ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
3AW

UPDATE: Premier Ted Baillieu and Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark have announced a parliamentary inquiry following allegations poor handling of claims sexual abuse and suicides within the Catholic Church.

Mr Clark said the inquiry will investigate the practices, policies and protocols of religious and non-government organisations for the handling of allegations of criminal abuse of children by staff within their organisation.

The government decided upon a parliamentary inquiry over a Royal Commission in order for the process to be less intrusive and legalisic.

EARLIER: The Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne has denied the church have been covering up incidences of sexual abuse after last week’s astonishing claim from the Victoria Police.

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AUSTRALIA
3AW

Posted by: Derryn Hinch | 17 April, 2012

It took six seconds today to sum up what has been wrong with the Catholic Church for decades over the treatment of victims of sexual assault and the protection of paedophile priests by their Church leaders.

Six agonizingly long, damningly silent, seconds that took me back 25 years to when I went to jail for campaigning against one of those paedophile priests.

Those seconds ticked by in an interview that Neil Mitchell did with Archbishop Denis Hart on 3AW this morning. And the drawn-out silence occurred when Mitchell asked the Church leader if he knew of any paedophile priests still out there in the community.

Men who had been protected by the Church. Criminal offenders against children whom the Church had counseled, removed from the Ministry (as the Archbishop kept reminding us) but kept in other jobs and protected from any Police investigation.

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UNITED KINGDOM
London 24

by Zjan Shirinian
Tuesday, April 17, 2012

A retired priest bailed after being questioned in relation to a string of alleged sexual assaults, including in Barkingside, has been re-arrested over fresh allegations.

He was due to answer police bail tomorrow after being arrested on March 6 on suspicion of sexual assaults on nine young people at locations in Crawley, Barkingside and Middle Wallop in Hampshire between 1965 and 1972.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Wayne Independent

By Josh Wengler
Wayne Independent

Posted Apr 16, 2012

Carbondale, Pa. —

— The pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was suspended from the ministry late last week pending the results of an investigation of sexual abuse charges from an unnamed Wayne County resident.

According to a press release from the Diocese of Scranton, Rev. Russell E. Motsay was removed from his ministerial duties following the Wednesday, April 11 allegation that he had been involved in sexual misconduct with his accuser in Wayne County when the claimant was a minor.

Having served as pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Carbondale since 1996, Motsay’s prior appointments included serving as pastor at St. Juliana in Rock Lake and at St. James in Pleasant Mount.

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WISCONSIN
Channel 3000

By Bill Wineke
Special to Channel 3000

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops seem to be going all out in their effort to force President Obama to jettison birth control coverage as part of national health care reform.

They’re now calling for national demonstrations in a “Fortnight for Freedom” initiative in late June and promise a campaign of civil disobedience if employers aren’t free to deny birth contraceptive coverage as part of health care coverage.

They equated their potential plight to the murders of John the Baptist by King Herod and Sir Thomas More by King Henry VIII.

John the Baptist?

Really?

Do these guys really expect us to take them seriously? And is this really the most important issue facing the Catholic Church in America?

Personally, I think they are lying. I realize that’s kind of an arrogant thing to say about the men who lead the nation’s largest religious body, but then, these are arrogant men. …

My own guess – and I obviously have nothing more than a guess to go on – is that the bishops have seen their reputations as moral leaders so tarnished by the ongoing sexual abuse scandal – we now have one bishop under indictment – and by the continued falling away of the Catholic population – if fallen-away Catholics were their own denomination, they’d be the second-largest denomination in the country – that they are seeking some way to regain influence.

By any serious criteria, the nation’s bishops have been truly bad at their jobs. They have covered up crimes and have squandered the offerings of the faithful.

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UNITED STATES
Weekly Citizen

By Shayne Looper
GateHouse News Service
Posted Apr 16, 2012

When I brought in the mail last week and saw the cover of Newsweek’s Easter edition, I thought, I’m going to hate this.

The cover art featured a contemporary, white-Anglo-Saxon Jesus walking through the streets of New York in a plaid cotton shirt, a blue jacket and a crown of thorns. The title read: “Forget the Church, Follow Jesus.”

As someone who believes the Church and Jesus are inseparable, I was ready to dislike Andrew Sullivan’s feature article before I opened the magazine. Tina Brown’s commentary, “Holy Smoke! God save us from the godly,” didn’t exactly help.

Yet, I appreciated Sullivan’s article –– and Sullivan, himself, for that matter. I appreciated the inside look the article provides into its author — a man who believes in Jesus’ divinity and resurrection and has pondered the incarnation all his life. He reads theology and grapples with what it means to be both God and human. …

Sullivan’s condemnation of Catholics and Evangelicals is scathing. He accuses the Catholic Church of “an international conspiracy to abuse and rape countless youths and children.” Evangelicals are anti-intellectuals obsessed with wealth and characterized by fear — indeed, panic — over the future.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A retired Anglican priest who was bailed on suspicion of child sex abuse has been rearrested over four fresh allegations.

Canon Gordon Rideout, 73, of Eastbourne, was arrested and bailed in March on suspicion of abusing nine young people between 1965 and 1972.

He has been rearrested over a further four alleged sexual assaults in the same period.

The alleged assaults took place in Sussex, Hampshire and London.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Michelle Somerville

“God’s Rottweiler” seized an opportunity during Holy Week to growl, whimper and call upon Roman Catholic dissidents to choose “radical obedience” to the Magisterium over fidelity to such causes as women’s ordination, compulsory celibacy for priests and divorce. Two years ago Joseph Ratzinger declared the discussion of women’s ordination over. Is the pontiff changing his tune? According to the The New York Times the group at whom Ratzinger’s snapping is aimed is an Austrian group called Preachers’ Initiative.

The initiative was started in 2006 by the Rev. Helmut Schüller, the former director of a Catholic aid agency, Caritas Austria, to combat a shortage of priests. Since then, more than 400 Austrian priests have endorsed him, according to news media reports, as well as priests in the United States and across Europe.

The Vatican fears that the initiative could cause a schism in the church. Father Schüller has called the Vatican an “absolutist monarchy” and said that the church’s resistance to change might lead to rupture anyway.

Does Ratzinger really fear a schism? It is hard to know. An old man fighting a losing battle, Don Quixote-style, Ratzinger may be too out of touch to genuinely fear a schism. Even so, he must be quaking even if just a little in those scarlet shoes because when it comes to selling “radical obedience” (to the Magisterium) to most Roman Catholics, Ratzinger hasn’t a prayer! “Radical disobedience” is fast becoming the norm in the church Ratzinger is said to lead. Whole religious orders and individual priests are thumbing their noses at this pontificate in increasing numbers.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The jury in the Philadelphia clergy abuse case heard today from more alleged victims — one, a boy who later became a priest and another who, penknife in hand on the witness stand, told the jury he was ready to kill his priest attacker at the time of his molestation.

One victim testified that Father Stanley Gana raped and sexually abused him several times a week for years. He says he didn’t dare tell his parents then, and he never told them before died — he says it would have broken their hearts.

But the witness, who later became a priest, says he confronted Father Gana while in the seminary, around 1985, and also informed church officials.

Gana was never charged with a crime and remained in active ministry for many years.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

By MARYCLAIRE DALE

Monday, Apr 16, 2012

A college administrator testified Monday that a Philadelphia priest sexually assaulted him several times a week throughout high school.

The witness, a one-time priest, said he told church supervisors in the early 1990s that the Rev. Stanley Gana had abused him from 1980 to 1984. Yet Gana was not defrocked until 2006.

The man testified at the trial of Monsignor William Lynn, the first U.S. diocesan official charged with child endangerment for allegedly burying abuse complaints in secret files.

The witness said he never told his late parents of the abuse because they believed priests could do no wrong.

“They loved the church so tremendously that I could not break their hearts,” said the 45-year-old, who said he left the priesthood because of the pain the church had caused him. He now works at a college in Illinois.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Jane Lee and Barney Zwartz
April 17, 2012

MOST of Melbourne’s Catholic clergy and parishioners would support a government inquiry into how the church has dealt with victims of sexual abuse, according to a senior priest.

Father Kevin Dillon, of St Mary of the Angels in Geelong, believes about 70 per cent would now favour an inquiry in the wake of recent widespread publicity given to victims’ stories.

While conceding he had not talked to every priest – ”nobody could” – Father Dillon, a long-time advocate for victims of abuse, said: ”Most ordinary priests are just overwhelmed by the fact that this is continuing.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Christliches Forum

Die “Mißbrauchs-Lawine” und ihr Mißbrauch für antikirchliche Zwecke

Der Berliner Jesuitenpater Klaus Mertes wurde jetzt mit dem Gustav-Heinemann-Bürgerpreises der SPD ausgezeichnet. Die SPD begründet diese Würdigung damit, daß Mertes als Leiter des Berliner Canisius-Kollegs ehem. Schüler über die Mißbrauchsfälle informiert und damit zur Aufklärung des Skandals beigetragen habe.

Was die SPD freilich verschwieg:

Der modernistische Geistliche wußte bereits vier bis fünf Jahre vorher Bescheid über diese verheerenden Vorgänge in der Jesuitenschule, hat sie aber erst im Januar 2010 “aufgedeckt”, wobei er diese Aktion mit dem Versuch verknüpfte, eine grundsätzliche Kirchenkritik loszutreten, was natürlich im Blätterwald bestens ankam. Besonders die kirchliche Sexualmoral bewarf er mit scharfen Vorwürfen, was ihm noch mehr Beifall einbrachte.

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OSTERREICH
ORF

Die „Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt“ kritisiert weiterhin die ihrer Meinung nach mangelnde Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle in der römisch-katholischen Kirche. Zwei Jahre nachdem Kardinal Christoph Schönborn die Opferschutzanwaltschaft eingesetzt hat, seien rund 40 beschuldigte Priester im Amt, so Sepp Rothwangl am Montag in einer Pressekonferenz.

Die Plattform schlägt der Kirche vor, Klagen auch zivilrechtlich prüfen zu lassen, da hier andere Verjährungsfristen gelten würden. Nicht nur die Opferschutzanwaltschaft, der die ehemalige steirische Landeshauptfrau Waltraud Klasnic vorsitzt, wurde vor zwei Jahren gegründet. Auch die „Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt“ startete damals ihre Tätigkeit und kritisiert seitdem die „Klasnic-Kommission“ als von der Kirche abhängig.

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OSTERREICH
Die Presse

Die “Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt” kritisiert zwei Jahre nach dem Einsatz der “Klasnic-Kommission” die mangelnde Aufarbeitung der Kirche.

