ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED KINGDOM
The Sentinel

ANOTHER man has explained how he was allegedly sexually abused as a boy by a priest at a North Staffordshire boarding school.

Eight men from across the Midlands claim they were abused by Catholic priest Alexander Bede Walsh, below, over a 20-year period between 1974 and 1994.

The 58-year-old is currently on trial charged with 27 offences of indecency, buggery and indecent assault.

Incidents are said to have taken place across Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Coventry, including at Cotton College, in the Staffordshire Moorlands.

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OOSTENRIJK
Trouw (Nederland)

Robin de Wever − 26/01/12, 16:07

Het bisdom van Wenen verontschuldigt zich voor het publiceren van een lijst met kerkverlaters. Een priester plaatste de lijst onlangs in de krant van het bisdom.

In een verklaring vraagt het aartsbisdom om vergeving en wijst het erop dat de publicatie indruist tegen regels van de kerk en de staat. De priester, die werkt in een dorp ten noorden van Wenen, zou al tijdens een mis boete hebben gedaan. Aan slachtoffers heeft hij een excuusbrief gestuurd.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

January 26, 2012| By John P. Martin, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Will he say the lawyers made him do it? Did they?

The questions form a key subplot in the forthcoming trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former Archdiocese of Philadelphia official accused of making decisions that enabled priests to sexually abuse children.

On Thursday, Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina took a step toward answering them. She ordered the archdiocese to be ready March 26, the first day of Lynn’s conspiracy and child-endangerment trial, to turn over what could be hundreds or thousands of private records detailing Lynn’s communications with church lawyers about sex-abuse claims between 1992 and 2004, when he was secretary for clergy.

“That gives you two full months to get it done,” the judge told Robert E. Welsh, a lawyer for the archdiocese.

Lynn is accused of assigning the Rev. James J. Brennan and a former priest, Edward Avery, to parishes in the 1990s where each allegedly molested a boy. All three men have pleaded

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VATICAN CITY
Eyewitness News (South Africa)

Reuters

The Vatican was shaken by a corruption scandal on Thursday after an Italian television investigation said a former top official had been transferred against his will after complaining about irregularities in awarding contracts.

The show “The Untouchables” on the respected private television network La 7 on Wednesday night showed what it said were several letters that Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who was then deputy-governor of Vatican City, sent to superiors, including Pope Benedict, in 2011 about the corruption.

The Vatican issued a statement on Thursday criticising the “methods” used in the journalistic investigation. But it confirmed that the letters were authentic by expressing “sadness over the publication of reserved documents.”

As deputy governor of the Vatican City for two years from 2009 to 2011, Vigano was the number two official in a department responsible for maintaining the tiny city-state’s gardens, buildings, streets, museums and other infrastructure.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WBUR

By Monica Brady-Myerov

BOSTON — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston says it’s no longer in “financial freefall.”

The finances of the archdiocese have stabilized, according to its annual report released Thursday. The church has a balanced budget and its assets have increased $31 million to $563 million. The increase is due primarily to investments.

Church collections increased 3 percent last year and the enrollment decline in Catholic schools has slowed to its lowest rate in 10 years.

The archdiocese also reports it spent $1.7 million last year to settle 23 legal claims arising from sexual abuse by clergy. The money came from real estate property sales, rental income and insurance funds.

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PHOENIX (AZ)
My Fox Phoenix

[with video]

PHOENIX – A Phoenix man arrested in a sexual exploitation case involving juveniles has pleaded not guilty in the case.

Maricopa County prosecutors say 26-year-old Christian Salvador Turcios entered his plea Thursday. His next court date is an initial pretrial conference and no date has been set yet.

Turcios was jailed on suspicion of 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, child molesting and unlawful surreptitious video recording. He was ordered held without bond Jan. 10.

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MEXICO
U-T San Diego

Written by
Sandra Dibble

TIJUANA — Days after being featured on the television show “America’s Most Wanted,” a fugitive pastor from Henderson, Nev., was captured Wednesday by Mexican authorities in Tijuana. Otis Holland, 55, is accused of sexually assaulting teenage girls in his parish who came to him for counseling.

Holland’s arrest took place thanks to a tip from a viewer of the program’s Jan. 20 episode, authorities said. On Wednesday, the information reached the U.S. Marshal’s Office in San Diego, which in turn contacted members of Baja California’s State Preventive Police. They arrested him that same day, and turned him over to U.S. authorities.

“It was a fantastic operation on both sides of the border, it couldn’t have gone smoother,” said Omar Castillo, a member of the U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force.

Alfredo Arenas, chief liaison officer for the Baja California state police, said Holland was detained outside a house in Tijuana’s Zona Norte, a neighborhood near the U.S. border. Holland had been living there by himself, and had not been there for long, Arenas said: “He had a couple of suitcases, the clothes were still inside.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

Parish Offertory Increases; Catholic Schools See Growth

www.bostoncatholic.org

(Braintree, Massachusetts) January 26, 2012…The Archdiocese of Boston today released its annual financial report for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2011. The report identifies key financial performance measures, including its financial position and changes in net assets during the most recent fiscal year. The full report is available on the Archdiocese’s website (http://www.bostoncatholic.org/annualreport) together with the audited financial statements of Archdiocesan related organizations. The report should be read in conjunction with the recently issued 2012 Budget, which focuses on Central Ministries.

The report provides a comprehensive review of the Archdiocese’s assets, liabilities and financial activities. Included are the audited financial statements of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, a Corporation Sole (the “Corporation Sole”), encompassing the activities of the parishes, central operations, the endowment fund, and the general insurance fund. The report also includes an accounting of payments for sexual abuse settlements and related expenses and the sources of these funds.

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley stated that “The Archdiocese of Boston has greatly benefitted by the financial management of recent years that has achieved and sustained a balanced budget. The stabilization of our finances has led to increased confidence among our many generous benefactors, who provide us the means to invest in our parishes, schools, evangelization and the important mission of serving the poor and those in need. We are aware that there remain challenges to be addressed, but are encouraged by the progress being made in rebuilding our local Church. Going forward, we will maintain our commitment to be a sign of the presence of the Lord to the Catholics of the Archdiocese and the wider community. “

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Patricia Wen and Martin Finucane
| Globe Staff
January 27, 2012

Parishioners at Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of Boston are boosting their donations to financially strapped parishes, according to the annual financial report released yesterday by the archdiocese.

The report shows that parish collections and other fund-raising rose by about 4.5 percent, after several years of being flat or declining. In the budget year that ended in June, Catholics in the pews gave about $146.6 million to their parishes, compared with $140.3 million the year before. Meanwhile, church officials said Mass attendance remained relatively flat.

“Ordinary people are digging deeper into their pockets,’’ said John Straub, executive director of finance and operations for central ministries for the archdiocese.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board
on Fri, Jan 27, 2012

Archbishop Robert Fortune Sanchez was interred Thursday, ending a chapter in New Mexico history that featured both great hope and a great fall.

The life and death of Sanchez in many ways mirrors Aristotle’s tragic hero, like Oedipus of ancient Greece or Samson of The Bible. Remember that a hero in this sense does not mean a superman, but the protagonist of a story.

Though from humble beginnings, Sanchez rose to a position of high status and responsibility. He was not perfect, and his downfall involved both errors of judgment and character flaws. His fall was not based entirely on his own actions and his punishment was great — loss of position and a life of solitude, ending in death in a place in Albuquerque for people with Alzheimer’s disease — though some would argue his punishment should have been harsher.

While many were seriously harmed, the outcome was not without seeds of hope: The Archdiocese of Santa Fe pioneered a serious policy for dealing with a problem that had been swept under the rug by the Roman Catholic Church in many places — though the problem is in no way unique to the church. And the scandal increased awareness of the problem of child sexual abuse in America.

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NEVADA
KTNV

[with video]

By Drew Karedes

Henderson, NV (KTNV) — An international manhunt ends with a Las Vegas pastor arrested in Mexico and families of his alleged victims even more angry than before.

Investigators say Otis Holland used religion to sexually abuse teenage girls.

Holland is now in federal custody, awaiting extradition in San Diego. The 55-year-old was arrested after a tip that he had been living in a church in downtown Tijuana.

Holland had previously been arrested in Southern Nevada in December of 2010 and had appeared in court.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

DA: Church knew of ‘sick’ letter written 30 years ago by priest about teenage brothers on sadomasochistic outing

A letter detailing incidents of sexual abuse and sadomasochism at the hands of priests, written 30 years ago, could help prove that church officials turned a blind eye to molestation.

