ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

Silvia Aloisi
Reuters

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – It will take time to restore trust within the walls of the Vatican and ease the pain caused by a leaks scandal that led to the arrest of Pope Benedict’s butler, the pontiff’s spokesman said on Wednesday.

“Clearly to restore a climate of serenity and trust is a process, it is not something that can be solved in a few days,” said Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s chief spokesman.

Paolo Gabriele, 46, the papal butler arrested on May 23 as part of a investigation into the “Vatileaks” scandal, was questioned by Vatican prosecutor Piero Antonio Bonnet for the second straight day on Wednesday in the tiny city-state’s tribunal.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WHTM

[with video]

By Dennis Owens

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) –
A creepy looking newspaper ad purchased by a group called The Foundation to Abolish Child Sexual Abuse is taking aim at House Judiciary Chairman Ron Marsico.

The ad has text in the blackened silhouette of a child and it accuses Marsico of sitting on House bills 832 and 878, which deal with the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse and open a retroactive window for past victims to sue their abusers in civil court.

Foundation Vice President Tammy Lerner says Marsico, R-Dauphin, has rebuffed repeated attempts for meetings and has steadfastly refused attempts to move the bills to a vote in committee.

“I think it’s despicable that they’re being held up,” said Lerner, an abuse victim. “We’re putting the welfare of children at risk. Why? Because of special interest groups, because of money.”

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Sarah Horner
shorner@pioneerpress.comtwincities.com
Posted: 06/06/2012

A racquetball-size lump on Damian Burkhalter’s upper thigh could mean the difference between freedom and prison for the former church youth director now on trial, accused of first-degree sexual assault.

In opening remarks in his trial Wednesday, June 6, in Anoka County District Court, the Blaine man’s attorney told jurors she will use that large lump to disprove that the 48-year-old Burkhalter repeatedly kissed, touched and had oral sex with a then-14-year-old girl he met in the late summer of 2010, during his time as a youth director for Glen Cary Lutheran Church.

Burkhalter, who worked as a detention sergeant in Hennepin County before taking the job at the Ham Lake church, elected not to have the lump removed.

“The reason that was a life-changing decision is because in the multiple interviews (the girl) has had with Anoka County law enforcement … she has never been able to identify it,” defense attorney Jill Brisbois said.

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COLOMBIA
El Pais

Por: Édgar González | Corresponsal de El País en PastoMiércoles, Junio 6, 2012

Las autoridades intentan dar con el paradero de Álvaro Gámez Torres, líder de la congregación Evangélica Ministerio Apostólico Salem, quien es investigado por el abuso sexual de al menos 27 mujeres, la mayoría de ellas menores de edad, en el municipio de Pasto (Nariño).

La denuncia la hizo el argentino Héctor Navarro, presidente de la Red de Apoyo a Víctimas de Sectas, quien confirmó lo que desde hace días se sospechaba en la capital nariñense, y que desembocó en la huida de Gámez Torres bajo el argumento de que la guerrilla había infiltrado su iglesia y su casa.

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COLOMBIA
Colombia Reports

Colombian authorities are searching for a pastor accused of sexually abusing 27 women, most of them minors, in the southern department of Nariño, newspaper El Pais reported Wednesday.

Pastor Alvaro Gamez Torres of the Apostolic Evangelical Ministry of Salem congregation in the departmental capital of Pasto, allegedly deceived women into giving him their virginity and threatened them if they told anyone.

According to evidence Torres “told them giving him their virginity would have privileges and blessings, and that if any came to tell on him, their family would fall under the curse of Judas and the seven plagues of Egypt.”

Torres’ crimes were discovered after congregation members placed a hidden camera in the church and caught video and photographic evidence of the pastor simultaneously having sex with two teenagers in the room he named “the nursery.”

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ALBERTVILLE (AL)
Sand Mountain Reporter

Posted: Wednesday, June 6, 2012

By Elizabeth Summers | education@sandmountainreporter.com

Elders with the Cowboy Church of Marshall County in Albertville have terminated their pastor amid news he faces child sexual abuse charges in two Texas counties.

Mark Allen Green faces a charge of sexual abuse of a child in Ellis County and an aggravated sexual abuse of a child charge in neighboring Na var ro County, both in Texas.

Green was jailed last week and remains in the Ellis County Jail under a $500,000 bond. Attempts to contact Ellis County Sheriff’s officials were not successful Wednesday.

Church officials declined comment on Green and the charges he faces because the case is “emotional, private and the courts are involved,” according to one church member.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
WHAM

Rochester, N.Y. — The Catholic Diocese of Rochester on Wednesday published the names of 23 priests who have been removed since 2002 amid allegations of sexual abuse.

The names and final dispositions of the priests can be viewed online at dor.org and in the Catholic Courier.

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MONTANA
Helena Independent Record

BILLINGS — New claims of sexual and physical abuse by Roman Catholic clerics and nuns spanning decades in eastern Montana have been lodged in state court in Great Falls.

The allegations were detailed in court documents filed Tuesday in a lawsuit pending since December against the Great Falls-Billings Diocese. They recount abuses against 11 youths at St. Paul’s Mission in Hays, the Cheyenne Home Orphanage, St. Labre Indian school and other diocese-owned sites.

Another defendant — the Illinois-based Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis — was added to the case based on alleged abuse by a nun.

The case is one of four sex-abuse lawsuits against the Catholic Church in Montana since last year and the second against the Great Falls-Billings Diocese.

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NEW JERSEY
Oman Tribune

MORRISTOWN (US) Accusations of child sex abuse at New Jersey’s elite Delbarton School widened on Tuesday as two men joined a lawsuit claiming molestation by priests at the Roman Catholic boys academy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Just two days after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spoke at his son’s graduation from Delbarton, Steve Badt, 44, and a second unidentified man joined the suit alleging sexual abuse by robe-clad monks at the picturesque Morristown school.

The lawsuit was first filed in March by Tom Crane and Bill Crane Jr, now in their 40s, the twin sons of a former teacher and administrator at Delbarton, run by the Roman Catholic Benedictine monks of St Mary’s Abbey.

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MONTANA
KPAX

BILLINGS- New alleged victims and abusers have emerged in a sexual abuse lawsuit which names the Roman Catholic Diocese of Great Falls- Billings and several religious orders as plaintiffs.

Tamaki Law, based in Yakima, Washington, recently added ten additional male and female defendants to a lawsuit originally filed for a Northern Cheyenne woman who contended she was sexually abused by a priest at the St. Labre Mission School in Ashland.

The woman alleges those abuses took place between 1955 and 1962.

In addition to the new defendants, the amendment to the lawsuit also names new plaintiffs and new alleged locations of abuse at diocese owned and operated missions, schools and institutions.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
WHEC

[includes the entire list]

The Rochester Diocese has published a list of 23 priests who have been dismissed over the past decade over accusations of sex abuse.

Below is the full list of priests, provided by the Diocese of Rochester website:

1. Cases concluded canonically by dismissal or prayer and penance. The clerics whose names are included in this section, at the end of a canonical process, either have been dismissed from the clerical state or assigned to a life of prayer and penance, with no public ministry possible
Thomas Burr Prayer and Penance
Thomas Corbett Prayer and Penance
Eugene Emo Dismissed from the clerical state
Robert Hammond Prayer and Penance
William Lum Prayer and Penance
Dennis Sewar Dismissed from the clerical state
David Simon Prayer and Penance
Francis Vogt Prayer and Penance
Robert Winterkorn Prayer and Penance

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Catholic Courier

[Diocese of Rochester]

EDITOR’S NOTE: On June 6, 2012, the Diocese of Rochester published on its website a categorized list of priests who have been removed from ministry since the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued its landmark Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. Here are the list and introduction exactly as they appear on the website:

Dispositions, 2002-Present

In 2001, the Holy See issued to assist bishops in handling allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clerics. Consistent with that legislation, in 2002, the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops established the The Charter provides comprehensive procedures for addressing such allegations. It requires each diocese in the United States to initiate specific actions to create safe environments. It also directs action in the following areas: healing and reconciliation of victims and survivors; prompt and effective response to allegations; cooperation with civil authorities; disciplining offenders; and providing for means of accountability.

Bishop Clark has been unwavering in his commitment to the principles set forth in the Charter. As he wrote in the Catholic Courier newspaper, “Our Diocese has sought to reach out to those who were hurt in the past by the behavior of some of our priests. I have offered then — and I offer now — my sincere apologies on behalf of our local Church, and a personal pledge to each and every one of the victims and to all our faithful: We will work tirelessly and do everything within our power to prevent such incidents now and in the future. This we promise.”

Consistent with that commitment to openness and transparency the Diocese of Rochester today publishes the names of all clerics removed from ministry since 2002.This list summarizes thefinal dispositions of all claims resolved since the Charter’s in 2002. The Diocese will update this list if and when any new credible allegations of abuse are presented. …

The Diocese confirms that no priest who has harmed a minor remains in public ministry.

1. Cases concluded canonically by dismissal or prayer and penance. The clerics whose names are included in this section, at the end of a canonical process, either have been dismissed from the clerical state or assigned to a life of prayer and penance, with no public ministry possible

Thomas Burr Prayer and Penance
Thomas Corbett Prayer and Penance
Eugene Emo Dismissed from the clerical state
Robert Hammond Prayer and Penance
William Lum Prayer and Penance
Dennis Sewar Dismissed from the clerical state
David Simon Prayer and Penance
Francis Vogt Prayer and Penance
Robert Winterkorn Prayer and Penance’

2. Cases concluded canonically by voluntary laicization. Laicization is a canonical process whereby the cleric voluntarily requests that he be separated from the clerical state. Included in this section are the names of priests who sought laicization after being accused of the sexual abuse of a minor.

Albert Cason
Paul Cloonan
Gerard Guli
Joseph Larrabee
Foster Rogers

3. Cases not yet resolved canonically. Included in this section are the names of priests where canonical proceedings remain to be completed. In each case, the cleric involved has been removed from public ministry and remains on administrative leave.

Vincent Panepinto
Paul Schnacky
Dennis Shaw
Conrad Sundholm
Michael Volino

4. Complaints unresolved due to death of accused cleric. This section includes the names of deceased clergy for whom criminal or canonical proceedings were not completed because the cleric died, but the existence of allegations has been publicized.

David Gramkee
Robert O’Neill
John Steger

5. Complaints received after the death of a cleric and publicized.

David Bonin.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Rochester Homepage

[the list – Catholic Courier]

[Diocese of Rochester]

An unprecedented effort by the Catholic Diocese of Rochester Wednesday tonight to be transparent about priest sex abuse. For the first time, the diocese is publishing a list of all priests punished by the church in connection to sexual abuse.

