ABUSE TRACKER

CLEVELAND (OH)
The Republic

ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: May 31, 2012

CLEVELAND — A priest who’s refusing to stop ministering to a breakaway congregation says he’s been suspended for disobeying the order from the Roman Catholic bishop in Cleveland.

Bishop Richard Lennon previously threatened to punish the Rev. Robert Marrone for celebrating Mass for former parishioners of St. Peter Church. They moved to a commercial building after their church was closed in 2010 amid downsizing by the diocese.

The Plain Dealer (http://bit.ly/JvfQIa ) reports Marrone met with Lennon last week.

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VATICAN CITY
Belfast Telegraph

By Michael Day
Thursday, 31 May 2012

The Vatican has long been said by those who know it to be a nest of vipers. But, recently, the poison has been laid bare for everyone to see as leak after an embarrassing leak has revealed an institution at war with itself.

Already this year we’ve read about documents warning of a death threat against the Pope, widespread nepotism and corruption, exiled whistleblowers, gay smear campaigns and embarrassing revelations about the Vatican’s tax affairs. …

As the author of a new book on the Vatican, Gianluigi Nuzzi, says: “During the papacy of John Paul II, paedophilia was not pursued like it has been today. This pope has removed 50 priests.”

Another Vatican watcher, Robert Mickens of The Tablet, has a simpler take the Holy See’s woes: “It’s arrogance. The people in charge still think the Vatican is above ordinary laws.”

Observers also point to the Vatican’s decision to censure nuns in the US for daring to “disagree with or challenge positions taken by the bishops” on key social issues.

“All these things are symptoms of a bigger problem. The structure of the Vatican – which is an absolute monarchy – is no longer suitable for the modern world,” says Mickens.

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UNITED STATES
PowerTrip

By Mark V. Serrano·May 30, 2012

Cronyism, corruption and power struggles. Where else would you find such things, along with palace intrigue and a butler leaking sensitive information, but the Vatican?

A book just published in Italy references private letters, internal memos, and a treasure trove of secret information that includes pleas to the Pope to deal with a money-laundering scandal.

Such scandals seem to abound in the church hierarchy. Ironically, we see countless examples of Catholic bishops and cardinals let off the hook for hiding serial sex offenders in the church, but if you steal the church’s money or reveal secrets from inside the Pope’s own Vatican apartment, it’s time to call in the hounds!

The Pope’s butler has been arrested as the Julian Assange of the Vatican, and will likely rot in an Italian jail for many years. Supposedly, he is the one who leaked all the juicy data to the author of the book, which is flying off the shelves in Italy.

This sort of tale is not unusual, of course. Stories have leaked recently about the fate of a teenaged girl with Vatican City citizenship who was kidnapped and held for ransom in 1983 in lieu of the release of the man who attempted to assassinate John Paul II (see: What is the Vatican’s sinister secret behind teenager Emanuela Orlandi’s 1983 disappearance?).

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AUSTRALIA
Penrith Press

31 May 12 @ 02:09pm by Former Glenmore Park parish priest Kevin Lee

I HAVE been very moved by the overwhelming number of positive text and Facebook messages that I have received in response to my recent announcement of my marriage last year to the beautiful Josefina.

I know it must have come as a complete shock to everyone but it was deliberately orchestrated that way to draw attention to an issue that has fermented in the Catholic Church for decades, that of abuse by teachers, priests, brothers and even nuns in the church, and that many priests are living duplicity by having homosexual relationships.

In my role as representative of the Catholic Church in nine parishes throughout the Diocese of Parramatta I have observed one constant: people keep telling me that they don’t go to church because either they or someone in their family were abused.

All the while I wanted to believe abuses were rare and infrequent but in my experience they were so commonly talked about.

The church will contend that the percentage is quite small but in my mind it should not be any. Being around kids who enjoy my company was always uncomfortable because of general suspicions about priests who play with kids.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Star

Organized religions are responsible for many wonderful things, too numerous to mention here.

But they also have a responsibility to safeguard against terrible things that are done in their name.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in two current controversies _ one involving the Catholic archdiocese in Philadelphia, and the other an ultra-Orthodox Jewish congregation in Brooklyn.

Jurors are scheduled to hear closing arguments today in the child-endangerment trial of Monsignor William Lynn involving his handling of several priest-abuse complaints.

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FLORIDA
Sun-Sentinel

By Enrique Flor
The Miami Herald

The priest of the Rincón de San Lázaro church in Hialeah was suspended of his duties Wednesday after a video of him gambling at slot machines in three Miami-Dade casinos emerged.

Rev. Orlando Molina has been suspended indefinitely until an internal investigation is completed, said Michel Joseph Pugin, bishop of the U.S. Catholic Church, founded in 1949 under Catholic precepts but not under the Vatican’s jurisdiction.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KUHF

May 31, 2012

by: Barbara Bradley Hagerty

In a Philadelphia courtroom Thursday, jurors will hear closing arguments in a historic case involving the Catholic sex abuse scandal. William Lynn, a monsignor in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, is the first high-level church official to be tried for his involvement in covering up child abuse.

In a Philadelphia courtroom, jurors are hearing closing arguments in a historic case involving the Catholic sex abuse scandal. William Lynn, a monsignor in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, is the first high-level church official to be tried for his involvement in covering up child abuse, specifically, conspiracy and children endangerment.

Journalist Ralph Cipriano has listened through every day of testimony, posting the events for the blog Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial. For most of the 10-week trial, he says, prosecutors put on a powerful case that Lynn, who was in charge of investigating sex abuse claims from 1992 to 2004, protected the priests and the church – not the children.

“A month ago, there was a sense the prosecution was way ahead,” he says, “that the evidence was so stacked against the Monsignor, that all the prosecution had to do is play it safe.”

Then Lynn went on the stand and argued that he did everything within his power to protect children.

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CANADA
CBC News

A man who was abused by a Cap-Pelé priest is speaking out after decades of silence.

Normand Brun now lives in Vancouver, far from his Cap-Pelé home where he suffered abuse at the hands of Father Camille Léger.

The priest died in 1990 and was never convicted of any crimes.

But Léger’s history came to light earlier this year when the Cap-Pelé council was preparing to ask citizens in a referendum whether the former priest’s name should remain on the village hockey arena.

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NEW YORK
Forward

By Paul Berger

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes says he is pushing for passage of a new state law to force rabbis to report child sex allegations to authorities.

But lawmakers say Hynes has joined the legislative fray late in the state capital of Albany, and time is running out for any measure to pass this year.

“If [Hynes] wants to get something done before the session closes . . . [he’s] wasting precious moments,” said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Westchester). “Going through bureaucracy can take time.”

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NEW YORK
New York Post

The Issue: How DA Hynes should deal with cases of child-sex abuse in Brooklyn’s Orthodox communities.

***
The ultra-Orthodox rabbis who have been flouting the law should never be allowed to oversee street-surveillance programs in Brooklyn (“Faltering First Steps,” Editorial, May 26).

Only the NYPD should monitor crime.

Sue Daglian
Manhattan

***
For those who serve Brooklyn’s Hasidic community, it comes as no surprise that the city and Brooklyn DA Charles “Joe” Hynes have approached the subject of child abuse with pathetic trepidation.

We see child neglect on a massive scale every day. Local police are told by their superiors not to issue tickets, and firefighters are told not to issue summonses when firetrap schools present a death threat to the youngest residents.

How ironic that these children are barely taught a thing about the country that provides them the freedoms they enjoy. That abuse gets swept under the rug is just par for the course.

Michael Watkins
Brooklyn

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By JOSE MARTINEZ

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes (left) blamed witness intimidation in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community — which he compared to the kind of threats carried out by the Mafia — for his unwillingness to name accused sexual predators.

Lashing out against those who have accused him of kowtowing to political pressure by refusing to identify the nearly 100 Orthodox Jews charged with sex crimes in Brooklyn over the last three years, Hynes said, “I haven’t seen this kind of intimidation in organized-crime cases or police-corruption cases.”

Identifying the accused, Hynes said, would put their accusers in jeopardy of being outed by segments of the Orthodox community.

“No one gives a damn about victims,” he fumed. “All they care about is protecting the abusers.”

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NEW YORK
WNYC

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

By Ailsa Chang

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes continued to defend his office’s record on sex abuse cases in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community at an unrelated press conference Wednesday. He said the victim intimidation in that community is worse than what he’s seen in organized crime and police corruption cases over his nearly two-decade career.

“I haven’t seen this kind of intimidation in organized crime cases or police corruption, and the reason for that is in organized crime cases, I can get witness protection,” Hynes Explained. “In police intimidation cases, I can protect them as well.”

The New York Times and some Jewish publications reported that Hynes doesn’t pursue sexual abuse cases against Ultra-Orthodox Jewish suspects as aggressively as he does others because of his political ties to the community. The reports have also claimed Hynes failed to intervene when an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish organization told him that followers had to get permission from a rabbi before reporting allegations of sex abuse to authorities.

Hynes has maintained that a significant hurdle in sex abuse cases involving Orthodox Jews is that the community cares more about protecting suspects than victims.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Michael O’Malley, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Rev. Robert Marrone has been suspended from priestly ministry for disobeying an order by Cleveland Catholic Bishop Richard Lennon to remove himself as pastor of a breakaway congregation, according to a letter the priest wrote to his followers.

Marrone and his congregation, the Community of St. Peter, broke away from the diocese to set up their own worship space in a commercial building in August 2010, four months after Lennon closed their church, St. Peter, in downtown Cleveland.

The closing was part of a diocesewide downsizing that saw the elimination of 50 churches.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

Stolen papers. Venom. Arrests. In the Roman curia, it’s war. The ouster of the president of the bank. The maneuvers of Cardinal Bertone. The pope’s false friends

by Sandro Magister

ROME, May 31, 2012 – There’s method in this madness. Since the butler of His Holiness ended up in jail, the scene has suddenly changed. At center stage is no longer the dispute over the contents of the stolen papers. It’s the thieves. Intent on scheming in the shadow of a venerable white robe.

“With justice eliminated, what are kingdoms if not a great band of thieves?” The phrase is from Saint Augustine, but it was Benedict XVI who cited it in his first encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est” of 2005. He didn’t know that seven years later it would become the public image of the Vatican. A citadel devastated by thievery, with no corner left inviolate, not even that “sancta sanctorum” which the private desk of the pope should be.

The real or presumed thieves of Vatican papers have declared in chorus to the newspapers, under anonymity, that they acted precisely out of love for the pope, to help him clean house. And it is true that none of the wrondoing laid bare in the documents involves his person. But it is even more true that everything falls upon him, inexorably.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
dotCommonweal

Posted by David Gibson

The Holy Spirit? Smart PR? Or karmic blowback from the Vatican’s curial disasters?

