ABUSE TRACKER

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Chicago Tribune

May 22, 2012|Dave Warner | Reuters

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – A priest testified on Tuesday that the Catholic Church had followed the advice of legal counsel in keeping quiet about molestation charges as lawyers for Monsignor William Lynn opened their case in the trial over the Philadelphia child sex abuse scandal.

Lynn, 61, the most senior U.S. clergyman to go on trial in the Roman Catholic Church’s pedophilia scandal, is charged with child endangerment and conspiracy over accusations he covered up child sex abuse allegations against priests, many of whom were simply transferred to unsuspecting parishes.

He faces the possibility of 28 years in prison if convicted.

Monsignor Michael McCulken testified that the church declined to call law enforcement authorities when it learned of child sex abuse claims because “they were beyond the statute of limitations” at the time.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Judy Jones on May 22, 2012

We hope that Fr Bartley Sorensen will be kept away from children for a long time. And we hope that anyone who may have knowledge or who may have been harmed by Sorenson will have the courage to contact the police, not the church officials. The law enforcement are the proper officials to be investigating sex crimes against kids.

Also keep in mind your silence only hurts, and by speaking up there is a chance for healing, exposing the truth, and therefore protecting others.

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COLORADO
Patch

By Julie Brown Patton

A former priest of the St. Alban Roe Catholic Church in Wildwood was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of sexual assault of a 15-year-old Colorado Springs, CO, male, according to a Tuesday article published in the Colorado Springs Gazette. Father Charles “Robert” Manning served at St. Alban Roe from 1997 to 2001, prior to moving to Colorado Springs.

KSDK-TV St. Louis broadcasters reported on Tuesday’s 10 p.m. newscast that Manning turned himself in after an arrest warrant was issued. Authorities indicated the incident happened Oct. 17, 2011. On Jan. 4, 2012, St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Colorado asked him to step down after they were notified of the investigation, according to KSDK reports.

Manning, 77 years old, was booked into the El Paso County jail; he posted a bond of $10,000 Tuesday night.

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COLORADO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on May 22, 2012

We are grateful to police in Colorado for making this arrest. Children are always safer when predators are behind bars, and today we can be thankful that Fr. Charles Manning will be kept away from kids at least for a while.

Since he was credibly accused in January at his parish in Colorado Springs, Manning has “retired” from the priesthood. We believe this is a weak way of allowing church officials to wash their hands of Manning in case they hear of any other reports of abuse, whether in Colorado or dating back to Manning’s days in Missouri. We want church officials at both the Diocese of Colorado Springs and the Archdiocese of Saint Louis to aggressively seek out other people who may have witnessed Manning’s crimes or been subject to his impropriety.

Manning has worked at schools in Glencoe (St. Alban Roe, 1997-2001), Bridgeton (St. Lawrence the Martyr, 2002-2004), and Imperial (St. John Lateran, 2004-2007), which are all within the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. Archbishop Robert Carlson should personally visit each of these schools and beg anyone who many have seen or suffered his crimes to come forward. He should also contact the parents of any child who was at the school during those years and make them aware that Manning was close to their children and urge them to find out if their child may have been victimized.

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COLORADO SPRINGS (CO)
KSDK

[with video]

Colorado Springs, CO (KSDK) – A former St. Louis priest has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a child.

Father Charles “Robert” Manning turned himself in Tuesday to Colorado Springs police after an arrest warrant was issued. He has been under investigation since January.

Authorities say the incident happened October 17, 2011.

On January 4, 2012 St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church asked him to step down after they were notified of the investigation.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A Church of England priest and an organist have appeared in court over the sexual abuse of two young boys in West Sussex in the late 1980s.

Father Wilkie Denford, 77, who is semi-retired and from Shoreham, and Michael Mytton, a 68-year-old organist from near Lewes, were arrested in November.

The pair are accused of abusing the boys between 1987 and 1990.

Both men were given bail at Mid Sussex Magistrates’ court and are due to appear again on 3 July.

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WISCONSIN
Injury Board Blog Network

by Mike Bryant
May 23, 2012

Jeff Anderson and Associates fought for a victory for justice yesterday in Wisconsin. As NBC26 reported:

A jury finds the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay liable in a civil trial accusing it of fraud.

Todd and Troy Merryfield filed the civil suit against the Diocese after evidence of other victims came out during John Patrick Feeney’s criminal trial. An Outagamie County Judge awarded Todd Merryfield $225,000 and Troy $475,000 in court on Monday.

The case was centered around former priest John Patric Feeney who was convicted in 2004 of sexually assaulting the brothers in the 1970s.

The fight in Wisconsin has been going on for a long time. This is a victory for all of those involved and also sends a message that the justice system works for survivors that have been silenced for far to long.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
San Antonio Express-News

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest accused of abusing a girl in the 1960s has died, leaving only the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph as defendants in a civil lawsuit.

Lawyers representing the alleged abuse victim filed paperwork Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court to formally remove the Rev. Francis McGlynn from the lawsuit. The 84-year-old McGlynn died earlier this month.

The Kansas City Star reports (http://bit.ly/Jx5RYK) the 2011 lawsuit was the fourth filed against McGlynn since 2003. The other three were settled.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wirral Globe

A Wirral priest accused of sexual activity with an underage teenage boy appeared for the first time at Liverpool Crown Court today.

Father Peter Hooper, from St Luke’s in Bebington, faces ten charges involving sexual activity with the boy and inciting him to engage in such activity.

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

The charges involving the boy when he was aged 14 and 15 and span a six-month period ending earlier this month.

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GREEN BAY (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

TO: David L. Lasee, District Attorney, Brown County
FROM: Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
Re: Jury verdict against the Green Bay diocese for fraud in child sex abuse

Mr. Lasee,

We are writing to you as victim/survivors of childhood rape, sexual assault and abuse by clergy in Wisconsin and members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Founded in 1989, SNAP is the nation’s oldest and largest self-help organization for survivors of sexual violence by clergy and other religious figures, with over 10,000 members.

Yesterday, a jury in Outagamie County found that the diocese of Green Bay committed fraud by intentionally concealing and then placing in employment with children a known child sex predator, Fr. John Patrick Feeney. Feeney, who was prosecuted and imprisoned in 2004 is one of at least 50 clerics that Green Bay church officials have received credible and actionable reports of child sex abuse or misconduct on over the past decades. At least 16 of these offenders are members of the Norbertine religious order which is headquartered in the Green Bay diocese under the joint authority and supervision of the Green Bay bishop. This figure is derived from a national study conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2004 and is, unfortunately, the last and only known data available. The study, while commissioned by the US bishops, did not release any other information besides diocesan self-reported numbers of offenders. Since that time, it is likely that the number of offenders and offenses known to the diocese has increased.

Most of these offenders have never been reported to law enforcement. Although the diocese has repeatedly claimed that it has turned over a list of accused clerics to your office, your predecessor has indicated that this is not the case (see the attached 2008 email response to SNAP from former DA John Zakowski). A number is not much use to the public or to parents who are trying to protect themselves from those who have harmed children, especially individuals who have been placed in positions of occupational and professional trust.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

LOUISE HALL May 23, 2012

A retired Catholic priest and a one-time close personal friend of the Attorney-General, Greg Smith, has appeared in court over the alleged sexual abuse of four children in the 1970s and ’80s.

Father Finian Egan, 77, appeared in Ryde Local Court this morning to face 16 charges of indecent assault and one charge of rape while he was a priest in Sydney and the central coast.

He has not entered a plea.

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NEW YORK
Times of Israel

Michael J. Salamon

All over the Orthodox world the talk at the Sabbath table, at the synagogue, even outside while walking the dog is not so much about the Asifa at Citifield but how The New York Times took on both a powerful lobby and a powerful District Attorney. In a series of articles which ran just over a week ago reporters Ray Rivera and Sharon Otterman, described the loathsome approach of the Orthodox community of Brooklyn, New York whose members protect child abusers from the authorities and shun those who report them. The topic is not new having been reported by Hella Winston in the Jewish Week and covered by the Forward over the last several years. However, because these newspapers tend to be viewed by a limited readership in the Jewish world and completely ignored by the ultra-Orthodox community the reports were easily be overlooked, even disregarded.

Cloistered Jewish communities would like to believe that pedophilia does not exist in their world and if it does, it is extremely rare. We know that this is a fallacious position. Abuse exists in every community. We also know that not only do certain rabbis refuse to report abusers but the therapists and social agencies that they work with are instructed not to follow the law of mandated reporters and they usually comply.

The argument most often used for not reporting abusers is the religious law known as Mesirah – reporting a Jew to non-Jewish authorities. This argument has been shown by several religious Jewish courts to be invalid when there is a threat to another person’s well-being. There are other reasons given though for not reporting. They include lashon hora – spreading false rumors and the reliance on rabbinic direction known as Daat Torah. The lashon hora argument states that by reporting someone without clear and direct evidence you taint him or her even before knowing if they are guilty.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Marianne T. Duddy-Burke

I was a Girl Scout. My daughter is a Girl Scout. As Catholics, and we are stunned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ decision to investigate an organization that we both deeply love.

It is tempting to laugh off this news as further evidence of how profoundly out of touch many of our bishops are with the lives and concerns of the people who fill their pews. But the hierarchy’s attempt to exert pressure on an organization that has helped millions of girls grow into strong, self-reliant and public-spirited women is only the most recent episode in an increasingly troubling sequence of events.

In March of 2010, the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine authorized a statement critiquing “Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God,” by Sister Elizabeth Johnson, one of this country’s leading Catholic theologians. In compiling the report on a three-year-old book the bishops violated their own guidelines about communicating with a theologian whose work is under investigation, according to reports. Johnson said she was never invited to discuss the book with the bishops.

