ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

May 15, 2012

Rabbi Avram Glick, a former principal at the Yeshiva College in Melbourne, has told Melbourne Magistrates Court that he was aware in the early 2000s of rumours that David Cyprys had been molesting children at the school.

The Melbourne Age has reported that Rabbi Glick has changed his evidence under oath and now admits that the late Rabbi Yitzchok Groner had named two boys who were alleged victims of sexual abuse.

Cyprys is facing 53 charges involving twelve boys at the East St Kilda College between 1982 and 1991.

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

The Village Voice has a list of what the New York Time’s reporters took from FailedMessiah.com, The Jewish Week and other Jewish publications along with CBS 2 and the Guardian in the Times’ articles on child sexual abuse in the haredi community of Brooklyn.

The Village Voice has a list of some of the parts of the Times short series on child sexual abuse in the haredi community of Brooklyn that were taken without attribution from Jewish media, including FailedMessiah.com.

The vast majority of what the Times took it took from Hella Winston’s award winning reporting in The Jewish Week, but the Guardian, CBS 2 NYC, and, yes, FailedMessiah.com were also ripped off, while New York Magazine’s seminal reporting from 2006 and some work done much more recently by the Forward was clearly used by the Times to shape its reporting but was not mentioned. On top of that, UOJ’s work, which drove this issue early on, went unmentioned by the Times.

The part of the Times’ reports that is getting the most media attention is Hynes’ agreement with Agudath Israel of America that allowed Agudah to insist that haredim bring suspicions and allegations of child sexual abuse to rabbis, not the D.A. or police. The rabbis would then decide if the evidence was great enough to report to law enforcement or ACS.

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NEW YORK
The Village Voice

By Nick Pinto
Tue., May 15 2012

Last week the New York Times devoted successive front-page stories to the problem of sex abuse in Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic communities and Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes’s deference to the religious authorities that often try to cover the problem up.

It’s an important issue (one we touched on in our own cover story last fall), and one that deserves the spotlight that the New York Times can provide.

Victims’ advocates and journalists who have been tracking the issue for years were thrilled that the Times was finally turning its attention to a scandal that has long been been festering in its back yard. But many were dismayed that the Times series failed to credit the work of other reporters who have been on the beat for years.

The Times had plenty of catching up to do. As one advocacy group’s exhaustive catalog of press mentions makes clear, there’s been a lot of reporting on the subject in the last decade.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

A secret list of sexually abusive priests that Cardinal Bevilacqua ordered shredded in 1994 is now at the center of a tangled web of deception, lies and suspicious memory lapses.

Prosecutors in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse case Monday tried to unravel the mystery in court, with messy results. On the witness stand was Timothy R. Coyne, a lawyer who was the former director of the archdiocese office for legal services. Coyne told the jury that when he originally went looking for the list in 2002, the first person he visited was Msgr. Lynn.

“He said he didn’t know where it was,” Coyne testified. Two years later, with grand jury subpoenas flying around, Coyne went on another search for the memo. He sent faxes to Cardinal Bevilacqua and three top aides, but once again, nobody knew where the list was.

But in 2006, when the list was suddenly rediscovered in a locked archdiocese safe, Coyne realized he’d been had.

“Somebody lied to me, or everybody lied to me,” Coyne told the jury about his former bosses at the archdiocese.

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AUSTRIA
The Pilot

By Jonathan Luxmoore

OXFORD, England (CNS) — When discontented Austrian priests mark the first anniversary of their “Call to Disobedience” in June, it will highlight the difficulties facing Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna in holding his disparate Catholic community together.

In the nearly 17 years since Cardinal Schonborn became the spiritual leader of the Vienna Archdiocese, he has had to face organized dissent from clergy and laity seeking several church reforms including admitting women to the priesthood. Both supporters and critics agree the cardinal has responded in a pastoral spirit.

“There’s no doubt he’s under strong pressure,” said Herman Bahr, treasurer of Austria’s Laity Initiative launched in 2009 as a “loyal opposition.”

“He’s also a kind and generous man, who’s in too strong a position to be pulled by either side. Although he can’t tolerate open defiance, he clearly favors change himself,” Bahr said.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PADRAIG O’MORAIN

THAT’S MEN: IMAGINE BEING sentenced to life imprisonment for a thought – not for uttering it or promoting it but just for having it and enjoying it?

The idea may seem to belong to some (hopefully) impossible future but it’s exactly the sort of belief that was handed to young Catholic boys and girls up to the 1970s. The particular version they were given involved impure thoughts and hell.

If you had an impure thought (that’s a thought about sex, not about cheating your neighbour) and if you “took pleasure” in it, then you had better hope you could get to confession before you were knocked down by a bus, because if you didn’t, and you were, you would spend all of eternity in hell.

I mention this because, as church sex scandals rumble on, it’s increasingly difficult to appreciate just how totally, absolutely and utterly unthinkable it was to Catholics that clergy would engage in sexual misbehaviour or abuse.

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APPLETON (WI)
NBC 26

By Brian Miller

CREATED May. 14, 2012

Appleton– Jurors were selected in Outagamie county in a civil case alleging the diocese knew Father John Patrick Feeney had sexually abused children before coming to a church in Freedom. Feeney was removed from the priesthood and recently released from prison. The judge has issued a gag order to all the attorneys involved in this case, so while no one is talking, the Green Bay Diocese has long-denied allegations of a widespread abuse cover-up.

Jury selection took several hours as 12 jurors were picked from a pool of 90. Dozens were dismissed because they said their catholic faith would keep them from being impartial. Others said they could stand to hear the sexually explicit testimony expected during the trial.

Peter Isely heads Wisconsin’s S.N.A.P., the survivor’s network of those abused by priests. Isley hopes this case will bring out the truth about what he claims church leaders knew regarding sexual abuse by Father John Patrick Feeny. “Symbolically it really is a terribly important trial it’s not about this particular case I think for victims, survivors, for all of us,” Isley said.

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UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Scott Alessi

A progress report from U.S. Catholic readers says that bishops still haven’t learned all their lessons on the subject of sexual abuse.

Anger. Betrayal. Sadness. Disappointment. These are just some of the myriad of emotions felt by Catholics in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal that broke in 2002. And a decade later—following a flood of additional details on cases of clerical abuse and cover-ups as well as new efforts to enforce transparency and accountability within the church—many U.S. Catholic readers still hold on to those same feelings of disillusionment.

“Ten years later and we are still seeing unresolved situations. What a shame,” says Mary Ann McCoy of Des Moines, one of more than 300 respondents to a U.S. Catholic reader survey on how the church has addressed the sexual abuse crisis. “It is still being handled poorly in some dioceses,” she says. “The bishops have failed us.”

Many readers expressed frustration over the lack of accountability on the part of church leaders who helped to cover up the abuse of minors by clergy and thus put more children in harm’s way. Eighty-seven percent of respondents say that bishops and priests who were involved in past cover-ups of abuse should be held criminally liable and forced to resign.

“Why should the offending priest be sanctioned but not the bishops who covered up the crimes?” asks Helen Welter of Indianapolis. Peter Waricka of Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey takes a similar stance. “The church as a whole, and some bishops, have displayed what appears to be a disregard or disdain for civil laws and the civil rights of victims,” he says. “Abusers and those who covered up abuse should be subject to the full consequences of those civil laws.”

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APPLETON (WI)
Post-Crescent

Written by
Jim Collar
Post-Crescent staff writer

APPLETON — Attorneys selected a jury Monday to determine whether Green Bay’s Roman Catholic diocese fraudulently misrepresented the risk of a priest who went on to molest two boys in 1978.

Brothers Troy and Todd Merryfield are suing the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay on allegations it knew about sexual abuse committed by John Feeney before 1978 and fraudulently failed to inform Freedom’s St. Nicholas Catholic Church of the dangers he posed to children.

Feeney was convicted in 2003 in Outagamie County of four counts of sexually assaulting the Merryfields, who were 12 and 14 at the time of the abuse. The Merryfields say they learned only after the criminal case that Feeney had sexually assaulted others.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The top lawyer for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia testified Monday that church’s leaders lied to him when he asked them a decade ago about a secret list of 35 area priests suspected of sexually abusing children.

“Everyone I spoke to said they didn’t know where it was, and they didn’t have a copy of it,” the lawyer, Timothy Coyne, told jurors at the landmark conspiracy and clergy sex-abuse trial against Msgr. William J. Lynn.

He added: “Somebody lied to me — or a lot of people lied to me.”

But defense lawyer Thomas Bergstrom pressed Coyne to concede he had no proof that Lynn lied to him, but sufficient reason to think others did. Coyne also acknowledged that the potentially incriminating list finally came to light this February, less than two weeks after the death of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, the retired archbishop of Philadelphia whose tenure is at the center of the scandal.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CNN

By Sarah Hoye, CNN
updated 7:04 PM EDT, Mon May 14, 2012

Philadelphia (CNN) — A lawyer for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia testified Monday that church officials lied to him about the whereabouts of a hidden list of 35 priests suspected of sexually abusing children.

“Everyone I spoke to said they didn’t know where it was,” Timothy Coyne, former director of legal services for the archdiocese, told jurors at the landmark child sexual abuse and conspiracy trial of two Philadelphia priests. “Somebody lied to me.”

Jurors also heard from two priests and a paralegal from the law firm representing the archdiocese regarding items found in two separate locked safes.

One safe drilled open by a locksmith contained an accordion-style file folder that housed a memo ordering the shredding of the list of 35 Catholic priests accused or found guilty of sexual misconduct, the list of priests and other personnel documents.

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CANADA
Northern News Services

Jeanne Gagnon
Northern News Services
Published Monday, May 14, 2012

IQALUIT
A former Iglulik Catholic priest is now facing some 74 charges, after 18 new complainants came forward, a Crown prosecutor told the Nunavut Court of Justice on May 7.

Eric Dejaeger’s charges include 66 that are sex-related, one count of failure to appear in court, two of assault, one of unlawful confinement, one of uttering threats, and three counts of 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 told the court a total of 39 complainants made allegations against the accused.

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CANADA
Northern News Services

Jeanne Gagnon
Northern News Services
Published Monday, May 14, 2012

IQALUIT

A former Iglulik Catholic priest, already facing 77 charges, will likely face at least one more, according to the Crown Prosecutor.

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 today, 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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CANADA
Huffington Post

Tim Knight

Program: Breaking the Silence (CBC News Network)

Date: Sunday, May 13, 2012

Last Sunday, came yet another T.V. documentary detailing alleged abuse of young boys by Roman Catholic priests.

