ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 18 September 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed Fr. David Tencer, O.F.M. Cap., as bishop of Reykjavik (area 103,000, population 325,671, Catholics 11,454, priests 15, religious 37), Iceland. The bishop-elect was born in Nova Bana, Slovakia in 1963 was ordained a priest in 1986. He gave his solemn vows in 1994. He holds a licentiate in theology and has served as pastor in Holic, rector of the convent of Hrinova, and superior of the convent in Zilina. He transferred to Iceland in 2004 where he has served as vicar of Stella Maris in Reykjavik, and is currently pastor of the parish of St. Þórlákur (Thorlak) in Reyðarfjörður. He succeeds Bishop Peter Burcher, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law was accepted by the Holy Father.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

SAM WOOD, PHILLY.COM
LAST UPDATED: Friday, September 18, 2015

With just over a week until Pope Francis and more than a million pilgrims converge on Philadelphia, event organizers have yet to finalize a contract with the city spelling out what costs they will bear.

Neither the World Meeting of Families nor the city would explain what is holding up negotiations.

“We are in active, regular, and daily discussions with our partners at the World Meeting of Families considering the contractual issues while doing all that needs to be done to prepare for this great event,” Mayor Nutter’s spokesman, Mark McDonald, said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “There will be a signed contract, and there’s nothing unusual about where we are now.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

18 September

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has updated the URL of its website.

The website is being hosted on its new domain iicsa.org.uk. Our new URL is now www.iicsa.org.uk.

The helpline number remains unchanged: 0800 917 1000.

You can email us at contact@iicsa.org.uk

You can write to us: Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, PO Box 72289, London, SW1P 9LF.

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UNITED STATES
Wall Street Journal

By FRANCIS X. ROCCA
Sept. 17, 2015

On the eve of Pope Francis’s arrival in the U.S., the Vatican has taken offense at the Obama administration’s decision to invite to the pope’s welcome ceremony transgender activists, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop and an activist nun who leads a group criticized by the Vatican for its silence on abortion and euthanasia.

According to a senior Vatican official, the Holy See worries that any photos of the pope with these guests at the White House welcoming ceremony next Wednesday could be interpreted as an endorsement of their activities.

The tension exemplifies concerns among conservative Catholics, including many bishops, that the White House will use the pope’s visit to play down its differences with church leaders on such contentious issues as same-sex marriage and the contraception mandate in the health care law.

The White House didn’t respond to requests for comment on the Vatican’s reaction to the ceremony’s guest list. White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Thursday he was unaware of the names of individuals on the guest list, but cautioned against drawing any conclusions on specific guests “because there will be 15,000 other people there too.”

In the last few days, several people have acknowledged or made public their receipt of invitations to the event, which will be held on the White House’s South Lawn on the morning of Pope Francis’ first full day in the U.S.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian Jewish News

COUNSEL Assisting the Royal Commission Maria Gerace has slammed several rabbis in her submission to the Royal Commission.

Gerace said in her submissions, which were made public yesterday that Rabbi Yosef Feldman’s statement to the Royal Commission that “without qualification … it is obligatory to immediately report all allegations of sexual abuse to the police” is not a true representation of his views, that Yeshiva in Sydney was put on notice about Daniel ‘Gug’ Hayman’s abuse years before he sexually assaulted victim AVB and that alleged perpetrator AVL had informed Rabbis Pinchus Feldman and Yosef Feldman that he might leave the country, on a pre-paid ticket by Yeshiva in Sydney, within 24 hours of finding out that he was being investigated for a case of child sexual abuse.

With regards to Yeshivah in Melbourne, Gerace submitted that Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Telsner used a sermon in 2011 to convey to the community his disapproval of Manny Waks’ decision to speak publicly about his abuse, that Rabbi Avrohom Glick’s evidence that he “did not know of complaints about Cyprys prior to 2004”, “is not persuasive” and that when parents complained to rabbis about David Kramer sexually abusing children, Kramer left the country on an airline ticket paid for by the Yeshivah Centre “within days”.

In relation to David Cyprys, she submitted that Rabbi Groner was first made aware of complaints against Cyprys in 1984, was told about a complaint again in 1986 and was told about Cyprys’ ongoing abuse in 1991 but that Cyprys still continued to attend the Yeshivah Centre for a decade after the 1991 complaint.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Royal Commission into historical sex offences results in arrest 52 year-old western suburbs teacher

Sam Kelton
The Advertiser

A TEACHER teacher from Adelaide’s western suburbs has been arrested as part of a national Royal Commission into historic child sex offences – the second arrested in South Australia since the commission began.

Detectives from the Special Crimes Investigation Branch Royal Commission Response Team arrested the 52-year-old man on Thursday night and charged him with three counts of indecent assault, two of which are of an aggravated nature.

The offences are alleged to have occurred between 2000 and 2001.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

18 September, 2015

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published the written submissions into the Yeshivah Melbourne and Yeshiva Bondi public hearing.

The public hearing examined the response of Yeshivah Melbourne and Yeshiva Bondi to allegations of child sexual abuse.

The submissions can be found on the Case Study 22 page.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

[In Orsorno, Chile, 80 people marched in opposition to Bishop Juan Barros and against deployment of security people at the Independence Day Te Deum.]

Una nueva marcha contra el obispo Juan Barros realizó un grupo cercano a las 80 personas en la víspera del Te Deum de este viernes 18 de septiembre, actividad en la que se quejaron por el despliegue de seguridad programado desde el Gobierno, aún cuando remarcaron que de todas formas llegarán hasta la Catedral San Mateo.

Y es que el despliegue de seguridad anunciado desde la Gobernación Provincial, que contempla un perímetro especial de control de Carabineros, fue calificado como desmedido, aún cuando no se aleja de cómo ha sido el transitar del obispo Juan Barros en Osorno, según comentó el concejal Carlos Vargas.

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

Margot Patterson

Ten years ago, poet, playwright and performer Michael Mack Googled the name of the priest who had sexually abused him decades earlier when he was an 11-years-old boy living in North Carolina. He found out his abuser was alive and living in Worcester, Mass., not too far from where Mack lived in Boston. After years of holding imaginary conversations with the priest who had molested him, Mack decided to seek him out to have a real one. What followed is the subject of “Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith,” a play written and performed by Mack and directed by Daniel Gidron, which will open in New York City on Sept. 24, the day Pope Francis arrives there as part of his visit to the United States.

Three years ago when the play premiered at Mack’s parish church, the Church of St. Paul in Cambridge, Mass., and then was subsequently staged elsewhere in Boston and the Washington, D.C., area, the play won plaudits from The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Public Radio, CBS News and others. Its performance in New York this fall follows Mack presenting the play in New York City’s Midtown International Theatre Festival last year and winning the award for best script. His performance in it also won a nomination for best solo performance. These accolades, plus the scheduled visit to the United States of Pope Francis, led to the upcoming revival at New York’s Bridge Theatre, where it will run until Oct. 11. (For more information, see http://www.michaelmacklive.com)

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A Christian Brother and convicted paedophile who abused dozens of boys while working at schools across Victoria has had his jail sentence increased, after the Court of Appeal found it to be inadequate.

Ted Bales, 65, was jailed in March for six years after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting boys, aged between eight and 14, when he was a teacher and headmaster at a number of Christian Brother colleges.

He was given a non-parole period of three years.

But the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) then launched an appeal against the jail term, arguing it was inadequate.

Court of Appeal today ruled in favour of the DPP and resentenced Bales to eight years and five months’ jail, with a five-year no-parole period.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A Christian Brother who sexually abused 20 boys in his care will spend longer in prison after a Victorian court increased the sentence for one of his most terrible crimes.

Prosecutors appealed the maximum six-year jail sentence imposed on Edward ‘Ted’ Bales, who was to serve a minimum of three years after he pleaded guilty to 34 historical child sex abuse charges.

The Court of Appeal on Friday handed Bales a jail term of eight years and five months, with a non-parole period of five years and eight months, after finding he wasn’t handed enough jail time for a ‘brazen’ indecent assault.

The assault of the 11-year-old boy in his own bed while his parents were home was close to the worst conceivable example of the offence, Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert QC told the court earlier this month.

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UNITED STATES/LATIN AMERICA
Slate

By Ben Mathis-Lilley

An upsetting report published Thursday by the Global Post documents the cases of several Catholic priests who have left areas where they’ve admitted to or been credibly accused of child sexual abuse only to continue their careers in South America:

Even as Pope Francis has touted reform of the Vatican’s safeguards against child abuse, GlobalPost has found that the Catholic Church has allowed allegedly abusive priests to slip off to parts of the world where they would face less scrutiny from prosecutors and the media.

In a yearlong investigation, we tracked down and confronted five such priests. All were able to continue working for the church despite serious accusations against them. When we found them, all but one continued to lead Mass, mostly in remote, poor communities in South America.

The current pope has said in a letter to bishops worldwide that the church should have a “zero tolerance” policy on sexual abuse, defrocking those who are established internally to have committed abusive acts. Such internal deliberations, however, are kept secret, and the Global Post writes that “neither the Vatican nor the chairman of a new papal commission set up specifically to tackle church child abuse” agreed to requests for interviews about its story. In any case, one of the priests covered in the piece admitted in 1994 to molesting a child in Mississippi—but still works and celebrates Mass in Peru.

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COLOMBIA
Colombia Reports

Posted by Grace Brown on Sep 17, 2015

A former priest in the US accused of pedophilia was found to have escaped charges, becoming a high-profile priest and a senior member of staff at a university in Colombia’s northern city of Cartagena.

According to a report by US news website Global Post, members of the Catholic Church accused of pedophili in the US or Europe have been seeking refuge in less developed countries across South America where they can continue filling senior roles in the church seemingly innocently.

A Colombian example is “Father Fred”, who left San Antonio, Texas after being accused of child abuse and subsequently sidestepping the case that ensued.

Reverend Federico Fernandez Baeza was tracked down by Global Post in Cartagena at the Universidad de San Buenaventura, where he holds the position of secretary, the second-highest administrative rank according to the university.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Public Record

by Joe Shaheeli

Pope Front copyThere are as many answers for this one question as one can dream up.

To us, first is the fact the very popular World Meeting of Families will bring on its own several hundred thousand of the faithful.

This city is strategically located on the eastern seaboard. Its cost of living is below those of Washington and New York, places the Pope will also be visiting, and cheaper for those attending. We have an efficient, busy airport on the main stops of all airlines. Railroad lines go into the city’s heart. SEPTA has worked hard to insure maximum passenger traffic will be delivered to Center City for papal events.

South Jersey and our adjacent bedroom counties offer backup for the well over million now anticipated for meeting of World Family of Nations with the announcement of Pope Francis’ visit the same weekend. …

But look then at the mess the Philadelphia Diocese has been in. A mess that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to settle claims of sexual abuse by gay pedophile priests. Then DA Lynne Abraham released a grand-jury report that had shown the diocesan hierarchy was to blame in the way it handled that era, often sending those priests to other parishes to continue their perversion after parishioners raised the heat and demanded them out. You could trace the responsibility up to the cardinals who led the diocese during that period.

Dismayed Catholics fell away by the thousands, a main reason why parochial attendance dropped, resulting in the merging of parishes, the closing of schools. Confusion ran rampant.

The same problems have occurred around Catholic institutions in other cities. So the Pope could get a better handle or suggest how his leadership in the States should handle what needs to be done.

In came a hard-nosed Archbishop Charles Chaput, who, when exasperated at the slow pace of charge, would tell priests and others, “I wish I were back at the Indian reservation with my people.” He stands to look good, and could earn a cardinalship depending on how this visit and the Families meeting go off. Or he might get his wish.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By MANOHLA DARGIS
SEPT. 17, 2015

The chief attraction of Colorado City, or so it would seem from the brief entry on the website of the Arizona Office of Tourism, isn’t Colorado City but the “nearby scenic attractions” that include the Vermilion and Shinarump Cliffs. Set at the base of ravishing red cliff mountains, the city and its twin, Hildale, Utah, look straight out of Canaan. To watch “Prophet’s Prey,” Amy Berg’s tough and disturbing documentary about a secretive, polygamous Mormon fundamentalist sect with unsettling roots in the region, is to grasp, perhaps, the unspoken reason the Arizona tourism office seems to be suggesting that visitors drive right on by.

The writer Jon Krakauer didn’t get the message. As he explains in “Prophet’s Prey,” his interest in these particular fundamentalists was sparked when, in 1999, he stopped at a gas station close to Colorado City and Hildale. There, he saw a group of women dressed in the sort of long prairie dresses that Laura Ingalls Wilder might have worn if she had liked frocks stitched out of pastel polyester. This curious sight led him on a journalistic investigation into Mormonism and its extremes, including the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (F.L.D.S.), a breakaway sect with thousands of polygamous true believers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. His book, “Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith,” hit in 2003, but Mr. Krakauer, a guiding voice in the documentary, is still on the case.

