ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Disaffected and it Feels So Good

“No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God.” – George H. W. Bush, 41st U.S. President.

Sorry atheist scum the continued and rampant exploitation and abuse of children stems not from catholic priests but from atheism. Even though, Philadelphia prosecutors have brought a case against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to determine how the Church dealt with abusive predatory priests.

Monsignor William Lynn is the first U.S. church official ever charged over his handling of abuse complaints. Prosecutors also allege the Church kept kept secret files dating back to 1948 showing a long-standing conspiracy to cast doubt in the minds of sex abuse victims and protect priests.

How dare the Government infringe upon the rights of the religious! Hey Obama, We have a thing called the 1st Amendment here!

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VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

[with video]

May 24, 2012. (Romereports.com) (-ONLY VIDEO-) The president of the Vatican’s Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, reportedly resigned on Thursday, before the IOR board (Institute for Works of Religion) issued a no confidence vote against him. The Vatican released a statement on the matter, which states that the now former president, “failed to meet some highly important functions.”

At this point, the Vatican is not commenting on any specifics, but it did highlight what type of president it will look for in the near future.

“The council is looking for an excellent new president to help the Institute promote effective and comprehensive relations between the Institute and the financial community, based on mutual respect for internationally accepted banking standards.”

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, president of the Vatican bank, was fired May 24 by the bank’s board of directors, who censured him for neglecting his duties amid worsening management problems.

The board of the bank, formally known as the Institute for the Works of Religion, issued an unusually blunt statement through the Vatican Press Office, noting that members had repeatedly expressed concern to Gotti Tedeschi about the bank’s “governance,” but that the “situation has deteriorated further.”

The statement said that the board voted to censure Gotti Tedeschi “for not having carried out various functions of primary importance to his office,” but did not specify the functions in question.

Pope Benedict XVI named Gotti Tedeschi, an Italian banker and professor of financial ethics at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, as president of the bank in 2009. The appointment was seen at the time as a move toward greater transparency in the bank’s operations.

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VATICAN CITY
Bloomberg Business Week

By Flavia Krause-Jackson on May 24, 2012

The Vatican bank, whose reputation took a blow last year over an investigation into money laundering, has fired Chairman Ettore Gotti Tedeschi after a tenure stained by a financial scandal.

In a vote of no-confidence, the board of directors unanimously agreed to remove Tedeschi, a former Banco Santander SA (SAN) banker who took the job in 2009, from his post for failing “to carry out various duties of primary importance,” according to a statement by Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi.

The bank, which is formally called the Institute for the Works of Religion, said it’s now hunting for a replacement who can “restore” relations with the financial community. Set up in 1942 by Pope Pius XII to manage the Vatican’s finances, the bank, known by its Italian initials as the IOR, reports directly to the pope.

After barely a year in office, Tedeschi, who also teaches ethics in finance at Milan’s Catholic University, was taken by surprise when Italian prosecutors in 2010 seized 23 million euros ($29 million) from a Rome bank account registered to the IOR amid suspicions of money-laundering violations.

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SCHWEIZ
kath.ch

In der Schweizer Kirche kommt die Bewältigung des Missbrauchskandals nur schleppend voran. Es gibt wenige unabhängige Opfer-Stellen. Ungeklärt ist zudem die Frage der Entschädigungen.

Von Michael Meier

Monate, nachdem in Deutschland das Ausmass des Kindsmissbrauchs durch Kleriker öffentlich gemacht wurde, legte im Juni 2010 das Fachgremium Sexuelle Übergriffe in der Seelsorge der Schweizer Bischofskonferenz eine Statistik zu den Missbrauchsfällen in der hiesigen Kirche vor: Seit 1950 war es zu 150 Missbrauchsfällen gekommen. Die Bischöfe bedauerten die grosse Schuld, die in der Kirche und in Diözesen bekannt geworden sei. Doch was ist in den zwei letzten Jahren geschehen? Nicht viel. Joseph Bonnemain, Sekretär des Fachgremiums, sagt, man habe auf Verlangen der Glaubenskongregation die eigenen Richtlinien von 2002 nochmals revidiert und die Vorgaben des Apostolischen Stuhls rezipiert. Zum Beispiel, dass die Verjährung von Übergriffen gegenüber Minderjährigen nicht mehr zehn, sondern 20 Jahre nach Erreichen des Erwachsenenalters betragen soll. Laut Bonnemain sind derzeit nicht viele neue Fälle zu verzeichnen, es sei ruhiger geworden. Aber es gebe noch viel zu tun, vor allem in der Prävention. In den Priesterseminaren, aber auch in der Weiter- und Fortbildung der Seelsorgenden müsse die Sensibilität weiter wachsen. Bonnemain wünscht sich, dass die Medien das Thema wachhalten.

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VATIKAN
Spiegel

Vor fast 30 Jahren verschwand Emanuela Orlandi spurlos aus dem Vatikan. Jetzt berichtet der Chef-Exorzist der katholischen Kirche, die junge Frau sei von Gendarmen der Vatikan-Polizei für Sexpartys vermittelt und später ermordet worden.

Hamburg – “Es ist ein Verbrechen mit sexuellem Hintergrund”, da ist sich Gabriele Amorth sicher. Als “globales Oberhaupt der Exorzisten” in der katholischen Kirche genießt der greise Priester das Vertrauen von Papst Benedikt XVI. und rühmt sich, mindestens 70.000 erfolgreiche Teufelsaustreibungen vorgenommen zu haben. Der italienischen Tageszeitung “La Stampa” erzählte er seine Version des rätselhaften Verschwindens der damals 15-jährigen Emanuela Orlandi.

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ROM
Spiegel (Deutschland)

Keine drei Jahre hat er es an der Spitze der Vatikanbank IOR ausgehalten: Nach einem Misstrauensvotum ist Ettore Gotti Tedeschi nun als Präsident abgelöst worden. Gegen ihn wird wegen Geldwäsche ermittelt. Von seinem Nachfolger hat der Heilige Stuhl schon genaue Vorstellungen.

Rom – Im September 2009 war Ettore Gotti Tedeschi angetreten, um die Vatikanbank IOR in das globale Zeitalter zu führen. Papst Benedikt XVI. hatte den langjährigen Italien-Chef der spanischen Banco Santander an die Spitze der IOR berufen, um Klarheit in die Geschäfte bringen – doch Tedeschi schaffte offenbar das Gegenteil.

Schon seit November 2010 steht der 67-Jährige gemeinsam mit einem weiteren Top-Manager unter dem Verdacht der Geldwäsche. Den Männern wird vorgeworfen, gegen die in Italien gültigen Anti-Geldwäsche-Standards verstoßen zu haben.

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IRELAND
Catholic News Service

By Michael Kelly
Catholic News Service

DUBLIN (CNS) — A new analysis of allegations of abuse made against 98 priests over a 70-year period shows that the alleged abuse peaked in the 1980s.

Fresh data released by the Dublin Archdiocese May 24 showed that 34 percent of complainants alleged their abuse happened in the 1980s. Just 1 percent of claims relate to alleged abuse in the period from 2000 to 2010.

The update also shows that the cost, so far, to the archdiocese for settlement of claims regarding child sexual abuse by priests is currently stands at $19 million, approximately $13 million of which is compensation and the remainder legal costs paid for both sides.

The latest data is the first time that the archdiocese has provided a detailed breakdown on when reported abuse is alleged to have taken place. It shows that of the 98 priests accused of abuse, approximately 2 percent of these priests are alleged to have abuse in the 1940s, 4 percent in the 1950s, 23 percent in the 1960s, 27 percent in the 1970s, 34 percent in the 1980s, 9 percent in the 1990s and 1 percent in the 2000s.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The ten worst-known clerical abusers in the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin are alleged to have abused an average of 36 children each, according to its Annual Child Protection Update.

