ABUSE TRACKER

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

June 8, 2012

Legal fees and expenses approved to date in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy are approaching $4 million, according to court records. And hundreds of thousands dollars in additional fees are pending approval or have yet to be filed.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley called the fees “astronomical” at a hearing this week and threatened to bring in a mediator if the parties could not come to some agreement in the coming weeks.

“The legal fees in this case are over the top. . . . And the pleadings being filed . . . don’t show me that we are getting to a resolution,” said Kelley. “It looks to me like it’s all-out war.”

Assistant U.S. Trustee David Asbach echoed Kelley’s concerns, calling the fees a sign of a “scorched earth” legal battle.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

Pope OKs early retirement of Australian bishop who questioned celibacy, church teaching on sex

By Associated Press, Published: June 8

VATICAN CITY — The pope has agreed to give early retirement to an Australian bishop who ruffled the Vatican’s feathers by calling for a total reform of the Catholic Church, questioning mandatory celibacy for priests along with church teachings on sexuality.

Pope Benedict XVI accepted Monsignor Patrick Power’s resignation on Thursday. Power, an auxiliary bishop in Canberra, asked to retire five years before the mandatory retirement age of 75 for bishops.

In a 2010 article penned at the height of the renewed clerical sex abuse crisis, Power said the church needs to be totally reformed since it had strayed from the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.

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OSTERREICH
Tiroler Tageszeitung

Von Wolfgang Otter

Thiersee – Seit öffentlich bekannt geworden ist, dass der verstorbene Pfarrer und Ehrenbürger von Thiersee Buben sexuell missbraucht haben soll, gehen im Passionsspieldorf die Wogen hoch. Viele fragen sich: Kann jemand, der solche Übergriffe getätigt hat, noch weiter Ehrenbürger eines Dorfes sein? Der Gemeinderat von Thiersee hat sich (wie berichtet) nicht dazu durchringen können, diese Frage zu beantworten. Der Tagesordnungspunkt wurde nach einer zweistündigen hitzigen Debatte im Gemeinderat mit 7:8 abgesetzt.

Wie nicht anders zu erwarten, war das für manche Betroffene zu wenig. Daher erwartet sich Bürgermeister Hannes Juffinger, dass in einer der kommenden Gemeinderatssitzungen das Thema neuerlich behandelt wird.

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OSTERREICH
Petebrosman’s Blog

Die Plattform „Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt” hat neun römisch-katholischen Bischöfen eine Liste mit 40 Beschuldigten geschickt, denen sexuelle Gewalt gegen Kinder und Jugendliche vorgeworfen wird. Die Beschuldigten sind laut Plattform nach wie vor unbehelligt im Amt. Jetzt müsse es Konsequenzen geben, so die Plattform.

In der Vergangenheit seien Beschuldigte oder Verurteilte einfach nur versetzt worden, kritisiert Philipp Schwärzler. Das sei definitiv zu wenig, auch für die Betroffenen. “Deren Leben ist ja in vielen Fällen durch die sexuelle Gewalt massiv beeinträchtigt worden. Sie leiden zum Teil bis heute unter diesen Folgen.” Auf der anderen Seite jene Männer sehen, die ihnen das angetan haben, nach wie vor in Amt und Würden und hätten ehrenvolle Aufgaben. “Das empfinden diese Menschen als massiv ungerecht.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott kmellott@tribdem.com

BEDFORD — The trial of a traveling minister accused of having sex with an 11-year-old girl in a motel has been delayed again.

Bedford County Judge Thomas Ling on Friday granted a continuance to defense attorney Thomas Crawford of Pittsburgh. Crawford had requested additional time to line up and subpoena witnesses to testify on behalf of the Rev. Walter Donald Bradshaw.

The trial, expected to last two or three days, had been scheduled next week. It has been rescheduled for Sept. 19 and 20.

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ALABAMA/TEXAS
WAFF

[with video]

By Stephen McLamb

MARSHALL COUNTY, AL (WAFF) –
A Marshall County pastor now facing child sex abuse charges in Texas spent nearly a decade in the Texas state prison system before he was hired to pastor a church in Albertville.

41-year-old Mark Allen Green is jailed on a half million dollar bond in Texas and faces sexual abuse and aggravated sexual abuse of a child charges in Ellis and Navarro counties involving two victims under the age of 18.

Looking at his criminal background, his life of crime appears to have begun before the age of 20. Over the years, he’s faced numerous charges in at least six counties in Texas.

State prison officials said Green first entered the state system in 1996 on theft and burglary of a vehicle charges.

He was released in 1998 but was put back into the system in January 2001, and that’s where he stayed until late 2007.

Earlier this year, Green was hired to pastor the Cowboy Church of Marshall County in Albertville.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Julia Terruso/The Star-Ledger

ELIZABETH — There’s no way a popular pastor could have sexually assaulted young girls at a crowded church camp without anyone knowing, George Benbow’s attorney told jurors just before they began deliberations Thursday.

But prosecutors say that’s exactly what happened. They say Benbow would approach girls in private corners of the camp — the basement, an empty pool and the kitchen — pull them onto his lap and move against them. On some occasions, prosecutors say, Benbow would go to the bathroom immediately afterward.

Now, after listening to four weeks of emotional and sometimes graphic testimony, jurors must decide whom to believe: Benbow or five girls who have accused the former Plainfield pastor of molesting them.

“This was sexual intent,” Assistant Prosecutor John Esmerado said. “It wasn’t accidental. It wasn’t innocent.”

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ATLANTA (GA)
Charlotte Observer

By KATE BRUMBACK
Associated Press

ATLANTA Megachurch pastor and televangelist Creflo Dollar – who has drawn scrutiny for his flashy lifestyle and preaching that prosperity is good – was arrested early Friday after authorities say he slightly hurt his 15-year-old daughter in a fight at his metro Atlanta home.

Fayette County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call of domestic violence at the home in unincorporated Fayette County around 1 a.m., said investigator Brent Rowan. The pastor and his daughter were arguing over whether she could go to a party when Dollar “got physical” with her, leaving her with “superficial injuries,” Rowan said.

The 15-year-old was the one who called authorities, and her 19-year-old sister corroborated the story, Rowan said.

Dollar faces misdemeanor charges of simple battery and cruelty to children. He bonded out of Fayette County jail Friday morning.

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KENTUCKY
Tristate Homepage

[with video]

By: David Shepherd

Updated: June 8, 2012

OWENSBORO – (UPDATED 8:31 P.M.) — A former priest at Blessed Mother Catholic Church in Owensboro was arrested Friday morning after a grand jury indicted him on charges of sodomy and sexual abuse on a child under the age of 12, according to city police.

72-year-old Louis Piskula of Owensboro is in the Daviess County Jail on those charges.

This is not the first time Blessed Mother Church has drawn fire. Last year a man committed suicide in the church’s parking lot claiming he had been a victim of sexual abuse by a priest there. No charges were filed in that case but this new incident puts the church in the spotlight once again.

For Owensboro native, Aaron Layson, the thought of a priest molesting a child in his neighborhood is shocking.

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KENTUCKY
Indianapolis Star

Written by
Mike Wynn and Peter Smith
The Courier-Journal

FRANKFORT, KY. — State Rep. Tom Burch said Friday he stepped forward with his story of alleged sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a Roman Catholic priest to defend nuns from Vatican criticism.

Burch, D-Louisville, first publicly claimed that he suffered the abuse as a sixth- and seventh-grader in a letter last month to The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader that questions the Vatican’s assertion of control over an umbrella organization for most American Catholic women’s religious orders.

A Vatican report earlier this spring criticized the Leadership Conference of Women Religious over challenges to church doctrines and male church leadership that speakers had made at its meetings. It put an American archbishop in charge of making changes in the organization’s structure.

Burch said the nuns deserved better treatment.

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UNITED STATES
Social Science Research Network

Steven H. Resnicoff
DePaul University College of Law

June 1, 2012

Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2012

Abstract:
Jewish law requires a person to exert one’s energies and expend one’s financial resources to prevent the commission of interpersonal crimes and to protect or rescue victims of such crime. By contrast, American law generally permits a person to watch another bleed to death without offering any assistance at all. Most Jewish law courses place great emphasis on this difference, and commentators frequently cite it as proof of Jewish law’s moral superiority.

However, with respect to the tragedy of child sexual abuse, the systems seem to have switched roles. American law imposes a variety of affirmative duties on individuals and organizations to protect prospective victims. These obligations include conducting fingerprint-based criminal background checks on employees and reporting reasonably suspected or reasonably believed child abuse to public authorities.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Robert McClory on Jun. 08, 2012 NCR Today

The roots of the boiling conflict between U.S. Catholic sisters and the Vatican can be understood, I think, as an unfortunate assault by advocates of one image of the church on the proponents of another image. It is a case of outright ecclesiastical bullying, I believe.

