ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
BBC News

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

Pope Benedict XVI will place red hats on the heads of 22 new cardinals on Saturday amid an atmosphere of scandal-mongering, rumour and media leaks from inside the Vatican.

The leaks concern alleged internal divisions and even malpractice among the senior bishops and cardinals at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church.

Most of the new cardinals will be granted the right to take part in the election of Pope Benedict’s successor.

It is the fourth Vatican Consistory since Benedict was elected Pope seven years ago, and is being held to bring the College of Cardinals to its full electoral quorum of 120, after deaths and age disqualifications depleted its numbers.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

‘Vatileaks’ scandal, Vatican intrigue cast cloud over ceremony to create new cardinals

By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, February 17,

VATICAN CITY — A scandal over leaked Vatican documents and reports of political infighting, financial mismanagement and administrative chaos in its frescoed halls have cast a cloud over this weekend’s ceremony to create 22 new cardinals.

With Pope Benedict XVI slowing down as he nears his 85th birthday, Saturday’s ceremony has taken on the aura of a pre-conclave summit. Reports abound in the Italian media of cardinals and their supporters jockeying for prominence ahead of a future papal election, and of a Vatican bureaucracy in disarray as Benedict focuses his waning strength on other matters.

All that has weighed on Saturday’s consistory, where the 22 new princes of the church will get their red hats, or birette, and be formally welcomed into the elite men’s club that will elect Benedict’s successor. That ceremony will bring up to 125 the number of cardinals worldwide eligible to vote for the next pope.

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UNITED STATES
Ave Maria Press

My Peace I Give You
Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints

Author: Dawn Eden
Foreword by: Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, S.V.
Price: $16.95
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Trim size: 5.5 x 8.5 inches
ISBN: 978-1-59471-290-6
Imprint: Ave Maria Press

On-sale date: April 9, 2012

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Nick Bramhill

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Catholic leaders have launched a stinging attack on organisers of the IFTAs for presenting an award to suspended RTÉ series Prime Time Investigates.

The investigative series has been temporarily axed to allow for a probe by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland into the defamation of Fr Kevin Reynolds in one of its programmes.

But a group representing Ireland’s priests say they are incensed that the under-fire series scooped a prestigious gong at last weekend’s IFTAs for an unrelated episode, which probed standards of care in nursing homes.

The Association of Catholic Priests also said it believes “Mission To Prey”, the programme in which Fr Reynolds was defamed, would actually have won the award for Best Current Affairs/News had the state broadcaster not been dragged to court in November.

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CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle

Will Kane

Thursday, February 16, 2012

A former Roman Catholic priest who was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in 2005 for molesting a girl in Daly City is facing possible deportation after being freed from prison this year.

Jose Superiaso, 57, a former priest at St. Andrew Church in Daly City, pleaded no contest in 2005 to lewd acts with a child under 14 and was sentenced to 10 years in state prison, with credit for the almost 2 1/2 years he spent in jail before his conviction, said Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County district attorney.

Superiaso was freed in January and was promptly taken into custody by federal authorities, who will ask a judge to deport him to his native Philippines, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Superiaso is a lawful permanent resident of the United States but can be deported because he was convicted of a crime, Kice said.

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ITALY
The Independent (United Kingdom)
Michael Day
Milan

Friday 17 February 2012

After several years of scandal in which the Catholic Church has faced allegations of financial impropriety, paedophile priests and rumours of plots to kill the Pope, the Vatican is now facing a new €600m-a-year tax bill as Rome seeks to head off European Commission censure over controversial property tax breaks enjoyed by the Church.

As the EC heads closer to officially condemning the fiscal perks enjoyed by the Catholic Church and introduced by the Berlusconi administration, Prime Minister Mario Monti has written to the Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, saying that the Vatican will resume property tax, or Ici, payments.

Mr Almunia said in 2010 that the exemption amounted to state aid that might breach EU competition law. A parliamentary proposal by the Italian Radicals party last August to repeal the exemption, with a successful petition on Facebook, upped the pressure. A spokesman for Mr Almunia appeared to give the thumbs-up yesterday: “It is a proposal that constitutes a significant progress on the issue and I hope will be implemented,” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Consistory, Benedict XVI imposes the red hat on the new cardinals that will be entering the world’s most exclusive “club”: the cardinal electors who vote for the Pope

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

Saturday, February 18th, Benedict XVI will impose the red hat on 22 new “princes of the Church”, ready to defend the faith and the Pope “usque ad sanguinis effusionem”, which means: “unto the shedding of our blood”, symbolized by the red colour of their cassocks. Eighteen of the newly “created” (the appointment of cardinal is referred to in this manner because it depends on the free will of the Pope) will join the world’s most exclusive “club”, the group that will be responsible for voting for the Pope, while the remaining four, who are over 80, will receive the red biretta for merits acquired during their long service, but they cannot participate in a Conclave because they are beyond the age limit for cardinal electors.

Along with the red hat (the classic “three-cornered hat”, but without the tassel), the new cardinals will also receive from the Pope’s hands the note of appointment with the name of the Roman Church assigned to them – each cardinal receives one – together with the Cardinal ring. Until the last consistory, held in November 2010, the Pope presented the ring the day after the imposition of the biretta, during a Mass in St. Peter’s concelebrated with the new cardinals. The ritual has been revised and streamlined, and now newly elected cardinals will receive everything in one go, on Saturday morning.

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

By Patricia Montemurri
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

There is a reason for excitement among some metro Detroit Catholics, as news regarding the pending church closures trickled out Thursday.

At least four historic churches in Detroit will be saved. And there are indications that the list of shuttered parishes will be fewer than the 48 originally recommended in November.

• Interactive map: A detailed look at Detroit’s Catholic churches

“We are rejoicing,” said Rhonda Gilbert, 67, of Detroit, a parishioner at St. Charles Borromeo near Belle Isle in Detroit. She learned from her pastor this week that the church, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will remain open.

“We got our letter Wednesday,” said Gilbert, referring to letters Archbishop Allen Vigneron sent this week to pastors and 270,000 registered Catholic households detailing the fate of each of the 270 parishes across the six-county Archdiocese of Detroit.

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PHILIPPINES
GMA News

A senior prelate said the Philippine bishop who ordained the Filipino priest convicted of child molestation in the United States should initiate the dismissal process from the clerical state as penalty.

Retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said the bishop of the diocese where Father Jose Superiaso, 57, was ordained should be the one to file charges against him.

Superiaso was ordained in the Archdiocese of Manila.

“The first move would have to come from his bishop in the Philippines, meaning to say his bishop will be the one with the authority to file charges against the priest for the imposition of penal sanctions,” Cruz said.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Stephen Rogers

Friday, February 17, 2012

His predecessor left under a cloud of controversy, so it was left to the new papal nuncio to Ireland to promise to do “everything in my power to solidify and strengthen the relations between the Holy See and Ireland”.

Archbishop Charles John Brown made the pledge as he presented his credentials to President Michael D Higgins.

Last July, the man he replaces, Archbishop Guiseppe Leanza, was recalled to Rome after the publication of the Cloyne Report into the Church’s handling of abuse claims against 19 clerics in the diocese. It accused the Vatican of being “entirely unhelpful” to Irish bishops in their attempts to put proper child safeguarding procedures in place. When the investigating commission wrote to Archbishop Leanza during its inquiry, he replied that he was “unable to assist” it.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SWR

Zum ersten Mal untersuchte ein Wissenschaftlerteam im Rahmen einer repräsentativen Studie, wie viele Bewohnerinnen von Behindertenheimen sexuell missbraucht wurden. Geistig behinderte Frauen wurden in speziell vereinfachter Sprache befragt. Sechs Prozent der Frauen mit geistiger Behinderung berichteten von sexueller Gewalt, die sie selbst in Heimen oder Einrichtungen erlebt hatten.

In absoluten Zahlen heißt das: mehrere tausend Frauen wurden in den Behindertenheimen und -Einrichtungen zu Missbrauchsopfern. Die Täter sind meist Bewohner aber eben auch Personal. Verantwortlich für den Schutz und die Sicherheit der Bewohnerinnen sind die Träger beziehungsweise die Betreuer. Oft wird den Betroffenen nicht geglaubt. Die Einrichtungen versuchen zudem alle Vorfälle unter der Decke zu halten. Eine Meldepflicht in Verdachtsfällen besteht nicht. Selten kommt es daher zu Anzeigen, fast nie zu Anklagen oder Verurteilungen

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CANADA
Halifax News Net

… It goes from worse to bad for the Catholic Church in Nova Scotia. A high ranking church member has been relieved of his duties while an inquiry is underway into accusations of sexual abuse and a complaint about access to medication. At the centre of this potential scandal is Reverend Paul Abbass, a man who’s face has become very familiar to Nova Scotians as a spokesman for the church after the Bishop Raymond Lahey scandal. Abbass was the longtime head of Talbot House, a Cape Breton addiction centre. Community Services is investigating. The RCMP’s also aware of the allegations.

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CANADA
Medicine Hat News

Friday, 17 February 2012

Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press

TORONTO – The picture on Thomas Collins’ desk depicts a 16th-century cardinal who fought to return the Catholic faith to its roots while managing one of the largest religious communities in his country.

The present-day Archbishop of Toronto now plans to look to that image for inspiration as he prepares to follow in his idol’s footsteps.

Collins, 65, is about to become the 16th Canadian to be elevated to the position of cardinal, an elite group of advisers handpicked by the Pope. Collins and 21 new appointees will don their red hats on Saturday at an official ceremony at the Vatican. …

The pontif personally appointed Collins to a team probing rampant allegations of sexual abuse in Ireland in 2010, Smith said, adding his friend was also pegged to serve on the Vatican communications council before his elevation to cardinal.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Braintree

By Bob Aicardi
Wicked Local Braintree

Braintree —

The Rev. James E. Braley, chaplain at Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree from 1981 to 1986 and pastor of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Plymouth since 2001, has been placed on administrative leave as a result of an allegation of sexual abuse of a child.

