ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Globe and Mail (Canada)

Vatican City— The Associated Press

Published Friday, Jan. 06, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new cardinals Friday, including Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins.

Cardinals are the pope’s top advisers, the elite group of churchmen who will eventually elect Benedict’s successor. Of the 22, 18 are under the age of 80 — raising to 125 the number of cardinals eligible to vote in the next papal conclave. Cardinals over 80 are not allowed to vote on the next pope.

Archbishop Collins, 61, who rose through the church in Ontario and then Alberta before being installed Archbishop of Toronto in 2007, has denounced clerical sexual abuses and the church’s failure to respond adequately to them as “great scandals.”

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VATICAN CITY
New York Post

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new cardinals Friday, including prelates in such key posts as New York and Hong Kong and a large group of Italians holding major Vatican positions.

The Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan, and former Archbishop of Baltimore, Edwin O’Brien, were among those named by the pope.

Dolan said in a statement, “Over the Christmas holy days, I finished a new biography of President Kennedy and I recalled his reply to someone who sincerely congratulated him on the honor of the presidency. ‘Thank you,’ John Kennedy replied, ‘but I don’t look at it so much as an honor, but as a call to higher service.’

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By Christina Boyle / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Friday, January 6 2012

Archbishop Timothy Dolan will be elevated to a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI.

Dolan will accept the prestigious title from the head of the Roman Catholic Church at a formal ceremony at the Vatican in Rome next month, the Archdiocese of New York announced Friday.

He is among 22 new cardinals named by Pope Benedict from cities around the globe, including Hong Kong, Berlin, Prague, Toronto and Florence.

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Pope Benedict the XVI has named 22 new cardinals and among them, Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Pope Benedict will elevate him to cardinal along with 21 others from Hong Kong, Berlin, Prague and from some key Vatican offices.

Dolan was named archbishop of new york by Pope Benedict in February of 2009. He had earlier served as archbishop of Milwaukee after being named to the post by Pope John Paul II in 2002.

Dolan released a statement following the announcement:

On this “Twelfth Day of Christmas” the traditional celebration of the Epiphany, I have received a gift from Pope Benedict XVI, as he announced just a couple of hours ago at the end of Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica that I would be among those to become a cardinal in Rome at the consistory of February 18th.

Yes, I am honored, humbled, and grateful, …but, let’s be frank: this is not about Timothy Dolan; this is an honor from the Holy Father to the Archdiocese of New York, and to all our cherished friends and neighbors who call this great community home.

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MALTA
DI-VE

Fr. Prospero Grech was nominated to become a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope said he would appoint new cardinals after today’s Angelus.

Fr.Prospero Grech was born in Vittoriosa and at the moment he lives in Rome. Fr. Grech, 86 years old studied at the Lyceum and served during the war as a gunner the Home Guard of the University during war. It was in 1943 when he joined the Augustinian Order. He became a priest seven years later while in Rome.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

[with complete list]

by John L Allen Jr on Jan. 06, 2012 NCR Today

Pope Benedict XVI today announced the names of 22 new cardinals, including 18 under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote for the next pope. The list includes two Americans: Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, and Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and the former archbishop of Baltimore.

The consistory, the event in which these nominees will formally enter the College of Cardinals, is set for Rome on Feb. 18-19.

Once again, Benedict’s choices are top-heavy with Italians (seven of the 18 voting cardinals), Vatican officials (ten) and Europeans (twelve). Three also come from North America, including Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto along with Dolan and O’Brien.

Only three of the new cardinals come from outside the West: João Bráz de Aviz, a Brazilian who heads the Vatican office for religious life; John Tong Hon, bishop of Hong Kong; and George Alencherry, archbishop of the Syro-Malabar church in India.

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CZECH REPUBLIC
Czech Happenings

Prague – Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka has become cardinal, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI at the close of a mass today, the Prague Archbishopric told CTK.

To date the Czech Republic has had only one cardinal, Miloslav Vlk.

Duka has become the 22nd cardinal coming from the Bohemian and Moravian dioceses.

Duka, 68, will receive the appointing decree in February.

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NEW YORK
Wall Street Journal

Associated Press

NEW YORK — New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan has been named cardinal by the Vatican.

Dolan is one of 22 prelates who will be elevated to cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church in a formal ceremony Feb. 18.

Pope Benedict XVI made the announcement on Friday following an Epiphany Mass that ends the Vatican’s top Christmas celebrations.

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VATICAN CITY
Monsters and Critics

Vatican City – Pope Benedict XVI on Friday named 22 new cardinals, with their official installation ceremony set for February 18.

They include prelates from New York, Berlin, Toronto, Prague and Kerala, India. Eighteen of the new cardinals are under the age of 80, which makes them eligible, for now, to take part in a conclave to elect a successor to the current pontiff. That right expires after their 80th birthday.

The Vatican website says Benedict XVI has appointed 84 cardinals since his election in 2005.

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CANADA
Vancouver Sun

Pope Benedict XVI on Friday named, “with great joy,” a Canadian and 21 others to the College of Cardinals.

The Archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Collins, said he was honoured to be named as a member of the Catholic Church’s inner circle.

“I am grateful for the trust he has placed in me, and recognize this honour as a sign of his esteem for the role of Canada and of the Archdiocese of Toronto in the universal Church,” Collins said in a statement.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

“The world, with all its resources, is incapable of providing humanity with the light to guide it on its path”, said Pope Benedict XVI Friday marking the Feast of the Epiphany with pilgrims present in St Peter’s Square for the midday Angelus., during which he also announced a consistory for the creation of new cardinals.

“We can see as much in our day”, he continued “Western civilization seems to have lost its way, it is sailing blind. But the Church, through the Word of God, sees through this fog. She does not possess any technical solutions, but keeps Her eyes fixed on the goal, and offers the light of the Gospel to all people of good will, to every nation and culture”.

After the Marian prayer, the pontiff addressed best wishes to the Eastern Churches, which according to the Julian calendar, celebrate Christmas tomorrow. “May every family and every community – the Pope said – be full of the light and peace of Christ the Saviour.”

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VATICAN CITY
IBN Live (India)

Vatican City: Pope Benedict, putting his stamp on the future of Roman Catholicism, named 22 new cardinals on Friday, the red-hatted “princes of the Church” who are his closest aides and will one day choose his successor.

One of the most prominent on the list is Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York. Others are from Italy, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, India, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Germany, China, Romania, Belgium, and Malta.

They include the archbishops of Toronto, Prague, Utrecht, Florence, Berlin and Hong Kong. The head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic rite in India, George Alencherry, was also elevated to cardinal.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Pope Benedict, putting his stamp on the future of Roman Catholicism, named 22 new cardinals on Friday, the red-hatted “princes of the Church” who are his closest aides and will one day choose his successor.

One of the most prominent on the list is Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York. Others are from Italy, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, India, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands,
Germany, China, Romania, Belgium, and Malta.

They include the archbishops of Toronto, Prague, Utrecht, Florence, Berlin and Hong Kong. The head of the Siro-Malabar Catholic rite in India was also elevated to cardinal.

Another new American cardinal is Edwin O’Brien, head of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, a group that is a major funder of the church in the Holy Land.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

Nel corso dell’Angelus di oggi, il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI ha annunciato per il prossimo 18 febbraio un Concistoro nel quale procederà alla nomina di ventidue nuovi Cardinali.
Queste le parole del Papa:

PAROLE DEL SANTO PADRE

Ed ora, con grande gioia, annuncio che il prossimo 18 febbraio terrò un Concistoro nel quale nominerò 22 nuovi Membri del Collegio Cardinalizio.

Come è noto, i Cardinali hanno il compito di aiutare il Successore di Pietro nello svolgimento del suo Ministero di confermare i fratelli nella fede e di essere principio e fondamento dell’unità e della comunione della Chiesa.

Ecco i nomi dei nuovi Porporati:

1. Mons. FERNANDO FILONI, Prefetto della Congregazione per l’Evangelizzazione dei Popoli;

2. Mons. MANUEL MONTEIRO DE CASTRO, Penitenziere Maggiore;

3. Mons. SANTOS ABRIL Y CASTELLÓ, Arciprete della Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore;

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

[with complete list]

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new cardinals Friday, including prelates in such key posts as New York and Hong Kong and a large group of Italians holding major Vatican positions.

Cardinals are the pope’s top advisers, the elite group of churchmen who will eventually elect Benedict’s successor. Of the 22, 18 are under the age of 80 — raising to 125 the number of cardinals eligible to vote in the next papal conclave. Cardinals over 80 are not allowed to vote on the next pope.

Other new cardinals come from Berlin, Prague, Toronto and Florence, Italy.

The Vatican officials include a Brazilian prelate who heads the office for Consecrated Life.

The pope announced the names “with great joy” following an Epiphany Mass that ended the Vatican’s main Christmas celebrations. He said they will be formally elevated at a Feb. 18 ceremony in Rome.

The list includes two Americans: Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York and Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and the former archbishop of Baltimore.

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VATICAN CITY
My Fox Houston

(NewsCore) – Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new Roman Catholic cardinals Friday, including two Americans, FOX News Channel reported.

The Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan, and former Archbishop of Baltimore, Edwin O’Brien, were among those named by the pope.

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BOSTON (MA)
Catholic Culture

January 06, 2012

A woman assaulted by a Boston priest when she was 15 has described how the words of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and the compassion of Pope Benedict during a 2008 meeting in Washington have strengthened her faith. The priest–Kelvin Iguabita–is serving a prison sentence and has been laicized.

