ABUSE TRACKER

ROME
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

An Irish victim of sexual abuse bluntly told a Vatican summit this morning that her experience of being ignored, and her suffering minimized, by church leaders caused “the final death of any respect” she once felt for ecclesial authority.

Marie Collins said there must be “acknowledgement and accountability for the harm and destruction that has been done to the life of victims and their families” before she and other victims can regain trust in the leadership of the Catholic church.

Collins made the remarks at a four-day summit on the sexual abuse crisis titled “Towards Healing and Renewal” being held at the Jesuit-run Gregorian University.

Collins said she was abused at the age of thirteen, just after her confirmation, by a chaplain in a hospital where she was recovering from an illness. As a deeply faithful Catholic at the time, she said, the experience was deeply traumatic.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Sentinel

CATHOLIC priest Alexander Bede Walsh has been convicted of sexually abusing seven boys.

The 58-year-old, pictured right, was found guilty of 18 charges of indecent assault and one serious sexual offence at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court yesterday.

A jury acquitted him of three counts of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child.

The jury was today continuing its deliberations on the four remaining charges.

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ROME
Times LIVE (South Africa)

Irish anti-abuse campaigner Marie Collins told Catholic leaders at a Vatican summit that the Church has to be held accountable for destroying the lives of victims of paedophile priests.

“Apologising for the actions of the abusive priests is not enough,” Collins told bishops and cardinals from around the world gathered at the Vatican’s Gregorian University for an unprecedented conference on child abuse.

“There must be acknowledgement and accountability for the harm and destruction that has been done to the life of victims and their families by the often deliberate cover up and mishandling of cases by their superiors.”

Collins recounted in horrifying detail her abuse by a Dublin priest when she was 13. “Those fingers that would abuse my body the night before were the next morning holding and offering me the sacred host,” said the 64-year-old.

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UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Jamie Lewis

February 7, 2012

A former Roman Catholic clergyman from Staffordshire has been convicted of 19 charges of abusing boys as young as seven.

Alexander Bede Walsh, 58, from Abbots Bromley, was found guilty at Stoke crown court of sexually abusing seven boys aged between seven and 16 while working as a priest.

The jury heard that the incidents happened between 1975 and 1993 whilst he was working as a priest in Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Coventry.

Walsh denied a total of 27 counts of sexual assault on young boys. He told the court he had never abused or inappropriately touched any of the victims.

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CANADA
Nunatsiaq News

A team of five RCMP members continues to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct in Igloolik against disgraced priest Father Eric Dejaeger, Crown prosecutor said in court in Iqaluit Feb. 6.

This means the RCMP’s investigation investigation into Dejaeger won’t be finished until a May 7 court appearance by Dejaeger in the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit, where the Crown is expected to file a formal indictment.

Dejaeger currently faces up to 39 criminal charges, most alleging the sexual molestation of children.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Daniel Tepfer

Published 06:10 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012
BRIDGEPORT — Former New York Cardinal Edward Egan, who was at the center of the priest abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport when he was bishop here, has drawn criticism from a national victims’ group and a local law firm that represented victims with an interview he recently gave.

In the recent edition of Connecticut Magazine, Egan said that while bishop here he did nothing wrong regarding abuse allegation against priests in the diocese and in fact never had a case of alleged abuse while he was bishop.

In the interview Egan also said he believes there is no legal requirement to report abuse cases in Connecticut and expressed regret for the apology he made regarding the priest scandal here.

“First of all, I should have never said that,” Egan told the magazine regarding his 2002 statement of regret. “I did say if we did anything wrong, I’m sorry, but I don’t think we did anything wrong.”

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ROME
The New York Times

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Published: February 6, 2012

ROME — Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church began a four-day symposium on Monday about the prevention of sexual abuse of minors by the clergy, an unprecedented assembly described by the Vatican as a response to a painful issue that has wracked the Church and estranged many faithful.

“We are still learning,” Cardinal William J. Levada, head of the Vatican office that deals with allegations of clerical abuse, told the 200 delegates during his keynote speech. “We need to help each other find the best ways to help victims, protect children,” he said, and to educate priests “to be aware of this scourge and to eliminate it from the priesthood.”

More than 100 bishops and 30 religious superiors, as well as Catholic university rectors and victims were participating in the symposium, titled “Towards Healing and Renewal.”

Participants planned to discuss how the Church can better listen to victims, cultivate a consistent response to cases of pedophilia and thwart future cases of abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
Washington Post

By Alessandro Speciale| Religion News Service, Updated: Monday, February 6

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican’s doctrinal chief on Monday (Feb. 6) told Catholic bishops from all over the world that they have a duty to “cooperate” with civil law on cases of clergy sexual abuse of minors.

Cardinal William J. Levada, a former archbishop of San Francisco who now heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith with jurisdiction over abuse cases, stopped short, however, of requiring bishops to report abuse cases to prosecutors or police.

Speaking to a Vatican-sponsored conference on the church’s response to the scandal at Rome’s Gregorian University, Levada admitted that the church’s relations with civil authorities “may be different from one nation to another,” but stressed that this must not affect the basic principle of cooperation.

He also urged bishops to be “more proactive” in their response to the crisis, rather than wait for the scandal to erupt in the media.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Associated Press

By KATHY MATHESON, Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Prosecutors overseeing a child sex-abuse case involving three Roman Catholic priests can reference molestation claims against more than 20 other clergymen to try to establish a pattern of how such allegations were handled, a judge ruled Monday.

The ruling allows an “overwhelming amount of evidence” into the case, defense lawyer William Brennan said in court, even though the judge excluded accusations against several other priests that prosecutors had sought to introduce.

Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said the evidence is necessary for jurors to understand the totality of the circumstances and to draw accurate inferences in the upcoming trial against Monsignor William Lynn.

“The trial court is not required to sanitize the trial to eliminate all unpleasant facts from the jury’s consideration, where those facts … form part of the history and natural development of the events and offenses for which the defendant is charged,” Sarmina said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

By Riley Yates, Of The Morning Call

5:19 p.m. EST, February 6, 2012

The same crime, a different victim.

The same phrases of piety, the same acts of immorality.

Disgraced Bethlehem pastor Santos A. Rosado was sentenced Monday to up to 19 years in state prison for systematically sexually abusing a girl for years starting when she was 12.

It marked the second child molestation case Rosado faced judgment for, and, like the first, his family cast him in court as a victim and not a perpetrator. They called him a man of God who has won forgiveness.

A Northampton County prosecutor called him a danger to society for his sexual proclivities. “This is the way he advises. This is his pastoral calling, so to speak,” said Assistant District Attorney Patricia Broscius.

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WISCONSIN
News 8000

SPARTA, Wis. — A former pastor and over-the-road trucker from Tomah appears in court on accusations he sexually abused a teenager for several years.

64-year-old Michael Delaney appeared in court Monday on felony sexual assault of a child and child enticement charges.

According to court documents, the male teen told investigators Delaney allegedly touched his genitals and engaged in sexual acts.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Philadelphia judge today ruled that evidence of alleged “prior bad acts” can be admitted in the upcoming child sex abuse trial of three Catholic clergymen.

Two priests are charged with abusing boys, and Msgr. William Lynn — a longtime “secretary of clergy” in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia — allegedly endangered children by allowing alleged predator priests to remain in their ministry positions where they could continue to abuse children.

Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge Teresa Sarmina today ruled admissible what one defense attorney has called “an avalanche of evidence” against the three defendants.

The prosecution will be allowed to present evidence involving nearly two dozen priests, alleging that the archdiocese routinely protected these allegedly abusive priests by shuffling them from parish to parish for decades, and that Msgr. Lynn’s action, or inaction, was part of a pattern of conduct that led to the alleged abuse by the two co-defendants in this case.

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THAILAND
UCA News

Father Michael Kelly SJ, Bangkok
Thailand
February 6, 2012

Very early in my spiritual life, I was brought up short by the offhand remark of a wise old priest: “You’re a strange sort of Christian if the sins of others disturb you.”

Like many in my generation, I was raised to think that Catholicism was about achieving perfection and I should do everything I could to be perfect. In fact, I thought it was up to me to be perfect.

