ABUSE TRACKER

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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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ROME
The Irish Catholic

Michael Kelly

If bishops around the world courageously embrace robust child safeguarding policies the Church can lead the way the Rome conference on abuse has been told.

While the Church has failed dramatically to respond properly to abuse by priests and religious “there are clear signs of progress and hope” according to US-based Msgr Stephen Rossetti who has spent many years treating abusers and working to ensure that policies for dealing with abuse are robust. He told the conference that “an increasing number of bishops from several countries have intervened decisively and effectively when allegations of child sexual abuse have surfaced.”

He said the Church now stands at a crossroads where countries that have experienced the abuse crisis can help other countries ensure that children are protected. “Does each country around the world have to go through this same agonising process?,” he asked.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Confidential documents of the Secretariat of State have been leaked to the press with the objective of damaging Cardinal Bertone, but they ended up having the opposite effect

Guido Horst
Vatican City

It was a particularly peaceful Sunday in the Apostolic Palace. Swiss Guards in civilian clothes escorted the guests with their usual tranquillity, in glaring contrast to the nervous anxiety with which the mass media have been following step by step the indiscretions that have leaked from the Vatican. The recent publications of confidential Vatican documents appear to be aimed at giving the impression that there is a conspiracy against a severely ill Pope, but how much awareness or lack of it there is within the papal household in relation to these rumours?

Firstly it must be mentioned that Cardinal Paolo Romeo’s trip from Palermo to Beijing last November was common knowledge. He had been invited by Chinese economists and entrepreneurs and the journey had been arranged with the help of the Vatican Secretariat of State. Upon his return, Romeo had punctually sent to the Vatican a detailed report of the meetings he had attended.

The Pope’s entourage on the other hand does not know who the author of the ‘note’, written in German and published last Friday by daily newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, was. It was probably someone from Germany or Austria.

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NEW MEXICO
The New Mexican

Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican
Posted: Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A former New Mexico priest could be deported to his native Philippines after being released from prison on charges of child molestation.

José Superiaso, 57, was ordained in the Archdiocese of Manila and immigrated to the United States in 1989 or 1990 to attend the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif.

He served as a priest in the San Francisco Archdiocese, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Taos and St. Anne Parish in Santa Fe until 2000, when he became associate rector of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.

A noted preacher who was articulate and charismatic, he rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, often traveled to Taos and Tesuque pueblos for services and championed sainthood for Kateri Tekakwitha, an Algonquin and Iroquois religious lay member in the 1600s.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

February 15, 2012
By Associated Press

Monsignor William Lynn is set for his final pretrial hearing today before jury selection start in his landmark priest-abuse case.

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

He will be tried along with Fr. James Brennand and ex-priest Edward Avery, both charged with rape.

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CHILE
ACI

SANTIAGO, 14 Feb. 12 / 06:44 pm (ACI/EWTN Noticias).- Con el fin de despejar las dudas de la opinión pública, el Arzobispado de Santiago (Chile), presentó una lista de las acciones realizadas por Mons. Ricardo Ezzati para enfrentar el caso del P. Fernando Karadima, separado del ministerio sacerdotal por cometer abusos sexuales.

“Algunos se han preguntado: ¿Qué ha hecho o qué iniciativa ha impulsado el Arzobispo de Santiago, en su primer año de gobierno pastoral, de cara a los desconcertantes delitos del Rev. Karadima? Y ¿qué ha hecho con los Miembros de la Unión Sacerdotal?”, indica la nota del 10 de febrero.

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CAYMAN
Cayman 27

By Kevin Watler , CITN
Tuesday, 14 February 2012

Cayman doesn’t seem to be able to escape becoming a major talking point on the United States presidential campaign trail.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is once again forced to defend his investments here. This is at a recent town hall meeting. He stresses he does not make investments personally, but through a trust manager. Mr. Romney says his Cayman investments are taxable and that he’s not saved a dollar by investing outside of the United States, whether in Cayman or elsewhere.

In a separate development, there’s concern in Vatican City about financial dealings in Cayman. This relates to the Vatican Bank’s offshore Cayman Islands banking division.

The development comes as headquarters of the Catholic church is hit by a series of leaks of previously confidential information. Reports are that the bank’s clients include German arms dealers and criminal elements.

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ROME
Zenit

By Ann Schneible

ROME, FEB. 14, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Though the Church still faces a long road to recovery in the clergy sex abuse scandal, one expert says there is reason for hope, because there is clearly a “movement forward,” and the Church will be, “even more so in the future, a powerful voice for victims.”

Last week’s conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Toward Healing and Renewal, confronted the crisis of clerical pedophilia with the objective of finding solutions whereby future child sex abuse would be prevented.

Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, associate dean for seminary and ministerial studies and a licensed psychologist, spoke with ZENIT last week during the conference about the concrete steps being taken to address the crisis, and offered some insights into the psychology of pedophilia.

