ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
The Score

[with video of the Enda Kenny speech]

TODAY MARKS EXACTLY a year since Taoiseach Enda Kenny stood up in a sparsely populated Dáil chamber to deliver one of the most significant speeches in the history of the State.

In a landmark address, Kenny outlined his views on the publication of the Cloyne report which had investigated and exposed how church authorities had dealt with allegations of abuse in the Cork diocese.

The report outlined how 19 priests abused dozens of children between 1996 and 2009 and it accused those in authority at the diocese of gross negligence for not doing enough to address the issue.

Kenny said the “heartbreaking” revelations contained in the report showed “the dysfunction, the disconnection, the elitism that dominates the Vatican today” and was hugely scathing of the church’s treatment of victims of sexual abuse at the hands of members of the clergy.

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

WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

July 19, 2012

An Outagamie County judge has dismissed a $700,000 judgment against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay and ordered a new trial, citing juror bias in a landmark trial involving clergy sex abuse.

Outagamie Judge Nancy Krueger said a juror failed to divulge before or during the trial that she suspected the accused priest of inappropriate contact with her own brother and that she had a close friendship with a member of the plaintiffs’ extended family.

“The overriding emphasis of this Court must be on the integrity of the justice and jury system – and the right of all parties to a fair and impartial trial,” Krueger said in the ruling filed late Wednesday. “If even one juror harbors a material prejudice, the right to an impartial jury has been impaired,” she said.

The jury in May found that the diocese had defrauded brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield by placing now-defrocked Father John Patrick Feeney into their parish in the 1970s without telling members about his sexual history involving children. But concerns about the juror’s impartiality were raised by two fellow jurors who’d had conversations with her outside the courthouse after the verdict.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Matthew Walberg, Chicago Tribune reporter

July 20, 2012

A woman who says she was sexually assaulted and impregnated by a Buddhist monk as a teenager more than a decade ago in the southwest suburbs agonized for years about telling her story to authorities.

Two years ago she filed a lawsuit against Camnong Boa-Ubol, but to maintain her child’s privacy, she did not want to pursue criminal charges.

But after the Tribune wrote of the woman’s lawsuit last year in a story about abuse allegations against several monks, a victims rights group persuaded her to seek criminal action against Boa-Ubol. On Thursday, Boa-Ubol, 62, who had left the Chicago area several years ago, was returned here and charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault, officials said.

The alleged crime occurred at the Wat Dhammaram temple in unincorporated Stickney Township. The woman was 15 when she became pregnant. In her lawsuit, she alleged that she was 14 when Boa-Ubol began a nearly yearlong pattern of abuse that resulted in her pregnancy.

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YAKIMA (WA)
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Pat Muir
Yakima Herald-Republic

The Catholic Diocese of Yakima agreed last month to pay $205,000 to a woman who sued over sexual abuse she said took place at the hands of a Jesuit priest in the 1970s.

The woman, identified as M.P. in the suit filed in April 2010 in Yakima County Superior Court, settled last year with the Jesuits for $288,000. Both suits stem from abuse she said occurred in 1977 when she was 8 years old at St. Joseph’s Parish, which was run by the Jesuits until last summer. The priest in question, Francis Duffy, had been accused of molesting girls in Oregon before he was transferred to Yakima, where he served until 1989. He died in 1992.

The woman’s lawyer, Bryan Smith of Tamaki Law Offices in Yakima, hailed the settlement as an overdue acknowledgment of responsibility. Previously, he said, the diocese had placed all of the blame for Duffy’s abuse on the Jesuits.

“The Yakima Diocese had not acknowledged any type of responsibility for Father Duffy despite the fact he preached in this town under their supervision for 20 years,” Smith said.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

A former student sued St. John’s Abbey for fraud Thursday, July 19, alleging the religious order knew one of its members had been accused of sexual abuse as early as 1958, yet let him continue teaching.

The lawsuit was filed in Stearns County by a former St. John’s Prep student who claims he was sexually abused by the Rev. Allen Tarlton in the 1980s.

Tarlton was an English teacher at the Minnesota school.

According to the St. Cloud Times, the lawsuit alleges at least three abbots knew of the allegations against Tarlton but put him in teaching roles at St. John’s Prep and at other locations in other states and the Bahamas.

A message left Thursday with the abbey was not returned.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By LAURA ITALIANO

A Manhattan judge today chided prosecutors for offering only 4 1/2 years prison to an allegedly embezzling former clerk for the Diocese of New York, calling the $1 million embezzlement “not only a crime, but a sin.”

“How come you went down?” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lewis Bart Stone asked after prosecutors announced their latest rock-bottom offer — 4 1/2 to 9 years prison — for accused accounts payable clerk Anita Collins.

Back in April, prosecutors had said they’d go no lower than six years prison for Collins, 69, who is charged with taking the money over the course of seven years, filling her Schuylerville, Bronx, apartment with Bloomingdales furniture, Belleek China and pricey Madam Alexander dolls.

“This is a woman who has stolen more than a million dollars from a not-for-profit religious organization,” the judge told prosecutors.

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CANADA
Hamilton Spectator

The Ministry of the Attorney General is likely looking at ways to justify a controversial legal resolution that permitted a charged priest to leave Hamilton for Brazil, says a legal expert.

The more time it takes for the ministry to investigate the case of Rev. Jose Silva, the less chance it has been able to justify it, Alan Young, an associate professor of the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University told the Spectator.

Young was commenting on the ongoing ministry investigation of an unusual deal between the Hamilton Crown Attorney’s Office and a defence counsel that permitted Silva, 34, to return to his native Brazil without facing prosecution for a sexual assault charge. Silva left Hamilton May 4. A countrywide warrant was put in place that would see the charge proceed in the event Silva retuned to Canada.

“We know the deal is unusual and it cries out for some justification. The reality is they (ministry officials) understand the general public would not support a deal of this nature.

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FLORIDA
WFTV

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. —

The Department of Children and Families ordered a Lake County day care that was connected to one of several sexual abuse investigations involving the same man to be shut down.

Detectives said Kenneth Hagins used to work for Pat’s Kidz World day care in Eustis, as well as Sunrise Arc Group Homes. Detectives also said he was a youth pastor.

WFTV’s Berndt Petersen confronted one Hagins’ former bosseswho said Hagins was quickly put on leave once the allegations surfaced. …

They also plan to visit a Eustis church where they believe Hagins is a youth pastor.

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NEW YORK
Talk of the Sound

By Robert Cox on Thu, 07/19/2012

A California man has filed a lawsuit claiming he was sexually abused by Brother James A. LiguoriBrother James A. Liguori in 1969 when the boy at a Cardinal Farley Military Academy in New York. The school was run by the Irish Christian Brothers, a New Rochelle-based Catholic religious order. Brother Liguori is a member of the order and served up until 2011 as President of Iona College.

According to a press statement issued by Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), an independent, confidential network of survivors of religious sexual abuse and their supporters, the man reported his abuse to church officials in Orange County, CA in 2008. Catholic staffers, including Bishop Tod Brown, met with him and, in emails, a lawyer for the diocese said that she believed his allegations.

The Irish Christian Brothers, however, claimed that the allegations were “without merit” and took no action against Liguori who was, at the time, of the victim’s report, the president of Iona College in New Rochelle.

Iona College has issued a statement:

Through an Internet posting, we recently learned of a lawsuit alleging child abuse by former President, Brother James A. Liguori whose employment at the College concluded on September 26, 2011. The College has not seen the lawsuit and therefore cannot comment at this time; instead, it refers questions about the suit to the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers North America. Our heartfelt sympathy and prayers are in support of any victim of sex abuse and their family.

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RALEIGH (NC)
News & Observer

RALEIGH — More than two years after filing charges, authorities have dropped the child molestation case against Catholic priest Edgar Sepulveda.

Sepulveda’s suspension from his duties remains in place pending the completion of a Catholic Diocese of Raleigh investigation, in accordance with its procedures and those of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

Sepulveda was initially arrested in January 2010 on one count of second degree sexual offense and one count of misdemeanor sexual battery in Brunswick County, S.C., where he was visiting church members in May 2009. Sepulveda, then a resident of Beulaville and pastor of Maria Reina de las Americas Parish in Mount Olive, was first investigated when allegations surfaced in September, according to a news release posted on the diocese website.

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UNITED STATES
KTUL

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) – The leader of the New York-based Orthodox Church in America has resigned amid questions about whether he failed to report an allegation of a rape by a priest to church officials or law enforcement.

The church issued a statement from Washington Archbishop Metropolitan Jonah saying he submitted his resignation July 6. The letter from Jonah had come at the request of the Holy Synod of Bishops. Jonah did not refer to the rape allegation.

The church issued a three-page statement July 16. It said Jonah had failed to report to authorities a 2010 rape allegation involving an unidentified priest. It said an investigation of the allegation was being performed by the church.

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NEW YORK
My Fox New York

By FRANCISCO BERNARD, MyFoxNY.com –

MYFOXNY.COM –
A man who claims he was sexually abused by the former president of Iona College is filing a lawsuit.

The victim, known only as John Doe, has filed a sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) reports the man claimed to have been sexually abused in 1969 by Brother James Liguori when he was at the Cardinal Farley Military Academy, run by the Irish Christian Brothers, a New Rochelle-based Catholic religious order.

The victim now lives in Orange County, California and says reported his abuse to church officials in California in 2008.

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NEW YORK
Poughkeepsie Journal

Sex abuse claim filed in connection to former Rhinecliff military academy

Brother James Liguori, the former president of Iona College, has been accused of child sex abuse in a court filing, a network of abuse victims announced today.

The alleged victim, an Orange County, Calif. man, accuses Liguori of abusing him in 1969 at the Cardinal Farley Military Academy in Rhinecliff, according to a release from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

The academy closed in 1970, according to Poughkeepsie Journal archives.

Liguori is a member of the Christian Brothers, and it was the religious order’s bankruptcy case, filed last year as the Christian Brothers assets were being drained by sex abuse cases, that opened the window for the case to emerge, said Joelle Casteix, western regional director for SNAP.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The New York Times

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Published: July 19, 2012

Lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn of Philadelphia, the first senior official in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States to be convicted of failing to prevent child sex abuse by priests under his supervision, asked on Thursday that he be spared prison, arguing that a lengthy sentence “would be merely cruel and unusual.”