Wrong. That’s a heresy condemned in the early Church – Pelagianism – and it led St Augustine to develop our understanding of grace and its action in our lives, which has remained unsurpassed in 1,600 years. …

There’s the latest, where leaked documents reveal the misgivings of the current papal nuncio to the US who wanted to stay at his post as second in charge of Vatican governance to clean up the City State’s financial and business practices.

Archbishop Vigano wanted to see through the task of reforming the Vatican’s business systems and processes rather than accept an apparently more prestigious position. And, as if to compound the problem and confirm the skeptics in their cynicism, the Vatican’s spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi SJ, prescinded from considering the documents and did what amounts to shooting the messenger: He lambasted the media for releasing hitherto confidential documents.

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ROME
The Journal (Ireland)

A SENIOR US cardinal as defended Pope Benedict’s handling of clerical abuse revelations, saying people should be thankful rather than criticising the pontiff.

Cardinal William Levada told a Vatican-backed conference on safeguarding children that Benedict had been “instrumental” in implementing standards to crack down on paedophile clergy, as well as supportive of US bishops’ efforts to fight the abuse.

Before becoming pontiff, Benedict held Levada’s job as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church office responsible for shaping the Holy See’s policies on handling abuse cases involving clergy.

As the symposium’s keynote opening speaker, Levada lamented that the pope “has had to suffer attacks by the media over these past years in various parts of the world when he should receive the gratitude of us all, in the Church and outside it.” The Vatican released copies of the speech.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Feb. 06, 2012
By Francis X. Rocca, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — In an unusually public rebuke of a high-ranking colleague, Vatican officials dismissed as baseless the accusations of “corruption and abuse of power” made in letters by an archbishop who is now apostolic nuncio to the United States.

In a statement released by the Vatican Feb. 4, Cardinal-designate Giuseppe Bertello and Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, the current and immediate past presidents of the Governorate of Vatican City State, described as a “cause of great sadness” the recent “unlawful publication” by Italian journalists of two letters addressed to Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state.

The letters, written by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano when he was the governorate’s secretary general, or second-highest official, contained assertions based on “erroneous evaluations” or “fears unsupported by proof,” the statement said.

Archbishop Vigano’s letter to the pope, dated March 27, 2011, lamented “so many situations of corruption and abuse of power long rooted in the various departments” of the governorate, and warned that the archbishop’s departure from his position there “would provoke profound confusion and dejection” among all those supporting his efforts at reform.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

[NOTE OF GOVERNORATE ON LETTERS OF ARCHBISHOP VIGANO]

By David Kerr

Vatican City, Feb 6, 2012 / 01:45 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The body responsible for the governance of the Vatican City State is denying claims of corruption leveled by its former deputy governor, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.

The allegations were made in private correspondence with Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, in spring 2011 but were only recently leaked to an Italian television station.

“The allegations contained in them cannot but lead to the impression that the Governorate of Vatican City State, instead of being an instrument of responsible government, is an unreliable entity, at the mercy of dark forces,” said an official statement issued Feb. 4.

“After careful examination of the contents of the two letters, the President of the Governorate sees it as its duty to publicly declare that those assertions are the result of erroneous assessments, or fears based on unsubstantiated evidence and are even openly contradicted by the main characters invoked as witnesses.”

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ROME
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The Pope called for “profound renewal” in the Roman Catholic Church on Monday in an appeal sent to the first conference ever held by the Vatican on the subject of paedophile priests and child abuse.

By Nick Squires, Rome
8:30PM GMT 06 Feb 2012

But victims of abuse slammed the conference as an empty gesture likely to produce few results and called on the Holy See to take more concrete steps to ensure that paedophile priests were swiftly exposed and made to face justice.

Benedict XVI said he hoped the conference would “promote throughout the Church a vigorous culture of effective safeguarding and victim support”.

He said: “Healing for victims must be of paramount concern in the Christian community and it must go hand in hand with a profound renewal of the Church at every level.”

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ROME
The Associated Press

By FRANCES D’EMILIO, Associated Press

ROME (AP) — A top American cardinal on Monday defended Pope Benedict’s handling of sexual abuse cases by clergy, saying he should be praised not criticized, as advocates for abuse victims demanded that the Vatican release its secret files on pedophile priests.

Cardinal William Levada told a Vatican-backed symposium on safeguarding children that Benedict had been “instrumental” in implementing standards to crack down on pedophile clergy as well as supportive of U.S. bishops’ efforts to fight the abuse.

Before becoming pontiff, Benedict held Levada’s job as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church office ensuring doctrinal purity and, in recent decades, also shaping the Holy See’s policies on handling abuse cases involving clergy.

As the symposium’s keynote opening speaker, Levada lamented that the pope “has had to suffer attacks by the media over these past years in various parts of the world when he should receive the gratitude of us all, in the Church and outside it.” The Vatican released copies of the speech.

SNAP, a U.S-based support and advocacy group for those abused as minors by clergy, was dismissive of the four-day, closed-door gathering.

“True change and child protection comes through accountability from secular authorities,” a SNAP official, Joelle Casteix, said in a statement. “Until we have that, we must see Rome’s meeting for exactly what it is: cheap window dressing.”

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CANADA
CBC News

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada is in Whitehorse this week.

The commission is letting anyone who has been affected by residential schools record their stories.

Joanne Henry was sent to residential school at just five years old. She now counsels other former residential school students and their families.

Henry hopes Yukoners will take the opportunity to share their stories.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Rutland & Stamford Mercury

Published on Monday 6 February 2012

A Roman Catholic priest from Staffordshire has been found guilty of committing sexual offences against seven boys between 1975 and 1993.

A jury at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court, which is still considering four further counts against Alexander Bede Walsh, took around six hours to find him guilty of 18 charges of indecent assault and another serious sexual offence.

The jury also acquitted the 58-year-old of three counts of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A former Roman Catholic priest from Staffordshire has been found guilty of sexually abusing seven boys.

Alexander Bede Walsh, 58, of Church Lane, Abbots Bromley, has been convicted of 19 charges of abusing boys aged from seven to 16, between 1975 and 1993, while working as a priest.

The jury at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court found him not guilty of four charges.

It will resume its deliberations on Tuesday on four other charges, three of which concern an eighth alleged victim.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, has sent a message in the name of Pope Benedict to an international symposium of bishops and church personnel seeking to provide a coordinated response to the sex abuse crisis. In the message to participants at the Symposium entitled “Towards Healing and Renewal”, the Pope reiterates his conviction that “healing for abuse victims must be of paramount concern in the Christian community”, together with “a profound renewal of the Church at every level”.

The Pope therefore “supports and encourages every effort to respond with evangelical charity to the challenge of providing children and vulnerable adults with an ecclesial environment conducive to their human and spiritual growth” and he urges the participants in the Symposium “to continue drawing on a wide range of expertise in order to promote throughout the Church a vigorous culture of effective safeguarding and victim support.”

On Monday evening Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, addressed the inaugural session of the symposium which is hosted by the Pontifical Gregorian University.

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VERMONT
Burlington Free Press

Businessman buys Camp Holy Cross from Roman Catholic diocese for $4M, plans to build houses

Written by
Sam Hemingway

A Colchester businessman has purchased the 26-acre Camp Holy Cross property on Mallets Bay in Colchester from the state’s Roman Catholic diocese for $4 million.

Bruce Barry, who owns land near the church camp property, said Monday he has no immediate plans for the site other than to have all of its 22 buildings demolished because they are in poor, unusable condition.

“We’re going to start by taking down the fallen-down buildings and cleaning the property up and possibly designing a sea wall to stop the erosion there,” Barry said Monday. “In the future, I would say we’ll probably put up some really nice houses along the lakefront or something like that.”

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ROME
BBC News

Roman Catholic leaders have begun an unprecedented summit in Rome on how the church should tackle the sexual abuse of children by priests.

In a Vatican statement, Pope Benedict said “healing for victims” should be a major concern as much as “profound renewal of the Church at every level”.

The summit aims to produce guidelines on tackling abusive priests and helping police to prosecute paedophile crime.

Victims’ groups, who were not invited, have dismissed it as a PR exercise.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
York Dispatch

The Associated Press
Updated: 02/06/2012

PHILADELPHIA—The judge overseeing a child sex-abuse case involving three Roman Catholic priests in Philadelphia will allow prosecutors to reference previous molestation claims against other clergy at trial.

Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina ruled Monday that the abuse allegations are relevant to the upcoming trial of Monsignor William Lynn.

