ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Daily Kos

Bishops ‘helped sway’ Komen to anti-Planned Parenthood policy

Oh for the love of Voldemort. Reuters:

Internal Komen documents reviewed by Reuters reveal the complicated relationship between the Komen Foundation and the Catholic church, which simultaneously contributes to the breast cancer charity and receives grants from it. In recent years, Komen has allocated at least $17.6 million of the donations it receives to U.S. Catholic universities, hospitals and charities.

Church opposition reached dramatic new proportions in 2011, when the 11 bishops who represent Ohio’s 2.6 million Catholics announced a statewide policy banning church and parochial school donations to Komen.

Such pressure helped sway Komen’s leadership to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, according to current and former Komen officials.

Stop it. Just be quiet already. Is there no eff-up that the bishops of my previous church aren’t intimately involved with? Any single one? If a memo comes out that has one of these American bishops suggesting to Rush Limbaugh that he start calling people “sluts,” I may have to reserve a flight to that moon colony Newt Gingrich is going to build.

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CALIFORNIA
Gay Christian Movement Watch

**an exclusive report**

Report COGIC Abuse has obtained a copy of the civil lawsuits filed by two California women against a former Administrative Assistant to Bishop George McKinney, Southern California 2nd Jurisdiction.

The twin 28 page lawsuits names COGIC, Inc., Donald K. Barrett, his wife Ruth Barrett, So California 2nd Jurisdiction, Greater Gospel Center COGIC, New Directions COGIC and DOES 1-50 as defendants. Among the charges cited in the 1st suit are Assault and Battery, Intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud and constructive fraud. The 2nd suit alleges assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, physical abuse of a dependent adult and financial abuse of a dependent adult.

Sadly, the Barrett case represents yet another unseemly blight on the reputation of the nation’s largest black pentecostal denomination. In 2009, COGIC presiding Bishop Charles Blake admitted to the church’s General Assembly that on average COGIC annually pays out almost 1 million dollars to settle sex abuse cases [source]. At the crux of the problem are male leaders who use their authority, influence, talents and at times brute force to rape, molest, and sexually devastate men, women and children of both genders. The problem is fairly expansive involving every level of leadership the church has in place. Additionally, COGIC clergy sexual abuse cases have been cited in 29 different states. See more here and here. Denominational leaders have not been aggressive in dealing with sexual crimes committed by clergy and in many cases have turned a blind eye. Recent developments still show an unwillingness to tender justice to victims via a more comprehensive victims advocacy policy. Instead, the church has an ineffective institutional policy advising churches on how to protect themselves.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
Modesto Bee

By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com

A civil lawsuit has been filed in Sacramento County Superior Court against a former Christian Brothers High School volleyball coach, the school and the Christian Brothers religious order, which operates the school.

The suit stems from allegations that Minh Anh Nguyen, a volleyball coach and history teacher at Christian Brothers, sexually assaulted a 17-year-old female student in December 2009 while the team was attending a volleyball tournament in Orange County. The suit, filed Wednesday, alleges that the Catholic Church and school officials could and should have prevented the incident.

Lorcan Barnes, president of Christian Brothers High School, said today that he had not seen the lawsuit but was aware that it had been filed. Barnes said Nguyen’s employment was terminated in December 2009, the day after allegations of the assault were brought to the attention of school officials. Nguyen had taught and coached at the school for five years.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

VATICAN CITY, March 16, 2012 – A bit of buzz has been generated around two articles that appeared recently in Italy, advancing the hypothesis that Benedict XVI might resign, in part for the sake of influencing the choice of his successor.

The authors of these articles are Giuliano Ferrara, in the newspaper that he directs, “Il Foglio,” on March 10:

> Le dimissioni del papa

and Antonio Socci in the newspaper “Libero,” on March 11:

> Le (im)possibili dimissioni del papa

Ferrara is not a believer, Socci is a militant Catholic. Both are known for their sincere admiration of pope Joseph Ratzinger.

But beyond the good intentions of both, the hypothesis that they foreshadow does not appear to have any foundation.

For one thing, because anyone who has had an opportunity to meet with Benedict XVI, including after the publication of the two articles, has not at all gotten the impression of being in the presence of a pope who is thinking about resigning. Far from it. Both because of his ability to grasp the necessary connections for every act of governance, and because of the temporally unrestricted scope with which, always “God willing,” he proceeds in the leadership of the universal Church.

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CANADA
YouTube

DUNCAN – The stories are horrifying , but a generation of residential school survivors are ready to speak out.

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has continued its tour of Vancouver Island offering a safe place to speak out in the Cowichan Valley. Today hundreds packed a First Nations Long House to support a group of former students who underwent extreme physical, mental, and sexual abuse inside BC residential schools.

One mans story brought the entire audience to tears when he spoke of repeated sexual assault inside a Vancouver Island residential school. The former students testimonial took an even more grim turn when he spoke of how the teacher also targeted his little brother. ” My bother didn’t cooperate” the now senior citizen told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission officials, ” so he ran towards the bedroom window and jumped out of it.”

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CANADA
Times Colonist

By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist March 16, 2012

The anger was palpable Thursday as 64-year-old Louis Moses Lucas sat between supporters and disclosed his abuse by priests and nuns.

“Residential schools were nothing but the rape of our people.

They were sexual terrorists,” Lucas told commissioner Marie Wilson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at hearings.

“It was never a school to me. It was a jail,” said Lucas, blaming the Catholic Church and federal government for not helping the 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children in Canada who were taken from their families and placed in residential schools.

“This is my statement to Canada. Saying they didn’t know is a bunch of bull-. It was nothing but jail. Genocide of our people,” he said.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
newsnet5

[with video]

• By: Deb Lee, newsnet5.com

CLEVELAND – Three of the 13 Catholic churches whose closings were overruled by the Vatican are asking Bishop Richard Lennon for a swift resolution.

In a letter to the Bishop, St. Patrick, St. James, and St. Casimir Churches asked that as soon as possible:

“That all of the property and the use of all of the assets of the parish belonging to it prior to March, 2009, be given back;

That in accordance with canon 535 the records and the parochial seals be transferred to the parish seat;

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Pat Galbincea, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A day after Bishop Richard Lennon officially received orders from Rome to reopen 13 area Catholic churches, members from a trio of the closed parishes urged him Thursday night to comply with the Vatican decree.

Representatives from St. Patrick Church in Cleveland’s West Park neighborhood, St. James Church in Lakewood and St. Casimir Church in Cleveland each read their letters to the bishop of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese during a news conference at Brennan’s Party Center in Cleveland.

About 100 people politely clapped as high points from each of the letters, which were basically worded the same, were read.

The three parishes urged Bishop Lennon to:

• Restore all property and use of all assets to the churches.
• Name new pastors.

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OHIO
WTAM

(Cleveland) Bishop Richard Lennon received a decree from the Vatican on Wednesday ordering the reopening of 13 churches the Bishop closed in 2009 due to dwindling parishioners and a shortage of priests.

On Thursday night, members of three of those parishes gathered at Brennan’s Party Center urging the Bishop to comply with that decree.

Members of St. Casimer’s in Cleveland, St. Pat’s in West Park and St. James in Lakewood want all the property and assets of the churches restored.

They want new pastors assigned and restorations of the parish councils.

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LORAIN (OH)
Morning Journal

By RON VIDIKA rvidika@MorningJournal.com
Twitter: @Ron_Vidika

LORAIN — The Vatican has overruled Cleveland Catholic Diocese Bishop Richard Lennon’s 2009 edict that ordered Lorain churches, the former Holy Trinity Church and the former St. Mary Church, to merge into a new parish, Mary, Mother of God. The ruling means the parish will again be called St. Mary, but it doesn’t mean Holy Trinity will reopen.

The Vatican ruling came in the form of a letter Wednesday to Lennon, communications director for the diocese Robert Tayek said, .

The result of Lennon’s March 2009 edict was the closing of Holy Trinity, 2428 Elyria Ave., whose buildings are now up for sale.

The merged parish, Mary, Mother of God, meets in the former St. Mary Church, 309 Seventh St.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Somerset County Gazette

A CHURCH organist accused of sexually abusing two girls over an 11-year period has been cleared of the most serious offences.

Nigel Parkin, 56, of North Street, Wiveliscombe, was cleared of ten of 17 sexual abuse charges by a jury at Taunton Crown Court yesterday (March 15).

Mr Parkin, who was also a community radio presenter on 10Radio in Wiveliscombe, was found not guilty on two counts of indecent assault on one girl, and eight counts of rape against another.

The jury was discharged after deliberating for almost 11 hours after it could not reach a majority verdict on the remaining seven charges.

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MONTANA
Beartooth NBC

By Kristin Price

Lawyers representing both sides in a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse involving the Diocese of Montana and Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province met in Judge Jeffrey Sherlock’s chambers Thursday for a scheduling conference.

The Diocese legal representation says they’ve agreed to hold mediation to resolve the lawsuit and do not anticipate the court will be actively involved. They say they’ll begin meeting with a mediator in April and give Judge Sherlock status reports on June 20th and September 20th. Judge Sherlock agreed to the terms of mediation.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Lodi News-Sentinel

Posted: Friday, March 16, 2012

By Katie Nelson/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Cross examination of the plaintiff in the Father Michael Kelly sexual assault civil trial continued today, accompanied by frequent verbal jousting between lawyers.

The majority of the day was spent as defense lawyer Thomas Beatty read or presented videotape of the plaintiff speaking with Beatty or with Stockton diocese lawyer James Goodman about the plaintiff’s alleged sexual encounters with Kelly.

Beatty would then question the plaintiff on what he said in the past during interviews regarding the case.

But Beatty’s line of questioning, which ranged from the plaintiff’s relationship with his father to the plaintiff’s memories of door locations at a rectory, were often objected to by the plaintiff’s attorney, John Manly.

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UNITED STATES
Lez Get Real

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on March 15, 2012.