“As we waited in the chapel of the apostolic nunciature, I fingered a pair of my mother’s rosary beads, praying to the Blessed Mother for the grace to say the ‘right thing’ to the Pope,” the victim recounted, adding:

The Pontiff entered the room, and I couldn’t take my eyes off the slight, old, humble-looking man. He was there for survivors everywhere, conveying a message of love and hope to the world and to the Church brought to its knees by the sex-abuse scandal. He knelt at the altar and prayed with us for a few moments.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE CATHOLIC Church “must continue to express the depth of our sorrow and contrition for how badly we failed those entrusted to our care,” Cardinal Seán O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, has said.

“As leaders in the church we must accept our responsibility for those failings and clearly acknowledge that church leadership could have and should have responded more quickly and more forcefully.”

He was speaking in a letter marking the 10th anniversary of revelations by the Boston Globe newspaper of an extensive cover- up of clerical child sex abuse by archdiocesan authorities there, which led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law.

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ALABASTER (AL)
The Birmingham News

By Veronica Kennedy — The Birmingham News

ALABASTER, Alabama — Shelby County School Superintendent Randy Fuller said Thursday he is stunned that a retired Alabaster teacher told police he had sexually molested more than 20 of his former students.

Alabaster police arrested Daniel Montague Acker Jr., 49, Wednesday and charged him with three counts of first-degree child sexual abuse. He is in the Shelby County Jail on $225,000 bond.

“We can only say that the allegations are shocking,” Fuller said. “We, as a school district, understand that child abuse is horrible with devastating consequences to victims and their families. …

In 1992, the younger Acker, then a 30-year-old youth minister at Westwood Baptist Church and a fourth-grade teacher at Thompson Elementary, was charged after a neighbor’s child who was in his class said Acker had touched her improperly at her home.

The school board suspended Acker with pay until the case was decided. A grand jury declined to indict him on the charge, and the school board decided to reinstate him after a full day of hearings.

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DIBBLE (OK)
The Oklahoman

BY SHEILA STOGSDILL sheilastogsdill@sbcglobal.net
Published: January 6, 2012

DIBBLE — A former church school custodian and teacher will stand trial on charges he raped and molested five female students, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Dale Allan Elledge, 74, of Blanchard, was charged May 25, 2010, in McClain County with 10 counts of lewd molestation and four counts of first degree rape by instrumentation.

Two counts of lewd molestation were dismissed on Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Jeff Virgin said. The accusations cover a period from 1998 to 2005, he said.

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COSTA RICA
Tico Times

An international arrest warrant and fresh charges of sexual abuse against a minor were not enough to keep Dr. German Enrique Moreno in jail. Costa Rican authorities quietly released Moreno from preventive detention on Dec. 23, after the plaintiff in the case, a minor at the time the alleged abuse took place, agreed to an undisclosed financial settlement.

Moreno was arrested Aug. 22 on charges that he allegedly sexually assaulted the minor, who is now 19.

Andrea Marín, a spokeswoman from the Supreme Court, confirmed the deal that allowed Moreno to walk, despite an outstanding Interpol arrest warrant on similar charges in the United States (TT, Aug. 26, 22, 19, 12, 9, 2011). …

Moreno was arrested again in 2005 in Houston, Texas, in the U.S., on charges of sexually abusing at least seven victims, all minors at the time. Through a clinic and at a local church, Moreno had contact with dozens of other underage boys. He also practiced medicine without a license.

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UNITED STATES
AlterNet

January 5, 2012

David Morris

When a totalitarian regime aids and abets the rape of tens of thousands of children one would expect it to be shunned by governments and citizens alike. And any statements it might issue on matters of morality accorded no respect.

Why should we make an exception when the regime is the Catholic Church?

That the Roman Catholic Church is totalitarian is undeniable. Church law itself makes this clear. Canon 331 declares the Pope “the head of the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ, and the pastor of the universal Church on earth. By virtue of his office he possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.”

Canon 333 emphasizes the remarkable power this institution endows in one man, “No appeal or recourse is permitted against a sentence or decree of the Roman Pontiff.”

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CALIFORNIA
KGO

[with video]

Carolyn Tyler

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A precedent-setting case being held in front of California’s highest court could expose the Roman Catholic Diocese to more sex abuse lawsuits.

The case is examining the state’s statute of limitations that put time limits on when plaintiffs can file civil suits. There were conflicting lower court rulings on this specific case, so the Diocese of Oakland asked the Supreme Court to step in.

Tim Lennon says he was abused by a Roman Catholic priest when he was a young boy, but it took him 30 years to come forward.

“This causes severe injury that have a lifelong effect, crippling injury and sometimes, you don’t understand that until decades later,” he told ABC7.

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

[link to court documents via SNAP]

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

Lawyers for the Archdiocese of St. Louis subpoenaed an official with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests this week in what the organization called a pattern by Missouri bishops intended to cripple its ability to help victims of clergy abuse.

The move follows a similar, and successful, one by attorneys across the state in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph that forced the group’s director, David Clohessy, to sit for a deposition Monday in an ongoing abuse case in that diocese.

But attorneys for the St. Louis archdiocese said Thursday that the subpoena it sent to Barbara Dorris, the group’s St. Louis-based outreach director, was “particular to the case involved,” and “not a new way of doing things.”

The subpoena “is intended to be narrow and only applicable to this case and it’s not a fishing expedition,” said Bernard Huger, an attorney for the archdiocese. He said the subpoena came so soon after the Kansas City case only to protect the information the archdiocese seeks in its case from being destroyed.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Sacramento Bee

By Cynthia Hubert
chubert@sacbee.com

By Cynthia Hubert
The Sacramento Bee

A young priest accused of molesting a teenage girl stood, head bowed, inside a Sacramento courtroom jail cell Thursday as lawyers argued whether he was a threat to the community.

During a contentious bail hearing on behalf of the Rev. Uriel Ojeda, a deputy district attorney told Judge Marjorie Koller that the priest had confessed to sexually abusing the girl, who belonged to the Woodland parish where he served until 2009. Prosecutor Allison Dunham said the priest confessed to an investigator for the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento shortly after being informed of the allegations.

“The defendant admitted to molesting the child,” Dunham said.

Ojeda’s lawyer, Sacramento defense attorney Jesse Ortiz, disputed Dunham’s account and said his client is being punished by diocesan officials who dislike him.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

by FAITH HAKESLEY JOHNSTON
01/05/2012

My life has been a test of faith and strength. Like countless other individuals who have survived the trauma of abuse, I have fought through hard times and found myself waging a battle that often seemed unwinnable. At age 15, while working as a secretary in a parish rectory, I endured months of sexual abuse at the hands of the now-laicized Father Kelvin Iguabita.

Nothing could ever fully express the suffering, anguish and betrayal a victim feels. Only someone who has experienced abuse can fully understand the powerful manipulation of an abuser.

I had been raised in a Catholic home where prayer and the sacraments were a part of everyday life. I had never really doubted my faith until the abuse began. Afterward, I hated God for “allowing” it to happen. Indeed, the priesthood — a vocation I once held in high esteem — became something disgusting. I agonized over my decision to tell someone about the abuse. I truly believed that even my closest loved ones would turn against me.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

FORMER PRIEST Peter Kennedy (72), who was sent to Britain from Brazil, is to fight an extradition order to Ireland granted against him at a London Magistrates Court in Westminster yesterday.

Mr Kennedy is a former member of St Patrick’s Missionary Society at Kiltegan, Co Wicklow, and comes from Ballinahown, Co Westmeath. He faces child abuse allegations from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, involving at least 18 people who gardaí have taken statements from.

Ordained in 1964, he was removed from active ministry in 1986 following persistent complaints of sexual abuse dating to the late 1960s when he was a missionary priest in Kenya.

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CALIFORNIA
ABC News

By LISA LEFF Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO January 6, 2012 (AP)

Six brothers who say they were sexually abused by a priest decades ago asked the California Supreme Court on Thursday to let them sue the Catholic diocese that allegedly knew the priest molested children. If justices side with them, the state could see a rash of new clergy abuse lawsuits by long-ago victims against the Catholic Church and others.

At issue in the case are two competing provisions of state law: one that allows adults who only recently connected their psychological problems to what happened to them as children to seek damages against so-called third-party defendants and another that said they could do so only if they were below a certain age.

The brothers, now in their 40s and 50s, allege they were molested by an Oakland priest during the 1970s but didn’t link it to their ongoing distress until 2006. The priest, Donald Broderson, was forced to retire amid abuse allegations in 1993 and died in 2010.

Although legal time limits generally prevent plaintiffs from bringing civil complaints based on long-ago events, the California Legislature has expanded the statute of limitations for child abuse lawsuits several times during the last 25 years to make it easier for victims of childhood abuse to pursue their claims.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Bob Jordan
Statehouse Bureau

TRENTON — An Assembly committee Thursday advanced a bill that could widen opportunities for lawsuits to be filed by adults who were victims of childhood sexual abuse.

The measure would eliminate the two-year statute of limitations for civil action on abuse acts and expand the categories of persons, beyond the predator, who could be held liable.

For instance, under the legislation trustees and employees of an organization who know about abuse but don’t act to prevent it could be sued, but only if they have supervisory or oversight status over the person committing the offending act.