Lynn is a high-ranking church official charged with shuffling predator priests to unwitting parishes.

Prosecutors want to show a pattern of behavior in how Lynn handled the careers of priests credibly accused of molestation.

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UNITED STATES
Amarillo Globe-News

Submitted by Karen Smith Welch on Mon, 02/06/2012

Twice last week, I received e-mail from Roman Catholic Priest Frank Pavone seeking donations.

That’s not unusual. The fundraising marketing company used by Pavone’s pro-life charities – Priests for Life and several affiliates – make several email pushes per week.

But this one doesn’t appear to do much to bolster Pavone’s claims that the group hasn’t made flubbed management of donations. Pavone is the New York priest whose latitude to perform religious rites has been limited to the Diocese of Amarillo by Amarillo Bishop Patrick J. Zurek.

Zurek curtailed Pavone’s activities in September, raising questions about the financial transparency of Priests for Life and two pro-life affiliates, Gospel of Life Ministries and Rachel’s Vineyard. Zurek went so far as to recommend, in a letter to U.S. Catholic bishops, that it be suggested to parishioners that they withhold donations until the questions are answered.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

Conceding that church officials in various parts of the world often adopted tough policies to fight child abuse only in response to negative media coverage, the Vatican’s top doctrinal official today called for a “more proactive” approach.

In part, that’s likely a reference to the fact that while the sexual abuse crisis has already exploded in North America and parts of Europe, it has not yet really arrived elsewhere, including much of the developing world — where two-thirds of all Catholics today live.

Among other points, American Cardinal William Levada stressed that the sexual abuse of minors is not merely a crime under church law, but also under civil law, and that the church is therefore obliged to report “such crimes to the appropriate authorities.”

Levada spoke this evening to a summit conference on sexual abuse hosted by the Jesuit-run Gregorian University in Rome, and co-sponsored by several Vatican departments. The four-day event is titled “Toward Healing and Renewal.”

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ROME
CBC News

A Vatican-hosted summit organized under the banner of “healing and renewal” for victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy members meets Monday, bringing together bishops from more than 100 countries.

Dismissed by some as a PR stunt to repair the church’s damaged reputation over years of scandal, the four-day symposium at the Gregorian University in Rome is expected to be attended by the Vatican’s chief anti-pedophilia prosecutor, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, as well as Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins, who was raped by a hospital chaplain when she was 13.

The heads of 33 religious orders will also take part. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to offer a special blessing for the closed-door conference.

Scicluna has said that protecting children must be “a permanent principle and concern” for the church worldwide.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Seán McCárthaigh

Monday, February 06, 2012

The Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said it is unlikely Pope Benedict XVI will attend this summer’s International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin because of the ongoing fallout of clerical sexual abuse scandals in Ireland.

Dr Martin indicated that a Papal visit to coincide with the Congress would be premature against a background of the strained relationship between Ireland and the Vatican following recent reports which were highly critical of the Church’s handling of child abuse controversies.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio, Dr Martin said the Pope had been invited to attend the Congress but that he had not yet formally responded to the invitation.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Prosecutors at the child endangerment and sex-abuse trial of three current and former priests will be allowed to tell jurors how the Archdiocese of Philadelphia handled at least 22 other sex-abuse allegations over decades, a judge ruled Monday.

The decision by Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina represented a significant victory for prosecutors in their case against Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former archdiocesan official accused of recommending parish assignments for two priests he allegedly knew or suspected would molest boys.

Prosecutors have argued that Lynn’s decisions as Secretary for Clergy in those cases reflected a broader, decades-long practice by church leaders to conceal and protect sexually abusive clergy.

They asked to introduce evidence of allegations against nearly 30 other priests, arguing it was necessary to give jurors a “complete picture” of how the archdiocese routinely responded, or failed to respond, to complaints or signals that priests were sexually assaulting children

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OKLAHOMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 06, 2012

We’re disappointed that Msgr. Edward Weisenburger has been promoted. For the past 16 years, he has been a high-ranking official (vicar general) in an archdiocese (Oklahoma City) with a disturbing record with children’s safety.

Oklahoma City’s archbishop tapped Weisenburger for the vicar general spot. In that role, Weisenburger was surely intimately involved in virtually all cases of clergy sexual misconduct.

Barely a year ago, Weisenburger kept silent for at least a month, and likely much longer, about credible child sex abuse allegations against Fr. Steven D. Cude. (A civil lawsuit against Cude was filed by attorney Shad Withers).That’s a violation of the promises that all US bishops made a decade ago to be “open and transparent” in clergy sex cases.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 06, 2012

We’re disappointed that Fr. Matt Bartulica has been so quickly restored to his job despite allegations of sexual misconduct or abuse. How thorough could an alleged church “investigation” be if it just took a couple of weeks?

We hope that anyone who may have been hurt by Fr. Bartulica doesn’t feel hurt and betrayed again by Bishop Finn’s premature move.

We hope that other current and former Catholic employees and members will do what Bishop Finn refuses to do – beg anyone with information or suspicions about child sex crimes – by Bartulica or any clerics – to call police immediately.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 06, 2012

Besides jail, two things keep kids safe from child predators – publicly exposing predators and deterring others from concealing their crimes. There’s no better way to do this than by reforming archaic, arbitrary, predator-friendly laws like the statute of limitations.

Dozens of states have done this in recent years. South Dakota, however, has gone backwards. Its lawmakers made kids more vulnerable, not less vulnerable, to child molesters. They have made life harder, not easier, for child sex victims. Representative Hickey’s bill can reverse this.

When adults know they can be penalized for wrongdoing, they’re apt to avoid wrongdoing. But when some adults know they’ll never face litigation for acting recklessly and deceitfully, they’ll be tempted to act recklessly and deceitfully. That’s one reason so many child molesters violate dozens and dozens of kids – because their employers have often escaped any consequences for ignoring or hiding their crimes. This must stop.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 06, 2012

How many meetings will it take for Rome to learn that child sex abuse is a crime, predators must be made public and jailed, and church officials who cover up for molesters must be held accountable?

But even after years of promises, meetings, and empty apologies, the Vatican cannot do the simplest, cheapest, and most child-friendly action possible: make public decades of secret files on clergy sex offenders and enablers.

This week in Rome, Catholic bishops and religious superiors from around the world are meeting for the Vatican-sponsored “Towards Healing and Renewal” conference. The four day symposium is being billed as a “global initiative on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults”.

Conference leaders say that the purpose of this event is to create guidelines on how to handle reports of childhood sexual abuse. Who will be leading the discussion? The very same “experts” and church officials who bear responsibility for the continued global cover-up of clergy child sex crimes, including Cardinal William Levada, who covered up criminal reports of child rape and sexual assault when he was archbishop of San Francisco, California and Portland, Oregon.

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ROME
Washington Post

Vatican cardinal says pope merits thanks, not attacks, for his handling of clergy sex abuse

By Associated Press,

ROME — The U.S. cardinal who leads the Vatican office overseeing cases of sexual abuse by clergy says Pope Benedict XVI should be thanked, not attacked, for his handling of the problem.

Cardinal William Levada vigorously defended Benedict in a speech to a Vatican-backed symposium in Rome aimed at showing church leaders how to help sex abuse victims and protect children. Before becoming pontiff, Benedict held Levada’s job, and the cardinal thanked him for supporting binding rules so U.S. bishops could crack down on abuse.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

By Anthony Karge

A Woodbridge pastor testified last week as a witness about his role in the alleged cover up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford.

Rev. Gene Gianelli, now pastor of Our Lady Assumption Church, was called as a witness for his time as an aide in the archdiocese more than 30 years ago.

According to the Hartford Courant, Gianelli testified that he helped find treatment for a priest accused of molesting boys. The Courant reported that he “testified that he decided to keep the name of the church clinic where the abusive priest was sent for treatment from the mother of two, abused brothers because he was afraid that she could become ‘a pest.’”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Mathew Cooper

Monday 06 February 2012

A Roman Catholic priest has been found guilty of committing sexual offences against seven boys between 1975 and 1993.

A jury at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court, which is still considering four further counts against Alexander Bede Walsh, took around six hours to find him guilty of 18 charges of indecent assault and another serious sexual offence.

The jury also acquitted the 58-year-old of three counts of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child.