The list appears on the Rochester Diocese’ websites and also in the most recent Catholic Courier. It names all 23 priests removed from the ministry since 2002. The Rochester Catholic Diocese says every priest who has harmed a minor has been removed from public ministry.

Bishop Matthew Clark says the Diocese has tried to “…reach out to those who were hurt in the past by the behavior of some of our priests. I have offered then – and I offer now – my sincere apologies on behalf of our local church, and a personal pledge to each and every one of the victims and to all our faithful.”

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BELGIE
Knack

Het spreekrecht voor hulpverleners die kennis krijgen van zedenfeiten werd recent verruimd. Dit lokt bij gezondheidswerkers die hulp verlenen aan daders enige bezorgdheid uit.

In de nasleep van de onthullingen over seksueel misbruik in de kerk formuleerde de Bijzondere Commissie Seksueel Misbruik aanbevelingen. Die vormden de basis voor een aanpassing van het artikel 458 bis van het Strafwetboek met betrekking tot het spreekrecht bij seksueel misbruik.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

Advocaat Jan Boone is een klachtprocedure begonnen om alsnog gedaan te krijgen dat het bisdom Rotterdam en voormalig bisschop Bär strafrechtelijk worden vervolgd. Volgens Boone is het bisdom te beschouwen als een criminele organisatie, gericht op seksueel misbruik. .

Een aangifte bij het Openbaar Ministerie leidde tot niets. Het OM liet in maart weten geen been te zien in een onderzoek, bij gebrek aan verdenkingen. Boone legt zich daar niet bij neer. Hij meent dat het bisdom alle trekken van een criminele organisatie vertoont en wil dat het gerechtshof in Den Haag de vervolging alsnog beveelt.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Depending on what commentary one reads, recent leaks of internal Vatican memos and private letters to Pope Benedict XVI are the work either of praiseworthy whistle-blowers or criminal moles.

Gianluigi Nuzzi, the Italian journalist who published a book based on dozens of private Vatican documents, said his main source was part of a group of Vatican employees who wanted to “help” Pope Benedict XVI clean up the church by revealing evidence of corruption, infighting and power struggles.

But Archbishop Angelo Becciu, a top official in the Vatican Secretariat of State, said leaking the material was “behavior unjustifiable from every point of view.”

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week

The chief of the Brooklyn district attorney’s rackets bureau and a member of the DA’s new task force to combat witness intimidation in the ultra-Orthodox community indicated a willingness to explore all available avenues to tamp down on the problem — including “[picking] up the phone and [calling] the U.S. attorney.”

Michael Vecchione’s comments came Tuesday in an interview with The Jewish Week, and they suggest an openness to receiving information from community members in sex abuse cases that his own boss, DA Charles Hynes — at least based on his recent statements to the press — appears to lack.

In public statements over the course of the past few weeks, Hynes has described the problem of intimidation of Orthodox abuse victims as worse than anything he has seen in organized crime or police corruption cases.

“We should not be limited by what [people in the community] believe intimidation is,” Vecchione said in response to a comment by The Jewish Week that many in the community fear that threats of social ostracism themselves may not be actionable as a form of intimidation.

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

June 6, 2012

Posted by Paul Moses

Cardinal Timothy Dolan assailed The New York Times this week for its reporting on payments provided to priests who were known sex abusers so that they could be laicized as quickly as possible. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee refers to these payments, made while Dolan was archbishop there, as “funds for transition.” Advocates for victims call them a “payoff.”

Whatever term one uses, it is clear that, despite what the cardinal says, the church has paid money with the aim of getting known offenders to leave the priesthood. But at the same time, The Times hasn’t provided the context needed to understand what Dolan said about one specific payment in 2006, which gives the impression that he lied at the time.

That the payments were intended to induce priest-offenders to leave is clear in a statement the Milwaukee archdiocese issued on May 31:

” … in 2002, at the height of the publicity about clergy sexual abuse, advocates for abuse survivors were demanding that all priest offenders be “defrocked” or laicized.

Responding to that demand, the archdiocesan finance council, which is made up of respected lay leaders in the community, discussed the most expedient and cost-effective way to have offenders laicized or removed from the priesthood. Having someone seek laicization voluntarily was faster and less expensive. It made sense to try and move these men out of the priesthood as quickly as possible.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

A Philadelphia jury has deliberated a fourth day without reaching a verdict in a major clergy-abuse case.

Jurors are set to return Thursday after asking many questions this week.

Monsignor William Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged with crimes for his handling of priest sex-abuse complaints. He’s charged with conspiracy and child endangerment for his actions as secretary of clergy at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The Rev. James Brennan is charged with molesting a teen in 1996.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By David Gibson| Religion News Service, Updated: Wednesday, June 6

When the nation’s Catholic bishops gather in Atlanta next week (June 13-15) for their annual spring meeting, a top agenda item will be assessing the reforms they adopted 10 years ago as revelations of widespread sexual abuse of children by priests consumed the church.

The policy package they approved at that 2002 meeting in Dallas was known as the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, or the Dallas charter, for short. With it, the bishops vowed to finally put an end to the abuse and secrecy. They also pledged to help raise awareness about the plague of child abuse in society.

But is anything different — in the church or in the country — 10 years later? Here’s a look at what has changed, and what has not:

One, law enforcement is more assertive

The chief criticism of the 2002 reforms was that they did not include any means of disciplining bishops who fail to follow the charter. Each bishop still answers only to the pope — and Benedict XVI has so far declined to penalize any of them.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Local News

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia jury has deliberated a fourth day without reaching a verdict in a major clergy-abuse case.

Jurors are set to return Thursday after asking frequent questions this week.

Monsignor William Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged with crimes for his handling of child sex-abuse complaints at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He’s charged with conspiracy and child endangerment.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

UPDATED TUESDAY

Lawyers in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse case spent Monday and Tuesday haggling with Judge M. Teresa Sarmina over the meaning of two charges to the jury. Both disputes came in answer to questions raised by jurors over the words “and/or.”

When the haggling was over, the first dispute was resolved with an “and or,” to the detriment of Msgr. William J. Lynn, because it gave the jury more latitude to find him guilty of a conspiracy charge. The resolution of the second dispute with simply an “and” appeared to be a gift to the other defendant in the case, Father James J. Brennan, because it made it more difficult to convict him on a charge of endangering the welfare of a child.

On Tuesday, jurors appeared confused over the disparity in the judge’s answers. In effect, they sent a note to the judge, asking why what was good for the goose wasn’t good for the gander.

The judge told jurors they had asked an “astute question,” but then she said she basically couldn’t give them a straight answer. “It’s for legal reasons,” she said. Five minutes later, the jury sent another note to the judge. It was 3:20, but the jurors wanted to go home for the day, an hour earlier than usual.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

Every day for the past ten weeks, Msgr. William J. Lynn has been accompanied to trial by four full-time defense lawyers. A conservative estimate is that the archdiocese is spending $75,000 a week on those four defense lawyers, or $750,000 for the past ten weeks of trial.

But the costs of the archdiocese’s legal bill is much higher than that. In the archdiocese’s new financial report issued this month, it was disclosed that the church has spent $11.6 million in response to the 2011 grand jury investigation of the archdiocese.

In a letter to parishioners that accompanied the new financial report, Archbishop Charles Chaput said the church spent $1.6 million in the 2011 fiscal year, and another $10 million over nine months of the 2012 fiscal year that ended March 31.

“Following the grand jury report, nine separate civil lawsuits were filed in Philadelphia County against the Archdiocese and certain individual defendants based on alleged clergy sexual abuse of minors,” Chaput wrote. “As fiscal 2011 closed, the Archdiocese learned that its former CEO had embezzled nearly $1 million over a period of years.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The Pope’s butler has implicated at least two cardinals in a network of a moles who stole and leaked confidential documents from the Vatican, according to reports.

By Nick Squires, Rome
12:30PM BST 06 Jun 2012

Paolo Gabriele, 46, who was arrested two weeks ago after investigators allegedly found a cache of stolen papers in his Vatican apartment, would meet the cardinals and other contacts, including journalists, in bars and cafés just outside the walls of the city state.

If found guilty of stealing the papers and letters, including some apparently taken directly from the desk of Pope Benedict XVI, the valet would lose his Vatican apartment and could be “exiled” from the Holy See, the Italian press reported.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

Paolo Gabriele, the Pope’s valet, who has been charged with stealing confidential papal documents, has implicated two cardinals in the “Vatileaks” scandal, according to a report in London’s Daily Telegraph.

The Daily Telegraph story did not identify the cardinals allegedly involved, and did not cite evidence to substantiate the report. The Telegraph, like other British newspapers, has a history of publishing sensational reports about Vatican affairs.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Sister Margaret Farley’s book, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, which has been criticized by the Vatican:

No one who ever heard of Margaret Farley and stumbled across her book, Just Love, in a bookstore would consider her a nun. Nor would anyone think she was a nun if he consulted her official Yale biography. That’s because she does not identify herself as a nun. But Maureen Dowd calls Farley a nun, and, alas, she is right. More than that, Farley is a nun in the news for writing a book that contradicts Catholic teachings on sexuality. She was also in the news in 1984: she signed a statement paid for by the anti-Catholic organization, Catholics for a Free Choice, that said it was okay to be Catholic and pro-abortion.

In Just Love, Farley makes it clear that she thinks very highly of Michel Foucault [pronounced FOO-CO]. She likes the way he taught that sexuality was nothing but a social construct, having no roots in nature. Foucault also taught that AIDS was a social construct, not a disease. He died of this “social construct” in 1984 at the age of 57.

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

Posted at: Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Author: Nicholas P. Cafardi

I have sometimes criticized the behavior of bishops in their handling of the child sex abuse crisis, but I cannot agree with the criticism of Cardinal Dolan currently being made, regarding the payments that the Milwaukee archdiocese made to malefactor priests for their cooperation in the “laicization,” really dismissal from the clerical state, process.

By some accounts, the Milwaukee archdiocese, under then Archbishop Dolan, paid these priests the sum of $20,000 to agree to seek voluntary “laicization.” As the New York Times reported, “the archdiocese did make such payments to multiple accused priests to encourage them to seek dismissal, thereby allowing the church to remove them from the payroll.”

Note that last phrase—“to remove them from the payroll.” That is the critical phrase here. Every priest, even a priest under suspension, awaiting a canonical trial for child sexual abuse, has the right to support from the diocese. The 1983 Code of Canon Law says this in numerous places – Canon 281, Canon 384, Canon 1350.