On June 22, after a landmark trial revealed efforts by the Philadelphia Archdiocese to conceal evidence of abuses, Monsignor Lynn was convicted on one count of endangering a child, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years. His bail was revoked and he has been in jail while awaiting sentencing, which is scheduled for Tuesday.

“Monsignor Lynn has never harbored any intent to harm a child,” wrote his lawyers, Thomas Bergstrom and Jeff Lindy, in a memo to Judge M. Teresa Sarmina of Common Pleas Court, and a lengthy incarceration “would serve no purpose at all.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Montgomery Media

By Bradley Schlegel
bschlegel@journalregister.com

The decision to declare the Rev. Leonard Peterson suitable for ministry was made through the lens of protecting the children of parishioners.

That’s according to a member of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office for Child and Youth Protection, who spoke Tuesday night to parishioners of the St. Maria Goretti Parish.

During an open forum on the standards of ministerial behavior, Leslie Gomez told the audience that the investigation into 37 priests accused of various abuse charges of children was not disclosed to protect the privacy of the priests and the alleged victims.

The process was not treated like a legal matter, according to Gomez, an investigator working on behalf of the archdiocese and a former child abuse prosecutor for the Philadelphia District Attorney.

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DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times

• Brian Wellner

In a motion filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, a woman claims she was abused as a child by three Diocese of Davenport priests.

The victim, who brought her allegations after bankruptcy proceedings involving the diocese were already under way and has received a settlement, alleges that the diocese is failing to comply with its non-monetary bankruptcy requirements and requests a hearing, according to the filing.

One of those requirements is to identify on its website accused priests whom the diocese deems “credible.”

The victim claims the chairperson of the diocese review board found her “credible” and that the board told her in a letter it believed her case, even though it will not identify the priests, the filing states.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Daniel Nee

The Brick Township priest arrested last weekend for two sex offenses is now out on bail.

Fr. Marukudiyil C. Velan, 64, had been in jail since last Saturday following his arrest on two counts of criminal sexual contact and a single count of endangering the welfare of a child. His bail had been set at $75,000 cash but later changed to $100,000 with a 10 percent bond option.

A source confirmed he was bailed out Thursday. He was no longer listed in inmate records at the Ocean County Jail as of 2:30 p.m.

It was not immediately known who posted Velan’s bail or where he would be staying. Brick Patch is awaiting a statement from the Diocese of Trenton which will provide more details.

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COLORADO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on July 19, 2012

A guilty plea will help Fr. Manning’s suffering victim. But it will also protect the reputations of Manning’s church supervisors and peers who we strongly suspect hid suspicions of his misdeeds.

With a possible plea deal next month, it’s more crucial than ever that people who saw, suspected or suffered Manning’s crimes speak up. Otherwise, he gets little or no jail time and may be able to hurt even more children.

Very often accused child molesting clerics claim or exaggerate health problems to win sympathy and lighter sentences.

If Fr. Manning does plead guilty, we hope this prosecutor will hang tough and insist on disclosing as much as possible about wrongdoing by this priest, his bishop and other church staff.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Dustin Racioppi
@dracioppi

TOMS RIVER — The popular Brick priest who was arrested last weekend on sexual assault charges is free on bail today, according to Ocean County Jail records.

It is not clear who posted the bail for the priest, Marukudiyil Velan, more commonly referred to as Father Chris. When he was arrested on Saturday, his bail was set at $75,000 with the option to post 10 percent. However, the jail listed his bond set at $100,000 with an option to post 10 percent.

The Asbury Park Press asked the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office for a photo of the suspect, but it declined. State law allows authorities discretion in releasing suspect photos, but they often refuse to do so, saying media publicity could affect their ability to select a jury.

The jail would not disclose the bail source or when it was posted. He was listed in jail records as an inmate Wednesday evening, but by Thursday the records said he had bonded out.

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SPAIN
Spiegel

By Helene Zuber in Madrid

Until into the 1990s, doctors and nuns in Spain allegedly stole newborn babies and sold them to couples hoping to adopt. The vast scope of this lucrative baby-snatching network is only now coming to light as courts heed victims’ calls for investigations and possible trials.

It’s been a year since María Luisa Torres was reunited with her daughter. She gave birth to the girl in a Madrid hospital, but then the baby was taken away from her.

“For almost 30 years, I saw my child in the faces of people on the street,” says Torres in a gravelly voice. But on a summer day last month, it is indeed the face of her daughter Pilar that emerges from a stream of pedestrians on the main shopping street in San Fernando de Henares, a town near Madrid. She has big, brown eyes and a pale complexion, and her face is framed by perfectly trimmed bangs and long hair dyed a mix of black, violet and red. …

This specter of a Spanish national Catholicism even survived Franco’s death in 1975. Nuns, especially members of the Hijas de la Caridad, or Daughters of Charity, whose training was more religious than intellectual, worked in the maternity wards of hospitals and in baby nurseries. They blindly obeyed their mothers superior and priests who, in turn, decided who deserved a child and who didn’t. As a result, what were generally young or unmarried women became victims of baby theft. After all, the reasoning went, according to the Church’s teachings, these mothers were living “in sin.”

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CALIFORNIA
Jehovahs-Witness.net

WT recently settled out-of-court with 5 victims of JW serial molester. Court documents now available to post on any website

On May 20, 2010, a lawsuit was filed in San Diego, California. Defendant, the Watchtower of NY, settled out-of-court for an unknown amount of money with the Plaintiffs just weeks before the Candace Conti trial began at the end of May 2012 in Oakland, California. The law firm representing the five Plaintifs in this case was

Irwin Zalkin
The Zalkin Law Firm, P.C.
12555 High Bluff Drive, Suite 260
San Diego, CA 92130
(858) 259-3011 (800) 617-2622

The Case NO is: 37-2010-00092450-CU-PO-CTL.

The names of the Plaintiffs are listed as John Dorman, Individually, and Joel Gamboa, Individually.The Defendants were the La Jolla Congregation, the Linda Vista Congregation, JWs supervisory organization (Watchtower of NY) and a number of it’s agents in the two congregations. Also, the perpetrator was a Defendant.

A short profile about the Perpetrator, Gonzalo Campos:

Gonzalo Campos was raised by his mother, a JW. He was 17 when he was baptized as a JW minister in 1980 and became a publisher. In 1982, when Campos was 19, the body of elders of the La Jolla Congregation discussed a molestation accusation made against him by a child and his mother in the La Jolla congregation to various congregation elders.

The elders assigned two of their own elders to investigate. They did not form a judicial committee because Campos denied the complaint and there were not the required “two witnesses” to the molestation as the only witness was the victim. Nothing further was done.

Around 1983, Campos, when he was 20, was conducting a Bible study with a boy, age 6. Campos molested this boy until he was 8.Campos was made a ministerial servant in 1988 although during the years 1986-1988, there had been dealings with him over accusations of molestation. He was “reproved” sometime during those years, yet he was made a MS in 1988. Apparently Campos did everything he was supposed to do because in 1993 he was made an elder. Campos was disfellowshipped June 9, 1995 and reinstated, April 21, 2000. He presently resides in Mexico, address known because he was deposed in Zona Rio, TIJUANA B.C. Mexico on September 2, 2011.

The court documents reveal that Campos molested at least seven children, six male and one female and tried to molest two more. Plaintiff’s attorney said that Campos is a serial molester.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on July 19, 2012

If Msgr. Lynn has “endured unprecedented public scrutiny, shaming and vilification,” it’s because for years he repeatedly engaged in unprecedented, shameful deceit, callousness and recklessness about children’s safety.

Once again, a high ranking Catholic cleric is saying ‘I’m different from and better than the rest of you.’ Once again, a top church official wants special treatment, even though he basically putting children – hundreds of them – in harm’s way and helping perhaps dozens of predators stay hidden, employed and around kids.

Lynn does pose a threat to public safety. Behind bars, he can’t shred evidence, intimidate victims, discredit whistleblowers, threaten witnesses, deceive parishioners, fabricate alibis or take any of the other steps Catholic officials take to keep clergy sex crimes hidden.

Lynn’s alleged career of “service” was, in fact, a life dedicate to climbing the church’s corporate ladder, and acting deceptively and irresponsibly to protect his job and reputation and the reputations of his supervisors and peers.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Jul. 19, 2012
By Phyllis Zagano

Distances and demographics combine to tell the story.

Three-quarters the size of the United States, Australia is mainly uninhabited except along its coastline. While the U.S. shelters close to 313 million people, latest Australian census statistics report only 22 million persons on the continent’s nearly 3 million square miles.

Australia’s Christians — mainly descendants of 18th-century British settlers and Irish convicts, and of later émigrés from Germany and Italy — comprise 61 percent of the population. Australia’s newest immigrants continue arriving from the United Kingdom and Italy, but also from New Zealand, China, India, Vietnam and the Phillippines. …

Many Australian Catholics who remain — who have not shifted to “no religion” — are disaffected and are speaking out. Catholics for Renewal, Catholics for Ministry, Australian Reforming Catholics, and Catalyst for Renewal are among the more active groups, with other pockets of upset operating around the country.

Fewer than 200 Australian men are studying for the priesthood, and statisticians contend that within 10 years more than half the priests will be foreign-born — perhaps not much different when Irish and Scots clergy followed their countrymen, except the new foreign-born are not native speakers of English.

Bishop William Morris (CNS/Diocese of Toowoomba)Against this backdrop — more non-Christians, disaffected Catholics, fewer priests and religious — play out the stories of three resigned bishops: Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Geoffrey Robinson (born 1937), Toowoomba Bishop William Morris (born 1943), and Canberra Auxiliary Bishop Patrick Power (born 1942). All three wanted to talk about the elephants in the episcopal palaces. All three found it rough going. All three resigned, more or quite less voluntarily.

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COLORADO
The Gazette

July 19, 2012

BENZEL
THE GAZETTE

Former priest Charles Robert Manning, 77, waived a pre-trial hearing Thursday on child sex counts and will consider plea bargain, an attorney said.

Manning, formerly of St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church, 8755 Scarborough Drive,

in Colorado Springs, was suspended in January amid claims he sexually abused a 15-year-old boy.

Manning’s attorney, Richard Bednarski, said in court that Manning is mulling a guilty plea. His return date is 9 a.m. Aug. 23.

