ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Renew America

By Matt C. Abbott

I’ve written about the Truth Alliance Foundation previously, but it’s worth revisiting.

Thomas R. Hampson, an Illinois licensed private investigator and founder of the Truth Alliance Foundation, is determined to fight the plague of child sexual abuse by investigating and exposing pedophile networks.

Hampson’s résumé is impressive. In the 1960s, he worked for the U.S. Air Force Security Service as an intelligence analyst. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he worked for the Illinois Legislative Investigating Commission as a chief investigator.

From 1983 to 2004, he served as president of Search International, Inc., a company he established as an international investigation and security agency. And from March 2006 to September 2007, he was hired as a contract employee by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to investigate the sexual exploitation of children by priests.

Hampson writes that TAF is presently investigating three pedophile networks.

The first is the ‘Boys’ Club’ [see my Nov. 18, 2011 column for more on the matter].

The second is the Pentagon child porn network. A few years ago it was determined that hundreds of computers at the Pentagon had downloaded child porn. Several people have been arrested and convicted, but the prosecutions are scattered and there seems to be no central account of the overall case. Having come out of the national security apparatus, I know the control that is exercised over the use of computers at the Pentagon. It should have been no problem to get all of the perpetrators. I have to wonder why the case seems to be so disjointed.

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AUSTRALIA/UNITED STATES
The Freethinker

By
Barry Duke
– October 2, 2012

“PRO-CHURCH” members of the Australian police, in cahoots with top US Catholics, have been accused of derailing an investigation into a paedophile priest who fled to America where his is now under the protection of the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Brother Bernard Hartman, now performing clerical work under a ”safety plan” that ensures he had no contact with young people or vulnerable women, is accused of raping several young Victorian children and teenagers in the 1970s.

Interference with the case manifested itself, according to this report in The Age, with the removal of the police sergeant leading the investigation, who claims he was taken off the investigation after a complaint from a high-ranking Catholic official in the US.

In a letter sent last month to one of the alleged victims of Hartman the officer also accuses church officials in America of ”actively hindering” his inquiry.

The 26-year veteran of the police force, whom The Age has decided not to name, was removed from the Hartman case by a more senior officer last month, only days after the sergeant initiated proceedings to have the Marianist brother extradited to Australia.

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CANADA
London Free Press

The top priest at St. Peter’s Seminary in London is tackling a topic often seen as taboo in the Catholic Church.

Rev. Stevan Wlusek, the rector at the seminary, penned From Darkness into Transforming Light, a book focusing on the how Catholic teachings can be used as a resource to help the spiritual healing process of sexual abuse survivors.

The target audience of the 299-page book is priests, bishops and abuse victims themselves, said Wlusek, an associate professor of spirituality and pastoral theology.

Wlusek, who served as the Bishop’s delegate for sexual abuse allegations for several years, has seen first-hand how sexual abuse wreaks destruction on survivors’ lives.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

Reminder: First Friday Vigil outside the Archdiocesan Offices at 222 N. 17th Street on October 5, 2012 from 12 noon to 1 p.m.

Advocate Sister Maureen Paul Turlish sent the following to the Archdiocesan-administered PhillyCatholic.com in response to Archbishop Chaput’s recent comments regarding child sex abuse legislation.

by Sister Maureen Paul Turlish

What about our Church’s Sanctity of Life issues, its Pro-Life position and the fact that so many refuse to broaden their vision to include the comprehensive ethic of life about which Joseph Cardinal Bernardin speaks of in “A Consistent Ethic of Life: An American-Catholic Dialogue?”

How is it that Archbishop Chaput and the bishops of Pennsylvania can oppose PA House Bill 2488 so cavalierly? Do not all of Pennsylvania’s children have a right to the full protection of law? To access Justice?

Then why has Archbishop Chaput misrepresented this law and the previously introducted HB 832 & 878 saying that such laws would only apply to the Catholic Church? That was untrue.

The same thing was tried in Delaware when opponents, including the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, claimed that Delaware’s proposed law only applied to accusations of childhood sexual abuse against those representing the Catholic Church. That was never true.

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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 young man was an altar boy.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPVI

PHILADELPHIA – October 2, 2012 (WPVI) — Felony charges have been reinstated against a former Philadelphia priest, accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy over a decade ago.

56-year-old Andrew Mccormick is facing endangering the welfare of a child, corrupting the morals of a minor, indecent assault, and indecent exposure charges. However, he is now facing additional felony charges, including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, sexual assault.

The charges stem from the alleged sexual assault of a ten year old boy in 1997. McCormick was a priest at St. John Cantius Church in Bridesburg at the time.

Prosecutors say following the abuse, McCormick attempted to keep the boy quiet, allegedly telling the victim, “Masturbation is a sin, homosexuality is a sin, pre-marital sex is a sin and lying is a sin.”

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PHILIPPINES
Manila Standard Today

By Manila Standard Today | Posted on October 03, 2012

A PARISH priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cubao was suspended after he was found to be fond of going to a nightclub, a diocesan spokesman said over the church-owned Radio Veritas.

Diocesan spokesman Rev. Aries Sison identified the priest as Bong Guerrero, parish priest of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the city’s Cubao district, who was suspended by Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco last Sept. 25.

Sison said the diocese was already imposing disciplinary sanctions on Guerrero even before the priest’s activities was revealed by the television news program XXX of the ABS-CBN network.

“The fist measure was to remove him as parish priest. Secondly, Bishop Ongtioco suspended his priestly functions. These two measures were done to avoid further harm, further scandal and to stop him from falling into greater sin,” Sison said in the radio interview.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
ABC News

By Genevieve Shaw Brown
@gsbrownabc

A Catholic priest who was defrocked for allegedly sexually abusing young girls was hired by the Transportation Security Administration before his background check was complete and has worked at Philadelphia International Airport for the last 10 years.

Thomas Harkins joined the TSA in 2002 after resigning from the priesthood the same year. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the TSA hired the former priest before completing a background check. The Diocese of Camden revealed to the TSA in 2003 as part of the background check that Harkins had been removed from his ministry in the diocese because of allegations he had molested two girls in grade school.

The diocese told ABC News Harkins was ordained in 1971 and was placed under restrictive ministry in 1993 when the diocese was informed of a report of inappropriate sexual contact with an adolescent female. Later that year, the diocese was informed of another report involving another adolescent female, diocesan spokesman Peter Feuerherd said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
York Dispatch

The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA—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 Penn State 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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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

By Michael L. Tan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
10:32 pm | Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

My last few columns have been quite serious with martial law and blood ivory, so let’s take a break today and talk about lighter matters.

“Lighter” is relative. I will still have to refer to the National Geographic article by Bryan Christy about ivory trafficking, where a Monsignor Cristobal Garcia was implicated by the author as a particularly avid collector. In my column I wrote about how the monsignor had gotten into trouble in the United States, was dismissed, came home and “became a bishop,” which I presumed was the case because he was a monsignor.

Three clergymen, no less, wrote me to clarify that a monsignor is not necessarily a bishop. Let me share parts of their e-mails.

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PHILIPPINES
GMA News

A Catholic priest, whose parish was in Quezon City, has been stripped of his clerical obligations after he was caught on television inside a nightclub, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said Tuesday.

Fr. Alfredo Guerrero was suspended and replace as parish priest of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help by Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco last week, said Cubao diocese spokesman Fr. Ariston Sison said on Catholic Church-run Radio Veritas.

Sison said the action was taken to “avoid further harm, further scandal and to help the priest not to fall into a greater sin.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

A Philadelphia judge has reinstated the felony sex abuse charges against the Rev. Andrew McCormick, the 56-year-old priest charged in July with assaulting a 10-year-old boy in 1997 when he was a priest at the St. John Cantius Church in the city’s Bridesburg section.

In August, a Municipal Court judge stunned prosecutors when she dismissed the most serious charges against McCormick at a preliminary hearing.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office appealed that decision and today Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick reinstated the felony charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault and sexual assault.

McCormick faces a formal arraignment on the charges on Oct. 23 before his case gets assigned a judge for trial.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Das Parlament

INNERES

Vorstoß der SPD-Fraktion zur Verlängerung der strafrechtlichen Verjährungsfrist bei sexuellem Missbrauch von Kindern von zehn auf 20 Jahre bleibt im Bundestag umstritten. Der SPD-Vorschlag einer “Sonderverjährungsvorschrift” sei “nicht der richtige Weg”, sagte der CDU-Abgeordnete Ansgar Heveling vergangene Woche in der Bundestagsdebatte über einen entsprechenden Gesetzentwurf der Sozialdemokraten (17/3646). Dagegen forderte seine SPD-Kollegin Sonja Steffen (SPD), die zivil- und die strafrechtlichen Verjährungsfristen für Kindesmisshandlungen zu verlängern. Es sei “zu kurz gedacht”, wie die Koalition nur die zivilrechtlichen Verjährungsfristen auf 30 Jahre erhöhen zu wollen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Saarbrücken: Nur wenig Kinderschutz in Sportvereinen

In den saarländischen Sportvereinen wird zu wenig für den Kinderschutz getan. SR-Recherchen ergaben, dass bei allen 20 angefragten Vereinen kein Kinderschutzkonzept vorliegt.

Nur ein Trainer des 1.FC Saarbrücken konnte einen entsprechenden Verhaltenskodex vorlegen. Vor einem Jahr hatte der Landessportverband von den Vereinen Kinderschutzkonzepte gefordert.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

„Kirchensteuer-Rebell scheitert mit Klage“, schlagzeilte Spiegel Online am Mittwoch. Eine Falschmeldung, die der Nachrichtenagentur dpa entsprungen ist und die zahlreiche Medien übernahmen. Tatsächlich war genau das Gegenteil der Fall und – Gott sei Dank – entscheidet in Deutschland bislang noch kein weltliches Gericht über Fragen des Glaubens.

Dass zahlreiche Medien auf Nachrichtenagenturen zurückgreifen, ist bekannt und es ist auch nichts Ungewöhnliches. Dass sie samt und sonders eine Falschmeldung übernehmen, kommt hingegen (hoffentlich) eher selten vor. Vergangenen Mittwoch ist es allerdings der Nachrichtenagentur dpa „gelungen“, vom Spiegel, über die Süddeutsche Zeitung bis hin zur FAZ zumindest eine Verzerrung der Tatsachen zu verbreiten.