This is sometimes called the right to “sustenance,” and it remains the right of the priest unless and until he is dismissed from the clerical state, something that can happen adversarially in a canonical judicial process, or something that can happen administratively at the priest’s request.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The jury considering the Philadelphia clergy sexual abuse case today posed more questions to the judge.

The jury, considering child endangerment charges against Monsignor William Lynn and sexual assault charges against another priest, asked to see more of the documents presented at trial.

The panel also sought the definitions of two words that were repeated often during the trial, pedophile and ephebophile.

Generally speaking, a pedophile is someone sexually attracted to prepubescent children, while an ephebophile is attracted to older teens under the age of 18.

The jury also asked for a the definition of the word agreement as it applies to the conspiracy charge against Msgr. Lynn. He is charged with conspiring with church officials and a pedophile priest to endanger children by allowing that priest to remain in ministry.

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CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register

By GREG HARDESTY / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

A sex-abuse and cover-up lawsuit against former Monsignor Michael Harris, a once-popular and high-profile figure who left the priesthood when Orange County’s clergy scandal erupted a decade ago, is set to go to trial June 18 in Orange County Superior Court.

The plaintiff accuses Harris, former principal of Mater Dei and Santa Margarita Catholic high schools, of sexually abusing him in late 1986 or early 1987 at Mater Dei. The high school in Santa Ana and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange also are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Although Harris has denied molesting minors and never has been charged criminally, he was part of a landmark $5.2 million settlement in 2001 that the Los Angeles and Orange dioceses made with his accuser, former Santa Margarita Catholic High School student Ryan DiMaria.

In 2005, nine accusers of Harris settled lawsuits with the Diocese of Orange, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles listed 12 accusers of Harris in a 2004 report on clergy sexual abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Angela Bonavoglia

It took nearly 12 hours for Archbishop Peter Sartain — Vatican-appointed overseer of the nation’s largest association of American nuns — to issue his paltry retort to the strong and vigorous statement released on June 1 by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, their first public response to the Vatican’s takeover plan. That could well be because he and the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issuer of the Doctrinal Assessment, were pretty much stunned by the response of LCWR.

Buoyed by the support of Catholics nationwide who came out for vigils, signed petitions and expressed outrage at the CDF’s action, the LCWR declared that the CDF’s Doctrinal Assessment was based on “unsubstantiated accusations,” was “the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency” and — borrowing a freighted word the Vatican and the bishops regularly lob at all manner of “errant” Catholics — was “causing scandal” as well as “pain throughout the church community.” The Assessment (for my take, see The Nation, “American Nuns: Guilty as Charged?”) had lambasted the nuns for, among other things, their “radical feminism,” focus on poverty instead of pelvic issues, their lack of fidelity to church teachings on those controversial matters, and their failure to submit “allegiance of mind and heart to the Magisterium of the Bishops.”

While clearly conveying the message that they had no plans to roll over — a message hailed in headlines from coast to coast — what was most important about the position of the LCWR board was expressed very quietly in their statement, then made more explicit by LCWR president Sr. Pat Farrell in an exclusive interview she gave to the National Catholic Reporter on Friday.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Michael D’Antonio

One can only guess what the pope might be thinking. In Rome, his butler has been arrested in connection with a “Vatileaks” scandal that has revealed venomous internal conflicts over the Church’s finances, child abuse scandals and doctrine. In America, the faithful flock to support their nuns in their fight with Church disciplinarians, while a Philadelphia monsignor accused of endangering children faces heavy jail time in a criminal trial now in its second month. And these problems are not worst of it.

Amid all the more notable intrigue and scandal, a jury in the little city of Appleton, Wis., recently demolished a defense that has shielded the church from hundreds, if not thousands, of claims related to sexual crimes committed by priests against minors. The historic verdict threatens the Church with a new round of sexual abuse lawsuits that could expose it to billions of dollars in liability.

Like countless other victims of clergy abuse, Todd and Troy Merryfield had been unable to sue for damages because a state statute of limitations said too much time had passed between the moment when they knew they had been harmed and their decision to go to court. Noting that fraud stops the statute clock from ticking, their attorney Jeffrey Anderson re-filed the case to claim that higher-ups had defrauded his clients and the public by permitting a criminally flawed man to work as a priest. The way Anderson saw it, bishops who didn’t act swiftly to protect the public from suspect priests were like the Ford Motor Company executives who unleashed fatally flawed Pintos on an unsuspecting public and should be held responsible.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

Timothy Cardinal Dolan is being criticized for inducing suspected miscreant priests to exit the priesthood while he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee. The attack is phony: if the issue were how to handle sex abusers, his critics would have previously commented on the following:

◦In California, all government employees convicted of any crime receive a full pension
◦A Los Angeles teacher charged with 23 counts of lewd acts with children aged 6-10 was paid $40,000 this year to drop his appeal
◦In the state of Washington, a teacher accused of sexual misconduct was given $55,000 to withdraw his termination appeal this year
◦A teacher in New York State (NYS) convicted this year of downloading child porn was awarded nearly $22,000 a year
◦A convicted sex abuser in NYS serving up to 50 years is receiving a pension of more than $52,000
◦Another sex offender in NYS convicted of child porn possession is receiving $49,210 in a pension
◦In 2012, a New York City teacher convicted of a sex offense was paid over $100,000 a year while sitting for ten years in a rubber room; he is entitled to $85,400 a year in a pension; and he will also receive $55,000 for unused sick days
◦A Queens guidance counselor accused of molesting a learning-disabled student has been receiving $102,852 a year since 2003

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

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

After spending two days asking the judge to explain complex questions about the law, jurors at the clergy-sex abuse trial apparently can’t even agree on the meaning of “agree.”

On Wednesday, the panel asked Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina for a definition of the word. They also wanted evidence related to 13 accused priests who were mentioned during the 11-week trial, and for definitions of the terms “pedophile” and “ephebophile.”

The requests marked the third time in as many days of deliberations that the panel of seven men and five women has sought guidance or evidence as they weigh the child endangerment and other charges against Msgr. William J. Lynn and the Rev. James J. Brennan.

The judge, prosecutors and defense lawyers planned to take the lunch break to hash out the answers. Sarmina asked that jurors be brought to her courtroom at 2:05 p. m.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Phyllis Zagano on Jun. 06, 2012 Just Catholic

As leaked documents cast doubt upon the Vatican Bank and the Swiss guards say the butler did it, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith continues playing “Whack-A-Nun.” Vatican congregations have scrutinized women religious, put their major leadership organization into receivership and attacked the writings of individual sisters.

So anyway, do they read the newspapers? Don’t they get it?

You know the story: Two major American scholars, both women religious, have been under scrutiny for four years. What Rome does not seem to realize is every time you try to beat one down, four or five other women pop up. And the next generation of theologians and ethicists does not belong to religious institutes.

All those women — especially the American women — standing behind the scholars and the 57,000 other members of LCWR religious institutes were educated by the sisters. Their first rank, the female majority of the US’s 35,000 lay ecclesial ministers, have managed by hook and/or crook to get theological training — despite being barred from most diocesan seminaries — and have jobs in Catholic ministry. They are chaplains in hospitals, prisons, colleges and schools; they are pastoral associates, many in charge of parish religious education; they run soup kitchens and after-school programs. Then there are the high school religion teachers and university theology professors; the editors and journalists; the newscasters and politicians. Not to mention all the other Catholic women at home and in the workplace who quite often disagree with the canon lawmakers.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Colorado Independent

By John Tomasic
Wednesday, June 06, 2012

As Denver welcomes new Catholic Archbishop Samuel Aquila, more bad fiscal news breaks from the Philadelphia archdiocese now run by former Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput. In a report released Tuesday, the Philadelphia archdiocese revealed it doled out $11 million over the last two years defending priests against criminal charges mostly concerning sexual abuse.

In fact, the $11 million sum is a low-ball figure, according to the Washington Post, because it doesn’t include money pouring into the ongoing trial of Secretary of the Clergy William Lynn, the official accused of covering up accusations of abuse and failing to remove suspect priests from parish ministry over the course of a decade. The archdiocese has retained four private attorneys to defend Lynn.

Less than a year ago, Pope Benedict appointed Chaput to replace embattled Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali, whose name had become synonymous with the spiraling Philadelphia sex abuse scandal. Church watchers were not surprised by the appointment. Chaput made a name for himself in the 1990s for his shrewd work in guarding Denver Church finances at a time when dioceses around the country began making multimillion-dollar payouts to victims of sexual abuse.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WSOC

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA —

A Philadelphia jury wants definitions for the terms “pedophile” and “ephebophile” as it deliberates in a major clergy-abuse case.

Jurors also want the definition of the word “agreement” under conspiracy law.

Dictionary definitions suggest pedophilia is a perverse sexual interest in children, while ephebophilia refers to an adult’s sexual interest in teens. But medical definitions can vary.

And it’s not clear the jury will get any definitions, because they aren’t part of the trial evidence.

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NEW JERSEY
Voice from the Desert

June 6, 2012

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

One week ago, six courageous survivors of sexual abuse by Monsignor John J. Laferrera, disgraced pastor of St. Philomena’s Roman Catholic Church in Livingston, New Jersey, sat in a law firm’s conference room in Morristown to engage in mediation of their charges of hideous sexual abuse against them. Today, the Catholic Advocate, newspaper of the Newark Archdiocese, announced that Laferrera has been granted retirement by Archbishop John J. Myers. Myers brings new meaning to “you can’t make this stuff up.”

Myers’ actions continue a pattern of allowing pedophile priests to retire instead of recommending that they be defrocked by the Vatican. For example, Monsignor Peter Cheplic was credibly accused a few years ago of abusing several men, including Joe Capozzi, the author and producer of “For Pete’s Sake,” a riveting play about Cheplic’s abuse of Capozzi which began when Cheplic was a priest at St. Matthew’s Parish in Ridgefield. He was allowed to retire with full pension and benefits and no accountability.

At least twelve men have made it known that Laferrera sexually abused them at Immaculate Conception Parish in Newark, Laferrera’s first priestly assignment. In addition, a parishioner of St. Aloysius Parish in Caldwell has indicated that Laferrera, who was the pastor there, was seen as late as last year riding with young boys in a convertible car through the streets of Caldwell. Another St. Aloysius parishioner reported that as early as the 1990s, letters about Laferrera’s abuse of children were made known to authorities.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Times

By Maryclaire Dale
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jurors are deliberating for a fourth day in the alleged conspiracy to cover-up child sex crimes at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Monsignor William Lynn could spend 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted for what his lawyers call the sins of other men.

