ABUSE TRACKER

MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

. .Judge Lawrence Perlmuter will decide whether Thomas Marvin Hill violated his probation by moving to Richmond Heights from Chesterfield after a 2003 child abuse conviction. Hill was charged last week with molesting two more kids but news accounts omitted mention of his former job as dean of Gateway Academy, a school once run by the controversial and ultra conservative Legion of Christ. .

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

It is very timely that on the first year anniversary of Opus Dei Golden Cow Blessed John Paul II, revelations have hit Ireland that Cardinal Brady, the Catholic primate of all-Ireland failed to protect children from sexual abuse by a paedophile priest and he is being asked to resign…just like Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law who confessed in public to transferring 80 pedophile priests from one parish to another but John Paul II did not bother to meet any of these pedophile priests or their victims. Cardinal Law resigned as Archbishop of Boston but John Paul II papal farted at us Bostonians by taking him to glorify him in Rome. That is why Blessed John Paul II is the Patron Saint of Pedophiles, Pederasts Rapists-Priests. With Cardinal Brady at its head, Ireland is like the vast Catholic Church with Benedict Ratzinger & Marcial Maciel who are 2 criminal heads of the Mystical Body and Legion of Christ

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IRELAND
Telegraph (United Kingdom)

By Damian Thompson

10:02PM BST 02 May 2012

Paedophiles are cunning. It’s one of those things we’re always told but doesn’t sink in – until we’re confronted by the sort of detail revealed in last night’s BBC Two documentary This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church. Father Eugene Greene of Donegal liked to fiddle with altar boys, and he knew how to go about it. He’d invite one of them to drive his car. That’s pretty exciting when you’re 12 years old – and an honour, too, given that it’s Father’s car. “Both hands on the wheel!” said the priest. And then he’d reach over. I don’t think I need say any more.

There have been so many television exposés of Catholic clerical paedophilia that diminishing returns set in. Like doctors desensitised to suffering because it follows predictable patterns, we get used to the sight of middle-aged men choking back tears as they describe the residue of anger and shame left by their clerical abusers. That we’ve witnessed variants of this scene so often is, in itself, evidence of the depth and breadth of the Church’s paedophile undergrowth during the heyday of the abuse (at least of the abuse we know about), in the 1970s and 80s.

In the 21st century it takes an extremely well-made programme or one containing important new information to produce the degree of shock these crimes merit. The Shame of the Catholic Church ticked both boxes. In fact, what it told us about Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, leaves us in little doubt that his position is hopelessly compromised.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily News

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Hundreds of Roman Catholic priests have been called to a sudden meeting in Delaware County with their archbishop, as 23 priests suspended over sex-abuse allegations await their fate.

Archbishop Charles Chaput (SHAP’-yoo) has said he hoped to announce the outcome of the latest priest-abuse investigations this spring.

The priests were suspended after a February 2011 grand jury report alleged that accused predators were still active in Philadelphia, despite a zero-tolerance policy among U.S. bishops.

The meeting is being held at Cardinal O’Hara High School in Marple — while a former official of the archdiocese is on trial downtown.

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IRELAND
Donegal Democrat

Published on Wednesday 2 May 2012

The extensive abuse of children in west Donegal by Father Eugene Greene was dealt with in an explosive documentary aired last night by the BBC.

The programme, “The shame of the Catholic Church” outlined how decades of clerical abuse and cover up left the Catholic Church in Ireland at breaking point.

Investigative journalist, Darragh MacIntyre, made claims on the programme in relation to Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, which have stunned the public.

The programme claimed that Cardinal Brady had the names and addresses of children who were being abused or were at risk of being abused by Ireland’s most notorious paedophile, Fr Brendan Smyth, but failed to ensure that they were protected.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Thomas C. Fox on May. 01, 2012

COMMENTARY

Some of our bishops are acting like bullies, abusing the authority of their offices in the name of enforcing orthodoxy.

Dealing with U.S. women religious, these bishops’ actions appear governed more by a desire to enforce obedience than to develop fidelity in our sisters.

Catholics see through this guise. They are upset, fed up with the likes of this behavior. They are speaking out. Soon they will be on the streets making their voices heard. You can count on it.

What the bully bishops claim to be matters of orthodoxy are really matters of pastoral style. They are the results of an unwillingness among our bishops to enter into sincere and mutually repectful dialogue with the women. None of the issues at hand has anything to do with the Creed. They stem from the actions of a small group of misdirected and fearful men determined to take catholic out of Catholic while judging, silencing and demeaning those who stand in their way.

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AUSTRALIA
Newscastle Herald

JOANNE MCCARTHY

03 May, 2012

A CATHOLIC priest shook his head and his family wept yesterday as a jury found him guilty of 23 lurid child sex offences.

A Sydney District Court jury took nearly two days to find the priest guilty of all 23 counts of indecent or sexual assault against boys as young as eight years old in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The priest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, shook his head in denial until he was led from the court for his first night in jail.

His parents and sisters, who had attended every day of the five-week trial, left the court in tears.

A man who was closely associated with the case was also in tears yesterday as he praised the efforts of investigating police.

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IRELAND
The Journal

BARNARDOS CEO FERGUS Finlay has revealed that he is a survivor of child abuse.

Finlay, a long-standing advocate of the rights of children, said that he had been both sexually and physically abused while a child in the early Sixties.

He was commenting amid ongoing controversy over the Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady’s role in interviewing a victim of paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth during the 1970s.

Speaking on Newstalk’s The Right Hook, Finlay rejected the suggestion that Brady might have been prevented from acting on his knowledge of the abuse allegations because a different culture existed in Ireland when the interview took place.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Stern

Frau zu Guttenberg, in Deutschland wurde in den vergangenen Wochen viel über den Sexualmord an einer Elfjährigen aus Emden diskutiert. Ihre Kinder sind im gleichen Alter wie dieses Mädchen. Reden Sie mit Ihnen darüber?

Ich habe hier in den USA von diesem Fall nur wenig mitbekommen. Aber wenn hier in den Staaten ähnliche Sachen geschehen und meine Kinder das über die Nachrichten hören, muss man mit ihnen darüber reden. Präventive Erziehung ist ganz wichtig. Man muss Kindern ein Rüstzeug an die Hand geben, damit sie sich wehren können und wissen, wo ihre Rechte sind.

Wie meinen Sie das konkret?
Wir müssen unseren Kindern beständig beibringen, dass sie nein sagen können wenn es um sie geht, vor allem um den eigenen Körper. Man muss gebetsmühlenartig wiederholen, dass niemand sie zum Austausch von Zärtlichkeiten zwingen darf. Das fängt schon ganz harmlos dort an, wenn der alte Onkel dem Kind zum Abschied einen Kuss geben will, das Kind ihn aber nicht mag oder findet, dass er übel riecht.

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IRLAND
kath.net

Gesetzesvorschlag: Fünf Jahre Haft für alle, die Informationen über Kindesmissbrauch – und seien sie aus der Beichte – nicht der Polizei weiterleiten

Dublin (kath.net/LifeSiteNews.com) Der irische Justizminister Alan Shatter hat einen Gesetzesentwurf eingebracht, der beinhaltet, Priester mit einer fünfjährigen Gefängnisstrafe zu belegen, wenn sie zu Fällen von sexuellem Kindesmissbrauch, von denen sie in der Beichte erfahren, nicht vor der Polizei aussagen.

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IRLAND
Der Westen (Deutschland)

Der Kardinal der katholischen Kirche in Irland hat einen Rücktritt nach Ausstrahlung einer BBC-Dokumentation über seinen umstrittenen Umgang mit der Vertuschung von jahrzehntelangem Kindesmissbrauch durch einen Priester ausgeschlossen. Der Film habe seine Rolle bei der Befragung zweier missbrauchter Jungen im Jahr 1975 übertrieben dargestellt, sagte Sean Brady.

Dublin (dapd). Der Kardinal der katholischen Kirche in Irland hat einen Rücktritt nach Ausstrahlung einer BBC-Dokumentation über seinen umstrittenen Umgang mit der Vertuschung von jahrzehntelangem Kindesmissbrauch durch einen Priester ausgeschlossen. Der Film habe seine Rolle bei der Befragung zweier missbrauchter Jungen im Jahr 1975 übertrieben dargestellt, sagte Sean Brady.

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OSTERREICH
betroffen

Trotz bekannter Missbrauchsfälle durfte ein Pater mehrere Jahre am Gymnasium unterrichten. Kloster und Schulbehörde zeigten nicht an

Bregenz – Eintragungen über einen Missbrauchsfall verschwinden aus dem Personalakt, ein Gerichtsakt ist zwar in aller Munde, aber keiner hat ihn gesehen. Die Schadenersatzprozesse gegen das Kloster Mehrerau werfen immer mehr Fragen auf. Etwa jene, ob die Schulbehörde informiert wurde. Schließlich sind lehrende Patres des Privatgymnasiums mit Öffentlichkeitsrecht Gehaltsempfänger des Landesschulrats.
Pater Johannes, der seine pädophile Neigung und mehrere Übergriffe auf Schüler 2004 bei Polizeieinvernahmen eingestand, unterrichtete im katholischen Elitegymnasium Biologie und Chemie, obwohl er das Studium nie abgeschlossen hatte und obwohl sexuelle Übergriffe und seine Neigung zu körperlicher Gewalt seit 1967 bekannt waren. 1981 wurde er sogar zum Regens, Leiter des Internats, bestellt.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on May. 02, 2012 NCR Today

ROME — For a long time it was Opus Dei, and then, even before massive sex scandals exploded around their founder, it was the Legionaries of Christ. Today, at least in Italy, it now seems Communion and Liberation’s turn to be the conservative Catholic group generating the most controversy, the sexiest news headlines, and the greatest volume of conspiracy theories.

