ABUSE TRACKER

MALTA
The Malta Independent

We will start by saying that the judge in the appeal filed by the Attorney General in relation to the rape of a boy by a defrocked priest was absolutely correct in terms of law.

The case refers to Godwin Scerri, who was cleared by the Magistrates’ Court, and subsequently the appeals court, of raping a young boy who was in his care. The victim had testified that he was raped in Santa Venera, but the charge sheet issued by the prosecution referred to the location as being Mtarfa. In appealing, the Attorney General’s Office argued that the accused could still be found guilty, irrespective of where the act took place.

The judge, on the other hand, observed that the prosecution had plenty of time to rectify the mistake, and did not do so. As we said, this is completely correct in terms of law, but we also have to say that it is a grave miscarriage of justice. Godwin Scerri, 75, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for abusing this same and other boys in his care. But he has been cleared of what is the most serious charge of all – the rape of a young boy, in his care, and all down to some anomaly in our legal texts.

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AUSTRALIA
Sunday Telegraph

Miranda Devine
The Sunday Telegraph
April 22, 2012

ALLEGATIONS in court documents that its handpicked Speaker, Peter Slipper, sexually harassed a young male adviser are another scandal our terminally ill government can do without.

And this time, the scandal threatens the reputation and dignity of the institution of Parliament itself, not just the minority Labor government and its Independent backers.

In documents filed in the Federal Court, James Ashby, 33, claims Slipper subjected him to sexual harassment after hiring him as a media adviser in December, weeks after being installed as Speaker.

Ashby alleges that Slipper, 62, recruited him to his personal staff “for the purpose of pursuing a sexual relationship”.

Slipper, who is married and is an ordained priest of the Traditional Anglican Communion church, allegedly made unwanted sexual advances and sent suggestive text messages to Ashby, who is openly homosexual.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

David Crowe, National Affairs Editor
From:The Australian
April 23, 2012

JULIA Gillard has lost crucial ground in federal parliament as she seeks support for next month’s budget after a sex and fraud scandal forced Peter Slipper to step aside as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The Prime Minister faced new doubts over her political judgment and her ability to pass contentious reforms, including budget cuts.

Mr Slipper announced the move to stand aside late yesterday to limit the damage from a sexual harassment claim and an investigation into his parliamentary expenses, as he declared his innocence on both counts. …

Mr Slipper lost another position last night when the Australian leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion, John Hepworth, asked him to vacate his role as a priest and chancellor in the church.

The developments rocked the government over the weekend after revelations that one of Mr Slipper’s former advisers, James Ashby, had lodged a statement of claim in the federal court alleging sexual harassment.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Bill Farr
April 23, 2012
Opinion

On the matter of sex abuse by clergy, Denis Hart still doesn’t get it.

ON THIS page on Friday, the Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, defended the Catholic Church’s record in dealing with the ever-increasing fallout from decades of sexual abuse by clergy. He predicted the state parliamentary inquiry announced last week would find that his church has been ”fair” in its dealings with victims.

Sadly, from the outside, that is hard to accept.

I started school in the Catholic system in the early 1960s, and have followed – with more than a passing interest – the slow drip-feed of horrific stories of abuse as they have become public. It came close to home for me about three years ago with the exposing of a priest who, for a short time, was a family friend. It was a shock to realise that he was a serial abuser.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Rebecca Puddy
From:The Australian
April 23, 2012

EMBATTLED MP Peter Slipper will be asked to stand down from his role as a priest in the Traditional Anglican Communion while allegations he sexually harassed a male adviser and misused taxpayer money are investigated.

Australian leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion John Hepworth said yesterday Mr Slipper, an ordained priest, would be asked to stand down in the wake of the allegations made by James Ashby.

As chancellor of the breakaway TAC, Mr Slipper is the chief legal adviser to Archbishop Hepworth.

The move to suspend Mr Slipper from his church role came yesterday, soon after the Queensland MP stood aside as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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BELGIE
HLN

Morgen is het twee jaar geleden dat Roger Vangheluwe ontslag moest nemen als bisschop van Brugge, omdat hij twee neven in hun kindertijd seksueel had misbruikt. De Werkgroep Mensenrechten in de Kerk neemt de verjaardag te baat om erop te wijzen dat veel slachtoffers van misbruik in de Kerk “blijven lijden onder dit misbruik omdat de paus de feiten ongestraft laat voortwoekeren”.

Van kardinaal Godfried Danneels en van zijn opvolger, aartsbisschop André-Joseph Léonard, ontving de Werkgroep Mensenrechten in de Kerk “geen enkel moreel signaal” dat ze er bij paus Benedictus XVI zouden hebben op aangedrongen werk te maken van een bestraffing.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
DARA KELLY,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, April 22, 2012

There is confusion over whether a parish priest in Tyrone has been cleared after showing gay porn to a room full of First Communicant parents.

The Irish Catholic Church called an inquiry into the County Tyrone priest, Father Martin McVeigh, who displayed indecent images during a primary school presentation in March “inconclusive.”

Originally, they called the priest cleared but later amended that after parents protested.

The Archdiocese of Armagh sent representatives to meet with parents from the town of Pomeroy in Co. Tyrone to talk about the incident. Another meeting is planned to further investigate the issue. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have confirmed that no crime was committed during the presentation.

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ROME
RKnieuws (Nederland)

ROME (RKnieuws.net) – Homoseksuelen vertegenwoordigen een groter gevaar voor seksueel misbruik. De Duitse jezuïet Hans Zollner, psycholoog en vice-rector van de pauselijke gregoriaanse universiteit in Rome, zegt in een interview met de Poolse krant Rzeczpospolita dat er zeker geen rechtstreeks verband is tussen homoseksualiteit en pedofilie maar dat in deze groep het gevaar groter is. De stelling van Zollner is wetenschappelijk helemaal niet onderbouwd.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

American nuns stunned by Vatican accusation of ‘radical feminism,’ crackdown

By Michelle Boorstein and Elizabeth Tenety, Published: April 20

American nuns struggled to respond Friday to a Vatican crackdown on what it calls “radical feminism” among the women and their purported failure to sufficiently condemn such issues as abortion and same-sex marriage.

Some nuns in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious characterized the disciplinary action announced Wednesday as an “ambush,” but others — including the leadership — said they couldn’t publicly comment on a system that mandates their obedience. The 1,500-member conference represents the vast majority of the country’s 57,000 nuns.

“People are stunned,” said Sister Pat McDermott, president of the 3,500-member Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, based in Silver Spring. “They’re outraged, angry, frustrated, they don’t know where this came from and how to hold it.”

Thousands of people joined a Twitter drive to support the Leadership Conference, which represents more than 80 percent of American nuns. Using the hashtag #whatsistersmeantome, one person wrote of the nun who “was the rock of our Catholic campus.” Another man tweeted about how his father lost his own mother at 13. “It was the Mercy sisters who consoled and loved him onward.”

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IRELAND
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

By Ken Foxe

It may have the country’s largest private property portfolio but despite owning thousands of houses, the Catholic Church does not have to pay a cent in household charges.

The Church, which at one point owned or occupied at least 10,700 houses, schools, halls, churches and shops around the country, has an exemption from all property taxes because it is a charity.

With 1,368 parishes in Ireland – many containing several parochial homes and other properties – the Church may be getting off the hook for up to €500,000 a year in Environment Minister Phil Hogan’s new tax, despite its massive wealth and land interests.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Gazette-Mail

Editorial

Ugly allegations have been made, indirectly, against the spiritual leader of West Virginia’s 76,000 Catholics. But everyone should keep America’s justice principles clearly in mind: No criminal charge has been filed against Bishop Michael Bransfield regarding events 30 years ago. Under law, each person is presumed innocent unless convicted. Nobody should rush to judgment.

Testimony in a disturbing Philadelphia trial implied that the West Virginia bishop was connected to child-molesting priests, made suggestive comments to altar boys, and allowed priests to take boys to his beach home. Thursday, Bransfield issued a statement saying, in part:

“I have never sexually abused anyone…. This case has gone on for seven years or more…. Contrary to the statements, I do not own, and never owned, a farm in the Scranton area, upstate New York, or anywhere else, for that matter.

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IRELAND
Sunday Independent

By Willie Kealy

Sunday April 22 2012

THE Government is planning to open several new embassies around the world in places as far apart as South America and Asia — but there will be no U-turn on the controversial decision to close down the Irish embassy in the Vatican.

This has been disclosed by the Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore in an interview with the Sunday Independent.

The Vatican embassy closure provoked a political reaction, particularly among Fine Gael backbenchers, and was the subject of a heated debate at the Labour Party conference last weekend.

But in the end, the delegates voted to back Mr Gilmore’s decision, which was made in his capacity as Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Defending his decision, Mr Gilmore said last week: “We had a small diplomatic service, much smaller than most countries of our size.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Sunday Independent

Sunday April 22 2012

A meeting between Catholic hierarchy and Co Tyrone parishioners about a gay porn controversy has had an “inconclusive” outcome, the Catholic Communications Office said yesterday.

The office also said there would be no further comment from the hierarchy about the circumstances surrounding the accidental display of male homosexual pornographic images during a power-point display at St Mary’s Primary School in Pomeroy last month.