Walsh, of Church Lane, Abbots Bromley, near Rugeley, Staffordshire, had denied a total of 27 counts alleged to have been committed while he was working in Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Coventry.

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ROME
Voice of America

Posted Monday, February 6th, 2012

Roman Catholic leaders from across the globe have opened an unprecedented Vatican-sponsored summit on ways to detect and prevent sexual child abuse by clergy.

Organizers say the four-day, closed-door symposium, hosted by Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University, includes bishops from 100 countries and representatives of more than 30 religious orders.

University Vice Rector Hans Zollner said the summit will include a vigil ceremony Tuesday in Rome’s Saint Ignatius church in which several religious orders embroiled in the church’s sex abuse scandal will publicly ask forgiveness from abuse survivors.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

VATICAN CITY, Holy See — Pope Benedict XVI on Monday urged “profound renewal” in the Catholic Church to combat child abuse in a message to participants of a first-ever Vatican conference on the issue.

“Healing for victims must be of paramount concern in the Christian community, and it must go hand in hand with a profound renewal of the Church at every level,” the pope was quoted as saying in a statement by the Vatican.

He said the conference of Catholic leaders should “promote throughout the Church a vigorous culture of effective safeguarding and victim support.”

The statement said the pope “supports and encourages every effort to respond with evangelical charity to the challenge of providing children and vulnerable adults with an ecclesial environment conducive to their human and spiritual growth.”

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ROME
Monsters and Critics

Rome – A four-day Vatican-sponsored symposium on ways to prevent and detect sexual abuses of minors by clerics began in Rome on Monday, attended by representatives from Catholic dioceses around the world.

The gathering, hosted by Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University, is entitled ‘Towards Healing and Renewal.’ Organizers say it aims to tackle topics linked to abuse scandals which in recent years have rocked the Catholic Church.

Widespread allegations of abuse have surfaced in several parts of the world, including the US, Ireland, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands and Pope Benedict XVI’s native Germany.

The symposium is being held against the backdrop of ongoing criticism of the Vatican’s handling of the abuses, including measures against so-called predator-priests. Many dioceses face a slew of lawsuits by victims or groups representing them.

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HOLYOKE (MA)
WWLP

Lynn Barry

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – A judge has refused to rule on a case brought by the Diocese of Springfield to evict parishioners from the now closed Mater Dolorosa church in Holyoke.

According to Diocese spokesperson Mark Dupont the judge refused to rule on all claims, both those by the diocese and the counter-suit filed by the church members.

Since the church was closed last year Mater Dolorosa parishioners have maintained a round-the-clock vigil in the church.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Ewan Palmer | February 6, 2012

Catholic leaders from around the world have gathered in Rome for talks hosted by the Vatican on finding ways to stamp out paedophilia in the Church.

Bishops from 100 countries and the leaders of 33 religious orders have convened at Gregorian University in Rome for the four-day meeting.

Abuse victims, who are among the speakers at the conference, will be asked for forgiveness.

The symposium, Towards Healing and Renewal, aims to launch a Centre for Child Protection in Germany to fight sex abuse by the clergy in the church worldwide.

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VATICAN CITY
The Sacramento Bee

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI has named a new bishop for the Salina, Kansas, diocese.

The Vatican said Monday that the pontiff selected Monsignor Edward John Weisenburger for the post. the 51-year-old Weisenburger has been serving as vicar general and rector of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral in the Oklahoma City diocese.

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HOLYOKE (MA)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: February 06, 2012 – 10:59 am

HOLYOKE, Mass. — The future of a Holyoke church where parishioners have been holding a 24-hour vigil to protest its closure by the Diocese of Springfield is now in the hands of the Vatican.

A state judge on Friday dismissed a trespassing lawsuit brought against Mater Dolorosa parishioners by Springfield Bishop Timothy McDonnell, and also dismissed countersuits filed by those in vigil.

The Hampden Superior Court judge ruled that the dispute is a church matter not to be decided by American civil courts.

Attorney Victor Anop (ANN’-up), a spokesman for parishioners in vigil, called it a major victory for religious freedom.

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ROME
BBC News

Roman Catholic leaders are in Rome for an unprecedented summit on how the church should tackle the sexual abuse of children by priests.

Bishops from more than 100 countries and 32 heads of religious orders are among those taking part in the four days of discussions.

The aim is to produce guidelines on how to deal with abusive priests and help police to prosecute paedophile crime.

Victims’ groups, who were not invited, have dismissed it as a PR exercise.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Rapid City Journal

Rep. Steve Hickey, R-Sioux Falls, calls his bill to rescind the statute of limitations in childhood sexual abuse civil lawsuits “a shot for the fence.”

HB1218 will get a hearing at 10 a.m. today in the House Judiciary Committee.

“I do think we’ll be able to move the ball down the field and seek to rescind what was done in 2010,” said Hickey, pastor of an evangelical Christian church in Sioux Falls.

His bill would repeal a 2010 law that changed South Dakota’s law on who could file a lawsuit against a third-party alleging sexual abuse. In addition to the standard limits of filing a civil suit within three years of the abuse occurring, or of discovering that it occurred, the 2010 Legislature put an age limit of 40 on anyone bringing a lawsuit against a church, school, religious order or other entity that was not the individual perpetrator of the abuse. That legislation is seen by Hickey and others as an attempt to protect religious entities against lawsuits brought by Native American plaintiffs alleging abuse at Catholic-affiliated boarding schools that occurred decades ago.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fox 4

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The chairman of the board reviewing claims of sex abuse against clergy in the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese is stepping down.

According to a report in the Kansas City Star, diocese Independence Review Board chairman Jim Caccamo is stepping down effective February 22. The board investigates reports of suspected child abuse and makes recommendations to Bishop Robert Finn on how the allegations should be handled.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

February 05, 2012|By David O’Reilly, Inquirer Staff Writer

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said Friday that he was angry that “a senior member of the archdiocesan staff stole more than $900,000 of our people’s resources,” but was relieved the missing money would have relatively little impact on the Catholic Church here.

“As bitter as this loss is, insurance will cover most of it,” he wrote in his weekly column, posted on the archdiocesan website. “This is little comfort and absolves no one,” he added, but “at least some of the damage will be made whole.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

February 05, 2012|By Martha Woodall, Inquirer Staff Writer

The Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia fighting proposed closings and mergers have held candlelight vigils, organized rallies and marches, and served up spaghetti dinners.

As part of their fund-raising campaigns, they have created Facebook pages, set up Twitter accounts, and sold everything from T-shirts to hair tinsel in school colors.

They also have made presentations with enrollment data and financial projections to archdiocesan officials.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

VATICAN CITY, 6 FEB 2012 (VIS) – The Holy Father appointed Msgr. Edward John Weisenburger of the clergy of the archdiocese of Oklahoma, U.S.A., vicar general and rector of the cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, as bishop of Salina (area 69,087, population 342,000, Catholics 48,255, priests 76, permanent deacons 7, religious 167), U.S.A. The bishop-elect was born in Alton, U.S.A. in 1960 and ordained a priest in 1987. Having studied in Belgium and Canada, he worked as a pastor, vicar general and official of the archdiocesan general tribunal of Oklahoma

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

VATICAN CITY, 4 FEB 2012 (VIS) – Given below is the text of a declaration released at midday today by the Presidency of the Governorate of Vatican City State. The declaration bears the signatures of Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, president emeritus of the Governorate; Archbishop Giuseppe Bertello, current president; Bishop Giuseppe Sciacca, secretary general, and Bishop Giorgio Corbellini, former vice secretary general.

(1) The illicit publication of two letters by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the first addressed to the Holy Father on 27 March 2011 and the second to the Cardinal Secretary of State on 8 May, is a cause of great bitterness for the Governorate of Vatican City State.

The assertions contained in those letters cannot but give rise to the impression that the Governorate of Vatican City State, rather than being an instrument of responsible government, is a body unworthy of trust, at the mercy of obscure powers. Having carefully examined the contents of the two letters, the Presidency of the Governorate feels the duty to declare publicly that the aforesaid assertions are the result of incorrect evaluations, or are based on fears not backed up by evidence, indeed openly contradicted by the principle figures called to witness them.

Without entering into the merits of the individual assertions, the Presidency of the Governorate feels the need to draw attention to the following proven elements.

