ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

SEX abuse victims of priests in NSW may receive vastly higher compensation payments under a Greens proposal to let victims sue the Catholic Church directly.

Greens MP David Shoebridge says victims are missing out on potentially large payouts because they have to rely on mediation with the church.

They cannot sue the Catholic Church directly in NSW – unlike the Anglican Church – because of a 1936 state law that separated the church’s property trust from its pastoral duties, he says.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

May 28, 2012
By Elizabeth Fiedler

The landmark priest sexual abuse trial is set to resume in Philadelphia Tuesday. While the criminal trial continues, a flurry of lawsuits by alleged abuse victims are on hold.

Marci Hamilton is co-counsel in seven cases brought against the Catholic church by alleged abuse survivors.

“It’s standard operating procedure for civil attorneys to stay out of the way of the prosecutors and to make sure the criminal trials go forward first,” said Hamilton.

At the criminal trial, jurors have heard emotional testimony from an alleged victim, as well as testimony from Monsignor William Lynn — who defended himself against allegations that he endangered children by helping re-assign priests accused of sexual abuse.

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ITALY
Joey Piscitelli

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Joey Piscitelli

It’s absolutely no surprise that the Vatican is once again inundated with scandal and corruption, concerning the Popes new nightmare – the Vatican “leaks”.

Yes, we all know about the proverbial mystery movie; and this time the butler really did it. Nice work, Paolo Gabriele. An oscar is forthcoming to your Vatican prison cell. I caution you to watch your back in Vatican prison; you know the stories about the prison showers – and also the “alleged” stories about the Catholic Clergy.

You’re definitely in the wrong place, at the wrong time. In my defense for that last dubious remark- I’m only repeating information quoted in countless articles on Catholic clergy abuse in the last 10 years, by news reporters in virtually every country on this planet.

However, let me get to the real point. I was apparently on the brink of fainting today when I read the statement by Alberto Melloni, the Vatican historian that was quoted as saying this:

“Never has the sense of disorientation in the Catholic Church reached these levels. But now there is something more, a sense of systematic disorder”.

Yes… he said that.

The educated, famous Vatican historian Alberto Melloni actually said that there has never been a sense of disorientation, and systematic disorder in the Catholic church such as there is now.

As a clergy abuse victim myself, I can’t help but ask this uber-obvious question:

“Where the hell have you been for the last 20 years Melloni?”

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CANADA
The Cape Breton Post

Published on May 27, 2012
Staff ~ The Cape Breton Post

SYDNEY — Four Sydney area Catholic churches are slated for closure over the next two years following an announcement by the Diocese of Antigonish, Sunday.

St. Anthony Daniel Church on Alexandra Street and Sacred Heart Church on George Street will close in June 2014. St. Joseph’s Church on Cabot Street will remain open and will absorb the congregations from those two churches.

In a letter by Bishop Brian Dunn to parishioners, the rationale for this change has to do with the fact St. Joseph’s is the newest of the three buildings, it’s large enough to accommodate the two other parishes, and it has level access, plenty of parking and office space in the church.

Next year, Immaculate Heart Church on Mira Road will close and Sunday services at St. Anne’s Church in Membertou will be discontinued. Those parishioners will relocate to the three operational Sydney churches before St. Anthony Daniel and Sacred Heart are shut down in 2014.

As a result of the amalgamation, St. Joseph’s parish will be renamed, said Rev. Donald MacGillivray, spokesperson for the diocese’s planning committee.

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ROME
MSN (New Zealand)

Dozens of people have protested at the Vatican against Pope Benedict XVI’s failure to show interest in the case of Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of an ex-Vatican employee missing since 1983.

“Shame, shame,” cried the protesters at Saint Peter’s Square, reproaching the Pope for not mentioning her name after Sunday’s Angelus prayers, when the pontiff often greets pilgrim groups and mentions topical issues.

“We came from all over Italy to hear the Pope say the name of Emanuela but we are once again leaving disappointed. There is something wrong here,” one protester said.

The protest was organised by the missing 15-year-old schoolgirl’s brother, Pietro, who has been leading a decades-long campaign to find out what happened to her. He has also accused the Vatican of silence and even complicity in the case.

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ROME
CNN

By Livia Borghese, for CNN

updated 2:10 PM EDT, Sun May 27, 2012

Rome (CNN) — The brother of an Italian girl missing for nearly 30 years urged the Vatican to investigate her case as several hundred demonstrators carrying pictures of her marched to St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.

The march came a day after Italian prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo told CNN that a priest who used to run a church in Rome is under investigation on suspicion of complicity in the abduction of Emanuela Orlandi.

Msgr. Piero Vergari, the former rector of Sant’Apollinare, is being investigated along with four members of a criminal gang, Capaldo said Saturday.

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CANADA
CBC News

Six Cape Breton Roman Catholic church buildings will close over the next few years, Sydney churchgoers learned Sunday.

In a letter from Brian Dunn, Bishop of Antigonish, parishioners were told the diocese was consolidating several city parishes into one.

“The reality experienced in many of our parishes makes us aware that we need some changes so that this pastoral care can be more effective, especially in light of the challenges within our diocese, including a declining number of priests, a declining and aging number of parishioners who regularly attend church, a declining financial support and an increase in the cost for goods and services associated with each parish,” Dunn wrote.

He said the pastoral planning committee has decided to close several churches.
St. Augustine’s on Grand Lake Road will close in July of this year
St. Nicholas in Whitney Pier will close in July of this year
Immaculate Heart on Mira Road will close in June 2013
St. Anne’s in Membertou will no longer hold Sunday services as of June 2013
St. Anthony Daniel will close in June 2014
Sacred Heart in Sydney will close in June 2014

Dunn said after consulting with parishioners, it has been decided that a new parish with a new name will be established in Sydney next summer.

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UNITED STATES
Meadville Tribune

James Drane
Meadville Tribune

MEADVILLE — For Catholics who remained faithful throughout the pedophile priest scandal, this has been a dark and painful period. Every new revelation of abuse, every testimony by victims of a life ruined, is like another punch in the jaw or kick in the gut. The pain continues and we can expect an added shock. This time it will be a bishop scandal.

The awful things done by emotionally compromised pedophile priests raised all kinds of questions. Pedophilia, however, is a pathology not even well-understood in psychiatry. The word pedophile did not even appear in much of early 20th-century psychiatric literature. When it finally made it into the textbooks and dictionaries, it was called a paraphilia and listed with disorders like exhibitionism and voyeurism.

Freud recognized pedophilia as a sexual deviation. He thought that most male pedophiles were weak and impotent. He also emphasized what he thought was the seductive role of children. Little to no attention, however, was paid to the damage done to the children involved in this secretive and repetitive pathological behavior.

If understanding of pedophilic behavior was weak in psychiatry, imagine the level of understanding that existed in the church hierarchy. For bishops, the concept of sin alone was used to understand the acts of pedophile priests. For this reason, many bishops thought that confessing the sin, followed by a serious penance like a retreat, would solve the problem. After confession and penance, a pedophile priest would be considered forgiven and could then be returned to parish work. Like every sin which was confessed, a priest’s pedophile behavior had to be kept secret.

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VATICAN CITY
OpEd News

By
Rev. Dan Vojir

THE BUTLER DID NOT DO IT

A tell-all book, leaked documents, billions in favorable contracts, money laundering, sexual terrorism … and possibly murder. With St. Peter’s in the background, it all sounds like a Dan Brown thriller. But in this mystery, the butler did not do it. At least not to the extent that a papal investigation would have it.

Paolo Gabriele, 46, who has worked as Benedict’s butler since 2006, was reportedly taken into custody after investigators found a mass of documents in the Vatican apartment he shares with his wife and three children.

The arrest comes a month after the Vatican gave an investigative team led by Cardinal Julian Herranz, a member of Opus dei, a full “pontifical mandate” to join Vatican police in rooting out the perpetrators of what has been dubbed Vatileaks.

Gabriele is now languishing in a Vatican prison cell (yes, the Vatican does have a prison) and for now it seems that his only crime was the same as that of Pvt. Bradley Manning (wikileaks) – leaking the juiciest anti-Vatican documents in history.

Sources close to Gabriele, however, say that he would not have masterminded a leak and that his possession of the documents proves very little: no motive has been proffered and apparently no money was offered for the documents.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

[video]

By Pat Ciarrocchi

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)

– In Philadelphia’s landmark clergy sex abuse trial, Defendant Monsignor William Lynn returns to the stand on Tuesday morning, entering a seventh hour of cross-examination.

Lynn’s defending himself against charges that he endangered children, while in his role as Secretary of the Clergy from 1992 to 2004 — while working for the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

Prosecutors have built their case around documents and testimony they believe proves that Lynn kept in ministry, priests who were known to sexually abuse children.

Just as the jury listens to Lynn’s defense which opened on Tuesday, observers in the courtroom are weighing the evidence too.

“No doubt about it, there are tough questions that he has to answer,” said John White, a parishioner from Monsignor Lynn’s Downingtown parish. He and 14 others traveled from Chester County to Philadelphia to give him moral support.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Following yesterday’s resignation from the IOR, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi said he did not wish to make any comment lest he upset the Pope. His resignation comes after three years of service and the accumulation of a number of enemies

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

“I prefer not to speak, as all I would do is curse. Bear with me.” “I am still torn between a yearning to explain the truth and my concern for upsetting the Holy Father with these explanations. My love for the Pope prevails over every other sentiment, even the defence of my own reputation which is infamously being questioned.”

The mistrust that led to Ettore Gotti Tedeschi’s resignation from his post as President of the IOR, after less that three years in office, came as a shock but the banker had been considering the possibility for months. Gotti Tedeschi had decided to collaborate directly with Roman magistrates after they began an inquiry into money movements being made in certain IOR accounts by Italian and German banks. This marked the beginning of the misunderstandings between him and the Institute’s director general, Paolo Cipriani. At the time, Gotti Tedeschi who having been placed under investigation by public prosecutors received the public support of Benedict XVI who greeted him and his wife after one of his Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo. “We need to act as examples,” the Pope had reiterated. The new president, chosen by the Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, had continued the process towards renewal and a greater transparency which had already begun, closing dormant current accounts that were registered under names of figureheads.

One of the people Gotti Tedeschi was at loggerheads with, was Marco Simeon, the current director of RAI Vaticano, one of the offices of Italy’s largest television company RAI, who is linked to wheeler-dealer, Luigi Bisignani. Last summer, the IOR was involved in the rescue operation to salvage Milan’s Saint Rafael hospital, called for by Cardinal Bertone and supported by a number of Milanese businessmen and politicians. Gotti Tedeschi was initially in favour of the operation but then changed his mind, considering it a risky venture. This led to fall outs with Giuseppe Profiti, manager of Rome’s Bambino Gesù hospital and Bertone’s number one man in the field of healthcare. Meanwhile, Gotti Tedeschi’s relations with the Cardinal Secretary of State had also begun to cool, although they had improved recently.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Interview with Piero Orlandi on the eve of the March for Emanuela scheduled in Rome. The exorcist had talked about seedy parties and grooming instances involving a policeman

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

Pietro Orlandi, on Sunday you will lead a march to ask for the truth concerning the disappearance of your sister Emanuela. What schedule will the demonstration follow?