“Prophet’s Prey” was written and directed by Ms. Berg, whose earlier documentaries include “Deliver Us From Evil,” a contemporary horror story about Oliver O’Grady, a Roman Catholic priest and admitted pedophile who evaded punishment as he was moved from parish to parish for decades. He was finally defrocked and deported to Ireland, after doing time in prison.

In “Prophet’s Prey,” Ms. Berg has found an eerie counterpart to Mr. O’Grady in the person of Warren Jeffs, a Mormon fundamentalist serving a life sentence for the sexual assault of two followers, including a 12-year-old girl and a 15-year-old he impregnated. By the time he was on trial, Mr. Jeffs was thought to have 78 wives, including 12 who were 15 or younger when they wed.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

By Paul Peirce
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015

A longtime security guard at a Honduran orphanage told federal jurors in Johnstown on Thursday that he never heard complaints from any boys about a Somerset County priest on trial for sexual assaults and never saw the priest inappropriately touch a boy.

The security guard, identified as Jose Lucas, worked at the ProNino orphanage from 2000 to 2010 when the Rev. Joseph D. Maurizio of Windber allegedly molested and had sex with some of the boys during visits.

Maurizio, 70, was the pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City until his arrest Sept. 25 on multiple federal charges.

Maurizio is accused of traveling to Central America for his self-run nonprofit, Humanitarian Interfaith Ministries, between 2004 and 2009 to have sex with orphaned boys.

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UNITED STATES
St. Louis Public Radio

By STEPHANIE LECCI

Cases against two former St. Louis Catholic archbishops are being submitted to Pope Francis’ new Vatican tribunal that investigates bishops accused of covering up abuse.

The Catholic Whistleblowers, a group of retired priests, nuns and other advocates for victims of clergy abuse, called for investigations of Cardinals Justin Rigali and Raymond Burke earlier this week during a press conference in Philadelphia. Their announcement comes less than a week before the pope’s visit to the U.S.

The group said the tribunal, which was established by Francis in June, should look into whether Rigali and Burke committed “culpable negligence,” or knew better and didn’t act, in cases of suspected clergy abuse.

“We said, you know, it would be a mistake for the pope to have started something like this and people not to respond. When Rome announced in June that this had been established, it was very clear that they were inviting – in fact, the word ‘duty’ got used in one of the communications – people to make their concerns known,” said retired priest and canonical lawyer Father James Connell of Milwaukee.

The Whistleblower group’s Sister Maureen Paul Turlish of Delaware agreed.

“If no one sends anything in, then whoever is on this board is going to say, ‘Well, nobody said anything, so there’s no reason for us to exist,'” she said at the press conference.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

JULIA TERRUSO AND JEREMY ROEBUCK, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
LAST UPDATED: Thursday, September 17, 2015

Philip DiWilliams had mostly kept to himself what happened in a Roman Catholic High School counselor’s office in 1969. Years later, when he decided to seek therapy, he told his wife, but did not want to upset his children.

Now, as Philadelphia prepares to welcome Pope Francis with all the celebration a papal visit garners, DiWilliams has decided to share his story.

“I don’t understand why the mind works like it does. Why I can sit here years later and tell myself, ‘It wasn’t my fault,’ but it still bothers you,” says DiWilliams, 59, of Roxborough. “I think because you picture yourself then, a little kid, and it makes you angry still.”

For the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, slapped with scathing grand jury reports on clergy sex abuse in 2005 and 2011, followed by the unprecedented suspension of 30 parish priests, the papal visit is not only a celebration, it is in some ways a rebranding opportunity.

But for DiWilliams and others molested by priests, the popular pope’s arrival is difficult to celebrate without remembering the abuse suffered and the courtroom battles fought.

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NEW YORK
WSAV

BUFFALO, N.Y. – (WIVB) – Two Western New Yorkers who were alleged victims of sexual abuse are hoping Pope Francis will learn of their stories when he visits the United States.

When Vanessa DeRosa of Niagara Falls was thirteen years old she says she was sexually touched and stalked by her Catholic school teacher Christian Butler. He later served time for abusing children.

Venessa, who is now twenty-six, says “I don’t trust anybody who is supposed to be trustworthy, anybody who is of authority.”

Tino Flores, now fifty-two years old, has required psychiatric care for decades.

Flores, of Buffalo, says beginning at age ten he was sexually molested for five years by the family’s Franciscan priest.

Father Linus Hennessey has since died, but Flores says he rejected a fifty-thousand dollar offer from the Franciscans to take care of his medical needs, although some of his medical expenses have been paid.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Posted: Thursday, September 17, 2015

Priest on trial: Witness says Maurizio is ‘a great person’; Honduran woman excused after brief testimony

By Kecia Bal
kbal@tribdem.com

Defense testimony Thursday in the federal case against the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr. appeared to be cut shorter than expected.

Jurors listened to testimony for about an hour and a half Thursday afternoon: an attorney, a woman who said she lives near the Honduran orphanage ProNino and the man witnesses said was a security guard at the orphanage where federal investigators say Maurizio targeted Honduran boys.

But testimony from the woman, who said her name was Reyna Isabella Garcia but who did not spell her name, lasted only a few minutes. Defense attorney Steven Passarello asked Garcia about four questions before a dispute put a halt to the testimony. One of those questions was about Garcia’s children.

The woman said she had a son who died three years ago and that she lived near the La Montana campus of ProNino.

When Passarello asked her whether her child was depicted in two photos central to allegations against the priest of child pornography possession, U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney Amy Larson objected. Passarello said he asked for a stipulation to avoid having Garcia identify her son in the photographs.

After a sidebar with the judge, Passarello returned and told Garcia that he had no more questions.

“Thank you for coming to the United States to testify, but I’m not going to put you through this,” he said.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Evangelisch

[Study: Nearly every eleventh child sexually abused in Germany]

Laut der Studie “MiKADO – Missbrauch von Kindern: Ätiologie, Dunkelfeld, Opfer” ist jede neunte Frau (11,5 Prozent) als Mädchen missbraucht worden. Bei den Männern beträgt die Quote 5,1 Prozent, was geschlechterübergreifend einen Anteil von 8,5 Prozent ergibt, wie die Universität Regensburg am Donnerstag mitteilte.
Im Schnitt 9,5 Jahre alt

Frauen bewerteten die Misshandlung im Rückblick insgesamt als belastender als Männer, erläuterten die Forscher. Die Betroffenen seien bei ihrer ersten Missbrauchserfahrung im Schnitt 9,5 Jahre alt gewesen. Eine interdisziplinäre Gruppe von Wissenschaftlern hat 28.000 Erwachsene und mehr als 2.000 Minderjährige in den vergangenen dreieinhalb Jahren zu sexuellem Missbrauch in ihrer Kindheit befragt.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

September 12, 2015 | Author: berger

Next Wednesday, the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee will submit to Pope Francis‘ newly-established Vatican tribunal cases of abuse of office against the cardinals for their behavior in the St. Louis Archdiocese. The tribunal investigates and holds accountable bishops who abuse their office in matters of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults. Members of the Whistleblowers Steering Committee include Dr. Robert M. Hoatson who will represent and speak on behalf of Carol Kuhnert whose brother, Fr. Norman H. Christian, deceased of the St. Louis Diocese, who sexually abused children before and during his years as a priest.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JESSICA RAPANA
THE AUSTRALIAN
SEPTEMBER 18, 2015

A rabbi who told a royal commission there was too much “hype” surrounding child sex abuse and that pedophiles should receive greater leniency for historical ­offences says the questioning of his personal views by the body’s assisting counsel went too far.

Counsel for Rabbi Yosef Feldman Greg Smith yesterday submitted to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that questioning and submissions on his personal views surrounding the appropriate reporting of sexual abuse, punishments for offenders and media coverage had gone ­beyond the commission’s terms of reference.

Rabbi Feldman had made comments at a public hearing in February, from which he later backed down, suggesting Jewish leaders should not publicly encourage victims to go to police as it fed media “hype” that caused “fake victims” to make allegations.

It was also revealed that Rabbi Feldman had sent a series of emails to other rabbis in 2011, when abuse allegations involving Yeshivah College in Melbourne became public amid a police investigation, arguing that Jews with information about child sex abuse allegations should see a rabbi rather than police. He also suggested pedophiles should not necessarily go to jail for historical child sex abuse if they had reformed.

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UNITED STATES
Wall Street Journal

Pope Francis has become a powerful if controversial figure since his election in 2013. He has advocated for social justice for the poor, issued an encyclical on the environment, and refused many of the opulent trappings of his office. Ahead of Francis’ visit to the U.S., WSJ’s Vatican correspondent Francis X. Rocca, who will be flying with the Pope on his visit, took questions from our readers in a Facebook Q&A. Here is part of the discussion.

Some questions and answers have been lightly edited.

Question from Christina A. Sears: As the Pope embarks on new territory for the Catholic church (as it relates to social injustice, immigrants, abortion, more tolerance of other religions, etc.), how does he handle opposition from those within the Catholic faith who are or who would like to remain more “traditional?”

Answer from Francis X. Rocca: First, it bears noting, as many progressive and conservative Catholics never tire of pointing out, that Pope Francis’ specific teachings on any the subjects you mention are not new. With regard specifically to inter-religious dialogue, you could argue that he has been LESS ambitious than John Paul II, who pioneered the spectacular prayer meetings at Assisi with Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and others. That said, Francis clearly spends much more of his time talking about certain social justice issues — and with more passionate rhetoric — and places less emphasis on sexual and medical ethics than his two predecessors. So after 2.5 years the world has gotten the message that priorities have shifted. So how does he “handle” those who object? On the one hand, reminding people of his traditional side, as he did in a series of talks about the family this year —while generally avoiding conservative sound bites that would make headlines. And the other way, when necessary, is by choosing collaborators who share his general approach, and removing those who offer too much resistance. The prime example of the latter is US Cardinal Raymond Burke, former head of the Vatican’s supreme court, who opposed making it quicker and easier to receive marriage annulments — as Francis just did this month. …

Question from Nick Ingala: We’ve read that, if the Pope meets with clergy sexual abuse survivors during his trip, we probably won’t even hear about it until after the fact. Do you know whether the Pope will meet with survivors or ignore the scandal in the U.S.?

Answer from Francis X. Rocca: It’s very plausible that this is being planned, and now that it has been reported, it is much more likely to happen. Benedict met with abuse victims on several of his international trips. Francis has not done so yet, though he did meet some in the Vatican. The policy has always been to announce such meetings after the fact — though Francis himself broke the embargo before the Vatican meeting last year. I think he will also address clerical sex abuse in his public remarks in the U.S., probably to the U.S. bishops next Wednesday in Washington, since this is such an important issue for the bishops.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, September 17

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com)

In a year-long investigation, GlobalPost “has found that the Catholic Church has allowed allegedly abusive priests to slip off to parts of the world where they would face less scrutiny from prosecutors and the media.

Journalists “tracked down and confronted five such priests. All were able to continue working for the church despite serious accusations against them (and) all but one continued to lead Mass, mostly in remote, poor communities in South America.”

The investigation found that “Some of these men faced criminal investigations, but went abroad without charges being brought against them. One of the priests admitted to GlobalPost that he had molested a 13-year-old boy, and acknowledged that he can never work again in the US. He continues to preach in a small Peruvian fishing village. Another is currently under investigation by authorities in Brazil for a string of alleged molestations, including accusations in the poor neighborhoods where for two decades he ran a home for street children — with the support of the Catholic Church.”

GlobalPost reporter “interviewed one diocese leader in these communities, but was otherwise not granted interviews with local church officials. And despite protracted efforts and discussions with church press officers, neither the Vatican nor the chairman of a new papal commission set up specifically to tackle church child abuse would speak with us.”

For decades, bishops and popes have engaged in this same dangerous and disingenuous pattern – sending proven, admitted or credibly accused priests abroad to more vulnerable communities – and continue to do so now, despite persistent pledges of reform.

Every single Catholic employee in the dioceses where these predator priests have been or are now should be shouting from the rooftops to secular and church authorities to take immediate action to safeguard children from these child molesting clerics.

And Pope Francis should promptly fire their supervisors and every other Catholic staffer, high or low, who has enabled or is enabling

(See recent cases – within the last two weeks – involving New Jersey’s Fr. Espinoza and Oregon’s Fr. Bein. See also the case of Minnesota’s Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul, who fled to India where he oversaw schools even while criminal authorities were extraditing him.)

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UNITED STATES/LATIN AMERICA
GlobalPost

Fugitive Fathers: How the Vatican’s alleged sex abusers hide and preach in South America (VIDEO)

South America has become a safe haven for the Catholic Church’s alleged child molesters

Will Carless on Sep 17, 2015

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — The Catholic Church has allowed priests accused of sexually abusing children in the United States and Europe to relocate to poor parishes in South America, a yearlong GlobalPost investigation has found.