Erneut gibt es Kritik an der mangelnden Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle in Österreichs römisch-katholischer Kirche. Zwei Jahre nachdem Kardinal Christoph Schönborn die Opferschutzanwaltschaft eingesetzt hat, seien rund 40 beschuldigte Priester im Amt. Das kritisiert Sepp Rothwangl von der “Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt” am Montag. Die Plattform schlägt der Kirche vor, Klagen auch zivilrechtlich prüfen zu lassen, da hier andere Verjährungsfristen gelten würden.

Nicht nur die Opferschutzanwaltschaft, der die ehemalige steirische Landeshauptfrau Waltraud Klasnic vorsitzt, wurde vor zwei Jahren gegründet. Auch die “Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt” startete damals ihre Tätigkeit und kritisiert seitdem, dass die “Klasnic-Kommission” von der Kirche zu abhängig sei.

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UNITED STATES
The Sacramento Bee

The Associated Press

Published: Monday, Apr. 16, 2012

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court won’t let a woman sue a Maryland church for retaliation after she complained of sexual harassment from its pastor.

The high court refused to hear an appeal from Mary Linklater, who had sued the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, in Gaithersburg, Md., for sexual harassment and retaliation after allegedly being harassed by its pastor, Rufus Lusk III.

The Court of Appeals of Maryland threw out her retaliation complaint under the ministerial exception clause because she was the church’s minister of music. The First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion shields churches and their operations from the reach of some protective laws when religious employees are involved.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Fox News

Published April 16, 2012

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA – A college administrator has testified in a clergy-abuse trial that a Philadelphia priest sexually assaulted him throughout high school.

The witness, a one-time priest, says he told his church supervisors in the early 1990s that the Rev. Stanley Gana had abused him from 1980 to 1984. He says he never told his late parents because they believed priests could do no wrong.

The 45-year-old man was forced out of the Philadelphia seminary over suspected homosexual conduct, but later ordained in Connecticut. He now works at an Illinois college.

The man is testifying at the trial of Monsignor William Lynn, a former archdiocesan official charged with child endangerment.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

17 Apr, 2012

The push for a comprehensive and thorough investigation into abuse within the Catholic church has gained significant momentum in recent months.

While the human tragedy of multiple suicides has added to the clamour about the issue in the public arena, it is the weighty recommendations of the Cummins report into child protection that must guide this inquiry. That a possible set of terms of reference for such an inquiry have been developed should be considered a major step forward. Guiding terms of reference were what the Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart had rightfully requested in the hope of pushing toward a just outcome.

These may not be the only or the best terms for such an inquiry, but the response of the state and the church should be of commensurate seriousness to ensure progress is made.

This newspaper supports a public inquiry in the belief that its ultimate course must be about protection and prevention.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The Philadelphia Catholic clergy sex-abuse trial began its fourth week this morning with testimony by a former Philadelphia man who told of being plied with liquor and sexually molested by his parish priest in a King of Prussia hotel room.

The 50-year-old man, who grew up in Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Andorra, told the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury about an incident when he was in the seventh grade.

The Rev. Thomas J. Smith had offered to take him and another boy on a trip to Hershey Park, driving a recreational vehicle borrowed from the second boy’s parents.

But the RV got no farther than King of Prussia, the man testified, when Smith said the vehicle had mechanical problems and they would have to stay overnight in a nearby Holiday Inn.

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NEW YORK
WNYT

[with video]

CAIRO – The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese has placed Father Jeremiah Nunan on administrative leave from ministry, after allegations that he sexually abused a minor.

Father Nunan was also on leave six years ago, when he faced similar accusations, before he was restored to ministry.

Seventy-four-year-old Jeremiah Nunan is pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Cairo and Our Lady of Knock Mission in East Durham.

The diocese placed him on administrative leave, after a civil lawsuit claimed that Nunan sexually abused a child between 1996 and 2003, and then between 2007 and last year when that person was an adult.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

Jerry Slevin continues to be vigilant about what’s happening with Catholic church officials and the child abuse cover-up, from a legal standpoint. He has just sent another outstanding statement, this one about SNAP’s filing last week of new charges updating their previous filing of criminal charges against the Vatican with the International Criminal Court, for the Vatican’s internationally orchestrated cover-up of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy.

Here’s Jerry’s statement:

SNAP, the international victims advocacy network, filed on April 11, 2012 with the International Criminal Court (ICC) a 19 page letter (“New Charges”), plus supporting documentation, updating SNAP’s prior September 2011 original charges ( “Original Charges”).

The New Charges, include additional evidence supporting SNAP’s allegations against Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) and three top Vatican subordinates, Cardinals Bertone, Levada and Sodano. SNAP alleges this Vatican clique for years has been, and still is, orchestrating a worldwide criminal cover-up by Catholic bishops of priest child sexual abuse, including acts involving systemic rape, sexual violence and torture, of hundreds of thousands of defenseless children. These collectively would constitute “crimes against humanity” under the ICC treaty.

After SNAP filed the Original Charges, almost 500 additional victims from over 60 countries contacted SNAP with new allegations that SNAP has added to the Original Charges. The New Charges (accessible by clicking here) also contain brief and clear updates, with citation links, concerning other recent relevant developments since the Original Charges, including:

(1) September 2011: The issuance of the scathing and devasting report, “In Plain Sight”, by Amnesty International Ireland, concerning the recent history of priest sexual abuse of children in Ireland and of the Irish government’s “hands off” approach until recently to the Catholic Church hierarchy’s and priests’ appalling misdeeds;

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MISSOURI
Injury Board Blog Network

Posted by Mike Bryant
April 16, 2012

I’ve been following the stories concerning the Catholic Church’s attacks on The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in Missouri. Basically, they are using the discovery process in sexual abuse cases to request depositions of the SNAP leadership and document requests to obtain files on the survivors of sexual abuse. SNAP is maintaining that these documents are covered by Missouri Rape Shield laws.

A good look at the argument is provided by Joe Saunders with Gotham’s Cowardly Lion

Ms. Magazine also noted :

Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal adamantly spoke out against the outrageous attempts to intimidate SNAP and compel the release of its records: “The bishops are playing hardball with survivors of priest abuse, but the bishops are not playing hardball with priest predators. The Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to focus on stopping cleric sexual abuse and the hierarchy’s cover-ups.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Newsworks

April 16, 2012
By Shannon McDonald

Fresh off a series of mergers and closures by the Blue Ribbon Commission, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced yesterday that a dozen parishes around Northwest Philadelphia and Chester County will merge as part of a “pastoral planning initiative” for restructuring.

As of July 1,
Our Lady of the Rosary Parish and Saint Cecilia Parish in Coatesville will merge at the location and keep the name of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish.
Saint Joseph Parish and Saint Stanislaus Kostka Parish in Coatesville will merge at the location and keep the name of Saint Joseph Parish.
Saint Francis of Assisi Parish, Immaculate Conception Parish and Saint Vincent de Paul Parish in Germantown will merge at the location and keep the name of Saint Vincent de Paul Parish.
Saint Athanasius Parish and Saint Raymond of Peñafort Parish in West Oak Lane/East Mount Airy will remain as free-standing parishes.
Saint Lucy Parish and Holy Family Parish in Manayunk will merge at the location and keep the name of Holy Family Parish.
Saint John the Baptist Parish, Saint Josaphat Parish and Saint Mary of the Assumption Parish in Manayunk will merge at the location and keep the name of Saint John the Baptist Parish.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Mercury

By the Associated Press
Posted: 04/16/12

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has announced that a dozen parishes will be merged into five beginning this summer, resulting in the closure of seven parishes, but the parishes thought to be on the verge of merger in Phoenixville were not among them.

Officials announced at Sunday Masses that parishes in Manayunk and Germantown in the city and in Coatesville in Chester County would be merged as part of ongoing restructuring that “will ultimately strengthen parish communities, positioning them for future growth and sustainability.”

“Change is rarely easy,” Archbishop Charles Chaput told congregations in the announcement, which cited demographic shifts in Catholic populations and concentrated density of parishes in a limited geographic area. Also cited as factors in the mergers were declining Mass attendance and sacramental activity, economic problems and a decrease in available clergy.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Newsworks

[with video]

By Matthew Grady for NewsWorks

A hushed sense of devastation rippled through the congregation of St. Mary of the Assumption on Sunday as Rev. Charles Zlock delivered the Archdiocese’s decision regarding the fate of five Manayunk parishes.

For three churches, the final word is closure.

Citing changing economic and demographic factors, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced that St. Mary Parish and St. Lucy Parish are to close, with their congregations to be merged with that of St. John the Baptist. St. Josaphat will close and be merged with Holy Family.

The resultant parishes will retain the names St. John the Baptist Parish and Holy Family Parish.

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MISSOURI
7th Space

KANSAS CITY, MO—David M Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Webster Groves, Missouri attorney and clergyman was convicted in federal court today of leading a fraud conspiracy that stole more than $52 million from its victims.

Martin T Sigillito, 63, of Webster Groves, was found guilty of all 20 counts charged in an April 28, 2011, federal indictment. Sigillito was immediately taken into federal custody.

“This massive Ponzi scheme collapsed under its own weight, as such schemes inevitably do, but not before conspirators stole tens of millions of dollars from their unwitting victims in one of the largest fraud schemes in Missouri history,” said Ketchmark. “We are pleased with the jury’s verdict today. Although conspirators squandered most of the ill-gotten gain on their own extravagant lifestyle, we are committed to providing as much restitution as possible to the victim investors.”

Sigillito was found guilty of participating in a conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud.

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VATICAN CITY
News.va

2012-04-14 Vatican Radio

85 years of age and 7 years as Pope. When, already advanced in age, Card. Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope many wondered if after years marked by the infirmity of his great predecessor, his papacy would be as strong and durable as hoped for, and whether a theologian who had led a specifically doctrinal Dicastery for such a long time would know how to undertake the very different task of the pastoral governance of the Universal Church.

In these seven years we have had 23 international trips to 23 countries and 26 different trips to Italy, we have witnessed four synods of bishops and three World Youth Days, we have read three encyclicals and received countless other addresses and magisterial acts, we have participated in a Pauline Year and a Year for Priests, we saw the Pope to face with courage, humility and determination – that is, with a clear evangelical spirit – difficult situations, like the crisis of sexual abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

[See other McGuire documents.]

April 15, 2012|By Michael Rezendes

The Rev. Bradley M. Schaeffer had been the leader of the Jesuits in the Chicago area for two years when an anguished father wrote to him with disturbing news about one of his most famous priests.

Donald J. McGuire, a globe-trotting spiritual retreat leader who counted Mother Teresa among his fans, had been taking showers and looking at pornography with the man’s son, and the son had been giving McGuire frequent massages when the two traveled together.

