ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Toronto Sun

Philip Pullella, REUTERS

First posted: Sunday, July 15, 2012

VATICAN CITY – A European report on efforts by the Vatican to embrace financial transparency after a series of scandals involving its bank will laud recent reforms but also underscore what remains to be done to reach international standards in all areas.

According to people familiar with the still-secret report, due to be issued on Wednesday by a department of the Council of Europe, the eagerly anticipated evaluation will give the Vatican an overall passing grade in key areas but criticize others.

The report is by Moneyval, “The Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism”, which is the Council’s monitoring mechanism that ensures that member states comply with international financial standards.

The external evaluation and recommendations are a milestone for the Vatican, which has been trying to shed its image as a suspect financial centre since 1982, when Roberto Calvi, an Italian known as “God’s Banker” because of his links to the Vatican, died under mysterious circumstances.

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ZIMBABWE
The Standard

Sunday, 15 July 2012

Spending most of our teenage years at a Catholic secondary school, we never really believed that priests and nuns were celibate. It was impossible for us adolescent African boys, born and bred in rural areas, where we received our sex education as soon as we realised we were boys and not girls, to agree to the lie that a real man could live without a woman for all his life.

Our highly patriarchal sex education inculcated into us that boys should have girlfriends, marry them at the appropriate time and have children. The real man loved women and had several at his beck and call. It was, with the benefit of hindsight, the wrong kind of education, hence the now entrenched “small house” phenomenon. It seems our priests also went through the same education.

At the mission school we always paired certain priests with certain nuns and alleged that they had sex romps once in a while. The more imaginative boys described in sordid detail how they had “seen with their own eyes” Father So-n-so doing it “live” with Sister So-n-so. The situation was not helped by open friendships exhibited by some priests and nuns.

We were innocent little boys who admired these priests for the education they gave us, both in the classroom and on the sport field; like us, they loved macho sport. If abuse of boys was present we didn’t see it perhaps because we were too innocent to even think that homosexuality existed. Looking back, and putting one and one together, some incidents come up that may suggest there were “special” relationships between some boys and some priests.

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UNITED STATES
The New Civil Rights Movement

by David Badash on July 12, 2012

Gallup today released a scathing survey, finding that Americans’ confidence in organized religion is at its lowest point since Gallup began asking the question in 1973. Currently, only 44% of Americans hold “a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the church or organized religion,” down from a high of 68% in 1975.

Gallup points to the Church’s sex abuse scandals, which include the great many and infamous child sex abuse and rape scandals that continue to plague the Catholic Church, as a key reason for the continual drop in confidence of organized religion, but notes that “the decline in confidence does not necessarily indicate a decline in Americans’ personal attachment to religion. The percentage of Americans saying religion is very important in their lives has held fairly steady since the mid-1970s, after dropping sharply from 1952 levels.”

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

Father of pope’s imprisoned butler defends son over leaks of sensitive Vatican documents

By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, July 15

VATICAN CITY — The father of Pope Benedict XVI’s imprisoned butler says his son is honest and hopes the truth will emerge concerning the leaks of sensitive Vatican documents.

Andrea Gabriele wrote a letter Sunday to television station Tgcom 24, the first time Paolo Gabriele’s family has commented on his alleged involvement in the scandal since his May 23 arrest. The documents, which were published in Italian media, exposed infighting and power struggles in the highest levels of the Vatican.

While Andrea Gabriele defended his son, he hinted that the motivation behind the leaks was to expose wrongdoing for the sake of purifying the church. He said his son was “paying the price first-hand.”

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UNITED STATES
Anti-Catholic League

By David Fortwengler

On July 10th Bill Donohue, president of the pro Catholic bishop group the Catholic League, issued another of his infamous diatribes in a news release. Titled “SNAP Disgraces Itself Again” bombastic Bill was responding to a paid advertisement SNAP ran in the NY Times.

The high-decibel speaking Donohue’s main complaint is that SNAP didn’t mention in its ad the “positive reforms” made by U.S. bishops over the last decade. What Donohue ignores is the “reforms” made since 2002 are in spite of the bishops, not because of them. The bishops were forced by societies outrage at their illegal and immoral behavior that was uncovered in investigations by media, government, and civil lawyers.

I believe the most important reform the church has made is background checks and training about child sex abuse for its volunteers. I am grateful for these changes but make no mistake, catholic parishioners are not to blame for the scandal. My parents weren’t aware a known pedophile was assigned to our parish in charge of the altar boys, the diocese and the bishop were.

Donohue’s organization is a professional bishop excuser group. Not professional as in competent, professional as in highly paid to spew nonsense. When the Catholic League claims the “scandal” ended in the mid-eighties he ignores the definition of scandal.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 16, 2012

Rory Callinan

AN ARMIDALE priest suspected of child abuse was assisted by a ”mate” who was a policeman to bring blackmail charges against one his former altar boy victims, court transcripts reveal.

The charges resulted in the victim, Daniel Powell, going on trial and appeared to permanently halt police investigations into his allegations of abuse.

Mr Powell was found not guilty of blackmail in 2004 but committed suicide in 2007. The priest, whose name was suppressed during the proceedings, admitted under cross examination during Mr Powell’s trial that he had told senior church officials in 1992 that he had sexually abused children.

The Catholic Church’s handling of the priest, dubbed Father F, has come under scrutiny after a recent Four Corners investigation. It has raised questions as to whether the church should have reported him to police, rather than taking internal disciplinary action.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Democrat and Chronicle

With a reputation as a strict enforcer of the Catholic faith, Pope Benedict XVI earned the moniker “God’s Rottweiler” shortly after he was elected in April 2005.

That reputation has some members of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester concerned that the successor to Bishop Matthew Clark will be a man who mirrors the Pope’s unwavering conservative stances on social issues.

“This is a very well-educated diocese, and also an educated diocese in terms of the faith,” said Mary Kate Driscoll of Rochester. “I cannot see this community surviving with some sort of totalitarian ‘Because I said so,’ kind of guy.”

But that’s exactly the type of bishop that some are hoping for.

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COLORADO
San Francisco Chronicle

DENVER (AP) — A former private Christian school principal facing child pornography charges has been released on bond.

KUSA-TV (http://on9news.tv/NqZEvG ) reports Daniel Ivan Ashby must stay at his parents’ house, and no one in the home is allowed to have a computer or Internet access.

Ashby, who resigned from Community Christian School in Northglenn on Dec. 6, has been charged with distributing and possessing child pornography.

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ITALIA
euronews

(ANSA)- FANO (PESARO URBINO), 13 LUG – Il portavoce del vescovodi Fano (Pesaro Urbino) don Giangiacomo Ruggeri è statoarrestato dalla polizia per presunti abusi su una minorenne. Ilsacerdote è portavoce del vescovo Armando Trasarti ed originariodi Fossombrone. Giornalista pubblicista svolge pure l’incaricodi direttore dell’Ufficio diocesano per le Comunicazionisociali. La ragazzina che avrebbe subito abusi ha 13 anni. DonRuggeri e’ stato rinchiuso nel carcere di Villa Fastiggi, aPesaro, in isolamento.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

Authorities have re-opened a 2007 fondling complaint against a priest who taught at a suburban Philadelphia high school and is now the Roman Catholic bishop of West Virginia.

The complaint stems from Bishop Michael Bransfield’s days at Lansdale Catholic High School in the 1970s. The Philadelphia Archdiocese said it did not find the complaint credible at the time, and passed it on to Montgomery County authorities.

But the archdiocese said last week that the complaint has been reopened.

“The Archdiocese of Philadelphia promptly reported the allegation against Bishop Bransfield to the Montgomery County D.A.’s office in 2007. … The situation is again being reviewed by law enforcement authorities,” spokesman Kenneth Gavin said in an email.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WTOV

By NEWS9

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—

Authorities have officially re-opened a 2007 fondling complaint against Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, who at the time was a priest who taught at a suburban Philadelphia high school back in the 1970’s.

The development comes after trial testimony in a Philadelphia priest-abuse case. A trial witness testified that a priest who abused him told him that Bishop Michael Bransfield was sexually involved with a young teen. The witness said he was raped by the priest at Bransfield’s beach house.

Bransfield has said he wasn’t home at the time. He denies ever abusing anyone.

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NEDERLAND
BN DeStem

zaterdag 14 juli 2012

OOTMARSUM – Hij weet van geen ophouden. Opnieuw tart de Ootmarsumse kunstenaar Frans Houben menigeen met een nieuw protest tegen het seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk.

Het is niet te missen. Wie langs zijn atelier aan de Oldenzaalsestraat pal bij de ingang van het stadje komt móet het bord zien. Met daarop de prijsvraag die Frans Houben voor de verandering heeft verzonnen. ‘Hoeveel burgers van Ootmarsum zouden seksueel misbruikt zijn’, vraagt hij zich af en geeft vervolgens vier mogelijkheden. A: mijnheer pastoor, B: mijnheer kapelaan, C: burgemeester, 4: brave en lieve oom.

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
St. Cloud Times

Written by
David Unze

The St. Cloud diocese has settled a lawsuit with a man who accused a former deacon of sexually abusing him in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The lawsuit originally named the former deacon, Michael Weber, as a defendant, but Weber was dismissed from the lawsuit before it was settled. The lawsuit accusing Weber of abuse decades ago came after Weber had built a distinguished career in child protection in public and private agencies.

And it came after the St. Cloud diocese, at a Mass in the St. Cloud church where Weber used to serve as a deacon, called the allegations against Weber credible and scheduled listening sessions to address the issue.

The lawsuit, originally filed in Hennepin County, was transferred to Stearns County after Weber was dismissed as a defendant. Documents finalizing the settlement of the case were filed last week in Stearns County District Court. Terms of the settlement were not available.

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INDIA
Deccan Herald

A clergyman belonging to the Thanjavur diocese was arrested for reportedly misbehaving with a class 10 boy who travelled on his motorcycle.

The 15-year-old boy, son of Ramaraj of Aravampatti village and studying in class 10 at Holy Mary higher secondary school at Thachangkurichi, was waiting for a bus at the bus stop with his schoolmates on Friday evening to return home.

When he saw the priest riding a motorbike, he hesitantly asked for a ‘lift’.

The clergyman generously obliged and made the boy sit on the fuel tank. But he reportedly misbehaved with the boy by kissing and hugging him during the ride.

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NORTH DAKOTA
The Jamestown Sun

The Associated Press – GRAND FORKS, N.D.

Republican North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven is pushing the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to hold hearings about child abuse and neglect on American Indian reservations, according to his deputy chief of staff.

Hearings would be held in Washington, D.C., because more senators could attend and the discussion would draw national exposure, Ryan Bernstein told the Grand Forks Herald ( http://bit.ly/NnNa9p) for a story published Saturday.

“We’re working with the chairman, and we hope we can get that scheduled soon,” Bernstein said. “We’re hoping this summer, but if not, right after the August recess.”

Both Hoeven and Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota are members of the panel.

A Bureau of Indian Affairs review earlier this year detailed problems in tribal social services programs on the state’s Spirit Lake Indian Reservation.

