ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY/GERMANY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Joelle Casteix on March 22, 2012

Dozens of times, Benedict has made the same unwise, unhealthy and hurtful decision to promote clerics who are guilty or accused of wrongdoing. With Mixa, he’s doing it again.

The message that church employees get is clear: misdeeds won’t stop you from climbing the clerical ladder. Whether that’s the intention or not, that’s the signal that’s sent and received.

For the sake of vulnerable kids, wounded victims and betrayed Catholics, we urge the pope to stop elevating alleged wrongdoers and start elevating men with better track records on children’s safety.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Megan Remi Peterson on March 22, 2012

My name is Megan Peterson and I am 22 years old now and I am a student and I live in Winona. I’m here to speak the truth about what happened to me in 2004, and what has happened since then.

I’m here to tell you that it’s not “all in the past.” Sexual abuse by priests is not a symptom of the ‘60s. It is still going on today.

After I was raped and violated by Fr. Jeyapaul, who I had approached about someday becoming a nun, nothing happened to him. He was allowed to return to India, and while he was home he was gently told not to return to Minnesota. That’s it.

I was 14. I needed help and protection from the church that I had looked up to and wanted to dedicate my life too. Instead, I got nothing but shame, and a drawn out legal battle in which they finally, and begrudgingly, admitted they were in the wrong. This is wrong, and this needs to stop.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on March 22, 2012

We’re grateful that Avery’s victim won’t have to endure a trial. We hope all of Avery’s victims will feel comforted, knowing that kids will be safe from him for several years.

At the same time, however, a trial helps reveal often shocking levels of corruption by church officials – information that the public and parishioners need and deserve to know. When clergy sex abuse and cover up cases settle before trial, embarrassing secrets about the Catholic hierarchy remain secret.

We also suspect that Avery sexually assaulted other kids who may still be able to step forward and get help.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

Published on Thursday 22 March 2012

A priest is to stand trial in relation to a number of alleged sexual assaults against a woman.

Fr Eugene Boland (65), of the Parochial House, Killyclogher Road, Omagh, appeared before Magherafelt Magistrates’ Court today (March 22).

The defendant, who was based in Derry for many years, is accused of indecently assaulting the woman on dates between June 1990 and June 1992.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer

A defrocked Philadelphia priest pleaded guilty today to sexually molesting a young altar boy.

Edward Avery, 69, was senteced to 2 1/2 to 5 years immediately after pleading guilty to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and conspiracy to endanger children.

He was a parish priest in the 1990s when he allegedly raped the fifth-grade boy.

Avery was a codefendant in the case against Msgr. William J. Lynn, the church official charged with endangering children by allegedly failing to properly respond to abuse allegations.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPVI

PHILADELPHIA – March 22, 2012 (WPVI) — Action News has learned that one of the priests involved in the abuse case involving the Philadelphia Archdiocese has pleaded guilty to sex-related and conspiracy charges.

Accused priest Edward Avery is in court at this hour.

Action News has learned that as part of a plea agreement, Avery is being sentenced to 2 ½ to 5 years in state prison.

Avery is one of five priests charged in the priest sex abuse case that has rocked the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — In a sudden turn of events, one of the defendants in the Philadelphia priest sex abuse scandal has decided to plead guilty.

Unexpectedly this afternoon, defrocked priest Edward Avery, accused of molesting at least one boy, indicated that he would be pleading guilty, just days before his trial was set to begin.

As part of a plea deal, Avery was immediately sentenced to 2½-5 years in prison and ordered to surrender to authorities within 10 days.

Avery and two others — one a priest and the other a monsignor — were scheduled to go on trial next Monday in a case that has rocked the Archdiocese of Philadelphia with accusations of sex abuse, coverups, and stonewalling (see related story).

In Room 507 of the Criminal Justice Center today, Avery pleaded guilty to two counts — one of sexually assaulting a boy under 13 years of age, and one of conspiring to endanger the welfare of a minor.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

By Julian O’Neill
BBC Newsline

A retired Catholic bishop has defended his handling of some of the abuse allegations made against James Donaghy, a former priest jailed for ten years for a series of sex crimes.

One of Donaghy’s victims, Fr Patrick McCafferty, was critical of how Bishop Patrick Walsh dealt with his case.

Fr McCafferty was a 19-year-old trainee priest when first abused by Donaghy.

When he told Bishop Walsh of the allegations in 2003 an internal church inquiry was established.

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BOSTON (MA)
MSNBC

Spirit of giving? Boston Archdiocese defends six-figure salaries for top church employees

By James Eng, msnbc.com

The Boston Archdiocese is defending six-figure salaries paid to a growing number of church employees, saying the pay is commensurate with their talents and work duties.

The Boston Herald on Wednesday reported that the archdiocese’s latest annual report lists 17 “senior lay executives” who earned more than $150,000 last year. In 2006, only five employees were paid that much, according to the newspaper.

The Boston Catholic Insider blog reported similar figures for 2011 in a post last month titled “Bloated Payroll” but said just two employees were making $150,000 in 2006.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A priest has been ordered to stand trial in relation to a number of alleged sexual assaults against a woman, dating back more than 20 years.

Fr Eugene Boland, 65, of the Parochial House, Killyclogher Road, Omagh, appeared before Magherafelt Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

He is accused of indecent assaulting the woman on dates between June 1990 and June 1992.

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MEXICO
IPS

MEXICO-STAD

Toenemend geweld, slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door rooms-katholieke priesters die gerechtigheid eisen en positie van vrouwen in de kerk zijn kwesties waar paus Benedictus XVI volgens experts niet omheen kan tijdens zijn bezoek aan Mexico.

“De paus heeft geen specifiek beleid om verschillende groepen in de samenleving te benaderen. Bij zijn voorganger, Johannes Paulus II was dat anders. Hij ging bijvoorbeeld op verschillende manieren om met jongeren, intellectuelen en inheemse bevolkingsgroepen”, zegt Elio Masferrer, expert van de Nationale School voor Antropologie en Geschiedenis.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Tom Roberts on Mar. 22, 2012 NCR Today

While the high-profile legal proceedings involving former archdiocesan official Msgr. William Lynn and two co-defendants grind on, Archbishop Charles Chaput has established a long-planned Archdiocesan Pastoral Council and outlined new measures for financial transparency.

Here’s a link to Chaput’s column about the developments:

And a link to a diocesan story about the pastoral council:

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Mar. 22, 2012
By Alessandro Speciale, Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY — Following a yearlong investigation into decades of rampant abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, the Vatican on Tuesday (March 20) called for more rigorous screening of would-be priests and compulsory child protection classes in seminaries.

Pope Benedict XVI ordered the “Apostolic Visitation” of Ireland’s seminaries, religious orders and four main archdioceses in 2010 after a string of Irish government commissions detailed the extent of child sexual abuse in Catholic institutions and exposed a cover-up by several senior churchmen.

The team of church investigators included New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who was tasked with inspecting Ireland’s seminaries, and Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley.

A seven-page summary of the investigation’s final report was released by the Vatican on Tuesday, and said investigators identified past “shortcomings” that led to an “inadequate understanding of and reaction to” child abuse, “not least on the part of various bishops and religious superiors.”

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NEDERLAND
de Gelderlander

GIESBEEK – Een pastoor van de Martinusparochie in Giesbeek heeft zich in de jaren zeventig mogelijk schuldig gemaakt aan seksueel misbruik. Dit vermoeden komt van de stichting Klokk, een landelijke organisatie die slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk bijstaat.

De stichting roept op haar website slachtoffers op om zich te melden.

De oproep is ingegeven door een klacht bij het landelijke Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik RKK. Om tot een sterke zaak te komen, is het noodzakelijk dat zich lotgenoten melden.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

From the Legion of Christ scandal to the meeting with Fidel Castro, from Mexico to Cuba

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

Tomorrow the Pope embarks on a trip that is as much religious as it is political. During his visit, the Pope is expected to meet Cuban dissidents and Fidel Castro but not the Mexican victims of the paedophile founder of the Legion of Christ, Maciel. The potential meeting is not formally part of Benedict XVI’s schedule. “Mexican bishops have not asked for this,” said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi. Meanwhile, the climate ahead of the Pope’s arrival in Mexico in heating up on account of the top secret documents published by Mexican magazine Proceso about cover-ups in the Curia. Maciel committed crimes and misdeeds that “Wojtyla could not ignore.”

Benedict XVI will be visiting four cities in Mexico and Cuba. On the occasion of the bicentennial of independence, the leader of the global Catholic Church will make ten speeches over a period of six days, on Central America’s potential and contradictions. Guanajuato is the core of Mexican Catholicism but it is also home to five drug cartels and the scene of violent fighting between criminal organisations and police (with an annual toll of one thousand victims). Mexico is the world’s second most densely populated Catholic Country but anti-clericalism makes it impossible for bishops to exercise their sacred office publicly.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The lack of any meeting with the victims of the founder of the Legionaries of Christ could compromise Benedict XVI’s mission

Andrés Beltramo Álvarez
Vatican City

“He is not scheduled to meet with Maciel’s victims – the bishops have not asked him to.” With these words, Vatican Press Office director Fr. Federico Lombardi ruled out the possibility that the Pope will receive the sexual molestation victims of the founder of the Legionaries of Christ during his visit to Mexico – a controversial decision, even within the Roman Curia. Meanwhile, the victims are preparing another demonstration, possibly tarnishing Benedict XVI’s Latin American visit.