Prosecutors are asking that the letter – which the The Archdiocese of Philadelphia allegedly learned about in 1968 – be used in the trial of William J. Lynn, the archdiocese’s former secretary for clergy.

The letter was said to contain details about teenage brothers on a sadomasochistic outing in which a boy, 15, was strung up and flogged in the woods by his brothers, aged 17 and 18.
Prosecutors say the letter will help them prove that Lynn’s actions regarding two other priests, facing trial with him, are part of a long-term pattern or practice by the church of protecting abusive clergy and hiding their conduct from parishioners.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Tamworth Herald

A CATHOLIC priest perpetrated a catalogue of sexual abuse against young boys – including children from Coleshill – who were in awe of his “revered and trusted” status within the community, a court heard.

Jurors at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court were told that Alexander Bede Walsh abused eight boys while working at Roman Catholic establishments in Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Coventry between 1975 and 1994.

Walsh, of Church Lane, Abbots Bromley, Lichfield, Staffordshire, denies a total of 27 offences of indecency, buggery and indecent assault.

Opening the case against the 58-year-old, prosecutor Robert Price alleged that one of the victims was abused after being plied with alcohol during what purported to be a private communion ceremony.

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COLORADO SPRINGS (CO)
The Gazette

RYAN MAYE HANDY
THE GAZETTE

Members of an advocate group for victims of priest sexual abuse met in front of the headquarters of the Archidiocese of St. Louis Thursday afternoon to demand answers about Rev. Charles Robert Manning of Colorado Springs.

The group, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), is a national organization that acts as a watch-dog for sexual assault crimes brought against religious leaders. It wants Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis to clear up ambiguities in Manning’s history with the Catholic church after learning that Manning is being investigated in a sexual assault case in Colorado.

Manning, formerly of three St. Louis Catholic parishes, came to St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Colorado Springs in 2007. At a Saturday mass, Rev. Rafael Torres-Rico told the congregation that allegations of sexual assault on a minor have been brought against Manning.

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By DAVE ALTIMARI, daltimar@courant.com
The Hartford Courant

7:17 p.m. EST, January 26, 2012

WATERBURY -—
They were 8th-grade altar boys at St. Mary’s Church in Derby, best buddies since grammar school, mesmorized by “Father Ivan” who treated them like adults and offered sleepovers at the rectory.

Now they are together again, both suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hartford for transferring a known pedophile priest to their school only months after he finished “treatment” in Massachusetts.

The case of Jacob Doe entered its third day in Waterbury Superior Court Thursday. The plaintiff and his childhood friend, known as Matthew Doe in court papers, testified before a six-member jury.

In sometimes very emotional testimony the men, now in their mid-40’s, told similar stories. They met the late Rev. Ivan Ferguson when he began working at the school affiliated with the St. Mary the Immaculate Conception Church in Derby. Both boys were altar boys and testified they immediately liked Ferguson when he showed up there in 1980.

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NEVADA
Los Vegas Sun

By Aida Ahmed

Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012

A former Las Vegas pastor accused of having sex with underage girls was detained in Mexico Wednesday night, Henderson Police said.

Otis Holland, 55, fled the Henderson area in June after police issued an arrest warrant on 11 counts of sexual assault of a victim under 16, one count of child abuse and conspiracy to commit a crime, police said.

Holland was recently featured on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted,” and the U.S. Marshals Service received a tip from a viewer.

Marshals worked with Mexican National Police to apprehend Holland without incident at about 10 p.m. Wednesday in Tijuana, according to Assistant Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Javier Jimenez.

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MEXICO
Reuters

MEXICO CITY | Thu Jan 26, 2012

(Reuters) – Mexican police have arrested a Las Vegas pastor who they said was hiding out in Tijuana after being accused of sexually abusing several minors in the United States.

Otis Holland, 55, had tried to flee a house in the border city but was captured by officers who had surrounded the area, senior local police official Alfredo Arenas said on Thursday

“This type of crime has no place in society. We will not let such cruel acts as those committed by this person go unpunished,” Arenas said in a statement. “Our work is done … now we hope he’ll be punished with all the weight of the law.”

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

The Vatican has responded angrily to an Italian television report about alleged corruption inside the Vatican, charging that the broadcast used “questionable journalistic methods” and presented a biased and oversimplified version of the facts.

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, said that the show Gli intoccabili (“The Untouchables”) gave a warped view of Vatican affairs, continuing a pattern of “biased coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church.” The Vatican hinted that legal action could be taken against the La7 network that broadcast the report.

The televised report had showed a letter to Pope Benedict XVI from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former secretary of the Vatican city-state governorate, in which the prelate argued that he should not be appointed apostolic nuncio to the US Archbishop Vigano told the Pontiff that he had worked to stop corruption in Vatican business dealings, and his departure from the Vatican administration would “cause confusion and dismay among those who believed it was possible to correct the many problems of corruption and waste.”

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FLORIDA
CBS Miami

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – The Broward Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday that a church youth pastor in Lauderdale Lakes has been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a boy.

Jeffrey London, 48, was arrested at his home Wednesday night. The alleged victim in the case said he lived with London for more than a decade and he was repeatedly abused during that time.

According to the probable cause affidavit, the victim alleged the battery happened twice a week and that London would buy the victim a video game. As the victim got older, London allegedly offered money in exchange for sexual acts, according to BSO.

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FLORIDA
New Times

By Matthew Hendley
Thu., Jan. 26 2012

​Youth pastor Jeffery London was arrested last night at his Lauderdale Lake home on suspicion of sexual abusing a boy for about a decade, and now becomes the second Broward youth pastor to be arrested this week on molestation charges.

London, 48, was arrested shortly after returning home from conducting bible study at the Bible Church of God in Fort Lauderdale, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

Police say the alleged victim’s mother left him to live with London when he was 8 years old because she was “facing hard financial times.”

For the next decade, police say London sexually abused the boy, while the two were living together.

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IOWA
Courier

By KRISTIN GUESS, kristin.guess@wcfcourier.com | Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2012

WAVERLY, Iowa — A 67-year-old Eldora resident would like to suppress evidence related to his arrest for allegedly having a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old he met online.

Dennis Brown, a pastor, is charged with third-degree sexual abuse, a Class C felony. He was arrested at his summer residence in Eldora in July and taken to the Bremer County Jail.

Brown also has a home in Verona, Va.

According to authorities, Brown performed a sex act with the victim in May after allegedly making a connection on the Internet. He admitted meeting the teenager in Waverly, according to court documents

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NEVADA
America’s Most Wanted

Charismatic and cunning, Las Vegas Pastor Otis Holland is on the run after members of his church between the ages of 13 and 16 accused him of sexual abuse. The revelation of Holland’s relationship with his young parishioners has opened a Pandora’s box that has left Holland’s entire congregation stunned and shamed. Thankfully, an alert AMW tipster gave authorities the information they needed to track Holland down.

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NEVADA
Las Vegas Review-Journal

By Doug McMurdo
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

The former pastor of a Las Vegas church was arrested in Mexico on multiple sexual assault charges involving minors Wednesday.

Otis Holland, 55, of Henderson, fled Southern Nevada in June after Henderson police issued an arrest warrant alleging 11 counts of sexual assault of a victim under 16 years old, one count of child abuse and one count of conspiracy to commit a crime, according to Henderson police spokesman Keith Paul.

A tipster alerted the U.S. Marshal’s Service after Holland’s case was profiled on the “America’s Most Wanted” television program.

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NEVADA
8NewsNow

By Stephen Jackson, Online News Editor

HENDERSON, Nev. — A Las Vegas-pastor wanted on charges of having sex with underage girls was captured in Mexico on Wednesday night.

Fifty-five-year-old Otis Holland allegedly fled the Henderson area after an arrest warrant was issued for him on 11 counts of sexual assault of a victim under 16, one count of child abuse and conspiracy to commit a crime.

Holland’s case was recently featured on America’s Most Wanted. A tip from someone who watched the show lead to his arrest.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
CBS St. Louis

Brian Kelly

January 26, 2012

ST. LOUIS (KMOX)-Local clergy abuse victims are accusing St. Louis’ Archbishop of sitting on the sidelines Colorado police investigate a sex abuse allegation levied there against a priest who used to work here.

Father Charles Manning, who used to work at parishes in Bridgeton, Glencoe and Imperial was suspended from his St. Gabriel the Archangel parish in Colorado Springs last weekend, while police investigate an allegation that he sexually abused a minor. Even though no charges have been filed and there are no allegations against him in St. Louis, Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests Director David Clohessy believes Archbishop Robert Carlson should be pro-active, “Anytime a priest is suspended because of child sex abuse allegations, but especially when there’s a pending police investigation, Catholic officials have a civic duty, plus a moral duty, to aggressively seek out any other victims, witnesses, whistleblowers.”

