Gericht aussagten, bestätigten, dass sie alles in allem 82 Umzugskartons aus der Wohnung Gabrieles heraus getragen hatten. Voll mit Kopien und Originaldokumenten aus dem Büro des Papstes und seines Sekretärs.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Schafsbrief

.Ein Schaf fordert den Rücktritt von Bischof Ackermann als Missbrauchsbeauftragter der deutschen Bischofskonferenz. Ein zweites überlegt noch. Hat aber schon mal Fakten gesammelt:

Von und für + Dr. Stephan Ackermann, dem Missbrauchbeauftragten der deutschen Bischofskonferenz

In Würdigung seiner Taten für uns arme betroffene Schweine.

In Anerkennung seines Leids mit dem leidigen Thema.

Auch wir sind der Meinung: Null Toleranz gegenüber der Nicht-Tat,

aber Nachssehen mit dem Untätigen.

Und für ein Quantanamo für Vertuscherbischöfe.

Das Schwarzbuch der Opferverarsche Teil 1:

Beispiel 1: Treffen im bischöflichen Generalvikariat am 11.01.2012:

… Trier – Sexuelle Gewalt verjährt moralisch nie. Zugleich sollten die zivilrechtlichen Verjährungsfristen verlängert werden. Das hat der Trierer Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann am 11. Januar in Trier betont. Bischof Ackermann hatte die haupt- und ehrenamtlichen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter des Bistums und weitere Interessierte zu einem Meinungsaustausch zum Thema „Sexueller Missbrauch“ eingeladen. In dem Gespräch ging es um die Fragen, wie die Aufarbeitung von Fällen sexueller Gewalt gut gelingen kann, wie ein angemessener Umgang mit den Opfern, aber auch mit den betroffenen Gemeinden möglich ist und wie eine Kultur der Achtsamkeit im Bistum Trier noch stärker etabliert werden kann. Rund 200 Interessierte folgten der Einladung des Trierer Bischofs.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Schafsbrief

Heute sollte eigentlich in der ZDF-Sendung frontal21 ein Bericht über die Vorgänge am Aloisiuskolleg gesendet werden. Kam nix. Nach Informationen von schafbrief.de wurde die Ausstrahlung wohl auf juristische Intervention hin (?) abgesetzt.

Auch ein WDR-Videobeitrag, der vom Gerichtstermin am letzten Mittwoch berichtete ist derzeit nicht mehr auf der WDR-Seite abrufbar. Auf Nachfragen unseres Netzwerkes war hier wohl auch Juristerei im Spiel.

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CHILE
kathweb

Vatikan nahm im April Ermittlungen gegen Bischof Ordenes von Iquique auf und bot zeitgleich Opfern psychologische und medizinische Betreuung an

03.10.2012

Santiago, 03.10.2012 (KAP) Die Chilenische Bischofskonferenz hat am Dienstag (Ortszeit) Untersuchungen gegen Bischof Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez (47) bestätigt. Dem Bischof von Iquique wird sexueller Missbrauch in mehreren Fällen vorgeworfen. Um sich zu den Vorwürfen zu äußern, soll Ordenes in den kommenden Tagen aus Peru nach Chile zurückkehren, wo er sich derzeit wegen eines Leberleidens behandeln lässt.

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OSTERREICH
Vorarlberg

Der Vorarlberger Autor Hans Weiss hat Gewaltätigkeiten und sexuellen Missbrauch an Kindern in 135 Heimen untersucht. In seinem eben erschienenen Buch „Tatort Kinderheim“ beleuchtet der Autor auch Vorfälle im Klostergymnasium Mehrerau.

Bis weit ins letzte Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts waren Kinder- und Jugendheime in Österreich „Zentren der Gewalttätigkeit und des sexuellen Missbrauchs“. Zu diesem Befund kommt der Autor Hans Weiss in seinem Buch „Tatort Kinderheim“, das am Montagabend in der Wiener Hauptbücherei vorgestellt wird.