Five of them have been convicted in the courts. Three of these – along with two who have no convictions – are being supervised by the diocese. Two of the ten have died.

The allegations date back as far as the 1940s.

The Annual Child Protection Update from the Archdiocese of Dublin also states that half the allegations against a total of 98 of its priests relate to abuse alleged to have occurred in the 1960s and 70s, while one in three relate to the 1980s.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — With a long-standing campaign to press its concerns about infringements on religious liberty by governments and the courts, the U.S. bishops will devote a significant portion of their spring meeting June 13-15 in Atlanta to the issue.

The bishops also will receive a 10-year progress report by the National Review Board on the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” and hear recommendations from the review board stemming from the study “The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

Allegations of child sexual abuse were reported this past year against four priests of the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin who were not previously the subject of complaints, it has emerged.

A suspicion of child sexual abuse was raised against one priest of the archdiocese who was not previously the subject of complaints.

There have been, to date, 199 civil actions taken against 46 priests of the archdiocese. Of these 135 have been concluded and 64 are ongoing. Costs, so far, to the archdiocese in the settlement of claims concerning clerical child sexual abuse is currently €15.2 million (€10.3 m in settlements and €4.9 m in legal costs for both sides).

Ten priests or former priests of the archdiocese have been convicted in the criminal courts.

The total number of priests of the archdiocese against whom allegations of child sexual abuse have been recorded is now 98. This relates to a period of over 70 years during which approximately 1,350 priests served in Dublin.

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FLORIDA
13 News

By Kelli Cook and Amanda Evans, Team Coverage

KISSIMMEE —
A teenage boy said he was inappropriately touched by his pastor, a man he trusted like his father.

Now, investigators in Osceola County said there may be more young victims who were lured into sexual acts with Angel Perez, the pastor of Templo Pentecostal, in Kissimmee.

According to a statement the victim gave police during the investigation, the 16-year-old said his mother did not want him to report the abuse.

He said his mother told him that she would go to jail and his younger siblings would be taken away by the Department of Children and Families if he told anyone.

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UNITED STATES
Joyful Heart Foundation

Peter Pollard

The commencement speaker at my niece’s graduation this past weekend startled some in the audience when he noted that having to overcome adversity is a normal part of a achieving a fulfilling life.

I was reminded of my own rocky road to a college education and how critical it was for me to address my history of childhood sexual abuse before I could confidently pursue that or any other dream. As he spoke, I found myself thinking about the chasm between the poles of feelings of isolation and feelings of connection, of powerlessness and competence, failure and success, of shame and of pride and the process of healing that made it possible for me to move from one to the other.

I was just 18 when I dropped out of college in 1969. The world that year offered lots of legitimate reasons for challenging authority and for dismissing traditional concepts of success. My beliefs then certainly weren’t hollow or invalid. But the energy with which I immersed myself in my rebel identity served a much more personal purpose than simply changing the world.

What I know now with certainty (and didn’t recognize even slightly then) is that all my thinking, all my attitudes, all my decisions in those early years of adulthood were strongly influenced by my reaction to the sexual abuse I’d experienced at the hands of a trusted mentor, just a few years earlier.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Brighton and Hove News

A priest who worked in Brighton and Hove has appeared in court charged with sexually abusing two boys more than 20 years ago.

Father Wilkie Denford, 77, of Broad Reach Mews, Shoreham, answered bail at Mid Sussex Magistrates’ Court in Haywards Heath.

He appeared alongside church organist, Michael Mytton, 68, of South Road, East Chiltington, near Ditchling, who was charged with aiding and abetting Denford on one occasion in or near Cuckfield.

The pair were remanded on bail until Tuesday 3 July.

The Church of England minister is accused of indecently assaulting a boy under 16 on three occasions between June 1987 and January 1990.

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UNITED STATES
Salon

Tom Frier

A house doesn’t have to fall on my head to tell me a battle royal is brewing within the Catholic Church over the conservative hierarchy’s heavy-handed efforts to clamp down on dissenting Catholic voices. Not when a prominent American nun comes “this close” to calling the present Church leadership a bunch of brown-frocked fascists. Or when a parish priest I know gives the sister a thumbs up and pastes her angry, anguished outcry to his Facebook page.

And now, according to the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne, a group of progressive-leaning bishops who’ve so far held their tongues are starting to speak out against their reactionary colleagues who seem determined to yank the Church far to the right and make Catholicism little more than an auxiliary of the Republican Party in its campaign against President Obama.

Lawsuits brought this week by 43 Catholic organizations and 13 dioceses seeking to overturn the Obama administration’s decision to mandate insurance coverage for contraception for employees at Catholic-run schools and hospitals were seen as provocative and premature by the vast majority of the nation’s 195 diocese that did not want to go to court, according to Dionne.

The bishops in these dioceses, says Dionne, “are upset that the lawsuits were brought without a broader discussion among the entire membership of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops,” many of whom object that the leadership is “aligning the institutional Church too closely with the political right.”

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ROME
RKnieuws (Nederland)

ROME (RKnieuws.net) – De Italiaanse bisschoppenconferentie heeft dinsdag tijdens haar algemene vergadering haar richtlijnen tegen pedofilie gepubliceerd. De bescherming van de minderjarigen en de zorg voor de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik staan daarbij centraal.

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IRELAND
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

The Child Safeguarding and Protection Service (CSPS) of the Archdiocese of Dublin has published its annual Child Protection Update – giving statistical information on child sexual abuse by priests in the Dublin Diocese.

Speaking at a briefing on the CSPS report, Director of the Service Andrew Fagan said the Diocese provided regular updates on its work and made them publically available. He said this exercise is vital in keeping the public informed and reassured of the ongoing efforts to maintain high standards in child safeguarding.

New information, compiled following an extensive internal review of the work of the service was made available which details the extent of abuse carried out by 10 serial abusers. The figures also show a sharp decline in the level of incidents of abuse recorded since the 1980’s.

Mr. Fagan said that despite years of reports, guidelines and training both inside and outside the Church, many people still had a skewed perception of what Safeguarding children in the Catholic Church involves. “There are a number of key messages, which it is important for people to understand,” said Mr. Fagan, “In Dublin, child safeguarding operates to a high standard and Dublin parishes are now safer places for children. While the majority of allegations of abuse reported to us now, relate to sexual abuse which may have occurred many years ago, it is still crucial to be vigilant and to work to ensure standards are maintained,” said Mr. Fagan.

Andrew Fagan added that the Archdiocese of Dublin is one of just a small number of organisations in Ireland, North and South, which supervises men who are deemed a risk to children. The service, while not without its limitations, aims to minimise the risk of these men offending again and is more extensive than services currently provided by the State.

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IRELAND
The Journal

ROUGHLY ONE IN every 14 priests serving in Dublin over the last 70 years has been the subject of child abuse allegations, according to figures released by the archdiocese.

And fresh allegations continue to arise. In the last year accusations have been made against four priests who were not previously the subject of allegations, with suspicions raised over a fifth.

Ninety-eight priests have been accused of sexually abusing children since the 1940s. During this time around 1,350 priests have served in the diocese – meaning that seven per cent of the total, or just over one in 14, have had child abuse allegations made against them.

The figures are contained in the annual Child Protection Update released by the Archdiocese of Dublin today. It shows a sharp decline in abuse allegations since the 1980s, when they peaked after rising through the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s.

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VATICAN CITY
The Sacramento Bee

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

Published: Thursday, May. 24, 2012

VATICAN CITY — The president of the Vatican bank was effectively ousted Thursday after receiving a unanimous vote of no-confidence from bank overseers for having leaked documents and failed to do his job at a critical time in the Holy See’s efforts to show transparency in its finances, the Vatican and officials said.

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi has been a polarizing figure in the Vatican ever since he was named president of the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, in 2009. He is being investigated on suspicion of money laundering by Italian magistrates, but the investigation isn’t believed to have factored into the decision since the Vatican considers the investigation to be motivated by outside political interests.