In its Feb. 12 statement announcing the suspension, the Archdiocese of Boston said the claim concerns conduct alleged to have occurred in the early 1980s.

“The Archdiocese immediately notified law enforcement of the allegation and has initiated a preliminary investigation into the complaint,” the statement declared. “Father Braley will remain on administrative leave pending the outcome of the preliminary investigation. The decision to place Father Braley on administrative leave represents the Archdiocese’s commitment to the welfare of all parties and does not represent a determination of his guilt or innocence as it pertains to the investigation. The Archdiocese will work to resolve this case as expeditiously as possible and in a manner that is fair to all parties.”

Braley, through his lawyer, adamantly denied any wrongdoing and maintained his innocence. “Obviously he’s upset by these allegations,” Quincy attorney William Sullivan said. “He just is solid and strong that he did not do anything inappropriate.”

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By Rosie DiManno
Columnist

Dictators, who tend not to die peacefully in their beds, are among the few on this planet who can claim a job for life.

And then there’s the pope.

No challenge to his authority, no Catholic Spring, no curia putsch allowed there; can’t be dislodged for reasons of poor health, psychological trauma or colossally bad judgment in ministering to the world’s nearly 2 billion faithful.

Pontiffs are sitting pretty once elected by conclave. The last pope to resign was Gregory XII in 1415, a strategic maneuver to end the battle for the papacy (three vying) that was known as the Western schism. The Code of Canon Law contains no apparatus for yanking a Bishop of Rome who’s botched it.

While popes are not technically “infallible’’ — a misconception of nuance; they’re only “error-free’’ when performing in their official capacity to promulgate dogma on faith and morals — they can’t be given the sack for getting it spectacularly wrong because, in those matters that most directly affect us, they’re unimpeachably right. Got it?

Understanding arcane intricacies of canon law is as challenging as that whole Father-Son-Holy Ghost trinity thing, which is why most Catholics simply take it on faith. Faith, however, has never in modern memory been so fragile, so at risk, as under Benedict XVI, with alarming numbers abandoning the Church, at least in the West.

Benedict may be indubitably pious and unmatched as a scholar-pope but, on his watch, the Catholic Church has sunk into a morass of unprecedented scandal. The latest crisis — explosive documents obtained by an Italian investigative TV show in what’s been dubbed “Vatileaks’’ — arises from a three-way private correspondence, which included the pope, with an archbishop who blew the whistle on what he saw as a web of corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the Vatican, an alert that got the poor man transferred, from deputy governor of Vatican City to Vatican ambassador in Washington. The rippling accusations encompass everything from awarding of tenders for work to inside-connected contractors at ridiculously inflated prices to yet more questions being asked about the Vatican bank, 30 years after its predecessor (Banco Ambrosiano) collapsed amidst lurid allegations about money-laundering, freemasons, the Mafia and the mysterious death of its chairman — “God’s banker,” Roberto Calvi.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Record

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer

February 17, 2012

STOCKTON – Attorneys for a 37-year-old man, who accuses a Lockeford priest of molesting him as a child, may argue in a civil trial that the Diocese of Stockton is liable and it somehow benefited from the reverend’s actions, a judge ruled Thursday.

But first the plaintiff’s attorneys must prove that the Rev. Michael Kelly, 62, sexually abused the altar boy during the 1980s while he served at Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton.

Kelly, now at St. Joachim Church in Lockeford, has served at various parishes throughout San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties.

San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Bob McNatt heard motions this week to determine which facts will be admissible in the upcoming trial.

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WISCONSIN
The Northwestern

Written by
Mike Nichols

Unless you’re a king or a demigod or, as Mark Twain once wrote, somebody with a tapeworm, it’s usually a good idea to avoid referring to yourself with the pronoun “we.”

I’m not sure who Norbert Maday, a defrocked Illinois priest sitting in a courtroom in Oshkosh the other day, thought he was when he tried to explain away the things he did 25 years ago to two suburban Chicago boys on a retreat in Winnebago County.

“We’re just committing what we call a mortal sin and we’re sorry because of the weakness that, that we allowed, allows to do it,” he told a courtroom in garbled but, nevertheless, extremely revealing language.

Maday didn’t have a codefendant. His attorney, Ralph Sczygelski, said the former priest has some health issues but the lawyer didn’t mention worms. So I don’t think that explains the use of “we” either.

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

February 16, 2012

By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE and AARON BESWICK Staff Reporters

UPDATED 8:52 p.m.

A high-ranking member of the Roman Catholic Church who is the head of an addictions centre in rural Cape Breton has been relieved of his duties pending the outcome of an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse and access to medication.

Rev. Paul Abbass, the executive director of Talbot House in Frenchvale for 17 years, is the subject of a review after a complaint was made to the provincial Community Services Department, which oversees the addiction-treatment facility.

No one from Community Services, Talbot House or the Diocese of Antigonish would reveal the reason for the review.

But Dave Mantin of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said he has received two separate complaints about Abbass’s behaviour from former residents of Talbot House in the past year.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NPR

[with audio]

by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

February 17, 2012

Between 1992 and 2004, Monsignor William Lynn was the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s point person for allegations of clerical abuse. When he heard a claim, he was supposed to investigate and, if warranted, remove or turn the priest over to police.

But as two grand juries reported in 2005 and 2011, that often didn’t happen.

“He willingly oversaw numerous reports of child sex abuse,” says Cardozo law professor Marci Hamilton, a consultant to the first grand jury. “And he willingly put these men in positions where they had second, third, fourth opportunities to abuse children in new settings.”

In most of those cases, the statute of limitations barred prosecutors from bringing criminal charges. But two cases have not expired, and prosecutors say Lynn criminally endangered two young men, allegedly raped when they were 10 and 14, by looking the other way.

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: The Canadian Press

HALIFAX – Police and the Nova Scotia government are looking into a complaint against a priest who headed up a rehabilitation centre for addicts in Cape Breton.

Officials with Talbot House said Thursday that Rev. Paul Abbass has taken a leave of absence from his position as executive director of the facility, but offered no details on the nature of the complaint.

The board of directors said in a statement it is investigating the complaint, which it became aware of through the province’s Department of Community Services on Feb. 2.

“It is an unfortunate and challenging situation for all involved,” John Gainer, Talbot House board chairman, said in the statement.

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GEORGIA
Savannah Morning News

By Jan Skutch

A Catholic priest who was pastor of missions in Pembroke and two others in the Diocese of Savannah has been removed from his duties pending an investigation of alleged sexual abuse from nearly 30 years ago.

The Rev. Bob Poandl, 70, has denied the allegations, but has stepped away from his ministries and returned to the Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners pending completion of an investigation into the allegations.

Poandl served as pastor at Holy Cross Church in Pembroke, St. Christopher Church in Claxton and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Sand Hill near Claxton. He has served off and on in the diocese since 2007.

He left in 2009 after other abuse allegations in West Virginia, but those charges later were dismissed.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sol

Saarbrücken/Trier. Die „Saarbrücker Initiativgruppe haupt und ehrenamtlicher Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter in der katholischen Kirche des Bistums Trier“ hat in einem offenen Brief an Bischof Stephan Ackermann diesen gebeten, „zeitnah“ zu einer weiteren offenen Gesprächsrunde zum Thema sexueller Missbrauch an Minderjährigen im Bistum Trier einzuladen. Ackermann, der auch Missbrauchsbeauftragter der katholischen Kirche für ganz Deutschland ist, habe dies am Ende einer ersten Gesprächsrunde mit rund 200 haupt- und ehrenamtlichen Bistums-Mitarbeitern und anderen Interessierten am 11. Januar selbst angekündigt.

Unterzeichner des Schreibens der Gruppe, der nach eigenen Angaben 43 Katholiken angehören, ist der Saarbrücker Pastoralreferent Heiner Buchen. Buchen erinnerte in dem Schreiben an das damalige Gespräch, an dem die Gruppe beteiligt war. Die Unterredung, die „zeitlich eng begrenzt“ gewesen sei, habe „kaum die Chance“ geboten, „tiefergehende Fragen zu diskutieren“.

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UNITED STATES
Dallas Voice

David Webb

The seemingly never-ending reports of lawsuits and criminal complaints being filed by people alleging they were sexually molested by members of the clergy might make one wonder if directing worship is, or ever was, the main objective of those seeking ordainment.

Since my youth I’ve heard people grumble that the pastors, priests, rabbis and others calling the faithful to their churches on Sunday mornings were interested primarily in personal glory and how much cash they could raise from their flocks, but I never heard anything about them expecting a donation of flesh as well.

That is, I never heard about it until the mid-1980s when the scandals involving Catholic priests sexually abusing male youths began surfacing.

When the media first began covering the scandal I imagine the reaction of most people was that a few cases would surface, and that would be the end of it. Who would have ever dreamed that 25 years later the scandal would have grown to epidemic proportions and spread worldwide to other religions and institutions as well?

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
NPR

[with audio]

by Chuck Quirmbach

February 16, 2012 from WPR

Nine Catholic archdioceses around the country have filed for bankruptcy over the past decade, including the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. In each case, this followed multimillion-dollar claims from victims sexually abused by priests and other Church employees.

Milwaukee’s case is different from all the others in one important way. The church there is playing legal hardball and trying to dramatically limit the claims of 570 people who say they were abused. Despite the bankruptcy, Catholic churches in Milwaukee are still open for worship.

It’s Mass at St. Vincent Pallotti church and about 200 parishioners sing, pray, and then watch a videotaped appeal from Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki. The church is beginning an annual fund drive. Listecki makes it clear that the money will go for programs like Catholic schools and adult day care and not be part of the year-long Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by John L Allen Jr on Feb. 16, 2012 NCR Today

ROME — One of Africa’s leading Catholic prelates this week endorsed a strong “zero tolerance” policy on child sexual abuse, saying that “to abuse the trust of a child, an innocent child, is something we cannot tolerate.”

