ABUSE TRACKER

WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director
CONTACT: 414.336.8575

The latest edition of the Milwaukee archdiocesan newspaper the Catholic Herald repeats Cardinal Dolan’s lie about payoffs made to pedophile priests. The continued ongoing deception by church officials is sad, inexcusable, and insulting to victim/survivors, their families and Catholics of the archdiocese.

Victim/survivors call on Archbishop Listecki to instruct his chief of staff, Jerry Topczewski, to stop mischaracterizing as “charity” what Deacon David Zimprich called a “settlement” and what was clearly a payoff and to stop keeping silent and publically declare how he feels about long secret payments to Milwaukee predator priests.

Topczewski calls the payments to predator priests “charity”, but another top Milwaukee diocesan official, Deacon David Zimprich called it a “settlement”. In a “status report” on pedophile priest Franklyn Becker, Zimprich refers to the $10,000 payment made to him as a “settlement”. Zimprich also refutes Cardinal Dolan’s 2006 assertion that the funds would be used for Becker’s health insurance. Zimprich states “I advised him (Becker) that the archbishop was not going to pay for his health insurance either directly, or by making some kind of financial arrangement”.

If, as Topczewski says there is nothing “sinister” about these payoffs, why did every single archdiocesan staffer and bishops Dolan and Listecki keep this secret for all these years? Topczewski says that “less than a handful” of priests got such payoffs and “a handful” of priests did. This controversy erupted more than a week ago, and still, Catholic officials either don’t know or won’t say how many child molesting clerics secretly got paid to quietly move elsewhere and be among unsuspecting moms, dads, kids, neighbors, co-workers and even relatives, where they might assault again.

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

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee on Jun. 07, 2012 NCR Today
Sisters Under Scrutiny

In what appears to be the first public message of support sent from orders of men religious to U.S. sisters in the face of a sharp Vatican rebuke last April, seven provinces of Franciscan brothers and priests have published an open letter to the sisters, saying the Vatican’s move against them seems “excessive.”

The letter, dated May 31, was first made public Thursday morning by Jesuit Fr. James Martin over at America magazine.

Referring to the Vatican’s April move, which ordered the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) to revise and place itself under the authority of three archbishops, the Franciscans write:

Rather than excessive oversight of LCWR, perhaps a better service to the people of God might be a renewed effort to articulate the nuances of our complex moral tradition. This can be a teaching moment rather than a moment of regulation — an opportunity to bring our faith to bear on the complexity of public policy particularly in the midst of our quadrennial elections.

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

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Daniel Burke| Religion News Service,

The brothers have come to the sisters’ defense.

Leaders from the seven Franciscan provinces in the U.S. publicly backed a group of American nuns on Thursday (June 7), calling a Vatican crackdown on the women “excessive.”

The Franciscan friars are believed to be the first Catholic religious order to voice support for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious since the Vatican announced a full-scale makeover of the group in April.

The Vatican said the LCWR, which represents most of the nation’s 57,000 nuns, does not adequately advocate against gay marriage, abortion and women’s ordination.

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

KENTUCKY
Lexington Herald-Leader

By Beth Musgrave — bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — One of Kentucky’s longest-serving state lawmakers and strongest advocates for children has publicly acknowledged that he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest while in junior high school.

Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, disclosed the abuse in a letter to the editor that was published May 30 in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The letter championed the plight of the country’s nuns and condemned the Vatican for trying to impose more order on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which counts more than 50,000 nuns as members. In April, Pope Benedict XVI ordered a re-tooling of the Catholic womens’ group because it had not been more vocal against gay marriage, abortion and women’s ordination.

In his letter, Burch, 80, said nuns have been a constant, loving and positive presence in his life.

“I was never sexually abused by a nun, but I was sexually abused by a priest,” Burch wrote.

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

ROCHESTER (NY)
Rochester Homepage

By: Cierra Putman

Updated: June 7, 2012

Where’s the rest? That’s what supporters of priest abuse victims and other groups are asking about a list released by the Rochester Catholic Diocese this week.

Bishop Matthew Clark released the names of priests punished for sexual abuse in the last 10 years. Pictures, addresses and past work information; that’s what supporters of survivors and other organizations say is missing from this list. Both BishopAccountability.org and SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) applaud the diocese for releasing the names, but they want to see all priests who have been punished, not just those in the last decade. They believe there are many more who were unnamed.

BishopAccountability.org says about 30 other dioceses have released similar lists nationwide. Some also included current addresses, a history of parishes in which the priests worked and most importantly to them – pictures of the priests. None of which was included in the Rochester list.

“How can parents take precautions or teachers or whoever has young children,” SNAP member Becky Ianni said. “How can they take precautions against someone they don’t know who they are, where they are?”

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

UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic

Thursday, June 7, 2012

By Scott Alessi

At a time when most Americans are cutting back on their spending, the Catholic Church has been shelling out quite a bit of cash lately.

Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has spent $11.6 million over the last two fiscal years–including $10 million in the first nine months of the current fiscal year–on legal bills, primarily defending priests accused of sexual abuse. And that number doesn’t even include the bill for the landmark trial of Msgr. William Lynn, which is still ongoing. In comparison, the entire payroll for the archdiocese, including all of its priests and lay employees’ salary and benefits packages, totaled $18.6 million for the last fiscal year.

Of course, this kind of spending from the church is nothing new. A number of dioceses have had to pay out massive settlements in sexual abuse lawsuits. Last year the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, for example, was forced to pay a $77.4 million settlement that also resulted in 22 employees being laid off–without unemployment benefits, since dioceses are exempt from paying unemployment taxes–and the diocese’s newspaper being shut down.

