ABUSE TRACKER

CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

May 23, 2012

Thousands of pages of previously confidential records related to Franciscan clergymen accused of child sexual abuse have been posted online, three years after a Los Angeles judge ordered the documents released.

Posted by Boston-based BishopAccountability.org, the records were produced by the Franciscan Friars of California as part of a 2006 settlement of civil litigation brought by 25 Santa Barbara abuse victims. The Roman Catholic order also paid $28 million to the victims.

The records include personnel files of nine admitted or confirmed molesters, all Franciscan priests and brothers, as well as transcripts of depositions of supervisors, sex abuse survivors and others, the organization said in a news release.

Much of the abuse occurred at St. Anthony’s Seminary, which closed in 1987, and at Old Mission Santa Barbara. The abusers were accused in lawsuits of molesting children, mostly boys, from the 1950s until the early 1990s.

“This is a victory for all of the brave men and women — terribly abused as little boys and little girls — who have forced this historic disclosure,” Bob Eckert, one of the abuse victims and a party to the lawsuit that led to the records’ publication, said in the news release.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on May 23, 2012

Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that a now-disgraced, high profile Michigan Catholic priest refused to honor restrictions on his ministry that his supervisor instituted after the priest admitted secretly fathering a child.

He’s Fr. Thomas D. Williams of the controversy-ridden Legion of Christ. He’s a high profile, media-savvy Michigan native who now lives in a Detroit suburb with family, since he stepped down several days ago, after news outlets disclosed his past.

Fr. Williams belongs to a controversial Connecticut-based religious order and spoke last month at a retreat for women in Rhode Island even though his supervisors knew that he had broken his vows of celibacy and secretly fathered a child years earlier.

Yesterday, the AP reported that in 2005, Fr. Williams’ boss, Fr. Alvaro Corcuera asked Williams “to start withdrawing from public ministry” and five years later “placed restrictions on his ministry.” Then, two months ago, Corcuera gave Fr. Williams “explicit indication to fully withdraw from all public ministry.”

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on May 23, 2012

We applaud Florida law enforcement officials for arresting Pastor Angel Perez after the Kissimmee police department received a complaint that Perez had engaged in sexual acts with a 16 year old boy.

Children are better protected with officials act quickly and effectively to apprehend credibly accused child molesters.

We admire the courage it took for the 16 year old boy to come forward with his abuse, even after his mother asked him to lie so DCF would not be notified.

Perez was the pastor at Templo Pentecostal Puerto De Salvation and according to the police report engaged in sexual acts with the victim while he slept. Perez later apologized to the victim and claimed he was possessed by the devil.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on May 23, 2012

Yesterday, the embattled head of the controversial Legion of Christ announced a “review” of all clergy sex abuse cases involving Legion clerics. We urge those who saw, suspected or suffered such crimes and cover ups to NOT cooperate with that effort.

Instead, we beg anyone with information or suspicions about child molesting Legion clerics – current or former – to seek out independent sources of support (therapists or self help groups) and report to independent sources of investigation (police or prosecutors).

As recently as this week, Fr. Alvaro Corcuera, the head of the Legion, acted deceitfully & recklessly in cases involving Legion priests and sex abuse. Corcuera was exposed yesterday as having known since 2005 (but kept silent about) the sexual impropriety of Fr. Thomas D. Williams – a charismatic Legion priest who admitted secretly fathering a child years ago. Yet in the seven years that he has had knowledge of sex crimes by priests, Corcuera did virtually nothing until a media exposé forced his hand.

During the time that he was aware of William’s impropriety, Corcuera:

–Let Fr. Williams to continue to act as an expert on teach morality to seminarians, and allowed him to preach ethics on television news programs and in his books

–Secretly put alleged “restrictions” on Fr. Williams but refused to enforce them

–Kept letting Fr. Williams do speaking engagements and act in a public relations capacity.

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ITALY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on May 23, 2012

Once again the Catholic church hierarchy has missed the boat. Italian bishops have published their first ever sex abuse norms. They stress that bishops “do not have the juridical obligation to report to state judicial authorities news they receive” regarding sex abuse.

These prelates had a chance to do more than the “bare minimum.” And set a good example for their colleagues around the world by putting the safety of children first and foremost, but they chose instead to put the reputation of the church first.

No organization can police itself especially one that is a rigid monarchy ruled almost entirely by elderly white men. Policies will not protect children, actions will. We doubt that anywhere in this document are there pledges to punish those who ignore or conceal horrific child sex crimes. Until that changes, children will continue to be placed at an unnecessary risk.

