ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
Irish Central

By
PADDY CLANCY,
Irish Voice Reporter

Published Thursday, April 5, 2012

Major changes are being introduced at RTE over its libel of a Catholic priest and, separately, there are to be redundancies and cutbacks in a bid to save €25million.

On Tuesday afternoon RTE’s head of current affairs Ed Mulhall announced his retirement and the editor of Prime Time Investigates — which libeled the priest — Ken O’Shea has resigned from the program over the libel.

Father Kevin Reynolds is understood to have received a settlement of €1 million for the libel.

The program, which was broadcast last May, falsely accused Reynolds of raping a minor while working as a missionary in Africa and fathering a child by her. Mulhall had had been director of news and managing director of news and current affairs for a total of 14 years.


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VATICAN CITY
Monsters and Critics

Apr 5, 2012

Vatican City – Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday marked the first of a series of traditional Easter rituals with a mass during which he criticized a group of Austrian clerics championing the ordination of women as priests in the Catholic church.

Benedict did not directly name the so-called Pfarrer-Intiative (Priest’s Initiative), which in recent years have also been pushing for the admittance of married men into the priesthood.

But in his homily – which dealt with the renewing by priests of their vows, including celibacy and obedience to Catholic teaching – Benedict noted how a ‘a group of priests from a European country’ have ‘issued a summons to disobedience.’

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IRELAND
Journalism (United Kingdom)

Posted: 5 April 2012 By: Paul McNally

Journalists at Irish public broadcaster RTE are to undergo further training and be issued with new editorial guidelines, after a major legal error that has led to two resignations and a significant out-of-court libel settlement.

RTE said the range of measures aimed to “rebuild trust”, including “improved editorial controls”, the setting up a new editorial standards board and a revised complaints procedure.

It comes after the broadcaster settled a libel claim brought by a priest who was falsely accused of raping a minor and fathering a child in Kenya 30 years ago.

Father Kevin Reynolds accepted a significant out-of-court settlement over the defamatory claims, made last May in RTE’s flagship Prime Time Investigates programme. In a statement issued this week, the broadcaster announced that the programme strand would not be returning.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox 6

[with video]

by Angelica Duria

MILWAUKEE — Local activists want the names of alleged child abusers made public after 100 new sex offenders were identified in court documents. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, will be asking federal judge Susan Kelley Thrusday to release testimony made by former Archbishop Rembert Weakland and his Chief Deputy Bishop Richard Sklaba.

Last month, lawyers for victims of sexual abuse said there were 100 new sex offenders identified in more than 8,000 accounts of sexual abuse (in their claims). This number was well publicized.

Members of SNAP (The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) along with members of BishopAccountability.com, called those numbers a “personal safety crisis.” The group wants an investigation by the attorney general into who these people are in case there are current members of the Archdiocese identified in court documents. “The people who need to be held responsible have not been held responsible. What you have in these documents are the truth. The gospel tells us the truth shall set us free,” SNAP Midwest President Peter Isely said.

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VATICAN CITY
Times of Malta

Pope Benedict XVI issued a rare condemnation of disobedient priests today, saying those who questioned the Church over celibacy and the ordination of women were being self-serving.

“Recently, a group of priests in a European country published an appeal for disobedience, giving concrete examples of how to be disobedient,” the pope told 1,600 cardinals, priests and bishops during his homily on Holy Thursday.

The appeal was for women to be allowed to join the clergy, which was rebuffed by Benedict, who said: “As Jean Paul II irrevocably said, the Catholic Church did not receive authorisation (to ordain women) from the Lord.”

His comments were a response to an “appeal to religious disobedience” launched by a group of Austrian priests in 2011.

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VATICAN CITY
The Australian

AFP

POPE Benedict XVI has issued a rare condemnation of disobedient priests, saying those who questioned the Catholic Church over celibacy and the ordination of women were self-serving.

“Recently, a group of priests in a European country published an appeal for disobedience, giving concrete examples of how to be disobedient,” Pope Benedict told 1600 cardinals, priests and bishops during his homily on Holy Thursday.

The appeal was for women to be allowed to join the clergy, which was rebuffed by Benedict, who said: “As Jean Paul II irrevocably said, the Catholic Church did not receive authorisation (to ordain women) from the Lord.”

Benedict’s comments were a response to an “appeal to religious disobedience” launched by a group of Austrian priests in 2011.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Victims and creditors in archdiocesan bankruptcy want new abuse testimony unsealed

Evidence includes depositions of former Archbishop Weakland and Bishop Sklba on decades of cover-up

Archbishop Listecki wants evidence to remain in archdiocesan “secret archive”

Regardless of ruling, victims say Archdiocese can still turn over all records to Attorney General

WHO
Victim/survivors of clergy sexual assault, including members of SNAP, their families, and supporters will attend a court hearing in Milwaukee Federal Bankruptcy Court which could determine whether new clergy abuse testimony by top church officials, along with tens of thousands of pages of internal church files related to the cover up of decades of sex crimes against children will be made public. Victims/survivors will be available after the hearing for comment.

WHEN
Thursday April 5th, the court hearing is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. SNAP leaders and victim/survivors will be available for comment following the conclusion of court proceedings.

WHERE
The U.S. Federal Courthouse, 517 East Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee

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MAINE
WMTW

PORTLAND, Maine –
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland has announced temporary assignments for priests to serve in the place of a Fort Kent priest on leave while allegations against him are investigated.

Rev. James L. Nadeau, 51, of St. John Vianney Parish in Fort Kent, went on voluntary leave on Tuesday, said Sue Bernard, communications director for the diocese. She did not say what the allegations were.

Retired members of the clergy in Aroostook County will serve the parish during Holy Week and Easter. Rev. Robert Vaillancourt, 58, will serve as temporary administrator for the parish at the end of next week, Bernard said.

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MAINE
The Portland Press Herald

By Dennis Hoey dhoey@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

FORT KENT — Father Robert Vaillancourt will serve as the temporary administrator at St. John Vianney Parish in Fort Kent while the state investigates allegations against the parish’s former priest.

Bishop Richard Malone assigned Vaillancourt to the Aroostook County position on Wednesday, one day after he announced that Father James L. Nadeau had agreed to take a temporary leave of absence.

The Bishop said that Nadeau is being investigated by the Maine Attorney General’s Office. His leave of absence will allow their investigation to proceed unimpeded, Malone said. Authorities are not being specific as to what type of allegations have been made.

“The diocese is cooperating fully with the Attorney General’s office and at their request, I can not discuss the allegations or anything about the investigation. I am hopeful that this process will go smoothly in order to lead an expeditious and just conclusion,” Malone said, in a prepared statement.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Monica Yant Kinney, Inquirer Columnist

For a lying, scheming criminal and junkie, he cleaned up well, and, under bruising cross-examination, more than held his own.

If I had to score Round One of the most important testimony to date in the trial concerning sex abuse and conspiracy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, I’d give it to the beleaguered – yet believable – 30-year-old victim staring at his alleged abuser in court.

“Mark,” as he was labeled in the 2011 grand jury report, is the Bucks County man charging a criminal breach of trust by the Rev. James J. Brennan, a priest and family friend he thought of as an uncle.

Brennan stands accused of the 1996 attempted rape of Mark in a West Chester apartment. But for nearly three hours Wednesday, it was Mark – who has spent the last decade in jail, on suicide watch or undergoing psychiatric treatment – who found himself on trial.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The New York Times

By JON HURDLE

Published: April 4, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — A 30-year-old man said Wednesday that a priest’s actions took the man down a path that included more than a decade of drug and alcohol abuse, multiple criminal convictions and three suicide attempts.

The accuser, a former Marine, took the witness stand during the second week of a landmark trial of two Roman Catholic priests. One of them, the Rev. James J. Brennan, is charged with trying to rape the accuser in 1996, when he was 14.

In sometimes tearful testimony, the man said the assault took place at Father Brennan’s apartment in West Chester, Pa., during an overnight stay.

The alleged attack, and an occasion three years later when the accuser said Father Brennan exposed himself, combined to traumatize the man, he said, and led to a pattern of behavior that also included getting discharged from the Marine Corps and using drugs in an attempt to be rid of the pain of what he endured.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

BY JOHN P. MARTIN
Inquirer Staff Writer

DURING THREE hours of emotional and sometimes contentious testimony, a former Bucks County altar boy on Wednesday described how a priest in the landmark child-sex-abuse and conspiracy trial molested him during an overnight visit when he was 14.

The man, now 30, broke down several times recounting a 1996 assault by the Rev. James J. Brennan that he said plunged him into a spiral of drugs and crime and still haunts him.

He said Brennan, his onetime parish priest and a longtime family friend, showed him online sex-chat rooms, proposed that they masturbate and ordered him into a bed where, clad in plaid boxer shorts, the cleric pulled him close and pressed his private parts against the boy.

“He kept pulling me forward, forward, forward,” the witness said, fighting tears. “I couldn’t get off the bed. I still feel the sensation today. It’s horrible.”

The testimony didn’t stand unchallenged.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WTAQ

By Dave Warner

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – A tearful former Marine testifying in a sex abuse case rocking the Philadelphia Roman Catholic Archdiocese recalled on Wednesday the day he became deathly afraid of a priest he said had been a family friend but molested him as a teenager.

The former Marine said Reverend James Brennan, 50, molested him at the priest’s apartment in suburban West Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1996 when he was 14. Brennan is charged with attempted rape.

Also on trial is Monsignor William Lynn, former secretary of the clergy, who is charged with child endangerment and conspiracy over accusations he covered up abuse allegations against priests, many of whom were simply transferred to unsuspecting parishes.