Part 1 of this interview, on the effectiveness of prevention, was published Monday.

ZENIT: Regarding the culture as a whole, today’s society has a certain confused sense of sexuality that’s being promoted. Could this be a factor in the frequency of child molestation cases?

Monsignor Rossetti: I think maybe not directly, but certainly indirectly. Child abuse has always been going on, let me first say that. This is nothing new. Nevertheless, I think our culture’s morality around sexuality has degraded significantly. There’s a culture of voyeurism — I mean, the pictures you see these days, even of minors, some pictures which are inappropriate for children to be seeing, let alone dressed like that and doing those things. And so, it doesn’t help. I’m not suggesting we go back to some sort of prudishness, but there should be some respect for the human body, and some respect for human sexuality, and seeing it as a gift from God, and not as a commodity, not as something to entice people to buy something, not as something to sell movies. So, the messages that we’re giving our society about sexuality are becoming increasingly distorted, and [are] creating an environment which certainly does not deter sexual deviants, and in some ways, is too permissive.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

VINCENT BROWNE

AN ITALIAN monsignor visited a drapery store in Rome in early March 1923 and ordered warm underwear, most likely long johns and woolly vests.

This suspicious event became known to the Italian press which correctly deduced the monsignor was about to go to Ireland as an envoy from Pope Pius XI – suspicious because it was unusual, even for monsignors, to purchase long johns and woolly vests in early March in drapery shops in Rome just as the glorious Roman summer was to arrive.

The monsignor was Salvatore Luzio and his arrival in Ireland on March 19th, 1923, was greeted by the then government and by the Irish Catholic hierarchy with dismay. This was because the Cumann nGaedheal government regarded his arrival as menacing, the hierarchy regarded his arrival as meddlesome and because the monsignor did not bother making contact with the government or the hierarchy for several weeks after his arrival, choosing first to meet the leaders of the Anti-Treatyites at a secret location.

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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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UNITED STATES
Savannah Morning News

Barbara Kelly can be reached at bkellyshaw.kelly@gmail.com.

There is a big hubbub lately about religious freedom and birth control. As with many other issues of the day, this has been overblown and used for political purposes. Thanks to the Catholic bishops, a group of men whose following has not believed their stance on birth control for many years. More than 90 percent of American Catholic families admit to using birth control. The families of five to 10 children are gone, replaced by smaller families. No one believes anymore that sex is only for procreation. Except the Catholic church. After their record on sexual abuse you would think they would know when to take a back seat when it comes to matters of legality.

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NETHERLANDS
Expatica

The Deetman Commission is to conduct a follow-up investigation into sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.

The new investigation will examine the fate of girls and women, according to Security and Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten.

The report published late last year by the Deetman Commission was not specifically restricted to boys, but the Dutch parliament took the view that the position of girls and women was not covered thoroughly enough. Wim Deetman recognizes that it would be a good idea to examine the abuse of this group separately.

According to the justice minister, church directors have approved the additional research. Mr Deetman expects it will be ready this autumn.

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CALIFORNIA
Lodi News-Sentinel

By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Lawyers in the Michael Kelly sexual assault civil suit argued Tuesday whether the case of former Lodi priest and convicted pedophile Oliver O’Grady should be included as evidence.

During Tuesday’s hearing on what evidence will be admissible in Kelly’s civil trial, Stockton Diocese attorney Jim Goodman argued that O’Grady shouldn’t be included in the Kelly trial. Goodman accused the plaintiff’s attorney, John Manly, of trying to bring O’Grady’s history into the case to strengthen Manly’s case against Kelly.

Manly said that the Stockton Diocese’s history of handling allegations against O’Grady and other priests who allegedly committed sexual abuse should be included in Kelly’s trial to establish a pattern by diocese officials.

“Father Oliver O’Grady was a disgrace to the priesthood,” Goodman said. “(O’Grady and Kelly) are two completely different individuals.”

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ROME
Catholic San Francisco

February 14th, 2012
By Francis X. Rocca

ROME (CNS) – The Vatican’s top sex abuse investigator called for greater accountability under church law of bishops who shield or fail to discipline pedophile priests.

Msgr. Charles Scicluna, promoter of justice for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, made his remarks to reporters in Rome Feb. 8, after addressing an international symposium on clerical sex abuse.

“It is a crime in canon law to show malicious or fraudulent negligence in the exercise of one’s duty,” Msgr. Scicluna said, regarding the responsibility of bishops to protect children and punish abusers.

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WISCONSIN
WBAY

A defrocked priest convicted of sexually assaulting boys in Winnebago County has been committed as a sexually violent person.

In 1994, then-Father Norbert Maday was convicted of sexually assaulting two teenage boys during a visit to Oshkosh.

Maday has been working his way through the penal system since his prison term ended in 2007.