Such settlements are in some ways unavoidable, particularly when the amount the church must pay is handed down by the court. But footing the legal bill to defend priests who have abused children seems like more of a choice–one that many Catholics might question.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Developments in the Philadelphia clergy sexual abuse case, which started in late March, suggest that the jury is settling in for the long haul.

Jurors will be getting some time off because of personal commitments — namely, graduations of family members.

The jury has been deliberating a week so far, and a scheduling conference has revealed that the jury will not work tomorrow.

And they’ll start late on Monday, and won’t work on Wednesday if they have still not reached verdicts by then.

And next Friday is out, too, because the judge has a scheduling conflict.

Jurors are considering charges against Monsignor William Lynn — that he endangered children by allowing two priests to remain in ministry despite alleged evidence of past misconduct. One of those priests, codefendant James Brennan, has denied he subsequently tried to rape a teenage boy.

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

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By David Gibson| Religion News Service, Updated: Thursday, June 7

As the nation’s Catholic bishops mark 10 years since they adopted sweeping reforms to address the sexual abuse of children by clergy, the 800-pound gorilla in the chancery remains a lack of accountability for the bishops themselves.

That gap also remains the single greatest obstacle to ensuring the safety of children in Catholic parishes and schools and to restoring some measure of credibility for the bishops — and, by extension, the entire Catholic Church in the U.S.

“Bishops should be accountable to their people, to their priests,” Nicholas Cafardi, a canon and civil lawyer who teaches at the Duquesne Law School in Pittsburgh, writes in the current issue of U.S. Catholic magazine.

“But authority without accountability is tyranny,” writes Cafardi, who once headed the bishops’ National Review Board that was established to ensure compliance with their own reforms.

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

ROCHESTER (NY)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[the list – Diocese of Rochester]

Posted by David Clohessy on June 07, 2012

We are grateful every time the public is made more aware of a potentially dangerous predator.

As best we can tell, only 3 of these are newly disclosed names. All the rest have been posted, many for years, on a website called BishopAccountability.org

For the sake of public safety, we hope Bishop Clark will go further and release the whereabouts and photos of these potentially dangerous priests and ex-priests (as the Philadelphia archdiocese has done.)

Also missing from this list: names of Rochester priests removed before 2002. In 2004 in an internal church report, Clark said 18 had been removed since 1950. Why not name them? At least one or two of them are likely still alive and potentially dangerous.

It is also important to realize that many of the 18 removed priests cited in the John Jay report may be named in this list. But not all.

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

PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star

By Kokoy Espresso
Just Passing By

Thursday, June 7, 2012

JUST recently, a priest came out with the observation that the Roman Catholic Church has been losing its faithful, in terms of mass attendance, that is. It was noted that the enormous decline was due largely to the lack of “lively” homilies by some priests, swaying the faithful to join charismatic groups and other congregations that perhaps offer less-boring preaching.

Though I submit that the justification is sound, I consider it naïve for there are far obvious and compelling reasons worth mentioning that lead to the decline not only in mass attendance but in membership. The scandals involving priests and the Vatican, debates on moral issues and the Church’s involvement in politics and government are but some of the more damaging issues that greatly affect the integrity of the Church.

Scandals involving priests not only hurt the Church but the faithful as well. The faithful look upon priests with so much esteem and respect, being symbolic oases of wisdom and reason. Thus when they commit grave infractions against the vow, the thirsty will seek sagacity elsewhere, and surely they will find it everywhere. Religious groups sprout quite remarkably; branching out has never been this extensive. It sure does help when you are in a nation where lunacy is often mistaken for prophecy. It helps also when the only requisite to forming a group is adding a word or two to the name Jesus.

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

CALIFORNIA
The Digital Hairshirt

It ain’t over yet for Mike Harris.

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

This is disheartening news. But not as disheartening as this:

In 1994, Harris, citing stress, stepped down as principal of Santa Margarita High School. The Orange County Diocese placed him on administrative leave that year and prohibited him from working as a priest.

Also that year, a psychological report prepared by doctors at the Saint Luke Institute, a church-run facility for troubled clerics, concluded that there was substance to allegations from several of Harris’ accusers. Psychiatrists at Saint Luke also determined that Harris was sexually attracted to adolescent boys, records show.

The question is whether the Diocese knew that Harris had actually molested children. The fact that he was sexually attracted to adolescent boys does not provide enough evidence – at least, criminally – to sustain a determination of such.

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

CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

We are here today to raise issue with the conciliation process recently offered by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Moncton to the victims of sexual abuse by Father Camille Leger or other priests of the Archdiocese.

Let me be very clear from the outset, as advocates for victims, myself a victim’s rights lawyer and Mr. Mantin as a representative of SNAP and as a victim himself,, are united in our opposition to the plan as presently proposed .. This plan, is best described as “church-centric” in that it, by accident or by design, it best suits the needs of the Archdiocese. Furthermore it fails to address the core demands and motivation of most victims of sexual abuse.

Let me specifically outline the basis for our concerns:

1. Secrecy instead of privacy

Having worked with victims and represented their interests we understand the desire for privacy. Being sexually abused as a young person is typically not information which most people want their friends and neighbours to know. Unfortunately being a victim is viewed by some as a stigma. While the real shame, embarrassment and dishonour of this crime should be carried by only the perpetrator, too often the victim also feels that burden. Therefore confidentially and privacy is important to many.

Our present legal structures recognize this reality. Those we make a complaint to police, have their identities and information stringently protected by the police involved. Once criminal charges are laid against the perpetrator, an automatic public ban on the identity of the victim is put in place. That court mandated protection is permanent unless the victim chooses otherwise.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Jurors at the landmark clergy-sex abuse trial of two Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests signaled Thursday they may be far from a verdict: The panel asked to take Friday off and to arrive late next Monday and Wednesday if they are still deliberating.