Clohessy was asked if he knows if the Archbishop is helping police in their investigation, behind the scenes, “We’ve seen no evidence that he has and the easiest way, of course, to help is to simply use church bulletins, church websites, church pulpits to let parishioners know that Fr. Manning has been accused and suspended and let them know there is, in fact, a pending criminal investigation.

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UNITED STATES
The Irish Times

JASON BERRY

RITE AND REASON: IN 2005 parishioners of St James in the farm belt town of Kansas, Ohio, recoiled when Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair, facing a tight budget, closed the parish, steering them to one several miles away. They filed an appeal to the Vatican. It failed.

Then they sued in a local county court, arguing that the bishop was a trustee but parishioners owned the property. The state sided with the bishop. “We spent $100,000 in legal fees,” said parishioner Virginia Hull. “Bishop Blair paid his lawyers with $77,957 from our parish account.” Blair had the church demolished.

Canon law says a parish is “a juridic person”. But that “person”, like an olden slave, does not own itself. The bishop does. Nevertheless, a federal court in Springfield, Massachusetts barred the bishop there from razing a church deemed a historic landmark. Parish ownership is unresolved in American law.

A US Catholic parish has closed on average once a week for the last 20 years. Many bishops have sold churches to plug deficits, or pay for abuse cases caused by their negligence or their predecessors’.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Jan. 26, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The trial of Bishop Robert W. Finn and the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., the first bishop and diocese to face criminal charges in the decades-long clergy sex abuse crisis, has been set for September.

Finn and the diocese were charged in October by a grand jury in Jackson County, Mo., with separate counts of failing to report suspected child abuse in the case of Fr. Shawn Ratigan, a diocesan priest who was arrested last May for child pornography.

Lawyers for Finn and the diocese met with Jackson County Judge John Torrence on Thursday to set a Sept. 24 trial date in the case. Finn and the diocese have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
News-Press

Associated Press
January 26, 2012

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri Catholic bishop will go to trial in September on a misdemeanor charge that he and the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese failed to report suspicions of child sexual abuse by a priest.

Bishop Robert Finn is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 24. A pretrial conference is scheduled before Jackson County Circuit Judge John Torrence on March 27.

The charges against Finn and the diocese stem from claims that the diocese waited five months before telling police about pornographic photos of children found on a priest’s computer.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune reporter

January 26, 2012
Seeking to replenish coffers that have covered the costs of construction, clergy misconduct and parish operations, the Archdiocese of Chicago is exploring a number of options to raise more money, including the sale of private bonds to investors.

Though no church official will confirm that the archdiocese plans to sell bonds, theMoody’srating service on Wednesday night gave the Archdiocese of Chicago its top rating for a proposed sale of $151.5 million, the typical precursor to issuing bonds.

But Moody’salso says a sale is not guaranteed, and church officials insist no decision has been made. If the archdiocese proceeds with a bond sale, it would be the first time since Cardinal George Mundelein sold bonds to finance a construction boom in the early 20th century.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fox 4

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A September trial date was set Thursday morning in Jackson County Court for Bishop Robert Finn and the Catholic diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph on charges they failed to report suspected child sex abuse to authorities.

The next pre-trial conference is scheduled for March 27 and the trial is scheduled to go forward Sept. 24.

Finn and the diocese pleaded not guilty after a grand jury indicted them for failing to report alleged child pornography involving the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, 46, who faces federal and state charges of child pornography possession, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

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GERMANY
The Local

A Catholic priest found guilty of over 250 charges of sexual abuse towards young boys has been sentenced to six years in prison, a German court announced on Thursday.

The 46-year-old from Salzgitter, Lower Saxony, was found guilty of abusing three boys aged between nine and 15. He was spared a longer sentence because he admitted to 250 of the 280 suspected cases.

Of the reported incidents, 214 were classified by the court as serious sexual abuse, while the remaining 36 were classified simply as sexual abuse.

“He has systematically violated the trust that is bestowed upon Catholic priests,” said the Judge Manfred Teiwes.

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GERMANY
Expatica

A German court jailed a Roman Catholic priest for six years Thursday after convicting him of 250 counts of sexually abusing three boys over a seven-year period, an official said.

The 46-year-old priest, who was arrested in July, admitted during the trial to sexually abusing the boys, aged nine to 15, whose families the priest knew, a court spokesman said.

“Due to the high number of cases of sexual abuse, many of which were cases of aggravated abuse, he was handed a total sentence of six years,” the spokesman said.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

With new evidence Walworth County DA brings criminal charges against minister for failure to report abuse

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director

CONTACT 414.336.8575

The Lake Geneva News reports that Walworth County District Attorney Phil Koss will file criminal charges for a third time against Joseph R. Fultz. Fultz is a former minister of Grace Evangelical Church who is being charged with failure to report child abuse or neglect. Fultz is facing five counts of failure to report because he is alleged to have had knowledge that children in his church were being sexually assaulted and he failed to notify law enforcement officials.

Walworth County District Attorney Phil Koss is to be commended for his persistence in holding Fultz accountable with new evidence, despite the previous dismissal of charges by Judge Robert Kennedy. Koss remains undeterred, and for good reason: “I think it’s crucial that those who watch over the welfare of children, know there have been sexual assaults, and are mandated reporters, follow the law so kids are safe”.

Wisconsin law requires that professionals working with or responsible for the well being of children are mandated to report child abuse and neglect. Koss is to be commended for steadfastly pursuing charges against this once trusted member of the community who was charged with watching over children in his care.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

Prosecutors in the high-profile abuse cases in Philadelphia are revealing that their cases may be more about their open distaste for the Catholic Church than their desire for justice for abused children.

In a hearing on Tuesday (1/24/12), Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington (a so-called “Chief of Special Investigations”) actually asserted the following to the presiding judge:

“Time and time and time again, [Catholic officials] lie to victims because they are not concerned about the victims; they are just concerned about the almighty dollar and mother Church.”

Blessington’s remark was made after Monday’s hearing where another Assistant District Attorney, Mark Cipolletti, claimed:

“The archdiocese was supplying [an accused ex-priest] with an endless amount of victims … It was a willful blindness.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Times Leader

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Thursday defended its transfer of a top official to Washington after he exposed alleged corruption in the awarding of Holy See contracts.

The Vatican also warned that it could take legal action against a TV show that reported on the case. The Italian investigative news program, “The Untouchables,” showed letters from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano to Pope Benedict XVI begging not to be transferred after exposing corruption costing the Vatican millions of euros (dollars).

Vigano was removed in October as the No. 2 administrator of the Vatican city-state and was named the pope’s ambassador to Washington. While the job is highly prestigious, the posting took Vigano far from headquarters and out of the running for the Vatican’s top administrative job, which carries with it the rank of cardinal.

The Vatican statement said Vigano was given one of the most important roles in Vatican diplomacy, citing this as proof of Benedict’s “unquestionable respect and trust” in him.
The statement did not respond to specific allegations aired Wednesday night on the news show on the private La7 network. It criticized “questionable journalistic methods” such as revealing confidential documents and complained that information was presented “in a superficial and biased manner.”

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MISSISSIPPI
The Clarion-Ledger

Mississippi corrections officials say a man accused of killing a Catholic priest and setting off in his car on a Disney vacation has been found dead in a prison cell of an apparent suicide.

Jeremy Wayne Manieri, 33, was charged with shooting the Rev. Ed Everitt of Hammond, La., in July 2011 at a beach house in Waveland, Miss.

Manieri’s attorney, Brian Alexander, confirmed that he was found dead early Thursday morning. Manieri was being held at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County.

Manieri was a handy man at the house used by a group of Catholic priests as a beach retreat. Prosecutors said he shot Everitt with the priest’s own gun.

Manieri had claimed he shot Everitt after he passed out from alcohol and marijuana use and found the priest fondling him. But investigators had charged robbery was the motive because when Manieri was arrested in Florida authorities said he had the priest’s car, gun and wallet.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Cormac O’Keeffe

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) has moved a step closer towards launching an investigation into the Garda handling of cases criticised in the Cloyne report.

Following six months of discussions with the Murphy Commission, the GSOC has recently received the full, unredacted, or unedited, version of their report into the Catholic diocese.

A spokesman for the GSOC said yesterday: “We have now received the full unredacted version of the report and the commission is now examining its contents.” He declined to make any further comment until this process was completed.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

A Jackson County judge set a September date for the trial of Bishop Robert Finn and the Catholic diocese in the case of whether they failed to report suspected child sex abuse to authorities.

