ABUSE TRACKER

LAKEWOOD (OH)
Patch

By Colin McEwen

Could St. James reopen?

That’s a question many in Lakewood are asking following the Vatican’s reported decision to overturn Bishop Richard Lennon’s move to close 50 parishes in 2010.

According to reports, 13 of them would reopen.

Attorney Peter Borre told the Associated Press that the Cleveland diocese failed to follow church law and procedure in its closings of the Cleveland-area parishes.

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

NEW MEXICO
The New Mexican

Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican

The New Mexico Supreme Court has made the grounds more restrictive for defamation cases by ruling against an Episcopal priest who sued four parishioners for accusing him of pedophilia.

State District Court Judge Nan Nash dismissed the Rev. Walter F. Smith III’s lawsuit, ruling he had not demonstrated an injury to his reputation.

The state Court of Appeals in 2010 overturned Nash’s ruling, finding that “humiliation and mental anguish is sufficient to establish actual injury for liability purposes in a defamation action.”

But on Monday, the state Supreme Court unanimously reversed the appellate court, effectively upholding Nash’s decision.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Democrat

By KATHERINE JARVIS dailydemocrat.com

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda may finally enter a plea on molestation charges at a hearing Friday in Sacramento Superior Court.

Ojeda, a 32-year-old former priest at Woodland’s Holy Rosary Catholic Church, faces seven counts of molesting a girl under the age of 14 between 2007 and 2009.

Ojeda served at Holy Rosary from 2007 until 2009. Previous reports said the crimes occurred in Sacramento and Shasta counties, where Ojeda was a parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mercy parish in Redding.

His hearing will take place at 1:35 p.m. in Department 61 at the main jail at 652 I St. Ojeda was released on bail in January when a judge lowered it to $700,000 from $5 million.

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CANADA
CBC News

Cap-Pelé will hold a plebiscite this spring on whether to remove the name of a former priest from the village’s arena.

Camille Léger died in 1990, but several people now allege he sexually assaulted children in the community when he worked there between 1957 and 1980.

Léger was never charged with any crimes.

The village council has agreed to put the issue of renaming Aréna Père-Camille-Léger to Aréna de Cap-Pelé to a vote during the May 14 municipal elections.

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MISSOURI
KSHB

•By: Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Missouri prosecutor said Wednesday she was dropping all charges against five men accused of sexually molesting young relatives on a western Missouri farm more than 20 years ago, saying she doubted she could convince a jury that the bizarre claims were true.

“Whether or not I believe the allegations is an independent question from whether or not I believe I can prove each and every element of the case beyond a reasonable doubt at trial,” prosecutor Kellie Wingate Campbell told The Associated Press after notifying courts in three counties of her action.

Six members of the Mohler family — Burrell Sr.; his sons Burrell Jr., David, Jared and Roland; and his brother, Darrel — were arrested in November 2009 after several young family members told investigators about a series of bizarre sex crimes that allegedly took place on a Lafayette County farm, about 30 miles east of Kansas City.

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IRELAND
Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference

Today a press conference was held in the Columba Centre, Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth marking the closing of the Spring General Meeting of the Irish Bishops’ Conference. The bishops attending the press conference were: Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, President of the Eucharistic Congress; Bishop Kieran O’Reilly, Bishop of Killaloe and chairman of Share the Good News; and, Bishop Donal McKeown, Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor and member of the Bishops’ Council for Emigrants. The full audio recording of the press conference is available at the following link: http://www.catholicbishops.ie/category/multimedia/audio/ The following subjects were discussed at the bishops’ spring meeting:
• Lent and preparation for Easter
• Safeguarding Children
• 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Ireland, 10 – 17 June 2012
• Share the Good News: National Directory for Catechesis
• The Solemnity of Saint Patrick
• Trócaire’s 2012 Lenten Campaign “Rebuilding Communities for lasting change”

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IRELAND
Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference

On the final day of the Spring General Meeting of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Bishop Donal McKeown and Bishop Kieran O’Reilly spoke at a media briefing in the Columba Centre, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Among the themes addressed at the press conference were: Child Safeguarding, The International Eucharistic Congress, Share the Good News and Education. Listen to the press conference by clicking on the two links below.

Bishops’ Media Briefing 7 March 2012 – part 1web

Bishops’ Media Briefing 7 March 2012 – Part 2 web

Press Release from Spring 2012 General Meeting of the Irish Bishops’ Conference

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Colm Kelpie

Thursday March 08 2012

A LEADING abuse survivor last night branded as “insulting” a request from the Catholic bishops for parishioners to pray to make amends for the sins of paedophile priests.

Marie Collins said the onus should be on the bishops to make amends and she accused them of failing to show humility over the abuse scandals.

On the final day of their three-day spring general meeting, the bishops reiterated a call from Pope Benedict and encouraged the faithful to pray intensely to “make reparation for the sins of abuse that have done so much harm”.

But Ms Collins said the people did not need to atone.

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CANADA
FFWD

The legacy of residential schools includes unmarked graves

Published March 8, 2012 by Suzy Thompson in News

Cemetery foreman Greg Sundsten trudges back and forth through the foot of snow that has settled over Red Deer’s main graveyard. He takes a break from digging to explain how close he must be to finding the children’s graves. He rechecks his map and swears they are somewhere between Arndt and Bice. After an hour, he gives up. Whatever remains to mark the children’s plot must be small, hidden somewhere outside the trails Sundsten dug searching for them.

The search for these three children began 25 years ago with Lyle Richards, who was volunteering in the Red Deer archives when he was approached by a stranger.

“A man by the name of Albert Lightning came in,” says town historian Don Hepburn. The man informed Richards, “you’re the one who’s going to find my brother for me.” Lightning’s brother was one of three children from the Red Deer Indian residential school who died during the 1918 influenza epidemic.

Lightning was lucky to trace his brother to the town cemetery. Normally, students were buried at the school, beside the Kinickinick Creek, but during the flu epidemic no one at the school was healthy enough to dig graves.

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IOWA
KPTM

Maureen Wurtz

COUNCIL BLUFFS (KPTM)- A former youth pastor and convicted sex offender will not spend time behind bars.

Brent Girouex was in court today. He was sentenced to sex offender treatments and life on probation. This sentence has some officials worried.

Emotions were running high in court today, and it was standing room only.

Girouex is no stranger to court. Last March, he was charged with 89 counts of sexual abuse. The prosecution combined many of those, and reached a plea deal back in November. Girouex plead guilt on three counts.

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SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Times

By Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporter

The Archdiocese of Seattle is asking that the most recent lawsuit alleging it was complicit in the sexual abuse of an O’Dea High School student by a pedophile teacher be moved to bankruptcy court in New York, where the Christian Brothers order that employed the alleged abuser has sought Chapter 11 protection.

Archdiocese attorney Michael Patterson said the move is a tactical one aimed at asset protection. It comes as the archdiocese continues to defend itself against civil actions seeking damages for the alleged sexual abuse of dozens, if not hundreds, of boys by teachers belonging to the Christian Brothers religious order.

The Congregation of Christian Brothers in North America, the order that runs O’Dea High School — the archdiocese’s flagship school for boys — filed bankruptcy in New York in April as it sought protection from mounting legal claims, mostly from Seattle, but also involving children in Illinois and Michigan.

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VATICAN CITY
WHEC

Members of the amorphous hacking group Anonymous claim they took down the Vatican’s website to protest everything from Catholic doctrine to the sexual abuse of children.

The site – www.vatican.va – was inaccessible for much of Wednesday afternoon and evening before technicians got it back online.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, confirmed the attack but declined to comment on its possible source.

In what claims to be the “official” site of Anonymous in Italy, a statement posted Wednesday said the group was attacking the Vatican to protest the execution of heretics and the burning of books during the Inquisition and more recently the sexual abuse of children by priests.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

By DONALD BRADLEY and JUDY THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

In the end, maybe the story of the Mohler family was just too much.

Too much to believe or too much to prove.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Lafayette County prosecutor dropped all charges in the incest case that more than two years ago shocked the world with bizarre stories of barnyard “weddings” of children to older relatives, rape, sodomy and secrets buried in fruit jars.