Cardinal Polycarp Pengo of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, also candidly acknowledged that until recently, Catholic leaders across Africa believed that “child abuse is not our problem,” but he said they’re now coming to see it happens in Africa too – including, he said, within the Catholic church.

Pengo said he would back any victim or parent who wishes to report child abuse to police and prosecutors, but also said that in some African societies civil governments lack the capacity to deal with the problem, or simply believe they have “more important things to do.”

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CANADA
CBC News

The priest who has spoken for the Diocese of Antigonish in recent years is the subject of an unspecified complaint.

A criminal investigation is underway into an unspecified complaint against Father Paul Abbass — who runs Talbot House — a men’s addiction and rehabilitation facility outside Sydney, Cape Breton Regional Police confirmed Thursday.

The complaint was related to an employee of Talbot House, police said.

It is not known if the employee was the source of the complaint.

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: The Canadian Press

HALIFAX – A priest who heads a rehabilitation centre for recovering addicts in Cape Breton has stepped down after a complaint was filed against him.

Officials with Talbot House said today that Rev. Paul Abbass has taken a leave of absence from his position as executive director of the facility, but offered no details on the nature of the complaint.

The board of directors says in a statement it is investigating the complaint, which they became aware of through the province’s Department of Community Services.

Abbass has also given up his duties as the spokesman for the Diocese of Antigonish, which was led by Bishop Raymond Lahey until he stepped down after being charged with importing child pornography.

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CANADA
Herald News

February 16, 2012

By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE Cape Breton Bureau

A high-ranking member of the Roman Catholic Church and executive director of an addictions centre in Cape Breton has been relieved of his duties while an inquiry is underway.

Father Paul Abbass, who has headed up Talbot House in Frenchvale for 17 years, is the subject of a review after a complaint was made to the Department of Community Services.

The nature of the complaint against Abbass was not made public and it is unknown at this point if police are investigating.

Abbass is parish priest of St Mary’s parish, which is on the grounds of Talbot House, a Sydney-area addictions treatment centre for adult men. He has also taken a leave from his diocese and parish duties, as episcopal vicar and as director of pastoral services for the diocese.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Reuters

By Kevin Murphy

KANSAS CITY, Missouri | Thu Feb 16, 2012

(Reuters) – The Roman Catholic bishop in Kansas City has asked a court to dismiss charges he failed to report suspected child abuse by a priest on grounds he was not mandated to do so.

Bishop Robert Finn, leader of the 133,000-member Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, is scheduled to go on trial in September in Missouri’s Jackson County Circuit Court on charges he failed to inform authorities for months that Father Shawn Ratigan had child pornography on his laptop computer.

Ratigan pleaded not guilty to felony child pornography charges last year. Finn, the highest-ranking Catholic official ever to face U.S. criminal charges in a child sexual abuse case, and the diocese both pleaded not guilty in October. The cover-up charge carries a penalty of up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

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UNITED STATES
Reuters

By Stephanie Simon

Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:15am EST

(Reuters) – The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is a powerful institution, at least on paper.

But a recent debate over contraception coverage has exposed a deep divide between the 271 active bishops and the rank-and-file U.S. Catholics who are supposed to follow their moral authority. It also has raised questions about why some prominent Catholic intuitions ignore the bishops’ teachings – and whether the bishops will be able to reassert their authority.

The gulf has left some politicians, ever eager to court the Catholic vote, struggling to figure out who now speaks for the Church. Some ordinary Catholics in the pews are wondering the same.

“The bishops have lost their monopoly on speaking, and they have lost a lot of their clout,” said Father Thomas Reese, a Georgetown University theologian and church scholar.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

„Perfides Nachtreten.“ So nennt die Therapeutin eines Opfers von sexueller Gewalt ein Schreiben der Diözese Regensburg. In wohlgesetzten Worten wird der heute 63jährige Mann darin zum Lügner abgestempelt. Wenn er die Gründe wissen wolle, könne er sich ja an den Anwalt des Bistums wenden, schreibt ihm Generalvikar Michael Fuchs. Wir veröffentlichen den Brief im Original.

Die Therapeutin von Udo Kaiser war entsetzt. Als „perfides Nachtreten“ bezeichnet sie ein Schreiben des Bistums Regensburg an den 63jährigen Tenor und Schauspieler. „Ich werde zum Lügner abgestempelt“, sagt uns Kaiser am Telefon über das Schreiben, das er vier Tage vor Heiligabend bekommen hat und das ihn für einige Wochen in eine tiefe Depression gestürzt hat. „Das hat mich völlig zurückgeworfen. Ich habe mich wieder gefühlt wie der kleine Junge von damals.“

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NEDERLAND
BNR

Door Bart Tuinman

16 February 2012

Het duurt niet lang meer voordat priesters een officiële verklaring van goed gedrag van de overheid moeten gaan laten zien als ze een functie binnen een kerk krijgen of van (kerkelijke) baan wisselen.

De komende maanden wordt de zogenoemde Verklaring Omtrent Gedrag (VOG) verplicht voor priesters en andere kerkelijke medewerkers.

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NEDERLAND
Friesch Dagblad

In reactie op de onthullingen over seksueel misbruik binnen de R.-K. Kerk riep Maarten ‘t Hart in NRC Handelsblad ‘fatsoenlijke mensen’ op hun kerk te verlaten. Patrick Chatelion Counet legt uit waarom hij daar geen gehoor aan geeft.

Patrick Chatelion Counet

Het is moeilijk om van jezelf te zeggen dat je een fatsoenlijk mens bent. Onder de titel ‘Waarom katholieken niet in opstand komen’ daagt Maarten ’t Hart in NRC Handelsblad katholieken uit hun kerk te verlaten. Hij acht het ‘totaal onbegrijpelijk dat nog enig fatsoenlijk mens lid kan of wil blijven van zo’n organisatie… reeds tweeduizend jaar de oudste en grootste misdadigersorganisatie ter wereld’. Een keuze uit twee kwaden. Of men roept zichzelf uit tot fatsoenlijk mens – niet enkel voor katholieken een zonde – en treedt toe tot de club van fatsoenlijken waartoe ’t Hart klaarblijkelijk behoort, of men blijft bij een verwerpelijke organisatie, ‘de aftandse firma God & zoon’ (Zoon met een hoofdletter, mijnheer ’t Hart).

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NEDERLAND
Nu

UTRECHT – Dat steeds minder mensen betrokken zijn bij de katholieke kerk, is niet te stoppen. Aartsbisschop Wim Eijk (58) accepteert dat de Nederlandse kerkprovincie krimpt.

”Een dieptepunt, een tijd die we geduldig moeten doormaken”, zei de aartsbisschop van Utrecht in een interview met het ANP en NU.nl. Zaterdag wordt Eijk kardinaal, na de paus de hoogste rang in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk (RKK).

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NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

Met het deze week door minister Opstelten aangekondigde onderzoeksrapport-Deetman II is een parlementair onderzoek naar het seksueel misbruik in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk, waar een deel van de Kamer eerder voor pleitte, voorlopig buiten beeld. Dat komt hard aan bij PvdA en SP die het afzien van een eigen Kameronderzoek als een gemiste kans beschouwen. In het licht van de overigens onbetwiste ernst van de kwestie zien zij het als een onverantwoord besluit.

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NEDERLAND
DePers

Door: Dirk Jacob Nieuwboer

Er zou onderzoek moeten komen naar seksueel misbruik onder orthodox protestanten, vindt adviesbureau Movisie. Dat is makkelijker gezegd dan gedaan.

De lucht uit de rooms-katholieke beerput trekt net een beetje over of de volgende misbruikkwestie in religieuze kring dient zich al weer aan. Nu staan de ‘orthodox-protestanten’ in het verdachtenbankje.

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QUICY (MA)
TheBostonChannel

BOSTON — A Quincy developer facing statutory rape charges was granted permission to travel to Italy for a private guided tour of the Vatican.

William O’Connell, 72, was indicted on four counts of statutory rape, stemming from his alleged involvement with a now 15-year-old girl during a two-year period, according to the Patriot Ledger.

Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Kenneth J. Fishman granted O’Connell’s request to travel to Rome at the end of this month.

According to a request filed in court, the purpose of his trip is to “have a religious experience by having many private guided tours of the Vatican in order to more thoroughly understand the history of the Roman Catholic Church,” the newspaper reported.

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NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

DEN HAAG – De coalitiepartijen VVD en CDA en gedoogpartij PVV zijn op dit moment niet overtuigd van de meerwaarde van een parlementair onderzoek naar het misbruikschandaal in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk.

Dat bleek woensdagmiddag tijdens een Kamerdebat.

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NEDERLAND
NOS

Het CDA wil mogelijk een parlementair onderzoek naar de rol van de overheid bij het seksueel misbruik in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk. “Zodra blijkt dat iemand bij de politie is geweest of een zaak bij het OM aanhangig heeft gemaakt en het is weggewuifd, dan moet dat worden onderzocht”, zei Kamerlid Van Toorenburg in de Tweede Kamer. De Kamer praat vandaag over het rapport van de commissie-Deetman.

Verder onderzoek

Het CDA is nu nog niet voor zo’n onderzoek, maar als de regeringspartij het idee van een aantal oppositiepartijen steunt, ontstaat een parlementaire meerderheid. Een eerdere onderzoekscommissie heeft geen aanwijzingen gevonden dat dingen in de doofpot zijn gestopt. Maar als blijkt dat de overheid toch de deur heeft dichtgehouden, moet er alsnog een onderzoek komen, vindt het CDA.

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NEDERLAND
Nieuws

(Novum) – Wim Deetman is bereid een aanvullend onderzoek te houden naar misbruik van meisjes en vrouwen in de katholieke kerk. Deetman verwacht dat het rapport dit najaar gereed is. Vertegenwoordigers van de katholieke kerk hebben ingestemd met het onderzoek. Dat schrijft minister van Veiligheid en Justitie Ivo Opstelten (VVD) in een brief aan de Tweede Kamer.