Breaking the Silence tells the stories of five Canadians who went to boarding schools in England and Tanzania run by the Rosminian Order.

In it, the five, now grown men, make horrifyingly routine accusations of sexual, physical and mental abuse suffered at the hands of priests. Along with the even more routine charge that the Church, in its infinite blindness, covered up the abuse. …
Flashback — Some 22 years ago, Christian Brothers of Ireland in Canada were forced to close their Mount Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland and Labrador after charges that the Roman Catholic brothers sexually, physically and emotionally abused some 300 boys in their care.

Shortly thereafter, I was in Dublin training senior journalists at Ireland’s national broadcaster (equivalent of the CBC) Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ).

During a story workshop, I mentioned the Mount Cashel crimes and asked the assembled journalists if they were following up on the Canadian connection — was it not likely that similarly horrific child abuse also happened in Ireland, home base of the Christian Brothers?

The journalists’ response was that “everyone knew” of such happenings but pious Irish culture and draconian libel laws made it impossible to report on Roman Catholic Church abuses, sexual or otherwise.

In sum, the church covered up its sins, protected its sinners and was simply too powerful for Irish journalists to dare challenge.

It took another ten years before RTÉ finally screwed up the courage to broadcast a T.V. documentary, States of Fear, exposing Mount Cashel-like decades of pedophilia and sadism in Irish church-run and government-supported institutions for orphaned and abandoned children.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Sheila Sanchez

A San Francisco man accused of beating a priest at the Los Gatos Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in May of 2010 hasn’t taken the stand yet to answer to the charges, yet his defense attorney on Friday said they’ve never denied the assault took place.

“We’ve never denied it … We’ve never denied it,” repeated William Lynch’s attorney Pat Harris, with the Los Angeles-based law firm of Geragos & Geragos. “We’ve never denied that he [William Lynch] was the person who assaulted him (Father Jerold Lindner]. He was the person who confronted him there. He was the person there that day,” Harris said.

Without having to contend that controversial fact, Harris said he was successful at getting Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge David Cena to allow him to present some witnesses who will testify about the motives.

The defense contends they were related to the priest’s supposed rape and sodomizing of Lynch and his brother when they were small boys, 7 and 4, in the ’70s while on camping trips in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

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NEW YORK
The Algemeiner

The crime of sexually abusing a child, including adolescents and teens, is so heinous that the public is immediately shocked and angered. For a number of years, we have read of sex acts involving Catholic clergy with adolescents and seminarians taking place in a number of countries, including the U.S. The New York Times, to its credit, has been relentless in keeping this situation under examination by its reporters over the years with front page stories devoted to exposing the abuses.

The Times is now examining the sexual abuses taking place in the Jewish ultra-orthodox Hasidic community, primarily in Brooklyn, and the response of the Brooklyn District Attorney, Joe Hynes. The Hasidim started in eastern Europe several hundred years ago. Each Hasidic sect often takes the name of the village where their rabbi once lived. The Hasidic community is close knit, somewhat like the Amish. It maintains a lot of control over its members, with its rabbis and religious courts often being the arbiters of disputes. The Hassids, as they are known, prefer not to use secular governmental institutions, such as the police and courts. Those not abiding by community rules are often shunned and sometimes even assaulted.

In Brooklyn, the major communities where Hasidic groups live — the largest being Satmar and Lubavitch — are Williamsburg, Crown Heights, Flatbush and Borough Park. Different Hasidic groups contend with one another and other ethnic communities for space – their housing needs are enormous because they typically have very large families of eight or more children – and occasionally philosophical differences have led to physical attacks. In Brooklyn, many Hasidic groups have been very supportive of the Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes, who is Irish and Catholic. The Times articles provide us with one major reason why the support. He apparently has treated them preferentially, particularly in child abuse cases.

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NEDERLAND
ND

ALMELO – Een jaar cel en tbs met dwangverpleging. Die straf eist het OM in Almelo tegen een oud-priester uit Best. De 61-jarige man staat terecht voor misbruik van een 12-jarige jongen uit Oldenzaal, vorige zomer op een camping in Frankrijk.

Ook zou hij in bezit zijn geweest van 13 pornografische dia’s. De man uit Best ontkent alle aantijgingen. Volgens hem heeft het slachtoffer last van “pseudo-herinneringen”.

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

The New York Sun, a web-only conservative New York City daily paper, plays politics with the lives of haredi children today by publishing what is perhaps the most idiotic editorial ever written about child sexual abuse in Brooklyn’s haredi community.

The New York Sun is a largely irrelevant, now web-only newspaper published by former Forward editor Seth Lipsky, sometimes with the help of the Forward’s former managing editor Ira Stoll. When the Sun had a print edition, both disgraced newspaper baron Conrad Black, best known in the Jewish end of the newspaper business for looting the Jerusalem Post, and conservative money man Roger Hertog were financial backers. It is unclear if they are now.

The Sun does not have a masthead on its site that I could find, so it’s hard to tell who’s really in charge thse days, although Lipsky’s company still appears to own it.

The unsigned editorial is published as the Sun’s opinion on the matter of haredi rabbis demanding to be the gatekeepers who decide which claims of child sex abuse get reported to police and which do not.

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CANADA
Nova News Now

Published on May 14, 2012

By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com

A Yarmouth County man who never got the chance to be face-to-face in a courtroom with the priest who he says sexually abused him when he was just a young boy, says he is happy that by sharing his story it has given others the courage the come forward with their stories.

Six Yarmouth County men were in a Yarmouth courtroom on Monday, May 14, as 83-year-old Albert LeBlanc, a former Yarmouth priest (who also worked as a caseworker and a probation officer after he left the priesthood in 1973) pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault – one guilty plea for each complainant. The offences date as far back as 1964. The most recent offence occurred in the early 1980s when LeBlanc was no longer a priest.

The men were just young boys when they were assaulted, ranging in age from seven to 11 years old. Their identities are protected by a court-imposed publication ban.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A longtime lawyer for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia says a deceased Roman Catholic cardinal and his top aides lied about shredding a key piece of evidence in the clergy-abuse scandal.

Tim Coyne, recently suspended as an archdiocesan lawyer, testified today that Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua never replied to his requests, in 2004 and again in 2006, for the internal list compiled in 1994 of potentially dangerous priests.

Coyne says Bevilacqua’s top aides — including Monsignor William Lynn, bishop-elect Edward Cullen (through an attorney), and monsignors James Molloy and Joseph Cistone — all denied they had the list or knew its whereabouts.

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CALIFORNIA
San Bernardino Sun

Staff reportsbsun.com
Posted: 05/14/2012

An Ontario priest convicted of molesting a 12-year-old boy will be back in court today.

The Rev. Alejandro Castillo, who was found guilty of molesting a child at his parish and released early from jail on April 21, was back in custody last week for violating the terms of his probation. He attended a gathering in his honor where children were present, authorities said.

Castillo, who ministered at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Ontario, was arrested Wednesday by probation authorities and was being held without bail.

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CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise

BY DAVID OLSON The Press Enterprise STAFF WRITER
dolson@pe.com
Published: 14 May 2012

An Ontario priest released last month from jail after serving time for child molestation has denied that he violated his probation agreement.

The San Bernardino County Probation Department alleges that on April 22 the Rev. Alejandro “Alex” Jose Castillo attended a party at which children were present. The party was in honor of his birthday and his release from jail the day before, according to a supporter of Castillo.

Castillo’s probation terms bar him from associating with males younger than 18 or frequenting places where minors of either gender congregate without the presence of an adult approved by the probation department.

On Monday morning, May 14, Castillo denied he had violated the probation agreement, said Christopher Lee, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office.

Castillo will next be in court Wednesday, May 23. The probation department is expected to present a report detailing his alleged probation violation, and Castillo may answer charges against him, Lee said.

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CANADA
CBC News

Eric Dejaeger appeared in court in Iqaluit Monday morning and was arraigned on dozens of new charges, most of them related to accusations of sexual abuse in Igloolik, Nunavut, 30 years ago.

His lawyers told the court he wants to be tried by judge and jury and he has waived any preliminary hearing.

The 65-year-old Catholic missionary is now facing 74 charges stemming from the complaints of 39 alleged victims. The number of charges doubled in recent weeks.

The Crown wants to deal with all charges in one trial in Iqaluit.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Morning Call

By Peter Hall, Of The Morning Call

2:49 p.m. EDT, May 14, 2012
PHILADELPHIA — A former attorney for the Philadelphia Catholic Archdiocese testified Monday that top church officials including retired Allentown Bishop Edward Cullen lied to him about a list of priests suspected of sexually abusing children.

Tim Coyne, who served as the church’s general counsel, said a prosecutor asked him in 2004, in the midst of a grand jury investigation of sexual abuse by Philadelphia-area priests, to track down the list of 35 suspected child abusers Monsignor William Lynn had produced in 1994.

Coyne said he contacted five church leaders including Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua; Cullen, who was the cardinal’s top aide; and Bishop Joseph Cistone, who is now head of the Saginaw, Mich. diocese, but the effort was unsuccessful.

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

By BRIAN MEDEL Yarmouth Bureau

YARMOUTH — Albert LeBlanc, the former priest accused of sexually abusing boys in the 1970 and 80s, pleaded guilty this afternoon to six counts of indecent assault involving six victims.

About 20 people in Yarmouth provincial court broke into applause when they heard the plea. A group of about a dozen victims and their supporters began waiting this morning for their first glimpse of LeBlanc who spent most of the day behind closed doors.

Leblanc will be sentenced on Aug. 17 and remains free until then on strict conditions.

The charge of “indecent assault” is worded in the language of the criminal code prior to 1982, which is when Leblanc committed his crimes.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq Online

DAVID MURPHY

Oblate missionary Eric Dejaeger appeared in court on the morning of May 14 to be formally arraigned on 38 new charges against him that have emerged since last April.

Those bring the total number of criminal charges against him to 77, the majority of which allege sex offences against children.

The court proceeding, however, was held over until July 16 so lawyers on each side can review new and information brought forth by a police investigation.

“By July 16, we’re fairly confident that we’ll have an excellent idea of just what the case will be that we’re presenting before the court,” said lead Crown prosecutor Paul Bychok.

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APPLETON (WI)
Fox 11

APPLETON – Jury selection has begun in a civil trial against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.

Lawyers are going through the process of selecting the jury from a pool of 90 Outagamie County citizens.

Brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield sued the diocese in 2008, claiming it committed fraud.