The parish priest, Fr Martin McVeigh, who is on voluntary “temporary” leave, has denied any knowledge of the images, which were contained on a memory stick he had been using as a display aide to a talk on Communion.

An audience of 26 parents, teachers and an eight-year-old boy were present when 16 separate images were displayed by the projector.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish Sun

By RYAN MILLER

PARENTS were furious when they were told a priest who accidentally showed gay porn images at a school would KEEP his job.

Catholic church officials held a meeting with locals in Pomeroy, Co Tyrone, on Friday night.

A statement was read out, acquitting parish priest Fr Martin McVeigh of wrongdoing — but it was withdrawn after the meeting.

Many parishioners were unhappy after hearing the statement, which is understood to have said there was NO evidence against the priest.

An Archdiocese spokesman said matters had proved “inconclusive”.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Sunday, April 22, 2012 by
Ariadne Massa

Listening to the news bulletin describing how a defrocked priest was cleared of rape over a technicality, his victim felt a numb pain squeezing him inside.

But while the ruling sparked outrage online, LC, who only feels safe going by his initials, is devoid of anger.

“I never thought I’d see my case on the news. The hurt remains, and every day is a challenge not to let anger reign. Who knows what I’ll do if I let anger take over; I don’t want to go there,” the 34-year-old told The Sunday Times following Wednesday’s court decision.

LC was the only boy to be raped from the 11 who were abused by priests in Sta Venera’s St Joseph Home. However, the rape charge against Godwin Scerri, who has since been defrocked, collapsed because of a mistake on the charge sheet over where the abuse took place.

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CALIFORNIA
Irish Central

By
DARA KELLY,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, April 22, 2012

A $3,75 million settlement has been reached in the case of an Irish priest found liable in a civil case of child abuse in California.

A civil jury in Stockton, Southern California, found Fr. Michael Kelly, a Tipperary native, liable for molesting a young boy.

The Diocese of Stockton has now agreed to pay the victim and his legal representation $3.75 million.

“This 4 ½ years of litigation and 10-week trial has been the most difficult experience of my life, but I feel I have received justice today, not for me, but for that 10-year old boy who Fr. Kelly hurt so badly,” said the victim, now in his 30s, in a statement after the settlement was reached, according to FOX40 News.

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By Joan Vennochi
Globe Columnist
April 22, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI can’t wait to crack down on “radical feminist” nuns.

But will he ever really crack down on protectors of pedophile priests?

A Vatican-led investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious cites the nuns’ silence on abortion and same-sex marriage. How bad is that up against the silence of church officials, from parish priests to the Vatican, who ignored and concealed child sex crimes?

By ironic coincidence, news about the Vatican’s effort to rein in the conference — the largest and most influential group of Catholic nuns in the United States — broke the same day the Rev. Bradley M. Schaeffer resigned from the Boston College Board of Trustees after growing public criticism over the role he played in supervising a former Jesuit priest who allegedly molested dozens of children over a span of 40 years.

The juxtaposition of the two events exposes a familiar church mindset.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By JEROME REILLY

Sunday April 22 2012

[read the story]

The Communications Office of the Irish bishops has demanded a full apology and retraction from radio presenter Ray D’Arcy after he told listeners “the Catholic Church, in many ways, has fucked up this country”.

D’Arcy, regarded as Ireland’s most successful independent broadcaster, made the comments live on air during a review of the morning newspapers — a regular segment on his Today FM show which boasts 245,000 listeners.

Catholic communications chief Martin Long has demanded that the station and presenter retract the “insulting” and “offensive” comment on air tomorrow.

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UNITED STATES
Philadelphia Inquirer

Monica Yant Kinney, Inquirer Columnist

Last week, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his 85th birthday by issuing a rebuke of an unlikely foe:

Nuns.

Following a bizarre three-year inquisition of American sisters’ “quality of life,” the Vatican slammed nuns for devoting their lives to educating the poor, treating the sick, and feeding the ravenous. Women religious are “charitable,” but all this social-justice work has fostered a “radical feminism” the pope wants to tamp out, ASAP.

The Vatican says the sisters sinned by supporting President Obama’s health-care plan and helping homosexuals. But nuns are also guilty of staying too “silent” on issues like abortion.

You can read the eight-page “doctrinal assessment” (http://bit.ly/JamGHa), but I’ll summarize the conclusion: Nuns need to remember their place and obey the men who run the church.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

Celebrations for Pope Benedict’s 85th birthday and the 7th anniversary of his election to the papacy have now come to their end. The people of Bavaria will continue their celebrations, as many were not able to come to Rome. As the eighth year of the Pope’s pontificate begins, we believe it proper to wish the Pope all the best. …

It is our hope that dissenting groups will hear his invitation to be in communion with the Church and receive this invitation with respect and attention, and with an understanding of its significance. We hope also that the journey towards renewal of the Church in Ireland, following an apostolic visitation to that country, will continue and intensify after the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin; and that, following the sexual abuse crisis, the Church may offer a genuine service for all society in the protection of children, with the commitment of the various Episcopal conferences, through healing, purification, and prevention.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

April 22, 2012
Opinion

Paul Daley

Few countries are much good at exploring their darker sides. We wait for ugly boils to surface and lance them in the hope they won’t recur, long before we look for the causes.

The great social injustices of Australia’s recent past fit awkwardly with the way we’d define ourselves as a nation. We have found that definition in Anzac because the legend – of the supposedly egalitarian digger and of endurance – is an easily adaptable metaphor to our sport, the arts and politics.

Many historians and social observers in the 1960s and ’70s predicted the Anzac myth and legend would decline in cultural influence as the men of the 1st Australian Imperial Force became extinct. But the reverse may actually have happened as they become more idealised.

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UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

By Steve Lopez

April 21, 2012

In Philadelphia last week, a child sex-abuse trial involving Catholic clergy led to a bombshell — a bishop from West Virginia was accused of abuse.

In Kansas City, a Catholic bishop goes on trial in September, accused of failing to report suspected child abuse.

So who’s in trouble with the Vatican?

Nuns.

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COLORADO
Gazette

April 21, 2012

WAYNE LAUGESEN
FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD

The Joshua Carrier saga is the latest reminder that safety in our public schools is woefully inadequate. It is past time that Congress, the president, the U.S. Department of Education and school boards devise a plan to protect our kids.

For a blueprint, they should start by looking to the Catholic Church in the United States.

Carrier, a former cop who worked in public schools, had been charged with 186 sexual assault charges involving children. He was acquitted on 36 assault counts and the jury deadlocked on 150 others, for which Carrier may be tried again. Jurors convicted him on 21 counts of child pornography, which alone could land him up to 36 years in prison.

Stories of sexual assaults in public schools have become routine. Anyone interested in the scope of the problem in Colorado should simply log onto Google and conduct this search: “Colorado teacher sexual assault.” Or simply watch the news each night and see how many days go by before a story pops up about a teacher facing charges of sexual impropriety with a student. It is epidemic.

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IDAHO
Idaho Press-Tribune

By MIKE BUTTS mbutts@idahopress.com

TREASURE VALLEY — Shocking stories about child sexual abuse at the hands of youth service professionals made national headlines in recent months.

The stories left people wondering how such incidents can happen with trusted adults.

The fact is sexual abuse of children is so prevalent that the “Enough Abuse Campaign” of Massachusetts claims “each of us probably knows someone who has been victimized or who has abused.”

Officials with the campaign call child sex abuse a “silent and violent epidemic.”

Child advocates in the Treasure Valley say knowledge, procedures and attitudes about child sexual abuse can go a long way toward protecting kids from assaults that can leave them with life-long emotional scars.

When a child is sexually abused, its impact is so strong it damages the entire community, Idaho Children’s Trust Fund Program Developer Wickes MacColl said.

Part of the challenge of preventing child sex abuse comes from the low incidents of reporting of the crime and the stigma associated with it. Victims are threatened by offenders not to report incidents and adults are reluctant to report suspicions because of fear of false accusations. The topic is often not brought up between parents and children.

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OREGON
Statesman-Journal

Sixty-seven percent of sexual abuse victims are children under age 18. About 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before they turn 18.

The statistics are alarming.

Even more alarming is the fact that nearly 90 percent of the time, the abuser is not a stranger.

“It’s almost always someone they know, love or trust,” said Debbie Joa, Prevention and Protection Coordinator for the Salem-Keizer School District.

A family member, a close relative, a neighbor, a pastor, a scout leader, a coach or a teacher, anyone could violate that trust. We have seen the headlines across the country over the years, from widespread abuse by priests in the Catholic church to high-profile charges against a former assistant football coach at Penn State University.

Now closer to home and fresh on all our minds are the recent arrests of five Mid-Willamette Valley teachers — all within a span of less than two weeks — on sexual abuse charges. One of the teachers is from Sprague High School.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ASSOCIATED PRESS | Posted: Sunday, April 22, 2012

KANSAS CITY • A group that supports victims of sexual abuse will have to turn over decades of records to lawyers representing priests in the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, but the type of information that must be released will be limited, a Jackson County judge has decided.

Attorneys for the diocese sought records stretching back more than 20 years from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in an effort to determine whether SNAP has been coaching victims and plaintiffs to say they repressed memories of abuse for years.

SNAP has strongly denied coaching victims.