Sister Maureen Fielder reports that when a group of protestors supporting the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), which has come under the Vatican thumb, showed up at the Vatican Embassy in Washington on Tuesday, the papal nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, welcomed some of them into the embassy.

Vigano invited two people to sit down and chat and he received their petition asking that the sanctions against LCWR be withdrawn:

In the course of the conversation, he [Vigano] made it known he had been at the beginning of the LCWR board meeting (which started Tuesday and ends Friday). Later, he invited about 20 people into the embassy to see the chapel and offer prayers.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Boston Globe

MILWAUKEE—The Archdiocese of Milwaukee confirmed Wednesday that it had a policy to pay suspected pedophile priests to leave the ministry.

The acknowledgement was prompted by a document made public by abuse victims’ advocates from the archdiocese’s bankruptcy that references a 2003 proposal to pay $20,000 to “unassignable priests” who accepted a return to the laity. The policy was crafted under then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who is now a cardinal and head of the archdiocese in New York.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests characterizes the payments as a payoff and bonuses to priests who molested children. The archdiocese disputes that characterization, saying the payments were in part to more quickly move those men out of the priesthood.

The group is calling on the archdiocese to release all records involving the payments and its handling of clergy sex abuse cases.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Haiti: “One Table, Many Partners” Conference, Focus on the Protection of Children from Sexual Abuse

Victims and Child Protection Advocates to Hold Candlelight Vigil at Catholic Haiti Conference
in Washington, D.C.

They mourn for children in Haiti and throughout the world who are being sexually abused

They want Catholic missionary groups to implement child protection policies

WHERE – Outside Caldwell Auditorium on the Catholic University campus, Washington, D.C.

WHEN – Friday, June 1, 2012, 4:30 p.m to 6:15 p.m.

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GADSDEN (AL)
WAAY

GADSDEN, Ala. (WAAY) – An Etowah County man has been sentenced to 110 years in prison after being convicted on Rape and Sexual Abuse charges last month.

61 year old Thomas Russell Reilly received thirty years imprisonment on the charge of Rape in the First Degree, and twenty years as to each of the four charges of Sexual Abuse.

The sentence was handed down Wednesday by Judge Allen Millican.

During the trial, witnesses indicated that Reilly allowed young girls to spend the night with him, then took them to the Tabernacle Church the next day. The girls were between the ages of 5-10 at the time. During the sleepovers, the girls said he touched them inappropriately. One of the girls claimed she had sexual intercourse with Reilly when she was only 7 years old.

During sentencing, Millican had choice words for several local supporters of Reilly, who had complained about the handling of the case : “Ladies and gentlemen, I notice there are a lot of folks here this morning that came and watched this trial, and I received some mail from some of the elders in the church that watched this trial.” Millican said. “Some of the mail made reference to an overzealous district attorney and the fact that if they were on the jury they would find reasonable doubt.”

Quoting Matthew 22:21, the judge said, “I am here to tell you that I heard a wise man once say, ‘Render unto Caesar those things that are Caesar’s and unto God those things that are God’s.’ I pray about my cases, every one I have to try and rule about. I don’t appreciate somebody trying to second guess me on something like that and sending me stuff from the House of the Lord. Ya’ll need to tend to your business, and I’ll tend to mine.”

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HOLLAND (MI)
WOOD

HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) – A former Holland Public Schools worker accused assaulting three middle school students in 2006 has pleaded guilty to some of the charges against him.

Jonathan Meyer pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Meyer, 32, was originally charged with three counts of first-degree CSC. He was a lunchroom supervisor at Holland’s West Middle School at the time of the assaults and was also a church youth leader at Christ Memorial Church in Holland.

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GADSDEN (AL)
Gadsden Times

By Kendra Carter
Times Staff Writer

A 59-year-old Gadsden man convicted of rape and sex abuse involving four young girls he befriended at the church where he volunteered on Wednesday was sentenced to prison terms totaling 110 years.

Thomas Russell Reilly appeared before Etowah County Circuit Judge Allen Millican for sentencing on one count of first-degree rape and four counts of sexual abuse of a child under 12 years of age, according to a news release from the Etowah County District Attorney’s Office.

Reilly was convicted April 5 by an Etowah County jury.

Millican sentenced Reilly to 30 years in state prison on the rape charge and 20 years for each of the sexual abuse charges. The judge ordered the terms to be served concurrently.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Lisa Wangsness
| Globe Staff
May 31, 2012

Victims of child sexual abuse who missed deadlines for filing civil claims against their abusers may get a two-year window during which they could bring old cases to court, under one legislative scenario under discussion on Beacon Hill.

If victims could prove the abuse occurred, the maximum they could collect from any nonprofit organization held responsible would be capped at $20,000, the existing limit.

Those potential provisions are being discussed as part of a move by lawmakers to scale back a proposal, opposed by the Catholic Church, that would have made sweeping changes to the legal remedies available to people sexually abused as children.

The original legislation, which even some proponents consider too far-reaching, would eliminate the statute of limitations entirely for criminal and civil cases involving child sexual abuse, letting people come forward for an unlimited amount of time.

It also would get rid of the $20,000 limit on civil damages for nonprofit organizations, a cap established in the early 1970s to protect charities from being wiped out by lawsuits, in cases related to child sexual abuse.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – With over two months of evidence behind them, jurors in the landmark clergy sexual abuse case are scheduled to hear closing arguments today. Monsignor William Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged with endangering children by allegedly protecting and covering up for predator priests.

The prosecution alleges Monsignor William Lynn failed to act to protect children from two dangerous priests. One of those priests, co-defendant James Brennan, has pleaded not guilty and the defense argues he never abused the victim who testified against him in this trial.

The second priest, Edward Avery, also a former co-defendant, pleaded guilty just before trial admitting he sexually abused a boy in 1999.

Lynn, testifying in his own behalf, told the jury he was sorry about that. But he did not accept blame. He testified he did the best he could, but the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua had authority for priest placements.

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MISSISSIPPI
KBTV

(KFVS) – The wife of an East Prairie pastor charged with statutory sodomy and possession of child porn is charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

Beth Lynnette Allen, 36, is charged with the endangering welfare of a child-1st Degree.

Her husband, Kenneth Neal Allen, 36, is charged with three counts of first degree statutory sodomy and possession of child pornography.

The East Prairie community says Kenneth Allen is the Pastor at Grace Apostolic Church.

According to the probable cause statement, Beth Allen is a state paid child care provider and knew about an instance when her husband allegedly inappropriately touched a male child and failed to report it.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
UPI

PHILADELPHIA, May 30 (UPI) — Lawyers in a Philadelphia clergy sex abuse trial met privately with the judge Wednesday to go over instructions that will be given to the jury.

Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina summoned prosecution and defense attorneys to the closed-door meeting the day after testimony in the landmark trial ended, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Closing arguments will be Thursday, and the jury could get the case Friday, the newspaper said.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
The New York Times

[2003 Minutes of the Archdiocesan Finance Council]

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Published: May 30, 2012

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York authorized payments of as much as $20,000 to sexually abusive priests as an incentive for them to agree to dismissal from the priesthood when he was the archbishop of Milwaukee.

Questioned at the time about the news that one particularly notorious pedophile cleric had been given a “payoff” to leave the priesthood, Cardinal Dolan, then the archbishop, responded that such an inference was “false, preposterous and unjust.”

But a document unearthed during bankruptcy proceedings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and made public by victims’ advocates reveals that the archdiocese did make such payments to multiple accused priests to encourage them to seek dismissal, thereby allowing the church to remove them from the payroll.

A spokesman for the archdiocese confirmed on Wednesday that payments of as much as $20,000 were made to “a handful” of accused priests “as a motivation” not to contest being defrocked. The process, known as “laicization,” is a formal church juridical procedure that requires Vatican approval, and can take far longer if the priest objects.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Thursday, May 31, 2012

By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Catholic priest known for interfaith work is on a voluntary leave of absence while the Diocese of Pittsburgh and the Allegheny County district attorney decide whether his Facebook posts or other computer use amount to sexual abuse of a minor.

The Rev. Daniel Valentine, 63, pastor of St. James parish in Sewickley, took personal leave on May 19 on the advice of diocesan officials, said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the diocese. While on leave, he is not permitted to wear clerical garb or exercise public ministry.

Father Lengwin would not describe the posts. The diocese hasn’t decided if they cross the line into behavior prohibited by the church’s child protection charter, he said.

“I don’t think we’ve made a determination what this is,” Father Lengwin said.

In late April, he said, a family came to the diocese “and expressed deep concern about a posting on Facebook to one of their minor children. Having heard it, we determined that it should be turned over to the district attorney’s office.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Equities

United Press International
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, approved payments to priests suspected of abuse in the Milwaukee archdiocese, church documents show.

A spokesman for the church in Milwaukee said the payments, some as high as $20,000, were made to encourage priests to resign and not to challenge the decision to remove them from the priesthood, The New York Times reported Thursday.

“It was a way to provide an incentive to go the voluntary route and make it happen quickly, and ultimately cost less,” Jerry Topczewski said Wednesday. “Their cooperation made the process a lot more expeditious.”

Dolan served as archbishop of Milwaukee from 2002 to 2009, when Pope Benedict XVI named him head of the New York archdiocese, the highest-profile position in the U.S. Catholic Church. He became a cardinal in 2012.

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ROME
San Antonio Express-News

NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

Updated 03:34 p.m., Wednesday, May 30, 2012

ROME (AP) — For someone at the center of one of the Vatican’s greatest scandals in recent decades, Gianluigi Nuzzi seems awfully cool.

The investigative journalist who published a book of leaked papal documents begs to get off the phone one day because he’s playing with his two kids at home in Milan. A day later he’s ensconced in a swank hotel on Rome’s Via Veneto, joking about cutting his journalistic chops as a 13-year-old writing for a weekly Mickey Mouse magazine.

But Nuzzi, 42, is very much in the hot seat for revealing the secrets of one of the most secretive institutions in the world, accused of an unprecedented attack on both the pope and the Catholic Church.

“His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI” was published last week. In the few days since, it has become the most-talked about book in Italy and the Vatican, 273 pages of leaked Holy See documents and analysis of the Vatican’s internal machinery that represents its biggest security breach in recent history.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 30, 2012

No one—I repeat: NO ONE— wants to get in front of television cameras and say that they were sexually abused. But when someone does, and does it in an eloquent, emotional and powerful way, that person changes the world.

Case in point: Jessica Bohman

According to Bohman, her family members, and a lawsuit she just filed in Kern County Superior Court, Jessica was sexually abused by Foursquare Church youth minister Damon Young from when she was approximately 4 until she was 8 years old. Damon was 14.

