ABUSE TRACKER

WASHINGTON (DC)
Huffington Post

Antonia Blumberg
Associate Religion Editor, The Huffington Post

Pope Francis praised U.S. Catholic bishops for their response to the clergy sex abuse crisis Wednesday during an address in Washington — comments that victims called “insulting” and “hurtful.”

The pope applauded what he said was bishops’ “generous commitment to bring healing to victims.” And he praised them for courage in facing “difficult moments in the recent history of the church in this country without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice.”

John Salveson, a Philadelphia business owner who was victimized by clergy sex abuse, said he found the pope’s comments “bizarre.”

“First of all, he’s characterizing the bishops’ response as generous,” Salveson told The Huffington Post. “They have treated victims for decades like adversaries. It’s just been horrible. I don’t know how you could ever characterize them as generous.”

Barbara Blaine, of Chicago, president of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, released a statement decrying the years of clergy abuse that the church tolerated. By praising bishops, Blaine said in the statement, Francis revealed his own reluctance to take decisive action.

“His remarks today confirm what we’ve long said and suspected: this pope, like his predecessors, is doing and will do little if anything to bring real reform to this continuing crisis,” Blaine said. “Those who care about kids must focus on secular authorities, not church figures (however popular they may be).”

Dennis Coday, an editor for National Catholic Register, [note: He is with the National Catholic Reporter] criticized the pontiff for dancing around the issue without offering specifics.

“At the very least he could have used the words ‘clergy sexual abuse of minors,’” Coday wrote in an National Catholic Register [Reporter] opinion piece. “This oblique reference will do nothing to assuage the fears of victims’ advocates who believe Francis is more public relations manager than crisis manager when it comes to sexual abuse.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
VICE news

By VICE News

September 23, 2015

One of the world’s oldest and largest support groups for survivors of clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse today blasted the pope after he commented that US bishops showed “courage” in handling a string of Catholic Church abuse scandals over decades, while failing to apologize to victims on behalf of the church.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), which has about 20,000 members, criticized Pope Francis over his choice of words, particularly the “great sacrifice” he said bishops have made in facing “difficult moments in the recent history of the church in this country without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of mortification.”

“[The pope’s] remarks today confirm what we’ve long said and suspected: this pope, like his predecessors, is doing and will do little if anything to bring real reform to this continuing crisis,” SNAP said in a statement Wednesday after the pope delivered his speech in Washington DC. “Those who care about kids must focus on secular authorities, not church figures, however popular they may be.”

In March, a new report released by BishopAccountability.org raised troubling questions about Pope Francis’ complicity in the sexual abuse scandal that has plagued the Catholic Church for more than a decade.

The report, titled “Pope Francis and Clergy Sexual Abuse in Argentina,” focuses on the pope’s stint as archbishop of Buenos Aires from 1998 to 2013, and includes a database with links to public documents and media reports about 42 priests in Argentina previously accused of sexual misconduct. Specifically, the report focuses on five cases of sexual abuse by priests in which it alleges that the then archbishop “knowingly or unwittingly slowed victims in their fight to expose and prosecute their assailants.”

Although Francis has been outspoken on a litany of other issues, he has remained surprisingly silent on the topic of clergy sexual abuse. In his 2010 book, On Heaven and Earth, the future pope claimed his priests never misbehaved during his tenure as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivors Advocates Coalition

National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) Statement on Pope Francis’ statement regarding Sexual Abuse during visit to the United States

Pope Francis’ description of bishops and the sexual abuse crisis in the United State is a fairy tale.

The Pope praised the bishops’ courage in the scandal. The word courage should never be used to describe the bishops, it should be reserved for the survivors alone. The best are best described as cowards who were unmoved by the survivors suffering until their neglect and complicity in criminality was unmasked by the news media and the courts.

The hurt and desolation that this Pope of mercy has heaped on the survivors in this one miscalculated section of an address is jaw droppingly stunning.

Pope Francis is aware of words can do. He is a wordsmith but what he constructed in this speech is a faulty scaffolding that needs to be torn down.

Pretty words are not a firm purpose of amendment.

Pretty words do not make a sexual abuse commission work.

Pretty words, even those from a popular Pope, do not soothe wounds, protect children or provide justice to survivors.

The Pope should never have said these words.

The fact that he did is evidence that he believes them, and that it is his intent to push the argument that the crisis is history, the bishops are put upon heroes, and the victims are afterthoughts mentioned only to give lip service while wrapping them in the envelope of the healing that never comes.

This tin ear towards the victims of sexual abuse is a resounding rebuke to survivors and its damage is heavy.

— Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) 937-272-0308

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release, September 23, 2015

Statement by Peter Isely of Milwaukee, SNAP Midwest Director (414 429 7259, peterisely@yahoo.com)

The editor of the independent National Catholic Reporter takes Francis to task today – as he should – for his first remarks about the church’s seemingly-endless scandal of sexual violence and secrecy.

An NCR reporter says that Francis made “an oblique” reference to the abuse and cover up crisis. And NCR editor Dennis Coday said that the pope’s “sadly disappointing” message was “a glaring oversight” that “will undoubtedly raise the charges of ‘he just doesn’t get it.’”

[National Catholic Reporter]

Both journalists are right. Francis today basically ignored those who are vulnerable because of the crisis: children. He basically ignored those who are suffering because of the crisis: victims.

He praised, instead of chastising, those who are causing the crisis: bishops. And he offered not a single step forward, other than his vague plea that these crimes, still happening now, somehow “not be repeated.”

Francis continues to please many who want a more merciful church but disappoint most who want a safer one.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
New York Magazine

By Marin Cogan

“I saw a news report last night on ‘Pope pizza,’” Becky Ianni, a 57-year-old woman with light-brown hair cropped in a bob, is saying. “We were in Barnes & Noble and it was plastered with stuff about the Pope. Everything was about the Pope.” It’s Monday afternoon, and Ianni and seven other people — most of them former Catholics, most of them sexual-assault survivors or their family members — are protesting outside the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Headquarters in northeast Washington.

This is a rough week to be a Catholic Church protester. The American public’s interest in the Catholic Church right now seems to begin and end with Pope Francis — as a global celebrity, charismatic spiritual leader, and transformative political figure. Francis will make his debut before Congress this week as more than just a media darling: Only 3 percent of Catholics view him unfavorably, according to a recent Times poll. The view of the Pope is so favorable among Catholics here, according to another Pew survey from earlier this summer, that 55 percent of them rated him as doing an “excellent” or “good” job addressing the abuse scandal — a number that, when compared to his approval rating on other issues, was actually considered low. Meanwhile, the decades-old conversation about the church’s legacy of sexual abuse, which for a long time has been the dominant one around the institution, has quieted somewhat.

Francis made remarks to U.S. bishops about sexual abuse and is likely to meet with abuse survivors on this trip, as he has done in the past, but that’s far from enough for this group of abuse survivors, many of whom are pained by the huge celebration surrounding his arrival. “Last week, when we were getting ready for him to come, I started getting more and more anxious,” Ianni says. She and the others who say they were abused by priests don’t think Pope Francis has lived up to his responsibilities on the church’s legacy of abuse. In June, the Pope called for the creation of a Vatican tribunal to judge bishops who covered up the abuse scandal, but the bishops by and large still haven’t faced any consequences for their actions. The Pope has the authority to discipline them on his own, but hasn’t done so. Ianni was sexually victimized by a priest named William T. Reinecke when she was a child growing up in Virginia, but she wasn’t able to step forward with her story until 2006, she says. (Her claim was later ruled credible by her local diocesan review board.) She says she’s never been able to fully get over the betrayal she felt.

Barb Dorris, a grandmother who says she joined the group after discovering a priest in her parish molesting a child and church officials failed to oust him, pointed toward a news report last week showing that American priests accused of sexual assault were sent to Latin American countries to continue working in the church rather than being turned over to the authorities. She, too, wants the Pope to move on disciplining bishops as soon as possible. “I’m one old lady standing on a corner. This Pope has all the power. He could make the changes necessary,” she says.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
NBC New York

By Gabriella Iannetta

A handful of women dressed in traditional priest stoles and albs were arrested after they staged civil disobedience during Pope Francis’ visit in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

They held signs that read: “Women priests are here.”

The women are calling on the pope and the entire Catholic community to shake up policies of the past, saying it is time to allow women to be priests.

“Women are all parts of life,” Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan with the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests told NBC Owned Television Stations. “Including at the altar.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
DCist

BY RACHEL SADON

With signs draped across their body advocating for the ordination of women priests, a group of protesters lay down in a crosswalk outside St. Matthew’s Cathedral shortly before Pope Francis arrived this afternoon. The seven men and women were removed by police officers from the intersection of Connecticut and Rhode Island Avenues and issued criminal citations for blocking the passageway, according to a spokeswoman for MPD.

The protesters argued that the church should open the priesthood to women, wearing signs in both English and Spanish saying “This is what a Roman Catholic woman priest looks like” and “We’re all equal in God’s eyes; ordain women.”

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NEW YORK
Jamestown Sun

By Reuters Media on Sep 22, 2015

NEW YORK — An artist and sexual abuse victim at the hand of a Catholic priest uses her artwork for survivors and supporters to connect.

“To me it’s just a different thing that people can relate to,” said Megan Peterson, a leading member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in New York on Tuesday.

“It’s a very raw expression of what many of us go through and I feel like a lot of times for me personally as an artist the abuse and the things that I’ve endured, I can’t necessarily put words to it. So I just feel like this is an opportunity for people to connect on that level and people that are walking that path currently.”

Twenty-five-year-old Peterson is one of the tens of thousands of people who allege sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests across the globe.

As a child, Peterson was a devout Catholic who attended church in the diocese of Crookston, Minn. Every morning, before school, she would stop by her local church to pray in the hope of becoming a nun. She says everything changed one morning in 2004 when, as a 14-year-old, she was assaulted by Father Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul. Jeyapaul came from India in 2004 to preach at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Greenbush, Minn., a small town near the Canadian border. In 2005, after being accused of sexual misconduct by another girl, a 16-year-old, Jeyapaul left Minnesota and returned to India to attend to his ailing mother.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release, September 23, 2015

Statement by Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org

We’re sad that Francis claims US bishops have shown “courage” in the abuse crisis. Almost without exception, they have shown cowardice and callousness and continue to do so now. They offer excuses, exploit legal technicalities and hide behind expensive lawyers and public relations professionals, hardly the marks of courage.

We’re also sad that Francis can’t bring himself to call this crisis what it is – not “difficult moments in recent history,” but the continuing cover up of clergy child sex crimes by almost the entire church hierarchy.

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UNITED STATES
Foundation to Abolish Child Sexual Abuse (FACSA)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 23, 2015

Contact: John Salveson at 215-870-0680 salveson@abolishsexabuse.org

Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse (FACSA) Statement Regarding Comments by Pope Francis on Clergy Sex Abuse

BRYN MAWR, PA – John Salveson, President of FACSA, (Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse) released the following statement regarding Pope Francis’ comments in a speech to 300 bishops in Washington regarding their treatment of clergy sex abuse victims in America.

“The Pope’s comments to U.S. bishops this afternoon were both insulting and hurtful to survivors of clergy abuse. To characterize the response of American Bishop’s to clergy abuse victims as ‘generous’ and ‘courageous’ is bizarre. In reality, the Roman Catholic Church in America has treated clergy sex abuse victims as adversaries and enemies for decades.

In addition, his concern about how the abuse crisis has weighed on the bishop’s spirits, and his hope that all of their good deeds will help them heal from the crisis reflects a profound misunderstanding of the role the church has played in this self-inflicted crisis.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WPXI

By RACHEL ZOLL
The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Pope Francis praised American bishops Wednesday for their “generous commitment'” to helping victims of clergy sex abuse, drawing an angry rebuke from advocates who said the bishops acted only under the threat of hundreds of lawsuits.

Addressing church leaders in a prayer service at the Washington cathedral, Francis said they had faced the crisis “without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice.”

“I realize how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you, and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims — in the knowledge that in healing we, too, are healed — and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated,” the pope said to loud applause from the bishops.

But the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said that the bishops had displayed “cowardice and callousness” in response to victims who came forward and that they “hide behind expensive lawyers and public relations professionals” instead of fully confronting the scope of the problem within the church.

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, an advocacy group that collects records on abusive priests from around the world, called the pope’s remarks “distressing and quite off-base.”

The abuse crisis erupted in 2002 with the case of one pedophile priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, then spread nationwide. The revelations in Boston, about guilty priests kept in ministry without any warning to parents or police, persuaded thousands of people across the country to come forward with new abuse claims, prompted grand jury investigations in several states and compelled the bishops to take an inventory of how every American diocese had dealt with perpetrators and victims going back decades.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

By Terrence McCoy, Sarah Pulliam Bailey and Perry Stein September 23

Advocates for victims of sexual abuse called Pope Francis’s apparent praise of the U.S. church’s handling of the sexual abuse scandal “a slap in the face” that will only inflame the suffering of the abused.

At the Cathedral of St. Matthews, before a gathering of U.S. bishops, Francis lauded the American church on Wednesday for its “courage” in the face of what he called “self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice.” Calling instances of abuse “crimes,” he added: “I realize how much pain the recent years has weighed upon you and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims.”

Advocates expressed outrage and surprise at these comments, which address a scandal that exploded in the early 2000s. Activists have consistently criticized U.S. Catholic Church, which has spent millions on prevention and training, for continuing to fight survivors in legal battles and declining to hold some bishops explicitly accountable. In 2012, Monsignor William Lynn in Philadelphia, where Francis will end his trip, became the first priest to be convicted on charges of concealing the crimes of accused priests.

This isn’t the first time Francis has waded into an issue that some have cited as a reason why they left the church. Francis embraced victims of sexual abuse and asked their forgiveness at a 2013 Mass “for the sins of omission on the part of church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse.” Then in June, he launched a Vatican tribunal to punish clergy who try to cover up instances of abuse. He has also created commission that recommends how best to help survivors.