“He was not asked. In other countries where these kinds of meetings with abuse victims have taken place, the bishops urged the Pope to do so because the issue was strongly felt in society and in the Church. In this case, it is not part of the schedule and should not take place. It’s not happening, “said the Jesuit clergyman, while describing the itinerary of the papal trip to Latin America to the international press.

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NEDERLAND
Omroep Brabant

Auteur: Karin Kamp

DEN HAAG – Het volledige eindrapport van de onderzoekscommissie Deetman is sinds woensdag te downloaden. De commissie onder leiding van Wim Deetman deed van medio 2010 tot december 2011 onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk van 1945 tot 2010.

Lange tijd was het alleen mogelijk de samenvatting van het rapport in te zien. Voor het uitgebreide rapport moest eerder betaald worden.

Het bisdom den Bosch plaatste overigens in december vorig jaar per ongeluk het hele eindrapport online, waardoor het rapport korte tijd ook te downloaden was.

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DUITSLAND
PowNed (Nederland)

Paus Benedictus heeft de omstreden Duitse emeritus-bisschop Walter Mixa een nieuwe functie gegeven binnen de katholieke kerk. Mixa zal plaatsnemen in de Pauselijke Raad voor de Werkers in de Gezondheidszorg.

Mixa is omstreden omdat hij twee jaar geleden beschuldigd werd van seksueel misbruik en mishandeling van kinderen. De paus vroeg hem vervolgens zich ‘in stilte en gebed’ terug te trekken.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a German bishop who had been accused of financial irregularities and hitting children to the Vatican’s health care council.

Retired Bishop Walter Mixa of Augsburg was named a member of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry March 21.

It is the 70-year-old bishop’s first appointment as a member of a Vatican dicastery. He served as the bishop of Augsburg and the German Military Ordinariate until he resigned in 2010.

Bishop Mixa’s resignation was accepted a few weeks after he offered it, after accusations surfaced that he had hit children during his time as a priest in charge of a children’s home near Augsburg. He originally denied the claims, then admitted that he had perhaps “boxed the ears” of some of his wards.

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GERMANY
Der Spiegel

By Anna Loll

Two years ago, Germany’s Catholic Church was rocked by reports of widespread child abuse. But Stephan Ackermann, the bishop subsequently made the German Bishops’ Conference’s spokesman on such issues, has rattled many in his own diocese by refusing to actively pursue investigations or impose harsh penalties.

A man with piercing blue eyes is putting flowers in the planters on the balcony of a retirement home. Father V. sits up and carefully pulls off his dirt-covered plastic gloves. “Many see me as the gardener here,” he says.

In 1994, he was convicted on 28 counts of sexual abuse of minors in the Trier diocese and given a two-year suspended sentence. Despite the conviction, he remained a priest and, in 1996, he was simply transferred to a congregation in Ukraine. There, he says, he abused more minors.

V. is now 72. “I can only compare it to alcoholism,” he says quietly with his arms folded over his chest and shaking hands. “It’s like an addiction,” he adds, “a sort of schizophrenia in which you switch off entire parts of your consciousness.”

Nevertheless, he once again has access to minors since children regularly visit his places of work, a retirement home and a clinic in the Trier diocese. V. says he is abstinent. But when asked whether he is cured, he takes a deep breath and says, “No. It remains part of one’s personality,” adding that he shouldn’t have accepted his new position.

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VATIKANSTADT
Augsburger Allgemeine

Im Vatikan Mitglied des Gesundheitsrats

Vatikanstadt Walter Mixa, 70, ehemaliger Bischof von Augsburg, ist von Papst Benedikt XVI. zum Mitglied des vatikanischen Gesundheitsrates berufen worden. Das teilte der Vatikan am Mittwoch mit. Die Kurienbehörde mit dem offiziellen Titel „Päpstlicher Rat für die Pastoral im Krankendienst“ soll Seelsorge, Arbeit und Ausbildung im Gesundheitswesen fördern. Als Mitglied reist Mixa künftig zu den Versammlungen der Vatikanbehörde nach Rom. Gemeinsam mit Mixa wurde auch der südafrikanische Kardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, 71, zum Mitglied ernannt.

Mixa hatte nach verschiedenen Vorwürfen am 21. April 2010 vorzeitig sein Rücktrittsgesuch beim Papst eingereicht und wenige Tage später zunächst widerrufen. Am 8. Mai nahm Benedikt XVI. den Amtsverzicht an und verordnete Mixa eine nicht näher terminierte „Zeit des Schweigens und eine Periode der Heilungen“. Diese hatte Mixas Nachfolger in Augsburg, Bischof Konrad Zdarsa, im vergangenen Herbst für beendet erklärt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

Benedikt XVI. beruft Ex-Bischof in den vatikanischen Gesundheitsrat

Augsburg – Papst Benedikt XVI. hat dem umstrittenen ehemaligen Bischof von Augsburg, Walter Mixa, einen Beraterposten im Vatikan anvertraut. Wie der Heilige Stuhl am Mittwoch mitteilte, wurde der 70-Jährige zum Mitglied des vatikanischen Gesundheitsrates berufen. Die Kurienbehörde mit dem offiziellen Titel ‘Päpstlicher Rat für die Pastoral im Krankendienst’ wurde von Benedikts Vorgänger Johannes Paul II. geschaffen und gibt Empfehlungen für die Kranken-Seelsorge und die Arbeit der weltweit im Gesundheitswesen tätigen katholischen Einrichtungen ab. Mixa wird nach Angaben des Bistums Eichstätt auch künftig in der Villa Barbara in Gunzenheim (Kreis Donau-Ries) wohnen und nur zu den Versammlungen nach Rom reisen.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 21 March 2012 (VIS) – The Holy Father appointed:

– As members of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care: Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier O.F.M., archbishop of Durban, South Africa, and Bishop Walter Mixa, emeritus of Augsburg, Germany.

– As consultors of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care: Bishop Joachim Ntahondereye of Muyinga, Burundi; Orochi Samuel Orach, director of the National Office for Health Pastoral Care in Uganda; Stefano Ojetti, vice president of the Italian Association of Catholic Doctors, and Salvatore Pagliuca, vice president of UNITALSI (Italian National Union for Transport of the Sick to Lourdes and International

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ROM
Frankfurter Rundschau

Trotz seines Rücktritts vor rund zwei Jahren, hat der Papst den umstrittenen Ex-Bischof Mixa in den Päpstlichen Rat berufen. Sein Aufgabengebiet: Seelsorge im Krankendienst.

Rom –

Papst Benedikt XVI. hat den umstrittenen früheren Augsburger Bischof Walter Mixa zum Berater berufen. Der 71-Jährige wird Mitglied des Päpstlichen Rats für die Seelsorge im Krankendienst, wie der Vatikan am Mittwoch mitteilte. Mixa hatte vor rund zwei Jahren seinen Rücktritt als Bischof von Augsburg angeboten, nachdem ihm massive Prügel an Waisenhauskindern und finanzielle Unregelmäßigkeiten vorgeworfen worden waren. In einem ungewöhnlich schnellen Verfahren nahm der Papst das Gesuch nach nur wenigen Tagen an.

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VATICAN CITY
The Province

AFP

VATICAN CITY – A German bishop who resigned after admitting he beat children in a Catholic orphanage has been appointed by the pope to the Pontifical Council for Health Care, the Vatican said Wednesday.

Walter Mixa, 71, tended his resignation as bishop of Augsburg and military chaplain in 2010 as German prosecutors announced they were also launching a probe into paedophilia claims that were later dropped.

The Vatican has a dossier on Mixa which contains allegations of alcoholism, misuse of Vatican money and sexual abuse, according to German media reports.

At the time, Pope Benedict XVI said that the outcry over the Mixa affair was exaggerated, and called on German bishops to “show him their understanding and help him to find the right path.”

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ST. PAUL (MN)
Star Tribune

Posted by: Rose French Updated: March 22, 2012

A small group of advocates for victims of clergy sex abuse plans to gather in front of the Twin Cities archdiocese chancery office in St. Paul Thursday to urge Catholic leaders to seek out other potential abuse victims, who may have been assaulted by a former Minnesota parish priest.

Among the expected protestors will be Megan Peterson, a Minnesota college student, who has spoken publicly about being raped when she was 14 years old by the Rev. Joseph Jeyapaul, a priest from India who served at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Greenbush (in the northwestern Minnesota diocese of Crookston) in 2004.

Jeyapaul, 57, an Indian citizen, has denied abusing Peterson.

Earlier this week, The Associated Press reported police in southern India arrested Jeyapaul, who was wanted in the U.S. on criminal charges of sexually assaulting Peterson.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kreuz.net

„Sie glauben, daß die Kirche ein Problem hat? Der körperliche Sexualmißbrauch in öffentlichen Schulen ist wahrscheinlich hundertmal höher als der Mißbrauch durch Priester.“

(kreuz.net) „Die antikirchliche Tageszeitung ‘Los Angeles Times’ schrieb häufig Leitartikel über katholische Priester, die vor Jahrzehnten Mißbräuche begangen haben sollen.

Dagegen werden aktuelle Verhaftungen von Lehrern wegen Mißbräuchen an öffentlichen Schulen nicht berichtet oder unter ‘Ferner liefen’ begraben.“

Das erklärte der Journalist Dave Pierre am 5. Januar vor dem US-Magazin ‘Catholic World Report’.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Augsburger Allgemeine

Von Harald Jung

„Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch gibt es nicht nur in der katholischen Kirche“, stellte Jugendschöffenrichter Martin Schilcher gestern fest. Auf der Anklagebank saß ein 21-Jähriger Imam, der von seiner Glaubensgemeinschaft zur Leitung einer Moschee ausgebildet worden war.