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

By Sue Nowicki
snowicki@modbee.com

The Rev. Michael Kelly of the Stockton Diocese will finally get his day in court more than four years after a lawsuit was filed, alleging that he abused a 10-year-old Stockton boy in the mid-1980s.

And in an unrelated case, a former Stockton Diocese priest serving in the Archdiocese of San Francisco has been removed from all priestly duties after he followed a 17-year-old boy into a store dressing room last year. The Rev. William Myers can no longer call himself a priest, celebrate Mass or hear confessions, said the archdiocese’s spokesman, George Wesolek.

Kelly’s attorney is upbeat about the upcoming trial, which begins Feb. 14 in San Joaquin County. It has been postponed several times, including the most recent date in November. That judge recused himself over a possible conflict of interest.

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WALTHAM (MA)
BishopAccountability.org

On January 4, 2012, seventeen more Haitian boys brought suit alleging abuse by Douglas Perlitz between 1998 and 2008 at Project Pierre Toussaint in Haiti. Attorneys Mitchell Garabedian of Boston and Steven Errante of New Haven have now filed 20 suits on behalf of 21 students. In addition to Perlitz, who has admitted to some of the abuse and is now in prison, the civil suits name Rev. Paul E. Carrier SJ, former chaplain at Fairfield University; the Haiti Fund, which is Project Pierre Toussaint’s fundraising arm; Fairfield University, where some of the fundraising was done, and where Carrier was once a chaplain; the New England province of the Jesuits; and Hope Carter, who served on the board of the Haiti Fund with Carrier. Perlitz is accused of the abuse; the other defendants are accused of violating state, federal, and international laws by failing to take the appropriate actions to stop the assaults. See More Haitian boys sue Perlitz, Fairfield U. in abuse scandal, by Michael P. Mayko, Connecticut Post, January 5, 2012.

Below we provide the complaints that have been filed, along with some defendant’s motions to dismiss. For background on the cases, see also Perlitz’s guilty plea; activist Paul Kendrick’s Haiti narrative; Perlitz Admits He Sexually Abused Minor Boy, by Michael P. Mayko, News Times, August 18 2010; and Perlitz Sentenced to Nearly 20 Years for Sex Abuse in Haiti, by Michael P. Mayko, News Times, December 21, 2010.

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NEW JERSEY
Courier-Post

Written by
BOB JORDAN
New Jersey Press Media

TRENTON — A state Assembly committee Thursday advanced a bill that could widen opportunities for lawsuits to be filed by adults who were victims of childhood sexual abuse.

The measure would eliminate the two-year statute of limitations for civil action on abuse acts and expand the categories of persons, beyond the predator, who could be held liable.

For instance, under the legislation trustees and employees of an organization who know about abuse but don’t act to prevent it could be sued, but only if they have supervisory or oversight status over the person committing the offending act.

Bill sponsors said the need for action drew new attention after sex-abuse charges came to light at Immaculata High School and with the former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky case at Penn State University.

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MISSOURI
National Catholic Reporter

[link to court documents via SNAP]

Jan. 05, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has been issued a second subpoena for one of its leaders to appear for testimony and to turn over internal records, correspondence and email dating back 23 years.

According to documents obtained by NCR this afternoon, Barbara Dorris, the group’s outreach director, was requested to give testimony Feb. 15 in a city case involving allegations of sexual misconduct against St. Louis archdiocesan priest Fr. Joseph Ross. The subpoena was mailed to Dorris and dated Dec. 30.

David Clohessy, SNAP’s director, submitted to a court ordered deposition and submission of documents Monday (Jan. 2) for a case involving a diocesan priest in Kansas City, Mo.

After his deposition, Clohessy said he refused to answer many of the lawyers’ questions and did not submit many of the documents requested, citing constitutional protections of free speech and Missouri state law protecting the confidentiality of rape crisis centers.

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By EDMUND H. MAHONY, emahony@courant.com
The Hartford Courant

12:45 p.m. EST, January 5, 2012
Another 17 orphans have sued Fairfield University and affiliated religious and charitable organizations for negligence over sexual abuse they say they suffered while living in a Haitian orphanage founded and operated by a celebrated alumnus of the Connecticut school who later was prosecuted as a pedophile.

Three additional suits were filed last year containing similar allegations of negligence arising from the abuse of destitute street children who were admitted to Project Pierre Toussaint, a school and orphanage in Cap Haitien founded by Fairfield University graduate Douglas Perlitz.

Perlitz was sentenced in 2010 to more than 19 years in prison for abusing boys at the non-profit orphanage and school, which was largely sponsored by private donations from individuals and groups with ties to the university.

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CONNECTICUT
NECN

[with video]

(NECN: Brian Burnell) – It’s a story reminiscent of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal – more than a dozen children in Haiti abused while people in charge looked the other way. Now, the Boston attorney, who spearheaded the Catholic Church sex abuse fight, is all over this one, too.

And this time, the attorney has something he did not get in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal: a guilty plea.

Douglas Perlitz plead guilty to sexually molesting 8 boys at the Pierre Toussant School for Homeless Children in Haiti between 1998 and 2008. He is now serving nearly 20 years in federal prison.

Boston Attorney Mitchell Garabedian has filed 20 complaints in federal court seeking over $400 million on behalf of 21 children. It names not only Perlitz but the Society of Jesus which oversaw the school, Reverend Paul Carrier who was on the school’s board and Fairfield University. Carrier was the chaplain at Fairfield.

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

CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Michael P. Mayko, Staff Writer

Published 05:50 p.m., Thursday, January 5, 2012

FAIRFIELD — The Rev. Paul E. Carrier, a prominent Fairfield County Jesuit priest who helped Douglas Perlitz establish a program for abandoned boys in Haiti, allegedly was present when Perlitz showed one of the boys pornography and also when Perlitz slept with another boy, according to federal court documents.

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer representing 21 Haitian boys who claim they were sexually abused by Perlitz, further accused Carrier of being present when Perlitz “arranged a rendezvous” at his Cap-Haitien home “with one of the boys for late in the evening.”

“All of these circumstances should have alerted Father Carrier … that something was amiss in Perlitz’s dealings with boys in his care at Project Pierre Toussaint,” said Garabedian, who has sued Catholic dioceses and clergy across the county for sexual abuse.

Now Garabedian and Steven Errante, a New Haven lawyer, have filed 20 suits on behalf of 21 of the former students at Perlitz’s Project Pierre Toussaint, citing violations of state, federal and international law.

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UTAH
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Underage girls are still secretly being held by the followers of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs for sexual purposes, it has been reported.

A number of allegations have surfaced against Jeffs since he was jailed for life plus twenty years for raping a 12 and 15-year-old girl.

These are the latest allegations to surface after it came out on Tuesday that he has banned all his members from having sex and has voided every marriage.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said on Wednesday he intends to look into the claim young girls are being held for sex.

He said: ‘I believe there’s still a half-dozen to a dozen places around the country where girls are still being held. And I’m very concerned about that.

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CANADA
Aljazeera

[with video]

A Roman Catholic bishop has left court in Canada a free man after admitting he was addicted to child pornography.

Raymond Lahey, the former head of the Diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia, told the court late last year that he was glad he had finally been caught.

Lahey, 71, was sentenced to 15 months jail, but has been credited for time served after he volunteered to spend eight months in solitary confinement. A psychiatrist told the court that Lahey is not a paedophile.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

It might have shocked some to see disgraced Catholic Bishop Raymond Lahey walk out of an Ottawa courtroom this week after being sentenced to time served for possession of child pornography. But that doesn’t mean his sentence was too lenient.

The court conferred an appropriate sentence on Lahey, who had been in jail for eight months, and faces restrictions on his behaviour that extend for the next 20 years. But now it is up to the Catholic Church to take action that restores the faith of members disillusioned and shaken by the actions of Lahey and other members of the Catholic clergy.

Lahey’s case is intrinsically shocking. In possessing images of children being abused he was contributing to their victimization and revictimization. And not only is he a Catholic bishop, but he is the one who, as bishop of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, negotiated a multimillion-dollar settlement for victims of child sexual abuse by clergy.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Father Alberto Cutie

It’s puzzling to see the harsh reactions to Bishop Gabino Zavala’s resignation as Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles after his admission that he fathered two teenage children as a consequence of a hidden sexual relationship with their mother — the Bishop’s secret girlfriend. I was determined to pray for Bishop Zavala quietly and not say a word, but since the Associated Press and other media outfits decided to mention my name and include me in a list with a number of church leaders in their widely circulated article, I decided to speak out and share my thoughts.

What troubles me about the reactions of so many who claim to feel “betrayed” is that when we discover that priests have had hidden sexual relationships with adults, too many people have a tendency to quickly speak of a “life of duplicity” or a moral “failure,” yet we never saw this same type of outrage when it was discovered — and unfortunately continues to be discovered — that the same institution developed a culture of secrecy and protected truly criminal behavior in the thousands of cases involving the sexual abuse of minors by priests and bishops. Where are the voices of “outrage” when minors and innocent children are involved?

When a priest fails to keep celibacy, that man-made rule that even the Roman Catholic Church admits is changeable, adaptable and dispensable, we should not be so easily scandalized. We live in the 21st century and sexuality should no longer be a taboo subject for most of us. The fact is that all human beings, including priests and bishops, are sexual beings and are capable of living up to their highest aspirations and ideals, while also capable of falling short of them. Sexuality among consenting, single adults cannot continue to be considered “a great scandal” in or out of church. On the other hand, covered up promiscuous and criminal sexual acts are truly scandalous and often brushed under the carpet.