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CALIFORNIA
KCRA

STOCKTON, Calif. — Priest Michael Kelly appeared in court Tuesday morning for the beginning of a six-week trial.

Kelly is accused of sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy in the mid-1980s.

The plaintiff known as John Doe plans to be in court to testify.

“I’m totally and completely innocent of these allegations. I’m doing my best to prove it,” said Kelly.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP WisconsinI

Pedophile priest who received special treatment from ex Wisconsin governor could be out in nine months

SNAPwisconsin.com
February 14, 2012
Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

Pedophile priest who received special treatment from ex-Wisconsin governor could be out in nine months

Pedophile priest Fr. Norbert Maday, whose bizarre case illustrated the hierarchy’s sometimes deep reach into the political world, could be out of a secure state facility for violent sex offenders in time for Christmas.

Today, prosecutors in Winnebago County have reached an agreement with Maday, who has been awaiting trial for civil commitment under Wisconsin’s Chapter 980 law for sexually violent persons, that would release him in nine months if it is signed off by a state medical evaluator.

There are between 35 to 45 known victims of Maday, according to church documents released in a previous civil case against Maday and the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Maday was convicted in the mid-1990s’ for bringing grade school children from his Chicago parish to Wisconsin for purposes of sexually assaulting them. At the time, he was also convicted for intimidating a witness. The priest threatened to kill a victim’s older brother if he testified against him in court.

In a truly bizarre act of political favoritism, when Maday’s mother died in 1997, then Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, at the personal request of Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, ordered state correction officials to work with the state’s legal counsel and arrange to have the body of Maday’s mother transported across state lines to the Fox Lake Correctional Institute in a sealed casket and hearse, accompanied by two funeral home workers, at least one Catholic priest, and six people that Maday himself approved to attend a private viewing and service.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHILADELPHIA — Prosecutors are challenging a defense motion to have a Philadelphia judge removed on the eve of a landmark church sex-abuse case.

Lawyers for Monsignor William Lynn call the judge biased because of a remark she made about potential jury questions.

Common Pleas Judge Teresa Sarmina suggested that child sex-abuse was “widespread” throughout the Roman Catholic Church. Lynn say that shows her bias.

In a written response, prosecutors say Sarmina compared the remark to drug dealing — saying a juror could fairly hear a drug case even if they believe drug dealing is a big problem.

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CHILE
La Segunda

Juan Carlos Cruz a cuñada de Karadima: “Si no fuera por la prensa aún se estarían ocultando estos abusos”

El periodista Juan Carlos Cruz, uno de los denunciantes en el caso por abusos sexuales en contra de Fernando Karadima, respondió a la carta enviada a El Mercurio por Marta Iturriaga, cuñada del ex párroco de El Bosque que pedía que los medios de comunicación nacional dejen en paz a la familia, consignó Soychile.cl .

“Si no fuera por la prensa y los medios de comunicación, aún se estarían ocultando estos abusos”, dijo Cruz en entrevista con CNN Chile.

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ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post

By JEREMY SHARON

Specialists and professionals this week highlighted a changing attitude within the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community toward reporting suspected sexual abuse of minors.

During a two-day conference on children’s well-being at Ben-Gurion University, which ended on Tuesday, experts and government officials in the field spoke of the ongoing challenges of tackling the issue of sexual abuse in the haredi sector, as well as recent progress that had been made.

The conference also covered issues such as increased youth delinquency among children from broken homes and children whose parents have criminal records; high rates of physical violence at boarding schools; and other social concerns relating to the well-being of children.

Discussing the issue of sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox sector, National Council for the Child director Dr. Yitzhak Kadman said that in recent years, the haredi public had become much more inclined than before to report incidents of abuse.

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NEDERLAND
ND

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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NETHERLANDS
Radio Netherlands

The Deetman Commission is to conduct a follow-up investigation into sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.

The new investigation will examine the fate of girls and women, wrote Minister of Security and Justice Ivo Opstelten in a letter to the Lower House of the Dutch parliament.

The research report published late last year by the Deetman Commission was not specifically restricted to boys, but the House took the view that the position of girls and women was not covered thoroughly enough. Mr Deetman recognizes that it’s a good idea to examine the abuse of this group separately.

According to Mr Opstelten, Church Directors have approved the additional research. Mr Deetman thinks that it will be ready this autumn.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
Terra

NICOLE WINFIELD
El ala femenina de los Legionarios de Cristo atraviesa un período de turbulencia luego de la renuncia de su líder y tras la decisión de unas 30 integrantes de separarse de la orden religiosa, plagada de escándalos.