(2) The consolidated budget and financial statements of the Governorate, following approval by the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, are regularly submitted to the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, which examines them in its own offices as well as having them examined by its college of international auditors. Moreover, the Prefecture has at all times the power to examine, without prior warning, the documentation of all offices of the Governorate, in the process of their preparation.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KSHB

[with video]

•By: Mike Markewinski

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – One Parishioner at St. Patrick’s Church in Kansas City said Bishop Robert Finn owes Catholics an apology for allowing the sex abuse scandal to happen.

On Saturday, Finn met with parishioners at the church.

St. Patrick’s is the church where Father Shawn Ratigan was when the scandal involving child porn began.

Last May, Ratigan was charged with possessing child porn.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Huffington Post

A jury has retired to consider its verdicts on a priest accused of using his “revered and trusted” status in the community to sexually abuse young boys.

Alexander Bede Walsh, 58, denies abusing eight boys while working at Roman Catholic establishments in Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Coventry between 1975 and 1994.

A 10-day trial at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard that Walsh was arrested and interviewed in 2006 after two men contacted the police to claim they had been abused in Coventry when they were children.

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OREGON
Statesman Journal

Attorney Dan Gatti made headlines nearly a decade ago by filing lawsuits on behalf of 15 men who said they were sexually abused as teenagers by a prison chaplain at a state reform school in Woodburn during the 1970s.

Now, the ailing Salem lawyer, on the mend from open-heart surgery and resulting complications, faces his own trial.

The Oregon State Bar has leveled an ethics complaint against Gatti, accusing him of knowingly misleading his clients about out-of-court settlements stemming from the sex-abuse lawsuits, totaling $1.6 million.

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ROME
Catholic Herald (United Kingdom)

By Madeleine Teahan on Monday, 6 February 2012

When Marie Collins first found the strength to tell her secret she was racked with trepidation. Living from day to day, leaving the house or talking to her next-door neighbour was intimidating enough, but telling an archbishop that a hospital chaplain had sexually abused her when she was 13 years old was almost unthinkable.

Next week, at the invitation of the Vatican, she will stand up in Rome and address some of the world’s most senior bishops, telling them the unwelcome truth that few wanted to hear 27 years before.

“I don’t feel nervous or intimidated,” she tells me just days before her address. “I feel more hope that something I say might help. No matter how much help you receive as a survivor that 13-year-old child is still inside somewhere and still comes up, that little voice saying: ‘You’re not really a good person. You’re worthless.’ That never really goes away. But I’ve had a lot of help to become the person I would have been had I not been abused.”

Marie continued to practise her Catholic faith long after she was abused. She married a Catholic and they brought up their son in the faith. He served as an altar boy at Mass. But it was not until she experienced the Church’s response to her anguish that she became disheartened and could not bring herself to continue practising. This is one of the things she is quietly determined to explain in Rome next week.

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ROME
NEWS.com.au (Australia)

SCORES of Catholic leaders from around the world have gathered for an unprecedented anti-abuse summit hosted by the Vatican intended to find ways to stamp out pedophilia.

Bishops from 100 countries and the leaders of 33 religious orders will take part in the four-day meeting, as well as the Vatican’s anti-pedophilia prosecutor Charles Scicluna and one abuse victim, Ireland’s Marie Collins.

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to issue a special blessing for the conference at the Vatican’s Gregorian University, which will also launch a Centre for Child Protection in Germany to fight sex abuse by the clergy in the church worldwide.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

You can often tell how upset someone is with a story by how many statements they put out denying it, and how detailed those statements are. By that standard, the Vatican seems mightily piqued indeed by the recent scandal surrounding Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò – which is one part about Viganò’s charges of financial corruption, and another about his exposing internal Vatican power politics.

On Saturday, the Vatican issued a second lengthy statement on the Viganò mess, this one signed by a cardinal, a cardinal-to-be, and two other senior officials.

Viganò is today the pope’s nuncio, or ambassador, in the United States, but from 2009 to 2011 he served as the number two official in the government of the Vatican city-state. It’s responsible for the physical 108-acre Vatican territory, including operations such as the Vatican museums, gardens and post office, as opposed to institutions or funds directed at the universal church

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Michael Sean Winters on Feb. 06, 2012 Distinctly Catholic

I had thought that by now, 2012, it was impossible to be shocked by an example of episcopal moral idiocy regarding the sexual abuse of minors. For every bishop like Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, who has self-evidently tried to do the right thing by the victims of this horror, there is a grand jury report, actually two, in Philadelphia cataloguing indifference or worse. For every archdiocese like Washington, where three consecutive archbishops – Hickey, McCarrick and Wuerl – have handled accusations of abuse with swiftness and justice, there is a diocese like Kansas City-St. Joseph, which is under criminal indictment for failing to follow civil law, let alone moral law. And for every brave and decisive bishop like Wilton Gregory, who as chairman of the USCCB in 2002 refused to ignore the gravity of the crisis or accept half-measures to face it, there is a bishop like Fabian Bruskewitz who still refuses to even permit an audit of his diocese’s compliance with child protection procedures. As I say, I thought I was beyond shock.

But, then I read the recently published interview in Connecticut Magazine with Cardinal Edward Egan, the archbishop emeritus of New York. And I was shocked. Before reading it, make sure you allow yourself some time to meltdown after.

The cardinal’s words are those of a narcissist in the extreme. He begins, “You know, I never had one of these sex abuse cases, either in Bridgeport or here (New York). Not one. The newspapers pretend as though what happened under Walter Curtis (Bishop of the Bridgeport diocese from 1961 to 1988) happened to me. Walter was a wonderful, wonderful, dear gentleman. He had gotten very old and they were sitting there. And I took care of them one by one.” Funny, I thought only a teenager could get so many “I’s” into so few sentences.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Governorate’s release and Father Lombardi’s earlier statement: the nuncio’s position in the United States is more and more poised

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

The long seven-point statement with which Saturday, February 4, today’s and yesterday’s highest authorities in the Vatican Governorate have denied and dismissed as unfounded the allegations contained in the letters sent by archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò to the Pope and to cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has rekindled the world spotlight on a story that had gone off in terms of media.

The two cardinals, Giovanni Layolo and Giuseppe Bertello, respectively former and present president (the latter was made cardinal on February 18), together with Giuseppe Sciacca, current secretary of the Governorate, and Giorgio Corbellini, former assistant secretary of the Governorate, have signed a detailed defence in which they state they do not wish to enter into the details of individual allegations submitted by Viganò, though belying them one by one, their evident purpose being the reaffirmation of the good name of the Governorate and of people working there.

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ROME
Catholic Culture

Representatives of 100 bishops’ conferences and 30 religious orders are meeting in Rome from February 6-9 to discuss the clerical abuse scandal. Abuse victims are among the conference speakers, and at one point in the conference groups of participants will ask victims’ forgiveness.

Vatican Radio reported that

one Irish survivor, Marie Collins, will address the participants about her own need to hear not just the abuser priests ask forgiveness–something she has already grated to her own abuse–but to hear Church leaders, priests, bishops and cardinals, own up to their own roles in prolonging the suffering by putting the reputation of the Church above the needs of the children in their care.

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ROME
The Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW in Rome

IT WOULD be “wonderful” if Pope Benedict publicly sought forgiveness for church leaders who put loyalty to their institution ahead of children’s safety, clerical sex abuse survivor Marie Collins told an audience in Rome.

Addressing a press conference to promote “Towards Healing and Renewal”, a four-day symposium being held this week at the Pontifical Gregorian University in the city, Ms Collins conceded it had not been easy to accept an invitation to attend the church-run event.

Pointing an accusatory finger at Irish primate Cardinal Seán Brady, she said: “We know that among the many reasons for the anger of survivors is that despite apologies for the actions of the abusers, there have been few apologies for the protection given to them by their superiors.

“There seems to be a lack of a penalty for any of these men in leadership who deliberately or negligently covered up for these abusers, letting them continue to abuse new victims unhindered . . . We have an example of this in our own cardinal primate.”

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Minister for Education is to write to the 18 religious congregations, which ran residential institutions where children were abused, asking them to contribute more towards the €1.2 billion bill for compensating victims.

In 2009, the Ryan Commission published its finding that children put into State care in religious-run residential institutions had suffered systemic abuse.