“Other acts of a serious nature may have taken place,’’ warned the boy’s father in the May 1993 letter, adding that a second teen may have been victimized as well.

Schaeffer learned of at least two more complaints about McGuire’s behavior with boys during his six years in Chicago. But Schaeffer, now a member of the Boston College board of trustees and the leader of a study center, housed on the BC campus, for future Jesuit priests, never investigated nor contacted police. Instead, he sent his wayward priest for treatment of a sexual disorder – treatment that Schaeffer acknowledged did not go well.

“What is clear is that the basics are not going to change here,’’ Schaeffer wrote, after a 1994 meeting with McGuire after his return from more than six months of treatment. “It could be that there is an extremely rough time ahead.’’

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Many of those who voted for Benedict XVI in April 2005 believed his would be a transitional papacy. They were wrong. Here is a review of Joseph Ratzinger’s seven years on the Chair of Peter

Marco Tosatti
Rome

I am curious, in a way that might come across as slightly malicious, about one thing. I wonder how many of those who voted for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in April 2005 expected the Bavarian Pope to still be here among us seven years on. Despite his brisk baby steps which are made all the more uncertain by the problems he has with his hip and his right knee, Benedict XVI is still here and retains his eagerness to do things. Unfortunately it is a difficult question to ask let alone respond to sincerely. What many cardinals expected to be a transitional papacy is in fact turning into something quite different. It is turning into a foundational kingdom, created by someone who seeks to work silently, persistently and deeply.

How? Not many are aware of the fact that a great deal of Benedict XVI’s time and effort is spent on mysterious work which does not and should not attract the media’s attention but is fundamental to Church life: this is in order to prevent giving the media any negative reasons to start focusing on it any time soon.

Benedict XVI is adamant that the strength – and weakness – of the Church is found first and foremost in the dioceses, in local Churches. During John Paul II’s pontificate, the choice of bishops was often left to presidents of Episcopal Conferences, to nuncios and to other components of the central and local Churches. If what is told to us is true, – and we have no reason to doubt it is so – the Pope has, in recent years, been reluctant to sign anything. John Paul II delegated; he trusted those he worked with, sometimes unsuccessfully, as history has shown us.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

“I will never really know what happened.”

Those were Patricia Bukowski’s last words on the witness stand Wednesday, when she was asked for the final time what happened back in 1996, when Father James J. Brennan was alone in his apartment with Patricia’s son, Mark, who was only 14 at the time.

The reason why the defense lawyers in the courtroom were smiling was you could almost hear the man who asked Patricia Bukowski that last question, Father Brennan’s lawyer, William J. Brennan, already rehearsing his closing statement.

If the victim’s own mother has reasonable doubt about what happened that night in the priest’s bedroom, how can you, the ladies and gentlemen of the jury, also not have that same reasonable doubt?

That’s the way some people in Courtroom 304 saw it, the people who think that Father Brennan and his co-defendant, Msgr. William J. Lynn, are being railroaded by an anti-Catholic prosecution and press.

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MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By: Sarah Smith, Forum Communications

PARK RAPIDS, Minn. — A spirited discussion is taking place on a website written by and read by members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod over how the conservative Lutheran church will respond to the recent arrest of a former pastor who had been hired despite being a convicted sex offender. Recrimination, finger-pointing and prayers are pouring forth in the wake of the arrest last month of the former lay pastor, Darwin Schauer, on 15 counts of criminal sexual conduct involving a teen.

Schauer, a resident of Laporte, Minn., had been a minister for years at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lake George, Minn., until 2008, even though church officials knew, at some point, that he had been convicted in 1983 of sexual abuse of a minor.

Some think it could cost an LCMS district president, who presided during Schauer’s tenure, re-election this week.

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WISCONSIN
Channel 3000

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. –
Can keeping the faith get a local church out of debt?

St. Mary’s Church, a Platteville parish, is facing a $100,000 shortfall and could soon have to close the doors to its school.

Unfortunately, church officials don’t have long to believe.

Some say the church’s money problems worsened when a new priest took over the parish.

Father Faustino Ruiz is part of a plan from the top of the Catholic Church to bring the faith back to its more traditional, conservative roots.

The change has caused conflict.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Monday April 16 2012

Half-a-century ago, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council and said that he wanted to “open the windows” and let in some fresh air.

In more recent times, the objective of those in power in the Catholic Church has seemed to be to slam the windows shut and fasten them tight.

The silencing of a liberal priest, Fr Tony Flannery, shocked devout believers as well as waverers — and members of other faiths who are deeply concerned about the role of Christianity in the “post-modern” world.

It was described by the Association of Catholic Priests as “unfair, unwarranted and unwise”.

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LANCASTER (MA)
Boston Globe

[See other McGuire documents.]

April 16, 2012|By Michael Rezendes

LANCASTER – At least five former students at a small Catholic day school in Lancaster have said they were abused by the same priest during the 1990s and early 2000s, but the couple who founded and ran the Trivium School stoutly defended the Rev. Donald J. McGuire until 2009, when he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for molesting a former eighth-grader.

McGuire, once a prominent Jesuit with close ties to Mother Teresa, never worked at the Trivium but was a regular guest, saying Mass and speaking at graduations. Founders John S. and Louise Schmitt described him in a 2006 letter to a judge as “a man who has given spiritual direction and sound support to our family and to the families of students who have attended our school.’’

Now, Louise Schmitt says the school never took steps to find out whether McGuire molested others besides the five former students cited in court proceedings. The school also never notified alumni or their parents that McGuire was once a regular presence on campus.

“I maybe should have investigated but I didn’t,’’ she said during an interview at her home last month. Schmitt is also a former teacher and current board member at the school. She said she now realizes McGuire was guilty of sexual abuse.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Inquirer Editorial

Three weeks into a likely months-long landmark clergy sex-abuse trial, a Philadelphia jury already has seen the clear outlines of an alleged cover-up by Archdiocese of Philadelphia officials as far up as Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua.

One priest wasn’t removed from the ministry until he had amassed 18 assault allegations against him.

A Havertown pastor recounted how he was kept in the dark about a newly assigned priest who had written a sexually graphic love letter to a grade-school boy.

An admitted abusive priest was advised by superiors to stay “low key” around churches where his victims might spot him.

It took the archdiocese a decade to respond to one official request for records. Meanwhile, pretrial disclosures revealed that years earlier, Bevilacqua directed aides to shred a memo identifying 35 suspected predator priests.

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IRELAND
Limerick Leader

By Nick Rabbitts
Published on Monday 16 April 2012

LIMERICK City North councillor Tom Shortt has spoken out in favour of under-fire priest Fr Tony Flannery.

Fr Flannery – who was rector in Limerick for six years during the 1990s – has been asked by the Vatican to go to a monastery and “reflect on his situation” for a six week period.

This came after Fr Flannery publicly expressed opposition to the Church’s ban on artificial birth control and its refusal to ordain women.

Speaking at this week’s sports and culture committee meeting, Cllr Tom Shortt said: “I would like to express my support for Fr Tony Flannery. I really feel for him at present. He is suffering from the repressive way of the Catholic Church in Rome. It is sad to see people who would still resort to these bad ways.”

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NEW YORK
The Daily Mail

ALBANY — A Greene County priest has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of investigations into allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese announced Sunday.

Rev. Jeremiah Nunan, 74, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Cairo and Our Lady of Knock Shrine in East Durham, is temporarily barred from presenting himself as a priest, wearing clerical garb or officiating at masses or sacraments, the Diocese said.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Luke Byrne

Monday April 16 2012

AN organisation representing hundreds of priests last night described the silencing of Fr Sean Fagan over his writings as “outrageous”.

The 84-year-old Marist priest was ordered to stop writing and commenting in public after he had called for an inquiry into clerical sexual abuse in all dioceses of the State.

All available copies of a theological book written by Fr Fagan were also bought up by his religious order and he was required to give an undertaking not to write again.

The move came after he had advocated allowing women and married men to be ordained as priests.

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NEW YORK
San Antonio Express-News

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A 74-year-old priest is on administrative leave as the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese investigates a sexual abuse claim against him.

The Rev. Jeremiah Nunan was cleared six years ago of allegations that he sexually abused a minor. The Albany Times-Union reports (http://bit.ly/IpCfXL ) that the diocese announced the new allegations over the weekend.

Nunan is pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Cairo and Our Lady of Knock Mission in East Durham in Greene County.

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CHILE
Publimetro

El diario La Tercera dio a conocer la información. Una ex feligresa de la parroquia Sagrado Corazón de El Bosque, dejó como herencia 60 millones de pesos al ex párroco de aquella congregación, el sacerdote Fernando Karadima, quien fuera condenado por El Vaticano por abusos sexuales a un grupo de feligreses.

Según el relato del matutino, en 1995 Isabel Valdés Vial, de 80 años, tenía amasada una fortuna como accionista de Copec, Endesa y CMPC, y realizó un testamento donde dejaba parte de su herencia a sus sobrinos y el 25 por ciento de sus bienes en Chile debían repartirse entre 15 personas, entre ellas Karadima.

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CARBONDALE (PA)
WNEP

Posted on: 6:00 pm, April 15, 2012, by Dave Bohman

Parishioners at a church in Carbondale attended morning mass with a heavy heart.

This week, the Diocese of Scranton removed their regular priest from ministry after an individual claimed the long time priest committed a disturbing crime several years ago.

For parishioners at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, difficult just doesn`t do justice to their situation.

Reverend Russel Motsay had been serving there, conducting mass for 16 years.

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DUTSCHLAND
K13

“MissBiT” & “Schafsbrief” stoppen: Sieben pädophile Priester bedürfen im Bistum Trier dem Schutz der Kath. Amtskirche * Kein Berufsverbot gegen pädophile Geistliche

Im neuen SPIEGEL erscheint am kommenden Montag in der Printausgabe ein Artikel mit der Schlagzeile “Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte schont pädophile Priester seines Bistums”. Darin wird der Trierer Bischof & Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Kath. Kirche Stephan Ackermann heftig von den Opferinitiativen “MissBiT” & “Schafsbrief” angegriffen. Ackermann soll in seinem Bistum Trier sieben kirchliche Pädophile beschäftigen, davon drei Vorbestrafte. Thomas Schnitzler von der Opferinitiative “MissBiT” vertritt die verachtenswerte Meinung, dass Kinder diesen Pädophilen nicht ausgesetzt sein dürfen. Auch ein Hermann Schell vom Weblog “Schafsbrief” attakiert Ackermann und die pädophilen Geistlichen. Von der offensichtlichen Doppelmoral der Kath. Amtskirche hält die K13online Redaktion zwar absolut nichts, aber die pädophilen Geistlichen sollten vor solchen Angriffen geschützt werden…

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

[with list of the merged parishes]

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has announced five more parish mergers in Coatesville, Germantown, and Manayunk.