Prosecutor David Kalicki said he was unable to discuss terms of plea offer. Bednarski declined to comment after the hearing.

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COLORADO
KKTV

A Catholic priest accused of sexual contact with a teenager will return to court Thursday morning.

Father Charles “Robert” Manning is charged with three counts of counts of sex assault on a child by one in a position of trust, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and two counts of sexual exploitation of children. Besides accusations of sexual assault, Manning is also accused of providing alcohol and marijuana to juveniles.

Parishioners of St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church were stunned in January when allegations against Manning emerged. Manning was suspended from his duties while the Colorado Springs Police Department and the diocese conducted an investigation.

Manning turned himself in on May 22.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on July 19, 2012

We are grateful to the brave survivors who spoke out about Camnong Boa Ubol and the abuse they suffered at his hands. Without their courage, he would likely still be victimizing young girls without regret or repercussion. Now that he has been extradited back to Chicago where these crimes occurred, we hope that he will be held without bail.

Now, more than ever, we urge anyone who may have seen, suspected, or suffered crimes at the hands of this monk to come forward and make a report to police. Any detail, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant, could be the difference between keeping this dangerous predator away from kids or letting him back out onto the street.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Joelle Casteix on July 19, 2012

A man who says he was sexually abused by the former president of Iona College has filed a sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit in the New York courts.

The suit charges that the victim, known as John Doe, was sexually abused by Brother James Liguori in 1969 when the boy at a Cardinal Farley Military Academy in New York. Liguori is a member of and the school was run by the Irish Christian Brothers, a New Rochelle-based Catholic religious order.

Doe now lives in Orange County, California, and reported his abuse to church officials there in 2008. Catholic staffers, including Bishop Tod Brown, met with him and, in emails, a lawyer for the diocese said that she believed his allegations.

The Irish Christian Brothers, however, claimed that Doe’s allegations were “without merit,” so they took no action against Liguori. At the time of the victim’s report, Ligouri was the president of Iona College in New Rochelle. He retired in 2011.

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BELGIEN
BRF

In Zukunft kann ein belgischer Richter einem verurteilten Pädophilen verbieten, in der Nähe seiner Opfer zu wohnen. Kammerabgeordnete haben einem entsprechenden Gesetzesvorschlag zugestimmt.

Dem Gesetzentwurf liegen Empfehlungen des parlamentarischen Ausschusses zum Thema “sexueller Missbrauch” zugrunde. Da ein Wohnverbot einen besonders großen Eingriff darstellt, muss ein Richter sein Urteil äußerst gut begründen.

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VATIKAN
der Standard (Osterreich)

Neues von der fortschreitenden römischen Selbstbeschädigung

Der Vorgang ist so selten, dass der deutschsprachige “L’Osservatore Romano” gar keine Rubrik dafür kennt. Daher wurde der Rausschmiss (korrekte Bezeichnung: Amtsenthebung) des slowakischen Erzbischofs Robert Bezak fälschlich unter “Rücktritte” veröffentlicht. Dabei hatte sich der junge Bischof gerade dazu – trotz massiven Drucks der Nuntiatur – nicht überreden lassen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Gesegnet seien die Opfer, denen man glaubte, was ihnen widerfuhr.
Gesegnet seien die Trittbrettfahrer, denen man ebenfalls Glauben schenkte.
Gesegnet sei aber auch der Bischof von Trier, Dr. Stephan Ackermann, sein “Missbrauchsbeauftragter” Peter Rütten und das Generalvikariat des Bistums Trier: denn sie wissen offensichtlich nicht mehr, was sie tun.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

July 19, 2012 by Susan Matthews

Throw away the key or give him sympathy? I’m surprised by how many in the pews tell me they’d prefer the former. They also wish he had the company of all the others involved in the coverup.

When Msgr. Lynn put institutional interests before the safety of children, he sentenced several children to a life of cruel and unusual punishment. – Susan

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

July 19, 2012

Barney Zwartz

THE state MP who chaired a parliamentary inquiry into sexual abuse in the 1990s says the Catholic Church was not ”fair dinkum” then and nor is it now about the state inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious institutions.

Lower house Speaker Ken Smith said yesterday that he had no confidence in Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart or his predecessor, Cardinal George Pell, ”because they knew about these things and were not prepared to do anything”.

At a seminar in the city to help victims prepare submissions to the inquiry, the Liberal member for Bass told The Age: ”I dealt with Gerry Cudmore [then the Melbourne vicar-general] and he was trying to cover his arse. I don’t think he was fair dinkum.”

So was the church fair dinkum today? ”No. I think [Archbishop Hart] is just trying to keep things smooth, and that’s sad.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

By FRANK MAIN Staff Reporter fmain@suntimes.com July 19, 2012

A Buddhist priest was extradited Thursday from Alaska for questioning in the sexual assault of a teenage girl in Cook County, sheriff’s authorities said.

Camnong Bual Ubol, who once lived and worked at Wat Dhammaram Temple in Stickney Township, has been arrested on a Cook County sheriff’s police warrant for aggravated criminal sexual assault.

Last October, the Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests asked the sheriff’s police to investigate allegations that Ubol, 61, was responsible for fathering a child with a then-15-year-old girl while he worked at the Wat Dhammaram Temple. A paternity test allegedly showed he fathered a child with the girl.

Authorities learned that Ubol had moved to Anchorage, Alaska, and the FBI arrested him on the Cook County warrant. He arrived at O’Hare Airport at about 5 a.m. Thursday in the custody of sheriff’s officers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Thu, 19 Jul 2012

A landmark hearing at the Supreme Court in London on Monday will consider who is responsible for compensating victims of child abuse by Catholic priests.

The case is being brought by 170 men who allege that they were sexually and physically abused at a Roman Catholic children’s home.

The High Court at Leeds and the Court of Appeal have already decided that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough is responsible for compensating victims of child abuse at the St William’s children’s home, Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, between 1960 and 1992.

In December 2003 James Redmond Carragher, the former Principal of St William’s children’s home was found guilty of 7 counts of buggery and 14 counts of indecent assault against 22 boys, some as young as 12. He was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. He had earlier served a seven year sentence imposed in 1993 for indecent assaults, taking photographs of young boys and importing videos mainly of children, between 1985 and 1992.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelpha Inquirer

[with poll: Should Msgr. Lynn get some time in prison?]

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Lawyers for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest convicted of child endangerment today urged a judge to spare him from prison, arguing that Msgr. William J. Lynn poses no danger to the public, has led a life of service and already endured unprecedented “public scrutiny, shaming and vilification.”

Their motion, filed in advance of Lynn’s sentencing next week, also notes that two-thirds of the Pennsylvanians sentenced for the same felony since 1996 have received county prison terms or less.

Lynn deserves the same, they said.

“A sentence of time-served, probation, work release or house arrest would ensure that Msgr. Lynn can still use his priestly gifts to improve the lives of those around him,” lawyers Thomas Bergstrom and Jeffrey Lindy said in their filing.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
ABC News

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA July 19, 2012 (AP)

The first U.S. church official convicted of endangering children in the priest-abuse scandal hopes for a sentence of house arrest or probation.

Monsignor William Lynn of Philadelphia awaits sentencing Tuesday.

He’s the former secretary for clergy at the city’s Roman Catholic archdiocese, and handled priest assignments and abuse complaints.

The 61-year-old Lynn faces up to seven years in prison after a jury convicted him last month of felony endangerment.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Jul. 19, 2012
By Phyllis Zagano

MELBOURNE and SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Ten days in Australia isn’t nearly enough, except to find that the church is alive and kicking.

Mostly kicking.

My first-time-ever trip to Melbourne and Sydney in mid-May was as guest of Garratt Publishing, which publishes Australian editions of my books Women Deacons: Past, Present, Future (with Gary Macy and William T. Ditewig) and Women in Ministry: Emerging Questions about the Diaconate. Garratt sponsored conferences and talks, and introduced me both in person and on various radio programs to an alive and questioning church.

The issues in the Australian church are such that I might as well have been in the United States. Except instead of a “Fortnight of Freedom,” the Australian bishops are supporting “A Year of Grace” from Pentecost 2012 to Pentecost 2013. In their program, every single brochure, video, Web page and mailing talks about Jesus Christ. It seems the bishops — or at least the staff of the bishops’ conference — have their “messaging” under control.

The visit was full of surprises. Following the example of several U.S. donors who had purchased and sent the book Women Deacons to every U.S. diocesan ordinary and auxiliary, Australia’s Catholics for Renewal group sent copies of the book to 42 Australian Catholic bishops and auxiliaries. The cover letter asked for a “broadening of the role of women in ministry.”

Whether Catholics for Renewal has started a new conversation remains to be seen. There are but a relative handful of deacons in Australia. Would the bishops support adding women to the mix? One indication: They’ve just elected conservative Melbourne Bishop Denis J. Hart as their conference president. Hart, said to be a protégé of Sydney’s Cardinal George Pell, succeeded Pell as bishop of Melbourne in 2001. Hart, vice chairman of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, may be best remembered locally in Melbourne for telling a badgering sex-abuse victim, “Go to hell, bitch,” after she knocked on his door in the middle of the night in 2004. Without “recalling” his exact words, Hart apologized in court several years later.

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WISCONSIN
Minnesota Public Radio

July 19, 2012

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — A judge on Wednesday ordered a new trial for the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay in a civil fraud lawsuit brought by two childhood victims of clergy abuse.

In an 11-page decision, Outagamie County Judge Nancy Krueger threw out a $700,000 verdict a jury awarded to two brothers, now adults, in May. Krueger outlined information a jury should have expressed to the court before the fraud trial, WLUK-TV reported.

An attorney for the diocese had argued a retrial is necessary because jurors who made the award had expressed concerns about possible bias by one of the jury members.

“Whether these thoughts were just suspicions or a verified fact, they would affect her impartiality,” the judge wrote.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Published: July 18, 2012

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is mostly compliant with international transparency and anti-money-laundering standards, but its bank still lags in monitoring suspicious activities or carrying out sufficient due diligence, according to a report issued Wednesday backed by the Council of Europe.

Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, a Vatican official, on Wednesday put a positive spin on a report that was critical of the Vatican’s bank.

The 241-page report by Moneyval, a committee of financial experts that evaluates measures to combat money-laundering and terrorist financing, praised the Holy See for having come “a long way in a very short period of time” but also noted that “further important issues still need addressing in order to demonstrate that fully effective regime has been instituted in practice.”