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MINNESOTA
Catholic Culture

Less than a month after a Minnesota attorney filed a court document laden with anti-Catholic slurs, the judge who bore the brunt of her comments has ordered her arrested.

Referring to Judge Nancy Dreher, who is not a Catholic, as a “popess” and “a secret Catholic Knight Witch Hunter,” attorney Nancy Isaacson’s filing had stated that “we may as well flush her papal bull order down the toilet.”

“The Catholic Church has millions of Jesuits working undercover around the country to fulfill the Church’s agenda,” the memo continued. “They give orders, pull the strings, and their puppets like Nancy Dreher jump like zombies.”

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CALIFORNIA
EGP

By Gloria Angelina Castillo, EGP Staff Writer

It’s been three decades since Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, 60, led mass and religious functions at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in East Los Angeles, but his recent resignation and admission that he fathered two sons now living out of state has shocked faithful parishioners.

Maria Isabel Delgado, now a parishioner at St. Benedict Catholic Church in Montebello, says she found God while attending Our Lady of Guadalupe during the late 1980s and 1990s. And while she was not at the church at the same time as Zavala (1977-1982) she was nonetheless taken aback when she was informed by a reporter that Zavala had fathered two children.

“I completely disapprove, I am very concerned,” Delgado said. “I’m nobody to judge him, only God can judge him, but it’s not right that they fool us.”

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

SNAP is currently embroiled in a tough legal battle with the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and SNAP Director David Clohessy is fighting to guarantee the confidentiality of survivors! You can read up on the battle and see the documents filed by Clohessy here.
…

Below are links to documents filed by and on behalf of SNAP in this ongoing legal battle to protect survivors of clergy abuse:
■ October 27, 2011 – David Clohessy is served with a subpoena by accused pedophile Fr. Michael Tierney and the Diocese of KCSJ
■ November 14, 2011 – Attorneys for Clohessy file a Motion to Quash…
■ November 14, 2011 – …a Memorandum of Law in support of their Motion to Quash…
■ November 14, 2011 – …and a Limited Entry Appearance.
■ November 29, 2011 – Attorneys for Clohessy file Reply Suggestions for their Motion to Quash.
■ November 30, 2011 – Judge files an Order that grants in part and denies in part Clohessy’s Motion to Quash.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ Today

TRENTON – An Assembly committee released legislation today to eliminate the statute of limitations in civil sexual abuse claims.

The bill (A-3622) would remove the statue of limitations in civil actions for sexual abuse, expand the category of person who are potentially liable in these actions, and provide that public entities would be liable in these actions.

“Many young victims of sexual abuse don’t report their abusers out of fear or shame; others repress the memories as a way to cope with the abuse,” said Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Union). “The impact of sexual abuse on children can be devastating and long-lasting. These victims should have the right to compensation for the suffering endured without a timeline looming over their heads.”

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Matt Friedman/Statehouse Bureau

TRENTON — An Assembly panel has approved a bill to remove the state’s two-year statute of limitations on lawsuits for child sexual abuse.

Under current law, adult victims of childhood abuse have two years to bring suit against individuals or institutions from the point when they realize it damaged them. The measure (S2405) would allow them to file suit no matter how much time has passed, against individuals and institutions – public, private, for-profit and non-profit.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee voted four to one to approve it, with one abstention. A different version cleared a Senate panel a year ago, but had stalled until now.

The bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), said it would allow victims “essentially unfettered access” to the courts. He said he expects it to be posted for a vote in both the Assembly and Senate on Monday.

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EnerPub

by Dylan Parry

Scandalous bishops in the news – In dealing with them, Pope Benedict XVI would do well to follow St Pius V’s example.

A couple of bishops have been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. The first is the disgraced former Bishop of Antigonish in Nova Scotia, Raymond Lahey. He received a pre-served 15-month prison sentence today for possession of child pornography. The second is Gabino Zavala, a former auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. His resignation was recently accepted by the Vatican, after it came to light that he had fathered two children with the same woman many years ago.

It is a grave enough matter when laypeople cause scandal, but when bishops and priests show themselves to be “of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8) by falling into despicably sinful ways of life, the damage to the Church and her mission can be tremendous.

Not only do I feel for the victims of these men’s selfish and depraved actions (Zavala should have left the ordained ministry to care for his children, whilst the victims of Lehey’s depravity are obvious), but I also sympathise with the people of God who once trusted them with child-like love and obedience. Needless to say, thanks to the utterly shameful deeds of these two bishops, it will take a long time for the Church in Los Angeles and Nova Scotia to regain the trust she needs if she is to effectively preach the Gospel. This is why such scandal is such a grave matter – it damages lives and leads souls away from salvation.

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BOSTON (MA)
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a front-page story in today’s Boston Globe on alleged victims of priestly sexual abuse who are speaking up on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Globe’s series on the scandal in the Boston Archdiocese:

Many Catholics that I have spoken to, including the clergy, have grown weary of those who claim they were victimized by a priest decades ago and are still not satisfied with the Church’s response. No matter what the Church does—doling out millions, providing endless counseling and therapy, mandating training sessions for every employee to guard against abuse—it’s never enough. It’s time for some straight talk: these people don’t want to move on, and that’s because they have too much invested in maintaining their victim status.

Consider the remarks printed in today’s Boston Globe by alleged victims.
◦“The church has failed miserably, miserably, miserably”
◦“I’m very underwhelmed”
◦“I don’t think it’s anything [the reforms] to brag about”
◦“If anything, it’s worse than we ever thought”

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CHILE
Cooperative

El arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, admitió que Fernando Karadima incumplió los términos de la condena impuesta por el Vaticano al tomar contacto telefónico con uno de los presbíteros miembros de la Unión Sacerdotal que funcionó en la iglesia de El Bosque.

“Es efectivo que, al saber que uno de los miembros de la Unión Sacerdotal había tomado contacto con el P. Fernando, levanté fuerte mi voz, para recalcar que ello era indebido y para exigir a todos absoluta obediencia a lo establecido por la Santa Sede”, señaló a La Segunda vía email.

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BOSTON (MA)
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler | January 05, 2012

Ten years have passed since the Boston archdiocese was engulfed in scandal, as the result of investigative reporting by the Boston Globe. Today the faithful in Boston are still struggling to shake off the lingering effects of that scandal. But a full recovery is delayed because of two popular misconceptions, which should be corrected.

First, the scandal exposed by the Globe in January 2002 was not the sexual abuse of young people by Catholic priests. That scandal had already been exposed a full decade earlier, as sickening stories of clerical molesters emerged from Louisiana and from nearby Fall River, Massachusetts. By the turn of the century, anyone who followed the story carefully recognized that these cases were not isolated—that the problem was widespread.

The Globe expose added an entirely new dimension to the story, revealing a second scandal. While some priests abused children, the Globe reporting showed, archdiocesan officials had protected the predators, covered up evidence, and lied to parishioners about their priests’ problems. The Globe exposed the corruption within the Boston hierarchy which had allowed the abuse to continue.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Reuters

By Alexis Kunsak

PITTSBURGH | Thu Jan 5, 2012

(Reuters) – A Catholic priest already charged in state court with possessing thousands of pornographic images of young boys is due in a Pittsburgh courtroom on Friday on new federal charges, authorities said.

A federal grand jury, in an indictment unsealed late on Wednesday, charged the Rev. Bartley Sorensen, 62, former pastor of St. John Fisher Church in Churchill near Pittsburgh, with one count each of receiving and possessing pictures of minors engaged in sex acts.

If convicted of the federal charges, Sorensen faces up to 20 years in prison for receiving child pornography on a computer and up to 10 years behind bars for possession of child pornography.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 5, 2012 in Clergy Abuse Crisis

NEWS: Abuse victims to bishop: ‘Stop the lynch mob’
Parishioners are confronting, intimidating family members of potential abuse victim
Hurt and confused Catholics are giving predators a “free pass,” SNAP says
You must help create a victim-safe environment in your churches, they demand

In response to what they are calling a “modern day lynch mob,” victims of sexual abuse are begging the San Diego bishops to educate parishioners on how respond appropriately when priests are accused of molesting kids.

Today, leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNnetwork.org), are asking San Diego Bishop Robert Brom and the newly appointed co-adjudicator Bishop Cirilo Flores (who will assume Brom’s position when Brom retires next year) to reach out to parishioners at St. Joseph Catholic Church in downtown, some of whom have confronted and threatened family members of a young woman who accused a priest of sexual abuse.

The priest, Fr. Jose Davila, also know as “Fr. Alexis,” has admitted “something taking place” with the 20-year-old woman and has turned himself in to police. http://www.10news.com/news/30138281/detail.html

In response to the news, some members of the parish confronted the brother of the victim, after the victim’s mother did not show up for her usual prayer group. In press reports, the parishioners claim that they were going to “demand the truth” from the mother for “damaging the priest’s reputation.”

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
WGGB

By Ryan Trowbridge
January 5th, 2012

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB) — A Hampden County Superior Court judge has issued an order asking for more information before he rules on a request to remove protestors from a closed Holyoke church.

On Wednesday, the Diocese of Springfield asked Superior Court Judge Cornelius Moriarty to declare that a group of parishoners who have occupied the former Mater Dolorosa Church as trespassers and be ordered removed from the building.