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NORTH DAKOTA
In-Forum

By: Chuck Haga and Patrick Springer, Forum Communications, INFORUM

SPECIAL REPORT: Protecting Spirit Lake’s kids

GRAND FORKS – Ryan Bernstein, deputy chief of staff for Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said Friday the senator is “pushing for hearings” by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on the issue of child abuse and neglect on reservations.

Both Hoeven and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., are members of the panel.

“We’re working with the chairman, and we hope we can get that scheduled soon,” Bernstein said. “We’re hoping this summer, but if not, right after the August recess.”

Hearings on the problem of Indian child abuse likely would be held in Washington, D.C., “because more senators would be there, and there would be national exposure,” Bernstein said. “We see the issue right now in our state, but this is an issue in other states, as well.”

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GALLUP (NM)
Gallup Independent

Published in Gallup Independent, Gallup, NM, July 14, 2012

First in a two-part series

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent

GALLUP — Three Navajo men who filed the first clergy sex abuse lawsuits in the Navajo Nation court system have signed settlement agreements with Catholic Church officials.

“I just really had a courageous group of clients,” Patrick Noaker, the Minnesota attorney who represented the Navajo plaintiffs, said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Noaker, of Jeff Anderson & Associates, said all parties in the three different civil cases agreed to try mediation as an alternative to continuing litigation. Paul Bardacke, a former New Mexico attorney general, worked as the mediator throughout March and April, with all the settlement details being recently finalized, Noaker said.

Abuse allegations against Charles “Chuck” Cichanowicz, a former Franciscan priest who once worked on the Navajo Nation, were at the center of each lawsuit. In November 2007, Noaker and Gallup attorney William R. Keeler filed the first lawsuit in Shiprock District Court on behalf of “John Doe BF,” a Navajo man who said he had been sexually abused by Cichanowicz when the priest was assigned to Shiprock’s Christ the King parish. Two more Navajo men later came forward with allegations that Cichanowicz had abused them while he was assigned to St. Michael Mission in St. Michaels, Ariz. Noaker and Keeler filed those lawsuits in Window Rock District Court.

As part of the settlements, Cichanowicz has agreed not to apply for or accept any kind of work that involves contact with minors, Noaker said. This provision also includes volunteer positions.

“That was a big part of the settlement,” Noaker said.

The provision is court-enforceable, he added, and Noaker believes advocacy groups for survivors of sex abuse will keep a close eye on the former priest’s whereabouts. When the first lawsuit was filed, Cichanowicz was discovered working as a mental health counselor for adolescents and adults in Lafayette, Ind.

In addition, all three plaintiffs will receive monetary settlements from the four defendants in the cases: Cichanowicz, the Diocese of Gallup, the Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Albuquerque, and the Franciscan Province of St. John the Baptist in Cincinnati. Noaker said his clients have asked that the settlement amounts not be publicly disclosed.

Describing settlement agreements as sometimes being “a little bittersweet,” Noaker said these clergy abuse settlement agreements offered some concessions to the defendants as well. Attorneys for the defendants, mindful of the possible threat of future litigation, offered no statements of apology to any of his clients and Cichanowicz made no admission of guilt, Noaker said.

Pursuing further litigation through the Navajo court system would have publicly exposed more details about the abuse his clients said they were subjected to by Cichanowicz, Noaker added, but it would have also been difficult on his clients.

“We’ve been at this a long time,” he said. “Some of the guys were feeling a little run down.”

During the nearly five years since John Doe BF v. the Diocese of Gallup, et al was filed, the first Navajo clergy abuse case has had its share of dramatic courtroom twists and turns. In January 2010, Shiprock District Court Judge Genevieve Woody ordered a controversial dismissal of the case, which Noaker and Keeler subsequently appealed. In September, the Navajo Nation Supreme Court weighed in and reversed Woody’s dismissal and remanded the case back to district court.

By filing their lawsuits in the Navajo Nation’s courts, Noaker said his clients feel like they have protected other children by raising public awareness of the sexual abuse of children on the reservation. Noaker said none of the men ever considered pursuing out-of-court confidential settlements with the Catholic Church.

“It was a real inspiration for me to watch all three of these guys grow,” Noaker said of his clients. He said the men started the legal process ashamed and embarrassed by what had happened to them and grew into men willing to take on their accused abuser.

“I think they went from victim to survivor,” Noaker said. “All three of these guys are better … a weight has been lifted off them.”

Noaker singled out his first Navajo client, the man known in court documents as “John Doe BF,” for his courage in filing the first tribal lawsuit against a clergyman and church officials.

“He stood up to them,” Noaker said. “He took them all to the Navajo Supreme Court. He stood up for himself and then he stood up for others. He has every right to be proud.”

Joelle Casteix, the Western regional director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, accompanied Noaker to Shiprock and Gallup in 2007 after that first case was filed.

“These victims are pioneers in seeking rights for Native American victims of abuse,” Casteix said in an email Friday. “Because of their tenacity and strength, other victims will be able to get help and healing through the Navajo courts.”

“Even though church officials refused to warn the Navajo Nation of the threat that Cichanowicz posed, his victims are now hopefully empowered and can help ensure that what happened to them does not happen to another child,” Casteix added. “I hope that other victims in the Navajo Nation come forward to seek the accountability and healing that they deserve.”

Attorneys for the Diocese of Gallup and Cichanowicz did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Albuquerque’s Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Toni Cashnelli, the communications director for Cincinnati’s Franciscan Province of St. John the Baptist, did not respond to questions but noted the province’s child protection policy is posted on the religious order’s website.

Editor’s Note: In Monday’s Independent — An interview with the Navajo plaintiff who filed the first clergy sex abuse lawsuit on the Navajo Nation.
Reporter Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola can be contacted at (505) 870-0745 or ehardinburrola@yahoo.com.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Washington Post

Pa. prosecutor reopens ‘07 fondling complaint against Roman Catholic bishop of West Virginia

By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, July 14

PHILADELPHIA — Authorities have re-opened a 2007 fondling complaint against a priest who taught at a suburban Philadelphia high school and is now the Roman Catholic bishop of West Virginia.

The complaint stems from Bishop Michael Bransfield’s days at Lansdale Catholic High School in the 1970s. The Philadelphia Archdiocese said it did not find the complaint credible at the time, and passed it on to Montgomery County authorities.

But the archdiocese said last week that the complaint has been reopened.

“The Archdiocese of Philadelphia promptly reported the allegation against Bishop Bransfield to the Montgomery County D.A.’s office in 2007. … The situation is again being reviewed by law enforcement authorities,” spokesman Kenneth Gavin said in an email.

The development comes with the recently completed Philadelphia priest-abuse trial in which a witness testified that a priest who abused him told him that Bransfield was sexually involved with a young teen. The witness also said he was raped by the priest at Bransfield’s beach house.

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ITALIEN
Kipa (Schweiz)

Rom, 14.7.12 (Kipa) In Italien hat die Polizei am Wochenende den Pressesprecher eines katholischen Bischofs wegen des Verdachts auf sexuellen Missbrauch verhaftet. Der Priester Giacomo Ruggeri, Leiter der Kommunikationsabteilung des Bistums Fano, soll sich an einem 13-jährigen Mädchen vergangen haben, berichtet die katholische Tageszeitung “Avvenire” (Samstag).

Der Bischof der mittelitalienischen Diözese, Armando Trasarti, entband Ruggeri daraufhin am gleichen Tag von allen seelsorgerischen Aufgaben und untersagte ihm eine weitere Spendung der Sakramente. Der Priester wurde nach der Festnahme in das Gefängnis von Pesaro gebracht.

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OSTERREICH
Kurier

Der Bescheid des österreichischen Bundessozialamtes könnte alle bisher für ehemalige Heimkinder gezahlten Entschädigungen weit in den Schatten stellen: Einer gebürtigen Salzburgerin wurde der Anspruch auf eine Pension nach dem Verbrechensopfergesetz zuerkannt.

Wie das Tiroler Nachrichtenmagazin Echo berichtet, erhält Frau Heike K., 68, (Name von der Redaktion geändert) rückwirkend bis 1. Dezember 2011 eine “Ersatzleistung infolge Verdienstentganges”. Sprich: Eine monatliche staatliche Pension, die einem Vielfachen ihrer bisher kärglichen Rente von nicht einmal 300 Euro entspricht.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Volksfreund

Da hat sich der Trierer Bischof und kirchliche Missbrauchsbeauftragte Stephan Ackermann aber mit einem Paukenschlag in den Sommerurlaub verabschiedet: Ein angesehener Theologieprofessor wird, beinahe 50 Jahre nach seiner Priesterweihe, aus dem Klerikerstand entlassen. Der Bischof wirft ihn raus; und es war auch noch sein eigener Vorschlag und nicht etwa eine Anweisung aus Rom.

Der 72-jährige katholische Geistliche steht damit vor den Trümmern seines Lebens. Mitleid ist unangebracht. Der Mann hat sich über Jahre hinweg an Minderjährigen vergangen und auch den eigenen Neffen missbraucht. Hätte die Staatsanwaltschaft davon rechtzeitig Wind bekommen, wäre der Bistums priester dafür ins Gefängnis gewandert. Sein Glück, dass die Straftaten verjährt waren, als die Ankläger davon erfuhren.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Wormser Zeitung

Von Frank Schmidt-Wyk und Michael Bermeitinger

Erste Exkommunizierung wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs

Der Onkel bestritt gegenüber dem Bistum Trier und dessen Missbrauchsbeauftragtem alle Vorwürfe, worauf die Kirche den Fall an die Staatsanwaltschaft weitergab. T. fürchtete, so erzählte er später, dass dies das Ende seiner Bemühungen sein könnte, dass die strafrechtliche Verjährung allem ein Ende setzt, doch dann meldeten sich zwei weitere Zeugen, die auch angaben, von M. einst missbraucht worden zu sein.

Nun kam das Verfahren in Gang, das nach dem neuen Kirchenrecht durchgeführt wurde, das 2010 vor allem unter dem Eindruck des Missbrauchsskandals verschärft worden war. Gegen Paul-Gerhard M. wurde nun die höchste Strafe unterhalb der Exkommunizierung verhängt – es war das erste Mal in den letzten 40 Jahren, dass diese Strafe im Bistum gegen einen Priester wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern ausgesprochen wurde.

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OSTERREICH
Der Stnadard

Linz – Neun österreichische Bischöfe müssen demnächst mit heikler Post rechnen. Absender ist die “Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt”, die eine Liste mit 40 Beschuldigten (35 Priester, zwei nicht geweihte Ordensangehörige sowie drei Laienmitarbeiter), denen sexuelle Gewalt gegen Kinder und Jugendliche vorgeworfen wird, zusammengestellt und jetzt den Bischöfen übermittelt hat. 35 Priester dieser klerikalen “Blacklist” sollen sich derzeit unbehelligt im Dienst befinden. Einige Priester seien zwar kurzfristig suspendiert, aber nach Abflauen des öffentlichen Interesses schon bald wieder in der Seelsorge eingesetzt worden, wirft die Plattform den Diözesen vor. Jetzt müsse es aber Konsequenzen geben.