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COLORADO
CBS Denver

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) – A Catholic priest in Colorado Springs is under arrest on charges of sexually assaulting a child.

Father Robert Charles Manning is now on administrative leave from his post as pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church. He’s been arrested on charges of sexual assault on a minor by a person in a position of trust and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Manning was transferred in 2007 to Colorado from St. Louis. He’s served at St. Gabriel for nearly five years until news of the investigation led to a suspension in January.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

May 22, 2012

The jury in a landmark sex abuse case against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay is expected to take up the issue of punitive damages Wednesday.

An Outagamie County jury on Monday awarded $700,000 to brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield, who were molested as children by the now defrocked Father John Patrick Feeney in the 1970s. Jurors found that the diocese defrauded the Merryfields because it knew Feeney was a danger to children and assigned him to their parish without telling members of his history.

Feeney was convicted in 2004 of molesting the brothers. He was released from prison last year.

The lawsuit marks the first time a plaintiff has successfully sued the Catholic Church in Wisconsin over clergy sex abuse since the state Supreme Court barred such negligent supervision cases on First Amendment grounds in 1995. It reopened them in 2007, under the fraud statute.

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

D.A. refuses to meet with leading victims’ advocate

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Since Brooklyn’s DA Charles Hynes agreed with former NYC Mayor Ed Koch’s suggestion to form a task force to deal with rampant haredi witness tampering and intimidation, rumors have swirled that Hynes had stacked the composition of the task force, filling it with employees loyal to him and blocking participation of outside experts and representative of the abuse victims themselves.

Dr. Asher Lipner, a psychologist and leading victims’ advocate, wrote Koch. According to a report by Hella Winston in The Jewish Week, Lipner told Koch that many victims’ advocates “find it troubling that the district attorney, who has never reached out to work with us, has not taken the opportunity [to do so] now that he is creating [this] task force.…[the] choices Mr. Hynes has made for his task force do not reflect a willingness to work with anybody that is truly independent of his office, and [who are] therefore are beyond the scope of community politics.”

Koch sent another email to Hynes, Winston reported, telling Hynes that he thought his “statement to the [New York] Times reporter and that of your press secretary [about the task force] were inadequate and far too limited in outlining the composition of the committee you plan to have address the problem.” Koch urged Hynes to “meet with Asher Lipner and to add to your committee law enforcement personnel who currently have worked with groups similar to the hasidic, such as the Amish.”

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UNITED STATES
Forward

By Paul Berger

Published May 23, 2012, issue of June 01, 2012.

An Orthodox parent whose child tells him he’s been sexually abused may not take that child’s claim to the police without first getting religious sanction from a specially trained rabbi, the head of America’s leading ultra-Orthodox umbrella group has told the Forward.

But one year after acknowledging that no such registry of trained rabbis exists, Rabbi David Zwiebel said that his group has now dropped the idea of developing one.

One of the main reasons, said Zwiebel, was a warning from Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes — issued only a few days earlier — that rabbis who prevent families from going to police could be arrested.

“If they [rabbis] don’t give the right advice, they can be in trouble,” said Zwiebel. “Why would you want to create some sort of a list that would make them more vulnerable?”

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FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post

KISSIMMEE — A Kissimmee pastor was arrested on charges of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, police said on Tuesday.

The Kissimmee Police Department said it received a complaint that 45-year-old Angel Perez, a pastor at Templo Pentecostal Puerto De Salvation, had engaged in sexual acts with a 16-year-old boy from his church.

Detectives said they interviewed the victim, who stated that while he spent the night at the Perez’s home in September and October of 2011, the pastor touched him inappropriately while he slept.

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FLORIDA
Click Orlando

[with video]

KISSIMMEE, Fla. –
Kissimmee police have arrested a local pastor they say engaged in sexual acts with a 16-year-old boy from his church.

Angel Perez was arrested on May 10 after complaints that he touched a 16-year-old boy while the boy slept at his home in September and October 2011, according to police.

Perez, 45, is a pastor at Templo Pentecostal Puerto De Salvation. Police said Perez touched the boy several times while the boy slept on three separate occasions.

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FLORIDA
New York Daily News

By Rheana Murray / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

A Florida pastor accused of molesting a teenage boy says he was possessed by the devil, according to local police.

The Rev. Angel Perez, 45, of Templo Pentecostal Puerta de Salvacion in Kissimmee, Fla., was arrested May 10 after police received a tip Perez had engaged in sexual acts with a 16-year-old member of his congregation, Kissimmee police spokeswoman Stacie Miller told the Daily News.

He is charged with unlawful sexual activity with certain minors.

The teen told police he viewed Perez as a father figure, and agreed to spend the night at his home on three separate occasions between September and January, when Perez touched him inappropriately.

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NEW YORK
WHAM

Rochester, N.Y. –Joe Flowers, 42, is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday on sex abuse charges.

The former Rochester church leader is currently serving a seven year sentence for repeatedly sexually abusing a boy between 2007 and 2010.

The victim attended Flowers’ church, The Walk of Life Christian Center.

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NEW YORK
YNN

By: YNN Staff

A local pastor, currently serving time in prison on a sex abuse charge involving a child, pleaded guilty to federal charges of transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Bishop Joe Flowers drove a child under the age of 15 to Florida to visit an amusement park in 2004. While there, he engaged in sexual activity with the child.

He faces a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 30, when he’s sentenced September 6.

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FLORIDA
WESH

[with video]

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — A pastor is accused of engaging in sexual acts with a 16-year-old boy, and his daughter has taken to his defense.

Officials said they received a complaint from someone who said Angel Perez, the 45-year-old pastor at Templo Pentecostal Puerto De Salvation, molested a 16-year-old boy.

Now, Kissimmee Police Department officers say they’re trying to figure out whether other minors were victimized.

The pastor’s daughter, though, said she believes the allegations are completely fabricated.

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GREEN BAY (WI)
NBC 26

By Kasey Hott

GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Diocese heads back to court Wednesday to see if they have to pay even more money as a punishment for committing fraud.

The case stems from former priest John Patrick Feeney and his sexual abuse of the Merryfield brothers in the 1970s. A jury sided with the brothers on Monday. Now, the Diocese could be forced to pay punitive damages. It will be up to a jury to decide whether those damages should be awarded.

“Punitive damages are damages for punishment. They aren’t for compensation. The reason the case was split into two is because the jury has to make certain findings before punitive damages becomes an issue,” said attorney Bruce Bachhuber.

Now that the jury has made those findings, the judge and jury will hear additional evidence to determine if money should be awarded.. and how much.

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COLORADO SPRINGS (CO)
TheDenverChannel

Posted by Wayne Harrison, Web Editor

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A catholic priest is due in court in Colorado Springs Wednesday in connection with his arrest on charges involving sexual assault on a child.
Rev. Charles Robert Manning had been a priest at St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church until the allegations surfaced last January. Officials at the church contacted authorities when they learned of the allegations.

Manning had been the pastor at the church since 2007.

Documents in the case have been sealed by the court.

The Archdiocese released a statement that said, “This is an extremely difficult situation for all. The alleged victim and family have, at all times in their communications with the Diocese, been polite and cooperative. Our hearts go out to them. Our hearts go out to all victims of abuse.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

The defense in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse case Tuesday presented Monsignor William J. Lynn as a caring priest who occupied the “bottom rung” of the church hierarchy.

Lynn was one of six secretaries in the archdiocese who reported to Bishop Edward P. Cullen, the former vicar for administration, according to Msgr. Michael T. McCulken, who served as Lynn’s assistant in the office for the clergy from 1994 until 1997.

“That would be the bottom rung?” Jeff Lindy, a defense lawyer for Msgr. Lynn suggested.

The bottom rung, agreed Msgr. McCulken.

The secretary for clergy functioned as a human resources department for the archdiocese, handling more than 800 priests, the seminarians at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, as well as retired priests.

McCulken estimated that he spent 10 percent of his time on sex abuse matters, and Lynn, about 15 percent. McCulken said that during his three years in the office for clergy, he worked on ten cases of alleged sex abuse. McCulken said that he and Lynn worked about 50 hours a week, including nights and weekends, and that Lynn usually went home with a thick valise of paperwork.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

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

One priest said Msgr. William J. Lynn treated victims of clergy sex abuse with compassion.

Another testified that Lynn pressed accused priests to enter treatment, and urged his bosses to order hospitalization for any who resisted.

A third noted that even regional vicars had more power than the secretary for clergy.

The priests took the stand Tuesday as the first witnesses called by the defense in the landmark clergy sex-abuse trial against Lynn, the former clergy secretary for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. His lawyers turned to each to bolster their contention that he was trying to remove sexually abusive priests but that he lacked the authority to do so.

Prosecutors, in turn, sought to use the testimony to suggest that Lynn – and sometimes the men around him – didn’t do enough to investigate abuse claims and protect children.

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GREEN BAY (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

Written by
Paul Srubas
Green Bay Press-Gazette

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests used a favorable ruling by an Outagamie County jury on Monday to turn up the heat on the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.

The organization, which goes by the acronym SNAP, on Tuesday asked Brown County District Attorney David Lasee to demand the names and files of 51 priests reportedly involved in sexual abuse over the last several decades.

“We had a good meeting with the DA, he took our concern seriously, stated he is a great advocate for child protection and that he will contact the diocese and see if he can get the names of the priest offenders and their files,” said John Pilmaier, director of Wisconsin’s SNAP chapter.

Peter Isley, SNAP’s Midwest director, said the diocese in 2004 reported in a study commissioned by the U.S. bishops as having had 35 diocesan priests and 16 Norbertine priests who had been accused at some point of child molestation. However, the diocese never released their names, Isley said.