Wednesday’s witness, who said he was released from a mental health facility only days ago and has abused drugs and alcohol for years, said Brennan had been a family friend.

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CALIFORNIA
KABC

[with video]

John Gregory and Rob McMillan

CORONA, Calif. (KABC) — A church pastor and two other men are accused of kidnapping and abusing a 13-year-old boy left in their care. The pastor runs a group home in Corona. The three men were arraigned in Riverside Wednesday.

Police say the three men were asked by a mother to give her 13-year-old son “guidance.” The pastor and two of his followers could face years behind bars for their alleged actions.

Police say the boy’s mother, 30, brought the 13-year-old to a men’s home in Corona run by Heart of Worship Community Church on March 18, asking the people there to discipline her son. Police said she had hoped the people running the home would help discipline her son, who had been misbehaving.

Police say that’s when Pastor Lonnie Remmers, 54, ordered two church members, Nick Craig, 22, and Darryll Jeter, 28, to drive the boy more than 100 miles north to Barstow.

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CALIFORNIA
Inland News Today

CORONA – (INT) – The director and two residents of the Heart of Worship group home are accused of torturing and abusing a 13-year-old boy.

Police say the boy’s mother took him to the home for guidance. Pastor Lonnie Remmers allegedly ordered the two men to drive him to the desert to ‘scare’ him. After arriving in the Barstow area, the pair threatened to kill the boy and forced him to dig a grave.

They returned to Remmers’ Corona home for Bible study. Instead, the youth was physically assaulted.

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CALIFORNOA
NBC Southern California

By Irene Moore

Three men, including a pastor, pleaded not guilty for allegedly torturing and kidnapping a 13-year-old child after his mother sent him to a men’s group home and bible study for guidance.

Shackled and clad in orange jump suits, Lonnie Remmers, 54; Darryl Jeter, 28 and Nicholas Craig, 22, entered their plea in front of Judge Becky Dugan at a Riverside County Superior Courthouse.

The three belonged to the Heart of Worship church in Corona which operated a men’s group home where some of the alleged crimes are said to have occurred.

The young boy was allegedly driven by Jeter and Craig to an unknown area in Barstow under the direction of Remmers, the pastor of the church.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

The pastor of a small church in Corona and two other men have been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and torturing a boy.

Pastor Lonnie Remmers, 54, along with Nick Craig, 22, and Darryll Jeter, 28, face several charges.

The teen’s mother took him to a men’s group home in Corona on March 18 for help with discipline, according to authorities.

The home was operated by Heart of Worship Ministry under Remmers’ direction. Police say Craig and Jeter took the boy to Barstow, where they allegedly beat him with a shovel and forced him to dig a grave, KTLA-TV reported.

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CALIFORNIA
Fox News

Associated Press

CORONA, Calif. – The pastor of a Riverside County storefront church and two of his followers have pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and assaulting a 13-year-old boy.

Lonny Remmers, Nick Craig and Darryll Jeter Jr. entered their pleas Wednesday afternoon in Riverside County Superior Court.

Prosecutors say the men pinched the boy with pliers, beat him with a shovel, forced him to dig a grave and threatened him with death as a harsh form of discipline.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Patriot-News

By CHARLES THOMPSON, The Patriot-News

Eliminating a statute of limitations in child sexual assault cases was among the changes victim advocates called for during a rally Wednesday at the Capitol.

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape also called for legislative action on bills to make a specific state crime out of human trafficking for “commercial sexual activity” and to permit prosecutors to present expert testimony explaining variances in victims’ reactions in criminal sexual assault cases.

Advocates are seizing the moment amid the case against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, plus a criminal trial against a top Roman Catholic Church official in Philadelphia accused of enabling abusive priests to continue having access to children.

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GEORGIA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By Ty Tagami
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

If you suspect child abuse but fail to report it, you could wind up in jail.

A recently passed revision of the Georgia law that requires teachers, doctors and other professionals to report suspected child abuse is so broad that just about anyone who comes into contact with kids could fall under its mandate.

Volunteers at churches, colleges, clubs, summer camps or soccer fields or parents who chaperone a field trip could go to jail if they fail to report suspected abuse under the new provision approved by lawmakers last week.

Child abuse can range from neglect and beatings to sexual abuse.

“If you volunteer with the Boys and Girls Club or volunteer with your church doing a children’s service, that would make you a mandatory reporter,” said Melissa Carter, director of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory University.

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CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise

BY DAVID DANELSKI, BRIAN ROKOS The Press Enterprise AND RICHARD K. DeATLEYSTAFF WRITERS
ddanelski@pe.com | brokos@pe.com | rdeatley@pe.com
Published: 04 April 2012

A Corona pastor accused of assaulting a 13-year-old boy with pliers and directing two church members to discipline the youth has served time in federal prison for an investment fraud scheme.

The two church members drove the boy to the desert March 18, forced him to dig a grave, threw dirt on him and then beat him with a belt, according to authorities.

On Wednesday, the pastor, Lonny Lee Remmers, 54, was charged with felony assault and inflicting injury on a child. The other men — Nicholas Craig, 22, and Darryl Duane Jeter Jr., 28 — were charged with kidnapping, assault and other felonies.

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CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register

BY FRANK SHYONG / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO A report from a committee investigating JSerra Catholic High School’s handling of sexual-misconduct claims against a teacher says the school “did all that could be reasonably expected” to vet the teacher and that the accusations against him before his arrest were insufficient cause for the school to contact authorities.

Ricardo Aldana, 39, a Spanish teacher and volleyball coach from Dana Point, was arrested Dec. 14 and later charged with seven counts of lewd acts with a 14-year-old female student.

JSerra fired Aldana the day after his arrest. He pleaded not guilty in January. He could face up to seven years in state prison if convicted.

The mother told the Register in December that she had approached the school with concerns about sexual misconduct months before she went to law enforcement about it.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News – AM

[with audio]

Updated April 05, 2012

A group representing victims of church sexual abuse is asking Catholic priests to read a letter from the pulpit over Easter calling for an independent inquiry into abuse allegations. COIN’s (Commission of Inquiry Now) letter mimicks the Melbourne Archdiocese’ move last weekend to send anti gay-marriage letters to 80,000 parishioners.

TONY EASTLEY: It’s a cheeky move but serious all the same. A group representing victims of church sexual abuse is asking Catholic priests to read a letter from the pulpit over Easter calling for an independent inquiry into abuse allegations.

Mimicking the Melbourne Archdiocese move to send anti gay-marriage letters to 80,000 parishioners last week, the group known as COIN has sent its own message.

Alison Caldwell reports.

ALISON CALDWELL: Written by a group representing victims of church sex abuse the letter asks parishioners to lobby the Catholic Church to support an independent inquiry into the handling of their complaints.

BRYAN KEON-COHEN: Some people consider my initiative a little cheeky. Well, so be it if it enables Catholic priests or their congregations to consider the facts and attempt to reform the Church from outside since it seems incapable of reforming itself adequately from inside.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
My Fox Philly

An accuser in the Philadelphia priest-abuse trial took the stand today. The former Marine gave an emotional testimony that Rev. James Brennan made sexual advances on him when he was 14-years-old.

The victim, now 30-years-old, outlined the events that led up to the alleged sexual assault in 1996, and went into great detail about his struggles with drug abuse, mental illness and multiple suicide attempts that he says are partially a result of his sexual abuse from Brennan.

The man said Brennan was close to his family, and would come over to the home every weekend. He described him as a “drinking buddy” of his mother, and an uncle figure. He said, “When the collar came down, he was Jim. He was one of the guys.”

In the summer of 1999, the victim said that Brennan took him to his apartment in West Chester to watch movies and then golf the next day. He testified that at the apartment, Brennan showed him pornography on his laptop, tried to masturbate with the victim, and got into bed with him.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Local 10

Author: By Sarah Hoye CNN

PHILADELPHIA (CNN) –
A tearful former altar boy testified Wednesday that one of two Philadelphia priests on trial in a clergy abuse case molested him during an overnight visit at the priest’s apartment.

The witness, now in his 30s, cried on the stand as he described the incident with the Rev. James Brennan, who is accused of raping the witness in 1996, when he was 14. The man is a former Marine, who was discharged because of mental health issues.

“I was a little boy. I didn’t know what to do,” the man testified through sobs.

The witness testified before Common Pleas Judge Teresa Sarmina that Brennan, who he described as a close family friend he considered to be like an uncle, viewed online sex chat rooms with him and suggested they masturbate together before insisting the witness sleep with the priest in the same bed.

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FARGO (ND)
WDAY

By: WDAY Staff Reports, WDAY

A former Fargo-area priest is being extradited to the US from the Philippines to face child sex abuse charges.

Fernando Sayasaya was charged in 2002 with gross sexual imposition, accused of fondling 2 boys in the mid-90s. He served parishes in Fargo and West Fargo.

Authorities believe he fled to the Philippines to avoid the charges.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

The judge in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy will hear arguments Thursday on whether to unseal evidence expected to shed light on the scope of the church sex abuse scandal in southeastern Wisconsin and how the archdiocese handled allegations involving children over decades.

Attorneys for hundreds of victims who have filed claims in the bankruptcy are asking Judge Susan V. Kelley to make public the depositions of retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who led the archdiocese for 25 years, and others, along with related documents, all redacted to remove the names of victims and some alleged offenders.

“This is presumptively public information generated in a public case,” said attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who represents about 350 of the 570 men and women who have filed sex abuse claims against the archdiocese.

“And we will argue strenuously that the public’s right to know outweighs any privacy interest the archdiocese is asserting,” he said.

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FARGO (ND)
The Bismark Tribune

Associated Press | Posted: Thursday, April 5, 2012

FARGO, N.D. — A former Fargo-area priest is being extradited to the United States from the Philippines to face child sex abuse charges.

