ABUSE TRACKER

SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Sacramento Bee

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Published: Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012

Supporters of the Rev. Uriel Ojeda were rewarded for waiting in the darkness Monday as the Catholic priest posted bail and was released from the Sacramento County Main Jail.

More than 50 people prayed for and flew balloons to celebrate the release of the Sacramento diocesan priest who faces child molestation charges.

Ojeda, 32, is accused of seven counts of molesting a girl under the age of 14 while he served at parishes in Woodland and Redding. He had been jailed in lieu of $5 million bail until Sacramento Superior Court Judge Marjorie Koller last week lowered it to $700,000.

Defense attorney Jesse Ortiz initially expected Ojeda to be released by 5 p.m. By 6:30 p.m., Ojeda’s supporters scrambled to post the collateral that would ensure his freedom. At 9 p.m., supporters were told it could be another hour or two.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Sacramento Bee

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Published: Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012

Supporters of the Rev. Uriel Ojeda waited into the darkness Monday to see if the Catholic priest jailed on child molestation charges would be able to post bail.

More than 50 people sang songs in Spanish and flew balloons outside the Sacramento County Main Jail while Ojeda’s attorney and bail bondsmen worked on the details to gain what they expected would be the priest’s release.

Ojeda, 32, is accused of seven counts of molesting a girl under the age of 14 while he served at parishes in Woodland and Redding. He had been jailed in lieu of $5 million bail until Sacramento Superior Court Judge Marjorie Koller last week lowered it to $700,000.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
News 10

[with video]

SACRAMENTO, CA – Dozens of people gathered outside the Sacramento County Jail late Monday, some waiting nearly seven hours, for the release of a Sacramento diocese priest.

Around 10 p.m., Father Uriel Ojeda, 32, was released from jail after posting bail. He has been in custody since Nov. 30 when he surrendered to police.

Sacramento Catholic Diocese Spokesman Kevin Eckery said Ojeda admitted to two church officials that he molested a 13-year-old girl.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Irish Archbishop asks priest to contribute to compensation for abuse victims – POLL

By
ANTOINETTE KELLY,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Not content to minister to the flock, an Irish archbishop has asked priests to pay over $900.00 each year into a fund that will be used to compensate Irish victims of clerical sex abuse.

According to a report in the Irish Independent this week, Archbishop Dermot Clifford has sent letters to all of the priests in the Cashel and Emly Archdiocese of County Tipperary and County Limerick asking them to pay between $60 and $75 dollars per month to a Clergy Contribution Fund.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic News Agency

By Benjamin Mann

Hamden, Conn., Jan 9, 2012 / 07:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A three-year survey of women’s religious life in the United States has concluded with the filing of a final report by the Vatican-appointed Apostolic Visitator Mother Mary Clare Millea.

“Although there are concerns in religious life that warrant support and attention, the enduring reality is one of fidelity, joy, and hope,” Mother Millea said in a Jan. 9 release announcing the submission of her findings to the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Along with her comprehensive report on women’s religious communities, Mother Millea is presenting individual reports on nearly 400 religious institutes to the congregation’s secretary Archbishop Joseph Tobin. These reports are likely to be completed by the spring of 2012.

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CANADA
Cape Breton Post

By Nancy King Cape Breton Post
PORT HAWKESBURY — The case of Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh has attracted the attention of a group that advocates on behalf of people who say that they are survivors of sexual abuse.

The Atlantic chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has been looking into the MacIntosh matter, and its regional head Dave Mantin says he has recently been in almost daily contact with some of the men who say they were abused as youngsters by MacIntosh.

Mantin said the network is helping some of the complainants in the MacIntosh case assess what legal options may now be available to them.

“In this particular case, I read about it in the newspaper and I thought it just doesn’t sound right, (the group’s involvement) is really out of more personal curiosity, I started investigating a little bit,” Mantin said.

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UNITED STATES
Catholics4Change

January 10, 2012 by Susan Matthews

The Catholic League used the clip art at left in a press release in regard to the Boston Victims’ Summit. To use such art in relation to the issue of clergy sex abuse is reprehensible. Regardless of what you think about the law suits, the media or the issue in general – the bottom line is that children were harmed. This artwork and the press release is not only highly inappropriate – it couldn’t be less Christ-like. The actual press release is no better.

I find it very disturbing that our Church leaders support an organization that would do this. Below is Archbishop Chaput’s testimonial from the Catholic League’s Web site.

“The Catholic League has the courage to speak up candidly and forcefully for the Church when circumstances call for fighting the good fight. The League should be on every Catholic’s short list of essential organizations to support.”

— Most Rev. Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Philadelphia

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

THE BRUNT of the impact of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia closing 49 of its schools will surely be felt by the teachers, students and parents of those schools closing – and most especially the high-school juniors who will be forced to find another school from which to graduate – and hopefully stay on course for college.

But the Archdiocese’s closure of 45 elementary schools and four high schools – affecting more than 22,000 students and 1,700 teachers – is a move that will affect the whole city. We’re a far cry from the era when 12 percent of schoolchildren were educated in Catholic schools, and the church and its affiliated schools dominated some communities. But despite the storm of changes that have buffeted the church in the last few generations, parochial schools are still deeply embedded in many city neighborhoods. Their absence will be felt by all.

In fact, this is another reckoning for education in the city. The disappearance of a quarter of the parochial-educational system is not insignificant, particularly with its enviable graduation rate (99.7 percent in Philadelphia) and college attainment (92.5 percent post-secondary-education enrollment).

This particular reckoning was long overdue; not just here, but across the country. A number of reports have documented the decline of Catholic education; one, from Education Next, maintains that while the general Catholic population in the United States has remained about the same since 1965, school population has plummeted, from 5.2 million to 2.3 million in 2006.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Patriot-News

By Patriot-News Op-Ed

Rep. Thomas P. Murt

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

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.

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 lifelong Catholic, a former parochial school teacher and a religious education instructor, I am filled with anguish over these incidents.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Keloland Television

By Derek Olson
Published: January 9, 2012

BELLE FOURCHE, SD – Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs has been behind bars since last August when he was sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting two young girls. But, as Butte County officials are discovering, incarceration isn’t silencing the controversial leader.

In early December, letters from Jeffs began arriving at the Butte County Courthouse. At first, they were handled like any other piece of mail.

“The first time they came, I did give them to my commissioners,” Butte County Auditor Elaine Jensen said.

The letters, which contain some dire jailhouse prophecies from Jeffs, were promptly rejected by the Butte County Commission. But, the packages continued to arrive.

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UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune

Lindsay Whitehurst

Yet another Warren Jeffs revelation from God came into the Utah Attorney General’s Office today. Read it here.

It’s dated Dec. 24, the day before Jeffs made two 15-minute phone addresses to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints congregation. He reportedly told the members that they had until the end of the year to be “re-baptized” by following increasingly strict new rules and paying tithings of thousands of dollars.

Those who didn’t ended up being told they were no longer worthy to attend church.

Those Christmas Day telephonic sermons earned Jeffs a 90-day suspension from his phone privileges this weekend. A Texas prison spokesman said he was punished for breaking a clearly posted rule to only call the 10 people on his approved visitor list. The five days he’s already been on suspension pending the investigation don’t count.

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CANADA
The Vancouver Sun

By Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun
January 10, 2012

Nearly a year after lawyers in the B.C. attorney-general’s minis-try learned the details of how a father from Bountiful delivered his 13-year-old daughter into a forced, polygamous marriage with the now-jailed prophet of a fundamentalist Mormon sect, Attorney-General Shirley Bond has instructed that a special prosecutor be appointed to look into the evidence.

Among the charges the prosecutor may consider are human trafficking, child sexual exploitation, sexual assault and procurement.

It’s welcome news. Still, one can’t help wonder why it’s taken so long.

The evidence has been kicking around since September 2008. That’s when a team leader in the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development got a fax from Texas following a raid on the compound built by Prophet Warren Jeffs.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

By Peggy Curran, The Gazette
January 10, 2012

The pope is dead. Will there be a new pope, and how will we even find out?

For 40 years, Jean-Gaston Tremblay – also known as Pope Gregory XVII and Jean-Grégoire de la Trinité – had been the spiritual leader of the Apostles of Infinite Love, a breakaway Catholic cult based in a “monastery” sequestered in the countryside near St. Jovite.

“There’s a big fence around the community, but it wasn’t clear whether that was to keep prying eyes out, or to keep people in,” says Info-Cult’s Mike Kropveld, who has been monitoring “les Apôtres de l’amour infini” for decades.

Tremblay was 83 when he died in a Ste. Agathe hospital on New Year’s Eve.

For much of his life, Tremblay had been the target of police probes, arising from allegations of forcible detention, mental, sexual and physical abuse of children, illegal confinement and kidnapping.