Protestors have been occupying the Holyoke church since the Diocese ordered it closed July 1, 2011. As part of the Diocese’s Pastoral Planning Commission, Mater Dolorosa Church merged with Holy Cross Church to create Our Lady of the Cross Parish, which currently worships in the former Holy Cross building.

In a two page order issued Thursday, Superior Court Judge Cornelius Moriarty has ordered the defendants in the case – the protestors – to file additional documentation to support their claim that they should be allowed to remain in the church

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DEUTSCHLAND
Christ & Welt

Als einzige große Institution stellt sich die katholische Kirche dem Thema Missbrauch. Doch warum sollen die Opfer nur 5000 Euro bekommen? Im internationalen Vergleich ist das wenig

Fünftausend Euro zahlen die deutschen Bistümer und Orden den Opfern von sexueller Gewalt in ihren Mauern. Das Geld soll keine Entschädigung sein. Darauf legt Thomas Busch, der Pressesprecher der Jesuiten, Wert. Es drücke eine Anerkennung ihres Leidens aus. Die Zahlung sei eine symbolische Geste. Fünftausend, das ist so wenig wie in keinem anderen Land in Europa. In Irland erhalten Opfer im Schnitt 60 000 Euro, in Österreich zwischen 5000 und 25 000, je nach Schwere des Falles. Ist deutsches Leiden billig? Sind 5000 Euro im Vergleich angemessen? „Da handelt es sich um unterschiedliche Kulturen“, sagt Thomas Busch. Die Entschädigung hat sich nach der für Holocaust-Überlebende gerichtet. Es schien undenkbar, dass es für sexuelle Gewalt einen höheren Betrag geben sollte.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau

Zwischen 1945 und 1975 lebten rund 800.000 Kinder und Jugendliche in westdeutschen Heimen. Viele wurden in den kirchlichen oder staatlichen Einrichtungen über Jahre misshandelt, zur Arbeit gezwungen und sexuell missbraucht. Deshalb wollen Hunderte ehemalige Heimkinder vor Gericht ziehen. Sie fordern Entschädigung in Millionenhöhe.

Hunderte ehemalige Heimkinder wollen für eine Entschädigung nun doch vor Gericht ziehen. Sie sind enttäuscht von den Beschlüssen der Jugend- und Familienministerkonferenz im Mai vergangenen Jahres. 120 Millionen Euro stehen aus Mitteln des Bundes, der Länder und der Kirchen zur Verfügung. Der Verein ehemaliger Heimkinder in Deutschland aber hält diesen Betrag für unangemessen und stellt Forderungen in Milliardenhöhe.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Catholic League

On January 2, the director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), David Clohessy, was deposed for going public with information he allegedly obtained from a lawyer in violation of a court gag order issued by Circuit Court Judge Ann Mesle. Barbara Dorris, another SNAP officer, has also been served with a subpoena.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an editorial in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch on this issue:

SNAP has been working in concert with its legal allies and media buddies for decades. The goal? To discredit the Catholic Church. At one time, we even thought SNAP officials were honest brokers, but those days are long gone; our inside report on the SNAP conference held last July demonstrates its anti-Catholic agenda [click here].

The Post-Dispatch is so exercised by the right of St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson to fight back against SNAP that it is beckoning Catholics to rebel at Mass this weekend by refusing to put money in the collection basket. Does it really think it has that kind of clout? Yet it weeps for its Catholic-bashing friends by arguing that the litigation “has strained SNAP’s finances.” It should instead ask why SNAP’s lawyers who grease the operation aren’t writing checks, or taking the case pro-bono.

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BOSTON (MA)
National Catholic Reporter

Jan. 05, 2012
By Catholic News Service

BOSTON — “Our church will never forget the clergy sexual abuse crisis,” said Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston in a document marking the 10th anniversary of the abuse scandal that first rocked the archdiocese in January 2002, the reverberations of which continue to be felt.

“The traumatic and painful days we experienced 10 years ago rightfully forced us to address the issue honestly and implement many necessary changes,” said Cardinal O’Malley in the 2,500-word document, “Ten Years Later — Reflections on the Sexual Abuse Crisis,” released Jan. 4.

Cardinal O’Malley said that since his appointment in July 2003, “our highest priority has been to provide outreach and care for all the survivors of clergy sexual abuse and to do everything possible to make sure this abuse never happens again.”

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BOSTON (MA)
CNN

By Chris Boyette, CNN

(CNN) – Ten years after public recognition of serious sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic priests within the Archdiocese of Boston, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, the archbishop, issued a letter and his reflections on the “problem with a history far deeper than any … had imagined, that had been wreaking havoc along its course.”

On Wednesday O’Malley released a document contemplating the abuse crisis over the past decade.

“The life of the Church in the Archdiocese of Boston (and throughout the world) was forever changed by the revelations of clergy sexual abuse that dominated the news in January of 2002,” it began, “As an Archdiocese, as a Church, we can never cease to make clear the depth of our sorrow and to beg forgiveness from those who were so grievously harmed,” it went on.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Jan. 05, 2012
By John L Allen Jr

An ad limina visit, the trip Catholic bishops are required to make every five years to Rome, is a bit like a routine physical. It might flag a serious problem, but usually it’s just a checkup covering a wide variety of aches, pains, and ups and downs.

If nothing else, it’s revealing to learn what doctor and patient are thinking about, because it might provide hints of treatments to come.

That’s been the tenor of the latest round of visits by U.S. bishops that began in November and will continue in 2012. Predictably, Pope Benedict XVI’s own priorities — the push for a “new evangelization,” meaning outreach to lapsed Catholics, and the defense of religious freedom — have figured prominently. Yet a variety of other issues have also surfaced, including:

•The sexual abuse crisis;
•American debates over marriage and the family;
•The new translation of the Catholic Mass;
•The state of Catholic schools, hospitals and charities;
•Parish closings;
•Vocations and seminary life;
•The changing demographics of the American church.

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CONNECTICUT
WNCT

By: JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN | Associated Press
Published: January 05, 2012

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) Seventeen former Haitian street children are suing the Society of Jesus, Fairfield University in Connecticut and others, alleging they failed to protect the children from a man who sexually abused them at a school he founded in Haiti.

The lawsuits bring to 21 the number of alleged victims suing Douglas Perlitz and the others. Perlitz was sentenced in 2010 to nearly 20 years in prison for sexually abusing children.

The lawsuits seek $20 million for each victim. They say a Jesuit priest who was Fairfield University’s chaplain saw Perlitz show a student a pornographic movie and saw boys in his bedroom. The lawsuits say a school board member removed Perlitz’s computer containing pornographic material involving boys.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee on Jan. 05, 2012 NCR Today

In a statement this morning, the leadership of Pax Christi USA reacts to the news yesterday that their bishop-president, Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, has resigned from ministry after acknowledging he is the father of two teenage children:

Dear Pax Christi USA members, partners and friends,
It is with great sadness that we write to you today about the resignation of Bishop Gabino Zavala. Pax Christi USA learned of Bishop Zavala’s resignation yesterday. In a letter addressed to Catholics in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (where Bishop Zavala was an auxiliary bishop), Archbishop Jose Gomez stated that Bishop Zavala’s letter of resignation was accepted by the Vatican after he had disclosed that he is “the father of two minor teenage children who live with their mother in another state.”

Bishop Zavala has served as bishop-president of Pax Christi USA for the past 9 years and had been a bishop member for many years prior to his time in leadership. We are grateful for his past leadership and for his long-time witness to peace and justice as a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bishop Zavala consistently brought the power of the gospel to bear on issues like immigration, worker rights, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and nuclear disarmament.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Patch

Rev. Bartley Sorensen, 62, formerly of St. Anne Church in Castle Shannon, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges he possessed thousands of images of child pornography, according to a report by WTAE.

Sorensen was arrested Dec. 10 after an employee at St. John Fisher Parish in Churchill, where he was working at the time, reported seeing Sorensen looking at child pornography at the church.

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IRELAND
Midlands 103

An Midlands Priest is expected to be extradited back to Ireland later.

Fr Peter Kennedy is facing allegations of Child Sex abuse dating between the 1960s to 1980s.

72 year old Fr Kennedy from – from Bloomhill an area near Ballinahown in County Offaly – had been living in Brazil for the past number of years.

He hit the headlines in 2003 when a former victim was awarded 325 thousand euro in one of the largest ever pay-outs in an Irish clerical sex abuse case.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
10 News

SAN DIEGO — Friends of a local priest accused in a sexual assault confronted the accuser’s family on Wednesday in an effort to get the charge against him dropped.

Supporters of Jose Davila came to St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in downtown San Diego to confront the 20-year-old accuser’s mother, who was supposed to be attending a prayer group.

“We want to say to the mother say… the truth,” said Humberto Morales, who supports Davila. “This is damage to the reputation of the priest… He’s the big leader for us.”
When the accuser’s mother did not show up, Morales and several other friends of Davila confronted the accuser’s brother instead. They wanted to know why such strong accusations would be made against Davila, the associate pastor of St. Jude’s Shrine in Southcrest. Davila is also known as Father Alexis.

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NORTH DAKOTA
Bismark Tribune

Former Bismarck diocese priest facing prison time for stealing money from disabled man

By JENNY MICHAEL | Bismarck Tribune

A former priest faces prison time for using the money of a disabled man to participate in Internet scams. Cyprian Meier had lost his job with the Bismarck Catholic Diocese for spending parishioners’ money in the same kind of schemes.