La Legión confirmó el martes que Malen Oriol solicitó en una carta enviada el domingo renunciar como asistente del director general de la orden. En su función, Oriol dirigía la división de mujeres consagradas, un grupo de unas 600 mujeres que viven como monjas y trabajan en escuelas de la Legión, además de reclutar integrantes y recaudar fondos.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

Scandal-hit Legion of Christ’s female branch in turmoil as director resigns, group splits off

By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, February 14

VATICAN CITY — The female branch of the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ religious order was in turmoil Tuesday following the resignation of its leader and the decision of some 30 members to split from the movement.

Malen Oriol announced in a letter Sunday that she had asked to resign as the assistant to the general director of the Legion, which Pope Benedict XVI took over in 2010 after the order revealed its late founder had sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children.

In her role, Oriol had headed the Legion’s branch of consecrated women, some 600 women who live like nuns working in Legion schools, recruiting and fundraising.

Oriol also revealed that a group of consecrated women had decided to leave the movement and live out their vocations under the authority of local bishops — a blow to the Legion that suggests that groups of reformers are now stepping outside the movement because their superiors are refusing to change.

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Regnum Christi

We offer gratitude for their contributions and prayers for their success

Malén Oriol, the assistant for consecrated life to the General Director, has sent a letter to all the consecrated women announcing that she has presented her resignation to Cardinal Velasio De Paolis. In her letter, she mentions that some consecrated women have asked the Holy See for permission to live out their consecration not as members of the Regnum Christi movement but under the authority of a bishop. As of yet, Malén has not clarified if she intends to form part of this new group.

We don’t yet have details of this initiative, but we wish them all the best in their new endeavor and pray that they will be blessed with great success in their spiritual growth and service to the church. We are deeply grateful for all the years that they have lived as consecrated members of Regnum Christi; let us pray for them and keep the gift of the consecrated life in Regnum Christi in our prayers so that God grant each one of us the grace to move forward in this path of renewal that the Holy Father has invited us to undertake.

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CHILE
BIo Bio

Publicado por Nicole Villagra | La Información es de Rodrigo Durán

Juan Carlos Cruz, una de las víctimas en el caso Karadima, respondió a la familia del ex párroco y afirmó que si no hubiese sido por los medios de comunicación se habría mantenido “la cultura del silencio”, que pesó en este caso.

Esto frente a una carta enviada a El Mercurio por la cuñada de Fernando Karadima, quien -recordemos- fue condenado por el Vaticano por abuso de menores, pidiendo una tregua a los medios.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The female branch of the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ religious order was in turmoil Tuesday following the resignation of its leader and the decision of some 30 members to split from the movement.

Malen Oriol announced in a letter Sunday that she had asked to resign as the assistant to the general director of the Legion, which Pope Benedict XVI took over in 2010 after the order revealed its late founder had sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children.

In her role, Oriol had headed the Legion’s branch of consecrated women, some 600 women who live like nuns working in Legion schools, recruiting and fundraising.

Oriol also revealed that a group of consecrated women had decided to leave the movement and live out their vocations under the authority of local bishops — a blow to the Legion that suggests that groups of reformers are now stepping outside the movement because their superiors are refusing to change.

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MARYLAND
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

FREDERICK, Md. (ABP) – The former pastor of a Southern Baptist church in Maryland pleaded guilty Feb. 7 to sexually abusing a girl in his congregation.

Joe Nix Ivey, 74, of Walkersville, Md., confessed to a second-degree sex offense in a plea bargain, according to the Frederick News-Post. In exchange, prosecutors dropped charges of second-degree assault and sex abuse of a minor.

Ivey was pastor of Barnesville Baptist Church for more than 10 years before resigning last September after he was charged with having sexual contact with a girl who was either 10 or 11 years old. The assault occurred while the two watched a movie together at his home.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 13, 2012

We are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Our mission is to heal the wounded and protect the vulnerable.

The Marianists are a St. Louis-based Catholic religious order that runs, and has run, parochial high schools like Vianney, Chaminade, St. Mary’s and McBride (now closed).

A Marianist cleric was accused of molesting a teenage girl here. Her allegation was deemed “credible” by church authorities. Those church officials say they’ve found evidence that Miller had perpetrated this same behavior with at least two other teenagers.

Where’s the alleged offender now? He’s working for the Marianists in Rome. These Catholic officials deliberately and quietly move a credibly accused sex offender into the literal and figurative center of Catholicism, where hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting devout believers go every year.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 14, 2012

We are both grateful and worried about Fr. Superiaso being deported to the Philippines. We are thankful he won’t be able to hurt kids here anymore, but we fear that kids in his home country will be vulnerable to his attacks.

We disagree with the Catholic quoted in the article linked below who urges forgiveness for a convicted child molesting cleric. Kids need adults to be vigilant first, and forgiving later.