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CHILE
Cooperativa

José Andrés Murillo, uno de los denunciantes de los abusos cometidos por el sacerdote Fernando Karadima, instó a la Iglesia a apoyar a las víctimas de estos actos cometidos por religiosos.

A raíz del respaldo de la congregación del Verbo Divino al sacerdote filipino, Richard Joy Aguinaldo, declarado culpable de abuso sexual contra menores, Murillo aseveró que la solidaridad debe estar en las víctimas.

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CHILE
Emol

SANTIAGO.- La Cuarta Sala de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago confirmó el cierre definitivo de la investigación por abusos sexuales contra menores de edad cometidos por el sacerdote Fernando Karadima.

En fallo unánime (causa rol 3037-2010), los ministros de la Cuarta Sala del tribunal de alzada Juan Cristóbal Mera, María Soledad Melo y el abogado integrante Bernardo Lara ratificaron la resolución de la ministra en visita Jessica González, quien había decretado el sobreseimiento, aplicando la prescripción.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The death has taken place of journalist Mary Raftery. The 54-year-old died following an illness.

Ms Raftery was best known for her ‘States of Fear’ documentary series, which revealed the extent of physical and sexual abuse suffered by children in Irish industrial schools and residential institutions.

It led to the creation of the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse.

In 2002, her ‘Cardinal Secrets’ programme for RTÉ’s Prime Time led to the setting up of the Murphy Commission of Investigation into clerical abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By INDEPENDENT.IE REPORTERS and SARAH STACK

Tuesday January 10 2012

JOURNALIST Mary Raftery (54) whose documentary ‘States of Fear’ exposed the extent of physical and sexual abuse of children in State run institutions, has died following an illness.

For the last 15 years she had been a fearless critic of both Church and State.

The 1999 documentary chronicled the horrific conditions of children who were cared for in Irish orphanages run by religious orders.

Her work led to the establishment of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse and later the Residential Institutions Redress Board which provided compensation to victims of abuse in institutions run by 18 religious orders.

Colm O’Gorman, who founded the One in Four organisation for victims of sex abuse tweeted: “Very sad to hear about the death of Mary Raftery. One of our finest journalists & filmmakers. A courageous, principled, wonderful woman.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY

Tributes have been paid to the late journalist and broadcaster Mary Raftery (54) who died in St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin today after an illness.

Abuse victim and campaigner Andrew Madden said Ms Raftery had been “instrumental” in helping many survivors expose the truth about what the Catholic Church and others knew about the sexual abuse of children by priests.

“Mary Raftery has contributed hugely to helping survivors receive some semblance of justice: The Ryan and Murphy reports are now part of the public record of this country and will remain there and continue to inform us for many years. For too many survivors, having those reports on the public record is the only justice they have ever received.”

“I will be forever grateful to Mary for all she has done to help shed a light where it wasn’t wanted,” he said.

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MUNCIE (IN)
The Star Press

MUNCIE — Nearly three years after charges were filed, testimony should begin today in the trial of a Muncie pastor accused of sexually abusing three teenager members of his congregation.

The trial of Matthew A. Kidd, now 55, pastor of Freedom Point Apostolic Church, began Monday with a full day of jury-selection proceedings in Delaware Circuit Court 3.

Kidd was charged in January 2009 with child molesting and sexual misconduct with a minor, both Class C felonies carrying a standard four-year prison term, and vicarious sexual gratification, a Class D felony with a standard 18-month sentence.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

Michael P. Mayko, Staff Writer

Updated 11:38 p.m., Monday, January 9, 2012

BRIDGEPORT — A federal judge set several deadlines and is mulling how to try the 20 federal lawsuits each seeking $20 million in damages brought by the alleged sexual abuse victims of Douglas Perlitz in Haiti.

The 20 cases, 17 of which were just filed last week, are in the process of being reassigned to U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall.

In meeting with the six plaintiff lawyers and 11 defense lawyers Monday, Hall mulled whether to try all the cases at once, separating the liability phase from the damage phases, or to take one of the cases to finish — as a test case.

Additionally, she asked U.S. Magistrate Judge William I. Garfinkle, who mediated settlements in the Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport sex abuse cases, to conduct preliminary discussions with the lawyers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Western Daily Press

The monks running a West private school at the centre of an abuse scandal will hand over its running to an independent group of governors, it emerged yesterday.

The Benedictine monks could lose control of the running of the £26,000-a-year Downside School in Somerset after a review of practices in the wake of the jailing last week of Richard White, known as “Father Nicholas” to the 1,500 students.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

The death has taken place in Dublin of renowned journalist and broadcaster Mary Raftery.

She died at St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin in the early hours of this morning after an illness. She was 54.

Probably the outstanding journalist of her generation, Ms Raftery produced some of the most powerful and influential programmes ever broadcast on RTÉ television.

She was best known for the 1999 States of Fear documentary series that revealed the extent of physical and sexual abuse suffered by children in industrial schools managed by religious orders on behalf of the State.

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UNITED STATES
The Pilot

By Mark Pattison

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who was appointed Jan. 6 to the College of Cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI, has used his pulpit, be it in New York or Milwaukee, to promote and defend the Catholic faith.

Ordained to the priesthood in 1976, Cardinal-designate Dolan was secretary to the apostolic nunciature in Washington for five years before serving as rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome. In 2001, then-Msgr. Dolan was ordained to the episcopate when he was appointed auxiliary bishop in his native St. Louis. One year and five days later, he was appointed archbishop of Milwaukee. …

As a panelist for a 2004 EWTN-sponsored “town hall” meeting, Cardinal-designate Dolan said the clergy sex abuse crisis was “a societal problem, not a Catholic problem.” At the time, he was chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry.

The Milwaukee Archdiocese in 2006 reached an out-of-court, $16.9 million settlement with victims of clerical sexual abuse. Then-Archbishop Dolan said the payout would mean “sacrifices in operations and ministries” but going to trial could have been worse in terms of archdiocesan financial liability, “to say nothing about the bad PR.” The archdiocese in 2011 filed for bankruptcy protection due to unresolved abuse claims, the largest U.S. diocese to have done so.

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CHILE
The Santiago Times

Written by Juan Francisco Veloso Olguin

Philippine priest Richard Joey Aguinaldo found guilty on two counts, but avoids jail sentence.

A Catholic priest found guilty of abusing a young child and attempting to abuse another has been given a 4-year, 200-day probation sentence, avoiding jail altogether.

District Attorney Mauricio González, during part of the oral trial court of Colina, revealed the probation sentence on Sunday of Philippine priest Richard Joey Aguinaldo after he was found guilty of molestation.

Aguinaldo moved to Chile in 1991 as part of a Catholic congregation and worked in schools for many years, reaching the rank of dean in the Liceo Alemán del Verbo Divino in the southern city of Los Ángeles in 1993.

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IRELAND
National Catholic Register

by SIMON ROUGHNEEN
01/10/2012

DUBLIN — As Archbishop Charles Brown takes up his new post of papal nuncio to Ireland, he will face what some see as unprecedented difficulties for the Church in Ireland.

After the publication of a series of reports outlining gruesome cases of sexual abuse by priests in Ireland over recent decades, coupled with a falloff in Church attendance, and less quantifiably, a perceptible decline in religious belief and practice, it’s little wonder that Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin predicted that his archdiocese faced its toughest challenge “since Catholic Emancipation,” the 1829 changes to British law that removed many of the discriminatory provisions against Catholics in the United Kingdom, of which Ireland was then a part.

Archbishop Martin was commenting on a drop in Mass attendance in Dublin to 14% and declining priest numbers, but the remarks were seen by many as appropriate to the wider Church in Ireland, which now operates within what Irish writer John Waters described to the Register as “the most anti-Catholic country in Europe.”

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ALABAMA
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

Monday, January 09, 2012

ALABASTER, Ala. (ABP) – Residents of a Birmingham suburb expressed shock at sexual abuse charges filed against a popular school teacher who faced similar allegations, but avoided arrest, 20 years ago while he was youth minister at a Baptist church.

Police in Alabaster, Ala., arrested Daniel Montague Acker Jr., 49, Jan. 4 and charged him with three counts of first-degree child sexual abuse. A fourth charge involving a second victim was added Jan. 6.

Police said Acker admitted to molesting at least 21 female students during his 25-year tenure as a teacher at three public schools.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Bill White

5:01 p.m. EST, January 9, 2012

The alleged child sex abuse victims of Hall of Fame baseball writer Bill Conlin weren’t the only ones who came forward in the wake of the Penn State scandal.

The day one of my columns on this subject appeared, I got a phone call from a man in his 80s. He told me about his being abused when he was a young teenager — and said this was the first time he had told that story to anyone. Even his wife didn’t know about it.