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IRELAND
Dail Mail (United Kingdom)

By Mark Dooley
PUBLISHED: 13:09 EST, 23 May 2012

The Government of Ireland is currently drafting legislation on the mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse. If passed, this will oblige Catholic priests to break the seal of Confession in order to report those abusers who seek absolution. Many have vowed, on pain of imprisonment, never to break the sacred seal.

In a country which has abandoned its sense of the sacred, it is difficult for many to understand why a Catholic priest would rather face jail than break the confessional seal. Why, people may ask, would a priest knowingly protect a paedophile when he could save a child from further abuse? How could he offer spiritual consolation to someone who violates his vows to prey on the innocent?

For those of us who regard clerical child abuse as a terrible evil, those are difficult questions to answer. For far too long, the confessional was used by abusers to salve their soul before succumbing to the next bout of wickedness. For far too long, they tarnished one of the great sacraments of the Church in order to avoid divine condemnation.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Herald

COURTNEY GARNHAM

24 May, 2012

A Hunter priest facing eight child sexual assault charges told a Sydney District Court jury there had been no sexual intent when he wrestled with young boys.

He responded with an adamant “no” when his barrister asked numerous times if he had acted inappropriately toward the four alleged victims.

The accused recalled extraordinary details of the past, using anecdotes of times when he had interacted with a number of boys while he was at university and training to become a priest.

He said wrestling with boys would take place after almost every football game they played and would start with three or four boys hanging off him.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Bulletin

By Lori Fowler, Staff Writersbsun.com
Created: 05/23/2012

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – An Ontario priest has admitted to violating two terms of his probation, but will be released from jail later today.

The Rev. Alejandro Castillo admitted that he associated with boys under 18 years old as well as minors at a surprise party in his honor.

Castillo’s lawyer and probation officials agreed that his punishment would be the 15 days that he has already served in custody since being arrested for the probation violations.

“First of all, tomorrow report to probation. Second, do not wind up in a place where this sort of situation happens again,” Judge Stephan Saleson said to Castillo. “Were it to happen again, you are to leave.”

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CANADA
24 Hours

By Sonia Lavoie, QMI Agency

SAGUENAY, Que. — A retired priest, already accused of molesting three children, was hit with 63 additional sex charges on Wednesday.

Paul-Andre Harvey, 75, is charged with sexual assaults against 35 children between 1963 and 1995, nearly all of whom were girls between five and 12 years of age.

Police allege the assaults occurred while Harvey worked at various parishes in and around Saguenay, about 200 km north of Quebec City.

Harvey remains free on bail and was ordered not to contact the alleged victims.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Churchill priest pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to child pornography charges and faces a minimum of five years in prison.

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

Authorities pursued the case in federal court, where penalties are heavier than in the state system.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune-Review

By Brian Bowling
Tribune-Review

Published: Wednesday, May 23, 2012

A Roman Catholic priest pleaded guilty today to federal charges of receiving and possessing child pornography.

The Rev. Bart Sorensen, 63, formerly of St. John Fisher Church in Churchill, admitted he possessed thousands of pornographic images of young boys. U.S. District Judge Alan Bloch scheduled his sentencing for Sept. 13 and revoked his bond because Sorensen is facing a minimum sentence of five years in prison.

Sorensen doesn’t have a plea bargain with the government. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Haller said his office never made a formal offer but discussed dropping the possession charge, which doesn’t carry a minimum sentence, in return for Sorensen pleading guilty to the receiving charge that carries the five-year minimum sentence.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Youngstown Vindicator

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A suspended Roman Catholic priest has pleaded guilty to possessing and receiving countless images of child pornography on his computer and now faces at least five years in federal prison.

Bartley Sorensen, 63, was a priest at a suburban Pittsburgh parish in December when a church employee saw him viewing a picture of a half-naked boy in his rectory office.

When she contacted a church abuse hotline, Allegheny County detectives and the FBI eventually investigated and found thousands of child pornograpny images on CDs, DVDs and in books in Sorensen’s church residence.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KGAN

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Roman Catholic church official taking the stand in his own defense says Philadelphia’s ex-archbishop ordered staff to keep alleged victims of priest sexual abuse in the dark about other accusers.

Monsignor William Lynn also says the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua wouldn’t let parishes announce the real reason an accused priest was being removed.

There’s been testimony that parishioners were often told their priest had health problems when he left for sex-offender treatment. Lynn says that “mental health” can be a health condition.