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OSTERREICH
Mein Bezirk

Beim unabhängigen „Anwalt für Opfer von Gewalt und sexuellem Missbrauch in kirchlichen Einrichtungen“ und der „Ombudsstelle der Diözese Gurk für Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs in der Kirche“ hat es von 1995, seit Installierung der Ombudsstelle, bis heute insgesamt 43 Kontaktnahmen gegeben.

Von diesen 43 Kontaktnahmen erfolgten elf anonym, sechs Fälle sind bereits seit mindestens sieben Jahren abgeschlossen. Durch diese Kontaktnahmen wurden Verdachtsfälle von Gewalt und sexuellem Missbrauch in kirchlichen Einrichtungen in der Diözese Gurk gemeldet, die alle – bis auf einen Fall aus dem Jahr 2002, bei dem die Staatsanwaltschaft die Vorerhebung eingestellt hat – mehr als 30 Jahre zurückliegen.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Today was the third hearing of the Paolo Gabriele case. During today’s testimonies, descriptions were given of the seized letters and books which the Pope’s former butler had kept in paper and digital format

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

The poison pen letter writer’s strange 007-style archive. Letters from politicians, correspondence between cardinals and the Pope and documents on freemasonry and secret services. When Paolo Gabriele’s house was searched on 23 May, for the leaked Vatican documents, the hunt extended to the children’s rooms as well. As the search dragged on and Gabriele had decided not to send his family away, the commander of the Vatican Gendarmerie, Domenico Giani, issued an order for the search in the children’s rooms to be speeded up so as to protect them as afar as possible and allow them to sleep.

On the third day of the butler’s trial, the four Vatican policemen who were heard in court, provided information on the scene where they discovered the poison pen letter writer’s dossier. Two of the m in particular – Silvano Carli and Luca Bassetti – arrived on the scene when the house search was already underway, especially to look through the children’s rooms. The policemen said that Gabriele offered them coffee during the search and then said to them: “It’s a pity you’ll be finish here late tonight, as you can see I like reading and writing.”

Eighty two crates of seized material were taken from the former butler’s house, plus two leather briefcases and two yellow folders full of letters. “Paolo Gabriele thanked us again and again for the humane attitude shown throughout the investigation.”

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

HEATHER SCOFFIELD

OTTAWA — The Canadian Press

The federal government has been billed more than $3-million for its unsuccessful attempts to keep a high-stakes battle over first nations child welfare out of the courts.

Invoices obtained through the Access to Information Act show the Justice Department, acting on behalf of Aboriginal Affairs, paid out at least $3.1-million for legal services between 2007 and June 2012.

Government lawyers were trying to quash claims from first nations child rights advocates that Ottawa is short-changing native communities by funding child welfare services at 22 per cent below provincial levels.

The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations launched a human rights challenge that dates back to 2007.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by
Carol Glatz,
Cindy Wooden,
Catholic News Service

Vatican police officers who searched Paolo Gabriele’s apartment testified they found “an infinite amount” of documents and news clippings covering a vast range of topics, including the Masons, the Vatican bank and yoga.

Although they sequestered 82 moving boxes full of materials, once the police inspected all the paper, only a fraction of the material was deemed relevant to the case, officers told a three-judge panel on the third day of the “VatiLeaks” trial.

Vatican judges said they would hear closing arguments Saturday; a verdict was possible the same day.

Each of the four police officers testifying Wednesday also said they did not wear gloves during the search, saying that was not the usual protocol for conducting a search and seizure of paper.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The trial of Pope Benedict Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler for stealing documents is due to end on Saturday, the Vatican has announced.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi confirmed the trial would end just hours before a major Vatican conference of the world’s bishops.

Paolo Gabriele’s arrest and trial have proved embarrassing for the Vatican, correspondents say.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Providence Journal

October 3, 2012

By Thomas J. Morgan …

20 years ago today:
Former priest James R. Porter likely will challenge on constitutional grounds the child molestation charges brought against him in North Attleboro, Fall River and New Bedford between 1961 and 1967, local criminal lawyers say. A key issue is expected to be the state’s statute of limitations.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Ralph Riegel and Barry Duggan

Wednesday October 03 2012

A parish priest has slated Taoiseach Enda Kenny as “a dope” over the controversy surrounding his Vatican visit.