If the scandal at Penn State has any positive result, it will be the way in which it has helped lift the curtain of silence from the subject of child sex abuse and emboldened more victims to finally speak up about what happened to them. I suspect the Conlin accusations have had a similar effect.

U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary Unfortunately, one thing many of these victims had in common was that they never would have the opportunity to confront their abusers in court, because Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations was protecting their tormentors. Conlin’s celebrity made the claims of his alleged victims newsworthy enough to warrant stories even without legal filings to back them up, but the court system ordinarily provides the only avenue to pursue the closure of publicly naming and punishing the people who prey on children.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Jan. 09, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As Bishop Robert W. Finn of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese began visiting parishes yesterday (Jan. 8) as part of an agreement to avoid criminal charges for failing to report suspected child abuse, about 60 area Catholics rallied in his support.

The agreement, between the bishop and Clay County, Mo., prosecutor Daniel White, allowed Finn to avoid criminal charges for child endangerment in that county in regards to the case of diocesan priest Fr. Shawn Ratigan, who was arrested on charges of child pornography last May.

As part of the agreement, Finn agreed to meet with diocesan parishes in that county to outline diocesan reporting procedures for suspected child abuse. Finn also agreed to monthly meetings with White to discuss all reported suspicions of abuse in the county, and to appoint a new director of child and youth protection.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Sacramento Bee

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

About 50 people have gathered outside the downtown jail in Sacramento awaiting the bail release of the Rev. Uriel Ojeda, the Catholic priest who has been accused of molesting a girl under 14 years old.

Ojeda’s attorney, Jesse Ortiz, said that the reverend is scheduled to be released on bond sometime before 5 p.m. today.

Supporters of the 32-year-old Ojeda hoisted balloons and sang songs while they waited for him to walk out of the front door of the jail at 651 I St.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
National Catholic Reporter

Jan. 09, 2012
By Zoe Ryan

Before, during, and after Our Lady of Good Counsel in New Orleans closed in 2008, parishioners were sad. And angry. And dedicated: They kept vigil in the church for three months until police officers forced them out.

But now, the disappointment is eroding to appreciation.

The New Orleans archdiocese announced last month that the Center of Jesus the Lord, a charismatic Catholic community, would move into the empty church building of Our Lady of Good Counsel, located in the Garden District. Although it will not be a parish and cannot offer parish programs, the community will use the space for Mass and other charitable activities.

“We’re very pleased,” said Barbara Fortier, the parish council president of the former Our Lady of Good Counsel and a parishioner there for 26 years. “It’s been a difficult couple of years, but we’ve been very prayerful and very appreciative and thankful for [New Orleans] Archbishop [Gregory] Aymond’s compassion and his willingness to have a dialogue with us.”

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SOUTH DAKOTA
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director

CONTACT: 414.336.8575.

It is being reported today that the Supreme Court of South Dakota has decided to allow a child sexual assault lawsuit involving the Priests of the Sacred Heart to move forward. The suit was filed on behalf of eight Native American children who report that they were sexually assaulted as children at St. Joseph’s Indian Mission School. The Priests of the Sacred Heart had attempted to have the case dismissed claiming the plaintiffs had not followed proper process serving procedures.

St. Joseph’s Indian Mission School in South Dakota is operated by the Priests of the Sacred Heart, a religious order of priests and brothers based in Hales Corners Wisconsin. The order operates Sacred Heart School of Theology, the largest seminary in the United States that trains men over the age of 30 for the priesthood.

The lawsuit names the Priests of the Sacred Heart and members of their community including Father William Pitcavage, Father Thomas Lind, and Brother Matthew Miles as defendants. Pitcavage, who had been elected the Order’s Vice Provincial, and Lind were both removed from ministry following reports of sexual assault at the boarding school.

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TEXAS
CBS News

(AP) HOUSTON — Texas corrections officials have decided that imprisoned polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs will be without phone privileges for 90 days as punishment for making calls that were put on speakerphone — presumably so he could preach to his followers

Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said Monday the 56-year-old was found to have broken the rules multiple times.

A prison system investigation found Jeffs made at least two calls over the inmate phone system on Christmas Day that wound up as sermons to followers of his Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

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TEXAS
CNN

From Dave Alsup, CNN
updated 4:26 PM EST, Mon January 9, 2012

(CNN) — Texas prison officials have found polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs guilty of “a major disciplinary infraction” following an investigation into whether he violated policy by — among other things — preaching a Christmas day sermon from prison, a state spokeswoman said Monday.

Jeffs’ phone privileges have been suspended for 90 days, added Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.

While refusing to elaborate on the content of the conversations, Lyons said that Jeffs was found guilty of making conference calls on several occasions. “It was obvious to us he was talking to a group of people,” she said.

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CHILE
La Tercera

La cuarta sala de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago confirmó el sobreseimiento a favor del Sacerdote Fernando Karadima, acusado de cometer abusos sexuales contra menores de edad.

Con este sobreseimiento se confirma el cierre del caso, porque los ilícitos están prescritos ya que ocurrieron entre 1980 y 1995.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
CantonRep

YOUNGSTOWN —

The Catholic Diocese of Youngstown has been found compliant with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People during its annual compliance audit.

The charter was developed in 2002 in response to the sexual-abuse crises in the Church. It was revised in 2005 and 2011.

The on-site audit was conducted in October by Stonebridge Business Partners, an independent firm based in Rochester, N.Y.

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TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

Gerald Robinson, the Toledo Catholic priest convicted of murdering a nun, was denied a petition for a new trial in a ruling Monday by Judge Gene Zmuda of Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

The 73-year-old priest is serving a 15 years to life sentence in an Ohio prison after being convicted in May, 2006, for the 1980 murder of St. Margaret Ann Pahl. He contended in an amended petition for post-conviction relief that police reports from

the 1980 investigation that were misfiled and discovered by chance in 2009 could have helped his case in 2006.In Monday’s ruling, Judge Zmuda rejected that claim, saying the 136 documents would have added nothing of significance to the trial.

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TOLEDO (OH)
Northwest Ohio

by Elizabeth Reed

TOLEDO — More than five years after a Roman Catholic priest was convicted of killing a nun at Mercy Hospital, a Lucas County Common Pleas Court judge has denied his request for a new trial.

The Associated Press reports Judge Gene Zmuda turned down Rev. Gerald Robinson’s appeal on Monday due to lack of revelant information. But Rev. Robinson’s attorneys say the 136 documents provided contain police reports that were only discovered after his trial.

Rev. Robinson, 73, was found guilty of killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl more than 30 years after the murder. He is serving 15 years to life in prison after jurors convicted him in May 2006.

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TOLEDO (OH)
The Sacramento Bee

By JOHN SEEWER
Associated Press

TOLEDO, Ohio — A Roman Catholic priest convicted of killing a nun in a hospital chapel in Ohio has lost his bid for a new trial.

A judge in Toledo turned down the priest’s appeal Monday.

Attorneys for the Rev. Gerald Robinson had argued that police reports discovered after his trial could have changed the outcome. But the judge ruled that the reports didn’t contain any relevant information.

It has been more than five years since jurors convicted Robinson of killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in 1980 at Mercy Hospital in Toledo, where both worked.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Huffington Post UK

After more than 200 years, Roman Catholic monks could lose control of the running one of the country’s most prestigious private schools following a series of sex abuse scandals.

Downside School in Somerset is currently conducting a “major review” of the governance arrangements after Richard White, a former monk and teacher at the school, was jailed for abusing two boys there in the 1980s.

White, who was known as “Father Nicholas” to the 1,500 students at the school, was jailed for five years, having been sheltered from prosecution by the church for more than two decades, despite admitting his crimes to monastic staff.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A Somerset school hit by allegations of historical sexual offences is considering taking itself out of the control of the Roman Catholic clergy.

Downside Abbey said it was undertaking a “major review” and that “significant changes” would be announced soon.

Last week Richard David White, 66, a monk who taught there, was jailed for five years for child sex offences.

White, of Hyde, Fordingbridge, Hampshire, was sentenced at Taunton Crown Court.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Rutland & Stamford Mercury

Published on Monday 9 January 2012

Roman Catholic monks could lose control of running one of the country’s most prestigious private schools, based in Somerset, after more than 200 years following a series of sex abuse scandals, it has been reported.

Benedictine monks will hand control of affairs at the £26,000-a-year Downside School in Somerset to an independent governing body following a review of practices in the wake of the jailing last week of Richard White, 66, for abusing two boys there in the late 1980s, according to The Times.

Police have now confirmed two other men have received cautions as part of an investigation into historic sexual abuse at the school. A spokesman for the school confirmed that “a major review of the school’s governance” was taking place at Downside and that “significant changes will be announced soon”.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Monday, January 09, 2012

The Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Dermot Clifford, has confirmed that he has written to priests in his diocese asking them to contribute to costs associated with child protection.