That’s likely a special source of heartburn for Pope Benedict XVI, for whom Communion and Liberation has always been his personal favorite among the new movements in the Catholic church.

It’s also a colossal case of bad timing, since a beatification cause for the group’s founder, the late Italian Fr. Luigi Giussani, was recently opened and endorsed by the bishops of Lombardy, the region where the cause is based.

Want an index of how hot the spotlight has been?

Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan, widely seen as a leading candidate to be the next pope and someone with a background in Communion and Liberation, obviously now feels compelled to distance himself. Scola told a group of reporters on April 26: “What do I know about Communion and Liberation? I deal with the church of God. If you want to know something about Communion and Liberation, go ask them.”

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BROOKLYN (NY)
Catholic News Agency

Brooklyn, N.Y., May 2, 2012 / 11:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has named two new auxiliary bishops for the Diocese of Brooklyn, the apostolic nuncio to the U.S. announced May 2.

The bishops-designate are Msgr. Raymond Chappetto, 66, and Msgr. Paul Sanchez, 65.

“These two men are among the most respected priests in the Diocese of Brooklyn.” Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn said. “Fundamentally, they are parish priests at heart. Each is very attentive to the diverse needs of the people they serve.”

“I am also grateful for their assistance in my ministry as bishop.” The two future bishops also “consistently offer wise counsel and advice that has been indispensable in the administration of the diocese,” Bishop DiMarzio said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Washington Post

Trial evidence: Philadelphia-area pastor punished for raising concerns about predator priest

By Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — A jury in a Philadelphia clergy-abuse trial has heard about a pastor who was censured for raising concerns about a priest assigned to his parish.

Documents show the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua vowed not to tolerate “even the appearance of disobedience” from the pastor.

Monsignor Michael Picard was punished for complaining when the priest was assigned to his Newtown, Pa., parish in 1996. In disciplinary meetings with the cardinal, Picard said he had heard disturbing information about the priest.

Prosecutors say the subject of Picard’s concern was sent elsewhere. In 2005, the priest was accused of sexually assaulting a minor in 1982. The priest died in 2006.

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IRELAND
BBC News

The Catholic primate of all-Ireland has said that he will not resign as Church leader despite revelations in the BBC’s This World show.

It found Cardinal Sean Brady had names and addresses of those being abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

However, he did not pass on those details to police or parents.

Cardinal Brady said he accepted he was part of “an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church”.

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IRELAND
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

‘Did you ever do anything like this before?’: Victim of child abusing priest tells of secret church investigation by Cardinal which swore him to silence

The leader of Ireland’s 4 million Catholics, Cardinal Sean Brady, is under renewed pressure after he was accused of failing to act on child abuse by a notorious paedophile priest in the 1970s.

Brady has already admitted he took notes of two children’s testimony of abuse in 1975 and gave the report to his bishop, not the police.

One of those children, now an adult, told the BBC he also alerted Brady to other children being abused by the same priest, Father Brendan Smyth, but Brady did not warn their parents of the danger.

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UNITED STATES
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

One of Fr Brendan Smyth’s victims said today that Cardinal Sean Brady is a flawed man for not speaking out in the past against the paedophile priest.

Helen McGonigle – an Attorney based in Connecticut in the United States – suffered abuse at the hands of Brendan Smyth in the late 1960s in Rhode Island.

She’s calling on the Cardinal to resign and she believes he should face prosecution for not passing on the allegations he was aware of in 1975 to the civil authorities.

Ms McGonigle sais that Cardinal Brady failed in his duty.

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IRELAND
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Mark Dooley

With each passing day, the crisis in the Irish Catholic Church grows deeper. In a BBC This World documentary screened on BBC Northern Ireland last night, it was claimed that, in 1975, the Catholic Primate of Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, failed to inform parents that their children were being abused by the notorious paedophile priest, Brendan Smyth. Here is how one Irish newspaper reported the incident this morning:

‘In last night’s programme, Brendan Boland, who was abused by Smyth as a 12-year-old, claimed that information he gave to a Catholic Church inquiry team, which included Cardinal Brady, was not passed on to parents of the victims of the paedophile priest. Mr Boland from County Louth recounted how two of these victims, a boy from Belfast and a boy from Cavan, continued to be abused by the priest after the inquiry group, which comprised three priests, completed its work. The programme expands on information disclosed in 2010 about how the information compiled by the canonical inquiry in 1975, to which Mr Boland gave evidence, was not passed on to gardaí [police]. That disclosure led to calls for Cardinal Brady to resign’.

In response, a spokesman for the Cardinal said that ‘even according to today’s State and Church guidelines, Fr Brady [as he then was] would not be the person with responsibility for making a report to the civil authorities. That responsibility at the time rested with the only people who had the authority to stop Brendan Smyth, namely the Abbot of his Monastery’.

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IRELAND
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 May 2012

The leader of the Catholic church in Ireland was under renewed pressure to step down after a television programme alleged that he failed to hand over a list of children being abused by the country’s most notorious paedophile priest to the victims’ parents or the police.

Cardinal Seán Brady faces fresh allegations that he failed to act after one of the victims gave him a list in 1975 of other children being abused by Father Brendan Smyth, who was convicted in 1994 of dozens of offences over a 40-year period.

While the Vatican appeared to be rallying around Brady, organisations representing the victims of clerical sex abuse in Ireland said these new allegations made his position untenable.

The Irish justice minister, Alan Shatter, described the testimony of an abuse victim who claimed to have handed over a list of names and addresses of victims to Brady as “tragic and disturbing”.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, has vowed to stay on as he attempted to distance himself from a secret inquiry into one of the country’s most dangerous paedophiles.

Even though he was part of the 1975 investigation into allegations Fr Brendan Smyth had attacked at least five children, the Cardinal blamed superiors for failing to stop the priest abusing children over the next 20 years.

Rejecting growing demands for his resignation, he declared: “There’s no cloaking over or brushing under the carpet.

“We’re not hiding behind procedures. There was no desire on my part to cover up, it was to make sure that this abuse stopped.”

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IRELAND
The Independent (United Kingdom)

Police urged to probe priest abuse claims following Cardinal Sean Brady’s resignation refusal

Steven McCaffery

Wednesday 02 May 2012

Police should investigate the latest child sex abuse allegations to hit the Catholic Church, Amnesty International has said.

The human rights group said the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) should see if information on abuse was not acted upon.

This comes after Catholic Primate Cardinal Sean Brady defended himself against criticism, insisting he had passed on details of abuse to Church authorities, and claimed others had failed to act as he expected.

Amnesty’s Northern Ireland programme director Patrick Corrigan said: “The protection of the rights of children is one of the most precious responsibilities carried by the state.

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IRELAND
The New York Times

By DOUGLAS DALBY

Published: May 2, 2012

DUBLIN — The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, said Wednesday that he would not resign despite new accusations that he failed 35 years ago to alert the parents of victims of a serial pedophile priest, allowing the abuse to continue for more than a decade.

The cardinal’s statement blamed other members of the church hierarchy for failing to act to halt the priest, Brendan Smyth.

“With others, I feel betrayed that those who had the authority in the Church to stop Brendan Smyth failed to act on the evidence I gave them,” Cardinal Brady said in his statement. “However, I also accept that I was part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church, which thankfully is now a thing of the past.”

Cardinal Brady resisted calls to step down two years ago over his role in a 1975 church investigation, saying his role had been confined to taking notes in interviews with a child who said he and others were being sexually abused by the priest, Brendan Smyth, a teacher, canon lawyer and bishop’s secretary. The cardinal maintains that his notes had been passed on to his superiors and it had been up to them to deal with the matter, given that in 1975, he had no major role in the church and no authority over Father Smyth.

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VATICAN CITY
Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey)

VATICAN CITY – Agence France-Presse

The Vatican on Wednesday said it was taking direct control of the Catholic charity Caritas Internationalis, following criticism that it has not done enough to promote a Christian message.

A decree signed by Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said the charity network would come under the direct control of his secretariat and the “Cor Unum” Council which is in charge of the Roman Catholic Church’s charity work.

It said an “ecclesiastical assistant” and a “support commission” would also be put in place to ensure “the distinctive identity” of Caritas, while three members of the executive board would be appointed directly by the pope.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 2 May 2012 (VIS) – Made public today was a General Decree concerning the renewed juridical framework of Caritas Internationalis. The document, which bears the signature of Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B., was approved by the Holy Father on 27 April, and comes into force from the moment of its publication.