Fernando Sayasaya (Say-ah-say-ah) is accused of fondling two boys in the mid-1990s, when he served parishes in Fargo and West Fargo. He was charged in 2002 with gross sexual imposition.

A court in the Philippines has ordered Sayasaya to return to the United States. Authorities believe he fled to the Philippines to avoid the charges.

Former Assistant Cass County State’s Attorney Wade Webb says he is pleased with the development.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

AAP
Updated April 5, 2012

NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith has shown a lack of judgment by making derogatory comments about a woman who accused his friend and former parish priest of sexual abusing her when she was a child, the state opposition says.

Mr Smith said one of the alleged victims of Father Finian Egan was “just trying to get $1 million from the church”, an email from an unnamed Catholic priest who met the attorney-general last July claims.

The email to alleged victim Nikki Wells, broadcast on ABC Television on Wednesday night, has raised questions about the long delay in prosecuting the case against Father Egan.

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SWITZERLAND
swissinfo

by Morven McLean, swissinfo.ch

A light-filled chapel forms the heart of the seminary in Villars-sur-Glâne near Fribourg. Built 30 years ago to hold 40 young men, it currently houses five.

It’s the same story at most of the country’s centres for training Roman Catholic priests. Researchers predict that in 2029 there will be one third fewer priests than there were in 2009.

They and progressive voices in the Church are calling for an open and honest discussion of its future.

In Basel, Catholics have even urged the dropping of the celibacy requirement* and demanded that women be admitted as priests.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PAUL CULLEN, Political Staff

THE BROADCASTING Authority of Ireland has defended the involvement of its chairman, former RTÉ director general Bob Collins, in assessing the penalty to be imposed on the State broadcaster over the Fr Kevin Reynolds libel affair.

The authority also defended itself yesterday against criticism by Fr Reynolds’s solicitor, Robert Dore, who said the priest should have been contacted during the investigation ordered by the BAI into his libelling in a Prime Time Investigates programme.

A spokeswoman said Mr Collins was appointed as an independent chair of the regulator and would in his daily work have “all kinds of responsibilities” affecting RTÉ.

Mr Collins, who worked in RTÉ for 28 years and was director general for six years, wasn’t asked and did not offer to absent himself from the board discussion this week on the investigation ordered by the compliance committee of the authority into the Mission to Prey programme broadcast last May, she said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

The prosecution witness testified that he had just checked out of a recovery facility ten days earlier. On the witness stand, he admitted to a criminal past, and told a story about being sexually abused by a defendant priest, a story drastically different from the original charges in last year’s grand jury report. Then on cross-examination, the witness began crying, and told the judge he was “messing up” his testimony.

Judge M. Teresa Sarmina called for a recess shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday, about 90 minutes earlier than usual. For members of the prosecution team, it was time to regroup as the witness attempted to compose himself in the bathroom.

Day Six of the archdiocese sex abuse trial began shortly after 10 a.m. when Mark Bukowski, 30, from Newtown, Bucks County, took the witness stand to testify against Father James J. Brennan, on trial for charges of attempted rape and conspiracy. Bukowski, according to Brennan’s defense lawyer, is the priest’s sole accuser, so the case against Father Brennan could rise or fall with Bukowski. If so, the prosecution may be in trouble.

Bukowski testified that he was a former altar boy whose family had befriended Father Brennan. “He was over our house every weekend,” Bukowski testified.

“He was almost like an uncle figure, Bukowski said. The witness described Father Brennan as a close friend and drinking buddy of his mother’s. “They really hit it off,” he said. “They would drink alcohol heavily together.” And then the priest would hop on his motorcycle and drive home drunk, the witness testified.

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ROME
Lez Get Real

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on April 4, 2012.

In June of 1983, Emanuela Orlandi disappeared. She was the fifteen year old daughter of a Vatican employee, and now prosecutors in Rome are saying that someone in that vast edifice knows what happened to her. Almost three decades ago, she was kidnapped by unidentified men, and her disappearance may be connected to the alleged financial misdeeds of the Vatican bank.

According to the Telegraph:

One theory is that the girl’s father, a Vatican employee, had stumbled on documents that connected the Vatican’s bank with organised crime in Rome and that she was seized in an attempt to silence him. The alleged mastermind of the kidnapping was Enrico “Renatino” De Pedis, the leader of the Magliana gang, Rome’s most ruthless criminal band.

He was shot dead by rival gangsters in a street in central Rome in 1990 and his body interred in a crypt in the Basilica of Sant’ Apollinare.

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NEDERLAND
TV Blik

De Nationale Assemblee van Suriname stemt vanavond over de amnestiewet. Het laatste nieuws.

Gerd Leers in zwaar weer
Gerd Leers was een gevierd burgemeester. Niet onomstreden, maar populair bij de Maastrichtenaren. Als minister voor Immigratie, Integratie en Asiel rolt Leers van de ene affaire in de andere. De Volkskrant meldt vandaag dat Geert Wilders wil dat het kabinet Leers vervangt als minister. Wilders ontkent. Een portret: van burgervader tot omstreden minister.

Kamer hoort Deetman over castratie
Tenminste één seksueel misbruikte jongen is gecastreerd in opdracht van de katholieke kerk. Dit feit was bekend bij de Commissie-Deetman, maar werd niet opgenomen in het eindrapport. Ook zwijgt het rapport over een vermeend gratieverzoek van een pater dat KVP-premier Marijnen zou willen inwilligen. Vandaag legt commissie-voorzitter Deetman verantwoording af in de Tweede Kamer. Nieuwsuur doet verslag van de hoorzitting en volgt tijdens het debat Cornelius Rogge, de man die het castratieverhaal van zijn vriend Henk Heithuis meldde aan de commissie.

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BELGIE
Deredactie

De kamer van inbeschuldigingstelling (KI) zal zich voor de vierde keer moeten uitspreken over de geldigheid van Operatie Kelk, het onderzoek naar misbruik binnen de kerk. Dat besliste het Hof van Cassatie.

Vorig jaar oordeelde de KI dat de huiszoekingen van Operatie Kelk nietig zijn, en dat de inbeslaggenomen stukken uit het dossier moesten verdwijnen.

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NEDERLAND
Limburgs Dagblad

De van seksueel misbruik beschuldigde pastoor Jan S. uit Maastricht heeft de namen gepubliceerd van de drie mensen die hem hebben aangeklaagd.

De door het bisdom Roermond op non-actief gezette pastoor deed dat in een brief aan oud-leerlingen van jongensinternaat Bleijerheide in Kerkrade, waar hij vroeger als broeder werkte.

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NEDERLAND
KLOKK

UPDATE De van seksueel misbruik beschuldigde pastoor Jan S. uit Maastricht heeft de namen gepubliceerd van de drie mensen die hem hebben aangeklaagd.

De door het bisdom Roermond op non-actief gezette pastoor deed dat in een brief aan oud-leerlingen van jongenspensionaat Bleijerheide in Kerkrade, waar hij vroeger als broeder werkte.

Drie oud-leerlingen van Bleijerheide deden bij een kerkelijke onderzoekscommissie aangifte van seksueel misbruik door de vroegere broeder op Bleijerheide. S. ontkent de beschuldigingen.

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INDIA
Conference of Religious India Bulletin

NEW DELHI: Noting that ” sexual violence, apart from being a dehumanizing act, is an unlawful intrusion on the right of privacy and sanctity of a female”, the Delhi high court has granted seven years’ rigorous imprisonment to a priest for repeatedly raping a 16-year-old girl in a temple in the capital.

The High Court slammed the priest saying he disregarded morality and consequence of his act and committed a barbaric offence upon a minor.

According to the prosecution, in July 23, 2007, the girl, then 16, had lodged a complaint with police that she was first raped by the priest inside the temple in May 2004 after she fell ill there, and he ravished her several times after blackmailing her.

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FORT KENT (ME)
Bangor Daily News

By Julia Bayly, Special to the BDN

Posted April 04, 2012, at 5:57 p.m.

FORT KENT, Maine — Parish and community members rallied Wednesday behind the Rev. James L. Nadeau whose sudden leave of absence from his post as pastor of St. John Vianney Parish took his flock by surprise.

The voluntary leave was announced late Tuesday by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland and the Maine attorney general’s office, which is conducting an investigation of unspecified allegations against the 51-year-old priest.

“I am very saddened by this whole thing,” Norma Landry, past chairwoman of the St. John Vianney Parish Council, said Wednesday morning. “Nobody really knows what is going on [and] in times like this I always turn to prayer.”

The allegations and subsequent leave taking by Nadeau could not have come at a worse time for the parish’s practicing Catholics.

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MINNESOTA
Park Rapids Enterprises

In part two of a series about former pastor Darwin Schauer, who is jailed in Hubbard County on 15 charges of criminal sexual conduct, the Enterprise outlines how he returned to serving at a church after previously being sentenced for sex crimes. The first part of the series appeared in the March 31 Enterprise.

BY Sarah Smith
ssmith@parkrapidsenterprise.com

Darwin Schauer reached out to the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod’s South District. He told a sympathetic minister he wanted to continue to serve the church.

The reverend helped get him accepted at Concordia in Mequon, Wis., after advising him that becoming an ordained minister was not possible with his history. Why not the lay ministry program?

Concordia Mequon’s registrar said Schauer was admitted in the winter of 1989 and by summer, was able to be certified as a lay minister. Because of his previous four-year degree, Schauer had completed the two-year program in less than six months.