We hope that every single person who saw, suspected or suffered Fr. Superiaso’s crimes will speak up, get help, call police, protect others, expose wrongdoing and start healing.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Vatican spokesman says that whoever is hoping to stop the Vatican by leaking documents is mistaken and whoever takes recent events to signify a power struggle is ‘morally uncouth’

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

The Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, released a statement yesterday evening concerning the ‘spreading of documents undermining the credibility of the Vatican and of the Church.’ He guaranteed that the process of strict adherence to the rules and financial transparency called for by Benedict XVI and enforced by his collaborators, will carry on. Fr. Lombardi also implied that the recent leak of documents might be an attempt to ‘discourage’ this commitment.

Lombardi said that it is necessary to ‘remain calm as there is nothing to be surprised about’ and while the American administration faced wiki-leaks, the Vatican now has its own leaks: disclosures of documents aimed at creating confusion and bewilderment and casting doubts over the Vatican, the leaders of the Church and the Church as a whole.

“It is necessary to remain cool, calm and collected and to use one’s intelligence which unfortunately not all journalists seem to do.” The Director of the Vatican Press office drew distinctions between the documents published during the last two weeks “because they are each of a different nature and importance,” he said.

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WISCONSIN
Fox 11

OSHKOSH – Norbert Maday, a former Catholic priest who was convicted of sexually assaulting teenage boys, has been committed as a sexual predator.

A deal between prosecutors and Maday was reached in Winnebago County Court Tuesday, avoiding a jury trial which had been scheduled.

Maday, now 73, was a Chicago area priest convicted in 1994 of sexually assaulting teenage boys during a visit to Oshkosh. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Upon completion of the sentence in 2007, the state sought to have him committed as a sexual predator under the Chapter 980 law. That’s a civil commitment – not a criminal one – that places the offender under the care of the Department of Health for treatment.

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VATICAN CITY
The Register (United Kingdom)

By Joe Fay

The Pope’s top PR man has declared that the Vatican is in the midst of its own “WikiLeaks” scandal after a flurry of confidential Papal documents were fed to the media by apparently disgruntled cardinals.

The leaks have ranged from documents covering allegedly murky operations at the Vatican bank, to an investigation into a Cardinal’s apparent certainty that the pope will be bumped off by November this year.

The steady stream of embarrassments are being seen as evidence of a power struggle within the church as one group of elderly men pits itself against another group of elderly men to replace an even more elderly man. Possibly with an elderly Italian.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo ArellanoTue., Feb. 14 2012

​In some ways, I feel bad for the Orange County Register. Their institutional knowledge has been eroded to only a couple of reporters and editors–and many of them plain suck, upholding the angle that the lords of Orange County dictate. That can be the only explanation as to why the Reg reported today that accused child molester Ricardo Aldana, the former JSerra High Spanish teacher, was accused of the same last decade at Hawthorne High–two months after we reported the same.

Reporter Frank Shyong ignored this very pertinent point in the Aldana scandal for months–but instead of excoriating JSerra for not digging deep enough into Aldana’s past, he gives the private Catholic school a pass, allowing spokesperson and former Reg investigative reporter Bill Rams the luxury of 20/20 hindsight; he told Shyong, “Had we known, we wouldn’t have hired him.”

Well, DUH, Bill (whom we know a bit and like). But Shyong doesn’t ask a simple question: if what Rams says is true, why didn’t JSerra know? Or, as people with institutional knowledge in OC know, is it really just a case of JSerra officials not giving a shit about child molesters and allowing them to hang around campus, just like they did with John Lenihan? In fact, why doesn’t Shyong mention that Lenihan served as an adviser to JSerra in its early days, even though he had admitted to molesting girls long ago?

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Kevin Myers: Any senator or TD who tried to raise the issue of clerical child abuse in the Dail would have been shouted down

Tuesday February 14 2012

IF the Vatican was in any doubt about the relative futility of appeasing the apology-culture that we now live in, it shouldn’t be any longer. “I want the Pope to know that if he’s invited to Ireland — and in fairness, he is welcome to come — he must apologise to the people of Ireland and meet survivors of abuse”: thus, Michael O’Brien, former mayor of Clonmel, and himself a victim of abuse, as quoted in the ‘Sunday Times’ over the weekend.

He must apologise, must he? This is what the Pope said in his pastoral letter two years ago:

“To the victims of abuse and their families. You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated. Many of you found that, when you were courageous enough to speak of what happened to you, no one would listen. It is understandable that you find it hard to forgive or be reconciled with the Church. In her name, I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel . . .

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 14, 2012

The Irish Christian Brothers (ICB), a religious order of brothers (monks) headquartered in New York state, filed bankruptcy last year when they were faced with more than 50 victims of abuse, molestation and beatings. The Canadian congregation (affiliated with the ICB in New York) faced national disgrace when more than 300 children came forward to tell their stories of abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland.

In Ireland, it’s estimated that thousands of children were raped at ICB schools.