Many activists were hopeful that Francis would add to that momentum during his first visit to the United States, though his official itinerary bore no mention of the topic. But now, some advocates say, Francis has tampered hopes that he’ll push for more accountability among the clergy and opened the church to fresh criticism that it’s more concerned with protecting its own than victims of abuse.

“It’s encouraging that he recognizes [the abuse], but it sounds like it is all aimed at the bishops themselves rather than the survivors,” said Bill Casey, who advocates for survivors with Voice of the Faithful. “If that’s all he says, I think that would be disappointing.”

But Barbara Dorris, victims outreach director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said she was more than disappointed. “I don’t have much of a temper, very little temper, and this makes me mad,” she said. “It’s a slap in the face to all the victims, that we’re going to worry about how the poor bishop feels? You’re the ones who created it, and now we’re going to feel sorry for what you created?”

Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist who advises dioceses worldwide on child protection, said he was nonetheless “pleased” that Francis had mentioned instances of sexual abuse so early in his visit — and that he called them crimes.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
RTE News (Ireland)

Pope Francis has told US Catholic bishops that “crimes” of sexual abuse of minors by clergy should never be repeated.

“I know how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you, and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims … and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated,” he told the bishops on his first visit to the United States.

During his six days in the US, the pope may meet privately with victims of sexual abuse.

The Vatican has said an eventual meeting would be announced after it takes place in order to protect the privacy of the victims.

An estimated 6,400 Catholic clergy have been accused of abusing minors in the United States between 1950 and 1980.

In June, Francis sacked two US bishops accused of looking the other way: the archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, John Clayton Nienstedt, and his aide Lee Anthony Piche.

And earlier this month the Vatican replaced Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, who resigned in April after failing to report a priest accused of pedophilia.

Earlier, cheering crowds greeted Pope Francis in the streets of Washington as he rode in his open pope mobile near the White House following talks with President Barack Obama.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

By Dan Sheehan
Of The Morning Call

Allentown Bishop John O. Barres was among the hundreds of cardinals, bishops and other religious who crowded the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Washington to hear Pope Francis speak about the church’s mission, the clerical sex abuse crisis and the plight of immigrants.

The pontiff received long ovations during the prayer service in the church best known as the site of the funeral for the nation’s first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, in 1963.

In a statement, Barres said Francis “synthesized so many of his beautiful thoughts and themes with an emphasis on the good shepherd and a culture of encounter for the poor, all those in pain, all those in distress. (He was) calling all of us to be engaged in a culture of encounter with everyone in our global society.”

Francis opened the Thursday service by thanking Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, a former priest of the Diocese of Allentown who now serves as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Archbishop of Washington.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

CONTACT

–Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee) – Attending SNAP events in NYC during the papal visit, 414.429.7259 (peterisely@yahoo.com)
–Megan Peterson, SNAP NYC Director, 218.684.0073 (survivor19@live.com)
–Letter from Dolan to the Vatican attached–

9/23/05 Letter to Pope Francis from Milwaukee victims, re: Cardinal Timothy Dolan

Dear Pope Francis,

I am one of 575 victims of childhood rape, sexual assault or abuse by clergy who have worked in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee who have filed cases seeking restitution from the church in US Federal Bankruptcy Court. I am writing to you on our behalf and on behalf of our families.

Every rape or sexual assault of a child is a double act of theft: first it steals the body and then it steals the voice.

Seeking justice as adults through our courts for the crimes that were committed against us as children is an effort by us to restore both body and voice. That is why we were cheered when, early in your pontificate, you directly and explicitly affirmed the rightness and importance for victims to seek justice and restitution through the civil justice system.

We filed our cases for restitution over four and a half years ago in US Bankruptcy Court because the new Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki publically assured us that by doing so he would use the bankruptcy court to bring just “compensation, healing and resolution” to victims.

The chief architect of the bankruptcy, however, was Listecki’s predecessor, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who repeatedly and directly spoke of his remorse for the crimes committed by Milwaukee clergy against children.

Imagine our sense of betrayal, then, when we learned that Archbishop Dolan before leaving for his new post as Archbishop of New York had acted directly to contravene the spirit of the very principle of civil justice for victims that your words celebrate and affirm.

In a letter obtained in federal court (also attached), Dolan wrote to Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Prefect of Congregation of the Clergy, for permission to transfer nearly $60 million dollars of assets into a new “Cemetery Perpetual Care Trust.” The archdiocese, of course, already had money set aside for the care of cemeteries. Why was Dolan seeking permission to make a new trust? Because the Wisconsin Supreme Court had just issued a unanimous ruling against the Milwaukee Archdiocese stating that there was sufficient evidence of its fraudulent concealment and transfer of clergy child sex offenders that the archdiocese could be brought to civil court by victims seeking restitution. Dolan, in the letter, clearly stated his intent in creating a new and unneeded trust.“By transferring these assets to the Trust, they [the monies]will be protected by any legal claim and liability.”

Additionally, the newly created cemetery trust was intended for only eight cemeteries, most of which also have a mausoleum in or near or near the City of Milwaukee. All the many remaining Catholic cemeteries in the archdiocese do not benefit from this trust. $60 million dollars is hardly required to serve the needs of only eight cemeteries.

Dolan’s transfer of tens of millions of dollars to prevent victims from just compensation is an act of civil and, in all likelihood, criminal fraud under US law.

Court documents also show that Dolan, after public denials to the contrary, devised and executed a secret policy of paying clerics who had abused children (a $20,000 dollar “signing bonus” added to their pension and other benefits) to leave the priesthood without the archdiocese notifying the unsuspecting communities in which they settled.

The new church you are urging us to build together requires you to hold Cardinal Dolan accountable for the planning, direction and, to a very significant degree, the current outcome of the bankruptcy, which has resulted in:

–The lowest settlements of any church bankruptcy in the United States by a factor of ten, with individual amounts to victims that do not even begin to address the severe and lasting harm done to them or provide anywhere near the resources required to begin a true recovery, with some clergy rape victims receiving as little as $2,000 dollars.

–Only 26 percent of the total bankruptcy settlement money will be allocated to help victims. 74 percent of the costs will pay lawyers’ fees, including $19.5 million to church and bankruptcy lawyers, $4 million in legal expenses to defend Dolan’s trust, and $7 million to victim attorneys; in other words, over twice as much money will be pocketed by church and other lawyers then will be given to help survivors.

–Most alarmingly, direct victim reports filed into court detail that at least 100 newly alleged clergy child sex offenders from the archdiocese have not been properly investigated or prosecuted, leaving countless children at risk in our church and community.

You have said that “the courage” victims show “by speaking up, by telling the truth” has been “in the service of love” to “shed light on a terrible darkness in the life of the Church.”

The church believes that God so ordered the universe that he placed at the center of creation the human heart and at the center of the human heart, the faculty of free consent. Love does not exist or enter the embodied soul without free consent. That is why the sexual violence by a priest against a child is a demonic parody of both creation and love, of the very miracle of creation through love.

It is an endless mystery that the shame the priest sex offender should logically and naturally feel within his own soul while violating the body of the child is rarely if ever felt by him. Instead, the shame of this crime, this awful and crushing weight, is poured into the body of the victim – our bodies. This is why it is we, not the offender, who feels the weight of this criminal shame, and why it is so difficult for most of us to come forward and bring our violation to speech.

Is it not a miracle that 575 of us in Milwaukee come forward, three generations of survivors, and together as brothers and sisters speak the unspeakable? Every time a survivor speaks, as you so rightly acknowledged, no matter how difficult to hear or unwanted the effect, it is an act of love for the church.

Victims in Milwaukee can still receive justice with your intervention and help. The money fraudulently transferred by Dolan which should have been used to compensate victims can still be put to that very purpose. Your time here in New York City will give you an opportunity to continue your pledge to hold Cardinal Dolan and other bishops accountable for the ongoing crisis of clerical sexual abuse and honor 575 acts of love and truth.

Sincerely,
Peter J. Isely
SNAP Midwest Director
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnewtork.org)

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

by Kristine Ward, September 23, 2015

Today in NSAC News we offer the images of Thomas Doyle, Richard Sipe, Patrick Wall, Robert Hoatson.

We place them here with our hope that these images will be a counterbalance and a safe place for survivors against the images that are nearly overtaking television screens and other forms of media.

Pope Francis is the man who could with stroke of a pen, or a word, a trademark off the cuff exhortation a walk into the right crowd, or with the right phone calls address and eliminate the behemoth that looms over the largest crisis in the Roman Catholic Church in 5000 years – the complicity in the rape and sodomy of the innocents by the aiding and abetting of predators by bishops, archbishops and cardinals, vicar generals, hatchet and yes men on chancellery staffs,, and in the Curia.

These four men were ordained to the priesthood.

All four of them became true priests. Their personal journeys brought them by varied road to the truth and to true priesthood. They found and remain on the right of the battle: justice for the survivors and leaders in the fight for the protection of children. Their routes took some of them off the official rolls of priesthood but not off real priesthood.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2015

Statement by Joelle Casteix, Southern California Director of SNAP,
Phone: 949-322-7434, Email: jcasteix@gmail.com

In a callous move that will rub even more pain into the already-deep and still fresh wounds of tens of thousands of caring Catholics and suffering victims, disgraced Cardinal Mahony is being allowed to be at papal events at the White House and Congress.

[CBS Los Angeles]

There are few members of the hierarchy who have a more well-deserved dishonorable reputation and well-documented record of wrongdoing as bad as Mahony. Secret sex abuse and cover-up documents and newspaper investigations exposed in 2013 showed Mahony’s career-long, hands-on role in covering up abuse. The documents were so shocking, in fact, that Mahony was temporarily relieved of public duty and more than 10,000 Catholics signed a petition demanding he step down.

His attendance at White House and Congress is a slap in the face to the more than 500 LA victims who sought justice for crimes committed against them. It’s a slap in the face to LA Catholics who are rightfully disgusted at Mahony’s enabling of abuse.

President Obama and Congress should be investigating clergy sex crimes and cover ups, not letting a virtual criminal frolic among them.

As a society, we beg victims of sexual violence to overcome their fear, pain and shame and report these crimes so perpetrators can be stopped and others can be spared. But when we honor men who enable sexual violence, we send precisely the opposite message to victims: your suffering doesn’t matter, the powerful will always prevail, and the bad guys usually win. Shame on every official – religious or secular – who is playing a role in this hurtful injustice.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2015

Statement by Amy Smith, Phone: 281-748-4050 watchkeepamy@gmail.com

A child sexual abuse lawsuit was filed this week by the parents of a now deceased victim against First Baptist Church of Rockwall, Texas and pastor Billy Bob Burge, now employed as a pastor at Grace Community Church in Greenville, Texas.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/baptist-pastors-sexual-abuse-of-a-child-leads-to-victims-suicide-as-an-adult-and-lawsuit-300147406.html

DALLAS, Sept. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/

Carla Sweet and Ed Gomez of Dallas, Texas, filed suit today in Dallas, Texas, state court against First Baptist Church of Rockwall: seeking justice for their son, John “Jeremy” Sweet-Gomez, who was repeatedly sexually abused by a Youth Pastor at First Baptist Church of Rockwall. The suit alleges that a Youth Pastor at First Baptist Church of Rockwall began sexually abusing Jeremy when he was approximately thirteen years old. The abuse included sodomy, oral sex, and inappropriate sexual touching. The suit states that the sexual abuses and assaults occurred “on church property and during church-sponsored religious trips.” Jeremy suffered repeated sexual abuse as a teenager; he later committed suicide. …

The lawsuit alleges that “Defendants entered into a civil conspiracy, accompanied by a meeting of the minds regarding concerted actions, the purposes of which were to conceal and minimize public knowledge of sexual misconduct and/or abuse by Pastor Burge. This conspiracy and concerted action was carried out by Defendants to conceal the fact that they individually and collectively committed acts of neglect, gross neglect, concealment, fraud, and breached fiduciary duties. Officials and agents or representatives of First Baptist Church of Rockwall, acting in concert, engaged in this conspiracy to avoid prosecution, to cover up sexual misconduct and abuse, and to conceal claims arising from crimes or conduct of their Youth Pastor.”

We urge officials at First Baptist Church of Rockwall to come clean with any information and to immediately report any known or suspected abuse by Billy Bob Burge to law enforcement. We hope that any other churches or places where Burge has had access to kids, including his current church employer Grace Community Church in Greenville, Texas, will aggressively reach out to anyone else that may have been harmed by Burge and urge them to call police.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
San Diego Union-Tribune

WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest developments in Pope Francis’ visit to the United States. All times local:

2 p.m.

Pope Francis is telling U.S. bishops there is no place for “harsh and divisive” rhetoric in their ministry, indicating he wants to see a change in tone after years of culture wars.

The pope is encouraging them to build relationships with anyone, no matter that person’s views on church teaching, and to do so with compassion.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Fox News

Associated Press

Pope Francis on Wednesday praised U.S. bishops for their response to the clergy sex abuse crisis.

Speaking before the bishops at a worship service in Washington, Francis lauded them for what he called their “generous commitment to bring healing to victims.” He praised them for having courage and acting, as he saw it, “without fear of self-criticism.”

The clergy sex abuse scandal erupted in the U.S. in 2002 and turned into the biggest crisis in the history of the American church.

Under enormous public pressure, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops pledged to oust any guilty clergy from church work and enact safeguards for children.

However, the scandal persists, and victims say the bishops still haven’t fully accounted for sheltering abusers. This year, three bishops resigned in crises over their failures to protect children.

Francis also encouraged the bishops in their ministry to immigrants, praising them for taking up the immigrants’ cause and urging the bishops to welcome even more foreigners coming across the border.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Sep. 23, 2015 NCR Today

Let me make just one short observation, about an obviously heartfelt, multifaceted address by Pope Francis to the U.S. bishops. There are many things to compliment and tease out of this speech over coming days. There was, however, one glaring oversight that will draw criticism.