The Roman Catholic Church has decided that they want to go after the leading advocacy group for those victimized by pedophile priests. Lawyers for the Roman Catholic Church and priests accused of sexual abuse in two Missouri cases have sued the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests or SNAP to try and compel the group to release two decades of emails detailing correspondences with victims, lawyers, whistle-blowers, witnesses, the police, prosecutors and journalists.

The move is an attempt to cut SNAP off from those they help and bully those who might seek their help into not going to the group where the dealings are assumed to have a certain amount of confidentiality.

According to the New York Times:

The group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, is neither a plaintiff nor a defendant in the litigation. But the group has been subpoenaed five times in recent months in Kansas City and St. Louis, and its national director, David Clohessy, was questioned by a battery of lawyers for more than six hours this year. A judge in Kansas City ruled that the network must comply because it “almost certainly” had information relevant to the case.

Marci A. Hamilton, a law professor at Yeshiva University, stated “If there is one group that the higher-ups, the bishops, would like to see silenced it definitely would be SNAP. And that’s what they’re going after. They’re trying to find a way to silence SNAP.”

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

By Jerome Christenson | jchristenson@winonadailynews.com | Posted: Friday, March 16, 2012

Thomas Adamson, a former priest of the Diocese of Winona named in several lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of young boys, has been barred from all diocese parishes and schools.

In a statement released this week, the diocese said it had “communicated directly to Mr. Adamson that he is not welcome or permitted to enter onto the premises of any parishes or schools within the Diocese of Winona.”

The action came in response to Adamson’s relocation to Rochester earlier this year. According to a spokesman, the diocese learned of Adamson’s move in early February, and on Feb. 8 sent a letter and current photograph of Adamson to all Rochester schools and parishes alerting them to his presence in the community.

Adamson, 78, a native of Byron, Minn., was ordained a priest in 1958. His first assignment was in Winona as a full-time teacher at Cotter High School with residence and pastoral duties at St. Casimir’s Parish. He was assigned assistant principal of St. Adrian’s High School, Adrian, Minn., in May 1961. Allegations of Adamson’s sexual involvement with young boys date from the early 1960s. In 1975, Adamson was transferred to the Archdiocese of St. Paul after a number of abuse complaints had been brought to the attention of church officials in the Winona diocese.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Modesto Bee

Bee News Services

STOCKTON — The second-highest ranking official in the Diocese of Stockton took the stand Thursday in the civil trial of the Rev. Michael Kelly of Lockeford’s St. Joachim Catholic Church.

Kelly is accused of child sex abuse in the mid-1980s.

Monsignor Richard Ryan told the jury that he was the official who was notified that Kelly was being accused of sexual abuse by a 37-year-old man.

Kelly’s accuser is a former altar boy who claims to have repressed memories of abuse he suffered at Annunciation School.

Ryan took the stand for roughly two hours Thursday, taking questions from the plaintiff’s attorney.

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CANADA
Vancouver Sun

By JUDITH LAVOIE, timescolonist.com March 16, 2012

DUNCAN — The anger was palpable Thursday as 64-year-old Louis Moses Lucas sat between supporters and disclosed his abuse by priests and nuns.

“Residential schools were nothing but the rape of our people. They were sexual terrorists,” Lucas told commissioner Marie Wilson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at hearings.

“It was never a school to me. It was a jail,” said Lucas, blaming the Catholic Church and federal government for not helping the 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children in Canada who were taken from their families and placed in residential schools.

“This is my statement to Canada. Saying they didn’t know is a bunch of bull—. It was nothing but jail. Genocide of our people,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Dennis Coday on Mar. 15, 2012 NCR Today

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAP, is in dire straits, basically broke, still dogged by lawyers who want to pry deeply into that organization’s files.

The national media has finally caught up with that story. Defenders are coming forward. Even unlikely ones.

Dominican Fr. Tom Doyle argues on our website that SNAP needs protection from the bishops’ laywers because SNAP meets the definition of being “The People of God.”

When news of the subpoenas broke late last year, NCR defended SNAP’s right to confidentiality. We said in a Jan. 20-Feb. 2 editorial: “This certainly looks like a fishing expedition aimed at dismantling the organization, and lawyers keep climbing on board.” The subpoenas, we argued, were too sweeping and put at risk that very fragile confidence SNAP has with victims of clergy sex abuse.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

March 15, 2012

A Milwaukee area priest who was restricted from ministry for sexually abusing a child in the 1960 has died, and victim advocates are objecting to his being buried in his priestly robes.

“This is absolutely outrageous,” Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said of the burial plans for Jerome E. Lanser, 88. “Here’s a man who violated everything the priesthood stands for,” and he is being buried “in full uniform,” he said.

Julie Wolf, spokeswoman for the Milwaukee Archdiocese said Lanser would have a closed casket out of respect for victims, but that he was entitled to be buried in his vestments because he remained a priest until death. A private viewing will be held for family, but she did not know whether the casket would be open or closed for that.

Isely said he learned about Lanser’s death from victims who were upset that he could be buried in his robes. There appears to have been no obituary published, although the archdiocese updated its online list of priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse against them, changing his status from “fully restricted” to “deceased.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Ken Prendergast, Sun News

CLEVELAND Because nothing official has been received from the Vatican to overrule Bishop Richard Lennon’s decision to close 13 churches, St. Patrick Church in the West Park neighborhood will not be reopened Saturday.

But that won’t stop the church’s former parishioners from holding a prayer service at 9:30 a.m. Saturday on the front steps of the church at Rocky River Drive and Puritas Avenue.

The parishioners requested that the Cleveland Catholic Diocese reopen the church for one day for a Mass inside and to celebrate the 164th anniversary of the parish’s founding. Saturday is St. Patrick’s Day. A group of former parishioners will march in the big St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown.

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MARYLAND
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler | March 15, 2012

In an earlier column on all the things we don’t know about the case of Father Marcel Guarnizo, I failed—as many critical readers pointed out—to take account of the apology issued by the Washington archdiocese soon after the fateful incident in which Father Guarnizo refused to administer Communion to the lesbian activist Barbara Johnson.

At the time there were many important things we did not know—we know much more now, since Father Guarnizo has issued a statement in his own defense—but that first public statement from the archdiocese gave readers good reason to fear that the archdiocese was ready to sacrifice the reputation of a priest (and, not just by the way, the integrity of the Eucharist) in order to deflect political criticism. I am sorry that I did not make this point in my original piece on the matter; let me undo the damage at least partially by elaborating on the point now.

After Barbara Johnson angrily protested the denial of Communion, Bishop Barry Knestout, the vicar general of the Washington archdiocese, issued a public apology. Apparently without having consulted the priest involved, to learn details about the incident, he wrote to Johnson: “I am sorry that what should have been a celebration of your mother’s life, in light of her faith in Jesus Christ, was overshadowed by a lack of pastoral sensitivity.”

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MARYLAND
Washington Post

By Michelle Boorstein

A Gaithersburg priest who was put on administrative leave from his parish after a controversial funeral Mass at which he denied Communion to a lesbian said in a statement Wednesday that he “did the only thing a faithful Catholic priest could do” and suggested that archdiocesan leaders and the woman were lying.

The Rev. Marcel Guarnizo had declined to comment publicly since the Feb. 25 Mass at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, where Barbara Johnson was mourning her mother. Having learned just before the Mass that Johnson, a 51-year-old D.C. artist, was a lesbian living with her partner, Guarnizo refused to let her receive Communion. The story exploded on the Internet, triggering an emotional debate among Catholics and others about the church’s views on homosexuality and the priest’s role in determining who is fit to partake of the sacrament.

Guarnizo’s statement, distributed on the conservative news site CNSnews.com, contradicts the account given by Johnson and her family about how the tensions that day unfolded.

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MARYLAND
National Catholic Reporter

by Michael Sean Winters on Mar. 15, 2012 Distinctly Catholic

This morning’s Washington Post contains quotes from Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, the priest who made headlines for denying communion to a woman at her mother’s funeral because she was a lesbian. Late last week, he was stripped of his faculties by Cardinal Wuerl because of what the archdiocese termed “credible allegations” of “intimidating behavior” towards parishioners since the event.

Guarnizo not only challenges the woman’s accounts of the underlying event. He challenges the archdiocese, arguing that no subsequent activity of his warranted his being stripped of his faculties and that this is all really about his initial decision not to give communion to Barbara Johnson. So, he is calling everyone, except of course himself, a liar. Nice.

Guarnizo goes on to mention that he was soliciting affidavits from people. Hmmmm. I understand he has a right to defend himself, but if there is to be an investigation of the allegations against him, he doesn’t have the right to be his own D.A. He also says that the meetings in question did not involve intimidation, that they were civil. Of course, this is the same man who did not see a problem in denying communion to a grieving fellow Catholic, so I am not sure I would take his word as the characterization of human behavior.

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AUSTRIA
Austrian Independent

An end to the feud between the Austrian Church’s leaders and a “disobedient” group of preachers seems out of reach.

Graz Diocese Bishop Egon Kapellari warned from a splitting of the country’s Catholic Church if the Preachers’ Initiative failed to stop its activities. Kapellari appealed on the association of parish priests – which was established by former Caritas Austria head Helmut Schüller last year – to “slow down.”

Schüller’s movement wants the Vatican to scrap the celibate too help stop the decline of the number of young men interested in becoming priests. The Preachers Initiative also said priests should be allowed to give Holy Communion to people who married a second time at registry offices after getting divorced following church weddings. The group, which officially declared itself disobedient, furthermore called on the Conference of Austrian Bishops to act more independently from the Vatican. It said there should be no barriers to women interested in holding sermons.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Review

Submitted on March 15, 2012

By Joseph Kenny | jkenny@archstl.org

A court decision on the status of St. Stanislaus Church is a disappointment for Polish American Catholics who wish to see it returned to communion with the Roman Catholic Church and will be appealed, Archbishop Robert J. Carlson said in a statement March 15.

Judge Bryan Hettenbach ruled that morning against the Archdiocese of St. Louis and former St. Stanislaus parishioners who had asked the court to declare the St. Stanislaus Parish Corporation’s amended bylaws void and restore the original bylaws, a move that the archdiocese believed would have returned St. Stanislaus to full communion with the Church.