Reporters confronted five accused priests in as many countries: Paraguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Peru. One priest who relocated to a poor parish in Peru admitted on camera to molesting a 13-year-old boy while working in the Jackson, Mississippi diocese. Another is currently under investigation in Brazil after allegations arose that he abused disadvantaged children living in an orphanage he founded there.

All five were able to continue working as priests, despite criminal investigations or cash payouts to alleged victims. All enjoyed the privilege, respect and unfettered access to young people that comes with being clergy members.

In the US, Catholic leaders have come under intense pressure for concealing priests’ sex crimes, and for transferring perpetrators among parishes rather than turning them over to law enforcement. The scandal has cost the church billions of dollars and led to a sharp decline in new clergy.

VICTIM ADVOCATES SAY THAT RELOCATING PRIESTS TO POORER PARISHES OVERSEAS IS THE CHURCH’S LATEST STRATEGY FOR PROTECTING ITS REPUTATION.

In response, in 2002 US bishops approved a “zero-tolerance” policy, under which priests who molest children are no longer allowed a second chance to serve in the clergy.

Victim advocates say that relocating priests to poorer parishes overseas is the church’s latest strategy for protecting its reputation. …

The cases GlobalPost found are exactly what the church and Cardinal O’Malley’s commission need to be focusing on, said Peter Saunders, an advocate for abuse survivors and a lay member of the church’s commission.

“Zero tolerance is meaningless unless it applies to the whole institution,” he said. “Arguably, some of the biggest problems are in the less well-off parts of the world, South America, Africa, the Far East. This is where we know many priests flee to in order to carry on their abuse, which is an absolute outrage.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Washington Post

Story by Karen Heller

WILLOW GROVE, PA.

A statue of the Virgin Mary, bordered by mums, graces the verdant lawn of the McIlmail residence. In the driveway and on the suburban street are three Chevy Impalas, one of them formerly owned by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, long the family’s spiritual home and refuge.

The split-level is crowded with crosses, over doors and beds, and a swarm of butterflies adorns everything from shower curtains to a changing table. These are symbols of the McIlmails’ abiding faith, the cross from their decades as cradle-to-grave Catholics, the butterfly an emblem of comfort adopted in the wake of catastrophic loss.

Each night, Debbie, 59, a former hospital administrator whose employers included Catholic-run medical centers, spends 40 minutes reciting her prayers from a worn folder of cards. There is always a prayer for Sean, her middle child, who had a tattoo of the Virgin Mary on his back and a cross inked on his left arm.

In early 2013, Sean reported to the archdiocese that he had been sexually abused from ages 11 to 14 by a parish priest, Robert L. Brennan, since retired, who had been removed from priestly duties years earlier because of previous allegations.

Brennan had been named in a 2005 grand jury report alleging “inappropriate or suspicious behavior . . . with more than 20 boys from four different parishes,” cases that never made it to court because of a statute of limitations.

Sean, who alleged that he had been abused from about 1998 to 2001, came forward soon enough to meet the law’s requirements. But days before he was scheduled to testify at a preliminary hearing, he died of a heroin overdose. He was 26. The criminal charges against Brennan were soon dropped.

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UNITED STATES/LATIN AMERICA
GlobalPost

South America has become a safe haven for the Catholic Church’s alleged child molesters

Will Carless Jimmy Chalk Rob Harris on Sep 17, 2015

But now, GlobalPost has investigated a disturbing new chapter to the story.

The Catholic Church has allowed priests accused of sexually abusing children in the United States and Europe to escape their pasts by moving to parishes in the poor, remote corners of the developing world. This despite ongoing pledges from a new pope to clean up the church’s record on abuse.

We spent the last year tracking down some of these fugitive fathers across South America — not far from the pope’s homeland. All but one of the men we found continue to work as priests, enjoying the privilege, respect and unfettered access to young people that comes with being a member of the clergy.

One of the priests admitted to GlobalPost that he had molested a 13-year-old boy, and acknowledged that he can never work again in the US. He continues to preach in a small Peruvian fishing village. Another is currently under investigation by authorities in Brazil for a string of alleged molestations, including accusations in the poor neighborhoods where for two decades he ran a home for street children — with the support of the Catholic Church.

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UNITED STATES/LATIN AMERICA
Global Post

Fugitive Fathers: How the Vatican’s alleged sex abusers hide and preach in South America (VIDEO)

Will Carless on Sep 17, 2015

Jennifer’s memories were scattered and fleeting. They came suddenly, triggered by a smell or a glimpse of light dappled through stained glass. The aroma of freshly baked mince pies repulsed her nostrils. Scented candles, like the ones in the small San Antonio, Texas church she attended as an elementary school girl, made her gag with disgust.

Jennifer’s mother couldn’t understand these abrupt fits of revulsion, or the angry outbursts that accompanied them. For years, her daughter had been slipping into chaos, flunking classes, running with a bad crowd. The once happy-go-lucky child had changed beyond all recognition.
Then, one day, years after her life began unraveling, it all came pouring out.

“She finally came and told me that he had raped her,” the girl’s mother told GlobalPost. Therapy had dragged up Jennifer’s memories: a sudden blacking out, possibly from a drug she had been slipped, then dizzily regaining consciousness on a bed in the rectory. “I remember when I came to, it was just him and me and he was on top of me and I remember that stained-glass window and he did it in front of the Blessed Sacrament,” Jennifer told her mother.

*****
Jennifer — who is identified only by her first name because she still suffers trauma from the alleged incident — is by no means the only parishioner to accuse Father Federico Fernandez Baeza of abuse.

Fernandez arrived in San Antonio in the early 1980s. By 1983, prosecutors had charged him with exposing himself to two young girls in a local swimming pool. A year later, he had begun ritually abusing and raping two young boys in his care, according to a 1988 lawsuit filed by a local family. The abuse continued for two years, the lawsuit claimed.

The priest was never convicted of a crime. Instead the church negotiated a large cash settlement, and Fernandez promptly relocated to Colombia, where he continued working for the Catholic Church. In May, GlobalPost traced him to the picturesque seaside city of Cartagena. He’s currently a senior administrator and priest at a prestigious Catholic university, enjoying all the privilege, respect and unfettered access to young people that comes with being a member of the clergy. …

Last year, Pope Francis ostensibly took the US church’s policy global when he wrote a letter to every Catholic bishop in the world stating that they must abide by the zero tolerance rules.

But victim advocates say the pope’s message was an exercise in public relations, and that meaningful change is still a long way off.

Anne Barrett-Doyle is a founder of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks abusive priests around the world. She said that despite the pope’s letter, it’s still entirely unclear what standards bishops worldwide are now being held to. She said the rules in the US, though far from perfect, remain much more stringent than church doctrine elsewhere.

“It’s a lie, it’s absolutely false that there’s anything approaching zero tolerance in the emerging abuse policies around the world,” Barrett-Doyle said.

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UNITED STATES
Outsiders Podcast

[with audio]

by Scott Matkovich | Sep 16, 2015

Abuse Brought Out Into the Light

This is probably one of the most important and yet difficult shows we have done in the past year. We first learned about Amy and her ministry about six months ago through Twitter and through our conversation with earlier guests. One of the great things about doing a podcast like this is that we get introduced to many different branches of evangelical and progressive Christianity.

Personally, I would have never guessed that starting a podcast would be akin to taking a masters’ course in religious culture, but that’s exactly what it has turned out to be. As we dove into this adventure our eyes have been opened to a lot of great things that the people of Christ have been doing. But, as we are reminded nearly every month, there is also a subversive, fraudulent manifestation of “church”. It’s one that uses the same labels, titles, and authority structures, not to lead people into a life with God, but rather to manipulate and often abuse them.

After our first show on spiritual abuse with Dale Fincher, we marveled at how widespread and epidemic this problem is, and continues to be. Our hope with this show isn’t to defame the church, but to call all of those who are good to look up and around.

The epidemic of abuse in the church has been going on for far too long. We are thankful that Amy has made it her mission to bring these tales of abuse into the light. Take a listen to this podcast, get educated, and then act.

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CHILE
The Clinic

[The Archbishop of Santiago invoked the secrecy provisions of the Code of Canon Law to reject the display of documents in its file as part of the lawsuit filed by victims of the priest Fernando Karadima and substance minister Court Appeals of Santiago, Juan Manuel Muñoz Pardo.]

Iglesia invoca “secreto canónico” para no entregar archivos del Arzobispado que víctimas de Karadima piden incluir en juicio

Jorge Molina Sanhueza 16 Septiembre, 2015

El Arzobispado de Santiago invocó el secreto que establece el Código de Derecho Canónico, para rechazar la exhibición de documentos que obran en su archivo, en el marco de la demanda presentada por las víctimas del sacerdote Fernando Karadima y que sustancia el ministro de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago, Juan Manuel Muñoz Pardo.

De esta manera, el abogado Nicolás Luco, en representación de la Iglesia rechazó la solicitud hecha por los representantes de las víctimas el pasado 10 de septiembre. La respuesta del Arzobispado la publica íntegramente The Clinic Online.

De acuerdo a esta última, los demandantes solicitaron la exhibición de documentos que consten en el archivo, algunos de los cuales, según la iglesia, “han de ser custodiados bajo secreto”.

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CHILE
24 Horas

[The Santiago archbishop is refusing to turn on files regarding priest Fernando Karadima requested by the appeals court. The archbishop said the files are under the canonical “secret.”]

El arzobispado de Santiago adujo que los archivos que las víctimas del sacerdote Fernando Karadima solicitaron a través de un recurso en la Corte de Apelaciones son parte del “secreto canónico”, por lo que rechazó entregarlas.

A través de un texto redactado por el abogado de la institución, Nicolás Luco, se solicita al ministro de fuero en el caso “rechazar íntegramente la petición de exhibición de documentos”, informó el medio The Clinic.

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OHIO
YouTube

A survivor of abuse in the Steubenville diocese speaks out. [ http://www.steubenvilletruth.org/ ] If you wish to connect with this survivor, contact: snapsteubenville@gmail.com

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NEW ZEALAND
The Dominion Post

MARTY SHARPE
September 17 2015

A former Anglican priest jailed for indecent assault has told a judge he is “truly repentant”.

John Tovey was sentenced to 15 months’ jail in Napier District Court on Wednesday morning after pleading guilty to two charges of indecent assault.

The offending occurred in Napier between April last year and January 2.

Tovey, 64, was previously a vicar in North Canterbury and a priest-in-charge at Churton Park in Wellington for five years, and then in Wainuiomata for 10 years, before moving to Hawke’s Bay in 2010, where he became associate priest at All Saints parish in Taradale.

He held the position until late 2011.

The church suspended Tovey’s permission to officiate indefinitely, meaning he is not licensed or authorised to undertake any priestly duties.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

AAP

The controversial views of a rabbi who said Jewish leaders should not report offenders to police and complained about media hype around victims have again been aired before the sex abuse royal commission.

The commission sat on Thursday to hear oral submissions in response to recommended findings arising out of an earlier hearing into how ultra-orthodox Jewish centres and schools responded to abuse allegations.

The recommended findings have not yet been made public but parties in the February hearing in Melbourne have been given an opportunity to respond.

Greg Smith SC, representing Rabbi Yosef Feldman, submitted that the focus during the February hearing on the personal views of his client went beyond the commission’s terms of reference.

And that recommended findings against Rabbi Feldman by Maria Gerace, counsel assisting the commission, did not take into account the fact he had learned lessons since.

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UNITED STATES
GQ

By Scott Tobias

In the 16 years I’ve been attending the Toronto International Film Festival, Tom McCarthy’s The Cobbler may be the single worst movie I’ve seen here. And during that time, I’m typically seeing four or five movies a day over seven to ten days, so conservatively speaking, I’ve seen somewhere around 500 movies. Many of them are terrible: Bloated awards-trawlers, impenetrable navel-gazers, “discoveries” by first-time/last-time directors, and those random slot-fillers that yield a masterpiece two percent of the time and a dud the other ninety-eight. But The Cobbler was a special kind of misfire, a magical realist comedy featuring unsettling racial overtones, Adam Sandler at his most clinically depressed, and a shocking series of third-act misjudgments.

As I wrote at the time, “The Cobbler is a paradox: A film that must be seen to be believe, but mustn’t be seen.” One year later, however, McCarthy is back with Spotlight, a gripping account of the Boston Globe’s comprehensive investigation of child sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church, and among people who report on Best Picture frontrunners, it has been declared the Best Picture frontrunner. As worst-to-first comebacks go, pick your analogy: The 1991 Minnesota Twins, ’80s Neil Young to ’90s Neil Young, 1941 to Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s tempting to say that The Cobbler is the sort of terrible movie that only a great director could make, but McCarthy isn’t some cinematic visionary. His other films—The Station Agent, The Visitor, and Win Win—are all small-scale, accessible, meat-and-potatoes dramas that rely on well-honed performances and empathetic storytelling. With The Cobbler, he made the mistake of trying to sing in a higher octave.