Im Sommer vergangenen Jahres absolvierte der Mann aus dem Raum Bruchsal zunächst ein Praktikum in einer Augsburger Moschee und dann in Ingolstadt. Dort sollte er einen Ferienkurs in der Koranschule einer Moschee unterstützen. Am 20. August missbrauchte er dabei zwei Mal einen seiner Schüler. Der erste Vorfall ereignete sich gegen die Mittagszeit, der zweite unmittelbar nach dem Abendgebet. Staatsanwältin Bettina Grafe sprach gestern in ihrem Plädoyer von „ziemlich massiven sexuellen Handlungen“.

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SOUTH AFRICA
The New Age

Thabisile Khoza

A pastor accused of raping and impregnating his 19-year-old biological daughter was remanded in custody pending the results of DNA tests.

The case was postponed to next Thursday by the Mkhuhlu Magistrate’s Court this week.

The pastor, 54, from Cunningmore B near Calcutta village outside Hazyview, was not asked to plead to a charge of rape.

“The court remanded him in custody to avoid any chances of him interfering with the victim as we are still waiting for the DNA tests to prove whether he is the father of his daughter’s baby or not,” police spokesperson Const Tshepo Lebjane said.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Last week, I wrote that Dr. Donohue of the Catholic League appeared to have USCCB insider information when he told the media recently that “the bishops have come together collectively” to fight the group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. Dr. Donohue was referring to the legal hardball games that attorneys working for Catholic officials are playing in Missouri.

And I concluded,

Though, when the leader of the USCCB, His Eminence Timothy M. Cardinal Dolan, not only embraces but defends Dr. Donohue, one has to wonder whose insider information is more correct here–Donohue’s or Walsh’s?

And now it seems that His Eminence is out to prove me correct regarding the links between His Eminence as leader of the U.S. Catholic bishops, Dr. Donohue, and the attack on the SNAP group. His Eminence has just posted a statement on his blog linking to a Catholic League statement by one William A. Donohue, Ph.D., which characterizes David Clohessy of SNAP as a “con artist.”

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NETHERLANDS
The Daily Beast (United States)

Mar 22, 2012

Robert Chesal on how he and Joep Dohmen uncovered the Dutch castration scandal

For fifty years, Cornelius Rogge tried to tell the world this story. “People thought I was crazy,” he says. It was a story about a man he once knew who had been sexually abused by a Roman Catholic brother—and who was then castrated, when he dared to report the crime.

Rogge tried to tell journalists about it, but no one would listen. In 2010, he wrote his story in a letter to Wim Deetman, chairman of the commission that investigated sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church in the Netherlands. Still no action.

Then he contacted Joep Dohmen, a journalist from the Rotterdam-based newspaper NRC Handelsblad, the colleague who I worked with to break the story of Dutch church sex abuse back in 2010. Dohmen and I, working for our respective media but sharing information, uncovered a series of scandals in boarding schools and parishes that led hundreds of abuse victims to step forward and tell their story. Our work led the Dutch bishops to install a commission of inquiry that completed its work last December. When Rogge called Dohmen, that’s when things finally started to move.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Bob Hohler
Globe Staff / March 22, 2012

A Boston College football player was charged Wednesday with illegally audiotaping a consensual sexual encounter between a fellow player and a female graduate student in a campus suite the players shared.

Jaryd Rudolph, a 19-year-old defensive tackle from Plympton, allegedly violated the state’s privacy and eavesdropping laws Feb. 15 when he recorded the episode on his cellphone and shared the tape with at least one BC teammate.

The female student filed a complaint with BC Police, and a clerk magistrate in Brighton District Court ruled after a closed-door hearing that there was sufficient evidence to warrant a criminal charge.

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UNITED STATES
PowerTrip

By Mark V. Serrano·March 22, 2012

Several years ago I was conducting an interview with a reporter with a major daily newspaper who had covered the Catholic clergy abuse scandals regularly. In the course of the discussion, the reporter asked me what I thought should be done with my perpetrator, Father James T. Hanley, an admitted child molester with dozens of known victims who could no longer be prosecuted for his crimes.

”Chemical castration,” was my response. The reporter was aghast at my suggestion and encouraged me to retract my quote. “You’re better than that,” he said. I noted that it was the only way to ensure that children would be safe from an admitted, compulsive child molester.

A couple of years later when notifying an urban community that my perpetrator was their new neighbor, we discovered a family with three young boys who had just unwittingly hosted the child-molester at their home for dinner. He came bearing balloons for the boys, as he had obviously chosen them to be his next victims.

Clearly, chemical castration would have been too good for him.

This anecdote brings an ironic twist to the news that despite an official investigation last year into hundreds of cases of sexual abuse enabled by Catholic bishops in The Netherlands over 50 years, ten cases of castration of clergy abuse victims went undiscovered – until, that is, a new report by investigative journalist Joep Dohmen was just released (see: Dutch Roman Catholic Church ‘castrated at least 10 boys’).

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Tom Brady Security Editor

Thursday March 22 2012

Garda handling of two separate complaints of clerical sex abuse by a priest from the Catholic diocese of Cloyne is to be investigated by an independent watchdog body.

The Garda Ombudsman Commission has decided to carry out inquiries into the behaviour of gardai dealing with the complaints.

The move follows criticism of inadequate garda action, highlighted in the Cloyne Report, published last summer by a commission led by Judge Yvonne Murphy following a two-year state-ordered probe into allegations of cover-ups in Cloyne between 1996 and 2009.

The damning report resulted in a government decision to introduce legislation which could lead to priests being jailed for up to five years if they fail to report paedophiles to gardai, even if told of the abuse in the confessional.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Modesto Bee

By Ross Farrow
News-Sentinel (Lodi)

STOCKTON — Father Michael Kelly continued to deny allegations that he sexually assaulted anyone while spending almost two more hours on the witness stand Wednesday.

Attorney John Manly represents a 37-year-old man suing Kelly on allegations that the Lockeford priest sexually assaulted him when the plaintiff was an altar boy in the 1980s.

Manly named several people from the 1970s and ’80s, asking Kelly if he had touched any of them on or near the groin.

Kelly, testifying for a second day, vehemently denied that he touched anyone inappropriately.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Record

By The Record

March 22, 2012

STOCKTON – Diocese of Stockton’s Bishop Stephen Blaire testified Wednesday in a civil trial involving a local priest accused of sexually molesting an altar boy in the mid-1980s.

Blaire, the church’s highest-ranking local official, confirmed certain facts about the diocese and a report of sex abuse made by the plaintiff’s father in 2006.

The plaintiff, a 37-year-old Fairfax man, said he recovered repressed memories that year, and said he remembered being groomed and raped by Kelly while he served at Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton.

Kelly was on the stand Tuesday and Wednesday.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Claire O’Sullivan

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Communities will be involved in any plans to radically reorganise the amount of dioceses in this country, according to the summary report presented by the Vatican team who visited the country last year.

One church source yesterday warned that “amalgamation had the potential to be very emotive as priests and lay people identified with the existing diocese.”

They pointed to historic amalgamations which were “fraught affairs”.

“It would also involve a lot of legal wrangling, such as for one, whether the former dioceses would still be considered a registered charity,” he said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

Recently, many of you have asked questions on C4C regarding issues of child protection in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. Please share them again in the comment section of this post. Susan and I will use this post to compile a list of questions and will forward them to Mary Rochford, Superintendent of Schools and Leslie Davila, Director of the Office of Child and Youth protection.

Individual voices might not always be heard, but collectively with C4C national and local followers, we may be able to obtain some clarity on the very important issue of child protection. We ask that all comments on this post be questions concerning child protection within the Philadelphia Archdiocese. – Kathy Kane

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MEXICO
National Catholic Reporter

by Michael Sean Winters on Mar. 21, 2012 Distinctly Catholic

This story from the Associated Press will, to borrow a phrase from Mr. Santorum, make you want to throw up. A new book details that the Vatican received information about Father Maciel’s crimes more than 50 years ago. (h/t to Rocco!)

I do want to point out one thing however. The article does not implicate Benedict in the cover-up but it leaves open the possibility. That possibility should be foreclosed. As head of the CDF, then-Cardinal ratzinger conducted the investigation of Maciel and then the apartment did nothing with it. Cardinals Sodano and Dziwicz have some answering to do but not Pope Benedict.

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UNITED STATES
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York

Cardinal Timothy Dolan

Recently, Catholic League president William A. Donohue, Ph.D. published a report on the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) deposition in Missouri. Here is an excerpt from Donohue’s report:

At the end of 2011, a Missouri judge ordered David Clohessy, the president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), to be deposed regarding his role in cases of priestly sexual abuse. Clohessy fought the order vigorously, but lost. On January 2, 2012, he was deposed; the deposition was made public only recently [click here]. [NOTE: all pages cited are taken from the deposition.]

Clohessy proved to be uncooperative, refusing to comply with a request for internal documents; he only released a small portion of them. On the stand, he was similarly recalcitrant, refusing to answer many questions. He took refuge in a Missouri law which protects the confidentiality of rape crisis centers. But there are serious reasons to doubt whether SNAP meets the test of a rape crisis center.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee on Mar. 21, 2012 NCR Today

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, posted a link on his blog this afternoon to a statement from Bill Donohue, the head of the Catholic League, which suggests the director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests may be a “con artist.”

The post comes as the victims’ advocacy group and its director, David Clohessy, have found support in recent days on the editorial pages of several national papers in light of attempts by attorneys representing priests accused of abuse to obtain 23 years of the group’s documents.