We will meet Sunday 27th in Campidoglio square at 9.30. A giant poster of Emanuela will be hung on the front of Campidoglio Palace and after talks by various speakers, among which Alemanno, Zingaretti and Veltroni, the march will start. The itinerary will take us to St. Peter basilica. We will walk in silence for Emanuela and for all the people who do not get justice. The presence of many municipalities from all over Italy demonstrates that there is a part of this country that is honest and has a great sense of justice, a part of this country, which believes that values like truth, justice and respect for life are crucial in a civilized society. I believe that even a simple march might mark the beginning of a change in the conscience of those who govern and in our Church.”

Rome’s Prosecutor Office investigated the former director of the St. Apollinare basilica, Mgr. Piero Vergari and is interrogating people who knew about the facts. How do you rate the new elements of the enquiry?

Positively. I hope that this collaboration between magistrates and Vatican, requested by my family for years because it can be decisive to uncover the truth, is prompted by a sincere and transparent will to clarify the matter”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The most authoritative Vatican analyst in the United States shares his thoughts on the Vatican leak crisis

Paolo Mastrolilli
New York correspondent

“I can’t help but wonder whether this whole affair can really be ascribed to the Pope’s butler alone, or if someone else is pulling strings behind the scenes.”

John Allen is sceptical. The most authoritative Vatican analyst in the United States has trouble believing that the entire secret document affair, which has emerged in the past few months from the innermost offices of the Holy See, will end with the arrest of Paolo Gabriele.

Why doesn’t this version of the facts convince you?

“I’ve read the opinions of those who put forward the suspicion that the Pope’s butler may simply be a scapegoat and I share that view. I can’t help but think that ‘Vatileaks’ can’t simply be traced to one butler but to some high-ranking ecclesiastical figure who has remained behind the scenes. It’s a question that remains unanswered, but I don’t find the answer given so far, Gabriele’s arrest that is, entirely convincing.”

Couldn’t he have stolen these documents for personal reasons?

“From what I’ve heard, this butler is a very down-to-earth, religious person. I don’t know him personally, but the description of him that is going round does not match the profile of the alleged spy.”

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VATICAN CITY
Business Insider

Michael Brendan Dougherty|May 27, 2012

The Pope’s personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, 46 was arrested last week in connection with the leaking of letters from the Vatican, including many personal ones to and from Pope Benedict himself.

The story has all the elements of a punchline, or a 19th century potboiler. A Butler being held in the Vatican’s own rarely-used jail, spying on the Holy Father.

The truth can be better than fiction and it usually is.

But there is something a little off about this story – at least to this Vatican-watcher. …

Earlier this year, it was reported that the leaked letters contained the correspondence of an American prelate, Carlo Maria Vigano, working in Rome who told the Holy Father about corruption in the Vatican’s money-management. Vignano pleaded with Benedict to hold onto his post so that he could continue the Holy Father’s mission of cleaning house, but Vigano was transferred back to the States.

However, there is something about this story that makes little sense. Gabriele is the guy who helps the Pope get dressed, and handles things in the papal apartment. He was also appointed to his role under John Paul II. He absolutely would have access to some of the letters that have been leaked.

But many of the leaks out of the Vatican over the past two years have not been of personal letters to and from the pope, they’ve been out of the offices of the Vatican’s secretary of state. There is not a chance that Gabriele could have access to them.

It would be as if the Obama’s personal babysitter suddenly got access to files at the Pentagon. The butler may be guilty. And he may be the one chiefly responsible for the letters published later this month.

But it just isn’t plausible that he is the only leaker. The most humiliating leaks have come from inside the curial offices, that is from another high-ranking Cardinal. Perhaps someone who could even become the next Pope.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Father Alberto Cutie

The news that Father Alavaro Corcuera (General Director of the Legionaries of Christ) apologized on May 22, 1012 for keeping secret the situation surrounding Father Thomas Williams may have come as a surprise to most people familiar with The Legionaries and Regnum Christi.

Be assured that Father Corcuera is not solely responsible for not revealing this, or any other case, sooner. For years there have been many people in authority above him – including members of the present and past Vatican Curia – who were repeatedly made aware of the struggles and difficulties surrounding the abusive behavior of the founder and other dysfunctions in the Legionaries.

For a variety of reasons, which you can read below, they chose to ignore it and even dismiss and ridicule those who came forward. A visit to the website connected to the new book “La Voluntad de No Saber” (authored by victims of abuse Father Alberto Athie, Jose Barba – along with a historian – Jose M. Gonzalez) will provide you with all the documentation regarding this issue, dating back to1944.

An excerpt from my personal memoir Dilemma: A Priest’s Struggle between Faith and Love

“Since the 1970s, rumors had abounded about Father Maciel (founder of the Legionaries of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement) working his connections in the Vatican and using money received from the wealthy benefactors of his various movements to buy his way into top Church circles. The Legionaries had become known as “the Millionaires of Christ” even by their own colleagues and supporters in the Vatican. Many clergy criticized them for having fancy air-conditioned buses and for wearing immaculate double-breasted suits, which probably made them the best-dressed religious order on the planet.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

RTE’s managing director of radio, Clare Duignan, let fly at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications when senators and deputies had a go at RTE.

RTE has angered the public by making unfounded accusations against a Catholic priest. An opinion poll conducted last week for the Sunday Independent shows that most people want the station’s chairman, Tom Savage, to resign at this point.

But Duignan is putting distance between those responsible for the debacle and others. Like many RTE programme-makers she is embarrassed by the Prime Time Investigates mess. She herself is the former director of television programmes at RTE.

She reacted fiercely last week when Senator John Whelan referred to “the systematic failures, poor morale, low standards and, in certain quarters, group-think culture which has been spawned by a cult of the clique and cronyism that is alive and well in Montrose and over which he presides”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KUNC

By Barbara Bradley Hagerty

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

What’s drawing attention is the second defendant, Monsignor William Lynn. Lynn is first high-level Catholic official to be criminally prosecuted — not for abusing minors himself, but for failing to protect children from predator priests.

Failure To Protect?

So far, it’s been a brutal trial for Lynn. He served as the archdiocese’s secretary for clergy between 1992 and 2004, and it was his job to investigate sex abuse claims and protect children.

For eight weeks, prosecutors presented a mountain of evidence — nearly 2,000 documents and some 50 witnesses — that Lynn put the priests and the church ahead of abused children.

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

By Barbie Nadeau, for CNN

Rome (CNN) — Pope Benedict’s butler has been arrested on suspicion of leaking confidential documents to an Italian journalist, the Vatican said Saturday.

Paolo Gabriele, 46, was arrested Wednesday for illegal possession of confidential documents, found in his apartment in Vatican territory, the Vatican said in a statement issued three days later.

Gabriele, who has worked as the papal butler since 2006, is one of only a handful of people with access to the pontiff’s private desk.

His job included handing out rosaries to dignitaries and riding in the front seat of the “Popemobile,” a vehicle used for public papal appearances, as seen in many photographs showing Gabriele with the pope.

Last month, the Vatican gave Cardinal Julian Herranz a “pontifical mandate” to uncover the source of hundreds of personal letters and confidential documents that have been released to Gianluigi Nuzzi, an Italian journalist and author of “Sua Santita,” a book that translates to “His Holiness” and includes the documents.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Monica Yant Kinney, Inquirer Columnist

Vince Fumo and Msgr. William Lynn have little but Catholicism in common. So why did I keep thinking about the former millionaire state senator as I sat in a Common Pleas courtroom last week watching a priest try to explain away his troubles?

Like Fumo, Lynn gambled on taking the stand in a criminal case involving arrogance, lies, and the shattering of public trust. Both men believed the sound of their voices would sway jurors contemplating sordid tales and exhaustive evidence. Both misjudged their magnetism.

Fumo put on a risky, though riveting, show during his sweeping 2009 corruption trial. He bragged about having a James Brown work ethic. He embraced audacious acts and champagne tastes befitting a man of his political appetite. He now resides in federal prison.

Lynn, by contrast, shuffles to the witness stand wearing a humble collar and the haggard resignation of a middle manager who knows he’s been scapegoated. But as gentle direct questioning segued into a crushing cross-examination, the monsignor’s calculation proved just as costly as Fumo’s.

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UNITED STATES
The Christian Post

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor

Apologist and author Josh McDowell launched Just1ClickAway.org, a new website to raise awareness about online pornography which he says is a problem big enough to cause the downfall of the church.

“The downfall of the church will not come from a lack of apologetic teaching; it will come from disintegration of the families in the church,” says a video posted on the website, which was launched this week, just in time for summer vacation when students’ media consumption significantly increases.

“The greatest threat to the cause of Christ is pervasive sexuality and pornography,” McDowell, known as an articulate speaker, said in a statement Thursday. “Today we have, by and large, lost control of the controls because an intrusive immorality is just one click away from our children. With just one keystroke on a smartphone, iPad, or laptop, a child can open up some of the worst pornography and sexually graphic content you can imagine. There’s never been such access in history. ”

McDowell, who has written or co-authored 120 books since 1960, backs his claims with stunning statistics about the destructive impact of pornography on the Christian family.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

Posted: May 27, 2012

Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes, under increasing pressure over his office’s handling of child sexual-abuse cases involving the Orthodox Jewish community, has finally taken some positive steps.

Unfortunately, not all those steps are fully in the right direction.

Yes, he publicly warned that rabbis who insist on deciding whether abuse allegations should be reported to police now risk prosecution themselves.

That was aimed directly at Agudath Israel of America, a politically powerful Orthodox group that has demanded such rabbinical pre-clearance in certain cases.

According to The Jewish Week, Hynes informed the group “that it was a mistake to advise someone with information about child abuse to first speak with a rabbi.”

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UNITED STATES
Salisbury Post

Sunday, May 27, 2012

By Francis Koster
www.TheOptimisticFuturist.com

As a futurist, I write about emerging threats, and the need for successful interventions to address them. In that spirit, today I bring good news about something bad.

The United States has begun to turn the tide on how we deal with child abuse. I am not saying the problem is solved — but progress, compared to where we started decades ago, is being made.

The term “child abuse” covers much ground, from lack of food and hygiene to emotional abuse, battery and sexual abuse. Using that big definition, it appears that out of the roughly 75 million Americans under the age of 17, more than 1 million American children are victims of child abuse each year. More than half of the abused are reported to suffer from “neglect”; they were not physically attacked, but they were not fed or supported in ways that their little bodies and minds require. Of the remaining group, about 300,000 suffer physical abuse, about 150,000 suffer emotional abuse, and around 135,000 suffer sexual abuse. Hard to believe these numbers represent progress, but they do.

In 1873, a church volunteer doing a home visit found a 9-year-old girl chained to a bed, malnourished and beaten. The volunteer’s first efforts to rescue the child failed because the law and custom of the day made such behavior within a household a private matter. Local officials ignored the reports, and when an investigation was finally begun, the community leaders failed to follow up. In desperation, the church worker turned to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for help because animals were protected under a better set of laws than children were. ASPCA sued the officials, arguing that humans were animals, too. The resulting publicity successfully rescued the child.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Daily Beast

May 27, 2012

Marci A. Hamilton

Which side are you on? The parallel sex-abuse trials of Msgr. William Lynn and former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky are revealing deep differences among those who once revered both men, writes Marci Hamilton.

