ABUSE TRACKER

NEDERLAND
L1

Het meldpunt seksueel misbruik Rooms Katholieke gaat aan de slag met de kritiek die ze woensdag kreeg tijdens een hoorzitting over het rapport van commissie Deetman.

Die deed onderzoek naar misbruik binnen de kerk. Verschillende slachtoffergroepen verweten het meldpunt dat slachtoffers er weinig gehoor vinden. Ook zou er sprake zijn van weinig samenwerking met vertegenwoordiging van slachtoffers, en wordt de onafhankelijkheid van het meldpunt in twijfel getrokken.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

De rooms-katholieke kerk is werkelijk vastbesloten om seksueel misbruik ‘met wortel en tak uit te roeien’. Regelingen daartoe kunnen kil overkomen, gaf aartsbisschop Eijk woensdag toe tijdens een zitting van een speciale Kamercommissie. ‘Vergoedingen zijn maar een onderdeel. Leed kun je niet afkopen.’

Eijk beantwoordde woensdag, net als misbruikslachtoffers, vragen van Kamerleden over het onderzoek van de commissie-Deetman. Daaruit bleek vorige maand dat rooms-katholieke geestelijken van 1955 tot 1983 tussen de 10 duizend en 20 duizend misbruikslachtoffers maakten. Ordes en bisdommen waren daar jarenlang van op de hoogte.

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NEDERLAND
Tubantia

DEN HAAG – Aartsbisschop Wim Eijk wil dat er een verklaring van goed gedrag komt voor medewerkers binnen de katholieke kerk. Dat zei hij woensdag tijdens een hoorzitting in de Tweede Kamer over het rapport-Deetman over seksueel misbruik in katholieke instellingen.

Zo’n verklaring is er nog niet bij de Rooms Katholieke Kerk. “Nu worden er wel inlichtingen ingewonnen, bij een bisschop bijvoorbeeld, maar een soort van VOG hebben we nog niet.”

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VATICAANSTAD
RKnieuws (Nederland)

VATICAANSTAD (RKnieuws.net) – De rooms-katholieke Kerk versterkt de strijd tegen seksueel misbruik en zij wil de inspanningen in de verschillende bisdommen wereldwijd sterker op elkaar afstemmen, meldt Kerknet. De bisdommen kregen in 2011 al een schrijven van de Congregatie voor de Geloofsleer met de opdracht om nog dit jaar een preventiebeleid op punt te stellen en dit aan het Vaticaan voor te leggen.

In februari vindt in Rome een symposium plaats met afgevaardigden van 110 bisschoppenconferenties wereldwijd en verantwoordelijken van meer dan 30 religieuze orden en congregaties. De bijeenkomst van 6 tot 9 februari aan de Gregoriaanse Universiteit in Rome, met de steun van het Staatssecretariaat en verschillende congregaties, is de eerste internationale bijeenkomst van kerkelijke verantwoordelijken op dit niveau.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

HOORZITTING SEKSUEEL MISBRUIK – De Tweede Kamer hoort woensdagmiddag en -avond vertegenwoordigingen van slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk. Ook aartsbisschop Wim Eijk kwam naar de Kamer om de commissie voor Veiligheid en Justitie van informatie te voorzien.

Aanleiding voor de hoorzitting zijn de bevindingen in het rapport van de onderzoekscommissie-Deetman. De hoorzitting begon met een toelichting van Deetman zelf.

16.00 Aartsbisschop Wim Eijk als vertegenwoordiger van de Bisschoppenconfertentie
De aartsbisschop zegt veel pijn en verdriet te hebben van het leed dat de kerk heeft berokkend bij zoveel mensen. ‘Het is pijnlijk te moeten te concluderen dat we niet leefden volgens onze eigen normen. Dat vervult mij met schaamte’.

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NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

DEN HAAG – Oud-CDA-minister Deetman, voorzitter van de commissie die onderzoek deed naar het misbruikschandaal in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk, voelt er niets voor het toezicht op religieuze organisaties te verscherpen.

Een suggestie daartoe werd woensdag gedaan door GroenLinks Tweede Kamerlid Dibi, tijdens een door de Kamer belegde hoorzitting. Daarin komen naast Deetman ook slachtoffers aan het woord.

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NEDERLAND
RTV Drenthe

[met audio]

ASSEN – De Monseigneur Niënhausstichting, met vier katholieke basisscholen in Drenthe, wil een nieuwe naam. De naam van Monseigneur Niënhaus, een hulpbisschop, komt voor op de lijst van de commissie Deetman, die onderzoek deed naar seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen in de Rooms Katholieke Kerk.

Volgens John van Meekeren, voorzitter College van Bestuur van de stichting, is iedereen diep geschokt. “Als we dit van tevoren hadden geweten hadden we nooit deze naam aangenomen. We hebben nog geen negatieve reacties gekregen op onze huidige naam. Maar we willen op geen enkele manier geassocieerd worden met seksueel misbruik binnen onze scholen.”

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NEDERLAND
De Telegraaf

DEN HAAG – Slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in katholieke instellingen willen dat de overheid de kerk beter in de gaten houdt. Ze hielden hiervoor woensdag een vurig pleidooi tijdens een hoorzitting van de Tweede Kamer. Ook het rapport van Wim Deetman over seksueel misbruik binnen katholieke instellingen kwam aan bod.

Slachtoffers vinden dat de overheid druk moet uitoefenen op de kerkleiding om verantwoordelijken te bestraffen. Verder zou de overheid moeten toezien op een onafhankelijk meldpunt. Iets dat er volgens slachtoffers nu nog niet is.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

A former priest is to stand trial on 55 counts of indecent assault of 18 children at various locations in the State from the late 1960s until the early 1980s.

The defendant, in his seventies, was brought before Dublin District Court yesterday. He was arrested yesterday afternoon at Dublin Airport, the court heard. He was cautioned and said “No” in reply, when he was held on 55 warrants.

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NEDERLAND
Nieuws

(Novum) – Premier Mark Rutte (VVD) heeft valse hoop gewekt door te zeggen dat hij priesters die zich schuldig hebben gemaakt aan seksueel misbruik alsnog wil laten vervolgen. “Dit is opnieuw een tik in het gezicht van de slachtoffers”, zei CDA-Kamerlid Madeleine van Toorenburg woensdag op Radio 1.

Rutte deed de toezegging eind vorig jaar in het televisieprogramma College Tour. Dinsdag schreef minister van Veiligheid en Justitie Ivo Opstelten in een Kamerbrief echter dat het lastig is om de daders aan te pakken, omdat bijna alle zaken al zijn verjaard. Uit jurisprudentie van het Europese Hof voor de Rechten van de Mens blijkt volgens Opstelten dat er geen ruimte is om deze daders alsnog te vervolgen.

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PENNSYLVANIA
San Antonio Express-News

SMETHPORT, Pa. (AP) — Jurors in northwestern Pennsylvania have reached a split verdict in the trial of a priest accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old boy.

The McKean County jury deliberated for more than seven hours Wednesday before convicting the Rev. Samuel Slocum of a felony count of concealment of the whereabouts of a child as well as corruption of minors, The Bradford Era (http://bit.ly/A1zcY5) said. But the panel acquitted Slocum of another felony count of interference with the custody of a child and a misdemeanor count of loitering and prowling at night.

Police earlier testified that Slocum, 60, told officers that he bought the boy’s attention with expensive gifts because he felt “old and alone” but contended that he acted more like the boy’s “Dad” despite flirtatious-sounding messages prosecutors said he sent the boy without his mother’s knowledge.

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PENNSYLVANIAN/NEW YORK
Buffalo News

By Matt Gryta
News Staff Reporter

A suspended northwestern Pennsylvania priest who studied in East Aurora was convicted Wednesday evening of having an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old boy.

A McKean County Court jury of 10 women and two men handed up their verdict about 6:30 p.m. in Smethport, Pa., following a three-day trial and eight hours of deliberations.

Rev. Samuel Slocum, 60, a Smethport native who studied for the priesthood at Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, was acquitted of a felony count of interference with the custody of a child and a misdemeanor count of loitering and prowling at night.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Tom Tuite

Thursday January 19 2012

A FORMER priest is to stand trial on 55 counts of indecent assault of 18 children at various locations in the State from the late 1960s until the early 1980s.