The Merryfields say the diocese repeatedly transferred a priest, John Feeney, without telling parishioners about his history of abuse. The diocese says it didn’t know about the abuse.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Nachrichten

Erschreckende Zahlen aus Deutschland: Sexueller Missbrauch von Kindern und Kinderpornographie

Die Polizei hat 2011 fast fünf Prozent mehr Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch von Kindern registriert. Noch erschreckender sind die Zahlen zu Kinderpornografie: Der Besitz und die Beschaffung von kinderpornografischen Schriften stieg um 23,3 Prozent.

Die Polizei hat einem Pressebericht zufolge im vergangenen Jahr mehr Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern erfasst. Die Zahl erhöhte sich um 4,9 Prozent auf 12 444, wie die Tageszeitung „Die Welt“ am Montag unter Berufung auf die Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik (PKS) für das Jahr 2011 berichtete. Bundesinnenminister Hans-Peter Friedrich (CSU) will die Statistik am Mittwoch vorstellen.

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NEW YORK
The Sun

Editorial of The New York Sun | May 14, 2012

The latest engagement in the campaign of the secular state to undercut religious authorities and drive back their sphere of influence has erupted in New York over how to handle child molestation cases that occur in the city’s Orthodox Jewish communities. Mayor Bloomberg has just joined a chorus of Democratic politicians asserting that persons who suspect misbehavior should go straight to the police rather than their rabbis. The mayor, according to the New York Times, wants “any abuse allegations” to be “brought to Law enforcement.” The newspaper suggests that he is uncomfortable with those who wish first to check with their rabbis.

In entering this contretemps with this advice the mayor has made an error of judgment. His statement was given to the Times in the context of a story it issued Friday on how the district attorney at Brooklyn, Charles Hynes, has been handling molestation cases. The mayor, according to the Times, has joined those who criticize the D.A. for failing to object to the position of the Agudath Israel of America, a major organization that represents fervently religious Jews. Its policy is, as characterized by the Times, that members of its community see a rabbi before reporting allegations of sexual misconduct to the police.

No one, least of all Orthodox Jews, denies that child molestation cases occur in the Jewish communities, just as they do in other religious and secular populations. The role of the rabbi when consulted in cases of suspected abuse, the executive vice president of the Aguda, David Zwiebel, wrote to the Times the other day, is “not to dissuade the individual from reporting to the secular authorities, but simply to ascertain that the suspicion meets a certain threshold of credibility.” No doubt this was the point Rabbi Zwiebel made to Mr. Hynes when, over the summer, the two met on this head.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Seattle Times

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA —
A longtime Archdiocese of Philadelphia lawyer says a deceased Roman Catholic cardinal and his top aides lied about shredding a key piece of evidence in the clergy-abuse scandal.

Lawyer Tim Coyne said Monday that Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua never replied when he was trying to find an internal list of 35 predator-priests in 2004 and 2006. Coyne says Bevilacqua’s top aides denied knowing where to find it.

Prosecutors pursuing a grand jury investigation were seeking the 1994 list.

The list was found early this year – 10 days after Bevilacqua died. An attached memo says Bevilacqua ordered top aides to shred it in 1994, after Monsignor William Lynn prepared it.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Philly Post

Kevin Cirilli

Archbishop Charles Chaput could be the last hope for resurrecting a city that has lost its Catholic faith. But for a guy promoting a book, the Archbishop is rather tight-lipped. It’s not like he shouldn’t have a lot to talk about: the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s child sex-abuse scandal, dozens of Catholic school closings, social issues. He touched on several of these topics in his e-book A Heart on Fire, which examines faith in American culture through the lens of Catholicism.

Over a week ago, Chaput suspended five of the 26 suspended Philadelphia priests. Three of the 26 will return to the priesthood. Chaput didn’t bother to explain why, reports the National Catholic Reporter:

When pressed on the details of the claims against the three exonerated priests, Chaput declined to discuss specific facts of these individual cases, saying the decision to reveal information would be left to each priest and his parishioners …

Speaking generally on the accusations against all 26 priests, the archbishop said he needed “to balance the need for transparency with the pain already felt by victims—pain which we acknowledge and do not wish to compound.”

The Church’s silence made victims’ pain worse. Chaput’s words indicate that the Archdiocese has chosen to continue to remain silent—as if that’s a God-given right.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 14 May 2012 (VIS) – The Holy Father: …

– Appointed Msgr. Robert McGuckin as bishop of Toowoomba (area 487,000, population 276,700, Catholics 77,400, priests 48, religious 57), Australia. The bishop-elect was born in Sydney, Australia in 1944 and ordained a priest in 1973. Among other roles, he has worked in pastoral care in numerous parishes, as professor of canon law and as judge of the appeals tribunal of Australia and New Zealand.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Tess Livingstone
From:The Australian
May 15, 2012

THE Pope last night announced the appointment of a NSW priest as Bishop of Toowoomba, replacing Bishop Bill Morris, who was effectively sacked last year.

The new bishop will be Monsignor Robert McGuckin, 68, a senior priest of the Diocese of Parramatta, where he is Episcopal Vicar for Health and Social Welfare.

He is also a part-time lecturer in the School of Law at the University of Notre Dame and has degrees in theology and church law.

After leaving school he worked in banking for several years before studying for the priesthood and being ordained in 1973.

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ROME
Vatican Insider

First the nuns, now the Girl-Scouts. Why? They do not follow the Catholic doctrine on sex, abortions and contraception

MARIA TERESA PONTARA PEDERIVA
Rome

Sister Viviana Ballarin had reiterated only a week ago how women are still an unresolved issue in the Church. In an interview with the daily Il Messaggero , the president of the USMI (Union of Major Superiors of Italy leading over 70.000 religious women in the country) declared: “The so called feminine genius is a gift for society and the Church, but very often people fear what is different, because for many it represents not so much a source of wealth but actually a threat and I believe that this is the main reason why in the Church often confrontation with what is considered different is avoided”. Don Armando Matteo entitled his last book “La fuga delle quarantenni” -Rubettino publishing 2012- (“ The flight of 40 year old women”) and perhaps in a few years women in the Church, and not only those ordained as nuns, might become a rarity.

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ARGENTINA
Vatican Insider

According to an Argentine newspaper, a secret document bishops sent to Paul VI in April 1978 highlighted the Church’s role during the dictatorship years and the disappearances of thousands of political opponents

G. Gal.
Vatican City

“The Holy See knew.” During the dictatorship years, an undetermined number of people “disappeared” at the hands of the armed forces. Estimates range from the 7,000-8,000 estimated by Videla – the dictator himself – to the nearly 30,000 claimed by various humanitarian organizations. Before the 1978 World Cup, the Argentine Conference of Bishops informed the Vatican of what was going on in the country: repression, murders, and disappearances.

In his article in Argentine newspaper Página/12, Horacio Verbitsky writes that a “secret document” was sent to Paul VI by Argentine bishops. The document which dates back to April 1978, refers to meetings between Bishops Raul Primatesta, Juan Carlos Aramburu, and Vicente Zazpe and dictator Jorge Videla. The document says that the issue of the desaparecidos or missing individuals, was openly raised during these meetings (which the clergy say were “cordial and sincere”), and that the bishops also asked where the dead were located.

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IRELAND
Times of Malta

The Archbishop of Dublin said that a forthcoming international congress in Ireland will give a divided and unhealthy Church a chance to reform amid fresh allegations over child abuse.

The Eucharistic Congress in June will reflect “a Church which has faced and still faces enormous challenges, but… is alive and vital and anxious to set out on a path to renewal,” Diarmuid Martin told a Vatican briefing.

Archbishop Martin’s comments came amid a serious backlash in Ireland against the head of the country’s Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Sean Brady, following accusations in a television documentary that he had failed as a young priest to report abuse.

The Archbishop refused to comment on Cardinal Brady’s situation, but insisted that the congress would not be overshadowed by the scandal, saying: “The overall challenge is not just about sex abuse, it goes much deeper. There are divisions within the Irish Church and at times unhealthy divisions. We need a much deeper reform in the church”.

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CANADA
CBC News

Albert LeBlanc’s trial on 50 sex-related charges is set to begin today in Yarmouth.

The 82-year-old former Roman Catholic priest is accused of abusing several boys in the 1970s and 80s.

LeBlanc was a priest in the Yarmouth diocese from 1955 to 1973, when he resigned and left the priesthood, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Halifax said last year.

LeBlanc subsequently worked as a probation officer.

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ROME
The Irish Times

The entire order may become as infamous as its founder, paedophile Marcial Maciel, writes PADDY AGNEW in Rome

A ROTTEN fish smells from the head down, or so goes a much-used Italian saying.

The “fish” in this case is the religious order the Legionaries of Christ, and the bad smell left behind is that of its disgraced founder, the late Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado, a serial paedophile, a drug addict and a man who fathered six children by two different women.

The details of Fr Maciel’s immoral behaviour have long been known, with even the order itself asking for forgiveness for it in March 2010.

However, following revelations last weekend, it may transpire that Maciel was not the only child abuser in the Legionaries of Christ.

In this case, the rot seems to have spread through the Legionary body.

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ROME
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

A murdered gangster’s tomb is to be opened by Italian police today in an attempt to unravel a 30 year old mystery worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster.

By Nick Pisa, in Rome
9:11AM BST 14 May 2012

Enrico De Pedis, leader of a murderous gang known as the Banda della Magliana, was gunned down aged just 38, by members of his outfit after they fell out.

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, 15, in 1983, believe De Pedis is linked to her kidnap and the body of the Vatican employee’s daughter has never been found.

Last month the diocese of Rome, on orders from the Vatican, granted investigators permission to open up the tomb in the Sant’Apollinare basilica close to Piazza Navona in the centre of Rome.

This morning (mon) the church was ringed by police keeping back onlookers, as stonemasons arrived to open the tomb, accompanied by lawyers representing the De Pedis family and his widow.

It is not clear whether they expect to find Orlandi’s remains in the tomb or documents that could shed light on her disappearance.

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UNITED STATES
The Herald News

By E.J. Dionne

WASHINGTON —

Recently, a group called the Freedom from Religion Foundation ran a full-page ad in The Washington Post cast as an “open letter to ‘liberal’ and ‘nominal’ Catholics.” Its headline commanded: “It’s Time to Quit the Catholic Church.”

