ABUSE TRACKER

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Global News

PHILADELPHIA – A landmark sex abuse case that rocked the Roman Catholic Church went to trial Monday, marking the first time a U.S. church official faced a jury on allegations he endangered the welfare of children by covering for predator priests.

The trial will be closely followed by Catholics across the country, including some who say their lives were destroyed.

Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia pleaded not guilty.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Anmerkungen donec venias

Aus gegebenem Anlass, möchte ich hier einmal kurzgefasst das wiedergeben, was ein Bekannter zu sagen hat. Ich habe mich bemüht, alle Details herauszunehmen, die ihn identifizierbar machen. Seinen Namen habe ich natürlich sowieso geändert. Vielleicht ist er ein Ausnahmefall. Vielleicht gibt es noch mehr wie ihn. Denn wer erfährt so etwas? Er hat mich nicht beauftragt das zu schreiben. Er resigniert eher und hat Angst, dass, gleich was er tut, alles nur noch schlimmer wird. Also, hier seine Geschichte:

“Mein Name ist Josef. Ich bin Priester – und Sie sind alle meine Richter. Bevor Sie das endgültige Urteil fällen, nehme ich dankend die Möglichkeit an, wenigstens alles aus meiner Sicht schildern zu können:

Zu meiner Berufung fand ich, als ich als Jugendlicher schwer verletzt im Krankenhaus lag und der Ortspfarrer mich besuchte. Er setzte sich zu mir und betete den Rosenkranz. Dabei wurde mir klar, dass ich in Maria eine liebende Mutter habe. Das war für mich sehr wichtig. Denn meine Mutter hatte mich nicht gewollt, meinen Vater kannte ich nicht. Ich durfte nur leben, weil eine Verwandte sich bereit erklärt hatte, mich großzuziehen. Dort wuchs ich auf, meine Mutter sah ich selten. Ich wollte sein wie dieser Pfarrer, der Kranke besucht und Verlassenen wie mir eine Mutter zeigt.

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MEXIKO
N-TV

Wusste Papst Benedikt XVI. von den Machenschaften Marcial Maciels? Der führende Geistliche soll in Mexiko Kinder missbraucht und mehrere selbst gezeugt haben. Als Mitglied der Glaubenskongregation behinderte er die Aufklärung des Falles, so die Anklage von Opfern und Experten. Und das gemeinsam mit Papst Johannes Paul II.

Opfer von sexuellem Missbrauch in Mexiko haben schwere Vorwürfe gegen Papst Benedikt XVI. erhoben. Der 84-Jährige habe in seiner Zeit als Chef der Glaubenskongregation im Vatikan die Aufklärung des Missbrauchsskandal um den inzwischen verstorbenen Gründer des Ordens der Legionäre Christi, Marcial Maciel, behindert, heißt es in einem Manifest, das die Opfer aus Anlass des Papstbesuches in Mexiko veröffentlichten. Eines der Opfer, José Barba, beklagt in der Videobotschaft, dass sie über Jahre nicht gehört worden seien.

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MEXIKO
Spin

Papst Benedikt XVI. hat Mexiko zu einer friedlichen Beilegung seiner Konflikte im Land aufgerufen. Christi Herrschaft bestehe “nicht in der Kraft seiner Armeen, andere mit Macht und Gewalt zu unterwerfen”, sagte das Oberhaupt der katholischen Kirche bei einer Messe unter freiem Himmel nahe der Stadt León. Viele hätten die Herrschaft “falsch verstanden oder verstehen sie falsch”.

Benedikt XVI. sprach wie üblich keine konkrete Situation an, sondern betonte vor den mehr als 350.000 Gläubigen im Bicentenario-Park in Silao die Grundwerte des katholischen Glaubens. Das mexikanische Volk und weitere lateinamerikanische Länder erlebten derzeit “Momente des Schmerzes und der Hoffnung”, sagte er.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bospace

Trier – Gegen den Missbrauchsbeauftragten der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, Stephan Ackermann, gibt es neue Vorwürfe. Nachdem bekannt worden war, dass Ackermann in seinem eigenen Bistum pädophile Pfarrer als Seelsorger beschäftigt (“Spiegel” 12/2012), werfen nun zwei Pfarrer aus dem saarländischen Ort Köllerbach dem Trierer Bischof und dessen Ordinariat “Vertuschung statt Aufklärung” vor, berichtet der “Spiegel” vorab. Die beiden Geistlichen hatten 2010 von mehreren Verdachtsfällen sexueller Gewalt in der Köllerbacher Gemeinde St. Martin erfahren und daraufhin unverzüglich die Bistumsleitung informiert.

Statt der erhofften Aufklärung wurden in einem Schreiben im Auftrag der Bistumsleitung die von Pater Klaus Gorges innerkirchlich gemeldeten Vorfälle in Köllerbach lediglich als “Gerüchte” bezeichnet, “die sich nicht erhärtet” hätten. Dabei hatten Zeugen auch gegenüber dem Priester Guido Ittmann die Vorfälle bestätigt. Ittmann und ein Opfer stellten Strafanzeige, die allerdings wegen Verjährung nicht weiter verfolgt werden konnte. Das Bistum fühlt sich zudem für die mutmaßlichen Täter kirchenrechtlich nicht zuständig. Nach seinem Aufklärungsbemühungen bekam Pfarrer Ittmann neben Drohbriefen auch einen Sack mit Tierkadavern vor die Haustüre und tote Fledermäuse in den Weihwasserkrug seiner Kirche gelegt. Ackermanns Personalchef habe ihn angewiesen, sich still zu verhalten und den Missbrauchsfällen nicht nachzugehen, so Ittmann. Das Bistum wollte sich zu dem Vorwurf nicht äußern. Das Generalvikariat schrieb ihm, Veröffentlichungen des Pfarrers müssten vorher abgezeichnet werden. Ittmann: “Ich kann nicht fassen, das dies die Reaktion des Bistums auf einen Missbrauchsverdacht ist.” Einige der mutmaßlichen Täter seien in der Diözese immer noch aktiv.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Wochenblatt

„Vertuschung statt Aufklärung von Missbrauchsfällen in der katholischen Kirche”

Gegen den Missbrauchsbeauftragten der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, Stephan Ackermann, gibt es neue Vorwürfe. Bereits letzte Woche hatte der Spiegel berichtet, in der Diözese Ackermanns seien Priester nur versetzt worden, denen man sexuellen Missbrauch vorwerfe.

Nachdem bekannt worden war, dass Ackermann in seinem eigenen Bistum pädophile Pfarrer als Seelsorger beschäftigt (SPIEGEL 12/2012), werfen nun zwei Pfarrer aus dem saarländischen Ort Köllerbach dem Trierer Bischof und dessen Ordinariat “Vertuschung statt Aufklärung” vor. Die beiden Geistlichen hatten 2010 von mehreren Verdachtsfällen sexueller Gewalt in der Köllerbacher Gemeinde St. Martin erfahren und daraufhin unverzüglich die Bistumsleitung informiert. Statt der erhofften Aufklärung wurden in einem Schreiben im Auftrag der Bistumsleitung die von Pater Klaus Gorges innerkirchlich gemeldeten Vorfälle in Köllerbach lediglich als “Gerüchte” bezeichnet, “die sich nicht erhärtet” hätten.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KSRO

MARYCLAIRE DALE

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The high-ranking Roman Catholic official charged with shuffling predator priests to unwitting parishes has pleaded not guilty in front of a Philadelphia jury as the landmark case against him and a priest begins.

The trial of Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan began Monday morning after a brief delay. Opening statements are next.

A defrocked priest who had been a co-defendant in the case entered a surprise guilty plea last week following weeks of legal wrangling in the case. Defense attorneys had asked for a new jury, saying it could be tainted if jurors learned of Avery’s plea.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Philly Post

The head of the Catholic Church should spend less time pandering to the Republicans and more time dealing with local problems.

By Joel Mathis 3/26/2012

It can’t be a fun time to be Catholic in Philadelphia.

On Friday, defrocked priest Edward Avery pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a Northeast Philadelphia altar boy in 1999. This week—assuming all goes as planned—Monsignor William Lynn goes on trial, accused of covering up many more allegations against many more priests while he served during Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua’s reign in the city. And there are the non-rape problems: The diocese has struggled with massively declining enrollment in the city’s parochial schools. They ain’t exactly packing them in at the parishes, either.

So what’s Archbishop Charles Chaput’s plan to fix a diocese in crisis? Apparently, it’s to turn the church into the Republican Party at Mass.

Suddenly Philadelphia Catholics under Chaput are rallying against President Obama. This week they’ll be fasting and praying in protest against the president. And Chaput himself is now releasing an 99-cent e-book—A Heart on Fire: Catholic Witness and the Next America—that plainly takes aim at the president and his policy that employers provide contraceptive coverage as part of health insurance plans. Under Chaput, the local church has been busy, busy, busy reminding everybody that Obama is coming to take your religious freedom away.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A judge is expected to rule this morning on a request to delay the landmark trial of Philadelphia priests accused of conspiring to cover up clergy sex abuse.

Opening statements had been scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. in a third-floor courtroom at the city’s Criminal Justice Center. But as of 10:15 a.m., the parties remained behind closed doors.

Lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn and the Rev. James J. Brennan said that publicity over last week’s unexpected guilty plea by a third defendant might have tainted the jury.

As of 10:15 a.m., the parties remained behind closed doors.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KTAR

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
March 26th, 2012

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The start of a landmark priest abuse case involving a high-ranking official in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was delayed Monday while a judge weighed a defense request for a new jury after the abrupt guilty plea last week of a co-defendant.

Attorneys for Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan planned to attack the credibility of the priests’ troubled adult accusers, but that strategy took a hit last week when defrocked priest Edward Avery entered a last-minute guilty plea, confirming one accuser’s account of a brutal 1999 sexual assault inside a church sacristy.

The trial for Lynn and Brennan was scheduled to begin Monday morning after weeks of jury selection and pretrial wrangling. Both men were in court for the start of the trial, but the judge and jury were not.

All three priests were to be tried together before Avery pleaded guilty Thursday to charges related to an assault on a then-10-year-old altar boy.