In his classic book, Models of the Church, the late Avery Dulles proposes five legitimate ways of viewing the Catholic church: as institution, as community, as sacrament, as herald or proclaimer of the good news, and as servant. When asked what comes to mind when the word “church” enters a discussion, many Catholics immediately choose institution — church as organization founded by Christ and directed through the centuries by popes and bishops who have divine authority to teach, sanctify and rule the faithful. It’s what was handed down, preached, put into catechisms and memorized for ages. But other models are not of lesser value, Dulles says. They express other aspects of the church that church as institution does not express.

Among these others, the idea of church as servant is most intriguing and perhaps the most powerful because its practitioners mirror precisely what Jesus did in his public ministry. It is also the only one of Dulles’ models in which the agenda, the object of its activity, is not set and determined by the church itself, but by the needs of human beings, especially the poor and suffering.

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UNITED STATES
PBS – Religion & Ethics Newsweekly

[with video]

KIM LAWTON, Managing Editor, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly: After a two-year-long investigation, the Vatican strongly condemned a 2006 book on sexuality written by a prominent American nun. The Vatican’s doctrine office said Just Love by Sister Margaret Farley reflects a “defective understanding” of church teaching on issues including masturbation, homosexuality, marriage and divorce. Sister Farley taught Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School for more than 30 years. She said her book was not intended to be an expression of official Catholic teaching, but rather an “exploration of contemporary interpretations.” With this week’s news, the book has shot up the bestsellers charts. Many lay Catholics around the country have been rallying in support of US nuns. Last week, the umbrella group representing the majority of American Catholic sisters pushed back against a Vatican rebuke of them. In April, the Vatican accused the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) of having “serious doctrinal problems” and ordered the group to place itself under the authority of Seattle’s archbishop. Conference leaders will go to Rome Tuesday (June 12) for a meeting with church officials to discuss the situation.

Meanwhile at the Vatican, the investigation continues in the so-called “VatiLeaks” scandal in which private papal documents have been leaked to journalists. The pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was formally questioned this week. Under Vatican law, he faces up to six years in prison on charges of aggravated theft of the documents. But after Gabriele’s arrest, more documents were leaked, along with an anonymous note threatening still more unless certain church officials resign, including Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state. Bertone, who has been targeted in many of the leaks, accompanied Pope Benedict XVI to Milan last weekend for a huge event—the World Meeting of Families. An estimated one million people attended a special Mass there. Benedict announced the next World Meeting of Families will be in Philadelphia, in 2015. He said he looks forward to taking part “God willing.” He’ll then be 88 years old.

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UNITED STATES
Time

By Tim Padgett | June 8, 2012

If you want some perspective on just how benighted the Roman Catholic Church looks today on the subject of women, consider Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard was a German Benedictine nun in the 12th century and a leading feminist writer of her time. But even though that time was the 1100s, the Vatican rarely hassled her for asserting that men and women are equal — that God’s true nature, in fact, is maternal — or that nonprocreative sexual pleasure is O.K.

In the 21st century, however, Hildegard would no doubt receive the same censure that Sister Margaret Farley is facing this week after the Vatican denounced her book Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics. Farley, a Sisters of Mercy nun, a retired Yale divinity professor and a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, condones practices that have been morally acceptable to most U.S. and European Catholics for quite a while, including divorce, homosexuality, nonprocreative intercourse and masturbation. But Rome’s doctrinal bulldogs are sternly reminding her that those acts are “disordered,” “deviant” and “depraved.”

Sadly, it’s the church that’s looking unhinged these days. The Vatican was apparently just warming up in 2010 when it declared, astonishingly, that ordaining females into the all-male Catholic priesthood would be a “grave sin” on par with even pedophilia. Since then, as if scapegoating women for the escalating dissent among Catholics toward its hoary dogma, the church seems to have embarked on a misogynist’s crusade. Its legal assault on the Obama Administration’s requirement that Catholic institutions like colleges and hospitals make contraception available to female employees as part of their health coverage is, ultimately, less about religious freedom than about women’s freedom. Then there’s the U.S. bishops’ absurd probe of whether the Girl Scouts are selling feminist theology as well as fattening thin mints — and Rome’s accusation of “radical feminism” within the Leadership Conference on Women Religious (LCWR), which represents most of the U.S. nuns doing genuinely Christ-inspired work with the poor and the sick.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Jun. 08, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

ST. LOUIS — Problems of discrimination and exclusion are so manifest within the Catholic community today that the church “totters on the brink of compromising its self-identity as the basic sacrament of salvation,” a theologian told his peers here Friday.

Speaking frankly to some 300 colleagues assembled for an annual meeting of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), Jesuit Fr. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator said that of particular concern is the disregarded role of women in the church.

Saying that women are often the “face of redemption turned visibly” toward those the church serves, but are often “banished beyond the borders of relevance,” Orobator said the state of their participation in the church community leads to an uncomfortable question.

“As a church, so long as we surreptitiously but tenaciously rehearse the politics of discrimination and exclusion, we stand before God, as Cain was, befuddled by a question that we simply cannot wish away at the wave of a magisterial wand,” said Orobator.

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KENTUCKY
SurfKY

OWENSBORO, KY (6/8/12) – According to an Owensboro Police Department press release today, an investigation that began in February of 2011 has resulted in the arrest and indictment of 72-year-old Father Louis F Piskula. The alleged victim claims that he was sexually abused in 1978 by Piskula, who was a priest at Blessed Mother Church.

A Detective completed an investigation and forwarded all case information to the Daviess County Grand Jury, where Piskula was indicted on charges of: Sodomy in the 1st Degree, (victim less than 12 years of age)–Class A Felony and Sexual Abuse in the 1st Degree (victim less than 12 years of age)–Class C Felony. The Indictment Warrant was served on Piskula this morning, and he is lodged in the Daviess County Detention Center.

The Diocese of Owensboro provided SurfKY News with a press release that claims the alleged victim approached the diocese last year concerning the matter:

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NEW YORK
Zaakah

Rabbi Yaacov Behrman wrote an op-ed in The Forward on Friday where he says that, although he doesn’t agree with Agudah’s stance that cases of sexual molestation need rabbinical permission to be brought to the authorities, he also doesn’t agree with Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes recent move that would make rabbis mandated reporters of such crimes.

Rabbi Behrman sets out to argue against DA Charles Hynes new push to make rabbis mandated reporters, but before he gets to that point he takes a long detour and first defends Agudah’s policy.

He begins by explaining Agudah’s reasoning behind their stance that cases of child molestation must be brought to rabbis first:

“Although in the overwhelming majority of cases, abuse allegations turn out to be accurate, there has been a minority of cases in which innocent individuals were wrongly charged with abuse crimes. These individuals were vindicated only after lengthy proceedings. Therefore, some rabbis feel that in a case where there are no witnesses to the abuse and there is only one victim, who is a minor, a rabbi should assess the validity of the allegations before the accusations are brought to the police.”

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IRELAND
The Anglo-Celt

Paul Neilan

An American abuse survivor has criticised the apology of Fr Brendan Smyth’s former abbot, which The Anglo-Celt printed last week, and has launched her search for answers.

Attorney Helen McGonigle, who features in our lead story this week, has sent a fax addressed to the former abbot, Fr Kevin A Smith, at Holy Trinity Abbey, Kilnacrott, Ballyjamesduff, requesting the abbey “provide[s] me with a copy of the entire file at the abbey on Fr Brendan Smyth”.

The fax, which has an accompanying letter, is dated May 31, two days after Fr Smith released a statement apologising to victims of the paedophile Brendan Smyth. Smyth started abusing McGonigle in 1967, in Rhode Island, when she was six before Kevin Smith became abbot.

“Having had some time in prayer and reflection in Medjugorje on the past when I was Abbot and Superior of Holy Trinity Abbey, Kilnacrott, Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, I wish to acknowledge and apologise to all those who were abused in any way, their family, friends and fellow priests for mistakes which happened within the Church and various Institutions from August 1969 – March 1995, when I retired,” said the abbot’s statement.

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

Writing as an “individual” but not as an official spokesman for Chabad, an official Chabad spokesman says that making rabbis mandatory reporters of child sexual abuse is wrong.