It’s been a bad year for Pennsylvania’s most revered institutions. Well-known members of both Penn State University and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia have been charged with committing or covering up the sexual abuse of children. Just as the unprecedented, months-long trial of Monsignor William Lynn is finishing, Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky is getting ready to face a jury—and each case raises the same core issue: How is an important figure at a high-profile institution able to abuse not one, but a series of children, and not be stopped?

In both cases, public reaction has divided in two, as Penn State fans and Pennsylvania Catholics experience a blend of betrayal, anger, and confusion. Everyone trusted these men.

(Full disclosure: I’m a Penn State graduate, I’m married to a lifelong Philly Catholic, and I serve as co-counsel to victims of both the Philadelphia priests and of Jerry Sandusky—although my clients are not involved in the criminal trials, so I am not subject to the gag orders.)

For three months, Philadelphia prosecutors have been trying Msgr. Lynn on charges that he deliberately and callously endangered children by letting predator priests continue in the ministry.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER
The Record

A Mahwah minister was convicted Thursday of having sex with an underage member of his church almost a decade ago.

Jurors in state Superior Court in Hackensack returned after less than two days of deliberations to find the Reverend Curtis Franklin guilty of second-degree sexual assault.

Franklin looked down and shook his head when the jury forewoman announced the verdict. He was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom after Judge Edward Jerejian revoked his $200,000 bail, ordering him held at the Bergen County Jail pending his Sept. 14 sentencing, when he faces five to 10 years in prison.

Defense attorney Miles Feinstein said he was disappointed with the verdict and that he will file an appeal.

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NEW JERSEY
WHTM

HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) – A Mahwah pastor has been convicted of having sex with an underage member of his church.

A Bergen County jury convicted the Rev. Curtis Franklin on Thursday after less than two days of deliberations.

Authorities told jurors during a trial that lasted three weeks that Franklin, who was then the pastor at Mahwah Full Gospel Church, began a sexual relationship with a parishioner in 2002 when she was 15 and the relationship lasted until she was 19.

Franklin is 22 years older than the victim.

Franklin’s wife and other family members and friends cried as he was led away by sheriff’s officers Thursday, according to The Record (http://bit.ly/KT9vr7 ).

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TULSA (OK)
Tulsa World

By BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer
Published: 5/26/2012

The Rev. Bob Yandian, pastor for 32 years of Grace Church, one of Tulsa’s largest churches, announced he will step down in one year and that his son will take over the church.

Yandian has deep roots in the Tulsa charismatic/Pentecostal community, where he has a reputation as an excellent Bible teacher.

“I’m not retiring from ministry. I’m retiring from pastoring Grace,” Yandian said from the pulpit Sunday. …

Grace was plunged into a nearly decade-long period of challenges and difficulties in 1992 when one of its teachers was arrested for molesting young boys.

“It was the hardest time we’ve ever known as a church,” Yandian said.

Aaron Thompson is serving a 25-year prison sentence for molesting nine boys over a five-year period.

“It was devastating,” Yandian said. “He was the most popular teacher we had.”

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JAMAICA
Sunday Observer

BY NADINE WILSON Sunday Observer reporter wilsonn@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, May 27, 2012

THE wave of reports of childhood sexual abuse by persons entrusted with their care has prompted church leaders to implement a screening policy for Sunday school teachers and others employed to supervise children.

Two weeks ago, over 30 pastors representing a cross-section of churches across the country, held an emergency summit at the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology (CGST) in Kingston to review policies and implement measures to protect children in the care of church employees.

College president Dr Las Newman said the churches were very troubled by the increasing reports of sexual abuse of children and felt they should play their part in ensuring that children entrusted to their care are protected from sexual predators.

The introduction of the screening policy was accepted as one of the ways to address what many church leaders termed, “the crisis facing the nation.”

The policy, Dr Newman said, will apply to pastors, church elders, deacons, Sunday school teachers and youth workers, and will “look at the matter of recruitment and admission, background checks of people, police records and evaluation of people’s mental health, and people’s emotional health, and people’s past relationships with children.”

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IRELAND
IrishCentral

By
CATHY HAYES,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Saturday, May 26, 2012

County Sligo Circuit Court has heard that the trial of the Irish nun facing 87 charges of sexual abuse will take place over two weeks next year.

The court heard that a number of disclosures had been given to the defense by the prosecution. The case initially came before the courts this March.

Judge Anthony Hunt told the court he hopes the hearing will take place in January or February, the Irish Times reports.

A number of the alleged victims of the nun were present in court on Tuesday.

The alleged offenses date back to the 1970s. The case was transferred from another county following legal action against the nun. Neither she nor her victims can be identified due to legal reasons.

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VATICAN CITY
Seattle PI

NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

Updated 05:10 p.m., Saturday, May 26, 2012

VATICAN CITY (AP) — An already sordid scandal over leaked Vatican documents took a Hollywood-like turn Saturday with confirmation that the pope’s own butler had been arrested after documents he had no business having were found in his Vatican City apartment.

The detention of butler Paolo Gabriele, one of the few members of the papal household, capped one of the most convulsive weeks in recent Vatican history and threw the Holy See into chaos as it enters a critical phase in its efforts to show the world it’s serious about complying with international norms on financial transparency.

The tumult began with the publication last weekend of a book of leaked Vatican documents detailing power struggles, political intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of Catholic Church governance. It peaked with the inglorious ouster on Thursday of the president of the Vatican bank. And it concluded with confirmation Saturday that Pope Benedict XVI’s own butler was the alleged mole feeding documents to Italian journalists in an apparent bid to discredit the pontiff’s No. 2.

“If you wrote this in fiction you wouldn’t believe it,” said Carl Anderson, a member of the board of the Vatican bank which contributed to the tumult with its no-confidence vote in its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. “No editor would let you put it in a novel.”

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NEDERLAND
Omroep Brabant

ALMELO – Een uit Best afkomstige voormalig pastoor moet tien maanden de cel in. Ook kreeg hij tbs met dwangverpleging. De rechtbank in Almelo heeft dit bepaald.

Volgens de rechter is er genoeg bewijs dat de man vorig jaar zomer een 12-jarige jongen uit Oldenzaal seksueel heeft misbruikt. Dit was op een camping in Frankrijk. De officier van justitie sprak eerder van een pedofiel, die bewust op zoek is naar jongens rond de twaalf jaar.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

By Joshua J. McElwee on May. 26, 2012 NCR Today

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In what seems to be a sign that the first bishop criminally charged in the decades-long clergy sex abuse crisis is acknowledging his legal defense may create a conflict of interest with his role as leader of his diocese, Bishop Robert Finn announced Friday creation of a new episcopal vicar with “decision-making” power over the diocese’s own legal options.

Both Finn and his Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese face trial this September in Jackson County, Mo., over separate criminal charges of failure to report suspect child abuse concerning their actions regarding a priest arrested last year for possession of child pornography.

The new role, quietly announced Friday afternoon on the website of the diocesan paper, seems to indicate that the diocese and bishop are for the first time publicly recognizing that legal decisions made by one could negatively impact the other.

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UNITED STATES
Richard Sipe

Gerald T. Slevin

MACHIAVELLI BACK IN ROME? …. The straightforward advice to lie, steal and punish that Machiavelli craftily gave a papally related Prince a half millenium ago is apparently followed today in the Vatican at times more diligently than the Gospel message. This imperial pope is a highly disciplined and demanding World War II veteran who has appointed an obedient and subservient officer corp. He brooks no disobedience or dissent. The increasingly evident corrupt conspiracy that Joseph Ratzinger, the current pope, has effectively overseen for decades in Rome has many branch offices, as we are learning daily, throughout the worldwide Church, including in the US as well as Mexico.

It is important that Catholics see some of the bigger picture so vividly encapsulated locally in Mexico in the sordid Maciel story that has been reported so well by Jason Berry. Incidentally, Canon “L”aw, like “T”radition and “M”agisterium, is mostly whatever the pope in Rome at the time says it is, regardless of Canon Law’s (and Tradition’s and the Magisterium’s) often obvious conflict with the Gospel message and authentic church history. Most clerical scholars appear fearful understandably of pointing out these conflicts.

The Maciel crime story even has a current American connection to, and some parallels with, the currently exploding Philadelphia Archdiocese’s priest abuse cover-up scandal.

As Jason Berry reported in his “Vows of Silence” book, a former Mexican seminarian’s early report on Maciel’s crimes was made in a detailed official letter sent in 1976, almost four decades ago, by Msgr. John Alesandro, then the Chancellor of the Rockville Centre Diocese
on Long Island, NY. The Mexican priest was then resident in the LI Diocese. This Diocese is now run by Bishop Murphy, a long time accomplice of one of the pope’s favorite overseers of priest predators, Boston’s fugitive Cardinal Law.

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UNITED STATES
Richard Sipe

Santa Clara University
May 11, 2012

Thomas P. Doyle, J.C.D., C.A.D.C.

I want to begin by sharing the nature of my involvement in the phenomenon of sexual abuse by Catholic Clergy. I chose the word “phenomenon” intentionally because I do not believe any of the commonly used descriptors — “crisis,” “scandal,” “problem,” come even close to naming what this has been and what it is today.

My name is Tom Doyle. I was ordained a Dominican priest in 1970, forty two years ago. I received my doctorate in Canon Law in 1978. I first became involved in the issue of sexual abuse of minors when I had a position at the Vatican embassy in Washington. My initial experiences involved not former Father Gilbert Gauthe from Louisiana, but two bishops, both of whom are now deceased. The year was 1982 but my most intense involvement, shared with Fr. Dr. Michael Peterson and attorney Ray Mouton, began in 1984 and has not ended.
I would like to begin by stating my conclusion. Since 2002 the revelations of widespread sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy and religious men and women have spread to Europe, Latin America and to some Asian countries. In the US the Catholic bishops have created a number of programs and policies and have aggressively implemented their “Zero Tolerance” policy. In spite of these policies and the expensive public relations efforts they have implemented, the attitude of the bishops as a collective group has not only not changed but it has gotten worse.

Their disdain for the victims has become more and more obvious. The true measure of their understanding of the horrific nature of the issue and their commitment to change is not the programs, policies, documents or speeches they generate but their unqualified attitude of compassion toward the victims and this is scandalously lacking. The bishops simply don’t get it or if they do get it, they don’t care.

I have been directly and intimately involved in most dimensions of this travesty. I have been asked by accused priests to help with canonical and fraternal support. I have given workshops and seminars to groups of diocesan and religious priests. I have been an expert witness and a consultant in over a thousand civil and criminal cases throughout the United States, in Canada, Ireland, England, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand. I have been a consultant to or expert witness for several of the grand jury investigations in the U.S. including the Philadelphia grand juries of 2005 and 2011 and most recently I testified at the criminal trial in Philadelphia. I have served as a consultant or expert witness for the government commissions in Ireland beginning with the Ferns Commission and for the Cornwall Inquiry in Canada.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week

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

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

When asked by The Jewish Week to clarify what someone should do if he or she had information about allegations — rather than “information” — about abuse, Schmetterer said the individual should “report [the allegations] to authorities for investigation.”
James A. Cohen, associate professor of law and the director of the Trial Advocacy Program & External Affairs at Fordham University School of Law, concurs with the district attorney’s position. “Encouraging delay in reporting a crime, particularly a crime against a child, is obstructing justice,” Cohen told The Jewish Week.