Entscheidung bis Ende Juli

Mit dem Bekanntwerden der zahlreichen Missbrauchsfälle hatte die Plattform Anfang 2010 eine Hotline eingerichtet, bei der sich seither 400 Menschen gemeldet haben. “Viele schilderten nicht nur, was ihnen passiert ist, sondern haben auch Namen von Beschuldigten genannt”, erzählt Psychologe Philipp Schwärzler von der Opfer-Hotline. Bis Ende Juli hätten die Bischöfe jetzt Zeit, konkrete Maßnahmen zu präsentieren.

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NEWARK (NJ)
The Star-Ledger

By Kevin Manahan/The Star-Ledger

NEWARK — When five men filed a lawsuit in March 2011, alleging they were sexually abused by the Rev. John Laferrera as youngsters, the monsignor of St. Philomena Roman Catholic Church in Livingston took a voluntary leave of absence and pledged to use all of his energy to clear his name.

In a letter to his congregation, Laferrera vowed to prove his innocence and blamed his sabbatical on “many in the public” who “take any statement at face value, especially if it’s lurid.”

But the Archdiocese of Newark quietly reached a six-figure settlement with six alleged victims last month and Laferrera, 65, was stripped of his collar and sent into retirement, The Star-Ledger has learned.

“He is no longer administering,” archdiocese spokesman Jim Goodness said Friday. “He is out of the ministry. Aside from that, I can’t provide any more discussion.”

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UNITED STATES
Jeff Anderson & Associates

[with list of accused Christian Brothers]

The Irish Christian Brothers are located throughout the United States, including states like New York, California, Washington, Hawaii, Illinois, and New Jersey, where they primarily run schools. A number of Brothers have been accused, and some convicted, of sexually abusing students at schools where they worked. For instance, Brother Robert Brouillette was convicted on child porn charges and sexual abuse of a student at St. Laurence High School in Oak Lawn, Illinois. Similarly, three boys accused Brother John Lackie of sexual abuse when they were students at Briscoe Memorial School in Kent, Washington. The boys also alleged abuse by six other Brothers at the school. The following is a partial list of Christian Brothers that have be publicly accused of sexually abusing children in the United States. As we become aware of additional names we will add to this list.

If you, or someone you know, were sexually abused at a school where the Irish Christian Brothers taught, call Jeff Anderson & Associates today for a free, private and confidential consultation.

Disclaimer: Even though settlements may have been awarded in these cases, many of the Brothers and/or organizations who settled or paid awards as a result of arbitration or trial, maintain they are not at fault.

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INDIA
Outlook India

The meek shall inherit the earth? Not if the Church has its way.

Paul Zacharia

The Catholic church is an ancient monolith and has been in the game of power, wealth, cadre- and institution-building for so long that nothing can change it except its own perceptions of survival. It is an inflexible iron-frame with a cold sense of history that can rebuff its enemies with a bizarre patience. At the same time, it is also a highly malleable—almost amoebic—system that bends to the times with strategies so subtle that they remain invisible for centuries. It is the canniest self-perpetuating bureaucracy of the world. That is how it has withstood the turbulent forces of history ever since Emperor Constantine transformed it into the master of the Roman Empire in AD 313 through the Edict of Milan. One signature made the underdog top dog. The Church has never looked back.

It survived the tempestuous challenge of Martin Luther and the Reformation. Its expertise in conducting immense and long-standing wars is simply mind-boggling. The Crusades are just one example. It emerged unscathed from the second world war thanks to the notorious neutrality it maintained with the two horrendous dictators: Hitler and Mussolini. In fact, few remember today that the papal state of Vatican City was granted to the Church by Mussolini in return for its acceptance of fascist authority.

The point is, the Church is a tough nut to crack. It remains doubtful if it can be reformed even if the Pope were inclined to try. Because, its empire is today flung far across continents, nations, cultures and civilisations, and there are the machinations of countless vested interests at work. The Pope might be able to ensure that the cardinal principles of faith remain uniform and sacrosanct. But even that is not easy. For instance, saints deposed by the Vatican years ago are still venerated in Kerala. The Kerala church finds them useful. As for celibacy, if a priest gives it up, what can the Church do? Next to nothing.

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INDIA
Outlook India

Sixty-seven-year-old Sister Mary Chandy walked out of the Congregation of the Daughters of Presentation of Mary in Chevayur, Kozhikode, 14 years ago. She wrote her autobiography, Nanma Niranjavale Swasthi (Peace to the One Filled with Grace), in April 2012. Excerpts from an interview:

What did you do after you left the convent?

I only had the clothes that I was wearing. I did not have any money. I remember envying men for they can sleep at night under a tree but a woman cannot do that. I would visit houses and ask for donations. My dream was to open an orphanage and look after unwanted children.

Is there one incident that made you quit the order?

There are so many incidents that hurt me. After I left the convent, I went through many trials and tribulations. It has been a long journey outside.

You have said that the priests drink during festive occasions?

Yes, both the priests and nuns drink wine and foreign liquor. When the priests drink, what spews from their mouths is absolute filth.

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INDIA
Outlook India

Do nuns and priests have civil rights? The canon law and the Catholic Church say the professed people have no right to sue the Church. It took six brave sisters of Little Flower Convent, Narakkal, in Ernakulam district, to prove it otherwise. They created history of sorts when they sued a Syro-Malabar bishop of the Ernakulam diocese and the priest of St Mary’s Church for criminal intimidation and forgery.

In the normal course, the sisters would have had to take up their problems with the ecclesiastical forums and, under the precept of obedience, listen to them. What made the sisters take this drastic step? The sisters run two schools and a poor home on three acres of land in Narakkal. From the late 1930s, successive parish priests of St Mary’s church had been helping them to manage the school. The sisters knew the priests collected money illegally as donations but they kept quiet for awhile. In 1971, unknown to the sisters, the priest of St Mary’s church forged documents and transferred the management of the Little Flower School to the church. Then, after over 30 years, in 2007, the sisters were asked to shift their second school, St Joseph’s, to another location.

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INDIA
Outlook India

“Later, I’m taken to the priest’s room for coffee. While I’m having coffee sitting on the cot, the only place in the room to sit, he comes and embraces me hard, almost suffocating me. When I struggle to escape from his clutches, he squeezes my breasts and asks me to show them to him. ‘Have you seen a man?’ Stunned, I shake my head ‘no’. In no time, he undresses himself.”

Sister Jesme in her book Amen: The Autobiography of a Nun

***
“The convents and nunneries are being converted into brothels. The priests have sex with the nuns at night in these convents. Because of these acts, the chastity of the priests and nuns has come under suspicion. Their love for God has shrunk…some of the clergy protect their chastity by watching pornography and reading pornographic material. They lose themselves in this habit. These books and DVDs are kept in secret places and can’t be found easily.”

Father Shibu Kalamparambil in his memoir Oru Vaidikante Hrudayamitha (The Heart of a Priest)

***
“The cry of a baby came from the bathroom of one of the inner rooms along with the sobs of a woman. We used our might to force open the bathroom door and what we saw would break anyone’s heart. A nun who had given birth to a child was pushing the head of the baby into the closet. The bathroom was filled with blood. The legs of the child, which were sticking out of the closet, were kicking for life.”

Sister Mary Chandy in her autobiography Nanma Niranjavale Swasthi (Peace to the One filled with Grace)

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INDIA
Outlook India

The priest, whose memoirs were published in 2010, on the sexual misconduct of priests and financial irregularities

Outlook Interviews Father Shibu Kalamparambil

Father Shibu Kalamparambil, 40, was defrocked from the Vicentian Congregation after 12 years as a priest. His memoir Oru Vaidikante Hrudayamitha (The Heart of a Priest) was published in 2010.

Why did you decide to write the book?

I had aired my views about the sexual misconduct of priests and financial irregularities many times but they were not willing to correct themselves. So I wrote this book and for four years I showed it to near and dear ones and to those inside the Church. They advised me not to publish it, they said it would be catastrophic. They kept saying that things will be corrected but they never were so I published my book.

What is the Church establishment’s response when a priest makes a complaint?

The complaints are dealt with by the bishops and they influence the laity. If a woman among the laity becomes pregnant because of a priest or a bishop, they build houses or give money to them and hush it up.

What happens when a nun gets pregnant?

A life is not born in the church. When it comes to the nuns, they either make her abort the child or she is sent out of the church. If the nun tries to take it up, then she is ostracised by society.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Ralph Riegel

Saturday July 14 2012

AN abuse victim has won a legal victory after the European Court of Human Rights agreed to hear her case against the Irish State.

Louise O’Keeffe (46) confirmed to the Irish Independent last night that the Strasbourg-based court has agreed to hear her complaint despite vehement objections from the State.

If Ms O’Keeffe wins her action, it could open the floodgates to a raft of appeals from abuse victims denied compensation from the State because the incidents occurred in church-run or independent schools.

Ms O’Keeffe was abused as an eight-year-old in a Dunderrow primary school in Cork in 1973 by then principal, Leo Hickey.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

BARRY ROCHE, Southern Correspondent

A WOMAN who was sexually abused as an eight-year-old by her teacher has been told by the European Court of Human Rights that it will hear her appeal against an Irish Supreme Court decision that the State was not legally liable for the abuse she suffered.

Louise O’Keeffe (47) yesterday welcomed the decision by the European Court of Human Rights.

“It’s a big step for me and a very welcome development – the fact that the European Court of Human Rights has decided that my case is important enough to be heard is hugely encouraging,” said Ms O’Keeffe.

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ITALIA
Quotidiano

Fano (Pesaro-Urbino), 14 luglio 2012 – Don Giangiacomo Ruggeri, 43 anni, parocco della Chiesa di Santa Maria in Orciano, e portavoce di monsignor Armando Trasarti, vescovo di Fano, è stato arrestato con l’accusa di pedofilia.

“Ho sbagliato, ho sbagliato…non mi sono reso conto…’’. Queste le sue prime parole dopo l’arresto, pronunciate con gli occhi pieni di lacrime e lo sguardo perso nel vuoto. Un investigatore ha riferito che, nonostante i suoi 43 anni, “sembrava un bambino”.

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ITALIA
La Repubblica

FANO (PESARO URBINO) – “Ho sbagliato, ho sbagliato… non mi sono reso conto…”. Sono queste le uniche parole pronunciate da don Giangiacomo Ruggeri, parroco della Chiesa di Santa Maria in Orciano, arrestato ieri per abusi sessuali su una ragazzina di 13 anni 1. Per gli agenti che hanno eseguito l’ordinanza di custodia cautelare, Ruggeri – portavoce del vescovo di Fano, assistente spirituale degli scout e giornalista pubblicista esperto in web tv – sembrava consapevole del motivo per cui i poliziotti lo stessero portando via dalla sua casa. Non era preoccupato e non ha opposto resistenza. Era angosciato, dicono. All’avvocato difensore, ora spetta il compito di richiedere un’eventuale perizia sul grado di maturità psicologica del sacerdote.