The jurors cited personal and family commitments. Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina granted the request, according to her staff.

The panel of seven men and five women began meeting last Friday to deliberate the endangerment and other charges against Msgr. William J. Lynn and the Rev. James J. Brennan. They’ve asked the judge and lawyers for legal guidance and pieces of evidence throughout the week, but deliberated without interruption on Thursday morning.

Lynn, the former clergy secretary for the archdiocese, is accused of conspiracy and endangering children by recommending a priest, Edward Avery, for assignments in the 1990s despite alleged signs they might abuse minors. Avery, who has since been defrocked has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy in 1999.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
San Antonio Express-News

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jurors pondering the fate of two Roman Catholic priests in Philadelphia appear to be digging in for the long haul.

The jury is working through a fifth day of deliberations in the clergy-abuse case, but won’t meet Friday because of a family graduation.

Other graduation conflicts are possible if deliberations continue next week.

Monsignor William Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged for his handling of abuse complaints at the Philadelphia archdiocese.

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

NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[the list – Diocese of Rochester]

Posted by Mary Caplan on June 07, 2012

We welcome the Rochester Catholic bishop’s new move to protect children by releasing a list of predator priests. And we call on NYC’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan to stop stonewalling and do likewise.

This is the quickest and simplest way prelates can safeguard the vulnerable – posting on church websites the names of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. It’s the very least any bishop should do. Parents, parishioners and the public should easily be able to learn about these potentially dangerous men who bishops recruited, educated, ordained, hired, trained, transferred and shielded.

Under intense pressure, Dolan did this in Milwaukee (though his list was far from complete or adequate). But he has refused to do so in New York. The time for excuses and delay is over. The time for openness and transparency is now.

Roughly 30 US bishops have released lists of predators in their dioceses. But now, America’s most prominent prelate refuses to do so.

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on June 07, 2012

A Catholic priest who’s being sued for allegedly committing child sex crimes is now back in the Detroit area.

Six months ago, with little or no fanfare, Fr. Maurice G. McNeely and the Diocese of Bismarck ND were named in a civil lawsuit charging that McNeely sexually abuse a young boy in Hawaii in 1976. According to the suit, Fr. McNeely befriended the victim while his father was stationed in Hawaii. The abuse was at the Chapel at Fort Shafter parish across the street from the boy’s home on the military base in Hawaii.

The Diocese of Bismarck is being sued for negligence and Fr. McNeely is being sued for sexual battery.

As best as SNAP can tell, there has been no public announcement about the allegation against Fr. McNeely (who currently lives in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills with his sister, Margaret Wirth) by any diocese, according to the attorney who represents his alleged victim.

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

CANADA
CBC News

A retired editor of the New Catholic Times says the Catholic Church is in crisis and unless its leaders start listening to the lay people, it will continue to lose parishioners.

Ted Schmidt’s comments come in the wake of allegations of abuse by late priest Camille Léger of Cap-Pelé.

He said there needs to be a tremendous change in the architecture of the church, especially in light of the ongoing crisis of sexual abuse by priests.

He said he believes unless the Catholic church starts allowing married men and women to be ordained as priests, there will be a massive exodus from the church and people will start to set up alternative faiths.

“What you have now are bishops that are appointed by Rome with no say from the people on the ground who are not listening to the people and listen to a minority of one: Rome,” Schmidt said.

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

ITALY
Vatican Insider

The dramatic statement of the banker whose home in Piacenza was searched at the crack of dawn

Andrea Tornielli
Piacenza

It was still pitch black in the building’s spacious internal court yard, which resembled a Vatican cloister, when Ettore Gotti Tedeschi descended the last step of the enormous flight of stairs, suitcase in hand, and approached his car. He was supposed to leave for Milan before dawn, as usual. A fifty minute car journey, a flick through the newspapers and mass at 8. Then in the afternoon, he was meant to get the train to Rome. Among the letters he had with him, was a memorial he intended to deliver to Benedict XVI: a reconstruction of the recent events that led to his controversial dismissal from the Vatican Bank (IOR).

But when he got to the car, there were four men waiting for him. The warrant officer slipped his hand into his pocket and extracted his police badge. It all happened so quickly that Gotti Tedeschi thought they had come to shoot him.

For a fraction of a second, God’s former banker feared the worst. Then, he was shown a search warrant and told that he would have to change his plans for the day and cancel his trip to Rome. Gotti Tedeschi, with his sallow face, took a quick look at the piece of paper. Then he called out to his wife: “Francesca!”

The Vatican bank board’s shocking no-confidence vote in Gotti Tedeschi two weeks ago, was followed by a harsh communiqué that was not in keeping with the Holy See’s style. A document that was both morally and professionally devastating. And now this new unexpected blow. A search warrant was issued but the Vatican bank’s former head was not under investigation.

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

ROME
Vatican Insider

Rome’s public prosecution has unearthed suspicious money transfers totalling 23 million Euro. Paolo Cipriani, the former director general of the Vatican bank is under investigation

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

Today, Rome’s chief prosecutor, Giuseppe Pignatone, interrogated former Vatican bank president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, in Milan. This is after Naples prosecutors ordered a search of Gotti Tedeschi’s study, at his home in Piacenza (northern Italy) yesterday, unearthing some material that was considered to be of interest. The interrogation carried out by Rome’s public prosecution is apparently linked to suspicions of money laundering activities in Vatican bank accounts.