Lynn is the former secretary for clergy in Philadelphia. He’s charged with endangering two children by keeping their alleged molesters in ministry despite earlier complaints about the priests.

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UNITED STATES
The Philly Post

Beth Capriotti

As if my faith hasn’t been tested enough lately, last week I awoke to the news shows discussing yet another scandal in the Catholic Church. The pedophilia scandal was successful in altering my perception of priests and the priesthood and the lack of divinity in both. Yes, I said divinity. I grew up as a practicing Roman Catholic. We were taught by the scary, mean old nuns that priests were somehow above human frailty, a higher calling gave them a status somewhere between us sinners and God. Yea, right, I know. Now I think they’re all just men. Some good ones and some bad ones, but just men in the end, either answering a calling or finding refuge in a system that not only allows them to indulge their own demons but protects them while they do it at the physical and emotional expense of children.

Even though it’s been years now and the continued exposure of pedophile priests and their protectors just doesn’t seem to end, I decided to try to understand that debacle and somehow separate it from my faith. Spirituality is important in this world, and Catholicism is the only club I belong to, so I soldiered on and hoped that the Church would clean house.

This latest scandal seems to indicate that the Pope’s house isn’t so clean either. There have been some shady shenanigans going on within the Vatican to further the wealth and power of the Holy See. Geez, and I thought they were there to protect the Holy Gospel and the Holy Church, not line the pockets of some very long red robes. Hmmm, more men behaving badly.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Betty Clermont

Imagine the reaction of the thousands of men and women sexually abused by American nuns to the continuous media coverage lauding their tormenters and torturers as the ultimate practitioners of virtue. In response to the multitude of commentaries championing religious women against the Vatican, I agree with Kris Ward of the National Survivors Advocates Coalition (NSAC) who wrote:

[I]t is important and imperative that in this time and at this juncture we must say that while being bullied, being treated rudely, and being investigated is offensive and insulting, it is not on the same par as an innocent and vulnerable child’s body being raped, sodomized, forced into a crucifixion poses and made to mock the God that was systematically being taken from them in the vilest of ways.

For those survivors who have not succumbed to suicide – either quickly or slowly by alcohol, drugs and other self-destructive means – this must be an excruciating period in their lifelong battle to deal with the abuse inflicted on them by some of the “good sisters.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Rheinneckarblog

Mannheim, 17. Mai 2012. (red) Der Katholikentag in Mannheim bietet rund 1.200 Veranstaltungen an fünf Tagen. Zwei Veranstaltungen wurden “nach eigehender Prüfung” nicht ins Programm aufgenommen. Angeblich habe man “wohlwollend” versucht, “alle Vorschläge” zu berücksichtigen.

Uns liegt das entsprechende Schreiben der Absage vor, nach dem Vorschläge des Arbeitskreises des Alternativprogramms von den Organisatoren des Katholikentags abgelehnt worden sind. Nach unseren Informationen betrifft das vier Veranstaltungen, zwei werden im Schreiben explizit genannt.

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OSTERREICH
Radio Vatikan

Ernsthaft prüfen wollen die österreichischen Bischöfe die Vorwürfe, die die„Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt“ gegen sie erhoben haben. Das hat der Medienreferent der Bischofskonferenz, Paul Wuthe, am Montag erklärt. Die Plattform hatte laut eigenen Angaben den österreichischen Bischöfen Briefe mit Namen von Priestern und weiteren kirchlichen Mitarbeitern geschickt, die des Missbrauchs beschuldigt und überführt worden seien, die aber immer noch ihren Dienst ausübten. Über Details der Beschuldigungen beziehungsweise der Einzelfälle könne er derzeit nichts sagen, so Wuthe, die Briefe seien bei den Bischöfen noch nicht eingegangen. Sollte es sich aber tatsächlich um Täter handeln, sei der Umgang mit ihnen klar geregelt, so der Sprecher:

„Ich bin davon überzeugt, dass die Bischöfe die Vorwürfe sehr ernst nehmen werden. Und ich kann dazu auch sagen, dass die geltende Rahmenordnung der Bischöfe, die seit zwei Jahren gilt und die ja auch international viel Aufsehen erregt hat, dass die ganz konkrete Maßnahmen vorsieht, wenn es Beschuldigte bzw. Täter gibt. Echte Täter, die eine strafrechtliche Verurteilung haben – so sieht das die Rahmenordnung der Bischofskonferenz vor – dürfen nicht mehr in der Kinder- und Jugendpastoral eingesetzt werden.“

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OSTERREICH
Salzburger Nachrichten

Sechs Priestern der Erzdiözese Salzburg wird Gewalt gegen Kinder und Jugendliche vorgeworfen. Die Namen der Priester übermittelte die Plattform “Betroffene kirchlicher Gewalt” an Erzbischof Kothgasser – dieser soll nun handeln.

Die Plattform “Betroffene kirchlicher Gewalt” hat dem Salzburger Erzbischof Alois Kothgasser in einer Aussendung sechs Namen von Priestern genannt, denen sexuelle Übergriffe vorgeworfen werden. Keiner der genannten Namen ist neu.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Franziskanerbrüder vom Heiligen Kreuz feiern am 10.06.2012 ihr 150jähriges Jubiläum – mindestens 300 Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs ordensgenossenschaftlicher Einrichtungen im Bistum Trier und ein Totschlag werden verschwiegen – ebenso mindestens 34 Täter aus den Reihen der Franziskanerbrüder.

06.06.2012 Bischof Ackermann scheint vergesslich. Man könnte es auch anders formulieren: Er hat Probleme mit der Wahrheit. Oder: Er verschweigt – weiterhin.

Wie sonst ist zu erklären, dass er in seinem Grusswort in der Jubiläumszeitschrift mit keiner Silbe die Opfer erwähnt, die in den Einrichtungen der “Franziskaner vom Heiligen Kreuz” missbraucht wurden? Hinzu kommt 1 Totschlag. Die Franziskanerbrüder vom Heiligen Kreuz feiern am Sonntag, dem 10.06.2012 ihr 150jähriges Bestehen. Mit dabei: Eure Exzellenz, Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann, Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz. Prost, Herr Bischof!

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bild

Mittwoch, 06. Juni 2012

Osnabrück (dpa/lni) – Als Reaktion auf die Skandale um sexuellen Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche will das Bistum Osnabrück den Einfluss von Frauen und Ehrenamtlichen stärken. «Gerade in den schwierigen Fragen beim Missbrauch hat sich gezeigt, wie wichtig die Erfahrungen von Frauen sind», sagte der Bischof von Osnabrück Franz-Josef Bode am Mittwoch. Auch die Mitsprache von Ehrenamtlichen in den Ortspfarreien solle gestärkt werden. Bode erklärte, dass es nicht um eine Quotenregelung gehe, sondern um Selbstverpflichtung, auf die sich Bistumsleitung, Räte, Gremien und Berufsgruppen im Bistum verständigt hätten. 2015 soll Zwischenbilanz gezogen werden.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Jun. 06, 2012

By Fr. Charles E. Curran

COMMENTARY

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s condemnation of Mercy Sr. Margaret Farley’s award-winning book, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, is not a surprise. The congregation insists the book “cannot be used as a valid expression of Catholic teaching” because it disagrees with the hierarchical magisterium on masturbation, homosexual acts, homosexual unions, the indissolubility of marriage, and divorce and remarriage.

There is a long list of Catholic moral theologians whose works on sexual ethics in a similar vein have been condemned or censured by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the course of the last 40 years. Pope John Paul II wrote his 1993 encyclical, Vertiatis splendor, because of the discrepancy between the official teaching of the church on moral matters and the teaching of some moral theologians even in seminaries. According to the pope, the church is “facing what is certainly a genuine crisis, which is no longer a matter of limited and occasional dissent, but of an overall and systematic calling into question of traditional moral doctrine.”

All have to recognize there is such a real crisis in the church today. But the crisis is not just a crisis in moral theology; it involves a crisis in the church as a whole and in our very understanding of the Catholic church. According to the well-respected Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, one in three people who were brought up as Roman Catholic in the United States are no longer Catholic. The second-largest “denomination” in the United States is former Catholics. One out of every 10 people in the United States is an ex-Catholic. We all have personal experience with those who have left the church because of the teaching on sexual issues. Related issues, including the role of women in the church, celibacy for the clergy, and the failure of church leadership to deal with the scandal of child abuse and its cover-up, have also been recognized as reasons why many people have left the Catholic church.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

In case you’ve missed these pieces, folks, I thought that this morning I’d point you to some statements about the Dolan affair that have come to my attention following my posting about that topic this past Monday:

1. The same day I posted, Mark Silk wrote a piece at his Spiritual Politics blog entitled “Dolan Doubles Down.” Mark notes, as my posting did, the attempt of some of the dotCommonweal crowd to defend His Eminence after Laurie Goodstein wrote her report about payoffs to pedophile priests in the Milwaukee archdiocese re: which Dolan clearly knew, though he has indicated the contrary.

2. Also on 4 June, Andrew Sullivan posted again about the Dolan affair with a statement entitled, “Dolan: Is He a Republican Pol or a Cardinal?” Sullivan’s conclusion:

You heard that right. A cardinal from a church revealed to have operated a global child rape cover-up for decades says the chief group for the victims “has no credibility whatsoever.” After this outburst, Dolan took a week off in Ireland.

3. At the SNAP website, David Clohessy has issued a “media events” statement noting that more evidence contradicts His Eminence’s claims re: payoffs to notorious Milwaukee pedophile priest Franklyn Becker. As David notes, new internal evidence from records of the archdiocese of Milwaukee have now surfaced and are available at the Bishop Accountability website showing that Becker was paid $10,000 in 2005, and that the payoff was not linked to “health insurance,” as His Eminence has claimed. The new finds also include a 27 May 2003 letter of Dolan as archbishop of Milwaukee to Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, promising Ratzinger that Dolan would set up a “special fund” to support Becker, who had admitted he had abused minors.

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UNITED STATES
Boys Don’t Tell

The Catholics are in the news again about their handling of child sex abuse, via the actions of Archbishop Dolan. Evidently when he was Bishop of the Milwaukee Diocese, in 2003 he was a key player when a decision was made to pay sexually abusive priests $20,000 to leave the priesthood. Yet at the time when the Bishop was asked if they were paying priests off, he responded by saying that was “false, preposterous and unjust.”