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AUSTRALIA
Launceston Times

LOUISE HALL

23 May, 2012

A retired Catholic priest and a one-time close personal friend of the Attorney-General, Greg Smith, has appeared in court over the alleged sexual abuse of four children in the 1970s and ’80s.

Father Finian Egan, 77, appeared in Ryde Local Court this morning to face 16 charges of indecent assault and one charge of rape while he was a priest in Sydney and the central coast.

He has not entered a plea.

He has been the subject of a police investigation that began in 2010 following complaints he abused five children 30 years ago.

A number of women went to police following media reports about previous claims made within the Catholic Church.

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ROME
Huffington Post

Ryan Craggs

The Holy See was directly involved in the disappearance of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi in 1983, according to a contentious accusation by the Catholic Church’s leading exorcist. The Rev. Gabriele Amorth claimed that the girl’s kidnapping was a “crime of a sexual nature.”

“Parties were organized, with a Vatican gendarme acting as the ‘recruiter’ of the girls,” Amorth told La Stampa, according to a translation by The Telegraph. “The network involved diplomatic personnel from a foreign embassy to the Holy See. I believe Emanuela ended up a victim of this circle.”

Amorth, who was appointed by Pope John Paul II and has carried out more than 70,000 exorcisms, is no stranger to controversial public statements; according to The Sun, the exorcist has called Harry Potter the “work of the devil,” and has claimed “the devil was at work in the Vatican” when discussing the Catholic Church’s sex scandals.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — A priest assigned to help handle child sex-abuse complaints at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia told jurors Tuesday that Monsignor William Lynn was the only other person who could have created a typed list of suspected pedophile priests.

Monsignor James Beisel’s testimony came as the defense began its case in Lynn’s child-endangerment and conspiracy trial. Rev. James Brennan also is on trial, charged with molesting a teenager.

Prosecutors have introduced the list as evidence that Lynn and other church officials were aware the archdiocese had known predators in jobs around children for years or decades. But defense lawyers argue Lynn took orders from Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua. And witnesses Tuesday agreed that only the cardinal could transfer a priest or remove him from ministry.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CNN

By Sarah Hoye, CNN
updated 7:12 PM EDT, Tue May 22, 2012

Philadelphia (CNN) — A priest who assisted Monsignor William Lynn investigate clergy sex abuse claims testified Tuesday that it was not the archdiocese’s policy to contact law enforcement or other victims of abuse.

“Our legal counsel said there was not a requirement to report,” Monsignor Michael McCulken told jurors.

The defense called its first three witnesses Tuesday in the child sexual abuse and conspiracy trial of two Philadelphia priests, after the prosecution rested last week.

On trial are the Rev. James Brennan, who is accused of the attempted rape of a 14-year-old, and Monsignor William Lynn, who is accused of knowingly allowing dangerous priests to continue in the ministry in roles in which they had access to children.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republic

JAY LINDSAY Associated Press
First Posted: May 22, 2012 – 5:54 pm

BOSTON — The Vatican has rejected the appeals of all six groups in the Boston Archdiocese who argued that the church buildings at their closed parishes should be reopened years after the archdiocese shut them down.

The decisions, handed down over the last two months, came after the Vatican granted similar appeals to parishioners from several other closed parishes, including in New York and Pennsylvania.

Those recent wins had Sean Glennon, a parishioner at Mary, Star of the Sea in Quincy, hopeful about their appeal. On Tuesday, he was puzzled why none of the Boston-area parishes prevailed.

“It’s just very disconcerting, and it’s very disappointing,” he said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Fox News

Published May 22, 2012

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – Robert Van Handel was a 15-year-old seminarian at St. Anthony’s, a prestigious Franciscan boarding school, when, he said, a priest slipped into the infirmary where he was recovering from a fever and began to molest him. The priest told him it would help draw the fever out.

More than a decade later, Van Handel himself was molesting children while working as a Franciscan priest at the same Santa Barbara boarding school. Van Handel formed a boys’ choir for local children and chose his victims from among its ranks for eight years.

The generational arc of sexual abuse at St. Anthony’s, including Van Handel’s own account of his crimes, is included in more than 4,000 pages from the confidential files of nine Franciscan religious brothers who were accused of abuse. The internal files, coupled with an additional 4,000 pages of sworn testimony obtained by the AP, are the largest release of a religious order’s files to date and paint one of the fullest pictures yet of a pervasive culture of abuse that affected generations of students at the seminary dedicated to training future Franciscans.

The religious order settled for $28 million in 2006 with plaintiffs who alleged abuse by the nine Franciscans, but Van Handel and other defendants fought the release of their private files for six years in a legal battle that reached the California Supreme Court.

The files were obtained by The Associated Press from a plaintiff’s attorney ahead of them being made public Wednesday.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

The recent death of a Catholic priest has prompted lawyers to remove him from a civil lawsuit that alleged he abused a girl in the 1960s.

Lawyers representing the plaintiff filed paperwork in Jackson County Circuit Court Monday to formally remove the Rev. Francis McGlynn from the suit filed against him and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in October.

McGlynn, 84, died earlier this month.

The notice of dismissal covered only McGlynn. The diocese remains in the suit.

The 2011 suit was the fourth filed against McGlynn since 2003, according to court records. The other three have been settled.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

RTE chairman Tom Savage has insisted only communications minister Pat Rabbitte can force him to step down over the Prime Time Investigates scandal.

The broadcasting boss dismissed calls for his resignation in the wake of the defamation of innocent priest Fr Kevin Reynolds, who was wrongly accused of rape and fathering a child.

“It’s up to the minister to decide whether I’m a fit person or not,” said Mr Savage. “There are almost no bonuses or kudos for being in the position. Every day I give to the job would be a financial loss for what I could be doing elsewhere. But it is worth doing and to walk away, I believe, would be wrong.”

The broadcasting boss, who served as a priest for eight years, came under attack during a grilling from the Oireachtas Communications Committee.

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VATICAN CITY
The Salt Lake Tribune

By ALESSANDRO SPECIALE
| Religion News Service

Vatican City • During the past six months, Pope Benedict XVI has delivered five major speeches to small groups of American bishops who were in Rome for their “ad limina” visits, which are required once every five years.

The ad limina visits are how the pope and Vatican departments keep tabs on bishops from around the world. They are also an occasion for the pontiff to address the major issues faced by a local church.

In his speeches, Benedict often echoed bishops’ concern about religious freedom and the challenges confronting the U.S. church. In his latest address Tuesday, he warned bishops of the “threat of a season in which our fidelity to the gospel may cost us dearly.”

The pope didn’t directly mention the bishops’ recent conflicts with the Obama administration over a birth-control mandate and other hot-button issues, but touched on many of the topics at the heart of the controversy — from conscientious objection to gay marriage.

One factor that might have shaped the pope’s message to the American bishops in recent months is the relative weakness of the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano.

He is a newcomer, having arrived in Washington just weeks before the bishops’ visits started. He has been embroiled in the so-called “Vatileaks” scandal with the publication of his private letters to Benedict that denounced widespread “corruption” in the Vatican.

Here’s a recap of what Benedict had to say on hot-button issues in these past months.

SEXUAL ABUSE

“It is my hope that the church’s conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society.” (Nov. 26)

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Associated Press

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A priest assigned to help with child sex-abuse complaints at the Philadelphia archdiocese in the early 1990s says he was “woefully unprepared” and left after a year.

Monsignor James Beisel’s (BYE’-zuhlz) testimony comes in the child-endangerment and conspiracy trial of his friend, Monsignor William Lynn.

Lynn is accused of keeping accused priests in ministry. Defense lawyers have started their case by calling three of his church colleagues.

The priests say Lynn talked compassionately with abusers and sent accused priests for mental-health evaluations.

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COLORADO
Colorado Springs Gazette

May 22, 2012

MATT STEINER
THE GAZETTE

A Catholic priest who has been under investigation since early January was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a child.

According to Colorado Springs police, Rev. Robert Charles Manning turned himself in Tuesday after an arrest warrant was issued.

Manning, who retired in February from St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Colorado Springs, is being held in the El Paso County jail in connection with an Oct. 17, 2011 incident. Court records show that bail has been set at $10,000.

Manning was asked by the church to step down shortly after allegations were brought to the attention of the police on Jan. 4.

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COLORADO
Colorado Catholic Herald

May 22, 2012

On May 17, 2012, the El Paso County District Court issued an arrest warrant charging Father Robert Manning with alleged sexual assault on a minor by a person in a position of trust and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Father Manning is a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Louis who served as the Pastor of St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Colorado Springs from June 30, 2007 until January 23, 2012.

When the Diocese of Colorado Springs received the allegation against Father Manning on January 5, 2012, it immediately reported the matter to the police and promptly placed Father Manning on administrative leave. On January 18, Archbishop Carlson, the Archbishop of St. Louis, suspended Father Manning’s faculties. The Diocese has fully cooperated with law enforcement and the Archdiocese of St. Louis. It is complying with its obligations under the Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

This is an extremely difficult situation for all. The alleged victim and family have, at all times in their communications with the Diocese, been polite and cooperative. Our hearts go out to them. Our hearts go out to all victims of abuse.

The Diocese of Colorado Springs has taken extraordinary care to ensure that its ministries are safe for those it serves. Its safe environment practices and protocols involve thousands of trainings and background checks, prompt reporting requirements, and more. We ask the faithful and all people of good will to pray for the alleged victim and his family, for the parishioners and staff at St. Gabriel’s, for the law enforcement officials, for the accused priest, and for all involved.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Bolognatg24

CITTA’ DEL VATICANO, 22 MAGGIO – Il segretario generale della Cei, monsignor Mariano Crociata, ha esposto le linee guida della Cei nei confronti dei casi di pedofilia. I vescovi non avranno l’obbligo di denuncia degli abusi, una linea guida che farà molto discutere.