Dolan’s post came on his “The Gospel in the Digital Age” blog at the New York Archdiocese website. It quotes in full three paragraphs of a statement by Donohue before providing people a link to read the rest.

Donohue’s statement, titled “SNAP Unravels,” is a long rehash of some of the facts surrounding the attempts by priests’ lawyers, which resulted last January in Clohessy’s deposition in a case involving a priest accused of abuse in Kansas City, Mo.

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BRIDGEPORT (CT)
National Catholic Reporter

By David Gibson, Religion News Service

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — If there is any Catholic bishop in the U.S. who probably didn’t need a bigger platform, it would be William E. Lori, who was named Tuesday (March 20) by Pope Benedict XVI as the next archbishop of Baltimore.

For the past decade, Lori has led the Diocese of Bridgeport in Connecticut’s Fairfield County, but in recent months he’s become the public face of the hierarchy’s new signature issue: the fight for “religious freedom.” …

Within months, Lori was facing two huge crises: the 9/11 attacks that claimed many of his new flock, and the clergy abuse crisis that has continued to dog the hierarchy.

While Lori is known for his orthodoxy on doctrine and social issues, he was praised by many for taking a hard line in dealing with abusive priests, and in dealing with subsequent financial scandals that emerged. On the other hand, Lori also fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to keep documents on private settlements with victims — reached before he became bishop — sealed. He argued his case on religious freedom grounds, but eventually lost.

But two other episodes helped shape his outlook. One was a proposal by a pair of state senators to change the structure of Catholic parishes to have lay people, rather than priests and bishops, in charge. Critics suspected it was legislative mischief prompted by Lori’s vocal opposition to Connecticut’s gay marriage law.

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MEXICO
World Socialist Web Site

By Rafael Azul
21 March 2012

Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to visit Mexico on March 23. His visit coincides with the run-up to the Mexican presidential elections, which will take place on July 1. The visit takes place as the Mexican Senate prepares to vote on constitutional changes that will severely weaken the principle of separation of church and state and the secular character of the Mexican government.

The draft legislation proposes changes in the language of Articles 24 and 40 of the Mexican Constitution, guaranteeing religious instruction in Mexican schools, and allowing the church greater access to mass means of communication, among other things.

Benedict, the former Joseph Ratzinger, is to follow his visit to Mexico with a trip to Cuba.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

The media are falling over themselves to relay a salacious report that the Catholic Church in the Netherlands may have surgically castrated “as many as 10 young men” over a half a century ago, in the 1950’s.

Perpetual Catholic bashers such as the New York Times, NPR, and the Boston Globe are having a field day trumpeting the tale.

The message from these outlets is clear: “The Catholic Church is bad, bad, bad. The news gets worse every day!”

A closer examination of the facts, however, reveals that there is a lot more to this story than meets the eye.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ITALY
AdvisorOne

By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne

The Vatican suffered a blow to its efforts to have its bank included in the European “white list” of states that comply with international standards against tax fraud and money laundering on Monday when JPMorgan Chase shut the account of the Vatican bank at an Italian branch.

Reuters reported that JP Morgan closed the account of the Vatican’s bank, known as the Institute for Works of Religion, despite a major effort at reform IOR undertook in 2011 in an attempt to clear charges of fraud and money laundering. In a letter dated February 15, an Italian newspaper reported, Chase notified the IOR that its Milan account would begin to be phased out on March 16 and would be closed on March 30.

The Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore was cited as saying that JPMorgan Chase told IOR that it was closing the account because the Milan branch felt IOR had not provided enough information on money transfers. Il Sole identified the Vatican account as a sweep facility, with all funds transferred to another IOR account in Germany at the end of each day.

Two regular daily newspapers in Italy, Corriere della Sera and La Stampa, reported the account closure on Monday, leading to additional embarrassment for IOR. Italian investigators had frozen 23 million euros ($33 million) in two Italian banks in September of 2010 over money laundering concerns; IOR had said it was merely transferring money between accounts, and the funds were released in June of 2011. however, the investigation is continuing,

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IOWA
WCF Courier

By PAT KINNEY, pat.kinney@wcfcourier.com

WATERLOO, Iowa — A prominent local attorney with a long history of community and professional success had died.

Tom Staack, a partner in the Dutton Braun Staack Hellman & Iversen law firm in Waterloo, died Monday after a short battle with aggressive pancreatic cancer, according to friends and colleagues. He was 65.

“He was recognized by his peers as one of the very best trial lawyers in the state of Iowa,” said law partner Dave Dutton. “He pursued justice with determination that was quite amazing to watch and be a part of. And he pursued his community affairs with the same passion, the same commitment.” …

In the legal arena, Staack and attorney Chad Swanson of the Dutton firm represented many clergy sex abuse victims in legal actions against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque. The archdiocese paid out more than $12.3 million to 47 victims over the three settlements from 2006-08 plus counseling and a public archdiocesan apology to victims.

“He gave the victims their voice and gave them a chance at healing,” said Steve Theisen of Hudson, of the Iowa chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBit

– unter der Verantwortung von dem Missbrauchsbeauftragten der DBK, dem Trierer Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann – wurde erneut ein vorbestrafter Sexualstraftäter als Seelsorger bzw. Kooperator eingesetzt. Nach den Fällen Pfarrer Klaus K. und Pfarrer Michael Ver. nun also Nr. 3. In allen Fällen trug Ackermann nicht dafür Sorge, den Kontakt zu Kindern zu unterbinden.

Der “Trierische Volksfreund” veröffentlichte heute dazu in seiner Print-Ausgabe folgendes:

“Ex-Täter als Seelsorger eingesetzt – Kritiker wollen nicht, dass ein wegen Missbrauchs verurteilter Priester Sakramente spendet” – der Artikel unmittelbar nebenan: “Kinder sollen Grenzen setzen”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

THE JUDGE in the clergy-sex-abuse trial ruled yesterday that the jury can hear about the troubled past of one priest’s accuser.

Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said attorney Michael Wallace, who represents defrocked priest Edward Avery, can tell jurors about the man’s expulsion from the Catholic high school he attended in the early 2000s, and of discrepancies in the man’s related civil lawsuit and his grand-jury testimony.

Avery, 69, is charged with sexually assaulting the man when he was a 10-year-old altar boy in the 1990s. Wallace said the accuser is a drug addict who made up the allegation against Avery.

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IRELAND
Christian Today

Church leaders were negligent when suspected incidents of sex abuse were brought to their attention, a Vatican report has concluded .

The admission was made in a report published on Tuesday examining the causes of the Irish sex abuse scandal that erupted several years ago.

The Apostolic Visitation is the culmination of a two-year investigation initiated by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 following a crisis meeting with Irish bishops at the Vatican.

At the time, the Pope expressed his dismay at the extent of the abuse and subsequent cover-up exposed in the Ryan and Murphy reports.

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VATICAN CITY
Economy Watch

By: David Smith
Date: 22 March 2012

The Vatican Bank has been plagued by corruption and criminality ever since it was established in 1942. Yet this is hardly a surprise, given that no bona fide legal system is currently in place to ensure check and balances for the bank of God.

The scandals surrounding the Vatican’s finances strain credulity. At the heart of the Catholic Church, we find murder, collusion with violent crime, bribery and money laundering.

But the Church has, and will, never admit to any financial wrongdoing. With an image of sanctity to protect, the Catholic Church simply cannot admit to any illegality or immorality. In this respect, there is a parallel with the Holy See’s persistent denials of sexual abuse among the clergy. This pretence of moral purity can be maintained because the tiny Vatican state is not subject to Italian law enforcement.

Jason Berry, author of Render Unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church, said: “The Vatican has a systematic aversion to transparency. Its power structure is honeycombed in secrecy. With the abuse scandal, the bottom line is that the Pope will not punish complicit Bishops and Cardinals.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

MARIE O’HALLORAN

THE SEXUAL abuse of children is a crime and is “not a matter of theology”, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has told the Dáil.

Responding to Independent TD Finian McGrath, who asked the Government’s response to the publication of the Vatican’s report on the Catholic Church in Ireland, Mr Gilmore said the report “is essentially a report by the church authorities on the church itself. Therefore it is not really a matter for the Government to have a view on it in so far as the report is about internal church matters.”

He added: “I should be clear that the sexual abuse of children, the rape of children, is a crime. It is not a matter of theology and it is not a matter which is exclusively in the domain of a church.” That was why the Government’s statement last September “made it very clear that crimes which have been committed against children are matters that should have been reported to the Garda and authorities and those who sought to obstruct such reportage were seriously wrong”.

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MEXICO
Chicago Tribune

By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Leon, Mexico— The Roman Catholic Church in Mexico this year took the unusual step of issuing guidelines on how Mexicans should vote in the upcoming presidential election: Candidates should value marriage as a bond between a man and a woman and should place prime importance on “the right to life, starting at conception.”

Both ideas were clearly aimed at leftist parties and others who have backed same-sex marriage and abortion, legalized in recent years in Mexico City.

Pope Benedict XVI arrives Friday to a Mexico that, officially, is a strictly secular nation. And although the Catholic Church has almost always enjoyed a powerful position, it has taken on a particularly activist role in partisan politics during the last decade. …

And in another controversial move, Benedict is not meeting with victims of sexual abuse by priests, something he has done in most other countries he has visited, including the U.S. This comes despite Mexico having been home to one of the church’s most notorious abusers, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel.