Rabbi Yaakov Behrman, the director of media relations for the official Chabad Lubavitch News Service, writes in the Forward:

…As the law currently stands, victims and their families have the ability to seek the advice of a rabbi with confidence that their allegations will not be disclosed. Parents of victims are often terrified of the psychological effect a public trial would have on victims and their families. Victims often go to the rabbi for support, afraid to report the abuse directly to the authorities, afraid of being intimidated or impugning the reputation of an otherwise-respected member of the community, and afraid that public knowledge will hurt their chances of finding a suitable bride or groom in their community. It is in such cases that the rabbis play an invaluable part; they are often able to persuade a reluctant victim to come forward and testify. To paraphrase what one rabbi told a victim: “I do not say that you may report this crime to the police, I say you must report it to the police.”

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KENTUCKY
Tristate Homepage

By: David Shepherd
Updated: June 8, 2012

OWENSBORO – Owensboro police have arrested a priest accused of molesting a male child back in 1978, according to a news release from the department Friday.

72-year-old Louis F. Piskula was a priest at Blessed Mother church in Owensboro when the alleged abuse took place.

Details are sketchy at this hour but police say the arrest comes after an investigation in to the matter.

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VATICAN CITY
WOI

VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican has chastised Italian authorities for seizing documents intended for Pope Benedict XVI during a raid on the home of the recently ousted Vatican bank chief.

The Vatican said in a statement Friday that it is an internationally recognized sovereign state and that it expects Italian judicial authorities will respect that in any proceedings concerning Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.

Italian paramilitary police raided Gotti Tedeschi’s Piacenza home on Tuesday as part of a corruption investigation into Italy’s state-controlled aerospace giant Finmeccanica.

During the raid, police seized a memorandum Gotti Tedeschi had prepared for the pope concerning his controversial May 24 ouster.

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AUSTRALIA
The Freethinker

By
Barry Duke
– June 8, 2012

A CATHOLIC priest, charged in 2005 with 28 counts of indecent assault and one of buggery, had earlier been appointed “spiritual advisor” to a fellow priest charged with multiple child sex offences.

According to this report, in 1994 the then Vicar-General of the Melbourne archdiocese, Gerald Cudmore, oversaw the appointment of Father Frank Klep as spiritual director to Father Victor Rubeo after child sex abuse allegations about Rubeo were first reported to the archdiocese.

At that time, Klep had been charged by police with child sex offences. He was convicted of indecent assault in December 1994. Despite his conviction, Klep continued to act as Rubeo’s spiritual adviser during 1995.

Since the 1980s, Klep had been the subject of repeated child sex abuse complaints from parents of students attending the Salesian order’s school at Rupertswood in Melbourne’s outer north-west. He was sentenced to perform community service for his 1994 conviction and sent to Samoa by the Salesian order in 1998, when it became clear he was to be charged with more child sex offences.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

The “spiritual Olympics” of the Catholic Church will be staged in Ireland next week, attracting thousands of pilgrims from around the world.

Final preparations are under way for the 50th International Eucharistic Congress, which will begin with an open-air Mass for 25,000 people on Sunday.

Some 230 cardinals and bishops and 12,000 priests and deacons will attend events in Dublin throughout the week of celebration. …

The Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (Soca) plan to stage a “dignified” protest outside the RDS on Sunday to highlight its disgust at Cardinal Brady’s refusal to step down as Primate of All Ireland over the recent Father Brendan Smyth scandal.

Cardinal Brady acted as a note-taker during a probe into the notorious paedophile priest and was given a list of children’s names who were being abused – but failed to inform Gardai and their parents.

Spokesman John Kelly said the protest will be about the Vatican interfering with Irish sovereignty and its laws.

“The Ireland of 2012 is not the country of 1932 when fear of and deference to the Church was the norm,” said Mr Kelly.

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KENTUCKY
Messenger-Inquirer

Posted: Friday, June 8, 2012

By James Mayse Messenger-Inquirer

A former priest at St. Mary of the Woods Catholic Church in Whitesville and other Daviess County churches was arrested this morning by the Owensboro Police Department on charges of first-degree sodomy and first-degree sexual abuse.

The Rev. Louis Francis Piskula, 72, of the 7100 block of Kentucky 815 was indicted Tuesday by the Daviess Grand Jury on charges of first-degree sodomy, victim under 12, and first-degree sexual abuse. The sodomy charge is a class A felony, punishable upon conviction by a sentencing range between 20 years to life in prison. First-degree sexual abuse is a class D felony punishable upon conviction by one to five years in prison.

In a prepared statement, Chancellor Kevin Kauffeld, chief administrative officer for the Diocese of Owensboro, said diocese officials received a report from a man that he had been sexually abused by Piskula “in incidents dating from 1978.” The statement says diocese officials reported the man’s statement to the Daviess County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office and has cooperated with the investigation.

The Diocese statement says counseling services have been offered to the person who made the abuse allegations.

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KENTUCKY
WKYT

A former priest at St. Mary of the Woods Catholic Church in Whitesville and other Daviess County churches has been arrested in Owensboro on charges of first-degree sodomy and first-degree sexual abuse.

The Messenger-Inquirer reported that a Daviess County grand jury on Tuesday charged the Rev. Louis Francis Piskula, 72, charges of first-degree sodomy, victim under 12, and first-degree sexual abuse. Police arrested Piskula on Friday.

Diocese of Owensboro Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Kauffeld said in a statement that diocese officials received a report from a man that he had been sexually abused by Piskula in incidents dating to 1978.

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UNITED STATES
London Glossy

Posted by admin on June 8, 2012

US prosecutors said today they have broken an international child pornography ring that produced and distributed explicit images of infants and toddlers online.

The US attorney’s office in Indianapolis announced that seven men have been convicted, and two more defendants have pleaded guilty. Authorities are investigating suspects in the US, UK, Sweden, Serbia and the Netherlands.

First assistant US attorney Josh Minkler said more than two dozen children in the US and other countries were abused in the production of the pornography.

He said the children “far too often, weren’t old enough to comprehend the crimes committed against them”.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Record Searchlight

By Jim Schultz

Thursday, June 7, 2012

SACRAMENTO — A trio representing a network of people sexually abused by priests staged a quiet demonstration Thursday outside the Sacramento Roman Catholic Diocese headquarters in an effort to convince church leaders to make public a suspended Redding priest’s reported confession to a church-paid investigator that he molested a teenage girl.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, who is charged with seven felony counts of child molestation, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing today in Sacramento County Superior Court.

Joelle Casteix, western regional director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said she and two others staged the small demonstration and were able to deliver a letter to a spokesman for Bishop James Soto asking him to make Ojeda’s alleged confession public.

Casteix said in a telephone conversation she and others in her group decided to hold the demonstration after growing alarmed at the number of Ojeda’s vocal supporters who have been attending his court hearings and holding prayer vigils since his arrest last year.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

Speaking tonight in St. Louis at this weekend’s conference of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) is Sister Margaret Farley, the nun whose book, Just Love, has been criticized by the Vatican. The CTSA defends Farley, as does Lisa Miller of the Washington Post: Miller says Farley is acting in the grand tradition of the late Catholic feminist Mary Daly. Also speaking at the conference is retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland. Who are these people?

Farley’s intellectual hero is Michel Foucault, a homosexual drug addict who intentionally transmitted HIV to unsuspecting boys and who also justified rape. In the 1970s, the CTSA sponsored a book by Rev. Anthony Kosnick, Human Sexuality, that took a radically nonjudgmental position on homosexuality, swinging, adultery, and bestiality; it was used to teach seminarians at a time when the sexual abuse scandal was in full swing (the book was censured by the Vatican). Mary Daly taught at Boston College for decades, maintaining that Christianity was a form of “phallicism” and oppression; she quit in 1999 when she was told that she could no longer ban men from her classes. Weakland resigned as Archbishop of Milwaukee after it was discovered that his male lover of 23 years was paid $450,000 from church funds to keep quiet.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Christopher Brauchli

Anybody can be pope; the proof of this is that I have become one. ~ Pope John XXIII, Letter to a young boy

He’s two for three. Earlier appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, there are things that can really upset Pope Benedict. Abuse of children isn’t one of them. Nuns and press commentary on perceived internecine warfare are. Benedict’s indifference to tales of sexual abuse is well known. Cardinal Bernard Law serves to make the point.

Cardinal Law was Archbishop of Boston from 1984 to 2002. During his tenure many priests under his supervision engaged in inappropriate conduct with children. Although told of the abuse, he did not act on the information. In December 2002 he tendered his resignation as Cardinal and moved out of the $20 million church-owned house in which he had been humbly living, as befitted a man of the cloth. The house was sold to help pay for the judgments entered against his diocese because of the sexual abuse. Two years later the Pope appointed him Archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica, one of the four most important basilicas in Rome where he was in charge of the administration of the priests and anything related to the basilica.