That led Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington to ask if Lynn remembers the religious teaching on sins of omission.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald

LOUISE HALL

24 May, 2012

A RETIRED Catholic priest and a one-time close personal friend of the NSW Attorney-General, Greg Smith, has appeared in court over the alleged sexual abuse of four children in the 1970s and 1980s.

Father Finian Egan, 77, appeared in Ryde Local Court yesterday to face 16 charges of indecent assault and one charge of rape while he was a priest in Sydney and the central coast. He has not entered a plea.

He has been the subject of a police investigation that began in 2010. The charges related to the alleged assaults of an 11-year-old girl and a 16-year-old girl at Carlingford in 1979 and 1987 and a 17-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy at The Entrance in 1971-72 and 1973.

The court continued his bail.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

JOANNE MCCARTHY

24 May, 2012

A CATHOLIC priest has denied being sexually aroused by wrestling bouts with young boys, telling a court any contact between his face and a boy’s testicles was unintended.

It was “simply part of the wrestling”, the priest said yesterday as his trial on eight sexual abuse charges involving four boys entered its third week.

The priest, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to the charges, including indecently assaulting the four boys and unlawfully detaining one of them at a Hunter location for a short period during an alleged indecent assault.

The priest denied wrestling the boys on concrete in a playing field, and in churches and rooms on Catholic properties.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week

Under fire for his handling of child sexual abuse cases in the ultra-Orthodox community, the Brooklyn district attorney will “possibly” involve some members of the advocacy community on his new task force to combat intimidation of witnesses in such cases, according to a spokesman.

The task force, announced last week after months of media scrutiny on the sex abuse issue, will be “intra-agency, consisting of the heads of our Sex Crimes and Rackets Division, our chief investigator and will be chaired by District Attorney Hynes,” according to the spokesman, Jerry Schmetterer. “The NYPD will also be invited to participate,” he added.

Schmetterer also noted that the substance of the meetings will be confidential.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

May 23, 2012

Two brothers who won a landmark case this week against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, for its role in their sexual abuse by a priest in the 1970s, withdrew their bid for punitive damages on Wednesday.

Todd and Troy Merryfield, who were awarded $700,000 by an Outagamie County jury on Monday, made the decision after Judge Nancy Krueger ruled they could call no witnesses or submit additional evidence showing what the archdiocese knew and when about their molester, the now-defrocked Father John Patrick Feeney.

The Merryfields are the first sex-abuse victims to successfully sue the Catholic Church in Wisconsin since 1995, when the state Supreme Court barred negligent supervision lawsuits against religious entities under the First Amendment. It ruled in 2007 that such cases could move forward if they allege fraud.

“It’s tough. Most folks would be excited to win something like this. But it’s a no-win,” said Todd Merryfield of Port Washington, his voice breaking, as he spoke by telephone Wednesday from Appleton.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WTAE

PITTSBURGH –
A Catholic priest accused of viewing child pornography at his office in Swissvale and possessing thousands of images of young boys pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court.

The Rev. Bartley Sorensen, 63, will face at least five years in prison when Senior U.S. District Judge Alan Bloch sentences him for possessing and receiving child pornography.

Defense attorney Patrick Thomassey said Sorensen is upset and is receiving psychiatric care. He said he wants it to be clear that Sorensen never touched any children.

The case began in December, when a female office employee of St. John Fisher Church called the Catholic Child Abuse Hotline after seeing Sorensen allegedly looking at images of child pornography under the caption “Hottie Boys.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Democrat-Herald

Associated Press | Posted: Wednesday, May 23, 2012

A high-ranking church official accused of moving predator-priests to unwitting parishes took the stand in his own defense Wednesday, telling jurors in the groundbreaking clergy sex-abuse trial that he had no authority to make priest transfers.

Monsignor William Lynn said he also lacked authority to put a priest on leave or suspend him, and could only remove someone on one condition: “The only time I had that authority was if he admitted he had abused someone,” Lynn testified.

Asked who at the archdiocese could transfer or suspend a priest, Lynn replied, “Only the bishop, the cardinal.” …

Lynn’s decision to take the stand Wednesday is risky, giving prosecutors a chance to interrogate him on cross-examination about his handling of 20 accused priest files. The cross-examination was expected Wednesday afternoon.

The dour expression Lynn has shown during nine weeks on trial softened when he took the stand, and he smiled warmly a few times as he answered questions from defense lawyer Thomas Bergstrom. Friends and relatives, several of them priests, filled four rows of seats behind the defense table.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

May 23, 2012
By Elizabeth Fiedler

A high-ranking church official accused of transferring sexual-predator priests to unwitting parishes is testifying in his own defense in a groundbreaking Philadelphia clergy sex-abuse trial.