Maciel, who the church now says fathered at least three children by two women and sexually, physically and emotionally abused numerous young seminarians and others, was for years protected by the Vatican under the late Pope John Paul II. A Mexican, Maciel founded the Legionaries of Christ, which rose to become one of the most powerful and influential orders in the Roman Catholic Church. Maciel was frequently at John Paul’s side, especially during his many trips to Mexico.

The Catholic hierarchy in Mexico also defended Maciel for many years and has stayed largely silent since his disgrace. For Benedict to meet with abuse victims, the Mexican bishops would have had to formally request the encounter, as their counterparts did in other countries. They made no such request, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said last week.

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LATIN AMERICA
Aljazeera

[with video]

As Mexico prepares to host Pope Benedict XIV, the Latin American faithful have been rocked by continued allegations of sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests.

Throughout Latin America, the Vatican has been accused of covering up dozens of abuse cases spanning decades.

In the staunchly Catholic nation of Chile, reports of abuse are leading many away from the church.

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CORSICANA (TX)
Corsicana Daily Sun

By Janet Jacobs Corsicana Daily Sun

Corsicana — A typical Wednesday evening at Northside Baptist Church involves supper and some socializing, praying and some music, but this Wednesday was different. Gary Welch, the 43-year-old beloved youth minister, and a fixture at the church for the last seven years, was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child. He is accused of having a three-year affair with a teenage member of the youth group. He remains in jail in lieu of $150,000 bond. He has been suspended from his job with pay, a move designed to help Welch’s family, according to Pastor Rick Lamb.

Several hundred people attended the Wednesday evening service, many of them in tears, hugging one another and exchanging subdued greetings. Lamb led the Wednesday service, and he expressed his own sorrow over the week’s events.

“I’ve cried a thousand tears. It’s been a rough, rough week,” Lamb told his congregation. Seated on a stool behind a music stand, he spoke frankly and wept as he spoke of the man whom he loved “like a son,” calling this the second-most difficult week of his life.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

GENEVIEVE CARBERY

CONCERNS RAISED in the Cloyne report about a Garda failure to investigate abuse complaints are being examined by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.

The investigation relates to complaints from two women of child sexual abuse by a priest named in the report as Fr Corin.

The report into the Catholic diocese published last year was critical of the lack of a proper Garda investigation into the complaints.

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MEXICO
IPS

By Emilio Godoy

MEXICO CITY, Mar 21, 2012 (IPS) – Spiralling violence, demands for justice voiced by victims of child sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic priests, and ordination of women priests are issues that, in the view of experts and activists, Pope Benedict XVI will not be able to evade in his visit to Mexico.

The pope “does not have a specific policy for different groups in society, as did (his predecessor) John Paul II, who had distinct ways of approaching young people, intellectuals and indigenous people, for example,” said Elio Masferrer, an expert at the National School of Anthropology and History.

Masferrer told IPS that the Church is turning away from a strategy based on addressing the needs and concerns of the Catholic grassroots social base, and reaching out instead only to the elite.

“This is a great weakness. The Church is in a state of paralysis. The faithful do not follow what the hierarchy lays down, and therefore the leadership has lost its power to influence the daily lives of Catholics,” he said.

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MONTANA
NBC Montana

[with video]

By Scott Zoltan

KALISPELL, Mont. — Rudy Bullman, a longtime priest at the Risen Christ Catholic Church in Kalispell, has been accused of sexual abuse of children. Prosecutors charged Bullman with the felony after investigators said they found child porn on his computer.

The investigation started in October, when a woman purchased a gaming system from Bullman and reported it held pictures of naked young boys.

“There were some images on there that disturbed the person, so that started our investigation,” said Flathead Sheriff Chuck Curry.

Bullman allegedly told investigators that he used the system to view gay porn, but that he only accessed sites which represented the boys were over eighteen. Court documents say investigators found child pornography on his computer. After being charged, Bullman was released on his own recognizance.

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MONTANA
Lez Get Real

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on March 21, 2012

Father Rudolph Carl Bullman, 67, is a priest at Risen Christ Parish in Kalispell has been charged with felony sexual abuse of children stemming from his alleged possession of digital images of nude boys on his computer. He was arraigned in Flathead County District Court in Montana. He has been out of jail on his own recognizance and on administrative leave from the Church since 16 November.

He was put on administrative leave as soon as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena first learned of the investigation. Diocese spokeswoman Renee St. Martin Wizeman stated “We were made aware of an investigation by the Flathead County Attorney’s Office and at that time he was placed on administrative leave, which is what our policies and procedures call for.”

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MONTANA
KAJ

by Dax VanFossen (KAJ News)

KALISPELL- A Kalispell Catholic priest is arrested on charges of sexual abuse of children. Rudy Bullman was charged back in late February, but had been placed on administrative leave since December 16th of 2011.

According to court documents, the case began after a handheld gaming system, sold by Bullman, was found to have photographs of nude boys on it.

Bullman was the Catholic priest at Risen Christ Parish in Evergreen for more than 10 years. If convicted, Bullman could face up to 10 years in prison.

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BELLEVILLE (IL)
Belleville News-Democrat

BY GEORGE PAWLACZYK – News-Democrat

BELLEVILLE — Three lawsuits settled on Tuesday in St. Clair County Court involving two priests of the Catholic Diocese of Belleville brings to at least five the number of victims of sexual abuse of a minor by a priest of the diocese that have resulted in monetary damages.

While the previous payouts total $7.5 million for two lawsuits — $6.3 million paid to James Wisniewski last year and $1.2 million to a victim identified only as “John Doe” in 2009 — the amount of damages in the newly announced agreements is confidential by agreement of the parties.

Belleville plaintiffs attorney Mike Weilmuenster said the agreement to settle the lawsuits contained a clause in each stating that the exact amount of damages cannot be disclosed. However, he said, “It is a substantial sum.”

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE GARDA SÍOCHÁNA Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) is to investigate how the gardaí handled a number of complaints of sex abuse as outlined in the Cloyne Report.

The GSOC made the announcement last night, saying that it has decided to open an investigation, under section 102(4) of the Garda Síochana Act 2005, into “certain matters arising from the Commission of Investigation Report into the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne”.

It said that the matters arise from chapter 10 of the report and relate to garda behaviour. This includes concerns stated in the report about the gardaí involvement in the case involving a priest described as ‘Father Corin’.

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UNITED STATES
GetReligion

The New York Post usually wins the award for best worst headline amongst the New York metropolitan papers. “Headless body in topless bar” remains my favorite.

The New York Times however is giving the Post a run for their money. In the 21 March 2012 issue on page A4 we have “Dutch Church is accused of castrating young men”.

This is not a story for the faint of heart. And, if you were looking for a fair, informed treatment of the story, look elsewhere.

Here is the lede.

A young man in the care of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands was surgically castrated decades ago after complaining about sexual abuse, according to new evidence that only adds to the scandal engulfing the church there.

The case, which dates from the 1950s, has increased pressure for a government-led inquiry into sexual abuse in the Dutch church, amid suspicions that as many as 10 young men may have suffered the same fate.

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NETHERLANDS
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

We shouldn’t blame the Catholic Church for the shocking Dutch castrations before we know all the facts

Tim Stanley

There is nothing sadder or sicker than child abuse. Somehow it seems even worse when the abuser is a figure of trust – a parent, a teacher or a priest. And so the world was understandably horrified when the story came out of The Netherlands this week that a Dutch boy who had been sexually abused by a Catholic priest in the 1950s was castrated by doctors as a form of “punishment”. It’s a revolting, tragic incident that many have taken as a damning indictment of the Catholic Church’s grip over Dutch society.

The story is, however, rather more complicated than it first looks. The website GetReligion.org has done a brilliant deconstruction of the tragedy that points to a notable lack of either sourcing or context in the American reporting. Innuendo abounds – and that’s not fair either to the Church or the children who suffered in its care.

Here’s how the New York Times first covered it: “The victim, Henk Heithuis, lived in Catholic institutions from infancy after being taken into care. When he complained about sexual abuse to the police, Mr. Heithuis, 20 at the time, was transferred to a Catholic psychiatric hospital before being admitted to the St Joseph Hospital in Veghel, where he was castrated [in 1956].” Heithuis befriended a sculptor called Cornelius Rogge and showed him his scars (the two men appear to have exchanged letters but details are not given in the NYT report). Heithuis died in a road accident in 1958.

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OSTERREICH
Nachrichten

Die im Internat des Stiftes Kremsmünster aufgedeckten Missbrauchs- und Gewaltfälle scheinen die journalistische Lust an derartigem “Sex-Horror” anzuheizen – diesen Eindruck erweckt jedenfalls ein neuer Bericht in einem österreichischen Wochenmagazin.

Wer wie ich acht Jahre in diesem Internat war, weiß, wovon er redet: Ja, es gab auch in unserem Jahrgang sexuelle und gewalttätige Übergriffe. Nicht Betroffene wie ich haben das zwar “irgendwie” gewusst: “wirklich wissen” hätte geheißen, es ohne Peinlichkeit und Rücksichtnahme auf Opfer wahrnehmen und sagen zu können. Man kennt diese Dynamik aus Peinlichkeit, Scham und diffusem Unbehagen aus derartigen Traumatisierungen in autoritären Institutionen zur Genüge. Deshalb ist die Veröffentlichung solcher Missstände wie im Jahr 2010 wichtig. Ein Mail-Wechsel unter Klassenkollegen legte dann nach 40 Jahren (!) offen, was Einzelnen zugestoßen war.