The ruling “brings great sadness to all in the Archdiocese of St. Louis who had hoped for reconciliation and healing in this matter,” Archbishop Carlson noted in a statement he read at a press conference.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
Fox 40

Sam Cohen

FOX40 News

9:45 a.m. PDT, March 15, 2012
A support group for victims of Priest abuse announced a new lawsuit against a former teacher and coach at a Sacramento Catholic high school Thursday.

A female student says she was sexually assaulted by a Christian Brothers High School coach while at a volleyball tournament in 2009.

According to SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the coach, Minh Anh Nguyen, went into the girl’s hotel room at the tournament in Orange County and gave her a massage to calm her down before a game.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Washington Post

By Michael O’malley| Religion News Service

CLEVELAND — Bishop Richard Lennon on Wednesday (March 14) received the official Vatican decrees that overturn his closings of 13 Catholic parishes, the diocese said, kicking off a 60-day period for him to decide whether to appeal.

“The process to review these rulings will now be undertaken with my advisers,” the bishop wrote in a three-sentence statement posted on the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland’s website.

The 13 churches — out of 50 closed between 2009 and 2010 in a diocesewide downsizing — had appealed to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy, arguing they were self-sustaining communities that shouldn’t be closed.

On March 7, word got out that the Vatican ruled in favor of all 13 parishes, saying Lennon did not follow church law and procedures when he shuttered them.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A retired Anglican priest remained a school governor for more than a year after claims of child sex abuse against him came to light, the BBC has found.

Canon Gordon Rideout, 73, was held last Tuesday on suspicion of child sex abuse between 1965 and 1972 and later bailed.

The BBC has found he remained as a school governor in Eastbourne after the church suspended him following a Criminal Records Bureau check.

The school and education authority would not comment during the inquiry.

But head teacher of Bishop Bell school, Terry Boatwright, said he wanted to reassure parents the allegations were historical and not connected with the school.

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IRELAND
Patrick J. Wall

John Gerard Smyth joined the Norbertine Fathers in Northern Ireland in 1945 where he was given the religious name of Brendan to symbolize his total conversion to Christ. The hundreds of children Brendan raped and sodomized would likely have a different name for him: The Celtic Diablo.

The Celtic Diablo sexually abused children in county Cavan, Belfast, Dublin, Scotland, Wales, Providence Rhode Island, Langdon North Dakota and anywhere he heard confessions – his primary access point to abuse children.

But there was a whistleblower. Father Bruno Mulvihill O.Prae.–beginning when he was a novice at Kilnacrott Abbey–told his Norbertine superiors in 1964 that Brendan Smyth was abusing altar boys. Norbertine officials disregarded that warning and instead sent Brendan to Providence, RI, where he went on to hear more confessions and abuse more children.

Solicitation in the confessional (crimens sollicitationis) is one of the most ancient, consistent and unabated crimes particular to Roman Catholicism. But little has changed: Even with all the documented history of children being abused in the confessional, last week Benedict XVI reaffirmed the need for Catholics to go to private confession, where the priest represents Christ and has the divine power to forgive sins. No where else but the confessional can a child perpetrator find a forum where the power differential is so great and the policy of secrecy pervades.

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NEDERLAND
RKnieuws

GRONINGEN (RKnieuws.net) – Bijzonder hoogleraar Religie en Recht Fokko Oldenhuis van de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen heeft hard uitgehaald naar de Rooms-Katholieke kerk.Volgens Oldenhuis draait de kerk slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik een rad voor de ogen.

Kardinaal en oud-bisschop Eijk van Groningen heeft beloofd geen beroep te doen op verjaring van seksuele delicten. Nu blijkt dit alleen te gelden voor slachtoffers die een claim hebben ingediend bij de kerk.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Rhein Zeitung

Rheinböllen – In dem Fall des wegen des Verdachts auf sexuellen Missbrauchs an Messdienern beurlaubten Priesters, der seit November im Puricelli-Stift Rheinböllen die heilige Messe zelebrierte, erheben Seelsorgeteam und Gremien der Pfarreiengemeinschaft Rheinböllen Vorwürfe gegen die Bistumsleitung.

„Wir fühlten und fühlen uns seitens der verantwortlichen Stellen nicht ausreichend informiert und fordern als Vertreter der Pfarreiengemeinschaft, die die Verantwortung vor Ort tragen müssen, zukünftig bei solchen Konflikten im Vorfeld informiert und eingebunden zu werden, um entsprechend reagieren zu können“, sagt der Pfarreienratsvorsitzende Christian Klein gegenüber unserer Zeitung.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Miss BiT

Warum verschleiert der „Trierische Volksfreund“ abermals die erwiesene Faktenlage und enthält sich einer kritischen Kommentierung? Dabei hätte eine simple Zusammenfassung der dargestellten Problemlage genügend Anlass für grundsätzliche Überlegungen gegeben.

Der sogenannte „Ex-Täter“ – allein dieses erste Wort in der Überschrift beschämt Leser mit eigenen Missbrauchserfahrungen durch den unangebrachten Analogismus, als ob Missbrauchstäter mit geschiedenen Ehemännern vergleichbar wären! –, dieser sogenannte „Ex-Täter“ also missbrauchte in Ausübung seines pastoralen Amtes als „Seelsorger“ der katholischen Kirche mindestens 23 Kinder. Er betätigt sich auch nach seiner Verurteilung und Haftstrafe weiterhin ausgerechnet in dem Beruf, der ihm diese schrecklichen Verbrechenstaten ermöglichte! Er hat also weiterhin Kontakt zu minderjährigen Schutzbefohlenen!

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DEUTSCHLAND
Volksfreund

Darf ein ehemals vom Trierer Landgericht wegen Missbrauchs zu einer Bewährungsstrafe verurteilter Geistlicher noch Gottesdienste feiern und die Sakramente spenden? Nein, sagen Opferverbände und die katholische Jugendorganisation KSJ. Beim Bistum Trier sieht man dies offenbar anders: Der jetzt im Saarland tätige Pfarrer sei mit Einschränkungen einsetzbar, sagt ein Bischofssprecher.

Trier/Saarbrücken. “Zu seinen Aufgaben als Kooperator gehören Messfeiern, Taufen, Hochzeiten, Beerdigungen, die Mitarbeit in der Krankenhausseelsorge und in der Erwachsenenbildung.” So schrieb die Saarbrücker Zeitung vor genau zwei Jahren über den Geistlichen, als er in einer saarländischen Pfarrei offiziell vorgestellt wurde.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SR Online

Ein wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs rechtskräftig verurteilter katholischer Priester wird im Saarland als Aushilfspfarrer eingesetzt. Im Gespräch mit SR-online rechtfertigt Bistumssprecher Kronenburg das Vorgehen. Man richte sich nach dem forensischen Gutachten.

(15.03.2012) Er darf im Saarland Messen zelebrieren und Sakramente spenden: Ein Priester, der bereits 1995 vom Landgericht Trier wegen sexuellem Missbrauchs in 23 Fällen zu einer Bewährungsstrafe von zwei Jahren verurteilt worden ist. Den Namen des Priesters will das Bistum als Arbeitgeber aus datenschutz-rechtlichen Gründen nicht nennen.

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POLENS
kipa apic

Warschau, 15.3.12 (Kipa) Polens katholische Bischöfe wollen kirchliche Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch nachdrücklicher als bisher bei staatlichen Behörden anzeigen. Die Leitlinien der Bischofskonferenz zum Umgang mit Missbrauchfällen von 2009 seien entsprechend geändert worden, sagte der Konferenzvorsitzende Erzbischof Jozef Michalik am Mittwochabend in Warschau zum Abschluss der Bischofsvollversammlung.

Zugleich sollten Kinder künftig besser gegen Übergriffe geschützt und Opfern besser geholfen werden. Missbrauchsfälle dürften nicht verheimlicht werden, so Michalik. Zu Schadenersatzzahlungen an die Opfer äusserte er sich skeptisch. Es bestehe die Gefahr, dass die Verantwortung einer einzelnen Person auf die Institution übertragen werde. Die vatikanische Glaubenskongregation hatte die Bischofskonferenzen weltweit verpflichtet, bis Mai Leitlinien zum Umgang mit Missbrauchsfällen vorzulegen.

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NEW YORK
Village Voice

By Victoria Bekiempis
Thu., Mar. 15 2012

​Since it’s officially Timothy Cardinal Dolan week, why not keep the celebration going with a little more info on the Catholic leader’s legislative positions?

Yesterday, Runnin’ Scared wrote about Dolan’s opposition to the Reproductive Health Act, which would codify abortion rights in the state, and de-criminalize late-term terminations.

Today, we bring you deets about the Child Victims Act, a pending policy which, if passed, would extend the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse.

Dolan has publicly opposed the law, sponsored by Rep. Margaret M. Markey (pictured here).

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UGANDA/UNITED STATES
allAfrica

By Charundi Panagoda and Jim Lobe, 14 March 2012

Washington — A major U.S. civil rights group filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts Wednesday on behalf of a Ugandan gay rights organisation, the Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG), against a right-wing evangelist leader for inciting hatred against homosexuals that has led to increased violence against LGBT persons in the East African country.

The lawsuit was filed by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in the home state of Scott Lively, the defendant, who heads the Abiding Truth Ministries, a fundamentalist Christian group.

He is also the author of “The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party”, a 1995 book that claimed Nazism was created and propagated by homosexuals, and a second book, “Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child”, a how-to guide for parents to “prevent” their children from becoming homosexual.

“Lively has been the man with the plan in this enterprise,” said Pam Spees, a senior CCR staff attorney.

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UGANDA/MASSACHUSETTS
The New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: March 14, 2012

A Ugandan gay rights group filed suit against an American evangelist, Scott Lively, in federal court in Massachusetts on Wednesday, accusing him of violating international law by inciting the persecution of gay men and lesbians in Uganda.

The lawsuit maintains that beginning in 2002, Mr. Lively conspired with religious and political leaders in Uganda to whip up anti-gay hysteria with warnings that gay people would sodomize African children and corrupt their culture.