The defendant, who is in his seventies, was brought before Dublin District Court yesterday evening. The judge ordered the media not to name him or report the location of the alleged offences in case that would identify the complainants.

The man was arrested yesterday afternoon at Dublin Airport, the court heard. He was cautioned and said “No” when arrested on 55 warrants.

There was no application for bail. Judge Miriam Malone remanded him in custody to appear again at Cloverhill District Court on January 25.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Press Association

The leader of Catholics in England and Wales is “grief stricken” over incidents of child sexual abuse in Catholic schools, Education Secretary Michael Gove has said.

Mr Gove said he had “absolute confidence” that decisions taken by Archbishop Vincent Nichols would be the “right ones” following calls from a group of lawyers for a public inquiry into abuse within church organisations in England and Wales.

“I know from the conversations that I have had with Vincent Nichols that he takes the pastoral care of children in Catholic schools extremely seriously and he is grief stricken by what has happened to children who were entrusted to Catholic schools,” Mr Gove said. “I think it is right in the first instance for Archbishop Nichols and his team to consider and reflect on how to respond.

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ALABAMA
Alabama’s 13

By: Kalisha Whitman | Alabama’s13.com

SHELBY COUNTY, Ala. —
There are several new developments in the case against Daniel Acker, Jr., a former Shelby County teacher, who is accused of sexual assault.

More victims have come forward accusing him of sexually assaulting them. Wednesday, we learned a judge from outside Shelby County may have to hear the case.

The closer we get to Acker, Jr.’s preliminary hearing there is more potential for new and relevant information to surface. Currently, there are six different sexual abuse charges against – five of them involve a child less than 12 years old. At this point, no judge has stepped to the bench to hear the case. ,,,

The community wants to bring awareness to sexual child abuse to prevent anyone from becoming another victim of sexual child abuse. Westwood Baptist Church in Alabaster – the same church that members of the Acker family attend – is hosting a forum on child safety.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

By Jay Tokasz
News Staff Reporter

A Catholic priest abruptly removed from a downtown Buffalo church this past weekend was accused of groping a woman inside the church rectory in 2009, a lawyer for the woman said on Wednesday.

The woman filed a complaint with Buffalo police last June in which she reported she was sexually attacked two years earlier — in the summer of 2009 — by the Rev. Secondo Casarotto in the priest’s residence at St. Anthony of Padua Church on Court Street.

Casarotto, 70, was removed on Saturday from St. Anthony, where he had served as a priest for more than 25 years, and placed on administrative leave.

At the time, diocesan officials provided no further information about the removal.

Casarotto has not been charged with a crime. The woman, a former parishioner in her 30s, hired the Florida-based law firm of Herman, Mermelstein, & Horowitz to investigate the case. She has not filed a lawsuit at this point.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOX

ST. LOUIS–(KMOX)–The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is preparing for a legal fight that could determine its own survival.

SNAP’s Executive Director — David Clohessy — continues to defy a subpoena in a Kansas City abuse case, refusing to hand over internal SNAP documents on abuse victims. He says the showdown amounts to a test case that could have ripple effects nationwide.

“Ultimately, our fear is that we’ll face ten, or twelve or fifteen of these subpoenas in states all across the country,” Clohessy said, “The bottom line is we will either go broke, or victims and witnesses and whistle blowers and journalists will stop contacting us.”

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WARWICK (NY)
Times Herald-Record

By Doyle Murphy
Times Herald-Record

WARWICK — A Catholic priest has lost his spot in a Warwick church after archdiocesan officials learned he had fathered a child.

Bishop Dominick Lagonegro told parishioners at St. Stephen The First Martyr that Father Casmir Mung’aho never told the archdiocese about the child even as he completed his training in seminary and became a priest. Lagonegro delivered the message to church members in person.

He originally said Mung’aho’s child was born before he entered the seminary following a “consensual relationship with an adult woman.” Lagonegro later issued a follow-up statement saying he’d learned the child was actually born during Mung’aho’s first year at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers.

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DELAWARE
WDEL

[with audio]

By Frank Gerace

A law professor and a local pastor react to the Governor’s decision to grant clemency to Robert Gattis.

Widener University professor Jules Epstein tells WDEL News jurors at Gattis’ trial didn’t hear about the physical and sexual abuse he suffered as a child.

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PELLA (IA)
The Chronicle

Pella — A motion filed by the defense team of accused sex offender Patrick Edouard has been sealed by the court at the request of the prosecution.

Edouard is the former Pella pastor charged with three counts of third-degree sexual abuse and four counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist. The defense’s motion sought to have the sexual exploitation charges dismissed.

The motion was filed Dec. 15, and remained accessible by the public until the afternoon of Jan. 17. Judge Paul Huscher, specially assigned to the case, made the decision following a hearing in Dallas County that morning.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By Gustavo Arellano
Wed., Jan. 18 2012

​If there were justice in this world, Monsignor John Urell would’ve been in San Quentin long ago, in prison in a culture where child molesters and their protectors aren’t welcomed with open arms like they are at the Diocese of Orange. But there is no justice, and so not only does John Urell remain a monsignor, not only does he remain a pastor at St. Timothy’s in Laguna Niguel, but he also continues to sits on the board of a private Catholic elementary school in the county.

Does Urell have no shame? The answer, of course, is no.

Urell sits on the board of directors of St. Anne’s Catholic School in Laguna Niguel, a private school not directly affiliated with the Orange diocese whose directors have a long association with pedo-priests. No less a pendejo than Urell helped get a pedo-priest to the school, and St. Anne’s is the main feeder school to JSerra High, currently involved in its own pedo-scandal and an academy helped in its early years by notorious priest-rapist John Lenihan.

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BELGIE
De Standaard

Bij de huiszoekingen in Namen ‘waren de speurders op zoek naar elementen over vier priesters. Het zijn oude of zelfs erg oude dossiers’, zo heeft Christine Bolinne, woordvoerster van het bisdom Namen, gezegd over de huiszoekingen onder leiding van onderzoeksrechter De Troy. Op het bisdom Luik werd één document gekopieerd en niks meegenomen.

‘De documenten werden gefotokopieerd en de speurders hebben de originelen meegenomen. Ik weet niet hoeveel het er waren, maar zeker geen honderden pagina’s’, preciseerde Bolinne. De woordvoerster wist niet of de feiten ten laste van de vier priesters bewezen waren. ‘Het onderzoek zal het uitwijzen.’

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CANADA
The Province

By Staff Reporter, The Province
January 18, 2012

The B.C. attorney general’s office has named Peter Wilson as special prosecutor to pick up its explosive investigation into the polygamist community of Bountiful.

The Vancouver lawyer was appointed this week to replace Richard Peck, who stepped down from the probe early this month.

B.C.’s legal branch is trying to determine whether charges of sexual exploitation or other offences are warranted against members of the commune.

The breakaway Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints sect, in B.C. since the early 1980s, has been accused of forcing underage women into arranged marriages and motherhood with much older men. There have also been accusations of trafficking young women between Bountiful and a like-minded community in the U.S. led by Warren Jeffs. Jeffs is serving a 20-year sentence in a Houston jail for sexual assaults on two girls whom he “married” when they were 12 and 14.

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EUROPE
Voice of America

Lisa Bryant | Paris

Sunday evening youth mass in Saint-Germain-des-Pres is overflowing with parishioners. People stand in aisles or sit cross-legged in corners of the cavernous, sixth century Paris church.

Father Benoist de Sinety, parish priest at Saint Germain for the past three years, says he has always had the good fortune of seeing crowds of young people seeking their bearings or rediscovering faith. But he knows it is not the same everywhere.

Churches in France and elsewhere in Europe have been battling falling numbers, a trend evident not only in the empty pews, but in the sharp fall in baptisms. But “de-baptisms”, a church’s deletion of one’s name from the official baptismal registry at a parishioner’s request, are a recent phenomenon, and they are taking place in both Protestant and Catholic communities.

There are no official statistics, but experts and activists count the numbers of those seeking de-baptism in the tens of thousands, and websites offering informal “de-baptism” certificates have mushroomed.

Anne Morelli, who heads a center for religion and secularity studies at the Free University of Brussels, says de-baptisms, both official and unofficial, increased in 2011, particularly in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Austria. The numbers, she said, reflect public anger at the church pedophilia scandals.