Monsignor William Lynn took the stand just after 11 a.m. Appearing calm and composed, Lynn said when he took the job for secretary for clergy, he expected he would take care of the priests and their needs, but he did not anticipate he would be so involved in investigating the allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

Lynn also said that he followed the reporting chain of command, and that it was the cardinal’s decision to decide if a priest should be transferred.

Lynn is the first Roman Catholic official in the U.S. charged for allegedly helping the church bury abuse complaints.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Michael P. Mayko

Published 04:06 p.m., Wednesday, May 23, 2012

HARTFORD — A Miami psychotherapist who heads up a nonprofit organization to assist sex abuse victims will be meeting with 22 Haitian street boys who claim their were assaulted by Douglas Perlitz over a 10-year period.

Georges Bossous Jr., founder and head of Word and Action, Inc., intends to spend a week in Haiti in late June meeting individually with the victims and family members.

Bossous is expected to develop individual treatment plans for each of the victims.

His June visit was made possible by a $5,000 donation from a Massachusetts person.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
RI NPR

(2012-05-23)

(Reuters) –
By Dave Warner

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Monsignor William Lynn testified on Wednesday at his criminal trial in a Philadelphia pedophilia case that he reassigned a predator priest to live in parish housing attached to an elementary school, where he ultimately abused another child.

Lynn, 61, the most senior U.S. clergyman to go on trial in the widespread U.S. Roman Catholic Church scandal, took the stand to defend himself against charges he covered up child sex abuse allegations against priests, many of whom were simply transferred to unsuspecting parishes.

He faces the possibility of 28 years in prison if convicted. The trial is in its ninth week in Common Pleas Court.

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CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise

BY DAVID OLSON The Press Enterprise STAFF WRITER
dolson@pe.com
Published: 23 May 2012

An Ontario priest who served eight months for child molestation will not face additional jail time for violating his probation.

Rev. Alejandro “Alex” Jose Castillo will be released from jail Wednesday, May 23. He has spent two weeks in custody after his arrest May 9 for attending a party at which children were present. The party was given in his honor the day after he finished serving his sentence for child molestation.

In a Rancho Cucamonga courtroom Wednesday, Castillo admitted that he violated his probation. He could have faced up to eight years in prison if the offense had been deemed serious.

But Karen Schmauss, the San Bernardino County deputy district attorney who prosecuted Castillo, said evidence indicates that the party was a surprise and that Castillo didn’t know children would be there. The two weeks he served was sufficient, she said.

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ROM
Swissinfo

Die Italienische Bischofskonferenz hat zwischen 2000 und 2011 135 Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger durch Priester registriert.

Diese Zahl nannte ihr Generalsekretär, Bischof Mariano Crociata, am Dienstag in Rom bei der Vorstellung der bischöflichen Leitlinien für den Umgang mit sexuellem Missbrauch. Es war das erste Mal, dass die Italienische Bischofskonferenz genaue Zahlen für Missbrauchsfälle veröffentlichte.

In 77 Fällen kam es nach seinen Angaben zu einem Verfahren vor einem staatlichen Gericht. Dabei seien 22 Priester in erster und 17 weitere in zweiter Instanz verurteilt worden.

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COLORADO
CBS Denver

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4)- A Catholic priest in Colorado Springs will appear in court next week on charges of sexually assaulting a child.

Father Robert Charles Manning is on administrative leave from his post as pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church.

He’s been arrested on charges of sexual assault on a minor by a person in a position of trust and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Manning is free on bond. He will appear before a judge on May 30. …

“My heart goes out to that child,” said SNAP member John Murphy.

SNAP stands for the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests.

Murphy said he was abused by a priest at the age of 10. He says if the allegations are true, he has little sympathy for Rev. Manning.

“I don’t have the words of the loathing I feel about anyone who would take the most precious thing that a child has, it is trust, and shatter it,” said Murphy.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — There was high drama in a Philadelphia court room today, as one of the defendants in the Philadelphia priest sex abuse case took the stand in his own defense.

Monsignor William Lynn is charged with endangering minors by allowing priests accused of sexually abusing children to remain in ministry.

Today, Lynn took the witness stand and told the jury that he did not have the authority as the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s “secretary for clergy” to remove priests from ministry unless they admitted to sexual abuse of minors.