The Vatican bank’s former president was heard as a witness being investigated in a legal procedure that is linked to this one and was therefore assisted by a defending counsel. Gotti Tedeschi’s name is on the Roman public prosecution’s list of people under investigation, on charges of violation of money laundering laws through suspicious money transfers worth 23 million Euro. The money was seized in September 2010 and then returned to the Vatican bank (IOR). The public prosecution in Rome believes these operations are punishable in accordance with current money laundering laws. The Vatican bank’s former director general, Paolo Cipriani is still being investigated for this.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

Jurors in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse case Wednesday asked the judge for a marker board and an easel. Presumably, they didn’t want to play Pictionary.

Jurors spent their third full day of deliberations asking more questions of Judge M. Teresa Sarmina. The jurors asked the judge to define a pedophile and an ephebophile. Pedophiles are attracted to children, ephebophiles, adolescents.

The judge declined the request, however, saying that no evidence had been presented in the case that defined the two terms. The jury heard both words bandied about the courtroom frequently throughout the trial, as witnesses talked about diagnoses of archdiocese priests undergoing psychiatric evaluations. The judge told jurors they would have to rely on their recollections of what the terms meant.

Jurors also asked the judge to define what an agreement meant in a conspiracy. The judge said a conspiracy is an agreement between at least two people to act together to commit a crime. The agreement can be unspoken, or stated in words, the judge said.

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

IRELAND
Broadcast

7 June, 2012 | By Balihar Khalsa

Irish state broadcaster RTÉ will appoint new senior staff to its current affairs and news operations after the Republic’s regulator found it had defamed a Catholic priest and seriously breached its commitment to objective and impartial news.

Internal meetings are under way to decide the future of the department and how it will operate, and new editors and journalists will be in place by the end of the summer to spearhead the launch of a multiplatform investigative journalism hub.

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) found that current affairs film Mission To Prey defamed Father Reynolds by alleging he had abused a teenage girl in Africa, who had then had a baby, which Reynolds subsequently abandoned.

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

ITALIA
Corriere della Sera

NAPOLI – Adesso il banchiere Ettore Gotti Tedeschi collabora con i magistrati. E consegna un memoriale sui due anni e mezzo trascorsi al vertice dello Ior, l’Istituto Opere Religiose del Vaticano che è stato costretto ad abbandonare dieci giorni fa. Lettere e documenti che possono portare l’indagine verso clamorosi sviluppi e avere effetti devastanti proprio sugli equilibri della Santa Sede. Anche perché un intero capitolo è dedicato ai «nemici interni», coloro che tra settembre 2009 e maggio 2012 avrebbero fatto di tutto per convincerlo a lasciare la poltrona. Alti prelati e personaggi esterni al Vaticano di fronte ai quali Gotti Tedeschi avrebbe rivendicato il rapporto privilegiato con il Pontefice con il quale aveva uno scambio epistolare di cui sono state trovate ampie tracce. Non solo. Le verifiche riguardano anche il suo ruolo di vertice presso il banco Santander e i rapporti dell’Istituto di credito spagnolo con le aziende del gruppo Finmeccanica. Sono state infatti trovate copie dei contratti e dei finanziamenti ottenuti, ma soprattutto la lista delle «commissioni» che – questo è il sospetto – potrebbero nascondere il pagamento di tangenti.

Lettere e mail con politici e prelati – Per comprendere la portata di quanto sta accadendo bisogna tornare a due giorni fa, quando i carabinieri del Nucleo Operativo Ecologico perquisiscono la casa di Piacenza e lo studio di Milano del banchiere, su delega della procura di Napoli. Cercano documenti che Gotti Tedeschi custodirebbe per conto dell’amministratore delegato di Finmeccanica Giuseppe Orsi. In realtà le carte «interessanti» sono centinaia, interi faldoni che riguardano gli affari conclusi nelle segrete stanze vaticane. «Gotti Tedeschi non è indagato – precisano il procuratore Sandro Pennasilico e l’aggiunto Francesco Greco – e non c’è alcun interesse che riguardi operazioni di riciclaggio effettuate su conti dello Ior».

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

ITALY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the former head of the Vatican bank, has put together an archive of potentially damaging information on senior Italian and Vatican figures, according to reports.

11:27AM BST 07 Jun 2012

The archive made up of hundreds of pages, was reportedly seized by prosecutors during raids on Mr Gotti Tedeschi’s home and office on Tuesday, as part of a separate inquiry into alleged bribery at defence giant Finmeccanica.

The former banker is already under investigation on allegations of money laundering of 23 million euros ($29 million) through the Vatican bank.

He was questioned on Tuesday and Wednesday and is said to be assisting prosecutors.

Among those mentioned in the archive were “senior clergymen, shady intermediaries and influential Italian politicians,” the Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported.

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

ITALY
Reuters

By Laura Viggiano

NAPLES, Italy, June 7 (Reuters) – Italian police searching the home and office of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the former head of the Vatican’s bank, have found a confidential dossier relating to his three-year tenure as the bank’s president, a judicial source said on Thursday.

The dossier appeared to have been put together by Gotti Tedeschi to defend himself from allegations over his mismanagement of the bank.

Gotti Tedeschi was ousted from his position as head of the Vatican’s Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) on May 24 after the bank’s board passed a motion of no-confidence, accusing him of neglecting his basic management responsibilities.

The unusually abrupt dismissal, which followed the arrest of the pope’s butler for allegedly stealing confidential papal documents, was the culmination of a leaks scandal that has shaken the Vatican since January.