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HAWAII
Damon Tucker: Hawaii News and Island Information

The first of what may be dozens of child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits was filed yesterday under an unusual new Hawaii law.

That measure lets adults who were molested as kids take legal action even decades after the violations took place.

An Oahu resident and former Damien Memorial High School student sued the Diocese of Honolulu charging that he was sexually assaulted as a child by Fr. Gerald Funcheon, a Crosier priest and former Damien chaplain in 1983 and 1984. The alleged crimes happened on an overnight retreat with the cleric on the Oahu eastern shore when the victim was 13 years old.

According to public documents and the lawsuit, church officials already knew that Funcheon was abusing prescription drugs and alcohol and had allegations of inappropriate behavior with children well before he was sent to Damien

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ITALY
Vatican Insider

Michele Brambilla
Lonato (Brescia)

“I’ve spent my life studying the history of the Church and attending Church, though more sparingly. I’m hardly going to be shocked.” Vittorio Messori is in the abbey of Maguzzano, a wonder nestled between the Moraine hills and Garda Lake, a place that the history of the Church has crisscrossed for 15 centuries, from St. Benedict to St John Calabria. Here, Messori has set up a study where he can take refuge when he is under pressure: like now, when he has only a few weeks before he has to deliver a book on Lourdes to Italian publisher Mondadori, a project that is very dear to his heart. Its title is Bernadette did not deceive us.

Is someone in the Vatican deceiving us instead? I ask Messori what a practicing Catholic may feel when hearing of how cardinals fight each other tooth and nail, when hearing of files slipped to journalists, of letters stolen from the Pope, of bank intrigues, murderers buried with state honours. “The Roman Curia,” he answers, “has always been a viper’s nest. However, in the past at least, it was the most efficient state organisation in the world. It ran an empire the sun never set on and it had an unparalleled diplomatic corps. What is left of that today?”

Strolling along the cloisters and then among the olive trees, this is how Messori describes the decadence: “The priests in the Roman Curia used to enlist the best people from all the dioceses in the world. Bishops had plenty of clergy around them and had no problem letting them go. Today seminaries have either closed or they’re half empty. So if a bishop has a good priest to hand, he keeps hold of him. And the Pope is like Charles V, who had to run a vast empire and cried out in a depopulated Spain: ‘Give me men’.” But in Africa, I try to object… “The boom in vocations? I’m not kidding myself. In Africa men enter the seminary for the same reasons they did here when we were dying of hunger. It’s a way of making a living. And apart from that, celibacy is incomprehensible for African culture so the Church – let’s put it this way – turns a blind eye. Many priests have wives and children. What are you going to do, send them to Rome? To be bishops?”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The confessor of the Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, springs to his defence: “He is in love with the Church and adores the Pope”

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

The voice of the elderly priest – who wished to remain anonymous – sounded broken from all the crying, as he spoke to Italian newspaper La Stampa, from his home in the Vatican. During the telephone interview he described what he knew about Benedict XVI’s 46 year old butler, Paolo Gabriele, husband and father of three, who was arrested after he was found in “illegal possession of confidential documents.” Like many in the Holy See, the monsignor is scared and still in shock after yesterday’s events.

“I have known Paolo for many years; – he confided – if the accusations against him prove to be true, there will be no one left to trust any more. I still remember when, some years back, he used to arrive at the Secretariat of State’s offices with his black apron, to clean the floors.”

The prelate recounted how at one time he had been the confessor of this man who eventually left his clearing apron behind, replacing it with an immaculate black suit as he went on to become the papal butler, the lay person closet to the Pope, the man who serves the Pope at his table every day. “I was his confessor at one time and I can say in all faith that the impression he has always given me is that of a man who is in love with the Church and deeply devoted to the Pope, first to John Paul II and now to Benedict XVI,” he added. The person who helped the young “Paoletto” to enter to serve in the Vatican is the rector of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Sassia, just a stone throw away from Via della Conciliazione and St. Peter’s Square. The Church is dedicated to the worship of the Divine Mercy of St. Faustina Kowalska and is very dear to the Poles.”

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

[with video]

Philip Pullella
Reuters

11:06 a.m. CDT, May 26, 2012

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Paolo Gabriele was always a reserved, almost shy man, as his position required. He had access to the most private rooms in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace – Pope Benedict’s apartment.

But what could have prompted the pope’s butler, who was formally charged by Vatican magistrates on Saturday with illegal possession of secret documents, to betray the man who trusted him?

Was it money? Probably not.

Gianluigi Nuzzi, the Italian journalist who revealed some of the leaked documents alleging corruption in the Vatican and internal conflict over the role of the Vatican bank, declines to reveal his sources but insists he gave no money to them.

Nuzzi, a respected journalist with a good track record whose book “His Holiness” contains some of the allegations, says those who gave him the documents were devout people “genuinely concerned about the Catholic Church” who wanted to expose corruption.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican confirmed on Saturday that the pope’s butler has been arrested in its embarrassing leaks scandal, adding a Hollywood twist to a sordid tale of power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of Catholic Church governance.

Paolo Gabriele, a layman and member of the papal household, was arrested Wednesday after secret documents were found in his Vatican City apartment and was continuing to be held Saturday, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

Gabriele is often seen by Pope Benedict XVI’s side in public, riding in the front seat of his open-air jeep during Wednesday general audiences or shielding the pontiff from the rain. He has been the pope’s personal butler since 2006, one of the few members of the small papal household that also includes the pontiff’s private secretaries and four consecrated women who care for the papal apartment.

His arrest followed another stunning development at the Vatican this week, the ouster of the president of the Vatican bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, by his board. Sources close to the investigation said he, too, was found to have leaked documents, though the official reason for his ouster was that he simply failed to do his job.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Confermo che la persona arrestata mercoledì sera per possesso illecito di documenti riservati, rinvenuti nella sua abitazione in territorio vaticano, è il Sig. Paolo Gabriele, che rimane tuttora in stato di detenzione.

Si è conclusa la prima fase di “istruttoria sommaria” sotto la direzione del Promotore di Giustizia, prof. Nicola Picardi, e si è avviata la fase di “istruttoria formale” condotta dal Giudice istruttore, prof. Piero Antonio Bonnet.

L’imputato ha nominato due avvocati di sua fiducia, abilitati ad agire presso il Tribunale vaticano, e ha avuto la possibilità di incontrarli. Essi potranno assisterlo nelle successive fasi del procedimento. Egli gode di tutte le garanzie giuridiche previste dai codici penale e di procedura penale in vigore nello Stato della Città del Vaticano.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Times

Published: Saturday, May 26, 2012

By MAUREEN PAUL TURLISH
Times Guest Columnist

One of the most egregious and telling examples of what has been happening in the institutional Roman Catholic Church worldwide is what has been happening in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia since the Boston, Mass., Archdiocese imploded in 2002.

In an article, “The crisis of credibility in Philadelphia,” published in the National Catholic Reporter on 10/28/2005.

I quoted Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua’s words to a CNN reporter. Bevilacqua said, “We are all agreed that no priest guilty of even one act of sexual abuse of a minor will function in any ecclesial ministry or any capacity in our diocese.”

Events following that April 2002 statement have shown in excruciating detail that Cardinal Bevilacqua’s words did not accurately describe the actions of the Philadelphia hierarchy then or during the ten years that followed.

Events since 2002 include:

— Three grand juries being convened to investigate the Archdiocese of Philadelphia resulting in reports published in 2005 and again in 2011,

— The release of depositions given by Cardinal Bevilacqua and some of his auxiliary bishops,

— Denials by Cardinal Justin Rigali shortly after the second grand jury was released in February 2011 that no suspected, credibly accused of known sexual predators were in ministry,

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UNITED KINGDOM
Liverpool Echo

•by Gary Stewart, Liverpool Echo
•May 26 2012

A MERSEYSIDE priest was told he is facing a lengthy jail sentence after admitting having sex with an underage boy.

Father Peter Hooper from St Luke’s Church in Bebington, Wirral, pleaded guilty to ten charges involving sexual activity with the teenager and inciting him to engage in such activity.

The offences are alleged to have take place at the St Luke the Physician diocese house in Church Road, Bebington, where regular masses are held in a small chapel.

The charges, involving the boy when he was aged 14 and 15, span a six month period ending on May 5 this year.

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CALIFORNIA
The Modesto Bee

By Carlos Alcalá
calcala@sacbee.com

The Legionaries of Christ are withdrawing from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, ending the prominent Catholic religious order’s presence in the Sacramento region.

The change, effective July 1, follows the order’s decision last year to close two schools here.

The Legionaries have endured controversy and scandal in the past decade involving some of their best-known leaders.

Local officials say the local withdrawal is a product of the order shrinking and re-evaluating where to focus its priests.

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IRELAND
IrishCentral

By
CATHY HAYES,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said he would not publicly back the Primate of All-Ireland Cardinal Sean Brady in the wake of further allegations that he failed to disclose information about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church during the 1970s.

Martin said the challenges facing the Catholic Church in Ireland were not solely about one person.

Speaking at the annual child protection update of the Archdiocese of Dublin he told the press: “Cardinal Brady has said that he is staying and that he has lots of support from people; I’ve never commented and I don’t know anything of those details… made no comments on other bishops.”

Earlier this month Martin has said it would not be appropriate for him to comment on Brady’s position.

Brady has kept a low profile following the airing of a BBC documentary “This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church.” The documentary raised concerns over the fact that Brady had failed to warn the church, parents and victims about notorious paedophile Father

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta

Friday, May 25, 2012

Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) has hit out at the Government’s failure to provide redress and an independent investigation into the abuse carried out in Magdalene Laundries.

The group made the criticisms after issuing a summary of its submissions to the inter-departmental committee set up to “clarify” any state involvement in the Magdalene Laundries.

In a comprehensive document, complete with Magdalene survivor testimony and clear examples, JFM outline “clear evidence” of state involvement in the operation of Magdalene Laundries in three main respects:

* The state was involved in sending women and young girls to the institutions and ensuring they remained there. This was done to deal with social problems;

* The state also provided the religious orders with direct and indirect financial support: direct financial support from “capitation” (per head) grants for certain of the women and girls incarcerated in the Magdalene Laundries; and indirect financial support in terms of valuable state contracts for the cleaning laundry;

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VATICAN CITY
Seattle PI

A butler in the Apostolic Palace of Pope Benedict XVI has been arrested by Vatican security on suspicion that he is the “Deep Throat” who leaked documents on the Vatican’s internal strife to Italian newspapers earlier this year.

The arrest came on the same day that Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, president of the Vatican Bank was forced out by its directors for “failure to fulfill various primary functions of his office.”

John Allen, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, summed up the situation by writing: “Perhaps, it would be more accurate, albeit a bit crude, to say all Hell is breaking loose in the Holy See.”

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

You may have seen pictures of Paolo Gabriele, the 46-year-old, impeccably dressed black-suited Italian arrested on suspicion of stealing secret Vatican correspondence, without recognising who he is.

He is the Pope’s closest private servant – his valet or, if you prefer a conventional English title, his butler.

He lives in the Pope’s shadow and has always been at hand to smooth the pontiff’s path through his multiple official duties – in public and in private.

Each morning he helps Pope Benedict to dress, and attends his early morning private mass. He usually serves the Pope’s meals, and sometimes is invited to sit at the Pope’s table.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 25, 2012

“A bishop. A priest. A woman. A boy.”