The Vatican, whose secretive bank has been embroiled in scandals in the past, acknowledged on Wednesday that the reform process would take time but pledged to pursue change in its efforts to present a more modern — and open — image of its guarded financial institutions.

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VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph

[MONEYVAL’s first evaluation report on the Holy See – Council of Europe]

The Vatican has passed a key test on meeting financial transparency standards, but has received poor grades on its new watchdog’s ability to prevent money laundering.

By Nick Squires, in Vatican City
7:00AM BST 19 Jul 2012

The Council of Europe on Wednesday released a report that marked a milestone in the Holy See’s efforts to shed its reputation as a shady tax haven long mired in secrecy and scandal.

The report showed the Vatican had received compliant or largely compliant grades on nine of the 16 “key and core” internationally recognised recommendations to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.

But seven other areas were found lacking, particularly its anti-terror finance measures and the Vatican’s financial oversight agency, created amid much fanfare in 2010 to try to respond to international demands for greater fiscal transparency to win a place on the “white list” of financially transparent countries.

The report found the agency had yet to conduct any inspections, and that its role, authority and independence needed clarification. The so-called Moneyval committee praised the Holy See for making so much progress in a short amount of time, but said more needs to be done. “We take both the praise and criticism contained in the report with seriousness,” said Monsignor Ettore Balestrero, undersecretary of state and the head of the Vatican delegation to the Moneyval committee

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NEW YORK
The Village Voice

By Candace WheelerWed., Jul. 18 2012

It turns out there is insurance coverage for sexual abuse and molestation.

This was brought to our attention by last week’s Daily News article that claimed that in the wake of so many recent sex abuse scandals, the city is requiring all contractors who come into contact with youth to carry abuse and molestation insurance coverage so that insurance companies would carry the cost of abuse claims rather than taxpayers. But that’s only partially true.

It’s only the New York City Housing Authority that requires the coverage, which receives federal not local funding. We asked NYCHA about this and we received this reply…

The New York City Housing Authority requires General Liability Insurance with the addition of Abuse and Molestation insurance for sporting events, recreation and educational services; Community Operations’ human services (organizations providing services to special populations, such as people with diminished capacity and/or mobility; infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and seniors, among others), and transportation services.

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CHILE
Washington Post

Chile’s president announces measures to combat child sex abuse after recent spike in reports

By Associated Press, Published: July 18

SANTIAGO, Chile — Chile’s president announced measures Wednesday to combat child abuse, responding to a popular outcry over an increase in reports of such crimes in one of Latin America’s most socially conservative countries.

The government already banned convicted pedophiles from working near children last month under a new law that also requires those convicted of sexually abusing minors or of child pornography to be registered in a database.

President Sebastian Pinera said Wednesday the database will be fully working starting in August. He also said Chile will toughen penalties on convicted pedophiles, increase the forensic institute budget by $1.6 million and create a children’s ombudsman to protect their rights.

“With sadness and indignation we’ve heard serious reports in the past weeks of sex abuse by adults who had the responsibility to educate them, to protect them but who instead threatened against that which is most sacred in our children” Pinera said at a news conference.

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AUSTRALIA
The Armidale Express

A POLICE taskforce will investigate allegations of sexual abuse of young boys by the former priest known as ‘Father F’.

The man was the subject of a ‘Four Corners’ report earlier this month and is alleged to have abused several boys in the Armidale and Parramatta dioceses during the 1980s. He currently lives in Armidale.

A police spokewoman confirmed on Wednesday that Strike Force Glenroe had been established to investigate the claims.

“The NSW Police Force can confirm Strike Force Glenroe has been formed to review all relevant material,” she said.

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INDIANA/NEW MEXICO
Journal and Courier

Written by
David Smith

A defrocked priest who recently signed an out-of-court agreement not to work with or around youths spent years as a mental health counselor in Lafayette, including a job counseling adolescents and sex offenders.

This week, three former Lafayette employers of Charles “Chuck” Cichanowicz say they never received any complaints about his behavior during a 20-year period spanning 1989 to 2009.

Those years in Lafayette came after Cichanowicz’ tenure as a Franciscan friar for two churches in the Diocese of Gallup, N.M.

Cichanowicz, now living outside West Lafayette, recently reached out-of-court settlements with three Navajo men who claimed they were sexually abused by him when they were teens in the 1980s. The alleged victims claim they suffered mental anguish and other problems later in life as a result of the abuse. Neither Cichanowicz nor the other defendants, including the Catholic church and Franciscan order, admitted wrongdoing.

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APPLETON (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

Written by
Jim Collar
Gannett Wisconsin Media

APPLETON — The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay gets another day in court.

A judge on Wednesday granted a new trial to the diocese out of concern that a juror’s potential bias against the church compromised the civil lawsuit won in May by two childhood victims of clergy sexual assault.

Outagamie Judge Nancy Krueger made the ruling in a 12-page written decision that erased a $700,000 jury verdict awarded to brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield. Jurors deliberated for about five hours before returning the verdict in the Merryfields’ favor.

The brothers filed the civil fraud case in 2008. They claimed the diocese knew the Rev. John Feeney had a history of sexual misconduct when it installed him as a priest at Freedom’s St. Nicholas Church and falsely portrayed him as safe even though church officials knew he was a danger to children.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Michael P. Mayko

HARTFORD — A failed first attempt at settling nearly two dozen cases seeking hundreds of millions for 23 Haitian street boys who claim they were abused by Douglas Perlitz while enrolled in his school led a federal judge to schedule a conference Friday on how to proceed.

U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny ordered lawyers representing the plaintiffs and the 21 defendants to appear before him Friday to schedule pre-trial motions and hearings as well as discuss any pending concerns.

His decision came after receiving a report that a full-day mediation session involving all the parties on July 9 “was not successful.”

On Tuesday, Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer who specializes in sexual abuse cases against the clergy and Steven Errante of New Haven filed a 22nd federal suit seeking $20 million in damages each from Perlitz; the Rev. Paul Carrier, Perlitz’s Fairfield University mentor who helped him create the Project Pierre Toussaint program in Cap-Haitien; Fairfield University; the Haiti Fund, Project Pierre Toussaint’s fund raising arm; the Order of Malta, a worldwide Catholic Charity; Hope Carter, a New Canaan philanthropist and 15 others.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Dustin Racioppi
@dracioppi

The image in Melissa Thomson’s head when she thinks of her favorite priest, “Father Chris,” sitting in a county jail cell is enough to make her sick. The whole thing has made her sick.

“The thing about him, is he’s a very happy guy and he won’t hesitate to hug you or kiss you,” Thomson said of Father Chris, a native of India whose name is listed on court complaints as Marukudiyil Velan and in Diocese of Trenton literature as Velanmarukudiyil Christudas. “And the only thing I can think of is this was misconstrued.”

The police reports on Velan, 64, show alleged actions beyond misinterpretation. Velan, who has been with the Church of the Visitation on Mantoloking Road as a visiting priest since 2001, was visiting a family of the parish on Friday. According to criminal complaints against him, Velan “knowingly” touched and rubbed the genitals of a 13-year-old boy and walked behind the mother, reached around her neck, into her shirt and grabbed her right breast.

He was arrested on Saturday and has been sitting in Ocean County Jail in Toms River since. His bail is set at $75,000 and he was ordered to surrender his passport. The Asbury Park Press asked the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office for a photo of the suspect, but it declined. State law allows authorities discretion in releasing suspect photos, but they often refuse to do so, saying media publicity could affect their ability to select a jury.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

[MONEYVAL’s first evaluation report on the Holy See – Council of Europe]By Dario Thuburn (AFP)

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican on Wednesday promised to redouble efforts against money laundering as it fights off a dark history after a Council of Europe report hailed recent progress but urged tighter controls.

“The report released today is not an end, but a milestone in our continuing efforts,” the Holy See’s Under Secretary of State Ettore Balestrero, who headed the Vatican’s delegation to the Council of Europe, told reporters.

“We obviously wish to strengthen the overall system,” he said.

Balestrero said the report’s recommendations would be addressed “expeditiously and giving proof of effectiveness” and the Vatican will have to put together a progress report on compliance by July next year.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director
CONTACT: 414.336.8575

Judge Nancy Krueger approved a motion today granting the Diocese of Green Bay a new trial after a jury found the diocese guilty of fraud for transferring known child sex predator Fr. John Patrick Feeney into an unsuspecting parish where he went on to sexually assault additional children. The diocese argued that a member of the jury was biased and therefore they should be granted a new trial.

Todd and Troy Merryfield filed the historic lawsuit after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that such cases could go forward if church officials committed fraud by placing known sex offending clerics into parishes, schools, or other institutions where they had continued access to children. The Merryfield brothers were sexually assaulted by Feeney after the diocese placed the cleric into their parish knowing he was a danger to children.

The Merryfield brothers are to be commended for their bravery and courage in coming forward, holding diocesan officials accountable for their dangerous and reckless behavior, and working to keep our children safe. Their courage stands in stark contrast to the behavior of Green Bay diocesan officials who continue to deny responsibility for the sex offending clerics they protected and enabled.

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NEW JERSEY
The Village Voice

By James King
Wed., Jul. 18 2012

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but a Catholic priest is accused of sexual misconduct. In what can be seen as a slight change of pace for the church, only one of the alleged victims is a child.

Authorities in New Jersey arrested 64-year-old Father Velanmarukudiyil J. Christudas — known to his flock as “Father Chris” — on Saturday after one of his female parishioners claimed he sexually abused her and her child at their home the previous day.

Details of the alleged assault are unknown, and the Ocean County District Attorney’s Office didn’t immediately respond to our request for more information.

Christudas, according to the Dicoese of Trenton, has been relieved of his priestly duties as authorities continue to investigate the alleged attack.

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NEW JERSEY
Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton

The Diocese of Trenton was informed today by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office that Benedictine Father Velanmarukudiyil J. Christudas, who has been serving as an adjunct priest in Visitation Parish, Brick, since 2001, was arrested July 14, 2012 on several charges of sexual misconduct. Father Christudas was formally charged July 16 on one count of sexual misconduct involving an adult; one count of sexual misconduct involving a minor, and one count of endangerment of a minor.