The ad included the usual criticism of Catholicism, but I was most struck by this paragraph: “If you think you can change the church from within — get it to lighten up on birth control, gay rights, marriage equality, embryonic stem-cell research — you’re deluding yourself. By remaining a ‘good Catholic,’ you are doing ‘bad’ to women’s rights. You are an enabler. And it’s got to stop.”

My, my. Putting aside the group’s love for unnecessary quotation marks, it was shocking to learn that I’m an “enabler” doing “bad” to women’s rights. But Catholic liberals get used to these kinds of things. Secularists, who never liked Catholicism in the first place, want us to leave the church, but so do Catholic conservatives who want the church all to themselves.

I’m sorry to inform the FFRF that I am declining its invitation to quit. They may not see the Gospel as a liberating document, but I do, and I can’t ignore the good done in the name of Christ by the sisters, priests, brothers and lay people who have devoted their lives to the poor and the marginalized.

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CANADA/BELGIE
hbvl

In Canada start vandaag het proces tegen pater oblaat Eric Dejaeger (65). Er lopen nu al 74 klachten tegen hem wegens kindermisbruik.

Dejaeger, die de Belgisch-Canadese nationaliteit heeft, werd vorig jaar door ons land uitgeleverd aan Canada. Hij wordt er gescheiden gehouden van andere gevangenen, is fel vermagerd en heeft een lange grijze baard. Hij staat onder streng toezicht. “Niet dat hij vluchtgevaarlijk is, we vrezen veeleer dat hij zelfmoord zal willen plegen”, klinkt het.

In Nunavut staat hij terecht voor seksueel misbruik van tientallen Inuit-jongens en -meisjes. De feiten vonden plaats tussen 1978 en 1982.

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ROME
The Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Coroners and medical technicians swarmed the crypt of a Roman basilica on Monday to exhume the body of a reputed mobster as part of an investigation into one of the Vatican’s enduring mysteries: the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee.

The stench of sewage filled the courtyard next to Rome’s Sant’Apollinare basilica where Enrico De Pedis was buried. Medical personnel in white pantsuits and masks milled about under a blue tent where his body was believed to have been taken for initial tests.

De Pedis, a member of Rome’s Magliana mob, was killed in 1990. His one-time girlfriend has reportedly said he kidnapped Orlandi, and an anonymous caller in 2005 told a call-in television show that the answer to Orlandi’s disappearance lay in his tomb.

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WASHINGTON
Seattle PI

By JOEL CONNELLY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Published 05:10 p.m., Sunday, May 13, 2012

Archbishop J. Peter Sartain sent me two letters in April: One was the annual Catholic Appeal asking money for good works, the other an appeal for discrimination, namely repeal of the just-granted legal right for my gay and lesbian friends to marry.

Three words of Nancy Reagan quickly flashed to mind: Just say no!!

Don’t give one cent to a man in the purple hat. Don’t support a diocese that makes common cause with the National Organization for Marriage that wants to “sideswipe Obama” and “drive a wedge between gays and blacks.”

It’s an honest, widely shared emotion. Many American Catholics are appalled, hurt and disheartened by the actions of their bishops, and see in those actions a disconnect with the teachings of Christ and message of the Gospel, as well as our belief in a community of the faithful.

Our “shepherds” have set out to force American nuns to toe the Vatican line, with Archbishop Sartain assigned a lead role. They’ve just begun an “official inquiry” into the Girl Scouts — yes, the Girl Scouts — for associating with such groups as Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam and the Sierra Club.

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APPLETON (WI)
WTAQ

APPLETON, WI (WTAQ)-Jury selection today in Appleton in a civil fraud trial against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay. Todd and Troy Merryfield said they were molested as young boys in 1978 by former priest John Patrick Feeney when he was at Saint Nicholas Catholic Church in Freedom. The brothers say the diocese had moved Feeney from parish-to-parish without warning parishioners about previous sexual abuse he had committed.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Ashley Gardiner
From:Herald Sun
May 14, 2012

THE politicians running an inquiry into child-sex abuse in religious organisations are in Europe on a taxpayer-funded trip.

State Parliament’s family and community development committee is visiting Britain and the Netherlands.

The trip is for the committee’s inquiry into “opportunities for participation by Victorian seniors”, one of three it is conducting.

Work on the sex-abuse inquiry will not begin until after they return later this week.

A deadline of April 2013 has been set for the inquiry.

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APPLETON (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

Sex abuse civil suit against Green Bay diocese heads to trial

Written by
Jim Collar
Gannett Wisconsin Media

APPLETON — A former Fox Valley priest spent nearly eight years in prison for the 1978 sexual assaults of two young parishioners, but his victims say justice hasn’t been fully served.

A civil lawsuit that slowly built in Outagamie County’s court system for more than four years heads to trial on Monday as brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield, formerly of Freedom, seek unspecified damages from the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay based on their childhood assaults.

Over the course of the next two weeks, a jury will determine whether the diocese is civilly responsible based on allegations it knew about sexual abuse committed by John Feeney before 1978 and fraudulently failed to inform Freedom’s St. Nicholas Catholic Church of the dangers he posed to children. The diocese denies the allegations.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday morning.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Last month, the courts confirmed that a defrocked priest who had been convicted last year of sexual abuse of boys in his care could not be convicted of a related rape charge because of an error in the charge sheet.

The then Attorney General failed to correct the mistake while the case was being heard, leading to his acquittal.

This was upheld on appeal. Fresh charges cannot be filed against this paedophile ex-priest because the crime is now time-barred.

Another acquittal based on an error in the charge sheet has also recently sparked public outrage, causing President George Abela to draw stark attention to the need for prosecuting officers to be accurate in framing charge sheets.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

We must be honest and admit that there are only two remaining large systems in the world that are totally patriarchal in their style and in their leadership: Communist states and the Roman Catholic Church. Ours never looked quite as bad since we at least used the language of Jesus, the symbols of communion, humility, and service, and we men even dress in rather feminine robes. The Communist states make no display of humility themselves or respect for the feminine side of anything.

But the real bottom lines in the Roman Church are becoming more and more apparent to thinking and spiritual people in the last decade or so. Despite the very clear reforms of the II Vatican Council in the 1960′s , the Roman patriarchy, a closed system that allows no prophetic critique, and their branch appointed officers (bishops) are step by step rolling back both the spirit and the letter of the Vatican II reforms–while pretending and saying they are not. (Remember, if you can reject this Council, then you have the basis for rejecting the other 20 Councils of the Church too! The Pope and bishops had better be very careful!)

Deceit and supposed magnanimity are at the heart of all patriarchies, or otherwise their subjects would see what they are actually doing. North Koreans also believe their “Great Father” is protecting them, as did many Filipinos under Marcos, and Russians under their Czars and Czarinas.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

The Association of Catholic Priests members in Cloyne diocese and Cork & Ross have a meeting in the Ovens Parish Centre on Monday week, 21 May. The meeting will start at 2.30 and will include reports on the recent gathering in Dublin, ‘Towards an Assembly of the Irish Church’ and other ACP news.

Fr Tony Flannery CSsR will represent the Leadership Team at the meeting.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Julianna Crisalli

Fr. Tim Ramaekers has been named Corpus Christi Catholic Church’s new pastor, effective July 1.

Bishop Tod Brown appointed Ramaekers, who is currently pastor of St. Joseph parish in Placentia, as the successor to Fr. Fred Bailey.

At a Mass on Sunday, Bailey called Ramaekers, a seminary classmate, “a good man, with a good heart.”

A parish bulletin announcement about Ramaekers noted that he comes to Corpus Christi shadowed by a “false accusation” of sexual misconduct made in 2009.

The allegation was made by a man who claimed to have recovered repressed memories of sexual abuse by four priests and one layperson from 1978-86 at St. Justin Martyr, according to the bulletin and church documents.

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APPLETON (WI)
Post-Crescent

Written by
Jim Collar
Post-Crescent staff writer

APPLETON — A former Fox Valley priest spent nearly eight years in prison for the 1978 sexual assaults of two young parishioners, but his victims say justice hasn’t been fully served.

A civil lawsuit that slowly built in Outagamie County’s court system for more than four years heads to trial today as brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield, formerly of Freedom, seek unspecified damages from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay based on their childhood assaults.

Over the course of the next two weeks, a jury will determine whether the diocese is civilly responsible based on allegations it knew about sexual abuse committed by John Feeney before 1978 and fraudulently failed to inform Freedom’s St. Nicholas Catholic Church of the dangers he posed to children. The diocese denies the allegations.

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CANADA
CBC News

Roman Catholic priest Eric Dejaeger is scheduled to appear at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit Monday morning — the first time he has appeared in court in person in four months.

The 65-year-old missionary is now facing 74 charges from 39 alleged victims. The number of charges — most of which are sexual offences — has almost doubled since the start of the year.

Dejaeger served as a priest in Igloolik, Nunavut, from 1978 to 1982. He was expelled from Belgium last year. Since his return to Canada, police have visited Igloolik and collected more evidence from more alleged victims.

Police are trying to build an airtight case against a man who served in the community more than three decades ago.

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WISCONSIN
KTVU

The Associated Press

APPLETON, Wis. —

Jury selection is expected to begin Monday in the fraud trial against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.

Two brothers sued the diocese in 2008, alleging it committed fraud by repeatedly transferring a priest without telling parishioners of his history of abuse. The diocese says it had no knowledge that John Feeney had committed abuse.

WLUK-TV reports (http://bit.ly/J658XI) that Outagamie County Judge Nancy Krueger denied the diocese’s latest request to have the case dismissed, so the trial is set to start Monday.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph

The Catholic Church “is not an institution for respectable people”, according to Hilary Mantel, the Booker Prize-winning author.

By Anita Singh
3:54PM BST 13 May 2012

Mantel was raised a Roman Catholic and educated at convent school.

However, the 59-year-old writer said child abuse scandals involving Roman Catholic priests demonstrated the “cruelty” and “hypocrisy” of the church.

Asked if she would call for a priest on her deathbed, Mantel replied: “No. I might very well call for a Church of England vicar, but I would not call for a Catholic priest.

“I’m one of nature’s Protestants. I should never have been brought up as a Catholic. I think that nowadays the Catholic Church is not an institution for respectable people.”

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
Jewish World

By Rabbi Ben Kamin

SAN DIEGO — The New York Times has now published an article that carefully chronicles a disquieting, alarming social reality brimming inside the fundamentalist Jewish community of Brooklyn: adult members of the enclave who have reported the sexual abuse of youngsters on the part of rabbis, teachers, and other professionals are being shunned and excoriated by others in the area.