Those who had faced dozens of counts of sexual abuse were family patriarch Burrell Mohler Sr., then 79, of Independence, a sometimes preacher, and his four adult sons, Burrell Jr., David, Jared and Roland.

All were scheduled for trials later this year, including a June 4 date in Clay County for David Mohler.

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MISSOURI
God Discussion

[with video]

Back in November 2009, three of a family of six men accused of sexual crimes against children in Lafayette County, Missouri, were suspended as lay ministers by the Community of Christ church. The six were jailed and felony charges were issued for forcible sodomy, rape with a child younger than 12 and use of a child in a sexual performance.

The Mohler family members will not be brought to trial.

A prosecutor said yesterday that she was dropping all charges against five men accused of sexually molesting young relatives on a U.S. farm more than 20 years ago, saying she doubted she could convince a jury that the bizarre claims were true.

The father, an ordained minister, was accused of conducting weddings in which young girls were married to older relatives so that they could have sex.

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

VATICAN CITY
V3 (United Kingdom)

by Gareth Morgan
08 Mar 2012

Hackers affiliated with Anonymous have turned their attentions to the Catholic Church, taking down the Vatican’s website for several hours on Wednesday and cutting off email access.

A spokesman for the Vatican, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, confirmed to the Catholic News that vatican.va had been the “object of an attack”, but declined to add further details.

Groups claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous said the attack was revenge for a number of historical atrocities carried out by the Catholic Church.

The group accused the church of covering up details of sexual abuse suffered by children at the hands of Catholic priests and hiding Nazi war criminals.

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IOWA
WOWT

[with video]

Reporter: Gary Smollen
Email Address: sixonline@wowt.com

A former youth pastor, accused of sexual abuse of young men, is sentenced as his victims and their families watch.

Brent Girouex was given the maximum sentence, then it was suspended a move that upset many of his victims and their families.

Girouex entered the courtroom facing up to 17-years in prison but walked out with the very real possibility of never having to spend a day behind bars.

Judge Steensland suspended the prison time and opted for a lifetime of supervised probation.

Judge Greg Steensland says, “Can I put together a sentence that shows that not only do we care about your personal rehabilitation but we care about the message it sends to society and society needs to feel protected from you.”

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IOWA
World-Herald

COUNCIL BLUFFS — A judge disappointed a church congregation Wednesday with his sentence for a former pastor who sexually abused young people.

Brent Girouex, 32, was sentenced to 17 years in prison, but Judge Greg Steensland then suspended the sentence and ordered Girouex to stay at a sex offender treatment facility until “maximum benefit is obtained.”

He was initially charged with 61 counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist and 28 counts of third-degree sexual abuse related to incidents with several teenagers and young adults at Victory Fellowship Church.

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ARGENTINA
Clarin

El Tribunal Oral en lo Criminal Nro 1 de Morón decidió ayer anular la libertad vigilada de la que gozaba el cura Julio César Grassi y ordenar su prisión domiciliaria.

Lo hizo luego de que la querella y la fiscalía pidieran que el sacerdote fuera preso por haber violado las condiciones de esa libertad: no pisar la sede de la Fundación Felices los Niños ( donde ocurrió el abuso por el que fue condenado) y no referirse públicamente a su víctima.

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ARGENTINA
La Voz de Cataratas

El Tribunal Oral en lo Criminal 1 de Morón resolvió revocarle el beneficio de prisión morigerada que gozaba por haberse referido a una de sus presuntas víctimas en un programa de televisión

Julio César Grassi, el sacerdote condenado a 15 años de prisión por abuso de un menor, quedó ayer por la noche arrestado por orden de la Cámara de Garantías de Morón, pero su prisión será domiciliaria por haberse referido a una de sus víctimas durante un programa de televisión.

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ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires Herald

A court ruled priest Julio César Grassi remains under house arrest, following the fact he publically mentioned the victims” of the cases for which he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Grassi atended the hearing at the Morón courts and was taken to jail, but he will comply with the house arrest ruling.

Earlier today, Morón public prosecutor Alejandro Varela and the plaintiffs of the sexual abuse case requested the priest’s detention on grounds that he violated the conditions that had been imposed on him, including the ban of his entering the Felices los niños foundation, where he allegedly sexually abused several teenagers.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Modesto Bee

News-Sentinel (Lodi)

STOCKTON — The father of a 37-year-old man suing Father Michael Kelly testified on Tuesday that his son told him that Kelly had sexually assaulted him.

The father, whose name is being withheld because his son is an alleged sexual assault victim, said he was visiting his son in 2007. They were saying their goodbyes when the son blurted out, “I was (sexually assaulted) by Father Kelly,” the man said.

However, the son drove away without elaborating, the father said, and calls to his son were not successful, he told a jury at San Joaquin County Superior Court. Due to statute of limitations laws, Kelly was never criminally charged.

Kelly has been the pastor of St. Joachim’s Catholic Church in Lockeford since 2004 and previously served at parishes in Stockton, Sonora, Tracy, Modesto and Ceres.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Published on Thursday 8 March 2012

TWO FORMER priests arrested at their homes in Eastbourne this week on suspicion of child sex abuse have been released on police bail.

Former All Saints vicar Gordon Rideout, 73, was arrested on Tuesday morning at his home in Filching Close in relation to allegedly sexually assaulting young people in Sussex and London in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Fellow former priest Robert Coles, 70, of Upperton Road, was also arrested on the same morning on suspicion of sexual assaults against three young men in Sussex during the late 1970s and mid-1980s.

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IOWA
KCCI

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — A former youth pastor accused of sexually abusing a half-dozen boys and men has been put on probation and ordered to get sex offender treatment.

A judge told Brent Girouex “because this is a sexual abuse case, you are committed to custody of the Department of Corrections for rest of your life.”

Girouex told his victims he was trying to help them gain “sexual purity in the eyes of God,” according to court documents obtained by the KETV-TV.

Prosecutors said Girouex sexually abused the victims at their homes, and not at Victory Fellowship Church, where he worked.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WOIO

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) –
Council of Parishes Attorney Peter Borre tells 19 Action News that the Vatican has overruled 13 parish closures in Cleveland, Ohio.

“All Cleveland Catholic churches who appealed their closures have won” said Borre in a phone interview Wednesday.

Cleveland Catholic Diocese spokesperson, Bob Tayek, declined to comment on the ruling at this time.

Borre tells 19 Action News that Cleveland Diocese Bishop Richard Lennon failed to follow procedure or “Canon Law” in the closings three years ago.

Click here to view the complete list of church closures, merges.

The Cleveland Catholic Diocese parishes who appealed their closures/merges are as follows:

SACRED HEART OF JESUS (CLOSED)
6916 KRAKOW AVE. CLEVELAND

ST. ADALBERT (CLOSED)
2347 E. 83RD ST. CLEVELAND

ST. CASIMIR (CLOSED)
8223 SOWINSKI AVE. CLEVELAND

ST. COLMAN (MERGED)
2027 W. 65TH ST. CLEVELAND

ST. EMERIC (CLOSED)
1890 W. 22ND ST. CLEVELAND

ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH (CLOSED)
10205 LORAIN AVE. CLEVELAND

ST. JAMES (CLOSED)
17514 DETROIT AVE. LAKEWOOD

ST. JOSEPH (CLOSED–WANTED TO MERGE)
REID AVE. & 15TH ST. LORAIN

ST. LAWRENCE (CLOSED)
3532 E. 80TH ST. CLEVELAND

ST. MARY (MERGED)
REID AVE. & 8TH ST. BEDFORD

ST. PETER (CLOSED)
1533 E. 17TH ST. CLEVELAND

ST. PROCOP (CLOSED)
3181 W. 41ST ST. CLEVELAND

ST. WENDELIN (CLOSED)
2281 COLUMBUS RD. CLEVELAND

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Fox 8

March 7, 2012, by Dan Jovic

The Vatican has overturned the closings of 13 Cleveland area parishes, according to the attorney who led a legal fight against their doors being shut for good.