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UNITED STATES
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk |Jun 7, 2012

Bill Donohue has finally mounted a defense of his BFF Cardinal Dolan, the burden of which is that it is phony to attack the guy for “inducing suspected miscreant priests to exit the priesthood while he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee” because his critics aren’t really interested in how to handle sex abusers. If they were, quoth Donohue, they would also be criticizing all those examples of child-abusing government employees who are receiving their pensions.

Problem is, Dolan himself has repeatedly and vociferously denied that he did any such inducing, contrary to official admissions out of the Milwaukee archdiocese plus newly available documentary evidence. Which prompts the Church Lady in me to wonder who’s inducing His Eminence to issue such denials. Could it be…Satan?

Whoever, there is a good case to be made that laicizing child-abusing priests is a bad idea that mostly serves the interest of an institutional church that doesn’t want to be responsible for them anymore, i.e. subject to lawsuits for acts they commit after being defrocked. Better to keep them within the fold so as to be able to insure that they are assigned to places where they can be kept under control. Of course, there’s also a case to be made that it’s important for a church to be seen to be ridding itself of such bad actors, whose very continued existence as priests could be a cause of scandal.

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

WASHINGTON
RKnieuws (Nederland)

WASHINGTON (RKnieuws.net) – De Amerikaanse katholieke bisschoppen starten een onderzoek naar ‘Girl Scouts of the USA’. Dat meldt het katholieke persagentschap CNS.

Conservatieve katholieke kringen beschuldigen de scoutsorganisatie ervan te ijveren voor contraceptie en abortus. De organisatie viert dit jaar haar honderdjarig bestaan en telt 3,2 miljoen leden.

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

NEDERLAND
Bert Smeets

Nieuwe aanmeldingen worden niet meer aangenomen. U kunt uw verhaal uiteraard kwijt bij Mea Culpa maar we stellen voortaan daarna een persoonlijk onderhoud op prijs.

We hebben de laatste maanden veel last gehad van nep-verhalen. Teveel hoax berichten, telefoontjes die niet kloppen, mollen die zich ingraven het is ons allemaal bekend. De afgelopen twee jaar hebben zich meer dan 2000 mensen bij Mea Culpa gemeld. We wilden deze verhalen met uw toestemming al dan niet geanonimiseerd publiceren, dit is gebeurtd in twee zwartboeken: De Het Hulp en Recht rapport (deksel van de doofpot) en de Kerkstaat.

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NEDERLAND
Bert Smeets

Het gaat om ongeveer een op de drie meldingen. Dat meldt de commissie in een openbaar bericht. De commissie onder leiding van voormalig procureur-generaal Rieke Samson onderzoekt het misbruik van minderjarigen die door de overheid in instellingen of pleeggezinnen zijn geplaatst. Dat doet ze in navolging van de commissie-Deetman, die het misbruik binnen de katholieke kerk onderzocht.

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NEDERLAND
Bert Smeets

Ondergetekende wordt genoemd in het verweerschrift van pastoor Schafraad en wordt zodoende partij in een zaak waar hij formeel geen aanklacht heeft ingediend. Nu kan ik mij slechts op dit blog verdedigen of beter mijn menig geven daar de klagers een andere manier hebben gekozen om hun verhaal te doen. Zij zijn daar vrij in, zoals vrijheid een groot goed is in een mensenleven, en ik kies voor mijn vrijheid.

In het LD interview 10 -04 2012 LD1943102516 interview Jan S.met Jan Schafraad en dhr van Oosten rept pastoor Jan Schafraad voor het eerst over ‘seksepietje’. Dit blijkt pater Landric te zijn, in het Deetman rapport bekend als minderbroeder-franciscaan ofm2. Van deze Landric ofm, seksepietje (E.Mains), die in het Deetman rapport genoemd wordt (blz 778 pater ofm2) schrijft Deetman: ‘hij was opvallend aanwezig in Bleijerheide’.

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NEDERLAND
Bert Smeets

“Tot slot.
Bovenstaande (niet gepubliceerd deel uit verweerschrift pastoor Schafraad) rechtvaardigt mijn verzoek aandacht te besteden de houding en manier van kijken en interpreteren van klagers.

We kunnen in ieder geval de gebeurtenissen na 3 februari aantonen dat er opgeklopte berichtgeving is, vervorming van de waarheid.

Dezelfde factoren wil ik aanwijzen betreffende de drie klachten.

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NEDERLAND
Bert Smeets

Anita belde ‘dondert het ook zo bij jullie’? In Maastricht dondert het heel veel de laatste tijd maar tot nu toe geen spatje regen of vloekende Wodan goden aan de hemel. Wel stond ik net met iemand in het park te praten en plotseling schoof een koele, stoffige wind aan ons voorbij…zou het toch nog gaan donderen, bliksemen en vele andere duivelse stemmen gaan horen? Gelukkig, de donder en bliksem trok langs Bunde en Maastricht noordwaarts. De voorzienigheid hield een oogje in het zeil. Gaan de windduivels loos in de rest van het land, treden ze uit met Wodan en zijn dodenleger dat rondtrekt, huizen in lichterlaaie zet en onheil over de brave burgers in dit land brengt. “Het geld moet rollen’ hoorde ik Wodan roepen en ‘de meisjes moeten zich melden’!!

Deetman onderzoekt de meisjes dat zou naar mijn inzicht beter Goedele (ik blijf fan van Goedele Liekens) denken, she’s the right woman on the right place en en dan gelijk internationaal want we vergeten maar steeds dat RKK een internationaal regime kent, met vele vertakkingen en netwerken in de hoogste en laagste kringen.

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NEDERLAND
de Stentor

DEN HAAG – Er komt een onafhankelijk wetenschappelijk onderzoek naar de geschiedenis van de psychiatrie en de invloed daarop van de Rooms-Katholieke kerk.