«Non possiamo chiedere al vescovo di diventare un pubblico ufficiale», ha detto mons. Crociata, «formalizzare la richiesta al vescovo di denunciare i casi di abuso vuol dire andare contro l’ordinamento, del resto su questo problema la cooperazione con la magistratura è un fatto ordinario».

«E’ chiaro a tutti noi vescovi che bisogna collaborare con le autorità civili», ha puntualizzato il segretario, ma «ciò non vuol dire che noi si possa operare in modo difforme da quanto prevede la legislazione». L’unico “vincolo” che la Cei riesce ad imporre ai vescovi è quello di «incoraggiare le vittime a rivolgersi alla magistratura».

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
La Politica Italiana

CITTÀ DEL VATICANO – Entrano in vigore, senza alcuna sorpresa, le annunciate linee-guida della Cei «per i casi di abuso sessuale nei confronti di minori da parte di chierici» richieste dalla Santa Sede ad ogni episcopato mondiale.

Come ampiamente previsto, il documento stabilisce che «il vescovo, non rivestendo la qualifica di pubblico ufficiale né di incaricato di pubblico servizio, non ha l’obbligo giuridico di denunciare all’autorità giudiziaria statuale le notizie che abbia ricevuto» in merito ad abusi sessuali compiuti da sacerdoti su minori. Tuttavia è «importante la cooperazione del vescovo con le autorità civili, nell’ambito delle rispettive competenze e nel rispetto della normativa concordataria civile». Una linea giurisprudenziale che non prende in considerazione la fattispecie del favoreggiamento della pedofilia e che venne preannunciata nel maggio del 2010, quando il segretario generale della Cei, mons. Mariano Crociata, spiegò che «la normativa italiana non prevede l’obbligo di denuncia in questi casi».

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ITALIA
La Stampa

Secondo quanto previsto dall’attuale legislazione italiana e dagli accordi concordatari, ”i vescovi sono esonerati dall’obbligo di deporre o di esibire documenti in merito a quanto conosciuto o detenuto per ragioni del proprio ministero”. E’ quanto si legge nelle ”Linee guida per i casi di abuso sessuale nei confronti di minori da parte di chierici” presentate oggi in Vaticano dal segretario generale della Cei, monsignor Mariano Crociata.

Secondo quanto previsto dall’attuale legislazione italiana e dagli accordi concordatari, ”i vescovi sono esonerati dall’obbligo di deporre o di esibire documenti in merito a quanto conosciuto o detenuto per ragioni del proprio ministero”. E’ quanto si legge nelle ”Linee guida per i casi di abuso sessuale nei confronti di minori da parte di chierici” presentate oggi in Vaticano dal segretario generale della Cei, monsignor Mariano Crociata. ”Nell’ordinamento italiano – si spiega – il vescovo, non rivestendo la qualifica di pubblico ufficiale ne’ di incaricato di pubblico servizio, non ha l’obbligo giuridico di denunciare all’autorità giudiziaria statuale le notizie che abbia ricevuto in merito ai fatti illeciti” di abuso sessuale da parte del clero.

Quindi si specifica: ”eventuali informazioni o atti concernenti un procedimento giudiziario canonico possono essere richiesti dall’autorità giudiziaria dello Stato, ma non possono costituire oggetto di un ordine di esibizione o di sequestro”. Ancora si precisa che ”rimane ferma l’inviolabilità dell’archivio segreto del vescovo”, anche in questo caso ”devono ritenersi sottratti a ordine di esibizione o sequestro anche registri e archivi salva la comunicazione volontaria di singole informazioni”. Si afferma inoltre che ”nessuna responsabilità, diretta o indiretta, per gli eventuali abusi sussiste in capo alla Santa Sede o alla Conferenza episcopale italiana”. Infine si mette in luce che, comunque, ”risulterà importante la cooperazione del vescovo con le autorità civili, nell’ambito delle rispettive competenze e nel rispetto della normativa concordataria e civile”.

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ROM
kathweb

Österreichische Regelung ist präziser und schärfer formuliert

Rom, 22.05.2012 (KAP) Sexueller Missbrauch durch katholische Geistliche muss von den Bischöfen Italiens nicht automatisch gegenüber den staatlichen Strafverfolgungsbehörden angezeigt werden: Die Bischöfe seien jedoch verpflichtet mit den staatlichen Behörden zusammenzuarbeiten, heißt es in den Leitlinien für den Umgang mit sexuellem Missbrauch, die am Dienstag von der Italienischen Bischofskonferenz (CEI) in Rom vorgestellt wurden. Ein Bischof sei keine staatliche Amtsperson. Rechtlich sei er daher nicht verpflichtet, Informationen an staatliche Justizbehörden weiterzuleiten, heißt es in dem 24-seitigen Dokument.

Priester, die Minderjährige sexuell missbraucht haben, sollen nach den Worten von CEI-Generalsekretär Bischof Mariano Crociata unverzüglich aus der Seelsorge entfernt werden. Ein solcher Geistlicher werde nicht wieder in die ordentliche Seelsorge zurückkehren und in keiner Weise mehr Kontakt mit Minderjährigen bekommen, sagte Crociata.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

May 22, 2012 3:37 pm

By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Churchill priest indicted on child pornography charges is scheduled to plead guilty tomorrow in U.S. District Court.

Rev. Bartley Sorensen of St. John Fisher Catholic Church was initially charged in state court with possession of thousands of images on his computer of young boys posing naked or engaging in sex acts.

Authorities chose to pursue the case in federal court, where penalties are heavier.

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ROME
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) — The head of the Legionaries of Christ admitted he knew about the sexual improprieties of a U.S. priest based in Rome and did too little to restrict his high-profile ministry.

But more important than his failure to limit the priest’s ministry, he said, is the need to reassure members “that things are handled differently now.”

Legionary Father Alvaro Corcuera, who succeeded the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado as director general of the order, said he had known in 2005 that Legionary Father Thomas D. Williams had fathered a child, but acknowledged he “was not diligent in setting proper restrictions and enforcing them.”

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COLORADO
KRDO

Police issued an arrest warrant for Father Charles “Robert” Manning former Priest of St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church.

He turned himself in Tuesday.

Police are not revealing much information on the case, except to say that all affidavits are sealed an no comment can be made at this time.

The investigation against Manning on sexual abuse after allegations were made on January 4, and police were immediately alerted.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

[the letter]

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press –

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Legion of Christ religious order, already discredited for having covered up the crimes of its pedophile founder, suffered another blow to its credibility after its superior admitted Tuesday that he knew in 2005 that his most prominent priest had broken his vows of celibacy and fathered a child, yet did nothing to prevent him from teaching and preaching about morality.

The admission by the Rev. Alvaro Corcuera is likely to enrage members of the Legion and its lay branch who have endured years of apologies, hypocrisy and explanations for the crimes of the order’s founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, who sexually abused his seminarians and fathered three children with two women.

The Rev. Thomas Williams, the public face of the Legion in America, admitted last week that he had fathered a child several years ago, going public with a statement after The Associated Press presented the Legion with the accusation. …

A U.S. victims’ group, Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests, called for Pope Benedict XVI to oust Corcuera, saying if the pope wants “a more holy and pure and safe church, he can’t keep ignoring or rewarding serious wrongdoing.”

Maciel, who founded the Legion in 1941 in Mexico, died in 2008.

The scandal surrounding the Legion is particularly grave given that Maciel was held up as a model for the faithful by Pope John Paul II, who was impressed by the orthodox order’s ability to attract money and young men to the priesthood.

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MISSISSIPPI
The Clarion-Ledger

Written by
Jimmie E. Gates

The trial for a pastor accused of coercing a young male church member into a sexual relationship has been delayed.

The lawsuit was filed against the Rev. Kevin Joseph Boyd Sr., senior pastor of The Apostolic Church in Jackson. Boyd also operates a church in New Orleans. The trial was scheduled for this week in Hinds County Circuit Court.

Boyd has vehemently denies the allegations of sex abuse. The Clarion-Ledger does not use the names of persons alleging sexual abuse.

The claims in the lawsuit were similar to allegations leveled against Atlanta mega-church pastor Bishop Eddie Long by four young men. The lawsuit against Long was settled last year.

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PHILADLEPHIA (PA)
The Palm Beach Post

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
The Associated Press

Updated: 2:31 p.m. Tuesday, May 22, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — The defense in a groundbreaking child-endangerment trial laid blame for the transfer of predator-priests at the feet of a dead archbishop.

Lawyers for Monsignor William Lynn called two colleagues to the stand Tuesday to try to counter eight weeks of searing evidence from the prosecution. The priests testified that Lynn, as secretary for clergy, never had the authority to remove problem priests or move them to new parishes.

Instead, Lynn could only make recommendations to his superiors, and “ultimately to the cardinal,” Monsignor Joseph P. Garvin testified.

Lynn, 61, served as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, most of it under Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua. Bevilacqua died in January, two months before Lynn went on trial. Prosecutors preserved his testimony in a videotaped deposition late last year, but rested without playing it for jurors.

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IRELAND
Galway Bay FM

May 22, 2012

Members of the Oireachtas Communications Committee are calling on the Chairman and the Director General of RTÉ to resign.

Senior figures in the State broadcaster are appearing in Leinster House again today to discuss the defamation case of Ahascragh priest, Fr Kevin Reynolds.

TDs Mattie McGrath and Tom Barry as well as Senator John Whelan say Tom Savage and Noel Curran’s position are untenable.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A priest who helped Msgr. William J. Lynn investigate child-sex abuse complaints in the 1990s on Tuesday described the former clergy secretary as a low-level manager who pressed accused clerics to enter treatment but who had no authority to order them to do so.