Deetman was voorzitter van de commissie die seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk heeft onderzocht. Eind vorig jaar werden de resultaten gepresenteerd. Uit het rapport bleek onder meer dat tussen 1945 en 1981 tussen de tien- en twintigduizend kinderen zijn misbruikt in katholieke instellingen. Het misbruik was bekend binnen de ordes en bisdommen.

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NEDERLAND
Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal

15 februari, debat – “Jammer dat de overheid buiten beeld blijft”. Arib (PvdA) wil een parlementair onderzoek naar het seksueel misbruik in katholieke instellingen en de rol van de overheid daarbij. Maar zij krijgt voor dit voorstel nog onvoldoende steun..

Uit een onderzoek van de commissie-Deetman blijkt dat in katholieke instellingen tussen 1945 en 1981 10.000 tot 20.000 kinderen zijn misbruikt. De kerk wist ervan, maar deed niets, concludeert Deetman. Maar welke rol heeft de overheid eigenlijk gespeeld?, vraagt Arib. Iedere schijn van een doofpot moet worden vermeden, benadrukt Gesthuizen (SP). Net als Dibi (GroenLinks) wil zij dat de Kamer de rol van de overheid, OM en politie gaat onderzoeken.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Cardinals govern during the sede vacante transition phase as they elect the new Pope

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

Both electors and non electors have the important role of advising the Pope; a role which Wojtyla and Ratzinger have strengthened in recent years. Indeed, Benedict XVI has continued John Paul II’s decision for the Concistory to be preceded by a consultation with cardinals for the exchange of opinions on issues that have been brought to the Church’s attention.

Cardinals have had the power to elect Popes since 1059. In 1150 the College of Cardinals was formed, with a dean and a Camerlengo (whose responsibilities formerly included the fiscal administration of the Patrimony of St. Peter), and from the 12th Century onwards, prelates outside Rome also began to be appointed as cardinals. Still today, each cardinal receives the title or diaconate of a Roman diocese or a suburbicarian diocese, from the Pope. This is a symbolic of the Roman clergy’s long tradition with the Pope being the Bishop of Rome.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 16 February 2012 (VIS) – Yesterday afternoon the Holy Father visited the Major Seminary of Rome for the occasion of the feast of its patroness, Our Lady of Trust, which falls on Saturday. The Holy Father visited the chapel before going on to meet with auxiliary bishops of Rome, superiors of diocesan seminaries and 190 seminarians.

Following the reading of the Gospel, Benedict XVI pronounced a “lectio divina” on the passage from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans in which the Apostle invites the faithful not to conform to this world but to transform themselves and renew their minds in order to discern the will of God, “the good and acceptable and perfect”.

“We can reflect upon the Church today”, he said in his off-the-cuff remarks. “There is much talk about the Church of Rome, many things are said. Let us hope that people also talk about our faith. Let us pray to God that it may be so”.

The Pope then went on to refer to the force of evil which, in today’s world, also emerges “in two great powers which are good and useful in themselves but easily open to abuse: the power of finance and the power of the media. Both are necessary, both are useful, but so subject to misuse that they often go against their true goals”.

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ROME
Vatican Insider

In his address to Seminarians today, Benedict XVI said “The whole world is talking about the Church of Rome, let us hope it is also talking about our faith”

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

“The whole world is talking about the Church of Rome, let us hope it is also talking about our faith.” These were the words pronounced by the Pope during this afternoon’s “lectio divina” with Seminarians from Rome who met him at the Lateran University on the Feast of Our Lady of Trust. “Let us hope that people are not talking about just anything but that they are talking about the faith of the Roman Church,” Benedict XVI said, alluding to the recent controversy in the press concerning the Roman Curia.

The Pope’s reflection referred to the Letter to the Romans, in which, as he stressed in his address to the future priests of the Diocese of Rome, “Paul speaks to us, because he speaks to Romans of all times.”

During the “lectio divina” Ratzinger also warned Seminarians against the “power of finance and the media” which “are necessary and even useful, but so open to abuse that they can go against man.”

The “power of finance,” the Pope said, transforms money from “instrument” to “greed,” “a power that oppresses man.” “Christians oppose conformism and submission,” the Pope said.

In as far as “public opinion” is concerned, “we need information, but this can not be overcome by the power of appearance, which in the end only gives importance to what is said rather than to the truth and man becomes only concerned with appearances.”

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 16, 2012

Just once, we’d love to see an accused Catholic official defend himself on the merits, not on technicalities.

If Bishop Finn succeeds in his latest legal maneuver, Missouri will be a more dangerous place for kids. If he guts the state law requiring many adults to report suspected child sex crimes, that will no doubt lead to more child sex crimes and more child molesters going undetected.

No one denies the crux of this case: Finn and his top aides refused to tell police about child sex crimes for at least five months. That’s the plain and simple truth. So it’s hard to imagine a judge dismissing such obvious and self-serving wrongdoing that led to more kids being exploited and hurt. We hope common sense, not Bishop Finn, prevails.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Mary Caplan on February 16, 2012

This weekend, NY Archbishop Timothy Dolan moves up again in the Catholic hierarchy. We’re troubled by this promotion of a prelate who continues to mishandle clergy sex abuse cases. We urge Catholics and citizens to look at Dolan’s performance, not his personality. And we urge Vatican officials to do likewise.

Dolan has been very lucky. He’s worked in states with particularly archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly child sex laws. So when child sex abuse victims and their loved ones are mistreated by church officials, it usually remains hidden because they can’t file lawsuits and expose the wrong doing. And Dolan has followed two relatively cold, callous or corrupt colleagues – Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Cardinal Edward Egan. So his gregarious demeanor is a welcome “breath of fresh air” that distracts observers from his actions and leads many to complacently assume that such a nice guy must surely treat abuse victims better than his predecessors. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be true.

By promoting Dolan, Pope Benedict is essentially rewarding wrongdoing which encourages wrongdoing. That’s what happens often in the Catholic hierarchy.

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PHILIPPINES
ABS-CBNnews.com

Posted at 02/16/2012

MANILA, Philippines – A Filipino priest convicted of child molestation in the United States will face a case before the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

The case of Father Jose Superiaso is a grim reality that needs to be accepted, according to retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz.

Superiaso, who is based in the US, had an intimate relationship with a Filipina and also sexually abused her 12-year-old sister.

In 2005, Superiaso was convicted of child molestation and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 16 February 2012 (VIS) – The Council of Cardinals for the Study of the Organisational and Economic Problems of the Holy See met in the Vatican on Tuesday 14 and Wednesday 15 February under the presidency of Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B.

The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, the Governorate of Vatican City State, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and Vatican Radio. Reports were read out concerning the consolidated budget of the Holy See and of the Governorate of Vatican City State, and the gathering was addressed by Archbishop Giuseppe Versaldi, president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.

According to a communique released this morning, the cardinals present intervened, “expressing their pleasure at the forecast results but not failing to make known their concern at the prevailing general crises, which has not spared even the general economic system of the Vatican. This is evident above all as regards the Holy See, which receives indispensable subsidisation from the free offerings of the faithful. The members of the Council expressed their profound gratitude for the support the faithful give, often anonymously, to the universal ministry of the Holy Father, and exhorted them to continue this good work. Moreover, it was recognised that there is an ongoing commitment to improve the administration of the goods and resources of the Holy See”.

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UNITED STATES
Addicting Info

February 15, 2012
By Zachary Bailes

On February 14th the New York Times published an editorial entitled “His Eminence in Denial” decrying retired Cardinal Edward Egan’s revocation of his apology for the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse cover-ups. Cardinal Egan simply stated, “I should never have done that.” Juxtapose that against the Vatican’s global conference on sexual abuse held last week, and it’s clear that sexual abuse weighs heavy on the Catholic Church. Yet the Catholic Church seemed surprised when people were outraged about the Church’s furious anger about the infringement upon their religious liberty with the Obama Administration’s contraception decision.

The Catholic Church, infuriated about the contraception decision, for decades demonstrated little outrage about sexual abuse. Religious liberty, to be sure, holds center stage in the discussion of rights and liberties. Morally, sexual abuse scandals expose the larger systemic, hierarchical moral bankruptcy of the Catholic Church leadership. Individual Catholic parishioners are not to be blamed for this, but rather the cloak-and-dagger approach supported by the institutional Church for so long.

Cardinal William Levada leads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office charged with enforcing church law, which Pope Benedict XVI held before he became pope in 2005. More than 4000 cases have been reported to his office in the past decade. Cardinal Levada states that those accused of sexual abuse “are a tiny minority of an otherwise faithful, committed clergy.” He continued to say that the Church has an “obligation to cooperate with the requirements of civil law.”

The question at hand is when did it suddenly become an obligation? Why wasn’t cooperation with civil law an obligation before?

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CALIFORNIA
GMA News (Philippines)

A former Catholic priest, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for molesting a girl in California in 2003, may be deported after being freed from prison earlier this year.

According to a report of the news site SFGate, Jose Superiaso, 57, was a former priest at St. Andrew’s Church in Daly City.

Superiaso was ordained in the Philippines and went to the US in 1989 to study at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Patch

By Casey Meserve

The lawyer for a Plymouth priest placed on leave by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston pending an investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse dating to the early 1980s said his client has been wrongly accused.

William Sullivan, the lawyer who represents the Rev. James E. Braley, said the charge is “unsupported, inaccurate and untruthful.”

Sullivan said Braley, who served in Braintree at Archbishop Williams High School in the 1980s, was shocked to learn of the allegation and wants to clear his name. He said that Braley has received support from his parishioners.

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NEW JERSEY
Voice from the Desert

WHAT:
A sidewalk demonstration by victims of childhood sexual abuse with signs and photos which will: REVEAL the names of four religious order abusers who taught at a northern New Jersey high school and other schools in the NY metropolitan area; SHOW how school and religious order officials kept the information secret for years; EXPLAIN how the religious order that owns and runs the school declared bankruptcy to protect itself from embarrassment and abuse trials; SHOW how bills before the NJ/NY legislatures can expose child abusers.