Fr Gabriel Burke, a priest in the diocese of Cloyne, Co Cork, also demanded answers as to why “spin doctors” hinted that the Taoiseach was ever going to get a private meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.

Fr Burke yesterday told the Irish Independent that it was “inevitable” people would interpret the Taoiseach’s constant fiddling with his mobile phone during a speech by the Pope as “bad manners”.

“If he was a true statesman he would have had a well-worded press release that would have said absolutely nothing — but for that you need intelligence. Remember, Indy (sic) is a trained school teacher and only a few weeks ago told us Lenin came to Ireland,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Newswire

Contact: Robyn Williams, 360-802‐9758, robyn@winepresspublishing.com

ROCK ISLAND, Ill./ENUMCLAW, Wash., Oct. 3, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ — As a young child, Bill Christman experienced the ultimate betrayal. Sexually abused by a Catholic priest, Bill’s life was set down a path of fear, rage, violence, drug abuse and alcoholism to mask the pain.

For Bill, the trauma of his priest’s perverse pleasures had taunted, and then ruined his childhood innocence. Playful boyhood pranks spiraled into patterns of anger, fits of rage, and lawless violence. Alcohol and drugs played their part, pushed him into homelessness, and finally brought him to his knees. Desperate, Bill cried out to God for an answer.

Through AA he stopped drinking, but inner misery cloaked him like an angry shroud. How could he find the peace he craved? A fellow AA member — ironically, a priest — soon became his emotional and spiritual mentor.

Wanting only an apology, and encouraged to go through proper channels within his Diocese, Bill was forced to engage a lawyer. A series of tense, intimidating and seemingly fruitless meetings dragged on but through the support of godly Catholic priests, Bill did the unthinkable: he faced his abuser, released the burden of hate, and received the gift of forgiveness. A visit to the Vatican with his mentor leads to Bill receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation and a touch from God.

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UNITED STATES
What They Knew

Given our previous post publishing the Christmas card sent by Pope Benedict in December 2006 to Donald McGuire SJ in prison after his conviction for child molestation, WTK thinks it’s only appropriate to show you what the Pope got from the Jesuit sex abuse and priest Donald McGuire SJ who was first convicted in a public trial by jury in February 2006. It was widely known HERE.

So there is no confusion as to what Pope Benedict knew, below is the letter he received from Donald McGuire SJ or Registered Sex Offender/Inmate 00499325 (link to Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry) for 944.11: Indecent Behavior with a Child, Conviction Date 02/23/2006. The letter and the card pretty much tell you everything anyone, including his friend the Pope, would need to know.

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MISSOURI
Belleville News-Democrat

By CHRIS BLANK — Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A federal judge rejected a request to stop Missouri from enforcing a new state law that makes it a crime to disturb a worship service, but opponents vowed Tuesday to press on with their efforts to overturn it and said they are confident they’ll eventually succeed.

Missouri’s worship law, which took effect in August, makes it a misdemeanor to intentionally disturb or interrupt a “house of worship” with profane language, rude or indecent behavior or noise that breaks the solemnity of the service. First-time offenders face up to six months in jail and a $500 fine, and repeat offenders face escalating penalties, culminating in up to four years in prison.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing to overturn the law on behalf of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, another group and two individuals, sought a preliminary injunction from the U.S. District Court in St. Louis that would bar enforcement of the law pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

Senior Judge E. Richard Webber rejected the request in a 16-page ruling issued last week. He found that the plaintiffs didn’t sufficiently show they were likely to win, and he said the hardship caused by blocking the law would exceed that of allowing it to stand.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Oct. 2, 2012

It is a story almost too horrible to comprehend.

Deaf boys sent by their parents to a Catholic boarding school in Wisconsin, where they were molested again and again by a popular priest who stalked them in their dorm rooms at night, on trips to his North Woods cabin, even in the confessional.

Dismissed as “mentally retarded,” they were often not believed, or worse ignored, for years by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, police, prosecutors and the media.

Gary Smith and Arthur Budzinski are among the victims of the late Father Lawrence Murphy who have worked for decades to make their voices heard. Their heartbreaking accounts have since been told on the pages of the Journal Sentinel and The New York Times.