The Ugandan legislature considered a bill in 2009, proposed by one of Mr. Lively’s Ugandan contacts, that would have imposed the death sentence for the “offense of homosexuality.” That bill languished after an outcry from the United States and European nations that are among major aid donors to Uganda, but was reintroduced last month.

Mr. Lively is being sued by the organization Sexual Minorities Uganda under the alien tort statute, which allows foreigners to sue in American courts in situations asserting the violation of international law. The suit says that Mr. Lively’s actions resulted in the persecution, arrest, torture and murder of gay men and lesbians in Uganda.

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UGANDA
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

David Smith in Johannesburg
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 15 March 2012

A Ugandan gay rights group is suing an American Christian evangelist it accuses of waging a campaign of homophobia in the east African country.

Sexual Minorities Uganda filed the lawsuit against minister Scott Lively on Wednesday in Springfield, Massachusetts, under a statute that the group says allows non-citizens to launch US court actions for violations of international law.

Frank Mugisha, who heads the pressure group, said it was targeting Lively for “helping spread propaganda and violence” against gay people in Uganda. …

The complaint claims Lively issued a call in Uganda to fight against a “genocidal” and “paedophilic” gay movement which he “likened to the Nazis and Rwandan murderers”. It seeks a judgment that Lively’s actions violate international law and human rights.

Lively, of Abiding Truth Ministries, is one of three American pastors who visited Uganda in 2009 and whom gay activists accuse of helping draft the original version of its anti-homosexuality bill. Lively denies this.

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UNITED STATES
Open Salon

Steve Klingaman

March is Rick Santorum’s moment to strut the stage like a minor Shakespearean buffoon, who mortifies but entertains the crowd before he is yanked behind the curtain. Much of his message is old news, but he also represents a movement to insert the most conservative brand of Catholic theology into secular political discourse. But Catholic voters reject this guy. Why? Despite the church’s rightward drift under Pope Benedict, the church has had an at times uneasy relationship with Opus Dei and Regnum Christi, two branches of Catholic lay practice that Santorum endorses and that have been highly suspect to many within the church.

Of the two groups, Regnum Christi is the more virulent. It is the lay branch of the Legion of Christ order founded by child rapist and bigamist Father Marcial Maciel. According to the New York Times, Santorum has long been a supporter of the group and in 2003 was the keynote speaker at a Regnum Christi event in Chicago. Though this occurred a decade ago, Maciel, who had been under investigation since the 70s, was already well on his way to repudiation by the church.

According to a 1997 Hartford Courant article, Maciel was accused of serial sexual abuse including young children. Maciel’s accusers included “a priest, a guidance counselor, a professor, an engineer, a lawyer, and a former priest who became a university professor,” according to a Wikipedia summary of the article. Maciel was investigated by no less that by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVIl, who presumably spurred Maciel’s removal from his leadership position of the Legion. By 2010, the church referred to Maciel thusly:

•an “immoral” double life “devoid of scruples and authentic religious sentiment.”
•“the very serious and objectively immoral acts”
•”true crimes and manifest a life without scruples or authentic religious sentiment”

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on March 15, 2012

Every once in a while, the stars align.

Last year, I was contacted by family members of a child sex abuse victim. They asked me if I had any information about a priest named Gerald Funcheon who worked at Damien Memorial High School in Honolulu. I had never heard of Funcheon, but a quick search showed that he had a nasty past.

Not only was the Crosier priest banned from the Diocese of Indianapolis, but there were numerous sex abuse lawsuits against him from his time in the midwest. And then Funcheon vanishes: he disappeared from the Official Catholic Directory in the early 1980s. There is really only one reason why a living priest would vanish from the Official Directory. He was probably in hiding.

I told the family that I couldn’t find any information about Funcheon in Hawaii, but to keep in touch.

A few months later, the Irish Christian Brothers based out of New York declared bankruptcy because of more than 50 allegations of abuse at one of their Seattle schools and more than 250 allegations of abuse at Mt. Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland. They are the 10th Catholic diocese or religious order to seek bankruptcy protection due to sex abuse claims.

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MASSACHUSETTS
New York Daily News

By Larry Mcshane / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, March 15, 2012

A Massachusetts evangelist was sued by an East African gay advocacy group that accuses him of helping draft a Ugandan bill to impose the death penalty on homosexuals.

Scott Lively, of Abiding Truth Ministries, was slapped with a federal lawsuit asking for a judgment that his actions violated international law — and seeking cash damages.

“We hope that he will be held accountable for what he did in Uganda,” said human rights activist Frank Mugisha of Sexual Ministries Uganda. “We want to send out a clear message to him and others.”

Mugisha, the 2011 winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, blamed Lively for “helping spread propaganda and violence” against gays in Uganda.

Lively, whose parish is based in Springfield, Mass., was among a group of U.S. clergy which visited Uganda in 2009 — just before debate began on the bill.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
USA Today

BOSTON (AP) – An East African gay advocacy group filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against a Massachusetts evangelist, alleging he has waged a decade-long campaign to persecute gays in Uganda.

The suit was filed in federal court in Springfield against minister Scott Lively under a statute that Sexual Ministries Uganda says allows non-citizens to file U.S. court actions for violations of international law.

Frank Mugisha, who heads the advocacy group, said it was singling out Lively for “helping spread propaganda and violence” against Uganda’s gay people.

“We hope that he will be held accountable for what he did in Uganda,” said Mugisha, who won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award last year. “We want to send out a clear message to him and to others.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Cleveland Scene

Posted by Erich Burnett on Thu, Mar 15, 2012

It’s been a week since the Vatican rocked local Catholics with news that it had overturned the closing of 13 churches across Northeast Ohio, a response to Bishop Richard Lennon’s recent “Slim Down for the Rapture!” initiative.

But in keeping with its centuries-old tradition of taking forever to do virtually nothing, the Church has yet to get the paperwork into the hands of Lennon, the diocese confirmed Tuesday. Despite widespread celebrations among parishioners from the shuttered parishes, they too are in the dark over their future.

Meanwhile, one closed parish that had already moved on without the bishop’s approval isn’t waiting by the mailbox.

“As we told our community [Sunday], we can’t comment until we see documentation,” says Robert Marrone, pastor of the Community of St. Peter. Since his sanctuary was closed by Lennon in 2010, Marrone has led St. Peter’s congregation — now numbering some 450 — in a building at East 71st and Euclid. These days, he’s calling for cautious jubilance, or maybe none at all.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
National Catholic Reporter

Mar. 15, 2012
By Brian Roewe

A week after news broke about their content, the decrees from the Vatican’s Congregation of the Clergy regarding appeals by 13 shuttered Cleveland parishes have arrived at the diocese and Bishop Richard G. Lennon has received them.

In a brief statement released Wednesday through the diocesan website, Lennon acknowledged receiving the decrees from the congregation and said he will now begin reviewing their rulings with his advisers.

Lennon has 60 days to determine if he wishes to appeal the congregation’s decision to overrule his closing of 13 churches and suppressing their parishes. The appeal process would go through the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s Supreme Court.

Regardless of what Lennon decides to do, those sided with the parishes want Lennon to reopen their churches immediately, in accordance with the decrees.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Ken Prendergast, Sun News

CLEVELAND Because nothing official has been received from the Vatican to overrule Bishop Richard Lennon’s decision to close 13 churches, St. Patrick Church in the West Park neighborhood will not be reopened Saturday.

But that won’t stop the church’s former parishioners from holding a prayer service at 9:30 a.m. Saturday on the front steps of the church at Rocky River Drive and Puritas Avenue.

The parishioners requested that the Cleveland Catholic Diocese reopen the church for one day for a Mass inside and to celebrate the 164th anniversary of the parish’s founding. Saturday is St. Patrick’s Day. A group of former parishioners will march in the big St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown.

Diocese spokesman Bob Tayek said Lennon received the request to reopen the church from the parishioners several weeks ago. Instead, a Mass was scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at Blessed Trinity Church, 14040 Puritas Ave.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Columbus Dispatch

Associated Press
Thursday March 15, 2012

CLEVELAND — The Diocese of Cleveland says it has received official decrees reversing the closure of 13 Roman Catholic churches.

In a statement, Bishop Richard Lennon says that the decrees were received yesterday from the Vatican and that he is reviewing the rulings with advisers.

Lennon has 60 days to must decide whether he will appeal the decisions.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy ruled the bishop failed to follow church law and procedure in the closings three years ago.

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UNITED STATES
Hunter at Random

That’s where you’ll find the Catholic hierarchy. If you ever had any doubt that the institutional Church was about anything but money and power, this should answer that question for you.

Turning the tables on an advocacy group that has long supported victims of pedophile priests, lawyers for the Roman Catholic Church and priests accused of sexual abuse in two Missouri cases have gone to court to compel the group to disclose more than two decades of e-mails that could include correspondence with victims, lawyers, whistle-blowers, witnesses, the police, prosecutors and journalists.

The group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, is neither a plaintiff nor a defendant in the litigation. But the group has been subpoenaed five times in recent months in Kansas City and St. Louis, and its national director, David Clohessy, was questioned by a battery of lawyers for more than six hours this year. A judge in Kansas City ruled that the network must comply because it “almost certainly” had information relevant to the case.

Of course, Bill Donohue has to stick his two cents in:

But William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a church advocacy group in New York, said targeting the network was justified because “SNAP is a menace to the Catholic Church.”

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on March 15, 2012

A new civil lawsuit charges that a teacher and coach at Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento sexually assaulted a female student in December 2009 and that Catholic church and school officials could and should have prevented the crimes.

The complaint is filed against Minh Anh Nguyen, the school and a Washington, D.C.-based religious order called the Lasallian Christian Brothers, which operates the school. Nguyen was a teacher and coach at the high school.

The student, JANE DOE 40, says the crimes happened while she was at a volleyball tournament in Orange County on or around December 4, 2009 while Nguyen was in her hotel room after curfew. Allegedly Nguyen gave her a massage so she would not be tense for the game the next day, During the massage, Nguyen lifted the teen’s bra and pushed down her sweatpants.