My friend Steve Julian‘s play Altarcations will debut in June at the 2012 Hollywood Fringe Festival. I met Steve (whom some of you may recognize as the morning host of KPCC‘s Morning Edition) after I “outed” one of his former high school teachers as an admitted perpetrator in the New York Times. When he told me about this play, I flipped (in a very good way). I’ve been lucky enough to see early drafts and talk to him about the progression of the play and the growth of the characters.

It’s going to be an amazing production.

Then I found out the play had been accepting into the Hollywood Fringe Festival. I flipped again.

The play runs from June 8 to 14 at The Actors Circle Theater. Tickets are a VERY AFFORDABLE $10 to $15. You need to go. And then you need to tell your friends to go. You can buy tickets here.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Legal Tribune

Köln ermittelt, Tatort soll Essen sein: Ein Kaplan soll geplaudert haben. Über sexuelle Vorlieben, seinen ehemaligen Vorgesetzen und homosexuelle Kontaktbörsen. Die Kenntnisse von diesen Gerüchten soll er aus dem Beichtstuhl haben. Norbert Diel über kirchenrechtliche Konsequenzen des Verrats von Geheimnissen zwischen Mensch und Gott.

Im Bistum Essen werden schwerwiegende Vorwürfe gegen einen Kaplan erhoben: Er soll einen Beichtenden gezielt nach sexuellen Vorlieben seines ehemaligen Vorgesetzten, des inzwischen versetzten Pfarrers der Gemeinde, ausgehorcht und diese Informationen nachher genutzt haben, um den Geistlichen, aber auch andere Personen direkt damit zu konfrontieren.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kirchen Site

Berlin. Internationale Experten fordern einen besseren Schutz von Kindern vor sexuellem Missbrauch im Internet. Wie eine in Berlin vorgestellte qualitative Studie im Auftrag der EU-Kommission ergab, experimentieren Kinder und Jugendliche leichtfertig mit der Selbstdarstellung im Netz und probieren häufig online aus, wie sie auf andere Personen reagieren.

Je jünger Kinder online agierten, umso größer sei die Gefahr, Opfer sexueller Übergriffe zu werden. Mädchen seien gefährdeter als Jungen – ebenso wie unsichere, weniger selbstbewusste Kinder. Für die Studie wurden gut 200 Jugendliche aus sechs Ländern im Alter von 12 bis 18 Jahren befragt, darunter auch Missbrauchsopfer, sowie Onlinetäter.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kirke Heute

Sein Brief an potenzielle Betroffene sexueller Übergriffe im Berliner Canisius-Kolleg löste im Januar 2010 eine Lawine aus. Letzte Woche sprach Jesuitenpater Klaus Mertes in Basel zu «Macht, Sexualität und Kirche» und beklagte die Herz- und Sprachlosigkeit der Kirche, wenn es um das Thema Sexualität geht.

Es begann am 14. Januar 2010 mit dem Besuch dreier ehemaliger Schüler des Berliner Jesuitengymnasium Canisius-Kolleg, die Klaus Mertes, dem damaligen Rektor, vom sexuellen Missbrauch durch zwei frühere Lehrkräfte berichteten. Am 20. Januar 2010 wandte sich Mertes mit einem Brief an rund 600 Schüler der potenziell betroffenen Jahrgänge. Es kam, wie es kommen musste: Der Brief gelangte an die Öffentlichkeit, und mit der Publikation am 28. Januar 2010 in der Berliner Morgenpost brach der Sturm los. Zweck des Briefs sei es gewesen, den möglichen Betroffenen Ansprechbarkeit zu signalisieren, sagte Mertes in seinem Vortrag in der Veranstaltungsreihe «Uni.Sex» der Katholischen Universitätsgemeinde Basel.

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DEUTSCHLAND
HNA

Fritzlar. Hansjörg L, der wegen des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern in 155 Fällen verurteilt worden ist, ist kein Priester mehr. Er gehört auch dem Orden der Prämonstratenser nicht mehr an, sagte der Abt des Ordens, Michael K. Proházka o.praem., auf Anfrage der HNA.

Die Entlassung aus dem Priesterstand und der Rauswurf aus dem Orden sind aus kirchenrechtlicher Sicht die härtesten Strafen. Der Betroffene verliert damit alle Rechte des geistlichen Standes. Möglich wären im Kirchenrecht auch Geldstrafen und diverse Auflagen gewesen. Von einem weltlichen Gericht war der ehemalige Fritzlarer Priester zu sieben Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Er war unter anderem für die Ministranten zuständig gewesen.

Für die Jahre, in denen Hansjörg L., dessen Ordensname Herr Michael war, Mitglied des Ordens der Prämonstratenser war, werde Geld in die Sozialkasse eingezahlt, erläuterte Abt Proházka.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com

WORCESTER — The Rev. Charles M. Abdelahad, longtime pastor of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral, was sentenced to serve 90 days of a two-year jail term yesterday after being found guilty of physically assaulting a female parishioner during counseling sessions.

The 56-year-old priest, now on a leave of absence, was accused of physically and sexually abusing the 45-year-old woman during about three years’ worth of counseling sessions at the church on Anna Street. The sessions began in 2007 and were aimed at treating the victim’s eating disorder.

Judge Andrew M. D’Angelo, who presided over the priest’s jury-waived trial in Central District Court, found Rev. Abdelahad guilty of one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot) for kicking the woman and one count of assault and battery for biting her.

Judge D’Angelo acquitted Rev. Abdelahad on charges of indecent assault and battery, four additional counts of assault and battery and three additional counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

The judge sentenced Rev. Abdelahad to two years in the House of Correction, with 90 days to be served, on the assault and battery charge. The balance of the sentence was suspended for three years with probation. Judge D’Angelo imposed a concurrent term of three years’ probation on the assault and battery charge.

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BATON ROUGE (LA)
WAFB

By WAFB Staff

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) –
Governor Bobby Jindal signed legislation Friday requires eyewitnesses of sexual abuse to report the abuse to authorities. This law will toughen penalties for those who don’t report the abuse.

The legislation – HB 577 by Representative Joseph Lopinto – is part of the Governor’s 2012 legislative package.

In a news release Friday, Governor Jindal said, “We have a moral duty to protect our children. This new law will ensure that suspected cases of abuse are reported to the proper authorities and will punish those who fail to report these monstrous acts.”

The new law penalizes any adult eyewitness to sexual abuse who fails to report to authorities. The failure to report would be a felony, with imprisonment up to five years and/or a fine of up to ten thousand dollars.

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NEW YORK
Legislative Gazette

By Alli Sofer

May 25, 2012
Spotlighting childhood sexual abuse, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey hosted a roundtable discussion on the importance of the Child Victims’ Act of New York, a bill that would extend the statute of limitations in cases of childhood sexual assault.

Roundtable speakers included Markey, D-Maspeth; moderator Melissa Breger, professor at Albany Law School; Marci Hamilton, professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; Shannon Sarfoh, assistant district attorney and bureau chief of the special victims unit; and Carmen Durso, a member of the Massachusetts bar.

Markey has been pushing legislation (A.5488) to create a one-year window in which any victim of sexual abuse, regardless of when the abuse occurred, can file a civil suit against their abuser. Markey’s bill also extends the criminal and civil statute of limitations by five years. The current statute is five years after the attack or five years after the victim turns age 18, giving them until age 23 to file a claim. Markey’s legislation would begin the statute at age 23 and end at age 28.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Washington Post

By Associated Press, Published: May 25

LOS ANGELES — In a story May 22 about internal files of nine Franciscan priests that were released as part of a sexual abuse lawsuit settlement in California, The Associated Press incorrectly spelled the name of the attorney for the Roman Catholic order. His name is Brian Brosnahan.

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NEW MEXICO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on May 25, 2012

We are members of an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Our mission is to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. That’s why we’re here today outside the Catholic Center offices in Albuquerque.

Next month, America’s Catholic bishops will puff out their chests and brag about their massive public relations moves – the policies, panels and procedures they belatedly set up a decade ago when facing unprecedented pressure for ignoring and concealing horrific child sex crimes for decades. But what’s sorely missing is real action, especially simple, proven action to:

• -Help warn parishioners and the public about predators, and
• – Remove priests who pose a danger from ministry and monitor them to ensure they don’t hurt more kids.
-That’s why we’re here today – to warn Catholics and citizens about two child molesting clerics and to seek out anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered their crimes. Specifically, we’re here to urge New Mexico’s Catholic bishops to
• -Use their vast resources to more aggressively seek out others who may have been hurt by two New Mexico clerics, and
• -Permanently post on their websites the names of all credibly accused predator priests.

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NEW MEXICO
KOAT

By Todd Unger

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. –
SNAP, a leading group of sexual abuse victims and advocates, says it wants more transparency from officials in the Catholic church.

Protesting outside of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe on Friday afternoon, the group’s president Barbara Blaine said it was time for Archbishop Michael Sheehan to take a more active role.

Specifically, Blaine said he should publish the name of credibly accused priests on the archdiocese website. She also wants to see rewards handed out to parishioners who expose abuse.

The archdiocese didn’t respond to requests for comment about the protest, but over the past decade it has routinely said it’s committed to stomping out abuse throughout the state.

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ITALY
Belfast Telegraph

Saturday, 26 May 2012

The Italian Bishop’s Conference (CIE) has issued guidelines on child protection that inform its bishops that they are ‘not obliged to report illicit facts’ of child abuse to the police.

The new guidelines were released recently after the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith advised every Bishop Conference to create a document covering Child Protection if they did not already have one.

One of the conferences that was void of such documentation was the CEI which works under Pope Benedict XVI.

In their new five page document which advised Italian Bishops on how to deal with paedophilia they failed to focus on one of the most important and obvious means of combating the crime – informing police authorities.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Archbishop Paul Cremona and Gozo Bishop Mario Grech will go to the Vatican tomorrow to report on the state of their dioceses. They do so in accordance with Church law that lays down that, every five years, a diocesan bishop must make a report to the Supreme Pontiff on the state of the diocese entrusted to him.

The ad limina apostolorum, as these visits are known in Church language, is primarily a manifestation and a means of communion between the bishops and the Chair of Peter. It is an occasion that has three principal moments, each one of them having its own proper meaning. …

The problems are not limited to the traumatic experiences caused by certain high-profile issues, such as the scandals of the sexual abuse of minors within the Church’s fold, the impact of the divorce referendum result and the controversies involving Church teaching regarding IVF and same-sex unions.

There are, of course, other problems that need to be addressed, including that of people distancing themselves from the Church for personal reasons. These vary from religious indifference or a lukewarm spirit to a feeling that, in certain areas, Catholicism is merely “a collection of prohibitions”.

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HAWAII
Hawaii News Now

[the lawsuit]

[documents]

HONOLULU (AP) – Attorneys have filed a lawsuit on behalf of a man alleging sexual abuse by a priest at a Honolulu all-boys Catholic school in the 1980s.

The lawsuit filed in Circuit Court in Honolulu Thursday claims the then-13-year-old boy was abused during an overnight retreat by Rev. Gerald Funcheon, a former chaplain and teacher Damien Memorial School.