Father Christudas is a member of the Camaldolese Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict (India Saccidananda Ashram, Shantivanam, Tamilnadu) serving in the Diocese of Trenton with the permission of the Prior General of the Camaldolese Congregation, Dom Bernadino Cozzarini, O.S.B.Cam. Visitation Parish has been his only assignment in the Diocese. Prior to his arrival in the Diocese of Trenton, Father Christudas served in India, Australia and California.

Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M. has withdrawn Father Christudas’ faculties to minister in the Diocese of Trenton while the charges against him are being fully investigated and addressed by law enforcement authorities. The Bishop has pledged the diocese’s full cooperation with this process. Bishop O’Connell has reached out to inform Father Christudas’ Prior General of the charges against the priest, and his status in the Diocese of Trenton.

Our Victims’ Assistance coordinator has been made available to those impacted by these troubling allegations, and the diocese will provide whatever support possible. The Bishop has asked all members of the diocesan family to pray for all concerned, especially the victims.

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WISCONSIN
WHBY

The Green Bay Catholic Diocese will get a new trial, after a jury found that church officials committed fraud, by transferring a priest without telling parishioners about child sex abuse allegations.

Todd and Troy Merryfield filed the lawsuit, because former priest John Feeney molested them, after he was transferred.

Judge Nancy Krueger ruled today that a juror’s comments, wondering if Feeney also abused her brother, showed that she was biased against the church.

Attorney John Peterson represents the Merryfields. He says he’s disappointed by the ruling.

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DEUTSCHLAND
taz

Norbert Denef aus Scharbeutz ist seit über 40 Tagen im Hungerstreik gegen die Verjährung von Sexualstraftaten. Er kämpft für die Anerkennung der Opfer.Interview: Ilka Kreutzträger

Protest vor dem Reichstag: Norbert Denef am 36. Tag seines Hungerstreiks. Bild: dpa

taz: Herr Denef, Sie haben seit dem 8. Juni nur Wasser, Tee und Gemüsewasser zu sich genommen – wie geht es Ihnen?

Norbert Denef: Man müsste eigentlich die Politiker fragen, wie es denen geht, wenn sie in 20, 30 Jahren den Kindern erklären müssen: Wir hätten damals die Chance gehabt, die Verjährungsfristen aufzuheben, wir haben es nicht getan, ihr müsst weiter schweigen.

Sie wurden selbst jahrelang sexuell missbraucht – wie fühlt es sich an, wenn diese Taten strafrechtlich verjähren?

Das Schwierigste ist die Ausgrenzung durch die Gesellschaft, wenn man darüber spricht. Ich habe 1993 im Familienkreis mein Schweigen gebrochen und werde bis zum heutigen Tag ausgegrenzt. Und diese Ausgrenzung spüre ich in der ganzen Gesellschaft – es will einfach niemand wissen.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[Ex-Lansdale Catholic coach charged in school’s sex-abuse hoaxes – Philadelphia Inquirer]

Posted by Barbara Dorris on July 18, 2012

What a dreadfully mean-spirited person. We hope he gets therapy. Even more, we hope he gets the maximum penalty possible, to hopefully deter anyone else from acting so irresponsibly and hatefully.

We feel very sorry for those who were wrongly accused by this sick, sick man. And we hope he will never again be around children.

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APPLETON (WI)
Fox 11

APPLETON – A new trial has been ordered in the case of two priest abuse victims who sued the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.

In a written order released Wednesday, Outagamie County judge Nancy Krueger threw out a verdict awarding $700,000 to Todd and Troy Merryfield. A jury awarded the damages to the brothers in May after a weeklong trial. Former priest John Feeney was convicted in 2004 of sexually assaulting the brothers 26 years earlier, while Feeney worked as a priest in Freedom. The brothers later sued the diocese for fraud, arguing it repeatedly transferred Feeney to other parishes without telling parishioners about his history of abuse.

Tuesday, lawyers for the diocese argued the verdict should be thrown out because one of the jurors was biased against the diocese. They claimed the juror made biased statements to other jurors after the verdict, saying she was suspicious her brother may have also been an abuse victim of Feeney. The juror later met with Krueger to explain her statements.

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APPLETON (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

Written by
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers

APPLETON – An Outagamie County judge today granted a new trial to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, concluding a member of the jury that ruled in favor of two childhood victims of sexual assault by a priest was biased.

Judge Nancy Krueger made the ruling a 12-page written decision released this afternoon in the lawsuit brought by brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield.

“The overriding emphasis of this court must be on the integrity of the justice and jury system – and the result of all parties to a fair and impartial trial,” she wrote. “If even one juror harbors a material prejudice, the right to an impartial jury has been impaired.”

The brothers claimed the diocese knew the Rev. John Feeney had a history of sexual misconduct when it installed him as a priest at Freedom’s St. Nicholas Church and falsely portrayed him as safe even though church officials knew he was a danger to children.

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The Under- Secretary for Relations with States and head of the Holy See delegation to the plenary session in Strasbourg, Mgr. Ettore Balestrero gives the Holy See’s interpretation of Moneyval’s findings

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

Speaking in Strasbourg about the outcome of Moneyval’s assessment of the Vatican anti-money laundering system, Mgr. Ettore Balestrero Under- Secretary for Relations with States and head of the Holy See delegation to the plenary session in Strasbourg, said “in short, our aim is to strengthen the system as a whole.”

“There are seven areas within the 16 GAFI Recommendations for the tough but necessary fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism that require special attention,” he explained.

Balestrero told journalists that “the report published today does not therefore mark the end but is a milestone in our relentless efforts to combine moral commitment with technical excellence.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Moneyval report on Holy See has been published. It seems to comply or broadly comply with nine out of the sixteen most important recommendations made

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

This morning, Moneyval, the Council of Europe’s committee of experts on the evaluation of anti-money laundering measures and the financing of terrorism published the report on the Holy See which was discussed last 4 July during the general assembly. The document recognises that the Holy See has “come a long way in a very short period of time and many of the building blocks of an AML/CFT regime are now formally in place. But further important issues still need addressing in order to demonstrate that a fully effective regime has been instituted in practice.”

Of the 45 international recommendations made by the GAFI, considered applicable in this specific case the Holy See was judged to be not in line or partially in line with 23 of the recommendations (51%) and in line or broadly in line with the remaining 22 (49%). Out of the 16 recommendations considered core and therefore the most important, the Vatican was found to be compliant or broadly in line with nine and so will have to work on the remaining seven.

The Vatican was judged to be broadly in line with the 16 key recommendations for areas such as money laundering, confiscation measures, privacy laws, documentation, mutual legal assistance, criminal convictions for the financing of terrorism, international cooperation and so on. The Vatican was also found to be implementing conventions correctly. However it emerged that it did not fulfil or only partially fulfilled customer due diligence requirements, assessment of suspect operations, supervision and monitoring, other forms of cooperation, the implementation of UN instruments and the freezing and confiscation of terrorist assets.

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UNITED STATES
Stop Baptist Predators

As the “horror story” of former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky unfolded at trial this past week, I thought about the boys of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. They too hold horror stories about sexual abuse inflicted on them by someone they trusted and revered, church minister John Langworthy.

That was twenty years ago, and prominent pastor Jack Graham was at the helm of Prestonwood at the time. He still is.

Graham and other Prestonwood leaders were told about abuse allegations against Langworthy, but they kept it quiet. Amy Smith, a former Prestonwood intern, said that Langworthy even confessed to church leaders about “molesting boys in the church,” but that Prestonwood leaders didn’t go to the police. They simply “dismissed” Langworthy and got him off their own church-turf, but they didn’t act to protect other kids or to prevent Langworthy from moving on to other churches . . . which Langworthy did.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

BY CLARE QUIRK

19 Jul, 2012

A visiting priest says no matter how horrible the crime is, what’s said in confession could never be reported to police.

A parliamentary committee into child sex abuse in the church is asking for submissions on whether rules on mandatory reporting of offences against children should be imposed on the confessional.

The guide asks to what extent should the reporting of suspicions of abuse be circumscribed by laws, customs and ethical codes of regions, for example, should the sacrament of the Catholic confessional remain sacrosanct in these circumstances.

Mudgee priest Garry McKeown is one of 180 priests in Warrnambool for the National Council of Priests in Australia convention and said, as far as he knew, in the history of the church there had never been a time when a priest had divulged what had happened in confession.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 19, 2012

Leesha McKenny
Urban Affairs Reporter

THE NSW Premier, Barry O’Farrell, has urged the Catholic Church ”to do what appears to have been lacking in past investigations” and hand its findings into a priest’s alleged sexual abuse of altar boys to police.

Mr O’Farrell welcomed the church’s appointment this week of retired Federal Court judge Antony Whitlam, QC, to investigate its ”processes related to the management” of Father F, who stands accused of repeated abuse stretching back to the 1980s in Moree.

”I would urge the Catholic Church to do what appears to have been lacking in past investigations, which is the link with police,” Mr O’Farrell said.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

Jury trial is set for Sept. 24 for Bishop Robert Finn and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph on misdemeanor charges of failing to report suspected abuse.

The prosecution contends that Bishop Finn and the diocese were legally obligated to report suspected child abuse to state authorities under Missouri law but failed to do so for six months after the discovery of child pornography on a church computer. The charge against Bishop Finn carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and one year in jail. The diocese faces a fine of up to $5,000.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Herald (United Kingdom)

The Vatican gave bishops around the world a year to produce the most basic guidelines on handling abuse allegations and more than half of them failed to submit the text in time

By The Catholic Herald on Wednesday, 18 July 2012

In May 2011 the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote to every bishops’ conference in the world asking them to draw up guidelines on tackling clerical abuse. The CDF gave the bishops’ conferences a generous deadline: they had a whole year to draft the document. Some conferences, of course, already had procedures for handling abuse allegations, including our own. But the overwhelming majority did not. Note that the CDF only asked for guidelines, rather than binding norms, and allowed wriggle room by saying that child protection policies could be drafted in “ways appropriate to specific situations in different regions”.

A year has now passed and the results are in. Mgr Charles Scicluna, the CDF’s promoter of justice, told the Italian monthly Jesus that without counting Africa “more than half of the conferences responded” to the May deadline. This is an odd formulation. Why didn’t Mgr Scicluna say simply that more than half of conferences had responded? Surely because, when you include Africa, the CDF had received responses from less than half of the world’s conferences before the deadline. Think about that for a moment: the Vatican gave bishops around the world a year to produce the most rudimentary guidelines on handling abuse allegations and more than half of them still failed to submit the text in time.