“A lay minister program is a separate program,” explained Rev. Don Fondow, current president of the Synod’s North District. “If a person enters and already may have a degree, or if they have college credits, that is applied to how many courses they have to take because it’s a set certification so when you’re done you don’t necessarily receive a degree but you work towards certification and that’s what the situation was. He would have been certified, completed the program that would allow him to be certified as a lay minister. The (Concordia) faculty basically certified and then he’s available for placement in a position.”

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NEW YORK
The Daily Pleasantville

by Robert Michelin

THORNWOOD, N.Y. – After being in Thornwood for over 15 years, the Legion of Christ location off Columbus Avenue will soon be closing its doors.

Luis Garza, territorial director for the North American Legion of Christ, said in a statement that there are multiple circumstances in the current Roman Catholic congregation that are forcing the Thornwood branch to close.

“I do not want to dwell excessively on our recent history. But our present challenges, especially our pressing financial difficulties, require us to recognize that there are several factors that have led us to be where we are now,” Garza said in the statement.

The Thornwood Legion of Christ first opened in 1996. The location is adjacent to the Mount Pleasant Community Center and the Westlake High School and Middle School campus. Jim Fair, a spokesperson with the Legion of Christ, said the building will remain open until the location is sold and that the area of the land spans approximately 262 acres.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 04, 2012

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is asking New York’s Cardinal Tim Dolan to disinvite one of his controversial colleagues who is set to preach tomorrow at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing Dolan about Cardinal Justin Rigali, the now-retired head of the Philadelphia archdiocese. Rigali has been blasted by prosecutors for keeping dozens of accused clerics on the job as recently as last year despite child sex abuse allegations against him.http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/pope-taps-chaput-philadelphia

In a letter to Dolan, sent today by fax and email, SNAP says “For the sake of thousands of wounded victims and hundreds of thousands of betrayed Catholics – many of whom are still suffering – we hope you will rescind that invitation. It sends a depressing and chilling message – that wrongdoers in the church hierarchy will continue being rewarded, no matter how many children they put at risk.”

A copy of SNAP’s letter is below:

*****

April 4, 2012

Dear Cardinal Dolan;

Twice in just a few days, you have rubbed salt into already deep and still fresh wounds of hundreds of victims of clergy sex abuse and thousands of Catholics who rightfully feel betrayed by the church hierarchy’s continuing recklessness, callousness and deceit in this on-going crisis.

On your blog on Monday, April 2, you repeatedly sang the praises of your predecessor, Cardinal Edward Egan. You made no mention of his work – in both Connecticut and New York – concealing child sex crimes. You ignored his recent interview in Connecticut Magazine, in which he retracted perhaps the worst so-called “apology” we’ve ever seen during this decades-long scandal.

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ANNAPOLIS (MD)
Maryland Gazette

By Heather Rawlyk

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

During an emotional hearing that left many in an Annapolis courtroom in tears on Tuesday, a former Archbishop Spalding High School girls track coach was ordered to register as a sex offender for 25 years for sexting with one of his athletes during a months-long relationship.

Brian T. Funk, 40, a married father of two young children, entered an Alford plea to soliciting child pornography.

The plea allowed him to maintain his innocence while admitting prosecutors have enough evidence to convict. It carries the same consequences as a guilty plea.

Assistant State’s Attorney Pamela Alban said the state worked hard to nail down that charge, as it carries a mandatory 25 years on the Maryland Sex Offender Registry. This ensures that Funk cannot coach children for more than two decades.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sudwest Presse

Die Ruhe war trügerisch. Nachdem es zuletzt relativ still geworden war um die katholische Kirche, steht nach neuen Vorwürfen ausgerechnet der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz in der Kritik. Hat Bischof Stephan Ackermann solche Verbrechen in seinem Sprengel unter den Teppich gekehrt und unangebrachte Milde gegenüber Tätern walten lassen?

So einfach liegen die Dinge nicht. Die katholische Kirche hat seit dem Öffentlichwerden der vielen Fälle sexueller Gewalt an Kindern durch Priester und kirchliche Mitarbeiter viel unternommen, um das ganze Ausmaß der Verbrechen offenzulegen, auf die Opfer zuzugehen und Hilfen anzubieten. Auch innerkirchlich wurden Regeln für den Umgang mit solchen Verbrechen aufgestellt. Sie waren überfällig, keine Frage, stand doch viel zu lange der Schutz der Institution im Vordergrund. Der ernsthafte Wille, aus den ungeheuerlichen Verbrechen auch Konsequenzen zu ziehen, ist deshalb der katholischen Kirche nicht abzusprechen. Durch ihr Voranschreiten setzte sie Maßstäbe für andere gesellschaftliche Bereiche, in denen Kinder der sexuellen Gier Erwachsener schutzlos ausgesetzt sind.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Saarbrucker Zeitung

Von SZ-Redakteur Harald Knitter

Sanfte Stimme, weiche Figur: Anschmiegsam, vertrauensvoll wirkt der 42-Jährige, für seine drei Kinder ganz der Familienvater zum Toben und Knuddeln. „Meine Kinder habe ich wissen lassen, dass die Welt friedlich und schön sei, aber ich stelle eine Welt dar, die für mich nicht existiert“, sagt der Saarlouiser. „Nähe ertrage ich nur, wenn ich sie kontrollieren kann. Wenn meine Frau mich von hinten umarmt, fahre ich zusammen.“

Sieben Jahre hatte er das Geheimnis in seiner Seele verschlossen. Nach seiner Hochzeit mit 21 Jahren platzte es aus ihm heraus. „Wir lagen im Bett, als mir im Streit mit meiner Frau entfuhr: Du bist wie der Pater.“ Sie hakte nach und erfuhr, was Andreas K. (Name geändert) bis heute nur Familie und Therapeuten erzählt hat, bis er sich gestern der Saarbrücker Zeitung aus zwei Gründen offenbarte: „Bis jetzt war der Missbrauch, den ich erlitten habe, ein Phantom. Jeder hätte sagen können: Du baust Mist und lässt dir zur Entschuldigung so eine Geschichte einfallen.“

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DEUTSCHLAND
Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung

Noch heute hat Rudolf Kastelik die Schreie der geprügelten Jungen im Kopf. Die einstige Erziehungsanstalt Bernwardshof dient den Vinzentinerinnen heute als Tagungshaus. Foto: Schlemeyer

Hildesheim – Die Hölle dauerte 20 Jahre: Als Säugling, als Kind, als Jugendlicher wurde Rudolf Kastelik in Häusern der Kirche missbraucht und gequält, unter anderem im Hildesheimer Bernwardshof. Heute will er die Mauer des Schweigens durchbrechen und endlich Frieden finden – auch mit Hilfe der Kirche.

Kindheit und Jugend verbrachte Kastelik von 1948 bis 1969 vor allem in kirchlichen Heimen – immer wieder getrennt von seinem Zwillingsbruder. Elf waren es insgesamt, hat er inzwischen recherchiert. „Jeder Ortswechsel war für mich eine Deportation. Ich wusste nie: Wird es noch schlimmer?“ Ein Heim, das er als besonders brutal erfahren hat: die „Erziehungsanstalt Bernwardshof“ der Vinzentinerinnen in Hildesheim. „Wir Kinder wurden systematisch und extrem gequält und missbraucht.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Idea

Ahrensburg (idea) – Um Vergebung haben die leitenden Geistlichen der Nordelbischen Kirche die Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs in der Kirchengemeinde von Ahrensburg bei Hamburg gebeten.

Dort hatten sich in den siebziger und achtziger Jahren die schwersten bisher bekannt gewordenen Übergriffe evangelischer Pastoren zugetragen. Sie kamen aber erst vor zwei Jahren ans Licht. In einem Gottesdienst am 1. April sagte der Vorsitzende der Kirchenleitung, Bischof Gerhard Ulrich (Schleswig), ihm graue vor dem angerichteten Leid. Das Ausmaß von Unrecht und menschlicher Schuld könne er kaum in Worte fassen. Die Bischöfin des Sprengels Hamburg-Lübeck, Kirsten Fehrs (Hamburg), sprach vor rund 300 Gottesdienstbesuchern von einer schwerfälligen Aufklärungsarbeit. Sie stehe für eine Kirche, die Täter ungewollt geschützt habe. 13 Opfer seien der Kirche bekannt.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A former Bucks County altar boy testified today that one of the two Philadelphia priests on trial for conspiracy and child endangerment molested him when he stayed at the cleric’s apartment in 1996.

The witness, now 30, broke down several times as he told a Common Pleas Court jury about the assault by the Rev. James J. Brennan that he said plunged him into a spiral of drugs, crime and suicide attempts and still haunts him.

He said Brennan, a family friend he once loved like an uncle, showed him Internet sex-chat rooms, proposed they masturbate together then ordered him into a bed where the priest, clad in boxer shorts, wrapped his arms around him and pressed his private parts against the boy.

“He kept pulling me forward, forward, forward,” the man testified, fighting back tears. “I couldn’t get off the bed. I still feel the sensation today. It’s horrible.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

April 4, 2012
By Elizabeth Fiedler

A 30-year-old accuser took the stand today in the sexual abuse trial of Philadelphia priest Reverend James Brennan, who is charged with assaulting the man when he was a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

The accuser broke into tears a numbers of times while describing the molestation he alleges he suffered at the hands of Father James Brennan. He said when he was a boy his family had a close relationship with Brennan — often inviting him into their home for dinner and parties. He said in the years after the encounter with Brennan, his grades fell and he used drugs and alcohol.

Brennan’s lawyer attempted to question the accuser’s credibility, mentioning his struggle with mental health issues and substance abuse. The lawyer also thoroughly grilled the witness on why he remembered what Brennan was wearing during an encounter — but not the date it happened.