The mergers will take effect July 1. The Archdiocese announced the mergers in a statement Sunday afternoon.

“Restructuring our parishes will be a challenge for many families and individuals. Change is rarely easy. But we do need to take these steps to help every parish more effectively promote the Gospel and strengthen the future of our Catholic life together,” said Archbishop Charles J. Chaput in the statement.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)

– The Philadelphia Archdiocese has announced it will close seven parishes in Northwest Philadelphia and Coatesville.

They include St. Francis of Assisi and Immaculate Conception in Germantown as well as St. Josephat, St. Lucy and St. Mary of the Assumption in Manayunk.

In Coatesville, St. Cecilia and St. Stanislaus Kostka will close.

The closings were announced at Mass, Sunday, but the archdiocese says parishioners were sent letters earlier so they were prepared.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By David O’Reilly
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput will merge a dozen parishes into five by July 1, resulting in seven closures in neighborhoods dense with Roman Catholic churches.

The targeted congregations, whose pastors announced their fates during Sunday’s Masses, are in Manayunk and Germantown in the city and Coatesville in Chester County.

The moves constitute only the first round in a process that Chaput had earlier warned the area’s 1.5 million Catholics would be “painful.” Additional mergers are expected to be announced by summer and through 2014, as all 267 parishes in the five-county archdiocese are reviewed with an eye toward long-term restructuring.

The parishes marked for closing have seen sharp declines in membership, Mass attendance and baptisms, among other signs of diminished vitality, according to the archdiocese.

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NEDERLAND
Tubantia

OLDENZAAL – In de kerken van de Plechelmusparochie in Oldenzaal, Weerselo, Rossum, Saasveld en Deurningen is gisteravond en vanmorgen de verklaring voorgelezen van het kerkbestuur over het seksueel misbruik dat zich heeft voorgedaan in de voormalige Antoniusparochie in Oldenzaal.

Het parochiebestuur betreurt en veroordeelt daarin het misbruik in 1968 van een toen 13-jarige jongen door een kapelaan. De nu 58-jarige Bob Alders werd drie maanden lang stelselmatig misbruikt door de inmiddels overleden priester Frans B. Alders heeft daarvan melding gedaan bij de commissie Deetman die het seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk heeft onderzocht. In de TCTubantia van zaterdag deed de misbruikte oud-Oldenzaler zijn schokkende relaas over wat het destijds is overkomen.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

[with list of the merged parishes]

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced today that Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. has approved the recommendations of the Archdiocesan Strategic Planning Committee to merge several parishes across the Archdiocese in Coatesville, Germantown, and Manayunk. This ongoing restructuring will ultimately strengthen parish communities positioning them for future growth and sustainability.

“Restructuring our parishes will be a challenge for many families and individuals. Change is rarely easy. But we do need to take these steps to help every parish more effectively promote the Gospel and strengthen the future of our Catholic life together,” said Archbishop Chaput.

The recommendations and resulting mergers are an outcome of the Archdiocesan-wide Parish Pastoral Planning Area initiative, which began in 2011. Parishioners at all affected parishes learned of the final decisions through letters mailed to all registered parishioners as well as announcements made at all Masses this past weekend. It is hoped that the planning and restructuring process will result in revitalized parishes throughout the Archdiocese that are better equipped to meet the spiritual and pastoral needs of future generations.

The mergers announced today were based on a combination of factors, including, but not limited to, demographic shifts in Catholic populations, concentrated density of parishes in a limited geographic area, history of declining Mass attendance and sacramental activity, increasing economic challenges that threaten sustainability, a decrease in the availability of clergy to staff parishes, and a review of facilities.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: April 15, 2012 – 3:02 pm

PHILADELPHIA — The Archdiocese of Philadelphia says a dozen Philadelphia-area parishes will be merged into five beginning this summer.

The decisions, announced at Sunday Masses, involve parishes in Manayunk and Germantown in the city and in Coatesville in Chester County.

Archbishop Charles Chaput told congregations that “change is rarely easy” but the steps are needed.

Cited as factors in the mergers are demographic shifts in Catholic populations and concentrated density of parishes in a limited geographic area.

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ALBANY (NY)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany

News Release
Contact: Ken Goldfarb 518 453-6618 (H) 518 943-2430
For immediate release: April 14, 2012

ALBANY, N.Y. — The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese has placed a Greene County priest on administrative leave from ministry pending the outcome of investigations into allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. The Diocese has referred the allegations to the Greene County District Attorney’s Office.

Rev. Jeremiah Nunan, 74, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Cairo and Our Lady of Knock Mission in East Durham, is temporarily barred from officiating at any sacraments, wearing clerical garb, or presenting himself as a priest. The Diocese’s action is being announced at weekend Masses at the two parishes.

The Diocese acted after a civil lawsuit was filed claiming that Rev. Nunan sexually abused an individual between 1996 and 2003 when the individual was a minor and between 2007 and 2011 when the individual was an adult. The lawsuit named as defendants Rev. Nunan, one of the parishes and the Diocese. Rev. Nunan has denied the allegations.

The Albany Diocese has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse of children by clerics. Any priest or deacon against whom an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor is substantiated at any time is permanently removed from ministry.

This is the second time Rev. Nunan has been placed on administrative leave by the Diocese during an investigation of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. The previous allegation, received in 2006 and involving alleged abuse in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Hudson, was investigated by the Independent Mediation Assistance Program, and could not be substantiated. As a result, the Diocese restored Rev. Nunan to ministry.

Rev. Nunan joined the Albany Diocese in 1963 after graduating from a seminary in Ireland, and has served at St. Henry’s in Averill Park, St. Mary’s in Little Falls, Assumption parish in Latham, St. Mary’s in Hudson, and as chaplain for the Columbia Memorial Hospital School for Nursing.

The Albany Diocese is arranging for other priests to celebrate Mass and perform other ministerial duties at the two parishes in Rev. Nunan’s absence.

The Albany Diocese urges anyone who as a child was sexually abused by a Catholic priest or deacon to report the matter to a law enforcement agency or to the Diocese. To report an incident of abuse or to seek help, please contact the Diocese’s assistance coordinator, Theresa F. Rodrigues, at (518) 453-6646 or by e-mail at assistance.coordinator@rcda.org.

###

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany is one of eight such dioceses in New York State. It is comprised of 14 counties and covers an area of more than 10,400 square miles in and around the Capital Region of New York. There are more than 360,000 Catholics residing in the Diocese, who are served by more than 125 parishes.

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ROME
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The Vatican has nothing to hide and is willing to work with investigators to solve the baffling mystery surrounding the disappearance of a teenage girl almost 30 years ago, Vatican media spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.

By Josephine McKenna, Rome
3:35PM BST 15 Apr 2012

Father Lombardi also rejected suggestions of a cover-up regarding the fate of .

In a statement released on Saturday, Father Lombardi said there were “no secrets” at the Vatican and officials were co-operating fully with the investigation when required.

“Nothing has been hidden, nor are there any ‘secrets’ in the Vatican to be revealed on this topic,” Father Lombardi said.

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UNITED STATES
New Engel Publishing

Randy Engel

While it is true that the floodgates of homosexuality in AmChurch were opened ever wider after the Second Vatican Council and the pontificate of Pope Paul VI, the moral rot had taken root decades, even centuries, before. …

Chapter 12 is a tale of intergenerational homosexuality in AmChurch during the first half of the 20th century. It highlights the lives of three prominent homosexual prelates, Cardinal William O’Connell of Boston, Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York, and Bishop (later Cardinal) John Wright of Worcester and their heirs in AmChurch through the next two
generations.

It is no coincidence that the earliest pederast/homosexual scandals in AmChurch occurred in the greater Boston area where Cardinals O’Connell, Spellman and Wright once plied their vice. These three prelates produced an entire contingent of homosexual bishops and cardinals, some of whom continue to hold positions of power in the American hierarchy today.

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NEW YORK
YNN

[with video]

GREENE COUNTY, N.Y. — A Greene County priest has been placed on administrative leave after allegations he sexually abused a minor.

Reverend Jeremiah Nunan, 74, is the pastor at the Sacred Heart Parish in Cairo, and at Our Lady of Knock Mission in East Durham. During the suspension, he is prohibited from officiating any ceremonies, wearing clerical clothing, or presenting himself as a priest.

The victim claims Nunan abused him as a child between 1996 and 2003, and when he was an adult between 2007 and 2011.

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IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

When I heard that the Redemptorist priest Fr Tony Flannery was under some kind of Vatican probe, I thought it was an April fools day joke. It couldnt be true, my thinking went, because such a move would be seen as unnecessarily interventionist, and given his position with the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), it would inevitably be seen as something more than just an examination of theological orthodoxy.

And all respect to Fr Tony and Reality magazine, but Ive never met anyone who said to me did you see what Fr Flannery wrote in Reality?

As a Vatican II liberal, Fr Flannerys views are well known and hardly startling. So I assumed the Vatican, so lucky to recover some goodwill after the Taoiseachs speech last year, would show prudence and not shoot itself in the foot. I was wrong.

Surely there is a more transparent and gentle way of dealing with priests who express a contrary but sincerely held view on Church teaching?

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AUSTRIA
Vatican Insider

The co-founder of the “We are Church” movement on a collision course with the Vatican

GIACOMO GALEAZZI
Vatican Insider

Martha Heizer, teacher of religion in Innsbruck, co-founder and director of “We are Church”, challenges the Vatican and announces her intention to celebrate Mass even at the risk of excommunication. In reality, the issue is definitively closed as a result of the answer of the then prefect of the former Sant’ Uffizio, Jospeh Ratzinger, about the doctrine of the apostolic letter “Ordinatio sacerdotalis”.