But his young age didn’t stop Damon from admitting to abusing her and other girls at the church. (I hope to post a copy of the police report soon.) According to the lawsuit, he’d brazenly take Jessica out of church day care and molest her while her parents were at church services, even though, according to the lawsuit, Foursquare church officials knew he was acting inappropriately around the young girls. When I saw “inappropriate,” I mean that he would rub his crotch against little girls when adults were around. This is bad stuff. There is no question that the Young should have been immediately pulled out of youth ministry, the police called and the kids helped. But no one picked up the phone to report their suspicions.

When Jessica had a sex ed class in junior high, she suddenly realized that what happened to her was very, very wrong.

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NEDERLAND
ND

Veertig procent van de priesters in Nederland vindt dat het celibaat afgeschaft moet worden. Dat meldt het NCRV-programma Altijd Wat, dat met een anonieme enquête priesters ondervroeg. Van de veertig procent die voor afschaffing is, denkt 22 procent dat de regel seksueel misbruik in de hand werkt.

De groep voorstanders van het celibaat bleek bijna even groot als de groep tegenstanders, 39 procent vindt dat het celibaat behouden moet blijven. De overige 21 procent oordeelde neutraal over de regel die stelt dat priesters niet mogen trouwen of seksueel contact mogen hebben.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTAQ

MILWAUKEE (WTAQ) – The Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese confirms that it paid priests who were suspected of sexual abuse to leave their ministries.

That’s after a document in the church’s current bankruptcy case described a proposal from 2003 to pay $20,000 to what were called “unassignable priests.”

Julie Wolf said the payments were intended to speed up the departure process for pedophile priests, in response to critics who demanded that all abusive priests be defrocked.

The Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests called it payoff for child molesting priests. And it demanded that the archdiocese release all records about the payments, and other details on how the Milwaukee church handled sex abuse cases.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox 6

[2003 Minutes of the Archdiocesan Finance Council]

MILWAUKEE — The group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) says some priests in the Milwaukee Archdiocese were paid to leave the priesthood.

According to the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy records, in 2003, the Archdiocese Finance Council discussed a plan where known child molesters would be paid $20,000 to quietly leave the priesthood.

They also say in 2011, the Archdiocese would make a final payment of $90,000 to nine priests undergoing the process.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wisconsin State Journal

Associated Press

MILWAUKEE — The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has confirmed that it paid suspected pedophile priests to leave the ministry.

That comes after a document surfaced in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy discussing a 2003 proposal to pay $20,000 to “unassignable priests” who accept a return to the laity.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests characterizes the payments as a payoff and bonuses to priests who molested children. The group is calling on the archdiocese to release all records involving the payments and its handling of clergy sex abuse cases.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

Closing arguments will begin on Thursday in the high-profile Catholic criminal abuse trial in Philadelphia, and the media is not giving some important facts the attention they deserve.

1. The two trial defendants have already scored significant victories in their cases.

The prosecution went into the trial that began on March 26 with the astonishing charges that Msgr. William J. Lynn and Rev. James J. Brennan actually conspired together with the intention to abuse children.

The charges were so wild and so far off base that even Judge Teresa Sarmina – who has sided with the prosecution nearly every step of the way in this ordeal – outright dismissed most of these charges from the bench two weeks ago. This was even though the jury had already sat for nearly two months of testimony!

Sarmina’s ruling prompted journalist Ralph Cipriano to note:

“Observers were left to wonder why Father Brennan was even in the courtroom most days, as the vast majority of evidence in the case, and some 43 out of 48 prosecution witnesses, had absolutely nothing to do with him … With no connection between Father Brennan and Msgr. Lynn, it made absolutely no sense to try the two together.”

2. Prosecutors have essentially admitted that an important episode in last year’s grand jury report was largely a work of fiction.

The much-cited report chronicled in stomach-turning detail the story of Rev. Brennan committing a brutal, all-night rape of 14-year-old Mark Bukowski in 1996. (Mark’s full name is in the report, and he has given permission for his name to be public.)

By the time the trial started, however, prosecutors claimed that Brennan “almost raped” Mark. That’s a big discrepancy. In addition, the defense has argued that Mark has notable credibility issues, which include a lengthy criminal record of fraud and filing false police reports.

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WASHINGTON
The Seattle Times

The Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. —
Parishioners of Catholic churches in Spokane are being asked to contribute another $1.5 million toward a broad legal settlement to help resolve clergy sex abuse claims that have dogged the diocese for a decade.

The Spokesman-Review reported Wednesday it was the second settlement in five years that has been billed as ending the bankruptcy of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane.

A letter written by Spokane Bishop Blase Cupich and distributed to parishioners on Sunday sought to assure churchgoers that the threat of foreclosure had passed.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

[2003 Minutes of the Archdiocesan Finance Council]

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee confirmed Wednesday that it paid suspected pedophile priests to surrender their clerical collars, after a document surfaced in its bankruptcy discussing a 2003 proposal to pay $20,000 to “unassignable priests” who accept laicization.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests characterized the payments as payoffs and bonuses to priests who molested children, noting it was just $10,000 less than the $30,000 the archdiocese hoped to pay victims, according to the same document. And it called on church authorities on Wednesday to release all records involving the payments and its handling of clergy sex abuse cases.

“You don’t give a bonus to a man who rapes children,” SNAP’s Midwest director Peter Isely said outside the federal courthouse in Milwaukee. “If they paid them anything it should have been for therapy and counseling.”

Archdiocese spokeswoman Julie Wolf said the payments were intended to speed up the laicization process, in response to criticism by SNAP and others who called for offender priests to be defrocked. She disputed their characterization as a payoff, saying the money was meant to help the men transition back into lay life.

Wolf said she had no information about how much was paid and to whom over the years.

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CALIFORNIA
CathNews

Citing its need to restructure in the United States after a series of sex abuse scandals involving its founder and several prominent members, the Legionaries of Christ are withdrawing from the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Sacramento, California, effective July 1, reports NCR Online.

The order has administered the large Hispanic parish in the state capital for the last 12 years.

Their departure follows the closure last year of their two local schools, the University of Sacramento and the Immaculate Conception Apostolic School, because of diminishing enrollment.

“Our religious congregation has suffered a crisis in the past few years and we must restructure ourselves in the United States,” said Fr Lino Otero, pastor, in a message to parishioners.

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BAKERSFIELD (CA)
23ABC

[with video]

Christine Dinh – 23ABC East Bakersfield Reporter

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A local woman is filing a lawsuit claiming a youth minister from Four Square Church molested her when she was a child.

23 ABC is not identifying the youth pastor accused in the case because he was a juvenile at the time of the alleged assaults.

In a civil complaint, Jessica Bowman claims that, starting from 1987 when she was 4 years old, she was sexually molested by a 14-year-old Four Square church volunteer who later became her youth minister.

“(I remember) him touching me, touching me under my clothes, making me touch him,” said Bowman.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — From picked pockets to a 1998 double murder and suicide, the Vatican legal system has dealt with a vast array of crimes and misdemeanors over the decades.

Now it has begun a formal inquiry into the case of the pope’s personal assistant who has been implicated in the media-blitzed “VatiLeaks” scandal. Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s valet since 2006, was arrested May 23 by Vatican security for having unauthorized documents in his possession.

As the case unfolds in the coming weeks, many may wonder how the Vatican City State’s unique judicial system works.

Its legal foundations are rooted in the Code of Canon Law, papal decrees, the Lateran Pacts, and Italian and Roman municipal laws.

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IRELAND
Catholic News Service

By Michael Kelly
Catholic News Service

DUBLIN (CNS) — Ireland’s Catholic Church, host of the International Eucharistic Congress, has suffered a dramatic loss of credibility in recent years, but also shows signs of renewal after a decade of turbulence.

While a recent survey by the Association of Catholic Priests found that weekly Mass attendance throughout the country is one of the highest in Europe at 35 percent, the capital — where Mass attendance in some parishes is 2 percent — has been hit by a combination of religious apathy, secularism and disenchantment as a result of clergy sex abuse scandals.

David Quinn of The Iona Institute, a think-tank that aims to highlight the benefits of religion for society, believes it is wrong to present all of the church’s challenges as being linked to clerical abuse scandals. The shift in public opinion, he said, is “driven primarily by the secularizing trends that would have overtaken the rest of Europe over the last century, and only secondly actually by the scandals, because the downward trends were in place before the scandals ever came to light.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

May 30, 2012

To: Jerome Listecki, Archbishop of Milwaukee
From: Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
Re: Dolan’s laicization payouts to priest sex offenders

Archbishop Listecki,

The biblical account of the events that led to Christ’s execution begin, of course, with the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, one of the twelve disciples, to religious and political authorities. That betrayal was marked and sealed by a disbursement of money: 30 pieces of silver. So it is with considerable dismay to learn that the apostolic leaders of the Milwaukee church, who gather the faithful around the name and memory of Christ, have been apparently engaged in paying off those who betrayed the children of our archdiocese.

Minutes from a March 2003 Archdiocese Finance Council meeting, which have surfaced in Milwaukee Federal Bankruptcy Court, appear to confirm what we survivors and our families have long suspected, that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, under the leadership of Archbishop Dolan and Bishop Sklba, were paying off priests who committed criminal acts of rape, sexual assault and abuse against youngsters. According to the minutes of this meeting, a plan was discussed by Dolan and Sklba and others whereby known priest child molesters would be paid $20,000 each to quietly leave the priesthood through the Vatican’s administrative process of laicization, $10,000 at the beginning of the process and $10,000 upon completing it.

Evidence shows the plan was implemented. In 2006, pedophile cleric Franklyn Becker made admissions to the Milwaukee media and confirmed by the Archdiocese that he had been cut a $10,000 check to sign his laicization papers. This money was a “signing bonus” with no restrictions applied. Dolan claimed at the time that this was an isolated incident of “charity”. Yet, in July of 2011, further evidence of a payout scheme was revealed when you acknowledged that the archdiocese would be making a “final” payment of $90,000 to nine priests undergoing laicization. A few months later you put the archdiocese into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Contradicting Dolan’s emphatic denials, Archdiocese of Milwaukee confirms pedophile priests paid off under his watch

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

This afternoon the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has confirmed charges brought in a press conference this morning by SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee under the direction of Cardinal Timothy Dolan routinely paid off pedophiles to quietly leave the priesthood and disappear into the community. Dolan emphatically denied such a charge in 2006. But a new document surfacing in the Milwaukee Archdiocese bankruptcy case shows that Dolan had discussed such a scheme with his Finance Council in 2003. Now we know, he implemented it.

According to an email from Julie Wolf, the current Communications Director of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, Dolan and the current Archbishop Jerome Listecki paid off offender priests at least $20,000 each—over and above their pensions, health care and other possible benefits—because it was a “faster and less expensive” way to have them “laicized” by the Vatican. Laicization is an administrative procedure to have a priest defrocked. In other words, if you’re a priest who has committed criminal conduct you get to remain a priest for some indefinite period of time unless you can be bribed to voluntarily sign a piece of paper which is sent to Rome that says you won’t function as a priest anymore. This is as ludicrous as a school board, instead of firing a teacher for criminal acts against children, calling the police, and revoking his license to teach, instead saying that they had to pay the child molester tens of thousands of dollars to hand over their license to the board.