According to attorney Peter Borre, the ruling was handed down by the Congregation of the Clergy last week.

Borre tells Fox 8 News’ Kevin Freeman, the clergy showed that Bishop Richard Lennon did not follow proper procedure in closing the parishes in 2009.

“Bishop Lennon would be well advised to hurry up on down and open these churches immediately,” said Borre.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Cleveland Leader

By Julie Kent. Published on 03/07/2012

According to the attorney representing 13 local parishes fighting to stay open and leading a legal battle against the Cleveland Catholic Diocese, the Vatican has overturned the closing of the parishes.

Attorney Peter Borre says that the ruling was handed down by the Congregation of the Clergy last week. Borre adds that the clergy showed that Bishop Richard Lennon did not follow the proper procedure in closing the parishes back in 2009, and said:

“Bishop Lennon would be well advised to hurry up on down and open these churches immediately.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Vatican has overruled the shuttering of 13 Northeast Ohio parishes by the Cleveland Catholic Diocese, according to the Associated Press, quoting a lawyer who fought the closings.

The news service reported that attorney Peter Borre said the Vatican’s Congregation of the Clergy ruled last week that Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon had failed to follow procedure in the closings that were announced in March 2009.

Robert Tayek, a spokesman for the diocese, said rulings arrived from the Vatican late this afternoon and had not yet been reviewed by the bishop.

Lennon ordered the closing of 50 parishes — many in inner-city neighborhoods — in a downsizing that he said was prompted in part by a population shift to the suburbs and a shortage of priests. More than a dozen of the affected churches appealed to the Vatican and have been awaiting word on their appeals.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
NBC 26

CLEVELAND (AP) – A lawyer who fought church cutbacks in the Cleveland area says the Vatican has taken the extraordinary step of overruling the closing of 13 parishes.

The move represents a rare instance in which Rome has reversed a U.S. bishop on church shutdowns.

Attorney Peter Borre says the Congregation of the Clergy ruled last week that Cleveland’s Bishop Richard Lennon failed to follow procedure in the closings three years ago.

The churches were among 50 shut down or merged by Lennon.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
NPR

by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

March 7, 2012

The Vatican is ordering the Diocese of Cleveland to open 13 parishes that had been closed. The decision might bode well for other parishes across the country that are appealing their closures.

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TEXAS
KVUE

Posted on March 7, 2012

HAYS COUNTY, Texas — It’s been one year since a Hindu guru known as Swamiji disappeared to avoid a long prison sentence.

A Hays County jury convicted Prakashanand Saraswati, 83, on 20 counts of child molestation. The victims were under 17, and their families lived in his religious compound.

He was sentenced to 14 years in prison and a $10,000 for each count.

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UNITED STATES
Toronto Star

Associated Press

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration is for the first time citing Vatican City as a potential hub for money laundering.

The State Department’s annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report released Wednesday identifies the Holy See as one of 68 countries or jurisdictions “of concern” for money laundering or other financial crimes.

Officials said the Vatican is on the list because it isn’t clear whether a year-old anti-money laundering regime is effective.

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MISSOURI
KSHB

•By: Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Prosecutor Kellie Wingate Campbell on Wednesday said she was dismissing all charges against five men accused of sexually molesting young relatives on a western Missouri farm more than 20 years ago.

“This was a highly unusual series of cases and the outcome should not deter other victims of crime from reporting those crimes,” she told The Associated Press after notifying courts in three counties of her action.

Six members of the Mohler family — Burrell Sr.; his sons Burrell Jr., David, Jared and Roland; and his brother, Darrel — were arrested in November 2009 after several young family members told investigators about a series of bizarre sex crimes that allegedly took place on a farm east of Kansas City.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WFMZ

NORRISTOWN, Pa. –
The Montgomery County coroner will hold a news conference Thursday to discuss his findings in the investigation of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua’s death.

Dr. Walter Hofman said he will release the cause and manner of the former Philadelphia archbishop’s death during a meeting with the media in Norristown.

Prosecutors asked Hoffman to investigate Bevilacqua’s Jan. 31 death because of it coming just a day after Bevilacqua was found competent to testify at a high-profile church sex abuse trial.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

A coroner is set to release the results of a probe into the death of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the former leader of the Philadelphia archdiocese who died Jan. 31 at a suburban seminary.

Officials say the 88-year-old Bevilacqua, who served as archbishop from 1988 to 2003, was suffering from dementia and cancer. Prosecutors asked the coroner to investigate due to the timing of the death, a day after a judge ruled Bevilacqua competent to testify at the trial of his longtime aide.

Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman says in a statement he will release the cause of death at a news conference Thursday. A message left with prosecutors was not immediately returned.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
My Fox Philly

PHILADELPHIA – It was a story first reported on Fox 29, when we broke the news that a coroner was looking into the death of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua. On Thursday, the public will get the results.

There will be a 1 p.m. press conference in Norristown, Pa., where Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman will announce his findings in the death of the 88-year-old Bevilacqua.

Bevilacqua died on the night after a judge said the former leader of the Philadelphia archdiocese was competent to testify at the Philadelphia child abuse trial that starts later this month.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The Montgomery County Coroner plans to release findings on Thursday from his examination into the death of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, his office said.

Coroner Walter I. Hofman had deferred declaring a cause of death for the 88-year-old prelate until he reviewed the toxicology results.

Bevilacqua died on Jan. 31 at his residence at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, where he retired in 2003 after 15 years as the leader of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Church officials had said that Bevilacqua had been in failing heath, suffering from cancer and dementia.

Hofman has said he saw no obvious signs of trauma or foul play during an initial exam of the body. But he deferred his ruling and ordered the toxicology tests at the request of Risa Vetri Ferman, the county district attorney.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

March 7, 2012
By Associated Press

A coroner is set to release the results of a probe into the death of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the former leader of the Philadelphia archdiocese who died Jan. 31 at a suburban seminary.

Officials say the 88-year-old Bevilacqua, who served as archbishop from 1988 to 2003, was suffering from dementia and cancer. Prosecutors asked the coroner to investigate due to the timing of the death, a day after a judge ruled Bevilacqua competent to testify at the trial of his longtime aide. Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman says in a statement he will release the cause of death at a news conference Thursday. A message left with prosecutors was not immediately returned.

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ITALY
Computerworld

By Jaikumar Vijayan

March 7, 2012

Computerworld – The main website of the Vatican was inaccessible Wednesday after what appears to have been an attack by malicious hackers claiming to be affiliated with the Anonymous hacking collective.

An Associated Press story in USA Today quoted Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi as confirming the site’s unavailability but declining to comment on the likely source of the problem.

The Vatican could not be reached for comment at deadline.

A website claiming to be the official blog of Anonymous in Italy on Wednesday posted a message taking credit for the attack. A rough Google translation of the message, which is in Italian, suggests that the site was taken down to protest church doctrine and the molestation of children, by clergy members.

The message makes references to the church’s alleged prosecution of detractors, its allegedly anachronistic views and the sexual abuse of children by priests.

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ITALY
Web Pro News

First Time This Has Happened in Thousands of Years

By Mike Fossum

Hackers from an Italian cell of the group ‘Anonymous’ took the Vatican’s website offline. At writing, vatican.va is still offline, though Vatican officials are working to fix this. Anonymous claims to seek to punish “the corrupt Roman Catholic Church and all of its emanations.”

Anonymous’ Italian website states that “today to besiege your site in response to the doctrine, to the liturgies, to the absurd and anachronistic concepts that your for-profit organisation spreads around the world.” Anonymous also denounced Catholic stances on abortion and contraception and called attention to its sex-abuse scandal, and accused the Vatican of being “retrograde” in “daily” interference in Italian domestic affairs. The wealth of the Catholic church was also mentioned, as well as the pointing out that it is a “for-profit” organization. Anonymous also made it clear that it was just attacking the Catholic Church as a business, and “is not against the Christian religion or the faithful around the world but against the corrupt Roman Apostolic Church.”

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, was not sure how long the site would be down.