Doubt was raised regarding the faculty of the Church to confer sacerdotal ordination to women. The “no” of the doctrine to women priests, clarified the current Pontiff, is “definitive” because such doctrine is founded on the Word of God written and constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church from the beginning. The doctrine has been proposed infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium (dogmatic constitution “Lumen gentium” by the Second Vatican Council). Rooted in the New Testament, the Christian sacerdotal ministry, from the beginning, was conferred only to men. The Tyrolean theologian Martha Heizer and her group of believers propose to render the Eucharist possible without clergymen, thanks to private forms of celebration. It is a procedure that needs to be referred immediately to the Holy See because it figures among the delicta graviora. “The seven points contained in the appeal to disobedience by the parish priests promoting the Pfarrer-initiatives are to be examined individually and not like a package,” emphasizes Adista, the catholic news agency. “Communion to re-married divorced people, for example, could be granted only under determined conditions.” In April of 1995, a small group of Innsbruck Catholics, led by Thomas Plankesteiner and Martha Heizer, promoted an “Appeal from the people of God” in five points (more democracy in the Church, greater role of women, optional celibacy for the priests, different sexual moral). It was appealed directly to the hierarchy of the Catholic Church hoping to obtain concrete answers.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on April 13, 2012

For the second time in his career, Los Angeles’ Cardinal Roger Mahony will testify in open court in a child sex abuse and cover up case in Stockton, a diocese he headed for years before coming to LA.

The case centers around the diocese’s handling of Fr. Michael Kelly, a priest who just last week was found civilly liable by a 12-person jury of abusing a child in the mid-1980s. Despite the fact that allegations of abuse at the hands of Fr. Kelly have been known to the diocese for years, Fr. Kelly was only removed from ministry as of Friday (he had been removed from ministry once before in 2007, but the diocese reinstated him in 2008.

In 1998, Mahony testified in a civil trial involving notorious predator priest Oliver O’Grady who spent time in prison and was extradited. At the end of those proceeding, one juror pointedly told reporters that Mahony was “utterly unbelievable” and another juror went so far as to say “I didn’t believe Mahony . . . I think it is pretty obvious that none of us did.”

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

How did the 40th anniversary of the 1971 Synod on Justice in the World, relate to the current debates in the Church? If you go to the Holy See site and click on Synods, it gives the document inPortuguese which doesn’t help me. It was such an important document as it tacked, to some degree, the area of practicing justice in the church.

Some quotes are below:

40.While the Church is bound to give witness to justice, she recognizes that anyone who ventures to speak to people about justice must first be just in their eyes. Hence we must undertake an examination of the modes of acting andof the possessions and life style found within the Church herself.

41.Within the Church rights must be preserved. No one should be deprived of his ordinary rights because he is associated with the Church in one way or another. Those who serve the Church by their labor, including priests and religious, should receive a sufficient livelihood and enjoy that social security which is customary in their region. Lay people should be given fair wages and a system for promotion. We reiterate the recommendations that lay people should exercisemore important functions with regard to Church property and should share in its administration.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

In the hope that Fr Tony Flannery is allowed to read even if not allowed to speak I write to express my great sadness at the attempt to ‘silence’ those who Rome decrees are not ‘toeing the party line’. I am one of almost fifty priests in the archdiocese of Tuam who are registered members of the ACP and I am working as a priest for the past thirty two years. Like my co-diocesan Colm Kilcoyne who put it so eloquently on radio recently, I too was surprised and stunned by the announcement on Holy Thursday that the Pope is going to come down heavy on those promoting women priests ! Yes indeed Holy Week was almost wiped out !

Yesterday in Ballintubber Abbey at a funeral Mass I struggled with a colleague to read the ‘unreadable’ English in the awful translation that is the new missal. Tomorrow for ‘Low’ Sunday I will offer Mass in my home parish for my mother who is twenty years dead – the same church that she was secretly ‘churched’ after the joy of giving birth to each of her fourteen children. With regard to the role of women in our church has anything really changed ! Other colleagues expressed it well when they said that he church can be a ‘cold place’ for those of us who have a different view on the new missal or married clergy or the procedures used when colleagues are asked to ‘step aside’ from ministry.

Still we are an Easter people. We live in hope. Just as the Holy Spirit was at work at the AGM of our association a few months back when the Good News came through that RTE had apologised for its horrific libelling of our colleague Fr Kevin Reynolds. Maybe the attempt to ‘silence’ Fr Tony Flannery is the Holy Spirit giving us new energy as we move ‘Towards an Assembly of the Irish Catholic Church’ ! Looking forward to lively and respectful debate on the 7th May in the Regency Hotel !

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

[subscription is required]

[See other McGuire documents – BishopAccountability.org]

Even after the clergy abuse scandal exploded a decade ago, the Catholic order failed repeatedly to rein in offending priests. A current Boston College trustee was one who could have, should have done much more — and he admits it.

By Michael Rezendes
| Globe Staff
April 15, 2012

The Rev. Bradley M. Schaeffer, a Boston College trustee and rector of a major Jesuit training program in Brighton, failed to stop a predator priest associated with Mother Teresa of Calcutta during the 1990s, personally reviewing sexual abuse allegations and allowing him to continue to travel with boys. A judge has found that Schaeffer could have prevented years of abuse if he had taken stronger action against the Rev. Donald J. McGuire.

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ESPANA
Europa Press

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, 8 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –

El teólogo Andrés Torres Queiruga ha defendido que su teología es “tremendamente ortodoxa y moderada” y ha manifestado que el “toque” que le dieron “va mal orientado” porque “el grupo que elaboró el documento no entendió” su obra.

En una entrevista en Radio Nacional, recogida por Europa Press, Torres Queiruga ha comentado que la notificación recibida de la Conferencia Episcopal “es una especie de aviso” para decir “tenga usted cuidado, puede lesionar en algún momento la fe de la Iglesia”.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Sunday, April 15, 2012

Parishioners in Dublin will be asked to dig deeper at mass collections as their diocese heads for bankruptcy.

Catholic church leaders in the Irish capital have admitted that the diocese is close to financial ruin.

Priests face a further 25 per cent cut to their meagre wages as the Dublin church attempts to come to terms with a near $15million deficit.

Settlements in clerical abuse cases added to growing costs and falling contributions have led to the latest crisis.

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SPANIEN
Religions Philosophischer

15. Apr 2012

Zum Geburtstag des Papstes: Ein prominenter spanischer Theologe wird verurteilt

Von Christian Modehn

Pünktlich zum 85. Geburtstag von Papst Benedikt XVI. wird die Öffentlichkeit von der Verurteilung eines großen katholischen Theologen informiert: Wichtige Aussagen von Prof. Andrés Torres Queiruga, einem der bedeutendsten spanischen Theologen, werden gleichermaßen von der römischen Glaubensbehörde wie von der spanischen Bischofskonferenz verurteilt: Prof. Andrés Torres Queiruga (Jahrgang 1940) arbeitete an der Universität von Santiago de Compostela und ist Autor zahlreicher international verbreiteter Bücher sowie Mitglied des Direktionskomitees der führenden katholisch – theologischen Zeitschrift CONCILIUM.

Was werfen ihm Rom und die Bischöfe vor ? Andrés Torres Queiruga „negiert den Realismus der Auferstehung Jesu Christi als ein historisches wunderbares und transzendentes Ereignis. Außerdem leugnet er die Einzigkeit und die Universalität der für das Heil nötigen Vermittlung durch Christus und die Kirche“ (zit. nach der Tagezeitung El Mundo, 31. 3. 2012).

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

Zehntausende Opfer, so eine unabhängige Untersuchungskommission, habe der Missbrauch von Kindern in den Niederlanden gefordert; Tausende Kinder seien vergewaltigt worden, und die kirchliche Hierarchie habe Täter systematisch geschützt und die Reputation der Kirche über das Leid der Opfer gestellt. Als wären die Folgerungen der „Deetman-Kommission“, geleitet von einem protestantischen Politiker, für Hollands Katholizismus noch nicht vernichtend genug, gerät nun ein weiterer furchtbarer Aspekt katholischer Sexualpolitik ins Gesichtsfeld: Zeitzeugen melden den Fall eines jungen Mannes, der in den fünfziger Jahren seine sexuelle Ausbeutung in einem katholischen Heim bei der Polizei anzeigte, danach in eine katholische Klinik eingewiesen und schließlich als Minderjähriger kastriert wurde. Die Begründung damals: Der Junge habe als perverser Homosexueller die Patres verführt.

Warum es bis heute dauerte, dass die Geschichte von Henk Heithuis an die Öffentlichkeit kam, liegt an der Mutlosigkeit zweier Zeugen. Inzwischen um die achtzig Jahre alt, beteuern die Brüder Cornelius und Ijsbrand Rogge, dass sie schon Ende der fünfziger Jahre die Kastration von Heithuis vor Gericht und in die Medien bringen wollten. Doch erst verhinderte der mysteriöse Tod des Missbrauchsopfers bei einem Verkehrsunfall geplante Veröffentlichungen; auch die Justiz unternahm keine weiteren Schritte. Danach habe ihnen niemand glauben wollen. Erst die Sensibilität nach dem Deetman-Bericht brachte die Brüder Rogge dazu, Dokumente und Erinnerungen zum Fall Heithuis der Zeitung „NRC Handelsblad“ zur Auswertung zu übergeben.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY | Sun Apr 15, 2012

(Reuters) – Pope Benedict marks two milestones this week and while his health appears stable, signs of frailty have again prompted speculation over whether he will be the first pontiff in seven centuries to resign.

Benedict, one of the oldest popes in history, turns 85 on Monday, and on Thursday he marks the seventh anniversary of his election as successor to the immensely popular John Paul II.

Speaking to pilgrims and tourists in St Peter’s Square on Sunday, he noted Thursday’s anniversary and asked for prayers “so that the Lord may give me the strength to carry out the mission he has entrusted to me”.

Benedict is already older than John Paul was when he died in 2005 and is now the oldest reigning pope since Leo XIII, who died aged 93 in 1903 after reigning for 25 years.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
IrishCentral Contributer

Published Sunday, April 15, 2012

The following was supplied by an Irish Catholic priest known to the Irish Central editors who did not want his name used for fear of retribution

Fr Tony Flannery, a founder member of the Association of Catholic Priests, has been “invited” by Rome to take some time out to consider his position.

He has been one of those who have been calling for reform in the Catholic Church in such areas as the role of women, ecumenism etc. It is not possible to speak about “reform” in the Church , be it in Ireland or elsewhere, without bearing in mind the ever present elephant in the room, namely the roman Curia and the Papacy.

The need for reform here has been and remains paramount. No question in contemporary Catholicism, however, is proving more intractable and more acutely sensitive.

Roman control of the Church is now more centralised and rigid than ever before. It would seem that they now demand total conformity with papal ideas and ideals in all things and not merely in those which are essential to the unity of the Catholic and Christian faith. Those who hold this position seek to derive their theological, political, and even cultural ideals from the Pope and Curia of their time.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WOWK

By Jessie Shafer, Reporter

From 2005 – 2011, David McAteer and his alma mater and current employer, Wheeling Jesuit University, billed expenses to federal grant programs. This is according to new court records. McAteer was hand-picked by then WV governor, now US senator Joe Manchin to oversee independent investigations of three coal mine disasters since 2006.. Those include the Sago explosion, the Alma number 1 mine fire, and the Upper Big Branch explosion.