As a part of the federal bankruptcy proceedings, the court has set a special deadline date of August 1 for victims of sexual abuse. Read the court order here. ANYONE who was abused by a Christian Brother or was abused at an ICB school only has until that date to file a claim. After August 1, 2012, victims can no longer hold the ICB accountable for covering up and facilitating child sex abuse.

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ROME
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) — Catholic bishops should find out what is keeping sex abuse victims around the world from coming forward, said Bishop R. Daniel Conlon, chairman-elect of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People.

U.N. statistics have shown “that sex abuse is widespread and crosses all cultures and societies” and is not just a phenomenon plaguing the church or Western nations, he told Catholic News Service Feb. 13.

A further indication that abuse is a concern for the global church is the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s mandate for all bishops to establish anti-abuse guidelines by May this year, he said.

“We as a church, we want to be at the forefront of society in helping to deal with this issue so, even in countries where there have not been allegations of abuse in the church, the church can still be a forceful agent for bringing about change in the larger society,” he said.

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NEDERLAND
Elsevier

dinsdag 14 februari 2012

De commisie-Deetman gaat misbruik in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk opnieuw onderzoeken. Dit keer kijkt de commissie naar misbruik van meisjes en vrouwen. Kerkbestuurders hebben al ingestemd met de studie.

Dat schrijft minister Ivo Opstelten (VVD, Veiligheid en Justitie) in een brief aan de Tweede Kamer, meldt NRC Handelsblad.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Enniscorthy Guardian

Tuesday February 14 2012

A FORMER priest who abused a student cleric at St. Peter’s College seminary in Wexford and was labelled a ‘sexual predator’ by the judge at his trial, was jailed for ten years at Belfast Crown Court on Friday.

In sentencing 53-year-old James Martin Donaghy, Judge Patrick Lynch said that his litany of offences and other similar offences had ‘seriously compromised, perhaps irrevocably’ the trust in the priesthood in this country and others.

Donaghy, of Lady Wallace Drive in Lisburn, had been convicted by a jury of of a total of 23 sex offences, committed over a 17year time span against three victims who were all teenagers when the abuse first began.

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ITALY
UPI

GENOA, Italy, Feb. 14 (UPI) — Trial began Tuesday in Genoa, Italy, for a priest accused of sexually abusing young parishioners and providing them with drugs.

The Rev. Riccardo Seppia stood trial for allegedly trading young boys cocaine for sex, and attempting to molest an altar boy. In a tapped phone call obtained by investigators, Seppia allegedly told a drug dealer: “I do not want 16-year-old boys, but younger. Fourteen-year-olds are okay. Look for needy boys with family issues.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) — An advocacy group for those abused by priests is holding a public meeting Wednesday to let the community air concerns about the mounting allegations against Catholic Priests at Chaminade High School. SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests say it’s important for the public to know what’s going on.

SNAP’s David Clohessy says victims also need to know how to make allegations. “It is important for victims to break their silence. But it is important to do so carefully,” Clohessy explains. “Go to independent sources of support, like the police prosecutors, therapists, support groups like SNAP, instead of going — initially at least — only to church officials.”

Clohessy says when the Church is the only one that knows about the allegations, its easier for cover ups to happen. Earlier this month, SNAP accused Chaminade of taking too long to get the word out about two brothers recently accused of sexual misconduct in the 1970s. The Marianist Order, which runs Chaminade, has sent out a letter to some 1600 alumni about allegations of abuse involving Brother John Woulfe and Louis Meinhardt — both of whom are now dead. Clohessy claims these allegations were well known for some time.

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PLYMOUTH (MA)
Boston Herald

By Associated Press
Tuesday, February 14, 2012

PLYMOUTH –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 says his client has been wrongly accused.

The Rev. James Braley, pastor of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha parish, was placed on leave on Sunday.

William Sullivan, the lawyer who represents Braley, tells the Patriot Ledger (http://bit.ly/wZwybz) the charge is “unsupported, inaccurate and untruthful.”

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ITALY
AGI

14 FEB 2012

(AGI) Genoa – Public prosecutor Stefano Puppo demanded 11 years and 8 months in prison for former priest Don Riccardo Seppia.

Don Riccardo Seppia is on trial in Genoa for attempting to molest a minor and giving drugs. The prosecutor’s office also demanded a fine of 32,000 euro. In particular, prosecutor Puppo requested a 5-year sentence for attempted rape and attempted incitement to prostitution of a minor, 8 months for giving drugs to minors (plus a 26,000 euro fine), and 1 year for giving drugs to his associate Emanuele Alfano (and a 6,000 euro fine). Riccardo Seppia will appear in court for the next hearing on March 19.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

In effect, the Vatican spokesperson addressed a plea to the media Monday night. Facing a seemingly never-ending series of leaks of confidential documents, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi called on the press to “make careful distinctions,” to not “just throw everything together,” and to not allow the reality of the situation to be “swallowed up in a whirlpool of confusion.”