The priest, Msgr. Michael T. McCulken, testified that Lynn’s recommendations typically needed the approval of three bosses above him, including Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua. At the time, Lynn was one of six priests who held the title of “secretary” within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, overseeing areas ranging from education to Catholic life.

“Was there any level in the official hierarchy that was below the secretaries — or would they be the bottom rung?” defense lawyer Jeffrey Lindy asked McCulken.

“They would be the bottom rung,” McCulken said.

His testimony in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court came as lawyers for Lynn and his codefendant, the Rev. James J. Brennan, opened their defense in the landmark clergy-sex abuse trial. Prosecutors say Lynn, secretary for clergy between 1992 and 2004, endangered children when he allowed Brennan and another priest, Edward Avery, to live or work in parishes despite signs they might abuse minors. They say Brennan tried to rape a 14-year-old in 1996, an accusation he has denied.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Heise

Peter Bürger 16.05.2012

Kleinbürgerliche Heimathorizonte und das Ende der katholischen Weite: Der Papst aus Bayern und der Zentralkomitee-Katholizismus sind den Herausforderungen des 3. Jahrtausends nicht gewachsen. – Eine fromme Polemik

Zum Fest Christi Himmelfahrt findet in Mannheim der 89. deutsche Katholikentag statt. Die wohl bedeutendste katholische Gestalt aus Mannheim ist der von den Nationalsozialisten hingerichtete Jesuit Alfred Delp. Er war (trotz seiner Nähe zu einigen deutsch-katholischen Ideologiekomplexen) ein kompromissloser Gegner der Faschisten. Einen Monat vor seiner Ermordung schrieb dieser Märtyrer in sein Gefängnistagebuch über den Selbsterhaltungstrieb der Kirchenmächtigen: “Wir haben die kirchenpolitische Apparatur überschätzt und sie noch laufen lassen zu einer Zeit, wo ihr schon der geistige Treibstoff fehlte.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

Der Kölner Erzbischof Kardinal Joachim Meisner interveniert gegen einen geplanten Auftritt eines kritischen Mitbruders aus Frankreich. Doch der streitbare Sozial-Bischof Jacques Gaillot widersetzt sich.

Köln –

Der Kölner Erzbischof, Kardinal Joachim Meisner (78), will offenbar einen Auftritt seines französischen Mitbruders Jacques Gaillot (76) in Köln verhindern. Wie der „Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger“ berichtet, erinnert Meisner den Sozial-Bischof Gaillot an ein Verbot aus dem Jahr 2004, auf Kölner Territorium tätig zu werden. „Umso mehr erstaunt es unseren Erzbischof, dass Sie ihm die geplante Veranstaltung in keiner Weise angekündigt haben“, heißt es in einem Brief von Meisners Generalvikar Stefan Heße an Gaillot.

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DEUTSCHLAND
TVA

Mannheim (dpa) – Der Gastgeber des nächsten Katholikentages 2014, der Regensburger Bischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller, hat die Reformgruppen in der katholischen Kirche attackiert. «Es ist die Frage, ob die sogenannten Reformgruppen wirklich solche sind», sagte er der Nachrichtenagentur dpa in einem Gespräch über seine Pläne. Diese Gruppen bekämen nichts zustande und hängten sich an große Veranstaltungen an. Sie seien eine «parasitäre Existenzform».

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Tom Allon

Just when you think good, old-fashioned investigative journalism is going the way of the horse and buggy and typewriter, there comes along a thoughtful expose that restores your faith in a free and robust press.

Two weeks ago, The New York Times (where I started my career as a lowly copy boy a quarter century ago) produced a two-part series on the unusually cozy relationship between the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office and the Orthodox rabbis in some Brooklyn communities who seemed to be playing judge and jury in cases of sexual abuse of young children.

Whether it’s the Catholic Church, Penn State football or the Orthodox Jewish community, the instinct to close ranks and shield alleged abusers because of the negative publicity to their tribe is the wrong one.

Just ask the late football coach Joe Paterno’s family how well that strategy worked. Or the Catholic Church, which has lost millions of dollars and lots of credibility because of its slow response to rampant abuse of children.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Journal

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: May 22, 2012 – 11:16 am

PHILADELPHIA — The first defense witness in a groundbreaking clergy-abuse trial says the defendant lacked the authority to transfer priests within the Philadelphia archdiocese.

Monsignor William Lynn is the first Roman Catholic church official charged for allegedly helping transfer suspected predator-priests to new parishes.

Monsignor Joseph Garvin, former secretary for Catholic Human Services, testified Tuesday as the first defense witness.

He says Lynn could recommend that a priest be transferred — but says the cardinal ultimately makes the decision. That fits with Lynn’s argument that he took orders from Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

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AUSTRIA
Austrian Independent

A Catholic preacher who established a group of “disobedient” priests reacted coolly to Viennese Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn’s warnings.

Speaking to Italian daily La Stampa last week, Schönborn said regarding the Austrian Church’s reaction to the Preachers’ Initiative: “Now is the time to clarify the various issues. We might take disciplinary measures, but I hope that this is not necessary.”

Schüller, who founded the group in June 2011, announced: “We have to wait and see what these so-called disciplinary measures are. We will then consult our juridical advisors and discuss our reaction.”

Schüller heads the parish of Probstdorf, Lower Austria. The former Caritas Austria president said the Catholic Church in the alpine country was not in a general crisis – despite high membership cancellation figures and no end to reports about sexual abuse at churches and clerical boarding schools, especially in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

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IRELAND
Galway Bay FM

May 22, 2012 –

The RTÉ Director General says he doesn’t believe there will ever be a repeat of the defamation case involving Ahascragh Priest Fr. Kevin Reynolds.

Noel Curran says a whole range of changes have been put in place to ensure nothing on the same scale can happen again.

Senior figures in the State broadcaster are appearing before the Oireachtas Committee on Communications to continue discussions on the incident.

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VATICAN CITY
Business Insider

Michael Kelley

The Catholic Church’s leading exorcist priest asserts that a Vatican employee’s daughter thought to be buried in a mob boss’s tomb was kidnapped for Vatican sex parties, reports Nick Pisa of the Daily Mail.

Father Gabriel Amorth, who was ordained in 1954 and has carried out more than 70,000 exorcisms, made the claim to Italian newspaper La Stampa as police examine the contents of mobster Enrico De Pedis’s tomb for clues about the 1983 disappearance of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi.

Father Amorth, 85, noted that an archivist at the Vatican previously admitted to recruiting girls for parties and told La Stampa newspaper the he believes that Orlandi “ended up in this circle” and that the “case of sexual exploitation” led to her murder followed by “the hiding of her body,” according to the Daily Mail.

Father Amorth also said that “diplomatic staff from a foreign embassy to the Holy See” were also involved.

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GREEN BAY (WI)
Fox 11

Chad Doran, FOX 11 News

GREEN BAY – The victims advocacy group SNAP – the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests – is asking the Brown County district attorney to investigate the Green Bay Diocese in the wake of the Merryfield fraud case.

Monday, a jury in Outagamie County found the diocese committed fraud by not telling parishioners that former priest John Feeney had a history of inappropriate contact with children prior to molesting Todd and Troy Merryfield in 1978, when Feeney workd at a church in Freedom.

The group is asking DA David Lasee to examine the “scope and nature” and “pattern of practice” of what it says is the concealment of priests in the diocese.

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ROME
Huffington Post

[the letter]

By Philip Pullella

ROME, May 22 (Reuters) – The leader of the Legionaries of Christ admitted on Tuesday he knew for years the scandal-plagued religious order’s most famous priest had fathered a child but still allowed the popular cleric to preach about morality.

The religious order, still reeling from revelations that its founder was a sexual abuser and drug addict with two secret families, suffered another major blow last week when it admitted that Father Thomas Williams, an American based in Rome, had also led a double life.

But the question that had been left hanging after the first admission was how long Williams’ superiors knew.

In a letter to members published on the order’s website, Father Alvaro Corcuera said he found out about Williams’s child “early in my new assignment” as the order’s director-general, which began in 2005.

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

AUSTRALIA
Virtue Online

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
May 17, 2012

The governing body of the Traditional Anglican Communion yesterday suspended TAC Archbishop John Hepworth from the Church’s College of Bishops, which rendered him ineligible to function as Bishop Ordinary of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia.

The authority has been transferred to Vicar General Fr. Owen Buckton assisted by Bishop David Robarts as Episcopal Authority with immediate effect.

The announcement was made by India-based Archbishop Samuel Prakash, Acting Primate of the TAC. The new administrators of the TAC in Australia are both members of ACCA.

“Hepworth is no longer permitted to serve as Bishop Ordinary of Australia,” Johannesburg-based Bishop Michael Gill, Secretary to the College of Bishops, told VOL.

Fr. Buckton is based in Rockhampton and Bishop Robarts lives in Launceton, Tasmania.

The suspension as Bishop pertains to both the TAC and ACCA. Bishop Hepworth had sought to enter the Roman Catholic Church through the Pope’s offer of an Ordinariate but had been rebuffed following allegations that he had been raped by three priests four decades ago.

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IRELAND
Galway Bay FM

May 22, 2012

The public must be given assurances to restore confidence in the State broadcaster, after the defamation of Ahascragh priest Father Kevin Reynolds.

That’s the view of Andrew Doyle, Chairman of an Oireachtas Committee which is due to meet again today [May 22].

The chairman of the RTE Board, Tom Savage, and the Director General at the State broadcaster, Noel Curran, will appear before the Joint Committee on Communications – to face questions over the ‘Mission to Prey’ programme.

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ROME
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Missing girl ‘buried in murdered mobster’s tomb was kidnapped for Vatican sex parties’, claims Catholic Church’s leading exorcist priest

The Catholic Church’s leading exorcist priest has sensationally claimed a missing schoolgirl thought to be buried in a murdered gangster’s tomb was kidnapped for Vatican sex parties.