An agent in the NASA office of Inspector General obtained search warrants, after light was shed by several unidentified witnesses that funds were being misused.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WKYC

Written by
Dick Russ

CLEVELAND — A national figure in the Catholic Church closing controversy hosted a meeting in Cleveland Saturday.

Peter Borre of Boston’s Council of Parishes met with representatives of 12 of the 13 Northeast Ohio churches which the Vatican recently ordered to re-open. Borre has led a similar fight in Boston for more than seven years.

“In Boston we had to build on failure, namely our churches were shut down and we didn’t know what to do,” Borre told WKYC. “Here in Cleveland these groups will be building on success.”

“They’ve won some battles but they have not won they war,” he said of the 13 local parishes which have been fighting their closure. “But wow, this is the most encouraging thing I have seen on the Catholic beat in eight years.”

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LOUISIANA
The Advocate

by Robert Stewart
Advocate staff writer

April 15, 2012

J. Nathan Stansbury, a district attorney for 22 years in the Lafayette area, died Saturday morning.

He was 76.

Stansbury served as district attorney for the 15th Judicial District, which covers Lafayette, Acadia and Vermilion parishes.

Stansbury prosecuted Dalton Prejean, who eventually was convicted of shooting and killing State Trooper Donald Cleveland in 1977. Prejean was executed in 1990.

Stansbury also helped arrange a 20-year plea deal sentence in 1985 for the Rev. Gilbert Gauthe, a former Lafayette Catholic priest who served about half of that sentence for 33 sex-related criminal charges involving 11 of his former altar boys.

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IRELAND
Sunday Independent

Sunday April 15 2012

What is meant by a Catholic education? It should mean an education that passes on official Church teaching without dilution, and trains children to accept it. It’s why so many non-Catholics do not want their children to attend Catholic schools.

Because Catholic teaching is not in line with modern-day thinking and lifestyles. The Catholic Church in Ireland has long since ceased to spell out Catholic teaching in schools, perhaps because it fears that parents will walk away. Children attending are not taught Church teaching on homosexuality for instance: that it is a misfortune to be born homosexual, but gravely sinful to indulge your freakish nature. Homosexual practice condemns the sinner to hell.

Fornication and adultery are both grave sins, and those who die without having abandoned their sinful way and sought forgiveness will also merit eternal hellfire. Fornication is sexual congress outside sacramental marriage. Adultery is sexual congress by a married person with a partner other than their wife/husband. No second relationships are permitted. Marriage is for life.And those openly living in sin are supposed to be refused the sacraments.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

The Director of the Holy See’s Press Office, Federico Lombardi SJ issued a Note written in Italian on Saturday responding to the reprisal of interest in a nearly three decade-old missing persons case involving a citizen of Vatican City State, Emanuela Orlandi, who was 15 years old at the time of her disappearance.

After a thorough presentation of the known facts in the case, including a detailed description of Vatican officials’ co-operation with investigators from the Italian civil authorities, Fr Lombardi repeats that there are no secrets hidden in the Vatican. He goes on to stress that Vatican officials are ready and willing to continue co-operating with investigators, whenever they might be asked.

Fr Lombardi also recalls the great personal care and attention of Blessed John Paul II to the case and to the family of the victim – including his numerous public appeals in her behalf and his visit to the family’s home to console Emanuela’s parents and four siblings.

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VATICAN CITY
The Mainichi (Japan)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican insisted Saturday it has done everything possible to try to resolve the 1983 disappearance of an employee’s teenage daughter and has no objections to allowing inspection of the basilica tomb of a reputed mobster from a gang purportedly linked to her presumed kidnapping.

Its chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, made the assertion following media speculation that the Vatican knows something it has not revealed about the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi in Rome. Sparking the speculation was a Good Friday homily on April 6 in St. Peter’s Basilica by the papal preacher, who decried that many “atrocious” crimes go unsolved.

With Pope Benedict XVI among those listening, the preacher, the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, included this ringing appeal in his homily: “Don’t carry your secret to the grave with you!”

The priest didn’t name any names or specify any crimes, but his unusual choice for Good Friday reflection immediately sparked speculation that the appeal must have been meant for some Vatican official with knowledge about the Orlandi case, which the Vatican has viewed as a kidnapping.

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WEST VIRGINIA
The Intelligencer

April 15, 2012

From Staff, AP Dispatches

WHEELING – J. Davitt McAteer has been accused by a NASA fraud investigator of conspiring with Wheeling Jesuit University to use millions of federal grant dollars for personal gain and the school’s benefit.

The allegations are contained in an affidavit that an agent in the NASA Office of Inspector General used to obtain search warrants in an active criminal investigation against McAteer and his alma mater and current employer, Wheeling Jesuit University.

Court records on file with the U.S. District Court in Wheeling show investigators believe McAteer and the school fraudulently billed expenses to federal grant programs or cooperative agreements from 2005 through 2011.

The sworn affidavit by an agent who works at NASA’s Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Md., said those expenses range from McAteer’s salary – which surged from $130,300 in 2006 to $230,659 by 2008 – to cellphones, computers, technical support and salaries for other staff, including a secretary in McAteer’s Shepherdstown private law office.

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Bryan Fitzgerald

Updated 09:35 p.m., Saturday, April 14, 2012

ALBANY — A 74-year-old Greene County priest cleared six years ago of allegations that he sexually abused a minor has been placed on administrative leave as new claims of abuse are investigated, the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese said Saturday.

The Rev. Jeremiah Nunan, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Cairo and Our Lady of Knock Mission in East Durham, will be barred from officiating at any sacraments, wearing clerical garb or presenting himself as a priest, according to a statement from the diocese. The action was scheduled to be announced at weekend Masses at the two parishes.

The diocese acted after a civil lawsuit was filed claiming that Nunan sexually abused one individual for 15 years. The alleged abused occurred between 1996 and 2003, when the alleged victim was a minor, and from 2007 and 2011, when the individual was an adult. The lawsuit named as defendants Nunan, one of the parishes and the diocese. Nunan could not be reached for comment Saturday. The diocese, which has referred the allegations to the Greene County district attorney’s office, said that Nunan has denied the allegations.

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IRELAND
Sunday Independent

Sunday April 15 2012

A SURVEY released last week shows that the majority of Irish Catholics find teachings of the Catholic Church on some matters, such as sex and women priests, irrelevant or wrong.

Yet the Vatican has taken action to silence a couple of Irish priests who expressed opinions that are shared in Ireland among lay Catholics. One of them, Fr Tony Flannery, is a founder of the Association of Catholic Priests, which commissioned the revealing survey.

Rome’s clampdown is a reminder of the bad old days of hysterical Irish censorship, when the self-appointed guardians of public morality scoured bookshops and libraries with coloured pencils. They underlined bits of books that they wanted banned and removed from shelves, then sent those books to censors.

Last week Fr Adrian Egan, head of the Irish Redemptorists, expressed concern that there were “people sitting in churches on a daily basis that are almost listening to hear you express an opinion that might be seen as dissenting and they will report you”.

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NEDERLAND
Tubantia

OLDENZAAL – Het nieuws over het seksueel misbruik door een kapelaan van de toenmalige Antoniusparochie is vandaag in Oldenzaal ingeslagen als een bom. Het is het gesprek van de dag. Het bestuur van de Plechelmusparochie waar de Antoniuskerk nu onder valt, had nog zo gehoopt er in hun parochie gevrijwaard van te blijven. Maar nu dat niet het geval blijkt te zijn, komt de klap extra hard aan.

Pastoor Reerink heeft maar één woord nodig als hij zijn gevoel beschrijft met betrekking tot het slachtoffer van het seksueel misbruik eind jaren ’60: compassie. Hij trekt onmiddellijk het boetekleed aan. „Het is verschrikkelijk wat die man is overkomen. Dat had nooit mogen gebeuren.”

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UNITED STATES
The Politics Blog

[Bishops Issue Call To Action To Defend Religious Liberty – U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops]

By Charles P. Pierce

Are these idiots kidding me? The Letter From Birmingham Jail?

May god forgive them for such towering, impious self-regard, because I have no intention of doing so.

The Clan of the Red Beanie went celibate balls to the wailing wall on Thursday, issuing a Statement on Religious Liberty that turns the English language inside-out, repositions religious repression and pious bigotry as statements of freedom, makes a mockery of the informed consciences of a good slice of the American Catholic laity, and is a statement of meddling in the secular government that would be almost tragic, if it didn’t drip so garishly with lachrymose sanctimony about how heavily these ermined layabouts have been oppressed by the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, and by the fact that some states have decided that, no, they can no longer function as tax-free havens for discrimination on the basis of who does what to whom with their sexyparts. …

Moreover, King was in the jail because, as part of his belief in non-violent protest, he had to be there. One of the essential elements of his strategy was to break the secular law and to accept the secular punishment. Now, I don’t think I have to explain in too much detail how, over the last five decades or so, accepting the secular punishment for breaking the secular law never has been high on the priority list for America’s Catholic bishops. Don’t believe me? Take it up with Bernard Cardinal Law there, who ran off to Rome to preside over the Basilica Of Our Lady Of The Clean Getaway….

To be sure, history shows that the Catholic hierarchy has yet to learn its lesson when dealing with pedophile priests. When the problem hit Boston in 1992 — after Massachusetts priest James Porter was convicted of molesting 28 children in three Bristol parishes in the 1960s — scrutiny of the Church grew so intense that Law infamously called down “God’s power on the media.” But despite the negative headlines, the cardinal, we now know, did little to rid his archdiocese of sexual predators and thus prevent further public-relations fiascoes. When the Diocese of Dallas fell to its knees in 1997 — after a jury awarded 11 clergy sex-abuse victims $119.6 million for its negligent supervision – American bishops lamented that the award would cripple the American Catholic Church. But despite the financial threat, the bishops, we now know, did little to set up a system-wide policy to root out abusive clergy.

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SCRANTON (PA)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton

On Wednesday, April 11, 2012, Diocesan officials received an accusation of sexual misconduct involving a minor against the Reverend Russell E. Motsay. The accusation is reported to have occurred when the accuser, now an adult, was a minor. In response, Diocesan officials immediately cooperated with the Wayne County District Attorney’s Office, the county where the abuse is reported to have taken place, and the Pennsylvania State Police, Troop R Dunmore, Honesdale Station. In addition, the Diocese removed the accused cleric from ministry and suspended his faculties to exercise priestly ministries within the Diocese pending an investigation of the accusation. The Diocese of Scranton will continue to cooperate fully with all civil authorities in their investigation of this matter.