WHERE:
Outside Bergen Catholic High School, 1040 Oradell Avenue, Oradell, NJ

WHEN:
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 10:30 AM

WHO:
At least three victims of child sex abuse, including a Maine man who is a victim of a Bergen Catholic High School Christian Brother. Also attending will be a former Christian Brother who was abused by Christian Brothers and who founded a non-profit charity that assists victims of child abuse, Road to Recovery, Inc.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Feb. 15, 2012
By Joan Barthel

ST. LOUIS — When Fr. Gerald Kleba volunteered to take over as pastor of St. Cronan Parish 10 years ago, he walked into a devastated parish. Its former pastor, Joe Ross, was a pedophile. Even though he had pleaded guilty to kissing a boy in confession, and had been arrested twice on other charges of sexual misconduct, the St. Louis archdiocese had shuffled him from parish to parish until he was sent to St. Cronan, where he was pastor for 11 years.

“Oh God, the anger of the people here!” Kleba recalled. “I never knew what a hornet’s nest I was getting into. People were angry at Joe Ross, angry at the archbishop for sending him here, angry at me because they couldn’t trust that the archdiocese wasn’t screwing them again.”

The people were not only angry, but resentful. They had wanted to hire a rota of priests for one year, while they collectively considered the next step.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

Leaking of documents, conspiracies, power struggles: Vatican coverage speaks only of this. And so it does not see that in the meantime other things are happening. Not bad, but good things. Precisely the ones desired by the pope

by Sandro Magister

ROME, February 16, 2012 – Tomorrow, the eve of the fourth consistory of his pontificate, Benedict XVI will gather all of the cardinals around himself for a day of “reflection and prayer” on a very lofty theme: “The proclamation of the Gospel today.”

Among the cardinals will be Darío Castrillon Hoyos and Paolo Romeo, the two cardinals who in recent days ended up at the center of a case that is anything but lofty, originating from the anonymous account of a conversation between Romeo and a few Chinese interlocutors, in which they are alleged to have gotten the sense “that an attack on the Holy Father is being planned.”

Having come into possession of this anonymous account – full of speculation about power struggles in the Vatican and the election of the future pope – at the beginning of January, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos sent it to secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone. And on February 10, the complete text appeared on the pages of “Il Fatto Quotidiano”:

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WILMINGTON (DE)
Philadelphia Inquirer

WILMINGTON – Victims of priest sex abuse called on some Catholic Church officials to resign Wednesday in light of internal records documenting how church leaders handled pedophile priests.

The records were required to be released to abuse victims as part of the Diocese of Wilmington’s bankruptcy reorganization plan.

Terence McKiernan, of the watchdog group BishopAccountability.org, said at least three high-ranking church officials responsible for the Wilmington diocese’s efforts to conceal the priest abuse scandal still work for the diocese and should resign. They are Msgr. J. Thomas Cini, vicar general for administration; Msgr. Clement Lemon, vicar for priests; and Msgr. Joseph Rebman, vicar general for pastoral services.

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WILMINGTON (DE)
Catholic Culture

February 16, 2012

Following a bankruptcy settlement that included $77 million in payments to abuse victims, personnel files of priests of the Diocese of Wilmington who committed abuse are being made public.

“The very men who engineered the cover-up of [abuse of] children, who made it a point that predators maintained their anonymity, are still in power today, still hold positions of prestige in this diocese today,” charged Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org.

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VATICAN CITY
Sinchew

by Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere

VATICAN CITY, February 16, 2012 (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday will put his stamp of authority on the institution that will elect his successor as he appoints 22 new cardinals in a tense climate in the Vatican administration.

The new “princes of the Church” will be presented with scarlet-red birettas and gold rings at a grandiose ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica that Vatican observers say could increase the chances of the next pope being Italian. …

The consistory comes after days of high-profile leaks, corruption allegations and even a discredited report on a plot to kill the pope, which have raised fears of a power struggle at the heart of the Catholic Church.

One of the reported rumours was that the pope is lining up the archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo Scola, to be his successor. Another alleged that the Vatican’s bank was failing to comply with money laundering rules.

The rumours have all been denied by Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, who this week called for “calm, cold blood and reason” and said the leaks were intended to “sow confusion” and put the Church “in a bad light.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer

The judge in the child-endangerment trial of a Philadelphia cleric Wednesday denied defense lawyers’ request that she withdraw from the case, saying they took a comment about the prevalence of child sex-abuse in the Catholic Church “completely out of context” to stir controversy.

“Other than the statement that has been distorted and taken out of context, the defense has not and cannot identify a single instance during these lengthy proceedings where I have been other than balanced, fair, and impartial,” Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said.

Sarmina’s ruling came a week after lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn asked her to recuse herself, citing a remark she made during a pretrial conference.

During that Jan. 31 courtroom session to discuss a jury questionnaire, Sarmina rejected a question proposed by Lynn’s lawyers that would have asked prospective jurors if they believed child-sex abuse was a “widespread” problem in the church.

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WILMINGTON (DE)
Reuters

By Dave Warner

WILMINGTON, Delaware | Wed Feb 15, 2012

(Reuters) – A national watchdog group Wednesday began posting on line an estimated 30,000 pages of formerly undisclosed files from the Catholic Diocese here, which went bankrupt to pay damages to victims of sexual abuse.

The Wilmington Diocese paid out $77 million to 146 victims of sex abuse by priests and other clergy last year, forcing it to declare bankruptcy. The documents are being released as part of an agreement with abuse victims to conclude that process, church lawyer Anthony Flynn said.

“It is the largest single release of documents, by far,” in the nation, said Terry McKiernan, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, who explained that more documents were at one time filed in the Boston Archdiocese scandal, but over a longer period.

“The church itself calls them ‘secret archives,'” he said of the trove of papers, which detail internal Church correspondence over the abuse allegations.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By TONY RIZZO
The Kansas City Star

Attorneys representing Bishop Robert Finn filed motions Wednesday seeking dismissal of the criminal charge filed against him in October.

The misdemeanor charge alleges that Finn failed to report suspected child abuse related to a priest accused of child pornography charges.

In addition to charging Finn individually, Jackson County prosecutors filed a criminal charge against the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, which he heads.

Finn is the highest-ranking Catholic official in the United States to face criminal prosecution related to the church’s child sexual abuse scandal.

On Wednesday, Finn’s attorneys filed four motions related to dismissing the criminal charge, each based on different grounds, and another motion seeking to have the bishop tried separately from the diocese if the case proceeds to trial.

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COLOMBIA
Catholic News Agency

Bogotá, Colombia, Feb 15, 2012 / 04:06 pm (CNA).- The bishops of Colombia said that the Church will prevent and confront sexual abuse through the formation of seminarians and by encouraging parents of victims to report their cases to civil authorities.

“The Church is aware that she must be in permanent process of renewal that includes purification and analysis what is going wrong in order to rectify it,” Archbishop Ruben Salazar, head of the Colombian bishops’ conference, told newspaper El Tiempo on Feb. 11.

He said the victims of abuse should not only notify Church officials but also civil authorities, since civil and ecclesial trials are separate from each other.

“Our duty is to raise awareness about denouncing these abuses,” he said.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: February 15, 2012

CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati-based Roman Catholic order says it has launched an investigation into sexual misconduct alleged against one of its priests.

Glenmary Home Missioners says it relieved the Rev. Bob Poandl (poh-AHN’-duhl) of ministerial duties in three Georgia communities and asked him to return to the Glenmary residence in Cincinnati.

Glenmary says the 70-year-old Poandl denies the allegation, which was made anonymously about an event alleged to have happened nearly 30 years ago.

Glenmary said Wednesday it has notified authorities in Georgia and bishops in dioceses involved in the investigation, including the Diocese of Savannah.

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CALIFORNIA
The Record

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer

February 16, 2012

STOCKTON – A civil trial involving a popular Lockeford priest accused of molesting an altar boy three decades ago started this week, and a judge has ruled that the Catholic Church’s handling of past molestation cases may be admissible as evidence.

The alleged victim, now 37 years old, said the Rev. Michael Kelly sexually assaulted him during the 1980s when the priest was at Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton.

Identified in court papers only as John TZ Doe, the plaintiff is suing the Diocese of Stockton and Kelly, 62, currently pastor at St. Joachim Catholic Church in Lockeford.

Court papers say the plaintiff came into contact with Kelly when he was an altar boy and a student at Annunciation School during the 1980s.

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WILMINGTON (DE)
The News Journal

[with video]

Written by
BETH MILLER and SEAN O’SULLIVAN
The News Journal

Thousands of documents from the secret files of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington were made public Wednesday, offering an unprecedented account of decades of child sexual abuse by 21 priests who ministered throughout the Delmarva Peninsula. Now several groups are asking for the resignations of three top diocesan officials.

The files, released by the diocese as part of its settlement with almost 150 abuse victims, reveal how church officials strategized as allegations were raised and the changing tone of their responses as survivors circumvented church authorities to make their allegations public.

The records include references to victims who committed suicide, others who worried about contracting AIDS after being assaulted by priests and many who were astonished to learn that their abusers had been moved to other parishes, where other children were at risk.

The documents were made public Wednesday by Delaware-based Child Victim’s Voice, founded by abuse survivor Matthias Conaty of Wilmington, and the Boston-based website BishopAccountability.org that has posted thousands of similar documents from other dioceses since 2003 and is posting the Wilmington files.

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WILMINGTON (DE)
Newsworks

[with audio]

The victims advocate group BishopAccountability.org is posting thousands of documents, hand-written notes and other evidence of abuse by priests within the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington.

The release of documents is part of the non-monetary terms of the church’s settlement agreement with victims of abuse. The papers detail the effort to keep the pattern of abuse by numerous priests under wraps.