The publication of the decree is being accompanied by an explanatory text in English, written by Msgr. Osvaldo Neves de Almeida, excerpts from which are given below.

“In its sixty-one years of existence, Caritas Internationalis has always been a privileged instrument of the Church’s charitable activity. Drawing upon its long experience of this worthy institution, and in particular the developments of recent years, the Holy See has sought to update the juridical status of Caritas Internationalis, in order the better to support its activity in the context of the modern world”.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on May. 02, 2012 NCR Today

ROME — After moving last year to block the re-election of the first laywoman to head Caritas Internationalis, the Rome-based confederation of Catholic charitable agencies around the world, over an alleged “lack of coordination” with papal aides, the Vatican today imposed sweeping new rules that effectively tightens its control over Caritas’ finances and global operations.

Among other points, the rules require the top officials of Caritas to make promises of loyalty before a Vatican official, including “Christian obedience” to church leaders.

Aside from its direct importance for Catholic charities, today’s Vatican move is also interesting for the recently decreed overhaul of the Leadership Conference for Women Religious in the United States, the country’s main umbrella group for superiors of women’s orders.

Like LCWR, Caritas Internationalis is a juridical person under church law recognized by the Vatican. The new rules are thus a further indication that the Vatican is in earnest about tightening its grip over groups that enjoy official status and, in some sense, represent the church.

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MISSOURI
Patch

By Jean Whitney

A Chesterfield man arrested on child molestation charges April 16 is slated to go before a judge Tuesday in St. Louis County Circuit Court, to likely determine whether he violated probation of a 2003 conviction.

Thomas M. Hill, 56, was serving lifetime probation from a January 2003 conviction on first-degree statutory sodomy with a 10-year-old girl.

Hill was arrested anew April 16 on six counts of first-degree child molestation with a previous conviction. The latest charges relate to incidents dating from 2006 to 2010.

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ITALIA
IVG

Savona. Servirà ancora qualche giorno per sapere se ci sarà un clamoroso dietrofront nella vicenda giudiziaria che riguarda l’ex Vescovo di Savona Dante Lafranconi, indagato per violenza sessuale perché non avrebbe impedito ad alcuni sacerdoti della sua Diocesi di compiere atti di pedofilia, o se l’archiviazione nei suoi confronti verrà confermata. Questa mattina si è infatti discussa l’udienza di opposizione al provvedimento e il giudice per le indagini preliminari Fiorenza Giorgi si è riservata di decidere sulla richiesta.

Entro qualche giorno il gip dovrebbe quindi emettere l’ordinanza con la quale potrebbe confermare l’archiviazione per prescrizione del reato oppure chiedere al pubblico ministero di svolgere ulteriori accertamenti e, di fatto, riaprire il caso. L’opposizione all’archiaviazione (chiesta dal pm Giovanni Battista Ferro) è stata presentata dall’associazione della Rete L’abuso, che tutela le vittime di preti pedofili ed è rappresentata da Francesco Zanardi, presente oggi in tribunale insieme al legale che lo sta assistendo in questo procedimento, l’avvocato Carla Corsetti di Frosinone. Presente all’udienza anche l’avvocato Michele Tolomini di Cremona che assiste Monsignor Lafranconi.

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UNITED STATES
ABC Radio National (Australia)

[with audio]

In the United States recently, in the dioceses of St Louis and Kansas City in Missouri, church leaders have issued subpoenas demanding access to the records of the organisation called SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. SNAP is mainly a counselling and support group and many victims have given details of their cases, even if they do not want to prosecute perpetrators. Into the bargain, one of the leading conservative Catholic voices, William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, told The New York Times recently that SNAP was ‘a menace to the Catholic Church’ and said the church needed to ‘toughen up and buy some good lawyers’. The national director of SNAP, David Clohessy, explains the nature of the legal challenge that his organisation faces.

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NEW YORK
JTA

(JTA) — A New York appeals court overturned the conviction of a Brooklyn rabbi on charges of molesting a teenage boy over the withholding of evidence.

Rabbi Baruch Lebovits had served one year of his prison sentence before being released to house arrest pending the outcome of his appeal, which was announced last week.

The decision by the State Supreme Court’s appellate division said that while the evidence shows that Lebovits was guilty, he was deprived of his right to a fair trial because prosecutors did not hand over until the middle of the trial a detective’s notes about one of the witnesses that the defense was expected to call.

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IRELAND
UTV

Published Wednesday, 02 May 2012

Cardinal Seán Brady has said he feels “betrayed” by the Church officials who had the authority to stop paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has claimed that officials failed to act on evidence he gave them about clerical child abuse – but he accepts that he “was part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church, which thankfully is now a thing of the past”.

Cardinal Brady released a statement on Wednesday following new claims that he failed to act on allegations of abuse made against Fr Brendan Smyth.

He said suggestions that he led the 1975 Church inquiry were “seriously misleading and untrue” and that he was asked by Bishop Francis McKiernan of the Diocese of Kilmore to assist senior officials “on a one-off basis only”.

Cardinal Brady added that he acted only as a “note-taker” during the inquiry.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Eyewitness News has learned that a decision regarding dozens of priests suspended by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is imminent.

Sources have told Eyewitness News that Archbishop Charles Chaput is expected to make an announcement regarding the suspended 27 priests in the coming days.

The 27 priests were suspended for misconduct or sexual abuse allegations following a 2011 Grand Jury report.

Archbishop Chaput has called all Archdiocesan priests to a 2 p.m. meeting Wednesday at Cardinal O’Hara High School in Springfield, Pa.

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IRELAND
BBC News

[with video]

2 May 2012 Last updated at 08:37 ET

Cardinal Brady, the Catholic primate of all-Ireland has been challenged over allegations that he failed to protect children from sexual abuse by a paedophile priest.

A BBC documentary found he was aware of the names and addresses of children being abused by a paedophile priest, Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.

The church points out that in 1975, “no state or church guidelines for responding to allegations of child abuse existed in Ireland”.

This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church is broadcast on Wednesday 2 May 2012 at 2100 BST on BBC Two. Watch on BBC iPlayer (UK only) or check for repeats at the above link.

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AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph

May 03, 2012

ATTORNEY-General Greg Smith told Father Chris Riley in an email last year that he was regularly praying for the alleged paedophile priest Finian Egan.

He also complained to Father Riley that one of Egan’s alleged victims Nikki Wells had launched a media attack on him and his chief of staff Damien Tudehope, whose brother is Egan’s barrister.

Mr Smith’s office has released the emails in an attempt to prove that he had not dismissed Ms Wells’ claims on grounds she wanted money from the Catholic Church.

Ms Wells says she was devastated when on July 17 last year she received an email from Father Riley saying: “I was with Greg Smith the other day and I raised you [sic] case with him. He commented that ‘You were just trying to get $1m from the church’.”

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IRELAND
The Journal

RESPONDING TO ALLEGATIONS made by BBC’s This World last night, Cardinal Seán Brady has criticised the programme makers for overstating and “seriously misrepresenting” his role in a 1975 church inquiry into allegations of child abuse against notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

In the written statement, the top official of the Catholic Church in Ireland said he will not resign over the fresh claims but intends to continue the “vital work” being carried out to ensure proper and robust procedures are in place to respond to any allegations of abuse against children.

Commenting on the secret inquiry in 1975, Brady said last night’s programme gave the impression that he was the only one to know of the allegations and that he “somehow had the power to stop Brendan Smyth”.

“I had absolutely no authority over Brendan Smyth. Even my Bishop had limited authority over him,” he said, after refuting notions that he led the investigation.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 1, 2012 

Oliver O’Grady is like a cockroach: He will never, never, ever go away.

A new Oliver O’Grady victim has come forward and filed a lawsuit against the notorious predator and the Diocese of Stockton. SNAP will have a press conference tomorrow to release details. On the heels of the Michael Kelly verdict, this is very, very disturbing news. I have yet to see any kind of apology from the diocese for either Kelly’s actions or the horrific legal hardball tactics that the diocese employed in an attempt to scare the victim into dropping his suit.

O’Grady is currently serving a three-year prison sentence in Ireland for possession of child abuse images (child porn).

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin and David O’Reilly
Inquirer Staff Writers

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput plans to meet Wednesday with hundreds of Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests, stirring hopes that he may announce the fates of nearly two dozen clergy suspended last year over child sex-abuse or misconduct allegations.

The e-mail invitation sent to priests Monday did not disclose the purpose of the afternoon gathering at Cardinal O’Hara High School in Springfield, Delaware County. Archdiocesan officials did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The meeting comes days before Chaput’s stated deadline for deciding whether some or all of the suspended clerics will be restored to ministry.

“Some of these cases are very near conclusion,” Chaput wrote in his March 8 newsletter. “My hope is that most will be completed and announced over the next eight weeks.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 2 May 2012 (VIS) – The Holy Father: …

– Appointed Msgr. Paul R. Sanchez of the clergy of Brooklyn, U.S.A., episcopal vicar for Queens, and Msgr. Raymond F. Chappetto, also of the clergy of Brooklyn, vicar for clergy and consecrated life and pastor of Our Lady of the Snows at Floral Park, as auxiliaries of Brooklyn (area 466, population 4,849,605, Catholics 1,556,575, priests 619, permanent deacons 179, religious 177). Bishop-elect Sanchez was born in Brooklyn in 1946 and ordained a priest in 1971. He has worked as pastor in a number of parishes and is a member of the diocesan liturgical commission. Bishop-elect Chappetto was born in Astoria in 1945 and ordained a priest in 1971. He has worked as pastor in various parishes in Brooklyn.