If defense lawyers can prove that the plaintiffs did not actually suppress memories of sexual abuse for decades, judges would have to throw out the lawsuits under a five-year statute of limitations that the Missouri Supreme Court reaffirmed in 2006, The Kansas City Star reported.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin and Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writers

Six years have passed since Stanley Gana was ousted from the priesthood over child-sex abuse claims, and another decade since he was removed as a pastor by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Yet prosecutors at the conspiracy and endangerment case against two Philadelphia priests spent much of last week telling jurors about the 69-year-old defrocked cleric.

As the landmark trial reached its midway point, Gana, who was left in ministry despite claims he raped multiple boys, represented a centerpiece of sorts.

His was a textbook example, prosecutors say, of how the archdiocese and its former secretary for clergy, Msgr. William J. Lynn, cared more about protecting the institution than abuse victims.

It also served as a backdrop for the most stunning revelation in the trial’s first month: Allegations from two witnesses and a prosecutor that a sitting prelate, Bishop Michael Bransfield of West Virginia, may have known about sexual misconduct by Gana or abused minors himself.

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MALTA
The Malta Independent

by Francesca Vella

Article published on 22 April 2012

As the Attorney General lost an appeal relating to a defrocked priest having been cleared of rape due to a mistake in the charge sheet, the Justice Ministry insisted that correcting the charge sheet “at an advanced stage of the case” would have been too risky because it could have led to the case being time-barred and dropped altogether.

A few days ago, the Opposition’s spokesmen for justice and home affairs, José Herrera and Michael Falzon, said the mistake in the charge sheet could have been revised when there was the opportunity to do so. They also said then Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici should assume political responsibility for the lack of investment in the Office of the Attorney General, which deals with prosecutions among other things.

The Justice Ministry said however, that the matter has nothing to do with the number of people employed at the AG’s Office, and Dr Herrera and Dr Falzon’s declaration about political responsibility shows that the PL believes there could be some form of political interference in the AG’s office.

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CALIFORNIA
Digital Journal

April 22, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ — Two recent California child sexual abuse cases ruled upon by the Supreme Court of California looked at violations of trust in two distinct institutional settings: sex abuse by clergy and sex abuse by teachers. One case was decided in favor of the student plaintiff, while the other decision set back an action brought by a group of former parishioners.

The cases looked at two issues common to civil actions against schools and churches: to what extent an institution can be held liable for the actions of employees, and the statute of limitations for sex abuse lawsuits brought by adults for harm they suffered as children. They also underscore one common aspect of these cases: people who suffered molestation or other abuse at the hands of adults sometimes have to exhaust their legal options in pursuit of justice. …

Statutes of Limitations for Sex Abuse Claims Against Clergy

Just three weeks later, the California Supreme Court again weighed in on an important child sexual abuse issue in Quarry v. Doe. In that case, a group of six brothers sued the Roman Catholic Bishop of Oakland, alleging negligence in allowing a priest to commit acts of sexual abuse against them when they were children.

The men alleged that they had all been sexually abused and molested by an associate pastor while they were altar boys at the St. Joachim parish in Hayward, California, during 1972 and 1973. In a deposition for another church sex abuse case, the priest had admitted to sexually abusing the brothers.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Sun Chronicle

Let’s talk about sexual abuse of children.

You’d rather not, you say? It’s too sensitive an issue, too hard to talk about.

How about when you talked with your own children about it. Was it difficult then?

You never did talk to the kids about it? Oh…

April is Child Sexual Abuse Protection Month. Newspapers often participate in such promotions by promoting a community-wide dialog. But, as alluded to above, as deeply as the community obviously cares about the safety of children, child sex abuse is not a conversation starter. That’s not to suggest that Sun Chronicle readers haven’t talked about child sex abuse. Twenty years ago next month when it came to light that James R. Porter, a defrocked priest, had sexually abused dozens of youngsters while assigned to North Attleboro in the early 1960s. Many other incidents, though less notorious, have made headlines in the interim. Indeed, we observe regretfully that child sex abuse has never been far from the headlines – just a little over a week ago our front page reported 32 Massachusetts men, including two area residents, had been arrested in a crackdown on an Internet child pornography ring.

The anger following these incidents is palpable. It usually results in pressure on child service and law and order agencies to do something about it. And when the anger passes, the average citizen is no better prepared to talk about child sex abuse than before – what questions, for instance, to ask a child who you might suspect is being abused, or how to talk to your own children about their dealings with adults.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
U-T San Diego

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

11:16 a.m., April 21, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — Graphic testimony in a Philadelphia clergy-abuse trial this month has ripped open secret church files and reopened old wounds among Catholics as scarred men and women tell jurors that priests groped, molested or raped them as teens.

The testimony has proven both painful and poignant, especially that of a 48-year-old man who said he had been in love with his parish priest during a five-year sexual relationship that began in ninth grade – and jealous when the priest allegedly bedded down at his farmhouse with other teens.

The stories have been told before, in two Philadelphia grand jury reports and in lawsuits filed around the country.
.

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UNITED STATES
The Huffington Post

By Alana Horowitz

The head of a Catholic lobbying group is fighting back against criticism from the Vatican.

“I’ve no idea what they’re talking about,” said Sister Simone Campbell told the BBC. “Our role is to live the gospel with those who live on the margins of our society: the hungry, the poor, the ill. That’s all we do.”

Campbell was responding to charges that her group, NETWORK, is engaging “corporate dissent.” The Vatican ordered an investigation of U.S. nun group Leadership Conference of Women Religious and its ties to NETWORK, who supported President Obama’s health care reform push. The Vatican accused the Leadership Conference of promoting “certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

Campbell told the AP that she believes the link between the crackdown and the health care reform support is clear.

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SCHWEIZ
Aargauer Zeitung

Am Dienstag hatte B.S. bei der Lancierung der Initiative «Schutz vor Sexualisierung in Kindergarten und Primarschule» seinen grossen Auftritt, gestern trat er aus dem Komitee zurück. Grund: Er sass wegen sexuellen Handlungen mit Minderjährigen. von Pascale Hofmeier und Benno Tuchschmid

Es sind happige Vorwürfe, die eine besorgte Mutter von zwei Kindern erhebt: Wegen Kinderschändung sei B. S. 1996 zu mehreren Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. S. ist einer der Gründer und Präsident des Basler Elternkomitees, das den Einsatz des Basler Sexkoffers und den Sexualkundeunterricht in Kindergarten und Primarschule bekämpft und auf Bundesebene die Volksinitiative «gegen die Sexualisierung von Kindergarten und Primarschule» initiiert hat. Die Unterschriftensammlung wurde diese Woche lanciert. B. S. ist auch Mitglied des Initiativkomitees. Besser gesagt: Er war dort Mitglied.

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SCHWEIZ
NZZ

Die Promotoren der Volksinitiative gegen Sexualkundeunterricht für Kinder unter neun Jahren haben einen schlechten Start erwischt. Der Co-Präsident des Komitees war im Jahre 1996 wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs verurteilt worden. Nun trat er aus dem Initiativkomitee zurück.

dgy. «Der Angeklagte hat das Vertrauen des Opfers und sein Bedürfnis nach Nestwärme jahrelang in einer Art und Weise ausgenützt, die degoutant ist», fasste der Präsident der ersten Baselbieter Strafkammer nach dem zweitägigen Prozess gemäss Medienberichterstattung zusammen. Die Worte galten einem Mann, der eine Cousine seiner damaligen Freundin zwischen dem 12. und 15. Altersjahr immer wieder zum Geschlechtsverkehr missbraucht hatte. Er wurde deswegen am 26. September 1996 zu dreieinhalb Jahren Zuchthaus verurteilt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kreuz

Der Kriechbischof war erst geheilt, als ihn einer von den kirchenfeindlichen Mißbrauchs-Wahnsinnigen ins Gesicht spuckte.

(kreuz.net) Das ‘Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests’ ist eine US-Lobbygruppe für angebliche Opfer von Mißbräuchen im kirchlichen Raum.

„Diese Gruppierung ist niederträchtig, irreführend und unehrlich“ – erklärte der Buchautor Dave Pierre am 5. Januar vor dem US-Magazin ‘Catholic World Report’.

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DEUTSCHLAND
innsalzach

Waldkraiburg – Wie konnte es passieren, dass in einem Klosterinternat jahrzehntelang Schüler misshandelt und missbraucht wurden, ohne dass jemand etwas unternahm? Gibt es ein System dahinter?

Das sind die Fragen, die Rainer Stadler in einer Lesung aus dem Buch “Bruder, was hast du getan?” am 23. April in Waldkraiburg beantworten möchte.

Zusammen mit seinem Kollegen Bastian Obermayer recherchierte der Journalist mehr als ein Jahr zu den Vorwürfen gegen das Internat Ettal. Gegen anfänglichen Widerstand des Klosters setzten sie durch Gespräche mit über 60 ehemaligen Schülern nach und nach ein Gesamtbild zusammen. Eines, in dem Gewalt an der Tagesordnung ist, unter Erziehern und Schülern wie auch unter Schülern. Und wo Mönche, die sich an Kindern vergehen, keine Konsequenzen zu fürchten haben.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Leopold Federmair, 20. April 2012

Müssen wir denn kämpfen? Brauchen wir den Widerstand? Ich gestehe, Mutter, ich bin missbraucht worden. Meine Erfahrungen mit Klosterbrüdern und dem schwulen Fußballtrainer

Warum nicht ich? Diese Frage stelle ich mir im Nachhinein, Jahrzehnte später, jetzt, wo alle von dem reden, worüber jahrzehntelang niemand zu reden wagte, auch nicht die Opfer, die Geschädigten oder die, die im Nachhinein einen Grund dafür finden, warum es ihnen im Leben schlecht ergeht. Der Mönch, der sie im Kindesalter missbraucht hat, ist schuld. Da ist ihnen unverhofft eine Erklärung zugeflogen, die immer in Reichweite war.