The lawsuit doesn’t name the plaintiff, now an adult living in Honolulu.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests says this is the first lawsuit under a new Hawaii law providing a 2-year window for claims of sexual abuse against minors to be made, even if the statute of limitations has lapsed.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
New York Daily News

By Rheana Murray / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Friday, May 25, 2012

A Catholic priest removed from the ministry ten years ago for sexually abusing young girls has found another job — with the TSA.

Thomas Harkins, once a priest at churches throughout South Jersey, now works as a TSA supervisor at the Philadelphia International Airport, CBS Philly reports.

He was forced to leave the church in 2002, when the Diocese of Camden found him guilty of sexually abusing two young girls.

Now, a third alleged victim has come forward, according to the station.

In a new lawsuit, Harkins is accused of sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl as many as 15 times between 1980 and 1981. One of the alleged incidents occurred in Harkins’ bedroom at the rectory of Saint Anthony of Padua parish in Hammonton, N.J, where Harkins worked at the time.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Paige Austin

May 25, 2012

It’s been 20 years since Leisure World resident and former priest Denis Lyons began molesting a nine-year-old altar boy at his Costa Mesa parish St. John the Baptist Church.

Since that time, the sexual abuse scandal rocked the Catholic Church, and laws were changed to free victims from the narrow window that the statute of limitations placed on child sex crimes. Lyons’ story reverberates the church wide scandal, the legal evolution and the private saga of the former altar boys who accuse him of molestation.

Looking every bit his 78 years, Lyons sat in an empty 11th floor courtroom Friday morning. His hands crossed, his eyes downcast, Lyons waited to hear his sentence while listening to attorneys chatter about murder, torture and drug cases. Wearing blue slacks and a sports coat, he shuffled back and forth to the bathroom while waiting for his sentencing, but it was postponed until August when an official psychiatric evaluation can be submitted to complete the case.

Lyons was scheduled to be sentenced for molesting a boy in the church rectory for years between 1992 and 1995. He faces a year in jail, having pleaded guilty to four counts of molestation in a deal that spares him a trial and the specter of 14 years in prison if convicted by a jury.

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DALLAS (TX)
Omaha World-Herald

From Staff and Wire Reports

DALLAS — A Texas jury has sentenced an Omaha native who had served as a priest in Nebraska to 60 years in prison for plotting the death of a Texas man who accused him of sexual abuse.

Prosecutors had asked jurors for a life sentence for John M. Fiala, 53. His alleged rape at gunpoint of a 16-year-old youth in 2007 and 2008 and subsequent conspiracy to have the accuser murdered occurred in Texas after Fiala had left Nebraska and the Archdiocese of Omaha. Fiala’s defense attorney had said any sentence longer than 15 years would be a “travesty.”

Fiala, who was removed from his priestly duties in the fall of 2008, will be eligible for parole after 15 years. Fiala was convicted May 17 for solicitation of capital murder.

Prosecutors said Fiala tried to hire a neighbor’s brother to kill the man who accused him of abuse in 2008 when Fiala was the priest at a rural West Texas parish.

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WASHINGTON
The Spokesman Review

John Stucke
The Spokesman-Review

Nineteen lawsuits against the Morning Star Boys’ Ranch have been settled, part of a larger settlement that’s expected to sew shut all of the outstanding legal issues surrounding the clergy sex abuse problems of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane.

The seven years of litigation damaged the reputation of Morning Star and its revered longtime director, the Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner, who had been affectionately called Father Joe by legions of former ranch residents, Catholic parishioners and supporters.

Financial terms of the settlements have yet to be made public, however the ranch had multiple insurance policies and its foundation controlled about $10.6 million in assets, according to tax records.

Morning Star came under scrutiny in 2005 when The Spokesman-Review began reporting on sex abuse accusations made by former residents. Many said they were beaten, molested and raped by Weitensteiner, now-deceased counselor Doyle Gillum and notorious pedophile priest Patrick O’Donnell.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Your Local Guardian

An Ethiopian Orthodox priest who sexually abused a parishioner during a depraved baptism ritual has avoided a jail term and is continuing to practise.

Gebrehana Semre of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church in St Phillips Square, Battersea, was handed a 12-month prison sentence last week, suspended for 18 months, after being convicted of assaulting the woman.

In September 2010, Semre used his position within the church to invite himself into the victim’s home in order to bless the house and baptise her.

The 47-year-old priest, from Battersea, told the vulnerable woman she needed to be naked in order for the ceremony to be authentic.

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VATICAN CITY
Los Angeles Times

By Sarah Delaney, Los Angeles Times

May 25, 2012
ROME — As it turns out, the butler did it. At least that’s who the papal police force believes is responsible for the recent leaks of personal papal correspondence that has shed unwanted light on power struggles and alleged corruption within the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Friday that the internal police had arrested a man who worked in the Vatican on suspicion of pilfering and leaking private documents belonging to Pope Benedict XVI. The unauthorized release of private papal documents is unprecedented, at least in recent memory, piercing the veil of legendary Vatican secrecy.

Italian news reports identified the suspect as Paolo Gabriele, a butler in the papal household who, as a personal servant of Pope Benedict, would have had direct access to his belongings.

Benedict said he was “saddened and struck” by the news of the arrest, according to news reports.

The arrest followed several months of revelations of letters to the pope and others, written by various figures, that indicate conflict among the factions within Vatican City’s massive walls.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By RACHEL DONADIO

Published: May 25, 2012

ROME — A mysterious source named Maria. A room furnished with a single chair, where sensitive Vatican documents are turned over to an investigative journalist at regular meetings. The arrest of the pope’s butler. Perhaps the greatest breach in centuries in the wall of secrecy that surrounds the Vatican.

An on-again, off-again scandal that the Italian press has called Vatileaks burst into the open on Friday with the arrest by Vatican gendarmes of the butler, identified in news reports as Paolo Gabriele, who the Vatican said was in possession of confidential documents and was suspected of leaking private letters addressed to Pope Benedict XVI.

The arrest follows by a day the ouster of the president of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, amid conflicts over how to bring the secretive institution in line with international transparency standards and days after the publication of a sensational book, “Your Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI,” in which the journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, aided by “Maria,” discloses a huge cache of private Vatican correspondence, many with allegations of mismanagement at the Vatican bank and cases of corruption and cronyism.

The letters, which have made their way into the Italian news media in recent months, draw a portrait of an ancient institution in chaotic disarray behind its high, stately walls, where various factions vie for power, influence and financial control in the twilight years of Benedict’s papacy.

“Of course there are problems, big problems,” said Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican expert for the Italian daily La Stampa and its Web site, Vatican Insider. “What is happening now shows that there’s a crisis.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Independent (United Kingdom)

Michael Day
Milan

Saturday 26 May 2012

Vatican police yesterday seized Pope Benedict’s butler in connection with a series of embarrassing leaks on alleged corruption, infighting and mismanagement that have emerged about the Holy See over the past year.

The arrest of Paolo Gabriele came after the decision by the Pontiff last month to set up a special commission of cardinals to smoke out the mole responsible for the highly publicised revelations.

“The inquiry carried out by Vatican police… allowed them to identify someone in possession of confidential documents,” the Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told journalists. Senior officials had recently railed against leaking sensitive documents as “a criminal act”.

News of the papal butler’s arrest brought more drama to a week that has already seen the scandal-struck Vatican bank embroiled in fresh controversy. Rising tensions over plans to make the institution conform to international standards of transparency were blamed for Thursday’s sacking of its chief Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.

The respected financier was ousted after months of internal battles following his insistence on applying the anti-money laundering rules demanded by the European Commission. Mr Gotti Tedeschi, 67, an expert on financial ethics, was put in charge of the bank – also known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) – in 2009, specifically to clean-up its reputation.

His plan to introduce transparency was at first agreed by key figures at the Vatican, including the powerful secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. But when Mr Gotti Tedeschi insisted that the anti-corruption regulations should be retroactive, Cardinal Bertone and other key figures are thought to have turned against him.

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VATICAN CITY
The Irish Times

The reported arrest of the pope’s butler comes amid a week of drama at the Vatican, writes PADDY AGNEW in Rome

PERHAPS NOT since the days, 30 years ago, when the Vatican’s Bank, IOR, made all the worst possible headlines because of its heavy involvement in the downfall of Roberto Calvi’s Banco Ambrosiano, have there been any developments in Vatican City quite as sensational as yesterday’s.

Widespread, insistent but officially unconfirmed media reports claimed the pope’s personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, had been arrested by the Vatican Gendarmerie, charged with having stolen private papers and documentation from the papal household.

Although the Vatican would not confirm the arrest of Mr Gabriele, senior spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi confirmed “a person illegally in possession of private documents has been arrested”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NPR

[with audio]

May 24, 2012

Monsignor William Lynn, the highest ranking Catholic official to be criminally tried for covering up child sex abuse by priests, faced fierce questioning in a Philadelphia courtroom on Thursday. Lynn handled the sex abuse claims when he was secretary for clergy for more than a decade.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I’m Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I’m Audie Cornish.

And we go next to the trial of Monsignor William Lynn. He’s the highest ranking Catholic official in the U.S. to be criminally tried for covering up child sex abuse by priests. His case is being heard right now in Philadelphia, and today, he faced fierce questioning. Monsignor Lynn handled sex abuse claims when he was secretary for clergy in Philadelphia’s archdiocese. He’s been charged with conspiracy and child endangerment.

NPR’s Barbara Bradley Hagerty was in the courtroom today and joins us now. And, Barbara, to start, remind us the background of this case.

BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY, BYLINE: Sure, Audie. This stems from a grand jury report – actually a couple of them that found that many priests who are accused of abuse were still in ministry. And so prosecutors looked into it, and it turned out that only two of those cases of priests were fresh enough, that hadn’t passed the statute of limitations. And so, this case is about those sex abuse cases.

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FALMOUTH (MA)
Cape Cod Times

By SEAN TEEHAN

May 25, 2012

The Archdiocese of Boston put a senior priest who sometimes worked in a Falmouth Catholic Church on administrative leave following an allegation of sexual abuse of a child.

The allegation against the Rev. Joseph F. Byrne stems from alleged conduct in the early 1970s a statement from the Archdiocese said. Officials at the Archdiocese were recently notified of the complaint and immediately alerted law enforcement, the statement said.

Byrne will remain on administrative leave with no public ministry pending the outcome of a preliminary investigation of the allegation, the statement said.

“We remain committed to doing everything possible to ensure the safety and well-being of children and young people in our parishes and institutions,” said Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley in a statement. “I know the faithful and the clergy of the Archdiocese join me in this pledge of prayerful support.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
San Antonio Express-News

FALMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — A Cape Cod priest who pleaded no contest seven years ago to embezzling $135,000 from his former parish has been placed on leave after a child sex abuse allegation.

The Boston Archdiocese said Friday that it’s removed The Rev. Joseph Byrne from public ministry pending an investigation. The archdiocese said the retired priest had “limited ministry” at St. Patrick’s Church in Falmouth.

The archdiocese said the new allegation against Byrne dates to the early 1970s, but was just recently reported.

In June 2005, Byrne was sentenced to five years probation after pleading no contest to embezzling $135,000 from Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted parish in Waltham. Prosecutors said between 1997 and 2000, Byrne transferred parish funds to his bank account and made purchases from accounts containing parish money.

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HAWAII
The Republic

[the lawsuit]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: May 25, 2012

HONOLULU — Attorneys have filed a lawsuit on behalf of a man alleging sexual abuse by a priest at a Honolulu all-boys Catholic school in the 1980s.