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DEUTSCHLAND
dradio

[mit Audio]

Katholischer Missbrauchsbeauftragter will pädophile Priester weiterbeschäftigen

Von Ludger Fittkau

Ausgerechnet der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann, Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, beschäftige sieben als pädophil aufgefallene Pfarrer, behauptet “Der Spiegel”. Das Bistum bestätigt diese Zahl nicht. Klar ist aber: Es gibt die Täter im kirchlichen Dienst. Die Kirchenbasis kritisiert vor allem, dass sie in der Seelsorge eingesetzt werden.

Stephan Ackermann hat ein Problem: Seit zwei Jahren ist der Trierer Bischof der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz. In dieser Funktion muss er vor allem dafür Sorgen, dass die Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs in der Kirche Gehör finden.

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NIEDERLANDE
Welt

In den Niederlanden soll die Kirche in den 50ern Jungen in ihrer Obhut kastriert haben – angeblich, um deren Homosexualität zu heilen. Ohne das Einverständnis der Eltern.

Die Aufregung um den Missbrauchskandal in der katholischen Kirche in den Niederlanden legt sich nicht – im Gegenteil: Am Wochenende löste ein Bericht des liberalen “Handelsblads” aus Rotterdam neuen Wirbel aus.

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NIEDERLANDE
Heise

Peter Mühlbauer 21.03.2012

In den 1950er Jahren soll der Eingriff angeblich zur “Heilung von Homosexualität” eingesetzt worden sein

Bis ins 19. Jahrhundert hinein war die Kastration von Knaben zur Vorbereitung auf eine Sängerkarriere in Europa nicht unüblich. Nun wurden in den Niederlanden Vorwürfe laut, dass noch in den 1950er Jahren Jungen kastriert wurden, um deren Homosexualität zu “heilen”. Besonders schwerwiegend sind diese Vorwürfe auch deshalb, weil es dem NRC Handelsblad zufolge in mindestens einem Fall einen nach damaligen Recht Minderjährigen traf, der sich vorher über sexuellen Missbrauch in seinem römisch-katholischen Heim beschwerte.

Dessen Anschuldigung führte zwar zur Verurteilung zweier Kirchenmänner, aber auch dazu, dass Henk H. von der Polizei in eine psychiatrische Klinik der römisch-katholischen Kirche und anschließend in das Sankt-Josephs-Krankenhaus in Veghel verbracht wurde. Dort wurde er Gerichtsdokumenten nach im Alter von zwanzig “auf eigenen Wunsch” kastriert. Volljährig wurde man damals erst mit einundzwanzig. Und seltsamerweise liegt kein Dokument vor, auf dem H. diesen angeblichen Wunsch mit seiner Unterschrift bestätigt.

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IRELAND
The Christian Post

By Luiza Oleszczuk, Christian Post Reporter

March 21, 2012

A Vatican delegation to Ireland concluded Tuesday in an investigative report on causes of an Irish sex abuse scandal that came to light several years ago that local church leaders were guilty of negligence. Delegates also asked victims for forgiveness in the name of the Roman Catholic Church, and vowed to continue to implement reform to further protect children.

The report is a conclusion of the two-year investigation by seven Vatican-appointed church leaders who visited four archdioceses across Ireland; the report was promised by Pope Benedict XVI in his letter to Catholics in Ireland in 2010. It looked at the church’ s dealings with survivors of abuse and current child protection policies.

The report on sexual abuse of Irish children by Catholic clergy blames Ireland’s religious leaders. Investigators said church authorities, including some bishops, had failed to understand and react to the problem. In the report summary, church delegates asked victims for forgiveness in the name of the Roman Catholic Church.

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NETHERLANDS
Gulf News

Reuters
March 22, 2012

Amsterdam: The Dutch parliament on Tuesday called for an investigation into reports that Catholic clerics ordered castration of young males in the 1950s in an attempt to cure their homosexuality.

Dutch MPs raised questions in parliament over a weekend report in Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad saying boys from a Catholic boarding school had been castrated.

“All these horrible reports strengthen me to call for a parliamentary investigation and perhaps even an enquiry,” Labour member of parliament Khadija Arib said in a debate.

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NETHERLANDS
Voice of America

Posted Wednesday, March 21st

The Dutch parliament has called for an investigation into reports that Catholic clerics ordered castrations of boys in the 1950s in an attempt to cure their homosexuality.

Dutch lawmakers discussed the issue Tuesday after a report in the local newspaper NRC Handelsblad said more than 10 boys from a Catholic boarding school had been castrated.

The report focused on a man named Henk Hethuis who allegedly was castrated in 1956 on the instruction of Catholic clergy, after telling police he was being sexually abused by priests.

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NETHERLANDS
NPR

by Eyder Peralta

Dutch lawmakers are calling for a parliamentary hearing, today, after new allegations of abuse by the Catholic Church surfaced over the weekend. This time, an investigation by the newspaper NRC Handelsblad found that Catholic-run institutions had surgically castrated young boys.

The paper said it had uncovered at least 11 cases in the 1950s. According to The Guardian, the paper focused on one boy who complained about being sexually abused. Police took the boy to a Catholic psychiatric ward, where he was declared a homosexual and castrated.

As awful that sounds, perhaps the bigger story here is that back in 2010, the the Conference of Bishops and the Dutch Religious Conference formed a commission to investigate abuse in the church. In December, it issued a 1,100-page report, which detailed extensive abuse, but it did not mention castrations.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
WCF Courier

By DENNIS MAGEE, dennis.magee@wcfcourier.com

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The figure some in Buchanan County knew as the Most Rev. and Lord Abbot Ryan St. Anne Scott is awaiting extradition today in the St. Louis County Jail.

“We’ll probably go get him at the beginning of the week,” said Sgt. Scott Cordle, chief of jail operations for the Knox County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois.

Scott, a self-anointed monk, is facing three counts of financial exploitation of an elderly person; three counts of theft and one count of deceptive practices, according to Cordle. Each charge is a felony in Illinois.

Authorities issued the arrest warrant Feb. 29. Deputies collected Scott at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at a house on Sweet Gum Drive in St. Louis. One of Scott’s associates, Thomas Bertke, reportedly lives there.

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MEXICO
International Business Times

By Jacob Kleinman

March 21, 2012

Anonymous Hispano, the Mexican branch of the online hacktivist collective based in Latin America lay siege to two Mexican websites on Tue, March 20 in protest of Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming visit in an cyber-operation referred to as #opFariseo (hypocrite) on Twitter. The hackers succeeded in temporarily knocking the websites offline and defacing them with their own message: “Hacked system. The POPE is not welcome, out out!!!!!”

Both hacked websites were linked to the Pope’s planned visit to the country this Friday through Monday, before the religious leader continues his tour in Cuba. The website of the Achdiocese of Mexico was down for several hours on Tue. March 20 as was the website of the Institute of Communications and Philosophy (Comfil), which is usually devoted to teaching philosophy.

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IRELAND
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

By Mark Dooley

Yesterday, the Vatican published a report based on an Apostolic Visitation to the Irish Church last year. In response to the deep and disturbing crisis which has engulfed the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI dispatched a number of senior prelates to Ireland with a view to ascertaining the true extent of the disaster. Nothing could have prepared them for what they encountered.

When the Pope announced his intention to send a delegation to Ireland, I was lecturing at Maynooth University – the home of Ireland’s National Seminary. I got to know many of the seminarians as they were obliged to attend my philosophy lectures. They also knew that, as someone with a public profile, I was in a position to highlight their grievances.

Those grievances were shocking – so shocking that I did not hesitate to use my column in the Irish Daily Mail to expose them. Here is a sample of what I wrote in May 2010, and which I subsequently reproduced in my book Why Be a Catholic?

‘Irish seminaries are hotbeds of serious moral decay which is devastating the Church in this country. Their culture is one that rejects piety and holiness in favour of religious laxity and moral confusion. This is resulting in priests who barely believe in the doctrine they are ordained to promote.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M Cap., recently met with the newly founded Pastoral Council of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The Pastoral Council is an advisory group to the Archbishop that examines the pastoral activities of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and offers practical counsel to promote the mission of the Church.

While similar councils exist in parishes throughout the Archdiocese, this is the first time that an Archbishop of Philadelphia has established a Pastoral Council for the entire Archdiocese.

Archbishop Chaput said, “The council we now have in place is a local snapshot of the whole People of God, with intelligent, dedicated Catholics from every walk of life. In both of my previous places of ministry as bishop – Rapid City and Denver – the diocesan pastoral council was a vital source of collaboration and help in my work. I look forward to the same good working friendship with council members here in Philadelphia.”

The Archdiocesan Pastoral Council consists of Archbishop Chaput and four additional administrators from the Archdiocese who serve in an ex-officio capacity, as well as up to 30 members selected from around the Archdiocese. Some are nominated by particular Deaneries. Others are appointed “at large.” The Council currently includes 12 lay women, 11 lay men, one priest, one deacon, and one consecrated religious woman.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

March 21, 2012

ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT’S WEEKLY COLUMN:
THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH AND THE IMPORTANCE OF LAY ACTION

In the next few months, at my request, the Catholic Standard and Times will publish a report on the financial condition of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, including its offices, ministry programs and many of its related agencies and non-profit corporations.

Too often we think of the Church as an institution, and institutions are hard to love. The structures of Catholic life are required by canon and civil law, and they’re important. But they’re also secondary. At her heart, the Church is a family, a community of believers. Like any family, her members have mutual obligations of respect and accountability. This has practical consequences. We ask our people to be generous. As a result, they have a right to know that their resources, which the Church holds in trust for them, are used properly.