It follows a newspaper report that clergy in Tipperary and Limerick were being asked to pay up to €720 euro each per year to compensate victims of clerical sex abuse.

In a statement issued this afternoon, Archbishop Clifford did not clarify whether the funds will be used to settle compensation claims.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY

The Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Dr Dermot Clifford, has written to priests and curates in his diocese asking them to contribute to a fund established to compensate victims of clerical child abuse.

In a statement today, the archbishop confirmed he had written to all 85 clerics in the 46 Tipperary and Limerick parishes, requesting voluntary contributions to the “clergy contribution fund”.

The fund was established five years ago to help the diocese cope with mounting debts incurred as a result of child protection issues.

Dr Clifford said the initiative came from the most recent meeting of the diocese’s council of priests at which it was proposed that the archbishop make a renewed appeal to the priests of the diocese for the restoration of the fund.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE ARCHBISHOP in the Munster diocese of Cashel and Emly has asked priests to consider making voluntary contributions to a fund which covers the diocese’s cost for child protection issues.

Dermot Clifford has asked parish priests to pay €60 per month into a Clergy Contribution Fund, in order to cover debts incurred by the diocese in child protection issues. Curates are also asked to contribute €50 per month.

In a statement this evening, the diocese said the request had stemmed from a recent meeting of the diocese’s Council of Priests, where it was proposed that the Archbishop make a renewed appeal to priests asking them to help restore the fund.

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GREECE
MSNBC

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS

ATHENS, Greece — Greek disability groups expressed anger Monday at a government decision to expand a list of state-recognized disability categories to include pedophiles, exhibitionists and kleptomaniacs.

The National Confederation of Disabled People called the action “incomprehensible,” and said pedophiles are now awarded a higher government disability pay than some people who have received organ transplants.

The Labor Ministry said categories added to the expanded list — that also includes pyromaniacs, compulsive gamblers, fetishists and sadomasochists — were included for purposes of medical assessment and used as a gauge for allocating financial assistance.

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CANADA
Metro Ottawa

JESSICA SMITH
METRO OTTAWA

Published: January 08, 2012

The Archbishop of St. John’s issued a statement to the parishes in his province, voicing his “sadness, disappointment and anger” concerning former Bishop of Antigonish Raymond Lahey’s conviction for importing child pornography.

The short statement, distributed to parishes on Sunday, spoke against pornography as a whole.

“Pornography is an all-too-common obsession and addiction,” said Archbishop Martin Currie.

Lahey told an Ottawa court that the child pornography on his computer came from an “indiscriminate” addiction to porn.

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CANADA
Catholic Culture

January 09, 2012

Archbishop Martin Currie of St. John’s, Newfoundland, has written to the Catholics of the region, revealing that Bishop Raymond Lahey is seeking to be laicized after his conviction on child-pornography charges.

“Let us draw whatever good we can from this event,” said Archbishop Currie. Noting that the habitual use of pornography is “an all-too-common obsession and addiction,” he urged all Catholics to take a stand “against all that harms or degrades human beings.”

Archbishop Currie sought to reassure people that the St. John’s archdiocese “is committed to establishing safe and supportive communities” for all vulnerable people, an screening all those who work for the Church.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By: LaVerne Wagner, Duluth News Tribune

I read the Dec. 18 column about the 100th anniversary of the St. Scholastica Order of the Benedictines. Certainly the Sisters’ work has provided all of us with better health care, education and countless social services. Surely, their work continues to do so.

I personally have worked with Catholic nuns throughout the United States on disasters; they lead efforts to assist those who can’t fend for themselves. Mother Teresa inspired many of us to work with sick and poor and to trust that God will protect us and our health.

I struggle, however, with the dark past the sisters both at St. Scholastica and all over the world have in the failing to protect children. Nuns for many years were charged with the education and safety of children attending Catholic schools. As we now know, tens of thousands of children both in the U.S. and abroad were abused, molested and raped while under the care of nuns. These are facts, not allegations. Nuns have said many times they were silenced by their bishops and told to look the other way. Some nuns say they did not have the power to stop abuse.

As a victim of this abuse, I can tell you I have really tried to understand that predicament.

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CALIFORNIA
Metropolitan News-Enterprise

By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer

The Court of Appeal for this district Friday upheld a judgment rejecting a claim against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno over alleged child molestation more than three decades ago.

Div. Eight said jurors at the 2009 trial in Fresno Superior Court were correctly instructed that they could not find the church liable unless it knew that Monsignor Anthony Herdegen before the plaintiffs were molested, and that such knowledge could not be inferred from “innocuous or ambiguous” evidence.

Jurors unanimously agreed that Herdegen, then a priest at St. John’s Catholic Church in Wasco, molested brothers George and Howard Santillan. Evidence showed that George Santillan was abused from 1959, when he was 10 years old, until 1965, and that his brother was molested from 1960, when he was six, until 1973.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WHIO

The Associated Press

CLEVELAND —

The Roman Catholic bishop of Cleveland says the sale of 26 closed churches has netted more than $19 million that will be allocated to other parishes.

The buyers include non-Catholic congregations, a drug-rehab center and charter schools.

Bishop Richard Lennon reported on the sales in a weekend newsletter distributed at churches and at a news conference Monday.

He says about $5 million of the sale proceeds went to closing expenses and to pay shuttered parishes’ debts. Nearly $8 million went to other parishes and charity.

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LAKEWOOD (OH)
WTAM

(Lakewood) – The Roman Catholic bishop of Cleveland says the sale of 26 closed churches has netted more than $19 million that will be allocated to other parishes.

The buyers include non-catholic congregations, a drug-rehab center and charter schools.

Bishop Richard Lennon reported on the sales at a news conference Monday.

He says about $5 million of the sale proceeds went to closing expenses and to pay shuttered parishes’ debts. Nearly $8 million went to other parishes and charity.

Fourteen parishes are still for sale. Some sales were put on hold by parishioner appeals to the Vatican to keep churches open.

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MISSOURI
Bilgrimage

[SNAP court documents]

William D. Lindsey

At the end of a posting last Thursday, I noted the situation now facing the group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in Missouri, where subpoenas have been issued in both Kansas City and St. Louis, demanding that the group’s leaders turn over private communications between themselves and survivors of childhood sexual abuse. This weekend, the Kansas City Star published a strong editorial about the situation, which characterizes a recent ruling of Jackson Co. judge Ann Mesle demanding that SNAP turn over to the court private communications with abuse survivors as “harmful and wrong.” The Star editorial notes that the Missouri Press Association has filed an amicus brief regarding Mesle’s court order, which maintains that “[i]t would chill future news gathering. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that news gathering is protected under the First Amendment.”

Here’s a rough chronology of this developing situation, with links to valuable commentary:

At National Catholic Reporter, Joshua McElwee has reported on the situation in Kansas City from the end of December, when Judge Mesle ordered SNAP to be deposed on 2 January, and to disclose communications sought by the defendant’s attorneys as he did so. As McElwee noted following the 2 January deposition, David Clohessy of SNAP refused to hand over some of the requested communications as he deposed, and SNAP now faces penalties for resisting the court order.

The Kansas City developments were followed immediately by a similar court order in St. Louis, involving a now 19-year old abuse victim who has been assisted by SNAP official Barbara Dorris. McElwee reports on this situation several days ago, indicating that Dorris has now received a subpoena almost identical to the one issued to Clohessy in Kansas City and demanding the same unprecedented access to SNAP’s private communications going back almost 25 years.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

And for those continuing to follow the controversy His Eminence Cardinal Francis George, the past president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, recently ignited when he compared his gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to the Ku Klux Klan, there’s the following:

As always, Jamie Manson provides incisive, theologically perceptive analysis at National Catholic Reporter. Her thesis (and this dovetails with what I’ve just posted about the movement of angry Anglicans back across the Tiber): in rebranding itself to appeal to the right-wing fringes, the Catholic church is, at present, negating its mission to those on the margins. …

And as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes with an editorial statement today, even as the USCCB lobbies against what it claims is a war to diminish Catholic freedom in the U.S., the Catholic bishops have just mounted another conspicuously ugly attack against survivors of clerical sexual abuse by targeting SNAP leaders David Clohessy and Barbara Dorris. The bishops’ lawyers are playing hardball games with SNAP, trying to force it to reveal privileged communications with victims of clerical sexual abuse–though the bishops themselves have never revealed a single scrap of their own files about abuse cases except under serious court and legal duress.

Catholics who support the bishops and who have not ever intended to make room in their hearts and in the Catholic community for survivors of abuse are gleeful that David Clohessy and SNAP are refusing to adhere to a court order to open files that contain confidential information about abuse victims. What must not be lost sight of in the midst of these legal games is that they’re designed to smear SNAP, to damage its credibility, and to make any and all victims of clerical sexual abuse anywhere in the U.S. afraid to come forward with claims.