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VATICAN CITY
The Irish Catholic

2 Oct 2012

Garry O’Sullivan in Rome

When the Pope’s butler Paolo Gabriele was thrown into a Vatican prison cell after he was discovered in possession of stolen documents from the Pope’s desk, few could have guessed that as well as the medieval architecture of his Vatican prison, the treatment would also be medieval and, if true, in contravention of human rights standards accepted around the world. Paolo Gabriele, alleged in court Tuesday that his cell was so small he couldn’t spread his arms. Also, the lights were left on 24 hours-a-day for his 20 day imprisonment in his first cell. The head of the Vatican police who was present in court looked decidedly embarrassed by the allegations of mistreatment.

Mr Gabriele also said that he didn’t have a pillow and these allegations have resulted in the Chief Prosecutor of the Vatican launching an investigation.

And this is only day two of a trial that is beginning to have all the hallmarks of a Da Vinci Code type saga.

Also present on Tuesday was Msgr Georg Gaenswein, the Pope’s private secretary, who greeted several people when he entered but not Mr Gabriele, yet Mr Gabriele stood up for the Pope’s secretary, testimony to the respect for the clerical caste inside the Vatican. He didn’t stand up for one of the female witnesses when she entered. Msgr Gaenswein, who looked uncomfortable during the questioning spoke of the trust he had in Mr Gabriele and how he never doubted him at which point the butler cast his eyes down.

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VATICAN CITY
The Oregonian

Oct. 2, 2012

AP

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI’s onetime butler declared Tuesday he was innocent of a charge of aggravated theft of the pope’s private correspondence, but acknowledged he photocopied the papers and said he feels guilty that he betrayed the trust of the pontiff he loved like a father.

Paolo Gabriele took the stand Tuesday in a Vatican courtroom to defend himself. Prosecutors say Gabriele stole papal letters and documents alleging power struggles and corruption inside the Vatican and passed them off to a journalist in one of the most damaging scandals of Benedict’s pontificate. …

In addition to Gabriele, the court heard Tuesday from four witnesses, including the pope’s private secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, who along with Gabriele was the closest assistant to the pontiff.

Gaenswein testified that he began having suspicions about Gabriele after he realized three documents that appeared in Nuzzi’s book could only have come from the office he shared with Gabriele and Benedict’s other private secretary.

“This was the moment when I started to have my doubts,” Gaenswein said.

The book, “His Holiness: Pope Benedict XVI’s private papers,” became an immediate blockbuster when it was published May 20, detailing intrigue and scandals inside the Apostolic Palace. The leaked documents seemed primarily aimed at discrediting Benedict’s No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, often criticized for perceived shortcomings in running the Vatican administration.

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VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The Pope’s butler, who is accused of stealing sensitive documents, declared his innocence in court on Tuesday and accused Vatican police of mistreating him during his incarceration.

By Nick Squires, Rome
2:10PM BST 02 Oct 2012

In a surprise development, the judge in charge of the trial of Paolo Gabriele ordered Vatican prosecutors to open an investigation into whether the valet was held in inhumane conditions, as it emerged that he was kept in a tiny cell with the lights on 24 hours a day for up to 20 days.

The butler disclosed details of his incarceration in a “secure room” in the headquarters of the Vatican gendarmerie, the Pope’s police force, during cross-examination by his lawyer.

He said that the cell that he was initially held after his arrest on May 20 was so narrow that he could not stretch out his arms.

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VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

Former papal butler and Vatileaks whistleblower, Paolo Gabriele, has said the Pope was not informed enough about important issues. Gabriele also claims inhumane detainment conditions, which has prompted an investigation.

During the second day of his trial, former papal butler Paolo Gabriele said he did not have any direct accomplices but was influenced by others and by widespread malaise in the Vatican.

Gabriele is on trial for allegedly stealing papal documents indicating corruption in the Vatican and leaking them to the media.

Gabriele also told the court on Tuesday that Pope Benedict XVI was “easy to manipulate” and did not know enough about Vatican affairs.

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VATICAN CITY
AGI

(AGI) Vatican City – During a dramatic hearing in the trial in which he is charged with aggravated burglary, the Pope’s ‘disloyal’ butler Paolo Gabriele reported that he has experienced inhuman conditions in prison at the barracks of the Vatican Gendarmerie, especially during the first days following his arrest. “The cell was so narrow I could not stretch my arms, the light was on 24/7 and I was even denied a pillow,” he told the judges. Court President Giuseppe della Torre asked judge Nicola Picardi to investigate these allegations.

Accepting the presiding judge’s invitation the prosecutor specified that “every possible was done to find a more suitable cell, unavailable at the time because two people were under arrest, Gabriele and Sciarpelletti.” Picardi added that the situation “lasted less than 20 days” and meals were not served to the detainee through the small opening on the cell door.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden and Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler charged with stealing and leaking papal correspondence, said he was innocent of charges of aggravated theft, but “I feel guilty for having betrayed the trust the Holy Father placed in me.”

“I loved him like a son,” Gabriele said of the pope during the second day of his trial.

The morning session of the trial Oct. 2 also featured brief testimony by Cristina Cernetti, one of the consecrated laywomen who work in the papal apartment; and longer testimony by Msgr. Georg Ganswein, Pope Benedict XVI’s personal secretary.

Msgr. Ganswein, who described himself as “extremely precise,” said he never noticed any documents missing, but when he examined what Vatican police had confiscated from Gabriele’s Vatican apartment, he discovered both photocopies and originals of documents going back to 2006, when Gabriele began working in the papal apartment.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The Pope’s former butler, on trial inside the Vatican, has denied charges of stealing confidential documents from the pontiff’s private apartment.

Paolo Gabriele, 46, pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated theft but said he had abused the Pope’s trust.

He said he believed the pontiff was being manipulated, and that he acted alone in copying the sensitive papers.

The files, which revealed allegations of corruption and infighting at the Vatican, were leaked to the media.

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VATICAN CITY
The West Australian

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler Paolo Gabriele testified at his Vatican trial Tuesday that he was innocent of a charge of theft but guilty of abusing the trust of a pope whom he loved like a father.

Gabriele took the stand at his historic trial for stealing secret memos in what he said was a bid to battle “evil and corruption” within the Vatican.

Speaking out for the first time since his arrest in May and his 53-day detention in a Vatican security cell, the former butler said he had acted because he believed the pope was being “manipulated.”

While Gabriele said he had been working alone when he copied the confidential documents, he said he had “many contacts” in the Vatican where says there was “widespread unease”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Pope’s former butler made new revelations in his testimony today, during the course of the second hearing of the Vatileaks trial

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

Despite the intention to bring the start of the second hearing in the former papal butler’s trial forward, the session began late because of the Italian public transport strike today which kept the prosecuting attorney stuck in traffic.

But Paolo Gabriele made a number of controversial comments during the second hearing in the Vatican. His testimony had some very interesting twists.

“I plead not guilty to aggravated theft. I feel guilty for betraying the trust vested in me by the Holy Father, whom I feel I love as a son,” Paolo Gabriele, Benedict XVI’s former butler stated in his testimony in response to the accusations of theft of confidential documents made against him.

Over time, he explained, “I have become convinced that it is easy to manipulate someone who has such enormous decision-making power.”

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on October 02, 2012

We’re cautiously encouraged that Scout officials now finally say they’ll give information about abusive Scout leaders to law enforcement. But we’ll believe it when we see it happening and it must start happening immediately.

Every day Scout officials delay in turning over their “perversion” files to police, kids will be in danger and child molesters are given even more chances to destroy evidence, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, fabricate alibis and flee to other states or countries.

We apologize for being so graphic, but it takes just seconds for a sex offender to shove his hands into a boy’s pants or his tongue in a girl’s mouth, so days and hours matter. Having kept tens of thousands of pages about thousands of potential child molesters secret for decade, Scouts must act promptly now.

Right now, we suspect, current or former Scout leaders and volunteers who committed or concealed heinous crimes are “covering their tracks,” shredding documents, deleting emails, and taking other steps to ensure they’ll keep evading the law.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on October 02, 2012

■Victims believe there’s more to the story of convicted priest
■SNAP: Church officials knew for years that clergyman was troubled
■Group wants the Columbus prosecutor to take a new look at the case
■It begs other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to “come forward, get help”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims and supporters deliver a letter to a Columbus prosecutor asking him to take a closer look in light of new revelations – at the case of a recently convicted predator priest. They will also hand out

–a recent communication from a priest/whistleblower who says that high ranking church officials had earlier warnings about the predator, and

— a list of the priest’s assignments (showing that he normally lives at a Galion monastery, not at a Columbus hotel, as he claimed).

The group will also urge any other victims, witnesses or whistleblowers who know of or suspect crimes and cover ups in any denomination – to contact law enforcement immediately.

WHEN
Tuesday, Oct. 2nd at 11-am

WHERE
Outside the Franklin County prosecutors’ office, 373 South High Street in Columbus

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Bob Hohler
Globe Staff / October 2, 2012

Some of them are strangers to Fenway Park, faces from a distant past. But they continue to come forward, pouring out memories of sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of a trusted Red Sox supervisor.

The toll of men who claim they were violated as youths by the team’s late clubhouse manager Donald J. Fitzpatrick has grown again, with a former Kansas City clubhouse attendant, Gerald Armstrong, alleging that Fitzpatrick repeatedly molested him in the late 1960s amid the worst sexual abuse scandal in Major League Baseball history.

With Armstrong’s allegations, there are now 20 men demanding a combined $100 million — $5 million each — from the Sox for misconduct they claim Fitzpatrick committed from the 1960s until he left the team in 1991. …

Because the statute of limitations has expired on nearly all the recent cases, the Sox have no legal obligation in the matter. But numerous entities, including the Roman Catholic Church, have paid settlements to alleged victims who lacked legal standing.