As archpriest he reportedly receives a monthly stipend of about 4,000 Euros a month, an amount that permits him to walk humbly with his God yet live fairly well. Upon learning of the transfer, Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer who represented more than 130 victims of sexual abuse by priests under Cardinal Law’s supervision, said: “The Vatican either doesn’t understand the problem of clergy sex abuse, or it doesn’t care.” No one will say that about the most recent events. The Pope clearly cares. One involves his administration and one involves nuns.

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KENTUCKY
NECN

Jun 8, 2012

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A long-serving Kentucky state lawmaker and child advocate is speaking publicly for the first time about the sexual abuse he suffered by a Catholic priest at his grade school in the 1940s.

Democrat Tom Burch of Louisville wrote about the abuse in a letter to the editor published last month in the Lexington Herald-Leader. He wrote it to condemn the Vatican for attempting to impose more control over Catholic nuns who Pope Benedict XVI felt had not been more vocal against gay marriage and abortion.

Burch said in the letter that he had never been sexually abused by a nun, “but I was sexually abused by a priest.”

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Jun. 08, 2012 All Things Catholic

In moments of crisis, there’s a natural desire among many Catholics to rally around the flag, meaning to show support for the church and the pope. It’s not about denial, because Catholics are nothing if not sober realists about the church’s failures. It’s instead about saying to the world that despite it all, there’s still something positive about the church that commands grassroots loyalty.

That instinct seemed to be the principal subtext to Benedict XVI’s June 1-3 outing to Milan.

Formally, Benedict made the short trip north to attend the seventh “World Meeting of Families,” a Vatican-organized event held every three years to celebrate marriage, youth and the family. In context, however, the trip also offered an opportunity for the Catholic rank and file to embrace Benedict amid one of the greatest trials of his papacy, the mushrooming Vatileaks scandal

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Neue Presse

Ob katholische Kirche oder Odenwaldschule: Die Entschädigung von Opfern sexuellen Missbrauchs lässt nach Meinung des Jugendforschers Benno Hafeneger lange auf sich warten.

Darmstadt/Marburg.Der Forscher fordert von der Odenwaldschule Mut, Courage und mehr Konsequenz. Archivfoto: dpa “Mit den Worten ist man schnell, die Worte kosten nichts”, sagte der Pädagogik-Professor an der Philipps-Universität Marburg. “Der Unterschied zwischen der Schule und der Kirche ist nicht so groß. Beide haben keine Eile.” Es gehe um “Struktur, Macht und Finanzen”. Beide Organisationen scheuten sich, sich selbst durch Entschädigungszahlungen finanziell in Gefahr zu bringen. “Selbsterhalt ist das oberste Gebot.” Das Aufarbeiten eines Missbrauchs geschehe auch deshalb eher mühsam und langsam. “Es dominieren die beharrenden Tendenzen”, sagte der 63-Jährige.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kirche in Hamburg

Hamburg – Missbrauch in den eigenen Reihen – welche Schritte muss eine Organisation gehen, um sexuelle Übergriffe aufzuklären? Zu diesem Thema haben die beiden Hamburger evangelischen Kirchenkreise Experten und Mitarbeiter eingeladen. Bischöfin Kirsten Fehrs sagte, dass die Ahrensburger Missbrauchsfälle die Kirche in einen „Schockzustand“ versetzt haben.

Zwei Jahre nach Aufdeckung der sexuellen Übergriffe in den 80er Jahren habe die Kirche lernen müssen, ihre Schuld gegenüber den Opfern einzuräumen und mit ihnen auf Augenhöhe zu sprechen, sagte die Bischöfin. Sie verstehe mittlerweile, dass manchen Opfern der Wunsch der Kirche nach Versöhnung zu früh komme.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Hamburger Abendblatt

Die Hamburger Bischöfin Kirsten Fehrs kritisiert Verhalten der Kirche im Missbrauchsskandal – und erntet Lob von der Opferinitiative.

Eine traumatisierte Kirche versucht, zurück zur Normalität zu finden: Dieses Bild zeichnete gestern nicht etwa ein Kirchenkritiker, sondern die Hamburger Bischöfin Kirsten Fehrs höchstselbst. “Ja, wir sind traumatisiert”, sagte sie vor rund 90 Teilnehmern einer Fachtagung im Hotel Baseler Hof an der Esplanade. “Wir sind in Ahrensburg an unsere Grenzen gekommen, und das hat dazu geführt, dass man desaströs verharmlost hat.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
RP Online

VON MICHAEL BROCKERHOFF – zuletzt aktualisiert: 08.06.2012 – 10:43

Düsseldorf (RP). Nach 18 Monate dauernden Ermittlungen hat die Staatsanwaltschaft entschieden, es zu keinem Gerichtsverfahren kommen zu lassen. Gegen dieses Vorgehen hat ein Anwalt der Opfer Beschwerde eingelegt. Über diese entscheidet der Generalstaatsanwalt.

Das Ermittlungsverfahren gegen einen ehemaligen Priester in der katholischen Pfarre St. Margareta wegen des Verdachts des sexuellen Missbrauchs Schutzbefohlener ist nach 18 Monaten von der Staatsanwaltschaft Düsseldorf eingestellt worden. Zu dieser Entscheidung kam die Ermittlungsbehörde nach der Beurteilung der Aussagen der jungen männlichen Opfer durch einen psychologischen Gutachter: “Es ist nicht sicher, dass die Aussagen so belastbar sind, dass sie in einem Prozess zu einer Verurteilung führen”, sagte Staatsanwaltschaft Ralf Herrenbrück unserer Zeitung.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Christliches Forum

Wie Norbert Denef öffentlich mitteilte, hat er ab heute mit einem Hungerstreik begonnen. Denef ist ein durch Presse, Funk und Fernsehen bekanntes Mißbrauchsopfer und Gründer des Vereins “Netzwerk B”, einem “Netzwerk Betroffener von sexualisierter Gewalt”.

Denef und seine Initiative setzen sich vor allem für die Aufhebung von Verjährungsfristen bei Mißbrauch ein.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Medienburo Nord

“ICH BIN IM HUNGERSTREIK”, teilte Norbert Denef, Sprecher des Opferverbandes “NetzwerkB*,” heute mit.

Grund: Die Bundestagsfraktion der SPD sei “nicht dazu bereit, sich im Deutschen Bundestag für die Aufhebung der Verjährungsfristen von sexualisierter Gewalt einzusetzen”. Quelle: Norbert Denef

Am 6. Dezember 2011 hatten sich die SPD-Delegierten auf dem Bundesparteitag noch einstimmig dafür ausgesprochen (siehe hier Video von der Norbert Denef -Rede auf dem SPD-Parteitag).

Denef ist Betroffener sexuellen Missbrauchs in der römisch-katholischen Kirche. Er wurde in seiner Heimatstadt Delitzsch als Messdiener vom 10. bis zum 16. Lebensjahr von einem Priester und vom 16. bis zum 18. Lebensjahr von einem Organisten missbraucht. Denef leidet auch heute noch an den Folgen des jahrelangen Missbrauchs, unter anderem Depressionen und weiteren Folgen einer posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung als Folge von sexuellen Missbrauchs in der Kindheit.

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MASSACHUSETTS
La Salette Journey

In a previous post, I noted how then Deacon and now Father Jonathan Joseph Slavinskas was quoted in The Catholic Free Press as having said that, “Father Coonan [Fr. Joseph Coonan] was a great influence and helped nourish my vocation.” Fr. Slavinskas also credited the late Bishop Timothy J. Harrington, who was dissent-friendly, as being an inspiration.

Now Fr. Slavinskas’ sister, Amy Whittemore, has left a comment at this Blog taking exception with the legitimate concerns of Catholics who find this troubling. And all the more so since St. Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, warns, “Do not be led astray: Bad company corrupts good morals.” (1 Corinthians 15: 33). She writes:

“It sickens me that people in todays society feel the need to judge a person by who their role models or influences are. How bad is it to look up to someone who was ACCUSED of something that may or may not have happened? Fr. Coonan was an influence to my brother before any of the scandals come out. Who are we to judge others? The only one to judge is God. Father Coonan was a better role model than the ones teens look up to today such as the drug addicted alcoholic singers, actors, and reality show stars…”

Something that may or may not have happened? Fr. Joseph A. Coonan was removed from ministry at St. John’s Church in 2002 after allegations of inappropriate contact with children dating back to the 1970’s. He was also charged with domestic assault and battery, assault and battery on a person over 65 years of age (his mother), and one count of intimidating a witness according to court documents. The Worcester Diocese found the accusations to be credible and removed Fr. Coonan from any and all ministry.