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ITALY
The Official Blog of Anonymous Italy

Vatican.va day to you.
Oggi Anonymous ha deciso di porre sotto assedio il vostro sito in risposta alle dottrine, alle liturgie ed ai precetti assurdi ed anacronistici che la vostra organizzazione a scopo di lucro (chiesa apostolica romana) propaga e diffonde nel mondo intero. Anonymous has now decided to lay siege to your site in response to the doctrines, liturgies and the precepts absurd and anachronistic that your organization is for profit (Roman Apostolic Church) propagates and spreads worldwide.

Avete bruciato testi di immenso pregio storico e letterario, avete barbaramente giustiziato i vostri più accaniti detrattori e critici nel corso dei secoli, avete negato teorie universalmente ritenute valide o plausibili; avete indotto sprovveduti a pagare per ottenere l’accesso al paradiso con la vendita di indulgenze. You have burned books of immense historical and literary value, you barbarously executed your fiercest detractors and critics over the centuries, have denied universally deemed valid or plausible theories, have led the unwary to pay to get access to paradise with the sale of indulgences.

Vi siete resi responsabili della riduazione in schiavitù di intere popolazioni, usando come pretesto la vostra missione di evangelizzazione e la diffusione della fede cristiana nel mondo. Have you been guilty of riduazione enslavement of entire populations, using as a pretext your mission of evangelization and the spread of Christianity in the world.

In tempi più recenti avete avuto un ruolo significativo nell’aiutare criminali di guerra nazisti a trovare rifugio in paesi esteri ed a sottrarsi alla giustizia internazionale. In more recent times have played a significant role in helping Nazi war criminals find refuge in foreign countries and to evade international justice.

Permettete che quotidianamente molti degli appartenenti al clero si rendano responsabili di molestie verso bambini, coprendoli se i fatti divengono di dominio pubblico. Let every day many of the members of the clergy may be responsible of molesting children, covering them when the facts become public domain.

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VATICAN CITY
MSNBC

ROME — The Italian branch of the hackers group Anonymous took down the Vatican’s website on Wednesday, saying it was an attack on the Roman Catholic Church’s scandals and conservative doctrine.

The Vatican website www.vatican.va was inaccessible. A spokesman said he could not confirm that the crash was the work of the hackers group but said technicians were working to bring it back up.

A statement on the Italian website of the loosely-knit cyber-activists group accused the Church of being responsible for a long list of misdeeds throughout history, including the selling of indulgences in the 16th century and burning heretics during the Inquisition.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WRAL

By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press; THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press

CLEVELAND — The Vatican has taken the extraordinary step of overruling the closing of 13 parishes by the Cleveland Diocese, a lawyer who fought the cutbacks said Wednesday.

The move represents a rare instance in which Rome has reversed a U.S. bishop on the shutdown of churches.

The Congregation of the Clergy ruled last week that Bishop Richard Lennon had failed to follow procedure in the closings three years ago, attorney Peter Borre said.

The 13 Roman Catholic churches were among 50 shut down or merged by Lennon, who said the eight-county diocese could no longer afford to keep them open because of declining numbers of parishioners and a shortage of priests.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY MCGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

Reports from the seven visitation teams sent to Ireland by the Vatican last year following publication of the Murphy report, are on course to be published this Spring, the CatholicArchbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said today.

He was referrring to the reports of teams that visited Ireland’s four Catholic archdioceses, its seminaries and both male and female religious congregations, all completed and sent to Rome by the end of last year.

A factor which would influence their publication is the occurence of HolyWeek and Easter early next month, he said. Publication would not overshadow Easter.

The Archbishop was speaking at a press conference in Maynooth as the Irish Bishops’Conference ended its Spring meeting.

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IRELAND
Catholic Culture

March 07, 2012

The Vatican will soon release the reports prepared during an apostolic visitation of the Church in Ireland, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has disclosed.

In the wake of the sex-abuse scandal in Ireland, Pope Benedict XVI ordered apostolic visitations for each of the country’s four archdioceses, for the seminaries, and for religious orders. The visitation teams completed their reports and submitted them to the Vatican last year, but the results have not been made public.

Late last year, unconfirmed rumors suggested that the visitations would call for a sharp reduction in the number of dioceses in Ireland. There are now 26 dioceses: an extraordinarily high number for a country of only 4.6 million people. Four Irish sees are currently vacant, and the Vatican has been slow to appoint new bishops, fueling suspicions that a restructuring may soon take place.

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ITALIA
La Provincia di Lecco

ABBADIA – L’ex parroco di San Giuliano a Como, don Marco Mangiacasale, economo della Diocesi di Como dal 2009, è stato arrestato nel pomeriggio con l’accusa di violenza sessuale aggravata ai danni di una ragazzina minorenne.

Don Marco è stato raggiunto ad Abbadia Lariana, in provincia di Lecco, dove si trovava casualmente da ufficiali della polizia giudiziaria della Procura di Como.

Ad accusare il prete le confidenze che la ragazzina avrebbe fatto a un altro sacerdote, che ha informato i genitori di una giovane. Sono stati questi ultimi a presentarsi in Procura e a consentire l’avvio dell’inchiesta.

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ITALIA
Corriere di Como

Ecco il comunicato della diocesi di Como sulla vicenda

Apprendiamo con costernazione la vicenda che vede coinvolto il sacerdote don Marco Mangiacasale della diocesi di Como. In attesa che venga avviato il procedimento giudiziario il Vescovo di Como ritiene di dover esprimere le seguenti considerazioni.

1) Il sacerdote don Marco Mangiacasale viene sollevato da ogni incarico diocesano. 2) Seguendo la prassi canonica richiesta dal Codice di Diritto Canonico (can. 1717-1731) e dai recenti interventi della Santa Sede in materia verrà avviato il procedimento giudiziario ecclesiastico nei confronti del sacerdote don Marco Mangiacasale. 3) È desiderio del Vescovo di Como seguire con paterna sollecitudine tutti i fattori rilevanti della complessa vicenda, nel rispetto dovuto al lavoro svolto dalla Magistratura inquirente e giudicante, e con la doverosa attenzione per tutte le persone implicate nei fatti incriminati, a cominciare da coloro che hanno promosso la causa sporgendo accusa.

La Curia di Como

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ITALY
AGI

20:52 07 MAR 2012

(AGI) Como – “We are dismayed to learn the news about the facts involving don Marco Mangiacasale, a priest of the Diocese of Como”, as made known in a note by the Bishop of Como, Mons.

Diego Coletti, following the arrest of the diocesan treasurer accused of sexually abusing an underage girl over the last four years, from 2008 to a few days ago. In the note, the head of the Como Curia explained that “Don Marco Mangiacasale has been relieved of all assignments in the diocese and that, according to the standard procedure, as requested by the canon law and by the latest interventions of the Holy See on the subject, an ecclesiastical trial against him will soon start.” . .

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Vatican Insider

Redazione
Roma

Il gruppo di hacker ha dichiarato “guerra” al mondo religioso e dopo aver minacciato oggi è partito l’attacco, che ha affossato Vatican.va. Perfettamente funzionante invece il superportale News.va.

L’atteggiamento non certamente amichevole. Infatti con una serie di pesantissime e volgari accuse, che affondano le radici in un atteggiamento di radicalismo anticlericale, gli hacker fanno riferimento nell’avviso di attacco ai roghi di libri, all’inquisizione e alla vendita delle indulgenze, la schiavitù, la presunta protezione dei criminali nazisti, i preti pedofili, l’ici sugli immobili, il no all’uso del preservativo, fino alle ingerenze nella vita politica italiana.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
il Sussidiario

ANONYMOUS. Ieri è toccato a Vatican.va, il sito ufficiale della Santa Sede, rimasto vittima di un oscuramento a opera di Anonymous. L’organizzazione che ha già fatto saltare siti web importanti, come quelli del nostro ministero degli interni o del governo, ha puntato adesso l’obbiettivo sulla Chiesa. Un attacco che ha fatto tanto più scalpore in quanto il sito della Santa Sede era ritenuto uno dei più inviolabili al mondo. Oscuramento e messaggio farneticante, in cui gli hacker hanno chiarito che l’attacco non era rivolto alla religione cristiana o ai suoi fedeli, ma “alla corrotta Chiesa Romana Apostolica e a tutte le sue emanazioni”.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican’s official website suffered an attack by computer hackers March 7, cutting off access by users for several hours.