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EUROPE
Washington Post

By Elizabeth Bryant| Religion News Service, Updated: Wednesday, January 18

PARIS — A decade ago, Rene Lebouvier requested that his local Catholic church erase his name from the baptismal register. The church noted his demands on the margins of its records and the chapter was closed.

But the clergy abuse scandals rocking Europe, coupled with Pope Benedict XVI’s conservative stances on contraception, hardened Lebouvier’s views. Last October, a court in Normandy ruled in favor of his lawsuit to have his name permanently deleted from church records — making the 71-year-old retiree the first Frenchman to be officially “de-baptized.”

“I took the judicial route to get myself de-baptized because of the church’s excesses,” said Lebouvier, speaking by telephone from his village of Fleury, near the D-Day beaches.

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BELGIQUE
7sur7

7S7 mise à jour Des enquêteurs de la police judiciaire fédérale chargés de l’enquête dans le cadre de l’opération Calice sont arrivés au siège de l’Evêché de Liège mercredi vers 16H10.

Huit enquêteurs, qui circulent à bord de deux voitures, se sont tout d’abord arrêtés au palais de Justice de Liège avant de rejoindre l’Evêché. L’Evêque de Liège, Aloys Jousten, est présent sur les lieux.

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BELGIE
Le Vif

(Belga) Les enquêteurs de la police judiciaire fédérale chargés de l’enquête dans le cadre de l’opération Calice, arrivés au siège de l’Evêché de Liège mercredi vers 16H10, ont quitté les lieux vers 17H50, a indiqué la porte-parole du parquet fédéral à BELGA, soulignant l’excellente collaboration du personnel de l’Evêché.

Un seul document a été photocopié par les enquêteurs et rien n’a été emporté, a expliqué à l’issue de la perquisition l’évêque liégeois, Aloys Jousten. Les enquêteurs ont présenté une liste de noms de prêtres et ont demandé des données sur ces personnes.

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BELGIQUE
7sur7

7S7 mise à jour “Les enquêteurs étaient à la recherche d’éléments à propos de quatre prêtres. Ce sont des dossiers anciens voire très anciens”, a expliqué Christine Bolinne, chargée de communication au diocèse de Namur, à la suite des perquisitions menées mercredi par le juge d’instruction Wim De Troy.

“Ces éléments se trouvaient dans différents endroits de l’évêché, c’est pour cela que cela a pris du temps”, a-t-elle ajouté. “Ces documents ont été photocopiés et les enquêteurs ont emporté les originaux. Je ne saurais pas dire combien il y en avait, mais ce ne sont certainement pas des centaines de pages qui ont été photocopiées”, a précisé Mme Bolinne.

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BELGIQUE
Le Vif

Des perquisitions ont été menées mercredi aux évêchés de Tournai, Namur et Liège, par le juge d’instruction Wim De Troy, dans le cadre de l’opération Calice, qui concerne des faits présumés d’abus sexuels commis au sein de l’Eglise, a indiqué la porte-parole du parquet fédéral.

A Tournai, les enquêteurs sont repartis avec des dossiers ayant trait à des abus commis par des prêtres pédophiles présumés. “La collaboration a été totale”, a-t-on indiqué à l’évêché, à l’issue de la perquisition qui a duré une heure environ.

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RACINE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director

CONTACT 414.336.8575

The Racine Journal Times reports today that a teacher from the archdiocese of Milwaukee has officially resigned following reports of sexual assault. The teacher, Gary Craanen, taught at St. Catherine’s High School in Racine for thirty years. In a letter to the school community dated January 13th, St. Catherine’s President Christopher Olley explained the reasons for Craanen’s departure.

School officials at St. Catherine’s had been notified that reports of sexual assault had been made against Craanen when he was vice-principal and disciplinarian at Divine Word Seminary High School in Bordentown, New Jersey. The reports concerning Craanen’s sexual assault of students is due to be published in an upcoming book about clergy sexual abuse in the diocese of Trenton, New Jersey.

Archbishop Listecki should immediately reach out to the parents and students of St. Catherine’s and encourage them to come forward and report to law enforcement any information they have pertaining to Craanen’s possible victimization of children in the Racine community.

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IRELAND
RTE News

A former priest has appeared before Dublin District Court charged with 55 counts of indecent assault against minors, dating back to the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

The man is to appear again before Cloverhill District Court

The man, aged 72, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was remanded in custody to appear again before Cloverhill District Court on 25 January next.

Judge Miriam Malone heard evidence of arrest, charge and caution from Inspector Martin Mooney, who said the accused replied “no” as each count was put to him at the Bridewell Garda Station in Dublin today.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A former priest in his 70s has appeared in court today charged with indecently assaulting children between the late 1960s and early 1980s.

Dublin District Court heard that he was arrested today at Dublin Airport. He replied “No” when the 55 charges were put to him.

The DPP has directed that he be tried on indictment and he has been remanded in custody to appear at Cloverhill District Court next Wednesday.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Centre Daily Times

The Associated Press

SMETHPORT, Pa. — A suspended northwestern Pennsylvania priest on trial for an allegedly inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old boy told police he bought the boy’s attention with expensive gifts because he felt “old and alone” but contends he acted more like the boy’s “Dad” despite flirtatious-sounding messages prosecutors said he sent the boy without his mother’s knowledge.

A McKean County jury began deliberating charges including corruption of minors, interfering with the mother’s custody of the boy, and concealing the whereabouts of a child against the Rev. Samuel Slocum, 60.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie suspended Slocum from duties at two rural churches after the charges were filed in April, prompting Bishop Donald Trautman to issue a statement saying the charges, which do not include allegations of sexual misconduct, were nonetheless “devastating, if true.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Phyllis Zagano on Jan. 18, 2012 Just Catholic

About a year ago, I published an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI asking him to make a decision on restoring women to the diaconate. I didn’t hear back.

Priest-pederasts, -philanderers and -embezzlers continue to make the news. Parishes and schools are closing all over. Ordinations — at least in the United States — are beyond way down. The public relations profile of U.S. bishops seems fixed on same-sex marriage, abortion and the “new evangelization.”

Are U.S. bishops carrying the brief for women deacons to their ad limina meetings in Rome?

They may be. The issue is picking up speed.

The Cleveland-based activist group FutureChurch has organized its members nationwide to pay pre-ad limina calls on bishops. The FutureChurch brief includes restoring women to their traditional place in the diaconate. In addition, a national Books-to-Bishops campaign has sent copies of the newly published Women Deacons: Past, Present, Future (by Santa Clara Professor Gary Macy, Monterey Deacon William T. Ditewig and me) to 135 U.S. diocesan bishops to date.

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BELGIUM
Expatica

Belgian magistrates have re-launched a high-profile probe into child sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, this time seeking to show the Church hierarchy engaged in a cover-up.

Federal police pounced Wednesday on “personal files” held by senior Church figures in the dioceses of Liege, Namur and Tournai after hitting Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Hasselt and Mechelen since Monday.

The seizures are based on testimony from some 200 alleged victims and in 87 judicial complaints.

Federal magistrate and spokeswoman for national prosecutors Lieve Pellens said the purpose of this new “key phase” in a Belgian investigation is different from that of dramatic June 2010 raids on Church headquarters that angered Pope Benedict XVI.

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BELGIE
Knack

(Belga) De speurders van de federale gerechtelijke politie die onderzoek voeren in het kader van Operatie Kelk, hebben rond 14.15 uur de zetel van het bisdom van Namen verlaten. De huiszoeking nam zowat drie uur in beslag.

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BELGIE
Knack

(Belga) Speurders van de federale gerechtelijke politie zijn woensdag rond 16.10 uur op de zetel van het bisdom Luik aangekomen, zo is ter plaatse vastgesteld. Acht speurders in twee auto’s hielden eerst halt aan het justitiepaleis van Luik voor ze zich naar de zetel van het bisdom begaven. De bisschop van Luik, Aloys Jousten, is ter plaatse.

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NEDERLAND
Noordholland Dagblad

DEN HAAG – De Tweede Kamer hoort woensdagmiddag en -avond vertegenwoordigingen van slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk. Ook aartsbisschop Wim Eijk komt naar de Kamer om de commissie voor Veiligheid en Justitie van informatie te voorzien. De hoorzitting wordt gehouden naar aanleiding van de bevindingen van de onderzoekscommissie-Deetman. Ook Deetman komt aan het woord.