Spotlight plays to his strengths. As scripted by McCarthy and Josh Singer, the film succeeds first and foremost in bringing order to an extremely complex piece of team reporting. The “Spotlight” team of investigative journalists at the Globe—played here by Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Brian d’Arcy James—are not merely compiling cases of abuse within the Church, but working to expose a cover-up that goes all the way to Cardinal Law and beyond. And they’re doing it in a tribalist city where the Church wields influence over every institution, including the newspaper, which can ill-afford to alienate its Catholic subscriber base. The reporting had to be methodical and the assertions bulletproof—otherwise, the paper would be buried in hate mail and lawsuits at a time when the entire industry was starting to slip.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

September 17, 2015

Patrick Hatch
Reporter for The Age

A second former Adass Israel Girls School student is suing over sexual abuse allegedly suffered at the hands of the school’s fugitive principal.

On Wednesday the school was ordered in Melbourne’s Supreme Court to pay over a million dollars in compensation to a woman for abuse she suffered at the school.

The court heard the woman, now 28, was regularly abused by former principal Malka Leifer between 2003 and 2006 at the school in Elsternwick, at the principal’s home and on school camps.

Justice Jack Rush found the abuse had a profound effect of the on the woman, included flashbacks, nightmares and persistent depression.

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SCOTLAND
Fife Today

Five men will stand trial next year accused of abusing pupils at a school run by the Christian Brothers in Fife between 1970 and 1983.

The men, aged between 61 and 77. are accused of physically and sexually abusing boys at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland.

The accused are John Farrell, 72, Paul Kelly, 63, Edward Egan, 77, Michael Murphy, 75, and William Don, 61, from Leven. They all deny the charges against them and have lodged pleas of not guilty.

On Wednesday at the High Court in Glasgow only Farrell was present when the trial date was set. The others were excused attendance.

Judge Lord Burns said: “The indictment runs to 23 pages and there are slightly less than 130 charges.’’

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UNITED STATES
Verdict

The Plight of Children at Risk in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Communities and the Failure of Government and Pandering Politicians to Protect Them

Marci A. Hamilton

Children in the United States are routinely sacrificed on the pyre of their parents’ faith by pandering politicians without a moral compass. Children don’t vote but insular religious communities often vote as a bloc mandated by the male officials at the top, and that fact is not lost on power-hungry politicians like those in Utah who let the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) patriarchs marry off girls and abandon boys so that the men will have a better place in heaven. The same relationship between elected officials and the ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities exists: there are known risks to children but these politicians look the other way as they are feted by the rabbis and a community that keeps children at risk.

It is the time of year when Jews observe a series of important religious holidays beginning with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I submit this column as a subject to be pondered in the midst of celebration and reflection.

As with the FLDS, the ultra-Orthodox communities have put children at risk due to inadequate medical treatment, educational neglect, and mostly undeterred child sex abuse. In an interesting twist, the gender most severely affected in this community is male. Boys are at risk of herpes infection from metzitzah b’peh, or MBP and boys are less educated than girls because their education is focused on the Torah rather than secular subjects. Both, however, are at risk of sexual abuse. As in every community, that risk is significantly higher for the girls than the boys. Therefore, boys and girls in this community need prompt attention from the authorities, and politicians pandering for bloc votes need a conscience check. …

Sex Abuse: Weak District Attorneys Put Children at Risk

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes was widely criticized for his failure to prosecute child sex abusers in the ultra-Orthodox communities for political reasons. It was a primary reason he lost to Kenneth Thompson, the current Brooklyn D.A. Last month, 107 rabbis signed a public statement agreeing to report child sex abuse directly to the authorities, with some arguably part of the ultra-Orthodox community.

Agudath Israel, however, is notably silent on the issue. The community also has engaged in extreme practices to persuade those that do come forward to be quiet as I discuss here. Thompson has cut some sweetheart deals with defendants from the community that led many who had championed his cause to wonder if he will make a difference for the children being sexually abused in the faith, for good reason.

For example, witness-tampering is usually deeply disfavored by prosecutors, and Thompson did initiate an investigation into it in the Lebovits sex abuse trial in April 2015. Yet, the investigation was closed without prosecution. The victims of child sex abuse in this community desperately need a champion in law enforcement.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Herald (UK)

by Stephen White
posted Thursday, 17 Sep 2015

From annulments to pro-life activism the American Church is blazing a trail for the rest of the Catholic world

In a few days Pope Francis will make his first visit to the United States. He will meet President Obama. He will address a joint session of Congress (something no pontiff has ever done). He will give an address to the United Nations in New York. Every word of his, scripted and unscripted, will be parsed for its political significance. Every gesture will be studied, scrutinised and spun. Cranks will complain, pundits will opine. The Holy Father’s visit is being treated with all the hype and gamesmanship of a major political campaign event.

And that, in part, is understandable. This visit – this Pope visiting at this particular time – ought to be big news, and it will necessarily disturb the already turbulent waters of American politics.

Experience suggests that Pope Francis is unlikely to steer completely clear of neuralgic political issues. He doesn’t mind causing a ruckus now and then. But his is an apostolic visit – he comes as an apostle, a messenger, a successor of Peter. He visits as a pastor, first and foremost, and Catholics must not forget this, even if everyone else does.

Francis comes at a critical time for the Church in the United States, and for the 70 million or so Catholics who live in the country. The Church’s future is filled with promise and doubt, hope and confusion, division and resilience. The self-inflicted wounds of the sexual abuse crisis are far from healed, yet the Church here has dealt with the scourge better than almost any institution in the world.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

NEWS ANALYSIS: The full list of delegates, released yesterday by the Vatican, is fuelling concerns about the possible direction of next month’s meeting.

by EDWARD PENTIN 09/16/2015

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican yesterday published a full list of participants for October’s Ordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family, in which those pushing for Church reform in pastoral practice figure highly, especially among those personally chosen by the Holy Father.

In the view of observers who are concerned that the synod might endorse controversial approaches that could compromise Church teachings on matters like divorce and homosexuality, the list of papal choices appear skewed in favor of delegates who appear inclined to support such ideas.

And, as expected, U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, who spearheaded resistance to last year’s efforts to advance those agendas at the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family, has been omitted from the final list.

In total, 279 bishops from well over 100 nations will be attending, underlining the international nature of the meeting, which will run Oct. 4-25.

The meeting, with the official theme of “The Vocation and the Mission of the Family in the Church and in the Contemporary World,” follows last year’s synod that was marred by controversy and allegations of manipulation.

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UNITED STATES
Financial Times

James Politi and Lindsay Whipp

Pope Francis raises hopes he will reverse the decline in the US Church on his first visit to America

After mass last Sunday at St Mary’s church in Riverside, a leafy, affluent suburb west of Chicago, Kate Boharic, 66, emerged into the sunshine with her husband Bob.

The service was well-attended: the pews were three-quarters full, and the congregation spanned all generations. Ms Boharic believes Pope Francis’ impending trip to the US could encourage lapsed Catholics to return to the church.

This month, the 78-year-old Argentine pontiff took two steps that were seen by reformers as crucial to reviving the fortunes of US Catholicism, which has been shedding followers for years.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

Editorial

James V. Johnston Jr., the newly named Catholic bishop of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese, is completely on record about some of society’s most divisive issues.

He opposes the death penalty. He also vocally opposes same-sex marriage. These are long-held positions of Catholic leaders in Missouri, certain to satisfy some and alienate others.

But Johnston isn’t coming here to be a politician. His task is to heal a diocese that has been wounded by clergy sexual abuse scandals and the rigid stances of the previous bishop, Robert Finn.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register

BY THERESA WALKER / STAFF WRITER

On the day that longtime Subway spokesman Jared Fogle admitted to having had sex with minors and possessing child pornography, Joelle Casteix’s phone started ringing before 5 a.m.

Media outlets seeking the perspective of a survivor of child sexual abuse knew to contact the 44-year-old mom in Newport Beach, known for her advocacy and incisive – sometimes blunt – commentary.

So as her husband and 9-year-old son slept, Casteix swung into action, talking to reporters over the next six hours.

That was last month. September is even busier for Casteix (pronounced cass-tix). She’s got a new book to promote. And Pope Francis will visit the United States, meaning she’ll be busy speaking out about the church and sexual abuse.

Casteix was victimized by a former choir director at Mater Dei High when she was a student at the Santa Ana school in the late 1980s.

She emerged in 2003 as one of the Catholic Church’s most outspoken critics during the height of the civil lawsuits filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange by victims of predators in the priesthood and the laity. …

PROTESTING THE POPE

Casteix – a photogenic brunette who likes to ski, enjoys a good glass of wine, and is training for a half-marathon – is heading to New York next week for the visit of Pope Francis. She’ll be joined by other critics of church action on clergy abuse.

She and other advocates say the Vatican continues to fall short of complete transparency and true zero tolerance in addressing the Catholic Church’s decades-long coverup of pedophile clergy abuse that left thousands of children victimized.

Casteix says her goal is to counter what she calls “the Francis effect.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

By Paul Peirce
Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015

Federal prosecutors rested their case Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Johnstown in the criminal trial of a Somerset County Catholic priest accused of traveling to Honduras to have sex with orphaned boys under the guise of doing charity work.

Judge Kim Gibson instructed the jury of seven men and five women to return to court at 1:30 p.m. Thursday to begin hearing the defense for the priest, the Rev. Joseph D. Maurizio of Windber.

Maurizio, 70, was the pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City until his arrest Sept. 25 on multiple federal charges.

Maurizio is accused of traveling to Central America for his self-run nonprofit, Humanitarian Interfaith Ministries, between 2004 to 2009 to have sex with boys at a mission orphanage.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Altoona Mirror

By Phil Ray (pray@altoonamirror.com) , The Altoona Mirror

September 17, 2015

JOHNSTOWN – After the prosecution in the child sexual abuse trial of the Rev. Joseph D. Maurizio Jr. rested its case Wednesday afternoon, the lead defense counsel, Steven P. Passarello of Altoona, asked the judge to dismiss all the charges that have been holding the 70-year-old priest behind bars for the past year.

One of the alleged victims recanted his testimony. The date of the alleged abuse of a second victim was wrongfully charged by the government and the charges for a third victim had not been proven, Passarello argued.

Photographs found in Maurizio’s computer of minors either nude or only partially clothed could not be linked to Maurizio, the defense attorney said.

Several people had access to the computer at Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish in Central City, Somerset County, and the government did not show Maurizio ever looked at the photos, Passarello said as he contested a charge of possession of child pornography.

The government charged Maurizio with three counts of money laundering because he allegedly ordered funds from his charity, Humanitarian or Honduran Interfaith Ministries (it is known under both names), be sent to ProNino United States and then transferred to the ProNino orphanage in El Progreso, Honduras, for Maurizio’s use as “spending money” when he made his annual trips there.

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SCOTLAND
National Secular Society

Thu, 17 Sep 2015

St Andrew’s University has rejected attempts to strip Cardinal Keith O’Brien of an honorary degree, despite his role in blocking an inquiry into sex abuse and his admission of sexual misconduct.

A campaign by Manfredi La Manna, an academic at St Andrew’s, to have O’Brien stripped of his honorary degree in divinity has been rebuffed by university authorities, who said it would be “no more than an empty gesture”.

In response, Dr La Manna asked “how low should an honorand’s behaviour sink” before a degree is revoked.

Cardinal O’Brien admitted in 2013 that his “sexual conduct” had “fallen beneath the standards expected of me” after a series of allegations about him were made public. One priest who came forward to expose O’Brien’s conduct described him as a “predator”.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
YouTube

Abuse survivor Michael Sandridge said he believes the newly appointed bishop is a disappointing choice.

41 Action News, KSHB, brings you the latest news, weather and investigative reports from both sides of the state line.

We are Kansas City’s Breaking News leader, bringing you the area’s most accurate forecast and the latest sports coverage from KC’s best team.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

BY JUDY L. THOMAS
jthomas@kcstar.com

Mike Hunter, who for more than two decades was the voice of clergy sexual abuse victims in the Kansas City area, died Tuesday after suffering a heart attack last month.

Hunter, 66, had served as head of the local chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests since 1992 and was among the longest-serving local SNAP leaders in the country.

Those who worked with Hunter described him as a soft-spoken, humble man and an excellent listener who did not judge others. Though he didn’t feel comfortable doing interviews, he served as a spokesman for the organization and often was seen at news conferences and vigils displaying large photographs of young sexual abuse victims.

“He was one of the most kindhearted and generous and compassionate people I’ve ever met,” said David Clohessy, SNAP’s national director.