“The Red Sox have a moral obligation to resolve these cases,’’ said Mitchell Garabedian, who won tens of millions of dollars for victims in the church scandal and represents the 20 men suing the Sox. “Resolving these cases will help the victims at least partially heal and maybe gain a degree of closure in regard to these awful matters.’’

Garabedian said he is investigating an additional claim against Fitzpatrick. He said another man dropped his claim because the process proved too emotionally painful.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on October 01, 2012

A lawyer for a suspended Kansas City priest facing six child sex abuse lawsuits is asking a judge to sanction a support group for refusing to turn over records about two notorious child molesting clerics.

Late last week, Brian Madden, who represents Fr. Michael Tierney, filed a motion with Judge Ann Mesle to hold SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, in contempt of court. SNAP is withholding from Catholic about two suspended Kansas City priests – Fr. Thomas Reardon and Msgr. Thomas O’Brien.

The group calls Reardon and O’Brien “Missouri’s most dangerous child molesting clerics.” Each faces or has faced dozens of child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits, most of which have been settled.

“Both Reardon and O’Brien still live in Kansas City (and have) often worked in concert, giving drugs and liquor and porn and ‘massages’ to the same children, molesting them, and rationalizing one another’s crimes to these scared and confused youngsters who’d been taught since birth to respect, revere, trust and obey Catholic priests,” SNAP contends. The organization also maintains that “basic psychology and common sense strongly suggest that both Reardon and O’Brien remain dangerous.”

In a letter sent last week to Judge Mesle, SNAP Director David Clohessy said “At this point, I just cannot, in good conscience, turn over to defense lawyers – either for Bishop Finn’s diocese or for these two men – our records about them. It sickens me to think about this possibility.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

BRENDAN HOBAN

RITE & REASON: Do we sit and wait for church after church to empty and eventually to close?

In his book, Priesthood, The Lost Art of Walking on Water, Michael Heher struck an important note: “At a time of crisis, people often find the freedom to voice things they ordinarily would not express.

A dying woman can give advice to her children, a soldier going to war can tell his brother he loves him dearly, a father as he prepares for dangerous surgery can tell his daughter about fear, worry and faith.”

Heher’s point is that as men who have suffered so many hits over the last years, we priests have earned the right to say whatever we want.

Not everyone would agree, as we know. Loyalty, or what passes for loyalty, in the Roman Catholic Church can have very precise boundaries.

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CANADA
The Western Star

Published on October 2, 2012
Diane Crocker

CORNER BROOK — Roman Catholic priest George Ansel Smith pleaded guilty to five more sex charges in Supreme Court in Corner Brook on Monday.

That brings the total of guilty pleas to 40 out of the 70 offences the 74-year-old priest has been charged with. All the incidents involved young boys.

Smith wasn’t present for the court appearance. The pleas were entered on his behalf by Ian Patey, who was acting as agent for Smith’s lawyer, Tom Williams.

The guilty pleas were entered on four counts of indecent assault and one count of assault that occurred between 1968 and 1976. Two of the charges involve incidents that took place in Nova Scotia, while the other three occurred in Newfoundland, one incident in St. Fintan’s and two in Corner Brook.

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

CANADA
The Windsor Star

IQALUIT, Nunavut – A trial date has been set for a former Arctic priest facing dozens of sex abuse allegations.

Eric Dejaeger has pleaded not guilty to 76 charges stemming from his time in Igloolik, Nunavut, between 1978 and 1982.

Most of the charges are for the alleged sexual abuse of boys and girls.

Dejaeger is also charged with bestiality and for failing to show up for a required court appearance in 1995.

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

UNITED STATES
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Former priest hired by TSA to pat down passengers, three months after church kicked him out for ‘molesting young girls’

By Daily Mail Reporter

First he was fired for allegedly groping young girls, then hired to frisk them at an airport.

A disgraced former priest, defrocked from his New Jersey diocese over allegations of molestation in 2002, was three months later given a job as a TSA officer, it has been revealed.

Thomas Harkins was employed in a role where his duties would include doing pat downs on children, according to local news, after the agency failed to do a thorough background check and offered him a position at Philadelphia International Airport.

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

VATICAN CITY/UNITED STATES
What They Knew

We have been getting numerous vistors from all over the world recently. We like that. But nothing melts our hearts more than to see the frequent visitation from the Vatican. Yes, that’s right IP address 212.77.12.74 or Internet Office of the Holy See, thanks for being a frequent reader here at What They Knew. We have many more surprises in store for you, starting with the documents below.

But first off, Alexander Stille wrote an excellent article this week in The Atlantic that asks the question of whether the Vatican can survive in the 21st century age of radical digital transparency. We here at WTK are still waiting to see if the Jesuits would like to enter the 20th century at this point. Some salient quotes:

Anonymous letters, damaging dossiers, and poison penmanship are old staples of Vatican intrigue. The big difference is that all this material was once kept rigorously private — its power derived from its mere existence and the potential threat of being made public.

The lesson of both the pedophilia scandal and Vati-leaks is that the Church can no longer control information about itself. In the past, when police arrested priests who were acting out, they generally took the matter to the local bishop, and newspapers often chose, out of deference, not to write about it. Changes in public opinion — anger and outrage over wrongdoing in the Church — and in information technology make it impossible to keep the lid on scandal…

The Pope and the Pedophile Jesuit from Chicago

But, what Fr. Lomnardi SJ needs to answer is why His Holiness, Pope Benedict, and Donald McGuire SJ wrote to each other so much? Admittedly, they knew each other for years, with such friends in common as Joseph Fessio SJ. But the McGuire problems became public in 2003. So really why did Pope Benedict still write him a Christmas letter in 2006 while McGuire was publicly on trial, and convicted, for molesting children? In fact Donald McGuire was in prison for child sexual abuse when this letter was sent to him. We have many more letters between the two, but here is 3 pages to start.

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

LOUISIANA
What They Knew

There is another Jesuit priest we know very well on this site who almost escaped to Louisiana back in the early 1980s, notorious child sex abuser Donald McGuire SJ. In an exchange of documents between then Chicago Provincial Leo Klein SJ and the Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Sullivan of Baton Rouge, a notorious abuser of children himself.
—
Bishop Joseph Sullivan knew he wanted Donald McGuire SJ closer to him

In the suit, a Houston man alleged that Bishop Joseph Vincent Sullivan abused him from 1978 to 1982, nearly two years of which he spent in the Corpus Christi Minor Seminary. The man, now 42, was a teenage students in the Baton Rouge minor seminary and transferred to Corpus Christi after schools closed in Baton Rouge and Lumberton. Sullivan remained bishop in Baton Rouge but would visit the boy at the Corpus Christi Minor Seminary, a high school for boys aspiring to the priesthood. A third accusation in 2005 named the diocese as a co-defendant with Sullivan in a civil lawsuit filed in Hawaii. It accused Sullivan of sexually abusing a minor during visits to Hawaii from 1969 to 1977.

Sullivan died in 1982.

But in 1981 Bishop Sullivan, a now named pedophile himself, sought to have Donald McGuire SJ transferred to Baton Rouge where he could work with students at Louisiana State University (LSU) or at a parish in Baton Rouge and help out at Mother Angelica’s fledgling EWTN TV. The exchange between the Chicago Province and the New Orleans Province and Bishop Sullivan is below. What is obvious from these letters, is that both the Chicago and New Orleans Provincials knew Donald McGuire SJ had serious enough problems that he would not be allowed to go to Louisiana.

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

WEST VIRGINIA
What They Knew

Wheeling Jesuit University, in West Virginia but run by the Society of Jesus of the Maryland Province, has been in the news again, and if it’s on this site, it’s not for the right reasons. Plus it gives us a chance to recap one of our favorite topics

…a Federal investigation of Jesuits

Former Wheeling President Julio Giulietti SJ went on to work in Viet Nam as representative of Loyola University-Chicago in developing programs of nurse and physician education.

Chronological list of Wheeling’s Sex, Crime & Dishonor after Fr. Julio’s Jesuit based administration was slammed shut:

10/14/9 – WJU picketed by SNAP (Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests) because of WJU’s ongoing harboring of accused predator Thomas F. (Tommy) Gleeson, S.J.

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

LOUISIANA
What They Knews

[with FEMA document]

The Fortunate Sons of St. Ignatius
vs
Department of Homeland Security FEMA

In a newly discovered document obtained by this site, the New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) are being investigated by Homeland Security over accusations arising from an audit that outlines misuse, fraud and failure to handle FEMA grant funds in violation of federal law involving post Hurricane Katrina construction.

Living in “The Big Easy” post-Hurricane Katrina was not easy for most people. But it was much easier for Jesuits. Unlike most people, who worry about death and taxes, Jesuits have to worry about neither. They pay no federal taxes and are not even required to outline their wealth to the IRS as a religious organization “who has taken the vow of poverty”. Yet when Hurricane Katrina didn’t spare the New Orleans Jesuit Province and their school Jesuit High, the Jesuits deftly swooped in to seize over $11 million in federal tax payer funded relief from FEMA in the form of grants. That in and of itself is not shocking. What is shocking and likely criminal is what the Jesuits then did with that free federal tax payer money. Read all 10 pages and look at the numbers below.

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

JAPAN
The Japan Times

By MICHAEL BRADLEY

It is over three years since it was revealed that an Irish Catholic priest had abused several children in Japan. His victims here are probably still unaware their tormentor was a serial offender.

Position of trust: Father Patrick Maguire’s 13-year stay in Japan ended when the Columban Fathers spirited him back to Ireland in 1974 following a “problem” with “young male children.” He went on to abuse dozens more minors in the U.K. and Ireland. AP

Father Patrick Maguire worked in Japan between 1961 and 1974, during which time he has admitted to abusing at least 13 boys, 10 of them in 1973. The priest subsequently went on to abuse dozens more children in Britain and Ireland, and has been convicted (and imprisoned) on separate counts of indecent assault in both jurisdictions. He has never been held to account for his actions in this country.

“Bishop Hirata was most understanding but said that it would be best that Pat slip out of Japan quietly.” So wrote a fellow priest in Maguire’s Columban Fathers to the society’s head in Ireland in 1974. The reason for Maguire’s hasty exit was a “problem” involving “young male children” and “a danger that the weekly magazines would latch onto a thing like that and blow it up out of all proportions.” So, fearing adverse publicity, the Church spirited him back to Ireland. For his Japanese victims, that was probably the last they heard of Father Maguire.