The accuser also talked about his interaction with a victim assistance representative sent by the Archdiocese. He said that representative seems more interested in protecting Brennan.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Steve Tawa

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — One of the main figures in the Philadelphia clergy child abuse trial has taken the witness stand to point a finger of blame at Father James Brennan, who is charged with attempted rape.

The accuser, now 30 years old, took the stand confidently, but by the time he recounted his overnight visit to Father Brennan’s apartment in West Chester in 1996, when he was just 14, he was trembling and sobbing.

He says Brennan showed him pornographic chat rooms on the computer and talked explicitly about male body parts. Then, Brennan insisted they both sleep in one bed. That’s when, the accuser says, the priest sexually assaulted him.

The man said he went from a being straight ‘A’ student to a downward spiral of drugs, alcohol, and crime. He attempted suicide three times.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Huffington Post

JOANN LOVIGLIO | April 4, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — A 30-year-old man says he was a good student with a bright future until he was molested by a priest he calls a “sexual predator.”

The man’s emotional testimony is under way Wednesday in a Philadelphia courtroom.

The Rev. James Brennan is charged with assaulting the man when he was a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

Brennan is on trial with Monsignor William Lynn, who is the first Roman Catholic official in the U.S. charged with endangering children for allegedly keeping predator priests in parish work. Both have pleaded not guilty.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Barney Zwartz
April 5, 2012

VICTIMS of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy want a call for an independent inquiry into the handling of their complaints to be read from every Catholic pulpit in Victoria over Easter.

Bryan Keon-Cohen QC, chairman of Commission of Inquiry Now (COIN), has written to every parish priest in the state asking them to read the letter during Easter services.

It is a slightly mischievous mimicking of 80,000 letters opposing same-sex marriage sent by Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart and five other bishops to Victorian Catholics last weekend. Mr Keon-Cohen’s letter asks priests to distribute a COIN donation form to parishioners.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

THE NSW Attorney-General, Greg Smith, has been accused of denigrating a woman who made sexual abuse allegations against a Sydney priest who is a friend of his as ”just trying to get $1 million from the church”.

Mr Smith is alleged to have made the comment when he was asked last July why Father Finian Egan had not been arrested or charged despite a police investigation into this and other claims that began two years ago, according to the ABC’s 7.30 program last night.

A spokesman for Mr Smith said: ”The Attorney-General recalls no such conversation. He says he would never suggest any victim of sexual abuse was simply motivated by a desire to claim a financial payout.”

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IRELAND
Drogheda Independent

Wednesday April 04 2012

A FORMER Termonfeckin and Drogheda based priest has been caught up in a storm over lewd pictures appearing in a First Communion presentation.

Fr. Martin Mcveigh was beginning a talk at a school in Pomeroy, Co. Tyrone, when the images were accidently shown on the screen. The presentation was abandoned. Fr Mcveigh, who is from Dungannon, was ordained in 1976 and served as curate in Termonfeckin parish from September 1976 to 1981.

He moved to Drogheda in 1981 and spent five years there.

He later went to Westminster in London and back to Pomeroy where he is presently based.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist

By Bob McHugh

I wore the Latin motto “Succisa Virescit” — meaning roughly, “Cut it down and it will grow back” — on the breast pocket of my green blazer for the five years I attended Delbarton School. A classmate used to go around on the last day of the school year ripping off the pocket patches. I thought it was just a dumb high school prank. But now, I wonder if he wasn’t right.

Mired in an ugly and expanding child-abuse scandal, my alma mater has certainly succeeded in cutting down its previously stellar reputation as an all-boys prep school. But, as school officials continue to bungle the handling of the scandal, who knows what will grow back?

These days, it can’t be considered a surprise that the cancer of Catholic priests abusing young men has metastasized into the “hills of Morris,” as our school song — borrowed from Cornell’s — called the place. What is surprising and sad is that the men who run Delbarton, where annual tuition nears $30,000 and boys are routinely sent to Harvard and Yale, can be so dumb.

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NEDERLAND
Nieuws

(Novum) – Een meerderheid van de Tweede Kamer twijfelt niet aan de integriteit van de commissie-Deetman, die het seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk heeft onderzocht. Dat bleek woensdag tijdens een hoorzitting in de Tweede Kamer. Wel wil de Kamer nader onderzoek naar de castraties van minderjarigen binnen katholieke instellingen.

Deetman zei dat hij niet in staat is tot nader onderzoek als er aan hem wordt getwijfeld. Dat onderzoek moet onder meer gaan over misbruik van meisjes en de afhandeling van de schadevergoeding van het misbruik door de kerk. “Dat kan niet als mijn integriteit ter discussie wordt gesteld.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Collegian

By Maria Bryant
For the Collegian

A special screening of “Boys and Men Healing,” a documentary about the impact of child sexual abuse, will be presented at 7 tonight in the HUB-Robeson Center Auditorium.

After the film, there will be a question and answer session with the film’s producer, Simon Wienberg, along with clinicians who work with male survivors and two male survivors from MaleSurvivor.org.

The event, open to the public, is sponsored by MaleSurvivor.org and co-sponsored by Counseling and Psychological Services and Student Affairs.

With April being Child Abuse Prevention Month, CAPS and the filmmakers mutually wanted to screen “Boys and Men Healing” at Penn State, CAPS Outreach and Consultation Coordinator Mary Anne Knapp said.

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MISSOURI/MASSACHUSETTS
The Turner Report

It probably wasn’t the best of timing.

The Cape Cod Times reported Sunday that Rick Braschler, director of risk management for Kanakuk, will speak at a seminar April 12 to help a camp that has also been rocked by scandal.

Braschler, of course, was hired before the latest sex scandal to hit Kanakuk, the filing of felony sex charges involving underage children against former staffer Lee Bradberry, 22, Auburn.

Next month, he will also offer a workshop to teach camp leaders and others in the community willing to pay $100 how to protect children from predators. But the training goes beyond criminal background checks and establishing protocols to report abuse.

“We need insight into how does a person with bad intent infiltrate an organization and then gain trust so they can follow through on their bad intent,” Braschler said

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AUSTRALIA/UNITED STATES
J-Wire

April 4, 2012

David Kramer will be released from a Missouri prison later this month…but efforts are underway to have him extradited to Melbourne. Kramer is yet to be charged with offences relating to alleged sexual abuse at Melbourne’s Yeshivah College.

J-Wire spoke to one of Kramer’s legal representatives who questioned the passing of time between the alleged offences and Kramer’s release. He said: “He is due for release in a couple of weeks. I have handled some civil matters for him. I believe the statute of limitations in Missouri is 20 years so I don’t know if they will be able to extradite him from this State. If there is an extradition order it will have to litigated.” The lawyer questioned if the there were still witnesses. Last year, Victorian Police mounted a campaign requesting people with information to step forward. It was very successful.

In the meantime, former Yeshiva student Manny Waks who was not abused by Kramer but states he was the victim of other perpetrators at the Yeshiva, told J-Wire: ““Yeshivah’s complicity in these sexual crimes against so many children by numerous perpetrators is becoming increasingly clear. Many of the former victims are looking forward to fully exposing this immoral behavior by an apparently religious institution and bringing them to full account.

Yeshivah has been given sufficient opportunities to at least partially redeem themselves but they have neglected to take any appropriate action whatsoever. Worse, their immoral approach has in fact increased the pain of many of the victims. We will therefore be holding them to full account.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

[We Need Your Support at Cathedral this Good Friday from 11 a.m. to noon.]

April 4, 2012 by Susan Matthews

Many have asked about bringing children to the prayer service as it is a day off from school for many. They are certainly welcome and this a peaceful vigil versus a protest. Many children attended vigils in Boston. Prayers read aloud will be appropriate for all ages.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

‘Ik word er bijna emotioneel van.’ Wim Deetman kan de suggestie in de media niet verkroppen dat hij met zijn onderzoekscommissie naar het seksueel misbruik in de kerk, zaken uit zijn rapport zou hebben gehouden. Dat bleek vandaag bij een hoorzitting erover in de Tweede Kamer

‘Het is nergens op gebaseerd en ik daag iedereen uit om anders te bewijzen’, zei Deetman. ‘Wat moest worden vermeld, dat is vermeld, zonder aanziens des persoons.’

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NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

DEN HAAG – De commissie-Deetman, die onderzoek deed naar het misbruikschandaal in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk, heeft op geen enkele manier geprobeerd de reputatie van Rooms-Katholieke bestuurders te beschermen.

Dat verklaarde Deetman vanmorgen in de Tweede Kamer in reactie op recente publicaties in NRC Handelsblad.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Bilgrimage

Gerald Slevin, Open Appeal To Philadelphia Inquirer Reporters II: The Philadelphia Archdiocese Priests Child Abuse Trial, the Pope, Secrecy, Santorum and the Upcoming Pennsylvania Primary

Jerry Slevin has now shared a supplement to his open letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer that I posted on his behalf two days ago. As the trial of Philadelphia Catholic archdiocesan officials continues, Jerry continues to monitor the litigation and news about it, and this is his latest response to what’s now unfolding in Philadelphia:

What follows is Jerry Slevin’s second open letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer:

——————————–

This supplements my April 1, 2012 Open Appeal I to you accessible here. Hopefully, this will be of some help to you as you assess the continuing developments in this hierarchical criminal case that is extremely significant for Catholics worldwide.

Yesterday on TV, convicted child sexual abuser, Fr. Avery, was hurried seemingly smiling past reporters into jail accompanied apparently by two well dressed lawyers. Avery’s apparent lack of any remorse for his horrible crime or any obligation to give evidence against others, as well as his sudden plea bargain, mild sentence, hurried imprisonment and general public unavailability, have all been very disturbing to watch, but it is only one example of what appears to be an unwarranted almost veil of secrecy on too many aspects of this important case. Many hundreds of Philly children were harmed by priest sexual predators with at least the tacit knowledge in many cases of bishops and cardinals; many thousands more were at risk of serious and permanent harm. Philly citizens are entitled to get the full story and we are depending on you to keep doing your best to get it.