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre

Friday, 08 June 2012

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. – June 8, 2012 – Pope Benedict XVI has appointed two priests, Rev. Msgr. Robert J. Brennan, 50, and Rev. Msgr. Nelson J. Perez, 50, – as auxiliary bishops of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States, made the announcement public earlier today in Washington, D.C. Bishop-elect Brennan is from the Diocese of Rockville Centre and currently serves as vicar general. Bishop-elect Perez is from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and is the pastor of Saint Agnes Church, West Chester, Pennsylvania.

The Most Rev. William Murphy, bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre will ordain the new bishops at a Mass of Episcopal Ordination to be celebrated at Saint Agnes Cathedral, Rockville Centre, New York on July 25, 2012, the Feast of Saint James the Apostle.

“I wish to express my fervent thanks to the Holy Father for responding so quickly to my request for two auxiliary bishops to help me pastor the fifth largest diocese in our nation,” said Bishop William Murphy. “God has blessed this Diocese with good and holy priests and now two new auxiliary bishops, one a native son, the second, a Cuban American who will bring his many gifts and his Latino language, culture and heritage to enrich this wonderful Diocese.”

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IRELAND/UNITED STATES
Irish Central

By
KERRY O’SHEA,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, June 8, 2012

Helen McGonigle, who was sexually abused by Irish priest Brendan Smyth when she was six years old, believes the priest also murdered a child during his time in Rhode Island. McGonigle says that Smyth warned her by saying she would “end up like the body in the woods” if she told anyone about the abuse.

The Anglo-Celt reports on the connection McGonigle made between Smyth’s chilling comments and the finding of a child’s remains in the woods near her school in the 1960s. The discovery of the body, however, came about after Smyth laid down his threat on young McGonigle.

McGonigle notified police of the connection she made in 2007. Police, however, confirmed to the Anglo-Celt that they were not able to launch an investigation in regards to McGonigle’s theory because of the amount of time that had since passed, the death of Smyth, the time-frame quoted in her statement and that their older records were not digitally stored.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
The Evening Tribune

By Neal Simon
The Evening Tribune

[Dispositions, 2002-Present]

Posted Jun 08, 2012

Rocheter, N.Y. —

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester has released the names of priests who have been removed from public ministry over the last decade for credible claims of sexual abuse of minors.

In addition to the names of the nearly two dozen offenders, the list summarizes the final dispositions of all claims resolved since the church established comprehensive procedures for addressing sexual abuse allegations in 2002.

“No priest who has harmed a minor remains in public ministry,” the diocese said in a statement.

The diocese said will update the list if new, credible allegations of abuse are presented.

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RUSSIA
RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, June 8 (RIA Novosti)

A scandal involving a cross-dressing prosecutor erupted in southern Russia on Friday after he was discovered dressed as a woman and trying to talk to teenage girls.

The man, 32-year-old Konstantin Fominov, who sent a pedophile priest to prison three years ago, approached a group of teenage girls outside an apartment building in the southern Kuban region on June 4. He was wearing a dress, a corset, high-heeled shoes and a wig.

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IRELAND
IrishCentral

By
ANTOINETTE KELLY,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, June 8, 2012

Cardinal Timothy Dolan will host two special editions of his Sirius XM Radio show during his pilgrimage to Ireland. it has been announced.

Conversation with Cardinal Dolan will air from Ireland on Thursday, June 7 at 12:00PM ET and Wednesday, June 13 at 7:00AM ET on The Catholic Channel (Sirius Radio and XM Radio channel 129).

Dolan is leading about one hundred New Yorkers on a ten day Archdiocesan pilgrimage to Ireland from June 4 – 13, where he will participate in the opening of the International Eucharistic Congress to promote an awareness of the central place of the Eucharist in the life and mission of the Catholic Church.

Dolan’s visit has been shadowed by controversy however, after a New York Times report at the weekend claimed he personally approved substantial payouts to multiple priests accused of sex abuse charges while he was archbishop of Milwaukee, an accusation he called ‘groundless and scurrilous.’

According to the Times, Dolan reportedly agreed that the priests accused of sex abuse should be paid $20,000 in exchange for leaving the priesthood.

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TEXAS/ALABAMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on June 07, 2012

We applaud Texas law enforcement for taking charges of sexual abuse seriously. And while we are glad that the Cowboy Church of Marshal County has fired Mark Allen green after his arrest we feel that step is the bare minimum.

We fear that children in that congregation may have been hurt by Green and call on church officials to work with the congregation to encourage anyone who has been hurt to come forward and seek help and that witnesses and whistleblowers work with law enforcement.

It is troubling that Green has been able to land a job as a pastor despite his past criminal behavior. The Southern Baptist Convention does not screen prospective ministers, because under Baptist polity each church is free to choose its own leaders with our without the guidance of denominational leaders. This policy needlessly places innocent children at risk.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on June 07, 2012

Our hearts ache for the dozens of courageous victims, witnesses and whistleblowers who have exposed wrongdoing, protected kids and helped law enforcement and who are anxiously waiting for a verdict in this historic trial. No matter what happens, their bravery has not been in vain. They deserve closure and justice and we hope they’ll get both soon.

To every person who saw, suspected or suffered Philly clergy sex crimes and cover ups – it’s not too late to step forward. Every single person – ordained or lay, Catholic or non-Catholic, staffer or volunteer – who has even a shred of information or suspicion about Philly clergy sex crimes, has a duty to speak up, no matter what happens in this trial.

Silence only protects wrongdoers.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Culture

The Holy See Press Office announced on June 7 that Auxiliary Bishop Patrick Power of Canberra and Goulburn has resigned from his position, which he has held since 1986.

The resignation of Bishop Power comes five years before the normal retirement age of 75 and one year after he threatened to resign over his dissatisfaction with the state of the Church.

In 2010, Bishop Power called for “total systematic reform” of the Church, including a reconsideration of “the authoritarian nature of the Church, compulsory celibacy for the clergy, the participation of women in the Church, the teaching on sexuality in all aspects.” He has also called for an open discussion of women’s ordination.

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UNITED STATES
The Dickinson Press

By: Bonnie Erbe, The Dickinson Press

U.S. nuns are having none of the Vatican’s dictatorial management tactics. And the women religious are to be applauded for it. Especially considering the various scandals enveloping the Vatican’s storied walls these days (from corruption to document theft to priest pedophilia), the sisters are wise to say: Enough.

That said, they are doing so in a most dignified manner. The Vatican should adopt the nuns’ stalwart, inclusive, honest, open and helpful approach — and not the other way around.

A nasty tiff arose between the Vatican and U.S. nuns in late April, you may recall. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which oversees church doctrine, ordered a “supervised renewal” of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The conference represents 47,000 of the 57,000 or so U.S. nuns. Essentially, the Vatican placed control of the women religious under a U.S. archbishop, an unprecedented and disrespectful move.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 8 June 2012 (VIS) – The Holy Father appointed: …

– Msgr. Nelson J. Perez of the clergy of the archdiocese of Philadelphia, U.S.A., pastor of the parish of St. Agnes in West Chester, and Msgr. Robert J. Brennan of the clergy of the diocese of Rockville Centre, U.S.A., vicar general, moderator of the Curia and pastor of the parish of St. Mary of the Isle, as auxiliaries of Rockville Centre (area 3,164, population 3,527,942, Catholics 1,737,498, priests 485, permanent deacons 270, religious 1,241). Bishop-elect Perez was born in Miami, U.S.A. in 1961 and ordained a priest in 1989. He has served in a number of parishes and, among other roles, has worked as director of the Catholic Institute for Evangelisation. Bishop-elect Brennan was born in New York, U.S.A. in 1962 and ordained a priest in 1989. He has worked as a pastor in various parishes and served as private secretary to bishops of Rockville Centre.

On Thursday 7 June it was made pubic that the Holy Father: …

– Accepted the resignation from the office of auxiliary of the archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, Australia, presented by Bishop Patrick Percival Power, in accordance with canons 411 and 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)/ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Curriculum Vitae of Bishop-elect Nelson J. Perez

It was announced today in Rome that Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Reverend Monsignor Nelson J. Perez as Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York. Bishop-elect Perez, age 50, was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 1989. In addition to service at the parish level as a parochial vicar and pastor since that time, Bishop-elect Perez was also the Founding Director of the Catholic Institute for Evangelization and has been heavily involved in ministry to Hispanic Catholics.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. said, “Pope Benedict XVI’s appointment of Bishop-elect Perez continues a long and generous tradition of service to the Universal Church by priests from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It also demonstrates the Holy Father’s confidence in Bishop-elect Perez, who has served our Archdiocese and its people with faithful devotion for many years. Bishop-elect Perez has a joyful and down-to-earth personality, an obvious love for the priesthood, and a tireless devotion to his ministry. Knowing how much he is loved by those he serves makes the sacrifice of losing him to another diocese all the greater.