Ich bin nicht missbraucht worden. Warum nicht? – Ja, hätte dir das denn gefallen? Auch die Gegenfrage muss ich mir stellen, auf die weiß ich sogar eine Antwort (aus Schaden wird man klug): Nein, das hätte mir nicht gefallen. Der alte Mann, den alle aus Scham, oder weil es die Rechtsprechungsgepflogenheiten so wollen, Pater A. nennen, leitete damals den Knabenchor, und ich hätte in diesem Chor gern mitgesungen. Der Pater, auch als Musiklehrer tätig, nahm mich nicht auf, obwohl ich, wenn ich mir alte Fotos ansehe, doch ein hübscher Junge mit weichen Zügen war: genau die Art, die nach dem Geschmack von Pädophilen vom Schlage des Paters sind.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Voice from the Desert

The Hunger Strike for Justice that began March 25, 2012 in Boston was temporarily suspended on Thursday, April 19, 2012, after the Jesuit province in New England, located in Boston, indicated a willingness to resolve this. This occurred on the morning of the 26th day of the Hunger Strike.

The Jesuit province in New England is a separate legal entity from the College of the Holy Cross and the Archdiocese of Boston, who share responsibility with the Jesuit province for egregious errors of oversight and supervision that took place, and who lied to the victim of clergy sexual abuse.

The victim decided to suspend the hunger strike temporarily through next Tuesday, April 24, to give the province time to clarify its response and to see if the other parties are going to resolve this too.

As media in Boston recently pointed out, Jesuits are VERY slow to hold themselves responsible in any situation, so the victim in this case has already made plans for resuming the Hunger Strike on Wednesday after giving the Jesuits a week to hold themselves accountable.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

A priest who has been under investigation since indecent images were shown during a meeting at a primary school in Co Tyrone has taken temporary leave of absence.

Parents met representatives of the Archdiocese of Armagh in Pomeroy last night to discuss their concerns after indecent images were inadvertantly shown at a local primary school three weeks ago.

In a statement, the Archdiocese of Armagh said the outcome of the meeting was “inconclusive”, and that a further meeting would take place in the future.

An investigation was launched after pornographic pictures were displayed during a meeting for parents who were preparing their families for First Communion at St Mary’s Primary School.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CNN

By Sarah Hoye, CNN

Philadelphia (CNN) – It’s been four weeks since the beginning of the trial of the highest ranking U.S. Catholic Church leader charged with covering up the crimes of priests against children.

The main issue is not whether sex abuse occurred, as defense attorneys have pointed out, but how the Archdiocese of Philadelphia – Monsignor William Lynn in particular – handled the allegations against priests in the diocese.

The trial against Lynn and the alleged offending priest, the Rev. James Brennan, has already created a shake-up in Philadelphia’s Catholic leadership, according to Catholic commentator and blogger Rocco Palmo.

“It’s a shift you see once in 200 years,” Palmo told CNN.

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UNITED STATES
Vatican Insider

In Cleveland, Ohio, an unprecedented case has erupted, pitting parishes against the bishop

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

In U.S. states with a traditionally strong Catholic presence, many parishes are starting to close. The Diocese of Cleveland has suppressed 29, while 41 others are being merged. The paedophile priest scandal is obviously not extraneous to this phenomenon.

We might almost say it is a “job security crisis” in the sacristy. To stem the crisis of vocations, prelate Richard G. Lennon is restructuring his dioceses and amalgamating parishes – but the priests who have been removed and reassigned are rebelling with an appeal to the Holy See. In Cleveland, Ohio, an unprecedented case has erupted. Three of the 29 priests whose parishes were suppressed (and their churches closed) by Diocesan Bishop Lennon have appealed to the Congregation for the Clergy for the immediate restoration of the parishes and the re-opening of churches for worship. Throughout the Rust Belt (a manufacturing area in the Northeast U.S.) and in the inland towns toward the Midwest, Catholic communities are lamenting the closing of parishes.

This is a five-year trend that has now reached Cleveland. Bishop Richard G. Lennon, head of the Cleveland diocese (which includes more than 750,000 Catholics), has closed 29 parishes and merged 41 others. The restructuring plan actually cut 52 parishes out of a total of 224. But lean times are not over for American churches. Over the past few years the dioceses of Chicago, Detroit, and Boston have closed or aggregated dozens of parishes, in some cases to alleviate the financial difficulties caused by the paedophilia scandal. And now it’s New York: the archdiocese of the Big Apple announced that it will lock up 31 churches and 14 schools, clearing the way for the most extensive reorganization in the last 150 years.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Breaking News

The Catholic Church is describing as “inconclusive”, a meeting last night between parents in the Parish of Pomeroy in Co. Tyrone and representatives of the Archdiocese of Armagh, to discuss an incident involving a local priest last month.

The meeting was called after indecent images were projected onto a screen during a power-point presentation that Father McVeigh was giving at a meeting for parents in preparation for First Holy Communion.

Father Martin McVeigh, who was granted temporary leave by Cardinal Seán Brady at his own request, said he had no knowledge of the images.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

The Catholic Church says the outcome of a meeting in Pomeroy to discuss the investigation into the conduct of a parish priest, who accidentally showed gay porn at a primary school meeting, was ‘inconclusive’.

Father Martin McVeigh is under investigation after around 16 pornographic images were shown at a public meeting during a Powerpoint presentation at St Mary’s School last month.

He was hosting the presentation at the school when the pictures, which had been stored on a memory stick, were shown to 26 parents and an eight-year-old child attending the event.

Parents from the school met with representatives from the Archdiocese of Armagh on Friday night.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Alexi Friedman/The Star-Ledger

CHATHAM BOROUGH — The Rev. Edward Hinds was a spiritual leader and counselor, a compassionate and forgiving man, and in the end a martyr, friends, relatives and the Morris County prosecutor said yesterday at the sentencing of the former church custodian who killed him.

After more than an hour of dramatic words from those who knew and loved the longtime Chatham church pastor, a judge in Morristown ordered that Jose Feliciano, 66, spend the rest of his life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Judith Ann Conk, who with her husband, Richard, knew Hinds for 40 years, found no solace in the life sentence. There is only solitude and grief over the pastor’s death, she said.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
U-T San Diego

Written by
Greg Moran

SAN DIEGO — A Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to three years of probation Friday by a San Diego Superior Court judge after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge for groping a woman who was visiting him in December.

Jose Alexis Davila, 53, was also ordered to complete 150 hours of community service and have no contact with the 20-year-old victim.

He will also have to pay a fine of $200.

He is a priest at St. Jude’s Shrine of the West in San Diego’s Southcrest neighborhood.

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STOCKTON (CA)
AlterNet

Joey Piscitelli

STOCKTON, CA –
On Friday morning, the Stockton Diocese settled a lawsuit against Fr. Michael Kelly, for 3.7 million, according to the spokesman for the Diocese. Fr. Kelly was found liable last week for a child sex abuse case, and he fled to Ireland this week. This case was a highly disputed case, and many supporters of the priest were very vocal during the last month about their belief that the current Pastor of St. Joachims, in Lockeford, was not only innocent; but he was a target of a plaintiff who had “false memorys” and was fabricating a tale for money.

The case will have a far reaching impact, as it was a case of highly disputed “repressed memory”, claimed by the victim, Z7 John Doe, represented by attorney John Manly.

Fr. Kelly had sent a letter to Bishop Blaire of Stockton a few days ago, complaining that he had stomach problems because of the trial, and he disappeared shortly afterwords. Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was the Bishop of the Diocese of Stockton at the time of the abuse 25 years ago, was expected to take the stand this week, and the church apparently was doing some damage control, before Cardinal Mahony was due to testify. Mahony had been suspected of shuffling Fr. Kelly in the Diocese, and the accusation, if proven in court, would have been devastating to the church. Mahony had previously been accused of transporting infamous serial molester Fr. Oliver O’Grady in the same diocese, and a past lawsuit accusing Mahony and the diocese for the same activity had resulted in a 30 million dollar court judgment the diocese.

This case may very well affect similar cases in California and other states, as it will set a precedent for jury trial decisions in repressed memory claims of child sex abuse. The jury had decided by unanimous decision in favor of the plaintiff in the case, and this fact can additionally influence public opinion on the subject.

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UNITED STATES
Toledo Blade

BLADE STAFF

NEW YORK — An advocacy group for victims of clerical sexual abuse has filed supplemental documents with the International Criminal Court in The Hague in support of its claim that Vatican officials and bishops deliberately covered up for priests who molested children.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said the new allegations arose after nearly 500 victims, witnesses, and whistleblowers from 65 countries contacted the organization after it filed the complaint with the court in September.