Meier, 67, pleaded guilty in December to Class B felony exploitation of a vulnerable adult. South Central District Judge Donald Jorgensen is slated to sentence him on Feb. 17. Meier faces up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.

According to court documents, Meier was providing home health care for a 56-year-old Bismarck man from May to October. The Bismarck man, who was paralyzed and died on Dec. 3, reported to Bismarck police in November that he believed Meier had been making unauthorized transactions on his savings and checking accounts.

Detective Chad Seidel spoke to Meier, who admitted to using the other man’s money “to fund his addictions to money scams, such as Internet scams,” Seidel wrote in an affidavit.

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NORTH DAKOTA
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: January 05, 2012

BISMARCK, N.D. — A former priest faces prison time in North Dakota for using the money of a disabled man to participate in Internet scams.

Sixty-seven-year-old Cyprian Meier pleaded guilty in December to felony exploitation of a vulnerable adult. He faces up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines when he’s sentenced Feb. 17.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Newstalk (Ireland)

A former Irish priest facing allegations of child sex abuse from the 1960s to the 1980s is due in court in London today.

72-year-old Peter Kennedy was deported from Brazil to England on St. Stephen’s Day.

He first hit the headlines in 2003 when one of his former victims was awarded €325,000 in one of the largest ever pay-outs in an Irish clerical sex abuse case.

He fled to Brazil on a British passport where he worked as an English teacher until the authorities there deported him 10 days ago.

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CHILE
La Segunda

“Fijar la residencia definitiva para Karadima no es tarea fácil, ya que en Chile son muy pocas las estructuras que pueden ofrecer garantías suficientes para el objetivo propuesto” , dijo esta mañana el arzobispo de Santiago, monseñor Ricardo Ezzati en entrevista con “La Segunda”.

El prelado también se refirió a su polémica visita a Karadima el día de Navidad y explicó las implicancias de que llevar una vida de “oración y penitencia”, tal como le exige el fallo vaticano.

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UTAH
Deseret News

By John Hollenhorst, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — As a torrent of purported revelations flows from imprisoned polygamist leader Warren Jeffs , there are new allegations that underage girls are being secretly held by his followers, possibly for sexual purposes.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said Wednesday he intends to look into the claim.

“I want to be involved in finding houses of hiding,” Shurtleff said, “I believe there’s still half-dozen to a dozen places around the country where girls are still being held. And I’m very concerned about that.”

Although Shurtleff’s spokesman later said it’s premature to call it an investigation, Shurtleff said he wants to pursue the allegation.

“The worry is that there are still children being trafficked in potential sexual crimes or being held for the prophet for that purpose. We don’t know exactly. But that is a concern and that is something I intend to look into.”

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UNITED STATES
The Salt Lake Tribune

By Peg McEntee
Tribune Columnist

Another year, another apocalypse in Short Creek.

From his Texas prison cell, Warren Jeffs has punished about 1,500 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by forbidding them from attending a main meetinghouse in Colorado City, Ariz.

It’s the latest such move from a man who, according to his “revelations,” considers himself the voice of Jesus Christ.

This time, those being punished are not necessarily banished from their settlement on the Utah-Arizona border. Some families have been split up, but according to former FLDS members, others have been told to renew their covenants with God and thus enable Jeffs to be released from a Texas prison.

He’s in that prison because he was convicted of sexually assaulting two girls he took as polygamous wives. Now his phone privileges have been revoked while prison officials investigate whether he used the phone to broadcast a Christmas sermon telling followers they had until New Year’s Day to be chosen to stay or be expelled.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Here’s something for St. Louis Catholics to think about when they pass the collection basket at church next Sunday: Lawyers for the Archdiocese and Archbishop Robert J. Carlson have launched a legal assault on the victims’ advocacy organization that helped expose the clergy abuse epidemic here and around the country.

The same tactic is being employed in the Diocese of Kansas City against the organization, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and its national director, David Clohessy. In St. Louis, the target is SNAP’s outreach director, Barbara Dorris. SNAP is an international organization, but Mr. Clohessy and Ms. Dorris are St. Louisans.

The effect of both efforts could be to force SNAP into expensive, drawn-out legal battles to protect the confidentiality of its communications with victims, lawyers, whistle-blowers and news reporters. Mr. Clohessy said the Kansas City case already has strained SNAP’s finances, which, in turn, will reduce its effectiveness. Some victims of clergy abuse may hesitate to seek help, knowing that their communications no longer are private.

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CALIFORNIA
California Catholic Daily

Gabino Zavala, an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles since 1994, has resigned his position after revealing to his superiors he had fathered two children, apparently while holding the auxiliary’s post.

In a one-sentence announcement issued yesterday, the Vatican press office said Pope Benedict XVI had accepted Bishop Zavala’s resignation.

“I have some sad and difficult information to share with you,” said Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez in a brief statement issued by the archdiocese. “Bishop Gabino Zavala, auxiliary bishop for the San Gabriel Pastoral Region, informed me in early December that he is the father of two minor teenage children, who live with their mother in another state.”

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CHILE
El Magallanews

Por CNN Chile

05 de Enero, 2012

“Los secretos del Imperio Karadima” es una investigación de 1 año y 8 meses, más de 150 entrevistas y la reconstrucción de 50 años de los abusos de Fernando Karadima y, además, el retrato de una parte de las familias de la élite chilena que buscaban la santidad refugiándose en la parroquia de El Bosque.

Mónica González, directora de Ciper Chile y que participó en la investigación, explicó que la publicación que salió a librerías el pasado 24 de diciembre, comenzaron a indagar al respecto en abril pasado cuando surgió la denuncia.”La gente se olvida que hubo un momento en que las víctimas eran atacada de todos lados, acusadas de todos los epítetos, descalificadas en su integridad moral, hasta psíquica y sexual”, rememoró.

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NIEDERLANDE
Kathweb (Osterreich)

Den Haag, 05.01.2012 (KAP) Gegen den früheren Niederländischen Bischofskonferenz-Vorsitzenden, Kardinal Adrianus Simonis, ist Anzeige wegen Meineids erstattet worden. Nach Berichten von niederländischen Medien vom Donnerstag wirft ein Missbrauchsopfer aus Breda dem Kardinal eine falsche Zeugenaussage vor Gericht vor. Demnach soll Simonis gegen besseres Wissen ausgesagt haben, ihm sei von Missbrauch durch einen anderen Geistlichen nichts bekannt gewesen. Der Kläger führte an, laut einem im Dezember 2011 veröffentlichten Untersuchungsbericht habe Simonis sehr wohl vom betreffenden Fall gewusst.

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CALIFORNIA
Muscatine Journal

Associated Press | Posted: Thursday, January 5, 2012

California’s highest court is hearing a precedent-setting case that could expose California’s Roman Catholic dioceses to another round of clergy abuse lawsuits.

The case being argued Thursday before the California Supreme Court involves six brothers in their 40s and 50s who allege they were molested by an Oakland priest during the 1970s. The priest, Donald Broderson, was forced to retire amid abuse allegations in 1993.

The Oakland Diocese maintains the men are barred from suing because they did not do so during the one-year window the state Legislature opened in 2003 for such complaints to be filed.

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CANADA
MSN News

Top Roman Catholic church officials are expected to discipline a Canadian bishop convicted of importing child pornography.

Raymond Lahey, 71, the former head of the Diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in prison and two years probation.

He was released from custody Wednesday afternoon because he received a two-for-one credit for time served since he pleaded guilty 8 months ago and apologized for his actions.

Lahey pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography for the purpose of importation to Canada.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Gloucester Times

Eileen Ford

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” — Edmond Burke

The good weather allowed me to walk a lot last month along Atlantic Road in Gloucester, enjoying the salt air and waves crashing against the rocks.

Instead of exchanging gifts, I made my own cards, contributed to local causes, went to Mass on Christmas morning, and later enjoyed “War Horse,” an inspiring story of a young man, the horse he loved and a war that separated them.

In an age where the spirit of the season is overwhelmed by Black Friday sales that begin on Thanksgiving, it’s a joy to live on Cape Ann where the gifts of nature are available all year long.

News reports, however, were far from joyful, with repeated revelations of the sexual abuse of children by coaches at Penn State and Syracuse universities.

On Dec. 10, while listening to “Only a Game” on NPR, I heard a proud Syracuse graduate say that he would remember the good in both institutions, but that it was even more important “never to forget what happened there.”

I, too, will always be grateful for the good I found in the Catholic church, including many wonderful nuns and priests I’ve known throughout my life — but I cannot forget the darker side of a system that protected itself instead of children.

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CALIFORNIA
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

IRWINDALE – An auxiliary bishop for the Catholic Church’s San Gabriel pastoral region stepped down Wednesday after revealing to superiors that he had fathered two children.

Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, 60, resigned under the code of canon law that lets bishops step down earlier than the normal retirement age of 75 if they’re sick or for some other reason that makes them unfit for office.

The pope accepted the early resignation from Zavala, who since 1994 has overseen 67 parishes and several Catholic schools throughout East Los Angeles, Pasadena and the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys.

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CANADA
Cape Breton Post

By Greg McNeil – Cape Breton Post
SYDNEY — Raymond Lahey’s sentence, handed out in an Ottawa court on Wednesday, was too light, according to an informal survey of area residents.