Ordained in 1972, the accused cleric has served as pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Carbondale since 1996. His prior appointments included serving as pastor at St. Juliana, Rock Lake; pastor at St. James, Pleasant Mount; assistant pastor at Holy Name, Swoyersville; assistant pastor at St. John the Evangelist, Wilkes-Barre; assistant pastor at Our Lady of Grace, Hazleton; assistant pastor at Sacred Heart, Peckville; catechist at Bishop Neumann High School, Williamsport; assistant pastor at St. Aloysius, Wilkes-Barre; and assistant pastor at Most Precious Blood, Hazleton.

The Diocese of Scranton encourages anyone who has been sexually abused by a member of the clergy or anyone else, to immediately notify local law enforcement authorities, including in this particular case Trooper John Decker, Pennsylvania State Police, Honesdale at (570) 253-7126; and to contact Joan Holmes, Victim’s Assistance Coordinator, at (570) 344-5216; or Diocesan officials, including Reverend Thomas M. Muldowney, V.E., Episcopal Vicar for Clergy, or Teresa Osborne, Chancellor, at (570) 207-2216.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

. .Tuesday is the next “hand down” from the Missouri Supreme Court. That’s when barrister Gerald Noce may learn whether his “extraordinary writ” will be granted. He represents the St. Lous Marianists, headed by Fr. Martin Solma. They’re being sued by Clayton attorney Ken Chackes over alleged child sex crimes by Brother William Mueller who taught at Chaminade and Vianney. .

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Baloney, ‘David Quinn: The beliefs of the church are not going to change by poll’…but the Pope apologizes centuries later for Pope Crimes and Vatican Evils

Paris Arrow

The sooner The Hague puts Benedict XVI for his crimes against humanity into trial, the better, and we will see how the Vatican Dream Team will try to defend him for his ‘unchanging beliefs’ that it was all right to cover-up thousands of pedophile priests as Cardinal Ratzinger during the 27 years papacy of John Paul II. John Paul II apologized for Pope Crimes and Vatican Evils but he was hiding inside his papal evil Achilles Heels Fr. Marcial Maciel and Cardinal Bernard Law who confessed in public that he transferred from one parish to another 80 pedophile priests in Boston, read our related article, Heil Satanas JP2 Patron Saint of Pedophiles, Pederasts Rapists-Priests! John Paul II is the same yesterday and today– he cannot protect children.

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NEW YORK
WRGB

According to the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese, a Greene County priest, Rev. Jeremiah Nunan, is on administrative leave from ministry as the Diocese investigates allegations he sexually abused a minor. A spokesman for the diocese says the Greene County District Attorney’s Office has been notified.

Nunan is 74 years old and pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Cairo and Our Lady of Knock Mission in East Durham. He is temporarily barred from officiating at any sacraments, wearing clerical garb, or presenting himself as a priest.

The suspension follows a civil lawsuit that claims Nunan abused someone between 1996 and 2003 when that person was a minor and between 2007 and 2011 when the plaintiff was an adult. According to the spokesman for the Diocese, Nunan has denied the allegations.

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ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union

ALBANY — The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese has placed a Greene County priest on administrative leave pending the outcome of investigations into allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. The Diocese has referred the allegations to the Greene County District Attorney’s Office.

Rev. Jeremiah Nunan, 74, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Cairo and Our Lady of Knock Mission in East Durham, is temporarily barred from officiating at any sacraments, wearing clerical garb, or presenting himself as a priest, according to a statement from the diocese. The action is being announced at weekend Masses at the two parishes.

The diocese acted after a civil lawsuit was filed claiming that Nunan sexually abused an individual between 1996 and 2003 when the individual was a minor and between 2007 and 2011 when the individual was an adult. The lawsuit named as defendants Nunan, one of the parishes and the diocese. Nunan has denied the allegations.

This is the second time Nunan has been placed on administrative leave by the diocese during an investigation of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. The previous allegation, received in 2006 and involving alleged abuse in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Hudson, was investigated by the diocese’s Independent Mediation Assistance Program, and could not be substantiated, the diocese stated. As a result, the diocese restored Nunan to ministry.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Justice minister Alan Shatter has backtracked on the question of State involvement in the Magdalene Laundries, despite saying in opposition there was “irrefutable evidence” of such collusion.

Speaking in the Dáil last month, Mr Shatter appeared to row back on previous comments by stating State involvement in committing women to Magdalene Laundries had a “very complicated” background that did not have a “simple, straightforward explanation”.

However, speaking in the Dáil as justice spokesperson when in opposition in 2009, Mr Shatter stated there was “irrefutable evidence” within the department he now heads up of such State involvement.

“There is now irrefutable evidence available from the Department of Justice that this State and the courts colluded in sending young women to what were then known as the Magdalene asylums and they ended up in the Magdalene Laundries and they were treated appallingly. Some of them have never recovered from the manner in which they were treated and their lives have been permanently blighted,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on April 14, 2012

I am a huge fan of the US justice system. After more than 200 years, our impartial courts have “gotten it right” a vast majority of the time. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best in the world.

Here’s a great example:

Last week, a jury unanimously found that Fr. Michael Kelly was liable for abusing a boy in the 1980s. The trial is currently in its second phase to determine whether or not the Diocese of Stockton knew about the abuse and covered it up. It took the alleged victim years to get the case in front of a jury, and 12 impartial citizens made their decisions based on the evidence. (One of Kelly’s supporters has been accused of jury tampering. Let’s hope that if true, that person is punished to the fullest extent of the law).

And another:

A Missouri judge has refused to drop misdemeanor criminal charges against Kansas City- St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn and the Diocese. The charges stem from allegations that Finn knew that one of his priests possessed child pornography. Instead of reporting to law enforcement (possession of child pornography is a federal crime, remember?), Finn allegedly sat on the information, sent the priest out of state (?!), and didn’t warn local families that their kids may have been victims of abuse. The priest who took and kept the photos has been indicted on 13 counts of exploiting five children ages 2 to 13.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WTOV

By NEWS9 and Philip Stahl

WHEELING, W.Va. —

Court documents show NASA is the federal agency that has been investigating Wheeling Jesuit University and the university’s vice president of sponsored programs.

Investigators claim in the affidavit that J. Davitt McAteer unlawfully diverted federal funds from federal grants that the university received to nonfederal-sponsored programs.

A 35-page document was released recently. Parts were redacted — blacked out to protect the identities of investigators, witnesses and the subjects under investigation.

According to the affidavit, NASA’s Office of Inspector General has been investigating the university and McAteer since May 2010.

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SPAIN
Times of Malta

An 80-year-old Spanish nun was jeered as she arrived in court this week, the first person to go before a judge over cases of babies allegedly stolen from their mothers during and after the Franco era.

Sr Maria Gomez Valbuena went before a judge investigating her role in the kidnapping of a newborn girl from a Madrid hospital three decades ago, one of thousands of cases of alleged theft of babies by nuns, priests and doctors.

Wearing the blue habit of her Sisters of Charity order, she refused to testify and left the court accompanied by another nun from her convent as police shielded her from the crush of reporters.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Friday April 13 2012

I grew up hearing that a Catholic priest needed to be celibate so he could focus exclusively on his flock. It was presented as a boon for congregations to have clergymen with no distractions beyond their spiritual welfare.

How burdensome celibacy might be for the priest was glossed over, as the price he had to pay for being entrusted with the care of others’ souls. People knew, in theory, there were religions that allowed ministers to marry, but it seemed a poor sort of vocation. The consensus was that other faiths had lower standards than Catholicism.

Sometimes, a priest might find the condition of celibacy to be troublesome, and whispers would circulate about him leaving the priesthood. Generally, there was a woman involved, and parishioners agreed it was a mortal pity she couldn’t leave the poor man in peace.

When I was in my teens, one of the priests in the parish acquired a puppy, and people began to comment on the amount of affection and attention he lavished on it. Dog-lovers become attached to their pets, but this was exceptional: that animal filled a void in his life.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Friday April 13 2012

The findings of the survey commissioned by the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) are not even in the tiniest bit surprising. We have known for years that on issue after issue many or most Catholics, even weekly Mass-going Catholics, do not believe what their church believes.

The press release by the ACP says the survey “reveals a significant disconnect between official Catholic Church teaching and what Catholics actually believe”.

That is absolutely correct, but the question is what should be done about it? Does the church alter its teachings in line with the latest opinion poll or must it instead do a much better job explaining to Catholics and the general public why it believes what it believes?

The poll zeroed in on the teachings liberal Catholics want to see changed, for example celibacy, women priests and on sexuality generally.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Colm Kelpie

Friday April 13 2012

SENIOR church figures were last night trying to come to terms with the stark findings of a report which lays bare massive alienation among huge numbers of Catholics.

The survey, for an 800-strong group of priests, found most Catholics are at odds with the hierarchy over several issues.

The vast majority of those surveyed disagreed with the Vatican’s thinking on women clergy, homosexuality and celibacy for priests. …

Monsignor Brendan Byrne, the diocesan administrator of the Kildare and Leighlin Diocese, said: “I’m sure the bishops will look at it seriously. They will take a serious view of it, will reflect upon it and try to respond to it.”

Yesterday the Catholic hierarchy issued a short statement in which it recognised that there was a “rapidly changing social and cultural environment in Ireland today”.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

Post by Peter Montgomery

While the Catholic Bishops are ramping up their political campaign to portray marriage equality and requirements that insurance coverage include contraception (among other topics) as dire threats to religious liberty, some priests and parishes are beginning to resist publicly.

In Pittsburgh, four priests met with Bishop David Zubik to tell him that his rhetoric—Zubik accused the Obama administration of telling Catholics to “To Hell with you!”—was angering parishioners. Fr. Neil McCaulley spoke with National Catholic Reporter:

McCaulley, who is retired after serving 46 years as a parish priest in the Pittsburgh area, said the idea for the meeting with Zubik first came as members of his group talked with others and decided “we owed it to the people… of the church to let the bishop know that not everybody out there agrees with the bishops.”

Pointing to a number of studies that show that about 90 percent of Catholics don’t follow the church’s official teaching on birth control, McCaulley said the group thought that since the bishop is “always willing to meet with priests,” they could raise the issue with Zubik and ask him to meet with laypeople, as “we didn’t feel competent to speak on women’s issues.”

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WEST VIRGINIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Saturday, April 14, 2012

By VICKI SMITH , The Associated Press

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.–One of the world’s foremost experts on mine safety–from gold mines in Chile to the coal mines of southern West Virginia–stands accused by a NASA fraud investigator of conspiring with the Catholic college where he now works to use millions of federal grant dollars for personal gain and the school’s benefit.