Now that the minutes of that meeting have become public in the bankruptcy of the Milwaukee Diocese, we are being told that the church did this to “help these former priests transition to lay life without completely losing access to things like health care.” (Nobody seemed to care what all the victims had lost access to, like trust, faith, self-respect, and their soul among other things.) The church also admits the payments were intended to move “unassignable priests” out of the priesthood more quickly than going through due process. Some say this was a bonus to child molesters. I don’t see it that way. It was a payoff, and they obviously recognized there was a serious problem.

Here in Oregon, it came out a couple of years ago that the Portland Public Schools were doing the same thing with teachers that had complaints of sexual abuse against them. The district paid their insurance for a year and gave them letters of recommendation and in some cases monetary awards as long as they agreed to leave the area. I’m sure these administrators were saying the same thing the church was; leave my employ so that you are no longer a potential liability to me.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

The Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) was notified about 237 additional clerical child sex abuse cases up to April 1st this year.

These involved 196 priests or religious and originated predominantly from adults who complained of abuse which took place in their childhood.

Just six cases related to alleged abuse that occurred since the year 2000.

It represents a drop on the previous year when 272 new reports were made to the NBSC.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Sarah Stack

Tuesday June 05 2012

MORE than 230 allegations of clerical abuse have been made to the Catholic Church watchdog in the last year.

Figures showed 237 new abuse claims involving 196 priests and religious members were reported – the majority from adults who alleged they were childhood victims.

Six complaints relating to the year 2000 onwards were made to the National Board For Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC).

Ian Elliott, chief executive of the NBSCCC, warned the board needs more funding to cope with its workload.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE CHIEF executive of the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) has warned that proposed legislation on mandatory reporting could weaken the church’s policy on child protection.

Ian Elliott has said the Government’s Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill, 2012, “will not achieve what it intends unless it is amended”.

His concern centres on “the proposed and currently inadequately qualified defence of ‘reasonable excuse’ in failing to disclose information around defined offences against children” in the Bill.

He said the provision in the proposed legislation allows exceptions where mandatory reporting is concerned, and these are not contained in the church’s guidelines.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Wednesday June 06 2012

THE Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog has expressed concern about the level of resources available to it as 237 new cases of abuse were reported in the last year.

Ian Elliott, the chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, said the body has struggled to keep abreast of all the work. He said 237 new abuse cases were reported in 2011 against 196 priests and religious. Six related to the period from 2000 onwards.

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IRELAND
National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church

Under the reporting procedures contained in ‘Safeguarding Children: Standards and Guidance’
each Church authority is expected to report any new safeguarding case that they become aware of to the relevant statutory child protection agencies, namely the Gardaí or the PSNI, the HSE or the HSC. We also ask that the National Office receive notification of the case and confirmation that it has been passed on in line with the Guidance. The expectation is that the reports will be made comprehensively and in a timely fashion. This aspect of the safeguarding practice of the Church authorities represents a key indicator within the Safeguarding Review process being progressed by the National Board.

Two hundred and thirty-seven notifications were received by the National Office over the course of
the last year. These involved 196 priests/religious and originate predominantly from adults who complained of abuse which occurred in their childhood. A number of notifications that had previously been reported to either of the statutory child protection agencies by the Church authority involved had not been communicated to the other in the belief that reports made to one agency would automatically be given to the other through the existence of a joint protocol between the statutory child protection agencies. However, through the review and audit processes within the Church, it became clear that this protocol had not always been operating, and as a result some reports were only known to one of the child protection agencies. The practice of the Church today is to report to both child protection agencies, both verbally and in writing, to ensure that all child safeguarding matters that come to our attention are shared with the appropriate statutory bodies. We can
confirm that each Church authority that notified us of a new case over the last year also reported that
they had communicated the details to the relevant statutory agencies.

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IRELAND
National Board For Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church

[the report]

(Tuesday June 5th)

The National Board For Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) today launched its Annual Report for 2011. Covering the period from March 31st 2011 to April 1st 2012, the Report gives detail on the activities undertaken, the level of abuse reporting and of innovations deployed during that time. 237 new abuse allegations were reported to the NBSCCC involving 196 priests and religious and originate predominantly with adults complaining in relation to abuse that happened in childhood. Only 6 complaints related to the period from the year 2000 onwards. The equivalent period in 2010 into 2011 saw 272 new reports made.

“We noted in our last Annual Report that we had received a large number of requests for advice both from religious bodies and dioceses. Existing Advisory panels were also providing support but we took the view that an additional resource to support Ordinaries faced with challenging safeguarding concerns should be created. On a pilot basis, the National Case Management Reference Group (NCMRG), has been set up to address that need.” stated Ian Elliott, Chief Executive, NBSCCC. “Very quickly the NCMRG received even more requests for advice than was expected and, while we will fully evaluate the service after its first full year, but initial indications are that the advice is being well received.”

Demand for services from the NBSCCC continued to rise during the year. So, innovations designed to facilitate that workload, including the establishment of the NCMRG were prominent. The most significant on the training side was the creation of a standardised set of training materials and the recruitment of eight tutors, two in each metropolitan area to ensure its roll out.

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IRELAND
IrishCentral

By
HILDA HIGGINS,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Ireland’s National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) has revealed that 237 new abuse claims involving 196 priests and members of religious orders have been made within the last 12 months.

Ian Elliott, chief executive of the group, says they need more funding to cope with the volume of complaints.

He told the Evening Herald, “We noted in our last annual report that we had received a large number of requests for advice both from religious bodies and dioceses.

“Existing advisory panels were also providing support, but we took the view that an additional resource to support ordinaries faced with challenging safeguarding concerns should be created.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By Arnold Kriss / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ justification for not disclosing the names of sex abuse defendants in the Orthodox Jewish community as a way to protect victims and witnesses — a revelation of which much has been made lately in the press — is unpersuasive.

“I haven’t seen this kind of intimidation in organized crime cases or police corruption,” Hynes told the Daily News last week. “Nobody gives a damn about victims (in the Orthodox community). All they care about is protecting the abusers.”

Prosecuting sex abuse cases is always tough — and the closed-off world of Orthodox Judaism does pose its own challenges. But that is no excuse for the kind of lax (some might even say nonexistent) prosecution that Hynes oversaw for some two decades — at least until becoming more aggressive in recent years.

And then there is Hynes’ nondisclosure policy, which remains unchanged despite calls for openness. Hynes has been steadfast in his position that disclosing the names of arrested sexual predators from this insular community will discourage future victims from coming forward.

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VIRGINIA
The Salem Times-Register

By Edwin McCoy

BOTETOURT COUNTY – A Botetourt County grand jury returned five indictments against Guy “Tex” Ritter of Salem Monday on child molestation charges that date to incidents in 1970 and 1971.

According to Botetourt Commonwealth’s Attorney Joel Branscom, the incidents allegedly occurred at a time when Ritter, now 92, was serving at least one Lutheran church in Botetourt County.

Two alleged victims, who Branscom was not ready to identify by gender, were 11 and 12 at the time.

Branscom said the victims came to his office with their story and he referred them to the Botetourt County Sheriff’s Department.

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VIRGINIA
The Roanoke Times

By Duncan Adams
981-3324

Guy Adam Ritter Jr., 92, of Salem was indicted Monday by a Botetourt County grand jury on five counts of taking indecent liberties with a child for incidents that allegedly occurred during the 1970s.

Botetourt County Commonwealth’s Attorney Joel Branscom said Ritter was arrested Tuesday in Salem.

According to court records, the molestation charges against Ritter are related to offenses that allegedly occurred in 1970, 1972, 1974 and 1976. According to a Roanoke College biography of Ritter, he is a prominent alumnus of the college, a former professor there and an ordained Lutheran minister.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Mark Abrams

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Philadelphia’s archbishop acknowledges in a letter accompanying the publication of a sobering financial report on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that the clergy abuse crisis has been costly.

Referring to that letter, Archbishop Charles Chaput acknowledged Tuesday during a media briefing on the planned visit of Pope Benedict to Philadelphia in 2015, that the archdiocese estimates it has spent roughly more than $11-million responding to the February 2011 grand jury probe of alleged clergy sex abuse, suspension of priests and subsequent investigations.

And, Chaput says, that doesn’t include all the expenses for the current trial of Monsignor William Lynn, and a priest co-defendant, on which the archbishop refused to comment.

The archbishop says nine separate civil suits filed against the archdiocese were placed on hold by the parties pending the outcome of the trial.

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CANADA
CBC News

The Archdiocese of Moncton wants to offer financial compensation to victims of sexual abuse by the late priest Camille Léger but it may be forced to sell some of its its assets in order to raise the funds.

The diocese announced this week that it had retained Michel Bastarache, the former Supreme Court of Canada justice, to handle all the sexual abuse complaints against Léger, who was a priest in the small southeastern New Brunswick village of Cap-Pelé.

Donald Langis, the diocese spokesperson, said it is not yet known whether some of the 56 churches, rectories, parish centres or parcels of land will need to be sold to raise money to pay for the financial compensation.

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UNITED STATES
CNN

Editor’s Note: Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of “The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation,” is a regular CNN Belief Blog contributor.

By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN

A few years ago I sat on a book prize jury and weighed the merits of the book “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics” by Margaret A. Farley, a nun in the Sisters of Mercy order. I thought it was well-researched and well-argued, and I was not surprised when it won the 2008 Grawemeyer Award in Religion (and with it a $200,000 prize).

On May 21, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith forwarded to Sister Patricia McDermott, president of Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, a Notification condemning Farley’s “Just Love.” On Monday, the Vatican published that Notification online.

Not surprisingly, the matter preoccupying the Vatican here is not poverty or hunger or oppression. It is sex.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Joshua Hammerman
Special To The Jewish Week

There has been considerable consternation and media coverage of late about how child sex abuse cases are handled in the haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, community. The Brooklyn district attorney, no doubt feeling the pressure, is now pushing for legislation that would require rabbis to report such crimes to the authorities. This scandal has been discussed for years in The Jewish Week and other Jewish media, and recently in The New York Times, with reports of how informants are routinely shunned and victims banned from reporting abuse to the authorities. Anti-Semitic websites have had a field day, comparing this Jewish “code of silence” to the Mafia’s.

The coverage has pinpointed an obscure rabbinic prohibition as a major source of the problem: the ancient prohibition against mesirah, the handing over of a Jew to non-Jewish authorities. Ironically, the same Hebrew root forms the word “masoret,” or tradition, describing a priceless heritage handed over from one generation to another. But in this case, mesirah, the public disclosure of allegations against another Jew, is considered to be an act that desecrates God’s name.