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INDIANA
National Catholic Reporter

Mar. 26, 2012
By Melinda Henneberger

On her way back to St. Mary’s College from the University of Notre Dame, just across the street in Notre Dame, Ind., freshman Lizzy Seeberg texted her therapist that she needed to talk ASAP. “Something bad happened,” read her message, sent at 11:39 p.m. on Aug. 31, 2010. A sophomore in their dorm bolted from her study group after getting a similar message. When they talked a few minutes later, Lizzy was crying so hard she was having trouble breathing: “She looked really flushed and was breathing heavily and talking really fast; I couldn’t understand her. I just heard her say ‘boy,’ ‘Notre Dame,’ ‘football player.’ She was crying and having the closest thing to a panic attack I’ve seen in my life. I told her to breathe and sit down and tell me everything.”

What she eventually did tell both her therapist and her friend that night — then committed to paper, in a handwritten statement she and the other young woman carefully signed, dated and handed over to campus police the next day, is that a Notre Dame football player sexually assaulted her in his room after two other students left them alone there. Yet Notre Dame police, who have jurisdiction to investigate even the most serious crimes on campus, still had not interviewed him when she committed suicide 10 days later — and wouldn’t for another five days. “He started sucking my neck and I started crying harder,” Lizzy wrote.

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MEXICO
Vatican Insider

The majestic Basilica Cathedral of Our Holy Mother of the Light hosts a sort of ‘Latin American conclave’ of South American bishops

Giacomo Galeazzi

An eco resounds in the neoclassical aisles of the Cathedral, it is the invite extended to the audience by the pope as pastor and theologian not to “give into the intimidation campaign of evil forces”, because “ Evil does not have the last word in history” and “God can present new grounds for a hope that does not disappoint”. In the Majestic Cathedral of Leon in Mexico, which has been transformed into a sort of “Latin conclave” as all the continent’s bishops have flocked together, Benedict XVI attacked the bishops who have collaborated with the drug lords and the powerful founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Maciel, who is a paedophile. During the recital of the vespers the Pope deplored “weaknesses and faults”, but also sent a message of hope: “ The cruelty and ignorance of men do not stop the divine plan for salvation. Evil cannot do much”. This warning was directed at people within the Church but also outside, including the leaders of countries “that suffer due to poverty, corruption, domestic violence, drug trafficking, the collapse of moral values, criminality and emigration because it splits families up”

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Aljazeera

Chris Arsenault Last Modified: 26 Mar 2012

As Pope Benedict XVI makes his way through Mexico and Cuba, rallying the faithful, his advisers are likely having backroom discussions about an impending threat to the Catholic Church’s historic dominance in the region: The rise of evangelical Christianity.

Home to about eight per cent of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics – more of the faithful than any country outside Brazil – Mexico has seen a slow but steady decline in people who self-identify with the faith. Currently about 82.7 per cent of Mexicans consider themselves Catholic, down from 88 per cent in 2000 and 96 per cent in 1970. Evangelical protestant denominations are believed responsible for much of the drop.

“The Vatican is extremely concerned about competition with evangelicals,” Daniel Levine, a professor at the University of Michigan who studies religious movements in Latin America, told Al Jazeera. “They are worried about losing their position as ‘the’ spokesperson for religion and morality in the region. It is a big change from a generation ago.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newser

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 26, 2012

(Newser) – Two Catholic priests are set to go on trial in Philadelphia for charges related to alleged child sexual abuse today, and their chances of victory look a lot lower than they did last week. Monsignor William Lynn is the first church official charged with child endangerment for failing to remove two alleged abusers from their posts, the AP reports. One of those alleged abusers, Rev. James Brennan, is on trial alongside him, charged with raping a 14-year-old boy in 1996. But the other, Edward Avery, submitted a last-minute guilty plea.

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BELGIE
Humo

De Wonderjaren van Maaike Cafmeyer (39) spelen zich af op het platteland van Torhout, diep in het West-Vlaamse Houtland. De actrice houdt goede herinneringen over aan haar kindertijd, hoewel haar tienerjaren niet zonder slag of stoot verlopen zijn.

Maaike Cafmeyer «Ik ben een plattelandskind. Als ik aan mijn lagereschooltijd terugdenk, zie ik mezelf in het groen, spelend tussen de koeien, de schapen en de bomen met vogelnesten. Ik heb als kind de stad niet gezien. …

•Cafmeyer «Als kind heb ik ook altijd intuïtief heb aangevoeld dat er iets niet pluis was met al die geestelijken.

»Neem nu Roger Vangheluwe. Ik heb die man verschillende keren ontmoet. Ik ben zelfs ooit samen met hem met de witte Lourdestrein op bedevaart geweest. Hij zat in het midden van die trein op een hoge stoel met zijn staf, meestal met een kind op zijn schoot, terwijl hij door een micro het onzevader voorlas. Ook mijn broer heeft zo bij hem op de schoot gezeten, toen hij één jaar was. Als ik daaraan denk, word ik niet goed.

»Het typeert de tijdgeest van toen en het soort mensen tussen wie ik in het katholieke West-Vlaanderen van de jaren zeventig en tachtig ben opgegroeid. Maar het typeert ook de hoogmoed van dat soort priesters, en hoe ze zichzelf zagen ten opzichte van ‘hun’ gelovigen: ze zaten, als goede herders, met hun mijter en staf op een troon, op een übertrip naar een verschijning van de maagd Maria, terwijl alle schapen in de trein lijdzaam toekeken en lofliederen zongen. Als je in zo’n machtspositie zit, kunnen grenzen snel vervagen.

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BELGIE
Knack

maandag 26 maart 2012

Torhout – Actrice Maaike Cafmeyer heeft het in het weekblad Humo deze week over haar ‘Wonderjaren’, haar jeugd die ze doorbracht op het Torhoutse platteland. Ze heeft het over de leuke tijd die ze beleefde met haar zus, haar rebelse jaren toen ze ‘s nachts wegsloop om te gaan fuiven, maar ook over toenmalig bisschop Roger Vangheluwe.

“Als kind heb ik ook altijd intuïtief heb aangevoeld dat er iets niet pluis was met al die geestelijken”, zegt Maaike Cafmeyer in het interview. Roger Vangheluwe ontmoette ze verschillende keren, ook op bedevaart. “Hij zat op een hoge stoel met zijn staf, meestal met een kind op zijn schoot. Ook mijn broer heeft zo bij hem op de schoot gezeten. Als ik daaraan denk, word ik niet goed.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WKYC

[with video]

Written by
Pamela Osborne

CLEVELAND — It’s been a little over two weeks since the Vatican ruled that the 13 churches closed by Bishop Richard Lennon reopen. The bishop has yet to respond, and the churches have yet to be reopened.

But it didn’t stop displaced parishioners from joining for a special prayer of thanks. Hundreds of parishioners gathered at St. Colman’s church for a special mass. They called it the “Mass of Thanksgiving.” Their thanks went to the Vatican for overturning the bishops ruling.

But there was a deeper meaning to the prayer that took place. Parishioners were asked to spend some time thinking about forgiveness. Forgiveness is something some have had a hard time with, since many of them say their churches closed down and they were left with no place to go.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

I’ve a sneaking suspicion that there are plans afoot in Rome to put a squeeze on us a la carte Catholics — those of us who can’t quite decide whether we’re in or out. We’re the ones who believe they should be glad to have us at all; and who love a bouncy castle on Holy Communion Day. Will we soon be told to shape up or ship out?

Now there is no clear word, on this but the summary of the report from the ‘Apolostic Visitation” published this week was most interesting in parts. It was not that it contained any great surprises in terms of clerical abuse and the rape of children. It was pretty much the same old same old there.

But what did surprise me was the fairly clear message regarding orthodoxy. In other words, we were reminded that the rules are the rules. It doesn’t matter what the “background music” may be in our country with regard to sexual abuse, or the historical dominance of the church, which had such a negative effect on our society. The rules, we were reminded, must be adhered to — religiously, as it were.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Associated Press | Posted: Monday, March 26, 2012

Defense lawyers plan to attack the credibility of the troubled adult accusers when two Roman Catholic priests go on trial in a landmark child sex-abuse case involving the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

But that strategy took a hit Thursday when co-defendant Edward Avery entered a last-minute guilty plea, confirming one accuser’s account of a brutal 1999 sexual assault inside a church sacristy. The victim was then a 10-year-old altar boy, Avery a 57-year-old priest.

Avery’s plea leaves Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan on trial on Monday. Brennan, 48, is charged with raping a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
UPI

PHILADELPHIA, March 26 (UPI) — A former high-ranking Catholic official accused of hiding Philadelphia alleged priest sex abuse acted as if his job was to shield the abuser, a prosecutor said.

Msgr. William Lynn “would have done something about the allegations” if he were “thinking about kids first” when he handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests from 1992 to 2004, Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington said at a pretrial court hearing Friday ahead of opening arguments set to begin Monday.

Lynn, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of endangering the welfare of children, is the highest-ranking member of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy to have his case reach trial on charges related to coverup allegations.

The opening arguments at the state Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia, were to begin at 9:30 a.m. EDT, but might be postponed, lawyers said.

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BELLEVILLE (IL)
News-Democrat

Sexual abuse of children by priests went unchecked for decades because church leaders ignored the problem or worked to keep it secret. We are nearing the 20-year mark of the bishops finally acting against pedophile priests and the scandal becoming public in the Belleville Diocese.

It seemed that the lessons of secrecy’s insidious nature had dawned on diocesan leaders. Open declarations about accusations and actions were made, bringing forth other victims. Sunshine was used to cleanse the pulpit.

Yet here we are still dealing with the legacy of secrecy, paying victims $7.5 million in damages. That was before this past week, when three more lawsuits were settled for “substantial” sums.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
God Discussion

In lawsuits involving pedophile priests within the Catholic Church, typically it is the priest accused of abuse who stands trial. But in a case that will start this week in Philadelphia, a priest alleged to have covered up the crime will also be tried.

Monsignor William Lynn is charged with child endangerment and conspiracy for allegedly failing to remove predator priests from the ministry. He will be the first Roman Catholic church official in the U.S. to go on trial on allegations of transferring accused priests to new assignments.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian specializes in sexual abuse cases, although he is not connected with this one. Garabedian told the Associated Press that Lynn’s case is very rare and may set legal precedent if there is a conviction. “Given the fact that a monsignor, Monsignor William Lynn, of the Catholic church is being prosecuted means that the government has taken the next step and going after, criminally, supervisors of pedophile priests within the Catholic Church and not only the pedophile priests themselves. I believe that a conviction will have a chilling effect on the Church, and that it will make the Church more moral. And supervisors of the Church may realize that they are also susceptible to criminal charges and that they will not transfer pedophile priests.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Opening statements are scheduled for today in an unprecedented case: the trial of a priest who allegedly raped a boy, and a Monsignor who is charged with endangering children as part of what authorities say was a Philadelphia Archdiocese-wide criminal conspiracy. The defendants have pleaded not guilty. But, before the trial starts, the judge must determine if jurors have been tainted by a co-defendant’s guilty plea last week.