Father Gabriel Amorth, 85, who has carried out 70,000 exorcisms, spoke out as investigators continued to examine mobster Enrico De Pedis’s tomb in their hunt for Emanuela Orlandi.

Last week police and forensic experts broke into the grave after an anonymous phone call to a TV show said the truth about Emanuela’s 1983 disappearance would be ‘found there’.

And although bones not belonging to the mobster were recovered they have not yet been positively identified as hers.

However Father Amorth, in an interview with La Stampa newspaper, said: ‘This was a crime with a sexual motive.

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

GREEN BAY (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

In wake of landmark fraud decision, victims urging Brown County DA to launch investigation of Green Bay diocese

In wake of landmark fraud decision, victims urging Brown County DA to launch investigation of Green Bay diocese

Group wants law enforcement to examine the “scope and nature” and the “pattern and practice” of concealing child molesters and systematic destruction of thousands of pages of evidence

WHEN
Tuesday, May 22, 1:30 p.m.

WHERE
Outside the Brown County DA’s Office, 300 East Walnut Street

WHAT
After discussing the landmark decision by an Appleton jury on Monday that the diocese of Green Bay is guilty of fraud in concealing the sex abuse history of former priest John Patrick Feeney, victim/survivors of childhood sexual assault by Wisconsin clergy who are leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org/SNAPwisconsin.com) will attempt to hand deliver a letter to the Brown County DA asking him to investigate the full “scope and depth” of the concealment of at least 50 other clergy known or suspected by the diocese of Green Bay to have sexually assaulted minors over the past decades. The number is the latest available data derived from a self-report submitted for a national study commissioned by the US Bishops by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and published in 2004. 16 of these offenders are members of the Norbertine religious order which is headquartered and works in ministries for the Green Bay diocese.

Although the diocese has maintained that it has furnished the DA with the names of all known offenders, survivors will release an email from previous Brown County DA John Zakowski which shows that as of that date no such information has been provided to the DA’s office. And, in 2007, according to depositions taken for the current fraud case, senior diocesan church officials have admitted to the systematic destruction of what appears to be nearly all evidence of criminal behavior by clergy and fraudulent concealment of those crimes by church officials.

On Wednesday, the jury in Appleton will reconvene to hear new testimony to consider if punitive damages will be assessed against the diocese.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NECN

May 22, 2012

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The defense is set to start Tuesday in the trial of a former Roman Catholic church official charged with helping cover-up child sex-abuse complaints in the Philadelphia archdiocese.

Monsignor William Lynn has been on trial for eight weeks. The prosecution evidence included testimony from more than a dozen people who say they were abused by priests.

Jurors have also seen hundreds of internal church documents found in secret archives.

The 61-year-old Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged for his handling of abuse complaints. Defense lawyers argue that he took orders from the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

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ROME
Toronto Sun

[the letter]

ROME – The leader of the Legionaries of Christ admitted on Tuesday he knew for years the scandal-plagued religious order’s most famous priest had fathered a child but still allowed the popular cleric to preach about morality.

The religious order, still reeling from revelations that its founder was a sexual abuser and drug addict with two secret families, suffered another major blow last week when it admitted that Father Thomas Williams, an American based in Rome, had also led a double life.

But the question that had been left hanging after the first admission was how long Williams’ superiors knew.

In a letter to members published on the order’s website, Father Alvaro Corcuera said he found out about Williams’s child “early in my new assignment” as the order’s director-general, which began in 2005.

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

NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

The victims and families of a child molester lashed out at him in a Brooklyn court yesterday. Michael Sabo was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the sexual abuse of a boy and a girl and for possessing a large amount of child porn.

“You’re a miserable, rotten piece of slime…I feel like breaking your bones and I hope you rot in prison. I want to kill you over and over again,” a victim, who was five when Sabo began molesting him in 2001 and who is now 16-years-old, wrote in a letter read aloud in court by his father. Sabo molested the boy for five years.

“While pretending to be our family and pretending to be nice, he was sexually abusing my sister. This is the true definition of a sociopath. You ruined her childhood, and perhaps her whole life,” the older sister of a now 12-year-old victim seethed. “You are a monster.” Sabo began sexually abusing the girk when she was six years old girl and continued for at least three years.

Sabo, a 38-year-old nurse who went to Yeshiva Torah Temimah, the school where notorious pedophile Rabbi Yehuda Kolko taught for decades, pleaded guilty earlier this month to sexually assaulting the children and for possessing a large amount of kiddie porn.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By JOSE MARTINEZ

Last Updated: 1:59 AM, May 22, 2012

A deviant dad could be caged for the rest of his life for preying on kids in his Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn.

Michael Sabo was smacked with a 20-years-to-life prison sentence yesterday after relatives of his two young victims trashed him as a “monster” who should never walk free again — and as District Attorney Charles Hynes continued taking heat for shielding the names of accused sexual attackers in religious Jewish communities.

“I feel like breaking your bones and I hope you rot in prison,” one of Sabo’s victims, now 16, wrote in a letter read aloud in court by his dad. “I want to kill you over and over again.”

Sabo pleaded guilty this month to molesting a boy and a girl over several years, even as prosecutors said the girl’s relatives were pressured in a synagogue by Sabo supporters who vowed to pack the courtroom if she dared to testify against him.

“Despite this shameful act, these children and their parents still had the courage to come to court,” prosecutor Kevin O’Donnell said.

The family of another of Sabo’s accusers didn’t cooperate because of fear of reprisals from within the Orthodox community, prosecutors said.

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NEDERLAND
de Stentor

DEN HAAG – Vrouwen die ooit als minderjarige zijn misbruikt binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk (RKK) kunnen zich vanaf dinsdag melden bij de commissie-Deetman. De meldingen zullen een belangrijk onderdeel uitmaken van een nieuw onderzoek, zo heeft de commissie dinsdag bekendgemaakt.

Vrouwelijke slachtoffers kunnen zich tot 1 juli melden. “Het onafhankelijk wetenschappelijk onderzoek spitst zich toe op seksueel misbruik van en fysiek en psychisch geweld tegen minderjarige vrouwen binnen de RKK in Nederland tussen 1945 en nu”, aldus een woordvoerder.

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NETHERLANDS
Radio Netherlands

Published on 22 May 2012

Women who were victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic clergy when they were children can submit their reports to the Deetman Commission from Tuesday.

Their reports will form part of a new inquiry by the commission, which so far has limited its inquiry to the abuse of young boys in Catholic boarding schools and seminaries.

The women have until 1 July to submit their reports.

“The independent inquiry will focus on the sexual abuse of, and psychological violence against, under-aged women in the Roman Catholic Church between 1945 and the present day,” a spokesperson said.

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IRELAND
Drogheda Independent

By ALISON COMYN

Wednesday May 16 2012

A LOCAL nun has joined a new religious group after claiming to have suffered physical and mental abuse at the hands of priests for many years.

Mother Maria Francesca has ‘given up Rome’ to become a Franciscan Sister of the Blessed Sacrament in Liverpool. The 58-year-old is now part of the ‘Ecumenical Catholic Church’, which allows women priests and married priests. A NUN from Duleek has broken away from the Vatican as she says she cannot stay silent anymore on the ‘ bullying, sexual and physical abuse’ she and others suffered at the hands of Catholic priests during the past few decades.

Mother Maria Francesca is a member of the Stears family in Duleek, but has been a nun in the UK for many years, recently ‘giving up Rome’ to become a Franciscan Sister of the Blessed Sacrament in Liverpool.

The 58- year- old says she defended the Catholic Church to the hilt in the past, but could no longer stay silent on the abuse she has suffered and witnessed, or the fact the Vatican imposes rules she simply cannot follow.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, May 22, 2012

A County Meath nun has quit the Catholic Church and formed a new religious group in protest at years of ‘mental, sexual and physical abuse’ at the hands of priests.

The Drogheda Independent reports that Duleek nun Mother Maria Francesca has ‘given up on Rome’ and joined the Ecumenical Catholic Church in the English city of Liverpool.

Mother Maria Francesca is now a Franciscan Sister of the Blessed Sacrament in Liverpool, a movement she helped to establish earlier this year.

The 58-year-old’s new Church allows women priests and married priests.

She told the paper that she cannot ‘stay silent’ anymore on the ‘bullying, sexual and physical abuse’ she and others have suffered at the hands of Catholic priests.

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NORTH CAROLINA
digtriad

Gaston County, NC– A former Gaston County pastor was denied bond after he pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing Haitian girls while running a ministry in Haiti.

Indictments read in federal court on Monday stated that Larry Michael Bollinger, 66 traveled to Haiti to engage in sexual conduct with a girl younger than 18 years old.

The indictment was handed up last week against Bollinger, but according to WBTV in Charlotte new information was released during the hearing today.

According to investigators, Bollinger was in Haiti working as the director of the Hope House, which provided food, shelter and schooling for Haitian children.

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APPLETON (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

Written by
Jessie Van Berkel
Gannett Wisconsin Media

APPLETON — When an Outagamie County jury decided the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay covered up a priest’s history of child molestation, it sent a message to the rest of Wisconsin, an advocate for sexual abuse victims said.

The outcome of Todd and Troy Merryfields’ civil lawsuit against the diocese Monday empowers victims across the state to come forward, said Peter Isely, the Midwest director for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. For others who have reported sexual abuse by priests, this “should increase the pressure to bring these cases to a just resolution.”

“That is always something that occurs when this culture of secrecy … is pierced and opened by cases like this,” Isely said.

Rev. John Feeney molested the Merryfields in 1978, when they were 12 and 14 years old. In 2004, Feeney was convicted of sexual assault of the brothers. After the criminal trial, the brothers said they learned the priest had a history of similar assaults in the 1960s and 1970s that the diocese knew about and hid from parishioners at St. Nicholas Church in Freedom, which the Merryfields attended.