It is important to emphasize that most rabbinic authorities concur that Judaism has no place for the protection of sexual predators. Even for those who might otherwise support mesirah, the prohibition does not apply when there is a perceived public menace. As Rabbi Moses Isserles states in his gloss to the Shulchan Aruch, “A person who attacks others should be punished. If the Jewish authorities do not have the power to punish him, he must be punished by the civil authorities.”

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UNITED STATES
Lez Get Real

Posted by: Linda Carbonell on June 5, 2012.

There is a scene in The King and I where Anna mimics the way the Siamese people respond to the King, sing-songing “Yes, your Majesty. No, your Majesty. Tell us how low to go your Majesty. Give us a kick if you need, your Majesty. Give us a kick if you please, your Majesty. O-o-o-o-h, that’s good, your Majesty.” That’s pretty much how the Vatican expected the Leadership Conference of Women Religious to respond when the men in the skirts admonished the ladies that they were not being properly Catholic.

Pity the poor Vatican. They really do not understand Americans, and understand women even less.

The Vatican is upset with our American nuns for not beating the streets fighting abortion and same sex marriage, not being involved in the political battles of the right wing against the secular laws of our nation, and instead concentrating on such leftist issues and housing, education, abuse intervention, and a host of social injustices. Respectfully, but clearly, the Leadership told the Vatican that the indictment of their group is “unsubstantiated” and “flawed”

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NEW JERSEY
News 12

[with video]

(06/05/12) MORRISTOWN – Additional claims of sex abuse and cover-up are being leveled at a prominent Catholic prep school in Morristown.

Two alleged victims have added their claims to a previous complaint by two other men filed against the Delbarton School and two of its priests in March.

One of the alleged victims, Steve Badt, came forward, saying he was abused during the seventh and eighth grade after class.

The attorney for Badt says that there are dozens of more victims who were abused at the school.

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NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Written by
Peggy Wright | @peggywrightdr

Two more men have stepped forward saying they were molested by monks at Delbarton School, joining a lawsuit that also accused two monks of sexually abusing two other students in the 1980s at the prestigious, Morris Township prep school.

“I hope my actions will bring justice, accountability … and so begin the healing,” former Parsippany resident and 1985 Delbarton graduate Steve Badt, said at a news conference called to announce the expanded lawsuit outside the Morris County Courthouse.

Surrounded by advocates for men abused by priests and three of four alleged victims, attorney Gregory G. Gianforcaro said a lawsuit he filed in March on behalf of two victims has been amended to include two more men and two additional monks of the Benedictine order.

The lawsuit generally accuses Delbarton, St. Mary’s Abbey, and the Order of St. Benedict as defendants who failed to protect the ex-students from exploitation and abuse, infliction of emotional distress and gross negligence, among other claims. Three victims are identified in the suit by their initials, and one man is referred to as John Doe, but the three men publicly named themselves and said they want the truth to be told.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON

It’s hard to say what is weirder:

A Sister of Mercy writing about the Kama Sutra, sexual desire and “our yearnings for pleasure.”

Or the Vatican getting so hot and bothered about the academic treatise on sexuality that the pope censures it, causing it to shoot from obscurity to the top tier of Amazon.com’s best-seller list six years after it was published.

Just the latest chapter in the Vatican’s thuggish crusade to push American nuns — and all Catholic women — back into moldy subservience.

Even for a church that moves glacially, this was classic. “Just Love: a Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,” by Sister Margaret Farley — a 77-year-old professor emeritus at Yale’s Divinity School, a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and an award-winning scholar — came out in 2006.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

June 05, 2012|By David O’Reilly and INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

With the current clergy sex abuse scandal likely to cost more than $11 million, and because years of deficit spending have depleted its financial reserves, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said the Archdiocese of Philadelphia will seek donations to help pay for the World Day of Families event here in 2015.

Speaking at a Center City news conference a few blocks from where a jury is deliberating child endangerment charges against Monsignor William Lynn, Chaput said he did not know what the international, Vatican-sponsored event might cost, but that “God is giving us an opportunity to have some good news in a difficult time.”

He said he hoped the five-day gathering in Philadelphia, which Pope Benedict XVI announced Sunday, would attract between 60,000 and 80,000 families. That would be far smaller than the triennial World Day of Families that ended Sunday in Milan, which drew about 300,000 on each of its first four days. It ended with an estimated 850,000 people attending Sunday’s open-air Mass celebrated by the pope. .

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NEW JERSEY
CBS New York

[with audio]

MORRISTOWN, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) – Two more former students at a prominent New Jersey Catholic school have come forward to claim that they were sexually abused by clerics in the 1970s and ’80s.

Washington, D.C. resident Steve Badt and an unidentified plaintiff have joined a lawsuit against the Delbarton School in Morristown and St. Mary’s Abbey filed in March by brothers Bill and Tom Crane.

The unidentified plaintiff said he was abused by Father Benedict Worry.

Now 44 years old, Badt said he was abused by his seventh grade English teacher, Father Timothy Brennan.

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey101.5

By: Stacy Proebstle

The two alleged victims, an unidentified man and 44 year-old Steve Badt, formerly of Parsippany say they were molested at the hands of two clerics for years.

“I was abused by a teacher I trusted…it started when I was around 12 years old and continued through high school” Badt said at a press conference on the steps of the Morris County Court House.

The two men joined a lawsuit filed in March by brothers Bill and Tom Crane, who also attended the press conference. “We’re not going away…however long this takes, years and years” said Tom Crane.

Badt identifies Father Timothy Brennan as his abuser. The unknown victim claims he was abused at the hands of another cleric, Father Benedict Worry.

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NEW JERSEY
Washington Post

New abuse claims filed against NJ Catholic school; 2 men say clerics abused them in ‘70s, ‘80s

By Associated Press, Published: June 5

MORRISTOWN, N.J. — Two former students at a prominent New Jersey Catholic school added their names Tuesday to a lawsuit that claims they and two others suffered repeated sexual abuse at the hands of clerics in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Steve Badt, who runs a soup kitchen in Washington, D.C., said at a news conference that he carried memories of the abuse for decades but was spurred to action by news of a lawsuit brought by brothers Bill and Tom Crane in March. The lawsuit names Delbarton, a private college prep school for boys in grades seven through 12, and St. Mary’s Abbey, which runs the school.

Joining the Cranes and Badt in the amended complaint was an unidentified fourth plaintiff who said he suffered abuse at the school during the 1980s. The Associated Press normally doesn’t identify people who say they are sexual abuse victims, but Badt wanted his name public.

The 44-year-old Badt identified his abuser as the Rev. Timothy Brennan and said he clearly remembered four incidents in which Brennan molested him starting when he was in 7th grade.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Kevin Manahan/The Star-Ledger

MORRISTOWN — The latest in a string of accusations of sexual abuse at the Delbarton School involve a monk, the Rev. Benedict Worry, who has been serving as the pastor of St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Linden and the chaplain for the Linden Police Department.

At a press conference on the Morris County courthouse lawn Tuesday, two miles from the private school, Delbarton alumnus Steve Badt and an unnamed former student joined two other alleged abuse victims in a civil lawsuit originally filed in March against the school and St. Mary’s Abbey, which runs the school.

The unnamed accuser, listed as “John Doe” on the amended Superior Court complaint, didn’t attend the press conference. His attorney Greg Gianforcaro read a one-page statement.

Gianforcaro said his client — in his 40’s and living out of state — was abused by Worry as a student in the mid-1980s, and he alleges high-ranking monks, including Abbot Giles Hayes, who presides over the school, knew about it.

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RHODE ISLAND
Valley Breeze

Let’s see if I have this right. The Pope’s butler allegedly leaked documents which show systemic corruption in the Vatican. He is arrested. A study commission is appointed to root out other transgressors who leaked the information about the apparent illegalities so they, too, can be prosecuted. Nobody who actually perpetrated any offenses is fired, let alone charged with any offenses. Sounds just like secular governments, doesn’t it? Kill the messenger.

Of course, the Vatican response is more opprobrious given the sanctimoniousness of its pronouncements about “Vatileaks.” The Pope is quoted as condemning this “grave immoral act” since the people who wrote the memos thought that they were speaking freely in front of God. Would that this Pope got so lathered up both in his former position as chief investigator of the child sexual abuse claims and now as head of the church. Now, that scandal is what I call one of “grave immoral acts.”

What “crimes” did the butler commit? For the umpteenth time in church history, he revealed evidence of money laundering rules being violated. He exposed millions of dollars being blown on contracts, which many consider are kickbacks. The head of the Vatican Bank was another whistleblower who begged not to be transferred out of his position, but he was sent packing. It isn’t right to tell Granny in her pew about how her widow’s mite is spent. The sad irony is that this Vatican bank chief was trying to get the bank on the so-called “white list” of financially virtuous countries. The Vatican, a country unto itself, isn’t on the list because of its suspect practices. That’s quite an indictment for a religious institution.

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HOLYOKE (MA)
WWLP

Anthony Fay

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – A spokesperson for the Diocese of Springfield says that the Vatican has upheld a ruling that the Diocese was within its right to merge Holyoke’s Mater Dolorosa Parish . Further, the Vatican tribunal is telling those holding vigil inside the church that they must leave.

In a news release sent to 22News, diocesan spokesperson Mark Dupont said that the Superme Apostolic Signatura upheld the earlier ruling by the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy that the Diocese had the right to merge Mater Dolorosa. Citing concerns about debt and the structural integrity of the Maple Street church, the parish was merged in 2011 with Holy Cross Parish to form the new Our Lady of the Cross Parish. The Mater Dolorosa church building was closed, as Masses for that parish are held at the Holy Cross Church on Sycamore Street.

The merger angered some Mater Dolorosa parishioners, who appealed the decision to the Vatican, and have held protests at the church and outside diocesan headquarters in Springfield. Since the church closed, they have also been holding 24-hour vigil inside the building.

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HOLYOKE (MA)
CBS 3

HOLYOKE, Mass. (AP) – Protesters who’ve occupied a closed Holyoke church for months are deciding whether to follow a Vatican order to abandon their vigil and leave the building.

The protesters at Mater Dolorosa consider the preliminary ruling by the Vatican’s high court a partial victory, because the court said it will also hear an appeal they hope will reopen the church as a worship site.

The Republican of Springfield reports (http://bit.ly/L8IxM9) the parishioners will meet Thursday to decide whether to end their vigil.

The vigil began last June, when parishioners refused to leave after the final Mass.

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CANADA
Lethbridge Herald

Katie May
LETHBRIDGE HERALD
kmay@lethbridgeherald.com

A Calgary law firm accused of misconduct is now forbidden from representing any residential school survivors, according to a B.C. Supreme Court ruling handed down Tuesday.