In a statement Thursday, the Holy See said the vote was taken because of Tedeschi’s failure to fulfill the “primary functions of his office.” He himself has told prosecutors that he barely paid attention to the bank’s works, showing up only two days a week while tending to his primary position as head of Spain’s Banco Santander’s Italian unit.

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IRELAND
Kilkenny People

Published on Wednesday 23 May 2012

More than ten million euro in compensation has been paid out to victims of paedophile priests in the Dublin area.

Allegations of child abuse have been made against almost 100 priests in the archdiocese over the last 70 years, with more than a third from the 1980s. Complaints were lodged against five clergy who had never been subject to previous allegations in the last 12 months, according to Dublin’s church watchdog.

Andrew Fagan, director of services with the Child Safeguarding and Protection Service in Dublin, said there were ongoing efforts to maintain high standards in child safety.

“In Dublin, child safeguarding operates to a high standard and Dublin parishes are now safer places for children,” he said. “While the majority of allegations of abuse reported to us now, relate to sexual abuse which may have occurred many years ago, it is still crucial to be vigilant and to work to ensure standards are maintained.”

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Staff Reporter

May 24, 2012

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the president of the Institute for Works of Religion , commonly known as the Vatican Bank, has been forced to resign after the board of directors issued a no-confidence vote.

A source in the bank did not provide the reasons behind the dismissal, according to Reuters.

Father Federico Lombardi, a spokesman for the Vatican, said the Holy See, will release statement about the bank soon.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

VATICAN CITY | Thu May 24, 2012

May 24 (Reuters) – Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the Italian president of the Vatican bank, has been ousted by the banks board of directors after a no-confidence vote, a senior Vatican source told Reuters on Thursday.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, gave no details of the reasons for the no-confidence vote in Gotti Tedeschi.

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ROME
Friesch Dagblad (Nederland)

Rome | Het hoofd van de Legionairs van Christus heeft gisteren erkend dat hij al verscheidene jaren wist dat de beroemdste priester van zijn congregatie in strijd met het celibaat een kind had verwekt. De man, Thomas Williams, kon blijven doceren. Ook kon de hij op de Amerikaanse televisie uitleg blijven geven over de leer van de kerk. Alvaro Corcuera zegt dat hij de Williams had gevraagd geleidelijk zijn publieke functies op te geven, maar erkent dat hij te weinig daadkracht heeft getoond. De Legionairs leiden katholieke scholen en liefdadigheidsorganisaties in 22 landen.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Whispers in the Loggia

Not long after Msgr William Lynn became the first US church official to be charged with facilitating a cover-up of abuse cases, word swirled among his Philadelphia confreres that “If Bill goes down, he’s taking everyone with him.”

Since beginning trial in late March, the longtime Secretary for Clergy of the roiled Northeastern archdiocese has mostly sat expressionless, slumped in his chair at the defense table as a parade of witnesses and reams of Chancery files gave detailed accounts of “powder keg” priests, gut-wrenching romps by serial predators, and at least one cleric whose perceived “disobedience” was dealt with more swiftly and severely by his superiors than seemingly any had been over reports of misconduct with minors.

Today, however, it was Lynn’s turn to talk. And while most of the nine-week proceeding has tended to draw a daily crowd numbering little more than a dozen spectators, this time Room 304 of the Philadelphia Criminal Justice Center was full, as TV camera-crews congregated in the lobby downstairs, as they only do when major developments arise.

Even for his attorneys’ early assurance that the monsignor — who served as head of clergy personnel from 1992-2004 — “has a story to tell,” whether Lynn would take the stand has loomed as a key uncertainty in the landmark case. Yet while a “no exceptions” ban on electronic devices in the courtroom has made real-time reporting from the proceedings essentially nonexistent, word hit the street within minutes of this morning’s indication inside that the lead defendant was about to testify.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia monsignor William Lynn, charged with child endangerment in connection with the Philadelphia priest sex abuse scandal, continued to face relentless, grueling cross-examination today.

Prosecutor Patrick Blessington asserted again and again that Monsignor Lynn has lied — to victims, to parishioners, to nuns and priests, and to the police, all to protect predator priests and to avoid negative publicity and legal action. And all, according to Blessington, at the expense of children.

Citing evidence, much of it from the church’s own secret archives and by Lynn’s own hand, Blessington has asserted through questioning that Lynn lied routinely and intentionally.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Associated Press

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Roman Catholic church official says he typed a list of 35 accused predator-priests on his computer, but couldn’t find it 10 years later to show a Philadelphia grand jury.

Monsignor William Lynn is enduring a second day of searing cross-examination as he fights charges he endangered children by protecting priests.

Lynn denies putting the 1994 list in a locked safe at the archdiocese, where it was found in 2006.

Evidence shows it was turned over only this year, days after Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua died.

Prosecutors say the list shows the church knew it had pedophiles and other predators on duty, where they could abuse other children.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Jewel Topsfield
May 25, 2012

A MELBOURNE Jewish boys’ school is under pressure to stand down one of its teachers after a magistrate found it was ”unfathomable” he was unaware of sexual abuse at the time it allegedly occurred.

Philanthropist Moishe Gordon, a long-standing member of the Yeshivah community, said he would bankroll advertisements saying Rabbi Abraham Glick must go from Yeshivah College, where he teaches Jewish studies and is head of student wellbeing.

Rabbi Glick, who was the principal of the East St Kilda school at the time of most of the alleged offences, originally said he had only recently become aware of accusations that Yeshivah security guard David Samuel Cyprys had molested children. He changed his evidence under oath in the Melbourne Magistrates Court and admitted he was aware of rumours in the early 2000s.

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WISCONSIN
WBAY

[with video]

At the end of the civil trial against the Green Bay Catholic Diocese, Troy and Todd Merryfield released letters they say their family received or their attorneys obtained from the diocese over the years.

They say the letters prove the diocese was aware of allegations surrounding Father John Patrick Feeney, who sexually abused the brothers in the 1970s but wasn’t convicted and defrocked until decades later.

After the parents of Troy and Todd Merryfield raised complaints about Father Feeney in August 1978, then-Bishop Aloysius Wycislo sent them a letter stating he “will be discussing the situation with our Personnel Board this Friday.”

Bishop Wycislo followed up with a letter two weeks later stating Father Feeney would stay at the Freedom parish, but would “begin an intensive counseling program regarding his personal problems.”

Then in a December 1978 letter to the diocese’s Personnel Board chairman, Bishop Wycislo writes, “I have just spent a half hour with the District Attorney for Outagamie County who presented me with evidence of a number of crimes of like sexual nature… that the Attorney feels are base enough for a court case against Father Feeney.”

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CANADA
RKnieuws (Nederland)

SAGENAY (RKnieuws.net) – De politie van Saguenay, ten oosten van Québec, heeft priester Paul-André Harvey opnieuw aangehouden. Hij wordt verdacht van 63 nieuwe gevallen van seksueel misbruik.

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ITALY
The Daily Beast

May 24, 2012

A massive information dump nicknamed ‘VatiLeaks’ has the Catholic Church sweating. Barbie Latza Nadeau talks to Gianluigi Nuzzi, the journalist exposing Pope Benedict XVI’s internal memos.

Investigative journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi first met “Maria” in the spring of 2011 at a secret rendezvous in an unfurnished apartment under the shadow of St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. He had been summoned there by secret Vatican insiders who had vetted him for weeks through banal meetings in coffee houses and cocktail bars. They followed him, checked out his friends, even set up false appointments just to observe him. When they finally trusted him, he met the informers who would betray the Catholic Church like no one before. In a massive document dump that has been dubbed “VatiLeaks,” Nuzzi managed to shed light on an institution that has been enshrined in secrecy for centuries.