Italian media outlets reported that the website, vatican.va, became unresponsive around mid-afternoon local time, just as several other websites carried messages taking credit for the disruption in the name of the hacking group Anonymous. Email to and from the vatican.va domain was reportedly also blocked for at least part of the time.

A posting on one Italian site claimed that the attack was an act of revenge for an array of outrages, including the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and the historic practice of selling indulgences for sins.

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MOLDOVA
Huffington Post

By CORNELIU RUSNAC 03/ 6/12

CHISINAU, Moldova — Foreigners convicted of sexually abusing children in Moldova will be mandatorily castrated, according to new legislation introduced Tuesday.

Parliament approved the law by a majority after lawmakers said the impoverished nation was attracting pedophiles from the West. It will become effective July 1.

The new law states foreign and Moldovan nationals found guilty of pedophilia will be chemically castrated, while courts will rule separately on those found guilty of rape.

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NEW YORK
Queens Ledger

by Heather Senison

Mar 07, 2012

For the sixth year in a row, Maspeth Assemblywoman Margaret Markey is pushing the state Legislature to pass a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for victims of sex abuse to file claims against their attackers.

Markey’s Child Victims Act adds an additional five years to the current statute, meaning people could come forward until they turn 28. Under the current state law, individuals can come forward for five years after they turn 18.

The bill would also suspend all statutes of limitations for a period of one year, starting the day it passes.

Markey’s bill passed the Assembly four times since 2006, but never the State Senate. She introduced it again this year, but as of press time it wasn’t co-sponsored by anyone on either side of the Legislature.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Two retired Church of England priests arrested in the Eastbourne area on suspicion of sexually abusing children and young men have been bailed.

Canon Gordon Rideout, 73 was held on suspicion of sexually assaulting nine young people between 1965 and 1972.

Former parish priest Robert Coles, 70, was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting three young men in West Sussex in the late 1970s and mid-1980s.

Both men have been freed on bail until next month, Sussex Police said.

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VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

March 7, 2012. (Romereports.com) On Wednesday afternoon, the Vatican’s website stopped working at around 3:00 o clock, after reportedly being hacked. Apparently, a group known as “Anonymous” claimed responsibility for this. On the Vatican’s website, vatican.va, the issue is described as a “technical problem that’s being solved.”

The group, Anonymous Italy, posted a message on its blog, which says that the so called attack on the website, is in response to the Church’s stance on birth control and abortion. It also lists the sexual abuse scandal and the Vatican’s alleged cooperation with nazi criminals.

The message adds that it’s not a personal attack against Christians, but against the “corrupt Church of Rome.”

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VATICAN CITY
LifeSite News

ROME, Italy, March 7, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Hackers claiming ties to the high profile group Anonymous are taking credit after the Vatican website went down Wednesday, claiming they are going after the “corrupt” Catholic Church over the clergy sex abuse scandal as well as its stances against abortion and contraception.

“Anonymous decided today to besiege your site in response to the doctrine, to the liturgies, to the absurd and anachronistic concepts that your for-profit organization spreads around the world,” the hackers wrote in Italian.

“This attack is not against the Christian religion or the faithful around the world but against the corrupt Roman Apostolic Church,” it added.

The statement also includes a laundry list of other complaints going back centuries, including Catholics’ involvement in burning books and executing heretics during the Inquisition.

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VATICAN CITY
Buenos Aires Herald

The Italian branch of the hackers group Anonymous took down the Vatican’s website, saying it was an attack on the Roman Catholic Church’s scandals and conservative doctrine.

The Vatican website www.vatican.va was inaccessible. A spokesman said he could not confirm that the crash was the work of the hackers group but said technicians were working to bring it back up.

A statement on the Italian website of the loosely-knit cyber-activists group accused the Church of being responsible for a long list of misdeeds throughout history, including the selling of indulgences in the 16th century and burning heretics during the Inquisition.

“Today, Anonymous has decided to put your site under siege in response to your doctrine, liturgy and the absurd and anachronistic rules that your profit-making organisation spreads around the world,” the website said.

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VATICAN CITY
Telegraph (United Kingdom)

Hacking group Anonymous took down the Vatican website on Wednesday, saying it was targeting the “corrupt” Catholic Church, a day after a high-profile bust of the group’s alleged leaders.

In a statement, the collective said on its Italian-language website: “Anonymous decided today to besiege your site in response to the doctrine, to the liturgies, to the absurd and anachronistic concepts that your for-profit organisation spreads around the world.

“This attack is not against the Christian religion or the faithful around the world but against the corrupt Roman Apostolic Church.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Irish Times

The Italian branch of the hackers’ group Anonymous took down the Vatican’s website today, saying it was an attack on the Catholic Church’s scandals and conservative doctrine.

The Vatican website vatican.va was inaccessible this afternoon.

A spokesman said he could not confirm that the crash was the work of the hackers’ group but said technicians were working to bring it back up.

A statement on the Italian website of the loosely-knit cyber-activists group accused the Catholic Church of being responsible for a long list of misdeeds throughout history, including the selling of indulgences in the 16th century and burning heretics during the Inquisition.

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VATICAN CITY
Global Post

David Trifunov
March 7, 2012

Anonymous claimed credit for shutting down the Vatican’s website today, saying it was an attack on the “corrupt Roman Apostolic Church,” AFP reported.

The Italian arm of the informal association of “hacktivists” posted a statement on its website saying it takes umbrage with the church’s transgressions.

“Anonymous decided today to besiege your site in response to the doctrine, to the liturgies, to the absurd and anachronistic concepts that your for-profit organization spreads around the world,” the statement read.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion Dispatches

Post by The Editors

Reuters reported this morning that the Italian branch of Anonymous, those hackers best known for attacks on Scientology, decided to send a message to the Catholic Church by shutting down the official Vatican website (still not responding as of this posting).

What are the Church’s misdeeds, according to these code crusaders? They go back to the selling of indulgences in the 16th century. And more recently, of course, there’s the Church’s interference in Italy’s domestic politics. (Not just Italy, we’d have to say.)

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AUSTRALIA
Western Advocate

BY MURRAY NICHOLLS

08 Mar, 2012

FOUR men who claim they were sexually abused as teenagers by a Catholic priest have written to the Governor General seeking to have him stripped of an Order of Australia Medal.
Father Hugh Edward Murray was one of 11 men charged with child sex offences dating back to the 1960s as part of investigations by Strike Force Belle.

Many of the men were priests who previously worked at Bathurst’s St Stanislaus’ College, where many of the offences were alleged to have taken place.

Murray had faced five counts of sexual assault involving three boys between 1966 and 1978, but did not stand trial after he was found to be mentally unfit.

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VATICAN CITY
Global Winnipeg

Nicole Winfield, Wednesday, March 07, 2012

VATICAN CITY – Members of the amorphous hacking group Anonymous claimed Wednesday to have taken down the Vatican website to protest everything from Catholic doctrine to the sexual abuse of children.

The site, www.vatican.va, was inaccessible for much of Wednesday afternoon and evening.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, confirmed the attack but declined to comment on its possible source. He said he didn’t know how long it would take the Vatican’s technicians to bring the site back up.

In what claims to be the “official” site of Anonymous in Italy, a statement posted Wednesday said the group was attacking the Vatican to protest the execution of heretics and the burning of books during the Inquisition and more recently the sexual abuse of children by priests.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Marissa Calligeros
March 8, 2012

A Catholic priest has said there is still goodness in him, despite pleading guilty to making and possessing child exploitation material.

Neil Joseph Byrne, whose church was affiliated with a Brisbane primary school, admitted to having sexual fantasies about “young, blond boys”, after being charged with eight counts of making child exploitation material and one count of possessing 10 images of child exploitation material.