It’s about, in other words, protecting the church’s assets and tamping down lawsuits by survivors. It’s about using the church’s huge bank accounts and overweening power to threaten and intimidate groups who advocate for survivors of sexual abuse.

What it is conspicuously not about is loving, welcoming, and healing survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

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BOSTON (MA)
Catholic League

Over the weekend, lawyers, columnists, reporters, psychiatrists, and activists attended the “10th Anniversary Celebration & Conference” in Boston; it marked the 10th anniversary of media reports on the Boston clergy sexual abuse scandal.

Commenting on the outcome is Catholic League president Bill Donohue:

A whopping 75 people turned out for the conference, 25 of whom were the speakers. How embarrassing. It’s clear that the professional victims’ lobby is spent. Everyone else has moved on, but those who have an ideological, emotional or financial interest in continuing this saga cannot let go. What a pitiful bunch of malcontents.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Updated January 8, 2012

Under the image of the Divine Mercy, the favorite of Blessed John Paul II (who refused to glorify the Jesuit’s image of the Sacred Heart devotion) Catholics are gathering to pray for Bishop Finn,the Golden Cow of the Opus Dei, hoping to dissuade the secular courts and secular judges from prosecuting him. This latest move of fanatic Catholics – led by the insane campaigns of Catholic League’s Pied Piper Bill Donohue – demonstrates how Catholics are complicit to the most heinous crimes against children in the 20th century when they defend the Popes – John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger, the Princes of the Church like Bernie Law and Roger Mahony, who openly covered-up thousands of pedophile priests – the JP2 Army – during the longest papacy of John Paul II. So now Catholics in their blind faith for priests and Bishops (who they believe can reincarnate Jesus – but they cannot reincarnate dead cats and dead dogs)are openly defending Opus Dei Bishop Finn who has neither compassion nor compunction for children who are helpless victims of pedophile priests.

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NEW JERSEY
The Jersey Journal

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Mark Crawford says he felt like a prisoner.

Crawford grew up on Lexington Avenue in Bayonne, blocks from St. Andrew the Apostle Church, where his family worshipped. When he was in seventh grade, the congregation welcomed a new priest: the Rev. Ken Martin.

Martin quickly befriended Crawford’s large, devoutly Catholic family, according to Crawford.

“He took a very keen interest in me,” he said. “Showered me with gifts.”

The relationship grew. Martin was a railroad enthusiast and had a large model train in the rectory, which fascinated the train-obsessed Crawford. With Crawford’s parents’ permission, the two went on a month-long trip — partly by train — to Colorado in August 1976 when he was 13 years old. …

Like Crawford, Rennar — whose legal name is Keith Brennan — was also raised in a “devoutly Catholic” household, he said.

The family, who lived on Neptune Avenue in Jersey City, attended nearby St. Paul’s. Rennar joined the church’s folk group in his early teens. The musical director was a 17-year-old named Keith Pecklers.

“He pretty much singled me out at some point,” Rennar said. The abuse began in 1976, when Rennar was 14 and Pecklers had just turned 18, he said. It went on for about a year, until Rennar confided in the church deacon, Tom Stamford, Rennar said. …

Pecklers, now a prominent Jesuit scholar, did not respond to an email requesting comment. As with Martin, The Jersey Journal attempted to contact Stamford, to no avail.

The Archdiocese of Newark declined to comment on Crawford’s and Rennar’s allegations.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WTAM

Ken Robinson, Newsradio WTAM 1100.

(Cleveland) – On Monday, Bishop Richard Lennon releases his report to the community, which will disclose property sales and parish Reinvestment.

With the Bishop will be finance director James Gulick and both are to address the Media.

The news conference wil be held at The Museum of Divine Statues in Lakewood, the former St. Hedwig Church.

Lennon will release information on the closed and merged Parishes, which resulted from the 8 county Diocesan reconfiguration plan.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
newsnet5

•By: Leah Richards, newsnet5.com
• By: Josh Boose, newsnet5.com

CLEVELAND – The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland released the Diocesan Report to the Community Sunday.

Copies of the report were handed out in churches Sunday morning.

According to Bob Tayek with the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, this is the first time there has been a public accounting of all the sales and merging of the churches involved in the reconfiguration of the Catholic Diocese.

Tayek summarized the report by saying, “the money follows the people.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland

Bishop’s Introductory Letter

Introductory Letter of the Chief Financial Officer

Report to the Community

Diocesan Finance Council

Closed Parish Financial Reports

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WOIO

[the report]

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) –
The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland released its “2011 Report to the Northeast Ohio Community” Sunday, containing information on closed and merged parishes which resulted from the Diocesan Reconfiguration Plan.

In addition, the Diocese launched special web pages to supplement the material found in the printed report.

Monday, Bishop Lennon and James Gulick will answer ongoing questions about Church finances in light of the sales of closed churches and disposition of assets. A press conference is set for 10:30 a.m at the Museum of Divine Statues located at 12905 Madison Avenue in Lakewood, Ohio.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Fox 8

[the report]

9:57 p.m. EST, January 8, 2012

CLEVELAND, Ohio— The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland released its annual report to the community on Sunday.

The letter includes a full accounting of the parishes that were either closed or merged during the Diocesan reconfiguration plan.

According to the report, the sale of parish properties, combined with money transferred to the Diocese from the closed parishes, brought in more than $19 million. That’s in comparison to just $5 million in expenses. Most importantly, the Diocese says almost $8 million from the sales have been given back to open parishes.

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OHIO
The Chronicle-Telegram

Filed by Evan Goodenow January 9th, 2012

Specifics on how money from church sales by the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland is being spent are scheduled to be explained today at a news conference in Lakewood featuring Bishop Richard Lennon and James Gulick, diocese chief financial officer.

The diocese netted $19.5 million through the sales of 26 of 54 closed parishes since 2009, according to its annual report released this weekend to parishioners. Eight county churches were among the closings. The first closing in the county was Holy Cross Church in Elyria in 2009. The last was St. Joseph Church in Lorain, which shut in 2010.

No more closings are planned in the “near future,” diocese spokesman Robert Tayek said Sunday. He said the sales are designed to prevent existing churches from closing.

The report said $6.1 million of the profits will be distributed to existing churches, including the 24 in Lorain County. Another $1.3 million will go to struggling parishes with $400,000 already spent for charitable causes within the diocese. A sizeable portion went the St. Joseph Homeless Shelter in Lorain, Tayek said.

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Indian Country Today Media Network

By Stephanie WoodardJanuary 9, 2012

After dismissing multiple American Indian childhood-sexual-abuse lawsuits against the Catholic Church, the Supreme Court of South Dakota has allowed one suit to go forward. In the civil complaint—named R.B.O., after the initials of one of the eight Native Americans who brought it—the plaintiffs allege they were sexually molested and assaulted while minors at St. Joseph’s Indian Mission School, on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation, in South Dakota.

Defendants include the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls; the religious order Congregation of Priests of the Sacred Heart, which has long run St. Joseph’s; and several priests, brothers and nuns, who plaintiffs say worked at the school. Given the passage of time since the alleged assaults, several individual defendants have died; however, Father William Pitcavage, Father Thomas Lind and Brother Matthew Miles are still living.

The high court’s ruling affirmed Circuit Court Judge Bradley Zell’s earlier decision, denying the defendants’ request that the case be dismissed because the plaintiffs hadn’t followed South Dakota’s process-serving procedures. Zell and the Supreme Court agreed the defendants had received notice of the suit in accordance with state law.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Matt Byrne
| Globe Correspondent
January 09, 2012

Several dozen demonstrated outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross yesterday. Lifting or extending statute of limitations rules is the prime focus of some in the anti-abuse movement.

It’s a stretch of sidewalk like many others, but to Steve Lewis it remains sacred ground.

He was among several dozen who gathered yesterday outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End, carrying signs and telling the stories many kept inside for decades.

“This is where it all started,’’ said Lewis, 54, who said he was abused as a child in a Lynn parish. “This is such an important, special place for the victims, the survivors.’’

The demonstration marked closure for a weekend conference that focused on the scandal. Victims and activists organized the gathering to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the news coverage that documented a widespread coverup in the Archdiocese of Boston of sexual abuse among clergy.

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UNITED STATES
Newser

By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 9, 2012

(Newser) – Well, this is embarrassing: The Vatican was recently caught lifting biographical information for its own cardinals from Wikipedia. The biographies for 22 new cardinals appointed Friday were sent to journalists, who noticed that the information had been taken from the Italian-language version of Wikipedia with no attribution.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Barry Duggan and Mark Hilliard

Monday January 09 2012

AN archbishop has asked priests to pay up to €720 each year into a fund used to compensate victims of clerical sex abuse.