Now they’ll reach a new and potentially wider audience with the release of an HBO documentary by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

Illinois Justice Anne M. Burke (wife of Chicago ward boss Ed Burke) once served as the interim chair of the National Review Board, a lay group who advises the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on sex abuse policy. However, after her spiteful speech at this year’s Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) Conference, one cannot help but ask, “If these are the ‘faithful,’ who needs enemies?”

Burke’s 30-minute diatribe on September 14 at the Boston get-together took sharp aim at the Church’s bishops, as she accused Church leaders of:
■treating lay people as “second class citizens” and “serfs”;
■asking Catholics “to check [their] brains at the front door”;
■prioritizing “pride, untruths, [and] protecting the institution at all costs”;
■implementing “a needless attack upon the women religious”;
■”resurrecting the Inquisition”; and
■committing a “new form of lay abuse.”

Just.plain.weird

Yet the most bizarre aspect of Burke’s speech was her citations of various cultural and Church figures sprinkled in her talk. Among others, Burke variously quoted Cher, Wayne Gretzky, John Wayne, Thomas Edison, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, John F. Kennedy, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By John Futty
The Columbus DispatchTuesday October 2, 2012

A group that advocates for the victims of sexual abuse by priests wants a more thorough investigation of a Greek Orthodox priest who pleaded guilty last week to seeking sex with boys.

The case of Patrick N. Hughes, known as Father Nicholas, deserves closer scrutiny in light of concerns expressed by a fellow cleric in Ashland County, according to members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

The group’s Columbus director, Carol Zamonski, hand-delivered a letter to Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien today, asking him “to seek out and offer encouragement to others with knowledge of or suspicions about Hughes’ misdeeds or the Greek Orthodox hierarchy’s complicity.”

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on October 2, 2012

It isn’t about faith, it’s about crime.

Here are five reasons you should care about the Catholic Clergy Sex Abuse and Cover-up Crisis:

1) Many church officials have broken and are breaking the law. The William Lynn trial in Philadelphia and the child pornography cover-up scandal in Kansas City are only unique because church officials—Former Philadelphia Vicar for Clergy Msgr. William Lynn and Kansas City’s Bishop Finn—were criminally punished.

In Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Gallup, Seattle, Fairbanks, Boston, Toledo, Wilmington DE, and elsewhere, these crimes have continued for decades, but have never been punished because statutes of limitations have passed or church officials kept evidence hidden. The children who were injured came from many faiths and all income levels. They all had one thing in common: they were vulnerable.

2) The Church uses your tax dollars to pay for victims’ care. Victims of child sexual abuse are horribly injured, and many suffer for decades after the abuse. In most cases, the church knows exactly who the predators are, where they worked, whom they encountered, and who the victims are. Or, they can easily find out.

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VATICAN CITY
Belfast Telegraph

Vatican police found thousands of documents hidden inside the home of the pope’s butler, including originals signed by the pontiff with indications they should be destroyed.

Officers gave evidence in the trial of Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s once-trusted butler who faces four years in prison if convicted of aggravated theft for stealing papal documents and leaking them to a journalist.

The final four witnesses were heard and closing arguments are set for Saturday, when a verdict by the three-judge Vatican panel is expected.

Inspector Silvano Carli said that of the hundreds of thousands of documents seized from Gabriele’s home, about 1,000 were of interest since they were original or photocopied Vatican documents.

Some documents came from the pope’s office, some carried the processing codes of the secretariat of state, others originated in various Vatican congregations “and some documents concerned the total privacy and private life of the Holy Father,” said police officer Stefano De Santis.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella and Naomi O’Leary

VATICAN CITY | Wed Oct 3, 2012

(Reuters) – Pope Benedict’s former butler Paolo Gabriele, on trial for stealing and leaking papal documents, possessed papers the pope had marked “to be destroyed,” police testified at his Vatican trial on Wednesday.

On the third day of the process, held under a 19th century Italian penal code, members of the Holy See’s small police force said the theft of encrypted documents had compromised some Vatican operations.