“This is a sad day for me,” says Matthias Conaty, who was a victim of priest abuse. “It’s sad because men who were supposed to be trusted abused children, and equally awful is the fact that men who were supervising those men found it more important to protect what they saw as the interest of the church and containment of scandal.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Reuters

By Dave Warner

PHILADELPHIA | Wed Feb 15, 2012

(Reuters) – A judge presiding over a Catholic church sex abuse trial refused on Wednesday to step down from the case following complaints from defense lawyers that she was biased against a Monsignor accused of aiding abusers.

Calling herself fair and impartial, Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina denied the request by defense lawyers for Monsignor William Lynn that she relinquish her position.

The lawyers, in a petition filed last week, quoted Sarmina had said in an earlier hearing that “anybody that doesn’t think there is widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is living on another planet” and the statement showed a bias against their client.

Sarmina briskly read her decision from the bench on Wednesday, saying she would stay put and oversee the child endangerment trial of Lynn, 61, the former secretary of the clergy for the Philadelphia Catholic archdiocese and the highest ranking cleric charged in the case. Jury selection is scheduled to begin February 21.

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UNITED STATES
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

BY JOEL CONNELLY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Published 10:17 a.m., Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Catholic prelates around the country have mounted the bully pulpit against what local Catholic Archbishop J. Peter Sartain calls “threats to religious freedom in this country” and religion “being pushed out of discussion in the public square.”

The bishops’ crosier rattling may turn into the latest case of clerical error.

As its pundits railed at the Obama administration last week, Fox News released an eye-opening poll: By a 61-34 percent margin, Americans approved of the administration’s requiring all employee health plans to provide birth control coverage as part of health care for women. …

A full decade has passed since the Boston Globe first exposed priest pedophilia in the Archdiocese of Boston and the practice of shipping “problem” priests from parish to parish without advance warning.

Initially, the church hierarchy blamed the media, and the moral climate in America, even growing acceptance of homosexuality. Cardinal Law resigned, but was given a plush sinecure in Rome.

Last week, 10 years later, victims of clerical sexual abuse are finally speaking out at a conference in Rome. Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, talks about prelates “learning more” about the problem.

At the same time, retired New York Cardinal Edward Egan gave a newspaper interview in which he retracted his 2002 apology over how the church handled sex abuse. He now says the diocese was “incredibly good” at dealing with the problem. “I don’t think we did anything wrong.”

Huh? Slow, self-protective response has robbed the church hierarchy of much moral authority.

“The sad truth is, if the number of Catholics leaving the church are any indication, most Catholics in the United States see the hierarchy more as victimizers than victims,” National Catholic Reporter columnist Jamie Manson wrote this week.

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UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic

By Father Paul Smyth, CMF

The Symposium, Towards Healing and Renewal from 6th – 9th February 2012 at the Gregorian University in Rome was attended by approximately 220 people; 91 bishops: 80 priests; 15 female religious, the rest being lay men and women with related experience, (victims, psychotherapists, lawyers etc.). During the mornings there were presentations focusing on different dimensions of the abuse of minors by clergy, with presenters coming from Ireland, UK, Malta, South Africa, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Philippines and Italy. With representatives from every continent it was the first time that the issue of child abuse by clergy had been explored from an international perspective rather than as a reaction to the crisis as it emerged in particular situations.

As one would expect given recent history, points highlighted in the presentations included:
The primacy of the protection of Children.
The need for complete openness and transparency on the part of the church
The responsibility of the church to protect all of its members (accusers and accused)

While the sexual abuse of children by clergy has had horrific consequences for those who have been abused, their families and the Church; it is also clear that the way victims have been treated by bishops and clergy when they have tried to report abuse has often exacerbated feelings of betrayal and abuse. It was made clear that this is not acceptable and only serves to further damage the church. Compliance with the civil authorities should also be open and transparent with the intention being the protection of the truth and not the protection of an individual’s reputation.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
WLWT

CINCINNATI — A priest who has been accused of sexual abuse has been relieved of his ministry assignment and brought to Cincinnati.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati said that it received an anonymous allegation against Glenmary Father Robert Poandl. The abuse is alleged to have happened 30 years ago. Poandl denies the allegation, archdiocese spokesman Dan Andriacco said.

Poandl was relieved of his assignment in Georgia and returned to the Glenmary Residence in Cincinnati on Monday. He is not allowed to publicly function as a Catholic priest while the allegations against him are being investigated.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
ABC 27

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Jurors picked to hear a landmark priest sex-abuse case in Philadelphia will pore over two boxes of complaint files long buried in the Catholic church’s “secret archives.”

The secret files from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia have been marked “Exhibit One” after Wednesday’s pretrial hearing.

Monsignor William Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged for his oversight of accused priests. He is charged with conspiracy and child-endangerment, and has pleaded not guilty.

Jury selection starts Tuesday. The process could take weeks, given the church’s huge presence in Philadelphia and the trial’s expected four-month duration.

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WILMINGTON (DE)
WDEL

[with audio]

Shocking documents revealing decades of abuse covered up by the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington are now a part of the public record, as required by a recent settlement with survivors.

The accounts are heart-breaking.

“Victims who have killed themselves; boys who were taken to sex orgies and given drugs, who fear that they have AIDS,” says Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org who’s asking Catholics and everyone to read them online.

The archive holds at least 30-thousand pages, and Doyle says many are missing. She says it’s one of the only collections revealing that the men who masterminded the cover-up are still in power at the Catholic Dicoese of Wilmington.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Il Fatto Quotidiano

[documento]

di Marco Lillo | 15 febbraio 2012

In una lettera il cardinale Nicora, capo dell’Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria della Santa Sede, lancia l’allarme: “Con la nostra ultima legge facciamo un passo indietro e resteremo un paradiso fiscale”. Il documento inviato a Gotti Tedeschi e alla Segreteria di Stato

Altro che trasparenza, altro che collaborazione, altro che volontà di fornire tutte le informzioni a chi indaga. Il Vaticano non ha alcuna intenzione di attuare gli impegni assunti in sede europea per aderire agli standard del Comitato per la valutazione di misure contro il riciclaggio di capitali (MONEYVAL) e non ha alcuna intenzione di permettere alle autorità antiriciclaggio vaticane e italiane di guardare cosa è accaduto nei conti dello IOR prima dell’aprile 2011. A scriverlo nero su bianco sono le due massime autorità in materia dentro le mura leonine: il cardinale Attilio Nicora (ex presidente dell’Apsa, l’Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica e ora presidente dell’Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria del Vaticano, l’AIF) e il professor Giuseppe Dalla Torre, presidente del Tribunale della Città del Vaticano.

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WILMINGTON (DE)
The News Journal

Written by
BETH MILLER and SEAN O’SULLIVAN
The News Journal

WILMINGTON — The personnel records of more than a dozen priests and thousands of pages of court documents from sexual abuse lawsuits filed against the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington were released today by a Delaware-based advocacy group and a Boston-based watchdog group, and members of those groups now are calling for the resignations of three top diocesan officials.

The files emerge from agreements reached last year to settle the diocese’s bankruptcy case, which included more than $77 million in payment to abuse survivors and their attorneys. The non-monetary terms of that settlement included release of these records, many of which will be published today on the website of the nonprofit BishopAccountability.org.

Matthias Conaty, founder of Child Victims Voice, an advocacy group that fought for the 2007 Delaware law that made it possible for survivors to file the lawsuits, said the files provide clear evidence that church officials knew about abuser priests and “callously” did nothing to protect the children in their parishes.

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CALIFORNIA
Leagle

CAROL ANN CARLSON, Plaintiff and Appellant,
v.
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF THE MASTER et al., Defendants and Respondents.
No. G043987, Consol. with G044298.
Court of Appeals of California, Fourth District, Division Three.
Filed February 14, 2012.

The Arkin Law Firm and Sharon J. Arkin for Plaintiff and Appellant.
Greene, Fidler, Chaplan & Hicks, Greene, Fidler & Chaplan and Richard J. Greene for Defendant and Respondent The Presbyterian Church of the Master.

Bonne, Bridges, Mueller, O’Keefe & Nichols, David J. O’Keefe, William R. Johnson and Vangi M. Johnson for Defendant and Respondent Presbytery of Los Ranchos.

OPINION

FYBEL, J.

INTRODUCTION

Pastor Jack Loo, an employee of The Presbyterian Church of the Master (Church of the Master) provided counseling services to Carol Ann Carlson. After eight years of counseling, Loo and Carlson’s relationship became sexual, and continued as such for 11 more years. Carlson was 35 to 46 years old during this time period. Carlson contends she was the victim of sexual abuse. She sued Church of the Master and The Presbytery of Los Ranchos (Presbytery), among others, for breach of a confidential relationship and for the negligent supervision, retention, and hiring of Loo. Church of the Master and Presbytery filed separate motions for summary judgment, contending the statute of limitations on Carlson’s claims ran before she filed her lawsuit. The trial court granted the motions; Carlson appeals.

We conclude the trial court properly granted the motions. Church of the Master and Presbytery offered Carlson’s deposition testimony that between 1995 and 1999, she was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), caused by the sexual relationship with Loo. Carlson did not file her complaint until 2008. Thus, Carlson was aware of her injury and its cause at least nine, and as many as 13, years before filing her complaint. By statute, she was entitled to and did make substantive changes to her deposition testimony. Nevertheless, evidence before the trial court, in the form of Carlson’s deposition testimony that she did not change, established the statute of limitations began to run much more than two years before Carlson filed her complaint. We therefore affirm the judgments.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By R. Scott Moxley
Wed., Feb. 15 2012

​A woman who may have developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after she was sexually abused for more than a decade by an Orange County pastor is barred from winning her lawsuit because she waited too long to file the case.

According to a ruling this week by a three-justice panel at a California Court of Appeal based in Santa Ana, Superior Court Judge James Di Cesare correctly ended Carol Ann Carlson’s case for statute of limitation reasons after she waited at least nine years to make her claims.