For video footage from NBC’s Philadelphia affiliate of Fr. Avery’s smiling past reporters as he is whisked into jail, please see here.

To this day, the Philly Archdiocese still does not really require prompt reporting of all abuse claims to the police and apparently has only appointed persons that are accountable to Archbishop Chaput to monitor abuse claims. He is not accountable, it appears, to anyone and has not committed to a truly independent child protection audit procedure. He continues to operate, in the main, secretly as a typical medieval monarch. His cheerleading at a private priests’ party several months ago for Monsignor Lynn and some suspended priests under suspicion of misconduct with minors suggests he has failed to get the true child protection message and merely mouths, like the pope, pious platitudes about children.

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IRELAND
Grantham Journal (United Kingdom)

A priest defamed by RTE was not interviewed by the broadcasting watchdog during its investigation, it has emerged.

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) said it was only permitted to investigate the actions of the broadcaster and its Prime Time Investigates programme, which wrongly claimed Father Kevin Reynolds had fathered a child.

A spokeswoman said no interview was sought with Fr Reynolds or his legal team as it would have been outside the BAI’s remit. She added: “The BAI is not in the position to hear evidence from all sides, or decide if somebody was libelled.”

The “Mission To Prey” programme, aired on May 23 last year, falsely accused Fr Reynolds of raping a minor and fathering a child while working in Kenya 30 years ago. The missionary priest later won a substantial out-of-court settlement after he took a libel action against the national broadcaster.

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NEDERLAND
NZG

BOEKEL (Novum) – Onderzoek naar de castratie van een jongen in het Brabantse Boekel heeft geen extra informatie opgeleverd.

Dat laat minister van Veiligheid en Justitie Ivo Opstelten (VVD) dinsdag weten in een brief aan de Tweede Kamer.

In een artikel in NRC Handelsblad dat vorige maand verscheen stond dat een jongen in 1956 aangifte heeft gedaan van ontucht in het katholieke jongensinternaat in het Gelderse.

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NEDERLAND
Katholiek Nieuwsblad

De bisschoppenconferentie en de Konferentie Nederlandse Religieuzen (KNR) blijven nauwgezet de aanbevelingen van de Commissie Deetman uitwerken.

Dat blijkt uit een gezamenlijke brief aan minister Opstelten van Veiligheid en Justitie. De brief is een antwoord op vragen van de minister met het oog op de gesprekken in de Tweede Kamer over het rapport van de Commissie Deetman.

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NEDERLAND
NRC Handelsblad

door Annemarie Coevert

De Tweede Kamer koerst aan op vervolgonderzoek naar de geschiedenis van seksueel misbruik in Nederland. Dat bleek vanochtend uit een hoorzitting met de commissie-Deetman.

Aanleiding voor de hoorzitting vormde een artikel in NRC Handelsblad van enkele weken terug waarin de castratie werd onthuld van een slachtoffer van seksueel misbruik. De commissie-Deetman had daar in haar rapport geen melding van gemaakt, hoewel zich wel iemand bij de commissie had gemeld met gedetailleerde informatie hierover. Journalist en auteur van dit artikel Joep Dohmen is vanochtend gehoord over dit artikel.

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BELGIE
Vandaag

Het laatste arrest dat de Brusselse kamer van inbeschuldigingstelling (KI) heeft uitgesproken over de huiszoekingen op 24 juni 2010 in het aartsbisschoppelijk paleis en in de kantoren en de privéwoning van kardinaal Danneels, is nu ook verbroken. De verbreking geldt wel slechts voor een deel van het arrest. De zaak moet nu opnieuw voor de Brusselse KI komen, maar die zal wel uit andere raadsheren moeten bestaan.

De huiszoekingen van 24 juni 2010 kaderden in Operatie Kelk, het gerechtelijk onderzoek dat de Brusselse onderzoeksrechter Wim De Troy (foto) voerde naar seksueel misbruik van kinderen en een mogelijke doofpotoperatie daarrond binnen de katholieke Kerk. Drie verschillend samengestelde KI’s beslisten achtereenvolgens dat die huiszoekingen nietig waren, vervolgens dat ze perfect wettelijk waren en ten slotte dat ze toch nietig waren.

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NEDERLAND
RKnieuws

UTRECHT (RKnieuws.net) – De Bisschoppenconferentie en de Konferentie Nederlandse Religieuzen (KNR) hebben een gezamenlijke brief geschreven aan minister Opstelten, de Minister van Veiligheid en Justitie. De brief is ondertekend door kardinaal Eijk, voorzitter van de Bisschoppenconferentie, en broeder Van Dam, voorzitter van de Konferentie Nederlandse Religieuzen (KNR). De brief is een antwoord op een brief van de minister, waarin deze om nadere informatie vraagt met het oog op het gesprek in de Tweede Kamer over het rapport van de Onderzoekscommissie (‘Commissie Deetman’).

“Wij zijn en blijven vastbesloten om naast erkenning van het leed te zorgen voor genoegdoening, compensatie, hulp en nazorg. Dit komt tot uitdrukking in persoonlijke contacten met slachtoffers en vertegenwoordigende organisaties van slachtoffers en in allerlei voorzieningen die wij inzetten,” schrijven de voorzitters van de Bisschoppenconferentie en de KNR.

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NEDERLAND
Parool

Tot in de jaren ’60 van de afgelopen eeuw gold castratie in een aantal situaties als een aanvaardbare medische handeling, niet alleen bij zedendelinquenten, maar ook in de reguliere psychiatrie. Dat constateert minister Ivo Opstelten (Veiligheid) in een brief aan de Tweede Kamer. Ook buiten de justitiële context vond wel castratie plaats, aldus de bewindsman.

De brief komt aan de vooravond van een nieuwe hoorzitting woensdag over misbruik in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk, die inmiddels ook in verband is gebracht met castratie.

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ROME
Vatican Insider

The Public Prosecutor of Rome: “De Pedis’ tomb will not be opened”

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

A three-decade-long wall of silence is crumbling. The investigators will not open the tomb of the boss of Magliana, Renatino De Pedis, at Sant’Appollinare but they are convinced that “the Vatican knows the truth about Emanuela Orlandi.” It sounds like a scene out of Italian TV drama Romanzo criminale (a series about organized crime in Rome in the 80s), but it actually happened. For the first time, magistrates are explicitly pointing the finger at the Holy See. According to the Assistant Public Prosecutor, Giancarlo Capaldo and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Simon Maisto, someone in the Curia is allegedly in possession of “elements of truth that are circumstantial evidence.” The Cardinals (Re, Martinez Somalo, Silvestrini) who, under the pontificate of Karol Wojtyla, occupied key positions at the time of the disappearance of the papal emissary’s daughter, could be heard in court. An unexpected speeding-up of events.

One of the most complicated and celebrated “cold cases” in the world has suddenly turned into a tear in the fabric of half-admissions, false trails or improbable tracks. This flash in the dark has become a nightmare for the family and an international intrigue with claims of ghostly acronyms, interlaced with the attempt on John Paul II’s life and the suspicions regarding the head of the IOR, Paul Marcinkus. According to Pietro Orlandi, the brother of the girl who vanished 29 years ago, this is a pivotal moment. “The declaration by the prosecutors that the truth is known in the Vatican is very heavy, but it’s overshadowed the strange decision not to open De Pedis’ grave,” Peter Orlandi says. “If two years ago, the prosecutor ordered DNA samples of us family members to be collected, it meant that there is a valid reason to inspect Sant’Appollinare; it’s unclear why now that act is no longer useful to the investigation.” Probably “the prosecutors know the names of these Vatican figures, I hope that they listen to them to find out what they know.”

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IRELAND
Galway Bay FM

April 4, 2012

The solicitor of Ahascragh priest Father Kevin Reynolds’ has dismissed a move to scrap the Prime Time Investigates series as ‘probably cosmetic’.

It was part of a range of measures announced by RTE yesterday, in the wake of an inquiry from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland into the ‘Mission to Prey’ programme.

In the programme Fr Reynolds was falsely accused of raping a minor while working as a missionary priest in Kenya, and fathering a child by her.

RTE’s head of News and Current Affairs Ed Mulhall has retired, while the Editor of Current Affairs Ken O’Shea has resigned from his post and is being tranferred to a new position in Television.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

04/04/2012
A solicitor for defamed priest Fr Kevin Reynolds has dismissed a move by RTÉ to scrap the ‘Prime Time Investigates’ series as “probably cosmetic”.

The decision was part of a range of measures announced by the state broadcaster yesterday in the wake of the ‘Mission to Prey’ programme.

The managing director of RTÉ’s news and current affairs division, Ed Mulhall tendered his resignation “in the best interests of the organisation”.

Former editor of current affairs Ken O’Shea also resigned but is not leaving the station.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PAUL CULLEN and RONAN McGREEVY

FURTHER PERSONNEL changes within RTÉ news and current affairs are expected within weeks as the fallout from the Fr Kevin Reynolds libel affair continues.

The retirement yesterday of head of news and current affairs Ed Mulhall and the resignation of current affairs editor Ken O’Shea marks an “interim but significant stage” of personnel reorganisation within the State broadcaster, a senior source indicated last night.