They also found instructions that Gabriele had printed on how to hide files in computers and how to use cellphones secretly.

Members of the Corps of Gendarmerie said many newspaper clippings, books and other material seized in the search of Gabriele’s apartment showed he was fascinated by the occult, Masonic lodges, secret services, and past Vatican and Italian scandals.

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VATICAN CITY
Fox News

Published October 03, 2012

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – Members of the Vatican police force have testified that they found thousands of pages of documents — about Freemasonry, secret service security forces and internal Vatican letters — inside the Vatican City apartment of Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler, who is on trial for aggravated theft.

Their testimony continues Wednesday in a Vatican courtroom in the trial of Paolo Gabriele, the 46-year-old father of three who faces four years in prison if convicted.

On Tuesday, Gabriele declared himself innocent of the charge, but acknowledged he photocopied the pope’s private correspondence, in broad daylight and in the presence of others, using the photocopier in the office he shared with the pope’s two private secretaries.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

A jury has failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a young girl nearly 30 years ago.

Jurors returned to Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday after over five hours of deliberations to say they couldn’t agree on a verdict in the trial of Father Peter Donnelly and the foreman said there was no prospect of them doing so.

Donnelly, from Drumaroad Hill in Castlewellan, had denied six counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency against the girl.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

JOANNE HUNT

PROVIDING TREATMENT for those who sexually abuse children is essential to breaking the cycle of abuse, a victim support group has said.

One in Four, which treated 28 sex offenders last year, says that with fewer than 5 per cent of offenders ever convicted, there is a great need for treatment in the community.

“Research consistently shows that effective treatment programmes reduce the risk of reoffending, yet most sex offenders in Ireland do not have access to treatment,” said executive director of the body Maeve Lewis.

“We also know that many sex offenders will continue to abuse throughout their lives until they are caught. While good programmes are available in prison, fewer than 5 per cent of sex offenders will ever be convicted. There is a huge need for treatment in the community.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

The jury has been discharged in the trial of a priest accused of sexually abusing a young girl almost 30 years ago, after failing to reach a verdict.

Fr Peter Donnelly, from Castlewellan, denies six counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency.

The alleged victim claimed it happened at the parochial house of St Matthew’s Church, Belfast, where he was curate.

The jury foreman told the judge there was no prospect of them agreeing on a verdict.

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OHIO
Fox 19

LOGAN, Ohio (AP) – A former southeastern Ohio youth pastor has pleaded guilty to sex charges involving a 13-year-old girl in the congregation.

The Logan Daily News (http://bit.ly/Ry1Ggg ) reports that 31-year-old Travis Branstetter pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of attempted gross sexual imposition as part of a negotiated plea agreement. Other charges were dropped.

Branstetter was an ordained minister who was youth pastor for five years at the Church of the Nazarene in Logan, about 50 miles southeast of Columbus.

A judge said he could get up to three years in prison, but his attorney will ask for probation and other sanctions. He will be sentenced Dec. 21.

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OHIO
Logan Daily News

BY DEBRA TOBIN Logan Daily News Reporter dtobin@logandaily.com

LOGAN — Travis Branstetter, a former youth pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in South Logan who was charged with 10 counts of sexual battery and four counts of sexual imposition in October 2011, appeared in Hocking County Common Pleas Court with his attorneys Kevin O’Brien and Tom Martello as part of a plea agreement on Tuesday.

Branstetter pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted gross sexual imposition, all fifth degree felonies.

Upon request by the victim’s family, Hocking County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Archer addressed the court with regard to a plea agreement with Branstetter.

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CHILE
El Boyaldia

[The Diocese of Iquique made a statement.]

El Departamento de Comunicaciones del Obispado de Iquique, ante las noticias aparecidas en los medios de comunicación social, declara:

– Que efectivamente, monseñor Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández, Obispo de Iquique, está siendo investigado canónicamente por una denuncia formulada en su contra.

– Que efectivamente, como se ha dicho, monseñor Órdenes Fernández, padece de una antigua afección al hígado, lo que terminó transformándose en una descompensación enzimática y en un agudo estrés.