Francis made one (Vatican correspondent Josh McElwee called it “oblique”) reference to the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Here is the entire paragraph:

I am also conscious of the courage with which you have faced difficult moments in the recent history of the Church in this country without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice. Nor have you been afraid to divest whatever is unessential in order to regain the authority and trust which is demanded of ministers of Christ and rightly expected by the faithful. I realize how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims – in the knowledge that in healing we too are healed – and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated.

This was followed by loud applause. Given the audience, I guess that’s not surprising, but it was sadly disappointing.

I have to wonder where is the forthrightness we have come to expect of Pope Francis. At the very least he could have used the words “clergy sexual abuse of minors.” This oblique reference will do nothing to assuage the fears of victims’ advocates who believe Francis is more public relations manager than crisis manager when it comes to sexual abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Vox

Updated by Dylan Matthews on September 23, 2015

For the most part, Pope Francis’s first visit to North America is being met with giddy anticipation from the media and public figures. But one group is not so enthusiastic: survivors of clerical abuse.

Francis gets credit for doing much more than his predecessors to address the crisis. But the bar is low. For example, Pope John Paul II did shockingly little. His defenders asserted that he was unaware of the facts, but he was receiving reports detailing just how grave the situation was as early as 1985. “Other than making nine recorded public statements, all of which were sufficiently nuanced to be innocuous, and calling a meeting of the U.S. cardinals to tell them what everyone already knew, he did nothing positive,” victims’ advocate and priest Rev. Thomas Doyle writes. Pope Benedict XVI did more, but still left bishops like Kansas City’s Robert Finn, who were known to have covered up abuse, in power.

By contrast, some observers argue that Francis has taken meaningfully positive measures.”Pope Francis’s willingness to act on the issue of holding bishops accountable has been a great source of hope for Catholics who’ve wondered when this great unfinished business of the abuse scandal was going to get handled,” Grant Gallicho, an associate editor at Commonweal, contends.

But survivors of clerical sex abuse still aren’t celebrating the pope’s visit. Activists at Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) argue that Francis has offered more happy talk and conciliatory language than actual changes that would crack down on abusive clergy. They point to the breathtaking extent of the abuse: A 2004 paper by investigators at John Jay College found that between 1950 and 2002, 4,392 out of 109,794 total priests faced “not implausible” sexual assault accusations — 4 percent. As of 2014, the total was up to 6,427 priests credibly accused, with 17,259 alleged victims.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 23

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, SNAP president (312-399-4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org)

In a speech today to U.S. bishops, according to ABC News, Francis “does not specifically reference the pedophilia that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church.”

He does, however, speak of some alleged “great sacrifice” made by bishops because of the abuse and cover up crisis.

What sacrifice? What bishops takes fewer vacations, drives a smaller car, does his own laundry or has been passed over for promotion because he’s shielding predators and endangering kids? None.

Only four US bishops (out of hundreds) have resigned because they hide and enabled horrific crimes, but only after staying in power for years and only after massive public, police, prosecutor and parishioner outrage. (Law, Finn, Piche and Neinstedt)

Virtually none of the other US clerics, (out of thousands) have ever been punished in the slightest for protecting predators, destroying evidence, stonewalling police, deceiving prosecutors, shunning victims or helping child molesting clerics get new jobs or flee overseas.

And no one in the entire US Catholic hierarchy, despite 30 years of horrific scandal and at least 100,000 US victims, has been defrocked, demoted, disciplined or even publicly denounced by a church colleague or supervisor, for covering up child sex crimes, no matter how clearly or often or egregiously he did so.

In carefully-crafted remarks, Francis claims church officials are working “to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated.” He knows, however, this is disingenuous. Such crimes are happening right now, all across the world. He refuses to admit this, however, preferring to conveniently imply that somehow, because of tiny, belated and grudging steps forced on bishops in a few Western nations,

Finally, Francis says he has “no wish” to tell US bishop “what to do, because we all know what it is that the Lord asks of us.” He’s half right – bishops do indeed know precisely how to protect kids. But they refuse, like Francis himself does, to take the simple, proven steps to do this.

Still, we’re deeply disappointed that Francis refuses to tell bishops to do a single thing more than they’ve been forced to do by courageous victims, angry Catholics, determined law enforcement, and the church’s own insurers, defense lawyers and public relations experts.

(Here are just some of the tangible steps Francis could have told US bishops to take to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded, expose the truth and end the cover ups:

[SNAP]

His remarks today confirm what we’ve long said and suspected: this pope, like his predecessors, is doing and will do little if anything to bring real reform to this continuing crisis. Those who care about kids must focus on secular authorities, not church figures (however popular they may be).

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Reuters

WASHINGTON | BY SUSAN CORNWELL AND PHILIP PULLELLA

Pope Francis on Wednesday told U.S. Roman Catholic bishops that crimes of sexual abuse of minors by clergy should never be repeated, acknowledging the damage caused by years of scandal in the U.S. Catholic Church.

In the remarks, delivered at Saint Matthews Cathedral in Washington on the first full day of his visit to the United States, the pope did not utter the words “sexual abuse” but referred to the scandal by talking about “difficult moments” and providing help for victims.

“I know how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you, and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims … and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated,” Francis told the bishops, who applauded.

Wounds from the scandal, which saw priests who abused children moved from parish to parish instead of being defrocked, are still festering and draining church finances.

The U.S. church has already been dealt a heavy financial blow by settlement payments and other costs totaling around $3 billion, which has forced it to sell off assets and cut costs.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PennLive

By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com
on September 23, 2015

State Rep. Mark Rozzi was offered VIP tickets to attend papal events in Philadelphia this weekend.

Raised in the Catholic Church, the Berks County Democrat declined. Like many other survivors of clergy sex abuse, Rozzi finds the visit from Pope Francis and the reception extended painful and insulting.

“It’s so frustrating seeing everybody get so excited that the pope’s coming,” Rozzi said. “This is all we hear right now. What you hear is him talk about the fact that he wants to help this group or that group, but there is no mention of wanting to meet with victims.”

Rozzi, who was 13 when he and two other friends were sexually molested by priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, has long been at odds with the church. One of the priest died in 1999, having never been prosecuted for the alleged crimes as a result of expired statute of limitation. Rozzi’s two childhood friends committed suicide.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Huffington Post

Al Eisele
Editor-at-Large, The Hill

Pope Francis has said he won’t address any domestic political issues during his visit to the U.S., but there’s a good chance he may bestow his blessing on Vice President Joe Biden, and by inference, encourage him to run for president.

That is, if Biden follows the lead of Vice President Walter Mondale when Pope John Paul II visited Washington 36 years ago.

John Paul was wrapping up a six-city visit to the U.S. in 1969 after saying Mass on the National Mall and meeting President Carter at the White House. He was the first pope to visit the White House and I was working for Mondale at the time and won major points with my Irish Catholic wife and her parents by getting them invited to meet him at a White House reception.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WTOP

WASHINGTON — Pope Francis prayed for the victims of clergy sex abuse during a service at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle Wednesday.

He also praised U.S. bishops for their response to the sex abuse crisis and used his homily almost as a pep talk for bishops, telling them to be good shepherds of their flock.

Speaking before the roughly 300 bishops, Francis lauded them for what he called their “generous commitment to bring healing to victims.” He praised them for having courage and acting, as he saw it, “without fear of self-criticism.”

But he also prayed for the victims of abuse that has spanned decades at the hands of parish priests.

“We have to hope that such crimes will never repeat themselves,” he said.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Los Angeles Times

On the first day of his American visit Pope Francis wasted no time delving into difficult issues: clergy sex abuse, immigration and climate change. In lighter moments, he was welcomed to the White House by thousands of cheering onlookers, posed for a selfie with spectators and took a brief ride on the Ellipse in a popemobile.

One sentence captures it all: Clergy sex abuse, abortion and immigration.

Speaking to hundreds of U.S. bishops at St. Mathew’s Cathedral in Washington, Pope Francis delved into one of the church’s most difficult issues: the clergy sex-abuse scandal. The pontiff told bishops that they must “work to ensure” that those crimes “will never be repeated.”

“I realize how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you, and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims — in the knowledge that in healing we too are healed — and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated,” Francis said.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Al Jazeera

September 23, 2015

Pope Francis on Wednesday told U.S. Roman Catholic bishops that crimes of sexual abuse of minors by clergy should never be repeated, acknowledging the damage caused by years of scandal in the U.S. Catholic Church.

In the remarks, delivered at Saint Matthews Cathedral in Washington on the first full day of his visit to the United States, the pope did not utter the words “sexual abuse” but referred to the scandal by talking about “difficult moments” and providing help for victims.

“I know how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you, and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims … and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated,” Francis told the bishops, who applauded.

Wounds from the scandal, which saw priests who abused children moved from parish to parish instead of being defrocked, are still festering and draining church finances.

Thumbnail image for Pope Francis highlights climate change, immigration at White House
Pope Francis highlights climate change, immigration at White House
The pope says climate change is an urgent problem that ‘can no longer be left to a future generation’

The U.S. church has already been dealt a heavy financial blow by settlement payments and other costs totaling around $3 billion, which has forced it to sell off assets and cut costs.

The pontiff has vowed to root out “the scourge” of sex abuse from the Roman Catholic Church, and last June created a Vatican tribunal to judge clergy accused of covering up or failing to prevent sexual abuse of minors.

Victims’ groups say the church has not done enough.

On Wednesday, David Clohessy, head of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, who himself was sexually assaulted by a priest as a child, said he was unimpressed by Francis’ words.

“It’s dreadfully disappointing. Bishops have been cowardly, not courageous, and still are,” Clohessy said. “What grudging, belated steps they have taken have been forced on them by the most courageous people in this crisis, abuse victims and their families.”

Clohessy said Francis “refuses to even be honest about what this crisis is. These are not quote-unquote ‘difficult moments,’ this is a centuries-old, incredibly unhealthy and self-surviving pattern of secrecy and recklessness,” Clohessy said in a phone interview after the pope’s remarks.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Guardian

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome

Pope Francis has hailed US bishops for their handling of the sexual abuse crisis that has rocked the Catholic church for decades, saying they had shown “courage” throughout and regained the authority and the trust which was demanded of them.

In rare remarks about the string of scandals that first emerged in the mid-1980s, Pope Francis stopped short of addressing the victims of clerical abuse, focusing instead on the pain that had been inflicted on the bishops who were left to weather the storm.

“I am also conscious of the courage with which you have faced difficult moments in the recent history of the church in this country without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice,” he said.

He then commended the bishops for being ready to sell off church property and assets in order to pay for settlements with abuse victims. “Nor have you been afraid to divest whatever is unessential in order to regain the authority and trust which is demanded of ministers of Christ and rightly expected by the faithful,” he said.

Between 2004 and 2013, US diocese paid $1.7bn in legal settlements, according to a report released last year by the US Conference on Catholic Bishops. In that same period, it also paid $379m in legal fees.

“I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims – in the knowledge that in healing we too are healed – and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated,” he continued, prompting a round of applause from the assembled bishops.

The abuse scandals in the US, as in other countries around the world, did not only implicate pedophile priests but also the bishops and cardinals who protected them, and in many cases allowed them to prey on more young victims.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
CNN

Mr President,

I am deeply grateful for your welcome in the name of all Americans. As the son of an immigrant family, I am happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families. I look forward to these days of encounter and dialogue, in which I hope to listen to, and share, many of the hopes and dreams of the American people.

During my visit I will have the honor of addressing Congress, where I hope, as a brother of this country, to offer words of encouragement to those called to guide the nation’s political future in fidelity to its founding principles. I will also travel to Philadelphia for the Eighth World Meeting of Families, to celebrate and support the institutions of marriage and the family at this, a critical moment in the history of our civilization.

Mr. President, together with their fellow citizens, American Catholics are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and inclusive, to safeguarding the rights of individuals and communities, and to rejecting every form of unjust discrimination. With countless other people of good will, they are likewise concerned that efforts to build a just and wisely ordered society respect their deepest concerns and their right to religious liberty. That freedom remains one of America’s most precious possessions. And, as my brothers, the United States Bishops, have reminded us, all are called to be vigilant, precisely as good citizens, to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

By Abby Ohlheiser, Greg Jaffe, Michael E. Ruane September 23

Pope Francis did not shy away from controversy Wednesday, condemning priestly sex abuse, mistreatment of immigrants and destruction of the environment, as he traveled across Washington in his first full day in the United States.

He was also greeted by jubilant crowds, kissed some babies, and dispensed blessings and thumbs up from the popemobile.

But in somber midday remarks to American bishops, he said the offenses of the Catholic church’s sex abuse scandal must never be repeated.

Addressing hundreds of clergymen in Washington’s Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, the pope told them:

“I realize how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims — in the knowledge that in healing we too are healed — and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated.”

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UNITED STATES
Center for Constitutional Rights

Ongoing revelations of pervasive and serious sexual violence against children and vulnerable adults by priests and others associated with the Catholic Church in different parts of the world have demonstrated that the crisis is not one of isolated random sexual assaults by errant priests but is widespread and systemic. In the wake of scandals around the world, experts and investigators have identified policies and practices of the Vatican and high-level officials of the Catholic Church that have covered up and enabled the sexual violence to continue. Some observers have estimated that the number of victims of sexual violence by priests and clergy occurring over the past three decades is in the hundreds of thousands, particularly as more survivors come forward and civil authorities begin investigations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. CCR represents the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in filings before the International Criminal Court, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Committee Against Torture. The work continues CCR’s history of fighting sexual and gender-based violence and ensuring accountability for rape as a form of torture, and as a war crime and crime against humanity.

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NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter

Peter Feuerherd | Sep. 23, 2015

NEW YORK Cardinal Timothy Dolan, appointed to lead the New York archdiocese six years ago, didn’t need his doctorate in U.S. Catholic history to realize he was made chief steward of a grand legacy.

There was the massive St. Patrick’s Cathedral, ornate churches scattered around Manhattan and throughout the archdiocese, and small churches, barely noticeable, tucked away amidst apartments and office buildings, whose history dates to ethnic groups who have long moved on.