This kind of medieval syndrome, a sad blend of paranoia and sanctimony, is condemning innocent children and protecting evil people who need to be condemned. It rehabilitates no one in need of serious clinical intervention and perpetuates the stranglehold of power-hungry old men that have no concept of ecclesiastic privilege and responsibility. It is locking kids into a spiritual ghetto that has nothing to do with either American or Jewish enlightenment.

There isn’t much of a distance between the perpetrators of such heinous acts and those who are effectively complicit by actually ostracizing their informants. No amount of Torah-waving, self-righteousness, or pious rationalization can possibly whitewash the fact that this trend, this hypocrisy, is scandalous, immoral, and quite possibly criminal.

There is certainly nothing in the Jewish textual tradition that supports this shameless practice; it is simply an outgrowth of the growing fiefdom of hardline rabbis whose power is viewed by their devotees as unyielding, boundless, and which even flouts the laws of the state. A number of journalists are looking into the comfortable relationship that seems to exist among the rabbis in Brooklyn and other heavily Hasidic towns and boroughs and the local or regional district attorneys. The sages are steeped in prayer and in electoral privilege—this writer will leave it to others to figure out whether it’s about money or reverence.

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NEW YORK
Voice from the Desert

What: A demonstration and leafleting outside a Rockland County, NY Catholic Church whose pastor told a sexual abuse victim’s mother that her son was a con-artist.

Where: On the sidewalk outside St. Margaret of Antioch Parish, 115 West Central Avenue, Pearl River, NY 10965

Who: Two victims of sexual abuse at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, the President of a non-profit charity who is a former Irish Christian Brother and Catholic priest, and supporters.

When: Sunday, May 13, 2012 from 10:00 AM until Noon.

Why: In the 1980’s, Monsignor John O’Keefe, current pastor of St. Margaret of Antioch Parish, worked at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx. One of the victims of sexual abuse by Br. John O’Connor, Dean of Discipline, told his parents about the abuse shortly after it occurred. His mother, in turn, reported it to then Fr. Jack O’Keefe, Guidance Counselor, who told the mother that her son was a con-artist. The victim was discredited by O’Keefe and his mother was told he was a liar. O’Keefe’s actions were nothing short of unconscionable.

The victims of Br. John O’Connor will call on Msgr. O’Keefe to reveal “what he knew and when he knew it” to law enforcement and the Archdiocese of New York and to apologize and atone for his insensitive and demeaning treatment of a sexual abuse victim.

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UNITED STATES
Richard Sipe

The boys are at it again. I use boys pointedly and advisedly. The guys in the Vatican cannot tolerate honest women who think for themselves, tell the truth and put Gospel values above conformity and submission to Vatican appointed males.

Nuns in the United States have educated many of us, our parents, and our grandparents, built hospitals and cared for our sick and poor all the while on slave wages and in quiet subservience to boy bishops and cardinals who never developed psychosexual maturity and balance in their homosocial bubble; there they wrap themselves in pretty – I repeat pretty dresses, and expensive – I repeat expensive hats protected by toadies who agree and adulate them as if boyfriends.

Nuns paid attention to the voice of the Vatican Council. Vatican II changed things for all women. They became part of the People of God. Nuns increased and accelerated their own education (there are more nuns than priests with earned masters and doctoral degrees).

Sr. Mary Luke Tobin, S.L. was one of the few nuns allowed to be an auditor at the council, but she could stand shoulder to shoulder spiritually and intellectually with any of the best men there. She could recall by heart to her dying day the pledge of the document Gaudium et Spes, “With respect to the fundamental rights of the person, every type of discrimination, whether social, cultural, whether based on sex, race, color, social condition, language or religion, is to be overcome and eradicated as contrary to God’s intent.” We are all one in Jesus Christ.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Andrew Brown

I have been brooding on two cover-ups of the sexual abuse of children that have been uncovered this week. The first is the reluctance of the English secular authorities to prosecute gangs involved in the abuse of girls; the second is the reluctance of Irish clerical authorities to prosecute or expose the priests who were involved in the abuse of (mostly) boys.

One point is that it’s very rare to come across people who think that none of the religious or cultural aspects are relevant in either case. Probably a majority of people blame both cultures and regard all Catholic priests with suspicion as a result of the misdeeds of some, and all middle-aged Muslim men as potential predators. Hardly anyone blames neither – if you think one of the worrying things about the Rochdale cases is that they will be used to whip up sentiment against Muslims, you are very likely to see nothing wrong in blaming the Catholic church as a whole for the Irish scandals. Conversely, the people who try to defend the Catholic church in Ireland will tend to see the Rochdale cases as expressing something important about the culture behind them, and the religion too.

Much the same is true of cover-ups. Reliable observers have in both cases detected a reluctance to prosecute on the part of the authorities who should have done so. But the people who think political correctness is an absurd red herring in the Rochdale story will be happy to assume the worst of Vatican motives, and those who think the Catholic church is being persecuted will assume there was no good reason for any reluctance to prosecute in Rochdale, or Nottingham, or all of the other places where this might have been happening.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Welt

Ein Maßnahmen-Katalog von Verbänden und Kirchen soll künftig sexuellen Missbrauch an Kindern und Jugendlichen verhindern. Auch von einem Kontakt-Verbot auf Facebook ist die Rede.

Keine Facebook-Kontakte, keine gemeinsamen Sauna-Besuche und kein Ausfragen nach sexuellen Erfahrungen: Ein Katalog von Maßnahmen für Verbände, Institutionen und Kirchen soll helfen, den sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen zu bekämpfen.

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UNITED STATES/UNITED KINGDOM
Sunday Mercury

US prosecutors consider legal action against LA catholic church over paedophile priest James Robinson

May 13 2012 by Jonny Greatrex, Sunday Mercury

AMERICAN prosecutors are considering legal action against the Los Angeles Catholic Church – following a Sunday Mercury exclusive proving bishops knew a paedophile priest shipped to the States had a shameful past.

Last week the Mercury revealed how Birmingham church leaders already knew Father James Robinson had an unwholesome realtionship with a man 25 years BEFORE he was jailed for 21 counts of sex abuse on boys.

Predatory priest Robinson, who worked at several churches in Coventry and Birmingham, fled to the US in 1985, days after the police were first alerted by a victim who had been abused when he was just a child.

Months later, the Birmingham Archdiocese wrote to its Californian counterpart, stating that the “immediate reason” Robinson was in America was because he had recently met again “a man with whom he had an unwholesome relationship about thirteen years ago”.

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WISCONSIN
WTMJ

By Michele Fiore

CREATED May. 12, 2012

GENESEE DEPOT, Wis. – After a suspension from the Catholic Church, a popular Waukesha County priest is back behind the pulpit.

Saturday night was Father Mark Molling’s first mass since the archdiocese cleared him to return to St. Paul’s.

People arriving for mass couldn’t wait to welcome him back.

His return follows an investigation of alleged sexual assault.

The Waukesha County district attorney reviewed the allegation, but did not file charges.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

HE certainly doesn’t see himself as an apostate priest or a heretic, but Edinburgh’s Father Mike Fallon is taking a quietly strong stand against the power of the Vatican by asking for a debate on two of the most dearly held principles in the Catholic Church: the vow of celibacy and the ban on ordaining women.

“My fundamental disagreement would be that there is no discussion allowed on either of the issues,” says Fallon, whom some might see as being at the forefront of a simmering progressive rebellion against Rome within the priesthood. “Whether there is change or not is another matter, but there has to be debate.”

Fallon is not alone in his views. Last week Fallon attended an unprecedented meeting of more than 1000 priests and churchgoers in Dublin to discuss the future of the Catholic Church. As revolutions go, it was a relatively sedate affair, but the gathering sent a spasm through the church after attendees called for debate on controversial topics such as married priests and the ordination of women.

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ATTLEBORO (MA)
The Sun Chronicle

BY MIKE KIRBY SUN CHRONICLE STAFF

Sunday, May 13, 2012

The biggest story of my career? That’s easy. The 9/11 terrorist attacks altered the nation’s history, and the fact three of the roughly 3,000 victims had local ties make it an easy number one.

But the story that resonates just as deeply with me is the Father Porter case.

It was 20 years ago this past week that about a dozen men revealed on WBZ TV how they had been abused by James Porter, a priest at St. Mary’s Church in North Attleboro in the early 1960s. One of them, a private investigator named Frank Fitzpatrick, had tracked down Porter in Minnesota, where he had lived and married since being thrown out of the priesthood in the mid-1970s. Fitzpatrick had taped Porter acknowledging that he had molested
several children during his time in North Attleboro.

It was shocking – especially, as it turned out, because I knew some of the victims. These men were a few years older than me, men with whom I had had a drink or meals, played golf, socialized.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Sunday, May 13, 2012 by
Fr Mario Attard, OFM Cap.

Last year the same priest together with another one were sentenced to six years and five years in jail respectively after being found guilty of sexually abusing minors under their care. Obviously their case has stirred different reactions from various quarters of society.

It is neither my intention nor my competency to pass judgments concerning these sad events. Anyone who has eyes to see, ears to hear and a mind to reflect can easily discern and arrive at his own conclusions about the matter.

However, it is my duty as a priest to encourage my fellow brothers in the ministerial priesthood to persevere in “whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious” (Phil. 4, 8).

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UNITED STATES
OpEd News

By
Joey Piscitelli

On May 11 th , 2012, the University of Santa Clara, California, sponsored a conference called ” Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church- A Decade of Crisis, 2002 — 2012.”

This is also the name of a new book, which was hosted by Thomas Plante, PhD, and Kathleen McChesney, PhD. The book features chapters of literary contributions by 20 experts on clergy sexual abuse: psychologists, professors of law, priests, judges, sociologists, judges, etc.

Among the speakers of the conference were: Thomas Plante-PhD, Kathleen McChesney-PhD, Thomas Reese-SJ priest, Karen Terry-PhD-(John Jay College Report), Barbara Blaine-founder of SNAP, Judge Terrence Carroll-Seattle School of Law, Rev. Gerald Coleman-PhD, Rev. Thomas Doyle-J.C.D-canon lawyer-expert witness, Rev. Paul Macke-SJ, Gerard McGlone-PhD-St. John Vianney treatment center, Judge Michael Merz-USCCB review board, Anson Shupe-PhD-Professor of Sociology, A.W. Sipe-author and expert on Catholic priest issues, and Rev. Richard Vega-Pres. National Fed of Presb Councils-priest.