For a year Nuzzi was a conduit for sensitive documents that surfaced from deep within the Roman Curia which he highlighted in his Italian television show The Untouchables. This week, he published the documents in full in a book called Sua Santita’- Le Carte Segrete di Benedetto XVI or Your Holiness: The Secret Papers Benedict XVI. He says he kept the documents on a USB key sewn into his neckties and he worried constantly that someone might try to harm him or steal them back.

Since his first television program, VatiLeaks has made a major impact in Rome. The reopening of the criminal investigation into the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee who disappeared 30 years ago, has come to symbolize the VatiLeaks scandal and a small victory for transparency in the Roman Catholic Church. And earlier this month, the Holy See conceded to allow the opening of the tomb of a notorious mobster who was interred inside a Vatican church in an unprecedented act of cooperation with Italian police who want to find the truth in the Orlandi case. “The people who provided these documents did it because they’d had enough of the lies,” Nuzzi told The Daily Beast. “They did it at great risk, and if they are ever found out, they will likely disappear without a trace.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

[Archive of Franciscan Sex Abuse in the Province of St. Barbara – BishopAccountability.org]

May. 24, 2012
By Catholic News Service

LOS ANGELES — More than 8,500 pages of material detailing claims of sexual abuse by a group of Franciscan priests and brothers in California were made public Wednesday.

The release of the documents was one unfinished item of business from a 2006 court settlement that awarded $28 million, the vast majority of it from the St. Barbara Province of the Franciscan Friars and Brothers, to settle abuse claims from 25 plaintiffs.

The province, based in Oakland, used the proceeds from the sale of a closed seminary, where many of the incidents were alleged to have occurred, to help finance the settlement. The high school seminary closed in 1987.

As part of the settlement, the Franciscans agreed to let a judge review for possible public dissemination internal church documents as well as depositions in the litigation, showing how the order handled sexual abuse allegations among its clerics.

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NEW MEXICO
Courthouse News Service

By JEFF D. GORMAN

(CN) – Pedophilia allegations did not hurt a former priest’s reputation, so he cannot sue for defamation, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled.

While working as a priest at the St. Francis Episcopal Church in Rio Rancho, N.M., Walter Smith III faced opposition from members of the parish and vestry, an administrative group of lay parishioners.

One of the vestry members, Will Durden, compiled and published a packet of documents that included an anonymous letter accusing Smith of several acts of pedophilia. The packet also included other personal attacks against Smith, documentation about the parish’s financial problems and claims against Smith’s leadership.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A prosecutor resumed his relentless attack on Msgr. William J. Lynn on Thursday morning, pounding the church official with questions and accusing him of lying to protect pedophile priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

For more than an hour, Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington parried with Lynn, charging that the former clergy secretary repeatedly misled abuse victims, a police officer and even the grand jury formed a decade ago to investigate sex abuse by local priests.

“You didn’t care,” Blessington said. “Because you were about protecting priests and you didn’t care.”

Again and again, the defendant shook his head and denied any wrongdoing. He acknowledged some misstatements and mistakes, but said none were intentional.

“I’m not perfect,” Lynn testified. “I’m not saying I handled all these things perfectly.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY Religious Affairs Correspondent

Dissatisfaction with the pace of Government action when dealing with the issue of Magdalene Laundries was forcefully expressed by members of the Justice for Magdalene’s (JFM) group at Leinster House this afternoon.

Addressing a cross-party group of TDs and Senators Katherine O’Donnell of JFM recalled Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s “great speech about the Vatican” in the Dáil but pointed out that it was still the case that some women survivors of the laundries “still live in Magdalene Ireland.”

She knew three such women who were dying of cancer. They “needed an apology (from the State) urgently as well as redress and restorative justice now,” she said.

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UNITED STATES
NewsBusters

By Tim Graham | May 24, 2012

The CBS Evening News led with the Catholic Church on Wednesday night. It wasn’t about the 43 Catholic groups suing the Obama administration. It was yet another story on sexual abuse by Catholic clergy decades ago. CBS’s newscast is the only one of the Big Three evening shows to notice the lawsuits — for 19 seconds on Monday night.

Anchor Scott Pelley began at the top of the Wednesday broadcast: “Tonight, the Monsignor takes the stand. The highest ranking Catholic Church official ever charged in the child abuse scandal blames a higher power, the former cardinal of Philadelphia.” Pelley didn’t care that “monsignor” is not normally a “high-ranking” designation at all, just a special designation of honor for a priest. While CBS highlights the Catholic sex-abuse allegations in Philadelphia, it’s ignoring the Jewish sex-abuse story in its own hometown. As the New York Times reported:

The Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, said Wednesday that he would push for state legislation to add rabbis and other religious leaders to the list of professionals required to report allegations of sexual abuse to law enforcement authorities.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

A child safeguarding conference is to take place in the diocese of Kilmore, Co Cavan tonight, after a recommendation from the Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children.

It arose out of a review of safeguarding practice in the diocese, where paedophile priest Brendan Smyth was based.

Fr Smyth continued working in the Kilmore diocese for several years after allegations of child abuse had been made against him.

A recent BBC documentary claimed information about alleged abuse had been passed on to church authorities, including Cardinal Seán Brady, then Fr Brady.

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CALIFORNIA
San Antonio Express-News

ONTARIO, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California priest convicted of child molestation won’t face more jail time for violating his probation.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise (http://bit.ly/Jp9dM2 ) says the Rev. Alejandro Castillo of Ontario was sentenced Wednesday to the two weeks he’s already spent in custody.

San Bernardino County probation officers arrested him earlier this month because children were present at his April birthday party. Authorities say it was a surprise party and Castillo didn’t know children would be there but he should have left immediately.

He didn’t talk to or touch the children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
News & STar

A former Cumbrian vicar has appeared before a judge at Carlisle Crown Court charged with a string of sexual crimes against four schoolboys.

Ronald Johns, 74, is charged with a total of 15 offences spread over 12 years from 1979 and 1991.

He faces three charges of serious sexual assault, six counts of gross indecency and six charges of indecent assault.

All the offences were allegedly committed in Cumbria and involved four boys.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

May. 23, 2012
By Brian Roewe

Canon lawyers representing St. Patrick Parish of Cleveland filed a motion Wednesday in Rome demanding Bishop Richard G. Lennon immediately reopen the church and restore the parish, and if he won’t, have someone else do it.

The motion is the second filed by the parish since decrees came from the Congregation for the Clergy in early March ruling in favor of St. Patrick and 11 other parishes Lennon had attempted to suppress in a string of closings in 2009.

Patricia Schulte-Singleton, a parishioner of St. Patrick and head of parish advocate group Endangered Catholics, said Lennon’s delayed action is “causing distress spiritually, emotionally, economically” for the parish and its parishioners.

“There has been no timetable, no definitive action plan, so you have to wonder, When is this going to happen, is he going to stall, does he really want to do this even though he’s been ordered to do it by Rome?” she said. “You have to wonder, you know, what’s the deal?”

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano
Thu., May 24 2012

We at the Weekly had enough respect for former GOP chairman Tom Fuentes to not invade his funeral yesterday and cause a scene–but we’re beholden to the truth, so damn straight we’re going to blast his funeral for the parade of pedophile apologists and protectors that it was.

The main attraction, of course, was Fuentes, rotting in hell as we speak for his longtime role as the communications director for the Catholic Diocese of Orange at a time where local priests were raping kiddies as if their jobs depended on it. But testifying on Fuentes’ behalf were men that the Fuentes family should’ve kept a state away for their sick association and support of pedophiles, both of the priestly and not variety.

Roll call of the pedophile apologists!