A report to be published shortly by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) is expected to find that the Prime Time Investigates: Mission to Prey programme, which libelled Fr Reynolds last year, was unfair and breached his privacy. The authority can impose a penalty of up to €250,000.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PAUL CULLEN

EVEN BY THE sorry standards of recent history, the past fortnight has marked another low for the media. In London, public figures troop in each day to the Leveson inquiry into media practices, delivering shocking stories of indefensible intrusion by newspaper journalists. Last week, in the High Court in Dublin, two newspapers admitted that they had no evidence for reports they had carried about the death of the schoolboy Robert Holohan at the hands of Wayne O’Donoghue.

However, it is the case of Fr Kevin Reynolds, whom RTÉ wrongly accused of raping a woman and fathering her child while he was a missionary in Africa 30 years ago, that could mean a profound change in the way journalism is practised in Ireland.

The case relates to a Prime Time Investigates programme, featuring Fr Reynolds, that went ahead despite his offer to take a paternity test to disprove the allegations against him. The programme has prompted two independent investigations, and four senior journalists have stepped down or been temporarily transferred. As a result of the errors made in it, four programmes planned for broadcast next month have been held back and the future of the investigative strand must now be in doubt.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

RONAN McGREEVY

GUIDELINES: RTÉ STAFF involved in major investigative programmes will have to make a detailed submission to a new editorial board before transmission.

The board will evaluate programmes similar to the Prime Time Investigates: Mission to Prey programme at least seven days in advance of being broadcast.

The five members of the board are Michael Good, the managing editor of RTÉ News; Jim Jennings, the head of RTÉ Radio 1; Steve Carson, the director of programmes at RTÉ Television; Eleanor Bleahene from RTÉ’s solicitor’s office and Peter Feeney, the head of broadcast compliance.

They will be asked to assess the quality of the report, the reliability of the evidence assembled and whether or not the programme is in the public interest.

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IRELAND
RTE

Introduction
Over many years RTÉ has earned and retained the trust of its audiences through great programming and an adherence to very high editorial standards. Nowhere has this been more so than in Television Current Affairs, where time and again current affairs programming has made sense of the events shaping our daily lives and shone a light on some of the darkest aspects of Irish life.

The very serious editorial failures made in two important current affairs programmes in the past number of months, and their consequences, have rightly caused RTÉ to review and reflect on all of its editorial policy, practices and values. That process will continue for some time. These errors and failures of action have presented many challenges to many people in recent months, not least to those who were directly affected by them. But they have also caused concern and anger both within RTÉ and among our audience, the general public, whose trust in our organisation has been damaged.

I indicated a number of months ago that RTÉ must always be open and honest when we get things wrong. We will make mistakes. Programme-makers must be and will be supported in making challenging programming but the standards we set for ourselves as the national broadcaster must be very high as I know they are in so much of what we currently do.

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IRELAND
RTE

Section 1. Introduction and Context
These Guidelines are being introduced in an interim form pending the completion of the new BAI Code on Fairness, Objectivity & Impartiality in News and Current Affairs. Note that the BAI also has plans to introduce a Code on Privacy in a revision of its Code of Programme Standards due in 2013.

These guidelines are subject to regular review. Please ensure that it is always the most recent edition that is consulted. This edition was last reviewed on 2 April 2012.

These Guidelines apply primarily though not exclusively to News, Current Affairs and Factual Programming. Guidelines in regard to other programming such as Entertainment, Drama and Children’s are due to be completed during the course of the year. In the meantime the 2008 Edition of the RTÉ Programme Standards and Guidelines applies to those genres of production.

RTÉ wishes to acknowledge with gratitude the assistance it received from fellow public service broadcasters, BBC and ABC, in drafting these guidelines.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

RONAN MCGREEVY and PAUL CULLEN

The solicitor for Fr Kevin Reynolds has described as “extraordinary” the fact that neither he nor his client were involved in the report into the Prime Time Investigates programme Mission to Prey.

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) commissioned former BBC Northern Ireland controller Anna Carragher to carry out an investigation on its behalf into the programme, which falsely accused Fr Reynolds of raping a minor while working as a missionary priest in Kenya and having a child by her.

RTÉ was forced to apologise and pay a substantial out-of-court settlement to Fr Reynolds who is the parish priest of Ahascragh, Co Galway.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Morning Call

7:34 a.m. EDT, April 4, 2012
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A priest on trial in a landmark child sex abuse case is expected to face his accuser in a Philadelphia courtroom.

The Rev. James Brennan is charged with raping a 14-year-old boy in 1996. That accuser is expected to take the stand on Wednesday.

Brennan is on trial with Monsignor William Lynn, who is the first Roman Catholic official in the U.S. charged with endangering children for allegedly keeping predator priests in parish work. Both have pleaded not guilty.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PowNed (Nederland)

Het is zwaarder dan je denkt om in een week tijd drie jongetjes te misbruiken. Dit heeft een Amerikaanse priester gezegd, zo blijkt uit interne documenten van de katholieke kerk.

De priester zou grapjes hebben gemaakt over het seksueel misbruik, zo bleek vandaag in de rechtbank. De ‘baas’ van de niet bij naam genoemde misbruikpriester, de 61-jarige monseigneur William Lynn, staat daar terecht omdat hij de misbruikzaken in de doofpot zou hebben gestopt. Hij zou niet hebben voorkomen dat notoire misbruikpriesters met kinderen in aanraking kwamen.

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BELGIE
Knack

Het laatste arrest dat de Brusselse kamer van inbeschuldigingstelling (KI) heeft uitgesproken over de huiszoekingen op 24 juni 2010 in Operatie Kelk, dreigt ook verbroken te worden.

Op 29 november 2011 besliste de KI dat de huiszoekingen in het aartsbisschoppelijk paleis en bij kardinaal Danneels, in Mechelen, nietig waren en dat de stukken die daar in beslag genomen werden, uit het dossier moesten verwijderd worden. Volgens het parket-generaal bij Cassatie was die beslissing onvoldoende gemotiveerd.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Monsignor William Lynn is the first Roman Catholic church official in the U.S. A. to be charged for his handling of priest-abuse complaints and he is now on trial for child endangerment and conspiracy, this is a compilation of articles about his current trial in Philadelphia. Read our related articles, Cardinal Ratzinger was part of the “plague of pedophilia” for 27 years when he covered-up JP2 Army a.k.a B16 Army-Benedict XVI Pedophile Priests Army http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/cardinal-ratzinger-was-part-of-plague.html and insane KC STAR CAMPAIGN HITS by Catholic League fanatic Bill Donohue propagating… Bishop Finn make Devil’s Bowels smell like roses in KC, Missouri http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/bishop-finn-makes-devils-bowels-smell.html

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UNITED STATES
Patrick J. Wall

Here is my crash course in the Irish Christian Brothers sex abuse and cover-up scandal and bankruptcy:

In order to understand the current Irish Christian Brothers debacle, we need only look north.

As I have repeated (and as my Church history professors seared into my cortex in countless seminary courses): The Past is Prologue to the Future.

In light of that, let’s take a short trip back in time:

In 1975, detectives Robert Hillier and Paul Pitcher of the Newfoundland Constabulary were investigating complaints from the Irish Christian Brothers orphanage at Mount Cashel. Hillier and Pitcher were not naive detectives, but even they could not imagine the extent of the beatings and sexual abuse, the Brothers collusion, and the blatant obstruction of justice and corruption surrounding the child sexual abuse by the Irish Christian Brothers who worked at Mount Cashel. It would take an additional two decades for the moral bankruptcy to explode. You can read the results of their work here, in the 1991 Hughes Report, Part I and Part II.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Action Alert: Important Bankruptcy Court Hearing Thursday April 5th, 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: Milwaukee Federal Courthouse, 517 E. Wisconsin Avenue
In Federal Bankruptcy Court on Thursday April 5th, Judge Susan V. Kelley will hear arguments concerning a crucially important motion filed by victim/survivors (and supported by the Creditors Committee) which seeks to unseal and make public the depositions of Archbishop Weakland and Bishop Richard Sklba concerning the decades long cover up of child sex crimes that both men directed. Lawyers for the archdiocese, at the instruction of Archbishop Listecki, will argue against both the release of Weakland and Sklba’s video testimony, and internal church records which support the case of victim/survivors against these church officials.

Listecki held a Mass of Atonement last week to “atone” for the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Following the service he went before the television cameras and falsely informed the public that by unsealing the depositions and court documents the identities of victims would be revealed. This statement made by the Archbishop is false. The motion to release the depositions and documents states very clearly: “The motion seeks to have all information regarding survivors’ identities redacted and all information regarding alleged abusers who have not yet been publically identified redacted as well.”

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NEDERLAND
Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal

Agendapunten:

1. Rondetafelgesprekken over seksueel misbruik binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk

Volgens onderstaand schema:.

10.00 tot 11.00 uur: Commissie-Deetman
11.00 tot 12.00 uur: de heer Dohmen

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ROME
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The Vatican has been accused of hiding the truth about one of Italy’s most intractable mysteries – the disappearance of a teenage girl nearly 30 years ago.

By Nick Squires, Rome

Prosecutors in Rome say that “someone in the Vatican” knows the fate of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee who vanished in June 1983.

Her kidnap in Rome by unidentified men has been the subject of scrutiny for three decades, with allegations that it was connected to blackmail and banking scandals involving the Holy See.

One theory is that the girl’s father, a Vatican employee, had stumbled on documents that connected the Vatican’s bank with organised crime in Rome and that she was seized in an attempt to silence him. The alleged mastermind of the kidnapping was Enrico “Renatino” De Pedis, the leader of the Magliana gang, Rome’s most ruthless criminal band.

He was shot dead by rival gangsters in a street in central Rome in 1990 and his body interred in a crypt in the Basilica of Sant’ Apollinare.