Nguyen assured the student and her parents that he had expertise in athletic massage and that he had provided massage therapy to other student at the school.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

From the Crimes against Humanity of Benedict XVI at The Hague, to Amnesty International listing the Vatican for its violation against human rights, to Ireland shutting down its Vatican Embassy in Rome, now it is the United States of America listing the Vatican as a ‘potential money-laundering center’ because of “the large volumes of international currency that goes through the Holy See” — all these prove that the Vatican Titanic Ship is sinking in moral bankruptcy with its Opus Dei Golden Cows Blessed John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger as its Masters of Deception at the helm, read our related articles below.

Behind the cross there stands the dollar. Behind the prelate there stands the plutocrat.

For centuries there has prevailed a strong link between the secular and religious moneyed interests. Today major ministries hold billion-dollar investments in armaments, oil, banking, and just about every other large corporate enterprise…

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CANADA
Times Colonist

Alberni Valley TimesMarch 15, 2012

Sometimes the truth hurts. But often it heals. On Monday and Tuesday, a lot of tears were shed as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard from survivors of the Alberni Residential School.

The stories were both unbelievable and shocking, making the whole experience one that was difficult to witness.

But that is exactly why it is essential that these stories be told. It is only by talking about it that the victims can heal and move on. They will never forget. No one ever could. But the hearing offered hope that nothing like this will ever happen in Canada again.

The Alberni Residential School was in operation from 1929 to 1973. It was known to be one of the worst in Canada. The atrocities that took place there have marked families for generations. In some cases, children were believed to be raped and murdered, and the stories told at Maht Mahs Gym on Monday and Tuesday revealed there was a lot of truth to these frightening stories.

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CANADA
Canada.com

By Julia Caranci, Alberni Valley Times
March 15, 2012

While the Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard many heartbreaking histories over the last two days, people also shared their tales of hope and healing.

In addition, the commission learned how important gaining back their culture is to Aboriginal People here.

The TRC wrapped up two days of hearings in Port Alberni on Tuesday.

The commission will visit more communities, both large and small, across the country in the coming months. The goal is to create a lasting record of survivors’ experiences while attending residential schools, which were run by various churches under contract to the government.

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UNITED STATES
Triablogue

Or, “this is your infallible Magisterium in action”. But it’s ok, you Roman Catholics. They can be reprehensible, as a group, in real life, and still, God has committed to this reprehensible group, the charism of infallibility when speaking about doctrines and morals. Rest assured that, even when your doctrines rely on mistranslations or just completely changing the meaning of Scriptures, they are completely correct, and everything else is wrong. Never mind that Jesus said, “by their fruit you will recognize them”. Never mind that Paul explicitly stated, “the overseer is to be above reproach” … and reminds Timothy, “If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?”

National Catholic Reporter

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, came into existence in 1989, just five years after national attention was first focused on sexual molestation of minors by Catholic clergy. The founder, Barbara Blaine, is a survivor of abuse. The national director, David Clohessy, is also a survivor. SNAP came into existence because the institutional church, i.e., the bishops, could not and would not do anything to help the victims of the priests they were supposed to supervise.

Realizing that they would have to help themselves, Barbara and the original members started what has become the oldest and most effective advocacy and help group for the countless victims of clergy abuse throughout the United States and Europe as well.

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IRELAND
Wexford People

Wednesday March 14 2012

THE TRAGIC death on Tuesday of Wexford priest Fr. John Sweetman has shocked parishioners throughout the Diocese of Ferns.

Fr. Sweetman, who stepped down as parish priest in Riverchapel last year following an allegation of sexual abuse, died yesterday morning.

Medical assistance was summoned to Ballyvaloo Retreat Centre in Blackwater, where he was staying for a few days.

He was brought by ambulance to Wexford General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 15 March 2012 (VIS) – The Holy Father appointed Cardinal Edwin Frederick O’Brien, pro-grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, as grand master of that Order.

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UNITED STATES
Googling God

Common Sense Should Be Applied in Supervision on Sex Abuser Claims

Mike Hayes

As a Catholic, I’m appalled by this defense tactic used by some in the Church to skirt their responsibility for supervising those who ended up abusing children.

From the NY Times:

However, courts in Missouri, Wisconsin and Utah have twisted the First Amendment into a shield for organizational liability for pedophile clergy. In an outrageous case, a Missouri appellate court summarily dismissed a negligence case brought against the Archdiocese of St. Louis by an individual who said he had been abused by a priest. His suit charged the archdiocese with negligent failure to supervise the priest, who had a past record of child sexual abuse. The court threw out the complaint, saying that Missouri law does not allow it because judging the supervision of the priest would require inquiry into religious doctrine, which it contends would violate the First Amendment.

This bizarre conclusion would grant churches a special exemption from neutral, generally applicable laws designed to protect children. The United States Supreme Court now has an opportunity to reverse this erroneous interpretation of the Constitution. The justices should grant the plaintiff’s petition for review, which they are scheduled to consider on Friday.

And consider it they should. Supervision does not have anything to do with religious practice in these instances. If it did, no non-Catholics could work for the church by definition.

It’s also a ridiculous claim. We can’t investigate into whether this person who works for us abused a child because the state can’t determine whether someone actually did that. Um, pardon me, but isn’t this obvious? Either the person did this or didn’t do this and unless they say that God told them to do it—which would be a horrifying thing to say—then their religious perspective is both flawed and irrelevant.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE GOVERNMENT WAS called on today to address the subject of reparation for survivors of the Magdalene laundries.

Ireland’s human rights record is being examined at the United Nations in Geneva today as the country bids to become a member of the UN Human Rights Council. The Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) made a statement to the UN Human Rights Council calling on the government to address the issue of reparation.

The IHRC was joined by the Women’s Human Rights Alliance (WHRA), led by the National Women’s Council of Ireland, when they made a statement to the UNHRC.

The WHRA urged the government to comply with the recommendations of the UN Committee against Torture and the IHRC to institute a statutory inquiry into Magdalene Laundries abuse and a compensation scheme for survivors.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Kos

Kaili Joy Gray

This story is just gonna break your heart:

Cardinal [Timothy M.] Dolan criticized a legislative proposal that would, for a year, drop the statute of limitations for filing civil claims for sexual offenses, allowing for lawsuits by people who say they were abused long ago. The cardinal said he was concerned that a flood of lawsuits over abuse by priests could drain the church of money it is using for charitable purposes.

“I think we bishops have been very contrite in admitting that the church did not handle this well at all in the past,” he said. “But we bristle sometimes in that the church doesn’t get the credit, now being in the vanguard of reform. It does bother us that the church continues to be a whipping boy.”

Aw. Poor bishops. They are just so sick and tired of being blamed for that whole covering-up-the-widespread-rape-and-molestation-of-children thing. Don’t you secular ingrates understand that they can’t do really important stuff—like spend $26.7 million a year lobbying politicians to pass Church-approved laws against gays and vaginas—if they have to keep paying settlements to all those molested kids?

And once you take into account all the money the Church has to spend trying to shut down Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) because, according to William Donohue, head of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the bishops believe “they had better toughen up and go out and buy some good lawyers to get tough” because they “don’t need altar boys,” why, that hardly leaves any money at all to care for the homeless pull funding from services for the homeless because its director supports marriage equality.

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UNITED STATES
Care2

by Paul Canning

Back in January, Catholic League President and frequent Fox News contributor Bill Donohue called victims of priest abuse and their advocates and supporters a “pitiful bunch of malcontents” and “professional victims.”

Now Donahue is calling for victims to be ‘fought one-by-one’ so the church can save money.

He claims that Catholic bishops are reaching the conclusion that “they had better toughen up and go out and buy some good lawyers to get tough.” “We don’t need altar boys,” he told the New York Times.

He says he’s backing an effort by lawyers for two Missouri priests accused of abuse to subpoena email from Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
KOMU

by Emily Allen

JEFFERSON CITY – Father Brendan Doyle will no longer be able to participate in public ministries in Jefferson City or elsewhere. A seven-person review board for the Jefferson City Diocese recommended Doyle be suspended indefinitely.

The Diocese’s Deacon Dan Joyce said the review board decided this after reviewing evidence from the investigation put on by the US Attorney’s office. Bishop Gaydos accepted the recommendation from the review board and Doyle was suspended.

The investigation started in November when a Helias High School computer technician discovered pornographic web images on Doyle’s computer.

The details of these images were not released. However, the review board said the images violated the charter protecting children and young people.

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UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune

By Aaron Falk
The Salt Lake Tribune

A Mormon bishop accused of failing to report the alleged abuse of a child in his congregation has taken a plea deal that could end with the misdemeanor’s dismissal.

Amado Gress Rojas, 62, entered into a “diversion agreement” Monday in Provo Justice Court. The deal with prosecutors means Rojas can ask the court to dismiss the single class B misdemeanor count if he has no criminal violations over the next six months.

According to defense attorney Mike Esplin, who spoke to The Salt Lake Tribune last month about the charges, the alleged victim and three other girls spoke to Rojas during a meeting in September. The girl reported she had been “touched over the clothing” during a church activity.

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PHILIPPINES
Bulatlat

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com

The children’s welfare advocacy and party-list group Akap-Bata recently called on the Benigno Aquino III administration to enforce Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009. It also aired its dismay over what it said was the Inter-Agency Council against Child Pornography’s (IACCP) “poor performance” since the law was passed in November 2009.

“No culprit of child pornography has been convicted in the almost 30 months since the law’s passage. We want to know if the agency has made any headway in implementing its mandate. We want violators of children’s rights to be punished and for this to serve as a strong warning to the masterminds of child pornography in the country,” said Akap Bata Party-List secretary-general Arlene Brosas.

Brosas said the Aquino government and the IACCP should “do their homework” so they can implement the provisions of the anti-child pornography law. She said the agency should put together a child pornography database to monitor all incidents of child porn in the country. This, she said, can be the starting point for the agency’s strategic plan of action. …

Late in November last year, reports came out that a Massachusetts , United States-based Filipino priest who was caught with child pornography in his computer disappeared before he could go on trial. The priest, Rev. Lowe B. Dongor, is suspected to be hiding in the Philippines.