As Bishop-elect Perez prepares to begin his episcopal ministry, I offer him heartfelt congratulations and pray that the Holy Spirit will strengthen him as a successor of the Apostles. I’m confident that he will be of great service to Bishop William Murphy and all of God’s people in the Diocese of Rockville Centre. They are fortunate to receive such a gift from the Holy Father in the person of Bishop-elect Perez.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)/ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Breaking News Desk

Pope Benedict XVI today appointed a priest from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to become an auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York

Monsignor Nelson J. Perez, 50, currently is pastor of St. Agnes Church in West Chester. He also is founding director of the Catholic Institute for Evangelization and has been heavily involved in ministry to Hispanic Catholics, the archdiocese said in a statement.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre covers the suburban counties of New York’s Long Island and serves about 1.5 million Catholics, a growing number of them Hispanic.

Born in Miami, Perez grew up in West New York, N.J., and was ordained a priest in 1989.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Updated June 7, 2012

Why should the Vatican be considered as a “country” when it is only one medieval building and one public Square inhabited by a few hundred only-men (less than a USA High School) comprising of the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, priests and their fanatic obedient religious personnel? And all those millions and billions of dollars going to the Vatican Bank are managed only by a few men and they do not really go to charity but to secret fishy international dealings by the Pope and his “diplomatic immunity” Princes of the Church and Papal Nuncios, and fanatic Catholics who “Pray, Pay, Obey” have no clue where these money are being channelled to. But two things are sure: First, the Pope who is suppose to “Feed My Sheep” is not feeding them but rather sucking food – money from these sheep, and second, he does not – and cannot – protect the most vulnerable, the children and women and missionaries in far-flung countries, in fact he is callous to victims of the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army and he couldn’t bother to offer water to those Italian JP2 Army victims who walked across Italy to meet with their “Holy Father” in Rome, as All Roads Lead to Rome”.

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UNITED STATES
USA Today

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

Ten years ago, the Roman Catholic sex-abuse scandal dominated the headlines with horrific stories of priests preying on vulnerable youths and a church hierarchy more concerned with protecting clergy instead of kids.

Now, it’s back. A Philadelphia jury is deliberating whether, for the first time, a high-ranking church official will be held criminally accountable.

However they rule, the case carries symbolic freight far heavier than the grim details in the trial of Monsignor William Lynn, former secretary for the clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It revives the breadth and depth of the abuse crisis, its extraordinary costs and unending frustrations.

Lynn’s trial brings the ugly mess to mind “like it was yesterday,” said Mary Jane Doerr, associate director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection. “It’s still shocking, the degree of damage a handful of priests have done. When will the numbers ever stop?”

The statistics are staggering:

•More than 6,100 accused priests since 1950, Doerr said. She draws the number from two reports: a 2011 analysis by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and the latest annual report by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), which tracks U.S. Catholic statistics.

•More than 16,000 victims, chiefly teenage boys, since 1950. However, “since there is no national data base tracking clergy abuse, we may never really know how many victims there are across all the dioceses and across time,” said Mary Gautier, senior researcher for CARA.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

Christine M. Flowers

As I write, a jury of 12 good Philadelphians is deliberating over the fate of Monsignor William Lynn, who stands accused of protecting sexual predators. He is the proxy for a hierarchy that far too late came to understand that criminals are criminals even if they are sick of mind and spirit, and wear Roman collars.

Today, I don’t know what type of verdict those good people will render. But it doesn’t matter. The fact that there is a trial at all, one where the defendant is protected by the same system that separates the guilty from the innocent regardless of creed, color or cash flow, is a triumph. Caesar is given his due, because no one — priest or penitent —is above the law.

The lawyer in me is proud of that fact; proud, too, that the secular mobs who scream for the dismantling of statutes of limitations have not been successful. While priests should be held to the same standard as laymen, they should not be targeted for special punishment, which is exactly what those who advocate eliminating limiting statutes seek. You cannot ignore the fact that this move to make it easier to sue alleged sexual predators gained strength just at the moment that the sex-abuse scandal exploded in Boston almost a decade ago. So many of the so-called civil libertarians who would use their last breath to defend the rights of the accused see nothing wrong in neutralizing those rights when it comes to clergy. Anyone who denies the anti-Catholic or, at least, anti-clerical nature of these ‘reforms’ is either naïve or dishonest.

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AUSTRALIA
Failed Messiah

Originally published at 10:30 pm CDT Thursday, 6-7-2012

Zephania Waks, the father of Manny Waks – the most outspoken of the more than one dozen alleged victims of David Cyprys, David Kramer and other pedophiles who operated with impunity at Chabad’s flagship Australian yeshiva, Yeshiva College in Melbourne – has been barred from receiving aliyot, Torah honors, by Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Telsner, the leading Chabad rabbi in Australia and the son-on-law of the late head of Chabad in Australia, Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner.

Telsner refused to tell Waks why he has been banned – a move apparently meant to protect himself and Chabad from prosecution for possible witness tampering and intimidation (these are not the exact legal terms used in Australia, but you get the point) and from civil suits.

I asked Manny Waks tonight about Telsner’s treatment of his father:

“Rabbi Telsner’s actions are simply outrageous. He has essentially executed precisely what he said [during a recent Sabbath sermon] would happen to anyone who speaks out on this issue – excommunication. The ongoing persecution of me and my family by the Yeshivah leadership and their blind followers over the past year or so has been relentless. This has now reached a whole new level. Rabbi Telsner’s actions ought to be condemned by everyone, especially by members of the Yeshivah community.”

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NEW YORK
Forward

By Yaacov Behrman

Published June 08, 2012, issue of June 15, 2012.

All competent rabbinic authorities are in agreement that cases of sexual abuse should be reported to law enforcement. Agudath Israel of America nevertheless requires parents to obtain rabbinic permission before reporting abuse to authorities. Although in the overwhelming majority of cases, abuse allegations turn out to be accurate, there has been a minority of cases in which innocent individuals were wrongly charged with abuse crimes. These individuals were vindicated only after lengthy proceedings. Therefore, some rabbis feel that in a case where there are no witnesses to the abuse and there is only one victim, who is a minor, a rabbi should assess the validity of the allegations before the accusations are brought to the police.

Personally, I don’t feel victims or their parents are required under Jewish law to ask for rabbinic permission before reporting sexual abuse to authorities, even though, in all likelihood, the rabbis will instruct the victims to pursue charges. I do believe, however, that having a rabbinic authority involved may end up benefitting the victim and helping ease the stigma and trauma that comes with a publicized trial.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’s recent move to have a new state law enacted that would compel rabbis to report child sex abuse allegations to authorities is a miscalculation and a mistake. As the law currently stands, victims and their families have the ability to seek the advice of a rabbi with confidence that their allegations will not be disclosed. Parents of victims are often terrified of the psychological effect a public trial would have on victims and their families. Victims often go to the rabbi for support, afraid to report the abuse directly to the authorities, afraid of being intimidated or impugning the reputation of an otherwise-respected member of the community, and afraid that public knowledge will hurt their chances of finding a suitable bride or groom in their community. It is in such cases that the rabbis play an invaluable part; they are often able to persuade a reluctant victim to come forward and testify. To paraphrase what one rabbi told a victim: “I do not say that you may report this crime to the police, I say you must report it to the police.”

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HOLYOKE (MA)
The Republican

By Jeanette DeForge, The Republican

HOLYOKE – Protesters who have been holding a vigil at Mater Dolorosa Church since it was closed by the Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese a year ago voted Thursday if it should end the round-the-clock occupation of the church.

The group of about 100 people will not announce the results until Sunday. They began the prayer vigil the day the church closed on June 30 and was merged into the new Our Lady of the Cross.

The vote was sparked after the highest court of the Vatican, the Apostolic Signatura issued a preliminary decision over an appeal of the closure that called for the group to end the vigil. It also ordered Springfield Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell to refrain from selling, destroying or damaging the church until the appeal is heard.

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NIGERIA
allAfrica

8 June 2012

EDITORIAL

Apparently, even the pious enclave of the head of the Roman Catholic Church is not immune to the vices of base human machinations, high-level intrigues, corruption and power struggles which have long been the bane of the secular world.