*Giving the homily was the man who replaced Fuentes as communications director, Lawrence Baird. Baird was a notorious asshole to many sex-abuse victims, defended vile pedophile Michael Harris as “an icon to the priesthood” to the media even as the Orange diocese knew he was a pedophile rapist, and even once sued a sex-abuse victim for defamation (he lost). Yet Fuentes wanted this man to give the homily? Birds of a feather…

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Interview with Church historian Alberto Melloni, successor of late Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Alberigo: “The Pope’s private correspondence is concordatory material”

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

“I don’t think there is anything new here. The problem is, who is pouring fuel on the fire and who is fanning the flames? They certainly cannot attribute this to their right to freedom of expression….” This is how Alberto Melloni Professor of History at the University of Modena, Italy and director of the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Sciences in Bologna summarised the Vatileaks case that has been causing so much mayhem in the Holy See. Here, the hunt is on for the moles who stole number of documents, notes and letters, sending them to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of “Sua Santità. Le carte segrete di Benedetto XVI” (His Holiness. Benedict XVI’s secret letters)

What do you make of the “Vatileaks” saga?

In my opinion it is an attack against the Pope by those who wish to tell him: you were wrong in your choice of Secretary of State and you were wrong not to substitute him…”

Are there any previous cases that bear a comparison to this one?

“No, I don’t think so. I must say that the book does not reveal anything massively new; they are not “secret letters” at all, it’s just private internal correspondence: it is clear that the aim is to prove that there is no surveillance, that anything can get out and that the archives are not properly looked after.”

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

May 24, 2012

By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A suspended Catholic priest will spend at least five years in federal prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to possessing and receiving thousands of child porn images on his rectory computer.

Rev. Bartley Sorensen, 63, of St. John Fisher Church in Churchill, admitted his guilt before Senior U.S. District Judge Alan Bloch, who set sentencing for Sept. 13.

Father Sorensen faces a range of five to 30 years behind bars, but must serve at least five years.

He said nothing in court except to acknowledge Judge Bloch’s questions and then waved to his two brothers in the gallery before U.S. marshals led him away in handcuffs.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BY TIM TOWNSEND • ttownsend@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8221

The Rev. Charles Manning, 77, a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, turned himself in to Colorado Springs police Tuesday after a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

Police had been investigating Manning since October.

He was charged with sexual assault on a minor by a person in a position of trust, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to police.

Angie Shelton, the archdiocese’s community relations specialist, said in a statement that Manning had been granted permission to move to Colorado Springs in June 2007.

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IRELAND
Build

Trim Circuit Court heard yesterday a former priest admit to indecently assaulting a number of boys at different locations in the diocese of Meath, including a parochial house.

77-year-old Raymond Brady admitted offences relating to 11 individuals.

When the case was called, State prosecutor Carl Hanahoe said guilty pleas were being entered in relation to 11 offences. He said these pleas were acceptable to the prosecution on the basis of full facts being heard at the sentencing hearing later this year.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Familien-Blickpunkt

von Familien-Blickpunkt.de am 22/05/2012

Erbach (hsm) – Nach Schätzungen des Bundeskriminalamtes werden jährlich 200- bis 300 000 Kinder in Deutschland sexuell missbraucht. „Das ist Mord an Kinderseelen“, erklärte Petra Müller-Klepper, Staatssekretärin im Hessischen Sozialministerium, heute im Rahmen der Fachtagung „Sexualisierte Gewalt gegen Mädchen – Alltag!? Wahrnehmen – Erkennen – Handeln“ in Erbach. In 90 Prozent der Fälle seien die Opfer weiblich. Die Staatssekretärin forderte eine konsequente Ächtung und Bekämpfung sexualisierter Gewalt. „Die Kultur des Wegschauens oder Verschweigens muss von einer Kultur des Hinschauens und Ansprechens abgelöst werden.“

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IRELAND
The Journal

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HAS said that the provision of mental health services in Ireland continued to be inadequate in 2011 and has said that conditions in the country’s prisons continue to fall below standards.

In its annual report on human rights in 155 countries and territories, the organisation also criticised the United Nations Security Council, saying it has failed to show the kind of courage that ordinary people have showed during the Arab Spring last year.

For Ireland, Amnesty raised concerns about the lack of prosecutions in the reported cases of violence against children in the State’s religious-run institutions.

It noted the publication of the Cloyne report which said that two-thirds of allegations about clerical sex abuse in the diocese between 1996 and 2009 were not forwarded to Gardaí.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

A Jackson County judge on Wednesday set a June hearing to hear lawyers discuss evidence questions in the misdemeanor case against Kansas City’s Catholic bishop and the diocese he serves.

Judge John Torrence blocked out two hours for arguments at the June 15 hearing, according to Jackson County court records.

Bishop Robert W. Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City St. Joseph each face one count of failure to report suspicions of child abuse. The charges relate to how they handled the Rev. Shawn Ratigan case between December 2010 and May 2011.

Ratigan faces state and federal child pornography charges related to dozens of lewd photos of young girls that diocesan leaders found on his laptop computer.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

WESTERN Australia’s inquiry into child abuse at state-run boarding houses has been told of yet another depraved warden.

The inquiry, led by former Supreme Court Justice Peter Blaxell, has focused previously on events at the St Andrew’s Hostel in Katanning in the 1970s and 80s, where convicted pedophile brothers Dennis and Neil McKenna abused children in their care.

Details emerged on Wednesday of the bizarre behaviour of the late Roy Wenlock, who was warden at St Christopher’s Hostel at Northam, 100km northeast of Perth, from 1963 until 1977 when he was forced to resign.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A young victim of sexual abuse at a state-run boarding hostel in Western Australia says he tried to kill the warden who indecently assaulted him.

The victim, who was identified as “L” at an inquiry into events at the new defunct St Christopher’s Hostel in Northam from 1963 until 1977, also said he lost all faith in organised religion as a result of the abuse but still believed in god.

The inquiry centres on the bizarre behaviour of the late Roy Wenlock, who was the warden at the facility during this period until he was forced to resign.

Mr Wenlock, who was never charged or convicted of any sexual offence, would bring boys into his unit at the hostel and force them to wrestle with him in their underpants or with their shirts off in acts described by counsel assisting the inquiry, Philip Urquhart, as “simulated sexual intercourse”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Updated May 24, 2012

An inquiry investigating sexual abuse by a warden at a state-run hostel in regional Western Australia, has heard an Anglican Bishop knew about the warden’s alleged behaviour a year before he was sacked.

Roy Wenlock was the warden at Saint Christopher’s Hostel in Northam for 14 years during the 1960s and 70s.

The inquiry has been told he indecently assaulted boys until he was forced to resign in 1977.

Former boarders of the hostel have told the inquiry it was common knowledge among them that Wenlock was sexually abusing boys.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

By Erin Smith
Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The Vatican yesterday rejected bids from local groups to stave off the shuttering of a half-dozen Hub area churches, ruling that the Archdiocese of Boston has proven its case for closing the parishes.

The news came as just the latest blow in a seven-year battle by impassioned parishioners such as Lorenzo Grasso, a Eucharistic minister who has worshipped at one of the churches, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, for more than four decades.

Grasso is holding out one last hope that his beloved East Boston church will be spared in a final appeal to the higher Vatican Court, the Apostolic Signatura. But last night, he took time with Herald reporter Erin Smith to reflect on what Our Lady of Mount Carmel has meant to him and his family.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

May 23, 2012|Lisa Wangsness

Parishioners of a half-dozen closed Roman Catholic churches fighting to reopen their parishes for many as eight years have suffered another setback, but they are not ready to give up yet.

A Vatican department has rejected all six groups’ appeals of a decision by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, to make the churches available for nonreligious use.

But five of the six churches plan to appeal to the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest court, according to their representatives.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

May. 23, 2012
By Brian Roewe

In Rome today (May 23), canon lawyers representing St. Patrick Parish of Cleveland, Ohio filed a motion demanding Bishop Richard G. Lennon immediately re-open the church and restore the parish, and if he won’t, have someone else do it.