The former bishop of the diocese of Antigonish was sentenced to 15 months in jail and two years probation based on his 2009 arrest for possessing pornographic photos of young boys. He pleaded guilty in May to possession of child pornography for the purpose of importation.

“The issue here seems to be that the crime is more heinous in a sense because of the circumstances,” said Scott Stewart, chair of the department of philosophy and religious studies at Cape Breton University.

“He’s not just a priest, but a bishop, and I guess also the fact that he was in the middle of settling an abuse case, so certainly was aware of the problems with that. I guess (I’m) disappointed that those extra factors weren’t calculated into the penalty.”

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BOSTON (MA)
KTVQ

by Chris Boyette – CNN

(CNN) — Ten years after public recognition of serious sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic priests within the Archdiocese of Boston, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, the archbishop, issued a letter and his reflections on the “problem with a history far deeper than any … had imagined, that had been wreaking havoc along its course.”

On Wednesday O’Malley released a document contemplating the abuse crisis over the past decade.

“The life of the Church in the Archdiocese of Boston (and throughout the world) was forever changed by the revelations of clergy sexual abuse that dominated the news in January of 2002,” it began, “As an Archdiocese, as a Church, we can never cease to make clear the depth of our sorrow and to beg forgiveness from those who were so grievously harmed,” it went on.

The Archdiocese released O’Malley’s reflections two days before the 10-year anniversary of the first Boston Globe articles that broke the story in 2002, exposing decades of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, as well as bringing to light a veil of silence within the Church, implicating Church officials in covering up the abuse by shuffling pedophile priests around the diocese.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Brian MacQuarrie
Globe Staff
January 04, 2012

Ten years after revelations of clergy sexual abuse rocked the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, victims of the scandal said yesterday that they remained unmoved by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley’s plea for forgiveness.

Instead, victims and advocates reacted to O’Malley’s written retrospective on the crisis with a demand that the church do more to make survivors confident that abusive clerics will be punished and that future cases will not be shrouded in secrecy.

“The church has failed miserably, miserably, miserably,’’ said Bernie McDaid, 55, of Peabody, who was abused in the late 1960s in Salem.

“Nothing has been done [except] whatever the court has made them do,’’ he said. “I’m so hurt by all this.

“After Penn State erupted, it put it right back in my face,’’ McDaid said, referring to a string of abuse charges filed recently against a former assistant football coach at the university. …

Questions about the archdiocese’s enthusiasm for the task were echoed by Phil Saviano, 59, of Roslindale, who founded the New England chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

The changes outlined by O’Malley, Saviano said, are “basic, common-sense procedures that any organization that has a lot of contact with children would take.’’

“It’s probably good for him to enumerate the things they’ve done,’’ he said, “but they’re not things that are that remarkable. I don’t think it’s anything to brag about.’’

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UNITED KINGDOM
Western Daily Press

A man who was preyed on as a schoolboy by a monk jailed on Tuesday in the latest UK sex abuse scandal, has demanded the Catholic Church apologise for “brushing it under the carpet”.

Richard White, who taught at Downside School in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset, pleaded guilty in November last year to charges of indecent assault and gross indecency in the 1980s.

Following White’s jailing for five years on Tuesday, his victim, in his 30s, has demanded the Church takes responsibility for failing to act after it learned of the abuse

Angela Dobbs, a legal expert specialising in sexual abuse cases, is representing the victim. “My client was first abused by White – known as Father Nicholas at the time – when he was just 12,” said Miss Dobbs, a partner with Fentons Solicitors LLP.

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NETHERLANDS
Radio Netherlands

On 21 December, a man from Breda in the south of the Netherlands reported Cardinal Ad Simonis to the police for perjury.

The man says the cardinal lied to a court in Middelburg a year ago when he said he knew nothing of the abuse of children by Catholic clerics. Cardinal Simonis served as archbishop of Utrecht from 1983 to 2006.

The man, who says he was abused by a Salesian priest, went to the police as a result of the findings of the Deetman Commission which investigated child abuse in the Dutch Catholic Church. On an internet site he writes:

“I’m convinced that Simonis did indeed know about the abuse of children but didn’t say so during the hearing. He also knew about it at the time the abuse took place.”

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MONTANA
KFBB

[with video]

By Charlie Keegan

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Great Falls-Billings is reacting to a recent lawsuit filed against it. The civil suit claims a priest sexually assaulted a girl in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Paperwork says Father Emmett Hoffman sexually abused the plaintiff when she was a student at the St. Labre Mission School in Ashland.

She is seeking an unspecified amount of monetary damages and wants the defendants to acknowledge the abuse and pain the alleged assault has caused her.

Greg Hatley, an attorney for the diocese, says he hasn’t been formally served yet.

In the early 1990’s, the diocese formed a victim’s assistance position for victims of sexual abuse by the clergy. Hatley says the plaintiff did not file a report in that system.

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NEW YORK
Sheepshead Bites

by Randy Rojas on Jan 4th, 2012

Even after allegations surfaced of Monsignor Thomas Brady attempting “inappropriate sexual contact” with teenage boys, officials at Marine Park’s Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church still dedicated their Christmas tree lighting to him. Now, the family of an alleged victim is outraged.

“That’s a slap in the face,” said the father of one of the alleged victims in a New York Daily News article. “Take it down. That’s hurtful. You’re gaining support for Brady, but what about the victims?”

Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church (1950 Batchelder Street) in Marine Park posted a sign in Brady’s honor in front of their Christmas display. The sign reads “this year’s tree lighting is dedicated to Monsignor Thomas F. Brady for his service to and love for the People of Good Shepherd.”

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MICHIGAN
My Fox Detroit

[with video]

By BILL GALLAGHER
myFOXdetroit.com

(WJBK) – Chris Trombley says he was an emotionally troubled teen who struggled with his sexuality and the beginnings of alcohol abuse.

At 16, his parents urged him to see Father Gary Schulte for counseling. At the time, Schulte was the pastor of St. Vincent Ferrer Parrish in Madison Heights. That was in 1991.

“I had no friends. I didn’t want to be around my father,” Trombley told Fox 2’s Bill Gallagher in an exclusive interview. “I didn’t want to be around my mother, and he took the role of friend only for one reason, you know. And that was sexual favors.”

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Sacramento Bee

By Cynthia Hubert chubert@sacbee.com

A few minutes after noon every Monday through Friday, Sylvia Chavez pulls her red Nissan Sentra into her regular parking spot alongside the thick walls and cyclone fences of the Sacramento County Main Jail.

Stepping out of her car without regard to the weather, she stands along Seventh Street, takes out her rosary and begins to pray.

In a stark cell eight floors above her, the Rev. Uriel Ojeda stands accused of charges that, if proved, could send him to prison and strip the young Catholic priest of his collar and vestments. He has been charged with having sex with a minor, and for the past month has been held in isolation at the downtown jail in lieu of $5 million bail. He is scheduled to be in court today for a hearing in which his lawyer will argue for a sharp reduction in bail.

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LOS ANGELES
The Associated Press

By ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — As an auxiliary bishop in the nation’s most populous Roman Catholic archdiocese, Gabino Zavala was an outspoken advocate for immigration rights, prison reforms and better conditions for the working poor.

Now parishioners and church officials in the region where the popular Zavala grew up struggled to come to grips with the announcement of his resignation and revelation that he fathered two children, a violation of canon laws of celibacy for priests.

Zavala, 60, who once urged Catholic media to report scandals such as clergy sex abuse “in a spirit of love and mercy,” had his resignation accepted Wednesday by Pope Benedict XVI. Roman Catholic canon law permits bishops to step down earlier than the normal retirement age of 75 if they are sick or otherwise unfit for office.

“This is unexpected, sad and disorienting news for many people who know and like Bishop Zavala,” said Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. “Remember, he was raised here. He has deep roots in Los Angeles and so he’s very well-known here.”

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

January 5, 2012

By AARON BESWICK Truro Bureau

Philip Latimer spent Wednesday afternoon digesting what disgraced Roman Catholic Bishop Raymond Lahey’s sentence means for himself and other victims of sexual abuse.

Latimer, 50, alleges he was abused by a Catholic priest while a young boy in Havre Boucher, Antigonish County.

He said he worries that victims of sexual abuse who have not yet come forward will be deterred from doing so by seeing Lahey sentenced to time served plus two years probation and the recent overturning by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal of Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh’s convictions on charges of gross indecency and indecent assault.

“These decisions will make young victims scared to come forward by showing them that if the guilty have enough money to hire a good legal team, they will be protected,” said Latimer. “I don’t call this a justice system. I call it a legal system.”

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CANADA
The Telegram

Published on January 5, 2012

Andrew Robinson

St. John’s Archbishop Martin Currie is of two frames of mind when it comes to the sentencing of Bishop Raymond Lahey for importing child pornography.

“Today is a day of sadness, really,” he said on Wednesday upon learning of Lahey’s 15-month jail sentence, which he has already completed because of double credit received for remaining in jail after entering a guilty plea in May.

“It’s a day of sadness for myself and for the church in Newfoundland, Canada and Antigonish (N.S.), and for Lahey’s family.”

While the initial shock came more than two years ago when Lahey was first charged after he was caught with hundreds of pornographic photos of young boys, Currie said he hopes the sentencing will provide a sense of conclusion for those affected by Lahey’s conviction.