In addition to the new documentation, attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing SNAP, told the court prosecutor that it believes Catholic leaders in the United States were making orchestrated legal efforts to retaliate against SNAP for filing the complaint.

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WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer

By JOHN McCABE
Managing Editor

WHEELING – Monsignor Kevin Quirk, an aide to the Most Rev. Michael J. Bransfield, bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, will testify in the clergy sex abuse trial currently under way in Philadelphia, a judge has ruled.

Ohio County Circuit Judge Ronald Wilson issued the four-page ruling late Thursday. He said Quirk “is a material witness and that his live testimony at this trial, where he will be subject to direct and cross examination, is essential to ascertaining the truth.”

Wheeling attorney William Kolibash, who is representing Quirk, confirmed his client will now testify in the case of the Rev. James Brennan, who’s on trial in Philadelphia for an alleged 1996 child-sex assault. Brennan has denied those charges.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Kevin Manahan/The Star-Ledger

MORRIS TOWNSHIP — Rev. Luke Travers, the former headmaster of Delbarton School in Morris Township and target of a string of sexual misconduct allegations over the past year, has left St. Mary’s Abbey, which has severed official ties with him, according to a terse statement released today by Abbot Giles P. Hayes.

In a two-sentence statement, Hayes — who oversees the abbey and the all-boys private school — said Travers has “separated himself” from the abbey. Hayes directed any inquiries regarding Travers to his attorney.

Several messages left for the Morristown attorney, Gerard Hanlon, were not returned tonight.

After releasing the statement, Hayes refused to answer additional questions. Abbey spokesman Anthony Cicatiello said inquiries about Travers’ status as a monk “are personal and need to be answered by him.”

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FLORIDA
NBC Miami

By Karen Franklin
Friday, Apr 20, 2012

A Fort Lauderdale youth pastor accused of having sex with several underage boys appeared in bond court Friday on six new charges.

Jeffery London, 48, was held on no bond for four new sexual assault charges and was granted $15,000 bond for sexual battery and lewd and lascivious conduct charges, according to online jail records. He is facing a total of 36 counts, including sexual assault and sexual battery, and remains in custody in the Paul Rein Detention Facility.

Prosecutors asked that the judge issue new no-contact orders between London and the two new reported victims.

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FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

Two more people have accused a former Fort Lauderdale pastor of molesting them, according to a Broward Sheriff’s Office report.

The new charges against Jeffery London, 48, include four counts of sexual battery on a child, sexual battery and lewd or lascivious battery. This brings the number of accusers to eight.

One person, now 19, told detectives Thursday that London molested him in Coral Springs five years ago, the Sheriff’s Office said. According to the police report, London offered him a cellphone and clothing in exchange for oral sex. He had the teenager sleep in his bed and performed a sexual act on him, the report said.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

BREDA O’BRIEN

The clergy can embrace sincere questioning but not to the point of killing core beliefs

ODDLY, BERTRAND Russell, who once declared religion to be “a disease born of fear and a source of untold misery to the human race”, might have some wisdom to offer in the current Catholic debate about “silencing” and the legitimate uses of authority.

He said every community faces two dangers. The first is ossification, through too much discipline and reverence for tradition. The second is dissolution, when growth of individualism makes co-operation impossible.

I know many of the men associated with the Association of Catholic Priests. Some of them are my friends. I admire Fr Seán McDonagh immensely for his work on environmental issues. Fr Bobby Gilmore has worked very hard for the rights of migrants, and before that, for justice for the Birmingham Six.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Claire O’Sullivan

Saturday, April 21, 2012

A lay religious group will hold a silent vigil outside the residence of the papal nuncio in protest at the silencing of four liberal priests.

Participants are being encouraged to wear gags as a symbol of protest outside the Apostolic Nunciature in Dublin, on Sunday week.

It was revealed recently that Fr Tony Flannery, a founder of the Association of Catholic Priests, was ordered by Rome to discontinue writing for the Redemptorists’ magazine.

His editor, Fr Gerry Moloney, was also warned not to publish any content that ran contrary to church teachings.

Two years ago, Fr Owen O’Sullivan, a Capuchin, and Fr Sean Fagan, a Marist, were also silenced for controversial writing.

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UNITED STATES
Commonweal

Posted by Mollie Wilson O’Reilly

The CDF’s “Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious” is, in my reading, rather short on evidence of the LCWR’s urgent need for reform. One of the few concrete examples given is a keynote address (pdf) delivered by Laurie Brink, OP, at the 2007 LCWR assembly:

The Cardinal [William Levada] offered as an example specific passages of Sr. Laurie Brink’s address about some Religious “moving beyond the Church” or even beyond Jesus. This is a challenge not only to core Catholic beliefs; such a rejection of faith is also a serious source of scandal and is incompatible with religious life. Such unacceptable positions routinely go unchallenged by the LCWR…

Was Sr. Brink rejecting core Catholic beliefs in her address? The Elizabeth Johnson affair has made me skeptical of such claims, so I decided I ought to read her talk for myself.

The subject of Sr. Brink’s address was the various ways congregations of women religious might confront their futures. After each section, there is an invitation for the sisters present to discuss the points raised among themselves, and I must say, reading it, I felt like I was eavesdropping. It wasn’t addressed to me, and their discussions should not be constrained by what outside observers might take out of context. But now that the CDF has made it a matter of general interest, I’m glad I read it. I found that the section referred to above was not at all what the CDF’s description led me to expect. I also found that the rest of the address was relevant to the CDF’s concerns in a number of suprising ways.

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VATICAN CITY
AGI

(AGI) Vatican City – The Church has created a child protection service to combat paedophilia. Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, in a statement broadcast by Vatican Radio, explained: “The healing of wounds, purification and prevention after the sex abuse crisis needs to be consolidated throughout the Church with the commitment of the various bishops’ conferences, in order to become a true service for the whole of society for the protection of minors.” The spokesman added: “We hope that the process of renewal of the Church in Ireland after the Apostolic Visit continues and is strengthened thanks to the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. . .

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

The Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, DC, Donald W. Wuerl is in Rome this week at the head of a delegation from the Papal Foundation – a US lay organization that supports the charitable works of the Holy Father. As part of their visit to Rome this week, Cardinal Wuerl and several delegates from the Foundation toured the Institute for the Works of Religion – the IOR. Philippa Hitchen asked Cardinal Wuerl about the reasons for his visit and especially to discuss the ongoing efforts to ensure transparency in line with international banking norms and procedures.

Below is a transciption of Cardinal Wuerl’s interview with Philippa Hitchen.

CW “Well we were invited to come and learn first hand directly from the people responsible for the Institute, how it functions and how it carries out its activities. And so, we were very pleased to have the board of the Papal Foundation have this experience and we spent two hours this morning reviewing with the leadership of the Institute what it does and how it does it. It was clearly an effort to be as transparent as possible with how this Institute that cares for funds to carry out the works of religion actually goes about its business. I found it to be a very reassuring thing as did the members of our, our board who were there, manyof whom are people who are deeply engaged in finance, they know the world of finance, they know the world of accountability and book keeping and they told me they were quite impressed with the whole procedure.”

PH So what kind of assurances did you receive that the IOR is really is committed to compliance with international norms because as you know there have been accusations of a lack of transparency in the past?

CW “One of the things that struck me as most convincing was the fact that they have outside auditors, they have just like we in the Church in the United States use outside auditing firms to come in and take a look at what we’re doing and then report on how well it complies with the regulations. Well, they do the same thing at the Institute, they’ve had on the level of just book keeping analysis and on the level of procedural analysis, they’ve had outside firms come in examine them and say you’re in complete compliance. They’ve also asked the entities that have the oversight on the part of international institutions to do the same thing and they were pointing out to us today that they have gotten a clean bill of the health every time they’ve asked for outside auditing.”

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

Bronwyn Pike
April 21, 2012
Opinion

FOR many years, religious organisations have grappled with the need to improve the ways they deal with abusive behaviour by their own clergy. In my previous role as director of social justice in the Uniting Church during the 1990s, I worked with my colleagues to develop sexual abuse complaints procedures. In that task I gained an appreciation of just how challenging and complex this issue can be.

The inquiry announced this week into sexual abuse by clergy and community leaders provides a timely opportunity to heal historical wounds and ensure children are safer. However, unless the inquiry is informed by a deep understanding of the unique culture and doctrines of religious organisations, it may do more damage than good.

Most people are genuinely bewildered at the churches’ apparent inability to confront the systemic sexual abuse of children by priests and other religious leaders. In the face of overwhelming evidence and public dismay, the churches appear paralysed and insensitive to public sentiment by insisting on ”in-house” solutions that fail to meet the test that justice be done and be seen to be done. The reasons for this are complex and go to the very nature and theological basis of the churches.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

April 21, 2012

Editorial

By now, the story of predator priests in the Roman Catholic Church and the young victims they sexually abused is so sadly familiar that it’s hard to shock people. But fresh details are still cause for outrage, especially when they loop back to Boston and raise new questions about accountability.

As reported recently by the Globe, the Rev. Bradley M. Schaeffer was the leader of the Jesuits in the Chicago area when an anguished father came to him in 1993 with concerns about an inappropriate relationship between the charismatic retreat leader Donald J. McGuire and the man’s young son. Schaeffer never investigated the complaint or contacted police. Instead, he sent McGuire for treatment of a sexual disorder, and later expressed doubts that the treatment had been effective. But he didn’t take further steps against him, except to ban him from traveling with anyone under 21.