The motion, a copy (translated from Italian) obtained by NCR, is the second filed by the parish since decrees came from the Congregation for the Clergy in early March ruling in favor of St. Patrick and 11 other parishes that Lennon had attempted to suppress during a string of closings in 2009.

Patricia Schulte-Singleton, a parishioner of St. Patrick and head of parish advocate group Endangered Catholics, said Lennon’s delaying action is “causing distress spiritually, emotionally, economically” for the parish and its parishioners.

“There has been no timetable, no definitive action plan, so you have to wonder when is this going to happen, is he going to stall, does he really want to do this even though he’s been ordered to do it by Rome,” she said.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Christian Century

May 23, 2012 by G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Religion News Service BOSTON (RNS) Groups of Boston-area Catholics who have waged an eight-year battle to block the sale of parish buildings are running out of options as the Vatican has rejected their appeals.

In rulings dated March through May, Rome’s Congregation for the Clergy upheld the Archdiocese of Boston’s plans to convert six parish buildings from sacred to profane (non-church) use.

Now parishioners, including vigil keepers who’ve occupied two church buildings round-the-clock since a wave of parish closures began in 2004, must decide whether to appeal one more time to the Vatican’s top court.

Five of the six groups are resolving to fight on, according to Peter Borre, co-founder of the Council of Parishes, which represents members of closed parishes. A sixth, St. Jeanne d’Arc in Lowell, has not yet decided on next steps, Borre said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Wall Street Journal

By PETER LOFTUS

PHILADELPHIA—A monsignor accused of covering up allegations that Roman Catholic priests sexually abused children testified at his trial Wednesday he had limited authority to take action against the priests he supervised, and was carrying out directions from his superiors.

“I did the best I could within the parameters that were given to me,” said Msgr. William Lynn, who served as secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004, a job that involved investigating abuse complaints against priests.

Msgr. Lynn took the witness stand for the first time Wednesday, nearly two months after the start of his trial on charges of endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy, to which he pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors say Msgr. Lynn failed to keep certain priests out of assignments involving contact with children, despite being aware of prior allegations of abuse or improper conduct against them. The monsignor doesn’t face abuse allegations himself.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The New York Times

By JON HURDLE

PHILADELPHIA — Msgr. William J. Lynn took the stand on Wednesday in a landmark trial to defend himself against allegations that he failed to prevent fellow Roman Catholic priests from abusing children during his tenure as secretary for clergy at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The most senior Catholic Church official in the United States to be tried on charges related to sexual abuse of children, Monsignor Lynn said that he had little authority to discipline accused priests and that power rested mainly with his superiors.

Asked by a defense lawyer, Thomas Bergstrom, whether he had the power to dismiss priests who were accused of abusing children, Monsignor Lynn replied that he could do so only if pedophilia had been diagnosed or “if they had admitted sexual abuse.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
San Francisco Chronicle

Associated Press

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Philadelphia —

A Roman Catholic church official conceded that a 1994 list he compiled of 35 priests suspected of sexually abusing children in the Philadelphia archdiocese included some “pretty sick individuals.”

Monsignor William Lynn took the stand in his defense Wednesday in a groundbreaking child-endangerment and conspiracy case. Prosecutors blame Lynn for helping keep those priests and many more in ministry, where they had access to countless other children.

Lynn testified that the head of the archdiocese forbade staff from telling accusers their alleged abuser had other victims. He said the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua wouldn’t let parishes announce the real reason an accused priest was being removed.

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NEW YORK
New York Magazine

By Margaret Hartmann

Brooklyn district attorney Charles Hynes has announced that he’ll push for a state law adding rabbis and other religious leaders to the list of professionals required to report allegations of sexual abuse to the authorities. Presumably, this has nothing to do with the Jewish Daily Forward reporting that Hynes was hiding the names of ultra-Orthodox Jews accused of sex crimes and the ensuing New York Times exposé.

Hynes became the subject of intense media scrutiny after he refused to release the names of 85 ultra-Orthodox Jews arrested for sex crimes, due to the “very tight-knit and insular” nature of the Brooklyn community. He was accused of having a far too cozy relationship with leaders of the religious community, and being more lenient with ultra-Orthodox Jewish abusers than others accused of sex crimes. Now Hynes is changing his tune. Last week he revealed plans for a crack down on witness intimidation in child sexual abuse cases in the ultra-Orthodox community (an idea proposed by former Mayor Ed Koch, who publicly criticized Hynes), and declaring that rabbis and other religious leaders should be mandatory reporters of abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Kensington and Chelsea Chronicle

Posted by Greg Burns on May 24

A NOTTING Hill woman has been praised by police for taking the witness stand in a court case against a priest who sexually assaulted her.

The 59-year-old woman was a parishioner at the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church of St Mary of Debre Tsion, in Battersea.

The church was led by Gebrehana Semre (pictured) who subsequently used his position to visit the woman in September 2010 to bless her home and welcome her into the church.

He told her that for the blessing to be successful she would need to be naked. Although uncomfortable with his demand, the victim trusted the clergyman and went along with it.

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APPLETON (WI)
The Northwestern

Written by
Jim Collar
Gannett Wisconsin Media

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 was about bringing long-held secrets to light, not money.

Todd and Troy Merryfield, who dropped a claim Wednesday seeking punitive damages, the awards handed down in civil cases as punishment for wrongdoing.

They explained pulling back the church’s “veil of secrecy” was far more important than the $700,000 they were awarded already in the lawsuit after a jury decided Tuesday the church had covered up its knowledge of sexual abuse committed by the Rev. John Feeney before he abused the Merryfields.

The Merryfields implored the diocese to make public all it knows about past sexual abuses committed by clergy.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By RAY RIVERA

Published: May 23, 2012

The Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, said Wednesday that he would push for state legislation to add rabbis and other religious leaders to the list of professionals required to report allegations of sexual abuse to law enforcement authorities.

The move comes as Mr. Hynes, the city’s longest-serving district attorney, has come under intense scrutiny for his handling of sexual abuse cases in the politically powerful ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. A recent article in The New York Times showed that Mr. Hynes did not object when Agudath Israel of America, an organization representing various Hasidic and other ultra-Orthodox factions, told him last summer that it was instructing adherent Jews to get permission from a rabbi before reporting allegations of sexual abuse to the authorities.

Brooklyn is home to the largest concentration of ultra-Orthodox Jews outside of Israel. The issue of child sexual abuse has divided the community in recent years, and Mr. Hynes has become a central figure in the drama. Victims’ advocates accuse him of bending to the will of the rabbis, many of whom have long insisted that crimes like sexual abuse be handled by rabbinical authorities, who often do not report their findings to the police or prosecutors.

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CANADA
The Cape Breton Post

Published on May 23, 2012
Staff ~ The Cape Breton Post

Retired religious studies professor Charles MacDonald presented a series of talks earlier this year on the troubled state of the Roman Catholic Church and how the Church might be resuscitated.

In a recent letter to the editor, Pat Bates quoted MacDonald as describing the Church of yesterday in this way: “Power rested with the pastors in their glebe houses and the bishop in his residence. The lay people were passive — in their place — the pews.”

The pendulum has swung, and the obsequious parishioner of yesteryear is increasing rare, due in no small part to an ever-widening picture of the repugnant actions of some of those former worthies.

Locally, anxiety among parishioners was originally borne out of ever-increasing sexual abuse allegations — and convictions — against priests.

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BEND (OR)
KTVZ

[with video]

By John Hendricks, KTVZ.COM

BEND, Ore. — In light of a case now in the court system, the biggest challenge for newly ordained Bishop Liam Cary of the Diocese of Baker has ahead of him is making sure his new diocese is compliant with a charter that was put in place to protect kids from sexual abuse.

Over the years, dozens of sex abuse cases involving Catholic priests and children have come to light nationally, four within the Diocese of Baker.

Cary, who was ordained last Friday, is taking that role at an interesting time.