How wrong would it be to use church funds for these kinds of payouts to pedophiles? Ask Cardinal Dolan. When serial child predator Fr. Franklyn Becker admitted in 2006 that he had, indeed, been paid $10,000 dollars for signing his laicization papers and SNAP demanded an answer from the archdiocese, here is what Dolan said: “For anyone to assert that this money was a ‘payoff’ or occurred in exchange for Becker agreeing to leave the priesthood is completely false, preposterous and unjust.” Dolan went on to say the Becker’s payout was for “charitable” reasons and health insurance. Yet, the minutes that have now surfaced from a 2003 Archdiocese of Milwaukee Finance Council meeting, attended by Dolan and his auxiliary bishop Richard Sklba, make very clear that these laicization payouts were independent of salaries, pensions and health insurance. They were a no strings attached financial bonus to help child molesters walk away from the priesthood and disappear into the community.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Herald Online

By MARYCLAIRE DALE — Associated Press

Posted: 4:39pm on May 30, 2012

In opening statements in March, a prosecutor called the alleged cover-up of child sexual assaults by priests a battle between right and wrong within the Philadelphia archdiocese.

But hundreds of church documents aired at trial suggest there was little internal debate among Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and his top men on how to handle the complaints: Ask the priest if he did it. Send him to a church-run hospital. Tell the parish he’s on “health leave.” And unless he’s diagnosed as a pedophile, transfer him to another position.

Bevilacqua made Monsignor William Lynn his point person for the thankless job from 1992 to 2004, when Lynn served as secretary for clergy. Now jurors will have to decide – after closing arguments Thursday – whether the mild-mannered Lynn alone should be held criminally responsible for the sins of the church.

Bevilacqua has died. And none of his other confidantes have been charged.

“No matter how it turns out, it is one of the most significant trials in the United States having to do with this, with sexual abuse,” said psychologist Richard Sipe, a former priest who’s now an expert on priest sexual abuse. “It’s made clear what everybody has known – that the responsibility goes way up. That, of course, is what Lynn is saying: ‘The cardinal is responsible.’ He conveniently died. That was a very convenient death.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on May 30, 2012

It is a frightening fact that modern technology has greatly closed the gap between predators and children, and we urge parents to be vigilant about what kind of people are contacting their children online.

We are grateful to Pittsburgh law enforcement for looking into this matter and are grateful that Rev. Daniel Valentine has been removed from his parish. Bishop Zubik isn’t a police officer or prosecutor. So he has no business minimizing Valentine’s actions or claiming they weren’t criminal. (It’s doubtful law enforcement would be involved if the priest was talking to the child about Hot Wheels or Winnie the Pooh.)

We urge anyone who may have seen, suffered, or suspected Valentine’s misdeeds crimes will come forward and call police.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

On May 27, Barbara Bradley Hagerty did a piece that was posted on the website of National Public Radio (NPR) titled, “Just Doing His Job Is Catholic Official’s Defense.” Here is how she opened her story:

“A clergy sex-abuse trial in is [sic] reaching a crescendo in a Philadelphia courtroom. One defendant is James Brennan, a priest accused of trying to rape a minor, which is not that unusual.” [Emphasis added.]

Bill Donohue comments as follows:

We are asking NPR to respond to our complaint. In this day and age when it is considered taboo to make sweeping generalizations of a negative sort about so many demographic groups, it is astonishing that NPR would allow this bigoted swipe at Catholic priests.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

VATICAN CITY | Wed May 30, 2012

(Reuters) – When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict in 2005, epithets like “God’s Rottweiler” and “Panzerkardinal” suggested he would bring some German efficiency to the opaque Vatican bureaucracy, the Curia.

Instead, as the “Vatileaks” scandal has revealed, the head of the Roman Catholic Church can’t even keep his own private mail secret. His hand-picked deputy, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, faces a “monsignors’ mutiny” by prelates in the halls of power.

Benedict’s papacy has been marked until now by controversies over things he has said and done, such as his criticism of Islam at Regensburg in 2006 or his 2009 decision to readmit four excommunicated ultra-traditionalist bishops to the Church.

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ROME
Chicago Tribune

Silvia Aloisi and Paolo Biondi
Reuters

11:32 a.m. CDT, May 30, 2012

ROME (Reuters) – An Italian journalist behind a leaks scandal shaking the Roman Catholic Church denies Vatican accusations he is a criminal and says he was only doing his duty to uncover the truth.

Gianluigi Nuzzi’s book, alleging corruption and conspiracies among cardinals in a Vatican struggle for power, has led to a hunt for informants in the Holy See and the arrest of Pope Benedict XVI’s butler, one of the people closest to him.

“My job is to find and publish news, it is my ethical duty. These documents reveal the secrets of the Vatican but there is nothing in the documents that threatens the security of that state,” Gianluigi Nuzzi told Reuters on Wednesday.

He spoke as the pope denounced what he called false media coverage of the scandal, which his aides have branded a brutal, personal attack on the ageing pontiff.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
TMJ4

[with video]

[archdiocesan financial council minutes]

MILWAUKEE – The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee confirmed Wednesday that it paid suspected pedophile priests to leave the church.

“In 2002, the Church affirmed that priest offenders should no longer be functioning as priests in any capacity and having someone seek laicization voluntarily is faster and less expensive and it made sense to try and move these men out of the priesthood as quickly as possible,” Archdiocese spokeswoman Julie Wolf said in an email.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said Tuesday that it had proof that former Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan took part in a 2003 finance council meeting where a plan to pay pedophile priests and child molesters $20,000 each to quietly leave was discussed.

Dolan left the Milwaukee Archdiocese in 2009 and is now the Cardinal of New York.

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NEW YORK
Staten Island Advance

By Maura Grunlund

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is accusing New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan of being part of a plan to “pay off” accused child-molester priests to quietly leave the priesthood and cheated victims out of appropriate compensation.

A spokesman for Cardinal Dolan has not returned a request for comment by the Advance.

SNAP members who are making an announcement today in Milwaukee are citing the minutes from a March 2003 Milwaukee Archdiocese Finance council meeting (see PDF document below), when Cardinal Dolan was archbishop of that diocese. The minutes show that there was a discussion about “unassignable priests” receiving full salary.

It was proposed at the meeting to reduce their benefit to $1,250 per month, the same as their pension benefit, and to offer to pay them $20,000 for laicization — leaving the priesthood. The payouts were to be $10,000 at the beginning of the process and $10,000 at completion, independent of the cleric’s salary, pension and benefits. SNAP alleges that the plan was accepted and implemented based on what it claims were payments to accused members of the clergy.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee via SNAP

Present: Archbishop Dolan, Bishop Skiba, Mark Doll, Patricia O’Donoghue, Rev. Phil Reifenberg, Wayne A. Schneider, Sr. Janet Senderak, SSND, Joseph Terrian, Rev. Donald Thimm

Excused: Thomas Bausch, T. Michael Bolger, Joan Braun
Recording Secretary: Kim Stollenwerk

California lawsuit – Siegfried Widera
This lawsuit was filed against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the Diocese of Orange in
California alleging abuse 30+ years ago. So far, only one case has been filed, but we are anticipating three or four more. The costs may be as high as $400,000 per victim. There will be some insurance coverage, however it will take a long time to recover. The insurance companies argue that the Archdiocese was negligent and therefore coverage does not apply. Results of the psychiatric evaluations of the victim have not yet been received.

Archbishop Cousins sent a letter to the Diocese of Orange outlining the problems with Fr.
Widera.

Pastoral Mediation
Our care for victims goes beyond the law. We provide care/therapy even if the statute of limitations has passed and the victims are unable to take legal action. Restorative justice makes reparations for lost jobs, education, etc. due to the depression and other psychological effects of abuse. This is a process done without an attorney for either side.

Currently, Marquette University has a mediation program in place. Also, Barbara Anne Cusack, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, has done research in this area. Several victims have come forward and think pastoral mediation sounds helpful. Pastoral mediation has been in place for many years now, however it has not had a formal edict. The maximum settlement amount is $30,000 per victim. This amount is a goal and is not concrete.

The Finance Council believes this is a step in the right direction. There could be hundred of
legitimate victims asking for $30,000 each. Since this cannot be taken from CSA, how would this be funded? If the costs become too great, they would have to be borrowed. A loan would be internal and probably would come from the Income Care Fund. It would be hoped that some funding would come from the insurance and would help repay the loan.

The worst-case scenario would force the Archdiocese to liquidate property. If Wisconsin takes the same approach as California and offers a one-year reprieve on the statute of limitations, then more drastic action would need to be taken. This could result in program cuts, seminary cuts, etc.

Currently, we are working on setting up a Trust Fund to shelter the Parish Deposit Fund.

Budget
The net deficit of the proposed budgets submitted is $1.7 million. The Cabinet has been and will continue to meet to discuss and revise the budget. Many options have surfaced, such as sharing of staff (some offices are already doing this), reducing the contribution to the priests’ pension plan, capping salary increases, increasing the percentage of health insurance premiums shared by employees, reduce the office cleaning services. Some of the options are drastic and may not be feasible at this time. St. Francis Seminary must be made aware of our predicament and be willing to share In budget cuts. Since parishes have already completed their budgeting processes, we would not be able to increase parish assessments for the coming year. Finance Council approval would be needed to eliminate the 8% cap in increases in assessments or imposing a 10% penalty for failure of a parish to report their financial statements. Another option may be to reduce or eliminate the
subsidized lunch program for employees.

Currently unassignable priests are receiving full salaries and are budgeted under the Vicar for Clergy. There is a proposal to reduce their benefit to be the same as the current pension benefit, $1,250 per month and also offer $20,000 for laicization ($10,000 at the start and $10,000 at the completion of the process). Also, they remain on our health insurance until they find other employment. The final effect of all this is not known at this time and it may be a wash with the current budget.

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VATICAN CITY
AGI (Italy)

(AGI) Vatican City – The spokesperson for the Holy See, Father Federico Lombardi, has reminded journalists that cardinals “respond to the Holy Father”. “I doubt that cardinals will be questioned in the current situation,” Lombardi added. “I don’t think it is up to Inspector Giani [the head of Italy’s Gendarmeria] or the head of the Vatican judiciary [Nicola] Picardi to decide whether or not to interrogate cardinals if there is a charge against them,” Lombardi continued.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The lawyers for Paolo Gabriele have petitioned Vatican magistrates for house arrest for their client, who is accused of illegally possessing stolen documents as part of the so-called “VatiLeaks” scandal.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said May 30 that the magistrates who have been holding Gabriele in the offices of the Vatican police were considering the formal request to allow him to return to his Vatican apartment with his wife and three children.