McGuire went on to commit more offenses, and today is serving 25 years in federal prison for repeatedly molesting a 13-year-old boy in the early 2000s. Meanwhile, the Jesuits face a lawsuit for their failure to protect one of McGuire’s alleged victims. Schaeffer, who looked the other way so long ago, went on to become a member of the Boston College Board of Trustees and leads a study center for future Jesuit priests that is affiliated with BC.

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WEST VIRGINIA
GoErie

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — An aide to West Virginia’s Catholic bishop has been ordered to testify in a clergy sexual abuse trial under way in Philadelphia after a state judge declared him “a necessary and material witness.”

Ohio County Circuit Judge Ronald Wilson issued the ruling late Thursday, and Monsignor Kevin Quirk’s attorney, William Kolibash, provided it to the Associated Press on Friday.

Kolibash referred further questions to the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

“We needed to have a valid legal process, which we do now have,” the diocese said in an e-mail. “Accordingly, Monsignor Quirk will appear.”

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

Posted at: Friday, April 20, 2012
Author: Tom Beaudoin

Since June 2002 in the printed pages of America magazine and here on its blog (such as, more recently, here and here), I have tried to make occasional theological sense of the unfolding sexual/managerial abuse crisis in the U.S. Catholic Church. As someone who works in the area of practical theology, the lived experience of faith, critically and appreciatively understood, is an important consideration for me in trying to do any theological work.

Reading today’s newspaper made me wonder anew at what Catholicism is facing (or not facing). Like some other commentators, I believe that this scandal is as much about the fundamental terms of the church and theology as it is about problematic “accretions” to an otherwise unproblematic ecclesial-theological substructure.

In today’s New York Times, I read about the testimony of Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, part of the current trial in Philadelphia exploring sexual abuse and coverup at allegedly high levels of the Catholic Church there. According to news coverge, Bishop Bransfield was on the stand refuting claims that he himself was guilty of sexual abuse and that he also knew of abuse by another priest.

Of course, I don’t know what the truth is in this particular case, and as much as anyone, I hope for a fair trial and a just verdict.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

A group that supports sexual abuse victims will have to turn over decades of records to lawyers representing accused Roman Catholic priests, a Jackson County judge said Friday.

The judge agreed, however, to limit the amount of information that the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests will have to search and disclose.

The broad demand for records going back more than 20 years has drawn national attention to the case, with some accusing the Catholic Church of bullying a victim advocacy group. Others have criticized the advocacy group, known as SNAP, for demanding transparency from the church while explaining little about its own role in holding the church to account.

Among a host of issues at play in the lawsuits, defense lawyers want to know whether SNAP has been coaching victims and potential plaintiffs on the controversial topic of repressed memory.

SNAP has denied doing so. But if defense lawyers can prove that the plaintiffs did not actually repress and later remember decades-old sexual abuse, judges would have to throw out the lawsuits under a five-year statute of limitations that the Missouri Supreme Court reaffirmed in 2006.

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MONTANA
Flathead Beacon

By Molly Priddy, 04-19-12

A Kalispell priest accused of possessing child pornography pleaded not guilty during an April 19 hearing at Flathead County District Court.

The Rev. Rudolph Carl Bullman, 67, appeared before Judge Ted O. Lympus during an arraignment hearing, dressed in a red tie and gray jacket. Wendy Holton, Bullman’s Helena-based attorney, entered a not guilty plea to the charge of sexual abuse of children, a felony.

“That’s your plea, sir?” Lympus asked.

Bullman stood and replied, “Yes sir, it is.”

According to charging documents, last October a woman called the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office to report child pornography on a Nintendo DS – a handheld gaming system – she had purchased from Bullman.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer

After a week of interstate legal maneuvering, a West Virginia judge has ordered a Catholic church official in Wheeling to testify in the Philadelphia trial involving alleged sex abuse by some priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The ruling late Thursday by Ohio County Circuit Judge Ronald E. Wilson ended an impasse over a demand from Philadelphia prosecutors for live testimony from Msgr. Kevin Michael Quirk.

Philadelphia prosecutors want Quirk to testify about his questioning of the Rev. James J. Brennan at a 2008 canonical trial where Quirk was one of three church judges.

Brennan, 48, is one of two Philadelphia clerics on trial in Common Pleas Court. He is accused of trying to rape a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Record

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer

April 21, 2012

STOCKTON – The Diocese of Stockton has settled a civil lawsuit and will pay $3.75 million to a plaintiff who accused removed priest Michael Kelly of sexually molesting him.

After obtaining one of the diocese’s largest-ever individual settlements for sexual abuse, the plaintiff named in court papers as John TZ Doe identified himself as Travis Trotter.

Trotter, of Fairfax, was an altar boy at Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton under Kelly’s direction more than 20 years ago. He said he recovered memories of the abuse years later and that the emotional fallout has prevented him from working as an airline pilot.

Trotter revealed his name to encourage other abuse victims to come forward and begin the healing process, he said.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Apr. 20, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

KANSAS CITY. Mo. — A Missouri judge this afternoon (Friday) ordered the director of the leading advocacy group for victims of clergy sex abuse to give a second deposition and to turn over more documents to lawyers representing priests accused of sexual misconduct in the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese.

Lawyers representing at least four accused priests in the diocese will have access to a wide range of documents from the files of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). The judge ordered SNAP to handover nearly all its files “relating to sexual or other misconduct by priests in the diocese,” and for SNAP director David Clohessy to undergo a second deposition.

The order is yet to be officially filed but was handed down by Jackson County, Mo., Circuit Court Judge Ann Mesle following nearly four hours of arguments between lawyers this afternoon.

SNAP is not a party to the lawsuit involving a Kansas City, Mo., diocesan priest, but the case made headlines in January when the judge allowed a defense motion to depose the SNAP director and for the organization to turn over documents, including letters and emails from victims and journalists. This was the first time SNAP had been forced to testify in an abuse case in its 23-year history.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
News 10

SAN DIEGO — A Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting a young woman at his home the day before New Year’s Eve pleaded guilty Friday.

Jose Davila, 53, also known as Father Alexis, pleaded guilty to battery after being accused of engaging in “unlawful touching of an intimate part of the victim’s body.”

Davila was sentenced to three years probation, ordered to complete 150 hours of volunteer work and will have to pay a $200 fine.

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SPANJE
IPS

MALAGA

20 april 2012

De Spaanse minister van Justitie heeft aangekondigd dat er een gegevensbank komt om geroofde baby’s bij hun biologische moeder terug te brengen. Van 1975 tot 1990 zijn duizenden baby’s geroofd door een netwerk van artsen en religieuzen. In Madrid loopt nu het eerste proces in deze zaak.

De gegevensbank moet genetische profielen en laboratoriumrapporten samenbrengen, kondigde minister van Justitie Alberto Ruiz Gallardón aan. Er komt ook een werkgroep, met vertegenwoordigers van Justitie, Binnenlandse Zaken en Gezondheidszorg.

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TEXAS
Houston Press

By Craig Malisow
Fri., Apr. 20 2012

A Dallas County man is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Beaumont, and Bishop Curtis Guillory, over sexual abuse the man allegedly suffered by a now-deceased priest in 1976-1977.

Filed last week in Jefferson County District Court, the man — identified as John Doe 104 — claims that Father Ronald W. Bollich performed oral sex on the plaintiff, and requested that the plaintiff perform oral sex on him as well, when the plaintiff was in his early teens.

Bollich, who died in 1996 at age 59, was ordained by the Diocese of Galveston-Houston (now an Archdiocese) in 1964 and went to work in the Beaumont Diocese upon its 1966 founding, according to the suit. He was serving in the Tyler Diocese at the time of his death.

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STOCKTON (CA)
News 10

Written by
Paul Janes

STOCKTON, CA – The Diocese of Stockton reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit against Father Michael Kelly on claims of sexual abuse.

According to diocese spokesman Terry Davis, the diocese agreed to pay the plaintiff and his attorneys $3.75 million, $2 million of which would be paid by the diocese’s insurance.

In response to the settlement, the plaintiff agreed to dismiss his lawsuit and seek no further legal action against the diocese or Kelly, said Davis.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Sacramento Bee

Associated Press

Published: Friday, Apr. 20, 2012

STOCKTON, Calif. — The Catholic Diocese of Stockton has agreed to pay $3.75 million to settle a lawsuit by a former altar boy who said he was molested by a priest in the 1980s and church officials didn’t do enough to stop it, attorneys for the alleged victim and the diocese said Friday.

The altar boy, now in his 30s, said Michael Kelly abused him in the 1980s while Kelly was a priest at Cathedral of Annunciation in Stockton. A civil jury in the lawsuit found Kelly liable for the molestation earlier this month. Kelly was removed from the ministry and has since gone to his native Ireland, citing health problems.

The settlement was reached as the trial was in its second phase to determine whether the diocese was also at fault.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

Written by
Peggy Wright
Staff Writer

CHATHAM — A special tribute to the Rev. Edward Hinds, who was stabbed to death in 2009 in the rectory of St. Patrick’s Church, will be paid Monday at an observance of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week.