The Irish Independent has learned that letters have been sent by Archbishop Dermot Clifford to all priests in the Cashel and Emly Archdiocese asking them to pay between €50 and €60 per month to a Clergy Contribution Fund.

The letter says the money will be paid into the fund because of the “debts incurred in relation child protection issues” — but does not say it would be used for payouts.

However, it has been learned that the fund in question was quietly set up three years ago and is solely used to pay compensation for clerical sex abuse.

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MENLO PARK (CA)
California Catholic Daily

The former pastor of a Menlo Park parish who admitted to following a 17-year-old boy into a clothing store dressing room last year has had his priestly faculties revoked following an investigation by the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

William Myers, who served as pastor of St. Raymond Catholic Church in Menlo Park from 2007 until he was suspended last year, “can no longer call himself a priest, celebrate Mass or hear confessions,” archdiocesan spokesman George Wesolek told the Modesto Bee.

Although police later determined no crime had been committed in the April 19, 2011 incident at a Ross Dress For Less store in San Francisco, archdiocesan officials told the press last year that Myers had been suspended pending an investigation by the archdiocese’s Independent Review Board — and while Myers underwent treatment for “sexual addiction.”

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LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

Published: Monday, January 09, 2012

By Bruce Nolan, The Times-Picayune

In an unusual move, Archbishop Gregory Aymond has asked an aspiring priest to withdraw from Notre Dame Seminary after learning he was accused in several lawsuits of helping a controversial mortgage company bilk customers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Chad Ham, 47, a real estate lawyer who entered Notre Dame in the fall, said he can prove the charges are untrue. Aymond said he and Ham agreed during the Christmas break that Ham should withdraw, at least temporarily. Aymond said he told Ham he is free to seek re-entry if he clears his name.

Aymond, who was a seminary rector for 14 years before becoming archbishop, said Ham’s case is “highly, highly unusual,” but because of the seminary’s mission, candidates for the priesthood must be “above reproach.”

Ten years after the searing Catholic sex abuse scandal came to light, Notre Dame, like other seminaries, has stiffened its applicant screening process, requiring that candidates go through heightened psychological testing, in addition to providing the usual character and academic references.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

…Now that Beffa’s is gone, where is N.Y. Cardinal-designate Tim Dolan going to have lunch with his pals when he comes here? His fans are legion and he’s attracting many more in N.Y.C. A columnist noted that he is taking phone calls and giving blessings to people “regardless of religion or diocese.” Sadly, members of our town’s SNAP are not so forgiving. “”We hold the former auxiliary bishop responsible for Fr. Alex Anderson’s continuing in parish ministry despite three child sex abuse allegations against him. Dolan was in charge of sex cases here when accusations against Anderson surfaced,” according to Barbara Dorris. .

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SOUTH DAKOTA
KDLT

A polygamist who’s in prison for sexual assault has been pestering South Dakota county officials with letters and boxes of books.

Butte County officials say the material is coming from Warren Jeffs and his supporters. Jeffs is leader of a sect called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Jeffs is serving a life term, plus 20 years, in a Texas prison for sexually assaulting two young girls he claimed as his wives.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NBC 10

Students at St. Hubert’s School in Mayfair are planning a rally Monday morning. On Friday, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced that it will be closing four of its high schools and 44 of its elementary schools at the end of the school year in June. St. Hubert’s is one of the schools set to close.

Monday’s rally is being organized by students though teachers have also been invited to participate. It begins at 6:30 a.m. and is set to run until 7:30 a.m. just before classes begin.

A rally was also held outside of Conshohocken Catholic School on Sunday.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

Article updated on 16 December 2011.

Research by Broken Rites has revealed that a former trainee Catholic priest (Gregory Vincent Coffey) was sentenced in South Australia for a child-sex crime and then, despite this, he was given a senior teaching position in a Melbourne Catholic school, enabling him to commit sex crimes aginst more children.

In court proceedings in Melbourne in 1994 and 1997, Coffey pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting boys who were in his custody at a Marist Brothers secondary school in Melbourne in the 1970s. The Melbourne court did not know about Coffey’s earlier conviction in South Australia.

Broken Rites was present in the Melbourne court, supporting the victims and taking notes. Broken Rites also conducted its own research into Gregory Coffey’s past. During this research, Broken Rites discovered Coffey’s earlier South Australian conviction.

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

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

Article posted on 1 January 2012

After action by Broken Rites Australia, the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese has apologized to former altar boys of Father Thomas O’Keeffe.

Thomas O’Keeffe (his surname has also been spelt as O’Keefe) spent his priestly career in the Melbourne archdiocese. Broken Rites has researched his name in the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory. This confirms that his parishes (all within the Melbourne metropolitan area) included:

Sandringham (Sacred Heart parish) until about 1965;

Preston East (Holy name parish) and then St Kilda West (Sacred Heart parish) in the late 1960s;

Brighton (St Joan of Arc parish) about 1969-70 (approx.);

Doveton (Holy Family parish) in the early 1970s; and

Thornbury (St Mary’s parish) in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

Article posted on 1 January 2012

The Catholic Church in Australia harboured a priest, Father Victor Gabriel Rubeo, for three decades after he indecently assaulted two boys in one of his earliest parishes (in Melbourne in the 1960s). In 1996 he pleaded guilty in court after these two victims finally spoke to police. On 28 October 2011, Rubeo appeared in court again, charged with 30 additional offences (in the 1960s) against the same two boys. He was ordered to re-appear on 16 December 2011 for a full hearing but he died (aged 78) before this next court date.

Broken Rites will refer to these two boys as “Tom” and “Wayne” (not their real names). They were born in the early 1950s and were related to each other. In the 1960s they lived at Laverton, a Melbourne outer-suburb.

According to a prosecution file which was compiled for the 2011 court proceedings, Rubeo’s offences allegedly began when Tom and Wayne were aged 11 or 12 and became more frequent when the boys were 13 to 15. At the time, neither Tom nor Wayne knew that the other was being abused.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times

January 8, 2012

In his private journal, Jason Michael Handy once described himself as a “pedophile, full blown.”

Handy snapped more than 1,000 photos of girls at the elementary school across the street from his house, using a camera with a telephoto lens, according to court documents. He volunteered at a Malibu church, where he worked with 6-year-olds. And his job as a production assistant at one of the nation’s most prominent producers of children’s television programs, Nickelodeon, gave him access to child actors on and off the set, and allowed him to exchange email addresses and phone numbers with them.

He used the hopes of at least two girls who dreamed of careers in TV to sexually exploit them.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

By Danielle Rivard
Monday, January 9, 2012

Survivors, supporters and activists of clergy abuse gathered this weekend with a “renewed energy” in hopes of changing the current statute of limitations on sex crimes 10 years after the priest sex abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic church in Boston and around the world.

About 70 people — many of them victims of sexual abuse — marched on Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross at the end of a three-day conference and “celebration” of the decade-long campaign to end the abuse of children within the church. But they said there is more work to be done.

“The single most effective mechanism to protecting children in the state and around the country is to change statute of limitations,” said Barbara Blaine, 55, a clergy abuse survivor and activist. “We can’t go back to being 12 years old again, and that leaves us feeling helpless, but what gives us hope is being active and working to prevent other children from being abused.”

Anne Doyle, co-director for BishopAccountability.org, said the event also sought to thank the survivors who told about their abuse.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with audio]

by Conrad Wilson, Minnesota Public Radio
January 9, 2012

St. Cloud, Minn. — The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear a case Monday to determine if repressed memories can be used in a church sexual abuse lawsuit. If the case moves forward, the decision could lead to more sexual abuse lawsuits going to trial.

The lawsuit, filed by James Keenan against the Archdiocese of Minneapolis & St. Paul as well as the Diocese of Winona in 2006, alleges he was sexually abused by a priest named Thomas Adamson sometime between 1980 and 1982.

By filing a lawsuit decades after the incident occurred, Keenan’s claim falls outside the statute of limitations. Under Minnesota law, individuals can bring a lawsuit within six years of turning 18-years-old or when they knew or should have known about the abuse.

According to his lawyer, Jeff Anderson, Keenan didn’t initially remember the incident.

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MINNESOTA
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: January 09, 2012

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Supreme Court is expected to hear a case Monday that involves repressed memories and priest sexual abuse.

A lawsuit by James Keenan against the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul and the Diocese of Winona falls outside the statute of limitations. Keenan alleges he was abused by a priest sometime between 1980 and 1982. Minnesota law requires individuals to bring a lawsuit within six years of turning 18 or when they knew about the abuse.