The lawsuit filed in Circuit Court in Honolulu Thursday claims the then-13-year-old boy was abused during an overnight retreat by Rev. Gerald Funcheon, a former chaplain and teacher Damien Memorial School.

The lawsuit doesn’t name the plaintiff, now an adult living in Honolulu.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests says this is the first lawsuit under a new Hawaii law providing a two-year window for claims of sexual abuse against minors to be made, even if the statute of limitations has lapsed.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Courtneyt Trenwith
May 25, 2012

A hostel warden accused of ordering boys to strip to their underwear and “wrestle” him – in what has been described as simulating sex – did not deny the allegation when confronted, the then-chair of the hostel board has told a special inquiry.

Bishop Michael Challen said he immediately “invited” Roy Wenlock to resign but did not report the matter to police because the student who complained had asked for confidentiality.

“Reporting wasn’t required then … and the parents asked me specifically not to report it on behalf of the boy,” Bishop Challen said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Updated May 25, 2012

An inquiry into child sex abuse at a Northam Hostel has heard an Anglican Bishop gave the warden a glowing reference after sacking him for alleged sexual misconduct.

Bishop Michael Challen was the head of Saint Christopher’s Hostel board when allegations of sexual abuse arose against the warden, Roy Wenlock including that he would invite boys to his flat to wrestle him in their underpants while simulating sexual intercourse.

Yesterday, an inquiry investigating sexual abuse allegations at the hostel was told a meeting was held between the bishop, one of the victims and a local member of Parliament in 1976 to discuss allegations of abuse.

Bishop Challen denies he attended the meeting.

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ROM
Spiegel

Seit Wochen spielte ein Insider Journalisten vertrauliche Dokumente aus dem Vatikan zu – nun haben die Ermittler einen Verdächtigen inhaftiert. In seiner Wohnung wurden stapelweise Unterlagen gefunden. Es soll sich laut italienischen Zeitungen um einen Diener des Papstes handeln.

Rom – Normalerweise dringt nichts nach draußen, wenn römische Kardinäle die politischen und finanziellen Verhältnisse im Kirchenstaat sortieren. Sie regeln ihre Macht- und Geldgeschäfte am liebsten unter sich, hinter den dicken Mauern des Vatikans, möglichst unbehelligt von den Medien. Doch in den vergangenen Monaten gelangten immer wieder geheime Informationen in die Öffentlichkeit.

Monatelang suchten die Ermittler nach dem Maulwurf. Der Vatikan sprach von “VatiLeaks” – in Anspielung auf die Veröffentlichung geheimer US-Botschaftsdepeschen auf der Enthüllungsplattform WikiLeaks. Papst Benedikt XVI. beauftragte Mitte März eine Sonderkommission mit den Ermittlungen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
domradio

Nach den Skandalen um sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen in der katholischen Kirche hält der neue Generalvikar des Kölner Erzbischofs, Stefan Heße, den erneuten Einsatz von straffällig gewordenen Geistlichen kaum für möglich. Als praktikable Lösung bleibe im Grunde nur die Null-Toleranz – die Entlassung aus dem kirchlichen Dienst, sagte Heße.

“Diese US-amerikanische Praxis wird auch von den deutschen Bischöfen diskutiert, und ich halte es durchaus für möglich, dass auch wir zu dieser Lösung kommen”, sagte Heße. Es gehe “nicht nur um vergangene Taten und Verjährungsfristen, sondern auch um die Glaubwürdigkeit der Kirche: Kann ein Täter noch glaubhaft im Auftrag der Kirche das Evangelium verkünden?” sagte Heße dem “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. Er stellt sich damit gegen die bisherige Praxis.

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UNITED STATES
The Courier-Journal

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Peter Smith

Fair warning, religious congregations: It isn’t enough to do a criminal background check on a prospective minister. A few phone calls are needed, too.

Florida jury has found the Florida Baptist Convention liable for sexual abuse committed by a pastor it had supported financially.

Normally Baptist conventions are able to keep arm’s length from such lawsuits because local congregations are autonomous.

But in this case, the jury found that the convention failed to do due diligence before it provided grants and training to Douglas W. Myers to work as a church planter.

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MICHIGAN
CBS Detroit

GRAND HAVEN (CBS DETROIT) A Michigan priest says he’s gotten nothing but support since he was admonished to stop hugging kids during church services after someone anonymously reported it made them uncomfortable.

“I’ve heard from tons of people, great support, everything’s going to be great, I’m probably the only priest doing it … Everything’s going to be fine, it’s just one of those things, but I sure got a lot of support,” said Father Bill Langlois of St. Patrick and St. Anthony Parish.

For 16 years at the parish, Langlois has set aside time during services to hug children of all ages — anyone who got in line. He reportedly told them things like “I am hugging you, you are hugging me and Jesus is hugging us.”

But recently, the Diocese of Grand Rapids received a letter from someone who anonymously wrote that the practice could be viewed as “inappropriate.” There was no allegation of wrongdoing.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

Priest in Falmouth area placed on leave after child sex abuse allegation; was previously convicted in Waltham embezzlement case

By Martin Finucane and Lisa Wangsness
| Globe Staff

A senior priest with a limited ministry in the Falmouth area has been placed on administrative leave after officials received an allegation of child sex abuse, the Archdiocese of Boston said today.

The allegation against the Rev. Joseph Byrne dates back to the early 1970s and was only recently reported to church officials, the archdiocese said in a statement.

The archdiocese said it had notified law enforcement and initiated a preliminary investigation into the complaint.

Byrne will be barred from ministering to the public until the preliminary investigation is finished.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on May 25, 2012

We are grateful that the Archdiocese has notified the public that Rev. Joseph Byrne has been put on leave and that they have turned their evidence over to law enforcement. We hope that they will be sure to keep a tight rein on Rev. Byrne and monitor him closely now that he has been removed from ministry.

We urge Cardinal O’Malley to instruct his flock on how to respond appropriately when allegations of abuse surface. There may be some who will not believe these claims. It is important that parishioners don’t make public statements or hold public demonstrations in support of this priest, as this will only deter other witnesses and victims from coming forward, and will intimidate those who already have come forward. Instead, they should be encouraged to support him privately, through prayers, calls or visits.

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MASSACHUSETTS
MetroWest Daily News

By Julia Spitz/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News

Posted May 25, 2012

WALTHAM —

A priest who pleaded no contest to charges he embezzled more than $100,000 from a Waltham parish has been placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Boston due to allegations of sexual abuse.

The Rev. Joseph F. Byrne, pastor of Waltham’s Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted Church from 1994-2002, most recently served as a senior priest with limited ministry in parishes in the Falmouth area, the archdiocese said in a statement today. The allegations of improper contact with a child in the early 1970s were only recently reported to the archdiocese, officials said. The specifics of the allegation are not being revealed due to the ongoing investigation and to protect the identity of the person making the allegation, an archdiocese spokeswoman said.

The archdiocese has notified law enforcement of the allegation and initiated a preliminary investigation into the complaint, archdiocese officials said.

Byrne will remain on administrative leave without any public ministry pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation, the archdiocese said today.

“The decision to place Fr. Byrne on administrative leave represents the archdiocese’s commitment to the welfare of all parties and does not represent a determination of Fr. Byrne’s guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation,’’ the archdiocese said in its statement. “The archdiocese will work to resolve this case as expeditiously as possible and in a manner that is fair to all parties.’’

In 2005, Byrne pleaded no contest to seven counts of larceny over $250 and was sentenced to five years probation on each count.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Pope’s butler arrested by Vatican police after leaked church documents revealed allegations of power struggles with Vatican bank

Documents also show how contracts were awarded to favoured people
Paolo Gabriele has been at the Pope’s side for six years
Furious Pope appointed senior cardinals to investigate the leaks

By Nick Pisa
PUBLISHED: 13:31 EST, 25 May 2012

Vatican police have arrested Pope Benedict XVI’s personal butler following an investigation into the leaking of sensitive church documents, it emerged today.

In a scenes worthy of a Dan Brown thriller, the butler identified as Paolo Gabriele, 46, was held by gendarmes after a special commission of three top senior cardinals had been appointed by a furious Pope Benedict to identify the source of the leaks which have caused severe embarrassment.

Gabriele, who has been at the Pope’s side for six years, is one of the German born pontiff’s closest members of his inner circle which totals just four lay people and four nuns and he is always at his side – he is so close that he and the nuns who look after him are described as

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on March 25, 2012

The first lawsuit under Hawaii’s landmark civil window was filed yesterday in Hawaii Circuit Court.

The lawsuit (posted here) charges that Fr. Gerald Funcheon sexually abused a 13-year-old boy at Damien Memorial School in 1983/1984 during an overnight retreat on the eastern shore of Oahu. Considering Funcheon’s history (you can read some of the documents here), we can only assume that there may be more victims in Hawaii who are suffering.

Besides exposing predators and keeping kids safe, the beauty of the anti-crime civil window is that the responsible parties are forced to be accountable for the harm they did to child victims and take some of the financial burden for victims’ care off of state coffers and taxpayers. The civil window provides an opportunity put that burden back onto the abusers and enablers, where it belongs.

Similar laws in California and Delaware have exposed hundreds of predators and helped law enforcement put child molesters behind bars.

Funcheon has also been accused of sexual abuse by two former students at Salinas’ Palma School, Chris Spedden and Steven Cantrell. Cantrell, a Monterey-area doctor, wrote an open letter to Palma and the community about the importance of coming forward and reporting sexual abuse. Both Spedden and Cantrell came forward as a part of the Irish Christian Brothers’ bankruptcy. The Brothers run Damien and Palma, as well as other schools across the United States

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CLEVELAND (OH)
National Catholic Reporter

May. 25, 2012
By Brian Roewe

The recent decision of Cleveland bishop Richard G. Lennon to eliminate his diocese’s pastoral planning office appears to have been the final straw, atop a growing list of grievances, for some of his priests.

Since the office’s closing and concurrent firing of two long-time and respected employees, several priests have written letters to Lennon’s superiors in the United States and in Rome, voicing a lack confidence in his leadership and requesting his removal.

The letters surfaced even as Lennon is engaged in the early stages of restoring 11 parishes, carrying out an order from Rome that reversed his earlier decision to shutter the churches. The bishop said in a May 23 meeting with the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s editorial board he hopes to begin reopening parishes by mid-June and complete the process by Aug. 1, the newspaper reported.

Obtained by NCR Thursday morning, the letters from three priests — whose names and respective parishes were blacked out — call for Lennon’s removal as their bishop, and express their waning confidence in his ability to lead the diocese.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com

WORCESTER — The Rev. Charles M. Abdelahad, longtime pastor of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral, was found guilty today of physically assaulting a female parishioner during counseling sessions.

The 55-year-old priest, now on a leave of absence, was accused of physically and sexually abusing the 45-year-old woman during about three years’ worth of counseling sessions at the church on Anna Street. The sessions began in 2007 and were aimed at treating the victim’s eating disorder.

Judge Andrew M. D’Angelo, who presided over a jury-waived trial in Central District Court, found Rev. Abdelahad guilty of one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot) for kicking the woman and one count of assault and battery for biting her. Judge D’Angelo acquitted Rev. Abdelahad on charges of indecent assault and battery, four additional counts of assault and battery and three additional counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

The verdicts were announced by the judge shortly before 12:45 p.m. in a courtroom packed with supporters of both the priest and his accuser.