Lawyers for Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph met with Judge John Torrence this morning. Torrence set March 27 as the next pre-trial conference, when the court expects to deal with motions filed by the defense.

Finn and the diocese have pleaded not guilty. Their trial now is scheduled for Sept. 24.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Philly Post

By Tim Whitaker 1/26/2012

“They’re rats and they’re wimps.”

That’s what William Brennan, a lawyer representing a local priest who allegedly abused a 14-year-old in the 1990s while receiving monthly church stipends despite having already been accused of abuse, recently called the nuns who ratted out his client.

The nuns in question, if you can imagine such a thing, turned on the priest, who was living in a church residence with young men and throwing loud parties.

The nuns ratted him out to the archdiocese. But they also made it clear they didn’t want it disclosed that they were the informants.

Which means not only were they rats. They were wimps too.

And that’s the very point the priest’s lawyer was making. Nuns or no nuns, you can’t trust anyone who’s a rat and a wimp.

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AUSTRIA
Austrian Independent

The highest representatives of the Austrian Catholic Church gathered with Vatican officials to speak about a group of priests who declared themselves “disobedient”, it has emerged.

The Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper revealed yesterday (Weds) that Viennese Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn and two other members of the Conference of Austrian Bishops, went to Rome on Monday to meet with clergymen in the Vatican. The paper claimed that the gathering was organised to discuss how to react to the increasing acclaim among Austrians for the demands of Helmut Schüller’s Preachers’ Initiative.

Schüller – who was president of Caritas Austria for some years before withdrawing to Probstdorf in Lower Austria to head the local parish – presented the guidelines of his movement half a year ago. He said the Preachers’ Initiative wanted the Vatican to allow Austrian priests to give Holy Communion to divorced people. The rebellious group also want female priests in the Catholic Church and an abolition of celibacy.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

Hello,

We need your help here in South Dakota. HB 1218 http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2012/Bill.aspx?Bill=1218 will be before the House Judiciary Committee next week, either Wednesday or Friday.

We will have a positive date later today. As you can see Representative Hickey has garnered many co-sponsors.

The help we need is sending messages to those members of the committee whose names are listed here. The message needs to encourage support for HB 1218 in a positive way. So many of these kind folks receive “nasty” emails on a daily basis, we do not want to be confrontational in any way.

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IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

by Eugene Cullen Kennedy on Jan. 19, 2012 Bulletins from the Human Side

In a story likely to be unsurpassed as what psychologists term an “unobtrusive measure” of what is wrong with the Catholic church in Ireland, its venerable national seminary at Maynooth has decided, according to The Irish Catholic, to “separate the seminary environment from the wider university community.”

Perhaps it is modeled on the new television series “Alcatraz,” in which ghostly former inmates return to the famous prison that is now a cold and empty symbol of the golden age of isolating big-time gangsters like Al Capone from the world they might harm. It was called “the Rock,” a nickname given to many seminaries that flourished in a roughly parallel golden age of isolating small-fry seminarians from the world that might harm them.

That was the pre-Vatican II world in which seminarians were prepared for working among men and women by such spurn-the-world spiritual ideals as the famous one from the Imitation of Christ: “As often as I have been among men, I have returned less a man.”

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IRELAND
Vatican Insider

Postcards, petitions, and protests – many citizens want their country’s representative to stay at the Holy See

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

A Catholic wave has come crashing down on the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny. In Dublin, 100,000 postcards were sent to the head of government in protest at the closure of the Irish Embassy to the Holy See. Two months ago, Ireland downgraded its representation in the Holy See from resident to non-resident.

The website of the international movement “We Are Church” reported a statement made by the Jesuit essayist, Fr. Brian Lennon, published in the Italian Jesuit monthly magazine Popoli. Fr. Lennon warned that “the government has got the time frame wrong: it was in 1998 that Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, head of the Congregation for the Clergy, told the Irish bishops that the Vatican’s policy was to protect priests when they were accused.” According to the Government, this occurred within the last three years. “While it is a regrettable inaccuracy in such an important statement by the government, the minister’s words probably reflect the general indignation aroused by the revelations of the Cloyne Report,” Fr. Brian Lennon observed.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

VATICAN CITY, 26 JAN 2012 (VIS) – At midday today the Holy See Press Office published a note written by its director, Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., concerning a television programme, “Gli intoccabili”, transmitted yesterday evening by Italy’s “La7” television network. Fr. Lombardi highlights the “questionable journalistic methods” with which the programme was made, and his “disappointment at the revelation of reserved documents”, noting that such things often form part of the “biased coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church”.

The Holy See Press Office director then turns to focus on two considerations “which were not given space in the course of the debate”. Firstly “the activities of Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano as secretary general of the Governorate of Vatican City State certainly had many positive aspects, as he contributed to the efforts being made to ensure administrative rigour, economisation and the improvement of what was a difficult overall economic situation. … However, a fairer evaluation would have taken account of the trends of the market, the investment criteria adopted over recent years, and other important circumstances. … Certain accusations – some very serious – made during the course of the programme, especially those concerning the members of the Finance and Management Committee of the Governorate and the Secretariat of State, will lead both the Secretariat of State and the Governorate to adopt all measures (including if necessary legal measures) to protect the honour of morally upright and highly professional people who serve the Church, the Pope and the common good. In any case, the positive criteria of correct and transparent management which inspired Archbishop Vigano certainly continue to guide the current directors of the Governorate. … This is in keeping with the policy to which the Holy See is committed of increasing transparency and attentively monitoring of economic activities”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge today heard more disturbing evidence — including some admissions — of priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who sexually assaulted boys and physically hurt children but still were allowed to continue their service, and their abuse.

The prosecution alleges these “prior bad acts” show a pattern of conduct by the church that contributed to the criminal conduct of defendant Msgr. William Lynn.

Some of the cases cited in court — about 30 in all — date back to the 1960s, but in many of those cases the priests continued to serve for decades. Among the allegations is that predator priests in some cases preyed on numerous children, in unspeakable ways.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

La trasmissione televisiva “Gli intoccabili” andata in onda ieri sera, accompagnata dall’abituale contorno di articoli e commenti può essere oggetto di molteplici considerazioni, a cominciare dalla discutibilità del metodo e degli espedienti giornalistici con cui è stata realizzata, per continuare con l’amarezza per la diffusione di documenti riservati. Ma non è di questo che ora vogliamo principalmente parlare, essendo oggi tutto ciò fin troppo abituale, sia come metodo generale, sia come stile di informazione faziosa nei confronti del Vaticano e della Chiesa cattolica. Proponiamo piuttosto due semplici considerazioni che non hanno trovato spazio nel dibattito.

La prima. L’azione svolta da mons. Viganò come Segretario Generale del Governatorato ha certamente avuto aspetti molto positivi, contribuendo ad una gestione caratterizzata dalla ricerca del rigore amministrativo, del risparmio e del raddrizzamento di una situazione economica complessiva difficile. Questi risultati, ottenuti durante la Presidenza del card. Lajolo, sono chiari e non sono negati da nessuno. Una valutazione più adeguata richiederebbe tuttavia di tener conto dell’andamento dei mercati e dei criteri degli investimenti nel corso degli ultimi anni, ricordare anche altre circostanze importanti, come i risultati notevolissimi dell’attività dei Musei Vaticani, con flusso accresciuto di pubblico e orari di apertura più ampi, ricordare le finalità non puramente economiche ma di supporto della missione della Chiesa universale da parte dello Stato della Città del Vaticano che sono motivo di spese anche notevoli, e così via. Alcune accuse poi – anche molto gravi – fatte nel corso della trasmissione, in particolare quelle nei confronti dei membri del Comitato Finanza e Gestione del Governatorato e della Segreteria di Stato di Sua Santità, impegnano la Segreteria di Stato stessa e il Governatorato a perseguire tutte le vie opportune, se necessario legali, per garantire l’onorabilità di persone moralmente integre e di riconosciuta professionalità, che servono lealmente la Chiesa, il Papa e il bene comune.

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AUSTRIA
The Associated Press

VIENNA (AP) — The Vienna archdiocese has apologized for the publication of a list of people who have formally left the Roman Catholic church.

A statement says those affected have been asked “for forgiveness,” noting making the names public “is not allowed by state or church rules.”

The statement was issued Thursday after a priest in a village north of Vienna listed local church-leavers in the diocese newspaper. The archdiocese says the priest has since “apologized in the form of a Mass and has written those affected a letter” of apology.

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DEUTSCHLAND
op-online

Braunschweig – Weil er über Jahre mehrere Jungen sexuell missbraucht hat, muss ein katholischer Priester aus Salzgitter für sechs Jahre ins Gefängnis. Er soll sich 250 Mal vergriffen haben.