Il procuratore di Pesaro che coordina l’inchiesta, Manfredi Palumbo, ha potuto richiedere al gip l’arresto del parroco grazie alla testimonianza di Marco Mandolini, titolare con il fratello Mauro dei ‘Bagni Torrette’ di Fano. Mandolini ha deciso di rivolgersi alla polizia dopo aver assistito alle effusioni, baci e palpeggiamenti in spiaggia tra il sacerdote e la vittima: “Sono un padre di famiglia anche io, non potevo lasciar passare sotto silenzio atteggiamenti come quelli di don Giangiacomo Ruggeri, non certo consoni al suo ruolo”.

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ITALY
Press TV (Iran)

An Italian catholic priest has been arrested in the central town of Fano over allegations of abusing a 13-year-old girl, local media reported.

Italian police arrested Father Gian-giacomo Ruggieri on Friday.

His home was raided and his computer was seized by officers investigating the case.

The accused priest was immediately suspended from all his priestly duties right after the arrest.

Bishop Armando Trasarti said he was shocked and upset by the incident, and expressed “full solidarity with the abuse victim.”

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ITALY
Deccan Herald (India)

Rome, Jul 14, 2012, (AFP) :

Italian police arrested a Catholic priest working as a bishop’s spokesman in the central town of Fano on allegations he abused a 13-year-old girl, ANSA news agency reported.

Father Giangiacomo Ruggieri, 43, was immediately suspended from all priestly duties yesterday and police have raided his home and seized his computer.

The incident caused widespread outrage in the town where the clergyman, a former journalist, was known as “the young people’s priest.”

Bishop Armando Trasarti said he was “shocked and pained” by the incident and expressed “full solidarity with the abuse victim,” ANSA reported.

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BELGIE
De Morgen

Door: Remy Amkreutz − 13/07/12

De KU Leuven snoert de Vlaamse bisschoppen de mond. Léonard is voorzitter af van de hoogste raad en verliest, net als zijn collega-bisschoppen, stemrecht. De universiteit distantieert zich zo verder van de katholieke kerk. .

De macht van de katholieke kerk aan de KU Leuven kalft af. De vijf Vlaamse bisschoppen waren van oudsher lid van het hoogste bestuursorgaan van de Leuvense universiteit. In deze raad, ook wel de inrichtende overheid genoemd, hadden zij 13 procent van de stemmen. Met aartsbisschop André-Joseph Léonard leverden zij zelfs de voorzitter. Daar is nu verandering in gekomen. Voortaan hebben de kerkleiders slechts een adviesfunctie.

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NEDRLAND
Trouw

Dat pastoor H. Boonk in de jaren ’70 en ’80 van de vorige eeuw misdienaars seksueel misbruikte, was een publiek geheim in het Overijsselse dorp. Veel mensen wisten ervan. Het is ook meer dan eens gemeld bij de deken en de bisschop, maar daarna is nooit gecontroleerd of er ook iets met die meldingen is gedaan. .

Dat schrijven het parochiebestuur en het pastoraal team van de Pancratiusparochie vandaag in een brief aan de parochianen.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

by CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY/EWTN NEWS

07/13/2012

VATICAN CITY — The special Commission of Cardinals established by Pope Benedict XVI to investigate the leak of confidential Vatican documents is on the verge of presenting its discoveries.

“It is expected the committee will meet with the Pope next week to present him with the results of their investigation,” said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, adding that “the Pope will then be able to draw his own conclusions.”

The three-person committee has been looking into the so-called “Vatileaks” scandal since April, when it was tasked by Pope Benedict with undertaking “an authoritative investigation” to “throw light on these episodes.”

The investigating team is led by 82-year-old Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, the former president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. He is being assisted by the 88-year-old Slovakian Cardinal Jozef Tomko and the 81-year-old Italian Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi, the archbishop emeritus of Palermo, Sicily.

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NEW JERSEY
The Trentonian

Staff Report
PEMBERTON TWP. A 59-year-old deacon has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a girl during a church service Sunday morning, officials said Friday.

Joseph V. Pullen Jr., 59, of Pemberton Township, was charged with aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

The assault of the juvenile occurred in another part of the Calvary Baptist Church on Scrapetown Road as the public participated in the Sunday service. Pullen, a 59-year-old deacon at the church and a retired water utility worker at Fort Dix, was alone with the girl at the time of the alleged assault.

No information about the girl was released.

The investigation revealed that Pullen allegedly assaulted the same girl at another location during the fall of 2011, according to a news release from Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi and Pemberton Township Police Chief David H. Jantas. Pullen was charged with aggravated sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child in that case.

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PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP (NJ)
NBC 10

[with video]

By David Chang

Saturday, Jul 14, 2012

A local deacon was arrested after he allegedly sexually assaulted a girl during a church service.

Police say it happened last Sunday during a service at the Calvary Baptist Church. Joseph Pullen Jr., 59, of Pemberton Township was alone with the girl when he sexually assaulted her, according to investigators.

Police say an investigation revealed Pullen assaulted the same girl at a different location during the fall of 2011. Police have not released information on the girl’s age.

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PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP (NJ)
Philadelphia Inquirer

A deacon at a Pemberton Township church was charged with sexually assaulting a girl, including during a service on Sunday, authorities said.

Joseph V. Pullen Jr., 59, of Whispering Pines Boulevard, Pemberton Township, appeared in Superior Court in Mount Holly on Friday. He was charged with aggravated sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, and related offenses in two alleged incidents.

Authorities said the most recent assault took place at the Calvary Baptist Church on Sunday when Pullen was alone with the victim. They said he previously assaulted her at an undisclosed location in the fall of 2011. They did not provide details about the alleged assaults or more information about the victim.

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PENNSYLVANIA
ABC News

By MARK SCOLFORO and MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. July 14, 2012 (AP)

Legal experts say emails and other evidence from the Penn State sex abuse case suggest that Joe Paterno and other university officials put boys in danger with their failure to report sexual abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago.

The allegations are similar to those made against a top Philadelphia archdiocese official who was convicted on child endangerment charges last month.

Duquesne University law professor Wes Oliver said former FBI Director Louis Freeh’s investigative report on the Penn State scandal reads like a prosecution case for a child endangerment charge against Paterno, then-President Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and now-retired vice president Gary Schultz.

Oliver noted that Monsignor William Lynn was convicted for allowing a suspected pedophile priest to be around children. Prosecutors said Lynn helped the Philadelphia archdiocese keep predators in ministry and the public in the dark.

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PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP (NJ)
PhillyBurbs

Posted on July 14, 2012

by Danielle Camilli

MOUNT HOLLY — A deacon at a Pemberton Township church was charged with sexually assaulting a girl during a church service Sunday morning.

He also molested the child in a separate incident last fall, authorities said Friday.

Joseph V. Pullen Jr., 59, of Whispering Pines Boulevard in Pemberton Township, was charged with aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child for the alleged assault at the Calvary Baptist Church, Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi and township police Chief David H. Jantas said Friday.

Pullen, a deacon at the Scrapetown Road church, was alone with the girl at the time of the incident, authorities said. They would not release any information about the victim.

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DANVILLE (IL)
The News-Gazette

Thu, 07/12/2012 – 9:00am | Noelle McGee, staff writer,

DANVILLE — A former Danville Christian Academy student testified Wednesday that his teacher, tutor and mentor fondled him at the school on numerous occasions and once in his bedroom during his sophomore and junior years of high school.

During what he called the first of four “major incidents,” the former student, now 20, recalled that in January 2008, when he was 15, he and his teacher, Mark R. List, were in List’s office around 9 p.m., where List was helping him with homework. The two began wrestling and ended up on the floor with him lying on the ground and his teacher straddling his body. Then he felt the teacher’s hand and later his lips on his genitals.

“I was squirming around trying to get free, but it wasn’t working,” he said on the second day of List’s sexual abuse and assault trial in Vermilion County Circuit Court. He said he finally bit List’s genitals to get him off of him.

List, 36, of Danville, faces one count of criminal sexual assault-a position of trust, a Class 1 felony; one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a Class 2 felony; and one count of indecent solicitation of a child, a Class 3 felony.

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DANVILLE (IL)
The News-Gazette

Fri, 07/13/2012 – 7:00am | Noelle McGee, staff writer,

DANVILLE — A former custodian at the Danville Christian Academy testified Thursday that he occasionally saw teacher Mark R. List and a male student at the school at night while making his cleaning rounds.

But the custodian, Anthony Hughes, said that on those occasions, the teacher and student weren’t alone; List’s wife and/or the student’s mother were there, too.

Hughes was one of two defense witnesses who testified on the third day of List’s sexual abuse and assault trial in Vermilion County Circuit Court. The trial is scheduled to continue today.

List, 36, of Danville, faces one count each of criminal sexual assault-a position of trust, aggravated criminal sexual abuse and indecent solicitation of a child, stemming from the student’s allegations that List — his teacher, tutor and mentor — fondled him numerous times at the school and in his bedroom and performed oral sex on him “once or twice” during his sophomore and junior years of high school.

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DANVILLE (IL)
Commercial-News

BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL Commercial-News

DANVILLE — Four days after walking into the courtroom as a man charged with sexual assault, Mark List of Danville left Vermilion County Courthouse exonerated.

A jury deliberated for almost three hours before returning a verdict around 5:30 p.m. of not guilty on three charges List faced charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, criminal sexual assault in a position of trust and indecent solicitation of a child.

Danville police arrested List in January 2010 based on accusations he sexually abused a student at Danville Christian Academy while List was an associate pastor there.

Defense attorney David Ryan said Friday night he was grateful for the jury’s verdict in the case.

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CANADA
Hamilton Spectator

The Hamilton case of a Roman Catholic priest leaving Canada to avoid criminal prosecution of a sexual assault charge is disturbing, says the Progressive Conservative critic for the Ministry of the Attorney General.

“It’s not exactly justice served,” Sylvia Jones, MPP for Dufferin-Caledon, told The Spectator Friday.

“The Attorney General’s office has stated ‘the case is unusual, we are looking at it’ but the silence has been deafening,” Jones said.

Jones was referring to the case of Rev. Jose Silva, who was permitted to leave Canada on May 4 to return to his native Brazil. Silva was on bail at the time and a July 20 trial date had been set to resolve a Sept. 22, 2011 sex assault charge against him involving an 18-year-old male musician.

The ministry has stated there was a deal between a Hamilton Crown prosecutor and a defence counsel to permit Silva to leave. A Canada-wide warrant was put in place — but the charge would only proceed should Silva return to Canada.

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OHIO
Zanesville Times Recorder

Written by
Kathy Thompson
Staff Writer

COLUMBUS — The Catholic Diocese of Columbus is asking anyone who might have been sexually abused by a former Zanesville priest to report it to them and local authorities.

Father Thomas Brosmer was placed on administrative leave Thursday by the Diocese after an accusation of sexual abuse of an 11-year-old boy surfaced.

The abuse is alleged to have taken place at St. Nicholas Parish in Zanesville from 1969 to 1973 while Brosmer, now in his 60s, was assistant pastor and a teacher. Brosmer has been at the St. Cecilia Church in Columbus from 2004 until his administrative leave.