Based on reports, Dongor was arraigned in Fitchburg District Court on September 12, 2011 on charges of possessing child pornography. The newspaper Telegram said images of child pornography were found in the priest’s laptop. The independent computer service company, which flagged the pornographic material, informed the local police. The report noted that court documents reveal that the images found in the priest’s computer depicted prepubescent girls in various states of undress.

“If this priest is in hiding in the Philippines, what has the IACCP done to find him? It should coordinate with the police authorities and other agencies to find him,” Brosas said.

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UNITED STATES
The Media Report

Dave Pierre

The New York Times is again shilling for the Catholic-hating SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) with more false attacks against the Catholic Church.

Yesterday (Tue., 3/13/12), the Times plastered a sympatheic, front-page portrait of the anti-Catholic advocacy group in an apparent attempt to intimidate the Church from defending itself through the legal process. We have already exposed the dishonest nature of the article (which was written by religion editor Laurie Goodstein).

Then today (Wed., 3/14/12), the Times continued its attack with a misleading and error-laced editorial.

First, the editorial claims that the Catholic Church is “threatening to expose private files” of victims in Missouri. This is patently and demonstrably untrue. If there is one issue that SNAP and the Church agree on, it is that victims’ files must be kept private.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WTAM

(Cleveland)- Bishop Richard Lennon of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese has received the official word from the Vatican regarding his orders closing 13 Northeast Ohio churches.

Lennon says the Vatican Congregation for Clergy decrees arrived on Wednesday and the process to review these rulings will now be undertaken with his advisors.

Last week the Vatican overturned Lennon’s ruling to close 13 churches.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Michael O’Malley, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The official decrees reversing Bishop Richard Lennon’s closings of 13 Catholic parishes finally reached his desk today, the bishop acknowledged in a statement.

That means the clock began ticking today on a 60-day period for him to decide whether to appeal.

“The process to review these rulings will now be undertaken with my advisors,” the bishop wrote in a three-sentence statement posted on the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland’s web site.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WKYC

CLEVELAND — Bishop Richard Lennon announced Wednesday that he is now in receipt of decrees issued by the Vatican Congregation for Clergy regarding 13 closed churches within the Cleveland Diocese.

The bishop says he will begin to review the decrees with his advisors.

Critics of the church closings want Bishop Lennon to implement the ruling from the Vatican and quickly reopen the impacted parishes.

The Congregation of Clergy ruled that the bishop failed to follow church law and procedure in making the closings.

The 13 churches were among 50 closed by the Diocese due to declining finances and attendance.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Lodi News-Sentinel

By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

STOCKTON — The plaintiff in the Michael Kelly civil trial, who said in previous testimony that he was sexually assaulted and fondled while he was in fifth grade in the 1980s, testified on Wednesday that he wasn’t sure what grade he was in when some of the alleged incidents took place.

The former Stockton altar boy also refuted statements by clinical psychologist Amy Charney, who testified he told her that Kelly sexually assaulted her in fourth grade.

During cross examination, Stockton Diocese attorney Jim Goodman showed videotapes of two depositions the plaintiff gave in 2009 in an effort to show inconsistencies between what the plaintiff said during the depositions and what he said on the witness stand Wednesday and last Friday.

Not every incident may have happened in fifth grade, the plaintiff said Wednesday. Some of the incidents may have taken place as late as seventh or eighth grade.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

Editorial

Published: March 14, 2012

Religious institutions have constitutional protections, but they are not above the law. Unfortunately, that has not stopped the Roman Catholic Church and other religious groups from arguing that the First Amendment shields them from civil lawsuits for negligent supervision and retention of employees who sexually abuse children.

Most state courts that have considered the issue have rejected this claim by churches, recognizing that holding religious employers liable for failure to monitor employees in sex-abuse cases does not interfere with constitutionally protected religious freedoms.

However, courts in Missouri, Wisconsin and Utah have twisted the First Amendment into a shield for organizational liability for pedophile clergy. In an outrageous case, a Missouri appellate court summarily dismissed a negligence case brought against the Archdiocese of St. Louis by an individual who said he had been abused by a priest. His suit charged the archdiocese with negligent failure to supervise the priest, who had a past record of child sexual abuse. The court threw out the complaint, saying that Missouri law does not allow it because judging the supervision of the priest would require inquiry into religious doctrine, which it contends would violate the First Amendment.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Modesto Bee

By Ross Farrow
News-Sentinel (Lodi)

STOCKTON — Defense attorneys claimed on Tuesday that the 37-year-old former altar boy suing Lockeford priest Michael Kelly may have been sexually assaulted by someone else.

During cross-examination, clinical psychologist Amy Charney, a witness for the plaintiff, testified that the plaintiff was in fourth grade, not fifth, when he was sexually assaulted. Charney’s statement contradicts the plaintiff’s testimony Friday that Kelly sexually assaulted him in the fifth grade.

Defense attorney Tom Beatty, representing Kelly, noted that Kelly didn’t begin his duties at Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton until June 1984, when the plaintiff was completing the fourth grade.

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FORT BEND (IN)
The Journal Gazette

Rosa Salter Rodriguez | The Journal Gazette

Nearly every day, they’ve been writing – sometimes a few words, sometimes a sentence or two, often whole paragraphs packed with emotion.

“Words can’t express the sorrow I have for (you), Father Thom,” one wrote. “I can’t imagine your pain, and I look forward to the day that we can welcome you back home with open arms at St. Joseph’s.”

“Still thinking of you and praying you remain strong and sustained … I miss you and I know that God the Father has you in His mighty hand,” another penned.

Those who know the Rev. Thomas C. Lombardi have been voicing their support online for the Fort Wayne-South Bend Roman Catholic Diocese priest accused of sexual misconduct with a teenage boy more than 10 years ago.

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MISSOURI
The Fulton Sun

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Deacon Dan Joyce, the communications director for the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City, said Father Brendan Doyle, 73, has been suspended from providing “any public ministry.”

Joyce said the diocesan action was taken, even though “it is the understanding of the Diocese that, at this time, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri has declined prosecution.”

He said the seven-member Review Board considered the results of its own investigation, the information it received from law enforcement and the policies of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

Joyce told reporters late Wednesday afternoon: “Based upon all the information it received, the diocesan review board believed that Fr. Doyle violated the Charter based on downloaded pornographic images that were found on a laptop computer he owned and a school laptop he used.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Democrat

By KATHERINE JARVIS
dailydemocrat.com
Created: 03/14/2012

A former Woodland priest will not return to Sacramento Superior Court on molestation charges until April.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, 32, served as a priest at Woodland’s Holy Rosary Catholic Church from 2007 until 2009.

His hearing last Friday was continued until 1:35 p.m. Thursday, April 12. He has yet to enter a plea to seven counts of committing lewd and lascivious acts with a girl under the age of 14 between 2007 and 2009.

According to the criminal complaint, the crimes occurred in Sacramento and Shasta counties, where Ojeda was a parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mercy parish in Redding.

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UNITED STATES
Boys Don’t Tell

Randy Ellison

I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately on how much the Catholic Church is doing to repair the damage to it’s public image. They wish to show us how repentant they are over what they have been doing to our children. There are conferences in Rome where bishops listen to survivors and a really great press release by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin who actually seems to “get it”.

Now, this morning , there is a particularly nauseating press release out of New York by His Excellency Archbishop Timothy Dolan. Mr. Dolan reports on his conversation with NY Governor Cuomo regarding a bill to extend the statute of limitations on child sex abuse five years until age 28: “And the governor listens. He’s a good lawyer. He reminded us of his allegiance to classical jurisprudence that would see a great benefit in the protection of the statute of limitations to see that the innocent of protected and that justice is done.”

Dolan also said the bishops have been “contrite” in admitting the church has handled molestation scandals poorly, but is trying to do more now — and isn’t getting credit for that: So it does bother us that the church continues to be a “whipping boy”…

Really? In arguing against a five year extension of the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse Mr. Dolan describes The Church as needing protection and justice because as hard as they try, they are still just a “whipping boy”? Interesting turn of a phrase if you ask me, and very skillful use of vocabulary to make The Church out to be the victim, in all the child sex abuse claims. Are you serious? After decades of child rape, deviant torture, beatings and destruction of human dignity, life and the theft of souls of helpless children “His Excellency” wants us to view The Church as the victim? And just to top it off he ends the press conference with “Last year when I was here, there were some refreshments up on that shelf, what happened to them?” aka; what happened to the booze?

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NEDERLAND
Het goede leven

woensdag 14 maart

Bisschop Punt van het bisdom Haarlem-Amsterdam heeft een priester van het bisdom postuum uit het ambt gezet.De geestelijke, die in 1991 overleed, was van 1941 tot 1967 rector van het weeshuis De Voorzienigheid in Amsterdam. Diverse klachten van seksueel misbruik zijn bij het meldpunt misbruik van de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk tegen de man in behandeling.

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NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

GRONINGEN – De Rooms-Katholieke Kerk draait slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik een rad voor ogen door zich in civiele procedures te beroepen op verjaring.

Dat stelt Fokko Oldenhuis, bijzonder hoogleraar Religie en Recht aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG) in een interview dat woensdag is gepubliceerd op de website van de RUG. Bij monde van aartsbisschop Wim Eijk beloofde de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk geen beroep te doen op de verjaring van seksuele delicten. Bij nader inzien geldt deze belofte echter alleen voor slachtoffers die hun claim bij de kerk indienen.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Barney Zwartz
March 15, 2012

THE Catholic Church in Melbourne has nothing to hide from an independent inquiry into its handling of sexual abuse allegations under the Melbourne Response, the city’s Archbishop, Denis Hart, said yesterday.

Archbishop Hart said he was confident any independent inquiry into its Melbourne Response protocol would confirm this.