Er zal met name worden gekeken naar de rol van de kerk als het gaat om het onvruchtbaar maken van mensen. Dat schrijft staatssecretaris Marlies Veldhuijzen van Zanten woensdag aan de Tweede Kamer.

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BELGIE
Klokk

MISBRUIK IN DE KERK Er is veel over gezegd en geschreven, maar wat
kunnen de slachtoffers echt doen? Vier meningen van vier slachtoffers

DEMORGEN30052012_1

DEMORGEN30052012_2

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ROME
Klokk (Nederland)

ROME (RKnieuws.net) – Het christelijk weekblad Tertio probeert de bomen door het bos te zien van ‘Vatileaks’: de malaise in het wereldbestuur van de katholieke kerk. Het vuur werd begin dit jaar aan de lont gestoken toen vertrouwelijke documenten uitlekten. Recentelijk werd de kamerdienaar van de paus, een van zijn nauwste persoonlijke medewerkers, gearresteerd en tegelijk verloor het hoofd van de Vaticaanse bank het vertrouwen van zijn toezichthouders. Hoe kon het zover komen?

Daarvoor moeten we al teruggaan naar 1978, toen de kardinalen in conclaaf kozen voor de atletische Karol Wojtyla. Onvermoeibaar trok hij de wereld rond. Die nieuwe aanpak had een prijs. Het gewone bestuurswerk werd vooral overgelaten aan de Vaticaanse Curie, geleid door de staatssecretaris. Toen vanaf de tweede helft van de jaren 1990 Johannes Paulus II steeds meer gezondheidsproblemen kreeg, nam de invloed van de Curie nog toe. De ultieme scheidsrechter boven alle facties in het Vaticaan, de paus, leek de touwtjes uit handen te geven. Het pontificaat vergleed in een lang fin de règne waarbij belangrijke beslissingen werden verdaagd.

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UNITED STATES/IRELAND
The Anglo-Celt

Paul Neilan

A woman sexually abused by Fr Brendan Smyth believes that the paedophile priest killed a child in America in the 1960s.

The notorious Norbertine priest abused Helen McGonigle in the town of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, starting when she was six years-old, in late 1967.

Smyth had been assigned to the local parish, Our Lady of Mercy, in the Diocese of Providence, in 1965. A chilling warning made by Smyth after abusing Helen – that she would “end up like the body in the woods” – made her link the paedophile to the discovery of the remains of a child in woodland near her school.

That discovery, however, Helen says, took place after Smyth’s threat.

Helen, who is now a US attorney, was so convinced that he was responsible for the death that she notified the Police at East Greenwich in Rhode Island in March 2007.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Michael Daigle

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

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

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

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

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Worthy Adversary

For immediate release: June 6, 2012

Contact: Joelle Casteix (949) 322-7434, jcasteix@gmail.com

NEWS EVENT: Victims say Sacramento bishop hinders prosecution
He won’t disclose report of predator’s confession
Such secrecy keeps other victims silent, group says
It urges Sacramento prelate to attend court hearing on Friday
SNAP to Soto: “Teach your flock how to back cleric without hurting victims”
“Stop telling victims to report to the church, tell them to call cops instead,” they say

What: Holding signs and childhood photos, child sex abuse victims and their supporters will try to hand-deliver a letter to Sacramento’s Catholic bishop urging him to:
•attend Friday’s hearing for an accused pedophile priest,
•make public a church staffer’s report of that priest’s admission of the crime, and
•insist that his flock quietly support accused clerics and stop scaring their accusers.

The group will also blast the bishop for continuing to ask victims to report crimes to church officials instead of law enforcement.

When: Thursday, June 7 at 12:45 pm

Where: Outside of the Sacramento Diocese headquarters, 2110 Broadway (at 19th) in Sacramento

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

The head of the Brooklyn D.A.’s Rackets Bureau wants to prosecute rabbis and community activists who tamper with, threaten, harass, or intimidate victims or their families, or who otherwise obstruct justice.

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

The head of the Brooklyn D.A.’s Rackets Bureau wants to prosecute rabbis and community activists who tamper with, threaten, harass, or intimidate victims or their families, or who otherwise obstruct justice, the Jewish Week has just reported.

Michael Vecchione told the Jewish Week’s Hella Winston that his office was willing to do everything to prevent witness tampering, intimidation and obstruction of justice in haredi child sex abuse cases including “[picking] up the phone and [calling] the U.S. attorney” to encourage federal prosecutions.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

Among the documents that have gotten out of the Vatican are two that are an embarrassment to the “UN of Trastevere” and the superior general of the Society of Jesus. To the advantage of two cardinals: the American George and the Dutch Eijk

VATICAN CITY, June 7, 2012 – The disappearance of confidential documents from the Vatican continues without pause. And no one can predict how long it will continue.

The quantity of missing documents is certainly significant, and seems to concern almost exclusively the papers kept in the Apostolic Palace, the heart of the Roman curia, the building overlooking Saint Peter’s Square that is the residence of Benedict XVI and his personal secretary, Georg Gänswein, in which the secretariat of state has its offices and in which secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone has his residence and office.

As of today, in fact, almost none of the documents published in various waves seems to have been stolen directly from other dicasteries or offices of the Holy See. Almost always, the papers addressed to these offices have been served up to the public only after they have passed through the Apostolic Palace.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Sun

By Tricia Bishop, The Baltimore Sun

10:26 p.m. EDT, June 6, 2012
Baltimore prosecutors are scheduled to meet Thursday with a woman to discuss further allegations of sexual abuse against John Merzbacher, a former teacher at the Catholic Community middle school in South Baltimore.