The allegations are contained in an affidavit that an agent in the NASA Office of Inspector General used to obtain search warrants in an active criminal investigation of former U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration director J. Davitt McAteer, and his alma mater and current employer, Wheeling Jesuit University.

Court records show investigators believe Mr. McAteer and the school fraudulently billed expenses to federal grant programs or cooperative agreements from 2005 through 2011.

The sworn affidavit by an agent who works out of the Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Md., said those expenses range from Mr. McAteer’s salary–which surged from $130,300 in 2006 to $230,659 by 2008–to cellphones, computers, technical support and salaries for other staff, including a secretary in Mr. McAteer’s Shepherdstown private law office.

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WEST VIRGINIA
The Intelligencer

April 13, 2012

From Staff, AP Dispatches

WHEELING – A federal investigation into J. Davitt McAteer and Wheeling Jesuit University appears to center on whether the university illegally diverted federal funds between 2005 and 2011 by fraudulently billing expenses to grant programs or cooperative agreements, court documents indicate. U.S. Magistrate James E. Seibert on Thursday extended the government’s request to keep search warrants, affidavits and other information supporting those warrants sealed for another 60 days.

But motions by both parties on whether to unseal them reveal information about the focus of the probe.

They show that NASA, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General and other agencies seized documents from McAteer’s offices in Wheeling and Shepherdstown on Feb. 16. McAteer, an attorney and former head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, runs the university’s Office of Sponsored Programs.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

By Associated Press
Saturday, April 14, 2012

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Federal documents filed by a NASA fraud investigator indicate a former head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration and the Catholic college in West Virginia where he works conspired for six years to misuse millions of grant dollars from the space agency for personal gain and the school’s benefit.

The allegations are contained in an affidavit that an agent in the NASA Office of Inspector General used to obtain search warrants in an active criminal investigation of mine safety expert J. Davitt McAteer and his alma mater and current employer, Wheeling Jesuit University.

Court records show investigators believe McAteer, who has been vice president of the school since 2005, and the school fraudulently billed expenses to federal grant programs or cooperative agreements from 2005 through 2011.

The sworn affidavit by an agent — who works out of the Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Md. — said those expenses range from McAteer’s salary — which surged from $130,300 in 2006 to $230,659 by 2008 — to cellphones, computers, technical support and salaries for other staff, including a secretary in McAteer’s Shepherdstown private law office.

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IRELAND
Limerick Leader

By Alan Owens
Published on Saturday 14 April 2012

THE HEAD of the Redemptorist Order in Limerick has said he is “sad” and “disappointed” at the action taken against fellow priest Fr Tony Flannery by the Vatican.

Fr Flannery – who was himself rector in Limerick for six years in the mid-90s – has been silenced by the Vatican for his outspoken views on reform in the Catholic Church. The Athenry-based priest, who wrote a column in the Redemptorists’ Reality magazine for 14 years, has now been advised to go to a monastery and “reflect on his situation” for a six-week period.

Rome had earlier put an end to Fr Flannery’s monthly column in Reality, which is edited by Doon priest, Fr Gerry Moloney, who is also allegedly the subject of scrutiny from the Vatican. Fr Moloney is believed to have been told not to print any articles on celibacy, the use of contraception and the involvement of women in the clergy, for an unspecified period.

While stressing that he was “speaking on my own behalf”, Fr Egan told the Limerick Leader he was disappointed at how the situation had been handled.

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VATICAN CITY
Fox News

Published April 14, 2012

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican says it has done everything possible to try to resolve the 1983 disappearance of an employee’s daughter and isn’t hiding anything.

Its chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, made the assertion Saturday following media speculation the Vatican knows something it’s not revealing about the case. Sparking the speculation was a Good Friday homily in St. Peter’s Basilica by the papal preacher, who decried that many atrocious crimes go unsolved and urged those who could help, not to go to their tombs with secrets.

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SPAIN
Time

By Lisa Abend / Madrid
Friday, Apr. 13, 2012

The elderly woman who left Madrid’s courthouse on Thursday morning looked stooped and ghostly, but neither her obvious frailty nor the plain blue habit she wore kept the small crowd of onlookers from screaming at her. “Shameless!” one woman shouted. “How could you cause so much suffering?”

Thursday was supposed to be the day that began to bring resolution to those who believe themselves victims of decades of baby robbing in Spain. The nun called to testify, Sor María Gómez Valbuena, is the first person indicted for her alleged involvement in a scheme which supposedly saw thousands of newborns taken from their mothers and sold to adoptive parents. But once in front of the judge, Gómez exercised her right to remain silent. And later that day at a meeting with representatives of victims’ associations, Spanish government officials admitted that, although they would dedicate administrative resources to attempting to reunite mothers and children, the chances for bringing to justice those who had separated the families were slim.

Some 1,500 accusations of baby stealing, dating from the late 1950s until mid-1980s, have been filed in Spain in the past year or two. Most follow the same chilling narrative: a single mother or a married woman who already had several children gave birth to an apparently healthy child, but was soon told — often by a nun who worked as a nurse — that the baby had died. Although the adoptive parents frequently paid significant amounts of money for their child, ideology more than greed appears to have been behind the thefts. “These are nuns and priests who strongly believed that the child would be better off with a more traditional or more ‘moral,’ family,” explains journalist Natalia Junquera, who has led the newspaper El País’s investigation of the thefts. “They honestly thought they were doing the right thing.”

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STATI UNITI
da Piazzetta Comunista (Italia)

Sono 700, di cui 21 minorenni, coloro che, l’anno scorso, hanno accusato di abusi sessuali membri del clero cattolico americano.

E’ quanto emerge dal nono rapporto annuale pubblicato dalla Conferenza Episcopale Statunitense, dove si precisa che la maggior parte delle accuse risale a fatti avvenuti nei decenni scorsi.

Ma anche se gli abusi si riferiscono al passato la ”Chiesa deve restare vigile e fare tutto il possibile affinche’ gli abusi non si ripetano” afferma il cardinale Timothy Dolan, presidente della Conferenza Episcopale statunitense. ”683 adulti vittime di abusi nel passato hanno denunciato i fatti per la prima volta” nel 2011, si legge nel rapporto.

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SPAIN
News that Matters

A Spanish nun has become the first person to appear in court in connection with the alleged theft of newborn babies, mostly in the Franco era.

Sister Maria Gomez Valbuena, 80, is accused of stealing a mother’s newborn daughter at a Madrid hospital in 1982.

Appearing before a judge on Thursday, Sister Maria refused to testify.

Thousands of babies are thought to have been taken from parents in hospitals and given to other families during the Franco dictatorship and later.

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DEUTSCHLAND
domradio

Der sexuelle Missbrauch in katholischen Einrichtungen soll während der Heilig-Rock-Wallfahrt nicht ausgespart werden. Sexueller Missbrauch in der Kirche werde nicht verschwiegen, sondern in Fürbitten für die Opfer in Wallfahrtsgottesdiensten aufgegriffen, sagte der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann am Dienstag, drei Tage vor Beginn der öffentlichen Ausstellung der Reliquie. Zur Wallfahrt zwischen dem 13. April und dem 13. Mai werden mehr als eine halbe Million Pilger in Trier erwartet.

Zum sexuellen Missbrauch sagte Ackermann, wichtiger als rituelle kirchliche Bußriten und -akte sei der respektvolle Umgang mit den Reaktionen der Betroffenen. “Die Betroffenen haben ein Recht, unversöhnt zu bleiben”, sagte der Bischof, der Beauftragter der Bischofskonferenz für alle Fragen im Zusammenhang des sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger im kirchlichen Bereich ist. Es werde eine Ausstellung über das Missbrauchs-Thema geben sowie Gesprächsangebote. “Ich hoffe, dass das Thema die Wallfahrt nicht überschattet.”

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CHILE
Religion Digital

La Iglesia de Santiago de Chile resolvió disolver la Pía Unión del sacerdote Fernando Karadima, sin especificar qué ocurrirá con sus cerca de 40 miembros, ni tampoco con las propiedades que estaban a su nombre y entre las cuales se encuentra la propia iglesia de El Bosque avaluada por el fisco en U$ 10 millones. Esta es la historia de un colectivo eclesiástico que se creó para adorar a Cristo y que Karadima terminó usando para su propia adoración.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

[with video]

Organizers with non-profit MaleSurvivor offered a free screening of the documentary “Boys and Men Healing” and provided awareness training for campus counselors and psychologists on the University Park campus Wednesday night.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pocono Record

April 14, 2012

The Diocese of Scranton said officials were notified Wednesday of sexual misconduct involving a minor against The Rev. Russell E. Motsay. The accusation is reported to have occurred when the accuser, now an adult, was a minor.

In response, Diocesan officials immediately cooperated with the Wayne County District Attorney’s Office, the county where the abuse is reported to have taken place, and the Pennsylvania State Police, Troop R Dunmore, Honesdale Station.

In addition, the Diocese removed the accused cleric from ministry and suspended his faculties to exercise priestly ministries within the Diocese pending an investigation of the accusation.

Ordained in 1972, Motsay has served as pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Carbondale since 1996. His prior appointments included serving as pastor at St. Juliana, Rock Lake; pastor at St. James, Pleasant Mount; assistant pastor at Holy Name, Swoyersville; assistant pastor at St. John the Evangelist, Wilkes-Barre; assistant pastor at Our Lady of Grace, Hazleton; assistant pastor at Sacred Heart, Peckville; catechist at Bishop Neumann High School, Williamsport; assistant pastor at St. Aloysius, Wilkes-Barre; and assistant pastor at Most Precious Blood, Hazleton.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

I have just read the results of your survey of catholic opinion on the internet. Firstly, let me congratulate you on this timely undertaking. Many of the findings are interesting if not unexpected. We need to know exactly where we stand.

Let me state my own particular interest. I am a retired secondary school teacher who taught, among other subjects, religion to junior and senior levels. There’s another subject worthy of thorough research – the status of religion teaching in our secondary schools – but that’s for another day. I am closely involved with liturgy in my local church, particularly that involving young people aged from sixteen to late twenties; I am a member of the parish liturgy committee and of the diocesan liturgy commission.

And now to my particular interest in your survey. Granted, any survey must be limited in the number of questions it can put, but I would have liked a few more on the liturgy. My own experience is that a sizeable minority of lay people are willing to be involved, but from my experience of dealing with school chaplains over a forty year period and with parish clergy over a longer period I have come to the regrettable conclusion the priests in general are just not interested in liturgy, with the exception of a few who are willing to ‘let you get on with it’ and even fewer who give active support and encouragement.

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