Nothing else better illuminates this assertion than the recent arrest of one Paolo Gabriele, the personal butler of Pope Benedict XVI, on charges that he leaked confidential information in papal and Vatican documents to Italian journalists and others, an activity that has both embarrassed and confounded important institutions of the Holy See over the last few months.

Gabriele is a 46-year-old father of three and a layman who had direct and unrestricted access to the Pope’s living quarters in Vatican City. He had been employed as the Pontiff’s personal butler since 2006. It was perhaps this vantage position he occupied in the Pope’s personal life that enabled him to position himself at the centre of what has now come to be known as the “Vatileaks” scandal.

The scandal, which began in January this year, involved the surreptitious leaking of documents from inside sources that have seriously embarrassed the Vatican.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Sun

By Tricia Bishop, The Baltimore Sun

Baltimore prosecutors plan to look into new sexual abuse allegations from the 1970s against former Catholic school teacher John Merzbacher, according to his most recent accuser.

“They’re investigating what I reported,” said Donna Berger, 48. She met with a team of people Thursday morning — about a half-dozen prosecutors, detectives and victims’ services representatives — to outline abuse that she says happened to her nearly 40 years ago, when she was a preteen at South Baltimore’s Catholic Community middle school.

Merzbacher has not been charged with a crime related to Berger’s allegations, and he might never be. It depends upon whether law enforcement officials deem her story credible and think they can make a case in court.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic News Service

[Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People – BishopAccountability.org]

By Carol Zimmermann
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” — now 10 years old — was not meant to be “the last word” in solving the abuse crisis, according to the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People.

Instead, Bishop R. Daniel Conlon of Joliet, Ill., said the charter has provided a framework for ongoing efforts. Its requirements are “not a temporary fix” but have to “become part of our culture,” he added.

The charter was part of the U.S. bishops’ response to the clergy abuse scandal that was a top concern when they met 10 years ago in Dallas.

Their June meeting took place just five months after The Boston Globe began publishing articles about the sexual abuse of minors by priests and accusations of a systemic cover-up by church officials. The reports prompted other victims across the country to come forward with allegations of abuse that put the scandal in the national spotlight.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

It’s getting strange down at the courthouse, folks.

After a 10-week trial, the jury in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse case has decided they need some time off for family events, like graduations. So on Thursday, after Judge M. Teresa Sarmina approved their request, jurors walked out of Courtroom 304, to get an early start on a long weekend.

The jury of seven men and five women that began deliberating last Friday afternoon are off this Friday. On Monday, they’ll be coming in around 1 p.m. and hopefully put in a full afternoon, before they are scheduled to leave around 4:30 p.m. On Tuesday, they’re expected to deliberate again, but Wednesday, they’re off, and Friday they’re off again.

So if they go the full route on Tuesday and Thursday, the jury will deliberate at most 2 1/2 days next week.

Usually, juries measure their time in terms of minutes and hours, and can’t get out the door fast enough. But this jury seems to be digging in for the long haul. They’ve already ordered a marker board and an easel. Lunch today was from Chick-fil-A. This could take a while.

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ALABAMA
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

An Alabama Baptist church fired its new pastor after his recent arrest on sexual abuse charges in Texas, but it isn’t the pastor’s first time in jail.

Mark Allen Green, 41, in jail under a $500,000 bond in Waxahachie, Texas, has a long criminal rap sheet, including nearly a decade in the Texas state prison system before his release in 2007, according to WAFF television in Huntsville, Ala.

A website started by a man in Arlington, Texas, who claims Green stole money from him, but could not be arrested, describes him as a “career criminal” who “floats around” four Texas counties and “hides at any local Cowboy Church.”

Most recently it was the Cowboy Church of Marshall County in Albertville, Ala., which reportedly called Green as pastor a couple of months ago. Last Sunday church members were informed of his arrest and termination earlier in the week, according to the Sand Mountain Reporter.

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KENTUCKY
WKU

By Kenny Colston

One of Kentucky’s leading voices against child abuse is speaking out about abuse he suffered as a child. State Rep. Tom Burch is the chairman of the House Health and Welfare committee. Burch wrote a letter to the Lexington Herald-Leader that mentioned that he was sexually abused by a priest as a middle schooler and was also physically abused by his father. Burch declined to give the priest’s name or mention the church where the abuse occurred, saying that doing so wouldn’t help anything.

Burch also says he told church leaders privately about the sexual abuse at the time. As an adult, Burch sought counseling, which the Catholic church paid for.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Verdict

A Tale of Two Child Sex Abuse Trials Involving Two Iconic Pennsylvania Institutions: Penn State and the Philadelphia Roman Catholic Archdiocese

Marci A. Hamilton

Two iconic Pennsylvania institutions—Penn State and the Philadelphia Roman Catholic Archdiocese—are facing public trials, in close succession, regarding child sex abuse, and each trial is slashing away at the unquestioned reverence that both had enjoyed for so long. Penn State fans and Catholics are experiencing divisive betrayal, anger, and confusion as they learn still more about exactly how grievously their beloved institutions have shortchanged children.

The Trial of Monsignor William Lynn

For three months, Philadelphia prosecutors have introduced a mountain of evidence to establish that Msgr. William Lynn callously and deliberately endangered children by letting predator priests continue in their ministry. The only defense Lynn’s attorneys seem to have –the claim that he was just following orders—seemed like diversionary nitpicking, rather than a strike at the prosecution evidence. He is charged with conspiracy with other Archdiocesan officials, and with the endangerment of children.

Also being tried, at the same time, is Fr. James Brennan, who is accused of attempted rape and the endangerment of children. There were other defendants, but one of them—defrocked priest, Edward Avery—pled guilty right before the trial started, and two others will be facing trial in the Fall.

Much of the trial evidence was drawn from two remarkable grand jury reports on child sex abuse in the Philadelphia Archdiocese—one from 2005, the other from last year. The former report, which was a result of grand jury investigations during the tenure of District Attorney Lynne Abraham, laid exhaustive groundwork establishing the clergy sex abuse cover-up, in over 450 pages. Despite the exemplary investigation, though, no victims were able to press charges, because the statutes of limitations had expired. The 2011 Grand Jury Report, however, built on the 2005 Report, and successfully identified victims whose claims fell within the statute of limitations. And that Report opened the door for the current Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, to file charges and proceed to trial.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella and Silvia Aloisi

VATICAN CITY | Fri Jun 8, 2012

(Reuters) – For a financial institution whose ATMs offer Latin as a language option, whose offices are below the pope’s windows and where tellers work under the gaze of crucifixes, one might assume the Vatican bank would have a dispensation from earthly travails.

But new judicial woes and internal upheavals at the bank, officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), have raised new hurdles for the Vatican, just as it entered the final stretch of years of efforts to join the international club of financial righteousness.

On May 24, in the type of corporate drama rarely seen in the Vatican, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, 67, the Italian president of the IOR, stormed out of the bank’s executive offices.

He had spoken for 70 minutes non-stop in the boardroom to defend his management but left in a huff when it became clear that the other four board members were intent on approving a no-confidence motion against him.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

Thursday, June 07, 2012

The State’s involvement in the de-facto imprisonment of women at the infamous Magdalene laundries can only be resolved if an immediate apology, pensions and “lost” wages are given to those affected.

The claim was made by the Justice for Magdalenes group at a private meeting with Senator Martin McAleese, the independent chair of a Government committee investigating their experiences, yesterday.

The Leinster House meeting was organised to allow for the views of women directly affected by their time in Magdalene laundries, and in some cases their children, to be addressed in a review report on the issue.

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INDIA
Conference of Religious India Bulletin

Training of trainers on child rights and preventions of child abuse.

The Church in the west is undergoing a trauma due to the abuse of children by the clergy. Child abuse is prevalent all over the world and even in India, though it is still dormant. It is shrouded in secrecy because of shame attached to it.

The Seminar organized on Child rights was meant to create awareness among the Brothers who are in the field of Education as it is about time that they recognize this and take remedial measures. They are to become aware of the emerging trend, vulnerability of the children, and how to enable them to safeguard themselves.

As a follow up of the Brothers National Convention held in 2011, the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF RELIGIOUS BROTHERS INDIA (NARBI) began to organise a series of Seminars on Child abuse and child rights at the regional level.

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UNITED STATES
The Wall Street Journal

By DAVID GIBSON

Who will guard the guardians? Ten years after the Catholic hierarchy of the United States gathered in Dallas and adopted unprecedented policies to address the scourge of child sexual abuse by clergy, the question of accountability at the top remains unanswered.