The conference was open to the public (for a $100 ticket,) and there were approximately about 150 people in attendance. The conference began at 9 A.M. and lasted until 4:30 P.M.

I was an attendee; and I am a clergy abuse victim. I am arguably a “biased” writer, and a controversial and vocal victim’s advocate, and a successful jury trial plaintiff against the church. I have fought clergy abuse in the Roman catholic church for a decade.

The following account is my rendition of the conference, the authors, and the speakers of the event; who are also the contributors to the new book.

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UNITED STATES
The Catholic Thing

Sunday, 13 May 2012

By Michael Novak

Burning injustices rest on our consciences, and will continue to burn us until we correct them.

I had dinner the other night with a marvelous priest, who started out our dinner by having the little children who were with us recite together (partly in song) the blessing before meals. They loved doing it. Loved the sound of it. Loved the solemnity. Loved the fun.

I did not know until well along in the meal, almost at the very end, that this good priest – so well informed about so many matters of faith, so genial, and so patently good-hearted and faithful – had been falsely accused of sexual molestation eight years ago. He was forced to leave the ministry (an accusation these days is enough to do this – a horrible scandal in itself). His accuser died of a cocaine overdose in his mother’s house, but not before exonerating the priest by admitting the falsity of his accusation.

But all that notwithstanding, the bishop in his diocese has not moved – dared? – to reinstate this good man and return him to his proper standing in the priesthood, or even to give a public apology for his unjust treatment. Nor has the press that stirred up the atmosphere of high-tech lynchings revisited his case (and hundreds if not thousands of others) to clear them of this horrible wrong.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

We have a blind spot concerning the privileged position of the Roman Catholic Church, writes Carol Hunt

Last week’s RTE documentary showed a bemused rather than embittered Edna O’Brien explain how an anonymous letter was sent — presumably by a concerned citizen — to her mother. It’s moral mission?

To inform the woman that her daughter was living with a (ex) married man who was also a communist. No doubt the sender persuaded themselves they were performing a civic and moral duty.

It reminded me of those anonymous complaints we now know were sent to Rome about good clerics like Fr Tony Flannery and Fr Brian D’Arcy, who were deemed not to be toeing the Vatican line. The senders obviously believe they are acting in the best interests of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy.

On the other hand there are clerics such as Jesuit theologian Fr Gerry O’Hanlon, who previously said: “It will not do any more for priests, bishops, cardinals, the Pope to simply tell us what to think, what to do. People rightly want a say.”

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CALIFORNIA
Monterey Herald

[with copy of the letter]

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Staff Writermontereyherald.com
Posted: 05/12/2012

A well-known Palma High School alumnus has filed a lawsuit alleging he was sexually assaulted by the school’s chaplain, possibly after being drugged, in 1984.

Dr. Steven Cantrell, brother-in-law of Palma’s head football coach, Jeff Carnazzo, is the fourth man to allege sexual abuse by the Rev. Gerald “Jerry” Funcheon and the second to do so publicly, rather than as “John Doe.”

In an exclusive interview last week, Cantrell said he is suing and speaking publicly to support Christopher Spedden, the other named accuser, and to call on Palma President Brother Patrick Dunne to reach out to former students who were abused at the school.

In an open letter to the community, the Visalia opthamologist says legal actions related to the Irish Christian Brothers bankruptcy and an approaching deadline for victims pose an opportunity for Palma to “live up to the same morals they have instilled in young men for over 60 years.”

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UNITED STATES
The Sun Chronicle

BY RICK FOSTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF

20 years ago this week, he was brought to justice

John Robitaille sits at his desk at the Larry Friedman Center for Entrepreneurship at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, and looks back over a lifetime of achievement: starting several businesses, running on the Republican ticket for Rhode Island governor, inspiring students to innovate.

But within the business lab’s sunny rooms, few would guess that the dynamic 63-year-old former North Attleboro resident had once been at the center of a controversy that would rock the foundations of the Catholic Church – and liberate hundreds of people who were abused as children by sexual predators hiding behind the robes of priests.

“I dislike the word victim,” said Robitaille, one of the original accusers who went public 20 years ago about how former St. Mary’s Church curate Father James Porter sexually abused them and others during the early 1960s. “I’m a survivor. We were all survivors.”

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UNITED STATES/UNITED KINGDOM
Birmingham Mail

UNITED States prosecutors are considering legal action against the Los Angeles Catholic Church after it was revealed that bishops knew a Midland paedophile priest shipped to America had a shameful past.

Birmingham church leaders already knew Father James Robinson had an unwholesome realtionship with a man 25 years before he was jailed for 21 counts of sex abuse on boys.

Predatory priest Robinson, who worked at several churches in Coventry and Birmingham, fled to the US in 1985, days after the police were first alerted by a victim who had been abused as a child.

Months later, the Birmingham Archdiocese wrote to its Californian counterpart, stating that the “immediate reason” Robinson was in America was because he had recently met again “a man with whom he had an unwholesome relationship about 13 years ago”. …

Now the LA County District Attorney’s (LADA) office says its lawyers are reviewing the letter to see if a case can be brought against church leaders.

“We have received a copy of the letter, ” said LADA spokeswoman Jane Robinson. “We will be reviewing to determine what action, if any, should now be taken as a result.”

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The Vatican is reported to be investigating seven priests of the Legion of Christ order in connection with allegations of child abuse.

In a statement to the AP news agency, the Mexican order said seven cases had been referred to the Vatican’s department that deals with sex crimes.

The Legion of Christ’s founder, Marcial Maciel, sexually abused many boys and young men over a period of 30 years.

He was disciplined by the Vatican in 2006 over the abuse.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

Sábado 12 mayo 2012 | 9:35

Publicado por Alejandra Jara

Durante 2010 se conoció públicamente una de las denuncias que para muchos marcó un antes y un después en la Iglesia Católica. Tres reconocidos profesionales, provenientes del sector más acomodado de nuestro país, daban a conocer sus testimonios donde aseguraban haber sido víctimas de abuso sexual por parte del ex párroco de la Iglesia El Bosque, Fernando Karadima.

Tras cerca de dos años de investigación por la justicia civil, finalmente se sobreseyó al sacerdote, pero se comprobó que había cometido los delitos de abuso sexual por los que fue acusado.

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UNITED STATES
The Catholic World Report

Media reports often presume accused priests are guilty until proven innocent, doing irreparable damage to the lives of the wrongly accused.

David F. Pierre, Jr.

When a Catholic priest is publicly accused of the crime of abuse, it is typical for the media to trumpet the name of the cleric, while allowing the accuser to remain completely anonymous throughout the ordeal.

Although this situation is not unique to Catholic priests, it is a practice that clergy have frequently griped about in private, and it is an issue that has received almost no public attention.

For example, last August in Hawaii, a criminal jury took just minutes to acquit Father Bohdan Borowec, a Ukrainian Catholic priest on vacation from Canada, of charges of kidnapping and sexual assault stemming from an incident alleged to have occurred months earlier. Father Borowec had never had any other accusations of wrongdoing against him in decades in ministry.

Throughout the process, Father Borowec had his name and picture plastered across media reports as a “priest charged with rape.” Yet never did the media publish the woman accuser’s name.

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DEUTSCHLAND
op-online

Das hat eine Umfrage der Nachrichtenagentur dpa in den Bistümern Fulda, Limburg und Mainz ergeben. 56 Anträge wurden in den drei Bistümern gestellt, in 48 Fällen wurde Geld gezahlt – bis zu einer Höhe von 14 000 Euro. Vor einem Jahr hatte die katholische Kirche Missbrauchsopfern ermöglicht, finanzielle Hilfen zu beantragen.

Nach Angaben der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (DBK) in Bonn sind aus dem Bundesgebiet bislang 1030 Anträge eingegangen. In mehr als 90 Prozent der Fälle sei eine Geldzahlung empfohlen worden, die über die jeweiligen Bistümer oder Orden erfolgt. Die katholische Kirche hatte im März 2011 angeboten, Missbrauchsopfern bis zu 5000 Euro zu zahlen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
News4Press

Heimkinderentschädigung – Franz Sales Haus Essen hält Zusagen nicht ein – “Barmherzige Schwestern” – Die Leiden des Rolf-Michael Decker (57) und der 600 Heimkinder

444 Tage in der Dachbodenzelle – Dormagener Schweinestall – Monsignore Hans Faber+

News4Press.com

Der Bericht des ehemaligen Heimzögling Rolf-Michael Decker – Foto – ist ein einzigartiges zeitgeschichtliches Dokument. Es gibt Einblicke in Kinder- und Jugendheime einer Nachkriegszeit, in der Menschen an Kinder und Jugendlichen Verbrechen begangen haben in einem unbeschreiblichen Ausmaß. Es hat das Urvertrauen in Erzieher, Priester, Nonnen, Beamte, Angestellte und Politiker tief erschüttert. Fast alle Täterinnen und Täter sind zwischenzeitlich verstorben und haben sich der irdischen Gerechtigkeit erfolgreich entzogen. Es ist ein religiöser Irrtum, die Menschen glauben zu lassen, dass mit dem Tod alle Sünden vergeben sind und man über Tote nicht schlecht reden darf. Der eigene Tod mag für die Täterinnen und Täter eine Erlösung sein, für die Opfer nicht. Das Erinnern an die zahllosen Gefolterten, Vergewaltigten und die noch Lebenden, ist unserer aller Pflicht. Staatliche und kirchliche Einrichtungen tragen die Verantwortung, allen Opfern Gehör zu verschaffen – auch den Behinderten – und sie in menschenwürdiger Weise zu entschädigen. Es sind gesetzliche Richtlinien und Kontrollen zu schaffen, dass solche Verbrechen nie wieder passieren.

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VATIKAN
Klosterwolf

Die systematische Vertuschung sexuellen Missbrauchs ist bei der römisch-katholischen Kirche nicht zuletzt eine Folge der Überzeugung, es gäbe außerhalb dieser Kirche kein Heil. Wer dies glaubt und über Missbrauchsfälle öffentlich spricht, schädigt das Ansehen der Kirche, provoziert Kirchenaustritte und nimmt in Kauf, dass viele Menschen „dem ewigen Feuer“ verfallen. Er verstößt dabei gegen die päpstlichen Schreiben „Crimen sollicitationis“ (1962) und „De delictis graviboribus“ (2001 und 2010), die alle drei zur Missbrauchsvertuschung aufrufen, indem sie anordnen, Missbrauchsfälle als „päpstliches Geheimnis“ zu behandeln und nur dem Vatikan zu melden. Dadurch wurde und wird verboten, bei noch nicht öffentlich bekanntgewordenen Missbrauchsfällen die Staatsanwaltschaft einzuschalten.