The prosecution alleges Monsignor William Lynn, Secretary for Clergy reviewed secret archives, containing allegations and admissions of sexual abuse by dozens of priests, but he allowed them to remain in ministry to abuse children.

According to prosecutors, Monsignor Lynn and other church officials were concerned about scandal and lawsuits, but what was missing was concern for children.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

March 26, 2012
By Elizabeth Fiedler

The landmark trial of a Roman Catholic Church official is set to begin in Philadelphia Monday. It will turn a new page in the court battle in the cases of Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan.

Lynn, the former secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, is the first U.S. church official charged criminally for his administrative actions. He’s accused of child endangerment and conspiracy for allegedly transferring priests accused of sexual abuse to unsuspecting parishes.

Eyes across the country are focused on the Philadelphia case, says Patrick Wall, a former Catholic priest. Wall now works as a consultant for a law firm that has filed suits on behalf of those sexually abused as children.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Morning Call

By Peter Hall, Of The Morning Call

5:25 a.m. EDT, March 26, 2012
A judge is expected to decide whether opening arguments will begin today in the sex abuse trial of two Philadelphia-area clergymen where retired Allentown Bishop Edward Cullen is likely to testify.

Following a surprise guilty plea by one of his codefendants, defense attorneys for Monsignor William Lynn asked Judge Teresa Sarmina to delay the trial to pick a new jury. The jurors, Lynn’s attorneys said, were likely exposed to media reports of defrocked priest Edward Avery’s guilty plea.

The judge said she would decide before the scheduled start of the trial this morning whether a new jury is needed.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

March 25, 2012 by Susan Matthews

Click here to read: “Philadelphia priest abuse trial to draw plenty of attention,” by Ross Levitt and Susan Candiotti, CNN, March 25, 2012

Excerpt: “(Rich) Green, the nephew of deceased Cardinal John O’Connor of New York, says he was abused by a priest at a Philadelphia high school in 1990. The priest died in 1999, and the statute of limitations has run out on Green’s ability to sue the Philadelphia archdiocese.

Green did receive a settlement from the Archdiocese of Wilmington, Delaware, where the priest’s order is based, and says he plans to attend Lynn’s trial as often as he can.

“We are asking for these people who are responsible for destroying our lives to be held accountable for what they did to us,” Green said. “We are the ones telling the truth, and I don’t understand why the Catholic Church can’t tell the truth.”

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MEXICO
El Plural

Mexicanos que denunciaron los abusos sexuales cometidos por Marcial Maciel, fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo, así como algunas de sus víctimas, pidieron al Papa Benedicto XVI, de visita en ese país reconocer la responsabilidad de la Iglesia en el ocultamiento de los hechos.

Los exlegionarios José Barba y Alberto Athié y los investigadores Fernando M. González y Bernardo Barranco han denunciado en una rueda de prensa celebrada en León, la ciudad del Estado de Guanajuato donde pernoctó el Papa este sábado, que el Vaticano ocultó los abusos sexuales cometidos por Maciel desde los años cuarenta del siglo pasado.

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MEXICO
La Nacion (Chile)

Víctimas de abusos sexuales del mexicano Marcial Maciel, un sacerdote fallecido en 2008 que fundó la congregación católica Legionarios de Cristo, difundieron un manifiesto en el que acusan al Papa Benedicto XVI, de visita a este país, de haberles ignorado.

“Por vuestras manos pasó la oportunidad de aceptar esa verdad” (los abusos sexuales de Maciel), dice el manifiesto presentado en León, a 400 km al noroeste de la capital, donde el Papa se aloja en su primera visita a México. “Pero no se nos escuchó ni se nos creyó oportunamente. Durante mucho tiempo fuimos ignorados”, agrega el manifiesto.

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MEXICO
Orlando Sentinel

Por E. EDUARDO CASTILLO y ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON

LEON, México (AP) — El vocero del Vaticano, padre Federico Lombardi, afirmó el sábado que ningún Papa encubrió la doble vida del fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo, señalado de abuso sexual contra seminaristas y de haber procreado al menos tres hijos pese a ser sacerdote.

Horas después de que fuera presentado un libro sobre el presunto encubrimiento del Vaticano a los abusos sexuales cometidos por Marcial Maciel, Lombardi consideró “injusto” calificar de esa manera tanto al Papa Benedicto XVI como a su antecesor Juan Pablo II.

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MEXICO
Critica Politica

Por Sanjuana MartínezPeriodista www.websanjuanamartinez.com www.elboomeran.com
“Me falta un testículo, por eso tengo la tentación de tocar niños”, dijo como excusa el sacerdote José Luis de María y Campos López de la Diócesis de Guanajuato, a María, madre de un niño a quien violó varias veces bajo el argumento de que era “el elegido por Dios” y con la protección continuada del obispo José Guadalupe Martín Rábago.

En Guanajuato, tierra yunquista, las víctimas de pederastia clerical forman parte de manera silenciosa de la visita del Papa Benedicto XVI quien se ha negado a recibirlas durante su estancia del 23 al 26 de marzo.

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MEXICO
Observador Global

Quienes fueron abusados sexualmente por el sacerdote mexicano Marcial Maciel aprovecharon la presencia del Papa en León para presentar un manifiesto donde lo acusan de ignorar las denuncias al respecto.

Víctimas de abusos sexuales del mexicano Marcial Maciel, un sacerdote fallecido en 2008 que fundó la congregación católica Legionarios de Cristo, difundieron ayer un manifiesto en el que acusan al papa Benedicto XVI, de visita a este país, de haberlas ignorado.

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MEXICO
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

More than 300,000 Catholic pilgrims gathered in the central Mexican city of Silao on Sunday to hear Pope Benedict XVI say Mass in the country on his first official visit to Latin America.

By Josephine McKenna
9:54PM BST 25 Mar 2012

Benedict held the ceremony in the city’s Bicentennial park in the shadows of the Christ the King statue, a 72-foot monument which recalls the Catholic uprisings of 1926 – 1929.

After landing in the park by helicopter he was presented with a large black sombrero as he greeted fans in his Popemobile before preaching a message of peace in a country reeling from the violence of the drug cartels.

“We ask Christ, to reign in our hearts, making them pure, docile, filled with hope and courageous in humility,” Benedict said in his homily.

Despite the enthusiastic reception Benedict received on Sunday, his visit to Mexico has been overshadowed by accusations from victims of sexual abuse who have accused the Vatican of protecting a notorious Mexican priest for years.

Victims of sexual abuse were angry that the pontiff had no plans to meet them after he had met victims of paedophilia on his previous official visits to the US, Germany, Malta, Australia and the UK in 2010.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Evelyn Theiss, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Catholics from many of the closed churches in Northeast Ohio gathered this afternoon for a Mass of thanksgiving at St. Colman Church in Cleveland.

Hymn-singing was emphasized in the Mass, led by St. Colman’s pastor, the Rev. Bob Begin, and it seemed exceptionally joyous.

“This is so beautiful,” said Phyllis Cielec, 81, whose home church was St. Barbara in Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood. “This is part of a dream we never thought we’d see.”

The celebration was triggered by the stunning news earlier this month that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy had ruled in favor of 13 closed parishes in Cleveland, saying Bishop Richard Lennon did not follow church law and procedures when he closed them. Banners at the front of the church represented each of those churches.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CNN

By From Ross Levitt and Susan Candiotti, CNN

updated 6:40 PM EDT, Sun March 25, 2012

(CNN) — Opening arguments are scheduled for Monday in Philadelphia in the first case in which an official of a Roman Catholic archdiocese has been accused of protecting abusive priests by moving them from parish to parish.

Monsignor William Lynn has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and endangering the welfare of a child. Lynn served as the vicar of clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004, a position in which he was responsible for investigating reports that priests had sexually abused children.

A grand jury alleged that he knowingly allowed priests accused of abuse to continue in the ministry in roles in which they had access to children, according to the district attorney’s office. Lynn “acted as if his job was to protect the abuser, never the abused,” a January 2011 grand jury report concluded.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Wall Street Journal

By PETER LOFTUS

PHILADELPHIA—A landmark criminal trial is scheduled to begin here on Monday for a former high-ranking Roman Catholic Church official accused of failing to protect children from alleged molestation by priests.

Amid the sex-abuse scandal that has shaken the Catholic Church over the past decade, because Msgr. William Lynn will be the highest-ranking member of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy to have his case reach trial on charges related to cover-up allegations. He served as secretary for clergy in the Philadelphia diocese from 1992 to 2004, a job that included handling allegations of sexual abuse by priests. He is charged with endangering the welfare of children and has pleaded not guilty.

The case illustrates both the progress and the shortcomings of the Catholic Church’s handling of abuse allegations. The Philadelphia district attorney’s office credited the diocese with referring some of the allegations at issue in the trial to prosecutors, under strengthened reporting policies the diocese adopted in the past decade.

But a grand-jury report last year blasted the diocese for allowing 37 priests to remain in active ministry despite having “credible” abuse allegations lodged against them. The diocese later placed a majority of the priests on leave as it investigated the allegations. Msgr. Lynn also was placed on leave from his post as a parish pastor after he was charged last year.

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MEXICO
Catholic News Agency

Leon, Mexico, Mar 25, 2012 / 12:47 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has followed his predecessor Blessed John Paul II in working for “truth and transparency” on priestly abuse and other topics, the Holy See Press Office director said on March 24.

Pope Benedict XVI “has truly done much to fight against these problems and put fundamental measures in place,” Fr. Federico Lombardi told journalists during a press conference at the Hotsson Hotel in León, where he has been briefing journalists during the Pope’s visit to Mexico.

“It’s unjust to consider Pope Benedict XVI as someone who has worked against truth and transparency,” he said during the evening press conference.

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MEXICO
YouTube

Published on Mar 25, 2012 by Euronews

http://www.euronews.com/ Pope Benedict XVI’s first trip to Mexico is being overshadowed by a book alleging the Catholic Church hid evidence of sex abuse by one of Mexico’s most prominent Roman Catholics.

Called ‘The Will Not to Know’, the book details the investigation and alleged cover-up of sexual abuse by a former high-ranking reverend who founded a religious order.

One of its authors, Fernando Gonzalez, claimed the Pope was aware of abuse in Mexico’s Catholic church before 2000.