Betting houses did not immediately open a line on the odds of that happening, but they would have to be astronomic.

In recent days, confidential correspondence related to charges of corruption and cronyism in Vatican finances, internal memos suggesting loopholes in a new papal anti-money laundering law, and even an anonymous letter hinting at a plot to kill the pope have all created media sensations.

Though in each case the Vatican has played down, even ridiculed, the content of the documents, they’ve also been forced to admit that the documents themselves are authentic.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

The Director General of Vatican Radio, Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, has published an Italian-language Note concerning the responsibilities of journalists working in various media, including print, television and radio, as well as the new media. Fr. Lombardi cites a recent series of real or presumed document leaks from the Vatican, which have stirred interest in the Italian press and garnered a degree of international media attention.

Fr. Lombardi encourages all those who cover the Vatican and the Church to exercise prudent discernment both in the choice of sources and in the use and diffusion of information, recalling the need to practice journalism out of a sense of love for and duty toward the truth.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is having its own version of the WikiLeaks scandals that have hit the United States, spokesman Federico Lombardi has said following a recent rash of leaks to the Italian press.

Newspapers have published letters by a whistleblower alleging rampant corruption in the Vatican, as well as accusing the Vatican bank of failing to implement laws against money laundering.

Last week a confidential letter from a cardinal claiming knowledge of a plot to assassinate the pope within the next 12 months also came to light.

“We need calm, cold blood and reason,” Father Lombardi said in a long statement published on Vatican Radio’s website late on Monday.

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NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

UTRECHT – Slachtoffers van huiselijk geweld in orthodox-protestantse kring durven nauwelijks over hun problemen te praten. De kerkelijke omgeving zou een belangrijke bijdrage kunnen leveren aan het vroegtijdig signaleren én bespreekbaar maken van het geweld.

Dat stellen de auteurs van een dinsdagochtend verschenen verkennend onderzoek van Movisie, landelijk kennisinstituut voor de aanpak van sociale vraagstukken.

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NEDERLAND
Joop

Joop-onderzoek: Dominees geven slachtoffers zelden advies aangifte te doen … Rapport luidt noodklok over veel voorkomend seksueel misbruik onder gereformeerden

Movisie, een landelijk kennisinstituut luidt vandaag de noodklok over huiselijk geweld en seksueel misbruik in orthodox-protestantse kring. Een cultuur van zwijgen en toedekken houdt dat misbruik in stand, constateert de organisatie. De daders gaan daardoor veelal vrijuit. Online onderzoek door Joop wijst uit dat gereformeerde online hulpverleners nauwelijks tot actie aanzetten om daders te laten vervolgen.

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VERENIGDE STATES
De Morgen (Belgie)

In de VS is een zeer mediatiek proces, waarin paus Benedictus XVI ervan beschuldigd werd seksueel misbruik toegedekt te hebben, afgesloten. De advocaten van een man uit Illinois kondigden aan dat zij hun klacht teruggetrokken hebben. Dat meldt de Franse krant La Croix onder aanhaling van CNS.

De klacht werd in april 2010 ingediend bij het federaal hof van het district Milwaukee. De klacht ging uit van ‘John Doe’, een pseudoniem dat door de Amerikaanse Justitie wordt gebruikt om personen te beschermen die hun anonimiteit willen vrijwaren. De klacht wegens seksuele agressie was gericht tegen priester Lawrence Murphy. Volgens de indiener van de klacht gebeurden de feiten toen hij leerling was in een school voor doofstommen.

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COLOMBIA
RKnieuws (Nederland)

BOGOTA (RKnieuws.net) – Drie Colombiaanse priesters zijn wegens seksueel misbruik teruggebracht tot de lekenstaat en riskeren zware gevangenisstraffen. Dat heeft de Colombiaanse bisschoppenconferentie maandag bekendgemaakt.

Mgr. Juan Vincente Cordoba, secretaris-generaal van de Colombiaanse bisschoppenconferentie, bevestigde op televisie dat er momenteel ook nog een onderzoek loopt tegen twee andere priesters.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 14 February 2012 (VIS) – Given below is the text of a note written by Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Frederico Lombardi S.J. and released late yesterday afternoon by Vatican Radio, concerning the recent leaking of a series of Vatican documents.

“Nowadays we must all have strong nerves, because no one can be surprised at anything. The American administration was affected by Wikileaks, now the Vatican too has its disclosures, its leaked documents, which tend to create confusion and bewilderment, and to throw a bad light on the Vatican, the governance of the Church and, more broadly, on the Church herself.