The 52-year-old Carlson, who is named in the court documents because she was in her 30s and 40s when the sexual abuse occurred and publicly identified herself a victim, contended that Pastor Jack Loo and The Presbyterian Church of the Master in Mission Viejo traumatically abused her for 11 years while she sought religious counseling.

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TEANECK (NJ)
Teanuck Suburbanite

BY HOWARD PROSNITZ
STAFF WRITER
Teaneck Suburbanite

TEANECK – A Teaneck rabbi has been indicted on charges that he molested two 13-year-old Israeli boys in his Lindbergh Boulevard home.

Rabbi Uzi Rivlin, 63, allegedly molested the boys in 2009 and 2010 when they were visiting the United States as participants in a scholarship program that Rivlin found. The program brings orphans and other disadvantaged Israeli boys to the United States.

After the two boys returned to Israel, they separately informed authorities that Rivlin had sexually abused them. Israeli authorizes then notified the FBI, which contacted Teaneck Police and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, according to a press release from the prosecutor.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

JOANNE MCCARTHY

16 Feb, 2012

A CATHOLIC priest who was critical of the church’s handling of the sale of its aged-care homes says he has been sacked and told to leave his Muswellbrook parish.

Father James Lunn, a former financial analyst, was stood down from his position as parish priest on Friday after posting documents on the parish website detailing his clash with the Maitland-Newcastle diocese over the proposed sale of the $4.2million Mount Providence home.

The documents proved that the diocese did not own the property but that it was owned by the parish.

The Vatican became involved after documents sent to Rome to confirm the sale of the diocese’s aged-care homes to the Little Company of Mary had to be altered to remove Mount Providence.

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UNITED STATES
Catholics4Change

I have felt compelled to write to you as a survivor myself. I have been feeling a great deal of sorrow. I have a guttural cry inside of me for all survivors at this very difficult time. My heart is hurting for all of you, myself included. Sometimes I just want to get on the floor and with my fists bang and bang crying out from the depths of my soul. The pain is so intense as is the sorrow, its as though my skin is being ripped from my bones.

Every survivor out there knows exactly what I am saying. I have had 21 years of very good therapy. Intense, yes, but I did the work and have come a long way. When I think of the hundreds of victims and what they must be feeling because of the last several months of news, my soul, aches. I know about loneliness, the terror, the helplessness and most of all, the BETRAYAL. Not many survivors have had the years of therapy I have had, I reach out to each one of you who is suffering right now. DON’T LOSE HOPE. Our time for justice is approaching.

I have a few suggestions that might help. Find a safe person who is not afraid of your rage and anger. We deserve our rage but we cannot allow it to consume us. Bang on that pillow, let your soul cry, scream anything you need to say into your pillow. Some of these suggestions are safe ways to “let go.” Write, journal or say it out loud.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Philadelphia judge today rejected a defense motion that she remove herself from the pending clergy abuse case (see related story) because of bias.

And there were some sharp exchanges in the courtroom as the defense suggested continuing bias by the judge.

The defense cited a statement by Judge Teresa Sarmina during a hearing on proposed questions for prospective jurors. The judge had said, “Anyone doesn’t think there was widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is living on another planet.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Boston Globe

PHILADELPHIA—The judge overseeing a landmark priest-abuse case is refusing to step down. She says her comments about child-sex abuse being “widespread” in the Roman Catholic church were taken out of context.

Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Teresa Sarmina also declined Wednesday to sever Monsignor William Lynn’s case from those of two priests charged with rape.

Lynn served as secretary for clergy in Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004. He’s the first U.S. church official charged with child endangerment and conspiracy for allegedly transferring problem priests to unsuspecting parishes.

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UNITED STATES
The New Civil Rights Movement

by David Badash on February 15, 2012

“I’m sorry but I find the protectors of child rapists preaching to women about contraception to be a moral obscenity. When all the implicated bishops and the Pope resign, ther replacements will have standing to preach.”

So said Andrew Sullivan today, discussing the Church’s opposition to the Obama administration’s requirement that all employers — even, yes, religious ones — offer free contraception services to their employees. The updated compromise makes Obama look like the only adult in the room.

Here’s the full quote:

I think the revised compromise will help him even more – and the Bishops’ refusal to accept it will hurt them even more. And I think this will be particularly true among Catholics who, like me, regard abortion as far more morally troubling than contraception. Because many of us support contraception not just because we don’t think non-procreative sex is a sin, but because, for fertile heterosexuals, we think it lowers the rate and risk of abortion.

If you really oppose abortion, you should back contraception, especially for those women least likely to afford it outside health insurance plans. But the new rigid fundamentalism of the John Paul II and Benedict XVI hierarchy cannot allow such moral trade-offs. But trading off the rape of children for the reputation of the church? Suddenly they get pragmatic.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

Philip Pullella
Reuters

8:31 a.m. CST, February 15, 2012

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican newspaper on Wednesday suggested those responsible for revealing sensitive internal documents alleging corruption and a cover-up were irresponsible, undignified “wolves,” the latest twist in what has become known as “Vatileaks.”

But an editorial in the Osservatore Romano, while renewing criticism of some media handling of the scandal, also said that the Catholic Church should see the current image crisis as a chance to purify itself.

It was the latest chapter in a saga in which the Vatican has had to scramble to deal with what one spokesman called its own version of “Wikileaks” and what the Italian media have dubbed “Vatileaks.” It also coincided with the publication of new leaks about the Vatican bank.

The editorial was ostensibly to mark the 30th anniversary of the arrival in Rome from Germany of then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected pope in 2005, to take up the powerful post as head of the Vatican’s doctrinal enforcer.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 15, 2012

■Court sets deadline for child sex victims
■Large religious order declared bankruptcy
■Catholic Brothers run schools in at least 14 states
■They want to “keep awful secrets secret,” group says
■SNAP begs all victims to come forward, report crimes
■ And victims blast church officials for “exploiting technicalities”

Anyone who was sexually abused by members and employees of a large international Catholic religious order has until August to come forward and seek justice, according to a decision handed down by a New York federal bankruptcy judge.

Late last week, Judge Robert D. Drain of White Plains, NY gave victims of child sexual abuse five months to speak up in a wide-ranging case involving the Congregation of Irish Christian Brothers, a New York-based Catholic order that runs at least one college and more than two dozen secondary schools nationwide. BishopAcccountabilty.org.

The Christian Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection in the wake of child sex abuse lawsuits at its schools in the Pacific Northwest. BishopAccountability.org.

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DELAWARE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 15, 2012 ·

In almost any diocese in the US, we believe, documents show the same disturbing pattern – the men who have ignored and hidden horrific child sex crimes are still in positions of power.

Just last week, top Catholic officials met in Rome and once again – as they have for years – pledged reform. Yet today, we’re reminded of a sad, simple and enduring fact – almost all of what we learn about this on-going crisis we learn despite, not because of, the church hierarchy. Secrecy surrounding child sex crimes continues to this day in this institution.

In almost every instance, Catholic officials continue doing little or nothing to reveal the truth, and victims, witnesses, whistleblowers, police, prosecutors and advocates continue to do the hard work of exposing child molesting clerics and their corrupt church supervisors.

We applaud the brave and persistent Delaware victims who fought to get access to these records and are now sharing them with parishioners and the public. We beg Delaware Catholics and citizens to read them and learn about the powerful, secretive men who are still protecting their colleagues over our children.

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WISCONSIN
WBEZ

Chip Mitchell | Feb. 15, 2012

A court-approved agreement that classifies a defiant former Chicago priest as “sexually violent” could lead to his release from a Wisconsin treatment facility as early as November.

Norbert Maday, convicted in 1994 of sexually assaulting Chicago-area children, avoided a Wisconsin jury trial that would have begun Tuesday. Under the deal, prosecutors in Winnebago County won’t contest a supervised release of Maday, 73, if a state evaluation determines the defrocked priest is ready for that freedom. The agreement, approved by Circuit Court Judge Daniel J. Bissett, requires the evaluation to take place in nine months. If Maday remains in custody from there, re-evaluations will occur annually.

Kevin Greene, the case’s special prosecutor, said his team also wanted to avoid a jury trial.

“If you lose, he walks away with less supervision,” said Greene, an assistant district attorney in Brown County. The agreement “allows the closest supervision in the community that we can get” if the evaluation backs Maday’s release, he said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The judge presiding over the child-endangerment trial of a former high-ranking monsignor in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said today she would not step down from the case, rejecting defense attorneys’ claims her public comments suggested she was biased against the church.

The defense “took the court’s statement completely out of context,” Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said at a pretrial hearing.

The attorneys for Msgr. William J. Lynn had asked the judge last week to recuse herself, citing a remark she made during a pretrial conference last month.

During courtroom conversations over a proposed jury questionnaire, Sarmina rejected a question from defense lawyers that would have asked prospective jurors if they believed child-sex abuse was a wide problem in the church, adding, “Anyone that doesn’t think there was widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is living on another planet.”

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NEW YORK
Voice from the Desert

An Invitation to meet Rev. Kevin Annett, “Genocide Whistleblower” of Canada’s and America’s Genocide of Native People and Children

Good People,
You are Invited to join us for a “Special Evening” with Rev. Kevin Annett.

Rev. Kevin Annett will be speaking at our N.Y. Survivors’ meeting.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 7pm – 9pm.
At “The Realization Center”
25 East 15th St. N.Y.C., 7th fl.
entrance is located between 5th Ave. and Broadway (Union Square Park)
Please see Receptionist on 7th fl. and ask for “N.Y. Survivors” Meeting Room

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DETROIT (MI)
News-Observer

By PATRICIA MONTEMURRI – Detroit Free Press

DETROIT — On the east side of Detroit, the Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church is the anchor of a neighborhood that has seen the addition of 14 new homes and a 62-unit senior center.

Joyce Anderson, an administrative assistant for the Wayne County, Mic., Prosecutor’s Office, moved into a new house two years ago, in part, because of Nativity’s outreach in the neighborhood.