Paul Ritter, a Columbus attorney who represents the Diocese in Columbus, said he called the Zanesville Police Department on July 5, after the allegation was deemed credible by the church.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washingtonian

Haunted by his past, he has stood outside the Vatican embassy nearly every day for 14 years. His lonely vigil has made him a hero to victims of sexual abuse. But will he ever find peace? By Ariel Sabar

Time weighs on John Wojnowski. It wears him down. It winds him up.

Time, for Wojnowski, is not just the half century since the priest in the mountains of Italy touched him. It is also the lost days since then, the wasted months and years when he is sure he let everyone down: his parents, his wife, his children, himself.

Markers of time are there, too, in the ragged datebooks that cleave to his body like paper armor. While riding the bus late one night, after another of his vigils outside the Vatican’s United States embassy, he showed them to me: The 2010 datebook inhabits the right pocket of his frayed chinos, 2011 the left; the 2012 book, its pages bound by rubber bands, stiffens the pocket of his shirt.

He has come to this corner and stood with his signs for some 5,000 days. In his datebooks, he records—a word or two, just enough to jog memory—the sights and sounds that keep one day from bleeding into the next.

The Apostolic Nunciature, as the Vatican’s embassy is officially known, sits across the street from the tumbling red digits of the US Naval Observatory’s Master Clock, which displays official US time. There’s a strange symmetry between that clock, its seconds yoked to the oscillation of cesium atoms, and Wojnowski, whose own circuitry can at times seem as unblinking and relentless.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Nics Bloghaus

By Nic On 13. Juli 2012

“Norbert Denef, Sprecher des Netzwerks Betroffener von sexua­li­sier­ter Gewalt e.V. mit Sitz in Scharbeutz, befin­det sich seit dem 8. Juni 2012 im unbe­fris­te­ten Hungerstreik. Ihm schlos­sen sich eine Reihe von Unterstützern an, dar­un­ter Christiane Kieburg, Katharina M., Anette W., Alwin Michel, Wilfried Fesselmann und Brigitte Lunzer Rieder aus Öster­reich. Wegen Unterlassungsklagen der Täter kön­nen nicht alle Namen genannt wer­den.

Das Netzwerk Betroffener von sexua­li­sier­ter Gewalt e.V., kurz netz­werkB, ist eine Vereinigung von und für Menschen, denen sexua­li­sier­ter Gewalt, oft­mals ver­bun­den mit Formen von psy­chi­scher und phy­si­scher Gewalt ange­tan wurde, ein­ma­lig, mehr­ma­lig bis hin zu jah­re­lang sys­te­ma­tisch, im Säuglings-, Kindes-, Jugendlichen oder Erwachsenenalter. Sie wurde 2010 in Scharbeutz gegrün­det. Die Vereinigung arbei­tet bun­des­weit, sie besteht aus einem Bundesvorstand, Landesgruppen und der Mitgliederversammlung. Sie ver­steht sich als Interessenvertretung der Opfer und ihrer Angehörigen. Sie setzt sich für die Aufklärung und Prävention ein.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

CAROL COULTER

WITHHOLDING INFORMATION: Legislation requiring the passing on of information concerning offences against children and vulnerable adults has been passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas. It is part of the Government’s response to mandatory reporting of serious instances of child abuse.

The Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill 2012 makes it an offence to withhold information on serious offences, carrying a jail sentence of five or more years. Such offences include most sexual offences and assault causing harm, abduction, manslaughter or murder.

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UNITED STATES
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk |Jul 13, 2012

Imagine an alternate universe where the Catholic Church behaved the way the trustees of the Pennsylvania State University have when confronted with evidence of the cover-up of sexual abuse of minors by the leadership of one of its important institutions.

Let’s call that institution the archdiocese of Boston, headed by one Cardinal Bernard Law. And let’s say a newspaper, the Boston Globe, published an investigative series showing a disgraceful pattern of covering up sexual abuse of minors by a large array of priests.

Faced with the evidence, what does the Vatican do? It turns to a distinguished law enforcement official–say, a former head of the FBI–to conduct an independent investigation. The result? To paraphrase yesterday’s report on the Penn State affair:

The most saddening finding by the Special Investigative Counsel is the total and consistent disregard by the most senior members of the archdiocese for the safety and welfare of the child victims.

Not only are the perpetrators of abuse indicted and convicted, but so are the masters of the cover-up. Cardinal Law and his immeiate subordinates land prison.

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COLORADO
TheDenverChannel

Deb Stanley, New Media Producer

DENVER — A former church and school leader has been indicted on charges of distribution and possession of child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Daniel Ivan Ashby, 39, of Thornton, was affiliated with Calvary Community Baptist Church and Community Christian School in Northglenn as a school administrator in 2011, prosecutors said.
According to the indictment, Ashby allegedly knowingly distributed child pornography across state lines.

“The defendant allegedly did knowingly possess child pornography, which has been shipped in interstate commerce,” prosecutors said.

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COLORADO
Fox 31

July 13, 2012, by Will C. Holden

DENVER — A former administrator at a Christian school was indicted by a federal grand jury Monday on charges of possession and distribution of child pornography.

Daniel Ashby, 39, was an administrator at Community Christian School in Northglenn, but the school said he resigned on Dec. 6 of this past year — the same day the school learned of the investigation.

According to court documents, police served a search warrant at the school and at Ashby’s home in December after an undercover FBI offer discovered images of child pornography had been shared using a computer belonging to Ashby.

The search produced several photos, including one image that showed an underage girl having sex with an adult.

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COLORADO
9 News

[with video]

Written by
Jace Larson

NORTHGLENN – A former private Christian school principal has been charged with distributing and possessing child porn, 9Wants to Know has learned.

Daniel Ivan Ashby resigned from Community Christian School on Dec. 6 which is the same time the school learned of the investigation.

The FBI served a search warrant at the school in late 2011 and seized several computers from school offices, chairman of the church deacon board for Calvary Community Baptist Church Justin Welch told 9Wants to Know.

Community Christian School is operated by the Calvary Community Baptist Church.

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NEVADA
National Catholic Reporter

Jul. 13, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

The person responsible for representing the concerns of Nevada Catholics at the state’s capital has resigned following NCR inquiries about his pleading guilty to a charge of obstruction of justice, a federal felony, and serving three years’ probation.

John Cracchiolo, the executive director of the Nevada Catholic Conference, resigned his position at the conference “sometime in the last few days,” the chancellor of the Reno diocese said Friday.

In the last week, NCR asked the Reno and Las Vegas dioceses, Nevada’s only two dioceses, about Cracchiolo’s role at the conference after learning he had accepted a federal plea deal in 2009 stemming from charges that he was part of a plan to defraud investors during his time as the chief financial officer at a publicly traded medical device company in California.

According to court documents, Cracchiolo remains on probation under the terms of the deal until Saturday and is not allowed to work “in any management position” at any publicly held corporation.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Green Bay diocese: US Constitution allows bishops to transfer and conceal pedophiles

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee)
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

In a stunning motion filed in an Appleton, Wisconsin court the Diocese of Green Bay has argued that bishops and religious officials who operate schools, churches, and youth centers can intentionally conceal and transfer clergy child molesters, even if found guilty of doing so by a jury.

The argument was made by lawyers for Green Bay Bishop David Ricken who are attempting to dismiss a May jury verdict which found the diocese guilty of fraud by intentionally concealing and transferring one of the state’s most prolific sex offender clerics, Fr. John Patrick Feeney.

Following the logic of the diocese argument, the US Constitution allows a bishop or religious official full civil immunity to secretly assign a cleric to a parish or school to work with children, even if that cleric has or is intending to commit child rape. When a bishop assigns a priest, according to the diocese, that does not mean the bishop believes the priest is safe to be around children. And any decision a bishop makes about a cleric may “not be evaluated or explained” by courts because the First Amendment allows religious organizations to essentially do what they want and be accountable to no one.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
NBC 4

By: Denise Yost | NBC4
Published: July 13, 2012

COLUMBUS, Ohio —
A longtime Columbus priest is off the job, placed on leave by the Diocese after an allegation of sexual abuse.

Rev. Thomas Brosmer has been a priest for more than 40 years. Most recently, he served as the associate pastor at St. Cecelia Church on the city’s far west side.

According to a release from the Catholic Diocese of Columbus, the allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, allegedly occurring during Brosmer’s tenure at St. Nicholas Parish in Zanesville from 1969 to 1973, was reported to the church on July 2, 2012.

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DEUTSCHLAND
shz

Als Kind wurde Norbert Denef missbraucht. Heute ist er 63 Jahre alt – und im Hungerstreik. Sein Ziel: Die Politik soll die Verjährungsfristen von Sexualstraftaten abschaffen.

Scharbeutz. Seit 36 Tagen verweigert Denef die Nahrung. Der gelernte Elektriker ist glücklich verheiratet, lebt in einem Reihenhaus in Scharbeutz, zehn Minuten vom Ostseestrand. “Mit der Ostsee”, sagt Norbert Denef, “verbinde ich positive Kindheitserinnerungen.” Gelitten hingegen hat er im Pfarrhaus von Delitzsch bei Leipzig. Er war neun Jahre alt und Ministrant, als ein Missbrauch begann, der neun Jahre andauern sollte. Erst war es der Pfarrer der Kirche “Unbefleckte Empfängnis Mariens”, der sich an ihm verging, später der Kantor.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

Der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann hat erstmals einen Geistlichen seines Bistums wegen sexueller Übergriffe aus dem Klerikerstand entlassen. Der Mann soll fünf Jungen missbraucht haben.

Trier – Die Entlassung des katholischen Theologen erfolgte bereits am vergangenen Dienstag, wurde aber erst am Freitag öffentlich gemacht. Bischof Ackermann, Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, habe zunächst die Opfer und den Täter informieren wollen, sagte ein Bistumssprecher.

Der Priester, der sich bereits im Ruhestand befindet, soll zwischen 1966 und 1980 fünf minderjährige Jungen missbraucht haben – in zwei Fällen über einen längeren Zeitraum hinweg. Er äußerte sich bisher nicht zu der Maßnahme, hat aber die Möglichkeit, innerhalb von 60 Tagen gegen die Entscheidung Einspruch einzulegen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kath.net

KATH.NET-Interview mit Pfarrer Uwe Winkel, Netzwerk katholischer Priester, über das Ende eines geplanten Forschungsprojekt der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, bei dem ein Institut Zugriff auf alle Personalakten der 27 Diözesen gehabt hätte

Linz (kath.net/as/rn)
KATH.NET: Vor knapp einem Jahr hat sich das „Netzwerk katholischer Priester“ gegen das Vorhaben gewandt, dem Kriminologischem Forschungsinstitut Niedersachsen Zugriff auf die Kleriker-Personalakten in allen 27 Diözesen zu geben. Das Forschungskonzept für eine empirische Untersuchung des sexuellen Missbrauchs an Minderjährigen durch katholische Priester, Diakone und männliche Ordensangehörige im Bereich der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (DBK) sah die Durchsicht aller Personalakten des genannten Personenkreise der letzten 65 Jahre vor. Offensichtlich wurden diese Pläne jetzt von Rom eingeschränkt? Welche Instanzen innerhalb der DBK setzten sich aktiv für dieses Projekt ein? Wurden die einzelnen Bischöfe vorher über die Zusammenhänge ausreichend informiert?