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APPLETON (WI)
Fox 6

APPLETON (AP) — An Outagamie County jury on Monday awarded two brothers $700,000 in a fraud trial against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.

The civil jury found the diocese responsible Monday for concealing a former priest’s history of child molestation. Brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield sued the diocese in 2008, alleging the diocese was aware the Rev. John Feeney sexually assaulted others before 1978, when it assigned him to Freedom’s St. Nicholas Church. Feeney was convicted in 2004 for the sexual assaults of the Merryfields and has already served his prison sentence.

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

APPLETON (WI)
Post-Crescent

Written by
Jessie Van Berkel
Post-Crescent staff writer

APPLETON — When an Outagamie County jury decided the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay covered up a priest’s history of child molestation, it sent a message to the rest of Wisconsin, an advocate for sexual abuse victims said.

The outcome of Todd and Troy Merryfields’ civil lawsuit against the diocese Monday empowers victims across the state to come forward, said Peter Isely, the Midwest director for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. For others who have reported sexual abuse by priests, this “should increase the pressure to bring these cases to a just resolution.”

“That is always something that occurs when this culture of secrecy … is pierced and opened by cases like this,” Isely said.

Rev. John Feeney molested the Merryfields in 1978, when they were 12 and 14 years old. In 2004, Feeney was convicted of sexual assault of the brothers. After the criminal trial, the brothers said they learned the priest had a history of similar assaults in the 1960s and 1970s that the diocese knew about and hid from parishioners at St. Nicholas Church in Freedom, which the Merryfields attended.

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ROME
The Journal (Ireland)

THE HEAD of the embattled ‘Legion of Christ’ religious order has admitted to covering up news that his most prominent priest had fathered a child, and announced a review of all past allegations of sexual abuse against Legion priests amid a growing scandal at the order.

Fr Alvaro Corcuera wrote a letter to all Legion members in which he admitted he had heard – before he became superior in 2005 – that Rev Thomas Williams, a well-known American television personality, author and moral theologian, had a child.

He said he took Williams’ word that the rumours were false.

Corcuera said that after becoming superior in 2005, he confirmed Williams’ paternity yet did nothing to prevent him from teaching morality to seminarians or preaching about ethics on television, in his many speaking engagements or his 14 books.

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ROME
Legionaries of Christ

Fr Alvaro Corcuera, LC, general director of the Legion of Christ, offers the following letter to members and friends of Regnum Christi.

The letter is also available in pdf format.

***
Thy Kingdom Come!
REGNUM CHRISTI
MOVEMENT
_________

GENERAL DIRECTOR

Rome, May 21, 2012

To the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi members in North America

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

All of us have had to deal with very difficult news over the past few days. And of course, this comes in light of the terrible news three years ago regarding Father Maciel.

I want to take this opportunity to share with you my part in what many of you may regard as failings – and to explain how the Legion is working to ensure better performance in the future.

While serving as the rector of our seminary in Rome, I had heard rumors about Fr. Thomas Williams’ misbehavior. I inquired about them, but Father denied them, and I believed him.

In 2005, I found myself the second General Director of the Legion of Christ. I knew that I would face great challenges, but had no idea of all that was to come. Early in my new assignment, I learned that Fr. Thomas Williams had, in fact, had a relationship with a woman and they had a child. I reviewed the situation with Fr. Williams, asking him to start withdrawing from public ministry. In May of 2010 I placed restrictions on his ministry. Unfortunately, these restrictions were not firm enough as he was not asked to leave teaching. This March I gave Fr. Thomas the explicit indication to fully withdraw from all public ministry. I also must admit that, in the midst of all that was happening I was not diligent in setting proper restrictions and enforcing them.

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VATICAN CITY
CTV (Canada)

The Associated Press

Date: Tuesday May. 22, 2012

VATICAN CITY — The head of the embattled Legion of Christ religious order admitted Tuesday to covering up news that his most prominent priest had fathered a child and announced a review of all past allegations of sexual abuse against Legion priests amid a growing scandal at the order.

The Rev. Alvaro Corcuera wrote a letter to all Legion members in which he admitted he had heard before he became superior in 2005 that the Rev. Thomas Williams, a well-known American television personality, author and moral theologian, had a child. He said he took Williams’ word that the rumours were false.

Corcuera said that after becoming superior in 2005, he confirmed Williams’ paternity yet did nothing to prevent him from teaching morality to seminarians or preaching about ethics on television, in his many speaking engagements or his 14 books, including “Knowing Right from Wrong: A Christian Guide to Conscience.”

Williams, for example, was the keynote speaker at a Legion-affiliated women’s conference just last month in the U.S. and was scheduled to speak at another one in October.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

You would never know it from the media coverage, but the defendants won a significant victory in the high-profile criminal abuse trial in Philadelphia last Thursday.

As the prosecution rested its case, Judge M. Teresa Sarmina dismissed conspiracy charges against the two Catholic cleric defendants, Msgr. William J. Lynn and Rev. James J. Brennan.

Sarmina’s ruling was important, but most journalists buried this episode in their coverage of the trial, giving the ruling only a passing mention.

The media takes a side

For over a year, journalists fell over themselves in trumpeting the alarming claims that Philadelphia Church officials actually intended that children be abused. Now, after nearly two months of trial testimony, it turns out that the prosecution’s outlandish accusations were so ridiculous and baseless that even Judge Sarmina – who has exhibited dubious impartiality during the trial – felt compelled to grant the defense’s request to acquit the two clerics of the wild charges.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

Lawyers representing Catholic Bishop Robert W. Finn have renewed efforts to have misdemeanor charges against him and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph dismissed.

In filings given to a Jackson County judge last week, Finn’s lawyers and those representing the diocese argued that a state law requiring clergy and many others to report suspicions of child abuse is unconstitutionally vague.

Earlier this month, prosecutors asked for permission to add an additional count of failure to report to those that Finn and the diocese already face.

A grand jury in October charged each with one misdemeanor failure-to-report charge related to how they handled the Rev. Shawn Ratigan between December 2010 and May 2011.

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NEW YORK
USA Today

By Cara Matthews, The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

OSSINING, N.Y. – As the Vatican accuses American nuns of spending too much time on human rights and helping the poor, some Catholic activists who support them are organizing vigils and petitions to persuade the church to change its mind.

“With the sisters, they’ve worked their fingers to the bone. They deserve more than this,” said Eileen Sammon, a parishioner at St. Ann’s Church here and a former Dominican nun. “They’re like a helicopter hierarchy hovering over the sisters instead of cleaning their own house,” referring to the continuing problem of priests’ sexual abuse of children.

Sammon is organizing a prayer vigil Tuesday in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan with the hope that Cardinal Timothy Dolan will contact the Vatican and ask to have the reprimand rescinded.

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CANADA
Northern News Service

Jeanne Gagnon
Northern News Services
Published Monday, May 21, 2012

IQALUIT
A former Iglulik Catholic priest, already facing 77 charges, will likely face at least one more, according to the Crown prosecutor, during a court appearance May 14.

Eric Dejaeger’s charges include 68 that are sex-related, one count each of failure to appear in court, uttering threats and unlawful confinement as well as three counts each of assault and use of violence to prevent reporting of suspicious activity.

The 65-year-old accused is also facing one count of indecent assault and gross indecency in Alberta.

Crown prosecutor Paul Bychok said outside the court Dejaeger will likely face at least one more charge. During Dejaeger’s court appearance on May 14, the Crown elected to proceed by indictment – which involves more severe punishment if there is a conviction – on the latest 38 charges.

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APPLETON (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

It took a jury today in Appleton, Wisconsin barely four hours to conclude in a landmark decision that the bishops and senior managers of the diocese of Green Bay had committed fraud in concealing and transferring serial child sex predator, Fr. John Patrick Feeney. What is so significant about this decision is that the jury reached its conclusion even though the judge had severely limited the amount of evidence, including hundreds of pages of internal church files, that they could examine. If the jury had seen the totality of Feeney’s file they would likely have reached their decision in even less time.

This is the first trial against a diocese for sexually abusive clerics in state history. A pair of controversial state supreme court decisions in the mid 1990’s fully immunized the church from any and all corporate liability for priest child molesters based on a controversial interpretation of the first amendment. It is a testament, therefore, to the courage and persistence of Todd and Troy Merryfield and their families who have doggedly pursued justice through a much more daunting path of filing their claim under the state’s fraud statutes.

How today’s decision is going to impact other dioceses in the state—including the 570 cases filed in federal bankruptcy court in Milwaukee, many of those cases for fraud—is yet to be seen. But this much the jury in Appleton has made clear today: Society cannot afford—children cannot afford–to have an institution, no matter how laudatory its other accomplishments–that is accountable to no one.

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APPLETON (WI)
San Antonio Express-News

APPLETON, Wis. (AP) — A jury has awarded two brothers $700,000 in a fraud trial against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.

The Outagamie County jury found the diocese responsible Monday for concealing a former priest’s history of child molestation.

Brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield sued the diocese in 2008, alleging the diocese was aware former priest John Feeney sexually assaulted others before 1978, when it assigned him to Freedom’s St. Nicholas Church. Feeney was convicted in 2004 for the sexual assaults of the Merryfields and has already served his prison sentence.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Mary C. Johnson

At the end of this month, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious will meet to formulate a response to a Vatican trap whose cunning is best appreciated within the long tradition of religious authorities who craft impossible dilemmas for those they perceive as threats.