According to Lynn’s testimony this morning, he also did not have the authority to transfer them or put them on administrative leave.

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UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

I’ve learned a bit about life in Catholic seminaries, which in the USA produced seven thousand pedophile priests in the last fifty years*, from the book “Unholy Communion: Lessons Learned from Life among Pedophiles, Predators, and Priests.” As an 18 year old seminarian, New Mexico writer Hank Estrada found himself naked in bed with an older priest. The series of molestations, related in the book, led to Estrada abandoning his lifelong ambition to become a priest. Unholy Communion** left this reader seeing seminaries as environments where covert sexual activity is almost inevitable.

“On one occasion, Father John rubbed himself up against me so much that he climaxed right in his walking shorts. I eventually came to realize that Father John believed that as long as he did not physically expose himself or masturbate, he wasn’t really engaging in a sexual act or breaking his celibacy vow.” (From page 26)

Soon after Estrada joined the Western Province of the Claretian Missionary Order in Los Angeles, Father John Raab spotted him as an easy target.

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 22, 2012

Things are looking uglier and uglier for the Irish Christian Brothers at Damien Memorial High School in Honolulu. To date, we have found five known perpetrators who worked at the school, had direct access to students, and abused. There are the three we discovered in January:

Fr. Gerald Funcheon, Br. Robert Brouillette, and Br. Thomas Ford,

And the two latest additions, just discovered in the past week:

Fr. Lawrence Spellen and Br. J.B. Lackie.

Call me crazy for saying it: but it’s looking like Damien was a den of child sex abuse.

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APPLETON (WI)
Post-Crescent

Written by
Jim Collar
Post-Crescent staff writer

APPLETON — Two brothers who were sexually assaulted at the hands of a priest in 1978 said their civil lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay wasn’t about money, but rather to bring long-held secrets to light.

Todd and Troy Merryfield spoke to reporters today at the conclusion of their Outagamie County civil fraud lawsuit against the diocese. The jury reconvened to consider punitive damages. The Merryfields, however, decided to drop that claim.

Punitive damages are awards handed down in civil cases as punishment for wrongdoing.

The case was never about the money, the Merryfields said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Palm Beach Post

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
The Associated Press

Updated: 12:32 p.m. Wednesday, May 23, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — A high-ranking church official accused of moving predator-priests to unwitting parishes has testified that he had no authority to make priest transfers.

Monsignor William Lynn says he could only remove a priest who admitted abusing a minor. Lynn says he otherwise made recommendations for the cardinal.

And he says Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua overturned his plan for the Rev. Edward Avery when the accused priest was returning to ministry after inpatient treatment. Avery is now in prison after pleading guilty to sexual assault.

Lynn is testifying in the ninth week of his child-endangerment and conspiracy trial.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

May 22, 2012|Ronnie Polaneczky

I wanted to ask state Sen. Anthony Williams what he made of a West Chester high-school swim coach who has been accused of sexual misconduct with a student.

But so many local educators have been charged lately with letting their hands roam where they shouldn’t that I kept mixing up the names, dates and places.

In January, for instance, Delaware teacher Charles Coursey was charged with having sex with a 17-year-old student. The next month, another teacher from the First State, Matthew Pleasanton, was brought up on similar charges.

In March, it was church schoolteacher Nicole Jacques’ turn to be accused. Authorities in Hatfield Township, Montgomery County, say she bedded a 15-year-old who’d been her student.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Italian bishops’ conference released its first ever set of guidelines for handling accusations of clerical sexual abuse, urging bishops to cooperate with civil authorities, but also making it clear that bishops in Italy have no legal obligation to report suspected cases to police.

Bishop Mariano Crociata, general secretary of the bishops’ conference, presented the guidelines to reporters May 22 and told them that 135 cases of clerical sexual abuse of minors had been reported between 2000 and 2012.

The bishop did not give further details about the cases or how they were handled, other than to say that none of the priests involved will be allowed to return to normal pastoral work where they would have contact with children.

The introduction to the Italian guidelines says that a bishop’s first concern must be “the protection of minors, care for the victims of abuse and the formation of future priests and religious.”

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ROME
International Business Times

By Michael Billera

May 23, 2012

Father Gabriele Amorth, who was appointed by Pope John Paul II as the chief exorcist of the Vatican, claims that the a teenage girl who went missing in the 80s, Emanuela Orlandi, was murdered as part of underground Vatican “sex parties” with ties to the organized crime and foreign embassies.