Impressive, yes, but not always helpful for the modern era. Over the past year, Dolan has unleashed a series of parish consolidations, closings and mergers, affecting a sizeable chunk of the archdiocese’s 368 parishes. After a listening process titled “Making All Things New,” the results landed towards the end of this summer as 112 parishes involved in that process were merged into 55, with 31 churches shuttered permanently.

The goal is a financially stable, revitalized church better able to evangelize a secularized culture, in an archdiocese where only about 12 percent of some 2.8 million Catholics can be found at Sunday Mass. It’s been on Dolan’s mind for a while.

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UNITED STATES
CBS Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com/AP) — Pope Francis’ six-day, three-city tour of the U.S. this week evolved from a pledge he made last fall to attend the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
Stops in Washington and New York were added after Francis put the triennial, Vatican-sponsored conference on his agenda. It opens Tuesday.

Organizers describe the conference that blends prayer, religious instruction and faith-themed lectures as the world’s largest gathering of Catholic families.

With more than 18,000 people signed up, this year’s will be the most attended of the eight World Meetings.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, the retired Archbishop of Los Angeles, will be traveling with the Pope when he meets with President Obama and speaks to Congress.

Mahony told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO audiences can expect to hear some frank words from this unconventional leader of the Catholic Church.

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GEORGIA
Atlanta Journal-Consitution

A former volunteer youth ministry worker at a Fayette County church has been charged with child molestation and sexual battery against a child under 16 in a case involving two teenage boys.

Matthew Bradley Young, 46, of Norcross, was arrested Sept. 18 after an investigation into complaints made by parents of the two boys, according to incident reports filed by the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.Young is in Fayette County Jail.

According to the reports, the parents had contacted the pastor and other leaders at the church and told them they believed their sons had been molested at a church planned function on May 9. The sheriff’s office asked that the church not be identified publicly because the investigation is ongoing.

Officers said in the reports that the parents described contact between Young and the boys via text messages, Facebook, email and cell phones as well as during a youth trip to North Carolina and during various meals. The juveniles were told by Young to delete all text messages immediately, the reports said.

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UNITED STATES
skipshea

Thursday September 24th, Pope Francis will address a joint session of Congress. And politicians just couldn’t be happier. Well some of them anyway. The Right used to love the Popes with their somewhat social conservative ways. But now the Left is embracing the Pope as he seemingly makes left leaning statements.

Like in his now famous address in Bolivia when her decried unfettered capitalism. People like presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders fell all over themselves pointing to his quotes like:

“Human beings and nature must not be at the service of money. Let us say no to an economy of exclusion and inequality, where money rules, rather than service. That economy kills. That economy excludes.”

Its odd how at the same time back in Bernie’s home state of New York there is a vast amount of church closings which includes the likes of Sacred Heart Church in Mount Vernon. …

Otherwise would this trip even be happening. Especially with the scathing report from not one, but two UN investigations into the global epidemic of childhood sexual abuse. That should bring pause to inviting the Pope to speak before a joint session of Congress. You would think.

If we look at it through another lens, the Pope is the leader of a very small country that borders Rome, Italy. The Holy See is its own nation. He was elected for life, so by definition he is now a dictator of a theocracy. In his country women have very little rights. They certainly can’t vote nor do they have any equal opportunities for social or political advancement. Like an economy that excludes. And, as the UN has pointed out, they allowed and covered up for the sexual abuse of children throughout the globe. If the Holy See were any other nation or any other religion we would not be extending invitations to its leader to speak at congress, we would be discussing sanctions and possibly military action against this country. Instead our government embraces it.

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UNITED STATES
USA Today

David Gibson, Religion News Service September 23, 2015

Pope Francis is widely viewed as the “pope of change.” But just how is he changing the Catholic Church — and the world? What matters most to him? Here’s a look at 7 main elements of his pontificate.

1. Walking the walk

Every pope is first and foremost a teacher of the faith. A firm faith is the foundation for all that the Catholic Church does and preaches. But for Francis, more than most pontiffs, faith is expressed in deeds more than in sermons. He likes to cite the adage attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, whose name he took when elected pope: “Always preach the gospel — use words if you have to.”

For Francis, this is the essence of Christianity, and it is how the church must live in order to be true to the gospel — and to have any credibility going forward. He has modeled that mission by shunning the trappings of the office, living simply and trying to get the Vatican to do the same: He has installed showers for the homeless near St. Peter’s Square and sends a personal aide into the streets of Rome to dispense charity to the needy.

Francis says the Catholic Church must focus outward if it is to find its true self, and that’s a revolution in the way the institutional church has worked.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

By: Maria Miller

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A jury reached a verdict Tuesday in the federal trial of Central City priest Father Joseph Maurizio.

The five charges he was found guilty of include one count of international money laundering, one count of possession of pictures that exploit children and three counts of eliciting sexual misconduct with three different boys overseas.

One of those boys recanted his initial story of being abused. Another count for that same boy though, Maurizio was found not guilty of.

WJAC-TV was not able to speak with Maurizio’s defense team who somehow skipped past the media, but the former president of Pro Nino USA, the organization that helped fund and run the orphanage in Honduras that Maurizio was involved with, says Tuesday’s verdict validates everything.

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PENNSYLVANIA
La Prensa

Un sacerdote católico acusado de viajar a Honduras para abusar de niños pobres durante sus misiones, fue declarado culpable el martes de varios cargos.

Un jurado federal dictó sentencia de culpabilidad al reverendo Joseph Maurizio Jr. de cargos entre los que se incluyen tres de cuatro acusaciones relacionadas a abuso sexual de niños durante sus visitas a un orfanato en Honduras.

Maurizio fue acusado de viajar al extranjero entre 2004 y 2009 para tener relaciones sexuales con tres menores, un cargo conocido como turismo sexual. También fue declarado culpable de posesión de pornografía infantil y de transferir de manera ilegal fondos a una caridad que ayudó a costear los viajes.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Spiegel

Eine Jury im US-Bundesstaat Pennsylvania hat einen ehemaligen Priester in einem Sextourismus-Fall in fünf von acht Anklagepunkten schuldig gesprochen: Der Mann war zwischen 2004 und 2009 mehrfach nach Honduras gereist und hatte dort Sex mit drei Jungen aus einem Waisenheim. Zudem wurde der 70-Jährige wegen des Besitzes kinderpornografischen Materials sowie illegaler Finanztransaktionen verurteilt.

Die Höhe des Strafmaßes soll im Februar bekanntgegeben werden. Dem Mann drohen bis zu 130 Jahre Haft, wie die Zeitung “Pittsburgh Tribune-Review” berichtet.

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AUSTRALIA
The Stringer

by Colin Penter
September 23rd, 2015

“Victims and their families have been fighting for recognition and justice for decades and great victories were achieved when the Victorian Inquiry and the Royal Commission were established. But ‘for what’ they say.”

Judy Courtin

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is after 2 years, at its halfway mark. The Commission is focused on systemic issues and institutional responses to allegations and incidents of child sexual abuse. Public hearings have been the main way the Commission does its work.

Although the Royal Commission’s brief is overwhelming, the hearings have been revelatory and harrowing. The Commission has heard evidence of horrific and horrendous systematic and institutional physical and sexual abuse and rape of children within religious, faith and welfare organisations.

Evidence to the Commission shows that both low and high level officials in institutions supposed to protect children actively conspired to abuse and rape them. In many cases these were highly sophisticated, organized institutional crimes committed against children.

The Commission has exposed the breadth of institutional settings – churches, schools, hospitals, out-of-homecare, children’s homes, juvenile centres, NFPs and charities- where abuse occurred.

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UNITED STATES
The Detroit News

Pope Francis continues his six-day tour of the United States today with a visit to the White House, where he’ll find a host in President Barack Obama sympathetic to much of his agenda on social and economic matters.

Pope Francis is quickly becoming one of the most beloved and celebrated popes of the modern era, largely for his efforts to open the Roman Catholic Church to the people.

He has set about to fulfill the 50-year-old reforms of Vatican II that were aimed at making the church more accessible and more modern.

His well-expressed compassion and commitment to service is credited with bringing lapsed Catholics back to the fold, and is even increasing interest in the priesthood.

Among his major initiatives is a softening of the Vatican’s hard-line view on homosexuality, divorce and abortion. Pope Francis famously declared it is not for him to judge gays, and has offered reconciliation to Catholics who have divorced or had an abortion.

Mostly, though, his inspiration is his leadership in carrying out the church’s mission to comfort the afflicted and serve mankind. He has made it the hallmark of his papacy to alleviate poverty.

That has rallied a church in desperate need of resurgence. Finances of the Catholic church are in crisis, in no small part due to $3 billion in payouts to the victims of sexual abuse by priests. That scandal disillusioned many Catholics and contributed to a sharp decline in mass attendance that is beginning to reverse under the pope’s guidance.

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GEORGIA
WRDW

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015

ATLANTA (AP) — A former volunteer youth ministry worker at a Fayette County church has been accused of sexually abusing two teenage boys.

Authorities arrested Matthew Bradley Young of Norcross on Sept. 18 and charged him with child molestation and sexual battery against a child under 16.

Incident reports filed by the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office said an investigation started after authorities received complaints from the boys’ parents.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the parents believed their children were assaulted during a May 9 church function. Sheriff’s office spokesman Allen Stevens said no further details would be released because of the ongoing investigation.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

By Jeremy Gray | jgray@al.com
on September 22, 2015

A gag order was issued today in the case of an Alabama pastor accused of sexually torturing, abusing and raping multiple children and teens.

Clarke County Circuit Judge Robert Montgomery issued the order in the case of Mack Charles Andrews, Jr.

The order also applies to Facebook and other social media, according to court records.

Andrews, 55, was set for a settlement docket today at 9 a.m. At a settlement docket, judges typically ask whether a defendant wants to enter into a plea agreement.

It was not clear this afternoon if a plea was entered. An email to District Attorney Spencer Walker this morning was not returned and an employee in his office said they could no longer comment on the case.

The order comes a day after AL.com shared the story of a woman who said she was sexually tortured and raped by Andrews from the time she was 7 until she was 12.

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ZIMBABWE
Bulawayo 24

by Mashudu Netsianda

A BULAWAYO pastor, who turned a congregant, 16, into a sex slave and allegedly infected her with HIV and genital warts while claiming to be driving out a death demon that wanted to kill her father, has been sentenced to 30 years in jail.

Greatness Tapfuma, 33, of Cowdray Park who is the founder of Kingdom Rulers International Church broke into tears soon after Bulawayo regional magistrate Chrispen Mberewere convicted him on two counts of rape.

His followers who had come to court in solidarity with their leader immediately joined him in weeping following the verdict. Tapfuma’s emissaries, the court heard, attempted to bribe his victim with a house, a car or cash so she could drop the charges against him. The pastor, who was recently acquitted of raping two other congregants will, however, serve an effective 25 years in jail after five years of the sentence were suspended on condition that he does not within that period commit a similar crime.

Magistrate Mberewere, in his judgment, ruled that although Tapfuma’s victim tested HIV positive, there was no evidence that the pastor is the one who infected her. “I don’t find that the victim was aware of her HIV status prior to the rape. She only became aware of it after the doctor who examined her recommended that she gets tested for HIV following genital warts. I, therefore dismiss the link between the victim’s HIV infection and the rape,” said the magistrate. – See more at: http://bulawayo24.com/News/Local/74688#sthash.k9bA2Efx.dpuf

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ALASKA
Alaska Dispatch News

Erica Martinson
September 22, 2015

WASHINGTON — Alaska’s congressional delegation and visitors from the state are getting ready for an unprecedented visit from Pope Francis as he embarks on a tour of the Eastern Seaboard, including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City.

Pope Francis arrived in the Washington area Tuesday afternoon and was greeted by President Barack Obama and his wife, daughters and mother-in-law.

On Wednesday, Obama will welcome the pontiff at the White House, and Washingtonians will be treated to a papal parade. He’ll then meet with bishops from across the U.S. and celebrate Mass. On Thursday morning, the pope will address a joint session of Congress, the first time the leader of the Catholic Church has ever done so.

While Alaskans recently got a taste of D.C. motorcades and presidential traffic, Washington, D.C., is getting its own dose this week, with widespread street closures and expectations of hours-long transit backups. …

On Thursday, Joan Wilson, an attorney from Anchorage who attends the same church as Sullivan, will be on the Capitol lawn with her sister, who lives in D.C., and several other relatives, during the pope’s address to Congress.

Wilson originally only requested two tickets, but found out there were extras available from both Sullivan and Murkowski’s offices. “I wish people knew about that,” she said. “I think a lot of people would have come this far to see the pope. He’s a pretty magical guy.”

Wilson, a lifelong Catholic, said the pope’s visit has added importance for her.

Her mother, Mary Nockels, 83, is very ill and may not live past the weekend, she said. Nockles asked her daughter to bring her rosary to be blessed by the pope.

Like many Catholics, Wilson has had her own troubles with the church. Her brother was sexually abused by a priest when they were children in Chicago, she said.

The long history of abuse and silence from the church is not unknown to Alaskans. In 2008, the Fairbanks diocese filed for bankruptcy after being unable to settle lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests and church volunteers.

Wilson said she wouldn’t have come for a visit by the previous pontiff. “I had no interest in Pope Benedict’s version of the Catholic Church,” she said.

But Pope Francis “seems to be less about image and more about every individual’s ability to have a personal connection to God. It’s not about dogma; it’s about what you hold in your heart,” Wilson said.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Crux

By Margery Eagan
On Spirituality columnist September 22, 2015

David O’Regan will tell you he’s had a “beautiful, blessed life.” Six grown children. Forty-three years of marriage to a wife he adores. “The baby lady.” That’s what they call Jane O’Regan around the town near Boston where the O’Regans live in a rambling house with a great big yard. They are foster parents. Jane O’Regan always has a baby in tow. They’re caring now for the 69th and 70th child they’ve welcomed: one five months old, the other nine months.

David O’Regan, an imposing, 6-foot, 4-inch 65-year-old, will also tell you he is a prayerful man of faith raised on the Baltimore Catechism in the Catholic Church. “My mother wasn’t well. She was bipolar and treated herself with alcohol and so unfortunately, there was no peace at home.”