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PORTUGAL
Diario de Noticias

Seis anos depois de um grupo de alunos das Oficinas de São José, no Porto, ter chocado o país com o envolvimento na morte da transexual Gisberta, a Justiça levanta o véu sobre o dia-a-dia na instituição.

O jornal “Público” escreve que seis anos depois de um grupo de alunos da Oficina de São José, no Porto, ter chocado o país com o seu envolvimento na morte da transexual Gisberta, a Justiça levanta o véu sobre o dia-a-dia da instituição tutelada pela Diocese do Porto, que acolhia então mais de 60 rapazes. Agressões reiteradas a monitores, abusos sexuais entre alunos e até menores vítimas de prostituição.

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PORTUGAL
DN

O atual bispo do Porto, que exerce a função há precisamente cinco anos, diz que outra solução não restava senão fechar as Oficinas de S. José, a instituição católica para acolhimento de menores que o caso Gisberta mediatizou.

“Havia um desajustamento em relação àquilo que se procurava” inicialmente, o acolhimento de órfãos, e aquilo que ultimamente se lhe pedia, a institucionalização de menores problemáticos, “e achei que não havia condições” para isso, explica Manuel Clemente.

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PORTUGAL
Publico

Oficina de S. José, que acolheu a maioria dos menores envolvidos na morte da transexual Gisberta, no Porto, foi o palco dos casos de maus tratos e abusos sexuais. Julgamento arranca dia 27.

Agressões reiteradas de monitores, abusos sexuais entre alunos e até menores vítimas de prostituição. Seis anos depois de um grupo de alunos da Oficina de S. José, no Porto, ter chocado o país com o seu envolvimento na morte da transexual Gisberta, a Justiça levanta o véu sobre o dia-a-dia que se vivia na instituição tutelada pela Diocese do Porto, que acolhia então mais de 60 rapazes. Em Julho de 2010, a notícia destes casos, ainda em investigação, precipitou o encerramento do lar que, na altura, já só albergava 30 jovens.

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CANADA
CTV

Parishioners at a central Ottawa church are praying for everyone impacted by charges of sexual exploitation against a former youth pastor.

Sunday was the first gathering at Peace Tower Church on Bronson Avenue since 28-year-old Mark Raymer was charged with six counts of sexual exploitation and one of luring a 16-year-old girl.

“We never heard his side, you can’t just rush to judgment on somebody especially when you’re dealing with spiritual people,” said Maurice Golka. “The law would have to prove he did something inappropriate.”

“If it did happen, I hope people that had the offence done to them . . . I hope they get help and get healed,” said Terry Fierback.

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MEXICO
International

Luis Prados León (Guanajuato) 24 MAR 2012

Las víctimas de los abusos sexuales a menores cometidos por el fundador de la Legión de Cristo, el sacerdote mexicano ya fallecido Marcial Maciel, han manifestado este sábado su repulsa por la ocultación a sabiendas del escándalo por parte del Vaticano durante décadas y su indignación por que el papa Benedicto XVI, de visita en México, no tuviera previsto recibirlos.

Los exlegionarios José Barba y Alberto Athié y los investigadores Fernando M. González y Bernardo Barranco han denunciado en conferencia de prensa celebrada en León, la ciudad del Estado de Guanajuato donde pernocta el Papa, que la Santa Sede ocultó los abusos sexuales cometidos por Maciel desde los años cuarenta del siglo pasado. Maciel fundó la congregación en enero de 1941 con el nombre de Misioneros del Sagrado Corazón y posteriormente lo cambió a Legión de Cristo.

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OSTERREICH
Der Standard

Markus Rohrhofer, 25. März 2012 18:01

Man sei schockiert, Konkretes habe man aber nicht gewusst: Die Verteidigungslinie des Stifts Kremsmünster ist klar definiert – Polizeiliche Akten belegen aber gezielte Vertuschung

Linz – “Gerüchte” habe es gegeben, und es sei aus heutiger Sicht “ein großer Fehler” gewesen, diesen nicht nachzugehen. Abt Ambros Ebhart gibt diese Antwort gerne auf die heikle Frage, ob man denn tatsächlich nichts von gewalttätigen Übergriffen und dem sexuellen Missbrauch im Internat des Stiftes Kremsmünster mitbekommen habe. Vergangene Woche war es wieder einmal Zeit für die bekannte Rechtfertigung. Der 1200 Seiten starke Gerichtsakt der Staatsanwaltschaft Steyr gelangte an die Öffentlichkeit und offenbart ein Bild des Schreckens. Bis in die 1990er-Jahre soll es im Internat des Stiftsgymnasiums Kremsmünster sexuellen Missbrauch und Gewalt gegeben haben.

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MEXICO
Daily Nation (Kenya)

By AFP
Posted Sunday, March 25 2012

GUANAJUATO, Mexico, Sunday

Pope Benedict XVI called on Sunday on adults to “protect and to care for children” and sent a message to minors suffering from violence in a speech in the central Mexican city of Guanajuato.

Amid complaints from sexual abuse victims that the pope would not meet them in Mexico, Benedict referred to the mistreatment of children, without specifically mentioning Catholic priest paedophilia scandals of recent decades.

“I wish to lift up my voice, inviting everyone to protect and to care for children, so that nothing may extinguish their smile, but that they may live in peace and look to the future with confidence,” the pope said before hundreds of cheering children from the balcony of the ornate Casa Del Conde Rul, where he earlier met with President Felipe Calderon.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Kevin Manahan/The Star-Ledger

BERNARDS — Bill Crane Sr. remembers the sweaty August day in 1964, when he drove his Pontiac onto the sprawling Delbarton School campus, hoping to land a job as a history teacher that paid $4,400 a year. Married, he had a freshly printed diploma from Upsala College in his pocket and a baby on the way.

But he wasn’t desperate. After all, he had just told a “stuffy” administrator at Hanover Park High School in East Hanover that he didn’t want the job the guy was offering.

“Where do you see yourself in five years?” Crane was asked.

“Anyplace but here,” he replied, then walked out.

But Delbarton was different. Even in midsummer, the place had the feel of serious academia.

“As I stepped out of the car, I said to myself, ‘Now, this seems like a great place,’ ” Crane recalled in a phone interview Wednesday from his home in Washington state. “Knowing what I know now, I would have shut the door and driven away — in a hurry.”

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ESPANA
El Pais

Natalia Junquera 24 MAR 2012

No quisieron esperar más, y a la muerte de Franco, un grupo de viudas e hijos de fusilados se lanzaron a la búsqueda y apertura de las fosas donde los asesinos habían arrojado a sus familiares. En Navarra y La Rioja, arrodillados en la tierra, sin más herramientas que una pala y las propias manos, les acompañaban algunos sacerdotes. Sacerdotes como Victorino Aranguren, Eloy Fernández, Dionisio Lesaca, Vicente Ilzarbe… que ayudaron a aquellas viudas a desenterrar a sus maridos y que en los funerales que oficiaban en su memoria pidieron perdón por el comportamiento de la Iglesia durante la Guerra Civil: “Esta sangre nos salpicó también”, “si decimos que no hemos pecado, hacemos a Dios mentiroso”, “desde aquí, yo, sacerdote, aunque pecador, os pido perdón en nombre de la Iglesia…”.

“Participé en muchas exhumaciones. Era muy impactante. Las viudas decían: ‘Ese es mi marido, que era un poco chambo’, ‘ese otro es el mío, que le puse yo esa medallita…”, recuerda hoy Victorino Aranguren, sacerdote, de 80 años. “Besaban los huesos como si fueran reliquias y me pedían que los besara yo también. Todos tenían el cráneo agujereado por el tiro de gracia”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Associated Press

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A landmark priest-abuse trial opening Monday in Philadelphia may unveil the cryptic operations of the Roman Catholic archdiocese and detail how child sex-abuse complaints were buried for decades in secret archives adjacent to a glorious cathedral as the priests they named went unpunished.

Monsignor William Lynn is the first U.S. church official ever charged with endangering children for allegedly failing to oust accused predators from the priesthood. But he may not be the last.

Philadelphia prosecutors say he helped carry out “an archdiocesan-wide policy … (that) was criminal in nature.” And they’ve hinted they could charge others when the trial ends.

Civil lawyers believe the trial will help them refile priest-abuse lawsuits that were thrown out in Pennsylvania because of legal time limits, or persuade the state legislature to open a window for filing child sex-abuse claims.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Washington Post

Stakes are high for church as ‘failure to report’ case unfolds against Kansas City bishop

By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, March 25

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The charge is only a misdemeanor, but if prosecutors are able to win a conviction against Kansas City Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Finn, they could be opening up a whole new front in the national priest abuse crisis.

Finn is accused of violating Missouri’s mandatory reporter law by failing to tell state officials about hundreds of images of suspected child pornography found on the computer of a priest in his diocese.

Experts say a criminal conviction against Finn, the highest-ranking church official charged with shielding an abusive priest, could embolden prosecutors elsewhere to more aggressively pursue members of the church hierarchy who try to protect offending clergy.

“Cases can sit like land mines in files for a long time and suddenly come to light,” said Matthew Bunson, a senior fellow at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and co-author of a book, “Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal.” ‘’Those cases may ultimately involve leaders in the church.”

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MEXICO
Hispanically Speaking News

Mexicans who denounced the sexual abuses committed by Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), founder of the Legion of Christ, asked Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday to acknowledge the church’s responsibility in covering up his case and to announce that “never again” will pederasty be tolerated.

“We don’t plan to boycott the visit, absolutely. What we do want is to ask him from Mexico: Where are you going, Benedict XVI? Do you want to find your charisma once more and the mission of Peter, or is strengthening your papacy and your position as head of state what you want?” former priest Alberto Athie said at a press conference.

He spoke those words in presenting a new book of which he is co-author, “The Voluntad de No Saber” (The Will Not To Know), a 2012 publication of Grijalbo, which offers 212 documents from the secret archives of the Vatican that refer to the sexual abuse of minors and other inappropriate conduct connected with Maciel beginning in 1944.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer

The neighborhood that rings St. Jerome’s Church in Northeast Philadelphia is flush with cops and firefighters, reliable Catholics in brick homes with tidy lawns, backyard slides, and a few front-door crucifixes.

That was the backdrop last year for one of the more sordid clergy sex-abuse allegations to emerge in years. A grand jury report described a 10-year-old altar boy being confronted in St. Jerome’s sacristy after Mass, ordered to strip, and engage in sex.