Then taoiseach Brian Cowen told the congregations concerned they should pay into a Trust Fund the State would establish, amounting to almost €600m – or half the bill incurred by taxpayers in redress to victims.

This was almost €500m more than the settlement the outgoing Bertie Ahern-led government made with the congregations.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

JOANNE HUNT

THE MINISTER for Education is to write to the 18 religious congregations, which ran residential institutions where children were abused, asking them to contribute more towards the €1.2 billion bill for compensating victims.

The letter from Ruairí Quinn follows questions put to Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the Dáil yesterday about the status of the payment of compensation by the congregations.

In 2009, the Ryan commission published its finding that children put into State care in religious-run residential institutions had suffered systemic abuse. Under the 2002 indemnity agreement, the congregations agreed to provide a contribution of €128 million to those abused, comprising cash, property and counselling services.

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IRELAND/UNITED KINGDOM
The God Squad

By Ruth Dudley Edwards
Sunday January 29 2012

‘How many times can a man turn his head, pretending he just doesn’t see?’ asked Bobby McDonagh, Irish Ambassador to the UK, as he addressed supporters of the Forgotten Irish on Friday evening.

His Bob Dylan allusion was to that period in the Irish past when children suffered abuse in institutions, single mothers were enslaved in Magdalene laundries, and no one wanted to know. Many of the damaged young people who escaped to Britain are now among the thousands of impoverished and isolated elderly people being helped by a multi-million campaign driven by the Ireland Fund of Great Britain (IFGB).

But last Friday night, at an award ceremony at the House of Lords in London, it was an occasion to celebrate a much improved present, where recent emigrants are acknowledging and helping their predecessors who — despite their hard lives — sent as much as €3.57bn in today’s terms to help the people struggling back home.

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IRELAND/UNITED KINGDOM
The Ireland Fund

IFGB co-Chairs Ruth McCarthy and Basil Geoghegan presented the ‘Forgotten Irish’ Award to Phyllis Morgan and Sally Mulready for their outstanding support of survivors of abuse in Irish institutions. Sally and Phyllis are survivors themselves and they have worked tirelessly for over 10 years to give survivors in the UK a voice.

Guests were welcomed to the magnificent House of Lords by IFGB Director Sheila Bailey. Basil Geoghegan spoke about his time on Everest and was delighted to announce that he has raised almost £112,000 to be used to help survivors of industrial abuse in the UK, presenting the award to Sally and Phyllis Basil said that survivors of abuse “have their own Everest to climb every day, and not one which they chose, but one that was thrust upon them”.

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ROME
The New Age

Scores of Catholic leaders from around the world gathered on Monday for an unprecedented anti-abuse summit hosted by the Vatican intended to find ways to root out paedophilia.

Bishops from 100 countries and the leaders of 33 religious orders will take part in the four-day meeting, as well as the Vatican’s anti-paedophilia prosecutor Charles Scicluna and one abuse victim, Ireland’s Marie Collins.

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to issue a special blessing for the conference held at the Vatican’s Gregorian University, which will also launch a Centre for Child Protection in Germany to fight sex abuse by the clergy in the Church worldwide.

The symposium entitled “Towards Healing and Renewal” will also include a church service on Tuesday in which representatives of seven religious orders which had paedophile clergy in their midst will plead for forgiveness.

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VATICAN CITY
Global Nation (Philippines)

VATICAN CITY—Newly appointed Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle, a rising star in the Catholic Church hierarchy, is expected to address a major international conference on Thursday about the particular challenges of dealing with the issue of child abuse in Asia.

A preconference press statement said Tagle’s speech would show “that sexual abuse inside and outside the Church is a global reality, not focused simply in the United States and Europe.”

“Careful consideration needs to be given to the cultural values that can foster greater transparency and cooperation as a universal Church that protects the most vulnerable,” the statement said.

The Vatican’s top prosecutor has warned that the Catholic Church in Asia is falling behind in the fight against pedophilia due to cultural differences over what constitutes child abuse.

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ALABAMA
CBS 42

[with video]

ALABASTER, Ala. (WIAT) According to police, former school teacher Daniel Acker has admitted to molesting more than twenty children during his time with Shelby County Schools. Acker was investigated and cleared on similar charges during the early 1990’s, according to police. Acker was actually selected to be Teacher of the Year around that time. Many parents may be wondering how something like that could happen, but similar scenarios have played out before in Central Alabama. Some draw parallels between the Acker case and the 1995 conviction of Homewood resident Don Corley on multiple counts of sexual abuse and sodomy involving children.

“All those charges were underage and forced,” said Mike Anderton, Deputy District Attorney, Jefferson County.

Prosecutor Mike Anderton remembers the disturbing details of the Corley case all too well. He describes the convicted sex offender as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

I’m in Rome for most of February, primarily to cover three big-ticket Vatican stories: A summit on the sexual abuse crisis from today through Thursday, at the Jesuit-run Gregorian University; a joint meeting of bishops from Africa and Europe Feb. 13-17; and the consistory on Feb. 18-19, when Pope Benedict XVI will create 22 new cardinals, including two Americans (Archbishops Timothy Dolan and Edwin O’Brien).

While I’m here, I’ll be keeping my eye on whatever else is going on, since Rome is the crossroads of the Catholic world and there’s always something percolating. To capture that surplus material, I’ll be filing regular “reporter’s notebook” pieces.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

The chairman of the review board that handles child sexual abuse allegations in the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese is stepping down.

Jim Caccamo, who headed the diocese’s Independent Review Board during a tumultuous period that saw a priest charged with child pornography and the bishop indicted for allegedly failing to report suspected child abuse, recently submitted his resignation.

“I’m whipped. I’m exhausted,” Caccamo said. “This has not been an easy thing.

“My fellow Catholics are real people who are hurting and suffering over this, and I hear from them. I care about my church, I care about the children.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Luke Byrne and Michael Brennan

Monday February 06 2012

A LEADING church figure has indicated that a papal visit to Ireland is now unlikely this year.

Pope Benedict XVI would visit Ireland “soon rather than later” and was “actively considering” an invitation from the Catholic Church in Ireland, the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said yesterday.

But Dr Martin added that the Irish church is not ready for a papal visit.

It had initially been hoped that Pope Benedict would attend the Eucharistic Congress taking place in Dublin this June.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Ralph Riegel

Monday February 06 2012

A PRIEST at the centre of the Cloyne Report will attempt to paint himself as a victim as he fights to stay in the priesthood, the Irish Independent has learned.

The cleric, known as Fr Ronat, was the subject of 11 separate child sex abuse allegations, and was questioned over his interest in hypnosis.

The complaints included claims of inappropriate contact and sexual intercourse.

But now he is set to question those claims, becoming the first priest to challenge allegations published in last year’s Cloyne Report.

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MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By: Associated Press, Grand Forks Herald

ST. PAUL — A woman who accused a former St. Paul priest of inappropriate sexual conduct wants him to pay $42,000 in restitution.

The female parishioner at Nativity of Our Lord has asked court to have Christopher Wenthe pay $42,000 in restitution.

A jury convicted Wenthe of third-degree criminal sexual conduct Nov. 15 for having sex with the woman in 2003 when she sought spiritual counseling.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

Bishop Robert Finn has reinstated a priest within the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph following an investigation by an independent review board.

The priest was suspended last month after unspecified allegations were made. It was the first such case since the office of ombudsman was created last summer in the wake of a church sex abuse scandal.

In a prepared statement Sunday, Finn praised the process.

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LUXEMBURG
De Morgen (Belgie)

De Luxemburgse katholieke Kerk gaat slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de Kerk compenseren. Jean-Claude Hollerich, de aartsbisschop van Luxemburg, heeft een decreet gepubliceerd waarin staat dat slachtoffers van misbruik dat al verjaard is nog aanspraak kunnen maken op een compensatie van maximaal 5.000 euro. Dat meldt Kerknet.

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NEDERLAND
BNR

Het Haarlems Dagblad noemt hem één van de meeste geliefde pastoors in Haarlem. Nu wordt deze man verdacht van ontuchtige handelingen met talloze jonge meisjes in het gehele land in de jaren ’60 en ’70.

Bij de Koepel Landelijk Overleg Kerkelijk Kindermisbruik (Klokk), een landelijke stichting voor slachtoffers van misbruik binnen de kerk, zijn zeker 20 meldingen over hem binnengekomen.