But there was peace, even a “mystical solace,” at church, says O’Regan, who became a Eucharistic minister, a prayer group leader, and a CCD teacher who made daily Mass during many, many Lents.

But O’Regan will then tell you this: he stopped going to Mass years ago.

And he nearly lost much else in that once-ordered life: his letter carrier job, his money, even his home. For a time, Jane O’Regan bought groceries on a credit card and Dave sold old electrical equipment on eBay for an extra $20 here and there. This unraveling began in 2002, when The Boston Globe started running story after story about the Church cover-up of the sexual abuse of children by deviant priests.

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UNITED STATES
NET Nebraska

GWEN IFILL: It’s not yet clear what issues Pope Francis will directly address during his visit here, but one problem casts a long shadow for the church: sexual abuse scandals.

This pope has pressured top church officials to end abuse involving priests. Just this year, the bishops of Saint Paul-Minneapolis and Kansas city have resigned in the wake of new revelations.

As part of our special coverage of the pope’s visit this week, special correspondent Chris Bury reports on how sex abuse by clergy still haunts American Catholics.

CHRIS BURY: For the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, with more than 800,000 Catholics, the sex abuse scandal still resonates in a raw and immediate way.

JENNIFER HASELBERGER, Former Canon Lawyer, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis: I think, by anyone’s definition of a crisis, we’re in it. And there doesn’t seem to be any way out.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Chicago Tribune

Michelle Boorstein, Abigail Ohlheiser, Michael R. Ruane
Washington Post

Pope Francis arrived in Washington on Tuesday to a joyous greeting from well-wishers as he began the historic visit that millions of Americans have been awaiting and for which three of the country’s great cities have been anxiously preparing.

The pope’s white and green Alitalia jetliner touched down at 3:50 p.m. on a flight from Cuba at the start of a spiritual and political journey that will take him to the centers of U.S. government, power and history.

Beneath gray skies, the pope stepped off the airplane at 4:05 p.m. at Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County and was welcomed by President Barack Obama and a cheering crowd assembled on metal bleachers.

The pope took off his white skullcap as he walked down the steps from the jet to the windy tarmac to greet first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Jill Biden and Washington Archbishop Cardinal Donald Wuerl, among others. …

A group of women held signs protesting the Catholic church’s handling of its ongoing pedophile priest scandal.

Becky Ianni held up a photo of herself as a child, saying she left the church for what she called a failure to crack down on clergy sexual abuse.

“When the pope comes into town, we’ve seen posters everywhere, pope cocktails and pope bobbleheads and such good feeling,” said Ianni, who leads the Virginia chapter of SNAP, a group that advocates for people who were abused by priests. “But on the other side of the coin are all the victims that are still hurting.”

Nearby, Russell Heiland and Anthony Ezzell, of Reston, Va., stopped by the nuniciature to get a glimpse of the pope before their celebrating their 25th anniversary at a restaurant in Washington.

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UNITED STATES
RT

Pope Francis has finally landed in the US for his first-ever visit to the country. The papal swing through the Northeast is guaranteed to captivate Americans, but the popular pontiff is likely to draw praise and criticism on numerous contentious issues.

The Bishop of Rome’s arrival comes at a delicate time for the Church in the US, which suffered damaging setbacks after a child sex abuse scandal. Although Catholicism is still the second-largest religion in the US, the number of Catholics in the US has declined and Pope Francis will be searching for ways to rejuvenate his flock.

So far, Pope Francis has defied being categorized on the traditional left-right spectrum of American politics, but his anticipated comments on a range of issues, from gay marriage and abortion to climate change and prison reform, will undoubtedly be seized upon for their political implications. Here are 10 of the most controversial issues surrounding the visit.

A contentious canonization

After visiting President Barack Obama on Wednesday morning, Francis will hold a canonization mass for Father Junipero Serra, a Catholic missionary who converted thousands of Native Americans in California. Declaring Serra a saint will mark the first time such an event has taken place on American soil, but critics have condemned the move, arguing that Serra was part of a Spanish colonization effort that decimated the Native population.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

Joelle Casteix

While Pope Francis has a glowing reputation for his progressive views on LGBT issues and poverty, he has done nothing for victims of abuse from within the church—like me.
When I told people that I was going to New York for the Papal visit, those who know me understood that I’m not coming for mass, a blessing, or a chance to see the wildly popular pope.

I’m here because I am a survivor of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

From the ages of 15 to 17, I was sexually abused by my choir teacher at a large Catholic high school in southern California. By the time the abuse ended, I was 17, pregnant, and had a sexually transmitted disease. Even worse: school and church officials knew about my abuser and knew he had other victims. But they did nothing to stop him or help us. In fact, they let him resign with a glowing letter of recommendation.

I suffered the fate of many survivors. I was blamed. I lost my friends and my family. I stayed silent for 15 years because I was ashamed and alone.

But in 2003, I was able to use the civil courts to expose my abuser and uncover more than 200 pages of then-secret documents about my case. They included a signed confession by my abuser, signed documents from school officials, and a letters to and from the diocese on how to keep the matter “quiet.”

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IRELAND
Herald

23 September 2015

For two decades now Catholic bishops have been warning about the vocational crisis in the church. The dwindling number of priests in the ministry is now so acute that the centuries-old tradition of the revered Sunday Mass in many rural parishes is now in danger.

In many parishes, especially in rural areas, only one Mass is now celebrated on a Sunday. The norm used to be at least three

This acute shortage of priests has led to the virtual closure of some churches and the growing practice of two or three parishes sharing a priest.

Many priests are now in their 60s and 70s and are being asked by their bishops to carry on their pastoral work beyond their retirement age.

It is an extraordinary situation for a traditionally Catholic country that has helped spread the Gospel across the globe in years gone past. Now that missionary role is being reversed in a novel way.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

SNAP: “100,000 US clergy abuse victims, but federal officials do nothing”
Group applauds governmental investigations and reports in other countries
Two United Nations panels have done probes and attacked church hierarchy
Organization says “Welcoming Francis is fine but, for kids’ sake, challenge him too”

What:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will blast US federal officials for “doing nothing” about the on-going child molestation and cover up scandal in the church. They will call on

–Congress to hold hearings into the crisis, and–the Justice Department to make crime-fighting funds to states contingent on reforming archaic child safety laws.

They will also

–urge Pope Francis to stop bishops from fighting secular child safety reforms, and
–urge “everyone who saw, suspected or suffered” child sex crimes and cover ups in churches to “protect kids, expose predators, deter cover ups and push for eliminating predator-friendly statutes of limitations.”

When:
Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 2:30 pm.

Where:
Outside the U.S. Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington DC

Who:
Four-five members of an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a Missouri woman who is the organization’s long time outreach director

Why:
Some consider the U.S. to be the epicenter of the clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis since the first pedophile priest made national headlines here more than 30 years ago (Father Gilbert Gauthe of Lafayette, Louisiana). Catholic bishops admit that 6,427 US priests are accused molesters and Catholic experts estimate that these child molesting clerics have assaulted more than 100,000 kids.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Kansas City Star

The Associated Press

JOHNSTOWN, PA.
A Roman Catholic priest accused of traveling to Honduras to molest poor street children during missionary trips was convicted on Tuesday of several charges.

Federal jurors convicted the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr. of charges including three of four counts related to sex abuse of boys during trips to a Honduran orphanage.

Maurizio was accused of traveling abroad from 2004 to 2009 to have sex with three young boys, a charge known as sexual tourism. He also was convicted of possession of child pornography and illegally transferring money to a charity to help fund the trips. Jurors acquitted him of another count of traveling outside the United States for sex with a minor and two other counts involving the transfer of funds.

The 70-year-old priest, who has been suspended from Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish in Somerset County, showed no reaction as the verdict was read to the packed courtroom. He is scheduled to be sentenced in February.

The priest repeatedly denied the allegations. His defense attorney presented testimony suggesting that interviewers can plant ideas that lead to false accusations.

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UNITED STATES
The Morning Call

Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia is being billed as a “World Meeting of Families.” The motto reads: “Love is our Mission: The Family Fully Alive.”

While the pope has admirably denounced economic inequality and made strides on certain social issues, scandals in the Catholic Church continue to raise skepticism about its self-proclaimed role as protector of the family.

The Morning Call recently reported that an advocacy group for clergy sex-abuse victims, the Catholic Whistleblowers, wants Pope Francis to investigate the child protection records of Cardinal Justin Rigali, former archbishop of Philadelphia, and Cardinal Raymond Burke, who led dioceses in Wisconsin and Missouri.

I admire the group’s efforts, but I’m not sure how much we can expect from the Church’s leaders.

Just last year, Francis whisked away Papal Nuncio Jozef Wesolowski from the Dominican Republic, when it was discovered the nuncio had been luring young boys into his beach house to engage in sex for money. Critics believe this directly contradicted the Church’s stance of reporting pedophile priests to secular criminal justice systems. The Church invoked diplomatic immunity and secretly recalled him to Rome without informing local authorities.

In a New York Times piece, Antonio Medina Calcaño, dean of the faculty of law and political science of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, argued: “From the pure standpoint of justice, [Wesolowski] should be tried in the country where the acts took place because the conditions for trying him will not be the same elsewhere.” (The nuncio passed away in August. He was under house arrest in the Vatican awaiting trial by Vatican authorities.)

Details about the nuncio’s actions are disheartening, as impoverished boys as young as 14 were offered increasing amounts of money for sex acts. One boy, who normally earned just $1.50 a day, said he was given $10 to shine the nuncio’s shoes and swim naked in the ocean. He was later paid $25. Then $135. Over time, he received gifts like new sneakers. And a new watch.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

David Pierre

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

This month’s historic trip of Pope Francis to the United States cannot halt the New York Times’ relentless obsession with decades-old cases of sex abuse committed by Catholic priests.
Despite the Church’s unprecedented corrective measures just in the past dozen years, not to mention nearly $3 billion in settlements and over $85 million in therapy to accusers, one would think it was 1992 all over again in reading the article from Vivian Yee at the New York Times.

Trotting out the tired parade

Yee’s article brandishes a weary parade of well-known Church critics who have a long history of bashing the Catholic Church to rehash the story of abusive priests from many decades ago. Included in Yee’s article are:

* a 72-year-old man who claims that a priest “groped” him 66 years ago at age 6;
another man who claims who was abused in the “early 1970s”;
* Barbara Blaine, president of the lawyer-funded attack group SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests), who once wrote a letter of support on behalf of a child pornographer;
* Joelle Casteix, SNAP’s Southwest Regional director; and
* Terence McKiernan, the cranky president of BishopAccountability.org.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor September 22, 2015

WASHINGTON, DC – Pope Francis arrived in the United States to a boisterous welcome Tuesday, telling reporters on the papal plane that he won’t raise the Cuban embargo in his speech to Congress and rejecting the suggestion that he’s a political leftist.

“Maybe there’s an impression I’m a little bit more leftie, but I haven’t said a single thing that’s not in the social doctrine of the Church,” Francis insisted, referring to official Catholic teaching on social questions.

At one stage, the pontiff even challenged a journalist to give him an example of something he’s said that was “too strong.”

Asked about a recent Newsweek cover story asking if the pope is Catholic, Francis joked that “I’m ready to recite the Creed if need be,” referring to an ancient statement of core Catholic beliefs recited at every Mass.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

By Paul Peirce
Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015

A Somerset County priest was found guilty Tuesday of having sex with three boys at a Honduran orphanage he supported through his nonprofit foundation, possessing child pornography and transferring money outside the U.S. for illicit sexual activities.

The Rev. Joseph D. Maurizio Jr., 70, showed no reaction when the verdict was read in a federal courtroom in Johnstown.

Maurizio’s two sisters and two nieces, who attended every day of the trial, sat in the courtroom with parishioners of his former parish, Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City.

The women gasped as the guilty verdicts were read, then wept.

Jurors deliberated for more than 12 hours over two days and found Maurizio guilty of five of the eight counts against him. Two additional counts involving the money transfer were dismissed.

The priest’s three accusers and another witness who traveled from Central America to testify were brought into the courtroom, where they sat behind prosecutors to hear the verdict.

They had no reaction as their interpreter whispered to them in Spanish as the verdict was read.

A parishioner who left the courthouse after the verdict said she and other supporters were “obviously disappointed.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily American

In a mixed verdict, a jury has found the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr. guilty of possessing child pornography, money laundering and three counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors.

He was charged with a total of eight counts.

The jury returned to the federal courtroom in Johnstown with a verdict around 4 p.m. after deliberating for 13 hours. The victims were brought back into the courtroom to hear the jury’s decision.

The Central City priest was accused of abusing three boys, ages 14 to 16, during mission trips to Honduras.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

September 22, 2015

Torsten Ove/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A federal jury in Johnstown today found a Somerset County priest, the Rev. Joseph Maurizio, guilty of molesting Honduran orphans on mission trips.

After deliberating about 12 hours over two days in U.S. District Court, the jury found him guilty on three counts of molesting three boys, a count of possession of child pornography and a count of transferring money outside the country for the purposes of illegal sexual activity.

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: September 22, 2015

JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania — A suspended Roman Catholic priest from western Pennsylvania accused of traveling to Honduras to molest poor street children during missionary trips has been convicted of five of eight counts.

A federal jury in Johnstown deliberated for more than 12 hours over two days before convicting the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr. on Tuesday of the charges, which include three of four counts related to sex abuse of boys during trips to a Honduran orphanage.

The 70-year-old priest has been suspended from Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish in Somerset County.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.

A priest of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was found guilty after an eight-day jury trial of offenses related to his sexual abuse of three minor boys during trips to Honduras over a five-year period, U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

Joseph D. Maurizio Jr., 70, of Central City, Pennsylvania, was convicted of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, possession of child pornography and international money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on February 2, 2016, at 10 a.m.