Father Byrne, 61, requested that he address the court during his sentencing yesterday and sobbed as he pleaded for compassion from Judge Hugh Botting.

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NEW YORK
Observer-Dispatch

By AMANDA FRIES
Observer-Dispatch

Posted Mar 07, 2012 @ 11:01 AM

UTICA —

The sentencing of a New York Mills priest was adjourned Wednesday in order to secure more funds for restitution.

Valentine Krul, 61, of Forestport, arrived in Oneida County Court Judge Barry Donalty’s courtroom in an orange jumpsuit, only to be quickly ushered out minutes later after Krul’s attorney Bill Borrill asked for the adjournment.

Krul is due back in court April 26 for sentencing.

“Hopefully we’ll have a check for a portion of (the restitution),” Borrill said after court was adjourned.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A retired Church of England priest arrested in the Eastbourne area on suspicion of sexually abusing children has been bailed.

Former parish priest Robert Coles, 70, is suspected of sexually assaulting three young men in West Sussex in the late 1970s and mid-1980s.

Sussex Police said Canon Gordon Rideout remains in custody.

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IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

I sometimes worry a little about Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. Is he taking his worries too much to heart?

(In the Church of the Middle Ages, older women used to go around giving advice to ecclesiastics, including the Pope, so if I may, I will exercise that traditional prerogative.)

He said last Sunday that the Catholic Church in Ireland is ”at breaking point”. He emphasised that this was, in great part, due to the clerical scandals, and he went on to stress that they are not over, and indeed, he opined that the story will never be over in our lifetimes.

I know how seriously he took the evidence of these clerical scandals.

I know how ”sickened” he was to read some of the reports that were put before him. Meeting the victims was an extremely upsetting experience for him.

And we all perfectly understand why he seems sometimes on the brink of despair.

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IRELAND
Irish Catholic

When the leader of the biggest diocese in Ireland says, when speaking of the state of the Church in Ireland, ”it has reached a breaking point — it is at a very difficult stage”, the reaction should surely be widespread consternation and concern.

This is not just the same old critics trumpeting the same old arguments. Rather it is a man who has given his life to the Church, who has reached the elevated role of archbishop, and who has worked for years to try and restore the Church, at least in his own diocese.

He has also taken a leadership role of articulating the ongoing problems and has not been reticent in criticising those whom he thought were failing to do what should be done, even his fellow bishops.

He has not laboured alone. There are many across the island of Ireland who have worked to try to make amends for the grievous suffering of the victims of abuse in all its forms, who have sought to bring the Church back to that humbler, more genuine place which was the Church established by Jesus, in which there was no place for cover-up or hypocrisy and in which Jesus allowed himself to be terribly done to death to show that there was no price which he would not pay, in love, for the people of God.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

Article updated 17 February 2012

This is a classic case-study in how the Catholic Church authorities in Australia harboured a priest, despite complaints about him being a danger to children.

In one parish of the Armidale diocese in northern New South Wales in the 1980s, altar boys complained that they were being sexually abused by a certain priest (let us call him Father XYZ). But the two leaders of this diocese — Bishop Henry Kennedy and Monsignor Frank Ryan — protected this priest, helping him to avoid a criminal conviction.

Privately, Father XYZ admitted that he had indeed been committing sexual acts upon children. Later the church was forced to begin paying compensation to some of these former altar boys.

The former altar boys said that their lives were damaged not only by the abuse but also by the church’s cover-up and the code of silence.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

Posted 17 February 2012

A former religious Brother, Edward Mamo (born 26 September 1944), appeared in court on 6 February 2012, charged with offences allegedly committed against boys at Monivae College, a Catholic secondary school, at Hamilton, 290 kilometres west of Melbourne.

Mamo, residing in Sydney, first appeared in Campbelltown Local Court in western Sydney. The charges were laid by detectives from the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Unit in Warrnambool, Victoria, who had gone to Sydney to interview Mamo.

The charges comprised 12 incidents of indecent assault on males, allegedly committed against seven boys at Monivae College in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Mamo was allegedly working there as a religious Brother.

The Campbelltown Court granted bail to Mamo pending further court proceedings, to be held in Victoria.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

Article updated 7 March 2012

Broken Rites Australia has researched a prominent Catholic priest, the Very Rev Doctor Neil Joseph Byrne, who pleaded guilty in court on 7 March 2012 on charges relating to child-exploitation.

Byrne was sentenced to a nine-month jail term, which was to be wholly suspended for two years.

As a lecturer in a seminary, the Very Rev Dr Byrne has been involved in the training of Australia’s Catholic priests.

Background
Father Byrne belongs to the Brisbane diocese, which covers the heavily-populated south-eastern corner of the Australian state of Queensland. For several years, Father Byrne was the Dean in charge of a number of priests and parishes in Brisbane’s west. This role gave him the title of “Very Reverend”. This, together with his Doctor of Philosophy degree, made him “the Very Rev. Dr. Neil Byrne”.

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IERLAND
RKnieuws

DUBLIN (RKnieuws.net) – Mgr.Diarmuid Martin, aartsbisschop van Dublin, heeft er op de Amerikaanse televisie voor gewaarschuwd dat de crisis als gevolg van het seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen door geestelijken niet voorbij is. ’We moeten waakzaam blijven’, aldus de aartsbisschop.

“Er bestaat een gevaar dat de mensen vandaag zeggen dat het kindermisbruik is afgesloten en dat het tijd is om terug te keren naar de gewone orde van de dag. De bescherming van kinderen moet de rest van ons leven een bekommernis blijven.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

By Ben Parsons, Crime Reporter

A 70-year-old priest from Eastbourne arrested in an inquiry into decades-old abuse of children has been released on bail.

Father Robert Coles was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of sexually assaulting three young men in West Sussex during the late 1970s and mid-1980s.

He has been released on bail until Tuesday, April 17.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Published on Wednesday 7 March 2012

WELL known former priest Gordon Rideout was one of two men arrested in Eastbourne yesterday morning in connection with a sex abuse inquiry.

Seventy-three-year-old Mr Rideout, a former priest at All Saints Church and former school governor, is still being quizzed by detectives on suspicion of sexually assaulting young people in Sussex and London in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Former priest Robert Coles, 70, was also arrested at his home in Upperton Road on Tuesday morning on suspicion of sexual assaults against three young men in Sussex during the late 1970s and mid-1980s.

The arrests follow a six month long investigation into allegations of sex abuse by a team of specialist child protection detectives in Sussex.

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ITALY
Bureau of Investigative Journalism

March 7th, 2012 | by Alice Ross

One Sunday morning in 1993, Elisa Claps vanished in her home town of Potenza. She was 16 years old. Despite suspicion immediately falling on local oddball Danilo Restivo, his family connections and an apparent cover-up by Catholic priests ensured it would be another 17 years before her body was found. In that time, Restivo killed again: his victim was Heather Barnett, a British mother of two.

British journalist Tobias Jones, who was living in Italy in the years following Elisa Claps’ disappearance, became fascinated with the case. His new book, Blood on the Altar, charts how the Claps family battled for almost two decades to bring any kind of closure to the case.

From the start, the investigation was hopelessly bungled and probably corrupt. Danilo Restivo, an awkward teenager with a habit of cutting chunks out of girls’ hair, had been due to meet Elisa that morning. He arrived home late, with a cut in his hand and an improbable explanation. But his father, a well-connected local figure, helped block the investigation, preventing investigators from taking away his clothes and enlisting his high-up friends to slow the investigation.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

By Christine Flatley

A former Catholic priest has asked a court for forgiveness after being sentenced for child pornography charges, a court has been told.

Neil Joseph Byrne, 61, pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court on Wednesday to eight counts of making and one of possessing child exploitation material.

He was sentenced to a nine-month wholly suspended sentence.

The offences occurred between 2005 and 2011 while he was a priest at The Gap Parish at St John’s Wood, in Brisbane’s inner west.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Marissa Calligeros
March 7, 2012

A Catholic priest described himself as a ‘‘tormented’’ man as he pleaded for forgiveness in a Brisbane court today for his offences involving child exploitation material.