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CALIFORNIA
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

IRWINDALE – An auxiliary bishop for the San Gabriel Pastoral Region on Wednesday stepped down from his duties with the Catholic church after revealing to superiors that he fathered two children.

Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, 60, resigned Wednesday under the code of canon law that lets bishops step down earlier than the normal retirement age of 75 if they’re sick or for some other reason that makes them unfit for office.

The pope accepted the early resignation from Zavala, who has since 1994 overseen 67 parishes and several Catholic Schools throughout East Los Angeles, Pasadena and the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys. …

During his time as bishop, Zavala was politically active and would on several occasions ask Catholics to contemplate war, poverty, health care, capital punishment, immigration reform, racism and other issues.

In October, he wrote letters in support of about 350 Florida tomato pickers and their allies who marched to Trader Joe’s corporate headquarters in Monrovia in October to demand better wages and conditions for farm workers.

While he was a champion of human rights, Zavala’s revelation came as a shock to the Catholic community.

“It came as a surprise,” Covina resident and parishioner Lina Nolasco, 45, said. “You always suppose that Catholic priests are only supposed to devote themselves to God.”

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Michael P. Mayko, Staff Writer

Published 07:35 p.m., Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Seventeen more Haitian street boys claim they were abused sexually by Douglas Perlitz, who created a program to feed, clothe, educate and even house them, and that nothing was done to stop the abuse by people and organizations involved in the program.

The suits, filed in federal court Wednesday by New Haven attorneys Steven Errante and Marisa Bellair, seek $20 million in damages for each plaintiff from each of the 18 defendants.

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer who has successfully sued numerous Catholic priests for sexually abusing children, drafted the complaints and will seek permission to represent the plaintiffs at trial.

The suits bring to 21 the number of plaintiffs who claim they were abused by Perlitz in his Project Pierre Toussaint program between 1998 and 2008. The suits allege that the youngest student was 9 years old when first abused and the oldest 21; most were between 14 and 16, according to the lawsuits.
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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
The Republican

By Stephanie Barry, The Republican

SPRINGFIELD – Opposing portrayals of protesters holding around-the-clock vigils at the closed Mater Dolorosa church in Holyoke continued in an ongoing court battle in Hampden Superior Court on Wednesday.

Lawyers for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield argued the 100-plus protesters who packed a second-floor courtroom were comparable to “Occupy Boston” squatters recently ejected from Dewey Square, while protesters countered that they are simply exercising their constitutionally protected religious rights.

The Most. Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, filed a lawsuit against the protesters in October after they began holding 24/7 prayer vigils since the church closure on June 30.

The crux of the complaint boils down to diocesan officials attempting to enforce a no-trespass order on parishioners, who have refused to go quietly to Our Lady of the Cross, the new, merged parish about a mile from Mater Dolorosa.

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NEDERLAND
Fok

Een misbruikslachtoffer van de rooms-katholieke kerk heeft aangifte gedaan tegen kardinaal Ad Simonis. De Bredanaar beschuldigt Simonis van meineed. Volgens hem heeft de kardinaal begin vorig jaar gelogen bij een verhoor in een rechtszaak over seksueel misbruik door de inmiddels overleden pater Jan N.

De man, die bij de rechtszaak betrokken was omdat hij naar eigen zeggen zelf is misbruikt door N., is naar de politie gestapt naar aanleiding van het rapport van de commissie-Deetman. Dat zegt hij in een interview met dichtbij.nl. Uit het vorige maand gepubliceerde rapport van Deetman bleek onder meer dat het misbruik bekend was binnen de ordes en bisdommen.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Reformatorisch Dagblad

LONDEN (ANP) – Paus Benedictus XVI heeft het ontslag aanvaard van de rooms-katholieke hulpbisschop Gabino Zavala van Los Angeles. De prelaat blijkt twee kinderen te hebben die nu in hun tienerjaren zijn. Zij wonen met hun moeder buiten de staat Californië, waarin Los Angeles ligt, meldde de BBC woensdag.

Aartsbisschop Jose Gomez van Los Angeles schreef in een brief aan de gelovigen in het aartsbisdom dat de 60-jarige Zavala hem in december had verteld dat hij – in strijd met het verplichte priestercelibaat – twee kinderen had verwekt. Het aartsbisdom heeft het gezin „geestelijke hulp” aangeboden. Ook zal het de opleiding van de kinderen medefinancieren.

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NEDERLAND
De Puttenaer

04-01-2012

PUTTEN – Bestuurslid Astrid van Schaik van de regionale St. Lucasparochie (onder meer Putten, Barneveld, Nijkerk, Achterveld) noemt het de onjuist dat zij zou zijn afgetreden omdat zij het niet eens zou zijn geweest rond het onmiddellijk op non-actief stellen van pastoor Bert Sturkenboom door het aartsbisdom Utrecht. ,,Dat is de omgekeerde waarheid. Ik ben juist afgetreden omdat het aartsbisdom Utrecht vorige week dinsdag geen openheid van zaken wilde geven omtrent het misbruik.”

Door Jeanne Dijkstra

Volgens Van Schaik wilde mgr. Hans Zuijdwijk van het aartsbisdom aanvankelijk niet melden dat het om seksueel misbruik zou gaan. ,,Dat was voor mij reden om af te treden. Het was namelijk voor mij een absolute voorwaarde dat hier melding van gemaakt zou worden. Maar het aartsbisdom wilde geen openheid van zaken geven. Dat hebben zij de dag daarop wel gedaan, maar toen was ik al opgestapt. De enige die alles weet over aard en inhoud van de aanklachten is het bisdom, zij zijn partij en verantwoordelijk voor de gang van zaken in deze. Zij zijn niet transparant en open en ik kan niet werkzaam zijn voor een instituut wat daardoor zo tegen mijn principes ingaat, dat is de reden voor mijn aftreden.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

GEORGE JACKSON

A DISTRICT judge yesterday adjourned for two weeks the court appearance of a 65-year-old priest accused of committing a number of indecent assault offences against a female.

Fr Eugene Boland, a native of Moville in Co Donegal, whose address was given as the Parochial House, Killyclogher Road, Omagh, Co Tyrone, is alleged to have committed the offences between June 1990 and June 1992.

A preliminary enquiry hearing for Fr Boland, who since his ordination in 1973 has served in parishes on both sides of the Border in the Derry diocese, was listed for the Magistrate’s Court in Derry yesterday.

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By EDMUND H. MAHONY, emahony@courant.com
The Hartford Courant

6:44 p.m. EST, January 4, 2012

St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center and one of its insurers have settled with another eight of the 150 victims who sued after they were sexually abused as children by the hospital’s former chief endocrinologist, Dr. George Reardon.

The most recent settlements, all of which involve insurance coverage provided solely by The Travelers Cos., leave about 39 suits pending. Resolution of the remaining cases has been complicated by a dispute among hospital insurers over what kind of coverage is triggered by the abuse and how the cost of damages should be divided.

Reardon worked at the hospital from 1963 until 1993, when complaints about his behavior reached state medical regulators. He used a so-called study of child growth rates as a pretext to abuse and collect obscene photographs of 500 or more children over the 30 years.

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BOSTON (MA)
WBUR

By WBUR News & Wire Services
Jan 4, 2012

BOSTON — Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley is marking the 10th anniversary of the start of the clergy sex abuse crisis with reflections on events he says “forever changed” the Roman Catholic church worldwide.

O’Malley released a letter and his reflections on Wednesday, two days before the anniversary of a 2002 Boston Globe story that sparked a wave of revelations about dozens of pedophile priests and the church leaders who transferred them between parishes while hiding their crimes.

O’Malley said Wednesday that the crisis will never be behind the church, and it can never cease to “beg forgiveness” from those who were harmed. …

“We don’t know what process he uses when he decides whether a priest must be removed, but a big misconception is that Cardinal O’Malley is immediately removing priests upon receipt of an allegation,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, of bishopaccountability.org. “He absolutely is not. His policy doesn’t even require him to do that.”

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CHILE
Diario el Divisadero

Valparaíso-. Ayer miércoles los diputados René Alinco, Alejandra Sepúlveda, Enrique Accorsi, Tucapel Jiménez y Carlos Abel Jarpa, presentaron un proyecto de ley que modifica el Código Penal para aumentar las penas por este tipo de delitos, además de declarar la imprescriptibilidad de éstos.

“A propósito de casos como el de Fernando Karadima es que urge hacer un cambio en la legislación vigente porque la gran mayoría de las violaciones, abusos sexuales o estupros son denunciados mucho tiempo después, sobretodo en menores de edad. Estos delitos no debieran prescribir y así puedan ser perseguidos e investigados en cualquier tiempo” manifestó el parlamentario aisenino.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

GLENN E. RICE
The Kansas City Star

An advocacy group for clergy sexual abuse victims on Wednesday urged the public to continue to contact it despite a judge’s recent order that it release emails and other documents.

Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Ann Mesle required that the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and its national director, David Clohessy, produce an extensive amount of correspondence with alleged victims, whistleblowers, journalists and others.

In a news conference in Kansas City, Clohessy declined to comment about the order but said the group was not deterred and is continuing to assist those who say they were abused by clergy, church staff and volunteers.

“Those who call us for help, please keep coming forward and reach out,” he said. “Please don’t be intimidated or bullied, don’t let anything keep you from finding the strength and the courage to report child sex abuse crimes and to get the help that you need.”

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