Keenan alleges he was abused by a priest sometime between 1980 and 1982.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

Kansas City Star Editorial

A Jackson County judge’s ruling in a lawsuit involving an alleged pedophile priest is harmful and wrong.

By decreeing that a victim’s advocacy group must turn over thousands of emails to the attorneys of accused priest Rev. Michael Tierney, Circuit Judge Ann Mesle has compounded the damages borne by sexual abuse victims. Her ruling will serve to intimidate potential whistleblowers and discourage victims from coming forward with new allegations. Also, it chills the constitutionally protected right of journalists to gather information.

Mesle’s ruling potentially allows the perusal of decades worth of emails to and from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP. Tierney’s attorneys allege that the plaintiff’s attorney violated a gag order issued by Mesle by contacting SNAP.

Attempts to review decades of emails to and from people not even involved in Tierney’s case makes this look more like a fishing expedition than a legitimate need to build a defense. The Missouri Press Association makes this point in an amicus brief. Kansas City attorney Jean Maneke says of Mesle’s order: “It would chill future news gathering. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that news gathering is protected under the First Amendment.”

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CANADA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish

[Déclaration de Mgr Dunn]

Press Release
Diocese of Antigonish
January 4th, 2012

The trial of Bishop Raymond Lahey has concluded with his sentencing today. This entire matter has caused a great deal of hurt, disappointment and anger within and outisde of our Diocese.

Church leaders are called to provide good example and to show moral integrity in their lives. When they commit serious moral failures, this can have a significant impact on the faith community. This is especially so when it involves the crime of child pornograhy.

This Diocese is committed to establishing safe and supportive communities for our young people and vulnerable adults. Through the diocesean Responsible Ministry Protocol, the diocese continues to take steps to create a secure environment for all members of the church particuilarly with respect to young people.

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CANADA
CBC News

Archbishop Martin Currie has issued a message to Newfoundland and Labrador parishioners about the Raymond Lahey child pornography case, expressing “sadness, disappointment and anger” and urging the Catholic community to learn from the situation and move forward.

“Let us draw whatever good we can from this event, and re-commit ourselves to building a better church, society and world, a world in which people are valued and treated with respect, where no child suffers, and where all can live in peace and joy,” Currie said in a prepared statement.

“This archdiocese is committed to establishing safe and supportive communities for our young people and vulnerable adults. Through our screening process, we continue to take steps to create a secure environment for all members of the church.”

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SOUTH DAKOTA
Belle Fourche Community

Milo Dailey Butte County Post staff | Posted: Sunday, January 8, 2012

BELLE FOURCHE – Butte County officials have no idea why they have been receiving letters and boxes of books from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its imprisoned spiritual leader Warren S. Jeffs.

The latest was opened for the Jan. 3 county commission meeting. It included a warning, “Cincinnati shall soon be a destroyed city.”

It’s the fourth set of letters sent to the Butte County Commission, Butte County Sheriff Fred Lamphere and Butte County Auditor Elaine Jensen.

“There’s no cover letter, no nothing,” Jensen said. “But it’s our names and they’ve done well on their research.”

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fox 4

9:59 am, January 8, 2012, by Christie Walton

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A group says it praying for the highest ranking, Catholic official Saturday. Bishop Robert Finn, of the Diocese of Kansas City – Saint Joseph, is accused of failing to report child abuse suspicions.

Justice for Bishop Finn group members gathered in prayer under a symbolic statue, at Divine Mercy Park to say to those who doubt the bishop, that his charges should be dropped.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

By Margery Eagan
Sunday, January 8, 2012

Yesterday morning, while Rick “Faith, Family, and Freedom” Santorum was preparing for another I’m-holier-than-you-are day in New Hampshire, I was sitting in a Cambridge Street Holiday Inn conference room. It was packed with survivors and advocates celebrating the 10th anniversary of the uncovering of Boston’s horrific Catholic Church sex abuse crisis.

Two times in a half hour the name Rick Santorum, the self-proclaimed uber Catholic, was mentioned. Two times he was politely and genteelly booed.

I loved it.

This was a mostly Catholic gathering. There were nuns, ex-nuns, ex-altar boys, and middle-aged and elderly people. And many in the crowd couldn’t stomach Santorum for one big reason. Just as the depths of this sex abuse deprivation were revealed, Rick Santorum, in 2002, went on the record to blame the rape of children in and around Boston on “cultural liberalism.” He’s never said he was wrong.

Think about that obnoxiousness before you vote, New Hampshire.

Let me add. The website BishopAccountability.org lists bishops and priests credibly accused of abuse, which means priests with multiple accusers or with cases settled by the church. More than 60 such priests were accused by hundreds and hundreds in New Hampshire.

Perhaps Rick Santorum blames New Hampshire’s “cultural liberalism” for those assaults, too, though liberal is hardly a word I’d use to describe the Granite State. It is not clear what he blames for priestly attacks on teenagers and children in Ireland, throughout Europe, parts of Africa, South America and most recently Haiti.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

By DAVID GIBSON
2012 Religion News Service

(RNS) For Americans who take note of the pomp and circumstance — and politics — at the Vatican, the big news on Friday (Jan. 6) was that Pope Benedict XVI had included New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, and former Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, among the 22 churchmen that he will install as cardinals at a Mass at St. Peter’s next month.

The elevation of Dolan, 61, is not unexpected. His predecessor, retired Cardinal Edward Egan, will lose his vote in a papal conclave when he turns 80 in April. Popes have traditionally wanted to ensure New York is represented in the College of Cardinals for any future papal election.

But the larger story of Friday’s appointments — and an indication of how the next conclave may play out — is that the German pope continued his pattern of stacking the College of Cardinals with Europeans (mainly Italians) and with leaders of the Roman curia, the papal bureaucracy whose officials are often considered more conservative than prelates in dioceses around the world.

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CANADA
Huffington Post

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – A Newfoundland archbishop is reaffirming his church’s commitment to ensuring a safe environment for parishioners just days after a disgraced clergyman was sentenced for importing child pornography.

Martin Currie, the archbishop of St. John’s, spoke about Roman Catholic bishop Raymond Lahey in a statement made during a church service Saturday evening.

Currie said the church has a thorough screening process and is dedicated to making sure its officials are not involved in crimes like Lahey’s again.

“This archdiocese is committed to establishing safe and supportive communities for our young people and vulnerable adults,” Currie said.

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CANADA
CTV

The Canadian Press

Date: Saturday Jan. 7, 2012

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — An archbishop in Newfoundland says his church is committed to ensuring a safe environment for its parishioners.

Martin Currie’s comments come just days after disgraced Roman Catholic bishop Raymond Lahey was sentenced for possessing child pornography.

Currie, the archbishop of St. John’s, says the church has a thorough screening process and is committed to making sure its officials are not involved in crimes like Lahey’s again.

Currie is asking church members to stand against “all that harms or degrades human beings,” and reiterated Lahey’s impending removal from the clerical state.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By ROBERT A. CRONKLETON
The Kansas City Star

More than three dozen supporters of Bishop Robert Finn gathered for a prayer rally Saturday and held a news conference saying that the misdemeanor charge against him should be dismissed.

“This is not a cover-up and this is not a knowing endangerment of children,” said Michael Quinlan, a St. Louis attorney who spoke at the press conference held by the group Justice for Bishop Finn at Divine Mercy Park in the Northland.

Finn took the steps any reasonable person would have taken in the way he handled the case of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, Quinlan said. Ratigan faces child pornography charges in Clay County and federal court.

Finn has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to report child abuse suspicions in Jackson County involving Ratigan.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
St. Joe Channel

[with video]

Reported by: Robert Lowrey

Saturday, January 07 2012

KANSAS CITY — “I implore the government not to take away our shepherd from us,” said Theresa Lynn, a member of Justice for Bishop Finn.

This is a common message from those in support of Bishop Robert Finn.

The rally is part of Justice for Bishop Finn’s goal of trying to prove Bishop Robert Finn’s innocence. The organization is speaking out to government officials.

Bishop Robert Finn of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese is the highest ranking Catholic official to be held accountable for alleged misconduct.

He is charged with failing to report child abuse in Jackson County after Father Shawn Ratigan was arrested on charges of child pornography. Finn also worked out a deal with prosecutors in Clay County to avoid an indictment.

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By CHRISTOPHER ROBBINS
TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEW YORK
Watertown Daily Times

SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2012

OGDENSBURG — On Thanksgiving, many travel long distances to spend time with their families.

For Bishop Terry R. LaValley of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg, the day was spent across the Atlantic Ocean at the Vatican, where he had a personal audience with Pope Benedict XVI.

“Thanksgiving Day 2011 was truly a day in which I felt especially blessed,” Bishop LaValley said by email of his experiences.