U.S. Attorney Hickton stated, “The jury’s conviction affirms the courage of these victims, the tenacity of the investigators and the resolve of our prosecutors to ensure justice. We remain steadfast in our commitment to protect children from predators here and pursue those who travel beyond our borders to offend. We are especially vigilant where a person uses a position of trust to victimize the most vulnerable among us.”

“What Maurizio did to the children in Honduras while swindling unsuspecting Americans for money to support his pedophilia is atrocious,” said John Kelleghan, HSI Philadelphia Special Agent in Charge. “The jury’s verdict is testament that society will not tolerate this behavior, and HSI will continue to use its transnational investigative capabilities to bring American child predators to justice — no matter where they commit their crimes.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
WTAE

By Bob Hazen

A guilty verdict was handed down Tuesday for a Catholic priest accused of traveling to Honduras to molest children during missionary trips.

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TEXAS
PR Newswire

DALLAS, Sept. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Carla Sweet and Ed Gomez of Dallas, Texas, filed suit today in Dallas, Texas, state court against First Baptist Church of Rockwall: seeking justice for their son, John “Jeremy” Sweet-Gomez, who was repeatedly sexually abused by a Youth Pastor at First Baptist Church of Rockwall.

The suit alleges that a Youth Pastor at First Baptist Church of Rockwall began sexually abusing Jeremy when he was approximately thirteen years old. The abuse included sodomy, oral sex, and inappropriate sexual touching. The suit states that the sexual abuses and assaults occurred “on church property and during church-sponsored religious trips.” Jeremy suffered repeated sexual abuse as a teenager; he later committed suicide.

Windle Turley, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said, “at the Turley Law Firm, we have a longstanding commitment to representing victims of institutional and religious sexual abuse. Many organizations and their employees, occupy positions of trust and confidence that make it possible to cause great harm under the guise of religion. When that occurs the wrongdoers, whether individuals or institutions, must be held accountable.”

The suit papers are available at http://www.wturley.com/Recent-Filings/. For more information, contact Windle Turley or Steven Schulte, Turley Law Firm, at 214-691-4025, or stevens@wturley.com.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims to Pope: “Stop bishops’ lobbying”
SNAP: “Prelates fight secular child safety bills
Battles are now being waged in each place Francis visits
“Church uses flock’s donations to protect predators,” group says
It begs church-goers: “Donate elsewhere until real change happens”
SNAP: “As Francis ‘talks nice’ with lawmakers, bishops ‘quietly fight dirty’”

What:
Holding signs and childhood photos, while Francis meets with politicians in DC, clergy sex abuse victims will hand fliers to church-goers. They will also

–urge Francis to make bishops stop blocking secular child safety law reforms,
–urge lawmakers (federal and state) to ignore bishops’ “self-serving” lobbying efforts, and
–urge Catholics to donate elsewhere until their church officials push for, not against, better laws that protect kids, expose predators and punish enablers.

Such legislative struggles are pending in each place Francis will visit: New York, Pennsylvania and DC.

The victims will also urge all victims, witnesses and whistleblowers – in every institution that serves kids – to

–report everything they know, see or suspect to law enforcement,
–seek help from independent sources (not church, school, camp or coaching staff), and
–join the growing movement to end or extend archaic, predator-friendly statutes of limitations.

When:
Wednesday, Sept. 23 at noon – 1:00 p.m.

Where:
Outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral (5th Avenue entrance) in Manhattan

Who:
Seven-eight members of an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including 1) an Illinois woman and attorney who is the organization’s long time president and 2) a California woman who is a best-selling author on abuse prevention.

Why:
While clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuits attract considerable media attention, most victims of pedophile priests can’t seek justice in court because bishops exploit archaic, predator-friendly deadlines called “statutes of limitations.” Worse, SNAP says, US bishops are spending “hundreds of thousands of dollars” on “high-priced lobbyists” to block moves to reform these rigid statutes that “give wrongdoers incentives to intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, destroy evidence and ‘run out the clock’ on child sex crimes and cover ups.”

SNAP wants Pope Francis to forbid such “reckless, callous expenditures” that “save bishops’ reputations but make abuse and cover up likely to continue.” The group also wants state lawmakers to pass civil “window” laws that “make it easier for struggling victims to protect others, expose predators, deter cover ups and seek justice.” And they want federal legislation and policies that reward states that work harder on abuse prevention.

(Four states have enacted civil “window” laws. As a result hundreds of adults who committed and concealed child sex crimes have been exposed, fired, demoted or otherwise punished and dozens of criminal prosecutions have taken place that likely would not have, SNAP maintains. The group says “windows” are “the single quickest, safest and cheapest way to expose predators, safeguard kids and end cover ups of child sexual assaults.”)

Because bishops exploit tight statues of limitations, very few victims are able to “out” their perpetrators in court. In the Milwaukee archdiocese, for example, over the last four years, 575 victims have come forward reporting abuse by clerics there. But the identities and whereabouts of roughly 100 of these clerics remain hidden because victims cannot file lawsuits against them. The same is true of dozens of clerics who ignored or hid these crimes.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By FRANCIS A. QUINN
SEPT. 18, 2015

Sacramento — I AM a Catholic, born in 1921 of Italian and Irish families and raised in California seminaries. After decades of work as a priest, I was astonished that Pope Paul VI appointed me a bishop in San Francisco. I love my church, and every night I pray that I might die in her warm, loving arms.

Yet I worry about my church’s future. Basic doctrines will not change. But the church may change policies and practices after doing serious study.

So, as we await Pope Francis’ visit to America, I offer a peaceful contribution to the controversies that convulse the church today.

American Catholics are divided, primarily, by three internal church conflicts.

The first is over priestly celibacy. Observers within and outside the church point to mandatory celibacy as a principal factor driving down the number of American priests.

A celibate life is admirable for a priest who personally chooses it. For 1,000 years, great good has been accomplished because priests could fully devote their lives to their ministry.

Nevertheless, in recent years married clergy of other Christian churches have been accepted into service in the Catholic Church. So far, the ministry of these married priests has appeared successful.

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

Luke Hansen, S.J. | Sep 18 2015

A retired Catholic bishop in California is speaking publicly for the first time about his support for the ordination of women, saying he found “liberation” when Pope Francis encouraged bishops at the extraordinary synod last October to “speak boldly and listen humbly” about issues facing the church.

Bishop Emeritus Francis A. Quinn, who served as the bishop of Sacramento from 1980 to 1994 and gained a reputation for his pastoral nature, outreach to the poor and empowerment of lay leadership in the church, said in an interview with America on Sept. 16 that Pope Francis made it clear that bishops should not censor their opinions based on what they think the pope wants to hear.

“So I figured: Well, O.K.,” he explained.

On Saturday, just days before Pope Francis arrives in the United States for a three-city apostolic visit, Bishop Quinn said in an op-ed in the New York Times that the Catholic Church should consider optional celibacy for priests, the ordination of women, and allowing Catholics who are divorced and remarried (without an annulment) to receive Communion.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

Arthur Baselice Jr.’s grief has pushed him into a self-imposed exile.

Almost 10 years after his son died from a drug overdose with links to his abuse by two Franciscan clergymen in Northeast Philadelphia, Baselice rarely leaves his house.

“I don’t want to go nowhere,” said Baselice.

Walking through the Baselice home in suburban South Jersey is like walking through a monument to their lost son, Arthur Baselice III. Pictures of him are everywhere. The urn with his ashes sits on a table at the entrance to the living room, where each night his father and mother light a candle in his honor.

Arthur’s bedroom, covered in sports memorabilia, is exactly the way he left it on the night that he died.

“Nothing’s changed,” said the father. “Same sheet, same bedspread. Everything is the same.”

Baselice Jr., 67, a retired Philadelphia detective who grew up a Catholic school kid in South Philadelphia, has a tattoo of his son’s face on his left forearm. Some of his son’s ashes rest in a bracelet on his right wrist.

All these years later, the pain hasn’t dulled. Baselice often wakes up in the middle of the night gasping for breath, tormented by what happened. Sometimes, as he jogs through his Gloucester County neighborhood – seemingly out of nowhere – he bursts into tears.

His wife, Elaine, and his daughter, Ashleigh, he says, are no better.

“Do I cry a lot?” said Baselice. “Yeah, most of the time.”

Baselice says he didn’t used to be an emotional person.

“Emotional?” he scoffs with the jaded laugh of a policeman. “Not at all. But this hit home.”

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Sept. 21, 2015

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

ALBUQUERQUE — A California businessman hired by the Diocese of Gallup to promote and conduct property auctions as part of its bankruptcy case barred members of the media and public from observing an auction in Albuquerque Saturday.

Todd Good, the CEO and president of Accelerated Marketing Group, of Newport Beach, California, barred anyone from entering the auction who wasn’t a qualified bidder.

Good, along with George H. “Hank” Amos III, CEO and president of Tucson Realty & Trust Co., was hired by the Gallup Diocese to conduct auctions in Phoenix Sept. 12, and in Albuquerque Sept. 19.

At the Albuquerque auction, held at the Airport Sheraton Hotel, Good was asked why he closed the auction to the media and general public when court motions filed by diocesan attorneys never stated the auctions would be closed.

“I can’t answer that,” Good said. “I didn’t write the motions.”

In documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, attorneys for the diocese requested and received permission from Judge David T. Thuma to sell pieces of unwanted property in Arizona and New Mexico. However, none of those court documents indicated the auctions would be closed auctions, or closed to the media or the general public.

The Diocese of Gallup’s bankruptcy hearings are open to the public, as are documents in the case’s court file. The only exceptions to this are confidential documents related to clergy sex abuse survivors who have filed claims in the case.

Good’s response

“It doesn’t matter,” Good responded when asked about the wording of the court motions that outlined how the auctions would be conducted.

Good described himself as an “agent for the court” and said, “We have discretions how we conduct the sale. We see no advantage to let somebody in the sale that is not a bidder. In other words, it doesn’t benefit the debtors and it doesn’t benefit the creditors, and therefore we only let qualified bidders into the event.”

Good suggested anyone who disagreed with the closed auction should take it up with Thuma.

“They can go back into court on Monday, and they can talk to the judge about it,” Good said. “They can call me in front of the judge if they want to, and I can explain why I did it.”

Good was also asked about apparent errors in the report diocesan attorneys filed with the court Wednesday, regarding last week’s auction in Phoenix that reported only total gross sales of $58,960 for 12 properties. In the report, one piece of property was listed twice with different sales figures, another piece of property was not accounted for, and another listed an incorrect buyer’s premium.

Good started to review the report, and then asked, “What I want to understand is, how do you have this list?”

It was explained to Good that the report was a public document, filed by diocesan attorneys with U.S. Bankruptcy Court, and available to the public.

“I can’t discuss this,” Good said. “If you want to put your request into writing, send to attorneys for the debtors and we’ll respond.”

Attorney barred

Attorney Meredith Edelman was also barred from attending the Albuquerque auction.

Edelman, originally from Pinetop, Arizona, previously worked as a bankruptcy attorney for two international law firms. She is currently a doctorate scholar at the Australian National University, working on a research project examining Catholic clergy sex abuse through the lens of restorative justice principles. Edelman is back in the United States conducting interviews for the project and recently interviewed several representatives from the Diocese of Gallup.

According to Edelman, a man from the auction threatened to remove her from the hotel property after she also questioned why the auction was closed to the public when it had not been advertised that way in any of the court documents. In an interview afterward, Edelman said she did not get the man’s name but was disappointed by the incident.

From her own experience as a bankruptcy attorney, Edelman explained, she would have expected the court documents to clearly state whether the auction was only open to qualified bidders.

“I would make it clear what is and isn’t allowed,” she said.

Sales reports

Local residents Justin Winfield and his father Robert Winfield were admitted to Saturday’s auction as qualified bidders but left early without purchasing any property.

The Winfields said they attended the auction with the intention of possibly buying the diocese’s vacant lot in downtown Gallup, located on the corner of Aztec Avenue and Fourth Street. They didn’t want to see the property sell for a low price, they explained, so they were prepared to purchase it to ensure the Diocese of Gallup received a reasonable price. They said they were pleased, however, when someone else bought the lot for $50,000.

“We didn’t have a plan for the property,” Justin Winfield said, adding he and his father thought they might donate the lot back to the diocese.

Justin Winfield said they weren’t concerned about the property’s history of environmental damage, which was caused years ago by leaking underground gasoline storage tanks.

“It’s still a nice piece of property,” he said.

The Winfields said one of the properties that did sell before they left the auction was the Catholic Charities building in Farmington. That building was the subject of controversy earlier this month after Catholic Charities Director Debe Betts told a Farmington reporter that the Diocese of Gallup had listed the property for sale without her knowledge. According to a media report, Betts said she only learned about the sales plan after an auction notice was posted on her organization’s building.

Betts has not responded to further media requests for comment about her claims.

According to the Winfields, a buyer at the auction purchased the Catholic Charities building for $40,000 with the stated intention of donating it — presumably to Catholic Charities.

A report detailing the Albuquerque auction sales should be filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court later this week and available for review by the public.

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UNITED STATES
Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA)

By David Briggs

Pope John Paul II defended the rights of migrants in California, warned about what advances in robotics could mean for the dignity of the worker in Detroit and repeatedly challenged the U.S. to consider the effect of its global footprint on the world’s poor during his 1987 visit across the nation.

Yet one of my memories is this loud lament of a reporter from a respected, prominent newspaper:

It would be great to write about these things, but all my editors want to know is what did he say about sex.

Pope Francis will be trending across all media platforms next week when he arrives in the U.S. for a six-day visit beginning Tuesday that will include stops in Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia. …

The sexual abuse scandal matters: The church’s multiple failures in addressing sexual abuse of minors, and its continued refusal to either discipline its own leaders or fully release information on offending clerics, have created a lasting legacy of distrust.

In one online survey of Catholics who left the church, 20 percent of respondents who said they were returning to the church listed anger at church leadership over the sexual abuse scandal as one reason for their departure. Among those who say they are not returning, 64 percent said anger over the scandal was a reason they left.