Slachtoffers van misbruik drongen aan op vervolging van de daders, ook als het misbruik al lang is verjaard. Minister Ivo Opstelten (Veiligheid) zou dat mogelijk moeten maken, maar hij heeft de Tweede Kamer maandag laten weten dat dat niet kan. Bij de Kamer ligt wel een wetsvoorstel dat de verjaring voor de ernstigste zedenmisdrijven opheft.

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BELGIE
De Redactie

In de bisdommen van Luik, Doornik en Namen hebben speurders van de federale politie vandaag huiszoekingen uitgevoerd. Operatie Kelk heeft zo ook de Waalse bisdommen bereikt, nadat speurders de vorige twee dagen al dossiers hadden opgevraagd in Vlaamse bisdommen.

De huiszoekingen kaderen in Operatie Kelk, het onderzoek naar kindermisbruik in de kerk door geestelijken. Het gerechtelijk onderzoek spitst zich toe op mogelijk schuldig verzuim door de kerk. De speurders zoeken daarom persoonlijke dossiers van geestelijken die in de verklaringen van slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik genoemd zijn.

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BELGIE
Reformatorisch Dagblad

BRUSSEL (ANP/BELGA) – Voor de derde dag op rij zijn de politie en het Openbaar Ministerie (OM) de bureaus van bisdommen in België binnengevallen. Woensdagochtend was het de beurt aan het bisdom Doornik in Wallonië. Later op de dag volgden huiszoekingen in Namen en Luik, eveneens in Wallonië.

De huiszoekingen hebben te maken met Operatie Kelk, het onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk in België. Het OM is op zoek naar aanwijzingen dat bisschoppen of andere geestelijken priesters die kinderen misbruikten, de hand boven het hoofd hielden. Het gaat niet om het misbruik zelf. Veel van deze zaken zijn al verjaard.

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BELGIE
Gazet van Antwerpen

11:58 Update Onderzoeksrechter Wim De Troy heeft woensdagochtend een huiszoeking uitgevoerd op de zetel van het bisdom van Doornik, in het kader van Operatie Kelk. De speurders namen dossiers mee over pedofiliemisdrijven gepleegd door priesters. “We hebben volledig meegewerkt”, luidt het bij het bisdom van Doornik.

Een twaalftal speurders van de federale politie, die met vijf voertuigen bij het bisdom arriveerden, voerden woensdagochtend gedurende twee uur een huiszoeking uit op de zetel van het bisdom in Doornik. De bisschop van Doornik, Mgr. Guy Harpigny (foto), was aanwezig toen de agenten aankwamen.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

A priest in the Diocese of Westminster has begun a campaign for London to host the Vatican’s World Youth Day in 2016. Fr Stephen Wang set up a Facebook group, “World Youth Day London 2016”, to test whether there is popular interest in the idea.

He said that the English Church could “put forward a fantastic proposal” and that, after the event had been staged in Spain, France, Italy and Germany in recent years, “the United Kingdom is the next obvious one”.

He added: “It wouldn’t just be a London event but a national event, we could even include Ireland, all the different dioceses and cities doing all these amazing things. But there is nowhere like London, in terms of the space, the infrastructure, the transport, food outlets, the venues, the parks and commons, and we have this unusual situation of three dioceses converging on one city. It is the biggest youth event in the world and London would be the ideal city.”

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “The last time the Pope came to this country, the resentment he sparked about the amount of public money wasted on the trip was immense. Despite the Church’s attempts to talk up the ‘success’ of the visit, its own research showed that it was actually a dismal failure.

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BELGIE
Knack

(Belga) Onderzoeksrechter Wim De Troy heeft woensdagochtend een huiszoeking uitgevoerd op de zetel van het bisdom van Doornik, in het kader van Operatie Kelk. De speurders namen dossiers mee over pedofiliemisdrijven gepleegd door priesters. “We hebben volledig meegewerkt”, luidt het bij het bisdom van Doornik.

Een twaalftal speurders van de federale politie, die met vijf voertuigen bij het bisdom arriveerden, voerden woensdagochtend gedurende twee uur een huiszoeking uit op de zetel van het bisdom in Doornik. De bisschop van Doornik, Mgr. Guy Harpigny, was aanwezig toen de agenten aankwamen. “Het personeel werd afgezonderd in een andere ruimte dan de onze en mocht de telefoon niet beantwoorden.

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NEDERLAND
Nu

DEN HAAG – Wim Deetman, voorzitter van de commissie voor het onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik binnen de kerk, denkt dat er nog wel zaken naar boven kunnen komen, maar dat ‘het beeld’ er wel is.

Dat zei hij woensdag aan het begin van een hoorzitting in de Tweede Kamer over zijn bevindingen.

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NEDERLAND
Omroep Brabant

Auteur: Sandra Kagie

DEN HAAG – Wim Deetman denkt dat er nog misbruikzaken binnen de katholieke kerk naar boven kunnen komen. Volgens de voorzitter van de commissie die het misbruik in de kerk onderzocht, is het beeld echter duidelijk.

Dat zei hij woensdag aan het begin van een hoorzitting in de Tweede Kamer over de bevindingen van zijn onderzoekscommissie.

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UNITED STATES
Watch Keep

Pennsylvania state representative Thomas P. Murt serves the 152nd Legislative District. He is the secretary of the Child and Youth Committee and chairs the Health and Human Services Subcommittee on Mental Health. As a proud Penn State alumnus who still teaches at the PSU Abington campus, he writes a powerful article on the dire need to shine the light of truth on child sexual abuse. Here are some notable excerpts:

I serve on the Child and Youth Committee and have listened to and read many hours of excruciatingly painful testimony from victims and their families describing the most heinous sexual abuse imaginable. The institutional cover-ups and subsequent ill-treatment of victims have made these terrible situations even worse.

It’s a sad day, indeed, when concern for institutional risk management trumps uncovering the truth.

Rather than allow myself to become protective of the alleged and convicted criminals in these institutions that I hold most dear, I am compelled by my conscience and by my office to act on behalf of the victims until the perpetrators have been punished and justice has been served. …

Will leaders in prominent Baptist mega-churches like Jack Graham and others at Prestonwood Baptist Church also be compelled by their conscience, at the very least, to act on behalf of the victims until the perpetrators have been punished and justice has been served?

There has still be no admission to the congregation by Prestonwood staff, no outreach to the victims to encourage them to come forward to the police, get help and start healing, nor any remorse for failing to obey TX mandatory reporting laws in 1989 when Prestonwood fired John Langworthy for the sexual abuse of several boys, minors under the age of 17.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: January 18, 2012

SMETHPORT, Pa. — A suspended Catholic priest on trial for charges of having an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old boy last year told police he felt “old and alone” so he bought the boy’s friendship with expensive gifts.

The Bradford Era (http://bit.ly/xUNpMW ) reports a McKean County jury is expected to begin deliberating Wednesday whether the Rev. Samuel Slocum corrupted the boy and interfered with his mother’s custody of him by contacting the boy after his mother told the priest to stop. Jurors heard the 60-year-old priest’s statement to police on Tuesday. The priest denies sexual feelings for the boy, saying he felt more like the boy’s “Dad.”

The Erie diocese removed Slocum from duty at two churches in McKean County after the charges were filed in April.

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RACINE (WI)
The Journal Times

LINDSAY FIORI lindsay.fiori@journaltimes.com | Posted: Wednesday, January 18, 2012

RACINE — A St. Catherine’s High School teacher retired this month after abuse allegations were raised regarding a previous school, according to St. Catherine’s officials.

Gary Craanen, a religion teacher at St. Catherine’s for more than 30 years, retired in January after the author of an upcoming book about sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Trenton, N.J., notified St. Catherine’s officials of allegations involving Craanen, according to a Jan. 13 letter to the school community from St. Catherine’s President Christopher Olley.

The book alleges Craanen solicited two teenage boys for sexual services and performed a sexual act in front of one of them during the late 1970s while he was vice principal and disciplinarian at the Divine Word Seminary high school in Bordentown, N.J, according to Bruce Novozinsky, author of the book, which is scheduled for self-publication through Amazon in May.

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SLOVENIA
STA

Ljubljana, 18 January (STA) – The Ptuj District Court ruled that former parish priest of Ormož, who is serving a prison sentence for sexual assault of a minor, and his Order of the Holy Cross should pay EUR 41,500 in compensation to one of the priest’s victims, media report on Wednesday.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WIVB

[with video]

Shannon Ross

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – A veteran priest who was abruptly removed from a Buffalo Church over the weekend, is said to have admitted to accusations.