Hunter, a lifelong Kansas City area resident and musician who for many years owned Keith Coldsnow Artists Supply in Westport, kept a spiral notebook filled with notes and phone numbers of hundreds of victims who had contacted him over the years.

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CHILE
El Vaca Nudo

[Access to the Independence DayTe Deum is Osorno is by invitation only and will be controlled by police. The appointment and subsequent inauguration of Juan Barros Madrid as Bishop of Osorno has convulsed the city since it is alleged he knew about abuse by priest Fernando Karadima and did nothing about it.]

La designación y posterior toma de posesión de Juan Barros Madrid como Obispo de Osorno ha convulsionado a la ciudad y no existe oportunidad alguna en que sus detractores no aprovechen para manifestar su disconformidad ante la nominación de uno de los señalados como posibles encubridores en el caso Karadima.

Y esta situación es la que las autoridades están previendo que pueda ocurrir en el Te Deum que se realizará este viernes a las 10 de la mañana en la Catedral de Osorno, dado el antecedente de lo que ocurrió en la toma de posesión de Barros el 21 de marzo pasado.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Elizabeth A. Elliott | Sep. 16, 2015

KANSAS CITY, MO.
The Knoxville diocese has removed from a historical display a life-size bronze bust of the founding bishop of its diocese, who admitted to sexually abusing teenage boys in 2002, but photos of the bishop remain in the display and at the local Catholic high school.

Questions about the bust and photo surfaced yesterday when the former chancellor of the Knoxville diocese was named the new bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo.

James Johnston, currently bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, was chancellor in Knoxville in 2004 when advocates for victims of childhood sexual abuse urged the Knoxville diocese to remove a life-size bronze bust of Bishop Anthony O’Connell from a prominent place in the Knoxville chancery and to remove a photo portrait of the former bishop from Knoxville Catholic High School.

The displays weren’t removed, and when asked about the public display of image of the admitted abuser of minors, Johnston told NCR that he found nothing inappropriate with the historical displays.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WXOW

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — –
Priests, nuns and canon lawyers who advocate for clergy sex abuse victims urged Pope Francis, on the eve of his U.S. visit, to investigate the child protection records of Cardinal Justin Rigali, the former archbishop of Philadelphia, and Cardinal Raymond Burke, who led dioceses in Wisconsin and Missouri.

The group, which calls itself the Catholic Whistleblowers, wants an inquiry of Rigali, who was Philadelphia archbishop from 2003 to 2011 and retired amid an uproar over grand jury allegations that he was keeping about three dozen suspected abusers in ministry. His successor, Archbishop Charles Chaput, has removed several priests from church work since he took over.

The advocates are also calling for an investigation of Burke, who led the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and the Archdiocese of St. Louis before leaving for Rome to lead the Vatican’s highest court. The advocates have accused him of insensitive treatment of victims and their families.

The Rev. James Connell, a canon lawyer and member of the group, said that in La Crosse, Burke used a very strict definition in canon law to evaluate abuse cases – equivalent to guilty beyond a reasonable doubt – instead of a lesser standard called for in the U.S. bishops’ own policies, and therefore left abusers in ministry.

“I think the church would like people to think this is over, this is finished, we’ve handled it,” said Sister Maureen Paul Turlish of Delaware, a member of the advocacy group, who spoke at the news conference Wednesday in Philadelphia. “It’s not true. It’s not over.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — An advocacy group for clergy sexual abuse victims is hoping Pope Francis’ newly established Vatican Tribunal will look into the role of Cardinal Justin Rigali, when he headed the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Father James Connell, a retired priest of the Milwaukee Archdiocese and a member of the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee, says the Vatican court will not function unless people bring up specifics, like Cardinal Rigali’s handling of the abuse scandal.

Two grand juries presented scathing reports on his watch, in 2005 and 2011.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 16

SNAP backs proposed investigation of Cardinals
Group especially urges Vatican action vs. Burke

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790)

We applaud and support Catholic Whistleblowers in their push for Vatican action against two prelates who have protected predator priests. We especially urge top Catholic officials to investigate and discipline Cardinal Raymond Burke.

While in St. Louis, Burke was often reckless, deceptive and callous regarding predator priests, vulnerable kids and wounded victims. He expanded the troubling practice of importing sexually troubled priests from across the US, letting some of them work in local parishes and letting others stay in church facilities that are secretive and careless about public safety.

To Catholics and victims hoping for a more compassionate, responsive and responsible church hierarchy, this move is distressing.

St. Louis Archdiocese Importing Predatory Priests

Under Archbishop Raymond Burke, dozens of proven, admitted, and credibly accused predator priests have been sent to St. Louis. Some live in church facilities, others don’t. At least three worked recently in city parishes and one works now at a local Catholic college. None of them, SNAP feels, are adequately supervised and in virtually no case did church officials notify parishioners or the public about these potentially dangerous clerics.

(The following information is far from complete or comprehensive. It is almost strictly based on public documents: police records, litigation, news accounts, etc.)

1) Proven, admitted or credibly accused priests sent here to work or disclosed as working here in recent years.

— Bryce
Even now, Fr. Vincent W. Bryce works and lives on the campus of (or directly across the street from) St. Louis University, despite the fact that he admitted molesting a child.

[OakPark.com]

In December 2007, a Chicago area newspaper disclosed that he works in the library at the Aquinas Institute. (SNAP has and has shared with local news media copies of a 2002 letter from his supervisor confirming that Bryce admitted the abuse.)

In 2002, Bryce resigned from two parishes in the Grand Rapids Michigan Diocese.

[BishopAccountability.org]

This took place after Bryce was confronted about his crimes by church authorities who had learned of it through St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson. A settlement was paid to the victim.

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PENNSYLVANIA
ABC News

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Sep 16, 2015

A key witness in the trial of a Pennsylvania priest charged with traveling to Honduras to molest poor street children during missionary trips has recanted on the stand.

The 24-year-old man testified in a federal courtroom in Johnstown that he was never molested by the Rev. Joseph Maurizio despite prosecution claims that he had been as a 14-year-old boy.

The witness acknowledged accusing the 70-year-old priest during a previous interview with investigators but on Tuesday said he felt pressured to make the accusations. He also testified that Maurizio’s attorney tried to get him into the U.S. to testify in the priest’s favor at an earlier proceeding, but U.S. Embassy officials prevented him from getting a visa.

The Associated Press does not identify people who may be victims of sexual assaults.

Two other Honduran men did testify that the priest abused them, however.

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VATICAN CITY
Headlines from the Catholic World

Vatican City, Sep 16, 2015 / 11:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Council of Cardinals finally submitted to Pope Francis on Wednesday a proposal to establish a new congregation for laity, family, and life in the Roman Curia, after widespread discussion and anticipation.

The council of nine cardinals, who are advising the Pope on reform of the Roman Curia, met at the Vatican Sept. 14-16.

Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, Emeritus Archbishop of Milan, had prepared for Pope Francis a study on the feasibility of creating a congregation for laity, family, and life, and presented his findings to the council.

Having formally recommended the creation of the laity-family-life congregation, the Council of Cardinals is still discussing the proposal of another new congregation, for charity, justice, and peace.

It is planned that the congregation for laity, family, and life would absorb the Pontifical Councils for the Laity and Family, and the Pontifical Academy of Life. A congregation for charity, justice, and peace would take on the tasks of the Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace, Migrants, Cor Unum, and Health Care.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Fox News

September 16, 2015
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA – Advocates for victims of clergy sex abuse are asking Pope Francis to investigate the child protection records of the former archbishop of Philadelphia and another cardinal.

The advocates said Wednesday they want the pope to look at Cardinal Justin Rigali, who was archbishop of Philadelphia from 2003 to 2011. Rigali retired amid an uproar over grand jury allegations that he was keeping about three dozen suspected abusers in ministry.

The advocates also want a review of Cardinal Raymond Burke, who led the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Critics say he used such a strict standard to evaluate abuse claims that he left dangerous priests in ministry.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By Michael O’Loughlin
National reporter September 16, 2015

In Brazil, Pope Francis questioned whether bishops there were capable of keeping Catholics in the Church.

In Korea, he lectured the prelates to shed worldliness, success, and power. In Paraguay, he warned bishops not to put themselves on a pedestal.

With extraordinarily high profile addresses planned for his US visit next week – to Congress and the United Nations – a third, more intimate address has so far escaped intense scrutiny, but nonetheless holds potential to be among the most consequential: The pope’s prayer service with US bishops.

Next Wednesday, Francis will gather with about 300 American bishops at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle in Washington for a 45-minute gathering, during which he’ll deliver an address in Spanish.

If the pope’s tough speeches to bishops during past apostolic visits are any indication, US bishops should prepare for more than just a papal pep rally.

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VATICAN CITY
Natonal Catholic Reporter

Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service | Sep. 16, 2015

VATICAN CITY
Pope Francis has asked his international Council of Cardinals to study the way the church vets, identifies and appoints bishops around the world, looking particularly at the qualities needed in a bishop today.

Near the end of the council’s meetings with the pope Sept. 14-16, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, briefed reporters on its work.

While one of the main tasks of the nine-member council is to assist Pope Francis with the ongoing reorganization of the Roman Curia, Lombardi said that from the beginning Pope Francis said he wanted the group to advise him on matters of church governance in general. With more than 150 new bishops being named each year in the Latin-rite church, identifying suitable candidates is a normal part of the governance of the universal church, the spokesman said.

“There is a long process” for naming bishops, Lombardi said. It includes “questionnaires that are sent out to people who may know the candidates and then the information is gathered, usually by the nunciature,” and recommendations are forwarded either to the Congregation for Bishops or, in the case of the church’s mission lands, to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. The congregations make recommendations to the pope.

Obviously, Lombardi said, the key part of the process is formulating the questions and collecting information based on the characteristics essential for a bishop “in the world today, what might be the requirements and, therefore, what questions should one be attentive to in [developing] the questionnaires.”

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UNITED STATES
Fox News

Associated Press

NEW YORK – Pope Francis will arrive Sept. 22 in the United States to find a Catholic church playing a prominent role in American life, with a vast network of charities and an infusion of energy from a fast-growing Latino population. At the same time, the church is struggling to find its footing a few months after gay marriage became legal and as more people leave organized religion behind.

Here are some key things to know about the Roman Catholic Church in the United States:

BIG NUMBERS: The Catholic Church is by far the largest denomination in the U.S., with more than 68 million parishioners. By comparison, the next-biggest faith group, the Southern Baptist Convention, counts 15.5 million members. About one-quarter of Americans identify as Catholic.

LATINO BOOM: Through immigration and high birth rates, Latinos now make up 38 percent of the U.S. church. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest diocese, is about 70 percent Latino; the Archdiocese of Atlanta is 44 percent. Yet, Latinos aren’t sticking with the church the way they once did. More are leaving for evangelical Protestant groups or dropping organized religion altogether.

EX-CATHOLICS: Despite the church’s large size, it has been posting significant losses. In a recent poll by the Pew Research Center, 9 percent of Americans said they were raised Catholic but were no longer part of the faith in any way. Another group, often dubbed “cultural Catholics,” identify with the faith but almost never step foot in a church. Since 1977, weekly Mass attendance has dropped from 41 percent to 24 percent of adult Catholics. Bishops have taken to running campaigns, such as the Archdiocese of Washington’s “The Light Is On For You,” to persuade Catholics to take part in the sacrament of confession.

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UNITED STATES
LifeSite News

September 16, 2015 (VoiceoftheFamily) — Voice of the Family reported yesterday on the special appointments made by Pope Francis to the Ordinary Synod on the Family to be held in Rome this October. A significant number of the appointed prelates openly reject the teachings of the Catholic Church on questions relating to sexual ethics and the family.

The appointment most likely to cause scandal however must be that of Godfried Cardinal Danneels, Archbishop Emeritus of Mechlen-Brussels. Here are just some of the many questions that those concerned with the protection of children and the family will be asking in the light of Pope Francis’s invitation to Cardinal Danneels to attend a synod supposedly called to find solutions to the problems facing the family.

Did Cardinal Danneels protect clergy accused of child abuse?

Elizabeth Yore, an international child rights attorney who has provided legal and technical assistance to families of victims and the Belgian government in child abuse and child murder cases, provided Voice of the Family with the following report:

On April 8, 2010, the newly retired Cardinal Danneels received some visitors at his home. They were the relatives of the Bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, Danneels’ close friend. At this meeting, the nephew of Vangheluwe described a long and sordid 13 year molestation by his uncle, the Bishop of Bruges. Cardinal Daneels advised the nephew not to go public with the sexual abuse. During the meeting, Danneels advised the young man not to “make a lot of noise” about the abuse he endured from his uncle bishop because Vangheluwe was scheduled to retire in a year anyway. “It would be better that you wait,” advised Danneels, while also urging the young man to forgive his uncle.