But he declined to welcome an inquiry – saying he could not do so until he saw the terms of reference – or to comment on the handling of complaints before the protocol was introduced in 1996.

”We are not dodging for cover and hiding,” he said.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Fox 8

March 14, 2012, by Dan Jovic

The head of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese, Bishop Richard Lennon, announced on Wednesday that he has received decrees from the Vatican associated with the proposed re-opening of 13 Cleveland-area parishes.

Bishop Lennon issued the following statement on the decrees;

“As indicated in my previous statement, I promised to inform you when I had received from the Vatican Congregation for Clergy decrees associated with parish appeals. The decrees arrived on Wednesday, March 14, 2012.

The process to review these rulings will now be undertaken with my advisors.“
Last week the Vatican overturned the closings of 13 Cleveland-area parishes, according to the attorney who led a legal fight against their doors being shut for good.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Akron Beacon Journal

By Colette M. Jenkins
Beacon Journal religion writer
Published: March 14, 2012

Catholic Diocese of Cleveland Bishop Richard G. Lennon said Wednesday he has received documents from the Vatican concerning his orders to close 13 parishes.

“As indicated in my previous statement, I promised to inform you when I had received from the Vatican Congregation for Clergy decrees associated with parish appeals. The decrees arrived on Wednesday, March 14, 2012. The process to review these rulings will now be undertaken with my advisors,” Lennon said in a prepared statement.

The documents arrived a week after Peter Borre, a Boston activist who has fought the closing of churches in the Cleveland diocese, told the Associated Press the Congregation of the Clergy had ruled Lennon did not follow proper procedures in the closings of 13 parishes that appealed their suppressions and the closing of their churches.

Since then, Borre and other critics of the closings have called for the bishop to move quickly in restoring the 13 affected parishes. They contend that, although Lennon has 60 days from the receipt of the Vatican documents to appeal, the congregations cannot be denied access to their church buildings.

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UNITED STATES
Benedict XVI Ratzinger: God’s Rottweiler

[‘Pope’s crocodile’ returns to Cuba ahead of papal trip – via BBC News]

Paris Arrow

Updated March 14, 2012 This shows how out-of-touch-with-reality “Holy Father” Benedict XVI is because he would rather meet with a rare Cuban crocodile who flew all the way from Cuba to meet him within his palace…but he refuses to let inside the Vatican his suppossedly Catholic children who walked all the way across Italy to meet him. What Benedict XVI has in common with the rare Cuban crocodile are his crocodile tears for hundreds of thousands of victims of the B16 Army – Benedict XVI Pedophile Priests Army – named aptly after him as Cardinal Ratzinger who together with John Paul II covered-up and condoned pedophile priests and Cardinals and Bishops who transferred them from one parish to another to satiate their bestial pedophilic lust. Read our latest articles in our new blog Pope crimes and Vatican Evils http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/ Will The Hague please move in fast and call on Benedict XVI to go face his trial for his Crimes against Humanity and let the Vatican produce its dream legal team to defend him. Only The Hague can bring justice for the hundreds of thousands of children abused by pedophile priests in countries all over the world.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Jacob Kleinman

March 13, 2012

An Italian member of the hacktivist collective Anonymous targeted the Vatican website for a second time in under week on Tue. March 13, knocking the website offline and penetrating deeper into the city state’s server to steal the personal information of multiple Vatican Radio journalists.

Although the Vatican confirmed that they had been hacked, but claimed that much of the information the hacktivist gathered was useless.

“There was a second attack we are aware of directed against the [Vatican IP] address,” said a Vatican spokesman today. “[Concerning] Vatican Radio, a database on an old server was accessed. Thirty percent of the information on the server was so outdated it was of no use.”

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IRELAND
Faith Trust Institute

The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, was recently interviewed on 60 Minutes, discussing his efforts since becoming Archbishop to address the sexual abuse of children by priests.

One of his first acts as Archbishop was to release the Diocesan files on priests accused of abuse to the Murphy Commission established by the state to investigate the church’s handling of complaints. Martin’s predecessor had refused to release those files. But Martin has been outspoken in his support of survivors and unequivocal in calling abusive priests to accountability. The Vatican is not pleased.

Archbishop Martin seems to be rebuilding trust with Catholics in Ireland where the church has been devastated by the revelations of abuse by priests. The interviewer sought to paint him as a hero, but Martin demurred: “I didn’t set out to challenge anybody. . . . I was doing my job.” Indeed. He was doing his job as a Bishop: guiding the Church to be the church, responding to the suffering inflicted by the Church, protecting the most vulnerable, telling the truth.

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UNITED STATES
AlterNet

Joey Piscitelli

Bill Donahues’ Catholic League Member # 60201 MCGUO, serial molester Fr. Donald McGuire, is the most notorious Jesuit rapist on earth. Fr. Donald McGuire, who was convicted by US Feds, aided by the Dept. of Homeland Security, was jailed for the rest of his life a few years ago. But this egregious rapist is also known as Mother Teresa’s’ personal confessor, and is responsible for tainting her reputation.

Additionally, Fr. McGuire, who swam in a cesspool of disgrace for decades, and was known by the Jesuits to be a serial molester, and was allowed free reign to travel the world, has another notorious tie- to yet another famous Catholic “celebrity”.

The vocal and obnoxious leader of the Catholic League, William Donahue, who outspokenly condemned child abuse victims and advocates as “A menace to the Catholic Church”, had previously allowed the serial molester Fr. McGuire to join and donate money to his “organization”, and thanked McGuire for his generosity.

This comes as no shock, as Donahue is known by clergy abuse victims for spewing disgraceful hurtful remarks, and showing no remorse for it; in support of clergy abusers. As Mr. Donahue bragged to the New York Times that the Catholic Bishops had got together with a new strategy to fight victims of sex abuse by clergy, and continued his rant about the apparent Catholic war on rape victims and their advocates, his ego was in full swing. It is extremely difficult and sad to witness how proud he is to imply that the Catholic church will do anything possible to defeat innocent child molestation victims, and their advocates.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Thomas P. Doyle on Mar. 14, 2012 Examining the crisis

Commentary

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, came into existence in 1989, just five years after national attention was first focused on sexual molestation of minors by Catholic clergy. The founder, Barbara Blaine, is a survivor of abuse. The national director, David Clohessy, is also a survivor. SNAP came into existence because the institutional church, i.e., the bishops, could not and would not do anything to help the victims of the priests they were supposed to supervise.

Realizing that they would have to help themselves, Barbara and the original members started what has become the oldest and most effective advocacy and help group for the countless victims of clergy abuse throughout the United States and Europe as well.

Over the years since its existence, SNAP has done what the institutional church should have done: It offered understanding, support, solace and above all, hope for anyone who called upon it. SNAP is not a sophisticated organization with a well-oiled and financed bureaucracy. It has always been focused on providing support for victims, giving them the encouragement to begin to heal from the devastation of abuse and giving them hope, knowing they are not alone. …

The latest and most convincing evidence of the bishops’ collective failure following the present pope’s admonitions is the organized attack on SNAP. This attack is being carried out by lawyers who represent two priests accused of abuse, but it’s not about justice for the priests. It’s about destroying an organization that represents not only a source of profound embarrassment to the bishops but a serious threat to their continued duplicity. On one hand, the demand for SNAP’s files is sending a horrific message to all victims of clergy abuse and to all who try to help and support them. The message is clear: Although individual bishops might be truly sympathetic, the bishops as a group simply don’t “get it.” Nothing has changed since 1985, when this sordid issue first came to widespread public awareness. They are only concerned for themselves, their image, their control over the laity and their money. The National Review Board had it right when they pinpointed this in their 2004 report.

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VANCOUVER (WA)
The Oregonian

By Kate Mather, The Oregonian

An employee at the King’s Way Christian School in Vancouver faces criminal charges after investigators say they found evidence of an “inappropriate, sexual relationship” between the woman and a student.

Deputies began an investigation Saturday and arrested Kyley Allworth today on charges of first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor, said Sgt. Kevin Allais of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. She was booked in the Clark County Jail.

Allworth is not a teacher at the private K-12 school, located at 3300 N.E. 78th St., but Allais said she is “involved in a supervisory role” and coaches sports. No information about the student was available.

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VANCOUVER (WA)
KPTV

By FOX 12 Webstaff

VANCOUVER, WA (KPTV) –
A coach at a Vancouver school is accused of having a sexual relationship with a student.

Kyley Allworth, 29, was arrested Tuesday on three counts of first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor.

Clark County sheriff’s deputies say Allworth works at Kingsway Christian School on Northeast 78th Street and is involved in a “supervisory role at the school as well as coaching athletics.”

The name of the student involved isn’t being released.

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VANCOUVER (WA)
KION

Reported by: Carla Castaño
Email: ccastano@koin.com

Reported by: Jennifer Meacham

A female school employee from a Christian school in Vancouver faced a judge Wednesday, four days after the start of a law-enforcement investigation into her relationship with a 17-year-old girl at the school.

Some of Kyley Allworth’s family members were in the Clark County courtroom Wednesday. They told KOIN Local 6 they were shocked by the allegations.

“She’s an incredible woman,” said her cousin Mike White.

White and other family members expressed concerns about Allworth’s behavior in recent months. They said they were worried about her drinking and that she might commit suicide.

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VANCOUVER (WA)
The Columbian

By Laura McVicker
Columbian Staff Reporter

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

A former assistant librarian and basketball coach at King’s Way Christian School made her first appearance Wednesday on suspicion of sexual misconduct of a 17-year-old female student.

Kyley J. Allworth, 29, of Vancouver appeared in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of three counts of sexual misconduct with a minor relating to one victim. Allworth wore a “suicide smock,” or a garment made of tear-resistant fabric that is meant to prevent an inmate from ripping up clothing to fashion a noose.

After hearing that Allworth was at risk of committing suicide, Judge Diane Woolard set bail at $50,000.

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VANCOUVER (WA)
KGW

by Collette Wieland

VANCOUVER — A teacher aide at a Clark County Christian High School has been arrested on sex abuse charges involving a student.