Supreme Court Judge Brenda J. Brown issued her decision after a $3-million, court-ordered investigation began last fall into allegations the firm, Blott & Company, exploited more than 4,000 residential school survivor claimants, many of them from southern Alberta, who sought compensation under the Independent Assessment Process (IAP) for physical and sexual abuse endured at residential schools across Canada.

The investigation found the law firm had ties to money-lending companies and benefited financially by leading claimants to apply for high-interest loans, sometimes falsifying their signatures on the applications. The investigation also uncovered that Blott gave a form-filing company called Honour Walk full access to claimants’ confidential files and paid the company $200,000 a month – a total of $6 million – for working on the IAP cases even though Honour Walk is not a law firm and its employees are not trained in law.

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VATICAN CITY
Zee News (India)

Vatican City: Vatican authorities have denied claims that Pope Benedict XVI’s butler, who is being interrogated on suspicion of stealing confidential documents, had been acting as a ‘double agent’ to help officials uncover others involved in the so called ‘Vatileaks’ scandal.

Paolo Gabriele was held in custody for two on suspicion of stealing and leaking papers, which lifted the lid on bitter feuds and power games at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church.

It was recently suggested by Corriere della Sera, one of Italy’s leading newspapers, that Vatican magistrates knew five months ago that he was behind the leaks, but came to a ‘secret pact’ under which he would lead them to other moles.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler is facing up to eight years in jail for allegedly stealing confidential documents from the pope’s own desk. But according to a Vatican judge, Paolo Gabriele won’t be serving any time in the world’s smallest state.

Paolo Papanti Pelletier, a law professor at Rome’s Tor Vergata University who also serves as one of the Vatican court’s judges, told journalists on Tuesday (June 5) that people who are sentenced to a jail term in the Vatican City State are routinely sent to an Italian prison because the Vatican doesn’t have its own jail system.

Paolo Gabriele, who served as Benedict’s “assistente di camera” until his arrest two weeks ago, appeared on Tuesday for a hearing with the Vatican investigating judge, Piero Antonio Bonnet, in the presence of his two lawyers and Nicola Picardi, the Vatican prosecutor.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Josh Gordon
June 6, 2012

A PARLIAMENTARY committee told to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy is still wrangling with the Baillieu government over funding almost two months after the inquiry was announced.

The government is insisting the committee, which now has just nine months remaining to undertake its task, will get the resources it needs.

State Parliament’s Family and Community Development Committee was asked in April to investigate ”the practices, policies and protocols” of religious and ”non-government organisations” when handling allegations of criminal abuse of children.

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IRELAND
Maclean’s (Canada)

by Brian Bethune on Tuesday, June 5, 2012

An Irish deputy prime minister calling for the resignation of a Roman Catholic cardinal—the Primate of All Ireland, no less—would have been literally unthinkable not long ago. The Church was the Republic of Ireland, the most potent force in the nation, and the bulwark of Irish identity during centuries of British colonial control, just as the Catholic Church was the prime factor in the preservation of the French fact in Canada for 200 years following the Plains of Abraham. Yet the depth and endless resurgence of the scandals engulfing the national church—instance after instance of clerical sexual abuse of children and consistent cover-up by the highest ecclesiastical authorities—sparked Eamon Gilmore’s demand. The reason was that Cardinal Sean Brady knew, 37 years ago, of individual children at risk from serial predator Father Brendan Smyth, but passed their names on only to his bishop, not to police or parents.

The politician’s dramatic distancing from the hierarchy is not disinterested—the Irish state has its own share of responsibility for facilitating the Church’s cover-ups—but it is one sign of Irish Catholicism’s existential crisis. By past standards, mass attendance is falling off a cliff: a staggering 82 per cent of Irish Catholics attended mass weekly in 1981; by 2006 it was 46 per cent—still a number to dream about for, say, a French bishop. Now the nationwide figure hovers at 35 per cent, while it’s a miserable 14 per cent in Dublin. That’s a situation the city’s archbishop, Diarmuid Martin, calls the greatest issue his Church has faced since the struggle for Catholic emancipation in the early 19th century.

In a parallel development that will resonate far beyond Ireland, priestly vocations are also drying up. For the first time “in living memory,” according to Father Patrick Rushe, the national coordinator for vocations, 2009 saw more men training for the priesthood in England (150) than on the other side of the Irish Sea (99). In the ’80s, more than 150 new recruits would enter Irish seminaries annually, rather than the 16 who did so two years ago. Ireland was First World Catholicism’s renowned priest factory, producing desperately needed clergy for service around the world. Now that deaths in the Irish clergy far exceed replacement levels—160 priests died in 2008 while just nine were ordained—those few will be needed at home. (The numbers for nuns are even more stark: 228 died in 2009, while only two took final vows.)

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

The Vatican has once again sharply criticized a nun, this time for writing on sexual ethics. The Vatican has accused Sister Margaret Farley, a member of the Sisters of Mercy religious order and professor emerita of Yale Divinity School, of publishing a book that posed “grave harm” to the faithful.

The book title? “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics.”

“Just Love” is a work that sets out to find “ethical guidelines and moral wisdom for our sexual lives” taking on the task of discerning issues of “character and virtue” in relationship not just to behaviors but also to the “large questions” of what human embodiment and sexual desire mean in a moral sense. (p. 15) Our sexual relations, Margaret Farley ultimately concludes, after a cross-cultural and historical exploration, must be founded on both love and justice in an integral sense. “I propose, finally, a framework that is not justice and love, but justice in loving and in the actions that flow from that love.” She seeks to help us all define a sexual ethics that is not abstract, but “morally good and just” in reality, in actual relationships. (p. 207)

If ever there were a method of moral reasoning on sexual ethics that is desperately needed in the Catholic Church today, it is the one proposed by Margaret Farley.

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ALABAMA
WAFF

By Stephen McLamb

MARSHALL COUNTY, AL (WAFF) –
A Marshall County pastor was arrested on child sex charges and is now terminated from his Albertville church.

Church leaders said very little except to that their now former pastor was there for less than two months and bad news followed him.

Mark Allen Green is now in the Ellis County Texas Jail.

Law enforcement officials there said he’s facing a sexual abuse of a child charge in Ellis County and an aggravated sexual abuse of a child charge in neighboring Navarro County, Texas after being jailed last week.

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NEW YORK
NY1

[with video]

An advocacy group for survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy once again called on Cardinal Timothy Dolan to explain reports that he authorized payments to priests accused of sexual abuse in exchange for them leaving the church.

Two members of the group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) protested outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Tuesday. They say Dolan concealed the payments from the public while he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee.

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NEW JERSEY
WHTC

By Barbara Goldberg

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey (Reuters) – Accusations of child sex abuse at New Jersey’s elite Delbarton School widened on Tuesday as two men joined a lawsuit claiming molestation by monks at the Roman Catholic boys academy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Just two days after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spoke at his son’s graduation from Delbarton, Steve Badt, 44, and a second unidentified man joined the suit alleging sexual abuse by robe-clad monks at the picturesque Morristown school.

The lawsuit was first filed in March by Tom Crane and Bill Crane Jr., now in their 40s, the twin sons of a former teacher and administrator at Delbarton, run by the Roman Catholic Benedictine monks of St. Mary’s Abbey.

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NEW JERSEY
NorthJersey.com

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MORRISTOWN — Two former students at a prominent New Jersey Catholic school added their names Tuesday to a lawsuit that claims they and two others suffered repeated sexual abuse at the hands of clerics in the 1970s and ’80s.

Steve Badt, who runs a soup kitchen in Washington, D.C., said at a news conference Tuesday that he carried memories of the abuse for decades but was spurred to action by news of a lawsuit brought by brothers Bill and Tom Crane in March. The lawsuit names Delbarton, a private college prep school for boys in grades seven through 12, and St. Mary’s Abbey, which runs the school.

Joining the Cranes and Badt in the amended complaint was an unidentified fourth plaintiff who said he suffered abuse at the school during the 1980s. The Associated Press normally doesn’t identify people who say they are sexual abuse victims, but Badt wanted his name public.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
NBC San Diego

By Diana Guevara and R. Stickney
Tuesday, Jun 5, 2012

A Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting a woman earlier this year has been reinstated, at the same San Diego parish.

Father Jose Alexis Davila was quietly reinstated a few weeks ago after another priest left the parish.

Davila, 53, was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault six months ago. He had been preaching at St. Jude’s Church in Southcrest for just two months before his arrest.

He later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery for allegedly groping a woman at his home.

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UNITED STATES
WWNO

By Edward Schumacher-Matos

A Web version of a recent report by Barbara Bradley Hagerty about the Philadelphia sex abuse trial of a Catholic monsignor and a priest prompted the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights to accuse NPR of taking a “bigoted swipe” against priests.

The league took offense over a phrase in Hagerty’s online report—not included in her on-air version—in which she said of the priest, James Brennan, that he was “accused of trying to rape a minor, which is not that unusual.”

Hagerty contacted me even before the league’s statement and a number of other listener complaints came pouring in to me. She said that the offending phrase of “which is not that unusual” was “inartfully written” and wished she could take it back. It comes across as saying that attempted rape of minors by priests is not unusual, when what she meant was that it was the trials of priests for alleged sexual abuse that are not so unusual, she told me.

Hagerty said that she was trying to draw a distinction between the trial of the priest for attempted rape and the trial of the monsignor, William Lynn, for failing to protect children from predator priests while he was a senior official in the Philadelphia archdiocese. This is the first trial of a church official for re-assigning a priest to parish work even after the priest had been accused of child predations.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
10 News

SAN DIEGO — A national victims group wants a local Catholic priest removed from his parish.

Father Jose Alexis Davila has been a parish priest at St. Jude’s in Southcrest for two years. Earlier this year, a 19-year-old woman accused him of fondling her in his home across the street from the church.

“He has pleaded guilty to sexual assaulting a young woman,” said Joelle Casteix, a spokeswoman for group Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. “I believe the charge was unlawfully touching her intimate parts.”

SNAP sent a letter to Diocese of San Diego Bishop Robert Brom after learning Davila is still saying masses at St. Jude’s.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Times Online

Associated Press

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia will likely launch a fundraising campaign to help pay for a major convocation of Roman Catholic families and possible papal visit.

Archbishop Charles Chaput (SHAP’-yoo) said Tuesday that tens of thousands of people are expected when the city hosts the World Meeting of Families in 2015. He didn’t estimate local costs.