The conversation was tape recorded by the nephew and subsequently released to the press. Cardinal Danneels, the former head of Belgium’s Roman Catholic Church for 3 decades, could be heard on tape urging this sexual abuse victim to stay quiet and not disclose the abuse until after the bishop who repeatedly molested him over a span of 13 years could retire. After the release of the recording, Danneels did not dispute the authenticity of the conversation. A media firestorm was unleashed in Belgium, a country still reeling over institutional cover ups of child sex abuse.

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ITALIA
Primo Numero

[A former pastor, Don Marino Genova, has been indicted for sexually abusing a minor.]

Il Gup di Larino Daniele Colucci ha disposto il processo, al termine dell’udienza preliminare che si è celebrata oggi 15 settembre, per don Marino Genova, oggi 59enne. Il reato è quello di atti sessuali con minorenne. Giada Vitale, che lo ha denunciato, aveva 13 anni all’epoca dei fatti e oggi chiede giustizia per gli abusi subiti. Intanto l’ex parroco di Portocannone è stato sospeso ‘a divinis’ dal Tribunale ecclesiastico. Non può somministrare sacramenti né celebrare la Messa. Oggi vive in una struttura di clausura vicino Roma.

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CHILE
Blickpunkt

[Prominent Chilean politicians are calling for a fresh start in the Catholic Church in that country. They accuse the leadership to try to cover up abuse scandals.]

Prominente chilenische Politiker fordern einen personellen Neuanfang in der katholischen Kirche des Landes. Sie werfen der Führungsspitze vor, Missbrauchsskandale vertuschen zu wollen.

Es werden etliche wichtige Plätze frei bleiben, wenn Santiagos Erzbischof, Kardinal Ricardo Ezzati Andrello, am Freitag um 11 Uhr Ortszeit zum traditionellen Te-Deum-Gebet in Chiles Hauptstadtkathedrale bittet. Die Liste der Prominenten, die durch Abwesenheit glänzen, ist lang.

Isabel Allende, Vorsitzende der Sozialistischen Partei, ist verhindert. Ein Termin irgendwo weit außerhalb von Santiago mache ein Kommen unmöglich, lautet die offizielle Begründung. Trotzdem vertritt die Tochter von Ex-Präsident Salvador Allende eine klare Position zur aktuellen Debatte rund um die chilenische Kirche: “Die beiden Kardinäle schulden dem Land eine Erklärung.”

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OSTERREICH
Osterreich.at

[A Catholic priest is Austria has to answer on Wednesday before the Vienna Regional Criminal Court for allegations he sexual abuse two boys. The 45-year-old Colombian was friends with the family of the two brothers.]

Ein katholischer Priester hat sich am Mittwoch vor dem Wiener Straflandesgericht verantworten müssen, weil er zwei Burschen aus seiner Gemeinde jahrelang sexuell missbraucht haben soll. Der 45-jährige Kolumbianer war mit der Familie des Brüderpaars befreundet und hatte mit ihr viel Zeit verbracht. Vor dem Schöffensenat (Vorsitz: Sonja Höpler-Salat) war er nun geständig.

Der 45-Jährige war Anfang der 1990er-Jahre nach Wien gekommen, um Theologie zu studieren. 2002 wurde er zum Priester geweiht. Einige Jahre später erkrankte seine Mutter, weswegen er in eine Krise geriet, zu trinken begann und Drogen genommen hatte. “Ich durfte ihr nicht helfen”, sagte der mittlerweile freigestellte Priester, das habe ihm die Gemeinde verboten. In seiner Sucht sah er auch den Grund für die Übergriffe auf die etwa 13 und 14 Jahre alten Burschen. “Ich hatte bis zu diesem Vorfall diese Neigungen nicht. Ich bin weder pädophil, noch homosexuell.” Vielmehr würde er sich zu Frauen hingezogen fühlen, wie er vor der Richterin ausführte.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Religion Dispatches

BY ANTHEA BUTLER SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

On the the eve of the papal visit, William Penn’s City of brotherly love, Philadelphia, is feeling anything but. With each twist and turn over the long hot summer in the planning for the papal visit, Philadelphia’s citizens have become restless, and their ire has been focused on Mayor Nutter and the Secret Service.

In a hastily put together meeting last week, Donna Crilley Farrell, the executive director of the World Meeting of Families (WMOF) announced that the papal events were going to be ticketed—after having already promoted the Papal visit as “free and open” to the public on the conference website. As a result, some hotel rooms are being cancelled, people are angry, and shopkeepers are worried.

It’s not the Philadelphia nativist riots of 1844, but hey…

Don’t worry, if you’re coming to Philly and can’t get a ticket, this picture from my friends at Billy Penn shows just how close you can get to the altar—that dot in the distance in the background is where the altar will be.

Yup, stay at home, post up, get your drinks and popcorn, and watch in your jammies.

Much of the confusion and drama lies with the poor messaging of the World Meeting of Families and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Both have managed to make both Catholics and non-Catholics so angry that many will certainly stay away.

What happened? Why has the WMOF and the Archdiocese mangled the messaging of what should be a feel-good, uplifting papal visit? Simple: the Archdiocese is still in disarray from the administrations of Cardinals Rigali and Bevilacqua.

Pope Benedict XXVI knew exactly what he was doing when he announced in June 2012 that Philadelphia would get the 2015 WMOF—the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has suffered from poor management for years and the now-emeritus Pope was trying to get Philly Catholics off life support.

Sex abuse scandals, two grand jury investigations, the imprisonment of a archdiocesan administrator, financial mismanagement, and the closure of Catholic schools have contributed to the decline of an archdiocese that once rivaled Boston or New York.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 16 September 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral ministry of the diocese of Cajazeiras, Brazil, presented by Bishop Jose Gonzalez Alonso upon reaching the age limit.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 16 September 2015 (VIS) – The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., held a briefing this morning on the results of the eleventh meeting of the Council of Cardinals with the Holy Father, which began on Monday 14 November.

“The proposal for a new Congregation, provisionally entitled “Laity, Family and Life”, was again taken into consideration”, said Fr. Lombardi. “In this regard Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, designated by the Holy Father in recent months to prepare a study on the feasibility of the project, was heard. At the end of their reflections the Council presented to the Pope a proposal orientated towards the implementation of the project.

Consideration of the proposal for a new Congregation dedicated to “Charity, Justice and Peace” was resumed and further reflections were made without yet reaching, however, a conclusive proposal by the Council.

The Cardinals went on to reflect on the procedures for the appointment of new bishops, or more specifically on the qualities and requisites for candidates in view of the needs of today’s world, and on the related issue of information gathering. Naturally the theme will need to be explored further and developed in collaboration with the competent Dicasteries concerned.

The Prefect of the new Secretariat for Communication reported to the Council on the first steps taken so far and in particular on the appointment of a group to draw up the Statutes for the new Dicastery. The working group has been constituted and has already commenced activity. It is made up of representatives of the institutes variously involved. The Statutes, while taking into account the progressive phase of consolidating the different entities that will form the Secretariat, defines the structure of the Dicastery as “definitive”. Particular attention will be given to evaluating legal and administrative aspects of the communication activities of the Holy See. The regulations will subsequently be drafted and issued.

The Cardinals expressed their unanimous appreciation and stressed that, despite the progressive nature of the work, precise guidance must be given to the institutions involved so that, as the Motu Proprio requires, the reform can make decisive progress towards integration and unitary management.

The theme proposed during the last session of the Council regarding issues linked to the abuse of minors was again taken into consideration. The matter of how to implement proposals was explored in further depth, especially with regard to the possibility of accelerating the resolution of the many cases still pending.

A draft Preamble of the new Constitution was also re-evaluated.

Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodríguez Maradiaga was absent for health reasons.

The next session of the Council is scheduled to be held from 10 to 12 December”.

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NEW YORK
USA Today

Rick Hampson, USA TODAY September 15, 2015

NEW YORK — The pope is coming to town, and ordinarily parishioners of Our Lady of Peace Church would be focused on trying to get tickets to the papal Mass at Madison Square Garden. Instead, they’re focused on trying to reverse the decision to close their parish.

Our Lady of Peace is one of scores of parishes closed or merged this year by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, which Pope Francis visits Sept. 24 after a stop in Washington and before heading to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families.

Parishes like Our Lady of Peace epitomize the challenge facing Francis on his first U.S. visit: an American church in a slow-moving crisis of flagging membership, fewer priestly vocations and school and parish closings — all exacerbated by the lingering effects of the clergy child abuse scandal.

“It’s great the pope is coming, but look at all the closed churches,” says Janice Dooner Lynch, whose family joined Our Lady of Peace in 1921, two years after the parish was founded. “Our main concern now is, ‘What about us?’”

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY ROSS THOMSON

Father King was rebuked by the Bishop of Motherwell over a string of messages he sent on Facebook to hairdresser Tony Moore.

Parishioners this week have supported a parish priest who has been removed from his post by church bosses after claims he stalked a former altar boy online.

Father Frank King, who was in charge of both St Aidan’s Church in Coltness and St Mary’s Church in Cleland, was axed by the Diocese of Motherwell after a complaint was that he harassed Tony Moore.

It emerged this week that the priest was rebuked by the Bishop of Motherwell Joseph Toal over a string of messages he sent on Facebook to Tony asking him to meet up or go for dinner.

Hairdresser Tony met with Bishop Toal and showed him the messages and raised concerns about Father King’s behaviour.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Don E. Woods | For NJ.com
on September 16, 2015

Abused by a priest at 11 years old and quiet about it for most of his life, 68-year-old Fred Marigliano is making up for his silence.

For each step of a 270-mile walk he’s making across New Jersey, he is stopping people on the street and educating them about what it’s like to be a survivor of abuse and how much further the justice system needs to go to make it right.

“If Jesus was here, he’d be walking with us,” said Marigliano, of Green Brook, while sitting on a bench in Millville.

He works with Road to Recovery, Survivors Nextwork for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and MaleSurvivor.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Jamie Grierson and Josh Halliday
Tuesday 15 September 2015

Detectives investigating historical child abuse allegations should not indulge “narcissists and fantasists”, a former director of public prosecutions has warned, as pressure mounts on Scotland Yard over its inquiry into high-profile paedophiles.

Lord Ken Macdonald QC said police must conduct “impartial, objective investigations” and there is a danger that concern for victims is “morphing into a medieval contempt for the accused”.

His strong comments come as the Metropolitan police come under pressure to shelve Operation Midland, their inquiry into an alleged Westminster paedophile ring, after detectives reportedly raised doubts about the testimony of the key witness.

The broadcaster Paul Gambaccini also renewed his attack on Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for failing to apologise over their handling of sexual abuse allegations made against him.

Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, said: “An understandable modern concern for victims’ rights is now in real danger of morphing into a medieval contempt for the accused and a shocking disinterest in the basic norms of justice.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

A woman alleged to have been sexually abused by the principal of a Jewish day school in Melbourne has been awarded $1 million in damages.

Justice Rush said in Melbourne’s Supreme Court that the actions taken by the Adass Israel School in helping principal Malka Leifer flee Australia in 2008 were “deplorable and disgraceful.” The allegations of her behaviour were raised shortly after she left Australia.

The school was also criticised for failing to contact police.

Leifer has been arrested in Israel where she is facing extradition to Australia to face 74 charges of sexual assault.

The woman who sued the school is one of three sisters who were allegedly abused with the offences starting in 2002 when she was 15.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

September 15, 2015

Shannon Deery
Herald Sun

AN ultra-orthodox Jewish school has been ordered to pay more than $1 million to a former student who was sexually abused by a runaway principal.

The windfall is believed to be the single biggest payout to a Victorian victim of child sexual abuse in a landmark case that could open the floodgates for waves of similar litigation.

And in a damning Supreme Court judgment handed down today, the school has been slammed for actively trying to cover up the abuse.

The former Adass Israel School student sued the college over claims she was routinely molested by former principal Malka Leifer.

The woman said she had been abused in Ms Leifer’s office, at her home and on school camps, and she believed that other teachers had known about the abuse.

“She would tell me that she loved me and that she really cared for me. She would tell me it was her way of telling me she loved me,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A Melbourne woman has been awarded more than $1 million in compensation for sexual abuse she suffered at an ultra-orthodox Jewish school.

The Supreme Court heard the 28-year-old was sexually abused between 2003 and 2006 by Malka Leifer, who was the headmistress at the Adass Israel School in Elsternwick.

The court heard the woman was abused at school, on camp and at Ms Leifer’s home.

Justice Jack Rush said the victim had suffered fear, uncertainty and major lifelong mental injury including self-harm and awarded her $1.27 million in damages.

The school arranged for Ms Leifer to be flown out of Australia in 2008, within hours of learning of allegations made by the victim and at least eight other girls, the court heard.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Adass Israel School: ultra-orthodox Jewish school’s $1m abuse payout

KATHERINE TOWERS

An ultra-orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne faces one of the State’s largest payouts to a victim of child sexual abuse after being ordered to pay more than $1 million to a former student for the “monstrous” molestation by its headmistress.