A 2011 report by the United Conference of Catholic Bishops said the Baker Diocese was one of two that refused to be audited for a program designed to curb sexual abuse within the church.

Since the report was published, Bishop Cary says things have changed.

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TULSA (OK)
Tulsa World

By BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer
Published: 5/24/2012

Tulsa County District Judge Daman H. Cantrell ruled Monday in favor of Bishop Edward J. Slattery and the Diocese of Tulsa in a lawsuit filed against them by an alleged victim of sexual abuse and his father.

“This is the end of the case, unless there is an appeal,” said attorney Joel Wohlgemuth, who represented Slattery and the diocese.

He said the judge granted his motion for summary judgment, ruling in favor of the defendants after determining that there were no disputed facts in the case that would require a jury trial.

Kelly Kirk and his father, Gordon Kirk, alleged that Slattery and the diocese inflicted intentional emotional distress on them. Kelly Kirk also alleged invasion of privacy.

The accusations stem from a 2002 slander lawsuit against the Kirks filed by the Rev. Paul Eichhoff, a priest in the diocese. As a result of that lawsuit, the Kirks’ names were made public.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Georgia Bulletin

[Archive of Franciscan Sex Abuse in the Province of St. Barbara – BishopAccountability.org]

LOS ANGELES (CNS) — More than 8,500 pages of material detailing claims of sexual abuse by a group of Franciscan priests and brothers in California were made public May 23. The release of the documents was one unfinished item of business from a 2006 court settlement that awarded $28 million, the vast majority of it from the St. Barbara Province of the Franciscan Friars and Brothers, to settle abuse claims from 25 plaintiffs. The province, based in Oakland, used the proceeds from the sale of a closed seminary, where many of the incidents were alleged to have occurred, to help finance the settlement. The high school seminary closed in 1987. As part of the settlement, the Franciscans agreed to let a judge review for possible public dissemination internal church documents as well as depositions in the litigation, showing how the order handled sexual abuse allegations among its clerics. None of the six priests and three brothers cited in the documents are in active ministry. Some are dead. Others are living at Franciscan residences and restricted from leaving the grounds unaccompanied. In the archive are personnel, psychological, confidential and laicization files, as well as witness depositions.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

At 11:10 a.m. Wednesday in Courtroom 304 of the Criminal Justice Center, defense lawyer Thomas Bersgstrom stood up and made a surprise announcement.

“Your Honor, the defense calls Msgr. Lynn.”

The monsignor left the defense table, where he had been held hostage the past eight weeks, and walked over to the witness stand to testify in his own defense.

The courtroom was packed with relatives and men in collars, who turned out to display their support for the archdiocese’s former secretary for clergy. Lynn is on trial for conspiracy to endanger the welfare of children by allowing abuser priests to continue in ministry. He is the first Catholic administrator in the country to be charged for allegedly covering up sex abuse of minors by priests.

In three hours on the witness stand, the monsignor appeared relaxed, smiled often, and never raised his voice, even when the prosecutor was tossing fastballs at his head.

He said he stayed on the job as secretary for clergy for 12 years because, “I thought I was helping people.” Lynn asserted that he provided pastoral care to fellow priests, as well as aid and counseling to victims of sex abuse.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

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

Msgr. William J. Lynn took the witness stand at his landmark trial Wednesday, asserting he “did my best” to weed out sexually abusive priests and battling with a prosecutor who painted him as a liar more concerned with protecting the church than children.

During hours of tense testimony in a Common Pleas courtroom, Lynn tried to counter charges that he spent a dozen years burying sex-abuse claims and shuffling accused priests around the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

He repeatedly told jurors that his bosses, notably Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, directed the church’s response to child-sex abuse allegations, and he denied knowingly putting children in harm’s way.

“I thought I was helping people,” Lynn said. “I thought I was helping priests, and in those circumstances, I thought I was helping victims, as much as I could.”

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on May 23, 2012

We’re disappointed that Fr. Castillo is not facing more severe consequences for his serious wrongdoing.

Even if the prosecutor’s right and Fr. Castillo didn’t intend to be around kids, he could have walked away. He knows the rules and restrictions. And he chose to ignore them. In fact, he violated the most important rule of all for child molesters: he chose to be around kids.

For that, we believe he should have been hit with the toughest penalty possible.

And we call on every single current and former Catholic church official or member who saw, suspected or suffered Castillo s crimes to speak up, call police, expose wrongdoing, protect others and start healing. We strongly suspect that he could – and should – be prosecuted for other sex crimes. And we suspect that aggressive outreach might uncover church employees who might be prosecuted for obstruction of justice, destroying evidence, witness tampering or similar charges.

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CALIFORNIA
KEYT

[Archive of Franciscan Sex Abuse in the Province of St. Barbara – BishopAccountability.org]

Written by KEY News Staff

In 2006 the Franciscan order settled for 28-million dollars with plaintiffs who alleged abuse by priests is Santa Barbara primarily at what was once Saint Anthony’s Seminary. Documents that largely lead to that settlement are helping make their case.

For the first time ever more than eight thousand pages of records documenting a history of catholic priest sexual abuse in Santa Barbara are available to the public on line.

The documents name nine priests who committed sexual abuse and includes personal and psychological profiles of the perpetrators. Documents also contain depositions from victims and witnesses.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

St. Francis of Assisi’s Prayer for Peace is misleading to children because it gives “holy” clouts to Franciscan priests and brothers garbed in brown angelic robes.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is darkness let me sow light…

oh yeah? What light?

St. Francis Prayer for Peace is the Devil’s prayer dressed as an angel. Chidlren are better off to pray the JP2 Army Prayer:

JP2 Army with me, JP2 Army before me, JP2 Army behind me,

JP2 Army in me, JP2 Army beneath me, JP2 Army above me,

JP2 Army on my right, JP2 Army on my left,

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Ten years after resigning in disgrace, Archdiocese still fighting to keep Weakland’s secrets

Thursday marks a decade since the former Archbishop’s half a million dollar hush money payout was revealed, catapulting the Milwaukee Archdiocese into a decade of crisis

Federal Judge Kelley now indicating she is ready to release to the public key portions of Weakland’s recent testimony

But new motion in federal bankruptcy court by church lawyers seeks again to keep testimony sealed

Testimony likely includes never before known details of Weakland’s 1998 meetings with Vatican officials and Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, about abusive priests, including serial predator of deaf children, Fr. Lawrence Murphy

Victims, in marking anniversary, will renew efforts to rename the Cathedral’s “Weakland Center” and remove the “Weakland Shrine” from the Cathedral altar

WHO
Victim/survivors of childhood sexual violence by clergy of the Milwaukee archdiocese, including leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org/SNAPwisconsin.com) will hold a sidewalk press conference in front of the “Archbishop Weakland Center” of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist marking the tenth anniversary of Weakland’s resignation and discuss:

–progress and setbacks made in resolving the sex abuse crisis for victims and the church over the past decade;

–recent developments in the archdiocesan bankruptcy, including new efforts by the current Milwaukee Archbishop, Jerome Listecki, to keep Weakland’s recent testimony from public release, including what are likely the first questions posed under oath of meetings between Weakland and high level Vatican officials, including Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI about sex abuse cases in Milwaukee;

–this week’s landmark decision by an Appleton jury to rule a Wisconsin diocese committed fraud in concealing sex offender clerics and what that decision might mean for the 570 victim/survivors who have filed claims; and

–once again call on Archbishop Jerome Listecki to change the name of the Cathedral’s central complex which is designated in honor of Weakland, as well as remove a large bronze relief, commissioned by Weakland, which depicts him as shepherd and protector of children and serves as a pedestal for one of the altar’s inside the Cathedral church.

WHEN
Thursday, May 24, 1:30 p.m.