Amorth said that in the summer of 1983, 15-year-old Orlandi was snatched from the streets of Rome and mysteriously vanished without a trace. He said she was forced to perform in sex parties.

“This was a crime with a sexual motive,” said Amorth, reported the Telegraph. “Parties were organized, with a Vatican gendarme acting as the ‘recruiter’ of the girls. The network involved diplomatic personnel from a foreign embassy to the Holy See. I believe Emanuela ended up a victim of this circle.”

For three decades, the fate of Orlandi has consumed Italian police investigators. In an effort to solve the cold case, police acted on an anonymous tip to a popular television show in which a supposed informant claimed Orlandi could be buried in a murdered gangster’s tomb.

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FLORIDA
Christianity Today

Morgan Feddes

A Florida jury found the state chapter of the Southern Baptist Convention liable for the actions of a former pastor currently serving time for the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy.

The Lake County jury found that the convention failed to do an adequate background check on Douglas W. Myers, who was recruited to start two churches in the county. Myers pleaded guilty in 2007 to molesting the boy; he is currently in the midst of a seven-year prison sentence.

The victim and his mother sued the convention, alleging it hadn’t done enough to uncover allegations of inappropriate behavior with young boys at Myers’ previous churches in Alabama and Maryland, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Court testimony indicated no convention officials checked Myers’ references or called his previous churches, though a background search of his criminal, credit, and motor-vehicle records raised no suspicions.

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

ROME
Sydney Morning Herald

Nick Squires, Rome
May 24, 2012

A TEENAGE girl whose disappearance in Rome has remained a mystery for 30 years was kidnapped for sex parties by a gang involving Vatican police and foreign diplomats, the Roman Catholic Church’s leading exorcist has claimed.

Father Gabriele Amorth, who was appointed by the late John Paul II as the Vatican’s chief exorcist, said Emanuela Orlandi was later murdered.

In the latest twist in one of the Holy See’s most enduring mysteries, he said the 15-year-old was snatched from the streets of central Rome in 1983 and forced to take part in sex parties.

”This was a crime with a sexual motive. Parties were organised, with a Vatican gendarme acting as the ‘recruiter’ of the girls,” Father Amorth, the honorary president of the International Association of Exorcists, told La Stampa newspaper.

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

ROME
Christian Post

By Brittney R. Villalva , Christian Post Reporter

May 23, 2012

One of the Catholic Church’s leading exorcists has accused the Vatican of playing a role in the kidnapping of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi, who disappeared in 1983.

Father Gabriel Amorth, 85, has become a controversial figure within the Catholic Church for occasionally making charges that for some seem extreme. In 2011, Amorth suggested that yoga was satanic because it could lead to the practice of Hinduism; he has also related Harry Potter and Hitler to the devil.

Amorth’s most recent statement however, carries far more severity and charges that members of the Vatican kidnapped 15-year-old Emanuela and then used her for Vatican sex parties. Amorth originally made the statement to La Stampa, which was then translated by the Telegraph.

“This was a crime with a sexual motive. Parties were organised, with a Vatican gendarme acting as the ‘recruiter’ of the girls,” the Telegraph reported.

The Vatican had been charged in the past with not fully cooperating with the investigation of the missing girl. The Catholic Church however has insisted that it has done everything possible to cooperate. To further assist with the investigation, the Vatican agreed to allow investigators to exhume the body of Italian mobster Enrico De Pedis, who had been linked to the missing girl.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inqurer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Msgr. William J. Lynn took the stand today to testify in his own defense at Philadelphia’s landmark clergy sex abuse trial.

Lynn began testifying shortly after 11 a.m.

His relatives and supporters filled four rows in the third floor courtroom at the Criminal Justice Center as he was sworn in as a witness in his own defense.

The potentially risky decision sets the stage for dramatic testimony from the lead defendant in the unprecedented case about how the Archdiocese of Philadelphia responded to clergy sex abuse claims.

For eight weeks, prosecutors called a parade of witnesses in an effort to portray Lynn as the church official most responsible for failing to remove priests from parishes despite credible evidence they had molested minors or might molest them. As Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua’s secretary for clergy between 1992 and 2004, he is charged with endangerment for allegedly ignoring such signs about two priests who prosecutors say each later sexually assaulted a boy.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
HILDA HIGGINS,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, May 23, 2012

An archaic Irish law may allow priests to stay silent on allegations of sex abuse that are disclosed to them outside of confessions, it has emerged.

New legislation published in Ireland will make it a crime for clergymen to fail to report allegations of child abuse that are disclosed to them. The primary purpose of the ‘Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons Bill’ is to close an existing loophole in the law, however, it does not remove an exemption given to priests during a court ruling in 1945.