Father Secondo Casarotto, of Saint Anthony of Padua Church, has been placed on Administrative Leave over claims he assaulted a female parishioner last year.

The alleged victim’s lawyer contacted News 4 Tuesday night, and says Father Secundo admitted he committed the assault to police.

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DELAWARE
The New York Times

Published: January 17, 2012

On Tuesday, Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware commuted the death sentence of Robert Gattis to life without parole. In doing so, he said he gave “great weight” to the careful decision of the state board of pardons to recommend that the sentence be commuted, the first such recommendation the board has made since the death penalty was reinstated there in 1974. As a condition of the commutation, which is supported by a long list of former judges and prosecutors, Mr. Gattis is expected to waive all legal challenges and live out his life in prison.

Mr. Gattis killed his girlfriend in 1990 after an angry quarrel. The pardons board wrote that before the murder, “Mr. Gattis complained to medical professionals of mental illness and involuntary violent impulses” from the extreme and continuous sexual abuse he suffered as a child. The governor called this background “among the most troubling I have encountered.” Mr. Gattis’s lawyers failed to submit much of the ample proof about his mental illness and its devastating effects. The board was able to take full account of that mitigating factor.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

Published: Wednesday, January 18, 2012

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board

You might think that recent high-profile sex abuse scandals at Penn State University and elsewhere would serve as crisis management lessons for others.

Yet here we are, questioning another organization — this time, the Delbarton School in Morris Township — that appears unwilling to learn from those who failed.

News broke last week that Delbarton’s former headmaster, the Rev. Luke Travers, had contact with students at a school in Virginia while supposedly under investigation for sexual misconduct with Delbarton students many years ago. One former student told Delbarton officials that, as his father lay dying during his senior year, Travers consoled him by offering him liquor and kissing him on the neck and ears.

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NEW YORK
Warwick Advertiser

WARWICK — Bishop Dominick Lagonegro, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York and Episcopal Vicar of Orange County, addressed the parishioners of the Church of St. Stephen, the First Martyr, during Masses last weekend.

He explained that it was his sad duty to report that it had come to the attention of Archdiocesan officials that while the Rev. Casmir Mung’aho was a seminarian, he had fathered a child in a consensual relationship with an adult woman.

Mung’aho was recently assigned to St. Stephen’s Parish.

Lagonegro explained that as a candidate for Holy Orders, Mung’aho had never revealed this to the bishops or seminary authorities and that he was the father of a child was not known at the time of his ordination last May.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Halifax Courier

Published on Wednesday 18 January 2012

A CALDERDALE lawyer is leading a campaign demanding the Roman Catholic Church open its “secret archives” on child abuse.

Richard Scorer, who lives in Hebden Bridge, is a senior solicitor with Manchester-based legal firm Pannone.

He is now heading a team of the country’s top lawyers in the field of child abuse, which this week has asked the Government to order a public inquiry to force the Catholic Church to open up its archives to scrutiny.

If successful, the Church will be forced to make public its closely guarded files which for centuries have remained under lock and key and for the eyes only of Catholic Church leaders.

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t’emoignage Chretien (France)

Par Hendro Munsterman

T­out commence en février 2010, lorsque deux journalistes néerlandais attirent l’attention sur un cas d’abus sexuel sur enfant dans un ancien internat de salésiens de Don Bosco dans les années 1950.

Cette révélation, qui en suivait d’autres en Allemagne, en Irlande et aux États-Unis, fait remonter les souvenirs dans le pays. Évêques et responsables de congrégations et d’ordres religieux se voient alors obligés de demander à un homme politique protestant, l’ancien maire de La Haye Wim Deetman, de former et de présider une commission indépendante constituée de lui-même et cinq autres membres, tous universitaires.

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DELAWARE
The News Journal

Written by
SEAN O’SULLIVAN
The News Journal

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell today announced he is sparing the life of condemned killer Robert A. Gattis, who was scheduled to die by lethal injection early Friday morning.

It is the first time in modern memory, and perhaps the first time ever, that a Delaware governor has commuted a death sentence.

Markell’s action means the execution will now be called off and the 49-year-old Gattis – who was convicted and sentenced to death for the May 1990 murder of his one-time girlfriend Shirley Slay – will spend the rest of his life in prison.

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NEDERLAND
Friesch Dagblad

Den Haag | Minister Ivo Opstelten van Veiligheid en Justitie en staatssecretaris Marlies Veldhuijzen van Zanten van VWS stellen een Taskforce kindermishandeling en seksueel misbruik in. Dit schrijven zij aan de Tweede Kamer in een reactie op het eindrapport van de commissie-Deetman over het seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk.

Commissievoorzitter Wim Deetman zei op 16 december bij de presentatie van dit eindverslag: ,,Er is iets grondig mis in de samenleving. Er zou meer onderzoek moeten komen over hoe het komt dat in onze samenleving zoveel kinderen slachtoffer zijn van seksueel misbruik.” Van de Nederlanders van veertig jaar en ouder is 1 op de 10 voor het achttiende jaar tegen zijn of haar zin seksueel benaderd door een volwassen niet-familielid. Het gaat om misbruik in alle geledingen in de samenleving.

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BELGIQUE
Catho

Sur ce site vous trouverez les documents qui concernent le contenu et la mise en œuvre des dispositions présentées dans la brochure des évêques et des supérieurs majeurs de Belgique relatif à l’approche globale des abus sexuels dans l’Église.

Ce site sera mis à jour avec les nouvelles informations disponibles ou les mesures supplémentaires.

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BELGIE
De Standaard

BRUSSEL – Het gerecht nam bij het bisdom Brugge minstens twee dossiers van geestelijken mee die Vangheluwe in bescherming zou hebben genomen.

Van onze redacteurs

De federale procureur Johan Delmulle en de Brusselse onderzoeksrechter Wim De Troy hebben gisteren in het kader van Operatie Kelk nog meer huiszoekingen gedaan. Bij de bisdommen van Brugge en Gent hebben ze telkens elf dossiers van geestelijken meegenomen. Ook bij de congregatie Broeders van Liefde werden zes of zeven dossiers in beslag genomen.

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CANADA
Leader-Post

By Kerry Benjoe, Leader-Post
January 18, 2012

For the past two days residential school survivors had the opportunity to speak publicly about their experiences.

As a large crowd gathered in the atrium of the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv), the smell of sweetgrass lingered in the air.

One by one survivors recounted their experiences to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

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CANADA
Leader-Post

The tragic history of Canada’s 130-year Indian residential school system has generated so many public inquiries, commissions, articles, books and radio and TV documentaries some might think there’s nothing else to be learned.

They’d be wrong. Take Justice Murray Sinclair, the distinguished Manitoba judge who chairs what will perhaps become the definitive investigation into the residential school experience – the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Asked if he’s learned anything new from more than two years of hearings, survivor statements and documentary evidence, Sinclair doesn’t hesitate: “The number of children that died in residential schools shocks me.”

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NEDERLAND
Elsevier

De Tweede Kamer vindt dat premier Mark Rutte (VVD) verkeerde verwachtingen heeft gewekt in de kwestie van het kindermisbruik in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk.

Rutte zei vorige maand dat het kabinet onderzoekt of rooms-katholieke geestelijken die zich schuldig hebben gemaakt aan misbruik binnen de kerk, alsnog kunnen worden vervolgd.

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BELGIQUE
RTL

La perquisition menée mercredi matin à l’évêché de Tournai a pris fin peu avant 10h. Aucun commentaire n’a été fait à la sortie des enquêteurs. Plusieurs caisses ont été emportées, a constaté l’agence Belga. D’autres perquisitions sont prévues en Wallonie.

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BELGIQUE
Le Vif

(Belga) Les enquêteurs de la police judiciaire fédérale chargés de l’enquête dans le cadre de l’opération Calice sont arrivés à l’Evêché de Namur mercredi vers 11h15 a constaté Belga.

Une dizaine d’enquêteurs entourant le juge d’instruction Wim De Troy sont arrivés à bord de plusieurs véhicules afin de mener là aussi des perquisitions relatives aux problèmes d’abus sexuels commis au sein de l’Eglise.