The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office is hosting a crime victims’ recognition and remembrance ceremony Monday at 6 p.m. at the church at 85 Washington Ave., Chatham, with particular focus this year on Hinds.

“We felt it appropriate to remember Father Hinds in the place that he knew and loved so well. The parish community of St. Patrick’s Church as well as the people of Chatham and Chatham Township were his family and friends,” stated an announcement of the event.

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SALINA (KS)
Salina Journal

4/20/2012
By the Salina Journal

The Rev. Allen Kent Scheer, a priest at Sacred Heart Cathedral, pleaded not guilty Friday in Saline County District Court to a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery.

His trial is set for 9 a.m. Aug. 15.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

It is understood a meeting in Pomeroy to discuss the investigation of a parish priest has been told he has been exonerated.

Father Martin McVeigh has been under investigation after indecent images were shown to a public meeting in a primary school three weeks ago.

Parents from the school met representatives from the Archdiocese of Armagh on Friday evening.

Fr McVeigh remains parish priest but is taking a temporary leave of absence.

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CHILE
Catholic News Agency

Santiago, Chile, Apr 20, 2012 / 11:15 am (CNA).- Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati of Santiago, Chile has decided to canonically disband the Priestly Union of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, led for many years by disgraced priest Father Fernando Karadima.

“We are looking forward,” Archbishop Ezzati told reporters April 16. “The past is gone, of course it has consequences for the future, but we should emphasis the dynamism that the Resurrection of the Lord and the Gospel of the Lord offer us.”

In 2011 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith found the Chilean priest guilty of sexual abuse and ordered him to retire to a life of penance and prayer. In its decree, the congregation suggested that the Priestly Union receive an apostolic visitation.

The visitation was ordered to examine the economic management of the association as well as its formation program and was carried out by Uruguayan Bishop Carlos Maria Collazi of Mercedes between December 4-8, 2011, and January 25-27, 2012.

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TEXAS
Beaumont Enterprise

A Dallas County man has filed a sexual abuse claim against the Catholic Diocese of Beaumont, alleging he was sexually abused by a priest in the late 1970s.

The plaintiff, who is identified only as John Doe 104 in the legal suit filed in a Jefferson County district court on April 12, claims the late Ronald Bollich routinely sexually assaulted him in 1976 and 1977.

Bollich was assigned to the Sacred Heart Parish in Nacogdoches, which was governed by the Beaumont Diocese, at the time of the allegations, according to the court filing.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Alexi Friedman/The Star-Ledger

CHATHAM BOROUGH — The former Chatham church custodian who in December was convicted of fatally stabbing a priest in a case that drew attention for its senselessness and unsubstantiated allegations of sexual blackmail, today was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Jose Feliciano, 66, was sitting down and looked away as Superior Court Judge Thomas Manahan imposed the sentence, which had been mandated by the jury’s verdict, before a crowded courtroom in Morristown.

A jury convicted Feliciano of murder and felony murder in the Oct. 22, 2009, attack.

Feliciano stabbed the Rev. Edward Hinds 44 times inside the rectory at St. Patrick Church in Chatham Borough, after the priest fired him, according to testimony. The courtroom today was packed with Hinds’ friends and relatives.

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SALINA (KS)
KAKE

Reporter: KAKE News
Email Address: news@kake.com

April 20, 2012

A Salina priest today pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual battery. Rev. Allen Scheer made his first court appearance in Saline County Court this afternoon.

Salina Police said Scheer was arrested for inappropriately touching another man. The Salina Diocese said Father Scheer has been placed on administrative leave.

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NEW JERSEY
WPVI

Associated Press

MORRISTOWN, N.J. – April 20, 2012 (WPVI) — A former church janitor has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of killing a New Jersey priest.

Jose Feliciano didn’t deny stabbing the Rev. Edward Hinds to death in the rectory of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Chatham in 2009.

Feliciano, who testified during his trial, was unable to persuade a jury he had killed Hinds in a fit of rage over sexual blackmail.

Feliciano, of Easton, Pa., was sentenced Friday in state superior court in Morristown.

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STOCKTON (CA)
CBS 13

STOCKTON (CBS13) – The attorneys for the rape victim of a Catholic priest who fled the country announced on Friday the Stockton Diocese has agreed to pay their client $3.75 million to settle the civil case.

Michael Kelly was found liable of sexual assault of a 10-year-old altar boy in the 1980s earlier in the civil trial and the second phase was to determine the diocese’s liability. The settlement was reached late Thursday and announced to jurors in court on Friday morning.

Kelly informed Bishop Stephen Blaire in a letter dated April 15 that he had fled to his native Ireland because of health reasons related to the trial. He also continued to maintain his innocence.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

The Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, DC, Donald W. Wuerl is in Rome this week at the head of a delegation from the Papal Foundation – a US lay organization that supports the charitable works of the Holy Father. As part of their visit to Rome this week, Cardinal Wuerl and several delegates from the Foundation toured the Institute for the Works of Religion – the IOR. Philippa Hitchen asked Cardinal Wuerl about the reasons for his visit to the “Vatican bank” – as it is commonly known – and especially to discuss the ongoing efforts to ensure transparency in line with international banking norms and procedures.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Trustees of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, which donates millions of dollars to papal charities each year, spent two hours at the Vatican bank April 20 and came away convinced that the institution’s bad press was undeserved, said Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington.

“I found it very reassuring,” the cardinal told Catholic News Service in Rome. “The effort of the Holy See to be transparent is demonstrable.”

The bank, which is formally called the Institute for the Works of Religion (known by its Italian initials, IOR), “is just that — a work of religion,” said the cardinal, who is chairman of the Papal Foundation’s board of trustees.

Having a bank allows Vatican offices, international religious orders and Catholic institutions to handle money in a variety of currencies and move resources to where they are needed, he said.

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IOWA
KCRG

By Dennis Magee, The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier

WAVERLY, Iowa — Pastor Dennis Brown of rural Eldora intends to change his plea and admit he engaged in a sex act with a 15-year-old boy, according to court documents.

Waverly police arrested Brown, 67, in July, and he was charged with third-degree sexual abuse, a Class C felony.

Brown and the boy allegedly became acquainted online through a website and arranged to meet in Waverly. The teenager’s family found out and contacted law enforcement officials, according to court records.

Brown indicated he had been pastor of a church in Grundy County for four years. He also maintained a home in Verona, Va.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — One day after a West Virginia bishop responded to sex abuse allegations in the Philadelphia clergy abuse case (see related story), another issue related to the Wheeling-Charleston diocese has been settled.

Prosecutors in the case against Father James Brennan and Monsignor William Lynn want Monsignor Kevin Quirk as a witness against defendant Father Brennan, who is charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 1996, but had suggested Quirk’s appearance was being obstructed.

Prosecutor Patrick Blessington told the court this week that Quirk, a judge at Brennan’s canonical trial, had taken statements from Brennan that were inculpatory, and that Quirk, who now reports directly to Bishop Michael Bransfield in the Wheeling-Charleston diocese, was ready and willing to appear — until he checked with the diocese and trouble began.

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WEST VIRGINIA
The Charleston Gazette

By Paul J. Nyden
The Charleston Gazette
Advertiser

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Pat Hussey and Barbara Ferraro, former Roman Catholic nuns who lived in Charleston for many years, criticized Pope Benedict XVI for launching a crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

LCWR is a group of organizations that represents 80 percent of the 55,000 Catholic nuns in the United States.

On Wednesday, Pope Benedict released a document criticizing LCWR for focusing too much on efforts to eliminate poverty and economic injustice. The Pope also attacked the group’s failures to speak out strongly against allowing women to become priests, abortion and gay marriage.

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CLEVELAND
NPR

April 20, 2012

After Bishop Richard Lennon of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese announced he was closing several churches, one parishioner took her church’s case straight to the Vatican and won. Host Michel Martin speaks with Christine La Salvia of St. James Catholic Church.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton

For Immediate Release to the Press
April 20, 2012
Contact: Sr. Terry Davis 209.466.0636
Director of Communications,
Diocese of Stockton

Statement from Bishop Stephen E. Blaire

The Diocese of Stockton has reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by Fr. Michael Kelly.

The Diocese agreed to pay the plaintiff and his attorneys $3.75 million, with $2 million of this amount being paid by the Diocese’s insurance carriers. In response, the plaintiff will dismiss his lawsuit and seek no further action against the Diocese or Fr. Kelly.

The settlement brings an end to litigation that began more than 4-1/2 years ago and that has occupied a great deal of time and focus. We respect the right of everyone to have their day in court and we abide by the decisions that were made.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Modesto Bee

[PDF: Statement from Bishop Blaire]

The Stockton Record

STOCKTON — The Diocese of Stockton has reached a settlement with the plaintiff who accused a former priest of molesting him while the two served at Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton years ago. The plaintiff, identified in court papers as John TZ Doe, said he recovered memories of the abuse only after the statute of limitations had expired, so he sued. A jury earlier this month found that Father Michael Kelly was liable for sexual molestation. Kelly, who was removed from his office by the diocese after the jury’s finding, has since left for his native Ireland. On Friday, the diocese announced that it will pay the plaintiff and his attorneys $3.75 million, bringing to a close any further litigation against the diocese or Kelly in this case.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Bilgrimage

Jerry Slevin has sent another strong statement about the situation in Philadelphia, where, as he notes, the ongoing seamy revelations in the trial of Msgr. Lynn have become more HBO than MSNBC–though as Jerry notes, the American mainstream media appear to a great extent to remain reluctant to deal with the abuse story, even as they give the U.S. Catholic bishops extensive face-time to spread talk about their “religious liberty” crusade.