Two millennia ago, the chief priests sent someone to ask Jesus, “Should we pay taxes?” If Jesus said yes, he would pit himself against Jewish resistance to Roman occupation and therefore, in Jewish eyes, against God. If he said no, the Romans could execute him for sedition. Instead, Jesus famously replied, “Render to Ceaser what is Ceaser’s and to God what is God’s.”

In the 15th century, Joan of Arc’s ecclesiastical inquisitors asked her, “Do you know yourself to be in God’s grace?” If Joan answered yes, she would commit heresy because the Church had long taught that no one could be certain of being in God’s grace; if no, they could interpret her answer as an admission of guilt. Joan looked them in the eyes and replied, “If I am not in God’s grace, may God put me there; if I am, may God so keep me.”

Today, the Vatican tells the women of the LCWR, “Submit to our oversight and control of your every action for the next five years.” The Vatican’s official “or else” clause remains unstated but clear to all involved. “Submit to our authority, or call yourselves Catholic no longer.”

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

By Mary E. Hunt

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is having a Saturday Night Live moment. Emboldened by the Vatican’s hostile takeover of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the gentlemen have shown their prowess by choosing to investigate the Girl Scouts of the USA. Which would be comical—first the nuns, now the Girl Scouts—if the goal were not so pernicious and the outcome so damaging, especially to the bishops.

The tactics against the girls and the women are taken from one playbook, the goal of intimidation is the same, and the pushback in both cases is distracting from more pressing problems at hand. Still, you wonder who does their public relations, as the bishops are now about as popular as a recession.

The apparent goal of this exercise of “investigating” gender female persons is to set up and enforce a male-defined model of girlhood/womanhood. A Vatican-, or in this case, USCCB-launched investigation is what Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, calls the equivalent of a grand jury investigation. There is the presumption that something is wrong, not something right, that there is guilt to be uncovered, not virtue to be unleashed. What is wrong seems to be women and girls thinking for themselves and acting for the common good.

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APPLETON (WI)
WTAQ

APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – An Outagamie County jury has found the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay liable for committing fraud in a decision Monday involving a civil lawsuit.

The 12 person jury agrees with brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield in their claim the diocese committed fraud when it allowed former priest John Feeney to continue serving despite rumors of inappropriate behavior with children.

Feeney would be convicted in 2008 of molesting the Merryfields while he was at a Freedom church in 1978.

But the jury did not agree on the award the brothers were seeking. Attorneys for the Merryfield brothers have asked the jury for a total of $2.7 million between them. The lawyer for the diocese said the jury should award no more than $100,000 if the jury finds the diocese guilty of fraud.

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APPLETON (WI)
Fox 11

[with video]

APPLETON – We have breaking news from Outagamie County Court.

A jury has found the Green Bay Catholic Diocese committed fraud when it allowed a priest to continue serving despite rumors of inappropriate behavior with children.

Todd and Troy Merryfield filed the lawsuit.

The jury agreed with their argument that leaders in the diocese placed John Feeney in a Fox Valley church after hearing he was swimming naked and taking showers with young boys.

Feeney was later convicted of molesting the Merryfield brothers.

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APPLETON (WI)
Press-Gazette

Written by
Jessie Van Berkel
Post-Crescent staff writer

APPLETON — An Outagamie County jury found the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay responsible Monday for concealing the Rev. John Feeney’s history of child molestation.

Feeney was convicted in 2004 of child sexual assault of Troy and Todd Merryfield in 1978. Afther the criminal trial, the brothers said they learned the priest had a history of similar assaults in the 1960s and 1970s that the diocese knew about and hid from parishioners at St. Nicholas Church in Freedom, which the Merryfields attended.

The brothers filed a civil lawsuit against the diocese in 2008 and the case went to trial May 14. After the verdict was announced the men and their attorneys shook hands and hugged; on a courtroom bench behind them, the brothers’ parents hugged and their mother wept.

The jury awarded Troy Merryfield $475,000 and Todd $225,000 in damages.

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APPLETON (WI)
Press-Gazette

APPLETON — Two brothers have won a lawsuit against the Green Bay Catholic Diocese alleging diocese knew of priest’s sex abuse past in 1978.

A jury awarded Todd Merryfield $225,000 and brother Troy Merryfield $475,000, finding that the diocese knowingly or recklessly represented Rev. John Feeney as safe despite his history of child molestation.

During the trial, attorneys for Todd and Troy Merryfield had suggested the jury award a total of $2.8 million to their clients as compensation for their abuse in 1978 in Freedom at the hands of former priest John Feeney.

The assaults of the Merryfields weren’t a matter of dispute at trial. Feeney was sentenced to prison in 2004 for assaulting the boys. He’s since been released.

Jurors began deliberating about 12:30 p.m. after closing statements from attorneys representing both the Merryfields and the diocese.

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NEW YORK
News 10

[with video]

By Taryn Kane

ALBANY, N.Y.–A bill some claim would help alleged victims of child sexual abuse has failed in the New York Legislature seven times.

It is currently making it’s way through the Assembly and Senate again.

Legislators behind the bill claim the Catholic Church is the primary opponent each year, consistently lobbying against it.

The church says it is not against the entire bill, just a portion of it. However, Michael DeSantis, an alleged abuse victim, says he was abused by five priests over a period of four years when he was young.

DeSantis says if the whole bill doesn’t pass, justice isn’t being served.

“I cannot be near red wine,” he says. “I cannot take the smell of church wine, because I would smell it on their breaths.”

DeSantis says he repressed his memories until he was 33, making him unable to press charges because the statute of limitations had expired.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. . .A March 2013 trial date has been set in St. Louis county for a little-noticed civil child sex abuse lawsuit against Fr. Thomas Graham. In 2005, a jury found Graham guilty of sodomy for molesting Lyn Woolfolk in the late 1970’s and sentenced him to 20 years in jail. However, in November of 2006 the MO Supreme Court overturned the conviction and prison sentence, citing the three-year statute of limitations on the charge. . .

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NORTH CAROLINA
WBTV

A former Gaston County pastor was denied bond after he pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing Haitian girls while running a ministry in the impoverished country.

Larry Michael Bollinger, 66, was in federal court on Monday morning after he was accused of traveling to Haiti to engage in sexual conduct with a girl younger than 18 years old, according to an indictment.

The indictment was handed down last week against Bollinger, but new details were released during court proceedings on Monday afternoon.

According to investigators, Bollinger was in Haiti working as the director of the Hope House, which provides food, shelter and schooling for Haitian children.

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UNITED STATES
The Nation

Angela Bonavoglia

May 21, 2012

On April 18, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—the modern-day vestige of the Holy Office of the Inquisition—released the conclusions of an investigation begun in 2008 into the sins of our sisters. The congregation issued what amounted to a takeover decree to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a move that “stunned” the organization. With over 1,500 members, all heads of religious congregations, LCWR leans liberal and represents 80 percent of America’s 57,000 nuns.

After giving an obligatory nod to the sisters’ good works in schools, hospitals and social service agencies, the CDF devoted the remainder of its Doctrinal Assessment to attacking the sisters for failing to provide “allegiance of mind and heart to the Magisterium of the Bishops”; focusing on the “exercise of charity” instead of lambasting lesbians, gays, and women who use birth control or have an abortion; refusing to accept the ban on women’s ordination; allowing “dialogue” on contentious subjects; and tampering with the notion of God the “Father” while promulgating other “radical feminist” theological interpretations. The CDF’s solution: send in three men, an archbishop and two other bishops, to take control of LCWR for five years.

This led to an enormous outpouring of support to the sisters. But to anyone who has been watching the nuns closely, an unsettling observation emerges: these charges appear, in some measure, to be true. But that is not because, as the Assessment insists, LCWR has rejected “communion” with the church. Instead, it is evidence of a theological conflict that is raging in the Catholic Church, a conflict that most of us only notice when it spills over into American politics.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

May 21, 2012
By Elizabeth Fiedler

Several weeks into a landmark trial over child sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, defense lawyers are ready to lay out their case. They’ll argue that Monsignor William Lynn acted responsibly by reporting abuse allegations to higher officials. Lynn is accused of endangering children by transferring priests accused of sexual abuse to unsuspecting parishes.

Monsignor William Lynn served as secretary for clergy under the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

Rocco Palmo is the editor of “Whispers in the Loggia,” a website that covers Catholic news and politics.

“Over their cross-examination, the defense essentially kept coming back to the same point which is, ‘Was Monsignor Lynn the ultimate person responsible for reassigning priests?’ And you know the answer, not just in Philadelphia but in any Catholic Diocese, is, no, he wasn’t. That everything would ultimately be determined at the time by Cardinal Bevilacqua,” said Palmo.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PhillyBurbs

Posted on May 21, 2012

by James McGinnis

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has taken formal action against another former Bucks County priest following allegations of sexual misconduct.

Monsignor George Mazzotta was deemed unsuitable for ministry following a “substantiated allegation” of sexual abuse of a minor more than 40 years ago, according to the church in a press release Sunday.

Mazzotta, 73, served at more than a dozen parishes and schools, including a two-year stint at Saint Robert Bellarmine Church in Warrington from 1988 to 1990.

The archdiocese said it first learned of the allegations against him back in 2010 and immediately reported the claims to law enforcement.

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APPLETON (WI)
Post-Crescent

Written by
Jim Collar
Post-Crescent staff writer

APPLETON — An Outagamie County jury is deciding now whether the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay shielded a priest who later was convicted of molesting two boys.

Attorneys for Todd and Troy Merryfield suggested the jury award a total of $2.8 million to their clients as compensation for their abuse in 1978 in Freedom at the hands of former priest John Feeney.

The assaults of the Merryfields weren’t a matter of dispute at trial. Feeney was sentenced to prison in 2004 for assaulting the boys. He’s since been released.

Jurors began deliberating about 12:30 p.m. after closing statements from attorneys representing both the Merryfields and the diocese.

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