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BELGIQUE
rtbf

Des perquisitions ont eu lieu ce matin à l’évêché de Tournai, suivies de perquisitions à l’évêché de Namur, dans le cadre de l’opération “Calice”.

Une quinzaine de policiers fédéraux sont descendus à l’évêché de Tournai tôt ce matin. Des perquisitions dans le cadre de l’opération Calice, au lendemain de perquisitions similaires dans les évêchés de Bruges et de Gand.

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BELGIE
de Stentor

BRUSSEL – Voor de derde dag op rij zijn de politie en het Openbaar Ministerie bij een bisdom in België binnengevallen. Woensdag was het de beurt aan het bisdom Doornik in Wallonië. De huiszoekingen hebben te maken met Operatie Kelk, het onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik binnen de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk in België.

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BELGIE
NOS

De Belgische politie en justitie hebben opnieuw een inval gedaan in een bisdom, ditmaal in Doornik in Wallonië. Het OM is op zoek naar bewijzen tegen priesters die kindermisbruik hebben toegedekt. De acties vinden plaats in het kader van Operatie Kelk.

Eerder werden er al invallen gedaan in vijf bisdommen en een kloosterorde in Vlaanderen. Daarbij werden tientallen dossiers in beslag genomen.

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BELGIE
De Standaard

In het bisdom van Doornik vond woensdagochtend een huiszoeking plaats in het kader van Operatie Kelk. Die duurde ongeveer twee uur. De speurders gaven geen commentaar en namen verschillende dozen mee. Daarna ging het naar het bisdom van Namen. Volgens een bron die het dossier goed kent worden woensdag mogelijk nog andere huiszoekingen uitgevoerd in Waalse bisdommen.

Woensdagochtend werd een huiszoeking uitgevoerd in het bisdom van Doornik in het kader van Operatie Kelk, het onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik binnen de Kerk. Daarna was het bisdom van Namen aan de beurt. De bisschop van Doornik, Mgr. Guy Harpigny, houdt woensdag tevens zijn nieuwjaarstoespraak.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Catholic

current article
by: William Cone, Editor

Potential buyers urged to make inquiries

The Diocese of Pittsburgh is continuing its efforts to market and sell unused church-owned buildings and vacant land.

Diocesan leaders recognize that vacant buildings can place a significant financial burden on parishes while creating issues related to safety, liability and aesthetics.

A typical parish has a church building, a rectory, possibly a convent and a school. Because of changes in demographics and associated parish mergers, some of those buildings are no longer being used. More parishes are realizing that unused buildings can be sold and help pay for other needs.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Tue, 17 Jan 2012

A group of solicitors representing victims of child abuse by clergy have written a letter to The Times (17 January) saying that the Church is still covering up crimes by priests and is incapable of policing itself. They call for a full public enquiry not only into the Catholic Church but also into the Church of England. The Times is paywalled so we are reproducing this letter here because we consider it too important to be overlooked:

“As lawyers working on behalf of children and vulnerable adults who have suffered sexual and physical abuse in institutional care, we write to call for a public inquiry into abuse within church organisations in England and Wales.

Officials of church organisations hold influential and highly respected roles within the community; historically they have enjoyed both the trust of the public and unquestioned access to children. This has undoubtedly created extensive opportunities for abuse. From cases we are handling currently, we are aware of some 41 Catholic priests who have been convicted of serious sexual offences in the recent past. Yet these very same organisations, particularly in the Catholic Church, have persistently ignored and in many cases covered up complaints of abuse.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Tuesday January 17 2012

THE late Mary Raftery was rightly a much respected and much loved journalist. And what follows is certainly not criticism of her or her achievements, but of our Great Single Narrative.

Once upon a time, the Great Single Narrative of Ireland was largely provided by the Catholic Church.

Now it comes from the new clergy in the secular media. In this current GSN, the hapless Irish people were oppressed by a sadistic caste of sexually depraved priests, who raped, brutalised and violated children at their ease, immune to all legal consequence.

As with all successful GSNs, there is sufficient truth in these allegations to sustain the myth. But within the culture that has emerged around this GSN, virtually all memory of the selflessness and dedication of scores of thousands of priests, brothers and nuns down the centuries has vanished.

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NETHERLANDS
Radio Netherlands

Prime Minister Mark Rutte has been accused of giving victims of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic church false hope that older cases might still result in prosecution of the perpetrators. Many cases happened too long ago for them to qualify for prosecution now under Dutch law.

Prime Minister Rutte said on television that he personally believed immunity from prosecution under the Dutch statute of limitations ought not to apply to such cases and that the matter would be looked at again, also in relation to European legislation.

When Justice and Security Minister Ivo Opstelten announced earlier this week that nothing could be done in cases barred by the statute of limitations this led to disappointment among many victims because of Mr Rutte’s earlier comment, Christian Democrat MP Madeleine van Toorenburg told Dutch public broadcaster NOS.

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ICELAND
Iceland Review

Seventeen people have come forward as victims under their own names to the investigative commission of the Catholic Church in Iceland, responsible for uncovering abuse which is said to have taken place under the church’s veil a few decades ago.

Other alleged victims who preferred to remain anonymous have also contacted the commission. All of these people are now adults. However, no teacher, parent or relative have reported abuse to the commission, Fréttablaðið reports.

All these people were either students at the Catholic Church’s school, Landakotsskóli, or attendees of the summer camp Riftún in Ölfus, south Iceland, operated by the church.

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

Victims of serial sexual abusers should consider filing their own lawsuits instead of getting involved in class actions, says an Ontario lawyer who has represented people assaulted by priests.

“Some of it has to be based upon your personal philosophy; I just don’t believe in class-action suits for victims of sexual abuse, and particularly childhood victims who have been abused by priests,” Paul Ledroit said Tuesday.

“I can’t think of a worse thing that you could do to a child.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

By Mary Ann Ahern

Tuesday, Jan 17, 2012

After nearly 40 years, a Chicago-area woman last summer told the Chicago Archdiocese that Rev. George Klein, once the principal at St. Benedict High School, had sexually abused her.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said it started after she was found drunk at a basketball game in the mid 1970s. She was called to the principal’s office and she thought she would be expelled from school. But what she says happened was far worse.

“He did touch me, he kissed me, he fondled me, he opened up my blouse, went up my skirt. He molested me right there in the school,” she recalled.

She said it happened repeatedly for more than a year. …

In the letter, McCluskey states: “The Board made the determination that Fr. Klein’s conduct did not constitute sexual abuse of a minor but was otherwise inappropriate.”

It turns out Fr. Klein phoned Cardinal Francis George in mid-December, anxious to hear if he had been cleared. After that conversation, he told his pastor he was allowed to once again say mass and did so at St. Philip the Apostle in Northfield on Jan. 1, telling parishioners he was the victim of unfair allegations

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RIVER FOREST (IL)
RiverForest.com

By Devin Rose
Staff Reporter

River Forest police and school officials are closely monitoring areas around the village’s schools after a man charged with sexual abuse was seen multiple times outside of Lincoln School.

Rev. Bede R. Jagoe, 77, turned himself into police last month after he allegedly fondled and tried to kiss a man at Midway Airport, where he was assigned to the chapel. Jagoe is a member of the Dominican order and lives at the Dominican Priory residential community, 7200 W. Division St.

River Forest Deputy Police Chief Craig Rutz said he had heard Jagoe was out on bail but couldn’t confirm it. His bail had been set at $10,000 after the Dec. 23 arrest.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Huffington Post UK

Richard Scorer

Before the child abuse scandal of the last decade, Catholic priests held influential and highly respected roles within the community. They enjoyed the trust of the public and unquestioned access to children. We know that created extensive opportunities for sexual abuse.

What we don’t know is the true scale of that abuse. Child abuse is accompanied by fear and shame, and most victims never come forward. Only around 10% of sexual abuse allegations result in criminal convictions. And there’s a further reason, which is that for many decades the Catholic Church persistently ignored and in many cases covered up complaints of abuse. As a lawyer acting for victims, I’ve seen evidence of cover ups on many of my cases – victims warned against taking their complaints to the police, priests transferred away from parishes suddenly until complaints die down.