On Tuesday 1 May it was made public that the Holy Father appointed Fr. Raymond Poisson, pastor of the Sainte-Marguerite-d’Younville pastoral unit in the diocese of Saint-Jean-Longueuil, Canada, as auxiliary of Saint-Jerome (area 2,156, population 444,000, Catholics 431,000, priests 91, permanent deacons 19, religious 137), Canada. The bishop-elect was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Canada in 1958 and ordained a priest in 1983. He studied in Canada and in Rome, and has served in pastoral duties and as private secretary to the bishop of Saint-Jean-Longueuil.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cirpriano

On Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Anthony Pomeranz took the witness stand and read another volume of Monsignor William J. Lynn’s grand jury testimony into the record.

Pomeranz is growing into the role. He’s got that deer-in-the-headlights look down pat, and he reads his lines with the carefree assurance of a man with a grant of immunity, which is what the monsignor must have thought he had when he appeared before the grand jury in 2002, and made one forehead-slapping admission after another.

The most recent volume of grand jury testimony was about the hapless monsignor’s pursuit back in 2000 of a 27-year-old Lothario priest named Father Sylwester Wiejata.

Father Wiejata was having affairs with married women. To the jury, hearing the priest’s heterosexual exploits must have been a welcome relief from the usual tales in Courtroom 304, where gay predator priests are usually stalking pre-pubescent altar boys. But sadly, Father Wiejata had another problem; not only did he love the moms, but he also couldn’t keep his hands off the daughters.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A witness has testified in the clergy abuse case that defendant monsignor William Lynn misled parish staff after they raised concerns about the conduct of a priest in the early 1990’s. Lynn, who has pleaded not guilty, is charged with endangering two boys, but this evidence is alleged to show a pattern of conduct by the Archdiocese, including Monsignor Lynn, dating back decades.

Anthony Bozeman, then a youth minister, has testified he and others, including priests and a nun in Our Lady of Hope parish in Philadelphia had concerns about the relationship between Father David Sicoli and a 13-year-old boy.

They went to Monsignor William Lynn, the Secretary for Clergy, who ordered a mental health evaluation, but also said Sicoli had no previous problems. However, evidence in the church’s secret archives, reviewed by Monsignor Lynn showed Father Sicoli had a history of allegations of misconduct dating back to the 1970’s.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Abuse victims support group One in Four has said new allegations surrounding Cardinal Seán Brady’s role in the Brendan Smyth abuse scandal require an explanation from the Cardinal.

A BBC documentary last night claimed that information was given to an investigating team of clerics, including Cardinal Brady, in 1975 about other children who were being abused at the time, but that the information was not passed on.

The information uncovers how the Primate of All-Ireland was handed written names and addresses of three boys and two girls who were being abused or were at risk of being abused by Smyth in 1975 — 19 years before he was jailed in 1994. Four of the children were being abused, it later emerged. Two continued to be abused after the 1975 inquiry.

Despite having five names, Cardinal Brady only made contact with one of the children, a young man from Cavan. However, he did not tell the boy’s parents, gardaí, or the health authorities about the boy’s confirmation that he had been abused. He just sent a report to his bishop, who later barred Smyth from Confession and reduced his ability to complete public duties.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Ireland’s most senior cleric Cardinal Sean Brady has said his role in a 1975 investigation into paedophile Brendan Smyth had been exaggerated.

The Primate faced renewed demands to resign after it emerged a then 14-year-old victim of Smyth`s warned him in secret interviews that it was likely the late priest was abusing five other named children.

The Cardinal said his role in the inquiry has been deliberately exaggerated and misrepresented in a BBC documentary aired last night.

“I deeply regret that those with the authority and responsibility to deal appropriately with Brendan Smyth failed to do so, with tragic and painful consequences for those children he so cruelly abused,” he said.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Victim of pervert priest says cardinal Brady took notes as he told of vile assaults

By Greg Harkin
Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Between 1973 and 1975, altar boy Brendan Boland was among many victims of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

Aged just 14, he plucked up the courage to report his two years of horrific abuse at the hands of the Nobertine Order priest.

It wasn’t an easy thing to do for an adult, never mind a young teenage boy.

He approached a priest he could trust who worked with his local youth club; he in turn told Brendan’s parents and his Bishop.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

The founder of One in Four has called for Cardinal Sean Brady to admit he failed to act appropriately by not reporting the abuse of children in 1975.

A BBC documentary last night claimed Cardinal Brady was part of a team of clerics who were made aware of allegations of abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth in 1975, but failed to act.

However in a statement released before the programme aired last night, the Cardinal’s spokesman said the then Father Brady was a notetaker for the inquiry, and it was not his responsibility to inform the civil authorities.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Wednesday, 2 May 2012

The Pope himself should have come to Ireland himself following the allegations of child abuse by Irish priests in the 1970s, it has been claimed.

The call came from a contributor to a radio debate in the wake of last night’s revelations that Cardinal Sean Brady knew of cases of abuse by a priests like Father Brendan Smyth.

A BBC investigation found that Cardinal Brady, the primate of all-Ireland, had the names and addresses of those being abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.

The investigation centres on a secret church inquiry in 1975 when a 14-year-old boy, Brendan Boland was questioned about abuse.

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IRELAND
BBC News

The latest claims about Cardinal Sean Brady in a BBC investigation come after numerous reports into clerical sex abuse in Ireland.

October 2005 The Ferns Report, an Irish government inquiry, found that successive bishops had failed to adequately protect children from abuse in the Wexford diocese.

It uncovered more than 100 allegations of sexual abuse by priests and said the allegations were made against 21 priests who had been working in the diocese between 1966-2002.

May 2009 The Ryan Report found that sexual and psychological abuse was “endemic” in Catholic-run industrial schools and orphanages in Ireland for most of the 20th century.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

CHARLIE TAYLOR and GERRY MORIARTY

Catholic primate Séan Brady has today seriously criticised a BBC television programme which focused on the church’s handing of clerical sex abuse allegations.

Dr Brady said allegations made against him in the BBC This World documentary, The Shame of the Catholic Church, were “seriously misleading and untrue” and claimed the programme makers set out to “deliberately exaggerate and misrepresent” his role in events.

Click here for Cardinal Seán Brady’s full statement:

According to the programme, which was broadcast on BBC Nothern Ireland last night, a Catholic Church inquiry team that included the then Fr Brady failed to pass on allegations of abuse to parents of some of the vicims of the paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth in 1975.

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IRELAND
BBC News

[with video]

2 May 2012 Last updated at 04:10 ET

Brendan Boland was 11 years old when he was sexually abused by Fr Brendan Smyth.

Back in 1975, he reported the abuse to Fr (now Cardinal) Sean Brady and two other priests, hoping to end the abuse of him and others. After giving evidence to them he was sworn to secrecy.

Cardinal Brady signed two reports about the abuse of Boland and another boy and passed them on to his bishop, but the police were never informed.

It was not until 1994 that Smyth was convicted of dozens of offences against children over a 40-year period.

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IRELAND
BBC News

As the BBC’s This World documentary offers fresh revelations about the failure of the Irish Catholic primate Cardinal Sean Brady to protect children from abuse, Church representatives, politicians and victims of clerical abuse respond.

Senior Vatican prosecutor Monsignor Charles Scicluna
“My first point is that Fr Brady was a note taker in 1975, he did what he should have done. He forwarded all the information to the people that had the power to act.

My second point is that in the interest of the Church in Ireland, they need to have Cardinal Brady as the archbishop of Armagh because he has shown determination in promoting child protection policies. You need to have leaders who have learned the hard way and are determined to protect children.

They have learned because they have realised that you have to act immediately.

Maeve Lewis, One in Four
“It will be heartbreaking for survivors to realise that their suffering could have been avoided if only action had been taken.

While on paper the Church now has good child protection practices, this documentary casts a shadow on the credibility of Cardinal Brady as a leader of the new policy. Although the times were very different then, it is unimaginable that any adult had such knowledge and failed to act”

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IRELAND
BBC News

[with video]

New revelations about the failure of the Catholic primate of all-Ireland to protect children from abuse have been uncovered by the BBC’s This World show.

It found Cardinal Sean Brady had the names and addresses of those being abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.

The investigation centres on a secret church inquiry in 1975 when a 14-year-old boy was questioned about abuse.

Smyth abused him and others in guesthouses on trips across Ireland.

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IRELAND
BBC News

Cardinal Sean Brady has issued his response to the BBC’s This World documentary, The Shame of the Catholic Church.

Here is the full text of his statement.