As part of a tradition known as a quinquennial visit ad limina, Catholic bishops travel to the Vatican to report on the state of their diocese to the pope and to visit the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. Bishop LaValley was in Rome from Nov. 22 to Dec. 1.

During his audience with the pope, Bishop LaValley discussed the challenges the church has faced in the north country, including the clergy sex-abuse scandals, increased poverty, secularization and a decline in the number of Catholics who participate in the sacraments.

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ISRAEL
Haaretiz

By Eli Ashkenazi

Rabbi Yaakov Deutsch, a prominent rabbi from the city of Afula in northern Israel, was indicted on Sunday for committing sexual offenses against four minors, two boys and two girls.

According to the indictment, which was served by the northern district attorney’s office at Nazareth District Court, Deutsch, who has lived in Afula for forty years and has become an important local figure with a large following, abused his position to carry out a number of sexual offenses against minors.

The charges include unlawful sexual intercourse with consent, sodomy, and indecent assault of a fifteen year-old girl, indecent assault of a thirteen year-old girl, indecent assault of a thirteen year-old boy, and indecent assault of a fourteen year-old boy.

Rabbi Deutch’s lawyers argue that the complaints against the sixty-year-old rabbi are the result of behind-the-scenes activity. “We know that there are people who are going from house to house in the local community convincing children to complain against the rabbi,” they said.

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MISSOURI
Fox 2

By Jeff Bernthal
Reporter

January 7, 2012
UNIVERSITY CITY , MO (KTVI – FOX2now.com)— The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests handed out flyers in front of Christ the King Church in University City on Saturday asking parishioners for a favor.

SNAP is trying to fight two subpoenas ordering them to turn over private communications with victims.

The flyers ask Catholics to ask church leaders to back away from asking SNAP for certain information.

The subpoenas come from church lawyers trying to track down gag order violations and the courts agree that SNAP must turn over its communications.

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UNITED STATES
CNN

Editor’s note: Thomas Matlack is the founder of The Good Men Project who writes and speaks frequently about manhood. He is also a venture capitalist, husband, and father of two sons and a daughter.

(CNN) — Stereotypes can rumble around in our collective brains for decades, sometimes centuries, before finally being edged out by a more nuanced understanding of reality. It’s been that way with our views about race, creed, sexual orientation and gender roles.

The Justice Department’s announcement this week that it has changed the definition of rape to include men is one such step on the long road to better understanding.

The last few years have seen a growing shift in the way men are perceived, under the collective weight of celebrity bad boys, stay-at-home dads, written scholarship on the supposed “end of men,” an epidemic of male incarceration, two decade-long wars fought mostly by men and a nascent men’s movement that is not about proclaiming male power but male capacity for depth and goodness.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Jenna Russell
| Globe Staff
January 08, 2012

Their conference yesterday was billed as a celebration of 10 years of advocacy and accomplishment, but victims of clergy sexual abuse who came to reflect on a decade of change said it was only the beginning.

“Who would have thought, 10 years ago, that we would still be here?’’ said Paul Kellen, a conference organizer with the advocacy group Speak Truth to Power. “We thought it would be over, that it would be fixed . . . that people would be healed and reintegrated, and it hasn’t happened.’’

About 75 people attended yesterday’s gathering, including abuse survivors, advocates, and supporters from New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The three-day conference kicked off Friday with a remembrance of abuse victims who have died, and was scheduled to end this morning with a demonstration march in the South End around the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the mother church of the Archdiocese of Boston.

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

IF you’re looking to gain some perspective on last week’s quick release of disgraced former bishop Raymond Lahey, we have just the man for you.

His name is Philip Latimer and he hails from Inverness County. The 50-year-old man is suing the Roman Catholic Church over sexual abuse he says he suffered as a boy at the hands of a priest who has since died.

Mr. Latimer is a welder, not a lawyer, but his layman’s insights are no less astute. “I don’t call this a justice system. I call it a legal system,” he told The Chronicle Herald after Mr. Lahey was sentenced to time served and walked out of an Ottawa courtroom.

Most Nova Scotians would be hard-pressed to disagree with that analysis. Just last month, the general public was dismayed to see the molestation convictions against another high-profile defendant, Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh, struck down because the case took too long to wend its way through the courts. And now the ex-bishop of Antigonish, who was nabbed at the Ottawa airport two years ago with a cache of pornographic images of young boys on his laptop, is already on parole because he was awarded a two-for-one credit on time spent in jail while awaiting sentencing.

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FRESNO (CA)
Mercury News

The Associated Press
Posted: 01/07/2012

FRESNO, Calif.—An appeals court has upheld a lower court’s ruling that there should be a new civil trial for a man who claims he was molested by a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno.

The Fresno Bee reports ( http://bit.ly/AqFfiF) that the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles on Friday upheld a ruling by a Fresno County Superior Court judge for the new trial.

The appeals court’s decision comes after a Fresno County jury determined in 2009 that Monsignor Anthony Herdegen had molested Howard Santillan and his older brother, George Santillan, from 1959 to 1972 while Herdegen was a priest at St. John’s Catholic Church in Wasco.

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CALIFORNIA
Injury Board Blog Network

Posted by David Mittleman
January 06, 2012

The California Supreme Court is now considering the case of six brothers, now in their 40s and 50s, who claim they suffered sexual abuse by a priest the area diocese knew to be a predator. The court is being asked to determine which of two apparently conflicting laws to apply. California has been expanding its statute of limitations in the last 15 years in an effort to make it easier for survivors of sexual abuse to hold perpetrators – and those who knew of their actions but failed to intervene – accountable for their actions. Recent amendments to the California law have abolished a hard age limit of 26, provided for a one-year window to pursue previously barred claims, permitted claims where the victim only recently connected the abuse to his current condition, and made it easier to hold employers responsible for acts they covered up or failed to stop.

Over the last twenty years, it has become increasingly clear that survivors of sexual abuse, and particularly minors, rarely come forward at the time the abuse occurred. This can be for any number of reasons, but most commonly the victims are ashamed or do not fully understand the ramifications of the abuse. In some cases, the victims are not believed or, in the case of the recent Penn State scandal, nothing is done.

Many states have recognized this fact in sex abuse cases, and have altered their statutes of limitations accordingly. Just yesterday, a committee in the New Jersey Assembly approved a bill that would eliminate the state’s two-year limit on bringing lawsuits based on sexual abuse. California’s increasingly progressive stance is another example of a state taking reasonable measures to help survivors seek legal recourse.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Maureen Fiedler on Jan. 06, 2012 NCR Today

Like Pax Christi USA, I, too, am sad about the resignation of Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop and Pax Christi USA President Gabino Zavala. I did not know him, but if he’s associated with Pax Christi, he must be in tune with the justice and peace message of the Gospel, and that’s great. So why did he resign? He fathered two children.

I’m sad for two reasons. We have not yet seen the day in the Catholic church that a priest or a bishop can marry and father children without it being some sort of scandal. It’s long past time that we move to a priesthood that welcomes and celebrates marriage and fatherhood. (And while we’re at it, motherhood as well!)

But I’m also sad because resignations are apparently necessary when a bishop “fathers” children, but not when a bishop fails to deal seriously with the abuse of children. I’m thinking of all those bishops who moved abusing priests from parish to parish, who covered up abuse, who have failed to report abuse to authorities. Most of them are still running dioceses.

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NEDERLAND
de Volkskrant

De reacties op het misbruik in de rooms-katholieke kerk zijn ongenuanceerd. De achthonderd daders en verdachten vormen slechts tussen de 1 en 2 procent van alle religieuzen die destijds actief waren. Dat zegt Sjaak van der Geest.

Het rapport-Deetman en de discussie over het daaraan ten grondslag liggende onderzoek roepen veel vragen op. Ik wil er drie uit lichten. Maar laat ik eerst zeggen wie ik ben, want kennelijk heeft niet iedereen evenveel recht van spreken. De slachtoffers krijgen de meeste ruimte; de daders en verdachten de minste. Bisschoppen en kerkelijke oversten kunnen beter ook niet te veel zeggen; ze moeten zich en hun mede-broeders/zusters zeker niet gaan verdedigen. Iedere nuance maakt ook hen ‘verdacht’.

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UNITED STATES
AlterNet

From AP:

The Obama administration on Friday expanded the FBI’s more than eight-decade-old definition of rape to count men as victims for the first time and to drop the requirement that victims must have physically resisted their attackers.

The new definition will increase the number of people counted as rape victims in FBI statistics, but will not change federal or state laws nor alter charges or prosecutions.

The expansion has been long awaited because policymakers and lawmakers use crime statistics to allocate resources for prevention and victim assistance.

Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett called the change a “very, very important step.” The issue got top-level White House attention starting last July, when Vice President Joe Biden raised it at a Cabinet meeting.

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