Der 46-Jährige habe sich in 250 Fällen an drei 9 bis 15 Jahre alten Jungen vergangen, urteilte das Landgericht Braunschweig am Donnerstag.

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NEDERLAND
Tubantia

OOTMARSUM – Hij blijft shockeren en confronteren. De Ootmarsumse kunstenaar Frans Houben stelt op allerlei mogelijke manieren het seksueel misbruik binnen de katholieke kerk aan de kaak. Zij nieuwste uiting voor de galerie aan de Oldenzaalsestraat is een glasgebakken kruis met een corpus ernaast en een bord met de tekst: Vol verlangen ging ik toen hangen, nu: 2012 jaar later heb ik een dikke vette kater.

Hiermee stelt hij dat de kruisiging van Jezus Christus niets heeft gebracht. Volgens velen in Ootmarsum overschrijdt Houben daarmee de grens van het betamelijke. Omdat hij Jezus aan het kruis in zijn protest betrekt, zou er sprake zijn van godslastering. Houben is zich echter van geen kwaad bewust.

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BELGIE
Vandaag

De deskundigen van de Kamercommissie Seksueel Misbruik in de Kerk moeten nagaan of ook een schaderegeling mogelijk is voor slachtoffers van verjaard seksueel misbruik in de sportsector en in de medische wereld. Dat vindt minister van Justitie Annemie Turtelboom (Open Vld).

Ze antwoordde zopas op een vraag van CD&V-fractieleider Raf Terwingen. Hij wees erop dat vele slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik dat door niet-geestelijken is gepleegd, zich gediscrimineerd voelen omdat zij geen schadevergoeding meer kunnen krijgen als hun feiten verjaard zijn. Slachtoffers van geestelijken kunnen dit wel, dank zij het akkoord dat de Kerk met de Kamercommissie Seksueel Misbruik sloot.

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TOLEDO (OH)
NorthwestOhio

TOLEDO — A Toledo priest is appealing a judge’s decision to deny him a new trial.

Published reports say in a notice of appeal filed Monday, Rev. Gerald Robinson claims his constitutional rights were violated because police documents that could have helped his defense attorneys were misfiled and not discovered until years after his trial.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

VATICAN CITY — A top Vatican official who is now the envoy to Washington denounced corruption and waste in the management of the Holy See in letters to Pope Benedict XVI, Italian media reported on Wednesday.

Carlo Maria Vigano was secretary general of the governorate of the Vatican — the person in charge of the administration — until October, when he was named ambassador to the United States in what was seen as a demotion.

In extracts from the letters published in Corriere della Sera and Libero, Vigano said he had faced a “disastrous” situation when he became head of the governorate in 2009 and said his transfer to Washington was “punishment”.

“My transfer is causing disarray and discouragement among those who believed it was possible to resolve the numerous situations of corruption and waste” in the Vatican, he reportedly said in one letter to the pope in March 2011.

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CANADA
Hamilton Spectator

GUELPH Former Hamilton Catholic priest James Boudreau has pleaded guilty to sexual assault.

Boudreau, a 68-year-old bald, heavy-set man, wearing silver-rimmed glasses, stood beside his lawyer Roger Yachetti as he pleaded guilty in Guelph’s provincial court to two sexual assaults.

He will be sentenced April 13.

Court was told Boudreau, now retired, took advantage of a young man’s friendship and another’s interest in the clergy when he sexually assaulted the two in the 1980s.

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GERMANY
Monsters and Critics

Braunschweig, Germany – A German court convicted a priest Thursday of sexually abusing three boys and sent him jail for six years in one of the worst recent abuse cases to come to light in Germany’s Catholic Church.

The 46-year-old man, whose name was withheld under privacy guidelines for media, was convicted in Braunschweig on 214 aggravated counts of sex with a minor and 36 lesser counts of the same charge.

The court heard the parish priest abused the children during youth camps.

‘He exploited the trust of their parents,’ said Judge Manfred Teiwes as he passed sentence. The defendant admitted the charges after a plea bargain at the start of the trial fixing an upper limit on the sentence.

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GERMANY
The Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — A German court has convicted a Roman Catholic priest of some 250 counts of sexually abusing children over a several-year period and sentenced him to six years in prison.

German news agency dapd reported that the state court in Braunschweig on Thursday convicted the priest, who was found guilty of abusing three boys aged 9 to 15 between 2004 and 2011.

The 46-year-old priest, who wasn’t identified, was arrested in July after one victim told his mother what had happened. He admitted the abuse when he went on trial Jan. 13.

He also faces church disciplinary proceedings.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBC

[with video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph announced Wednesday that a Kansas City-area pastor has been placed on administrative leave.

The Rev. Robert Finn said the Rev. Matthew Bartulica has been restricted from public ministry. He has been the pastor at St. Cyril Parish in Sugar Creek, Mo.

In a press release, the diocese said information came to the Ombudsman that prompted Finn and the Independent Review Board to “invoke a strict application of all diocesan policies and procedures.”

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SUGAR CREEK (CO)
The Examiner

Posted Jan 25, 2012

Sugar Creek, MO —

A Sugar Creek pastor has been placed on administrative leave.

The Rev. Matthew Bartulica had served as pastor for St. Cyril Parish in Sugar Creek for about six months before the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph placed him on administrative leave earlier this week.

On Wednesday, the diocese said in a press release that information came to the Ombudsman that prompted Bishop Robert Finn and the Independent Review Board to “invoke a strict application of all diocesan policies and procedures.”

In the wake of the church’s recent sex scandal, Finn appointed the ombudsman as an independent public liaison to field and investigate any reports of suspicious or inappropriate behavior. The church said it would not comment about the nature of the information involving Bartulica until more facts were known.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Michael P. Mayko, Staff Writer

Published 11:28 p.m., Wednesday, January 25, 2012

For the past five years Rod Khattabi’s work as a federal agent has taken him through the sewers of child pornography, the degradation of teenage prostitutes and the horrific sexual abuse of Haitian and South African children in humanitarian programs.

Each time, Khattabi has come back with evidence to arrest and convict people like Edgardo Sensi, who with his girlfriend made child pornography of sexual encounters with the woman’s 8-year old daughter in Fairfield County; Corey Davis, of New York; Theodore Briggs, of Norwalk, for running separate prostitution rings involving teenage girls; Douglas Perlitz, who admitted abusing Haitian street boys in a program he designed to feed, educate and clothe them; and Jessie Osmun, a Peace Corps volunteer from Milford, now under arrest for abusing girls as young as 4 in a South African HIV-encampment.

“I’ve put narcotics traffickers, money launderers and gun runners behind bars and that feels good,” Khattabi said. “But being able to build a case against a sexual abuser and knowing that you may have saved a child … there’s no better feeling than that. You feel like you made a difference.”

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AUSTRALIA
Clan.org

The Greens MP David Shoebridge has produced a consultation paper regarding a proposed legal reform which will make it easier for victims of sexual abuse to seek fair compensation from the Catholic Church.

David Shoebridge Greens MP is asking interested parties to read this consultation paper and put in submissions based on the ten consultation questions.

Please understand this is not about you writing your personal story, it is a chance to comment on the consultation paper only and you need to answer the 10 questions.

Click HERE to view the consultation paper

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NEDERLAND
Klokk

Als we alles op een rijtje zetten, dan staat de zaak van seksueel misbruik binnen de katholieke kerk totaal op zijn kop. In ons huidig Nederlands Strafrecht wordt de verdachte als dader gestraft. Wat ondenkbaar is, is dat de verdachte bepaald welke regels en normen aanwezig zijn betreffende het onderzoek naar ´zijn daderschap´ en als veroordeelde dader nooit kan bepalen welke straf of boete hij/zij krijgt.

De kerk zag in begin 2010 de bui al hangen en nam ogenblikkelijk veel initiatieven. Bij te grote publiciteit, vond de kerk – waarom juist de kerk?- het noodzakelijk dit onafhankelijk te laten onderzoeken. De kerk stelde een onafhankelijke commissie in, de commissie Deetman. En daarover wil ik alleen maar kwijt dat mijn gevoelens van onafhankelijkheid bij de commissie Deetman volledig aanwezig was. Alleen mocht de commissie alleen dat onderzoeken wat de kerk – de daders- aan opdracht hadden meegegeven. Het is dan zo simpel om jezelf in dat onderzoek te beschermen.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer

A letter written by a Philadelphia priest four decades ago about teenage brothers on a sadomasochistic outing could help prove that church officials endangered children 30 years later, a prosecutor contended Wednesday.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia learned about the letter in 1968, but allowed the Rev. John Mulholland to work and minister at parishes across the region until 2002, Assistant District Attorney Mariana Sorensen said.