Not once, but three times – by two different priests – over a year in the late 1990s.

On Monday, a Philadelphia jury is scheduled to start hearing about those accusations and one that looms larger: that leaders of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia could have predicted, or prevented, the attacks but instead followed a long-held practice of protecting the church and abusers within it.

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ILLINOIS
WGIL

A self-proclaimed Catholic priest and former owner of a Galesburg church is facing seven felony charges in Knox County.

According to Assistant States Attorney Erik Gibson, Reverend Ryan St. Anne Scott was arrested in St. Louis County last week on a Knox County warrant. The warrant charges the former Holy Rosary Abbey owner with three counts of financial exploitation of an elderly person, three counts of theft, and one count of deceptive practices.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Peoria has previously disassociated themselves from Scott and his teachings.

Gibson says Scott allegedly obtained accounts and other personal finance documentation illegally from an older woman in Galesburg between 2009 and 2011. He says the priest is accused of making it a habit to borrow money across the midwest region and bounce around to other cities. Earlier this month, Gibson says, Scott was targeted by federal bankruptcy authorities in the Cedar Falls area.

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MEXICO
SDP Noticias

Por Andrés Beltramo Álvarez. Enviado

León, Gto., 24 Mar (Notimex).- El vocero del Vaticano, Federico Lombardi, consideró injustos los señalamientos hacia Benedicto XVI por el tema de la pederastia y aclaró que una reunión con víctimas no fue prevista con antelación.

En rueda de prensa sostuvo que el Papa es un hombre de transparencia, incluso en el caso de Marcial Maciel, y que la preocupación del líder católico por el problema de los abusos sexuales contra menores y su interés en las víctimas ha sido explicado muchas veces.

?Un punto fundamental es si los Papas fueron encubridores del problema y en ese sentido debo decir que no, según mi conocimiento de estos Papas no es verdad que fueron encubridores?, dijo.

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MEXICO
El Mundo (Espana)

Jacobo G. García | León (Guanajuato, México)

Ahí estaba Guadalupe Dávila, llegada de Ciudad Juárez después de que asesinaran a su hijo durante una fiesta. También Josefina Torres, de Durango, esposa de un militar. O María Valencia, madre de un policía secuestrado por el crimen organizado en Michoacán.

Apenas un puñado de historias pero suficientes para que el Papa Benedicto XVI, en su segundo viaje a Latinoamérica, viera de cerca el rostro macabro de la violencia que vive México, que ha dejado 50.000 muertos en la guerra entre y contra los cárteles en los últimos años. El Papa Benedicto XVI se reunió este sábado con víctimas de la violencia durante el encuentro que sostuvo con el presidente Felipe Calderón en Guanajuato. Un encuentro fuera de agenda de los que suele improvisar Benedicto XVI en sus viajes. “Hay que luchar contra este mal”, había dicho días antes.

Pero a quien no verá, al menos eso es lo que señaló el portavoz del Vaticano, Federico Lombardi, es a las víctimas de violencia sexual del ex líder de ‘Los Legionarios de Cristo’, el sacerdote mexicano Marcial Maciel, fallecido en 2008. El portavoz de la Santa Sede insistió en que el tema de la pederastia preocupa a Benedicto XVI y está presente “cuando pide que nadie quiete la sonrisa a los niños”. Lombardi reiteró que el Papa se pronuncia en contra de todas formas de violencia y en estos se incluye el de abuso sexual, por lo que ha insistido en ayudar a los niños.

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MEXICO
El Diario de Yucatan

Por E. EDUARDO CASTILLO y ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON

LEON, Guanajuato (AP).- El vocero del Vaticano, padre Federico Lombardi, afirmó el sábado que ningún Papa encubrió la doble vida del fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo, señalado de abuso sexual contra seminaristas y de haber procreado al menos tres hijos pese a ser sacerdote.

Horas después de que fuera presentado un libro sobre el presunto encubrimiento del Vaticano a los abusos sexuales cometidos por Marcial Maciel, Lombardi consideró “injusto” calificar de esa manera tanto al Papa Benedicto XVI como a su antecesor Juan Pablo II.

“Tengo que testimoniar que los dos Papas fueron hombres, que son hombres de verdad y de transparencias en este problema”, aseguró el portavoz de la Santa Sede. “Creo que es verdaderamente injusto de considerar al Papa Benedicto como un hombre que ha trabajado en contra de la verdad y de la transparencia”, dijo. El libro “La voluntad de no saber”, uno de cuyos coautores es una víctima de abuso de Maciel, señala que el Vaticano encubrió esa doble vida del fundador de Los Legionarios de Cristo.

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MEXICO
Que

LEÓN, México (Reuters) – La visita del Papa Benedicto XVI a México se vio ensombrecida el sábado por la revelación de nuevos detalles sobre abusos del padre mexicano Marcial Maciel, mientras las víctimas lamentaban la falta de respuesta ante sus peticiones de reunirse con el pontífice.

Benedicto XVI llega a la segunda nación con más creyentes del mundo después de Brasil cuando la fe católica de los mexicanos se ha visto disminuida entre otras cosas por el escándalo de Maciel, que durante décadas abusó sexualmente de seminaristas y llevó una doble vida.

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MEXICO
Informador

Presentan libro con documentos referentes a abusos sexuales y otras conductas inapropiadas relacionadas con Maciel

GUANAJUATO (25/MAR/2012).- En paralelo con la visita del Papa Benedicto XVI a Guanajuato, ayer fue presentado un libro de denuncia ante los casos de pederastia.

“No pretendemos boicotear la visita, absolutamente. Lo que sí queremos es decirle desde México adonde vas, Benedicto XVI: ¿Quieres reencontrar carisma y tu misión de Pedro o quieres caminar a fortalecer tu Pontificado máximo y tu Jefatura de Estado?”, dijo en rueda de prensa el ex sacerdote Alberto Athié. Esas palabras las pronunció al presentar un nuevo libro del que es coautor, ”La voluntad de no saber” (Grijalbo, 2012), que ofrece 212 documentos procedentes de los archivos secretos del Vaticano que refieren abusos sexuales y otras conductas inapropiadas en torno a Maciel desde 1944.

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MEXICO
A.M.

Por: Luis Meza.

Víctimas de abuso sexual lamentaron que dentro de las actividades del Papa en México no se haya considerado un espacio para su encuentro con ellos, como sí ha sucedido en otras latitudes.

Joaquín Aguilar, dirigente en México de la Red de Sobrevivientes de Abusos Sexuales de Sacerdotes, señaló que es falso que no hayan buscado ese encuentro, como lo dio a entender hace unos días Carlos Aguiar Retes, presidente de la Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano.

“El mencionó que no conocía a las víctimas. Yo personalmente fui hace unos días a presentarle un caso dramático de Tlalnepantla y nunca me quiso recibir. En México quieren seguir con esta política de silencio que lamentablemente provoca que el mismo Papa se vea involucrado con los delincuentes, al no querer hablar de esto que es violación y abuso sexual hacia menores”, expresó.

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MEXICO
Pulso

El Universal

La presentación del libro “La Voluntad de no Saber: lo que sí se conocía sobre Maciel en los archivos secretos del Vaticano desde 1944”, ha llamado la atención de los representantes de los medios de comunicación que cubren la visita del Papa a México.

El libro escrito por Alberto Athié, José Barba y Fernando M. González, presentado por Bernardo Barranco y Carmen Aristegui, ha generado grandes expectativa y la presencia de unos 100 representantes de los medios de comunicación.

José Barba no ha podido asistir debido a problemas de salud pero se proyectó un video con un mensaje en el que acusa al Vaticano de saber desde el año de 1997, los abusos cometidos por el fundador de la congregación de los Legionarios de Cristo Marcial Maciel.

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MEXICO
La Voz

El papa Benedicto XVI ha sido agasajado por multitudes en México, donde tuvo un emotivo encuentro con niños y adolescentes en Guanajuato, horas después de que víctimas de abusos sexuales del sacerdote mexicano Marcial Maciel le reprochasen haberlos ignorado. Benedicto XVI instó a “proteger y cuidar a los niños”, en especial los que “soportan el peso del sufrimiento, el abandono, la violencia”, en un discurso pronunciado desde un balcón de la plaza de la Paz, interrumpido por aplausos y gritos. A punto de cumplir 85 años, el Papa no dio muestras de fatiga. “Deseo elevar mi voz invitando a todos a proteger y cuidar a los niños, para que nunca se apague su sonrisa, puedan vivir en paz y mirar al futuro con confianza”, señaló en Guanajuato, 380 km al noroeste de la capital, la tercera ciudad mexicana que visita en este segundo viaje por América Latina que incluye también a Cuba.

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MEXICO
Periodista

Federico Lombardi portavoz del Vaticano afirmó que los Papas Juan Pablo II y Benedicto XVI no fueron “encubridores del padre Marcial Maciel y es injusto considerar que el actual Pontífice está en contra de la verdad y la transparencia”.

En conferencia de prensa descartó que el Obispo de Roma se vaya a reunir con las víctimas de abuso sexual, porque es un tema que no está en la agenda de la Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano (CEM) como sí lo estuvo en países que ha visitado como Francia e Irlanda.

El vocero del Vaticano manifestó estar informado de que se había presentado un libro de víctimas de abuso sexual, “el cual no he tenido tiempo de leerlo” pero su punto fundamental es que “si los papas fueron encubridores” y en “mi conocimiento de estos Papas es que no fueron encubridores”.

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MEXICO
Periodista

Mexicanos que denunciaron los abusos sexuales cometidos por Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo, pidieron hoy al papa Benedicto XVI reconocer la responsabilidad de la Iglesia en el ocultamiento de ese caso y proclamar que “nunca más” se tolerará la pederastia.

“No pretendemos boicotear la visita, absolutamente. Lo que sí queremos es decirle desde México adónde vas, Benedicto XVI: ¿Quieres reencontrar carisma y tu misión de Pedro o quieres caminar a fortalecer tu Pontificado máximo y tu Jefatura de Estado?”, dijo en rueda de prensa el exsacerdote Alberto Athié.

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MEXICO
Boston Herald

By Tracy Wilkinson and Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times
Sunday, March 25, 2012

LEON, Mexico — Singing, strumming guitars and trying to shield themselves from a searing sun, tens of thousands of Mexican Catholics came together Saturday nearly 24 hours ahead of an open-air Mass with Pope Benedict XVI.

They walked miles and took up position in Bicentennial Park, a short distance from a hilltop monument that honors the 1920s Cristero War by Catholic counter-revolutionaries.