Mgr Scicluna promised that conferences that failed to submit guidelines would receive “a letter of reminder”. But it’s unlikely that so mild a sanction will stir those that failed to create guidelines into action. Meanwhile, the CDF will not begin to evaluate guidelines that have been submitted until after the summer. Even then, the process will take at least a year. This is not to criticise Mgr Scicluna, who has done more to uncover and punish clerical abuse than anyone except Pope Benedict. But the Vatican as a whole needs to apply much more pressure to bishops’ conferences that fail to treat the defence of children with the utmost seriousness. As we have said before, the Church should offer children the same level of protection whether they live in New York or Nairobi.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

False accusations against priests are hardly uncommon these days, but when anti-Catholicism accounts for lies against lay Catholics, the problem only worsens. Consider the latest news concerning Tim Udinski.

After Udinski was fired as the lacrosse coach at Lansdale Catholic High School last year, he made several accusations over a seven-month period claiming that the football coach and the new lacrosse coach were sexually abusing students. He also maintained that the principal of the suburban Philadelphia school, Tim Quinn, knew about the offenses.

After detectives spent 184 hours on this case, interviewing 97 people (at a cost of more than $8250), they determined that the charges were bogus. Standing by itself, this wouldn’t be big news, but what makes it so disturbing is Udinski’s motive: he has admitted that he fabricated the whole story, just so he could “get the Church.”

Landsdale Catholic High is in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and it was to the archdiocese that Udinski sent his anonymous e-mails. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman acknowledged that Udinski sought to exploit the high profile that the sexual abuse of minors has been given. Indeed, she questioned, “How do you undo that? How do you unring the bell?”

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

[MONEYVAL’s first evaluation report on the Holy See – Council of Europe]

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As the Vatican continues working to comply with international standards against money laundering and financing terrorism, it still needs to beef up internal inspection and supervisory powers, said a long-awaited report by European finance experts.

Overall, the Vatican met nine out of 16 “key and core” recommendations, thereby passing its first major test in an effort to become more financially transparent and compliant with international norms.

“The Holy See has come a long way in a very short period of time and many of the building blocks” of a system to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism “are now formally in place,” said the first report on the Vatican by “Moneyval” — the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism.

However, “further important issues still need addressing” to tighten remaining loopholes, fill in legal gaps and guarantee laws are effectively being carried out, it said.

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CANADA/BRAZIL
Metro

By Staff Torstar News Service

A Brazilian bishop has contacted the Hamilton Diocese to advise that a former St. Mary’s Roman Catholic priest is receiving treatment in his homeland.

Bishop Juarez Sousa, of Oeiras diocese in Brazil, stated in a July 17 letter that Rev. Joseph Gildasio de Sousa Silva — who served for two years at St. Mary’s — returned to Brazil on May 5 and arrived in Oeiras on May 10.

“Father Jose Gildasio will definitely not return to Canada and is removed from priestly duties concerning the Church,” the bishop wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Spectator.

Sousa said the priest was initially sent to a help centre where he received therapy called ADI (Direct Approach of the Unconscious) before being sent to a therapeutic community “whose privacy we would like to preserve.”

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By Rod Dreher • July 8, 2012

Something for you Orthodox readers on Sunday morning: It has been confirmed that Metropolitan Jonah of the OCA has resigned under pressure from the Holy Synod.

They finally got him. What they don’t understand is that they probably signed the OCA’s death warrant in so doing — not because Jonah was necessarily an exceptional metropolitan (he had his problems as an administrator, and though a very good man, was temperamentally ill-suited for the job), but because the sleazy, corrupt way the Synod has handled this from the beginning shows them to be a pack of ravening wolves.

Now would be a good time to invoke the old saying about how the Church must be a work of God, because there is no way it could have survived for 2,000 years the fools and knaves who run it.

UPDATE: I’m hearing this afternoon that Jonah made his resignation most likely on Friday evening, but that it is unclear whether or not it has been formally accepted. It is possible that the terms of his exit are being negotiated. Stay tuned; this situation is fluid.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

It’s a crime that strikes the young and the innocent. It’s a crime that I have prosecuted too often, and not often enough. Childhood sexual abuse is horrifically common, yet many times the crime goes unreported for years – even decades – after the crime is committed. Sometimes it’s never reported at all.

For the past eight months, childhood sexual abuse has made front-page national news on a daily basis because of the tragedy brought to light at our Penn State University.

Thousands of stories have been written and reported about the events in State College, but there are thousands more stories across our commonwealth that walk our streets, pass us by each day.

Stories of the victims, afraid and embarrassed.
Stories of the abusers, walking free, unafraid to harm again.

Stories of communities, unconvinced, unaffected — not taking notice.

If anything positive can be gleaned from the catastrophe in Centre County, it’s that a much brighter light has been shone on this all-too-common, all-too-silent crime.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP

July 18, 2012

A police taskforce has been set up to investigate allegations of abuse of altar boys by the former NSW priest known as Father F.

The former religious leader, who lives in Armidale, allegedly abused several boys during the 1980s.

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell on Wednesday said he had forwarded police a letter he received from independent MP Richard Torbay, whose electorate includes Armidale, after the allegations were aired by the ABC.

“Two days ago I had a letter from the local member for Armidale Richard Torbay raising understandable concerns,” Mr O’Farrell told reporters.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

PREMIER Ted Baillieu has backed the right of priests to keep private what is said in the confessional.

The Herald Sun revealed that a parliamentary committee would consider forcing priests to reveal reports of abuse heard during confession.

Mr Baillieu pointed to an earlier inquiry, headed by Justice Philip Cummins, that came out against the requirement.

He said members of that inquiry “all concluded that the sanctity of the confessional should remain”.

“I think that’s a powerful argument,” Mr Baillieu said.

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CHILE
Santiago Times

Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Written by Maria Giulia Agostini

This weekend, Chile celebrated the “Día de la Virgen del Carmen,” one of the most important holidays of the Roman Catholic calendar, with masses and special services throughout the country. This year’s celebration, however, was marred with another stain on the reputation of the Catholic Church when a man uploaded a YouTube video describing his sexual abuse at the hands of respected Chilean priest Cristián Precht.

The alleged victim, Jorge Cantellano, said he was abused by Precht in 1979, when Cantellano was a 19-year-old student in a church seminary.

“He invited me to sleep in his room, which I found strange because priests had rooms for visitors,” Cantellano says in the video. “We talked about the vocation and a few other things. Once we were done, he took my hand, affectionately placed it on his chest and then lowered it toward his penis.”

Celebrated in the country for his humanitarian contribution during the Pinochet dictatorship, the public was shocked when Precht was linked to sexual abuse for the first time 11 months ago.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From:The Australian
July 19, 2012

A DEDICATED police strike force is investigating alleged serial child abuse by a former Catholic priest, almost 30 years after church authorities were first warned about his behaviour.

NSW Police Strike Force Glenroe has been gathering evidence from a number of families of alleged victims, though a spokeswoman would confirm only that the unit would “review all relevant material”.

The father of one alleged victim said he spoke to detectives last week, having first told church officials and local police in 1983 that his son had been abused. No action against the priest was taken at the time.

“I said: ‘Look, you might notice an edge in my voice. That’s simply because it’s 29 years too late and there’s a lot of victims since’,” said the man, who asked not to be named.

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CANADA
Cape Breton Post

CORNER BROOK, N.L. (CP) — Seven more sex-related charges have been filed against a 74-year-old Roman Catholic priest from western Newfoundland.

George Ansel Smith already faces 62 charges against him stemming from the time he served parishes in western Newfoundland.

The most recent charges laid Tuesday include counts of gross indecency, indecent assault and unlawful assault with intent to commit an indictable offence.

All of the charges involve young boys and date back as far as the late 1960s.

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UNITED STATES
Holiness is the Only Way to Jesus

Elder Henry L. Dillihant III

How well do you really know the people who claim they’re called of God and say that your pastor(s) and ministry leaders. We are well beyond the time of knowing of the drastic situation of child rape/molestation from clergy leaders in the Catholic Church and it is spread beyond this church and Catholicism to be known as a worldwide problem amidst those in religious authority. The time is come to expose his demonic activity for what it is and spread like to the individuals claiming to represent God. We should have been required to do the Department of Justice and FBI fingerprint background checks and live scan fingerprinting of those in leadership positions of any capacity in the church.

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WESTON (MA)
Patch

By Bret Silverberg

A Haitian national is suing a Weston priest who allegedly did nothing to stop him from being sexually abused at a school for disadvantaged youth in Haiti.

The Rev. Paul E. Carrier and others were named in a civil complaint filed Tuesday in Federal Court in Connecticut, which alleges he is responsible for abuse the victim suffered administered by Douglas Perlitz, the former director of Project Pierre Toussaint in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, according to Boston.com.

The suit alleges Carrier, along with Fairfield University and others, had a hand in providing funding for the school in Haiti.

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UNITED STATES
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk
Jul 18, 2012

For those of you interested in keeping up with the saga of the sacking of Metropolitan Jonah by the Synod of Orthodox Church in America, the latest chapter is a letter from the synod explaining the reasons for its action. While there are general claims of maladministration, the central charge is that Jonah covered up a rape accusation against a priest he brought into the church.

Among the Jonahites, George Michalopulos, who blogs as Monomakhos, isn’t buying. By contrast, Rod Dreher, who left the Catholic church when the scale of bishops’ coverup of clerical sexual abuse became apparent, is prepared to believe the worst. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the OCA is cooperating with law enforcement in a criminal investigation.

Of greater significance in the wider scheme of things, the synod is at some pains to deny that culture war politics played any role in its decision.

Some argue that the resignation had to do with moral or political views publicly expressed by Metropolitan Jonah that conflicted with the views of others in the Church, the so-called “culture wars.” Such views have never been a point of contention in Holy Synod or Metropolitan Council meetings. These issues were discussed, and statements and actions of the Holy Synod have demonstrated their unchanging position on traditional Orthodox views of morality. This speculation as to other motives behind the resignation is simply not true; the reasons for the resignation are detailed in this message.