“It shows that they put blinders on,” Sorensen told Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina.

Prosecutors want to be allowed to tell jurors about decades-old conduct by Mulholland, who no longer is a priest, and dozens of other priests during the March trial for William J. Lynn, the archdiocese’s former secretary for clergy. They say the evidence will help them prove that Lynn’s actions regarding two other priests, facing trial with him, are part of a long-term pattern or practice by the church of protecting abusive clergy and hiding their conduct from parishioners.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Sentinel

A TEENAGER was so upset after being sexually abused by a priest that he tried to kill himself, a court heard.

The alleged victim is one of eight people who have come forward to claim they were abused by Alexander Bede Walsh as youngsters. The alleged abuse is said to have taken place over 20 years between 1974 and 1994.

Walsh, aged 58, is currently on trial at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court facing 27 charges including indecent assault and indecency.

Yesterday, jurors heard from one alleged victim who claimed he went to stay with Walsh when he worked at Cotton College in the Staffordshire Moorlands.

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IRELAND
Irish Catholic

Senior Vatican officials will hear first hand of the experiences of Irish abuse victims at a major conference in Rome early next month aimed at ensuring better Church guidelines worldwide to ensure abuse allegations are handled properly.

Marie Collins, who was abused by Dublin priest Fr Paul McGennis, was one of the first people to come forward on how the Church failed to respond properly to her abuse.

She was instrumental in the Government’s decision to set up the Murphy Commission. She will speak of her experiences before Church leaders from all over the globe as well as senior Vatican officials such as Cardinal William Levada.

Irish Church leaders will also be among the delegates. The Conference of Religious in Ireland (Cori) — which represents more than 9,000 women and men religious — will be represented by Sr Marianne O’Connor.

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VATICAN CITY
IOL News (South Africa)

January 26 2012
By NICOLE WINFIELD

An Italian news programme has obtained letters from a top Vatican official to the pope in which he begs not to be transferred after exposing corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts that cost the Holy See millions of euros (dollars).

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano was removed in October as the No 2 administrator of the Vatican city-state and was named the pope’s ambassador to Washington. While the job is highly prestigious, the posting took Vigano far from headquarters and out of the running for the Vatican’s top administrative job, which carries with it the rank of cardinal.

The investigative news programme “The Untouchables” on the private La7 network broadcast a series of letters Vigano sent Pope Benedict XVI and the secretary of state last year in which he claimed to have exposed corruption and abuse of office in the running of the Vatican’s administration.

Vigano said he corrected them during his two years as secretary-general of the Vatican city-state, the Vatican department that is responsible for everything from maintaining the pope’s gardens to running the Vatican Museums.

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VATICAN CITY
AGI

(AGI) Vatican City – The Italian bishops call for “a renewed support by the ecclesial community to paedophilia victims”.

They ask that the issue of sexual abuse of underage children by members of the church be addressed “with a spirit of justice, first of all showing great consideration for the victims of such abuses and also focusing on the training of future priests”. CEI spokesman, monsignor Domenico Pompili, said so, reporting on the works of the permanent episcopal council, under way in Rome. . .

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AUSTRALIA
Waverley Leader

by Tim Michell

AN Oakleigh family is praying they have not been victims of a three-month smokescreen as the State Government prepares to release a report into vulnerable children on Friday.

Chrissie and Anthony Foster, who have campaigned for a Royal Commission into sex abuse in the Catholic Church, are awaiting the results of the Protecting Victoria’s Vulnerable Children Inquiry.

Ms Foster said they hoped adding the terms of reference relating to church sexual abuses to an existing inquiry was not simply a stalling tactic.

“We’re hopeful that it’s not just a delaying tactic and we can get the response we’re after.”

In October last year, the government announced the inquiry would include an examination of the reporting of alleged abuses by Victorian churches and whether it should be made mandatory.

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UNITED STATES
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

PAT EATON-ROBB, Associated Press

Updated 01:22 p.m., Wednesday, January 25, 2012

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State University has prompted state lawmakers across the nation to take another look at laws designed to protect children and punish child predators.

Thirty-eight legislatures are back in session this month, most for the first time since retired assistant Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was charged in November with child sex abuse and two school officials were charged with failing to properly report abuse allegations. At least 12 states are considering mandatory reporting legislation this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and more are expected to craft bills as their sessions get into full swing.

In addition to measures to improve the reporting of suspected child sex abuse, bills have been drafted across the country that would increase or even eliminate the statutes of limitations for bringing criminal or civil cases against alleged abusers.

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WISCONSIN
Lake Geneva News

Rob Ireland

January 25, 2012 |
ELKHORN — A judge twice dismissing criminal charges against a former Walworth minister hasn’t dissuaded the District Attorney’s Office from pursuing the case.

On Monday, Walworth County District Attorney Phil Koss filed, for the third time, a criminal complaint against Joseph R. Fultz, who was the minister at Grace Evangelical Church.

Fultz is accused of having knowledge, but not reporting to law enforcement, sexual assaults that occurred between young boys at his church, at Faith Christian School and at the Abbey Resort. Fultz is not accused of having direct inappropriate contact with children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Grantham Journal

Published on Thursday 26 January 2012

A Church of England priest has been arrested by Sussex Police investigating historic allegations of sexual abuse on young boys in the late 1980s.

Semi-retired Father Wilkie Denford, 76, was held with an unnamed 68-year-old man who worked as an organist in the Lewes area of East Sussex, sources confirmed.

Both were arrested by Sussex Police child protection detectives on November 3 on suspicion of sexually abusing two young boys at locations in West Sussex in 1988.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The prosecution presents evidence of decades of what it calls “prior bad acts” it hopes to present in the clergy abuse trial. Authorities say this shows a pattern of ignoring abuse and protecting ‘predator priests’ long before the crimes allegedly committed in this case. Authorities allege the motive was money.

The prosecution has cited countless instances in which Archdiocesan officials were aware of alleged abuse by dozens of priests over decades, even cases in which priests admitted abuse, but allegedly the Archdiocese failed to act, often until the threat of a leak or legal action.

One prosecutor has told the court that was the concern of the Archdiocese. Another prosecutor told the court that church officials were not concerned about victims. They were concerned about liability, the almighty dollar, mother church.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A letter written by a Philadelphia priest four decades ago about teenage brothers on a sadomasochistic outing could help prove that church officials endangered children 30 years later, a prosecutor contended Wednesday.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia learned about the letter in 1968, but allowed the former Rev. John Mulholland to work and minister at parishes across the region until 2002, Assistant District Attorney Mariana Sorensen said.

“It shows that they put blinders on,” Sorensen told Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina.

Prosecutors want to be allowed to tell jurors about decades-old conduct by Mulholland and dozens of other priests during the March trial for William J. Lynn, the archdiocese’s former secretary for clergy. They say the evidence will help them prove that Lynn’s actions regarding two other priests, facing trial with him, are part of a long-term pattern or practice by the church of protecting abusive clergy and hiding their conduct from parishioners.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCTV

By DeAnn Smith, Digital Content Manager – email

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) –
A Catholic priest in the Sugar Creek area has been placed on administrative leave and removed from the ministry.

Bishop Robert Finn said in a statement that information from the ombudsman of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph had prompted “a strict application of all diocesan policies and procedures.”

Finn emphasized that the investigation is the preliminary stages.

“The diocese urges everyone to understand that further information only can be made available once the facts are known,” Finn said in the statement.

The diocese identified the priest in their statement, but KCTV5 is not doing so because he has not been charged or sued civilly.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 25, 2012

From the Office of Keep Your Trap Shut, You Pesky Victims’ Activists:

Pope Benedict yesterday espoused the virtues of silence:

By remaining silent, we allow the other person to speak, to express him or herself, and we avoid being tied simply to our own words and ideas without them being adequately tested.

Ah, the irony. I am honestly surprised I didn’t receive a signed copy of the speech in the mail with a gift-wrapped roll of duct tape.

Here’s my favorite:

The most authentic communication takes place between people who are in love: gestures, facial expressions and body language are signs by which they reveal themselves to each other.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
SNAP Wisconsin

The Philadelphia Daily News reported today on developments in the upcoming trial of Monsignor William Lynn. Lynn, the secretary for clergy under cardinal Belivacqua, is charged with endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy for his role in transferring known sex offending clerics into unsuspecting parishes.