But as religious fervor was on display here in Silao, in central Mexico’s Guanajuato state, a sexual-abuse scandal involving a notorious Mexican priest threatened to cast a pall on the pope’s first visit to the Spanish-speaking Americas.

At a news conference in nearby Leon to launch a scathing book, sexual-abuse victims and advocates angrily accused the Vatican of protecting the priest, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, for decades. And they said they were dismayed that there were no plans for Benedict to meet victims.

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KANSAS
Casper Star-Tribune

Associated Press

A California boy attends only four days at a Kansas military boarding school where he is tormented by staff and students after breaking both his legs in separate incidents. A Tennessee student’s stomach is forcibly branded as a rite of initiation. A Florida cadet breaks his hand fending off a student with a history of sexual abuse who tries to grope him, and school officials refuse to investigate or inform his parents of the attack.

These claims are the latest additions to a growing list of former cadets who allege in a federal lawsuit they were abused at St. John’s Military School in Salina, Kan. An amended complaint filed Friday in federal court in Kansas City, Kan., now includes six sets of named parents who have filed on behalf of cadets, plus one ex-cadet who is now an adult. The plaintiffs come from California, Florida, Tennessee, Colorado, Texas and Illinois.

The Episcopal boarding school, which charges families nearly $30,000 per year for students enrolled in grades 6-12, draws students from across the nation.

Two new defendants are named in the revised lawsuit: The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America and the Episcopal Diocese of Western Kansas, entities which the suit says created the school.

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MEXICO
Reuters

By Mica Rosenberg and Philip Pullella

LEON, Mexico | Sun Mar 25, 2012

(Reuters) – Pope Benedict’s first full day in Mexico was clouded by fresh allegations the Vatican hid evidence of sex abuse by one of the country’s most prominent Roman Catholic leaders for decades.

The authors of a new book say a trove of once-secret Vatican documents prove Church officials ignored complaints of drug use and molestation of seminarians by the late Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Catholic order the Legionaries of Christ.

Adding to the criticism of the Church, victims of abuse by priests in Mexico came forward to seek an audience with Benedict, but said their calls have not been answered.

Church officials acknowledged in 2009, a year after Maciel’s death at the age of 87, that the charismatic Mexican cleric had led a double life, secretly fathering children and lavishly spending the generous donations of his followers.

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MEXICO
ABS-CBN (Philippines)

Agence France-Presse

Posted at 03/25/2012

LEON, Mexico – Victims of sexual abuse accused the Vatican on Saturday of protecting a notorious Mexican priest for decades, and expressed frustration that Pope Benedict XVI would not meet them in Mexico.

The pope has met with abuse victims in many foreign countries but has no plans to do so during a three-day visit to Mexico which began on Friday.

A group including alleged victims of abuse by Marcial Maciel, the late founder of the influential Legion of Christ religious order, presented a book that they say proves that Vatican officials ignored crimes committed by Maciel.

“The opportunity to accept this truth passed through your hands,” read a statement presented to journalists by Jose Barba, a former Legionary and alleged victim, during a video transmission from Mexico to the central city of Leon, where the pope is staying.

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MEXICO
Latin American Herald Tribune

LEON, Mexico – Mexicans who denounced the sexual abuses committed by Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), founder of the Legion of Christ, asked Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday to acknowledge the church’s responsibility in covering up his case and to announce that “never again” will pederasty be tolerated.

“We don’t plan to boycott the visit, absolutely. What we do want is to ask him from Mexico: Where are you going, Benedict XVI? Do you want to find your charisma once more and the mission of Peter, or is strengthening your papacy and your position as head of state what you want?” former priest Alberto Athie said at a press conference.

He spoke those words in presenting a new book of which he is co-author, “The Voluntad de No Saber” (The Will Not To Know), a 2012 publication of Grijalbo, which offers 212 documents from the secret archives of the Vatican that refer to the sexual abuse of minors and other inappropriate conduct connected with Maciel beginning in 1944.

According to the ex-priest, with Benedict XVI at the head of the church, “he and he alone can chart a new course to resolve this tremendous problem…the holocaust of thousands of boys and girls who were abused in many parts of the world.”

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

Good moms know that simple instructions and clear expectations often lead to positive, vigorous outcomes.

With that in mind, consider this guidance crafted by the two mothers, Jenifer Valenti and Carrie Cooper, who now lead child protection efforts for the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph:

If you know or suspect that a child is being abused, call the police, the Missouri Child Abuse Hotline and, finally, the diocese’s ombudsman.

Under the old system, muddled reporting policy and blurred responsibilities led to confused inaction and even criminal charges for the diocese and its bishop.

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MINNESOTA
In-Forum

By: Stephen J. Lee, Forum Communications Co., INFORUM

CROOKSTON, Minn. – The Catholic Diocese here, in its first official comment since news of the arrest of the Rev. Joseph Jeyapaul in India last week on Minnesota sexual assault charges, says it hopes he is returned for trial.

“The only way for this to be resolved is for him to be here, so we would like a resolution to it,” Monsignor David Baumgartner, who, as vicar general of the diocese, serves as the right-hand man to Bishop Michael Hoeppner, told the Grand Forks Herald this week.

Jeyapaul, 57, has been a fugitive for six years for criminal charges first filed in 2006 in state district court in Roseau. He is accused of sexually assaulting a parish member in Greenbush, Minn., when she was 14 and 15 in 2004 and 2005. In 2007, the charges were amended to include similar counts involving a second girl who was 16 during the same period.

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MEXICO
TheDenverChannel

LEON, Mexico (CNN) — On the same day Pope Benedict addressed and blessed a group of 1,800 children in Guanajuato, Mexico, three Mexican authors released a book accusing the Vatican of hiding or ignoring cases of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests.

The book, “La Voluntad de no Saber” (Willing Not to be Aware), chronicles multiple cases of sexual abuse of minors committed by Marcial Maciel, a Mexican-born Roman Catholic priest who was influential at the Vatican.

Maciel, who died in January 2008 at age 87, was the founder and director of the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement.

The book was authored by Jose Barba, a former seminarian who says he was the victim of sexual abuse by a priest. Historian Fernando M. Gonzalez, a co-author, says the book is based on 212 documents leaked from the Vatican.

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MEXICO
El Paso Times

By Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera \ El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com
Posted: 03/25/2012

LEON, GUANAJUATO — Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests accused Mexican Catholic Church officials on Saturday of denying them an audience with Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Mexico.

Members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said the Mexican Catholic Church has publicly said a meeting wasn’t coordinated because abuse victims never approached them to request one.

However, Jesús Romero, a member of SNAP and a victim of abuse when he was 11 years old, said they requested a meeting with Mexico City Archbishop Norberto Rivera several times, but the request was never granted.

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MEXICO
The New York Times

By RACHEL DONADIO

Published: March 24, 2012

LEÓN, Mexico — The shadow of the disgraced Mexican founder of a powerful religious order darkened the visit of Pope Benedict XVI here this weekend, as former victims and authors staged news conferences to call attention to the church’s failure to combat what they call a systemic culture of sexual abuse.

In the past week, two books released in Mexico drew new attention to longstanding questions about whether Benedict, when he was the head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, acted decisively enough about the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, a Mexican priest who founded the Legionaries of Christ, once victims began coming forward claiming he had had abused them.

The media attention shows that the Maciel case is far from closed. The Vatican has said that Benedict does not plan to meet with abuse victims while in Mexico, as he has done in other countries.

After complaints of sexual abuse were filed against Father Maciel in 1998, Benedict, who was then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, quashed a Vatican investigation. He re-opened the case in 2004, ultimately finding that Father Maciel had led a double life, raped seminarians, fathered several children and abused drugs while leading a charismatic organization known for producing ranks of priests.

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MEXICO
La Jornada

Los autores del libro ‘La voluntad de no saber’ aseguran que éste demuestra con documentos que el Vaticano ha mentido de manera sistemática sobre ese delito.

Carolina Gómez, Arturo Cano y Carlos García, enviados y corresponsal
Publicado: 24/03/2012

León, Gto. Para que realmente su visita a México pueda ser considerada histórica, el papa Benedicto XVI debería “reconocer públicamente su responsabilidad” en el ocultamiento de los casos de pederastia clerical, particularmente los relacionados con el fundador de la Legión de Cristo, Marcial Maciel, consideraron los autores del libro La voluntad de no saber, que fue presentado hoy.

En conferencia de prensa, Fernando González, experto del Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales de la UNAM; el exsacerdote Alberto Athié; el experto en asuntos religiosos Bernardo Barranco, y la periodista Carmen Aristegui, expusieron que Joseph Ratzinger debe hacer un mea culpa y comprometerse como la máxima autoridad de la Iglesia católica y ex prefecto de la Congregación de la Doctrina de la Fe -instancia que conoció de primera mano las denuncias por los abusos sexuales a menores- a tomar las medidas necesarias para que estas situaciones no vuelvan a suceder.

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MEXICO
proceso

MÉXICO, D.F. (apro).- La jerarquía católica consideró hoy que el Papa Benedicto XVI ha procedido con todo realismo y energía ante los casos de pederastia en la Iglesia católica.

De acuerdo con el sitio web de Reforma, el cardenal de Guadalajara, José Francisco Robles Ortega, dijo que no se puede acusar al pontífice de ser cómplice de esta situación o de no querer actuar.

Enfatizó que el Papa ha querido purificar a la Iglesia de la gravedad de este asunto.

Por su parte, el cardenal emérito de Guadalajara, Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, dijo que ya se esperaba que durante la visita papal se volviera a sacar el tema de la pederastia.

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MEXICO
El Pais (Espana)

Luis Prados León (Guanajuato) 24 MAR 2012

Las víctimas de los abusos sexuales a menores cometidos por el fundador de la Legión de Cristo, el sacerdote mexicano ya fallecido Marcial Maciel, han manifestado este sábado su repulsa por la ocultación a sabiendas del escándalo por parte del Vaticano durante décadas y su indignación por que el papa Benedicto XVI, de visita en México, no tuviera previsto recibirlos.

Los exlegionarios José Barba y Alberto Athié y los investigadores Fernando M. González y Bernardo Barranco han denunciado en conferencia de prensa celebrada en León, la ciudad del Estado de Guanajuato donde pernocta el Papa, que la Santa Sede ocultó los abusos sexuales cometidos por Maciel desde los años cuarenta del siglo pasado. Maciel fundó la congregación en enero de 1941 con el nombre de Misioneros del Sagrado Corazón y posteriormente lo cambió a Legión de Cristo.