The papal assistant, a combination butler and valet, was arrested May 23 by Vatican police, who said they found stolen documents in his apartment.

Father Lombardi confirmed that Gabriele’s lawyers had petitioned for house arrest. He said the magistrates were considering the request and “arrangements already are being made” in case they allow it.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
This Cultural Xtian

Fat Timmy Dolan’s Simony-ious rise to power in the American RC hierarchy started in his days of greasing the palms of perverts in Milwaukee and cooking the books to cheat victims of the much loved and tolerated RC clergy practice of pedophilia.

Click here

Victim/survivors of childhood sexual violence by clergy of the Milwaukee archdiocese, including leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org/SNAPwisconsin.com) will release and discuss newly uncovered minutes from a March 2003 Milwaukee Archdiocese Finance council meeting where former Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Milwaukee auxiliary Bishop Richard Sklba discuss using church funds to:

–pay off known priest pedophiles and child molesters $20,000 each to quietly leave the priesthood,

–set up a “restorative justice” program to prevent victims from receiving compensation for injuries comparable to cases being filed against the archdiocese of Milwaukee in California, and

–move millions of dollars from the archdiocese into a newly invented “trust” to prevent compensating victims, the first of several such “trusts” to be set up before the archdiocese declared bankruptcy in 2011.

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UNITED STATES
End the Lie

Richard Cottrell
Contributing writer for End the Lie

As the ship of state veers close to a deadly reef in the teeth of a violent storm, the captain and all his crew are suddenly struck blind. This is an apt simile for the uproar surrounding the extent and gravity of the child abuse scandal eating at the very fabric of the Roman Catholic Church.

The first reaction of Pope Benedict and his advisors in the circumstances is to adopt a strict policy of eyes wide shut.

Editor’s note: Here in the United States allegations of sexual abuse are swept under the rug so hastily that accused priests are actually able to hold supervisor positions with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Believe it if you will, the conference of Italian bishops has just issued new guidelines on what to do if abuse cases involving priests (or for that matter, higher ranks of the church) come to their attention.

Answer: nothing.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on May 30, 2012

Msgr. Lynn suggests he was overwhelmed and inexperienced, but apparently never once asked for additional personnel or training. He implies he got conflicting pressures but apparently never once sought clarity. He now blames others’ “rules” but apparently never once objected to them or tried to change them.

If indeed Msgr. Lynn had these feelings of maybe wanting to do more, shouldn’t there be some evidence that at some point over a decade or more he might have acted on these feelings? Yet there is none.

Here’s what Msgr. Lynn did do: he lied to parishioners (and admitted that under oath, using that word) because his boss supposedly wanted him to. And not once, in almost four decades as a seminarian and priest did he ever call police about known or suspected child sex crimes, no matter how egregious or repeated they were.

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SWEICKLEY (PA)
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

By Bobby Cherry
Gateway Newspapers

Published: Wednesday, May 30, 2012

A Sewickley priest is on leave as the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office investigates a complaint involving Facebook postings to a minor.

The Rev. Daniel Valentine, a St. James priest, began a leave of absence May 19 because of a complaint about Facebook postings, according to a letter from Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese Bishop David Zubik. District Attorney’s office spokesman Mike Manko confirmed his office received a request to investigate.

Valentine could not be reached for comment.

In a letter to parishioners posted on the St. James website, Zubik said he instructed diocesan staff to ask the District Attorney’s office to do a forensic audit of the computers at Saint James Parish and Valentine’s personal computer.

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AUSTRIA
Austrian Independent

One in five Austrians consider Viennese Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn as a reactionary clergyman.

Public opinion research group Karmasin found that 20 per cent of people think that Schönborn, the highest representative of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria and head of the Conference of Bishops, has a conservative attitude.

The poll – for which 500 people were interviewed – also shows that, with 47 per cent, almost half of Austrians categorise Schönborn as neither reactionary nor progressive. Around 17 per cent regard Schönborn as progressive.

Researcher Sophie Karmasin told magazine profil – for which her agency conducted the survey – that she did not expect the Church’s reputation to improve due to Schönborn’s decision concerning the controversy in Stützenhofen. Karmasin added that the archbishop’s decision to issue a warning towards the Preachers’ Initiative was unlikely to have a significant impact either.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

The Vatican bank has been shaken by the dismissal of its President, Italian Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who was removed by its board of external financial experts over accusations of negligence and failing to fulfil basic duties. A day after Gotti Tedeschi’s sacking, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict’s butler had been arrested and accused of leaking secret church documents in what has evolved into the worst internal crisis of Benedict’s papacy.

Here is a look at the 70 year-old Vatican Bank and its scandals:

* The Vatican bank, known formally as the Institute for the Works of Religion, (IOR) was established in 1942 by Pope Pius XII and is used by Vatican agencies, church organisations, bishops and religious orders around the world.
* It is a privately held institution located inside Vatican City run by a professional bank CEO who reports directly to a committee of cardinals, and ultimately to the Pope.
* It offers currency exchange services and interest-bearing accounts and has an investment portfolio.

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SEWICKLEY (PA)
Patch

[the bishop’s letter]

By Larissa Dudkiewicz

The priest at St. James Church has taken a leave of absence during an ongoing investigation from the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office involving Facebook messages to a minor, according to the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese.

Pittsburgh Catholic Bishop David Zubik said in a letter posted on the parish’s website that a complaint was recently made against the Rev. Dan Valentine regarding Facebook postings the St. James priest for six years made to a minor.

“As a result of the complaint, I directed my staff to share all information with the office of the District Attorney of Allegheny County,” Zubik wrote in a letter that was read to church parishioners on Sunday.

Zubik said the DA’s office informed the diocese that while the postings were “a matter of poor judgment,” there was no criminal activity involved.

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SEWICKLEY (PA)
WFMJ

SEWICKLEY, Pa. (AP) – Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik says a parish priest has taken a leave of absence while prosecutors review a complaint that the priest allegedly posted messages to a minor on Facebook.

Zubik says Allegheny County prosecutors have determined the postings amount to “poor judgment” rather than “criminal activity” and that he hopes the Rev. Daniel Valentine will return to duty soon with St. James Catholic Church in Pittsburgh’s upscale suburb of Sewickley.

A spokesman for the district attorney’s office confirmed the diocese had referred the case for investigation, but wouldn’t comment further.

The Beaver County Times (http://bit.ly/JPv7F6 ) reports Wednesday that church officials are performing a forensic audit on computers owned by the church and the priest, who is cooperating with the investigation.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI broke his silence Wednesday over the leaked documents scandal that has convulsed the Vatican, saying he was saddened by the betrayal but grateful to those aides who work faithfully and in silence to help him do his job.

Benedict made his first direct comments on the scandal in off-the-cuff remarks at the end of his weekly general audience. He lashed out at some of the media reports about the scandal, saying the “exaggerated” and “gratuitous” rumors had offered a false image of the Holy See.

The Italian media have been in a frenzy ever since the pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested last week after Vatican investigators discovered papal documents in his Vatican City apartment. He remains in detention and has pledged to cooperate fully with the investigation.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

Reuters

5:33 a.m. CDT, May 30, 2012

VATICAN CITY, May 30 (Reuters) – Pope Benedict on Wednesday angrily denounced media coverage of a leaks scandal shaking the Roman Catholic Church, saying it presented a false image of the Holy See.

In remarks at the end of his weekly audience for pilgrims in St Peter’s square, the pontiff also expressed his full trust in close Vatican aides under fire over the scandal.

“Suggestions have multiplied, amplified by some media which are totally gratuitous and which have gone well beyond the facts, offering an image of the Holy See which does not respond to reality,” Benedict said of a scandal that has seen his butler arrested for leaking private document.

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VATICAN CITY
The Daily Beast

The Vatican says the leaked memos weren’t just an act against the Pope—but an act against God. Barbie Latza Nadeau on how Paolo Gabriele, once the pontiff’s confidante, has been silenced.

The Vatican is in full damage control mode one week after the pope’s butler Paolo Gabriele was arrested for stealing the pope’s personal papers and leaking them to an Italian journalist. Tales of finger-pointing cardinals lobbing wild accusations against each other have made the hallowed Holy See look more like a nest of vipers. If you read the Italian press, one can’t help but visualize angry prelates in billowing cassocks shaking their fists as they accuse each other of being the “mastermind” behind the butler’s thievery. One Italian paper even suggested that an unnamed laywoman had secretly ordered the butler to do it. But the Vatican, of course, denies it all.

Father Federeico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, has insisted that “no woman” and “no cardinals” are under investigation. The butler is accused alone, he says, and he alone will face the Vatican’s secretive tribunal. Each missive from the Holy See is scripted, right down to today’s editorial in the Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. In a less-than-spontaneous interview with Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the Vatican undersecretary of State, the newspaper addressed the scandal for the first time with an article called, simply, “The Papers Stolen from the Pope.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The director of the Vatican Press Office returns to the Vatileaks case. The Pope’s butler is to be formally questioned by Vatican magistrates for the first time this coming weekend

Alessandro Speciale
Vatican City

We will have to wait until the end of the week or possibly even next week before Paolo Gabriele’s promise to co-operate fully with Vatican magistrates investigating the Vatileaks case becomes a reality. The former papal butler’s first formal questioning by the Promoter of Justice, Nicola Picardi, in the presence of lawyers and the investigating magistrate Piero Antonio Bonnet, is yet to take place.

The director of the Vatican Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, had no significant updates to report on following the usual briefing with journalists on the investigation’s developments. The Commission of Cardinals that was established by the Pope last March – the Jesuit explained – is continuing its work ahead of the “report” that will be presented to Benedict XVI. It will not, however, allow the fierce media interest shown in the case in recent days, to rush the investigation.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTMJ

MILWAUKEE – On Wednesday, a group that supports victims of abuse by priests was to make new accusations against a former Milwaukee archbishop and current New York cardinal.

They were to talk about documents which they claim show that now-Cardinal Timothy Dolan was involved in plans to pay child molesters to quietly leave the priesthood.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) says they have proof that shows Dolan took part in a 2003 finance council meeting where a plan to pay pedophile priests and child molesters $20,000 each to quietly leave was discussed.

Auxiliary Bishop Richard Sklba allegedly was also involved in that meeting.

SNAP claims that meeting minutes show Dolan began a series of financial maneuvers to place more than $100 million into newly-invented trusts.

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UNITED STATES
Arizona Jewish Post

May 29, 2012
By Yoel Finkelman, Jewish Ideas Daily

(Jewish Ideas Daily) — First, the bad news: Sexual, physical, and emotional abuse occurs in Orthodox Jewish communities.

Next, the worse news: Though there is no evidence that such abuse occurs more frequently among the Orthodox than in other populations, two recent front-page New York Times stories are just the latest piece of evidence that Orthodox communities are often in denial and worse.