To be sure, the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People—the Dallas charter, for short—took some critical steps. In June 2002, the bishops passed a “one-strike” policy for abusers and began pushing the Vatican to streamline the processes that would allow them to more easily defrock molesters.

The bishops also vowed to report allegations to the civil authorities instead of keeping them in-house, to more rigorously screen not only seminarians but all church workers and volunteers, and to teach children in Catholic facilities to avoid potential abusers. In addition, they set up an office of child protection to audit each diocese’s compliance with the charter, and they established the National Review Board, composed of lay Catholics, to make sure they were doing what they promised.

But throughout it all, the bishops exempted themselves from accountability—even though records showed that feckless inaction by many bishops, or even deliberate malfeasance by some, had allowed abusers to claim so many victims.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

Cardinal Marc Ouellet enjoys a lofty standing in the Vatican and ran the last congress, writes PADDY AGNEW

THE MAN who will represent Pope Benedict XVI at next week’s International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin realises all too well that this is a difficult moment for the Catholic Church in Ireland, battered both by the fallout of the sex abuse crisis and the State’s ongoing process of secularisation. Despite that, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet believes the congress will show the Irish church is back on the right track for “renewal”.

Cardinal Ouellet, who turns 68 today, is often seen as a Holy See heavy hitter, so much so that he is regularly included on lists of possible successors to the 85-year-old pope. The former archbishop of Quebec heads the Congregation for Bishops, the Vatican’s human resources department.

He has been chosen as the pope’s point man on the congress not only because of his lofty Vatican standing but also because he ran the last Eucharistic Congress, four years ago in Quebec. Vatican observers rate Ouellet as a solid “Ratzinger”, in harmony with the pope.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Jun. 07, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

ST. LOUIS — The board of the largest membership organization of U.S. theologians issued a statement of support Thursday afternoon (June 7) for Mercy Sr. Margaret Farley, a member in their ranks who was the subject of harsh criticism from the Vatican just days ago.

Writing that it considers Farley’s work “reflective, measured, and wise,” the leadership of the some 1,500 member Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) says in the statement it is “especially concerned” that the Vatican’s criticism presents a limiting understanding of the role of Catholic theology.

In a formal notification released June 4, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith criticized Farley’s 2006 book on sexual ethics, titled Just Love.

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GERMANY
Reuters

BERLIN | Thu Jun 7, 2012 12:04pm EDT

(Reuters) – German Catholics upset about media attacks on Pope Benedict over the “Vatileaks” scandal can now show solidarity with the German-born pontiff by sending pre-printed postcards bearing the message “We are with you!”

Benedict, 85, has criticized press coverage of the scandal that began in January with the leaking of confidential documents alleging corruption, mismanagement and cronyism in the awarding of contracts in the Vatican.

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VATICAN CITY
First Things

Thursday, June 7, 2012

William Doino

Nothing so excites the press than does a Vatican scandal. The recent firing of the head of the Vatican’s Bank, amidst charges of wrongdoing, and the arrest of the pope’s private butler, accused of leaking papal documents, have provoked an international media frenzy. For all the media’s demands for Church “reform,” however, one wonders whether they would welcome it, if it actually led to an increase in holiness, and offered much less material for them to write lurid headlines about.

None of which is to excuse the Vatican. If it turns out that better oversight, organization and background checks could have prevented these scandals, Catholics should be the first to broadcast that finding, and hold those responsible accountable. Self-examination and moral purity should be constant demands for any believing Catholic. The faithful do the Holy See no favors when they remain silent about suspected corruption, or prudential errors from the highest quarters of the Church. Of course, even if the Vatican overhauls its entire system, with exacting and efficient standards, that won’t guarantee against additional scandals, since temptation and sin can never be eradicated from the human heart.

Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi has acknowledged the need “for truth and clarity, for transparency” in investigating what happened. In his first public comments on the scandals, Pope Benedict was both humble and sensible, saying they “brought sadness” to his heart, while affirming his faith they would be overcome, and rebuking the “entirely gratuitous” speculation of the media which was presenting a “completely unrealistic image of the Holy See.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Italian authorities seized a private document meant for Pope Benedict XVI when they raided the home of the Vatican’s recently ousted bank chief, a lawyer said Thursday, adding a potentially problematic legal twist in an already controversial case.

Italian paramilitary police raided Ettore Gotti Tedeschi’s Piacenza home on Tuesday as part of a corruption investigation into Italy’s state-controlled aerospace and engineering giant Finmeccanica. Gotti Tedeschi is a longtime friend of Finmeccanica’s current chief who is under investigation in the probe.

During the raid, prosecutors seized a detailed memorandum Gotti Tedeschi prepared for Benedict concerning his May 24 ouster as president of the Vatican bank. Attorney Fabio Palazzo stressed Thursday that the documents were seized and that Gotti Tedeschi didn’t hand them over voluntarily.

The seizure poses potentially thorny legal issues, since Gotti Tedeschi was until recently an official of a sovereign state — the Vatican — and as such enjoys some immunity in Italy. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the Holy See was aware of the seizure but was waiting to clarify what Holy See-related documents were taken. Only after such an analysis would the Vatican consider any possible action, he said.

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BELGIE
Verschueren

Help… en wat nu?

Slachtoffers die de kluts kwijt zijn omdat door het platleggen van de website van www.kerknet.be door Anonymous ook de website www.misbruikindekerk.be niet meer bereikbaar is kunnen voor raad, daad, info, hulp, aangifte of wat dan ook nog altijd hier terecht:

Centrum Arbitrage Seksueel misbruik
http://www.centrum-arbitrage-misbruik.be/

Werkgroep Mensenrechten in de kerk
http://users.telenet.be/mensenrechtenindekerk/default.htm
Rik Devillé: mensenrechtenindekerk@gmail.com

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WISCONSIN
Catholic Herald

Written by Brian T. Olszewski, Catholic Herald Staff Thursday, 07 June 2012

ST. FRANCIS – “Christian charity” and “sound stewardship” are what prompted the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in 2003 to pay some priests who had sexually abused children at least $10,000 to seek laicization, Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff for Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki, told your Catholic Herald June 1.

Topczewski was responding to questions that arose May 30 regarding the minutes of the March 7, 2003, Archdiocesan Finance Council meeting in which council members raised the matter that “currently unassignable priests are receiving full salaries and are budgeted under the Vicar for Clergy. There is a proposal to reduce their benefit to be the same as the current pension benefit, $1,250 per month and also offer $20,000 for laicization ($10,000 at the start and $10,000 at the completion of the process). Also, they remain on our health insurance until they find other employment.”

The minutes were an exhibit accompanying a motion filed by the creditors’ committee in the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, seeking to have $35 million from what was the Parish Deposit Fund (PDF) considered archdiocesan assets, contending that the archdiocese had “sheltered” those funds so that they could not be considered part of the estate in the reorganization.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director
CONTACT: 414.336.8575

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

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

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Daniel Burke| Religion News Service,

The brothers have come to the sisters’ defense.

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

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

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

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KENTUCKY
Lexington Herald-Leader

By Beth Musgrave — bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

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

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

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

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

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

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Rochester Homepage

By: Cierra Putman

Updated: June 7, 2012

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic

Thursday, June 7, 2012

By Scott Alessi

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

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

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

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

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

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

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

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

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[the list – Diocese of Rochester]

Posted by David Clohessy on June 07, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star

By Kokoy Espresso
Just Passing By

Thursday, June 7, 2012

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

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

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

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CALIFORNIA
The Digital Hairshirt

It ain’t over yet for Mike Harris.

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

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

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

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

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

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CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

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

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

Let me specifically outline the basis for our concerns:

1. Secrecy instead of privacy

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

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

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

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
San Antonio Express-News

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

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

Other graduation conflicts are possible if deliberations continue next week.

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

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[the list – Diocese of Rochester]

Posted by Mary Caplan on June 07, 2012

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on June 07, 2012

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

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

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

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

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CANADA
CBC News

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

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

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

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

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

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ITALY
Vatican Insider

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

Andrea Tornielli
Piacenza

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

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

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

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

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ROME
Vatican Insider

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

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

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

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

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

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

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IRELAND
Broadcast

7 June, 2012 | By Balihar Khalsa

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

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

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

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ITALIA
Corriere della Sera

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

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

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ITALY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

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

11:27AM BST 07 Jun 2012

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

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

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

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

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ITALY
Reuters

By Laura Viggiano

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk |Jun 7, 2012

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

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

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

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WASHINGTON
RKnieuws (Nederland)

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

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

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