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

TEXAS
DFW Catholic

Tyler, Texas, Oct 1, 2012 / 01:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a rare move, Pope Benedict XVI has named Monsignor Joseph E. Strickland, the vicar general of the Diocese of Tyler, as the next bishop of the same east Texas diocese he has served as a priest for over 25 years.

“I know it’s a tremendous task that I’m given. But I’m here with family,” Bishop-designate Strickland told a Sept. 29 press conference in Tyler.

He thanked God for his “wondrous blessings” and thanked the Pope “for his expression of confidence.” He also expressed his gratitude to his parents and his siblings, who were not present.

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

PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

Cebu Daily News
9:08 am | Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

If he had his way, Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal would have National Geographic Magazine writer Bryan Christy declared persona non grata or unwelcome in Cebu for his “Ivory Worship” article that linked a Cebu priest to the illegal ivory trade.

Vidal’s reaction was reported by ABS-CBN TV Patrol Central Visayas, which said the prelate was upset by Christy’s artlcle that quoted Msgr. Cristobal Garcia as naming ivory carvers of Sto. Nino icons n Manila and giving tips on how to smuggle them to the United States, allegations which the cardinal said were misquotations and pictured Catholic devotees as “idolaters”.

“He (Christy) deceived us and he deceived the people whom he interviewed when he said he was trying to publish something about the devotion (to the Sto. Niño),” Vidal said during the TV interview.

(Technically, persona non grata status is a declaration for unwanted diplomats made by the host State although the term is commonly used to mean a person who is ostracized or rejected.)

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CHILE
El Mostrador

Las declaraciones del arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, sobre casos de abusos sexuales fueron refutadas este lunes por el abogado Juan Pablo Hermosilla, que representa a las víctimas en el caso Karadima, consignó Radio Cooperativa.

El prelado hizo eco ayer a los dichos del obispo de Rancagua, Alejandro Goic, quien afirmó que la Iglesia Católica no tendría los recursos económicos para destinarlos a posibles reparaciones a las víctimas. Al respecto, Ezzati aseguró que las indemnizaciones “dependen de lo que las víctimas hayan pedido y dependen de las posibilidades reales que existan de pagar (…) las culpas son siempre personales, no institucionales. Por consiguiente, quienes están llamados a responder por sus delitos son las personas, y la Iglesia es una institución, no una persona”.

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

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conor Ryan, Investigative Correspondent

Monday, October 01, 2012

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has criticised religious orders for failing to pay their share of the compensation bill for abuse victims as the total nears €1.5bn.

With internal memos showing the child abuse redress package will now cost an extra €110m, it has emerged negotiations with the religious in the past year have hit the rocks.

Internal memos show the bill for dealing with child abuse in residential institutions has risen to €1.47bn, up from €1.36bn in 2011.

However, writing in today’s Irish Examiner, Mr Quinn has admitted that taxpayers are picking up the majority of the tab.

“I believe there is a moral obligation. I believe that fairness demands such an approach,” he said.

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

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Ruairi Quinn

Monday, October 01, 2012

Religious congregations must meet 50% of the cost of the State’s response to residential abuse, writes Ruairi Quinn

IT IS over three years since the Ryan Report shocked our nation. The litany and scale of child abuse in institutional settings and the anguished voices of the victims and survivors amplified through that report caused us all, as a people, to hang our heads in shame.

It was only right that the State apologised to those whose childhoods were stolen and who, in many instances, could not live full lives as adults and citizens.

Those who managed the institutions failed those children and the State, through it’s agents, failed in its duty to protect its most vulnerable citizens.

The victims have been able to seek redress and receive compensation from the Residential Institutions Redress Board since 2002. This will not give them back their childhoods, but it is an acknowledgement of the pain and abuse they suffered. It is expected some 15,000 former residents will have received awards when the board completes its work.

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

ILLINOIS
Southtown Star

Some evil is simply wrong. Sometimes it’s also illegal.

The law is not mysterious. The law usually says what it means.

Thus we are perplexed how a massive spiritual entity such as the 15,000-member First Baptist Church of Hammond did not know that adults taking children across state lines for sex was a crime. It’s been a crime for more than a century.

When the leadership of the church fired pastor-in-chief the Rev. Jack Schaap last summer for that activity and turned his case over to police, they seemed puzzled about the law. At his sentencing, Schaap also expressed surprise that what he did was a crime.

They all know better now, but what gap in their civic education led them to miss the crime? Willful naiveté? Deliberate ignorance?

So Schaap is now sentenced to 10 years in prison after admitting the crime and taking a deal. It’s a gift to him. He could have gotten life

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

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

[with documents]

By Conor Ryan, Investigative Correspondent

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

An appeal to 17 managers of schools and homes where children were abused has failed to illicit a single additional contribution to the €1.47bn redress bill.

The institutions accou-nted for 13% of initial complaints to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse in Residential Institutions.

They were run by patrons or religious orders who remained outside the 2002 indemnity deal and so were not obliged to make a direct contribution to redress.

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

MISSOURI
KMBZ

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests says it’s ready to fight back in Jackson County court. Father Michael Tierney, removed from his duties at Christ the King last year, faces several sex abuse lawsuits.

His lawyer Brian Madden has asked the court to hold the group in contempt, saying it has only provided incomplete and redacted information. But SNAP director David Clohessy says the organization has given up plenty and can’t risk revealing the identity of alleged victims in cases that are decades old.

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

VATICAN CITY
MinnPost

By Nick Squires | 10/01/12.

The Pope’s personal butler will be cross-examined by a Vatican court on Tuesday in a closely-watched trial in which he is accused of stealing highly sensitive documents, some of them from the desk of Benedict XVI himself.

The trial opened on Saturday in a wood-paneled court room in a Vatican tribunal within the walls of the tiny city state. The case inevitably has garnered headlines given that it revolves around the great mystery cliche: “Did the butler do it?” Or rather, “was it only the butler who did it?”

The documents at the heart of the case have lifted the lid on corruption at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church, which is still battered by revelations of clerical cover-ups of child sexual abuse. With this case, the Vatican is trying to showcase greater transparency, allowing a pool of journalists to cover each meeting. Experts, however, say that the latest saga does not help the Vatican’s already damaged image.

“It is certainly embarrassing for the Vatican but I’m not sure it will resonate that much among ordinary Catholics around the world,” says Alessandro Speciale, Vatican correspondent forReligion News Service. “The Church was already badly tarnished by the pedophile sex abuse scandals. That was much more serious.”

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

MISSOURI
St. Joe Channel

[with video]

By: Safiya Songhai

Updated: October 1, 2012

(KANSAS CITY, Mo) He is the first leader in the Catholic Church to ever be convicted of concealing a sexual abuse crime.

Now some members of the church not only want Bishop Robert Finn to resign his position as leader of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese, they are putting their names on the dotted line.

Nearly 90,000 people have signed an online petition urging Bishop Finn to resign.

The petition is posted on the website change.org and organizers hope to appeal to the top leaders of the church, all the way to Italy.

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

CANADA
Metro

By Staff The Canadian Press

IQALUIT, Nunavut – A trial date has been set for a former Arctic priest facing dozens of sex abuse allegations.

Eric Dejaeger has pleaded not guilty to 76 charges stemming from his time in Igloolik, Nunavut, between 1978 and 1982.

Most of the charges are for the alleged sexual abuse of boys and girls.

Dejaeger is also charged with bestiality and for failing to show up for a required court appearance in 1995.

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

CALIFORNIA
Courthouse News Service

By MARIA DINZEO

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – Catholic leadership tolerated a priest’s repeated sexual abuse of boys and at least one girl in parishes and schools across the state, a former student claims in court.

The plaintiff in a Superior Court lawsuit, identified only as a 25-year-old male, says Father Don Flickinger sexually abused him when he was about 10 years old.

He claims Flickinger was allowed to work with children for nearly 50 years, beginning in 1964 when he was a chaplain at San Joaquin Memorial High School in Fresno. Throughout his career, Flickinger was transferred 20 times, from Fresno to Santa Clara University and the University of San Francisco, to parishes in Napa, Monterey, San Jose and Oakland. He is currently assigned to the New Bethany Residence in Los Banos, a residential living facility where he is supposedly retired, but was seen assisting in performing mass in last August, according to the 55-page lawsuit.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq News

DAVID MURPHY

Eric Dejaeger, the Oblate missionary accused of sex crimes against Inuit children alleged to have occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s, appeared before the the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit Oct. 1 to plead not guilty to 76 charges.

That not-guilty plea is something Crown prosecutor Barry Nordin said he expected.

Now, a 10-week trial will start Oct. 28, 2013, and is expected to continue until early 2014.

There are 41 complainants on the 76-count indictment. Hearing all the evidence from the complainants and a variety of other witnesses will take at least eight weeks, Nordin said.

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CANADA
CBC ews

A Roman Catholic priest charged with multiple sex-related offences has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

Eric Dejaeger appeared in the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit Monday. He faces 76 charges, most of which stem from his time as a Catholic priest in Igloolik between 1978 and 1982.

The case involves 41 complainants and dozens of witnesses. His judge-only trial is set for Oct. 28, 2013, and is expected to last 10 weeks.

Dejaeger said only two words to Justice Robert Kilpatrick in court: “thank you”.

Defense lawyer Malcolm Kempt said in court it was the intention of his client to plead not guilty from the outset.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Comedy Central

Oct 1, 2012 03:25 PM by Ilya Gerner

One rare locus of agreement between congressional Democrats and Republicans concerns the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Safety Administration. Yes, it’s a corrupt boondoggle that does little to keep Americans safe, but it’s our bipartisan corrupt boondoggle that does little to keep Americans safe, so long may it grope.

Fortunately, the TSA has redeeming features. Americans looking for career advice are always being told to “do what you love,” and in the case of one alleged pedophile, the TSA made dreams come true…

About four months after being defrocked by the Diocese of Camden in 2002, Thomas Harkins had a new job as a security officer, including patting down passengers, with the Transportation Security Administration at Philadelphia International Airport.