Rabbis and communal leaders often seek to save the community from embarrassment and, in doing so, protect the perpetrators. If children complain of being abused, their parents may silence them, or, if their parents complain too, their neighbors harass them to prevent their going to the police, claiming a religious prohibition on giving Jews up to secular authorities. Indeed, the official policy of the Haredi organization Agudath Israel of America is that school teachers or administrators who suspect abuse must ask a rabbi before going to secular authorities, New York State laws notwithstanding.

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NEW YORK
Forward

By Paul Berger

Published May 29, 2012.

Brooklyn’s embattled district attorney Charles Hynes sharply criticized an ultra-Orthodox umbrella group and launched a fierce defense of his record in prosecuting child sex abuse during a landmark interview with the Forward.

Sitting in the 14th floor corner office of his downtown Brooklyn headquarters, Hynes said he was in “sharp disagreement” with Agudath Israel of America’s policy that a rabbi “who has experience in the area of abuse and molestation” must be consulted before suspected abusers can be reported to the authorities.

Hynes said the policy is misguided because rabbis “have no experience or expertise in sex abuse.” He said that he had underlined his opposition to rabbis screening allegations during a telephone call with Rabbi David Zwiebel, Agudah’s executive vice president, earlier on the morning of the May 24 interview.

“(Zwiebel) still thinks they have a responsibility to screen,” Hynes said, “I disagree.”

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NEW YORK
Forward

By Paul Berger

Published May 29, 2012.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes says he is pushing for passage of a new state law to force rabbis to report child sex allegations to authorities.

But lawmakers say Hynes has joined the legislative fray late in the state capital of Albany, and time is running out for any measure to pass this year.

“If [Hynes] wants to get something done before the session closes . . . [he’s] wasting precious moments,” said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Westchester). “Going through bureaucracy can take time.”

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week

After months of equivocal statements about Agudath Israel’s longstanding position that — with very limited exception — child sexual abuse allegations must first be investigated by rabbis, the Brooklyn district attorney has issued a clear warning to the haredi umbrella organization that its policy puts rabbis at risk of running afoul of the law.

According to a spokesman for Charles Hynes, “DA Hynes told Dovid Zwiebel [Agudah’s executive vice president] that it was a mistake to advise someone with information about child abuse to first speak with a rabbi,” the spokesman, Jerry Schmetterer, told The Jewish Week. In doing so, Schmetterer continued, “Zwiebel … risks having the rabbi prosecuted for obstructing a law enforcement investigation.”

When asked by The Jewish Week to clarify what someone should do if he or she had information about allegations of abuse — rather than direct information about abuse — Schmetterer said the individual should “report [the allegations] to authorities for investigation.”

James A. Cohen, associate professor of law and the director of the Trial Advocacy Program & External Affairs at Fordham University School of Law, concurs with the district attorney’s position. “Encouraging delay in reporting a crime, particularly a crime against a child, is obstructing justice,” Cohen, an expert in witness tampering told The Jewish Week.

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NEW YORK
JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – Pressure is growing on the Brooklyn district attorney and the country’s major haredi Orthodox umbrella organization to change the ways they handle allegations of sexual abuse and molestation in the Orthodox community.

A series of recent reports by The New York Jewish Week, the Forward and The New York Times have brought new scrutiny to the special program that Brooklyn D.A. Charles Hynes established in 2009 to handle sex abuse allegations among haredi Jews in New York.

Under the program, Kol Tzedek, perpetrators’ names were kept confidential and Hynes apparently gave Agudath Israel of America, the Orthodox umbrella group, the impression that he sanctioned the practice of rabbis reviewing allegations before they were brought to police.

A firestorm of controversy has surrounded the program in recent weeks, in part due to a pair of front-page stories in The New York Times detailing the communal pressure that alleged victims of sex crimes face in the haredi community.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 30 May 2012 (VIS) – The “Osservatore Romano” newspaper today published an interview with Archbishop Angelo Becciu, substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State, concerning the question of stolen papal documents.

Archbishop Becciu says that he has seen the Holy Father “suffering because, on the basis of what has thus far emerged, someone very close to him would seem to have acted in a completely unjustifiable manner. Of course, the Pope’s prevailing sentiment is one of pity for the person involved, but the fact remains that he has been the victim of a brutal action. Benedict XVI has had to witness the publication of letters stolen from his own home, not simply private correspondence but information, reflections, expressions of states of mind, and effusive comments which he has received merely by virtue of his ministry. For this reason the Pope is particularly sorrowful, also for the violence suffered by the writers of the letters he has received”.

In the view of the Secretariat of State, the publication of these documents “is an immoral act of unprecedented gravity, especially because it is not just a serious violation of the privacy to which everybody should have the right, but a despicable abuse of the relationship of trust that exists between Benedict XVI and those who turn to him, even if they do so to express some heartfelt protest. The question does not merely involve the theft of some of the Pope’s letters; the consciences of those who address him as the Vicar of Christ have been violated, and the ministry of the Successor of the Apostle Peter has come under attack”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 30 May 2012 (VIS) – At the end of today’s general audience, the Holy Father made some remarks concerning recent developments in the Vatican.

“The events of recent days involving the Curia and my collaborators have brought sadness to my heart. However, I have never lost my firm certainty that, despite the weakness of man, despite difficulties and trials, the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit and the Lord will ensure she never lacks the help she needs to support her on her journey.

“Nonetheless there has been increasing conjecture, amplified by the communications media, which is entirely gratuitous, goes beyond the facts and presents a completely unrealistic image of the Holy See. Thus, I wish to reiterate my trust and encouragement to my closest collaborators and to all those people who every day, in silent faithlessness and with a spirit of sacrifice, help me carry out my ministry”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

BY KATHY KANE

I have been to the trial several times but today was a very difficult day. The courtroom was packed with Lynn supporters on the defense side and victims, family members and supporters on the prosecution side. Although, it was so crowded some late-comers had to mix in where there was an available seat. I looked around at the people who I never knew until this past year: Vicky and Steve, whose bodies were sexually violated as children; Art, whose beloved son is now gone forever; Sr. Maureen, always fighting for children and victims; Joy, who founded a support group for parents of victims; Sharon, Vicky’s rock through the hard times; Irene and her husband, who attend vigils and support Justice4PaKids; Bill and other senior citizens, who do not let age or infirmity keep them from the vigils outside the Archdiocese in the rain, cold or heat; “Had it” Kate, who returned for a second trip from New York for the trial.

Many people have made their way to room 304 over the past 8 weeks. Margaret from Catholic Accountability, who I was with the day they entered the evidence of my former parish priest Fr. Cannon; Jackie and Susan, who I sat in between as we cried the day James and Billy took the stand to speak their truth; Beth, who always extends warmth and comfort to our victims; Rich, who bravely sat and listened to the testimony of James and Billy, their stories so similar to his own; and the family members of the victims who testify. So much painful history has occupied those rows – so much pain.

You wouldn’t know that pain unless you chose to read the Grand Jury reports, met with victims and their family members, and attended on the days the victims testified (rather than only attending when Lynn testified).

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UNITED STATES
KPCC

[with audio]

By Kitty Felde | May 29, 2012

The group that represents most of America’s Roman Catholic nuns meets today in Maryland to discuss what to do next after a Vatican report accused the nuns of promoting “radical feminist themes.” The battle is similar to one half-a-century ago between a group of nuns and a Los Angeles cardinal.

They’re here every Tuesday – singing, praying and waving signs outside the D.C. headquarters of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The two dozen women and men say they came to support the nuns. Jack McCarthy says they have been “at the forefront of the church’s efforts in poverty and justice. I can’t say that for the entire body of bishops.”

They’re reacting to a Vatican report that says nuns don’t spend enough time defending the church’s stand against contraception and same-sex marriage. It accuses the Leadership Conference of Women Religious — which represents most American nuns — of promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” The clash reminds protester Mary Frances Moriarty of a long-ago fight between L.A.’s Cardinal McIntyre and the Immaculate Heart nuns. “He leaned on them, didn’t he? And they said ‘no’.”

That fight had its roots in the Second Vatican Council, the effort to bring the Catholic Church into the modern world. Sister Karen Kennelly is a church historian and past president of L.A.’s Mount St. Mary’s College. She says Vatican Two told religious congregations to renew themselves. “They were given a kind of a general guideline,” she says, “which was to look back to their original spirit and to their original purposes and to take a good hard look at the signs of the times.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Minutes from 2003 confirm: Dolan discussed paying $20,000 each to child molesters to quietly leave the priesthood

Minutes from 2003 meeting confirm: Dolan discussed paying $20,000 each to child molesters to quietly leave the priesthood

Policy appears to have been implemented, as revealed in church disbursements to pedophile clerics

Meeting also shows beginning of Dolan’s “shell game” by moving tens of millions of dollars into newly invented “trusts”

Victims want current Archbishop Listecki to reveal all payouts and costs of sex offenders, release the Milwaukee “Dolan Papers”, including all Finance Council minutes

WHO
Victim/survivors of childhood sexual violence by clergy of the Milwaukee archdiocese, including leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org/SNAPwisconsin.com) will release and discuss newly uncovered minutes from a March 2003 Milwaukee Archdiocese Finance council meeting where former Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Milwaukee auxiliary Bishop Richard Sklba discuss using church funds to:

–pay off known priest pedophiles and child molesters $20,000 each to quietly leave the priesthood,

–set up a “restorative justice” program to prevent victims from receiving compensation for injuries comparable to cases being filed against the archdiocese of Milwaukee in California, and

–move millions of dollars from the archdiocese into a newly invented “trust” to prevent compensating victims, the first of several such “trusts” to be set up before the archdiocese declared bankruptcy in 2011.

Victims will also be emailing a letter Wednesday to current Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki demanding:

–full financial disclosure of all payouts and “laicization” bonuses to sex offender clerics,

–which charitable funds were used to pay-off clergy sex offenders, and

–the release of the “Dolan Papers”, including all minutes of the monthly Archdiocese Finance Council chaired by Dolan and auxiliary Bishop Richard Sklba

WHEN
Wednesday, May 30, 11:30 a.m.

WHERE
On the front steps of the Federal Courthouse, 517 E. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Washington Post

On final day of testimony, Philadelphia monsignor apologizes for priest’s sex assault

By Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — A Roman Catholic church official apologized to a priest sex-abuse victim on the final day of testimony in his groundbreaking child-endangerment trial.

Jurors are set to hear closing arguments Thursday after the defense rested Tuesday afternoon for Monsignor William Lynn and a co-defendant.

Lynn, 61, who served as the Philadelphia archdiocese secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, is the first U.S. church official charged over his handling of priest-abuse complaints. He and the Rev. James Brennan have been on trial for 10 weeks.