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VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

July 18, 2012. (Romereports.com) (-ONLY VIDEO-) The Moneyval committee from the Council of Europe has published their first report of 241 pages on the financial transparency of the Vatican. It suggests improvements in monitoring to ensure greater effectiveness of its financial system.

Of the 45 criterion that were evaluated, 22 of them were approved and the other 23 were said to have areas that needed improvement. Normally the evaluation criterion is based on 49 points, but the report notes that given the characteristics of the Holy See that four did not apply in this case.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

John Hooper in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 July 2012

The Vatican has scraped through an independent international test of its financial transparency.

The Council of Europe said it was either “non-compliant” or “partially compliant” in 23 out of a total of 45 areas. But its report showed the Vatican had received “compliant” or “largely compliant” grades on nine of the 16 “key and core” recommendations for combatting money-laundering and terrorist financing.

The report says the Holy See still has to make important reforms before it can reach international standards of financial transparency. The Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), popularly known as the Vatican bank, was at the centre of an international scandal over alleged money-laundering and shady banking practices in the 1980s and it was not until April 2011 that the Holy See passed a law aimed at improving its financial transparency.

The Council of Europe’s committee of experts, known as Moneyval, said: “The Holy See has come a long way in a very short period … But further important issues still need addressing in order to demonstrate that a fully effective regime has been instituted in practice.”

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The Vatican bank needs more reform in order to show it is effective at preventing financial crime, a report by a European banking watchdog has said.

The Vatican has tried to gain entry to a so-called “white list” of countries that are recognised globally as financially transparent.

The report said the Vatican’s measures for tackling money laundering and financing of terrorism were inadequate.

However, the bank had “come a long way” in addressing financial transparency.

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VATICAN CITY
Philadelphia Inquirer

[MONEYVAL’s first evaluation report on the Holy See – Council of Europe]

The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican has passed a key European financial transparency test, but received poor grades for the effectiveness of its new financial watchdog agency and the ability of its bank to track suspicious transactions.

The Council of Europe report released Wednesday marked a milestone in the Holy See’s efforts to shed its reputation as a shady tax haven long mired in secrecy and scandal.

The report showed the Vatican had received compliant or largely compliant grades on nine of the 16 “key and core” internationally recognized recommendations to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.

But seven other areas were found lacking, particularly concerning the Vatican’s financial oversight agency, created amid much fanfare in 2010 to try to respond to international demands for greater financial transparency.

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VATICAN CITY
Financial Times

By Guy Dinmore and Giulia Segreti in Rome

The Vatican’s efforts to adopt international standards in combating money laundering and terrorist financing have been given a mixed assessment in a landmark European survey of its historically opaque financial system.

Releasing its eagerly anticipated report on Wednesday, the 47-nation Council of Europe said the city state had “come a long way in a very short period of time” in terms of putting in place the “building blocks” of appropriate financial regulations.

But it also said the Vatican had to address important issues to demonstrate that a fully effective regime existed in practice, signalling that it could be a lengthy process before the Vatican meets the standards necessary to be accepted into what is informally known as the “white list” of countries.

The Vatican had requested the first such outside rating as part of Pope Benedict XVI’s push to bring the Holy See into line with international standards. But the process of reforming the Vatican’s traditionally secretive bank has been marred by setbacks and what some observers see as a behind-scenes power struggle that resulted in the abrupt dismissal of its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, in May.

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VATICAN CITY
RT

Leading experts on money laundering say the Vatican has to embark on important reforms if it wants to embrace financial transparency.

­A report from Moneyval, the arm of the Council of Europe which evaluates anti-money laundering and the funding of terrorism, shows the Vatican failed seven of its 16 key criteria, and got just a pass on the other nine. Getting a clean bill of health from Moneyval gets a country on the ‘white list’ of financially transparent countries.

The Holy See has been making efforts to shed its reputation as a shady tax haven long mired in secrecy and scandals.

However, the report says it still has to make important reforms in the Vatican’s financial oversight agency before it could reach international standards on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

July 18 (Reuters) – Here is a look at the 70 year-old Vatican Bank and its scandals:

* The bank, known formally as the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), was established in 1942 by Pope Pius XII and is used by Vatican agencies, church organisations, bishops and religious orders around the world.

* It is a privately held institution located inside Vatican City run by a professional bank CEO who reports directly to a committee of cardinals, and ultimately to the Pope.

* It offers currency exchange services and interest-bearing accounts and has an investment portfolio.

* It has no branches outside Vatican City and it operates as an offshore institution outside EU rules.

* There are no shareholders and no policy-making functions.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

[MONEYVAL’s first evaluation report on the Holy See – Council of Europe]

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY | Wed Jul 18, 2012

(Reuters) – A European report on Wednesday identified serious failings in the Vatican’s scandal-plagued bank, sharply criticizing its management and giving it a negative rating in almost half the most important transparency-related assessment criteria.

The report, by Moneyval, a department of the Council of Europe, suggests the Vatican still has a long way to go before it can be included on an international “white list” of countries that abide by global norms on combating money laundering, the financing of terrorism and tax evasion.

It was particularly pointed in its criticism of the management of the Vatican bank, officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), and “strongly recommended” it be “independently supervised by a prudential supervisor in the near future”.

“Fit and proper criteria” should be applied to senior management at the IOR, it said.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Welt

Scharbeutz (dapd). Durch sein Dachgeschossfenster glitzert die Ostsee. Auf dem Tisch des 63-Jährigen stehen seit knapp sechs Wochen nur Wasser, Tee, Limonensaft und Gemüsewasser. Mit einem Hungerstreik will Norbert Denef, der Sprecher des Opferverbandes netzwerkB, für die Aufhebung der Verjährungsfristen bei sexualisierter Gewalt kämpfen. Wie lange noch, das will der in Scharbeutz (Kreis Ostholstein) lebende Denef von Tag zu Tag entscheiden.

Er lasse sich von niemandem unter Druck setzen. “Ich habe immer gesagt, dass ich mich nicht umbringen will”, sagt Denef. Appelle von Politikern wie Mecklenburg-Vorpommerns Sozialministerin Manuela Schwesig (SPD) oder die Anzeige eines Kieler Grünen-Politikers, um ihn zur Aufgabe zu zwingen, seien deshalb völlig unnötig.

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SCHWEIZ
Tages Anzeiger

Von Bernhard Odehnal

Ein weiterer ehemaliger Zögling des Kinderheims in Fischingen erzählt von Schlägen und sexuellem Missbrauch durch einen Priester. Das Kloster lehnt eine kollektive Aufarbeitung weiterhin ab.

Walter Nowak will Fischingen nicht mehr besuchen. Nie wieder. Zehn Jahre, von 1962 bis 1972, war der gebürtige Österreicher in der Erziehungsanstalt des Thurgauer Klosters. In einem Bericht im «Tages-Anzeiger» erzählte er von Gewalt und sexuellem Missbrauch durch einen Erzieher (TA vom 26. 6.). Der heutige Klosterdirektor Werner Ibig lud ihn daraufhin zu einem persönlichen Gespräch ein. Der Termin war schon vereinbart, doch vor einigen Tagen sagte Nowak schriftlich ab und schickte Ibig eine ausführliche Begründung: Er vermisse jegliches Schuldbewusstsein, so Nowak sinngemäss: Die Angaben der Opfer würden angezweifelt, der Datenschutz benutzt, um die Täter zu schützen.

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SCHWEIZ
Tages Anzeiger

Von Bernhard Odehnal

Zehn Jahre verbrachte Walter Nowak im Kinderheim des Thurgauer Klosters Fischingen. Er erzählt von Folter und Missbrauch. Obwohl ein Fachgremium seine Schilderungen als glaubwürdig einstufte, verweigert ihm das Kloster eine Entschädigung.

Jetzt, nach 40 Jahren, kommt sogar die Geschichte mit den Kaninchen zurück. In letzter Zeit träumt Walter Nowak wieder von der Panik in den Augen der kleinen Tiere, kurz vor ihrem qualvollen Tod. Anfang der Siebzigerjahre musste sich Nowak mit seinen Mitschülern jeden Montagmorgen im Kloster Fischingen vor dem Terrarium mit Riesenschlangen aufstellen. Dann warf Pater S. ein weisses Kaninchen in den Glasbehälter. Ganz langsam zerdrückten die Reptilien ihre Beute. Die verängstigten Schüler mussten zusehen, niemand durfte sich abwenden. Und als das Tier gefressen wurde, erinnert sich Nowak, «sah ich in den Augen des Priesters Freude und Lust. Wie bei einem Orgasmus.»

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FRANKREICH
Focus

Ein Priester hat in Nordfrankreich jahrzehntelang Jungen missbraucht. Der heute 68 Jahre alte Mann habe die ihm zu Last gelegten Taten gestanden, teilte die französische Justiz am Mittwoch in Lille mit. Gegen ihn sei Haftbefehl ergangen.

Die Aussagen von zwei Betroffenen hatten die Ermittlungen zu dem Missbrauchsskandal Anfang des Jahres ausgelöst. Mittlerweile sind nach Angaben der Staatsanwaltschaft rund zehn Opfer identifiziert. Zu den ersten Übergriffen kam es nach bisherigen Erkenntnissen in den 70er Jahren, der letzte bekannte Fall ereignete sich zu Beginn des vergangenen Jahrzehnts.

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FRANKREICH
Zeit (Deutschland)

Paris (AFP) Wegen des Verdachts des sexuellen Missbrauchs von minderjährigen Jungen ist in Nordfrankreich ein Ermittlungsverfahren gegen einen Priester eingeleitet worden. Der 68-Jährige sei vergangene Woche in Untersuchungshaft genommen worden, erfuhr die Nachrichtenagentur AFP am Mittwoch aus Justizkreisen in Lille. Der Priester habe die Taten gestanden, die er in der Gegend von Lille sowie von Dunkerque begangen habe.

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FRANCE
La Croix

Un prêtre de 68 ans, soupçonné d’avoir abusé sexuellement de jeunes garçons dans le Nord, a été mis en examen la semaine dernière pour viols et agressions sexuelles sur mineurs de 15 ans et placé en détention provisoire, a-t-on appris mercredi 18 juillet de source judiciaire.