Pfarrer Winkel: Beim Bundestreffen des Netzwerks katholischer Priester im Herbst 2011 im Würzburger Exerzitienhaus „Himmelspforten“ hat der Leiter des Kriminologischen Forschungsinstituts Niedersachsen (KFN) Prof. Dr. Christian Pfeiffer im Plenum sehr offen über sein Forschungsprojekt gesprochen. Demnach gab es eine enge Kooperation zwischen seinem Institut und dem Sekretariat der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz. Nach Darstellung von Professor Pfeiffer entschied man sich im Ständigen Rat der DBK einhellig für das Projekt.

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GERMANY
The Garden Island

Associated Press | Posted: Friday, July 13, 2012

BERLIN (AP) — The Catholic Church has fired a German priest for sexually abusing five underage boys more than 30 years ago.

The diocese of Trier in western Germany says Bishop Stephan Ackermann dismissed the unnamed man from the priesthood Tuesday.

It said in a statement Friday that the retired priest had committed the abuse between 1966 and 1980.

The Trier diocese said it only learned of the abuses in 2010, by which time the statute of limitations for prosecuting the crimes had expired.

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UNITED STATES
SBC Plodder

William Thornton

Clergy sex abuse is one of the main subjects that occupy my thoughts and blogging that is not strictly an SBC matter. I read a good bit on such things and occasionally write about it partly because of the appalling ignorance and ineptness among pastors and churches in handling such things.

Yesterday, the lengthy, near exhaustive, independent report on the Penn State, Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno child sex abuse scandal was released. It has some jaw-dropping information.

Consider this paragraph:

“Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State,” Freeh wrote. “The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.”

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ZANESVILLE (OH)
WHIZ

A Catholic priest – who served at St. Nicholas Church in Zanesville over 40 years ago — has been placed on administrative leave after allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. The Catholic Diocese of Columbus – in a press release – said the action was taken upon a recommendation of Board of Review for the Protection of Children. Bishop Frederick Campbell of Columbus placed Father Thomas Brosmer on leave pending the findings of the investigation. The sexual abuse is alleged to have occurred in Zanesville from 1969 to 1973. Brosmer was also a teacher at Bishop Rosecrans High School during that time. The Diocese says it received the allegation on July 2nd and reported to the Zanesville Police Department.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Welt

Ein edles Rokoko-Palais in der Münchner Altstadt beherbergt seit Kurzem Erzbischof Marx. Die Sanierung des Prachtbaus hat 8,7 Millionen Euro gekostet – zum Großteil bezahlt vom Freistaat Bayern.

Der Amtssitz der Erzbischöfe von München und Freising im Rokoko-Palais Holnstein in München ist nach jahrelanger Sanierung nun fertig. Für 8,7 Millionen Euro war das von Hofbaumeister François de Cuvilliés errichtete Baudenkmal seit 2008 renoviert worden.

Eines der Prunkstücke ist ein restauriertes Deckenfresko des Malers und Stuckateurs Johann Baptist Zimmermann im historischen Treppenhaus. In aufwendiger Arbeit sei es gelungen, das Gemälde der allegorischen Figuren Justitia (Recht) und Pax (Frieden) weitgehend wieder in den Originalzustand zu versetzen, sagte der Leiter der Hauptabteilung für Kunst im Erzbischöflichen Ordinariat, Norbert Jocher. Der Münchner Erzbischof Kardinal Reinhard Marx nahm an dem Rundgang nicht teil.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bistum Trier

Bischof Ackermann verhängt Strafe wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs

Trier – Der Trierer Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann hat am 10. Juli einen Ruhestandsgeistlichen des Bistums Trier aus dem Klerikerstand entlassen. Der Priester hatte in der Zeit zwischen 1966 und 1980 fünf minderjährige Jungen sexuell missbraucht, in zwei Fällen auch über einen längeren Zeitraum. Die Entlassung aus dem Klerikerstand ist das höchste Strafmaß, das das Kirchenrecht vorsieht. Der Priester verliert damit sämtliche Rechte, die mit seinem Priesteramt verbunden sind. Es ist das erste Mal in der jüngsten Geschichte des Bistums Trier, dass diese Strafe gegen einen Priester ausgesprochen wird, der sich des sexuellen Missbrauchs an Kindern und Jugendlichen schuldig gemacht hat. Der Priester hatte schon bisher keinerlei seelsorglichen Auftrag mehr.

Das Bistum Trier hatte im Frühjahr 2010 durch Opfer von den Vorwürfen erfahren. Entsprechend der Leitlinien der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz wurde den Anschuldigungen nachgegangen und eine kirchenrechtliche Voruntersuchung eingeleitet. Nach deren Abschluss wurde die Glaubenskongregation in Rom über die Ergebnisse informiert. Die Glaubenskongregation hat daraufhin die Unterlagen geprüft und den Fall an das Bistum Trier zurückverwiesen mit der Maßgabe, ein so genanntes außergerichtliches Strafverfahren auf dem Verwaltungsweg durchzuführen, wie es in can. 1720 des kirchlichen Gesetzbuchs beschrieben ist. Nach Abschluss dieses Verfahrens hat der Bischof von Trier der Glaubenskongregation vorgeschlagen, den Priester aus dem Klerikerstand zu entlassen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SR

Der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann hat einen Priester wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs aus dem Klerikerstand entlassen. Damit verhängte er die kirchenrechtliche Höchststrafe. Der Priester hatte zwischen 1966 und 1980 fünf minderjährige Jungen missbraucht.

(13.07.2012) Zwei der Jungen seien auch über einen längeren Zeitraum missbraucht worden, teilte das Bistum am Freitag mit. Es sei das erste Mal in der jüngsten Geschichte des Bistums, dass diese Strafe gegen einen Priester wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern und Jugendlichen ausgesprochen wird. Mit der Entlassung verliert der Geistliche sämtliche Rechte, die mit dem Amt verbunden sind.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

July 14, 2012
Opinion

Graham Downie

It was hard to imagine a wandering preacher in Palestine, with a few mates and no home, planning to establish an international enterprise with offices in every town and city in the known and the unknown world, and with its headquarters in Rome.

So says former Catholic priest, theology lecturer, lawyer and NSW district court judge Chris Geraghty in his new book, Dancing with the Devil, which traces his life from a child of 12 entering the seminary, through his great enthusiasm and hope from Vatican II, personal stress while a theology lecturer and to his finally leaving the priesthood for marriage and family, and a career in the law.

Now retired, Geraghty remains a Catholic but sharply critical of that Church. In the book he writes, ”I had been unhappy teaching in the seminary at Springwood, before leaving to study overseas. An alien in the ranks of the clergy; attacked by silly, pompous bishops; trapped and broken in a top-heavy, sluggish institution. The old brigade was clinging onto their power and privileges like falling angels grabbing on to thin clouds as they tumbled into oblivion.”

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Judy Jones on July 12, 2012

This is an extraordinarily callous and dangerous move. Forgiveness is good. Recklessness is not.

We can forgive a school bus driver whose drunkenness costs children their lives. But we don’t give her another set of keys. We can forgive a police officer whose misuse of a weapon causes injury to others. But we don’t give him another gun.

Forgiveness is a private, personal choice. Giving a proven wrongdoer the tools and the chance to hurt others again is a public act. And it’s wrong.

There is a huge and inherent power imbalance between clergy and church members. It is like a doctor-patient or therapist-client relationship, where any sexual contact is expressly forbidden. And for good reason: because it almost always results in devastation, with individuals and with congregations.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on July 12, 2012

We applaud this ruling and the message that it sends. We believe that, when church officials who conceal or enable are held accountable alongside the offending priest, it helps deter future crimes. Church officials who remain silent and fail to report crimes to police must be held responsible as well, both financially and publicly.

Now that this ruling has come down, we hope the brave victim who has endured this long and arduous legal process will be able to continue her healing journey, comforted by the fact that she has taken great strides to protect children, both in the UK and elsewhere.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

There are days when the avalanche is made not of snow but of clay feet.

Such was the day Thursday when Louis Freeh delivered his independent report of the child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State.

The 267 page report was the result of an eight month independent investigation and it was delivered a month to the day that former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of the sexual abuse of children.

In it, Freeh Report our readers will find the top leadership at Penn State: the legendary and nearly god-like Joe Paterno, university president, Graham Spanier, both of whom were fired when the scandal broke, and the two vice presidents who face criminal charges, – all as Freeh describes it “had a callous and shocking disregard for child victims.”

Beyond that, the report says, by their lack of action against Sandusky and by allowing empowered him to abuse children.

The similarities between what happened at Penn State and what happened in the Catholic Church are identical twins.

The report reveals:
◦the desire to avoid bad publicity
◦the failure to make inquiries
◦a president who discouraged dissent and discussion
◦a lack of awareness of child abuse policies and whistleblower policies and protections
◦the decision by Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Schmitz (the two vice presidents) to allow Sandusky to retire, not as a suspected child abuser but as a valued member of Penn State football with continuing ties and continuing access to its facilities
◦a culture of reverence for the football program that is ingrained at all levels of the campus community

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

By Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith on Friday, 13 July 2012

The decision of the Court of Appeal in the case concerning the Diocese of Portsmouth, which has been reported in the Catholic Herald but not received any attention that I have noticed elsewhere, is extremely interesting.

The court has upheld the ruling that the diocese is liable for the action of one of its priests, on the grounds that the relationship between priest and bishop is close enough to employer/employee for this to be the case.

Now this seems to be a case mainly about compensation for the victims of child abuse, and so it is. I would like to leave that part of it aside, and consider something that may be overlooked, but may be of great importance both for the Church and for all other voluntary organisations.

Until now, as far as I understand it, priests volunteer to serve in various offices at the invitation of the bishop or religious superior. If the bishop and the priest are now to be considered in an employer/employee relationship, then this represents an innovation. Employees can sue their employers, and vice versa; the relationship between employees and employers is governed by a vast corpus of case and statute law. At present the relationship between bishop and priest is governed by canon law, the only force of which is in the will of those who adhere to it. A priest can, but rarely does, initiate a canonical process against his bishop, and vice versa; but if we are employees, then this opens up a whole new range of possibilities, and potentially, a considerable new territory for litigation.

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OHIO
10 TV

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – A Catholic priest was placed on administrative leave Thursday, after allegations he sexually abused a minor.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus said the accusations against Reverend Thomas Brosmer, 68, date back to his time at the Saint Nicholas Parish in Zanesville in the 1970s.

The Columbus Dispatch reports the diocese found out about the accusation, reported it to police and placed Brosmer on administrative leave.

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CANADA
Hamilton Spectator

He had a responsibility to attend today.”