“On Tuesday 1 May 2012, the BBC ‘This World’ series broadcast a programme entitled ‘The Shame of the Catholic Church’ on the BBC Northern Ireland network. In the course of the programme a number of claims were made which overstate and seriously misrepresent my role in a Church Inquiry in 1975 into allegations against the Norbertine priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

“In response to the programme I wish to draw attention to the following:

“Six weeks before broadcast (15 March 2012) I drew the attention of the programme makers to a number of important facts related to the 1975 Church inquiry into Brendan Smyth, which the programme failed to report and which I now wish to restate for all other media who report on this matter:

“To suggest, as the programme does, that I led the investigation of the 1975 Church Inquiry into allegations against Brendan Smyth is seriously misleading and untrue. I was asked by my then Bishop (Bishop Francis McKiernan of the Diocese of Kilmore) to assist others who were more senior to me in this Inquiry process on a one-off basis only;

“The documentation of the interview with Brendan Boland, signed in his presence, clearly identifies me as the ‘notary’ or ‘note taker’. Any suggestion that I was other than a ‘notary’ in the process of recording evidence from Mr Boland, is false and misleading;

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

The founder of One in Four, Colm O’Gorman, has said that Cardinal Sean Brady’s defence of his role in a 1975 abuse inquiry is “just not good enough”.

Cardinal Brady responded today to allegations in a BBC documentary, saying it that a number of claims were made which seriously misrepresented his role in the 1975 church inquiry into Fr Brendan Smyth.

In a statement, Cardinal Brady highlighted a number of “important facts” to the programmes makers six weeks before the broadcast, most notably that the suggestion that he led the inquiry into the abuse allegations were “seriously misleading and untrue”.

Cardinal Brady said that he was a “notary” at the meeting which was outlined in the programme, adding that even now the guidelines currently in place to ensure child protection in the Irish state make clear that the person “who first receives and records the details of an allegation of child abuse in an organisation that works with children, is not the person who has responsibility within that organisation for reporting the matter to the civil authorities”.

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IRELAND
BBC News

[with video]

2 May 2012 Last updated at 08:37 ET

Cardinal Brady, the Catholic primate of all-Ireland has been challenged over allegations that he failed to protect children from sexual abuse by a paedophile priest.

A BBC documentary found he was aware of the names and addresses of children being abused by a paedophile priest, Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.

The church points out that in 1975, “no state or church guidelines for responding to allegations of child abuse existed in Ireland”.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland Cardinal Sean Brady has insisted he will not resign – saying his role in a 1975 investigation into paedophile Brendan Smyth had been exaggerated.

The Primate faced renewed demands to resign after it emerged a then 14-year-old victim of Smyth’s warned him in secret interviews that it was likely the late priest was abusing five other named children.

The Cardinal said his role in the inquiry has been deliberately exaggerated and misrepresented in a BBC documentary aired last night.

“I deeply regret that those with the authority and responsibility to deal appropriately with Brendan Smyth failed to do so, with tragic and painful consequences for those children he so cruelly abused,” he said.

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NEW ULM (MN)
The Journal

May 2, 2012

By Josh Moniz – Staff Writer, The Journal

NEW ULM – In Minneapolis, Winona and New Ulm, members of the Minnesota branch of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) staged protests Tuesday to demand more information about the sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Minnesota by releasing a list of 130 clerics accused of misconduct.

At each location, SNAP members presented May Day baskets stuffed with the list of accused clerics to ranking church officials, if they were willing to meet with them. Otherwise, the baskets were hung on doors.

The New Ulm Diocese was not a primary focus of the event. But, it was included as an overall effort to gain information from dioceses because priest connected to abuse had been part of the diocese more than 25 years ago. Cyril Denn, a North Mankato resident, was the only SNAP member to attend the New Ulm event. Denn suffered sexual abuse while at St. John’s Prep in Collegeville.

The protest was intended to bring out information about sexual abuse by priests for two reasons: first, to put pressure on the diocese to identify church officials not yet cited for misconduct. Second, it was more squarely aimed to bring to light clergy already accused of misconduct to encourage their victims to come forward and receive help.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

Fine Gael general secretary Tom Curran is to chair a session of a day-long conference in Dublin next Monday organised by the Association of Catholic Priests.

Redemptorist priest Fr Tony Flannery, a member of the association’s leadership team and brother of Fine Gael strategist Frank Flannery, was censured last March by the Vatican because of his views on contraception, celibacy and the ordination of women.

He was also advised to withdraw from the association. Fr Flannery was advised by Rome to spend six weeks in a monastery, and while there to “pray and reflect” on his situation and begin “to think with the church” (sentire com ecclesia).

He and colleague Fr Gerard Moloney, who is editor of the Redemptorists’ Reality magazine, have been banned by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on account of their liberal views.

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CALIFORNIA
OpEd News

By
Joey Piscitelli

STOCKTON, CA.

The Diocese of Stockton’s latest lawsuit nightmare may very well be the straw that breaks the Cardinal’s back. Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles California to be precise.

A new allegation and lawsuit has surfaced this week in San Joaquin Superior Court naming convicted serial molester Fr. Oliver O’Grady once again as the child sex abuser of a victim who is now 25 — and this accusation falls well within the statute of limitations for child abuse cases. The allegation is a potential atomic bomb that may cause the Stockton Diocese to implode. O’Grady was previously convicted in 1993 for lewd and lascivious acts of child abuse.

O’Grady is in jail in Ireland right now, serving a three year sentence for a conviction of possession of child pornography. The prosecution in Ireland followed on the heels of numerous lawsuit settlements that were paid by the Stockton Diocese for O’Grady’s admitted molestation spree that spanned decades in California.

The new Superior Court lawsuit filed by attorney Joe George of Sacramento states the victim was 4 to 5 years old when he was molested by O’Grady in 1992 when O’Grady was in ministry at Saint Andrew’s Parish in San Andreas and at Saint Anthony’s.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

By Jerome Christenson jchristenson@winonadailynews.com

She stood alone under a cloudy sky to speak for the victims and for herself.

“I am a victim of rape by a priest,” Megan Peterson said.

She was 14, she said, when she was first raped by the Rev. Joseph Jeyapaul, her parish priest in Greenbush, Minn. The abuse went on for 10 months, she said, until Jeyapaul fled to his native India. Charges were filed against Jeyapaul and extradition proceedings have begun. Peterson and the Diocese of Crookston reached a civil settlement last summer.

Peterson, now 22 and a student at Winona State University, was at the Pastoral Center of the Diocese of Winona Tuesday afternoon to tell her story and ask the bishop and diocesan officials to work for and with people sexually exploited and abused by Catholic clergy and religious. She was there as part of a May Day visit by members of SNAP — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — to the headquarters of Roman Catholic dioceses across Minnesota.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – 7.30

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 01/05/2012
Reporter: Tim Palmer

Following a series of 7.30 stories on the Church’s response to complaints of sexual abuse, a Sydney priest with connections to the NSW Attorney General has handed himself in to police to face charges of abuse dating from the 1970s and ’80s.

Transcript
CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: A Sydney priest who is a close associate of the NSW Attorney General has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing three girls and a boy over 15 years in the 1970s and 80s. The police investigation of Father Finian Egan followed allegations raised in a series of stories on this program. They examined the Church’s response to the initial complaints, and the lengthy holdup in the criminal investigation, during which NSW Attorney General Greg Smith apparently dismissed one of the alleged victims as “money hungry”. Tim Palmer reports.

TIM PALMER, REPORTER: After decades, this was a defining moment for two of the women who have alleged Father Finian Egan turned their lives upside down by sexually assaulting them as children.

KELLIE ROCHE, ABUSE VICTIM: It’s a relief. For me it’s like… it’s finally… it’s something’s happening. Something legal is starting.

TIM PALMER: It was the Catholic Church that first investigated a series of allegations against Finian Egan made by Nikki Wells and Kellie Roche, who claimed he’d attacked them when they were at school or a fellowship at a north-west Sydney church.

ABUSE VICTIM: Even when I left that school and went to another high school we still attended the church.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

(This article was last updated
on 2 May 2012.)

On 1 May 2012, New South Wales police charged Catholic priest Father Finian Egan with alleged sexual abuse of four children in the Sydney region in the 1970s and ’80s.

Father Egan, who is aged 77 in 2012, belongs to the Broken Bay diocese, which covers parishes to the north of Sydney Harbour (including on the NSW central coast). He is listed as a priest in the latest edition of the annual Australian Catholic Directory, published in mid 2011.

Father Egan, who maintains his innocence, was charged with 16 counts of indecent assault and one count of rape, relating to alleged assaults while he was a priest in Sydney and the NSW central coast.

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LOVELAND (CO)
Coloradoan

A former Loveland church volunteer and toy store owner promised an iPad upgrade, and trips to Disneyland and Elitch Gardens before sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, the victim said in court.

“You are the most disgusting person I ever met in my life,” she said while standing at the lectern, sobbing softly. “You are really screwed up, and someone had to stop you.”

Robert Ernest Kirchhoff, 54, of Loveland was sentenced to two years in jail and 10 years to life of in-tensive sex-offender probation for grabbing the girl by the wrist and sexually assaulting her for 20 minutes in late January. He had been babysitting the girl as she was at his home to visit his 12-year-old daughter the night of Jan. 27.