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VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

Vatican police have arrested Pope Benedict XVI’s personal butler following an investigation into the leaking of sensitive church documents.

By Nick Pisa in Rome
5:30PM BST 25 May 2012

The butler, identified as Paolo Gabriele, 40, was held by gendarmes after a special commission of three top senior cardinals had been appointed by the Pope to identify the source of the leaks which have caused severe embarrassment.

Mr Gabriele, who has been at the Pope’s side for six years, is one of the German born pontiff’s closest members of his inner circle which totals just four lay people and four nuns and he is always at his side.

It is believed that Mr Gabriele, who is known by the nickname Paoletto (little Paul) was held as he arrived for work at the Papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace behind St Peter’s and on Friday he was being held in custody – the first time in years the Vatican jail had been used.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
JD Journal

On Thursday, Monsignor William Lynn of the Philadelphia Archdiocese was ripped apart by the prosecution and a gem, a true scintillating gem of Church logic came to fore. The reply given by Monsignor Lynn to the unhappy being identified in court records only as “Tim” was cited by the prosecutors. Tim, a former seminarian, had been repeatedly sexually abused by Reverend Stanley Gana, and a scathing 2005 grand jury report was cited on the exchange where Tim faced Monsignor Lynn. Tim asked why, even though the entire church knew that Stanley Gana was a confirmed pedophile, he was not evicted from the church.

The grand jury report says, “Monsignor Lynn asked the victim, who had been forced to have oral and anal sex beginning when he was 13 years old to understand that the archdiocese would have taken steps to remove Father Gana from the priesthood had he been diagnosed as a pedophile.”

“But Father Gana was not only having sex with children and teenage minors, Monsignor Lynn explained, he had also slept with women, abused alcohol and stolen money from parish churches,” informed the report of the grand jury.

The rationale: “That is why he remained, with Cardinal Bevilacqua’s blessing, a priest in active ministry. ‘You see, Tim,’” said Monsignor Lynn, ‘he’s not a pure pedophile.’”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on May. 25, 2012 NCR Today

To say that the Vatican seems in turmoil would be putting things mildly, with two stunners in the arc of twenty-fours: Yesterday’s announcement that the president of the Vatican Bank has been unceremoniously fired, and today’s revelation that a longtime personal servant of Benedict XVI has been identified as the alleged “deep throat” behind the torrid Vatican leaks scandal.

Perhaps it would be more accurate, albeit a bit crude, to say that all Hell is breaking loose in the Holy See.

Earlier today the Vatican spokesperson, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, announced that the Vatican’s security forces had identified an individual as a source for the recent avalanche of leaks, but didn’t provide the name. Various Italian news outlets, however, are reporting that the suspect is Paolo Gabriele, a layman who has worked for many years in the papal apartments as a butler and waiter for the pope.

According to reports, Gabriele is now being interrogated by the promoter of justice for the Vatican City-State, Nicola Picardi.

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UNITED STATES
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Victoria Bekiempis
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 24 May 2012

So, did you hear the one about the American nuns?

No, this isn’t the beginning of a joke. In April, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the Catholic Church’s current iteration of the Inquisition, if you will – issued an assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents 80% of the US’s 57,000 nuns.

Some key context here: the conference was formed 56 years ago at the behest of the Holy See, to provide “a unified voice” for US nuns who helped the poor, nursed the sick, taught students, worked as missionaries, and fought violence. (Another important bit of background: the congregation is the same arm of the church that bullied Lavinia Byrne, feminist theologian and former British nun, for arguing in favor of female ordination in a 1993 book.)

The conference, according to the Vatican, was spending too much time doing good – and not enough time enforcing church teaching (against abortion, homosexuality etc). So, the nuns actually got in trouble for being, well, nuns. So troubled was the church by this and the women’s alleged “radical feminism” that the assessment demanded the appointment of an archbishop delegate to make them behave.

Nope, no joke.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

For Immediate Release
Contact: Kellyanne Dignan
kdignan@rasky.com
617.803.3444

(Braintree, Mass.) May 25, 2012…The Archdiocese of Boston today announced that it has placed Rev. Joseph F. Byrne on an administrative leave of absence as a result of receiving an allegation of sexual abuse of a child. Fr. Byrne is a Senior Priest with limited ministry in parishes in the Falmouth area on Cape Cod. The allegation concerns conduct alleged to have occurred in the early-1970s and was only recently reported to the Archdiocese.

The Archdiocese immediately notified law enforcement of the allegation and has initiated a preliminary investigation into the complaint. Fr. Byrne will remain on administrative leave without any public ministry pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation. The decision to place Fr. Byrne on administrative leave represents the Archdiocese’s commitment to the welfare of all parties and does not represent a determination of Fr. Byrne’s guilt or innocence as it pertains to this allegation. The Archdiocese will work to resolve this case as expeditiously as possible and in a manner that is fair to all parties.

“We remain committed to doing everything possible to ensure the safety and well-being of children and young people in our parishes and institutions,” stated Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley. “I know the faithful and the clergy of the Archdiocese join me in this pledge of prayerful support.”

Through its Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach, the Archdiocese continues to make counseling and other services available to survivors, their families and parishes impacted by clergy sexual abuse and by allegations of abuse by members of the clergy. Cardinal Seán encourages any person in need of pastoral assistance or support to contact the Archdiocese’s Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach by calling (781) 794-2581.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Patch

By Margaret Carroll-Bergman

The Archdiocese of Boston announced today that it has placed Rev. Joseph F. Byrne, a Senior Priest with limited ministry in parishes in Falmouth, on an administrative leave of absence as a result of receiving an allegation of sexual abuse of a child.

Father Byrne is a retired priest living on the Cape. He is listed on the website of St. Patrick’s Church in Falmouth as a retired priest who serves that parish.

The allegation concerns conduct alleged to have occurred in the early-1970s and was only recently reported to the Archdiocese, according to a press release from the Archdiocese of Boston.

While St. Patrick’s is part of the Fall River Diocese, Fr. Byrne served as a priest in the Boston Archdiocese before he retired. Here is a list of the parishes where he served: 1969-1975, St. Matthew, Dorchester; 1975-1985, St. John the Baptist, Quincy; 1985-1994, St. Albert the Great, Weymouth and 1994-2002, Our Lady Comforter of Afflicted, Waltham.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The culprit is allegedly the Pope’s butler, a layman. But doubts are growing in the Holy See

ANDREA TORNIELLI
Vatican City

The Vatican Gendarmerie’s inquiry into the publication of secret documents “has allowed us to identify one person in possession of confidential documents.” Fr. Federico Lombardi stated this, explaining that this person “is now at the Vatican magistrate’s disposal for further questioning.”

The Vatican Gendarmerie, led by general Domenico Giani has allegedly identified the poison pen letter writer, who Italian newspaper Il Foglio has revealed is the Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele: a layman working in Benedict XVI’s apartment, who had previously worked in the Pope’s anteroomfor for a number of years. He is currently undergoing a legal process.

The Vatican Gendarmerie found large wad of confidential documents in an apartment in Via di Porta Angelica, in Rome, where the Pope’s butler Paolo Gabriele lives with his wife and three children. This just over 40 year old man from Rome has been working in the Pope’s apartment since 2006, entering the Pope’s Family after a period serving Mgr. James Harvey, Prefect of the Papal Household.

But is he really a poison pen letter writer or just a scapegoat to save the skin of someone higher up? This is the question many in the Vatican are asking since rumours have been spreading regarding the inquiries into the leaked documents. The butler is in fact considered by many in the Holy See as a simple, good person who is devoted to the Pope.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on May 25, 2012 ·

We are disturbed that Thomas Harkins, an ousted pedophile priest, works at Philadelphia International, and are extremely confused as to how he was able to get this position. Do TSA agents not have to go through a background check? If so, does child molestation not cause concern? To know of Harkin’s criminal past and then to place him in a position of authority is unconscionable.

The TSA claims that Harkins deals with baggage, not people. Yet Harkins could still use his position to get closer to passengers and kids, whether by detaining the owners of luggage or by switching shifts with other TSA agents in the airport. The fact is that there are many ways in which Harkins could get around his job title and use his position of authority to molest even more children.

Situation like these are indicative of what happens when Catholic officials refuse to monitor child molesting clerics: they move elsewhere or get jobs elsewhere, usually interacting with the public where they can begin to meet and befriend single moms and vulnerable kids. (We think it’s much more prudent for Catholic officials to house pedophile priests in remote, secure, independent treatment centers. Also, when priests leave for ‘civilian jobs,’ we think it’s best if they work in factories or other places with little or no contact with the public.)

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

May. 25, 2012
By Alessandro Speciale, Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY — In an unprecedented move, the board of the Vatican Bank on Thursday forced its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, to resign.

According to a Vatican statement, the bank’s supervisory council unanimously passed a no-confidence motion in Gotti Tedeschi for his “failure to fulfill various primary functions of his office.” Carl A. Anderson, the supreme knight of the U.S.-based Knights of Columbus, is one of the council’s four members.

The Vatican’s chief spokesman, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, declined to give more details on the reasons for the dismissal, but analysts say the move should be read in the context of an internal Vatican struggle over controversial new rules for financial transparency.

Since 2010, Gotti Tedeschi, together with the bank’s director general, Paolo Cipriani, has been under investigation for alleged money laundering.

In the past, the Vatican Bank, which operates under the protection of the Vatican’s status as a sovereign nation, has been often accused of involvement in shady financial operations, such as money laundering for Italian politicians and even mafia bosses.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The Vatican has said it has detained a person it suspects of leaking a series of confidential documents and letters to the media.

The leaks have described alleged corruption, mismanagement, and internal conflicts among top Holy See officials.

The Vatican said the person was being questioned by Vatican magistrates, but gave no further details about their identity.

The “Vatileaks” scandal, as it is known, has enraged the Holy See.

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VATICAN CITY
Swissinfo

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Vatican police on Friday arrested a person in possession of confidential documents in the first break in an investigation of the so-called “Vatileaks” scandal involving the leaking of secret papers including papal letters.

Italian media said the arrested man was someone who worked in the apartments of Pope Benedict but Vatican spokesmen said they would not disclose the man’s identity until they had a green light from investigating magistrates.

A Vatican source said the person was not a priest. Another senior source said: “It’s all very sad”.

For much of this year, the Vatican has been at the centre of a scandal involving the leak to Italian media of documents, some of them personal letters to the pope.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, May 25

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican said Friday that it has arrested someone for illegally holding secret documents as it tries to get to the bottom of an embarrassing leaking scandal.

Spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi declined to immediately identify the person, other than to say he was a layman. He has been arrested and Vatican judicial authorities are examining his case.

Vatican documents leaked to the press in recent months have pointed to power struggles and accusations of corruption touching senior Vatican cardinals. In one case, a cleric who complained was reportedly sent to Washington as papal envoy to get him out of the Vatican.

In another case, Vatican officials have accused the president of the Vatican bank of leaking confidential documents. He was ousted by the board Thursday.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. . .An affidavit about a just-arrested St. Louis archdiocesan priest, Father Charles Robert Manning, is sealed. But a woman who says she reported her suspicions about the cleric suggest that he acted like a “jealous lover” toward a 15 year-old, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. . .

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