The Catholic church now maintains that it abhors child abuse and that it wants to root it out. If the Catholic church is serious about this – and I’ve no doubt that there are at least some in the church hierarchy who are determined to confront the problem – then in my view it has a responsibility to come clean about past abuse. And there’s a simple way for the Catholic church to do this – open its secret archives to the police.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

January 16, 2012 10:21 pm | Author: Jerry Berger

It’s a Goliath v. David struggle: Lawyers for Catholic officials in St. Louis and Kansas City demanding depositions and thousands of pages of documents deemed private by two local SNAP leaders, David Clohessy and Barbara Dorris. But SNAP has picked up editorial support from Missouri’s two largest newspapers and the independent National Catholic Reporter. In a 2,500-word piece, the NCR opines that, “We know from too many stories of suicides and destroyed lives that it was only because of the diligence of outside watchdogs and whistleblowers that abuse in this country was taken seriously. It was only because of (SNAP’s) work that our church was forced, grudgingly, to change.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The appointment of Cardinal Levada’s successor has been postponed until April if not later. There is no Italian running for the position. German cardinal Müller and French cardinal Ricard stand out as potential favourites for the post. But an Englishman’s name is also being considered

ANDREA TORNIELLI
Vatican City

Next week, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will hold a plenary session in the Palace of the Holy Office. Everyone expected the name of Cardinal William Levada’s successor to be announced straight after this meeting. Cardinal Levada has been Prefect of the doctrinal dicastery, once referred to as “la Suprema” (the Supreme congregation), since 2005. But it looks like the decision date has been pushed forward. Benedict XVI wants to take his time before making the final decision, taking great care to examine all the possibilities on the table.

Meanwhile, the 64 year old Bishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Ludwig Müller remains a potential candidate. He is already a member of the Congregation and as a theologian, is highly esteemed by Benedict XVI, who unexpectedly summoned him to Rome in recent days, to discuss his future call to the Curia. Should he not succeed in being appointed as head of the dicastery, the German bishop could be nominated Cardinal Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, substituting Raffaele Farina and nominated cardinal in a future concistory.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WIVB

[with video]

Mark Parrotte

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – The Buffalo Catholic Diocese released new information about the removal of a long-time pastor from a downtown parish.

Father Second Casarotto served at St. Anthony of Padua for more than 25 years. He’s been placed on administrative leave. A statement read at Mass says he’s been called back to his order’s provincial house and that he requests your prayers and assures his prayers as well.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Montgormery Media

By Thomas P. Murt
State Representative

Grand jury investigations into the recent child sex abuse scandals, which have rocked Penn State and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, have placed the issue of child sex abuse onto the front burner here in Pennsylvania — where it belongs.

I serve on the state’s Child and Youth Committee and have listened to and read many hours of excruciatingly painful testimony from victims and their families describing the most heinous sexual abuse imaginable. The institutional cover-ups and subsequent ill-treatment of victims have made these terrible situations even worse. It’s a sad day, indeed, when concern for institutional risk management trumps uncovering the truth.

I recently listened to testimony concerning two perpetrators who were Franciscan Friars and who taught at Archbishop Ryan High School when I was on the faculty there. As a life-long Catholic, a former parochial school teacher and a religious education instructor, I am filled with anguish over these incidents.

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KENTUCKY
Business Courier

Jon Newberry
Staff Reporter – Business Courier

Kenton County Circuit Judge Gregory Bartlett said Tuesday he’ll rule within a week on motions to dismiss two lawsuits filed against Stan Chesley and his associate Bob Steinberg over their handling of the Covington Diocese sex-abuse class-action settlement that was approved in 2006.

Covington lawyer Michael O’Hara, who represents Chesley and Steinberg, argued the complaints raised in the current lawsuits were already dealt with, and rejected by the court, in the earlier class-action case that formally ended in 2009. Chesley and Steinberg represented hundreds of victims of sex-abuse by Diocese officials in that class action, and O’Hara was their co-counsel.

Claimants received more than $60 million, after fees, from settlement funds contributed by the Diocese and its insurers. Chesley’s law firm and other lawyers were paid about $18.5 million in legal fees, or 22 percent of the awards to claimants.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A public inquiry should be held into church child abuse, a solicitor representing victims of an East Sussex priest has said.

Tracey Emmott, one of eight lawyers appealing for the inquiry into abuse within the church in England and Wales, made the call in a letter to The Times.

Her seven clients are among victims of paedophile priest Roy Cotton, who worked for the Diocese of Chichester.

A Church of England spokeswoman said it would co-operate with a public inquiry.

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BELGIQUE
Le Vif

(Belga) Une perquisition a été menée mardi après-midi à la congrégation des Frères de la Charité, à Gand, dans le cadre de l’Opération Calice qui vise les abus sexuels commis au sein de l’Eglise, a indiqué le service d’information de la VRT.

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BELGIQUE
rtbf

Une trentaine de dossiers ont été saisis par les enquêteurs lors des perquisitions menées mardi dans les évêchés de Bruges et de Gand, ainsi que chez les Frères de la Charité, à Gand, dans le cadre de l’opération Calice, a indiqué le parquet fédéral.

Le juge De Troy procède depuis lundi à une série de perquisitions. Les dossiers saisis mardi concernent des écclesiastiques cités dans des affaires d’abus sexuels sur mineurs commis au sein de l’Église.

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CALIFORNIA
National Catholic Reporter

by Joe Ferullo on Jan. 17, 2012 NCR Today

I was having some coffee with an old friend from a well-known Catholic family a few days ago when the subject of Bishop Gabino Zavala came up. Zavala, an auxiliary bishop in the Los Angeles archdiocese, resigned in early January when it was discovered he was the father of two teenaged children. But, my friend said, no one was talking about it.

She was right. The story had appeared dutifully in local and national newspapers the day of the resignation announcement, but that was it. There was no outrage, no beating the drums about the hypocrisy of celibacy, no linkage to the unending pedophilia scandals. The story just fizzled.

We ordered a second cup and worked over a few conspiracy theories: The new Los Angeles archbishop, Jose Gomez, pulled strings and silenced the press. This was unlikely.

Powerful allies of the well-regarded Zavala made back-door pleas to lower the temperature to local editors who also knew and respected the former bishop. A better theory, but still out there on the edge.

Our cynical side stoked, we tried this one: apathy. After more than a decade of tawdry scandal from every corner of the globe, this story just didn’t shock anybody. In fact, compared to some of the revelations of the last few years, it was downright tame.

But a better answer hit me: The story was just too sad.

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NEDERLAND
Rijksoverheid

Nieuwsbericht | 16-01-2012

Minister Opstelten van Veiligheid en Justitie en staatssecretaris Veldhuijzen van Zanten van VWS stellen een Taskforce kindermishandeling en seksueel misbruik in. Dit schrijven zij aan de Tweede Kamer in een reactie op het rapport van de Commissie seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk (de Commissie Beekman).

Het kabinet deelt met de Commissie Deetman de urgentie om seksueel misbruik in instellingen huiselijke kring te voorkomen en om daders aan te pakken. Centrale regie van de overheid vinden zij hierbij nodig. De Taskforce kindermishandeling en seksueel misbruik gaat er mede op toezien dat het Actieplan aanpak kindermishandeling wordt uitgevoerd. Dit plan is onlangs aangeboden aan de Tweede Kamer en bevat maatregelen voor verbetering van de preventie, signalering en bestrijding van kindermishandeling.

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CANADA
Market Watch

OTTAWA, ONTARIO, Jan 17, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — The Honourable John Duncan, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, today launched a call for proposals for the 2012-2013 funding for the Advocacy and Public Information Program (APIP).

In its sixth year, the program works with partners to support the sharing of information and to ensure that the Aboriginal community, particularly former residential school students and their families, are aware of all aspects of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

“Our government supports opportunities and gestures to strengthen efforts toward reconciliation between Aboriginal people, their families and communities and all Canadians. The Advocacy and Public Information Program is designed to promote a better understanding of the legacy of residential schools and build new partnerships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples,” said Minister Duncan.

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PENNSYLVANIA
San Antonio Express-News

SMETHPORT, Pa. (AP) — A teenage boy testified that a suspended Catholic priest from northwestern Pennsylvania continued to contact him and invite him to visit even after the boy’s mother objected.

The mother, meanwhile, testified that she continued to allow another son to visit the priest because he wasn’t lying about it and hiding the visits.

Testimony was to continue Tuesday in the trial of the Rev. Samuel Slocum. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie suspended Slocum, 60, from duties at two churches in rural McKean County after he was charged in April with corruption of minors, interference with the custody of children, concealing the whereabouts of a child and other crimes.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
4NI

A priest jailed for sexually abusing three young girls is set to be freed after winning his appeal against conviction.