Herr Dr. Ratzinger war von 1981 bis 2005 der Leiter der Kongregation für den Glauben, zu deren Aufgaben die Behandlung von Missbrauchsfällen gehörte. Schon 1976 zeigte Bischof John R. McGann dem Vatikan 20 Fälle an, bei denen Pater Marcial Maciel Degollado sexueller Missbrauch vorgeworfen wurde. 1989 wandte er sich direkt an Papst Johannes Paul II.. Im Jahr 2002 erklärte Kardinal Ratzinger einem Reporter von ABC, er sei über den Fall Maciel „not so informed“. Ratzinger war wegen dessen Frage nach dem Fall Maciel verärgert und schlug dem Reporter leicht auf die Hand. Papst Johannes Paul II. wurde mehrfach von Maciel auf Südamerikareisen begleitet. Ende 2004 empfing der Papst Maciel im Vatikan und übertrug ihm in einer Zeremonie die Leitung des Notre Dame Centre in Jerusalem.

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OSTERREICH
Steiermark

Die Diözese Innsbruck gab bekannt, dass sie Missbrauch in Zukunft mit einem Verhaltenskodex vorbeugen will. In der Steiermark überlegt man nun, diesen Verhaltenskodex ebenfalls einzuführen, will zuerst aber noch Gespräche führen.

Künftig sollen in der Diözese Innsbruck alle Priester, Diakone, Ordensleute sowie alle haupt- und ehrenamtlichen Mitarbeiter, die mit Kindern zu tun haben, verpflichtend eine Erklärung unterzeichnen – mehr dazu in Kirche verpflichtet sich zu Kinderschutz (tirol.ORF.at; 10.5.2012). Möglichen Tätern in den eigenen Reihen soll damit der Zugriff auf Kinder so schwer wie möglich gemacht werden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bistum Erfurt

Im Bistum Erfurt gab es bis heute fünf glaubhafte Hinweise auf sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern durch Geistliche, die schon verstorben sind, davon drei aus der Kriegs- und unmittelbaren Nachkriegszeit, zwei aus den 60er bzw. 70er Jahren. In diesen fünf Fällen konnten natürlich keine Anzeigen der Täter durch das Bistum erfolgen.

Aus der jüngeren Zeit sind drei Anzeigen gegen noch lebende Personen, zwei Geistliche und ein Laienmitarbeiter, durch das Bistum Erfurt bei der zuständigen Staatsanwaltschaft erfolgt. In allen drei Fällen sind die Untersuchungen durch die Staatsanwaltschaft eingestellt worden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Markische Allgemeine

Berlin – Keine Facebook-Kontakte zwischen Schülern und Lehrern, keine gemeinsamen Saunabesuche und kein Ausfragen von Jugendlichen zu ihren sexuellen Erfahrungen: Mit einem umfangreichen Verbots- und Maßnahmenkatalog soll der sexuelle Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen schärfer als bisher bekämpft werden. Der Bundesbeauftragte für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig handelt nach MAZ-Informationen gegenwärtig mit 20 Dachverbänden wie der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, dem Arbeitskreis der Internate oder der Arbeiterwohlfahrt Vereinbarungen aus, in denen sich die Mitglieder dieser Verbände verpflichten, konkrete Regeln im Umgang mit Kindern und Jugendlichen einzuhalten.

In dem Verhaltenskodex wird unter anderem festgelegt, dass es zwischen Lehrern und Schülern keine Facebook-Kontakte geben soll. Bei Übernachtungen sollen die Räume der Kinder und Jugendlichen erst nach vorherigem Anklopfen betreten werden. Die Anwesenheit in Dusch- und Waschräumen ist den Erwachsenen – abgesehen von Notfällen – demnach generell untersagt. Das morgendliche Wecken soll ohne Körperkontakt stattfinden. Bei sportlichen Hilfestellungen soll der Griff an die Geschlechtsteile tabu sein, auch dürfen Lehrer und Erzieher im Intimbereich sowie an Bauch und Oberschenkeln keine medizinische Versorgung vornehmen. Ausnahmen sind auch hier nur in Notfallsituationen erlaubt.

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ROME/UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Tony Thompson
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 12 May 2012

One month before the 30th anniversary of one of London’s most enduring murder mysteries, the mafia godfather at the heart of the case has spoken for the first time about why he believes the real killers of Italian financier Roberto Calvi will never be brought to justice.

Calvi, dubbed “God’s banker” because of his work with the Vatican, was found hanging from scaffolding beneath Blackfriars bridge in London on 18 June 1982. Bricks had been stuffed in his pockets and he had more than £10,000 in cash on him. In the months before his death he had been accused of stealing millions being laundered on behalf of the mafia.

His death was originally ruled a suicide but later judged to be murder. In July 1991, Francesco “Frankie the Strangler” Di Carlo, a mafia godfather who had lived in England since the late 1970s, was named as Calvi’s killer by a supergrass. Di Carlo has since become a supergrass himself.

Speaking from the small town in central Italy where he now lives, Di Carlo related how he first came to hear that he had been accused of Calvi’s murder.

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UNITED STATES
Toledo Blade

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ spring general assembly in Atlanta is to include an update on progress since the bishops adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002.

In addition to giving the 10-year report, the national review board is to make recommendations from the study Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010.

The meeting is scheduled June 13-15.

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VATICAN CITY
The Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW

The Holy See senior spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, last night confirmed media reports that cases of clerical child abuse in the disgraced, ultra-conservative Legionaries of Christ movement have been reported to the Vatican.

“The relevant superiors followed the norms in force, signalling to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) some cases that have come to light from several decades ago,” Fr Lombardi told reporters.

Vatican insiders say the CDF is investigating paedophilia accusations against seven Legionary priests. Founded in Mexico in 1941 by the late Marcial Maciel, the movement has been at the centre of bitter controversy in recent years after it was revealed that Fr Maciel had himself been a serial paedophile who had children by at least two women.

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NEW YORK
JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Brooklyn’s district attorney has inflated the results of a program for combating child sexual abuse in the haredi Orthodox community, a New York Times investigation concluded.

Whereas the office of Brooklyn’s district attorney, Charles Hynes, has claimed that its Kol Tzedek program has led to 95 arrests, the Times reported Friday that its investigation suggests that these claims “appear to be inflated.”

The Kol Tzedek program was launched in 2009 by the district attorney’s office in order to combat sexual abuse in Brooklyn’s large haredi community and encourage reporting of such crimes. The office has faced criticism over its refusal to publicly identify abusers prosecuted as a result of Kol Tzedek.

The Times reported that using public records it was able to identify the names of suspects and other details related to 47 of the 95 cases.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua left an estate worth about $375,000 when he died in January and bequeathed nearly all of it to two institutions central to the church he led for 15 years: St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Bevilacqua’s four-page will, filed in Montgomery County, shows he also left $25,000 to his nephew and executor, the Msgr. John Alesandro.

He gave $5,000 to pay for Mass intentions, in minimum $20 increments, at the Diocese of Rockville Center, N.Y., where Alesandro serves. Bevilacqua was born nearby in Brooklyn, and later served as an auxiliary bishop there.

He was 88 when he died Jan. 31 at the Wynnewood seminary, where he had lived since retiring as archbishop in 2003.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Michael O’Malley, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — It’s been nearly a month since Bishop Richard Lennon announced he would reopen 12 closed churches in the diocese, but so far no shuttered sanctuaries have been resurrected.

As they wait, parishioners from some of the moribund parishes have begun organizing committees in preparation for the reopenings, which the diocese this week said are in process, although it gave no timetable.

At St. Mary of Bedford, parishioners have formed a parish council, a finance committee and a music committee. And they have tied blue and white bows and a “Welcome Home” sign on the front of their church, which was closed by Lennon 2 1/2 years ago as part of a diocesewide downsizing.

“We’ve got our committees organized,” said St. Mary parishioner Carol Szczepanik. “We’re just waiting for the bishop.”

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By RAY RIVERA and SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: May 11, 2012

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Friday sharply criticized the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, over his handling of child sexual abuse cases among the borough’s large ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

Mr. Bloomberg said through a spokesman that he “completely disagrees” with Mr. Hynes’s decision to not object to the position of an influential ultra-Orthodox advocacy group on reporting allegations of child sexual abuse. The group announced last year that adherent Jews must obtain permission from a rabbi before reporting such allegations to district attorneys or the police.

The group’s position could conflict with a state law that requires teachers, counselors and others to report allegations immediately to the authorities.

“Any abuse allegations should be brought to law enforcement, who are trained to assess their accuracy and act appropriately,” said a spokesman for the mayor, Marc LaVorgna.

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FLORIDA
Tampa Bay Times

By Tony Marrero, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, May 12, 2012

BROOKSVILLE — A well-known former youth pastor accused of having sex with a 17-year-old congregant has pleaded no contest to a lesser charge, heading off a jury trial scheduled to begin next month.

Brian Brijbag, 36, was charged with two counts unlawful sexual activity with a minor after the teen came forward in April 2011 and claimed she had two sexual encounters with Brijbag, one of them at his home and one in his office at First Baptist Church of Brooksville. With a trial looming, Brijbag on Thursday pleaded no contest to one count of child abuse.

The plea does not come with a conviction or formal admission of guilt, nor will Brijbag’s name be added to the state’s sex offender registry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Sun

By JAMIE PYATT

AN ex-altar boy cleared of killing a priest was yesterday convicted of murdering his gay lover after he was freed.

He wrongly suspected the 57-year-old supermarket worker was a paedophile. Hunnisett was jailed for eight years in 2002 for killing alleged paedophile the Rev Ronald Glazebrook, 81.

He was acquitted at a retrial in 2010 when he said he had been protecting himself from the priest’s advances. Just four months later, he killed Mr Bick at his studio flat in Bexhill, East Sussex, by smashing him over the head five times.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By ANDREW ROSENTHAL

The men who run the Catholic Church seem to have a lot of time on their hands.

In April, the Vatican criticized the leadership conference that represents 80 percent of American Catholic nuns for promoting “radical feminist themes.” The Vatican felt the nuns were focusing too much on economic injustice while keeping “silent” on abortion and same-sex marriage. Silly nuns, worrying about poverty instead of trying to break up loving couples.

Meanwhile, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has set its sights on an even bigger offender against piety and morality – the Girl Scouts of America.