The TSA hired the former priest before completing a background check, the agency recently confirmed. According to a church document, the diocese revealed to the TSA in 2003 as part of the background check that Harkins had been removed from ministry because of allegations he had molested two grade-school girls. Harkins was never criminally prosecuted, but the diocese settled civil lawsuits for $195,000.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Big changes, new appointments and transferrals. A new season of challenges is about to begin, with the United States taking centre stage

Marco Tosatti
Rome

Some excellent changes are going to be taking place in the Vatican reliable voices say. And apparently, these new nominations will be further proof that Benedict XVI and his main collaborators see the United States as one of the main “fronts” of comparison in terms of secularisation and as the source of energy for the solution of problems.

The current secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Joseph William Tobin, should – as always, when speaking about decisions of this kind it is essential to use the conditional because neither Benedict XVI nor the Secretary of State appear Napoleonic in this field – return to the U.S. He will probably be sent to an important diocese; possibly Indianapolis.

Is this a promotion? Possibly, but it seems he was recalled by the U.S. Catholic Church who did not appreciate Tobin’s role in clearing up misunderstandings with the LCWR’S “rebel” nuns. American bishops did not find his conciliatory statements very helpful as they were hard at work trying to resolve a difficult problem. Indeed, they saw his attitude as a break with the position taken by the previous Prefect, Franc Rodé, who was concerned about the “new age” drift of many U.S. nuns. The identity of Tobin’s potential successor is unknown; it could be a cleric given that the Prefect of the Congregation is not.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Americans United for Separation of Church and State

October 2012
AU Bulletin

A high-ranking Kansas bishop has been convicted of failing to report suspicions of child abuse, affirming the church hierarchy’s accountability in its infamous child sex-abuse scandal.

On Sept. 6, Bishop Robert Finn, head of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, became the highest-ranking U.S. Catholic official convicted as a result of the child sex-abuse scandal. Finn was found guilty because of his handling of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, who stored hundreds of lewd photos of young girls on his laptop computer, the Kansas City Star said.

Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker was pleased with Finn’s conviction.

According to the Religion News Service (RNS), she said, “The bottom line today is that finding by the court, a finding of guilt, means the diocese and whoever is its leader must adhere to the very clear legal requirements regarding protection of children.”

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CALIFORNIA
Loyolan

To the Editors:

It was with a sense of relief that I read (“University Investigates Alleged Molester,” 9/20/12) both of President Burcham’s decision to undertake an investigation into all aspects of the 15-year presence on our campus of alleged sexual predator Brother William Farrington, S. J. and of the President’s commitment to making public the results of this investigation.

My tenure does not overlap with that of Farrington, who was a staff member from 1987-2002. I cannot, therefore, take responsibility for his perhaps dangerous and damaging presence on our campus. I do, however, assume a shared responsibility for the way in which our University responds to the information about Farrington that has only lately been made available to the wider LMU community.

I thus wish to express my sympathies to any current or former members of our University community, as well as to their families and friends, who may have suffered on account of Farrington’s presence. I want, in addition, to express my outrage at the individuals who shielded from public view the accusations levied against Farrington prior to his LMU appointment and residency in the Jesuit Community. Whether or not the investigation of his presence at LMU turns out to yield the results we all fear, there is no sparing a sense of dismay at the fact that his coming to our University was at the least an imprudent decision on the part of those responsible for the move and at worst an unconscionable act of blatant disregard for the well being of LMU students.

As many of us know well, sexual abusers frequently target the already vulnerable and often muffle their voices in a cloak of silent shame. Let us not add to the sum of silence by failing to demand an accounting. At the very least, let us hope that our Jesuit Community or the California Province of the Jesuits will not only express publicly the sadness associated with the evidence thus far come to light, but also decry the structures that allowed Farrington to spend 15 years among our students.

Sincerely,

Anna Harrison
Associate Professor, Department of Theological Studies

Co-signers:
Roberto Dell’Oro, Professor, Theological Studies
Marie Anne Mayeski, Professor Emeritus, Theological Studies
Charlotte Radler, Associate Professor, Theological Studies
Thomas P. Rausch, S.J. , T. Marie Chilton Professor of Catholic Theology, Theological Studies
Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, Professor, Theological Studies
Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier, Associate Professor, Theological Studies
John R. Connolly, Professor Emeritus, Theological Studies

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UNITED STATES
hoodiemonks.org

By John Cavanagh – August 12, 1939 – September 9, 2012

In the 1950’s and until the mid ’60’s, the abbot of the Trappist monastery I’d entered in ’59 was recruiting barely legal colts for his stable. Boys aged roughly seventeen to twenty were being accepted as novices, an age generally considered too young by the Order’s standards elsewhere. These boys would often go on to become the abbot’s lovers, and because he conducted himself discreetly, the clandestine affairs very possibly could have gone unnoticed indefinitely. But he dropped them as they got older, and eventually there was a row over the ensuing favoritism and how the place was being governed.

In the Spring of 1964 this brought in a tribunal of two abbots from elsewhere in the Order to investigate the cause of the friction. But even after two weeks of listening to everyone’s grievances, these investigating abbots were still openly puzzled about what the real stakes were. Encouraged by the spirit of aggiornamento we saw being implemented in the case, four of us went to them as a bloc and described what we had seen and heard, signing notarized affidavits, etc., which we agreed to do only after being promised immunity from any retaliations in return for our sworn testimony. I want to emphasize here as strongly as possible that we were assured that the whole investigation was being closely monitored by the Sacred Congregation for Religious, and that the promise of immunity they extended to us had been pre-authorized from Rome.

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UNITED STATES
Patrick J. Wall

Every once in a while, real religious history is written. Those of us trained in religion know this firsthand—we have read thousands of pages of hagiography that simply skim over the truth, avoid scandal and paint a rosy, unquestioned picture of religious history.

Then there was John Cavanagh.

John Cavanagh was a former Trappist monk who blew the whistle on his Abbot and the Abbot’s boy toys in the monastery. The Abbot was removed. But he wasn’t the only one punished: the whistleblowers were also pushed out of the monastery. With the troublemakers gone, the Order could create a perfect cover story.

The reason to read this story is to see how John Cavanagh found a deeper spirituality after he lost his religion. His evocative and personal story was published the day before he died.

“A Modern Monk’s Tale,” by John Cavanagh.

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CHILE
Publimetro

En entrevista con TVN, el obispo de Rancagua y ex presidente de la Confederación Episcopal, Alejandro Goic, negó la posibilidad de alguna compensación económica para las víctimas de abusos sexuales del sacerdote Fernando Karadima.

“Sin duda alguna reparación deberíamos dar, pero económica, no sé dónde, ya que la diócesis no contaría con los recursos necesarios para esto”, aseguró Goic.

Las declaraciones del obispo de Rancagua, fueron respaldadas por el arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, quien comentó “que las indemnizaciones dependen de lo que las víctimas hayan pedido y dependen de las posibilidades reales que existan de pagar”.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conor Ryan, Investigative reporter

Monday, October 01, 2012

THE State’s exposure to the child abuse redress bill is growing but efforts to coax religious orders to accept half the costs have failed.

One by one, the 18 congregations have told the Government its desire to split the bill on a 50:50 basis was too much; they would not allow the redress process to bankrupt them.

Negotiations are ongoing on an alternative plan, to sign over school sites, but there has been no resolution and the process has staggered.

The immediate effect is that the State will now have to find at least €1.1bn to fund its portion of a compensation and inquiry scheme that was expected to cost €240m when the indemnity deal was signed in 2002.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on October 01, 2012

It is distressing that the man who has been heading the scandal-plagued Archdiocese of Philadelphia for over a year now still seems unwilling to recognize the depth of the clergy sex abuse epidemic. By blaming reports of abuse on “media bias,” Archbishop Chaput only makes himself appear silly, especially given that his archdiocese has suspended numerous priests this year and was the home of the first ever Catholic official, Msgr. William Lynn, convicted of a felony for covering up sex abuse.

Instead of blaming the problem on the media, Chaput should look inward at the way he and his predecessors have dealt with child predators. Even today, church officials continue to endanger kids by failing to take proper steps with child predators. Recent situations in Joliet, IL and Fall River, MA indicate that this is not a problem in one or two dioceses, but persists across the country.

We think that Archbishop Chaput should stop blaming the media, but rather blame his brother bishops who hide behind policies that they tout in their own press releases but fail to actually follow when it matters. Instead of whining about bias, Chaput should take a serious look at how every abuse allegation is handled, and in the future should allow secular authorities to verify the claims instead of secretive internal processes.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

September 30, 2012|By Harold Brubaker, Inquirer Staff Writer

The fortunes of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and its more than 250 parishes are deeply and torturously entwined.

The archdiocese, the central organizing force for 1.46 million Catholics in Southeastern Pennsylvania, depends on money from member parishes to pay for churchwide activities and to shift money to weaker parishes.

But that formula is broken: Too many parishes have seen attendance fall and offerings shrivel, rendering them unable to support themselves. Ten have been shuttered in the last year, including Ascension of Our Lord in Kensington, which is closing Sunday.

There is no easy way out.

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CHILE
Cooperativa

El abogado Juan Pablo Hermosilla, que representa a las víctimas de abuso sexual del sacerdote Fernando Karadima, consideró una “falta de respeto” que el arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, cerrara la puerta a cualquier indemnización por parte de la Iglesia Católica.

La necesidad de una reparación fue planteada en una entrevista emitida ayer, domingo, por el obispo de Rancagua y ex presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal Alejandro Goic.

“Sin duda que alguna reparación deberíamos dar, pero económica, no sé de dónde”, ya que “las diócesis no contarían con los recursos necesarios para esto”, dijo Goic en “La entrevista del domingo” de TVN.

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

A bishop makes a case for expanding the diaconate.