8th Judicial District Judge Julie Field gave him the maximum sentence under a plea agreement that the victim’s family said they supported. She said Kirchhoff’s “profound grooming behavior” and posses-sion of child pornography, along with his history of domestic violence, were taken into account.

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NEW ZEALAND
The Northern Advocate

Mike Barrington | Wednesday, May 2, 2012

A Northland bishop has suspended an Anglican Church deacon after what the bishop says are false claims about a child sex abuser.

Deacon Tapu Laulu pulled 18 children out of a church camp after spotting a man that he had been told was a child sex abuser.

However, the man – who is known to Paihia-based Bishop of Tai Tokerau, the Rt Rev Te Kitohi Pikaahu – has never been charged or convicted of the alleged offence.

Bishop Pikaahu – has claimed the alleged sexual offending was based on a 16-year-old rumour concerning two people who were teenagers at the time.

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IRELAND
9 News (Australia)

20:51 AEDT Wed May 2 2012

Shawn Pogatchnik

The leader of Ireland’s four million Catholics, Cardinal Sean Brady, faced renewed pressure to resign on Wednesday after a BBC documentary accused him of helping to cover up child abuse committed by a notorious pedophile priest in the 1970s.

Brady already has admitted he took written testimony in 1975 from two abused teenage boys and gave the report to his bishop, not the police.

The revelations became public after victims sued Brady and the church for damages and won confidential settlements.

One of those now-adult children, Brendan Boland, told the BBC he also alerted Brady to five other children being abused by the same priest, but Brady didn’t tell their parents of the danger.

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NEW ULM (MN)
KEYC

[with video]

By Joel Runck, News Reporter

NEW ULM, Minn. –
More Disclosure. That’s what the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is requesting.

With a bag stuffed with papers, Cy Denn of SNAP, made his way into the diocese headquarters in New Ulm.

Once inside, Denn presented the names of individuals who are accused of misconduct.

“What we’re trying to do is not only get their name out there but…to find out how many more people have suffered some type of abuse,” Denn said.

The list presented by SNAP denotes 130 current and former clerical members. One of those names is Reverend Douglas Schleisman of New Ulm.

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MONTANA
Helena Independent Record

By SANJAY TALWANI Independent Record | Posted: Wednesday, May 2, 2012

One of two major sex abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena grew Tuesday with the addition of 18 plaintiffs, bringing the total to 76 alleged victims in that case.

Vito de la Cruz, a lawyer for the plaintiffs with the Yakima, Wash.-based Tamaki Law Firm, said more plaintiffs are still to come.

The 40-page amended complaint filed in District Court in Helena outlines many specific abusive acts, including fondling, forced sodomy and an offer of cash for sex, committed by both male and female clergy on boys and girls in Helena and several other locations, from the 1940s into the 1970s.

The complaint identifies several former clergy by name. De la Cruz said allegations still to come may include more recent alleged incidents.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

GERRY MORIARTY and CHARLIE TAYLOR

The Vatican’s senior sex crimes prosecutor has today defended Cardinal Sean Brady’s handling of allegations of clerical sex abuse.

Monsignor Charles Scicluna said the current primate had no case to answer over renewed allegations of mishandling information given to him in 1975 about serial sex abuser Fr Brendan Smyth.

The allegations were made in a BBC This World documentary, The Shame of the Catholic Church, broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland last night.

Speaking on RTÉ Morning Ireland earlier today, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter described the cases detailed in last night’s programme were “tragic and disturbing incidents.”

He said the programme highlighted the need for reforms such as those currently being introduced by the Government such as the Withholding of Information Bill, which was published last week.

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AUSTRALIA/IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Luke Byrne

Wednesday May 02 2012

A RETIRED Irish priest was yesterday rushed to hospital after he was charged by police in Australia with a raft of child-sex offences.

Fr Finian Egan (right) left a Sydney police station by ambulance after being questioned and subsequently charged with 17 offences dating back to the 1970s.

The 77-year-old cleric was charged with 16 counts of indecent assault and one count of rape over a 15-year period.

The charges relate to the alleged sexual abuse of four different children — three girls and a boy — between 1972 and 1987 while he was serving as a priest to parishes in Sydney and the Central Coast.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Greg Smith says he would never disparage an alleged sex assault victim, but he’s avoiding apologising over comments related to the case of Finian Egan.

NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith has declined to apologise to the alleged abuse victim of a retired Catholic priest after accusing her of “trying to get $1 million from the church”.

Father Finian Egan, 77, was on Tuesday charged with a raft of child sexual offences dating back to the 1970s.

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IRELAND
TV3

New allegations have been made about Cardinal Sean Brady’s role in a child sexual abuse inquiry in 1975.

In a BBC documentary, a man who was abused by paedophile priest Fr. Brendan Smyth as a child, claimed he told a church inquiry about other children who were at risk, but the allegations were not acted on.

The programme claimed that the parents of the children at the centre of the new allegations were never informed that they were at risk.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Greg Harkin
Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Even 15 years after his death, the malign shadow of Fr Brendan Smyth still haunts the Catholic Church

Cardinal Sean Brady has insisted that he would not resign after fresh claims about his role in the cover-up of abuse by serial paedophile cleric Brendan Smyth.

Documents suggest that he was an investigator into paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth — and not a just a note taker.

The BBC allegations also include claims Cardinal Brady and the Church failed to pass on any warnings to other victims of Smyth, despite accepting the evidence of a victim.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By John Mulgrew
Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Cardinal Sean Brady has been Primate of All Ireland since 1996 and in the last few years he has been forced to deal with the damaging fallout from two reports into clerical abuse within the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Two major reports into child sex abuse were published — the Ryan report, which looked at abuse within Catholic institution, and the Murphy report which examined a massive abuse cover-up in the Dublin diocese.

In 2010 it emerged that Cardinal Brady had been present when children signed vows of silence over allegations of abuse made against paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth in 1975.

He had previously apologised for his role in mishandling the case of the serial child abuser.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Fergus Black
Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Leering chillingly into the camera lens, the face is that of perhaps the country’s best-known and most notorious of paedophile priests.

The fallout from the controversy surrounding the case of serial sexual predator Fr Brendan Smyth continues to resound almost 15 years after his death.

A member of the Norbertine Order, Smyth’s litany of abuse going back to the 1940s led to the collapse of a government and the exposure of widespread clerical child sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

Born in Belfast in 1927, Smyth joined the Norbertines in 1945, but decades would pass before his hidden life as one of the most notorious Irish clerical sex abusers was to be revealed.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Greg Harkin and Independent.ie reporters

Wednesday May 02 2012

CARDINAL Sean Brady is expected to release a full statement later today after refusing to resign over fresh claims about his role in the cover-up of abuse by serial paedophile cleric Brendan Smyth.

Previously unseen documents suggest that he was an investigator into paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth — and not a just a note taker.

Brendan Boland, from Co Louth, a victim of serial abuser Brendan Smyth, when he was just 12, told how information about his evil deeds was not passed onto parents of other victims by the inquiry team and two boys continued to be abused after the inquiry.

The allegations are made in a BBC documentary which also revealed that a hand-written note for a church inquiry into Smyth in 1975, at which the then Fr Brady was present, puts him in an investigative role.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Lyndsey Telford

Wednesday May 02 2012

THE Vatican’s chief investigator has insisted that Ireland’s most senior cleric has no case to answer over renewed allegations of mishandling of allegations against the paedophile Brendan Smyth.

Monsignor Charles J Scicluna (pictured) defended Cardinal Sean Brady’s role in secret interviews with a 14-year-old victim in 1975 in which he was told it was likely the late priest was abusing five other named children.

The Vatican cleric, from the Holy See’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, claimed the Primate of All-Ireland had fulfilled his duties by referring information on child abuse to his seniors.

Three years ago when explosive allegations about Cardinal Brady’s role in the canon inquiry into Smyth emerged he said he would resign if he found his actions or failings had led to another child being abused.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Ken Briggs on May. 01, 2012 NCR Today

The grudge hardened in 1971 when the superiors of women’s religious communities decided to re-name themselves the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

The flash point was the word “leadership.” The Vatican protested it’s use, the superiors overrode the objections and Rome’s campaign against “radical feminism” became a fixture in Holy See strategy.

“Leadership” signified a breaking loose from the pre-Vatican II assumption that male clerics had the final say on everything about sisters’ existence. They were insisting on a degree of autonomy based on “Perfectae Caritatis,” the instructions given them by Vatican II.

The ink had barely dried on the document as the head of the Italian bishops was warning the sisters not to take this freedom too far. That would be abusing official authority. Eventually this bacame a full fledged attack on renewal as a mindless fling with worldliness, individualism and apostacy.

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ROME
The Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW

POPE BENEDICT XVI has long made it clear he believes Europe’s traditionally Christian countries need a major spiritual “dig-out” to ward off both growing secularisation and the “eclipse of the sense of God”. Two years after he created the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation, however, one is tempted to ask whether he means new evangelisation or new inquisition.