“El Vaticano sistemáticamente eludió su responsabilidad. No solo sabía, sino que toleró y protegió a Maciel. El Vaticano mintió”, afirmó Barranco.

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MEXICO
CNN

Por Guillermo Cruz
Sábado, 24 de marzo de 2012 a las 14:41

LEON, Guanajuato (CNNMéxico) — El hecho de que el papa Benedicto XVI no haya hecho referencia durante su visita por México a los casos de abusos y pederastia registrados en el país hasta el mediodía de este sábado, fue cuestionado en la ciudad de León durante la presentación del libro La Voluntad de No Saber.

“Es un error de agenda del Vaticano porque el papa Benedicto XVI ha tenido contactos con víctimas en Estados Unidos, Australia, Irlanda, Malta y Alemania, ¿por qué en México no?, ¿acaso no existen víctimas en México?, ¿por qué el Papa no va a tener contacto con las víctimas de abuso sexual de Marcial Maciel? ¿acaso nació en otro país?”, cuestionó Bernardo Barranco, experto en temas religiosos y autor del prólogo de la publicación de la Editorial Grijalbo.

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MEXICO
Tabasco Hoy

Publicado: Sábado, 24 de Marzo del 2012, a las 14:45 hrs.

León, Guanajuato

“Estoy aquí, alzando la voz en nombre de muchas víctimas, lamentablemente somos muchos, nosotros hemos tenido unos cientos de casos, sabemos que son miles”, afirmó Julián Aguilar, director de SNAP, organización que aglutina a víctimas de abusos sexuales cometidos por sacerdotes.

“Estamos lastimados tras escuchar que no se van a reunir con nosotros, no les interesan las víctimas en México”. Aguilar habló durante una conferencia previa a la presentación del libro “La Voluntad de no Saber”, escrito por Alberto Athié, José Barba y Fernando M.González.

En dicho espacio se recordó que el Obispo de Roma se ha reunido con víctimas de abusos sexuales en Estados Unidos, en Australia, en Irlanda y en la Isla de Malta, entre otros puntos, pero que en dichos lugares los encuentros se dieron por la intermediación de los obispos locales, algo que no quisieron hacer los sacerdotes de la jerarquía católica en México.

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MEXICO
Milenio

León, Tendencias • 24 Marzo 2012 – 2:11pm — Pedro Domínguez

Los autores del libro ‘La voluntad de no saber’, afirman tener documentos en los que se comprueba que Joseph Ratzinger sabía de los abusos a niños por parte de sacerdotes y exigen rinda cuentas y reconozca su complicidad.

León, Gto. • El Papa Benedicto XVI debe pedir disculpas por los abusos sexuales del padre Maciel y reconocer su complicidad al encubrir el caso, afirmó el ex sacerdote Alberto Athié.

En conferencia de prensa al presentar el libro titulado ‘La voluntad de no saber’, respaldó su dicho en la posesión de archivos secretos de El Vaticano desde 1944 hasta el 2002 donde se da cuenta de cómo la Santa Sede, incluido Joseph Ratzinger, conocían y encubrían la doble vida del ex líder de los Legionarios de Cristo.

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LOUISIANA
NECN

LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — A former priest in two area Catholic churches has been charged with two counts of aggravated rape and 52 counts of sexual battery, according to the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Kim Myers, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman, tells the American Press ( ) that 56-year-old Mark A. Broussard, who left the priesthood in the mid-1990s, was charged with engaging in sexual conduct with an 8-year-old parishioner from 1986 to 1989.

Victims of sex crimes have 30 years after their 18th birthday to report abuse.

Broussard was arrested Thursday in his home in Duson. Broussard is being held in the Calcasieu Correctional Center on a $1 million bond.

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MEXICO
Los Angeles Times

REPORTING FROM LEON, MEXICO — Sexual abuse victims angrily accused the Vatican on Saturday of protecting a notorious Mexican priest for decades, and said they were dismayed that Pope Benedict XVI will not meet with them on his visit to the country.

Benedict has sat down with abuse victims in almost every country he has visited. But his spokesman said Mexican bishops did not request such an encounter here — an omission that victims’ advocates said was unconscionable.

The pope arrived in Mexico’s central Guanajuato state Friday and continues to Cuba on Monday. He was scheduled to meet with President Felipe Calderon later Saturday and will preside over an open-air Mass on Sunday that organizers say could draw more than 300,000 people.

A group that included abuse victims and experts in the field held a forum here in Leon to release a book that they say establishes “irrefutably” that Vatican officials knew of the egregious crimes committed by the late Rev. Marcial Maciel.

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NEDERLAND
de Gelderlander

GIESBEEK – De pastoor uit Giesbeek die zich volgens de belangenorganisatie Klokk in de jaren zeventig mogelijk schuldig heeft gemaakt aan seksueel misbruik, is overleden. Dit meldt het bisdom Utrecht, dat nazoekingen naar de pastoor heeft gedaan.

Volgens een woordvoerder zijn er, sinds het misbruik in de katholieke kerk aan het licht gekomen is, geen klachten bij het bisdom over de Giesbeekse priester ingediend.

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CALIFORNIA
WFMY

Costa Mesa, CA — Televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch, who built the Trinity Broadcasting Network into the world’s largest Christian broadcaster, are now facing attacks from within their own family.

Their granddaughter, Brittany Koper, has filed court papers that include allegations of $50 million in financial wrongdoing at the ministry headquartered in southern California. Her suit was followed by another from a Koper in-law, who detailed opulent spending at the network on items such as private jets, mansions and a $100,000 mobile home for Jan Crouch’s dogs.

The lawsuits came after Koper’s husband was accused by a debt collection company of embezzling more than $1 million from TBN. The debt collection company that filed the lawsuit later added the Crouches’ granddaughter and two of her in-laws as defendants.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Private jets, 13 mansions and a $100,000 mobile home just for the dogs: Televangelists ‘defrauded tens of million of dollars from Christian network’

By Nina Golgowski

Two former employees of the world’s largest Christian television channel Trinity Broadcasting Network are accusing the non-profit of spending $50 million of its funding on extravagant personal expenses.

Among purchases, the network founded by Televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch, is accused of misappropriating its ‘charitable assets’ toward a $50 million jet, 13 mansions and a $100,000-mobile home for Mrs Crouch’s dogs.

Their granddaughter, Brittany Koper, 26, recently filed her allegations in court after a brief appointment as the network’s chief finance director in July.

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MEXICO
Voice of America

Pope Benedict meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon Saturday, as the Roman Catholic leader embarks on a five-day Latin America trip that will also take him to Cuba.

The pontiff began his day with celebration of a private Mass at Miraflores College in the central Mexican city of Leon. He planned an early evening meeting with the Mexican leader at the state government house in Guanajuato, followed by a gathering with children on the city’s Peace Square. …

The Roman Catholic Church is under pressure in Mexico from the growing rise of Protestant churches, as well as a scandal involving a prominent priest, Marcial Maciel, who was facing allegations of drug addiction and molesting young boys when he died.

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NEDERLAND
Kerknieuws

Vic Marijnen, de latere minister-president, heeft in 1958 als bestuursvoorzitter van het jongensinternaat Harreveld geprobeerd het ministerie van Justitie te beïnvloeden over vermeende misbruikpraktijken op het instituut. Marijnen was toen bestuursvoorzitter van het instituut. Dat stelt Bert Kreemers, voormalig secretaris van de commissie-Deetman, vrijdag in NRC Handelsblad.

Die informatie staat niet in het eindrapport van de commissie-Deetman, die onderzoek deed naar seksueel misbruik in de Rooms-Katholieke kerk.

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MEXICO
El Financiero

AP

La primera visita del Papa Benedicto XVI a México coincidirá con la publicación de un nuevo libro que revelará documentos que presuntamente demuestran que el Vaticano tuvo conocimiento de los abusos sexuales cometidos contra varios seminaristas por parte del fundador de Los Legionarios de Cristo, el mexicano Marcial Maciel, y sobre su aparente adicción a la morfina.

El libro, “La voluntad de no saber”, tiene previsto salir a la luz pública el 24 de marzo, un día después de la llegada a México de Benedicto XVI, un Papa que en viajes fuera del Vaticano y anteriores a éste, se ha reunido con víctimas de abusos sexuales cometidos por sacerdotes pero quien no tiene planeado hacer lo mismo en territorio mexicano.

Editado por Random House Mondadori, el libro tiene un tiraje de más de 6,000 copias y sólo circulará en México.

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MEXICO
El Diario

Bernardo Barranco

Distrito Federal— “Este Papa me tiene desilusionado, ya no creo en él”, dice José Barba, catedrático del Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México y una de las víctimas de Marcial Maciel. Cuando se le pregunta si accedería a tener un encuentro con Benedicto XVI en su próxima visita a México, responde categórico: “No estoy dispuesto a juegos mediáticos estériles ni a supuestos perdones cargados de retórica”.

Barba, Alberto Athié y el investigador Fernando M. González son autores de un libro que contiene evidencias documentales de algo que era ampliamente sabido: el Vaticano tenía conocimiento y registro del comportamiento enfermizo de Marcial Maciel desde los años cuarenta.

La próxima semana Random House-Mondadori pondrá en circulación el libro, La voluntad de no saber, cuyo subtítulo es elocuente: Lo que sí se conocía sobre Maciel en los archivos secretos del Vaticano desde 1944. Los documentos incluidos en la obra muestran que la curia romana siempre tuvo información sobre la trayectoria llena de aberraciones del fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo… Pero el Vaticano lo toleró y protegió.

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MEXICO
La Cronica de Hoy

José Barba Martín, ex miembro de Los Legionarios de Cristo, aseguró que el papa Benedicto XVI y los obispos mexicanos sí conocen la identidad de las víctimas del sacerdote pederasta Marcial Maciel y rechazó tener interés en ser recibido por el pontífice durante su estancia en esta ciudad.

En entrevista con Notimex se mostró indignado por las declaraciones vertidas en las últimas horas por algunos exponentes del Episcopado, quienes negaron conocer a quienes sufrieron los abusos sexuales del fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo.

“El tema se ha exacerbado en los últimos días con motivo de la visita del papa Benedicto XVI a México porque el Episcopado, a través de varios voceros, ha declarado que no nos conoce y eso no es verdad”, indicó.