That’s what assistant Crown attorney Carey Lee advised the court on May 9 when Father Jose Silva, facing one count of sexual assault, failed to appear.

What the justice of the peace wasn’t told, a transcript of the proceedings reveals, was that Crown and defence lawyers had taken a number of steps to ensure Silva boarded a flight to Brazil five days earlier.

Defence counsel Dean Paquette said the Crown’s office played a role in obtaining the priest’s passport — which had been surrendered to Hamilton police as a bail condition — and in making sure border services officers didn’t block Silva from leaving the country.

The only condition Lee sought in return, he said, was that a countrywide warrant be issued for Silva’s arrest to prevent him from ever returning. By ensuring Silva was not present on May 9, the Crown and Paquette paved the way for justice of the peace Neil Burgess to issue such a warrant.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Portsmouth News

A RULING that the Catholic Church can be held liable for the wrongdoings of its priests was upheld by the Court of Appeal following a case involving Portsmouth Diocese.

The decision was announced in an action which has been described as raising ‘an issue of wide general importance in respect of claims against the Catholic Church’. …

In a statement issued after the ruling, the trustees of Portsmouth Diocese said the appeal was brought to achieve clarity ‘as to the nature and extent of the bishop’s liability for the actions of diocesan priests’.

It added: ‘We had not just the right but the duty to ask the Court of Appeal to hear the different arguments in this case, not least because of the far-reaching implications to faith and other voluntary organisations of extending vicarious liability in this way.’

The statement by the trustees stressed: ‘This case is not, and has never been, about seeking to avoid or delay the payment of compensation to victims with valid claims.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

May 1 & September 11 anniversaries for SNAP and JP2 Army victims. SNAPS’s ad in New York Times should be framed and permanently exhibited in all churches, schools and children venues: U.S. Catholic Bishops and Child Sex Crimes

2 Anniversaries for SNAP and victims of JP2 Army

We suggest that September 11 and May 1 should be the bi-annual anniversaries of SNAP and all victims of the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. One in the Fall on September 11 to coincide with 9/11 commemoration in New York City where names of 3,000 victims are each read and remembered; and it is also the beginning of school year and this will alert all children of potential authority-figures sexual predators. And one in the Spring on May 1, the anniversary of 3 world leaders who led the most heinous crimes of the latter half of the 20th century, the beatification of John Paul II, the death of Osama ben Ladin and Adolf Hitler. May 1 will recap almost the end of the school year when children can celebrate that they have overpowered potential authority-figures sexual predators even holy priests. It will prepare them for summer camps and summer holidays when they must continue to be vigilant against pedophiles.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

It is the new prefect Müller. Opposed in his country, Germany, as too conservative. And at the same time criticized by the traditionalist circles of Rome and the world as too “liberal.” But a favorite of the pope

VATICAN CITY, July 13, 2012 – Before switching to the evocative setting of the pontifical villas of Castel Gandolfo for the customary summer break, Benedict XVI has given approval to a small but significant round of appointments in the Vatican curia.

The main move concerns the change at the top of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith.

Pope Joseph Ratziner has selected as his second successor after the American William J. Levada the Bavarian bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, 65 years old next December 31, since 2002 the bishop of Regensburg.

The new head of what used to be called the Holy Office has a reputation as a double-faced Janus.

On the one hand, above all in his country, he is considered one of the most conservative prelates on the field. It is no coincidence that the Swiss-German theologian and priest Hans Küng has called this decision “catastrophic.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The Pope’s butler, accused of stealing confidential Vatican documents, will remain in custody for at least another 10 days as investigations continue into his role in the murky affair.

By Nick Squires, Rome
3:16PM BST 12 Jul 2012

The Holy See had been widely expected to release Paolo Gabrieli to house arrest at his apartment within the Vatican because he had been held for 50 days, the maximum time allowable under an initial detention order.

But under Vatican law the order can be extended for another 50 days and Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said he would remain in detention for another 10 days as inquiries continue into a scandal that has shone a spotlight on dark machinations at the highest levels of the Catholic Church hierarchy.

Piero Antonio Bonnet, the Vatican judge investigating the affair, “still needs to collect some statements” said Father Lombardi.

The butler, who the Vatican has said is collaborating fully with the inquiry, will be detained “for about another 10 days”, he added.

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VATICAN CITY
National Post (Canada)

Philip Pullella, Reuters Jul 12, 2012

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict’s butler, suspected of leaking documents that allege corruption in the Vatican, was denied a requested transfer to house arrest and ordered on Thursday to remain in a small police ‘safe room’, where he prays daily.

The Vatican said a prosecutor had decided to keep Paolo Gabriele, 46, in preventive custody beyond the usual 50 days that Vatican law says a defendant can be held before being ordered to stand trial. The period can be doubled in some cases.

But spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters this did not mean that Gabriele would spend another 50 days in the room at the Vatican police station, which measures 3.5 by 4 metres (11.5 by 13 feet), and has a single small window, a small table and a separate bathroom.

He said the prosecutor, Piero Antonio Bonnet, was expected to end a formal investigation in a few weeks and decide whether to clear the butler or order him to stand trial for stealing and leaking the documents to Italian media.

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VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

[with video]

July 12, 2012. (Romereports.com) The Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, will remain in in a jail cell for roughly another ten days. This despite the fact that this Thursday, it will be 50 days since he was arrested for possession of confidential documents.

FR. FEDERICO LOMBARDI
Vatican spokesman
“The judge believes that the information gathering phase should end. In the meantime, things still need to be sorted out, so there will be an extension and he will remain in custody for more days, even though the 50 day period has already passed.”

During this extension period the investigation on the confiscated Papal documents will be completed. Then, more people will be interviewed, and that includes questioning the Pope’s butler once again.

FR. FEDERICO LOMBARDI
Vatican spokesman
“The formal questioning will be the last part of the investigation stage and is expected to be completed in about 10 days.”

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FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

By Henry Pierson Curtis, Orlando Sentinel

A Kissimmee pastor charged with molesting a teenage parishioner is now accused of swindling a church member, Kissimmee police said Thursday.

Angel Perez-Nieves of Templo Pentecostal Puerta de Salvacion is accused of using a church member’s personal information to open an account with an alarm company, records state.

“The victim explained to officers that the church’s pastor…told her and other parishioners that he needed to collect their personal information for the purpose of ‘state reporting,'” a police report said. “On May 22, 2012, the victim received a telephone call from Devcon Alarm Company about the alarm contract for the church. The company told the victim that the payments for the alarm are past due and that her credit score was in jeopardy. The victim was confused due to the fact she did not give anyone permission to open an account with her information.”

Attorney Mark Longwell of Orlando, the pastor’s lawyer, was surprised to learn of the new charge. He said police had not contacted him or his client.

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FLORIDA
13 News

By Jason Wheeler, Reporter
Last Updated: Friday, July 13, 2012

KISSIMMEE —
He’s out on bond, accused of a sexual assault on a teenage church member — but now a church pastor is wanted for fraud.

Kissimmee investigators said Angel Perez-Nieves forged another church member’s signature. However, the Pentecostal church pastor is no stranger to the criminal justice system.

In May, a teen boy accused the pastor of sexual assault. Perez-Nieves was arrested and eventually bonded out of jail. Now, Kissimmee police are looking for him on a fraud charge.

Police said Perez-Nieves would ask members at the church for their names, dates of birth and social security numbers, telling parishioners it was for “state recording.” He’s accused of using that information from one woman to set up an account with an alarm company — even going as far as forging her signature.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Parents could be sued for the actions of their children and charities could be required to rethink their volunteering policies, lawyers warned yesterday after a landmark ruling over clerical abuse.

By John Bingham, Social Affairs Editor
7:00AM BST 13 Jul 2012

A woman who alleges that she was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest, who can never be brought to trial because he has died, was told she can bring legal action against the Church.

The woman, who cannot be named, was a resident in a children’s home in the 1970s when she says she was assaulted by Father Wilfred Baldwin.

It is claimed that he raped her in the robing room of a church on the day of her first Holy Communion and she is now seeking compensation from the Diocese of Portsmouth.

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VATICAN CITY
Inside Bay Area

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
Posted: 07/13/2012

VATICAN CITY—The troubled Legion of Christ religious order says it is revamping a specialized high school program for teenage girls after dozens of alumni denounced psychological abuses they say they endured that resulted in eating disorders, stress-induced ailments and depression.

The Legion’s lay branch Regnum Christi posted a statement on its website Thursday outlining the changes after The Associated Press reported that 77 alumni had written to the Vatican calling for the program in the U.S., Mexico and Spain to be closed because of the harm done to them in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Girls in the program now have more contact with their families, more exposure to the “realities of the world,” more freedom from rigorous work schedules and, for the first time, and assistance in getting into college, the statement said. Many of these changes began some time ago, but some are more recent.

The problems in the program are the latest blow to the troubled, cult-like Legion, which was discredited in 2009 when it revealed that its founder was a pedophile and drug addict who fathered three children. The Legion suffered subsequent credibility problems following its recent admission that its most famous priest had fathered a child and the current Legion superior covered it up for years.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

A young woman turned to drugs and alcohol and tried to kill herself twice after she was repeatedly sexually abused by a leader at her church.

Leslie Mervyn Gubb was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison when he appeared at the Manukau District Court today. He had earlier pleaded guilty to nine representative charges of indecent assault.

The 74-year-old cupped his hand around his left ear to better hear Judge Charles Blackie tell him that the community viewed his offending with “abhorrence”.

Crown prosecutor Susanna Locke said Gubb was a trusted family friend who held a senior position at the Papakura Presbyterian church, which was attended by the girl and her family.

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FLORIDA
WFTV

KISSIMMEE, Fla. —

A Kissimmee pastor who claimed a demon made him sexually abuse a 16 year old boy is accused of ripping off a member of his own church.

Investigators said Angel Perez-Nieves stole the victim’s personal information and used it to get an alarm system for the church, then never paid the bill.

Perez-Nieves garnered quite the following at the Templo Pentecostal Puerta de Salvacion in Kissimmee.

Under his leadership, the congregation grew to more than 100 members. According to a police report, he is accused of preying on one of them.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

By Mark Greaves on Thursday, 12 July 2012

The Diocese of Portsmouth is liable to pay compensation for alleged sexual abuse by a priest, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

The decision, by a majority of two judges to one, makes dioceses liable for the wrongdoings of its clergy and clears the way for similar compensation claims.

A 48-year-old woman known as JGE says as a child she was beaten by a nun at a care home and later raped and sexually assaulted by a priest, Fr Wilfred Baldwin, who has since died. The diocese disputes her claim.

Lord Justice Ward said the relationship of priest and bishop was “close enough” to employer/employee “to make it just and fair to impose liability”.

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APPLETON (WI)
Green Bay Press Gazette

Written by
Jim Collar
Gannett Wisconsin Media

APPLETON — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay says its First Amendment rights protect it from liability in a civil lawsuit filed by two childhood victims of clergy sex abuse.

Brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield were awarded $700,000 in May by an Outagamie County Court that found the diocese committed civil fraud. The brothers claimed the diocese knew of the Rev. John Feeney’s illicit sexual history when it installed him as a priest at Freedom’s St. Nicholas Church and misrepresented him as safe while knowing he was a danger to children.