Emil A. Wcela | OCTOBER 1, 2012

C an women receive sacred orders? Let us consult several authoritative sources. Canon 1024 of the Code of Canon Law states, “A baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly.” In 1994 Pope John Paul II said, “I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.” And the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has weighed in on the issue more than once. A statement in 1995 read, “This teaching requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written word of God and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal magisterium.” And in 2010 the doctrinal congregation stated, “both the one who attempts to confer sacred ordination on a woman, and she who attempts to receive sacred ordination incur a latae sententiae [automatic] excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.” And so the issue is settled.

Or is it?

Development of Early Church Ministries

Jesus chose the Twelve and others to help spread the word that God was working in the world uniquely through him. After his death and resurrection, local communities of believers formed; and within them leaders emerged or were chosen. In a natural way, the shape of such leadership was often borrowed from contemporary society. There were episkopoi, or “overseers,” in synagogues, who managed finances and sometimes settled disputes, and overseers in the civic world responsible for community projects, like the building of a road. There were presbyteroi, or “elders,” councils of men who formed administrative boards in synagogues and other religious institutions. Adopted by the Christian communities, these offices would develop into the episcopate and priesthood.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Cormac McQuinn

Monday October 01 2012

A SENIOR figure in the Association of Catholic Priests (ACPS) has said he agrees with a distinguished Italian cardinal who has said that the church is 200 years out of date.

Co Mayo priest Fr Brendan Hoban, one of the leaders of the organisation, has spoken of how the church needs to face its current crises such as the series of child sex abuse scandals and the fall in vocations.

And speaking ahead of two conferences aimed at increasing the participation of lay Catholics, he said bishops and priests can’t solve the church’s problems on their own, that it needs the help of ordinary Catholics.

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini died at the end of August but in an interview given two weeks before his death, he said the Catholic Church is “200 years behind the times”.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: October 01, 2012

New York’s most powerful politicians have lined up to call for the resignation of Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, the onetime Brooklyn Democratic kingmaker, since news broke in August that an ethics panel censured him for what it said was the sexual harassment of two female employees earlier in the summer.

But there has been a conspicuous silence from religious leaders who have regularly cooperated with him politically in Brooklyn, notably Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. The bishop went as far as recording a robocall in 2009 in support of a City Council candidate Mr. Lopez was backing, and when he was recently asked, through a spokesman, what he thought about the allegations, he responded with a carefully worded statement.

“There is no place in our society for sexual harassment,” said Bishop DiMarzio, who has led the diocese, which also includes Queens, since 2003.

“In our nation, the courts determine whether someone is guilty of a crime,” he added. “Voters are charged with determining the suitability of individuals for elected office. As a priest and bishop, my primary concern is for the salvation of those souls in my care. My responsibility is to remind us all that we are called to seek repentance and forgiveness.”

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SLOVAKIA
Chiesa

Anna Hušcavová defends the correctness of her actions as administrative adviser of the archdiocese of Trnava. But the Vatican authorities hold firm their negative judgment, which has led to the removal of Archbishop Bezák

by Sandro Magister

ROME, October 1, 2012 – The article from www.chiesa on the removal of the archbishop of Trnava has vigorously rekindled, in Slovakia but not only there, the controversy ignited by the Vatican decision:

> The Case of the “Bishop with a Human Face” Dismissed by the Pope

In particular, reactions were prompted by what was written on www.chiesa – in reporting the results of the inspections by the Vatican authorities – concerning the administrative disorder of the assets of the archdiocese placed under the management of the commercial companies Ninett and Hanalex by deposed archbishop Róbert Bezák.

The directors of these companies, Ondrej Studenec and Anna Hušcavová, have asked www.chiesa for a correction of the allegations made against them, which they both call “false and unfounded.”

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CALIFORNIA
Loyolan

Posted: Sunday, September 30, 2012

The Department of Public Safety (DPS) sent a letter to the Loyola Marymount University community late Wednesday regarding an instance of alleged sexual assault on campus. Two students were arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and, according to DPS Chief Hampton Cantrell, the LAPD’s investigation is ongoing.

According to the letter sent, a female LMU undergraduate student called DPS to report that she was the victim of a sexual assault. She claimed it occurred at approximately 3 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 26 in an on-campus residence hall. She named two male LMU students as the perpetrators.

In response, LAPD was called to campus and, after conducting a number of interviews, they arrested the two male students.

The LAPD refused to comment on this story, instead referring the Loyolan to DPS. LAPD, DPS and Judicial Affairs all declined to release the names of the students arrested or the location of the alleged assault, other than that it occurred in a residence hall on campus.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

October 1, 2012

Neda Vanovac

AAP

The cancer death of a priest accused of sexually assaulting a boy and covering up other sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has left alleged victims feeling robbed of justice, a support group says.

Father Tom Brennan, 74, died on Sunday at the Hunter Valley Private Hospital after battling cancer for several years.

The priest was the first member of the Australian Catholic clergy to be charged with covering up sex abuse by another priest and was also charged with sexually abusing a young boy.

He was too unwell to face Newcastle Local Court on a total of 14 charges last Tuesday.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Giselle Wakatama

The first Australian priest to be charged with covering up clerical sex abuse will never face prosecution after dying in hospital.

Hunter Valley priest Father Tom Brennan had been gravelly ill for some time, suffering from cancer.

Last week the 74-year-old was too ill to attend Newcastle Local Court for his first appearance after becoming the first person in Australia to be charged with failing to report sexual abuse by another priest.

The charges stemmed from his time as a principal at a Newcastle Catholic high school.

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PHILADELHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Barbara Boyer
Inquirer Staff Writer

About four months after being defrocked by the Diocese of Camden in 2002, Thomas Harkins had a new job as a security officer, including patting down passengers, with the Transportation Security Administration at Philadelphia International Airport.

The TSA hired the former priest before completing a background check, the agency recently confirmed. According to a church document, the diocese revealed to the TSA in 2003 as part of the background check that Harkins had been removed from ministry because of allegations he had molested two grade-school girls. Harkins was never criminally prosecuted, but the diocese settled civil lawsuits for $195,000.

The TSA took no action as a result of the disclosure.

“An allegation alone does not warrant dismissal or automatically disqualify applicants from employment with the TSA,” spokeswoman Ann Davis said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

THE first Australian priest to be charged with covering up sex abuse by another priest has died in hospital before his matter could be heard in court.

Hunter Valley priest Father Tom Brennan was too unwell to appear when his case was due for a first mention in court last week.

He died last night following a long battle with cancer, the ABC reported.

Earlier this year, the 74-year-old became the first member of the Australian Catholic clergy to be charged with failing to report sexual abuse by another priest.

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AUSTRALIA
IOL (South Africa)

October 1 2012
By Sid Astbury

Sydney –

The first Australian priest to be charged with covering up sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church has died before facing court, news reports said on Monday.

Cancer patient Father Tom Brennan died on Sunday in a hospital in Newcastle, 160 kilometres north of Sydney.

The 74-year-old was too ill last week to attend court to answer a charge of failing to report to police claims of sexual abuse by another priest.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Philly

Archbishop Charles Chaput

In early September, the Gallup Organization found that 60 percent of Americans – a record high — have little or no trust in the mass media’s ability “to report the news fully, accurately and fairly.” The sharpest decline in trust occurred among political independents, the least partisan American voters.

This isn’t much of a surprise. Media coverage of religion, for example, has been eroding in both quality and fairness for years, as tracked by excellent web sites like getreligion.org. But the shift to social advocacy and the decay of professional standards have hurt the credibility of journalism on a whole range of issues. For Gallup, the trend “poses a challenge to democracy and to creating a fully engaged citizenry.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Times

Opinion

Published: Monday, October 01, 2012

Archbishop Charles Chaput, in his latest weekly column written for the 1.5 million Roman Catholics in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, seems to blame the media for the church’s recent problems.

He refers to a Gallup Poll in which 60 percent of Americans have little or no trust in the mass media’s ability “to report the news fully, accurately and fairly.” He claims media coverage of religion “has been eroding in both quality and fairness for years” and contains “a disdain for Catholic belief.”

The fact of the matter is, if it were not for the media, Americans would most likely never have known the extent of the clerical sexual abuse that has occurred nationally and internationally in the Roman Catholic Church over at least the last five decades. More importantly, church officials might still be covering up this abuse by handling complaints on their own and not contacting civil authorities, thereby allowing suspected pedophile priests to have continued access to children of all faiths.

Before 2002 when the child molestation conviction of a Boston priest first broke the scandal open nationwide, church officials handled abuse complaints by sending suspected predator priests to church treatment clinics, then often sending them to new parishes where the faithful had no knowledge of the suspected pedophile’s history. This pattern was documented in the last 10 years by two Philadelphia grand juries. They found that not only did church officials fail to turn suspected pedophiles over to law enforcement officials, they ordered other priests and nuns to leave matters to them if child abuse was suspected.

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UNITED STATES
Melodika

Sunday, 30 September 2012

The Justice Department’s Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) recently announced that Pennsylvania and the U.S. Virgin Islands are the latest jurisdictions to implement the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.

Since the passage of SORNA, which establishes a comprehensive national system for the registration of sex offenders, a total of 16 states, three territories and 36 tribes have met the requirements for implementation. The Act is named in memory of Adam Walsh, a 6-year-old boy, who was abducted from a mall in Hollywood, Fla. on July 27, 1981.

In addition to Pennsylvania and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the states of Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wyoming, and the United States territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, have also substantially implemented SORNA.

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ETATS-UNIS
Nouvelle Observateur

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pendant vingt ans, les Boy Scouts d’Amérique ont omis de faire connaître aux autorités plusieurs centaines de cas d’abus sexuel commis par leur personnel encadrant, rapporte dimanche le Los Angeles Times après avoir passé en revue 1.600 dossiers confidentiels.

Selon cette enquête menée par le journal sur des dossiers de la période 1970-1991, les responsables de l’organisation n’ont eu dans la majorité des cas connaissance d’abus sexuels commis qu’une fois qu’ils avaient été signalés à la police.

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BOSTON (MA)
CBS Boston

BRAINTREE (AP) — The Boston Archdiocese says it raised $1.2 million at its annual dinner to benefit the Clergy Funds, which pay for the care and well-being of its priests

The archdiocese said more than 1,300 people attended the 4th Annual Celebration of the Priesthood dinner Wednesday at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Patriot-News

Published: Friday, September 28, 2012

By MONICA VON DOBENECK, The Patriot-News

Members of the investigating grand jury found disquieting similarities between the deaths of Betty Jean Schirmer in 2008 and Jewel Schirmer in 1999.