During the High Court case of Cook v Carroll, it was ruled that priests enjoy “sacerdotal privilege”, which gives them the right to “refuse to divulge any confidential communication whatever made to him as a priest.” As a result, any disclosures made to a priest fall into this category.

Emily Logan, The Children’s Ombudsman, has recommended that the legislation be updated to include clauses which will remove sacerdotal privilege.

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

COLORADO
Westword

By Michael Roberts
Wed., May 23 2012

The arrest affidavit pertaining to Father Charles Robert Manning, an ex-Catholic priest in Colorado Springs who’s been busted on suspicion of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, is currently sealed. But comments from a woman who says she reported Manning to authorities suggest that the 77 year old acted like a “jealous lover” in regard to the alleged object of his affection, age fifteen.

The information comes courtesy of the Colorado Springs Gazette, which has been following this story since January. That’s when the Reverend Rafael Torres-Rico told the congregation at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church that Manning had been asked to step down while he was being investigated for sexually abusing a minor.

Torres-Rico didn’t provide additional details about the accusations. Likewise, the Colorado Springs Police Department released a statement confirming the investigation and praising the church for its cooperation without offering any other information.

The Tuesday arrest of Manning, who came to the Springs from Missouri in 2007 and formally retired from the priesthood in February, wasn’t accompanied by a sudden gusher of factoids from the CSPD. But the Gazette spoke with a woman who became concerned about Manning’s relationship with a fifteen-year-old friend of the family.

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ITALY
AGI

(AGI) Genoa – The magistrate for preliminary investigations Roberta Bossi has rejected a request that Father Seppia be moved to therapy centre, and ruled that the former priest and parish priest of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Genoa must stay in prison in Sanremo. Seppia was recently sentenced by this same judge to nine years, six months and twenty day in detention for the sexual abuse of a minor, the attempted sale of drugs to a minor and attempted inducement to prostitution of a minor.

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CALIFORNIA
BishopAccountability.org

Priest Files, Deposition
Transcripts and Exhibits

This page provides the entire archive – over 8,500 pages of priest files and other documents – obtained by survivors of sexual abuse committed by Franciscan priests and brothers, as stipulated in nonmonetary provisions of a May 25, 2006 settlement. This is by far the largest release of religious order documents in the history of the sexual abuse crisis.

Objections by the accused friars to release of their personnel and confidential files were rejected in a June 18, 2007 opinion by Judge Peter D. Lichtman, and he ruled on specific objections from the accused perpetrators and Franciscan officials in his April 2, 2009 order with detailed exhibits on the objections of the Franciscans, alleged perpetrators, and “bystanders,” including Franciscan managers. His decisions were affirmed on September 10, 2010 by the California Court of Appeals, and on January 19, 2011, the California Supreme Court declined to review the appeals court decision, allowing the release of the documents to proceed.

Although the attempt to prevent the release of documents ultimately failed, the defendants did succeed in aggressively redacting the documents. The names of the provincial ministers and other managers on whose watch the abuse occurred have been redacted from the record. Moreover, redactions and claims of privilege have turned the priest files into a patchwork: complaints documented in the depositions of survivors are frequently not represented in the priest files as released. While names of managers have been redacted, their titles have not. We have compiled a staff list for the provincial office, schools, and houses that readers might find useful.

Despite these issues, the Franciscan Sex Abuse Archive is a major new source of information on the abuse of children by Franciscan priests and brothers, on the enabling of abuse by Franciscan provincial ministers and managers, and on the Franciscan culture within which the abuse of children has thrived for decades.

Below we provide: 1) the Archive of Franciscan Sex Abuse, with links to over 8,500 pages of priest files, depositions, and exhibits; and 2) Selected Documents.

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CALIFORNIA
Catholic Culture

In what the Associated Press describes as “the largest release of a religious order’s files to date,” over 8,000 pages of testimony and internal files have been made public related to abuse allegations against members of the Franciscan friars’ St. Barbara Province in California.

“One offender bringing kids in can set them up to be abused by another offender and those kids in turn grow up to become a member of the order and themselves begin abusing children,” said Terence McKiernan, of BishopAccountability.org.

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CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register

By GREG HARDESTY / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Thousands of pages of files on nine Roman Catholic priests who settled a high-profile clergy abuse lawsuits six years ago were made public Wednesday, providing a detailed look at accusations as well as instances when priests were allowed to interact with children despite their superiors knowing about the allegations.