Brennan has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting a teen in 1996. Defrocked priest Edward Avery pleaded guilty to a 1999 sexual assault days before trial and is in prison.

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UNITED STATES
Steve Julian

No one fully knows the extent of damage.

In our lifetime, certain people within the Catholic community – priests, members of religious orders, women religious, the lay community – have molested or otherwise abused innumerable boys and girls.

The loss can be measured in dollars, sure, but no one can define the value of each damaged soul. Victims speak of shutting themselves down to the outside world, acting inappropriately themselves, or feeling a civic, cultural or religious disenfranchisement.

Some commit suicide.

The Church’s response has varied from one diocese to the next. A tug of war exists between some bishops and the Vatican, while other church leaders protect abusers through the decimation of records or failure to disclose a priest’s past when shuttling him off to an unsuspecting diocese.

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UNITED STATES
LaCrosse Tribune

Jerome Christenson Winona Daily News | Posted: Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The butler did it.

Bet you never thought you’d see that line in a legitimate news story, did you?

For that matter, I’d almost wager you didn’t know there were still people in this world who still hire butlers.

Well, it seems the pope does have a butler, and from what I read in the papers, it appears his Holiness’ head manservant is in hot water over the heist of some top-secret Vatican documents, the contents of which were leaked to the ink-stained wretches of the Italian Fourth Estate—much to the red-faced chagrin of a number of red-hatted churchmen.

I suspect they’re a bit embarrassed that the purloined papers didn’t reveal a set of sub rosa instructions from the Most High, but the sort of small-‘m’ mysteries more common to supermarket tabloids and Fox News — a variety of very much earth-bound intrigues and shenanigans among those close to the throne of the Vicar of Christ and in the top floor offices of the Vatican bank. It’s the sort of thing that carries a bit of the rancid perfume of the Borgias and of things more suited to the sensibilities of 1512 than 2012.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

By Emma Reynolds

Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs has shared an apparent change of heart in his latest ‘revelation’ from prison, writing that women should not be abused.

The Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints Church leader is serving a 130-year sentence at Powledge Unit near Palestine, Texas, for systematic child sex assault and marrying underage girls.

The 56-year-old’s ‘revelation’, one of a series of religious messages he has addressed to the Utah State Attorney General, is dated 13 May, just days before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected his appeal.

Jeffs wrote, ‘Let women be free, to be educated, to have full protection from abuse, ye nations’, Fox News reported.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Humanistischer Pressedienst

(hpd) In der Debatte über Kinder, die in kirchlichen Erziehungsanstalten aufwuchsen, steht der sexuelle Missbrauch im Vordergrund. Ein soeben erschienener Sammelband zeigt, dass bereits der Alltag in solchen Einrichtungen tiefe Spuren bei den Kindern hinterließ. Rolf Cantzen hat darin ganz unterschiedliche Geschichten von Schülern, die in katholischen Internaten waren, zusammengestellt.

Die Geschichten gewähren Einblick in eine Welt, in der Gewalt, Willkür und Demütigung vorherrschten. Sie verstören und helfen gleichzeitig zu verstehen, warum die katholische Kirche bis heute nicht in der Lage ist, sich zu ihrer Verantwortung für die physische und psychische Misshandlung der Schüler zu bekennen. hpd sprach mit Herausgeber Rolf Cantzen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Querdenker

Der Katholizismus und Islamismus und der Missbrauch mit 12jährigen Kindern

Was in Deutschland verboten ist und unter Strafe gestellt, wird dem prominenten Radio-Moderator Marcus Japke vorgeworfen. Er soll ein 12jähriges Mädchen sexuell missbraucht haben. Hätte der Moderator das Kind im Vatikan oder in Saudi-Arabien sexuell missbraucht, würde er vermutlich straffrei bleiben. Es verwundert, warum der Vatikan, gerade wenn die Kirche weltweit schon seit langem von Missbrauchsfällen gegen Kinder geplagt ist, nicht das Schutzalter erhöht hat, wie das Italien auch schon längst gemacht hat. Das wäre zumindest eine symbolische Geste gewesen. Es nicht zu machen, kann auch als eine symbolische Geste verstanden werden. Vermutlich ist das Schutzalter aus Unaufmerksamkeit beibehalten worden, allerdings meint etwa der Wiener Rechtsprofessor Manfred Nowak, der Internationalen Menschenrechtsschutz lehrt und für die Vereinten Nationen als Sonderberichterstatter tätig ist, dass der Vatikan das Schutzalter absichtlich so niedrig gehalten habe. Offenbar sieht er den Katholizismus als dafür verantwortlich. Malta, Spanien und der Vatikan seien, so stellte die Welt seine Aussage dar, seien stärker als andere Länder katholisch geprägt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Rheinpfalz

Berlin (dapd). Tausende Anrufe gingen ein, doch es werden immer weniger: Deutschlands zentrale Anlaufstelle für Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs hat innerhalb von zwei Jahren rund 27.500 Hilferufe bekommen. Doch der Ansturm habe wegen mangelnder Werbung in den vergangenen Monaten stark abgenommen, sagte eine Sprecherin des Unabhängigen Beauftragten für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig. Täglich klingelt etwa zehn Mal das Telefon. Während der Kampagne zum Start des Angebots seien bis zu 200 Anrufe pro Tag eingegangen.

Von den 27.500 Kontaktversuchen seit Eröffnung der Anlaufstelle im Mai 2010 waren alleine 24.000 Anrufe. 3.500 Briefe sendeten Missbrauchsopfer, Angehörige oder Erzieher und Lehrer an Rörig. Therapeuten und Sozialpädagogen nehmen sie entgegen.

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BAKERSFIELD (CA)
KGET

[with video]

A Bakersfield woman who claims she was molested by her youth minister more than 20 years ago has come forward, urging others who may have been molested to do the same.

Jessica Bohman, 29, is suing both her alleged assailant as well as the church she attended, Dayspring Christian Fellowship in central Bakersfield. She says the church didn’t do anything after it was made aware of the alleged molestation.

The International Four Square organization, a Pentecostal Christian group affiliated with Dayspring Church, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Bohman was only 4 years old when she claims family friend and youth minister Damon Young began sexually abusing her.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

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

The defense in the clergy sex-abuse trial rested Tuesday after Msgr. William J. Lynn ended three days’ contentious testimony the way he began – asserting he had done his best to protect children but had lacked the power to do more.

“I did much more than had been done before I got there,” Lynn said, later adding: “I have many victims that told me I helped them.”

After the former Archdiocese of Philadelphia clergy secretary left the witness stand, the landmark trial moved briskly toward a conclusion.

Lawyers for Lynn and his codefendant, the Rev. James J. Brennan, called their final witnesses – friends, relatives, parishioners, priests, and nuns who praised the defendants as law-abiding citizens.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

As the defense rested its case Tuesday in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse trial, the momentum in the courtroom appeared to be shifting. The question is whether it had moved enough to matter.

A month ago, the prosecution appeared so far out in the lead, they were paring down witness lists, and playing it safe, as they strove to protect a big fourth-quarter lead. Sure there were problems with the Father James J. Brennan side of the case, but the evidence against Msgr. William J. Lynn seemed stacked so high the only question was when the monsignor went down, would that giant sucking sound take Father Brennan along with him.

But then Judge M. Teresa Sarmina, who had been pro-prosecution all the way, suddenly whacked two conspiracy charges off the prosecution’s case. Next the defense stole the prosecution’s alleged smoking gun — that list of 35 abuser priests drawn up by Lynn and ordered shredded by Cardinal Bevilacqua — and used that same evidence to show that Lynn may have been just a patsy.

Yesterday, the last shoe to drop was Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington’s anti-climactic finish to his three-day cross-examination of Msgr. Lynn, a performance that was toned-down from the previous fireworks. By the time Blessington limped to the finish, it sure seemed like the prosecutor had run out of steam. That’s the risk you take when you stretch a cross over three days, but maybe the prosecution is still so far ahead, it won’t matter.

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CALIFORNIA
Bakersfield.com

An alleged case of sexual abuse more than 20 years old has been resurrected by the filing of a lawsuit in Kern County Superior Court.

Plaintiff Jessica Prater Bohman went public Tuesday as she stood outside the courthouse with her attorney and relatives to announce the lawsuit and discuss what she said happened to her when she was 4 years old.

The lawsuit says Bohman, now 29, was molested by a youth minister at Bakersfield Dayspring Foursquare Church from 1987 to 1990. The lawsuit identifies Damon Young, who was 15 when the abuse first began, as the minister who assaulted her.

Investigative reports filed by Bakersfield police and provided by Bohman’s attorney say Young admitted in 2010 to molesting Bohman and two other girls. According to Bohman, the case went to juvenile court but Young could not be held criminally liable because the statute of limitations had expired.

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WASHINGTON
Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane

May 27, 2012

Pentecost, 2012

Dear Parishioners:

In October, 2010, I informed you that the Diocese of Spokane had entered a period of mediation to address demands resulting from claims of sexual abuse by clergy in past years, but which were made after the 2007 bankruptcy settlement’s Plan of Reorganization. That Plan, in addition to establishing a multi-million fund to compensate victim survivors, also provided for the possibility of claims to be made after the bar date of March 2007, for a period of nine years, or until 2016. At that time, one million dollars were set aside to cover these “future claims.” Twenty-two parishes in Spokane County stepped forward on behalf of all the parishes in the Diocese to offer their parish properties as collateral to assure that awards exceeding this one million dollar amount would be paid. Parishioners were advised that the risk of foreclosure was small, given that the number of future claims in all likelihood would not be significant.

As I noted in my letter to you shortly after I arrived in the fall of 2010, the Trustee, appointed to oversee the bankruptcy plan, informed me that the one million dollar fund would soon be exhausted with the payment of several future claims awards and that we would need to recapitalize the future claims fund immediately or face foreclosure on parish and school properties to satisfy this obligation. The Diocese did not have the funds available, which meant foreclosure action was imminent. The situation was deteriorating even more so at this time, since the high costs of legal efforts beginning in 2009 to challenge some of the future claims awards were draining what little resources we needed to operate and, as reported by the media, these challenges had reached a stalemate. We also were informed that more future claims would in all likelihood be accepted, thus placing the very survivability of the Catholic Church in Eastern Washington as we know it into serious question.

Taking all of this into consideration, I sought the assistance of a new team of competent individuals to take a fresh look at things and to put together a strategy to mediate this impasse and bring some order to the series of events that were cascading out of control. With their advice, I engaged the services of Federal Judge Michael Hogan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon to serve as mediator. Once we secured the agreement of all parties, the bankruptcy court approved the mediation arrangement, which included the suspension of all appeals and court actions.

We identified four goals which we needed to achieve, if the mediation were to be successful.