Both died of traumatic brain injuries. And both were married to pastor Arthur Schirmer at the time of their deaths.

Arthur Burton Schirmer already is facing trial for homicide in Monroe County for Betty’s death. Now he is also charged with the murder of Jewel in Lebanon County.

In the grand jury report, the jurors wrote, “We find it particularly disturbing and difficult to believe that both of A.B. Schirmer’s wives could have suffered such horrific injuries by accident.”

Schirmer, 64, was pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church in Lebanon at the time of Jewel’s death and, as noted by Lebanon County District Attorney Dave Arnold, “well-known in the community.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pocono Record

By Andrew Scott
Pocono Record Writer

September 29, 2012

Earl Goodman stood in the front doorway of his Skyline Drive home Friday in North Lebanon Township and looked across the quiet, residential street at the split-level house where his former neighbors, the Schirmer family, had lived until 1999.

“I couldn’t believe what I heard,” said Goodman, wearing a Good Samaritan Health Systems volunteer T-shirt.

He had heard earlier that morning that Lebanon County authorities had charged his former neighbor, Arthur “A.B.” Schirmer, now 64, with murder in the April 23, 1999, death of his first wife, Jewel Schirmer, 50.

Arthur Schirmer is already awaiting a January trial on murder charges in the 2008 death of his second wife, Betty Jean Schirmer, in Monroe County.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Huffington Post

Arthur Schirmer, Retired Pastor, Killed Both Wives, Jewel Schirmer And Betty Jean Schirmer: Cops

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM 09/29/12

LEBANON, Pa. — Retired Pennsylvania pastor Arthur “A.B.” Schirmer was a serial philanderer, preying on women in his church who were having trouble in their own marriages, court documents say.

Yet adultery might have been the least of his sins.

Charged two years ago in the death of his second wife, Schirmer now stands accused of killing his first wife, too, after a grand jury concluded her injuries weren’t consistent with a fall down the stairs, Lebanon County prosecutors announced Friday. He intends to plead innocent, and his children say they support him.

Schirmer, 64, has long claimed he was out for a run on April 23, 1999, when he returned home to find Jewel Schirmer’s body in a pool of blood at the bottom of the basement steps. Although she had suffered a fractured skull as well as injuries to her face, body, arms and legs, the coroner made no determination as to whether her death was an accident or a homicide, and the case was closed.

That decision never sat well with her brother.

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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

Cebu Daily News
9:13 am | Sunday, September 30th, 2012

In the furor over ivory icons and a priest’s dark past that has resurfaced after 28 years, close friends and supporters of Msgr. Cristobal Garcia wait for the storm to pass.

Santiago “Sonny” Academia, head of the Bukas Loob sa Diyos community in Cebu, said their members were alarmed to read about the controversies in the newspapers this week.

But after the initial shock, they have banded together to hold prayer vigils for Garcia, withhold judgment, and stay in touch.

“We are communicating with him through e-mail. He is talking about the cross that he has to carry,” said Academia in an interview.

“We do not believe in all these things being said. Personally, between 1,000 accusations and one word from Cris, I still believe in Cris. He has been a good shepherd to me,” said Academia who is “shepherding” five BLD districts in Cebu, Dumaguete, Tagbilaran, Ormoc and Cagayan de Oro.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Boston Globe

By MICHELLE R. SMITH
Associated Press / September 24, 2012

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island Superior Court judge heard arguments Monday on whether to unseal documents in a lawsuit contesting the will of an elderly widow who gave some $60 million to the Legion of Christ, a disgraced Roman Catholic religious order.

Bernard Jackvony, a lawyer for the niece of the late Gabrielle Mee, argued to Judge Michael Silverstein that it is in the public interest to release the documents, while Joseph Avonzato, a lawyer for the Legion of Christ, said that would compromise the order’s right to a fair trial. The judge didn’t immediately issue a decision.

Pope Benedict XVI took over the Legion in 2010 after a Vatican investigation determined its founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, had sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children by two women.

Silverstein this month threw out the lawsuit, saying the niece, Mary Lou Dauray, did not have standing to sue, though he wrote in his decision that Mee had been unduly persuaded to give the Legion her money.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Erie Times-News

By DANA MASSING, Erie Times-News
dana.massing@timesnews.com

Just a few months ago, Monsignor Lawrence T. Persico was a parish pastor who tended a vegetable garden in the summer and shoveled snow from parish sidewalks before morning Mass in the winter.

By the end of Monday, he’ll be a bishop and the leader of a 13-county Roman Catholic diocese with about 221,500 parishioners spread out over 10,000 square miles. Persico will take an oath of fidelity at vespers tonight and be installed and ordained during an invitation-only Mass on Monday.

What does Persico want people in the Catholic Diocese of Erie to know about their new bishop?

“That he’s a nice guy,” he said with a smile. …

Persico had served as pastor in New Alexandria since 1998, but that was one of only several positions he held in the Greensburg diocese. His other roles included vicar general, moderator of the curia, chancellor and bishop’s delegate for clergy sexual abuse.

He said he believes the sex-abuse scandal led the Catholic Church to do a great deal to rectify such problems by implementing training for clergy and others who work with youth.

“Even dioceses, today, are audited by an outside firm to make sure that each diocese is in compliance with the Charter (for the Protection of Children and Young People),” Persico said.

He encouraged Catholics not to abandon the church because they’re upset with it over sex abuse or disagree with its stance on abortion, contraception, same-sex marriage or female ordination.

“I would tell them not to walk away from it, but to seek, to learn, to pray and to try to deepen their relationship to Jesus Christ,” Persico said. “Because without Christ, what are we?

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CALIFORNIA
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record

Summary of Case: Rev. Michael Stephen Baker has been called by authorities one of the Los Angeles archdiocese’s most prolific child molesters, with estimates of at least 23-28 victims, one of whom is known to have been as young as age 5. Baker told Cardinal Mahony in 1986 that he had sexually abused children. Mahony sent Baker to treatment, then allowed him to return to ministry. Baker is accused of molesting many more children after 1986. He was removed from active ministry in early 2000, when the archdiocese learned of a pending lawsuit against him. He was defrocked in December of that same year. Baker pleaded guilty in 2007 to the sexual abuse of two young brothers, and was sentenced to 10 years and 4 months in prison. He was released early, in October 2011. Within weeks he was arrested on a parole violation. In August 2012 he was arrested again when caught violating parole. Two more cases against Baker were scheduled to go to trial in November 2012.

Ordained: 1974
Incardinated: Los Angeles
Defrocked: 2002

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By JUDITH LEVITT

Published: September 29, 2012

REFORMERS within the Roman Catholic Church have been calling for the ordination of women as priests. The Vatican, however, refuses to consider the possibility and uses its power to silence those who speak out. Catholic clergy in Europe, Australia and the United States who have voiced public support for female ordination have been either dismissed or threatened with removal from administrative posts within the church.

For those who disobey the prohibition, the consequences are swift and severe. In 2008, the Vatican decreed that any woman who sought ordination, or a bishop who conferred holy orders on her, would be immediately “punished with excommunication.” It went a step further in 2010, categorizing any such attempt as delicta graviora — a grave crime against the church — the same category as priests who sexually abuse children.

Despite the official church position, clergy and laity have been fighting for the ordination of women since the early 1970s, hoping to expand upon the Vatican II reforms. And according to a 2010 poll by The New York Times and CBS, 59 percent of American Catholics favor the ordination of women.

In the last 10 years the Vatican has had to contend with a particularly indomitable group of women who seem to be unaffected by excommunication or other punishment offered by the church. The movement started when seven women were ordained by three Roman Catholic bishops aboard a ship on the Danube River in 2002. The women claimed their ordinations were valid because they conformed to the doctrine of “apostolic succession.” The group that grew out of that occasion calls itself Roman Catholic Womenpriests. There are now more than 100 ordained women priests and 11 bishops.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY | Sat Sep 29, 2012

(Reuters) – Pope Benedict’s butler, accused of using his access to the pope to steal papers that he thought would expose Vatican corruption, suffered a blow on Saturday’s first day of his trial when judges refused to admit evidence from the Church’s own investigation.

Gabriele’s arrest in May, after police found confidential documents in his apartment inside the Vatican, not only threw a spotlight on allegations of malpractice but also pointed to a power struggle at the highest levels of the Church.

The 46-year-old Paolo Gabriele, an unassuming man who served the pope his meals and helped him dress, looked pale at his first public appearance since May. He smiled as he chatted with his lawyer but often staring into space during a hearing that lasted just under two and a half hours.

His lawyer, Cristiana Arru, had asked the court to allow as evidence the results of an inquiry by a commission of three cardinals who questioned Vatican employees, including prelates, about the leaks of the documents to Italian media.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Two days from the trial of former papal butler, Paolo Gabriele, experts explain the Vatican’s criminal justice system in a briefing

Alessandro Speciale
Vatican City

The trial of Benedict XVI’s former butler begins Saturday. This may be an unprecedented case, but thanks to the Vatican’s rather lenient penal code – which copies Italy’s liberal penal code of 1913. Before that, it copied the notorious Rocco code introduced by the Fascist regime – Paolo Gabriele risks quite a mild sentence.

“Between 6 months and 3 years” but “if aggravating circumstances are added to this, it could rise to 4 years,” Professor Giovanni Giacobbe, Promoter of Justice (i.e. Public Prosecutor) in the Court of Appeal of the Vatican City State, the second of three levels in the justice system of the world’s smallest State. Today Giacobbe held a briefing with journalists to explain the Vatican trial procedure.

The main difference with Italy’s current criminal justice system is that it is the judge – in this case it will be the group of three judges led by Justice Giuseppe Dalla Torre del tempio di Sanguinetto, rector of Rome’s LUMSA University – and not the prosecution and defence who conduct the debate. He will interrogate the accused (Gabriele and Claudio Sciarpelletti, a Secretariat of State computer technician, accused of aiding and abetting a crime, which entails a one year prison sentence) upon the request of the parties present.