To put it another way: We can’t be confident about the future; we can’t even begin to solve our problems; unless we’re well informed. Much of this year’s financial information will be new. Some of it will be quite sobering. Nonetheless, beginning this year and every year in the future, we will provide to our people as full a picture of our financial life as a Church as we reasonably can.

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CANADA
Silva Redigonda

Pedophile Priests
Two summers ago I had to submit a post grad proposal for a research paper. I have debated posting it on my blog because the subject is so controversial and personal. However, after reading this morning’s Toronto Sun, page 47, I felt that the time had arrived, to be risqué once again. I allow myself the luxury of reading the paper each morning now as I drink my coffee. I have read the Sun since its’ birth. This morning Peter Worthington, the founding editor reported the New York Times accepting an anti-Catholic ad of $38,000. “The ad was in the form of a letter that asked Catholics: “”Why send your children to parochial schools to be indoctrinated…sex scandals involving preying priests, church complicity, collusion and cover up going all the way to the top.”” It reminded me of an ad a while ago in the TTC which indicated “There is no God” or words to that effect which was soon removed. I wondered as I read this morning’s paper, how many children $38,000 could feed? I was also very disappointed in the New York Times as I had always thought it a cut above the rest. But why, I pondered did I? I even stopped watching Harry’s Law because of some negative remarks about Catholics on the show. Cathy Bates is such an amazing actor that the words were even more biting.

That summer when I conducted the research, it was very difficult and I wept more than once. It reminded me of when I asked a professor why there was no study provided, about Satanism and he indicated that it would be too difficult a topic to study for the length of time required for a university credit. At the end of my research, after gleaning that pedophiles are in such great numbers and appear to be among everyone, I would have rephrased my hypothesis, to the Roman Catholic Church being an unfair target of media attacks in regards to pedophile priests. My research was soul wrenching. One pedophile priest who was rightfully kicked out of the Church, was roaming freely in his country of origin and children could be seen nearby on the video as he bashed the Catholic Church, not taking any responsibility for his actions.

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BELLVILLE (IL)
KMOX

Brian Kelly
March 21, 2012 1:18 PM

BELLEVILLE, Il (KMOX)- Three people who alleged they were abused by priests in the late 70′s and early 80′s have settled their lawsuits against the Belleville Diocese.

Two of the suits were filed against the Reverend Raymond Kownacki for abuse that allegedly took place at St. Theresa’s Church in Salem, the other was against the Reverend Jerome Ratermann for abuse that allegedly took place at Saints Peter and Paul parish in Waterloo.

The victims’ attorney, Mike Weilmuenster tells KMOX his clients were glad to avoid going to trial, “It’s a roller-coaster ride for these victims. First of all having the courage to come forward and file a lawsuit and all that entails, and having their family investigated and those kind of things”

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IRELAND
Club Bible

Published on March 21st, 2012

ONE IN FOUR, a support group for those who experienced sexual abuse in Ireland, has said the Vatican is still not accepting responsibility for its role “in creating the culture of purposeful cover-ups” in the Catholic Church.

Responding to the findings of the Apostolic Visitation, the organisation said it was disappointed the Vatican did not acknowledge that its interventions in the abuse scandal had allowed individual Catholic Church leaders in Ireland to ignore guidelines.

In a statement, executive director Maeve Lewis said, “While we welcome the findings of the Visitation that the Irish Church now has good child protection practices in place, we feel it is a lost opportunity to address the role played by the Vatican in perpetuating the policy of protecting abusive priests at the expense of children.”

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UNITED STATES
Christian Post

By Luiza Oleszczuk, Christian Post Reporter

March 21, 2012

A victims advocacy organization alleging pressure from lawyers representing the Roman Catholic Church to hand over confidential documents related to clergy sex abuse cases claims the tactics being used are akin to “bullying” and “intimidation.” Church officials deny, however, that any tactics are being used to pressure the group.

The advocacy group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, has been uniting clergy sex abuse victims since 1991, offering counseling, group support and legal advisement. The group is known for having filed a lawsuit against top Vatican leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI, at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague in Sept. 2011.

When lawyers representing the Catholic Church in two sexual abuse cases, one in Kansas and one in Missouri, requested in Dec. 2011 that SNAP release confidential documents, including emails between the organization and abuse victims as well as whistle-blowers and witnesses, SNAP viewed the request as a form of harassment.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on those who continue to defend the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP):

Last week we released a report on SNAP that showed beyond a reasonable doubt what an utter fraud the organization is (click here to read it). It was not an essay; it was not an op-ed; it was not conjecture; it was not our opinion. It was the voice of David Clohessy, the director of SNAP. When coupled with our report last summer on the proceedings of its national convention (it offered irrefutable proof of its hate-filled agenda) it cannot be maintained by any serious observer what SNAP is all about.

The credibility of those who continue to defend this wholly discredited organization is on the line. That would include the editorial board of the New York Times and the Newark Star-Ledger (the latter offered a particularly vicious statement), as well as pundits such as Andrew Sullivan. That the near-moribund National Organization for Women and the Feminist Majority should weigh in is not surprising: though SNAP has nothing to do with women’s rights, it has everything to do with attacking the Catholic Church, and that is music to the ear of radical feminists. But it is Frank Bruni, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times, who needs to be answered more than anyone; he loves SNAP.

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BELLEVILLE (IL)
News-Democrat

Three lawsuits pending against the Catholic Diocese of Belleville that alleged sexual abuse of a minor by a priest have been settled, Belleville attorney Mike Weilmuenster said today.

Weilmuenster said the agreement to settle contained a clause stating that the exact amount of damages cannot be disclosed. However, he said, “It is a substantial sum.”

At least two of the lawsuits involved allegations against the Rev. Raymond Kownacki, a priest of the diocese who was removed from ministry more than 15 years ago after he after allegations of sexual abuse were made against him to a diocesan review board.

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UNITED STATES
Dallas Blog

by Tom McGregor

Wed, Mar 21, 2012

Rev. Thomas Smolich was recently appointed as president of all 17,000 Jesuit priests based in the United States of America. His former roommate in California was Fr. Mariano, who was sued and arrested for sexually abusing a disabled boy in his bedroom at the Provincial for the Jesuits at the Sacred Heart Center in Los Gatos.

Fr. Smolich has a long history of protecting sex predators. He provided free food and lodging for several accused and convicted Jesuit rapists and child molesters at the Sacred Heart Center, including: Fr. Conner, Fr. Jerold Linner, Fr. Edward Burke and Fr. Moniz.

The Jesuits settled a lawsuit “concerning the death of a wheelchair bound member at the facility.

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BOSTON (MA)
Wicked Local Weymouth

By Colleen Quinn, State House News Service

Boston —

Rosanne Sliney was 5 years old when her uncle allegedly started sexually abusing her, abuse that would last until she was 14 years old.

When she was an adult, her uncle wrote her a letter apologizing for the alleged abuse, she said. The letter could be used as evidence against him, but the alleged crimes have passed the statute of limitations, making it impossible for her to press charges, she said.

Sliney and other childhood sexual abuse victims gathered at the capitol Wednesday pushing lawmakers to pass legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations for sex abuse crimes against children. Advocates said they have overwhelming support among House lawmakers to get it passed, with 101 state representatives saying they favor changing the law – enough for it to pass in the 158-member House.

They asked that the bill be released from committee for debate and a floor vote in the House.

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NEDERLAND
Kerknieuws

Publicaties zaterdag in NRC Handelsblad over castraties door de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk in de jaren ’50 hebben minister Ivo Opstelten (Veiligheid en Justitie) geschokt. Dat zei hij dinsdag in het vragenuurtje in de Tweede Kamer. Volgens hem was het de eerste keer dat zijn ministerie van dergelijke praktijken hoorde.

“Naar eer en geweten kan ik zeggen dat dit de eerste keer is”, zei hij op de vraag van PvdA-Kamerlid Khadija Arib of zijn ministerie niet eerder lucht kreeg van dergelijke verhalen.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The enquiry of Vatican representatives on the abuses perpetrated by the clergy has come to an end. The verdict: “Inadequate and unable to contain the number of cases of paedophilia”

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

The Vatican is clamping down on Irish bishops. Rather than a real investigation, the enquiry carried out by the Vatican was more an explanation of the reason why Benedict XVI is about to cut ecclesiastical hierarchies down to zero. “Controls were omitted, bishops and religious superiors were inadequate and incapable of monitoring and containing the spread of extremely serious cases of paedophilia in the clergy. The culprits went unpunished and the victims were treated with indifference.” At the end of the apostolic visit to Ireland, the Holy See prepares a damning report on the Irish crisis concerning paedophile priests.

The island will be struck by a complete change of tactics. New cases will be reported immediately and the Pope will personally intervene to change “the current configuration of the dioceses in order to make diocesan structures better suited to deal with the current mission.” It is time now for all the bishops that covered up the truth regarding paedophile priests (7 have already resigned) to take their leave and the cooperation between dioceses will see a smaller number of better quality priests. The Holy See “feels embarrassed and betrayed by the sinful and criminal acts at the root of this crisis.”

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MONTANA
Coshocton Tribune

KALISPELL, Mont. (WTW) — A Roman Catholic priest at a northwestern Montana parish is charged with felony sexual abuse of children for allegedly possessing pictures of nude boys on his computer.

The Rev. Rudy Bullman is scheduled to enter a plea at an arraignment hearing on March 29 in District Court in Kalispell. He remains released on his own recognizance and has been on administrative leave from Risen Christ Parish in Kalispell since Dec. 16, when the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena learned of the investigation.