“The scars of the sexual abuse crisis run deep” among those not returning to the church, said researcher Michael Cieslak of the Catholic Diocese of Rockford, Ill

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Huffington Post

Arthur Delaney
Senior Reporter, The Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — John Wojnowski has been protesting sexual abuse by Catholic priests outside the Vatican embassy every day for the past 17 years — undaunted by rain, snow or a slate of health problems.

The Huffington Post asked Wojnowski Monday if he hopes Pope Francis sees his sign when the pontiff visits the embassy on Tuesday.

“I don’t care,” he said, confident his message is getting across regardless of whether the pope sees it. “At the embassy, they know.”

Wojnowksi, 72, says an Italian priest molested him when he was 15. Since 1998, he has held up signs outside the building proclaiming ” CATHOLICS COWARDS” or “VATICAN HIDES PEDOPHILES” or “MY LIFE WAS RUINED BY A CATHOLIC PEDOPHILE PRIEST. ”

“It’s a very terrible crime with lifetime damage,” Wojnowski said of the sexual abuse. “Many people [who are victims] become alcoholics, drug addicts, many people commit suicide.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas C. Fox | Sep. 22, 2015

Two days after appearing at a women’s ordination conference in Philadelphia, Precious Blood Fr. Jack McClure said today he has been told he can no longer celebrate Mass at Most Holy Redeemer parish in San Francisco where he has been pastor and parochial vicar for the past 15 months.

According to McClure, he was informed by Precious Blood Fr. and Most Holy Redeemer pastor Matthew Link that the secretary for San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said McClure can no longer celebrate Mass at the beyond the end of this month.

McClure said his last Mass will be Sunday, Sept. 27.

“I feel bad about this. I feel bad for the parish. I feel bad about this silencing,” said McClure. “But I want to make it known I appreciate the generosity Archbishop Cordileone has shown me and my religious community for allowing us to serve in his archdiocese. However, in conscience I needed to break my silence.”

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IRELAND
Today FM

Letter to be delivered to Justice Minister today

Several groups representing survivors of the Magdalene Laundries will deliver a letter to the Minister for Justice today calling for justice for the forgotten families of the victims of institutional abuse.

They’re calling on the government to fast track the redress scheme for aging survivors, and to grant free legal aid to people taking a case to the Mother & Baby Homes Commission.

The letter has been written by Angela Collins, whose grandmother spent 27 years in a Magdalene laundry and was buried in a mass grave with 72 other women.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Mark O’Regan

PUBLISHED
22/09/2015

A survivor of one of Ireland’s industrial schools has claimed she was slapped, kicked, and “forced to sleep outside at night with pigs” if she snored too loudly.

Mary Collins also said her mother, Angela, was among those buried in a mass grave with 72 other women.

Her mother had been forced to spend 27 years in a Magdalene laundry.

Speaking outside the Dáil this morning, the 54-year-old claimed that at St Vincent’s home in Cork, her mother was forced to give up her youngest child for what was an illegal adoption.

She also alleged her mother was denied vital medical treatment – and this eventually led to her death.

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UNITED STATES
WBUR

Pope Francis lands in Washington D.C. Tuesday, where he will be greeted by President Obama and the First Lady. He will be the fourth pope to visit the U.S., and the first to address Congress.

This Pope is now well-known for speaking out on the moral implications of climate change and the dangers of capitalism. He has also taken steps to acknowledge the deep pain of the clergy sex abuse crisis that began here in Boston.

But, David O’Regan says he has to do more.

Guest

David O’Regan, New England director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. He tweets @BostonSNAP.

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

Jonathan Rosenblatt, rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center, is the grandson of Yossele Rosenblatt. I am sitting here listening to Yossele’s magnificent cantorial singing on recordings made a hundred years ago. He had everything, vocal range, control, phrasing, musicality, originality, and above all, soul. His secular contemporary in the opera was Enrico Caruso.

According to an often repeated story, Caruso attended one of Rosenblatt’s New York recitals. After hearing Rosenblatt sing Eli, Eli, he went on stage and kissed him. That was an innocent kiss expressing one great artist’s admiration of another.

But other interactions devoid of physical contact can be downright creepy. Most women have had the unpleasant experience of being visually undressed by strangers. Even worse, most have experienced conversational partners talking to their chest instead of their face.

Men are used to using adjacent public urinals. Most such interactions are matter-of-fact. Whether or not one chances to notice the other, we are all socialized not to stare. To be caught staring is to cross a boundary. We know when it happens and we turn away or glare back.

As long as the inappropriate gaze comes from a stranger is it mostly an annoyance. But it gets much more unpleasant when it comes from someone with power over you like a parent, teacher, boss or mentor. Workplace sex harassment lawsuits arise from such situations.

Inappropriate gaze is not necessarily a crime, because the law is a crude instrument. It can become the crime of child endangerment when it involves nudity and minors in ways that accustom them to being groomed or sexualized.

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UNITED STATES
The Jewish Week

Tue, 09/22/2015

Rabbi Ari Hart

As we leave Rosh Hashanah and head into Yom Kippur, the sound of crying is echoing in my ears. The theme of crying appears throughout the liturgy we recite, it’s mirrored in the sounds of the shofar, and it pours forth from the souls of members of our community.

In recent years, we’ve heard more and more stories, more and more cries of sexual abuse in the Jewish community coming to light, across the globe and across denominations. What once perhaps felt shocking and unreal has become tragically commonplace as scandal after scandal unfolds. It is painful and tragic for our community.

The true tragedy, though, is not the embarrassment and shame we feel when abuse is exposed. The true tragedy is that innocent and vulnerable children have been harmed in ways that are permanently scarring – physically, emotionally and spiritually, and we as a Jewish community have many times failed in our responses.

On Rosh Hashanah, we read two Torah portions that share a common, powerful theme. They are both the stories of vulnerable youths saved from terrible harm at the last minute by a compassionate God. Sarah and Abraham cast Ishmael out to the desert. His mother Hagar was unable to bear his cries for water so she abandoned him by a bush to die. God stepped in and provided immediate healing and a path to a bright future for Ishmael. So too with Isaac. Abraham, acting on God’s command, nearly killed his own child until God’s angel stopped him at the last minute, calling out “do not lay a hand upon the child!”

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

Dovid Weinberger recently moved back into West Lawrence some two years after his abrupt departure from his position as rabbi of Congregation Shaaray Tefila in Lawrence, NY.

He quit in the wake of revelations that he was sexually exploiting women who sought his help for various kinds of counseling including marital counseling.

According to local sources some of the same rabbis who forced him to agree to quit the rabbinate, and publicly denounced him, are now divided about whether to advise their communities publicly.

In December 2013 he promised to stay totally out of the rabbinate when he signed the following statement:

To whom it may concern, I Rabbi Dovid Weinberger, formerly the Rabbi of Cong. Shaarei Tefilla of Lawrence, NY, do hereby acknowledge that I will retire from the Rabbinate effective immediately, and will never again serve in the capacity of Rov or Rabbi of any congregation or community, nor will I ever again be involved as a mechanech [teacher] in any venue of Chinuch [education].

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AUSTRALIA
Frum Follies

I was reading the text of the court ruling* awarding more than a million dollars damages to the woman sexually assaulted by her Adass Israel School principal, Malka Leifer. This jumped out at me:

[In 2007] the plaintiff consulted Ms Chana Rabinowitz, a counsellor/social worker, concerning her symptoms. The plaintiff saw Ms Rabinowitz on five or six occasions and then ceased seeing her. The plaintiff said she stopped seeing Ms Rabinowitz because she did not appear to believe that she was sexually abused by Leifer. Eventually, the plaintiff resumed sessions with Ms Rabinowitz after she confirmed the plaintiff’s allegations with the plaintiff’s sister and a person at the School. (page 57, section 155)

It shocked me for several reasons.

It was proof that the Adass Israel School knew Malka Leifer molested her students and yet kept her on as principal until 2008 at which time they knew of a total of 8 victims.

Mrs. Chana Rabinowitz is a staff social worker at Darchei Binah Seminary (according to a blurb for Mrs. Debbie Fox’s book, Seminary Savvy, 2015). It raises the possibility that we are dealing with a therapist unwilling to believe a victim of sexual abuse without corroboration from other sources. This pattern makes it less likely victims get necessary support and contributes to the underestimation and under-reporting of sexual abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Wall Street Journal

By TOM CORRIGAN

As Catholic officials highlight Pope Francis’s inaugural U.S. visit as a time of spiritual renewal, the church here is seeking a different kind of renewal—in the courtroom.

Four dioceses are in active bankruptcy proceedings attempting to settle claims of sexual abuse by their clergy: Milwaukee, Wis.; Gallup, N.M.; Stockton, Calif.; and Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

Filing for bankruptcy temporarily freezes all litigation, giving a diocese breathing room to continue serving its flock while it negotiates a plan to compensate, and potentially reconcile with, abuse victims. (Pope Francis is expected to meet with victims during his visit, though it isn’t on his official itinerary.)

But chapter 11 doesn’t come cheaply. These cases, often filed on the eve of trial, can spark lengthy and hard-fought legal battles that not only take an emotional toll but also devour cash, cutting into funds available for both victims and churches’ charitable pursuits.

“The sin of sexual abuse affects more than just victims and their families,” said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor at large at the Catholic magazine America. “Think of all the things that a diocese that has spent millions of dollars on settlements and lawyers could have done in terms of keeping parishes open and schools and scholarships.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic League

On September 23, Bill Donohue, and vice president Bernadette Brady-Egan, will meet with Pope Francis following a prayer service at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C.

The invitation to meet the pope was extended by Donald Cardinal Wuerl. He also invited them to the canonization Mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. Timothy Cardinal Dolan invited Bill to the prayer service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, but he has elected to stay in D.C. to do TV interviews.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
NBC Washington

By John Lewis

A support group of sex abuse survivors will hold a vigil Tuesday outside St. Matthew’s Cathedral in D.C., just a few hours before Pope Francis is scheduled to arrive in the area.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) will bear signs and childhood photos of adults who committed suicide after being molested by priests as children. SNAP Outreach Director Barbara Dorris said she expects at least five or six survivors attend the vigil.

“Right now, this is a really tough week for survivors,” said Dorris. “The pope is being hailed as this hero, and yet for survivors he’s done pretty much nothing. He has’t done anything that makes children safer or discipline bishops that protect predators.”

The group will meet at 1 p.m. outside the church at 1725 Rhode Island Ave. NW to express their disapproval for the pope’s popularity “largely obscuring the ongoing sexual violence and cover-up crisis in the church,” SNAP said in a release.

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UNITED STATES
WBUR – Here & Now

Robert Costello, who survived sexual abuse by a Roman Catholic priest when he was a child, says he is not looking forward to Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S. this week. Costello is disturbed by all of the media coverage of the visit and doesn’t think this pope is doing enough to help survivors.

Earlier this year, he penned an open letter to the pope expressing his disapproval with how the scandal has been handled. He wishes Pope Francis would meet with survivors here in Boston, which Costello and other survivors call the ‘ground zero’ of the clergy sex abuse scandal.

He says though the problem is out of the spotlight, it isn’t going away.

Costello joins Here & Now‘s Robin Young to talk about his experience and the stress the upcoming papal visit has caused him.

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ROME
Chiesa

by Sandro Magister

ROME, September 22, 2015 – Landing in Washington after visiting Cuba, Pope Francis is setting foot in a country that was born Protestant but in which almost half the population today has a connection with Catholicism.

In fact, to the 20 percent of citizens of the United States who profess themselves to be full-fledged Catholics must be added 9 percent who call themselves Catholic by cultural affinity, another 9 percent who were raised in a Catholic environment but then left it, and 8 percent who have close relatives who are Catholic and go to Mass with them.

The result is that Catholicism overall has a grip on 45 percent of the citizens of the United States, and on fully 84 percent of “Latinos,” who are the fastest-growing segment of the population and will see Pope Francis canonize one of “their” saints, Junipero Serra, in a ceremony celebrated almost entirely in Spanish.

The Washington-based Pew Research Center has come out with a brand-new analysis of Catholicism in the United States, published on the brink of the pope’s arrival, that allows an in-depth exploration of some features of the “people of God” in this country:

> U.S Catholics Open to Non-Traditional Families

As can already be guessed from the title of the survey, American Catholics are also highly influenced by the dominant political-cultural trends in the West on questions concerning the family and the sexual sphere. Which are precisely the questions that originated this journey of Francis to the United States, primarily motivated by his desire to participate in the world meeting of families in Philadelphia, in the run-up to a synod also dedicated to the family.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star – Obituaries

[MO–A kind, veteran SNAP leader passes away]

Michael passed away Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015. He grew up in Westport and attended Guardian Angels Grade School, DeLaSalle High and UMKC. He served in the Army as an Artillery Surveyor. He is preceded in death by his parents Darrel and Stella Hunter, as well as his sister Mary Louise Page and his brother Kevin P. Hunter. He is survived by his beloved partner Joyce Meers. He is also survived by his son Matthew M. Hunter and wife Angie, granddaughter Simone and grandson Ian. As well as his son Adam P. Hunter and his partner Katie Wintering. He is survived by his sister Carolyn Sue Sullivan, brother Darrel E. Hunter and wife Julee, sister Patricia Darrah and husband Don, sister Marian Hunter and sister Kathy Donegan and husband Frank. His love of his family, art, music, nature, and his fellow man defined him. His physical heart may have failed him, but his large and passionate heart will never be forgotten by those who loved him. A Memorial Celebration will be held on October 11, 2015 at Shawnee Mission Park Shelter #8 from 12:00 noon until 4:00 PM. In lieu of flowers please make donations to S.N.A.P. at PO BOX 6416, Chicago, IL 60680.

Published in Kansas City Star on Sept. 20, 2015

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NEW MEXICO
Washington Times

GALLUP, N.M. (AP) – A California businessman hired by the Diocese of Gallup to conduct property auctions as part of its ongoing bankruptcy case kept members of the public from attending an auction in Albuquerque.