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NEDERLAND
NOS

Voorzitter Wim Deetman ontkent ten stelligste dat zijn onderzoekscommissie informatie over eventuele castraties binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk bewust onder de pet gehouden heeft. U hoort politiek verslaggever Michiel Breedveld.

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NEDERLAND
de Gelderlander

DEN HAAG/ HARREVELD – Wim Deetman kan de suggestie in de media niet verkroppen dat hij met zijn onderzoekscommissie naar het seksueel misbruik in de kerk, zaken uit zijn rapport zou hebben gehouden. Dat bleek woensdag bij een hoorzitting erover in de Tweede Kamer.

„Het is nergens op gebaseerd en ik daag iedereen uit om anders te bewijzen”, zei Deetman. „Wat vermeld moest worden is vermeld, zonder aanzien des persoons.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

April 4, 2012 by Susan Matthews

Several thousand people visit this site each week. We are asking each of you to join us at the steps of the Cathedral this Good Friday from 11 a.m. to noon. Are you sickened, outraged, betrayed? Do you want your Church renewed? Show it by showing up. The victims deserve a very visible sign of support. Our children, who were left unprotected by leadership, deserve it. Easter is a sign of renewal, what better time to pray for it as a community. Please spread the word via facebook, twitter and email. Click here for the flyer: GoodFriday . One pastor has posted it in his parish. Maybe yours will.

What: Prayer service for the victims of clergy sex abuse and the faithful of the Catholic Church of Philadelphia who have been betrayed by the hierarchy. There will be speakers. April is child abuse awareness month, so we ask attendees to wear the official awareness color – blue. Signs are welcome.

Where: At the steps of the Cathedral Basilica of SS Peter and Paul, 1723 Race Street (on the Benjamin Franklin Pkwy)

When: 11 a.m. to noon this Friday, April 6 – Good Friday. (Prayer Service held inside the Cathedral from noon until 3 p.m.)

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

Editorial

NSAC calls its readers attention today to an important event inIrelandthat could have far reaching implications.

This is a first of its kind call and an undertaking that has become reality in no small measure through the diligence and courage of an Irish survivor, Mark Vincent Healy.

The Irish province of a religious order known as the Spiritans, formerly known as the Holy Ghost Fathers, has requested a “public audit” of its handling of child sexual abuse to be conducted by the Irish National Board for Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCI). The NBSCCI is the organization that has investigated the Irish Dioceses of Ardagh, Clonmacnois,Derry, Dromore, Kilmore, Raphoe and Tuam.

While this audit is being requested by theIrishProvinceof the Spiritans, we call our readers attention to the presence of the Spiritans (Holy Ghost Fathers) in 53 countries including theUnited States. The Spiritans have personnel on five (5) continents.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

Slachtoffers van het misbruik in de rooms-katholieke kerk geloven niet dat Wim Deetman willens en wetens informatie heeft achtergehouden die voor de kerk belastend is. Deetman zou, meldde NRC Handelsblad onlangs, de castratie van een jongen hebben verzwegen in het eindrapport van zijn commissie die het misbruik in de kerk onderzocht.

Slachtoffergroepen hebben geen enkele aanwijzing dat Deetman informatie verdonkeremaande. “Castratie, hoe erg ook, gebeurde binnen de gezondheidszorg, niet in de kerk. Er heeft zich tot nu toe bij ons niemand gemeld met deze ervaring”, zegt Guido Klabbers van slachtofferkoepel Klokk. Klokk (Koepel Landelijk Overleg Kerkelijk Kindermisbruik) bestaat uit groepen lotgenoten met ervaringen van misbruik in katholieke internaten.

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ESPANA
El Correo

«Me dijo que mi quitaba a la niña por adúltera». María Luisa Torres, la mujer que acusa a la monja María Gómez Valbuena de haberle sustraído a una hija que tuvo en 1982 en la clínica Santa Cristina de Madrid, ratificó ayer ante el juez que la religiosa le dijo que se quedaba sin el bebé debido a que el padre no era su marido.

Torres y su hija Pilar se reencontraron hace ocho meses en un programa de televisión gracias a las gestiones del padre adoptivo. Su relación biológica fue confirmada después por pruebas de ADN. Ambas comparecieron ayer ante el titular del juzgado de instrucción número 47 de la capital de España. En Euskadi, la Fiscalía ha imputado de momento a dos ginecólogos y una matrona.

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ESPANA
el Periodico

ANTONIO M. YAGÜE
MADRID

Pilar Alcalde, que fue sustraída a su madre en marzo de 1982 y con la que se ha reencontrado 29 años después, aseguró ayer a las puertas de los juzgados de instrucción de Madrid que si la monja María Gómez Valbuena, de 80 años, «no lo paga aquí», sabe que lo pagará «arriba». Se trata de la primera religiosa denunciada por la fiscalía en el caso de los niños robados en hospitales de toda España entre 1940 y 1990. A juicio de la víctima, su castigo debería ser «acabar en la cárcel, porque ha hecho daño a muchas familias que están sin identidad».

Pilar acudió con su madre, María Luisa Torres, a ratificar la denuncia. La madre recordó lo que le dijo la monja tras dar a luz en la maternidad Santa Cristina de Madrid: «Primero que estaba muerta, luego que la había dado en adopción a una familia francesa y después, con todo el descaro del mundo y crueldad, ‘te la voy a quitar y, además, vas a ir a la cárcel porque eres una adúltera’».

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SPAIN
Toronto Star

Wendy Gillis
Staff Reporter

For nearly 30 years she kept the baby blanket and pacifier, hoping one day to return them to the daughter she claims was snatched from her at birth.

Now, Luisa Torres has not only reconnected with her lost child — the mother-daughter reunion has prompted the first indictment in the “stolen babies” scandal that has rocked Spain in recent months.

Torres and her daughter, 29-year-old Maria Pilar, appeared in a Madrid court Tuesday, testifying that Sister Maria Gomez Valbuena, a nun now in her 80s, orchestrated the theft of Pilar, then sold her to another family.

“Now the judge knows everything,” Torres told reporters outside the Madrid court after her two-hour testimony. “I hope for justice.”

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AUSTRALIA/UNITED STATES
The Australian Jewish News

CONVICTED child sex offender David Kramer could be back in Australia as soon as next month, with police understood to be preparing to charge and subsequently extradite the former Yeshivah College teacher from the United States.

Kramer was spirited away by Yeshivah after accusations of child molestation surfaced in 1993. In 2008, Kramer was sentenced to seven years jail in St Louis, Missouri, after sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy. He became eligible for parole late last year.

A spokesperson for police media said that “no charges have been laid” but that the “investigation is ongoing”, adding “we can’t comment any –further”.

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TEXAS
The Associated Press

By PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — In the four years since Texas authorities swarmed the polygamist ranch of sect leader Warren Jeffs, state prosecutors have spent more than $4.5 million racking up swift convictions against him and 10 loyal followers on child sex and bigamy charges, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Combined with other state agency costs surrounding the April 3, 2008 raid, documents show the price tag is approaching $20 million for what began as a chaotic roundup of nearly 400 children and grew into one of the largest criminal cases in recent Texas history.

The saga is now all but over. Last week, state prosecutors convicted the last of 11 men arrested at the Yearning for Zion Ranch. All received prison time, including a life sentence for Jeffs.

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FORT KENT (ME)
Bangor Daily News

By Dawn Gagnon, BDN Staff

FORT KENT, Maine — A Roman Catholic priest assigned to St. John Vianney Parish is taking a voluntary leave of absence from public ministry, effective Tuesday, while the attorney general’s office conducts an investigation of allegations against him.

The Rev. James L. Nadeau, 51, has been serving the parish for seven years, Sue Bernard, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, and Brenda Kielty, spokeswoman for the Maine attorney general’s office, said Tuesday evening in a news release.

They did not indicate why Nadeau was under investigation. Bernard declined to provide further details and Kielty could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Located in the St. John Valley in northernmost Maine, St. John Vianney Parish comprises St. Louis Catholic Church in Fort Kent, St. Mary Catholic Church in Eagle Lake, St. Charles Catholic Church in St. Francis and St. Joseph Catholic Church in Soldier Pond.

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PORTLAND (ME)
WMTW

PORTLAND, Maine –
A Catholic priest has taken a voluntary leave of absence while the Maine Attorney General’s Office investigates allegations against him, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland said on Tuesday.

Rev. James L. Nadeau, 51, has served St. John Vianney Parish in Fort Kent for seven years. The leave of absence took effect on Tuesday and another priest will be assigned to serve the parish as soon as possible, said Sue Bernard, communications director for the diocese.

Bernard did not say what the allegations were.

“The diocese is cooperating fully with the Attorney General’s office and at their request, I cannot discuss the allegations or anything about the investigation,” Bishop Richard Malone said. “I am hopeful that this process will go smoothly in order to lead to an expeditious and just conclusion.”

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MAINE
The Portland Press Herald

From staff reports

A Catholic priest who served in parishes in Biddeford and Portland has agreed to take a leave of absence from the ministry while the Maine Attorney General’s Office investigates allegations against him.

The Rev. James Nadeau, 51, the pastor for St. John Vianney Parish in Fort Kent, left his post Tuesday.

Nadeau, who has served for the last seven years in Fort Kent, served previously at St. Andre in Biddeford and at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland. He was ordained as a priest in 1988.

“In order for the investigation to proceed unimpeded, Father Nadeau has taken a voluntary leave of absence,” Bishop Richard Malone said in a press release issued Tuesday night. “The diocese is cooperating fully with the Attorney General’s Office and at their request, I cannot discuss the allegations or anything about the investigation. I am hopeful that this process will go smoothly in order to lead to an expeditious and just conclusion.”

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