In a damning Supreme Court judgment, the Adass Israel School was ordered to pay just over $1.2 million for the “wanton” abuse suffered by the woman as a student by then principal and mother-of-eight, Malka Leifer.

The Elsternwick-based school and Leifer were sued by the ex-student who says she was sexually abused several times a week between 2003 and 2006.

“There can be no more serious charge levelled against a headmistress of a girls’ school than that such headmistress has abused the trust reposed in her by sexually abusing those in her charge,” Justice Jack Rush found.

Justice Rush slammed the school for helping Leifer flee the country after the abuse allegations came to light in 2008 and before police were notified, describing its actions as “deplorable”, “disgraceful”, “deliberate” and deserving of the Supreme Court’s “disapprobation and denunciation”.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

Student granted $1 million payout from Jewish school after suing them for ‘covering up’ the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of their female principal

By LOUISE CHEER and EMILY CRANE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

A woman who was sexually abused as a student at a Melbourne Orthodox Jewish school has been awarded more than $1.2 million in damages.

Now aged in her 20s, the woman was allegedly abused by former Adass Israel School headmistress Malka Leifer at the teacher’s home, at school camps and on school grounds between 2003 and 2006.

When he handed down his judgement in the Supreme Court of Victoria, Justice John Rush said Ms Leifer had exploited the student and it was ‘deplorable’ the school helped the teacher leave Australia when the abuse became known.

Ms Leifer fled to Israel after she was accused of sexually abusing students at the Elsternwick school, in Melbourne’s south-east, when she was principal.

For the former educator’s ‘monstrous’ conduct, Justice Rush ruled she pay $150,000-worth of damages to her victim.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Wednesday 16 September 2015

A Melbourne Orthodox Jewish school that hired an Israeli headmistress accused of sexually abusing a student must pay more than $1.1m.

Adass Israel School and former headmistress Malka Leifer were sued by the ex-student who says she was sexually abused several times a week between 2003 and 2006.

The alleged abuse occurred in the headmistress’ home, at school camps and on school grounds.

The student, now aged in her 20s, was awarded compensation by judge John Rush who found the Elsternwick school was both “directly and vicariously liable for the conduct of Ms Leifer”.

Once allegations surfaced in 2008, Leifer was stood down by a committee linked to the school and plane tickets were purchased so she could quickly flee the country, the court heard.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

September 16, 2015

Patrick Hatch

A woman has been awarded more than $1 million in damages for sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her school principal.

The landmark Supreme Court decision is one of Victoria’s highest ever payouts in a child sex abuse case and sets a precedent that one legal expert said would “strike terror into the hearts” of schools embroiled in abuse scandals across the country.

The woman is one of three sisters alleged to have been sexually abused by former Adass Israel School principal Malka Leifer, whom the school flew out of Australia when allegations came to light in 2008.

Mrs Leifer, a mother of eight, was arrested in Israel in August 2014 and is facing extradition to Australia, where she is wanted on 74 counts of sexual assault.

The former student of the ultra-orthodox Jewish school told the court the abuse started in 2002, when she was 15 years old, and took place at the school’s Elsternwick campus, at the principal’s home and on school camps.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Kansas City Star

BY BRIAN BURNES
bburnes@kcstar.com
JUDY L. THOMAS
jthomas@kcstar.com
AND ROBERT A. CRONKLETON
bcronkleton@kcstar.com

The bishop who soon will lead northwest Missouri’s Catholics can cite both healing and heroism on his resume.

And he recognizes that a significant need for healing exists in the community still stinging from recent child abuse scandals, Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. said Tuesday as he was introduced as the seventh bishop of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese.

“But I also believe that the one that truly heals is Jesus,” Johnston said at the Catholic Center in downtown Kansas City. “And so I see my role as the bishop as sort of being a physician’s assistant — to be a person that facilitates some of that healing.”

Johnston will move north later this year from the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, which he has led for seven years. He will be installed Nov. 4.

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SCOTLAND
STV

Five men will go on trial accused of abusing pupils at a school run by the Christian Brothers in Fife between 1970 and 1983.

The men, aged between 61 and 77, are accused of physically and sexually abusing boys at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland.

The accused are John Farrell, 72, Paul Kelly, 63, Edward Egan, 77, Michael Murphy, 75, and William Don, 61.

They all deny the charges against them and have lodged pleas of not guilty.

On Wednesday at the High Court in Glasgow only Farrell was present when the trial date was set. The others were excused attendance.

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ALABAMA
Baptist News

By Bob Allen

A Texas Baptist pastor told an Alabama judge Sept. 14 that he knew that a worship pastor he hired in April was facing criminal sex charges, but he didn’t know how many.

Steve Knott, pastor of First Baptist Church of Bedford, Texas, said at a hearing in Colbert County Circuit Court that 31-year-old Kyle Adcock was attending the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-affiliated congregation with his parents when Knott became the pastor in late January.

Based on the testimony of the pastor and a police officer, Judge Hal Hughston found sufficient evidence that Adcock’s employment violated a condition of his $500,000 bond that he avoid unsupervised contact with minors. The judge ordered Adcock back to jail, without bond, until this trial scheduled in January.

Adcock was indicted in January on 12 counts of first-degree rape, nine counts of second-degree sodomy and eight counts of second-degree rape. The crimes allegedly occurred over a two-year period while he was serving as youth pastor at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, Ala.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Kansas City Star

BY MARY SANCHEZ
msanchez@kcstar.com

The diocese that Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. will lead is a far different one than the previous bishop found upon his arrival.

Society is different, in ways that will ease the way for the new bishop, and ways that have riled him in the past.

Johnston has been a strong supporter of two of the most noncontroversial arms of the Catholic church in his previous position as the leader of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. Catholic Charities and the Catholic Worker movement are strong in the Kansas City area, making significant impact on the lives of poor people and those who are too often left without a voice. The faith’s most vocal critics would do well to visit the deeds of both and see the power of faith at its best.

Where the sparks may fly again are with the issues that many faiths, and certainly many Catholics, routinely wrestle. And that is the chafing that occurs between changing societal norms and church teachings.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBC

[with video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —The Catholic Church is trying to take a more proactive approach to stopping sexual abuse in its schools and churches, which includes required training for anyone who works with children.

The program is designed to help parents and teachers look for signs of abuse.

“We think we can protect our children. We think we can protect them all the time, which we can’t,” said sex abuse educator Nancy Beaty.

She shared the sobering statistics that 20 percent of girls and 5 percent of boys will be molested.

“It’s just disturbing. It makes you feel uncomfortable. It makes you want to keep your kid in a bubble,” said Carrie Henry.

Henry is taking the training class, because she wants to participate in school field trips. The training is required for parents or others who want to work or volunteer with any church or school activities involving children. The program was created in the wake of sex abuse scandals that rocked the diocese.

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TENNESSEE
The Tennessean

Andy Humbles, ahumbles@tennessean.com . CDT September 15, 2015

A trial date was set Tuesday for a former youth pastor of a Lebanon church charged with 10 counts of statutory rape by an authority figure, though his attorney still didn’t rule out a plea agreement.

Christopher Douglas Ross, 44, of Mt. Juliet had his case set for trial April 26-27, in Judge Brody Kane’s Wilson County courtroom.

Plea bargain discussions have been ongoing and continued up to Tuesday morning prior to Ross’s scheduled disposition hearing for Ross, his attorney Jeff Cherry said.

“Both sides are interested in a resolution that doesn’t require a trial, if possible,” Cherry said.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Sep. 15, 2015

KANSAS CITY, MO.
The soon-to-be successor of Bishop Robert Finn acknowledged here Tuesday he will need time to get up to speed with the issues of his new diocese, one bereft with divisiveness amid the fallout of a clergy sexual abuse scandal. Still, he recognized unresolved matters will require additional attention before focus can turn to what lays ahead.“I believe that the diocese still has a great need for some healing,” said Bishop James V. Johnston at an introductory press conference held at the diocesan Catholic Center in downtown Kansas City.
“But I also believe that the one that truly heals is Jesus. And so I see my role as the bishop as sort of being a physician’s assistant, to be a person that facilitates some of that healing and actually also bringing the church together, providing some clarity so that we can really put our focus and our energy, our passion on what we’re called to be as church,” he said.

The Vatican’s announcement of Johnston’s move to Missouri’s northwestern corner from its southern Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese came nearly five months after a similar Vatican bulletin brought word that Finn would step down as its leader. Kansas City, Kan., Archbishop Joseph Naumann who in the interim has served as apostolic administrator of his neighboring diocese, said that people have continually asked him, particularly in recent weeks, when a new bishop would arrive. …

As the Ratigan case unfolded, Johnston served on the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Child and Youth Protection (2011-2014). He told the media at the press conference that he did not recall the committee deliberately addressing the Finn case, though it did come up.

“It was not under our purview to make any decisions, but we were acutely aware of the public nature of what was going on here, and we were very concerned about it,” he said.

Johnston added that the 2002 resignation of Knoxville, Tenn., Bishop Anthony O’Connell — following his admission that he molested teenaged seminarians decades earlier as rector of the Hannibal, Mo., high school seminary — “hits very close to home,” and shaped his outlook on the abuse issue. Johnston was among the first priests O’Connell ordained for the Knoxville diocese, which formed in 1988.

“Finding out about his past has caused me to realize the importance of some of the things, a lot of the things, that the church is doing now in terms of prevention. But I also am very much aware up-close of how much pain the actions of priests and bishops have caused many people, individually, and the importance of taking seriously the need for healing and for calling people to responsibility.”

The bishop added he was “very disappointed” hearing O’Connell admit his abuse, “but there is no excuse for it. If anyone commits sexual abuse toward minors, it is inexcusable. It’s a crime and it’s a serious sin.”

In a statement David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said that in appointing Johnston, “Pope Francis has made another poor choice.”

Clohessy said that Johnston ignored a recent request to reach out to possible victims of three religious order priests, shown as credibly accused in part of a Minnesota settlement, who worked in the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese. He also said Johnston did not reply to a 2011 letter sent him in 2011 requesting similar action regarding Msgr. Thomas O’Brien, whose name was included in a dozen lawsuits among the 30 the Kansas City diocese settled last October.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Noah Cohen and Justin Zaremba | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on September 15, 2015

CLIFTON — A woman who alleged that a former Passaic Catholic high school vice principal repeatedly sexually abused nearly 40 years ago when she was a student there has received a “six-figure” settlement from the Paterson Roman Catholic Diocese, her attorney said on Tuesday.

The woman’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, said his client reached settlement with the diocese over her claims against Monsignor Ronald Tully. The woman alleged that Tully fondled her 20 times when she was a 16-year-old student at Pope Pius XII Regional High School in 1977, Garabedian said.

At least nine others have received about $2.1 million in settlements over claims of sexual abuse by Tully, The Record reported. Tully has denied the allegations against him.

According to the report, church officials removed Tully from his post at a Dover church in 2004 after they received word of criminal charges alleging he abused two Pope Pius students at his vacation home in 1979 in New York.

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NEBRASKA
Press & Dakotan

PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — A 62-year-old pastor accused of inappropriately touching a 14-year-old girl in an Omaha suburb has been sentenced to 180 days in jail.

Court records say Clifton Wells, of Papillion (puh-PIHL’-yuhn), was sentenced on Monday in Sarpy County District Court. Wells had pleaded no contest and was convicted of a misdemeanor. Prosecutors lowered the charge from felony sexual assault of a child in exchange for Wells’ plea.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Lucy Battersby

The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne’s process of assisting people sexually abused by its priests or members discouraged victims from contacting police, according to a study by the federal government’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission noted several problems with the Melbourne Response – a program set up by Cardinal George Pell in late 1996 when he was Archbishop of Melbourne – in a report released on Monday.

The case study identified 12 systemic issues, including the role of the Catholic Church in determining its own redress, and the “relationship between those delivering or coordinating counselling and pyschological care and those making decisions about the abuse and compensation”.

In particular, the commission expressed concern that the church’s own law firm was instructing both the independent commissioner and the archdiocese about the same cases, noting “Corrs’ position as lawyers responsible for the Melbourne Response, as well as solicitors for the Archdiocese, raises a clear potential for conflict. It also raises difficulties with confidentiality.”

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MALTA
Independent

Church sex abuse victims seek to remove judge who is Radju Marija president from hearing case

Victims of clerical sex abuse have opened a constitutional challenge requesting that their case for compensation from the church not be heard by Mr Justice Joseph R. Micallef, who is also the president of the Catholic-run Radju Marija.

The eleven victims had initially filed an application requesting that Mr Justice J.R Micallef abstain from hearing the case, but the judge turned down this request, saying that there was not a valid enough reason at law why he should stop hearing the case.