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CHILE
Terra

La Fiscalía Regional de Tarapacá informó este martes que el obispo de Iquique, Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández, fue investigado hace algunos años por el Ministerio Público por una denuncia de delito sexual interpuesta por los padres de una víctima que, a la fecha de la denuncia, ya era mayor de edad. Estos hechos corresponderían a los mismos denunciados ante las autoridades eclesiásticas.

Esta causa fue objeto de conocimiento en su momento por la Fiscalía Local de Iquique, bajo el mandato del ex Fiscal Regional, Claudio Roe. Considerando que el espíritu de la denuncia era más que investigar el hecho ocurrido años anteriores, que estaría eventualmente prescrito, el que se evitara la repetición o comisión de hechos similares en otras víctimas, se realizaron diversas diligencias policiales que no arrojaron resultados positivos.

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CHILE
Radio Santiago

Por orden del Vaticano se inició una investigación eclesiástica de carácter previo respecto del obispo de Iquique, Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernández. La indagatoria que comenzó hace cerca de cuatro meses y busca esclarecer la veracidad de una denuncia de abuso sexual a un menor, que afecta al prelado de 47 años.

Debido a la investidura de Ordenes, las pesquisas no se encargaron a un sacerdote en Chile, sino que fueron derivadas al nuncio apostólico Ivo Scapolo, representante del Vaticano en el país.

Según información de tres fuentes ligadas a la Iglesia, el nuncio deberá analizar la verosimilitud o no de los hechos y determinar si existen más denuncias en contra del religioso.

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CHILE
Conferencia Episcopal de Chile

Al tratarse de un obispo, el procedimiento es realizado por la Santa Sede.

Martes 02 de Octubre del 2012

El Portavoz de la Conferencia Episcopal de Chile, Jaime Coiro, dio a conocer el comunicado de prensa emitido por la Nunciatura Apostólica, sobre la denuncia en contra de monseñor Marco Antonio Órdenes.

El texto dice lo siguiente:

La Nunciatura Apostólica en Chile informa que se está desarrollando desde abril de este año una investigación en relación a Mons. Marco Ordenes, Obispo de Iquique. Por el hecho de que la persona denunciada es un Obispo, el procedimiento es llevado a cabo por la Santa Sede.

Desde el inicio de este caso, la Nunciatura ha procurado ofrecer apoyo psicológico y acompañamiento para las personas afectadas y ha estado en contacto con Monseñor Ordenes, quien se encuentra con permiso médico.

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CHILE
Emol

Iglesia ha procurado apoyo sicológico a afectados por supuestos abusos de obispo de Iquique

SANTIAGO.- El portavoz del Episcopado, Jaime Coiro, confirmó este mediodía que el Vaticano inició una investigación eclesiástica de carácter previo por una denuncia de abuso sexual en contra del obispo de Iquique, Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández (47 años).

De acuerdo a los protocolos de la Iglesia Católica, el vocero señaló que desde el inicio de este caso la nunciatura “ha procurado ofrecer apoyo sicológico y acompañamiento para las personas afectadas”.

“La Nunciatura Apostólica en Chile informa que se está desarrollando desde abril de este año una investigación en relación a monseñor Marco Órdenes. Por el hecho de que la persona denunciada es un obispo, el procedimiento es llevado a cabo por la Santa Sede”, explicó Coiro .

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CHILE
La Tercera

por Natalia Ramos y Jorge Poblete

Una investigación eclesiástica de carácter previo inició el Vaticano respecto del obispo de Iquique, Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernández. La indagatoria se inició hace cerca de cuatro meses y busca esclarecer la veracidad de una denuncia de abuso sexual a un menor, que afecta al prelado de 47 años.

Debido a la investidura de Ordenes, las pesquisas no se encargaron a un sacerdote en Chile, sino que fueron derivadas al nuncio apostólico Ivo Scapolo, representante del Vaticano en el país.

Según informaron a La Tercera tres fuentes ligadas a la Iglesia, el nuncio deberá analizar la verosimilitud o no de los hechos y determinar si existen más denuncias en contra del religioso.