It appears to be the first time that such allegations have been raised with prosecutors since the 1990s, when Merzbacher was charged with dozens of counts of child sexual abuse from his teaching days 20 years earlier. He was convicted in 1995 in his first of what were to be 14 trials and is now involved in an appeals court proceeding that some fear could lead to his early release from prison.

“I want my day in court,” said Donna Berger, now 48.

Merzbacher’s attorney in the appeals case, H. Mark Stichel, declined to comment, saying that a new criminal case against his client would be “beyond [the] scope” of his representation. Merzbacher has not been charged with a crime related to Berger’s allegations.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

JOE HUMPHREYS

CATHOLICS: PEOPLE WHO describe themselves as Catholic but do not accept the church’s key teachings should be “honest” and admit they no longer belong to the faith, atheist author and scientist Prof Richard Dawkins has told a Dublin audience.

He said he was intrigued by this week’s Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll showing almost two-thirds (62 per cent) of Catholics believed the bread and wine which was blessed during Mass “only represents the body and blood” of Christ.

Just 26 per cent said they believed the bread and wine transformed into Christ’s body and blood in accordance with the doctrine of transubstantiation. “If they don’t believe in transubstantiation then they are not Roman Catholics,” Prof Dawkins said.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

Who holds power and influence in the Catholic Church in Ireland today?

Cardinal Seán Brady

Archbishop of Armagh since 1996, the Primate of All-Ireland and titular head of the Catholic Church in Ireland. By rank he is the senior of Ireland’s four Catholic archbishops, including Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary, Archbishop of Cashel Dermot Clifford and Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin.

Cardinal Brady chairs meetings of the Irish Episcopal Conference but, as each bishop is answerable only to Rome, his authority is entirely moral. A humble, well-liked man, both by fellow bishops and throughout the Irish church, he is believed wounded beyond repair following revelations of his handling of a 1975 inquiry into the abuse of six children by Fr Brendan Smyth. He neither informed the parents or the police and Smyth abused for a further 18 years. In what he did, the then Fr Brady complied fully with canon law requirements. He will be 73 in August and believed to be approaching the end of his tenure as primate.

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ROME
The Irish Times

ROWAN GALLAGHER

DEPARTMENT REPORT: STAFF AT the former Irish embassy to the Holy See provided an important service by keeping in contact with leaders of the Catholic Church, according to an embassy inspection report.

Embassy personnel maintained an active dialogue with senior Vatican civil servants on issues with a bearing on Ireland’s national interests, the report said. Drawn up in 2008 by a Department of Foreign Affairs inspection team comprising two officials, it was the last such report prepared in advance of the closure of the embassy earlier this year.

The embassy to the Holy See in the Vatican was closed, along with the Irish embassies in Iran and Timor Leste, as part of a cost-cutting measure by the Government.

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VATICAN CITY
The Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW

ANALYSIS: ONE OF the most regular observations made by Vatican insiders is that, for a small country of only four million no longer so devout Catholics, Ireland earns itself a disproportionate amount of Holy See attention.

In recent years, the Irish bishops have been summoned to Rome for a two-day “crisis” meeting with Pope Benedict XVI; the pope has written a highly unusual Pastoral Letter . . . to the Catholics of Ireland; and 18 months ago the Vatican sent in the “heavy brigade from headquarters” for an apostolic visitation to Ireland.

The full consequences of that visit still have to be felt but recent personnel changes at the Pontifical Irish College in Rome suggest the initiative may yet leave its mark on the church in Ireland.

When it comes to an issue such as Ireland, decisions and policy in the Vatican are taken essentially by three or four people, with a little help along the way.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
YNN

[Dispositions, 2002-Present]

The Rochester Catholic Diocese released a list Wednesday of all clerics removed from ministry since 2002.

Posted to the Diocese website, the Diocese says the list is in keeping with a commitment to transparency.

This follows the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and Essential Norms established in 2002 by the U-S Catholic Conference of Bishops.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Michael O’Malley, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Bishop Richard Lennon has sent a conciliatory letter to the priests in the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, acknowledging that his relationship with many of them has deteriorated.

In a letter obtained by The Plain Dealer, Lennon wrote to the diocese’s priests on May 21, saying “I have become aware of a growing disconnect between many of the priests who serve faithfully in this diocese and myself.”

“It saddens me to hear reports,” the bishop continued, “that a number of our priests feel anxious and uncomfortable in my presence and that rather than being co-workers with me, a number of priests feel left out of consultation.”

The bishop’s letter did not offer a reason for the rift he described. But it said he was writing “to assure you of my desire to remedy this situation.”

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IRELAND
The Journal

A GROUP OF Magdalene survivors met yesterday with Senator Martin McAleese, husband of former President, Mary McAleese, about State interaction with the Magdalene laundries.

The Justice for Magdalenes group said that a group of surivors in contact with the organisation met with Senator McAleese, who is the Independent Chairperson of the Inter-departmental Committee to “clarify state interaction with the Magdalene Laundries”.

JFM described the meeting as “a deliberately private event, in accordance with the wishes of the women and consistent with the organisation’s ethos to put the dignity and privacy of survivors first”.

Katherine O’Donnell, Director of Women’s Studies at UCD’s School of Social Justice/JFM Advisory Committee said:

As the Magdalene Laundries system served to disempower and silence women, it is vital that survivors actively participate in the Inter-departmental Committee process. Apart from the vast level of valuable knowledge that survivors possess, it is also essential that those most affected are offered a voice at the table.

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VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

Documents and letters stolen from the Vatican and handed to Italian journalists make damning allegations of intrigue within the Holy See.