Irish public opinion is much concerned by revelations that Irish priests such as Fr Tony Flannery and Fr Brian D’Arcy have been “silenced” by the Holy See over the last two years. Yet, there a lot of people getting their knuckles rapped by the Holy See – from US nuns to Austrian priests to teachers at Catholic schools and even Holy See functionaries.

Earlier this month, Emily Herx, a literature teacher at the St Vincent De Paul Catholic School in Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, claimed she had been sacked from the school last year because she had undergone in vitro fertilisation (IVF). She claimed, in a lawsuit, that the school’s church leader, Fr John Kuzmich, had told her she was a “grave, immoral sinner” who would cause a “scandal” if people learned she had undergone IVF, while local bishop Kevin Rhoades had told her “IVF is an intrinsic evil”.

In a statement that stirs echoes of the Eileen Flynn affair in New Ross in the late 1980s, the Fort Wayne diocese publicly asserted its right as a religious employer “to make religious-based decisions consistent with its religious standards”.

Closer to home, Pope Benedict, during his traditional Maunday Thursday “Chrism” Mass at Easter, sharply rebuked more than 300 Austrian priests who had issued a “call to disobedience” on key tenets in church teaching, including regarding women’s ordination.

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IRELAND/AUSTRALIA
The Irish Times

PÁDRAIG COLLINS in Sydney

A RETIRED Irish priest has been charged with the rape and indecent assault of children in Sydney and the New South Wales Central Coast between 1972 and 1987.

Fr Finian Egan turned himself in at a police station in the northwestern Sydney suburb of Ryde yesterday morning, accompanied by a lawyer. The 77-year-old was subsequently charged with 17 offences relating to alleged assaults on four children.

The charges include one count of rape and two of indecent assault over an alleged attack on a then 17-year-old girl in 1972. Fr Egan has also been charged with committing indecent assaults on a 14-year-old boy and girls aged 11 and 16.

Two of his alleged victims hugged each other as the priest hobbled into the police station on a walking stick.

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MONTANA
Beartooth NBC

By Kristin Price

18 plaintiffs were added today, to a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Diocese of Helena and the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to 78.

In March, lawyers representing both sides in the case agreed to hold mediation to resolve the lawsuit. The plaintiffs’ attorney who filed the amendment today says mediation required some changes be made to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs’ attorney, Vito de la Cruz, says, “There’s an agreement with the diocese and us to file the second amended complaint to remove some of their claims that we had raised initially and also to add additional plaintiffs.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

A SPOKESMAN for Cardinal Seán Brady said before the BBC programme was broadcast that he had not seen it, but wanted to make the following points.

The text is slightly edited:

* It is critical to note Cardinal Brady’s comment in 2009, that he would resign if by his action children were put at risk, was specifically in response to a question about if he was a bishop with overall responsibility for dealing with allegations . . . but . . . in 1975, he was a priest who was asked by his own bishop to record evidence . . . Fr Brady had no authority over Brendan Smyth . . . It would be disingenuous to report the 2009 quote in any other way.

* Even today, in the State’s own guidelines for responding to allegations of abuse against children, it is the “Designated Person” in the organisation who has responsibility for reporting the matter to the civil authorities, not the person who first receives or notes the details of the allegation, as Fr Brady did in 1975.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY

How Church’s handling of clerical child abuse led to court cases decades later

1973 Norbertine priest Fr Brendan Smyth began his abuse of schoolboy Brendan Boland (12). It continued for two years.

Early 1975 Brendan Boland spoke to a priest in his home town of Dundalk about his abuse by Smyth. It was reported to church authorities. The bishop of Kilmore, Francis McKiernan, received reports of another allegation of abuse by Smyth involving a boy in Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan.

March 1975 Fr Seán Brady was asked by Bishop McKiernan to conduct a canonical inquiry into the two allegations involving Smyth. The then Fr Brady was a 35-year-old teacher at St Patrick’s College, Cavan, and part-time secretary to Bishop McKiernan. Brady also held a doctorate in canon law.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

GERRY MORIARTY, Northern Editor

A VICTIM of late paedophile priest Brendan Smyth has stated he gave information to a Catholic Church inquiry team that included Fr Seán Brady – now Cardinal Brady – about how Smyth had abused other children.

Brendan Boland (51), from Co Louth, said this information was not passed on to the parents of these children, two of whom continued to be abused by the serial child sex abuser.

Smyth continued to abuse one particular Belfast boy a year after Mr Boland had given information about this abuse to a church inquiry, it was claimed last night. Three priests, including canonical lawyer Fr Brady – now the Catholic primate, Cardinal Brady – conducted that 1975 inquiry.

Details of this abuse and how such details were not passed on to the children’s parents or to gardaí are contained in a BBC’s This World documentary, The Shame of the Catholic Church, broadcast last night on BBC Northern Ireland. It is to be rebroadcast tonight on BBC 2.

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IRELAND
BBC News

By Andy Martin
BBC News

Cardinal Brady became the Catholic Primate of all-Ireland in 1996, but the appointment that may define his career was made 21 years earlier.

As a Bishop’s secretary in 1975, he was tasked with investigating a complaint of sexual abuse made against a fellow priest, the man who would later be exposed as Ireland’s most prolific paedophile, Fr Brendan Smyth.

The manner in which he handled that internal church inquiry has come under intense scrutiny in a BBC ‘This World’ investigation.

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IRELAND
BBC News

A BBC investigation has uncovered fresh revelations about the role of the Catholic primate of all-Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, in the failure to protect children from child abuse.

The BBC’s This World programme revealed he had the names and addresses of children who were being abused or were at risk of abuse by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth but failed to ensure they were being protected.

The investigation centres on a secret church inquiry in 1975 when a 14-year-old was questioned about abuse.

In 1975, Cardinal Brady was a priest and teacher in County Cavan in the Republic of Ireland, when he was sent by his bishop to investigate a claim of child sexual abuse by a fellow priest.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com

WORCESTER — A woman testified in court today that she was physically abused and sexually assaulted by her church pastor during counseling sessions aimed at treating her eating disorder.

The 45-year-old alleged victim was the first witness called by Assistant District Attorney Cheryl R. Riddle during The Very Rev. Charles Michael Abdelahad’s jury-waived Central District Court trial on charges of indecent assault and battery, five counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and four counts of assault and battery.

Rev. Abdelahad, 55, of 14 Bryant Ave., Shrewsbury, the longtime pastor of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral at 30 Anna St., is on a voluntary leave of absence from his position at the church, according to his lawyer, James G. Reardon Jr.

The complaining witness testified that she first met Rev. Abdelahad in 1987, after a suicide attempt left her comatose in a hospital’s intensive care unit, and the young priest came to administer the sacrament of Holy Unction.

She said she and Rev. Abdelahad formed a relationship, but lost touch for several years after she moved back in with her family in Connecticut.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

The New York Times has shown yet again that the abuse of children does not really bother them unless it involves the Catholic Church. But if there were still any doubts, the Times has made it perfectly clear that the decades-old abuse of minors by Catholic priests is simply a tool with which it can bludgeon the Catholic Church because it does not conform to its left-wing liking.

It was only a week ago when a New York Times editorial fretted about the Catholic Church’s efforts to align the dissident leadership of a conference of left-wing nuns with Church doctrine, and the paper predictably used the scandals as a useful cudgel to promote “progressive” dissent.

Now Times’ opinion writers Maureen Dowd and Nicholas D. Kristof have double-upped on the Grey Lady’s predictable tactic with similar Church-bashing columns running just a week later in the same Sunday issue together on the same day.

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MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record

Summary of Case: A parish priest of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese ordained in 1962, Stitts died in 1985 at age 50. He was named in lawsuits in 1995 and again in 2010 as having sexually abused at least a dozen boys in the 1960s and 1970s. The archdiocese was alleged to have known of Stitts’ sexual of abuse of children as early as 1970, but took no action to discipline him or to prevent further abuse by him. Archdiocesan officials deniend hiding information about Stitts.

Ordained: 1962
Incardinated: St. Paul and Minneapolis
Died: Oct. 13, 1985

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UNITED STATES
Toy Soldier

Often times people want to help others but do not know how. This cannot be any truer than when it comes to helping abused men and boys. The resources sometimes are not apparent and are often difficult to find. Sometimes the resources are hidden or even barred by other groups who wish to polarize the issue. The intent here is to provide those who wish to help male victims with the opportunity to do so. Every month I will post a new link to an organization that provides services for male victims. As the list grows, I will create a page where all the links can be found.

Please remember that you do no have to empty your wallets to help. Even a small donation can go a long way. And for those on the other side of the issue, it would go a long way to demonstrating real concern for all victims if you donated as well.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Brian Roewe on May. 01, 2012 NCR Today

The trial of two priests alleged in a conspiracy of covering up cases of priest sex abuse in the Philadelphia archdiocese has opened its sixth week to hearing prior grand jury testimony from each of the defendants.

Today, prosecutors from the Philadelphia district attorney’s office presented the grand jury testimony of William J. Lynn, in relation to former priest Sylvester Wiejata.

Lynn was the secretary of clergy in the archdiocese from 1992-2004, during which time he reviewed allegations against Wiejeta of inappropriate touching of a teen girl and sexual advances toward young women, as well as an affair with a married woman.