County Attorney Ed Corrigan says the investigation into Bullman began last October when someone who purchased a Nintendo DS game console from Bullman found it contained photos of nude boys. Court records say a search of his computer turned up similar images.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

Von Matthias Drobinski

Ausgerechnet der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der katholischen Kirche muss sich rechtfertigen: Opfer werfen Bischof Stephan Ackermann vor, erschreckend fahrlässig mit verurteilten Sexualstraftätern umzugehen. Wohin aber mit ihnen, wenn sie ihre Strafe verbüßt haben? Dient es dem Kinderschutz, sie einfach zu entlassen?

Ausgerechnet er muss sich nun verteidigen: Stephan Ackermann, an diesem Dienstag 49 Jahre alt gewordener Bischof von Trier, Beauftragter der Bischofskonferenz für Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch. Ausgerechnet er, der nicht müde wird zu erklären, dass es keine Toleranz gegenüber sexueller Gewalt geben dürfe und die katholische Kirche eine “Kultur der Achtsamkeit” lernen müsse.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Der Tagesspiegel

Als Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz soll Stephan Ackermann die Täter aus dem Verkehr ziehen. Nun muss sich der Bischof von Trier rechtfertigen. Ein Porträt.

Im April veranstaltet das Bistum Trier die Heilig-Rock-Wallfahrt. Es geht um die Tunika von Jesus Christus, die angeblich vor 1000 Jahren in den Hochaltar des Trierer Doms eingemauert wurde. Hunderttausende Pilger kommen, hochkarätige Besucher aus Rom, es gibt Symposien und plötzlich ist das Bistum am Saum der Republik wichtig.

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NEDERLAND
Pauw & Witteman

De afgelopen jaren heeft de Rooms-katholieke kerk, door het grootschalige en structurele seksueel misbruik met minderjarigen door geestelijken binnen de kerk, een flinke deuk in haar imago opgelopen.

In Nederland deed de commissie-Deetman hier onderzoek naar en kwam er veel leed boven water. Deze week werd bekend dat er zelfs kinderen gecastreerd zouden zijn om ze van hun homoseksuele gevoelens af te helpen.

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CALIFORNIA
Lodi News-Sentinel

By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Father Michael Kelly stated emphatically under oath on Tuesday that he has never sexually assaulted a child.

Kelly, pastor at St. Joachim’s Catholic Church in Lockeford the past eight years, is defending himself in a lawsuit on a sexual assault allegation by a 37-year-old man who was an altar boy in the 1980s. Kelly maintains that such a thing never happened.

“His recollection is completely different from mine,” Kelly said of the plaintiff, who attended Church of the Annunciation in Stockton and attended the church’s parochial school in the 1980s.

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IRELAND
Galway News

March 21, 2012

The Broadcast Authority of Ireland will next week consider the findings of an investigation into the RTE programme that wrongly accused an Ahascragh priest of fathering a child in Kenya.

A paternity test established there was no basis for the allegation.

The Prime Time Investigates programme ‘mission to prey’ falsely accused Fr.Kevin Reynolds of fathering the child while he was a missionary priest in Africa.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

De Nederlandse kerkleiding ziet slachtoffers nog steeds als tegenstanders en als ‘probleem’. In de VS hield de kerk die houding uiteindelijk niet vol.

Tien jaar geleden begon in het Amerikaanse Boston het eerste grote proces tegen een rooms-katholieke priester, John Geoghan, die een hardnekkig misbruiker van minderjarige jongens bleek te zijn. Het proces leidde datzelfde jaar tot het terugtreden van de aartsbisschop van Boston, die de priester, wetend van zijn wangedrag, stilzwijgend van de ene naar de andere parochie had overgeplaatst.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

Sander Becker − 20/03/12

Als een volwassen man wordt gecastreerd, verliest hij met zijn teelballen meteen zijn belangrijkste bron van het geslachtshormoon testosteron. De acute daling van de hoeveelheid testosteron lokt uiteenlopende medische klachten uit, weet Theo de Reijke, uroloog in het AMC in Amsterdam.

Het eerste wat opvalt, is een verminderde potentie. “Gecastreerde mannen hebben vaak moeite om een erectie te krijgen”, zegt De Reijke. “Verder neemt hun libido af, net als hun agressie en hun lichaamsbeharing.”

Op langere termijn raakt ook de aanmaak van bloedcellen verstoord, wat leidt tot bloedarmoede. De botten worden broos. Veel mannen zonder teelballen ontwikkelen ook nog suikerziekte. En hun lichaamsvet krijgt een vrouwelijker verdeling: minder op de buik, meer op de heupen. Lichte borstvorming is ook een bekend fenomeen.

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NEDERLAND
Troux

Opstelten: ministerie wist niets van castraties ‘homoseksuele’ jongeren

Publicaties afgelopen zaterdag in NRC Handelsblad over castraties door de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk in de jaren ’50 hebben minister Ivo Opstelten (Veiligheid en Justitie) geschokt. Dat zei hij vandaag in het vragenuurtje in de Tweede Kamer.

Volgens Opstelten was het de eerste keer dat zijn ministerie van dergelijke praktijken hoorde.

‘Naar eer en geweten kan ik zeggen dat dit de eerste keer is’, zei hij op de vraag van PvdA-Kamerlid Khadija Arib of zijn ministerie niet eerder lucht kreeg van dergelijke verhalen.

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VATICAANSTAD
Reformatorisch Dagblad (Nederland)

VATICAANSTAD (ANP/AFP) – De Ierse bisschoppen hebben de laatste jaren vooruitgang geboekt bij het beschermen van kinderen tegen misbruik. Dat stelt het Vaticaan in een dinsdag gepubliceerd rapport.

In het rapport staat dat medewerkers van het Vaticaan vorig jaar naar Ierland zijn gestuurd om te onderzoeken hoe de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk gevallen van seksueel misbruik door priesters aanpakt. De vertegenwoordigers van het Vaticaan stellen dat ze onder de indruk zijn van de wijze waarop de Ierse kerk probeert nieuwe richtlijnen van het Vaticaan voor de aanpak van misbruik uit te voeren. Volgens het Vaticaan hebben de „aartsbisschoppen verzekerd dat bij alle nieuw ontdekte gevallen van misbruik” direct de verantwoordelijke religieuze en burgerlijke autoriteiten op de hoogte worden gesteld.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

Geschiedenis van misbruik en castratie vraagt om onderzoek, niet om enquête

Dat in Nederland een halve eeuw geleden jongens werden gecastreerd om hun homoseksuele gevoelens te ‘genezen’, is vreselijk. En er is alle reden voor historisch onderzoek naar die feiten. Maar laat dat degelijk en integer gebeuren, en buiten de politieke arena. In de soms oververhitte reacties wordt nu te snel de link gelegd tussen seksueel misbruik, castratie en de noodzaak van een parlementair onderzoek.

NRC Handelsblad bracht afgelopen zaterdag het verhaal over een jongen die in 1956 aangifte deed van seksueel misbruik door rooms-katholieke geestelijken. De jongen werd na de aangifte opgenomen in een psychiatrische inrichting, en niet veel later gecastreerd.

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UNITED STATES
USA Today

By Michael O’Malley, Religion News Service

CLEVELAND – Before a recent prayer service in a shuttered Catholic church in Holyoke, Mass., parishioner Victor Anop stood before 120 people and made an urgent announcement:

“The Vatican has ordered the bishop of Cleveland to reopen 13 closed churches.”

“Everybody broke into applause,” Anop said in a telephone interview. “People are still talking about it. What happened in Cleveland brings us hope.”

Catholics fighting church closings across the U.S. are keeping their eyes on the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, where Bishop Richard Lennon was overruled by the Vatican for not properly following church law and procedures on closing churches.

Copies of the decrees are circulating throughout the country and even in Canada. Anop and other parishioners of the closed Mater Dolorosa Catholic Church have been holding around-the-clock vigils inside their century-old sanctuary ever since their bishop ordered it closed last June.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on March 20, 2012

Sometimes, the most profound statements at a press conference come from the reporters, not us.

Today, my friend and colleague Ken Smolka and I were in front of Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary High School in Montebello, California. We were there because the Irish Chrisitian Brothers, the religious order that ran Cantwell High School, declared bankruptcy when more than 50 victims of child sex abuse in Washington State and Canada came forward to file civil sex abuse and cover-up suits. Order officials sought bankruptcy protection to avoid embarrassing public civil trials. The Christian Brothers are the 10th diocese or religious order to take this (less than pastoral) path.

The Brothers ran Cantwell High School until 1990, when Cardinal Roger Mahony kicked them out and put the Jesuits in their place. No real explanation was given.

But I have an idea: in the six yearbooks I have reviewed, we have found four known perpetrators who worked at the school (three of them were there at the same time). Maybe Mahony realized that even he couldn’t keep a lid on the Christian Brothers much longer.

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WOODRIDGE (IL)
Woodridge Reporter

[Why we published this story: A note from the editor]

By Dave Heitz, dheitz@mysuburbanlife.com
Woodridge Reporter

Woodridge, IL —

The Catholic Diocese of Joliet insists it takes the conduct and celibacy of its priests very seriously, a statement that comes days after a longtime pastor resigned amid reports of a 20-year-old public indecency guilty plea the diocese maintains it was unaware of until recent weeks.

The Rev. Gerald Riva resigned as pastor of St. Scholastica Catholic Church in Woodridge this weekend.

The diocese has launched an investigation into Riva’s 1992 arrest and guilty plea to public indecency — a charge stemming from a DuPage County Forest Preserve officer’s report that Riva masturbated over his clothes in front of the officer, then grabbed the male officer’s genitals.

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