Neil Joseph Byrne, 61, whose church was affiliated with a Brisbane primary school, admitted to having sexual fantasies about ‘‘young, blond boys’’, after pleading guilty to eight counts of making child exploitation material and one count of possessing 10 images of child exploitation material.

He was sentenced to nine months in prison, to be wholly suspended, for the offences which occurred over a six year period from August 2005, while he was a priest at The Gap Parish at St John’s Wood, in Brisbane’s inner-west.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Northern Echo

8:00am Wednesday 7th March 2012 in Darlington By Neil Hunter

A SELF-PROCLAIMED priest who flashed at two women and blames his worrying behaviour on “too much pornography” was yesterday jailed for four months.

A judge told Royston Thompson that his sentencing powers were limited – but warned that he will be dealt with more harshly if he repeats his offending.

Thompson, 25, of Melland Street, Darlington, told Judge Howard Crowson from the back of the dock at Teesside Crown Court: “I won’t be coming back again.”

At an earlier court hearing, Thompson compared his behaviour with models on the adult television channel Babestation, and described it as “extreme flirting”.

His barrister, Martin Towers, said yesterday the trainee priest with the Mormon church had become confused about the boundaries of decency by pornography.

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ESPANA
El Pais

Natalia Junquera
Madrid 6 MAR 2012

El ministro de Justicia, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, ha prometido hoy en el Senado “soluciones realistas” teniendo en cuenta las “limitaciones presupuestarias” para los casos de niños robados. Ha descartado por su elevado coste realizar pruebas de ADN a todos los afectados, pero se ha comprometido a “mejorar el protocolo” para que pueda beneficiarse de él más gente. Actualmente, solo son gratuitas aquellas muestras que solicita una autoridad judicial.

En respuesta a una interpelación del senador del PNV José María Cazalis sobre las medidas que pensaba tomar el Gobierno para ayudar a los afectados, el ministro ha asegurado que dará “prioridad absoluta” al asunto. Gallardón ha informado de que había encargado a la Agencia de Protección de Datos un “informe técnico” para analizar las posibilidades de acceso a los archivos, una de las principales reivindicaciones de los afectados, a los que la ley de protección de datos impide muchas veces el acceso a información que podría ser vital en sus búsquedas.

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VATICAN CITY/ITALY
Chiesa

He is Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco. Benedict XVI wants him to lead the bishops for five more years. And it is the only case in the world in which this appointment is made by the pope, in spite of the contrary opinion approved in a vote years ago by the episcopal conference

VATICAN CITY, March 7, 2012 – The announcement could be made as soon as today, exactly five years after the first appointment. Benedict XVI has decided to confirm for another five-year term Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the archbishop of Genoa, who turned 69 on January 14, as president of the Italian episcopal conference.

This means that when the Ligurian cardinal comes to the end of this new mandate, he will become the second-longest-serving president of the CEI. Surpassing Cardinal Antonio, who left office after 9 years and 7 months, and putting himself on the trail of the statistically unreachable Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who led the Italian episcopate for 16 years, from March 4, 1991 to March 7, 2007, when, having passed the age of 76, Benedict XVI accepted his resignation, appointing Bagnasco in his place.

Unlike what happens in almost all the episcopal conferences of the world, in Italy the presidency is not elective, but of pontifical appointment. And this because the pope is the bishop of Rome and the primate of Italy.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

A nun who is to face 87 sex-abuse charges was told at a preliminary sitting at Sligo Circuit Court yesterday that a special two-week hearing would have to be set aside for her trial. A number of people who claim they were victims of the nun were in court for yesterday’s brief hearing.

After complaints from Geraldine Biggs, defending, about provision of documents, Dara Foynes, prosecuting, said the “voluminous” files had been given to the Sligo State Solicitor Hugh Sheridan last week after the case was transferred from another county.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Wednesday March 07 2012

A judge has ordered a special sitting of the Circuit Court to hear a case against a nun facing 87 charges relating to the alleged sex abuse of primary school girls, writes Greg Harkin.

The woman appeared at Sligo Circuit Court yesterday in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in the State. Publication of her name has been banned.

Judge Rory McCabe listed the case for mention again on May 22.

Several of the nun’s alleged victims were in court for yesterday’s brief hearing.

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NEW YORK
Greenpoint Star

Since 2006, Assemblywoman Marge Markey has been pushing legislation that would extend the time that victims of childhood sexual abuse can come forward and sue their abusers.

Markey’s bill would extend the limit to the victim’s 28th birthday, five years longer than is currently allowed. Given the recent sex scandals at Penn State and Syracuse universities, where it took the abused well into their adulthood to come to terms with the torment they suffered, extending the deadline seems like a no-brainer.

One need look no further than our own backyard to see common sense evidence of this. Former Christ the King basketball coach Bob Oliva last year pled guilty to sexually abusing a boy connected to Oliva’s well-respected basketball program.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Guardian

Steven Morris and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 6 March 2012

A former church organist sexually abused two young girls over a 10-year period, a court has heard. Nigel Parkin, 56, allegedly befriended both girls and warned them they would not be believed if they told anyone what he had done.

Married Parkin, from Somerset, is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting and raping one girl, from the age of nine until she was 16. He allegedly indecently assaulted a second girl on two occasions when she was aged between 11 and 13.

Taunton crown court heard that neither of the girls had told anyone about the alleged abuse at the time. Police were only alerted when the younger girl, now aged 19, confided in her headteacher in August 2010.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A former organist at a church in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, repeatedly sexually abused two young girls over a 10-year period, a court has been told.

Nigel Parkin, 56, of North Street, Wiveliscombe, is accused of eight charges of rape, five of indecent assault and four of sexual assault.

The offences are alleged to have been committed against the girls on dates between August 1998 and October 2009.

Mr Parkin, who was an organist at St Andrews’ Church, denies the charges.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By Emma Reynolds

Last updated at 9:16 AM on 7th March 2012

A church organist repeatedly sexually abused two young girls over a 10-year period, a court heard today.

Married Nigel Parkin, 56, befriended the girls and warned them they would not be believed if they told anyone what had happened, Taunton Crown Court heard.

Parkin, who played the organ at St Andrews’ Church in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, is accused of assaulting one girl over two years from when she was 11 and of assaulting and raping another from the age of nine to 16.

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UNITED STATES
World News Report

From Penn State to the Citadel to the Catholic Church, sexual abuse allegations in both public and private institutions are rampant–not just in the US but worldwide.

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA, March 06, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ — The Courthouse News Service even reported recently on the In the Father’s Hands Children’s Home, an orphanage in Haiti where the staff sexually molested and assaulted the young children in their care–and the ministry that ran the home attempted to keep this tragedy from coming to light.

According to Orphan Hope International, more than eight million boys and girls live in institutional care worldwide, and studies have shown they are four times more likely to be sexually abused than children who live with families.

“The inexcusable problem with almost all institutions is that there is no standard system in place to report child sexual abuse, sexual predators, and perpetrators of sexual criminal attacks,” says [url=http:// www.letgoletpeacecomein.org]Peter S. Pelullo[/url], the founder of Let Go…Let Peace Come In, a foundation dedicated to helping adult survivors of sexual abuse. “Without clearly defined rules and a culture of zero tolerance, there is a proclivity to deny, cover up, and protect and defend the institution rather than the population it has been built to serve.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Eilish O’Regan Health Correspondent

Wednesday March 07 2012

THE level of sexual abuse by doctors and medical professionals could be far higher than the level exposed in the Catholic Church, a patients’ group warned yesterday.

The warning came after a survey found that one in five people who responded has claimed they were subjected to an inappropriate action or comment by a health professional.

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DUCHESNE (UT)
KSL

By Geoff Liesik

DUCHESNE — If there’s anything worse than a driver’s license photo, it’s a mugshot.

The Internet is filled with the jailhouse images of the famous, the infamous and even the average Joe.

But the defense attorney for an LDS Church bishop accused of failing to report a teenage girl’s disclosure of sexual abuse is trying to keep his client from suffering a similar fate.