“We must, then, remain calm and keep our nerve, make use of reason, something which not all media outlets tend to do. The documents in question are of different kinds and importance, drawn up at various times and for differing situations. One thing is the discussion of the improved economic management of an institution such as the Governorate, which has many different activities; another are notes on current juridical and legislative questions, about which it is quite normal that there should be contrasting opinions; quite another are delirious and incomprehensible reports about plots against the Pope’s life. Yet, putting them all together helps to create confusion. Serious reporting should be capable of distinguishing the issues and understanding their differing importance. It is obvious that the economic activities of the Governorate have to be managed wisely and rigorously. It is clear that the IOR and financial activities must be correctly integrated into international anti-recycling norms. These are of course the Pope’s instructions. At the same time, it is evident that the story about a plot against the Pope, as I said immediately at the time, is nonsense, madness, and does not deserve to be taken seriously.

“There is something very sad in the fact that documents are dishonestly passed from the inside to the outside in order to create confusion. Both sides bear responsibility: firstly the suppliers of documents of this kind, but also those who undertake to use them for purposes that certainly have nothing to do with pure love of truth. We must, therefore, stand firm, not allowing ourselves to be swallowed up by the vortex of confusion, which is what ill-intentioned people want, and remaining capable of using our reason.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

February 14, 2012

John Allen, senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, has told Vatican Radio that the withdrawal of a federal lawsuit against the Vatican is “enormously important.”

“I think it is enormously important that this case is not longer on the docket, because this was the case centered on revelations about Father Lawrence Murphy, who allegedly abused almost 200 kids at a school for the deaf in the Milwaukee area from 1950 until 1974,” says Allen.

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COLOMBIA
Colombia Reports

A priest from the southwestern Colombian city of Cali is convicted for the 2009 sexual abuse of three children when they were 10, 11 and 12.

According to Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office’s website, the judge considered it proven that priest William de Jesus Mazo Perez had sexually abused the three children inside one of the church’s properties and will rule on the sentence within days.

Following the sexual abuse, the priest gave the victims money and gifts so they would not tell their parents, the press release said.

Police arrested the priest on charges of sexual abuse of minors in June 2010 after parents told the authorities about the abuse of their children.

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CALIFORNIA
ABS-CBN (Philippines)

by Henni Espinosa, ABS-CBN North America Bureau

Posted at 02/14/2012

DALY CITY, California – The former lover of a Filipino priest who was convicted of child molestation is finally speaking out.

Father Jose Superiaso may have served his time in prison, but his former lover said the community should remain vigilant.

The Filipina, who did not want to be identified, said she was in her 20s and a youth coordinator for the church when she began a sexual relationship with Superiaso in the 1990s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

[with video]

14 February 2012

BBC Inside Out investigates the Anglican paedophile priests who abused children in Sussex.

It has prompted an inquiry ordered by the Archbishop of Canterbury for the first time in over 100 years. But at the very heart of this story are the victims who have been left fighting for the truth.

We meet Phil Johnson who was groomed then seriously sexually abused by a priest when he was a nine-year-old choir boy and church server.

His abuser Father Roy Cotton was at the time a revered, trusted Anglican priest.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Paul O’Brien, Political Editor

Monday, February 13, 2012

There’s quiet diplomacy and megaphone diplomacy.

When Enda Kenny stood up in the Dáil in July and issued a blistering denunciation of the Vatican and its handling of clerical child sexual abuse, he was most certainly engaging in the latter.

Sean Donlon, who as a former secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs was once Ireland’s most senior diplomat, believes it was the “absolutely correct” thing for the Taoiseach to do, given the historical lack of co-operation from the Holy See on the issue.

What Mr Donlon does not agree with is tánaiste Eamon Gilmore’s subsequent decision, approved by Cabinet, to close the Irish embassy to the Vatican.

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
Zenit

By Ann Schneible

ROME, FEB. 13, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Last week’s conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Toward Healing and Renewal, confronted the crisis of clerical pedophilia with the objective of finding solutions whereby all future cases of child sex abuse would be prevented.

Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, associate dean for seminary and ministerial studies and a licensed psychologist, spoke with ZENIT last week during the conference about the concrete steps being taken to address the crisis, and offered some insights into the psychology of pedophilia.

Part 2 of this interview will be published Tuesday.

ZENIT: What is the most important thing that needs to be communicated by the media regarding the sexual abuse of minors?

Monsignor Rossetti: I think the biggest thing, I’d say, is that it’s a terrible problem, but prevention does work. We’ve been involved in a much stronger prevention program in the States for a number of years, and the abuse cases are dropping, the number of cases are dropping significantly. Prevention does work, and I think that’s important for people to realize. The most important thing about abuse is to stop it before it happens. And so, I’m just strongly encouraging people to start with these child safety programs and implement them.

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ITALY
AGI

(AGI) Genova – Riccardo Seppia, the defrocked priest accused of attempted rape of a minor and drug dealing, appeared in Court today. Donning a blue woollen cap, a navy-blue sweater, jeans and dark shoes, the 52-year old man no longer wears a goatee.

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