Philadelphia prosecutors appeared before Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina and attempted to persuade her to allow into evidence earlier reports of child sex crimes against dozens of priests from the archdiocese. Prosecutors believe that these reports of childhood sexual assault, made during Lynn’s tenure as secretary of clergy, clearly demonstrate a pattern of behavior by Monsignor Lynn.

Lynn, as secretary of the clergy in the archdiocese of Philadelphia, was responsible for investigating reports of clergy sexual assault. He is the highest ranking Catholic cleric in the United States to face trial for his role in knowingly providing priest predators with continued access to children. He is being tried with Fr. James Brennan who is reported to have raped a 14 year old altar boy, Fr. Charles Engelhardt, and former priest Edward Avery. Engelhardt and Avery are each charged with raping a 10 year old boy.

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UNITED STATES
The Huffington Post

Danielle Tumminio

This January marks the 10th anniversary of the clergy sex abuse scandal that rocked the foundations of the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian denominations. What began as a series of news reports in the Boston Globe about six Roman Catholic priests and the cover-up arranged by Cardinal Law led to accusations against Christian leaders across the United States and internationally.

Ten years after the scandal erupted, clergy sexual abuse has been reported everywhere from Austria to Australia, and while it remains the case that only a small percentage of Christian clergy perpetrate sexual abuse, the effects of this small number of individuals is felt, at some level, by every Christian and by clergy trying to understand what the scandal means for them as leaders.

While they don’t make news headlines, the majority of priests and pastors across denominations do not commit abuse, and this group of individuals take their vocation very seriously. They dedicate their lives to bringing Christianity’s hope to their communities, to allowing God’s light to permeate the darkness.

What effect, then, has the sexual abuse scandal in the Church had on them?

Clergy realize that one of the most prominent ramifications of the scandal is the way in which the safety of the Church is no longer assumed. Ten years ago, many people, including clergy, assumed the church was a safe place for all people, including children, just as prior to Sept. 11, a certain amount of airport security was assumed in the United States that we no longer take for granted, as we remove our shoes at security checkpoints, stand in full-body scanners and submit to questioning by TSA officials. Likewise, clergy ordained prior to the sex abuse scandal remember a time when the Church was an assumed safe place. Today, that assumption is not made in the same way.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Washington Post

Lawyer: Church official threw monsignor ‘under the bus’ amid child sex accusations in Philly

By Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — An indicted Catholic church official is showing signs he won’t take the fall alone for the priest abuse scandal in Philadelphia, with his lawyer saying Wednesday that a successor threw him “under the bus.”

Monsignor William Lynn, 61, is the only official from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia facing trial for allegedly failing to remove accused predators from the priesthood. He served as secretary of clergy from 1992 to 2004.

Defense lawyers argue that Lynn took orders from then-Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and other superiors in the church hierarchy.

Prosecutors hope to include dozens of old abuse allegations to show a pattern of conduct at the trial, which is scheduled to start in late March and last several months.

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CHILE
La Tercera

por Angélica Baeza Palavecino – 25/01/2012

Fernando Karadima fue dado de alta ayer a las 15.45 horas, luego de haber ingresado el sábado por la tarde al Hospital Clínico de la UC tras sufrir un shock glicémico.

La información fue confirmada por su abogado Cristián Muga, quien indicó a La Tercera que se encuentra en buen estado de salud y estable.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

By JUDY L. THOMAS

Bishop Robert Finn has placed a priest in the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese on administrative leave and restricted him from public ministry, the diocese confirmed today.

“In recent weeks, information came to the Ombudsman that prompted Bishop Finn and the Independent Review Board to invoke a strict application of all diocesan policies and procedures,” the diocese said in a statement.

The diocese announced the action at the priest’s church Sunday but provided no further details about the case or what the allegations involved.

“While this investigation is in a preliminary phase, the diocese urges everyone to understand that further information only can be made available once the facts are known,” the statement said.

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CANADA
Guelph Mercury

GUELPH —Former Catholic priest James Boudreau took advantage of a young man’s friendship and another’s interest in the clergy when he sexually assaulted the two in the 1980s, a city courtroom heard Wednesday.

The 68-year-old bald, heavy-set man, wearing silver-rimmed glasses stood beside his lawyer Roger Yachetti as he pleaded guilty to two sexual assaults in Guelph’s provincial court.

Boudreau served as pastor at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, on Victoria Road North, from 1978 to 1985. He went on to work at six other Ontario churches, including Kitchener’s St. John’s Catholic Church.

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CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on January 25, 2012

Let’s hope Fr. Boudreau is put behind bars for a long time so no more kids are hurt. Let’s also hope that others who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes will step forward, get help, expose wrongdoers and start healing.

His bishop must personally go to each parish where Boudreau worked, begging anyone with suspicions or information about his crimes to step forward and call law enforcement. Anything short of that is irresponsible.

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NEW YORK
Observer-Dispatch

By ROCCO LaDUCA
Observer-Dispatch

Posted Jan 25, 2012

UTICA —

Whenever the collection was taken at the Church of the Sacred Heart and St. Mary Our Lady of Czestochowa in New York Mills, the parishioners believed their charity was going to benefit the church.

Instead, the money went to help their longtime pastor, the Rev. Valentine Krul, live a better a life, including buying a condominium in Florida, prosecutors said.

On Wednesday, Krul, 61, of Forestport, pleaded guilty in Oneida County Court to second-degree grand larceny for stealing more than $87,000 from the church between October 2008 and January 2011.

Krul was taken into custody after his plea to begin serving six months in Oneida County jail, where he once worked as chaplain for the Sheriff’s Office.

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BELGIE
Klokk

Tegen de achtergrond van het seksueel kindermisbruik door de bisschop van Brugge Roger Vangheluwe werd bij het aantreden van de nieuwe aartsbisschop André-Joseph Léonard door hem nadrukkelijk beloofd dat seksueel kindermisbruik in een pastorale relatie van dan af altijd zou worden aangegeven bij justitie. Hij baseerde zich daarbij op een officieuze richtlijn van het Vaticaan die reageerde op het stilzwijgen van Benedictus XVI op Pasen 2010. Die werd gepubliceerd op de public relations website van het Vaticaan: ‘Gids voor het verstaan van de basisprocedure van de congregatie van de geloofsleer betreffende beschuldigingen van seksueel misbruik’ (http://www.vatican.va/ressources/resources_guide-CDF-procedures_en.html).

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CALIFORNIA
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

The Los Angeles Daily Journal, a publication serving the law community, has reported that a leading Los Angeles abuse victim attorney, Raymond P. Boucher, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

At the time that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles paid out $660 million to 508 alleged abuse victims in July of 2007, Boucher was representing as many as 245 plaintiffs who were suing the Catholic Church.

The Journal cites “lengthy divorce proceedings” as the cause for the bankruptcy filing. Although Boucher and his wife made their divorce final in 2008, they continue to dispute over money issues.

The Journal reveals some eye-opening numbers related to the earnings Boucher may have garnered from clergy settlements in recent years.

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NEW YORK
WKTV

By JOLEEN FERRIS

UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) – A longtime priest in the Village of New York Mills was in Oneida County Court in Utica on Wednesday, where he admitted to taking money from the church’s bank account for his own use.

Father Valentine Krul pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree grand larceny, facing five years probation with the first six months spent in the Oneida County Jail.

Father Valentine, as he was known by many in the community, was actually the chaplain for the Oneida County Sheriff’s Department for more than 20 years. A priest for 34 years, he had been assigned to St. Mary’s Church in New York Mills for the past 17 years.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
My Fox Philly

[with video]

PHILADELPHIA – Prosecutors in the church abuse case will be in court Wednesday morning pushing to include some 30 child endangerment cases as part of the trial against Monsignor William Lynn.

Lynn is accused of keeping priests around who were suspected of abusing children.

Lynn’s defense lawyers argue that he was only doing what Cardinal Bevilaqua told him to do.

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CONNECTICUT
Valley Independent Sentinel

by STAFF | Jan 25, 2012

A 43-year-old man testified that he was molested in the 1980s by a priest who was assigned to a grammar school in Derby, the Hartford Courant reported Tuesday (Jan. 24).

The victim, identified only as “Jacob Doe,” took the stand during the first day of a trial in a civil lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford.

The lawsuit claims the Archdiocese knew that the priest, Ivan Ferguson, was a pedophile, but kept transferring to different assignments when complaints arose.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
ABC News

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA January 25, 2012 (AP)

Will a Catholic monsignor be left to defend the sins of the Philadelphia archdiocese in the child sex-abuse scandal?

A judge Wednesday may rule on whether prosecutors can use dozens of old priest-abuse allegations at Monsignor William Lynn’s upcoming child-endangerment trial.