The following is Jerry’s statement:

The daily revelations, as reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, coming from the Philly criminal trial of Msgr. Lynn, former top aide to Cardinal Dolan’s mentor, Cardinal Rigali, are becoming increasingly sordid and shocking, much more like HBO’s “Rome” series and Showtime’s “Borgias” series than any MSNBC or CNN news analysis.

These revelations included details of (1) a near naked children’s “Passion Play” organized by a “sick” priest, and (2) testimony under oath of two unrelated witnesses relating to some alleged sexual misconduct with young boys involving Philly native, Bishop Michael Bransfield. He is the current treasurer of Dolan’s US bishops’ group, the USCCB, as well as head of the elite US Catholic donors’ group, the Papal Foundation.

Information and details about the Papal Foundation, with pictures of its elite members, are included in the Foundation’s annual report available at the organization’s website. Videos of Bransfield’s and the group’s 2010 and 2011 annual personal meetings with the pope at the Vatican are accessible On YouTube here and here. Some of the group’s members are also involved with other wealthy US Catholic donor groups, such as LEGATUS, FADICA, the Leadership Roundtable and the Knights of Malta.

Many of the members of these groups apparently benefit from the continuance of the Bush tax cuts favoring disproportionately the top 1% of American taxpayers. The pope’s strong efforts to replace Obama with Romney are apparently well appreciated by many of these groups’ members, since the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy will likely expire if Obama wins re-election. The pope surely is aware of this.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian and John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

A West Virginia judge has ordered a Catholic church official formerly from Philadelphia to testify at the clergy sex-abuse trial now under way in the city.

The ruling late Thursday by Ohio County Circuit Judge Ronald E. Wilson ends a weeklong stalemate over testimony by Msgr. Kevin Michael Quirk.

Philadelphia prosecutors want Quirk to testify about his questioning of the Rev. James J. Brennan during a 2008 canonical trial at which Quirk served one of three church judges.

The trial is adjourned until Monday.

Brennan, 48, is one of two Philadelphia clerics on trial in Common Pleas Court; he is charged with the attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

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MISSOURI
The Turner Report

Lee Bradberry, 22, Auburn, Ala., the former Kanakuk counselor charged with six felony charges involving sex with underage boys, is free after posting $100,000 bond, according to online Taney County Circuit Court documents.

The arraignment for Bradberry, is set for May 14.

Bradberry is charged with two counts of statutory sodomy, two counts of sexual molestation and single counts of sexual misconduct and attempted statutory sodomy, all involving underage boys who were under his charge as a counselor at Kanakuk Kamps in Branson.

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KANSAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on April 20, 2012

We applaud the Kansas Board of Education for revoking the teaching license of woman who delayed in reporting suspected child sex crimes to law enforcement.

Their action is a powerful statement that protecting children is not something to be taken lightly. Every employer and teacher must immediately report any suspicion of abuse, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant. There must be no doubt about this. And there must be clear consequences for those who endanger kids by breaking this simple law.

Someone no doubt believes this punishment is too severe. We argue that anytime there is a remote suspicion that a child might be abused, it is critical to act on that suspicion. If there was no abuse, then they’ve caused some trouble and some paperwork. But if there is abuse and it goes unreported, then that official is complicit in causing lifelong trauma and the pain that comes from childhood abuse.

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CALIFORNIA
Irish Central

New questions about Father Michael Kelly’s guilt or innocence — Case seen as similar to story of priest accused in the movie “Doubt”

Niall O’Dowd

I had occasion to speak to a person from California who is a long time friend of Father Michael Kelly, the California-based priest who flew to his native Ireland after losing a civil case against him on an abuse charge.

Yesterday we wrote that Kelly was found liable on the civil charge despite the fact that the accusations against him by a 37-year old man, a pilot for Southwest Airlines, were based on “recovered memories” a highly dubious method as recent history has shown in cases such as the McMartin preschool case.

The man alleged that Kelly abused him when he was a young altar boy back in the mid 1980s.

The person who knows Kelly for over twenty years says they believe that Kelly was likely innocent but they could not be absolutely certain.

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WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer

April 20, 2012

By JOHN McCABE – Managing Editor , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

WHEELING — Circuit Judge Ronald Wilson has ruled that Monsignor Kevin Quirk must testify as a material witness in a clergy sex abuse trial taking place in Philadelphia.

Wilson issued the order late Thursday. Wheeling attorney William Kolibash, who is representing Quirk, confirmed that his client will now testify in the case of the Rev. James Brennan, who’s on trial in Philadelphia for an alleged 1996 child-sex assault. Brennan has denied those charges.

Kolibash says Quirk will testify between April 29 and May 1.

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WHEELING (WV)
WTRF

WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) – A West Virginia judge says Monsignor Kevin Quirk must testify as a material witness in a clergy sexual abuse trial under way in Philadelphia.

Quirk’s attorney, William Kolibash, said Friday that Hancock County Circuit Judge Ronald Wilson has ruled that Quirk is a material witness in the case against the Rev. James Brennan.

Kolibash says his client must appear to testify between April 29 and May 1.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office couldn’t subpoena Quirk because he lives outside Pennsylvania. It needed a West Virginia judge to issue the subpoena.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Mid-Ulster Mail

Published on Friday 20 April 2012

THE result of an investigation into how indecent images were inadvertently displayed by a Pomeroy priest at a First Holy Communion meeting will be revealed to parents this week.

The MAIL understands that Armagh Diocese is set to speak to parents this Friday about the scandal which happened after Father Martin McVeigh inserted a USB device into a computer during the meeting at St Mary’s Primary School.

It follows escalating calls for the cleric’s suspension from shocked parents who witnessed a reported 16 obscene images of men flash up on the projector screen last month.

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SALINA (KS)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Salina

April 19, 2012 – Yesterday, Father Allen Scheer was charged with a misdemeanor for inappropriate sexual conduct with an adult in Salina. The Diocese will fully cooperate with the investigation conducted by local law enforcement, and Father Allen Scheer has been placed on administrative leave. Father Randall Weber has been appointed as Parochial Administrator of Sacred Heart Cathedral.

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SALINA (KS)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 19, 2012

Cases like these serve as painful reminder that sexual abuse is not only perpetrated against children, but can affect vulnerable adults as well. We hope that the arrest of Fr. Scheer will help encourage anyone else who may have seen suspected or suffered any misdeeds by Scheer – or other clergy – to step forward, get help, expose wrongdoing and protct others.

Our gratitude goes out to the Salina police for their prompt actions in this case.

According to the Diocese of Salina’s website, Fr. Scheer has been placed on administrative leave. We urge Bishop-elect Edward Weisenburger to personally visit the parishes that Fr. Scheer may have worked or volunteered at and beg others with knowledge or suspicions of his misconduct to speak up.

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WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer

April 20, 2012

By JOHN McCABE – Managing Editor , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

WHEELING — Circuit Judge Ronald Wilson is expected to rule Friday on whether Monsignor Kevin Quirk will be required to testify as a material witness in a clergy sex abuse trial taking place in Philadelphia.

A law clerk in Wilson’s Hancock County office said the judge, who currently serves as chief of the 1st Judicial Circuit, held a hearing April 12 regarding the validity of the material witness petition issued by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office seeking Quirk to testify.

A secretary in Wilson’s office inadvertently informed The Intelligencer on Wednesday that the judge was not involved in the case.

The clerk, Heather Wood, said Wilson was assigned the case after Wheeling attorney William Kolibash, who is representing Quirk, indicated his client would contest the petition.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on April 20, 2012

Yesterday, a Jesuit cleric resigned from a college board under pressure because he did little or nothing to stop a prominent Chicago priest from molesting dozens of children.

Today, we call on Loyola University of Chicago to kick that Jesuit off its board.

He is Fr. Bradley M. Schaeffer. Yesterday, he stepped down from the Boston College board of trustees. Yet he remains on several other boards, including Loyola’s.

Earlier this week, the Boston Globe reported on pages and pages of long-secret church records about Donald McGuire’s crimes and Schaeffer’s refusal to take decisive action to stop him.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

There are some people commenting on the ACP Opinion Poll who do not seem to understand what an opinion poll is, and who interpret it as a list of demands about the way the church should be: they see it as a type of disloyalty or rebellion.

An opinion poll is just that: a way to establish what a particular group of people think about specific issues. It’s like a first step towards the Assembly in Dublin on 7 May: Naming the Reality. This is an important element in our being members of the Church. It is particularly important with those entrusted positions of authority for the service of the people. Parents, for example, may decide that a child should be in bed by 8pm. This may or may not be a good decision ast the time, or it may be imposed in a good way or bad way; but it will be helpful for the parents to know whether the child is doing what they think the child should be doing, and whether they may revise their decision. The Opinion Poll is descriptive, not prescriptive. And it is useful to know that 35% of those who declare themselves Catholic say that they go to Mass at least once a week. That’s about 1,300,000 people every week – they would fill Croke Park more than 15 times. This, of course, does not make headlines.

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