Kylee Allworth, 29, appeared Wednesday in Clark County Superior Court. She was ordered held on $50,000 bail. She was charged with three counts of suspicion of sexual misconduct with a minor. Her next court appearance was scheduled for March 28.

An informer told Kings Way Christian School officials about the allegations on Saturday, who turned them over to the Clark County sheriff’s office.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast – The Dish

Andrew Sullivan

How hard is to to support the institutional hierarchy of the Catholic church these days? This hard:

Mr. Donohue said leading bishops he knew had resolved to fight back more aggressively against the group SNAP, [Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests]: “The bishops have come together collectively. I can’t give you the names, but there’s a growing consensus on the part of the bishops that they had better toughen up and go out and buy some good lawyers to get tough. We don’t need altar boys.”

He said bishops were also rethinking their approach of paying large settlements to groups of victims. “The church has been too quick to write a check, and I think they’ve realized it would be a lot less expensive in the long run if we fought them one by one,” Mr. Donohue said.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Interestingly enough, Laurie Goodstein reports today in the New York Times about David Clohessy’s Kansas City subpoena, as I did yesterday, and unless I’m badly misreading her report, it fairly well squares with what I posted on this matter yesterday. Goodstein cites the highly regarded legal scholar and advocate for victims, Marci Hamilton, who thinks that Catholic church leaders are deliberately trying to shut SNAP up by playing ugly legal hardball games in Missouri.

Goodstein also has insider information from Catholic League president Bill Donohue, who tells her that what is happening with SNAP in Missouri is being deliberately orchestrated by the U.S. Catholic bishops:

Lawyers for the church and priests say they cannot comment because of a judge’s order. But William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a church advocacy group in New York, said targeting the network was justified because “SNAP is a menace to the Catholic Church.”

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Bully Bill Donohue’s gloating remarks about his insider information vis-a-vis the U.S. Catholic bishops and their current campaign to bully SNAP are not getting good press coverage in the blogosphere. I’m referring here to the statement that the Catholic League director made yesterday in Laurie Goodstein’s New York Times article about the attempt to bully SNAP through hardball legal tactics in Missouri, where Bishop Robert Finn is now facing criminal indictment.

As my posting about this yesterday (to which the first link above points) noted, Donohue told Goodstein that “the bishops have come together collectively” to fight SNAP (and, implicitly, the survivors of clerical sexual abuse SNAP defends), though he can’t give Goodstein specific names of bishops about whom he’s speaking. As I stated, though the USCCB media spokeswoman Sister Mary Ann Walsh denies any such concerted effort of bishops to collude in bullying SNAP in Missouri, I’m inclined to think Dohonue is boasting about insider information he really does have, since he clearly works hand and glove with the USCCB, and, in particular, with the USCCB president His Eminence Timothy M. Cardinal Dolan, with whom Donohue shares an office building.

Donohue does the dirty work the U.S. Catholic bishops don’t want the public to see, so that they can pretend their own hands are clean.

And so, in a piece yesterday entitled “The Hierarchy Re-Abuses the Sex-Abuse Victims,” Andrew Sullivan notes that it’s increasingly difficult to support the institutional hierarchy of the Catholic church these days, and zeroes in on Donohue’s ugly boasts to Goodstein, noting,

Donohue is a thug. But he is for the hierarchy what Hannity is for the GOP base. And the line about “altar boys”? Sometimes, you realize that for some Catholics, nothing has changed since the revelation of the mass rape of children, altar boys often a prime target.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responds to today’s editorial in the New York Times on the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP):

We now know from the deposition of SNAP director David Clohessy that he has been (a) lying to the media about his work (b) falsely advertising his group as a rape crisis center (c) working with unseemly lawyers (d) exploiting his clients by providing unauthorized “counseling” services (e) ripping off those who are truly in need of help by failing to contribute even a dime for licensed counselors, and (f) pursuing priests on the basis of legal criteria he admits he cannot explain.

Furthermore, we know from two people who went undercover last summer to a SNAP conference in the D.C. area that the Catholic Church is regarded by these activists as “the evil institution.” Yet when the bishops finally decide to play hardball, they are slammed by the New York Times!

When the Times is sued, does it hire wimpy lawyers? Does it allow itself to be a punching bag? Not on your life: they hire the most aggressive attorneys they can buy. But when the bishops follow suit, they’re accused of not showing “reconciliation” for the victims.

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UNITED STATES
The Chronicle of Philanthropy

March 14, 2012

Lawyers for the Roman Catholic Church and accused priests in two Missouri sexual-abuse cases have gone to court to compel a national advocacy group for abuse victims to disclose years of e-mail correspondence, reports The New York Times.

In recent months, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, has been subpoenaed five times in connection with cases involving the Kansas City and St. Louis dioceses. David Clohessy, the largely volunteer-run group’s national director, was asked in a subpoena to turn over 23 years worth of documents.

Mr. Clohessy said he was deposed for six hours by church lawyers in January and called the questioning “a fishing, crabbing, shrimping, trash-collecting, draining the pond expedition” intended to “harass and discredit and bankrupt SNAP.”

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WISCONSIN
WTMJ

ELM GROVE – Advocated for clergy abuse victims claim there could be dozens of sex offenders still working for the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) held a news conference at St. Mary’s Church in Elm Grove.

Fr. Lauren Wenig, who served as pastor at St. Mary’s, was placed on leave after being accused of abusing a child in 2011.

SNAP wants the names of accused abusers made public.

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IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

Garry O’Sullivan

At last week’s bishops’ press conference in Maynooth, we were told by an unusually upbeat Archbishop Martin that the Church in Ireland is beginning, albeit tentatively, to turn a corner. However, when he was asked by this paper about the Visitation Report, which has been in the hands of the bishops for some time now, the archbishop became his more familiar prickly self.

It is hardly a well kept secret that many of the bishops are very unhappy with the Visitation Report, which is still under debate between them and Rome.

So let’s indeed be tentative about any corners being turned – indeed let’s be very careful about the language that is being employed.

For instance the archbishop went on to say that Croke Park probably would not be big enough for the crowds coming to the Eucharistic Congress, but I reminded him, numbers were never a difficulty for the Irish Church.

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ALASKA
Vimeo

Frontline presents a documentary to illustrate the horror endured by children in Alaska in the hands of a priest.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Lodi News-Sentinel

By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

STOCKTON — Defense attorneys claimed on Tuesday that the 37-year-old former altar boy suing popular Lockeford priest Michael Kelly may have been sexually assaulted by someone else.

During cross examination, clinical psychologist Amy Charney, a witness for the plaintiff, testified that the plaintiff was in fourth grade, not fifth, when he was sexually assaulted. Charney’s statement contradicts the plaintiff’s testimony on Friday that Kelly sexually assaulted him in fifth grade.

Defense attorney Tom Beatty, representing Kelly, noted that Kelly didn’t begin his duties at Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton until June 1984, when the plaintiff was completing fourth grade.

However, Charney said that people with repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse are often fuzzy on actual dates and times of traumatic events. She added that children sometimes shut off their memories of events like sexual assault for more than 20 years, as she said was the case with the plaintiff suing Kelly.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WFMZ

[with video]

Author: Dwayne Parker

SPRING TWP., Pa. –
Just after evening mass, Tuesday evening, at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Spring Township, members were still getting over the piercing allegations facing their priest, Father Cletus Onyegbule.

“I just wanted to cry. I was at five-thirty mass with our bishop and I just wanted to cry,” said Judy Avella-Keller.

Police allege that Onyegbule, 44,admitted to having consensual sex with an 18-year-old woman, several years ago, in the rectory of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Bethlehem Township, Northampton County.

After the young woman became pregnant, officials said Onyegbule paid for an abortion.

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CANADA
National Post

Sarah Boesveld Mar 14, 2012

An Acadian fishing village in turmoil over allegations a priest abused local boys decades ago found catharsis Monday night by removing the clergyman’s name from the local arena without waiting for a planned plebiscite.

After a quick vote at Cap-Pelé, N.B., municipal hall, dozens of townsfolk who had attended the council meeting walked to the arena and cheered as volunteer firefighters pulled down the sign from Aréna Père-Camille-Léger, named after a long-serving priest and community leader who is now, 20 years after his death, being accused of sexual assault.

The town had planned a plebiscite to coincide with May’s general municipal elections, but a weekend apology from the Archdiocese of Moncton that acknowledged abuses at the hands of Léger spurred council to call an emergency meeting Monday.

“To delay the decision to remove the name of Father Camille Léger by plebiscite will cause more pain and uncertainty from the victims,” read the motion, passed unanimously by the council shortly after 7 p.m. Monday.

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POLAND
Sunday Catholic Weekly

Milena Kindziuk

The issues of financing the Church and salaries of priests are still raising emotions. And many environments have been repeating the myth about the wealth of priests for years. The report of the Catholic Information Agency shows what truth on this issue is.

It clearly results from the document that the Church is maintained from the gifts of the faithful in 80%. – The Church is as rich as the faithful are sacrificial – says Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz, the chairman of the Episcopal Economic Council. Moreover, the system of financing the Church is also created by: the economic activity of Church institutions and financing from the public means.

A tray not for a priest

There is nearly a general belief that donations ‘on a tray’ are given to priests by the faithful; and that priests ‘gain’ a lot of money every Sunday, whereas a parish, a church and parish buildings and not priests are maintained from the tray or voluntary donations from the faithful. However, the incomes from the tray are various, depending on a region of Poland. As it results from the report of the Catholic Information Agency presented in the Episcopal Secretarial Office ‘Finances of the Catholic Church in Poland’, the average amount of money on the Sunday tray in a small village parish of nearly 1000 inhabitants in the diocese of Tarnów is 487 zlotys. But in a parish of 3-thousand people in the diocese of Bielsko and Żywiec – it is 2300 zlotys, and in a parish in a city, like the archdiocese of Katowice – it can be even 4 thousand zlotys. However, these are not representative data; for we must remember that in Poland there are very poor parishes living on the verge of poverty, like, for example, Korytowo in the diocese of Szczecin and Kamieńsko.

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