According to NPR, the Bishop’s committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth is conducting an inquiry into whether the Girl Scouts have “problematic relationships with other organizations.” NPR says that’s code for Planned Parenthood.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

BREDA O’BRIEN

‘A CRISIS is a terrible thing to waste.” This adage, coined by economist Paul Rohmer and adapted by Obama adviser Rahm Emmanuel, suggests that when everything seems to be falling apart, there are opportunities to do things differently and better.

The phrase keeps running through my head recently. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland report on the Fr Kevin Reynolds case, and the way that RTÉ has reacted, to me is a perfect example of a waste of a crisis.

It is being spun as a one-off failure, and I believe that Aoife Kavanagh is being scapegoated in order to maintain this fiction.

Helen Shaw, former head of RTÉ radio, and currently head of award-winning transmedia company Athena Media, is very interesting on this. (See her blog at www.athenamedia.ie/ blog/)

Quite rightly, Shaw says: “The emphasis on the reporter . . . and the media’s portrayal of her as ‘shamed’ and ‘disgraced’ obscures the fact that layers of management lay between her and the programme’s transmission. She had an executive producer, a head of department and a head of division above her, and they had RTÉ legal affairs advice.”

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WISCONSIN
Fox 11

APPLETON – Former Green Bay Bishop Adam Maida, now a retired Cardinal in Detroit, Bishop David Ricken, and Bishop Robert Morneau, are among the witnesses who could be called next week at a civil trial against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.

Todd and Troy Merryfield sued the diocese, claiming it committed fraud by repeatedly transferring a priest without telling parishioners of the priest’s history of abuse. The diocese says it had no knowledge of abuse committed by former priest John Feeney.

Both sides submitted their witness lists to the court Friday.

Other potential witnesses include the Merryfields themselves; the introduction of prior testimony of Bishop Aloysious Wycislo – who died in 2005 but led the Diocese from 1968-1983; and prior testimony of Feeney.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Published: May 11, 2012

VATICAN CITY — The Legion of Christ, a powerful but troubled worldwide religious order whose late founder became enmeshed in a sex scandal years ago, said Friday that the Vatican was investigating seven Legion priests for alleged sexual abuse of minors.

The investigation cast a new shadow upon an order already struggling to move beyond revelations that its charismatic founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, had fathered several children and molested underage seminarians.

On Friday, the Legion said that after looking into “some allegations of gravely immoral acts and more serious offenses” committed by some Legionaries, internal preliminary investigations “concluded that seven had a semblance of truth.” Those cases were forwarded to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that handles investigations of sexual abuse, the Legion said in a statement.

The Vatican confirmed that the Congregation was investigating “cases of abuse” carried out by Legionaries but did not address the allegations. The inquiry was first reported by The Associated Press.

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CALIFORNIA
The Press Enterprise

BY DAVID OLSON The Press Enterprise STAFF WRITER
dolson@pe.com
Published: 11 May 2012

The Ontario priest convicted of molesting a 12-year-old boy was re-arrested Wednesday, May 9, for a probation violation because he allegedly attended a party with children present, the San Bernardino County Probation Department confirmed.

Probation spokesman Chris Condon said Friday that officers had been investigating reports the Rev. Alejandro “Alex” Jose Castillo was at the party on April 22 and that children were present.

The party was one day after his release from jail, where he had served less than eight months of a 1-year sentence for the 2008 molestation.

Court documents show Castillo allegedly violated sections of his probation agreement that ordered him not to associate with males under 18 or frequent places where minors of either gender congregate without the presence of an adult approved by the probation department.

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VATICAN CITY
The Wall Street Journal

By STACY MEICHTRY

ROME—The Vatican has launched an investigation into whether seven priests in the Legion of Christ sexually abused minors, the Vatican and the Legion said on Friday, opening a new chapter in the prominent religious order’s struggle to recover from a scandal that disgraced its founder.

The Legion, an order of priests founded in Mexico in 1941, said in a statement that it had reported the cases of alleged abuse to the Vatican’s watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, after a preliminary investigation by the order concluded that the allegations had “a semblance of truth.” One of the cases involved alleged abuse that occurred recently while the other cases involved alleged abuse from decades ago, the Legion said.

The Legion said other priests in the order—in addition to the seven under investigation by the Vatican—had faced allegations of sexual abuse. Investigations by church officials and, in some cases, civil authorities cleared those clerics of wrongdoing, the Legion said.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi confirmed an investigation was under way, adding that the Legion had complied with Holy See rules requiring church officials to report credible allegations of abuse to the Vatican and to restrict the ministry of the priests involved.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on May 11, 2012

The bar for criminal prosecution in child sex cases is pretty high. Still, we are disappointed that a grand jury feels that there is not enough evidence now to prosecute Msgr. Thomas Brady. We hope that others who may have seen, suspected, or suffered Brady’s crimes will come forward and make a report to the DA’s office. Only this way will the case be able to proceed.

Brady remains on “forced administrative leave.” That strongly suggests church officials think the accusations against him are credible. However, kids are safer when predators are jailed, so we urge every current and former church employee and member in the Diocese of Brooklyn to find the courage to call police if they have any knowledge or suspicions about Brady.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on May 11, 2012

For months or years, Catholic officials have put kids at risk by staying silent about these credible allegations of heinous crimes. Each of them should have been publicly announced the moment they were deemed credible. And in each case, high ranking church officials should have publicly begged anyone who saw, suspected or suffered these clerics’ crimes to call police and get help.

Instead, for their own callous, selfish reasons, Catholic authorities – perhaps dozens of them – said nothing. Their silence and inaction gave each of these predators even more time to destroy evidence, fabricate alibis, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers and even flee to other nations.

Shame on every Catholic Church employee or member who knew or suspected these crimes and chose self-serving, comfortable silence over their duty to protect the vulnerable.

And given the Legion’s long, alarming track record with children’s safety, we frankly do not believe these child molesting clerics are being kept away from kids.

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NEW YORK
The Wall Street Journal

By SOPHIA HOLLANDER

A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews have rented out Citi Field for a meeting later this month intended to draw thousands of men to discuss the dangers of the Internet and formulate a communitywide response.

The event, set for May 20, has been publicized internationally within the Orthodox Jewish press and tapped into a world-wide debate over how to reconcile modern life with the Internet’s perceived moral dangers.

It is a concern that transcends the Orthodox community, organizers note. …

But the meeting, which some published reports have estimated will cost nearly $2 million, has drawn a series of sharp attacks—for its men-only policy, for instance, and for its cost, criticized as extravagant at a time when many families are struggling.

The Hasidic rabbis wanted women to attend, but “logistics did not permit for it,” said Mr. Kobre, noting that in this community “a religious gathering of this nature is gender-separated.”

A live video-feed will be streamed to six locations around the metropolitan area for women to watch, he said.

Other critics say the event is a smokescreen for religious leaders seeking to consolidate control over their congregations by limiting access to outside information.

A counterprotest—dubbed “The Internet Is Not the Problem” and expected to draw hundreds—is scheduled for across the street from the stadium event. It accuses Jewish leadership of scapegoating the Internet while avoiding a more pressing problem: child abuse.

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UNITED STATES
The Times-Picayune

By John Simerman, The Times-Picayune

A national victims group at the forefront of revealing clergy sexual abuse allegations against the Roman Catholic Church may soon be forced to reveal its own inner workings, the Chicago Tribune reports today. The report says a Missouri judge has ruled that decades of correspondence of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, be turned over.

The ruling would include correspondence with victims, lawyers and journalists that the group considers confidential. It comes in the case of a Kansas City priest who faces abuse allegations.

Members of the Chicago-based group, which has chapters across the country, fear that the church is pursuing a frontal attack. The group says the ruling could chill victims from coming forward to SNAP. The St. Louis Archdiocese, the report said, is pursuing a similar strategy in another case.

Lawyers for the church argue that their aim is not to violate the privacy of victims, witnesses and others. The correspondence, they say, would shed light on whether plaintiffs who have sued the church revealed their alleged abuse to SNAP earlier, falsifying claims of “repressed memory” under coaching by the group.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

by Kathy Kane

I attended the trial on Wednesday. It was one of the more uneventful days with a lengthy cross examination of a detective regarding documents related to Fr. Brennan. Instead, I’d like to share what happened during the break. “Had it” whose name is Kate, flew in to attend a few days of the trial. We went to lunch with Beth, a frequent commentor on C4C, Steve, a clergy abuse victim and Bob, a retired school teacher and former seminarian. Steve attends the trial every day and Bob has joined a few survivors and family members at the lunch break each day. It’s an interesting mix: Beth, who is a practicing Catholic very involved on a parish level; Kate who has struggled with practicing her faith in recent years; a victim; and a former seminarian.

I wish everyone could have joined us because the conversations we had are the ones that need to happen on the parish level and probably never will. Steve shared that he was a former altar boy under Cardinal Krol and the honor he felt in that role as a child, and then later the sting of the rejection by the Church as a clergy abuse victim. When Bob was asked about the climate of St Charles Seminary in the 1960’s, he was very honest that he had a positive experience. He also spoke of his frustration when a problem seminarian he reported went on to be ordained. Beth who is seeking a pastoral response by the clergy to our victims, asked Steve if he would even want priests to join at the vigils with us. Kate shared her observations that a priest in court that morning, who was there to support Msgr. Lynn, seemed to literally turn his back in on Fr. Brennan. I guess pastoral concern is a pick and choose option.

I told Steve and Bob what Susan and I hope to accomplish with the C4C site and that we felt that the side calling all priests pedophiles is no different than the side calling all victims liars. When two sides of opposing viewpoints do nothing but scream at each other, no children are protected and no victims are comforted. Bob, who I just met today, seems to be a thoughtful, prayerful type asked me if I was still Catholic. I started to answer with, “well my kids…well I am angry…,” and then simply looked at him and said “I don’t know.” He answered, “I understand.”

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

VATICAN CITY — The ultra-conservative Legion of Christ movement on Friday said it had reported seven suspected cases of child abuse by its priests to the Vatican for investigation under new anti-abuse rules.

Six of the cases “are from decades ago” and one “refers to recent events,” the movement said in a statement, adding that it had taken precautions such as “restricting the priestly ministry of the accused” to protect children.

The Legion did not give further details about the cases but said it had received allegations about abuse “in several countries” and that internal preliminary investigations found that seven “had a semblance of truth.”

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said: “The relevant superiors (of the movement) followed the norms in force, signalling to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith some cases that have come to light from decades ago.”

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