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CHILE
Santiago Times

Tuesday, 02 October 2012
Written by Mischa Wilmers

Sources close to the Church say the Vatican has been investigating sex abuse claims for months.

The Vatican is launching a historic investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of a minor perpetrated a Chilean bishop, according to sources close to the Church. It is the first time a Chilean bishop has been investigated by the Vatican.

Fourty-seven-year-old Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández, bishop of the northern city of Iquique, is being investigated by Ivo Scapolo, the Vatican’s Chilean representative who began looking into the case four months ago.

Scapolo has been assigned the task of determining if the allegations are true and whether any other complaints have been made against the bishop.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Lez Get Real

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on October 2, 2012

Pennsylvania Common Pleas Judge Paula Patrick ordered serious charges of deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault and statutory sexual assault against Father Andrew McCormick reinstated. The charges were initially dismissed by Municipal Judge Karen Y. Simons after a preliminary hearing back in August. The now 24-year-old alleged victim was an altar boy of ten when McCormick allegedly tried to force him to have oral intercourse.

McCormick was, at that hearing, held for trial on misdemeanor charges of indecent assault, corrupting the morals of a minor and endangering the welfare of a child.

Assistant District Attorney Jack O’Neill praised the man who came forward over the alleged assault, and stated that “This was an extremely clear law. The judge looked at the law, looked at the testimony and applied the law. Most of all, we’re just grateful the victim was courageous to come forward. Now, this case is moving forward as it should.”

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NICARAGUA
The Tico Times

By David Hutt | Special to The Tico Times

LEÓN, Nicaragua – Last month saw two major stories involving sexual abuse in the headlines of Nicaraguan newspapers. First came the account of a mentally and physically disabled 12-year-old girl allegedly raped by four policemen and a security guard 30 meters from the presidential compound in the capital. Three policemen were arrested, but not the guard, who local media reported works for a company with political ties to a top Sandinista leader.

Days later, the alleged victim attempted suicide. “She cut one of her wrists and was taken to a hospital last week,” a statement published on the website of the Nicaragua Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) said.

The trial against the three policemen begins Oct. 7. …

Jiménez also mentioned past allegations against President Daniel Ortega. In 1998, Ortega’s stepdaughter, Zoilamérica Narváez, accused the current president of sexually abusing her from 1979 (when she was 11) until 1990. Both Ortega and Narváez’s mother, First Lady and Sandinista spokeswoman Rosario Murillo, denied the charges, and the case was never brought to trial. Instead, Nicaraguan courts granted Ortega immunity from prosecution because he was a member of the legislature.

In Nicaragua, charges of sexual abuse and rape have a five-year statute of limitation. Narváez has never withdrawn her accusation, although the charges expired long ago. …

Then, in 2011, the Sandinista government gave red-carpet treatment to Belgian priest François Houtart during the commemoration of the anniversary of the Sandinista revolution. Houtart is a confessed pedophile who renounced a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in 2010 after admitting that he raped his 8-year-old cousin.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Wednesday, 3 October 2012

A jury has failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a young girl nearly 30 years ago.

Jurors returned to Belfast Crown Court yesterday after more than five hours of deliberations to say they could not agree on a verdict in the trial of Father Peter Donnelly.

The jury foreman said there was no prospect of them doing so.

Donnelly, from Drumaroad Hill in Castlewellan, had denied six counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency against the girl who was aged between 10 and 14 at the time of the alleged offences between July 31, 1983 and August 1, 1987.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

BY MENSAH M. DEAN
Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News Staff Writer

A PHILADELPHIA judge Tuesday reinstated three felony charges against a Catholic priest who is accused of forcing oral sex on a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997.

Father Andrew McCormick sat stoically at the defense table as Common Pleas Judge Paula Patrick held him for trial after a brief hearing on involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault and statutory sexual assault.

Those charges were dismissed by Municipal Judge Karen Y. Simmons following an August preliminary hearing, during which the now-24-year-old alleged victim testified that McCormick, 56, straddled him and put his penis on the victim’s lips and on his teeth.

The alleged incident took place in the rectory of St. John Cantius Church, in Bridesburg, where McCormick was a priest and the accuser was an altar boy.