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NEW YORK
Irish Central

By
MOLLY MULDOON,
Irish Voice Reporter

Published Saturday, September 29, 2012

A former Bronx priest is suing the New York Archdiocese for libel in a landmark lawsuit, claiming sex allegations brought against him were false.

A once influential Catholic monsignor, Charles Kavanagh, was defrocked from the priesthood in 2010 for the sexual abuse of a minor, after he was convicted in a 2006 canonical trial. An appeal to a second church tribunal also found him guilty in 2010.

Last Wednesday, lawyers for Kavanagh, now 75, filed the lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan, after the priest’s accuser, Daniel Donohue, told a federal judge last April that he had not been truthful about his allegations.

“No one has ever handled a case of this nature,” Kavanagh’s attorney, John Dearie, told the Irish Voice.

“The significance of this is that the person who made the allegations 30 plus years ago has retracted it, apologized to the person and has asked that the archdiocese reconsider their decision to remove him from his ministry,” Dearie said.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Published: September 29, 2012

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, went on trial on Saturday on charges of stealing the pope’s confidential papers and leaking them to the press, an unprecedented security breach that set off an embarrassingly public airing of back-room intrigue and allegations of corruption at an institution known for its secrecy.

Mr. Gabriele appeared tired but serene throughout the two-hour hearing, which was held in a sparsely furnished, wood-paneled courtroom in a Vatican City palazzo behind the apse of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The morning was taken up with legal formalities, and the civil court — formed by a panel of three judges — upheld motions to strike some of the evidence gathered against Mr. Gabriele and to split off the trial of a co-defendant, a Vatican computer expert charged with aiding and abetting.

A spokesman for the Vatican, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the atmosphere in the courtroom was “serene.” Television cameras and recording equipment were not admitted, and a pool of eight reporters allowed inside briefed other journalists after the hearing.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz and Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A Vatican tribunal determined the two suspects indicted for their parts in the VatiLeaks’ scandal should be tried separately.

During the opening session of the trial Sept. 29, the judges said the trial against Paolo Gabriele, the papal assistant charged with aggravated theft, would continue Oct. 2. A separate trial for Claudio Sciarpelletti on charges of aiding and abetting Gabriele will be scheduled at a later date, they said.

Giuseppe Dalla Torre, the presiding judge, said four more sessions “next week should be sufficient” for completing Gabriele’s trial.

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VATICAN CITY
Aljazeera

The trial of Paolo Gabriele, a former butler to Pope Benedict XVI, has been adjourned until Tuesday.

Gabriel appeared in court on Saturday to face charges of leaking confidential Vatican memos that revealed clandestine politics among the closest aides of the Roman Catholic Pope.

Gabriele faces up to four years in prison for aggravated theft in a trial that is unprecedented in the modern history of the world’s smallest state.

The judge told the court in the city-state that he hoped to finish the hearing by the end of next week.

Gabriele said he grew disgusted by the “evil and corruption” he witnessed. He told investigators he was acting as an “agent” of the Holy Spirit to help the pope put the Roman Catholic Church back on track.

Using the codename “Maria”, he is accused of meeting Gianluigi Nuzzi, an investigative reporter, earlier this year and passing him copies of secret papers.

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VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

A Vatican court trying the pope’s ex-butler for allegedly stealing confidential papers has adjourned its proceedings until next Tuesday. The former aide could face four years in an Italian jail.

The trial of Pope Benedict XVI’s former aide, Paolo Gabriele, opened on Saturday in a 19th century courtroom behind the apse of St Peter’s basilica which is normally off-limits to the public within the small Vatican city-state.

Gabriele did not speak at the trial opening, but is expected to testify next Tuesday. Television cameras were largely excluded from the courtroom and only eight journalists were allowed to observe proceedings throughout. They later briefed other journalists.

The court comprising three Italian law professors ruled that only evidence provided by a Vatican prosecutor and Vatican police would be admissible. The court declared that the results of a separate probe carried out by cardinals was not admissible.

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VATICAN CITY
Business Recorder

Saturday, 29 September 2012 18:27
Posted by Muhammad Iqbal

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI’s personal secretary, Georg Ganswein, will be called to testify in the trial of the pontiff’s former butler Paolo Gabriele for leaking confidential Vatican documents.

Ganswein, 56, was Gabriele’s direct superior and confronted the butler about the leaks early in May after being tipped off by the Vatican police. He has already given investigators evidence about his former charge’s conduct.

The first hearing in what is the Vatican’s biggest court drama in decades lasted just over two hours and mainly addressed preliminary legal questions, after which the court fixed the next hearing for Tuesday, October 2.

The court also accepted a request for the trial of Claudio Sciarpelletti a Vatican computer technician who is accused of abetting Gabriele’s crime to be conducted separately, though no dates were set.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

8:36 a.m. CDT, September 29, 2012

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Pope Benedict’s butler, accused of using his access to the pope to steal papers that he thought would expose Vatican corruption, suffered a blow on the first day of his trial when judges refused to admit evidence from the Church’s own investigation.

Gabriele’ s arrest in May, after police found confidential documents in his apartment inside the Vatican, not only threw a spotlight on allegations of malpractice but also pointed to a power struggle at the highest levels of the Church.

The 46-year-old Paolo Gabriele looked pale at his first public appearance since May, smiling as he chatted with his lawyer but often staring straight into space during a hearing that lasted just under two and a half hours.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Herald

By Associated Press
Saturday, September 29, 2012

VATICAN CITY — The pope’s once-trusted butler went on trial Saturday for allegedly stealing papal documents and passing them off to a journalist in the worst security breach of the Vatican’s recent history — a case that embarrassed the Vatican and may shed some light on the discreet, internal workings of the papal household.

In its first hearing in the case, the three-judge tribunal threw out some evidence gathered during the investigation of butler Paolo Gabriele, who is charged with aggravated theft. It also decided to separate Gabriele’s trial from that of his co-defendant, a computer expert charged with aiding and abetting the crime.

Gabriele is accused of taking the pope’s correspondences, photocopying the documents and handing them off to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, whose book “His Holiness: The secret papers of Pope Benedict XVI,” was published to great fanfare in May.

Nuzzi has said his source, code-named “Maria” in the book, wanted to shed light on the secrets of the church that were damaging it. Taken as a whole, the documents seem aimed primarily at discrediting Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state and Benedict’s longtime trusted deputy. Bertone, 77, a canon lawyer and soccer enthusiast, has frequently been criticized for perceived shortcomings in running the Vatican.

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VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

[with video]

September 29, 2012. (Romereports.com) This morning, at the Pope’s former butler walked into the Vatican’s civil court room to start off his trial hearing. He faces a charge of aggravated theft, for his alleged involvement in the Vatileaks case.

The case is getting world wide attention and it’s not just because of the scandal. This also marks the first judicial process in recent history to take place inside Vatican territory. Three Italian lay judges will preside over the case and they will follow a Penal Code that was established in the 19th century.

The Pope’s butler, 46 year old Paolo Gabriele was arrested in May. He wrote a letter to the Pope where he reportedly appoligzed for his involvement in the leak of documents.

If found guilty he could face up to 4 years in prison. Along with him, a computer programmer who worked at the Vatican’s Secretariat of state, is facing a lesser charge of adding and abbeting, which could lead to a year in prison. He was not present at the trial hearing, but he was represented by his lawyer.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Jo Adetunji and Tom Kington in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 29 September 2012

Benedict XVI’s former butler has gone on trial in the Vatican for stealing and leaking private documents while in the pope’s employ.

Paolo Gabriele, 46, who dressed the pope and travelled with him on public occasions, faces up to four years in jail after Vatican police discovered piles of stolen letters in his apartment, as well as gifts meant for Benedict, including a cheque for €100,000 (£80,000) and a gold nugget.

Gabriele had leaked the choicest letters to an Italian journalist, lifting the lid on accusations of kickbacks paid to win Vatican contracts, infighting among cardinals and claims the pope’s secretary of state started rumours of homosexuality against a hostile newspaper editor.

Placed under custody in a secure room at the Vatican, the father of three confessed but claimed he was an agent of the Holy Spirit, seeking to expose and root out the “evil and corruption”. An expert appointed by his lawyer suggested Gabriele was a victim of “restlessness, tension, rage and frustration”.

Gabriele’s case is being heard by three lay judges within the Vatican’s wood-panelled court and is likely to shed light on the secret world within the world’s smallest state. It is being held on a Saturday, because it is when the judges, who work in Italy’s court system, have a free day.

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VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News UK

The chosen few are taken to a Vatican courtroom under tight security.

Eight journalists are permitted to attend the trial of the Pope’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, in one of the more embarrassing episodes in recent Vatican history.

Once one of the Pope’s most trusted of aides, he says he wanted to clean up corruption in the Roman Catholic Church.

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VATICAN CITY
RTE News

The court trying Pope Benedict’s former butler on charges of aggravated theft has ruled that the results of a separate investigation carried out by cardinals will not be admitted as trial evidence.

The court rejected a defence request to include the cardinals’ inquiry on the first morning of Paolo Gabriele’s trial.

Mr Gabriele is charged with stealing and leaking sensitive papal documents alleging corruption in the Vatican.

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VATICAN CITY
Buenos Aires Herald

Pope Benedict’s former butler went on trial on Saturday for using his intimate access to the pope’s desk to steal and leak explosive documents in what he said was an attempt to clean up corruption in the Vatican.

The 46-year-old Paolo Gabriele, who served the pope his meals and helped him dress, was being tried along with a Vatican computer expert in the city state’s little-used tribunal, a small, wood-panelled room with a papal emblem on its ceiling.

Gabriele was arrested in May after police found confidential documents in his apartment inside the Vatican, throwing a global media spotlight on an institution battling to defend its reputation from allegations of graft.

A three-judge panel will decide the fate of Gabriele, whom the pope used to call “Paoletto” (little Paul), now described in Vatican documents as “the defendant”.

The self-styled whistle-blower, who says he was trying to expose graft at the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, is charged with aggravated theft for stealing and leaking the pontiff’s personal papers, and could be jailed for four years.

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