Wiejeta was defrocked in 2002, six years after his ordination.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
In August 2000, Lynn told the grand jury, he received an anonymous call from a woman, who said she knew of Wiejata history because she had an affair with him. She said that she came home and discovered Wiejata there fondling and kissing her 13-year-old daughter.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Elizabeth Dunbar, Minnesota Public Radio
May 1, 2012

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests on Tuesday released a list of 130 clerics accused of sexual abuse in the state.

The group delivered the list in May Day baskets to the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Diocese of Winona and the Diocese of New Ulm.

Bob Schwiderski, the group’s director, said most of the people on the list have already been accused through police reports, court documents or media reports.

“There’s been a decision made to bring those names out for the benefit of those still suffering in silence and with a hope that the religious leaders in the Catholic Church in this state realize how important it is to reach out to those same people,” Schwiderski said.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Ten years after a historic papal response to clerical sex abuse, the Vatican urged priests to strive for greater holiness in their own lives so that they might effectively minister to others and reverse the tide of atheism.

In its annual letter to priests for 2012, the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy focused on Blessed John Paul II’s 2002 Holy Thursday letter to clergy, in which the late pope responded to the growing revelations and scandal of sexual abuse of minors by priests.

The congregation’s letter also gave priests a guideline for examining their consciences concerning everything from how they celebrate Mass to how well they are living a pure, humble and generous life detached from consumerism.

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MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record

Summary of Case: Stevens pleaded guilty in 1987 to sexual misconduct with a minor. He resided at a St. Paul, MN parish from 1988-2002 and worked on the archdiocese’s computer services team. He was removed from ministry in June 2002, after the U.S. Bishops drafted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

Ordained: 1980
Incardinated: St. Paul-Minneapolis

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Young and darkly handsome, Sylvester Wiejata had an eye for the ladies, especially married ones.

Problem was, Wiejata was a priest.

This morning a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury listened to the grand jury testimony of Msgr. William J. Lynn as he tried to explain his alleged failure to act as Wiejata’s sexual overtures went from married women to single women in their 20s and, ultimately in August 2000, allegations that he had fondled the 13-year-old daughter of a woman with whom he had an affair.

As secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, Lynn, 61, was the Archdiocesan official responsible for investigating allegations of sexual abuse by priests. Charged with endangering the welfare of children. He is the first Catholic church official to be criminally prosecuted in a landmark trial focusing on the sexual abuse of children by some priests in the Philadelphia archdiocese.

Lynn had denied the charge that his alleged inaction enabled deviate priests to continue preying on children and his lawyers have argued that he was the first church official here to move against priests against whom there were years of record allegations of sexual misconduct.

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POLAND
WSN

A priest in Poland, found guilty of having sex with a disabled 19-year-old girl who was entrusted in his care, has been sentenced to four years in prison.

This is the first time a priest has been caught and sentenced in Poland, though there have been few incidents in the past where priests were asked to resign.

Bialystok’s District Court found that between July 2010 and February 2011 the priest had sexual intercourse with her as many as eight times, a media report said.

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ROME
Business Insider

Sanya Khetani|April 30, 2012

In the most recent scandal involving the Vatican, the Church allegedly accepted a sum of one billion lire (about $660,000) in 1990 to bury the remains of mobster Enrico de Pedis in a basilica, next to various popes and cardinals, The Independent reports.

The paper cites a source from ANSA.it (though the report appears to be offline) who says that “despite initial reluctance” the then vicar-general of Rome, Cardinal Ugo Poletti, “in the face of such a conspicuous sum, gave his blessing” to the arrangement, despite the fact that de Pedis had been the head of the notorious Magliana gang. The money was reportedly used on missions and to restore the Basilica. The Vatican has refused to comment.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

When Pope John Paul II used to address seminarians studying in the Eternal City, he would often urge them to “learn Rome.” By that, he meant that just moving around the city, and especially spending time in its estimated 300 churches, can offer an education in Catholicism.

Today is the one-year anniversary of John Paul’s beatification, and it’s also the occasion for a reminder that the late pope’s tip about “learning Rome” is truer than he probably intended. A recent brouhaha over the burial of a mob boss in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare illustrates that Rome’s churches often do, indeed, have much to teach about Catholicism – warts and all.

The scandal centers on the late Enrico De Pedis, a.k.a “Renatino,” who was among the bosses of the Banda della Magliana, the “Magliana Gang,” named after a Rome neighborhood, which was the city’s most notorious organized crime outfit in the 1970s and 1980s. After being gunned down near the Piazza de Fiori in 1990, De Pedis was buried in a crypt within the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare (albeit in what the church’s pastor describes as basically a “closet,” in an unconsecrated area not open to the public).

From the beginning, it always seemed incongruous that a mob boss should end up buried in the kind of space typically reserved for cardinals, Catholic nobles, and other ecclesial dignitaries. That was perhaps especially so in the early 1990s, in an era in which the anti-mafia activism of courageous Catholic priests such as Fr. Pino Puglisi in Sicily put them at grave risk (Puglisi was assassinated in 1993). Critics wondered how the church could back Puglisi with one hand, and open its doors to De Pedis with the other.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Nicky Phillips, Nick Ralston May 02, 2012

A SYDNEY Catholic priest who revealed he has been married for a year has been removed from his post by church officials.

Father Kevin Lee, a priest at Padre Pio parish in Glenmore Park, told Channel Seven last night he married his wife, whom he met in the Philippines, in secret last year.

”I’ve fallen in love and I’ve got married and it’s outside of most people’s awareness,” he said. ”But I’m sure people within the church could have had a suspicion.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

May. 01, 2012
By An NCR Editorial

Publication of the annual audit of dioceses and eparchies to determine how they are complying with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People is intended to assure the Catholic faithful and the wider society that church leaders remain vigilant in their efforts to combat sex abuse of children by priests and other ministers.

On several levels, the audits, the ninth of which was just released, achieve that purpose. Church leaders are paying more attention than ever before to the protection of children. No other institution in this country has spent as much time or money establishing requirements for education of both children and adults around the topic of sex abuse. The effort has become a model for the church in some other parts of the world and could well become a model for other denominations, not to mention civil entities, such as school systems.

The encouraging news is that the number of reported incidents is diminishing. Some of that certainly is because of the programs put in place since 2002. One might logically conclude that it’s also the result of fewer priests and a much different relationship that has evolved between laypeople and priests because of the scandal. Of the 704 allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy during the audit period, only 21 involved “current minors.” The rest were “historical allegations” first reported in 2011, but occurring in the past and “often decades ago.” Of the 21 current accusations, the audit states, seven were found to be credible, three were found to be false, three were still under investigation, three were “unable to be determined,” and five were considered boundary violations, not abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph

Andrew Clennell and Clementine Cuneo
The Daily Telegraph
May 02, 2012

ATTORNEY-General Greg Smith told charity worker Father Chris Riley an alleged paedophile priest’s child abuse victim was making allegations because she was “trying to get $1 million”, Father Riley said yesterday.

Father Finian Egan, a close friend of Mr Smith who he mentioned in his maiden speech speech in 2007, saying “at St Gerard’s Father Finian Egan charmed us with his Irish wit and his pastoral devotion to his flock”, was charged yesterday with rape and other sexual assault offences relating to four minors dating back 40 years.

Youth worker Father Riley wrote in an email to one of Father Egan’s alleged victims, Nikki Wells, on July 17 last year, that: “I was with Greg Smith the other day and I raised you (sic) case with him. He commented that ‘you were just trying to get $1m from the church’.”

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BOSTON (MA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 30, 2012

It is disconcerting that, in the case of Rev. Mendicoa, the Archdiocese of Boston has made nothing public except that the claim was “unsubstantiated.” How was this determination made? Who were the witnesses? What criteria were used? Because it provides no answers to these questions, the Archdiocese’s statement really means nothing. A statement this cryptic and a process this mysterious neither exonerates the priest nor reassures the public.

If Mendicoa was truly innocent, we suspect that he would not have to seek permission to perform priestly functions. The fact that Mendicoa is still restricted in ministry, even though he has been taken off of administrative leave, is telling. We urge Boston church officials to make known what has actually been found out in this case instead of using vague terms and odd punishments. A decade ago these officials pledged to be open and honest about clergy sex crimes and allegations. We would appreciate some of that honesty in this case.

Finally, we believe that often in these cases, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” In other words, we feel that Cardinal O’Malley has ample resources he could use to really seek out others with knowledge or suspicions about this case. Instead, he seems to have taken the ‘bare minimum’ approach, which is a disservice to everyone involved.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

[with video]

A Catholic priest from Glenmore Park claims many priests lead a double life as he revealed his own clandestine marriage, a 7News exclusive has exposed.

Father Kevin Lee, a priest for 20 years, has admitted to 7News that he has found love and wedded.

In a controversial claim, Lee says that many Catholic priests pursue relationships and argues compulsory celibacy within the faith should be reconsidered.

“I’ve fallen in love and I’ve got married and it’s outside of most people’s awareness,”

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