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MEXICO
La Voluntad de No Sabor

[con los documentos]

Para que se tenga clara la secuencia de las oportunidades que tuvieron las autoridades de intervenir a la Legión de Cristo describiré lo siguiente: la primera fue en diciembre de 1944 cuando el V obispo de Cuernavaca recibió la denuncia del joven Luís de la Isla y de sus padres, pero no actuó en consecuencia y hasta donde se puede colegir, tampoco envió un informe al Vaticano; la segunda posibilidad se dio en el periodo 1948-50 cuando dos jesuitas de Comillas enviaron informes a la Sagrada Congregación de religiosos; la tercera se dio en 1954 cuando el Arzobispado de México pidió informes al legionario Federico Domínguez, el cual habló por primera vez de la adicción a la Dolantina (Morfina) por parte de MM y el documento si llegó a la SCR; la cuarta se dio en 1956 cuando el Arzobispo de México y el VII obispo Cuernavaca enviaron sendas cartas denunciando a Maciel por adicción a la droga y pederastia dichas denuncias terminaron con la suspensión temporal de Marcial Maciel …

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VATICAN CITY/MEXICO
National Catholic Reporter

Mar. 24, 2012
By Jason Berry

On Saturday, as Pope Benedict XVI makes the first appearance on his March 23-28 trip to Mexico and Cuba, three authors will hold a news conference in the same city, Leon, Mexico, discussing a book that quotes Vatican files on the pedophilia and drug abuse accusations that trailed Fr. Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ, for decades until his death in 2008.

Maciel, a native of Mexico who died at 88, was a subject of long-running concern at the Vatican congregation that governs religious orders, according to La Voluntad de No Saber – “The Will Not To Know,” published by a Mexico City imprint of Random House international.

The authors are Alberto Athié, a former priest who directed a Mexican bishops’ charity; José Barba, a retired college professor and former Legion seminarian who filed a 1998 canon law request in Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith tribunal, seeking Maciel’s excommunication; and Fernando M. González, a scholar in Mexico City and the author of a biography of Maciel.

In late 2004, with Pope John Paul II in failing health, Ratzinger finally ordered an investigation of Maciel. In 2006, Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, banished him from active ministry to a life of prayer and repentance. That stopped short of excommunication as Barba and seven other victims wanted. The Legion continued defending Maciel until 2009 when its leaders abruptly reversed course, revealing that he had sired several out of wedlock children, now grown.

NCR received a PDF of the book. Grijalbo, the publisher, is posting selected excerpts on a website www.lavoluntaddenosaber.com, the AP reported.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

Es geht um mehr als 200.000 Euro: Eine Erzieherin soll das Taschengeld der ihr anvertrauten Kinder unterschlagen haben, nun steht sie in Passau vor Gericht – und hat eine überraschende Begründung für ihr Verhalten.

Sie soll die Kirche und ein Jugendheim um etwa 200.000 Euro betrogen haben. Am zweiten Prozesstag vor dem Passauer Landgericht brach die 46 Jahre alte Angeklagte am Freitag ihr Schweigen und nannte eine überraschende Begründung für die massiven Untreuevorwürfe gegen sie: “Ich hatte sieben Jahre die Beziehung mit einem katholischen Pfarrer gehabt und gelebt, davon fünf Jahre im Pfarrhaus”, sagte die frühere Jugendbetreuerin aus. Deswegen habe die Kirche sie auf dem Kieker, sie sei dort eine “Persona non grata”.

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FLORIDA
Gainesville Sun

By Lillian Guevara-Castro
Staff writer

Published: Saturday, March 24, 2012

Sister Christine Schenk, SSJ, executive director of FutureChurch, an organization of Catholic lay people, priests and nuns working within the Roman Catholic Church to effect change, is the guest speaker at “A Lenten Evening of Prayerful Dialogue & Listening” at United Church of Gainesville, 7-9 p.m. Monday.

Organizers addressed the event invitation to “Vatican II reform-minded Catholics” adding that the evening is an effort to gather input from the laity about the state of the Church in the Diocese of St. Augustine and present it to Bishop Felipe Estevez prior to his meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome in May.

“(It) is meant to give a sounding board to the laity to express their issues with the church,” said John Frank, professor of educational leadership at the University of North Florida and the event’s facilitator. “There are 30 million former Catholics in the U.S. alone. Any company dealing with that kind of loss of market share would be dealing with what it’s doing or not doing right.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — One day after a defendant in the Philadelphia clergy abuse case pleaded guilty, the attorneys for two co-defendants have asked for a new jury panel because, they argue, this one was tainted by the latest developments.

Edward Avery, 69, who sat alongside co-defendants Msgr. William Lynn and Father James Brennan during jury selection, is now out of the case. He has pleaded guilty and has been sentenced (see related story), and the prosecution says he has not agreed to testify against his fellow defendants.

But attorneys for Lynn and Brennan have cited the local and national coverage of the Avery development, saying there is no way jurors could have avoided it and not been prejudiced by it.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Chicago Tribune

Dave Warner
Reuters

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Defense lawyers for the highest ranking church official to go on trial in the Catholic church’s pedophilia scandal, charged with child endangerment, asked a judge on Friday to pick a new jury because a co-defendant pled guilty.

Opening arguments in the trial of Monsignor William Lynn, 61, former secretary of the clergy under the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, were slated to begin on Monday. A jury has already been selected.

Lynn was to go to trial with defrocked priest Edward Avery and Rev. James Brennan, who are among four others charged in the child sex abuse case that rocked the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

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TEXAS
San Angelo Standard-Times

By Matthew Waller

MIDLAND — The Texas Ranger had to squeeze through a hole in the wall to get into the vault, grasping a gun and flashlight.

Inside the locked precinct sacred to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Texas Ranger Lt. Jesse Valdez found rows of cabinets laden with boxes of records. It was April 2008 when he first entered the vault within the Temple Annex on the YFZ Ranch in Schleicher County, and now those records are being used as evidence against former FLDS President Wendell Loy Nielsen.

Nielsen, 71, a former president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is charged with three counts of third-degree bigamy, each count punishable by two to 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. Friday was the third day of the trial, and the day began with testimony from Valdez.

Prosecutor Eric Nichols asked Valdez about gaining entrance to the building, the gleaming white Temple Annex, which housed the vault.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Lodi News-Sentinel

By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Two experts testified on the concept of repressed memory Friday in the clergy sexual abuse civil case against Father Michael Kelly.

Dr. J. Alexander Bodkin, who began his testimony on Thursday, finished up on Friday. Bodkin is an associate professor at Harvard University’s medical school. He said that there is no scientific proof that repressed memory is a valid concept.

The plaintiff claims that, due to repressed memory, he recalled in 2006 that Kelly sexually assaulted him more than 20 years earlier.

Later in the day, Dr. Anlee Kuo, a San Francisco psychiatrist who once examined the plaintiff, testified on the plaintiff’s behalf that he suffers from depression and alcohol abuse due to Kelly’s alleged sexual abuse.

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WASHINGTON
Q13 Fox

Dana Rebik
Q13 FOX News reporter

ENUMCLAW—
An Enumclaw man was formally charged Friday with raping a young girl while he served as the assistant pastor of a local church.

The alleged assaults occurred in 2005 when the suspect, Malcolm John Fraser, was 32 and the victim was 10.

According to charging documents, the victim, who is now 17, came forward Monday and reported to Enumclaw police that Fraser had repeatedly raped her while he and his wife were staying with her family from 2005 to 2006. Fraser is the assistant pastor at the non-denominational South Sound Doctrine Church.

Enumclaw police detective Grant McCall said the victim told him Fraser came into her room late at night more than 20 times while staying with her family. Fraser would allegedly hold the victim’s mouth shut while forcing her to perform various sexual acts.

“I’m in shock. I’m scared for other children particularly my own,” resident Ailen Dean said Friday.

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MIDLAND (TX)
Midland Reporter-Telegram

Sara Higgins

Joe Barron, Don Simpson and Ryan Wonderly all were church leaders trusted by their communities, and all have faced allegations related to child sexual abuse.

Fort Worth-based trial lawyer Greg Love held sessions for both church leaders and the public Tuesday at the Midland Center to discuss sexual abuse prevention and awareness. Love, who has represented victims of sexual abuse since 1994, worked to debunk myths in attendees’ minds about who can be a predator, and what warning signs to look for in their own congregations.

“There’s a real good chance that poor information and misunderstanding is going to lead to a poor result in what we do to protect our children,” he said.

Love, who is a youth leader at his home church, co-founded safety system and training organization MinistrySafe with his wife, Kimberlee Norris. The two help congregations around the nation in the design and implementation of safety systems to reduce the risk of child sexual abuse.

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LOUISIANA
KLFY

A former Catholic Priest has been arrested for alleged sexual misconduct with a child. Fifty six year old Mark Broussard has been charged with two counts of aggravated battery and 52 counts of sexual battery.

The alleged victim was an eight year old boy who is now 34. Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Ton Mancuso says his office learned of the case from the Diocese of Lake Charles.

According to the allegations the abuse took place while Broussard was serving as a priest at Saint Henry Catholic Church during a three year period, between 1986 and 1989.

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LOUISIANA
The Advertiser

Written by
Brandon Kane

Even though the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said it was grateful for the arrest of former priest and Duson resident Mark Broussard on molestation charges, the victim’s advocacy group issued a statement Friday condemning the actions of his church and diocese in what it called an “unconscionable” failure to act.

“We are grateful that Mark Broussard has been apprehended and will be prevented from harming more children. We are extremely upset and disturbed, however, at the revelation that documents were found in this predator priest’s file that detailed sexual contact with at least four other children,” the SNAP said in a release. “It is unconscionable that someone could have knowledge of these depraved crimes and yet do nothing to stop them.”

Broussard was arrested at his home Thursday on more than 50 counts of sexual battery in connection to his tenure as a priest in Lake Charles.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

A retired Roman Catholic priest from Orange County pleaded guilty Friday to sexually assaulting a boy in the 1990s, authorities said.

Denis Lyons, 78, of Seal Beach pleaded guilty to four felony counts of lewd acts upon a child under 14; the crimes took place between Jan. 1, 1992, and Dec. 1, 1995. Prosecutors said they expected Lyons to be sentenced May 25 to one year in jail and five years’ formal probation and be required to register as a sex offender for life.

Lyons was a priest at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Costa Mesa when the crimes occurred. Prosecutors said he assaulted the boy four times on church property when the boy was between the ages of 7 and 9.

Lyons was charged after the victim came forward in 2008. The retired cleric was arrested at Leisure World in Seal Beach as he played cards. That is same community where former priest and convicted child molester Michael Wempe also lived.

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