Lors de sa garde à vue, l’homme a reconnu les faits qui lui sont reprochés, qui se seraient déroulés dans les régions de Lille et de Dunkerque. Les agissements du prêtre faits qui concerneraient une dizaine de victimes identifiées s’étaleraient des années 1970 au début des années 2000. Ils ont été dénoncés par deux victimes en début d’année.

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FRANCE
France 3

Le père Philippe Détré, 68 ans, est curé de Bollezeele, dans les Flandres et de plusieurs villages aux alentours depuis 2005 (Eringhem, Merckeghem, Rubrouck, Buysscheure, Wulverdinghe…). Dimanche dernier, rapporte La Voix du Nord, un autre prêtre est venu célébrer la messe et a annoncé : « J’ai une mauvaise nouvelle. Votre curé est en détention provisoire. Je vous demanderai de ne pas commenter cette information. »

Ce mercredi, Nord-Eclair affirme que “le prêtre a comparu en fin de semaine dernière devant un juge d’instruction lillois qui l’a mis en examen notamment pour viols sur mineurs de moins de quinze ans. Le prêtre a été écroué dans la foulée par le juge des libertés.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

[MONEYVAL’s first evaluation report on the Holy See – Council of Europe]

Vatican City, (VIS) – Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, under secretary for Relations with State, today presented a briefing to journalists in the Holy See Press Office concerning the publication of the first Mutual Evaluation Report on the Holy See and on Vatican City State (“MONEYVAL Report”) regarding adherence to the 40 + IX FATF recommendations against money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). Msgr. Balestrero was head of the Holy See delegation to the plenary session of MONEYVAL held in Strasbourg, France, on 4 July.

Extracts from Msgr. Balestrero’s English-language presentation are given below:

“Vatican City State has a very small territory, with a small population, a very low level of domestic crime and no market economy. It is not a financial centre and its financial activities are meant to support its works of charity and of religion. However the Holy See enjoys a recognised moral voice and in this sense is deeply connected not only with its immediate neighbours, but with all countries of the world. Moreover the Holy See, as primarily responsible for the universal mission of the Church, has a special ability – even duty – to guide and orient Catholic religious organisations throughout the world. While those organisations exist within their own civil jurisdictions and are bound to follow the laws of those jurisdictions on AML/CFT issues, it is important that the Holy See use its moral authority to raise maximum awareness about the far too frequent transnational crime of money laundering and the financing of terrorism”.

Beginning along the path and first accomplishments

“There has always been a clear determination to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as a legal system that already had several of the elements necessary to tackle ML/FT problems.

“At the end of 2010, we passed an AML/CFT law and requested evaluation in February 2011 by MONEYVAL. Our law came into force on 1 April 2011. Our Financial Intelligence Authority was operational by June. In November 2011, we received our first MONEYVAL on-site visit. The team of our evaluators was widely considered to be perhaps the strongest team MONEYVAL had ever assembled. It included the president, the secretary and an administrator of MONEYVAL, the president of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, two senior financial experts and a professor of international law”.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Daniel Nee

To parishioners at Church of the Visitation in Brick, it came as the shock of a lifetime.

The priest who had encouraged them through times of sadness and fear, who brought food to the local needy and who comforted those who found themselves in periods of grief – had been accused of a crime that is as depressing and disappointing as it is serious and unthinkable.

Fr. Marukudiyil C. Velan, 64, known to parishioners at the Mantoloking Road church as “Father Chris,” was arrested Saturday and charged with two sex crimes, one against a minor.

A garden, named for Father Chris in the back of the church’s yard, was empty Tuesday afternoon, a day after his arrest became publicly known. A few tomatoes looked ripe, presumably with no one there to pick them off the vine.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Montgomery County District Attorney

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman announces the arrest of Tim Udinski for stalking and harassment charges. The charges stem from the defendant deliberately making false accusations of sexual misconduct against officials associated with Lansdale Catholic High School. Between October 19, 2011 and May 31, 2012, on seven separate occasions, Udinski sent false claims of sexual abuse in anonymous emails to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. In these emails, he deliberately and falsely claimed that both the Lansdale Catholic football and lacrosse coaches were engaged in sexual solicitation of players on their respective teams. Udinski also accused the Lansdale Catholic Principal of failing to take any action regarding the alleged misconduct.

Tim Udinski was the former head lacrosse coach at Lansdale Catholic High School. During his tenure at the school, Udinski was the target of unfounded accusations. While coaching the 2011 lacrosse season, Lansdale Catholic relieved Udinski of his duties after he engaged in repeated heated arguments with players and staff. Principal Tim Quinn reported that Udinski was extremely upset about his firing.

Subsequent to Udinski’s firing, on October 19, 2011, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia received an anonymous email alleging that the head football coach had sexually solicited a player. The email included an accusation that the Principal, himself a former football player at Lansdale Catholic, had a history of ignoring any complaints about the coach.

On March 12, and March 14, 2012 the Archdiocese received two anonymous emails complaining that Lansdale Catholic’s head lacrosse coach had been involved in a sexual assault while attending Lehigh University. Again on March 15, 2012 the Archdiocese received an anonymous email threatening to inform the media about the allegations involving the lacrosse coach. This email was followed by numerous anonymous emails on March 22, to the Archdiocese and local media outlets concerning wrongdoing at Lansdale Catholic High School.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Morning Call

By Pamela Lehman, Of The Morning Call

3:48 p.m. EDT, July 17, 2012
Authorities charged a former Lansdale Catholic High School lacrosse coach with making false accusations of sexual misconduct against school officials.

Tim Udinski was charged Tuesday with stalking and harassment charges. He is free under $25,000 unsecured bail.

While Udinski served as the former head coach, he was fired in October after “repeated heated arguments” with players and staff, according to a news release from Montgomery County Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman.

According to the release:

The firing left Udinski “extremely upset,” accoridng to Principal Tim Quinn.

From October through May, on seven different occasions, authorities said Udinski sent anonymous emails to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia accusing a coach of sexual misconduct and the school’s principal of ignoring the complaints.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Times Herald

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman on Tuesday announced the arrest of Tim Udinski, the former head lacrosse coach at Lansdale Catholic High School, for stalking and harassment.

The defendant lodged false accusations of sexual misconduct against officials associated with the school, according to authorities. On seven separate occasions between Oct. 19, 2011 and May 31, 2012, Udinski allegedly sent false claims of sexual abuse in anonymous emails to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. In these emails, he claimed the current Lansdale Catholic football and lacrosse coaches were engaged in sexual solicitation of players on their respective teams. Udinski also accused the Lansdale Catholic principal of failing to take any action regarding the alleged misconduct, according to reports.

During his tenure at the school, Udinski reportedly was the target of unfounded accusations.

During the 2011 lacrosse season, Lansdale Catholic relieved Udinski of his duties after he reportedly engaged in repeated heated arguments with players and staff. Principal Tim Quinn reported Udinski was extremely upset about his firing.

After Udinski’s firing, on Oct. 19, 2011, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia received an anonymous email alleging that the head football coach had sexually solicited a player. The email included an accusation that the principal, himself a former football player at Lansdale Catholic, had a history of ignoring any complaints about the coach.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Deadspin

Dom Cosentino

From October 2011 until May of this year, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia received a series anonymous emails from someone who said the longtime football coach at a suburban Catholic high school—a man in his 70s—had solicited sex from a player. Other messages accused the school’s lacrosse coach of sexually assaulting students. There were seven emails in all, and the allegations more or less coincided with news of the ongoing scandal a few hours away at Penn State, not to mention a recent child sex abuse trial that rocked the Philly archdiocese and resulted in the first guilty verdict against a senior official within the U.S. Catholic Church.

But after a lengthy investigation, prosecutors in suburban Montgomery County, Pa., determined the emails about Jim Algeo, the football coach at Lansdale Catholic from 1968 until his retirement after last season, and Nick Pison, its new lacrosse coach, were a hoax. Tim Udinski, 43, was arrested and charged today with stalking and harassment. The reason? He was pissed that Lansdale Catholic had fired him for what the Philadelphia Inquirer described as “heated arguments with players and an assistant.” And what better way to get even than to try to ruin a bunch of people’s lives, right?

Udinski allegedly sent the anonymous emails from a computer at a public library. The Bucks County Courier Times said police did nearly 200 hours of interviews with roughly 100 people and obtained 10 court orders to conduct searches before finally catching on.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WTRF

Updated: Jul 18, 2012

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) – Authorities say a suburban Philadelphia high school lacrosse coach who lost his job launched a campaign of false sex-abuse reports that detectives spent more than 180 hours investigating.

Former Lansdale Catholic High School coach Tim Udinski was charged Tuesday with harassment and stalking. Prosecutors in Montgomery County say Udinski took advantage of renewed attention given to sex-abuse complaints to target his successor and another coach at the school.

Investigators say Udinski admitted making the false reports when confronted. He allegedly told police he submitted anonymous reports to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia because he was upset about losing his job.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer

After one season as head lacrosse coach at Lansdale Catholic High School, he was out, ostensibly after conflicts with players and an assistant.

Udinski thought his dismissal was unfair, one the school wouldn’t have considered for counterparts like veteran football coach Jim Algeo. So he launched a scheme to prove the point, authorities say.

Over seven months, Udinski allegedly sent anonymous e-mails to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, claiming Algeo had solicited sex from a player and accusing the new lacrosse coach of sex assaults.

On Tuesday, Montgomery County prosecutors charged Udinski with harassment and stalking.

District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said his offenses were particularly galling because Udinski tried to manipulate a national spotlight on child-sex abuse in a vengeful bid to destroy reputations.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic News Agency

Philadelphia, Pa., Jul 18, 2012 / 12:10 am (CNA).- A former Lansdale Catholic High School lacrosse coach has been arrested and charged after allegedly making false claims of sexual abuse in anonymous e-mails to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

“The cost to the men subjected to the false accusations is impossible to measure,” the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said in a July 17 statement, announcing Timothy Udinski’s arrest on charges of harassment and stalking.

On June 21, Udinski told detectives that he sent the archdiocese seven anonymous fabricated reports, targeting officials associated with the Catholic school where he had coached boys’ lacrosse. He said he made the false reports he was “furious” and “mad at the school for the way I was treated.”

According to the Distict Attorney’s office, Udinski himself “was the target of unfounded accusations” of an unspecified nature. He was dismissed from his coaching duties after a series of heated arguments with players and staff.

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