Bishop Gordon Moon, 43, of Duchesne, is charged in 8th District Court with witness tampering, a third-degree felony, and failure to report abuse, a class B misdemeanor.

Prosecutors allege that Moon told a teenage girl not to seek a protective order after she told him she’d been sexually abused by a teenage relative. He’s also accused of failing to notify police of the girl’s disclosure, as required by state law.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Western Daily Press

A church organist carried out a sickening catalogue of sex abuse on two young girls – brushing up against one as he gave her piano lessons, a jury heard yesterday.

Married Nigel Parkin, 56, allegedly befriended the youngsters before sexually assaulting them – warning them they would not be believed if they revealed his actions.

The musician is accused of brushing up against one 11-year-old during piano lessons, then groping her chest.

He then moved his attentions on to a younger girl, aged nine, sexually touching her and raping her on more than ten occasions until she was 16, prosecutors claim.

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ALABASTER (AL)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALABASTER, Ala. — Authorities say a retired Alabama schoolteacher accused of molesting students is facing additional charges involving new alleged victims.

Police in the Shelby County city of Alabaster said Tuesday 49-year-old Danny M. Acker is now facing indictment on a total of eight charges involving six victims. Police say two more alleged victims have come forward, and investigators are still trying to locate additional ones.

Acker’s attorney isn’t commenting publicly, and he hasn’t filed documents indicating whether the former teacher will fight the charges.

Acker retired in 2009 after 25 years of teaching fourth grade in Shelby County, near Birmingham. Police say the former youth pastor has admitted molesting about 20 girls throughout his career as a public school teacher and school bus driver.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Lodi News-Sentinel

By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

The father of a 37-year-old man suing Father Michael Kelly testified on Tuesday that his son told him that Kelly had sexually assaulted him.

The father, whose name is being withheld because his son was an alleged sexual assault victim, said that he was visiting his son in 2007. They were saying their goodbyes when the son blurted out, “I was (sexually assaulted) by Father Kelly,” the man said.

However, the son drove away without elaborating, the father said, and calls to his son were not successful, he told a jury at San Joaquin County Superior Court. Due to statute of limitations laws, Kelly was never criminally charged.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Guardian

Wednesday 7th March 2012 in Redbridge News By Joe Curtis

A PENSIONER has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing young people in areas including Barkingside.

The 73-year-old, widely reported to be a former Church of England priest, was arrested this morning (March 6) near his home in Eastbourne.

The alleged sexual assaults on nine people are meant to have taken place between 1965 and 1972.

Sussex Police emphasises that they believe no children are currently at risk.

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CHATTANOOGA (TN)
News Channel 9

[with video]

John Madewell

A deacon at St. Jude Catholic church has been charged with sexual abuse of a five-year-old girl.

65-year-old Thomas McConnell is also over the Hamilton County school system’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program. Chattanooga police have charged McConnell with aggravated sexual battery.

The allegation is that McConnell repeatedly fondled the girl while dining at a north Chattanooga restaurant.

Ed Cagle and his wife Tammye were eating one table away. Tammye became so upset she started video-taping with her iPhone.

Ed Cagle was also very upset and had seen enough. He said, “By that time, I saw him put his hand in her pants and I just got up and just went over to his table and told him he needs to cut that out, that he was molesting that little girl.”

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MISSOURI
Catholic News Agency

By Michelle Bauman

Clayton, Missouri, Mar 6, 2012 / 05:07 pm (CNA).- The leader of a group that works with clergy sex abuse victims admitted during a recent deposition that the organization has published false information and that he is unsure about whether the group employs licensed counselors.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, was deposed on Jan. 2 in Clayton, Mo. amid accusations that the group had printed restricted information in a press release.

The accusations centered around concerns that an attorney violated a court gag order by revealing information about an abuse lawsuit to the organization.

Clohessy was ordered by a judge to answer questions in an out-of-court testimony that may later be used for legal purposes in an ongoing attempt to determine whether the gag order had been violated.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Metro

Two retired Church of England priests, understood to be Canon Gordon Rideout, 73, and former parish priest Robert Coles, 70, have been arrested in Eastbourne in connection with a series of sexual assaults against children dating back almost half a century.

Sussex police said although the men were arrested on the same day it is not thought the two cases are linked.

Detectives have emphasised that no children are currently thought to be at risk.

The 73-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of sexual assaults committed against nine young people at locations in Crawley in West Sussex, Barkingside in north-east London and Middle Wallop in Hampshire on various dates between 1965 and 1972.

The 70-year-old man meanwhile was arrested on suspicion of sexual assaults against three young men in West Sussex during late 1970s and mid-1980s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Pannone

A leading solicitor has voiced fears that the Church of England will put obstacles in the way of discovering the truth about allegations of abuse against two of its priests in Eastbourne.

Alan Collins, a specialist in abuse cases at the London office of law firm Pannone, says he has noted a change in the way the Church deals with abuse cases. “In the past the Anglican Church has been willing to face any problems and allegations of abuse honestly and openly. I’m sure it would say that its policy is still one of tackling problems in this way and compensating victims properly. However recent evidence is that the Church of England is, perhaps, taking a similar line to the Catholic Church in such matters by hiding behind legal technicalities and even denying any abuse took place. This may be to avoid paying compensation to victims and if that is the case, it is regrettable and reprehensible. I would urge the Anglican Church to cooperate fully on investigations.”

He added, “The challenge facing the Church of England is one that it is having to meet not just here in the UK but Australia too. The wider Anglican Communion has faced allegations of cover-ups in Australia with senior clergy becoming embroiled in controversy, leading to fears that it would row back on reporting allegations of child abuse to the police”

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MARYLAND
Patch

By Tyler Waldman

An Immaculate Conception priest’s trial for indecent exposure charges, scheduled today, has been postponed.

No further information on the postponement, including a date, was immediately available, Explore Baltimore County reports.

Rev. Mark Stewart Bullock was arrested on Jan. 16 in Abingdon after two sheriff’s deputies reportedly saw Bullock expose himself in an adult bookstore.

Bullock was released on his own recognizance, but was quickly suspended from his duties at Immaculate Conception and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. The church distributed a letter to parishioners explaining what had happened and the Archdiocese of Baltimore launched an investigation into the incident.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Littlehampton Gazette

Published on Monday 5 March 2012

Two retired Church of England priests from the South East have been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing young men and children.

A 73-year-old man was arrested at his home near Eastbourne, East Sussex, on suspicion of sexual assaults committed against nine young people in Crawley, West Sussex, Barkingside, north east London, and Middle Wallop, Hampshire, between 1965 and 1972.

A 70-year-old man was also arrested at his home in Eastbourne on suspicion of sexual assaults against three young men in West Sussex during the late 1970s and mid 1980s.

The men, named by sources as Canon Gordon Rideout and former parish priest Robert Coles, were arrested following a six-month investigation by a team of specialist Sussex Police child protection detectives.

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MARYLAND
Baltimore Sun

Staff Reports

March 6, 2012

The trial of a Towson-area priest who was arrested in January on charges of indecent exposure was postponed on Tuesday, March 6, with no information on a new trial date immediately available.

The Rev. Mark Stewart Bullock, known as “Father Stew” to parishioners at Church of the Immaculate Conception in Towson, had been scheduled to appear Tuesday in District Court in Harford County.

Asked which side requested the postponement and why, Harford County State’s Attorney Joseph Cassilly responded in an email that it was, “a joint request for more time.”

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MISSOURI
Riverfront Times

[the deposition]

By Nicholas Phillips Tue., Mar. 6 2012

​On January 2, David Clohessy — director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) — sat down with lawyers representing Catholic priests.

It was not to chat over tea.

The attorneys deposed Clohessy for over six hours as part of a lawsuit that a anonymous victim has brought against Fr. Michael Tierney, a priest in Kansas City.

But many of the questions had rather little to do with Tierney or other priests accused of sexual abuse in Kansas City. Instead, they had a lot to do with how SNAP operates, and appeared to be an attempt to establish that SNAP is not a rape crisis center under state law.

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