His remarks came the same day the archdiocese reported spending more than $11 million on legal fees in the past two years, mostly on priest sexual-abuse cases.

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AUSTRALIA
CathNews

The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne allowed a priest charged with child sex offences to be the ”spiritual director” to another priest accused of child molestation, reports The Age.

The revelation is contained in confidential Catholic Church documents obtained by the paper.

The documents show how senior church leaders continued to shield Father Victor Rubeo from scrutiny after child sex abuse allegations about him were first reported to the archdiocese in 1994.

Rubeo, who did not deny the allegations when questioned by a senior church official, was allowed to continue preaching in Melbourne’s Boronia parish without his parishioners or police being told of his child abuse.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By David O’Reilly
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

With the current clergy sex abuse scandal likely to cost more than $11 million, and because years of deficit spending have depleted its financial reserves, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said the Archdiocese of Philadelphia will seek donations to help pay for the World Day of Families event here in 2015.

Speaking at a Center City news conference a few blocks from where a jury is deliberating child endangerment charges against Monsignor William Lynn, Chaput said he did not know what the international, Vatican-sponsored event might cost, but that “God is giving us an opportunity to have some good news in a difficult time.”

He said he hoped the five-day gathering in Philadelphia, which Pope Benedict XVI announced Sunday, would attract between 60,000 and 80,000 families. That would be far smaller than the triennial World Day of Families that ended Sunday in Milan, which drew about 300,000 on each of its first four days. It ended with an estimated 850,000 people attending Sunday’s open-air Mass celebrated by the pope. .

On Sunday — the same day Benedict announced Philadelphia would be the 2015 host city — parishes across the archdiocese received copies of the archdiocese’s fiscal report. In an accompanying letter, Chaput noted the “extraordinary events of the past 15 months,” and paid particular attention to the devastating Philadelphia grand jury report of February, 2011, that asserted the archdiocese had three dozen priests in active minisitry who had been accused of inappropriate behavior with children.

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UNITED STATES
pippinghold

By Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute.

Here’s CBS New York, back in February.

The Catholic Church is closely watching the attention Archbishop Timothy Dolan is receiving this week in Rome, praise and adulation one expert says is exactly what it needs right now….

“Dolan from a media and pop culture point of view is a rock star. He just exudes charisma, sort of charisma on steroids,” National Catholic Reporter’ John Allen said.

Allen calls Dolan the star of the consistory, and Pope Benedict XVI could use some star power on his team.

Here’s what came out today.

Timothy Cardinal Dolan yesterday blasted a report that he authorized payments to pedophile priests — and said no such payments are being made to New York clerics.

Dolan, while serving as Milwaukee archbishop in 2003, agreed to pay multiple accused pedophile priests $20,000 in exchange for their agreeing to leave the priesthood, according to documents cited by The New York Times.

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UNITED STATES
NewsHounds

The folks at the right wing Media Research Center have their clean white (and very chaste, Christian, and heterosexual) panties in a bunch because the godless librul media had a “blackout” of news about supposedly rampant sex selection abortion and the “unprecedented” and totally awesome lawsuits filed by the Catholic Church against the Obama administration. But in keeping with promoting all the right wing news that’s fit to propagandize and making the MRC happy, Fox News has been obsessing about HHS mandate, the lawsuits, and “genderside.” Despite the claim of the network to be “fair & balanced,” the coverage is squarely on the side of the Catholic bishops whose anger towards Obama rivals the most rabid in the GOP. In the coverage, Cardinal Dolan has received pride of place. But interestingly, there’ve been some other news stories, related to the Catholic Church on which the voices, in the Catholic amen corner of Fox, are silent. Put it this way, if both issues concerned – say – teacher’s unions, the howls would be deafening. Curious, read on. …

In response to the release of source documents by “The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests” (SNAP), who accessed the material, Cardinal Dolan, who is leading the fight against employer paid birth control, reacted in truly Christ like fashion: SNAP has no credibility whatsoever. To respond to charges like that that are groundless and scurrilous in my book is useless and counterproductive.” One assumes that Megyn Kelly pal, Catholic League head Bill Donohue will continue to defend Dolan against those nasty boys in SNAP whom he has described as a “phony victims group” and a “pitiful bunch of malcontents.” Dolan has made his appreciation, for Dolan’s support against SNAP, known in a letter of thanksgiving. Meanwhile Fox is focused on those awesome lawsuits, filed by the bishops, against the Obama administration. Go figure.

Guess not all Catholic News is created equal.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Jun. 05, 2012
By Brian Roewe

ANALYSIS

With the case now in its hands, the jury continues to deliberate the existence of a conspiracy to cover up priest sex abuse in the Philadelphia archdiocese.

On Tuesday, the seven women and five men of the jury began their third day (and second full day) of sifting through evidence and weighing the testimony they heard over the course of 11 weeks inside a Philadelphia Common Pleas courtroom.

Their task? To determine whether Msgr. William J. Lynn, secretary of clergy for the archdiocese from 1992 to 2004, participated in a conspiracy of covering up abuse and endangered the welfare of children by recommending priests with known histories of sexual abuse to assignments that would further place them in contact with children.

Fr. James J. Brennan, 48, is also accused of child endangerment and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy at his apartment in 1996. Brennan originally faced a conspiracy charge at the trial’s beginning, but Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina dismissed the charge after ruling the prosecution failed to prove a conspiracy between him and Lynn.

A decision from the jury on both defendants could come as early as this week

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NEW JERSEY
Under the Green Wave

Steve Badt said he recently had a conversation with his 8-year-old son about what had happened to him as a teenager.

On Tuesday, standing on the grounds of the Morris County Courthouse, Badt, 44, a former Parsippany resident and Delbarton School graduate, spoke of the sexual abuse that took place at the hands of a monk at the Morris Township Catholic school between 1979 when he was in the seventh grade, and 1985, when he was in the 12th grade.

Badt, and another former Delbarton student who remained unnamed, joined an existing lawsuit against St. Mary’s Abbey, which operates Delbarton. The original suit was filed in March by Phillipsburg attorney Gregory G. Gianforcaro on behalf of twin brothers William Crane Jr., and Thomas Crane, formerly of Randolph.

The lawsuit was amended to include the new allegations and includes complaints from six former Delbarton students, Gianforcaro said.

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UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

Bob Hoatson

If Catholics wish to live by the axiom, “once a priest, always a priest,” than I guess I am still a priest despite the fact that I was voluntarily laicized in December, 2011. So, I write as a priest, ex-priest, inactive priest, renegade priest, or gadfly priest. I have been called all of these and more. The verbiage is irrelevant. What is relevant is that pedophile priests are not laicized as quickly as I was and most of them will always be priests despite their dastardly deeds which would have gotten them kicked out of most organizations by now.

The archbishop of my diocese wrote to me when I first requested laicization and told me he would highly recommend that my petition to the Vatican be approved. It was – in record time. His “glee” at my request was centered on the fact that I had been working with victims since 1981 when I reported sexual abuse of students by a priest at a large Catholic high school in Boston. I also have uncovered numerous cases of pedophilia in my home archdiocese and beyond. I asked to be freed to do this work full-time. The archbishop refused.

I told him I had to respond to the Holy Spirit and the law of the Church, which allows and encourages the faithful to establish charitable works and organizations. Canon law was written to protect bishops and whatever they determine to be the “law” for the rest of the faithful. Currently, God’s law is subservient to whatever law the bishops wish to utilize.

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IRELAND
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

If one were to believe the mainstream media, the Catholic Church in Ireland is reeling from a burgeoning and active network of pedophile priests relentlessly preying on innocent children.

However, the recent release of the annual report from the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC, Ireland) tells a radically different story.

While even a single abuse allegation is upsetting, from April 1, 2011, to March 31, 2012, there were only six accusations alleging abuse by Catholic priests within the past dozen years, since 2000. This represents one allegation every other year in all of Ireland.

In other words, as in the United States, the abuse of children by Catholic priests in Ireland is a tragic era from years past.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

By Maryclaire Dale

Tuesday, Jun 5, 2012

Jurors have finished a third day of deliberations without reaching a verdict in a groundbreaking priest-abuse trial in Philadelphia.

Msgr. William Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged with child endangerment and conspiracy for allegedly keeping predator-priests in ministry.

Lynn is the former secretary for clergy at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The Rev. James Brennan, a co-defendant, is charged with molesting a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

Meanwhile, the archdiocese says it has spent $11.6 million on legal fees stemming from priest-abuse cases since 2011.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

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

Jurors in the landmark clergy sex abuse trial broke for the day Tuesday after asking more evidence and legal guidance Tuesday as they deliberated charges against two Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests.

Midway through their second full day of deliberations, the panel of seven men and five women sent questions on the scope of child endangerment charges against Msgr. William J. Lynn and Rev. James J. Brennan.

They also requested the evidence file on Brennan, who is accused of trying to rape a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

Specifically, the jurors asked Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina if they needed to conclude that Brennan put other minors at risk besides his alleged victim to convict him of child endangerment. They did, the judge told them after consulting with the lawyers.

The question pointed to what has long been a contentious and tangled issue in cases involving crimes against children: the statute of limitations.

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PARAGUAY
Daily Reporter

PEDRO SERVIN Associated Press
First Posted: June 05, 2012

ASUNCION, Paraguay — The president of Paraguay has recognized a second love-child. This time it’s a 10-year-old boy, born to a nurse in the northern state where Fernando Lugo served as a Catholic bishop before renouncing the priesthood and turning to politics.

Lugo’s lawyer, Marcos Farina, says the president has told him to file the paperwork needed to change the boy’s last name to Lugo. His mother is Narcisa de la Cruz de Zarate, the fourth woman to have filed a paternity suit against the 61-year-old former cleric.

For those keeping score, Lugo has now acknowledged fathering two of the four children named in paternity suits against him.

He also accepted Guillermo Armindo, the child of Viviana Carrillo, after the woman accused him in 2009 of “irresponsible paternity.”

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STATEN ISLAND (NY)
Staten Island Advance

By Maura Grunlund

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A taboo topic which is very much in the news these days will be the focus of a free child abuse prevention program on June 28 at Temple Emanu-El in Port Richmond.

While the event is open to all, the flier specifically invites clergy, community leaders, teachers, parents and concerned adults.

Rabbi Gerald Sussman said he is hosting the event because he sees it as an opportunity to provide an important service to the entire community of Staten Island. He noted that “no one is immune” from the such incidents which occur in every religious, ethnic and economic group.

“I think it’s important to have some training because it is something which is sadly a lot more prevalent than people would like to think,” Rabbi Sussman said.

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