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NEDERLAND
De Telegraaf

AMSTERDAM – Een Haarlemse pastoor wordt verdacht van seksueel misbruik, meldt RTV Noord-Holland. De man zou ontucht hebben gepleegd met jonge meisjes. Over de pastoor zijn inmiddels 20 meldingen binnengekomen.

De Koepel Landelijk Overleg Kerkelijk Kindermisbruik noemt het misbruik omvangrijk en heeft een verzoek ingediend bij het Haarlemse bisdom om de pastoor te schorsen. De organisatie roept slachtoffers op zich via internet te melden.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

“Is it good for the children?”

The simple question is familiar to most Kansas Citians. It’s one of those good-hearted slogans, commonly met with nodding agreement.

But the words are incredibly difficult to follow as a strict mission. Egos, ingrained chains of command and even well intentioned attitudes can conflict.

For decades, though, the question has guided Jim Caccamo.

Now he’s stepping down, resigning as chairman of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese’s independent review board, which is charged with handling allegations of sexual abuse.

Caccamo held the post when it was discovered that the church hierarchy had been a barrier to the board’s delicate work. The board was never given the specifics of the allegations against the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, a local priest who is now charged with possessing child pornography. Board members were not told many things they needed to know, details that are entwined in the allegations against Ratigan and Bishop Robert Finn, who is accused of failing to report suspected abuse.

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MISSOURI
The Examiner

Posted Feb 05, 2012

Sugar Creek, MO —

A Sugar Creek priest who had been placed on administrative leave following an investigation into a complaint against him has beem cleared to return to parish work, according to a release from the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

The Rev. Matthew Bartulica was given permission to resume duties at St. Cyril Parish in Sugar Creek effective Feb. 4.

St. Cyril parishioners were told in a letter on Jan. 22 that Bartulica had been put on administrative leave — under the diocese’s new rules — because of an undisclosed complaint brought to the ombudsman now acting as an independent public liaison to field and investigate any reports of suspicious or inappropriate behavior.

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NEDERLAND
DePers

Leiders binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk komen volgende week in Rome bijeen voor een conferentie over de middelen om seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen te voorkomen en te bestrijden. Zij zullen onder meer een gebedsdienst bijwonen, waar vertegenwoordigers van zeven religieuze ordes en congregaties in het openbaar om vergeving zullen vragen voor wat leden van hun organisatie kinderen hebben aangedaan.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Hadas Kuznits

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – With so much attention on the Catholic Church now following the death of Cardinal Bevilacqua, some folks are hoping to force the church to be more forthcoming.

Folks concerned about the future of the Catholic Church gathered in front of the administrative offices of the archdiocese of Philadelphia for a prayerful vigil. Nancy Mortimer O’Brien is one of the organizers asking the archdiocese for some accountability:

“People are just disenchanted. For years it was ‘Pay, pray and obey’ and they did it.”

And it’s not just the church sex abuse scandal they’re concerned about:

“There are other people who’ve been invited (to this vigil) who want to see the books,” said Sister Maureen Turlish, a former Catholic School teacher.

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GEORGIA
11 Alive

Written by
Jennifer Leslie

Lithonia, GA – Senior Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church issued an apology to the Anti-Defamation League for his role in a king-crowning ceremony last weekend.

“The ceremony was not my suggestion, nor was it my intent, to participate in any ritual that is offensive in any manner to the Jewish community, or any group,” Bishop Long wrote in an open letter to Bill Nigut, Southern Regional Director of the ADL. “Futhermore, I sincerely denounce any action that depicts me as a King, for I am merely just a servant of the Lord.”

Nigut released a copy of the letter on Sunday.

“I thought it was terribly important that he acknowledge the fact that he made a mistake,” Nigut said. “I think Bishop Long participated in this ritual not understanding it wasn’t an authentic Jewish ritual and that the man who performed it is not what we consider to be a Rabbi.”

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ROME
Vatican Insider

The Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (no. 5, Piazza della Pilotta) is to host the international Symposium “Towards Healing and Renewal” until 9 February. The conference will be attended by bishops and religious leaders from all over the world with the aim of renewing the Church’s commitment to the protection of minors and vulnerable people from sex abuse.

Speeches will be given by experts in various fields such as psychology, canonical law, theology and pastoral care. Among those present will be Mgr. Charles Scicluna, Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, Director of Vatican Radio and the Holy See Press Office.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

KITTY HOLLAND

Pope Benedict would visit Ireland “soon rather than later” and was “actively considering” an invitation from the Irish Catholic Church, the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said.

Dr Martin also said, however, that the Irish Church was not ready for a papal visit.

Speaking on RTÉ radio today, in advance of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress which takes place in Dublin in June, he said the pope had been invited.

“We haven’t got a response. He did say to me that he would be open to coming but he said, and this I agree with, that his coming would have to fit into the overall timetable of the renewal of the Church in Ireland.

“Short-circuiting that programme wouldn’t bring the benefits that a papal visit would bring and I am not sure that we are at that stage yet.”

He said in the wake of the sexual, emotional and physical abuse scandals in Catholic-run institutions and the subsequent fall in Mass attendances, the Church here was in need of radical renewal and reform. This process would have to be further progressed before a papal visit would be of significant benefit.

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VERMONT
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: February 05, 2012

BURLINGTON, Vt. — The Roman Catholic diocese of Vermont says it could be put out of business, and constitutional protections of religious freedom could be violated by a priest-abuse lawsuit.

The Burlington Free Press (http://bfpne.ws/yZACU1 ) cites papers filed by the diocese in U.S. District Court in Burlington. They say paying more big damage awards to victims of long-ago priest sexual abuse could bring those results.

The diocese asks Judge William Sessions III to throw out a lawsuit filed in 2010 by a man alleging that as an altar boy he was molested in Rutland by a priest in 1974.

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NEW YORK
Broadway World

On Friday, March 16th, a benefit performance of “For Pete’s Sake” will be held The 52nd St. Project. The benefit will honor Bob Hoatson and his organization Road to Recovery.

FOR PETE’S SAKE, directed by Angelique Letizia, is actor/author Joe Capozzi’s autobiographical tale of a young man who chose to keep a secret without realizing how it would affect the rest of his life.

The performance features David Beck, Kristen Busalacchi, Joe Capozzi, Paul Lange, Thomas J Pilutik, Bill Sorvino and Bilgin Turker.

Friday, March 16th at 8pm
5 Angels Theater @ The 52nd St. Project
789 10th Avenue NYC

TIX: $20 suggested donation*
Email: forpetessaketheplay@gmail.com
or Call (646)881-4656 to Reserve

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HUDSON (WI)
Hudson Star-Observer

By: Doug Stohlberg, Hudson Star-Observer

Feb. 5, 2012 marks the 10-year anniversary of Hudson’s most infamous crime — the double murder of funeral home director Dan O’Connell and his student intern, James Ellison.

Making the case even more bizarre was that the murders were committed by a Catholic priest, Ryan Erickson. It took nearly three years to finally put together the necessary evidence and solve the case. Erickson died of suicide as the police dragnet closed around him.

It was a cold Tuesday afternoon on Feb. 5, 2002, when police received a call at about 1:40 p.m. from Marty Shanklin, the St. Croix County medical examiner. He had stopped at the O’Connell Funeral home at 520 11th St. to collect routine signatures on a death certificate.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Michael Daigle

A victims advocate says at least five people are now accusing a former Delbarton School of making sexual advances toward them.

The latest is a former Morris County resident who now lives in North Carolina. In a notarized statement released by advocate Patrick J. Marker, the alleged victim says the Rev. Luke Travers “kissed my neck and then put his cheek on my cheek” during an intimate confessional session.

“Only recently have I begun to understand the effect that Father Luke’s actions had in my life. I do not wish similar pain or confusion on any person,” the alleged victim says in the letter.

In January, Marker said he that alleged victim had not filed charges with any agency. It was not clear if that remained the case.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Jody Corcoran

Sunday February 05 2012

The Government’s stated reason for the closure of our embassy at the Vatican is questionable.

Eamon Gilmore, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, said the reason had to do with cost cutting, and was unrelated to a row between Ireland and the Vatican regarding co-operation with a child sex abuse inquiry.