Now Nativity is fighting a recommendation that calls for the parish, and three others on the east side, to close.

“The church is really the reason I’m here. They were building up the community,” said Anderson, 56, who is not Catholic. “If they closed, all the positive energy would go with them.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
PR-Inside

Deutsche Kinderhilfe fordert Gesetz gegen Missbrauch von behinderten Jugendlichen

(PR-inside.com 14.02.2012 16:14:12) – Das TV-Magazin “Report Mainz” hat eine Lücke im Bundeskinderschutzgesetz aufgedeckt. Daraufhin fordert die Deutsche Kinderhilfe gesetzliche Standards gegen den täglichen Missbrauch von Jungen und Mädchen mit Behinderung.

Berlin, 14. Februar 2012. Das politische Magazin “Report Mainz” berichtet in seiner heutigen Sendung um 21.45 Uhr in der ARD über das letzte große Tabuthema der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe: Der sexuelle Missbrauch von Jungen und Mädchen in Behinderteneinrichtungen und deren unzureichender Schutz durch die derzeitige Gesetzeslage. Während es für allgemeine Jugendhilfeeinrichtungen klare gesetzliche Vorgaben zum Schutz vor Missbrauch, wie beispielsweise eine Meldepflicht von Verdachtsfällen an das Jugendamt, die Ausbildung von speziell geschultem Personal oder die Einholung von erweiterten Führungszeugnissen gibt, sind Behinderteneinrichtungen dazu nicht verpflichtet.

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MARYLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 15, 2012

We are grateful to this brave victim, her mother, and law enforcement for pursuing this predator. Kids are safer now that he’ll be locked up.

This painful story is a reminder of why it’s crucial that victims speak up promptly, that adults believe them, and that police are quickly called. Secular authorities, not church officials, should deal with child sex crimes and cover ups.

Let’s hope that Southern Baptist officials – in Maryland and at this church – aggressively seek out and offer help to others who saw, suspected or suffered Pastor Joe’s crimes. It’s irresponsible for church staff and members to do little or nothing to reach out to others who may be suffering in shame, silence and self blame.

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.

WILMINGTON (DE)
The News Journal

Written by
BETH MILLER
The News Journal

The personnel records or more than a dozen priests and thousands of pages of court files from sexual abuse lawsuits filed against the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington will be released later today by a Delaware-based advocacy group and a Boston-based watchdog group, and members of those groups now are calling for the resignations of three top diocesan officials.

The files emerge from agreements reached last year to settle the diocese’s bankruptcy case, which included more than $77 million in payment to abuse survivors and their attorneys. The non-monetary terms of that settlement included release of these records.

Matthias Conaty, founder of Child Victims Voice, an advocacy group that fought for the 2007 Delaware law that made it possible for survivors to file the lawsuits, said he and others will speak at a 1 p.m. press conference outside the diocese offices in Wilmington. Conaty said the Boston-based nonprofit BishopAccountability.org will post a selection of the 30,000 documents released to the survivors. …

“It’s alarming and unacceptable that several of the architects of the diocese’s concealment strategies – J. Thomas Cini, Joseph Rebman, and Clement Lemon – still occupy powerful positions in this diocese,” said Terence McKiernan, founder and president of BishopAccountability.org. “If Bishop Malooly truly intends to help survivors heal and keep children safe, he must immediately accept the resignations of these men from their posts and from active ministry.”

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.

WILMINGTON (DE)
The Republic

RANDALL CHASE Associated Press
First Posted: February 15, 2012

WILMINGTON, Del. — Victims of priest sex abuse are calling on Catholic church leaders in Wilmington to resign in light of church records documenting how the Wilmington diocese handled pedophile priests.

Abuse victims obtained the church records as part of a settlement in the diocese’s bankruptcy case.

Abuse victims scheduled a news conference Wednesday afternoon in Wilmington to announce that the documents will be posted online by the watchdog group BishopAccountability.org.

Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org said several high-ranking church officials responsible for the Wilmington diocese’s efforts to conceal the priest abuse scandal still work for the diocese and should resign. They include vicar general J. Thomas Cini.

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.

CITTA DEL VATICANO
Il Mattino

di Franca Giansoldati

CITTA’ DEL VATICANO – La pubblicazione di due nuovi documenti riservati, datati gennaio 2012, riguardanti lo Ior, stamattina hanno messo di nuovo in subbuglio i piani alti del Vaticano. Si tratta di appunti top secret che mostrano quanto siano forti le resistenze a consentire alle autorità antiriciclaggio italiane e vaticane di indagare nei conti cifrati e nei movimenti bancari per il periodo anteriore all’aprile 2011. Forse aveva ragione padre Federico Lombardi, il portavoce della Sala Stampa della Santa Sede, quando l’altro giorno – parlando delle fughe di carte riservate – paragonava questi episodi a Wikileaks. Uno stillicidio. «Anche il Vaticano ha il suo Wikileaks».

Solo che in questo caso non c’è nessun Assange, né un obiettivo manifesto dietro questi episodi, se non l’ipotesi di indebolire sempre di più il cardinale Tarcisio Bertone, segretario di Stato vaticano. Chi è il vero obiettivo? Tuttavia il più stretto collaboratore di Benedetto XVI gode della totale fiducia del pontefice che non sembra affatto avere nessuna intenzione di sostituirlo. Anzi, la bufera che si è scatenata con la fuoriuscita di questi documenti ha avuto come effetto immediato quello di rafforzare ulteriormente il suo più stretto collaboratore e di metterlo a riparo da qualsiasi dubbio.

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.

CITTA DEL VATICAN
La Repubblica

CITTÀ DEL VATICANO – La prima lettera, quella in cui monsignor Viganò chiedeva di restare al suo posto per combattere “corruzione e prevaricazione”, risulta uscita dalla II sezione della Segreteria di Stato vaticana. Ufficio addetto ai Rapporti con gli Stati esteri.

La seconda invece, il memo “riservatissimo” sullo Ior, in realtà un appunto di discussione sulle richieste provenienti dalla magistratura italiana, è stata estratta dagli archivi della I sezione. Ufficio per gli Affari generali interni.

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.

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Catholic Insider

We move back to the topic of finances in the Boston Archdiocese today and for the next few posts. You will see today how administrative expenses have grown as a percent of the total budget over the last 6 years.

Last week, in “Balanced Budget” or Unbalanced Budget?, we raised the question of how the archdiocese managed to publicly claim that the 2011 budget was “balanced” when the financial statements actually show a $4.2M loss. BCI emailed Jack McCarthy (Finance Council Co-chair), outgoing Chancellor Jim McDonough, and Interim Chancellor John Straub to ask them about this, and while we wait for their response, we thought we would show you how your money is expected to be spent in the 2012 fiscal year currently in process.

To the credit of the archdiocese, the 2012 budget document is quite comprehensive–probably moreso in a published form than any other diocese issues. You can find it here.

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
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

In what has become a near-daily occurrence, more confidential Vatican documents were leaked today, including a memo from the cardinal in charge of financial oversight warning that a new law against money-laundering could be seen as a “step back” from reform, potentially creating “alarm” in the international community and among regulatory agencies.

The memo was addressed to the President of the Institute for the Works of Religion, the so-called “Vatican Bank,” and to the Secretary of State, Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. It was published along with another memo along the same lines, this one written by the president of a Vatican court.

In the inimitable style of the Italian press, the documents appeared under the headline, “The Papers that Nail the Vatican.”

Speaking on background, Vatican officials today played down the significance of the documents, suggesting they amount to a snapshot of an internal debate that has already been resolved in favor of greater transparency and collaboration with external regulatory bodies.

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.

WISCONSIN
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: February 15, 2012

OSHKOSH, Wis. — A former Catholic priest convicted of sexually assaulting boys in Winnebago County has been committed as a sexual predator.

Prosecutors announced a plea deal Tuesday that commits Norbert Maday as a sexually violent person and sends him to a secure treatment facility for at least nine months.

WLUK-TV reports special prosecutor Kevin Greene says Maday needs more treatment because he won’t fully admit he did anything wrong.

The former priest was convicted in 1994 of sexually assaulting two boys during a visit to Oshkosh. Maday completed his criminal sentence, but remained in custody because the state wanted him committed as a sexual predator.

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.

IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

[Official report on Ireland’s national police service via BishopAccountability.org]

David Quinn’s blog

A new report from the Garda Inspectorate on how well or how badly the Gardai are investigating child abuse allegations describes what amounts to a turf war between the HSE and the Gardai over who is responsible for what in terms of child protection.

The report says this turf war is compromising child safety.

In addition, The Irish Times reports that the Garda Inspectorate believes that Gardai are still too deferential towards the Church when investigating abuse allegations.

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

ROME
The Irish Catholic

Michael Kelly

A senior Vatican official has warned Church leaders that they must be proactive in addressing allegations of abuse rather than waiting on the media to expose such crimes.

Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told delegates at a Vatican-sponsored conference on abuse that it had to be acknowledged that Church leaders in various parts of the world often only adopted tough policies after serious mishandling of abuse was exposed by the media. He also warned that the Church had to make the victims of abuse the first consideration in all circumstances.

‘Towards Healing and Renewal’ is being attended by Church leaders from over 100 countries including Cardinal Seán Brady and Bishop Eamonn Walsh representing Ireland.

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

ROME
The Irish Catholic

Michael Kelly

Prominent abuse campaigner Marie Collins has insisted that victims of abuse can only begin to find healing when there is a full acknowledgement of the hierarchy’s failure to tackle abuse and not just an apology for the abuse itself.

Mrs Collins, who was abused as a child by Fr Paul McGennis, said her experience of not being listened to by the Church when she came forward to report her abuse created a loss of faith, not in God, but in the leadership of the Church.

She told hundreds of bishops and religious superiors from all over the world that “the final death of any respect that might have survived in me towards my religious leaders came after my abuser’s conviction,” she said.

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.