By Nick Squires
5:04PM BST 06 Jun 2012

Pope Benedict XVI is apparently unable to prevent poisonous feuds and vendettas between rival groups of cardinals, according to “His Holiness – The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI”.

Several of the documents cast in a particularly bad light Tarcisio Bertone, who as secretary of state is the Pope’s right-hand man and effectively the prime minister of the world’s smallest state.

1 The most sensational allegation is Cardinal Bertone conspired with the editor of the Vatican’s daily newspaper in a dirty tricks campaign against a rival.

Gian Maria Vian, the editor of L’Osservatore Romano, allegedly leaked false documents which purported to show that Dino Boffo, the editor of another Catholic newspaper, L’Avvenire, had had a homosexual affair, forcing Mr Boffo to resign from the editorship.

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VATICAN CITY
Canada.com

By Nick Squires, The Daily Telegraph June 6, 2012

The Vatican said Wednesday it was being blackmailed by the leaking of confidential documents taken from the Pope’s private apartment as an anonymous mole threatened to release more embarrassing material unless two senior officials were sacked.

In the latest round of leaks, an Italian newspaper was sent three letters apparently stolen from the Vatican, two of which were signed by the Pope’s private secretary and had their contents blanked out. An anonymous note claimed that they dealt with “shameful events inside the Vatican” and threatened to reveal the contents of the letters “if there is an attempt to hide the truth of the facts”.

The accompanying letter called for the resignation of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who as secretary of state is the Vatican’s de facto prime minister, and Mgr Georg Ganswein, the Pope’s secretary. It claimed that Paolo Gabriele, the butler arrested over the affair, was simply a scapegoat.

Fr Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the note represented “a grave threat” to Benedict XVI’s seven-year papacy. “Blackmail is a plausible way of defining it,” he said. “We have arrived at a situation of blackmail threats.”

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UNITED STATES
Star Tribune

Article by: SUSAN HOGAN , Star Tribune
Updated: June 6, 2012

On the 10-year anniversary of a shameful chapter in U.S. Catholic history, bishops are once again portraying themselves as victims.

Catholic bishops are spearheading a movement of rallies and prayer vigils for religious freedom this summer, which skeptics could view as a classic public-relations tactic of misdirection. The events happen to fall on the anniversary of the most shameful chapter of American bishops’ history.

Ten years ago this month, I sat ringside at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Dallas, where U.S. bishops, pummeled publicly because of their gross mismanagement of clergy abuse scandals, were meeting under the spotlight of more than 800 media outlets, hundreds of protesters and Catholic advocacy groups.

For months, story after story about Catholic priests raping children rocked the nation, particularly in Boston, the epicenter of the scandals. Under public pressure and embarrassment, the bishops adopted a policy regarding child sexual abuse in June 2002, even though many of them, like the Vatican, believed the scandals were overblown by the media. The policy had no enforcement mechanism.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

Silvia Aloisi
Reuters

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

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

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

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PENNSYLVANIA
WHTM

[with video]

By Dennis Owens

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

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

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

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

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

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

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

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

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

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

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COLOMBIA
El Pais

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

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

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

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COLOMBIA
Colombia Reports

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

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

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

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

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ALBERTVILLE (AL)
Sand Mountain Reporter

Posted: Wednesday, June 6, 2012

By Elizabeth Summers | education@sandmountainreporter.com

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

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

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

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

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ROCHESTER (NY)
WHAM

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

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

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MONTANA
Helena Independent Record

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

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

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

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

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NEW JERSEY
Oman Tribune

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

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

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

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MONTANA
KPAX

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

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

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

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

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ROCHESTER (NY)
WHEC

[includes the entire list]

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

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

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

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Catholic Courier

[Diocese of Rochester]

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

Dispositions, 2002-Present

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Albert Cason
Paul Cloonan
Gerard Guli
Joseph Larrabee
Foster Rogers

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

Vincent Panepinto
Paul Schnacky
Dennis Shaw
Conrad Sundholm
Michael Volino

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

David Gramkee
Robert O’Neill
John Steger

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

David Bonin.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Rochester Homepage

[the list – Catholic Courier]

[Diocese of Rochester]

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

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

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

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BELGIE
Knack

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

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

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

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

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

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

June 6, 2012

Posted by Paul Moses

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

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

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

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

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

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

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

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

One, law enforcement is more assertive

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Local News

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

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

UPDATED TUESDAY

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

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

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

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

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

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

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

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VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

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

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

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

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

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

Posted at: Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Author: Nicholas P. Cafardi

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

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

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

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

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

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

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

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

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CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register

By GREG HARDESTY / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Angela Bonavoglia

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Michael D’Antonio

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

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

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Phyllis Zagano on Jun. 06, 2012 Just Catholic

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

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

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Colorado Independent

By John Tomasic
Wednesday, June 06, 2012

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

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WSOC

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA —

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

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

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

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

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NEW JERSEY
Voice from the Desert

June 6, 2012

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

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

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Times

By Maryclaire Dale
Associated Press

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
The Philly Post

Beth Capriotti

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Betty Clermont

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

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

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

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DEUTSCHLAND
Rheinneckarblog

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

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

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OSTERREICH
Radio Vatikan

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

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

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OSTERREICH
Salzburger Nachrichten

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

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

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

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

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

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

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bild

Mittwoch, 06. Juni 2012

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

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Jun. 06, 2012

By Fr. Charles E. Curran

COMMENTARY

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

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

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Boys Don’t Tell

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

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

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

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

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

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

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

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

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Sarah Stack

Tuesday June 05 2012

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

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

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

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

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