WHERE
831 N. Van Buren Street, in front of the sign for the “Archbishop Weakland Center” located on the East side of the St. John the Evangelist Cathedral Complex

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

ELAINE KEOGH

A FORMER priest has admitted indecently assaulting a number of boys at different locations in the diocese of Meath, including a parochial house.

At Trim Circuit Court yesterday, Raymond Brady (77), Baltrasna, Oldcastle, Co Meath, admitted offences related to 11 individuals.

When the case was called, State prosecutor Carl Hanahoe said guilty pleas were being entered in relation to 11 offences. He said these pleas were acceptable to the prosecution on the basis of full facts being heard at the sentencing hearing later this year.

The court was told the injured parties did not wish to be identified, and Judge Michael O’Shea imposed reporting restrictions.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin and Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

Msgr. William J. Lynn took the witness stand at his landmark trial Wednesday, asserting he “did my best” to weed out sexually abusive priests and battling with a prosecutor who painted him as a liar more concerned with protecting the church than children.

During hours of tense testimony in a Common Pleas courtroom, Lynn tried to counter charges that he spent a dozen years burying sex-abuse claims and shuffling accused priests around the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

He repeatedly told jurors that his bosses, notably Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, directed the church’s response to child-sex abuse allegations, and he denied knowingly putting children in harm’s way.

“I thought I was helping people,” Lynn said. “I thought I was helping priests, and in those circumstances, I thought I was helping victims, as much as I could.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CNN

By Sarah Hoye, CNN

updated 6:57 PM EDT, Wed May 23, 2012

Philadelphia (CNN) — The highest-ranking cleric to be charged with child endangerment testified Wednesday in the landmark child sexual abuse and conspiracy trial in which he and another Philadelphia priest are defendants.

Dressed in clerical garb, Monsignor William Lynn took the stand inside the packed Common Pleas courtroom under the watchful eye of Judge Teresa Sarmina. He was calm, confident and very matter-of-fact during direct examination by one of his defense attorneys, Thomas Bergstrom.

“I felt I was helping priests and helping victims as best I could,” Lynn told jurors, swiveling in the witness chair.

Lynn is accused of knowingly allowing dangerous priests to continue in the ministry in roles in which they had access to children. Also on trial is the Rev. James Brennan, who is accused of the attempted rape of a 14-year-old. Both Brennan and Lynn have pleaded not guilty.

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UNITED STATES
A Ram in the Thicket

By Ryan A. MacDonald

In October, 2000, Mr. Leo Demers – then a senior editor for a PBS-Boston television station that produced the news program, “Frontline,” approached the Diocese of Manchester after being contacted by “Frontline” producers with an interest in the case of longly imprisoned priest, Father Gordon MacRae. Mr. Demers first called Auxiliary Bishop Francis Christian who flatly refused to discuss any aspect of the MacRae case. Shortly after, Mr. Demers was then summoned to meet with Bishop John McCormack. According to a sworn affidavit of Mr. Demers, Bishop McCormack informed him in this meeting:

“What I am about to tell you must never leave this room. I believe Father MacRae is innocent and his accusers likely lied, but there is nothing I can do to change a jury verdict.”

Mr. Demers decided that he could not in conscience honor the secrecy demand of his bishop when two years later he learned that the bishop sent the case of Father MacRae to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome seeking his canonical dismissal from the priesthood based upon no evidence other than the fact of his convictions.

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UNITED STATES
Holy Souls Hermitage

♬ “Kill the priest! ♬ Kill the priest!” ♬ … That’s the raucus, thunderous chant that an accused priest entering his prison cell-block for the first time might hear. That was the foot-stomping, cage-rattling greeting which Father Gordon MacRae heard. He said that it continued on into the night, that it was maddening (here and about). I bet it was maddening, and also character building. Our Lord said something about being slandered in the beatitudes, and there is, by the way, beatitude in the beatitudes (here: Yikes!). I am reminded of Saint Bernadette. She was also mocked, even while many in her family were dying in their poverty:

Excuse my French! I’ll rarely tolerate bad language. Sometimes it’s necessary to prove a point. For instance, the present Rector of the Sanctuaries of Our Lady of Lourdes over in France (where I was a chaplain for two years) gathered the hundreds of workers of the shrines to tell them about Saint Bernadette, emphasizing her name around town back in the day. He related — fully five times during his speech — that she was called, as only the French can manage, La Petite Merdeuse (“The Little Shit”). She and her family lived in an abandoned jail cell whose only window opened on to a mountain of manure, which was also enclosed. It was dark and dank and stank to high heaven. They were “the shit family” and the little saint was called “The Little Shit” by everyone in town. That’s what she suffered. I don’t mind saying it. Her being mocked, as well as Father MacRae being mocked, will come up at the last judgment.

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UNITED STATES
Holy Souls Hermitage

This post was put together by Father George David Byers (About) on Holy Souls Hermitage. Let me say from the start that I’m proud to stand by my fellow priest, Father Gordon MacRae (About) on These Stone Walls, truly a priest’s priest, who provided me with some of the material for this post. I include a photo of myself here as well. I’m not afraid that my picture will be associated with this story. Someone, somewhere has to stand up for the truth. Are there risks with that? Sure. But that’s THE FULL BEATITUDE of the beatitudes in the priesthood.

What is written here is in need of some Pulitzer type investigative journalism. And many journalists have written on the abuse crisis, winning Pulitzers for their efforts. Here’s another opportunity.

What is written here will make very many people livid with anger. Yet, many more will rejoice. This isn’t about sensationalism or disputable points among scholars. This is about the New Evangelization. Scarey for some. For others, that which puts one directly before our crucified and risen Lord Jesus. This is also a matter for civil and criminal courts and ecclesiastic tribunals involving, in the end, the intervention of the Holy Father, for many bishops will be implicated in what is put forth in this post, and rightly so. My incentive is justice and mercy. Period.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

[with audio]

SANTA BARBARA (CBS) — Thousands of confidential religious files documenting sexual abuse among clergy members in the Roman Catholic church were made made public on Wednesday.

KNX 1070′s Margret Carrero reports the move marks the largest release of religious order documents in the history of the sexual abuse crisis.

The 8,500-page documents posted on BishopAccountability.org includes personnel files of nine Franciscan brothers and priests accused of abusing dozens of children over several decades at St. Anthony’s and the Old Mission in Santa Barbara.

An attorney for the Franciscans said the order was proactive in investigating abuse claims and that the files now made public were divulged to the plaintiffs much earlier.

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CALIFORNIA
Washington Post

Confidential files tell story of systemic abuse within Franciscan religious order

[Archive of Franciscan Sex Abuse in the Province of St. Barbara – BishopAccountability.org]

[with video]

By 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.

Sexual abuse at a Santa Barbara, Calif. boarding school is detailed in more than 4,000 pages from the confidential files of nine Franciscan religious brothers who were accused of abuse.

The 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 Associated Press, 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.

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CALIFORNIA
San Antonio Express-News

GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press

Updated 02:50 p.m., Wednesday, May 23, 2012

LOS ANGELES (AP) — 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 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 Associated Press, 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.

The documents show how abuse in a religious order can be closely tied to the formation of children who grow up to become brothers and priests, said Terence McKiernan, founder and co-director of Bishop Accountability.org, which collects documents on clergy sex abuse and posted the Franciscan files online Wednesday.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Michael O’Malley, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio —

Cleveland Catholic Bishop Richard Lennon said Wednesday that he hopes to have all the closed churches that won their Vatican appeals reopened by the beginning of August.

He said he wants to begin opening some of them by mid -June. And “by the first of August,” Lennon said. “Done.”

The bishop said that one of the 12 churches – St. Mary’s in Lorain – had appealed only the changing of its name — now Mary Mother of God — after he merged it with another parish.

The bishop made his statements to the editorial board of The Plain Dealer. It was the first time he has publicly discussed a timetable for reopening the churches, which have been closed for two years or more.

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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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