Lawyer Franco Vassallo, one of the lawyers representing the victims, argued in court that Mr Justice Micallef is too close to the institution involved in the abuse.

One of the victims, Lawrence Grech, explained how the victims were brought up by an institution run by the church.

“They were our parents,” Mr Grech said.

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BOSTON (MA)
WGBH

It was January 2002 when the Boston Globe’s spotlight team broke the stunning news about widespread sexual abuse in the Catholic Church — dozens of priests accused of molesting children, and rather than confront the problem, the church instead moved those priests from parish to parish, hiding their pasts from unsuspecting new victims.

James Porter, Paul Shanley and John Geoghan were three priests who were said to have had as many as 100 victims each — victims whose parents complained to the Boston Archdiocese. At the time, Boston Cardinal Bernard Law admitted he knew John Geoghan had been accused of molesting children, saying:

“I was aware of the case. I was aware of the way the case was being handled. I was aware of the advice that was being given… and as I have indicated before — in retrospect — mistakes were made … I’ve acknowledged that the policy was flawed.”

And that flawed policy, whether from the Boston Archdiocese or from the highest reaches of the Vatican, cost the once beloved Cardinal his job, his dignity and the respect of a community he once loved. Now almost 13 years after his departure, that sordid story is about to hit the silver screen. “Spotlight,” the story of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize winning reporting on the church clergy sex abuse scandal, debuts this fall and is getting a lot of attention on the film festival scene right now.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By Sean Kirst | skirst@syracuse.com
on September 15, 2015

At the beginning of the meeting, Dan Leonard was seated toward the back. He went Monday night to the Craftsman Inn in Fayetteville, where two adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse by parish priests – Charlie Bailey and Kevin Braney – shared their stories with a crowded room of listeners.

Once the meeting began – as Leonard saw the pain in the expressions of the two men in front of the audience – he moved to an open seat in the third row, where Braney and Bailey could see Leonard’s face and hear his voice.

His presence was a message:

They are not alone.

At the meeting, Bailey and Braney expressed a central thought: They’re dismayed by the words of Bishop Robert Cunningham, the top official in the Diocese of Syracuse. During a 2011 deposition involving allegations of abuse against a local priest, Cunningham was asked if an abused child has committed a sin.

“The boy is culpable,” Cunningham responded. He went on to say it was impossible – without full knowledge of the situation – to ascertain whether the child encouraged the abuse or “went along (with it) in any way.”

John O’Brien of The Post-Standard reported on that deposition in Sunday’s Post-Standard. Cunningham responded with a letter to Central New York’s Catholic community stating he regretted choosing those words, and that he does not believe a child can be a party to his or her own abuse.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Judge rules that each side will be allowed its own psychologist in Somerset priest’s sex trial

By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Dueling psychologists will be allowed to testify in the government’s sex case against the Rev. Joseph Maurizio, a Somerset County priest charged with traveling to Honduras to molest boys in an orphanage.

U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson ruled today that Frank Dattilio, an Allentown psychologist, will be permitted to testify for the defense should the government call its own expert, Veronique Valliere, a Lehigh Valley psychologist.

Neither expert has interviewed the three main witnesses in the case, all young Honduran men who say Rev. Maurizio fondled them and took pictures of them naked between 2004 and 2009 during mission trips to the orphanage.

Both sides filed objections against the inclusion of each others’ experts, but the judge said both can testify.

Dr. Valliere is expected to discuss the general characteristics of victims of sex offenses, detailing how they often delay reporting sex abuse or don’t tell the entire story of what happened to them out of shame or fear.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

By Paul Peirce
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015

A Honduran man who told federal agents last year that he was sexually abused by a Somerset County priest while he lived at an orphanage recanted Tuesday during his testimony before a federal jury in Johnstown.

Prosecutors expected the alleged victim, who is now 24, to testify that he was given gifts in exchange for sex with the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., 70, of Windber. who was a benefactor of the orphanage from 2004 to 2009.

Prosecutors have shown numerous photographs of the alleged victim during the trial, usually shirtless and holding gifts that he testified Maurizio gave him on visits to the mission.
While he was on the witness stand on the fourth day of the trial, the alleged victim changed his story and said the priest never touched him.

“I wanted to come to testify to tell the truth,” he said. When federal agents questioned him in November, “I was under so much pressure … I lied.”

“Father Joe never abused me. Father Joe was a gentleman,” he said.

On cross-examination, the man conceded that he did tell federal agents that Maurizio had anal sex with him and that the priest asked him to pose naked when he was 15 and 16 years old.

“I did tell agents that, but I felt confused,” the man said, speaking in Spanish with the assistance of a government interpreter, “I felt so much pressure. I felt confused. I made it all up, just to get out of there.”

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015

For more information: Claudia Vercellotti, Toledo SNAP leader (419) 345-9291cell Snaptoledo@aol.com; Claudiayv@gmail.com

David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com,

Victims ask justice to cancel speech
She’s going to college with a predatory professor
Abuse group warns “Her presence endorses recklessness”

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is asking an Ohio Supreme Court justice to cancel her appearance at a college this week where an admitted abuser teaches.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith Lanzinger protesting her upcoming speech at Adrian College, a Methodist school in Michigan. They’re worried about Thomas Hodgman, an Adrian music professor who admitted abusing three girls.

“If a college hired Bill Cosby, you wouldn’t speak there,” said Toledo SNAP leader, Claudia Vercellotti’s letter to Lanzinger. “But Cosby is an accused serial offender. This professor is an admitted serial offender.”

“A state Supreme Court justice should be very concerned about seeming to ignore or condone child sex crimes,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “We doubt Lanzinger knew about Hodgman when she accepted this invitation but we sure hope that, for the safety of students and the integrity of the court, she backs out immediately.”

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By VIVIAN YEE

SEPT. 15, 2015

Dan Ogrodowski stayed silent into middle age. He expected to go to the grave, he said, without speaking out about the Milwaukee priest who had raped him as a child.

But now, embittered by what he calls the Roman Catholic Church’s continued betrayal of abuse survivors, he is publicly describing his childhood torment for the first time, hoping that Pope Francis will prioritize the needs of victims and will hold priests and bishops accountable during his visit to the United States this month.

“Pope Francis said these beautiful words about reparations and weeping for us,” Mr. Ogrodowski said. “How could he watch us be pummeled for years?”

Francis is likely to meet privately with victims of abuse during his visit, as Pope Benedict XVI did during his 2008 trip to the United States, according to church officials. But Mr. Ogrodowski and many other survivors of abuse say the church has yet to live up to its promise of reconciliation. They want Francis to stop the church from spending millions of dollars to fight sex abuse lawsuits and keeping sealed the names of thousands of accused priests, as well as the outcomes of some disciplinary cases sent to the Vatican. …

To some advocates, however, the move was incomplete: Francis could have done much for transparency simply by confirming that the bishops were removed because of their negligence in abuse cases, they said.

He could also direct archdioceses to release the names of credibly accused American priests, at least 2,400 of whom have never been identified, said Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, a group that documents clerical sexual abuse.

“One obvious reform Francis could start would be to say to dioceses, ‘Transparency means really being honest about what happened in the past,’ ” Mr. McKiernan said.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 15 September 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed Bishop James Vann Johnston of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, United States of America, as bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph (area 39,361, population 2,524,329, Catholics 130,500, priests 171, permanent deacons 62, religious 276), United States of America.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 15 September 2015 (VIS) – The following is a full and definitive list of the participants in the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held from 4 to 25 October 2015, on the theme, “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the contemporary world”.

A. LIST OF SYNOD FATHERS ACCORDING TO ROLE

I. PRESIDENT

Francis, Supreme Pontiff

II. SECRETARY GENERAL
Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri

III. DELEGATE PRESIDENTS
Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, archbishop of Paris, France
Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle, archbishop of Manila, Philippines
Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis, archbishop of Aparecida, Brazil
Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, O.F.M., archbishop of Durban, South Africa

IV. RAPPORTEUR GENERAL
Cardinal Peter Erdo, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, president of the Episcopal Conference, Hungary, president of the Consilium Conferentiarum Episcoporum Europae (C.C.E.E.)

V. SPECIAL SECRETARY
Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto, Italy

VI. COMMISSION FOR INFORMATION

PRESIDENT
Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Vatican City

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 15 September 2015 (VIS) – In view of the Pope’s upcoming apostolic trip to Cuba and the United States of America, the Central Church Statistics Office has published the statistics relating to the Catholic Church in the two countries, current as of 31 December 2013.

Cuba has a surface area of 110,861 km2 and a population of 11,192,000 inhabitants, of whom 6,775,000 are Catholics, equivalent to 60.5 per cent of the population. There are 11 ecclesiastical circumscriptions, 283 parishes and 2,094 pastoral centres. There are currently 17 bishops, 365 priests, 659 men and women religious, and 4,395 catechists. There are 85 seminarians. The Church has six centres for Catholic education, from pre-school to university level. With regard to charitable and social centres belonging to the Church or directed by ecclesiastics or religious, in Cuba there are 173 hospitals and clinics, one home for the elderly or disabled, two orphanages and nurseries, and three special centres for social education or re-education and institutions of other types.

The United States have a surface area of 9,372,616 km2 and a population of 316,253,000 inhabitants, of whom 71,796,000 are Catholics, representing 22.7 per cent of the population. There are 196 ecclesiastical circumscriptions, 18,256 parishes and 2,183 pastoral centres. There are currently 457 bishops, 40,967 priests, 55,390 men and women religious, 381,892 catechists and 5,829 seminarians. The Church has 11,265 centres for Catholic education, from pre-school to university level. With regard to charitable and social centres belonging to the Church or directed by ecclesiastics or religious, in the United States there are 888 hospitals and clinics, two leper colonies, 1,152 homes for the elderly or disabled, 1,090 orphanages and nurseries, 981 family advisory centres and other centres for the protection of life, and 4,295 special centres for social education or re-education and institutions of other types.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Sept. 15

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

Newly named Kansas City Bishop James Johnston is no friend of kids or victims. His record on clergy sex crimes and cover ups is disappointing. Pope Francis has made another poor choice.

–Weeks ago, we urged Johnston to reach out to anyone who may have been hurt in Springfield by two predator priest, Fr. Michael Charland and Fr. Thomas Meyer, who’d recently been “outed” as predators in another state, but who had worked or spent time in the Springfield diocese.

(As best we can tell, Johnston ignored our request.)

[SNAP]

–Four years ago, we urged Johnston to reach out to anyone who may have been hurt in Springfield by Missouri’s most notorious serial predator priest, Fr. Thomas J. O’Brien, who faces more than two dozen civil lawsuits accusing him of molesting kids. Most of them have been settled. O’Brien has sometimes committed these crimes in concert with other clerics. He has been forbidden to present himself as a priest. And just last week, he was sued again.

(As best we can tell, Johnston ignored our request and did not reply to our letter.)

[SNAP]

–Johnston refused to remove a statue of a bishop who admitted molesting one boy.

[National Catholic Reporter]

–He publicly praised that bishop, making no mention of victims, when that prelate passed away.

Thirty bishops have posted pedophile priests’ names on their websites. This is, we believe, a bare minimum public safety step. Brooklyn Catholic officials refuse to do so, even though there are at least 53 Brooklyn priests who have been publicly accused of molesting kids. Equally troubling, Brooklyn Catholic officials put a lawyer in charge of responding to abuse reports, a maneuver which we consider a shrewd and unethical way to try to handle these cases quietly and prevent victims from seeking justice in court.

We hope that Johnston will quickly

– post predators’ names on his diocesan website and in parish bulletins,

– begin personally visiting each parish where a pedophile priest worked, begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police

And we hope that KC victims, witnesses and whistleblowers will continue to seek help from independent sources – therapists, police, prosecutors, attorneys and support groups like ours – rather than blindly trust Catholic officials.

(NOTE: Springfield Missouri, the diocese where Johnston is now, was once headed by Bishop Bernard Law, later the disgraced head of the Boston archdiocese.)

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Alan Erwin
PUBLISHED
15/09/2015

Nuns at a Belfast care home beat children for slow learning in the classroom, the High Court has heard.

Michael McKee (65) is suing The Sisters of Nazareth over the physical abuse he allegedly suffered during his stay as an eight-year-old boy in 1958.

Lawyers for the congregation are defending the case by challenging the reliability of his account and questioning why he waited 50 years to take action.

According to records Mr McKee spent 73 days at the home after being admitted with his older brother. In evidence he claimed he was attacked on a daily basis. Although he couldn’t remember their names, he said two of the nuns were responsible for violence. He claimed he was beaten about the head, grabbed by the hair, pulled to the ground and hit round the legs.

Mr McKee told how he came from a mixed marriage, but was baptised as a Catholic after going into the home. He said he was fast-tracked for holy communion, only to suffer further ill-treatment at the hands of another nun.

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