The timing of the closure, in the immediate aftermath of the Cloyne Report, was certainly unfortunate from the Government’s point of view, that is, if it expects people to accept its motivation was entirely as presented.

There are two Irish embassies in Rome, one to Italy, the other to the Vatican. The intention now is for diplomatic relations with the Vatican to be conducted from Dublin, an exercise that may well involve frequent — and expensive — trips to the Vatican by our man in, eh, Dublin.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By DANIEL McCONNELL Chief Reporter and JOHN DRENNAN

Sunday February 05 2012

THE Government has been plunged into its first crisis after Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore yesterday categorically rejected Fine Gael calls to reverse the decision to close the Irish embassy to the Vatican.

The astonishing row over the Vatican embassy comes on the heels of a series of spats between the coalition over cuts in the Budget, which have led to a significant deterioration of relations between FG and Labour in recent weeks.

Speaking exclusively to this newspaper, the Labour leader has delivered an unequivocal rejection to his coalition partners, saying “no, the decision will not be reversed. It was a government decision”.

“I have set out the position as to why it was necessary to do so. It was one of three embassies we closed. Like everyone else, the Department of Foreign Affairs had to cut its cloth to measure.”

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VATICAN CITY
Inquirer (Philippines)

By Dario Thuburn
Agence France-Presse
11:20 am | Sunday, February 5th, 2012

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican’s top anti-abuse prosecutor has warned that the Catholic Church in Asia is falling behind in the fight against paedophilia due to cultural differences over what constitutes child abuse.

“The problem is very accentuated in Asia,” Archbishop Charles Scicluna told reporters ahead of a major international conference this week in the Vatican’s Gregorian University on the crisis of paedophilia in the Church.

Scicluna, who addressed an unprecedented closed-door meeting on the issue with Asian Church leaders in Bangkok in November last year, added: “There is an awareness that there is abuse and something needs to be done.”

The Vatican has asked national bishops’ conferences from around the world to submit by May their guidelines on how to deal with abusive priests and cooperate with local law enforcement in an effort to root out abuse.

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MICHIGAN
Lvingston Daily

Written by
Lisa Roose-Church
DAILY PRESS & ARGUS

Should a priest have to testify about a crime that a parishioner disclosed during confession?

The Michigan Court of Appeals will consider that issue Thursday when it hears oral arguments in the Wayne County case of Samuel Dale Bragg, now 18, whom prosecutors allege confessed to his pastor that he sexually assaulted a female cousin when he was 15 years old.

The case is expected to set precedent on the issue statewide.

“This kind of decision would have a chilling effect on any kind of religion,” Bragg’s attorney, Raymond Cassar, said. “I don’t think the Court of Appeals should tamper with this.”

Michael Diebold, director of communications for the Diocese of Lansing, agreed, saying congregation members know they can admit their sins in confession — known as the Sacrament of Reconciliation — and be forgiven in confidence.

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LINCOLN (NE)
World-Herald

By Leslie Reed
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

LINCOLN — Perhaps the story of Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz’s 20-year watch over the Lincoln Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church could be told as a parable of two men.

Both were trained as priests at a select seminary in Rome, their time there overlapping during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The slightly older priest revered church tradition as a living connection between believers and Jesus Christ, established through a succession of priests tracing back to St. Peter himself. That priest, a Milwaukee native ordained in 1960, has had a storied career and went on to become the eighth bishop of Lincoln.

The younger man visualized the church as a champion of social justice, embracing all people and ending discrimination. John Krejci, a South Omaha native ordained in 1962, grew disillusioned. He left the priesthood in 1971 to become a professor of social work.

Three decades later, Bruskewitz and Krejci crossed paths again in Lincoln. Their clash of values ended with Bruskewitz excommunicating Krejci and other local members of a Catholic reform group known as Call to Action.

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VERMONT
Burlington Free Press

Written by
Sam Hemingway

The prospect of paying more big damage awards to victims of long-ago priest sexual abuse will put the state’s Roman Catholic diocese out of business and violate constitutional protections regarding religious freedom, the diocese is claiming in papers on file at U.S. District Court in Burlington.

“The State cannot infringe on a protected freedom by imposing damages and penalties that the church cannot pay,” the diocese said in a motion asking Judge William Sessions III to throw out a lawsuit filed in 2010 by a man alleging that as an altar boy he was molested in Rutland by the Rev. Edward Paquette in 1974.

“If the protections of the First Amendment are to mean anything, the government should not be allowed to shut the doors of a church and put it up for sale,” church lawyers Kaveh Shahi and Tom McCormick wrote.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In an unusually public rebuke of a high-ranking colleague, Vatican officials dismissed as baseless the accusations of “corruption and abuse of power” made in letters by an archbishop who is now apostolic nuncio to the United States.

In a statement released by the Vatican Feb. 4, Cardinal-designate Giuseppe Bertello and Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, the current and immediate past presidents of the Governorate of Vatican City State, described as a “cause of great sadness” the recent “unlawful publication” by Italian journalists of two letters addressed to Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state.

The letters, written by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano when he was the governorate’s secretary general, or second-highest official, contained assertions based on “erroneous evaluations” or “fears unsupported by proof,” the statement said.

Archbishop Vigano’s letter to the pope, dated March 27, 2011, lamented “so many situations of corruption and abuse of power long rooted in the various departments” of the governorate, and warned that the archbishop’s departure from his position there “would provoke profound confusion and dejection” among all those supporting his efforts at reform.

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VATICAN
La Croix (France)

« Ces allégations (de corruption, NDLR) sont le fruit de jugement erronés, ou basés sur des craintes sans fondement » : le communiqué publié samedi 4 février, à Rome, par le président du gouvernorat du Vatican, le cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, est sans ambiguités. Il se veut une réponse ferme aux medias italiens qui ont publié, ces derniers jours, des lettres de Mgr Carlo Maria Viganò, ancien secrétaire général du gouvernorat du Vatican devenu en octobre nonce (ambassadeur) à Washington.

Dans ces missives au pape et au secrétaire d’Etat (numéro deux) Tarcisio Bertone datant de l’an dernier, le prélat dénonçait des cas de « gabegie » au sein de cette institution. Il qualifiait aussi sa mutation aux Etats-Unis de « verdict de condamnation » au moment où il tentait « d’assainir de nombreuses situations de corruption et de malversation ».

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News (United States)

VATICAN CITY February 5, 2012 (AP)

The administration of the Vatican City State on Saturday categorically rejected as groundless a top prelate’s accusations of corruption in the Holy See’s awarding of contracts.

Last month, an Italian investigative news program reported that the prelate had unsuccessfully requested not to be transferred to Washington by Pope Benedict XVI after exposing alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions of euros in terms of higher contract prices.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano was the No. 2 administrator until the pope selected him to be his envoy to the U.S. last fall.

While the Vatican had previously defended Vigano’s transfer to the prestigious post as proof of Benedict’s “unquestionable respect and trust” in him, the written statement Saturday by the Vatican’s governorship was the Holy See’s first response to the corruption allegations themselves.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Benedict XVI must first be tried at the international court of The Hague for his crimes against humanity — or else, the Jesuit Gregorian University’s conference on child sexual abuse is all PR stunts by the Vatican Titanic Ship which is sinking in moral bankruptcy because as a country it violated the human rights of tens if not hundred of thousands of children in the latter half of the 20th century as Amnesty International announced, read our related article, Amnesty International Report Vatican “Torture, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment” on tens of thousands of children sexually abused by priests in Ireland

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VATICAN CITY
The Sacramento Bee

The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — The administration of the Vatican City State is rejecting accusations of corruption in the Holy See’s awarding of contracts.

Last month, an Italian news program reported that a top Vatican official had unsuccessfully begged the pope not to be transferred to Washington after exposing alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions of euros in terms of higher contract prices.

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ROME
Radio Netherlands

Leaders of the Roman Catholic church in Rome have convened for a conference on how to prevent the sexual abuse of minors.

They will also attend a prayer service, in which representatives of seven religious orders and congregations will ask for forgiveness in public for what their organisation has done to children.

The Gregoriana University, led by Jesuit priests has organised the meeting. The conference opens on Monday. Bishops and their representatives from 100 countries and the leaders of 33 orders and congregations will participate. Marie Collins, an Irish victim of rape by a Catholic priest, will also attend.

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