Father Eugene Lewis has partially won his appeal today after senior judges dismissed three of eleven counts of indecent assault that the priest was found guilty of committing.

The 77-year-old was originally sentenced to four years in prison for the sex crimes he committed nearly 40 years ago but in September 2010 his sentence was reduced to two years and nine months.

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BELGIE
De Standaard

BRUGGE/GENT – Bij de huiszoekingen in de bisdommen van Brugge en Gent en bij de Broeders van Liefde in Gent werden ruim dertig dossiers in beslag genomen. Het gaat, net als bij de huiszoekingen maandag, om persoonlijke dossiers van geestelijken die genoemd worden in feiten van seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen. Dat zegt het federale parket.

De Brusselse onderzoeksrechter De Troy liet maandag diverse huiszoekingen uitvoeringen, o.m. bij de bisdommen van Hasselt en Antwerpen en bij het aartsbisdom in Mechelen.

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BELGIE
Knack

dinsdag 17 januari 2012 om 16u15

(Belga) In het kader van de Operatie Kelk wordt deze namiddag ook een huiszoeking uitgevoerd bij de Broeders van Liefde in Gent. Dat meldt de VRT-nieuwsdienst en wordt bevestigd door woordvoerder Lieven Claeys van de Broeders Van Liefde.

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BELGIE
HLN

HLN update Speurders hebben vandaag ruim 30 dossiers in beslag genomen na huiszoekingen bij de bisdommen van Brugge en Gent en in het regionale huis van de Broeders van Liefde in Gent. De huiszoekingen gebeurden in opdracht van onderzoeksrechter Wim De Troy.

Volgens het federaal parket gaat het, net als bij de huiszoekingen gisteren, om persoonlijke dossiers van geestelijken die genoemd worden in feiten van seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen. Het gaat zowel om dossiers van geestelijken die nog in leven zijn als overleden personen.

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NETHERLANDS
Vatican Insider

In an interview with “Témoignage Chretien” Professor Munsterman gives some initial comments in light of the shocking findings of the Deetman Committee. Meanwhile, results as a whole prove wrong the thesis that the Church is more affected by the scandals than the rest of society

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

Before the anti-abuse “purification” imposed by Benedict XVI on national bishops’ conferences, the response of national churches to the worldwide scandal of paedophile priests has been inadequate. In fact, the “tendency to retreat, accompanied by mistrust towards the outside world” and “attempts to escape from the critical issues” must be avoided. Hendro Munsterman, Director of the Ministry of Religious Studies at the Catholic University of Lyon recognized the responsibilities of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, inspired by the shocking conclusions of the Deetman Committee, established at The Hague. The survey estimates that there have been “tens of thousands” of victims of sexual abuse by around 800 paedophile priests in the Netherlands between 1945 and 2010. “Tens of thousands of children have suffered light, serious or very serious sexual abuse by priests in the Dutch Catholic Church between 1945 and 2010,” the commission wrote in the report.

“On the basis of 1,795 reports, the Committee was able to trace 800 abusers who have worked or are working for the diocese, and at least 105 are still alive,” the report continued. Based on the results received by the Deetman Commission, Professor Hendro Munsterman, on information website Témoignage Chretien observes how the investigation conducted in the Netherlands denies that clerical celibacy leads to child abuse. Instead, the sex scandals involving “infidel” clergy are linked to “a drift due to a relationship of power and the victim’s dependence on the individual committing the abuse.” According to Hendro Munsterman, the idea that paedophilia among priests is caused by celibacy and a Catholic sexual morality that is too rigid, is “too simplistic”.

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BELGIUM
Vatican Insider

Material seized in the offices of some bishops. The spokesman of a bishop: “We have nothing to hide”

Vatican Insider Staff
Rome

New searches by Belgian police in the investigation into alleged abuses committed by priests against children. According to local media, the agents – by order of the judiciary as part of “Operation Chalice” – seized material from the offices of the Archbishop of Malin-Brussels and the bishops of Antwerp and Hasselt. “We are looking for personal files relating to certain prelates whose names have been mentioned in the statements of victims,” explained Lieve Pellens, spokesperson for the Belgian federal prosecutor, quoted by the Belgian news agency, who noted that the operation is “in an important phase.”

The spokesperson also wanted to clarify that the Catholic Church- unlike in June of 2010, when the Vatican accused the Belgian authorities of behaving “worse than Communists” – provided their “full cooperation, everything has been done legally.” “We have nothing to hide,” stressed Clem Vande Broek, spokesperson for the Bishop of Hasselt.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Vatican Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, has appointed the Salesian Sergio Pellini as head of the Vatican Press and the Holy See’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

The glorious Vatican Polyglot Press has a new head and L’Osservatore Romano has a new director general. The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has appointed Salesian Father Sergio Pellini as new director general of the “Vatican Press Office and L’Osservatore Romano Newspaper”.

The two bodies which were merged into one some time ago, were directed by another Salesian cleric, Fr. Pietro Migliasso. According to the recent history of this Holy See institution, in 1909, the Vatican Printing Office and the Polyglot Press were merged to form the Vatican Polyglot Press, which changed names again in 1991, in conjunction with a general restructuring of the company started by John Paul II.

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BELGIUM
The Associated Press

By DON MELVIN, Associated Press

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — Belgian authorities searched the administrative offices of the bishops of Bruges and Ghent on Tuesday, a day after raiding similar offices in three other cities as they investigated whether church officials protected child abusers instead of their victims.

Peter Rossel, a spokesman for Jozef de Kessel, the Bishop of Bruges, 60 miles (96 kilometers) northwest of Brussels, confirmed that a search had taken place there. He said the church was cooperating fully with the investigation.

Koen Vlaeminck, a spokesman for the church in Ghent, told The Associated Press that authorities had arrived at church offices with a request for files relating to 13 specific individuals. He said the church had cooperated, and had been allowed to retain copies of the files.

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UNITED KINGDOM
PRNewswire

MANCHESTER, England, January 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ —

A leading ‘abuse case’ lawyer is challenging the Catholic Church to open its secret archives of documents for independent examination in order to discover the truth about child abuse by its priests.

Richard Scorer, a Partner and specialist in child abuse cases at Manchester law firm Pannone, says, “Every Catholic diocese has a secret archive which is kept locked and has in it secret documents. In the words of the Code of Canon Law, these documents are to be ‘protected most securely’ and contain, ‘matters of morals’ and ‘criminal cases’. Only the bishop is allowed to possess the key and the archive is only to be opened in a case of ‘true necessity’. It is my feeling and that of many of my legal peers that this moment of necessity is here.”

Says Mr Scorer, “It is like something from a Dan Brown novel, but this is not the Da Vinci Code, it is the Code of Canon Law and it has a bearing on the lives of hundreds probably even thousands of people. In every one of those archives there will be evidence of past scandals, if the Catholic Church really wants to help those children its priest’s may have abused in the past, it should open up its secret archives to independent investigation now and cleanse itself of its culture of denial and cover-up. ”

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NEDERLAND
Rijksoverheid

Reactie rapport seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen in de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Jan. 17, 2012
By Tom Roberts

Archbishop Charles Chaput’s announcement Jan. 6 that the Philadelphia archdiocese will be closing schools in record numbers during the coming year (see story) was the latest and loudest rumble in a series of seismic displacements that are permanently reshaping the look of U.S. Catholicism.

What is happening in Philadelphia follows the same script, fashioned by demographic shifts and economic need, that has been in use throughout the Northeast and Upper Midwest. The drama may differ in particulars from place to place — some bishops might accomplish the grim task with more pastoral sensitivity than others, some may involve the larger community more deeply in the decision-making process than others — but the results are pretty much the same. From Philadelphia to Newark, N.J., New York to Boston, Cleveland to Chicago to Detroit and beyond, the church of the immigrants is going the same route as the old industrial America of our forebears. The huge plants — churches, schools and parish halls — markers of another era, like the hulking steel mills and manufacturing plants of old, can no longer be sustained. There aren’t enough Catholics left in those places, not enough priests and nuns and certainly not enough money to maintain the church as it once was.

According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington, the church in the United States has lost 1,359 parishes during the past 10 years, or 7.1 percent of the national total, and most of those have been in the Northeast and the Upper Midwest.

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