1. Remove the immediate threat of foreclosure on parishes. I was convinced that the seizure of parish properties was not only a matter of losing facilities and material assets, but it also involved the displacement of faith communities and the diminishment of our Catholic school system. Thus, everything should be done to avoid that scenario;
2. Reduce our legal fees, which were averaging nearly a quarter of a million dollars annually in the three years following the bankruptcy settlement;

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WASHINGTON
The Spokesman-Review

John Stucke
The Spokesman-Review

Catholic parishes are contributing $1.5 million toward a broad legal settlement expected to help the church resolve clergy sex abuse claims and avoid the foreclosure of churches and schools.

It’s the second settlement in five years that has been billed as ending the bankruptcy of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, which has struggled with more than a decade of scandal.

A three-page letter written by Bishop Blase Cupich and distributed to parishioners on Sunday sought to assure churchgoers that the threat of foreclosure had passed. The $1.5 million was far less than initially feared to clear up lingering bankruptcy issues – most notably more than two dozen unresolved claims filed by former Morning Star Boys’ Ranch residents who said they were abused.

Cupich said now that the cases have been settled, he will review the accusations of abuse against Morning Star’s longtime director, the Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner, and at the same time refer the matters to a diocesan board that vets such allegations to determine whether they are credible.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The defense has rested in the clergy sexual abuse case, and closing arguments are expected tomorrow. The defense rested yesterday after presenting a flurry of character witnesses on behalf of monsignor William Lynn and father James Brennan.

Monsignor William Lynn, charged with endangering children by allowing dangerous priests to remain in ministry, and Father James Brennan, who is charged with sexually assaulting a teen, both have pleaded not guilty.

And yesterday a series of witnesses, family and friends, priests and nuns, parishioners and former students, told the jury Monsignor Lynn and Brennan have excellent reputations. Earlier in the day, Lynn completed his testimony, conceding diagnosed pedophile priests and other priests he had found guilty of sexual abuse of minors remained in ministry. One, Edward Avery, later sexually assaulted another teen.

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AUSTRALIA
Northern District Times

30 May 12 @ 08:15am by Staff Writer

FINIAN James Egan, 77, arrived at Ryde Court last Wednesday in a black BMW with a disability parking permit and was assisted by two young women, AAP reported.

He was charged on May 1 with 17 sexual offences that allegedly occurred between 1972 and 1987 while Egan was serving as a priest in parishes in Sydney and on the NSW Central Coast.

The charges relate to one boy and three girls.

The court was told that Egan is suffering from an unspecified medical condition that will prevent him satisfying one of his bail conditions to report weekly to Ryde police station.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Mercury

By Frank Otto
fotto@pottsmerc.com
Posted: 05/29/12 06:21 pm

PHOENIXVILLE — After a local priest e-mailed parishioners saying he was informed that Sacred Heart and Holy Trinity parishes would close, a Philadelphia archdiocese spokesman said there is no official word on the parishes’ statuses.

In an e-mail sent to some parishioners around noon Tuesday, the Rev. Michael Rzonca said Sacred Heart would merge with the St. Ann parish and Holy Trinity would merge with St. Mary of the Assumption.

“I received a call from (the Rev. Monsignor) Arthur Rodgers informing me that I will be leaving the pastorate of Sacred Heart and Holy Trinity parishes, effective June 30, 2012,” Rzonca, the pastor of both Sacred Heart and Holy Trinity, wrote. “Holy Trinity will be merged with St. Mary’s and Sacred Heart will be merged with St. Ann’s.”

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SEWICKLEY (PA)
St. James Parish

[with copy of the letter from Bishop Zubik]

A note from the Regional Vicar:

Dear parishioners of Saint James,

It is easy to understand the great emotion you are experiencing at this time. Having known Father Valentine for more than thirty years, I consider him to be one of our finest priests who has many gifts, including being a good leader.

During this interim time I promise my prayers for Father and for the parish. As the temporary administrator my role is to see that parish sacramental life continues uninterrupted. For those who have scheduled weddings, please know these will be celebrated, albeit with a substitute priest. The same is true for baptisms and for any funerals that may take place.

Please be patient and understanding. Given the decreasing numbers of priests available we may have to rely on those who are retired for assistance. Because of my other responsibilities, it is not possible for me to spend many hours at the parish, but I do plan to be present throughout the coming week(s) as necessary.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Times Online

By Jenny Wagner jwagner@timesonline.com

SEWICKLEY — A Sewickley priest has taken a leave of absence from his ministry while the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office investigates an allegation made against him, Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese officials said Tuesday.

The Rev. Daniel A. Valentine, pastor of St. James Catholic Church on Walnut Street, began his leave May 19 after officials received a complaint involving Facebook posts Valentine allegedly made to a minor, according to the Rev. Ron Lengwin, diocese spokesman.

Lengwin said as per church policies, the complaint was turned over to the district attorney’s office.

Bishop David Zubik said in a letter to parishioners posted on the church’s website that he has instructed diocese staff to perform a forensic audit on the church’s computers and Valentine’s personal computer.

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VATICAN CITY
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By NICOLE WINFIELD
The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican on Tuesday sought to put the widening scandal over leaked documents into a very different light, saying the stolen papers didn’t just concern matters of internal church governance but represented the thoughts of people who in writing to the pope believed they were essentially speaking before God.

As a result, Pope Benedict XVI feels particularly pained over the leaks and wants to get to the bottom of the scandal to heal the breach and re-establish a sense of trust among the faithful, according to the Vatican’s undersecretary of state, Archbishop Angelo Becciu.

“I consider the publication of stolen letters to be an unprecedentedly grave immoral act,” Becciu told the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. “It’s not just that the pope’s papers were stolen, but that people who turned to him as the vicar of Christ have had their consciences violated.”

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Silvia Aloisi

May 29, 2012

Catholic clerics and pilgrims visiting St Peter’s basilica on Tuesday expressed shock over a scandal that has shaken the Vatican and led to the arrest of the pope’s butler, fearing it would hurt both the pontiff and the Church.

“It’s awful and very sad that something like that can happen right at the heart of the Vatican,” said David Kaberia, a priest from Meru in Kenya, standing under the sun in a queue snaking through half of St Peter’s Square to tour one of the holiest sites of Roman Catholicism.

“This is an inside job by greedy people and I think it will inevitably affect the Church worldwide because this is the centre of the Church’s power,” he told Reuters.

The scandal exploded last week when, within a few days, the head of the Vatican’s own bank was sacked, the pope’s butler was arrested over leaks of sensitive documents and a book was published alleging conspiracies among cardinals and corruption in the Church’s financial dealings with Italian business.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Pilot

By Matthew Gambino

PHILADELPHIA (CNS) — Msgr. William J. Lynn took the witness stand in his own defense May 23 and told jurors that “in my heart” he put the interests of children first as he handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The former secretary for clergy of the Philadelphia Archdiocese faces two counts of endangering the welfare of children by recommending for assignment some priests accused of sexual misconduct with children.

“I did my best to ensure no child got hurt,” he said in testimony at the trial.

The charges are in connection to alleged sexual misconduct by a current priest, Father James J. Brennan, and sexual assault by a former priest, Edward V. Avery.

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PORTLAND (ME)/BUFFALO (NY)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on May 29, 2012

Today, the Pope promoted Maine Bishop Richard Malone to head the Buffalo Diocese. As is so often the case, the church hierarchy is trading one callous official for another.

It’s important to remember that Malone worked under the disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston.

In 2010, it was disclosed that Malone was keeping secret the identity of seven recently accused Maine predator priests. We believe his secrecy violates his promises and the US bishops abuse policy. Even worse, he’s violating basic common sense and needlessly jeopardizing the safety of vulnerable children in Maine.

In 2008, Malone put a Bangor priest (Fr. Paul Coughlin) back into ministry even though that priest let a convicted sex offender live with him in a parish. (Later, Malone reversed himself in response to a public outcry.)On the other hand, in 2007, Malone belatedly and begrudgingly made public a partial list of credibly accused predator priests in Maine. However, he kept that list up only a few years. And in 2009, he removed public tributes on church property to one credibly accused predator priest (Fr. Joseph McGowan).

Bishop Kmiec has repeatedly covered up abuse. Less than three months ago, it was revealed that a priest (Fr. David W. Bialkowski) who Kmiec claimed had been put on medical leave was actually suspended due to credible reports of abuse. Prior to that case, Kmiec had given sanctuary to a priest that had been abusing boys in Pennsylvania. Kmiec has also repeatedly refused requests to make available on his website a list of all credibly accused priests within his diocese.

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FARGO (ND)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on May 29, 2012

Today, the Vatican has announced that the bishop of the Diocese of Fargo, ND will be promoted to fill the role of archbishop in the Diocese of Denver which has been vacant since Archbishop Charles Chaput moved to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

For now-Archbishop Samuel Aquila, this is a homecoming in many ways. We hope that, as he returns to Denver and takes over the archdiocese, he works diligently and tirelessly to help end the clergy sex abuse and cover-up crisis. However, in the past Aquila has failed to act responsibly to protect kids.

In 2009, it was revealed that three monsignors, after receiving a credible accusation of abuse, refused to share the information with anyone outside the diocesan hierarchy. The diocese first heard the accusation against Fr. Gregory Patejko in 1994, and paid a settlement to the Patejko’s victim that same year. Yet it wasn’t until 15 years later that the allegation was made public, and even then only because the victim grew tired of the diocese’s silence and went to the media himself.

Aquila’s silence in this matter only served to help the Diocese of Fargo avoid public embarrassment, and actually worked against victims by allowing others who may have been abused by Patejko to continue suffering in silence. We don’t know how many other allegations may have been kept under wraps in the same way, but we suspect that this was not the only case.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on May 29, 2012

On Friday, in his diocesan newspaper Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn quietly disclosed his promotion of Fr. Patrick Rush, a priest who is closely connected with a number of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. For years, he was the second-in-command of the diocese. He has been named as a defendant, because of that role, in a number of child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits.

If Finn keeps picking and promoting long-time church insiders and those with close ties church insiders, the chances for change are greatly reduced.

As vicar general, in 2002, Rush publicly defended the decision to keep Fr. Thomas Ward in parish ministry, despite the fact that the diocese paid a settlement to his accuser.

Rush admitted that parishioners had not been officially informed by the diocese of the allegations against Ward.

That same year, Rush refused to identify four priests who had been accused of molesting kids.

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DENVER (CO)
Grand Forks Herald

DENVER – In a homecoming of sorts, Fargo Bishop Samuel J. Aquila has been named the new archbishop of the Denver archdiocese.

Aquila, 61, was ordained in Denver in 1976, and worked in several Colorado parishes there until coming to Fargo 11 years ago. He’s been the bishop of the Diocese of Fargo since 2002.

He’ll remain in Fargo until shortly before he is installed in Denver on July 18.

At a news conference in Denver Tuesday, Aquila said he learned of the appointment last week.

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