Two of the former priests whose histories are detailed in the documents are Gus Krumm and Gary Pacheco, both defrocked Franciscan priests who served at Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in Huntington Beach in separate assignments covering most years from the mid-1970s through the late 1990s.

Monsignor Michael Harris, former principal of both Mater Dei and Santa Margarita Catholic high schools, also turns up in the documents, in two previously sealed police reports.

Harris, the founding principal of Santa Margarita Catholic High School, was a defendant in a landmark lawsuit settled for $5.2 million in 2001 that marked the beginning of a national story involving the Roman Catholic Church and clergy sexual abuse.

A court ordered the release of the documents as part of a 2006 settlement between the Franciscan Friars of California and 25 clergy-abuse plaintiffs who sued Krumm, Pacheco and seven other friars.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Chicago Tribune

May 22, 2012|Dave Warner | Reuters

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

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

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

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

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Judy Jones on May 22, 2012

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

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

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COLORADO
Patch

By Julie Brown Patton

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

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

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

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COLORADO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on May 22, 2012

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

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

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

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COLORADO SPRINGS (CO)
KSDK

[with video]

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

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

Authorities say the incident happened October 17, 2011.

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

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

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

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

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

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

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WISCONSIN
Injury Board Blog Network

by Mike Bryant
May 23, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
San Antonio Express-News

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

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

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

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wirral Globe

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

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

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

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

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GREEN BAY (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

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

Mr. Lasee,

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

LOUISE HALL May 23, 2012

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

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

He has not entered a plea.

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NEW YORK
Times of Israel

Michael J. Salamon

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Marianne T. Duddy-Burke

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

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

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

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COLORADO
CBS Denver

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

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

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

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

May 22, 2012

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

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

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

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Forward

By Paul Berger

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

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

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

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

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

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FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post

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

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

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

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FLORIDA
Click Orlando

[with video]

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

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

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

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FLORIDA
New York Daily News

By Rheana Murray / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

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

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

He is charged with unlawful sexual activity with certain minors.

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

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NEW YORK
WHAM

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
YNN

By: YNN Staff

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

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

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

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FLORIDA
WESH

[with video]

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

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

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

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

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GREEN BAY (WI)
NBC 26

By Kasey Hott

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

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

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

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

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COLORADO SPRINGS (CO)
TheDenverChannel

Posted by Wayne Harrison, Web Editor

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

Manning had been the pastor at the church since 2007.

Documents in the case have been sealed by the court.

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

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

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

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

The bottom rung, agreed Msgr. McCulken.

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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GREEN BAY (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

Written by
Paul Srubas
Green Bay Press-Gazette

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
Launceston Times

LOUISE HALL

23 May, 2012

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

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

He has not entered a plea.

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

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

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ROME
Huffington Post

Ryan Craggs

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

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
The Associated Press

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

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CNN

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

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

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

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

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

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republic

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

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

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

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

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

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Fox News

Published May 22, 2012

Associated Press

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

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

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

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

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

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

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

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

McGlynn, 84, died earlier this month.

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

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

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

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

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

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

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

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VATICAN CITY
The Salt Lake Tribune

By ALESSANDRO SPECIALE
| Religion News Service

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEXUAL ABUSE

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Associated Press

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

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

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

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

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

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COLORADO
Colorado Springs Gazette

May 22, 2012

MATT STEINER
THE GAZETTE

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

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

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

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

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COLORADO
Colorado Catholic Herald

May 22, 2012

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

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

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

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

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Bolognatg24

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

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

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

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
La Politica Italiana

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

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

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ITALIA
La Stampa

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

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

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

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ROM
kathweb

Österreichische Regelung ist präziser und schärfer formuliert

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

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

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

May 22, 2012 3:37 pm

By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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

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

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

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ROME
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

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

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

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

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COLORADO
KRDO

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

He turned himself in Tuesday.

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

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

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

[the letter]

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press –

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

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

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

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

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

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

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MISSISSIPPI
The Clarion-Ledger

Written by
Jimmie E. Gates

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

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

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

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

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PHILADLEPHIA (PA)
The Palm Beach Post

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
The Associated Press

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

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

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

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

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

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IRELAND
Galway Bay FM

May 22, 2012

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

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

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

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

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

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

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

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DEUTSCHLAND
Heise

Peter Bürger 16.05.2012

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

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

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

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

Köln –

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

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DEUTSCHLAND
TVA

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

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Tom Allon

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

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

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

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

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Journal

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

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

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

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

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

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