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OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By Mary Beth Lane
The Columbus Dispatch

Tuesday October 2, 2012

A former youth pastor pleaded guilty today in Hocking County Common Pleas Court to three counts of attempted gross sexual imposition involving a 13-year-old girl in the congregation.

Visiting Judge Dale Crawford scheduled sentencing for Dec. 21.

Travis J. Branstetter, 31, of Logan, an ordained minister who was youth pastor for five years at the Church of the Nazarene, took a negotiated plea deal.

The offense carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison, the prosecutor’s office said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Your Erie

October 2, 2012 – Catholic Bishops from all over Pennsylvania extended their stay in Erie after Monday’s ordination and installation of Bishop Persico.

The Bishops spent the day at Saint Mark Center for the provincial meeting of the Bishops of Pennsylvania.

They meet annually.

And this year, because of Bishop Persico’s ceremony, they had the conference in Erie where they had meetings and a mass this morning.

Several topics were discussed including the health and human services mandate.

“We’ll talk about other common interests like how do we bring back Catholics who have left the church, how do we try to minister to those who have been hurt by the sexual abuse scandal in the church, how do we find good candidates to take our place as bishops and those sorts of things we do every year,” said Bishop Chaput, Archbishop of Philadelphia.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

A Philadelphia judge has reinstated felony sex-assault charges against a suspended Roman Catholic priest, weeks after a different judge dismissed them.

Tuesday’s ruling means the Rev. Andrew McCormick will face trial on charges he molested a 10-year-old altar boy at St. John Cantius rectory in 1997. The 25-year-old accuser says he went to authorities amid news of the Jerry Sandusky and Philadelphia archdiocese abuse cases.

An earlier judge had found the alleged abuse described by the accuser at a preliminary hearing did not meet the legal definition of the felony sexual assault charges. But Common Pleas Judge Paula Patrick has reinstated them after hearing arguments Tuesday.

Defense lawyer William Brennan says he still believes the commonwealth has a weak case.

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CANADA
The StarPhoenix

By Jason Warick, The StarPhoenix October 2, 2012

A former Saskatoon priest who sexually abused more than a dozen children will be out of prison in time to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner.

“This is just ludicrous,” one of William Hodgson Marshall’s alleged Saskatoon victims said Tuesday.

“I’m not afraid of him anymore, but it just pisses me off. He should spend the rest of his life behind bars.”

Marshall, who is in his early 90s, is due for statutory release from an Ontario prison Monday after reaching the two-thirds mark of his two-year sentence, according to Parole Board of Canada documents.

He was convicted of abusing 17 children while working at schools across Ontario during a 30-year period and also stands charged with abusing two Saskatoon boys at a Saskatoon high school in the 1960s.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Vatican spokesman Fr. Lombardi dismissed the accusations made by the defendant during today’s hearing

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

During the second hearing in the Vatileaks case, the Pope’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele criticised the mental pressure and other mistreatments he was subjected to for the first 15-20 days of his detention. “I couldn’t even stretch my arms out,” and “the light was kept on 24/7, he stated.”

“There was no light switch and so I suffered loss of vision.” Answering questions addressed to him by his lawyer, Gabriele also complained about the “mental pressure” he was put under, “particularly on the fist night” of his detention: “I was even refused a pillow.”

The President of the Vatican Tribunal, Giuseppe Dalla Torre, asked the Promoter of Justice, Nicola Picardi, to open case file no. 52/2012, to check whether there were any other abuses during the defendant’s detention.

In relation to this, the Vatican’s spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, pointed out that Paolo Gabriele’s conditions were “very humane”.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

The senior Vatican official with authority for investigating priests accused of sexual abuse said the most important concern is for those who have been the victims of this terrible abuse.

Archbishop Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the congregation also has an obligation to ensure that the process of justice does not “become a lynching.”

He inherited cases, studies and projects the congregation had begun under his predecessor, U.S. Cardinal William Levada, including the congregation-ordered revision of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the largest organization of superiors of women’s orders in the United States.

Muller already knew something about these issues because he had been a member of the congregation for the past five years while serving as archbishop of Regensburg, Germany.

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