The Gallup Independent reports (http://bit.ly/1jl8YBA ) CEO of Accelerated Marketing Group, Todd Good, says there was no advantage to allowing someone that wasn’t a qualified bidder into the auction Sept. 19.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2013 as lawsuits mounted over claims of clergy sex abuse.

Attorneys for the diocese were granted permission to sell pieces of unwanted property in Arizona and New Mexico, but court documents didn’t indicate that the auctions would be closed to the media or general public.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Sept. 22

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

A page one New York Times story today reports a priest shortage in the Fresno Diocese.

[New York Times]

That shortage is likely one reason that found guilty in a civil trial of molesting a boy but remains in a parish there.

[SNAP]

He’s Fr. Eric Swearingen. He heads four Catholic churches in Visalia, a town mentioned in the Times article.

http://tccov.org/our-leadership/

And he’s one of about a dozen proven, admitted or credibly accused US priests who are still on the job in the US now.

[Counter Punch]

A 2006 jury voted 9-3 that Fr. Eric abused Juan Rocha. But they deadlocked on the second question facing them: whether diocesan officials should have known about and prevented the abuse. So technically, it was a mistrial. But an impartial panel heard the evidence and decided, by a sufficient margin, legally speaking, that Fr. Eric had molested a boy.

Yet he’s still in parish work, despite thousands of “zero tolerance” abuse pledges by US bishops over decades.

Bishop Armando Ochoa is not only keeping Fr. Swearingen on the job around largely unsuspecting families. But last year, he promoted Fr. Swearingen. (Ochoa is the second Fresno bishop to keep Fr. Swearingen around kids. His predecessor, Bishop John Steinbock, did as well, even after the court decision.)

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

Our thoughts are with the survivors and their families today as Pope Francis arrives in Washington to begin a six day visit in the United States.

We salute the courage of survivors in the face if a bombardment of images on television screens, newspapers, You Tube, your phone, and Facebook.

We know that the audio images will assault you anew also.

Please come and linger on the NSAC News pages and on our website www.nationalsurvivoradvocatescoalition.wordpress.com during these days.

We hope the images you see there will be an antidote that will bring you some comfort, a quiet haven, a connection so that you know that you are not alone in an agony that you bear each day but one that is intensified by a papal visit to the United States.

Today, we wanted to greet with the images of Barbara Blaine, the founder of the Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) David Clohessy SNAP’s executive director and Barbara Dorris, SNAP’s Outreach Director. We’ll provide more images in the days ahead that we hope you find comforting as this visit plays out in the media.

The people pictured here today are the first people who would say that it is the images of all the survivors who should be in NSAC News today and not their images.

But we believe these images will give you a starting place for reaching for the strength for today’s journey.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

By Catherine Ho September 22

In August, when President Obama took the podium in the East Room to announce his plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions, standing behind him was Sister Joan Marie Steadman, head of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the nation’s largest group of Catholic nun leaders.

Steadman didn’t speak, but got a shout-out from the president, who thanked her for helping “rally Catholic women across America to take on climate.”

He added: “And she’s got a pretty important guy on her side. As Pope Francis made clear in his encyclical this summer, taking a stand against climate change is a moral obligation. And Sister Steadman is living up to that obligation every single day.”

The show of solidarity for Obama’s aggressive climate change plan offers a window into the powerful role that Catholic groups, many of which have existed for hundreds of years, play in today’s Washington. Many Catholic advocacy leaders balk at the term “Catholic lobby,” preferring to identify as social justice advocates. But their influence is significant.

As Pope Francis arrives in the nation’s capital, Catholic lobbyists see themselves as pushing for more humane treatment of migrants and rallying against sex trafficking, for example, rather than as traditional Washington power players. But they also weigh in on the nation’s hottest political debates from the environment, to immigration, to health care and abortion rights. Catholics meet regularly with lawmakers and the administration, and their support is coveted — even as polls show Americans are becoming more secular.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it a lobby — none of us are making the big bucks bringing the word of Catholic social teachings to Congress,” said Shaina Aber, policy director for the Jesuit Conference, the largest Catholic male religious order. “But we do coordinate around various issues that are part of our faith tradition.”

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UNITED STATES
AlterNet

By Richard Kreitner / The Nation September 21, 2015

Earlier this summer, to great fanfare, Pope Francis apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in the colonial invasion of the Western Hemisphere and the violent subjugation of its indigenous inhabitants. “Many grave sins were committed against the Native people of America in the name of God,” he told a gathering in Bolivia. “I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offense of the church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America.”

On the issues of climate change and economic inequality, and to a lesser extent on issues related to sexuality and social mores, the so-called “radical pope” has made immense progress in improving the tone of the Catholic Church’s communications with the rest of the world. He has brought a new relevance to the church by emphasizing the ongoing nature of the exploitation he admitted to and denounced in Bolivia, and by refocusing the notoriously Italocentric institution’s orientation to Latin America and the Global South.

Yet when he visits the United States next week, the pope will commit a grievous and historical error, one for which some super-“radical” pope of the future will have to apologize in turn. On Wednesday, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, Francis will canonize Father Junípero Serra, the founder and most famed symbol of the system of missions in the Spanish colony of Alta California.

Born in Spain, Serra arrived in Spanish-held Mexico in 1749 and quickly set about working for the Inquisition, citing by name several natives who refused to convert to Christianity; they were guilty, he wrote, of “the most detestable and horrible crimes of sorcery, witchcraft and devil worship.” Serra soon gained control of the missions of Baja California, but he found that the native population had already been nearly extinguished by contact with the Spanish. Looking for fresh converts, he led expeditions up the coast into the present-day state of California, where he settled at Monterey and set up ten new missions to spread the gospel through the new land.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor September 22, 2015

WASHINGTON – As Pope Francis arrives in the United States, three former US ambassadors to the Vatican, all Republicans who served under President George W. Bush, have endorsed Jeb Bush in the 2016 race for the White House.

The three are:

* James Nicholson, a former chair of the Republican National Committee during the 2000 elections, who went on to serve as secretary for Veterans Affairs after his posting in Rome;

* Francis Rooney, an Oklahoma businessman and major Republican donor;

* Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon, who has held several Vatican positions and currently serves on the board of the Vatican bank.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WUWM

[with audio]

A number of Milwaukeeans are heading to the cities where Pope Francis will spend the next week: Washington, DC; New York and Philadelphia. They have different reasons for making the trip. …

Peter Isely admits many people find Pope Francis to be engaging, but Isely says, “what’s important is changing the system,” so the church does more to protect children from sexually-abusive clergy. Isely is with the group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and he has already traveled out east. He says the group will hold events throughout the pope’s high-profile visit.

“We have groups, of course, in all of those cities he’s going to be at, so we’ll be trying to get our message out in all those cities,” Isely says.

One of the pope’s stops will be at the United Nations. Isely’s group held a news conference there Monday. The group announced demands, including global zero tolerance for sexual abuse in the priesthood, and the creation of a global registry of sex offenders.

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UNITED STATES
Reuters

BOSTON | BY RICHARD VALDMANIS

Casting the fight against climate change as an urgent moral duty, Pope Francis in June urged the world to phase out highly-polluting fossil fuels.

Yet in the heart of U.S. oil country several dioceses and other Catholic institutions are leasing out drilling rights to oil and gas companies to bolster their finances, Reuters has found.

And in one archdiocese — Oklahoma City — Church officials have signed three new oil and gas leases since Francis’s missive on the environment, leasing documents show.

On Francis’ first visit to the United States this week, the business dealings suggest that some leaders of the U.S. Catholic Church are practicing a different approach to the environment than the pontiff is preaching.

Catholic institutions are not forbidden from dealing with or investing in the energy industry. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) guidelines on ethical investing warn Catholics and Catholic institutions against investing in companies related to abortion, contraception, pornography, tobacco, and war, but do not suggest avoiding energy stocks, and do not address the ownership of energy production interests.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

BY PATRICIA MILLER SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

Nearly two and one-half times as many current Catholics think Francis is “more liberal” than they are on “the environment, immigration and distribution of wealth” than those who think he is more liberal on “birth control, abortion and divorce.” – From a New York Times/CBS News poll, release on September 20, 2015

The last time there was this much excitement about a pope’s inaugural visit to the United States, Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” topped the Billboard charts, Jimmy Carter was in the White House, and cell phones were the size of a brick.

But those aren’t the only differences between Pope John Paul II’s historic 1979 visit and Pope Francis’ virgin trip to the US this week. Pope Francis will find a church that is markedly different in a number of significant ways; so different, in fact, that it calls into question whether we can still refer to the Catholic Church in the US.

When JPII made his first visit US, he found a church that was in transition but largely intact. Some 40 percent of Catholics went to mass in any given week and there were nearly 60,000 Catholic priests and 135,000 nuns, with the nation’s 18,800 parishes boasting an average of two priests each. The sacraments were still a major part of most Catholics’ lives: there were nearly 1 million baptisms and 350,000 Catholic marriages.

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UNITED STATES
Road to Recovery

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.
Co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc.
(a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families)

Many Catholics and ordinary citizens for that matter may not fully be aware of the difficulties faced by victim/survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their families during the visit of Pope Francis to the United States. Simply stated, clergy sexual abuse victim/survivors and their families may be “triggered,” a term referring to the sudden return of many of the same feelings and memories of having been sexually abused by clergy members, not just because the Pope represents the Catholic Church and therefore reminds victim/survivors of the clergy or religious persons who abused them. The triggering actually brings them back to the horrific events of sexual abuse that they endured and survived until now.

Victim/survivors need to take care of themselves this week because the popularity of Pope Francis among the Catholic faithful and the general public and the unprecedented media coverage of Pope Francis could lead many to believe that the sexual abuse scandal has been resolved when victim/survivors know full well there is much to be done by the Catholic Church and the Pope himself to bring healing and justice to the victim/survivors. Road to Recovery, Inc. is one such outlet for victim/survivors during this week, and all victim/survivors who are finding the Papal visit difficult to deal with are urged to reach out to Road to Recovery and other advocacy and support agencies for help and a listening ear.

Road to Recovery was founded by two Catholic priests (at the time) in 2003, Kenneth E. Lasch, a retired priest of the Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey, who was pastor of a parish where many of his parishioners were sexually abused by a previous pastor. I was the other priest at that time, and I am a sexual abuse victim/survivor of several persons from the approximate ages of three to twenty-nine. I was forced to get out of the priesthood in 2011 after the Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, fired me from ministry and suspended me from performing priestly duties, virtually strangling me financially and pastorally.

Road to Recovery has helped over three thousand victim/survivors of sexual abuse since 2003, and we offer victim/survivors assistance and a listening ear throughout the visit of Pope Francis to the United States. Our phone number is public (862-368-2800), and we offer anyone who is finding it hard to cope with Pope Francis’ visit confidential help and assistance at any time of the day and night. We are here to help.

If any of the Catholic faithful or general public is aware of any victim/survivor who is need of help, give us a call and we will reach out to your family member, neighbor, or friend. Let us take care of each other during these joyful days for many and trying times for others.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A federal jury deliberated more than five hours Monday in the case of a Somerset County priest accused of molesting Honduran orphans and will return today to try some more.

The Rev. Joseph Maurizio, 70, suspended pastor at Our Lady Queen of Angels, went on trial Sept. 10 in U.S. District Court in Johnstown. The Justice Department says he plied orphans with money and candy so he could fondle them, engage in other sex acts and take nude photos of them.

The parties made closing arguments Monday morning and the jury began deliberating at about 2:30 before quitting at about 8 p.m.

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PENNSYLVANIA
YouTube

Published on Sep 21, 2015

Pa. state Rep. Mark Rozzi says child sex abuse victims must be given more time to get justice against their abusers. His H.B. 661 would raise the age for an adult victim of child sex abuse to file a civil claim from 30 to 50 years old, among other things. Rozzi, a victim of child abuse himself, adds it takes some victims years, and even decades, to come forward with their stories of abuse, so there shouldn’t be an expiration date barring them from seeking action against perpetrators.

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LATIN AMERICA
GlobalPost

Will Carless on Sep 22, 2015

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Last week, a GlobalPost investigation detailed a disturbing new chapter in the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal: Priests accused of molesting children have been able to escape scrutiny by relocating to poor, remote parishes in South America.

Two-and-half years into Pope Francis’s papacy, these revelations raise questions over whether he has done enough to address the church’s plague of sex abuse. More than 6,000 priests face allegations, according to Bishop-Accountability.org, and many have never faced justice for their alleged crimes.

The sex abuse crisis is among the biggest challenges for this popular pope.

So far, there have been major announcements during this papacy. Last year, Pope Francis announced the creation of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, tasked with advising the church on how to deal with its sex abuse crisis. Then, this year, he sent a letter to every bishop instructing them to abide by “zero tolerance” for priests who sexually abuse children. He also pledged to create a special tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up child sexual abuse scandals. And he has begged forgiveness from priests’ victims.

But are these actions just lip service? Or is the pope effecting real change across the Catholic world?

GlobalPost polled five experts on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. We asked: Do you believe the pope’s actions constitute meaningful change? Do they go far enough to protect children at risk of sexual abuse by clergy? If not, what should the pope do to show that he’s serious about cleaning up this problem?

Below are the responses, edited by GlobalPost for clarity and length.

(We also contacted Vatican Spokesman Federico Lombardi, as well as Terrence Donilon, communications secretary for Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who heads the pontifical commission. They did not respond.)

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VIRGINIA
WTVR

[with video]

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015, BY SHELBY BROWN

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — A former church youth group leader was charged with new crimes after two more people came forward with claims he inappropriately touched them. Jeffrey D. Clark, 45, was first arrested September 8 and charged with two counts of aggravated sexual battery against a child. He met that child through his role at Immanuel Baptist Church in Colonial Heights, police said.

Since that arrest, two more people have contacted investigators with similar stories, police said. The incidents occurred during the past two years and also involved children Clark met through church, investigators added.

The first to come forward was a juvenile, the second was a juvenile at the time of the alleged incident but is now an adult, police said. As a result, Clark was recently charged with two counts of indecent liberties with a child while in a custodial role and simple sexual battery.

Additional charges were possible, police said.

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