Defense lawyers insist Lynn should only be tried for his oversight of the priest and ex-priest on trial with him on rape charges.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Libero

Beatissimo Padre, un mio trasferimento in questo momento provocherebbe smarrimento e scoramento in quanti hanno creduto fosse possibile risanare tante situazioni di corruzione e prevaricazione da tempo radicate nella gestione delle diverse Direzioni (del governatorato, l’amministrazione vaticana, nda)». È il 27 marzo del 2011. A rivolgersi in termini così drammatici direttamente a Benedetto XVI, denunciando privilegi, corrutele e zone opache Oltretevere, è un sacerdote di primo piano. Carlo Maria Viganò, un monsignore che viene incaricato nell’estate del 2009 su fiducia del Santo Padre a controllare tutti gli appalti e le forniture del Vaticano. La sua opera di tagli e pulizia dà fastidio. Tanto che finisce vittima di una congiura per bloccare l’opera di pulizia che aveva avviato. Da novembre Viganò è stato rimosso. È diventando nunzio apostolico a Washington negli Stati Uniti, andando a ricoprire la più prestigiosa rappresentanza diplomatica della Santa Sede nel mondo.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
Blitz

di Alessandro Camilli

CITTÀ DEL VATICANO – Rimuovereste voi dall’incarico un amministratore che in un anno ha portato i vostri conti da meno 8 milioni di euro a più 34? Probabilmente no, ma le vie del Signore, oltre che infinite, sono anche imperscrutabili. E così a monsignor Carlo Maria Viganò è stata tolta la guida della struttura che gestisce gli appalti e le forniture del più piccolo e, in proporzione, potente Stato della Terra: il Vaticano. In realtà però in questa vicenda il Signore con la “s” maiuscola c’entra poco o niente. I motivi dell’affidamento ad altro, prestigioso per carità, incarico di Viganò sono molto più prosaici: nella sua opera di risanamento forse ha scoperto un sistema di malaffare e corruzione noto e diffuso, pestando i piedi a personaggi molto più potenti di lui.

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VATICAN CITY
Times of Malta

A top Vatican official who is now the envoy to Washington denounced corruption and waste in the Holy See in a series of letters to Pope Benedict XVI, Italian media reported today.

Carlo Maria Vigano was secretary general of the governorate of the Vatican — the person in charge of the administration — until October, when he was named ambassador to the United States in what was seen as a demotion.

In extracts from the letters published in Corriere della Sera and Libero, Vigano said he had faced a “disastrous” situation when he became head of the governorate in 2009 and said his transfer to Washington was “punishment”.

“My transfer is causing disarray and discouragement among those who believed it was possible to resolve the numerous situations of corruption and waste” in the Vatican, he said in one letter to the pope in March 2011.

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VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe

January 25, 2012

VATICAN CITY—The Vatican says it has no comment on a media report that an Italian prelate was transferred to Washington as papal ambassador after he wrote to the pope complaining about corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts.

The allegation is carried in a report, being televised Wednesday night, by Gian Luigi Nuzzi, author of a 2009 book outlining the shady dealings by the Vatican bank.

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BELGIE
Reformatorisch Dagblad

BRUSSEL (ANP) – Bij de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk in België zijn opnieuw huiszoekingen verricht in verband met het grootscheepse onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik. De politie voerde maandag een 30-tal huiszoekingen uit bij ordes, congregaties en kloostergemeenschappen in Oost- en West-Vlaanderen en Brabant, maakte justitie dinsdag bekend.

Volgens Vlaamse media zijn een kleine honderd persoonlijke dossiers van mogelijk verdachte geestelijken meegenomen. Vorige week waren er een reeks huiszoekingen in de bisdommen.

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BELGIE
De Redactie

Politie en gerecht hebben gisteren opnieuw een 30-tal huiszoekingen uitgevoerd in het kader van het onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik in de kerk. Daarbij zijn een kleine honderd persoonlijke dossiers van geestelijken in beslag genomen.

De huiszoekingen vonden plaats bij 15 verschillende ordes, congregaties en kloostergemeenschappen in de provincies Oost- en West-Vlaanderen en Brabant. Vorige week waren er al gelijkaardige huiszoekingen bij de verschillende bisdommen in ons land (foto boven).

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ITALIA
Pianetanews

«Corruzione». La parola è sinonimo di malaffare e degrado morale. Ma se a pronunciarla è un altissimo prelato vicino al Papa, come rivela questa sera «Gli intoccabili », il programma d’inchiesta del giornalista Gian Luigi Nuzzi che va in onda su La7, allora vengono i brividi. Il suo nome: Carlo Maria Viganò, fino a qualche mese fa segretario generale del governatorato del Vaticano, la struttura che gestisce gli appalti e le forniture del più piccolo e potente Stato della Terra. «Corruzione» è proprio il termine che quel monsignore usa per descrivere in una clamorosa lettera a Benedetto XVI l’incredibile situazione che si è trovato davanti dopo aver assunto nel luglio del 2009 il delicatissimo incarico. Una bomba sganciata nelle stanze del potere vaticano il 27 marzo del 2011, nell’estremo tentativo di sventare una manovra di corridoio che culminerà con la sua rimozione.

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ITALIA
Corriere della Sera

Gianluigi Nuzzi torna in prima serata. Il giornalista, che ama le inchieste, costruirà in ognuna delle puntate un’indagine su fenomeni legati alla criminalità organizzata, alla corruzione politica e all’illegalità. Stasera Nuzzi si occupa di un tema su cui ha scritto anche un libro: gli affari del Vaticano.

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News (United States)

VATICAN CITY January 25, 2012 (AP)

The Vatican says it has no comment on a media report that an Italian prelate was transferred to Washington as papal ambassador after he wrote to the pope complaining about corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts.

The allegation is carried in a report, being televised Wednesday night, by Gian Luigi Nuzzi, author of a 2009 book outlining the shady dealings by the Vatican bank.

A report in Corriere della Sera on Wednesday said Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano used the term “corruption” in a letter to Pope Benedict XVI to explain the difficulties he faced in his position as secretary-general of the Vatican city-state.

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IRELAND
The Associated Press

DUBLIN (AP) — A defrocked Irish priest who was extradited from Brazil with British help has appeared in a Dublin court charged with 55 counts of sexually abusing 18 children.

The judge ordered 72-year-old Peter Kennedy held without bail Wednesday in Dublin’s Cloverhill Prison until his next court appearance Feb. 8.

Kennedy fled to England in 2002 after his accusers told police he had molested them when they were children from 1968 to 1984.

The church removed Kennedy from the priesthood in 2003 by which time he had emigrated to Brazil using his British passport. The church that year paid one of Kennedy’s accusers euro325,000 ($425,000) in damages, the biggest abuse settlement reported in Ireland.

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BELGIE
Nieuws

Het gerecht heeft opnieuw huiszoekingen verricht in het onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik binnen de kerk. Speurders zijn gisteren binnengevallen bij een 30-tal kloosterordes en congregaties. Maar ook bij de paters Oblaten in Blanden vielen ze binnen.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Patriot-Ledger

By Roy J. Harris Jr.

Jan. 25, is not a particularly remarkable day for most journalists, except among the top editors of America’s newspapers and news websites.

It is the deadline for submitting entries for the Pulitzer Prizes, the most prestigious awards for U.S. journalism, dating to 1917. That’s 95 years of honoring great reporting, along with accomplishment in arts and letters acknowledged by the non-journalism branch of the prizes.

As it happens, I’m in Los Angeles talking today to classes at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism. My topic: what I consider the best example of Pulitzer-winning team investigative reporting since Watergate. That reporting, in the Boston Globe, began running 10 years ago this month.

On Jan. 6, 2002, the Globe first vividly documented the Catholic Church hierarchy’s cover-up of priests who sexually abused young parishioners – igniting a scandal still resonating around the U.S. and the world. Rightly, most of the anniversary’s attention so far has focused on the progress made by abuse victims and their families, and the way the issue still resonates within the Church.

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NEW MEXICO
El Defensor Chieftain

by Staff | January 25, 2012

Socorroans are mourning the loss of a native son, the much-revered, first New Mexico-born archbishop of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Rev. Robert Fortune Sanchez, who once played baseball on the dirt grounds of Mt. Carmel Catholic School as Bobby Sanchez.

A simple purple and black wreath on the doors of San Miguel Mission over the weekend reminded parishioners and other passers-by that the former archbishop was very much a respected and beloved member of this community.

His onetime classmates at Mt. Carmel held a vigil last Friday night, after learning of his death earlier that day, gathering in front of the historic mission church, now closed for renovations.

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