The Merryfields, then 12 and 14, were molested by Feeney in 1978. Feeney was sentenced to prison in 2004 for the assaults.

Sarah Fry Bruch, an attorney for the diocese, said the jury verdict should be overturned, arguing the court is constitutionally barred from reading any meaning into Feeney’s assignment to a pastoral role. The Merryfields didn’t show evidence the diocese represented Feeney as safe.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
The Columbus Dispatch

By Jeb Phillips
The Columbus Dispatch

Friday July 13, 2012

The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus has placed a long-serving priest on administrative leave after an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

The Rev. Thomas J. Brosmer, most recently the associate pastor of St. Cecilia Church on the Far West Side, will be on leave during an investigation by the diocese, the diocese announced yesterday.

Brosmer, 68, has been a priest of the diocese since 1969. The sexual abuse is alleged to have occurred while he was at St. Nicholas Parish in Zanesville from 1969 to 1973. Brosmer was also a teacher at Bishop Rosecrans High School then, according to yesterday’s news release.

The diocese’s Chancery Office received the accusation on July 2 and reported it to Zanesville police, the diocese’s victims’ assistance coordinator and the Board of Review for the Protection of Children.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By Josh Dulaney
Thu., Jul. 12 2012

A pastor was convicted Wednesday of sexually assaulting five boys in his Lake Forest apartment.

Oscar D. Perez Perez, a 69-year-old Lake Forest man, was found guilty by a jury of 22 felony counts of lewd acts on a child under 14, four felony counts of lewd acts on a child, and sentencing enhancement allegations for lewd acts against multiple victims.

Perez faces a maximum sentence of 330 years to life in state prison and mandatory lifetime sex offender registration at his Sept. 14 sentencing in Santa Ana’a Central Justice Center.

Perez was a self-professed apostolic pastor and bishop at Iglesia Antigua Católica in Laguna Hills. He met his five victims through the congregation, which operates out of rented space at St. George’s Episcopalian Church, and gained their trust by befriending their families and having the boys assist with church services.

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ROME
Legion of Christ

Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, Pontifical Delegate to the Legion of Christ, has released a letter summarizing the renewal of the congregation, including how the process will now involve the Regnum Christi movement. He acknowledges the “common mission” and “shared purpose and mission” of the religious, consecrated and lay members in the first and second degrees, and recommends a period of “joint reflection” resulting in a “fundamental norm” or “rule” common to all members.

The text of the letter follows:

The original Italian version can be read here.

***
To the members of the Regnum Christi Movement and the members of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ.

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Since I was named Pontifical Delegate for the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in July, 2010, I have focused my energies, with the help of my counselors, strictly to the Legion and its various problems. Particularly, we started the process of revision of the Constitutions – the main responsibility that the Holy Father entrusted to me – as an important moment in the journey of renewal of the Congregation. During this period we have addressed other problems as they have surfaced.

After the apostolic visitation carried out by His Excellency Mons. Ricardo Blázquez, Archbishop of Valladolid, Spain, together with my counselors, I have dedicated time and attention in a particular way to the consecrated persons who form the 3rd degree of the Regnum Christi Movement. This part of our responsibilities, particularly the feminine branch, has demanded much time and attention and has distracted us more than a little from the problems of the Legion. It has been a tiring and complex journey which has had its painful moments. Today, we can look at things with greater serenity. Of course, the job is not finished, but good principles have been put in place which allow us to look to the future with hope. The Lord who has been with us and has brought us through difficult moments will not leave our side in the coming phases of the process.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Alessandro Speciale| Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY — The disgraced Legion of Christ religious order needs to rethink its identity before going forward with its internal reform, the papal envoy in charge of the group’s overhaul told priests and lay members in a letter published on Wednesday (July 11).

Cardinal Velasio De Paolis was appointed in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI to oversee the order’s reform after revelations that its founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, had lived a double life, abusing children and fathering a son.

Macial had enjoyed iconic status in the Legion, with strong suspicions that its leaders had been at least partly aware of his actions.

De Paolis writes that the troubled groups’ various branches, which include priests, religious and lay people, need “a common platform” to “regulate reciprocal relations … according to the identity proper to each group.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Armidale Express

STEPHEN JEFFERY

13 Jul, 2012

YEARS of research by an Armidale woman underpinned the ABC Four Corners program that investigated claims of a Catholic Church cover-up of child sex abuse cases involving defrocked priest and prominent Armidale resident, ‘Father F’.

The high school teacher, who prefers not to be named, has worked in child protection for more than two decades, and for the last few years she has provided information to Broken Rites, an organisation dedicated to supporting and empowering victims of church-related sexual abuse.

She was approached by a producer of Four Corners in May and invited to contribute to an exposé of the former Armidale diocese priest, who is known as Father F for legal reasons.

Father F has been accused of sexually abusing several boys in Moree during the 1980s. He was subsequently moved to the Parramatta diocese, where he allegedly abused another boy, who later committed suicide.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on July 12, 2012

There is little time left: Victims of the Irish Christian Brothers or victims abused at Irish Christian Brothers schools only have until August 1, 2012 to come forward and get justice in the courts.

Last year, the Irish Christian Brothers (ICB), a Catholic religious order based in New Rochelle, New York, sought bankruptcy protection after more than 50 victims in Canada and Seattle came forward about the sexual abuse at ICB schools. The bankruptcy court instituted the deadline, otherwise known as a “bar date,” for all victims of the ICB and victims at ICB-run schools to come forward to the courts.

The Irish Christian Brothers ran and currently run schools across the United States and Canada. For a list, click here or here. Although a school may be listed as “closed,” victims from those schools still have rights. In other places, like Los Angeles’ Cantwell/Sacred Heart of Mary, the Archdiocese booted the brothers and took over the school. Victims who were abused at Cantwell (where a convicted child abuser and at least two accused child sexual predators worked) before the ICB were kicked out also have rights in the bankruptcy.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Humanistischer Pressedienst

SCHARBEUTZ. (hpd) Berlin ist eine Reise wert, so heißt es immer wieder. Die Reise, die Norbert Denef morgen von seinem Wohnort Scharbeutz nach Berlin plant, dürfte eine der ungewöhnlichsten, mit anderen nicht vergleichbare sein. Am Freitag, 13. Juli 2012, wird er um 14:00 Uhr vor dem Reichstag in Berlin sein.

Ausgestattet mit Transparenten, Ideen und Parolen war der Vorsitzende von netzwerkB (B wie Betroffene) in den letzten Jahren immer wieder in die Hauptstadt und den Regierungssitz unseres Landes gereist, um mahnend in Begleitung einiger meist auch Betroffener und Fürsprecher die Forderung zu präsentieren: “Weg mit den Verjährungsfristen bei sexualisierter Gewalt an Kindern und Jugendlichen”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Sophie Gosper
From:The Australian
July 13, 2012

SUPPORT groups for sexually abused children say the Victorian parliament’s terms of reference to investigate widespread cases of sex abuse within the clergy and beyond is a step in the right direction, but that the August 31 cut-off for submissions does not allow enough time to make their case.

The spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, Nicky Davis, said the committee was asking victims to reveal incredibly traumatising and distressing personal information, which some may struggle to even submit in writing, so to offer such a small window was unrealistic.

“The time is vastly inadequate,” she said. “Even if they were just covering the Catholic Church it wouldn’t be enough time, let alone all other non-government organisations and any other organisation that might come up. It is actually a far bigger task than they may think.

“I am also concerned whether or not the magnitude of church (public relations) material that will be dumped on the committee during this time period will drown out the voice of the victims.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Catholic Herald

Written by Tracy Rusch, Catholic Herald Staff Thursday, 12 July 2012

MILWAUKEE — Capuchin Fr. Matthew Gottschalk, 85, cofounder of the House of Peace, retired from his position as spiritual director and moved from Milwaukee to a retirement home in Detroit on Saturday, June 17.

Amy Peterson, director of the Office of Pastoral Care & Conciliation for the Province of St. Joseph, told your Catholic Herald by telephone Monday that Fr. Gottschalk retired for a number of reasons, including his age, health and medical needs. She also said that while the Milwaukee County District Attorney office’s investigation into an allegation made against Fr. Gottschalk found no criminal behavior, it prompted the order to look at his situation.

“(The allegation) brought to light a conversation about Fr. Matthew and his deteriorating health, his age, he just lost his driver’s license – there were just a number of things,” Peterson said. “So the reason he’s not removed from minstry and he’s been retired is because he didn’t, as far as we know, we have no information about him committing a criminal act against a minor.”

Milwaukee County Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern told your Catholic Herald Tuesday that three allegations against Fr. Gottschalk came to their attention earlier this year as a result of the bankruptcy proceedings involving the Milwaukee Archdiocese: the first incident allegedly occurred in 1970, the second allegedly occurred between 1974 and 1976, and the third incident allegedly occurred in 1993.

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MILWAUAKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

July 7, 2012

A prominent Catholic priest who co-founded Milwaukee’s House of Peace and has long ministered to members of the African-American community has retired, in part because of inappropriate behavior involving a minor 30 years ago, his religious order said Friday.

Father Matthew Gottschalk, 85, who was working at the House of Peace when the allegation arose this year, acknowledged the behavior was inappropriate, said Amy Peterson, who handles sex abuse cases for the Detroit-based Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Joseph.

She said the incident did not rise to the level of a crime, according to an investigation by the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office, and that it was not solely the reason for Gottschalk’s retirement. Other factors, including his age, health and the recent loss of his driver’s license, also were considered, she said.

“But this gave us an opportunity to look at his situation holistically,” she said. “And the House of Peace just wasn’t the place for him.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director

CONTACT: 414-336-8575

On Saturday, it was reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Fr. Matthew Gottschalk, a Milwaukee Capuchin priest who has been working with inner city families for over fifty years, had been accused in a report submitted to Milwaukee Federal Bankruptcy Court of abusing a minor. The act or acts, which the Capuchins will not specify, allegedly occurred in the 1970’s.

According to Saturday’s story, Gottschalk admitted to his superiors that he did, in fact, commit an “inappropriate” act against a minor. Citing as her authority the Milwaukee District Attorney’s Office, a Capuchin spokesperson insisted that Gottschalk’s action did not “rise” to the “level” of a “criminal act”. Gottschalk, in other words, just “happened” to have been accused of some kind of non-criminal abuse of a minor as the order was readying him to retire. He was moved to Capuchin headquarters in Detroit for health and other mundane reasons, such as his inability to renew his driver’s license, and not because he was accused of committing a criminal act. So, according to the Capuchins on Saturday, there was one report of abuse against Gottschalk for abusing a minor, the abuse was “inappropriate” but, according to the DA, not criminal. And, after all, Gottschalk admitted to the inappropriate behavior, so let’s just move his retirement forward but not remove him from ministry.

Today, however, we are learning that, once again, church authorities and spokespersons seem congenitally unable to simply speak the truth in a candid, responsible, and transparent manner.

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